Big news – PETS IN SPACE® 4 hit the USA Today Best Sellers list last week!

Taking excerpts from STAR CRUISE IDOL’S CURSE, my novel in the anthology.

Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…a fun way to sample new books and find new authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)

Punctuation may be wonky to comply with our guidelines here. May be edited a bit from published version.

The excerpt – Juli has gone to a lawyer’s office on the planet to pick up an item at the request of her shipping line. This will fulfill a deceased passenger’s dying wish. I’ve skipped ahead. Juli takes the rock and heads back to the spaceport but her borrowed groundcar unaccuntably breaks down. Third Officer Steve Aureli and his aunt pass by and rescue her. We meet Charrli, the alien dog, who Steve refers to as a ‘chow hound’:

“What an inelegant way to describe my champion purebred miniature Deskaza dog,” Despite her offended protest, his elderly relative didn’t sound too offended, “I’ll have you know they’re a rare breed.” She snapped her fingers again and the doglike creature made one final attempt to open Juli’s purse before obeying his mistress’s command and returning to the front seat with a sniff. “I apologize for Charrli,” Dian said, cuddling him close so all Juli could see were the tips of his triangular ears and his intense brown eyes peering at her over his owner’s shoulder, “Although I must say you and he are obviously going to be great friends while we’re on your ship.”

“There’s nothing in my purse attractive to a dog,” Juli said. She reached in with both hands and fished out the scarf-wrapped box holding the rock, “Maybe he likes the smell of the straw in this old basket?”

Charrli wiggled his hindquarters, escaping his mistress’s hold and crouched beside Dian on the seat, growling. His ears flared out wide and Juli tried not to laugh because he really was adorable despite his best efforts to act menacing.

“What is that?” Steve asked, eyes wide as he took in the dilapidated, colorful container, “A souvenir?”

“Someone’s souvenir, not mine,” With a chuckle she put the package away again, “And not from this planet. It was a passenger’s good luck charm, I gather, until it started bringing him bad luck, or so the story goes – the Line’s been asked to return the thing to Tahumaroa Two and I’m the stuckee.”

“Why doesn’t the owner take it himself?” Steve navigated through the traffic effortlessly but of course he was the Nebula Zephyr’s chief pilot and a former military fighter jockey so even rush hour on an alien planet didn’t faze him.

“He’s dead.”

The blurb:  An unusual bequest….

Juli Shaeffer, the Nebula Zephyr’s cruise director, receives a mysterious bequest from the estate of a longtime passenger – a lump of rock taken from a reef on the planet Tahumaroa. Legend states anyone who steals from the ocean gods will be cursed. The passenger’s will requests the rock be returned to the beach so his heirs won’t be affected by the bad luck he believed he’d incurred. Juli doesn’t believe in superstitions and she agrees to carry out this small favor on the ship’s next stop at the planet in question.

Until the rock disappears from her office…

When the rock disappears and reappears in various locations around the ship, and seems connected to a steadily escalating series of mishaps, Juli turns to Third Officer Steve Aureli as the only one she feels she can trust. Along with Steve and his elderly Aunt Dian – a passenger aboard the Nebula Zephyr for this cruise – she investigates the strange series of malfunctions plaguing the interstellar luxury liner. Steve and Juli enlist his Aunt Dian’s dog, Charrli, a retired Sectors Z Corps canine, to help them track the missing rock as it moves about the ship.

Juli and Steve must find the rock, hang onto it and transport it to the planet’s surface, before the alien idol’s curse turns deadly. The attraction between the two of them grows as the threat to Juli becomes more and more focused. Can she carry out her task while he keeps her safe from the alien curse? Will the capricious alien idol bring them good fortune…or disaster?

Pets In Space® Anthology Blurb:

For a limited time only! Pets in Space® 4 is proud to present 13 amazing, original new stories! Join the adventures as today’s leading Science Fiction Romance authors take you on a journey to another world. Pets in Space® proudly supports Hero-Dogs.org, a non-profit charity that provides service animals to veterans and first responders in need. Join New York Times, USA TODAY and Award-winning Bestselling authors S.E. Smith, Anna Hackett, Tiffany Roberts, Veronica Scott, Pauline Baird Jones, Laurie A. Green, Donna McDonald, Regine Abel, Alexis Glynn Latner, JC Hay, E.D. Walker, Kyndra Hatch, and Cassandra Chandler for another exciting Pets in Space® anthology. Get the stories before they are gone!

Proud supporters of Hero-Dogs.org, Pets in Space® authors have donated over $7,100 in the past three years to help place specially trained dogs with veterans and first responders. 10% of all pre-orders and the first month’s royalties of Pets in Space® 4 will again go to Hero-Dogs.org. Open your hearts and grab your limited release copy of Pets in Space® 4 today so together we can continue to assist this worthy charity!

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