Taking excerpts from STAR CRUISE IDOL’S CURSE, my novel in the USA Today Best Selling Pets In Space® 4 anthology.

November 11th, Veteran’s Day, is the last day to buy the anthology and have part of the royalties go to support the work of Hero Dogs, INC.

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 took a special assigment to pick up an item on the last planet the Nebula Zephyr visited, at the request of her shipping line. This will fulfill a deceased passenger’s dying wish. Last week we were in a nightmare with Juli, caused by the cursed rock, and this week we’re continuing on from there:

A thin sliver of light appeared around the edge of the door to the core. Juli screamed and shot to her feet, Charrli clutched in her arms. This can’t be happening, this is not happening…

Steve was shaking her, calling her name.

Unable to process a coherent thought, let alone speech, she stared at him and then at their location.

Her cabin. Not the engineering deck.

“Where—where’s Charrli?” she asked in a voice she didn’t recognize as her own.

“With Dian, I assume,” Steve sat on the bed next to her and gathered her into his arms. He was dressed in a Ship tee shirt and a pair of utility pants, and was barefoot.

That’s ten sentences… here’s the rest of the snippet:

“I was having a bad dream about you being in trouble and in the dream Charrli kept trying to drag me somewhere to rescue you and finally he nipped me and I woke up.” He ran one hand through his disheveled hair. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you and I came over here from my cabin but when I knocked there was no answer. Then Maeve [the Ship’s AI] said she heard you crying and screaming and I persuaded her to let me in. I’m sorry, I know it’s a huge breach of privacy—you can file charges and I won’t contest them.”

“No, I’m glad she let you in.”

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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