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!)

May be edited a bit from published version.

Sharing excerpts from STAR CRUISE: RETURN VOYAGE, my full length novel in the Pets In Space 5 anthology for 2020!

The excerpt: Trevor’s first meeting with Gianna at her family home. I’ve skipped ahead a bit from last week and Gianna is showing off her paintings:

“I have more than one painting going at any given time. My muse likes variety. She changes her mind by the hour as to what we’re going to paint. I have to build a lot of time in when I accept a commission, in case I get distracted.” Going to a large easel standing alone under the skylight, she yanked the cover off and pivoted. “What do you think?”

He thought he was mesmerized. Scarcely knowing what he was doing, he walked forward until he could have touched the nearly completed canvas, although of course he didn’t. It was an amazing abstract view, a nebula in deepest space, done in dark colors with pops of bright hues here and there. The scene transported him out of himself and he felt as if he was floating peacefully.

Eventually he realized he’d been silent for a long time and turned his head, looking for his companion. Her Tajikka hound was standing at his side, pressing against his leg, which was oddly comforting.  Trevor found himself stroking one ear, allowing the long silky fur to run through his fingers. “I’m sorry—I got lost in the painting. This is astonishing.”

“You’re good for my ego,” she said. She was curled up in a huge chair, ensconced among pink-and-green floral pillows and resembling the young girl in the old records. “I’d never painted but one day after we got home, I picked up a brush and drew all over the walls in my bedroom. Rather than being punished for it, I was given my first set of real brushes and canvasses and I’ve painted every single day since. My father used a couple of my paintings in his marketing materials and those generated inquiries. He had high end clients, Inner Sectors generational billionaires, planetary royalty and the like, so I launched right into a pool of people with tons of credits to burn. And of course, the fact of who I am, helps a little, even I must admit. ”

He shook his head. “The art is phenomenal. It has nothing to do with—with—”

“The wreck,” she said helpfully. “Although since technically we didn’t crash on a planet, it shouldn’t be classified as a wreck precisely but that’s what the media called it and the term stuck.”

PETS IN SPACE® 5 ANTHOLOGY BLURB:

It’s time for an escape! Pets in Space® 5 is back for the fifth amazing year! Escape to new worlds with twelve of today’s top Science Fiction Romance authors. They have written 12 original, never-before-released stories filled with action, adventure, suspense, humor, and romance that will take you out of this world. The giving doesn’t stop there. For the fifth year, Pets in Space® will be donating a portion of the first month proceeds to Hero-Dogs.org, a non-profit charity that supports our veterans and First Responders. If you are ready to forget the world around you and make a difference while you are having fun, grab your copy before it’s gone!

STAR CRUISE RETURN VOYAGE blurb: Gianna Nadenoft is a reclusive survivor of one of the worst interstellar cruise ship disasters in the history of the Sectors. Now a renowned artist, she hasn’t left her home planet in decades, not since returning there after the wreck as a traumatized three-year-old. With her service animal at her side, she’s going to attempt to travel across the star systems to attend her brother’s wedding and reunite with her fellow survivors.

Trevor Hanson is a security officer aboard the cruise liner Nebula Zephyr with his own traumatic past as a former Special Forces soldier and prisoner of war. He’s assigned to provide personal protection to Gianna during her time aboard the ship but soon finds his interest turning from professional to romantic.

Onboard the Nebula Zephyr, powerful enemies are watching Gianna and making plans to seize this rare opportunity to gain access to her and the secrets they believe she’s still keeping about the wreck. Can Trevor overcome his personal demons and rise to the occasion to save Gianna from the danger waiting on his ship, or will she slip through his fingers and suffer a terrible fate deferred from her last disastrous voyage?

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VS: I’ve picked HOSTAGE TO THE STARS for this week’s backlist book of mine. I was inspired by the recent SEAL Team 6 rescue of an American citizen held hostage overseas and when I wrote this novel, I was also inspired by other Special Forces rescues. The hero is Sectors Special Forces Sgt. Johnny Danver, who we first meet in MISSION TO MAHJUNDAR but the book is a standalone. He deserved his own story! He’s one of my most popular characters!

He rescued her from space pirates … but can he keep them both safe from the far greater evil stalking a deserted planet?

Space travel without Kidnap & Ransom insurance? Not a good idea. University instructor and researcher Sara Bridges can’t afford it, so when pirates board her cruise liner, she’s taken captive along with the mistress of a wealthy man, and brought to a deserted planet. When a military extraction team sent to rescue the mistress refuses to take Sara too, she’s left to the mercies of a retired Special Forces soldier, along as consultant.

Reluctantly reactivated and coerced into signing up for the rescue operation to the planet Farduccir where he once was deployed,  Sgt. Johnny Danver just wants to get the job done. But when the team leader leaves one captured woman behind, he breaks away to rescue her himself.

As Johnny and Sara traverse the barren landscape, heading for an abandoned base where they hope to call Sectors Command for help, they find villages destroyed by battle and stripped of all inhabitants. A lone survivor tells a horrific tale of the Sectors’ alien enemy, the Mawreg, returning after being pushed out …

Searching for evidence to give the military, Johnny is captured. He regains consciousness in a Mawreg cage–with Sara next to him. Death is preferable to what the aliens will do to them… And even if they do escape their captors, can they alert the military in time to prevent another invasion of the Sectors?

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