SFR Brigade: Meet the #Author Monday

Please tell us a bit about yourself:

I have a lifelong love of sci-fi, starting from the days when my dad and I watched reruns of classic Star Trek together. I have a lovely Next Generation bowling jacket with my name embroidered on it (I’ve tweeted and Facebooked pics of it, it’s awesome). I’m also a gamer, and I’ve played a bit of everything from tabletop and live-action rpgs to online mmorpgs, though lately I tend toward console games.

Tell us about Nightfall:

Nightfall is the first book in my Cy’ren Rising trilogy, and it’s a spicy space opera romance with action, adventure, and the discovery of love old and new. I’ve always wanted to write an epic space opera with laser gunfights and starship battles, and I love working on this series. It allows me to tell a story with epic space battles and political intrigue, but also with a passionate romance. Nightfall won second place in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi category of the 8^th Annual Passionate Plume Contest.

What inspired you to write this particular story?:

Nightfall began with a scene that got stuck in my head—an image of the hero, Dack, stumbling into the heroine’s shop, suffering from a terrible wound and desperate for her help. At the time I was concentrating on my urban fantasy series, the Bad Witch books, but this scene wouldn’t leave me alone. So one afternoon I wrote it down in my notebook while sitting outside my favorite local coffee shop.

Please share a favourite snippet from your book:

The bridge crew stared at the chronometer as it ticked down the last seconds until the Talon pulled the slaver ship out of lightspeed. Though it had started life as a simple passenger transport, the Talon had been torn apart, rebuilt and modified to ambush slaver ships. If they calculated it right, the slavers would appear within firing range, and the Talon would disable their engines before the slavers even knew what happened.

If they calculated it right. A few meters off and the ship would slip their net, or crash into them. Fortunately, none of the previous missions under Carmen’s command had gone horribly awry. Her navigator, Rizzoli, was retired Alliance military, and he knew his craft. They’d pulled ships a bit too far out of range before and had to chase them down, but the Talon was faster than it looked.

The chrono hit zero, and the slaver ship appeared off the Talon’s starboard bow, right on schedule.

“Fire,” Carmen ordered.

Which comes first for you – a character's looks, personality or name?:

Definitely personality first. I’m terrible with names, and I’ve spent so much time on baby name websites researching character names that Google is convinced I’m pregnant. I do enjoy mentally casting actors to play my characters, though that’s tough with alien characters. It’s fun to explain to a cover artist that the hero “looks like that guy, except blue!”

Any tips for aspiring authors?:

Yes. Finish the book! It sounds simple, but I have a lot of writer friends who love starting new projects, but never finish them. I enjoy chasing plot bunnies, but unless you commit to chasing them to The End, you’ll never get anywhere.

Questions for fun:

If you had the power of time travel, is there anything you would go back and change? Why/why not?:

Well I’ve learned from the Doctor that most important points in history are fixed, but changing the small stuff is fair game. Therefore I would have the Chicago Cubs win the World Series in 1969, because it would make my mom happy. (Like my mom, I am a die-hard Cubs fan.)

What super-power would you choose?:

Mind control. I’d love the ability to look at someone and do a “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for”. Especially if it worked on my cats, because they never listen to me.

If you could have three wishes, what would they be?:

I think I’m too paranoid for wishes, because they never end well. Like you wish to cure cancer, but then the cure for cancer starts the apocalypse. I’d be terrified of accidentally starting the zombie apocalypse, because I’m terrified of zombies. Can I wish for more wishes? Do I have to free the genie as my third wish? I’d probably wish to be the sole winner of a multi-million dollar Powerball jackpot, but who wouldn’t?

Coffee, tea or wine?:

Coffee! Coffee is essential to life.

What is your favourite book? (aside from one of your own!):

I can’t pick just one book, but some of my favorite authors include Tiffany Reisz, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Nora Roberts, Linnea Sinclair, Cathy Pegau, Keith Melton, and Jim C. Hines. I totally fangirled out at Linnea Sinclair at this year’s Lori Foster Reader and Author Get Together. I adore her Dock Five series.

Favourite genre and why?:

Romance. I’m a strong believer in the importance of Happily Ever After. Life is hard, and I want to snuggle up with a book that promises warm fuzzies at the end.

Favourite colour?:

Pink is my signature color. I often have pink hair.

Upcoming news and plans for the future?:

I’ve finished the second book in the Cy’ren Rising trilogy and hope to have release date information soon. I’m writing the third book as my National Novel Writing Month project in November.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us!

Blurb:

When a wounded runner stumbles into her workshop, sculptor Talena Spenser’s comfortable, quiet life is shattered. Aiding the escaped slave risks losing more than just her freedom. She is in phase, when Cy’ren females are overwhelmed by the drive to mate.

Mordacki Loren, shadow sword of House Nightfall, knows the pain of losing a mate. He never intended to take another. But Talena, raised by humans with little knowledge of Cy’ren ways, leaves him no choice. As the mating lust consumes them, Dack promises to honor her wishes—even if that means letting her go.

Scarred and hardened by a munitions accident that sent her Alliance career up in flames, Carmen Hawke joined the Cy’ren resistance as captain of the flagship Talon. When old flame Dack returns from a mission with Carmen’s childhood friend and first love, Talena, in tow, the temptation to allow someone—or two someones—close to her again cracks her emotional armor.

Pursued by an unknown enemy, the trio works together to discover the secrets of Talena’s past, and to uncover a threat that could destroy the fragile peace of the Cy’ren homeworld.

Warning: If the epic space battles, gunfights and swordplay aren’t enough to get you going, strap yourself in for a male-female-female threesome that’s scorching enough to fire your engines into overdrive.

Buy links:

KOBO

My links: