Today I'm interviewing Heather Bennett, executive editor and co-owner of Decadent Publishing, who has some exciting news about their new Science Fiction Romance line.
Hi! Great to be here, thanks for having me over.
Heather, I'm sure you have a very busy schedule, so I appreciate you taking time out to share the news. Can you tell us a little about Decadent's new line? Is it exclusively for Science Fiction Romance stories or is it open to other genres, too? What's the "heat level?"
Elatia is the planet where our Celestial Escape line is based. It's a multi-author world building series, definitely all Sci-fi romance. Heat level is sexy to smokin' hawt, as Elatia is essentially a planet of pleasures. Here is the description from our blog.
http://decadentelatia.blogspot.com/
Elatia is known as ”the pleasure planet” located in the center of the Belverian System. With its two suns and single moon, Elatia is not only a peaceful, vacation paradise, but home to the school for the universally admired Adamos, who are expertly trained in the pleasure arts.
Enjoy the exotic comforts of Elatia. Immerse yourself in the popular Femwars Battles, spend a day walking the shops of Havmiola, Elatia's capital, or travel to the other planets in the Belverian System to find your own adventure.
You may never wish to leave...
There will be a lot of potential for cultural, ideological, and romantic conflict! Launch author Azura Ice created the FemWar storyline, as well, so the women can be fierce or demure, bold or brittle, but in the end they will all find their destiny.
What was behind the decision to introduce the Elatia line and what SFR subgenres (space opera, steampunk, planetary romance, etc) might be represented?
My partner Lisa and I are both Sci-fi fans from way back. We've actively sought and promoted SFR to our readers from the beginning, and it's been our pleasure to bring more of the genre to the romance community.
Creating our own 'world' to write within was a meld of both that love and also the realization of the popularity of our multi-author series, 1Night Stand. 1NS also has several SFR stories, and many of those authors are writing for Elatia, like Jessica Subject, DL Jackson, and Azura Ice.
Because of the constructs of the 'world', many SFR sub-genres can be explored, depending on the planet the characters hail from and the story they inhabit. If someone wants to write Mal Reynolds-type characters coming to Elatia to sample the goods? GREAT! If another writer sees royalty, they can explore that avenue. Like the universe, the possibilities are seemingly endless.
I understand some of your launch authors may be familiar names to the SFR Brigade. Could you share who they are and tell us a little about the books that launched the series?
Azura Ice (aka Faith Bicknell-Brown) is a familiar name to many. She had the daunting task of taking our vision and merging it with her own for the launch book,
Forever Across the Stars. She pulled it off beautifully, and that book is currently available at all ebook outlets. It also has a gorgeous cover, don't you think?
An Unexpected Return is by Jessica E. Subject. Jessica wrote an SFR 1Night Stand that did very well,
Celestial Seduction, and she's a joy to work with. I knew I wanted her to write for this series as she's got a ton of imagination and appreciation for the genre. She goes in a different direction than Azura, and the result is a delicious dip into the sensual fantasy world that is Elatia. Oh, and her hero is blue.
Sara Brookes wrote the
Sypricon Masters series for us. It got great reviews. She is a talented writer and Lethal Beauty in the Elatia series will again showcase her skill.
DL Jackson I just adore, as a person and a writer. She was nominated for a CAPA this year for her 2011 Decadent Publishing release
Cinderella Wore Combat Boots and wrote an SFR short story for our Christmas 1Night Stand antho,
This Endris Night. Her Elatia release this summer is called
Courtesan Bootcamp. Look for it to have DL's brand of sexy humor so many adore.
Is Decadent actively acquiring for the Elatia line? If so, what are you looking for in terms of submissions? Is there a link to submission guidelines where writers can learn more?
Most definitely. Stories should be 7-50k in length, and an author can write a sub-series within Elatia if they like. You can find the Submissions Guidelines
here. Basically an author just needs to look through the
World Bible and see if Elatia is a good fit for them.
I'm invigorated by the numerous possibilities, the ingenuity of SFR writers to see a premise and let it lead them in an entirely creative and exciting direction within the 'world'. Watching these stories develop is like seeing a season of great sci-fi TV play out.
Will Elatia be an ongoing line, or will it only be open to submissions for a limited time?
It will be on-going. I LOVE series romance, and I know most other romance readers so, as well. It's always a joy to come back and revisit a familiar port with people we know, so hopefully readers respond and enjoy this series as much as we've enjoyed creating it. The SFR community is incredibly supportive, so I'm optimistic about the long term prospects for Elatia.
This is all so exciting! Can you tell us what other opportunities for submissions Decadent offers?
If you'd like to know about the other non-SFR world building series we have, you can check out our best selling
1Night Stand series and new
Western Escape series. For more SFR titles from Decadent, check out our website at
www.decadentpublishing.com.
Decadent has just started a new
Book Club and we'll be featuring an SFR book there very soon.
Heather, thanks so much for answering our questions about Elatia. We're always excited to hear more about new Science Fiction Romance lines!
Thank you for giving me the chance to bring it to your readers. We hope you all enjoy it! Find us on Facebook (
https://www.facebook.com/DecadentPublishing ) or Twitter (@DecadentPub) and let me know which Decadent Publishing SFR is your favorite!
