SciFiMagpie--Editing Tips and a Free Book

Hello hello!

My name is Michelle Browne. I'm a member of the SFRB, and I'm not just a writer--I also edit! Today, I'd like to share some tips about exposition and world-building. Not rushing through the first chapter is vitally important if you're trying to sustain your readers' attention. Let's talk about why.

In addition, you ought to know that one of my books, The Underlighters, is free on Amazon from today to October 31, 2013! Be sure to have a look when you need a break from writing.

All right! So--how do you establish a setting for your readers without cramming too much information down their throats?

World-building: historical and scientific details

In the manuscripts that cross my desktop, I often find myself cutting and paring away chunks of exposition or blatant references to specialized knowledge. Science and history tend to be the most common focal points for these. It’s important to avoid barraging your readers with details from your research, because rather than adding realism, it tends to kill the flow.

For instance, take the following paragraph.

“Alex crossed the historic Rue d’Day Street, home to the Molkovian revolution in 1985. As he walked into the café, he admired the many posters of Herr Somerfeldt, the Molkovian revolution’s leader. He sneered in disgust as two Kratzenofficers munched their pastries and loudly complained about the posters. Alex, being a zunterfeldt—a half-Molkovian--had a degree of protection under the law, but not enough to get away with much. He accepted his anchovy cappuccino and walked out, keeping his head down.”

First of all, the pacing in this paragraph is off. The description is rushed, and historical name-checks substitute for actual use of imagery. What does the street look like? Are there lots of people on it? A mere line or two could tell us more than the name-checks.

Then, when we discover Alex is a zunterfelt, we get a line of info-dump. Instead of having the narrator mention this, we should show it. Here is a revision that still makes use of the historical touch-stones, but doesn’t force the research down your throat quite as ostentatiously.

“Alex scuttled across the Rue d’Day. The grand street was lined with old buildings and bustling with citizens. The glass storefronts were loaded with choice pastries, couture fashion, and sparkling jewelry, but Alex kept his eyes on the café.

He walked through the door, the bell’s harsh voice jarring his thoughts. A couple of Kratzenofficers munched their pastries in the corner. As he waited for his anchovy cappuccino, he could feel their eyes drilling into his back. A zunterfeldt like him couldn’t take any chances with bad behavior. From the ceiling, Herr Somerfeldt watched benevolently. He took reassurance in the long-dead revolutionary’s smile, but darted out, cappuccino in hand, without a word to any of them.”

The same holds true for scientific information. If we get a long scene where characters vomit information at each other, the reader will usually become bored and distracted by technical details rather than focusing on what the technology does. Remember, actions speak louder than exposition, and imagery is more important than a user manual. Use emotions to underline information’s importance, and try to work it into the atmosphere of the piece. Information alone doesn’t generate an atmosphere.

Furthermore, make sure the information is actually vital. Are you going to reveal it later? Will the reader’s understanding of something truly suffer if it’s not there? Worse—is the information killing the action, or even giving away a future plot point?

While exceptions to this rule do exist, and examples of breaking it abound, keep in mind that info-dumps of research are still a bad habit. Sure, there are times when info is engaging, but the closer to the middle you present the info, and the smaller the chunks, the happier your readers will be. Research, like other forms of exposition, should be a treat—salt the text with them, but don’t overdo it. After all, too much salt causes hypertension and high blood pressure, and too much exposition has the same effect on your editor. For readers, it can be a soporific. Don’t put your readers to sleep.

*****

Hungry for more? Want to see world-building in action? Don't forget to check out The Underlighters, free from October 29-31, 2013. 

Nightmares are bleeding into her waking world. Children are going missing. To save them, she must overcome her wreck of a personal life and a closet full of skeletons. She doesn’t know whether the horrors in the shadows are real...or if she is going mad. 

18-year-old Janelle Cohen is an electrician in an underground city. The world above has been swal-lowed by mind-destroying Dust. Her small life changes forever when a dragon attacks her on the way home from work. 

Her friends worry that she has the Fever, Dust-induced insanity. A terrifying trip to the surface of the world, the ancient and abandoned Up, deepens the nightmare. With no world left above, she and the other Crows cannot afford to fail… 

5 stars: “…You will be rewarded with a dive into the depths of imagination that may leave you questioning, breathless and inspired.” –www.TracingTheStars.com

5 stars: “… Engaging, ground breaking prose that is not afraid to test the reader’s boundaries. “—Sara Celi

5 stars: “…A wonderful read that is full of life, nightmares, fear, and dreams.” –Casey Peeler

*****

Thanks for dropping by the nest once again. Don't miss any of the phuquerie. Find Michelle on Twitter, Facebook, and on Tumblr. This is your darling SciFiMagpie, over and out! 

Meet the #Author Monday - Robyn Bachar

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:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Samhain Publishing

KOBO

Sony Reader Store

All Romance Ebooks

My links:

Twitter

Facebook

Goodreads

SFRB recommends #2: Writing Fight Scenes by Rayne Hall #amwriting #writetip

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

Aside from some basic self defence classes as a teenager, I've never learned how to fight. So when it came to writing fight scenes for my characters, I struggled. How would a smaller opponent beat a bigger one? What parts of the body are more vulnerable to attack? How could you fight back if taken by surprise and pinioned?

This book answered these questions and more. At first, I didn't feel it was telling me anything more than I knew, but as it progressed, the more informative I found it. There were some really great tips and suggestions, as well as some good, sound basics to work from - who would theoretically have the advantage between different pairings, how to introduce certain elements to the fight, and a comprehensive list of weaponry and armoury to save you hunting all over the internet, for example. There were also several helpful video links included to give you some visuals, but even without those you can learn a lot about fighting posture and combat moves. A handy little book to help you get started or hone your writing of fight scenes.

Author site: Writer's Craft - Dark Fantasy Fiction

Recommendation from Pippa Jay, author of Keir, Gethyon, Terms & Conditions Apply and The Bones of the Sea.

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Google+

I like my aliens believable

Have you ever noticed how often ‘Aliens’ (especially in the movies or the TV) are humanoid? They usually have two arms, two legs and one head, two eyes and they speak with a mouth. Or maybe four arms or legs just for variety. Cast a glance at the Cantina scene in Star Wars IV (The first one, ‘A New Hope’), or even the new arrivals, the beings in the movie Avatar, who are ten foot tall, blue Cherokees.

What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, in a way, nothing. After all, we’re not talking intelligence here, we’re talking technology. Sure, you can have all sorts of aliens inhabiting other worlds. Look in a pond on Earth, or in the ocean trenches or in the deepest caves. Life abounds in all sorts of conditions. But not much of it uses technology. Take dolphins; acknowledged to be very, very smart. But I can’t see your average dolphin building a spaceship. To do that, it seems you need first the desire and secondly the digits to make it happen.

Enter the opposable thumb. Oh, and some brains. And suddenly all those humanoid aliens become a little more understandable. You need things like fingers to build machines. So smart lizards would fit the bill. Very common, your lizard-like alien – especially if it’s a baddy.

Okay, so there might be other ways of building technology that we quite literally cannot imagine. That’s not much use to a writer, is it? So let’s accept that our aliens will have to have some way of getting around (we call them ‘legs’ in our part of the universe) and some means of manipulating material (fingers, hands). But there are other issues. There are a lot of ‘earth-like’ planets in the galaxy with the possibility of liquid water, a reasonable temperature range, and not so much variation in size that gravity will be a huge issue. What about the atmosphere? What if there’s too much oxygen? Or not enough? We need breathing apparatus if we go above a certain altitude on our own planet, or to go down into the water which occupies two thirds of its surface. So it’s pretty hard to imagine all those aliens in the cantina scene all comfortably breathing Tatooine’s air. Yes, I know some of them wore respirators or some such. But not very many.

Really, when you start looking at the difficulties, the solution used by more and more SF writers makes a stack of sense. Bioengineered planets, terra-formed to suit humans. You’ll find them in Elizabeth Moon’s books and Jack McDevitt’s books among others.

I must say also that I find it difficult to imagine why the inter-stellar inhabitants of a planet like (say) Jupiter would ever want to come to Earth and do more than take a passing look. Always assuming, of course, the amorphous blobs living in Jovian storms subject to enormous gravity would bother to build a space ship. So they get here from their star system and then what? Wouldn’t they be more likely to eye off Jupiter? Now this assumption puts paid to a lot of space wars. Why bother, after all?

Which is why the Ptorix (aliens in my book The Iron Admiral) evolved on a world similar to ours and live on worlds similar to ours. We are cosmic rivals trying to share a galaxy.

The Ptorix don’t look humanoid, but they do have tentacles. They have two mouths, one for eating which looks rather like an insect’s proboscis, and another for speaking. They have three eyes set on top of a conical ‘head’ which enable them to see most of the way around them and they see different light spectra to us.

Here’s a brief description of them from The Iron Admiral : Conspiracy.

‘They followed the crowd into the cavernous main hall. Most of the passengers were Humans, probably getting out while they could. Just like us. Sean headed toward the flight schedule displayed in the middle of the main hall while Allysha waited, arms folded, foot tapping on inlaid tiles, eyes flicking around the hall. The building glittered around her, all curved walls and ornate embellishment, busy with people and luggage. A Ptorix voice rose above the echoing din and she started, nerves jangling. No. The two conical forms approaching her had pale blue fur and wore elaborately decorated, green robes. High caste business people, she’d guess. The writhing tentacles at the ends of each of four arms betrayed tension, nervousness maybe, but not alarm. They passed her, appearing to glide in their floor-length costumes.

Hard to believe that the sight of a Ptorix would frighten her. Then again, she would never have imagined the violent demonstrations, crowds of Ptorix brandishing placards saying ‘Humans Out’ rampaging through the streets, attacking human businesses, looting, even assaulting passers by. She shuddered at the memory.’

Oh, by the way, there is NO possibility of a half-human, half-Ptorix. There is no tab A for slot B and even if there were, the chromosomes and other bits simply wouldn’t match. Sorry about that.

You'll find The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy at Smashwords Amazon Barnes & Noble Kobo Apple

Bio

Greta wishes she was born a thousand years or so in the future, where space ships zip around the Galaxy and people have adventures on exotic worlds. Well, if you can’t be there, why not write about it? And slap in a healthy dollop of romance, too? She lives not far from the sea in Queensland, Australia. When she’s not writing she enjoys photography, cooking and the beach.

Meet the #Author Monday - Diane Burton

Please tell us a bit about yourself:

I’m Honey to 1, Mom to 2, and Nana to 2. My family (especially the grandkiddies) is so important my husband and I just moved 120 miles to be closer to them. Besides writing, I like to quilt and enjoy my flower garden. A reader all my life, I also love movies, especially action adventure, mysteries, science fiction, and romantic comedy. My favorite TV shows are Castle, Firefly, and NCIS. Is it any wonder I write science fiction romance and romantic suspense with comedic elements?

Tell us about Switched Resolution:

Switched Resolution is the third book in the Switched series. Twins Marcus and Scott were separated before birth—one raised on Earth and the other on an alien planet. They switched places and now have to face the consequences.

What inspired you to write this particular story?

After I wrote Switched, readers asked when I was going to write Scott’s story. Switched, Too told the story of a NASA reject who gets to be a starship captain. But what happened to Marcus on Earth? Did the women Scott and Marcus return their love? To answer those questions I wrote Switched Resolution.

Please share a favourite snippet from your book:

With duffle bags slung over shoulders, banging against hips and each other, Scott Cherella and Veronese Qilana raced through the Malawea Spaceport terminal. His ship was gone. Stolen. Not just by the rebels incarcerated on board but by three of his own crew.

“I still can’t believe Drakus and Usolde took the Freedom.” Neese panted from running.

Scott was surprised at how many people either milled around or strolled down the terminal’s main corridor in the middle of the night. He and Neese attracted attention. Maybe Serenians didn’t run through public buildings. Too damn bad. This was an emergency.

“Those two have a lot to answer for,” he said.

Once they got to the hangar—or whatever Serenians called the area where various flight vehicles landed and took off—he let her lead the way. He’d only been through there once, yesterday, after arriving aboard a shuttle from Space Station Alpha where the Freedom had docked. Where it should still be docked.

“This way.” Neese darted down a narrow passageway. “I want to know about the other man. Both Drakus and Usolde mentioned a he who tricked them. Any ideas?”

“You know the crew better than I do. Well, longer anyway.” He had only been aboard the Freedom for three weeks, ever since he switched places with his twin. And, holy shit, what a time it had been. Sabotage, capture, rescue, ecstasy, betrayal.

Yeah, he wanted to know the other guy’s identity, too. A member of the Freedom’s crew had not only masterminded the recent sabotage but also the release of war criminals and the theft of Scott’s ship. How the hell had they gotten it out of spacedock? There had to be controls. Clearance requirements. On top of that, he wondered why the Freedom. The rebels needed a ship to escape. Surely, other ships were easier to take out from under Space Fleet Security than an Alliance battle cruiser. Or maybe that had been the point. A way of thumbing their noses at The Powers That Be.

“Wait.” He snagged the strap of Neese’s bag. They’d gotten to the end of a long hall. She turned to him, questions in her Lake Michigan blue eyes. God, he loved seeing them without the silver lenses she had worn to pass as Serenian. He couldn’t wait for her short hair to grow out. Like wearing camouflage lenses, she’d dyed her hair black to look like a Serenian. He bet if left to nature, her hair would be a deep auburn like Jessie’s. With waves, too, once it was long enough. Or maybe it would curl cutely around her face.

Nah. Neese was many things—striking, intelligent, strong-willed—but never cute.

Edging her into the corner, he dropped his duffle and pulled her into his arms. “I gotta do this before we meet up with the others.”

She opened her mouth in surprise as his came down. He hoped the kiss he planted on her made her remember what they’d been doing two hours earlier. Finally alone and no longer worried about non-fraternization rules, they’d made love in a proper bed. It had been perfect. Perfect until she beat him to the punch and proposed. If the damn computer hadn’t interrupted with urgent messages, he would have made sure she understood there were some things a guy just had to do on his own.

Independent little cuss.

She broke off the kiss, her eyes huge. “We—We shouldn’t do this. Someone might—”

“Relax, Neese. Nobody’s around.”

“There could be.” When she scooted past him, her bag swung out and caught him in the side. Uttering a quick apology, she opened the door to a spacious hangar. “Chief Luqett and Mr. Glaxpher said they’d be waiting for us in Area 72.” She pointed overhead.

Up in the rafters, large white lettering designated areas. Naturally, he couldn’t read them. He didn’t think his link, which she’d programmed to translate Serenian symbols, would be able to “read” that far away.

“Where are we now?” he asked softly as he followed her.

“Area 51.”

That stopped him. “You have got to be joking.”

She turned to him and shook her head. “I do not understand.”

“Area 51. Aliens. Roswell, New Mexico.”

“Oh, that fiasco when the Cardijian ship crashed. We need to hurry.”

“You mean that was real?” He started grinning. “Hot damn.”

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

I’ve never thought about that before. I think the name. The character’s personality reveals itself as I write the story. As for looks, that depends on the character.

Any tips for aspiring authors?:

Protect your dream. Listen to constructive criticism then do what feels right for your story. Persevere.

Questions for fun:

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

No. I like the life I have. If I went back and changed one thing, I might not have met the fabulous guy I’m married to or have my terrific children or those delightful grandkiddies.

What super-power would you choose?:

LOL I answered this one on a Facebook quiz. My first thought was to be able to move things with my mind so I could empty all the boxes from our move and put things away without my back hurting. Then I thought I shouldn’t be so selfish and chose the ability to heal anyone. Maybe that was a little self-serving, too, since I could heal my aching back.

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

World peace. Congressional representatives who would put the welfare of the country before their political agendas. Be the same size I was when I got married. How’s that for a weird set of wishes?

Coffee, tea or wine?: Definitely coffee.

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

There are so many. Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier. I wish I could write gothic romance the way she did—the atmosphere, the suspense, the character development.

Favourite genre and why?:

Science Fiction Romance. Science fiction says that life will go on. Humans may be stupid enough to destroy our own planet, but our sci-fi books and movies indicate we have hope that as a species we will survive. I believe in happy ever after so a romance is an essential part of the books I read—and write.

Favourite colour?: blue

Upcoming news and plans for the future?:

I’m writing the second book in the Outer Rim series about strong women on the frontier of space. My first romantic suspense One Red Shoe was released in September for Kindle. In January, it will be available in all e-formats and in print.

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

Blurb for Switched Resolution:

Actions have consequences as Space Fleet Captain Marcus Viator and NASA reject Scott Cherella discover when they switched places. Does the reserved Marcus have what it takes to imitate his smart-aleck twin? Despite help from his love, Veronese, Scott’s already been outed by two of Marcus’ best friends.

When rebels steal the ship with part of the crew aboard, Scott has to rescue them and retrieve the Freedom. The stakes increase when he discovers the rebels are heading for Earth. They know he’s a fraud and they want Marcus. The safety of the Alliance of Planets depends on Scott and his allies.

Switched Resolution, which wraps up the Switched series, takes the reader from Earth—where Marcus adjusts to a pregnant Jessie—to the starship Freedom commandeered by rebels, to the chase ship with Scott and Veronese aboard.

Switched Resolution buy links:

Kindle: http://amzn.com/B00CNJEO1C

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/313093

Readers can find me around the internet:

Website: www.dianeburton.com

Blog: http://dianeburton.blogspot.com/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/dmburton72

Facebook:  http://facebook.com/dianeburtonauthor

Goodreads: Diane Burton Author

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/dmburton72/

Amazon author page: http://amzn.com/e/B00683MH5E

 

SFRB recommends #1: Bayne by Misa Buckley #scifi #romance

BAYNE - by Misa Buckley

I recently picked this novella up for a read. To be honest, I've had it in my TBR pile for a good while, but that's the thing: my TBR pile teeters and totters. 

Bayne is a beauty. Misa has a very clear, visual style of writing, and I just gobbled this story up - about as fast as one can when one has a toddler, that is. The story follows the events that unfold when Malia inadvertently recalls Bayne, Destroyer of Worlds, to her planet. To save her world, she gives herself to Bayne. To her surprise, Bayne honours his word. Not that that's anywhere near the start of a romance. How that unfolds... read the book.

For a novella, the romance is realistic and the characters are, I felt, very well crafted. An all round excellent SFR novella.

It can be downloaded from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Author site: Misa Buckley | Author of Scifi Romance

Invitation to participate in a multi-blog SFR event

I'm organizing a fun & easy multi-blog SFR event for the week of October 20. The goal is to help more readers connect with SFR books.

If you'd like to contribute a short post, please contact me at sfrgalaxy "at" gmail dot com and I'll send you the details.

Blurb and Cover Reveal: EVEN VILLAINS GO TO THE MOVIES

Even Villains Go To The Movies...

When your mother is America’s Superhero Sweetheart and your daddy’s the Number One
super villain, you grow up feeling a little conflicted.

Angela Smith has superpowers, nothing that will ever make her comic-book famous, but
her ability to psychically sense and manipulate the emotions of people around
her has drawn unwanted government attention. Forced to choose between her quiet
life as a teacher under constant surveillance or the life as a rogue, she
chooses the later. She plans to hide out in sunny Los Angeles where being a blue-eyed
blonde won’t make anyone bat a false eyelash.  

Silver screen star by day, superhero by night, Arktos is a triple-threat. He can fly,
freeze anything, and see glimpses of the future, all of which he needs to keep
the city of Los Angeles safe, but which does nothing for his social life. When
a frightening vision of an explosion leads him to rescue a damsel in distress,
he finds himself trading Shakespearean insults with a rogue.

Angela knows just how dangerous well-intentioned superheroes can be: one tried to kill
her family when she was young. Arktos knows he should hand the rogue over to
Company justice; it’s not safe for someone like her to be in the middle of a
fight.

But they can’t seem to stay apart. And together, they just might be able to melt
all the obstacles standing between true love for a hero and a villain.

Coming November 15th from Breathless Press