Meet the #Author Monday - Veronica Scott

Please tell us a bit about yourself:

Best Selling Science Fiction & Paranormal Romance author Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a library full of books as its heart, and when she ran out of things to read, she started writing her own stories. Married young to her high school sweetheart then widowed, Veronica has two grown daughters, one young grandson and cats Keanu and Jake.
Veronica’s life has taken many twists and turns, but she always makes time to keep reading and writing. Everything is good source material for the next novel or the one after that anyway, right? She’s been through earthquakes, tornadoes and near death experiences, although nothing is as stressful as meeting a book deadline. Always more stories to tell, new adventures to experience—Veronica’s personal motto is, “Never boring.”
Received a 2013 SFR Galaxy Award for her novel WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM.
Proud recipient of the NASA Exceptional Service Medal but must hasten to add the honor was not for her romantic fiction!

Tell us about Escape from Zulaire:

ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE is set on a planet in the Sectors, my far future universe, where WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM also took place, although there’s no direct connection between the two stories. The events in ZULAIRE are loosely inspired by the 1857 Sepoy Rebellion in India, where many British women and children were caught in the middle of a horrific war and people they expected to protect them turned out to be enemies in many cases. I’ve always wondered what I would do if I were caught in a similar situation. So as the book opens, my heroine is a guest of the planetary ruler’s family, in a very isolated locale and she knows things aren’t quite right…well, you’ll see when we get to the book’s blurb below!

The story:
Andi Markriss hasn’t exactly enjoyed being the houseguest of the planetary high-lord, but her company sent her to represent them at a political wedding. When hotshot Sectors Special Forces Captain Tom Deverane barges in on the night of the biggest social event of the summer, Andi isn’t about to offend her high-ranking host on Deverane’s say-so—no matter how sexy he is, or how much he believes they need to leave now.
Deverane was thinking about how to spend his retirement bonus when HQ assigned him one last mission: rescue a civilian woman stranded on a planet on the verge of civil war. Someone has pulled some serious strings to get her plucked out of the hot zone. Deverane’s never met anyone so hard-headed—or so appealing. Suddenly his mission to protect this one woman has become more than just mere orders.
That mission proves more dangerous than he expected when rebel fighters attack the village and raze it to the ground. Deverane escapes with Andi, and on their hazardous journey through the wilderness, Andi finds herself fighting her uncomfortable attraction to the gallant and courageous captain. But Deverane’s not the type to settle down, and running for one’s life doesn’t leave much time to explore a romance.
Then Andi is captured by the rebel fighters, but Deverane has discovered that Zulaire’s so-called civil war is part of a terrifying alien race’s attempt to subjugate the entire Sector. If he pushes on to the capitol Andi will die. Deverane must decide whether to save the woman he loves, or sacrifice her to save Zulaire.

Please share a favourite snippet from your book:

I’m assuming a “snippet” is fairly short so here’s the point where the trouble really begins:

           

The lights along the path and beside the benches flickered and went out, plunging them into darkness.

            Glancing around, Deverane frowned in the moonlight. He released her, keeping one hand around her wrist and putting the other on the butt of his blaster. “Is that normal?”

            “The generators have been known to be troublesome in the summer. Probably nothing.” The moment was gone, the spell she’d been under broken. Am I disappointed? Relieved? Things had been moving way too fast between them for people who had just met. “Fortunately, we still have enough moonlight to see the path.” Andi took a step toward the clubhouse.

He tightened his grip on her wrist, forcing her to stop. “Wait.”

            Yelling broke out in the large building on the rise behind them. Glaring, spora­dic flashes burst from the general direction of the parking area and from the main wing of the celebration hall itself. Making the forest brighter than day, a sizable explosion obliterated the light of the two moons for a moment. Clapping her hands to her ears at the concussion, Andi ducked, crowding into the reassuringly hard-muscled captain.

In one fluid motion, he had his blaster in hand. Still keeping his grasp on her wrist, he drew Andi farther away from the path, taking cover behind a wide, multiple-trunked tree. Placing himself between her and the build­ing, he leaned out, reconnoitering the pathway. The screams and shouts were increasing in intensity and number.

Andi huddled against the tree, rough bark scraping her arm. He was right, this sounds like the beginning of war. Trembling, she had to lock her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering as one piercing shriek rose above the rest of the general uproar.

“I’m afraid we missed our deadline for a clean escape.”

Which comes first for you – a character's looks, personality or name?: Always the personality! Although the name arrives shortly thereafter.

Any tips for aspiring authors?: Keep writing! Get words on the page every day – you can always go back and make them better words later.

Questions for fun: 
Coffee, tea or wine?: Hot tea with three teaspoons of sugar and a dollop of milk, in a bone china tea cup, stirred with a silver teaspoon that’s been in the family over 200 years. (Alas the one teaspoon is the only family heirloom we still have!)

What is your favourite book? (aside from one of your own!): It depends on my mood but Anne McCaffrey’s All the Dragons of Pern is a favorite. I also love pretty much anything by Nalini Singh.

Favourite genre and why?: Again, it depends on my mood but my kindle is jam packed with science fiction romance, paranormal romance, Regency romance, research books regarding ancient Egypt, nonfiction memoirs by Navy SEALs and other military-related books, all kinds of books to do with the Titanic (which was the inspiration for WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM), a small amount of contemporary romance…so apparently I gravitate to romance in almost any era or genre!

Favourite colour?: Purple. And have I mentioned I love things that sparkle? And long dangly earrings?

Upcoming news and plans for the future?:

My next book set in Ancient Egypt is coming out in January. I’m planning to do an audiobook of ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE in Spring 2014, with the wonderful actor who narrated the WRECK audiobook. I have a paranormal shifter novel and a science fiction romance both underway….always writing!

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

Buy Links for ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE:

Available on AMAZON for kindle and as POD paperback   Nook  Kobo All Romance eBooks   and iTunes      Smashwords

You can find Veronica here:

Blog  @vscotttheauthor   Facebook

  
I also blog weekly at Word Whores, on the 13^th of the month at Paranormal Romantics, occasionally at Here Be Magic and regularly participate in the Science Fiction Brigade Presents and Weekend Writing Warriors excerpt blog hops.