Meet the #Author Monday - Sheryl Nantus

Please tell us a bit about yourself:

I'm Canadian, raised in Toronto Canada and emigrated to the United States in 2000 to marry a sweet-talking man who met me originally through my X-Files fanfiction!

  

Tell us about In the Black:

In the Black is the first book in the Tales from the Edge series, dealing with a Mercy ship—the Bonnie Belle.

The Bonnie Belle is a Mercy ship carrying courtesans from mining base to mining base, providing services for whoever can pay for them. Not necessarily sex – there are Charity ships for that. The Belle's crew are made up of courtesans with a variety of skills who can help you improve your chess game, your self-defense skills… and yes, great sex if you want it.

Sam Keller is the captain of the Bonnie Belle and on her first tour. When one of her women is found dead in her cabin suspects include an entire base of miners along with her own crew. She has to rely on Marshal Daniel LeClair for help to find the killer and maybe, just maybe a bit of loving along the way…

  

What inspired you to write this particular story?:

I've always loved science fiction and science fiction romance so I wanted to write something in that vein. I loved the character of "Inara" from "Firefly" and the concept of courtesans in that world and decided to take that idea and work with it. So I came up with the idea of the Guild, shuttling courtesans from mining base to mining base to meet the needs of lonely men and women out on the edge. It's not necessarily only about sex—it's about offering comfort and aid to those who need it.

And of course, I needed a good story. Enter Sam Keller, a military vet with her own secret and now captain of the Bonnie Belle. Hiding on the Belle might be her plan but she's suddenly faced with the murder of one of her courtesans and the need to find the killer. Which is where Marshal Daniel LeClair comes in and I figure we can all guess where that goes, eh?

Please share a favourite snippet from your book:

“Sam,” Daniel whispered, “Kiss me. Please.” There was a trace of whine and want in the words, a combination of curiosity and need.

“Why?” Her heart hammered in her chest.

“Because you want it. I want it. We’re two consenting adults and I know I won’t be able to walk straight for the rest of this trip unless I get a taste of you.” He paused. “Consider it a trial run for when we finish this job up. You know what’s going to happen when this is all over.”

The harsh honesty shocked her into silence.

“Would it be easier if I ordered you to?” he said.

“What?” She felt lightheaded.

“You’re a soldier. You know how to take orders.” He ran a finger along his lower lip. “Kiss me,” he demanded.

She blinked, unable to form a coherent thought.

“Afraid?” Daniel chuckled. “Surely a big, strong woman like yourself can handle a little kiss.” He

smacked his lips together in a mockery of the act.

A mixture of anger and heat pushed her into a decision.

A single kiss and she’d find out if there was any compatibility or if this was a disaster waiting to happen. She’d still sleep with him but it’d be better if there was a spark, some sort of connection there.

She drew a staggered breath, seeing the longing in his face and wondering if he saw the same looking at her.

What harm could it do?

  

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

I always think of a character's personality – what brought them to this place in their lives, what decisions put them where they are. For example, Sam Keller is a military vet with a dark past that has pushed her to take on captaining the Belle for a five-year tour. What makes her tick, what made her choose this penance. And what would be enough for her to try and leave?

Any tips for aspiring authors?:

Read. Write. Read more. Write more. And to quote Chuck Wendig, Write HARDER.

Questions for fun:

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

I'd probably go back and tell my younger self that it does get better. I was bullied when I was young and had a horrible time in high school. It'd be nice to know then that I'd find happiness in the future.

What super-power would you choose?:

Strangely enough I wrote a superhero romance – my "Blaze of Glory" trilogy with Samhain Publishing! I decided to give Jo Tanis, my heroine, the ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves – so she can fly and shock people. I think that'd be pretty cool.

Or I'd be Wonder Woman. She totally rocks…

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

Ooh… toughie. Probably perfect health, world peace and an ability to eat as much chocolate as I want without gaining weight.

  

Coffee, tea or wine?:

Tea. Tea tea tea tea tea. And a cuppa white wine to top it off!

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

I *heart* The Jungle Book by Kipling. Not the cartoon, the book. Rikki-tikki-tavi, Toomai of the Elephants… so many good stories there. So much goodness…

Favourite genre and why?:

I sort of bounce around all genres when I'm reading. One day I'll be reading Keegan's History of the Civil War, the next a historical romance by Tessa Dare and the next a graphic novel. Variety is the spice of life…

Favourite colour?:

Plaid. No, wait… red. Blue?

Upcoming news and plans for the future?:

Book Two of Tales from the Edge, In the Void comes out in October from Carina Press!  This will be Sean's story… but there's room for so many more tales!

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

Thank you for having me visit!!!

Book one of Tales from the Edge

When Sam Keller left the military, she ran to the far end of the galaxy. Now she captains the Bonnie Belle, a spaceship full of courtesans who bring a little pleasure to hard-up men on mining colonies. When one of her girls turns up dead, it's Sam's job to find out who killed her, fast.

Marshal Daniel LeClair is as tough as steel and quick on the draw. But when his vacation gets replaced by an assignment to help find the killer, he can't help angling for a little action with the saucy, hard-charging Sam. She's got brains, attitude and a body he wouldn't mind investigating.

Sam, six months lonely, might just indulge him. But the Guild that owns the Belle wants the case closed yesterday. With pressure coming from all quadrants, Sam and her marshal clash over false leads and who's on top. But when the killer threatens the Belle again, romance will have to wait. It's a captain's job to save her crew, no matter the cost.

Links:

AMZ amzn.to/PA2HI1
B&N bit.ly/1lDhThE
Carina bit.ly/1gW7VmX

My personal info:

Twitter link    https://twitter.com/SherylNantus
Facebook link   https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSherylNantus
Author website/blog link http://www.sherylnantus.com
Goodreads Author Page Link      https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1280392.Sheryl_Nantus
In the Black on Goodreads       https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21422179-in-the-black

USA Today - #interviews with Linnea Sinclair & Ilona Andrews

Brigader Scott's SciFi Encounters at USA Today/HEA has Linnea Sinclair, Ilona Andrews and a shout-out for Tales From the SFR Brigade! Check it out HERE.

SFRB Recomends #17: Sovran's Pawn by JC Cassels #scifi #romance #spaceopera

Convicted of treason and sentenced to be executed, Bo Barron is the last person who should be infiltrating a Sub-socia weapons auction. But when her father is kidnapped and the ransom demand is the schematics to an experimental weapon, she has no choice but to go under cover with her uncle to get it.

Nobody counted on former-government-agent-turned-holofeature-hero Blade Devon’s infatuation with her. A botched assassination under the guise of a bar brawl leaves Bo blind and Blade wondering if there isn’t more to this job than he was led to believe. 

Never able to resist playing the hero, Blade tends her injuries and delves deeper into the intrigue only to find this mission isn’t about a weapon at all. It’s about two Sovrans’ maneuvering for control, with Bo and Blade as their pawns. 

All Bo and Blade have to do is figure out how to survive the game they didn’t know they were playing.

The catch is, no one and nothing are what they seem…

***

I'd had this on my Kindle for quite a while before I got around to reading it. I have to say I've regretted putting it off for so long a LOT. This has to be one of the most flawless and captivating pieces of space opera I think I've ever read. Did I mention it was SELF PUBLISHED? The author has gone all out to make sure this is a high quality piece of fiction, with none of the errors that plague some SP works. I didn't find a single mistake in the whole thing, and certainly no plot holes, inconsistencies, repetitions, head hopping - my pet peeves.

As to the story, think Firefly/Farscape/original Battlestar Galactica. Traditional space opera. Good sexual tension without any explicit scenes, excellent three dimensional characters with amazing depth, immense and detailed world building. Even though the hero is not the type of guy I would go for, his confidence doesn't come across as arrogance, and the banter between hero and heroine will put a smile on your face. I especially loved the scene where Bo and Blade first meet. While some may be disappointed in the lack of bedroom scenes or intimacy beyond some required nakedness and a kiss or two, I recommend this to any fan of scifi romance, and especially those just starting out and intending to self publish. This book is a standard you should definitely aspire to.

Find it on Goodreads HERE.

Find it on Amazon US HERE.

Author site: JC Cassels

Technowank vs. Character Drama: Which One is King?

Hello hello!

So, along with the massive inequality issues heating up the field, a new subgenre of sci fi has emerged to stir the pot further. Meet science fiction romance, or sci-fi romance: it's exactly what it sounds like. And honestly, it's the only kind of romance I can read, on the rare occasions that I do read romance.

 If you think about it, it was a natural progression. It's not like we haven't had a history of romance in sci fi before. Ursula Le Guin, Orwell, and Zamyetin all had romance in their books. In We, the first dystopian book, the romance drives the plot--as it does in 1984. And do we need to mention the frequent romances in television?  Movies aren't short on it either. "I love you. I know." Of course, Farscape has a fantastic romance--more than one of them--and Doctor Who has, too. The Trek was never short on romances either. So why are people compulsively vomiting and complaining about icky girl germs with sci-fi romance?

I don't like romance.

Well, okay, that's not entirely true. I like love stories a lot. I like a bit of bittersweetness or tragedy in there, too, because I think it's more interesting, but there's no getting away from the fact that I didn't cry my way though The Fault in Our Stars just because of kids with cancer. And I edit a lot of romances, and sometimes, I do really enjoy them. A good human story is always appealing, and that's where the hook comes from, for me at least. Other people like the escapism and the heady feelings and the 'happily ever after' thing, and I can't complain about those, really. But for some reason, female-coded escapism (romance, etc, etc) is seen as 'worse' or 'icky' compared to male-coded escapism, such as technowank and space ships and that sort of thing.

A brief digression on technowank

I also don't have a ton of patience for books where the author inserts a technical manual in the middle of the action. I've ranted and raved about exposition dumps on many occasions, and so I'll try to keep this short.
As much as I like sci fi, the hard stuff can turn into a very technical description of nuts and bolts and can actually lose sight of the plot. Some people love it when authors get carried away, others fall asleep.

Robots are awesome, but what makes them interesting is all the transhumanist arguments and the 'where does humanity lie', ghost in the machine stuff. It's not about the titano-carboridium alloys. We don't like C-3P0 because of his blank expression or the six thousand known languages in his database, we like him because he flies off the handle and acts as straight man to R2D2. Moya is a great ship, but as much fun as it is to run around her corridors with Dutch-angled camera work, it's the stuff that happens on her and to her that keeps our attention.

Shiny is good. 

I think visual formats do have an easier time of it because they can get away with just showing, rather than telling us too much--the 'show/tell' thing can be a bit tricky when it comes to the description end of things. We do need to know what things look like and have some idea of how they work, but finding the balance can be hard. And there is room for those lovely sweeping descriptions of xeno panoramas, big shiny ships, and all that good stuff. And, yeah, I rarely tire of reading about a well-written, gritty spaceport and the delicious food in it. One of the things I loved about the short Star Wars anthologies that came out was that they described Tatooine and the new Jedi Academy in fine detail. It was nice to hear about the little things and the students' person effects and the bacta tanks and 'shimmersilk' robes of dignitaries. The 'shiny' stuff and the worldbuilding are fun for both readers and writers.

Why do we need to fuss about characters?

Now that you know I'm not an opponent of worldbuilding or lyrical digressions, listen carefully when I say: it's all worthless with crappy characters. I've seen it mentioned in a few writing guides, and it's true--characters are what a reader remembers. Sure, Giger is amazing and the alien is gorgeous, but we remember Ripley and Ash and even that cat. That's why Prometheus sucked compared to Alien (s). It's also why many fans bemoan the Dune sequels and Star Wars prequels--all the king's gorgeous visuals and all the king's men couldn't make up for weird, constrained acting from most of the performers and characters that most of us just didn't like. (Phantom Menace, apart from the horrible racist caricatures, was the strongest of the three because it had the best portrayals of the characters, and I will fight you on that.)  The classics of sci fi have endured because they have fantastic human stories, not because of their settings alone. Sure, settings spark the imagination, but it's the people we relate to, cheer for, scream at, and develop messy childish crushes on that keep us going.

So, what does this have to do with sci fi romance again?

Well, sci-fi romance is ultimately only as strong as its characters. It's why diversity is so important in media, and it's why those of us defending that get pretty up in arms about it. Some sci fi romance is probably not that well-written, but the same is true of the 'old-fashioned', 'traditional' technowank stuff that relies on shiny bits rather than character development. Ultimately, one or two or even ten bad books do not merit discarding an entire genre. Sci-fi romance needs a little more time to grow up and branch out, sure, but it's a very new subgenre. Ultimately, the potential of more explicitly character-driven sci-fi is really exciting. We can take the settings and the shiny stuff for granted, because sci-fi is established as a genre. It knows what its doing now.We don't have to set up and describe every damn space ship because readers know what they are. That means we can push some boundaries. And ultimately, pushing boundaries while we envision the future is the heart of gold that drives this genre forward.

*****

Thanks for dropping by the nest once again. Don't miss any of the phuquerie. Find Michelle on Twitter, Facebook, and on Tumblr, and find her work on Amazon. Check back on the blog to see when one of the irregular posts has careened onto your feed. This is the one and only SciFiMagpie, over and out!