Starbound Lovers

Friday, May 17, 2013

There's a New Kid in Town, okay there's 4

12:00 AM | Posted by Linda Andrews | | Edit Post

Hello lovers of SciFi Romance. In case you missed it, four amazing authors have joined our group blog. Many have already introduced themselves but in case you missed it, they are:

Kimber Vale

Kimber Vale has enjoyed putting pen to paper since she was old enough to hold a writing utensil in her odd-ball, left-handed way. It never slowed her down. From dire poetry inspired by stupid boys in high school, to "student's choice" research papers about Lord Byron's satire and Poe's vampire in "The Fall of the House of Usher," Kimber has always had a passion for the funny, the dark, and the romantic. Combining all three is frequently her goal.

An RN by trade, Kimber has taken a number of years off to raise three little people. She plans to get back to the healing business soon, but is thrilled to finally be writing in earnest. She publishes horror under the name on her driver's license, and erotic romance in her Mrs. Hyde form. Kimber reads and writes erotica of every variety. Her current passion is Male/Male erotic romance, which she pens under the name K. Vale. Kimber will continue to write heterosexual stories in addition to gay erotic romance.

Sabrina Garie

I’m on a journey to create the most kick-ass heroine romance fiction has ever known and the hero who can take her. A believer that big audacious goals spice up life, I rely on coffee, red wine and laughter to make those goals (and my characters) come alive. When not at the computer, I wrangle vegetables and extra helpings of homework into my fashion-loving progeny, kowtow to a fat cat and read, a lot. Since its more fun to travel in packs, come along for the ride.

My writing falls among the fantasy, science fiction, paranormal and romance fiction genres, usually mashed together to see what new things happen. Erotic elements are woven through them. Because its fun, yes, and because I believe how we deal with sex is essential to being human and to be loved.

Tonya Cannariato

A voracious reader since she was a toddler, and an ordained spiritualist, Tonya Cannariato has now presided over the marriage of her love of reading and her love of writing. She’s lived a nomadic life, following first her parents in their Foreign Service career through Africa, Europe, and Asia, and then her own nose criss-crossing America as she’s gotten old enough to make those choices for herself. She’s currently based in Milwaukee with her three loves: her husband and two Siberian Huskies. She suspects her Huskies of mystical alchemy with their joyous liberation of her muse and other magical beings for her inspiration. She loves to sleep, to watch her interesting dreams, some of which are now finding new life in written form.

Michele Callahan

I read and I write fun, and sometimes frightening, sci-fi and paranormal romance with suspense, lots of action, and some pretty steamy love scenes. I'm a sucker for a happy ending. I blog about great books, romance, life in general, and really radical science. I might surprise you with a post about marketing for authors or writing, but don't hold your breath. True love, science, physics, and the big "What If?" are what fascinate me. Too bad I didn't have the math brain for M.I.T....I'd probably be in a parallel universe by now. *sigh* p.s. I'm also the founder of RomCon, the amazing fan convention for women who love romance.

Labels: kimber vale, Michele Callahan, new authors, sabrina garie, scifi romance, Tonya Cannariato | 0 comments

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

MOVING IN

3:00 AM | Posted by Elysa | | Edit Post

Well, we've moved into our new home here in sunny Florida. The last few weeks have been fun, fast and exhausting. That's what we get for buying a house built in 1985. It needs a LOT of work to bring it into the 21st century. But we figure we'll be here for awhile, so we'd rather do the renovations ourselves and get it the way we want it, rather than buy something slightly more modern that still doesn't meet our needs.

As far as my writing life goes - it doesn't. By the time I finish unpacking and putting away the contents of the tenth box of the day, cleaning, and ripping out old cabinetry, I barely have the energy to shower, eat and fall into bed. I don't even have the strength to turn the pages on my Kindle to read. Hubby has worked harder in these last two weeks than he ever did at his job. :-) In addition, we don't yet have Internet/cable/phone hooked up and my computer is still packed away in some yet hidden box. I haven't mastered the ability to write on my Netbook at the local McDonalds.

My latest book DARK STAR DAWNING released the day the movers packed us up to move. I'm hoping my life soon returns to quasi-norm, because the characters in my head are getting antsy and starting to bug me.

1 comments

Overcoming Writer’s Block

12:00 AM | Posted by woolfcindy | | Edit Post

We’ve all had it. Suffered from it like it was a disease. Writer’s block. The inability to put words on paper or on computer screen. I’ve been facing it for several weeks now but I think I may have overcome it now. How did I finally do it? I’ll tell you.

First I continued to write, just not on my WIP (work in progress). I wrote blogs and emails and notes and letters. Whatever I could to keep writing. And I edited my manuscript. And edited. And edited. But I still couldn’t seem to form any new words to add to the book.

Part of my problem is that I’m a pantser. I don’t plot out my books. I simply write and let it happen. I see the story much as you do. It an organic process for me. But, in this case, I could seem to find my way to letting it happen. Didn’t have the faintest idea what or where it was going. Even as a pantser I usually have a vague idea what should happen next. But I didn’t. I’d look at my blank computer screen and see only a blank in my head, too.

So what did I do? For a couple of weeks nothing. Then one of my critique partners suggested that I read my manuscript all the way through without editing. That is a hard thing for a writer to do, at least for this writer. The only way for me to do it was to send it to my Kindle. I highly recommend this method because you CAN’T edit. All you can do is read. You discover what you loved about your story. You suddenly see it all in context and you get ideas about what comes next and where it needs to go. And you’re able to move forward.

The other thing that helps me is that, once per week, my critique partners and I get together for what we call “Just Write”. We spend from 10 am to 3 pm writing. Well, mostly writing. The first half hour is spent catching up from last week and then we write. We break for a half hour lunch where we discuss any problems we’re having or just visit with each other. Then we spend the last 2 ½ hours writing again.

We aim for one thousand words. It doesn’t sound like a lot to write in four hours but it is a lot. Try it. It’s hard. But it works. Just a thousand words. Then it’s another thousand and so on and so on.

Try it. It works. Keep writing. Anything. Just keep writing.

0 comments

Monday, May 13, 2013

NOAH'S ARK is a Golden Quill finalist - by Vijaya Schartz

1:00 AM | Posted by Vijaya Schartz, author | | Edit Post

I’m flying high. NOAH’S ARK is a finalist in the Golden Quill Contest in the Futuristic category. It’s available in all eBook formats everywhere, and will be in print in July, but it is discounted in kindle:

http://amzn.com/B007QHHIL4

NOAH’S ARK – Chronicles of Kassouk – The beginning:

When Trixie's starfreighter drops out of jump space in an uncharted part of the universe, she believes the M class planet on her viewer represents hope and salvation for her motley crew and the ragtag settlers of Noah's Ark. Kostas, ex Space Marine, the expert survivalist recruited for this expedition, doesn't believe in coincidences, and knows that when something looks too good to be true, it usually is.
Everyone, on this voyage, is fleeing something, and harbors dangerous secrets... including Trixie, who vowed to never let a man control her life again. As for Kostas, the settlers would lynch him on the spot if anyone suspected who he is. But on this seemingly abandoned planet, others are watching, herding them for evil purposes... and when the truth emerges and secrets unravel, Trixie and Kostas will fight for survival, for freedom, and for the right to love...

Also available at all eBook retailers in all formats.

Most of the novels in this series are available in print as well, and all will be within the next two months.

Find these everywhere eBooks are sold. Here are the links to my author page on the major sites:

AMAZON - B&N - ARE - KOBO - SONY - ITUNES - SMASHWORDS - and more

HAPPY READING.

Vijaya Schartz

Blasters, Swords, Romance with a Kick

http://www.vijayaschartz.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/vijayaschartz

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/vijaya-schartz

AZDREAMIN Readers Convention Phoenix May/June 2013

http://www.arizonadreaminevent.com/

Labels: action, adventure, aliens, blasters, futuristic, medieval, romance, sci-fi romance, science fiction, Space opera, spaceship, swords, Vijaya Schartz | 1 comments

Friday, May 10, 2013

The Great But Not-So-Sci-Fi Gatsby

5:01 PM | Posted by Bella Street | | Edit Post

I saw this movie today and really loved it, and will attempt to tie it to something sci-fi-ish so I can talk about it here :)

I'm a big fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald's work and have read The Great Gatsby three times. My very favorite works of his are the short stories, more specifically The Offshore Pirate.

What draws me to Fitzgerald's work is his ability to paint pictures with words. To wit.:

She was about nineteen, slender and supple, with a spoiled alluring mouth and quick gray eyes full of a radiant curiosity. Her feet, stockingless, and adorned rather than clad in blue-satin slippers which swung nonchalantly from her toes, were perched on the arm of a settee adjoining the one she occupied. And as she read she intermittently regaled herself by a faint application to her tongue of a half-lemon that she held in her hand. The other half, sucked dry, lay on the deck at her feet and rocked very gently to and fro at the almost imperceptible motion of the tide.

In the same way, Baz Luhrmann (director of the film I saw today), can paint pictures with color, sound, symbolism in a breathtaking way. Which is why I'm a big fan of his works like Strictly Ballroom and Romeo & Juliet. The Great Gatsby has been made in film before, but I think Baz is uniquely qualified to take the imagery of a talented writer and apply it to the canvas of the screen.

Entertainment aside, great writers/filmakers/storytellers of all kinds take characters and tell a tale that not only resonates with us personally, but the wider world at large. I think one of the reasons The Great Gatsby endures as a story is it speaks the the hopes and dreams and deceits we all experience...and what happens when we achieve it--or not. There have been other economic boom times beyond the 1920s, too. So the film I saw today seemed relevant in a societal way as well.

And that's what keeps readers reading--empathetic characters who interact in their given world to reflect what we feel and experience in our own lives. That can come through literary fiction, romance novels, stories around a campfire, and oh yeah...science-fiction.

It's sci-fi that uniquely imagines a world of what could be and how characters might react in it--giving a sense of time of place whether off world or on--while resonating in a timeless way.

Told you I was going to connect it. :)

PS: Go see the movie!

Labels: Baz Luhrmann, F. Scott Fitzgerald, literary fiction, Romeo and Juliet, sci-fi, Strictly Ballroom, The Great Gatsby, The Offshore Pirate | 0 comments

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Defining Space Opera

12:30 AM | Posted by Kimber Vale | | Edit Post

What is a space opera? My line editor recently asked me that question on my final edits for my novel, Star Catcher. My book had been tagged as such by my content editor, and my line editor said she hadn't ever read that subgenre. What, exactly, constituted a space opera? I found myself searching for a definition of the term before I just fired off my own.

As far as I knew, a space opera was a sweeping, epic, outer-space story. Star Wars would be a prime example, right? Did my book qualify? Now I really wanted to know, because the first half of Star Catcher takes place on Earth. Not exactly an all-ends-of-the-galaxy romp. The latter half takes place on a medical satellite orbiting the planet Artanos. Again, not really space-chases and planet-hopping (three-eyed wolf-type monsters, crop circle corn maze human hunting, and stun guns--yes, but no intergalactic battles). So, does it qualify?

Wikipedia [groan] defines space opera as "a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure set mainly or entirely in outer space, usually involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to 'soap opera.' Perhaps the most significant trait of space opera is that settings, characters, battles, powers, and themes tend to be very large-scale."

So, let me see. How does Star Catcher stack up to the Wikipedia definition for space opera?

"Romantic, melodramatic adventure?" Check. There is also a fair amount of Earth girl/alien snoo snoo, but Wikipedia doesn't list the nasty as a qualifier. [Shrug]

"Set mainly or entirely in outer space" is a bit of a sticking point. Wikipedia, oh-all-knowing-resource that it is, did not provide an Earth-to-space ratio, so I'd say my 1/2 and 1/2 is up for debate.

Is there conflict between opponents? Yes. Advance technologies and abilities? Yes.

What else? Star Catcher, while it has a few musical references, is not, in fact a musical book. Not sure how one would even go about that. Audio books? So, no relation to the musical operas-- that's a check.

Interesting. The soap opera analogy suggests a fair amount of cheese in space opera. Hmmm. My book may have a table-side sprinkling of Parmigiano-Reggiano, but I didn't lay it on that thick. I'm watching my waist. Actually, I was saving calories for wine and chocolate.

Anything else? Oh, yes. "Settings, characters, battles, powers, and themes tend to be very large-scale." Check, check, check, check, and check. If nothing else, the scale of my alien, Noth Zobor's, brackligg should allow me to check off all boxes.

Anyway, Star Catcher has been shipped off to the e-presses and is due for release on June 3rd, 2013 from Liquid Silver Books. As far as I know, it is tagged as a space opera. What do you all think? Would you change Wikipedia's definition in any way?

-Kimber Vale

www.kimbervale.com

7 comments

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Another New Blogger: Sabrina Garie and Getting Bitten by The SciFi Bug

3:02 AM | Posted by Sabrina Garie | | Edit Post

Hi I’m Sabrina

I’m new to Starbound Lovers and excited to be here. I’ll be blogging monthly along with these other fabulous ladies.

I’m a single mother of a tween girl who’s just entered that long,dark corridor to hell known as puberty. It’s loads of fun at my house. When her moods are not swinging (and even when they are) she is is the source of my profoundest joy. Exploration is built into my DNA so I tend to be in perpetual motion, having lived in many places—Washington, D.C., Chicago, Boston, Vienna, Austria, Florence, Italy, London, UK to name a few–and visited an awful lot more. That wanderer gene explains my love for books, the paranormal and science fiction—“to go where no one has gone before.” For years of my youth, I wanted to be an astronaut, just to see what’s out there. Stuck on earth, I live out those fantasies by just making it up myself.

I’m An Author

I write paranormal, science fiction, romantica and contemporary romance. I have a paranormal novella, Fires of Justice, and a contemporary, Next Move, coming soon, both from Ellora’s Cave. My current WIP, which I envision as part of a series, is hard core science fiction romance. Strong, kick ass women who have as much pain to work through as the damaged hero they love are my passion as a writer and a reader. Life is hard and I like to see people move beyond their own limits. I have found much of my own inspiration to go further and higher from book heroines and heroes. Writing is my way of giving back to something that has been important to me.

How I Got the Scifi Bug

In ninth grade, my teacher, Ms. Culhane assigned Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke. That book blew me away. Written in 1953, the basic story is one of aliens coming down to earth to steward humanity to a golden age of peace and prosperity. Known as the Overlords, they refuse to show themselves for 50 years. When they do, the look like devils. The Overlords were sent by the Overmind to guard humanity as it reaches its finality evolution outside the human body to join the Overmind.

Why did this book make me the scifi whore I am today. Here’s why:

It challenged everyday mores. For examples, marriages in the book were by 5 or 10 year contract, not permanent love alliances. Whether you agree with it or not, the challenge of it, made me realize there is not one way for humans to be and no institutions destined to last forever.
It showed how incidents in human history can morph into deep cultural norms and fears that profoundly shape our world. The Overlords had come once before but humanity had not been ready at the time for the final evolution. So the image of the devil integrated into human consciousness as associated with evil and the end of the world. That is why the overlords did not show themselves until a generation grew up with them—because it takes at least that much time (two generations) to change a culture profoundly.
It portrayed evolution as having a psychic element—given how little we understand of the mind and we always play with psy abilities as one of our fantasies and horrors, this put it together in a nice accessible story as to why that might be.

Nice to meet you all. What book, movie, tv show, fill in the blank, turned you onto sci fi or sci fi romance?

When I am not blogging here, you can find me at:

Web/blog: sabrinagarie.com

Twitter: @sabrinagarie

Facebook: facebook.com/sabrinagarieauthor

Paranormal/scifigroup blog: www.darkertemptations.wordpress.com

Sabrina Garie is on a journey to create the most kick-ass heroine in romance fiction. You can meet the first heroine in Fires of Justice at Elloras Cave, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

4 comments

Monday, April 29, 2013

New Starbound Lovers blog team member - Tonya Cannariato

8:00 AM | Posted by tmycann | | Edit Post

Hi all - happy to join the team, and looking forward to some good discussions about my favorite genres: Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Of course, since they are my favorite genres, they're where I gravitated with my first novels. I've published three novels and a short story in the past year through Katarr Kanticles Press, which is about as close to indie as I can get without actually hitting the publishing button myself. The publisher, G.L. Drummond, has been kind enough to become more than a mentor over the past few years as I tested my writing wings, and I've learned more about the ins and outs of indie publishing in that time than I ever imagined might be possible.

I'm now a staunch indie, loving the fact that I have control over cover art, blurbs, pricing, release dates, the editor I work with, and all those other OCD control-freak elements that can give authors premature gray hair. On the other hand, it also means that promotion is entirely up to me. From what I've read, that's largely the case anyway at the bigger publishing houses, so it's not like I'd get much help anyway, but it means that when I get opportunities like these, I'm more than happy to share covers, blurbs, and buy links.

;)

My first novel-length idea was based on a dream I had--and almost immediately became an idea for a trilogy. The underlying question was: Could the Communist countries have stayed in power as long as they did because they subverted the power of their magical beasts? The first one is set in the Russian Federation shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, so book two explores the Chinese angle, and immediately follows the first one chronologically. Book three will feature North Korea.

It's not all geopolitics, as the stories feature dragons and (in book two) much more of a paranormal romance theme. They're what my college lit professor would designate "low fantasy" in that they're set in a world we recognize, but have elements to them that aren't part of our daily experience. Here are the cover images of the two books that have already been released in the series, Red Slaves.

My second novel-length idea was inspired by sky-is-falling speculation in some news outlets that turning on the Large Hadron Collider would annihilate the Earth. It's written from the perspective of a newly married scientist ... who loses a Higgs boson. My speculation was that since that particle is also called "the God particle" that it might operate as a plug keeping an individual soul in place in a specific reality in the space-time continuum.

I'm working on a novella at the moment, and would like to release the third Red Slaves novel by the end of the year, but I'm also in the middle of classes to earn my MBA in marketing and project management--I figure both skill sets will serve me well as I progress down the road to an indie writing career. When I'm not blogging here, I'm online at my own blog, Twitter, or Facebook.

Labels: fantasy, indie publishing, romantic science fiction, sci fi romance, sci-fi, science fiction, science fiction romance, Tonya Cannariato | 2 comments

I Change My Mind About as Often as the Weather

12:01 AM | Posted by Allison Merritt | | Edit Post

I was thinking about that meme floating around the Interwebz that says, 'Nice winter we're having this spring'. I can apply it to my writing over the course of this month.

It's funny how plans change, huh? This time last month I had just reached my word count goal for March on what I was calling the fifth and final novel in my Legends & Lovers series. It's strange, but now I'm twenty thousand words from finishing a different novel, the first in a new series and the novel I was previously working on . . . well, it's hiding in the dark recesses of my flash drive. It may never see the light of day. Or, for all we know, because I'm so mercurial, it could be finished next month.

On the 26th, I finished my 40,000 word goal for Camp NaNoWriMo. I was completely hijacked by the characters from this novel. It's a paranormal historical. It seems to be a NaNoWriMo thing, because these crazy ideas all pop into my head every time I so much as see the logo for that website. While I was writing my latest release, this weird demon-infested town popped into my brain along with the heroes, who are brothers. They're half-demons, but they kill demons and darned if they don't go and fall in love with human women. In the Old West. Except they're not running around killing demons with six shooters. They have a handy demon friend who can go anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds and bring back anything they desire. In this case, the eldest brother has a huge Bowie knife, the middle brother carries a saber, and the youngest has a crossbow. Okay, I admit, the heroine did save the oldest brother from a demon using a Springfield rifle. I had to throw a historical gun in there somewhere.

If you're feeling spunky enough to try Camp NaNoWriMo, you haven't missed all the fun yet. They're hosting another round in July, and of course, the big event in November. So you still have time to plot out your next novel.

When I'm not blogging here I'm at Have Novel, Will Edit, Facebook, Twitter, and G+.

Labels: Allison Merritt, Camp NaNoWriMo, paranormal romance, word count | 0 comments

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

MOVING!

3:30 AM | Posted by Elysa | | Edit Post

One more day and the movers arrive to pack up all my sh--, I mean all my precious stuff. The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity, between organizing hubby's retirement, selling a house, buying a house, moving our youngest son into his own apartment (he decided not to move to Florida with us) and getting ourselves ready to move. In addition to all that I managed to finish up the revisions for my upcoming release DARK STAR DAWNING. I'm pooped.

Here's a sneak peek at DARK STAR DAWNING.
And you can watch the video trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVpyHw7qUUc&feature=youtu.be

EXCERPT:

Behind Reese the door slid closed shutting out the woman’s pleas and terrified scream. He blocked the guilt by reminding himself that her suffering might be the salvation of the entire empire. And if her small, battered body didn’t hold the key, how would he live with the remorse then?

He sucked in recycled air. He’d survive it the same way he endured his other sins. Saving the billions of inhabitants of the empire was worth the cost of his soul. But, his conscience countered, his soul was his to trade. Her life was not.

Inside his cabin he ripped off his helmet and flung it aside. It hit the wall with a sharp crack. The destruction didn’t ease his anger. Nor did he worry about being invaded by the ash. If even one particle of the ash had escaped the woman, the ship’s carefully calibrated sensors would have set off an alert. Body tense he lay on his bunk to rest. He tried to forget the sound of the woman’s scream. Sleep was a long time coming.

Hours later, the com buzz woke him from an all too familiar nightmare where his wife and young son reached for him, their bodies twisting in the agony of Brasu possession and then dissolving into ash as he watched helplessly. Sweat dampened his chest and stung his eyes. At least he told himself it was sweat. Only when awake did he have ease from that torment, that his mind acknowledged his wife’s and son’s suffering was over, while as long as he lived his anguish over their deaths would continue. His fingers closed around the seedpod necklace his son had made for him. It provided no comfort. Unlike in his nightmare, he hadn’t seen their bodies, hadn’t watched them die. They’d been vaporized when Lyndola was destroyed.

His breath shuddered as his heart rate settled back to normal.

“Captain?” Asa’s voice came over the com.

“You have something?” he asked, hoping Asa would think his voice’s gruffness came from sleep.

“Yes and no. I think you’d better get down to med-bay.”

"The woman? Is she dead?” Like acid, anger burned in his veins, but Reese kept his tone even. Raging at Asa would solve nothing.

The doctor, though not a cruel man, was a thorough and determined one. Like everyone else he’d lost family and friends to the Brasu. If it meant the end of the threat, the pain and death of one innocent wouldn’t cause him to hesitate. Reese’s own guilt was harder to ignore.

“Just get down here.”

Reese picked up his helmet. The visor was cracked. He’d get another in the med-bay.

Minutes later, he entered the med-bay lab and stopped. The woman lay motionless on the exam table. Despite her slightly swollen nose, split lip and bruises she was an attractive woman. A tousled mop of fiery red hair surrounded a pale, delicate face. Her brows, a darker shade of red, arched above tilted eyes. He knew that beneath her closed lids her eyes were a verdant green.

Her body was prepped for surgery, the creamy skin down the center of her bare chest discolored by the ugly blue disinfectant.

Fury at the injustice of life boiled inside him. He knew the only way to flush the ash from a person was to open the lungs. Many of those infected, especially soldiers, rather than remain in isolation, chose the risky surgery. Only those physically and mentally strong survived. This woman was too fragile to live through the grueling procedure.