Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

The theme for this week is secondary characters. I enjoy writing secondary characters because they’re allowed to do and say all the things the hero and heroine can’t. In fact, I think they have all the fun parts. My excerpt today is from book two in my Talking Dog series, Never Send a Dog to do a Woman’s Job. The heroine’s family are worried about her new job squiring an alien around New Zealand, and now that they’ve managed to get him alone, they’re giving him the third degree

Never Send a Dog to do a Woman’s Job by Shelley Munro

They stowed his bags and piled into a vehicle called a land something or other. Luke and Killer took the passenger seat and Richard drove. Alex was hemmed in the rear, a potential target between the bodyguard and the explorer. The only weapon he had to protect himself with was an Earth jacket.

Alex clicked the seat belt into place and cast a sardonic glance at each of the Dalcon women who flanked him. Time for the attack to begin.

“I told you,” Janaya stated in a hard voice, “to make sure you had travel inoculations before you left Dalcon. I told you of the consequences.”

“You informed me of the dangers of bonding and made it clear what would happen if Lily was coerced into a bond with me. I listened to everything you said, but there was a problem. I’m allergic to fodo quills.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Luke demanded, his bronzed face darkening with anger as he glared from the passenger seat. Killer punctuated her displeasure with a low, hair-raising growl.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Hinekiri said, breaking the sudden tension. “He needed Lily, so he didn’t mention his allergy. This business venture of yours must be real important to you.”

They didn’t know the half of it, Alex thought. If he’d stayed in the palace for much longer he’d have lost every brain cell. And insanity wasn’t the done thing for a prince. No telling what indignities the King would have forced on him in the nature of a tonic-fix.

“I’ve invested a lot of time and money,” Alex said in wry understatement. Not to mention run away from home, dodged his bodyguards and spent a fortune on the Driscoll witch spell to disguise his looks. Money well spent since none of them seemed to recognize him as Prince Alexandre. The old crone who’d sold him the spell had assured him he would appear the exact opposite in appearance. Dalconians would see him as dark and plain, the exact same reflection he saw whenever he looked in a mirror now. It had taken a little getting used to seeing a stranger, but he had grown to love the anonymity. Alex considered conducting a test of sorts to ease his agitation but gave up the idea. He didn’t want to call attention to himself any more than necessary. “Why did you give me an introduction letter if you didn’t trust me?”

“We had second thoughts,” Janaya stated with quiet dignity. “And we wanted to pick up some fishing gear. Besides, you told us you had the inoculations covered.”

“The medical man prescribed pills.”

“Then why didn’t you take them?” Janaya muttered, spearing him a look of distaste. “If my sister-in-law must bond with a Dalconian then at least he should have a few looks going for him.”

Hinekiri reached past him to slap Janaya on the leg. “Manners! I’m ashamed of you. The male can’t help how he looks.”

Alex wanted to chuckle and cheer out loud. Proof that the spell was working. “Don’t worry. I’m used to it. Looks aren’t everything.” He just wished that everyone else didn’t put such stock in his looks. “And I took the pills. I’m still taking the pills. I’ve no idea why they’re not working. Lily seems pleasant, but I don’t wish to bond with any female.”

Hinekiri took hold of his chin and stared deep into his eyes before looking at Janaya. “If you ask me the male’s telling the truth.”

“That’s it then,” Janaya said. “I’ll have to shoot him.”

“I haven’t done anything.” Alex felt his face heat with anger. “I want to do research for my business. I’m not looking for an Earth woman to mate with,” he gritted out.

Richard pulled up on the side of the road with a screech of brakes. “I can’t concentrate on driving with you sniping at each other. You’re acting like children. If you can’t behave in the backseat, I’m gonna put the lot of you out and you can walk to Sloan.”

Stunned silence met his announcement.

“Looks like rain,” Luke said cheerfully.

Richard speared a glare at his son. “One more smart-ass comment and you can go with them.”

Purchase from Ellora’s Cave or Amazon Kindle

To read more Snippet Saturday excerpts follow the trail below:

Mari Carr
HelenKay Dimon
Eliza Gayle
Shelley Munro
Lauren Dane
Vivian Arend
Shelli Stevens
Taige Crenshaw
McKenna Jeffries
Ashley Ladd
Jody Wallace
TJ Michaels

I’ve received some excellent reviews recently, both from Whipped Cream Erotic Romance.

Soldier of Fortune – The plot of this book was really exciting, believable and well done. It was packed with thoroughly described, high action and never got boring. And I liked how the team, after many trials and difficulties, came to be eventual friends and stood strong amongst all of the fighting. And, just to add icing on the cake, the sex was smoking hot!

Here’s the link to the full review for Soldier of Fortune

House of the Cat is an amazing thrill ride of adventure, quests, lost heritage and found love. Extremely well written love scenes spice up a solid and exciting plot line. I was gripped from the first chapter and entertained non-stop until the final and very satisfying happily-ever-after. Ms. Munro knows romance and she’s proved it again with this engaging and fast paced story. Not only am I putting this book on my keeper shelf, I can’t wait to tell all my friends. It rocks!

Here’s the link to the full review for House of the Cat. It received a Best Book rating. Woohoo!

Tiger By The Tail, book nine in my Middlemarch Mates series, has a release date of 9 July. Check out the blurb and an excerpt on the Tiger By The Tail book page.

My special guest today is friend and fellow sci-fi fan, Kaye Manro. Forbidden Love is Kaye’s debut book, and it’s doing really well. If you’ve been following Kaye’s Forbidden Love tour, you’ll know she’s discussed some really interesting topics. This is her last tour stop, and she’s talking about world building. Over to Kaye…

Thank you for inviting me to be your guest today, Shelley!

World building is such an interesting subject, and I’d like to talk about just how I created my science fiction environment in my short erotic SFR Forbidden Love.

While world building is important in all genres of fiction, it is doubly true for science fiction. The process involves detailed back-story that may never end up on the written page!
In science fiction, as well as science fiction romance, (SFR) authors tend to spend a lot of time on world building. In the created worlds especially those involving space travel the process usually starts with designing the star and solar system in which the planet resides.
Here’s an example from my own world building experience. When I created the premise for the Forbidden series (book one is Forbidden Love, which recently released at Red Rose Publishing) I wanted an astounding species with touches of reptilian DNA. For that, I needed the proper environment for them to exist. Their planet needed to be atmospherically disruptive and wild, a little like Venus but able to sustain life. While in opposition, I wanted the species to be an ancient and peaceful but advanced culture, capable of traveling across galaxies by way of hyper-jumps through invented event horizons.

I had a vague idea of what I should call this world, and those red-orange colors kept popping into my mind. I created the name for the planet by combining words like orange and ascorbic because it reminded me of vitality and virility. I melded the two words and Asconage was born.

As I pondered, what Asconage might be like, visions of its solar system came to mind. Asconage is a desert-like world, and I needed to create an extremely arid environment. This planet, painted in russet, ginger, and mauve with an indigo-purple and hued red nighttime sky, orbits two suns, one near and one far. The binary system makes intense heat possible without causing a total planetary meltdown. This is the main reason why T’Kon’s species developed along the evolutionary path it did. I hope this gives you an idea of how everything ties together.

I wanted T’Kon’s race, though extremely technologically and physically advanced, to have archaic beliefs and laws governing the people that preserve the purity of their species. In Forbidden Love, that’s exactly why T’Kon has a hard time coping with his attraction to Maya, the heroine. She is from a human species on an Earth-like world known as Terrain. T’Kon is an explorer and scans Maya’s world for possible contact when his spacecraft crashes into the Terrain surface.

Truly, Forbidden Love came alive only after I had spent time developing the foundation for which I based this story and that is world building. Here is how the story actually unfolded–

Forbidden Love is a futuristic sci-fi erotic romance. Yes, there is space travel at FTL (faster than light). But there is also lots of sexy sensual exploring between the hero T’Kon and the heroine Maya, who hail from different galaxies and evolutionary paths. Rules on T’Kon’s planet forbid interspecies mating. But when he crashes his spacecraft on Maya’s world close to her desert home, what else is he to do but let this lovely alien tend his, umm, injuries?

Here is a little taste of Forbidden Love:

Something cool and clammy grazed her arm, causing a shiver. He sat on the edge of her exam table, his face no longer tinged with the pale blueness she observed earlier; rather, a deep russet color washed him.

Maya stared at the alien awake and alive, his lean muscles tensing as he stretched. Slanted sliver blue-flecked eyes peered at her holding a puzzled look, a haunting icy glare.

“I—I’m Dr. Maya Belle,” she cleared her throat. “I found you hurt in the desert near here so I brought you to my lab—my home.” She squinted and sucked in a mouthful of air. “Who are you? It’s a foregone conclusion you’re not from this world. Where do you come from?” She tilted her head. “Do you understand me?”

Suddenly his thoughts tumbled into hers.

“I am on a peaceful mission. My cloaked spacecraft malfunctioned and crashed into your planet’s surface. You do know where it is.” She sensed his uneasy pause and then, “You will take me there.” It sounded too much like a commanded to her.

Yeah right, she thought and immediately tried to recant the notion. But it was too late. His icy gaze narrowed on her. Clawed fingers grasped a firm hold around her wrist. He emphasized one word. “Now.”

Bio for Kaye

As a romance author, I lean toward the adventuresome in my writing. I love science fiction and all the enticing quantum theories surrounding it. Where characters rush through outer space at Faster than Light speed, or teleport into another time, and even slipstream into an alternate reality. I like creating love scenes too with strong heroes, and captivating heroines. It just seemed natural to combine all these elements together in my stories and write (SFR) Science Fiction Romance.

Links:
Forbidden Love Buy Page ~ Kaye’s Website ~ Kaye’s Blog ~

Although ereaders have been available for some time in America, it’s not easy to get our hands on one down here in New Zealand. We can’t purchase a Kindle in New Zealand (you can in Australia) and we can’t purchase a Sony reader even though we have Sony stores. (They don’t stock them)

It was a real surprise when I received a newsletter this week from Whitcoulls, our NZ bookstore chain, saying they were selling the Kobo eReader. They’re $295 each (about US$230) and take up to 1000 books. I tried one out when we went to the mall during the weekend and was actually quite impressed. Not that I’m going to purchase one – I’m hanging out for an iPad, which is due to hit here around July. (I test drove one in Waikiki and fell in love.) But I have to say congratulations to Whitcoulls for moving into the future!!

I’m still busy with edits, but I have two very special guests visiting me this week. Jane Beckenham will be here on 2 June and Kaye Manro is here on 4 June. I hope you’ll come and say hello.

What are you up to this week?

“GET HOOKED!

What does that mean? Simply, we must write stories that grab readers at page one and never let them go. It’s not as easy as it seems. To start with, a stellar beginning/opening is vital these days, especially for aspiring authors if we want that coveted publishing contract.

According to statistics, editors/agents reject manuscripts before they’ve finished reading the first few pages. I wanted to know why. So I studied many books on the craft of writing and took several creative writing classes that addressed that very issue. I also read and researched multi-published authors’ books, trying to get the feel of what set them apart. Then I practiced, rewrote and practiced again hoping to get the words right.

Here’s a stellar ‘Get Hooked’ opening from Carved In Stone by Vickie Taylor (Berkley Sensation): Nothing reminded Nathan Cross he wasn’t human so much as an attractive woman watching his every move from across a crowded room.

Now doesn’t that make you want to read more? It does me. The book continues to be stellar throughout and never lets the reader down all the way to the end.

Our first goal as an author is to evoke an emotional response that hooks the reader. Les Edgerton, leading authority on writing stellar hooks says, “If you are able to capture the right beginning, you’ve written a small version of the whole story right there.”

How can we go wrong with that? The best advice I can give about hooking editors, agents and ultimately readers, is to write a stellar opening and then make sure the rest of your story lives up to that fabulous beginning.”

Kaye Manro
www.kayemanro.com

Kaye Manro’s science fiction romance FORBIDDEN LOVE releases at Red Rose Publishing on May 20, 2010.

“I don’t know if my tip is unique or not, but when I’m writing, I keep what I call a tracking sheet on each book. Whenever I start a new chapter, I add in the chapter number and the page it begins on. This enables me to know just how long each of my chapters is and when I should start thinking about ending them. I keep that and a synopsis and a style sheet with character names and a few brief characteristics in separate files on my computer and update them as I go along. The style sheet helps me keep character names and spellings, (which are always hard to remember since I invent most of them) within easy access of my increasingly Swiss cheese brain so I don’t have to go back and scan what I’ve already written looking for the name or description.”

Visit Cheryl Brooks’ Website
Purchase a book from Cheryl Brooks’ The Cat Star Chronicles

This week’s theme for Snippet Saturday is a fight. Instead of giving you a scene where my characters fight either physically or verbally, I’ve chosen a scene from House of the Cat where the ship is attacked by pirates. This is definitely a fight for survival!

HOUSE OF THE CAT by Shelley Munro

Camryn gave a gasp of mortified horror, her face flaming. “Get out of my head.”

“I—”

The wail of sirens brought a curse. Ry scooped her up like a troublesome parcel and dumped her on a chair. She’d scarcely settled her butt on it when Mogens leaned over and buckled her into a harness. He sat beside her and strapped in, his body tense while he surveyed the blackness outside the ship.

“What is it?” Camryn finally gathered the courage to ask, alarm swooping through her belly when the ship suddenly dropped. Her stomach followed, feeling as if it’d landed on the floor at her feet. “What’s happening?”

“Pirates,” Mogens said tersely, his attention on the porthole and instruments.

Pirates? Camryn craned her neck, watching the fast-approaching black ship with acute trepidation.

A violent explosion seared her retinas. Their ship tilted. A second explosion tossed the ship in the other direction, forces throwing Camryn against her harness. A squeak squeezed past tight lips. She glared at Ry, casting blame. His fault. All of it.

Hell, she was gonna die.

“Another black ship at Nor-nor-west,” the man at the controls said in a tense voice.

“I see him. Three total.” The captain sat totally at ease.

Why weren’t they firing back?

“Looks like Banio colors,” the warrior said, her blue eyes narrowed to angry slits. “How the hell did they know we were in this part of the universe?”

“Get ready to fire,” the captain said.

“Ready to fire,” the pilot answered.

“Ready to fire,” the warrior confirmed.

Camryn grasped the edge of her seat with a white-knuckle grip. Scared rigid, she closed her eyes to shut out the ships firing on them and almost immediately opened them again. A harsh sob jammed halfway up her throat.

“Fire.” Cat Man—Ry—finally gave the order.

The ship bucked. Camryn’s stomach divebombed south. Yesterday she’d have welcomed a reunion with Gabriel. Now, in the face of death, she learned she wanted to live.

Flashes of light detonated across the black depths of space. Had they hit the other ships? Blind from the bright flares, Camryn couldn’t see. One of the ships returned fire. Their pilot attempted evasive action but wasn’t quite quick enough. The ship tilted at an acute angle. Shook wildly. Alarms screeched. One of the aliens cursed.

“Fire in the hold,” Ry shouted. “Nanu and Kaya to the hold.” Two of the crew unbuckled and leapt to their feet.

“Come in, Indefatigable,” a mocking voice transmitted. “We have you, Monsieur Coppersmith. Surrender so we can claim the très bien bounty on your pretty head, no?”

“Fukk you, Banio. Fire!” Ry took over Warrior Woman’s gun.

Simultaneous shots rang out. A ship exploded in a fireball. Scant seconds later something clipped their ship, sending it into rapid rolls. The other crewwoman flew from her seat, belting into a fixed chair with a sickening crunch. She moaned.

Ry fired his gun again. “Yep, hold steady. Mogens sitrep on Jannike.”

Mogens unfastened his harness, grabbed his satchel and scrambled across the bridge to the woman.

“Camryn, man the gun,” Ry ordered.

“Me?”

“There’s no one else. When I say fire, push the black button.”

Camryn fumbled with the harness release. She teetered across the bridge with gangly foal steps.

“Buckle the harness.”

Another order. Damn, she didn’t want to die. Shaky fingers clicked the harness into place. When she stole a glance at Ry, his green eyes held approval. Calm confidence.

“Ready?”

Camryn licked her lips and nodded, the ball of nerves inside her stomach huge and bigger than any pre-race nerves. This couldn’t be any worse than killing aliens on a computer game. Surely? “Yes,” she said hoarsely. “Black button. Push on command.”

“Line her up, Yep. They’ll expect us to go for the stricken ship. Target the other first. Bloody mercenaries.”
Ry glared out the porthole. “On three, Camryn.”

Camryn gave her palms a furtive wipe across her trouser legs. She swallowed, wished for a shot of whiskey. Her knees quaked and she felt strangely disembodied. Just a game, she told herself. A silly kid’s game.

“One. Two. Three. Fire!”

Camryn’s sweaty finger slid across the black button, depressing it. The ship bucked, a metallic screech grating against her ears.

“A hit! Great shooting,” the pilot shouted.

“Once more,” Ry ordered.

The pilot lined them up. Ry shouted orders. Camryn fired. When she focused, after a huge explosion of bright light, not a single ship showed in the black vacuum outside.

“We got ’em, Captain,” the pilot shouted in jubilation. “They’ll think twice before they engage a frigate again. Long-range guns get them every time.”

Purchase from Ellora’s Cave
Purchase from Amazon Kindle

To read more Snippet Saturday excerpts follow the links below:

Shelli Stevens
Emma Petersen
Shelley Munro
Mari Carr
Lissa Matthews
TJ Michaels
Juliana Stone
Taige Crenshaw
Eliza Gayle
Elisabeth Naughton
Ashley Ladd
McKenna Jeffries
Lauren Dane

This week’s theme is lost love. I think I’ve posted this scene before, but I like it, so I’ve posted it again. Camryn Sullivan has lost her older husband and his death sends her on a downward spiral–until she is kidnapped by aliens.

HOUSE OF THE CAT by Shelley Munro

“I don’t care if Camryn’s your sister. She’s an alcoholic, and I swear she’s overdoing the prescription drugs as well. I don’t trust her near our son.”

“She loves Luke,” Max said.

“Last time Camryn baby-sat, she let Luke wander onto the racetrack. She was blind drunk.”

Her sister-in-law’s angry words brought Camryn O’Sullivan to an abrupt stop. She wavered on unsteady legs, not wasted but experiencing a buzz and blissful ignorance of the true state of her life. She smothered a giggle, slapping her hand over her quivering lips. Okay, she’d had drinks. Lots of drinks in pretty colors. Teeny umbrellas to match.

“What do you want me to do? I can’t throw her out. She’s my twin sister. She doesn’t have anyone else.”

A hit! Camryn screwed her eyes shut, protecting herself against the onslaught of pain. No, she didn’t want to think about Gabriel, about being alone. How much it hurt. Max couldn’t make her leave. He wouldn’t.

She had nowhere else to go.

“Max, it’s almost two years since Gabriel’s death. Camryn’s not improving. She needs help. More than we can give her.”

Silence fell, but Ellen’s words throbbed like the harping notes of a badly played violin. They hurt her head and brought forth a wave of indignation. She didn’t need help. She needed Gabriel, dammit. Only her husband’s presence would belay the paralyzing guilt she carried with her every day.

A rough masculine sigh sounded. “Love, you’re right. Camryn needs help, but she doesn’t see it. Until she realizes, all we can do is be here for her. She has to want change.”

“Fine, and meantime Camryn drags us down with her. I found her smoking inside the stables this afternoon. She reeked of alcohol. Other people have noticed. She won jockey of the year two years running, but have you noticed she’s not getting the rides she was a year ago? Camryn has real aptitude with horses, the gift you both have, and she’s throwing it away.”

A direct hit. Ellen’s words sliced with precision, ripping open wounds barely scabbed. The agony hit instantaneously, ferocious and heart-stopping. Silent tears ran down Camryn’s face, and she staggered against the door. Invisible bands clamped around her ribs. Camryn gasped hoarsely, the last of the drunken buzz bleeding away as she attempted to breathe. She wanted to rock away the pain, the guilt that came from knowing Gabriel would never return.

The wind caught the door, slamming it shut and the murmur of voices from the kitchen stopped abruptly.
No, not here. She couldn’t fall apart here. Camryn fumbled with the handle, increasingly desperate when footsteps neared.

“Camryn? Is that you?” Her twin brother’s baritone sounded in the passage not far from where she teetered.

Camryn finally managed to coordinate brain and hands. The door opened. She stumbled into the winter air. The bite of the wind brought a shiver, an increase to her misery. Whiskey. She needed a drink. And maybe one of those little yellow pills the nice doctor had prescribed to help her sleep. Anything to escape the horrid truth. She hadn’t meant to leave Luke alone. She loved her nephew. He raced about, so fast on his feet, and the sleepless nights had taken their toll. She’d fallen asleep in Gabriel’s favorite chair.

Luke loved horses. No surprise since his father bred and trained racehorses. She and Max had lived and breathed horses since they were Luke’s age. Camryn lurched along the muddy track leading to the cottage at the back of the main house.

Really, she didn’t need help. If Gabriel returned things would improve. She could kick the alcohol any time she wanted. A few pills to lift her mood. Camryn didn’t need them either. She needed Gabriel.

Camryn burst into her cottage, tracking mud across the tile floor. She staggered through the cluttered kitchen and into the dining room where she’d instructed her brother and his workers to place Gabriel’s chair. Camryn slumped into the big, masculine chair and pressed her nose against the cool leather. The faint scent of lavender soap and whiskey filled her senses, and a surge of tears blurred her vision. The chair didn’t smell of Gabriel anymore.

It smelled of her.

Camryn crawled onto the chair properly, ignoring the muddy boots on her feet. She curled into a tight ball, her thin shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs. The cruel truth hit then. Gabriel wouldn’t be coming home. He would never come home. Gabriel was dead, and it was all her fault.

Purchase House of the Cat from Ellora’s Cave

Purchase House of the Cat – Kindle

To read other Snippet Saturday excerpts follow the links below:

Emma Petersen
McKenna Jeffries
Vivian Arend
Ashley Ladd
Shelley Munro
Lauren Dane
Mari Carr
Lissa Matthews
TJ Michaels
Shelli Stevens
Elisabeth Naughton
Juliana Stone
Leah Braemel

My special guest today is Fiona Jayde who has a new sci-fi romance release called Cold Victory. Fiona Jayde is a space pilot, a ninth degree black belt in three styles of martial arts, a computer hacker, a mountain climber, a jazz singer, a weight lifter, a superspy with a talent for languages, and an evil genius. All in her own head.

Today Fiona is talking about superheroes. Over to Fiona.

Vampires or hot-shot pilots. Werewolves or sexy super spies. Genetically altered humans or humans with larger-than-life lives. Supermen and kickass women.

My favorite books or movies or TV shows tend to feature superhero type characters. There is something about a larger than life character experiencing the same pull of love, lust or loss as us ordinary folks do. There is something about being able to step into a superhero’s life and be surprised that internally they can bleed just as much as we do.

With the explosion of the paranormal subgenre in romance, our choices for larger than life characters have expanded to suit every fantasy. Angel lovers, demon villains (or vice versa!), dragon shifters, you name a fantasy and there are books ready to cater to it, with various shifts on various subgenres. Blood vampires, energy vampires, psychic vampires… Werewolves, werecats, weredragons… One of my favorite paranormal “superheroes” are motorcycles from the series Driven To The Limit by Alice Gaines. The concept is so originally brilliant – motorcycles (which to me has always been a symbol of sexy man power) are built to shift into a man.

And yet, under the chrome, or leather, or scales, or teeth or Adamantium infused bones (gotta love Wolverine) we still have regular men and women who need an emotional connection, something or someone to believe in.

In Cold Victory, my superhero is Galen Stark, commander of Battlecruiser Victory. He possesses various technological enhancements such as an ocular implant which allows him to see vitals of a person, communication implants which allow him to “telepathically talk” to members of his crew, or nano-controlled fibers in his body which let him easily adapt to swift changes in gravity. And in that sexy tech-enhanced bod, pumps the heart of a red blooded male who has a duty to his crewmates and an insatiable desire for one of his pilots who shouldn’t even be on his ship.

****

“You’ll follow standard protocol aboard this ship.” Stark knew his voice had dropped, was furious that he couldn’t control it. Images of skin and sweat and tangled limbs flashed through his mind as his pulse shuddered with accelerated rhythm.

She looked at him now, those exotic amber eyes empty of feeling. “My apologies, Commander. I’ve been on civ div far too long.”

Heat wouldn’t let him breathe. Despite himself, Stark engaged his ocular implant, watching the waves of red surrounding her form, her body temp spiking, her blood vessels pumping overtime. If not for the pink, delicate flush over her face, she showed no outward appearance of being affected by same beast that clawed at him.

“You’re dismissed.” He didn’t know what the hell had happened, couldn’t understand why an impersonal touch charged him with a sexual awareness he had no business feeling. He simply knew he had to put her out of his reach. “I suggest you find a standard uniform.”

Cold Victory © Fiona Jayde

****

To the readers: who or what are some of your favorite super heroes or heroines?
(Fiona will be giving away a $15 Amazon gift certificate to one lucky commenter at the end of her tour. Details of Fiona’s full tour are available here at Goddess Fish Promotions)

Cold Victory by Fiona Jayde

Intergalactic warfare has not been kind to humans. Convicted pilot Zoya Scott has the chance to avenge her family, redeem an act of desperation with that of sacrifice. She’ll end this war if she betrays the man whose touch burns through her soul, the man whose ship and crew she must destroy. The man who is her bloodmate.

Commander Galen Stark never expected the convicted pilot on his ship to be anything more than a good looking inconvenience. A small brush of their hands grips him with vicious lust, a need he can’t control. She is his bloodmate–a biological reaction burning through his veins.

Except his bloodmate carries an explosive. And Stark may have to give the order to destroy them all.

Purchase Cold Victory from Loose Id
Visit Fiona Jayde’s Website

This week’s theme is humor. One thing I notice in most of my reviews is the mention of humor. I don’t set out to write humor, but it appears to creep in when I’m not looking. My excerpt is taken from my debut Ellora’s Cave title, Talking Dogs, Aliens and Purple People Eaters.

Talking Dogs, Aliens and Purple People Eaters by Shelley Munro

“We’re gonna crash. Buckle up.”

“What?” Janaya spun around to gape at her aunt, Hinekiri. One look told her the truth. Hinekiri wasn’t teasing.

Janaya gulped and scowled out a porthole at the rapidly approaching blue planet and muttered a succinct curse, trying to halt her escalating panic. Tendrils of icy fear curled around her insides. Her worst fear come to life. “I thought you said this…this antique had plenty of life yet.” She fumbled with the harness straps and another weak curse slipped out when the ship plunged into white, fluffy clouds sending her stomach swooping toward her toes.

“Ah, good.” Her aunt’s voice held satisfaction, despite their impending doom. “You worked your way through the Earth-speak tapes.”

Janaya stared at her aunt, speechless for an instant, before her gaze slid past the porthole once more. She swallowed and imagined shaking Hinekiri until her teeth rattled and good sense reigned. The image didn’t ease her panic any.

“We’re gonna bloody crash,” Janaya shrieked. “Pay attention. What do I do? I don’t know anything about flying this bucket of bolts. I’m a bodyguard.”

“Yes, dear, and I’m very proud of you.”

“Hinekiri!” The only reason she’d boarded this ship was because fear for her aunt’s life was greater than her dislike of flying. She was beginning to regret her impulse big time.

“I said we were crashing,” her aunt said. “I don’t believe I mentioned death.”

“You… When we land, I’m going to damage you,” Janaya gritted out.

“Tsk-tsk.” Her aunt waggled her forefinger while she nonchalantly maneuvered the manual steering controls. The ship groaned in loud protest and if anything, they picked up in speed. “I thought you stowed away to protect me from the bad guys.” A teasing grin flashed, lighting up her lined face. “Not do their dirty work for them.”

“Tell. Me. What. To. Do.” They were gonna die. Janaya was sure of it. She’d never live to set foot on Dalcon again. She’d never get the captain’s promotion she was aiming for, the promotion she’d earned by sheer hard work. And Santana would find someone else.

“Harness up and let me concentrate.”

Tension seeped through Janaya’s body, finding an outlet in her white-knuckled grip, as she watched her aunt calmly prepare to crash.

“I thought you said most of the Earth’s surface is water,” she blurted, her gaze darting from the porthole on her right to her aunt and back.

“That’s right, dear.”

“Are we going to land in water?”

Her aunt looked up from the panel of controls and frowned. “Can’t you swim?”

Janaya bit her bottom lip to keep the curse that trembled on her tongue contained. “Yes, I can swim.” The quirk of Hinekiri’s top lip gave her away, and Janaya’s shallow breaths eased out with a relieved hiss.

Chances were good that her aunt was…ah yes…pulling her leg. When she stood with both feet firmly on the ground again, she’d feel more in charge. After an aggrieved glare at her aunt, she amended the thought. Maybe not.

“Assume crash position.”

Janaya stared at her aunt. Then with morbid fascination, her gaze drifted to the bridge view port. Instead of the water she’d expected, she saw land. Flashes of green, trees, then a sea of gold.

The initial impact jolted her body and clacked her teeth together. Behind her, something crashed to the floor—probably one of the stupid Earth-speak tapes her aunt had insisted she view and assimilate. The ship hurtled off the ground then hit again.

“He-haw!” her aunt shouted, one hand raised in the air, her wiry body riding the impact despite the constraints of her harness.

Janaya lacked the same exhilaration as they bounced across the ground barely missing a large tree. The sturdy branches gouged the protective outer shell of their ship as they zipped past.

“I’ll try for up in those hills.” Her aunt jabbed at the controls, and the ship responded sluggishly before hurtling to the ground again. Trees and hills passed in front of Janaya’s horrified eyes.

What felt like hours later but was probably only a matter of minutes, they settled feet short of a dilapidated building, up on the hill. The stench of metal fatigue lay heavy in the air.

“I need to stand on the ground,” Janaya muttered. “Now. Is it safe?” Nausea worked up her throat. In a panic, clumsy fingers clawed at the restraining harness. In the end, her aunt leaned over to release the lever.

“No problems with the atmosphere here,” her aunt said. “New Zealand, according to my charts. Clean and green.”

Janaya needed no further urging. She stumbled out the door, dragging in huge breaths of fresh air until her lungs ached. Gradually, the panic attack subsided leaving her shaky and embarrassed. Make that mortified.

Thank the Gods her aunt had been the only witness.

Hinekiri strode down the narrow exit steps from the ship and stopped beside her. She patted Janaya on the shoulder in a silent gesture of comfort. “Janaya, we need to camouflage the ship so the Earth people don’t stumble across it.”

“All right. I—” The small hairs at the back of her neck prickled to life. Janaya stilled, her eyes narrowing as her gaze swiveled to survey the area around the ship. Her hand slid toward her hip.

“Back on the ship,” she snapped to her aunt as she pulled her weapon free. “Now.”

To her right, the leaves of a fern shuddered. Janaya scented the air. Sweat. Torgon sweat.

“Come on out with your fingers poked inside your ears,” she ordered, aiming her neutralizing weapon at the dark green bushes that had moved.

“That would be, hands in the air,” her aunt said.

Janaya shrugged, not taking her eyes off the leafy plant. “What ever. I have a weapon. Come out.”

The fern leaves shook, dried leaves crackled underfoot. Janaya’s outstretched hand never wavered, the heavy weapon still pointing at the bushes.

“Don’t shoot.” A black nose thrust past a lacy fern leaf.

Janaya’s eyes widened.

A black face with black eyes poked into view. “Are ya gonna shoot?”

“Janaya put the weapon down. It’s a dog. Nothing to get trigger happy about.”

“Yeah,” the little dog said. It stepped into full view. The dog stood below knee height and had white fur peppered liberally with black spots. It trotted closer, tail wagging. “Do ya have any food?”

Talking Dogs, Aliens and Purple People Eaters is the first book in the Talking Dogs series. Purchase from Ellora’s Cave.

To read more excerpts follow the Snippet Saturday links below:

McKenna Jeffries
Vivian Arend
TJ Michaels
Kelly Maher
Ashley Ladd
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Lauren Dane
Mari Carr
Shelli Stevens
Lissa Matthews