Edward Hoornaert's Blog, page 28

Picture It – Twiggles the Dog #mfrwauthor #PictureIt

Picture It – Twiggles the Dog

Judi and I have heard that black dogs in shelters have a hard time getting adopted in this modern era, partly because they don’t photograph as well. The surplus of poor black rescue dogs is one reason we deliberately chose our tailless schnoodle — schnauzer/poodle mix.

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Getting a decent picture is hard, though. I had to Photoshop the poor pooch to get her face to show, lightening it by 50% and then lightening her eyes still more.

PS – Though you can’t tell from the picture, yes, Twiggles does have rear legs!

It’s just you and me, Brainless #mfrwhooks

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Another hook from Love thy Galactic Enemy, my September 9 SFR release. I’m still focusing on the alien pet — a mizzet.

Such was the luxury afforded to the Farflung equivalent of a flophouse—luxury Lou could afford for only three more nights, assuming she lost her appetite. If her secret contact didn’t show up soon, she’d have to come up with a plan of her own to get back to Proxima.

Yeah, like what? Hike naked through The Black?

Fear and unfamiliarity clogged her thoughts. She was a personal secretary, not a daring secret agent. Laughter had soothed her dread for a few minutes, but only getting home would soothe it permanently.

Mizzets were messy eaters, so she fed it a corner of tomorrow’s lunch on the lower bunk, where she didn’t plan to sleep. Then she knelt on the harsh metal floor, rested her chin on her hands, and watched it gobble. “You must be desperate to latch onto me. Desperate or brainless.”

As though recognizing her words, the mizzet looked up from the sandwich.

“Is that your name? Brainless? It should be.”

She couldn’t bear the thought of spending another night in clothes damp from nervous sweat, so she undressed down to her underpants, then folded her outer clothes and put them in a pathologically neat pile on a ledge at the foot of the top bunk. Ignoring the ladder, she hopped onto the mattress. She slipped under the covers and forced herself to relax.

The mizzet climbed the wall to join her, making a tiny popping sound every time a suction pad came loose. When it snuggled its fur against her breasts, she put her arm around it. “Looks like it’s just you and me, Brainless.”

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I didn’t invent mizzets. The name was first used by Linnea Sinclair, the 2016 Rita Award winning author of science fiction romance. Linnea has kindly agreed to write a cover blurb for Love thy Galactic Enemy, and I’m quite proud of it.

“Mystery, mizzets and mayhem populate this lighthearted tale of interstellar espionage and romantic intrigue.” —Linnea Sinclair, author of the Dock Five Universe series

Be sure to check out the hooks by other great writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.

Love thy Galactic Enemy

Abandoned to the enemy’s tender mercy

[image error]Minta, the reserved secretary for a spy team that spread a man-made plague, leaves the planet too late — the team abandons her on the enemy’s space station. She’s forced to fend for herself until she can make contact with an elusive spy, Watcher, who can take her home. To avoid arrest, she nurses a plague victim — a gentle, whimsical man who spouts Lewis Carroll. But to know this enemy is to love him . . .

When Finn Shanwing falls ill, he doesn’t intend to hide that he’s a high-ranking commando. Neither does he intend to fall in love with the secretive nurse who saves his life . . . but by the time he reveals to Minta she saved an enemy commando, it’s too late for his heart. Or hers. Also too late to escape the wrath of Watcher — half-human, half-machine, and both halves obsessed with her.

Love thy Galactic Enemy is available for pre-order, so reserve your copy now:

Amazon US – Canada – UK – Australia
Barnes and Noble (Nook)
Kobo Books
Smashwords
Apple iBooks

Effing Feline, bandersnatch hunter #wewriwa

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I, Effing Feline, learned today of a new creature I want to hunt. It’s called a frumious bandersnatch, though I’m not sure whether frumious is part of the creature’s name, or is an adjective as in “Genius Feline.” Either way, I’m gonna hunt it down then pounce and rip and tear and bite and glory in the kill.

Grr!

Love thy Galactic Enemy will be available September 9. The heroine, currently calling herself “Lou,” knocks out a guy she thinks is an intruder, then discovers he’s an innocent new roommate. Here’s the aftermath, which isn’t what most people seemed to be thinking.

He raised his head enough to look around then said, “No one else here . . . must’ve fallen.”

His face was shiny with sweat and his eyes were shadowed and sunken. She’d been wrong about him limping; he had staggered, instead, and not from drunkenness. He was ill, which was probably the only reason she’d managed to bring him down.

He tried to rise but managed to push himself only onto one elbow. “I feel like I got hit by a frumious bandersnatch.”

She hopped over his legs to retrieve her clothes from the shelf by her bunk; her back felt cold and exposed as she turned away to throw on her blouse and slacks. When she was dressed she continued to face away from him, trying to regain her composure.

He didn’t know she was the one who attacked him? That could be good or it could be bad — good if he didn’t tell the cops she’d assaulted him, bad if he didn’t realize she’d scratched his nose.

Effing Feline here again. While you were reading today’s commercial, I went looking for a bandersnatch so I could pounce, but I couldn’t find one. Do any of you know where I should hunt?

Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday.

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Love thy Galactic Enemy

Abandoned to the enemy’s tender mercy

There’s something new on the cover of this novel. Can you pick it out?

– – – –

You did? Good for you!

Yes, the cover now has a blurb by well known science fiction romance author Linnea Sinclair. Only a smidgeon of her quote fits on ebook covers, but here’s the whole thing as she sent it to me. Thanks so much, Linnea!

“Mystery, mizzets and mayhem populate this lighthearted tale of interstellar espionage and romantic intrigue.”

—Linnea Sinclair, author of the Dock Five Universe series

Love thy Galactic Enemy is available for pre-order, so reserve your copy now:

Amazon US – Canada – UK – Australia
Barnes and Noble (Nook)
Kobo Books
Smashwords
Apple iBooks

More about mizzets #mfrwhooks

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Last week I showed you the cover for Love thy Galactic Enemy, my September SFR release. Now I’m focusing on an alien pet — a mizzet.

As dumb creatures went, mizzets were very dumb — but empathetic to human emotions, so surely this one sensed it wasn’t welcome. Although its tiny legs were capable of short bursts of speed, they were usually slow. She walked fast to leave it behind.

She looked back once. It was galumphing along as well as it could, but falling behind. Ahead were elevators she could take down to her level. If she could get onto one before the mizzet arrived she’d be free of the tiny nuisance.

But the elevator was slow to arrive, as though siding with the mizzet, and when she got on, so did the plucky little beast. Admitting surrender, she picked it up and cradled it against her cheek. “Ridiculous me. I can’t outrun even a mizzet. I’m doomed, doomed.”

It stretched a three-toed paw toward her food bag.

“Okay, okay, you can have some food. Not until we get to the room, though, and eat sparingly. This bag has to last us a long time.”

She’d said us, not me. Without realizing how it had happened, she seemed to have adopted a pet. More likely, the other way around.

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I didn’t invent mizzets. The name was first used by Linnea Sinclair, the 2016 Rita Award winning author of science fiction romance. Linnea has kindly agreed to write a cover blurb for Love thy Galactic Enemy, and I’m quite proud of it.

“Mystery, mizzets and mayhem populate this lighthearted tale of interstellar espionage and romantic intrigue.” —Linnea Sinclair, author of the Dock Five Universe series

Be sure to check out the hooks by other great writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.

Love thy Galactic Enemy

Abandoned to the enemy’s tender mercy

[image error]Minta, the reserved secretary for a spy team that spread a man-made plague, leaves the planet too late — the team abandons her on the enemy’s space station. She’s forced to fend for herself until she can make contact with an elusive spy, Watcher, who can take her home. To avoid arrest, she nurses a plague victim — a gentle, whimsical man who spouts Lewis Carroll. But to know this enemy is to love him . . .

When Finn Shanwing falls ill, he doesn’t intend to hide that he’s a high-ranking commando. Neither does he intend to fall in love with the secretive nurse who saves his life . . . but by the time he reveals to Minta she saved an enemy commando, it’s too late for his heart. Or hers. Also too late to escape the wrath of Watcher — half-human, half-machine, and both halves obsessed with her.

Love thy Galactic Enemy is available for pre-order, so reserve your copy now:

Amazon US – Canada – UK – Australia
Barnes and Noble (Nook)
Kobo Books
Smashwords
Apple iBooks

Music Monday Nutcracker #1 #MFRWauthor

 

 

Effing Feline discusses beds #wewriwa

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I, Effing Feline, don’t understand humans. A million things large and small evade even my vast feline understanding. For example, beds.

In today’s commercial for Love thy Galactic Enemy, when a guy enters the heroine’s communal room in the middle of the night, she leaps at him from the top bunk and knocks him out. Top bunk? Fine. I understand the urge to look down on the world. But who needs a separate piece of furniture for sleeping? That makes no sense.

Love thy Galactic Enemy will be available September 8. At that time, you can learn that the guy she knocked out is a new roommate, not an attacker. Oops.

After a few inarticulate sounds, he turned his head toward her and rumbled out, “Beautiful.”

“Huh?” she said, frowning as she tried to understand the slurred word. Then heat flooded her cheeks: “Oh gosh!”

Not yet fully awake, she’d forgotten she wore only underpants.

Spinning away from him, she flung one hand over her chest and made a fist with the other. He did nothing more; no grabbing or pawing. Nonetheless, it took several deep breaths before she could look over her shoulder at him.

“I guess,” she panted, “I owe you one peek, but we’re even now — never again and nothing more, understand?”

“Beware the jubjub bird,” he said clearly, though she must’ve misunderstood. “It attacks.”

Effing Feline here again. As I said, beds make no sense. We cats can (and do!) sleep anywhere. Anywhere, and that’s much cheaper. Laps. Floors. Pillows. Even Buddhas.

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Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday.

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Author’s depiction of a mizzet

Love thy Galactic Enemy

Abandoned to the enemy’s tender mercy

[image error]Minta, the reserved secretary for a spy team that spread a man-made plague, leaves the planet too late — the team abandons her on the enemy’s space station. She’s forced to fend for herself until she can make contact with an elusive spy, Watcher, who can take her home. To avoid arrest, she nurses a plague victim — a gentle, whimsical man who spouts Lewis Carroll. But to know this enemy is to love him . . .

When Finn Shanwing falls ill, he doesn’t intend to hide that he’s a high-ranking commando. Neither does he intend to fall in love with the secretive nurse who saves his life . . . but by the time he reveals to Minta that she saved an enemy commando, it’s too late for his heart. Or hers. Also too late to escape the wrath of Watcher — half-human, half-machine, and both halves obsessed with her.

Love thy Galactic Enemy is available for pre-order, so reserve your copy now:

Amazon US – Canada – UK – Australia
Barnes and Noble (Nook)
Kobo Books
Smashwords
Apple iBooks

Picture It – historic root beer #mfrwauthor #PictureIt

Picture It – A history lesson

Tucson, Arizona is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the United States — since about 1300. What was life like in the desert, 700 years ago?

For one thing, root beer was really cheap:

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This sign was uncovered while refinishing a dwelling in the Barrio, the oldest part of Tucson. Before stumbling on this sign, I never would’ve guess root beer had been around for 700 years! Or that folks here spoke Spanish hundreds of years before Columbus! 

Alien pets get underfoot, too #mfrwhooks

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Last week I showed you the cover for Love thy Galactic Enemy, my September SFR release. Today I’m going to focus on an element that (I hope) adds human interest. Namely, an alien pet.

My heroine is trapped on a city-sized enemy space station. She’s trying to avoid being noticed when she finds a small creature called a mizzet.

There was no one in this corridor to see her. “Except you,” she said to a skinny baby mizzet clinging to the wall at knee height.

Were the enemy’s pets also enemies? Spies, maybe?

After glancing around—the corridor was still empty—she bent down to pet the creature. It was one of the domesticated breeds, not a pest but a pet bred for the beauty of its eyes and feathery fur. Its coloring was standard caramel-and-mustard, but instead of a graceful tail, it had only a thumbnail-length stump. It was the skinniest mizzet she’d ever seen, weighing not even a kilogram, and the fur on its right leg was torn off in clumps. It had been on the losing side of a fight. Sort of like her.

It leaned into her hand as though just as lonely as she was. She had no time or money for a pet, whether cat, dog, mizzet, or skoot. Animals couldn’t help her get passage off this mousetrap, so she should leave the miserable creature here.

But it felt so soothing not to be alone, if only for a minute. How long had it been since she felt in sync with any creature, even something as insignificant as a mizzet?

“Sorra.” She put the beast on the floor. A pet would make her easier for strangers to approach her. Back home, walking with a pet was a good way to meet people. People here were dangerous, so . . . “Verra sorra, kiddo. I know what it feels like to be abandoned and alone, but you’re not worth becoming a prisoner of war. Mooch off of someone with something to spare.”

She set off. When she glanced back after a while, the mizzet was gone. Just as well.

But then she stumbled over something — the mizzet. To keep from falling, she lurched to the left —

— right into the arms of a man.

Be sure to check out the hooks by other great writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.

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Love thy Galactic Enemy

Abandoned to the enemy’s tender mercy

[image error]Minta, the reserved secretary for a spy team that spread a man-made plague, leaves the planet too late — the team abandons her on the enemy’s space station. She’s forced to fend for herself until she can make contact with an elusive spy, Watcher, who can take her home. To avoid arrest, she nurses a plague victim — a gentle, whimsical man who spouts Lewis Carroll. But to know this enemy is to love him . . .

When Finn Shanwing falls ill, he doesn’t intend to hide that he’s a high-ranking commando. Neither does he intend to fall in love with the secretive nurse who saves his life . . . but by the time he reveals to Minta she saved an enemy commando, it’s too late for his heart. Or hers. Also too late to escape the wrath of Watcher — half-human, half-machine, and both halves obsessed with her.

Love thy Galactic Enemy is available for pre-order, so reserve your copy now:

Amazon US – Canada – UK – Australia
Barnes and Noble (Nook)
Kobo Books
Smashwords
Apple iBooks

Music Monday #MFRWauthor

Now for something completely different . . .

My Alien Contact for Idiots series speculates about what sort of culture North American natives would have built if they weren’t overrun by Europeans. The books focus on the Kwakiutl tribe of Vancouver Island, whom I’m most familiar with. Today, a Kwakiutl song.

The Kwakiutl Toogwid Song, from Mrs. Dorothy Hawkins, is sung by Carla Holm. It is from the closing credits of the 1980 reconstruction of Edward Curtis’ 1914 movie In the Land of the War Canoes (originally titled In the Land of the Head Hunters).

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Want to read some near-future Kwakiutl stories? Here are the books in the Alien Contact for Idiots series:

Alien Contact for Idiots
Alien Contact for Kid Sisters
Newborn
Rescuing Prince Charming
Alien Contact for Runaway Moms

Effing Feline doesn’t give a mizzet’s a$$ #wewriwa

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I, Effing Feline, saw the cover for Ed’s upcoming book, and let me tell you — whoopee ding dong doo. Who care? If there’s no cute pussy cat on the cover, I don’t give a mizzet’s ass* about Ed’s books.

(Notice the cute little asterisk? It means there’s a footnote. I’ve never used one before and I’m excited about my first time! For the footnote explaining mizzet’s ass, keep reading.)

Love thy Galactic Enemy, Ed’s SFR with catless cover, will be available September 8. In it, a woman who currently calls herself “Lou” has been abandoned on a space station orbiting the enemy’s planet. When a guy enters her flophouse room in the middle of the night , she leaps at him from the top bunk and knocks him out.

But he’s a new roommate, not an attacker. Oops.

[image error]He didn’t move or make a sound when she turned on the light — but she hadn’t hit him that hard, had she?

She knelt beside him, though not too close. His chest moved and there was no blood; that was good. Although a week’s growth of beard made it hard to guess, he was probably around her age, mid-thirties. He lay on his belly so she couldn’t see his face very well, but enemy or not, he looked like a nice guy.

“Sorra,” she whispered, “true sorra.”

When he groaned, she moved back until she brushed against his heavy duffel bag. He groaned again, but said or did nothing more.

Then his eyes fluttered wide open.

Effing Feline here again. In last week’s post we met Lou’s pet mizzet. Now for my wonderful footnote explaining the pet’s name!

*   “Mizzet’s ass” (as in, “I don’t give a mizzet’s ass”) is the phrase Rita award-winning author Linnea Sinclair used to introduce the little critters Ed has brought to life. Mizzets never actually appeared in Sinclair’s scenes, so Love thy Galactic Enemy is their onstage debut. Linnea says she is “Looking forward to the mizzets!”

If you haven’t read her Finder’s Keepers (containing the first mention of mizzets), you’ve missed a great read. Even cats like it.

Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday.

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Author’s depiction of a mizzet

Love thy Galactic Enemy

Abandoned to the enemy’s tender mercy

Minta, the reserved secretary for a spy team that spread a man-made plague, leaves the planet too late — the team abandons her on the enemy’s space station. She’s forced to fend for herself until she can make contact with an elusive spy, Watcher, who can take her home. To avoid arrest, she nurses a plague victim — a gentle, whimsical man who spouts Lewis Carroll. But to know this enemy is to love him . . .

When Finn Shanwing falls ill, he doesn’t intend to hide that he’s a high-ranking commando. Neither does he intend to fall in love with the secretive nurse who saves his life . . . but by the time he reveals to Minta she saved an enemy commando, it’s too late for his heart. Or hers. Also too late to escape the wrath of Watcher — half-human, half-machine, and both halves obsessed with her.

Love thy Galactic Enemy is available for pre-order, so reserve your copy now:

Amazon US – Canada – UK – Australia
Barnes and Noble (Nook)
Kobo Books
Smashwords
Apple iBooks