Edward Hoornaert's Blog, page 30
July 11, 2019
Picture It – Banff #mfrwauthor #PictureIt
The family and I recently took a trip to Banff National Park in Canada. Here’s an example of the scenery:
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Castle Mountain is one of the famous mountains in Banff. Way up there on a ledge by the snow field, you can just make out some brave evergreen trees shivering in the cold.
July 9, 2019
Sinfully content #mfrwhooks
Time for another hook from Rescuing Prince Charming, a near-future sci fi romance. Dusty Johnson, a mild-mannered tech writer and an alien Kwadran guard have discovered a ticking time bomb hidden in an unfinished starship prototype.
After a wild fifteen minutes, they throw the bomb from a terrace into the ocean, barely in time. Then, because the inimitable thrill of danger made them feel so close so quickly they make love.
“I never knew,” Dusty purred, a delicious time later.
They lay on their sides, facing each other. He was naked; she almost so. As his finger circled her nipple, he looked at her body. She liked that. Liked him. He wasn’t deceitful or mysterious or even arrogant.
Well yes, he was mysterious, but in a good way. And yeah, probably arrogant, as well.
“What didn’t you know?”
Dusty shook her head, reluctant to analyze. All day every day, she analyzed and sought shades of meaning in technical documents, but right now she just wanted to feel, not think.
The best part of their joining, even better than when he’d let her control him, had been when he rolled atop her and took total command. Aside from groans and gasps, he hadn’t uttered a word, but he raised her hands over her head and held them there as though to say he’d let her have her fun, but he was too mighty to rule for long. His self-confident humility, followed by a display of masterful testosterone, was a combination she hadn’t realized was the key to unlocking the ultimate in bone-deep fulfillment. It was as though he knew that, although she gloried in the uncharacteristic sense of power her heroism had given, she would eventually scorn a submissive lover.
“You are content?” he asked.
“Sinfully so.”
Be sure to check out the hooks by other great writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.
Rescuing Prince Charming
She’s no heroine. He’s no Prince Charming.
Not exactly the pair you’d choose to defend Earth’s first starship.
[image error]Dusty Johnson, a self-styled ordinary, everyday woman, responds with extraordinary heroism when saboteurs try to bomb the prototype of Earth’s first starship. She wants to return to anonymity, but that burst of courage propels her ever deeper into dangers that tear the scabs off her dark past — and thrust her into the arms of the unattainable man of her dreams.
Reese Eaglesbrood, an alien prince, yearns to restore his tattered reputation by guiding the starship project to completion, but his fascination with the unassuming heroine threatens to undermine his fragile authority. Shunning Dusty is necessary, yet unthinkable — and when the saboteurs strike again, she may be his only ally against Earth’s most elusive enemies.
July 6, 2019
Effing Feline, cover artist #wewriwa
I, Effing Feline, was in charge of the poll to select a title for Ed’s WIP: Love thy Galactic Enemy. Titles are one of the most important things to sell books, along with book covers. Since Ed does such a lousy job of both, I’m hereby seizing charge of the cover, too. Smart, eh?
This book features a ratlike alien pet called a mizzet. I’ve sketched a mizzet, and I insist you all demand Ed use it on the cover!
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Now for the snippet. A woman currently calling herself Lou was a secretary for a business that was a front for a spy team. The team has abandoned her, trapped and fearful, on Farflung Space Station, which orbits a planet inhabited by her home world’s enemies. She has left the station’s busy main corridor for an empty one.
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.
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 that had been bred for the beauty of its eyes and feathery fur. It coloring was standard caramel-and-mustard, but instead of a plume-like 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 alone 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.
Effing Feline here again. Ed, the jerk, has vetoed my drawing! He says I stole it from some ninja named Leonardo da Vinci. If the turtle doesn’t object, I don’t see why Ed should!
Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday. And and feel free to critique this snippet, as it’s unedited.
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 actually a high-ranking cyborg warrior. 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:
Amazon US – Canada – UK – Australia
Barnes and Noble (Nook)
Kobo Books
Smashwords
Apple iBooks
July 4, 2019
Picture It – sparklers #mfrwauthor #PictureIt
I was going to post a pic today from a recent trip to Banff National Park in Canada, but that would be downright unpatriotic. Instead of Banff, here’s a pic I personally didn’t take:
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Ever wonder how the heck sparklers work? They’re pretty different, after all. There’s no explosion, as with a firecracker. No extravagant bursts of color, as with fireworks. Just a long, controlled beautiful burn.
I’ll give you a hint. A sparkler needs;
an oxidizer
a fuel
iron, steel, aluminum, or other metal powder
a combustible binder
Since I write science fiction, and even though I’m more interested in people than science, here’s a science site that explains how sparklers work.
July 2, 2019
A reputation to uphold #mfrwhooks
Time for another hook from Rescuing Prince Charming, a near-future sci fi romance. Dusty Johnson, a mild-mannered tech writer and an alien Kwadran guard have discovered a ticking time bomb hidden in an unfinished starship prototype.
After a wild fifteen minutes, they throw the bomb from a terrace into the ocean, barely in time. Then, because the inimitable thrill of danger made them feel so close so quickly . . . they prepare to ‘celebrate.’ He pulls her into the first empty office, which belongs to the big boss of the starship project. (Wiki is the nickname for the research facility, Owikeeno.)
She didn’t even know this man’s name. She’d never done anything like this. Never been tempted to.
Never risked her life to dispose of a bomb, either. Never felt such a profound and instant connection to a man.
But in the big boss’s office?
Well . . . yes. There was something to be said for wild and naughty.
Within limits, of course. “Your shots are up to date?” she asked. Kwadran medicine had conquered venereal diseases; she was on the pill; and the possibility of safe sex without the awkwardness of a condom was an extra inducement.
“Of course.”
“In that case, you can’t stand around in your underwear.” She grabbed the flimsy garment and yanked it down. Nice. Very nice. “There, much better.”
“Agreed.” He reached for her while asking, “What’s your name?”
“No names.” When he cocked his head toward her, she lowered her voice. “Let’s keep this mysterious. Don’t tell me your name. Nothing about you, nothing about me, just two bodies in the dark. Okay?”
“But –”
“If I get to know you, I’ll start thinking too much.” Wiki was so small she might run into him every day from now on, but she couldn’t think about that. Thinking and analyzing were her main strengths — but also her main weaknesses. “Okay?”
He rolled his eyes, but chuckled and nodded.
“Good.” She took a deep breath, then reached under her skirt to remove her underpants. They joined his on the floor.
He stepped toward her, but she held up her palm to stop him. “This is a one-time deal, and we don’t tell anyone. One and done, then nevermore, quoth the raven.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Raven?”
“Edgar Allen Poe, but never mind. I have a reputation to uphold. Trust me, this place is gossipy. So . . . this is just between us?”
“Agreed.” He rumbled out a chuckle that was the epitome of virility. “I also wish to bury my old reputation and start an unblemished one.”
Be sure to check out the hooks by other great writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.
And while you’re in the neighbourhood (sorry for the spelling, but I returned to Canada recently, and their spelling is contagious):
If you’d be willing to help a poor, befuddled writer choose his next project, vote here .
Rescuing Prince Charming
She’s no heroine. He’s no Prince Charming.
Not exactly the pair you’d choose to defend Earth’s first starship.
[image error]Dusty Johnson, a self-styled ordinary, everyday woman, responds with extraordinary heroism when saboteurs try to bomb the prototype of Earth’s first starship. She wants to return to anonymity, but that burst of courage propels her ever deeper into dangers that tear the scabs off her dark past — and thrust her into the arms of the unattainable man of her dreams.
Reese Eaglesbrood, an alien prince, yearns to restore his tattered reputation by guiding the starship project to completion, but his fascination with the unassuming heroine threatens to undermine his fragile authority. Shunning Dusty is necessary, yet unthinkable — and when the saboteurs strike again, she may be his only ally against Earth’s most elusive enemies.
June 25, 2019
Effing Feline is out of the bag #wewriwa
I, Effing Feline, am getting double catnip this week. Mew mew! Why? Because I’m the official emcee who is to announce the winner of the poll to choose the name of Ed’s next book! (You didn’t vote? Well, tough furballs. It’s too late.)
Human emcees use envelopes to hold the results. Cats, in their superior wisdom, use bags, hence the phrase ‘let the cat out of the bag.’
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Courtesy Pinterest
I’ll tell you the new title after this word from our sponsor — namely, Ed’s latest sci fi rom. A woman currently calling herself Lou was a secretary for a business that was a front for a spy team. The team has abandoned her, trapped and fearful, on Farflung Space Station, which orbits a planet inhabited by her home world’s enemies.
Lou gulped down a breath. Regardless of how frightened she felt, how hopeless, she put one foot in front of the other and trudged down the corridor. Sometimes it seemed that slogging along, no matter what, was her only skill in life.
Moving just her eyes, she looked at a tiny circle high on the corridor wall: a surveillance camera. Reminded of her day’s one moment of success, she smiled.
A space station technician named Bahadur had bought her dinner, hoping for sex, and despite her puritanical upbringing she’d been tempted. Not because he was attractive or charming. He was okay-looking rather than handsome, not fat though he needed to lose weight, bashful rather than a smooth operator. Just an ordinary guy, really, at a dark moment when ordinary was panty-lubing fantastic.
Then he started bitching about murderous Proximanians, so she walked away, one foot in front of the other.
Effing Feline here again. Without further ado, The Cat Is Out Of The Bag!
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Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday. And and feel free to critique this snippet, as it’s unedited.
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 actually a high-ranking cyborg warrior. 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.
Without you, I’d still have my pants on #mfrwhooks
Time for another hook from Rescuing Prince Charming, a near-future sci fi romance. Dusty Johnson, a mild-mannered tech writer and an alien Kwadran guard have discovered a ticking time bomb hidden in an unfinished starship prototype. They throw the bomb from a terrace into the ocean . . . and prepare to celebrate.
She’d never been so close to death, yet never felt so alive, so connected to another human being.
He hugged her tighter. “It’s over!”
His elation fueled hers. She burst into laughter and hopped up and down in his embrace.
“We did it,” he whooped.
“No, no, you did it. That was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Hah to that! Without you, that bomb blows apart my face. You were amazing.”
“Without you, that bomb blows up in my arms, because I could never have thrown it as far as you did.”
“Without you,” he said, “I’d still have my pants on.”
“Uh, yeah. I bet you’re cold.” She planted her palms on his buttocks. “Yep, you’re cold.”
He reciprocated by grabbing her bottom. “And you, my brave lady, are hot.”
He made no attempt to hide his erection. Instead of being repelled, she pressed her abdomen against him. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but…we’ve got to do something about this.”
She hadn’t consciously decided to have sex. Her body had decided for her, and it didn’t want to waste a micro-second of this intoxicating euphoria. Dusty Johnson, who always planned three steps ahead, was living in the moment. And glorying in it.
Be sure to check out the hooks by other great writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.
Rescuing Prince Charming
She’s no heroine. He’s no Prince Charming.
Not exactly the pair you’d choose to defend Earth’s first starship.
[image error]Dusty Johnson, a self-styled ordinary, everyday woman, responds with extraordinary heroism when saboteurs try to bomb the prototype of Earth’s first starship. She wants to return to anonymity, but that burst of courage propels her ever deeper into dangers that tear the scabs off her dark past — and thrust her into the arms of the unattainable man of her dreams.
Reese Eaglesbrood, an alien prince, yearns to restore his tattered reputation by guiding the starship project to completion, but his fascination with the unassuming heroine threatens to undermine his fragile authority. Shunning Dusty is necessary, yet unthinkable — and when the saboteurs strike again, she may be his only ally against Earth’s most elusive enemies.
June 22, 2019
Effing Feline diets #wewriwa
I, Effing Feline, told you my greatest ambition awhile back — namely, to become this 35-pound chap:
But Ed, dam his writerly flow, took me to the vet. The vet said I’m already too fat. And she put me on a diet!
I’ve outsmarted her, though, and Ed, too. I’ll tell you how after this word from our sponsor — namely, Ed’s untitle (but soon to be officially titled!) sci fi rom WIP. Last week we met a woman currently calling herself Lou walking the corridors of Farflung Space Station:
With each step, Lou feared that someone — maybe the harried woman singing to her crying daughter, or the trio of tough-looking spacers in ship’s uniform — would cry out that her clothes were foreign, or her earrings, or her shoes, though she’d bought everything in this star’s system.
Even if no one did, she couldn’t slither away from the itchy crawly feeling that someone was about to look at her with cloak-and-dagger x-ray vision and see not her naked body, which wouldn’t bother her — though it would, yeah — but her naked soul instead and they’d shriek in rage and if she were lucky they’d call the cops but if she’d abandoned Luck when she fled here from the planet they’d shoot her in the back of the head, and then —
She had to get away from here. Many light years away.
But how, how, how? She was trapped, a mouse scrambling through the perfect mousetrap — a space station. First her own people, coworkers and supposed friends, instigated riots and plague near the mouse’s hole so she had to flee up here, hoping her people would take her home. They hadn’t, though, not yet, and the mouse had no money to pay the starliners that raised rates because of high demand from refugees. So she stayed put for days and days, spending her dwindling cash on food and housing until finally —
Effing Feline here again. Effing Feline here again. In my feline wisdom, I have come up with a masterful plan to avoid my diet. Here it is:
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See the difference? I shrunk the picture, meaning my ideal doesn’t weight nearly so much. A stroke of genius, eh?
Be sure to visit the other great writers in Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday. Feel free to critique this snippet, as it’s unedited.
BTW, Ed is off celebrating his golden wedding anniversary in Canada, so he may not get around to commenting on everyone’s posts the way he always does. But be patient! He will get around to you.
Abandoned to the enemy’s tender mercy
Minta, the reserved secretary for a spy team spreading a man-made plague, leaves the planet too late; the team abandons her on the enemy’s space station. To survive, she makes herself useful nursing a gentle, handsome man until Watcher, her elusive contact, can take her home. But to know the enemy is to love him . . .
Finn Shanwing didn’t intend to hide that he’s a cyborg warrior, nor to fall in love with his secretive nurse. By the time he reveals to Minta that she saved an enemy commando, it’s too late for both their hearts. Also too late to escape the wrath of Watcher — half-human, half-machine, and both halves obsessed with her.
June 18, 2019
More like a beginning #mfrwhooks
Time for another hook from Rescuing Prince Charming, a near-future sci fi romance. Dusty Johnson, a mild-mannered tech writer and an alien Kwadran guard have discovered a ticking time bomb hidden in an unfinished starship prototype. They throw the bomb from a terrace into the ocean.
The box arched beyond the pylons and the forest toward the ocean. Being a fiord, the bottom dropped off as steeply as the mountainside, so the box should be well submerged when it went off. She never could’ve thrown it so far.
The box hit the water with an insignificant splash. She waited.
Nothing.
That was all? This whole blood-pumping thing was a hoax?
But just as disappointment threatened to chill her, the dark waters of the Pacific erupted as though a school of huge sea monsters had farted simultaneously. Dusty jerked closer to the stranger. He was warm and alive and his courage took her breath away. Being held by him seemed the most natural thing in the world.
The explosion’s noise, when it reached her a millisecond later, was anticlimactic. If this were a movie, special effects people would’ve added a louder bang and more fireworks. Movie explosions were impressive, not realistic.
“We make a great anti-sabotage team,” she squealed. “They ought to make us a special squad or something.”
“Even though I am . . . how did you put it? A stupid idiot?” His chuckle took the sting from his words. This easygoing playfulness was something else to like about him. “One of those arrogant Kwadrans you dislike? With an attitude problem, too.”
It finally sank in, all the way to the deepest marrow of her bones, that she wasn’t going to die, really and truly, and in that instant an orgasmic realization flooded her soul: she’d never had so much fun in her whole life as in the last ten minutes. With a joyous laugh, she pressed her cheek against his warm, hard biceps. “You’re an idiot with interesting pickup lines, which makes all the difference. Provided you don’t mind that I’m the daughter of a plumber.”
“Let me see.” He wrapped both arms around her waist. “No, I find I don’t mind.”
His body pressed hers with delicious warmth and intimacy. Under any other circumstance, she would’ve objected. Maybe slapped him. But this wasn’t the real world. This was reality on steroids, a riotous and astonishing moment outside of time, and his fierce embrace was perfect. She buried her cheek in the soft, clean-smelling twag of his shirt.
“It’s over,” he said.
Funny, it seemed more like a beginning.
Be sure to check out the hooks by other great writers in the Book Hooks blog hop.
PS Today I have a special treat for all you MFRWers. You can help me choose a title for my WIP. That’s just what you’ve always wanted, I’m sure. I’d love your feedback, and it’ll take only a minute.
PPS I’ll be traveling all day Wednesday — en route to my Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration in Banff, Canada! — so I won’t get around to commenting on your posts as quickly as usual. But I will leave a comment, I promise!
Rescuing Prince Charming
She’s no heroine. He’s no Prince Charming.
Not exactly the pair you’d choose to defend Earth’s first starship.
[image error]Dusty Johnson, a self-styled ordinary, everyday woman, responds with extraordinary heroism when saboteurs try to bomb the prototype of Earth’s first starship. She wants to return to anonymity, but that burst of courage propels her ever deeper into dangers that tear the scabs off her dark past — and thrust her into the arms of the unattainable man of her dreams.
Reese Eaglesbrood, an alien prince, yearns to restore his tattered reputation by guiding the starship project to completion, but his fascination with the unassuming heroine threatens to undermine his fragile authority. Shunning Dusty is necessary, yet unthinkable — and when the saboteurs strike again, she may be his only ally against Earth’s most elusive enemies.
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