Robyn Bachar's Blog, page 14

The SFR Brigade Presents: Morningstar Snippet 4

Welcome to this week's SFR Brigade Presents! For more of this week's excerpts please go here.

I believe that after this round the SFR Brigade Presents will be taking a few weeks off, but fear not, dear readers. More Morningstar snippets will be available for your reading pleasure during the Virtual Book Tour hosted by Goddess Fish promotions in September. And I'll be giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to one lucky winner during the tour, so you'll want to stick around for that. ;)

In this snippet Bryn enters the ship's mess hall and discovers Malcolm, an indexer (and former client) who was rescued from the jump station. Malcolm is featured in the third Cy'ren book, Sunsinger, and he's my favorite character in the trilogy. Absent-minded computer genius with glasses? Yes, please. ;)

“What are you working on?”

“Decrypting files for the captain. Slaver files. Something they found at their last stop. It’s not difficult, just time consuming. I can’t resume my search for the Lazarus data until we reach Cyprena.”

“Lazarus data?” she asked.

“It’s why the mercenaries were after me. I…oh, I probably shouldn’t say more. But Lieutenant Commander Harrow can tell you about it.” Malcolm yawned and rubbed his eyes, and then scratched at the high collar of his shirt as though his skin itched. He always seemed to be drowning in layers of mismatched clothing.

“When was the last time you slept?” Bryn asked.

He shrugged. “Been awhile. I don’t remember.”

“Okay. Here’s the deal. Put the work away. Eat your food, and then get some rest. You can start fresh after that.”

“Are you going to put me to bed?” he asked absently, and then winced. “Not like that. I mean…”

Bryn laughed. “I know what you meant. Alexi looked after you like I look after Sabine, didn’t he?”

“Yes.” He sighed with clear relief.

Bryn speared a mouthful of food. Bland, but hot. Better than most of the food she’d had the last few years. “Try it, it’s not bad,” she encouraged.

Morningstar, Cy'ren Rising Book 2

Desire is an addiction that could destroy them all.

The second son.

Lieutenant Commander Jace Harrow is the second son of House Morningstar—the spare, not the heir. Armored with an arrogant mask, Jace keeps the world at arm’s length to protect those around him from becoming targets for his bloodthirsty brother.

The broken sword.

Lieutenant Bryn Viera was a shadow sword and a decorated officer, dedicated to protecting her people. But for the past five years she has lived as a slave and has the scars to prove it. Bryn vowed to escape or die trying—until she met Sabine.

The slave.

Born into slavery, Sabine never expected to fall in love. Her feelings for Bryn sparked her desire for a new life, but now Sabine is in phase, consumed by the need to mate with a male. Her dream of freedom with Bryn is on the brink of destruction, for to deny the phase means death.

Thrown together by the unforgiving demands of the phase, they must unite to save Cyprena’s people from a deadly new bioweapon—or be destroyed by the scars of their pasts.
The first Cy'ren Rising book Nightfall won second place in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi category of the 8th Annual Passionate Plume Contest, and was a finalist in the Science Fiction Romance category of the 2014 EPIC eBook Awards. Nightfall is available in print and e-book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Samhain Publishing, Kobo, and All Romance eBooks.  Morningstar releases September 23, and you can pre-order it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Samhain Publishing, iTunes, and Kobo. The third book in the trilogy, Sunsinger, releases December 23 and is available for pre-order at Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble.

Author Thursday: Interview with Veronica Scott

My guest today is Veronica Scott, best-selling author and “SciFi Encounters” columnist for the USA Today Happy Ever After blog. She's very cool, and my inner NASA nerd was full of squee when I read in her bio that she received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. (Seriously people, whenever NASA would call the office looking for my professor/boss I would be all fangirl "OMG, NASA is on the phone!") I'm very excited to have Veronica here today. :)

1. What flavor is your writing? (Contemporary? Historical? Spicy? Action? Space odyssey? Ninjas? All of the above?)

I write in two genres – science fiction romance and ancient Egyptian romance with a touch of paranormal. I put a lot of action and adventure into every book, no matter which universe I’m writing in. There will always be a strong, capable heroine and the man who loves her. My heroes tend to be military, and come from the Special Forces of their time, whether it be the far future, or a group I call Pharaoh’s Own Guards in the stories set in ancient Egypt. I don’t write straight historical romance because I like to include the gods and goddesses in the action, so I take a few other liberties as well. I take turns between writing SFR and the ancient Egyptian stories.
2. Congrats again on winning a NERFA for Escape from Zularie! Where did you get your inspiration for this book?

Thank you, I was completely thrilled, especially since this is one of my self published books. I do have them professionally edited and copy edited of course.

Zulaire was inspired by the Sepoy Rebellion in India during the British time there. In 1857 there was a terrible uprising, rights and wrongs on both sides, no doubt, but many English women and children were caught in the middle of the combat, with no warning. People they’d trusted were trying to kill them in truly awful ways. I always wondered what I would do if I found myself in such a situation – how do you escape? How do you survive? At the beginning of my novel, the heroine, Andi, (who is from offworld) is in an isolated situation at the country playground of the Zulairian nobility, when all of the sudden a military convoy rolls up. Their captain, Tom, says they’re there to extract her because war is about to break out. She doesn’t believe him about the coming war. And the situation spirals from there. She and the captain strike a lot of sparks throughout the novel.

(By the way, Escape From Zulaire is currently in a special boxed set Nebula Nights with ten other SFR stories, only 99 cents at all ebook retailers!)

3. What is your favorite thing about writing sci-fi romance?

All the possibilities are open. You can have a setting on another world, in another time…there can be aliens, cyborgs, time travel, wormholes – anything you can imagine, goes. And I especially like having a man and a woman in the middle of the life or death situation, working together to survive against terrible odds. Watch the romance blossom as each sees what the other is made of.

4. What are you reading now or what books do you have in your TBR pile?

My TBR pile is out of control! I write the SciFi Encounters column for the USA Today Happily Ever After blog, so I’m always looking for books and authors to feature there. Right now I’m in the middle of an Ann Aguirre book from the Perdition series. I’m eagerly anticipating the next Nalini Singh Guildhunter book, as well as Jeffe Kennedy’s new installment of her The Twelve Kingdoms series. I love Navy SEAL romances and have Midnight Vengeance from Lisa Marie Rice on the kindle. I enjoy Regency romances but don’t have a new one picked out yet. I’m also dipping into a couple of books about ancient Egypt for research purposes.

5. What are you working on now?

Actually I just published my next science fiction romance! It’s called Mission to Mahjundar, and here’s the story in brief:

An attempted assassination left Princess Shalira blind as a child and, now that she’s of marriageable age, her prospects are not good because of her disability. She’s resigned herself to an arranged marriage rather than face life under the thumb of her cold stepmother. But then she meets Mike Varone, a Sectors Special Forces officer sent to Mahjundar by the intergalactic government to retrieve a ship lost in her planet’s mountains. After Mike saves Shalira from another assassination attempt, she arranges for him to escort her across the planet to her future husband. She’s already falling hard for the deadly offworlder and knows she should deny herself the temptation he represents, but taking Mike along to protect her is the only way she’ll live long enough to escape her ruthless stepmother.

But what should have been an easy trek through Mahjundar’s peaceful lands swiftly turns into an ambush with danger around every turn. Shalira’s marriage begins to seem less like an arranged union and more like yet another planned assassination. The more they work together to survive, the harder it becomes to stop themselves from falling in love. Caught in a race against time, can they escape the hostile forces hunting them and make it off the planet?

Mission to Mahjundar is also available at ebook retailers.

You can find out more about Veronica at these links:
Website: http://veronicascott.wordpress.com/ Twitter:  @vscotttheauthor Facebook Andi Markriss hasn’t exactly enjoyed being the houseguest of the planetary high-lord, but her company sent her to represent them at a political wedding. When hotshot Sectors Special Forces Captain Tom Deverane barges in on the night of the biggest social event of the summer, Andi isn’t about to offend her high-ranking host on Deverane’s say-so—no matter how sexy he is, or how much he believes they need to leave now.

Deverane was thinking about how to spend his retirement bonus when HQ assigned him one last mission: rescue a civilian woman stranded on a planet on the verge of civil war. Someone has pulled some serious strings to get her plucked out of the hot zone. Deverane’s never met anyone so hard-headed—or so appealing. Suddenly his mission to protect this one woman has become more than just mere orders.

That mission proves more dangerous than he expected when rebel fighters attack the village and raze it to the ground. Deverane escapes with Andi, and on their hazardous journey through the wilderness, Andi finds herself fighting her uncomfortable attraction to the gallant and courageous captain. But Deverane’s not the type to settle down, and running for one’s life doesn’t leave much time to explore a romance.

Then Andi is captured by the rebel fighters, but Deverane has discovered that Zulaire’s so-called civil war is part of a terrifying alien race’s attempt to subjugate the entire Sector. If he pushes on to the capitol Andi will die. Deverane must decide whether to save the woman he loves, or sacrifice her to save Zulaire.

The Quest Episode 1-3 Recap: Save the Queen

“I do not take orders from you.” Vizier, to Sir Ansgar.

Careful there, Ansgar. Pretty sure the Vizier outranks you in the chain of command.

When last we left our heroes, the Queen had been damseled! I mean poisoned. Same thing, really… Anyway, Paladin Adria was suspicious of the Vizier, because he lacked the knowledge to cure the queen. The Vizier is suspicious of the paladins. Personally, I agree with him. One of them is far more likely to be a mole than the Vizier is to be the poisoner. Come on, people. He’s the magic user. He has high INT, high Wisdom. He wouldn’t poison someone while standing next to them. That’s a rookie villain mistake.
The paladins are given an enormous pile of scrolls to sort through to find the cure for the poison based on the queen’s symptoms. Much talking at once ensues. Bonnie speaks up and orders the others to give her the definite wrong scrolls, because Bonnie is awesome. They find the correct scroll and discover that the quest components are wolf hair, bat teeth, banshee blood and dragon tears.

My inner mmorpg gamer pictured the paladins being let loose in an area to hunt low-level mobs and forage for herbs. Crio leads them to the forest (EverQuest moment: TRAIN TO ZONE!) where they meet the Collector.


No, not that Collector. She's more like this:

"Bye-bye, boys!" "Have fun storming the castle!""Think it will work?" "It would take a miracle."
Apparently she is also referred to as “The Hag of Kirkwall” (at least I think it was Kirkwall, I may be influenced by Dragon Age II). (Though if it is Kirkwall, she’s probably Flemeth, in which case they all better RUN THE F*** AWAY NOW!) Oh, and hey Crio, here's a protip: Never refer to an elderly woman as a “hag”, especially one that can turn you into a newt.

The challenge involved opening a series of locked doors. Sadly, no one is specced in pick locks, so this is a problem. The first lock is covered in tar, the second lock needs to be opened by sawing through rope with an ogre’s tooth, the third door is stuck so the paladin needs to tunnel under it like a Labrador left unattended in your backyard, and the final door needs to be burst through like the Kool-aid man.

This is pretty much a typical Survivor-type test, and though the argument can be made that there shouldn’t be a strength advantage in this one the two tanks (Andrew and Patrick) barreled through it like, “I don’t have pick locks so I roll to smash the chest open instead.”

Bonnie, Jim and Christian are the bottom three. Christian dropped the key needed to open the tar lock, and at one point Bonnie offered to help Christian find his key if he helped unstick the tar on her lock. Because Bonnie is awesome. Christian however uses this opportunity to just pretend to help her instead of actually helping her. Because Christian is a prick.

Of this group, I think he is the most likely to be a mole working for Team Evil. (But it’d be awesome if Bonnie was, because the paladins would never see that one coming.) Christian spouted the oh-so-stereotypical “this is a competition” quote that I dreaded hearing. (BOOOOO! Dammit, The Quest! You had so much potential.) Followed by the assertion that, “I’m ready not to necessarily stab people in the back but I’m ready to cut some throats.” Like the old drow saying, “Those who watch their backs meet death from the front.” I hope he gets eaten by an ogre. Perhaps shat on by a dragon. Crushed beneath a rock hurled by a trebuchet.

Anyway, Andrew is victorious, and he is instructed by the Wise Woman (see what I did there, Crio?) on how to mix the potion. Success! Then the Wise Woman yells at them to run back to the castle, and everyone hightails it away. Bonnie comments that the word run is “like the devil’s word to me”. Because Bonnie is awesome, and I’m so there with her. If you see me running you better take off because the zombies are right behind me.

The Queen is cured, yay! The Vizier is front and center. He thanks Andrew in the name of the queen, and then uses his +5 Sleeves of Fabulousness to herd the paladins out of the room. The paladins hang out. The Shondo and Jim pep talk was so good that I want to hug Shondo. (He is my favorite of the guys.)

Later, Bonnie breaks into song and sings the ballad of Everealm. Because Bonnie is awesome, and now we know who the bard in the group is. She definitely has the charisma score and the dexterity covered, as we see in the elimination challenge. It’s an alchemy challenge—the paladins have to grind three ingredients into powder and use them to balance a scale. And w00t, Bonnie wins! (Also, in the chamber of the fates the ghostly images of the heroes who’ve been voted off are looking down on the paladins. It’s very Harry Potter, and kind of cool.)

Jim and Christian go up for the vote. This is the third time Christian has been up for the vote, and you’d think that would be a hint to give him the ax. Shondo gets it: “He’s facing his third possible banishment. That’s crazy.” Damn right it is. Andrew asks, “What can one of those two people instruct us and teach us to help us do better?”, summing up why I love this show. And Shondo argues for Jim’s mental prowess and his attention to detail (I totally want to hug Shondo even more for this).

But they saved Christian. Sigh. Shondo and Jasmine stood behind Jim, which I think proves that they have more sense than the suckers who picked Christian.

All is quiet in the castle. The paladins return to their barracks, and Shondo is very upset. As well he should be! Leticia and Jasmine realize that Christian played Bonnie during the door challenge. Jasmine explains that she thought Jim was the best hero. Leticia admits that she went with the group despite her feelings that Jim was the best choice. This will come back to bite them all in the butt.

Crio asks the paladins to do grunt work in the courtyard. I imagine them leveling in craft skills as they gain non-combat experience points. Suddenly, an alarm goes up that they’re under attack! Sir Ansgar shouts orders! There is a random shot of Medieval Times fighting happening in a ring as people look on, cheer and presumably eat food without utensils. What does it all mean? We’ll find out Thursday.

So what was your favorite moment, Quest fans?

The SFR Brigade Presents: Morningstar Snippet 3

Welcome to this week's SFR Brigade Presents! Want more sci-fi snippets? You can find this week's excerpts here.

When we last left Bryn and Jace, they were dueling. (Again, you can read more of this scene at the excerpt on the Samhain site.) Here we have the aftermath of the fight.

“Strip.” Bryn unbuckled her belt and set it aside, and Jace frowned, certain he had heard incorrectly.

“What?”

“Get naked, Morningstar. I’m not letting you near Sabine when you’re this riled. You’ll hurt her, she’ll let you, and then I’ll have to kill you. Seems a bad way to start our relationship. So strip.”

Bryn walked away and sat on a bench to remove her boots as Jace blinked at her. The bluntness of her words stunned him for a moment, overriding the lust that fogged his brain.

“Now? Here?” Dueling in the armory was one thing, taking his new mate on the deck was another matter entirely.

“Yes. What’s wrong, Second Son? Need a pillow?” Bryn set her boots aside and rose, reaching for the zipper of her coverall.

“No.” At least he assumed he didn’t. “But—”

“You have done this before, right?” she teased with a smirk.

Jace hesitated, torn between the desire to be truthful versus the ease of repeating the lie. He had carefully cultivated his façade—unlike the other male Cy’ren aboard the Talon, Jace didn’t indulge in the pleasures of females eager to show their gratefulness for their newfound freedom. He claimed that he had high standards in a lover, preferring quality over quantity, but the truth was that he had avoided taking a lover for the same reasons he hadn’t taken a mate. Any affection he showed for a female could be used against him by Wylarric, and he refused to endanger an innocent because of his brother’s paranoia.

Until now. Though considering the ease with which Bryn had dropped Jace, he was certain that his brother’s men wouldn’t stand a chance against her blade.

Bryn’s brow rose at his silence. “You have, haven’t you? Or are you a virgin?”

“Well, technically, yes, I am,” he admitted, deciding upon honesty. She was his mate, and deserved the truth. “Though I am familiar with the concepts involved.” Jace cleared his throat as his face heated with an embarrassed blush. “Please don’t repeat that. Commander Soth barely respects me as it is.”

“You’re serious?”

“Completely.”

Morningstar, Cy'ren Rising Book 2

Desire is an addiction that could destroy them all.

The second son.

Lieutenant Commander Jace Harrow is the second son of House Morningstar—the spare, not the heir. Armored with an arrogant mask, Jace keeps the world at arm’s length to protect those around him from becoming targets for his bloodthirsty brother.

The broken sword.

Lieutenant Bryn Viera was a shadow sword and a decorated officer, dedicated to protecting her people. But for the past five years she has lived as a slave and has the scars to prove it. Bryn vowed to escape or die trying—until she met Sabine.

The slave.

Born into slavery, Sabine never expected to fall in love. Her feelings for Bryn sparked her desire for a new life, but now Sabine is in phase, consumed by the need to mate with a male. Her dream of freedom with Bryn is on the brink of destruction, for to deny the phase means death.

Thrown together by the unforgiving demands of the phase, they must unite to save Cyprena’s people from a deadly new bioweapon—or be destroyed by the scars of their pasts.
The first Cy'ren Rising book Nightfall won second place in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi category of the 8th Annual Passionate Plume Contest, and was a finalist in the Science Fiction Romance category of the 2014 EPIC eBook Awards. Nightfall is available in print and e-book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Samhain Publishing, Kobo, and All Romance eBooks.  Morningstar releases September 23, and you can pre-order it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Samhain Publishing, iTunes, and Kobo. The third book in the trilogy, Sunsinger, releases December 23 and is available for pre-order at Amazon.

Author Thursday: Interview with Amanda Young

Today's guest is bestselling author Amanda Young! She writes in a variety of sub-genres and has excellent taste in music. (Seriously, you should check out her web site.) I'm glad to have her here today. :-)

1. What flavor is your writing? (Contemporary? Historical? Spicy? Action? Space odyssey? Ninjas? All of the above?)

I mostly stick with contemporary, although I will write the odd paranormal title now and then when the mood strikes.
2. Where do you get your inspiration?

My inspiration for stories comes from all over. I've had books inspired by music, movies, friends, even eavesdropping on strangers in public.

3. The “Music I Love” feature on your website is awesome. Do you listen to music while you write, or are you an author who needs complete silence?

I don't listen to music while I write. I need to concentrate on my thoughts and it's hard to do that if I'm singing.

[Robyn note: I suffer from this problem too. I have a Film Score channel on my Pandora radio so I have something without lyrics to listen to while writing. That way I can enjoy the music without singing along. ;-)]

4. What are you reading now or what books do you have in your TBR pile?

I wouldn't know where to begin. I have a huge TBR file. At the moment, I'm reading Escape From Zombie Island by Ray Wallace. Chances are I'll be done with it by bedtime and on to the next when I catch another spare moment to read.

5. What are you working on now?

I'm currently working on a contemporary M/M/F menage novel that has been on the back burner for several years. I don't have a blurb or even a firm title at the moment, but it's a bit of a reunion story. I haven't published a menage title in over seven years, so I'm pretty excited about this one.

You can find out more about Amanda at these links:
Website: http://www.amandayoung.org Twitter: @_Amanda_YoungFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoramandayoung

A bestselling author of erotic romance, Amanda Young penned her first romance at eighteen. Being pure rubbish, that novel was prompted deleted before it could traumatize innocent readers. After several years of honing her craft, Amanda went on to receive her first publishing contract in 2006.

A vivid imagination and a passion for all the things that go bump in the night has led Amanda to create provocative stories that push boundaries and dare readers to expand their comfort zones. Since she tends to write whatever strikes her fancy, her novels fall into many different subgenres. Among her available titles you’ll find contemporary and paranormal settings, gay and straight themes alike.

Amanda Young lives in Virginia with her husband, daughter, and two pampered pooches. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found chasing after a mischievous toddler or daydreaming about the characters in her next book. She loves to hear from her readers, and can be found on Facebook and Twitter. Her website, www.amandayoung.org, is where you can find up-to-date information on all of Amanda’s current and upcoming releases.

5 Reasons You Should Watch The Quest

I love role-playing games--tabletop, live action, mmorpgs, PC games, console games. I’ve slain many pixelated dragons and been the hero of several fictional kingdoms. When I first heard about ABC’s new show The Quest, I was instantly filled with fangirl squee and the show hadn’t even premiered yet.

Imagine if you will a mashup of a Survivor-type reality competition where contestants compete in challenges to save themselves from elimination, but instead of taking place on a remote island the setting is a magical kingdom called Everealm. Not just any magical kingdom, but one that is threatened by the forces of evil, and the contestants are responsible for saving it.

This show had me at hello, and here are five reasons you should be watching it too:
5. The Armor

Upon their arrival in Everealm the contestants (called “paladins” on the show) (we’ll get back to that later) were gifted with leather armor, and it was awesome.



Now, you might be thinking, “What’s so great about basic leather armor?” Aside from the fact that my inner gamer was instantly nostalgic for the many happy hours my characters spent in newb gardens learning how to slay giant rats with starting armor and rusty weapons, there’s something very important about the paladins’ armor—no chainmail bikinis. No boob windows. No molded metal “breast” plates. It’s not Strong Female Character armor. It’s real damn armor. Brienne of Tarth armor…okay maybe not quite that awesome, but you get the idea. The cut of the neckline is different on the women's armor, but everyone is fully clothed and wearing pants. (If you've ever had a female character suffer the indignity of running around in chainmail panties when the same armor piece on a male character is full pants, you understand. I'm looking at you, World of Warcraft!)

4. The Diversity

I’m just going to put this photo of the Fates right here.



3. The Setting

There is some seriously beautiful background going on in The Quest. Nice countryside. A beautiful castle with lots of detail. I’m one of those geeks who runs around a game reading every random book on the shelves and talking to all the NPCs to hear their flavor dialogue, so I’m impressed by the random background actors doing random background things in the castle. It shows thought in creating an immersive setting, so kudos to them.

2. The Contestants


I was addicted to Survivor for many seasons, but after a while I was soured by contestants proudly proclaiming “I’m not here to make friends” and their supervillainous delight in stabbing other contestants in the back. If I want to spend my free time watching how quickly polite society falls apart I’ll read Lord of the Flies again.

I was instantly enchanted by The Quest’s paladins. First, they’re paladins. In most rpg settings paladins are holy knights—warriors imbued with divine powers who do battle in the name of their patron deity. To the gamer audience, choosing “paladin” for the contestants instead of “warrior” or other title adds the expectation that these people will be Good.

Not only do the paladins enthusiastically love every moment of being in Everealm, they’re dead set on saving the kingdom. When an unfortunate red shirt gets eaten shortly after the paladins’ arrival in Everealm, someone (I believe it was Shondo) exclaims that from now on they don’t leave anyone behind. He was fully prepared to run back and save the red shirt.

Yes. This. THIS, PEOPLE. All caps serious. This is what sets this show apart from any other reality show out there. While cheftestants are gleefully bidding on torments to inflict on their competition on Cutthroat Kitchen, and the real housewives of wherever are throwing drinks and pulling hair, the paladins of Everealm are serious about working together to save the kingdom. Their tribal council-ish meetings on deciding who to vote off have floored me. Instead of the typical “How do I advance my place in this game?” conversation, they’ve been discussing which person has the best qualities to be a hero.

Please, TV gods. We need more of this. So much more. I’m tired of dark. I’m done with edgy. I want feel-good TV that I can cheer at, that leaves me with a warm, fuzzy feeling of “that was awesome”.

1. The Characters

I love the Vizier. This is generally the point where my BFF Diana frowns at me, sighs, and informs me that I have issues. This is true, I do, but the moment that the Vizier stormed onscreen with his fabulous robes and his condescending sneer I just about fangirl swooned. I may have also yelled OMG THEY HAVE A CHEEKBONE WIZARD! (Team Loki, anyone?)

Ahem. He may be the Vizier, but he’s the King of Snarky Commentary. Out of all the characters in Everealm, he is clearly having the most fun. But all of the characters are awesome in some way, and big props to them for staying in character when they have no idea how the paladins are going to react/reply. There’s Sir Ansgar, the grizzled veteran responsible for turning the paladins into soldiers. There’s Crio, the dreamer/seer who guides the paladins through their journey. There’s the queen, who got damseled at the end of the last episode (grr, this vexes me, but I understand that it’s a fantasy trope and I’m willing to let it slide) (once).



The Quest airs Thursdays at 8 Eastern/7 Central on ABC. You can like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Now, I know you’re thinking, “But Robyn, Defiance is on then and I have to watch that.” Fear not! You can watch episodes of The Quest online, and I assume they’re available OnDemand for Comcast users and may be streaming on Hulu. Plus, that’s what DVRs are for—you can watch Defiance AND The Quest! :-o Don’t you love living in the future?

Lady Jane and the Virgin Reader

Last week I was a guest reader at Lady Jane's Salon - Naperville, along with authors Sarah M. Anderson and Shannyn Schroeder and special guest Bobbi Dumas. It was awesome and terrifying, and here are a few of the details of the evening.
For the uninitiated, Naperville is a suburb of Chicago. (Bad Witch series note: in Bewitched, Blooded and Bewildered , Cat and Lex visit seer Anne Williams at her bookstore, located in downtown Naperville. Specifically, Cat's comment is, "I am opposed to Naperville. It’s all cute, trendy and expensive, and filled with cookie-cutter Borg houses that assimilate you into upper-middle-class America.") (We'll come back to my Naper-feelings later.) The event is held on the second floor of Le Chocolat du Bouchard, and OMG YOU GUYS. The chocolate. And the pastries! And the adorable gift shop with Paris-themed stuff! I could have spent all day there. So good.

Shannyn went first. I was supposed to go first, but Tracey and Adrienne took pity on my expression of sheer terror and allowed me to go second. Shannyn Schroeder reads like a pro, you guys. No fear at all. I was in awe.

And then it was suddenly my turn. Now, as long-time readers of this blog may recall, I suffer from anxiety problems. Or as I like to call them, the anxiety demons. If the anxiety demons had their way, I would never leave the house. Every event I attend is a victory over the demons. I was terrified of reading in public, but I was determined to do it. Everyone at the salon was great and encouraging, assuring me that I'd be fine. The logical part of my brain understood this, but the anxiety demons don't deal in logic. They deal in crazy. Like this,

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My hands were shaking when I got up to read my excerpt, and the paper I read from was trembling. I panicked at first. I knew I would, which was why I'd written down notes of all the things I wanted to mention about Poison in the Blood . Like how it was inspired by Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market", and how I had coupon codes for it for the Samhain store. Important things. Did I actually say any of these things? No. I did not. Because I panicked.


Thankfully I had practiced reading the excerpt and was able to channel my inner larper to project my voice and attempt to inject some sort of emotion into the words. So I survived. Yay!


And then Sarah read, and she was so damn fabulous. She had puppets. PUPPETS, people! And then there was a Q&A with Bobbi Dumas. I was much calmer during the Q&A, because by that time I had (temporarily) vanquished the anxiety demons.

Here are a few pics from the event:

Here I am, with my cool hair. That's totally my mom on the left.
Here is Shannyn reading. You can see that she's all, "Yup. I got this." 
Here we are just before the Q&A, debating over who should get the chair. We all hovered instead. I win at looming.

All in all, it's a very cool experience, and you should definitely attend one if you have the opportunity. The next one is in October.

Back to my feelings on Naperville. My ex-husband is from Naperville, and I spent a lot of time there with him and his family. This month is the 2 year anniversary of the divorce being finalized, and I still have nightmares about it. This was the first time I've been to Naperville since the divorce, and everything in the area reminded me of him, so in addition to my anxiety about the reading I was weighed down by d-bomb angst.

But the plus side was that doing this reading was a victory over both the anxiety demons and the lingering divorce drama. I feel empowered. And that's pretty awesome.

The SFR Brigade Presents: Morningstar Snippet 2

It's SFR Brigade Presents time, yay! You can find more of this week's sci-fi romance snippets shared here.

Last week I shared a snippet from Morningstar where Bryn meets Captain Hawke (a heroine in Nightfall). And then I saw Guardians of the Galaxy, and I thought you might enjoy something a little more action-packed. Do you like epic space battles and blue aliens with swords and laser pistols kicking all available butt? Then I suspect that you'll enjoy the Cy'ren Rising trilogy. ;)

Here we have Lieutenant Brynnaren Viera about to beat the snot out of Morningstar's hero, Lieutenant Commander Najacen Harrow. (You can read more of this scene in the excerpt at the Samhain site.)

Lieutenant Viera stood in the center of the armory, calmly checking the edge of her blade. A trickle of blood went ignored as it slid down the side of her neck from a scratch at her throat. The enticing scents of blood and phase pheromones mixed in the air and Jace growled low. How was he supposed to fight when he couldn’t think straight?

“Ready?” Bryn set her stance and raised her blade.

Jace drew his sword. “What are your victory conditions?”

“You yield or I knock you unconscious. Or I kill you, though I’d rather not. I don’t think Captain Hawke would appreciate that.”

“She might. She threatens it often enough.”

“So you have a problem with women in authority?”

“No.” Jace slowly circled right, and she moved left, matching him step for step. “I have a problem with authority.”

He lunged, and she parried and came at him. His eyes widened as she rained a flurry of blows that drove him back—she was strong and damn fast. That must have been where Soth went wrong. Soth probably assumed he could overpower her, and she struck at him with the speed of a viper. Thankfully Jace was also fast, and he defended himself before going on an offensive of his own. He had to be fast to compete among his brethren, as the other shadow swords tended to be broader and burlier, like Soth. Most of them were born to fight for their house, but Jace had been born to lead it.

Bryn hissed as his blade sliced through the sleeve of her coverall, and she retaliated with a kick to his shin that staggered him. Off-balanced, he fell flat on his back as she connected with another kick, and she leapt on him and pinned him to the floor.

“Did you buy that pretty sword of yours? Doesn’t seem like you earned it,” Bryn taunted.

Morningstar, Cy'ren Rising Book 2

Desire is an addiction that could destroy them all.

The second son.

Lieutenant Commander Jace Harrow is the second son of House Morningstar—the spare, not the heir. Armored with an arrogant mask, Jace keeps the world at arm’s length to protect those around him from becoming targets for his bloodthirsty brother.

The broken sword.

Lieutenant Bryn Viera was a shadow sword and a decorated officer, dedicated to protecting her people. But for the past five years she has lived as a slave and has the scars to prove it. Bryn vowed to escape or die trying—until she met Sabine.

The slave.

Born into slavery, Sabine never expected to fall in love. Her feelings for Bryn sparked her desire for a new life, but now Sabine is in phase, consumed by the need to mate with a male. Her dream of freedom with Bryn is on the brink of destruction, for to deny the phase means death.

Thrown together by the unforgiving demands of the phase, they must unite to save Cyprena’s people from a deadly new bioweapon—or be destroyed by the scars of their pasts.
The first Cy'ren Rising book Nightfall won second place in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi category of the 8th Annual Passionate Plume Contest, and was a finalist in the Science Fiction Romance category of the 2014 EPIC eBook Awards. Nightfall is available in print and e-book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Samhain Publishing, Kobo, and All Romance eBooks.  Morningstar releases September 23, and you can pre-order it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Samhain Publishing, iTunes, and Kobo. The third book in the trilogy, Sunsinger, will be out in December 2014.

Author Thursday: Interview with Sarah M. Anderson

Today's guest is the always fabulous Sarah M. Anderson. I had the good fortune to share a table with her at the Spring Fling book signing, where we pounced on people like promo sharks. Sarah was one of the readers at the August Lady Jane's Salon-Naperville (along with Shannyn Schroeder and special guest Bobbi Dumas) (and me) (I'm going to post about that next week). Sarah had puppets. You're all sad that you weren't there, because it was awesome.


1. What flavor is your writing? (Contemporary? Spicy? Action? Space odyssey? Ninjas? All of the above?)

Oh, it’d be fun to write contemporary spicy space ninjas! But I’m more than happy to settle for contemporary, sexy, snarky Cowboys and Indians. It’s not a great book until you’ve got a shirtless cowboy (who can also be the Indian) riding on horseback, in my opinion. My Harlequin Desires may not have as many Cowboys or Indians (although I work them in when I can), but they’re still full of strong men who live by their own moral code, which is what I find most sexy about a cowboy in the first place!
2. What is your favorite thing about being an author?

I get to spend my days talking to imaginary people (real people are so…real!) AND I get paid for it. That’s what makes me happy! I have an office that looks out onto a magnolia tree and the sidewalk, a never-ending supply of tea and dogs that howl ferociously when the mail carrier sets foot on our street. That last thing is kind of irritating, but everything else is wonderful.

3. You have several sexy cowboy books (I love those covers). What inspired your new Rodeo Dreamers series?

I’d finished an earlier book and asked my friend Mary, “where do I go from here?” and she said, “I’d like to know what happens to June.” Within fifteen minutes, I knew that June would ride bulls.

Rodeo Dreams was originally a book that was a follow-up to a different book, but it got split off from that series and completely revamped. I redid the ending at LEAST three times, dropped subplots and secondary characters, added others back in—anything I could think of to save the book and my core characters.

It took my five years to sell it—and revise, revise, and REVISE it—but it’s still one of my most favorite books that I’ve written. Through it all, June and Travis have remained the same characters—both tough, stubborn and determined to win.

The second book in the series takes June’s cousin, Ian, and puts him in the bull riding arena—but not as a bull rider, but as a bull fighter. I’m really excited about his story and I hope to get to it soon!

4. What are you reading now or what books do you have in your TBR pile?

I just finished the entire backlist of Juliana Gray. I like to read historicals when I need a break from Cowboys and Indians! And I’ve really started enjoying historicals with an espionage flair recently. I’ve got Jeannie Lin’s The Jade Temptress waiting for me, too!

5. What are you working on now?

I’m finishing up The Temporary Nanny, which is for the Billionaires and Babies line of Desire. It’s my first one of those—I hope my editor likes it! After that’s done, I may work on a couple of side projects to finish out my summer. I have another bull riding story to work on and a sekrit project that I’d like to get back to. I also have a novella for my Men of the White Sandy series that I’d like to finish, but it’s my first novella and I kind of hit a wall on it. Who knew that writing short would be so challenging?

You can find out more about Sarah at these links:
Website: www.sarahmanderson.comTwitter: @SarahMAnderson1Facebook
Love is one unpredictable ride

Ride straight to the top of the rodeo circuit—that's June Spotted Elk's dream. Yes, bull-riding is a man's world, but she won't let anyone—not even a sexy, scarred stranger—get in her way.

Seasoned bull rider Travis Younkin knows what it's like to make it to the top—and then hit the bottom. Back in the arena to resurrect his career, he can't afford a distraction like June. No matter how far he'll go to protect her from the danger. No matter how deeply the stubborn and beautiful rider gets to him…

Buy links: Amazon | Powell’s | Indiebound | B & N | Harlequin | All Romance | iBooks | Kobo | Google

Award-winning author Sarah M. Anderson may live east of the Mississippi River, but her heart lies out west on the Great Plains. With a lifelong love of horses and two history teachers for parents, it wasn’t long before her characters found themselves out in South Dakota among the Lakota Sioux. She loves to put people from two different worlds into new situations and to see how their backgrounds and cultures take them someplace they never thought they’d go. Sarah won the 2012 RT Book Reviewer’s Choice for Desire of the Year for A Man of Privilege.

When not helping out at school or walking her rescue dogs, Sarah spends her days having conversations with imaginary cowboys and American Indians, all of which is surprisingly well-tolerated by her wonderful husband and son. You can learn more about Sarah at www.sarahmanderson.com.

The SFR Brigade Presents: Morningstar, Cy'ren Rising Book 2

Greetings! As part of this week's SFR Brigade Presents I'm sharing a snippet from my second Cy'ren Rising book, Morningstar. The Cy'ren Rising trilogy is a spicy space opera filled with epic space battles, laser gunfights, and steamy romance. Here's a bit from the scene where Morningstar's heroine Bryn meets Captain Carmen Hawke, a heroine from Nightfall.

The doors to the med bay opened as the doctor treated her, and Bryn tensed as a human woman entered.

“I’m Captain Hawke. Don’t worry, I ordered the males to stay away.” Like Bryn she was tall for a female, but she had a human’s bland skin tone—a sort of bronzed beige. The captain’s face was marred by an old burn scar, but Bryn was most interested in the Cy’ren markings inked in black on the side of her throat. No slave marks, and she bore odd heritage runes, but she had two mate marks from House Sunsinger.

“I won’t let them take her,” Bryn blurted.

“Agreed. My mate, Talena, was in phase recently. I understand how difficult that can be. I won’t let anything be forced on your friend,” Captain Hawke said.

“Sabine is my mate,” Bryn corrected. “I’ve never heard of a human with Cy’ren mates.”

“Well, now you have. And you are?”

“Brynnaren Viera, shadow sword of House Wintersend. I served as a lieutenant aboard the Sabre.”

“I’m not familiar with that ship.”

“The Sabre was destroyed almost six years ago. Five of us made it to an escape pod. We were captured. I don’t know what happened to the others after—” Bryn stopped, the words vanishing as her throat squeezed shut. After I was sold. She rather hoped her crewmates were dead. Death would have been an honorable end, and easier to bear than the hell she’d been through.

Morningstar, Cy'ren Rising Book 2

Desire is an addiction that could destroy them all.

The second son.

Lieutenant Commander Jace Harrow is the second son of House Morningstar—the spare, not the heir. Armored with an arrogant mask, Jace keeps the world at arm’s length to protect those around him from becoming targets for his bloodthirsty brother.

The broken sword.

Lieutenant Bryn Viera was a shadow sword and a decorated officer, dedicated to protecting her people. But for the past five years she has lived as a slave and has the scars to prove it. Bryn vowed to escape or die trying—until she met Sabine.

The slave.

Born into slavery, Sabine never expected to fall in love. Her feelings for Bryn sparked her desire for a new life, but now Sabine is in phase, consumed by the need to mate with a male. Her dream of freedom with Bryn is on the brink of destruction, for to deny the phase means death.

Thrown together by the unforgiving demands of the phase, they must unite to save Cyprena’s people from a deadly new bioweapon—or be destroyed by the scars of their pasts.

The first Cy'ren Rising book Nightfall won second place in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi category of the 8th Annual Passionate Plume Contest, and was a finalist in the Science Fiction Romance category of the 2014 EPIC eBook Awards. Nightfall is available in print and e-book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Samhain Publishing, Kobo, and All Romance eBooks. You can pre-order Morningstar at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Samhain Publishing, iTunes, and Kobo. The third book in the trilogy, Sunsinger, will be out in December 2014.