Maria Hammarblad's Blog, page 48

Excerpt from Undercover

I hope you enjoy this excerpt from my novel Undercover. When this scene starts, the main characters Jenny and Alex are out flying, on their way to Italy.

Jenny and Alex shared the row with a talkative elderly gentleman who chattered away about business opportunities. His story of when he went to Russia and had to bribe the customs staff to be allowed to bring his money out of the country made Jenny bite her lip not to laugh.

"So, where do the two of you come from?"

Jenny answered with a friendly smile, "Oh, I come from around here. I was born in Adams, actually, but I've been moving around a little since then. Just in the state, though."

Alex said with a lot of glee, "I'm Russian."

Their new acquaintance exclaimed, "Oh," and fell silent.

During the past few years, Jenny's unwilling brain managed to learn some of her husband's language, and she understood him very well when he said, "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

She entwined her fingers with his. "It's really funny."

It was of course too much for the man to resist. "Excuse me, you two are together, aren't you?"

She nodded. This trip over the ocean was much more entertaining than she'd expected. "Yes. We've been married for five years."

Glancing towards Alex, who made the seat look tiny where he sat reading the newspaper, visibly pretending not to listen, the man whispered, "Please, I don't want to offend you, but... Is it difficult?"

"Is what difficult?"

He kept his eyes on Alex. "You know, adapting between such different cultures. Don't they have very different ways of viewing things in Russia? Are you allowed to work or do you have to stay at home? What language do you speak at home? Are you allowed to handle money?"

Neither his curiosity nor prejudice knew any limits. She wanted to formulate a killer answer, but Alex beat her to it. He smiled innocently and leaned over her, to make himself heard better as he exaggerated his accent. "Of course she stays at home, she has to take care of the children. We have seven; four boys and three girls. It would be unthinkable for her to take care of all of them, the household, tend to my needs, and work at the same time. My second wife works though. She has only been with us for three years, so she only has three children, but the fourth is on the way."

Jenny had all the trouble in the world not to laugh.

"Since both my wives are American we mostly speak English at home. I have decided it's best for the little ones. Regarding money, I give them everything they need, and they don't need any money of their own."

The man seemed about to faint. He said, "Excuse me," and fled to the restrooms. Jenny laughed so hard she had to lean on Alex, and smacked him over the arm. "You're... you're terrible."

"Me? What did I do?"

Further up in the corridor, the man talked to the flight crew, all of them sending covert glances in Jenny's direction. She wanted to wave, and folded her hands in her lap to keep them from doing something stupid. After a couple of minutes a young stewardess walked by, looked at her with open curiosity, and peeked towards Alex. Jenny smiled her friendliest smile as the girl passed them. It only took a minute until she came back. "Can I get you anything?"

Jenny shook her head. "No thank you, I'm good."

The girl's eyes darted towards Alex, who now looked like the epitome of serenity and friendliness. He encouraged her, now sounding almost American. "Go ahead and ask. The gentleman who sits here had some interesting ideas about the habits in my native country. Perhaps he has taken time to share with you..."

She looked relieved. "So, it's not true that you have ten children and several more wives, and that..."

She turned to Jenny and whispered, "That you are his slave?"

The corners of Alex's mouth twitched when he said, "Of course not. It's probably just an old man's fantasies."

Their flight attendant exclaimed, "Thank heavens. You two look so good together, and it would have been a shame."

"Look what you did. You're impossible."

He regained his poker face. "I don't know what you are talking about."

People in the row in front of them turned around to watch. They seemed amused. When the older man returned, Alex said in a tauntingly calm and slow voice, "I must apologize, what I told you earlier isn't entirely true."

The man stared, not at all looking convinced, and Jenny filled in. "The only thing he's said that's true this far is that he's Russian."

As relieved as the man looked, Alex wasn't able to leave well enough alone. His eyes sparkled with mischief. "We do have a lot of sex."

Their neighbor looked as if he would choke on his coffee, and people all around them started to laugh. Alex put his new sunglasses on and leaned back in the seat, clearly very happy with himself.

Lilac Hill - spotlight and review

One of my favorite writers, Christy Elkins, recently released a thriller with Silver Knight Publishing. I was fortunate enough to read an early version of Lilac Hill, and I loved it. It's a story that  keeps you guessing - every time you think you've figured it all out, something unexpected happens, keeping readers on the edge of the seat.

Blurb:
Daniel Hardfield is tortured by his past and present. When a horrific murder occurs, he is forced to unravel the truth in a twisted tale of voodoo, mystery, and deception.

Upon discovering a man who holds the key to answers, Daniel must race to find the information he so desperately seeks. Each passing moment is the difference between staying alive — and death.
What happens when the one thing you fear, truly is fear itself?


Here is my review:
Daniel Hardfield is a young man with a seemingly well-ordered and happy life. Living and working in Houston, being a lawyer on the rise, equipped with the perfect girlfriend and with a solid and reliable mother having his back, everything seems to be going his way. He has overcome any hardships life might have thrown his way in younger years, and not even an unusual and unnerving experience in a cab, or a number of bad dreams, can rock his equilibrium. Soon, however, a number of mysterious events and a tragic accident pull him back towards Lilac Hill; the happy home of his childhood. As the story unravels, Christy Elkins takes the reader on a journey that's both unexpected and exciting.

The story is high paced, which I personally like, and there isn't much filler. Some books have me browsing through many pages, chapters even, trying to get past the filler material back to the action, but this author doesn't do that. She keeps her eye on the story and keeps it moving.

Every time I thought I knew what was going on, Elkins surprised me with a turn of events I could not have anticipated. If you like an exciting story that will surprise you, "Lilac Hill" is well worth looking into! 

On my reading list: White Tiger, scifi romance

Ever since I signed with Desert Breeze Publishing, over a year ago, I've intended to read the novels by Vijaya Schartz. I haven't read White Tiger yet, but it's close to the top of my reading list, and with any luck at all, Vijaya Schartz will visit my blog during 2013. =)

Check this out, doesn't it look exciting?

Blurb:

On the frozen plains of Kassouk, where a few aliens rule as deities on a medieval Human world, Tora -- a Human warrior trained by tigers -- seeks her father's murderer. But what she finds at the point of her sword confuses her. How dare Dragomir, the handsome Mutant, question her bloodline and her loyalties? And could a new enemy control the savage hordes of the fringe?

Dragomir offers to help, but Humans and Mutants are forbidden to fraternize under penalty of death... Should Tora trust her mind, her instincts, or her heart?

In the vortex of war, treason and intrique... among blizzards, avalanches and ambushes... will Tora solve the mystery of her father's death and unveil the secret of her birth? Can she and Dragomir escape persecutions long enough to save their planet from the invaders and fulfill their destiny?

Alien technology?

I'm so old I remember the birth of the Commodore 64. 1982, I think it was. Most of you reading this blog probably say, "Huh?" It was a computer, mostly used for games, but advanced for its time. It had colors, sounds, and after a couple of years it even sported a Windows-like operating system called Geos. It might look primitive now, but in the early 1980's it was spectacular.

Some of you remember floppy disks, maybe even the 5.25" floppy. People my age have used 8" floppies. I don't remember how much data they could store, but back in those days, we measured it in Kilobytes. Not Gb, or even Mb, but Kb! I also learned to count binary numbers in school...

Rest easy, some of you know I can babble about old computers for hours, and I don't mean to scurry down memory lane. I just wanted to mention this to give a frame of reference.

To me, the 1980's isn't all that far away. I mean, it's been many years since I was a teenager, but to me it still seems like modern times. It's not as ancient as the invention of the car or anything...

When I compare today's super-small zip drives that can store 32 or even 64 Gb with the humongous 8" floppy, it seems like alien technology. It's not quite the marvel a stone-age person would feel at seeing a plane, but...

I had a pretty cool computer in the 1980's. 1987, maybe? It was called Amiga 500, and it could read aloud pretty well. I loved that thing! Unfortunately, I had to leave it behind when I moved to the US. I often wonder if it still exists, and how I could get my hands on it if it does... Okay, I slipped away from my main line of thought there. My 1987 computer could kind of talk. It read well enough for me to find it the coolest thing ever.

My 2012 Mac Mini can also talk. I use its voice "Alex," and it sounds almost like a human. Seriously: he draws his breath between sentences. The machine analyzes text paragraph for paragraph and even attempts intonation. I swear it sounds depressed when it reads certain things, and about to chuckle when it reads others. If it wasn't for the machine miss-pronouncing the letter i in some words, it would be able to trick people. I bet you the programmers did that on purpose. If technology becomes too perfect, it becomes scary.

WiFi also fascinates me. I remember when computers talked to each other through modems where you put a phone receiver in a big, clunky thing. Now it just... works. I got a new camera for Christmas, and it has WiFi. You press a button on the camera, and it transmits photos to the computer, to an e-mail, to Facebook, wherever you want... Touch screens are also marvelous. Alien technology!

I say the words Alien Technology with a smile, but regardless of who invented all this super cool stuff, it sure is remarkable. We've come so far so quickly. Imagine all the cool stuff that awaits in laboratories around the world!

I'm out of sync

I have a holiday problem. This has been my fifth Christmas in the US -- holy moly time flies -- and I'm still not synced with the American holiday traditions.

Problems start right after Thanksgiving when everyone else puts up lights on their houses and my husband starts talking about the Christmas tree. In my head and heart you put up a little something four weeks before Christmas, but everything major remains packed up until December 23rd. On December 23rd, or possibly 22nd, you go crazy with decorating.

We have reached a compromise with decorations going up; they come up mid December.

The big problem starts after New Years. Since January 1st, we are the only house on the street with lights and decorations still up. It's a long street. It just becomes so dark and sad when you take everything down, and I don't want to!

In Sweden, we think Christmas lasts until January 13th. On that day, we throw parties for the kids with candy and "fish-ponds" where they'll get some little toys or surprises. If you do it the traditional way, there should also be music and dances.

The image isn't from my home town, but it could have been. (Most people do it indoors. Outside is friggin' cold...)

If you leave your stuff up far beyond January 13th, people might start raising eyebrows, but I know some who keep everything up until February. Seriously: it's dark. We need that extra light and cheer.

Should I conform and accept the holiday is over? Or should I stay stubborn and let us remain a source of gossip for all the neighbors? I haven't quite made up my mind...

Oh yes, that totally happened. ;-)

I saw this on the Facebook wall of "Fantasy and Sci-Fi Rocks My World." It might not be everyone's sense of humour, but I say go for it, LOL!

New day, new year, new possibilities!

There's something special about the first day of a new year. It's a clean slate, brimming with promises, and can be filled with anything. For me, it's like a brand new notebook with a nice new pen. Do you want to make doodles, write chemical formulas, or an amazing story? My advice: whatever you choose, make it count. I can imagine few things sadder than looking back at a life wondering what could have been.

In Sweden on New Year's Eve we like to have fireworks, champagne, bonfires, and listen to a famous person read the Swedish translation of Alfred Tennyson's "Ring Out Wild Bells" (Ring Klocka Ring). I'm usually not much for poetry, but this one I like. Since the Swedish version won't make sense to anyone but me, here's the original. =)

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light; The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind, For those that here we see no more, Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out thy mournful rhymes, But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Bye bye 2012, welcome 2013!

Is it time for a new year again? It feels as if we just left 2011 and entered 2012. Twelve months, poof, gone. Now would be a good time for some deep reflections, but all I got is, "Phew, 2012 was kinda hard."

I've seen several predictions of 2013 becoming a year of turmoil, starvation, and international crisis. Blah, blah, blah. I personally don't like doomsday prophecies. Seriously; they usually only scare people without coming true, and if they come true, it's because they're self-fulfilling. I'm optimistic about next year.

My new year's wish is that people will learn to care just a little bit more for each other. Imagine if everyone did one extra kind thing every day. Random acts of kindness span the borders of countries, religions, and cultural backgrounds.

On a personal note, I think 2013 will be interesting. Probably filled with hard work, but interesting. I have contracted three books with Desert Breeze Publishing (I think for June, August, and November, but I might be off) and I have a few manuscripts and ideas brewing in the computer. Starting January, lovely Roxanne Rhoads from Bewitching Book Tours will be my publicist. She's awesome at booking blogs and getting interviews. I'm excited!

Thank you everyone for supporting me in 2012. I appreciate it more than you know.

Since I don't have anything profound to say, here's my intended book blurb for the first 2013 release, Flashback:

Steve Petersen is a Very Troubled Man. Sole survivor of a Taliban POW camp he often thinks only parts of him returned; his sanity appears to have been left behind. He seeks solace in alcohol and drugs, but nothing helps block the images from his mind for more than minutes at a time, and he is trapped in horrifying flashbacks.

He is more than surprised when he wakes up in a bright and merry bedroom that turns out to belong to the widow Anna, a woman he has rudimentary memories of meeting. Knowing he should leave isn’t the same as doing it, and before he knows what’s happening, he finds himself pulled into a world with real life problems, such as folding laundry, and what’s for dinner.

Whiskey is no longer his first priority, and not being alone in his waking nightmare is a relief. That is, until Anna disappears. Steve finds himself forced to return to Afghanistan, a place where he’ll have to face both external enemies and himself.

Santa Vader

I love Christmas decorations. They're glittery and almost magical, and taking the same things out year after year evokes all sorts of memories. Our tree contains decorations from when I was a little girl, some of unique stuff I bought when traveling, some cute old-fashioned objects Mikey bought for me, some decorations he made, and a surprising amount of toys and space ships.

These cute little Santas are a great example. I got them from my aunt many years ago. She's gone now, but every year when I decorate the tree and take them out, I remember her. She meant a lot to me, and a part of her is still here, thanks to these little guys.

By now, you might wonder, did I really say toys and space ships? Yep. My first Christmas in the US - the first time Mikey and I decorated a tree together - he thought my stuff was old fashioned, and I thought his was peculiar. I wasn't mentally prepared for finding Marvin the Martian, Spiderman, and a Borg cube in the tree. The Borg cube not only lights up, it talks too, claiming resistance is futile. I'm a science fiction girl, but it took a while for me to understand what sort of business the Borg had in my tree, hahaha!

Now I know it's normal - Hallmark makes weirder Christmas stuff than I could ever have anticipated - but it was a cultural clash that one first time. Now I think it's awesome. I mean, I love spaceships and the tree wouldn't be the same without them. It just took a year or two for me to find them Christmasy. ;-)















My husband is a collector, and he collects these little Star Trek ornaments. His birthday is early in December, and his sister used to buy one for him every year. I've taken over the tradition, making sure he doesn't miss anything cool. (Last year he got a Hallmark Cylon instead. It's a riot, it says all sorts of comical things.)

Anyway, this year I bought the ship, as usual, and stumbled over a picture of a Hallmark Santa Vader online. I thought, "Wow, that's kinda cool, but it has to be photoshopped. No one would turn Darth Vader into Santa Claus."

I checked the Hallmark website, and yes, there he was. Santa Vader... Mikey got two ornaments this year, I couldn't not buy Vader. Maybe he used Jedi mind control on me or something...

Vader is super-cool. He has a motion sensor, and speaks when something moves in front of him.

I wonder what they paid James Earl Jones to have him say things like:

"You will peek again, it is your destiny,"

"Your feelings for these presents are strong. Too strong, perhaps."

"Peek again and you will feel the full power of the dark side!"

"No peeking, there will be a substantial reward for you patience."

Between the two of us, we always get interesting decorations. If it was just me, everything would probably become too old fashioned. If it was just him, it'd be too over the top. Together we find a balance somewhere in between. =)

Courtesan - scifi romance

A couple of years ago, I read a scifi romance novel I really liked. If Santa brought a Kindle for Christmas and you're looking for something to put in it, Courtesan by D.A. Boulter might be exactly what you need. I'm personally not in love with the cover, but that doesn't matter; I love the story, and that's what really matters.

 Blurb:

She needed a ship to escape pursuers; he a companion on a trip to the stars.  The deal seemed straight-forward, but neither told the other everything.

Jaswinder Saroya believed that her research in the area of Hyperspace Field Theory would benefit everyone: Family Traders, the InterPlanetary Corporations, Earth's Colonies and governments alike. She erred in not considering commercial and political consequences. Now, someone wants to steal or bury her research and, perhaps, her with it. With no way to fight this unknown foe, Jaswinder knows she has but one chance--complete her research and publish. To do that, she has to stay alive and stay free.

Pilot Johannes Yrden desires a courtesan, someone to keep him company on the 8 month trip to the planet Liberty and back. He wants someone not from the Yrden Family spaceship and to hell with his brother, Captain Matt Yrden, who believes the TransPlanetary Corporations will stock his line-up with spies.

Yrden's plan runs afoul of circumstance, which throws him together with one 'Jazz Saro', a woman on the run. Forced to run with her, Yrden allows her to convince him to sign her on as courtesan. He needs a companion; she needs a ship, a place to hide. It seems a simple enough arrangement.

Jaswinder thinks she's found her perfect solution: a hiding place in hyperspace, where she can complete her research using the ship as her laboratory. Unfortunately, she hasn't reckoned on the possibility of one of her pursuers booking passage, forcing her to maintain the fiction of her alias. The pilot's family, with troubles of their own, grow suspicious and it becomes apparent she cannot complete her research openly. That leaves her the choice: Do what she needs to do to in order to save Jaswinder's life or become Jazz Saro.

My review: 

Jaswinder is a very devoted scientist, living life happily engulfed in her work. She is so engulfed she forgets to pay attention to the financial interests of the powers that be. Before she knows what is happening, she has stumbled into danger's way, and finds herself on the run from people trying to capture or even kill her.

The book is excellent. The story is engaging, and has just the right balance between being cute and exciting. The characters are interesting, and feel real. I would love to know what more happens to Jaz and Johannes, and I'll keep my fingers crossed for a sequel.