Pippa Jay's Blog, page 83

The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of The Unicorn

With the half-term holiday upon us in the UK (and, for the first time, no writing deadlines during school hols) and three children off for the week, entertaining them comes first as writing takes a very definite backseat. First up on the list of events was a Saturday morning trip to the cinema to see the Tintin film. The Odeon cinemas run a Kids Club, usually at weekends but also during the week in school holidays, which means reruns of films for the price of £2.50 a child and accompanying adults free.

Now, my seven year old son is a bit of an enigma. He isn't really 'into' anything, not since he grew out of his Thomas the Tank Engine obsession. So when he saw a trailer for Tintin and announced he'd like to see it, I was surprised. He's never really been that interested in films. As soon as I found out it was the half-term film for the Kids Club, I grabbed the chance to go. I watched Tintin cartoons as a youngster, but wasn't a fan as such, so I was interested to see how the film would go myself. We went with friends - another 7yo boy and his mum - and my nine year old daughter who strangely insisted she wanted to go.

The start of the film does drag a little for the younger ones. Son's best friend announced loudly at one point "Oh, come on, hurry up!" but once the major action scenes kicked off, they loved it. There quite a bit of humour in it which had the whole theatre laughing. There's also a fair bit of violence (including one man shot by machine gun, although this is done behind a closed door so nothing much is seen) but it was carefully done and I certainly had no qualms about my children seeing it. At times you could almost forget it was animation, although in this day and age we do expect any CGI to be brilliant. The story is generally fast-paced - none of it dragged for me - and there's some great touches, like a fight between cranes (the mechanical kind, not the birds) and an Indiana Jones-style chase involving a tank, hotel, motorbike with sidecar, an eagle, a dog and a car - the best bit in my opinion. I was a little worried that Snowy, Tintin's dog, would be portrayed as an almost Scooby Doo-like character, but his 'performance' in the film was believable of a dog without venturing into making him some kind of canine caricature of a human.

All in all, for the fact that both adults and children enjoyed this, I have to give it an A. And at least now I have something to put on seven year old son's present list. :)

At Space Freighters Lounge - How Alien are your Characters?

I've over at the Spacefreighters Lounge again today, with a post on why most of my characters are humanoid. Am I taking the easy option? Stop over and tell me what you think.

I'm at Backward Momentum's 1st Annual Valentine's Day Bash

There's a Love, Lasers and Light Swords party going on over at the Backward Momentum blog for Valentine's Day, with posts on all things SFR-related and giveaways galore from a gang of authors including yours truly. Pop over and say hi! :D

Six Sentence Sunday #46

Hello! Welcome back to another #sixsunday post. As always, thanks to all who visit and comment, it's much appreciated.
Still continuing with my sfr Keir this week. Despite her friendly overtures, Quin doesn't seem to making much progress with her fellow prisoner...


The words escaped him before he could call them back. "I am Keir."
As if she had mistaken their exchange of names for permission, she crouched before him and held up her empty hand, palm outward.
Keir shied away as she reached out to him. Fear and anger gave him strength and he knocked her backward. "Do not touch me!"

© 2009-2012 Copyright Philippa J. Green All Rights Reserved
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Fairies in February Blog Tour - Frances Pauli

Please welcome author Frances Pauli to my blog. :)


If We Shadows Have Offended

I love that monologue. Puck is by far one of my all time favorite fairies, and the speech is doubly appropriate for The Changeling Race. The series features fairies, yes, but there is also an underlying theme about shadows throughout the books. Not so much Peter Pan type shadows, as in those we cast, but more Jungian shadows, as in the things we bury deep inside.
Like most secrets, our shadows have a great deal of power—both for good and ill. But it is the ones that we deny the loudest, that we bury and forget that have the most potential to cause havoc when eventually they sneak out…and they do sneak out. No matter what, they always leak a little.
So in the trilogy, I found my elves really needing a dose of shadow therapy. The whole bloody race needed serious counseling, in fact. I'm not sure where the idea came from. Maybe I had left over angst from old school RPG's (you know the ones with paper and dice that don't plug into anything.) I never did like how special the elves were, how much better than humans, how everyone wanted to play the elf. Whatever it was, when I translated my version of "elfishness" onto paper, they came off a bit, shall we say, arrogant?
Conceited? Haughty? Stuck-up? Pick an adjective. The elves that showed up to play in The Changeling Race had a major superiority complex, and I took great pleasure in showing them their shadow.
I'm mean that way.
Still, once the shadow is out and looking you in the face, you can deal with it, right? So I opened up my Elvin past and showed the perfect little buggers just how many flaws they actually had. I enjoyed it a great deal more than they did, you can imagine. A few of them took it better than I'd expected, but the majority pretty much went to pieces. That's good in a novel. Chaos like that makes for some great plot.
It really was for their own good. I mean, who could live with that kind of pressure? Maybe a great deal of their stiff, Elvin arrogance came from having to live up to our expectations of perfection. I like to think that they'll be happier in the future, that their attitudes will adjust and the elves of tomorrow—at least in the world of The Changeling Race--might have a softer side.
I can think of a few that will. Those were my favorites, the ones that stood up, dusted off and got over themselves. So maybe, while I was doling out the therapy, some of it leaked over onto me as well. Maybe I got over my elf discrimination as much as they got over their humans are beneath us attitude. That works for me. Because, after all is said and done, I really love them—stuck up or not—and I think we managed to end the series as friends.
Or as Puck would say… "Think but this, and all is mended."

Thank you so much for hosting a stop on the tour. I am offering a free pdf of any book from my backlist to one commenter today, and for each stop on the tour that you comment on, you will earn one entry into the final drawing for print copies of all three books. Follow along and enter to win!


Bio:Frances Pauli writes speculative fiction with romantic touches. Her books are published through Mundania Press LLC, Awe-Struck, and Devine Destinies, and her short stories are featured in various anthologies. More information on her worlds and writing can be found on her website and blog, and she offers free online stories, web serials, podcasts there as well. WebsiteBlog siteTwitterFacebookGoodreads
Book Blurbs:
A Moth in Darkness
 The boundaries between the worlds have fallen. Forced to integrate the creatures of fantasy into real life, humanity struggles against its disillusionment, prejudice and an inevitable feeling of inadequacy.
Once an agent for the embassy that mediates between the worlds, Elizabeth Larson has abandoned her past and slipped into a world of nostalgic addiction to fairy revels, dancing, and the dark lure of her own memories. But when Lockland Sheen, her former partner and lover, goes missing, she is pulled reluctantly back into service. She must venture once more across the borders, into the land that haunts her, facing a string of gruesome murders, the imposing Sidhe rulers and her own addiction in the process.
While the Embassy's agents attempt to soothe tensions between the races, Liz and her new partner search the fairy realm for Lockland. Fighting the constant temptation of the revels, they piece together the trail of an unknown enemy. But the longer they follow it, the more it appears that the man they came to rescue is more villain than victim. And the more they rely on Elizabeth's ties to the fairies, the closer she inches toward the madness that lurks behind her fantasies.
The Fly in Paradise
 Something's rotten in the Fey lands. While Marcus Bramble tracks the lunatic who started it all, Elizabeth and the crew at the Embassy sort through the evidence he left behind. With Lockland back, and the revels behind her, Liz's world is slowly returning to normal. But on both sides of the borders, shadow creatures spring out of nowhere, and the dark legends surrounding the fey take on a whole new meaning.Now time is against them.  On the mortal side of things, protesters rally to close the borders, politicians descend on the Embassy, and something that shouldn't exist stalks Elizabeth through the city.



Spiders From Memory

 The Seelie court is gone, and the Tower has fallen into darker hands. Now nightmare creatures terrorize the Fey races, and the whole Fey world turns to frost and shadow.Liz Larson holds the last remnant of the Seelie Sidhe's power. The elves look to her for guidance, but all she has to offer them is the disturbing story of their origin, the final truth that will turn many of them against her. With her dwindling number of allies, Liz needs to reopen the borders, to find the missing Marcus Bramble, and to avoid the sudden, terrifiying attention of the new Fey ruler, the Unseelie Speaker and new master of the Sidhe Tower.While her friends in Mundanity race to pry open the gates, and Marcus searches for the answer to a puzzle that could save or damn them all, the Unseelie Speaker marches north, bringing his army and his wrath to focus on Elizabeth. What can one, fairy-touched human do in the face of the Unseelie court's full fury? How can she fight when the enemy's anger is only partly blind, when she can see all too clearly the traces of justice behind it?

Six Sentence Sunday #45

 Hello, welcome to another #sixsunday post. My sfr novel Keir has finally gone to galley, so I'm sharing the next six sentences. Despite Keir's threat to kill his new fellow prisoner, Quin is determined to be friends...

"You don't look very dangerous." She held her torch like a sword as she drew closer. "You look sick." He kept his arm raised as if to ward her off, though he shook with the effort of it. "My name's Tarquin Secker," she offered. "But my friends call me Quin."

© 2009-2011 Copyright Philippa J. Green All Rights Reserved
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No, my book is not like Twilight...

It's taken some time for me to feel justified in telling anyone that I'm an author when they ask what I do. Even once I'd signed the contract for Keir, the fact that it wasn't due out for almost a year made me hold back on awarding myself the 'title'. But now, with the galley to check through and most of my virtual book tour organized, the reality has sunk in that I am, indeed, a bona fide author. The title no longer has a squeak in it. :-)

So, when I was asked what I do at a ladies' pamper evening last night, I said, "I'm an author."
"Oh, what do you write?"
"Science fiction romance."
"What, like Twilight?"
Shocked silence. "No, more like Star Trek or Star Wars."
"Oh..."

Now, I personally have nothing against Twilight. I've seen a heck of a lot of debate on-line about the books and the films. They seem to be very controversial. But I've neither read them nor watched them, and so make no judgement on them either way. I haven't been interested enough to try them myself - my interest in vampires centred on 'Interview with the Vampire' and the books of Anne Rice. Since then I've had no inclination either way. (Although a friend sent me a set of True Blood books as a gift. Yes, I've read them. Yes, I enjoyed them, until it seemed like Sookie was spending all her time whinging about all these handsome supernatural guys chasing after her. No, I wouldn't say I'm a fan, but I didn't hate them either.) But I digress...

What bothered me was the fact that the person I spoke to had no idea what science fiction was, let alone scifirom. Now, I know that science fiction and fantasy are often seen as niche genres, and some kind of poor relation in literary terms. I've never understood that. I've always read speculative fiction. Perhaps because my parents were fans - Star Trek and Doctor Who were watched on a regular basis. They didn't have a lot of scifi books in the house, but as soon as I was judged old enough to jump on a bus by myself, I made regular trips to the book shops to buy fantasy and scifi titles of my own. I spent my teenage years reading Anne McCaffrey, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C.Clarke, David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Tolkien ... the list is endless. So it always comes as a shock to me when someone doesn't know what scifi is.

To say that it was sobering is an understatement. I don't expect people to be impressed that I'm an author. I'm hardly a best-seller. I'm not on the shelves of Waterstones. I haven't had block-busting films made from my stories. And I am not complaining about that. Even if I never have another book contracted, I am so proud of myself for doing it once. It's been the thrill of my life so far. But clearly there's a lot of work still needs to be done to make readers aware of the genre of sfr.

So, no, my book isn't like Twilight. And it's never going to be.

Book Feature - Never Gonna Let You Go by Jessica E Subject

Please welcome author Jessica E Subject with the release of her latest sfr novel Never Gonna Let You Go. Just leave a comment and your e-mail address to enter the giveaway, and check out the other tour stops for more chances to win. :)


Never Gonna Let You Go Blurb Caught in a tangle of lies, Calla Jacobs must sort through the truth to discover where she truly belongs. A biologist for Planet Core, she finds herself ensnared in a web of deceit. Sent to Airondelle, she must work with a team to prepare the newly discovered planet for colonists from Earth. But the mission does not go as she expected. Her former lover, Erik Edwards, shuns her, sending Calla into the arms of Melina Holloway, their commander, for the attention she craves and more. A confrontation among the trio leaves her with a broken heart, and fleeing from the two people she trusted most.
Attempting to break free from the lies that bind her, she discovers Planet Core has deceived everyone. And when she returns to Earth, Calla learns just how far Planet Core's control reaches.
Available from Decadent Publishing and other ebook retailers.Buy Links here Book Trailer:  



Excerpt If only I could touch his sexy body again.Standing at the edge of the camp, Calla Jacobs couldn't stop staring at the toned and tanned body of Erik Edwards, aerospace mechanic for mission SFAE-3, while he worked to repair the core drill. She tried to tear her gaze away, willed her feet to move so she could get to the plains of Airondelle, but it just didn't happen. She watched as sweat trickled down the center of his back, and she closed her eyes, breathing in his pure, masculine scent. The memory from years ago, of running her hands across the wide expanse of his upper body and through his thick, blond curls, only made things worse. She didn't love him anymore—at least not in the way she had when they'd dated. And still, Erik would always hold a place in her heart. They'd grown up together, been best friends, even after they'd broken up, until he'd married Holloway.Erik snapped open a bottle of water, took a large swig, and then poured the rest over his head with a heavy sigh. She could almost hear the water sizzle. Oh, to be one of those water droplets cascading down his bare chest. She'd enjoy the water so much more if she could stand close enough to lick it off of his body before it dripped to the ground. Grimacing, she clenched her fists. Jeez, pull it together.Their mission on the barren planet did not include sexual affairs. In fact, except for already established marriages, sex was forbidden outright; the mission could not be compromised by all of the emotions and distractions a sexual bond brought. She and Erik had ended their three-year relationship for that reason— they'd both dreamed of being a part of the mission responsible for confirming the existence of a planet capable of sustaining life. And neither of them had felt ready to get married. They'd promised to wait for each other until they'd served their time and had remained friends throughout their training. Two months before their departure date, Erik had eloped with the mission commander, Melina Holloway, a woman Calla could never compete with in terms of brains and beauty. A quick divorce had followed, but the short-lived marriage had left Erik with a chip on his shoulder. And he'd refused to talk to Calla about anything other than the mission, if at all.
Giveaway!! As part of the Never Gonna Let You Go blog tour, Jessica is giving away a $20 gift certificate to either Amazon.com or AllRomanceEbooks.com. Simply leave a comment with your email address for your chance to WIN! Be sure to follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here. Bio: Jessica Subject started writing to encourage her daughter to read. Now she writes to keep herself grounded. Although she reads many genres, she enjoys writing Science Fiction Romance the most and believes everyone in the universe deserves a happily ever after. She lives Southwestern Ontario, Canada with her husband and two kids and loves to hear from anyone who has enjoyed her stories.Website/BlogTwitterFacebookGoodreadsGoogle

Update 30/01/2012

Despite the majority of the edits on Keir being done (I've just had the MS back from my editor for a final read through after the line edits, with a pat on the back!), this year has started with a blast. In the last month alone I've had a series of guest posts, and done a couple myself. I signed up as the SFR Brigade Calendar Coordinator, got promoted to Deck Officer on the blog (and put my first post up there on Saturday!) and then received a very flattering invite to join the crew of Spacefreighters Lounge here. So even as Keir wings it's way off to go to galley, I'm not being idle. My inaugural post at Spacefreighters Lounge will go up on Wednesday. If you have any SFR related events coming up - a book release, signing, blog hop etc, please send me the details and I'll make sure it goes up on the Calendar so that all the SFR Brigade members can see it. Either e-mail me at pippajaygreen(at)gmail(dot)com, message me via the SFR Brigade website, or even tweet me a link @pippajaygreen.

In the meantime I'm still working on the sequel to Keir - Lost Serenity - in the hope that my publisher will want to sign it. I also have a rough draft of Tethered done (I know it says it's only 89.something % complete on my word meter, but the basic structure is there), a scifi short almost complete for self-publishing, and I'm waiting for news on two submissions of an sfr short and a scifi novella. I've also got two MSs coming my way to critique read that I'm really excited about! I've already been planning out the book tour for Keir's release, and you can see some of the dates and places listed in the 'Upcoming Events 2012' page. Having said that I'm no good at coming up with blog posts, the necessity of doing so seems to have sparked off a few. Long may that flash of inspiration continue!

Guest Blogging at Spacefreighters Lounge

Hi all! I'm honoured to be blogging over at the Spacefreighters Lounge here today with what I hope are some helpful tips on coping with that first round of copy edits (or at least reassurances that we've all been there!).
Please feel free to stop by and say hello. :)