Veronica Scott's Blog, page 52

Trends I See Coming in SciFi Romance

This week’s theme at the SFF& Blog: where is the SFF genre headed?

Since I write scifi romance, not the bigger world of science fiction and fantasy, I’m going to keep my scope for this post on a smaller scale as well.

I do a weekly New Releases post on my blog where I gather and curate a list of scifi/fantasy/paranormal romance new releases for the week. I have many different sources for identifying these books so every week I’m exposed to the trends in my three favorite genres, based on what I see being released, the reviews, the rankings etc. (Here’s the link to my latest such post if you’d like to see how I present the ones I choose to list.)

There’s a certain through line of SFR that’s adventure-oriented with a strong romance running through the plot and varying levels of steaminess from almost closed door to pages of inventive sexy times with tails and tentacles and other interesting appendages. I write somewhere in the middle of the range, with your basic human heroes and heroines and two or three lovemaking scenes per book as their relationship deepens. I’m descriptive about the sexy times but not at great length. I did endow my genetically engineered Badari Warriors with some enhancements the ladies enjoy but did not go as far as some authors can capably go in their inventiveness. There’s a lot of action and adventure in these novels, not only mine but those of other authors. I think this kind of ‘bread-and-butter’ SFR will continue to be written and voraciously read.

In no certain order, some other thoughts on this:

I’ve been seeing more and more authors bringing their own past gaming experience to their SFR novels, either as avid game players or as developers or both. I think that trend will continue.

I’ve been seeing more superhero style plots, which is probably inevitable given the immense success of the Marvel Universe movies.

I think the alien abduction theme will continue to be very popular with SFR readers. It’s currently a staple of the genre and the hot seller lists.

I haven’t seen as much reverse harem (RH) appearing in SFR as I’d expected, given how hot the trend is in paranormal romance, although there is some. I think SFR lags behind PNR on trends, in terms of whatever is trendy in PNR shows up later in the SFR titles. Dragons are one example that comes to mind immediately. Lots of space going dragons, dragon-like and dragon shifter heroes now and not as many in PNR.

PNR RH is definitely going into a ‘bully academy’ direction right now, where the heroine is stuck as school with a lot of bullies (duh) but finds her five true-hearted men, be they shifters or mages or demons – well, you get the idea - and lives happily ever after eventually. So far I’m not seeing that in SFR but I bet it’s coming. Bullies at the Space Academy any day now…

I’m seeing more diversity in SFR, on the covers, in the novels and in the authors. I hope that trend will continue and grow!

I’m also seeing more LGBTQ SFR but not in a tidal wave…

Currently I’m seeing an emerging trend in the bigger Romancelandia world to have heroines on the autistic spectrum, so I can imagine we might see the same in SFR at some point.

I’ve seen something of a trend for PNR authors to take the ‘category romance’ type plots and apply those to their shifter stories – the bear shifter billionaire’s baby nanny (made that title up as far as I know – only meant as an example). I could imagine that trend translating into SFR and have seen some titles along those lines but not a rush of them as yet.

There also seems to be a huge market in PNR for 'cozies' - stories set in small towns, maybe with a light hearted romcom touch, and I have yet to see much if any in SFR. Something to watch for...

Dark romance and also the omegaverse type plots are appearing more and more. Issues of consent and power are the big hook in dark romance, along with anti-heroes, breaking taboos, etc. In the Omegaverse, typically (but not always) males known as ‘omegas’can become pregnant. Or the book may feature women who are ‘omega’ and sexual prey for every ‘alpha’ out there, and the ‘romance’ can be quite dark and brutal at times. Or you can have a blend of all of it. It’s not my personal thing, although I’ve read some dark romance and some Omegaverse, but I know many readers love it.

I’m seeing some authors who have not written SFR before coming in and attempting to “write to market” in the genre, with varying degrees of success.

And finally, I think Kindle Unlimited, which dominates SFR currently, will continue to be a major player, as long as Amazon continues to offer the subscription service. SFR readers are voracious inagoodway and evidently the subscription model of KU works well for them. Many weeks when I’m doing my new release post, I only have 2 or 3 SFR books I can report as being sold “wide” and all the rest are KU exclusive.

(You can still buy the ebooks outright from Amazon for your kindle of course, if you’re not in the KU subscription program but you can’t find them on other ebook seller sites like Barnes & Noble, Apple Books or Kobo.)

There’s a whole debate to be had among authors about the merits and issues with KU and I have no desire to get into all of that here, but I do think it’s a noteworthy aspect of the scifi romance marketplace, being so heavily committed to KU.

My books are all ‘wide’ and I’ve never been in KU. I have an instinctive aversion to putting all my eggs in one basket and I like the fact my readers can purchase the books on whatever platform they prefer. I understand I might be leaving all kinds of royalties and bonus payments on the table by not being in KU but the joy of being self-published (for all of us) is that we can make our own choices for our own reasons about how we want to define and pursue “success”.

What else am I missing? What trends do you see happening?

Why I Wrote My Alien Empath SciFi Romance Series

Today I’m going to talk about why I wrote the four books in my alien empath series, starting with Star Cruise: Stowaway, which was originally written for the first Pets in Space™ anthology (and is now available separately).

From the beginning I knew I was going to place my Pets story in the Sectors, an interstellar civilization where most of my scifi romances occur. What kind of pet would be logical in a spacefaring world? Of course – cats go anywhere, any time, right? Not to mention that my own Jake the Cat is a strong advocate for more feline presence in my stories LOL.

I also wanted to have an alien pet involved, just for fun.

At the time I was writing Star Cruise: Outbreak and had a scene take place in the cargo hold. It occurred to me that even on a spaceship there might well be vermin, so I gave Moby the white rescue cat to the Cargo Master, Owen Embersson. Since he had the pet, Officer Embersson would have to be the romantic hero of the short story. What kind of a woman could he naturally become involved with? How could I write a plot for them that involved more than just everybody enjoying cats, feeding cats and playing with cat toys? Owen wouldn’t normally interact with the Nebula Zephyr’s passengers and I felt I’d done enough ‘crew member falls in love with another crew member’ stories for now…but he’d be the first person to interact with a stowaway!

Once I knew Tyrelle the heroine was going to be a stowaway, the rest of the plot elements fell into place for me.

I was always fascinated by the Star Trek episode “The Empath,’ and although my story goes off in its own direction completely, that was the original moment when I started thinking about a heroine who had this set of abilities. The Urban Dictionary defines empath as “a person who is capable of feeling the emotions of others despite the fact that they themselves are not going through the same situation.” Of course Tyrelle can do so much more, including forcing unsuspecting people to act on feelings they may not even realize they harbor. But there’s a cost to her…

I also enjoy the way Nalini Singh writes and uses Empaths in her Psy-Changeling series – my favorite book in the series is Shield of Winter, where Ivy Jane and the other empaths play a large role in saving their civilization. (No spoilers.)

Plenty of room in the creative universe for each of us to write our own version of empathy as a gift/curse/power/temptation!

Star Cruise: Outbreak features an alien pet, Midorri, who is kind of a cross between a tribble and a red tailed panda (my favorite animal after cats). I decided to keep her on board the Nebula Zephyr after the events of Outbreak so she could be involved in this Stowaway adventure too, and then as pets and secondary characters often do, she kept becoming more and more integral to the plot and revealing new capabilities I didn’t know about before. I got really fond of my furry little green friend with the six legs!

I realized after I finished the Star Cruise: Stowaway novella that I wasn’t done with the subject of these beautiful, empathic women and their predicament with the Sectors’ organized crime syndicate. I decided to tell a much longer story for Miriell, who is the sister of the Stowaway heroine. For Danger in the Stars I put her in the heart of the Amarotu Combine operation, at the mercy of her violent ‘controller’, and when I asked myself who would be her hero, Conor Stewart appeared. (To be clear, Conor is not the controller.)

She sees good in him, well hidden under the façade of the dangerous hitman and crime boss. He goes out of his way to help her when he can and cautious attraction blossoms between them. Not to give spoilers but there’s much more to Conor than meets the eye. He is a hero!

I made great efforts to ensure I didn’t stray into Stockholm Syndrome territory – where a victim may start to feel affection or emotion toward the captors as a psychological survival strategy. I tried to ensure that both Miriell and Conor stayed clear headed and genuine at all times about what the situation was and that their emotion was trustworthy true love, not an outgrowth of her captivity. Miriell was a high ranking priestess on her own planet and remains pragmatic at all times about those who hold her prisoner, including Conor. But her powers tell her he’s keeping secrets and she can’t help but wonder if her god Thuun has sent him to help her.

It’s not my usual Sectors spaceships and blasters scifi story (although there certainly are some of both elements in the action scenes) but I was really intrigued with telling this tale and exploring a few things about both the empathic priestess (which brings in my element of mysticism that I always like to incorporate) and the stone cold mob hitman, who has to fight his deepest instincts to preserve and protect. When it comes to Miriell, he can’t stand by and let her remain a pawn of the Combine. This is a romance, so the Happily Ever After ending is guaranteed, even if perilous for my couple to attain.

For the next book, Two Against the Stars, I thought it would be interesting to write about one of these captive empaths who manages to get free of the crime syndicate on her own and then is on the run from them and the authorities. I wondered what she’d do if confronted with a situation that required her to risk her own hard-won freedom. Of course that begged the question what the dire situation could be, and it had to involve a hero in jeopardy, since I’m writing romance.

Here’s the description of the eventual story (more about why I wrote certain parts below):

Empathic priestess Carialle has escaped the evil Amarotu Combine, but she’s hardly out of danger. Not when she risks everything to rescue a drugged man from a crooked veterans’ clinic. By lulling the clinic staff to sleep, she reveals her powers. And once again, criminals are after her and her rescuer.

Marcus Valerian, a wounded Special Forces veteran, never expected to have his life threatened by the clinic that’s supposed to help ex-soldiers like him. But when he wakes from a drugged state to find a lovely woman urging him to run–he does. In his family’s remote fishing cabin, he suffers the agony of withdrawal, soothed only by her powers.

In their idyllic hideaway, the two also discover a nova-hot attraction flaring. But can they stay alive long enough for it to become more? Not if the Combine has anything to say–they are not giving up until Marcus is dead and Carialle is their weapon.

Notice in the description that eventually the couple flees to a cabin deep in the woods? When I was a kid, we lived in upstate New York and my family had a vacation place on a lake nearby. The cabin was built from scratch by my grandfather and some of my best childhood memories center around that cabin and the lake, fishing, boating, swimming and hiking. I can even remember bits and pieces of when there was no cabin or even a road at all on our land – we had to hike in through the forest and sleep in tents. (I was really little then.) So I decided to write a version of the cabin into the book, as a safe haven for Carialle and Marcus. The real family cabin was only accessible via a very rough, unpaved road added later, so I exaggerated that situation a bit for the book. And of course my grandfather wasn’t a Special Forces veteran. Actually he worked for Nestle International at that point in time as an executive and wow did he get great gift baskets at the holidays! Despite being in an office nine to five, he had mad skills as a builder and wilderness scout and all round capable guy.

But the cabin, Marcus’s memories and some of the events that transpire there are my tribute to a very happy part of my own childhood. Of course a lot of what’s in the book is purely fictional LOL. To my knowledge our cabin lacked an Artificial Intelligence, a force shield and any subterranean facilities!

When it was time to write the fourth book, The Fated Stars, I wanted a really unique situation. I always feel I owe it to my readers to write a different take on each novel, not just repeat the same setup every time. I started pondering what would have happened to a male empathic priest from their planet of Tulavarra if he’d been kidnapped and forced into working for the crime bosses. My daughters have been challenging me to write a female soldier for several years now and I thought this book was my golden opportunity to write a really kick ass woman mercenary.

Cover artist Fiona Jayde created an alien carnival for me, although you have to look closely to see it on the cover, but I thought that was a fun touch…when I was little we used to go to the county fair and the volunteer firemen’s field days and I especially loved the merry go round. I pulled on those memories a bit when writing about the place where Samell is held prisoner. Of course I never met any aliens – to my knowledge! – at any of the rural fairs I attended as a kid (we did bring home a live duck named Cleveland once but that’s another story), but it was a fun concept to translate to the far future and the rim worlds of civilized space. Very different than anything I’d ever written before.

Writing Larissa, the tough heroine, was exciting because up to that point my major military characters had always been guys. There’s a unique fight scene in the book where she takes on one of the alien Shemdylann in hand to hand combat – no spoilers – and that was a lot of creative fun to think through. I’ve made the Shemdylann so imposing and invulnerable (except to blasters) in all the Sectors novels that now I had the challenge of saying “yes, but Larissa can win this fight because…” and make it believable.

There’s also an interlude where she and Samell have an encounter with an ancient, sentient tree (and its pets, the Amusing Ones) and I drew a bit on how I felt many years ago when my late husband and I took a vacation amidst the giant Sequoias.

I don’t know if I’ll feel the call to write another empath novel but never say never. I do have a plot in mind thanks to my busy Muse…

Star Cruise A Novella: Stowaway: With Star Cruise Rescue and Golden Token Short Stories

Why I Wrote STAR CRUISE MYSTERY DANCER

I was beaming this week when a reader recommended Star Cruise: Mystery Dancer to her followers on BookBub. I’m always thrilled when someone enjoys one of my books and is generous enough to take the time to leave a review or a recommendation. Thank you! It also made me think this week’s Friday post should share more about this particular book!

This was my 2018 story for the third annual Pets In Space anthology (PISA), which Pauline B. Jones and I co-created to benefit the Hero-Dogs, Inc., charity which provides service dogs to veterans in need. After the anthology has run its course, then I always republish my story on its own.

I love going back to revisit my interstellar cruise liner, the Nebula Dream, for these PISA stories, as the ship cruises through the futuristic human civilization known as The Sectors. I’ve written a number of books and novellas centered on events aboard the ship now and find the whole cruise setup lends itself to telling a good scifi romance adventure tale. Readers new to my world don’t need to know a lot of backstory to enjoy the events, and for those who have read others in the series, it’s a nice return to see some favorite characters (I hope!). I’m writing my story for this year’s PISA right now in fact.


DepositPhoto

As usual, for DANCER I started with the concept of the pet because that drives my plot for these PISA adventures. For some reason I kept seeing a mental picture of a Siamese cat, but with a third eye. But I’ve done a cat and a catlike alien before, for PISA1, Star Cruise: Stowaway, although Midorri, the alien pet there actually is kind of a cross between a red panda and a tribble who acts like a cat. So I wanted something very different and I started thinking about what if the cat wasn’t actually a real animal at all? I ended up making F’rrh a ‘jenfellini’, which is something like a genie, living in a beautiful lacquered box. Visualize the gorgeous painted boxes that come from Russia.

Then, the tenuous link to Russia reminded me of the whole tragic story of the last Tsar and his family, and how they were murdered but for years rumors persisted one of the children might have survived. Various individuals claimed to be ‘Anastasia’ or another of the siblings, and of course there have been movies and plays written with that theme. I always flash back to the version with Yul Brynner (such an intense actor) and Ingrid Bergman because that movie was one of my mother’s favorites and also left the answer to the question of “Is she or is she not Anastasia?” somewhat open at the end. My daughters loved the animated fantasy version of the tale, with the voices of Meg Ryan and John Cusack, when they were growing up.

So I had the heroine – a possible princess on the run – but how could she fit into the Nebula Zephyr? Since the hero would be one of the former Special Forces soldiers who make up the ship’s security force, I had to be able to make the two interact and fall in love in a situation fraught with danger and suspicion.

I’ve wanted to do a story about the Comettes dance troupe which performs aboard the cruise liners since I wrote my very first published scifi romance, Wreck of the Nebula Dream (a sister ship of sorts to the one I write about nowadays). Dancing is a skill a maybe princess might have at a high level, right? So let her be a new member of the ship’s dance company. I’m a huge fan of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and the Rockettes and othe precision dance teams, so I was able to draw upon my years of watching the reality show “Making the Team” and other documentaries and features on dance teams (plus some imagination of course) to write up Tassia’s audition experiences. Tassia brings her own special knowledge, training and interpretations to what the Comettes do and the audiences love it.

Throw in a fabulous jewel and there was the story…

I also made it clear at the end whether my “Anastasia” was or was not the real deal.

Why I Wrote Badari Warrior's Baby

Wayyyy back in MATEER, book two of my award winning Badari Warriors series, I left the heroine Megan pregnant with the first ever Badari child. Since these soldiers of the far future are genetically engineered rather than born and have been held by alien scientists as captives and experimental subjects for over 800 years, there was a lot of emotional investment by the Badari in Megan and Mateer’s child.

Readers of the series have been hinting that it was probably getting to be time for Megan’s baby to be born and I certainly agreed. My dilemma as an author was to tell a good story that advanced the overall series arc a bit, maintained the elements my readers enjoy in each book and did justice to this highly significant event.

I decided to go for the shorter novella format because I felt that worked best for this situation. I didn’t want to draw things out too long and also since the heroine was going to be in the final stages of pregnancy, there weren’t going to be any steamy scenes, so this would be somewhat unusual for the series. And me! I’ve never had a scifi romance character pregnant or giving birth before…I have written a birth scene in my ancient Egyptian paranormal romance series, which was different to say the least because the customs in 1550 BCE were obviously unusual to us here and now.

I’d known since writing MATEER that the character of Harker was going to be a Very Bad Guy at some point, so hopefully no one is too surprised at the role he plays.

As I was writing the book, I felt the need to have a new romantic subplot going on. I love Megan and Mateer as a couple very much but I also wanted to ‘meet’ a new, just falling in love Badari soldier and human woman. The book didn’t feel complete to me without a new romance at least sparking. So Bettira, who we met briefly in KIERCE, finds herself in the wrong place at the right time, acquires vital information and seeks out the one Badari she trusts above all others to help her. It’s a low key romance and at this point I have no idea if I’ll give her a book of her own. We’ll have to see how the plots develop!

One of my favorite characters is Yonn, the young alpha-born Badari boy, who appeared in TIMTUR and keeps finding his way into the books. I’m so fond of him now that I seriously think about writing him his own book, maybe ten or twenty years in the future after this series arc would have ended. I was happy to find a way for him to take part in the story here. It’s really a delight to an author when a supporting character becomes so strong and just inserts himself into the plot of succeeding books after he first appears.

When it came to Megan’s actual labor process, I drew on my own experiences obviously and my daughters’ to some extent, but I didn’t want to get into too much detail. Shall we say not all my readers would be as thrilled about living every moment of every contraction with Megan. (I do have a sizable contingent of guys who read the books.) But I wanted Megan’s experience to feel grounded in reality.

And finally, I added my late husband to the book dedication because he was there for me every moment when we had our daughters – they were three and five when he was killed - and also highly supportive of my writing and trying to become a published author. He’s been gone many years now but our romance and the time we did have together shaped my life in so many wonderful ways that I’ll always be grateful.

Thanks for all your support and interest in my Badari Warriors! I love my readers! You make it all possible…and fun.

The blurb: Dr. Megan Garrison, mate to the Badari Warrior pack’s senior enforcer Mateer, is perilously close to the due date of their baby when she’s kidnapped by human malcontents in Sanctuary Valley. The kidnappers threaten to harm her and intend to ransom the half human-half Badari child to the evil Khagrish scientists in return for their own lives.

Mateer and his fellow Badari launch a desperate effort to save his mate and child but the situation is made more complicated as Megan goes into labor. Can they rescue her in time to save mother and child?

A 25K word novella…

Genetically engineered soldiers of the far future, the Badari were created by alien enemies to fight humans. But then the scientists kidnapped an entire human colony from the Sectors to use as subjects in twisted experiments…the Badari and the humans made common cause, rebelled and escaped the labs. Now they live side by side in a sanctuary valley protected by a powerful Artificial Intelligence, and wage unceasing war on the aliens.

This is the ninth book in the Badari Warriors world (and the eighth book in the numbered series) and each novel has a satisfying Happy for Now ending for the hero and heroine, not a cliffhanger. Some overarching issues do remain unresolved in each book since this is an ongoing series but romance always wins the day in my novels!

BADARI WARRIORS Timeline:
AYDARR
MATEER
TIMTUR
JADRIAN
DARIK
GABE
KIERCE
CAMRON
BADARI WARRIOR’S BABY: MEGAN AND MATEER

Not Today Weekend Writing Warriors

[image error]Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…a fun way to sample new books and find new authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)

Sharing now from my newest, just released scifi romance  Darik (A Badari Warriors SciFi Romance Novel): Sectors New Allies Series Book 4.

Punctuation may be wonky to comply with our guidelines here. May be edited a bit from published version.

Last week we left Darik and Nico...

New Releases in #SciFi and #Fantasy Romance for Wednesday July 25

[image error]I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for all the support, tweets, shares and feedback! So glad readers are finding this weekly report useful.

As always, I recommend sampling before you buy! I have not read most of the new releases listed (although I always end up one-clicking a bunch as I prepare these posts LOL).

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UNCHAINED by Ruby Lionsdrake

One geeky neuroscientist sent to research the inmates of a prison asteroid.
Two cyborg criminals determined to fre...

One Man Weekend Writing Warriors

[image error]Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…a fun way to sample new books and find new authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)

Sharing now from my newest, just released scifi romance  Darik (A Badari Warriors SciFi Romance Novel): Sectors New Allies Series Book 4.

Punctuation may be wonky to comply with our guidelines here. May be edited a bit from published version.

Last week we left Nicolle facing...

Veronica Found a New Quiz to Tackle

[image error]I love to do quizzes! This past weekend I found one in US Weekly, where they asked the current Bachelorette some romance-y type questions and I thought it would be a perfect one for me too. Hey, she does romance on TV and I write it in books!

I’ve watched one season of ‘The Bachelor,’ back when it was a new concept and I couldn’t imagine how it would work out. I have to say I didn’t care much for it. I’ve watched one season of ‘The Bachelorette,’ as well. I think it was a year the network had...

Weekly New Releases in #SciFi and #Fantasy Romance for Wednesday July 18

[image error]As always, I recommend sampling before you buy! I have not read most of the new releases listed (although I always end up one-clicking a bunch as I prepare these posts LOL).

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COSMIC WARS (GRAND MASTERS’ GALAXY BOOK 5 ) by Aurora Springer

Violet and Athanor Griffin reunite with their baby son after escaping from the world beyond the fiery Cosmic Rift, but they find no respite from troubles. The Grand Masters have declared Athanor dead, and are competing to replace hi...

Human Not To Be Messed With Weekend Writing Warriors

[image error]Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…a fun way to sample new books and find new authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)

Sharing now from my newest, just released scifi romance  Darik (A Badari Warriors SciFi Romance Novel): Sectors New Allies Series Book 4.

Punctuation may be wonky to comply with our guidelines here. May be edited a bit from published version.

Today we’ll meet Nicolle, who is...