Aurora Springer's Blog, page 81

Weekend Writing Warriors - Alien Perils

Greetings to all Weekend Writing Warriors and Readers.  http://www.wewriwa.com/ I'm joining you for the first time today.My eight sentences are from "A Tale of Two Colonies" and suggest the perils of planet Delta, inhabited by giant arthropods and the descendants of the lost colony. 
Conley caught hold of Lily’s right wrist, while he grasped his bared sword blade in his other hand. He held the sword so it pointed down between his legs. Lily wondered what fearful danger lay at the bottom of the hole. In an instant, she saw it and stifled a scream. They were funneling inexorably into a monstrous mouth ringed with jagged triangles of teeth. She struggled to grab her laser with her free hand.           The awful mouth was only a few scant feet away. With a swift motion, Conley threw his sword into the gaping mouth. 


The ebook is free today (Sunday, April 26th)

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MFY8A5Q

Check my Blog for more samples of my stories - science fiction with romance

Snippet for #SFFSat from A Tale of Two Colonies

Welcome to another Saturday of Science Fiction & Fantasy snippets exchanged by writers. http://scififansat.blogspot.com/ My contribution this week comes from A Tale of Two Colonies (Free this weekend). 

Why she wants to escape Terra Lily strode through the grimy subterranean passages to her tiny room, flushed with the success of her performance and indifferent to the hunched figures of the silent passersby. She ignored the group of five ragged youths lounging idly at the corner, until they moved deliberately in her direction. “Out alone!” one man jeered, clearly believing her to be vulnerable. “We’ll give you a good time!” another man called with vulgar intentions, reaching out to grab her arm. She swiveled rapidly, punching him below the belt. He collapsed with a moan. Two others advanced angrily on her. She leaped at them, aiming a vicious kick. Her target crumpled in agony, clutching at his groin. The third man hesitated, unluckily for him. Her fist thudded against his jaw and he sagged to the ground, unconscious. One of the two youths, who had hung behind well out of the action, shouted, “Watch out! It’s Tiger Lily. I saw her fight in the arena.”The other man called, “She’s big trouble! Let’s get out of here!”


Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MFY8A5Q
Please return to SFFSat and read the other snippets. Your comments are welcome. 

Teaser Tuesday - from My WIP - Challenges in Grand Master's Game

Today for a change, I'll give you a teaser from my WIP, Grand Master's Game, Book 2 in the planned trilogy. My apologies for any obvious errors, it's in the editing phase.



Excerpt from Grand Master’s Game
In this early scene, they are in Violet's small room outside the Terran Space Academy. They are relaxing after tidying the mess left by the vindictive Red Queen, their enemy with the glowing red eyes, four arms and strawberry-blonde braids. 

Violet flipped on the Galactic Network News and perched on her small bed to watch the display on the opposite wall. When Athanor stepped across the room to join her, the bed creaked under his weight. He swore under his breath, “By the Dagda’s horns, the bed’s unstable.
Knowing he could replace the bed if he chose, she ignored his complaint and listened to the news. The reporter, an Aman-ellan with handsome tiger-stripes on his orange fur, said, “No communications have come from Outer Sagittarius for the past ten days. We’ll give you in depth coverage of the portal problem after the news at eighteen.”
The scene switched to the familiar gold sphere of the rotating Presidium Galactica where the Galactic Congress met. “Debates in Congress have reached no consensus on action.”
“Terrans have not escaped the threat,” announced the Aman-ellan. He waved a hand at the people milling around the front of the Capital. “Thousands demonstrate about food prices.” The view switched to a mob wrestling with guards.
Violet shivered at the sight of the rioting people. As an empath, she hated the noisy emotions of large crowds. She inched closer to Athanor for comfort. He obliged by wrapping his arm around her and sending sympathy, “I share your dislike of crowds.”
“Allegations of negligence denied by Space Corps.” The view showed the administrative building of the Space Corps on Terra with the gold star emblazoned on the front of the imposing glass tower.
“I don’t believe Space Corps is so incompetent,” Violet remarked in disgust, remembering the survey teams she had met on the planet of Cinerea.
 “Massive incompetence would be required to break the portals over a quarter of the galaxy. A cunning mind, and not negligent maintenance, is behind the failures.” His eyes flashed a spot of light onto the com controls. The display blanked, cutting off the nasal voice of the announcer. “I’ve had enough of the paltry news reports!” 
Book 1 is available:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PM  
As always, your comments are welcome.

Snippet for #SFFSat from Grand Master's Pawn

Welcome to another Saturday of Science Fiction & Fantasy with snippets of their stories exchanged by writers. http://scififansat.blogspot.com/


My contribution this week continues the scene with Violet and Taranis climbing the vertical cliff to escape ravenous insectoids. I've skipped a few lines, since next week I'll switch to a different story. 
Excerpt: 

A cruel, cunning mind wafted into her senses from an animal crouched out of sight at the top of the chimney. Violet whispered, “Taranis, a creature lurks in ambush at the top.” He gazed up, and then glanced at her, saying, “I trust your senses. Give me the laser and I’ll deal with the beast.” She handed the laser to him, and he slipped it into a pocket. “Wait here, Violet.” He climbed the last section, moving lithely from one flimsy support to the next, while she watched anxiously from her perch on the flat shelf. When he vanished over the top she sensed a stir of alertness in the waiting beast. A short blast of psi power was followed by a high-pitched wail, and abruptly the power ceased. Violet was sure the Grand Master had exerted his power to kill the animal. She waited, listening intently, but heard no other sound or hint of power. He had shielded again. 

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PM
 Please return to SFFSat and read the other snippets. Your comments are welcome.

Zombies in Love by Nora Fleischer

Blurb: Jack Kershaw just wants to hold on to his new job at Lisa Alioto's pizza parlor, and to keep Lisa from finding out that he's a zombie. But Jack learns that he and Lisa are in serious danger. His second chance at life is the inadvertent result of a lab experiment by two graduate students, and Winthrop University-- a school which knows how to keep its secrets-- will do anything necessary to conceal that someone on campus raised the dead. With the help of Boston's zombie horde, can Jack and Lisa escape Winthrop's sinister clutches? 



Buy Link: The book is available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NUA5CJQ/


Excerpt: 
All the peace that had come over Jack in the morgue was gone.  Even though he was jogging back to Lisa’s apartment-- and getting some strange looks because he was wearing a set of scrubs and a pair of flip-flops he’d liberated from the hospital-- he felt a terrible restlessness.  Like he couldn’t be still, ever again.

No, that wasn’t it-- he felt the sort of prickly awareness of a mouse being watched by a owl.  It felt as though something was after him, something with a stride matching his own, something that reached out with a pale cold hand...

He reached the door of Lisa’s apartment, thudded up the stairs, and pounded at the closed door.  She opened it like she’d been waiting next to it for hours.  Out the door came the rosy scent of her body, the heat of her, and in the center of the candle flame, Lisa’s beautiful daredevil smile.

“You're back!  How'd it go?  I dropped off the satchel, just like we planned, and the guy seemed to know exactly what it was for,” she said.  He followed her in.  “I’ve never done anything like that in my life.  Wasn’t that crazy, wasn’t that wild?”

“Stick with me, honey,” he said.  “We’ll have fun.”

She smiled and squeezed his bare upper arm roughly enough for him to feel it.  Heat seared his cold skin.  “And tomorrow, we go back to work, and I know I’m going to be standing there, giving people their pizza and thinking, ‘All you people, you don’t know a damn thing about me, you don’t know what I’ve been up to.’  Me and my secret life.”

And then it all made sense.  He knew what he wanted.  He reached up and kissed her.  For a moment she seemed surprised, but then she pressed closer to him, and he became aware of how thin his scrubs were, and that her body heat flew through them as if he were naked.  And the way her mouth tasted!  He could feel it over his tongue, the unique taste of her body, as if it was sinking into his body, changing all of his cells, drawing a little of her into him, forever...

“You smell like lilacs,” he said, “did I ever tell you that?  Like lilacs and cinnamon.  And you’re so warm.” 


Bio: Nora Fleischer has a PhD from Winthrop University, and promises every word of this story is true. She lives in Minneapolis with her lovable husband Sven and children Wolfgang and Anastasia.  She’s on Twitter as @zombinanora and blogs (sometimes) at norafleischer.livejournal.com.

Teaser Tuesday - Flowers in my Stories

I love the flowers of Spring and some of my characters are named after flowers. 

Tiger Lily is the nickname of the feisty heroine of A Tale of Two Colonies. 
Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MFY8A5Q

Tiger Lily is a fighter with few equals. She fights to escape the slums of Terra, and wins a place on the next colony ship. Their mission to discover what happened to the colony lost four hundred years earlier faces the challenges of voracious insectoid predators. In the mountains, Lily meets Conley, a  scarred warrior who longs to escape slavery. Has Tiger Lily met her match? He leads them into dangerous territory, and risks conflicts with aliens.



Violet is the young protagonist in Grand Master's Pawn.

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PM


Young empath, Violet, is determined to uncover the truth about the mysterious Grand Masters. Who or what are they? Do they threaten or benefit civilization? The griffin avatar of her Grand Master might hide a robot, an alien, or a human. Her missions as a pawn lead her into an impossible love and a world of intrigues. 

 

Next snippet from Grand Master's Pawn for #SFFSat

Welcome to another Saturday of Science Fiction & Fantasy snippets exchanged by writers. http://scififansat.blogspot.com/ For a taste of the story - Part 1 of Grand Master's Pawn is free today (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SG91AHE) 

My contribution this week continues the scene where Violet and Taranis climb the vertical cliff to escape ravenous insectoids.   Snippet: 
At length, she reached the vertical crack in the cliff face, and halted on a wider shelf. She rested her head against the cold rock, trembling with tension from the tricky passage. Taranis steadied her with his arm around her shaking shoulders. “The next stage will be easier,” he said. “Look up. The crack has hand and foot holds on the sides. Imagine a chimney running to the top. You can brace yourself against opposite sides as you climb.” Staring up, Violet understood what he meant. She saw the minuscule crevices and tiny projections to use in her ascent up the narrow crack. “I won’t let you fall. I’ll climb right behind you.” Gradually, her confidence mounted, and she resolved not to disappoint her Grand Master. “I’m ready,” she whispered, and reached for the first projection inside the chimney. “Go slowly and take as much time as you need,” he advised.



Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PM
Please return to SFFSat and read the other snippets. Your comments are welcome. 

Spark Rising by Katie Corcino

The first full-length novel in an exciting new Futuristic Fantasy series that melds the best of Science Fiction Romance and Urban Fantasy, and the winner of a SFR Galaxy Award!SPARK RISINGBook One of The Progenitor Saga Available Now!
All that’s required to ignite a revolution is a single Spark rising...


SPARK RISING is sale-priced at .99 cents for a very limited time at all retailers! 
Agent Alex Reyes has been searching for the perfect weapon in his war against the men and women who use his kind to fuel their re-civilization.He’s finally found her...
Two hundred years after the cataclysm that annihilated fossil fuels, Sparks keep electricity flowing through their control of energy-giving Dust. The Council of Nine rebuilt civilization on the backs of Sparks, offering citizens a comfortable life in a relo-city in exchange for power, particularly over the children able to fuel the future. The strongest of the boys are taken as Wards and raised to become elite agents, the Council’s enforcers and spies. Strong girls—those who could advance the rapidly-evolving matrilineal power—don’t exist. Not according to the Council.

Lena Gracey died as a child, mourned publicly by parents desperate to keep her from the Council. She was raised in hiding until she fled the relo-city for solitary freedom in the desert. Lena lives off the grid, selling her power on the black market.

Agent Alex Reyes was honed into a calculating weapon at the Ward School to do the Council’s dirty work. But Alex lives a double life. He’s leading the next generation of agents in a secret revolution to destroy those in power from within.

The life Lena built to escape her past ends the day Alex arrives looking for a renegade Spark.***
Hello, all!
Thank you to Aurora for allowing me to be here to share a taste of SPARK RISING. As a veteran daydreamer, this novel seemed to be no different than any other daydream that came to me when I was meant to be doing something else. But the characters that visited me stayed with me. This was a story that needed telling. There was a young woman, living apart in the desert for the safety of those she loves, filled with loneliness and pain and the power to manipulate energy. And, of course, there was a tall, dark, dangerous man, determined to make things better for people in this post-apocalyptic world, but so very aware that the things he did to ensure a better world meant he didn't really belong in it.
Both of them were complicated, damaged, dark characters living on the edge and coloring their lives in shades of grey. They were perfect for each other. I had to know more.
Who were they? How would they find their way to each other?
Their names are Magdalena and Alejandro. And as for how they found their way to healing (of a sort) and love (without a doubt), that is a story found in the pages of Spark Rising...

If you’d like a taste, read on for an excerpt of Chapter One...
from SPARK RISING
“Nothing says ‘Home, Sweet Home’ like an abandoned gas station.”The words came with a muffled snort from one of the two men following Lena. He probably hadn’t meant for her to hear them—probably—but the rich, husky tone of his voice carried them to her.Lena rolled her eyes, her back still to the client and his assistant. “Does my home offend you, Mr. Reyes?” She kept her tone even and pleasant. It took effort. A lot of effort.“No, no,” he answered from behind her. “I’m just trying to understand what would make someone see this place and say, ‘Now this…this is the place I want to call home.’” He paused. “Miss Gracey,” he added, mimicking her formality.She could hear his amusement. It was nothing she hadn’t heard from other clients before. As far as she was concerned, he could keep trying. She highly doubted he’d get it.When she’d arrived at the ancient gas station nine years before, she’d been fifteen and full of rage, fear, and pride over making her escape from a life of hiding in the city. The empty building still stood firm against the onslaught of the world. Buckled, collapsed pavement at the far end of the lot showed where the tanks below ground had ignited during the cataclysm two centuries before. The void was filled with sand pushed by the wind—a shifting, fatal trap for the unwary. A tumbleweed bounced across the rubble of the road, smashing against teetering pump fourteen, shedding thorns and seeds as it rolled off again.The desolation was a reflection of Lena’s grief. She’d staked her claim on the station and carved her home out of drifted sand and weeds. She didn’t expect those who lived in the comfort of a relo-city—surrounded by people and walls to keep the world at bay—to understand why it mattered to claim a corner of the wild as hers alone. The cities that had grown out of the post-disaster relocation centers were the last hope of those clinging to the old ways. They were willing to give up a lot to live in safety. She knew safety was relative.Now her client, and the assistant who’d powered the electric vehicle to get him out here, sized her home up as they followed her inside. The visual examination of the home she’d built for herself, the life alone, was typical of every client, every time. This time the examination, and the judgment it implied, rankled. She spun around, mouth opened to snap at them. She stopped. Alejandro Reyes had removed his antique sunglasses, and his dark eyes were focused on her. She tried to escape the intensity of them by looking down, but that was a mistake. Instead of a heated gaze, she caught his wide-chested, lean-hipped body as he slid closer to her like one of the big cats of the desert, stalking prey.He’s not a hunter, Lena. Just another indolent client looking for a black market charge to make his easy life easier.


Still with me? *grin*I hope you enjoyed this taste of the novel. I love to hear from readers (and potential readers). Feel free to visit me at http://www.katecorcino.com or https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKateCorcino or drop me a line at katiecorcino[at]gmail.com  If you’d like to keep reading, Spark Rising is available in paperback form through both Amazon and Barnes&Noble online.
It is available in a variety of e-formats at the following retailers, and marked down to only $0.99 for a very limited time:Nook: http://bit.ly/1ITscuUiBooks: http://bit.ly/1wZbkzGKobo: http://bit.ly/1vZh8CdAmazon: http://amzn.to/1uNCuD6
Author Bio:Kate Corcino is a reformed shy girl who found her voice (and uses it...a lot). She believes in magic, coffee, Starburst candies, genre fiction, descriptive profanity, and cackling over wine with good friends. She also believes in the transformative power of screwing up and second chances. Cheers to works-in-progress of the literary and lifelong variety!

She is currently working on the continuation of the Progenitor Saga, a genre-bending near future dystopian adventure series with romance, science, magic, and plenty of action.Kate lives in her beloved Southwestern U.S. desert with her husband, several children, three dogs, and two cats.

Release Day for Sing a Song of the Stars

My excerpt for Teaser Tuesday is from “Captured by the Hawk” This space operetta is one of 8 inspiring stories in “Sing a Song of the Stars.” This great SciFi Romance Bundle released today at the bargain price of $0.99.
Buy links: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UNPG27M
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1121442018 https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/sing-a-song-of-the-stars https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-singasongofthestars-1766715-143.html

Here, the thief Kat meets Captain Black Hawk. 

Excerpt:         Two armed men escorted her through the ship’s narrow passages and into a large cabin. A tall man stood by a table displaying galactic charts. Strikingly, he was clothed entirely in black. He wore black leather boots, black gloves and a black turban covered his head. Even his face was wrapped in folds of black cloth, exposing only his piercing green eyes. She stared at him curiously. Sexy outfit, she mused, and judging by his broad shoulders, he would strip well. But, why did he have that black mask over his face? Was it a cultural obligation, or was he hiding some hideous facial deformity?
     He scrutinized her small figure with equal intensity. He saw a slim woman with alert tawny eyes, short brown hair and skin. She was dressed in coveralls of a faded, nondescript brown, almost matching the color of her skin.
     He spoke in a cool, dispassionate tone, “My men say you are the cunning thief who stole the secret codes from the Emperor’s Revenge. Where are the codes?”
     She stared back in silence, tilting her chin in defiance. Who was he to question her?
     “I am the Black Hawk. You are on my ship, the Rogue Star, and utterly in my power. I recommend you tell me what you know.” His deep cold voice sent a shiver down her spine.
     The Black Hawk, she thought. He was a renegade captain of uncertain allegiance who terrorized interstellar space. His ship raided isolated ports and boarded lone ships, especially those registered in the Emperor’s sector. She could never admit to her identity as the wealthy Mistress Sligo to such a rapacious pirate. Only her secret persona as the insidious thief, the Grey Kat, from the sleazy side of the docks was viable in this situation.
     “Ain’t got nothing!” Kat whined like a wretched dock rat, as she resumed her role as the desperate thief, using the dialect of the seedier docks.  
     His fierce eyes probed her. She flinched involuntarily and lowered her eyes, while stalling for time or inspiration.
     “Are you afraid of me?” he asked.
     Kat raised her head, gazing boldly into his green eyes, and sneered, intending to confound him, “What me? Why’d I fear a slick spacer like ye?”
     “What did you steal from the Emperor’s Revenge?” he said in accusation.
     “Wha’ ship? Didn’t take nothing from no ship!” she spat out, pursing her lips as if in perplexed anger.
     “My men saw you creep out of the Revenge’s cargo bay.” 
     Oh, no, Kat thought, I must be getting careless. I didn’t spot his men. “Ain’t bin in no ship! Ye put me back on dock,” she pleaded, chin tipped impudently. “Ain’t done nothing wrong!”
     “My ship has lifted from the spaceport. You cannot return to Hassam.”

Snippet for #SFFSat from Grand Master's Pawn

Welcome to another Saturday of Science Fiction & Fantasy snippets exchanged by writers. http://scififansat.blogspot.com/  Join us to read snippets from the works of different writers in Science Fiction and Fantasy. 

Today, I will continue the sequence in Grand Master's Pawn from last week's snippet. Violet and her companion, Taranis, escape their alien attackers by climbing a vertical cliff. 

Snippet:

          Looking up at the vertical rock face, she shuddered, “I don’t see how to climb up.” She stared at her companion, her eyes wide with alarm, and imagined compassion in his face.
“In my youth, I enjoyed climbing mountains,” he said, and almost smiled. “I’ll tell you where to place your hands and feet.” She glanced down at the red-shelled attackers, bit her lip, and swallowed her fears. “All right,” she said, scrambling to her feet. “Show me the way. You’re lucky I don’t suffer from vertigo.” He nodded, “Good! First, we walk along this ledge to the crevice. You go first.”  Violet edged cautiously along the ledge, which narrowed as she proceeded, until it was a mere lip the width of her foot. Guided by Taranis, she faced the cliff and pressed against the rock, clinging to the tiniest projections. She placed one foot after the other, gritting her teeth and remembering not to look down. The ledge narrowed until it was only wide enough for her toes, and she crept slowly on her tiptoes, grateful for the support of his arm on her back.    Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PM
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Please return to SFFSat and read the other snippets.   Your comments are welcome.