Some of the Best Interview Questions I've Had

Good morning all! Since I didn't have a guest scheduled for today, I thought I'd share some of the more interesting interview questions I've been asked. Hope you find them as interesting as I did!

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Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

This may sound corny and old-fashioned but my mother introduced me to the joy of reading. She only had a 6^th grade education but she was an avid reader and she encouraged me to read everything that came my way. She often said you could do anything or go anywhere if you could read.

She was right. I’ve been to alternate Earths, alien planets, the past, the future. I’ve performed archelogy, surgery, and forensic police work. I’ve lived on a prairie on a planet with a lavendar sky. I’ve survived cryogenic freezing to wake up in the distant future as the sole survivor of some unknown catastrophe. Yes, some of this was written by other authors and some of it by my own hand.

Who influenced your decision to become a writer?

I don’t remember her name, but it was my 4^th grade teacher. She had us write a story about a magic door set in a tree trunk. This was the first time I ever had FUN doing homework. It excited my imagination and opened neural pathways that just exploded with more and more and more ideas. I was hooked. From that time on, I wrote story after story.

Finish this thought. “If not for Isaac Asimov, I would be a nurse.“

Now, there’s nothing wrong with being a nurse. Honestly, it’s one of the most honorable, courageous professions there is. It takes a special kind of person to be a nurse. Unfortunately, I’m not that kind of person but I did kick the idea around quite a lot. Then I read an old battered copy of The Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It was the very first Science Fiction I’d ever read and, even more importantly, there was a love story in it. This captured my still maturing writer identity and I was off to the races writing Science Fiction with romantic elements. It also awakened my interest in science and engineering and computers…which is where I ended up on my day job.

But I never quit writing. I wrote on lunch hours and breaks. I wrote at home after work. When I wasn’t writing, I was reading. But the books I read, while excellent, lacked a certain spark if there wasn’t at least some romantic elements. Then I read Witch World by Andre Norton. Fantasy with romantic elements? I now had a new genre to glom and I began including Fantasy in my writing.

Then I met some lovely romance writers online. And they, though they were contemporary romance writers, told me about paranormal romance. They told me that I was practically writing paranormal romance and that I should read some to see if they weren’t right. For an avid reader like myself, this was like manna from heaven. This genre gave me the Science Fiction and the Fantasy that I loved AND the full blown romance that, for me, makes the book a complete journey. After I indulged in all these lovely paranormal romance books, I realized that my friends were right. I was just a fingernail away from writing Science Fiction/Fantasy Romance instead of Science Fiction/Fantasy with romantic elements.

On that all important DEDICATION PAGE who did/will you thank?

My very first published book thanked my lovely romance writer friends, of course. Had it not been for them, I’d still be writing and keeping my work to myself. I also thanked my crit group, who while not romance writers, were excellent critiquers in their own right. And, of course, I thanked my family without whose support the book would never have been written. Family and friends and good books to read…what more can you ask?

Well, that's it for today. Have a Blessed Day and a Wonderful Week!

Lynda

Where to find me on the web:

Website http://www.lyndakscott.com.

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Facebook Author Page:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lynda-K-Scott/201599553208653

  

Heartstone

By Lynda K. Scott

Mundania Press

Science Fantasy Romance

Eric d'Ebrur is out of time. He must fine the legendary Heartstone and fulfill the ancient Gar'Ja bond he shares with the Stonebearer. But when he finds her, he discovers that love can be more dangerous than the Gawan threat. Eric can defeat the mind-controlling Gawan but will it cost him the woman he loves?

After terrifying episodes of hypersensitivity, Keriam Norton thinks she's losing her mind. When handsome shapeshifter Eric d'Ebrur saves her from the monstrous Gawan, she's sure of it. But insane or not, she'll find the Heartstone and, if she's lucky, a love to last a lifetime.

Available in print and ebook format

Buy Links: Mundania Press (use MP10 at checkout for 10% discount)

http://www.mundania.com/book.php?title=Heartstone

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Heartstone-Lynda-K-Scott/dp/1606592335/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_3

 

 

Altered Destiny

by Lynda K Scott

Science Fantasy Romance

Available in ebook formats

Stranded on an alternate Earth, architect and Jill-of-all-trades, Liane Gautier-MacGregor must find her way back to her homeworld before she's enslaved...or falls in love with a man who is the exact duplicate of her ex-husband.

Devyn MacGregor's alter ego as the Reiver Lord is the only way he can fight the Qui'arel and their nefarious Bride Bounty, a tax paid with human females...until he meets the oddly familiar woman who claims he is her husband. And who sets in motion the rebellion that will either free his countrymen or destroy them.

Buy Links:

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Destiny-ebook/dp/B00579FKFO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308920443&sr=8-1

Nook http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Altered-Destiny/Lynda-K-Scott/e/2940012882417

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/79552

Great Escapes – An App Coming Soon from Coliloquy

A woman goes to Great Escapes B&B to soothe a broken heart and thanks to the ministrations of an invisible lover discovers her true self. She has no idea that the man in the adjacent suite is on a sensual journey that has him ready to move on to look for the woman who's right for him.

Guest - Heather Massey

Good morning all! Our guest today is author Heather Massey. Heather is a lifelong fan of science fiction romance. She searches for science fiction romance adventures aboard her blog, The Galaxy Express.
When she’s not reading, she’s watching cult films and enjoying time with her husband and daughter.

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Putting the Punk in Pygmalion

One of romance’s core themes is the concept of soul mates. Whether the soul mate element is implicitly or explicitly stated, it’s at the root of every story. The concept of finding a perfect match is a great fantasy. Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds (e.g., time itself, distance, population density), romance promises that two people who are meant to be together will find each other.

The challenge of searching for one’s soul mate is a daunting one. What if, despite the number of people in the world, your soul mate wasn’t among them? In fact, what if your soul mate wouldn’t exist unless you created him or her?

Now let’s add the ultimate complication: what if your soul mate wasn’t even…alive?

That’s the basic premise of stories that are based on the Pygmalion myth. Remember Pygmalion from your high school history classes? He was the sculptor who fell in love with a beautiful female sculpture he had carved.

There have been many reinventions of the Pygmalion story over the years. One of the most well known is George Bernard Shaw’s play, Pygmalion (1912), which was later remade into the musical My Fair Lady and later a film of the same name in 1964. In this romantic comedy, a professor teaches a Cockney flower girl to pass as a duchess.

Sometimes Pygmalion-based stories have happy endings. Other times, they don’t. Regardless of how they end, these love stories explore a number of interesting themes, among them:

* the nature of being human

* the power of imagination in love

* cultural standards of beauty

* erotic fantasies

* the dangers of one-sided, exploitative relationships

* social commentary about women’s independence

* the transforming power of love

Romance has its share of Pygmalion-themed stories such as Judith Ivory’s The Proposition, Meredith Duran’s A Lady’s Lesson in Scandal, Jill Myles’ Shimmerlight, and Susan Squires’ sci-fi romance, Body Electric. Body Electric is about a computer whiz who falls in love with an artificial intelligence personality she created. The story explores the ethics and ramifications of such a relationship.

When it came time for me to spin my own twist on the Pygmalion myth, I had a rich history of tales from which to draw. However, given my interest in science fiction romance, my goal was to supercharge the Pygmalion aspect in the most entertaining way possible.

In short, I punk’d it up.

Clockpunk is a science fiction/fantasy subgenre whose stories are driven by clockwork-based technology. Clockwork devices that are ahead of their time or that have fantastical elements have long fascinated me. Therefore, when I saw an opportunity to incorporate clockwork, romance, and the Pygmalion myth, I seized it.

The result? The Watchmaker’s Lady (Clockpunk Trilogy #1). This story is about a watchmaker in 1840, New England, who falls in love with a clockwork automaton of his own creation. The heroine is more than a passive object of his affection, however. She’s as much of a companion to him as a living, breathing human. They share meals, engage in lively political debates, and, of course, have sex.

I can’t think of a more forbidden romance in the 1800s than that!

On the surface, this erotic clockpunk romance story is about a man in love with a Victorian sex doll. But if you dig a little deeper beneath the kink, you’ll discover a heartwarming romance between two soul mates who manage to find each other—and stay together—despite overwhelming odds.

The most important aspect to me about writing this story was that I wanted to subvert the idea of such a relationship being so one-sided. In other words, my goal was to create a plausible, balanced romance between a human man and a female automaton. The heroine in this story possesses an enormous amount of agency. So even though the story is told entirely from the hero’s point of view, The Watchmaker’s Lady has a distinct feminine tone.

In fact, a super secret twist in the story shows how I take the Pygmalion mythology to a whole new level! I hope you have fun keeping it a secret until your fellow readers discover it for themselves.

Thanks for visiting!

Want to know more about The Watchmaker’s Lady?

Matthew Goddard is a lonely watchmaker in 1840 New England. One fateful day, he discovers the lover of his dreams in a dusty corner of the local general store—Isabel, a bisque porcelain mannequin head with mesmerizing, smoky blue eyes.

When Matthew invites her to come live with him, she eagerly “accepts.” The couple embarks on a lust-filled affair, one fueled by Matthew’s wild imagination. In order to provide Isabel with a brass body and pretty clothes, he begins a secret side business selling clockwork sex toys to his wealthy female customers.
Danger, however, threatens their idyllic romance when a disgruntled customer exposes Matthew’s forbidden business to the townspeople. Despite the growing menace, Matthew will stop at nothing in order to save his soul mate—and protect their love.

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If you’re interested in reading the first chapter of The Watchmaker’s Lady for free, you can download a copy at my Web site:

http://heathermassey.com/watchmakerslady.html (multiple formats available).

The Watchmaker’s Lady is available from Red Sage Publishing:

http://eredsage.com/store/The_Watchmakers_Lady.html

I also have a digital PDF copy of The Watchmaker’s Lady to give away right here at Star-Crossed Romance!

To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment for this post along with your email. Tell me about your favorite Pygmalion or other soul mate story. Alternately, you can email me at heather “at” heathermassey.com, subject line: Watchmaker Contest. The deadline to enter is three days from the time of this post.

To contact Heather:

Web site: heathermassey.com

Blog: thegalaxyexpress.net

Twitter: thgalaxyexpress

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-- Lynda Again,

   All righty then. Make sure you leave a comment with your email by Monday so you can enter the drawing. The book sounds fantastic, doesn't it? I admit I love the Pygmalion styled stories and My Fair Lady is one of my favorites. What about you?

Free Kindle Book

The Kindle edition of Karen A. Wyle’s sociological science fiction novel Twin-Bred will be free on Thursday, March 15^th, at http://amzn.to/u2OtVP.

Can interspecies diplomacy begin in the womb?  After seventy years on Tofarn, the human colonists and the native Tofa still know very little about each other.  Misunderstanding breed conflict, and the conflicts are escalating.  Scientist Mara Cadell’s radical proposal: that host mothers of either species carry fraternal twins, human and Tofa, in the hope that the bond between twins can bridge the gap between species.  Mara lost her own twin, Levi, in utero, but she has secretly kept him alive in her mind as companion and collaborator.

 Mara succeeds in obtaining governmental backing for her project – but both the human and Tofa establishments have their own agendas.  Mara must shepherd the Twin-Bred through dangers she anticipated and others that even the canny Levi could not foresee  Will the Twin-Bred bring peace, war, or something else entirely? . . .

Lessons from the Aliens Among Us

Many of you have heard me talk about my alien kitten, Wookie, aka Queen of the Universe, and her minion, Zuzu. Some of you may have heard the sad news that Zuzu recently crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

Zuzu was an intricate part of our meal time routine too but she had an even greater impact on Wookie even though they were different species. Zuzu, with her happy nature and laid back attitude, was in direct contrast to Wookie whose feline nature wants instant gratification.

Watching them interact was a study in friendship. Wookie would do sneak attacks (always from the rear) but she also would curl up next to Zuzu for a nap. As for Zuzu, she considered Wookie a member of her pack…even if Wookie was a kitten, not a dog. She allowed Wookie to investigate her food dish, with or without food being in it. And she gave a silent canine laugh when Wookie would lean over the water dish to drink from the far side because ‘it was cleaner’. And when Wookie attempted to talk to her with meows or purrs, Zuzu would get a perplexed look on her face then solve the communication crisis with a big sloppy kiss.

In truth, they reminded me of the two primary characters in Enemy Mine, the human soldier and the Drac soldier, who put aside their differences and found enough in common that they formed a surprising and lasting friendship. Well, the only ‘war’ between Zuzu and Wookie was for the sunny spot on the carpet but you get my drift. They were friends and frequently shared the sunny spot. 

I’ve learned a lot about relationships and acceptance from these two little fur people and from all the fur people I've known over the years. As writers, and as humans, we need to see how these different personalities interact...whether they get along willingly or indifferently. We need to see loyalty or in action. We can use the lessons we learn to improve ourselves as well as our writing. I’ve used Wookie’s personality for one of the alien characters in my book, Rider. And I’ll be using facets of Zuzu’s personality for one of the alien characters in the book I’m writing now. 

Zuzu may be gone but she’ll live on in our hearts forever.

Monday Musing - Male and Female Romance Readers

What draws you to romance?

Romance is one of the few genres that always provides a Happily Ever After. That’s a tremendous draw. I like to know that the people I’ve just been reading about, watching them overcome life or death odds, or struggling with their own inner demons, have found their one true love and their HEA. That’s their reward for persevering and mine for following along with them ;-) 

But does everyone feel the same way? I've heard, more often of late, that a lot of male readers are also drawn to romance. Now, it may be that their initial interest is in the particular sub-genre which draws them in. For instance, my books tend to be action-packed and adventure filled Science Fantasy books. I can see how that might appeal to male readers since it also appeals to a large number of female readers. 

Of course, female readers also enjoy the romance. The struggle to find that one special person who 'completes' them (sorry for that hokey phrasing, lol) is of special interest. And, yes, the titillation of the love scenes is another draw. Which leads to...

I'm hearing that a number of male readers are using some of the knowledge they acquire while reading in the romance genre to help their own love life. Since the Hubs won't read my books, I can't vouch for that but it's an interesting idea.

What do you think? Any ideas? Do we have any male readers who want to give their opinions?

In a side note, Linda Wisdom and I are still on tenterhooks waiting for the release of our fun little paranormal erotic, Great Escapes: Valentine's Day from our fantastic publisher, Coliloquy. This is a new format to both of us since it's an app that allows the reader to choose some of the aspects in the story...like the hero's looks or background or even how erotic or sweet the reader wants the story to be. As soon as we have more info, we'll definitely share it.

My lovely and talented agent, Laurie McLean, has Rider and is searching for a home for it. Those of you who've asked about it, keep your fingers crossed (along with me, lol).

In the meanwhile, my Heartstone and Altered Destiny are still available.

Heartstone

By Lynda K. Scott

Mundania Press

Science Fantasy Romance

Eric d'Ebrur is out of time. He must fine the legendary Heartstone and fulfill the ancient Gar'Ja bond he shares with the Stonebearer. But when he finds her, he discovers that love can be more dangerous than the Gawan threat. Eric can defeat the mind-controlling Gawan but will it cost him the woman he loves? 

After terrifying episodes of hypersensitivity, Keriam Norton thinks she's losing her mind. When handsome shapeshifter Eric d'Ebrur saves her from the monstrous Gawan, she's sure of it. But insane or not, she'll find the Heartstone and, if she's lucky, a love to last a lifetime.

Available in print and ebook format

Buy Links: Mundania Press (use MP10 at checkout for 10% discount)

http://www.mundania.com/book.php?title=Heartstone

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Heartstone-Lynda-K-Scott/dp/1606592335/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_3

  

Altered Destiny 

by Lynda K Scott

Science Fantasy Romance

Available in ebook formats

Stranded on an alternate Earth, architect and Jill-of-all-trades, Liane Gautier-MacGregor must find her way back to her homeworld before she's enslaved...or falls in love with a man who is the exact duplicate of her ex-husband. 

Devyn MacGregor's alter ego as the Reiver Lord is the only way he can fight the Qui'arel and their nefarious Bride Bounty, a tax paid with human females...until he meets the oddly familiar woman who claims he is her husband. And who sets in motion the rebellion that will either free his countrymen or destroy them.

Buy Links: 

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Destiny-ebook/dp/B00579FKFO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308920443&sr=8-1

Nook http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Altered-Destiny/Lynda-K-Scott/e/2940012882417

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/79552

Thanks for stopping by! Have a Blessed Day!

Guest - Tes Hilaire

Good morning all! We have a new visitor with us today...Tes Hilaire, who'll be talking about our favorite subject - heroes. But she's approaching them from a bit of a different angle.

Her publisher, Sourcebooks, is offering a giveaway of a copy of her latest book, Deliver Me From Darkness, to two of our Star-Crossed readers. You'll find my review here. See below to find out how you can enter the drawing.

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Would you like some bad with that hero?

Why yes, yes I would. :-) Though, maybe that seems a bit odd since a hero is supposed to be this uber-courageous, uber-honorable, and uber-strong guy, right? Wrong. At least, I don’t believe so. I guess the question really comes down to this: Can you have an interesting hero (or heroine for that matter) without a little bit of “bad” mixed in? That little bit of wickedness, the human quirks and flaws that keep our protagonists from being virtual saints; isn’t it this that allows us to relate to them?

We find the flawed hero almost everywhere: movies, books, comics, heck even historical legends, though we won’t go into that here ;-) They can fall under all kinds of different categories.  Whether you subscribe to the Dungeon and Dragons nine alignments (lawful good, neutral good, lawful neutral, chaotic evil etc…) or another classification system—heroes/heroines have fallen pretty much everywhere on the sliding scale of good vs. bad since the beginning of time. Narrowing this down in terms of the classic superhero, on one end of the scale we have Superman and Wonder Woman, Captain America or, if you like your heroes a little less comic book we could mention The Lone Ranger.  At the other extreme you have characters like The Punisher, Catwoman, Hellboy, and Spawn. And then there is that grey middle ground. This is the place you’ll find people like Batman and Zoro, Ironman and Electra. *note I’m NOT an expert on comic book superheroes so please forgive if I’ve aligned your fav character too far one way or the other on the good/bad scale!

Are all of these characters really heroes? Debatable, I suppose. Guess it depends on your view of their moral compasses. More important to the romance writer’s point of view is the appeal of these heroes. Is there one more than any other that you, the reader, would want to take home at night? ;-)  I’m a Batman girl myself. There is something about that dark, sexy, vigilante that makes me want to bring him home and…unmask…him…and… Hey! Mind out of the gutter! I’m talking about getting to know him, i.e., unmasking the shadows of his soul and healing him with the power of my…ah, hmm…Okay. Yeah. Anyway…I guess it’s no wonder that my hero from Deliver Me from Darkness, Roland, has sort of a Batman feel about him. A Paladin at the core with the moral compass of his angel heritage, but his vampire nature slides him pretty far down on that good-bad scale. The only way that he’s been able to check his dark nature is by turning vigilante. Here is a little teaser of what I mean:

…the back door to a nearby club banged open. A man stepped out, half pulling a woman who’d slumped against his side. She was young, college age, obviously toasted, and wore the pink blush of innocence and youth. The man was linebacker broad with graying temples and a beer belly—and his core was dark, edged with violent red. Roland had seen demons with cleaner souls than his.

“I don’ feel s’ good,” the girl slurred, her head rolling on her neck as she tried to cast her gaze around her. “Where are we?”

“Outside. Thought some fresh air might help,” the man answered, throwing her a greasy smile.

“Oh.” The girl hiccupped. “Good…idea.”

“I’m just full of them. In fact…” The man twisted her up against the side of the building, smashing her body between him and the bricks. “I have another good one.”

Her eyes clouded with confusion. “Hey. Le’ go. I never said—ow!”

The man had wrapped a hand in her hair and was dragging her head back at an awkward angle, abrading the back of her skull against the rough surface.

“You didn’t have to say.” The man licked the girl’s exposed neck, from the tip of her collarbone up across her jaw to the base of her ear. Her pulse leapt in the slick wake.

Roland’s own pulse throbbed in response, his tongue swelling with the need to take his own taste. He clenched his fists, averting his gaze until he could tamp the urge back down.

Innocent. She was innocent. Her only mistake was the stupidity of youth.

“You’ve been flaunting that sweet ass at me all night,” the man continued. “And now I’m going to take it.”

Alcohol, or drugs, or whatever, made it take a moment for his words to sink in. Then the girl’s eyes widened, her mouth forming a shocked “Oh” as her body began to tremble.

“No, please!” she pleaded, showing her first signs of life. Her hands came up, pressing against the broad chest in front of her as tears leaked from her eyes.

The man laughed, spinning her around with a face plant into the brick as if she were some sort of rag doll and he the puppeteer. He twisted her right arm up behind her in a locking hold. At the same time his other hand dived under the hem of her short dress.

“My, my.” He smiled. “Thong. Aren’t we a bad girl?”

The heady mix of sweat, fear, and lust filled the alley below. Roland could barely think, so strong was the call of those scents. He hissed, his fangs slicing into his lips. His nails dug into the brick façade of the building. A slick pool of anticipation slid down the back of his throat. The muscles of his legs tightened.

The man would pay, and the girl? Well, a nice scare should put an end to her partying days.

Roland leapt….

Tortured hero? Check. Fallen hero? Check. And if you’re following the D&D alignments most definitely a chaotic good hero ;-) The point is that none of the heroes or heroines I write are all good, but even when the “bad” is calling them, they want to be.  And isn’t that really the point? Isn’t that decision to be good the true appeal of the hero with that little bit—or gaping chasm as Roland’s case may be—of bad in them?  To quote one of my all-time spunky heroines from my childhood, Anne Shirley, “…I think I'd like it if he COULD be wicked and WOULDN'T.”  Now isn’t that a sexy idea. :-)

DELIVER ME FROM DARKNESS BY TES HILAIRE – IN STORES FEBRUARY 2012

A stranger in the night…

He had once been a warrior of the Light, once of the revered Paladin. A protector. But now he live sin darkness, and the shadows are his sanctuary. Every day is a struggle to overcome the bloodlust. Especially the day Karissa shows up on his doorstep.

Comes knocking on the door…

She is light and bright everything beautiful—despite her scratches and torn clothes. Every creature of the night is after her. So is every male Paladin. Because Karissa is the last female of their kind. But she is his. He may not have a soul, but he can’t deny his heart.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daphne Award-winning author and former Tennessee native Tes Hilaire doesn’t remember how old she was when she wrote her first story, but she’s pretty sure it had something to do with a boy and a girl and a happily ever after.  Displaced at an early age to “the north country,” her stories turned darker as she started creating whole new worlds to escape the harsh, upstate NY winters. Now back in the South, her stories remain edgy, exciting, and bring a hint of dark fantasy to paranormal romance. Best of all, no one ever has to shovel snow. For more, visit her website at www.teshilaire.com.

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-- Lynda Again,

    To enter the drawing for Deliver Me From Darkness, send an email to Lynda@LyndaKScott.com

1) Put Darkness in the Subject line

2) Put your name and address in the body

Send it to me by Thursday and I'll ask my alien kitten, Wookie, to pick the winner.

Good luck and have a Blessed Day!

Review - Deliver Me From Darkness by Tes Hilaire

Deliver Me From Darkness

Tes Hilaire

Sourcebooks, Casablanca

February 2012

Roland is a vampire who was once a Paladin (one of God's warriors.) His best friend is Logan, also a Paladin, was charged with killing Roland when Roland was turned. Logan believes there’s still good in Roland but when he brings a girl to Roland’s apartment for safekeeping, he’s just a little worried by Roland’s reaction to her. Roland doesn’t want the dirty, unkempt bundle in his place and certainly not in his pristine bed but that’s where Logan puts her. And after assuring himself that Roland won’t harm her, he leaves the girl in Roland’s safekeeping. Neither can understand why the denizens of the underworld are after this one girl.

When Karissa wakes and realizes she’s in an apartment with a vampire, she’s terrified. Nothing Roland says can assure her that she’s safe. And nothing he says can assure her she’s safe from him. Her first impulse is to fight for her life.  And when Roland asks her not to touch anything, she makes a point of running her hands over every surface in the ‘germaphobe’s’ apartment. But most surprising is when she tries to teleport away from Roland and he holds on. They pass through God’s area and Roland doesn’t die.

Roland quickly realizes that Karissa is his mate, but she's a Paladin and he's a vampire. He isn’t good enough for her. In his opinion, she deserves someone better, someone like Logan. Slowly Karissa comes to know Roland, seeing the goodness in him and the soul that he refuses to believe he still has. As they battle against their enemies of darkness, she accepts him as her mate. And he finally accepts her even though he hates the idea of her light being attached to someone as dark as he.

I love paranormal but I love it even more when it’s not the same-old, same-old. In Deliver Me From Darkness, we have a new mythology of Paladin warriors descended from angels. Yes, Roland from Deliver Me From Darkness is a vampire but he was once one of these Paladin and that puts a whole new shine on it for me.

There are some, to me, funny spots: the idea of a germaphobe vampire for one. However, that doesn’t mean this is a light paranormal. Not at all. This is a nice dark paranormal that will satisfy those who like their paranormal dark. I have to admit I was not enthralled with the ending. A fresh new book like Deliver Me From Darkness really needed a fresher ending but I won’t tell you any more than that.

Overall, this is the start of a new series that I will be following and enjoying.  I highly recommend it.

Guest - Linda Andrews

Good morning all! Linda Andrews lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, three children and a menagerie of domesticated animals.  While she started writing a decade ago, she always used her stories to escape the redundancy of her day job as a scientist and never thought to actually combine her love of fiction and science. DOH! After that Homer Simpson moment, she allowed the two halves of her brain to talk to each other. The journeys she’s embarked on since then are dark, twisted and occasionally violent, but never predictable.

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Life is not for sissies. It is a full contact sport complete with blood, bruises and broken bones. And in those dark moments, misery doesn't just love company it actively invites all your friends to a house warming party. You know what I mean. Those days when a pity party isn't just you and twenty-four pieces of chocolate covered almond clusters but everyone who calls you, makes eye contact or number among your social network.

Friends are the glue that keeps your life from unraveling.

I once watched a show on human grieving. It didn't cover the usual five stages of grief, it talked about how our web of friends, family and acquaintances effect our emotional stability in times of turbulence and in turn we effect them. Our grief will literally transmit through five layers of friends before disappearing. In other words, in a fit of anger, I share my feeling about Bob's thoughtless comments to friend A who shares it with her friend B (who probably knows me) who shares it with friend C (who doesn't know me) who then gossips about it with friend D and only friend E doesn't feel the residual anger on my behalf.

That means Bob has a whole lotta bad mojo heading his way from complete strangers. (Don't feel sorry for him, he deserved it!)

But it also means that happiness travels those same lines. Friend D will be buoyed by my happiness even though she's never even met me. It says a lot about our level of socialization as humans that different people on our web of friendship can impact our lives.

Which makes it very dangerous emotionally to keep our enemies close. Constantly surrounding ourselves with negativity can eventually drive away friends who buffer us against the meanies moving in our orbit.

And unlike family, we get to choose our friends. My friends are scattered about the country and I neglect some horribly, not contacting them for years at a time. The internet and social media have made it easier to connect, so I've been doing better lately. And when I do get in touch with them, it's like getting a smile from a complete stranger. You don't always know why you got it but it feels pretty good.

Just like friends.

Have you smiled at your friends lately?

So, if you're blessed like I am with a strong web of people around, the next time you talk to them share something good and wonderful. You'll lift the spirits of someone other than the person you're talking to.

The extraterrestrials have landed and they're human.

Rae Hemplewhite didn't believe in aliens until a close encounter with out-of-this-world technology drags her into the extraterrestrial security program. Helping alien refugees adjust to life on Earth is difficult enough, but her first clients have a price on their heads. Plus, her new partner seems torn between the urge to kiss her or kill her.

And that's the good news.

The bad news: Alliances are forming in deep space. If Rae doesn't keep her witnesses alive long enough to transfer their top secret information to the right faction of humanity, Earth will become a battlefield.

Blue Maneuver available now:

http://www.amazon.com/Maneuver-Urban-Fantasy-Extraterrestrial-security-ebook/dp/B006VOKXME/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blue-maneuver-urban-scifi-fantasy-linda-andrews/1108181682?ean=2940013738331&itm=1&usri=blue+maneuver

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/121154

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-- Lynda Again

    Our guest, Linda, has generously offered to make Wookie a very happy alien kitten by offering a free ebook to one lucky Star-Crossed Romance reader. How will you win? You must leave a comment by Friday, Feb 24 WITH your email addy so the ebook can be sent to you.

   Have a Blessed Day!

Twin-Bred by Karen A, Wyle Free on Amazon

Heads Up Announcement! Karen visited our blog back in December with a great post using Twin-Bred as examples. It's an intriguing SF story with romance.

Karen A. Wyle’s science fiction novel Twin-Bred is now available for free borrowing by Amazon Prime members – and on Wednesday and Thursday, February 15^th and 16^th, it’ll be a free download for all comers.