Sci-Fi Romance discussion

I'm sort of new to this group (been lurking since the summer) so I thought I'd introduce myself by sharing a bit of my writing. I'm releasing my first book next month (Jan 2012) or so I hope! The editing's taking a lot longer than I figured it would and I'm beginning to see why traditional publishers keep delaying a book's release!

Here's a blurb about the book from my marketing materials:

A far-future technothriller series about alien/human cultures, genetic engineering, artificial lifeforms + memory manipulation.

Shayla didn't ask to be a Councillor. In fact, she doesn't even belong to this world. She only came here when the Seven Chiefs told her to, to go with Raif, into his world, to do whatever he said. Because they had a plan. The Seven Chiefs always had a plan, but she had plans of her own now, after 13 years here.

Raif had never intended for things to go this far. A few months, maybe a year, and he could send the little Phoenician girl home, back where she belonged. Her people's leaders, the Seven Chiefs, had gotten him started on this quest for answers about his own genetic history. Problem was, the further he'd dug into the mystery, the more questions he had. After producing a Designated Heir, he finds himself in competition with his own progenitor for control of his future.

But nothing is as it seems and no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Ask not who is the enemy and what is their Plan? If you're smart, you'll ask whose Plan is this anyway?

Baldwin hooks you into her world so deeply and completely, you'll wonder if you've been Adjusted yourself! You'll think about this book even when you're not reading it. You'll wonder if that was the Plan all along.

More of a mystery than a thriller, you'll still find yourself on the edge of your seat, unable to stop yourself from turning the next page--and dreading what happens next. The only bad thing to say about this book is that it ends! You'll hardly be able to wait for the next book in the series to come out!

And the cover art:

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Click here to read Ch 1 right now (post says #SciFiSaturday #snippet new opener)

I love the Old School SciFi, action/adventure, more of the human stories than than the alien invasions/horror crossovers which abound these days. I also write Romantic Suspense so writing Romantic SF Thrillers was not much of a leap. I've written SciFi all my life, though. I'm 51 and have been writing since I was 9. SciFi is my first love.

The Phoenician Series is the first major series I wrote (in the 1980s) but these are definitely NOT romance novels. Romantic SF, yes (enough that guys who want space wars with no romance definitely find the relationships I create annoying and the lack of focus on exploding spaceships a flaw) But these are not strictly romance novels.

I think, after having looked over what you folks like/dislike/read/discuss, many of you will like the romantic spin of my suspenseful SciFi action/adventure stories but I won't call it straight romance. I totally break the contract with the reader for a HEA -- or rather, I don't deliver the one you'd expect *haha* There's always a plan!

One spoiler I foreshadow early on (so I'm not really spoilering to tell you this here and now) is that the leading male character is going to die--horribly. It won't be pretty and the leading female character is going to be distraught as a result (to say the least). During the editing, however, I've made her (Shayla) quite a bit stronger and more...how shall I say it? feisty? vengeful? Xena-like? ...not quite the hysterical woman wringing her hands waiting for someone to take care of her that she was in the original version. There are still a myriad of people falling at her feet trying to do everything for her, but she doesn't let them. I've made the contrast full-on now. She's going to come out stronger for Raif's death, not broken from it. That was important to me. Early feedback was that Shayla wasn't likeable enough. She's still a hard lady to like but now she's a good, strong female lead. Hormone driven like my 20 something brain made her but strong like my 51 year old brain knows she must be to survive.

I think the book will interest Romantic SF readers, especially because the love between Raif and Shayla is "world-changing." Literally. The entire world will change once he dies. Raif's book is a "prequel" I outlined in 2005 but haven't yet written. More than 75% of the people reading Conditioned Response have asked for Book 1 next so it will hopefully be coming out later in 2012. I wrote the other 4 books in this series back in the 1986-1992 time period but I didn't know how to write back then. I think I do now. When I'm done editing, there'll probably be 4 books total in the series, taking me 6 months or a year per book (I'm also publishing a series of Romantic Suspense novels, starting in 2012) so the series won't be "done" until 2015 or 2016 which is a long way away. I know some people dislike reading a series before all the books are published. If this is you, I'll see you in a few years.

If you don't mind reading books as they come out, you can start by tasting Ch 1 free on my blog for the series here:

Ch 1 "new opener" (post says #SciFiSaturday #snippet)

I introduce most of the major characters, give a taste of my distinct flavor of voice and style of writing (which people either love or hate; no one's every blase about my writing) and set up the major conflict of the book.

Again, this is not a romance novel. I love romance novels--including the ones like Nora Roberts writes where you can put it down and pick it up again without a thought. This is NOT one of those. There are a lot of characters, the plot's complex, there's a lot of sexual tension (explicit sex and graphic violence, too) and an "epic" love story that will span the entire series but it's not a simple romance novel. This is a Romantic SF action/adventure...or thriller...or suspense/mystery. (grin) All I can guarantee is it's Romantic and SF.

There are a LOT of other snippets on my Webbiegrrl blog (linked from the end of Ch 1 on the Phoenician Series blog) but they are all heavily saturated with SPOILERS. There are no spoilers in Ch 1 (grin)


-sry aka -Friday (Marjorie F. Baldwin, my pen name for SciFi)
aka Webbiegrrl (Sarah R. Yoffa, my pen name for Romantic Suspsense)

Sounds really good!

Thanks, Anna. Have you read any of it yet? Since today is #SciFiSaturday again, I've posted another chapter.

http://bit.ly/CR_Ch1
and
http://bit.ly/CR_Ch2

Despite last week being Christmas Eve and this week being New Year's Eve, I am NOT giving up on the #SciFiSaturday meme and actually have picked up a few new readers off my twitterfeed because of it.

I'm really liking the way the edits are turning out. I'm about 50% done with the worst section of it. The next 40% should go fairly quickly but the last 10% of the book is critical I get it right so it might take an extra look. I'll send the 90% ready files to my First Readers for them to begin their edits and suggestions though. The last 10% of the book has hardly changed at all since I wrote it in 1986. I can't imagine how that happened either! The rest of the book is totally different but somehow I still ended up in the same place (grin)

-Friday

It's great to know where you're going. :-)

I liked the first excerpt. Haven't read the second yet-- kids, etc. Must go drive the Mom-taxi again in a few minutes.

Happy New Year!

AnnaM wrote: "It's great to know where you're going. :-)

I liked the first excerpt. Haven't read the second yet-- kids, etc. Must go drive the Mom-taxi again in a few minutes.

Happy New Year!"

Drive safely--cautiously! Looooots of whackos on the road tonight. Only night worse for drunk drivers is 4th of July!

Happy End-of-the-World-Year to you, too :-)