#SundaySnippet from A Noble Sacrifice

Thought I'd revisit one of my older books. It's Eppie time and I won the Eppie for the 2008 Science Fiction Futuristic Romance section with this story.  A Noble Sacrifice.

“You lie.” Joyelle held the controller higher. “You’d serve your

brother’s clan before you serve mine.”

Tared didn’t understand her illogical reasoning. She didn’t want

to give him up, yet she still professed a fear of the physical side of a
relationship. Had she finally accepted Fate’s plan for them? Surely, she
didn’t expect their relationship to remain the same.

“Should you wish it, I will claim you for mate before all these

witnesses.” He nodded toward his brethren.

“No!” A panicked expression fell across her features. “You’re my

slave. Nothing more.”

It dawned on him then what motivated her reasoning. She

didn’t want to be alone. She wanted a man by her side, but one with
no sexual claim upon her body. As slave, he would be with her always,
but on her terms. His brows creased, and he took a step toward her.

“’Tis time you learned I’m more than a slave.”

“Not another step.” The controller trembled between her

fingers. She steadied it by wrapping both hands about the small box
and pointing it at his neck. “Please. I don’t want to hurt you in front of
your clan.”

He ignored her order and took another step. Perhaps it was

best he show the Verside the spark that flowed between them. In this
manner, he would make his claim. She would forgive his
highhandedness once she learned not to fear him.

“No!” She pushed the button on the controller.

Angela Renee and her out-of-this-world romance

Please Welcome Angela Renee as she talks about her new release, You Are Mine.

Did you always want to be a writer? When did you know you wanted to pursue writing as a career? I have always been a story teller, but I never considered being a writer. Then one day I was watching the Twilight Zone and these people were transported from earth to another planet. Something happened to me. What would happen if a spaceship landed in Grant Park (a huge park in Chicago)? I had to write this story. After I wrote You Are Mine, I sent it to an editor and she said it was good. I’d caught the writing bug, and the rest is history.

Tell us about your writing “cave”.  Are you organized or messy? Do you have a dedicated place to write or do you have to go to the local coffee shop for quiet time? I have a quiet room in my home. It has a television in it, but it is rarely on. I like to create in complete silence.

Will this story be a stand alone or are you already plotting a sequel? You Are Mine is a stand alone. I don’t know if I have the mentality to write series. I’m the type of person who likes for the entire series to be out, then I purchase the whole thing and read it. I can’t imagine writing a series. I can’t write fast enough. It would drive me crazy.

 Was the hero fashioned from someone you know or was he a fabulous manifestation of your imagination?  D’Jarus is fashioned after my ideal man (except the being from another planet thing). He’s strong, handsome, confident, intelligent, Alpha, yet not so much so that you want to strangle him.

I took a look at your website and I love the blurb for this book. Can you share the blurb with our readers?

In the hundreds of special assignments Erica Morgan has worked, there was nothing that prepared her for waking one morning on an alien spaceship. More surprisingly, her captor and adversary, the leader of this mission, is the one man who could make her want to leave her home planet and embrace a different life.

D’Jarus Commodore doesn’t want a wife, but his planet is slowly dying, and their salvation lies in the people of Earth. As leader of Darien, he chooses to make a sacrifice and be the first to marry a terran. His captive bride, Erica, is like no other being he has ever met. At first sight he knows he must have her, but for obvious reasons—he did kidnap her after all—she resists him every step of the way.

Website/Blog: http://www.authorangelarenee.com/

Buy links: Purchase the Print Version ($9.99) or the electronic version Nook, Kindle ($3.99)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Angela-Renee/224764087637836

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/angelareneebook

Ciara, thank you so much for allowing me to take over your blog today.

Regeneration, the Nano Way

Here's the scenario: It's war and a soldier is shot. Not only is his wound becoming infected, but he's suffering from internal organ damage.

Right now the chance of survival would be iffy and even if he lived, there'd be scarring and some lasting effect. But, think about in the future when doctors could just apply nanotechnology. It would repair the damaged organ, kill the infection, and even assist in healing the open wound by growing back new skin.

That's crazy, right? I mean, you can't just fix what's broken. You can maybe stitch it together, but it'll never be what it was, right?

Wrong.

Right now nano-focused science is now moving small solutions into the big picture of life. Nanoscale technology and science is being developed in the areas of military, space, consumerism, and healthcare.

In fact there's research going on for nanotechnology gel that promotes nerve cell regrowth. Reading this, my fictional brain went on overdrive, thinking about the direction this all would take. Imagine nanotechnology that would promote the regrowth of limbs, organs, and bone.

What do we think about when some says nanotechnology? Well, I don't know about you but I think of the evil robot from Terminator 2. They used nanoscale metal and circuits that molded into any shape. In a sense, that's exactly what nanotechnology is. nano is a Greek word that means one billionth the size of something. So, a nanometer is one billionth of a meter. The tech part would be a combination of the individual scale objects combining together for a common, larger purpose.

But, you really have to envision beyond metal and circuits and beyond the visually large object. Most likely, you will never see any nano size tech with your naked eye. It'll always be on a teeny little thing.

This is especially true in the realm of healthcare. Most of the nano research direction in healthcare involves organic nano material. Nano particles. If successful, they will carry drugs, enzymes, and cell substances to get to work on an infected/impacted area. I can see them ultimately containing accelerant substances that will speed up the recovery and repair work from months, to only days. Maybe even hours, depending on the severity of the problem.

I was so excited about this prospect that I worked the science into my new SFR release, Duty and Devotion. Nano health really lent itself well to the military setting. I made sure to add limits because, well, that's life. (I mean come on the future's still gotta hold challenges to solve.) So, in my future nano world organs, bone and skin can be regenerated from nanotechnology but only if some part of the original substance remained.

Older sister Nettie, one of the main characters in Duty and Devotion ended up in a serious war accident and was rushed to the medical ward to be fixed. The scene below is her waking up and hearing from the doctor what they were able to fix...and what they weren't.

EXCERPT:

The nurse brought a tray of food in. At least, she said the goopy gelatin like substance was food. All three were dubious about the truth of that as they poked at it.

"Out, out," the nurse chided them, pushing and prodding both Kaitlin and Oliver out the door. She pointed at Nettie and then at the food. "Eat it."

Nettie continued to poke at the pile, relieved when the physician strolled in, James behind him with his clipboard. He winked at her and leaned against the far wall.

"Good morning. How are you feeling?" the physician asked.

"Felt like I just had a hot flash. I tell ya, I'm falling apart." Nettie pushed the rolling tray aside. He smiled and tapped the electronic chart. "Okay. What's the damage and what were you able to fix?"

The physician's smile wavered. He took a seat on a tall rolling chair beside her. "Well, that's the question of the hour isn't it? I'm proud to say we were able to save most of your internal organs, re-growing replacement tissue for those partially damaged. And as you can see, we were able to reattach your leg with nano nerve and skin engineering."

"But... " She urged him on.

"But, your ovaries and fallopian tubes were too damaged to fix. It's a very sensitive area and there was nothing left to rejuvenate."

Nettie felt stunned and her mind went blank. "What? What does that mean?"

*****

If you want to learn more about nano tech, here's some links for you to start:

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/14883/?mod=related&a=f

http://www.discovernano.northwestern.edu/affect/applications_content/medicine/regeneration
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1405623/

If you want to learn more about me, stop by my blog: Adventures of a Sci-Fi Writer

Duty and Devotion is available at Desert Breeze, All Romance Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Kobo, and the Apple iBookstore.

Dragon King

Just have to share but I got my new cover today for Dragon King. This book will be an April Release!

Pretty amazing, eh? The artist for this one if Amanda Kelsey.  All I can say is that the covers get better and better.

Crewkin and guest blogger, Rhobin Lee Courtright

Please welcome guest blogger, Rhobin Cartwright who has a new release coming in February.  To help her get the word out, I'm posting an excerpt along with the cover art for her new release.

Excerpt from Crewkin:

Renna felt as lifeless as Sen's cold body on the bed next to her. She packed her possessions in her travel bag with careful precision. They were few enough. Everything else belonged to the ship, or the crewkin as a whole, so reverted to Markham Company. Renna didn't care. She needed no reminders. The vision of the bodies of her kin, removed one after another from this hospital room promised memory enough.
"You can't survive."

The doctor echoed Sen's last warning. A glance showed the doctor, leaning against the door, watching her, waiting. She didn't know his name. He never identified himself. Another anonymous Markham employee, dressed in a Markham medical uniform, as foreign to her as everyone else.

Years of ingrained prohibitions prevented the response screaming inside. She controlled her voice. "You recommend I join Sen, join my crew?" Like you and your staff encouraged her? Helped her? A final joining? Bastard. Renna closed her bag.

Truth struck her. I don't want to. I'm afraid of dying. Coward. She couldn't look at Sen, loyally joined with her dead kin.

"Where will you go? You are genetically unfit to live planet-side and mentally unprepared to interact with another ship's crew. Crewkin are longhaulers, not shortrunners. We recommend a final joining because we know you won't fit in."

Renna looked around the windowless, beige room, now mostly empty with her kin and their hospital beds removed. Only Sen's bed and hers remained. Sleeping alone in a bed had seemed so strange. Perhaps another unspoken means to encourage her kin to their final joining? Although her eyes burned, she held no more tears.

"My problem, doctor." Me, mine, my, such strange pronouns after we, ours, and us- now unimportant, like everything else.

Renna snapped the closures on her bag and turned to the door. He remained, relaxed against the doorframe.

"The staff understands your pain, no matter what you think. I've seen kin like you before. You're conditioned to survive within your own society. Believe me, we only want to provide for your needs, for your comfort."

Renna looked away, escaping his gaze. No. Not me. Her kin, her future, her known existence ended with Markham3's failure, yet she refused the doctor's cure. In the awkward silence, she left. He didn't move as she passed. She sidled around him to prevent any touch. He huffed, shaking his head in unvoiced comment on her defiance.

For more information on Rhobin and her work, you can find her at http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com/. For information on Crewkin, http://museituppublishing.com/ 

Things tend to move backwards for me

I must admit that my publishing experience seems a bit backwards to me. I started out in the traditional manner. A friend got me hooked on writing by joining a critique group and together, she and I joined a local RWA chapter. I have a drawer full of contest wins and rejection letters to indicate my desire to get my stories published but ....

Another friend hooked me up with Champagne Books and while I did query in the traditional manner, I think it was her good word and endorsement that helped land me my first contract. As a relatively new publisher at the time, Celestial Dragon floored them with the amount of sales generated that first month. Floored me too. So much so, that they put it into traditional paperback form a year later. And now, almost three years later, I find out it's coming out in hardback. Wow.

So, yeah, backwards. Most big name authors start with hardback, then paperback, and then e-book. For me, it was e-book, paperback and now hardback. Why? The genre. Since my book fits in with sci-fi, and my other sci-fi author buds, Kerry Tolan and Todd Hunter have been attending sci-fi cons, the publisher is more than happy to put our books in hardback because they tend to sell even better at cons in this format.

I'm so excited. I can hardly wait to see it. You'll be hearing me jump for joy whenever I hold that sucker in my hands. Whoop!