Dark Light On... Jess Anastasi

Today's Darklight On is ... Jess Anastasi

Welcome, Jess 

When Its A Long Time Coming...

Its a little surreal that I'm sitting here writing this post, staring down the release of Atrophy on Monday. Nearly every author will say that they have a book or series of their heart, and for me, Atrophy is it. Anyone who has known me for a number of years will have heard all about this book and the longish journey I took in getting it published. So I'm sorry to those people, but I'm about to do some rehashing. If you want to skip down to the blurb, then the moral of this story is going to be the old cliche of "never give up." Or, if you're a Foo Fighters fan, then you'll appreciate the quote from the lyrics of their song Best Of You that I have written on the top of my whiteboard in my study: "I swear I'll never give in, I refuse." 

So. Atrophy. I wrote this book back in 2008. I was post-studies (Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing), just had my first daughter and feeling the burn of not being published despite the fact I'd been writing for seven years. I had been struggling to do that magic thing all other, more experienced authors tell you, "find your voice." Despite trying to write historical romance, paranormal romance, and romantic suspense, and having the basics down, I wasn't quite "there" yet. Something was missing that would take my writing to the next level.

Around this time, I started working with my critique partner, Erin Grace, who basically went to town on my work (in a totally good way) and taught me a lot in a short amount of time. I'd been reading some sci-fi romances like Linnea Sinclair, but hadn't seriously considered writing a sci-fi romance myself, because I had this silly misconception that only super-smart people wrote sci-fi, and since science was never one of my strongest points, didn't think I could convincingly pull it off.

The idea for Atrophy had been sitting in my mind for years, ever since I'd watched Firefly about three or four years earlier. I'd also been heavily into other sci-fi TV shows like Stargate and Farscape.
After some back and forth with my crit partner, who may have even issued some kind of challenge, I decided to write Sanctuary, which would later become the first book I got published.
When I sat down to start Sanctuary -- which I was calling a paranormal romance set in space -- I was doing it for no other reason than fun and wanting to see if I could carry the weight of the sci-fi mantle.
And something happened. Words flowed. Characters cooperated. Dialogue was easy. It was like nothing else I'd ever written before. Sanctuary was only novella length, but by the time I finished it, I knew I'd struck the muse's chord perfectly. I also knew that I had to write Atrophy.

The only two things I knew when I started Atrophy was that I wanted to write a Firefly-inspired story about a close-knit crew working and living on a small ship. I also wanted the captain of that ship to be seriously dark with one heck of a tortured past. And when brainstorming with another writing friend of mine (who was more into screenplays at the time), she had a character named Rian, which I immediately fell in love with (the name, not the actual character). While she wasn't sure what she was doing with her work, I asked her if I could "borrow" Rian and the captain of the Imojenna came to life.

When I'd finished writing Atrophy, I knew that I had something unique in my files of unfinished and unpublished manuscripts, something I'd never be able to recreate even if I tried. I had discovered my voice, and I had written the book of my heart.

The journey of getting this book published is another long story, filled with many, many, many rejections. At the time it was frustrating, but now I can see that everything no doubt happened exactly how it was meant to. When I sent Atrophy to Entangled and they were so excited about it -- particularly my editor who helped me put the final shine into the story with some very awesome editorial advice -- I knew I'd found the right home. The home Atrophy was meant to have to see its full potential.

Some of the pre-release reviews have compared Atrophy to Firefly and its only made it all that much more surreal because Joss Whedon is my idol (seriously, I would pretty much fan-girl and die if I ever met him). 

And like the final touch to what is already an amazing gift, my publisher surprised me with the mother of all release parties -- they're hosting a live viewing event on twitter featuring the pilot episode of Firefly.
Yes, this was a long time coming. But I can say that it was definitely worth the wait.

No one on Erebus escapes alive...

Twelve years on the prison planet Erebus makes a man long for death. The worst part for Tannin Everette is that he was framed for murder. He’s innocent. When the ship Imojenna lands for emergency repairs, Tannin risks everything to escape…only to find himself face to face with the captain’s undeniably gorgeous sister.

Zahli Sherron isn’t planning on turning Tannin in. In fact, she actually believes him. Sure, he’s sexy as every kind of sin, but he’s no criminal—so she hides him. But no one escapes from Erebus and lives to tell about it. With every day that passes, Zahli further risks the lives of the entire crew…even as she falls in love with a man she can never have for herself.

Amazon

Entangled Publishing 

www.jessanastasi.com

 **Australian Time -- Thursday 10th December at 1pm AEST
On twitter: 
@JessAnastasi
@entangledpub

Thanks, Jess

 

Magic Thursday with Anna Hackett: Writing Rip-Roaring Space Opera

On a Rogue Planet, the third installment of my science fiction romance series, The Phoenix Adventures, is out this week (cue happy dance!) This series is set far into the future where Earth as we know it no longer exists and treasure hunters and astro-archeologists vie for valuable old Earth artifacts. There's action, adventure, treasure hunts and the dashing, treasure-hunting Phoenix brothers: Dathan, Zayn and Niklas.

The Phoenix Adventures are also space opera. Space opera is a play on the term ‘soap opera’ – these stories are larger than life, emphasize the romantic, are filled with adventure, all in a space setting. They tend to be a little bit lighter on the technology and science aspects of science fiction, and more focused on the characters and the adventure.

I thought I’d share a few of my tips for writing action-packed space opera but still keep it accessible to your readers:

1)      Make your characters larger than life (but give them some weaknesses!)

2)      Introduce some fun, sci-fi gadgets (but don’t overdo it, have some ‘normal’ stuff as well)

3)      Use some fun, sci-fi names (but don’t give everyone unpronounceable names!)

4)      Keep the pace moving fast (but give your characters a few tiny breathers)

5)      Have fun! Starship battles…go for it. Evil aliens…sure thing. Space monsters…why not? 

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Unlucky-in-love salvage mechanic, Malin Phoenix, didn’t intend to get caught up in a coup and kidnapped by a sexy cyborg. But she finds herself swept into an adventure to help the deadly, emotionless CenSec, Xander Saros, retrieve an ancient Terran artifact and save his planet. 

Soon she’s racing across uncharted space and is magnetically drawn to the cyborg whose strong arms and muscled body ignite a desire that burns brighter than a supernova. But Mal can never let herself forget that she can’t fall in love with a cyborg who can never love her back.

The crowning glory of the Centax Security program, Xander is heavily enhanced, his emotions dampened to nothing to allow him to be the most efficient, lethal killer in the galaxy. As he and Malin hunt for the remnant of the galaxy’s first computer, the Antikythera Mechanism, their quest leads them into the lair of a dangerous technomancer. But Xander can’t identify his greatest threat—the enemy or the fascinating woman who’s making him feel.

For more info on the book >> Read More

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I’m Anna Hackett and I’m passionate about action romance. I love stories that combine the thrill of falling in love with the excitement of action, danger and adventure. You can find me at all the usual places: Website | Blog | Amazon | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Enchanted Orb: Imogene Nix

Welcome to the Enchanted Orb - a look at the inspiration behind the DarkSider's tales.

Our guest today is Imogene Nix. Take it away, Imogene!

Inspiration

Welcome to my run at the Enchanted Orb with the Dark Siders. It is a real thrill to be here (and among some seriously huge names), as I have just celebrated the release of my first novel, Starline, a SciFi Romance, I kind of on a bit of a high.

Where do you start? Well, that is the question, kind of, isn’t it? What brought me to this time and place in space? By that, I mean writing romance with a science fiction bend? I have been a romance reader since my teens. I was one of those kids with a secret addiction of Mills and Boon (yes, I too used to steal my mother’s – but don’t tell my youngest daughter because she tries to do that now!), New Idea with the serialized books (Janet Dailey was right up there for me), not to mention my local travelling library. Gosh, that just about says it all, doesn’t it? But how do you make the jump from a good Mills and Boon interspersed with frequent helpings of Barbara Cartland and Janet Dailey to writing Science Fiction? Blame Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony and others of the same ilk for that one, I’m afraid. Add to that a true love of romance (sorry, can’t hide that no matter how hard I might have tried in the past. Now it is no longer an issue!)

My inspiration didn’t stop there, though. Making the leap from sweet romance to science fiction needs a little more help, so along the way I picked up Alexander Kent’s Richard Bolitho series (and yes I am still collecting them as he continues to release the titles in this series), which gave me a grounding into naval life. You need that to understand lots of the talk about intelligence and command structures and I just soak those up. (Well that is what I tell my husband anyway!)

It certainly wouldn’t have been complete without the help of Star Trek (sorry, not the original or even Next Generation – though I did enjoy it on a purely visual basis). Voyager opened up the completely strong female leader thing for me, and Seven of Nine helped along that path as well (sorry Ba’Lana but I found you harder to take to – could have been the little Miss Turtle Head thing). Throw in the likes of Firefly, Farscape and even the works of Linnea Sinclair and you get a bit of a broader idea of how I got here. There is something though about standing under a dark moon, and watching the stars twinkle. You wonder what it would be like to travel to far distant planets and be the first to walk on the surface as a human. Exploration bubbles in my blood, keeping me alive and young.

That wasn’t the end of it. Not by a long shot. After I discovered Anne McCaffrey and Linnea Sinclair, I started looking around. But no matter how hard I scoured, I hate to say it, but good Science Fiction romance is still very thin on the ground (well for that matter, so is Bad Science Fiction Romance Lol!). I struggled to find books in that vein that were enjoyable and not a “boys own” with a smattering of romance thrown in, or a good romance, that just happens to have SciFi concepts.

Naturally then, I decided my first book would have to be a SciFi romance. Once again, it kind of harks back to my daytime job. I sell books. For a living J But I just don’t see a lot of SciFi romance coming along. Not that this is my main reason for writing it, but it just is such an empty category.

Anyway, I also don’t mind the odd bit of blood and gore…oh and intimate moments too. Not that I am a voyeur, but there is something in those moments where two people find the ultimate connection. I do not mind some of the encounters. Nothing wrong with a bit of spice in your life. Mind you, I was as surprised as all heck when I got classified as erotica. Me? Writing erotic fiction? Wow! That rather astounded me.

My addiction to romance though, took a major turn in 2011 when I decided the time had come to stop procrastinating and actually achieve something positive. Sure, I was one of those people who started – many times…wrote half a dozen paragraphs and never went back to writing them. Maybe it was a case of not ready, the wrong genre or one of a dozen other reasons. I really don’t know, myself. Maybe it wasn’t time and the stars needed to align properly, but many of those ideas faded like a week picked flower.

In 2011 though, I decided the time had really come to knuckle down. So I did. Between March and May I wrote. Did very little else, while the housework piled up, the kids griped and husband was extremely understanding. I wrote all hours of the day and night. I tapped away on my poor little laptop until I finished the story that was screaming in my head to escape. Oh boy…so now what I asked myself? Between May and October I kept asking myself that, but I found people I could ask, talk to when I joined the Romance Writers of Australia and haven’t looked back since. Now, what does that have to do with inspiration? For me, lots. These were people from all walks of life, finished and published, or new to the writing scene, or waiting for publishing…they were at all stages and they all had some piece of knowledge and experience to share. I soaked up the experience on those boards.

Having said all this about Science Fiction, don’t get me wrong because I also dabble in paranormal, and yes, fangs are the word du jour. Honestly, there is just something so sexy about a man with fangs, that you just want to…well, hang on, yes, this blog is PG rated after all. Lol!

Anyway, I hope that gives you an insight into my inspiration for writing, the burning desire that keeps me up until 2 am in the morning tapping on the keyboard, so that by the time I take the kids to school, I am definitely bleary eyed. Imogene Nix