Lots to cover so on your mark, get set, go!
New releases
DOUBLEBLIND, the third book in Ann Aguirre’s Sirantha Jax series, is now available. Here’s the premise:
It’s not easy to tread lightly wearing steel-toed boots.
Sirantha Jax isn’t known for diplomatic finesse. As a “Jumper” who navigates ships through grimspace, she’s used to kicking ass first and taking names later—much later. Not exactly the obvious choice to sell the Conglomerate to the Ithtorians, a people whose opinions of humans are as hard as their exoskeletons.
And Ithiss-Tor council meetings aren’t the only place where Ambassador Jax needs to maneuver carefully. Her lover, March, is frozen in permanent “kill” mode, and his hair-trigger threatens to sabotage the talks—not to mention their relationship.
But Jax won’t give up on the man or the mission. With the Outskirts
beleaguered by raiders, pirates, and the flesh-eating Morgut, an
alliance with Ithiss-Tor may be humanity’s only hope. Which has
Jax wondering why a notorious troublemaker like her was given the job…
Read an excerpt of DOUBLEBLIND here. Stay tuned for Ann Aguirre’s Author Supernova feature (and a sweet giveaway) here at TGE!
GUARDIAN marks the release of book two in Claire Delacroix’s “trilogy of future-set fantasy romances featuring fallen angel heroes.” Here’s the premise:
The Eyes of the Republic are Everywhere.
The victim of what she believes is a malicious kidnapping, seer Delilah Desjardins quickly realizes that her abductor is on a mission to save her from assassins. Rafe, a fallen angel, must ensure that Delilah, blessed with the gift of foresight, reaches her true calling as an oracle for the Republic--and if his divine calling results in a more earthly relationship between the two of them, well, he doesn’t mind that at all.
Drawn to Rafe, but fearing the loss of her gifts should she surrender to his charms, Delilah knows she has to leave him. But fleeing his guardianship sets the assassins on her trail again. As Rafe races to save Delilah, he knows he isn’t just saving her for the good of the Republic, for the angels, or for the future--he’s saving her for himself.
Read an excerpt of GUARDIAN here. The author guest blogged about GUARDIAN at RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Talk in Angels Among Us?.
Spacefreighters’ Lounge recently announced the forthcoming release of Barbara Elsborg’s futuristic erotic romance LUCY IN THE SKY (October 21). Being that the author is near and dear to the SL community, I thought you might be interested in this particular ebook of hers. Here’s the premise:
When you wake up to find a spaceship in your backyard, what do you do? Choose from three:
Phone the police.
Scream.
Go yell at the alien for wrecking your garden.
Lucy storms out of her house to confront the inept pilot and the last option turns out to be both the right and wrong choice when she finds the gorgeous hunk’s name is Three. She’s torn between fury that he’s not only crushed her roses but decapitated her statue of Eros, and a longing that he enliven her boring life and whisk her to the stars. Three doesn’t give her a choice when he throws her over his broad shoulders and takes her into space. Lucy soon finds herself exploring alien territory in ways she never imagined.
Three’s efforts to hide and protect her on the mother ship are stymied by his inability to keep his hands—and other body parts—off the luscious Lucy, and it looks as if her immediate fate might be a solo trip into space without a spacesuit.
You can read an excerpt of LUCY IN THE SKY here.
Now for other news in the science fiction romance universe:
This ‘n’ that
Here’s a sneak peek at the cool blue cover for Gayle Ann Williams’ TSUNAMI BLUE (Dorchester, April 2010):
Members of the Dirty Sexy Book Club have voted on a book for their October science fiction romance spotlight. And the chosen book is…CLOSE ENCOUNTERS: AN ALIEN AFFAIR NOVEL by Katherine Allred. Ladies, thanks again for spotlighting science fiction romance, and happy reading!
Online College has posted the 100 Best Blogs for Book Reviews. The team was kind enough to include The Galaxy Express in the “Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Adventure” category. Please do check out this amazing list.
On steampunk
Not to be outdone by Steampunk Romance Day here at The Galaxy Express (*tongue firmly in cheek*), Tor.com has declared October as Steampunk Month! Looks pretty dang swell!
Interview with Katie Macalister (STEAMED) (Thanks to SciFi Guy for the link. Check out his recent, fantastic Urban Fantasy Weekend Report).
Interview with Cherie Priest (BONESHAKER)
Gail Carriger (SOULLESS) presents An Entirely Unpreferential List of Steampunky Books.
Digital Publishing News
The title says it all: Google’s move into e-books could be explosive. (Thanks to Rowena Cherry for the link).
My new favorite site for romance ebook news is Kindling Romance: News for Writers and Readers of Romance Fiction in eBook Format. In Ebooks to Leave Print Book Sales in the Paper Dust by 2018, proprietor Aileen Harkwood posted this tidbit: “In just nine short years, eBook sales will dominate the market.” Holy dedicated devices, Batman!
Looks like ebook shopping just got easier: Inkmesh is a new ebook search engine.
At Romancing The Blog, Croco Designs presents a behind the scenes look at covers in Crowdsourcing. Stock images aren’t just for ebooks anymore—mainstream print publishers are increasingly jumping on the stock image bandwagon.
Just the sex, ma’am…?
Jason Henninger presents the post SpecFicSex at Tor.com. I really need to get over there and post on “SpecFicRomance,” eh? (Thanks to Dirty Sexy Books for the link.)
For writers
Over at Spacefreighters’ Lounge, Donna S. Frelick blogs about the importance of Putting Yourself Out There/RWA Part II
She Writes “is a new social network” for women writers. Lots of ideas for promotion at this site.
Joyfully yours,
Heather