Author Diane Dooley is here to dish about
how she’s expanding her debut science fiction romance BLUE
GALAXY into all sorts of fun installments. She has the creative freedom to
approach sci-fi romance from a new angle and it sounds like the journey will be
a real treat for readers whose motto is “expect the unexpected.”
Let’s
dive in!
The Galaxy Express: Please describe the world
of your Blue trilogy in the form of a travel brochure.
Diane
Dooley: Enter the Blue Universe at your own peril. This is an experience for
only the most foolhardy of travelers.
Leave the
starving and environmentally-degraded Planet Earth behind aboard a charming rustbucket
of a space freighter. Be sure the captain isn’t drunk when he enters the jump
coordinates. Share nutripacks with the captain’s delightful companion, but DO
NOT piss her off.
Enjoy the
brothels and drug dens of the space station, Artemis, the fabled ‘last port
before the dark,’ being careful not to encounter the station’s owner, the man
they say is guilty of crimes against humanity. Go jump around the universe,
being careful to avoid the space pirates, warlords, murderers and lunatics.
Do not go
to Valhalla Station! If it’s all too much for you, ask to be dumped on the
dull-as-ditchwater planet, Pastorale. Wait there in utter boredom until you are
rescued and returned to Earth to die a slow death of starvation. Bon voyage!
TGE: What is the title of the second
installment? Can you give us a hint about the premise?
DD: It’s
called Blue Nebula. The first part of
the trilogy, Blue
Galaxy, was written entirely from
the hero, Javan Rhodes’, point of view. Blue
Nebula continues the story from the heroine, Sola de la Vega’s, point of
view. Being that she is a very bad girl, I’m hoping that readers will enjoy
finally getting to see things from her perspective. Sola was a bit too bad
for many romance readers’ tastes, but she really is a very tragic figure and
the poor thing has so much to learn about being a decent human being.
The story
follows Sola on her mission to destroy the murderous dictator of Earth, while
trying to be a good little wife to her beloved husband. Of course, there will
be all the usual twists and turns I do so love to write. *grin*
TGE: When can readers get their virtual hands
on BLUE NEBULA?
DD: It
will be released by Carina
Press in September, 2012. I’ll be doing some giveaways shortly before the
release date, though. Details will be on my blog sometime in August.
TGE: Where does the Blue trilogy
fall along the SF-romance continuum?
DD: I
consider it science fiction with romantic elements. The romance is front and
center in Blue Galaxy, less so in Blue Nebula, and goes in a totally
different direction in the final part of the trilogy, Blue Planet.
TGE: What did you eat for breakfast today?
DD: How strange. I actually did eat
breakfast today for the first time in years. I’m under doctor and husband
orders, you see. I forced down two slices of toast with my usual pot of coffee.
TGE: You recently won
a short story competition at Haunted
Waters Press with your entry,
“Monster.” Congratulations! What inspired this story?
DD: I’d
been struggling to write the final part of the Blue trilogy, mainly because one
of the characters was giving me great difficulty. I was having a hell of a time
getting inside her head and understanding her. Then Haunted Waters announced a
three hundred word flash fiction challenge with the theme of ‘hindsight.’ I got
inspired and, in less than thirty minutes, I wrote a short story from the
perspective of that tricky character. I understand her much better now.
TGE: How is “Monster” related to your Blue trilogy?
DD: It’s
written from the point of view of a character who never actually gets a POV in
the trilogy itself. She’s alluded to in Blue
Galaxy, makes a brief appearance in Blue
Nebula, and becomes a major character in Blue Planet. Her name is Hathaway Jones.
TGE: When will “Monster” be released, and
where can readers find it?
DD: “Monster”
appears in the recently-released Summer
2012 issue of From the Depths, Haunted Waters Press’
quarterly literary journal. I was pretty shocked to win the competition,
to be honest. I wear the title ‘genre hack’ with pride; I never thought my
writing would be pretty enough for the literary world and I was up against some
stellar writers. I was gobsmacked when they announced the winner.
Haunted
Waters did an absolutely beautiful job with the journal. Check out the summer
issue (and the two previous issues) to see a wondrous combination of art,
literature and technology.
[Heather here. I’m jumping in to add that “Monster” is a
great read, but be warned: the story packs a tragic punch. Still, it’s worth
venturing into non-HEA SFR territory for this one. Plus, it's free!).
TGE: Name an interesting fact or element you
discovered in a science fiction romance book, film, or television show.
DD: Firefly taught me some very important
things. It managed to combine sci fi, romance, and horror in ways I really
enjoyed. In particular, the horror elements (the traumatic story of what was
done to River Tam and what they turned her into, the freakin’ Reavers!, etc)
showed me ways in which I could combine my three favorite genres into a unified
whole. I like westerns just fine, but I do think Firefly overdid that aspect a
tad. And so I also learned about the importance of balance in multi-genre
stories.
TGE: Where can readers find you?
DD: All
over the shiny ‘verse *grin* I’m building a website, I blog at Writing, Stuff and Nonsense and Contact: Infinite Futures. I tweet, I facebook. It’s not hard to track me down. Readers should feel
free to come holla at me in any of these places.
About the
author:
Diane
Dooley writes science fiction, romance and horror - sometimes all in the same
story. She writes short stories, novellas and novels - for her sins. She reads
- a lot.
***
Ms. Dooley, thanks so much for your time, and for your art.
Joyfully yours,
Heather