Sunday, March 12, 2017

Guest Toni V. Sweeney Returns

To our readers, due to a scheduling glitch last month Toni Sweeney's post was partially hidden, so we invited her to return. Welcome back, Toni. 

SINBAD’S TRIUMPH:  You can’t keep a Good Smuggler Down


I never really intended to write a series when I started The Story of a Peace-Loving Man.  It just happened. 

I was just going to tell a love story set in the future, a single-shot, stand-alone novel—of a sexy, strutting half-breed smuggler who hated Terrans and the Earthwoman who made him forget that.  There would be strife, of course, because she was married and he was trying his best to keep from falling in love with her.  There would be adventure as they tracked her fugitive husband across the galaxy through various dens of iniquity, but it would be definitely end Happily Ever After.  As usual with things having to do with Sinbad sh’en Singh, it didn’t turn out that way.

Studying it now, I realize what I really wrote is just one gigantic soap opera set in the future on a planet far, far away…and the introduction to this sudsy space saga might go something like this;

Welcome once again, dear reader, to the Adventures of Sinbad…the stories which ask the question:  can a halfbreed human-hating smuggler find happiness with a very human adopted Navajo in spite of threats from the United Terran Federation and many of his nefarious criminal cohorts? 

Therein lies the question, to misquote ol’ Will Shakespeare, who wrote some mighty epics but whose comedies were slightly soap opera-ish if one wants to look at them close enough.  So why don’t we give the Adventures a once-over and see if they really do qualify to sell soap to the intergalactic masses?

The story of Sinbad and Andi is a lesson in the course of True Love running as rocky as it can. The Story of a Peace-Loving Man is more or less a prequel, telling why the things happened making Sinbad sh’en Singh a smuggler. Then, at the end of Sinbad’s Last Voyage, in between searching for Andi’s husband, fighting off old enemies, and having a child with Andi, Sinbad learns he’s dying of a disease contracted while he was a prisoner in the Toxic Zone, the Federation’s deadliest prison.

Well, I couldn’t just leave it there.  Could I?

I had to get Sin and Andi married, and save my hero to fight another day.  So, along came Sinbad’s Wife, in which, among other things, Sin struggles to convince Andi to make an honest man of him, he discovers he has a 15-year-old son, then promptly collapses into a coma brought on by his terminal disease.  Piling it on even thicker (after all this is a space opera), there is only one doctor who can save Sin and he blackmails Andi into becoming his mistress before he’ll perform the surgery. After much soul-searching, she agrees, and the surgery goes without hitch. Andi is subsequently kidnapped by her former husband, a power-mad Serapian general named Tran, who makes her into a sex slave.  She’s rescued by Sinbad who kills Tran in a duel-to-the-death, but not before Andi has given birth to Tran’s second son.  Sin, a sucker for infants and his wife’s tears, accepts the baby, they go into a clinch…roll credits…

Whew! Are you still with me?  Is this getting pretty sudsy and soapy so far?  Did you see the kitchen sink peeping out from behind that last paragraph? Could I stop after that?  Nosiree

 So, let’s continue:

Sinbad’s Pride:  You can’t keep a good smuggler down!  He tried the Straight-and-Narrow but it just didn’t work,

Sin’s been pardoned by the Federation, he’s a law-abiding citizen (much to his dismay) and he’s back on his home planet, being re-instated as his grandfather’s heir and about to inherit one-third of the planet Felida.  Having now reached the age of thirty-one and considered a mature adult (though Andi sometimes denies that), Sin is bored and looking for some trouble to get into.  He finds it in the Peace Treaty Felida signed after being defeated by the United Terran Federation.  In it there’s a loophole which no one, not even the Federation realizes is there, a clause preventing prosecution of any Pride member for any future crime against the Federation. 

Well! 

When someone who hates the Fed as much as Sin does finds a document like that, you know something big is going down. With the aid of the other Pride Chiefs, Sin decides to turn Felida into the biggest smuggling planet in the galaxy…and thumb his nose at the Fed at the same time.  Of course, there are immediate complications, such as the fact that the Pride Chiefs want a personal affiliation with the operation, and send their nubile daughters to Sin as concubines.  Sin tries to explain to Andi they mean nothing.  It’s all politics.  Andi doesn’t see it that way.  There’s trouble brewing in the bedroom tonight.  And for many nights to come.  If Sin doesn’t watch it, he’s going to be sleeping on the sofa until he’s an octogenerian.



And now we come to Sinbad’s Triumph

At first it may not seem like much of a victory.  In a dogfight with Tsan Hsi who’s been attacking his ships since the Brotherhood returned the trade routes to Sin, Sinbad’s ship the Dream Mariner is shot down and our hero doesn’t walk away from the crash.  Now an invalid, he’s bedridden and for the first time in his life has to rely on others for assistance.

The triumphant part?  How Sin accepts, then overcomes his disability.

 No matter what happens, however, one thing is certain:  Sinbad loves Andi and he’ll do anything to keep that love.  It’s also a story about family, and how a man who has lost everything must now try to keep together the one he’s suddenly blessed with in the face of crises which would usually blast that family apart.  How Sin works it out is an erotic, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic adventure, and one I think readers will enjoy it. 

Kudos for Sinbad’s Triumph:

“You’ll take every rewarding step with Sin as he triumphs over his tragedy, and you respect the way Andi deals with his physical challenges, never giving him any reason to feel he is less of a man than he was before his crash…this plot will have you glued to the pages…you'll be anxious to read book six...I highly recommend this entire series.”—Two Lips Review

“…is just as gripping and exhilarating as its predecessor…”—Amazon Review

“…the dramatic sh’en Singh family dynamics…in this book makes for a truly wonderful read” –Merrylee review

About the Author:

This year, Toni V. Sweeney celebrated her 74th birthday and penned her 74th novel.

Toni has lived 30 years in the South, a score in the Middle West, and a decade on the Pacific Coast and now she’s trying for her second 30 on the Great Plains.

Since the publication of her first novel in 1989, Toni divides her time between writing SF/Fantasy under her own name and romances under her pseudonym Icy Snow Blackstone. Her novels have garnered awards from The National Writers Association, Preditors & Editors, The Maryland Writers Association, and The Paranormal Romance Guild. In March, 2013, she became publicity manager for Class Act Books. She is also on the review staff of the New York Journal of Books and the Paranormal Romance Guild.  Recently she was named a professional reader by netgalley.com.

Sinbad’s Triumph will be released March 15, 2017 by Class Act Books and will be available on the publisher’s website, at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and  Draft2Digital,

More about Toni at:

Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BLQBB8
Twitter: @ToniVSweeney








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4 comments:

J Hali Steele said...

Welcome back!

Diane Burton said...

Best wishes, Toni. This book sounds so interesting.

Maureen said...

Hi Toni! Thanks for sharing! The book sounds great. :)

CJ Burright said...

This series sounds awesome, Toni!