GUEST: Laurie A. Green The Story Behind the Story @AuthorLaurieAGreen

Pets+Space: The Story Behind the Story 

In early 2016, I was asked by Pauline Baird Jones if I wanted to be part of a new science fiction romance anthology, Pets in Space. Wait, what? Pets plus space! Coolest idea ever! Yes! Count me in.

But in spite of my enthusiasm, I was a little unsure what sort of pet I’d write about or what kind of premise I could dream up for a new tale to be part of my Inherited Stars series. It didn’t take long to realize I’d done a bit of musing on the heroine of a future novel having some sort of a starship-friendly pet, possibly a ferret or weasel. When I started to brainstorm on that, I realized it might work as an expanded concept.

But my ferret-weasel didn’t stay a mustelid for long. It soon evolved into a bio-engineered StarDog. That mental process went something like this…

Fifteen hundred years in the future, animals will most likely be bred for different purposes than they are today. If they’re bred at all. By then, bio-engineering may be commonplace to produce animals that perform specific functions, like being the perfect shipboard mascots on space crafts as well as skilled vermin hunters to keep the vessels “clean.” So to build my pet, I needed an animal well-suited to a closed environment that would also incorporate desirable traits to perform these specific tasks. What might that genetic recipe look like?

Going back to the original idea, I started with a bit of weasel DNA. Weasels are small, agile and terrific vermin hunters in the wild. But my pet wouldn’t be in the wild, so it also needed some user-friendly genetics from domesticated canine and feline genes. Traits that would incorporate the loyalty of dogs with the easy-care attributes of cats. Obviously you can’t walk a pet in space, so the critter needed to have instincts to use a granule box while in flight, much like a housecat.

But my mascot needed something more: Attitude. It had to be fearless enough to take on the worst of starship pests, like snakes, scorpions and their future counterparts. That’s how the natural abilities of the champion of all vermin wranglers—the venom-resistant mongoose—got blended into the mix.

A pet was born—or, incubated—for the first Pets in Space story.

Adding StarDogs to my universe led to a number of series-altering effects. For instance, how does the heroine come by such an exotic animal? Surely they’d be expensive. What was the backstory of my StarDog?

As those ideas began to unfold, the entire series evolved right along with my StarDog. New characters emerged, such as the scientist who created StarDogs and his affiliation with the covert Network, an entity that played an important role in the companion novel, Inherit the Stars. Fresh conflicts sparked; StarDogs were employed as spies on enemy ships. Lurking dangers threatened; those enemies sought to wipe out the StarDog lab. The finished story was one I was truly proud of but that also added some unexpected twists and layers to the whole storytelling arc behind the series and future books.

When I was asked if I’d like to write a new story for a second Pets in Space collection, I was stymied all over again. What pet would I write about this time? Maybe a story about a horse in space? Someday, but this was not that day. Crocodile in space? No, not my idea of a cuddly pet. Guinea pig in space? Hmmm. Very cute, but the idea just didn’t take hold. Nothing seemed to be clicking, until I remembered that Captain Navene Jagger and Ketsia Tayah, two of the original minor characters in Inherit the Stars were meant to have their own adventure post Inherit the Stars…and what if their story involved a StarDog?

And so it does. ;)

Courting Disaster: StarDog 2 picks up where StarDog and Inherit the Stars left off, carrying readers three calendars (years) into a brave, but uncertain new future beyond the close of the novel. Jagger and Ketsia soon learn the galaxy still harbors a dangerous threat, contrary to the HEA everyone had been counting on. This story ended up serving not only as a sequel to the two past stories, but also as a prequel to a future book, Inherit the Vengeance.

Here’s a bonus! If you haven’t yet read StarDog (or even if you have), then I invite you to enter the Inherited Stars Universe as my guest and download a free copy of StarDog—the original Pets in Space story—via Instafreebie. Here’s the link: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/lTsVO

Thanks so much to Paranormal Romantics for hosting me today!

About Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2

Twelve award winning and bestselling Science Fiction Romance authors join forces with twelve original, never released stories in USA TODAY bestselling Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2.

Courting Disaster: StarDog2

A commander of a spaceship faces the toughest decision of his life when he vows to protect the woman and her StarDog that he is escorting through a dangerous section of space.

About the Author

Laurie A. Green is an award winning, USA TODAY bestselling author, a three-time RWA Golden Heart® finalist and a science fiction romance enthusiast who founded the SFR Brigade community of writers, which now totals over 1,000 members.

She confesses to being an Andromeda Galaxy groupie and would someday love to own a vacation home on Mars or Titan. She’s enthused to be a part of this wonderful anthology mash-up of two of her favorite things–pets and space.

Newsletter       [ http://eepurl.com/cvzV3L ]

Website           [ http://www.laurieagreen.com/  ]

Facebook         [ https://www.facebook.com/Laurie-A-Green-139849829386292/ ]

FB Handle: @AuthorLaurieAGreen

Twitter                        [ https://twitter.com/SFRLaurie ]

Twitter Handle:           @SFRLaurie

Amazon Author Page [ https://www.amazon.com/Laurie-A.-Green/e/B00S456PDE/ ]