Thanks for having me back at Paranormal Romantics! Always a
nice feeling to be back here for the day.
I’ve got a new release,
Aydarr (A Badari Warriors Scifi Romance
Novel), Sectors New Allies Series Book 1. This is the first book in a new
series I’m launching, connected to my scifi world of the Sectors, but with the
action taking place elsewhere. I’m excited about writing an actual series with
a specific overarching plotline, although of course each individual book has a
satisfying Happy for Now ending for the hero and heroine. No cliffhangers! Each
book will focus on a different couple, but the primary characters in the series
will be showing up in the story no matter who is front and center. It’s a bit
different for me, so I’m hoping my readers will like it!
I thought I’d share a short excerpt from the book today.
The blurb:
Jill Garrison, a maintenance tech at the
Sectors Amarcae 7 colony, goes to sleep one night as usual only to wake up in
her nightgown stranded in the middle of a forest on an unknown world. There’s
no time to think as she’s stalked by carnivorous predators and rescued by
genetically engineered warriors calling themselves the Badari. Turns out they
and she, along with her whole colony, are now prisoners of the Khagrish, a
ruthless race of alien scientists. Working for enemies of the Sectors, the
Khagrish have created the Badari to be super soldiers.
Aydarr, the Badari
alpha, isn’t sure he can trust Jill but his attraction to her is undeniable. He
impulsively claims her as his mate to prevent her death at the hands of the
Khagrish.
Can he continue to
protect her from the experiments already underway? Will his claiming her put his pack in
jeopardy from their alien masters?
As Jill searches for a
way to rescue her fellow humans and get them all to safety, she finds herself
falling for Aydarr, despite the secrets he’s keeping. She has a few of her own.
The situation becomes
dire when Aydarr and his pack are sent offplanet on a mission, leaving Jill
unprotected, prey for the senior scientist. Can she escape the experiments he
has in mind for her? Will she be able to thwart the Khagrish plans and liberate
humans and Badari alike? How will she and Aydarr reunite?
The excerpt from the
beginning of the book:
Why am I lying face
down on the wet grass in the rain?
Jill rolled over, putting a hand to her forehead in an
attempt to quell a ferocious headache. Opening her eyes gingerly, she blinked
at the vividly colored pink, purple and blue leaves on the tree above her,
which certainly had never grown on Amarcae 7. She’d been all around her home
colony on various repair jobs, and nothing there had riotous leaves in these
colors, much less with spikes at the tips. As she watched, one of the leaves
snapped into a tight roll to capture a slow moving insect.
“Thank the Lords of Space I’m too big a bite.” Wary,
nauseous, she sat up, swaying a bit, and examined her unfamiliar surroundings.
She was in the midst of an old growth forest, with other forms of vegetation
besides the carnivorous trees but nothing recognizable.
A loud roar in the distance gave her the shivers, and she
forced herself to stand, staggering a few feet to lean on a less colorful
tree’s broad trunk to stay upright. Despite the rain, her mouth was dry, and
she had a hard time swallowing. “What the seven hells?”
Her mind was curiously blank, no memory of how she’d gotten
to this place, or what had happened in the last few hours. She guessed it might
be late afternoon here, from the glimpse she got of the white sun above the
horizon, before the clouds drifted in front of the orb again. She refused to
contemplate the fact that the star providing heat and light to her colony was
yellow. If the sun here was white hot, the reality of where she stood, lost in
the galaxy, was terrifying.
She remembered eating dinner in her small modular house on
the edge of the colony, falling asleep watching an adventure trideo she’d seen
a hundred times then…nothing.
“And
now I’m here.” She took a closer look at her left arm and did a double take. A
black bracelet she’d never seen before was solid against her skin just above
the wrist, with no visible hinge or fastening. As she gawked at it, prying at
the edges in an increasingly desperate attempt to make the band move, flickers
of red and yellow pulsed inside the cool, hard surface. The bracelet and what
it might mean scared her more than the loss of short term memory or even the
unknown sun above her.
The
roar came again, closer, and was answered by another. Something hunting me maybe? Distracted from the ominous mystery of the
bracelet, she was briefly tempted to try climbing the tree, but the
lightheadedness persisted. Also, the smooth trunk didn’t offer anything in the
way of handholds. She pushed off, realizing she was barefoot, wearing her
short, pink-and-black nightgown, molded to her body by the rain. Lingerie was
her secret luxury after a day spent in technician’s coveralls, but certainly
not suited to this experience.
Am I dreaming? She paused, gazing at the
sky and pushing her damp hair off her face. The shower had tapered off and now
the sun was shining but an ominous gray storm front was advancing. A bolt of
lightning arced across the sky, and Jill broke into a zigzag run, forcing her
body to respond to her terror. Standing anywhere close to a giant tree in a
thunder storm was a recipe for disaster.
I’m in a nightmare,
not a dream, but it’s all too real. In her headlong flight, she stepped on
a rock or a sharp root and cried out, but she kept going as thunder boomed. She
had to find either a stand of small trees surrounded by taller ones or a
ravine. Of course, an actual shelter would be better than either of those
make-do options but probably too much to hope for.
Running
full tilt, ignoring the pain from her foot, she suddenly slammed into an
invisible barrier and bounced off, falling on her back. Cautiously she rose,
extending her arms. The barrier was a tingling against her palms. She tried
going right then left, but the wall ran for quite some distance in both
directions. Being in an invisible cage was the most unsettling thing since she’d
awakened, especially when coupled with the bracelet affixed to her arm.
A boom of thunder directly overhead startled her into
motion, and she ran in a new direction, terrified of being struck by lightning.
The rain lashed her face and barely-covered body, like stinging nettles, adding
impetus to her desperation to find cover.
The
ground gave way under her feet. She teetered on the edge of the sinkhole or
pit, but her precarious state of vertigo betrayed her. Screaming, she half
slid, half fell into the deep hole, debris raining down with her.
Buy
Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Aydarr-
Author
Bio and Links:
USA Today Best Selling Author “SciFi Encounters” columnist for the USA Today Happy Ever
After blog Veronica Scott grew
up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved
ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in
everything. When she ran out of books to read, she started writing her own
stories.
Seven time winner of the SFR Galaxy Award, as well as a
National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award, Veronica is also the proud
recipient of a NASA Exceptional Service Medal relating to her former day job,
not her romances!
She was honored to
read the part of Star Trek Crew Member in the audiobook production of Harlan
Ellison’s “The City On the Edge of Forever.”
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vscotttheauthor
6 comments:
Congrats on your release! Nice to have you here!
I love visiting this blog, like old home week! Thank you so much for hosting me today :)
Ooh, loved the excerpt, Veronica - sounds like a fabulous read! Congrats on the new release and fresh series. :)
I forgot to comment. Yikes! So happy to have you visit, Veronica. This looks like a great story and a terrific series. Best wishes.
Welcome back!! Congrats on the new series start. Can't wait. The worst would be waking up in a nightgown - the indignity - or perhaps that's my approaching hospital stay coloring my thoughts. No dignity there! Rooting for your new heroine!
Thanks for the comments - yes, Nancy, I did think having Jill wake up in her nightgown in that awful situation would add to her anxiety. Best wishes on your hospital stay.
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