The thing I like best about being a writer is getting lost
in faraway worlds and dimensions that take me away from my day-to-day life. My
entertainment of choice has always been the fantastical, whether it’s movies,
television, or reading.
In my latest series, Ancient Alien Descendants, I’ve made it
a point to merge my romance novels with science fiction along with a heavy blend
of paranormal tropes. These stories might center on an alien invasion, but the
heroes and heroines who fight against them come with powerful paranormal
abilities. Everything from vampires to supernatural wizards.
To celebrate the release of the last book in this series
(tentative launch date Valentine’s Day, next year), I wanted to share why I
created these adventures like I did.
The Empath
What if you found out you weren’t who
or what you thought you were?
When I was a preteen, I imagined once I went through puberty
or reached the advanced age of sixteen, a life altering “something” about me
would change. What if I got powers like Samantha on Bewitched? What if I
didn’t belong here on Earth but instead was a princess of some other dimension?
What if I wasn’t even human?
Turns out the only thing that happened when I turned sixteen
was having an embarrassingly set of large boobs. Which, I suppose, might be
considered its own superpower.
For the first
adventure in this series, I started with a woman named Julienne who had no idea
she was anything but a lonely woman in her early 30s who worked at a stressful
job in a bank. Turns out she was part of the secret set of quintuplets created
by aliens separated at birth.
As the story continues, she meets a devastatingly handsome
man by the name of Ben who annoys the crap out of her. By accident she stumbles
on him secretly investigating criminal activity going on in the bank. They end
up being cohorts trying to uncover the same thing. While their adventures take
them to the moon and back, she finds out the more she’s with him, the more her
empathic psyche talent comes out.
Imagine going through life unaware of what other people feel
until one day it all careens into you? How would you handle experiencing other volatile
emotions? And what if you found out not only could you feel other people’s
emotions, but you could manipulate theirs? How would you handle that?
The Shapeshifter
If you could turn into anyone, who would you choose to
be?
I had a lot of fun with this one. The second brother in this
series by the name of Pete is a complete smartass. While Pete didn’t have as
much psychic talent as his other brothers (the heroes in this series are a set of
quintuplets as well), his main ability is being able to shapeshift. And not just
turn into a werewolf, or a Dragon, or some other animal. This man could turn
into anything his little heart desired. Even another person. All he had to do
was touch someone in order to morph into them.
The heroine in this
story, Jena, never knew she had the same talents Pete did until they met. And
the more they were around each other, the higher her abilities manifested. By
the end of the story, she didn’t even have to touch a person to turn into them.
One of the other parts of this story that I got a blast
writing about was one of Jena’s pets, an overweight Siamese cat by the name of
Bubbas. Turns out Bubbas is anything but an ordinary feline. He is the son of
the Egyptian goddess Bastet with the body of a muscular man and the head of a
Siamese cat. He and his kind had been sent to Earth as guardians with strict
protocols about how much they were allowed to get involved with humanity’s
evolution.
The Psychic
What if aliens abducted you and turned you into something
not human?
For some reason, this book was one of the hardest ones for
me to write. I’m not sure if it had something to do with trying to describe true
psychic ability, or the thought of my heroine being forcibly turned into
something different.
Or maybe it had something to do with Michael and Jordyn
being middle children. I know as a middle child I struggled to find my own
identity. It seemed that everything my siblings did overshadowed what I tried
to accomplish (why can’t you be more like…). I found myself floundering when
old resentments raised its ugly head as I worked through the adventures these
middle children endured.
Turns out, like her
sisters, Jordyn was unaware she was anything but a human. In the story, she was
abducted by the aliens who experimented on her. A crazy alien scientist decided
to add their DNA to her to give her more power. Fortunately for her, what they
did was tone down her natural psychic ability that being around Michael
unleashed. Instead of becoming overloaded with reading minds and speaking telepathically,
their little test gave her a way to handle her new reality.
The Vampire
What if you fell in love but they loved someone else?
Now who doesn’t crave a good vampire romance story?
Since the male protagonists
in this series have lived for thousands of years, I wanted to make their lives the bases for most of the human myths. Enter Zamush, the epitome of a tall, dark
and handsome vampire. Rather than being a soulless demon, Zamush was someone who
needs extra blood to live, thus the fangs. He also enjoys all the vampiric
tropes: teleporting, flying, ability to enthrall his “blood donors”.
And arrogance. Can’t have a vampire without their firm
conviction of being on top of the food chain.
That’s where Jelena comes in. She
hardly pays attention to Zamush since she’s obsessed with a man she’d never met
(fangirl syndrome gone wild). For once in his life, he has to put effort in to
even get noticed.
Unlike her other three sisters, Jelena knows she is anything
but human. Raised in a hidden moon city by some rebel aliens, she has the same
attributes as Zamush. But, being a vampire has its drawbacks. All her life she
suffered as an outcast even among those who are different.
The Mage
Could you face your worst fears if it was the only way to
save mankind?
The finale of this series is a little different than the
other rest. My heroine, Jazmi, always knew she wasn’t human. I relished giving
her, and the hero Raiden, unlimited powers. Everything their brothers and
sisters could do, they did better and stronger.
When I started this story, I thought of the gods of old, like
Zeus, Apollo and Odin to every other legend out there. And just like those gods
of old, my couple came with some very human frailties.
I had to show that having everything at your fingertips isn’t
always the answer. These two suffer from the same guilts and insecurities us
humans live with daily. I want the reader to experience the heroes struggles as
they work through their worst fears before embracing their deserved happily
ever after.
To prove that even superheroes are all too human.
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