No tricks, just treats!

The holiday season is upon us, and I have a gift for you! My very first holiday themed novella, Blue Christmas, is now available on Amazon. It’s also available for pre-order on B&N, iTunes, and Kobo (release day on those platforms is November 1^st.) 

Blue Christmas

A Prophecy Series Family Holiday Novella

Four-year-old Maggie Bock loves living aboard her parents’ space cruiser, but it’s almost Christmas. What if Santa doesn’t know where she is now? Someone will have to find him and tell him, of course. But when she stows away on her mother’s transport to Terr, she sets off a chain of events that brings the holidays to the Atlantis.

Join Maggie and her family for a hilarious and heart-warming adventure as Matirans and Terrians come together to celebrate what makes the holiday season so very special.

(Blue Christmas is a companion story to my novel Prophecy, Book One of the Prophecy Series. This story takes place three months after the end of Prophecy.)

Amazon * B&N * iTunes * Kobo

Those of you who read my first book Prophecy, and have been asking for more Alex and Gryf, your wish has been granted. For those of you who haven’t read book one of my series, have I got a treat for you... 

A SALE! Through December 31, 2018, you can get both Prophecy and Blue Christmas for less than Prophecy at regular price.

Prophecy

Book One of the Prophecy Series

A nightmare of galactic proportions...
One normal day turns into horror when Earth is attacked. Now ER nurse Alexandra Bock is imprisoned aboard an alien slave ship with no way out. She deems all aliens untrustworthy, including the handsome blue-skinned Matiran captain who shares her cell.

A betrayal from within… One night of treachery leaves Senior Captain Gryf Helyg a prisoner of his enemies. Because of him, Earth’s inhabitants face extinction and his home world is threatened. But his plans for escape are complicated by his inexplicable draw to the Earth woman imprisoned with him. ​A chance to save both their peoples… One ancient prophecy holds the key to free Alexandra and Gryf’s war-ravaged worlds. Can two wounded souls who have lost everything learn to trust and forgive in order to fulfill the prophecy, and find a love that will last for eternity?

Amazon * B&N * iTunes * Kobo 

Hope you all enjoy this new, sweet, family oriented story. Happy holidays!

~Lea Kirk

USA Today Bestselling Author, Lea Kirk, loves to transport her readers to other worlds with her sci-fi romances. When she's not busy writing about the blue and green aliens of her Prophecy series, she's hanging out with her hubby, five kids (the nerd herd), and spoiled Dobie mix puppy.

Her series includes Prophecy, Salvation, and Collision (all full-length novels); her series related short reads, All of Me and Blue Christmas. She also has one PNR, Made for Her, part of S.E Smith's The Worlds of Magic, New Mexico Series.

Connect with Lea:

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Space Colonists

Last month, I wrote a short story for an anthology on another blog where ten of us started our stories with the same sentence: “This was the last place she expected to spend Christmas.” Don’t ask why (the Muse works in mysterious ways), but what popped into my mind was an image of a woman waking up on Christmas Eve after five years in cryosleep. She and her team had arrived at an alien planet—the first humans to colonize a planet beyond our solar system.

What did I know about cryosleep? We-ell, I’d seen Avatar and Oblivion. That had to count for something, right? For a short (7k words) story, I had to do a lot of research. And this was for a free short story! Thank goodness for Google.

Now my science fiction romances are heavy on adventure and rather light on science. Still, I became curious about what is known about cryosleep. On a five-year voyage, putting the crew to sleep makes sense. It would save on space, food, oxygen, and the crew’s mental health. Can you imagine living with five other people (the number in my story) in a small room with nothing to do (bor-ing), no showers (eww), freeze-dried food, and limited exercise for five years? What would it feel like to wake up after being a popsicle all that time?

Even though I put my story in the next century, I wanted some basis in existing knowledge. Theoretically, freezing a live person (or putting her into “hibernation”) then years later thawing her out successfully is possible. Just not yet. The freezing part is. Successfully thawing the person out, alive, with no cellular damage? Maybe in several years.

We haven’t even colonized beyond our own planet, so I needed to know how the characters in my story would go about colonizing any planet, let alone one out past our solar system. The Mars One Project supplied a lot of information about applicant selection, sending supplies ahead, habitats, and many considerations I hadn’t thought of.

Do you remember history class when we learned about the pioneers who left everything but what they could carry in a Conestoga Wagon and headed west? No applications to fill out, no selection process, no psychological testing, no training. Are things ever different for going into space! Space.com announced on December 31st, that out of over 200,000 applicants for Mars One, 1,058 made the first cut for the one-way trip in 2023.

After searching the Internet for answers, I got some ideas but more questions. That’s when my imagination took off. After having so much fun writing my short story, I thought why not expand it into a novella or even a full-length novel. After all, I’d done quite a bit of research, my imagination was in high gear, and my Muse hadn’t left for warmer climes. Then, in a serendipitous way while channel-surfing, I found The Science Channel running a series called “Mars Rising” about what it takes to get to Mars.

Was that a sign or what? Now I have to write that novella--in time for next Christmas. <g>

If I’ve piqued your interest a little bit, my short story called “Christmas in Space” was posted on The Roses of Prose blog on December 28 & 29.

Along with writing science fiction romance, Diane Burton writes romantic suspense. One Red Shoe, her first book published by The Wild Rose Press, will have its worldwide release Thursday, January 10th.