I’m not sure if I’ll be blogging tomorrow as it’s a public holiday in these here parts. (No, we really don’t have tons and tons of public hols … it just looks that way.) So I thought I’d spruik my latest release, A Pirate’s Passion, due out NEXT WEEK!!
I’m awful at promotions. Just ask any of my author friends. I feel too strange asking for guest blog spots or making proposals to some group that might be able to leverage my skills. Imagine British post-colonial psychological hangovers combined with basic Asian repression. Yikes, what a combination, but that’s what I seem to have. Kaz, meet headlights.
But, anyway, my first release for 2009, an s-f romance featuring space pirates, A Pirate’s Passion, is due for release from Total-E-Bound on Monday, 4 May. Here’s the utterly beautiful cover by Lyn Taylor:
And you get an excerpt! In the exchange below, Tera d’Olzon is masquerading as someone else while trying to negotiate her way out of pirate Gil Ahn’s clutches. What she doesn’t know is that he’s already figured out who she really is ….
“My name is Cerian Nintral,” she told him. “Happy now?”
“And where are you from … Cerian Nintral?”
“My family are administrators on Tor Phi.”
“Tor Phi? They must be good at their jobs to be located so close to the Republic centre. But do they know about their young daughter traipsing around the galaxy in stolen spaceships while they’re busy … administering?”
“What my family does, or doesn’t, know about me is none of your business.”
“And what level administrators are they, this family of yours?”
“Er, level five.” That question took her off-guard. In truth, she hadn’t met many people from the administrative class, but her father had once mentioned negotiating with level seven administrators, so Tera assumed that five was a nice, solid, mid-level to be at.
He nodded. “Level five. Ambitious, but not too ambitious. Privileged, but with no excesses to be ostentatious about. All right,” he hesitated for a split-second, “Cerian Nintral. Let’s say you’re the treasured daughter of level five administrators. I think fifty thousand might be a fair price to pay to be set down safe on some rock somewhere.”
Fifty thousand. It was a steep price, but not as high as Tera was anticipating. She tried not to let the relief show on her face.
“I can get you forty-five,” she countered. “Five hundred up-front. The rest triggered when my ship and I are thirty light-seconds from yours.”
“Ship?” He looked surprised. “Who said anything about you taking your ship? We’re just talking about your person here.”
Startled, she jumped to her feet and stared at him. “My person?”
“Just what you’re standing in,” he added. “No trips back to pick up extra clothing, or to pack a bag. Just you. Delivered safely back to, oh let’s say, the edge of the Tor sector. Shouldn’t take you too long to hitch a ride home from there. All for fifty thousand.”
No, not the Tor sector. That was too close to Tor Gamma, where she had stolen the craft from in the first place. If she knew the Republic, they’d have the entire sector locked down and swarming with Security Force personnel by now.
“What if I don’t want to be dropped there?”
“You mean you don’t want to go back to your family? I’m sure they’re very worried about you.”
“Not. Tor. Sector.”
He looked her up and down — assessing, but still with that hint of detestable good cheer in his eyes.
“A destination of your choice? A hundred thousand.”
“One hundred thousand.” Even if she called in every favour she was owed, she doubted she’d be able to scrape up more than sixty thousand without tipping off her family. Her real family. “And what about my ship?”
“You want your ship as well? You’re a big spender, aren’t you? Three hundred thousand.”
You can buy A Pirate’s Passion from Total-E-Bound on TUESDAYMONDAY!
