Word Hoarder Extraordinaire!

My name is Pippa Jay, and I am a hoarder, of both physical and digital things. My stories are no exception. I never throw anything away! I have files full of the early drafts of my first published novel - all the paper versions I wrote, and every version I sent out to agents as I sought the traditional path (I rewrote it every time I sent it out). I kept all the digital versions too, though the computer they were written on has long since gone to the great junkyard in the sky. I just can't bear to delete them.

But it's not all pointlessly taking up space. Some of the earlier works from my teenage years have been reworked into later pieces. Characters, names, planets, storylines - many have been recycled and found new life in another form or book. I even have a OneNote file called Bunny Plot Storage Facility where random names, words, one sentence ideas, pieces of technology or random scientific discoveries are hoarded for a time I might need them. Because while I might be a hoarder, I don't like anything to go to waste if I could find a use for it later on.

For example, the tyrant and her medic and race in Keir's Fall came from a very early Doctor Who short I wrote as a teen (what's now called fan fiction). My main character Quin came from one too. 

So when my editor says cut, nothing gets deleted. It just joins the other plot bunnies in storage to be resurrected in another time and place (sometimes quite literally). Why let a good word (or several) go to waste when some days finding any is like pulling teeth?! 

Unnatural Nature

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions.

Coming from and working in a scientific area, I do try to base at least some of my writing on actual or at least theoretical science to give it some realism. 

For example, my blue-skinned hero, Keir. Did you know there was actually an entire family of blue-skinned people in Kentucky? The discolouration was caused by a blood disorder that gave their skin a bluish tinge. Or that a condition called argyrosis, caused by over-exposure to silver compounds, can turn you literally blue? Or you can look back into the history of Britain and the Celtic people known by the Romans as Picts (literally 'painted ones'), who coloured their skin blue with a natural dye called woad. Blue skin, based in fact. 

The beaches of my tropical planet Metraxi are famously pink (the photo above is actually of a local beach coloured by the sunset - a fortuitous fluke of conditions and timing!) due to being composed mostly of native corals. Here on Earth, we have white sand beaches also due to coral, but much less glamorously caused by parrot fish eating and pooping out the coral they eat as colourless calcium carbonate! Or the black beaches of Tenerife (basalt from the volcano) or Iceland's magnetite sands (I'm really hoping to visit the famous diamond beach there where chunks of ice shimmer on the black sand). 

The palace on Metraxi visited by my characters is also built of coral. As here, artificial reefs can be started often by sinking man made structures no longer wanted - oil rigs, tanks, concrete building blocks - to help regenerate those destroyed. But on Metraxi, the sunken structures are raised again and the coral carved to make a grand and unique building for their queen.  

So there are certainly enough oddities in nature to create alien worlds and creatures without much of a stretch. Our world is an amazing place with endless variety, and now my children are older and our mortgage paid off, we're hoping to see a bit more of it.

Losing it All: Writing In A Pandemic #scifi #coverreveal

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of sci-fi and supernatural stories with a romantic soul. It's been a while since I actually had a WIP, but I suppose the pandemic has had some positive outcomes. When I was first sent home from work, I threw myself into doing as much of my job as I could from home, closely followed by as much physical stuff as I could to keep my mind off the state of the world, and because the glorious weather just called me to spend time outside (and with my chickens). The thought of writing at such a time... didn't seem possible. I was worried about my family, my friends, my work colleagues, my job, my animals...the list was unending. 

But as life in quarantine settled into the new normality, boredom set in. Apparently boredom is a major trigger for my muse. I had several pieces in my files that were finished, or close enough to finished that really they shouldn't be much work to complete. I pulled open three of them, but one seemed to call into particular. A missing part of my main series that my editor said was needed before book three, that I had half written and knew what the rest of the story should be, but hadn't had the dedication to really stick at until done.

Like several of my stories, this was done more as background between books two and three so I had the details down for reference, but that had never been intended as a piece to be published. My editor was of a different mind. After assessing book three and repeated comments of 'wait, what, who are these people? Did I miss a whole book somewhere?!' I figured I'd better get it done. And what could be a more perfect time? Despite being started years earlier, the darker, more destructive tone of the story was at least in resonance with the near apocalyptic reality!

So months, if not years later than it should have been done, Redemption 2.5 is in the final round of edits. It is not the most romantic chapter of my main characters' life, that's for sure, and I have yet to determine a release date (I originally planned to release it just before book three, but as yet don't have the finances to send that to my editor for edits and a cover). Instead, I have two other pieces booked for edits in September - a winter solstice scifi mystery that I would like to release close to the time of year that it's set, and an angel short that will release next summer. In the meantime, you can read the blurb and get a look at the cover. If it doesn't give you the shivers, I'm hoping the story will...

How could a moment's anger destroy so much happiness?

It's a question that will haunt him. When an old enemy comes to Kasha-Asor to kidnap their daughter, armed with a weapon that could end everything, Keir is forced to leave an injured Quin on Lyagnius. But his quest for a cure and their missing daughter will come at a terrible cost.

Merry May #anniversary

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of sci-fi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. For me, May is always a month of celebration. Apart for the Romancing the Genres Blog-o-versary, May is also my wedding anniversary AND my book anniversary too. The 7th May 2012 saw the publication of my first ever novel. I'm now eight years published, with 20 titles listed on Goodreads to my name.

Not that I'm able to do much about it right now, with the UK still (mostly) in lockdown. Nor could we take advantage of the 8th of May being made a bank holiday this year for the 75th anniversary of VE day. Sigh. But because of the VE celebration, our street had a social distancing street party, with everyone sitting at the end of their drives with out own separate drinks and party food (we had scones handmade by hubs, with raspberry jam and clotted cream, yum!), while a music teacher at the far end of the road played wartime classics on his clarinet, followed by another neighbour setting up as DJ for the evening while we all stood and chatted at the required 2m social distance. It was a strange kind of party, and yet probably the most sociable our street had ever been. I spoke to neighbours I hadn't chatted to in years (we've lived here 25 years now and just about to finish paying off our mortgage, yay), and others we've never spoken to at all. We have new neighbours in the house adjoining ours that we hadn't spoken to much but apparently the young lady is enamoured of my feather footed chooks so I took my baby Princess Aura out to be seen.

Princess Aura

We stayed out until the sun was too much, but the music went on until 10am. I suppose COVID-19 has come with some benefits...

Our VE Day bunting - a little red, white, and blue, finished off with a rainbow for the NHS

In the meantime, I'm still off work as I have three children home off school and there's no real call for my support as science technician at the school I work for. All those jobs I'd put off due to lack of money, then delayed by lack of time are now being done. And next month, title 21 is due to go off to my editor. Yep, there's finally another WIP.
Keep safe, and carry on reading!

The Highs and Lows of #Amwriting

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of sci-fi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. When it comes to favourite writing achievements, for me it has to be finishing. I've always written but I still have a huge stack of unfinished pieces from my pre-teen years when I would run with a shiny new idea only to tire of it (sometimes with several 'books' of a series part written) and move onto the next one. I couldn't write fast enough to keep up with my imagination.

That changed during a rather traumatic experience as a teen (an age when even little things seem traumatic). With my parents going for the title of world's messiest divorce and my mum undergoing treatment for cancer while I was retaking my A levels at a distant college, the news that my long time favourite sci-fi series - Doctor Who - was about to be cancelled for good was kind of the last straw. My universe was collapsing around me!

And so over three weeks leading up to Christmas I scribbled frantic pencil notes (for some reason I prefer a nicely sharpened pencil to a pen when writing by hand) on my A4 lined paper pad, the sheets held together by metal binder rings. My favourite time to write - the one hour train journey to and from college each day.
And then disaster. I fell asleep on the journey home one day, woke with a jolt at my station, and ran off the train leaving my notes behind! I rang the station and lost and found, only to be told that a collection of pencil written sheets would just have been thrown in the bin. Aaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!

Fortunately back then I had a close to photographic memory and was able to rewrite the majority of it (and probably even improve it). I borrowed my mum's electronic typewriter, borrowed a book from my local library on formatting books for submission, and by the time the college term restarted, I had a completed 40K word Doctor Who story. My first ever completed book, and despite all the odds.
After a brief detour to the BBC - I was eighteen and there was no real internet so I didn't know any better - who redirected me to the then publishers of the Doctor Who books WH Allen. They rejected it, but I had a long letter with constructive criticism and encouragement. I learned later via a more famous author - the now sadly departed Graham Joyce (but that's a whole nother story) - that their constructive criticism was actually a request to rewrite and resubmit. I didn't realise that at the time, but eighteen years old me was pretty chuffed even by the rejection and kind words. After all, I never really expected to be a published author. That would be silly, right?? 😆
So my first and favourite writing achievement was also in many ways my most stressful at the time. I still have that original manuscript, nicely bound by a friend's dad who liked to bind his own pieces, and with the rejection letter. That first submission was also the birth of my pen name as I hated my surname at the time. Thirteen years later, a character and an alien from that story teamed up with another from a short story prompted by a dream, to become my first published novel Keir. It all came good in the end...

Keir (Redemption Book One. Part of the Travellers Universe)

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A demon waiting to die...

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An outcast reviled for his discolored skin and rumors of black magic, Keirlan de Corizi sees no hope for redemption. Imprisoned beneath the palace that was once his home, the legendary 'Blue Demon of Adalucien' waits for death to finally free him of his curse. But salvation comes in an unexpected guise.

A woman determined to save him.

Able to cross space and time with a wave of her hand, Tarquin Secker has spent eternity on a hopeless quest. Drawn by a compulsion she can't explain, she risks her apparent immortality to save Keir, and offers him sanctuary on her home-world, Lyagnius. But Quin has secrets of her own.

When Keir mistakenly unleashes the dormant alien powers within him and earns exile from Lyagnius, Quin chooses to stand by him. Can he master his newfound abilities in time to save Quin from the darkness that seeks to possess her?

Book One of the Redemption series and part of the Travellers Universe. Previously released by Lyrical Press Inc. 7th May 2012

​A Science-Fiction Romance Novel, Readers Favorite Contest Awards Finalist 2012​, HOD RWA Aspen Gold finalist (3rd place), The Kindle Book Review's 2013 Best Indie Book Awards semi-finalist, and a 2012 SFR Galaxy Award Best May to December Romance winner.

Available in all digital formats from Amazon, All Romance eBooks, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Smashwords. Print is now available from Amazon, B&N, The Book Depository, and CreateSpace. Download a free pdf sample and read the reviews at Goodreads.

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​"One of the sweetest romances you’ll ever read."

        Elle Hill, author of the Hunted Series

An Out Of This World Wedding #scifi #romance

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of sci-fi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. Despite writing several romances, only one features an actual wedding. My debut novel (which by strange coincidence released one day before my own wedding anniversary) sees the out of this world joining of my two main characters on a tropical island far removed in space and time from either of their points of origin.

The ceremony combined the tradition of their reptilian hosts with their own chosen vows, created after researching some pagan hand-fasting ceremonies from my home country. So I'm sharing an excerpt from Keir where my star-crossed lovers finally get to make the ultimate committment...

Keir stood in M’linka’s hut and tried to still the quiver in his hands. The saurian artist sat hunched over his sketchpad, once more tracing the patterns on Keir’s back. Metraxian tradition required a groom to come bare-chested to his bride, to show the tattoo that marked his initiation into adulthood. When S’rano had given him the vows to learn and told him of the ritual, Keir had barely hesitated. He would honor his hosts and the woman he loved by going against his own inhibition and obeying islander tradition. And it gave M’linka, itching for another look at the plethora of designs carved into Keir’s skin, a second chance to sketch. The saurian had been flattered by Keir’s request to be his guide through the ceremony, though he did little to allay Keir’s nerves as they waited.
Keir watched the villagers pass by in brightly-colored clothing and woven headdresses, bearing food for the banquet or burning torches to light the feast as they went to gather on the beach. The sun was sinking in crimson splendor, turning the sea to fiery gold and the trees beyond into dark shadows. The sounds of excitement and anticipation, of talk and laughter rose above the voice of the sea. Listening to them only heightened his own nerves. He dried sweating palms on the fabric of his trousers, ran the words through his mind again and again. He prayed his tongue would not stumble over them.
A sudden hush fell. M’linka laid his drawing aside and rose to join Keir, whose mouth went dry as L’enko’s voice carried to him.
“My friends!” he cried. “Tonight we celebrate three great events. We welcome our wraith hunters back as men, ready to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. We welcome two honored guests, rescued by our brave hunters. And we celebrate their marriage, here in our village on this night!”
A rousing cheer and applause greeted his announcement.
“Let the ceremony begin!”
The Metraxians started clapping rhythmically, beating out a marching time. M’linka led the way out, down to the gathering, and brought Keir before the chief, who sat on a throne of bamboo. Keir waited as S’rano came down with Quin walking behind him. She had her eyes downcast, and a beautiful rose blush to her cheeks, still dressed in the flowing sarongs and with her hair braided. His body pulsed with heat as she raised her eyes to meet his, and then lowered her gaze to his bare chest. He heard her sharp intake of breath, saw her smile brighten as she understood his tribute to her.
“For you, my love.” He offered it as a gift.
Tears glimmered in her eyes, and he adored her all the more for it. She knew what it signified, and the fact that it mattered to her meant the world to him. She meant the world to him.
“You are my everything.” Her thoughts twined within his, and her love washed over him.
L’enko joined Quin’s left hand to Keir’s right, holding them together in both hands. The fact that her hand trembled as much as his settled his own nerves, and he squeezed a reassurance.
L’enko called for silence and turned to Keir. “What do you seek here?”
The words he had feared to forget came easily now, because they came from his true desire. “I seek to bind my life to Tarquin Secker, the woman I love with all my heart and soul,” he replied, his voice as steady as his love for her.
L’enko turned to Quin with the same question, and she answered calm and clear, as if she had waited all her life with those words on her lips. “I seek to bind my life to Keirlan de Corizi, the man I love with all my heart and soul.”
“The joining of your hands represents your wish to join your lives together as one.” Once more, L’enko addressed Keir. “Speak your vows.”
“I promise to share all my life with you, in love and laughter, through tears and trials. To work by your side and to dream in your arms. To fill your heart and feed your soul. To always see the best in you, and to love you always until the end of our forever.” As he spoke the words, he touched her mind, offered himself body and soul along with his vows, completely.
L’enko prompted Quin to speak, and for a moment, her voice failed and she could only stare at him in silence. Panic flared briefly in Keir’s mind. That single mote of tension, of quiet, seemed to last forever. Then Quin spoke, and a sigh passed through the gathering as she mirrored Keir’s vows. Relief washed through him as each word brought them closer to unity.
With their promises given, L’enko wrapped a cord around their joined hands. “With your pledges spoken, and your hearts and minds as one, as your bodies will be one in union, I bind you now until the end of your forever.”
A loud cheer arose as the Keir and Quin kissed each other, both hesitant with so many eyes upon them. The chief unbound their hands and bade them sit together as he proceeded with the rest of the ceremonies.

To find out if that was their happy ever after, you'll have to read the rest of their story. ;) Find them all at pippajay.co.uk

Marvellous Magical May #anniversary #bookoversary #unlockALS

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. And welcome to marvellous magical May!

May has always been one of my favourite times of the year, significantly because of three things. The first of May marks Beltane, the pagan start of summer and usually the point where the British weather takes a marked change for the better...well, sometimes. This year the first of May was actually a glorious day sandwiched between two very wet, windy and cold days - one extreme to the other! And how terribly British to talk about the weather. :P

May also sees my wedding anniversary, and this year is a landmark one - 25 years! I've now been married more than half my lifetime, a sobering thought. And it turns out that in real life, hubs is decidedly more romantic than me with a dinner booked at the pub where we went for a drink on our first date together (a fact I did not remember! I did remember the film we went to see though...)

The 7th of May also marks my sixth anniversary as a published author with my debut novel Keir, and this month I'm  taking part in a charity event that features Keir alongside a collection of other fantastic blue cover books in support of ALSA. Please go check out our page on the ALSA site HERE: http://webgw.alsa.org/site/TR/Endurance/GoldenWest?team_id=367681&pg=team&fr_id=12950

Landing page (Lea’s site) 

http://www.leakirk.com/supporting-als.html

Blue Book Cover Brigade Team Page on ALSA Site http://webgw.alsa.org/site/TR/Endurance/GoldenWest?team_id=367681&pg=team&fr_id=12950

ALSA Twitter: https://twitter.com/napaALSride

ALSA Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/RidetoDefeatALS/?hc_location=group

The fact that RTG also celebrates its Blog-o-versary this month is just another reason to party, and I hope you'll swing by throughout the month to join us. Have a marvellous magical May!

Celebrating Marvellous May! #giveaway #scifi #romance

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of SciFi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions.

May has always been a favourite month of mine. Spring is well and truly in and moving toward summer, and it marks two special anniversaries for me as well as Romancing the Genre's Blog-o-versary.

Me with hubs and his
parents on a bright but
windy wedding day!

The first is my marriage, reaching twenty four years as of the 8th. The 7th marks my anniversary as an author. This year is extra special because it's my debut novel's fifth anniversary and mine as a published author.

Original cover,
five years ago

The current cover

It feels like a long time, especially when publishing has changed so much in that five years. I couldn't have imagined where I would be back then, now with 12 titles available but my original series still incomplete, and my publishing life currently stuck in limbo as poor sales and real life demands conflict with my compulsion to keep writing regardless of my situation. I don't regret any of it, but things have never gone quite as I might have expected. But that's not a bad thing.

To celebrate my fifth anniversary I'm running a special giveaway for a pair of custom-made crocheted dragonscale gloves in Keir blue, created by Hoot and Luna. This is open internationally but PLEASE BE AWARE - any import/shipping taxes will be the responsibility of the recipient as these cannot be paid in advance by the sender.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And if you'd like to sample some SciFi romances for free, there are 26 titles to choose from HERE.

Enjoy!

A #Romance Across Time #amwriting #timetravel #scifi

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. And my main romance series includes time travel. Why?

Rocking my Anakin cosplay on the Iron Throne!

Well. While I'm a huge Star Wars fan (and it's the universe I tend to focus on for my cosplay creations), I'm also a life long Whovian. My parents were fans. My earliest memory from Doctor Who is The Planet of the Spiders--the final adventure of Jon Pertwee, the Doctor's third incarnation, and the episode I can possibly pin my spider phobia on! His companion Sarah Jane Smith was my first heroine inspiration.

Me aged 18, with the then 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy

So perhaps it's not surprising that my debut novel and the main series it started are time travel romances/adventures. Even the book I refer to as my 'Star Wars' story--Gethyon, set about twenty years before my time travel series and sharing some of the same characters as well as the same universe--still has a time travel element to it. While not a romance, my hero accidently catapults himself twenty years back in time to meet a girl he falls for. He comes to learn and hate some of the restrictions this kind of travel carries while being thankful for it as well.

Gethyon

But in my main series I have to deal with how and why they time travel, the limits of their abilities, the benefits and consequences. For example, at one point my heroine has to face an ancient nemesis responsible for the death of her sisters, her home world, and even the powers she considers more of a curse than a blessing. But she can't kill her because it would directly impact the very existence of the hero and cause a paradox. She also can't leave the woman free to cause any further harm. What to do?

There are also things they can't go back and change. Their method of time travel involves a certain amount of focus on a place or person to work. So if someone dies, the knowledge of their death stops anyone from going back to any point in their life before their death and possibly preventing it - a psychological block rather than a physical or temporal one. There are also certain worlds that can only be accessed by special portals - gateways.

So it's a little more complicated than jumping in a TARDIS, though probably just as haphazard. The thing I love most about time travel romance is I can have my characters jump anywhere, any time, exploring alien worlds but also the ups and downs and complexities of time travel, and how even love can cross such barriers between those destined to be together.

Keir

Keir's Fall

Want to chat? Find me at my website or blog, but my favourite place to hang out and talk all things geek and scifi romance is as @pippajaygreen on Twitter.