A Chemical #Romance #science

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of sci-fi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. I'm also a science technician, once an industrial chemist. So for my February post on the subject of love, perhaps it's not surprising if I take a purely technical view on the whole idea of romance...

love noun

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\ ˈləv  \

Definition of love

 (Entry 1 of 2)

(1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties

(2): attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers

(3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests

Love is one of the most common themes in creative arts. It’s considered part of the survival instinct, a drive that helps keep human beings together to ensure the continuation of the species. Perhaps that’s why it’s such a common theme, particularly in science fiction, where threats to the species can be so much bigger and catastrophic on a galactic, or even universal scale.

But how would that work for a relationship between two different species, as can happen in a science fiction romance? Would a species that might be physically compatible respond in the same way to the pheromones released by a human? What if they had the opposite effect? And if love in a human is the drive to mate and perpetuate the species, how does that work with a biologically incompatible partner? Will we ever find out for real!?

Most of us are aware that love is supposedly the result of a cocktail of different chemicals surging round our bodies. That initial dizziness we feel, the racing heart, the sweaty palms and hot flushes are all down to the release of dopamine, norepinephrine and phenylethylamine. The feeling of bliss comes from the “pleasure drug” dopamine. The racing heart and excitement are due to the adrenaline-like norepinephrine. Together they produce elation, intense energy, sleeplessness, loss of appetite: all the classic symptoms of being in love. When a couple has sex, oxytocin is released during orgasm and creates an emotional bond. The more sex, the greater the bond.

Most of my involved couples have been human (or relatively so!). But romance in science fiction where one or both of the characters isn’t human is part of what gives sfr a greater scope to explore. To pursue a whole range of ‘what ifs’ beyond the simple ‘will they/won’t they?’ get together. That’s what I love about science fiction romance, where a happily ever after may not just depend on that first kiss. For example, in one of my not quite human pairings, the non-human species relies on a chemical signature that tells them 'this is your one true mate', and once found, there's no future happiness with anyone else. A huge pressure on their human soulmate, who may not feel quite the same!

Imprint, featured in the free anthology Tales from the SFR Brigade

And a couple of years ago I finally published a romance with a completely alien character, which presented some interesting challenges. How does a completely different type of corporeal entity even interact with a human, let alone find love?

And I still have one more story in progress where love must try to cross the divide between species. As if finding love isn't hard enough sometimes...

(Adapted from an original post on Backward Momentum, February 14 2012)

COEXISTENCE on the Obsidian Rim by SF Romance Author Shree C. Aier

COEXISTENCE
Pipettes and Plows 1

Science is my jam! I think it is important to not just say you support science but do something concrete. I love to make science approachable and I thought sci-fi rom is a perfect sub-genre to introduce sci-fi to romance readers and romance to sci-fi readers.

I believe that the perfect future will be equitable for all genders, ethnicities, and disabilities and abilities. Also, I felt that a part of an equal future, is that every single person has the flexibility to be themselves. Women don’t have to smile, or be nice. Men don’t have to be ultra-macho; they are free to be as they want to be.

So, if you notice my cover, my main character who plays the feminine role, does not smile, and her nickname is Grumpy Gomez. The main character who is a masculine role with feminine shadows, smiles brightly. He is a genuine ray of sunshine to the point where his niceness is a form of annoyance to the aloof and self-centered Grumpy Gomez. I absolutely love him. Gomez is a reflection of myself – if someone tells me to smile? Well … let me just leave that sentence unfinished.

Writing within a shared world/universe was a fabulous experience. Working on the details with Elsa Jade and Maggie Lynch, was great. All the writers added their own flare to the universe and it was interesting to learn the various processes. This was my debut book and I learned so much from everyone. I am super grateful for this experience and the incredible kindness and confidence that all the writers had in me.

Book blurb

After a disastrous laboratory accident, exobotanist Dr. ShaylaRam Gomez is desperate to redeem herself in the eyes of the scientific community, and more importantly, her beloved father. But now, with her carefully nurtured study of new black bean seeds in tatters, Shayla is banished to a dishonorable tour of the Obsidian Rim worlds with the man responsible for destroying her reputation – the brawny farmer from some backwater planetoid, Dr. Rahim Xie.

The people who freed Rahim from a lifetime of slavery are struggling under crushing debt to the Earth’s Conservatory, and Rahim has vowed to save these destitute Prithvi and Rim farmers. He’ll even steal classified research on sustainable crops from his irascible mentor Grumpy Gomez. When he discovers that meticulous Shayla has a hidden maverick streak, Rahim is tempted to enlist her aid. He needs more than her secrets; he needs her and her brilliant mind to help his cause. But how can he ask Shayla to join a revolution that will pit her against her own father – a man known for his political ruthlessness?

Forced together with their dogbot and humanoid companions, they'll travel to the edges of a decaying galaxy to fight the corporate greed that is slowly starving the worlds of the Rim. Are these scientists planting the seeds of their own destruction – or will their reluctant collaboration blossom into something beyond mere coexistence.

AUTHOR SHREE C. AIER
AND FRIEND

Bio

Shree is, and always will be a perpetual student, and takes joy in learning new things. She is an avid reader and shares her love of books with her mother, and late grandmother. Her Amma was a voracious reader despite being educated only till the 8th grade. Shree dedicates her books to her Amma and her mother.

Shree is writing books to share her interest and awe of the world in its entirety – of animals, and plants, of invertebrates, of the living and the non-living. She also enjoys writing about relationships through light romance and fantastical worlds, as well as science -fiction.

Website and Links

www.wonkyperspectives.com

shreecaier.com

obsidianrim.com

Futuristic Fun with Old Ideas by Elsa Jade

Fall 2019 marks the fourth season of the Intergalactic Dating Agency—a sprawling multi-author universe of science fiction romances featuring aliens who’ve come to Earth searching for love. At the start of this season, the IDA universe was already 63 books strong, and I’ve penned a dozen of them!

From the beginning, the IDA universe was meant to be big, adventurous, romantic fun—for the readers and for the authors. Strangely, science fiction romance hasn’t really had its breakout moment. Because it’s a sub-genre of romance not yet as familiar to a wide audience as some other sub-genres, the first season of IDA authors landed on “alien mail order brides” as our core concept. Mail order brides is a favorite trope for many romance readers, and we thought it would be an easy crossover from lonely men looking for convenient companionship to lonely aliens seeking same!

Tropes sometimes get a bad rap in genre fiction when tropes are confused with clichés. Tropes are commonly repeated and readily identifiable story ideas—including characterization, plot points, themes, and more—that have proven their appeal over time. Clichés are badly done tropes! Done right, a trope signals to readers who enjoy that particular story idea that a new story might appeal to them as well.

One fun game as a writer is grabbing a trope with both hands…and then running wildly amok. J That’s what I’ve done with each of my trilogies within the Intergalactic Dating Agency universe. On top of my original Big Sky Alien Mail Order Brides trilogy, I sprinkled historical romance Regency tropes—Dukes! Rakes! Lords!—into my second Black Hole Brides trilogy.

BLACK HOLE BRIDES TRILOGY

With the last complete trilogy (which is actually four books!) I roped in Western tropes for the Cyborg Cowboys of Carbon County. My most recent trilogy which launched earlier this month includes drops of Atlantis tropes—and thus was launched the Mermaids of Montana!

CYBORG COWBOYS OF CARBON COUNTY

When I was brainstorming my most recent four-book trilogy (hey, it’s alien math!) I knew my alien heroes had crash-landed their spaceship somewhere in Montana, not too near the Intergalactic Dating Agency outpost where the rest of my Big Sky Alien Mail Order Brides stories are based. Thinking about what a handful of sexy aliens might’ve done to fit in with the locals… Cowboys, of course! And because I love alliteration the cowboys became cyborgs—the Cyborg Cowboys of…of Carbon County, yeah!

Cowboys (at least the romance version) are strong, sturdy, silent types with gentle hands and big, um, belt buckles. And they take good care of their land and the creatures on it. Cyborg supersoldiers are also strong, sturdy, and silent. Okay, maybe their hands are more murder-y than gentle, but see how those tropes fit together sorta? And my alien cyborg warriors didn’t crash with horses on their spaceship, but they do have an alien beast they rode into battle. Almost the same, right? And since they’d escaped a bad situation in space, they are even more protective of their adopted home, Earth. How lucky they have the muscles for all that protecting. J

Splicing common romance tropes into science fiction is like when you were a kid crashing your Star Wars TIE fighter into the Barbie Dream House…and then Barbie and Ken fall in love and have a Jawa baby! Er, wait… Maybe that was just me? J Anyway! I use romance tropes in my science fiction romance stories to make the strange science-y, space-y parts more accessible.

And now with my Mermaids of Montana, I’m diving into all sorts of undersea tropes. (Confession: Mostly I’m thinking of Jason Momoa’s Aquaman…) All the mystery and beauty of the Earth’s oceans might seem like an odd overlay for the middle of Montana, but prehistoric Montana was once covered by the Sundance Sea, a series of invasions by the Earth’s waters over what we now think of as a place far from oceans. So making Montana a home for mermaids isn’t too out of this world.

Morphing the long-time beloved into something unfamiliar but hopefully beguiling sounds like an alien shapeshifter’s tricks. J But playing with tropes is definitely an author trick too. Unless authors are actually aliens… Maybe that would explain why our heads are always in the clouds!

If you are new to science fiction romance, the first book of the
Big Sky Alien Mail Order Brides series, ALPHA STAR, is available free at http://www.elsajade.com/book/alpha-star/

***

Bio: Elsa Jade is the paranormal romance and science fiction romance pen name for Jessa Slade. In addition to the Intergalactic Dating Agency, Elsa Jade has written the Wolves of Angels Rest paranormal shifter romance series and the Obsidian Rim space opera romance trilogy, the third book of which just released on October 15. The next two books of the Mermaids of Montana trilogy come out in October and November.

What is the Obsidian Rim? by SFR Author Jody Wallace

Early this year (2019), Jessa Slade (w/a Elsa Jade http://www.elsajade.com/) contacted me about a project she and Maggie Lynch (https://maggielynch.com/) were helming. Like Thieves’ World and Heroes in Hell, they envisioned a shared world concept set in the far future, after the devastating effects of war had destroyed nearly all of the “Salty Way” galaxy except for the outer rim. How would humanity have endured after achieving great heights of civilization and technology only to be forced back into hardscrabble survival on a limited number of M-class planets?

Obviously, humanity would have endured in part in the traditional way—via romances and making some babies! Thus the authors in the shared world would be writing adventurous romances (Not generally with babies, though, because adventure. And guns.) about the explorations, the danger, and the joys to be had by the humans inhabiting the Obsidian Rim .

So far we have launched eleven books in the series, from revolts on mining plants to intergalactic shenanigans with princes and mob bosses to the discovery of sentient beings whose intelligence rivaled or possibly surpassed our own.

CATS ARE SENTIENT BEINGS
ON THE OBSIDIAN RIM

I’m talking about CATS, of course, in the Cat Ship Trilogy that is my contribution to the Obsidian Rim’s offerings. Though Jessa and Maggie were very firm about certain aspects of worldbuilding (stories would take place in the Rim itself, no alien intelligence, no messin’ up other people’s ideas), cats did not count as alien intelligence because they’re already among us, bossing us around. 

Thanks to the premise of Maggie’s books, wherein the q-bombs that destroyed the universe also enhanced a few humans with limited but useful abilities related to stellarship navigation, I decided that same effect could be extended to cats, who finally learned to communicate their superior intellect to their waitstaff, aka two-leggers.

I also decided that humanity in any civilization is going to need somewhere to take the trash, and thus Trash Planet was born.

CATALYST

Cats and trash. What more could you want out of an adventure romance series? Find out more about Catalyst at http://jodywallace.com/books/catalyst/ and encourage me to keep editing Catapult, which is the second in the series due to come out in a month or two.

So a little more about the various offerings. Maggie Lynch’s Cryoborn Gifts series and the first book, Gravity, instigates the whole world with a pirate heroine crashing on a mining planetoid and getting accidentally involved with an escaped miner who just wants to save his children. The next book (and series) belongs to Elsa Jade with Rock Rift  and the Edge of Sunrise series, wherein the miners who got crashed into in the first book plan and execute a revolt from their masters—that is, if the sexy secret agent from a doomsday type cult doesn’t spoil it for them. Third in the release list is Traitor’s Code  by Jane Killick (the Freelance series) where a sort-of innocent freelance stellarship captain gets involved with the prince of an agricultural planet in a deep conspiracy that may involve his entire family.

The fourth series we get to taste, Pipettes and Plows, is the science adventure from Shree C Aier, Coexistence  which relates, like Traitor’s Code, to the food issues that the inhabitants of the entire Rim have in the absence of places to raise plants and animals when a sheltered scientist and a farmer are sent to the edge of the galaxy for research. Next we delve into the world of mercenaries for hire, nanobot tech, and space royalty with Mercenary Royal and the Dead Suns series  by Shona Husk when a pampered princess must learn to become a dangerous mercenary if she’s to survive a plot by her family’s rivals.

Sela Carsen’s Fate’s Favor series begins with Ace’s Odds, set on the glitzy Gizem space station where the mob boss’s daughter and a desperate smuggler team up to keep her family safe—or tear it down from the inside. My own Cat Ship series involves a garbage picker on Trash Planet who finds a man in the garbage—and a talking cat. Last but not least in the series countdown we have the Ghost Planet series by CJ Cade and her book Hunter Green where a down on her luck waitress tries to hide on the strange planet of Vorona, but the leader of the only settlement there doesn’t want her bringing her bad luck to his attempt at a new life.

The Obsidian Rim adventures strike a rich balance between romance and science fiction, more Romancing the Stone than 9 ½ Weeks in space. As readers we love to read all across the romance genre, and as authors we are adoring the experiment of the shared world and larger-than-life intergalactic quests. Books from different authors have links to each other, sly little mentions and connections, but the Obsidian Rim novels do not have to be read in order to make sense. I hope you’ll pick up a book and visit some day soon!

Jody Wallace

Author, Editor, Cat Person, Amigurumist of the Apocalypse

www.jodywallace.com * www.meankitty.com

Jody Wallace grew up in the South in a very rural area. She went to school a long time and ended up with a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing. Her resume includes college English instructor, technical documents editor, market analyst, web designer, and general, all around pain in the butt. Ms. Wallace writes sf/f romance with occasional forays into contemporary romance. She resides in Tennessee with one husband, two children, four cats, one bearded dragon, and a lot of junk. When not writing, she crochets things she shouldn’t and drinks too much coffee. At all times she is ruled by the eternal Meankitty of the Soul.

Is it too late?

By Jessa Slade

Is it too late for you to be a doctor or lawyer or shoe salesman? Yes? Damn, sorry. Well, if you’re doomed to be a working writer, here’s one thing (not the only thing, mind, or even the most important thing, but a thing) I think you should know before publishing:

Have a strategy.

I know this is sort of boring, business-y advice, but it’s something I wish I’d done. I’ve always been more interested in the art of writing than the business side, and that hasn’t helped my publishing career. I’ve made decisions on a whim and spread myself too thin. I’ve jumped on good opportunities that I haven’t been able to capitalize on. I’m playing catch-up now, learning the boring business side on the fly* and trying to retrofit a plan to multiple pen names and titles when having a strategy from the start would have been easier and likely more profitable.

Obviously, everyone’s strategy is going to be customized. But I think there are some core questions to noodle upon on your way to crafting a publishing strategy.

1. What do I want out of publishing? (A traditional contract? Self-publishing control? A one-and-done books just so I can say I did it? Fame and riches?)

2. How can my personal strengths support my publishing goals? (And if my skill set isn’t sufficient to reach my goals, should I be rethinking my plan?)

3. What creative and business choices are likely to contribute to my success? (How can I make my stories even more appealing to my sort of readers? Who are the key players around me and what can I learn from them?)

4. How am I going to implement my plan? (What is my timeline? Who is going to be on my publishing team? What else do I need to know?)

5. Eh, ef it. Let’s do this thing!

Once you are published, the situation gets much more chaotic. You have to oversee the released book** while managing the pipeline on the next books and at the same time looking ahead to possibly changing your strategy based on how your plan is executing. You will never have more time and less stress than you do before you publish, so make the best use of those brain cells to position yourself properly. In the end, you’ll probably find you rushed the process anyway (thanks a lot, #5) and made mistakes, but having strategized once, you’ll be able to salvage the best pieces and rethink as necessary.

I take a certain amount of twisted comfort in knowing that I can revise my career at least as much as I revise my stories. :)

* The world of publishing is going through a lot of changes, and I don’t see it coming to a peaceful status quo anytime soon, so learning is going to be an on-going task. I just remind myself learning new things is good for my brain.

** Even traditionally published authors are finding that many of the tasks involved in making a book successful are falling on their shoulders.

Bonus hard truth: no one cares as much about your career as you do, so due diligence is always on you, no matter how or where you publish.

If you have a creative or business strategy that worked out well for you -- or that failed miserably! -- please share so we can all learn more.

 Bio: There are too many cool worlds to explore! Which is how Jessa Slade got started writing paranormal romance, urban fantasy romance and science fiction romance… but then dabbled in hot contemporary romance as Jenna Dales…and now also writes sexy shapeshifting romance as Elsa Jade. All her worlds feature mighty alpha males and strong, smart heroines with a bit of attitude. You can get QUEEN OF STARLIGHT free most places ebooks are sold or HERO for 99¢ at Amazon or free with Kindle Unlimited.

You can find her online in the usual haunts:

JessaSlade.com | JennaDales.com | ElsaJade.com
Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Using a Free Read to Sell Books by SF Romance Author Cathryn Cade

Thanks, Sara and Judith for inviting me back to RTG. It’s been so great to watch this blog grow, and to explore the wealth of information here.

Let’s talk about marketing. Pffffft! Yes, the subject most writers would like to kick into the nearest closet and slam the door. I don’t just dislike marketing, I hate it! I want to write stories for my readers, chat with them on Facebook, answer the wonderful, inspiring messages they send me. I don’t wanna market.

So I’m all about promoting my books the easy way. My favorite part of writing? Writing. So going with my strengths, I use a novella (40K) as a major marketing tool. It’s written, edited, covered and packaged. 

Done. 

I don’t have to sit in a chair behind a table of books and bling, hoping readers will take pity on me and stop. I don’t even have to go to a con. I love cons, but they’re expensive, and I am essentially an introvert. I love meeting people, but it also exhausts me emotionally. So after a day or two, I’m ready to dive into that closet, even with marketing lurking in the shadows.

Instead, I let my ex-space pirate and alpha hero Stone Masterson do the heavy lifting for me. 

Heart of Stone is a science fiction romance. It can also be called ‘space opera’, a term I love as it means a rollicking good adventure. The story is set in the world of both my Orion and LodeStar series, so it serves as an introduction not only to my work, but to both series.

I’ve heard authors rally the cry ‘Don’t give away your work! It devalues all of our work.’ Sorry, I totally disagree. When my local grocer lowers the price of sweet, juicy oranges to get people into his store, he loses money on the oranges, but he makes money on everything else they buy. And who walks out with only oranges? Not me and probably not you. The oranges are a ‘loss leader’.

And I’ve never heard one grocer complain publicly about devaluing oranges.  They just put up their own loss leaders!

Amazon is by far and away my biggest sales venue. Heart’s Amazon categories are

·         ‘Free > Romance > Science Fiction’

·         ‘Free > Science Fiction > Space Opera’

Amazon’s Free chart lists are, as I’m sure you know, a very popular place for readers to cruise for new books and authors. I have a number of reviews that say ‘I don’t really read sfr, but I enjoyed this story’. I also have reviews that say ‘Love this story. I’ve found a new author.’ They’re willing to try my story because it was free.

Romance, luckily for us, is a genre with prolific and adventurous readers. They snap up free samples of authors’ work at a great rate. Heart has been out since January 2013, and downloads haven’t slowed. With a fabulous, sexy cover by Christy Carlyle at Gilded Heart Designs, Heart remains in the top 100 on Amazon sfr lists, usually in the top 40. That is great visibility for my sfr.

Now, not all who download will read. And not all who read will buy. But enough do come back for more of the author’s work, and pay for it. I have never once regretted publishing Heart of Stone as a perma free read on all sales sites. Want more proof? This is my Amazon sales chart for a portion of May 2014.

AMAZON SALES CHART

The red line represents sales of all 3 of my self-published books on Amazon, day by day. The green line represents free books given away. Notice how the general flow of sales follow the flow of give-aways. This month, I have given away X number of copies of Heart. I have sold more than double that number of books.

And these are just my self-published books. Because of Heart and the success of my new self-pub sfr series, my sfr backlist at Samhain continues to sell despite being published 2008-11. I’m a mid-list author with no pretensions to the top echelons, but this month I met a financial goal of mine, and I expect to reach another by year’s end.

Hopefully my backlist sales show that publishing a free novella can work for a traditional or small press author too. In fact, publishers usually love it when authors take on some of the heavy lifting! If contract terms preclude this, it can’t hurt to lay out a proposal, right?

Heart is always available, always working for me. That’s what I call a great sales partner. The rest of marketing can stay in the closet with the dust bunnies.

Best,

Cathryn Cade

Best-selling author of Sci Fi romance

RT 4.5 Stars and Night Owl Reviews TOP PICK
Goodreads, My Website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Samhain Author Page,

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Debut SFR Author J.C. Hay - Twisting Genres Up: Space Opera Adventure and Regency Flair

Space Regency is here, and somehow, I’ve helped. In the wake of a conversation at RWA Nationals a few years back, I was inspired to write a novel that pulled together the things I loved most about Space Opera and Regency Romance. That mélange, for me, grew into my debut novel, His Lowborn Heart; a cross-breeding of Regency flair with a Space Opera setting. 

HIS LOWBORN HEART

Like any great Romantic Couple, at first glance these two have nothing in common. Space Opera is about wildly futuristic technology; aliens, spaceships, and laser-swords. Regency is grounded in history, in stories of and about the Ton, and those who are impacted by them. And just like any great couple, the more time they spend together, the more you realize just how much they have in common. How right for each other they really are.

Space Opera has a long tradition of galactic nobility, filled with counts, dukes, princesses, and emperors of all stripes. Almost from its conception, Regency has featured strong women either quietly or overtly breaking the boundaries of their society. They cross-pollinate and compliment. If left together too long, they melt into each other until it’s hard to see the pieces as separate.

And like any great couple, they hope to create something new that transforms how we see the individual parts. 

In His Lowborn Heart, I made an effort to parallel some of the obliviousness of the Ton to what was happening in the fields of Spain and Portugal as Napoleon advanced. The war is a game for the wealthy, while those without means struggle and die unseen on the front. (I even made the aliens a society of equals – similar to the ideas of the Revolution which Napoleon claimed to further.)

The end result gave me a world where a lowborn fighter pilot and a duke’s headstrong daughter can find love while they struggle against both the strictures of society and their human and alien adversaries. Hopefully, other people find it as fun to read as it was to write.

J.C. HAY

Bio: JC Hay writes romantic science fiction and space opera, because the coolest gadgets in the world are useless without someone to share them. 

In addition to Romance Writers of America, he is also a proud member of the SFR Brigade (for Science Fiction Romance), and the Fantasy, Futuristic, and Paranormal Romance chapter of RWA. His space opera, His Lowborn Heart, is available now from Lyrical Press. 

JC Hay is on Twitter, Facebook, and sometimes even http://jchay.com.