science fiction

The Alien Stories I Do Like…

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

I do not care for alien invasion movies, except for Independence Day. Super 8 was pretty good as well. But the rest? Two thumbs down. 

I came across a book called Princess by Mistake by Aurelia Skye. The blurb gave a description of a bounty hunter chasing down a runaway princess in order to return her to the prince she’s supposed to marry. Said bounty hunter captures the wrong woman, the female MC. They go on an adventure as he tries to take her to this mysterious prince and she tries to convince him she’s not the missing princess.

What I failed to understand from the blurb was that all the characters, except the female MC, were aliens. By the time I figured that out, I thought, “I’m already reading it for free. I might as well give it a try.” I LOVED it. And ever since, I have fallen down the alien romance rabbit hole.

Princess by Mistake has a “sequel” called Wrong Place, Right Mate. It takes place two hundred years later, and neither character is connected to the original characters. It simply takes place in the same world and the male aliens are from the same planet. A scientist from earth crashlands on the wrong planet. A bounty hunter alien comes across her and takes her on his hunting adventure. It was wonderful as well. The epilogue implies more are coming and I’m anxiously waiting. 

The next author I came across was Nancey Cummings. She has two of her own alien romance series, and has a book in 3 different multi-author alien romance series.

Her first and largest series is Warriors of Sangrin. There are currently 11 books in the main series, and 3 side stories. This series covers life after an alien invasion opens Earth up to the rest of the universe. The invading species, the Shulik, murder all of Earth’s leaders on international television, plunging the unprepared terrans (what other species call humans) into a war for their lives. The Mahdfel show up and ally with earth to defeat the Shulik. The Mahdfel have a very specific treaty negotiation for this alliance: brides. Mahdfel are a warrior species who are genetically engineered to produce only males, so they must mate with females from other planets. 

The scent of their fated mate calls to them, and one of their top scientists invents a mouth swab test to speed up the mate finding process. Females of marriageable age living on Mahdfel-allied planets must submit to testing once a year. The year they match, they are transported across the stars to wherever their mate is. Health conditions, already being married, being engaged, or already having children can exempt a female from being tested. And many of our heroines will do such things to avoid the test – at first. 

Each book covers a novella length adventure for a different couple. However, they are all interconnected via siblings, best friends, being in the same clan, or dealing with the same villain. Like the previous alien stories, I fell into this one by accident and read two of the side stories and the 8th book before I discovered the correct order. I was hooked from chapter 1, and have only the 11th book left to read. You can find a list of completed works here: https://nanceycummings.com/warlord-brides-universe/. 

Nancey’s second series is called Tail and Claw. I have only read the first one, Have Tail, Will Travel. So I’m not as well-versed in the lore and worldbuilding as I am the Warriors of Sangrin. But what I can tell so far is that Earth is aware of aliens and has relationships with the rest of the universe. There is a dating app called Celestial Mates that matches sentient beings based on a questionnaire. They get married over a tablet, and one of them travels to wherever the other is. 

Have Tail, Will Travel reminds me of that old children’s book Sarah, Plain and Tall. A human woman is matched with an alien male, Merit, who has ended up as sole guardian of his orphaned niece and nephew. Merit uses Celestial Mates to find a female to be a nanny. His “nanny” wants love and adventure. They’ll have to overcome their miscommunication amongst dangerous monsters and a plotting sister-in-law.

I’m excited to read the rest of the series.

The intimacy scenes for both series are at a heat level of spicy.  

And that’s where I’m at with my latest guilty pleasure. Once I get caught up on Nancey Cummings’ books, I’ll definitely be checking out other authors like her. 

Do you like alien stories? What’s your favorite? (They don’t have to be a romance.) Let me know in the comments!

Going in Blind: Dragons Walk Among Us

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

I’m about to eat my own words. In a previous post, I talked about how important a good cover and blurb are to convince potential readers to buy your book. Well, I put Dragons Walk Among Us by Dan Rice on my to-be-read list based on the title alone. I read it in an email (Dan is also with The Wild Rose Press), and put it on my list right away. I didn’t see the cover until I started following Dan on social media. I have never read the blurb. 

Allison Lee is an angsty teenager who participates in environmental rallies, takes photos for the school newspaper, and is navigating her feelings for her crush. In addition to typical teenage drama, Allison also deals with racism as a biracial Chinese American. Her best friends, Dalia and Haji, stick with her through her ups and downs. 

Allison is friends with a homeless veteran named Joe. One night, on her way to visit him, she is attacked. She wakes up in the hospital a couple weeks later completely blind. She lost her spot in her school’s social standing during her coma, and with her blindness, risks never regaining it. Her father introduces her to the creator of an experimental procedure that could give her eyesight back. Allison agrees to it, and after a few more weeks of surgery and healing, she is finally back at school with her friends.

There are a few unsavory side effects to Allison’s new eyesight, but the one she was not prepared for is a giant holographic dragon following her father’s colleague around. Allison makes the bold decision to tell the professor that she can see his dragon. Her confession pulls her into the world of dragons and an impending war with their enemies, the skaags. 

Dan Rice expertly wove Allison’s human struggles into the tensions of the dragon community. The bigotry and prejudice Allison faces as a biracial human also plagues the dragon world in its own way. Allison was abandoned by her mother at birth, allowing her to bond with dragon characters who also struggle with feelings of abandonment. 

Mr. Rice also captured the American teenager perfectly. Allison is quick to anger, quick to love, and quick to react. She struggles with self-esteem about her personal appearance. And she is passionate about her interests. Her friends, and even her enemies, are all believable high school students that I can see in my classroom. 

I thoroughly enjoyed each and every scene, and I can’t wait to read the sequel. 

In addition to my review, I am pleased to introduce Dan Rice, who kindly granted me an interview:

First, would you introduce yourself as a person and a writer?

Hi, I’m Dan. I pen the young adult urban fantasy series The Allison Lee Chronicles in the wee hours of the morning. The series kicks off with my award-winning debut, Dragons Walk Among Us, which Kirkus Reviews calls, “An inspirational and socially relevant fantasy.”

While not pulling down the 9 to 5 or chauffeuring my soccer fanatic sons to practices and games, I enjoy photography and hiking through the wilderness.

What inspired Dragons Walk Among Us?

I wanted to write a book from a relatively young age. I grew up reading fantasy and science fiction and naturally gravitated toward writing those genres. For a long time, I wanted to write gritty epic fantasy like Game of Thrones or Joe Abercrombie’s novels. Eventually, I discovered my authorial voice is more suited to young adult material.

The opening scene in Dragons Walk Among Us was inspired by my older son being harassed for his biracial appearance at summer camp. Allison’s encounter with Leslie grew from that seed, and the rest of the story flowed from there.

There is a lot of great racial diversity in Dragons Walk Among Us. Was this a conscious choice? Or did the characters tell you who they were as you created them?

My sons’ schools are far more diverse than the institutions I attended. I wanted to write a story that would ring true with young adult readers. So I created a diverse cast to match what I observed at school events and read in news articles about the increasing diversity across the United States.

You did an excellent job portraying the angsty teenager. What experience do you have with teenagers and/or what research did you do that helped you bring these believable characters to life?

Well, people were all or will be teenagers, angsty or otherwise, at some point in life. My oldest son still isn’t a teenager, but he’s been acting like one since about the age of eight. I often imagine what his antics might be like if he were a bit older.

Allison describes dragons as “European” and skaags as “Chinese”. In your worldbuilding, are both creatures somehow related?

The original skaags were laboratory creations the dragons made to hunt down rebels. The draconic empire deploys magic to bind the skaags as loyal soldiers. The magic is believed to be unbreakable.

The third book is coming out soon. Is this the end of Allison’s story, or does she have more adventures ahead of her? What’s next in your writing career?

The entire series will be four books. Right now, I plan to participate in a haunted high school series my publisher is doing. After finishing those projects, I will try penning a dystopian novel.

Follow Dan at his website: https://www.danscifi.com/

What if a Global Pandemic Came from Space? An Interview with Lisa Wilkes

Posted on by Chelsey M. Ortega

Last time Lisa Wilkes was on my blog, she was talking about her first book Flight Path in preparation for the release of her next book, Mid-Flight. I recently read Mid-Flight and am pleased to announce that Lisa agreed to an in depth interview. 

Lexi Brennan is a flight attendant in the year 2037 when a meteor shower veers off course and strikes earth. The plane her best friend is on is hit by the falling space debris and all on board are incinerated immediately. Lexi feels extreme guilt because she was scheduled to be on that plane as well, but switched shifts. Jason Bresline is an airplane mechanic who is called in to do emergency fixes when the meteor shower hits. His mentor is also killed on one of the planes hit. Jason’s engagement falls apart shortly after. He and Lexi meet in Orlando, FL a year later for different training sessions for Skyline, the airline they both work for. They spend each night after classes together, getting to know each other and falling in love.

But all is not well in post-meteor America. The meteor shower brought a new disease that humans are struggling to combat. The fear of this disease, ContaCan, causes extremists to seize control of the government and implement totalitarian policies. Lexi, her brother, her friends, and Jason plan a way to secretly fight against the new policies. Jason and Lexi’s relationship is also one of healing and self-acceptance. Both have past traumas and hurt that they have to overcome in order to fully give themselves to one another.

I really enjoyed Ms. Wilkes’ world building. The connections between the fictional ContaCan and the real life Covid pandemics are very clear. She also expands upon very real fears that POCs and LGBTQ+ Americans face. Basically, Ms. Wilkes answered “What would America look like if the extremists gained control?” The technological advancements were also very intriguing.

So, let’s take a look at Ms. Wilkes’ world building. First, this is a Sci-Fi Romance, so technological advancements are expected. In American 2038, everyone has a chip implant called AutoScan which allows you to call, text, and receive information using brain waves. Text messages, news articles, and Internet searches show up across one’s cornea. The image my brain conjured when reading was a miniature screen constantly on your eyeball. People also use their thumbprint to pay for purchases and identify themselves. But this thumb scan is more than a driver’s license. All information has been made public – for national security, of course.

The disease brought on by the meteor shower is called Contagious Cancer – ContaCan for short. The world went into quarantine while scientists scrambled to find a cure (sound familiar?). Once a vaccine was made available, the world attempted to return to normal, but one problem emerged: the vaccine didn’t work on everyone. These people are labeled AR, or Antidote Resistant. ARs are forced to register as such by having their documentation readily available and get a government sanctioned tattoo on their left shoulder blade that reads “AR”. As the story progresses, Lexi and Jason watch via AutoScan how the government continues to pass more and more policies that chip away at human rights for ARs. The whole thing is very reminiscent of WWII. 

Another layer to the story is the diversity representation among the characters. Lexi is bisexual, Colin is gay and suffers from mental illness, Jorge is gay and Latino, Jason is Black, Colleen is lesbian, and Reggie is gay and Black. Each character has suffered discrimination due to their race and/or sexuality. 

I think my favorite thing about the above representation is Lexi and Jason’s relationship. Lexi is white and Jason is Black, but their racial and cultural differences don’t play into the tensions and struggles they are facing. It was really refreshing to see an interracial couple who could focus on things other than race. Not to say race is or should be ignored, because it’s not. Lexi and Jason do have conversations about his experience as the youngest Black airplane mechanic in the south; it’s just not the main plot point. And as someone who is in an interracial marriage, I really appreciate what Ms. Wilkes did with that part of the plot. 

And now, onto the interview portion with Lisa Wilkes!

Chelsey: What was your inspiration for Mid-Flight? How did you come up with this story?

Lisa: Mid-Flight was originally going to be an aviation-themed love story, similar to my first published novel, Flight Path. However, Mid-Flight’s plot (and setting) changed drastically as I witnessed a lot of wild things occurring in society. The book was written in 2019 and 2020. At that time, I was completing my graduate school internship in the behavioral health unit of a hospital. Many of my clients had endured horrible abuse and mistreatment, which deeply impacted their mental health. I decided my next book would address those injustices. I wanted to shed light on the iniquities rampant in modern society, so my readers would be inspired to address these issues and take a stance in favor of equality and inclusion.

Mid-Flight’s characters are very diverse. Lexi is a bisexual flight attendant, Jason is the youngest Black mechanic at SkyLine Airways, and Colin is a brilliant programmer battling mental illness. The story aims to remind readers that we all have so much to offer this world. It also seeks to demonstrate that our differences can unify—rather than divide—us, especially as we work toward building a better and brighter future for all of humanity. I felt the book would be more impactful if it was set in the future, since the hostility and antagonism we see in our current world might be greatly magnified over the years, unless we take deliberate steps to protect those facing oppression.

Chelsey: How did you come up with the technological advancements? Are these advancements something you would like to see in real life?

Lisa: Mid-Flight’s technological references were a combination of my wild imagination and real-life initiatives/developments within the tech sector. For example, there are actual programs similar to AutoScan, where electrodes can scan our scalp for impulses and assess what we are thinking. Of course, there’s still a long way to go before the technology is perfected and made available to the public, but it was really fun to imagine how that might look fourteen years in the future!

I also really enjoyed writing about solar-powered cars, tablets, and buildings. I’m a huge fan of sustainable energy, and I truly believe our planet deserves far better than the treatment we have given it thus far. So it was exciting to envision the ways energy could be harnessed to power our lives without negatively impacting the environment.

Chelsey: Off the top of my head, it appears the majority of your characters identify as LGBTQ+. Was that a conscious decision? Or did your characters tell you who they were as you created them?

Lisa: I’d like to hope the world is becoming more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community, although recent legislation would indicate otherwise. I felt compelled to write a book that offered a positive alternative to the recent hostility we have witnessed from lots of folks in power. In my novel, I aimed to show the beauty of all these characters with different preferences, identities, and orientations. Lexi’s sexuality is nuanced and complex, so I really tried to capture that with sensitivity. Her best friend and her brother are gay. They are also amazing humans who deserve to be valued and appreciated. I guess it wasn’t really a conscious decision for me, as the author of Mid-Flight. But I am so glad these characters showed—and embraced—their authentic selves for the whole world to see.

Chelsey: I would like to applaud you for writing an interracial couple whose struggles have nothing to do with cultural differences. Same question as above. Did you consciously choose the race of each character or did they tell you who they were?

Lisa: This was a conscious decision. Lexi had experienced her own struggles; she was no stranger to exclusion or microaggressions. However, she didn’t know the full extent of  discrimination until she met Jason and learned all the nonsense he’d faced because of his skin color. Lexi and Jason fell in love easily, linked by their tragic losses as well as their triumphs…and their powerful desire to make a difference in a broken world. It was important for these characters to represent different ethnic backgrounds. This reinforced the idea that true, deep, meaningful love is accompanied by a sense of moral responsibility and an ongoing quest for justice.

Chelsey: There are obvious connections between Covid and ContaCon. But the treatment of ARs also reminded me of WWII Japanese Internment Camps and Jewish Concentration Camps. What other world events (if any) inspired the AR plot point? And did you do any historical research for this part of the story?

Lisa: Interestingly, I had a wealth of knowledge in this area since I was completing my Master’s in Social Work when I wrote Mid-Flight. There are countless historical references to exclusion and annihilation of groups who have been vilified by the dominant majority. There are also tons of modern references, sadly; as a social worker, I have witnessed the effects of systemic bigotry. Recent attacks on the trans community have left people without resources, protections, or hope. I needed Mid-Flight to portray the horrifying possibility that extremists will continue to assault anyone arbitrarily deemed “other,” unless we expose and reject that widely-accepted mistreatment. 

The ARs in Mid-Flight, a small subset of the population with a genetic anomaly, might be a new concept. Their plight, however, is a terrible tale that’s been replayed throughout history. It’s time we say enough is enough. Lexi and Jason found a creative way to do this within their airline and their sphere of influence.

Chelsey: Is Lexi and Jason’s story going to continue? What’s next for your writing career? 

Lisa: Originally, I said there would not be a sequel to Mid-Flight. But I’ve been known to break my own rules, so it’s definitely possible I’ll write a follow-up novel at some point! In the meantime, I am working on a different project. I’m approximately 70 pages into my next novel, a metaphysical thriller about a love powerful enough to transcend multiple dimensions.

Lisa is an author, flight attendant, licensed social worker, and animal rescuer. She lives in Florida with her spouse and several rescue furbabies. Lisa uses her royalties to donate to animal rescues. Follow Lisa at her website: Books By Lisa Wilkes