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Tag Archives: guest post

Exiled (Arcadia, #3) by Mary Brock Jones – Guest Post with Excerpt

23 Thursday Jun 2022

Posted by WWMB in Featuring...., guest post

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Eco Scifi, excerpt, guest post, Mary Brock Jones, romance, scifi, series

Today, I am welcoming Mary Brock Jones. She is here to introduce us to her new release, Exiled, the third book in the Arcadia series. This Eco-Scifi series is currently relevant and also contains that perfect combination of Scifi and Romance. I’m currently reading Exiled, so I hope you will look for my review in the future.

EXILED
ARCADIA Book 3

Release Date 23 Jun 2022

Guest Post by Mary Brock Jones

Exiled is the third book in a science fiction series about a planet facing an environmental crunch point. Arcadia is an earth analogue world not too different from Earth itself. One rich in resources and so ripe for development that the settlers fell into the trap of thinking their world’s tolerance is infinite. Now, their changes have stretched the planet’s ability to cope to its limit and the Interplanetary government has given them an ultimatum:

Change your ways, or we’ll ship you all off and replace you with settlers who respect this world.

I started this series focussed on the physical challenges of meeting that ultimatum, but became more and more interested in the human dynamics behind that. In particular, the series looks at how two families face being forced to change what they do in order to save their world.

The hero of EXILED is Seolta den Coille, second son of a family living in the forests cloaking the western sides of a major mountain range. He was also one of the villains of the second book, and as a result was sent into exile off planet. This book tells what happens to him after that.

Why choose a villain, a character that may have appeared to have few redeeming qualities in the previous book (TAKEN)? It’s simple. He interested me the most, and as author, I get to play with the character that looks the most fun at the time. I once read that villains see themselves as the hero of their own story, (Marvel’s Loki is a prime example of this) and that was definitely the case with Seolta. In EXILED, he is forced to realise there is a fatal flaw in that, and what it takes to be a real hero. Despite being known as the cleverest of the den Coilles, he is not, unfortunately, the fastest of learners.

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Excerpt

The planet receded below him, a patchwork of blue and green fading into the dark. The trip on the shuttle to the space hub had been bad enough, but now he was on board an interplanetary ship and watching his world slowly and inexorably disappear from sight, taking with it everything he’d known for certain since birth. Even his name. He was plain Seolta den Coille on the passenger list, no longer Seolta mar Bram an Scathach den Coille. Seolta of the house of Coille. A man with a family, a home, a land like nowhere else.

A family and a home that he had thrown away in a singular act of stupidity. Out his porthole window, the sharply defined outlines of mountains, plains and sea dwindled to splotches of colour, then to a sphere glowing in the dark, then nothing as his ship twisted away from the planet and headed into the void of space.

All he had left was his new mission. Marshal an Fallon’s order had been clear and unequivocal.

“Find out who’s behind the plots against us.”

Find out and report back, that meant. Don’t do anything else. Don’t make things worse than you already have.

We don’t trust you, it meant.

Only the debt he owed to an Fallon had kept him quiet. The man had led those who broke him out of prison and saved his life. A debt he could never repay. He hadn’t even tried to, embarking instead on a stupid quest for revenge that had cost him everything he valued from those who mattered most to him.

You betrayed us once. We will not let it happen again.

His family had farewelled him with pity and closed mouths. His older sister had tried to say he could return one day, but he knew the truth. A sentence of exile was forever.

He shut his eyes to banish the blackness and heard with relief the signal for translation. He’d flown in space once before and remembered the stark warnings to all passengers. He wasn’t ready to die yet, whatever he might face, and dutifully settled into his floating pod. Escape came as the hiss of the drug infusions at last gave him oblivion.

When he woke, days later, he had a headache, a dry mouth, and the knowledge that he was worlds away from home. Below floated the station hub where he must change ships.

His route had been carefully mapped out by the Galactic Ministry offices on Arcadia, along with exhaustive instructions on whom to talk to and whom to absolutely avoid.

Top of the second list: Deputy Malgrave of the Alliance and Hilmar a Kevand3 of the planet Surned—the two offworlders who had led him into this hell in the first place. He’d thought himself so clever, but all the time they’d been the ones laughing. He’d been such a fool.

A com chime warned him to prepare for landing and he turned in relief to readying for disembarking. Too soon he was part of a crowd of passengers following station guidelines and waiting for clearance into the hub. A sharp odour of disinfectants and machinery stung his nose, and the underlying mechanical hum of the station systems throbbed through his feet. Missing was the constant motion of the living branches of home as rigid metal engulfed him. This was no planet. He remembered the strangeness from his one other off-world trip, the uncertain bounce to his stride from the lighter gravity of a standard space habitat, but that time it had been part of the collected memorabilia of a tourist soon to return to the normality of home.

Now, it must become his normal.

*****************************

About Exiled by Mary Brock Jones

Sentenced to exile by his home world, he’s hungry for revenge. Only he isn’t innocent and Alliance space is no safe haven.

After Seolta den Coille is falsely imprisoned by the corrupt Ecological Survey bosses then saved by his sister and her husband, he wants one thing only. Revenge. When offworlders offer him a way to get back at those who threatened him, he grabs hold with both fists. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t end well and he’s banished into exile. All that does is give his hunger for vengeance a few more targets. Top of the list, the two off-worlders who lured him into betraying his home world.

Anyara a Prithand2 wants only two things in life: to be left in peace to manage the biota systems of her space station, and to avoid giving her uncle an excuse to kill her. When a newcomer to her home world offers to help her escape, she accepts. Now she just has to survive the adventure—and the unexpected desire flaring to life between them.

Chased across Alliance space by their enemies, Seolta and Anyara’s only chance lies with the Alliance Council, the overall governing body of settled space. An organisation as riven with political strife as the enemies they are fleeing.

Can the cleverest of the den Coille’s and the habitat worlds’ best biome scientist stay alive long enough to expose those threatening their worlds?

*****************************

Links

Add Exiled to your Goodreads shelf:

Purchase books in the Arcadia series:

Claws & Effect – Guest Post by Pauline Baird Jones

11 Monday Apr 2022

Posted by WWMB in guest post

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

anthology, favorite series, guest post, new release, Pauline Baird Jones, pets, Pets in Space, romance, scifi

Today, I am pleased to welcome Pauline Baird Jones! She is here to introduce her latest release – Claws & Effect. Be sure to come back tomorrow when I will be sharing my review of the stories in this anthology.

A parrot, a caticorn, a snake, a frog, and a dragon walk into an author’s head…

And changed her life in some interesting ways. 

Writing alien animals for five years for the ®Pets in Space anthologies was a total rush. It was so easy to make up strange creatures—but then I had to figure out how to weave them into an actual story. 

And the pets needed to be key to the plot. Suddenly the weird and wonderful wasn’t that easy. 

But just like our real live pets, mine tried to help me solve my plot problems. They steered me toward their humans (and cyborgs), and we all had fun, exciting, and wonderful adventures—my favorite kind: fictional!

Real life adventures are too uncomfortable for this hermit. Lol

And the pets and their humans were happy to be bundled together for this special release: Claws & Effect: The Otherworldly Pets of Project Enterprise. 

There are four Project Enterprise stories and then there is the dragon—a bearded dragon named Penddreth. Because Penddreth is a “pet in space,” he has some unusual abilities for a bearded dragon. 

So there you have it, the story behind Claws & Effect! Here’s the blurb:

About Claw & Effect

Love Space opera? Romance? Adventure? Out of this world pets? Grab Claws & Effect today! 

What’s in the collection?

In Time Trap, Sergeant Briggs’s world collides with the very unusual Madison and her pet parrot. With a Time Service Interdiction Force on their heels, can the three craft a plan that will save a base full of geniuses and technology and get them the happy ending they deserve?

Operation Ark’s Caro, her caticorn, and Kraye are tasked with returning some unusual aliens to their home planets. Together they must face a dangerous journey, a lethal enemy with a score to settle, their unexpected desire, and an uncertain future if they make it out alive.

Cyborg’s Revenge asks the question, can the shy guy and the lovesick gal defeat their greatest enemy and find a happy ending? Only the chatty Snake knows for sure. 

General’s Holiday brings us a lady with a crazy story and a frog for a side-kick. And then there is the general who has been waiting for his Picard moment for a long time. Be careful what you ask for! But…if he can survive he might just get to kiss the lady.

And in the bonus short story, The Real Dragon, Emma Standish didn’t think her day could get any worse. Her dad is marrying his boss, her dragon suddenly came back talking and typing, and it’s her fault the Earth, or at least ten square miles of Texas, is going to be destroyed. 

Dive into four Project Enterprise stories and one quirky Earth-based romp! All five originally appeared in the ®Pets in Space anthologies.

**********************

Links

Add Claws & Effect to your Goodreads self:

Purchase Claws & Effect:

Amazon          Apple          Kobo          Nook          GooglePlay

**********************

About the Author

USA Today Bestselling author Pauline Baird Jones never liked reality, so she writes books. She likes to wander among the genres, rampaging like Godzilla, because she does love peril mixed in her romance. Loves chocolate, bacon, flamingoes, and mid-century modern anything. You can find her on the following social media:

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The Duke’s Diamond, a Treasure Tale by Nancy Lee Badger – Guest Post

13 Tuesday Jul 2021

Posted by WWMB in guest post

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Tags

book feature, guest post, historical, Nancy Lee Badger, romance

Everyone loves to read about the decadently rich lives of English lords, especially a duke of the realm. Leave it to me to throw my handsome duke into his own kidnapping. Finding himself drugged, beaten, and nearly frozen to death? He is soon unrecognizable as the former ballroom-attending nobleman. Throw in a Scottish young woman whose only flaw was being related to the duke’s kidnapper and my 40th published book gives my readers an adventure to remember.

Borrowed clothing, a stolen horse, menial labor, an irritating Highland bull, and tussles with ruffians bent on threatening his life finds the duke in one situation after another. The duke would not have survived without an innocent young woman to share the danger and suspense. Throw in a treasure hunt and a blackmailed viscount and the story shows that growing up with a title is not always a guarantee of a pristine life. I had a heck of a lot of fun putting both of these characters in the worst of situations.

**********************

About The Duke’s Diamond

Payton Hartwell, the Earl of Bellmeer, is on a quest to return signet rings to various less-than-noble men whom a dead man had blackmailed. Instead, he walks into his own kidnapping. Separated from his cousin and friend, and finding himself alone with his kidnapper’s Scottish stepsister, his travels take on a serious tone. Saving her from Viscount Manning’s despicable plans, as well as Payton’s possible murder, takes a turn during a costume ball.

Tara Scott cannot believe her stepbrother kidnapped a nobleman and tied him up in his country manor’s barn. She saves Payton from the bitter cold and starvation, then is punished by an irate Viscount Manning. When Payton helps her escape, they find themselves on a journey into Scotland that is filled with ruffians, a Highland bull, wild weather, and a sexual awakening that surprises them both. Back in England at a New Year’s ball and the second discovery of a huge blue diamond comes to a head when the viscount and his men attack. It will take Payton, Tara, and all his friends to thwart a man set on vengeance and treasure.

TheDukesDiamond

**********************

Excerpt from The Earl’s Treasure

After Payton mingled and invited several young women to dance, Lord Hamilton appeared at his elbow. “Yer Grace, can we talk? In private?”

Nodding, they slipped down a hall and into his study. The room appeared tidy, as usual, since his steward kept things in order. He had no doubt his grandmother, Fanny, ruled the estate and the steward was too afraid to take a misstep.

“How might I assist you?” Payton poured two glasses of whiskey and passed one to him.

“My thanks, Your Grace. I wish to talk about your travels concerning…the treasure.”

Payton choked. Sputtering, he managed to swallow the dram of whiskey before glaring at his visitor. Before he could form a sentence, the door opened. Tara walked in.

“There ye be, Lord Hamilton. Yer friend is asking for ye.”

When Lord Hamilton started to leave, Payton grabbed his shoulder. “Wait. What do you know of the treasure?”

“Is this the treasure Fanny mentioned at dinner?” Tara quickly shut the door.

**********************

Links

Purchase The Duke’s Diamond:

Amazon US          Amazon UK          Amazon CA           Amazon AUS

**********************

About the Author

Nancy Lee Badger grew up in Huntington on New York’s Long Island. After attending Plymouth State, in New Hampshire, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree and met and married her college sweetheart. They raised two handsome sons in Rumney, New Hampshire while she dreamed of being a writer. When the children had left the nest, and shoveling snow became a chore, she retired from her satisfying job as a 911 Emergency Medical Dispatcher and moved to North Carolina, where she writes full-time.

Nancy is a member of Romance Writers of America, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers, and the Triangle Association of Freelancers. She finds story ideas in the most unusual places. Connect with her at Nancy@nancyleebadger.com and:

Website          Twitter          Facebook

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