Blue Nebula - Interview and Giveaway with Diane Dooley

Please welcome multi-published author Diane Dooley to the blog, with a cool giveaway! 

Please tell us a bit about yourself:

I’m a genre hack writer and proud of it! I write romance, science fiction and horror. I often find these genres bleeding over into each other as I write and a lot of my stuff is imbued with dark humor. I’m from the Isle of Jersey in the Channel Islands originally, grew up in Scotland, and currently live in the United States. I’ve got two very naughty children, an equally naughty husband, a menagerie of animals and a farmhouse that is always in need of repairs. Life is good!

Tell us about your new release, Blue Nebula:

Blue Nebula is the sequel to Blue Galaxy, a science fiction romance novella told entirely from the point of view of its hero, Captain Javan Rhodes. Blue Nebula continues the story from the point of view of the heroine, Sola de la Vega, and veers from science fiction romance into a science fiction love story.  Both are available from Carina Press and all the usual online booksellers. 

Sola de la Vega is on a mission to save the galaxy, and nothing will sway her. Not even the pleas of her beloved husband, Captain Javan Rhodes, to keep herself and their unborn child safe.
Fitted with a series of technological "enhancements" entwined with her central nervous system, Sola is not fully human. Her father is the undisputed leader of Earth, and Sola is driven to put an end to his genocidal rule--before he can follow through with his plans to consolidate power over the universe into the hands of the aristocracy.
Despite Javan's fears for her safety, and coping with a difficult pregnancy, Sola's quest has become an obsession she cannot control. Compelled to choose, duty must come before her love for Javan. And when Sola joins forces with Destin Grady--her father's sworn enemy--in a plot to execute the dictator and seize power, she soon uncovers secrets from the past that have her facing a future she never could have imagined...
32,000 words

Falling in love is easy; staying alive long enough to enjoy it just might be impossible.

Javan Rhodes, the hard-drinking, disreputable captain of space freighter The Kypris, took a mission to save himself from hitting the bottom of the food chain. Transporting Sola, a beautiful young aristocrat, from Earth to an unknown destination on the outer rim of the colonies is lucrative, but also highly illegal.
As tough as it is to evade both the law and the lawless, the hardest part of the job is not falling in love with his irresistible cargo. Just as he decides that he will never be able to hand her over to the warlord she must marry, he discovers that Sola has been playing a very dangerous game—one that could not only cost them their lives, but could also affect the balance of power in an increasingly dangerous universe.
22,000 words

What inspired you to write this particular story?:

Sola did. This is her story. It’s very much about her journey, both psychologically and emotionally, as well as the events that take place as she travels between space stations and Planet Earth. Sola is such a strange character and was fascinating for me to write.  Readers can expect the unexpected, along with lots of twists and turns in the story. Blue Nebula is a fast, intense read.

Which comes first for you – a character's looks, personality or name?:

None of the above. What comes first for me is a backstory. Blue Galaxy was born from a line of a song and then me wondering: what if a woman with a horrible past managed to escape her life  and journey to the stars?  I guess I start with a character and a motivation, then start fleshing it out from there.

Any tips for aspiring authors?:

Don’t just talk about writing a book one day. Sit down, with your butt in the chair and your fingers on the keyboard, and actually do it!

Questions for fun:

If you had the power of time travel, is there anything you would go back and change? Why/why not?:

Heck, yeah I would - to hell with all the paradoxes. I’d go back and personally end the lives of as many rotten examples of humanity as I could track down. I’d start with Hitler.

What super-power would you choose?:

I’ll take the ability to teleport please.

If you could have three wishes, what would they be?:

Good health for my children, long life for my husband, and a bottomless pot of money for me!

Coffee, tea or wine?:

All three! Coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, wine in the evening.

What is your favourite book? (aside from one of your own!):

I have lots of favorites, but the one I’ve read again and again and again and again is ‘Lolita’ by Vladimir Nabokov. The writing is exquisite, the story is heartbreaking, the characters are perfectly drawn - it’s a masterpiece. I can read it over and over and still find new wonders and layers in it.

Favourite genre and why?:

Ooh, too hard. I particularly write romance, horror and science fiction, but I read in a lot more genres. For pure relaxation and enjoyment I’d have to plump for poetry as my favorite. Because I don’t and never will write poetry I can experience it purely as a reader, without the writer part of me interfering with my fun.

Favourite colour?:

Blue. I decided that when I was a small girl staring upwards at the sky on a perfect summer day.

Upcoming news and plans for the future?:

I have a contemporary romance entitled That Night, releasing from Wild Rose Press on December 12th of this year. I also have several works in progress.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us!

My pleasure! I am giving away e-copies of both Blue Galaxy and Blue Nebula to one of your readers. To enter the giveaway leave a comment about your favorite color and contact information. I’ll draw a winner at random, three days after this post goes live. Thanks for having me, Pippa!

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Diane Dooley writes romance, science fiction and horror - sometimes all in the same story. You can catch up with her on her  blog, Facebook or Twitter. She also blogs regularly at Contact: Infinite Futures and is a regular contributor to The Galaxy Express.