Friday, 21 February 2014

Love and Tentacles - guest post by @ShonaHusk



My Decadent Moon series features lots of aliens and no humans. While I mention a few really odd aliens, because I write romance the ones I focus on are humanoid.

But I was very careful not to make them too human, or human with something weird for no reason. So when I give my heroine spots and slightly webbed fingers it’s because her home world is marshy (I actually spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of creature would have evolved to become sentient on a marshy planet).

Giving the hero tentacles wasn’t just some cute idea that would titillate readers (okay it might have come from a discussion about the possibilities of what a hero with tentacles could do, but there had to be reason for Filid to have a Medusa style head of tentacles).

Does my love of biology and genetics show when I’m creating new life forms, probably, but it’s fun to think about how they developed and what kind of society and environment they must live in. How did their world make them what they are? After all they are a product of evolution on their planet.

I’d had the idea of a hero with tough white skin (and I mean truly white) for a while. An alien where their skin wasn’t that sensitive to touch, but what if they had another sense instead like telepathy?

For me it was only a short leap to telepathic tentacles. They are a sensory organ like ears or eyes. Sure they can be used for other things…the story is an erotic romance after all, but I had found a reason for them to be there. And also realized that a society where you could your neighbors’ thoughts would be very different to ours. What happened to those who didn’t have the ‘right’ thoughts?

Like all super powers though there had to be limits. If the hero could read the minds of his own species how far did that talent work on other aliens? If he could read the heroine’s mind that would be too easy, but letting him get a taste of her emotions without being able to understand now that had possibilities :)

Lunar Reunion proves that it doesn’t matter if you have spots or tentacles true love will always win.

~~~
Six years ago Filid made the mistake of falling for another officer in the Allied Planetary Military.
He walked away before they both did something they'd regret. Yet he can't get her out of his mind, even now.

Silva has never forgotten Filid, but he is the last person she expects to see on the pleasure resort of Decadent Moon. This time she won't let him walk away without exploring the fantasies she had about being with him.

Filid wants more than one night. And this time he is determined to hold onto her no matter the cost.

Inside Scoop: Filid comes equipped with sexy tentacles that cannot be missed!


~~~
Three time ARRA finalist Shona Husk lives in Western Australia at the edge of the Indian Ocean. Blessed with a lively imagination she spent most of her childhood making up stories. As an adult she discovered romance novels and hasn’t looked back. Drawing on history and myth, she writes about heroes who are armed and dangerous but have a heart of gold—sometimes literally.

With stories ranging from sensual to scorching, she is published with Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing and Sourcebooks. You can find out more at www.shonahusk.com 


2 comments:

  1. good to have some tentacles now and then! I wanted an excerpt of those...

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're in luck - you can snag a snippet with the tentacles with Shona's interview over on the SFR Brigade's blog! http://www.sfrcontests.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/meet-author-monday-shona-husk.html

    ReplyDelete

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