Welcome to the Summer of Magic Blog Hop! Since the topic is all about summer themes and the banner features a beach, I thought I'd post about the setting that inspired the tropical planet of Metraxi in my time travel romance series Redemption. I'm also going to share an excerpt from an as yet unpublished side story in the series about how my time travelling characters spend their summer.
I consider myself lucky to live in the historical town of Colchester in the UK (Britain's oldest recorded market town and once the capital of Roman Britain - Camulodunum - before being replaced by Londinium (London) after the Iceni rebellion. Colchester has had an eventful if violent past, and is close to plenty of other great places to visit. A ten minute bus ride or half hour walk takes you into the town centre. Go ten minutes the other way and you're out in the countryside or at our local zoo.
But drive half an hour toward the coast and you come to Frinton-on-Sea with its miles of golden sand. This is the place we spend most sunny weekends (fairly rare in the UK, lol) and large parts of the summer. It's usually crowded midday, but it's a fantastic place to just chill out by the sea and let the little monsters run wild!
So perhaps it's not so odd that the beach has played such a huge part in some of my books. I'm now going to share an as yet unpublished excerpt from one of the side stories in my time travel series, where my characters are enjoying a sunny morning on their adopted home planet of Metraxi...
Quin sighed. Living on Kasha-Asor was like a prolonged holiday, with all the benefits of sun, sea and sand but none of the expense or the prospect of it ending that would have soured it had she been on Earth. Not that she still didn't miss Earth, though. It's one thing to leave home knowing you can go back any time. Quite another to know you could never go back and it didn't exist any more.
Quin sighed again. Thinking about Earth always cast a shadow, and she didn't want to feel melancholy. It was gone. Finished. How could she still be mourning for it? Three hundred years of being sad for a world she hadn't cared about when she was living on it? Too long.
Instead she focused on her surroundings. A broad beach of pale pinkish sand and a sea such a brilliant shade of turquoise she wished she could have gemstones cut from it to make a necklace. Above her hung the glorious blue sky strewn with the odd wisp of white cloud. Behind her the blade shaped leaves of the giant bamboo whispered in the light sea breeze, a soothing sound attempting to lull her to sleep.
The wind stirring the greenery also tugged at the edge of her blue and black sarong and set goosebumps on her skin despite the day's heat. She'd been sitting in the shade too long now, keeping her fair skin out of the fierce Metraxian sun despite her ultraviolet infusion protecting it. She sat upright, no longer resting her back on the tree behind her, and wrapped her arms around her legs. Ferron should be back today. Her stomach twisted just a little. She had a suspicion there could be conflict. It was only natural that Keir's son would want to take the seawraith hunt like a native born Metraxian, but there was an aspect of the tradition that she hoped he'd not done despite embracing the islander life. She knew how Keir would react. He hadn't seemed to register when Ferron announced his intention to take the ritual trial of adulthood, and she'd deliberately not brought it up.
Talking of Keir... She glanced along the beach to the eastern of the crescent bay. The unmistakeable blue figure of Keir, accompanied by the half sized, red haired waif that was their daughter made their way along the sand, Seren splashing in the edge of the surf like flotsam. Quin waved, and Seren accelerated into a wild scamper across the sand toward her mother. Eight years old and growing like a weed, Seren had thrived on Kasha-Asor, as had her half brother Ferron, though he had a genetically engineered advantage and a theoretical ten year start on his half sister.
"Mummy, look what I found!" Seren proudly displayed a long spiral shell about ten inches long.
"Wow, that's beautiful." Quin took it, admiring the size and pastel turquoise coloring. "Looks like the horn of a unicorn."
"What's a unicorn?"
Again, that pang of having to explain something from a world and cultures lost forever. Quin drew in a breath and forced a smile. "It's a four legged mythical creature that had a horn on its head." Quin held the shell to her forehead to demonstrate, and Seren giggled, reclaiming her shell to copy.
"Like this?"
"Yup."
Seren frowned, her blue eyes as vivid as azuri flowers and the mirror of her father's. "What's myk-ee-thal mean?"
"Mythical. It means not real, imaginary."
Seren pouted. "So there aren't really any unicorns?"
Quin put the shell to Seren's forehead. "Only you."
Seren beamed before running back to Keir to show him how to be a unicorn. Quin laughed as Keir was forced to bend his head for the placing of the shell before Seren reclaimed it and ran off across the sands with her horn clasped to the top of her head.
Keir gave her a smile that made her heart melt before he dropped to her side and brushed a kiss over her cheek.
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| Couldn't resist sharing a picture of my hero! |
Want to try before you buy? Keir: Book One of Redemption is part of Portals: Volume Three, a FREE ebook of scifi romance first chapter samplers, available at online retailers.
And there are three more free volumes available from the
website, with another two to come.
My Giveaway
To enter for a chance to win a bundle of my short stories (all shown in the left hand side bar) you need to sign up to my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/IKX7b
then comment below with the start of the email addy you used to sign up (ie pippajaygreen@...) so I can see you've subscribed, and an optional comment about your favourite aspect of summer. I generally send out a newsletter once a month (July is the exception as I'll be sending out two due to a couple of big events but there'll be no August one) and is only used it to tell you of any new releases, events, sales, giveaways, and cover reveals. Your email will not be used for anything else or passed to third parties, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Winner will be chosen at the end of the hop.
Main Giveaway
$75 Amazon Gift Card plus a bundle of free books!
(psst, swing back next week for the SFRB Summer Blog Hop with even more giveaways!)
