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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