Weekend Writing Warriors ~ This is Earth, not the Oort!

March 22, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another exciting episode of Weekend Writing Warriors! Spring is in full bloom here in Oregon, I finished my latest WIP and started a new job. Things are looking much rosier here on Earth than they are in space.

I’m posting from my m/m erotic space opera From Mars, With Love and will continue torturing my hero until I reach the end of the chapter. Last week we left poor Eli being prepared for stasis by two of the slavers: an asteroider (altered-human) and a floating, multi-armed robot called a crab. The crab noticed the ring on Eli’s finger and took a disliking to it.

***

“Leave it,” the asteroider said.

“I’ve analyzed it and do not recognize the metal compound. It might interfere with the electronics in the pod.” The crab kept trying to twist it loose and Eli feared the bot might rip his hand off along with the ring.

“What do you mean you don’t recognize it? This is earth, not the Oort! Well, fine, cut it off. We can always grow him a new finger.”

***

Eli wishes he was this tough. Maybe Harrison will show up and rescue him!

Eeep! I wish I could post the whole scene, I really do, but rules are rules.

By the way, you can still enter to win a Loose Id gift card and a copy of Touch of Salar at the giveaway for my Book Tour. Blood received 5 Star/Heart Reviews from two of the blogs on the tour so far! Check it out here.

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This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post eight sentences from a published work or perhaps their current work in progress. Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book. Click here or use the address: http://www.wewriwa.com

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ What’s That?

March 15, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another dose of Weekend Writing Warriors, the hop where writers share their work in 8 enticing sentences.

I’m excited to get back to my space opera in progress, From Mars, With Love. This one keeps demanding my attention, so I guess I better finish it so I can get back to the “serious” stuff. 😉

Our hero Eli has been nabbed by a slave sweeper and taken aboard a ship bound for Titan. After watching some of his fellow prisoners strip, get inoculated and put into sleep pods, it’s now Eli’s turn.

***

To Eli the asteroider said, “Remove your clothing.”

Eli was grateful that as a scavenger he always wore several layers of clothing, but as he removed his coat, his sweatshirt and a zip-up cotton shirt with deliberate clumsiness, his fear of the crab effectively discouraged acting on any rash escape plans. He was down to thin t-shirt, surplus army pants, and was undoing the velcro on his boots when the crab snapped, “What’s that?”

One of the crab’s pinchers reached out and grabbed Eli’s wrist. The bot’s red eyeball flew outward on its own extending arm to inspect the ring on his pinky finger as Eli curled his fingers into a fist.

“Just a cheap trinket,” Eli said. The ring was his only adornment, the only thing of his mother’s he’d been able to keep and it was so small, it barely fit on his smallest finger. The bot clamped on to it and tried to pull it off, jerking Eli sideways, but it didn’t come off.

***

Really this whole space opera thing is an excuse for me to surf the web looking for photos of hot space guys with guns. Here we have Bruce in The Fifth Element- one of my top ten SF movies for sure.

***

My Sexy Saturday ~ Jump

March 14, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to My Sexy Saturday ~ the hop where writers of steamy fiction gather together to share some tasty tidbits in doses of seven words, seven sentences or seven paragraphs. This week’s them is “Sexy Me Up”, which I’m interpreting to mean a change in a character’s demeanor, attitude and/or looks, all for the sexier.

My seven paragraphs are from an untitled M/M SF erotic novella-in-progress. I think this scene pretty much speaks for itself.

***

Sergeant Jordan Lann set his drink down on the shiny black table and peered across the murky bar, not believing his eyes. He’d only had one drink. Strong, sure, designed to taste like an earthside margarita with the wallop of real To Kill Ya, but not strong enough to make him start seeing things. So after a moment he was willing to accept that it really was Ezra Eleven walking toward him across the Bally Lounge’s dirt strewn floor.

Lann wasn’t the only one gaping in surprise. ZJ and Burn were there too, whispering excitedly to each other. Other eyes trailed the apparition. Lann knew what they were thinking. Where had this fine young fellow been hiding himself? Ezra had never made an appearance in one of the bars before, as far as Lann knew, and Lann would know, because he’d been obsessed with Ezra ever since he’d first met him.

At first, it had been all about looks. Ezra was beautiful, with large brown eyes and thick cocoa brown hair shot through with golden highlights that he kept in a short messy tangle, as if he’d never heard about a comb. He was slim and lithely muscular, like a cat. He was also haunted, that was obvious. His eyes darted around like he expected to be pounced on at any moment. The longer Lann pursued him and was rejected by him, the more he sensed a smoldering passion buried deep within the ice-cold linker. It drove him wild to think about it, and he thought about it a lot.

The Ezra walking toward him was a changed man. Maybe he had hit his head after all. Maybe the docs had loaded him up on mood altering drugs. His eyes weren’t furtively checking the corners, but remained steadfastly on Lann’s face, an amused smile playing around those wonderful lips. His usual stiff posture had relaxed into an easy stride, as if he patrolled the pickup scene every day instead of never.

Needless to say, Lann’s interest was piqued. His cock went from mildly alert to stiff as an iron rod in ten seconds flat. Ezra stopped beside Lann’s table and looked down on him squirming there, obviously enjoying the affect he was having on everyone, not just Lann.

“Mind if I join you?” Ezra asked. He didn’t sound doped up, but there were all kinds of dope available in the station.

“Not at all.” Lann leaned back and tried to relax. It wasn’t like Ezra could say “jump” and he’d ask “how high?”

***

Don’t forget to click the link and visit the other hoppers to start your weekend off Sexy.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Beneath The Jumpsuit

February 15, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to this week’s edition of Weekend Writing Warriors. While it might be another fog-enshrouded winter day here in the Pacific Northwest, on Mars, the sun is always shining. Unfortunately for Eli, he’s not there yet, and might never be. The slave ship that abducted him is setting its coordinates for Titan, notorious for flaunting the inner-system anti-slavery laws. In case you haven’t guessed, I’m continuing with my space opera in progress, From Mars, With Love. Things go from bad to really bad when Eli sees who his captors are and what they have planned for their prisoners.

***

Asteroiders were rarely seen on Earth, especially at ground level. They’d been developed in the asteroid belt beyond Mars and were a most reviled class of altered human; most of them were more artificial than flesh. The one that moved closest to Eli had a neck and forearms made of black rubber tubes twining around coiled copper muscles. What went on beneath the jumpsuit was anyone’s guess. His fleshy human fingers tapped at a wisepad as he scanned each prisoner in turn and made disparaging remarks to the security bot about their potential value. “Bottom of the barrel sweep, if you ask me. I hope the captain didn’t shell out full credits for this lot.”

A human voice crackled out of the hovering bot, “Hardly seems worth the trip, but some alterations while they’re in stasis might help.”

***

Farscape improved dramatically when Crichton ditched his white jumpsuit.

My Sexy Saturday ~ Together. On Purpose.

February 14, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to my surly little corner of My Sexy Saturday’s Valentine’s Day Blog Hop. I’ve never been much into this holiday, but that won’t stop me from playing along. To get your V-Day off to a rousing start, click the link and continue the hop. I’m sure lots of the other writers will be doing our Valentine’s Day theme up right. I however, relate to Eli, the MC in my space opera, From Mars, With Love. He’s not much into intimacy, and hasn’t had much luck with love. When tall, dark and mysterious intergalactic entrepeneur Zane Ravenna takes more than a sexual interest in him, he finds it a little hard to swallow.

Zane speaks first.

***

“You really never heard of V-Day on the ground?” For the first time since Eli had met him, Zane looked the slightest bit uncomfortable. “It’s a holiday set aside for the celebration of romantic love.”

“So what’s that got to do with us?” Eli asked, still feeling petulant about the groundling comment.

Zane moved in close enough to tickle Eli’s ear with his breath and send those annoying electric currents shooting beneath his skin. “I thought that since we’re lovers now—”

“Is that we’re calling it?” Now it was Eli’s turn to feel uncomfortable. The sudden rush of heat to his face made his bad mood worse.

“That’s what I’m calling it. I thought we could do something. Together. On purpose.”

“To celebrate that we’re finally fucking?”

Zane sighed and rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “I want to show you my ship.”

***

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Your Trip To Titan

February 8, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another edition of Weekend Writing Warriors. Click onward, mysterious reader, and in eight simple sentences, this awesome collection of writers will rock your imagination! Can you tell I’m having fun? Well, I’m still posting from my space opera in progress, From Mars, With Love, and I always get a little giddy after searching for photos of hunky space guys with guns to put at the end of the post.

On to the snippet. Eli, who’s been abducted for slave fodder and launched into orbit against his will, is getting desperate.

***

The entry hatch to the shuttle slid open and several Asteroiders in white jumpsuits entered, each followed by a menacing security bot that hovered in the air above and behind them. Shaped like metallic black crabs, the bots’ red eyes scanned the prisoners while their pinchers clicked in excitement.

“Time to get ready for your trip to Titan!” announced one of the Asteroiders. They moved apart, each claiming a section of about ten of the forty or so prisoners. The prisoners stood with varying success, were lined up and marched out of the shuttle straight into a sterile clinic sort of room. Eli didn’t like the look of all the medical equipment and he especially didn’t like the sight of the sleep pods stacked against one wall – if they were going to be immobilized there’d be absolutely no hope of escape. Although the ship was frigid sweat trickled down the back of his neck. He didn’t know if Moon Units could sweat with their specialized skin, but she stood right in front of him and he watched a nerve in her tight jaw pulse.

***