Weekend Writing Warriors~ Goo

August 16, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another round of Weekend Writing Warriors. The rains have come and it’s about thirty degrees cooler than it was the last time I whined and moaned about having to sit in my hot office. Unfortunately none of this real world stuff does poor Eli any good. The hero of my erotic space opera From Mars, With Love is still stuck in the stasis pod and things are looking grim.

***

Eli could see enough to watch the asteroider run from the room. Then the lights went out and the goo stopped rising. Everything went quiet. He waited for a moment, heart pounding, and then started to thrash again. Maybe the slaver hadn’t had time to properly seal the pod. Maybe he could force it open. He pushed with his hands and knees against the lid. It didn’t even pretend to budge. He gulped for breath. The goo was supposed to sustain a prisoner in stasis and no fresh oxygen was being pumped in.

***

As often happens when searching for sexy space guys with guns, I find sexy space guys with sticks instead. Here’s Alex Malleri, Jr. from Dark Matter.

From Mars, With Love follows the adventures of Eli and his pal Rilke, two down-and-out scavengers from earth as they’re abducted by slavers, arrested by space marines, and dumped on an unwelcoming outpost on Mars. Eli’s troubles are only beginning when he finds out the ring his mother gave him contains the life force of a powerful but dormant alien and the mysterious man he has a huge crush on happens to be an alien smuggler. Eli’s just trying to make it on Mars, but can he survive the dangerous political intrigue swirling around him? This erotic space opera is a work-in-progress. Stay tuned to this blog for ongoing excerpts and updates.

***

This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post eight to ten 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

My Sexy Saturday ~ Edge of the Precipice

August 15, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Time to sexy up your Saturday! This week I’m sharing seven paragraphs from my WIP- the third book in the Masters and Mages series, Curse of Salar. The theme is My Sexy Boyfriend, and in this scene, Mira is beginning to appreciate his soldier/lover, Captain Rayn Mattise.

***

Leaning against one of the tall narrow windows, arms crossed over his broad chest, eyes closed, stood Rayn Matisse. Mira’s heart clenched, then raced. Was he in some warrior’s afterlife?

Mira parted his parched lips and cleared his throat. “Rayn?”

Rayn’s chin jerked up and he stared at Mira almost as if he didn’t believe his eyes. He dropped his arms to his sides but otherwise didn’t move.

Mira licked his lips. “Are you alive, or am I dead?”

“You don’t remember what happened?” Rayn loomed over him now. He still wore the riding clothes Mira had last seen him in. They’d been cleaned but were worse for wear, shirt torn and roughly patched, leather coat scraped and scarred. He’d bathed recently and his mahogany hair looked deliciously soft as a sunbeam caressed the side of his face. His bright eyes were guarded.

“No.” Mira didn’t want to talk about the cave and falling into the well. It was too fresh and he felt as if he still stood on the edge of the precipice. He threw back the covers, exposing his bruised but otherwise intact body. “Hold me.”

Rayn didn’t hesitate. Full clothed, boots and all, he stretched out beside Mira and pulled him into his arms. Mira rested his cheek against Rayn’s chest and sighed with relief as the man’s heat melted into him, driving the nightmare further from Mira’s mind.

***

Don’t forget to continue the hop to check out more sexy snippets from the other participants. Seven words, seven lines or seven paragraphs of steamy fun await at My Sexy Saturday main page.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Hostile Boarding Protocol

August 2, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another round of Weekend Writing Warriors. It’s a hundred jillion degrees here today and my office is the hottest room in the house (surely from all the steamy scenes penned herein) so I’ll make this short and sweet. I’m continuing to share from my erotic m/m space-opera-in-progress, From Mars, With Love. Last week the slave ship in which Eli is held captive came under attack. Alas, have the marines arrived too late to save Eli? (I know you’re on pins and needles about this.) Here’s last week’s post. One of these days I’ll assemble them all on this website so those who are interested can catch up.

***

The flexi-steel walls of the ship shuddered. The bot’s eyeball light went out and it crashed to the floor.

“Well, isn’t that a fine—” the asteroider wrung his hands, frozen with indecision.

“Hostile Boarding Protocol – Level One,” the loudspeaker crackled. The asteroider spun around and with a flick of his fingers, erased the stream of data about the ring. The screen flashed DELETED and disappeared. He then scrambled around the pod, detached Eli’s wrist, shoved his arm in the pod and slammed the lid shut. Eli heard the hiss of the seal and immediately began to pull at the wires attaching him to the machine. He wanted to be awake for this, and most of all, he didn’t want to lie there helpless a second longer.

There was no release mechanism inside the pod, all the more irritating when it started to fill with gelatinous goo.

***

Hang on, Eli. Sexy help is on the way!

***

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Now What?

July 26, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors. It’s time for another thrilling episode of From Mars, With Love! Many of you have kindly poked me about returning to this story, and I’m happy to oblige. Writing this m/m space opera makes me unreasonably giddy and I hope some of that writerly glee spills over onto the reader. When we last left our hero, Eli, he was in a status pod being prepared to be shipped to Titan by the slavers who captured him. An asteroider (altered human with mechanical parts) and crab (floating security robot) discovered something strange about a ring on Eli’s pinkie.

***

“Eli, son of Serene, it appears your dear mother’s trinket is an alien. A dead alien though, so there should be no harm in removing it.”

“Finally!” the crab zoomed closer again. “Let me do it.”

“What’s it worth to you?” the asteroider asked. The two bickered over what a bit of torture might cost the security bot operator and the potential risks to the asteroider’s position as head researcher. Eli attempted to meditate on far away, pleasant thoughts like . . . like . . . he had nothing.

An ear-splitting siren went off, accompanied by flashing red lights.

“Oh, for Criton’s sake, now what?” the asteroider complained.

A loudspeaker provided the answer; “Marine Patrol, prepare for evasive protocol.”

***

If only Matt knew about the bubble-habitats just over the horizon.

***

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Mistake

July 19, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another round of Weekend Writing Warriors. This will be my last snippet from Betwixt and Between for a while. Don’t want to over-share! In previous excerpts Ian has gotten himself entangled with a magical musician busking for change at the Pike Street Market. Today he makes a break for it.

***

Ian spun around and ran up the stairs, taking three at a time. He burst out into a clump of German tourists all singing along to the strains of the Vltava that had reached its climactic conclusion. He sprinted up the sidewalk. The farther he got, the easier it was to move and breathe, and the less the image of the stormy eyes burned into his corneas. He knew damn well he should get to Aunt Cleona’s as fast as possible and beg her to put a counteracting spell in motion.

Third mistake.

But he was late to meet Dijeree, and she’d be pissed if he blew her off again. She had a confirmed Windigo sighting out on the peninsula, and she needed his advice. He stopped running, and as he walked slowly up Pine catching his breath, the intensity of the hex faded to almost nothing. Maybe the violin player had only wanted to scare him off.

***

As characters often do, Ian has gone off on his own and landed an interview with Evelyn Shepard. If you’d like a peek at how he’s coping with dark elves in his life, as well as another chance to win a $10 gift card, check it out here.

***