Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Never Saw Him

December 6, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another exciting edition of Weekend Writing Warriors. Well, I was supposed to start on the promo for my release coming up in January, but then I realized I was ONE snippet away from finishing Chapter 2 of From Mars, With Love. I know, it seems like we should be much farther along, but at ten sentences a pop, it takes a while.

Last week Eli finally found out he’s not being returned to Earth by his rescuers, but dumped at the unwelcoming outpost on Mars, which was definitely not on his to-visit list.

***

The man in black still stood there, pausing as if mildly interested in Eli’s plight. He shrugged and nearly smiled.

“Good luck with that,” he said, and sauntered past. Eli stared after him, taking deep breaths and calming himself before he said something unfortunate to the well-armed marine.

“Who is that, anyway?” he asked her.

“You never saw him,” she said, looking at Eli with a stern, don’t-mess-with-me expression. “I mean it, you never saw him, ’cause if you did, you might require a memory sweep, got it?”

“Never saw who?” Never saw him. As if Eli could ever erase the memory of those luminous blue-eyes.

***

How is it I’ve managed to overlook this motherlode of hunky space guys with guns? SG-Universe – my kind of show.

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 artifact 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.

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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 ~ Human Warmth

December 5, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another round of My Sexy Saturday. This week we’re exploring My Sexy Galaxy, which is right up my space port. I do love my sci-fi. These seven paragraphs are from an unpublished novella temporarily titled Machine in the Ghost. Ezra is a “linker”, a geek with the ability to communicate with alien technology, and Lann is a marine on the space station where they both work. Lann has a crush on Ezra, but the serious-minded linker has never responded. Until now.

***

Ezra picked up his drink and downed it in one shot. He put the glass down and said, “That’s very good.”

“Another?”

“Not yet.” He leaned forward and it took all of Lann’s control not to lean in as well. “I wanted to thank you for saving my life today.”

“What? I didn’t. The med-bot did the saving. I just called it.”

“You don’t understand. You pulled me out of the abyss, with this.” Ezra reached out and grasped Lann’s hand. “Human warmth.” He looked at Lann’s hand like he’d never held one before. Hell, maybe he hadn’t. Ezra was so shut off, so closed down, he might even be a virgin. Lann’s heart skipped a beat at the thought. He looked around and spotted ZJ and Burn staring at them with mouths open. Lann gave them an evil glare and they pretended to peruse the menu of new earth-inspired drinks.

Lann took a deep breath and turned back to Ezra. “Are you on a whole lot of drugs, Eleven?”

Ezra continued to toy with Lann’s fingers. “You’re wondering about the change in me.”

***

Don’t forget to continue the Sexy Saturday hop. There’s a lot of sexy snippets out there for your enjoyment, only a click away.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Mars?

November 29, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop. Hope you had a great Turkey Liberation Day. As a vegetarian, I have to say I’m very grateful for mashed potatoes and butter.

I’m continuing with another excerpt from my m/m space opera in progress, From Mars, With Love. I’ve skipped ahead a bit from the last snippet. Our hero Eli has been transported via shuttle to the Space Marines’s battleship, where he has more rude surprises waiting.

***

A marine with a wisepad on her arm stood waiting for Eli outside the battleship’s dock.

“Passport or ID chip?” she demanded.

“I was swept, as in kidnapped, as in abducted against my will. They didn’t give us a chance to pack our bags or apply for visas.”

“So no identification?” She tapped on the screen, frowning. “Well, you can apply for a long-term squatters permit when we get to Mars.”

“Mars? Wait, no, you’ve got to take us back to earth… all of us.” Eli looked around in a panic, as if someone reasonable might pop out of the ether.

***

Possibly my favorite ‘space guys with guns’ photo yet. ~ Chris Pratt

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Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Classified

November 15, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the best place on the inter-web to discover your next favorite book.

Well, my little NaNoWriMo dreams have already burned up in the flames of reality, but as usual it’s due to good things. I’ve received the first round of edits for Curse of Salar, which means the release date is scary soon! Plus, I’ve signed on for a project with a February deadline, so…poor Eli is going to be stuck with the space marines for a while longer. Maybe I’ll end up publishing the whole story in snippets.

Last week, after an exchange of insults, Eli told the man in black about the other slave ship in the hopes the other captives might be rescued. This excerpt is from my space-opera-in-progress, From Mars, With Love.

***

The man in black didn’t seem upset about being called a habi-brat. Maybe he’d never even heard the slang, having never set his sanitized feet on the ground.

Eli caught up with the closest marine and grabbed his arm. This earned Eli a smack to the chest that sent him stumbling backwards.

The marine’s voice crackled out of the mic in his helmet, “I heard what you said about the sweeper. I’ll mic it up to Con, but don’t hold your breath; we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

“Aren’t you supposed to stop slavers?” Eli demanded.

“Yeah, but we’ve got a report on alien smuggling earthside and—”

“That’s classified,” the man in black said sharply. The marine shut up and hurried away.

***

EUREKA -- Episode 505 "Jack of All Trades" -- Pictured: (l-r) Colin Ferguson as Sheriff Jack Carter, Salli Richardson-Whitfield as Allison Blake -- (Photo by: David Gray/Syfy)

I don’t know about you, but I miss all the fun-loving end-of-the-world disasters Colin Ferguson narrowly averted every week on Eureka. (Photo by: David Gray/Syfy)

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Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Tell It To The Marines

November 8, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors! This week I’m back to the adventures of Eli, otherwise known as From Mars, With Love, my space opera in progress. Maybe with help of NaNoWriMo it will stop being in-progress and start being in submission. One can only hope.

When we last left Eli he’d been rescued by the mysterious man in black and the space marines. Mystery man made an off-hand comment about how careless Eli must have been to be captured by a slave ship. Eli takes offense.

***

“Careless? What the fuck do you know about it, habi-brat? Have you ever seen one of those sweepers? They’re bigger than a city–” Eli broke off as thoughts more important than his pride crowded to the forefront. “Hey, the sweeper might still be in the vicinity. They abducted a hell of a lot more people than are in this cruiser. It’s deep space capable so I bet it hasn’t reached launch speed yet. You can still save them!”

“Tell it to the marines,” the man in black said, “I’m only along for the ride.”

***

Rahul Kohli of iZombie, is not taking his gun-weilding responsibilities seriously.

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Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Earth?

October 4, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another round of Weekend Writing Warriors. I don’t know about you, but I missed last week so I’m anxious to catch up on the all the stories. So much can happen in ten sentences!

I’m continuing to share from my m/m space opera, From Mars, With Love. Last week, Eli and the mysterious man in black had a moment to check each other out, leaving Eli feeling a bit inadequate. In this snippet, Eli speaks first.

***

“So when do you think we’ll get returned to earth?”

“Earth?” One eyebrow lifted in apparent amusement, then lowered.

Two marines barged in, bristling with lethal looking weaponry. Proper marines in heavy grey fatigues emblazoned with the Free Market Trade Patrol logo that depicted the planets of the solar system rotating around a gold coin instead of the sun.

“That’s it?” one of them asked, sounding disappointed.

Eli’s rescuer nodded and said, “All the others were already in storage, human cargo only, no artifacts.”

“Just another slaver out of the belt—hardly worth breaking trajectory for,” the other marine grumbled. They still wore their helmets and Eli could determine nothing about them except that they weren’t natural humanitarians.

“C’mon, groundling, time to go.”

***