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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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

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 ~ Careless?

October 11, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where a bunch of really great writers share tantalizing tidbits from their works-in-progress or published novels. I’ve been sharing from a work-in-progress, the m/m space opera From Mars, With Love. Our hero Eli has been rescued from a life of slavery by the mysterious man in black and the Intergalactic Free Market Trade Patrol Marines but what fate awaits him now? I’ve skipped ahead a bit to where Eli is being escorted out of the slaver’s ship. For those of you paying attention to little details, yes, they did find Eli some clothes to put on- one of the white jumpsuits the Asteroiders were wearing.

***

“The officers tried to escape via shuttle,” one of the marines said, “but their launch bay is blown all to hell.”

“That must be what set off the distress beacon – morons.” The marine on the left shook his head.

They’d reached the wrecked entrance to the shuttle bay and Eli wondered how he’d survived it. The metal doors, floor and ceiling were scorched black and warped.

“Is that how you got your burn?” the man in black asked from behind.

“Never jam a fully powered stun gun into a fission panel if you can avoid it,” Eli said, glancing back over his shoulder.

A tiny smile curled the corners of the man’s lips, making them even more sensual. “Didn’t think a ground rat careless enough to get swept would be that resourceful.”

Careless?

***

Eli might have a few words for the man in black next time. But until then, don’t forget to continue the hop.

Gotto love those men in black- good boy/bad boy? A little of both?

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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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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.

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“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.”

***

Relax – Tom is only here to help.

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Weekend Writing Warriors ~ A Little Strange

September 20, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Weekend Writing Warriors. Great writing. Short snippets. Hop the Blog. It’s all good!

Here’s another snippet from my m/m space opera work-in-progress, From Mars, With Love. Our hero Eli has just been rescued by the mysterious man in black, who may or may not be a marine, friendly, or even very nice.

***

“Ask them to bring a robe or something, why don’t you?” Eli asked, putting the pod between them. The man didn’t react, but continued to watch him with a wary sort of bemusement. He was irritatingly attractive in that rich habitat dweller sort of way, and didn’t look like a typical jarhead at all. Eli was only used to seeing beautiful people in holos, or the enhanced variety in the clubs who always looked a little strange, no matter how expensive the procedure.

He changed his mind about the man in black. Probably not enhanced, except the eyes, which were most likely implants. Eli realized they were staring at each other without speaking, and imagined the man had opposite thoughts about Eli, like how he wasn’t used to seeing earth rats in the buff. He didn’t look disgusted, but Eli took offense anyway.

His rescuer finally broke his mesmerizing gaze and started to poke around the room. He kicked at the corpse of the security crab and said, “Looks like we got here in the nick of time, eh?”

***

Luke Macfarlane from Killjoys. I’ll take an unenhanced jarhead any day.

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Weekend Writing Warriors ~ The Man in Black

September 13, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the hop where a bunch of fabulous writers share snippets of their work in eight to ten sentences. I’ve been sharing from my m/m space opera, From Mars, With Love. So far our hero Eli has been abducted by slavers, stuck in a stasis pod for the journey to Titan, then rescued by a not-so-friendly mystery man. This scene picks up from last week, with Eli’s rescuer speaking to someone on the other end of a communication device.

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“Got one ground rat down here,” the man said into his mic, which turned out to be attached to the stiff collar of his jacket. “Seems to be intact and mobile. Who’s in charge of rounding up the civs?”

“Team 5 will be there shortly. He’s awake?”

“Yes, why?’

“Rest of the cargo is in pods – makes it easier, you know.”

The hard blue eyes turned on him again and looked him up and down. Eli’s exposed skin prickled with goose bumps but he refused to cower. He moved away in case the man in black decided to shove him back inside the pod.

***