Guess what eBook finally went live on Amazon!!
I’m so excited to bring Suda Eran’s story to you (read FREE with Kindle Unlimited, paperbacks are also available on Amazon), and I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it.
Here’s the description:
Davinia
Sell over a million dollars of programmable hover vacs in a month, get a hefty commission check, and win an all-expenses paid trip to Ubaid Space Station.
That’s the promise, and I deliver on my end of the bargain. What I get for my trouble is a “supervised” guided tour of the station, surrounded by other humans.
I came for the extraterrestrial experience, not the poorly cooked chicken parmesan in the Earth-centric resort restaurant. So, who can blame me if I slip my leash by bribing the tour guide to let me escape yet another mind-numbingly boring museum trip?
After an encounter with a gray alien lands me a hot tip on the best place to find excitement on this station, I end up in a bar in the most dangerous sector of the Leisure Ring. I also meet the extraterrestrial of my dreams—at least, he can be for the remainder of my vacation.
Yes, he’s an Okihan, known as a “fox-man” to us humans, and yes, he looks very roguish, even with that super fluffy tail of his, but he reassures me that he’s not a pirate. He works for the Cosmic Syndicate, all official-like.
He’s charming, rakish, and probably more than a little disreputable, and I might be playing in a much larger sandbox than I’m accustomed to, but I just can’t resist giving in to his flirtation.
I came to Ubaid Space Station searching for adventure, and Suda Eran promises to take me on one, but I probably shouldn’t trust him, because the more time I spend with him, the more I realize that he’s already stealing my heart.
***
This 70k word flirty science-fiction romance takes place in the Iriduan Test Subjects universe, but is part of a lighter series where each book can be read as a standalone, even though some characters may overlap between the two series. This story does feature characters that appeared in the Iriduan Test Subjects series, however, it isn’t necessary to have read those books to follow along with this book.
The first book in the Iriduan Universe Love Stories series is only loosely connected to this book, and both can be read out of order without much confusion, although they do take place in chronological order:
My Chameleon Mate
My Foxy Mate
Content warnings can be found HERE.
As usual, I have written a long Author’s Note for my book, and though I love to share all these details with my readers, I know that not all of them will want this note to take up pages and pages of the actual book, so I’ve migrated them here to my blog for those who are interested in reading them.
This Author’s Note may contain spoilers for My Foxy Mate, so if you’re planning on reading the book, you might want to wait until after you finish it to read this note.
Let me just say that I’ve wanted to write this book since I introduced the character of Suda Eran in The Fractured Mate. I fell in love with him then, but the story of him finding his “huntress” just didn’t fit into my Iriduan Test Subjects series (much like some of my other side characters introduced in that series—I definitely have plans for Anubis, for those who are wondering).
So, I kept promising myself that I would someday get to the point in the ITS series where I could write Suda’s story, but given how that series is shaping up, it didn’t look like it would be any time soon. (Ava’s story is the next one planned for my ITS series).
Then, the concept of the Iriduan Universe Love Stories came to me, and I thought that it would be fun to take popular and much-loved romance tropes and use them to create fun, exciting, and hopefully funny love stories for the gray alien character of Cupid to collect.
Cupid is intended to represent my own love for the romance genre, and my own desire to give every good character (and even some evil ones that are redeemed) a happily-ever-after.
If you didn’t guess by what Cupid is reading in the epilogue, My Foxy Mate is primarily the ‘pirate hero with a heart of gold” romance trope, with a bit of “billionaire bad-boy” thrown in for good measure. 😀 There are definitely intentional meta moments in these stories, particularly with Cupid’s scenes.
I love a wicked but good-hearted character, especially one who must make a conscious choice to change, which is how I see Suda’s evolution from merciless pirate born into the life of crime to a hero living with regrets and trying to right wrongs he’s committed.
Even back in The Fractured Mate, I tried to show that Suda not only has compassion, but has it in spades, despite being unfazed by violence because of the life he’s lived. I also tried to show in that book that the friendship between Suda and Halian (as Kotesri, from what Suda knows about him) is genuine, and he’s one of the few people in the galaxy that “Killer” ever trusted (as far as Killer can trust anyone other than Paisley).
If you’re unfamiliar with that book, everything in that line above probably confused you, lol. The quick summary is that Halian has three aspects: Halian himself (a mild-mannered scientist), Killer (aka the assassin and mercenary Kotesri that is Suda’s friend), and the ancient Iriduan high lord Enki, reborn.
It was fun to bring Halian/Kotesri back for a brief scene to show Suda how he’s mellowed and now has a family of his own, reflecting what Suda wants for his own future. After all, if his highly aggressive, violent, and unpredictable bestie can find love and peace, then so too can Suda.
Suda’s story is one that could have gotten really dark if I’d taken it in another direction, but I honestly always saw him as this droll character whose story just begged for a more comedic and lighthearted feeling, which is yet another reason his story never seemed like the right fit for the Iriduan Test Subjects series, because it has a more serious tone that can grow dark at times. (That being said, Halian’s story in The Fractured Mate is one of my favorites—even though I know I’m not supposed to have favorites).
Davinia…let me just say that I LOVE this heroine! She’s smart, clever, and quick on her feet, and she seemed like the perfect fit for a fox-man who has dodged death for over half a century. Plus, there’s nothing Davi likes more than to play it cool, and Suda always loved a good “bluff,” like most Okihans, who highly respect that skill.
The reason Okihans love that ability to pretend to be more confident than they actually are is all about intimidating those who threaten them, and that species is threatened all the time, which is why they’ve become dangerous in their own right, as a way of self-preservation.
Davi’s name was a happy accident, because I picked the letter “D” for her first name via a random number generator from letters I haven’t used for heroine names yet.
Fun side story (or not so fun, maybe XD).
I used to pick names for characters based solely on what popped into my head when I dreamed them up. Unfortunately, sometimes, I was in the mood for certain letters of the alphabet, and inadvertently named too many characters using them, unnecessarily causing confusion for my readers (Theresa, Tarin, and Tirel… agh!) Obviously, by the point that I discovered this, it was already too late in the series to change all those names, but I made sure that I wouldn’t end up doing that again.
Enter the random number generator and a very careful consideration of what letters I haven’t already used. I got the “D” for the My Foxy Mate heroine (pun, I know ;)) and knew exactly what I wanted her name to be for this pirate romance story. The whole Davy Jones’ locker idea was too fun and on-the-nose to not include. (I really lean into the pirate thing with this story, I know. :))
The symbolism was clear to me. Suda Eran, the notorious galactic pirate, “dies” and ends up with Davi Jones at the end.
I’m honestly having so much fun with this series, and if you’ve been following my social media in the last month, then you’ve probably heard that I have another story coming in October for this series. It’s a Halloween-themed story, and I’ve been wanting to write another holiday story since I published Vincent’s Resolution for New Year’s Eve. Not to mention that Halloween is my favorite of all holidays, bar none. I love it!
I also really love this Halloween story too, and it features a hero from one of my favorite Iriduan universe species—the Akrellians. (Yes, I also talk a lot on social media about my love for the lizardmen. <3<3<3)
I’ve been keeping details about that story close to my chest so far, though I’ve hinted that it will be the “grumpy versus sunshine” trope. Our heroine is definitely the sunshine side of that equation, and she is so cute!
And the hero… well, he has a dark past, and a demon-like look to him, and I definitely lean into that comparison too, but despite that darkness, this upcoming Halloween story is probably the most “com” of the rom-coms in this series. At least, I hope so. I find it hilarious, but I might be biased. 😀
I’ll be doing something a little different with that book’s cover, so keep an eye out for that, because it’s a departure from my usual sexy book covers, but not because I don’t love sexy covers (and fully intend to keep using them as long as my readers keep reading my books).
This new style of cover is intended to represent the lighter, more rom-com, “beach-read” style of this new series. Fingers crossed you all love it as much as I do, because it’s as cute as the story, in my opinion, and I had a lot of fun designing it with my cover designer, Kasmit Covers.
I do also intend to share some character art I did of the hero that will more accurately reflect how he looks than the cover, so consider following my social media for that if you don’t already. I won’t be sharing it on my website until after the book is published.
And don’t miss the art I did of Suda Eran, because it’s yummy! (Again, I may be biased, but I’ll say it anyway. XD)
I had great fun with Suda and Davi, and I already miss them now that my part in their story is finished, but I’m so happy to be able to finally share Suda’s story with you, my wonderful readers! Thank you so much for reading my blog, and my stories. Your support and encouragement continue to inspire me!
Let me know in the comments who you’d like to see get their own story in the Iriduan Universe Love Stories series, because Cupid is eager to collect more fun “real life” romances for his bookshelf, and I have many ideas.
Some of them include a “rebel” mate—an Iriduan named Urbarra (his story will be so good! I’m loving the outline, and he is super-gorgeous), and a plant-like Thokost mate who is another delightfully grumpy hero with all kinds of cool and weird biology, as well as Anubis, of course (have I mentioned that I love Anubis? If I haven’t before, I just did. :D).
Then there’s a Bigfoot mate, and naturally, we need an Urasol mate. (You should see my series bible entries on this species! It’s extensive. I love the Urasol and really want to tell an Urasol story.)
As you can see, I’m going to have a tough decision when I get ready to write the next book in the series, since I already have outlines for most of these, plus several more. It’s an “eenie meenie miney mo” situation. 😀
I’ve been working on my series bible for my Iriduan Universe, and discovered as I got my notes and journals organized that I have twenty-two different named species in that Universe, and I have entries with all kinds of notes for all of them, so many possibilities that I’m excited about!
Thank you for reading my long version of an Author’s Note, and if you read the book, thank you for that too! And especially thank you for helping this series do so well that I can continue it!
