To Critique and Partner or Not?

I don’t have critique partners or a critique group. The one and only time I tried anything of that nature was in junior college. It was an evening creative writing class and I lasted through the first time I had to read my WIP and receive feedback, and it was SO not this introvert’s comfort zone…I left at the break and never went back. I have wonderful, professional editors and I rely on them. They will tell me if I’ve taken a left turn or done something TSTL with my plot. As you might guess, they’ve had occasion to do that a time or two!  My process is my process and I don’t feel the need to bounce story issues off other people or gather inputs as I go, etc. Shrug. I get that it works great for other people, which just proves yet again that there’s no one “right way” to write. Thanks goodness.

On to something more exciting for me – this past week I did the cover reveal for my next science fiction romance novel, Star Cruise: Outbreak. Here’s the pretty cover, from Fiona Jayde. The book will be out on April 18^th.

The story:

She saved countless soldiers in the wars … but does she have the weapons to fight an outbreak?

Dr. Emily Shane, veteran of the Sector Wars, is known as “The Angel of Fantalar” for her bravery under fire as a medic. However, the doctor has her own war wounds–severe PTSD and guilt over those she failed to save.

Persuaded to fill a seemingly frivolous berth as ship’s doctor on the huge and luxurious interstellar cruise liner Nebula Zephyr, she finds the job brings unexpected perks–a luxe beach deck with water imported from Tahumaroa II, and Security Officer Jake Dilon, a fellow veteran who heats her up like a tropical sun.

However, Emily soon learns she and Jake didn’t leave all peril behind in the war. A mysterious ailment aboard the Zephyr begins to claim victim after victim … and they must race against time and space to find the cause and a cure! Trapped on a ship no spaceport will allow to dock, their efforts are complicated by a temperamental princess and a terrorist–one who won’t hesitate to take down any being in the way of his target.  If anyone’s left when the disease is through with them …

Writing to the Market Is Not My Super Power

One of my 3 SFR Galaxy Award winning titles

I’m the wrong person to address the issue of writing to market, because I don’t.  Since I’m independently published, I write what I’m in the mood to write and as my own nimble small business, I can get away with that. I have loyal readers who love science fiction romance or ancient Egypt, or both.  My stories fall into niche markets with goodly amounts of readers, but probably not enough at the moment for major publishers to pursue.

Although as an aside, the SFR Galaxy Awards were just announced and I wrote a post for USA Today Happily Ever After, where I asked this year’s winners for their views on the future of SFR. Nearly everyone said it’s on a growth curve, which – YAY! I would tend to agree with that assessment and I’m happy because I love the genre and I love writing in the genre.

This week, other Whores have already thrashed out the issues traditional publishers face trying to bring books to the market while that market is still hot and growing, versus being latecomers. Life was probably easier when it was ALL about the traditional publishing business and if they didn’t put the books out there, you couldn’t read in your favorite niche.

The other issue for me would be, even if I had a crystal ball and could foretell the future, it’s probably not going to be something I want to write. I might love to read it and put every book that comes out onto my poor kindle, but my Muse is finicky. Everything falls from my mind onto the page with a science fiction twist, or fantastical elements. I have notes somewhere on a Regency romance, because I would so love to write one of those, but once I get beyond the governess and the Duke and either a house party or a snowbound inn, I’m out of inspiration. The. Words. Do. Not. Flow. And maybe at that point I go off and reread my favorite Mary Balogh book.

Someone I respect, who is a longtime participant in the publishing world, recently pointed out the popularity of the Hamilton Broadway musical and wondered if that might mean romances set in the Revolutionary era would make a comeback. Hmmm, I said to myself, good point! But yet, no plots come to my mind. (The “Swamp Fox” theme song from the old Disney show comes to mind, which isn’t particularly helpful.)

The other thing for me, is that if I’m writing something I don’t have genuine enthusiasm for, it doesn’t flow and it doesn’t read as well as my normal prose (at least in my opinion). So I’m lucky to be writing in  time where “the market” can exist without me and vice versa.

Leaving you with an excellent little clip from "Hamilton":

When the Hero Is Knocked Out of the Action

Since my fellow Whores have talked all week about their heroes dealing with injuries in the course of a book, I decided to change it up a bit and talk about something slightly different which befalls the hero in Escape From Zulaire. SPOILER  ALERT!

Rather than being injured, Captain Tom Deverane suffers from a chronic illness, which he has to hide from his superiors in the Sectors Special Forces, and which motivates some of his decisions in the early chapters. Then, at a critical moment, he’s overcome by an attack of the disease, which forces the other characters in the book to make a number of fateful decisions. I had to do some research to come up with my alien relapsing fever, read a lot about malaria and dengue fever and other similar afflictions.  I once came across an excellent quote from a doctor who pointed out that the human body only has so many ways it can be affected by anything, or to let us know we’re in trouble (paraphrasing heavily here).

Here’s the scene from the book,  in which Tom’s problem is discovered, as they’re fleeing through the jungle on an alien planet, escaping from terrorists.

Tom lay full-length on the ground on his back, his eyes closed. His hands rested at his sides, twitching from time to time. Beads of sweat rolled down his temples, pain contorted his handsome face, deep wrinkles marking his forehead. Dismay lanced through Andi like a knife as her heart skipped a beat. Wilson sorted through the contents of the medkit. Discarded in the grass, one used medinject already lay by his boot. 

“What’s happened to him?” She fell to her knees next to Wilson. “How could his condition deteriorate in just a few minutes?” Reaching with one hand to touch Tom’s cheek, she was shocked to find his skin cold under her hand. “He was talking to me and walking when I left to find you. And now he’s unconscious?” Andi grabbed Wilson’s sleeve and tugged on it to make him look at her. “How can that be?”

“Bhengola fever.” The sergeant’s lean frame was tense, his shoulders hunched. He wouldn’t face her. The vein at the side of his throat throbbed as he rummaged through the medical supplies. “The captain gets these attacks from time to time. We were hopin’ to get back to the capital before the next one hit. You know of any local remedies?”

“Bhengola fever?” Andi covered her mouth with both hands and gasped. “Did I hear you correctly? Bhengola?” Wilson nodded once. Chewing her lower lip, she ran one hand through her hair. “He never caught it on Zulaire. We don’t have that here.”

“He’s had it for years, ever since an assign­ment on Panamilla 2,” the sergeant said. “It ain’t a contagious thing, not after the first attack has passed, thank the Lords of Space.”

“Isn’t bhengola usually fatal?” Stepping backward, Latvik swallowed nervously and glanced around, probably to see how everyone else was reacting.

“Can be over time,” Wilson confirmed. “Attacks get more intense. Not more frequent. They’re pretty predictable, as a rule. We carry off-the-books doses of aliquinalone on every mission.”

“Off the books?”  Andi repeated the phrase softly, a question in her voice. Does he mean illegal?

Wilson shot a hard glance at her. “Soldiers with bhengola fever get mustered out, ma’am. No ifs, ands or buts. No cure, you know? And the military is all Captain Deverane has. We’ve used most of the quine we brought because we never expected to be stuck here so long. I haven’t been able to get more on the black market, although I might have a shipment waitin’ when we get back.”

How can he be so matter of fact about admitting to black market activity in front of all these witnesses? Andi felt the blood pounding in her temples. Trying to will away a headache, she rubbed her forehead.

“So do you know of anythin’ local that might help or not?”  Wilson’s face was pugnacious, jaw jutting, eyebrows drawn together. He gathered up the discarded injects and stowed them in a side pouch of the pack.

 She’d studied the symptoms of the major interplanetary infectious diseases one semester at the Loxton Academy. Often the agent on an isolated planet would be the only medical resource for the outworld population and, hence, had to have rudimentary knowledge. Why didn’t I pay more attention in that damn class? She summoned her vague memories of the lecture on chronic, relaps­ing fevers, including bhengola. “Caused by a parasite. Symptoms include fever, chills…”

“Convulsions—it’s an ugly disease, all right,” Wilson said. “The bhengola parasite dies off in the human body after the first cycle of infection, but enough of its loose genetic material remains in the lymphatic system to do the recurrent damage. That’s what makes it incurable.” Having found the medinject he was searching for, he held it to the sun­light. “Last one. And one is not goin’ to be enough.”

He’s right. Bhengola requires around-the-clock drugs to get safely through an incident. Closing her eyes for a second, Andi tried to remember the pertinent section of the Loxton medical-training material. The few facts that came to mind weren’t reassuring.

“He’ll need careful nursing to survive, do you agree?” Rahuna’s head was tilted as he regarded the sergeant. Stroking his chin, the cleric seemed thoughtful.

“Yes.” Wilson jabbed the second inject­able into the captain’s upper arm, rubbing the spot to work the medication into the muscle. “This buys us some time.” Rolling Tom’s sleeve down, he sat back on his heels, hands resting on his knees. Watching his patient relax under the drug’s influence, the sergeant’s face remained set in grim lines. “Better but temporary. He won’t regain consciousness until the entire bhengola cycle is over.”

“How long?” Andi was unable to remember the exact course of the symptoms. A week? Two weeks?

“Could be three or four days, ma’am. Maybe longer, with no quine.”

“Have you the map handy?” Rahuna held out one hand. “We can’t care for him in the open elements, Sergeant. I believe there may be a safe haven we can reach by morning, if we walk through the night, and if Sanenre chooses to smile on this effort….”

Here's the book trailer for Escape From Zulaire:

Infected SFF: Where Romance Cooties Reach the Stars

Ray Bradbury famously relates a story about how much he loved Buck Rogers as a kid. LOVED Buck Rogers. Collected all the comics. Kept them in meticulous order while his friends jeered and laughed. They told him those stories were junk. Worthless. Finally, buckling under the weight of peer pressure, he tore up his comics and threw them all out. And for three long weeks, he was miserable. Life wasn't worth living. Then one day it occurred to him. Those people making fun of what he loved weren't his friends. Buck Rogers was. He went back to collecting comics, reading what made him happy, and found a new group of friends who didn't belittle his passions.

This is the long way of saying that if you don't like romance in your stories, then the stories I write with romance in them aren't written for you. They're written for the people who love that thing. Frankly, the question of whether romance belongs in any story, ever, is spurious. It comes across as trying to silence the voices of people who have visions of the future/alternate realities that aren't straight white dude centric. There ARE more things in heaven and earth, ya know. To quote a dead white dude.

If SFF is, at its core, an exploration of what it means to be human in the larger context of time and space, there is no way to carve emotional motivations out of characters. Humans are singularly messy creatures from a touchy/feely standpoint. If we weren't so messy, murder rates probably wouldn't be what they are, nor would birthrates. Doesn't mean that every story has to feature some frilly, blossoming lurv. Not everyone is motivated by sex or romance. For that reason, I'll argue there are no hard and fast rules about what belongs and what doesn't. SFF, to me, is about what you can get away with based on the notion that no one gets to invalidate someone else's experience, OTP,  or feelings. If a story moves you, it wins, no matter what form it takes.

The only thing any of us gets to do, then, is vote with our pocketbooks. I don't read Oprah books, for example. Does that mean I think those books aren't worth having been written? Not at all - I merely understand my own limitations. I can depress myself, thanks. I don't need a book to do it for me. That said, in no way does my personal preference invalidate the fact that tons of people adore those books. More power to 'em - readers and writers alike. I just won't be spending my limited book $$$ on stories that'll make me want to slit my wrists. Sounds like a joke, but it isn't. Managing a depressive personality and state means building some walls. Mine say "no reading this type of book" and "no graphic animal cruelty pics on the FB feed." If you have a rule that says "no kissy", I respect that and advise you to skip my stories.

So careful with the value judgments out there in the great wide world. Read what you love. Don't let anyone else convince you to shred your collection. But by the same token, don't be that kid trying to bully someone else into trashing the thing she loves. There are 7 billion + people on earth. Surely there are enough tastes to allow for all kinds of stories about all kinds of people, monsters, aliens and robots.

Gotta Have Audiobooks!

I'm an enthusiastic proponent of audiobooks, because I know there are readers out there who want to listen to good stories in their car, in the shower, while doing housework, jogging, walking, crocheting...pretty much anytime! Some people will read the book on the kindle, switch to the audiobook while commuting and return to the kindle version in the evening. It’s a rapidly growing audience and I want my novels to be available for anyone who wants to hear them. I’ve even presented workshops on the subject to other authors who were interested in the process.

Vicky Hensley of the Audiogals website says audiobook listeners are "double taskers" who want a "seamless listen." In her learned opinion, the narrator or voice actor is the key to enjoyment of an audiobook.

Four of my books are also available as audiobooks. The first two, Priestess of the Nile  and Warrior of the Nile, were picked up from  Carina Press by Audible and I had utterly no involvement in the process and no connection with the person who recorded them. No fun!

When I began independently self-publishing my science fiction romance novels in 2012, I knew I wanted audiobook versions as well. Working through ACX (an Amazon company) I was extremely blessed to find a wonderful actor to bring my books to life. Michael Riffle has now narrated two of my scifi novels and is in the middle of recording a third. There’s nothing like hearing my characters the way Michael embodies them. I knew he was the right person to play the hero from the first words he spoke during the audition for Wreck of the Nebula Dream.

I did a series of blog posts about the process of creating an audiobook and here’s a snippet of what Michael had to say regarding his preparation for bringing the various characters to life:

Michael: I think the biggest influence on what I try to do with my voice comes from your description of the characters.  Not just how their voice is described, but how they hold themselves, what sort of personality do they have, how they are feeling during the whole process.  I try to equate each character to someone I know, or a character I’ve seen in a movie or television, something to ground it in reality.  I might be a little selfish by giving my own voice to Nick.  It’s hard to NOT want to be the modest, able-bodied hero who gets the girl.

To read more details about how the process went from beginning to end, here is the link:

Interviewwith Michael Riffle Audio Book Narrator WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM

 For the second book we did together, Escape From Zulaire, I had the heroine narrated by Mary

Fegreus, another extremely talented actress, while Michael did the rest of the book. I interviewed them about doing the recording for USA Today Happily Ever After.

Here’s what they had to say about the steamy scenes:

Since this is a science-fiction romance, there were some intense and even steamy moments between the characters of Andi and Tom. Did those scenes present any particular challenge?

Michael: I don't know if it's because Mary and I have a very comfortable relationship or if it's because we recorded our parts separately, but I didn't find any of the romantic or intense parts challenging. From a directing standpoint, there was a little bit of challenge in the romantic scene because Mary wasn't entirely comfortable with the intimacy.

Veronica: I know they always say the steamy scenes in the movies or TV are among the hardest to do, because there'll be all the crew members watching and the elaborate choreography of the action. I imagine this must have been a bit similar, as far as comfort levels.

Mary: Mike's being nice about it. Full disclosure: I did a lot of kicking and screaming during Chapter 6, and I may have had a bottle of soju in the recording booth with me. The outtakes from that scene are pretty funny. That's been my experience as an actress with all romantic scenes. The moments that are the steamiest in the final product tend to be the silliest behind the scenes.

The rest of the USAT/HEA interview with Mary and Michael is here.

In closing, if I could afford it, I’d have Michael narrate all my books just for me while they were still Works In Progress, because it’s such a pleasure to collaborate with him. Hearing how he interprets the dialog and embodies the characters always gives me fresh insights and ideas. I’m definitely going to continue having him record the final versions of the novels so there are audiobooks for the listeners out there!

I Am Optimism Personified

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence Helen Keller


I'm pretty much a  total optimist, definitely glass half full with someone coming to top it off!

My characters are pretty much always optimists too, come to think of it...

In the old day job I was in management for 14 years before deciding to do special projects. The only time anyone requested to transfer out of my area (other than for promotions, moving and the like), the individual said I was driving them crazy with my sunny, optimistic approach to everything.

But when it comes to listing Five Reasons Why An Optimist Should Write, I'm not sure I can get beyond the first one I live by:

1. Writing is like breathing to me and if I'm alive, I will breathe and I will write.

So, having said that, where do I go next?

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. Colin Powell

2. Well okay, I optimistically hope that other people will enjoy reading my stories.
3. ...and that my royalties will continue to let me be a fulltime writer...
4. ...that totally unexpected good things will happen because I write and publish novels....
5.....how are they gonna make my books into movies or TV shows if I don't write????
With a #5a => How will I ever get to be an extra in the big movie scene if I don't write?!


That last is key!  My biggest dream is to have my books make the jump into film. I'd love to watch talented people bring my character to life the way my audiobook narrator Michael Riffle does with the spoken word.

But in the meantime I'll be happily over here in the corner, writing! Speaking of which, I'm happily optimistic that my new science fiction romance will continue to rock the Top Ten List in Amazon Fantasy Romance (even though the book is scifi somehow the Zon is tracking it in Fantasy - go figure.) A deal at $.99!

Here's the story for the new book:

Meg Antille works long hours on the charter cruise ship Far Horizon so she can send credits home to her family. Working hard to earn a promotion to a better post (and better pay), Meg has no time for romance.

Former Special Forces soldier Red Thomsill only took the berth on the Far Horizon in hopes of getting to know Meg better, but so far she’s kept him at a polite distance. A scheduled stopover on the idyllic beach of a nature preserve planet may be his last chance to impress the girl.

But when one of the passengers is attacked by a wild animal it becomes clear that conditions on the lushly forested Dantaralon aren’t as advertised – the ranger station is deserted, the defensive perimeter is down…and then the Far Horizon’s shuttle abruptly leaves without any of them.

Marooned on the dangerous outback world, romance is the least of their concerns, and yet Meg and Red cannot help being drawn to each other once they see how well they work together. But can they survive long enough to see their romance through? Or will the wild alien planet defeat them, ending their romance and their lives before anything can really begin?

Amazon     iBooks     Kobo     Barnes & Noble

Villains for Valentine's Day?

I have to write about villains on the most romantic day EVER? (Whine.)  Reviewing the topic as assigned: development of positive traits builds better villains. Hmm. Somewhat tongue in cheek, I offer:

In my novels to date the "villains" have been:

Isis, Queen of the Egyptian Great Ones, who doesn't think a god and a mortal should fall in love...

Nephthys, her sister, who doesn't think humans count for much and doesn't care about two mortals in love...

A Hyksos commander who's been ordered to retrieve a certain Egyptian dancer...

A practitioner of black magic (can't say who or we'll have spoilers happening)...

Various assorted demons...

Or, if you prefer science fiction romance, I've had:

The penny pinching and evil corporation behind the Wreck of the Nebula Dream...plus pirates and very scary aliens...

The person masterminding a planetwide rebellion in Escape From Zulaire...(again, no spoilers)...

And, last but not least, a barbarian warlord who's determined to keep the unwiilling bride sent to him in an arranged marriage....

Well, ok  each of my villains has their reasons for doing what they do, even the demons, who have to report back to their scary master (and who might be hungry as well...). Isis and Nephthys certainly have their attention on the greater good of all Egypt in 1550 BCE, and it's up to the human heroes and heroines in the Gods of Egypt books to figure out a way to survive while still accomplishing the mission....

I just tend to focus more on my protagonists and take the villain at face value. He's got his motivations but he (or she) is the Big Bad and we're in the middle of the story when I start Chapter One and so let's just get ON with it. Can I make a tiny confession? There's a series I used to read (not written by a fellow Word Whore) where I skipped PAGES of internal monologuing from the villain in every book. Ok, don't be shocked! I'm sure it was all very well written but I...just...wasn't...that ...interested. Give me the stuff about the hero and the heroine.

Perhaps it's because I was imprinted young by Ming the Merciless. The one in the 1930's serials actually, because our local TV station ran them every day in the late afternoon. Do we know Ming's back story? Do we know what motivates him, other than a craving to conquer the universe and quite understandable desire to marry Dale Arden? Do we enjoy the adventure and know who to root for? NO! I rest my case.

Now I will say there's one villain I always was fascinated by, and

Richelieu & Milady deWinter

that was Cardinal Richelieu. I did get that - as portrayed in The Three Musketeers -  he was motivated quite a bit by his desire to do the right thing for France, and a little bit by his um 'admiration' for the Queen. So he could be flexible, and not all evil all the time.

Perhaps at some point in my writing life I'll have a villain who compels me to delve deeply into his/her backstory and have sympathetic aspects. I do have a couple of characters in mind, both in ancient Egypt and for my SFR's who might start out as less-than-white-hat people and evolve. We'll see.  

Musketeerly goodness for you:

Three Things About My Writing I Now Know

Well, my writing process is my writing process and we all know I'm quite superstitious about the whole thing. HOWEVER, having said that, I do know three more things about the writing now than I did in January.

No, I won't be switching to Scrivener or keeping spreadsheets LOL.

1. Much as I love my ancient Egyptian paranormal romances and enjoy the heck out of researching and writing them, they are a nice little niche. I have loyal readers who love them - thank you from the bottom of my heart! - and I'll keep writing them BUT the science fiction romances seem to be more of a sweet spot for me, at least for now. I have been alternating between SFR and ancient Egypt but I think in 2015 I'll probably do a run of SFR. I do have my next ancient Egyptian nearly ready to send off to the editor so you'll see GHOST OF THE NILE fairly early in 2015.

2. Whichever scene is the one I'm avoiding writing, that's the one the book probably needs desperately and I might as well just WRITE IT. I call it my "crossing the river" syndrome, because in the first SFR I ever wrote, I had a fairly major chase scene, concluding with a dramatic last stand on the banks of a raging river...and I kind of cheated by saying, "And after they crossed the river...." Uh, no. My beta readers and editor weren't standing for that and they were right of course. In one of my ancient Egyptians, there was a two week river voyage I tried to wiggle out of writing....no dice, So since then, I've learned that whatever scene I'm shying away from tackling is probably an important one and I'd better just dive in (yes, it nearly always seems to involve water! Sex scenes - no problem. Major bodies of water - problem!) And hey, it turns out ok.

3. I used to believe I could never write a series, that my Muse didn't work that way. But this past year I've been taking my own self-directed master class from Nalini Singh and our own Jeffe Kennedy, which consists of reading and rereading and loving their books and taking mental notes of how they've created the ongoing arcs and plot threads....plus asking Jeffe questions, which she's always very generous about answering. (I'm sure Nalini is generous as well but I don't  know her that well LOL. I pepper her with book-related questions for my USAT column from time to time...) I really feel that writing an actual series is my next challenge as a writer and I hope to develop one in 2015. Yes, my existing novels are connected series - the same Pharaoh for the Egyptians and the same Universe for the SFR's, but I want to write a classic series with continuing characters and an arc beyond the events of each books. It's going to require flexing some new writerly muscles and as I'm a total pantster we'll see how that goes, but at least I've reached a place after publishing seven books where I feel I can attempt it.

Happy New Year to one and all!!!

(Here's the book trailer for ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE, in which I wrote the darn river scene as soon as I knew I needed it!)

Not Exactly Playlists

When I first started writing, a long time ago, I did listen to music. It wasn't anything as sophisticated as a playlist created for each writing project but more of a compilation of my personal favorites. I have wildly eclectic tastes so there might be a drum-heavy 1950's track followed by a showtune following by Lady GaGa or Ne-Yo. But very shortly after I'd sit down to write, the music would fade from my consciousness and I really didn't pay any attention to it.

In the last few years, I don't play music at all when I write. As others have said this week, now it would be too much of a distraction, instead of a way to guide my mind into focussing on the creative task at hand.

My favorite thing to do is go for long drives on the California freeways, just blasting tunes from my iPod and think over plot ideas. The driving and the music seem to really get the creative juices flowing. The catch here is that now I live only three miles away from work, instead of the hour plus commute I used to have, so I don't get that daily plotting session. On the upside, neither am I subject to the vagaries of the freeways! All in all, I think I prefer the current situation and I'll do my plotting sessions in a different fashion.

Even if I did do playlists, I'd be reticent to share them because what might set my Muse (there she is - I knew you were waiting!) to happily writing a certain scene or character probably has no resemblance to the story I'm working on. It isn't a soundtrack! For example, I wrote one entire science fiction novel basically to the "Riverdance" soundtrack and key portions of the book to the Russian dervish dance music set on endless repeat. Why? I don't know, something about that combination of sounds was just amping up my creativity at that moment in time. Here's the youtube clip and I have to say I really love these dancers, who were amazing athletes and performers.


Occasionally I'll get inspiration for a character from a song though, which brings me to my newly released science fiction romance ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE. There's a supporting character, a Sectors Special Forces sergeant who at one point had quite a backstory, as far as wanting to sing in bars when he was on leave, and not quite having the sheer musicality to carry it off, shall we say. Well he still has all that backstory of course, but now it's been edited from the novel. I left a few tiny references to his singing here and there to please myself LOL. But in this case, years ago I happened to hear "Nothin But the Tail Lights" by Clint Black and there was Mitch, full blown in my head. (To be clear, I love the song and I've always enjoyed Clint Black's singing - Mitch is not meant to BE him! A wanna-be maybe...) Andi and Tom, the main characters, couldn't make their perilous way across Zulaire without Mitch, trust me. (Or don't trust me and read the book for yourself - shameless pitch now inserted.) Here's the best version of the song I could find. Apparently Mr. Black never made a formal video so I certainly apologize for the quality of the sound.)

 And the book's blurb is below!

ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE:

Andi Markriss hasn’t exactly enjoyed being the houseguest of the planetary high-lord, but her company sent her to represent them at a political wedding. When hotshot Sectors Special Forces Captain Tom Deverane barges in on the night of the biggest social event of the summer, Andi isn’t about to offend her high-ranking host on Deverane’s say-so—no matter how sexy he is, or how much he believes they need to leave now.

Deverane was thinking about how to spend his retirement bonus when HQ assigned him one last mission: rescue a civilian woman stranded on a planet on the verge of civil war. Someone has pulled some serious strings to get her plucked out of the hot zone. Deverane’s never met anyone so hard-headed—or so appealing. Suddenly his mission to protect this one woman has become more than just mere orders.

That mission proves more dangerous than he expected when rebel fighters attack the village and raze it to the ground. Deverane escapes with Andi, and on their hazardous journey through the wilderness, Andi finds herself fighting her uncomfortable attraction to the gallant and courageous captain. But Deverane’s not the type to settle down, and running for one’s life doesn’t leave much time to explore a romance.

Then Andi is captured by the rebel fighters, but Deverane has discovered that Zulaire’s so-called civil war is part of a terrifying alien race’s attempt to subjugate the entire Sector. If he pushes on to the capitol Andi will die. Deverane must decide whether to save the woman he loves, or sacrifice her to save Zulaire.

(Trust me, Mitch is in the book! See you next week!