THRILL-KINKY: The gestation process of a series

Today, Thrill-Kinky, my first science-fiction romance, soars into space on very sexy wings. (Drax, my alien bad-boy hero, has glorious wings that come in handy for both love and larceny. His heroine Rita is an adrenaline junkie who decides that death-defying capers make great foreplay for lovemaking in flight.) While I’m celebrating and publicizing the release, I’m also reviewing final line edits for the second book in the Chronicles of the Malcolm series, Bad Kitty. That one’s coming out 9/22. And I really need to get started on book 3, which I’m tentatively calling Buck, Naked.

When I started writing Thrill-Kinky, though, I had no intention of writing a series. In fact, I didn’t plan to write a full-length book at all.

Many years ago, I spotted a call for submissions for an anthology of Valentine-related romance shorts. The call said they could be any romance subgenre, and my twisted brain thought it might be fun to do something futuristic with the theme. I started with the image of meeting a handsome alien–winged like a very adult take on Cupid–during an alien festival that resembled Valentine’s Day. Only as I started to write, I decided the alien was injured and needed the heroine’s help.  A complicated caper had gone wrong. Art thief? Spy? I wasn’t sure yet, but I knew he was dangerous and thrilling and just what my heroine, a spacer stuck doing a dull job, would crave. There was no way this plot would resolve itself in 6,000 to 8,000 words! I set the idea aside for later and got to work on a simpler story for the anthology. (In the interest of full transparency, I never got that story to work either, probably because my heart was with my alien bad boy.)

“Later” was years in coming. Like most writers, I have a huge file of ideas, stories that popped into my head at a time when I could give them only a couple of pages and some notes. When I turned in Witches’ Waves, the last book of the Duals and Donovans series, I needed a mental palate-cleanser. Witches’ Waves, with its blind heroine and themes of abuse, recovery and redemption, was heavy and painful to write in places. I knew then it was time to go back to that science-fiction romance idea. What could be a better contrast than a futuristic, funny, sexy cops-and-robbers story?

Of course, as I started to write it, I realized that Rita the thrill-seeking mechanic wasn’t the only member of the crew of the tramp space-freighter Malcolm who deserved a book. Cat-girl Xia, who started out as a comic sidekick, turned out to have a dark, intriguing past that she hid behind her kittenish antics. (I swear I didn’t even mean to write it that way. She seemed to take over, like cat-girls do.) She was going to need a hero, or maybe two, who could keep up with both sides of her. (That’s the book for which I’m reviewing edits.) Poor Buck, who’d never even gotten to finish school because his planet was invaded, deserved a heroine who’d love him scars, PTSD, educational gaps and all, though they’d probably acquire more trauma getting to their HEA. And the captain and his husband must have some kind of wild and romantic backstory. A would-be swashbuckler who likes to free slaves and an ex-priest with a dangerous temper wouldn’t be set up for a coffee-date by mutual friends and take it quietly from there.

Thus, a series was born. And my editor rejoiced, because she thought it sounded like a fun concept. She also laughed at me for being crazy.

Did I mention I proposed another series to her in the same email and I’ve been writing two series at once ever since? Stay tuned for more details on the second series, which will be kinky contemporaries with elements of romantic suspense. Apparently I just can’t keep things simple.

Rita and Drax would understand. Complications are so much more exciting!

Blurb:

Sexual freefall is like a game of chicken, except the first one to let go wins

Chronicles of the Malcolm, Book 1

Humans may have expanded to the stars, but they still have the annoying need to work for a living. Which is why Rita, crew member of the space freighter Malcolm, is stuck collecting recyclable slag rather than attending her favorite festival celebrating love and sexuality.

Things go from boring to interesting when she discovers a badly injured man who’s been thrown into a recycling bin to die. The catch, he’s gorgeous, winged, and naked.

Drax Jalricki, reformed (mostly) art thief and reluctant covert operative, is on an undercover mission to protect three planets when someone in his own government brands him a traitor. By virtue of association, Rita and her crew are going down with him.

From their first, hide-in-plain-sight quickie, the erotic spark between Rita and Drax is fueled by danger and adrenaline. But their growing suspicion that there’s more to their connection than lust may not matter if they don’t live through the night.

Warning: Hero and heroine who straddle the line of criminal behavior—and definitely violate public indecency statutes. Exhibitionist, dangerous sex. Dark, sordid pasts. Wild risk-taking. Giggly cat-girl sidekick who’s not just another pretty…tail. And the greatest risk of all: true love.

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