Tag: Fish Out Of Water

I couldn’t believe it when I reached the seventh novella in my Scifi Romance series, The Department of Homeworld Security. These stories are just so much fun to write!

For Duel Citizenship, I wanted to explore another favorite Scifi trope of mine—Little Green Men (and Women). I had so much fun coming up with the Vegans and the entire miscommunication that resulted in their arrival. More than any other alien in this series, the Vegans are making a big difference for Earth!

I have so many exciting plans for these green guys and gals. They also have one of the most well-developed backstories of any aliens I’ve developed. I can’t wait for it to unfold as this universe expands!

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The sixth novella in my Scifi Romance series, The Department of Homeworld Security was never supposed to happen, mainly because I had intended to kill off one of the main characters back in Tied up in Customs. I’m so glad that I didn’t!

Duration of Stay features Zemanni, the shapeshifting assassin who got himself into serious trouble in Entry Visa, and an overzealously helpful Earthling named Brooke.

I love showcasing aspects of our existence that are much more awesome than we think. Celebrating the little things in life is important to me. Duration of Stay ended up incorporating that by showing how big of an impact something like coffee, video games, and… “affectionate moments” can have on a sentient who’s never experienced those things before.

This was another favorite of mine, and Zemanni is still popping up in this universe.

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I always joke that my Book Club had to wait for way too long for the fifth novella in my Scifi Romance series, The Department of Homeworld Security. They would listen to me talk about this new alien, Craig, from the Lyra system, and asked over and over when he would appear on the page. I had an idea for his story, but wasn’t sure where to put it in the line up.

We get to meet Craig in Entry Visa. The biggest challenge in writing this book was keeping Craig in the background. He is just so larger than life! I did my best to keep the focus on Henry and Vay, who are probably the sweetest of my couples (but still manage to keep the heat cranked up!). Craig still ended up being everybody’s favorite. In fact, he might just be the most popular figure in the entire series!

Part of that is probably because of my own deep love for the Lyrian. I spent two years making a four-foot tall puppet version of him! It… wasn’t supposed to be that big… But it gives great hugs and does indeed have four arms.

There I go again, talking about Craig when I should be talking about Henry and Vay.

Entry Visa was another story that had its origins in a concept that also matched the coalescing direction of the series. The first line of the blurb says it all:

“When Henry’s parents died unexpectedly, he dealt with his grief the way any healthy biologist would—by moving into their cabin to begin searching for Bigfoot.”

This is another story that packs a lot of emotion into a short space. Henry is dealing with the loss not only of his parents but of the mysterious woman that he met on Christmas Eve. I wrote Henry and Vay’s first encounter as a short story that I published first here on this blog.

The stakes get really high in this book, and we get to see more of Zemanni, the Scorpiian assassin that everybody loves to hate.

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I had a lot of fun with the fourth novella in my Scifi Romance series, The Department of Homeworld Security.

Tied up in Customs is linked to the earlier books both through Brendan (her hero, Eric, is Brendan’s handler) and with Sorca, chief of security for the Arbiter. As much as I wanted to learn more about these characters, my driving goal in writing this story was turning a classic Scifi trope on its head.

“Abducted by Aliens” is probably the most famous type of Scifi Romance story. Usually, it’s Earth women who are taken. I wanted to turn that around and have it be the guy. Even more, I wanted it to be a big, burly guy who knows how to fight and is absolutely unprepared to be taken down by a spunky (and deeply weird) alien half his size.

Sorca ended up being this incredibly confident and kinda crazy alien. She’s a Sadirian-Cygnian hybrid, which opened up all kinds of new opportunities that I knew I’d explore eventually. The biggest surprise was learning that Sorca’s odd behavior wasn’t an artifact of her horrible mistreatment by the High Council but is a manifestation of her Cygnian DNA. I’m having a ton of fun learning more about the Cygnians in their series, Cygnian 7!

Sorca herself surprised me most in her story with this incredibly bittersweet moment. I won’t spoil it here, but I will share that while writing the fight scene, and Sorca has that line (you’ll know it when you get to it), I just immediately burst into tears. That’s when I knew for sure that The Department of Homeworld Security series had moved beyond wacky, steamy Scifi Romance and had the potential to head into deeper emotional territory.

In short, Tied up in Customs has all the feels 💖

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Business or Pleasure, the third novella in my Scifi Romance series, The Department of Homeworld Security is one of my favorites. I think part of that is because I love the dynamic between these characters. Also, I just really love Paige and Khel.

We met Khel in Gray Card, and he was one of the first characters I ever wrote that readers asked to see more of. That is such an amazing feeling! (If there’s anyone you want to see more of, be sure to let me know in the comments or through email 💖 ).

I knew that Khel was a no-nonsense type, who had completely devoted himself to being the perfect soldier. I didn’t know, until I wrote his story, that all of this stemmed from a desperate desire to be accepted and valued. When he realizes that the people he’s been seeking approval from don’t deserve him, and that the people who do already value and accept him and have all along… Well, it shakes up his worldview, to say the least.

But who to match with him? The series was so new at this point, I didn’t really have many other characters. Plus, with the books themselves being so short, it was hard to add other people to later explore (that’s still a challenge for me with this series).

Brendan’s sister, Paige, was mentioned in Resident Alien, but she didn’t seem like a good match. I mean, she was completely devoted to her job. Oh, wait. So was Khel. But she also was fiercely loyal to her family and friends. Hmm. Again, so was Khel. Well, she never had any plans to settle down with anyone and… Yeah, these two were perfect for each other from the start 😁

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The second novella in my Scifi Romance series, The Department of Homeworld Security is a bit more serious than the first

Resident Alien features a Sadirian soldier named Kira who’s been alone on a listening station orbiting Earth for two years. We start to see a bit of the seedy underbelly of the Coalition of Planets here with how Kira is treated by her government and with what she fears will happen to her if they discover her secrets.

I tried to balance sharing her perception and experience with keeping the light tone of the series. I think I managed okay… This one isn’t quite as light-hearted and funny as Gray Card, but what it misses in comedy it makes up for in heat. These two are… quite the affectionate couple.

We also get to meet Brendan Sloan, communications genius, who actually starts the Department of Homeworld Security and uses his substantial personal resources to get that clandestine group off the ground. It’ll be interesting when the series gets to the point that Earth governments learn that a group of civilians have banded together and are representing Earth in the first contact proceedings with other worlds 😆

Resident Alien also introduces my favorite group of “bad guy” aliens, the Tau Ceti. The Tau Ceti are still causing trouble in the worlds of the Department of Homeworld Security to this day.

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