The Mysteries of Inspiration – #NewRelease #lgbtq #scifi #HauntedOctober

My new novella Free Fall began with an impulse purchase. Just of fun, I was browsing the website of one of my favorite artists, James Help (https://goonwrite.com). His strikingly original pre-made covers always impress me, while his hilariously snarky demo titles often have me laughing out loud. Most of the time, unfortunately, the genres on which he focuses don’t match my work very well. On this visit, however, I noticed a cover that really spoke to me. It featured an evocative image of two beautiful women, one blonde and one brunette, sitting close together in some sort of a futuristic night club.

I didn’t have a book for this cover, but the drama and passion lurking in that image were so strong that I just had to buy it. The JPG file sat, untitled, on my hard disk for more than a year while I worked on other projects. Finally I cleared my WIP backlog and started thinking about what to write next. I pulled up the draft cover and got the same punch-in-the-gut feeling about the women that I’d experienced when I first saw it. I realized that I had to write their story—even though, at the start, I had no idea, aside from their obvious mutual attraction, what that story might be.

Creating Free Fall was far more difficult that most of my writing projects. Usually when I begin a book, I have at least a mental outline, with the major events and the expected ending already established. With this novella, I was feeling my way, trying to discover just who Rain and Mariel were, why they were in love, and how they were going to survive. When I sat down to write the first chapter, it flowed onto the page, desperately erotic. After that, though, I really had to dig. The fact that this was science fiction made things even harder; that genre requires a delicate balance between imagination and plausibility. And sometimes too much thought and calculation can stifle inspiration.

Now that the book’s done, I’m pretty happy with it. It captures the sense of danger I felt when I first saw the cover, as well as the love-and-lust connection between the two protagonists.

I only hope my readers agree.

 

Blurb

Welcome to Xanadu. For its elite customers, a space-based paradise of pleasure. For the slaves who work there, hell orbiting Earth.

Innocent and inexperienced, Mariel Linderman sells herself to Xanadu to rescue her farming family from starvation. Streetwise Rain Delgado accepts assignment as a Pleasure Rep in lieu of a prison sentence for murder. In a world that strictly prohibits same-sex relations, the passion that flares between them brings terrible risks. Their unexpected heart-and-soul connection turns their already precarious existence into a clandestine struggle for survival.

Buy Links

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FVVLV2N4

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FVVLV2N4

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1878604

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/free-fall-lisabet-sarai/1148528199

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/free-fall-escape-from-xanadu

Books2Read UBL: https://books2read.com/u/mKeK0E

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242662867-free-fall

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/free-fall-escape-from-xanadu-by-lisabet-sarai

Excerpt

Rain turns back to the screen, studying the three-dimensional model of a ship. It’s pretty compact, maybe bus-sized, with a streamlined profile to ease re-entry into the atmosphere. Seating for six, small cargo bay, fuel tanks, main engines and maneuvering jets—it doesn’t need much for the two or three hour trip to the station. Extensible fins for water landings. There are dozens of dials and gauges on the pilot’s panel, though. Normal navigation is computer-controlled, but she and Mariel won’t be headed for one of the standard landing sites. She needs to understand the manual overrides.

The mere thought of Mariel distracts her from her studies. Desire shudders through her as she recalls the blonde’s eager fingers and clever tongue. Lunch yesterday had been a grueling struggle for self-control. She’d been so tempted to grasp Mariel’s hand or trace the bow-shaped outline of her plump lips. Meeting in public, pretending to be mere acquaintances—it’s simply unbearable. The cramped air lock is scarcely better, though.

Rain is amazed and disturbed by the strength of her feelings for the other woman. After all, they are practically strangers. In the month since their first ecstatic meeting, how much time have they spent together? No more than a dozen hours in total, all rushed and stolen. She shakes her head. It’s not like her to be this susceptible.

Their erotic chemistry leaves her breathless, but what does she know about Mariel as a person? The blonde seems so innocent and fragile. Is she tough enough to face the challenges ahead? Can she be trusted? When the chips are down, will she break, or bolt?

Rain knows from hard experience that trust makes you weak and that feelings are dangerous. With Mariel, though, instinct and raw emotion overwhelm reason. Their physical connection mirrors a deeper bond. Rain’s no mystic, but with Mariel she’s almost ready to believe in telepathy. She understands what Mariel needs and what she fears. The blonde’s heart and mind are an open book; life on Xanadu is slowly killing her.

And the thought of life without Mariel has somehow become too awful to imagine.

 

I hope you’ll go check out my new release. And remember that every comment on this post also counts as an entry in my Haunted October giveaway!