No Bounds and No Boundaries ~ Sci Fi Romance

~Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo in the first STAR WARS movie~

The more I think about it, sci fi is a natural for romance novels. Why? Love, romance, passion ~ Knows no bounds and knows no boundaries. It fills the universe, so why not these OtherWorld stories between our heroines and heroes?

Also, come on, being a romantic at heart I wanted all the characters in Star Trek, and the following spin-off shows, to have their happily ever after. And, omy! In a galaxy far, far away ~ Star Wars, the first in a subgenre of science fiction now called space opera... well, I swear I lived each one of those movies as I watched them. And, at least, the get-it-done Princess Leia and the redeemed bad boy, Han Solo, discovered their love for each other. ~sigh~

In the Westerns I grew up on as a kid, it was darn upsetting when the handsome strong cowboy rode off into the sunset, no woman beside him. Sci Fi, as a genre, has long been guilty of refusing what comes naturally between a woman and a man, and that’s one reason I didn’t get into reading it a whole lot. I mean how much disappointment can you take?

Yet, sci fi stories, and space ~ the very idea of traveling among the stars, the possibility of other worlds, of other civilizations, has always fascinated me. I’ve loved looking up at the night sky ever since my dad and I would stand out in the front yard, and simply gaze at the wondrous celestial vault above us. He was a voracious reader of sci fi novels.

Space, the final frontier, where no man has gone before ~ the opening to the original Star Trek. There was something soul-compelling about that line for me, for many of us. Oh, how my imagination soared with the infinite possibilities whenever I heard William Shatner say those words.

But, hauling myself back down to Earth before I make this post too long... so far, I have two sci fi erotic romance novellas that are e-published ~ RED LIONESS TAMED and TANGERINE CARNAL DREAMS. Although, given Linda Banche’s explanation of sci fi, according to the EPPIE contest guidelines, I probably have elements of sci fi in all of my published books.

If you’re in the mood for a taste of how I write sci fi, here’s Part One of a new *prequel* scene I began penning for the two year anniversary of TANGERINE CARNAL DREAMS, released on August 8, 2008.

Yes, it is x or r-rated.

The Intergalactic Chase ~ Corporal Kattalonia and Prince Zio

Part One ~

“Asteroid crapola!” Katta muttered. Impatience sliced through her with a viciousness unusual to her. From her intel-alliance with other intergalactic law agencies she knew Zio, the sky horse, as she thought of him, practically stud-nipped at her butt. Once again.

His private vessel was due to dock shortly. True to his equine race’s mating behavior, he’d chased her to every spaceport, his pursuit annoyingly relentless.

Slinging her lightweight travel bag onto her back, Katta entered the stream of disembarking passengers. Distracted with thoughts about how to escape the stud not-of-her-dreams, she remembered to smile at the star cruiser’s steward as if she merely enjoyed her vacation.

The tiger-shift Huugosox man smiled engagingly in return. His direct gaze suggested he found her more enticing than the women ahead of her, now passing through the ship’s opulent, holo-generated exit.

Yeah, that’s what she so needed, a sex-clawing tiger instead of a wild-to-mount-her-ass stallion.

Not that she blamed the steward. To make herself appear like a fun-girl tourist, Katta had donned her outrageously pink bodysuit, the one that gleamed like water over her curves and served to sexually stun many alien-race men. Always an advantage when it came to protecting herself from numerous enemies, plus the other vermin-like villains she encountered on her assignments.

Resisting the urge to extend her palm and shoot her flame at will, Katta flattened her hand on her thigh. Star hole hell! She hated being in the midst of crowds. Yet, here she was temporarily trapped. Taking deep breaths of the good-quality atmosphere, she moved with the other passengers along the corridor that led to a three-layered complex. Filled with shopping areas and galactic-cuisine eateries, the accommodations also ranged from simple to extravagant.

Katta’s palm itched nastily, ready to fire. Even though the area was spacious, she instinctively wanted to clear a path so she could flame Zio’s ass. Or his front. Whatever she could flash-fast target.

Once she reached the ultra-enormous sphere that was the spaceport complex, she strode onto the center walkway because it cut straight through like a diameter. Briskly moving, Katta scouted for a strategic place to hang out until she could hop onto the space jet she’d chartered. Not available for another quarter of the day.

By now, her stallion shifter pursuer knew the type of places she favored for food, for entertainment, and for gear. Seeing a large selection of possibilities, she ignored the inviting gaze of a Gracc man and leapt onto one of the stairway gliders. Used to various levels of gravity, her body automatically adjusted, and she landed lightly. In no time, she stepped onto the second level. Spotting a lingerie shop that only allowed women inside, she practically jogged toward the entrance.

“Nova-sex wow!” Katta slowly rotated, gaping at the gorgeously presented displays of exotic and beautiful lingerie. From dreamy ethereal to hardcore I-want-it-rough, each collection had its own setting that was mood perfection.

When she noticed how tightly she clutched the strap of her bag, Katta brought it before her and slipped her hand inside the weapon’s pocket. Her tiny pulse pen could blind most races with one strike.
~~~~~~

Sci Fi Happily Ever After ~

Savanna

Savanna Kougar ~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance ~

World Building a Room in Romance

Pic from ~ http://parisapartment.wordpress.com ~

So, if you write in the scifi/fantasy/future subgenres of romance how do you world build a room? Obviously, rooms can take on a whole new view and a different meaning depending on the story. Really, rooms in these genres are only limited by the author’s imagination.
I can tell you from having tons of WIPs in these subgenres that creating these rooms is often a challenge. I have to think about what makes sense for that particular world’s culture and for the characters.
How do you write a far future room that is primarily a technology most of us aren’t familiar with or haven’t thought about yet.
I mean, what is it like sailing through the cosmos on any number of space vessels ~ from a one-person cruiser to a planet-sized cargo ship?

Mostly, I enjoy writing rooms that deeply affect the heroine and hero in some way. For example, in ALL SHADES OF BLUE PARADISE, Lady Sheridan and Baron Zaggry have been apart for ten years. In love with each other and planning to marry, Sher sees what she believes to be a betrayal by Zag and breaks their engagement. Now, she’s agreed to be his slave lover for one year to save her brother’s family from debt.
The moment Sher enters the upstairs mansion room that belongs to her, she is both amazed and her heart is torn from its moorings. The room has been designed exactly as she and the Baron lovingly talked about during their engagement. As she moves within and remembers, it’s in those moments her heart knows that Zag still loves her and has always loved her. Her heart knows this, but she doesn’t. She can’t yet. It would be unbearable to her. Still, the truth has found its way inside her because of a room, the room Zag held in his heart and had created for her.

In contrast to Lady Sheridan’s fantasy-in-blue private boudoir, I’ll leave you with the ‘room’ Sun Rocket, my heroine in RED LIONESS TAMED, finds herself trapped inside.

Chapter One excerpt:

"Frax! My brain feels like it’s been spun out of cobwebs," Sun Rocket muttered. She squeezed her eyelids open and shut several times, shifting slightly on the hard metallic surface. Expelling a breath, she attempted to open her eyes. "Frax it to the sun! More cobwebs," she angrily complained.

Pressing her hand over her eyes, she sniffed carefully. Sterile, her surroundings, except for harmless micro dust--except for her--about half a day away from a bath or a good tongue licking. Experimentally she shoved with her foot. Half her usual body weight. She was probably inside some cargo hold, orbiting or...

Sun Rocket shot up to a sitting position. Her head spun at some undefined warp speed. Blinking rapidly, she forced one eye to remain open, seeing ubiquitous gray cargo containers randomly stacked around her. "How the friggin’ frax...?"
She fought to stand upright, assisted by the lessened gravity, and crashed into a tall stack of empty containers. Stumbling into more containers, she kicked at them, managing to knock them out of her way while her head whirled like a new-forming galaxy.

"Not like there’s going to be a port window in here," she muttered derisively. Both eyes open now, she watched the wall circle before her impaired vision like a dimensional portal.

Steadier and steadier on her feet, her brain cobwebs clearing, she automatically reached for her left flank phase pistol. Gone! "Dang the villain! Of course!" she reminded herself. All her weapons would have been stripped during transport into the cargo hold by the beam.

What cargo hold?

Frustrated, wild, she lashed out at the nearest containers with her combat-trained feet--scattering them, semi-floating them away from her. Spying a dark, glass-looking monitor at the top of the hold, Sun Rocket shoved the nearest containers beneath it. Rapidly she threw containers together like a tower. Heedlessly she leapt up the huge makeshift steps, leaned her palms against the wall. She stood on her tiptoes, trying to examine the convex reddish monitor--not a type she knew.
"Get down from there!" a highly irritated male voice commanded in third galactic vernacular.

Wobbling precariously, Sun Rocket knelt on one knee. "Not like I can’t land on my feet like a cat," she murmured, amused for an instant. Gazing down toward the voice’s origin, she saw the fierce male’s flowing locks, well past his shoulders--dark red amber. The humanoid-appearing male glared up at her, hands planted on his hips like a holo-romance buccaneer. From her view, the rest of him could be compared favorably to a lean, yet beautifully muscled hero. Even his garments--a style unknown to her in her far-flung galactic travels tracking down, taking in or eliminating cat shifters who had gone bad--even his garments were reminiscent of swashbuckling ancient Earth.

"Who are you?" she called down to him, resting on her haunches. It was her good luck moon, she was still in human form. Not every galactic race "appreciated" feline shifters. To put it tuna-fish mildly.
~~~~~~

Yep, it’s a universe of room building in romance ~ the past, present and future ~ other fantasy dimensions, other worlds... whatever the mind of the writer can conceive.
So, what room are you penning right now?
Do you have a favorite room in a romance novel you’ve read?
~~~~~~

HAPPY END OF SUMMER

~ MAY ALL YOUR READING DREAMS COME TRUE ~

Savanna Kougar

~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance ~

Author of ~

All Shades of Blue Paradise
Red Lioness Tamed
When a Good Angel Falls ~ In Print
Tangerine Carnal Dreams
Murder by Hair Spray in Gardenia, New Atlantis ~ In Print
Black Cat Beauty
Stallion of Ash and Flame ~ coming from Siren-BookStrand
~~~~~~