Tethered by Pippa Jay

An Unexpected Christmas Present Called Inspiration

Hi, I’m Pippa Jay, author of scifi and the supernatural with a romantic soul. Inspiration can be a wonderful thing, but can hit at the most inconvenient times. You know, like just as you’re going to sleep, or in the middle of the night. When you don’t have a single thing to hand to write with, except perhaps the kids crayons and a napkin. I’ve even written down story notes with my eyeliner because I literally had nothing else to hand. Getting a mobile phone meant I would often end up sending several texts to myself because an idea hit when I was out and about, and now I thank technology daily for my wonderful smartphone that even made it possible for me to compose a 17K novella while away on holiday. ^-^

There are certain days I’m not supposed to be writing. Weekends are designated family time, and we have a (reasonably) strict no technology rule. Of course, we don’t always stick to it (psst, don’t tell my husband!). I shouldn’t have been writing on holiday, but since we were sitting on the beach and the kids were playing, I think I got away with it!

But Christmas 2011, inspiration decided to play a mean trick on me. As hubs was busy cooking Christmas dinner and the kids sorted through the presents they’d opened, muse saddled me with the irresistible urge to start writing a far future adventure story with a succubus-like assassin. Argh! Throughout the day, I took whatever few moments I figured I could get away with to sneak upstairs and scribble notes (it being back in the days when I still hand wrote a lot). Pretending to fetch things from bedrooms, change a top, go to the bathroom, bring down presents or take some to put away. Whatever else, at least I earned stuffing my face with Christmas dinner after all those trips up and down the stairs all day! And my family never guessed.

Somehow I managed to get about five thousand words down that day. That one day of the year when I really shouldn’t have been working. The result of that inconvenient flash of inspiration was my scifi romance Tethered, born on Christmas Day. I guess maybe it was muse’s present to me. Fortunately, muse has never been that cruel to me since.

What was the most inconvenient time or place that you ever got inspired?

Blurb:

She can kill with a kiss. But can assassin Tyree also heal one man’s grief, and bring peace to a galaxy threatened by war?

For Tyree of the Su, being an assassin isn’t simply something she was trained for. It’s the sole reason for her existence. A genetically enhanced clone—one of many in Refuge—she’s about to learn her secluded lifestyle, and that of all her kind, is under threat by a race capable of neutralizing their special talents to leave them defenseless.

For Zander D’joren, being a diplomat has not only cost him his appearance, but also the love of his life. Scarred, grieving, he must nonetheless continue in his role as co-delegate to the fearsome Tier-vane or risk a conflict that could only end one way.

Now both of them need to keep each other alive and maintain a perilous deception long enough to renegotiate the treaty with the Tier-vane, or throw their people into a war that could wipe out Terrans and Inc-Su alike. But there’s more at stake than humanity, whether true or modified. Can the love growing between them save them both? Or merely hasten their destruction?

Buy links:

Breathless Press - http://www.breathlesspress.com/index.php?main_page=product_free_shipping_info&cPath=6&products_id=597

Smashwords – http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/455540

Bookstrand – https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-tethered-1562948-343.html

All Romance ebooks - http://www.bookstrand.com/tethered-0

Amazon - http://mybook.to/Tethered

Print coming 24th March - watch for pre-order at Breathless Press! Add it to your Goodreads TBR here – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22085149-tethered

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Bio:

After spending twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory, Pippa Jay is now a stay-at-home mum who writes scifi and the supernatural. Somewhere along the way a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she spends the odd free moment playing guitar very badly, punishing herself with freestyle street dance, and studying the Dark Side of the Force. Although happily settled in the historical town of Colchester in the UK with her husband of 21 years and three little monsters, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head.

Pippa Jay is a dedicated member of the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, blogging at Spacefreighters Lounge, Adventures in Scifi, and Romancing the Genres. Her works include YA and adult stories crossing a multitude of subgenres from scifi to the paranormal, often with romance, and she’s one of eight authors included in a science fiction romance anthology—Tales from the SFR Brigade. She’s also a double SFR Galaxy Award winner, been a finalist in the Heart of Denver RWA Aspen Gold Contest (3^rd place), the EPIC eBook awards, and the GCC RWA Silken Sands Star Awards (2^nd place).

You can stalk her at her website, or at her blog, but without doubt her favorite place to hang around and chat is on Twitter as @pippajaygreen.

Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5054558.Pippa_Jay

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Pippa-Jay-Adventures-in-Scifi/114058821953752

Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/pippajaygreen/

Google+ - https://plus.google.com/u/0/101080630877126516448/posts

Wattpad - http://www.wattpad.com/user/PippaJay

Amazon page - http://www.amazon.com/Pippa-Jay/e/B0080QVWEE/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1406376408&sr=8-1

Tethered by Pippa Jay

Author Interview Questions:

1. How did you start writing romance? By accident! No, really. I wrote and queried what I described as a science fiction adventure. It took a couple of my author friends beating me around the head with 'this is a ROMANCE, duh!' before I accepted it. Now I can't seem to keep the romance out of my stories.

2. Plotter or pantster? Pantster.

3. What are three things you have on your writing desk? Right now I don't use a desk, and my old desk is currently sporting a massive collection of…um…junk. But in order of priority, it would have been my computer, a notepad and a huge pot of pens, most of which probably don't work.

4. Favorite food? All of them? Um, chocolate.

5. Tell us a little about your new release. What character in the book really spoke to you? Tethered is a space opera, a little like Fifth Element meets Star Wars. It's the far future and humans have left Earth, to spread out to various planets and diversify, as well as meeting new races. But at this point in time they are on the verge of war with the Tier-vane, a ferocious species of feline who'd quite like humanity to die out. Negotiations are being sabotaged, and the chance of peace rests on Zander, a scarred human diplomat, and Tyree, a cloned Su assassin pretending to be her murdered sibling in order to sign the new treaty. Out of my two main characters, it was Tyree who really drove the story. She's such a strong, feisty character, and yet a little bit vulnerable and naive underneath because of her secluded upbringing. She spends a lot of the story confused because she's being required to do things totally outside her comfort zone, and to get along with a race of people she normally gets assigned to bump off.

6. I write because I just can't stop.

7. What is your favorite type of character to write about? I love to write about tortured souls, the more anguished the better. Bwahahaaa!

8. What is the sexiest scene you ever wrote? I think it's for the book I currently have going through edits – a superhero romance. Originally it didn't have any at all. But I have the hero carry the heroine to his room and strip her slowly. That was kind of hot.

9. What advice would you give new authors in the erotica/romance field? Read plenty of it before attempting to write it. And please, don't use some of the cringe-worthy euphemisms for various body parts, unless they are appropriate to your setting, say for a historical romance. You can Google advice on what kind of words not to use.

10. What is next on your writerly horizon? My next release is a YA supernatural novella, Restless In Peaceville, but I also have a paranormal short coming out in October, a superhero romance sometime before the end of the year, and I'm working on a bad angel story for a holiday season collection.

Social Links:

Website – http://www.pippajay.co.uk

Adventures in Scifi - http://www.pippajay.blogspot.co.uk

SFR Brigade - http://www.sfrcontests.blogspot.co.uk/

Spacefreighters Lounge - http://www.spacefreighters.blogspot.com

Romancing the Genres - http://www.romancingthegenres.blogspot.co.uk/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/pippajaygreen

Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5054558.Pippa_Jay

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Pippa-Jay-Adventures-in-Scifi/114058821953752

Buy links:

http://www.pippajay.co.uk/#!tethered-an-inc-su-story/c182x

Author bio:

A stay-at-home mum of three who spent twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory, Pippa Jay bases her stories on a lifetime addiction to science-fiction books and films. Somewhere along the line a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she spends the odd free moments trying to learn guitar, indulging in freestyle street dance and drinking high-caffeine coffee. Although happily settled in historical Colchester in the UK with her husband of 20 years, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head.
Pippa Jay is a dedicated member of the SFR Brigade, a community of science fiction romance authors and publishing professionals committed to writing and promoting the very best in the genre.

Book blurb:

She can kill with a kiss. But can assassin Tyree also heal one man's grief, and bring peace to a galaxy threatened by war?

For Tyree of the Su, being an assassin isn't simply something she was trained for. It's the sole reason for her existence. A genetically enhanced clone--one of many in Refuge--she's about to learn her secluded lifestyle, and that of all her kind, is under threat by a race capable of neutralizing their special talents to leave them defenseless.

For Zander D'joren, being a diplomat has not only cost him his appearance, but also the love of his life. Scarred, grieving, he must nonetheless continue in his role as co-delegate to the fearsome Tier-vane or risk a conflict that could only end one way.

Now both of them need to keep each other alive and maintain a perilous deception long enough to renegotiate the treaty with the Tier-vane, or throw their people into a war that could wipe out Terrans and Inc-Su alike. But there's more at stake than humanity, whether true or modified. Can the love growing between them save them both? Or merely hasten their destruction?

Book excerpt:

Tyree gazed at her image with a sensation akin to horror. That wasn't her. She'd never looked like this. Like some gloss painted, surgically enhanced Skiv putting herself up for sale.

She touched the elaborate coils of her hair in wonder, watching the alien reflection do the same.

"Is it to your liking, my lady?" Visaya asked, her voice quivering.

"I...I've never worn it up like this." Tyree continued to stare.

"It was how the Lady Mirsee liked it." The woman's voice broke, and she sniffed. Tyree turned to look at her, stunned to see tears flowing down the attendant's face. Was she so offended by Tyree's reaction?

"I didn't mean to be rude." The apology snagged in her throat. It was a first, but in this situation she didn't want to make too many mistakes around these humans.

"No, lady, it is not that. It is very strange to see another in my lady's clothes. Someone so alike, and yet you are not her."

"It freaks you out a bit?" Tyree stared at her reflection again. "Yeah, I can understand that feeling."

Visaya sobbed harder, and discomfort ran down Tyree's spine. What was the woman so upset about? Su never cried, and certainly never mourned anyone. Talented Inc-Su could be cloned again, and there were few emotional attachments in Refuge.

"Do you miss Mirsee?"

Visaya wiped her eyes. "She was a great lady. And we grieve for the master's loss."

Hmm. The master, huh?

Tyree straightened. It might be his title, but Zander D'joren was no master of hers. Not even if he Tethered her.

"Then perhaps it's time I met him. I'm sure he'll want to see how I compare."

And a visual comparison is all he'll be making, or I'll snatch the aura right out of him.

Visaya gestured to the door. "This way, my lady."