31 October 2011

Blog Tour Stop: Aubrie Dionne

Hi, folks! Today, I'm happy to welcome Aubrie Dionne, author of Paradise 21. This is a science fiction romance, and on tour through November 20th. Below, you'll find an interview with the author and an excerpt.

Enjoy, and you can catch the next stop at http://sithereandread.com.


Please tell the readers a little about yourself:

I’m a professional flutist by night, writer by day. I use visual imagery to make the music come alive, and over the years my flute students told me to write my stories down. So here I am today!

How about your latest release?

Paradise 21 is an action adventure sci fi romance with space pirates. If you liked Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Serenity, or even Pirates of the Caribbean, you might enjoy Paradise 21.

What was your primary inspiration for this book?

I thought: what could be better than pirates in space?
And, seriously, I always wondered how humankind will battle the upcoming population crisis, and what we’ll do when Earth’s resources are used up. Paradise 21 is about colonizing different planets, and surviving after Earth’s demise.

Do you have any muses?

Yes: my Jack Sparrow pirate head beads: still in the plastic case they came in, because they are too precious to take out. They are my lucky charm for writing. I also have a fairy godmother figurine whose wand is aimed at my computer screen.

Do you control your characters or do they flog you into shape?

I start by controlling them, but soon they take control and take me for a ride! I learn things about them I never knew, and they surprise me each and every day. Probably the most horrifying aspect is that each one of them has a piece of me in them. Which piece I won’t tell!

When you write, is there a special routine you follow?

I usually write early in the day before I teach flute lessons, and then late at night before bed. I always read the previous day’s writing before I start to keep the narrative continuous and fix up any typos or consistency issues I made in the first draft.

If you could be one animal, person, or at a place for a day what/who/where would it be?

Animal: Unicorn- because they live forever and are magical and beautiful
Person: James Galway (famous flute player)
Place: Tatooine from Star Wars (Although I’d need a bodyguard. It’s a pretty tough place!)

Five random facts about you:
  1. I have way too many guppies. They all started having babies, and now I have two tanks with about thirty of them in each. (Anyone want to adopt a fish or maybe six or sixteen?)
  2. I love candy- so much that I have to hide it or throw it away or I’ll eat the whole bag.
  3. I watched every episode of LOST and am sad that it’s done. L
  4. I tried to write horror stories and realized I’m just not scary.
  5. I used to be afraid of E.T. growing up. It was the first movie my mom took me to and I hated him. (Now I know he’s a good guy!)

Are you working on any new releases later this year?

I just finished edits on Tundra 37, the sequel to Paradise 21. This will come out in January (for anyone who enjoyed Paradise 21). Currently I’m working on Haven 6, the third book in the series.
A novella tie-in tentatively called A Hero Rising is coming out this spring about the fall of Old Earth. It even has zombies!!! (Not sure if they are scary. I’m working on it).

Anything else you’d like to say?

Thank you for having me on your blog today!

Aubrie Dionne can be found at:

Twitter:
@authoraubrie
Blog:
http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com

Book Blurb:

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew—a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage.

But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates—humans who escaped Earth before its demise—are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.


 Excerpt:
“Might as well stay here and make camp for the night.”

His casual tone stung her composure. How could he talk of such mundane things when they’d almost been captured, when she’d touched him so tenderly?

“We’ll let them get farther away,” Striker explained, reasonable as always. “We’re going in their direction tomorrow.”

The sting of rejection grew, burning a hole in her heart. “Why?”

“Why what?”

Her lips trembled. “Why not kiss me like you did before?”

“I can’t.” He shook his head, and the air cooled between them; so much so, Aries wondered if the desert had turned into deep space.

He’d teased her with such affection before, it was cruel to take it away. “I don’t understand,” she said, wishing she didn’t care, wishing she could stop all the emotions he’d started in her heart.

Aries caught a glimpse of pain etched in the wrinkles around his eyes. Striker turned away and started pulling supplies out of his backpack. “I can’t do this.”

“Do what?”

Striker shook his head and Aries prompted, “Can’t kiss me, can’t trust me? What?”

“I can’t allow myself to get tangled up with someone. Not again.”

The thoughts of Striker with another woman confused her. On the New Dawn, everyone had one lifemate and that was it. “You mean you loved someone before?”

Striker’s hand tightened on the backpack. “I trusted someone a long time ago, allowed myself to love, if you will. She hurt me so much I lost my entire life and ended up here. I can’t experience that kind of pain again.”

Aries clasped her hand over her heart. “I’m so sorry.”

He waved her apology off as if it meant nothing. “It’s a tough world, Aries. And it’s dangerous to love. If I were you, I’d keep my heart well-guarded, because you never know when it will affect your decisions, when it will make you weak.”

Aries couldn’t take his advice. Watching him talk about his past made her realize she’d already given up her heart.

He had it.



Aubrie is an author and flutist in New England. Her stories have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, A Fly in Amber, and several print anthologies including Skulls and Crossbones by Minddancer Press, Rise of the Necromancers, by Pill Hill Press, Nightbird Singing in the Dead of Night by Nightbird Publishing, Dragontales and Mertales by Wyvern Publications, A Yuletide Wish by Nightwolf Publications, and Aurora Rising by Aurora Wolf Publications.  Her epic fantasy is published with Wyvern Publications, and several of her ebooks are published with Lyrical Press and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. When she’s not writing, she plays in orchestras and teaches flute at Plymouth State University and a community music school.
About the Author:

1 comment:

Aubrie said...

Thank you for this fantastic interview!