I’m a creature of habit, by nature. I order the same thing from my local Chinese restaurant (they no longer ask me what I want when I call), I work out at the same time every day, I listen to the same favorite musical artists on permanent repeat shuffle, and I own a dozen pairs of the exact same black yoga pants. Because I’ve always been of the mind that the old adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is truer than just about anything else.
Anyway, for the past – oh, I dunno, two years, maybe? – Carina executive editor Angela James has been asking for a space western. On Twitter, on blogs, on forums…in fact, if you look in the “About Us” section of Carina’s site here, her bio even mentions wishing someone would write her one. And every time I’d see her wishing for one, I’d ignore the niggling in the back of my mind and tell myself that I write contemporary romance, not space westerns. Occasionally historical romance, but definitely not space westerns! Nope, not me. The tried and true, that’s my sweet spot.
Well, here we are, with my very first space western releasing this week (with the second and third books of the series contracted and awaiting release dates of their own!) so I think you can guess what happened.
Sky Riders, book one of the Skybound series, is all Angela James’s fault. Because every time she’d ask for a space western, my characters got louder. And louder. And a little bit louder – until Rain and Torin and the rest of the crew of the Crux Ansata were a cacophony in my mind and I couldn’t ignore them, despite my bone-deep fear of change.
In my series, they call outer space the In-Between. That place where everything is unknown and anything can happen. It’s scary, and a lot like what we experience diving into our own unknown.
But it turns out change can be pretty awesome! I learned so much writing this book – about finishing what I start and plowing through even when it’s not easy and giving my characters the story they deserve, not the story I want to give them because it’d probably be less difficult. I learned that I can plot if I have to (and I did have to), world-building isn’t the great evil I always thought, and I can spend ten months cursing a book only to end up adoring it when all is said and done. I’m proud of this book and proud of myself for writing it. Because it was scary and hard and like Tom Hanks said in A League Of Their Own – “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.”
So thank you, Angela, for wishing out loud for a space western over and over and unknowingly kicking me out of my comfort zone. This book’s for you.
Tell me, what was the scariest chance you ever took? Did it pay off? Are you happy you took the leap? Share your tales of branching out in the comments section and I’ll choose one person to receive a $20 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes & Noble, your choice – my reward to you for taking your leap of faith!
*****
Mercenary Captain Torin Covell needs a man who knows his way around a cockpit. Ace pilot Rain needs to get the hell off-planet. Thrown together by chance, the two men form a wary partnership.
Torin has every intention of dumping Rain at the next moon, despite his intense attraction to the hotshot. In his line of work he can’t afford to trust anyone, especially someone as infuriatingly charming and naïve as Rain. But first, he’s got a mission to complete.
What Rain wants, Rain gets. And what he wants is Torin, any way he can get him. The gorgeous captain isn’t making it easy, and the two are quickly embroiled in an erotic battle for supremacy. But when Rain discovers that he’s not the only one in pursuit of Torin, he demands to know exactly what sort of “job” he’s signed on for…
Sky Riders is available here on the Carina site and also on Amazon.
Fae Sutherland has always dreamed of being a published author, starting her writing career off at age 11 with a series of stories she charged her classmates a dollar to read. She has since progressed to more serious writing, though always keeping that dash of irreverence and fun (and a hell of a lot more heat!). Also, she charges just slightly more than a dollar now.
Fae is perhaps best known for her books co-written with fellow M/M romance aficionado, Marguerite Labbe. Together they are the authors of over a dozen novels, novellas and short stories. Currently, Fae is focusing on solo work and has a multitude of upcoming books in the pipeline.
When Fae’s not working on new stories to make her readers sweat, she loves website design, spending too much time on Twitter, and watching oodles of Food Network with her beloved life partner. If there’s any time left over, it’s spent snuggling the cat.
You can find Fae on her website, blog, Twitter, Goodreads and on Facebook.
Tags: Fae Sutherland, M/M, Series, space western
Once of the scariest chances I took was the purchase of my first home. I was 31 years old, single and in the middle of the finalization, I lost my job but had already been interviewing for a new position elsewhere. With faith and perseverance, I ended up with a new job and my first home. I’m grateful I did not back out of the sale and 12 years later I still love my place.
That’s awesome, Amy, congrats on your home! I’ve never found anywhere I wanted to stay forever, so congrats on finding that place, too.
That’s a nice leap to take, I’m glad it worked out for you.
Definitely adopting children. Just under two months ago, my husband and I sat on our front porch as a car pulled up with a seven and a four-year-old in it. None of us had ever met, they’re from a different city, we’ve never had children in the house, and we were about to be a family. We’d taken the classes and everything, but nothing really prepares you for that instant when your world completely rearranges itself. Watching them get out of the car was probably the most terrifying moment of my life.
After some very hard moments, we’re rocking along well. They’ve decided to call us Mama and Daddy. They love both sets of grandparents, and are making friends in the neighborhood. We feel like a family. The girls are doing great in school, we’ve developed new routines, and my DH and I drop into bed exhausted every night. The legal battle for custody is still raging on, but we’re hoping within the next six months we’ll be told we can officially adopt them.
Definitely it’s the biggest leap I’ve ever taken. I will never forget watching them get out of that car, the younger clinging to her caseworker and manically looking around, pointing at everything, the elder climbing out on her own and staring at the ground until she got up the courage to show me she could do a cartwheel–her proudest accomplishment. We walked inside to show them their new home, the 9th they’ve had in two years. This morning before leaving for school the younger, with the little loops in her hair that she’d asked for sticking out like antennae, hugged my leg and said, “I love you Mama.” The elder asked me to walk her into her classroom to watch as she apologized to another kid she’d accidentally hurt yesterday. It was hard for her to do, because he’s not very nice. I gave her a hug and made sure the teacher knew, then wished her a good day at school.
We’ve come so incredibly far in such a short period of time. Right now we’re still Home #9. I hope soon we’ll get told by the court that we’re simply “home.”
Sorry… didn’t mean to write you a novel!
Fae, I had a similar experience with my CP book, Gate to Kandrith. Though I’ve read both fantasy for years, all the books I’d written (mostly YA paranormals) had contemporary settings and I knew my usual minimalist description would not fly with a fantasy. But I had this idea and I wanted to do it justice so I tackled it. The result: one book I’m proud of (with a sequel coming soon) and another writing tool for my toolbox.
The scariest chance I took was continuing with a pregnancy when I was extremely high-risk. The baby was healthy and will be celebrating her 2nd birthday in November. I however ended up having congestive heart failure during the delivery. My baby got to go home from the hospital and I had to stay for almost 2 weeks.
One of the scariest periods I went through was when I started telling people that the manuscript I had written was a romance. I had no idea how people would react to the news that a forty-something guy who loved sci-fi was writing romance. Would they laugh? Would they roll their eyes and walk away? Once I got over the fear of tellng people, the reaction was amazing. People were impressed that I had written a book. They didn’t care about the genre as long as the story was a good one. Lesson learned? Give yourself a chance and people who care about you will be supportive.
Thanks so much everyone for your comments, they’re truly inspiring stories of people taking chances and going for it even when it’s terrifying to do so.
Jax, you’re my winner, I’ll be emailing you about your prize very soon! Thanks again everyone!
Oh! Thanks!
I’m looking forward to reading Sky Riders; it sounds like a lot of fun!