Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Guest Author Sela Carsen Talks Creative Process and Shares an Excerpt from SILVER WOLF RISING

Posted by: Veronica Scott
Veronica Scott: Our guest today talks about the creative process of how her book evolved and shares an excerpt:

Sela: My latest release, SILVER WOLF RISING, is part of my Wolves of Fenrir series.

This series started on a lark. The first story, A WOLF TO WATCH OVER ME, is a short that I wrote for an anthology. It was my ice-breaker after having been away from writing for several years, and I never intended it to be more than just one story.

Well, one thing led to another, and then I had A MOST WANTED WOLF.

After that, I knew I had one story left to write and then I'd close out the series and move on to something fresh and new.

Ha! Another anthology call went out, this time for something that caught my attention. Why aren't there more stories with characters who are middle aged, or even older than that? So many of our readers are over 40. Wasn't it time to give them stories that reflected their reality?

I write Sci-Fi Romance, so reality may be a stretch, but the idea held merit. I'm over 40. I've been married for twenty-plus years. My children are teens, flapping hard to leave the nest. Yet I spend a lot of my time reading romances about characters who are just beginning their lives.

What about me? Aren't I sexy anymore? Couldn't I still make a splash in the dating pool, should it come to that? (Ok, it would be a bigger splash than I made twenty years ago, but still.)

Meshing those thoughts with the characters I had already introduced in my Wolves of Fenrir series, the cogs started to turn. My most recent heroine had discussed her widowed mother.

Heroine. Check.

Dagny sprang, fully formed, from the head of Freya. I knew what she looked like, I knew what she was going through with her newly empty nest, I knew the sound of that unsettling silence in her house and the encroaching, irresistible itch to break away from what she'd always known.

But who would be a good match? What else happens in that same timeline in other lives?

Retirement. And since this is a military culture, a soldier's retirement. How can I make that worse? Forced retirement.

Ouch. Way to have a collective "Get out, you're too old" kick in the pants for Niall, who had dedicated his life to service. Now what's he going to do? That void of purpose resonated in him, too, and he needed to find a new way to know himself.

So with those two characters battling the changes in their lives, I started writing SILVER WOLF RISING. I hope you enjoy it!


Excerpt:
Niall slammed his prosthetic leg into the soldier’s knee from the side. The metal-reinforced leg powered by the strength of a Fenris in battle form was one of the few things that could snap the exoskeleton’s structure. But the strike caused a bolt of white-hot agony to lance through his thigh and hip, and he sucked back a scream.
Before the creature could make the squealing sound that passed for speech, Niall was on it, channeling his pain into fury. Since the Strathori had no bones, he couldn’t snap its neck. Instead, he held one arm over its vocal emitter, and used the other to tear through the armor plating. He ripped the living center out of the creature, crushing its soft parts in his claws.
The soldier jerked once, then died. He must not have made much noise killing it, because no other soldiers came charging through the door. He dragged the body further under cover, making sure no one would be able to see it unless they came looking, and dropped it at his female’s feet.
He loomed over her, and pushed his kill closer. Pure satisfaction rolled through his body. He had protected her and slaughtered their enemy. It was all he could do to hold back the howl that begged for release in his chest.
She stared at him, wide-eyed, and it began to occur to him that he was dripping dark blue goo from the hand that had just ripped the heart and guts out of another being, before gifting her with the slimy corpse. The conflict between his civilized Fenrir mind and his more primitive vargulf instincts did quick and dirty battle inside him until she spoke softly.
“I can’t decide if that’s the most disgusting or the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me. Er…thank you.”

Author Bio:

Sela Carsen was born into a traveling family, then married a military man to continue her gypsy lifestyle. With her husband of 20 years, their two teens, her mother, the dog, and the cat, she’s finally (temporarily) settled in the Midwest. Between bouts of packing and unpacking, she writes paranormal romances, with or without dead bodies. Your pick.

Blurb:
Fate couldn't have picked a worse moment to bring two lonely souls together.

Berserker warrior and drill sergeant Niall is being forced to retire from the Fenrir Army he's faithfully served for most of his life. Miserable and bitter, he's on the pack ship, waiting for a transport back to his home planet to be a farmer. Until trouble steps right on his prosthetic foot just as all Hel breaks loose.

Widowed Dagny is on the pack ship waiting for a transport down to Earth, searching for a new purpose in this next phase of her life -- one that isn't centered around her grown children. But her new plans definitely don't involve following a cranky old soldier into the dark to survive.

When enemy Axis powers invade the ship, blasting up the heat on a cold war, Niall and Dagny have to team up to save themselves and their shipmates, and to explore the lifescent that is drawing them together.

Together for now, but will fate be enough to keep them that way after the battle is over?

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2caB7kk
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2cEEYW0
Apple: http://apple.co/2cHNAwk
BN: http://bit.ly/2cndFMJ

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2cEGDLs

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