Book Title: VALKYRIE, The Avian Clone Chronicles – Book 1 Character Name: Valkyrie   How would you describe your family or your childhood? My early childhood was reasonably happy. I was brought up on Orpheseus Prime by the human female who gave birth to me. Things went seriously downhill after I was separated from her. You see, I am not a normal human man. I am a genetically manipulated avian clone. I have wings and can fly, and I also have extraordinarily keen hearing and eyesight. My memory could be described as photographic. I do not forget anything, the good experiences or the bad.   What was your greatest talent? I can hack into all but the most highly encrypted databases and computer systems.   Significant other? That would hopefully be the outcome of this story, would it not? Zia, a lovely Mordrial woman who was once a resident of the Palace Orphanage and is now one of the caregivers there, has come to me for help in solving her sister’s murder. I find myself strongly attracted to Zia, who affects me in a way that no female ever has.   Biggest challenge in relationships? Trust, which is possibly the…

With COVID-19, nowadays “quarantine”, “social distancing”, and “isolate” are common parts of our everyday vocabulary. While isolating is necessary right now, it can lead to varying levels of depression and other unexpected emotions – even for an introvert like me. As I was sitting in the quiet of my apartment, with my cat keeping vigil next to me, I was longing for any type of travel and human interaction. Travel and human interaction are not normally things that are normally high up on my “must haves.” While dystopian films and novels might seem like a natural for readers to gravitate right now, a lot of my friends have avoided those types of entertainment because it seemed off-putting. It’s as I was sitting at home in isolation that I thought of some of my favorite romances that take place in far off worlds and unique characters and bizarre situations that seem like just the thing to perk up a reader longing for travel, adventure, fun, and excitement. You might not be able to go far right now, but books provide an entertaining alternative. Although I don’t normally read sci-fi, something about the Cat Star Chronicles books by Cheryl Brooks intrigued me….

When you get right down to it, most stories in the romance genre are fated pairings. The hero and heroine either “meet cute” or “meet against all odds,” often disliking one another in the beginning. The romance in Mystic is not only a fated pairing, but it is also against all odds. Aidan Banadänsk finds Sula Enduran as the result of a recurring vision, although the romance isn’t even hinted at in his vision. He only knows she is in danger and he must rescue her. What he doesn’t realize is that the rescue is only the beginning of their story.   Most of my stories involve pairings that seem fated, beginning with Slave, the first book in the original Cat Star Chronicles series. In her quest to rescue her kidnapped sister, Captain Jacinth “Jack” Rutland needs a man to pose as her master on a planet where all women are enslaved, so she buys a male slave whom she dubs Cat. The attraction between Cat and Jack is immediate and strong, despite the fact that she is human and he is Zetithian. Moreover, she had to travel halfway across the galaxy to find him in the slave market on…

Your new book – MAVERICK – is a spin-off of your “Cat Star Chronicles” series. What made you want to revisit that world? How are the two series connected? Basically, this is a next-generation series. The children born to the characters in the previous books have grown up and are falling in love while getting tangled up in all manner of exciting adventures. I’m giddy that the hero in MAVERICK is the son of one of my all-time favorite characters – Captain Jack. Will longtime readers see shades of his mother? What qualities do you like endowing a hero with? Who are some of your favorite heroes – both ones you’ve written and ones by other authors? Funny thing about Larry, he’s like his mother in more ways than he realizes, except for one. His language isn’t as colorful as Jack’s. Call it a child rebelling against his parents, but you won’t catch him saying any swear words that the average reader would object to. What his Scorillian navigator, Brak, thinks about his favorite figures of speech is something else altogether. 🙂 I like handsome heroes who are intelligent, have a good sense of humor, aren’t too stuck on themselves,…

The “Topic of Choice” option for a guest post during a blog tour can be a tough one for a writer. Discovering the seed of an idea seldom occurs instantaneously, and sometimes you have to fiddle around a bit before you find it. Since I’m obviously here to promote my latest release, REBEL (book ten of The Cat Star Chronicles), I should probably talk about that. But would that be too pushy, too mercenary, too self-serving? Who knows? Guess I’ll just start typing and let my fingers take me wherever they want to go, which is the best way I’ve found to overcome writer’s block. See? I’ve already written over a hundred words! Whoo hoo! That being said, writing is not an easy job. The amount of time it takes to write a book is incredible—REBEL weighs in at a little over 99,000 words—and when you factor in the necessary research, editing, and critiquing, the hours required to finish a book increase exponentially. I’m very thankful I wasn’t published prior to the advent of the word processing computer because I’m a terrible typist. In the previous sentence alone, I made three mistakes that were easily corrected and some that my…

The most difficult part of being a writer isn’t the writing. Sure, our muse will desert us on occasion or our characters sometimes rebel, but writing is what we love or we wouldn’t be doing it. No one can make you write a full-length novel if you don’t want to. You might put 90,000 words on paper, but until the characters and the story come to life, you aren’t really creating anything. Editing isn’t so bad. Once the manuscript is finished, you go back and find sentences that are wordy and cumbersome and must be cut, but it’s still something you as the writer have control over. I edit as I go along, but I still find those sentences that make me go, “Huh? What was I thinking?” Revisions are more difficult because someone else has said, “Could you make the heroine more likeable?” or “Could you make this scene longer or more detailed?” Those suggestions may seem unreasonable at first, but eventually you realize that they do improve the book’s appeal and readability. Title changes are something else I’ve come to expect. Thus far, only Fugitive and Hero have retained their original titles. I recently put the Kindle app…

Hi there! This is Cheryl Brooks, author of the Cat Star Chronicles series of erotic sci-fi romance. I decided to do a character interview for Fresh Fiction, but since I’m such a lousy interviewer, I thought I’d have my old friend Marla Elkhorn do the honors to introduce you to a few of the characters in my new book, Fugitive (in stores now!). Well-known throughout the galaxy as the Barbara Walters of her time, she’s not above asking the tough questions, but sometimes she gets in over her head… click here to read the interview and learn how to win… Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.