A Closer Look at #PetsInSpace ® 4

Good morning, readers!

Since we're now just a little over a week away from the launch of the fourth Pets in Space® volume-- aptly named Pets in Space® 4--today I'm giving you a more in depth look at each of the baker's dozen of great stories in this volume. It's guaranteed to have something for everyone--and probably a lot of somethings for everybody!

These amazing stories are written by award-winning and bestselling authors and some of the top sellers in Science Fiction Romance! And better yet, all of these stories are part of popular SFR series!

This project is also endorsed by the SFR Brigade.

Even better, 10% of all pre-orders and first month's royalties goes to support a very important cause-- the wonderful Hero Dogs, an organization that provides service dogs to military veterans and first responders free of charge! Previous Pets in Space® volumes have resulted in donations of over $7,100 to the organization. Help us make 2019 a banner year for donations!

Everyone connected with this volume is super excited that Pets in Space® 4 has already hit #2 on Amazon's Hot New Sellers in Science Fiction Romance and Science Fiction Romance Anthologies lists based on preorders alone!

So let's take a look at the complete blurb for each of these thirteen about-to-be-unleashed-on-the-universe stories.

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MADAS' FALLING STAR

Lords of Kassis Series

by S.E. Smith

Prince Gril Tal Mod is destined to be the next Supreme Leader of the Tearnats—if he survives long enough to ascend to the throne.

Gril was supposed to be on a routine training exercise, but his flight goes horribly wrong when engine trouble forces him to land his fighter in a remote mountainous region. Once stranded on the ground, Gril discovers the malfunction was no accident—and he isn’t alone. He can sense someone watching him from the shadows.

Princess Madas Tralang’s curiosity always seems to get her into trouble. When Madas spies an unusual object streaking across the sky before crashing near her location, she believes it is a good omen. After all, she found her pet, L’eon, the last time an object fell from the sky.

Her hopes of finding something valuable are dashed when instead she sees a big, and rather ugly, Tearnat warrior. Though there is something about him…something magnetic, it’s his spaceship that she really wants. It is just what she has been searching for—a means to escape the dreary life expected of her!

The giant warrior pilot of the spaceship isn’t going to give it up easily, however, and Madas soon finds herself locked in a battle of wits and skill with the strange warrior, but they are not the only players on the field. Danger surrounds Madas and Gril—both from Madas’s clan and from the saboteur who is determined to see Gril dead. Can the Prince of the Tearnats and a small, but deadly alien pet, defeat their foes and save Madas before time runs out, or will Gril’s growing love for a curious Princess doom them both?

DARK GUARD

Galactic Gladiators: House of Rone Series

By Anna Hackett

Calla Ryss has spent months languishing in a cell, surviving her captors—the metal-scavenging species known as the Edull—after being abducted from her home world. Deep in the deserts of the lawless planet of Carthago, she is desperate to find a way out. Yet when escape comes for her and her lone human friend, it doesn't lead to safety, but to the bone-chillingly dangerous cyborgs of the House of Rone. To her shock, Calla finds herself in the arms of a lethal cyborg with metallic silver eyes.

Zaden lives for the House of Rone. His cyborg enhancements help him keep a ruthless hold on his emotions. Loyalty, and the rare spurt of annoyance at the cyborg hunting cat that refuses to leave him alone, are the only emotions he allows himself to feel. He is perplexed when Calla falls into his arms and he begins to experience emotions he’s never felt before…a dangerous malfunction for a cyborg whose enhancements are in place not to increase his lethal abilities, but leash them.

Zaden vows to guard Calla and keep her safe—with some unsolicited help from a certain cyborg cat— when mysterious attackers attempt to snatch her. There is more at stake than just Calla’s safety. As they are drawn into an intoxicating storm of emotion, they will risk their hearts, their lives, and their freedom to rescue another innocent captive. Can they succeed against the odds, or will Calla find herself imprisoned once again?

ENTWINED FATES

The Infinite City Series

By Tiffany Roberts

He met his destined mate too soon.

Bold, kind, and adventurous, Kiara was everything Volcair needed in his stiff, formal life. Along with his pet inux, Cypher, the three were inseparable during Volcair’s years on Earth. But the same winds of fate that brought them together as children tore them apart again. With half a universe separating them, years sped by, and Kiara seemed lost to him forever. Angry and bitter, he threw himself into military service for the Entris Dominion, seeking escape from the pain of loss.

But when chance brings them together again nearly two decades later, Volcair finds that his feelings for Kiara have only grown—he needs her. Have they been granted a second chance, or has time opened a rift between them that cannot be crossed?

STAR CRUISE: IDOL’S CURSE

The Sectors SF Romance Series

By Veronica Scott

An unusual bequest….

Juli Shaeffer, the Nebula Zephyr’s cruise director, receives a mysterious bequest from the estate of a longtime passenger – a lump of rock taken from a reef on the planet Tahumaroa. Legend states anyone who steals from the ocean gods will be cursed. The passenger’s will requests the rock be returned to the beach so his heirs won’t be affected by the bad luck he believed he’d incurred. Juli doesn’t believe in superstitions and she agrees to carry out this small favor on the ship’s next stop at the planet in question.

Until the rock disappears from her office…

When the rock disappears and reappears in various locations around the ship, and seems connected to a steadily escalating series of mishaps, Juli turns to Third Officer Steve Aureli as the only one she feels she can trust. Along with Steve and his elderly Aunt Dian – a passenger aboard the Nebula Zephyr for this cruise - she investigates the strange series of malfunctions plaguing the interstellar luxury liner. Steve and Juli enlist his Aunt Dian’s dog, Charrli, a retired Sectors Z Corps canine, to help them track the missing rock as it moves about the ship.

Juli and Steve must find the rock, hang onto it and transport it to the planet’s surface, before the alien idol’s curse turns deadly. The attraction between the two of them grows as the threat to Juli becomes more and more focused. Can she carry out her task while he keeps her safe from the alien curse? Will the capricious alien idol bring them good fortune…or disaster?

CYBORG'S REVENGE

Project Enterprise Series

By Pauline Baird Jones

They say you can’t go home again, but what if it is the only way to truly be free?

Rap solves problems large and small. He solved them when he was human. He solved them when he was a robot. Now that he’s mostly human again, he’s still solving problems. He is currently working on his biggest threat—his old Master. He’ll need all the help he can get from his pet, Snake, and his new friend, Nelson, the AI inside his head. What he wasn’t expecting was the wrench that was thrown into the equation—Ale. He thought he knew all there was to know about Ale—but he was woefully wrong.

Ale’s new body has made her human again—mostly—and her new beating heart is pounding for Rap. It’s a pity that Rap is inscrutable and she’s got a huge secret that she can’t share. The secret stored inside her could be the key to ending the threat from their former Q’uy Master, or could doom them all to captivity once more.

Rap and Ale must face their greatest enemy if they hope to defeat him, but can they find love and a happy ever after while they do it? Only the chatty Snake knows for sure.

SPYDOG

The Inherited Stars Series

By Laurie A. Green

When his transport is destroyed before his eyes, agent Rigel Blackline and his bio-engineered StarDog partner wind up marooned on a planet buzzing with enemy patrols. Worse, they carry time-sensitive intel that must be delivered to their contacts on a distant space station—data that could defeat their ruthless enemies.

Rigel’s only hope is to reach another Network ship before they’re captured, but things get complicated when they cross paths with Sona, a savvy warrior-class Rathskian female. She claims to be a friendly, but he suspects the vixen is a dangerous counter-spy sent to intercept him and his StarDog. His intuitive sidekick’s immediate bond with Sona is even more baffling.

Rigel decides “capturing” Sona as an enemy asset and delivering her to his superiors may be his best option, but Sona has secrets that threaten more than just Rigel’s self-control. Her knowledge of Network dealings are on a level even he isn’t privy to. Is she truly an ally, or is he playing directly into the hands of a dangerous double-agent…in more ways than one?

NOTHING REMOTELY FAMILIAR

My Crazy Alien Romance Series

By Donna McDonald

Nothing about Topper’s life is remotely familiar anymore.

Topper never expected her mating an alien would net her a teenage witch in just a few, short years. If the Fates weren’t having enough fun at her expense, she is pregnant again—with a son who has inherited his father’s flare for ice! Unfortunately, spontaneous ice in the desert and her wanting to wear fur has begun to draw the wrong kind of attention to her beloved town.

Luck being what it is—especially when the Fates are involved—the day before departure their daughter, Jessica, gets assigned her first witch Familiar. Before Topper can unravel what stinks about the situation, Jessica bonds with the legendary fanged-tooth koala.

Their trip to Glacier is about to get very interesting! Can Topper get to the bottom of Koala Kevin while trying to keep peace with her daughter and soothe her soon-to-be-born son? She will need all the help she can get from a very special Goddess to accomplish this miracle.

DOOM

Xian Warriors Series

By Regine Abel

The Battle for Earth has begun.

Victoria’s dreams of a cozy life as a small town doctor come crashing down when the monstrous Kryptids make first contact. The alien invaders have only one goal: to turn Earth into a breeding ground. As she fights to protect her patients in their makeshift hospital, an even more fearsome alien and his beast enter the fray. She should be terrified of the male ominously named Doom. But she’s mesmerized.

As a genetically engineered war machine, Doom lives for a single purpose: eradicating the Kryptids. Coming to Earth with his brothers to save the humans should be a straightforward matter. But years of bloody battles throughout the galaxy have not prepared him for the fiery Victoria. Enchanted by the courage of that wisp of a woman, Doom offers her his protection and that of his fearless war beast, Stran, as she attempts to rescue other wounded humans. After disaster strikes their homeworld, the Xian Warriors now also face extinction.

Will the Kryptids finally defeat their only real threat, or will the delicate human that has stolen both of Doom’s hearts also be the Warriors’ seed of hope?

WINTER'S PRINCE

Starways Series

By Alexis Glynn Latner

In the festive, frivolous Winterfair in the amusement park inside the interstellar city of Wendis, there are as many purposes as participants….

Kev Desler takes part in in ancient fighting arts to forget that he’s an expatriate scholar who can’t go home. Sara Tai intends to find a genetically engineered unicorn to prove a scientific point. But the unicorn has a mind of its own.  Everyone at the Fair wants to win prizes in the Fair’s many games. But someone wants a certain prize enough to not only break the rules, but bones and laws for it. 

Caught up in a dangerous Winterfair game, Sara and Kev will need courage, intelligence and allies to win the game and save their lives. Along the way they begin to realize that the most valuable prize of all might just be—each other.

HEART OF THE SPIDER'S WEB

TriSystems: Smugglers Series

By JC Hay

Sheri Tyler had a simple undercover assignment: work the docks at Nobu Station, monitor the illegal trade, and report everything back to Intelligence Command. Now a botched robbery has forced her to hide among a crew of smugglers and put her on the run from the Spider Queen, one of the TriSystem’s most dangerous crime lords. Worse, it’s left her working alongside a brooding security officer who reminds her of everything she shouldn’t desire.

Rayan Barr only wants three things: keeping his ship secure, his friends safe, and his pet goanna well-fed.  None of those include overseeing a dockrat whose stories don’t add up, and who has a mad idea to sell their illegal cargo in one of the largest black markets in the Three Systems. Now his captain has demanded he keep a close watch on her, something his eyes are already all too eager to do.

Forced to rely on each other, Rayan and Sheri get pulled deeper into the Spider Queen’s web of deceit. And while Sherri might let Barr get a glimpse of the real her she’d kept hidden away, she also knows it’s only a matter of time before the lies she hides behind come crashing down. Without that protection, there’s no telling how badly they'll both get hurt.

THE PRINCESS AND HER BODYGUARD

Alien Animal Rescues Series

By E.D. Walker

Princess Liana blames herself when she and her wondrous bird companion, Pym, are kidnapped. If she hadn't kissed her bodyguard, Jacen, he never would've been fired, and she and Pym would never have been abducted from the palace.

Jacen has loved Liana for as long as he can remember. Even disgraced and exiled, he will still do anything to protect her—and Pym. Unfortunately, saving her life means losing her forever, but that’s a price he’s willing to pay. After all, he could never ask her to run away to the stars with him—could he?

INTERRUPTING STARLIGHT

After The Fall Series

By Kyndra Hatch

When he answered a distress call, L’Den hadn’t expected to find one of the Invaders waiting for him. The tug he feels on his soul is even more surprising, drawing him closer to the woman, in spite of her humanity. Both his second-in-command and H’tch, his companion mogha, seem fine with leaving her behind and letting the desert deal with the problem, but he’s not so sure.

Tessa has spent the last two years hoping for a way off the harsh desert planet where her research vessel crashed, watching her friends die one-by-one, and befriending a strange creature of the sand. But when a rescue ship does arrive, she realizes she might have been better off lost. The Korthans, savage aliens bent on the destruction of humankind, aren’t happy to find her. And yet, despite her fear, she can’t deny the pull she feels towards one of them.

Korthans only have one chance to find a true mate, but chasing after the human could risk the safety of the colony he’s sworn to protect. Even though the call of a mating bond demands a higher loyalty, L’Den never expected to have to choose.

IMPORT QUARANTINE

The Department of Homeworld Security Series

By Cassandra Chandler

It was supposed to be a simple house call for a sick cat, so how'd she end up on a spaceship?

Caitlin has made some pretty weird house calls in her work as a veterinarian outside the small desert town where she lives and works. Feral burros, mischievous coyotes, dogs getting a little too close to cacti… they all seem mundane compared to the tall, gorgeous guy who shows up on her doorstep in the middle of the night, begging her to help his cat. Everything was going along fine until he started talking about aliens.

To help restore the emotions stolen from him by the Coalition of Planets, Marq was supposed to care for Meredith—the Earth cat that his brother smuggled aboard his ship. Now, Meredith has developed some kind of strange affliction that he fears will endanger her life. He'll do anything to assist his pet, even make unauthorized contact with an Earthling. The trouble is, he isn’t sure how to handle the rising desire in him when he meets the vet called Caitlin.

To get Caitlin’s assistance, he must first convince her to trust him—though with the soldiers on his ship still loyal to the Coalition, he’s not sure who he can trust. Meredith’s illness is not the only threat they will face. Can Marq save his cat and keep Caitlin safe while trying to control his unruly emotions?

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Pets in Space® 4 is widely offered at each of the following vendors:

AMAZON          AMAZON UK

AMAZON CA          AMAZON AU

APPLE          NOOK

KOBO          GOOGLEPLAY

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Have a great week, all! Look forward to our Pets in Space® 4 launch next week!

AD ASTRA FAILS TO TAKE OFF

The best thing about AD ASTRA-a better Brad Pitt

The latest big-budget SF film AD ASTRA, in theaters now, is a perfect reflection of our dismal times. Technically stunning, but scientifically brainless. Introspective, but emotionally distant. Epic in scope, but ultimately self-absorbed and restricted in vision. The plaintive cry of the Millennial generation to its elders, “You failed and left us nothing!” can be heard echoing in the sterile ships and stations that serve as settings of the film. In that sense, I suppose, James Gray’s (LOST CITY OF Z) slow-paced SF thriller can be said to be a great piece of cinematic art, well matched to its time and audience.

But for those of us brought up on the optimism and adventure of STAR TREK and the original STAR WARS, on the bright triumph of AVATAR or even the gritty determination of GRAVITY, this film is a bitter pill to swallow. Granted, it looks beautiful. All those shots of space vehicles against the backdrop of deepest night! And the idea that, one day in the near future, commercial flights to a permanent base on the moon will be common and relatively cheap! Sure, okay, we’re all right there with you!

But when you tell me leaking antimatter from a ship sent out thirty years ago has caused a chain reaction that is now threatening the Earth from Jupiter, you lose me. (Even worse, there are almost no effects of this phenomenon between Earth and Jupiter. Just at Earth, then around Jupiter. Right.) Um, I’m no scientist, but from what I know of physics, if antimatter and matter come into contact, the reaction is instant—BOOM! Once the antimatter is used up in the explosion, the problem is solved.

Yet this is the supposed reason our hero—astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt)—must head out to Jupiter to convince his father—missing astronaut/scientist Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones)—to return to Earth. The older McBride was the leader of a mission to the outer planets in order to survey planets in other star systems for extraterrestrial life. Turns out, he went off the deep end when that search yielded plenty of Goldilocks planets, but no life. Without hope, he went insane, killed the other members of his team, and is now hiding from the rest of humanity. His son’s secret mission is to eliminate the old man and his leaking ship, preserving his image as a hero (and, presumably, the false hope of other life in the universe).

Of course, the younger McBride must go through various stages of denial and disillusionment about the father he had always seen as a hero before he can accomplish his mission. Because this is not really a movie about outer space; it’s a film about inner space—fathers and sons, connection and emotional distance, finding yourself, etc., etc. Roy has always stood outside himself, analyzing his own emotions (as he does for Space Command on a regular basis for his psych evaluations), and has never been able to sustain a relationship with another person (which we see in flashback videos from his ex-wife).

If all of this sounds quiet and slow, it is. In terms of pacing, it reminds me of Stephen Soderbergh’s SOLARIS (2002), without benefit of George Clooney, sex, or the possibility of an extraterrestrial intelligence. Gray had to throw in some completely random moon pirate (yes, pirates on the moon) and wild-eyed bloody monkey (don’t ask) scenes to spice things up. I mean, I get that things can go wrong on a spaceship, but, as a writer, I recognized these “action” scenes for what they were. I could just hear the producers in a dark room somewhere saying, “For god’s sake, this is deadly! Can’t you throw in some moon pirates or something?”

On the positive side, Brad Pitt does a much better job of making Roy McBride an interesting character than Ryan Gosling did with Neil Armstrong in FIRST MAN (2018). Both characters are meant to be ice-cool under fire. Both, in fact, have a reputation for it. (In Armstrong’s case, the reputation was real.) But Gosling’s portrayal left me feeling there was nothing behind the mask. Pitt eventually shows the emotion, even if it is restrained. The actor has grown since his pretty-boy days, something he’s demonstrated with both this film and Quentin Tarentino’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD this year. Bravo, at least, for that. 

Unfortunately, the considerable talents of veteran actor Donald Sutherland and the versatile Ruth Negga are wasted in underwritten roles. And we see so little of Tommy Lee Jones as Clifford McBride anyone could have played him. 

As for AD ASTRA (to the stars)? Not with the attitude of this film. Save your money and watch it at home. This one’s a No Go. 

Cheers, Donna

Inspiration! From the Pets In Space® 4 Authors #PetsInSpace

Every year since this incredible idea was hatched by author/coordinator Pauline Baird Jones along with author Veronica Scott in 2016, a new Pets in Space® volume has been unleashed in October, which means...we're in the countdown for the 2019 release!

On October 8th, we'll be treated to a brand new collection of the super popular pet-themed science fiction romance tales. Better yet, many of these stories are connected to exciting SFR series. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak at some of the stories and I can tell you they are amazing!

But how do the authors come up with these wonderful stories? You might wonder what sparks of imagination fueled these pet-enhanced SFR adventures. Today, we have many of the bestselling, award-winning PISA4 authors here to talk about what inspired them to write their stories! Enjoy!

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S.E. Smith
Madas' Falling Star: A Lords of Kassis Novel

Sometimes a character(s) capture your imagination and just won’t let go. In the case of Madas and Gril, these two characters not only capture my imagination, they wormed their way into my heart. I knew when Madas started to share how she and Gril met that I needed to write their story—and I’m thrilled to share it with everyone in PiSA4. Discover love among the stars with the help of a mischievous little lizard named L’eon!

S.E. Smith is an internationally acclaimed, New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling author of science fiction, romance, fantasy, paranormal, and contemporary works for adults, young adults, and children.

S.E. Smith's Website
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Pauline Baird Jones
Cyborg’s Revenge

Sometimes facing the past is the only way to have a future. In Cyborg’s Revenge, that is what Ale and Rap are trying to do: face their past to find a future, not just for themselves but for their shipmates. But it is a big pile of past to face—more even than they realize. I think my inspiration—or perhaps the underpinning?—for this story came from me returning to my home turf after over thirty years away. Just like my characters, its been a journey of discovery—and rediscovery.

USA Today Bestselling author Pauline Baird Jones never liked reality, so she writes books.

Pauline Baird Jones' Website
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Cassandra Chandler
Import Quarantine

Marq showed up in my head early on while writing The Department of Homeworld Security. He’s an elite soldier who’s had his emotions suppressed by his government. Their control slips when he discovers he isn’t genetically engineered like every other member of his society—and that he has an identical twin brother, Dane. I knew Dane would work to try to restore Marq’s emotions, and what better way to help his brother learn to love than to have Marq care for a pet? Once the idea of this stern, battle-hardened warrior tenderly caring for an Earth cat—and absolutely losing it when he’s worried about her—entered my head, I knew I couldn’t resist exploring it. And thus, Import Quarantine was born.

Cassandra Chandler uses her vivid imagination to make the world more interesting, spawning the ideas she turns into her whimsical Science Fiction romcoms and darkly evocative Paranormal and Urban Fantasy Romances.

Cassandra Chandler's Website  
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Tiffany Roberts 
Entwined Fates (The Infinite City)

Writing short is a challenge for us, and to write a believable romance within a limited number of words is even more difficult. I’ve always loved the childhood sweetheart troupe, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for us to write one. Toss it in the sci-fi genre, and the possibilities are endless! So, we decided to create characters in our series, The Infinite City. As for our pet, we wanted something really neat and unique, and as soon as Veronica Scott asked us if we’d like to join in for the fourth anthology, I knew I wanted something strange, something that could shape change. My immediate thought was of the microbots from the movie Big Hero Six and how they flowed and moved—and from that base, Cypher was born.

Tiffany Roberts is the pseudonym for Tiffany and Robert Freund, a husband and wife writing duo who write sci-fi and fantasy romance, creating happily-ever-afters for the alien and unknown.

Tiffany Robert's Website  
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Veronica Scott
Star Cruise: Idol’s Curse

I’ve always been fascinated by the legends of the bad luck people believe they incur if they ‘steal’ a rock from a certain place. (And when I was researching this topic, I discovered there are various tourist spots where this belief flourishes, not just in Hawaii. The Petrified Forest in northern Arizona is another area where people frantically return rocks to the park after thinking their illicit souvenir has brought them bad luck.) I wanted to be sure I wasn’t doing cultural appropriation if I took this basic concept for my story, so I was relieved to find the modern legend arises in various places and is believed to have been begun in one locale by a tour bus driver who didn’t want volcanic ash and grit from purloined chunks off the beach or mountain messing up his vehicles. Another variation on the story says because it’s against the law to remove anything from a national park, a ranger invented the story to add an additional layer of ‘scariness’ to deter would-be souvenir hunters. Of course since I’m writing science fiction, I then took the entire topic a step further and gave my ‘rock’ some scary attributes, the ability to do real harm and a bit of carving to justify referring to an idol’s curse in the title.

USA Today Best Selling Author Veronica Scott grew up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science fiction, Mom loved ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more romance in everything.

Veronica Scott’s Blog
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JC Hay 
Heart of the Spider’s Web

Heart of the Spider’s Web grew out of a pair of loves for me – Firefly and domestic reptiles. Firefly, problematic as it can be, sets up an intriguing kind of found family, and this story (and the TriSystems: Smugglers stories to follow) allow me to explore similar themes with the crew of the Sentinel. It also gives me a chance to show the underside of the somewhat rosier view of the Systems that my Rangers get to have, while still bringing these ruffians a happy ending. As for the other inspiration, it’s been a while since I had a herp in the house (it’s all dogs now), but once upon a time I had an inherited green iguana for more than a decade, and a tokay gecko for nearly as long. Both were far more interesting pets than I ever would have expected, and the ‘goanna’ in my story—Darcy—owes a lot of his mannerisms to these two scaly critters who blessed my life for a while. In a way, this one’s a bit of a tribute to them both, lending them a bit of immortality. Hopefully Darcy will touch your heart, the way my herps warmed mine.

JC Hay writes about heroic hearts, both human, canine, and reptilian, in a fantastic future.

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Regine Abel
Doom

Doom is the prequel to my Xian Warriors series. Even as I wrote Legion, the first book in the series, I knew that the story of how it all started needed to be told. It was a stock photo with men in a fetal position inside giant glass spheres and wires coming out of their spines that first inspired the world of the Xian Warriors. It vaguely reminded me of The Matrix, and I’d always wanted to write a book about some form of transfer of consciousness, but in the real world, not a virtual one like in The Matrix. Thus were born the Soulcatchers and the Xian Warriors.

Regine Abel: Sci-fi and paranormal romance with the twist you never saw coming.

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Kyndra Hatch
Interrupting Starlight

I can’t pinpoint any one thing that inspired Interrupting Starlight. Survival situations have always fascinated me. Since the setting for my Pets In Space® 3 story, After The Fall, was a frozen world with life, even if dangerous life, I wanted to explore the opposite. What would it be like to survive on a completely desert world devoid of life? Then throw the character on a spaceship with every amenity. And I love writing spaceships, especially sentient ones. The inspiration of Interrupting Starlight comes down to two things: deserts and spaceships, enemies to lovers, and the fated mates bond that ultimately ties the characters together. Okay, so that’s four things, LOL. I just love writing science fiction romance with all the creative things that can be done in the genre.

Kyndra Hatch writes action-packed science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal romance stories when she’s not watching for falling stars and avoiding wily coyotes at her desert home.

Kyndra Hatch's Blog
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Alexis Glynn Latner
Winter's Prince

Prince the genetically engineered unicorn shows up in my novel Witherspin, to be published in late 2019. Prince lives in a nature park inside the spinning interstellar city-state called Wendis. In Witherspin, Wendis holds a huge interstellar festival celebrating the Ascendance, that long-ago age when humanity left Earth on rockets and finally starships. For a new Pets in Space® story I got the notion of Wendis having a smaller, warmup fair even more like today’s Renaissance Festivals. Taking place a thousand years from now and ten thousand stars from Earth, though, it would have a lot less to do with history than myths and legends! Prince fit right in. It turned out that, like mythical unicorns, he even has a special affinity for women who aren’t pair-bonded. In “Winter’s Prince,” he helps two women each find their true love—while our heroines and heroes battle a criminal smuggling ring that has invaded the Winterfair.

Alexis Glynn Latner writes tales of romantic adventure that touch readers’ hearts and their minds as well.

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Anna Hackett
Dark Guard

My story is part of my new spin-off series Galactic Gladiators: House of Rone. All the House of Rone gladiators are cyborgs, each one of them augmented in different ways and struggling to understand the emotions our heroines from Earth inspire in them. I knew I also wanted a cyborg pet, so enter Cat--an augmented and enhanced cyborg feline with a penchant for meddling and matchmaking.

Anna Hackett is a USA Today bestselling author who's passionate about action romance.

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Laurie A. Green
SpyDog

This is the third story I've written for a Pets in Space® collection, and it's a third StarDog story in my Inherited Stars Series. The first two both alluded to the crafty little bioengineered canine-feline-weasel-mongoose ship's mascots also being deployed as spies to help defeat the evil Ithian Alliance. SpyDog gave me a chance to explore one of these upgraded StarDog's capabilities--as well as lovableness--as she becomes a conduit between her agent/handler, Rigel Blackline, and his "captured" enemy asset--a legendary warrior class Rathskian female. But I had another big motivation to write this story. The StarDogs are all named after my real life pets--miniature longhaired dachshunds--and once Katrina and Luna had their own StarDog stories, I promised Maura that someday I'd write a story for her, too. When I was invited back to join the talented authors of Pets in Space® 4, "someday" came a lot sooner than I'd anticipated. I hope readers love getting to know the spirited little StarDog named Maura in SpyDog, who takes after her real life inspiration in many ways. Especially in how much she loves belly rubs!

Laurie A. Green is an award-winning, USA TODAY bestselling author, and one of the hosts of Spacefreighters Lounge.

Laurie A. Green's Website
Author's Amazon Page
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Pets in Space® 4 Releases on October 8, 2019!

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