Intelligent Heroes and Strong Heroines

If you are a Doctor Who fan then you either love River Song or you hate her. Is there an in between? I happen to love her. She is tough, smart, sassy, and can slap the doctor silly. I hear actress Alex Kingston doesn’t pull her punches. For the non-Whovians, the Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels through space and time in his TARDIS and protects Earth from alien invasions. He can live for hundreds of years and cheats death by turning himself into a new actor. ;) River Song is also a time traveler. She and the Doctor don’t always meet in the right order, which makes dating and marriage difficult though they seem to manage. It’s really quite fun.

I loved the chemistry between the 11th Doctor and River. They had great banter.

From the Impossible Astronaut:
Doctor:  [smugly, just after explaining how he determined where the mysterious phone calls to President Nixon were originating from] ...And Doctor Song, you've got that face on again.
River Song:  [bemused] What face?
Doctor:  The 'He's-hot-when-he's-clever' face.
River Song:  This is my normal face!
Doctor:  [even more smugly]: Yes it is.
River Song:  Oh, shut up.
Doctor:  [smiling] Not a chance.

Also from the Impossible Astronaut:
Doctor:  Shout if you get into trouble.
River Song:  Don't worry. I'm quite the screamer. Now there's a spoiler for you.

My hero in RENEGADE, book 3 in the Survival Race series, is a scientist and thinker who doesn’t like fighting or gladiators. The heroine is, of course, a gladiator. It didn’t dawn on me until I was writing it that Griffin and Katana reminded me of the Doctor and River Song…well minus the time traveling and the living for hundreds of years…and oh, a lot of other stuff.

Griffin and Katana are opposites who turn out to have a lot more in common than they would have thought upon first meeting. They learn a lot about each other and themselves while forced to team up and work together to win the Survival Race—a gladiator blood sport where the last man alive wins. The following is a scene in which Katana tries to train a reluctant Griffin. Winning the Survival Race is the only way he will earn a spaceship to escape the planet. 

Katana returned to the couch to find Griff snoring. A swift kick to his legs jerked him awake.  

“Ow. What was that for?” 

“There’s no time for sleeping. You have to train.” 

“I can’t train while sleep deprived.” 

Could Griffin be any more clueless about the survival race? “Sleep deprivation is part of the training. A survival race can last weeks. You need to learn how to function on little sleep and lots of adrenaline.”

“You realize I almost died yesterday, right? I’m still healing.” 

She refrained from smacking her forehead. “Good. Then you’ll have a sense of what it’s like to hurt for the duration of the race.” 

“You’re not going to give up on this, are you?” 

“If you don’t want to be killed at the starting line, you need to train.” 

He groaned before getting off the couch. “Okay, fine. But if we’re going to train all night, let me put on a pot of coffee.” 

Was he serious? There were no luxuries like coffee in a survival race. She blocked his way. “No coffee.”

“Yes. Coffee. Excuse—”  

She punched him in the gut, and he doubled over, gasping for breath.  

Many gladiators had dismissed her over the years, but she’d be damned if she’d tolerate it from a man who’d never put on a thermal suit. She was the voice of experience in this partnership, and he needed a crash course in the survival race. 

“What the hell?”  

“You want coffee? Fight your way through me.” 

“You’re crazy.” He went around the other side of the sofa.  

She vaulted over the couch back and punched rock, solid abs. He’d tightened them in anticipation of the blow. Good. He learned fast. There wasn’t time to reteach these lessons. “You haven’t seen crazy. Now, hit me.”  

“No.” 

“What do you mean, no?” 

“I don’t want to hit you.” 

“Then kick me.” 

“This is ridiculous. If you want to train, then we should start from the beginning. How about the rules?” 

She grabbed his throat and an arm and swept his leg, throwing him to the ground hard. She simulated stomping on his head. “Rule number one: fight to the death. Rule number two: make sure it’s the other guy’s.”


RENEGADE is a stand-alone science fiction romance novel that is a part of a series in which each book’s couple finds their happily ever after. If you like...

• Enemies to lovers stories
• Strong female warriors
• Genetically engineered gladiators
• Couples forced to team-up
• Action adventure romance
• Fish out of water stories
• Exciting scifi romances with a fresh twist

..then buy your copy at these major retailers and start reading today!

Stay safe out there!

K.M. Fawcett
Romance with a Rebel Heart
www.kmfawcett.com

Why I (Still) Don't Want A Female Who #DoctorWho

This is probably a controversial view, especially from a feminist and a Whovian. Maybe it's because I've been a life-long Whovian - the first episode I can remember is Jon Pertwee's (3rd regeneration) last, Planet of the Spiders - that I can't and don't want to see the Doctor become female. I feel it's almost a step too far to achieving equality. Isn't it enough that the Master has just done it - an act that, bearing in mind his chaotic and twisted nature - actually seems entirely apt and in line with his/her desire to get his/her friend back, and I adore Missy. It works, though I'll admit to a slight wince at the gender swap. Not so much as at the incredibly forced and unnecessary male to female regeneration on Gallifrey during 13th's attempt to save Clara from the instant of her very actual death though. We had River Song too. To me, the Doctor has and always should be male (an idea also strongly echoed by my loudly feminist daughter).

A selection of actors, including Joanna Lumley, 

take on the role of the Doctor for Comic Relief

That's not to say we shouldn't or can't have female Time Lords, if Missy and River Song weren't enough to satisfy you. Personally I would much rather see the Rani return - once played by the fiery Kate O'Mara in the 6th and 7th eras. After all, if the Master and the Doctor could survive the Time Wars, why the hell couldn't she? She was at least as smart as both of them, and would most likely have run and hidden rather than perish in a war that wouldn't have advanced her own ambitions.

The Rani and the 7th Doctor exchange words

I'd also like to see less romantic involvement between the Doctor and his assistant, though apparently that's how New Who works. I'm awaiting the announcement of the next actor with some trepidation. I was so excited to see Capaldi take the part but the stories he was given have sucked and made poor use of his talent. I'm sorry to see him going so soon, though glad to see the back of Clara and Moffat. Despite the cringiness of the Christmas special, it was redeemed by Nardole as companion (and I'm not even a Matt Lucas fan), and I was glad to see him back for Who's return this Easter. A male companion, and one with a tendency to simply roll his eyes at the Doc, makes a refreshing change. I'd love him to stay though I don't imagine he will for long.

I also enjoyed Bill's debut. Those complaining about an openly gay character must somehow have completely missed Captain Jack Harkness or Vastra and Jenny. Me - I felt the fact was rather unnecessarily hammered home in the story but at least no one will be left in any doubt. Not the first water monster either, but I did like the idea of sentient space ship motor oil, and enjoyed the nostalgia of the Dalek war with the Movellans (wouldn't mind seeing them come back too). Two episodes in and I'm much happier with this season than I have been for a while. I have high hopes for the stories ahead, but not for future series until the new actor is announced.

In the meantime, I wrote a post some four years ago when we were awaiting the announcement of the actor replacing Matt Smith, where I thought it more unlikely we would get a woman but was apparently less adverse to the idea. I guess Missy has changed my mind in some respects as it all having been a done deal on gender swapping.

Perhaps I was fortunate in that my first couple of companions were Sarah-Jane Smith (a journalist and most definitely a defiant feminist, and who went on to have her own series) and Leela (a strong-willed warrior who despite her lack of knowledge took no nonsense from the Doctor), followed by Romana. I grew up with female companions who didn't just stand and scream, who searched for the truth and fought for it where necessary so I don't feel a female Doctor is needed. Doctor Who has seen female presidents and prime-ministers, warriors, leaders and scientists.

And while I am aware fans have exceptionally strong feelings about the series and the characters and may well not like my opinion, please bear in mind that it is just an opinion. I am willing to be proved wrong or debated with. However, comments are set on moderation and any hate speech or personal attacks on myself or any commentators will be deleted without discussion, so please bear that in mind!

Upcoming Events
May is super exciting for me every year, firstly because my wedding anniversary is on the 8th (24 years this year!) and also my anniversary as an author on the 7th. This year is extra special because I'm celebrating a landmark - five years! And as it's a special one, I have a special giveaway coming in association with Hoot and Luna.
But that's not all. I'm also taking part in two Instafreebie events to promote scifi romance as a whole. You'll get the chance to pick up my SFR Award winner for Grittiest Hot and Fast story - Quickshot - for FREE, as well as a whole universe of out of this world romance titles. Keep watch for date announcements, or you can sign up to my newsletter HERE to receive the links instantly in your inbox.

Status Update
Edits for my two novellas are done for Camp NaNoWriMo, but are now below the target of 60K that I set myself. Ooops? I'm currently working my way through them again, not to add words to make target but because it needs doing. If necessary, I'm going to add the chunk of rewrites done as part of the revisions for Keir's Shadow, being as that's another project I've been working on through April as well.

Chook Update
April has reverted more to type by becoming cold and grey (though without the characteristic showers we're used to) but we're still getting the odd bright day to let the girls wander.

Effie and Pitch

Kyru and Effie

A cheeky male blackbird takes advantage of the open coop to raid the chooks' food!

Kyru, Effie and Scoop

Fizzgig

The cherry blossom is falling already

 

Tulips in the sun at Castle Park

Time And RelateD Inspiration in Space #amwriting #scifi #romance #DoctorWho

Yes, the title is a very bad play on TARDIS, the Doctor's famous time travelling machine. But since that's what this post is about...

Most Fridays I try to post a random fact to my Facebook fanpage and Twitter related to my books or myself as an author. Lately they've been related to Keir's Fall as I (hopefully) approach release. It reminded me that the main antagonists started life many years ago when I was a teen, in a Doctor Who story I wrote called Gamehouse, (and many, many years before I ever heard the term 'fanfic'). That reminder led me to dig out an old diary filled with fragments of that fanfic and others (1989 for those curious). FYI I've never (willingly) thrown away anything I've written, though some things have been lost or accidentally destroyed over time (I have folders and notebooks and big boxes of all those things).

I've been watching Doctor Who since I was three years old. Yeah, I can be sure of that because I remember the episode very clearly. That was way back before the benefit of repeats, before iPlayer, before video even. It was Jon Pertwee's last story, and something I blame my spider phobia on: Planet of the Spiders. Theoretically, though, Tom Baker (4th) was the Who I grew up with, and 'my' companion was Sarah Jane Smith (the now sadly deceased Elizabeth Sladen), who didn't merely scream in the right places and flatter the Doctor. She had spunk! 

So I've seen a lot of Who's evolution. I was one of those who cried when the series was cancelled and felt my world had come to an end. But it did inspire me to do something about it, and to do something positive as a writer. With DW off screen, I finally sat down and completed my first ever novel (after dozens of unfinished works): A Doctor Who story featuring the 7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), but with a new companion called Quin. Some people might recognize the name. ;) That story was called Shadowshaper. It not only featured the first incarnation of Quin (who went on to be the heroine in several uncompleted stories before Keir) but the sentaic and Rulk as well. The original machine-typed manuscript, along with that rejection letter and some of my own character sketches, now sits on my bookshelf, hand-bound by a friend's dad who knew how to put proper old-fashioned books together. 

I don't know that it qualifies as fan fiction being as I actually submitted it to WH Allen, the then publisher of DW books, and written it in keeping with the final series and current canon. It got rejected but with a wonderfully detailed critique from the publisher. At age 18, that was huge - a publisher telling me they liked it (I'd broken a couple of central laws like (deliberately) leaving out the then companion Ace and revealing some of the Doctor's inner thoughts - a then definite no-no!). Maybe I'll get around to posting it on WattPad one day... My main epiphany with that book though was actually finishing something, an achievement not to be repeated for another twenty years when I finally wrote Keir. >.<

And new Who? Well, I had my doubts about Christopher Eccleston despite my elation at seeing the series return, but he did a damn fine job of bringing it back. I never liked Billy Piper, and the romance between her and Ten was the one thing that ruined it for me (Donna Noble was my favourite companion, and I've yet to fall in love with any since). But I guess DW had to grow up and evolve like the older generations of fans, and needed to draw new ones if it was going to continue. I think it did a great job. I'll admit my devotion died somewhat during the Matt Smith era.I dunno. Maybe it was him being the first Who actor actually younger than me. Maybe it was the awkward love triangle with the Ponds. Whatever, it was the first time in Who history that I skipped watching episodes.

Bur while the Matt Smith fangirls might have abandoned ship at his departure, I was over the moon to see Peter Capaldi take over. Much more my idea of the Doctor. Maybe I have a bit of a thing for older men but I adored him as the Angel Islington in the BBC TV adaptation of Neverwhere. And Missy? Adore her! Finally a Master who really is just evil and kills without hesitation.

Will I always be a Who fan? Who knows? :P But without it, I have to wonder if I'd have ever finished a whole book and tried to get it published in the first place. 

Status update
I have round three of Keir's Fall still in progress. Are you sick of me saying that yet? Round one of Reunion is almost done - really almost. I've left it to focus on KF again. Round one of my proposed June release is still with Dani. 

Happenings
The Goodreads giveaway for a print edition of When Dark Falls is still open until the end of November.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

When Dark Falls

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends November 30, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

In preparation for the release of Keir's Fall, Keir (Book One) is now reduced to $0.99/99 Euros/99p across all digital platforms (it's $1 at All Romance eBooks because they work by percentage discount there rather than setting a price) until the end of the year.

Goodreads | Available from... Amazon | All Romance eBooks

Kobo | iTunes | B&N | Smashwords

Print available from... 

Amazon | B&N | CreateSpace

The Book Depository

And to finish, my Venus Ascendant novella (currently under the working title of Revived) came second in the Paranormal/Speculative Fiction/Urban Fantasy category of LERA's Rebecca contest. This is my first win in the Rebecca after three years of entering it. I'm chuffed! I'm also proud to be sharing the category with fellow Brigader Lea Kirk who took third place with her scifi romance Prophecy (releasing 12th January 2016 but already available for pre-order). Revived will be releasing sometime in 2016 (sorry, I'll give you a date as soon as I can get my act together!)

Before I sign off, I'm going to share the first promo image for Keir's Fall, from my very talented cover designer, editor, and sanity saver Danielle Fine. Enjoy!

A Love Affair with Space and Time

What kind of Whovian would I be if I don't mention the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who that took place on Saturday 23rd November? Probably the most iconic British Science Fiction show, now watched and even worshipped around the world, I grew up watching the series. I can remember my very first story - The Planet of the Spiders (which I've long since blamed for my arachnophobia) - where Jon Pertwee regenerated into the eccentric Tom Baker. My parents were scifi fans, so Doctor Who and the original Star Trek were regular programs to watch. Then later there was Blake's Seven, The Tomorrow People, and The Tripods. Space 1999, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet. More Star Trek spin offs, Red Dwarf, Torchwood, Babylon 5, Farscape, Stargate. We lost Doctor Who for 16 years, only for the next generation to explode back onto our screens to a new generation of fandom. And while Star Wars might have triggered the switch for me from writing fantasy to scifi, it was Doctor Who that shaped my debut novel.

Me, age 18, with the then 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy, just before the show was cut.

One aspect of The Day of the Doctor that really struck a chord with me was the fact the story revolved around a regeneration of himself that he had deliberately chosen to forget. The regeneration (beautifully portrayed by John Hurt) was responsible for destroying the Doctor's homeworld Gallifrey, along with the whole of the Time Lord race - his own people - in order to utterly destroy the Daleks (something we know ultimately failed as the Doctor has met further incarnations of the Daleks since). But now regenerations ten and eleven (or so we thought) are faced with the regeneration they tried to forget, and forced to relive making the same terrible decision. This time they elect to do it together, because they can't see an alternative. But then they don't. Together with their other selves, they hide Gallifrey instead of destroying it. And the terrible act that has haunted the Doctor for three generations is averted.

Now, I have one issue with this. The Doctor had to make a horrible decision, and while he's always regretted it, that decision has shaped every decision he's made since. In my novels Keir and Gethyon, I also have a time traveller - Quin. When her son Gethyon, and later Keir question why they can't go back and change things, she tells them it's impossible. They travel through time by feel rather than science, and how can you go back to save someone you saw die? It's psychologically impossible. You know they're dead. She makes the point that if they could go back and change such things, they woudn't be the people they are. Here's a snippet of their conversation:

Gethyon: “But you said we can travel in time as well as space. Didn’t you ever try to go back and…?”
“We can’t go back,” Quin snapped, a sudden harshness in her expression that softened at his responding scowl. “And even if we could, if we could put every little mistake right, what would that do to us? We wouldn’t be the people we are now. Would we care so much if we hadn’t already lost things precious to us? Would we have pity for others if we hadn’t suffered ourselves? Everything that we are, everything that we try to do, believing it to be for the best—all of it is born from the life we’ve had, the decisions we’ve made, good or bad. There are so many things I want to put right, but knowing that I can’t means I try all the harder to make the right choices and be the best person I can.”

And that's my issue. For three generations since that forgotten Doctor, he has been shaped by that terrible decision. And now that he's changed what he did, won't that reshape everything he does? Perhaps it won't change the events already passed, the adventures we've seen, but it will inevitably change what he does in the future.We know that Matt Smith is shortly due to regenerate into Peter Capaldi, so the Doctor is going to change anyway, But I'm curious to see what impact the saving of Gallifrey will have on the new Doctor, and whether we'll now see a darker, perhaps more over-confident regeneration who no longer has the death of his own race on his conscience...

In the meantime, I raise a glass to the creators, writers, producers and actors responsible for 50 years of Doctor Who, and who helped to spark my own stories. Here's to another 50 years! *salutes*

Pippa's Journal

Although I haven't hit 50K with my NaNoWriMo story (again!), I've finished the story. It's all there, and waiting for a damn good polish. At 35K, it's certainly exceeded my original 10K expectation, and to date (being my 4th attempt), it's the longest I've managed at NaNoWriMo. So I'm very pleased and proud with that. Even more amazingly, I put five pages and the synopsis into a critique event by Breathless Press...and got a request for the full on completion! Woo hoo! Of course, that's no guarantee of a contract, but since I wasn't even sure this story would even see the light of day as a self published short, it's flattering to know it caught a publisher's eye. Here's my badge of honor!

Ping Pong

Donna and Laurie, I think too many of us take all the Moon missions for granted, and all the politics behind them. When the shuttles were decommissioned, I felt that humanity was somehow giving up the idea of space exploration, and after all we'd achieved, that seemed so tragic. I'm still hoping I might live long enough to see someone set foot on Mars. I wasn't born until eight years after the assassination, but I can imagine that it hit home in the same way news of 9/11 hit the schools and TV - something that makes the world stop.

Laurie, great post on promotion and it certainly sparked a lot of discussion. I think different things work for different people, and there's still no one magical thing to it. I agree we need something more. The question is still - what?

The Plant People Are Coming!

Actually, they're already here. Most of my friends and followers know I have a small big obsession with weird and wonderful plants. So not many would be surprised that this post - 10 Creepy Plants That Shouldn't Exist - was an instant must-read for me. Some might be surprised that even I struggled to find some of the plants beautiful. Bleeding Tooth Fungus. The Doll's Eye. And the Cedar-Apple Rust Fungus. Weird definitely (although I'm going to admit to loving the Chinese Black Batflowers). Anyone looking for inspiration for alien and or gruesome flora could certainly find it here.

But one plant on the list just seemed a step beyond reality - the Chinese Fleeceflower. Now I know that there are often photos whizzing around the internet of plants shaped like people (or more often of a certain body part, ahem). But this isn't just a one-off humorous coincidence. No. The plant typically looks like a human being, and often a particularly well-endowed male one.

Of course, these aren't sentient. They aren't going to start walking around and taking over the planet. But there are plants that can move. Venus Flytraps, Sundews, the Mimosa plant that folds its leaves when touched, and various tropical vines that grow so fast you can watch them doing it. Plants will move themselves toward sunlight. It isn't a huge leap of the imagination to thinking about a sentient form of plant life existing. If one doesn't evolve here, then perhaps elsewhere it already has.

Sentient alien life forms that are plants aren't a new idea. Zhaan from Farscape, Jabe (a humanoid plant being from the Forest of Cheem) and the Vervoids from Doctor Who, and even Flora and the Monster Minds from Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (anyone remember that?) had human-looking intelligent plant life.  So imagine these strange human-looking Chinese fleeceflowers developing the ability to move, and perhaps to think, and an intelligent race of plants doesn't seem too farfetched. As long as the triffids don't come first...

Pippa's Journal

I had a lot of trouble sitting on this one yesterday, but I have an exclusive cover reveal for Spacefreighters Lounge - for my sfr short story Terms & Conditions Apply. Ta dah!

 


What do you think? Isn't it pretty?! This was done by the oh so talented Danielle Fine, who was my editor for Keir at Lyrical Press Inc.  She's now free-lancing - doing covers, book trailers and editing - and she currently has my story in her queue for edits. So no release date as yet, but I just couldn't wait to show off the cover. :)

So why am I self-publishing this instead of submitting it? Well, I did consider submitting. The story was originally written for Misa Buckley's planned Venus Ascendant anthology, which unfortunately never launched. I wanted to self-publish another short story earlier this year (Samaritan), but after receiving some feedback on it via Critique Circle, I decided it needed a lot more work and put it back into the WIP pile. T&C started to play on my mind. I considered rewriting some of the elements that removing the canon for Venus Ascendant would entail, but after a discussion with Misa, she graciously gave me permission to use those elements. I could probably have found a publisher for it (oh, the arrogance! No, seriously, there were several options for submitting it) but 40% of a short story sale isn't very much. I love the bit of creative control I have from self-publishing shorts while submitting my novel-length works to publishers, so it seemed more practical to do this one myself.

The one thing I decided I would do is that I would be charging for this short, unlike The Bones of the Sea (which I self-published last year). That is, and always will be, a free story. T&C is three times the length of Bones, and will be professionally edited - and with its beautiful cover - so I feel putting a price on it is justified. And with Gethyon contracted by Champagne Books for a release date of June 2013, that will give me four titles out in the world by this time next year. Not bad for someone who sat and started writing their first full length sfr novel just three years ago this month.

But before you think I'm too busy patting myself on the back, I do have one confession. I didn't complete Camp Nanowrimo. Between children home for the school holidays, having my other half home for two weeks of that, the arrival of the contract, and much other excitment, When Dark Falls sidled to a stop at 29,427 words. I'm happy with that word count, although I would have liked to complete it. Ah well, maybe next year...