Cynthia Sax's favourite character

This week Cynthia Sax is going to tell us about her favourite character - Mira from Breathing Vapor.

For a writer, choosing a favorite character is kind of like choosing a favorite Star Wars character. They’re all great but we love them for different reasons (except for Jar Jar Binks – he’s very difficult to like - grins).

I’m always most passionate about the characters in my recent releases. In Breathing Vapor, my sexy cyborg romance, I love both Vapor, the hunkalicious cyborg hero, and Mira, the human heroine.

Mira, however, has a sweet spot in my soul.

Why?

Because, although she acts super strong, she truly has the softest and most fragile heart of all the heroines I’ve written about.

She’s known as Mari the Merciless. Almost everyone thinks she’s a nasty piece of work, a shallow self-absorbed and extremely mean female. She ridicules her father’s employees, torments the already hurting cyborgs, sells cyborg babies for credits she doesn’t truly need. She lies constantly. No one can believe a word coming out of her mouth.

But this is all an act. She has taken on a secret solo mission to free the beings the Humanoid Alliance oppresses. The cyborg babies she sells are deemed defective and are slated to be decommissioned. The buyers of these babies are childless couples who will love and protect them. The warriors Mira torments were targeted for greater reprimands. She never tells the truth because the truth puts the beings she saves at risk. She expects, some planet rotation, to be betrayed and executed for these activities.

She undertakes them anyway because it’s the right thing to do and she cares. Greatly. She’d trade her life for a baby cyborg’s in a heartbeat.

I think we all have a bit of Mira in us. We help others, knowing we won’t be thanked, that our helping might even hurt us. We act strong when we aren’t. We might even lie to make others happy, telling a friend that everything will be okay when we believe it won’t be, or saying we’re fine when we’re far from fine.

This is why Mari will always have a slice of my soul.

Breathing Vapor

Vapor is the most advanced cyborg the Humanoid Alliance has ever developed. He’s a finely honed weapon, a warrior without parallel, half man and half machine. No lock can contain him. No being can stop him. Whatever he wants, he takes.

He wants Mira Breazeal, the Designer’s daughter.

She’s his one temptation, his sexy target. Vapor shouldn’t crave her caresses, steal her kisses, make her scream with ecstasy. The cyborgs want her dead and they would question his loyalty if he didn’t kill her. The humans would shoot him on sight if he dared to touch her.

Their love is forbidden. Their desire could be lethal. One human and one cyborg will risk everything for a moment of passion.

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About Cynthia Sax

USA Today bestselling author Cynthia Sax writes contemporary, SciFi and paranormal erotic romances. Her stories have been featured in Star Magazine, Real Time With Bill Maher, and numerous best of erotic romance top ten lists.

Sign up for her dirty-joke-filled release day newsletter and visit her on the web at www.CynthiaSax.com

Website: http://cynthiasax.com/

Newsletter: http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/

Facebook: facebook.com/cynthia.sax

Twitter: @CynthiaSax

Blog: http://tasteofcyn.com/

Jaleta Clegg's favourite character

Jaleta Clegg joins us this week to tell us all about her favourite character.

One of my favorite side characters is Paltronis. She showed up briefly in book three of my series, Poisoned Pawn. She was so much fun, I kept finding ways to bring her back until she became a main character. But there was more to her story, much more than what showed up in the books. She intrigued me enough to want to write side stories explaining who she is, where she came from, and how she got to be who she is at the end of the series.

If I could sit down and interview her at the start of the series when she's just starting her career with Lowell, these are some of the questions I want answered:

If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?

A whole day to myself? I'd go crazy. I need something to do. I'd probably spend the day sparring with someone. Or practicing on the firing range. Or maybe I'd go for a really long run. The only times I've ever had time on my hands were the week I spent in the infirmary recovering from several broken bones and the couple of weeks I've spent in the brig. But I didn't pick those fights. I was just finishing them. I never had free time, not really. I grew up on a communal farm. I was out picking vegetables and pulling weeds as soon as I was old enough to walk. It was work or starve. The Patrol was my way out. I don't think I know how to just enjoy myself.

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you? How about after they've known you for a while?

You're kidding, right? Do I make you nervous? I thought so. I'm an expert at hand-to-hand combat. I'm supposed to intimidate people. That's what Lowell wants me to do. He says it's what I excel at. I stand around and make people nervous so he can get them to spill all their secrets. It's not what I expected when I signed up to work for the undercover division of the Patrol. I'm not good at pretending. But I am good at scaring people. Most people get more scared as they get to know me. I know too many ways to disable and kill people. It's what I'm good at. Talking to people? Not so good.

Do you think you've turned out the way your parents expected?

Paltronis: I have no idea. The farm where I grew up was a commune run by the government. My parents could have been any of the forty-three adults in the compound. Or none of them. I don't know and I don't really care if I ever find out or not. I'm out of that life. The Patrol is my life now.

What's the worst thing that's happened in your life?

I thought it was getting expelled from the Academy. I picked too many fights, broke too many bones. They deserved it, but the CO at the Academy didn't see it that way. He had me arrested. That's when I met Tayvis. He recruited me for Lowell. So I guess you could say getting locked up was the best thing that's ever happened to me. Not that working for Lowell is all happy songs and flowers, but it means I get to work with Tayvis now and then. That all by itself is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Who is Tayvis?

Just another officer who works for Lowell. He's a sector commander, works undercover. He isn't just a bodyguard, like me. He's smart, an agent Lowell sends in when things get rough. I worked with him on a couple of missions. I'd love to work with him more often, but like I said, I don't do undercover work. He does.

Are you lying to yourself about something? What is it?

Why would I lie about anything? I'm an open book. Don't look at me that way. My relationship with Tayvis is purely professional. There is nothing personal between us. If there were, I'd have to transfer. Lowell doesn't let his agents get involved with each other. I've said too much. Just believe me when I say we're only friends. Besides, I'm not sure he feels the same way. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

Paltronis, an officer of the Patrol, can kill you seven different ways. Using only her pinkie. But she didn't start out that way. Where did she get her start? Second Chances tells one chapter of her story, how she met Tayvis and was recruited to join Lowell's organization.

Second Chances is available in print in the collection, Soul Windows, on Amazon

Second Chances is available in ebook format at Smashwords, free with the code DE23P

Second Chances is now available as an audiobook download - I'll send the link when I have it.

Find more of Jaleta Clegg's characters on her webpage - http://www.jaletac.com

Liza O'Connor's favourite character

Continuing our theme of authors' favourite characters, please welcome Liza O'Connor, who's going to talk about...

Drogan

I’ve a great deal of characters I love in The Multiverses Series, but my favorite is Drogan, because in book 1 he saves his people from extinction when he is just a two-foot-long child and transports them to a new world where they will thrive. Then later, in book 4, he saves all the humans on Terranue, although most of them don’t even realize that.

So let me tell you a bit about Drogan…

First, I’ll tell you what Drogan isn’t: He’s not human, but neither is he a merman. He’s a water based, blue-skinned humanoid. Yes, his toes and fingers have a thin layer of skin between the fingers that goes about halfway up the digits to improve swimming in the ocean. His nails are sharp curved claws, which make it easy to grab fish. He also has both gills and lungs so he can swim deep in the ocean or walk on dry land.

When Drogan reaches his full height (slightly taller than a human) he joins the crew of an Outbound ship. Unfortunately, no matter how nice he is, the crew hates him and Captain Longfellow has to drop him off on a space station.

Drogan comes very close to dying on the station, but the Gods intervene and he’s rescued by a pack of dire wolves the station uses to quell riots. Turns out the dire wolves are much nicer than the humans who live on the station. Upon learning about poor Drogan, the wolves share their food and water and keep him safe from harm during his stay in their basement lair.

Once he recovers, Cass, the ghost, helps to sneak him back onto Longfellow’s ship. She can’t enter him into the ship’s database because ghosts can’t type. So Drogan is not technically a crewmember and thus is never paid for his work, but on the positive side he remains healthy and better yet, Zousan’s evil father Cronus stops trying to kill him since he believes the fellow is already dead.

Finally, when Sojourn comes on board, Drogan makes his first friend among the humans. And they’ll remain friends forever. Thus proving, the inability to make friends was not Drogan’s fault, only the rest of the crew are a bunch of hateful Xenophobes and jerks.

What I love most about Drogan is that despite his amazing brilliance, he does not value his life over others and is most humble and caring to all. This is an unusual for someone this smart. Extreme brilliance usually comes with arrogance and a lack of empathy.

Drogan’s total focus is on preserving The Path of Light so all creatures will have a happy future. This is his calling, and he is willing to die for it, which he proves over and over. I cannot count the times he nearly dies or does die. Fortunately, he is highly valued by the Gods, and they have directly saved him, or instructed others to do so many times.

Someday in the future, I have great hopes he will meet a female who will be his mate forever. His chances are much greater in the Search for Sentients Series, because he will be top science officer, many of the crew will be female, and there won’t be a single Xenophobe in the crew of what is unquestionably the finest ship that humans have ever flown.

Drogan designed it so they can cross both dimensions and multiverses with ease. He understands quantum physics better than any sentient alive.

Excerpt from the Gods of Probabilities

Drogan’s father, Emperor Osan, has brought his baby son, Drogan, to the scholars to be tested to see if he is the child of the prophecies. Korak, the head scholar reveals the results of the tests Scholar Hemp ran on Drogan.

***

“Drogan scored the highest thus far in friendliness and non-aggression.”

Osan scowled. “He has only known his mother and myself thus far.”

“Those are excellent qualities for the one to be sent among other species.”

Osan nodded. He was still thinking his son would become the next emperor. For that role, friendliness and non-aggression were the worst traits he could wish for the boy.

“And his mental acuity?”

“Seventy-eighth.”

“What? My son was manipulating dimensions within four days of his hatching!”

Hemp smiled at him. “Yes, he’s very bright.”

“But according to you, not as bright as seventy-seven other primitives.”

“We are calling them Gods’ Gifted. Primitive has such negative connotations.”

Osan nodded. “I agree with the change in terminology, but I believe you have incorrectly judged the depth of my son’s intelligence.”

Hemp smiled. “Entirely possible. The Gods may have gifted your son with skills and understanding we cannot even fathom.”

Korak leaned forward. “What this means is that your son has every qualification to be our diplomat to the universes beyond.”

“Except there are seventy-seven others who could do it better,” Osan muttered.

“No!” Hemp cried. “None is more qualified than Drogan. It is my task to identify the one the Gods meant for us to send off-planet, and of the few friendly and amiable Gifteds, your son ranks highest in all categories. Plus he has excellent credentials, being your son.”

Osan closed his eyes, giving in to the power of the Gods. “So he is truly the one?”

Both Korak and Hemp smiled and nodded.

***

And that’s how Drogan came to be on a ship with a bunch of Xenophobes.

If you want to know more about Drogan he can be found in book 1 and 4 of the multiverses, and of course, the upcoming In Search of Sentients Series

Book 1: The Gods of Probabilities Amazon

Book 4: Surviving Sojourn Amazon

Shortest Author Bio Ever:

Liza is different.

Corrina Lawson's favourite character

Corrina Lawson joins us today to tell us all about her favourite character.

I have a special fondness for optimistic heroes. Steve Rogers (Captain America) is my favorite Marvel cinematic hero and my favorite version of Batman is as Gotham’s guardian, not the grim-dark humorless knight.

So when I sat down to create my first original superhero, I wanted that optimism to be an integral part of his character. I wanted a hero who viewed his powers as a way to help people but also enjoyed them because they were just plain cool.

Thus was born Alec Farley of Phoenix Rising. I’ve been told that he’s an unusual alpha hero because of his open and friendly nature. Alec is uber-powerful, able to light something on fire with a thought or toss large object around with his telekinesis. Yet he’s also kind, willing to risk exposure to help a young boy from spilling his juice.

This lack of angst meant I needed to find conflict for Alec from an external source and that came from the world around him. Alec was isolated from the greater world since birth, schooled in the use of his powers, and educated but only with subject deemed relevant to his mentor. His mentor planned to use his protégé’s abilities to satisfy his own lust for power. In short, Alec’s superpowers have been pointed in the wrong direction.

But because Alec is who he is, he adjusts. He gathers allies, including the military-style strike team that he trained with, a cynical black ops agent, and, most of all, Beth Nakamora, the woman who showed him the world and the real meaning of heroism.

At the climax of Phoenix Rising, when Alec and Beth join their powers to defeat the enemy, I couldn’t resist including my favorite reference from the original Superman movie. In a way, Alec is the Superman of my storyverse, a man who has seen the worst of humanity but retains hope in the best of us.

This is why Alec remains a joy to write in his appearances in the sequel books and why I can’t wait to give him the spotlight again.

Corrina is a former newspaper reporter with a degree in journalism from Boston University. A mom of four, she now works from home writing romance novels with a geeky twist and as the Content Director and co-founder of GeekMom.com.

website: www.corrina-lawson.com

Amazon link for PHoenix Rising: http://amzn.to/1RQoIwm

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/corrina.lawson

Rachel L. Smith's favorite character

Next in my little series about authors who love their characters is Rachel Leigh Smith.

Why I Love A’yen Mesu

Thanks for opening up your blog day, Greta! It’s a lot of fun reading about why authors love certain characters.

I’m here to tell the Spacefreighters readers why I love my character A’yen Mesu, the star of the first three A’yen’s Legacy books. It’s both easy and difficult to do. I’ve been stringing words together on paper to tell stories since I was ten. After I finished high school, hardly a day went by without me putting words on paper. Literal paper, not virtual paper. This was back in my pre-laptop dark ages.

I’m also a domestic abuse survivor, in a marriage gone wrong. We were married for a little over three years, but only spent eleven months living together. I had to leave because I feared for my life. I was in the process of writing my first actual novel, and my words dried up.

From April 2010 to March 2011, I probably wrote 2,000 words altogether, most of them in a letter to my ex in-laws that I never mailed. While staying with grandmother after she had surgery, and basking in the peace and tranquility of her spirit, my words came back. By the end of 2011 I had a finished novel and two agent requests for the full manuscript. They loved my voice, but the subject matter was an almost impossible sell in that market.

Then, on the night of May 16, 2012, what should’ve been my third wedding anniversary instead of looking forward to the divorce being final, I dreamed about an alien walking through the woods saying the words Loks Mé over and over and over.

When I woke up the next morning, he told me his name was A’yen and he had a story to tell me. I made some basic plot notes while eating breakfast, opened a file that afternoon, named it My Name Is A’yen, and off I went. 86 days later I had a 95,000 word first draft.

It was the best summer of my life. A’yen was everything in a character I’d always wanted to write. He’s known intense heartache, lost his entire life, and had to reinvent himself against his will. It’s not a coincidence I was doing the same things that year.

A’yen finished his journey back to wholeness before I did. Then he held my hand as I finished mine. Writing the first three A’yen’s Legacy novels helped me work through what had happened to me and find new dreams to replace the ones that shattered.

A’yen is a smart-ass, a bit of an introvert, loves a good practical joke, refuses to be pigeonholed, and loves with every fiber of his being. He’ll sacrifice anything for those he loves, including his life. There’s a lot of me in him, and a lot of my dad (who flew 1400 miles while sleep-deprived and exhausted, to rescue his little girl).

He’ll always be near and dear to my heart. Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am. And I don’t think I’d be a whole person again. He taught me how to dream again.

The excerpt I’ve chosen to share with you is one of my favorite moments in the novel, and shows who he truly is at his core. He’s finally decided to trust Fae, and is slowly sharing his past with her.

He reached up, grasped her hand, pulled her around so he could see her face. “Life as a Loks Mé is a delicate balancing act. Things you take for granted aren’t that simple for me.”

Fae sat on the edge of the desk by his feet, resumed trailing her fingers on his legs this time. “Such as?”

“Looking at you without permission, for one. I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by people who see me as more than a slave, which means I forget how dangerous it is for me to look at them and start conversations. I almost got myself arrested for assault on an Athen space station once because I smacked Pete’s head and told him to shut his big fat mouth before I stuffed his shoe down his throat.”

Fae’s eyes widened, and she glanced at Pete. “What did you tell him?”

“I was teasing him about being loud enough with Wayan that I could hear them when I walked into the bay.”

Pink tinted her cheeks, she stared at her shoes, and her fingers stopped their gentle massage. A’yen lifted her chin with his finger, to see her eyes. “We weren’t that loud. Pete is very good at tall tales.” He ran the tip of his thumb along the bottom of her lip. “The point is, the way I talk to people above me terrifies my mother. It’s a miracle my mouth hasn’t gotten me killed.”

Pete giggle-snorted. “It almost did that one time. Remember? I went down with you and Wayan to a festival on Centron.”

A’yen grinned at the memory. “Oh yeah. I told the governor’s wife if she didn’t get her hands off my ass and out of my pants I was going to break her fingers.”

Fae covered her mouth in a failed attempt to stifle a laugh. “I bet you did.”

“In my defense, I had no idea who she was, but her bodyguard had me on the ground in two seconds and almost broke my fingers. Then I had to apologize to her and the governor before they’d let me leave. If the governor hadn’t found it so funny, I’d be dead.”

Pete’s head wagged back and forth. “What I found funniest was how, not ten minutes later, Wayan was doing the exact same thing and you didn’t bat an eye.”

“He could put his hands wherever he damn well pleased.”

Fae stood from the desk, pressed a kiss to his cheek. “A’yen, you do have a fine ass.”

He caught her fingers, brought them to his lips. “Thank you.”

Rachel Leigh Smith writes romance for the hero lover. She lives in central Louisiana with her family and a half-crazed calico. When not writing, which isn't often, she's hanging with her family, doing counted cross-stitch, or yakking about life, the universe, and everything with her besties. There may also be Netflix binging...

Website: www.rachelleighsmith.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/RachelLeighSmithAuthor

Twitter: http://twitter.com/rachelleighgeek.

Eva Caye's favourite character

In another of our series where authors tell us about the characters they've written, Eva Caye, author of the Sinclair series, joins us today to explain...

How I Fell In Love With A Lady….

You don’t understand, yet. Due to the worst depressive episode I had ever had, I lay in bed and decided I was already dead. My body, however, was still warm, but I had no energy whatsoever.

I would try to find thoughts that would stimulate me. Eventually, I asked myself the question, “What would I do if I won the lottery?” The answer: go back to university and study science.

So I fantasized about what I would study (answer: physics), and then what I would like to invent (answer: space travel). Eventually, I compared this new ‘me’ with the old ‘me’, and set them up to have a conversation. That was the beginning of Felicia the scientist and Victor the Emperor.

The conversations grew so intense that I had to get up and write them down. I finished the rough draft of Dignity in 20 days. Now, that’s inspiration!

You may not believe me, but it’s the God-honest truth: I finished the (very) rough drafts of the first four books of my To Be Sinclair series in 80 days. I was more than inspired; I was alive again. Productive. Distilling my life experiences into stories. That last day, when I counted the number of days I had been writing, even I couldn’t believe it. I just knew that I had something to look forward to of a day.

Ah, but Felicia/Felice! The ‘new me’ outdid my previous fantasies by light-years. She invented stargates! She trounced the Dukes in full Ducal Assembly! She and three men beat 10 men holding pulse pistols – with throwing knives! She had a dozen (and more) brilliant, well-adjusted children, too!

This is why I love Felice Sinclair: if a smart lady is given the power and money to follow her dreams, there is nothing she cannot accomplish. By power, I don’t mean political power; I mean, don’t stand in her way, don’t tell her she can’t (for whatever reason), and support her mentally and emotionally. Emperor Victor does that.

Felice is featured in the first two books of the series, about her courtship and the first years of marriage. The rest of the series is primarily about her children (4 books) and her grandchildren (2 books plus work-in-progress). Felice is the backbone of the family, so she pops up in every novel. She is integral to the final book, Morality, but in my work-in-progress, Ability, her influence is mentioned more than once.

This is why I am in love with Felice Sinclair: she has created and defined ‘the greatest ruling family in the history of the galaxy’, as I say in my promos. That is who I wish to be, someone whose influence goes beyond her family and friends, to inspire the galaxy with the wealth of her intelligence and creativity.

Despite political opposition, the failures of the human body, the demands of a family, and despite tragedies and travails and the evils perpetrated upon her, Felice Sinclair focuses her singular intellect upon each situation (but one; she can’t do everything right!) to devise what I consider ‘proper’ responses to the demands of the day. I want girls reading the To Be Sinclair series to be unafraid to pursue science in college and in real life, because they have Felice Sinclair as their intellectual role model.

And I want them to have satisfactory love lives and family lives as well! Although my books have a few sex scenes for developing relationships, I include Easter Egg short stories at the end, usually from another person’s perspective, and particularly to entertain readers who want more erotica.

Felice Sinclair is the archetype of the Intellectual Woman, from logical maiden to motherly guidance to elderly wisdom. I am grateful that Empress Felice has allowed me to channel her life from that future parallel dimension, and I hope my readers will enjoy subsequent books in the series, as well as the other stories I need to tell.

 

Eva Caye, author of the To Be Sinclair series, can build a rocket stove, tat lace, handle a gun, design book covers and permaculture garden plans, and teach teenagers critical thinking. Her favorite activities include writing science fiction romance and playing with her doggies. She currently lives in a tiny, century-old farmhouse with her magnificent husband and two marvelous mutts in Louisville, Kentucky.

Blog: http://evacaye.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eva.caye

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EvaCaye

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Greta van der Rol's favourite character

While I was revising some old titles amongst the books I'd written I got to thinking about which of my characters was my favourite. And then I wondered what other writers would have to say if asked the same question. So - since it was my idea - I'll go first and tell you about my favourite character.

Why I love Morgan Selwood

Morgan is the hero-person in my (ahem) Morgan Selwood series. She came into being at a time when I'd written a couple of chapters of a then very new WIP for what became The Iron Admiral. I chucked the work at the wall (as you do) and muttered, "Who would want to read that rubbish?" I'd discarded my WIP and had to think of a new story.

Morgan nudged me. I knew my leading lady would be a computer nerd. I'd worked in the industry for many years, so it was 'write what you know'. So a cyborg? Around that time Terminator was the big thing, and I didn't want to go there. I hate dystopian stories. There's too much evil in the real world. But I could see a future with a Rise of the Machines. I stewed on that concept. What would come after, when the machines were defeated? If the machines were defeated? And that led me to Morgan Selwood. A cyborg, but a very, very human cyborg, actively controlled by the Powers that Be so she and her kind could never threaten humanity again.

I've written Morgan as tough and (of course) smart. But even within her Supertech group (that's what the cyborgs are called) she's different, something of a renegade. That tough exterior, complete with swearing, hides a very female interior. (I almost wrote soft!) Morgan is very much a woman and I thoroughly enjoyed writing her toughness, her weakness, and her iconoclastic sense of humour.
These few paragraphs from Morgan's Choice will give you some idea.

Morgan and her ship mate, accountant Jones, are on board an alien warship and have just been scrutinised - through a sealed window - by the ship's senior officers. Morgan, true to form, has impressed - but offended.

 ************

It seemed the performance was over. Daryabod Ravindra stood, the two lesser mortals followed suit and all three left the room. So far, so good. With a bit of luck they’d teach them the local language; always a good place to start.

"You’re not much good at body language, are you?" Jones said when the door had closed on the aliens.

She bristled. "What d’you mean by that?"

"Be careful what you do with your hands. It’s one of the things you learn in business. The wrong gesture on the wrong planet and you’ll offend somebody. Didn’t they teach you that at military school?"

"No, they didn’t. They taught me how to salute but I wasn’t much good at that, either. They take me as I come." And if they didn’t, too bad.

"Well… you’re not exactly a people person, are you? But that’s okay. Let me handle the people bit for you."

"The people bit, huh? So what are you expecting? That we’ll get invited to the officers’ mess for dinner?"

"No, of course not. But we’re going to have to try to fit in—"

"You’re getting ahead of yourself. You don’t know anything about these aliens or what they intend to do with us."

"Well, given they haven’t done anything horrible yet, I figure we might as well try to set up some sort of rapport with them."

She snorted. He must fancy himself as a diplomat. Idiot.

Jones frowned. "What are you expecting them to do?"

"I don’t know. But we’re still in quarantine. Better hope they don’t find any exotic bugs and decide to squash the threat." She ground the heel of her hand into the table top.

He swallowed. He obviously hadn’t even considered that option. "That isn’t funny."

"It wasn’t supposed to be."

Be sure to join us next week, when another author tells you all about their favourite character.

Serenity Re-Watch: My Oh My!

Have you heard about the Firefly reboot Friday nights on Ovation HD TV? Squeeeee! I'm so excited to see this great series return to television. I'll be recording it, fer shure! If you've never seen it and you're a writer or fan of SF/R, you really ought to give it a look.

Oddly, just before I saw the advertisement about the return of Firefly, I did a re-watch of the companion motion picture, Serenity. And, oh yeah--I discovered all over again why creator/writer/director Joss Whedon is so freakin' brilliant.

To illustrate, there's THIS...

What's so great about it? Well...everything.

In just a few seconds, Whedon explores a range of the viewer's emotions, delivers information, and punches it all up with incredible dramatic impact while forging a bond to the characters.

So how does he do that?

Well, he surprises. Often. And usually delightfully.

Nothing is cliche' or expected in this Whedon's universe. The characters speak a fractured brand of English with a liberal dose of Chinese. You can catch the drift, but I conjure they don't talk 21st century lingo. You have to pay attention. And just when you're focusing on one element, bam! You're hit with something else that widens your eyes.

This is how the master first hooked me into watching this series. One of the first images I glimpsed is still imprinted in my mind.

It was of a starship swooping in. A starship running wild horses.

A starship running freakin' wild horses. Surprise!

I'd NEVER seen that done in a Sci-Fi show, and of course it set the whole tone for this amazing new genre he'd created--the Space Western. And it's logical. Mankind settles and terraforms a new solar system. The civilized inner planets are governed closely by the Alliance, but the outer planets are a wild and wooly frontier left to fend for themselves, where primitive means of survival must be employed. Hence, horses. To plow and hitch to wagons. And wild horses. And a situation where a starship might spook said band of horses while attempting to land on one of these outlier rustic planets. It isn't just for show. It all makes perfect sense.

As does Mal's contempt for the Alliance. But that's a whole 'nother topic.

But back to the clip. I found an equal dose of magic in how this scene unfolded. It wasn't the opening scene of the movie, that was actually a sort of cinematic prologue of how Simon wrested River from the Alliance's grasp. (I'm not going to go into the details of why in case someone reading this hasn't seen either the series or movie as yet.) I realized the series had never explored this in any level of detail, so I was mesmerized by how it all went down.

Then we segue to this scene, which is the true introduction (or re-introduction for those who were already fans) of the main characters.

The focus begins on Serenity's symbol--which is Serenity in Chinese painted on the aging craft's hull--accompanied by slow, soft violins. The mood is set, a peaceful, lulling sense of quiet is instilled by a melancholy overture of a ship adrift in the emptiness of space.

Then...suddenly...movement of the directional thrusters...and with it, another change. The unexpected angling and roar of the engines as the ship seems to light up. The tempo picks up and the music gets louder. Excitement. Drama. A surprise...the first glimpse of the planet below as Serenity enters the atmosphere and the heat begins to flare along her heat shields.

This is followed by an artful fly-by to accentuate the power and motion of the ship's descent. We take an erratic path up the hull to the bow of the ship, and inside, through the front view port, we see figures...is that?...yes! It's Captain Malcolm Reynolds, watching from the bridge as his ship begins its descent.

Then another mood change as we duck inside Serenity to experience the exchange between Mal and his pilot, "Wash." Immediately we know that all is not well, the ship is barely airworthy and in serious trouble, but the tension is laced with a generous dose of wry humor.

Wash: "...this landing is going to get pretty interesting."

Mal: "Define 'interesting.'"


Wash: "Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die?"

Mal: [grabbing microphone] "This is the Captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode."

The captain and pilot discuss options in a crazy quilt dialogue, talking over each other, around each other, and finally to each other.

Mal: "Well, just...get us on the ground."

Wash: "That part is going to happen pretty definitely."

This simple bit of dialogue tells the viewer volumes about the characters, the situation and the setting, in a way that is meant to both thoroughly entertain established fans and hook those new to the Firefly universe. IMHO, it does both remarkably well.

What happens next?

The Captain leaves the bridge and meets Jayne, the mercenary, who says, "We're gonna explode? I don't wanna explode!"

All this is delivered in 1 minute and 32 seconds. The clip ends there, but the uber-coolness of this intro/re-intro does not.

Captain Mal walks through his ship--in one long, continuous, unbroken shot (the set was intentionally built to make this possible) and we meet, or reacquaint ourselves, with each of the stellar characters that inhabit the Serenity and learn a little bit about them or re-learn who they are. A belligerent Jayne, a calming Zoe, a reassuring Kaylee and finally, a very angry Simon, and with each new exchange, and each buck and shudder of the floundering ship, the crew dynamics and personality quirks add layers of emotional texture to the scene.

Though I've seen the series and motion picture many times before, I plan to do the re-watch with a keener eye in an attempt to study what techniques Mr. Whedon uses to create such utterly flawed, yet lovable and memorable characters, and how he crafts each scene and situation.

He's the King of What Happens Next. Because it's never what you expect.

Here's a Firefly tribute that captures that iconic wild horses scene I mentioned above. (Because it has copyrighted materials, it won't play via embedded mode.)

If you're interested in knowing more about the backbone of the story and characters, this clip, in Joss Whedon's own words, lays out the premise beautifully.

For those of you who are already fans or Firefly and/or Serenity, let me know your favorite line of dialogue or who takes the prize as your favorite character.

I know, I know. So much shinyness, so little time.

Have a great week.