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Sci-Fi Encounters: Interviews with Donna Frelick, Laurie Green

Veronica Scott
Special for USA TODAY
Unchained Memory by Donna S. Frelick.

Today I'm interviewing two sci-fi romance authors who are good friends and whose books released within days of each other. I thought it'd be interesting to compare their experiences.

Donna S. Frelick, author of Unchained Memory, and Laurie A. Green, author of Inherit the Stars, first met in a hotel lobby where both were attending a Romance Writers of America (RWA) conference for the first time. They struck up a conversation over Donna's tote bag — which had an image of a galaxy — and quickly discovered they share a love of science-fiction romance. They went on to become critique partners and co-bloggers at The Spacefreighters Lounge. spacefreighters.blogspot.com Little did they know that six years later their debut novels would release just two days apart.

About Unchained Memory (courtesy of the author):

Three hours ripped away her past. His love promised her the future. From the night she wakes up in her pickup on the side of the road, three hours gone and everything of value lost to her, Asia Burdette is caught in a clash of invisible forces. She has only one ally in her struggle to understand why—Ethan Roberts, a man she shouldn't love, a psychiatrist who risks everything to help her.

With black ops kidnappers dogging their trail, the lovers race to navigate a maze of mind control, alien abduction and interstellar slavery. If they keep following the signs, they'll find a battle that's been raging since the first silver saucer was spotted in the skies above Earth.

About Inherit the Stars (courtesy of Array Press):

To escape the merciless Ithian Alliance, Sair, a fugitive slave, makes a desperate deal with Drea Mennelsohn, captain of the prototype ship, Specter. But putting his life in the hands of a woman as mysterious as she is beguiling could turn out to be the biggest mistake of his life, especially when the price on his head begins to escalate.

Drea seems to want far more from the fugitive than just payment for his passage on her ship. Though neither can deny the sizzling chemistry and growing bond between them, Sair must soon make an agonizing decision that could result in the loss of the remarkable woman he has fallen in love with—and their chance to inherit the stars.

INTERVIEW

Veronica: What were the biggest influences for each of you when writing your respective novels?

Donna: The idea for Unchained Memory first came to me years ago as I was driving home from dropping off a babysitter late at night. I lived out in the country, and the rural back road I was driving along was dark and winding. I started thinking ... what if I never made it home? What if I was just ... taken? This became my heroine, Asia's, story.

The second concept led to the bigger universe in which Asia's story takes place. Imagine all the familiar tales of alien abduction and UFOs are evidence of an interstellar slave trade run by the little Gray aliens we know so well. If you have slavers, then you should have abolitionists to oppose them. These are the heroes and heroines, some of them human, some of them not, of my Interstellar Rescue series. Unchained Memory is book one in the series.

The third idea is the one of mind control. The Grays use a mindwipe technique to erase memories and higher emotions in their captives to make them more docile. The members of Rescue use a similar programming technique to restore what they can of the person's original memories, leaving out any memory of her time in captivity before returning her to Earth. Some returnees, like Asia, are resistant to these techniques. They remember. And what Asia remembers shakes the foundation of both her world and the hero, Ethan's.

Inherit the Stars by Laurie A. Green.

Laurie: I'm often inspired by ideas that come to me in a dream and Inherit the Stars was one of them. Without getting too spoilery, the crux of the dream dealt with a man aboard a starship who was talking to someone he couldn't see, and could only interact with via the vessel.

Inherit the Stars begins with one man's attempt to escape the galactic superpower that enslaved him. He strikes a desperate deal with the female captain of a prototype starship, and soon finds himself not only emotionally connected but fatefully entangled in her destiny — a course that will take him full circle to face the very evil he most fears.

The story carries three driving themes:

• The hard choices that must be made between love and duty.

• The nature of inheritance (what's passed down isn't always a tangible).

• How far a person should ethically go in righting terrible wrongs.

Veronica: Which character was the biggest challenge to write and why?

Donna: Asia came to me fully formed, with a strong voice and personality. She insisted on having her say in the first person. But I had to convey certain information that she would not have, so I had to include Ethan's point of view also. His side of the story is told in third person. I really struggled with this necessity at first. I mean, who does this? Half the book in first person, half the book in third? I rewrote the first few chapters over and over, but it never sounded authentic except with Asia in first and Ethan in third.

Laurie: Portraying the true nature of Captain Drea Mennelsohn, the heroine, was like walking a virtual tightrope. Because Inherit the Stars is told entirely through the hero's eyes — a rare but emerging trend in romance — everything Drea says and does has to be filtered through Sair's perspective. Drea runs hot and cold toward Sair (for good reason, as it turns out), but because of the dynamics, readers may not find her a likable character early in the story. Because Sair can never be sure what her true intentions are, there's always a question in his mind if she's his foe or his ally, which makes for some delicious romantic conflict.

Veronica: Do you have a favorite quote from your books?

Donna:

For years I couldn't remember what had happened to me that night. All I knew was that three hours of my life were gone, unaccounted for in any way that made sense. The search for those lost hours changed me. Finding them nearly killed me. Even now, there are times when I lie awake in the dark heart of night and wish to hell I'd left it all alone.

Except for Ethan. I could never regret anything about him.

Laurie: I absolutely adore one of Sair's lines near the end of the story

"History is seldom made in the quiet or the dark, Duchess."

The exchange is laced with humor but the subtext packs a punch.

Veronica: What do you wish you'd known before becoming published?

Donna: I'd like to know more about how to connect with readers. Still learning about that. I think it's difficult because every author has to find his or her own way. What works for one author and her readers won't necessarily work for another author and his readers.

Laurie: There's no doubt it's a wonderful time to be a writer. So many portals have opened that once were closed. But when I published, the flip side of that reality became clear. It's a "voice in the wilderness" scenario and very difficult to market effectively without becoming spammish. I wish I'd gotten more educated on promotion and marketing techniques prior to publishing. I'm still brainstorming reader-friendly ways to get "the signal" out to fans and potential fans.

Veronica: What has surprised you most since becoming published?

Donna: What? You mean I'm not instantly rich and famous? *sigh* Back to the keyboard!

Laurie: Ha! Yes, what Donna said. But it was also the wonderful peership extended to me by other authors in terms of advice, how-to's and invitations to groups and events. In the publishing world, the camaraderie is second-to-none. I think most authors understand that in this industry we're not competitors, we're more like an extended partnership. It was very reaffirming to be welcomed into the published author fold.

You can find out more about Donna and Laurie at donnasfrelick.com and www.laurieagreen.com.

Amazon best-seller Veronica Scott is a three-time recipient of the SFR Galaxy Award and has written a number of science-fiction and paranormal romances. Her latest is Ghost of the Nile . You can find out more about her and her books at veronicascott.wordpress.com. Please e-mail Veronica at scifiencounters@gmail.com about content related to this column. Due to the volume of mail, e-mails may not be answered personally, but all will be read.

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