Category: Science Fiction

Review of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, A Clandestine Classic by Jules Verne and Marie Sexton

Rating: 4 stars

The year is 1866, and Naturalist Dr. Pierre Arronax and his manservant Conseil board the Abraham Lincoln, a vessel whose purpose is to track down and destroy the marine monster terrorizing the oceans.  This unknown monster threatens international shipping and has sunk the ships of many nations so it is imperative that it be stopped at all costs. The nations have come together to fund the mission and now the Abraham Lincoln holds the best sailors to do the job.  But from sea to sea, after visiting multiple locations where the monster has been sited, the ship turns up nothing, boredom besets the crew and the Professor’s interests turn to Ned Land, a sexy harpooner who returns Arronax’s interest.

As the Professor and Ned engage in a tempestous affair, the Captain of the Abraham Lincoln makes one last attempt to locate the monster and succeeds beyond its wildest goals.  The mighty sea monster is sighted and the Abraham Lincoln attacks, only to be attacked by the thing in turn.  During the proceedings, Dr. Arronax is thrown overboard, followed by Conseil, and then Ned Land.  The men find themselves rescued and then imprisoned upon The Nautilus, as their “sea monster” turns out to be a submergible vessel captained by the enigmatic and dangerous Captain Nemo. As the days aboard the secret submarine turn into months, the Professor and Conseil spend their days mesmerized by the new worlds they see under the sea and the Professor and Ned spend their nights investigating their sexual pleasures.  But Ned feels that he cannot live his life forever  imprisoned and the Professor must choose trying to escape with his lover or a life spent in scientific discovery on board the Nautilus.

With Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Marie Sexton merges the classic Jules Verne novel with m/m fiction to a remarkably successful degree.  Jules Verne published his popular science fiction story in 1870 and his saga of the mysterious Captain Nemo, the submarine Nautilus and its narrator Professor Pierre Arronax became a instant  classic that continues to this day.  A layered, complex tale of scientific discoveries, amazing undersea journeys and futuristic assumptions also included the basest of human emotions such as anger, hatred and the need for revenge.  Jules Verne was ahead of his time in predicting the military use of high speed submarines.  Also forward thinking was his use of “oppressive peoples” in his story,  that Captain Nemo was so voluble in his heated arguments and discussions about the oppressors and the oppressed which is how Nemo and his crew regarded themselves was a rarity.  The original book included authentic scientific lists of flora and fauna to go with the animals seen during their voyages.  As Marie Sexton states “several places where extended monologues or lists of plant and/or animal species have been deleted from the story.”  In their place, the author establishes a romance between Professor Pierre Arronax and Ned Land, the definitely did not exist in the Jules Verne story.

I throughly enjoyed the author’s addition to this classic tale.  I loved Arronax’s love for his Ned Land.  Their sexual exploration of each other is carried out in a realistic manner, as fear of exposure to those around them would have resulted in death.  Ned’s small cabin aboard the Abraham Lincoln allows only the smallest of sexual play and their assignations are kept to the minimum which is also authentic.  But once the men have been taken onto the Nautilus, things change between them as the rules and law of Captain Nemo are very different from the nations above them. Sexton does a lovely job of mixing historical reality with Jules Verne science fiction story.  She also gives us a sexual relationship that includes a slight Bdsm bent between Pierre and Ned as their larger cabin on the Nautilus allows them greater physical freedom in their bed.  Ned is a lovely  character given the genuine feel of a man who lives his life outside, his love of the thrill of the hunt is present in all of his actions. So when Ned’s adrenaline based life style is curtailed when he is imprisoned, however nicely, on the Nautilus, we can understand his frustration at his inaction and his anger at Nemo and crew.  Pierre Arronax, again the narrator, and his manservant Conseil, are also beautifully portrayed as the excited scientists they are as each new discovery propels them into frissons of delight and wonder during the day and Pierre experiences the joys of submission at night.  Again, I just loved Marie Sexton’s romance enhanced version of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

I will admit that my father gave me my first copy of this story back in grade school.  He passed on his own copy that he had gotten when he was young along with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.  I was mesmerized by the many descriptions of new places and animals I had never seen.  I couldn’t get enough of the forests of kelp or the schools of marine life I had never seen or heard of. There were so many unknown animals that I had to go look up, so many places I need to find on my globe that I often felt like a voyager along with Arronax and Nemo.  But as with the original, the lush multitude of descriptions, the veritable endless lists of scientific nomenclature had me flipping past pages then as it  did now.   There is a reason that many a student turns to Cliff Notes instead of wading through the original novel, and this version suffers from the same problem.  It is simply too long.  In trying to remain faithful, it too is as long as the original version.  Jules Verne’s came in at 352 pages (approximately depending upon font size), Marie Sexton’s at 390.  And as a Naturalist as much as I love revisting the scientific terminology for various species of flora and fauna, a little of it goes a long way.  And while I delighted in the sumptuous portraits of the wonders found under the sea, after a while it became just too many to digest, too rich a banquet as it were.  For me, I had to read it over a stretch of time, pace myself so I had time to look up the places the Nautilus went and the things they saw.  And once read, I never picked it up again however much I enjoyed it.

So here’s my quibble with this Clandestine Classic, it is too true to the original.  It is very enjoyable and I give high marks to Marie Sexton for her romantic inclusion as well as the manner in which she honored the original.  That said, it is a lot to wade through.  I don’t have problems with people playing with the classics, it’s done all the time.  So if you loved the original and you love m/m romance, pick this up and prepare to enter back into Jules Verne’s universe with a twist.  If you found the original daunting,  perhaps you will give this a try in stages.  It is worth it no matter how long you take to travel 20,000 leagues under the sea with Professor Pierre Arronax, Conseil, Ned Land and Captain Nemo.

Posh Gosh over was interesting but I wish it had been more of a play on the original.

Hurricane Sandy Relief Organizations, Donations, Plus the Week Ahead in Reviews!

Brrrrrr, it’s gotten cold here in Maryland.  While most of Maryland got very lucky with respect to Hurricane Sandy, she brought the artic air from Canada down with her swirling air masses so we have 3 ft of snow in Western Maryland and our ski resorts are very  happy indeed to get a jump on the season. Our fall ended with the roar of winds and rain as the remaining autumn color fell with the torrential rains.  We might actually have a real winter once more. And looking at all the fallen leaves and branches, I am reminded that people not that far away desperately need our help.

My thoughts and hopes go out to all those in need in New York and New Jersey.  The devastation is unbelievable and Hurricane Sandy’s impact on human lives continues to widen along with the death tole.  There are several reputable organizations that are accepting donations to the Hurricane Sandy relief effort.  The Red Cross is one of them.  The American Humane Society is another.  I have a list below that will link you directly to the organizations accepting donations.

One close to my heart is the Ali Forney Center for housing homeless GLBTQ youth in NYC.  It was badly damaged. Here is the link.  Every dollar counts.  If you can spare $1 or $5, everything is needed, everything helps. However you can help, even if it is just re-tweeting the call for donations, all assistance is appreciated and direly needed.

Red Cross

Ali Forney Center  Housing for Homeless for GLBTW Youth

ASPCA

Humane Society of the United States

So, turning away from the subject above, here are the books I am reviewing for the upcoming week.  Don’t be surprised if I throw in some extras. Without further ado:

Monday   11/5/2012:                         How To Raise An Honest Rabbit by Amy Lane

Tuesday   11/6/2012:                         One True Thing by Piper Vaughn and MJ O’Shea

Wed.         11/7/2012:                         But For You by Mary Calmes

Thursday 11/8/2012:                         Ralston’s Way by Talia Carmichael

Friday      11/9/2012:                          Long Hard Ride by Talia Carmichael

Sat.           11/10/2012:                        Back To Hell by Amber Kell, Whispered Secrets and Hidden Eyes by Amylea Lyn

The Nationals are in the Playoffs,Teddy Won the Race and the Week Ahead in Reviews!

It’s Sunday and the weather has turned much cooler, the wind has picked up and the leaves seem to be  just flowing off the trees. Yes, fall is here.  But all is well, the Nationals are in the playoffs and Teddy has finally won a race.  Now some folks think that until the playoffs were over, Teddy should have kept losing so not as to jinx the series.  I have to admit I am kind of on their  side.  Superstition I know but if the Nats lose, you know who everyone will be pointing the finger at.  Oh my.  So I am looking for a 4 leaf clover and some luck to bind it with.  Now where’s that pesky rabbit?

Mother’s birthday is today so I am off to lunch at the farm(bringing it with me actually). So without further ado, next week’s schedule:

Monday                        Animal Magnetism Anthology

Tuesday:                       Fallen Sakura by April Moone

Wednesday:                 Keeping Promise Rock by Amy Lane

Thursday:                     In Excess by Quinn Anderson

Friday:                           By The River by Katey Hawthorne

Saturday:                       Fair Catch by Del Darcy

Winner of My Regelence Rake Contest

I said I would be announcing it on Friday so here it is.  The winner of the free copy of My Regelence Rake is K Anderson.  K, I have your email address.  Please look for an email from me shortly that will tell you how to get your copy from Samhain.

Thanks to all who commented.  This was a great week.  My next contest will be as a part of the Howloween Blog Hop Tour.  How I love October!

Review of My Regelence Rake (Sci-Regency #3) by JL Langley

Yes, I know this should have come later but I couldn’t help it.  I loved this book.  The contest winner will still be announced on Friday.  Enjoy.

Rating: 5 stars

Prince Colton Townsend has loved Lord Sebastian Hastings since he was fifteen.  The Captain of the Guard is everything Colton has ever wanted.  He’s handsome, dashing, and an excellent horseman.  His affections have never been returned by Hastings but Colton has never figured out if that was because the Captain sees him still as a young boy instead of a man or perhaps because Sebastian has declared never to remarry.  Still his crush  continued right up until the day he and his brothers spied Captain Hastings in a tryst in a garden during a ball.  Now  Colton decides to focus only on his horses and opening a racing stable will help him forget about his love for the Captain of the Guard.

Lord Sebastian Hastings’ schedule changed from busy to overwhelmed when asked by King Steven to provide security for all of the Royal Family on a constant basis, including Prince Colton.  Sebastian isn’t certain when exactly he became aware of how handsome the young man had become.  Sebastian knew the young Prince had a crush on him as the lad followed him around like a puppy when younger.  But lately, Colton has seemed distant, even downright curt and that bothered Sebastian more than he wanted to admit.  Then an argument with Colton over disobeying his orders flared into a kiss, and then another and all of Sebastian’s carefully erected barriers began to fall.

During a visit to Tattersalls to bid on horses for his stable, Colton and Sebastian find an abused horse and determine to save it.  The consequent events turn the horse’s abusive owner into a enemy who spreads rumors about the men and their relationship throughout society.  When the nasty gossip causes people to shun Colton at a ball, Hastings acts to quell the rumors by asking for Colton’s hand in marriage.  But instead of solving things, the marriage is only the beginning of the problems for the couple, as Sebastian is keeping secrets from Colton, an old flame reappears, and a family close to the Admiral and Sebastian have disappeared, perhaps murdered as part of the INS conspiracy against the throne. Colton  hopes that one day he will have a marriage like his fathers, one with two men deeply in love with each other.  Colton knows his marriage is only halfway there.  Now if only Sebastian would help make the rest come true.

With My Regelence Rake JL Langley has done it again.  She has given us a book not only worth the wait but one that leaves us immediately clamoring for the next in the series as soon as we have finished reading it.  All the elements that make this series so addictive are present and accounted for.  Great world building – check, outstanding characters – check, hot, hot sex – check, ongoing intrigue and mystery – check and finally romantic love – oh absolutely check.  Yes, all there and then some.  We are back on the planet Regelence after the events in The Englor Affair which took us off planet in search of more information about the political unrest being instigated between the planets.  Each subsequent book  finds new suspects in the sinister  happenings in the INS (the galactic navy)  and points to corruption at the highest levels of the service.  The royal Townsends of Regelence are being backed into a corner and no one is certain who is to be trusted.  And with each new piece of evidence that appears, another mystery surfaces to widen the scope of the investigation and make the infiltration of the royal family defenses an easier target.  As she builds the suspense, Langley ups our anxiety for the safety of the people we have come to care about greatly.  The terror of loss is never far from our thoughts when Aiden is giving chase down a alley way or Sebastian is attacked in the streets.  Is it part of the conspiracy or something entirely different?  Langley keeps us guessing and on the edge of our seats the entire time.

And then there are all those marvelous characters we have come to love over the series and new ones as well.  Everyone is present here, except perhaps for Simon and Payton.  Yes, this is Colton and Sebastian’s book and their romance is terrific.  We have watched Colton grow up in the last two books and the tantalizing glimpses we had of Sebastian come to fruition here.  Sebastian is a complex character.  His background is muddied and his marriage, which left him a widower, unhappy. Together they form a new endearing couple for us to cheer for. But we also get a closer look at the relationships of Nate and Aiden, and Steven and Raleigh.  We see clearly how well Nate and Aiden have settled into a marriage still so passionate and full of love but now time has allowed them a new security in with all things shared between them as a loving established couple.  Steven and Raleigh are here, demonstrating their love and passion in ways  both humorous and joyful while still exhibiting the strength of their feelings for their children and family.  How I love these two and I am thrilled JL Langley will give them their own story.  The real surprise here?  A closer look at Trouble and Rexley’s relationship.  Even now, I just feeling giddy over the scenes and revelations about them in MRR.  I will not spoil this for you all but trust me, it is worth the price of the book alone for these reveals!  Oh, and I have to mention Apollonia, the star of the stable and a new favorite character of mine.  I want one just like her.  She is adorable and a great addition to the family.  JL Langley’s characterizations never feel anything less than real, their emotions always come across as authentic as ours and their relationship issues ones we can relate to and understand.  All these and more are reasons why the author’s characters stay with us long past the end of the books.

Does this book, all hot and sexy, all romance and love have a happily ever after?  Why yes it does!  But JL Langley also raises some much larger questions about the INS and those arraigned against the Townsends and their allies.  She has left us some mystery concerning Sebastian and his family, given us a far more complex Rexley than I had imagined, and as to that missing family? Well, they too have a larger part in this conspiracy puzzle JL has created and now there is an encrypted computer chip to decipher.  So the mystery snowballs along with the romance.  How I love this series.  More please, JL, much, much more!

Cover:  Another hot cover by Angela Waters to go along with those of  My Fair Captain and The Englor Affair.  Definitely some of the hottest naked torsos in the business.

JL’s Sci-Regency Series Review

JL Langley’s Sci-Regency series is such a wonderful creation. In it Langley  combines the extremely formal social rules, etiquette, manners, and dress of Regency England with science fiction’s space and galactic travel to create a universe both familiar and removed from our experiences. And she did it so well, so convincingly that it become a genre beloved by many.  I found  Regency England early on in my teens with Georgette Heyer, creator of the Regency romance genre and her fabulous heroine, The Grand Sophy. I loved her books and the world they presented. Heyer wrote books full of humor, delightful dialog, and of course romance. Her  women were strong willed and intelligent, trying to find their way in the very masculine world of England in the Regency Era (1795-1830).  Lord Byron was making women (and some men) swoon with his dark romantic poetry and sexy brooding image he projected. The fabulousBeau Brumnel was busy defining and shaping fashion in his own image, the Dandy promenaded through the balls, and authors like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens started writing works of social commentary in their fiction.

The Regency Era saw the rise of Almack’s as a marriage mart, Tattersall’s was the place to purchase  exquisite horse flesh, gentlemens clubs like Boodles, Brooke’s. the Four Horse Club and of course White’s were the places to be seen and heard.   There were duels on the Commons and the aristocratic young were strictly chaperoned in accordance with the rigid societal rules of the day.  To be discovered in flagrante meant a run to Gretna Green and a quickie marriage. Considering the short length of the Regency Era, it still projects a profound influence to this day upon so many areas of literature and society.  The gambling hells and with its rakes, the opera singers and Covent Gardens, the clothes, and oh the poets and artists creating then.  It is no wonder that era captures the hearts of so many authors and  readers to this day.

H.G.Wells was born in 1866 and helped usher in thoughts of time travel and alien worlds.  Science Fiction novels in every sense of the word and from almost every author you can imagine fills my bookshelves as well.  Alien societies, space travel, and yes, alien romance captured my imagination and my heart  too.  I love each and every new universe a author creates and the beings they fill it with.

So just consider the heart palpitations I experienced when I found JL Langley and My Fair Captain, the first in her Sci-Regency series. I had no idea what awaited me beyond that unbelievably sexy cover.  It teased us with a glimpse of a young man in Regency dress in back of a masterful, naked torso who dominates the design.  How perfect as submission to those older and higher in society was a given during the Regency Era.  My Fair Captain, published in 2008 by Samhain Publishing introduces us to the world of Regelence and it’s ruler King Steven and his Consort Raleigh, their four sons and ward.  Intergalactic Navy Captain Nathaniel “Nate” Hawkins has been chosen by the Admiral to act as an undercover agent investigating the disappearance of a huge cache of arms on the male oriented planet of Regelence.  On Regelence, male/male coupling is the norm with children born by genetically combining their parents DNA. Nate Hawkins comes from a planet where the opposite (m/f) holds true and homosexual acts are disgraceful to the point of disownment.  A youthful indiscretion with another young man ended in a duel and a death and saw Nate escaping his father’s influence as heir to his dukedom by entering the Navy. To go undercover, Nate must use his aristocratic background to get close to the rulers of Regelence  and their world caught up in political intrigue and suspence. What Nate doesn’t anticipate is falling in love with Prince Aiden, the middle son of King Steven. Prince Aiden is consumed by his art, and the thoughts of marriage to another well born son, as expected of him, leave him cold.  Then he falls literally into the arms of Nate Hawkins, and Aiden can think of no one else.  Amid court intrigue and intergalactic murder mystery, can a rakish Navy Captain and a virginal Price  find love among the stars?

Just thinking about this book makes me fan myself rapidly.  Langley’s characters are so utterly realistic, so believably hot and sexy that my pulse jumps just thinking about them.  And she sets them in a world that any fan of Regency fiction would recognize accompanied by elements any Science Fiction fan can identify, such as space ships and communication devices. But as great as her world building is, it is J.L. Langley’s characters that claim your affections, clamor for your attention, and grab onto your heart, never to let go.  And I am not talking about just the main characters either, although they are fantastic and sexy.  It not just Nate and Aiden (a favorite couple of mine), no it is all Aiden’s siblings, and their ward.  It is their fathers Steven and Raleigh who have a fan club as big as many of Langley’s other creations, and then there are the sons friends and well I am sure you are getting the picture.  No cardboard cutouts here, no  one dimensional portraits to spoil the reader’s enjoyment.  No, just a complete world occupied by addictive, compelling characters the reader just can not get enough of.  Lucky for us, JL Langley has promised each son a book as  well as one for their fathers and several of the other characters I have mentioned.

After My Fair Captain, we had a small wait until JL finished with other characters yelling for attention in her mind (they do that, you know) but April 2008 found the release of The Englor Affair and our love affair continued with Steven and Raleigh’s pack of boys, their friends and the continuing mystery behind the political shenanigans that threaten the stability of Steven’s rule.  The Englor Affair finds us transported to the planet Englor, birthplace of Nate Hawkins and the origin of much of the troubles occurring on Regelence.  Englor, another Regency oriented society is more typical of the times, and has just barely accepted some homosexuality.  Nate Hawkins returns to Englor after the events of My Fair Captain saw Aiden kidnapped by the conspirators behind the arms theft.  That kidnapping and Aiden’s rescue opened up the investigation to reveal a much larger conspiracy then anyone had imagined.  Now an Admiral, Nate works for Steven and Raleigh after his marriage to Aiden and he had returned to Englor to further their investigations as to who is directly behind the threat to Regelence.  Accompanying him is Payton, third in line to the throne of Regelence.  Payton is a genius at computers and Nate needs his gifts to break into the files on Englor.  Payton is hiding his true identity as he pretends to be the Admiral’s assistant.  A simple assignment turns complicated when Payton meets  Englor Marine Colonel Simon Hollister.  A virgin, as are all artistocratic youth, Payton is unprepared for the feelings Hollister engender in him.  A chanced kiss turns into something more and hidden identities are revealed to both young men’s horror and consternation.  For Simon Hollister is none other than the heir apparent to Englor.  His future mapped out for him as Englor’s future King.  He will marry a women and have the children needed to continue the line.  Into the murky waters of political intrigue and possible galactic war, two princes try to find love and the road to HEA.

With The Englor Affair, Langley delivers an outstanding story that furthers the theme of interplanetary conspiracy and subterfuge while giving us memorable characters that engage our affections from the very first page.  Nate, Aiden, King Steven and Consort Raleigh are back as are all their fascinating brood.  Payton is the focus here and we come to love him as much as Aiden.  A slight build hides a passionate nature and a quick highly intelligent mind.  Payton loves going undercover as he finds the limitation of being a crown prince repressing.  For all that, Payton is still sexually native and unpreparing for the lustful reactions he feels when meeting Simon Hollister.  Holliston is also attracted to Payton but thinks him just an Admiral’s assistant, perhaps the son of a lesser noble. So Simon acts upon his attraction and kisses Payton to Payton’s utter astonishment, for a such bold and disrespectful act would have heavy consequences would it be known.  Princes do not act that way nor do they receive such attention without the benefit of marriage or engagement bans on Regelence.  Their actions have far reaching consequences and are one of the real joys of this book.  We watch as sexual attraction grows into something much larger and Simon has to adjust his thinking not only about homosexuality but about himself as well.

One of the things that so impresses me about JL Langley’s stories is that all the elements are juggled perfectly throughout the story.  The focus may be temporarily on the romance contretemps of the couple but the mystery and mayhem of the terrorist group is never forgotten.  All threads are woven beautifully within the novel so we end up with a rich, colorful, and complex tapestry to enjoy.  And return to time and time again.

Lucky again for us that today sees the release of My Regelence Rake, the third in the Sci-Regency series.    It is the reason this post came out later than expected.  I couldn’t put that book down long enough to finish writing this.  My review will be up later in the week, but trust me, this is a 5 star read.  My Regelence Rake stars Prince Colton and you are going to love him as much as the others, I promise.

So if you haven’t already found this series, start with My Fair Captain.  It will introduce you to a cast of characters who breathe, bleed, love, and cause trouble across the galaxy.  You will have a universe you will never want to leave and a horizon of people whose stories are clamoring to be told.  What a wealth awaits you between the pages of these books.  Go and get them.  You will love them all.

Author Spotlight: An Interview with J.L. Langley

Author Spotlight is on J. L. Langley.

I first wandered into JL Langley’s world with a story called With Love from the Hearts With The Ashes anthology.  Here I met her shifters Laine Anderson and his mate Dev and encountered JL’s wonderful blend of humor, vulnerablilltiy, angst and above all, heart that she  imbues in all her characters for the first time.  I read it once, and then promptly turned back and read it all over again.  I laughed and cried as much at the second reading as I did at the second and wanted so much more.  I wanted more of her shifters, more of JL Langley’s worlds.  Thank goodness there are plenty out there to  discover and journey through.

Next up came The Tin Star and JL Langley’s cowboys. Sigh.  How i loved them too.  You will hear more about them later on.  They will have their day, no worries.  My next love came with the wolf shifters.  That would be the  With and Without series.  Their fame has spread far and wide. Don’t speak too loudly or you will encounter the Sterling and Rhys bandwagon that careens around wildly, full of loud  fans screaming for Sterling and Rhys to be the next couple to get their own book.  One of them might even be me, uh hem.  And yes,  we will be talking more about all of them later in the week, so no fretting on the shifter front please!

Today is the day that My Regelence Rake is being released from Samhain Publishing so I know they are being bombarded by JL’s fan for theircopy of her latest  Sci-Regency novel.  Sci-Regency, what an unusual genre to be  sure.  Only JL would have thought to blend science fiction and the English Regency world and make it not only successful but downright addictive.  It all started with My Fair Captain and that delicious droll worthy cover.  This novel has remained a steadfast favorite of mine as it’s worn, dog-eared pages can attest to.

So this week, it’s all about the worlds of JL Langley and I will be giving away one copy of My Regelence Rake to one lucky commenter during the week.  The winner will be announced on Friday.  So to start off our week, let’s begin with a chat I had about how the term Sci-Regency came about.

MM:

Thank you, JL, for coming here today and participating in my first author interview. I have always been fascinated by the term Sci Regency.  Did you coin that  phrase?

JL:

“I did come up with the term and series name Sci-Regency. I’ve always loved Regency romance but wanted something different, unique. With the laws in the 1800’s being gay was punishable by law therefore it would’ve been very difficult to live openly as a gay couple. That seems so bittersweet to me. I wanted to be able to have my cake and eat it to, so to speak, so I combined Regency with Sci-Fi and wa la a truly happy ending was possible. Not to mention some cool technology and a way to bend the rules of society ever so slightly.”

MM:

I have a hard time picking out favorite characters of yours, I just love them all.  Do you have favorite characters?

JL:

“I love all the characters in this series but I have to say Steven and Raleigh, the King and King-Consort, are my favorites. I plan on doing a sort of prequel for the two of them eventually.”

MM:

My start with Regency fiction was Georgette Heyer and The Grand Sophy, a fondness that continues to this day. Do you have favorite Regency authors?

JL:

“I have several favorite Regency authors, but if I had to name one it would be Julia Quinn.”

MM:

I have to admit Georgette Heyer was my first introduction and I still love her. I love the way you blend such Regency mainstays such as horse racing, fencing, Tattersalls, and Regency dress with a science fiction setting. I love the way Regency social niceties and rules are given a m/m twist to them in your series. Here young unattached men are not allowed out without suitable escorts or chaperones. Do you ever find yourself just laughing out loud as you turn old ways on their heads in your stories? It’s such a great blend that you have achieved.

JL replies:
“I don’t know about laughing but I do love it. I really enjoy writing this series, it’s hands down my fave. I joke that I could gladly write this series and in this word for the rest of my life and be a happy woman, I really do love it.”

MM

I know you have told us but I can’t remember. Of course quite a few of us are shouting Trouble and Rexley at you! But I have to say I agree with you about Steven and Raleigh. I love their relationship and look forward to every scene with them in it. And you introduce a Cousin in this series, hmmm. Lord Demon? I know you had a recent excerpt with his name in it. Who is next in line for a book in this series?

JL:
“Blaise and Raleigh’s nephew, Dalton, (He’s the cousin “Lord Demon”), is next. After them will be Blaise’s little brother Bannon and then Rexley and Trouble. There are several guest appearances in this book by not only Steven and Raleigh, but Aiden and Nate and Rexley, Trouble and Muffin.”

Do you outline your books or have a story arc in mind when you start a new one? You are balancing so many elements in your Sci-Regency series from marriage proposals, intergalactic intrigue, and perhaps even genetic manipulation yet you still give us scenes full of passion, humor, mystery and love. What gives you the inspiration for each book?

JL:

“I do outline,but I loosely outline and leave room to change. In fact the last half of Colton’s book does not resemble the original outline at all. So it’s more of a guide than an actual outline because things are subject to change. Each book is a little difference. This one for example has less of the series plot with the IN than the others. It sort of depends on what the characters give me. For example in Dalton’s book, there is a pretty good look into Regelence government as well as Raleigh’s background. In Bannon’s book it’s very much back into the series plot. I do have an outline of sorts for each book in the series, but I am very character motivated in my writing, so things can and do change on occasion.”

Thank you, JL. I can’t wait to hear from you. I really appreciate your participation in my contest and Author Spotlight.

From the author’s website:

JL has been talking since she was about seven months old. To those who know her it comes as no surprise, in fact, most will tell you she hasn’t shut up since. At eighteen months, she was speaking in full sentences. Imagine if you will the surprise of her admirers when they complimented her mother on “what a cute little boy” she had and received a fierce glare from said little boy and a very loud correction of “I’m a girl!” Oddly enough, JL still finds herself saying that exact phrase thirty-some-odd years later.

Along with the motormouth, JL also displayed a very vivid imagination and artistic ability. The artist first surfaced in way of drawing and painting, then became more apparent with dance. JL was a member of the National Art Honor Society in high school and has won several regional and national titles in dance, specifically tap and jazz. In college she majored in Graphic Art, but chose to make dance her profession. She taught tap, jazz and ballet for fifteen years before settling into her career as a writer.

Today JL is a full-time writer, with over ten novels to her credit. Among her hobbies she includes reading, practicing her marksmanship (she happens to be a great shot), gardening, working out (although she despises cardio), searching for the perfect chocolate dessert (so far as she can tell ALL chocolate is perfect, but it requires more research) and arguing with her husband over who the air compressor and nail gun really belongs to (they belong to JL, although she might be willing to trade him for his new chainsaw).

This author also writes (m/f) under the name Jeigh Lynn.

JL Langley’s website is under construction but you can follow her through her  yahoo group, The Yellow Rose.

And her free short stories can be found at Fiction with Friction.