Inkwell Guests: How A GALACTIC HOLIDAY was Born

Today, I have special guests Sasha Summers (a fellow princess), Stacy Gail, and Anna Hackett here to talk about their new book! Stick around for a giveaway at the end. Take it away, ladies!

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Spaceships and mistletoe. Laser guns and Christmas trees. Captain Kirk and Santa Claus. Science fiction and the holidays—not two things you see together very often. How did 3 romance authors come to mix science fiction and the holidays?

It all started when Carina Press Executive Editor, Angela James put out a call for sci-fi holiday novellas. It was a challenge too good to resist for Anna, Sasha and Stacy.

Anna: I was fascinated with the thought of how future generations spread across the galaxy would celebrate the holidays. I knew I wanted to explore a different version of the holidays and when I read about Scandinavian Yule, I instantly envisioned an ice world. Harsh, beautiful, with rich geothermal energy. I imagined the people tough enough to settle an ice world would be strong with an exceptional sense of community.

Of course my hero, Savan comes from a world the complete opposite of Perma. A high-tech, energy-dependent world covered by a megacity. On Rendar, families and holidays no longer exist and the pinnacle of Rendarian life is personal success. It was fun throwing Perman Brinn and Rendarian Savan together—then I snowed them in and set an assassin on their trail. Let’s just say, these two generate a lot of heat…in more ways than one.

Stacy: Reina Vedette and Edison Wicke have been bugging me to tell their story for a couple years now. Their basic background and a general plot involving androids have been in my brain just looking for the right time to get launched. Then, when Carina Press’s call for submissions went out, Reina and Edison INSISTED their launch time was now (they’re so pushy).

This novella flowed out of me in a mere eighteen days—not that surprising, considering it’s been written and expanded upon in my head for so long. The technology-dependent society in HOW THE GLITCH SAVED CHRISTMAS has lost touch with the simpler, more meaningful things in life, and it was a blast to reintroduce the timeless theme of home, family and love in such a setting. Not to mention it was nice to shut Reina and Edison up, if only for a little while.

Sasha: I was completely intrigued by the call for a SciFi Holiday novella. I started mulling over the concept and Riley just sort of popped up. It was the first scene, her hanging upside down working on her ship and arguing into her earpiece. She was a very different heroine for me, I don’t normally write overtly strong, self-reliant heroines. But Riley has to be all of those things. She was born in the black, lives on her ship – alone – and likes it that way. Or rather, that’s what she thinks she likes. She doesn’t ‘know’ any other life. So I stranded her to see what would happen.

And the world I envisioned her being stranded on? Well, it was brutal – similar to Hoth – almost uninhabitable. Ice, snow, and man-eating monsters/aliens. At this point the odds were stacked against Riley…

Enter Leo, our mysterious hero. He scoops her – rather – drags her to the safety of Galileo’s Station. A seriously dreamy space cowboy (Han Solo meets Malcolm Reynolds), Leo takes his work very seriously, keeping his mission priority one. But finding Riley on the ice muddies things up a little and warms things up a bit. Okay, a lot.

Something about these two independent and stubborn characters coming together drove me to write their story.

See spaceships and mistletoe do go together. Happy Holidays!

A GALACTIC HOLIDAY – Carina Press | Amazon | B&N | All Romance

Anna Hackett – Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Stacy Gail – Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Sasha Summers – Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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