Welcome Jessica Subject!

Adding myself into my stories through settings

First of all, I would like to thank Rebecca Royce for inviting me to blog on Paranormal Romantics today. Not only is she one of my awesome critique partners, but she provided me with so much encouragement while The Zurian Child was out on submission, and I was a nervous wreck. Thank You!

I am Canadian. And I write science fiction romance. But over the years, I have not found any sci-fi romance which is set in Canada. (If you know of any besides my own, please let me know.) Instead, the wonderful books I have read have been set in the United States, or England. What, do aliens have something against landing in Canada? Maybe. The weather is certainly unpredictable, with warm (t-shirt) weather one day, and snow the next.

So, when I set out to write my first story, I wanted the extraterrestrials to land in Canada. And the various settings in the story are all places I’ve visited throughout my life. Well, except two.

The story begins on the planet Alectrona, where the Hemera lived. It looks something like this:

…with the red sun shining down, reflecting off the quartz in the mountains and the nearby lake.

The usually busy halls of the Quartz Mountain Science Center lay deserted. Overhead lights flickered, transforming the shine from the quartz within the walls into an extravagant show.

Though after the Erebus invade the outer territory of the Hemera, the scenery changes:

He weaved through back roads, cracked and overgrown with vegetation. Before the invasion, he'd strolled down the same roads with his wife and daughter. Guilt and regret continued to plague his mind as he followed the path of carnage. Hemera and Erebus bodies lined the street, many unrecognizable from the black tar covering them.

Another major setting is London, Ontario, where the two heroes of the story are RCMP officers in the drug section of “O” Division.

Quinn negotiated through the packed four-lane roads with ease.

(London picture)

She stared across the huge lot with many beautifully landscaped gardens. The house, with a triple-car garage, sat in the middle of the property. She'd been told many years ago, a pool sat around the back.

And then North Bay, Ontario, where the characters retreat to the Underground Complex at CFB North Bay.

With their luggage already loaded on, the same Officer ushered them toward a green bus waiting outside a set of double gates. Lindsay peaked behind the gates to see a field of grass, and the road led to a hole in the ground.

Oh no, UGC meant underground complex.

(picture of bus)

When the tunnel leveled out, they stopped at a narrower tunnel on the left. They unloaded and carried their luggage down the shorter tunnel, past a five-car parking area, and arrived at three wide stairs leading to glass double doors. The building looked just like the entrance to any government building, only surrounded by rock.

"Welcome to the Underground Complex," Dennis said. "We are now standing sixty stories beneath the Earth's surface, deeper underground than most of the buildings in Toronto are tall."

And while I have not had the chance to visit the Underground Complex, as it has been decommissioned, I did visit the new above ground complex, the Sergeant David L. Pitcher Building this past summer. Though we were restricted as to what we could see, and there were many security measures we had to go through just to get in.

So those are just three of the settings in my latest release, The Zurian Child, two of them adding a Canadian flavor to the story.

How about you, do you prefer to read stories which take place in cities you’ve travelled to, or would you rather use fiction to travel to someplace new?

The Zurian Child Blurb

Lindsay Beckett longed to be reunited with her first love, Quinn Montgomery, until she learns the secret that sent him fleeing from her in the first place. He’s an alien, a Hemera, and she’s half-Hemera herself. As if that wasn’t enough to ruin her dreams of a perfect life, when their child is born, they discover she fulfills a prophesy told twenty light years away and many years ago. Lindsay wants to ignore it, until her husband is murdered and suddenly believing becomes a matter of survival.

Lindsay and her young daughter are forced to rely on another Hemera, her husband’s partner and best friend, Bryce Beuermann as more and more of the Hemera are slaughtered. Bryce will do anything to help his best friend’s widow—including suppressing his own deep feelings for her. But he must prove they can trust him, even pretending he doesn’t want her with all his heart.

Available from Silver Publishing (https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/coming-soon-c-2/the-zurian-child-ebook-p-786) and other ebook retailers.

More information here: http://www.markofthestars.com/wp/?page_id=7702

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/-Nfy6AAoee8

Bio:

Jessica Subject started writing to encourage her daughter to read. Now she writes to keep herself grounded. Although she reads many genres, she enjoys writing Science Fiction Romance the most and believes everyone in the universe deserves a happily ever after. She lives Southwestern Ontario, Canada with her husband and two kids and loves to hear from anyone who has enjoyed her stories.

Website/Blog: http://www.markofthestars.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jsubject

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessica-E-Subject-author/205759796126370

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4959083.Jessica_E_Subject

Google +: https://plus.google.com/100079570422204018357/posts

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Jessica-E.-Subject/e/B007BG6E10