Science Fiction Novels

First Line Friday Full of SF&F Love

Lynette M Burrows

February’s First Line Friday Full of SF&F Love Stories is part of a series of blog articles posted on the first Friday of every month. The first line of a story, we’re told, must hook the reader. Implied is that the reader will not buy the book if the first line isn’t great. These entries are from Amazon, my personal library, or other online booksellers. Do these first lines hook you? Do you want to read more? When Commander Rhys “Rest in Peace” Rykus walked back into her life, Ash smiled because she knew it would piss him off. Shades of Treason: An Anomaly Novel by Sandy Williams “Lady Mother,” Adena whispered, lips barely moving. “I don’t think I can do this.” Chosen by the Rakian Commander: Rakian Warrior Mates by Elin Wyn Not long ago, the sweaty hand snaking up my skirt toward my ass would have turned to mummy dust on contact, but I restrained myself. To Catch a Stolen Soul: A djinn haven story by R.L. Naquin “Mom?” I pushed my headphones off my ears and looked at my bedroom door. I could have sworn I heard a scream. Defy the Ravaged: Matron’s Watchmen Book 1 by […]

Will You Buy These Books Based on the First Lines?

Lynette M Burrows

Buying books is a personal thing. What one person loves the next one hates. Why you buy this book instead of that one isn’t the same reason I buy those books. Covers, descriptions, reviews, word of mouth are all used to make buying decisions. But will you buy these books based on the first lines? First Lines The alley was dark and stank of piss and vomit. It was home for quick-footed rats and the bony, hungry-eyed felines who hunted them. J.D. Robb, Rapture in Death He, or very possibly she, was known as The Rose Thief.   Claire Buss, The Rose Thief  Gramp Stevens sat in a lawn chair, watching the mower at work, feeling the warm, soft sunshine seep into his bones. Clifford Simak, City I was loving this. First day on the job and I was off to a possible location of the vamp killers. Rose Montague, Jade I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness. Kamakzi. The word looped in my head, and I tasted it. Kamakzi. Elin […]

Book Cover Reveal: My Soul to Keep

Lynette M Burrows

I’m delighted to present the book cover reveal for my debut novel, My Soul to Keep. On sale: August 2018 Artist/Illustrator/Designer: Elizabeth Leggett Publisher: Rocket Dog Publishing ABOUT MY SOUL TO KEEP Miranda Clarke lived a charmed life…until she broke the rules. It is 1961 and America’s a theocracy controlled by the Fellowship and its tyrannical council of eleven men. Miranda Clarke’s family is part of the ruling elite, wealthy and privileged. Miranda wants nothing more than to stay out of the public eye, but her power-hungry mother has different plans. She forces Miranda into an engagement to an up-and-coming Fellowship member and schemes to get Miranda’s father elected President of the United States. To escape the arranged marriage and the repressive Fellowship, Miranda makes a break for freedom. But lurid family secrets and a dead man lands her in prison. She not only must escape prison and outwit her mother’s ruthless ambitions but avoid the deadly Azrael, the Fellowship’s enforcers who Take unbelievers. Will Miranda survive ‘outing’ the family secrets? Told from four different perspectives, My Soul to Keep is a spine-tingling science-fiction thriller and will be available in all your favorite online bookstores. My Soul to Keep is the […]