Guest Post & Giveaway – The Experiment; By Alicia Nordwell

First off, let me thank Andy for inviting me to his blog again! This time I talk about my general love for science fiction! Don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered to win my contest! I’ll be offering a $10 Amazon gift card to one commenter! But don’t forget to leave your email, because if I can’t contact you, you can’t win!

Sucked into Science Fiction

The lure of science fiction has held me in its grasp for a long time. From the first time I read about aliens, and alien worlds, I was hooked. A big favorite early on was Lisanne Norman’s Sholan Alliance worlds. Telepathic bipedal/quadripedal feline aliens that create intimate mental and physical links… and a war with a strange feline xenophobic lizard species? Toss in a human colonist woman who was victimized by the lizard aliens and bonds with a male Sholan, the first interspecies bonding ever?

Oh yeah, huge draw. I read a lot of other big sci-fi novels, like Dune, Enders Game, Contact, Freedom’s Landing, Brightness Reef, and many more too. Is it any wonder my first stab at a novel was science fiction? Of course, I’m not talking about The Experiment. My first story was an epic 141k story titled The Price of Honor. I created blue aliens (It came out before Avatar, and is NOT fan-fiction, I swear!) on a pastoral planet. I had all these crazy creatures and other aliens. Of course the writing skills are cringe-worthy, but the fun of alien worlds captured me.

I’ve created several short stories, one with two males forced into an arranged marriage, without ever having met each other. Turns out… neither knew it would be the best thing for them.  I used the idea of synchronicity first elaborated by Jung to bring two characters, who come from opposite ends of the world, by a series of seemingly unrelated events, at the whim OF the world… that’s right, Synchronicity was sentient, in a way.

And my favorite world, the one that finally got me back into a novel length science fiction story, The Experiment. It even spawned a sequel which is almost finished, and the plot for a third novel. I mixed fangs and bloodlust with courtship based on compatible body markings that also indicate maturity in a race at war with humans determined to conquer the universe, one planet at a time, no matter what the cost.

That leads to nefarious experiments by evil men, and a human man caught up in the mix. Using a human’s perspective on Caeorleia let me introduce a lot of the fantastical flora and fauna. Like the sympanga trees which don’t absorb energy from the sun, but from any leaving creature that touches them. 

Or the giant, creepy four-legged flying bug that lands on Ryker’s shoulder! I think I’d panic about bug eyes that big too! That’s just a few of the creatures I created for my readers. In the next novel I bring in more aliens, and maybe a few other… experiments!

Buy at: Dreamspinner Press

Synopsis:

In the distant future, humans wage war against the alien planet Caeorleia, with no tactic off-limits if it will help the humans get their hands on Caeorleia’s resources. Ask Ryker. He thought he volunteered for a simple experiment that would help his government in the war. He didn’t realize sadistic doctors would turn him into the experiment—by injecting him with blood from a captured Caeorleian, Seral Iorflas.

Nor did Ryker realize he’d be sent to sabotage a planet full of the very beings his world is battling, beings who kill humans on sight. But then, thanks to the experiment that irrevocably changed him, he isn’t exactly human any longer—and with each passing day, as his blood bond with Seral strengthens, he’s less and less sure as to whose side he’s on.

Excerpt:

I’d been living in a box of an apartment before I’d naively signed up for the experiment. Before that it’d been in a group transition home after my family kicked me out. It was almost too much to fathom when I saw the pristine spaces in the city compared to the packed squalor that filled the planet that birthed me.

Between visits with Seral’s family, including another nerve-wracking meal with his parents, and visits from the doctor, Seral had taken me into the city to see the sights and stroll in a few park areas. I’d seen more groves of sampanga trees in fields of some sort of bulbous yellow flower that actually moved across the ground following us like a golden carpet. Those had startled me, but it was the strange animals that had surprised me the most. A little leathery-skin-looking green thing with four feet and wings had buzzed around my face before perching on my shoulder. I’d stood stock still, panic on my face as I hissed, trying to get Seral’s attention.

He’d smiled and shooed the freaky creature off, assuring me it was harmless. He’d warned me away from a large creature that looked a lot like a kangaroo, covered in fuzzy fur like a sheep, pointing out the barbed tail one whipped over his shoulder when one of our guards got a little too close. The male jumped back and ended up sprawled in the dirt as he shot a nasty look at the animal, which had calmly gone back to drinking from the lake.

My laugh had drawn a crowd, and everyone had questions. In their excitement, they were all humming at once, talking over each other. Seral had answered a few, but when he noticed how shallow my breathing had gotten he’d made excuses for us and drew me away. I knew I was an alien, but I’d been stared at wherever we went. I’d seen several angry looks, but most took one look at the two guards flanking us and walked away. I was still nervous around crowds, too used to being alone in my cell or surrounded by unfriendly people who were trying to hurt me.

“Why does everyone always stare?” I’d finally asked Seral as we walked around the city shops.

“It’s the robe,” Seral had whispered in my ear. Looking around, I’d realized he was right. No one else was wearing more than a brief wrap, and the sheer white fabric of my robe was like a spotlight. We’d gone out in late afternoon, but it was still warm enough that even that made me sweat. I was reluctant to take it off, but I did anyway, in hopes it would help me not stand out as much. We drew a lot less attention as we finished shopping and then headed back for dinner and an early night.

Author Bio:

Alicia Nordwell is one of those not so rare creatures, a reader turned writer. Striving to find something interesting to read one day, she decided to write what she wanted instead. Then the voices started… Yep, not only does she talk about herself in the third person for bios, she has voices in her head constantly clamoring to get out. Fortunately for readers, with the encouragement of her family and friends, she decided for her own sanity to keep writing. Now you can find her stories both free and e-published! Oh yeah, she’s a wife, mom of two, and lives in the dreary, yet ideal for her redhead complexion, Pacific Northwest. Except for when she disappears into one of the many worlds in her head, of course!

BLOG  *  FACEBOOK  *  GOODREADS  *  TWITTER: @AliciaNordwell