Veronica Scott - Wreck of the Nebula Dream

I’m so happy to be a guest here today, talking about my latest novel WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM, which is a loose re-imagining of the Titanic disaster, set in the far future, among the stars. Here’s a brief description of the book:

Traveling unexpectedly aboard the luxury liner Nebula Dream on its maiden voyage across the galaxy, Sectors Special Forces Captain Nick Jameson is ready for ten relaxing days, and hoping to forget his last disastrous mission behind enemy lines. He figures he’ll gamble at the casino, take in the shows, maybe even have a shipboard fling with Mara Lyrae, the beautiful but reserved businesswoman he meets.

All his plans vaporize when the ship suffers a wreck of Titanic proportions. Captain and crew abandon ship, leaving the 8000 passengers stranded without enough lifeboats and drifting unarmed in enemy territory. Aided by Mara, Nick must find a way off the doomed ship for himself and several other innocent people before deadly enemy forces reach them or the ship’s malfunctioning engines finish ticking down to self destruction.

But can Nick conquer the demons from his past that tell him he’ll fail these innocent people just as he failed to save his Special Forces team? Will he outpace his own doubts to win this vital race against time?

My grandfather had a distant relative on the Titanic, a Second Class woman passenger who survived and even saved the life of a Steerage baby that was handed to her just as the lifeboat was lowered. That mini drama had a happy ending, because the baby’s mother made it into another lifeboat, so she and her child were reunited on the rescue ship Carpathia. I grew up with stories of the sinking and was completely fascinated by it. What would I do if I was in a similar situation?

Science fiction and paranormal romance are my favorite genres, so when I decided to write a book based on the Titanic events, I wanted to set the action in the far future, on an interstellar luxury liner. In my SF I like to write Special Forces heroes, so then I had to figure out how and why a man like Nick would be traveling on such an expensive civilian vessel. Who would he be likely to meet? That led me to Mara, my high powered and very capable intergalactic businesswoman… Who else might need rescuing? What challenges would they face?

I really wanted to include some children in my novel, in a nod to the many children on Titanic, half of whom perished. So Nick is called upon to attempt a rescue of a young brother and sister, trapped in their cabin.

I had two major challenges writing the book. First, I’d expected to do a more literal retelling of the Titanic events, but my characters took  hold of the action as characters will (ask any author LOL) and the story went to some different – but exciting places. Second, I had to provide moments of breathing space after the disaster hits, for Nick and Mara to have a chance to develop their relationship. There’s no time for romantic heat when you’re trying to escape a dying ship, but there is definitely a slow burn going on between the hero and heroine.

Actually I had written this novel before I sold my first book PRIESTESS OF THE NILE to Carina Press. I was concentrating on that paranormal series set in Ancient Egypt for most of the past year. When I realized 2012 was the 100^th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, I felt I really needed to get WRECK out there. I had wanted to dip a toe into self publishing so this was my chance but did work with a professional, free lance editor – you have to have an editor! You’ll never find your own typos and/or plot holes.

How can readers connect with you?

My blog is at http://veronicascott.wordpress.com/ and I’m on twitter all the time @vscotttheauthor

Wreck of the Nebula Dream is available at a special 99 cent price from Amazon for the kindle and Barnes & Noble for the Nook. Thanks for having me here today!