Saturday, November 2, 2019

Natural Gills? Snippet from EUROPA for #WeWriWa



Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work. Enjoy!

My new story, Alarik, book 4 in my series, Taxyon Space is at the awkward stage, so I’ve switched to snippets from the first book, Europa. This series stars alien mermen, Warrish, who have been secretly observing humans from a submarine base in the oceans of Jupiter’s moon.

Blurb
Dr. Nikki Bell’s plan to discover intelligent life on Jupiter’s moon hits a rocky start when her spaceship crashes on the icy surface of Europa. Seconds before she blacks out, she spies a man’s face in the water beneath the ice. When she wakes on the submarine Station, nobody believes her story. Convinced the mysterious stranger saved her life, Nikki searches for him while she explores the ocean and its alien inhabitants. 
Kiron Arqin Ramis chose exile as a Watcher on a remote outpost to redeem his family’s honor. He never expected to find an attractive Earther woman close to death. He violates the prime policy by rescuing her. Despite suffering the penalty, he strives to warn her about his hostile leaders.
Nikki’s unexpected meeting with Kiron triggers a chain of disasters in Europa’s perilous oceans. Can the daredevil scientist and scarred Watcher forge a new alliance despite their people’s antagonism? 

Introduction for snippet: While exploring the oceans of Europa, Nikki has escaped from large manta-like predators by hiding in a coral forest. Peering out of the coral branches, she spies six “mermen” hunting sea creatures in a clearing.
I’ve skipped a little ahead, and altered punctuation to fit.

Nikki stared in growing delight. Other people lived in the seas of Europa, people like the man she had seen beneath the ice. Where in styx had they come from? Their humanoid skeletal structures were an anomaly in these dark waters; none of the animals she had encountered had internal bony skeletons nor had her predecessors’ notes indicated the presence of vertebrates.
She inspected the back of nearest stranger from the safety of her hiding place. He bore a tube in a green scaled harness on his back and wore leggings of darker scales; his blue hair stood upright on the top of his head. He turned slightly, revealing a sharp-featured face with tightly spiraled mustache of the same blue as his short hair. Parallel slits ran above his ribs, narrow openings filled with pink filaments - gills, she guessed. Were the gills natural, or a genetic modification, engineered like her hemoglobin for living underwater?
Swinging around, he brandished a harpoon with a cruel barbed tip.

 Europa

Europa, Book 1 of Taxyon Space – SciFi Thriller and Romance
FREE at:  Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay

Post Halloween Special
 Rosemary

99c – Rosemary’s Quest – Young adult, coming-of-age fantasy
Untrained teen witch tangles with evil demon and white wizard
99c at Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay 

As always, I’ll be happy to reply to your comments.  
Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.

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22 comments:

  1. Oh that's really cool. Great description, Aurora.

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    1. Thanks. My mermen are amphibious - just for a fun contrast.

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  2. He sounds like he's part of a very intelligent species, but maybe also a little scary with that harpoon.

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  3. I love the vivid descriptions an your worldbuilding, Aurora!

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    1. Thank you. Colors are important in many of my stories.

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  4. Outstanding once again. I enjoyed every minute

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  5. Again, you held my interest with your descriptions. well done.

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  6. Your description of the merman made me see him, but it lulled me as I read until--wham!--he whirled around with that harpoon! Wow. Great surprise.

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  7. This is a scary moment! I love the world-building in this book. Your descriptive writing in out of this world--pun intended. :-)

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    1. Thanks for the fun pun. I didn't even explain about the suspicious disappearance of her predecessor.

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  8. I always love the completeness of your details and when he turns around with that harpoon or spear - ohh, I'm on edge now. Well done snippet!

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  9. Obviously he's humanoid -- he's brandishing a cruel looking weapon.

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    1. Exactly. Although the octopoid aliens can throw rocks.

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  10. That's an interesting looking 'person' hopefully he is going to be friendly, though he looks a bit scary to me.

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    1. He is a bit scary and not really friendly. They've been secretly watching humans.

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