Wednesday, May 17, 2017

SFR Promo at SMSchmitz.com!

Greetings!  Once again, S. M. Schmitz has put together another promotion for participating authors to offer a book for free or $.99 and to generate interest in science fiction romance.  Please visit www.smschmitz.com/promo to find dozens of books, on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and other ebook retailers.



My offering is Evan's Ladies, a book consisting of four novellas describing Prince Evan Sinclair's problems in finding a lady to love.  Here's an excerpt:

He was walking Mother through the high-tech and massively complex Command Center when Sentinel Chief Savat hailed him. Letting go of her waist just enough to gesture to the Chief that he would be right back, he saw Mother to his parents’ nearby quarters and settled her on the bed, simply drawing the blankets from the edge over her.
[….]
Back in the Command Center, he approached Chief Savat.
“Your Highness, you are housed on the fifth floor, yes? Please feel free to take your messages at Station Five off the second node. Just palm the system on; no need for any special codes,” the Chief said kindly.
“Where are Father and Zhaiden?”
“The Emperor is at the emergency meeting of the Ducal Assembly. The Crown Prince is with their children while Renee is with your mother. They both needed the break.” The Chief wiped his own frazzled features with one hand.
“And how many hours have you been awake?” Evan hinted.
With a snort, the Chief thanked him for the reminder that beds existed in the universe, bowed, and immediately called across the room for the duty officer to find the highest-ranking officer who had had any sleep since midnight to take over. As Evan left, the duty officer drawled, “That would be Ensign Xavier.”
This reference to the mythical Sentinel, named with various ranks for assigning levels to information when speaking in code in public, caused chuckles to erupt all over the room. Although Evan could appreciate the comic relief of the stressed-beyond-measure Sentinels, he couldn’t seem to shake himself from the emptiness threatening to overwhelm him.
Locking himself into Station Five, he began reviewing his vid messages. Several of them were from ladies whose codes he recognized, tearful laments about the destruction of the Palace and how grateful they were he had survived, ending with let-me-know-if-you-need-anything. One code was unknown to him. He opened the message.
Lady Nicole Knightley, whom he had last seen heading for a tram, stared out the screen at him. Clad in his jacket, she remained gravely silent for a long moment.
“If you need to get away from it all, come to visit. My parents and I will take good care of you.” She smiled that sad, wistful smile of hers and palmed off the recording.
He called her immediately. Although it was the middle of the night for her, she answered. Wiping sleep from her eyes, she peered at him. “When’s the last time you had any sleep?”
“Three hours, about eleven hours ago.”
Nicole nodded. “I’m not surprised. When our main activities tent burned down during a month-long summer training expedition in my junior year, none of us could sleep more than a few hours a night for weeks, even after we returned home.” A sly grin crept across her face. “I know a great cure for that, though.”
Evan laughed a bit. “I’m tempted.” Growing melancholic again, he sighed. “I have to get through baby Daniel’s funeral first, along with some other duties. What are your next few weeks like?”
“I finished my research summary last week, so I have no duties until my next field assignment in October. It’s nearly spring now, and Knightley Duchy is so wonderfully green and vibrant and rural, I thought it would be a nice change from the dire events in the capital.”
The warmth and thoughtfulness of her gesture felt like lying among the flowers in the glen of the Imperial Preserve, basking in sunlight to drive away last night’s horrors. He wondered how much of the laboratory clean-up he could leave to Stefan and Josef.
They arranged for him to visit the Knightley Duchy in ten days, and he thanked her with a sweet smile. “You know, all these other ladies who left me messages bewailed this and that, but you’re the only one who offered to help in any concrete way.”
She blinked at that revelation. “And me all the way over here on the other side of the planet. That’s a damn shame.”
“It certainly is. Thank you. I’ll message you once I’ve made the travel arrangements.” He smiled more firmly before palming the vidphone off.


You can find Evan's Ladies at: Amazon, iTunes, B&N, Payhip, and Smashwords.

Enjoy!

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