ALIEN PRESENCE...

“You must know I will not hurt you.” He spoke close to her ear as he pressed the length of his body against hers. “Look at me.” He urged. “I am called D’Jas.”

A strong quiver ran though her. Pastel blue slanted orbs in a sensual alien face stared at her. She shook her head slightly, and an unbidden attraction swept over her.

“D’Jas?” she answered.

He nodded and raised a webbed finger sliding it gently across her cheek. “You are lovely, Karla.”

She tried to pull away, but he held her firm. “Damn you anyway, this is so not right.”
Glaring at him, Karla felt repelled and turned on at the same time. How could she feel such opposition running rampant inside her? “Just back off or I will scream.”

“You will not.”

“Ha! Don’t try me.”

His cool breath rose across her forehead, his clean scent permeated her senses like fresh air after a rain.

“Your planet is in danger from your solar star.” He spoke low, ignoring her proclamations.

“Don’t you think I know that? How do I know you didn’t cause the threat to occur?”

He let go his grasp and moved back a few steps. “I would not do that.”

“Damn it, what proof do I have that you are telling the truth?”

He sighed. “Remember our touching?”

“Humph! You mean your invasion of me, don’t you? Ha! You took advantage of me. An alien abduction if ever there was one.”

“You cannot say you did not enjoy it…”

© copyright Kaye Manro 2018

Nick Zelmenis

Focus on Nick Zelmenis
from the Soul-Love series

A young musician with an astounding ability he doesn’t truly want. He sees things he doesn’t want to see, knows things he tries not to know. An undeveloped potential he doesn't need. Or so he believes...

Nick parked the YD3 under the Mystic River bridge and leaned against the bike’s seat. He stared at the huge moon rising over the city, wishing he was sharing this sight with his Krista. Breathing in he let his mind drift to thoughts of her. He missed her, wanted her more than ever. But life had a way of keeping them apart. Dreams, that’s all he had of her now. He reached under his seat and pulled out a brew popping the top. His eyes traveled upward to the full moon again, huge and bright over the Boston Skyline, causing a reflecting glow across the river. He took a swig. “Krista,” he whispered. “Here’s to you baby…”

LAYERS AND EFFECTS

...Dreams aren't real

came to me from out of sleep the night before

holding aspects of words once said separately

and prompted a look again inside of me 

to search the spaces even more

had I been exactly there
 I would have noticed the layers and effects 
and where those words came from 
and maybe why

yet I have lived and loved
so much within a sigh
 finding the meaning always
tucked deep away within a song
but will I ever know the real
 how could I have been so wrong
took me back to times that are gone 
sing it out loud will it ever stay
for me for him forever this way
so someday I will know
and never let go of how
things should be


© copyright Kaye Manro 2017

ALIENS IN THE AFTERGLOW

Everyone who knows me knows I write imaginative alien characters. But really, writing SF and SF Romance is so much more than creating alien characters.

The world building of an alien culture/character is important, You really have to do your studying for this. For me it takes a lot of research. 

It's still fiction, but if I can't lace my stories with plausible scientific theories it just won't work for me. Now that's not to say I drone on and on about quantum physics. No way, that would bore even me.  But alien cultures can be very complex and difficult to execute. I do have to know what I'm trying to relate to a reader. Yet I also give myself lots of flexibility while creating imaginative possible worlds and realities. 

Take that awesome theory of traveling faster than light speed--one of my favorites by the way.

Think about this—  in Star Trek, the characters travel at warp speed. (Warp 1,2 3 4, etc.) Technically the speed of light is approximately 186,282 miles per second. According to Star Trek, calculating warp speed goes by the warp-cubed method. (X^3) X to the third power. So warp-1 would be speed of light. Warp-2 would be 8 times the speed of light and so on. 

Fast yes, but did they ever even leave the Milky Way Galaxy? Remember that ST Voyager got lost in the Delta quadrant— still in our own galaxy. According to the Trek idea, our own galaxy is teaming with intelligent life. Thousands upon thousands of planets with advanced cultures. Science fiction, yes. But based on theories and technology we are verging on now. Still that's a lot of fodder for a writer's imagination!

Okay- moving on to FTL hyperspace and event horizons. Though traveling at FTL (faster than light) varies, speeds could actually reach billions of miles per second. Now we can travel to distant-- Galaxies. Find more life—as much as we know now about quantum physics—there are thousands of galaxies with billions of stars, millions of planets and possible advanced life and cultures. Kind of boggles the mind doesn’t it? 

Take the ancient starship in Stargate Universe (SGU) It is traveling at FTL. Faster than light speed – like millions of times faster or else they couldn’t be jumping past all those galaxies.

So in reality, we mere earthlings will have to master and amass so much technology and knowledge before we can even explore our own galaxy, much less others. Well hey, that’s why I love Science Fiction. It lets me live outside the normal realm of present day knowledge and reality as we know it. And I can create imagined worlds, aliens and cultures that could possibly exist somewhere out there.

And those sexy encounters between alien characters from totally different evolutionary backgrounds? I love exploring how they would interact and relate to each other. 

So what is your take? Do you like to watch read or write SF/R? If so, what level of technology do you like to see? Do you like aliens that are very different from us?

Kaye Manro

© copyright Kaye Manro 2018

ALIENS HERE?

Yes... An unauthorized Alien visit. 

Stay tuned for more about

ALIEN PRESENCE.

From a distant star he came
to help a world in jeopardy
but what are his true motives?

© copyright Kaye Manro 2018

LOVE NOT WAR

From ALMOST HOME

“Are you ready for this one?” Nick pulled her close for another kiss. He whispered, “We’re gonna do ‘Love Not War’ tonight.”

She grinned. “Really?”

“Right on baby.” He leaned over the table. “Hey guys, we’re doing this, right?”

“Yeah man,” Franklin agreed.

“I’m diggin’ it,” Josh added.

“Yeah, I’m amped,” Kevin replied.

The band headed back to the stage, all but Cosmo who had sauntered off somewhere with a group of friends. As they strummed and tuned, Nick turned on the microphone and said, “Hey Cosmo Pratt, come to the stage.” His voice boomed through the speaker.

A few minutes later Cosmo jumped onto the stage and took his place behind the drums. Nick adjusted his guitar strap and turned away from the audience. Cosmo raised his sticks high in the air twirling them between his fingers.

Nick spun around and into the mic he said, “Are you ready? Are you ready! We are Back Bay Fate and we are here to give you… Love. Not. War!”

Cosmo struck his sticks together. “One… Two… Three… Four…”

Nick strummed a forceful chord on his guitar and the crowd cheered. The band joined in and the music rose in a hard driving rock beat.

Nick sang.

“Listen people to what I say”

 “Why do we fight and make war this day”

“Why do we hate when Love is a better way”

“Love is the only way”

Franklin angled over his keyboard toward his mic and sang.

“Love is a better way… Love is the only way.”

On the other side of the stage Kevin echoed into his mic.

“Love is a better way… Love is the only way.”

“Listen people hear what I say,” Nick sang.

He raised his hand and flashed the peace sign.

“Why do we kill when Peace is a better way”

“Why do we fight when Love is the only way.”

“Why don’t we make… Love not War!”

“Why can’t we make… Love not War!”

Nick joined Kevin on the side of the stage and they fell into chasing licks back and forth on their guitars. The audience broke out in applause.

And all the guys sang together.

“Peace not War make Love it’s a better way.”

“Peace not War make Love it’s the only way.”

Nick sprinted to center stage and sang.

“Why don’t we make… Love not War!”

He flung his guitar behind his back and grabbed the mic from the stand.

“Why can’t we make… Love not War!”

He raised an arm over his head flashing the peace sign again. “Sing it with me everybody!”

The crowd joined Nick, arms extended, peace signs up swaying with the music as they sang.

“Why can’t we make… Love not War!”

Nick darted to the other end of the stage.

“Why don’t we make…”

He pushed the mic toward the crowd.

“Love not War!”

Dashing back across the stage, he sang.

“Why won’t we make…”

“Love not War!” The crowd chanted with him.

Nick sang.

“Peace not War make Love it’s a better way.”

“Peace not War make Love it’s the only way…”

Krista stood atop a chair watching as Nick captured the audience. The Brownie dangled by its strap at her side.

Will came up to her. “Hey Krista, this is outta sight! Nick’s got this place really fired up. Let me get some more shots for ya.”

“Yeah, do it,” she said. Will slipped the camera from her wrist and disappeared into the crowd.

She’d seen Nick on stage a lot, and this was one the of best performances Back Bay Fate had ever done.

But she wasn’t expecting what happened at the end of their last song…

© copyright Kaye Manro 2018

WRITING SOUL-LOVE

How I write the Soul-Love Series

It always starts with a visual, and then expands into a movie inside my head…

Every author is different in their approach to creating a story. Yet we all have similar aspects to our process, such as finding our characters, settings, and other things. I was thinking about this as I work on creating the third book in the Soul-Love series, AGAIN HOPE.

As this series unfolds the stories become more intense. Main character Nick Zelmenis gets deeper into learning who he is, and what he intends to do with his discovery. This particular story is more focused on Nick, because his character warrants a deeper look.   

In sharing my creative process, I will say this, depending on the story or genre I am writing at the time this process may differ. But for me it always starts with a visual, and then expands into a movie inside my head. I see the characters as their lives unfold and watch as things happen to them.

I get inside their life, experience, and emotions, in a slow-motion view as I watch the story develop. This goes on for a while before I even put pen to paper or fingers on keys. And continues throughout as I write it. Although I may jot down several ideas or a few scenes along the way in One Note, or in a paper notebook.

But no matter what I am seeing in that creative movie, at some point I need to do the research. I admit this can also develop more as I do the actual writing. In the case of this series, there was the 1960s-time period to research, and the music/preforming arts of the era as well. Along with things dealing with psychic abilities and even quantum physics. Yeah. Because these are all important aspects.

Writing time period is a task in and of itself. But truly, these characters just won’t let go until I tell their stories. When I first started seeing this series, I had a longer length novel in mind, and the overall story lends well to that. But I wanted to pull slices of the life of characters Nick and Krista outward. So, I found them at Halloween and Christmas to see what they were doing.

Thus, ALL HALLOWS EVER and ALMOST HOME were born. The third story is not connected to a holiday but takes place in late spring, as Nick realizes there is something wrong with Krista. At the same time, he must deal with the waning of his reluctantly held psychic abilities, and why.   

As I move forward with AGAIN HOPE, I am discovering more about characters, Nick and Krista and the undying love they share. Book four of the Soul-Love series is already on the horizon, but that’s an idea for another day.

Suffice it to say these stories will continue. AGAIN HOPE will release in late spring. Watch for it!

Kaye

© copyright Kaye Manro 2018

AGAIN HOPE from the Soul-Love Series

The sweet and highly sensual Soul-Love Series is about a couple who is destined to be together. AGAIN HOPE, the third book, due to release in the spring, features lovers Nick and Krista from All Hallows Ever and Almost Home. If you’d like to get a feel for my Soul-Love Series, these books are now available on AmazonKindle for $.99 each. 

The vintage stories are set in mid-1960s Boston amid the backdrop of the music and performing arts industry of that era. However, the main theme in all the Soul-Love books is the undying love Nick and Krista share and the insurmountable odds they face to be together. There are twists and surprises as Nick continues to uncover his psychic abilities, who he is, and what he can do.

© copyright Kaye Manro 2018

LOVERS TRYST Excerpt...

You've been in my dreams before.

Yes, I'm the other half of you,

the one you've always loved...

Then where are you?

© copyright Kaye Manro 2018

LOVERS TRYST COVER

If you are lucky enough to stop by my blog you will get to glimpse the LOVERS TRYST book cover before it is revealed This story is featured in the Lovestruck  Athology which will release on February 14. Watch for it!

© copyright Kaye Manro 2018

AFTER ALMOST HOME

AFTER ALMOST HOME

Christmas morning, 1966 Boston. The day after the horrendous snowstorm that hit the northeast with unrelenting force. It had left Nick with a hard decision to make about using his psi powers if he wanted to get back to Krista for Christmas Eve.

Now home, Nick stood by the window in their flat looking out at the deep snow drifts covering everything. Lost in thought he wondered how his world would change in the coming new year, possibly in ways he did not want…

“So, what should we do for New Year’s Eve?” Krista, nestled under the covers, interrupted his reverie. She rolled over and leaned her head on her hand as she watched him.

He stared at the love of his life and smiled. Sauntering toward the bed, he sat down beside her. “What do ya have in mind, baby?”

“Hmm, let’s see—after digging our way out of here, with no electric 

and only candles for light,” she reached across the bed and grabbed his arm, “I don’t know, thought we might just stay in bed ‘til after the first.” She giggled. “How’s that sound?”

“I was thinkin’ the same thing.” He scooted close to her and traced a finger across her face.

“Nick?” She questioned. “Are you okay? You seem preoccupied.”

He inhaled and tossed his head back. “Just tired I guess.”

“Nick?” She scrunched her eyebrows.

“Come here, baby. Let me hold you close…”

She smiled at that, and snuggled her body against his. “The new song you sang to me last night…”

“For you,” he added. “And I meant every word. You got that?”

Nick was good at skirting issues and shielding her from truths. He didn’t want to fill her with trepidation over what the hell he’d had to do to get home to her…

© copyright Kaye Manro 2017

ALMOST HOME Review

© copyright Kaye Manro 2017

AGAIN HOPE ~ Coming Soon ~

AGAIN HOPE

Premise

Back Bay, Boston, 1967

The soul-love continues to grow and deepen between rock musician Nick Zelmenis and ballet dancer Krista McBaine. But now they are faced with other difficult obstacles to overcome.

Nick is busy repairing his motorcycle after the horrendous winter storms. And he is dealing with a recording contract which contains a controversial twist. As his psychic abilities become stronger, Nick discovers more about himself and his real identity.

Krista is in rehearsal preparing for one of the biggest dance events of the year. Although she can’t see it or feel it yet, something is wrong. Nick senses things are not quite right with her even though Krista insists she is fine. He connects with his innate psychic abilities to find out. This time it isn’t enough.

She becomes seriously ill and modern medicine fails to cure her. He must delve far into his expanded supernatural gift to find an answer. But can Nick discover how to save Krista in time?

© copyright Kaye Manro 2017

ALIENS AMONG US AT CHRISTMAS?

ALIEN CHRISTMAS BLURB

Captain Lorcan’s futile search to find his planet’s lost colonists changes when he discovers a beautiful Sedorian female on an obscure world. Even from light years away he longs for the seductive Adria before he meets her.

On a snowy winter night Adria is drawn deep into the forest by a faint blue light. She runs headlong into a strange sensual man named Lorcan. He convinces her to accompany him on his spacecraft for an unbelievable journey to another planet.

Passion ignites between them hotter than a fiery sun. But his mission is to take her to Sedora. Yet Adria wants to go back to the world from which she came. Is their love strong enough to defy the odds or will they lose each other beyond the stars?

ALIEN CHRISTMAS 

Appears in the

Christmas Kisses Anthology

Pre-order now
Release date December 1st

Link on Amazon Kindle

© copyright Kaye Manro 2017

ALIEN CHRISTMAS

ALIEN CHRISTMAS 

appearing in the anthology 

Christmas Kisses

© copyright Kaye Manro 2017

REVIEW: ALL HALLOWS EVER

ALL HALLOWS EVER: A Soul-Love Story

by Kaye Manro

Reha’s Review Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ (5 hearts)

From the beginning, I could feel the love between Nick Zelmenis and Krista McBaine. I was drawn into their unique world in 1966 Boston as the story unfolded. Nick is a musician with uncanny psychic abilities and Krista is a classical dancer studying at a Conservatory. His rock band is playing at a Halloween themed gig and he convinces Krista and her friend to costume up and dance while the band performs on stage. It is refreshing to see the interaction between the two of them and how the events that unfold reveal the depth of their love. Nick and Krista share the ‘ultimate wireless connection.' They have a unique telepathic bond, no cell phones or text messages needed. The secondary characters lend to the authenticity and help round out the story well.

In the 1960’s you were lucky if you had a TV in your home and payphones were the norm. Walkie-Talkies were around but even the best ones only had a range of a few miles. This is evident in the story when Nick tries to contact a bandmate using a walkie-talkie during a tense situation.

This short love story engaged me, I enjoyed it and I recommend it. But I would like to see this Soul-Love idea expanded and these characters explored further by the author.

Reviewed by Reha Wilkie

Link Here

1960s BOSTON MUSIC SCENE

So what was the BOSTON SOUND and how did it effect my Soul-Love stories which are set in the mid 1960s?

The main character Nick Zelmemis and his rock band from the books ALL HALLOWS EVER and ALMOST HOME are part of the BOSTON SOUND. 

This particular rock music scene was a real movement popular in the mid to late 1960’s. Promoters sought out area bands with a specific style and progressive sound. They looked for original songs, strong vocals, a high level of synthesized keyboards, powerful guitar work and a driving beat.

These bands were signed often by record companies. Some made it nationally, many didn't. Still the Boston sixties rock music surge paved the way for later bands from the area such as Aerosmith, Boston (the band), and others who came along in the seventies.

In an excerpt from a interview at the end of ALL HALLOWS EVER, I asked Nick Zelmenis, who was so much a part of that sixties rock scene, if he thought his band fit what the promoters want. His band recently came from the barely scraping by bar circuit when they were discovered. 

This is what Nick said: 

“...Well yeah. But I think the biggest thing that impressed the BOSTON SOUND guys was the undertone of Franklin’s synthesizer and maybe some of the songs I write and sing. But I know for sure it was the far out way our band just jells, ya know.” 

Read about Soul-Love characters, Nick and Krista, and their life during the 1960s. 

AGAIN HOPE releases in early 2018, which will also features Nick and Krista.

Find their stories in the following two books on Amazon Kindle out now!

Link

© copyright Kaye Manro 2017