Please welcome today’s guest, Ellora’s Cave author, Nina Pierce! ~DD
I’m not sure what it is exactly about science fiction that totally intrigues me. Perhaps it’s the fantasy of anything goes or the what if of alternative reality. Whatever the draw, I find stories about the future just suck me right in.
I’ve watched i-Robot, Logan’s Run, Star Wars and X-Men countless times. I’ve read Anne McCaffrey’s “Freedom” series until the pages were dog-eared. And don’t even get me started on Star Trek. I can name an episode from the original series after watching 5 seconds… okay 10 seconds…of any clip. So to set my stories in a new world just seemed natural for me. I love creating places that either don’t exist or occur in the natural world that’s been changed and imagining the things that could be.
My newest novel Healer’s Garden takes place in an alternative future…a world where a virus released during the melting of the polar ice caps in the late 21st century killed off nearly all human males and a large portion of the females. It’s now the 23rd century. Sperm is no longer viable for artificial insemination, cloning has not been perfected and infants that are born rarely survive. Woman outnumber men fifty to one, but they are genetically superior having been born with advanced gifts of telekinesis, visions or the highest honor—healing.
The situation is dire. In order for the human race to survive the government has stepped in and built breeding facilities where every woman is expected to reside for two years in hopes of procreating. Men of acceptable genetic viability are raised to work as breeders at these facilities known as Gardens.
And this is where my story begins.
Healer’s Garden is the story of a gifted Healer who has managed to hold off her obligation to the Garden. But Jahara Hriznek is nearly twenty-eight and no matter how prestigious her position, she can no longer put off the inevitable. She must now mate with a male—a distasteful task.
Brenimyn is the breeding instructor at the Garden of Serenity. He’s been enslaved for nearly three years, required to copulate with all woman who request is services. But he waits impatiently for the one woman who has been prophesied to help bring about equality between the sexes. But he’s not sure how much longer he can wait.
Jahara doesn’t want to enjoy the sinful rapture only Brenimyn brings to her body. Brenimyn has no intention of dousing the flames of desire licking at them until Jahara is completely his—body, mind, and heart. But when the government finds their loving relationship a threat to the natural order, there may be more than their stubborn wills at stake.
Please enjoy this excerpt from Chapter One:
Jahara Hriznek’s life was over. The evidence weighed heavy in her hands. In the time it had taken to do the retinal scan, her future had been stolen from her.
Read the rest of this entry »
