Sixshooter by Lyndi Alexander

Welcome Lyndi!

Tell us about what you write.

As Lyndi Alexander, I write sci-fi romance, science fiction, urban fantasy, fantasy, and paranormal mysteries. As Alana Lorens, I write romance, romantic suspense and suspense/thrillers. I’m one of those writers that doesn’t write to a formula, but instead just begin whatever story comes to me, whatever genre and form it’s in. Most of my young reading was gothic romance, so there’s always a bit scary and a bit warm and fuzzy in it. My intent is to create great characters and let them lead us all through the tales that come to us.

When did your writing journey begin? What drew you to writing?

I wrote my first piece that meant anything when I was about 8. I observed and described the process of my cat, Moonbeam, killing and eating a rabbit. Maybe that meant I was destined to be a journalist, which I did in Homestead, Florida for most of the 1980s. My first paid publication was a personal essay when I was 18. I had written three novel manuscripts by then (which by the way are buried and hopefully they’ll stay that way). As a fairly solitary kid, books were my friend all those years, and continued to be as I became an adult. More on my whole writing journey at : https://lyndialexander.wordpress.com/about/

What was your inspiration for SIXSHOOTER?

My ex-husband and I were part of an online freeform RPG in the 1990s-2000s that was mainly sci-fi and fantasy based. He played a robot character who could present as an android male or female, and preferred the female persona…who was a rival for the cowboy character played by my best friend. My heroine had a hard time dealing with the rivalry. When we gave up on the RPG, the triangle stayed with me, and it eventually sifted through into the thought of this story. It’s a fun story and fun characters, and according to readers, it has also a feel like FIREFLY, GUARDIANS of the GALAXY and SERENITY.

Like space, love has no boundaries.

Valeni Pascual wants to be free to make a living hauling cargo with her spaceship and to understand the shapeshifting alien who presents sometimes as the steamy male Nik and other times as the blonde bombshell Nikki.

As a rebel insurgence builds against the oppressive government known as the Agency, Valeni and Nik/Nikki encounter a sexy Terran cowboy named Garrett Rawls. Since being pulled into this region of space by another mysterious wormhole, Garrett has looked for a way to return to Earth. After meeting Valeni and Nikki, he might have found something worth staying for.

However, dark forces may have a much bigger picture in mind for all of them. Valeni, Nik/Nikki, and Garrett are pulled into a life and death fight that lays bare all of their secrets and their desires. Will they lose everything as the battle against the Agency rages around them or can love pull them through?

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Check out the new trailer for Sixshooter!

Do you find inspiration in your own life for your writing?

Nearly every character I write is drawn from some aspect of myself. Valeni has my need to be independent and get things accomplished. Nik has my insecurities. Nikki is someone I have never been but kind of always wanted to. Garrett is based on my friend, so he’s all her. By writing them all, I get to live a little vicariously. 😊

Any new projects on the horizon?

SIXSHOOTER is a book set in the same universe as the Horizon Crossover trilogy, which includes Horizon Shift, Horizon Strife and Horizon Dynasty, a space opera trilogy from Dragonfly Publishing. Find out more here: https://lyndialexander.wordpress.com/the-horizon-crossover-series

What was the hardest part of the story to write/research?

I was determined, since Nik/Nikki/Nicholas is a genderfluid alien, to use they/them pronouns, a new construct which I have found difficult to manage in real life. It was truly a reboot of my mindset, and I hope I do the genderfluid justice in the story.

Excerpt:

The ones that seem so easy go sour the quickest. Every time.

Valeni Pascual’s throat tightened. Hot sweat ran down between her shoulders, and her finger itched for her trigger. Too bad her gun was behind her on the wide leather seat of her sandrunner, gleaming beautifully in the late afternoon sun. The four men standing in front of her already had theirs in hand.

The pack leader, a thick-necked lubber called Fat Jonny, had the nerve to laugh. “C’mon, Val, don’t make this hard on yourself. And when I say hard, I mean the application of solid lead to your silky, kaff-colored skin.” His minions snickered.

Eight crates of cargo sat in a pile a dozen meters to the right, near her sleek ship, the Tiburon. It stood silhouetted against the rocky Marriel landscape, a swath of brown and tan sands.

If she connected with the buyer due any minute, the profit would cover six months of expenses and her late Agency dues. The deal had been a wild, desperate risk that nearly cost her landing gear in a hasty and ill-advised takeoff from the far side of the desert. No way she could afford to surrender the cargo. She had to stand fast.

Wishing her radio was handy, not tucked in her jacket pocket next to her sandrunner on the ground, she smirked, hoping attitude alone might shield her. “Still expecting everyone else to do your work for you, Jon? Don’t you have even a shred of pride inside those layers of pork?”

He cocked his gun, leveled it at her. “Last chance.”

Damn again. She’d intentionally chosen this spot way out at the edge of the tarmac for its privacy.

The down side? It also left her out of public view of anyone who could offer her help. She was out of options. “Fi—”

A voice behind the men interrupted her.

“What a bunch of fine-looking gentlemen! Are any of ’em spoken for, or can I have my pick?”

The men turned around. A petite blonde woman wearing a thin white scarf tied around her breasts and a scandalously short skirt greeted them with a broad smile and a charged laser rifle.

Val nearly fainted with relief. How had Nikki known? She’d been in the bowels of the ship repairing one of her many gadgets. Now, she was the cavalry.

FIND LYNDI ONLINE:

~ Website  and Blog ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~

~ Amazon Author Page ~ Bookbub ~ Smashwords ~

Windmills by Lyndi Alexander

Welcome, Lyndi!

Let’s talk about your book and its relevance to today and tomorrow…

Authors often agonize over whether their books will remain relevant, especially those who write young adult stories and others that use a particular setting or set of jargon to make their points. Even as I wrote the Color of Fear series, critique mates would point out the use of SoCal cadence in Valery Paz’s “Valley Girl speak,” and pop culture references in the banter of electrogeek Eddie Garrick. (It’s true, though–you can’t stop the signal.)

The series tells the story of a world hit by terrorism, and the apocalyptic plague that has wiped out most of the Caucasian population of the world. Mixed blood has saved some whites, but the majority of the survivors, especially in the hard-hit United States, are people of color. Blacks. Native Americans. Asians. Hispanics.

While those people are trying to recover and pull together the remains of the shattered nation, from out of a concrete bunker in the northwest comes Bernard Ellison, the self-styled Gabriel, a ideological brother-son of the Posse Comitatus, the American Vanguard and other white nationalists. Gabriel commandeers an abandoned radio station and broadcasts to the faithful:

A trip to the wild west for inspiration.

“How long, my friends, have those terrorists been watching and listening to our communications, so that they knew precisely when to strike? Bin Laden and his people clearly read our country’s weakness. The Universal Jihad Front that launched the Second Holocaust, they, too, understood how far our leaders had left us vulnerable. Listen to this.”  He played the government spokesman’s clip Eddie had played on his show a few days before. “Does that sound like a government that can protect you, my friends? I think not!

   “Without a strong, healthy government to keep those foreign devils off American ground, do you believe they just stayed home and played in the sand? How do we know they didn’t take advantage of the apocalypse to begin landing ships on our unprotected shores, spilling thousands of them out to take your wives and daughters? Will they recruit those of color who survived in this land? They are banding together, taking aim at the real Americans who are left.”

   The propaganda-filled diatribe paused for a moment, then continued, “My friends discovered a nest of potential murderers right here in our heartland just last night. We’d tried to contact these rebels, to show them the truth, but instead, they returned threats and violence. They ruined a major highway!”

   A note of stricken sadness came into his voice. “Now crossing our great land will be so much more difficult. Why do these people insist on destroying the world?”

At about the same time in the story, a small band of people trying to get to St. Louis, where the new capital is forming, have this conversation with a ham radio operator who’s keeping them informed of the state of the nation:

Inspiration for Kwan.

  “KC-five-NXS, KC-five-NXS, this is K-two-JJB. Hang, are you there? What’s going on?”

   “KC-five-NXS, yes, I’m here.” Hang settled onto the floor in front of the radio as the others gathered around. “Thanks for getting back to me. I wanted to let you know we’re going to be delayed—”

   “What? I don’t think you can wait any longer, son. Word came down this morning that Gabriel’s on the move. His people set off explosives all along the stretch of I-80 between Omaha and Lincoln, knocking out the road. It’s impassable.”

   “Cabron,” Valery hissed.

   San eyed Charlie, his worst fears coming to life. “We need a map,” he said.

   “I got one in the truck,” Terry said, and he hurried out.

   “Why would he do that?” Hang asked. “Don’t his people need to get around, too?”

   “Word has it that some groups in the two cities planned to set up a blockade, aiming to take Gabriel out. Apparently he just got the jump on them. He’s celebrating on his damned station, claiming the other side was the attacker. I’m not sure how much of what he says you can believe, but we’ve got confirmation from our men on the ground that there are plenty of dead, and they aren’t Gabe’s people.”

   “Whoa.” Deflated, Hang leaned back against the bookshelf where the radio sat.

   “How many dead?” Marie asked.

   “Reports range from just a few to hundreds, depending on who’s telling the story.”

   Terry came back with the map, and they spread it out on the table. Mere inches separated Lincoln from their intended route on Interstate 70, inches that translated into only one hundred and seventy miles. And they still had three states to cross moving east.

Sound familiar? Does it sound like “Many sides” are at fault? How much more relevant can you get?

Bio-terrorists release a plague in the United States that spreads to kill most of the world’s Caucasian population. As the deadly virus mutates, Tzu Shin, a renowned medical doctor and biologist, defects from China to help develop a cure. His only daughter, Lin Kwan, is left behind in Hong Kong with her aunt.

Then Kwan’s father summons her from across the sea to bring him Chinese medicinal herbs he needs to develop a cure. Lonely and missing her parents, she accepts the challenge, traveling with her sensei Li Zhong to the New World.

But a Chinese assassin is on her trail, determined to kill her and Li Zhong, and when Kwan discovers her father has disappeared, she sets out on a journey to find him and deliver her precious cargo, a quest that she may not survive.

Find it on: Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble

Find it online:

Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble

Any new projects on the horizon?

DESTINATIONS, the second book in the series, is already out, and ADVERSARIES, the final book, is just finishing up at the publisher and should be out later this year. It’s been a long journey, but this is the book (series) of my heart, and I have worked hard to share it with the world.

Check out the Book series trailer:

In the aftermath of a terrorist bio-attack that has wiped out most Caucasians in America, and around the world, survivors struggle to work together to establ...

Lyndi Alexander always dreamed of faraway worlds and interesting alien contacts. She lives as a post-modern hippie in Asheville, North Carolina, a single mother of her last child of seven, a daughter on the autism spectrum, finding that every day feels a lot like first contact with a new species.

Website ~ Bookbub ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Amazon Author Page