Love Across the Universe #guestpost #scif #romance

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Love Across the Universe

Genre: Science Fiction Romance

Publisher: Stars and Stone Books

Date of Publication: August 1 2017

ISBN-10: 0-9977081-8-2

ISBN-13: 978-0-9977081-8-9

ASIN: B071JSHCGC

13 Stories of Science Fiction Romance Set on Intergalactic Shore 

#spacebeachlove

Summer love is summer love, no matter the planet. Climb aboard your spacecraft or time machine and travel across time and space with these thirteen tales of love on beaches in the future and among the stars.

Includes stories by USA Today Bestselling Author Traci Douglass, Cara McKinnon, A.E. Hayes, Sheri Queen, M.T. DeSantis, L.J. Longo, K.W. Taylor, Mary Rogers, Elsa M. Carruthers, Emmerite Sundberg, Serena Jayne, and Oriana Maret.

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Love Across the Universe Interview 

The theme of Love Across the Universe was jokingly called “Beaches in Space” among the writers, because all of the stories had to feature a beach somewhere in the narrative. We asked the authors to tell us their favorite and least favorite things about the beach in the present on Earth.

Elsa M. Carruthers—“All B+ut You”

I love the salt smell and walking along the coast after sunset. Least favorite things are the crowds and the way the sunlight tends to cause a hazy glare on hard surfaces.

M.T. DeSantis—“The Princess of Sands”

Favorite thing: the air. I love the smell of the salt and sea.

Least favorite: walking on the sand. While it’s actually really good for the feet, the sinking and trying to balance and burning when the sun’s been baking for hours isn’t so fun.

Traci Douglass—“A Dream to Build a Kiss On”

I love just sitting by the water with a cool ocean breeze, a cold drink, a good book, and the gentle sound of the waves to lull me away. J So relaxing and peaceful.

A.E. Hayes—“Tristan’s Tryst”

I absolutely love going to the beach at night, when it’s mostly quiet, and I can listen to the waves crash against the shoreline. Watching the stars, listening to the waves, taking in the sea air as it whips around me – that is paradise. However, I am not a daytime beach person. Too many kids, too many dogs, too much noise, not enough space! Which really means that I just need my own private beach… most likely in space.

Serena Jayne—“You Only Love Once”

My favorite thing about the beach is the tranquility the water brings. I love swimming and snorkeling. There’s something magical about underwater life. My least favorite thing about the beach is when it’s super crowded. I want to enjoy a good book and relax, not fight the crowds.

L.J. Longo—“Breathless”

I lived in Wild Wood Crest New Jersey and I loved to walk on the beach especially in the Fall and Spring. There’s such a lovely barrenness to that much sand and water, when the only sign of life is the sandpipers dodging the waves and the occasional horseshoe crab skeleton. This calming isolation always made me think of new ideas for stories. I hated when the tourists would arrive in the summer and leave their trash on the sand and in the water.

Oriana Maret—“Renewal”

The ocean is mysterious; big; unexplored and beaconing. Who can tame the waters? On the other hand, who can tame the waters? For a control freak, the water is my worst nightmare. It fascinates and repels. Period.

Cara McKinnon—“The Pirates and the Pacifist”

I love the ocean. I love the sound of the surf and the scent of salt in the air. I love the feel of wet sand between my toes. I love the place where the sky meets the sea (Moana and I have something in common!) and the endless possibilities of that horizon. I love gathering shells (I usually come home from any beach trip with a full plastic tub of shells), especially Calico and Atlantic Bay scallops, whelks, and snails.

I don’t like being hot, so I dislike but tolerate the sun. Fortunately I tan well, but I also slather myself in sunblock. And lately my hips and knees have developed arthritis, so walking on the shifting sands is painful. But I do it anyway. 

Sheri Queen—“Red Sand”

My favorite thing is the sound of the ocean because its soothing. My least favorite is getting sand in every nook and cranny. It’s not the easiest place to have sex.

Mary Rogers—“Breakfast on Pluto”

I have grown up on the beach. Lots of folks don’t see Brooklyn as a beach community, but it is.  My house in Long Island looks out where the Connetquot meets the Bay and I spent summers on Fire Island with all my friends. I have always loved it. Now, I am in Southern California, now about a mile from the beach. I have a very, very, hard time getting away from it, and when I do, it’s dififcult for me. For someone who cannot eat any seafood, nor swim very well, and gets a sunburn under the refrigerator bulb, I crave it like nothing else. Everything is perfect about the beach.  Sand in your suit, not so much.

Emmerite Sundberg—“Fluid”

I love the peace of the beach (when there aren’t tons of other people around). The roll of the waves is just calming to the soul. My least favorite thing, just like with my character, Iyonne, is the sun. It seems to have a search and destroy operative with my skin. I always come back to the beach a peeling apple.

K.W. Taylor—“Reprogramming”

I love the beach at night. I love seeing a full moon reflected on the waves, the way the sand looks silvery when wet. I love the midnight velvet sky, less prone to light pollution at the beach, and how you can see the stars more clearly. With the sound of the ocean, it almost makes you feel like you’re floating in space. Setting a science fiction story on a beach, then, is a perfect combination of the way the beach makes me feel at night.

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