Guestpost : The Sky's the Limit When It Comes To Love In The Future by Sasha Summers

This is so late! I didn't have time to put this up when I got the guestpost on the 12th. Sorry guys! Both me and Sasha have been swamped!

The Sky’s the Limit When It Comes To Love In The Future

by Sasha Summers

Raise your hand if you can remember Leia’s first kiss with Han (not her kiss with Luke. Nobody mention that. I mean, seriously—here we are decades later, and the idea of it still squicks me out *shudder shudder*).

Another early sci-fi movie moment that made my heart pause was the “reveal” scene between The Terminator’s Kyle Reece and Sarah Connor. Just how hot was that? I’ll never forget when Kyle admits he volunteered for the mission to go back in time to save her life. The raw note of longing in Kyle’s tone when he told Sarah he loved her, that’d he’d loved her for years, that he’d been happy to go back in time just for her—oh, man. That did it. I was lost. Sci-fi romance had my heart for all time.


It was also the birth of a realization. If a love story is told in just the right way, it can make even the most mind-bogglingly alien backdrop 100% believable. A handsome, intergalactic pirate hiding out on Earth, doing his best to blend in with the natives? Absolutely. As long as there’s love, I’ll believe it. Two warring peoples finding everlasting peace by creating a new, integrated society on an undeveloped planet light-years away? If their respective leaders find they’re soul mates, I’m a blubbering mess of unmitigated joy. Love conquers all…even the limits of reality.

Math might be the official universal language that intelligent alien life would understand, but I’d like to make an argument for love. In the sci-fi holiday anthology, A GALACTIC HOLIDAY, my antho sisters and I weave tales of science fiction that touch upon interplanetary political intrigue, a far-off frozen outpost on the edge of space and an earthbound tech-based society filled with cyborgs and androids. Different facets of the science fiction genre, to be sure, but there’s a common thread tying them together, and that thread is love.

No matter what planet you’re from, there’s a universal understanding of that moment—the moment when the first blush of love blooms on the horizon. It’s there when Leo takes off his cold-weather gear and Riley sees him for the first time in Sasha Summers’s GALILEO’S HOLIDAY, and he’s so painfully beautiful to her lonely eyes she can hardly look at him. In Anna Hackett’s WINTER FUSION, we recognize what’s happening when the hero Savan can’t quite stand it when the lovely Brinn’s skin is marred by a scrape after saving her from a violent explosion. And in my novella, HOW THE GLITCH SAVED CHRISTMAS, a glimpse of that moment appears when the hero, Edison, watches his soon-to-be-love Reina place her mouth over the imprint of his while drinking from the same glass.

These are mere hints of the life-altering magic that is to come. But everyone who’s been in love can instantly relate to what’s happening, and that’s why romance in science fiction will always be insanely popular, as the most recent sci-fi blockbuster movie, Avatar, proves. No matter how alien or fantastic a sci-fi tale might be, fusing it with passionate love grounds it and makes it instantly relatable. That’s why I say love is the universal language—to the farthest reaches of --> space and back, love makes itself understood by every person willing to open their hearts and let it in.


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For a closer look at the novellas in A GALACTIC HOLIDAY, enjoy these blurbs!


WINTER FUSION, by Anna Hackett:

Ex-space marine Savan Bardan survived the Galactic Wars to become the most ruthless trade negotiator in the galaxy. His planet needs energy to survive, and he'll do anything to close the deal for the Perman fusion crystals that can provide it—even if it means seducing his beautiful, infuriating opponent, a rival icier than her planet.

Perma's top negotiator, Brinn Fjord, lost her father when Savan delayed her planet's Trade Guild membership years ago. She hates the handsome Rendarian and the planet he represents. She's determined to finish the deal and get rid of him as quickly as possible, so she can celebrate the holidays.

But soon the rival negotiators are in a fight for their lives. Besieged by mysterious accidents and unforgiving weather, Brinn and Savan have no one to depend on but each other. As they put the past aside, they uncover a desire hot enough to melt ice, and Brinn discovers a secret that may keep them apart.

28,000 words


GALILEO’S HOLIDAY, by Sasha Summers:

Ice miner Riley works alone in the depths of space, and that's the way she likes it. She's proud of her independence, and when her ship gets destroyed by raiders on the icy surface of Galileo, she's not sure she wants to rely on rakish trader Leo and the kindness of a band of settlers to survive.

Despite her attempts to keep her distance, it's not long before Riley warms to the family atmosphere of the settlers' station. As Galileo's Holiday approaches and she develops feelings for the handsome, charming Leo, she questions whether she really wants to remain alone.

But Leo is hiding cargo the raiders want, and when they come back for it, everyone on the small station is in danger. Riley will risk anything to protect her new friends—because if the raiders succeed, the choice between Leo and a life alone won't be Riley's to make.

23,000 words


HOW THE GLITCH SAVED CHRISTMAS, by Stacy Gail:

Reina Vedette chose principle over position when the Chicago police department ordered her to accept performance-enhancing body modifications or lose her rank. Demoted to a level one detective, Reina's stuck chasing a bizarre, Grinch-in-reverse break-in case with fiery bod-mod enthusiast and level five top detective Edison Wicke.

Wicke has had his eye on Reina for ages, and as the two of them hunt down the benevolent burglar, they take turns warming each other with body heat in the subzero Chicago winter. Despite professional friction and their opposing views on bod-modding, Reina soon has to admit that she and Wicke are perfect for each other.

But when they track down their philanthropic quarry on Christmas Day, an unexpected glitch in a homemade android brings out Reina's emotional side, and she and Wicke must decide whether love between a Neo-Luddite and a "walking toaster" is a gift that either of them can give.

34,000 words

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A GALACTIC HOLIDAY – Carina Press | Amazon | B&N | All Romance
Anna Hackett – Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Stacy Gail – Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Sasha Summers – Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Enjoy the giveaway!