Slaves of an Alien Game by Nina Schluntz

 

Slaves of an Alien Game

by Nina Schluntz

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GENRE: Science Fiction Romance

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Series BLURB:

Game Wardens rule most of the galaxy by a fierce empire built on enslavement and brokered deals. The only means to earn one’s freedom is by playing in the Alien Games. Two slaves go in the arena, the survivor, if there is one, is given their freedom and crowned a king, earning them a small country to rule and slaves of their own.

To make the battle more fun for spectators, genetically enhanced monsters, sahalias, are given to the combatants, but they must found in a scavenger hunt. Five orbs, each hatching into a lizard that will bond with their keeper, are hidden on a random planet. If the competitor finds all five, they have a great imbalance of power over the other, who will have none. The sahalias are created with one purpose, to battle to the death and destroy the other competitor.

Blurb: Slaves of an Alien Game - Book 1

Caden works at an all night diner in a small town near the interstate. When a man comes in late at night, asking for access to the roof, Caden knows the man is a bit off. But his ruffian nature and a small bribe makes Caden decide to let him go up.

“It’s a scavenger hunt,” the man says. Caden thinks he’s being helpful when he finds the item, a black orb, but when he touches it, he unknowingly becomes a competitor in an intergalactic competition that ends in a battle to the death. Manipulated and lied to, drugged by the alien Incubus, Raghib, whom he is now allied with, he must train his lizard battle creatures to fight for him on an unknown planet with rules he barely understands.

He has little chance to survive and although he wants to trust, Raghib, who will earn his freedom if Caden wins the battle, he worries he is simply being used. A bit of truth is revealed when one of the Game Wardens takes a liking to Caden, but his alien species is known to eat humans, so Caden isn’t sure if the desire is that of hunger or true romance.

Either way, Caden is nothing but a slave to their alien games.

Blurb: Slaves of an Alien Game - Book 2

Caden is free. He won his battle and got what he wanted. Sent back to Earth with his won kingdom given to the slave, Raghib. However, life on Earth, back at the diner isn’t the same after living on an alien planet. He still suffers from withdrawals from the Incubus influence and drugs Raghib forced on him, and nightmares from the horrible battle to the death.

When a woman arrives, the latest competitor in the alien games, she offers him a chance to visit Raghib. All he has to do is be her slave during the games and help her find the orbs. He agrees and finds she is a higher level competitor than Raghib was, the hunt is on a deadlier planet, one covered in darkness and monsters.

Caden is eventually reunited with Raghib and gets to see the kingdom he won. Raghib is more broken from the battle and haunted by the brutality of it than Caden. He has a new lover and is driving his country to poverty so he can buy drugs to forget the pain. Caden turns to the Game Wardens for help, offering to go back in the arena again, with the woman he helped in the scavenger hunt. He is a fan favorite and knows their ratings will improve if he goes in again.

He arranged to go in as her pretend slave, in a role that will have safety features turned on so he will be in no real danger. He thinks its his idea to go back in. Confident he’s messing with the structures in place and trying to leverage the Game Wardens to change the deadly games into a nonlethal form.

However, it was their plan for him to go back in from the start. Caden is still nothing but a slave to their alien games.

Blurb: Slaves of an Alien Game - Book 3

Caden’s long-term girlfriend on Earth is pregnant, and Caden is missing. Jenny worries he has been kidnapped and drugged again. A strange woman arrives, saying she knows Caden and where he is. She offers to take Jenny to him, if she helps her… they just need to find some orbs in a scavenger hunt. Jenny agrees, but is careful to not touch the objects. She doesn’t trust this woman.

They find four orbs and encounter the other competitor. The fifth orb is there, and Jenny is forced to pick it up. The other competitor forfeits and Jenny finds herself now in the games, the woman she’d been helping now announced as her deadly competitor.

She is taken to an alien planet and united with a distraught Caden. He confesses that he has a relationship with a man, an alien man, an Incubus named Raghib, and the woman Jenny must fight is Raghib’s daughter.

Caden is in an impossible situation, either his lover’s daughter dies or his childhood sweetheart dies, but there is a rule in the games, a protection for slaves and their offspring, who are viewed as profitable future slaves. A pregnant woman may not enter the arena, instead the sire must.

Caden is again forced to play in the games, but this time he has no sahalias to battle on his behalf, and safety features are not allowed. If Caden is to survive, he must find a way to not be a slave in their alien games.  

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Excerpt  – Book 1:

I reached what looked like the bar and surveyed the drinks. I needed alcohol.

“You do not disappoint.” The voice was male and silky. I pried my eyes from the beverages I couldn’t identify and aimed my angry glare at the speaker.

He was tall and lanky, sporting a sharp graying goatee and a braided ponytail that trailed down past his waist. Both matched his gray suit and sparkling blue eyes. He was handsome but in an unnatural way, as though it was a quality designed to lure in prey. Instinctively, I knew who this man was.

“You’re one of the Game Wardens,” I said. He smiled like a tiger soothing a mouse.

“And you are the man making me rich. The fans love you. And that rant back there…” His eyes fluttered, and he groaned softly as if what I’d just done turned him on, or maybe the thought of how his TV ratings would spike was the reason. “You can’t buy that kind of drama.”

“You’re welcome,” I said because what the hell else was I supposed to say?

“I can’t decide if I want you to die or win in the battle.” He stepped closer, and I felt fear for no reason other than an instinctive fear you get when you know you are around something more powerful than you. He had this hungry look in his eyes, and I couldn’t help the words that came out.

“Is that because you can’t decide if you want to eat me or fuck me?”

His eyes widened. Perhaps no one had ever spoken to him like that before.

“You think I eat the people who die in the arena?”

“Why not? You’re already a sicko for making money off watching people battle to the death.”

“And you also think I have sex with the victors? Or are you implying it’s what you want, should you survive?” His eyes went down my body, appraising me.

“What? Don’t be weird,” I said. I pointed to the bottles on the counter. “Are any of these similar to alcohol on Earth? I want to get drunk.”

“You are the one who suggested it. And now you want me to get you drunk?”

“It’s the least you could do since I’m getting you such great ratings.”

“Oh, I do like you.”

“How flattering,” I said. “Buy me a drink then?”

Raghib finally appeared next to me. Where the fuck had he gone? Had he been apologizing to the pervert? I glanced at him to say as much, but mister slick put a finger on my cheek and turned my head back to him.

“If I am buying you a drink, you should keep your attention on me,” he said.

“Really? You think the viewers want to watch you schmooze me?”

His jaw fell open, and he gaped speechlessly at me. I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of fire I was playing with, but I didn’t want this guy to request me to personally entertain him or some shit either. And that look on his face was really starting to come across as sexual predatory-ish.

“Never mind,” I said. “I’ll just take some glamour. Nice talking.” I pushed on Raghib’s arm and moved away from creeper number three of the night.

“I leave you for two minutes, and I find you with a Game Warden?” Raghib hissed in my ear.

“He was thanking me for all the great ratings we are getting for his show,” I said. “What happened to you anyway? We’re tethered. How did you lose me?”

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Nina Schluntz is a native to rural Nebraska. In her youth, she often wrote short stories to entertain her friends. Those ideas evolved into the novels she creates today.

Her husband continues to ensure her stories maintain a touch of realism as she delves into the science fiction and fantasy realm. Their three cats are always willing to stay up late to provide inspiration, whether it is a howl from the stray born in the backyard or an encouraging bite from the so called “calming kitten.”

https://mizner13.wordpress.com/

https://twitter.com/mizner13

https://www.facebook.com/nina.schluntz.novels

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1980193.Nina_R_Schluntz

https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/nina-schluntz/

Series link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMXTJLSV

Book 1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BM4HLGJL

Book 2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMY6H3P7

Book 3

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMZC24SF

Kindle Vella (serialized version of the series, available in USA only)

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BKTF9LMF

Book Video Links

Book 1: https://youtu.be/uN3P7D3oY4c

Book 2: https://youtu.be/4AXEX23pA3A

Book 3: https://youtu.be/_d_7Ki4S_MI

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

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The Phantom Glare of Day by M. Laszlo

 The Phantom Glare of Day

by M. Laszlo

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GENRE: Historical (Metaphysical) Fiction / Coming of Age Fiction

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BLURB:

In this trio of novellas, three game young ladies enter into dangerous liaisons that test each one’s limits and force them to confront the most heartrending issues facing society in the early twentieth century. The Phantom Glare of Day tells of Sophie, a young lady who has lived a sheltered life and consequently has no idea how cruel public-school bullying can be. When she meets Jarvis, a young man obsessed with avenging all those students who delight in his daily debasement, she resolves to intervene before tragedy unfolds. Mouvements Perpétuels tells of Cäcilia, a young lady shunned by her birth father. She longs for the approval of an older man, so when her ice-skating instructor attempts to take advantage of her, she cannot resist. Not a month later, she realizes that she is pregnant and must decide whether or not to get an abortion. Passion Bearer tells of Manon, a young lady who falls in love with a beautiful actress after taking a post as a script girl for a film company—and is subsequently confronted with the pettiest kinds of homophobia.

Excerpt One:

London, 29 September, 1917.

Sophie paused beside a stock-brick building, and she listened for the unnerving rumble of an airship’s engine car. How long has it been since the last bombardment? Sometime before, as she had stood in this very spot, she had heard the Zeppelin clearly enough.

At that point, a Royal-Navy carbide flare had streaked heavenward. Then, from the neighboring rooftops, fifty or more pom-pom guns had opened fire–and the night air had filled with the odor of something like petroleum coke.

Yes, I remember. Now she braced herself for a salvo of fire.

No deafening tumult rang out. Neither did any sickening, stenchful fumes envelope her person.

No, it’s just my nerves. She glanced at the sky, and she whispered a simple prayer of thanksgiving.

From around the corner, an omnibus approached.

She climbed aboard and rode the way to Mayfair Tearoom.

The establishment had never looked so inviting as it did that night. By now, the proprietress had decorated the tables with Michaelmas daisies the color of amethyst, and she had adorned the china cabinet with ornamental cabbage. Moreover, how appetizing the scent of the fresh Eccles cakes.

The tearoom had attracted quite a crowd, too, the young ladies all decked out in silken gowns.

I wonder why. Sophie removed her coat, and she suddenly felt underdressed—for she had not worn anything too fancy that evening, just a puffed blouse and a fluted skirt. At once, she sat down at one of the last available dinette tables.

An eclipse of moths fluttered through the transom, meanwhile, and even they looked better than she did. What beauty the creatures’ wings—a fine royal purple.

Don’t look at them. Alas, when she turned her attention to the doorsill, a dull ache radiated up and down her left arm.

Not a moment later, a tall, gaunt lad, his eyes a shade of whiskey brown, entered the tearoom.

For a time, he glared at the patrons—as if at any moment he might remove a musketoon from beneath his frock coat and shoot everyone.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

M. Laszlo is the pseudonym of a reclusive author living in Bath, Ohio. According to rumor, he based the pen name on the name of the Paul Henreid character in Casablanca, Victor Laszlo.

M. Laszlo has lived and worked all over the world, and he has kept exhaustive journals and idea books corresponding to each location and post.

It is said that the maniacal habit began in childhood during summer vacations—when his family began renting out Robert Lowell’s family home in Castine, Maine.

The habit continued in 1985 when, as an adolescent, he spent the summer in London, England. In recent years, he revisited that journal/idea book and based his first work, The Phantom Glare of Day, on the characters, topics, and themes contained within the youthful writings. In crafting the narrative arcs, he decided to divide the work into three interrelated novellas and to set each one in the WW-I era so as to make the work as timeless as possible.

M. Laszlo has lived and worked in New York City, East Jerusalem, and several other cities around the world. While living in the Middle East, he worked for Harvard University’s Semitic Museum. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio and an M.F.A. in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.

His next work is forthcoming from SparkPress in 2024. There are whispers that the work purports to be a genuine attempt at positing an explanation for the riddle of the universe and is based on journals and idea books made while completing his M.F.A at Sarah Lawrence College.

https://www.amazon.com/M-Laszlo/e/B09PGPTWQ5/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk

NOTE: THIS BOOK WILL BE $0.99 DURING THE TOUR.

<a href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f4474">Enter to win a $50 Amazon/BN GC - a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>

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INTERVIEW With the AUTHOR

What would we find under your bed?

Nothing. I don’t have a bed, only the box springs and the mattress. Many of the writers of the nineteenth century didn't even have the box springs. As a matter of fact, the German poet, Heinrich Heine, had only a mattress. In the final years of his life, when he was growing steadily sicker with lead poisoning, he would refer to his mattress as his “mattress grave.” This is significant to me because I read that poet’s work in my youth—and he inspired one of the characters in The Phantom Glare of Day.

What was the scariest moment of your life?

Hiking on one of the Greek islands. People should know that when you go hiking on the Greek islands, the earth can be very unstable. Even if something looks stable, it could just be volcanic ash.

Do you listen to music while writing? If so, what?

Often, Satie is just the thing—especially his early, experimental works for piano. Traditional Chinese music is also conducive to writing. For that matter, you can never go wrong with traditional Japanese music. The sound of a koto is evocative in a way that no other musical instrument could ever be.

What is something you'd like to accomplish in your writing career next year?

If things go well and my writing marches along, there will be a sense of redemption—a sense of having successfully communicated the kinds of ideas that just had to come out. Whether the person is a writer, artist, or musician, the most important accomplishment has to be the furtherance of that sense of redemption that comes with the completion of each new work or opus. Maybe there are other ways of achieving redemption, but the completion of hard work is the only one that really resonates with me.

How long did it take you to write this book?

Back in the summer of 1985, it took less than two months to write my travel diary/idea book of London. Then that notebook sat in storage up until just a few years ago. As such, it took only a few years to write the book that follows from that aforementioned journal. It’s a funny thing to have a lifetime of diaries and idea books that date back to previous decades. It feels like a blessing and a curse.

One Helluva Gig by Kevin R. Doyle

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kevin R. Doyle will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Rob Jeffers has it all: fame, money, and the life of a rock and roll star. Frank Peters is a regular guy, a newspaper reporter who just happens to have a passing acquaintance with the Great Jeffers. As Jeffers's career shoots up, Peters's fortunes follows in his wake.

And when Jeffers passes away at the height of his fame, Peters’s life begins a steady unravelling. Until a chance encounter on a minor story gives him a new outlook on the celebrity lifestyle, and new hope for his own future.

Read an Excerpt

After graduating, I decided to make a stake for my future in California. Naturally, imbued with youthful naïveté (a nice euphemism for stupidity), I submitted my portfolio at the L.A. Times and The San Francisco Examiner. I naturally figured that it would require only a cursory examination for them to see my undeniable genius and hire me on to work on their front pages.

Didn’t work out that way, not at all, and by the time I’d worked my way through the second tier, and then the third tier papers, I finally managed to snag my first professional newspaper job.

In Lodi.

Lodi, for Chrissakes. I mean, that Fogerty guy even wrote a song once about the dumpiness of Lodi. However, by the time they floated the offer, I was so hungry, cold, and desperate that I would have taken anything. Then, once I’d moved my few knapsacks of belongings down there and found a room I could rent by the month, came what seemed like the final indignity.

They put me to work writing obituaries.

Understand, in the early eighties, practically everyone in newspaper work got started in the obits. Even so, it seemed like the drudgiest of drudge work. Six days a week, I sat at my desk, scanning the death notices, calling hospitals and checking with the cops to fulfill my daily quota of morbidity.

About the Author:

A high-school teacher, former college instructor and fiction writer, Kevin R. Doyle is the author of numerous short horror stories. He’s also written three crime thrillers, The Group, When You Have to Go There, and And the Devil Walks Away and one horror novel, The Litter. Recently, he’s begun working on the Sam Quinton private eye series. The first Quinton book, Squatter’s Rights, was nominated for the 2021 Shamus award as Best First PI Novel. The second book, Heel Turn, was released in March of 2021, while the third in the series, Double Frame, came out in March of 2022. The fourth Sam Quinton book, Clean Win, will be released in March of 2023.

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