Fiona McGier, EroticRomance Author

This is a blog hop with an altruistic purpose. My good friend, author Lisabet Sarai, runs it. Each month, authors who choose to participate choose a charity they will donate to, depending on how many comments they get on their post. This month, I will donate $5 per comment that I receive, to NARAL, which is working to preserve the rights of females in the USA, to control their own reproductive choices. 

In this future that I've imagined, our poor planet has been destroyed by a combination of acid rain and the loss of our ozone layer. Going out of the domes humans have to live under, results in skin cancer that kills quickly. Even with protective clothing, it's not wise to venture outside.

Fertility rates began to fall many years ago, but when it got to the point where no babies were being born, governments the world over banned birth control, and female bodies were declared to belong to the state. Any man could have as many wives as he could support, in hopes that he could father a child. 

When humans began to escape from the planet they could no longer bear to live on, only families were allowed, along with single men. Females were not allowed to leave, without the man who owned them. When Elena can't live with what her life has become, she bribes with cash and anything else she can think of, in order to travel to Mesa Verde, one of the first new planets opened for colonization. Seems they need a new secondary English/History teacher, and she needs to escape. Once there, she keeps to herself, making few friends, hoping that she's gone far enough that she will never be found by the one she fears. 

Meanwhile, Dakota, who was a senior in her first year on the planet, long ago decided that she was the only woman for him. Once he was declared an adult, he hoped to convince her of his love. But she's refused his advances.
​
Excerpt:
Dakota Proudfoot smiled as he walked into the business area in front of his living quarters. While most people on Mesa Verde were able to choose a line of work that they wouldn’t find too odious, Dakota felt unusually blessed because he truly enjoyed what he did. As Nature Guide for the village, it was his job to ensure that once a year, every citizen spent at least two days and one night outdoors communing with the natural surroundings on their planet. Much had been passed on as lore from the old ones about how those who remained on Earth had no connection to the planet’s natural cycles or creatures. That was what had made it so easy to destroy what one had never experienced, thus didn’t value enough to save it.
***
​Now he settled into a chair with a steaming mug of nettle tea to look over the records for the week. Most people only required a quick visit to choose the date for their next camp-out. Many would combine with relatives to make a family outing out of their yearly civic duty. But some were not so eager to drop everything for a two-day span. They were the ones he had to prod into fulfilling their responsibility.
As he looked over the names of those who were due for their turn out of the village, he saw her name. That was enough, as it always had been, for him to feel the instant physical reaction he had long since given up fighting. Elena! Woman of my dreams! Why do you still treat me as if I’m a child? You’re one of the hardest people to convince to spend time outdoors. Every year it requires numerous visits to finally get your capitulation. And often you cancel the initial dates only to give me trouble rescheduling.
What will be your excuse this year? He adjusted his buck-skin trousers to better accommodate his thickening cock and bent over to lace on his moccasins. Better go to see her first, since no one else gives me the trouble she does in choosing a date. Once I have her booked, I can fit the others in around her.
He adjusted himself again as he stood up. I know what I would like to fit into her! His lips curved into a smile again as he spent a few seconds indulging in imaginative erotic scenes he wanted to experience with her. Then he took a deep breath and exercised more control over his body to force it into submission.
Can’t go strolling into her classroom with a hard-on! Don’t want to shock the youngsters. But then, as I remember, I spent a whole lot of time trying to hide my engorgement when I was in teen-school, especially once Elena took over as my English teacher. So I’d get sympathy from the boys and probably amusement from the girls. But still, I must show I have more control than they do, since I’m six years older than even the oldest students.
With a quick last sip of his cooled tea, Dakota grabbed his scheduling board and headed out the door.
Copyright, Fiona McGier, 2023

Note: this book is only available on my publisher's site for now. Soon it will be offered on all of the usual book sites. 

www.extasybooks.com/Learning-to-Love

 Today my first-ever sci-fi romance debuts! Learning to Love involves a dystopic future (is there any other kind?) when humans have to live in domes on Earth, because the acid rain and the lack of an ozone layer mean skin cancer for anyone brave enough to venture out of a dome without protective clothing. And fertility rates world-wide have dropped so low that females have no rights to their bodies--they're owned by the state. Some have decided to brave the long travel to a new planet, and Mesa Verde was one of the first to be colonized. When Elena, a teacher, can no longer bear her existence on Earth, she pays cash bribes to all who can help her get on the next starliner to Mesa Verde, since females are not allowed to leave the planet alone. Once there, she keeps to herself, making few friends, and praying that the Earthman she had to escape from never finds her.

​Why are they green? The indigenous plants on Mesa Verde are nutritious, but have a strong chlorophyll in them that gradually turns one's skin green. The hue depends on what color your skin was to start with. But it's a small price to pay to be able to move freely outdoors.

Now available through my publisher--soon to be at all of the usual book sellers' sites. 
https://www.extasybooks.com/Learning-to-Love

There are only a couple of romance authors that I regard as auto-buy. Lisabet Sarai is one of them. From her books, I've learned to appreciate the nuances of BDSM, and to understand what it provides for participants. She also writes damn good steamy scenes! This book had everything I enjoy in her stories, including a touch of supernatural.

My review: 
Ah, the Faustian bargain! Riches and success can be yours, if only you sign the contract to give the devil your soul! After all, you don't really need it, so you'll never miss it, right?

Ms Sarai updates this to have a female romance author who dreams of the success that has eluded her. (Don't we all? Sigh...) But the devil, Mr. B, wearing a very sexy male body, turns up to offer Wendy what she's always wanted. And he immediately starts rewarding her, even before she signs the contract. Her agent calls her, telling her a big-six publisher wants to give her a huge advance for her next book. Plus there is interest in making her books into movies. Wow! But Wendy is a smart woman, and she negotiates a release clause. Not that she intends to use it--not when she's finally getting everything she's always wanted!

Mr. B helps Wendy with her love life also. She's often lusted after her agent, but thought of him as unavailable, due to their friendship. Instead, Mr. B becomes the master that Wendy didn't even know she craved. She becomes a sub who enjoys herself way more than she ever thought possible--which leads her writing to become more BDSM explicit, and concomitantly, makes her books best-sellers even in pre-sales. After a night of celebrating her, and therefore their success, she and her agent fall into bed, where she discovers he's really a dom in disguise, and she's always been in his fantasies. But she's being kept way too busy with her new life, to even have time to answer his phone calls--which she never hears, because Mr. B doesn't deem them important enough to disturb her writing time.

Wendy finds to her dismay, that she doesn't recognize herself anymore. To her horror, she realizes that she really would miss her soul, because she's already been acting like it's gone! Will Mr. B allow her to break their contract? Will she even want to? Will she choose continued anonymity over wildly rewarding success? For what? The chance of a relationship with a real man, and not the devil? Read and find out!

BUY LINK
​www.amazon.com/Damned-If-You-Do-Dance-ebook/dp/B09PSN7XGX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9L1OHKQDWS7F&keywords=damned+if+you+do+by+lisabet+sarai&qid=1684882036&sprefix=damned+if+you+do+by+lisabet+sarai%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1



ABOUT LISABETLisabet Sarai became addicted to words at an early age. She began reading when she was four. She wrote her first story at five years old and her first poem at seven. Since then, she has written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – over one hundred titles, and counting, in nearly every sub-genre—paranormal, scifi, ménage, BDSM, GLBT, and more. Regardless of the genre, every one of her stories illustrates her motto: Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
You’ll find information and excerpts from all Lisabet’s books on her website (http://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html), along with more than fifty free stories and lots more. At her blog Beyond Romance (http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com), she shares her philosophy and her news and hosts lots of other great authors. She’s also on Goodreads, BookBub and Twitter. Join her VIP email list here: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh
GIVEAWAYYou could win a $25 bookstore gift certificate. To enter, just complete a short survey. (Only four questions!)
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If you’re a member of Lisabet’s email list, your entry will count twice! Not a member? Join here:
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This month's Round Robin blog hop addresses emotional pain for your protagonists--how do we help them cope and heal?
I read another blog recently that asked where all of the unlikable heroines are, since unlikable heroes are often standard issue for romances. I pointed out that I've written at least 4 heroines that I've been told in reviews are "unlikable and unrelatable." But all are acting out the emotional pain they carry with them. And in each of the books, the love they find with a good man helps them to heal. Cliché? Yes. But also a great way to bond two characters together, to heal them both.
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In this, the 5th in my Reyes Family Romances, Catalina is a very sexual woman. She's a player, who sees no need to settle down with one man. Her boss's boss, the man who owns the paper she writes for, uses her talents to smear those he wants discredited. He tells her he'll ensure she never gets another writing job if she doesn't write what he demands. This time he wants the analyst his son saw to be destroyed, and he doesn't care if she has to make things up. The analyst is blind, so Catalina is at first at a loss, since he can't see how sexy she is. But she manages to seduce him, in a scene that some reviewers have found offensive. During the rest of the story, they fall in love, but doctor/patient restrictions demand they keep their hands to themselves. Catalina's emotional pain builds as she realizes how much she's grown to care for the doctor, and how many lies she'll have to tell, since he really is a decent man. So she writes 2 different articles, and agonizes over which one to submit--the one her boss wants? Or the one in which she wrote about the man she's fallen deeply in love with? And what will happen when the analyst finds out why she's been coming to see him? Is it worth risking any future employment, when he might not understand?
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In Only One Man Will Do, Alexandra is the elder of two daughters, and the one her father trained to take over his marketing firm when he retired to enjoy golfing, and his trophy wife. What he doesn't realize is how much pain he caused to Alexandra when he dumped her mother for a younger woman. She's determined to never be at the mercy of any man--like her mother, who still loves her dad. She runs the firm successfully during the week, but on weekends, she heads a biker gang that involves a few women, but lots of men that Alexandra hand-picked, using more than her hands! When an ex-KGB agent decides to try to tame her, sparks fly. Can he convince her that she only needs one man, as long as it's him? And how will the rest of the men in the gang feel about that?
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In Her Last Resort, Stella has to kill a young man in the first chapter! She's a retired CIA agent, who wants to leave her past behind her. But someone is sending would-be-agents after her, and she's tired of all of the killing she keeps having to do. When her estranged adult daughter, a famous movie star, wants her to join her for a week at a cabin in northern Minnesota, she arrives by circuitous travelling arrangements, hoping that no one will follow her. Her pain stems from the divorce so long ago, when her then-husband forced her to choose between her family and her job. But the circumstances didn't allow her to make any other choice. Her son refuses to talk to her, and she hopes for a chance with her daughter. Luckily, the owner of the resort they stay at is a retired KGB agent, and many of his relatives that he's sponsored into the USA also have specialized skills. He can help Stella--if she'll let him. But can she learn to trust a man again?
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Prophecy of the Mayan Undead is a compilation of the two books I originally published. Now it's a long saga. The second part involves a Chinese national female, Niu Ying, who was born during the early days of the Chinese revolution of the mid-20th century, when the 1-child rule was newly in effect. Her parents wanted to try for a son, so they sold her to the state. She's brilliant, so she was educated, but was always treated harshly by her misogynistic male colleagues who made her life hell. Then a powerful vampire decided to add her to his employees, and brought her brutally across to the undead existence--which has actually been even worse than her life was! So when she meets a blue-skinned, furry alien, who tries to get her to embrace her humanity, she's not sure she wants to, since all it's ever brought her is pain. This story is set against the backdrop of the return of another alien race, who intends to capture and take more humans to their planet as slaves. Can they be stopped?
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​As I've said in previous blogs, I don't like to write the same story over and over again. I get bored easily. In fact, when I enjoy a book by a new author, I will go check out the website. If it seems that this is the only plot the author uses, and all books will essentially be the same story with different names and places, then I don't ever read that author again. Of course, this means you never know what you'll get when you read one of my books. But you will get strong heroines, equally strong--usually beta heroes, and steamy sex scenes that will cement the relationship between them. That is always the same. Everything else will be different with each book. 
Viva la Difference!

To find out what other authors have to say on this subject, hop to the next blog. Enjoy!

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2W9
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

Yes, the people who live on Mesa Verde turn green. It's one of the first planets to be colonized by humans seeking to escape from the Earth made increasingly unlivable by chemical pollution, lack of an ozone layer, and acid rain. Mesa Verde is a bucolic paradise, where the sun is welcoming to your skin, and the fertile ground grows plants in abundance. But the plants have a particularly intense form of chlorophyll in them, that gradually turn human skins to green. The hue varies, based on your ethnicity, but all who eat the local plants will  turn a shade of green eventually. The early colonists decided it was a small price to pay, for being able to live in harmony with nature, instead of fearing it.

This book will be available on May 26th from my publisher:
www.extasybooks.com/Learning-to-Love

Soon after that, it will be available at all of the usual booksellers, including Smashwords, the big A, and Barnes and Noble.

I don't have a cover yet, but my next new book, released on May 26th, will be Learning to Love. This is my first attempt at a sci-fi romance. I love to read and watch movies/shows with sci-fi themes, (Trekkie from WAY back!), but my muse doesn't usually give me inspiration in that direction. I could see making this book into the start of a series. But that's for another day. This story is set on a planet the human inhabitants call Mesa Verde, one of the first planets to be colonized by humanity fleeing the over-heated, death-spiraling planet their ancestors worked so hard to destroy. Mesa Verde's indigenous edible plants are a potent source of chlorophyll, so eating local foods gradually gives all human skins a green tinge.

Since this is the Steam blog-hop, I chose this scene with the heroine, who has only recently acknowledged her feelings for a young man she taught many years ago. He's been attempting to pursue her for many years, but she's always rebuffed him. Now that they have become a couple, he takes her to his parents' house for a gathering. When he's drafted to chop wood outside, she watches him through the window, admiring his sexy body.

A short time later, Dakota led the way into his family’s large cabin. His parents had raised six children, so theirs was one of the larger living quarters. It had begun as one of the cannibalized officer rooms from the starships originally, then had extra rooms added on as they were needed. The family room was in the center of the building, and it was large enough to have seating for most of the family, with children encouraged to sit on the various cushions around the room on the floor. There was a fireplace in the middle of the room, giving off heat for the entire building and doubling as a secondary cooking area.
   Elena tried to remain as invisible as possible to quiet her nerves. She was warmly greeted by a general Hello as they entered the crowded family room. Once Dakota had brought her a glass of beer, he was drafted by his father to help bring in wood for the fireplace to keep the room warm. Elena moved to the outskirts of the room, watching through the open window as Dakota chopped wood and stacked it.
   His tall, lean body seemed to be made for any physical activity he might choose. His long, straight black hair was tied back with a piece of leather that came from the same skin as the pants he was wearing. The leather of the pants hugged his thighs and butt, making her press her thighs together, smiling to herself, remembering how she’d teased him that he was purposely wearing tight pants to entice her. His dark green skin shone with perspiration as his wiry arms wielded the maul, first lifting it high into the air, then swinging it down to drive the wedge into the large hunks of tree trunk in front of him.  
   Elena forgot where she was for a moment, lost in admiring the musculature of the man whose body she was becoming so familiar with that even in a crowded room, she could think of nothing else but private moments they’d
shared. She jumped when a voice spoke close to her ear.
   “He’s quite good at that, isn’t he?” Rianna asked conversationally.
   “Um, yes, yes, he is.”
   “I mean at showing off for you.”
   Elena turned quickly to see humor in the eyes of his grandmother. She managed a small smile and a nod back.
   “He’s good at anything that involves the outdoors. That’s why he was the obvious choice to replace me as outfitter when Angelo wanted me to retire to spend more time with him and the grandchildren.”
   “He likes what he does, so it doesn’t even seem like work
to him.”
   Rianna nodded. “You’re like that also. Teaching is your passion, which is why you’re so good at it. I don’t think anyone else on this planet could get teenagers to read Shakespeare’s plays, or other works of literature, whose words are so far removed from the reality of their life here. What is that old Earth saying? Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life?”
* * *
Rianna continues to talk about why her family left Earth.
   "My family had always been healers and practitioners of the oldest pagan religion in the British Islands. We were Druids, yet unable to touch an actual tree without gloves on for fear of the sun and the acid rain. Going to see trees in the indoor arboretums was a thrill, but it was still not the same.”
   “I’ve read about Druids,” Elena said shyly. “But I didn’t know that was what you are.”
   “You teach many of the works of literature produced by Celtic writers, my dear. Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolkien. All are on your reading list, right?”
   Elena nodded.
   Rianna turned to her and smiled, the creases around her mischievous blue eyes crinkling as she changed the topic of conversation sneakily. “Do you mean that my grandson, that bad boy, hasn’t told you anything about his family yet? Whatever do you two talk about afterward? The weather?”
   Elena was broadsided by the question and felt herself growing hot, her blush beginning with a dark reddish tinge to the olive-green skin on her face and spreading downwards until even her fingertips burned. “I, uh, um--”
   “Rianna! You aren’t responsible for making the poor girl blush like that, are you?” Lalani, Dakota’s mother, approached them, holding a plate of appetizers.
   “Who? Me?” Rianna was all wounded-innocence.
   Lalani turned to Elena to speak in a conspiratorial tone. “She did the same thing to me when I first began my relationship with Erik. She said it was her way of finding out if I was determined enough to stay with him. If she could
scare me off, I wouldn’t last long. I think she just likes to embarrass people, so she never misses an opportunity!”
   Lalani turned to Rianna. “Do you?”
   Rianna threw her head back and laughed. “Of course not! But it worked, didn’t it? You weren’t afraid of me, and here you still are. Now let’s see if Elena has what it takes to join the family.”
   Lalani shook her head. “I refuse to help you torture someone my son is so madly in love with. Whether or not things work out between them, it’s up to them, not you or me, to find that out.”
   Elena smiled gratefully at Lalani.
   Rianna stuck out her tongue at her. “Fine! Elena, you go back to staring at Dakota out the window. But you’d better grab one of those napkins Lalani has to wipe the drool off your chin.”
   With a dramatic flourish, Rianna turned and headed back to the center of the room, where she quickly inserted herself into a lively debate about the best fishing methods.
   Lalani smiled at Elena, patting the back of her hand.
* * *
After introducing Elena to her mother, Beatrice, Lalani changes the subject.
   Lalani popped one of the meat rolls into her mouth before turning to Elena. “Do you want to carry this plate of appetizers out to see if Dakota is ready to take a break? You can grab a beer for him on the way out the door. I’ll bet that all of that chopping is making him hungry. But then, between you and me, just breathing makes that man hungry. I’ve never seen anyone so thin eat so much with so little evidence!”
   Elena nodded in agreement, grateful for the chance to escape the crowd. She turned to Beatrice. “Nice to meet you. If you’ll excuse me?”
   Beatrice grinned at her. “Yes, go feed your man.”
   Elena took the half-empty plate and headed for the keg to refill her own cup and get a full one for Dakota. She passed some of his nieces and nephews who were carrying wood in for the fireplace in the center of the family room. None of them seemed surprised to see her there.
   They must have been told by their parents that I would be here with Dakota. I hope they don’t think that being related to me is going to help out their grades! That Omar never does his reading homework on time. He claims he’s too busy working with his dad on the technology to produce new solar lights.
   The offending Omar nodded at her as he passed. “I’m halfway done with Hamlet, Ms. Elena. I’ll be done with it on time...maybe.”
   She gave him a stern look. “You’d better be, or I’ll make you do research, then write me a five-paragraph paper telling me what you’ve learned about time management skills.”
   He gave her a sheepish grin and continued into the cabin with his armload of wood.
   Elena stopped when she was just out of reach of the wood chips that were flying through the air from the force of the ax now being wielded by her man. Dakota looked up to give her a smile, which expanded when he saw what she was carrying.
   Yummy! He’s all sweaty and flushed. I know we had sex this morning before we got here, but I can’t wait to get him alone again! The not-so-insignificant bulge in those tight pants of his means he’s probably thinking the same thing.
   “Elena, you’re an angel from heaven! I’ve worked up a real thirst out here, and you even nabbed some of the appetizers for me.”
   He pulled her close for a quick, sweaty hug, then lifted the cup and drained almost all of the beer before he reached for a couple of the tiny pieces of seasoned meat wrapped in leaves.
   “It was really your mother’s idea,” Elena began, “because she saw that I was blushing at what Rianna was saying, so she came to rescue me. She was carrying this plate of food and suggested I might bring it out to you.”
   He nodded while he chewed. “Good old Mom! Always thinking of my stomach. She’s just happy that I’ve outgrown being the picky eater that I was as a kid. Now I eat anything that I think I can digest. And I’m even willing to try new things to see if I can.”
***
One of Dakota's nieces chats with them, then heads into the house. Dakota pulls Elena close for a kiss.
   "But tell me, were you watching me out of that window all the time I
was out here?”
   Elena looked guilty. “Uh...most of the time. Except when Rianna was embarrassing me by teasing me about drooling on myself while I watched.”
   He trailed his lips across her face to her ear, nipped her earlobe, and spoke softly, his breath blowing hot across the tiny hairs on her neck. “Why were you watching me? Did it excite you? Did it make you think of naughty things you want to do with me later when we get back home?”
   She twitched when he bit her neck. “Yes,” she stammered. She pulled his head down for a long, lingering kiss, which she abruptly broke off, pushing him back. “Wait a minute! You knew I was watching? You were performing for me? All that time, I was feeling like a voyeur, and you were posing for me? You cad! What if your nieces had seen what you were doing? How sexy you looked?”
   He popped a couple more of the appetizers into his mouth and chewed slowly, smirking at her. “They just thought I smelled bad and looked sweaty and gross. That’s what they told me when they came out for armloads of wood. Only you found it arousing, believe me. And that’s why you and I are
meant to be together. Everything about you excites me. And if even watching me work hard excites you, I’d say we were made for each other."
***
Copyright, 2023
As soon as I get the cover, I'll be putting it up and adding this book to my Standalones page. Until then, check out what other authors chose for their steamy excerpt!