Kris DeLake - Noisy Spaceships and Sexy Men + Contest

Posted by Tammie - Night Owl Reviews in

30 comments

Enter to win one of two print copies of Assassins in Love!

***
Noisy Spaceships and Sexy Men
by Kris DeLake

Let’s talk rules, science fiction, romance, and name recognition. Because to understand the decisions I’ve made with Assassins in Love, I need to mention all those things.

First, science fiction: In the center of the genre, it’s about rules. Strict, hardcore, scientific rules. I know. Under my real name, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, I used to edit the most prestigious science fiction magazine in the business, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and as editor, I had to enforce the rules.

What are the rules? Well, here’s one—spaceships don’t go “whoosh!” as they fly through space. (Technically, what they’re doing as they move through space isn’t even flying, but let’s not go there.) Spaceships make no sound as they travel because space has no atmosphere.

If you want an example of the hardcore science fiction reader, watch The Big Bang Theory. The discussions that Sheldon and Leonard have about literature and the world and believability? I’ve had those discussions (more often than I want to think about) with friends, colleagues, and readers. And no, I’m not Penny. On my worst days, I’m Sheldon. [sigh]

But I got my start in sf not through the literature, but through Star Trek. I fell in love with Captain Kirk. (The original, even though Christopher Pike is mighty fine.) When I was thirteen, I wrote a story in which Kirk came down from space and fell in love with me, taking me back to the Starship Enterprise. Yes, I was a romantic even then. And at the time, I didn’t care that the spaceships in Star Trek went “whoosh!” but they did.

At the same time that I lusted after Kirk, I read every gothic novel ever published. Or so my mother said. Those sexy guys who may or may not be trustworthy? Those are the guys for me. From the Brönte sisters to Anne Stuart, my reading ran the gamut of males who chased away any sensible female.

Never said I was sensible. (See James T. Kirk, the man who can’t commit, above.)

I also got active in women’s rights (and hid my romances. In those days, feminists didn’t read romance—unless they were me). I wondered: why couldn’t a woman be dangerous too?

By the time I wrote “Drinking Games,” the short story that led to Assassins in Love, for an anthology, I was too well known in science fiction to ever write a story with whooshing spaceships and unexplained faster-than-light travel. (Think Sheldon: “How did those spaceships move from one planet to another so fast? It violates the rules of physics. Rusch should know better. What’s wrong with her?”) The short story had no space travel, just a space yacht, so I avoided the criticism. But I knew that Misha and Rikki’s story had just gotten underway. I needed to finish it.

I just couldn’t finish it and publish it as Hugo-award winner, former F&SF editor, and sf-rules enforcer Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Nor could I publish it under my romance pen name Kristine Grayson.

As Grayson, I write humorous sweet romances that would never ever ever have real assassins in them. People who kill for a living? Well, they’re the bad guys in a Grayson novel, and they usually get vanquished with the wave of a wand. Many of my Grayson readers prefer sweet to sexy, non-violent and funny to violent and scary. Those readers would hate me for publishing the book under the name Grayson.

So I needed a new name. I came up with Kris DeLake, and thought for a very long time about keeping that pen name quiet so that hardcore sf fans (of the Sheldon variety) wouldn’t think less of me.

Then I remembered: I wrote a ton of Star Trek novels (and got a lot of flak from the Sheldon contingent) but no one threw me out of the sf club. And I wrote a Star Wars novel too, and no one threw me out then either.

The spaceships go whoosh in all of those novels, but my excuse was simple: Someone else made up the world. Read: It wasn’t my fault.

But it is my fault now. Spaceships go whoosh and characters have hot sex upon meeting each other over a dead body. And then danger ensues.

Blame me. As I wrote Assassins in Love, I thought of all my movie bad-boys, from Kirk (yes, he can be bad) to Han Solo (my favorite!).

I had way too much fun writing Assassins in Love. I hope you have just as much fun reading it. And stand back when you hear a “whoosh!” It’s a spaceship coming just a little too close to Earth. But watch closely as it goes by. You might see a sexy romance hero along the way.

And who knows? He might even stop for you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kris DeLake is one of writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch's many pen names. In addition to writing as Kris DeLake in romance, Rusch also writes romance as Kristine Grayson (who specializes in paranormals) and Kristine Dexter (who prefers romantic suspense). In mystery, Rusch writes as Edgar- and Shamus-nominee Kris Nelscott. In science fiction and fantasy, Rusch goes by her real name. Under that name, she's a bestseller in many countries, and a double Hugo winner. To find out more about Rusch and her various names, go to her website, kristinekathrynrusch.com

Assassins in Love on Amazon 

ENTER THE CONTEST

1. You MUST be a NOR Newsletter Subscriber. 2. Comment on the post below and leave the first bit of your email address. Ends - 3/16/2012