Showing posts with label cyborgs. Show all posts

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Amy DeClerk shares The Importance of Being Human

The Importance of Being Human

Hello, dearest readers! Thanks for stopping by Liza’s blog to chat with me. Today I wanted to discuss with you my newest project, a series of books about CYBORGS!

Something has always fascinated me about the things that make us human. That indefinable spark that divides human from other. It is this quest to understand humanity that drove me to write about heroes who were once human, but are now something more. Something stronger, faster, and more savage.

Aeon Project is the name of the series of books I’ll be completing this year and into early 2018. The first book, An Enduring Sun, introduces us to a mysterious man named Ren. Ren is having a quiet drink at a bar on a lonely desert planet when a woman named Sharyn tries to steal his bike, and ends up stealing his heart. We meet Ren and his family in An Enduring Sun, and we discover that they are on the run from the secrets of their past. Secrets that we discover along with Sharyn as the story unfolds. (NO SPOILERS!!)

The other books in the Aeon Project series will follow Ren’s brothers and father as they, too, must come to terms with their pasts and what lies ahead. What does it mean to be human? If a child is taken from his home and transformed into something different, does that make him the monster, or is his creator to blame for what happens next? “The Frankenstein Problem” can be played out as we debate what it really means to have humanity. As Ren and his brothers find love, they also find acceptance and forgiveness.

The Aeon Project is part of the Takamo Universe, a MMO-RPG game that is currently in beta. Players have the opportunity to read stories set in the galaxy where the game takes place, for a more immersive gameplay experience. My heroes will cross the galaxy and meet diverse foes as they grapple with the understanding that it’s not where you come from that defines you, but where you stand when a line is drawn in the sand.

I look forward to bringing you the books in the Aeon Project, and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I will enjoy writing them.

An Enduring Sun is expected to release in March 2017.

Readers can find out more about the Takamo Universe Project by finding me on facebook at www.facebook.com/authoramydeclerck.

Books in The Aeon Project series and their theme song:

An Enduring Sun (March 2017) Ren’s story : (Starset) Halo

Dark Star (coming soon) One’s story: (Starset) Dark On Me

Resonance (coming soon) Sevyn’s story (Starset) Monster

Decaying Orbit (coming soon) Vex’s story (Starset) Let It Die

Escape Velocity (coming soon) Q’s story (Starset) Ricochet

Monday, February 22, 2016

Cyborg Brethen & Building a Series with Cynthia Sax

The Cyborg Brethren

And Building A Series With Cynthia Sax

There are a number of ways to build a standalone series (a series with books that can be read on their own). My favorite, by far, is the sexy brother premise.

This is exactly what it sounds like. The hero of the first book in the series has two or three or four or more sexy, single brothers. In the subsequent books, these brothers find their own heroines (or heroes or heroines and heroes, depending on the stories being told – grins).

These brothers don’t have to be brothers by birth. They could be best friends, soldiers in the same unit, executives at the same company, members of a club or any other group. They have something in common and they usually have a loyalty to each other.

This loyalty is very sexy. It shows these males can form lasting relationships. They have a code of honor. They can work with others (even if they snarl and fight and otherwise misbehave). They’re willing to make sacrifices, perhaps even risk their lives, for others. All of this is Grade A hero material.

My cyborg series is built around the sexy brother premise. The heroes are all cyborgs, all warriors, all linked in their dislike for the Humanoid Alliance.

Crash And Burn, my most recent standalone story in this series, is part of a sexy brother subseries within this larger sexy brother series. Crash, the cyborg hero, is best friends with Rage and Gap. Rage’s story has already been told in Releasing Rage. Crash’s story is being told in Crash And Burn.

One of the things I love about this type of series is that we already know a bit about the new heroes. We met Crash in Releasing Rage. We know that, unlike many of his cyborg brethren, he doesn’t like fighting. We know he’s self-conscious about his ‘scary’ eyes.

In Crash And Burn, we’ll learn much more about him. We’ll also see Rage, the hero of Releasing Rage, and Gap, the still single ‘brother’, through Crash’s eyes. We’ll learn more about Rage and Gap also. This makes the stories even fuller.

What are some of your favorite sexy brother series?

***

Blurb

Crash And Burn

Crash was manufactured to be one of the best warriors in the universe. The cyborg has spent many human lifespans fighting the enemy. But, unlike his battle-loving brethren, he doesn’t enjoy killing. When he escapes the Humanoid Alliance, he vows to never end another life.

Then he meets Safyre, an infuriating human female, and he considers breaking his vow.

Safyre will do anything to save her friend, the being she loves like a sister. She’ll ravish a huge hunky cyborg, kiss his best friend, and invoke scorching hot desires the male never realized he could feel. Dark soulful eyes, a quick wit, and a tempestuous passion won’t divert her from her mission.

Love, and a planet-destroying weapon, however, might stop her permanently.

Buy Now:

On Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Crash-Burn-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B019EBKIF2

On Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crash-Burn-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook-x/dp/B019EBKIF2/

On ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-crashandburn-1950244-147.html

On B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/crash-and-burn-cynthia-sax/1123141101

On Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/ebook/crash-and-burn-13

Bio

About Cynthia Sax

USA Today bestselling author Cynthia Sax writes contemporary, SciFi and paranormal erotic romances. Her stories have been featured in Star Magazine, Real Time With Bill Maher, and numerous best of erotic romance top ten lists.

Website: http://cynthiasax.com/

Newsletter: http://tasteofcyn.com/2014/05/28/newsletter/

Facebook: facebook.com/cynthia.sax

Twitter: @CynthiaSax

Blog: http://tasteofcyn.com/

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Cara Bristol shares the difference between machines, robots, androids & cyborgs.

Today, I have the fabulous Cara Bristol over to explain the difference between my robot David, the Terminator and the Bionic Man. Well that's my interpretation. Let's read and find out what's what.

Machines, robots, androids & cyborgs. What’s the diff?

By Cara Bristol

I was first introduced to cyborgs in Star Trek:The Next Generation with “the Borg.” The Borg were former humans who had been turned into robots through a computer interface that networked them. They acted and thought as one unit. The Borg were the bad guys.

Now, in sci-fi romance, cyborgs have joined werewolves and vampires as former villains who have become the new heroes.

So what’s the difference between machines, robots, androids and cyborgs? Based on my research and opinion, these are my definitions:

A machine is a mechanical device that performs a function(s). A cotton gin, an automobile, and a typewriter are machines.

A robot is a computerized machine that can react to the environment, but it doesn’t “think” beyond its programming or feel emotion. Current example: the Roomba vacuum cleaner. Roomba reacts to its environment. If it hits an obstacle, it goes round it. It avoids stairs, and when it’s done cleaning, it returns to its base. A regular vacuum (a machine) can’t do that.

An android is a robot with a human appearance. Fictional example: The Terminator. I’ve read that the terminator was a cyborg, but I consider him to be an android, because (correct me if I’m wrong) it was never mentioned that he’d been human.

A cyborg, short for cybernetic organism, is a biomechatronic (biologic, mechanical, electronic) being. Cyborgs are human, but have been altered with mechanical and computer parts. They think and feel, but have enhanced abilities. The term “cyborg” was first coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline in Astronautics Magazine, talking about the enhancement that might be needed to mankind to survive in space. Example: Brock Mann in Stranded with the Cyborg. After an attack that nearly killed him, he was fitted with several prostheses and had a microcomputer implanted in his brain.

Stranded with the Cyborg blurb

Cara Bristol

Penelope Aaron, the former Terran president’s daughter, regrets how she got Agent Brock Mann booted from the security force. But now that she’s an interplanetary ambassador about to embark on her first diplomatic mission, she still doesn’t want him tagging along. Especially since he seems to be stronger, faster, more muscled, and sexier than she remembers. And pretending to be her husband? This mission couldn’t get more impossible!

Ten years ago Penelope Isabella Aaron had been a pain in Brock Mann’s you-know-what. Much has changed in a decade: “PIA” as he code-named her, has grown up and is about to attend her first Alliance of Planets summit conference, and Brock has been transformed into a cyborg after a near-fatal attack. Now a secret agent with Cyber Operations, a covert paramilitary organization, Brock gets called in, not when the going gets tough, but when the going gets impossible. So when he’s unexpectedly assigned to escort Penelope to the summit meeting, he balks at babysitting a prissy ambassador. But after a terrorist bombing, a crash landing on a hostile planet, and a growing attraction to his protectee, Operation: PIA may become his most impossible assignment yet.

“Ten years have passed. Penelope is different now,” Carter said.

Brock doubted that. “Does she know about me?”

“That you’re a cyborg? Of course not. She hasn’t been told anything about the program or even that you’re the one who’s been assigned to her.”

“Yeah, spring it on her. That will go over well.” He could envision the tantrum, and, after she calmed down, the scheme she would devise to circumvent the decision. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been emerging from his quarters half-dressed, a triumphant smile tilting her lips. Shortly thereafter, two fellow agents had come to arrest him.

President Aaron had exonerated him, the transcripts from the investigation had been sealed, and he’d been offered reassignment. Instead, he’d taken a position with an anti-terrorist investigative organization. His unit got attacked; his fellow operatives had died. Carter, who’d been working with Cy-Ops all along, had swooped in and saved his ass.

“I’m not saying I’ll do it, but, hypothetically, if I had a computer meltdown and agreed, what would be my cover story? I couldn’t tag along as her bodyguard because that would unsettle the Xenians.”

Carter poured another shot of Cerinian brandy and downed it. He met Brock’s gaze dead-on. “You’d accompany Ambassador Aaron as her husband.”

“Oh, hell no!”

B&N

ARe

Multi-published, Cara Bristol is the author of more than 20 erotic romance titles. She writes science fiction, contemporary, and paranormal erotic romance. No matter what the subgenre, one thing remains constant: her emphasis on character-driven seriously hot erotic stories with sizzling chemistry between the hero and heroine. Cara has lived many places in the United States, but currently lives in Missouri with her husband. She has two grown stepkids. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading and traveling.

Cara Bristol web site/blog

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