Liza interviews When Dark Falls by Pippa Jay

Today, we are interviewing a beautiful book from Pippa Jay called When Dark Falls.

Space Rep: That sounds really good can I bring it over now?

Liza: Absolutely!

Space Rep: It's soup!

Liza: Better not be...

Liza: Welcome When Dark Falls. May I call you Dark?

Book: Sure, why not.

Liza: I like your obliging attitude!

Dark: Yes, well when dark is falling you don't sweat the little things.

Liza: Gorgeous cover. Tell me about yourself. Your city appears to be burning.

Dark: The city is in trouble. Dark Technologies now runs the show.

Liza: It's never a good idea for a Corporation to take control of a city. They really aren't people, you know. They are profit machines. Any chance you have a superhero to kick their non-people asses?

Dark: Unfortunately, our guardian superhero, Blaze, has fallen. 

Liza: And no one cares?

Dark: Kadie Williams does, but she has her own problems. Every morning for the last few months she's woken up with cuts and bruises on her body and no idea how she got them.

Liza: That's weird. Is she thrashing about in her sleep believing monsters are attacking her?

Dark: Nope, she's not having nightmares.

Liza: Is she sleep walking and getting mugged?

Dark: There's no evidence that she's sleepwalking or any sign of a break in.

Liza: You thought burglars were breaking in to beat her up in her sleep. Man, this town must be really mean to even think that!

Dark: Well something's going on, and someone has been cleaning up after her.

Liza: Hmmmm a mystery. Didn't see that coming.

Dark: As just one of thousands of civilians conscripted to slave away in the labs of Professor Dark, she knew there'd be trouble ahead. But she never expected it to be so bad, or so personal.

Liza: What's she going to do?

Dark: Desperate for answers, Kadie looks to the new defender of the night, the only person who can hinder the total domination of Professor Dark.

Liza: What's his name?

Dark: It's a she: Nocturnelle, the mysterious vigilante superhero came from nowhere with her cybernetic sidekick Shadow, set on putting an end to the brutality of Dark's regime.

Liza: Then all is good now!

Dark: Not as long as his laboratories are working on a new secret super-weapon.

Liza: But we have Nocturnelle and Shadow.

Dark: That may not be enough to save the city of Nephopolis or Kadie.

Liza: Darn it! Open your covers so I can read more.
  

Dark: No marring the pages.

The roar of the cloudburner flaming into life woke her. The vibration as it powered up rippled through the building created a disturbance impossible to sleep through. No more being roused from sleep by the dawn chorus of traffic or a rowdy neighbor. Those days were long past. Everyone in Nephopolis woke to the sound of fire burning into the clouds, to cast a false darkness over the city. The shadow of Dark.

Kadie stretched...and froze. She stared at her left arm. A pattern of blue and purple covered her forearm, a harsh contrast to her otherwise pale skin.

She shuddered, turning her arm this way and that. Had she fallen out of bed? And if so, why hadn't she woken? She didn't remember catching it on anything yesterday that would have gone unnoticed and yet left such intense bruising. One day blurred into another now, but even so, surely she'd remember hurting herself that badly?

If I'd been conscious. She sat up and examined the bruise. It was the fourth injury in as many nights, and yet there'd been no dreams. No sign she'd left her bed in the night. Would she know if she'd been sleepwalking? After all, she lived and slept alone. 

Unless she was leaving her apartment to wander around in the corridors...

The idea made her stomach churn too much to consider it. Instead, she swung her legs out from under the duvet. Pale pink flannel pajamas clothed her, crumpled from a night's sleep but nothing more. Her bare feet revealed no signs of midnight wandering. What the hell had happened to her arm when everything else seemed so normal?

Liza: Now this sounds really good. Anything else you'd like to share?

Dark: When Dark Falls is an alternative 1920s superhero romance releasing from Breathless Press 21st of November. Add it to your Goodreads shelf HERE. Sign up to my no-spam newsletter HERE to stay up to date with releases, cover reveals, sales and giveaways for all my titles and more.

Liza: So tell me about your author.

Dark: After spending twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory, Pippa Jay is now a stay-at-home mum who writes scifi and the supernatural. Somewhere along the way a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to leave. In between torturing her plethora of characters, she spends the odd free moment playing guitar very badly, punishing herself with freestyle street dance, and studying the Dark Side of the Force. Although happily settled in the historical town of Colchester in the UK with her husband of 21 years and three little monsters, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head.

Pippa Jay is a dedicated member of the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, blogging at Spacefreighters Lounge, Adventures in Scifi, and Romancing the Genres. Her works include a YA science fiction novel—Gethyon—published through BURST (Champagne Books), a scifi romance novella—Tethered—published by Breathless Press, a YA paranormal romance—Restless In Peaceville—published by Lycaon Press, three self-published short stories (Terms & Conditions Apply, The Bones of the Sea, and Reboot), and she’s one of eight authors included in a science fiction romance anthology—Tales from the SFR Brigade. She’s also a double SFR Galaxy Award winner, been a finalist in the Heart of Denver RWA Aspen Gold Contest (3^rd place), and the GCC RWA Silken Sands Star Awards (2^nd place).

Liza: And for my followers prone to legal stalking, where can they follow you?

Dark: You can stalk her at her website http://pippajay.co.uk, or at her blog http://pippajay.blogspot.co.uk, but without doubt her favorite place to hang around and chat is on Twitter as @pippajaygreen

Space Rep: Finally! I've broken out of the Transporter. Someone shut me inside. *Glares at Liza*

Liza: Great to see you Space Rep. Go find us the buy links. This book sounds great.

Space Rep: Found them! 

Buy Links:

Breathless Press - http://www.breathlesspress.com/index.php?main_page=product_free_shipping_info&cPath=25&products_id=691

Web page to other links - http://www.pippajay.co.uk/#!when-dark-falls/cl15

A Family crisis in Space

Once upon a time, in far away space, there was a mother with child chasing her dead beat husband.

The mother's name was Rosetta, and let me tell you, she ran herself in circles going after Kid Comet, all the while carrying her baby drill-bot name Philae...we'll call him Phil due to my typing issues.

The extreme levels Rosetta will go to hunt down her Kid Comet.

Turns out, it wasn't just alimony Rose wanted.

After 10 years of chasing, she finally caught up to Comet Kid. 

Her human companions were not hopeful she'd be successful. In fact, they went on and on about everything that could go wrong, and it was a dire and long list. 

But Rose refused to listen. She was on a mission.

The first thing she does is drop Phil in Kid Comet's lap. Clearly Phil was upset, but he landed on his feet and tried his hardest to be brave...only he didn't like his father at all and he sure as hell didn't want to be tied down to him. So he mucked up his anchors which kept him foot loose and fancy free.

He remained in contact with his mom, Rose, and they'd talked whenever his father didn't get in the way. But all she wanted to know about was his father. What's he like? Was he hard or soft? What type of rock is he? 

Angry and sick of discussing his father, Phil decided to go on a walk about.

Rose asked him were he was going, but he refused to say. And when he got there, he had no idea where 'there' was. 

When his mom asked him to drill into his father and run other tests on his bad parent, he was more than happy to oblige. However, eventually Phil got tired and found a nice shady spot where he could snuggle in to sleep.

He had done everything his mom wanted, but he was tired now, so Rose asked him to shift a sun panel so it might in the future catch more light, then let him shut down and go to sleep while she moved further away from Kid Comet less he get her with yet another baby.

And thus Rose remains, hovering 30KM above Kid Comet who continues to rotate to his own music. She can't see or hear her little robot now, for he's sleeping in some dark shadow.

Rose thought she'd be happy once she dumped Phil off on his father, but she's not. She desperately wants to see her son, to know he's all right.

Like all creatures, living and mechanical, life is finite. Little Phil was never expected to live through Kid Comet's close drive by the sun. 

But that doesn't mean that as his dad nears the sun, Phil won't wake up and have the chance to say goodbye to his mom and all the humans who fell in love with him. No one expected him to wander all over his dad, so who is to say he can't wake up and say goodbye to us all.

And what about his Dad? How will he survive the drive by? He's expected to come out the other side, but he might let off a lot of steam and come out a changed fellow. Or he might fall completely apart. Comets are unpredictable fellows, so we really won't know until it happens.

And will Rose continue to chase Kid Comet, or will she give up and find some nice steady planet to admire?

Only time will tell.

What you've learned today is that Liza O'Connor can make anything silly, even extraordinary space accomplishments.

Liza's a bit sad over Phil.

But you can cheer her up!

 Check out her books.