This year has been chock full of friends publishing books, and I am absolutely THRILLED for them. So far, Jen Brooks released her YA Debut, In a Word Just Right, and then J.L. Gribble released her debut Urban Fantasy/Alternate History novel, Steel Victory. Today brings the Science Fiction Romance debut from Rhonda Mason: The Empress Game.
Unlike Brooks and Gribble, I didn’t beta-read Mason’s novel, so when I read my Kindle copy, it’ll be for the first time. But I’m confident it’s going to rock my world, because like Brooks, Rhonda Mason is a writer from Seton Hill’s Writing Popular Fiction Program who graduated my first term there. She was one of the very first thesis readings I attended, and to this day I still remember the AWESOME first line of that novel. No, I won’t quote it here, and no, The Empress Game is not that novel. However, it bears many similarities: a kick-ass heroine, lots of fighting, and edge-of-your-seat writing, if the small sample I gobbled up is any indication.
Believe me, I’m looking forward to reading this book.
Happy Release Day, Rhonda!
One seat on the intergalactic Sakien Empire’s supreme ruling body, the Council of Seven, remains unfilled, that of the Empress Apparent. The seat isn’t won by votes or marriage, it’s won in a tournament of ritualized combat in the ancient tradition. Now that tournament–the Empress Game–has been called, and the females of the empire will stop at nothing to secure political domination for their homeworlds. Kayla Reinumon, a supreme fighter, is called by a mysterious stranger to battle it out in the arena.
The battle for political power isn’t contained by the tournament’s ring, however. The empire’s elite gather to forge, strengthen or betray alliances in a political dance that will shape the fate of the empire for a generation. With the empire wracked by a rising nanovirus plague and stretched thin by an ill-advised planet-wide occupation in enemy territory, everything rests on the woman who rises to the top.
Rhonda Mason divides her time between writing, editing, bulldogs and beaching. Her writing spans the gamut of speculative fiction, from space opera to epic fantasy to urban paranormal and back again. The only thing limiting her energy for fantastical worlds is the space-time continuum.
When not creating worlds she edits for a living, and follows her marine biologist husband to the nearest beach. In between preserving sea grass and deterring invasive species, she snorkels every chance she gets. Her rescue bulldog, Grace, is her baby and faithful companion. Grace follow her everywhere, as long as she’s within distance of a couch Grace can sleep on. Rhonda is a graduate of the Writing Popular Fiction masters program at Seton Hill University, and recommends it to all genre writers interested in furthering their craft at the graduate level.
You can find Rhonda at www.RhondaMason.com.
Calico Writes 