Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews: The Star Host by F.T. Lukens - Blog Tour with Author Q & A and Giveaway

Author Name: F.T. Lukens

Book Name: The Star Host

Series: Broken Moon

Book: One

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27830154-the-star-host

Publisher: Duet Books, the Young Adult imprint of Interlude Press

Cover Artist: C.B. Messer

Release Date: March 3, 2016

Blurb:

Ren grew up listening to his mother tell stories about the Star Hosts – a mythical group of people possessed by the power of the stars. The stories were the most exciting part of Ren’s life, and he often dreamed about leaving his backwater planet and finding his place among the neighboring drifts. When Ren is captured by soldiers and taken from his home, he must remain inconspicuous while plotting his escape. It’s a challenge since the general of the Baron’s army is convinced Ren is something out of one of his mother’s stories.

He finds companionship in the occupant of the cell next to his, a drifter named Asher. A member of the Phoenix Corps, Asher is mysterious, charming, and exactly the person Ren needs to anchor him as his sudden technopathic ability threatens to consume him. Ren doesn’t mean to become attached, but after a daring escape, a trek across the planet, and an eventful ride on a merchant ship, Asher is the only thing that reminds Ren of home. Together, they must warn the drifts of the Baron’s plans, master Ren’s growing power, and try to save their friends while navigating the growing attraction between them.

Pages or Words: 258 pages

Categories: Fiction, Gay fiction, M/M Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Excerpt:

Once at the hangar, Ren broke away from the two guards and entered the lancer, walking up the stairs, irritation a heavy feeling in his chest.

“Reporting for work,” Ren said, his tone heavily laced with annoyance.

Janus popped up from a console she had been working under, goggles on her face, gray hair sticking up everywhere. “You!” she snapped. “I told you not to come back.”

Ren rolled his eyes. “It’s not my choice. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here.”

“Where are your guards? I told the dumb one not to bring you back, Abiathar’s orders be damned. I don’t want your kind working on these ships.”

She poked a finger hard into Ren’s chest and he staggered back, and rubbed his hand over the spot.

“What the stars do you mean by my kind?”

Her eyes grew comically large behind the goggles. “You don’t know?” She laughed, bordering on hysterical. “You’re more dangerous than I thought. You can’t try to control it if you don’t even know what you are.”

Ren frowned. His tolerance for the cryptic nonsense everyone had spouted since he arrived was gone. He took a step toward the hull and Janus stiffened.

“Don’t,” she barked.

“Don’t what? Touch it? What will happen, huh?”

Her face paled and her chest heaved with panicked breaths. “You don’t know what you’re capable of.”

Ren laughed. “I’m capable of nothing. I’m a duster, planet-born with very limited experience with tech. You have no reason to be frightened of me.”

He moved closer to the hull, hand outstretched, fingers splayed.

She whimpered. “Please, don’t.”

Ren slammed his hand against the hull, his fingertips leaving greasy marks on the shiny surface. As he predicted, nothing happened.

He turned back to Janus. “See? Nothing–”

His word tangled in his throat, cut off, because suddenly, Ren was consumed with power, rushing from his toes to his fingertips. A blue tint clouded his vision, and his body suffused with golden warmth. And then he was floating amongst the wires, connected to the ship, to the energy source, to everything. The lancer pulsed under his skin, tangling in his veins, its systems integrated with his senses.

It was freeing and frightening.

His consciousness raced along the circuits and he could fix it. He could fix everything. He found the tangle of wires in the artificial gravity system and bypassed it. He found the broken circuits in the air recyclers and with a pulse of power, refurbished them. He saw the static in the com system, a physical entity, and he cleared it away with a brush of his metaphysical hand.

The longer Ren floated through the ship, the less connected he was to his physical body. And if he thought about it, he didn’t need his body. Why would he need his body? He was free here. He moved around with ease, the wires and the systems his route, and the more he pushed, the more he felt the other ships too. They were nearby, on the edge of his perception, and he could go to those, he could jump to the other ones and repair them too.

He could.

He could.

Buy the book:

Interlude Press Web Store: store.interludepress.com

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1RHWcQ5

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-star-host-ft-lukens/1122958972?ean=9781941530726

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/593341

Apple iBookstore: The Star Host

All Romance eBooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html?referrer=55feb862851f8

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing F.T. Lukens of The Star Host.

Hi F.T., thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

Hi, everyone. This is F.T. and I’m here to talk about my debut novel, The Star Host. It is a science fiction novel with a bisexual hero who is thrust into an adventure that spans across planets and drifts.

1) What genre is your book and what drew you to this genre?

The Star Host is a science fiction adventure. I was drawn to this genre because I have always loved sci-fi and have enthusiastically consumed sci-fi media since I was a young girl. As a writer, I enjoy the freedom inherent in speculative fiction. I have the ability to create world, cultures, and even languages. If I can imagine it, then I can put it on the page and craft it into the story.

2) How many days a week do you write?

I try to write every day, but that doesn’t often end up happening because I work full time and I have three children. Also, I have found that writing every day for an extended period leads to burn out. I’ve learned to pace myself. If I have a deadline or I’m trying to make a certain word count for the month, then I do write every day for a set time, then I take a break. Other times, I write on nights that my husband works and on the weekends so about four to five days a week.

3) On average, how long does it take to write a book?

I know this question says “on average” but honestly, it varies greatly. I wrote The Star Host in four months – March, April, May, and June of 2015. I was motivated by the open submission period that Interlude had advertised. On the other side of the spectrum, I have novel that I started in the fall of 2013 that is still a work in progress. I hope to finish it sometime this year.

4) Do you have a trailer for your book? If yes, give us the link. If not, do you think you’d like to have one done at some point?

I don’t have a trailer for the book. I’m awful at making vids or gifs so if I were to have one it would need to be done by someone else. I think that it’s a great promotional tool, though.

5) If I could be a character in a book, I would be _______?

Hermione Granger. I would love to be smart, capable, and a wizard. Who wouldn’t want to be a student at Hogwarts?

Meet and follow the author:

F.T. wrote her first short story when she was in third grade and her love of writing continued from there. After placing in the top five out of ten thousand entries in a writing contest, she knew it was time to dive in and try her hand at writing a novel.

A wife and mother of three, F.T. holds degrees in psychology and English literature, and is a long-time member of her college’s science-fiction club. F.T. has a love of cheesy television shows, superhero movies, and science-fiction novels—especially anything by Douglas Adams.

Connect with F.T. at authorftlukens.wordpress.com on Twitter @ftlukens, on Tumblr at ftlukens.tumblr.com and on Goodreads at goodreads.com/ftlukens.