Guest author KS Augustin: Sharing the lurve

I'm truly delighted to host KS Augustin, fellow author, fellow Novel Spaces member, IT specialist, martial artist, and much more besides! Science-fiction romance is her first love, but she has also dabbled in fantasy and contemporary action romances, picking up a CAPA award nomination along the way. She was a Spectrum award finalist and has appeared on the Fictionwise Best-Seller List. Kaz has visited, lived and/or worked in the UK, North America and Australia, and has now settled back in south-east Asia. Without further ado, I give you... KS Augustin!

You can't believe how happy I was to discover Liane! The one thing that I love about being a writer is the ability to form friendships with extremely talented people from around the world. And, considering that Liane is in Trinidad and I'm in Malaysia, that's some distance to cover.

But one thing that also brings Liane and I together is language. With all those North Americans filling up the ether, it's nice to touch base with someone else who uses British English. You wouldn't think it's such a big deal, would you? It is. Finally, someone who can spell “centre” correctly. ;) Who's not going to confuse me with usage of the word “fanny”. (What, you mean...there [pointing to one part of the anatomy]? But I thought it meant...here [pointing to another part]?) Who knows that you cut up your meat as you eat it, not all at once at the beginning.

There's also a certain reserve to those of us who don't use US English. We're the more shy, retiring type. It takes a major effort, plus crowbar work, to get us to actually (shhhh!) promote ourselves. Mix in a Roman Catholic education and it's a wonder we don't faint the moment we're introduced to someone new. Oh yes, take all the neuroses of the average English person you've always read about, inject it under the skin of a colonialist education mixed with Catholic guilt for just breathing and you have us. ::waving:: Hi.

So, in true self-deprecating fashion, that's my roundabout way of introducing you to my latest novel. It's a science-fiction romance about an astrophysicist, the man she falls in love with and a weapon of immense destruction. But, it's written in UK English and I'd like to give each and every member of the Carina Press editorial board a big, smoochy kiss for that alone. Thank you Carina. And thank you Liane.

IN ENEMY HANDS

The Republic had taken everything from Moon―her research partner, her privacy, her illusions. They thought they had her under control. They were wrong.

Srin Flerovs, Moon's new research partner, is a chemically enhanced maths genius whose memory is erased every two days.

While he and Moon work on a method of bringing dead stars back to life, attraction between them flares, but that poses its own problem. How can their love survive when Srin forgets Moon every two days?

When she discovers the lethal applications her research can be put to, Moon knows she and Srin are nothing more than pawns in a much larger game. Together, they must escape the clutches of the Republic before they become its scapegoats. But there are too many walls around them, too many eyes watching. They want to run, but they're trapped on a military vessel in the depths of space, and time is running out....

COMPETITION: I'm giving away two copies of IN ENEMY HANDS at my blog, Fusion Despatches. To be in the draw, stop by and comment at the Competition post, telling me at which blog you read about my book. You have till 30 June!

Kaz Augustin is a Malaysian-born writer of science-fiction, romance, and permutations of the two. Her website is at http://www.ksaugustin.com and she blogs at http://blog.ksaugustin.com You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter; just look for “ksaugustin".