Announcing the release of 'His Ship, Her Fantasy' by Emma Lai

Today sees the release of 'HIS SHIP, HER FANTASY', By Emma Lai:

Ellie Woods is in love…with a ship. When an argument with the ship results in a bump on the head, she finds herself in the strong arms of Alastair. But, who is he, and where did he come from?

Alastair has loved Ellie from afar for years, but duty has kept him from revealing himself to her. When a grave threat reveals his true identity, he hopes that Ellie will choose reality over fantasy


Here is an Excerpt:

She fought to stay aware by focusing her gaze on the intriguing cleft in her rescuer’s chin. After a few moments, she tried to tilt her head back to get a look at the rest of his face, but the action made her dizzy once again. She gave up with a sigh and relaxed against his firm, broad chest.

She shrugged. Chances were she would not recognize him anyway. Over two hundred people served on the ship. She knew the dozen or so engineers who worked the first and third rotations and maybe another dozen crewmates by sight, others who worked the same rotation and happened to eat their meals in solitary silence at the same time she did. She would guess from the fact that he had to ask her name that he was not any of those two dozen individuals.

Maybe she should not have told him her real name. At least that way, when he talked about finding a woman helpless in the bowels of the ship, no one would have known who it was. Yeah, right, whom was she trying to fool? She was the sole person assigned duty to this area during fourth rotation. Her breath caught, and she stiffened in his arms. Who was he, and what was he doing in a restricted area?

“Relax,” he said.

“Who are you?” She tried to sit up in his arms, determined to get a look at him and an answer to her question.

He lifted her higher in his arms, which wedged her head between his head and shoulder and prevented her from getting a good look at his face. “Alastair.” His warm breath fluttered against her forehead and cheek.

This is what Emma says about her book and the character:

Ellie’s character is the primary driving force behind the story. Her difficulties in being the only female space engineer lead to the story.

But, how did I get inside her head?

I pursued my Electrical Engineering degree with a handful of other women. When I started looking for a job, I went where the money was. When you live in Houston, TX, this means oil and gas, specifically a large service company.

The industry has always been male dominated with a healthy dose of chauvinism. My first day at work I had one engineer ask me if my daddy put me up to this…meaning a career in engineering. For the entire five years I was with the company, one engineer outright refused to speak to me…even if we were supposed to work together. However, as with the bad, there is good as well. My manager did an excellent job of helping me grow professionally.

I took the remembered frustrations, grouchy characters, and silent support of the few and used them in His Ship, Her Fantasy. My hope is the reader will see Ellie’s strength and understand her quiet determination. She is a part of me.

As for the question, did my daddy put me up to this?

We’re all influenced by people in our lives, and my dad was a huge reason I went into engineering, but he was still surprised when I told him what I wanted to study. I’m not sure why. After all, he helped me put together my science project on series and parallel circuits, let me take apart his radio to see how it worked, and bought me my first computer, which I promptly used to write a program in BASIC, all when I was eight.

What comes next?

His Ship, Her Fantasy inspired a whole series of shorts that cross over into multiple genres to include sci-fi, fantasy, and time travel. The second story, His Hope, Her Salvation, of the Mates of the Guardians series has been contracted with The Wild Rose Press and has a tentative release date of Wednesday, December 16th. It is the story of Judith and Donovan. However, as with all strong, determined women, Ellie has decided her story isn’t done. I’ll be offering her continued story on my website next year.


This sounds wonderful, Emma. I'm looking forward to reading this series. The covers are beautiful too. To find out more about Emma and her writing see her blog and website:
http://emmalaiwrites.blogspot.com/
http://www.emmalaiwrites.com/

I'll be putting all the names of anyone who comments here today, into a hat and will draw the names tomorrow- the winner will receive a download of Emma's new release 'Her Ship, Her Fantasy'. Please leave your email address if you'd like to be in the draw, or pop back here to see who the winner is.