Please welcome my friend Jennette Marie Powell here to talk about her latest action-packed fantastical fiction.
What inspired you to write SF-romance novels?
I’ve always loved both genres! But the main thing that inspired this particular book is the folklore surrounding Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the so-called Hangar 18 that was supposedly located on it (but actually never was). According to the stories, wreckage and alien bodies from the Roswell incident were brought there in 1947. I’ve worked at the base on and off for the past several years, and no one believes any of that stuff, but it’s fun to think about!
What SF movies/shows/books do you like?
When I was a kid, the Escape to Witch Mountain books were some of my favorites – like my book, they involved both psychic abilities and aliens. Of course, I’ve liked Star Trek and the Star Wars movies, and the Terminator movies have also been among my favorites, probably because of the time travel aspect.
Where/when does you story take place?
Hangar 18: Legacy is contemporary, and takes place on and around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio.
Tell us about the characters and what’s happening.
Captain Adam Keller is a research psychologist in the Air Force, and has the ability to sense the thoughts and emotions of others, so he keeps people at a distance. But when a desperate, telepathic voice demands rescue, dark thoughts of death threaten to overwhelm Adam. Then he meets a woman whose attraction to him—and his to her—quiets, if not silences, the voice. All he has to do is risk his heart and experience the emotions he’s long denied himself.
Skeptical programmer Lisa Stark wants nothing more than to finish the subliminal messaging software she’s worked on for over a year, a project someone wants badly enough to kill for. Then Adam discovers the voice plaguing him is an imprisoned extraterrestrial thought dead for decades. Lisa’s software is key to freeing the being and silencing the voice… if she lives to finish it.
How is writing this different from doing your time travel romantic suspense?
My Saturn Society books are a lot more difficult to plan and plot due to the moving in and out of eras and making sure the characters are all not only in the same place, but the same time, when they need to be. Hangar 18 was much more linear, and therefore, simpler. It’s also a lighter story in that there was more opportunity for comic relief when in the alien’s point of view—when he didn’t understand slang, for example. Hangar 18 is shorter and less complex, and as of now, it’s a standalone book. However, if it was to prove popular, there are ten more aliens locked up. (grin)
Tell us about yourself. (I love the pic of you with your Harley-is it a Harley?)
Thanks! And yes, it’s a Harley. It’s a Sportster 883 Low, lowered even more so I can ride it. (grin) I’m a wife, mom, former graphic artist-turned software developer, science-fiction-romance writer. The projects I work on are much, much less interesting than those of my heroine Lisa in Hangar 18: Legacy—and I like them that way. I’m a lifelong resident of Dayton, Ohio, and I love local history, though my preferred way to experience it is on the computer, in books, or at museums. When I’m not wrangling data or websites, I like to read (of course!), play computer games, cruise in my Camaro or on my Harley, or hang out with the family.
Website & blog: www.jenpowell.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jenmariepowell
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jenmariepowell
Hangar 18: Legacy is currently available in Kindle ebook and in paperback on Amazon; coming to other retail outlets this summer.
