Lissa Bilyk

BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY: Signed copy of The Edge Of Darkness

Hello, my lovelies. I have an amazing announcement. I am hosting my very first giveaway!

I am giving away ONE SIGNED paperback copy of my first novel, The Edge Of Darkness, a space opera about cyborg prisoners of war who discover a conspiracy aboard their transport ship and mutiny to save their lives. It’s a soft sci-fi dystopian with a little bit of thriller elements and a little bit of romance, and contains a kick-ass heroine and her noble love interest.

This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL (YAY! I hear you all cheer). I will choose the winner on September 1st because I have a simultaneous giveaway on Goodreads and there is a small chance one person could win both books.

To be eligible to win this giveaway, all you have to do is SUBSCRIBE to my blog using the SUBSCRIBE button over there —> because quite frankly, not everyone has a Twitter or a Facebook or a Google+ but everyone has email. I’m not going to make you like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter, or add me to your circle on Google+, or follow me on Goodreads, or even follow my NetworkedBlog. But you’re welcome to do all that.

Then, AFTER you have subscribed (or if you ALREADY subscribed in which case, YAY!) please COMMENT on THIS post using the SAME email address in the info field, or, if you’re a WordPress blog user, the link to your blog (so I can tell who’s who).

Please note:

If you subscribe but do not comment you won’t be eligible.
If you comment without subscribing you won’t be eligible.
If you comment more than once I will only count your first entry.

I will select the winner using random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to an email.

I’m excited about this giveaway because The Edge of Darkness will be going on sale in September! I am using Smashwords for the digital copies and CreateSpace for the paperback copies. Stay tuned for the announcement.

AND NOW it’s time for a Chapter One excerpt, so see if you’d be interested in winning this giveaway. Why wouldn’t you? It’s FREE!

I snapped out of my daydream as my husband Ethan sat next to me.

“You’ll never guess what,” he said, his one human eye shining with excitement. Ethan was one of the lucky borgs who managed to keep his human voice. I think that’s why he gravitated towards me: that and the full head of hair I sport. I was originally born in the Philippines on Old Earth, and I still have the long black hair I was born with. When my face was smashed, I was given a cybernetic eye and face plate. At first the human in me was horrified by the way I looked in a mirror – and then I never saw a mirror again, and so I forgot. Cyborgs aren’t given mirrors, and on the Rock we don’t have anything that can cast a reflection. So I forgot about my face. Until I saw Ethan.

Ethan tells me he was very athletic before the explosion. He had longish blonde hair and tanned skin – his skin is now pale and sallow, like so many of us. I do adore his human eye, though. It is blue and happy. That’s how it seems to me. Happy.

Happiness is rare on the Rock.

“What is it?” I asked him, taking his human hand in mine. The touch set off a bunch of receptors to my cybernetic nerves, and my system flooded with euphoria. Every time I touched him, I got the same response. When I reported the over stimulus to the Authorities, they told me they couldn’t afford the mechanics to fix the overload. So I learned to enjoy it.

“Apparently the war’s over. I heard the Authorities talking about incoming transport ships. The Antiquity fleet. Max, my girl, I think we’re going home!”

“Home!” I tried not to laugh at his hopeful expression. What could home offer us? Perhaps we would no longer be refugees, or prisoners of war, but we’d still be second-class citizens. Why did they want to send us back to Old Earth when they could use us until we died in servitude?

“We’re too expensive an investment to risk sending home,” I argued quietly. “Why don’t they ship us off-planet to some alien contractor? They’d get their money’s worth.”

“Well Max, the war’s over, so the risk of being pirated while offline is minimal.”

“I don’t want to go offline,” I said under my breath. He squeezed my hand.

“It’s OK, love: I’ll compartmentalise right beside you. I’ll never leave your side, you know that.”

“Yes, Ethan, I do know that.” I looked furtively around, and saw that there were no Authorities nearby. I leaned in and kissed him quickly on the lips.

It was an illegal move, and one that could have grave consequences if we were caught. That’s why, in the three years we have been together on the Rock, neither of us have progressed further than a kiss or a grope, despite us both being healthy semi-humans with fully functioning sex organs. It’s just too risky. The consequences for breaking proximity rules were harsh. I think it haunted a lot of the borgs who were capable of thinking about it.

I will love you all the more if you RETWEET. FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS, PLEASE RETWEET/SHARE ON FACEBOOK.

Also: The Edge of Darkness is now on Goodreads! Use this link to mark it to-read. If you’re SUPER nice and I get 100 to-reads, I will give away some e-book editions!

Foreign Cover Friday: The Initiate by Louise Cooper

Foreign Cover Friday is a weekly meme hosted by The Reading Fever, where foreign covers of the books we know and love are spotlighted and discussed. To join, either pick your favourite foreign cover, or pick many foreign covers, and start discussing!

This is the first week I have been involved with Foreign Cover Friday, even though I’ve read every entry The Reading Fever put up. I’ve always had a post to do on Fridays but this week I thought, why not? So we’re taking a look at my favourite author’s most successful book:

The Initiate (Time Master #1) by Louise Cooper

Down all the ages the twin powers of Order and Chaos have been locked in an eternal struggle for control of the worlds of men.

Somewhere beyond the realms we know, in a time when Order has triumphed, a child is born; a nameless outcast destined to restore the terrible balance. This is the tale of his initiation….

The cover on the left is the first imprint of the book published way back in 1985 by Tor Books. The cover on the right is the more recent (2005) re-print by Mundania Press. The left version shows Tarod, our protagonist, bundled up in a cloak facing Yandros, another major character in the books. The left cover showcases Sashka, a Very Important Character. To Ms Cooper’s request, they did not put Tarod on the cover.

This is what I assume must be the French covers (left 2001, right 2003). The left version shows a very detailed portrait of Tarod with his long, sexy wild black hair and his soul-piercing green eyes. The ring makes an appearance, too. The only problem with this is that it doesn’t leave his appearance up to the reader’s imagination. But I actually really like it. The cover on the right… I don’t even know where to start. I’m pretty sure that’s meant to be Yandros in the background but I have no idea what Tarod is doing on the floor with an arm that appears to be made of metal.
Translation: The Master of Time Book One: The Initiate.

These two Spanish versions (I believe) shows slightly less of his face. I don’t like the blue border on the left – it look gaudy! And I’m not sure what sword he’s holding. Perhaps the cover artists read the memo and went, “A fantasy! He must hold a sword, then.” And the cover on the right? I don’t even know what they’re trying to do to that. An old guy who looks like Death holding a staff? It’s not even close to anything in the book. I wouldn’t pick up either of them.
Translation: Mr Time, The Insider (according to Google translate?)

It’s a bit hard to see in this cover, but in this version, Tarod looks just like Colin Firth channelling Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights. I had the trilogy in this 1993 HarperCollins UK covers, but I gave them to a friend to read and he moved away and we lost contact Sad smile .

What are your thoughts?

Which covers do you like? Which do you hate?

Check back at The Reading Fever for her Foreign Cover Friday!

Disney’s First Non-White Princess, Jasmine.

The thing about Disney is that they like to add technically non-princesses into the Disney Princess line-up. When you think about it, throughout their entire films, Belle and Cinderella weren’t actually princesses. Sure, they became princesses afterwards by marrying a prince, whatever. But then you come across characters like Alice (who is sometimes marketed that way) who has nothing to do with royalty – she is neither princess nor marries royalty. And then we come across the highlighted non-white ‘princesses’ Mulan, Pocahontas, and Jasmine. Mulan and Pocahontas have nothing to do with royalty – Mulan is a Chinese citizen and Pocahontas is the daughter of a Native American chief.

Tis a pity the film was about Aladdin, not Jasmine.

Jasmine’s a bit more complicated. She stands out. She’s the daughter of a Sultan. She is technically a princess, but she’s the first Disney ‘princess’ so far that doesn’t marry a prince. Instead, she chooses to marry a street kid. In fact, the entire movie revolves around the boy, not her. This is the first Disney Princess movie to actually focus on a male character instead of the princess they use to promote it. Not that I’m complaining – Aladdin was originally meant to be 13 years old, and they matured him into an 18 year old young male lead, and quite honestly, kind of a hunk.

Naked chest? That was practically NUDITY when I was six.

Even though this is based on an Arab folktale about a ruffian who finds a genie, I find surprising parallels with Jasmine and one of Shakespeare’s films I studied for my Honours degree, The Merchant of Venice. Like Portia, Jasmine is trapped by the need to marry by an overbearing father. She wills to be rebellious, but once she marries, she will have more power than her unmarried self. That’s about where the parallels end. The situation is worse for Jasmine – if she doesn’t marry by her eighteenth birthday, something terrible will happen. I don’t actually know what – Jafar hypnotises the Sultan into believing she will have to marry him, which is so gross I don’t even want to think about it.

We'll have a nice picture of their date, instead.

The most fascinating thing about Jasmine is that she is so very different to the past princesses we have met: chronologically, they are Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, and Belle. It pains me to say it (because Belle was, for a long time, my favourite), but Jasmine is even more rebellious and strong-willed than these previous princesses. She never just waits to be rescued: she is constantly trying to find her own way. She runs away from the palace even though she has no where to go and has never been outside the walls. Even when Jafar has her in chains in that red outfit, and she seems all helpless, she goes and does a 180 on what a typical princess should behave and actually uses her sexuality as a weapon against Jafar, which in my opinion is just totally cool.

She's a total hottie in the red outfit. Uh, can I say that about a Disney character?

It’s a pity the film didn’t give her more screen time. She fell in love with Aladdin because they talked and discovered how much they had in common, and she didn’t like his alter-ago Ali Ababwa. She even guessed that he was Aladdin under all the glitz and glamour, and although he lied to her (which TOTALLY pisses me off, why didn’t he just tell the truth?!) she still fell in love with Aladdin when he was being himself, a street kid. And the best thing about Princess Jasmine? She married him, even though he wasn’t a prince. It’s kind of the complete opposite of Belle – Belle may well have guessed that the Beast was some kind of nobility while he kept her trapped in his castle, but she didn’t know he was a prince and fell in love with his beastly form. Jasmine saw past the princely disguise Aladdin was using and fell in love with a nobody.

Oh, oh! And the other thing I really like about this film is that there was KISSING before the wedding/final scene. Yay, kissing!

P.S. – I’m going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 tonight – are you jealous?

On Beta Reading and Unfortunate Gaming Mishaps

Lately, I’ve been doing more beta-reading than writing. Reading is taking up a lot of time. I’ve been reading published books as well, and dreaming about the books I’m going to buy when I get back to Australia.

I beta read the most phenomenal dystopian by a sixteen year old that blew my mind – I thought I was a good writer, and then I read that. It was really, really awesome. I hope it finds a home really soon. It impresses me that a sixteen year old can not only finish a novel (I had finished about three novellas by that age, but never an actual novel) but the able to write with that depth, knowledge of world history, and the technique? Phenomenal. I’m strangely proud of her, even though I’ve never met her. That’s the power of the internetz for you.

I’ve started beta-reading a literary novel – or maybe it’s a mystery thriller… we’re not quite sure. Hopefully I’ll be able to shed some light on that. This one came out of NaNoWriMo, so it’s lovely to see people making headway with their November novels. The Edge of Darkness was a NaNo novel as well. In case you haven’t noticed, it now has its own place holder in the sidebar that-a-way —>
I’m so proud.

In other news, the other day I played the Sims 3 after not playing it for a while. I almost had to re-learn things, because I’ve been playing The Sims Medieval. I was wondering if I could kick the parents out and leave their teen when disaster struck my fourth-generation household. The teenager was having her birthday party, and as she blew out the candle, the table and all the chairs caught fire, quickly spreading to all the guests. And because she was a Party Animal, all the invited guests had come and filled this little room so that the fire fighters couldn’t get in. Four Sims died, including the parents of the teenager. Tragic? Yes. Hilarious? Also, yes.

Yeah, so I took a picture. I had a feeling it’d be blog-worthy.

Sleeping Beauty: The Passive, Peasant Princess

Sleeping Beauty, Disney’s third Disney Princess film, was released in 1959. I enjoyed Sleeping Beauty a lot more than I enjoyed Cinderella, which I enjoyed a lot more than Snow White. It seems that Disney was only getting better with age. Princess Aurora has the beginnings of the later 90s princesses I adore. The Prince also had a much bigger role in the film, which is great. However, I’m not here to talk about Prince Phillip (named after THE Prince Phillip of the time) or Malificent (who is totally AWESOME!), I’m here to talk about Princess Aurora and bitch talk about those stupid fairies.

Those Damn, Cursed Gifts

The thing that annoyed me most about this film was that she was ‘gifted’ with presents normally already bestowed on Disney princesses – a beautiful singing voice and physical beauty as well. I’d like to see what she sounds like/ looks like if those stupid fairies hadn’t played with her future. How, exactly, would it have affected her? Would Prince Phillip still fall in love with a girl if he heard her screeching like an angry cat in the woods and discovered Lady Gaga?

Still wanna fall madly in love with me, punk?

Were those gifts only given to make her more attractive to the opposite sex, or more attractive in general so that the ‘populace’ would love and universally adore her? Why is it so damned important that she be beautiful and sing nicely, anyway? Those stupid fairies didn’t want to grant her good health or longevity, I notice. They neglected to grant her wisdom, or intelligence, or kindness. What are their priorities, anyway? Are they jealous because they’re frumpy, grumpy and kinda stupid? I mean, seriously, who would hide a princess for sixteen years only to leave her unattended before the fateful sunset?

Briar Rose

What I like best about Princess Aurora/Briar Rose is that she’s not interested in getting hitched to some strange prince she’s never met. She doesn’t dream about living in a castle and living the princess life. She wants to be with that strange ‘peasant’ boy she met in the woods who, freakishly, she also dreams about. My theory is that because they saw each other as children, they now dream about each other.

Creepy McCreeperson makes the first move...

But the cool thing about Prince Phillip is that he doesn’t want to marry ‘Princess Aurora’ either, he wants to marry the ‘peasant’ girl he met in the woods. Although I, once again, find the Prince Charming a little creepy. He randomly starts dancing with Briar Rose, and then when Rose tries to get away from him (and damn right, she should! What a creeper!) he keeps grabbing her hands. CREEP! Seriously, dude. Rape happened in the 14^thcentury as well.

It's not rape if you yell SURPRISE! first... right?

Passive Princess

I suppose a lot of people would claim that Aurora’s a pathetic princess because she’s so passive – what can sleeping through the climax of the film be if not passivity? However, I would like to propose an alternative viewing, because I sympathise with Aurora. She’s a victim. Yes, she does as she’s told. She’s not rebellious like stronger Disney princesses. She’s still looking for love, like her predecessors. After her mini temper tantrum she does as she’s told and goes to the palace with the fairies. Then, and this is the part where I really sympathise with her – she is magically hypnotised and forced to touch the spinning needle wheel thingy. I mean, it’s pretty cool because she even tries to fight the magic – you see her pull away.

She’s not quite Belle, or Jasmine, or even Ariel, but she’s getting there. She’s trying to do what she wants to do, but everyone around her forces her to do something she doesn’t want, to make her be something she’s not. That’s why it’s so easy to be on her side in this even though she’s one of the older princesses that I never really liked. I can accept that she simply doesn’t have Belle’s bravery or Jasmine’s independent streak or Ariel’s curiosity. It’s simply not in her personality. And I’m OK with that, because she doesn’t accept her fate as willingly as Snow White and she’s not as helpless as Cinderella, her two princess predecessors.

Yeah, I’m hanging a lot on the fact that she manages to pull back her hand before her finger is pricked. That’s what I do. I read into things.

I'm not even going to go into the whole 'phallic' imagery of this, either. I'll spare you.

I was kind of hoping by now that we’d have a princess whose mind didn’t revolve around her cooch, but we’re still in 1959. We still have a princess who doesn’t really mind doing housework, either. I mean, what are they trying to say? That if 1950s women do their housework and look pretty to please men, some Prince will come along and marry them, take them ‘away from it all’? The reason I like Briar Rose so much is that even when she’s told she’s betrothed to a Prince, she gets all upset and flumpy because she wants to be with the boy from the woods. A boy she thoroughly believes is just a peasant. She’s not dreaming of marrying a Prince. And that, to me, because she is one of the three ‘old school’ Princesses, is just awesome.

PS – why is she marketed as wearing a pink dress when she spends more time in the film with the dress blue?