Meet Emma Lai

Let me introduce you to one of the best new authors anywhere! Her name is Emma Lai, and she's wonderful. Emma's a new author with The Wild Rose Press. At the moment she has a cover and is doing edits on the book, but you'll have to wait a bit before you can buy it. Personally, I can't wait to read that book. Well, enough from me. Emma, welcome to the blog. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Thanks, Elaine. It's great to be here.

How I became an author:

I can’t honestly say that I’ve always wanted to be a writer. In elementary school, I had a teacher who made us write a book. Mine was Glartian the Martian. It was about a little Martian boy, who was all alone because he was different, but in the end, he found a little Martian girl play mate. I found the writing experience to be somewhat painful, but it challenged me to try to write another story about young love, which bored me to tears after the first three pages. I put away the typewriter and never looked back.

In fact, I got my degree in Electrical Engineering and spent years writing software and doing project management. It was challenging, but I never loved it. I started trying out different things, looking for the one thing that would make me want to get up in the morning and go to the office.
I finally found that thing back in June, and it was writing.

Back in May, after I finished the coursework for my Masters in International Relations, I decided to take the month of June to relax. I caught up on the pile of books I’d been accumulating. Sometime during all my reading, an idea started to form, and it just wouldn’t go away. I’d close my eyes at night and find myself in this whole other world. I decided the only way to get it out of my head was to put it on paper, and that was the beginning. It seemed once I opened the door it refused to be shut.


Experience to date:

I just signed my first contract for His Ship, Her Fantasy with The Wild Rose Press and am eternally grateful to my editor Jamie West and the Futuristic/AE editor Kelly Schaub for working with me to bring out the full potential of Alistair and Ellie’s story.

His Ship, Her Fantasy is a sweet romance. At heart, it fits into the sci-fi genre, but it has inspired a whole series of shorts that cross over into multiple genres to include sci-fi, fantasy, and time travel. The working name of the short series is Mates of the Guardians. To date, I have completed the manuscript for one other short in the series, have started on a second, and outlined a third. I thought I had another short in the series completed, but its characters begged for more attention so it’s evolving, possibly into the first book in a series.

Other works in progress include two books: a contemporary romance and a young adult fantasy. I’m also polishing an erotic Regency short.


Blurb for His Ship, Her Fantasy:

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


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.