catherineldf | Guest Blog post: Author Janine A. Southard on "Hive and Heist" (Reply)

I met Janine Southard (in an online sense) on Twitter when she was publishing her first collection of short stories under a different name. We stayed in touch and I found myself continually intrigued by her ideas. Her latest book, Hive & Heist, 2nd in her YA Hive Queen Saga, comes out in May. Her first ebook in the series, Queen & Commander, is marked down to $.99 until May 15 if you'd like to begin at the beginning- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BRM2XVE)

Hive & Heist - by Janine A. Southard

Writers often hear: “If the book you want to read doesn't exist, write it yourself.”

Which is how I ended up with a multiple-POV young adult science fiction series about Druids on spaceships with no romance subplots.

At first I was supremely unsure about this. I mean, the market is really not looking for it.

· Young adult is popular, yes, but without a romance plot? Never.

· Spaceships are good, yes, but without a military angle? No one buys that.

· Druids are lovely, yes, but only in medieval settings or paranormal contemporary. On a spaceship? Nope. Too much cognitive dissonance.

But I loved my clueless teenagers who try to make their way in the universe. I love that they’re Druids (except for the one Catholic guy who has some serious disparity with his majority-religion friends). I love my spaceships and space adventures that don’t have anything to do with fighting the alien hordes.

So I wrote the first book in the Hive Queen Saga anyway.

And it worked! Readers on Kickstarter read my sample chapters and backed my project. In less than a year from the publish date, Queen & Commander won an Independent Book Publishers’ Award (IPPY) for science fiction/fantasy/horror ebooks.

Now I’m releasing the second book in the series, Hive & Heist. It’s still gloriously unmarketable with its teenage ensemble cast working on a caper, instead of on romance. Worse, I’ve added an adult POV to this mix, a traveling law enforcement officer on the trail of a serial thief and murderer. Oh, and yeah, they’re still Druids... one of the characters even blesses a room on a space station.

Hive & Heist is a classic caper story mixed with a police procedural. Queen Rhiannon and her Hive (our heroes) have found safety on John Wayne Station, but with no way to pay their docking fees or medical bills, their debts are racking up quickly. When they revisit their ship to pick up personal belongings, they realize their ship’s engine has been stolen! If they ever hope to leave this foreign place, they must steal back what’s theirs. But far from home and among strangers, who can they trust?

If there was something that I probably shouldn’t write in order to guarantee commercial success, I did it with this book. For instance, the teenage heroes of Hive & Heist spend a lot of time hanging out in a brothel, and there are no messages about safe sex nor sob stories about staying away from a life on the streets. (Yeah, I don’t really believe in strong-arming readers with moral messages, even if they do sometimes work their way into my books. As far as the brothel is concerned, I think the message might be “learn your lines if you become an actor” or “consent is important” or “costumes make the character”.)

Hive & Heist is for all the readers who love for space-based adventures that are a little outside the mainstream.

About Janine A. Southard

Janine A. Southard writes speculative fiction and videogame dialogue from her home in Seattle, WA. She sings with a Celtic band and is working on the next book in her award-winning Hive Queen series. She’s also been known to read aloud to her cat.

The cat appreciates all of these things. Maybe.

Visit her on the Web: http://www.janinesouthard.com

Interact on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jani_s

Join the conversation on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jani_s