I was tagged by author Jessica Subject to do The Next Best Thing Challenge.  Thanks for thinking of me, Jessica!

Here’s how it works:

• Answer the 10 questions below
• Spread the fun and tag other writers to participate.

1. What is the title of your book / WIP?

My book is titled, Girl Under Glass, and it is the first novel in a planned three-book series.

2. Where did the idea for this book come from?

A brain-storming session with my mom. We were playing What if?

What if a woman lived in a rural area and a stranger appeared in her yard? What if Earth had been conquered by aliens? What if she was a part of an experiment, but didn’t know it?

3. What genre would your book fall under?

Science fiction, specifically romantic dystopian sci-fi.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Dwayne Johnson would be cast as Ehtishem.

Jessica Valentine (my cover model) would play Rachel.

Rachel’s daughter, Pearl, would be played by Nikki Hahn.

5. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

To protect her young daughter from a madman and a tyrant, Rachel Pryne must trust an enemy – one of the alien warriors who conquered Earth.

6. Is your book published or represented?

It’ll be self-published.

7. How long did it take you to write it?

All in, about 18 months. I vetted it with my critique group and multiple beta readers, and then hired a copy editor to comb through it. After which I made more editorial changes.

Hey, I like to be thorough.

8. What other books in your genre would you compare it to?

Generally, I don’t make comparisons, but one reviewer described it as The Scarlet Letter meets Star Trek, which I think is very apropos.

9. Which authors inspired you to write this book?

I was more inspired by the strong female characters I’ve read and seen: Ripley, Sarah Connor, Jane Eyre, Lessa of Pern, etc.

10. Tell us anything else that might pique our interest in your book.

Girl Under Glass was a 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semi-finalist manuscript.

“…a compellingly bumpy ride of a love story….”–Publishers Weekly* Reviewer, ABNA Semi-finals

It is 2032, the Ohnenrai – Earth’s humanoid alien conquerors – orbit the planet, and Terran reproduction is failing. Rachel Pryne, a trained medic, is struggling to protect her seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, from the sexual predation of their community’s leader, Elder Cyrus. Having fathered the girl by rape, Cyrus now intends to take her on her eighth birthday, only six weeks away.

Then Rachel finds her unlikely champion – an injured Ohnenrai soldier who appears in her yard one stormy evening. She knows she may be choosing death over the devil in trusting this warrior, but she doesn’t know that her trust, and her DNA, will make her one of the most important and endangered people to ever set foot aboard an Ohnenrai starship.

Equal parts pastoral and military science fiction, Girl Under Glass moves from a post-apocalyptic wilderness in the American Pacific Northwest to a high-tech world aboard an alien starship furnished with all the stolen comforts of Earth.

This book introduces Rachel Pryne, a trained medic whose parents’ lifelong and life-ending connection to the Ohnenrai set her upon a path she never wanted. Readers also meet Ehtishem, an Ohnenrai soldier who exists to save his dying people, but who faces enemies from within and without his own military. While the only possible solution to his people’s extinction lies in convincing Rachel to help him save them, all she wants is to protect her daughter and see the Ohnenrai go straight to hell.

*Publishers Weekly is an independent organization unassociated with Amazon and Penguin Group (USA). This review was based on a draft version of this manuscript and not the final published manuscript.

And now, the five talented authors I’m tagging to share the fun.

Melanie R. Golden

K.E. Saxon

Carrie Crain

Goran Zidar

Kylie Scott