Exclusive Interview with Queer Sci Fi Romance Author Laura Navarre
Author of Anticipated Angel
- How did you choose the topic for this book?
After writing traditional romance for New York publishers for years, I pivoted to indie and sci fi romance. Anticipated Angel is my M/M New Adult sci fi romance debut. This steamy, friends-to-lovers, first-time M/M pairing totally caught me by surprise! I was inspired with the idea during a sleepless night on an endless flight to Asia. Soaking up all that delectable tension between Kylo Ren and General Hux in the last Star Wars trilogy on the in-flight movie, I couldn’t help thinking how combustible it would be if those two gorgeous rivals hooked up and totally fell for each other. That’s how the idea for my original characters Dex & Nero, and the intergalactic conflict between their rival races, took flight.
- Are there underrepresented groups or ideas featured if your book? If so, discuss them.
As a bi author, I’ve always felt drawn to bi characters, although it took me a while to work up the courage to write them myself! In my universe, the galaxy’s leading race is the Mogadon Empire. Think ancient Romans in space. Dex’s father is a galactic tyrant who crucifies soldiers for prohibited passions, and M/M pairings are forbidden. So the fact that Dex is bi-curious and jonesing for his boyhood best friend—who’s also a rising star telepath from the rival race—is a dangerous secret. And Dex is in desperate denial.
As for Nero, he comes from a culture where all aspects of sexuality are accepted. But because his race is dying out, there’s an enormous pressure for pedigreed telepaths to enter the genetic breeding program and commit to multiple M/F pairings to ensure the race’s survival. Nero is committed to his people and intends to enter the breeding program as soon as he’s old enough. Falling for Dex, the tyrant’s son from the enemy race, isn’t part of the plan. So Nero’s an openly bi character who is under societal pressure to sublimate his own needs for the greater good.
- What secondary character would you like to explore more? Tell me about him or her.
When this story takes place, Dex has just been named his father’s heir after his older brother Caligula was exiled in disgrace. We don’t know much except that Caligula was exiled for “moral indecency” and that his male friend, who lacks a noble pedigree, was crucified for the same indiscretion. (He actually survives, but that’s a story I tell in my next series!) So the implication is that Caligula and his friend were lovers. I’ve always been fascinated by that story, and I finally get to tell it—with the happy ending those two deserve—in the new series I’m working on now!
- Tell me one thing hardly anyone knows about you.
I have a professional background in weapons of mass destruction—for real! In my day job, I’m part of a team that keeps things that go boom away from the bad guys. I’m one of the few people I know who’s actually been to North Korea, and I’ve walked the corridors of the world’s most dangerous Soviet-designed nuclear reactors. This background comes out in my stories. The Astral Heat Romance Series takes place just after Dex’s psycho galactic tyrant of a dad unleashes a genetically targeted biological weapon that wipes out 88% of the Valyrians, who used to be the galaxy’s leading race. So that’s more baggage for Dex & Nero to overcome over the course of the series.
- What’s coming next for you?
The complete Astral Heat Romance Box Set Box releases wide on Apr. 11, and the print books come out in June. Plus I’m super excited to be releasing a standalone tie-in set on modern-day Earth! Gemini Queen is a scorching MMMMF dark witch academy paranormal poly romance with lots (and lots!) of M/M action that’s available now for preorder here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09V1PQRPB
On an alien world that crucifies men for prohibited desires, two boyhood best friends risk the ultimate punishment to explore a forbidden passion.
Nero: He’s the most intimidating guy at our intergalactic next-gen leaders’ camp, and his psycho galactic tyrant of a dad has a crucifixion fetish. Our two races are deadly enemies, but Dex was my boyhood best friend. Suddenly this summer, he’s all grown up—and suddenly he can’t seem to stop staring at me. I don’t know whether to be afraid that it’s all a figment of my telepathic imagination…or that every dangerous desire we’re forbidden to acknowledge is searingly real.
Dex: I’m one combat-to-the-death away from the imperial command I’ve devoted my life to achieve. All I need to do is keep my dick in my pants. Besides, Ben Nero’s my oathsworn brother. Not to mention the most gorgeous, most maddeningly unattainable, most sought-after guy at leaders’ camp. There’s no way he’d ever look twice at a buttoned-tight, hyper-competitive, compulsive overachiever like me.
Until the night I blundered in on Nero in the shower. Which was a total catastrophic mistake. Because now I’ve seen what he looks like naked…now I’ve heard the way he sounds when he’s moaning my name…how in blazes do I keep him at arms’ length? Because my father crucifies men for loving men.
Which means letting Ben Nero in close, the way I’m burning to do, means risking the ultimate punishment.
For both of us.
Anticipated Angel is a steamy, angsty, friends-to-lovers MM new adult sci fi romance novella and the standalone prequel to the award-winning Astral Heat Romance Series.
Amazon | Universal Buy Link
About the Series:
The Astral Heat Romance Series is a steamy, angsty, enemies-to-lovers MMMF poly sci fi action romance series with M/M. Perfect for fans of Tymber Dalton, Kathryn Moon, Ariana Nash, and Pippa DaCosta. Here’s what early reviewers are saying about this category bestselling LGBTQ+ sci fi erotic romance series:
“Fast-paced, erotic, and brutal.” – Library Journal
“Intense and incendiary! This is hot stuff not for the faint of heart.” – Viragos Reading Odyssey
“This book just grabs and doesn’t let go….One of the steamiest books I’ve ever read.” – Amazon reviewer
“Astronomically out of this world action suspense drama, topped off with XXX sizzle! …Hang on to your space helmet, this is one wild ride!” – Goodreads reviewer
“This swashbuckling reverse harem Roman Empire in space saga turns up the heat to incendiary…a pulse racing read…Fabulous fun! I loved it!” – Alicia on Amazon and Goodreads
This award-winning series has notched contest wins in the RWA Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal On the Far Side Contest (speculative romance) and the 2021 Chesapeake Romance Writers’ Rudy Contest (erotic romance).
The Astral Heat Romance Series contains explicit M/M, M/F, and MMMF encounters.
Laura is giving away a $25 Amazon gift card with this 3 day blast:
Dex never locked his door. They’d been coming and going from each other’s dorms day and night for three summers straight.
Sure, Dex was arrogant, aggressive, pigheaded, surly, introverted, hypercompetitive, a compulsive overachiever. The golden boy at leaders’ camp. In other words, a typical Mogadon.
Nero had hated him on sight. Until everything changed.
Since the night Dex waded into battle to defend him, Nero had been secretly crushing on the guy.
Now—this summer—their final summer when they both gained their majority and left leaders’ camp behind forever, the sexual dynamic between them had torqued so much tighter. Their unspoken chemistry had condensed into an alchemical compound so volatile it was practically pyrophoric. With Dex grown into something between a deadly predator and a tawny god, Nero knew his secret summer crush stood in acute danger of developing into a connection fathoms deeper.
And far more lethal to his guarded heart.
But given Dex’s inherited battery of hang-ups and all that sexual baggage his best friend was carting around, the state of his heart was one secret Nero fully intended to keep.
Until tonight. Cat’s out of the cave now. Of all the possible, gods-cursed times for Dex to show up for a late-night shower…
For at least the twentieth time, he cursed his own rotten timing. Wryly he admitted the inferno of heat glowing in his chest and scorching his face had less to do with exertion than sheer embarrassment.
No use pretending it didn’t happen. Dex has been pushing me away all summer. What he just saw me doing while I moaned his name will probably finish the job and end our friendship for good.
Especially with their rival planets poised on the brink of war. Nero huffed out a breath harsh with frustration.
The next time I encounter Dex Draven after summer camp will probably be in deep space at the wrong end of a solar cannon.
Grimly Nero jabbed a finger at the entry button—for the third farking time. The chime caroled away like his whole world wasn’t imploding around him. Beyond that door, his psychic senses whispered, Dex was pacing his cabin’s spartan confines, wearing a path in the silica floor.
Staring at his own locked door, heart slamming against his sternum like a meteor bombardment. If he didn’t open it…if he didn’t answer…
Nero shoved a mental barrier between them to give the guy a little privacy as a basic matter of telepath ethics. Same way he’d been doing all summer. Fighting like hell to do the decent thing and respect his best friend’s boundaries and stay out of his head.
Now he scowled at the stubborn silence but held tight to his temper.
“Dex?” He pitched his voice to carry. “Let me in. We need to talk. Anyway, you, uh, left your blaster in the shower house.”
The silence stretched between them. A silence tighter than a pressurized airlock, shredded by the shrill scream of a hunting panther. Intuition told him the critter was on the prowl, hunting for blood and savage with hunger. If the cat tracked him to Dex’s doorstep, Nero would have to defend himself. Not with Dex’s blaster, which he’d buckled around his own hips, but with the psi fire he was learning to channel as he honed his rapidly expanding arsenal of psychic powers.
Doggedly he pounded on the door. “Come on, Dex. I know you’re in there. I could feel you fulminating halfway down the path. Open up.”
“No bloody talking. I’m not in the mood.” Dex’s muffled voice sounded surly. And more than a little desperate. “For gods’ sake, Ben, it’s after midnight. Go away.”
Nero squared his shoulders and hardened his voice. “Open this door or I’ll open it for you.”
Violet sparks flared at his fingertips. Fiercely he reeled in the billowing surge of psi fire sizzling through his channels before he lost control and blew Dex’s door through the opposite wall. Tonight he wanted to talk to Dex, not fight him. And a full-out assault would only trigger all those primitive Mogadon instincts Dex was always striving to suppress.
Apparently some god with a fondness for bisexual adolescent telepaths decided to take pity on Nero’s awkward dilemma and whisper a word of reason in Dex’s ear. With a chirp, the maglock released and the door swung wide.
“Finally.” Pushing out a breath, Nero strode into the moonlit darkness. “What the hells, Dex…”
His words stuttered to a stop.
In the narrow confines of the shadowy cabin whose angles and corners he knew by heart, Dex stood silhouetted against the viewport. Wearing nothing but an insubstantial pair of sleeping trousers that clung to his supple hips and spectacular ass.
The light of Paragon’s three moons limned his broad shoulders and corded back and bulging triceps in a way that made Nero burn to sink his teeth in and just nibble his way down the guy’s body. Starlight flamed in Dex’s cropped golden hair and caressed the sun-bronzed skin Nero longed to trace with his tongue.
Nero sucked in a hit of oxygen to clear his damn head and felt his senses spin. He was already half-drunk on lotus pollen, a seductive sweetness like spicy sugar tickling the back of his throat. Now his head was reeling with the potent kick of Dex’s scent—that heady whiff of pheromones Mogadon males exuded that telegraphed aggression, territoriality, or arousal.
Nero ached to know which of those stimuli was driving Dex tonight.
Ferociously he fought back the temptation to shove aside his inconvenient ethics, peek inside Dex’s brain, and find out for himself. And screw his farking ethics and screw his best friend’s privacy.
Interstellar Angel is a steamy, angsty, enemies-to-lovers MMMF poly sci fi action romance and your gateway to the Astral Heat universe, where Star Wars meets 50 Shades by way of The Hunger Games. Outer space adventure just got a whole lot hotter!
Author Website: https://www.LauraNavarreSciFi.com
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Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Laura-Navarre/e/B004NG6CTK/
Thank you so much, Love Bytes, for featuring my M/M romance genre debut! I really enjoyed doing the interview and hope you and your readers like it too! 🙂