Goddess Fish Tour - Featuring Author Aubrie Dionne

Today please help me give a warm welcome to Aubrie Dionne!

Did you always want to become a writer?

Actually, no. I always wanted to be a flutist! My day job is a professional flutist in New England. I teach at a University and a community music school. I love to make up stories to go along with the music to make my students understand the music and play with more emotion. Over the years, my students told me that I should get them published, and here I am today! Writing has always come second to music, and now I’m starting to put it first.



Do you have a “day” job as well writing? (see above :-))

How did you celebrate your first release? What was it like to see your very first cover art?
I celebrated by going out to eat! I love going out to eat and use any excuse for a night out at a nice restaurant! I choose my first few cover arts by myself. When I saw the cover for Nebula’s Music I stared in awe. Then I forwarded it to all of my friends.

Most authors are also avid readers. Is this the case with you? If so, who are some of your favorites? Have any influenced your writing?

I love the classics: Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte. The single work that has inspired my writing the most is the poem The Lady of Shalott by Lord Byron. For recent books, I love Tad William’s Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn epic fantasy series and Patricia McKillip.

From the moment you conceive an idea for a story, to the published book, how long does it take?

It depends on the story! My first book took four years, and now I’m averaging six months for every novel and one month for a short story.

Do you see writing as a career?

I’d love to make it a career and I work hard every day to do so. But I’ll never give up my music. Luckily, both careers work well together. When one of my flute students cancels their lesson, I whip out my notebook and write.

Do you write better with deadlines and have you ever suffered a writer’s block?

I do write better with deadlines, so I make goals for myself. I always suffer from writer’s block and that’s why I have multiple projects going, so I can work on one while I figure out the other one. Sometimes it takes me a few days and a few long walks to figure out where the plot needs to go!

What is your work schedule like?

I teach flute Mon- Thurs 3-8 and I write in the mornings/early afternoons on those days. Fridays I teach at the University all day, so I have no time to write. Saturdays I teach flute at my house, and write on Sundays.

Would you like to give another genre a try?

I tried horror and found out that I was awful at it! My stories were all flowery and not scary at all! But I did venture into science fiction, Nebula’s Music being my first published work in that genre and I love it!

Do you listen to music while you are writing and if so what music is it?

I can only listen to classical and new age music with no words. Otherwise I find it hard to concentrate.

Big congrats to your latest release, can you please tell us something about the book?


Thank you! Nebula is inspired by the character Data from The Next Generation. I watched star Trek growing up at 7pm and 7:30pm every night for about seven years. Data's journey to become more human fascinated me. There was one scene where he plays the violin and I marveled at the fact that he can take up an instrument and play it perfectly in minutes compared to a human that has to spend a lifetime perfecting their skills. But did his music have emotion? Probably not.Nebula is not entirely an andriod. She's made from a real human and experiences that woman's past memories. In a way, she's closer to being human than Data can ever be, but can she break some of the barriers that he never could? Can she experience fear, triumph, or fall in love? Would a human reciprocate that love?

Are you working on anything right now, and can you give us a little teaser?

Yes, I’m working on another Space Opera titled, Desert Nomad. Here is the blurb:

Aries is a Lifer: a sixth generation colonist living aboard the Ark, a deep space transport vessel destined for a paradise planet two hundred years away. Her purpose is to maintain the life support systems and marry Lieutenant Barliss, producing two genetically superior children to take their place at the helm.
Stifled with a predestined life, Aries manipulates an escape months before her marriage ceremony to Barliss. Her flight pod crashes on a desert planet with minimal survival conditions and she is caught between the search and rescue teams of the Ark and the primitive hunters on the alien world. While struggling to survive, she is rescued by Striker, a space pirate exiled by his mutinous crew. Together they search for the last relic needed to revive an ancient alien craft, their only means of escape. With the search teams flying above and the hunters stalking them below, Aries is forced to make the ultimate sacrifice; her freedom for Striker’s life. In return, Striker must bargain with the same pirates that exiled him in order to rescue her.


Where can readers find you?

On my blog: http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com/
And my website: http://www.authoraubrie.com



Fun Stuff:

Tell us five random things about yourself.

I have three fish tanks because my guppies decided to have babies again and again!
I love unicorns and secretly want to write a book all about them.
I had a dream once that my husband was Mozart and he didn’t like my flute playing. It was horrible!
All of my dogs are named after Star Wars characters.
I like Orlando Bloom better than Johnny Depp in POTC!

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?

I’m a picky eater, so I don’t eat anything too strange!

Winter or Summer?

Summer, for sure! I live in NH where Winter is from Nov-March!

Favorite pizza topping?

Mushrooms

CD in your car?
Enya, and the Works of Bach for solo flute.

Blurb:

Each note brings her one step closer to the truth.When the cyborg Nebula plays the piano she experiences memories from a time before her creation. These memories—which involve a captive rebel fighter being held on their ship—bring with them complex human feelings and awaken a desire for her to discover her origins.Radian is the long-lost love of the woman from which Nebula was made. He’s vowed to avenge his finance’s death and rescue her sister from the Gryphonites, a fierce race out to enslave the galaxy. Nebula grapples with her identity and how much of who she is comes from someone else’s past. She is not the woman that died, yet she is undeniably drawn to Radian.Together Nebula and Radian seek to rescue his fiancé’s sister and end the Gryphonites’ cruel reign. But can Radian learn to love again and can Nebula accept a past made from someone else’s memories?

Excerpt:

The man stared at her like he knew she’d been coming all along. Their gazes locked, blue on black, and she stood unmoving. She felt uncomfortable as he studied her, his eyes watery with tears.Unpredictably, he rose from his position on the floor and walked toward her, closing the distance. Although combat tactics flashed through her circuits, she overrode each one and allowed him to take her into his arms. He held her close, smoothing over her back in gentle strokes, andburied his face into her hair.Nebula had never been embraced. The sudden rush of contact flooded all her senses. She nestled her face into his shirt, taking in the feel of his body close to hers. She wanted to know if he had the same rush of pleasurable feelings and looked into his eyes for her answer.He must have seen something strange in her gaze, or it was what he didn’t see, what she lacked, that brought him back to the moment. His eyes chilled to a frosty cerulean and he released her.“I’m sorry.” He turned away. “But you look so much like her. Damn it, you even smell like her as well.”