BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY: Signed copy of The Edge Of Darkness

Hello, my lovelies. I have an amazing announcement. I am hosting my very first giveaway!

I am giving away ONE SIGNED paperback copy of my first novel, The Edge Of Darkness, a space opera about cyborg prisoners of war who discover a conspiracy aboard their transport ship and mutiny to save their lives.  It’s a soft sci-fi dystopian with a little bit of thriller elements and a little bit of romance, and contains a kick-ass heroine and her noble love interest.

Oh my gosh, take a look at my cover! It’s so pretty and shiny! Note: not actually shiny.

This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL (YAY! I hear you all cheer).  I will choose the winner on September 1st because I have a simultaneous giveaway on Goodreads and there is a small chance one person could win both books.

To be eligible to win this giveaway, all you have to do is SUBSCRIBE to my blog using the SUBSCRIBE button over there —> because quite frankly, not everyone has a Twitter or a Facebook or a Google+ but everyone has email. I’m not going to make you like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter, or add me to your circle on Google+, or follow me on Goodreads, or even follow my NetworkedBlog. But you’re welcome to do all that.

Then, AFTER you have subscribed (or if you ALREADY subscribed in which case, YAY!) please COMMENT on THIS post using the SAME email address in the info field, or, if you’re a WordPress blog user, the link to your blog (so I can tell who’s who).

Please note:

• If you subscribe but do not comment you won’t be eligible.
• If you comment without subscribing you won’t be eligible.
• If you comment more than once I will only count your first entry.

I will select the winner using random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to an email.

I’m excited about this giveaway because The Edge of Darkness will be going on sale in September! I am using Smashwords for the digital copies and CreateSpace for the paperback copies. Stay tuned for the announcement.

AND NOW it’s time for a Chapter One excerpt, so see if you’d be interested in winning this giveaway. Why wouldn’t you? It’s FREE!

 I snapped out of my daydream as my husband Ethan sat next to me.

“You’ll never guess what,” he said, his one human eye shining with excitement. Ethan was one of the lucky borgs who managed to keep his human voice. I think that’s why he gravitated towards me: that and the full head of hair I sport. I was originally born in the Philippines on Old Earth, and I still have the long black hair I was born with. When my face was smashed, I was given a cybernetic eye and face plate. At first the human in me was horrified by the way I looked in a mirror – and then I never saw a mirror again, and so I forgot. Cyborgs aren’t given mirrors, and on the Rock we don’t have anything that can cast a reflection. So I forgot about my face. Until I saw Ethan.

Ethan tells me he was very athletic before the explosion. He had longish blonde hair and tanned skin – his skin is now pale and sallow, like so many of us. I do adore his human eye, though. It is blue and happy. That’s how it seems to me. Happy.

Happiness is rare on the Rock.

“What is it?” I asked him, taking his human hand in mine. The touch set off a bunch of receptors to my cybernetic nerves, and my system flooded with euphoria. Every time I touched him, I got the same response. When I reported the over stimulus to the Authorities, they told me they couldn’t afford the mechanics to fix the overload. So I learned to enjoy it.

“Apparently the war’s over. I heard the Authorities talking about incoming transport ships. The Antiquity fleet. Max, my girl, I think we’re going home!”

“Home!” I tried not to laugh at his hopeful expression. What could home offer us? Perhaps we would no longer be refugees, or prisoners of war, but we’d still be second-class citizens. Why did they want to send us back to Old Earth when they could use us until we died in servitude?

“We’re too expensive an investment to risk sending home,” I argued quietly. “Why don’t they ship us off-planet to some alien contractor? They’d get their money’s worth.”

“Well Max, the war’s over, so the risk of being pirated while offline is minimal.”

“I don’t want to go offline,” I said under my breath. He squeezed my hand.

“It’s OK, love: I’ll compartmentalise right beside you. I’ll never leave your side, you know that.”

“Yes, Ethan, I do know that.” I looked furtively around, and saw that there were no Authorities nearby. I leaned in and kissed him quickly on the lips.

It was an illegal move, and one that could have grave consequences if we were caught. That’s why, in the three years we have been together on the Rock, neither of us have progressed further than a kiss or a grope, despite us both being healthy semi-humans with fully functioning sex organs. It’s just too risky. The consequences for breaking proximity rules were harsh. I think it haunted a lot of the borgs who were capable of thinking about it.

I will love you all the more if you RETWEET. FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS, PLEASE RETWEET/SHARE ON FACEBOOK.

Also: The Edge of Darkness is now on Goodreads! Use this link to mark it to-read. If you’re SUPER nice and I get 100 to-reads, I will give away some e-book editions!