IWSG: Not Insecure! But Need Help...

I'm NOT feeling insecure today! For the first time in a long time I've gotten to work on my book, and it's been amazingly fun.

My first novel is a space opera (I think), but it has a lot of sci-fi, and some double agent intrigue stuff. So one of my readers said, “space opera meets Tom Clancy” and that would work except I actually hate his books. They have too many tiny details. Love the movies though, and I think the action in Worlds Colliding (that link is for the post I wrote about finding the title) is a bit like those.

My story also has a love angle to it. So I've been saying space opera/sci-fi/double agents/romance and that's just too long. If I say space opera, does that include all of the above? Or is there another genre which better describes it? Carol Kilgore calls her books “crime fiction with a kiss”, which is so perfect. Short, sweet, and conveys the point. I want a phrase like that...any thoughts?

Here's the current version of my synopsis, tinkered with a bit since the W(h)IP It Good Blogfest.

In the last decades since First Earth got used up, technological advances have made life better for the inhabitants of Second Earth and its many orbiting colonies. However, corruption in government agencies, especially in the top levels, has not changed in centuries.

Leah has been slowly building a cover and infiltrating the TIA, as a double agent. Her mission is classified, and very personal.

With Ian as her lifeline to the FBI on First Earth, she's getting closer to the truth, and closer to the top rungs of the Titan Patrol. If she's honest with herself, she's probably too close to Ian, too.

Can she hold on? She's slowly succumbing to the pressure, and some of her old demons are coming back to haunt her. Will she be able to control her personal issues long enough to complete her assignment?

So yeah, please, what's my genre? 

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Thank you, Alex J. "Ninja Captain" Cavanaugh for this group.  If you want to join, we post the first Wednesday of the month, and you'll find the linky in Alex's tabs.

Favorite Genres Blogfest from Alex J. Cavanaugh

First let me introduce our host, Alex J. Cavanaugh.  Alex’s blogfests are best – probably because he’s one of the best out there - supportive, helpful, and always willing to promote what his buddies are doing.  His posts are chock-full of shout-outs to bloggers famous and those just getting started.  He’s written two best sellers: CassaStorm and CassaFire and is working on his third.  (Link in sidebar to CassaFire). 

The premise is simple:  What are your favorite genres of

                          Movies

             Books

             TV shows

                          What is your guilty pleasure, in any of the above categories.

My favorite movies are post-apocalyptic science fiction.  There are several reasons these appeal to me, and one of them is that they’re also The Engineer’s favorites, so I’ve seen a lot of them.  It used to be I’d pick a movie, he’d suffer through, he’d pick a movie, I suffered through, and then we’d agree on a movie the third time.  Didn’t take us long to realize that we both liked these, so we kinda gave up on making the other person suffer.

We also like them because they closely simulate what it would be like to start over, and had The Engineer been born a couple of generations in the future, he’d be dragging us to Mars to colonize it.  You know what?  I’d go.  Really does sound like fun.  He’s already working on getting us “off grid” as in living self-contained.  Bring on the zombie-apocalypse, we’re almost ready.

My favorite books, though, are murder mysteries.  I get plenty of sci-fi in my movies, and frankly I like to SEE my sci-fi.  I’d rather not see a grisly murder scene thankyouverymuch, so I read about them.  Some favorite authors are Karin Slaughter (like that’s not a pen name) andLisa Gardner.

My favorite TV shows have varied greatly over the years.  Right now, it’s Big Bang Theory.  I told The Engineer he most resembles Leonard (the least nerdy and best looking) but in actuality, he’s Sheldon – not with the OCD and cleanliness issues, but with the brain and talking about stuff the rest of us just say, “Huh?” to.  Don’t tell him though.  He likes being Leonard.

Guilty Pleasure: J.D Robb’s …in Death series.  The perfect books: sci-fi, murder mystery, continuing character development across the (at last count) 35 books.  She churns them out, but each one is unique and the crimes she comes up with, well, I wonder what she reads and dreams about because wow, these are some twisted crimes.  Lots of really steamy sex, and lots of humor.  Eve Dallas, the lead detective is an ass-kicking force to be reckoned with, no social skills, no fashion sense, but always gets her perp.  If her husband were real, he’d be at the top of my top five list…

What are your favorites?  Too late to join the blogfest, but you could fill my comments with your picks…and if you’re a visiting participant, I’d really appreciate a direct link to your post.  Happy Favorite Genre Day!

Worlds Colliding

I think I found the title of my book. My first book. The one I'm hopelessly slowly though nonetheless working on for BuNoWriMo.

Worlds Colliding

It's got a lot of personal meaning for me from an earlier portion in my life when I had to make the decision whether I was going to continue to play these parts, one person to each group of people, or I was going to come clean, become whole, become one, and let all my worlds collide and see who I really was. Still Am. I did it.  Not easy.  Especially not when it's your bridal shower...but I digress.

Of course it's not a new phrase, it's a stolen pop-culture phrase. You recognize it from Seinfeld. The guy who posted the exact clip I wanted won't let me imbed it, but here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMD7rUezybI

It fits my book because Leah, who's a secret agent, not only operates, literally, on many worlds. It's sci-fi after all, but the whole secret agent thing is a bit more complicated than just being say an FBI agent. She's a secret agent infiltrating another agency...and everything is falling apart because the demons from her past are coming back to haunt her. Personal issues are clouding her judgment, causing her to behave in dangerous ways, and that all may just blow her cover, not to mention the conflicts that are building in the race to fill space with floating worlds...which in the wrong hands, could be on a collision course.

I've mentioned this before, but you might have missed the post. I wrote an unfinished, short story version of this in 2/11 so if you want to get a pre-view, you'll find where the story starts here.  There are five parts, links to the next one at the bottom of each.

So what do you think?  Would you read this book?  Do you have a title suggestion?  Did you have a nice Father's Day?  We spent it with my in-laws, and today I'm taking my Dad (and Mom) to lunch.