I’m very excited to have a special guest interview today. Lilly Cain is the author of Alien Revealed (which I gushed about here) and the just released The Naked Truth, the second book in her Confederacy Treaty series. Lilly will also be taking questions today and one lucky commentor will win a free e-copy of The Naked Truth.  Please make Lilly feel welcome…

Charlie: You’ve set your Confederacy Treaty series at a time when Earth is meeting aliens for the first time. Why did you choose this crucial moment as the back drop for your stories?

Lilly: This time period worked the best for me because there is an element of surprise to it—that they look like us (at least some of them do!) and that they have so many similarities is a bit of a pleasant shock. But that also makes it more poignant when the readers think about the differences in these two races. This is also the beginning of a long running worldscape for me, I hope, so I want somewhere to go, both in a physical way, out into space, and in a sense of time. The technology isn’t so far advanced at this point that we can’t imagine ourselves doing what the heroes and heroines find themselves doing in my stories.

Charlie: The Naked Truth(TNT) features a character that has been through a terrible experience. What sort of challenges did you face in writing a character with that history and what do you think that brings to the story?

Lilly: I didn’t want the heroine, Susan Branscombe, to come across as too damaged to be able to recover. She’s a tough woman, an experienced pilot. I wanted her to be able to be vulnerable, but to be strong enough to accept the help she is offered and be healed by it. This was a fine line to walk, but I think it makes her more accessible for my readers—more real.

Charlie: Will there be more books in the series? And if so, will we learn more about the Confederacy?

Lilly: Yes, I sure hope so! I am handing in the next book to Carina today. If they like you’ll hear a lot about the warrior sect of the Inarrii. And in book four, as the two races really become partners you will meet some of the other races in the Confederation.

Charlie: I’ve had people tell me that SciFi Romance is a small market because aliens aren’t sexy. I think you’ve proved that wrong in your stories. What about writing alien characters in a romance appeals to you?

Lilly: I think having a chance to imagine not only a new race, but the cultures behind it appeal to me most. I’ve written some paranormal erotic romance and while that has been a lot of fun, the characters in paranormals come from mythologies that we can recognize and make assumptions about. Aliens can be anything. 😉 Warriors, peacemakers, intellectuals, cannibals. We have a lot of fun finding out which!

Charlie: Can you pick another SciFi romance you’d like to recommend to readers?

Lilly: I recently read a scifi romance that I really enjoyed from Carina Press – Jaq’s Harp by Ella Drake. This one really caught me. Another one also from Carina was Silver Bound – fair warning, this one is erotic, and has a cool concept.

Charlie: What is your all time favorite SciFi book, movie, or TV series? What is your current favorite?

Lilly: What a difficult question to pin down! I am a serious TV scifi fangirl! I loved Firefly, every Star Trek generation, and Battleship Galactica (the new series) was serious fun. As for movies, I love The Fifth Element, must have watched it thirty times by now. Avatar was an amazing interpretation of a concept we see again and again in scifi – the despoiling of a new world and the fight against it. There really are too many to mention.

Charlie: Do you prefer Star Trek or Star Wars and why?

Lilly:  Ok, no one shoot me, but I never really loved Star Wars. It was Meh for me for various reasons. Sure I watched every one of them more than once and I enjoyed them. But I am not getting excited over watching them again. But I OWN the last Star Trek movie.  I love the re-visitation of the series back to its roots!!

Charlie: I’ll be your cyber human shield and say I felt much the same.

                What SciFi character would you most like to be and why?

Lilly:  I think I’d have to make up one of my own, snicker!!

Charlie: Where can readers find more about you and your books?

Lilly: Check out my website at www.lillycain.com or my facebook account, www.facebook.ca/Lilly.Cain or you can often find me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lillycain

Thanks, Lilly, for a great interview. Readers, don’t forget Lilly will be checking in to answer questions and one commentor will win a copy of The Naked Truth.