The Reading Frenzy: **Giveaway** Guest Post Christie Meierz

Today please welcome author Christie Meierz who's taking over the blog today with a guest post with her species The Monral who star in her Tales of Tolari space novels. Enjoy the chat then enter to win the fab prize package the Christie is sponsoring.
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Overview:

As bitter enemies scheme against each other with the fate of Tolar in the balance, Laura Howard, made a powerful empath by the Jorann's gift, loses everything—again. Now she must recover and find her place, and herself, while fighting against the ghosts of her past and the expectations of everyone around her.

Loss after tragic loss shakes the Paran to his very soul. With his allies vying for control of the planet and his own province caught in the middle, he must risk his life as well as that of the woman he loves to take the one action he never thought he would: fight for leadership of the ruling caste.

Read an excerpt:

From The Fall, by Christie Meierz

“What else did you see in Laryth?”

“My father’s ears. That little crease he has, here,” she placed a finger where it would be on her own ear, “is a family trait. But other than that, he resembles you.”

“You told me you wanted a son who resembled me.”

“Did I?”

He leaned forward to rest his forearms on his knees. What smoldered in his dark eyes pulsed through him and into her. “You did.”

She looked at her hands, struggling to catch her breath. “I do not understand how I could be so wanton, so quickly. I was… I lost John, it was too soon.”

He moved from the chair to sit on the edge of the bed beside her. “You had lost everyone,” he said in a soft voice. “Marianne was your friend, and the Sural protected and sheltered you, but you had no one else when I met you. You were lonely.” He laid one hand along her face. “I knew very quickly I had met my heart’s match. It did not take you long to reach the same conclusion.”

“Love at first sight,” she whispered.

“When you remember more, and you are yourself again—”

Laura stopped breathing. “What?” She swatted his hand away from her face.

“Beloved?” He straightened, with brows furled.

She gasped a breath, and another, her stomach twisting as if she’d been punched. Her father’s voice echoed off the walls of his study. When the gene therapy starts to work. When you are smart. When you are a proper Johnson.

When you are yourself.

She fixed the Paran with a glare. “You do not want me.”

“You know I do. You are far too sensitive not to see it.”

“No, you want the Laura you once had. Not me, not as I am now. Is everyone else waiting for me to be myself again?”

“Beloved—”

“Are they? Who in this place cares about me?” She thumped her chest with one hand. “My family thinks I am dead. No one here wants me as I am. I have nothing. Nothing!” She rolled onto her side, her back to the Paran.

“My heart is yours,” he whispered. His fingers touched her arm. The confusion coursing through him magnified.

She shook him off. “Your heart belongs to a woman who looked like me, but she died. There is only me now, and you do not want me. Go. Get out.”

An Interview with the Monral

Monralar is a coastal province near the equator of Beta Hydri IV, known as Tolar to its inhabitants. Warm and sunny much of the year (which is slightly more than two of our years), this province is known for the friendliness and generosity of its people. That can come as a surprise to readers who have been introduced to its ruler, the Monral.

He’s one of the nastier villains in the Tales of Tolari Space, but he doesn’t think of himself that way. He agreed to an interview, in an effort to correct readers’ misapprehensions of him. After exchanging greetings and introductions, the interviewer (who asked to remain anonymous to avoid arrest and interrogation by Earth Central Security) got right down to business.

Smith*: So, high one, tell me about your planet.

The Monral: It is beautiful world, is it not? It was given to us by our Benefactors some six thousands of your years ago. It is a bit cool, as we are presently coming to the end of a glacial period, but in the equatorial regions, such as the area of my own province, it is quite temperate. With a planetary population of under fifty millions, we have everything we need.

Smith: Is that why you’ve lived in isolation so long?

The Monral: That is more of a political question. The first thing to know about us is that we are empaths. We delight in each other’s company—artistically, intellectually, socially—but we find it challenging to spend time with empathically undisciplined races.

Smith: Such as humans.

The Monral: Indeed. However, we can certainly surmount any obstacles to trade between our worlds.

Smith: So what do you have to offer in a trade compact?

The Monral: I am not free to discuss the topic in any detail, but I think you will be surprised.

Smith: Come on now, when you requested this interview, you told us that you were the Tolari ruler who had first opened negotiations with Earth.

The Monral: I am. Despite the opposition of certain of my fellow rulers, I acquired communications technology and made it a point to speak to humans first.

Smith: So the upshot of your first contact with us was that Central Command sent a citizen of Earth to Tolar to teach human languages to the daughter of your planetary ruler, who is also the ruler of Suralia. Can you tell us how that came about?

The Monral: I would prefer not to discuss it. Certainly it is a tradition among our ruling caste that one’s heir serves as one’s own ambassador. The ruler you mentioned is taking flagrant advantage of that custom, but that may not be an obstacle for much longer. The political situation on my planet is… fluid, shall we say, as I mentioned recently to someone from your Central Security.

Smith: You’ve been in touch with Central Security?

The Monral: Another topic I would prefer not to discuss. Next question?

Smith: So what’s next for human-Tolari relations?

The Monral: That would depend on decisions which I hope will be made shortly. We are aware of the chaos Earth has experienced over the last few hundreds of your years, and we feel that a civilization with a longer history of stability would have much to teach you. To be completely honest, you have no history.

Smith: What?

The Monral: You have no personal connection with your past. Look at your hair, for example, how short it is. We, on the other hand, value our past, and learn from it.

With that, the Monral rises from his chair and walks out the door, his intricately knotted, ankle-length hair swinging across his back with each purposeful stride.

*Not the interviewer’s real name

The other novels in the series

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MEET CHRISTINE:

Award-winning writer Christie Meierz writes space opera and science fiction romance set in a civilization of empaths on the edge of a dystopic Earth empire. Her published works include her bestselling debut novel, The Marann, and its sequel, Daughters of Suralia, and two prequel short stories published in Into Tolari Space ~ The First Contact Stories.

Christie has spent a night and/or eaten a meal in all 50 U.S. states, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Currently, she lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her mathematician husband and an assortment of stuffies. When she’s not writing, she writes about writing on her blog, Meierz Musings (christiemeierz.blogspot.com), and Facebook (facebook/christie.meierz and facebook/tolarispace), where she welcomes comments and friend requests.