Interview with Robyn Singer, author of lesbian space opera The Sunrisers
After years of adventures, professional thief and amateur noodle critic Yael is invited to join The Order of the Banshee, a collection of the greatest female thieves in the universe, despite being decades younger than any of them.
Yael’s childhood best friend, Molina, has lived the opposite life: a stern and serious member of The Sunrisers, the universe’s premiere peacekeeping organization, she’s just been promoted to Captain, serving under her father. Her first assignment of her new command: Bring down The Order of the Banshee.
Yael and Molina now find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict neither of them will escape unscathed. The love they have for each other is the same as when they were young, but either their personal values or their love will break.
In this game of cat and mouse, both women must use all their wits and tricks to stay ahead of their new enemy. Will order triumph, or will chaos? No matter what, Yael and Molina will both lose.
Excerpt from The Sunrisers
Outside the cave, ground troops were being deployed, the sound of their combat boots stomping on the moon’s surface echoing. And inside the cave, eleven of the smartest and most dangerous women in the universe were staring daggers straight into my eyes.
“I knew we couldn’t trust a whippersnapper,” Athena York said.
“How very disappointing,” Beatriz Nunez snarled.
“I have a granddaughter in the Sunrisers,” Lilith hummed. “If you tipped her off, I’ll at least respect you for going for the heart.”
I shook my head and swung my arms around, sweating from every pore. “I swear I didn’t call them. This is all just a big misunderstanding. You have my complete loyalty.”
Madame N’gwa cocked her head to the side and grinned. “You wanted to be a Sunriser when you were even more of a baby than you are now. Perhaps you made a deal to make your dream finally come true.”
A shocking pain surrounded my heart. Those Sunriser bastards had stolen all the trust I’d earned from my idols through years of deceit. Whichever captain was in charge of this operation was going to pay.
Lioness stepped forward, crushing her glass in her hand and sending small shards flying all over the place. “Thank you for sharing your story with me. But I don’t think we’ll be hearing anymore of them. Rather, I don’t think you’ll be living any more of them.”
An Interview with Robyn Singer
-What inspired you to become a writer?
I’m not sure there was anything that inspired me initially. I was just a toddler playing with my action figures who, instead of reenacting tv episodes or telling fun little adventures, I started crafting the most complicated, melodramatic stories possible, and I had a ton of fun doing so. From there, I started putting my stories into words, I began taking inspiration from what I truly wanted out of life, and I came up with my formula for stories: A unique premise I find cool which is thematically about a part of the world which frustrates me to no end.
-If you could visit your book’s world for a day, what one thing would you do?
I’d track down my book’s heroes so I could pet their cyborg dog, Juri. She is the best dog in the universe.
-It’s two in the morning. What does your protagonist reveal in confidence? (Don’t worry, we won’t tell.)
“I should have said goodbye.”
-Which of your characters would you go out for drinks with?
The obvious answer would be my novel’s central protagonist, Yael Pavnick, who’s both a functioning alcoholic and specifically designed to be nearly everything I want in a “hero”, but I’m going to say Princess Kaybell Bythora instead. Is there a chance she’d kill me when we were done? Yes, but I’d probably be drinking the best liquor in the universe before that happened, so it sounds like a good tradeoff.
-You’re in a tavern, and a dwarf challenges you to a duel. What do you do?
I’d tell him no. If he didn’t leave me alone, I’d offer to pay him to do so. If he tried to attack me, my girlfriend would protect me; I wouldn’t be in a tavern without her.
-Is there a genre you could never write? Which and why?
I could never write a police procedural. All cops are bastards.
About Robyn Singer
Robyn Singer is a lifelong New Yorker, and since she was a kid playing with her action figures, all she’s wanted to do is tell stories. She went to SUNY Purchase to get a degree in Playwriting & Screenwriting with a minor in Film and has produced several comic books, but she’s always had her eye on becoming a published novelist.
As an Autistic, bisexual trans woman, diversity and inclusion in stories are vitally important to her, and she seeks to represent as many groups as possible in her work. While she wants to show characters of marginalized groups experiencing joy, she also draws inspiration from real-world problems which bother her.
The Sunrisers (Cinnabar Moth Publishing, November 2022) is her debut novel. She writes novels and short stories of all genres and for all ages, and she continues to produce comic books. Her ongoing series, Final Gamble, will begin publication by Band of Bards in 2022.
Giveaway
Robyn Singer will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Thanks for hosting!
I hope she has a long and successful career!