Applied Science #5 is out!

Sorry it took us a while, but Blood and Steel is now out at Big Pulp. So here, as usual, is the story behind the story.
In this episode, two of my leads, Dani Taylor—first woman medic in the National Guard—and Steve Flanagan, Science Investigations Agent, meet for the first time since their affair in Boston during the ’53 Martian invasion (known simply as the Invasion). While I’d established their back story in Brain From Outer Space, writing it from the perspective of the reunion, rather than several years later, posed fresh challenges.
I had to explain why they’d walked away from each other in Boston. I had to show why—despite the fact they’d had other lovers in the period since and clearly weren’t pining for each other—meeting each other again was a big deal. And I had to establish them as a couple. Looking back on it from 1959, when they’re long past the start-up phase was one thing; to show it as it happened meant all the feelings had to be more intense, and immediate.
And believable. In Brain, they give some of the reasons they were initially attracted—Dani enjoyed meeting a guy who didn’t see her primarily as her famous father’s daughter, for instance—but to make the relationship worth caring about, I had to give it enough energy, enough unreasonable attraction, that it felt right they were together. Fortunately, my best friend Cindy Holbrook is a former Regency romance author, so I trust her judgment on when I’ve gotten the emotional stuff right.
Besides that, there was the B plot, involving war games in “Invasion City” (loosely inspired by some atomic tests I read about in the excellent book Survival City, about nuclear architecture), killer robots and the villain behind them, who won’t be unmasked for a couple more stories. Putting Steve and Dani in a position where they could both be in peril together took a little jiggering with the premise, but it finally came together.
At least I think so. Hopefully, y’all will too.