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.
Welcome to one of the November 11th stops on the blog tour for The Sunrisers by Robyn Singer with Goddess Fish Promotions. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for spotlights, reviews, more author guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.
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Author Guest Post
Describe your book cover and how it came about.
The cover for my debut novel, The Sunrisers, features the two protagonists, Yael Pavnick and Molina Langstone, with the latter having a sword at the former’s neck, and Yael just smirking flirtatiously back at her. The core of this story is the friends to enemies to lovers relationship between these two women, and so there was never any doubt in my mind that they would be the focus of the cover.
For most of the book, Molina, a captain in The Sunrisers, an intergalactic peacekeeping organization, is attempting to capture Yael, a professional thief who’s attempting to join an elite group of all female, elderly thieves. While from Molina’s perspective, their relationship at this point is primarily adversarial, shown in her no nonsense expression on the cover, Yael sees this whole cat-and-mouse game as nothing more than a relationship hurdle before they get together like they should have when they were childhood best friends. Because of Yael’s cavalier attitude and her belief that their love will win out, the cover shows her not taking Molina’s threat seriously
at all.
The outfits Yael and Molina wear on the cover are what they’re generally wearing throughout the story. Yael is laid back, and generally runs out in a button-down shirt with jeans, a leather jacket, and combat boots, while Molina is a soldier and can almost always be found in a freshly pressed uniform, the earrings she wears indicating her rank.
This is a space opera, so Molina wielding a normal sword may seem odd. Indeed, in-universe, it is something most people see as odd. No one uses swords anymore for the most part, especially not in the organization Molina belongs to. Yael and Molina both just happen to be Autistic women, and swords are Molina’s special interest. They’re important to her, she loves reading about them and practicing with them, they symbolize her belief that being a Sunriser is equivalent to being a hero, and they help show the bond between Yael and Molina, as the former is one of the only people to love the latter’s passion for them. Because of their heavy significance in the story, it was fitting to have a sword replace an “I” in the title.
I gave extensive descriptions of the characters in the novel itself, but we needed reference images to base the characters off of for the cover art. I believe I do a good job “casting” both parts, but especially so with Yael. I wanted her to be visibly Jewish, like I am, so I used a picture of a young Natasha Lyonne, which I think fits Yael’s personality perfectly if you know the types of characters she usually plays.
Finally, look at the title. Then look at the lighting in the art. Do you see it?
About the Book
The Sunrisers
by Robyn Singer
Published 1 November 2022
Cinnabar Moth Publishing LLC
Genre: Lesbian Space Opera
Page Count: 294
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
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.
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Excerpt
“I’m so glad you came. This should, uh, be a lot more comfortable than talking over a holo-call or while I’m trying to avoid getting killed and you’re trying to arrest people.”
The cadence of her voice and the way she spoke were identical to how she’d talked when we were younger. I believed that I’d grown and changed for the better in that area over the past decade, but this was one area where Yael hadn’t changed at all. If I was going to get Yael to do what I wanted, I needed her to trust me. And more importantly, I wanted her to trust me.
Only a little afraid, I opened my arms up for a hug. “Try not to crush me this time, please.”
Her eyes slightly watering, Yael tightly, but not too tightly, wrapped her arms around me. In turn, I put mine around her. When we’d hugged on Milash’s moon, I’d been too caught up in the moment to fully appreciate it. Now though, being in her arms again, feeling safe and protected, a single thought overtook my mind. Or rather, a single desire.
“Do you think we hug too much?” I’d once asked when we were 13.
“I mean, if you’re getting tired of hugging, we could always try kissing,” Yael had replied.
I’d blushed and tugged at my long hair. “Are you…are you being serious?”
She’d narrowed her eyes. “Am I?”
About the Author
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.
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Giveaway Alert!
Robyn Singer will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B&N gift card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Thanks for hosting!
Robyn Singer is a new author to me, but I want to thank this blog for the introduction. I look forward to reading this book.
Sounds like a good book.
Very nice cover, this sounds great.