Poppy Mercury - Berpisah

As my alter ego, Bernadette Gardner, I’m a hard core sci-fi fan. In Bernadette’s short erotic romances, I explore the steamier side of science fiction and the possibilities of love beyond the confines of the human genome.

Bernadette likes to create human/alien pairings. In her first novella, Hunter’s Moon, a lonely recluse gives more than just her heart to an injured alien. Alliana Cambridge falls for ‘Adam,’ a member of a feline race of shape shifters. Soured on human men after a bad relationship, she has no trouble with ‘Adam’s’ unusual appearance, in fact she revels in the fact that he looks nothing like any man she’s ever known.

In Ken’Ja, Bernadette explores another interracial pairing. Tige is a Thalian warrior, a race known for their mercilessness. Zira, a human woman, fears him based on the rumors that Thalians kill for sport. Tige and Zira overcome their biological differences as well as the social barrier that has made their two races tenuous allies.

In More Than a Fantasy, Bernadette pairs a shape shifting Atlantean prince with a human female, contrary to Atlantean law. Prince Tiran risks everything to explore his desire for Mara Xander and bridge the age old gap between their two species.

I’ve often wondered what the allure is, in mating characters from two vastly different species and I think I’ve come up with a reason why this type of story appeals to so many readers and writers. It pushes the envelope, the boundaries of love, if you will, without trifling with delicate social balance of our own culture. We can explore new ideas and put love to the test without the fear of offending long-held beliefs because, after all, it’s only fiction. While there are certainly many people who believe aliens exist, the idea of mating with one is still in the realm fantasy and therefore a safe place to play.

How will the views of human/alien love will change if an alien race is ever discovered? Will the subject suddenly be taboo? Will it raise the same arguments that gay fiction raises today because it will be all too real a possibility? I wonder.

And so does Bernadette. That’s why she keeps coming up with sexy, alluring aliens for her human heroines to fall in love with.