Hump Day Hook is a weekly blog hop where participants post one paragraph from a published book or work in progress. I’ve got one HDH under my belt now, so to speak, and I’m ready to go this week. Today’s hook builds off of yesterday’s Tantalizing Tuesday post in a way. I’m still focusing on Tobias from my gay SF romance novel in progress, Chroma, and here he is still gazing out of a space station viewport at a view similar to the Orion Nebula (NASA so kindly placed the image in the public domain):

The nebula was so beautiful, just like his Ka’lendrél. He liked to think of the half-breed man as the nebula that brightened up his little patch of space, the one perfect thing that he could never buy or bargain for that made all the other items he owned fade from existence because Ka’l was the only thing that made him truly feel alive. As many colors as he wore to combat the drab greys of the time when the Empire had owned his soul, the color spectrum was never so vibrant and full of spirit as when that beautiful man walked into his life.

The Emperor could keep his lifeless grey existence. Tobias had his chroma, his lover, and that was all he needed.

It was at that moment when he was so lost in his own thoughts and unaware of anything else that the business end of a blaster rifle was pressed into his back and a soft but firm voice drifted to his ears.

“Tobias Phoenix, get your hands where I can see them.”

I hope you enjoyed learning more about Tobias and Ka’lendrél. The list of participating Hump Day Hook writers can be found here or visit the HDH Facebook group to find all the paragraph hooks. You can also search #HDH on Twitter for posts. Remember, writers love feedback so feel free to “like” and comment! Sharing is also appreciated.

Thanks so much for reading!

Love, Jade