Sky Robert's Alien Romance Newsletter! Do you hate short story cliff hangers?

Hi , welcome back to my author newsletter with alien peens, monsters, magic, and the readers who love them!

I'm finishing up the short story The Alien's Chosen for the Hot and Steamy Charity Anthology and have come into a bit of a situation.

The situation? The fact that a short story inherently in the alien romance genre would essentially mean very little intrigue or complications in order to have a full ARC in only 15,000 words or less. What that means is that my short story is basically a set up for the larger story as a whole due to the way I write my books in 1st person narrative with dual switching POVs.

Does that bother readers? If you picked up an anthology of short stories and got all invested while reading and then realized that the author couldn't deliver all of the pay offs in the short story and hoped that you would continue reading the story with the next book, would that upset you as a reader?

And by not having the payoffs, I don't mean that there aren't payoffs in the short story, just that not everything is resolved, and it's obvious that more schemes and plot are ahead.

Do the love interests choose each other? Yes.

Do they have spicy scenes together? Yes.

Do the characters face their plot climax in the short story?.... No... It's pretty much a plot cliffhanger with the character not being able to face the full consequences of their actions yet, or knowing if they were able to save their best friend from the problem that they began the journey with.

I keep trying to make short stories because I like helping out anthologies for charities but keep running into the issue that the word count limit is really tough for me to just allow a story to be so easily resolved.

Even when I made Her Alien Starbreaker with the intent of it being a short story for an anthology, I ran into the same issue, and luckily they had a bit more wiggle room for word counts, and when I launched the book again after the anthology was over, I included the extra chapters necessary to complete the story properly.

Sooo, yes, I've finished writing the short story version of The Alien's Chosen, and now have come to needing your help in deciding if I'm pissing readers off by ending it on a Happily Ever After for Now, and we know chaos is going to ensue that won't be resolved in the anthology launch, but not until official full release launch later.

Are readers okay with reading a short story and feeling like if they enjoyed it that they'd have to read the next book to complete it?

As some of you know from reading Her Alien Exchange, I don't normally have my stories end before forty-thousand words minimum. So, fifteen-thousand just feels like set up for me. A beginning...

What are your thoughts?

Here is a bit of a blurb for The Alien's Chosen coming up in the Hot and Steamy charity anthology:

When Timber secretly registers her best friend in the Intergalactic Delegate Bride Program to pay for life-saving upgrades, a guilty, resourceful plug-streamer must manipulate a televised alien matchmaking spectacle to save Remy’s autonomy before the program or Earth's authorities claim her.

"Lying to my best friend, wasn't my favorite filter, but she'd understand." – Quote

"The HET would pay for everything. New upgrades, medical advancements that should help Remy with her headaches, and we'd be set up for years with the credits offered. " – Quote

"'Your body will crave me. I don't want you to choose me because of the addictive nature of my biology,' he said with a seriousness as he nuzzled my nose with his." – Quote

Enemies‑to‑lovers, forced‑proximity, and a futuristic bridal contest collide in a Wild West of alien mating rituals and political bargaining. If you live for trope‑heavy, bingeable sci‑fi romance with a found family at its heart, add this to your TBR and start streaming the drama of this interconnected series of parallel timelines of three women with three different journeys and three very alien mates.

If you are part of my ARC street team: No, I have not sent out the email for ARC reading yet. No worries, you have not missed anything. The anthology doesn't launch for preordered until end of February with an April launch.

I'm not even completely sure this is the book I want to add as the short story. Part of me thinks this story isn't given enough justice as a short story, and I may just launch it myself with a full launch alongside book two The Alien's Reward with a back-to-back launch as I've been writing them at the same time since the books are interconnected plot lines all happening at the same time.

Due to the nature of the book being interconnected and standalone, I'm thinking maybe I might scrap the inclusion into the anthology and write something else for the anthology instead.

Let me know you're thoughts!

Chat soon loves! New books to look forward to for 2026.

Grab Jewel of the Alien Bandit in KU: https://books.steviemarie.com/jotab

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienprince

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralieninsurgent

You can still read my other books in KU! Especially my newest release A Reverse Harem Alien Romance: Her Alien Delegate with tentacle peens, and spicy space adventures! https://books.steviemarie.com/aliendelegate

You can check out my author store on Payhip here: https://payhip.com/BrokenBooksPublishing

And please do check out my newly updated website all revamped in 2025 here: https://steviemarie.com

There are some fun freebie reads and indie highlights below, so be sure to check them out as well.

xoxo

Happy Reading.

Share on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DCwFFjGMo/

Check out Her Alien Delegate here: https://books.steviemarie.com/aliendelegate

xoxo

Sky

Buy Stellar Embrace

Standalone plot with spice adventures of fated mates, space vampires, knotting, and bonds that will last beyond the stars!

Jewel of the Alien Bandit is about an outlaw who is earning his freedom and finally has the chance with the biggest score of a lifetime, only to find out the jewel he's there to steal isn't an object but a princess who is both ready to mate, and ready to protect her planet from an incoming invasion!

Her Alien Prince has a dangerous commander of a fleet of invading warriors desperate to save their planet by taking over another, only the prince has different plans to save his hive by mating a queen to join their species together, only the one he falls for isn't the future leader of Estreldez, but the future queen of his heart. Choosing between duty and love, but fighting for both, the krelins are a hive-mind species with wings, horns, and a telepathic mate bond!

Her Alien Insurgent is a standalone like the rest, but it is more enjoyable after having read at least one of the books before it like Jewel of the Alien Bandit and Her Alien Prince, which happen in parallel timelines to each other. It's about a spy warrior protecting his planet by keeping the krelins in check and preventing an invasion from those who stray from the treaty between their planets. He meets a lost human on the hunt for an outlaw only to discover they're after the same thing, and as unworthy as he feels for love, it blossoms in the heat of espionage.

If you have a thing for vampires like I do, then you'll love the necia warriors! SPACE VAMPIRES!

Check out Her Alien Savior and Her Alien Warrior, or read that free book you got for joining this newsletter Her Alien Exchange. All about hunky dangerous vampire warriors from space that have a kink for showing off their mates to their clan and battling for honor! They are the perfect grumpy cinnamon rolls because they strive for their mate's happiness but are the fiercest protectors and very possessive but in a way that proves they deserve and are honorable mates worthy of their bonds.

Have time for a shorter read? Check out TKManAteHer: a robot romance where a pleasure bot goes back in time to save the world by using his thruster on Amanda Fullerhound.

Thank you for being part of my author journey and supporting my human-made worlds. I look forward to sharing more out of this world stories of fated mates, fancy peens, and adventures that ignite joy and love in 2026!

Check out all books by Sky Robert here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0BNXSFHZ4/allbooks

Discover all books by Sky Robert:

1) Jewel of the Alien Bandit 2) Her Alien Exchange 3) Her Alien Prince 4) Her Alien Savior 5) Her Alien Warrior 6) Her Alien Insurgent 7) Her Alien Starbreaker 8) TKManAteHer -Short Erotic Terminator Sex Bot Romance 9) Her Alien Delegate Upcoming books: Her Alien Captor and Her Alien Nectar

Books by S.M. McCoy

1) Taking Medusa 2) Breaking Fate Upcoming: Reaping Olympus, Goblin's Treasure

All of my books are standalone alien romances, each a separate complete romance, read in any order, and with their interconnected plots, each book layers and you find out more about the world the more you read. Have questions from one book? Read another one, and you're sure to find more answers, and perhaps more questions as the universe unravels. That's what I love about sci-fi adventures set in the same universe, there's so much room to play!

Happy Reading and Thank you for being part of my author journey,

xoxo

Sky