Thursday Tag Party for 6/30/11!

Last day of June, Brigaders - where does the time go? Today, I'm going to do something completely selfish. The covers for the last two books in the Anchorage series are up on the publisher's website, so it looks like the whole series will be out before the end of the year.

Time for an Anchorage retrospective with the first five books, with their rather varied covers. A work that took ten years off, er, of my life, Anchorage follows the descendants of a lost Earth colony as they gradually rediscover their place in the universe and on their own planet.

Never Tagged before? Couldn't be easier:

* Go to the Amazon buy page (I've included the links below)

* Scroll down to the Tags Customers Associate with this Product header

* Look for these tags: SFR, Scifi Romance, SF Romance, Science Fiction Romance and Paranormal Romance - please feel free to add any extra tags you feel are appropriate to the work (i.e. Space Opera, Military SF, etc.)

* Don't forget your SFR Brigade Tag!

* If the tags are already there, just click on them to add your 'vote'

* If not, type them into the 'your tags' box to add them (no need to save the page, just type and add)

* Don't forget the "Like" button at the top of the page!

For a list of past Tag Party books, come on over to the Book Launch and Tag Party Books page. Tagging is always welcome.

On to our Tag targets for this week!






Marya - Anchorage Book 1

















Romenel: Voyage Into Twilight - Anchorage Book 2















Romenel: Obligations of Blood - Anchorage Book 3















Pelinas: The Enemy Within - Anchorage Book 4
















Pelinas: Child of the Koss - Anchorage Book 5












The Tag Party is always searching for your work, old or new. If you'd like your work featured in the weekly Tag Party, please drop me a line at ravenesperanza@yahoo.com

July Issue of Broadsheet released today.

And I have an article in it called "The Play's the Thing." It is about using playwriting and scriptwriting techniques to create compelling characters. This is a paying market, btw. :-)

"When Hamlet tells audiences that “the play’s the thing,” he wasn’t talking to writers, but I never overlook any source for making my prose better. I started my adventures in writing with playwriting, so it was inevitable that I’d bring those techniques into my fiction prose."


To keep reading, click here. :-)

An SF Signal Mind Meld With Relevancy For Sci-Fi Romance

SF Signal's Mind Meld today focuses on the topic of "Keeping SF Relevant In A Technological Society." I had the honor of being invited and naturally, the romance angle was a key part of my answer:

Relationships involve intimacy. Trust. And, of course, lust! The human connection factor is one way to give readers reasons to care about the science, the settings, and the themes in science fiction. Maintain a steady supply of compelling characters, gripping lots, and nail-biting conflict in order to stay relevant.

Or even better, people want to know how science can help them attract the love of their life. Computer technology has already given us loads of new tools for starting, navigating, and managing not just our relationships but also our romances. And this is just the beginning! Science fiction can stay relevant by incorporating the relationship and romance angle on an ongoing basis. Like, forever.

Please visit and share your insights as well. Lots of great ideas were presented, many of which might inspire your next story!

Third Annual Parallel Universe Happening Now!

Parallel Universe 2011 will be the virtual SFR gathering for those unable to attend the Romance Writers of America’s 31^th Annual National Conference. From Tuesday, June 28 through Saturday, July 2, you’ll be treated to a series of guest posts from a variety of authors at The Galaxy Express.

Given that many SFR readers are also authors/aspiring authors, the theme of this year’sParallel Universe is the craft of writing science fiction romance. Topics include planning space wars, tips for using humor, and inventing alien terms. Watch for new posts at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily.

Additionally, Laurie A. Green, intrepid SFR blogger and RWA Golden Heart finalist, will be keeping tabs on any science fiction romance happenings at the conference. At least 14 SFR Brigaders will be in attendance, so that should make for some far out fun.

Brigaders Attending Nationals

We now have fourteen Brigaders on our list for the 2011 RWA National Conference!

If you're heading to Nationals and haven't yet added your name to the list, you still have a few hours to check in on the forum.  [click here]

I'll have enough SFR Brigade pins for those who have signed up and don't yet have one.

If you want to be on the SFR Brigade text mail loop, send me an email with your contact info before noon today (Sunday) Mountain Daylight Time.  (Brigade members don't have to be attending RWA to be on the loop.  You're invited to 'listen in' on the texts or see pictures of activities, live from NY.) 

Email me before the deadline at Lgreen2162 [at] aol [dot] com (in the usual format) to be added.

We hope to be bringing back a cargo hold of great news and SFR related info from New York. 

See you next weekend!

Guest Blogging About Steampunk at Book Twirps

Pauline Baird Jones and I are guest blogging at Book Twirps about the wonderful world of steampunk. In Steampunk Forever, we discuss an overview of the genre and present a list of tasty reads.

You can also enter for a chance to win one of our respective ebooks, so don your goggles and head on over while the steaming's good. Who knows--you might run into an automaton or two!

New class! Urban Fantasy July 8

New class! Urban Fantasy July 8

URBAN FANTASY: MORE VAMP FOR YOUR TRAMP & MORE BANG FOR YOUR FANG

Dates: 8 – 29
Deadline: July 6
Fee: $16
FMI: http://lowcountryrwa.com/online-workshops/

Course Description:
Urban Fantasy–A world within a world, how to write and market today’s urban fantasy.
Fantasy, and especially Urban Fantasy, are hot genres on today’s market. In this class, we’ll define Urban Fantasy, explore the markets available and how each market expects different aspects of the same genre. We’ll also study the current publications in the genre, including adult, YA, and children’s subgenres, and compare our own manuscripts to these. Throughout the class, we’ll work on improving our manuscripts to meet market needs.

Thursday Tag Party for 6/23/11!

I know I usually start these with something fun and tongue-in-cheek, but today, we'll stay on the serious side. The Tags have returned to Amazon, as promised, but some of the recovery has been more successful than other bits of it.

Please check your Kindle books. Paperbacks were not affected. Some tag lists came back online whole and with all the picks intact, some did not, returning instead with "suggested tags" which may or may not have much to do with the work.

If you have a book for which the tags did not reload properly, please let me know. I'll be happy to rerun the title in the Tag Party.

And now, because of our little Amazon-induced hiatus, I have a little bit of a backlog of requests. On to the tagging. :)

First time Tagging? We promise to be gentle. (No! Put that down! I said gentle!):

* Go to the Amazon buy page (I've included the links below)

* Scroll down to the Tags Customers Associate with this Product header

* Look for these tags: SFR, Scifi Romance, SF Romance, Science Fiction Romance and Paranormal Romance - please feel free to add any extra tags you feel are appropriate to the work (i.e. Space Opera, Military SF, etc.)

* Don't forget your SFR Brigade Tag!

* If the tags are already there, just click on them to add your 'vote'

* If not, type them into the 'your tags' box to add them (no need to save the page, just type and add)

* Don't forget the "Like" button at the top of the page!

For a list of past Tag Party books, come on over to the Book Launch and Tag Party Books page. Tagging is always welcome.

On to our Tag targets for this week!






Dreamspell Steampunk Volume 1 featuring Pauline Baird Jones and Heather Massey












Ashes by Arlene Webb
















Myths of the Gods by Leigh M. Lane (our own Lisa Lane)
















Splintered Energy by Arlene Webb











The Tag Party is always searching for your work, old or new. If you'd like your work featured in the weekly Tag Party, or if you know where Waldo is (he owes me $20), please drop me a line at ravenesperanza@yahoo.com

VENGEANCE BORN...drum roll please!

BREAKING NEWS...

Book 1 in the Light Blade series

I can now share my cover and blurb of my debut book, VENGEANCE BORN: A Novel of the Light Blade with you!

This is the entry that won the 2010 Golden Heart (paranormal section & formerly entitled BLOODBORN).

The release date for VB is February 7th, 2012 and it can now be pre-ordered - I'll post all those details over on my blog if you're interested.

For now, here it is...thank you Berkley art & cover dept. - you did a fantastic job! I'm stoked!!!

Surviving the Ice Age: A. R. Norris Guest Blogs on Spacefreighters Lounge

Author A. R. Norris is guest-blogging today on Spacefreighters Lounge about Surviving the Ice Age. 

The ice age, when it officially is declared, will last at least twenty thousand years, minimum. It will creep up on us. The weather will become weird, with each year more extreme and recovering less than the last. Deserts will start to reforest, Amazon will change into a desert and those countries north and south of the equator will began to transform into permafrost wastelands...

Drop by to read the rest and comment for a chance to win a gift package.

Welcome New Members

Please give a hardy hail and welcome to our newest SFR Brigade members! 

You can check out their blogs or web sites by clicking on their names.

D. McEntire

E.C. Belikov

Heidi Ruby Miller

Brigader News! A Final and a Release

D.L. Jackson has finaled in the Erotic Romance category of the Romance Writers Ink More Than Magic contest with her published novel, Slipping the Past.

Final placements will be announced July 9th at RWI’s meeting, with the results listed on the website.  You can check out the RWI More Than Magic contest at this link: http://rwimagiccontests.wordpress.com/.

Congratulations, D.L.!

~*~

Desert Breeze Publishing released SFR Duty and Devotion by A. R. Norris on June 15th. And check out that gorgeous cover (designed by Jenifer Ranieri). 

A.R. Norris will also be releasing three upcoming novels in The Telomere Trilogy with Desert Breeze in October 2011, April 2012 and October 2012.

Click here to see the Duty and Devotion trailer.

Congratulations on your release, A.R.

 

On My Blog: The Space Station Murders by A.M. Roelke

Drop by my blog to comment.

12.21.12

I have Killian McRae on my Blog today, talking about her research for this amazing novel - if you get a moment, please stop by and leave a comment.  Everyone who comments on her Blog tour will be entered in a draw to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card.

(You can also read my review of her Book, posted yesterday)


www.hywelalyn.blogspot.com

Hangin' with TK Toppin

I'm super excited to be hanging out at TK's blog today. TK is grilling -- er -- interviewing me.

Learn my deep dark secrets...muahahahaha...okay, so they're not so deep but...well...oh, just go over if you have a chance!

http://thelancasterrule.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-guest-ar-norris.html

Darcy Drake a Finalist in the Espan Page One Contest!

Brigader Darcy Drake is a finalist in the 2011 ESPAN's Page One contest!  ESPAN stands for Electric and Small Press Authors' Network, RWA special chapter #200.

The ESPAN Page One is a unique contest that employs a series of eliminations using the following schedule:

Week 1 – First paragraph. 
The bottom 11 entries eliminated (leaving 23 entries) were announced by April 16, 2011

Week 2 – First two paragraphs.
The bottom 7 entries eliminated (leaving 16 entries) were announced April 23, 2011

Week 3 – First three paragraphs.
The bottom 7 entries eliminated (leaving 9 entries) were announced April 30, 2011

Week 4 – First four paragraphs up to a max of 250 words.
The bottom 5 entries eliminated (leaving 5 entries to be forwarded to the final Editor judges) were announced May 7, 2010

Darcy's entry survived all four rounds to enter the finals.  Entries can be read on the front page of the ESPAN website. http://espan-rwa.com/

Winners will be announced on June 29th at the ESPAN AGM/Afternoon Tea Party during RWA Nationals in New York City.

Congratulations, Darcy, and Best Wishes on the 29th! 

Brigader Barbara Elsborg Releases Her 20th Novel!

We're having a big celebration on Spacefreighters Lounge to commemorate Barbara Elsborg's 20th novel, Chosen, being released today by Decadent Publishing.

In her interview, here's what Barbara had to say about SFR:

Q:  Let’s talk SFR for a minute. Lucy in the Sky was such an amazing SFR/Erotica story that we named it as one of our recommended reads for SFR. Any plans for more SFR novels in the works?

Barbara:  Yes, I hope my next after my WIP will be sci fi and set in Walmart. Don’t ask!! Alright then – if you insist. I had a dream. A dream about Walmart and I got up in the middle of the night and wrote it down. Of course, in the cold light of day, it didn’t seem quite so wondrous but the niggle remains to write it.

To read the rest and enter the giveaway, chart a course for Spacefreighters Lounge.

New Steampunk Contest on my Website :-)

I am so lucky that I get incredible support from my family. When I made a little side trip into steampunk, my sister (who designs and sells jewelry locally) started looking for steampunk stuff and has come up with some truly fun stuff for my gift packs. Also, my sister-in-law, who brews up soap and other goodies in her basement, created a signature line of soaps and stuff in honor of one of my characters.

So I'm excited to launch a new, steampunk gift pack on my website (winner of last month's gift pack is posted). There is NO purchase required to enter. And I am being VERY  brave to give up some of it.  

Drawing runs from June 1-16th, 2011.

<http://www.paulinebjones.com/contests.html>