Requesting votes for a fun contest

Teralyn Rose Pilgrim is hosting a fantastic fun contest over at her blog.  I've been working on my WIP, the third futuristic story in the series that started with STARQUEST  for far too long and I hope to get it finished and submitted to my publisher by the end of the year at the latest.  I designed a cover to give myself inspiration when I rough drafted the story for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and when I heard of this fun contest I completely revamped it.

The contest takes place at

http://teralynpilgrim.blogspot.com/2011/08/contest-design-book-cover.html

where you'll find the links to all the other covers taking part. All you have to do is click on 'LIKE' on the three covers you like the best.  Of course I hope mine will be one of them, but please cast your votes anyway, as the more people who vote, the more fun it will be.  And of course if you do vote for me you'll earn my heartfelt thanks forever!  (My cover for 'Dancing With Fate' my Greek muse fantasy designed by Miss Mae is also in the contest.)

Second Annual Out of this World Blog Tour

Calling all Brigaders! I'm currently organizing the second annual Out of this World Blog Tour, and I would love to personally invite my fellow SFR Brigade members to hop on board. Last year was a lot of fun, and with your help this year can be just as great!

If you have a book you are currently promoting, e-mail me at Lisa_Lane@cerebralwriter.com with the following information:

* Title of your book
* JPG of your cover
* Your website/blog title and URL
* Specific genre and romance/spice level (i.e. "sweet space opera")
* Short bio

I will ask that each participant host one guest author and also write one guest blog (500-1000 words about some subject pertaining to your books story, theme, etc.), as well as promote the tour via social networks.

Thanks, all!

Contest Alert: Gateway To The Best 2011

Missouri Romance Writers of America (MORWA) is proud to announce the opening of their annual contest – Gateway to the Best. With six categories, there’s sure to be one for your manuscript.

As summer draws to a close, Gateway’s first round judges are waiting for your manuscript.
Contest closes September 9th, 2011

No synopsis needed. Send in the first 7000 words of your manuscript

Costs: $20 for MORWA Members for 1st entry & $10 for additional entries, $30 for Non-MORWA Members for 1st entry & $15 for additional entries

Eligibility: Open to unpublished authors and authors who have not been contracted in novel-length fiction (40,000+) in last 3 years.

Entry: Electronic entry only. Entry length limited to first 7,000 words (25-28 pages). No synopsis.

Categories: Contemporary Series, Historical, Young Adult, Romantic Suspense, Single Title & Paranormal

Final Judges:
Laura Barth - Harlequin: Contemporary Series
Esi Sogah - Harper Collins: Historical
Adam Wilson – Harlequin Teen: YA
Margo Lipschultz - Harlequin: Romantic Suspense
Katherine Pelz - Berkley: Single Title
Latoya Smith - Grand Central Publishing: Paranormal

Grand Prize: $100 & entire manuscript critiqued by published author.
For more information go to http://www.morwa.org/gateway.htm

Flush, er FLASH Fiction Submission Call

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader is collecting for an anthology called 
Flush Fiction. Reprints OK if you retain copyright. $50 plus two 
copies of the anthology. Guidelines are here: 
http://bathroomreader.com/flushfiction/

The guidelines start, "Uncle John’s Flush Fiction wants your short 
story! We’re looking for entertaining short fiction, suitable for 
bathroom (or anyroom) reading, maximum 1,000 words. Send us your best 
Western, mystery, horror, sci-fi, literary story, parody—all we ask is 
that it’s entertaining."

Come Check Out the Winners!

I announce the winners of the Duty and Devotion giveaway contest. It was so much fun. I love throwing these things!

http://sci-fiadventures.blogspot.com/2011/08/winners-are.html

(psst...Pauline, Liana, and Colette...it's you!)

Contest Alert: Low Entries, Extended Deadline!

Deadline extended and low on entries, the Heart-to-Heart for unpublished authors looks like a great opportunity!  Note there's no synopsis required, a very reasonable entry fee, and the three final judges include an agent, a print editor and an e-book editor.

Permission to forward or share the below information has been granted by the chapter.
___________________

The 2011 Heart-To-Heart Contest sponsored by the San Francisco Area Romance Writers is running full speed ahead! We are low on entries and have extended the deadline to August 31st.

~ 3 final judges in each category!
~Entries will be accepted electronically ONLY. Save on paper and postage!
~Scoring based on 20 key areas guaranteed to make your entry shine!
~All entries will receive 3 scores. All 3 scores will count toward your final
score!
~Contest entry fees will be accepted by Paypal or check!

CONTEST CATEGORIES: Paranormal, Erotic, Contemporary, YA and Historical

WHAT TO ENTER:

The magical scene in which your hero and heroine meet for the first time,
maximum 15 pages (optional one-page set-up, unjudged)

Fee: $15

Deadline: Midnight on August 31st, 2011

Eligibility: Unpublished

Final Judges: 3 in each category: 1 agent, 1 print editor & 1 e-pub editor

A few of our top notch judges include:
Laura Bradford, agent from Bradford Literary Agency
Leis Pederson, editor from Berkeley
Jay Austin, ePub editor from eXtasy Books and Devine Destinies

Top Prize: Certificate

FIRST ROUND JUDGES:
All first-round judges are trained, experienced critiquers and published authors

For contest overview, official rules, entry form, and score sheets go to:
http://www.sfarwa.net/

Questions?? – Contact our Contest Coordinator at:
2011heart2heart@gmail.com

Mini-Workshop: Critiques: But Mommy said it was grrreat! starts Aug 24

Mini-Workshop: Critiques: But Mommy said it was grrreat! starts Aug 24

SavvyAuthors.com is having some great mini-workshops this month. Drop by and check them out. (and take mine! LOL)

Contest for Unpublished Authors with SFR, Great Giveaway and Blog by Frances!

***Permission to forward granted & encouraged***

We're low on entries!

There are only a few days left until the August 15th Deadline to enter the Golden Palm. We have a fabulous lineup of final judges so don’t miss out!

Categories and Final Round Judges: 

Short/Long Contemporary: Megan Long, Harlequin Superromance 
Single Title: Whitney Ross, TOR Books 
Mainstream with Romantic Elements: Elaine Spencer, The Knight Agency 
Historical: Elizabeth Bistrow, New American Library 
Paranormal/Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Time Travel: Deb Werksman, Sourcebooks 
Erotica (*new this year*): Kelli Collins, Ellora’s Cave 

Fee: $20 for FRW Members, $25 for all others
Entry: Maximum first 25 pages. ALL ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS
Sponsor: Florida Romance Writers 
Eligibility: The Golden Palm Cont! est is open to any writer who has never been contracted in book-length fiction (40,000 words or more) with any publisher. 

For more information, go to http://www.frwriters.org/contests.htm




Great Giveaway at The Galaxy Express blog!


Frances Pauli interviewed here. Please go give her some comment love Brigaders!

2 Months? Wow!

I can't believe it!

On Monday Duty and Devotion will have been out two months. "Happy R-day Nettie and Rinny!" (R-day instead of B-day, for release day.)

Duty and Devotion has received many compliments, a couple ratings, and a super great review. To celebrate, I'm going to hold a contest and will give away a couple copies of Duty and Devotion... in whatever format you wish.

What do you have to do?

Well, just contact me and let me know your favorite SF scene of all time, ever. (Ever, ever.) You can contact me either by leaving a comment here, leaving a comment on my blog (http://sci-fiadventures.blogspot.com/) or emailing me at ambernorris2000@yahoo.com.

I will select the winners on the official R-Day of course, which is Monday, August 15th.

New Publisher/Accepts Spec Fic

A new e-publisher will be opening its doors soon and is accepting submissions now. Musa Publishing is open to submissions of contemporary and historical romance, erotic romance, horror, historical fiction, mystery, all kinds of speculative fiction including fantasy, science fiction and paranormal and YA. They’re open to all lengths of stories. Check out their detailed submission guidelines here.

The team behind Musa have worked for other epublishers and some of them are authors also.  They pay royalties of 50 percent of the cover price for books sold on the Musa store and 50 percent of net for sales to third-party retailers such as Amazon, Diesel e-books, etc. They plan to release as ebooks first, then trade paper for some titles. Royalty on print copies is 15 percent. Find an explanation of their terms here.

Musa plans to release its first titles in October

Our own Frances Pauli is Guest Blogging about SpecRom!

Check out her guest post here at Immortylrevolution and give her some SFR Brigade comment love!

Top Science Fiction and Fantasy titles of all time

Top Science Fiction and Fantasy titles of all time

Boy this brings back memories! (and reminds me how old I am!)

and big thanks to NPR for doing this!

Mini-Workshop: Critiques: But Mommy said it was grrreat! starts Aug 24

Mini-Workshop: Critiques: But Mommy said it was grrreat! starts Aug 24

My newest workshop (well besides the one that started TODAY and you can still sign up! See www.pathauldren.com for more info)

Alley