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Saturday, January 7, 2012

SFR Pitch Tournament HEAT #3




FOR VOTERS
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS HEAT WAS CLOSED TO VOTING AS OF JANUARY 8TH AT 6 PM PACIFIC TIME. CLICK ON THE SFR BRIGADE BANNER AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE TO VOTE FOR THE FINALIST IN THE FINAL ROUND. Thanks for your support!

There are eight SFR pitches in this Tournament heat (below).

Vote for up to three titles in the poll above with pitches that best capture your interest and compel you to read the story. The two pitches with the most votes will advance to the final round. In case of a tie, both will advance.

Find a story you just have to read? Sales links are included (if available) below each pitch.

The authors would love to hear your thoughts. Comment below with feedback on what elements in the pitches hooked you and you'll be entered in a drawing for an Amazon e-Gift Certificate.

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Tethered
By Pippa Jay
Space Opera/Sci-fi Romance

For Loree of the Su, being an assassin isn’t simply something that she was trained to do - it’s the sole reason for her existence. A genetically enhanced clone, one of many in Refuge, she’s about to learn her secluded existence - and those of all her kind - is under threat by a race that can neutralize their talents and leave them defenseless…

For Zander D’joren, being a diplomat has not only cost him his appearance, but also the love of his life. Scarred, grieving, he must nonetheless continue in his role as co-delegate to the Tier-vane, or risk a conflict that could only end one way…

Now both of them need to keep each other alive and maintain a risky deception long enough to renegotiate the treaty with the Tier-vane, or throw their people into a war that could wipe out humans and Inc-Su alike. But there’s more at stake than humanity, whether true or modified. Can the love that they share save them both? Or merely hasten their destruction?

Tethered is a Work in Progress

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The Dimensional Shift
by Frances Pauli
Science Fiction with Romantic Elements

Chloe came to the Three Lakes area for the peace and quiet. She happily abandoned the world of retail management, suits and promotions to work as a hotel maid catering to the local tourists. Until Andrew Paige showed up--a suit of the worst kind, the kind that makes her knees weak.

When Andrew offers her a job at his hotel, Chloe is hell bent on resisting, but the Dimensional Shift is no ordinary hotel, and Chloe is immediately tossed into the world of inter-dimensional tourists, their odd accommodations, and a string of thefts that threaten to ruin her chances at romance.

While learning the ropes, dealing with the Shift's unusual guests, and trying to determine if the boss' interest in her is strictly professional, Chloe uncovers a plot to steal the hotel's dimensional keys. With the help of the town gossip, her alien abductee neighbor, and her new invisible best friend, Chloe confronts an inter-dimensional crime ring and a host of complications that make romancing the boss look like the least of her troubles.

Book 1 of the Shift Happens series

Published by Mundania

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The Telomere Trilogy Book 1: Revelations of Tomorrow
By A. R. Norris

The crew of Daring Star salvages a load capsule and finds the beaten body of Jetta McCree. The young woman has discovered her employer developed a biochemical droplet and is contracted with terrorists to manufacture it on a large scale. Captain Noah Bonney fights off corporate security forces, her ex-husband's pirate fleets, and carnivorous beasts to keep the young woman safe and transport her to the safety of the Imperial Home Port.

But the adventure brings to surface demons Noah's been suppressing and secrets from her people's history she's tried to forget. Now, she must face them if she's to reconcile with her daughter and keep the love of her life from leaving. With 450 years under her belt and nothing but eternity ahead of her, she's built a thick shell… one she's not sure she can break.

Available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or All Romance eBooks

More about me at my Blog

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The Warlord's Comeuppance
By Gail Koger

Stealing from a warlord and giving him the one finger salute as I made my getaway was not the brightest thing I’d ever done. Okay, it was an incredibly stupid stunt.

Did I mention that this particular Coletti warlord is the most feared in the entire galaxy? That Zarek’s the ultimate predator and even the other warlords are scared spitless of him? That he never ever stops until he either captures or kills his prey?

Yeah, I have the big, bad after me and all because of one little finger. Okay and a Ditrim crystal the size of my fist. Am I worried? Of course, only an idiot doesn’t fear a very angry Coletti warlord. But, I am very good at what I do. Bad news is, so is Zarek.

Available at Whispers Publishing

Gail Koger

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Tin Cat
By Misa Buckley
Urban Fantasy/Sci Fi Romance

A year after the accident that put her in a wheelchair, Amber Gerald has more or less gotten used to living with her impairment. It doesn't make a difference to running a comic book store anyway, and the customers have been the best support group she could have wished for.

When she rescues an abandoned cat, Amber has no idea that she's interfering in the mad scheme of a time travelling bank robber. Or that the man that walks into her store dressed like Blade is about to become her bodyguard.

Between being an unwitting owner of an android cat and falling for a cybernetic bounty hunter, Amber finds her life a whole new level of weird as science fiction becomes a very real factual threat.

Misa Buckley

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Unacceptable Risk
By Jeanette Grey
Cyberpunk

She may learn to live for love…if vengeance doesn’t kill her first.

Plix spends her lonely, gritty life trying to solve the mysteries her father left behind. Armed with a variety of cybernetic enhancements and a talent for getting into places she shouldn’t be, she searches for clues to his murder—and who’s responsible for poisoning her city.

Waking up on a street corner with her brain wiring fried to a crisp, she figures she must have gotten close this time. There’s only one man she trusts to pull her back from the brink: a tuner who can retrieve the evidence hidden deep in the recesses of her mind. A man she dares not let too close to her heart.

When Edison downloads a secret SynDate schematic from Plix’s burnt-out circuitry, he knows with dreadful finality that nothing—not even the fiery kiss he’s been holding back for years—will stop her from pursuing her quest past the point of insanity.

All he can do, as he helps her plan her final mission, is ease her pain, watch her back…and hope one of them doesn’t pay with their lives.

Published December 13, 2011

Available Now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance eBooks or Samhain Press.

Jeanette Grey

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Lucy in the Sky
By Barbara Elsborg
Erotic SF romance MF with a a bit of MM

When you wake up to find a spaceship in your backyard, what do you do? Choose from three:

Phone the police.

Scream.

Go yell at the alien for wrecking your garden.

Lucy storms out of her house to confront the inept pilot and the last option turns out to be both the right and wrong choice when she finds the gorgeous hunk’s name is Three. She’s torn between fury that he’s crushed her roses and decapitated her statue of Eros, and a longing that he enliven her boring life and whisk her to the stars. Three doesn’t give her a choice when he throws her over his broad shoulders and takes her into space. Lucy soon finds herself exploring alien territory in ways she never imagined.

Three’s efforts to hide and protect her on the mother ship are stymied by his inability to keep his hands—and other body parts—off the luscious Lucy, and it looks as if her immediate fate might be a solo trip into space without a spacesuit.

Available from Ellora's Cave

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Tangled in Time
By Pauline Baird Jonoes
Science ficiton romance/steampunk

Colonel Carey (from The Key and Girl Gone Nova) takes a test "flight" through the Garradian time-space portal, but an unexpected impact lands him somewhere and some when. As he attempts to get to Area 51, he crosses paths with Miss Olivia Carstairs, who could be Mary Poppins' twin sister. Or maybe her cousin.

Olivia's got a transmogrification machine powered by steam and a mouth he'd like to kiss like it was his job. Can he convince her to join forces before she shoots him with her derringer?

Published December 2010
Available from Amazon Kindle, Amazon Print, Barnes & Noble, and Fictionwise Multiformat

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END OF HEAT #3

31 comments:

  1. I liked Gail Koger's cause the was sign language cussing involved and I like cussing. lol :)

    KittyKelly

    kittykelly28 @ hotmail.com

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  2. Hi! Good luck everyone! Wishing you all the best!
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

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  3. Gail had me at flipping off a warlord....




    Mary M.

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  4. Gail's warlord rocks!! :)
    belenbola@msn.com

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  5. Good luck everyone! Exciting pitches all around. :)

    always.and.never AT gmail DOT com

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  6. I liked Gail's visual of flipping off the the warlord and her easy 'conversational language'. It felt more like a conversation than reading a book blurb. It ramps you up and gets you excited to read about the action about to take place in the story.

    Barbara's caught my attention with the inane fantasy of a hunky hero named 'Three' landing in her backyard, throwing the heroine over his shoulder then taking her away in his spaceship to...perhaps ravish her? Hello...every girls fantasy come true! Except maybe not named 'Three'...LOL!

    barbbattaglia@yahoo.com

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  7. LOVED the pitch for Gail Koger's The Warlord's Comeuppance. The mind visual of flipping off the warlord just grabbed me & the sign language had me laughing out loud.

    Mindy :)
    Birdsooong@aol.com

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  8. I liked Gail Kroger's pitch as who wouldn't want to read about a battle when it is involves the most feared Warlock in the Galaxy! It leaves me wanting more!
    Laura Emerson
    laura.hopelessromantic.emerson@gmail.com

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  9. I just really like the word comeuppance.

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  10. Gail Koger definately had me going with her witty charm. Makes me laugh when I read it!

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  11. i have almost all of Gail Koger's books and i am a huge fan of hers, but "The Warlord's Comeuppance" is probably my favorite.

    i loved the characters and the humor that had me laughing out loud.

    Good Luck Gail, you deserve to win.

    trvlagnt1t@yahoo.com

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  12. I like The Warlord's Comeuppance, because it sounds like the main character is very daring and crazy. I bet that gets her into a lot of trouble. I can't wait to read it and find out. christina_92 at yahoo.com

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  13. I really enjoyed all of the blurbs and added some books to my To Buy list as a result.

    When I read the title for Tin Cat I immediately thought of Dr. Who and the Tin Dog. LOL.

    I like how the Dimenional Shift included humor. I also enjoyed how Gail had her character flipping off a warlord. LOL. Funny.

    doxisrcoo at aol dot com

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  14. "The Dimensional Shift" definitely captured my interest the most. An inter-dimensional hotel seems like a new twist, although there are shades of MIB and "Hitchhiker's" there, as well.

    mladyrebecca(at)gmail(dot)com

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  15. I really liked the mix in Dimenional Shift. The Tin Cat with the female wheelchair bound added a new twist and the Warlord's Comeuppance has a great start. I'm sorry I could only vote for three. I have read Pauline Barid Jones' book and loved it.

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  16. A.R. Norris, you had me at biochemical O:) :D

    Misa, LOVE the idea of the time travelling bank robber :D

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  17. These are all so great. My Excel TBR list has tripled. This was such a great idea.

    (LOL Amy...thanks)

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  18. I really want Tin Cat. I loved Ironhaven, so I want to see Tin Cat. And reminding me of K9 is a good thing!

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  19. AR, I love your pitch, love your books. The pitch lures you in and once you've read it you absolutely have to go get this book.

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  20. Thanks Kaye

    I am dying to read your two. You did a great job on them.

    (I hear my bank account screaming in fear right now. It knows the purchase spree is coming.)

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  21. I loved how Gail Koger added the humor to the story. I think The Warlord's Comeuppance is my favorite

    clanamoc (at) gmail (dot) com

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  22. Love the idea of Tin Cat - something a bit different.

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  23. Thanks, JC! I had a hard time choosing, too. Thankfully, it is possible to read the books, even if you can't vote for all the blurbs! I'm making a list....

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  24. Great entries but I will be particularly looking for The Warlord's Comeuppance. it sounds great
    debby236 at gmail dot com

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  25. I like Gail's The Warlord's Comeuppance. The author's baiting us- now we want to know what's going to happen next. Is the warlord, Zarek, hot? And What's he going to do when he finally catches her-`cuz you know he will!

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  26. Lucy in the Sky: Not just a good title for a song but for a book as well. I loved the zany introduction to the blurb. It looks like a story that would lift the reader's spirits while they ride this adventure.
    Unacceptable Risk: A good one-liner.
    Tin Cat: Now here was a solid 3 paragraph pitch with just the right economy of words to get the reader a taste of the story and a yearning to know more.

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  27. Another group of good pitches. I have tow faves here. Revelations of Tomorrow hits it right with the Sci-fi elements and the romance. Tangled in Time is completely intriguing, I just love the premise.

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  28. I really like the idea of the Tin Cat. A heroine in a wheelchair, that sounds just really awesome.

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  29. Many thanks for the kind words, Dee. It really does help a lot to know how the pitches hit readers. :-)

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  30. Thanks to those who have continued to vote in this heat, but please note that the voting ended at 6 PM Pacific time on Sunday, January 8th.

    The six additional votes received for four entries since that time were not be counted in the Tournament tallies.

    Two of these pitches have now advanced in the Tournament. You can navigate to the top of the blog to vote in the final round.

    Thanks so much for all your support in our SFR Pitch Tournament! :)

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  31. P.S. To navigate to the top of the blog, click on the SFR Brigade banner at the top of the page.

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