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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Free Kindle Ebook! HER CYBORG AWAKES by Melisse Aires

Free Kindle ebook alert:

Melisse Aires has re-issued her science fiction romance CYBOT AWAKENS with a new title and cover. The story is now called HER CYBORG AWAKES and it's free at Amazon through Monday, May 27, 2012. (Read the author's announcement about the special here.)

Here's the cover and blurb:


Sabralia lives a lonely but luxurious life in Emperor Sirn’s Harem, her only companion is her obedient servant, Qy, a cyborg. Her life has largely been controlled by others, but when Sirn demands his Harem pleasure his Commanding Officers at a victory celebration, Sabralia makes a daring plan to hide to avoid rape by Sirn's men.

The Palace is ambushed and her cyborg gets her off world. The impossible has happened−Qy the gentle cyborg becomes the man he once was, the warrior Kaistril. Pursued for valuable information, Sabralia is thrust into dangerous, unfamiliar situations where she must stand up to the challenges, or lose the man she loves. Sensual Sci-fi Romance. Novella Formerly titled Cybot Awakens

Let's have some fun: Spread the word via Twitter and see if we can significantly increase the title's ranking on Amazon before the offer expires.

Ready...set...go!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Amazon Tag Party - 05/24/2012

Welcome to the weekly SFR Brigade's Amazon Tag Party. Please find the   list of this week's participating titles below. All you need to do is   click on the title and it will take you to the relevant Amazon page.   Happy Tagging!

A brief step by step guide:

1.Go to the Amazon buy page (links provided below)

2.Scroll   down to the 'Tags Customers Associate with this Product' header.  Please  be aware that not all the tags show up on the books - you will  need to  click 'show all (number of) tags' to see the full list. There's  also a  limit to how many tags you can agree with - 15 - so choose  wisely my  young apprentice!

3.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.)

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

5.You can also type into the 'your tags' box to add your own (no need to save the page, just type and add)

6. Please also click the 'Like' button next to the title.



Wednesday, May 23, 2012

My guest blog post at FF and P


I'll be teaching a class at FF&P this July (Me & Chi) and here is my guest post about the class:

Would love to hear your comments!
Alley






Saturday, May 19, 2012

Heather Bennett Discusses Decadent's New Elatia SFR Line



Today I'm interviewing Heather Bennett, executive editor and co-owner of Decadent Publishing, who has some exciting news about their new Science Fiction Romance line. 

 Hi! Great to be here, thanks for having me over.

Heather, I'm sure you have a very busy schedule, so I appreciate you taking time out to share the news. Can you tell us a little about Decadent's new line? Is it exclusively for Science Fiction Romance stories or is it open to other genres, too? What's the "heat level?" 

Elatia is the planet where our Celestial Escape line is based. It's a multi-author world building series, definitely all Sci-fi romance. Heat level is sexy to smokin' hawt, as Elatia is essentially a planet of pleasures. Here is the description from our blog. http://decadentelatia.blogspot.com/

Elatia is known as ”the pleasure planet” located in the center of the Belverian System. With its two suns and single moon, Elatia is not only a peaceful, vacation paradise, but home to the school for the universally admired Adamos, who are expertly trained in the pleasure arts. 


Enjoy the exotic comforts of Elatia. Immerse yourself in the popular Femwars Battles, spend a day walking the shops of Havmiola, Elatia's capital, or travel to the other planets in the Belverian System to find your own adventure. You may never wish to leave...

There will be a lot of potential for cultural, ideological, and romantic conflict! Launch author Azura Ice created the FemWar storyline, as well, so the women can be fierce or demure, bold or brittle, but in the end they will all find their destiny.

What was behind the decision to introduce the Elatia line and what SFR subgenres (space opera, steampunk, planetary romance, etc) might be represented? 

My partner Lisa and I are both Sci-fi fans from way back. We've actively sought and promoted SFR to our readers from the beginning, and it's been our pleasure to bring more of the genre to the romance community.

Creating our own 'world' to write within was a meld of both that love and also the realization of the popularity of our multi-author series, 1Night Stand. 1NS also has several SFR stories, and many of those authors are writing for Elatia, like Jessica Subject, DL Jackson, and Azura Ice.

Because of the constructs of the 'world', many SFR sub-genres can be explored, depending on the planet the characters hail from and the story they inhabit. If someone wants to write Mal Reynolds-type characters coming to Elatia to sample the goods? GREAT! If another writer sees royalty, they can explore that avenue. Like the universe, the possibilities are seemingly endless.

I understand some of your launch authors may be familiar names to the SFR Brigade. Could you share who they are and tell us a little about the books that launched the series? 

Azura Ice (aka Faith Bicknell-Brown) is a familiar name to many. She had the daunting task of taking our vision and merging it with her own for the launch book, Forever Across the Stars. She pulled it off beautifully, and that book is currently available at all ebook outlets. It also has a gorgeous cover, don't you think?

An Unexpected Return is by Jessica E. Subject. Jessica wrote an SFR 1Night Stand that did very well, Celestial Seduction, and she's a joy to work with. I knew I wanted her to write for this series as she's got a ton of imagination and appreciation for the genre. She goes in a different direction than Azura, and the result is a delicious dip into the sensual fantasy world that is Elatia. Oh, and her hero is blue.

Sara Brookes wrote the Sypricon Masters series for us. It got great reviews. She is a talented writer and Lethal Beauty in the Elatia series will again showcase her skill.

DL Jackson I just adore, as a person and a writer. She was nominated for a CAPA this year for her 2011 Decadent Publishing release Cinderella Wore Combat Boots and wrote an SFR short story for our Christmas 1Night Stand antho, This Endris Night. Her Elatia release this summer is called Courtesan Bootcamp. Look for it to have DL's brand of sexy humor so many adore.

Is Decadent actively acquiring for the Elatia line? If so, what are you looking for in terms of submissions? Is there a link to submission guidelines where writers can learn more? 

Most definitely. Stories should be 7-50k in length, and an author can write a sub-series within Elatia if they like. You can find the Submissions Guidelines here. Basically an author just needs to look through the World Bible and see if Elatia is a good fit for them.

I'm invigorated by the numerous possibilities, the ingenuity of SFR writers to see a premise and let it lead them in an entirely creative and exciting direction within the 'world'. Watching these stories develop is like seeing a season of great sci-fi TV play out.

Will Elatia be an ongoing line, or will it only be open to submissions for a limited time? 

It will be on-going. I LOVE series romance, and I know most other romance readers so, as well. It's always a joy to come back and revisit a familiar port with people we know, so hopefully readers respond and enjoy this series as much as we've enjoyed creating it. The SFR community is incredibly supportive, so I'm optimistic about the long term prospects for Elatia.

This is all so exciting! Can you tell us what other opportunities for submissions Decadent offers?

If you'd like to know about the other non-SFR world building series we have, you can check out our best selling 1Night Stand series and new Western Escape series. For more SFR titles from Decadent, check out our website at www.decadentpublishing.com.

Decadent has just started a new Book Club and we'll be featuring an SFR book there very soon.

Heather, thanks so much for answering our questions about Elatia. We're always excited to hear more about new Science Fiction Romance lines! 

Thank you for giving me the chance to bring it to your readers. We hope you all enjoy it! Find us on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/DecadentPublishing ) or Twitter (@DecadentPub) and let me know which Decadent Publishing SFR is your favorite!



Thursday, May 17, 2012

Amazon Tag Party - 05/17/2012

Welcome to the weekly SFR Brigade's Amazon Tag Party. Please find the list of this week's participating titles below. All you need to do is click on the title and it will take you to the relevant Amazon page. Happy Tagging!

A brief step by step guide:

1.Go to the Amazon buy page (links provided below)

2.Scroll down to the 'Tags Customers Associate with this Product' header. Please be aware that not all the tags show up on the books - you will need to click 'show all (number of) tags' to see the full list. There's also a limit to how many tags you can agree with - 15 - so choose wisely my young apprentice!

3.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.)

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

5.You can also type into the 'your tags' box to add your own (no need to save the page, just type and add)

6. Please also click the 'Like' button next to the title.


Friday, May 11, 2012

New Member, Kitty Roads

A huge, Brigade welcome to our newest member, Kitty roads! Welcome Kitty. :)

Please tell us a little about yourself: I’m still just a rookie author, but having fun. Three years of writing for NaNoWriMo and the bug bit me to keep writing. I am in my 30’s married with children and a prior U.S. Air Force cop.

We’d love to hear more about your book, Questionably Human: I like to write about nontraditional men, Aliens, Cyborgs, Shape shifters, Demons, etc… Questionably Human is about Keva who is hired discreetly to find an abducted “prince”. She soon finds out he is not human and as they run from corrupt hit men and a government conspiracy, they struggle to accept that their growing attraction is more than a one-night stand.

Would you like to share any upcoming projects : Currently working on an online in progress fantasy novel called The Serpent’s Kiss. It is the first planned novel of Ravenhold (written online for my blog). I also have another SFR novel in progress but it is only in the first draft stage still without a title.

What do you like about writing SFR? Aliens and Cyborgs.

What do you find challenging about it? Writing the technology.

What is your favorite SF book or movie? The movies Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina.

If you could have a robot that did one chore/task and only one, what would you choose? Clean.

What SFR book would you most like to be stranded in and with whom? Don’t know which book (there are a lot of good ones out there) but I’ll take on any man like Riddick (yes the convict from the movies ;) ).

Favorite mode of fictional travel? The hover car.

You can find Kitty online here:

Twitter: @MissKittyRoads
Goodreads: Miss Kitty Roads

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Amazon Tag Party - 05/10/2012

Welcome to the weekly SFR Brigade's Amazon Tag Party. Please find the list of this week's participating titles below. All you need to do is click on the title and it will take you to the relevant Amazon page. Happy Tagging!

A brief step by step guide:

1.Go to the Amazon buy page (links provided below)

2.Scroll down to the 'Tags Customers Associate with this Product' header. Please be aware that not all the tags show up on the books - you will need to click 'show all (number of) tags' to see the full list. There's also a limit to how many tags you can agree with - 15 - so choose wisely my young apprentice!

3.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.)

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

5.You can also type into the 'your tags' box to add your own (no need to save the page, just type and add)

6. Please also click the 'Like' button next to the title.



Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Beer & Bones: Space Cadets

Beer & Bones: Space Cadets


Come visit the Dallas Museum of Nature & Science for their yearly event:

BEER & BONES: SPACE CADETS
Thursday June 21, 2012
7 - 10 pm

See you there!

Monday, May 7, 2012

Release Day for KEIR

My first full length science fiction romance novel releases today from Lyrical Press Inc! It's also up on Amazon. I'm so excited I may spontaneously combust! The tour kicked off on the 1st of May (Beltane) and runs for another week. Today there's a grand prize up for grabs on my blog, and you can find the tour details here.

I've been posting snippets of it for Six Sentence Sunday and Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday over the last year. But now the final version is out. :)



Outcast. Cursed. Dying. Is Keir beyond redemption?
For Keirlan de Corizi--the legendary 'Blue Demon' of Adalucien--death seems the only escape from a world where his discolored skin marks him as an oddity and condemns him to life as a pariah. But salvation comes in an unexpected guise: Tarquin Secker, a young woman who can travel the stars with a wave of her hand. 

But Quin has secrets of her own. She's spent eternity searching through space and time with a strange band of companions at her back. Defying her friends' counsel, Quin risks her apparent immortality to save Keir. She offers him sanctuary and a new life on her home world, Lyagnius. 

When Keir mistakenly unleashes his dormant alien powers and earns instant exile from Quin's home world, will she risk everything to stand by him again? 

WARNING: Contains sweet romance, some violence and plenty of adventure.

A huge thank you to all the Brigade members who have offered their encouragement and support, and especially to those who have hosted me on the tour. You are AWESOME!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Meet Sergeant Rex

Meet Sergeant Rex.

Great story. I love dogs, especially German Shepherds. You gotta love a dog like this.

The Science of Sex...In Space

I couldn't help the title. When I was thinking of how to start this post the first thought that came into my mind was the fortune cookie joke. You know, adding "in bed" to the end of the fortune. "You will meet a new friend...in bed", "A surprise will greet you...in bed" and so on and so forth...

Well, AR record met. I've managed to derail my post before it even really started. Let's see if I can get back on track. Or even get on track to begin with.

Any-who. Sex. In Space. Science of. Got it.

I was working on my current WIP and one of the storylines entails two people travelling in a small transport, which has no gravity. (I can talk my fictional brain into believing people will figure out artificial gravity in big vessels but I just can't get it to justify artificial gravity in a small transport.)

In this subplot, the two characters become attracted to each other. I began to write in a love scene and no matter how many times and ways I started, it wouldn't mesh. In zero gravity, all the smooth moves of the foreplay and well, the act, are gone.

He goes in for the kiss and as their lips meet, she floats back into the small transports wall and bangs her head. She leans in to kiss his neck and they both go twirling out of control. He brushes her arm and fights to keep from drifting away.

Ugh...that would get old fast. Making love should be natural and if you're spending the whole time fighting thoe whole "equal opposite reaction" thing to stay physically connected, it'll break that spark of emotional and sexual connection.

Romance needs weight. All those subtle and arousing moves that lead to a rewarding night needs gravity. Yes, their eyes can meet, the flirtatious comments can be bantered, but beyond that it becomes awkward.

Intercourse itself faces challenges. There's no natural way in space for the body to manage its heat, which causes people to perspire more in zero gravity. That leads to hot sex...literally.

And you think that challenge is awkward? Remember that gravity is what drives blood circulation. You get where I'm going with this. The male will face...Oh, how to put it?...a minor decrease in performance ability.

So, in the future of zero-g, love scenes might just end up being a pragmatic experience. The flirtation will lead to the very detached discussion of:

"You want to have intercourse?"

"That sounds enjoyable"

"Okay, well let's move to the intercourse anchor bag and turn up the AC."

"Okay, but don't forget the Viagra."

"Oh yeah. And the motion sickness pills."

*     *     *     *     *

A.R. Norris

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Amazon Tag Party - 05/03/2012

Welcome to the weekly SFR Brigade's Amazon Tag Party. Please find the list of this week's participating titles below. All you need to do is click on the title and it will take you to the relevant Amazon page. Happy Tagging!

A brief step by step guide:

1.Go to the Amazon buy page (links provided below)

2.Scroll down to the 'Tags Customers Associate with this Product' header. Please be aware that not all the tags show up on the books - you will need to click 'show all (number of) tags' to see the full list. There's also a limit to how many tags you can agree with - 15 - so choose wisely my young apprentice!

3.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.)

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

5.You can also type into the 'your tags' box to add your own (no need to save the page, just type and add)

6. Please also click the 'Like' button next to the title.