Call To SFR Brigade Members - Upcoming Summer Event

***UPCOMING PROMO OPP!***Brigade Members ONLY!***

Hello Brigaders!

The long term members here will be familiar with our annual Midsummer blog hop, which has run for the past three years with moderate success. However, it has been decided not to run it this year. I know that may come as a shock and a disappointment to many, but we felt that for many reasons, the Midsummer blog hop had become somewhat redundant. With Corinne's hop running this April, the SFR Brigade House Party in March, the issues with rafflecopter last year and Facebook's new policy on forbidding Page Likes as a rafflecopter entry, and some unhappiness last year with the restrictiveness of a single overall theme that some felt left them out of participation, we decided it was time for a change. And time for something bigger and hopefully better!

We'd like to introduce you to the SFR Brigade Summer Cafe - a six week event starting in June and featuring a sizzling smorgasbord of science fiction romance!

How's it going to work? Well, each of the six weeks will have its own theme (see, we want ALL of you to have a chance to get involved). The themes will be:

• Space Opera
• Dystopia
• All the Punk (any kind of punk including steam, deco, bio, cyber, diesel...if you can punk it, it's in!) 
• Weird Science (this can include any kind of weird science - zombies, superheroes, advance/enhanced humans, biological experiments, Frankenstein's Monster type stories - if it's science and it's freaky, it's in!)
• Androids and Aliens (any and all kinds of artificial beings from biomechanical to cyborgs to full machine, plus any kind of alien you have)
• Supernova Hot (our erotica selection - the hotter it is the better!)

Each week will have a 'Menu' posted on the Brigade blog and the SFR Station with each participant for that week listed as a Starter, Main Course or Dessert (we'd like to feature shorts/novellas for the starter, novellas/novels as mains, and sweeter romances for dessert, but that's just a suggestion).

You'll be required to have a post up in good time for the start of that week (every Monday). We'd love for you to include a recipe to tie in with your book/story/post etc (a food, a drink, or even on the theme of a recipe for love or for disaster etc) but it isn't required. You don't have to have a giveaway on your own post either but we do ask you to contribute to the weekly prize basket which will be on the same theme as that week's menu (ebooks and Kindle only gift cards (or B&N and ARe GCs) are prefered for international entries, but if you want to give away physical swag we will ask you to be responsible for sending it to the winner). Winners for each week will be chosen and posted over the weekend.

You will also need to include links to the other blogs (or back to the Brigade blog post), the rafflecopter for the weekly prize, the Cafe button or banner (to come), and your post. You can ask visitors to do whatever you like to qualify for a prize on your own blog, but please be reasonable. You may ask visitors to sign up to your newsletter or follow your blog or an option of your choice in return for a donation to the main prize basket (it will be made part of the rafflecopter).

There will be separate inlinkz for each theme, but the initial sign up will be via Google doc so that the details for your book, giveaway etc can be included. Any theme receiving less than three entries will be removed from the options. We've tried to make the themes as open as possible, and so that if you don't get into your top category (we have a limit on entry numbers) then hopefully you can fit into one of the others.

PLEASE NOTE: This event is for members of the SFR Brigade ONLY! Please don't share the sign up outside of the Brigade. Also, you may only sign up for ONE post during the event unless we are short of numbers for a specific category, at which point we will open it up to further entries.

Any questions, please ask in the comments, PM me via Facebook as Pippa Jay (I do check my Other message folder regularly) or use the email sfrbrigadebloghop at gmail dot com

The sign up doc is here>> http://goo.gl/forms/IDttzBscEB

Tales from the SFR Brigade - live at Smashwords! #SFRBAntho #scifi #romance

Well, damn the resonance canons, full speed ahead! Tales from the SFR Brigade - a #free anthology of science fiction romance stories by eight authors - went live on Smashwords yesterday. Woo hoo! Er, yeah, we DID announce the expected release date as 14th July just a couple of days ago, but Editor-in-Chief 'Cali Hicks hit a fortunate pre-launch time knot, lol. So now you can download your free copy in a multitude of digital formats from here. And while you're at it, why not add it to your Goodreads shelf too. You can find it here. 

Want more reasons to check the anthology out, aside from being free and shiny? What about the author line up? 

1. "Imprint" – Pippa Jay

2. "Allure" – Amy Laurens

3. "Nobody’s Present" – Marcella Burnard

4. "The Stranger" – Kyndra Hatch

5. "Mission: Nam Selan" – Linnea Sinclair

6. "Prime Sensations" – Liana Brooks

7. "Envy’s Revenge" – Berinn Rae

8. "Whiskey and Starshine" – Erica Hayes

And if that isn't enough, here's the blurb - 

Experience love and adventure among the stars in TALES FROM THE SFR BRIGADE, a free digital anthology of eight Science Fiction Romance stories.

* A space captain discovers the cyborg she loves just might be her greatest enemy.

* A mind-wiped prostitute risks all when she recruits a dangerous stranger to help her escape a terrible fate.

* A prisoner-of-war confronts the comrade who loved her, then left her for dead.

* A space-obsessed physics teacher is kidnapped by a far-too-charming alien.

* An apocalypse survivor battles the biomech-enhanced hunter who seeks to capture her.

* A young artist must choose between her comfortable life on Earth or a war-torn space colony with her beloved.

* A daring thief is on the run from the alien law man who is determined to bring her to justice.

* A widowed rebel leader tries to save the last remnants of humanity, one stranger at a time.

From Earth to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, explore the worlds of Science Fiction Romance with stories from Linnea Sinclair, Marcella Burnard, Erica Hayes, Liana Brooks, Pippa Jay, Berinn Rae, Amy Laurens, and Kyndra Hatch.

Download TALES FROM THE SFR BRIGADE for free today.

BTW, the mini-blurbs make most excellent tweets. So if you'd like to help spread the word and get SFR out into the universe, the hashtag is #SFRBAntho. 

Proposed SFR Brigade Blog Hop

Some of you may or may not have seen or taken part in the recent St.Patrick's Day Blog Hop last week. I know a handful of Brigaders were participating, including myself. Liana Brooks suggested that perhaps the Brigade should host one of its own, and I've kind of volunteered to set it up. :-P

So I thought I'd put it up for a vote. I've suggested a Midsummer one, since this is an astronomical and mystical event that might tie in nicely with speculative fiction as a whole and allow us all a free range on the topic we'd like to post. First up, I'd like to know how many Brigaders are interested in taking part, how many are willing to offer a prize on their own blog and/or contribute to a grand prize, volunteers to help out (begging here!) etc. I've left the poll open so that you can choose as many responses as you need, and add further questions you think are relevant.




So the basic idea is - this blog will host the hop. A linky tool will be set up for all those wanting to participate (about a month in advance), into which you will need to enter your name, email and blog/website URL. All participants will be sent a copy of the code for the linky so we can all publish the list, letting visitors to our blogs hop to the next without having to keep coming back here. On the day, a post will go live here announcing the hop and with the list up so that everyone has somewhere central to come back to. Participants will write a short post on a topic of their choice related to Midsummer's Day (or maybe if you have a similar solar event or festival etc in one of your books, you can post a snippet), including whatever promotional links you'd like to add and listing your prize(s). Visitors will need to comment with their email addy for entry to your contest, and for one entry to the main prize if we have one. The more blogs they comment on, the better their chances of winning the grand prize. I'd like to suggest that it isn't a requirement for guests to sign up to newsletters/follow blogs etc as part of the conditions for entry, but that's entirely up to each participant.

Because of the time differences between some members I'm going to have to figure out some times, and how long the contest will actually run for - I'll have to get back to you on that. But, depending on the number of participants, I may need one or two peeps just to help me check all the links in the linky are up and valid - any that just seem to lead to an advert rather than a post or are broken may be deleted. At the end of the hop, I'll collect up all the entries and chose a grand winner. Each participant will be responsible for choosing and announcing the individual winner on their own blog. For an example of how blog hops work, you can check out Carrie Ann Ryan's recent St.Patrick's Day Hop here.

Now, Midsummer's Day is the 24th June which I know might be an issue for the Six Sentence Sunday peeps. But the actual summer solstice is the 20th June at 23.09. So perhaps Friday the 21st might be the best day to hold it? Or I could set it to start at the moment of solstice if everyone can schedule their blog posts to go live then. Any suggestions, thoughts etc are very welcome!

Google+ for SF/F authors?

Are you thinking about expanding your social media toolkit to include Google+? If you're like me, this was a tough call. I have enough writing distractions in my life, thank you very much. But a single post on the SFWA blog changed my mind. Drop by Spacefreighters Lounge today if you're interested in joining the discussion about Google+ for authors.

Adventures in Social Media: 
Is Google+ a boon for new SF/F authors?

Second Annual Out of This World Blog Tour

Starting next week, the second annual Out of This World Blog tour will feature ten different sci-fi and SFR authors whose recent or upcoming releases take place beyond Earth as we know it.

The lineup:

September 16

Greta van der Rol at the Cerebral Writer

http://www.cerebralwriter.com/blog.html

September 17

Diane Dooley at Amber Norris’ blog

http://sci-fiadventures.blogspot.com/

September 18

Gary Starta at Melisse Aires’ blog

http://melisseaires.blogspot.com

September 19

Frances Pauli at Diane Dooley’s blog

http://dianedooley.wordpress.com/

September 20

Amber Norris at Joe Vasicek’s blog

http://onelowerlight.com/writing

September 21

Lilly Cain at Anne Kane’s blog

http://www.annekane.wordpress.com/

September 22

Joe Vasicek at Frances Pauli’s blog

http://francespauli.blogspot.com/

September 23

Lisa Lane at Gary Starta’s blog

http://godsmachinesandroids.blogspot.com/

September 24

Melisse Aires at Lilly Cain’s blog

http://www.annekane.wordpress.com/

September 25

Anne Kane at Lisa Lane’s blog

http://newsensuality.blogspot.com

Many authors will be giving away prizes to random readers, so stop by each day to check out the discussion and the SWAG.

See you there!

Could SFR by the NBT and How Might We Get There?

The Grand Ball that is RWA Nationals has come and gone and what a fantastic time it was! Though Sharon Lynn Fisher and I had high hopes for bringing home a Golden Heart win for SFR, it was not to be. This year. We, as a community, need to keep fighting the good fight. The industry is changing dramatically and each new day brings opportunity for our subgenre.

I did a lot of mulling and brainstorming in the last week, and I have a few things I’d like to put on the table.

One of the mottos for the SFR Brigade/SFR Community is: "Conquering the Universe...One Story at a Time." I think that applies to the Publishing Universe as well, and possibly we should adopt it as a battle cry rather than just a motto.

During my pitch sessions--one with a well known agent who accepts SFR and one with a senior editor from a publishing house that accepts both SFR and SF--they asked if I had any questions for them. Oh, yes I did. I wanted their input on SFR: Did they think it was increasing in popularity, decreasing in popularity or staying about the same?

Their response (averaged and paraphrased) was that it's difficult to tell in the current lackluster market, however there is a bit of a buzz about SFR and with the waning interest in vampire romance the industry seems to be searching for a missile lock on what will be "the next big thing." They hinted that if the stars aligned just so, that "next big thing" might possibly be SFR.

My take? I think SFR may have a shot at that coveted "NBT" title and there's a few things we can do as a community to help get us there:

1. Step up our efforts as a community to raise the visibility of SFR and find greater numbers of potential readers.

I'm convinced "The audience is out there." The reading public is now made up of at least three generations who grew up on Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Avatar and that translates to millions who have an interest in SF/SFR. Can we find new ways to reach out to our potential audience?  We may need to attack this objective from several different angles. While at Nationals, several Brigaders kicked around the idea of developing a SFR workshop for next year's Nationals and/or the RT Booklovers Convention. Should we found a companion community to the SFR Brigade for readers? Coordinate our efforts to attend the big cons? Work on joint book signing tours? Brainstorm a way for digital authors to do book signings? Hey, we're SFR authors. Innovation is our middle name.

2. Support our own subgenre by promoting SFR books.

The Brigade is approaching a membership of 200. If we were all to promote the SFR books we love, we'd create a huge impact. How do we do that? Write reviews and author interviews for our blogs, rate and review books on Amazon and Goodreads and other book-centered sites, tag, tag, tag!, and chime in on reader site discussions about good books to read. If we each devote an hour or so a week to advancing the subgenre, we're helping create a bigger market for our work.

3. Back a breakout SFR novel.

A huge-selling SFR novel could do wonders to open the doors for our subgenre. Recently, we've had a few books garner brilliant reviews and RT Top Picks, but if they don't have the sales to back that up, we've lost a launch window opportunity. It's not economically viable to personally buy 20 copies of your favorite SFR title, but what if you can convince 20 other people to purchase? This goes back to #2. Invest a bit of time to promote your subgenre--review, rate, blog, and discuss great SFR.

4. Work to establish SFR as a separate contest category from Paranormal.

I know this doesn't sound like a significant strategy point, but I believe it is. As long as SFR is pitted against Fantasy and Paranormal, it will struggle in contests against (currently) much more marketable subgenres. Often agent and/or editor judges are chosen for their interest in general Paranormal which doesn't necessarily included SFR, so our subgenre is sometimes a longshot to place well in the final round or be requested by the judge. If we, as a community, start with the smaller contests and convince them we'll submit X number of manuscripts if they break out a separate SFR/Futuristic/Steampunk/Apocalyptic category, they might take us seriously. This could also entail having to help locate a final judge who's an editor or agent, and that's where our published authors could help with their connections.

5. Pitch and query those SFR manuscripts.

The more editors and agents hear about imaginative stories with complex world-building and compelling characters, the more receptive they'll become to the idea of selling or publishing SFR, and the more likely they'll be to find that one "big story" they're all looking for.

This year we had three SFR manuscripts in the Golden Heart finals and one SFR novel that finaled in two RITA categories--ENEMY WITHIN by Marcella Burnard. That's progress! Here's a couple of other exciting tidbits:

--Popular author Zoe Archer has published a SFR titled COLLISION COURSE.

--At least two other 2011 Golden Heart finalists are also working on SFR manuscripts, including one who entered a previously shelved manuscript and "finished in the top third."

I think the environment is primed for SFR to make its move in the publishing world, but it will take a community effort to get us there.

What say you? Do you think the five-part plan will be effective? Do you have other ideas for things we can do as a community to promote SFR?