The SFR Brigade's 2nd Midsummer Blog Hop - Winners!

The SFR Brigade's 2nd Midsummer blog hop is over! First, a huge, huge thank you to all the Brigaders who took part in hosting, and especially to those who donated to the prize fund - this event couldn't have happened without you. And a big thank you to all the visitors who stopped by, left comments, entered the rafflecopter and shared the news.

So, to the winners. *drum roll*

First prize of a $150 gift card and a 30+ ebook bundle - Debra Guyette 

Second prize of a $50 gift card - Lucinda Copeland  

The four third prize winners of a $25 gift card - Jbst, Ashley Tucker Ashfa Anwer and Corrine Alexander ­

Congrats to the winners!  

Individual prizes offered will be announced on the blogs responsible for offering them. Thank you for making the blog hop such a wonderful event. See you next year!

The 2nd SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop - Out of this World

It's the SFR Brigade's 2nd Midsummer Blog Hop! Woo hoo! Please fasten your safety harness, check your spacesuit seals are set, and get ready for blast off. So, what's happening on the hop?

Below you'll find a list of the forty stellar authors and book bloggers, celebrating Midsummer with posts on the theme Out of this World, sharing snippets, settings and the books they love or have written with the universe. Some will be offering prizes of their own, but the red giants of prizes are as follows -

1st Prize - $150 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice) and an ebook bundle (currently Ghost in the Machine, Bayne, Recast Book 1:Wither, Recast Book 2:Clash, Alien Adoration, Switched, Reckless Rescue, Wreck of the Nebula Dream, Keir, Terms & Conditions Apply, The Key, The Plan, Starburst, Marya, The Iron Admiral, Sasha’s Calling, Trouble at the Hotel Baba Ghanoush, Winter in Paradise, Once Upon a Time in Space, the Telomere trilogy, Winter Fusion, Blue Nebula, Demential, Wytchfire, Maven, Fires of Justice, Interface, Girl under Glass, and Breakout. Bonus books – Ghost Planet, The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy and Deception, and Games of Command.)

2nd Prize - $50 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice)

3rd Prizes - four $25 Amazon or B&N gift cards (given to separate winners and their choice)

How can you win these totally awesome prizes? By hopping from blog to blog on the list below and by entering the rafflecopter each of them has on their posts. You could also leave them a comment to show them some love, lol. The grand prizes are available internationally, but individual blog prizes may vary - please read their terms and conditions carefully! The hop will run from 00.01 of the 21st June until 23.59 on the 25th June, PDT. Individual posts may have their contests open for varying times if stated. Good luck!

The SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop - Update 6/10/13

The hop is fast approaching, so I thought I'd give you all a quick update on progress. I'm delighted to say that, thanks to those participants who have donated so far (and a couple of especially generous donors - thank you!), the prize fund for the hop is already over $250! Woo hoo! So, I'm pleased to announce that the grands prizes will be (at a minimum) as follows:

1st Prize - $150 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice) and an ebook bundle (currently Alien Adoration, Dementional, Wytchfire, Ghost Planet, The Iron Admiral, Games of Command, Keir and Terms & Conditions Apply)

2nd Prize - $50 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice)

3rd Prizes - two $25 Amazon or B&N gift cards (given to separate winners and their choice)

Please share this news as much as possible. As I say, this is currently the MINIMUM prizes that will be offered as there's still time to donate to the blog hop fund. But let's start telling people about it! :)

The SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop - Winners and Findings

I'm very pleased to announce the winners of the grand prizes are:

Sue B with a comment on Pauline Baird Jones's blog for her choice of a Kindle Touch/Nook Touch

Cheryl Corbin with a comment on Cathy Pegau's blog for the collection of sfr titles and the Anabanana Gift Card

Huge congrats to them both and we hope you enjoy them.

Some of the individual blog winners were:

Jessica Subject - BookAttict

Hywela Lyn - Diane

Mixed Book Bag - Anna M

Sue Ann Bowling - Maryellen Brady

Kitty Roads - Shadow

Pippa Jay - Krista

Imogene Nix - BookAttict 

AR Norris - Pam - VanillaOrchids

Cathy Pegau - Diana

Findings:

First, a huge thank you to everyone who took part. For those who donated to the prizes, an extra thank you. Special thanks go to Heather Massey, Laurie Green, Janet Miller, Jaleta Clegg and PI Barrington who all contributed despite not taking part. You are AWESOME!

However, I must also say a huge apology to Natalie Wright, who's link somehow got cut from the inlinkz during the event. I'm still no clearer on how this happened, and I'm mortified. In the future I'll remember to copy the master list right at the start and use it to double check links during the hop. Also I think it might be wise to draft a volunteer to independently check the links.

Overall, everyone seems to have had a positive experience. I'm very happy to be sent any thoughts, suggestions and criticisms for ways to improve future events (yes, I am considering doing this again). The general conscensus appears to be that:

1. The event should take place over more than one day. Not only would this give visitors more time to hear about the event and stop by to comment, but also solve some of the complications due to participants being in different time zones. Two upcoming hops I know about are running over 3 or 4 days, which would probably work better.

2. There were technical issues with the inlinkz code, and I had to ask a few people to link back to the central list on the Brigade site. For future hops, I'd draft two basic hop posts with the inlinkz and required information for Blogger and Wordpress sites. It might also be an idea for participants to post before the official start of the hop so we can catch any problems early.

3. I need to appoint a second to double check all the links so that any mistakes I make/miss are caught.

4. Maybe try to find more venues to promote the event. I don't really want to spend any of the donations on paid advertising, or ask anyone to donate for that reason. So, if anyone has any suggestions on how and where we might be able to promote (and is willing to volunteer to do so) please let me know.

5. A lot of comments didn't qualify for the draw because they DID NOT LEAVE CONTACT DETAILS! I know most of you did state in your posts that we needed that information, but perhaps next time we need to make it clear that no email address = no entry in the draw. I think we all had enough to do with getting organized and posted etc without playing hunt the email.

6. There seemed to be some interest in producting a solstice-themed sfr anthology. Would anyone be interested in that idea? Maybe we could each write a themed short story to give away as part of the event? I know Liana Brooks did just that.

So how did you find the hop? Anything you'd like to add? Suggestions as to when to hold the next one? Prizes? Themes? Don't be afraid to shout out in the comments. Or if you'd rather do it in private, my email is pippajaygreen(at)gmail(dot)com.

The SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop!

Hello! Welcome to the SFR Brigade's Midsummer Blog Hop. 37 fabulous authors have a post on the theme of Midsummer, with a prize on offer. Below you'll find the list of participating authors - just click on their names to hop to their blog. And don't forget, each blog you comment on scores you one entry to the grand prize draw, which is open internationally. So what's in the draw?

1st Prize - winner's choice of a Kindle Touch or a Nook Touch
2nd Prize - a library of science fiction romance titles donated by various authors and an Anabanana Gift Card. Most of the books will be in digital format, with one print anthology.


The Blog Hop begins at 00.01am on the 22nd June Pacific Time and runs to 11.59pm by the time on THIS blog (so all day Friday). The grand draw will take place on the 24th June and winners announced on this blog (individual giveaway winners will be notified by the participants and announced on their blogs). So hop along and grab some prizes!

The SFR Brigade's Midsummer Blog Hop is Coming!

Hello there!

On Friday 22nd June (Pacific Time) the SFR Brigade will be holding its first ever Blog Hop to celebrate Midsummer. 36 fabulous science fiction romance authors will be telling you mystical or scientific stories related to the event, and they'll each be giving away a prize - books, gift cards, swag bags...and lots more!

Plus there's TWO GRAND PRIZES!

1st Prize - a Kindle Touch or Nook Touch
2nd Prize -a library of science fiction romance titles from over 20 authors (these will be mostly ebooks with one print anthology), and an Anabanana Gift Card.

All you need to do to enter is pop along to the blogs listed below and comment on as many as you want (only ONE comment per site will count as an entry). Each time you comment at a stop, you'll earn one entry into the grand prize - so the more sites you visit, the greater your chances of winning. The winners will be drawn at random on the 24th June and announced on this site. The list of participating authors can be found below this post. Spread the news!

Upcoming - the SFR Brigade's Midsummer Blog Hop

Pssst! On the 22nd June the SFR Brigade will be holding it's first ever blog hop to celebrate Midsummer and all things SFR! I can now confirm that the 1st Grand Prize will be a Kindle Touch or Nook Touch, with a second prize of over 20 science fiction romance titles from various authors and a gift card - available internationally. And, of course, there will be individual prizes along the way from each participating blog (some restrictions may apply).

So what do you have to do to win? Simple! Just hop to each blog on the list below on the 22nd June and comment. On each blog, this will enter you for a chance to win the prize on offer there, and earn you one entry to the grand prize too. The more blogs you comment on, the higher your chances of winning! (Only ONE comment per blog will count as an entry - no multiple comments).

And if you want to take part? That's simple too. If you're a member of the SFR Brigade just go to the sign up page here - http://sfrcontests.blogspot.co.uk/p/sfr-brigade-midsummer-blog-hop-sign-up.html
read the guidelines and enter your name, blog URL and a contact email into the form. We'd love to have you. And if you're not already a member and want to take part, there's a new and easier way to join - go here. 

Until then, a huge thank you to all the members who've signed up and contributed to the prizes - you rock! I'd also like to thank Heather Massey, Laurie A Green and Janet Miller who have all contributed even though they aren't taking part in the hop. In the meantime, I'll hope you all spread the word about this event. See you on the 22nd! :)

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

Space Slugs Party

One year ago, in the far, far corner of the blogosphere...

A story was born. It involved space--and mollusks. A Xenobiologist, a harlot and an android walk into a bar. Or something like that. The point is, there's a birthday to be had, and I'm old enough to believe the only reason to bother with birthdays is for the party and the presents. Nod along with me here.

This is your invitation to the party. Difficult to tell?
Wait! Here it is:

SPACE SLUGS ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Space Slugs will be one year old on Sat. July 10th. In celebration, I'm holding an all day facebook party at: My Facebook Page

There will be sneak peeks at upcoming episodes, favorite quotes, and on the hour trivia questions with FABULOUS PRIZES.....

okay, they're only sort of fabulous, but fun and campy prizes. :-D

Stop by for some super silly space action and trivia lunacy.

Frances Pauli

Hearts in Space

The finalist announcements for RWA's 2010 RITA and Golden Heart Awards are just a few days away! We're hoping for a great showing of skiffy rommers this year. If you final with a sci-fi romance (SFR) manuscript in either contest, please drop by and leave a note in the comments so we can raise a glass to you!

Also be sure to check in on the Paranormalists blog (our mother ship), where we're kicking off our launch with a Rita/Golden Heart blog party.

By the way, the groovy pendant at right (from DannieGlam) is the first addition to our prize cache for our first contest year.