Starry Nights Winners Announcement

So the Starry Nights blog hop is over, and I hope you all had fun. Firstly a huge, huge thank you to all the participants, especially to those who donated to the grand prizes - how awesome were they?! I hope you all had fun and found it a worthwhile event. Also a big thank you to everyone who visited and entered the rafflecopter - I hope you found some new books for your TBR pile with all the awesome snippets on offer. But now, the important part. Our grand prize winners were...*drum roll*...

1st - Meri Bee

2nd Sierra McBride

3rd Alan Saxon, Melissa Weeks, Blair Smyth

Huge congrats to the winners, and we hope you enjoy your prizes.

We'll be back to do it all again next year!

The SFR Brigade 3rd Midsummer Blog Hop - Starry Nights

Want to win some stellar prizes and out-of-this-world stories? To enter, simply fill in the rafflecopter below. All prizes are available internationally (there are no cash or other alternatives - if you can't accept those on offer, please do not enter).

1^st  $100 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 41 ebooks - Tales from the SFR Brigade, Heart of Stone, Her Cyborg Awakes, Anja's Star, Silver Strife, Corwint Series 4 Book Gift Pack, Earth's Requiem, Alien Blood, Starwoman's Sanctuary, one book from Jessica E Subject's SFR backlist (ONE ebook title out of the following: Alien Adoration, Alien Admirer, Alien Lover, An Unexpected Return, Another Night Another Planet, Celestial Seduction, Crash Landing, Hey Santa, His Alien Virgin, Made For Her, Never Gonna Let You Go, Never Gonna Desert You, Never Gonna Say Goodbye, Satin Sheets in Space, Sudden Breakaway, or Unknown Futures), LodeStar Series Books 1-3 (Stark Pleasure, Creed of Pleasure and Captive of Pleasure), Reunion trilogy, Terms & Conditions Apply, Wreck of the Nebula Dream, Starheart, Kuralon Rescue, A Matter of Trust, Earth's Blood, Roman's Gold, Wolf Born, The Marann, Nightfall, Unrequited, Butterman Time Travel Inc., Legend Beyond the Stars, Hathor's Legacy: Outcast, Removed, Midwinter Crisis, Shlyer: Finding Home, Boyfriend's Brother, Surviving the Trap, Captive, Tower in the Woods, Catching Red.

2^nd $50 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 28 ebooks - Tales from the SFR Brigade, Heart of Stone, Her Cyborg Awakes, Anja's Star, Silver Strife, Corwint Series 4 Book Gift Pack, Earth's Requiem, Alien Blood, Starwoman's Sanctuary, Tangled In Time, Terms & Conditions Apply, Escape from Zulaire, Lana's Comet, Heart's Bounty, Glad Hands, Nikolai, The Trial of Tompa Lee, The Tribulations of Tompa Lee, The Midas Rush, Prime Obsession, Daughters of Suralia, Morning Star, Hey Santa, Tower in the Woods, Catching Red. 

3^rd  3 separate winners each receive $25 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 11 ebooks - Tales from the SFR Brigade, Heart of Stone, Her Cyborg Awakes, Anja's Star, Corwint Series 4 Book Gift Pack, Hey Santa, Tower in the Woods, Catching Red. 

How awesome is that lot?!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Do You Recognize This Book? Plz RT

Kat Zara asked:

"This is so off-topic but i'm desperate. Anyway, I was going through R. Lee Smith's blog and I stumbled upon her describing a book she read years ago: "I read a book once in which the alien hero kept his reproductive apparatus in the palms of his hands. As a priest sworn to celibacy, he went gloved throughout the story, but it was obvious he was falling in love with the human heroine. At the end of the book, as she stood on the landing dock with her ship behind her, ready to fly away forever, she looked him in the eye and held out her hand. He took his glove off and shook it. It was sex; he knew it; she knew it; no one else knew it, but it wasn’t anyone else’s business." Unfortunately, she doesn't remember the book. I apologize for this but I really want to know and since you have an extensive list of sci-fi authors and books, I thought you guys could help. Thanks in advance."

Do you recognize this description? Know this book? Are you the author? Perhaps you belong to a book club or group or website where you might be able to pass on this question and find out? Please let us know!

Worldbuilding with P.I. Barrington

Think about some of your favorite science fiction romance books. What exactly brought that story to life for you? Characters, plotline, and motives all play major parts in any novel or story but without a world for them all to exist within none can work. Worldbuilding is an exciting aspect of writing science fiction romance. This is where you can mix and match geography, civilizations, social, legal and cultural mores to create an entirely new world or just enhance the one we live in now or will live in shortly. You can create an alternate Earth and set it in any past or current time you desire.

 

When I started The Brede Chronicles I decided there would be only two main settings: 2107 Earth and the planet of Amphidia. This is where the thinking comes in. Because I love Egypt and the Middle East I decided that one of the main plots of this story would take place in Egypt one hundred years from now. What has remained over the millennia and what has been removed? How has the environment changed? What is still considered wealth and what is considered poverty?

 

I wanted it split level: the rich stayed in megalithic, one thousand plus storied buildings so huge each one held at least one if not two or three docking bays for interstellar and local flying vehicles—sort of parking structures; the poor however lived at street level, in cities (that actually exist today) comprised of mountains of garbage and discarded items which the residents sifted through to recycle anything they could find for money. But I also wanted the atmosphere of ancient Egypt so I kept the souks (bazaars & marketplaces) that also to this day sell livestock, food and cloth material. That stayed.

 

Opposite of that was Amphidia where Alekzander Brede was born. That planet had to be different—vastly different than New Cairo, Earth. It had rivers that dwarfed the biggest on Earth and grew trees twenty stories tall. Physical power and prowess constituted wealth not gold or money as on Earth.

 

But now to you, the author: you didn’t think I’d leave you without tools did you? Of course not! Unless you’re Colleen McCullough who can research ancient history like nobody’s business, you might need a slight…assist…in developing your world. Prompts are great but many times don’t really help in creating an entirely new world or worlds so I’ve compiled a few of my favorite old and new world building generator sites and their links.

 

Seventh Sanctum

 

From the looks of it they’ve revamped the home page with uber instructions on how to use generators and they now list all the other major or great generator sites as well. Seventh Sanctum generates names, planets, races, powers or abilities, and technology—a must for any serious science fiction author.

 

Chaotic Shiny

 

Chaotic Shiny is amazing! You can generate anything from monetary terms and values to laws, languages, gods, motives, superstitions, places (i.e. arenas), plots, and even accessories!

 

About P.I. Barrington:

 

After an extended detour through the entertainment industry, P.I. Barrington has returned to fiction author. Among her experience are journalism, radio air talent and the music industry. She lives in Southern California.

 

Her work includes:

 

Future Imperfect Trilogy (Crucifying Angel, Miraculous Deception, Final Deceit) Desert Breeze Publishing

 

Inamorata Crossing/Borealis 1: A Space Opera, Desert Breeze Publishing

 

Isadora DayStar (self-published)

 

The Button Hollow Chronicles: The Leaf Peeper Murders, Mainly Murder Press

 

Free stories on ReadWave.com & Wattpad.com

 

She can be contacted via email: pibarrington@dslextreme.com or pibarrington@yahoo.com .

 

Her blog: http://www.pibarrington.wordpress.com

 

New Release!

 

 

 

Brede Chronicles Back Cover Blurb FRP

 

Half-human Alekzander Brede is a law unto himself…or so he thinks. Elektra Tate, the street orphan who loves him has other ideas. When she betrays him for no apparent reason, he vows to punish her one way or another. Taking the one thing she treasures most—their son—begins a cat and mouse relationship spanning two planets and costing possibly his life. Elektra will stop at nothing to save her son but can she overcome Brede’s twisted idea of vengeance?