New Heroes & Heartbreakers Post: Comedic SFR

If you like your sci-fi romance on the funny, silly, or even downright wacky side, check out my latest post at Heroes and Heartbreakers: Comedic Sci-Fi Romance: Sex, Jokes, and Science in Space.

Joyfully yours,
Heather

Vaginal Fantasy Book Club Picks Two SFR Books For March

Here's some great news, sci-fi romance fans! Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy Book Club has chosen Rachel Bach's FORTUNE'S PAWN and Sarah A. Hoyt's DARKSHIP THIEVES for its March 24 hangout! 

I've recommended DARKSHIP THIEVES many times so it's great to see it included. Rachel Bach's Paradox trilogy has had good buzz regarding its SF-romance mix so I'm not surprised it was chosen! 

Here are the covers and blurbs for both books:

Starlight Presents Interview: SFR Galaxy Awards

Starlight Presents, hosted by author Debra Jess, interviewed Laurie A. Green and I about the SFR Galaxy Awards. The interest is much appreciated! Here's a snippet:

You’re active in the science fiction romance community. What are some of the trends or changes that you’ve seen in the last couple of years?

Sci-Fi Romance Giveaway: Donna S. Frelick's UNCHAINED MEMORY

Experience the fun of discovering a new-to-you author by entering for a chance to win a digital copy of Donna S. Frelick's UNCHAINED MEMORY! Three winners will be picked at random. The deadline to enter is Tuesday, March 3, 2015. Check back here to see if you've won!

Entering is easy: simply leave a comment for this post. I'm also curious about what you think of alien abduction since it's often explored in sci-fi romance. Do you think it's a real phenomenon? Why or why not?

Interview With Donna S. Frelick, Author of UNCHAINED MEMORY

Donna S. Frelick's debut sci-fi romance UNCHAINED MEMORY is hot of the press today! This book is the first in her Interstellar Rescue series. To help celebrate the book's release, I invited the author aboard TGE for an interview. There's no time like the present to meet a new author and learn more about a sci-fi romance!

But first, here's the cover and blurb for UNCHAINED MEMORY:

Three hours ripped away her past. His love promised her the future.

From the night she wakes up in her pickup on the side of the road, three hours gone and everything of value lost to her, Asia Burdette is caught in a clash of invisible forces. She has only one ally in her struggle to understand why-Ethan Roberts, a man she shouldn't love, a psychiatrist who risks everything to help her.

With black ops kidnappers dogging their trail, the lovers race to navigate a maze of mind control, alien abduction, and interstellar slavery. If they keep following the signs, they'll find a battle that's been raging since the first silver saucer was spotted in the skies above Earth.

***

And now for my interview with Donna S. Frelick! 

Newly Released SFR: INHERIT THE STARS: FLIGHT By Laurie A. Green

Laurie A. Green's INHERIT THE STARS: FLIGHT is now out! Here's the cover and blurb:

To escape the merciless Ithian Alliance, Sair, a fugitive slave, makes a desperate deal with Drea Mennelsohn, captain of the prototype ship, Specter. But putting his life in the hands of a woman as mysterious as she is beguiling could turn out to be the biggest mistake of his life, especially when the price on his head begins to escalate.

ABOUT THE INHERITED STARS SCIENCE FICTION ROMANCE SERIES: 

The year is 3500 AD—more or less. No one really keeps track anymore. Since the fall of peacekeeper planet, LaGuardia, two centuries before, much has been lost. Few remember that LaGuardia was once known as Draxis. Fewer still have knowledge that Draxis once guarded a spatial vortex—a crossrip in time and space—and passageway to a legendary world called Earth where the human species originated. Somewhere, hidden in a forgotten archive, is the written history of the known universe and the chronicles of the men and women who helped forge a future in the stars.  

 

And here's a handy roundup of links so you can learn more about her sparkly new series:

Sci-Fi Romance Serial Alert: HUNTRESS OF THE STAR EMPIRE by Athena Grayson

Author Athena Grayson alerted me about her new sci-fi romance serial, HUNTRESS OF THE STAR EMPIRE. The first installment is HOT PURSUIT and features a heroine bounty hunter! Here's the cover and blurb:

A Selection of Suspense Sci-Fi Romances

About a week ago, Laurie A. Green left a comment at TGE indicating that she wished "…more SFRs blended in elements more typically found in Romantic Suspense." Lo and behold, not too long after her comment I learned about a forthcoming title from Riptide Publishing that falls into that category. How's that for great service?!

The book is PERIPHERAL PEOPLE (May 2015) by Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore. The novel length book (115k long!) is part of their Ylendrian Empire series.

Here's an overview of the book, courtesy of Riptide Publishing:

Peripheral People puts multiple twists on the classic police procedural, set in the vastness of an interplanetary empire and featuring a serial killer who murders victims with his mind. Four deeply flawed characters struggle to cooperate within the tight confines of an imperial enforcement spaceship while racing to solve the case. Well-timed humor helps to ease the heavy atmosphere of escalating violence, psychic traps, and the added complication of sexual tension, while the carefully crafted mystery keeps readers guessing until the end. 

And here's the blurb:

"If You Like JUPITER ASCENDING…"

Much as I'm trying to avoid spoilers of JUPITER ASCENDING until I can see it (thanks for nothing, inconvenient local theater schedule), I couldn't help but notice various tweets about the film in the timelines I follow. A significant message is that folks are describing JA as a sci-fi romance (e.g., here and here). Thank goodness for social media because the marketing campaign for this film was being maddeningly coy about that aspect.

People are recommending JA left and right, so I figured now was an excellent time to queue up some similar SFR titles for readers interested in continuing the experience in book form.

I know enough about the film's premise (based on the trailer and other online encounters) to offer a few "best guess" book suggestions that contain elements similar to JUPITER ASCENDING. I'm not sure there's a book out there exactly like it, but authors of SFR have certainly been exploring similar elements for quite a few years!

With a few exceptions, I'm making suggestions based on space opera sci-fi romances since JUPITER ASCENDING is, y'know, space opera! Each book suggestion is prefaced with a bit of info I know about the film. Here we go!

New Post at Heather Massey's Steampunk Cafe

This month at the Coffee Time Romance steampunk site, I'm blogging about Lilliana Rose's CIRCUS ESCAPE: Mecha Gladiator Bugs, Steampunk Romance Style. Enjoy!

Joyfully yours,
Heather

F/F Sci-Fi Romance Alert: DARK HORIZONS by Rae D. Magnon & Michelle Magly

A TGE passenger gave me a heads up about an erotic f/f sci-fi romance called DARK HORIZONS (February 2014, Desert Palm Press) by Rae D. Magnon and Michelle Magly. Check out this awesome cover:

Sci-Fi Encounters Spotlights SFR Galaxy Award Winners

There's an awesome post up at Sci-Fi Encounters spotlighting the authors whose books received an SFR Galaxy Award this year. Host Veronica Scott asked the authors, "What do you find so appealing about writing science-fiction romance?"

The answers exquisitely capture all the goodness of sci-fi romance so I invite you to check them out!

Joyfully yours,
Heather

Tagging A Story With A Twist: Laurie A. Green's FAREWELL ANDROMEDA

Laurie A. Green's FAREWELL ANDROMEDA is a bit of a challenge to tag because of the twists involved. One of them in particular is best not spoiled. But if you're a fan of twists, then that tells you something about the story right there!

I'll tag the story's other elements so you can decide if it's up your alley. But first, here's the cover and blurb:

Fresh off a painful jilting, the last thing deep space pilot Tiharra Bell needs is another romantic entanglement. Certainly not with the galaxy’s most famous astronomer-who also happens to be single, inconveniently handsome, and a resident of the remote Andromeda Station. But Tiharra soon discovers two terrible truths about Dr. Dante “Donner” Dane 1) he’s not the man he appears to be and 2) he doesn’t have long to live. Before her fourteen day layover is complete, she’ll put her life and career on the line to protect his heartbreaking secret. 

***

Sci-Fi Romance: Still So Invisible?

I noticed a tweet by The Book Smugglers about one of their podcasts, which will feature “... @tansyrr's [Tansy Rayner Roberts] article on SF Romance…”

Of course, the mention of “SF Romance” piqued my interest so I went hunting. I’m guessing the article in question is this one: Does Sex Make Science Fiction “Soft”? via Uncanny. Here’s a snippet:

I couldn’t help thinking: Why isn’t more science fiction like this? Why don’t we have more fiction about the actual day–to–day process of science and the fallout that it might have on the relationships of those involved?

It later occurred to me that this science fiction may well exist, and I simply haven’t come across it.

Ms. Roberts’ article comes at the issue from the SF side, so I’m guessing that’s why, other than books by Lois McMaster Bujold, none of the titles she mentioned include the sci-fi romances I and others in the SFR community blog about on a weekly basis (and for over a decade if you count the collective effort). And yet...I still wind up scratching my head over articles like this one.

On The White Default In Sci-Fi Romance

Upon reading Pippa Jay’s sci-fi romance TETHERED, I discovered the heroine is dark-skinned. It’s not an “issue” story about race; rather, Tyree’s appearance is simply par for the course. (She’s also a genetically enhanced clone assigned to be a bodyguard for an important diplomat. Pretty cool, eh?)

The discovery made me very happy. The cover doesn’t provide any clues, and none of the reviews I read mentioned it, so it’s one of those details that’s dependent on word-of-mouth if readers are to learn about it in advance. The other detail of note is the story takes place in the far future, at a time when space travel is possible. It’s a multi-species, multicultural type of setting.

So when I read another sci-fi romance after TETHERED and encountered an all-white cast of characters in a far future setting, it was very jarring (I’m not going to mention the title because it’s hardly the first of its kind. But it was published in 2015). The opportunity existed to at least make the background characters people of color, but the story didn’t even offer that much. Subsequently, that aspect of the worldbuilding rang hollow to me.

Why is white the default?

Anatomy Of An SFR Blurb: Sharon Lynn Fisher's ECHO 8

Upon reading the blurb for Sharon Lynn Fisher's sci-fi romanceECHO 8, I was struck by how many different elements it promised readers--especially women readers. The story has science fiction and romance, to be sure, but there are hints that other genre elements have been mixed in. This is at odds with the conception that women are averse to genres like action-adventure, SF, or any other genres typically coded as masculine.

I decided to do an informal analysis of the blurb's word choices and structure to tease out the various types of story action readers can expect from ECHO 8. My fancy pants visuals are a bit small, so please enlarge your screen as necessary.

Clearly, a blurb can serve multiple purposes. In the case of ECHO 8, it describes the science fiction romance aspect of the story without using that exact label. Paranormal was possibly included not only because of the story content, but also because of its strong association with the well-known "paranormal romance."

The blurb plainly telegraphs the romance plot. But it also communicates that ECHO 8 includes danger, action-adventure, strange phenomena, a mystery, thriller/police procedural elements, and scientific experiments. Some of those are genres and elements that weren't marketed to women for a long time, and still aren't in many cases. But now, women authors fold such elements into genres like sci-fi romance because it's a great way to serve under-served readers. And blurbs like the one for ECHO 8 code the hybrid nature of SFR in interesting, yet very strategic ways.

Kind of like a secret handshake. :D

Joyfully yours,

Heather

Author Promo Opportunity: SFR Station

While hanging out on Twitter during the 3rd Annual SFR Galaxy Awards, I noticed a few tweets about something called "SFR Station." Since I turn into a hound dog whenever there's a scent of SFR in the air, I clicked on the link and did some investigating.

 What is SFR Station?

SFR News & Links For February 2015

February is full of fun sci-fi romances to help you relax. Enjoy!

New releases

ESCAPE VELOCITY - Jess Anastasi

Ilari, Brannon System, 2436

At first, Dr. Sacha Dalton is simply curious about the prisoner of war admitted to her med-lab...until she sees who it is. For Commander Kai Yang—the commander of the battleship Valiant Knox—has long been thought dead. Killed in action. But after almost a year and half, he's returned home. Returned to her.

Kai is recovering from his ordeal and under the watchful care of Sacha, his childhood friend and the widow of his best friend. Only now, their friendship has grown and deepened into something far deeper, and far more complicated. Yet as Kai's body recovers, his psyche remains broken. How could he ever be the man he was, and the man Sacha deserves? But an intergalactic war has a way of forcing a man to be the hero he was always meant to be...

Entangled Publishing's SciFi Week

Entangled Publishing is hosting a "SciFi Week" and readers can look forward to a number of fun SFR-focused events, which include the following:

* discounts on Entangled sci-fi romance titles

*giveaways

* Sci-Fi Facebook party on 2/4/15 from 8-10 pm EST. Chat with your favorite SFR authors and enter for a chance to win a Kindle Fire!

Participating authors include Jess Anastasi (ESCAPE VELOCITY), Nina Croft (TEMPORAL SHIFT), Melissa West (COLLIDE), and Lynda K Scott (RIDING THE ODDS).