Pippa's Journal - 6/18/14

I swear I had something really insightful and meaningful to share with you this week. Okay, I'm lying. I keep coming up blank. With everything that I have on, trying to come up with a blog post is just one thing too many for my poor fried brain to deal with. And that's not likely to change. But I have plenty of excitement to share!


Last week I revealed the cover for my scifi romance novella Tethered. This story has been a long time coming!

What do you think? It has a bit of a Star Wars look I feel, and considering what a huge influence the original trilogy had on me (Luke Skywalker was my first crush, lol), I suppose that's kind of appropriate. I can't wait for release day. Woot!

Tethered has been a long time coming, considering I entered the blurb into the SFR Brigade pitch contest back in January 2012. Wow. Although I hadn't finished writing it then. Last summer, Tethered was contracted by Definition House, but when they unfortunately had to close their doors in January 2014, I thought Tethered would stay homeless. Yay to Breathless Press for picking it up. Otherwise I could never introduce you to Tyree and Zander. It'll release on the 25th July.

Last week I finally sent off the re-edits for Keir to my freelance editor. Along with the edits for my paranormal short releasing in October, my poor beleaguered editor is about to be hit with my cover art form for that one too. How I love to keep her busy! 

This week the pre-edits for my superhero romance When Dark Falls also went back to my editor at Breathless Press, while I received the final cover art for my YA supernatural novella Restless In Peaceville. That will be revealed on the 27th June, just after the Midsummer blog hop. It's all go! I'm also working on an angel story for a holiday submission call with BP. I had planned to do Camp NaNoWriMo in July and use it to finish  the three short stories I have in progress (more zombies for Lycaon Press, the angel story for Breathless, and maybe one of the other shorts still sitting in my files). But since I'll have edits for WDF and Tethered releasing, perhaps I'm expecting a bit too much. My three monsters will be home from school from mid-July for seven weeks, and with two book releases in that time, there may simply not be enough hours in the day. 

Happenings

Starry Nights are coming! The SFR Brigade's 3rd Midsummer blog hop kicks off on the 21st June, and boy do we have some stellar prizes for you.

1st $100 Amazon or B&N gift card, plus 42 ebook bundle

2nd $50 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 33 ebook bundle

3rd 3 winners will each win a $25 Amazon or B&N gift card, plus an 11 ebook bundle

And that's not including some of the individual prizes being offered on some blogs taking part. Laurie will be posting here at Spacefreighters Lounge, while I'm back on my own blog at Adventures in Scifi with a quote from my favourite scifi TV program and an excerpt. Stop by the Brigade blog HERE from the 21st to find the full list of participants and the book bundle details. It's going to be a blast! A huge thank you to everyone participating, and to those who donated to the grand prizes. We couldn't do this event without your support!

The Sci-fi Romance Quarterly is asking for review copies of new SFR books being released, and Heather also chats about promotional options for SFR authors. Check out the details HERE. 

Do You Know This Book?!?! The SFR Brigade received a request to find a book mentioned on R. Lee Smith's website - 

"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."

If you think you know the book or title, or perhaps you're part of a group/site where you might be able to pass on the question, please do and let us know. We're now all dying of curiosity to find out what this book is!

Donna blogged about her path to publication over at the Firebirds website HERE. Well worth a read, especially for aspiring authors. The publishing industry is still in a big state of flux, and this will give you an idea of what might lie in the future.

Ping Pong

Donna, loved the review of Edge of Tomorrow. Sounds an improvement on the last Cruise film I saw - Oblivion - which left me dissatisfied. 

Sharon, sleep deprivation is definitely making my head feel like it's full of dandelion fluff, that's for sure! But I really do believe in the best promotion being the next book, and the more prolific and perhaps varied we are with our titles, the more I hope one of our writerly seeds gets found and picked up. As long as no one decides we are weeds!

Laurie, disappointments suck. There's no getting around that, and personally I feel we're allowed to wallow in it for a while. To regret, or to wish it hadn't gone like that. But after the bad start to the year, I am trying to see set backs merely as redirection to a better path. After all, my year has pretty much turned around, so I've actually seen it in action. Never give up - never surrender!