Spacefreighters Lounge : Spacefreighters Lounge Celebrates it's 13th Anniversary!

Yup, it's true. Spacefreighters Lounge just became a teenager!

Founded on May 9, 2007 with its first post, this just-turned-13-year-old blog grew up with the modern SFR genre and has outlived most of the original science fiction romance centered blogs and websites.

It's certainly seen a lot of changes since those days!

Take a brief time-traveling trip down the space-time continuum with us as we review the blog's long history, events, milestones and turning points.

2007

5/9/2007
The blog was created with and added its first post - Welcome to Spacefreighters Lounge.

This blog was one of the early SFR-centered blogs like The Galaxy Express (author Heather Massey), Smart Girls Love Sci-Fi Romance (Joint) and the DangerGal blog (author Lisa Paitz Spindler). In those days, they were also known as Skiffy Rommers.

Originally Spacefreighers was an individual blog started by Laurie A. Green and named after a lounge setting in Inherit the Stars. (See link below under 6/19/2007.) It was intended as a "SFR Galactic watering hole" for the genre to discuss current trends and topics, and included a lot of peer input.

For more than two years, it remained a solo blog with the majority of posts by Laurie A. Green. She admits she went into the venture a bit clueless and definitely had a lot to learn about blogging in those early days!

5/12/2007
First image posted: The Horsehead Nebula.

6/19/2007
After many questions about the blog name, a post identifying the origins of the Spacefreighters Lounge name was posted which was a scene from an early WIP of P2PC (later re-titled Inherit the Stars): From Whence Came the Name. It drew 1,499 reads. Laurie A. Green once commented that the scene was axed after her critique partners compelled her to "trash the Stars Wars cantina opening." (Very solid advice, after reading this excerpt.)

12/03/2007
If This is Chapter 22, We Must be on Veros was Laurie A. Green's lighthearted take on Writer Muddle as she concentrated on getting P2PC (later Inherit the Stars) ready to pitch. It included a perfect quote from author Lisa Sheerin. Most writers can probably relate!

12/11/2007
Champagne All Around. I Did It!
Laurie posts a decidedly joyful blog about completing P2PC (later Inherit the Stars) that discusses some of the characters and elements of the novel. It would take more than seven years, an agent, a new title and a Golden Heart final to get it published.

2008

3/13/2008
The first big draw post, Military Ranks and Insignia, gets 2,009 reads. It included a brief overview and a link to an extensive list of ranks and titles across four branches of the military. (The link has since redirected to a general Department of Defense site.)

5/23/2008
Thank you, Dr. Bailey! discusses a character from Grey's Anatomy using Sci-Fi to comfort a patient in an episode, and what a validation it was for the SFR genre.

9/29/2008 - 10/03/2008
Spacefreighters Lounge declared it Intergalactic Science Fiction Romance Week, and hosted a series of author interviews, games, blog articles, polls, links and book previews to highlight the genre (or sub-genre or sub-sub-genre) of science fiction romance. In spite of being a "on the verge of the moment" event, the posts attracted 200-400 readers each on multiple blogs per day.

2009

3/26/2009
An announcement of the 2009 RWA Golden Heart and RITA Award finalists included a RITA nomination for SFR author Susan Grant's Moonstruck, Darynda Jones' First Grave on the Right (eventual winner and book one of future Paranormal blockbuster Charlie Davidson series), and a Golden Heart nominee in Paranormal for Ghost Planet. A discussion of this nomination in comments led to the finalist--Sharon Lynn Fisher--commenting that Ghost Planet was indeed SFR. That discussion would later lead to big changes for Spacefreighters Lounge.

9/3/2009
Skiffy Rommer Found! was a blog about the chance encounter between Laurie A. Green, Sharon Lynn Fisher and newly found SFR writer Donna S. Frelick at the 2009 RWA National Conference.

9/9/2009
Spacefreighters first became a group blog with the addition of Donna S. Frelick and Sharon Lynn Fisher after they met and spent time together at the 2009 RWA Nationals in Washington DC, where Sharon was a Golden Heart finalist for Ghost Planet.

Donna's first post was FUN AT RWA on 9/9/10
Sharon's was Strong Female Protagonists on 9/14/09

12/6/09
The first SFR Holiday Blitz was organized by Heather Massey of The Galaxy Express blog with Spacefreighters Lounge and 12 participating blogs and 17 participating authors offering free SFR books as prizes. It was a huge hit with readers and authors, alike. (The post is no longer available due to Blogger flagging it for multiple links--which it had as part of the multi-blog ring.)

After the SFR Holiday Blitz, regular blogs would often generate 400 - 1,000 reads, and special highlights would garner thousands. It was definitely the heyday of blogging!

2010

03/18/2010
The SFR Brigade was founded by Laurie A. Green, with charter members Pippa Jay (who would serve in leadership roles at the Brigade for a number of years), Donna S. Frelick and Sharon Lynn Fisher. Other charter members included frequent Lounge visitors Barbara Elsborg, D.L. Jackson and a host of others.

03/22/2010
Strangely enough, the first mention of the SFR Brigade doesn't happen on Spacefreighters Lounge until four days later with this March Madness! post.

03/25/10
Sharon Lynn Fisher became a 2-time Golden Heart Finalist with Shadowed, a re-written novel based on Ghost Planet.

06/06/10
A blot titled Avatar and the Pueblo Revolt garnered almost 4,300 views. It was a comparison piece about the Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico, the only victory over European settlers in North America by the indigenous people, and how that history paralleled the smash hit movie Avatar by James Cameron.

08/15/10
For the Love of a Horse, a blog about the cloning of champion barrel racer, Scamper, garnered over 1,200 views.

12/20/10
The second annual SFR Holiday Blitz was organized by Heather Massey, this time with 15 bloggers, 33 authors and 50 science fiction romance books being awarded as prizes. The event was another smash hit with readers.

2011

1/8/11
Laurie A. Green joined Six Sentence Sunday excerpt group from January until March, 2011. The posts generally brought in 400 to 2,500 reads.

1/27/11
The Tomboys of Romance blog speculated that a lot of female SFR writers and authors tended to be tomboys in their youth--adventurous females that deviated from the norm of what females were supposed to be interested in. It generated over 850 reads.

2/28/11
Kick off of the Mission Success Journal Series. Each of the authors went to a Mission Success format where they discussed their progress, submissions or rejections from agents and editors, contest wins, dynamics of the industry, and recommended other blogs and articles all with a goal of achieving the success of becoming published authors. A Mission Success graphic was created.

The Mission Success Journals continued for four years, regularly and then intermittently, until early 2015, when all of the bloggers had become or were about to be published authors.

03/25/11 - Live RWA Results: A Good Year for SFR. Laurie A. Green had two manuscripts final in the RWA Golden Heart Awards--P2PC, which was later published as Inherit the Stars, and The Outer Planets. Donna S. Frelick was nominated for her manuscript, Unchained Memory. Unchained Memory would later be published in February 2015.

10/4/11
Announcement of a Launch Date for Ghost Planet, Sharon Lynn Fisher's first SFR novel to be published by Tor is due out November 1, 2012!

12/11/11
The third annual SFR Holiday Blitz, of which Spacefreighters Lounge is a participant, is a huge success with a giveaway of SFR books. A bonus round is announced on 12/16/11. Winners are announced on 12/17/11.

2012

1/30/2012
Some of you may remember that 2012 was the year the world was supposed to end (on 12/21/12, by most accounts). This blog, inspired by that prediction, talked about Living with World-Changing Prophecy and had over 795 reads.

Far from being a year of doom and gloom, 2012 would turn out to be an amazingly successful year for the bloggers of Spacefreighters Lounge.

2/1/2012
Pippa Jay joined the Spacefreighters Crew with Pippa's Journal - Inaugural Post on Spacefreighters Lounge. And then there were four. :) Pippa was already a published author at the time of joining the co-bloggers and continued to publish multiple novels and gain a following over the next several years.

3/10/2012
The all-time record for a single blog was 37,000 reads for A Trillion Stars Coming At You a blog post by Laurie A. Green about the Andromeda Galaxy. It was a research piece for Farewell Andromeda about the history of our nearest galactic neighbor that will someday collide with our own Milky Way (billions of years in the future). Farewell Andromeda was published in 2015.

03/26/2012
Happy Golden Heart Announcement Day! Par-tay!, a blog about the 2012 RWA Golden Heart Finalist announcements absolutely explodes in comments as first Donna S. Frelick is named a DOUBLE RWA Golden Heart finalist for her manuscripts, Unchained Memory and Trouble in Mind, and then later, Laurie A. Green was named a finalist for the third time with her entry, Draxis. Spacefreighters would, for the second year in a row, be represented by three Golden Heart finalist manuscripts! Par-tay, indeed!

06/05/2013
I'm a Girl. I Write SF and SFR. And I'm Not Going Away... an impassioned blog from Pippa Jay about a SFWA Bulletin gaffe that fueled a firestorm had a readership of 1,978 and a multitude of comments.

10/30/2012
Ghost Planet Lift-off! Tor releases Sharon Lynn Fisher's first novel!

11/05/2012
Celebration in Seattle chronicles Sharon Lynn Fisher's launch party for Ghost Planet in Seattle, Washington, where USA blog members Donna S. Frelick and Laurie A. Green were able to attend to join in the celebration! Sharon was the second Spacefreighters co-blogger to publish a novel, after Pippa Jay.

12/05/2012
Pippa Jay unveiled the new cover for her novel, Gethyon.

12/21/2012
The world did not end! ~ and blogging life continued.

12/23/2012
Spacefreighters Lounge participated in the fourth annual SFR Holiday Blitz again organized by mastermind Heather Massey of The Galaxy Express.

2013 - 2014

Since this blog is getting rather long-winded, I'm just going to summarize a few highlights during these years. Pippa Jay continued to publish books, Sharon Lynn Fisher worked to finalize Echo 8 and The Ophelia Prophecy for publication along with several other projects as both author and editor, and Donna S. Frelick and Laurie A. Green worked via their agents on submissions and final decisions to co-publish via their respective agents.

03/26/2013
Sharon Lynn Fisher's Ghost Planet becomes a RITA Award finalist!

05/13/ 2013
Spacefreighters Lounge unveiled the cover for the Tales from the SFR Brigade anthology cover, the first anthology sponsored by the SFR Brigade. Pippa Jay was instrumental in later getting this anthology listed on Amazon.

05/28/2013
Pippa Jay's Gethyon is #1 on OmniLit Bestsellers List

07/01/2013
Laurie A. Green writes about her experiences in helping to coordinate and produce Tales from the SFR Brigade in The Making of an SFR Anthology

04/01/2014
Sharon Lynn Fisher announces The Ophelia Prophecy Release Party and Giveaway.

04/04/2014
Donna's blog about issues with judging two major awards -- Is it Love? Judging the GH and RITA -- might have foreshadowed an oncoming train wreck with the organization.

04/27/2014
The SFR Brigade Joins Forces with Brenda Novak #ForTheCure was Laurie's blog about the Science Fiction Romance category and auction items for the Brenda Novak Online Auction for Diabetes Research, where Laurie served as Captain/Coordinator for all the wonderful SF/R offerings, a few that are pictured in the blog.

07/23/2014
Pippa announces an upcoming release: She Can Kill with a Kiss: Tethered is Coming

09/04/2014
The Fourth Annual Burning of Badjuju was an annual installment that allowed writers to cast off their woes and disappointments of the past year by virtually sending them up in smoke.

12/31/2014
2014 - One Heck of a Year was Pippa Jay's post about her highly successful 2014 when she was our most prolific author, publishing Reboot, Tethered, Restless in Peaceville, Hallow's Eve, When Dark Falls, No Angel, as well as contracting Keir and Zombie Girl: Dead Awakened.

Along with regular blogs, the members of Spacefreighters Lounge often posted movie or television series reviews including:

Ender's Game (Donna)
Warm Bodies (Pippa)
The Expanse (Laurie)
Interstellar (Donna)
Almost Human (Donna)
Her (Donna)
Discovering Game of Thrones (Laurie)
Acenscion (Donna)
Person of Interest (Donna)
Summer Sizzles with Sci-Fi on the Small Screen (Donna's multi-SF TV offerings)

and many more.

2015

01/12/2015
Laurie announced TWO DEBUTS. One was her first book being published, Farewell Andromeda - A Novelette, the other wasn't so much writing-related, but involved some total cuteness.

2/23/15
New landmark: 250,000 hits! Some major news for the Spacefreighters bloggers:

Sharon Lynn Fisher had just launched Echo 8 (her second novel) on February 2nd
Donna S. Frelick's debut novel, Unchained Memory was launching the next day
Laurie A. Green's Inherit the Stars Part I: Flight released the day before (her novel was first serialized into three parts before being released as Inherit the Stars: The Complete Novel later in 2015.

The blog concluded:

"We're so very proud to be introducing these three new novels to the growing Science Fiction Romance genre community for 2015.

The journey continues. Viva la SFR!"

At this point on the timeline, all the bloggers of Spacefreighters Lounge were published authors! Their original Mission Success goals had been achieved!

In the years since, Sharon Lynn Fisher went on to publish a number of books via traditional and hybrid publishing. Pippa Jay has published numerous books via small presses and as an indie author. Greta van der Rol joined Spacefreighters Lounge as an established author and has continued to publish multiple novels in multiple series. Donna S. Frelick and Laurie A. Green continue their journeys, beginning with publishing books via their agents, and then as independent authors.

K.M. Fawcett, an established SFR author both as a traditional, and later independent, joined the team as a regular blogger on 1/15/2020, with her blog: Hello from K.M. Fawcett.

We recently had a departure from the blog by Sharon Lynn Fisher who has moved on to author a popular Fantasy Historical Romance, The Absinthe Earl, first in a new series.

Greta van der Rol left for a time due to changes in her authorly journey, but we are very happy that she soon rejoined us!

May 2020: Our Continuing Mission

The publishing industry has seen a lot of change--both for better and worse--and experienced a lot of controversy and strife in recent years. In the thirteen years this blog has been in existence, we've been part of a paradigm shift from the dominance of traditional publishing to the rise of the indie authors and the revolution this brought to publishing and publishing platforms.

More recently struggles with equality and diversity have taken center stage. Terms like cultural appropriation, inclusiveness and #ownvoices have created new awareness and new norms.

Recently, Spacefreighters reverted to the Galactic Watering Hole concept to coordinate a joint blog with other SFR authors and reviewers on opinion pieces about the holiday release of motion picture Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker -- The SFR Brigade Speaks Out.

Sometime in 2020, Spacefreighters Lounge anticipates reaching one million hits.

As it was said in a very early post about the blog's name, Viva La Spacefreighters Lounge!