The Countdown Continues! #StarWars

In just three days, I will be at the Europe Star Wars Celebration at London ExCel. I'm so excited! Especially after seeing this tweet yesterday. The set up has begun!

While I'm not going to be splashing out on a Mark Hamill autograph or photo opp (I know, once in a lifetime thing, probably, but too expensive for this poor, starving artist...) but I'm hoping to make his panel on the Friday. And I get to meet fellow Brigader and fangirl Patty Hammond. Woot! Just being there with fellow fans and seeing it all is going to be AWESOME! And I can't wait to wear my cosplay when I go up Saturday with 11yo in his Hux outfit. I really hope he's going to enjoy it and that it won't overwhelm him too much.

I'm also counting down to my seven week (ish) break with my monsters. I still have blog posts to write and schedule, my two current sets of edits are with one editor and one proofreader, I should have two sets of Portals ebooks to upload to ARe...and just seven working days to do it. Eeeeep!!! I've binned my July NaNoWriMo project that I'd planned for a sub call (the first time in a couple of years I haven't completed Camp) because I need to work on an existing novella for a box set and have Gethyon ready for September. Um, engage panic mode?!

So...
Status Update
Gethyon is finally back with my editor. Woot! Hoping to be wrapping it up soon. My Rebecca contest entry is with my proofreader. The next project up is an alien romance that needs a pretty good overhaul to become part of a multi-author box set being arranged. And then back to Revived and Reunion, and my winter solstice SF mystery that I'm no longer calling a romance...

Happenings
The SFRB Summer Blog Hop is happening right now! Join us to visit Other Worlds for the chance to win one of three $50 gift cards and book bundles.

Next week I hope to have some photos from the Star Wars Celebration.

SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop: Worldbuilding

"Setting" is vital to all fiction, but creating the world in which your characters interact is never more important than in science fiction and, by extension, science fiction romance, where that world must be made up out of the whole cloth of the writer's imagination.  After all, that world doesn't exist (yet, or at all, or hopefully ever) except in the author's mind, and it's up to her to make it real for the reader.

For this year's SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop, two of Spacefreighters' regulars -- RITA-nominated author Sharon Lynn Fisher and Donna S. Frelick, 2012 Golden Heart Double Finalist,  consider "worldbuilding" in science fiction romance.

DONNA:  Well, you'd have to say the way we've done things so far in our novels couldn't be more different, huh, Sharon?  You have that beautifully evocative, eerily ALIVE Ghost Planet, and I have, well, Earth.  Mostly.  At least in my first novel, Unchained Memory, most of the action takes place here and now, with only a few scenes set off-planet to give readers a feel for the trauma my heroine has gone through at the hands of her alien abductors. I did have to invent a means of interstellar travel (through wormholes) and the whole galactic battle between slavers and their staunch (sexy) abolitionist opponents.

In my second novel, Trouble in Mind, more of the book takes place on distant planets in the series universe -- the aliens' home planet, particularly -- and on ships in space.  In order to write that one, I had to think through what kind of universe my Earth existed in -- not only one in which alien slavers took people from Earth regularly to use as they willed, and are opposed by our heroes, but also one in which there exists a colony of returned slaves (Terrene); several other alien races, with their own characteristics and home planets and languages (mostly curse words!); and a whole race of warlike telepathic aliens and their culture that is central to the plot.  Oh, and something about Navajo culture, too.

For the third book, Fools Rush In, I had to add more about ships and space travel, particularly traveling through jump nodes (wormholes) to various places.  That made my brain hurt.

Keeping all this straight is a challenge.  More than once I've though of actually writing a "Bible" for the Interstellar Rescue series universe.  Right now that exists in notes in my computer, on scraps of paper in my inbox and in random thoughts in my sieve of a brain.  Not so good!

SHARON: I think Unchained Memory's world was a great way to start your series, Donna. We've talked a lot on this blog and others about the level of acceptance for science fiction-y elements among the romance reading community. I think sometimes the perception is that our worlds will be too cold and uninviting, with too much tech talk. I think whether intentionally or not, you and I both kept our first-book worldbuilding pretty accessible. Though Ghost Planet is set off-world and has some seriously alien components, the world itself is earth-like and easy to visualize without requiring a ton of description (leaving plenty of room for developing the romance).

My second Tor book, The Ophelia Prophecy, has a near-future Earth setting. It's post-apocalyptic, which readers are familiar with thanks to the popularity of TV shows like The Walking Dead and the book and movie, The Hunger Games. Thanks to those previous works (and countless others) an author doesn’t have to really spend much time talking about what a post-apoc setting is like. Ophelia does have some fairly fantastical worldbuilding that is driven by science, but should feel familiar due to the fact it was inspired by artist Antonio Gaudi. 

I think it's a balancing act, though. Even if we choose to keep our worldbuilding accessible and force it to share the stage with character and relationship development, it's critical for it to feel rich and believable. 

Did you think at all about accessibility in writing your series, Donna? 

DONNA:  Ooh, Gaudi!  You mean the guy who designed the Barcelona cathedral, right?  That should be interesting!

Yes, I think about accessibility a lot, and if I happen to forget it for a moment, my critique partner, Linda, who is not an SF fan, reminds me pretty quickly!  The original idea of my series was to gradually lure readers new to SF further and further away from what was most familiar to them.  I felt if they liked the little bit of otherworldly stuff I gave them in Unchained Memory, they would be willing to accept the wilder stuff I gave them in Trouble in Mind.   By the time they picked up Fools Rush In, they would be willing to head out into space with me.  

This premise, though, is all founded on the solid foundation of my characters and their stories.  If my readers don't love them and want to follow them, I'm sunk!  All of my books are companion novels, with characters who show up in more than one book.  You can read them in any order, really, but if you like a secondary character in one book, chances are that character will get his or her own book some day.

I agree with you that the post-apocalyptic future is one many readers are familiar with.  Did you have trouble setting a romance in that kind of a bleak world?

SHARON: I think that's a great strategy. Once a reader connects with an author's voice, I think they are likely to follow them anywhere. Or at least that's what we hope! The Ophelia Prophecy also is heavier on the SF elements, with a slower-to-develop romance. But definitely has a big payoff at the end.

And yes, Gaudi is the Sagrada Familia guy. Which leads in nicely to answering your question: I managed the bleakness factor by setting the last two-thirds of the book in a world that is far from bleak. The genetically modified, conquering race has made Granada, Spain, (home of the Alhambra) their capital city. The ancient architecture itself is beautiful, but with the Gaudi-like embellishments the post-biowar city is transformed into something vibrant and whimsical.  

Okay, time for you guys to chime in!  Here are a couple of questions -- answer the one you like best.

• Favorite type of SFR setting?  (ship in space, distant planet, alternate universe, near-future/Earth, post-apocalyptic)  
• Favorite world? (SFR preferred, but SF works too!)

BLOG HOP PRIZES

Spacefreighters is giving away a copy of Ghost Planet to one commenter -- print, Kindle, or Nook. Folks in the US or Canada have the option of choosing a signed print copy. If you want to be excluded from the drawing for this, please let us know in the comments. Thanks!

Following are the main blog hop prizes:  

1st Prize 

• $150 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner's choice) 
• An ebook bundle -- 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, Breakout
• Bonus books - Ghost Planet, The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy and Deception, 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)

Don't forget, you must leave a comment with your email address AND sign into the Rafflecopter to win the prizes. And to increase your chances, hop along to the other blogs!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Without the Romance, Dune was just a book about worms...

© Robert Magorien | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Over the last few weeks I've been thinking about the problems in promoting and selling SFR, and even SF if you happen to be a female author. It's bugging me (can you tell?). I've seen a lot of conversations on Twitter about why female SF authors aren't necessarily a minority, but aren't given the same recognition or notice as male SF authors. The most recent discussion was over comments left on an io9 post about gender bias in SFF reviews here. The article itself begins "The good news is that men and women are published in almost equal numbers. The bad news is that books by men are reviewed far more often. So when women get published, you rarely hear about them." They then give the stats that provided that conclusion. Their research found there's a (probably) unconscious bias toward male authored speculative fiction by reviewers, but it was the comments that kicked off the Twitter conversation.

1.Female SF authors only write character driven or even romantic scifi (or as one person said on Twitter "eww, romance") as opposed to action driven.

2.Male SF authors only write action driven SF.

Oh, really?

Response to point 1. I know for a fact I don't always put romance in my scifi. I have two straight scifi stories to match my current two sfr stories. Also, one of my favourite authors is Jaine Fenn, and while there are various relationships including romantic ones, I certainly wouldn't call her books romances. They are SCIFI. And I'm sure she's not the only non-romance SF author the 'eww, romance" person could find if they bothered to look. And "eww, romance"?! What, our characters should live in an emotionless void without relationships of any kind? How realistic is that?

Response to point 2. First up, while my other fave author Neal Asher writes hard, explosive and often gruesome SF, he spend a lot of time on the psychology and relationships between his characters. The Technician, for example, focused in depth on the long-term insanity of its male MC, and the autistic nature of an amphidapt secondary character. While I've yet to find any romance as I understand the term, Asher writes stories that deal with adult humans (oh, okay, and homicidal aliens, tech that could obliterate the universe, and superior AIs are in there too) and his characters react realistically. So I would say there is a balance between characters and action, not one predominating over the other.

Also, the SFR Brigade has several male authors in its membership, and I've met several others who write romance into their scifi. But after a comment by TK Toppin about how if you removed the romance between Paul and Chani in Dune, it becomes just a book about worms, I started thinking about the scifi I'd read as a teen, predominantly by MALE SF authors. Dune - the love story between Duke Atreides and his concubine Jessica that almost destroyed the Bene Gesserits' work by producing the Kwisatz Haderach a generation too early. Paul's love for Chani and his arranged marriage to Princess Irulan. Take those away, as TK said, and all you have is a 'book about worms'. A space opera I'm currently working on reminded me of Friday by Robert Heinlein which, as I recall now (but not at the time) had romantic elements. Asimov's The Robots of Dawn too, where the central female character had formed an emotional and physical relationship with a humaniform robot because the current human society from which she'd come from and the one in which she taken refuge hadn't enabled her to enter a normal relationship with another human being. I'd say the story focused as much on that 'romance' as it did the crime, politics and technology of the story.

Then look at some recent SF films (some taken from books by male authors, but also screenplays written by men, films produced and directed by men) - Avatar, John Carter, and Oblivion. Star Wars (Han and Leia/Anakin and Amidala). Take the romance out of these and you damage, if not destroy the story.

So not only are we in a niche genre, but we seem to be battling very old stereotypes about what male and female authors write, and while we may equal the male authors in numbers, we're somehow invisible. If a man writes SF, whether the romance exists and is mentioned or not, there's no 'eww'. But if you're a woman? Sigh.

I'm off to write a book about worms... :-P

Because it ties into this discussion somewhat, I'm linking to a couple of interesting articles. Heather has posted over at the SFR Brigade blog about the need of innovative marketing for SFR here. And Rinelle Grey has posted about whether we should stick to the old adage of 'write what you know' here.

Pippa's Journal

Action!

My YA scifi novel Gethyon releases in less than a week on the 3rd of June! Squee! I've had my final PDF, which I started sending out for reviews requests straight away, and I've already had two acceptances. I'll be doing a month long tour, and you can find all the details of where, when and what I'm giving away here, as well as a ton of guest posts on the technology, antagonists and protagonists, spaceships and even fashion in Gethyon's universe. Now begins the mad panic. Will readers like it? Will they hate it? What the heck are people expecting after Keir?

And if that isn't excitement enough, the Tales from the SFR Brigade anthology should be available from midsummer. Woo hoo! Have you checked out the cover art yet? Here ya go!

In the meantime, I have two other short stories out on submission to anthologies. I should know about the cyberpunk come mid-August, and the other for Champagne Books inhouse call by the end of the year at the latest. I'm still waiting for further details on two other projects that I can't yet comment about - a full length sfr novel and sfr novella. Shh!

And I finally decided on a project for after the month long tour for Gethyon. Entry into The Rebecca closes mid July, and I have a decopunk superhero romance novella I'd like to put in. Last year I entered my sfr novella Tethered, and while it didn't place I got some fantastic feedback and a good score on it. If you'd like more details, check out the LERA contest here. I can highly recommend it for the professional feedback.

BTW, on the subject of contests, if you're interested in entering some you can find the RWA listings (published, self and unpublished contests) here and contests for self-published works (although some, if not all also take small press and/or trad published entries, as well as unpublished) here.

Happenings
Have you signed up for the SFR Brigade's 2nd Midsummer Blog Hop yet? Come on, what are you waiting for?! Go here! Not sure what to do or what it involves? Go here! Any other questions you can direct straight to me via sfrbrigadebloghop (at) gmail (dot) com. If you're willing to send in a donation, please get in touch as soon as possible because I can't announce a grand prize until I've a rough idea of what's coming. Ebooks are also welcome. :)

Discoveries

Rinelle Grey has posted some useful tips on how authors can use Goodreads here.

Heather Massey now has an awesome list of free or under $0.99 books at The Galaxy Express here. Hop over and check it out! And let her know if you have one that can be added to the list.

The night before last I received an email from All Romance eBooks telling me Gethyon was listed and available to buy. I was gobsmacked, as it isn't due for release until the 3rd of June and isn't a romance. Several moments of panic ensued, especially as the link came back 'page not found' and nada on a search. However, thanks to Laurel Kriegler, Gethyon was tracked down to the Omnilit page. Phew! You can now pre-order my newest release here. Not only that, but just 12 hours later it hit the Omnilit best seller list. At number 1 no less! *bounces* It may not be there now but to have it make it there and so soon left me somewhat tearful. A huge thank you to everyone who pre-ordered it - you are all AWESOME!

Ping Pong

@Donna - I didn't realise Cumberbatch was meant to be Kahn! I honestly can't imagine it. I almost went to see it Saturday - hubs and I had our first weekend away without our kids in ten years - but it was a choice between a film or dinner, and I'm afraid hunger won...

@Laurie - I agree, I'd need more scientific proof to believe in Bigfoot. And yet, every day scientists are discovering new species. If Bigfoot is intelligent, perhaps that's been enough to keep it out of sight - and let's face it, with humanity's ability to wipe species out who can blame Bigfoot for hiding away - but no. Dodgy film footage and footprints aren't enough to convince me.

And thank you for the shout out yesterday. :)