A Bump in the Road to Publishing My First Novel

Welcome, debut author Debra Elise! 

Hurray, you brought your debut novel, SAVING MAVERICK, released on April 4^th. Friends, I've read this one and you don't want to miss it. 

AND, she's giving away prizes, so be sure to read to the end ...

Debra says: "Thank you to Cathryn for opening her blog to me today.

So one day you’re rolling along, plans all laid out nice and tidy and then something happens to challenge you. Something which tests your resilience for change, and threshold for disappointment.

Sound familiar? It happens to all of us. Hopefully not too often, but when it does how you react immediately after the stomach-dropping hit you just took, sets you up for a big decision… Turn the disappointment not into lemonade but opportunity or let it paralyze you.

I had one such disappointment last summer and it had to do with my debut baseball romance,

SAVING MAVERICK. 

 

I was so excited when Bloomsbury Spark offered me a contract last March and chose a November 2015 release date. I had gleefully told my family, friends, complete strangers, “My book is coming out in November!” I’d posted it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, my website. You name it. I had begun to pimp it, well everywhere.

So, July rolls around and I’m eager to receive my edit letter from well, my editor, but what I received instead was a nicely worded email asking me how I would feel if they changed the release date, for marketing purposes, to early 2016?... How would I feel? Sad, very-very sad.

I found myself with this huge decision to make. Do I kick and scream and demand I get my way like a toddler who’s lost their blanky and end up alienating my editor and the publisher and perhaps blow my opportunity for books two and three? <takes deep breath> Or do I set aside my “poor me” feelings and listen to the “oh, yeah, this makes sense” voice that appeared soon after the need for the pink stuff in a bottle faded away?

Authors: 5 Tips for Participating in Anthologies

Welcome, Author Bokerah Brumley!
Bokerah has some tips for us on participating in anthologies--awesome! And no wonder, with this fab anthology about to debut. She's also giving away a $10 GC, so stay tuned to the end of the post ...

Bokerah says: Yes, it’s safe to say that I love anthologies. I enjoy the teamwork a multi-author project generally creates. The cross-promotion is invaluable in growing my own platform, and I always glean a lot from the other authors.

Here are five tips I’ve learned from participating in successful anthologies.

Excerpts! Excerpts! Peek Inside Our Latest Fab Sci Fi Romance

Welcome! Here there be Cyborgs ... and other fabulous beings. 
Be sure to keep reading after my excerpt for more from these other SFRB authors.
                       
                            http://sfrcontests.blogspot.com/p/sfr-brigade-presents.html

CYBORG PLEASURE; THE SPACE MADAM'S WARRIOR

In space, there are even more ways to lose your lover

She lost everything ...

Ilya Mondas once lived her dream—life with a band of space gypsies, the freedom to use her tech savvy to wreak mayhem on pirates and slavers, and most of all her big, soft-spoken warrior Var, who adored her. Then she lost him, and the life she loved.

She'll do anything to get it all back ... 

Now on her own, she must take over The Pleasure Palace, a ragtag space-station casino, home to hookers, gamblers and rogues. But one or all of them want her dead, and they have the monsters to do it—human-cyborg gladiators, created for the illegal fight ring hidden deep in the center of her new home. Where the biggest, baddest cyborg of all looks eerily like her dead husband.

But can she trust him again? 

Excerpt

SFR Author Carysa Locke is PIRATE BOUND!

Welcome, Author Carysa Locke 

You brought Space Pirates - starry! They're my favorite, too, which is why I wrote two SFR series with them. And what a gorgeous cover.

Carysa says: Thanks, Cathryn! I'm excited to be here, with my own pirates.

My prequel novella releases today! Pirate Bound is the first book in my telepathic space pirates series, and I couldn't be more excited to share it with everyone. 

This is a series that has been many years in the making, and I have long term goals. 

As of this writing, I have planned

• two trilogies of full length novels 
• a set of four novellas (including this prequel novella). 

After that, we'll see where the story goes, but this is definitely the first, exciting step for me to take in getting the whole thing onto the page. 

Why telepathic space pirates? Well, who wouldn't want to write about them? As a girl, Star Wars was my favorite set of movies, and Star Trek was a close second ... 

Author Liza O'Connor's Public Secrets

 Welcome Liza O'Connor!
  Liza is stopping by to tell us about her Sci Fi Romance AI series.
   

SFR Author Donna Frelick has Trouble in Mind!

Welcome, Donna! 
We know you write Sci Fi Romance. What's new?

February 16 marked the release of Trouble in Mind, Book 2 in in my Interstellar Rescue series.

Like Book 1, Unchained Memory, this companion novel is set in the same Earth-centered, present-day universe, but has enough aliens, spaceships, mind control and other science-fiction-y goodness to intrigue any SF fan.

At the same time, the flame between FBI heroine Lana Matheson and half-alien hero Gabriel is hot enough to please the most fervent romance reader.

Remi Bond: What's in a name...? A Blurb Fit for Royalty

Remi Bond: What's in a name...? A Blurb Fit for Royalty: The first thing a reader sees of an author's book is the cover or title. I think Surprise for Three is a good, engaging title, and with...