Tag: SFR Brigade

2nd Annual SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Book Giveaway> ebook giveaway> Giveaways> Midsummer Blog Hop> SFR Brigade

SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop

Welcome to the Second Annual Midsummer Blog Hop, sponsored by the SFR Brigade. Woo-hoo!

The theme for this year’s Midsummer Blog Hop is out of this world. No really, this is a science fiction romance group, so that’s the theme. Which “out of this world” setting is your favorite? Or my favorite, as the case may be.

USS Enterprise NCC-1701If I had to pick an imagined future that I would want to live in, it would still, even all these years later, be Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future from the original Star Trek series. By the time that Kirk & Co. flew the original Enterprise out of the San Francisco shipyards in 2245, the Federation seems to have solved most of the problems that we have today. It’s not just that it would take a “post-scarcity economy” to come up with something like the Prime Directive, but that everyone on the Enterprise, and her namesakes A, B, C, D and E all seem to enjoy their jobs and have such purpose. Somedays I envy them. The universe of the reboot seems to have gone to hell in handcart. I wouldn’t want to live there, even if it is entertaining to visit.

What fictional universe would you most want to live in? And which one do you think would be worth an adventure visit?

SFR Brigade Badge As a blogger-member of the SFR Brigade, my mission, and I have decided to accept it (no apologies for trope mixing) is to promote science fiction romance in general, and today, the Midsummer Blog Hop in particular.

~~Giveaway Details~~

On Friday 21st June (that’s TODAY!) the SFR Brigade is holding its Second Annual Blog Hop to celebrate Midsummer!

Here are the grand prizes (open to all!):

  • 1st Prize – $150 Amazon or B&N gift card (winner’s choice) and an ebook bundle (currently 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, 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, The Plan, Starburst and Stark Pleasure.
    Bonus books – Ghost Planet, The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy and
    Deception, and 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)

For a chance to win one of the grand prizes, use the Rafflecopter at the end of the post.

In addition to the grand prize, one lucky commenter at Reading Reality will be chosen by the ever popular Random.org to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card from yours truly. So be sure to leave a comment here before you hop around to the rest of the SFR Brigade.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
And please be sure to visit the other blog hop stops:

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-7-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

Today has been a very sleepy Sunday. It would have been a terrific day to curl up with the cats and just let the day segue from the morning nap to the afternoon nap. And for all I got accomplished today I probably would have been better off if I had!

Two things I did manage to get done, with a little help from my friend Rafflecopter, was to pick the winners for recent giveaways.

Joy Flynn won the paperback copy of Carol Tibaldi’s Roaring 20s suspense thriller, Willow Pond. And the one that everyone was drooling over, Suzanne Selfor’s Chocolate Giveaway was won by Jennifer Stewart Shaw.

Let’s take a look at the wrap-up of this week’s posts:

Ebook Review Central Featured Titles from Carina Press for August 2012: #1 Men of Smithfield: Mark and Tony by L.B. Gregg, #2 The Guardian of Bastet by Jacqueline M. Battisti, #3 Planning for Love (Aisle Bound #1) by Christi Barth
B+ Review: Better Than Chocolate by Sheila Roberts + Interview
Celebrate the Freedom to Read! (Banned Books Week)
B+ Review: Operation Endgame (When the Mission Ends #1) by Christi Snow + Interview
A+ Review: Local Custom (Liaden Universe #4) by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Last week is over. So what’s coming up this week?

There’s a Monday holiday (admittedly a minor one) so there’s no Ebook Review Central this week. Instead, I’ll be reviewing Zoë Archer’s Skies of Steel, the third book in the steampunk romance series The Ether Chronicles, that Zoë is co-authoring with Nico Rosso. I enjoyed the first two books in the series, and this was my treat to myself.

On Tuesday, my guest will be T. K. Anthony, the author of Forge, the first book of the Thrall Web series. If the phrase “Thrall Web” isn’t a hint, Forge is science fiction romance, a genre that is near and dear to my heart. I couldn’t resist this title. I’ll have an interview with T.K. as well as a review of Forge.

And Wednesday my guest will be my fellow SFR Brigade member Diane Dooley, to give us a peek into the science fiction world of her books Blue Galaxy (see review) and her latest Blue Nebula. Diane will be giving away copies of her books, as well as answering a few questions. I’ll have a review of Blue Nebula, too.

Thursday we’ll leave the future, science fictional or steampunk, to return to the contemporary world of Lori Foster’s latest romantic suspense novel, Run the Risk. Lori’s tour will be stopping at Reading Reality for an interview with Lori, as well as a review of the book and a giveaway.

It’s going to be another busy week! I also have two pretty intense historical fiction reviews that will be posted this week at Book Lovers Inc: Before Versailles by Karleen Koen and C.C. Humphreys’ A Place Called Armageddon.

And next week is shaping up to have a theme all its own! Courtney Cole’s Of Blood and Bone,  Louisa Bacio’s A Date with Death, and Sheila Stewart’s The Naughty Angel–all in the same week. Followed by the Wicked Romances Blog Hop. Sounds positively, well, wicked! And a perfect lead-in for the Halloween season.

Weren’t we just talking about chocolate?

What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? AKA The Sunday Post 6-17-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> blog tours> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

The biggest thing on my mostly virtual nightstand this week is plane tickets. And they are virtual, since no one gets actual plane tickets anymore.

On Friday, I’ll be flying to the original home of Mickey Mouse. No, I don’t mean Orlando. If I were going to Orlando, I’d drive.

I’m going to Anaheim, California, home of Disneyland. But I’m not going to visit Mickey. Or, at least, not on purpose.

The American Library Association Annual Conference is in Anaheim again this year. (We were just there in 2008). What does ALA mean to me? A lot of meetings. And a LOT of opportunities to meet authors and pick up free Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) and books. I expect I’ll see pretty much the same ARCs that the BEA attendees did. I have my fingers crossed.

But while I’m at ALA, this blog will still go on. There’s even going to be a blog hop next weekend. But before that…

The Lovestruck Giveaway Hop is still going strong. Don’t just look at my hop post, but be sure to check out all the hoppers! There are over 125 blogs participating, so hop and take a chance on some great book giveaways.

This week I’ll have two tours with interviews and reviews.

On Tuesday, June 19, my guest will be S. J. McMillan to talk about her paranormal romance City of the Gods, the Descendant. I’m in the middle of this book right now, and she’s used an unusual culture as her starting point. Her heroine is the descendant of the Ancient Aztecs. The battle  between good and evil is shaping up to be pretty epic.

Thursday we’re going into space with Maria Hammarblad. Her heroine is Kidnapped, but lives out that frequent fantasy of traveling those “strange new worlds and seeking out new civilizations”. Even though her kidnapper is a hunk, it turns out there’s no place like home.

Kidnapped is a great lead-in to Friday’s SFR Blog Hop. I’ll be participating, along with other members of the SFR (that’s science fiction romance) Brigade as we provide SFR related book giveaways on all our blogs.

About that traveling nightstand of mine. Especially when I’m on the road, I look at this post to figure out what I should be reading!

I have some books that caught my eye on NetGalley or Edelweiss that are due out next week. Let’s take a look at what they are:

Two sequels to books I reviewed last year. Suited by Jo Anderton is the follow-up to her marvelous science fiction debut, Debris.

And The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton is the second mystery by Elizabeth Speller, after last year’s haunting The Return of Captain John Emmett.

I expect to pick up what my husband calls a “metric butt-load” of books from the conference. After all, I need to give LaZorra a new throne. I dismantled her old one.