Anthology First #scifi #romance #SFRBrigade

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. I seem to have been unlucky when it comes to anthology calls. Of the several I've submitted to, most were cancelled due to too few submissions. In most cases, I've gone ahead and self published the short story I'd written anyway because why not? (They did get edited first - I never put something out without edits!).

A 2016 SFR Galaxy Award
winner

A Gulf Coast RWA 2013
Silken Sands Self-Published
Star Contest finalist

But in 2012, an author group I was part of (the Science Fiction Romance Brigade) decided to produce their own anthology - a collection of scifi romance shorts to promote the wide selection of stories that the still overlooked and under-appreciated genre had to offer. I really wanted to be a part of it...but I had no ideas. Despite an overflowing Plot Bunny Storage Facility, I wanted something really...well, that would be really something. I put out a call for help on Twitter, where I know several authors who sometimes look to rehome unwanted plot bunnies that they just don't have time to work on. A fellow author threw several ideas my way, and one stuck - a thief and a lawman. I hadn't really written any kind of anti-hero/reluctant hero before, so the idea of a reformed (or maybe not) thief appealed to me.

The second inspiration came from watching Mission Impossible 2. I'm not much of a Tom Cruise fan to be honest, but I loved the original series so I've watched the films. I'm not going to tell you what scene it was because it'll be kind of spoilery, but once I had that first line down, the rest seemed easy. Well, at least until the editor got hold of it anyway... :P

As you might have guessed, my story got chosen, along with seven others. Chuffed doesn't cover it! My assigned editor was a tough cookie (but that's the way I like 'em), and together we carved Imprint into shape. And then the shiny bonus - my story got picked to open the anthology! I was really proud, but also a little scared. What if my opening lines put readers off the whole collection? What if it put them off picking up the book at all?!

8 free SFR short stories in 1
WEBSITE | GOODREADS
Available for FREE from...
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 B&N |  Kobo
iBooks | Diesel Books

I needn't have worried. Since its release in 2013, Tales from the SFR Brigade has had almost 12000 downloads, AND was a Night Owl Reviews Top Pick, scoring 4.5 stars. It's currently 4.2 stars on Amazon US too. And it's completely free to download.

Experience love and adventure among the stars in TALES FROM THE SFR BRIGADE, a free digital anthology of eight Science Fiction Romance stories.

* A space captain discovers the cyborg she loves just might be her greatest enemy.

* A mind-wiped prostitute risks all when she recruits a dangerous stranger to help her escape a terrible fate.

* A prisoner-of-war confronts the comrade who loved her, then left her for dead.

* A space-obsessed physics teacher is kidnapped by a far-too-charming alien.

* An apocalypse survivor battles the biomech-enhanced hunter who seeks to capture her.

* A young artist must choose between her comfortable life on Earth or a war-torn space colony with her beloved.

* A daring thief is on the run from the alien law man who is determined to bring her to justice.

* A widowed rebel leader tries to save the last remnants of humanity, one stranger at a time.

From Earth to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, explore the worlds of Science Fiction Romance with stories from Linnea Sinclair, Marcella Burnard, Erica Hayes, Liana Brooks, Pippa Jay, Berinn Rae, Amy Laurens, and Kyndra Hatch.

Download TALES FROM THE SFR BRIGADE for free today.

Find out more HERE.

***

Since the release of Tales, the Brigade has gone on to do seven volumes of first chapter samplers - the Portals - and another anthology - Romancing the Stars - to further showcase the very best that our genre has to offer, and all free (bar RtS). Romance boldly going forth...

Collaboration is not a dirty word

Hello! I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and the supernatural with a romantic soul. How are you?

One thing I've learnt over the last five years as I've ventured into publishing is that collaboration and networking is key. There's nothing more awesome than working with your peers, whether on an anthology, co-authoring, writing communities, or a bunch of solid, supportive beta readers, critique partners, book bloggers and editors, or other creatives such as cover artists. In the publishing world as it is today, sometimes it's the only thing that stops you drowning.

WEBSITE | GOODREADS
Available for FREE from...
 Amazon US | Amazon UK | ARe
 Smashwords |  B&N | Kobo

Last year I had the privilege of becoming part of a science fiction romance anthology - Tales from the SFR Brigade - produced by the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, a community of authors, readers and fans dedicated to the genre. (I'm very proud to be a part of the community and one of their admins.) To me, an anthology provides readers with the opportunity to meet new authors they might not have seen or tried before, who perhaps picked up the book because one of their favourite authors had a story in it (I've done that myself). It also means that, in these days of authors pretty much having to do all their promotion, at least you can share the time, effort and energy to promote between you. At a later stage I even got to help with putting the anthology up on Amazon and tweaking a few of the format errors - great experience in terms of learning the ins and outs of self publishing. It was yet another learning curve, but with the benefit of having fellow authors and editors who each knew something I didn't about the process and were all willing to pitch in, make suggestions, or fix problems. It's a project I'm so proud to have been a part of, and a huge team effort.

But those people I love the most are my critique partners (sorry, I'm a bit biased!). I have a large group, each with their own particular skills in picking up plot holes or ferreting out issues, and not all stories go to all of the group depending on the genre and heat levels. These are the people brave enough to look at some of my, er, shall we say 'less polished' projects, and spend some time helping me slap them into something coherent. The ones not afraid to say 'this sucks, fix it', often confirming my own thoughts on a scene but that I've tried to avoid facing. Just lately most of my book dedications have been to these courageous souls who have taken the time to help me turn chaotic primordial soup into a story.

My current upcoming release probably went to the most critical of them, especially as I wanted to put the opening into The Rebecca, a RWA contest run by LERA that provides amazing feedback on your story as part of the competition (well worth doing even if you don't place. Which sadly, I've yet to do. Three so close but not quite there attempts so far, lol). The interesting thing with putting something through critique and beta readers is that they are just as likely to give you contradictory feedback as to agree. If they're agreeing, then you can be fairly certain their concerns need to be addressed. But when they contradict? What do you do then?

I've had the same situation with The Rebecca feedback. Two saying the world building was good, one saying it was confusing. Two disliking a particular phrase, one liking it. One saying the story was too slow, one too hurried, and one asking for more detail. In those situations, it can be hard to decide what you actually need to fix, or if it even *should* be changed. Sometimes I look at the qualifications of the judge or the experience of the critique partner. In the case of the contest, you might have published and unpublished authors, editors, publishers. You might think that perhaps an unpublished author would not give as good a level of critique as one published, but there's no way to tell how much critiquing they might have done, how much experience they have, how new they are to critiquing or judging. And even if you consider they might be too inexperienced as an author to judge, perhaps consider that they might be looking at it more as a reader than a writer, so therefore it still has value. Although all authors are readers, I think sometimes we can forget to look at a story simply as a reader and judge it by our experiences and expertise purely as an author, or even as an editor. So I like to send my work to a mixture where possible, and several to give the best possible range of responses. All of them hated your heroine? Might need looking at. Same phrase being questions by everyone? Might need reworking. Only one had an issue with calling the hero Gavin? Might get away with that one. :P

But at the end of the day, you really have to rely on your own judgement. If the reactions are pretty mixed, my solution is to go with the version that *I'm* happy with. Because if you can't be happy with your own story, what's the point?

So, to finish, here's my upcoming release for the 25th July, and my last Rebecca entry. Can't wait to here what the reviewers think after all the critiquing it went through!

EXCERPT |  GOODREADS
Available at... Breathless Press |
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What has your experience been with critique partners?