The One with the TARDIS and the Grassy Knoll - by @SofiaGreyAuthor #timetravel #romance #giveaway

Why do we get so passionate about time travel stories? Is it the idea of people getting a peek into the past (sometimes the very distant past), or the excitement of getting to see what lies ahead?

If you could travel in time, where would you go? Back to revisit your own memories? Or to observe other people - or famous events?

In an episode of the sci-fi comedy, Red Dwarf, Kryten suggests: "We could go to Dallas in November 1963, stand on the grassy knoll, and shout Duck! "

Or further back? I grew up as a huge fan of Doctor Who, and come on, who hasn't ever wanted a TARDIS of their own? The ability to go anywhere - any-when - would be intoxicating. Even when it's heartbreaking. Do you remember the episode where the 9th Doctor (the dark and brooding Christopher Eccleston) takes Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) back to meet her father - right before he dies? Yep, that one involved a couple of Kleenex on my part.

So let's narrow it down a little, make some rules. You can only take 3 trips. They can be future or past, but cannot be during your lifetime (don't want to risk meeting yourself!). Where would you go?

The best 3 answers will win some Lila's Wolf swag, and yes, I will ship international :)

Excerpt

There was too much in my head to allow me to sleep at the moment. Thoughts of Jared. Memories of last time. I rolled onto my side and peered at Marc sitting up in bed. “Why did you train to be a ghardian?”

His eyebrows lifted and he ran a hand through his hair. “I believe in justice, which is why I became a soldier. But I trained as a ghardian because I wanted to specialize in time jumping.” His hand strayed down to tug at his beard in a brief, uncomfortable gesture. “I grew up when the jump process was being developed and, right from my earliest memories, I wanted to try it. I learned all about the runaways and how their selfish actions can jeopardize the timelines. I like fixing mistakes, I guess.” Dark eyes smiled down at me. “So, why did you become a historian? And why this period?”

“The official answer is that my family group were all trained as historians. Between them, they manage and administer archives around the world. But like you,” I found an answering smile of my own, “I was hooked on the idea of jumping.”

“And this period?”

“This period, the Dark Ages, is one of the least-known eras in our Archive. If I’m going to be a historian, I want to have a specialty, to make a name for myself.”

“Ambitious.”

My cheeks warmed. “A little.” 

~

Lila’s Wolf (Out of Time #1) is available 4 September 2014, from Hartwood Publishing

Genre: Dark time-travel romantic suspense

The only way to save him, might be to leave him behind

Blurb

When Lila Cammell is abandoned by her time-jump partner, leaving her alone in Britain in the Dark Ages, revenge is the only thing on her mind. She’d trusted Jared Grohl with her life and her heart, and bringing him to justice will be sweet.

Finding him captured and enslaved by the Saxons changes all her assumptions. Now it’s a fight for survival, but the only way to save him, might be to leave him behind.

Giveaway

I’m giving away a $10 Amazon gift card and a swag bundle to one lucky commenter. Just leave a comment at whichever site you visit, and you’ll go into the draw. The more sites you visit, the more chances you get to win J

Links

Amazon | AllRomance | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | Hartwood Publishing

www.SofiaGrey.com

Catch me blogging with Allyson Lindt at www.GeminiGirls.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sofia.Grey.Romance.Author

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/sofiagrey1/

Twitter: @SofiaGreyAuthor

Blog Tour – find me here:

Date	Host	Blog post
8-Sept	Tirlas Talk	Google & conspiracy theories
9-Sept	Tara Quan	Vampire bonding & eye colours
10-Sept	Parker Kincade	Picture books & virtual streets
11-Sept	Pippa Jay	TARDIS & the grassy knoll
11-Sept	Book Boyfriend Junkies	Solar powered fridges & the right dress
12-Sept	Rosanna Leo	Battlefield & giant library
12-Sept	Diane Saxon	Richard Hammond & exotic food
13-Sept	Cover Reveals
14-Sept	Bookly Booknatics	Ghardians & timelines
14-Sept	Love, Lust & Laptops	Fluffy plans & dark ideas
15-Sept	A Coffee Addict’s Book Reviews	Time travel & love stories
16-Sept	Barb Taub – Writing & Coffee	Paradox & runaways
17-Sept	Epic Narrative Book Reviews	Beautiful society & Ghardians
17-Sept	Those Crazy Book Chicks	Loophole & ideas file
18-Sept	Barbara Elsborg	Rosemary Sutcliff & history classes
19-Sept	Loralie Hall ·	Tetris & good bathrooms
20-Sept	JL Simpson	Giant library & dodgy Utopia

About Author

Romance author Sofia Grey spends her days managing projects in the corporate world and her nights hanging out with wolf shifters and alpha males. She devours pretty much anything in the fiction line, but she prefers her romances to be hot, and her heroes to have hidden depths. When writing, she enjoys peeling back the layers to expose her characters’ flaws and always makes them work hard for their happy endings.

Music is interwoven so tightly into my writing that I can’t untangle the two. Either I’m listening to a playlist on my iPod, have music seeping from my laptop speakers, or there’s a song playing in my head – sometimes on auto-repeat.

Check out my playlists on Pinterest

The SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop - Pippa's Post

Welcome to Starry Nights, the SFR Brigade Midsummer blog hop! A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

...or right here. Stars are what bring our galaxy to life. After all, without the star our own planet revolves around, there'd be no life on Earth. I wouldn't be here right now. And according to Dr Carl Sagan, we are star-stuff.

"Hey, do you mind if I tell you a story? One you might not have heard. All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago, in the heart of a far away star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years, these elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart, forming shoes and ships and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. Until eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe."
Eleven, Doctor Who

I love that quote. Doctor Who is my favourite SF show, the one I grew up with, and one of the biggest influences in my writing. Most of my stories are set out amongst the stars, sometimes beneath alien skies, and sometimes in space itself. And in my SciFi romance short Terms & Conditions Apply I pay homage to possibly one of the most cataclysmic events in the universe - the death of a star.

"The door glided open and Marie stepped through, to find herself in the heart of the nebula. She squeaked and Soren grasped her arm in reassurance. The floor of the room was a burnished silver disk beneath the heavens. Crimson and gold light, woven in twisted strands of fire and strung with stars, formed a gauzy canopy overhead. As the door closed, the illusion was complete. They hovered in the fiery remnants of a long dead star. In a shroud of scarlet flames between them and a void full of shadows and distant pinprick suns."

EXCERPT | Available at...  
B&N | ARe | Amazon US 
| Amazon UK | Smashwords |

And if you'd like to win some stellar prizes and out-of-this-world stories, here's your chance! To enter, simply fill in the rafflecopter below. All prizes are available internationally (there are no cash or other alternatives - if you can't accept those on offer, please do not enter).

1^st  $100 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 42 ebooks - Tales from the SFR Brigade, Heart of Stone, Her Cyborg Awakes, Anja's Star, Silver Strife, Corwint Series 4 Book Gift Pack, Earth's Requiem, Alien Blood, Starwoman's Sanctuary, one book from Jessica E Subject's SFR backlist (ONE ebook title out of the following: Alien Adoration, Alien Admirer, Alien Lover, An Unexpected Return, Another Night Another Planet, Celestial Seduction, Crash Landing, Hey Santa, His Alien Virgin, Made For Her, Never Gonna Let You Go, Never Gonna Desert You, Never Gonna Say Goodbye, Satin Sheets in Space, Sudden Breakaway, or Unknown Futures), LodeStar Series Books 1-3 (Stark Pleasure, Creed of Pleasure and Captive of Pleasure), Reunion trilogy, Terms & Conditions Apply, Wreck of the Nebula Dream, Starheart, Kuralon Rescue, A Matter of Trust, Earth's Blood, Roman's Gold, Wolf Born, The Marann, Nightfall, Unrequited, Butterman Time Travel Inc., Legend Beyond the Stars, Hathor's Legacy: Outcast, Removed, Midwinter Crisis, Shlyer: Finding Home, Boyfriend's Brother, Surviving the Trap, Captive, Tower in the Woods, Catching Red, Underlighters. 

2^nd $50 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 33 ebooks - Tales from the SFR Brigade, Heart of Stone, Her Cyborg Awakes, Anja's Star, Silver Strife, Corwint Series 4 Book Gift Pack, Earth's Requiem, Alien Blood, Starwoman's Sanctuary, Tangled In Time, Terms & Conditions Apply, Escape from Zulaire, Lana's Comet, Heart's Bounty, Glad Hands, Nikolai, The Trial of Tompa Lee, The Tribulations of Tompa Lee, The Midas Rush, Prime Obsession, Daughters of Suralia, Morning Star, Hey Santa, Tower in the Woods, Catching Red, Underlighters, Alex Wales:Promise, Recast trilogy (Wither, Clash, Shiver). 

3^rd  3 separate winners each receive $25 Amazon or B&N gift card plus 12 ebooks - 3 separate winners each receive Tales from the SFR Brigade, Heart of Stone, Her Cyborg Awakes, Anja's Star, Corwint Series 4 Book Gift Pack, Hey Santa, Tower in the Woods, Catching Red, Underlighters.

As for my stop on the hop, you can comment below and tell me your favourite SciFi show/film/character and email addy to win either a digital edition of my upcoming new SciFi romance Tethered (releasing 25th July) OR the newly edited re-release of my SFR Galaxy award winner Keir (release date TBA). If you can wait that long, lol. 

Add to your Goodreads shelf HERE

Meanwhile hop along to the other participants, and see what gems they have on offer by using the Inlinkz list below, or jump back to the main Brigade post by clicking the Starry Nights graphic at the top of the post. Happy travels!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

A female Doctor Who?

I can hear a few people keeling over in horror already, and a few others doing fist pumps and victory dances. With all the recent fevered discussion over who the new Who might be, including calls for someone black, ginger, or female (or maybe all three? C'mon, how awesome might that be?!) and the announcement now scheduled for this coming Sunday, it seems an appropriate thought to muse over. I don't honestly believe it will ever happen. Although I think Joanna Lumley did a sterling performance as a female Doctor for Comic Relief (and imagine the fun as the new Doctor had to come to terms with not only regenerating into a new body but the opposite gender too), I think there'd be too much resistance to the idea. Imagine the possibilities though...



I'd love to see Zoë Wanamaker (Lady Cassandra in DW, Madame Hooch in Harry Potter) or Celia Imrie (Miss Kizlet under the influence of the entity for The Bells of Saint John.) play the role. Although perhaps someone younger would be wanted for the part (aaah, ageism as well as sexism. Well, I'm just judging on the current trend. Sad to say Matt Smith is the first actor to play the Doctor who is actually younger than me. Grrr). Failing that, I'd love to see the Rani (played by Kate O'Mara during the Colin Baker/Sylvester McCoy eras) return. If both the Master and the Doctor could survive the Time War, why shouldn't she have done so? I think the Rani was a very underexploited character, particularly as a villain. After all, Gallifrey has had a female president (just as the UK has had a female Prime minister) and the Doctor had Romana - a Lady of Time - as his companion. If Star Trek can have a female captain (Janeway), why can't we have a female Who?


Perhaps that was part of what drove me to write Keir. I've had numerous reviews on Goodreads drawing comparisons between it and Doctor Who, particularly since the evolution from DW's early days into a more...mature kind of show (I'm a little tired of the often blatant hints of romance between the Doc and his female companions, but I guess I'm old fashioned). While my female protag may have some Whovian similarities (oh, all right, and there is snogging involved - it *is* a scifi romance after all) I didn't set out to deliberately write a female Doctor. She doesn't have a sonic screwdriver, although she's handy with a hypo or a lightwand. She doesn't have a TARDIS, but the ability to cross time and space with a wave of her hand. And in my recent release Gethyon, she isn't adverse to handling weapons either. Quin might be compared more to Sarah-Jane Smith in the Who spin-off - The Sarah-Jayne Adventures - rather than the Doctor himself.

Fan art - Quin and Keir

But I never deliberately intended to write a female version of the Doctor in the first place. I suppose it's inevitable that something of the UK's longest running scifi show would creep into my work. My parents were fans, and I've watched it devotedly (mostly) for as long as I can remember - since Planet of the Spiders, Jon Pertwee's last adventure. When the series was cut in 1987, I cried. Having written three short Doctor Who stories, what would now be considered fanfic (and yes, I had the Doctor regenerate into a girl in those, so I'm biased), I wrote a whole 40K Doctor Who adventure. It starred Sylvester McCoy, and a certain feisty redhaired young woman called Tarquin Secker, as well as a monster called a Shadowshaper. Sound familiar? Oh, yes, that's where Quin started. I even submitted it, and although it wasn't accepted, the feedback convinced me that I had a smidge of writing talent. A friend's dad bound the MS up for me, and I still have it - maybe one day I'll post it online for people to read.

Some twenty tears later, and my poor tortured hero Keir was sitting in a dungeon waiting to die. He needed rescuing, but who was going to do it? That's when Quin came back to me. Keir is NOT Doctor Who fanfic by any means, no more than Quin is actually the Doctor. But I think the comparisons made by some readers are fair, especially considering how Quin made her debut in my head. Keir pays tribute as much to my love of hard scifi by Asimov, Heinlein and Arthur C Clarke, to fantasy by the likes of David Eddings, Ursula Le Guin and Terry Brooks. Perhaps more so to Anne McCaffrey, who so successfully blended creatures of myth and science fiction.

So, I already have my female 'Doctor', and no particular wish to see one on TV. But maybe - just maybe - as old monsters and old Whovian legends like the Metebelis Three crystal, the Valeyard and the Ice Warriors are resurrected, perhaps there might be hope for the Rani?

Now tell me - female Who or another female Timelord like the Doctor? And while we're at it, what are your thoughts on having a male companion at long last?

SFR Brigade Midsummer Blog Hop - Circle Power

I LOVE stone circles. Probably the most famous one in the UK is Stonehenge, but I prefer Avebury. Here, an entire stone circle surrounds the village. There's something so silently powerful about them. The massive  effort that must have gone into creating them at a time when 'man-power' was the only way to get anything done is impressive in itself. How driven the creators must have been. No one can say for sure exactly what these places were used for, but the sheer scale and the placing of them means they clearly had great significance to the people of the time. And with many of them, certain stones mark special astronomical events - like the summer and winters solstices - which were probably seen as important mystical happenings in the Neolithic calendar.

I've always been fascinated by the myths that surround them, but particularly the one that suggests they are magical gateways to another dimension. Even fairy rings - a natural circle of toadstools - are believed to have the same power. So perhaps it isn't surprising that I used this as the seed to grow my stories from. The book that gave birth to Keir was originally a Doctor Who story I wrote two decades ago, where my main female character Quin encounters an alien in a stone circle that has travelled to her world via a temporal gateway. Quin herself is thrown back through the gateway, to wake on another world, in another time, with most of her memory missing. Bewildered by the strange people who look human but speak telepathically - and are red haired and green eyed, traits associated with the fae. She wonders if she's entered the fairy realm...only to learn that these are a far future society of humans who owe their origins to her.

By the time she meets Keir, travelling through temporal portals to other times and places has become a stroll in the park...albiet not always a reliable one. But she still uses a circle. On her hidden base on Lyagnius, she has a gateway room - a circular room with a powerful psi energy source beneath it that she uses to twist time and space for her pathways. Without these, she has no ability to travel - a weakness that leaves them both stranded on another world further into the story. But to find out how they get back, you'll have to read the book. :-P

Blurb:

Outcast. Cursed. Dying. Is Keir beyond redemption?

For Keirlan de Corizi--the legendary 'Blue Demon' of Adalucien--death seems the only escape from a world where his discolored skin marks him as an oddity and condemns him to life as a pariah. But salvation comes in an unexpected guise: Tarquin Secker, a young woman who can travel the stars with a wave of her hand.

But Quin has secrets of her own. She's spent eternity searching through space and time with a strange band of companions at her back. Defying her friends' counsel, Quin risks her apparent immortality to save Keir. She offers him sanctuary and a new life on her home world, Lyagnius.

When Keir mistakenly unleashes his dormant alien powers and earns instant exile from Quin's home world, will she risk everything to stand by him again?

I have a $15 Amazon Gift Card to give away to one lucky person who leaves their contact details in the comments below, and tells me their favourite magical place. And don't forget, there's TWO grand prizes!

1st Prize – a Kindle Touch or Nook Touch
2nd Prize - a library of science fiction romance titles from over 20 authors (these will be mostly ebooks with one print anthology), and an Anabanana Gift Card.

All you need to do to enter is pop along to the blogs listed below and comment on as many as you want (only ONE comment per site will count as an entry). Each time you comment at a stop, you’ll earn one entry into the grand prize – so the more sites you visit, the greater your chances of snagging the top prizes. The winners will be drawn at random on the 24th June and announced on the SFR Brigade site here. The list of participating authors can be found below this post. Spread the news and keep hopping!

The Quality Times Blog Tour - Guest Post by Gayle Ramage.

I had the pleasure of studying a creative writing university course with Gayle a couple of years ago. Even then, the darkly humorous twists to her tales impressed me, so I'm chuffed to be able to host her on her first book tour. Please welcome author Gayle Ramage!

A massive ‘thank you’ to Pippa for letting me take over hosting me on her blog, today, as part of my Quality Times Blog Tour. One more day to go! Thanks for stopping by!

Today, I’d like to discuss the book/writer who influenced me to pick up a pen, grab some paper and start writing my own stories. The writer in question is Armistead Maupin, and the book is Tales of the City.

For those who are aware of ToTC, you’ll know the book has nothing to do with Science Fiction and Fantasy, but a hell of a lot to do with an eclectic bunch of San Franciscans in the 1970s.

My memory fades when I try to recollect if I’d read the books before watching the TV series which was broadcast across here in the UK, in 1994, but I do remember getting the Omnibus edition in a local library around about that time (there is currently eight Tales of the City books in the series).

The characters are well-written and well-rounded characters. Reading all the books, you end up liking characters you previously didn’t (and disliking some you had liked in earlier books).

We have Anna Madrigal, the laid-back, pot-smoking landlady of 28 Barbary Lane who acts like a mother figure to her tenants. She’s also a post-op transsexual.

Michael “Mouse” Tollier is a young guy who’s looking for love in the city. He’s an out-and-proud man... except that his parents have no idea and think he’s just not met the right girl yet.

Our way into the story is through Mary Ann Singleton (bit of trivia - Helen Fielding got her ‘singletons’ phrase, in the Bridget Jones’ Diary book, from Tales of the City). A mid-twenties secretary who, on a whim, decides to remain in San Francisco while on a vacation, and ends up one of Mrs Madrigal’s tenants.

Of course, becoming a fan while in secondary school, I tried to write my own version which was C.R.A.P. Hand on my heart, I basically wrote Tales of the City, but set it in a different city with slighty tweaked characters (a bit like Fifty Shades of Gray and Twilight...).

I soon binned my story but it did get me thinking about writing more stories. Original stories, I hasten to add. Where the sci-fi/fantasy elements crept into my stories, I can pinpoint it to watching a certain sci-fi series which returned in 2005, but I’m talking about Tales, today.

There were three mini-series adaptations of the books made - Tales of the City, More Tales of the City and Further Tales of the City. It doesn’t look likely that any more books will be adapted (though I may be wrong) but I would have loved Babycakes to be filmed, as it has Michael heading over to England, and bumping into an estranged friend.

Most recently, Tales of the City - The Musical has been created, with involvement by Scissor Sister’s Jake Shears. Not seen that yet and, unless they tour Scotland, I probably never will. *sob*

To celebrate the release of my book, The Whispering Tombs, I’m giving away an e-copy to one lucky commenter. All you have to do is tell me what book inspired you to start writing (and if it wasn’t a book that inspired you, what did?). A winner will be picked, at random, on the 3rd of June, the day after the tour ends. Just remember to include your email in the comment section!

Meet Quality Times, just your average 21st century woman who happens to own a shrinkable time machine. Along on her intergalactic adventures is Tim, a self-confessed sci-fi geek who takes everything in his stride.
In ‘The Whispering Tombs’, Quality and Tim are residing at the luxurious Baala Haven Resort, on an unpronounceable planet, when they’re invited on a quest to find ancient hidden treasure by a wealthy alien archaeologist. Reaching the caves of Azrokaran, however, loyalties are tested to the very limits as those within the group reveal their true colours.
A light-hearted mix of science fiction, adventure and humour.

BIO
Gayle Ramage is a writer, living in the Scottish lowlands. She would love to grow her own TARDIS if only to go back in time to find out if her ancestors were as mad as she is.
LINKS

• Website   http://www.gayleramage.co.uk
• Blog   http://www.gayleramage-author.blogspot.co.uk
• Twitter   http://www.twitter.com/garam81
• Good Reads    http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5121377.Gayle_Ramage
• Smashwords   https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/164661

7 Facts Award

OK, so I was given this award by Beth @

Beth's Blog

Thanks Beth. :)

Here’s how it works:
1: Thank the person who gave you the 7 fact award and link back to their blog - done!
2: Post 7 random facts about yourself - er, by the time I post, also done!
3: Pass this award to 15 other worthy people! 15! Er ...

1. I LOVE The Rasmus. If the playlist on my blog didn't give you a hint, then I'm hiding my obsession well.
2. I had my photo taken with Sylvester McCoy at the time he was playing the Seventh Doctor.


3. I've just passed A174 Start Writing Fiction with the Open University, but didn't get as high a score as I was expecting/hoping. Is my ego showing?!
4. Despite my insistence to the contrary over the years, several people have told me what a nice person I am. I'm still not entirely convinced.
5. I found my current male MC in a dream.
6. My favourite poet is Coleridge.
7. I have some of the bestest friends in the world.

Passing It On

Lauri J Owen @ Embers

Kris Owen @ The Howl

Laurel Kriegler @ The Spires of Zhurrat