"FREEDOM!" - MONTH-LONG GIVEAWAY! SFR Station's April Fools in Love Event and Giveaway!

Welcome to the SFR Station's month-long "April Fools in Love Event!" Follow my colleagues on this blog hop at the list provided and don't forget to enter the big, fantastic Rafflecopter giveaway that will cap this happening. Follow along on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1545629019032391/

My topic? Why you need to fall in love with Sci-fi Romance.



"FREEDOM!" No. It's not Mel Gibson in "Braveheart." It's me, P. J. Dean, writer of SFR/PNR and the occasional historical. Now that I have gotten your attention, listen up. For writers and readers of SFR/PNR, freedom is the keyword, or nowadays is it the safe word? Hee, Hee. But I digress. Anyhoo, if one has been called to pen SFR/PNR, this time in the subgenre is the most free it has ever been for authors. Especially if you write for a small press or self-publish. The sky is the limit as far as what one's imagination can dream up, and what one can put out there. An author has no boundaries in creating a SFR/PNR tale. The stories run from sweet to heat, with all manner of characters, with plot lines from static to multi-layered. My sole concern is that some faceless panel somewhere will institute boring "routine industry standards" (as in other subgenres) and kill all the fun and originality. Until then (Deity forbid), writers, keep milking the teat of singular inspiration.

Psst! Psst! Readers of SFR/PNR. I hope you realize that you are truly blessed to be alive and able to read this subgenre during this huge shift in creative expression and how it is presented. Never before in publishing has the variety of stories been so varied, abundant and available. Appreciate it. Savor it. Bask in it. Explore outside your comfort zone. There is a writer out there waiting for you to discover their talent. And while you are at it, look up my SFR series, THE FELIG CHRONICLES which has 4 books so far and has a cast of diverse characters you've NEVER seen before. In fact the first book in my series is part of this event's 3rd prize package.

Check out the prize list below and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for all the goodies. Be an April Fool in Love. Again, Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Three African-American female swimmers take 1,2,3 at the NCAA championship

We DO swim! And pretty damned fast too. Congratulations, Ladies. Take a bow. You've made history.


http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/three-college-swimmers-make-history-ncaa-championship-n328906

Ariana Miyamoto Crowned The First Biracial Winner Of The Miss Japan Pageant!

Meet Ariana Miyamoto, Miss Japan! she will represent at the next Miss Universe pageant. Watch the video.


http://blackamericaweb.com/2015/03/24/ariana-miyamoto-crowned-the-first-biracial-winner-of-the-miss-japan-pageant-video/

Read the piece and watch the rather subdued ceremony. Big ups, Ariana!

"EMPIRE" is King! All hail the King!

It's official! Fox's series EMPIRE set a record last Wednesday night for viewership. With the second season a go...Go on wid yo' bad selves! It's gonna be a cruel, cruel summer. Sniff! Hey, I like Bananarama. Anyhoo, I'm gonna miss Boo Boo Kitty and la famille Lyon. Hurry back now! Y'all hear?


http://blackamericaweb.com/2015/03/19/empire-finale-sets-viewership-records/

photo courtesy of blackamericaweb.com

FOX's "EMPIRE" : Need I say more?

The EFFIN FABULOUS "EMPIRE" has its TWO-HOUR season finale tonight at 8 p. m. EST. Team Cookie? Team Lucious? Yes, I know Cookie dresses like she's stuck in the mid-90s (hey, she was in jail. What's your excuse?) Yes, Lucious has a strong pimp hand. But I LOVE this show. Don't judge me. Just tie on your bib and  don't miss these Lyons last roar for the season.

http://blackamericaweb.com/2015/03/16/the-best-way-to-binge-the-entire-empire-season-in-5-minutes/


courtesy of blackamericaweb.com

Jesse Eugene Russell - Forerunner in cellular and wireless technology

The father of digital cellular technology, Jesse Eugene Russell, is an inspiration to young people in IT.

http://blackamericaweb.com/2015/03/10/little-known-black-history-fact-jesse-eugene-russell/


info courtesy of blackamericaweb.com

Hey! I'm the spotlight author over at "A Year Without a Duke"

Fellow historical romance author, Genevieve Turner has a terrific project going on all this year. After being in a historical romance reading slump at the end of last year, she decided to create the A Year Without A Duke website. At the site she will be reading and spotlighting a historical romance each week that has main characters who are outside-of-the-box (not aristocratic and/or Caucasian or lying around a chaise in a salon). Soooo, guess whose book is up this week? You got it. My book KINDRED, AN AMERICAN LOVE STORY with its African-American heroine and Oneida hero. Visit her site all week to follow along and to enter to a rafflecopter giveaway at http://www.yearwithoutaduke.com

SELMA - 50 years and counting and the march is still on

This weekend celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first Selma, AL to Montgomery, AL march by activists to promote voting rights for all citizens of the state, specifically Black Americans who'd been hindered from registering through all kinds of ridiculous methods (having to answer correctly how many bubbles were in a bar of soap; how many pennies would a certain sized jar have held). Known as "Bloody Sunday", non-violent, unarmed marchers of all colors and religions were brutalized by White police officers and citizens on the Edmund Pettus Bridge (named for a Confederate hero and KKK Grand Dragon!) which linked the two cities, and to halt their mission.Read about the history of the atrocity and the remembrance ceremony taking place this weekend.



http://blackamericaweb.com/2015/03/06/what-in-the-weekend-everything-you-need-to-know-about-selma-50/

FSOG, Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings...Naw : The time to "lean in" is always appropriate

There was a bloodless dust up on Twitter on the 4th. An author (and I use the title loosely), a White author thought that it would be totes "hilarious" to pen a mashup of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY using good ole THOMAS JEFFERSON and his slave/rape victim/mother of several of his bi-racial children, SALLY HEMINGS as characters. Now this ish wasn't just a joke, this "author" was already in talks with an editor from a major house (Harper Collins I believe). This crap was gonna go down. She blew her wad early when she discussed it in a Facebook posting. Big, long-assed, noxious post on how funny it would be and how it's a good as done deal. Pride does go before the fall. Yes, I know about freedom of speech and blah, blah, blah. But you know what you don't know? That that 1st amendment guarantees one freedom of speech but not freedom from being criticized for what one's dumb ass says. So girlfriend can say and write all she wants. And others have the right to bug her about it. And that's what happened. This willfully clueless chick (Stephanie Dray) had her shit shut down. With the quickness. Of course she offered a lame-assed apology. See link below. The standard, "Sorry if you were offended by what I said, on and on...Please. Get down off that cross. Somebody needs the wood, dahling. We caught you. We peeped your shit. The only thing that would have gotten shut down quicker would have been if she had proposed a FSOG mashup of ANNE FRANK and a NAZI OFFICER. Slavery, confinement and rape aren't totes "hilarious" in any era, Ms. Dray.

Read aforementioned lame-assed excuse at this link:
http://www.stephaniedray.com/2015/03/04/apology/

Read the pathetically perky book talk Facebook post at Jenny Trout's blog;
http://jennytrout.com/?p=8826

I'm weeping for humanity

This is what you get after staying up too late, drinking that 3rd bottle of Malbec, your friends thinking it's a terrific idea whose time has come, you thinking you're witty and you having free space on your credit card. You are not an author. Just stop it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RY5J54G/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=A1FGN78LHHGJ&coliid=I1STDS9ESDNXWT