Once a month the SFR Brigade does a blog hop where authors share excerpts, cover reveals or other fun posts related to their scifi romances. Check here for the list of all the participants this month.

We have about a week left (through Veterans Day) to make donations to Hero Dogs, Inc., on royalties from our USA Today Best Selling anthology EMBRACE THE ROMANCE PETS IN SPACE 2, where my novella Star Cruise: Songbird can be found. So it’s not too late to get your copy! (Buy links below the blurb.) This excellent charity supplies service dogs to veterans.

In my story, the rock star comes from a planet with songs that are sung continuously for a thousand years. Here’s how she explains them to Grant, the hero…(I gave a bit more explanation for what prompted me to develop these on Diane Burton’s blog last month)

The excerpt: 

“What’s the deal with these songs? Do generations of people really sing the same tune night and day for a thousand years?”

She nodded. “Sometimes it’s the same song but more often there will be new verses being written daily or weekly, and given to the choirs and soloists. The musical variety depends on the funding and the purpose for the song. But the music never stops, not for anything. There’s a story once of a huge fire and the choir at that time moved outside and continued singing while the building fell. Anyone can commission a thousand year song although as you can imagine it takes massive resources, so typically only the most elite families or temples will do so. I have heard of villages putting all their resources into it, but the village was long gone and forgotten by the time the song concluded.”

“A thousand years? People actually sign up to sing the same song for their entire lives, and never hear the final notes? Their children never heard the final notes? Why?”

She shrugged. “Why do human beings do anything? Why did the people from Terra venture out in their generation ships before the hyperspeed drives were invented? The songs are a part of the Calillia religion. Legend says they bring the blessings of the gods upon the planet and the people. In fact, it was gods who started the first songs, millennia ago. If you believe in myths.” She gave him a shrewd glance. “Nowadays much of the planet’s economy is based on the songs and supporting the needs of the singers.”

Pulling him with her, Karissa ducked into the back of a large song temple, where the choir he’d heard was faithfully singing the chorus and refrain of their life’s work.

“See this?” Karissa pointed at an elaborate, slow moving device beside the door. “This was the style of chronograph when the song started. It’s measuring how long they’ve been singing, and how much time is left.”

“How long?”

She eyed the device. “Eight hundred years, give or take a decade or two.”

Blurb for Embrace the Romance: Pets In Space 2:

The pets are back! Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2, featuring twelve of today’s leading Science Fiction Romance authors brings you a dozen original stories written just for you! Join in the fun, from the Dragon Lords of Valdier to a trip aboard award-winning author, Veronica Scott’s Nebula Zephyr to journeying back to Luda where Grim is King, for stories that will take you out of this world! Join New York Times, USA TODAY, and Award-winning authors S.E. Smith, M.K. Eidem, Susan Grant, Michelle Howard, Cara Bristol, Veronica Scott, Pauline Baird Jones, Laurie A. Green, Sabine Priestley, Jessica E. Subject, Carol Van Natta, and Alexis Glynn Latner as they share stories and help out Hero-Dogs.org, a charity that supports our veterans!

10% of the first month’s profits go to Hero-Dogs.org. Hero Dogs raises and trains service dogs and places them free of charge with US Veterans to improve quality of life and restore independence.

Amazon   iBooks   Kobo   B&N    Our website:  http://www.petsinspaceantho.com/