January 13 -- The Science Fiction Romance newsletter is pleased toannounce the winners of the fourth annual Sapphire Award for the Best Science Fiction Romance of the Year:

• First Place: Patricia White   A Wizard Scorned   Published by Hard Shell Word Factory
• Second Place: Jennifer Dunne   Raven's Heart   Published by New Concepts Publishing
• Third Place: Laurell K. Hamilton   Blue Moon   Published by Penguin

Nominated books could be from any genre, provided that they had a first publication date between December 1997 and November 1998, and that both science fiction and romance were intrinsic to the story. The ten books receiving the most nominations advanced to finalist status, and the readers of SF Romance were polled to determine the winners.

"1998 will be remembered as the year that electronic books came of age," said contest coordinator Patricia Bray. "In the past years as print publishers became less receptive to futuristic romance, many sf romance authors moved to non-traditional formats such as e-publishing. Fans of science fiction romance were quick to embrace this new technology, and both the first and second place winners were published as electronic books."

The Science Fiction Romance newsletter is an international forum for the readers and writers of the science fiction romance subgenre, and is distributed monthly to subscribers throughout the world. An electronic edition is available through the Internet. For more information, visit the website, http://members.aol.com/sfreditor/, or contact Yeep@aol.com.

For more information about the winning book, contact Hard Shell Word Factory, P.O. Box 161, Amherst Jct. WI 54407. URL: http://www.hardshell.com.