Lydia Nyx

Getting all the facts in.

2012-03-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

One thing you've probably heard time and again when it comes to writing is, 'understand your characters.' This means having a full and intimate knowledge of your character's backgrounds--where they went to school, who their best friend is, what they like, what they don't like, who their favorite actor is, what their favorite color is--even if you don't use all that information in the story. The same holds true with the world you're creating, whether it's modern-day New York City or another planet. The more you know about the people, places, and background, the more rich the story is, even if you don't reveal all the information.

But once you know the details, you also have to pick which ones to put in and which ones to toss out. And after all that process, after you've hashed out the finer points and figured out which ones to give the reader, the hardest step of all is reached: how do you put that information into the story?

Exposition must be handled delicately. You don't want to dump a bucket-load of information on your reader's lap through a long narrative and you don't want your characters having "As you know, Jim..." conversations. So how do you tell the reader what they need to know without butting in and making it obvious you're there?

I read an article recently that talked about sci-fi and fantasy world building. It pointed out that in situations where the world is foreign to the reader, the author often inserts the 'everyman' character, be they the main character or a secondary character. This character knows little to nothing about the world they're in, so the other characters have to explain things to them, thereby explaining things to the reader. I didn't even realize how often this happens until it was pointed out, then I thought about it; for example, Harry Potter knows nothing about the wizarding world and learns from the other characters; Sookie Stackhouse knows nothing about supernatural creatures (apart from vampires) until they start invading her life; in the Twilight series, Bella knows nothing about vampires until she meets one and he has to explain everything to her.

I will freely admit I did this in my White City series, too. Jude is paranormal but has deliberately avoided the paranormal community all his life, so when he gets thrust into the heart of it the other characters have to fill him (and the reader) in.

This is a good ploy for sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy, and other fantastical writing and clearly it's tried and true. But maybe you don't want to take that route, or maybe you're writing a contemporary piece set in a New York City ad agency and you still need to tell the reader what's going on in the background. What's some other ways to do it? After all, no one walks around thinking, "I sure do like my job at the ad agency that I started working in 1996," or, "the sky is pink on this planet because of the composition of air molecules reacting to our sun-star's radiation."

Here's a couple other ways to impart information to the readers:

- Simply tell us. But in short bursts and at the right time. The information doesn't have to be given in a huge, overwhelming narrative. If we need to know Cindy started at the ad agency in 1996, this can come up in her mind when she meets a fresh, eager new intern, or considers what her life was like before she had the job.

- Work it into a conversation. As I said above, we don't want to be having "As you know Jim..." conversations. ("As you know Jim, the sky is pink because of the air molecules...") But some conversations can be appropriate and non-intrusive and still deliver the info you need to. Cindy takes the intern to lunch and the intern asks her how long she's been working there. "Oh, I started in 1996. Gosh, it really has been that long..."

It's tricky, especially if you're building a foreign world and there's quite a lot of information to give the reader. But the important part to remember is the story--keep the focus on the story and you'll find places to add the background details. Of course, this may be completely different for hard sci-fi where a lot of the focus is on the world building, but then, you have more room for heavy exposition. The rest of us have to be like the man behind the curtain, pulling levers and pushing buttons without anyone noticing (by the way, Dorothy was another 'everyman' in a strange world).

How about you guys out there? Any other ideas for working in exposition?

Things I'm up to.

2012-02-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

I've gotten involved in a few new things I'd like to share with you. First: I'm now a Dirty Birdies author!

This means I'll be blogging on the Dirty Birdies blog, approximately twice a month. Topics are wide and varied, but of course always a little dirty! Each month the bloggers discuss a different theme, as well. Much fun is to be had. The nine authors include Camryn Rhys, Cassandra Carr, Daisy Harris, Elizabeth Silver, Lucy Felthouse, Lissa Matthews, Viki Lyn, and of course, me! Stop over and say hello and get your perv on!

I'm also going to be involved in the Hop Against Homophobia:

The organizers are still looking for more joiners, so if you're a m/m author, reviewer, seller, or publisher, get involved! As of this time there's around 150 blogs involved, so you'll be in good company. The blog hop is being undertaken to celebrate the International Day Against Homophobia.

I'm turning into quite the busy little blogger!

Monday Funday!

2012-02-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

It's Monday again! If you weren't here for this last week, here's the rules of the game:

1. I'll post some of my favorite links on the web: fun sites, time-wasting sites, naughty sites, informative sites, fascinating sites, helpful sites, friend's sites...you get the picture. Maybe you'll find somewhere new to visit and it'll become one of your favorite sites too!

2. You do the same in the comments! Tell us your favorite sites, pimp your friend's sites, pimp your own blogs and websites--whatever you like! It's a free-for-all. My only request is that if you post a link to something naughty, please label it NSFW. That way if someone is browsing at work (although I know none of you would EVER dream of wasting time on the internet while at work...) there's fair warning. That's all. Simple!

My links this week:

Emily Carroll: Artist and illustrator, a creator of charming, bold, and sometimes macabre visuals. Check out the 'comics' section for a few cool and creepy tales.

Anne Lamott: One of my very favorite inspirational authors of all time. Her tongue-in-cheek, black humor has always made me smile. I highly recommend her book Bird By Bird for anyone who dabbles in the writing life. This is her blog on Salon.com and I can get lost on it for hours.

EquaLITy: Bi-monthly newsletter focused on GLBT authors and their community.

50 Men Faking It On Film (NSFW): The male orgasm in movies, from the serious to the not-so-serious.

Every Night Erotica (NSFW): Free erotica snippets to brighten up your day--all sexualities and kinks explored! One of my own stories has been published on the site.

Friends:

DC Juris

Lucy Felthouse

Your turn! Share those links and make Monday a little more fun!

Five things to look for in a publisher.

2012-02-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

I'm published with quite a few publishing houses. I've spread my literary seed around, you could say. I never planned this when I started out, it just sort of happened that way. I found personally, working with more than one publisher gave me more options and I didn't have to restrict myself as far as genre and content were concerned. If something didn't fit with one publisher, I could submit it to another. This has also given me a lot of insight into how different publishing houses work, certain things that are the same across the board no matter where you go, and things as an author I need to watch out for. You can learn a great deal about the business by branching out to more than one, or even two, publishing houses.

I'm published with Torquere Press, Dreamspinner Press, Silver Publishing, Musa Publishing, Noble Romance Publishing, Lillibridge Press, Storm Moon Press, and Freaky Fountain Press. That's a pretty long list, but I've learned some invaluable lessons working with this many publishers. And so, I'm going to share with you the top five things to look for and expect in a publisher, based on my experiences:

1. Mutual respect. A publisher is buying your work because presumably, they think it's a good story and they believe that they (and you) can make money off of it. But you are also the creator of the work and your opinions and thoughts on the process of publishing and the final product should be considered. A publisher should be communicative and open to any concerns you have that arise along the way. You should always be able to email someone with a question and get an answer. I did say mutual respect, however. Which means you should also act in a professional and respectful manner when communicating and expressing your thoughts and concerns. It should never feel like a tug-of-war with a publisher: you're working together, to mutually benefit from the end result.

2. Professionalism. This is one of my biggest sticking points. A huge red flag goes up for me whenever anyone from a publishing house behaves in a non-professional manner, either publicly or in private--be it on author loops, through emails, or other routes of communication where the reader isn't present. Professionalism to me means behaving in a business-like manner, keeping conflicts one-on-one, and sticking to relevant discussion and using respectful language. I have, more than once, seen extremely unprofessional behavior within publishing houses...but because I consider myself a professional, I would never name names or talk about the incidents in public! The author needs to be a professional too. If something is really bothering you at a publishing house, the place to address it is not out in public. And if things are really bad, the best course of action is to simply do no more work with that publishing house.

3. Fairness. Read every contract entirely and carefully before you sign it. Do your research and get an idea of what constitutes fairness as far as length of contracts, royalties, rights, and payments are concerned. Don't be afraid to ask questions if you don't understand something and don't be afraid to ask for changes if something seems unfair. It seems like something you'd never want to do, but if you can't come to an agreement on a contract, withdraw your work. It's not career suicide--it's just being business savvy. If it's your first time signing a contract and everything seems crazy to you, talk to other authors and find out what's fair and what the fine print means. Educate yourself and be wary of publishers that want too much and don't want to budge on it.

4. Reputation. Absolute Write Water Cooler is one of the very best places on the internet to research publishing houses. Go to the 'Bewares, Recommendations, & Background Check' forum and you'll get first-hand information from people who have worked, or are working with various publishing houses. You can also look up what authors write for a publishing house and get in touch with them to ask how they feel about their experience. Many authors are willing to give their honest opinions and I've gotten a few of those emails. Google is also your friend: if a publishing house has a bad reputation, believe me, someone is out there talking about it!

5. Attention to detail. Pick up some of the works the publisher has put out. Are they well-put together? Do they have nice formatting? Are the covers appealing or do they look like they were slapped together in Photoshop in ten seconds? Is the editing sloppy? Do they pump out so many books a week they look like an author mill? See the quality of what the publisher is putting out before you decide to go with them, or you might find yourself disappointed and a little embarrassed with the end result, and stuck in a contract you can't do anything about.

Muses: from beyond or within?

2012-02-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

I've never been one to plot a story out, even a full-length novel. For some people having an outline or even a structured idea helps, but I've never been able to do either. I've tired, several times, to make an outline for a work of fiction, but it never turned out the way I hoped and the outline was forgotten by chapter two. My characters tend to be like unruly toddlers, running around screaming and doing exactly as they please.

I've heard many great authors say they feel like their stories come to them through divine dictation, so uninformed they are of their story's direction while writing. Many authors feel the Muse is something beyond themselves, that they are just transcribing what the Universe, or God, or some Higher Power is commanding them to write. I suppose this all comes down to a matter of faith and belief, however. You can say the words come from beyond you or from within you, but regardless of belief most authors know the Muse works in mysterious ways.

I often find myself writing and not knowing how to work a plot point out, except knowing that I have to keep writing to unravel the knot. So many times this has worked I can't believe it's just chance or luck. The creative process works best when it's being exercised. Like any muscle, the more you use it the stronger it becomes. If you hit a writer's block the best way to bust through it is to punch that wall until you make a hole. Sitting around staring at it is certainly not going to make it dissolve.

I can plan my stories out to a certain point, and even have some goal I work toward--but the truth of the tale comes out in the writing. The more I write, the more I understand what's going on. Likewise, the more I write the more I understand the characters. Sometimes understanding the characters is all you need to move a story along. After all, people move the stories of their lives forward in reality, so why should it be different in fiction?

I wouldn't give up this feeling of being 'commanded from beyond' for anything in the world. I don't want to know the ending until I get there. Oftentimes I feel like the reader instead of the writer. It's a magical feeling, whether I think it's a spiritual blessing or simply a mental process that gets activated by simply working on it.

How about you, authors out there? Do you work from the hip, or do you like to plan it out? I'm interested to hear your take on the writer's magic!

Monday Funday - pimp your favorites!

2012-02-20T10:00:00.000-05:00

I've decided to start a new feature on this blog: every Monday is now Monday Funday! Goodness knows we all need a little pick-me-up to start the week off. Whether you're stuck behind a computer at work all day, or you want to procrastinate on the housework after you ship the kids off to school, I'm hoping this feature will help make your Mondays a little more fun. Here's how it goes:

1. I'll post some of my favorite links on the web: fun sites, time-wasting sites, naughty sites, informative sites, fascinating sites, helpful sites, friend's sites...you get the picture. Maybe you'll find somewhere new to visit and it'll become one of your favorite sites too!

2. You do the same in the comments! Tell us your favorite sites, pimp your friend's sites, pimp your own blogs and websites--whatever you like! It's a free-for-all. My only request is if you post a link to something naughty, please label it NSFW. That way if someone is browsing at work (although I know none of you would EVER dream of wasting your time on the internet while at work...) there's fair warning. That's all. Simple!

Now, without further ado, here's some places on the web I like to visit:

Subnormality - A webcomic that is thought-provoking, life-affirming, realistic, funny, and can tear your heart out with brutal truth. Lots of life experiences explored in a tongue-in-cheek, charming, hip, and creative way. Scroll to the bottom for past comics and the archive.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books - The most awesome site on the web geared toward romance/erotica books.

Arrow of Adonis (NSFW) - Blog of gorgeous, naked and mostly-naked men. Do I need to say more? Very much geared toward a woman's tastes.

Terribleminds - Blog of author Chuck Wendig. Informative, funny, blunt, and chock-full of succinct, hard-nosed writing advice. If you're a writer you don't want to miss this. Even if you aren't a writer, you can get tons of bare-bones life advice through Chuck's rants and ramblings.

Filament Magazine online issues (parts NSFW) - This is a quarterly magazine geared toward women: but I'm not talking about 'geared toward women' the way Cosmo or Good Housekeeping is. Here you can get full issues online for free. Learn more about the magazine here.

My friends:

Helen Pattskyn - My awesome friend Helen whom I met at Penguicon and is now an author with Dreamspinner Press!

Elizabeth Silver - My friend, editor at Musa Publishing, and fellow smutter. Say hi to her and drop off some pictures of Michael Fassbender for her!

Your turn! Give us some places to go!

Technology and fiction.

2012-02-17T10:00:00.000-05:00

Have you ever considered how the characters in a novel communicate with each other? Across airwaves, cyberspace, and through high-tech devices? I'm not even talking about sci-fi stories here: the future is now, and as an author you have keep this in mind when you're creating contemporary worlds.

As a horror author, I can tell you this much: it's no loner easy to isolate characters as a method of creating fear and tension. Even if you abandon your characters in the woods, someone's bound to have a cell phone (and just because they're in the woods doesn't mean there's no signal--in fact, you usually get clearer signals in open spaces). You can't have your characters break down on a back road, either. Again, there's cell phones, not to mention roadside assistance and OnStar. They're not even likely to end up on a back road unless the GPS takes them there or someone they know lives there, and then they can just call and tell their friends they've broken down.

When you're writing contemporary pieces, you have to remember we live in the future, right now. Technology is vast and commonplace. I had this underlined for me when an editor was working on Black Shore of the White City and pointed out even in hiding, my protagonist would probably have access to the internet and get his information from bloggers. Also, he was originally getting a lot of information from newspapers and I realized very few people read paper newspapers anymore.

This is not the world we thirty-somethings grew up in and your characters certainly aren't in it.

You also have to adjust for certain trends: are your characters watching television, or more specifically, the news? Do you realize a lot of people these says watch their favorite TV shows online? That a vast percentage of people get their daily dose of news from online news sites, whether on their computers or phones? The internet has to come into play at least peripherally if you're writing a contemporary piece, especially if someone in your story needs information.

A perfect example: my favorite TV show, Supernatural, follows two brothers who are essentially isolated from society. They travel extensively, have no central home, and live like nomads. Still, they both have laptops and get most of their information from the internet. They also do a great deal of communicating via cellphone. Even drifters are hooked up and hooked in. Likewise, the TV show Sherlock depicts an updated version of Sherlock Holmes--who relies heavily on the use of cell phones and texting.

So as an author, you must remember technology if you want to put your characters in a realistic modern world. If your character needs to know something, these days they're more likely to look it up online than consult an encyclopedia. And no one, not even the most countrified bumpkin, is wholly technologically isolated from society.

So what do you think? Would you rather say 'screw it' and write historical pieces, or is it easier to keep track of how people really live these days, hardwired to the mainframe?

The impact of cover art.

2012-02-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, and while that may be true, many people still do. Admit it: how many romance novels have you bought because the hunk on the cover caught your eye? How many times have you seen a well-put together cover and felt the urge to read the book based on the cover artist's prowess? Advertising has a strong influence on all of us, whether we want to believe we're affected by it or not. And book covers are just that--advertising. A pretty, compelling, dynamic cover attracts our attention, because that's the point.

This is by no means some pronouncement that only books with amazing covers are worth reading. It really is true, you can't judge a book by its cover. A plain, less-than-amazing cover may still house an incredible, compelling story. All I'm declaring is that you can't deny the power of advertising and artistry.

That being said, I've had covers I didn't much care for and covers I nearly wept over (in a good way)--actually feeling my story was inferior to such an amazing cover. If you're not an author, you should know: authors get very little say in what their covers look like. Some publishers allow a little input but others none at all, and we have to accept the final result no matter how we feel. I've always liked the simplistic approach when it comes to covers, but if it's dramatic and done right, it can be beautiful and compelling.

I'll share with you a few of the covers I've been head-over-heels about:

One of the first covers I ever had--and still one of my favorites!

I had some nice input on this one--and it really reflects the story!

Sexy, sexy!

I designed most of this myself, so I might be a little biased.

Simple and to the point. And alluring!

How about you readers out there--do you judge books by their covers? And if you're an author, how do you deal with covers you hate and covers you love? Does it fill you with anxiety waiting for the cover art, or are you happy just to have a cover at all? Let's hear your thoughts!

Welcome guest Genevieve Ash to the blog!

2012-02-14T02:00:00.000-05:00

Genevieve is here for the release of Voyeur Eyes Only. Take it away, Genevieve!

Vegas, Baby!

When the dates were announced for this blog tour, Iimmediately requested Valentines Day—romantic that I am. I did not think aboutthe fact that it was the first stop on the tour. No pressure there!

The inaugural conference of the Erotic Author’s Associationwas held in Las Vegas in September of 2011. My imagination racing, I wonderedwhat would happen when a group of '‘smut writers'—myself included, got togetherin Sin City. The possibilities seemed endless and rather titillating.

What did happen in Las Vegas? A group on wonderful,intelligent and talented people were empowered to talk about what they love todo, without any judgement. Ideas were hatched, friendships were forged and alot of great information on the craft of writing was offered.

When Essemoh Teepee suggested an idea for an audio anthologywith a companion print/ebook to support the conference, I was immediately onboard. With the expertise of D.L. King to edit the print/ebook, we made a callfor submissions. The premise; a voyeur watching from the penthouse of thefictional Skylane Towers hotel, describes the erotic escapades he witnesses. Wereceived a wonderful mix of stories from a talented group of writers who werewilling to share their Vegas inspiration.

On a personal level, Vegas took on a whole differentatmosphere. Gone was the frenzied, cram it all in long weekends of Vegas’ past.The focus was on the activities surrounding the conference. Some highlights; Awonderful night of story telling by some great writers and, my first livereading at the Museum of Erotic Heritage. The ensuing trip back to the hotelwas nearly as fun after we ‘bribed’ a Limo driver from the strip club nextdoor, to carry ten beautiful women and one very happy man, back to theFlamingo. A beautifully dressed bride and her father sat waiting beneath thestocking clad widespread legs of the hotel sex shop, while her maid of honorfussed with her hair. Her choice of attire? Cut-off shorts and flip-flops! Theclosing cocktail party full of exhausted but inspired and happy writers lettingdown their hair and enjoying new friends was a great finale.

The worst part of the conference—it was over entirely toosoon!

But, Genevieve, were there any wild debaucheries takingplace during the conference, you ask? Well, you will just have to listen to orread the book to find out if ’What Happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…

Today the dream becomes a reality. Voyeur Eyes Only: VegasWindows, Erotic Encounters in Sin city is released. A big thanks to the EroticAuthor’s Association, D.L. King, XciteBooks, Essemoh Teepee and all the contributors for making it happen. Availablenow from audible.com and Xcite Books!

*****

An erotic collection of shorts stories by best-selling authors with a central theme of voyeurism in Las Vegas.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas? Not anymore…

High above the Las Vegas strip, at the top of Skylane Tower, the rooms come with one special amenity; a high powered telescope. When a group of erotica writers descend on Sin City for their annual conference, the voyeurs witness first hand, that some authors live by the adage, ‘write what you know’.

A woman’s curiosity is piqued as she observes a beautiful stranger being bound in silky red rope. A man scouting for new sex slaves, watches as an elegant woman gets more than her hands dirty. A prostitute pulls a switch - sending her lover out on a call. A simple slip of the hand, causes a case of mistaken room identity and a linen closet at a nearby hotel, sees more action than all of them combined. And that is just the beginning…

They say perception is reality. Is what the Voyeur sees through their spyglass just a fantasy; on which side of the lens would you like to be?

Buy Links:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Voyeur-Eyes-Only-ebook/dp/B0072LGYFA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328123398&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Voyeur-Eyes-Only-ebook/dp/B0072LGYFA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328123615&sr=8-1

*****

Genevieve Ash is a multi-published writer of erotic romance. Her work is available from Ellora’s Cave, Xcite Books, Total-e Bound and Sizzler Editions-Renaissance ebooks. Recently she worked with Diane King and Essemoh Teepee, editing a new anthology titled, Voyeur Eyes Only; Vegas Windows—Erotic Adventures in Sin City. Her Audio titles published by smotp.com are available through Audible.com. You can find out more at www.genevieveash.com

The "Voyeur Eyes Only" tour is hitting fourteen websites over fourteen days - check this link to see where and when the other posts are: http://www.writermarketing.co.uk/prpromotion/blog-tours/currently-on-tour/voyeur-eyes-only/

Release day: Cupid Darling

2012-02-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the release of my novella Cupid Darling, part of the 'Gift of Love' anthology from Silver Publishing!

Cupid Darling

Lyndon is a Cupid--there's more than one--and he's about to spend his last Valentine's Day in his present state of existence before he transcends to a higher plane: not a big deal in the cosmic scheme of things. His routine last days as a dealer of love on earth get a little more interesting however, when he comes across handsome, successful, but terminally single Timothy Darling, a human who can not only see him but is fully aware of what Lyndon is up to when he shoots him with his arrow.

Despite warnings from the 'higher ups' to stay away from Timothy, Lyndon can't resist finding out more about him; and if Timothy has any say in it, before Lyndon goes to the great and all-knowing beyond, he's going to get a little taste of what he's been inflicting on humans for centuries.

Excerpt:

Lyndon had research to do. He initiated romance but didn’t really understand how humans implemented the concept. He visited various shops to speak with the clerks and looked through magazines. He discovered humans had various things they equated with romantic encounters: candles, flowers—which he already had covered—dim lighting, wine, and chocolate. Lyndon had never used any of these items with his sexual partners, but this encounter would be special.

When Timothy arrived home in the evening, Lyndon had all these items, through extensive use of trickery, acquired and arranged.

He had turned the lights down low after discovering a knob on the wall for controlling the level of light. He’d lit all the candles he’d gotten, which were significant in number. He figured the more candles he had, the more romantic things would look. He sat on the couch waiting, with an assortment of wine and boxes of chocolate on the table in front of him. He’d grabbed as many different kinds of both as he could find.

Timothy looked surprised. So surprised in fact he dropped his coat and briefcase.

“I thought the apartment was on fire!”

Lyndon smiled hopefully. “Candles are romantic.”

Timothy looked around the room, then at the bottles and boxes piled on the table. “What in the…”

“Chocolate and wine,” Lyndon announced. “You said we should have dinner.”

Timothy walked over to the table. “I was thinking something a bit more substantial. This isn’t exactly ‘dinner.’ ”

“You didn’t bring your flowers home?” Lyndon asked, concerned their absence would ruin the romance.

“I’m keeping them in my office, something to look at.” He eyed Lyndon. “And I’ll have you know, I was harassed mercilessly for the rest of the afternoon. I’m the talk of the department.”

“Is that good?”

“It keeps them occupied, at least.”

“Did I embarrass you?”

“No. Everyone knows I’m gay. They’re just nosy. They approve of you, by the way. Sylvie thinks you’re handsome.” He turned away and started peeling off his jacket.

Lyndon rubbed his chin. “I am, aren’t I?”

“I’m going to order some food. And put out a few of these candles before they set off the sprinklers.”

Timothy got some ‘real food,’ though he did have some of the chocolates, and a few glasses of wine. Lyndon became fascinated by the way his mouth worked, how he closed his lips around the candies, the way he sipped his wine, even the way he talked. Timothy had turned the lights on so his every movement and expression showed clear. Lyndon couldn’t remember being so mesmerized by a man’s mouth.

Timothy controlled most of the conversation. He talked about his work, about his day. He talked about his family and about Valentine’s Days he’d had in the past.

When he’d finished talking, Timothy leaned against the arm of the couch, a glass of red wine in his hand. He gazed at Lyndon, who sat near him. Lyndon had been gradually inching closer as the evening progressed. He couldn’t remember being so shy with a man, either.

“So,” Timothy said. His voice was pitched low and reminded Lyndon of the color of the wine in his glass. “Is this very romantic evening leading where I think it is?”

“Do you want it to?”

Buy link: https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/new-release-c-1/gift-of-love-anthology-ebook-p-804

You've gotten the acceptance: now what?

2012-02-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

In my last blog post I talked about getting published, including tips for navigating publishers and agents and getting that coveted acceptance. In this post, I'm going to talk about things to do after you capture that prize. Some of you, like me, may be new and wondering what happens now. I'll give you some tips based on the experiences I've had since becoming a published author:

1. Accept that most editors know much more about writing than you do. You've been writing your entire life. You've taken classes. Your grammar and spelling are polished. You understand completely how to construct plot and characters. You've studied every way there is to properly put together a manuscript. That's great. You're going to be amazed at how much you actually don't know, so sit down and be quiet. Listen to your editors, take their advice, and learn from them. I was stunned how much I really didn't know about writing until my editors guided me and helped me shape my writing. The knowledge I've gotten from being published has been absolutely invaluable. Make sure you take what you learn from these professionals and start applying it to your work. You will be amazed at how your writing blooms.

2. Don't lose your mind over edits. It's common to receive a manuscript marked up with edits and want to drink yourself to sleep. It's easy to look at the changes and get defensive, angry, and hurt. Instead, look through them and try to understand and correct your mistakes so you don't make them next time. Take a deep breath and remember, your editor just wants you to write the best possible story you can write. It's hard to be grateful when you feel like you're being told you're a stupid stupidhead who can't write, but if you take it step-by-step you'll learn a great deal. And remember, they accepted your story for a reason--they just want to make it shine now.

3. You are your own promotion machine. Unless you're already a New York Times bestselling author, no one is going to know who you are and no one is going to tell them but you. You have to give yourself an internet presence, whether you like it or not. Get involved in social media. Start blogging. Send your stuff to reviewers. Get involved in forums and discussions. Go to conventions. Put yourself in people's faces. New authors don't get much attention advertising-wise so you have to make it yourself. Say hello other authors and make new friends.

4. Don't buy that mansion and yacht just yet. Seriously, you're not going to get rich, especially when you're first starting out. You're actually probably going to spend more money than you make to promote yourself. Keep your day job for a while.

5. Get back to work. It's nice to bask in the glory of being published, but remember what got you there and get back to it, so you can stay relevant and build a readership. It's what you wanted to do with your life anyway, isn't it?

Any other authors out there with some advice? Let's hear it!

5 tips for aspiring published authors

2012-02-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

I'm still pretty new to the party on the published author side of the writing fence, having only been published for a year and a half. However, I've published quite a few things in that time, so I thought I might be qualified to pass on some advice. This is based on my own experiences trying to fight my way into that yard where the grass seems so much greener. If you're looking to leap over that fence too, here's some things to give you a boost:

1. Make sure your skin is thick. You're going to get rejected, maybe a lot, when you first start out submitting things. Most authors are. Some agents or publishers will send you form rejection letters, some a short, non-specific personal note, and some may even tell you why they're rejecting you. Some might give you a little advice. Try not to take anything too personally. Listen to the advice if it seems relevant, but don't let anything get you down. The best way to deal with the disappointment of a rejection is to look the work over again for ways you might make it better, then send it off to someone else. Don't give up. And whatever you do, don't email an agent or publisher back and tell them to go to Hell, no matter how much you want to.

2. Follow directions. This is so very important. I have writer friends who have asked me, "How do you submit something?" There is no one answer to this. The only true answer is: go to the agent or publisher's website and read their instructions for submission, and then follow them to the letter. Every publisher has guidelines they want you to follow when submitting. Every agent does too. Some only want you to query them. Some want partial manuscripts. Some want full manuscripts. Some want a query and synopsis. And they all want these things formatted in different ways. No matter how many instructions are given, be sure you cover them all. If a publisher wants you to submit a partial manuscript triple-spaced in Papyrus font only during the first Tuesday of the full moon, you better do it or it'll come back unread.

3. Know the market you're submitting to. Don't send the wrong thing to the wrong people. Read or look up some of the other things the agent handles or the publisher puts out. Target publishers that cater to what you've written. Don't send a horror novel to someone who only handles YA books. Look around and see which publishers are publishing the books and stories that are most like yours. You can also find out who represents the authors who write in the same genre as you and query them. Do some research first and make sure your manuscript is going someplace it will be welcome.

4. Toot your horn a little. Even if you have no publications under your belt, you can find things to brag about. Before I was published I would briefly go over classes I had completed or courses I had taken, and talk about how long I'd been writing. This lets an agent or publisher know you're serious and dedicated to the craft. Don't talk too much about these things, but when they ask for a 'brief bio' you can throw a few tidbits out there to show you want to pursue a writing career seriously.

5. Network. I've gotten published in several anthologies because I spoke to the editors and developed a rapport with them long before I got the acceptance. It's easier these days with social media: say hello on Twitter or Facebook. Write an admiring email. Comment on blog posts. Find the people who do the publishing and say hello. You never know what might come of it down the road.

Any published authors out there want to share some of their own tips? I'd love to hear them! In my next blog post, I'll talk about things to do after you're published that will help you stay in the game.

Welcome guest Miranda Lake to the blog!

2012-02-03T03:00:00.000-05:00

TheInitiate by Miranda Lake

Blurb:

The Lady Hysena Macarydias, teenagedaughter of the most noble house of Qalle, finds her illusion of how life willbe as an Initiate at the formidable Citadel utterly shattered.

The excesses of Father Tarrip, High Priestof the Holy Prophet , would be beyond the endurance of the terrified girls inhis charge were it not for the efforts of Sister Maria, who as an Adept of thesecretive and forbidden Society of T’arn, is able to control him – but only toa degree.

But Maria has concerns beyond the fate ofthe pampered young ladies of Qalle aristocracy; the delicately balanced peacebetween the warring nations is under threat, and the very future of the planetmay be in her hands.

The struggle for control of Qalle is a secretone, known to only a few. Caught between the opposing factions are the innocentInitiates: Hysena, the beautiful, intelligent yet naive Lady; Jagdig, theformidable warrior girl of Kallinia; plump Princess Leel of Calith; tiny,demure Silka of Sis Narash and the others.

And, somewhere within the sprawling wallsand forbidding towers of the ancient Citadel, are the Acolytes, malecounterparts to the Initiates, who in the timeless manner of young meneverywhere will undertake any risk if it may result in the chance to meet youngwomen, even if that risk may result in disaster...

The world of Qalle is a world of cruelty,of pain, of punishment. A world of plot, counter-plot and intrigue, but whichstill allows time enough for love, tenderness and yearning desire.

First published some years ago, TheInitiate by Miranda Lake is now available in downloadable form for the firsttime – one of the most erotic novels to be published this century.

Buylinks:

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-theinitiate-600031-144.html

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005LPVL9I/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lucyfelthouse-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B005LPVL9I

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LPVL9I/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lucyfelt-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005LPVL9I

Excerpt:

Xarrith was right, he reflected. Risk didmake the blood sing, but what risk! He did not know what punishment wouldfollow discovery on such an adventure, but had not been joking when hesuggested to Xarrith that he feared for their very survival. His researchesinto the Citadel had offered hints of people entering the forbidding wallsnever to be seen or heard of again. Was a few hours of ecstasy worth possibledeath? As he watched the taller of the two naked girls, now lying on her backwith her legs held high and wide by the one with the magnificent breasts andthe holy sister bringing the tokan down directly on her spread vagina, healmost thought that it was.

As she plied the tokan between the openlegs of Nephraan and heard her shrill scream as the whippy leather bit into herswollen labia, Sister Colya was wondering whether to order one (or both!) ofthe Initiates to lick her soaking cunt. With a grimace, she decided againstthis, knowing from experience that, while all of them would do this delightfulservice for each other, they hated to do it for their sister elder. Or at leastthis sister elder. She suspected that they showed no such reticence with Mariaand felt a bitter pang of envy at the thought, bringing the tokan down with allher strength in her frustration.

Nephraan screamed even louder as the crueldevice once again bit into her exposed sex.

The sound of the scream came clearlythrough the wall to the ears of the fascinated Tasnar. Unlike Xarrith who hadseen punishments carried out on his people at home, in Sis Narash the though oftreating another person in such a barbaric manner was anathema. He found thesight deeply shocking but even more exciting. Once again he applied his eye tothe small hole in the ancient wall.

Who are these people?

2012-02-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

One could hardly argue when it comes to writing fiction one of the most important elements of the story is the characters. After all, most fiction isn't about sedentary rocks and the inanimate lives of trees. We need people--or aliens, vampires, or whatever you happen to be writing about, but someone or something has to have a personality.

And the author has to make up that personality.

There are tons of methods for creating characters. Ask a hundred different authors how they build characters and they'll give you a hundred different techniques, tailor-made to their brand of thinking and writing. Some authors like to plan characters out down to the most meticulous details, including what their favorite color is and where they went on vacation with their family when they were ten. They might fill a whole notebook with details about a character--fully knowing most of those details will never make it into the story--in order to have a well-rounded comprehension of their character. Other authors (like myself) enjoy finding out details about their characters lives and what motivates them as they write. The author may start with a rough sketch of the character and gradually flesh them out as the story develops.

There's an intense pressure to make interesting characters too, but I argue this is subjective. Largely because readers are diverse. What qualifies as 'interesting' to one reader might be boring to another, or too much, or just doesn't do it for them. Creating an old lady that likes to knit and has six cats may sound boring, but some people might just love reading about a little old lady who knits sweaters for her cats. This is more an argument of readership and audiences though, so I won't go too deep into it.

I say what makes a character interesting is if they're interesting to the author. When an author is interested in their characters and enjoys writing them, that comes through on the page. Whether the character is an international spy, an overworked tax account, or a sheep herder on the side of a remote mountain, if the author is enjoying the character the character is going to come across as interesting.

But how do you make up these imaginary people?

For me, most of my characters start as a concept. A feeling. A lot of times I hear them having conversations with other people before I get a clear view of what they look like or what their deal is. Often they come packaged as amorphous blobs along with the overall idea of the story, ready to be shaped and formed to fit the circumstances. Sometimes I do a little fleshing out beforehand, but I never make full-blown character sketches, mostly because I enjoy letting the character tell me who they are as we frolic through the story together. Like the author who has pages of character details they'll never use, this means I'll have huge chunks of story I later cut out, but it all turns out the same in the end.

And sometimes characters end up cut too, because they just weren't chatty enough with me to make it through the story. Sometimes you think you're building a person and you realize it was just an automaton, so you have to shoot them back into space.

What are your thoughts on character-building? And what do you find makes a character 'interesting?'

Welcome guest Kris Andersson to the blog!

2012-01-31T02:00:00.000-05:00

Today Kris Andersson is here to share his erotic short story collection, While the Wife's Away. Take it away, Kris!

*****

“Why are there so many hairy men in your stories?”

It wasn’t a question I had very much considered before I wasasked by a reader but I must admit that most of the men stripping for action inmy stories do usually reveal a fine chest full of hair when they get theirshirts of.

And the reason for that is probably quite simple – it’ssomething I don’t have myself!

I’ve gone through my life as an almost complete smoothy andeven advancing old age has done little to enhance the scant crop of chest hairsI was once assured would arrive with maturity.

I have always envied those men who sport a great hairy chestbecause, to somebody smooth and pale like me, it seems like a very overt symbolof virile masculinity.

The one thing I really didn’t understand was that craze afew seasons ago for men to shave more than their faces.

There must have been lots of men and women out theredisappointed to discover that the electric pleasure a firm stubbly chin wasfollowed up by the disappointment of a schoolboy smooth chest.

It’s great to see that hairy men are back – and they do takeup most of the action in my stories.

It’s purely a matter of personal taste I suppose but whenI’m reading about two guys making out, I’d rather they were real men – witheverything that entails, including the full rug.

In some cases, it need be only that small patch between thetits but more often, as my regular readers will know and hopefully enjoy, it’sthe full carpet of fur that starts up just below the throat – all the betterfor poking tantalizingly out of the top of a shirt – and then going all the waydown to join the pubic hair at the groin.

You see this nowhere better than in The Sin of FatherAnthony, one of the trio of stories featured in my short story collection Whilethe Wife’s Away.

It’s a story that combines two favourite themes – forbiddenfruit and a hard hairy body, as this extract demonstrates...

-----

I stumbled backwards and would have fallen had FatherAnthony not been there to catch me in those wonderfully masculine arms that nowencircled me just I had been imagining for weeks.

“You want to be more careful,” he almost whispered. “I don’twant the best looking member of my congregation to spend his Christmas oncrutches.”

Slowly, responding to that obvious come on, I turned to facehim, his arms still around me and mine now circling his body too.

Then I gently placed my lips against his in a simple kissthat deepened into a passionate embrace, a full on snog, as tongue sought outtongue and the bristles on his face rubbed against me, creating a charge oferotic electricity.

I released him and moved my hands to his chest where, slowlyand deliberately, I unfastened the buttons of that tight black shirt, tuggingit off and throwing it to one side by the tree as I admired the sculpted torso,the defined six pack, the hard abs and the unexpectedly large nipples, allcovered in a forest of hair that I now stroked and explored as I moved in totake a nipple between my lips, enjoying the small gasp of pleasure that told meFather Anthony was enjoying his seduction.

As I sucked one tit and then the other, my hands moved downto unbuckle his belt, and unfasten his trousers, reaching in to pull his cockfree…

------

Just how far is Father Anthony prepared to go. I think youcould definitely say all the way – and the hero/narrator makes full use of thatchest full of black curly hair.

There are some smooth chests in my stories – check out thelusty, trashy, thuggish handyman in Masters and Servants - but I always findmyself coming back to a good thatch when the going gets really steamy!

*****

While the Wife’s Away is a collection of three gay short stories from well-known erotic author Kris Andersson.

While the Wife's Away: When the boss suggests an evening meeting at his home and makes it quite clear that his wife is away for the night, you can guarantee that there will be more than statistics and spread sheets on the agenda - and by the end of the night a new sort of business partnership has been created.

Masters and Servants: It's hard losing your job - and even harder looking for something new. But just how far will one man go to impress the boss? From steamy encounters in the office to passion in a scenic lift and shower room to lust in the potting shed, this is one job search that proves especially stimulating!

The Sin of Father Anthony: When a new priest arrives in town, one lapsed Catholic decides it's time to start attending Mass again - but he has more than absolution on his mind as he uses his girlfriend to get closer to the true object of his desire and give him a night he’ll never forget. From lusty housekeepers and choir mistresses to a hairy trucker with a taste for stockings and suspenders, this is a story packed with sexual thrills for a young man on a personal mission to satisfy his gay passions.

Buy Links for While the Wife's Away:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005CKHWKY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lucyfelthouse-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B005CKHWKY

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CKHWKY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lucyfelt-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005CKHWKY

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-whilethewife039sawayotherstories-576118-144.html

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/while-the-wifes-away-and-other-stories-kris-andersson/1105835829

*****

Kris Andersson is an award-winningwriter - and occasional actor - who specialises in gay erotica. His work hasbeen described as both pacy and steamy. His current titles include While TheWife’s Away – a collection of three stories - Acts of Passion and A SpecialGift. A fourth title is expected to be published very soon and will take Krisin a very different direction, a gay love story set against the horrors of theFirst World War and its aftermath.

Release day: Blue-Gray Lines

2012-01-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the release of my novella 'Blue-Gray Lines,' part of the More Love Notes anthology from Musa Publishing!

Blue-Gray Lines

Wendell Davis is a rarity in 1864 Missouri--a man of eligible age and good health not fighting in the Civil War, thanks to his cruel mother's manipulations. However, Wendell's lifelong lover, Declan Kelly, is away fighting on the side of the Union. Parted for two years, communicating only via letters and bombarded by the horrors of war even on the home front, Wendell is starting to lose hope. The only thing that can bring light back into Wendell's gray world is a reunion with Declan--something he's going to have to fight his own war to achieve.

About More Love Notes

Across battle lines, foolish games, and conflicting tempos, love always
finds a way. From rock and roll to symphonies, modern day geeks to
19th century soldiers, this collection of sexy and romantic stories shows even the loneliest of moments can be made right when the perfect note is delivered. Let More Love Notes find a home in your heart, a reminder that love happens all over, any time, any place. Written by four of the hottest authors in gay erotic romance--Lydia Nyx, Scarlett Parrish, Viki Lyn and Jenny Urban--these stories will definitely add an edge of spice to your Valentine's night.

Excerpt:

On a gray, cold day in October of 1862, Declan told Wendell he intended to go to St. Louis and enlist. Wendell had been expecting the announcement for some time. Declan’s father had been angry ever since the Confederates took Independence at the end of August and the affront seemed all Declan could talk about as well.

“I won’t be gone that long,” Declan said as they stood next to Wendell’s garden. “This war won’t outlast the year. And my Daddy won’t let me stay away no how, not even if I wanted to.”

“So you want to go to war?”

“I think there’s cause.” Declan sounded powerfully convinced, and Wendell wanted to throw him down in the mud and beat him. “I know you’re neutral, but my family isn’t. You’ve heard my Daddy talking about it. We gotta put down these Rebels.”

“And you’re the man to do that?” Wendell’s words were as bitter as the bile in his throat.

“I can ride and shoot, better than most men. I’m gonna join up with the Calvary. Like I said, it won’t last the year. I won’t be gone too long.”

“The war could be over a week after you get there, don’t mean you won’t get killed in that week.”

Declan gave him a cock-sure look. He often wore such a look when someone told him he couldn’t do something, or wouldn’t.

“No one’s gonna take me down. You could come with me. You can ride and shoot. Almost as good as me, even.”

Wendell barked out a laugh. “She won’t let me off the farm to go to war.”

“Who cares? Go anyway. You’re a man, aren’t you?”

“And leave her to die? She wouldn’t make it a week without me to tend to things.”

Declan took his elbow and squeezed tight. Wendell looked down at his hand.

“You been under her thumb since your father died.” Declan lowered his voice. “But you don’t have to be anymore, not if you don’t want to. Come with me. What’s she gonna do when you get married, huh? She want you to stay with her then?”

Wendell snorted. “I don’t expect I’ll get married.” He looked up at Declan. “Unless one of us becomes a woman.”

“I would marry you regardless.” He smiled. “But you won’t give me any children.”

“We could always snatch us up some orphans in Platte City.”

Declan laughed, a beautiful sound, more so than the birds in the trees or music from a finely-tuned fiddle. Wendell wished he could bottle up Declan’s laughter and carry the sound with him, so he could listen whenever he wanted.

Declan went off that day and enlisted, like a fool. Wendell stayed bent up in bed all afternoon and night, sick and anxious.

The war did outlast the year, and the next.

Buy Link: http://www.musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9&products_id=174

I'm also at the Storm Moon Press blog today, talking about not-so-happy endings. Stop in and say hi to me!

Magic in New Orleans

2012-01-25T13:03:00.000-05:00

This week I'm seeing the culmination of two creative endeavors I began while at the GRL Retreat in New Orleans. For being on 'vacation' I certainly started a lot of work there. Maybe there's some magical writing mojo in that old, amazing city and I absorbed some of it. I didn't realize how many things I'd started in New Orleans until someone pointed it out to me yesterday. I think I need to move there!

Both projects coming to fruition this week were started over dinner.

Prior to the retreat, I'd been invited to write a story for Musa Publishing's More Love Notes anthology, which comes out this Friday. I'm generally a pretty fast writer, so with my head being full of preparation for the retreat, I decided to put off working on the story until I came back.

In the middle of my week in New Orleans (I went for a few extra days) the anthology's editor, Elizabeth Silver, contacted all the authors in the anthology and asked us to send our ideas and a brief synopsis by the weekend. Uh oh! I initially emailed her back and told her I was at the retreat, and asked for an extension until the next week. However, when we went to dinner that night on Bourbon Street (where I had the most awesome gator burger ever made), the wheels began turning.

My friend with me at dinner must have been either amused or horrified as she watched me 'brainstorm,' which consisted of a lot of talking to myself. Midway through dinner I emailed Elizabeth from my phone and told her what I was doing which resulted in a hilarious exchange. I sent her a synopsis the next morning, and though the story changed a bit from the original idea once I got to writing it, that was how Blue-Gray Lines was born: in a restaurant on Bourbon Street, at the 11th hour.

Over a gator burger. How glamorous.

The second big project that got underway in New Orleans was born a few nights later. All the authors did an autograph signing on a river boat--best time ever!--and then when we returned, Lorna Hinson and Shawn Clements, the owners of Torquere Press, held a get-together for Torquere authors in the Bourbon O bar. Many fun times were had, and I got to meet a bunch of my fellow authors, including the wonderful Kiernan Kelly and her husband!

I had too many fun times.

After drinks, some of us decided to go to dinner on Bourbon Street. More fun was had, and during dinner, I said to Shawn and Lorna: "You should do a New Orleans-themed anthology! You could call it Po'Boys!"

Ah, I'm such a wit. Or is that a twit?

Very professional authors coming up with super great ideas.

Needless to say, after the retreat several authors, including myself, were invited to write stories for said anthology. I turned mine in at the beginning of January and signed the contract for it yesterday--it should be coming out around Mardi Gras, to keep with the theme!

So as you can see, a lot of creative machines got their wheels while I was in New Orleans. I pitched an idea to an agent from New York while I was there too...we'll see where that goes!

Tomorrow I'll be hosting Torquere Press' blog Romance For the Rest of Us. Come over and say hi and win some prizes!

Welcome guest Justine Elyot to the blog!

2012-01-23T02:00:00.000-05:00

Justine Elyot is here today to promote her work Meeting Her Match. Take it away, Justine!

TheOne…and the Other One

How many writers have got the last third oftheir story, confident that they are heading for the finishing post, only tohave a subsidiary character suddenly leap out at them and threaten to steal theshow?

This has happened to me twice now. I had tochange the ending I'd planned for OnDemand because the character of the cocktail waiter, Lloyd, was such a persistentlysexy little swine. When I wrote MeetingHer Match, I had a very similar experience. In this case, I didn't changemy planned ending because it would have scuppered too many other strands of thestory, but a certain red-headed chauffeur featured rather more heavily than I'dever intended.

When I drafted my synopsis, he was afaceless functionary. I was probably going to make him sexy because, well, whynot? But I had no idea he was going to run away with me in this rascallymanner. And he is a rascal, make no mistake about it.

Here's the scene where he shaves ourheroine, Cherry, on the kitchen table – I think this might be my favourite inthe whole book:

"Well,good morning," he said with a broad smile. "Here's our newgirl."

"Sheneeds your steady hand with the razor," said Liv.

"Ohgood. I was hoping for that." He winked at me and beckoned. "Come andsit on the table. I'll just get my tackle."

Hewas as gorgeous as I remembered, freckly and pale with the filthiest glint I'dever seen.

Ipositioned myself on the edge of the table. Liv went over to the old-fashionedrange and set about getting the kettle on. I tried to adjust my mindset, toview all this as normal, but it wouldn't shift and everything remainedobstinately bizarre. I'm not one for waxing – a neat trim is as much as I canmanage when it comes to pubic topiary. I'd always been too shy to put my bushin the hands of a beautician – so it just seemed topsy-turvy in the extremethat I was now entrusting it to a bad red-haired man with a cut-throat razor.

Hecame back in with a bowl of water, a towel over his forearm and a blade thatmade me think of Jack the Ripper and screw my eyes shut.

Helaughed at my fear, setting the bowl down on the floor.

"I'ma dab hand at this, sweetheart," he said. "Don't worry. Raise yourapron for me, doll, and spread your legs nice and wide. Here, lift up yourbum."

Heslid the towel underneath me and waited until I was in position, wide-thighedwith my apron bunched up in a fist.

"Good.Now lie back. Think of England,if you like. Or think of whatever you want. Sex is always favourite."

Oh,he was a cheeky bleeder, but it worked for me. My crotch tingled as I pressedmy spine down on the hard deal surface and looked up at the ceiling.

Therange was beginning to bring some much-needed warmth to the room and behind meLiv clattered about with pots and pans, preparing for the caterers, I supposed.Not that supposition-making was easy when a sexy man stood in your foreground,sharpening his razor blade on an old-fashioned leather strop. I wished I couldtake some footage of it, to be replayed at a less nerveracking, more leisurelytime. I would be happy to watch it for hours.

Buthe put down the strop and the razor on the table, took a shaving brush andbegan to lather me up, circling the bristles from the base of my abdomen anddown until the whole area was a mass of foam, even as far back as the crack ofmy bum. His brisk, firm appliance was performed by an expert hand – not abubble of the stuff landed inside my lips, which I kept wide open for him.

"That'sa nicely swollen clit," he commented, just at the moment that the caterersappeared, taking over at the range from Liv, who came to watch Damian'shandiwork.

"She'senjoying it," she remarked, bending forward to get a better view.

Thecaterers threw some bacon into a pan, oblivious. The sizzle coincided with thefirst careful stroke of Damian's razor.

"Youknow you have to keep very, very still," he murmured, holding a thighsteady with his unoccupied hand. "You don't need me to tell you that, doyou?"

"No,"I whispered.

"No,Sir," he reminded me gently. "Everybody here is Sir or Ma'am to you,whether guests or servants. Don't forget, unless you want me to use my stropfor something different."

"Sorry,Sir."

There's more of that…but you'll need toread the book to continue the scene. Further details here:

In the internet age, it should be easy for like-minded fetishists to find and connect with each other. Or so Cherry thought. Her decision to enter the wild and wonderful world of BDSM leads her to some interesting and unexpected places. She soon finds herself on 'the scene' and her insatiable curiosity takes her to orgies, slave auctions and mansion houses full of trainee submissives, but where will she find her perfect dom? Will Cherry ever meet her match?

Available in paperback: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meeting-Her-Match-Justine-Elyot/dp/1908086157/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1325843405&sr=8-1

And for Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meeting-Her-Match-ebook/dp/B006C4C3SK/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM&qid=1325843405&sr=8-1

JustineElyot is the UKbestselling author of On Demand, The Business ofPleasure and Erotic Amusements. When she isn't buried under a pile of newprojects, you can find her waving at the world from her website http://justineelyot.com/ or gassing about trivialities on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/JustineElyot.

It only remains to thank the lovely Lydia very muchfor hosting me here today – and I'd love to hear your tales of secondarycharacters who have taken over the show. I'm sure I'm not the only person thishas happened to…or am I…?

Reading gifts for Valentine's Day!

2012-01-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

I have two new releases coming up very shortly, both full of love and romance and just in time for Valentine's Day!

Blue Gray Lines 1/27/12 (Musa Publishing)

Wendell Davis is a rarity in 1864 Missouri--a man of eligible age and good health not fighting in the Civil War, thanks to his cruel mother's manipulations. However, Wendell's lifelong lover, Declan Kelly, is away fighting on the side of the Union. Parted for two years, communicating only via letters and bombarded by the horrors of war even on the home front, Wendell is starting to lose hope. The only thing that can bring light back into Wendell's gray world is a reunion with Declan--something he's going to have to fight his own war to achieve.

About More Love Notes:

Across battle lines, foolish games, and conflicting tempos, love always finds a way. From rock and roll to symphonies, modern day geeks to 19th century soldiers, this collection of sexy and romantic stories shows even the loneliest of moments can be made right when the perfect note is delivered. Let More Love Notes find a home in your heart, a reminder that love happens all over, any time, any place. Written by four of the hottest authors in gay erotic romance--Lydia Nyx, Scarlett Parrish, Viki Lyn and Jenny Urban--these stories will definitely add an edge of spice to your Valentine's night.

Cupid Darling 2/11/12 (Silver Publishing)
Lyndon is a Cupid--there's more than one--and he's about to spend his last Valentine's Day in his present state of existence before he transcends to a higher plane: not a big deal in the cosmic scheme of things. His routine last days as a dealer of love on earth get a little more interesting however, when he comes across handsome, successful, but terminally single Timothy Darling, a human who can not only see him but is fully aware of what Lyndon is up to when he shoots him with his arrow. Despite warnings from the 'higher ups' to stay away from Timothy, Lyndon can't resist finding out more about him; and if Timothy has any say in it, before Lyndon goes to the great and all-knowing beyond, he's going to get a little taste of what he's been inflicting on humans for centuries.

LEARN MORE HERE

A great way to spice up your Valentine's Day!

Starving authors: will work for free promotion!

2012-01-20T17:43:00.000-05:00

I'm certainly a starving author, and during my short time being published, I've had to find cheap or free ways to promote myself and my work. Since I'm all about saving money--and helping other people save it--I thought I'd share some of the ways I've promoted myself without breaking the bank, or even dipping into my wallet. Of course these all assume the cost of a computer and an internet connection, but if you don't have those, how are you reading this right now?!

Blogs. Not just starting your own blog, though I've found that helpful too. If you have your own blog, host other authors on it sometimes--especially bigger authors who have a wider audience than you, because they will bring people to your blog. I'm part of Writer Marketing Services for that very purpose. Do guest blogs on other people's blogs, too. Readers might not know who you are, but they will once you show up and say hello, and you never know what a guest appearance could lead to. I got invited to speak at Penguicon last year because of a guest blog post I did for Kit O'Connell!

Social networking. Facebook and Twitter are good for social networking, but it's not just about making tweets and status updates. Talk to other people, make comments, tweet at them. I got most of my Facebook followers by leaving comments on other people's statuses. Remember, if there's a link to you, someone might follow it! Also, tweeting with others can get you a Follow Friday mention, and I've gained a lot of Twitter followers via those. There's also mailing lists, like Yahoo! groups. Although, I tend to participate more on reader groups than author groups. Not that authors can't be readers, but if you're just pandering to other authors you'll never find a wider audience.

Sticking your nose in. Make comments: on blog posts, reviews, message board discussions, or wherever people are chattering, and make sure there's a link to your website or blog included. As I said above, if there's a link back to you, someone might follow it: especially if you hop into the conversation with something interesting to say!

Participate. Sometimes when you participate in certain events, or give away something for a contest a publisher or site is having, you can get free ad space in return. I've done this several times. Keep an eye out for these opportunities--often then pop up on mailing lists and on Facebook, or other authors talk about them.

Reviews. Send your stuff to review sites. Don't be shy. Review sites are geared toward readers and are tailored to the kind of audiences you want to get in front of. If you're new you might struggle to get reviewed, but you certainly won't get reviewed if you don't even submit yourself to it.

Tagging. Tag your work appropriately wherever it is, be it Amazon, Goodreads, blog posts, All Romance Ebooks, Shelfari, GLBT Bookshelf, or anywhere else your work appears if you have the power to control it. Make sure your work gets included whenever a reader is looking for something in the category you've written.

Extra-curricular activities. Is there something online you do outside of writing in which you're either well-known or an avid participant? Swapping recipes on cooking blogs? Muscle car message boards? A history buff discussion list? Some fandom? I'm involved in several fandoms and though I never shove my professional work down anyone's throat, I make sure there's links to it in my profiles in various places. If it wouldn't be appropriate to link back to your professional work in whatever you're involved in, that's fine--but if you can, do. Believe me, I've gotten more people interested in my professional work through my extra-curricular online activities than through anything else.

Maybe you have some other ideas for starving authors out there, to get noticed without spending a whole lot of cash. If you do, I'd love to hear about them!

Atypical online writer's tools.

2012-01-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

There's certain online writer's tools most of us know and love: Google and Wikipedia for research, thesaurus.com, The Chicago Manual of Style online, The Organized Writer to keep our madness in order, Yahoo! groups for keeping in the loop, and Google Docs for storing and collaborating on works. All are valuable resources and places to research, store, and enhance our writing.

Today, I thought I'd share with you a few other websites and apps I use to enhance, help, and preserve my writing, as well as keep my social networking manageable:

- Dropbox - A wonderful online storage site. Even the free version has a lot of space. I use it to back up my writing from my computer, and also, I can access anything I have stored in it from any computer, anywhere. This makes transferring stuff between my laptop and netbook extra easy. When I'm working on something, I like to save the updated versions of the manuscript to Dropbox as I go--just in case! You can download an app for your computer and browser, as well.

- Google Street View - Writing about someplace you've never been? Need to know what a street, building, or area looks like? This is the most incredible resource ever created for visiting far-off places and getting information you might not be able to glean from text. I use it quite often. Great for absorbing the sights and atmosphere of the places you're writing about, too.

- My Writing Spot - A great place to write and store your work online, complete with a word count tracker. Very simple and easy to use. There's probably a lot of other places online you can do the same thing, but I really like this one.

- Grammar Girl - An invaluable source for looking up those pesky grammar questions that gnaw at your brain, explained in a way that makes them easy to absorb and remember! I visit this site a lot.

- Spotify - If you're like me, music enhances your writing experience. Personally, I love to have good mood music relevant to what I'm writing at the time. With Spotify, you can listen to very nearly any song ever made, whenever you want to. You can also create playlists and experience new artists without any monetary commitment. You might find the soundtrack to your next novel or the perfect song for one of your characters! The free version is just as awesome as the paid version, though it has ads. I have the paid version--super cheap, by the way--and it's a worthwhile investment!

Tweetdeck - Awesome app for keeping track of your social networking. You can make multiple columns for twitter lists and sync your facebook with it as well. I'm sure a lot of you out there already use it, but if you don't--try it out!

How about you? Do you have any sites or apps that help your writing, either directly or indirectly?

Writers are crazy.

2012-01-17T12:34:00.001-05:00

I've had a 'writer's brain' for a large portion of my life. In other words, I think like a writer most of the time and I think in terms of writing when it comes to most concepts. I'm pretty sure this is a psychiatric condition. One of my favorite quotes is from Shirley Hazzard: It's nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums to get rid of. How true it is!

This condition--let's keeping calling it 'writer's brain' because that sounds nice and clinical and professional--manifests in different ways. Often when observing things, especially new places and sights I've never seen before, I will go over in my head how I would describe the things around me if I were writing about them. I consider it an exercise to keep me sharp, cataloging colors and textures and the general atmosphere of wherever I'm at. I'm sure most people wonder why I'm looking at everything with a glassy-eyed, brain dead stare. I just tell them it's for art and they usually say, "oh, never mind."

It's so difficult, being misunderstood.

I also catalog new experiences, sensations, and tastes this way, thinking how I'd describe them if I were writing about them. Sometimes in the act of writing itself I have to stop and make physical gestures so I can describe them, or look at a picture of something so I can describe it better--I do this with places too, working from pictures if I've never actually been there. I tend to be a very visceral writer, so I like sense details. This is why Google Earth has been an invaluable writing tool for me. If I need to describe a street in some far-off place I've never been, it can take me right there! As a matter of fact, I used this technique to describe London in my story Ghost Walk.

I dream in terms of writing too, especially if I'm deeply involved in a story I'm working on. I'll dream up plot twists and ways to continue if I've hit a wall. My mind works it all out while I'm asleep, and I love it for that. I'm not sure if it's just trained well or a slave to my insanity, though. Could explain why every once in a while it gives me a random nightmare about freezing to death on Mt. Everest... (Silly brain, I'd be dead before I even got that high up on Mt. Everest! You know how out of shape I am! But while we're there, can you tell me how the sunlight looks when it hits the snow?)

I suppose it's a product of repetition. When you've done something for so long, you get into the habit of doing it. The same goes for thought patterns. I've 'thought like a writer' for so long I'm not sure how people who aren't writers think anymore. Everything is an experience to be put into words, and I like it that way.

How about you? Does your brain want to describe every puddle you see as a 'rippled mirror reflecting the bleak wintry sky?'

Sh*t Erotica Authors Say

2012-01-13T12:00:00.000-05:00

I'm sure by now you've seen the newest sensation floating around the internet: those videos that depict 'Shit (demographic/race/age/gender) Say.' If not, allow me to direct you to YouTube. (Some of those may contain offensive material, so watch at your own risk!)

I have zero video-making skills, so I thought I'd do one of these presentations in blog form. Without further ado--for I must jump on the bandwagon before it gets too far ahead--here is Shit Erotica Authors Say:

- It's not porn, it's erotica.

- Male/male sex scenes are so hard to write because of pronoun confusion!

- What's another word for 'throbbing?'

- Is it considered an HEA if he leaves him chained to the bed--but he likes it?

- I need to find an anthology for my leather daddy/young tax accountant story!

- Sexy, sizzling, scorching...it's okay to put all those words in the blurb, right?

- The publisher wants a 300 word synopsis for my 60,000 word novel? You have got to be shitting me.

- Whoops, I used 'turgid' twice in three paragraphs--glad my editor caught that!

- If the FBI ever gets their hands my Google search history...

- Follow Friday, ya'll!

- Cat: check. Coffee: check. Now I can write.

- I need a new blog post idea. I think I already wrote about 101 Practical Uses for Handcuffs.

- I don't know where to take this story next. Time for a sex scene!

- Get a bad review: reviewers are just jerks shouting their opinions to the masses!

- Get a good review: reviewers are awesome!

- Did Amazon do anything evil this week?

- Oh God, Elisa Rolle is going to review my book. OhGodohGodohGod.

- I hate Facbook's new timeline.

- These two characters just met. I think the most practical decision is for them to have sex.

- I think I should add some sex here.

- What holiday is coming up next? I need to write a story about people having sex on that holiday.

- Hey, writing sex is hard. Heh heh, hard...

Do you have any to add to the list? Come on down!

By the way, I'm guest blogging today on Guys Like Romance, Too! talking about first times. Stop over and say hi!

Welcome guest Lucy Felthouse to the blog!

2012-01-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

Lucy is my first ever guest blogger, here to promote her work Susie White and the Right Hand Man. Take it away, Lucy!

A wedding, an evil plan, a love story and a sacrifice are the order of the day in this modern retelling of Snow White and the Huntsman.

Susie White and her stepmother-to-be have never seen eye to eye, despite all of Susie’s best efforts to be friendly. Eager not to spoil her father’s happiness, Susie still agrees to be bridesmaid at their wedding. When the big day comes, she meets Louise’s right hand man, Scott. Susie had never believed in love at first sight until that moment. The pair hit it off, sharing a mutual dislike of Louise and her wicked ways. Their camaraderie quickly develops into something more, and they date in secret until it’s time for Susie to leave for University – and freedom. Unfortunately, Scott has an earth-shattering revelation, which means the two of them of them must work together to unravel Louise’s evil plan, before it’s too late.

More info and buy links: http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/published-works/susie-white-and-the-right-hand-man/

*****

Excerpt:

I should have known my stepmother was up to something when she offered to help me move all my stuff to my University digs. It wasn’t like her to be civil, much less helpful, but I figured that she was happy I was moving hundreds of miles away, and therefore would do anything to make sure it happened as quickly as possible.

As my father’s only child, I’m the sole heir to White’s Bites, a massively profitable confectionary company based in Wiltshire, England. My stepmother had made no secret of the fact she resented that she wouldn’t get a stake in the business, should anything happen to my father. Of course, the reason for this was that my father knew the first thing the witch would do was put the business on the market to get her greedy little hands on the cash. I, on the other hand, loved White’s Bites and would continue to run it to the best of my ability.

We’d never seen eye to eye, my stepmother and I. However, it wasn’t the usual ‘child resents someone trying to replace their parent’ syndrome, it was her that resented me.

My mom had died of cancer when I was fifteen. My father and I were devastated, as you’d expect, but I’d always urged him to get on with his life. After all, it’s what mom would have wanted, and I certainly didn’t want my dad to be lonely when I got married and left home.

So, a couple of years later, when dad met Louise and they started dating, I was thrilled. He was happy, therefore so was I. Soon it became more serious and dad wanted me to meet her. I was excited, but nervous.

When the time came and Louise had walked into our house, I’d been in awe. Don’t get me wrong, my mom had been beautiful, but in a natural way, as if she didn’t realise, or care. But Louise clearly did. Her gorgeous hair was perfectly quaffed, and her attractive features were enhanced by expertly applied makeup. Her outfit looked like something from a fashion magazine. I managed to pull myself together before she saw me standing there, all slack-jawed and stupid-looking. Walking towards her, I’d held out a hand.

“Louise!” I’d said, beaming, “I’m so pleased to finally meet you. Dad’s told me so much about you.”

She’d smiled thinly and without any real emotion. “Charmed, I’m sure, Susan.” She’d shaken my hand gingerly, as though she was afraid she’d catch something. I’d half expected her to wipe her hand on her clothes afterwards.

“Oh please, call me Susie.” I’d said, ignoring her odd behaviour. I’d been eager to get on with the woman, knowing it would please my father. “Everyone does.”

Another tight-lipped smile. I’d tried hard to make conversation with her and make her feel comfortable in our home. But I never felt like I was succeeding. At first, I put it down to her being nervous or shy, but as weeks and months passed, I still never felt as though Louise warmed to me. I never bothered my father with my concerns. After all, as long as she liked him, what did it matter?

While Louise and my father were just dating, things weren’t too bad. They went to restaurants, the theatre, the cinema, and so on. I didn’t see her very often, and therefore didn’t have to put up with her frosty behaviour towards me.

Naturally, everything changed when dad told me he was going to ask Louise to marry him. He’d sat me down to break the news – fortunately – and I’d done my best to act delighted. Luckily, dad hadn’t noticed anything was amiss, and as he’d chatted about ceremonies, honeymoons and Louise moving in, a cold shiver had run up my back. This could not end well.

More info and buy links: http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/published-works/susie-white-and-the-right-hand-man/

*****

Lucy is a graduate of the University of Derby, where she studied Creative Writing. During her first year, she was dared to write an erotic story - so she did. It went down a storm and she's never looked back. Lucy has had stories published by Cleis Press, Constable and Robinson, House of Erotica, Noble Romance, Ravenous Romance, Summerhouse Publishing, Sweetmeats Press and Xcite Books. She is also the editor of Uniform Behaviour and Seducing the Myth. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter. You can also subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9

Now in print!

2012-01-10T11:55:00.002-05:00

I will always champion the validity of e-publishing. I've had a rant about this before on my old blog. I believe publishing in e-format is just as valid as print and still makes you a 'real author,' especially in this very technical day and age where more and more people enjoy the convenience and expansiveness of electronic entertainment. However, there's still something pleasurably visceral about seeing your work in print.

Yesterday I got my print copies of the Weight of a Gun anthology, in which my story In the Pines appears:

Hey, that's me!

I've had four stories appear in print now: all in anthologies. I'm yet to have my 'stand alone' print moment, but it's still a thrill. Here's my little collection so far:

I have a few friends and relatives who aren't tech-savvy at all, so it's good to have a few things in print when they want to see my work. I think it's just as thrilling to see it on e-reader, but try convincing your crotchety technophobe great aunt Mildred of that.

Come to think of it, maybe it's best not to show crotchety old aunt Mildred my gay erotica at all...

Just a reminder: on Thursday the 12th, Lucy Felthouse will be promoting her work here on this blog, as my very first guest blogger! Stop in and say hi!

Come see what I have in my pants.

2012-01-07T12:21:00.000-05:00

As a brand new blogger, I'm still trying to figure out what the 'theme' of my blog is. If I figure out my niche, the posts will become easier to write, right? I've been doing research on what makes people want to read blogs, given there's ten million of them out there.

I noticed I get more hits on posts that have interesting titles. Sorry to lure you in like that...

Breezing around the internet, I discovered the most popular blogs involve one or a combination of these things:

- Humor. I think I'm a pretty funny person. I have a dry wit and I can make people laugh. Well, at least I do a lot of laughing at my own jokes. That counts, right?

- Cats. Cats own the internet and it's kind of frightening. I wonder if they know? Maybe they do and it's all part of their master plan. By the way, do you know domestic cats meow because they're trying to imitate our voices? That's right. They're learning how to talk.

- Celebrities. People seem to love celebrity gossip and news. Unfortunately the only celebrities I know that I could tell you some gossip about are local ones, and you probably don't want to hear about the guy who comes into where I work every day for happy hour and never tips, or the guy who talks to himself about the government on the bus everyday. But they're pretty famous around here!

- Sex. I had it one time, so I could probably write about it a little.

- Food. Most of the things I cook come fresh from the microwave or get boiled in water, so my recipes are not exactly the stuff of legend. The stuff of infamy, maybe. I could post pictures of food. Maybe I could combine sex and food by posting pictures of hot men and cupcakes! I wonder if there's any pictures out there of hot men with cupcakes?

Yes, I just Googled 'hot men with cupcakes.' The results were less than thrilling.

- Travel. Exotic destinations! Marvelous sights! The best hotels! Tips for saving money! I don't know any of the above.

- Lists. 10 Ways Not to Suck at Parenting. 25 Things to Write a Novel About. 18 Ways to Improve Your Circulatory Health. 12 Ways to Get Hot Men to Hold Cupcakes. 50 Cats.

- Something controversial. I'm just going to come right out and say it: I don't like tea.

Maybe I need to make this a funny blog about celebrities who have cats and sex, with cooking and travel tips in list form that are controversial.

If you run a blog, how did you find your niche? Did you stumble around for a while like I am, or did you begin the blog with a plan? I'd love to hear your advice!

Waiting tables and writing books.

2012-01-05T12:23:00.001-05:00

My last post about 'writing what you know' versus doing research and writing about things you only know because you looked them up gave me the idea for this post. I'm fond of listening to people talk about their jobs, especially jobs I've never done or never will. It doesn't matter if someone works for NASA or at the corner bar, everyone has stories about their jobs and little details that are fascinating, intriguing, or just downright funny. It's like taking a step out of your own daily drudgery to experience someone else's.

That being said, I'm going to tell you what it's like to be a waitress, which I have been for the past six years. I know, you guys thought I was living off the millions of dollars I'm making off my writing, but I'm not! I currently work for a huge corporation that is mainly known for its prestigious music venues, but also happen to have restaurants attached. Bonus: if you're currently writing a story about the service industry, you can ask me questions! Interestingly, I see a lot of waitresses in books. Sookie Stackhouse, anyone? Maybe a lot of authors have toiled in restaurants...

First of all, let me preface this by saying I actually love my job. I know being a waitress is usually depicted as misery and being at the bottom of the food chain. But I enjoy being a server (for some reason calling us 'waiters' and 'waitresses' is considered somewhat un-PC now, but I use the terms interchangeably). I love my coworkers because we're like a family, I like what I do, I like (most) of my guests, and I like taking home money every night instead of waiting for a paycheck.

Here's some things you might not know about working in a restaurant:

- We have a unique set of slang that is potentially confusing for anyone who hasn't been in a professional kitchen before. Terms like 86, all day, weeded, on the fly, being cut, set, and wearing, mean different things than they do in every day life (thank goodness, since being cut is actually a good thing in a restaurant). Also, each restaurant has additional slang for things that are specific to that place.

- You can never plan your life around your schedule when you're a waitress. We don't have set times we get out of work. Additionally, some days we may work 2 hours and some days 12, without knowing ahead of time.

- You can't budget either, because you have no set amount of money you make. You do a lot of instinctive budgeting and mostly, praying.

- No two days are the same. I love this about the job, though. Your station, work, customers, and level of business changes every single shift. It's never boring.

- You have to grow a thick skin, and quick, or you won't stay long in a restaurant. Customers and even your coworkers can be volatile and unpredictable. Your coworkers most definitely will have filthy mouths and crude senses of humor. After six years, you will turn into one of them.

- There are tons of creative people in the service industry, because of the flexible hours and potential for making money. There are also lots of alcoholics. And gay people.

- Being a server teaches you some unexpected skills. After six years I have a memory as sharp as a tack (I almost never write anything down), I am a master multitask-er (you have to be when you're waiting on 20 people at once), and I have amazing balance and can carry multiple plates and glasses in ways that defy physics. I also have arms of steel from the lifting I do of trays, buckets of ice, and chafing dishes filled with gallons of water. I have great legs too, because I do so much walking! It's an extremely physical job.

- I also have lots of lulls and downtime to plot stories. And I stay up really late and get writing done, because I'm not used to sleeping at night.

- Bar fights and rude customers aren't as prevalent as fiction would have you believe. These things happen rarely (at least to me) and when you've been serving for a while, you even know how to handle it (or you call security).

Does this mean I'm going to write a novel about a waitress because I know the industry inside and out? Well....maybe.

What about you? What's your job like, and would you ever create a character that has it (or you already have)?

Things I never learned in school.

2012-01-02T11:10:00.000-05:00

A huge part of a writer's life is research. Most of us know the old saying 'write what you know' is a bunch of crap. If I only wrote what I know--really know--all my stories would revolve around a waitress who is also addicted to the internet, drinks too much coffee, and has a cat. And while I might get one decent story out of that (if she won the lottery or got a pet dragon or something) I sure couldn't make a career out of it. We know some authors like Stephen King are overfond of writing about writers who live in Maine because that's what he knows, but trust me when I say even he has to do a ton of research.

One of my favorite parts about doing research is learning new things. I've always considered myself a bastion of useless knowledge, though I'm not sure if that's because I'm a writer, or I became a writer because I have so much useless knowledge. So, now that 2011 is through, I thought I'd go back through my publications this year and see what new things I learned:

Maleficent - Finer points of police procedure (especially when investigating serial killers).

From Morocco to Paris - This book was in the works for many years, but I did more research for it than anything else I've ever written. I learned about Moroccan and Egyptian culture and climate, the subtle nuances of homosexuality in parts of the world where it's illegal, all about Paris, how the movie industry works, what sort of bourbon they drink in Kentucky, smoking laws by U.S. state, how long transoceanic flights take--the list for this is huge, but those are just a few of the top things.

Risky - BASE jumping, parts of California, how bands get their start in the music industry.

Black Shore of the White City - Thanks to this novel I know more about Chicago than any person who doesn't actually live there should.

In a Dry and Dusty Land - For such a short story, I had to do so much research. I had to learn about U.S. military rank and protocol, the political and military climate in Iraq at the time of the story (2007), areas of Iraq where fighting was going on at the time and American forces were patrolling, what those areas are like climate and agriculture-wise, the role and restrictions of news correspondents in hostile territories, which U.S. cities host the most Iraqi immigrants (to give a character's parents a realistic city to immigrate to), what civilian life is like in Baghdad under military watch, IED’s, and of course, all the details of the Sumerian mythology I used.

Miracle on LaSalle Street - Somehow, I didn't know much about Chicago's train lines despite all my other knowledge of Chicago, so I had to research that.

Ghost Walk - How ghost tours in London work, London streets, London universities where an American might transfer.

Mr. Black and the Expo - Steampunk culture, Victorian fashion, the mechanics and technologies available in the late 1800's.

In the Pines - Alaskan gun laws, police procedures in Alaska, Alaskan climate.

Moon Over Montana - What life is like as a ranch hand, how ranches work, Montana climate.

Safe Tonight - Victorian London, Spring Heeled Jack.

All in all, I've picked up a lot of new knowledge this year. I have several stories coming out in the new year that also required me to research such things as Missouri during the later part of the American Civil War, investment banking, and the physical and sociological impacts of a post-apocalyptic world.

I guess I can say my job is never boring!

Cats and authors: the magnetic connection.

2011-12-29T16:54:00.000-05:00

Right now, as I type this blog post, I have a cat snuggled up to me. In a little while, I'll be doing some editing, and said cat will probably move into my lap to wedge herself between me and my laptop. At least she makes a nice soft wrist-rest.

Cats and authors seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly, mashed potatoes and gravy, and chocolate and bacon. Every day on facebook and twitter I see authors talking about their cats. Said cats are usually very close at hand or at least lurking in the vicinity when the updates and tweets are made. If there's two things most of authors can't write, edit, or do promotion without, it's a clingy cat and a cup full of caffeine.

What is this weird phenomena? I have a couple of theories:

- Cats are furry little vessels for our muses. They bring us all our inspiration and need to stay very close--say, actually resting on top of our heads if they can physically manage it--so great ideas fly from our fingers to the screen.

- The government has genetically engineered cats to stay close and spy on us, so they can steal all our ideas for international bestsellers and take over the planet.

- Cats notice us just sitting there doing what looks like nothing to them and feel an immediate kinship with us. Laziness loves company!

- If you have multiple cats, chances are the one snuggled up to you is distracting you from one of the other ones tearing up all the toilet paper in the bathroom.

- By wedging themselves against you in uncomfortable ways so you have to work awkwardly over top of them, cats are reminding us that things we really want are worth fighting for. They're here to motivate us.

- Your cat actually owns you and insinuates themselves into everything you do because how dare you question your owner's behavior!

- Cats like reading the dirty smut you're writing. They're judging you, harshly.

- They're waiting for their turn on facebook.

My favorite little fuzzball is now inching her way into my lap. That must mean it's time to get to work!

The new year is almost here!

2011-12-26T08:37:00.000-05:00

I'm not really big on making resolutions--I tend to forget them by the second week of January! However, I do enjoy looking back on what made the previous year good and setting some goals for myself in the new year. So without further ado:

What made this year good:

- Attending the GayRomLit Retreat in New Orleans was certainly one of the highlights of my year. I've always wanted to visit New Orleans and it was absolutely amazing--even better than I imagined! It was great meeting so many fans and fellow authors. Signing autographs on a river boat, doing a reading, and going to all the awesome parties was so much fun. I'll never forget how wonderful that trip was!

- Publishing my first (and second!) full-length novel was the culmination of decades of hoping and working and dreaming. Literally, a dream come true!

- Working with some amazing publishing houses and editors--I'm starting to feel like a 'real writer!'

- I also attended Penguicon as a guest speaker and panelist. My first ever con and so intimidating--I sat on two panels with Brandon Sanderson! It was a real eye-opening experience, fun, and just absolutely amazing. I'm so grateful I was invited! I also met the wonderful Helen Pattskyn.

- In my non-writing life, I sort of 'leveled up' in my day job and started working for a really great company--definitely a bonus!

- Me and my son managed to get through this year with good health and no major setbacks. I'd call that a good year!

Goals for the coming year:

- Publish at least one more full-length novel (hopefully the sequel to Black Shore of the White City).

- Attend at least one convention (I'm aiming for Authors After Dark). I might get invited to Penguicon again, too.

- Get better at promotion.

- Continue to improve my writing skills.

- Visit another new city this year.

- Make strides toward becoming a full-time author.

So what did you do this past year that made it a good year? And what are your goals for the new year? I'd love to hear about it!

Productivity: tips and tricks

2011-12-22T12:22:00.000-05:00

It's ironic I picked this subject for a blog post, since I've been in a bit of a writing slump the past two weeks. Life has been interfering and most of the writing I've done has been slow and painful. So, perhaps this post is as much to remind myself to get my nose back to the grindstone as to offer up advice.

Normally, I'm a very productive writer. I write a lot of words in the average month, sometimes enough to boggle my own mind. My writing style is such that I usually write a large amount in one session instead of a little bit day by day, but I know this doesn't work for everyone. You have to find your own productivity 'style' and go with it. I think I like writing in large chunks because it also gives me large chunks of not-writing time in which I can relax and slack off.

A couple people have asked me how in the world I manage to write so much (and I actually do have a job and an active social life!) so I'm going to share some of the things that work for me.

- Get really good at typing. Most of us do the majority of our writing on a keyboard. Typing is a skill that gets better the more you do it. I was thrilled when my typing speed actually caught up with the speed of my thoughts. It's amazing how much work you get done when you can relay thoughts to the monitor as fast as they're coming into your head.

- Don't edit as you write. This was a really, really hard habit for me to break--that compulsion to keep going back and fixing things while writing. DON'T DO IT, or 90% of your writing time will be editing time. Save the rewriting for after you get the entire story out. Don't worry about how crappy it is in production. No one but you will see it.

- Don't go back and look for details. This is a trick I recently started employing. If I forget a name or detail I used earlier in the story, and suddenly I find myself needing it on page 30 but unable to remember what I named a minor character or what color a house was, I don't dig back through 29 pages of manuscript to find it. I just put a note there and insert it later. Stopping and scrolling back through the story breaks the writing flow.

- Do as much research as you can before you start writing. Sometimes you'll need to stop and look something up, but doing so constantly will mess up your pace. If it's not something you need to flesh out too much, you can even just put a note in to look it up later.

- Be invested in your story. The more passionate you are about the tale and the characters, the faster you'll find yourself writing and the less you'll want to stop, or get distracted.

- Seek out projects with deadlines. When something has to be completed by a certain time, it forces you to discipline yourself. I'm personally easily distracted by shiny things, so deadlines keep my eyes in front of me. Even if you're making personal deadlines for yourself, it helps.

- Write every day, if possible. The more you write, the more of a habit it becomes.

These are just a few things I used to boost productivity. If you have any additional tips, I'd love to hear them!

The true confession of my illicit affair.

2011-12-20T14:38:00.000-05:00

It started in my early twenties. I was married, but life could get stressful, tedious, and dull at times and I needed something more. Something to wake me up. That little spark that was missing.

I swear I wasn't looking for it when I found it the first time. I thought myself a moderate and temperate person. I thought I could get by without anything extra. But I was weaker than I thought, and once I got that first taste, I couldn't get enough. Suddenly, the thing I didn't even know I'd been looking for entered my life and things brightened considerably. I was hooked from the moment I dipped into that dark, hot well of vibrant stimulation.

At first it was only in the mornings. My husband worked a job that took him away early in the day, so he didn't know about it. Most of the time, I'm ashamed to say, I partook at home. We lived in a small town and it was difficult to just go out and find it. It wasn't like in big cities, where you find it on every corner, offered up hot and delicious with wanton abandon. I didn't know where to go looking for it, so I brought it into our house, and drank deeply, wildly, without care or guilt.

Years passed. Sometimes I found myself indulging my illicit addiction at odd hours of the day, at times you wouldn't expect it. I was playing a risky game, a dangerous one, but it got my blood pumping and my heart pounding. It awoke my senses and made my mind work better. I should have felt guilty, but I didn't. Sometimes I'd trawl the local convenience stores, salivating, looking for it, needing it desperately.

These days, I'm divorced, though I don't blame my extracurricular activities because frankly, we never discussed it. I'm still at it, harder than ever before. Now I indulge at all times, whenever I feel like it--morning, noon, night. Sometimes right before bed, which makes it hard to sleep. I live in a big city now and it's everywhere, all around me. All kinds of delicious flavors and ways to indulge and I never thought about all the different ways you could have it before. I keep trying it in different ways, never satisfied with sticking to one thing. And it still gives me a rush. A heady, wonderful, tingling rush that lights up my limbs and makes the world a vibrant, decadent feast for the senses.

It's been nearly two decades now and me and coffee are still going strong. I'm not afraid to admit it. I just hope you'll try to understand and not judge me too harshly, dear readers.

What's on your bucket list?

2011-12-16T12:14:00.000-05:00

I was discussing bucket lists with a friend the other day. If you're unaware, a 'bucket list' is essentially a list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket. You can have anything you want on the list--keep it attainable or go for far-reaching adventures, or a mixture of both. The name comes from the movie The Bucket List, though I've never seen the movie myself. I still think it's a great idea.

I've never made a full, detailed bucket list, but I'm thinking of doing one now. I was also thinking about the fun things I've already done in my life that would have been scratched off my list.Those being:

- Spend a day walking around Manhattan
- Go to the top of the Sears (now Willis) Tower
- Visit the French Quarter
- 'Earn' beads in New Orleans
- See Niagara Falls
- Visit Memphis
- Publish a book

On days I think my life is boring, I try to remember all the amazing things I've done already and smile--so maybe I need to make a 'filled bucket list' too! It would be a great reminder that life is full of adventure.

On my 'to do' bucket list would be a lot of things, but here is just a few I'd put on there:

- Visit London (this may happen for me next year!)
- Go on an expedition in Africa
- Visit Australia
- Learn to box
- Learn to speak another language fluently
- Have an international best-seller

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

So, what would be on your bucket list? And what's on your filled bucket list? Tell me in the comments!

The fantasy of love.

2011-12-13T10:35:00.000-05:00

As a romance and erotica author, I'm very often writing about love and relationships. I'm also drawn to epic, all-consuming love stories in which the characters are caught up in passion and romance of the sort that can burn down cities and destroy worlds. You know, the type where boy meets boy/girl/alien and their love is so intense it causes a rift in time and space and Jupiter gets swallowed up (don't steal my idea). There's nothing that draws me closer to a story than the characters being in wild, desperate, maybe-slightly-neurotic love. I also want to write an epic love story like this one day, one that people will clutch to their chest and cry to the heavens in exquisite agony over.

Is this kind of love realistic? Probably not.

Most of the time in real life, when two people are in a relationship that consumes them down to the bone it's not entirely healthy. You're more likely to end up with Mickey and Mallory Knox than Carl and Ellie Fredricksen. Fiction reflects reality through a bent lens. Take Romeo and Juliet, for example--considered to be one of the greatest love stories of all time, but in the real world, if two teenagers killed themselves because they couldn't be together, it would be all over the news as a tragedy. I personally like tragic love stories as well, but again, it's fiction. In the real world I would be devastated if my best friend and her husband jumped off a bridge together.

This also brings to point those who decry the fairy tales some of us love, saying, "That's not realistic! That's not how real love works!" But the point of fiction is always to take us away from the real world. I can tell you with certainty I've never gone looking for a story that describes washing the dishes for twenty pages or a fully detailed day in the life of a character's job at the office, unless something awesome happened at the office that day. I know that a gorgeous, chiseled man is not going to ride into my life on a flaming unicorn with a handful of roses and (melted) chocolate, but it sure beats reading about doing the laundry. Unless someone is doing the laundry with him and they have sex on top the dryer. Why would a guy with a flaming unicorn need to do the laundry anyway?

Some of us like unrealistic love for the same reason some of us like unrealistic car chases, unrealistic monsters in the woods, and unrealistic heiresses with dark family secrets. It's because in the real world, all those things usually end badly.

So how do you like your romance? Doing the laundry or vaporizing Jupiter?

Got gun kink?

2011-12-09T06:34:00.000-05:00

The 'Weight of a Gun' anthology from Storm Moon Press is available today! It includes my story In the Pines. Available in both e-format and print, find out more below:

In the Pines

Part of the ‘Weight of a Gun’ anthology

Tyler Maxwell, a former New York cop now working a desk job in Alaska, buys a gun as a present and begins to dream about the mysterious and beautiful Flynn. But Flynn is more than a dream, and Tyler must find the truth before he loses his mind.

About ‘Weight of a Gun’

Everyone knows that guns are dangerous; they have long been a subject surrounded by controversy. Combine them with sex and you have a subject that is virtually taboo, but smoking hot. This anthology explores the intersection of these two worlds, and the sensual possibilities they inspire.

In Bounty Hunter, William Hunt is hot on the trail of lover-turned-outlaw James Campbell. But when William finally catches up with James, bringing him to justice is the last thing on his mind. Changing the Guard introduces Tomi Vuorela, working security in a frozen off-world outpost. When Andile Harper intrudes on his seclusion, Tomi must determine if the interloper is a harmless workman or a dangerous terrorist.

Avery Belfour is The Machinist, kidnapped by a rival colony in need of his services. But the dark and deadly Harrow may have other plans for Avery first. In My Rifle Is Human, the more a Gunslinger like Fil sexually satisfies his shapeshifting partners, the Ordinances, the more likely they’ll survive as weapons on the battlefield. When late-bloomer Morris becomes Fil’s latest partner, however, it will take all Fil’s patience and skill to seduce and inspire Morris in time for the next wave of attacks.

Tyler Maxwell from In the Pines, a former New York cop now working a desk job in Alaska, buys a gun as a present and begins to dream about the mysterious and beautiful Flynn. But Flynn is more than a dream, and Tyler must find the truth before he loses his mind. Finally, in Compromised Judgment, Rózsa Ignác is working to uncover a gunrunning operation supplying arms to his enemies. He’s certain that Cistalan Konrád is involved, but his attraction to the other man puts himself and the entire investigation in danger.

Read an excerpt from In the Pines

Learn more and purchase here at Storm Moon Press!

Judging a book...

2011-12-04T13:29:00.001-05:00

I have a bunch of new works coming out soon, and now that I have the covers for all of them, it's time to show them off! There's a little bit of everything here: thriller, historical, fantasy romance, and dystopian. I've been a diverse little writing monkey!

In the Pines 12/9/11 (Storm Moon Press)
Tyler Maxwell, a former New York cop now working a desk job in Alaska, buys a gun as a present and begins to dream about the mysterious and beautiful Flynn. But Flynn is more than a dream, and Tyler must find the truth before he loses his mind.
Learn more about the anthology here!

Blue Gray Lines 1/27/12 (Musa Publishing)
Wendell Davis is a rarity in 1864 Missouri--a man of eligible age and good health not fighting in the Civil War, thanks to his cruel mother's manipulations. However, Wendell's lifelong lover, Declan Kelly, is away fighting on the side of the Union. Parted for two years, communicating only via letters and bombarded by the horrors of war even on the home front, Wendell is starting to lose hope. The only thing that can bring light back into Wendell's gray world is a reunion with Declan--something he's going to have to fight his own war to achieve.

Stockwood Street TBA (Lillibridge Press)
Evan Turner lives in a world he never could have imagined, a reality where danger, desperation, and the fight for survival consume his every waking moment. A major terrorist attack that destroyed huge portions of seventeen U.S. cities transformed Evan's childhood home of Yonkers, New York, into a primal, treacherous new world. Here, luxuries are few, and the greatest luxury—life—is won only with a struggle.

When Mitchell Roberts shows up on Evan's porch claiming he's writing a book about the plight of survivors, Evan is skeptical at first. A friendship—and a love affair—soon blossoms between the two, bringing a sense of normalcy and humanity back into Evan's life. However, danger surrounds them as Evan fights the government to keep his house, a place he can't leave for dark and tragic reasons. It will take Mitchell's altruistic heart to pull his lover out of the darkness, and—if Evan is to survive in the ruined new world—into the light of reason.
Learn more here!

So those are my new, shiny, lovely covers! I'll have two other works coming out as well in the new year, but they're still in the putting-together stages!

I like my men like I like my fiction...

2011-12-01T10:52:00.003-05:00

As a m/m author, I'm in the business of building men. I know, sounds just dreadfully tedious, doesn't it? But all men are not created equal, even in fiction, so sometimes the task can be daunting and even downright frustrating. Creating two men (or more) who want to love all over each other doesn't just require building personalities for them that mesh, but making them attractive to each other as well.

As the one telling the tale, I have to find my characters attractive as well, at least in a broad sense of the word. Yes, I sometimes have to create villains, and difficult people, and people I wouldn't mesh with in real life, but I also need to write some characters I like or the story is not going to ring true. I will tell you one of my writing secrets--and it may be a trick some other authors use--at times I choose my POV character based on which character I find more emotionally and physically attractive. That is, I choose the one I like less to be the narrator. Why? Because when it comes to love and sex, it's easier to write about having chemistry with (and doing naughty things to) a character you personally find appealing.

That being said, I find the same traits popping up in different stories I write. I love tall men, so if you look at my work as a whole you'll find a handful of tall guys in there. I love men with a dry sense of humor, so that pops up too. I like green eyes, and a lot of my guys have green eyes. I try very hard not to make carbon copies of characters, but little details like to jump in here and there.

So here's my question: authors, do you sometimes find the same traits and qualities creeping into different characters, because they're things you like? And readers, do you find yourself seeking out characters with similar traits in the books you read? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

The anthology call.

2011-11-29T10:33:00.002-05:00

If you're familiar with my work, you know I have a lot of stories published in anthologies. I'm in Mine and Shifting Steam from Torquere Press, and soon to be in their Po' Boys anthology (which was actually my brainchild over dinner with the editors of Torquere at GayRomLit in New Orleans!). I'm in the Bad Romance anthology from Freaky Fountain Press, Seducing the Myth from Lucy Felthouse, and almost everything I have coming out in 2012 so far is in an anthology: from Storm Moon Press, Silver Press, and Musa Publishing. Mind you, not all of these are 'short' stories. Some are full-length novellas which are included in the anthology or anthology package.

I swear someday I'll write a lot of nice long, full-length books (I actually have two of those out as well!) but I'm still pretty new to being published and there's several reasons why I like submitting stories to anthologies:

- It keeps me in the game. Producing a novel takes a long time. Not just writing it--once the writing part is done, there's tons of editing and rewriting to do. Then of course, if it's actually going to be published, there's more editing and lots and lots of production. This is why most authors don't put out more than one or two full-length novels a year. I'm actually working on another novel, but in the meantime, appearing in anthologies makes sure people don't forget about me--since I'm new, that's doubly important!

- It keeps me sharp. Writing is one of those skills you have to keep practicing. You never reach a peak where you can no longer improve. It's also one of those things you have to do even when you don't want to do it, when your whole body and mind rebels against it and you want to hide under the covers and wail. Constantly writing something keeps me practiced and moving along. It's also a nice shift from the novel when it's getting on my nerves or I'm stuck (however, this may not work for all writers--some writers can only focus on one story at a time, but personally I'm a multitasker).

- It gets me out there to readers. Like I said, I'm new. So the more chances I get to show up and wave my hands in people's faces, the better! It's also a good way for readers to sample my work without making a big investment. Then, if they like what they see, they'll hopefully seek out my longer work.

- It gets me involved with more publishers. There's a lot of publishers out there. Answering anthology calls creates a working relationship with a publisher, so they're more open to my future submissions as an in-house author. It also gives me the opportunity to see how these publishers run things and make the best decisions for my career.

As I said--I fully intend to focus on bigger projects in the future, but I'm sure I'll still answer anthology calls every now and then, especially when the subject matter is just too good to resist!

Comment on any post this week and automatically be entered to win a copy of my FULL-LENGTH novel, From Morocco to Paris! Last week, Robin Cole won my m/m urban fantasy, Black Shore of the White City (by the way Robin, can you contact me for your copy? I can't find an email address for you!).

The beast in me.

2011-11-26T13:00:00.002-05:00

In addition to writing a lot of romance and a lot of smut, I'm also an author of horror, paranormal, and urban fantasy. I like spooky things. I've also written erotic horror and romantic horror, which seems strange but really can be done!

Growing up, I was always the kid that liked horror movies and scary TV shows (though my mother wouldn't always let me watch them) and when I got to high school I was always the girl reading Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Anne Rice. In my high school (waaay back in the day) girls (and some guys, though for some reason the guys in my high school didn't seem much into recreational reading) would carry whatever novel they were currently reading on top of their books they toted from class to class, and believe me, everyone was judging each other on what they were reading. While all the other girls were reading VC Andrews and Danielle Steele (both hugely popular among the girls in my high school) I was the freak reading the unabridged version of The Stand; which was the size of the 'S' encyclopedia and unholy heavy to carry around, but I highly recommend it!

I started writing in high school, largely because I wanted to be 'just like Stephen King.' I wanted to be a horror writer, someone who could 'humanize' the scary and make the story as much about the characters as the monster lurking under the bed. Obviously, what I write has changed over the years--I really like writing about sex now!--but the horror element still creeps into some of my work. Urban fantasy is one of the best genres for me to play in, because it often combines both the fantastical and the sexy.

Of course I write a lot of 'straight' (and not so straight) romance and erotica, but if you like spooky things, I'm one of the authors to come to!

What about you guys? Did you like spooky things when you were a kid? Do you like a little shiver down your spine along with the heat? Comment on this post and be entered into a drawing to win a copy of my m/m urban fantasy, Black Shore of the White City!

What I'm thankful for.

2011-11-24T10:24:00.002-05:00

It's Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. and though I firmly believe gratitude should be a year-round thing, there's also nothing wrong with taking a special day to reflect on the things that make our lives good. Even if you're not from the U.S., it's always the perfect day to remember what you're thankful for!

I'm thankful for a multitude of things in my life. I'm grateful for my wonderful son, who will be 19 next week--how time flies! We have a wonderful relationship and he's been a blessing to raise from a helpless little baby into a fully capable adult. I'm so glad the Universe brought him into my life.

I'm also grateful for the large circle of friends I have in my life, people who care about me and respect me and always have my back. It's a real blessing I have so many people in my phone I could call at 3 a.m. in an emergency. No matter what else comes and goes, I believe you can never, never have too many true friends.

I'm grateful for all the experiences I've had in the past year thanks to my writing. The stories and books I've had published, the conferences I've been to, the cities I've visited, the people I met, and the opportunities I've been given. I'm grateful for each and every person I've met through my writing. I'm grateful that my lifelong dream is finally coming true, and I'm grateful the Universe has blessed me with my talent and led me to experiencing these things. I'm grateful there's such a thriving genre for the thing I love to write the most.

I'm grateful for my health. I'm grateful that even though I have money problems (who doesn't?) I have a roof over my head and food to eat. I'm grateful to be living in a city I love and working a job I enjoy, with people I adore. I'm grateful to be alive and whole after the sometimes convoluted, complicated life I've had. I'm grateful for the things I've gotten to do and the places I've been in my life. I'm grateful for my kitty cat!

A few other superficial things I'm grateful for:

- The internet

- Spotify

- Coffee

- Benedict Cumberbatch

- TV shows that rot my brain but are just so much fun, like True Blood

- Steampunk

- Smartphones

- LOLcats

So what are you grateful for? The serious, the not so serious...I want to hear about it! Anyone who comments on any of my posts this week is automatically entered into a drawing for a copy of my m/m urban fantasy, Black Shore of the White City.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Begin transmission...

2011-11-22T11:51:00.003-05:00

I've never been good at blogging. I used to keep up a LiveJournal pretty regularly, but I guess that's not the same thing. So this is a new experience for me. I've always thought blogging is a great platform for communicating, sharing ideas, and showing off your 'personality,' but I've always been too lazy to get off my ass and put some effort into it. But I'm not good at it! I whine at myself. Well, you know what they say about getting better at something. How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

So here is my blog. Ambitiously hoping to update three times a week (non-specific days, as my work schedule fluctuates enormously from week to week). I will be holding a contest every week as well, in the hopes some of you folks will stick around, if not to listen to me blather than to get free stuff. Look for the contest in the upper left corner!

I know I find myself among some great bloggers in the romance and erotica genre. I envy their blogging abilities. That being said, if anyone would like me to do a guest blog on their site, or would like to do a guest blog here (any subject goes!) please get in touch with me. I would like to make this a lively, fun place, and bumbling as I am, I can use all the help I can get!

All right internet, I'm ready for you!