I've been very kindly invited to be one of the guest on Literary Escapism!  
So, I'll be hanging out there.  If you'd like to say "hi" or get an update on Harper and Belimai feel free to  drop in... otherwise I have no idea what I'm going to do.

 I'm happy to announce that I have not been killed in a massive mudslide-- thought I was briefly swept away in a freight elevator packed with hundreds of weird wedding dresses from some long forgotten art performance. It's just the kind of thing that happens when you help move an artist who's had an entire floor of a building for his studio for twenty or more years.  We discovered amazing old prints, and odd toys as well as a shocking assortment of bones and animal bodies.  Which just goes to show that one man's inspiration is another man's freezer bag full of dead voles.

But I digress.  Really I'm just posting to give a big warm shout out to everyone who's been kind enough to follow my sad little blog.  I'm still writing and editing.  There have been a couple delays and complications-- most having nothing to do with being engulfed in an ocean of white silk and taffeta...mostly.  But all my projects are still underway.

Wicked Gentlemen should be coming out in digital form at the end of this year and I've been discussing the sale of the Lord of the White Hell, which-- with luck-- might see print next year. Lord Foster's Devils is slowly and steadily being typed out and I hope to have the manuscript done next year.

As for me, I'll be attending Gaylaxicon  and Yaoicon this month.  If you happen to be attending either, I'll be the girl with the round glasses, pig tails and striped socks, please come over and say hi!  Just don't come at me suddenly while wearing a wedding dress; I'm still a little traumatized.   

 

 I'm still not sure I've gotten the hang of this but...
As promised here is a small sample of the BIG novel that will be released as a 10 volume electronic serial. (Please keep in mind that this is a rough draft and as such is packed with sundry errors and misspellings-- kind of like marshmallow treats in kids' breakfast cereal!)

 Yep, Hell Cop 2 has been released into the world!

For those who don't know already, Hell Cop and Hell Cop 2 are anthologies of three stories that all take place in the same Urban fantasy setting-- Parmas, a city of demons, drug dealers, undercover cops and... ornithology!?

Okay not too much ornithology but how else am I going to elude to a flock of endangered phoenixes?  I guess I could have just said mythical beasts, or something like that, but ornithology just sounds better to me... cause it's, uhm, well, funny... (Yes, I know funny doesn't sell sexy, cool paranormal thrillers, but I can't resist.) And I think I have mentioned previously that I suck at this promotional stuff.

So before I say anything more, why don't I just provide a few links to excerpts.

First is Astrid Amara's Trust Me
Then Nicole Kimberling's Dark Waters
And last my own Private Passion of Big Bird-- er I mean Such Heights

Really, I shouldn't be so punchy about this but I'm excited and nervous.  I hope readers enjoy the stories!

I have been writing, writing and writing.  Someone should have warned me that a ten volume, serial fiction novel was going to be hard work!  At this rate I'm never going to get outside to develop my annual third degree sunburn. (We don't have long summers in the pacific northwest so my window of opportunity is limited, damn it!)  

But at least Hell Cop 2 is done with all its edits and due to come out from LoosID June 23rd!  Whoo hoo!  This time around I let myself have a little more fun with the characters, and some of my sense of humor even crept into a sex scene. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing for most readers.

Feel free to tell me what you think of it or of sex and humor in general.  I'm curious because to me the combination seems like two great things that bring out the best in each other, but I'm also a fan of habañero peppers on pineapple, so I could be WAY off as far as popular taste goes. (Note to self, if writing career tanks DO NOT open a restaurant offering chocolate-free, habañero based desserts.)

Also on the subject of personal taste. I just came across a new magaizine, Icarus.  It's gay themed, speculative fiction, (which I take to mean a combination of fantasy, science fiction and maybe a little magical realism.)  It looks cool and I'm waiting to receive my first issue!

Not that I have time to read anything, but at least I can look at the shiny cover.  Ooooh Shiny! 

 Well, I'm back from the Desert Island Blog, having battled a robot and uhm... won?  I'm not sure that I should get credit, since I think it just melted down on its own.  But after  almost  an ENTIRE day in front of a computer screen-as well as a gloomy winter spent indoors-- it's a delight to go outside and enjoy the crazy, organic unpredictable world that we really live in.

Right now some kid is on his porch learning to play the flute and birds are laughing at him. Bumblebees and honeybees are in the air and plants of all kinds are hurling perfume and pollen out in an orgasmic frenzy.  The ground feels warm and soft under my toes and the sunlight scatters and flickers through  trees branches like its dancing.

I just  might stay outside for a while.

But I promise I will be thinking of novels and short stories--between bouts of sunning and tree climbing and bird watching, (I and my cat are on pretty much the same schedule).

I hope that all of you will have the same opportunity to take some time and smell the roses, as they say, (though really it's just as nice to smell the dandelions). 

 I just thought I'd mention that on April 29th I'm going to be over at Desert Island Keeper  testing the limits of cutting edge automated interview technology--the dreaded RomanceBot2000...

 I've been too mad to think reasonably about the whole amazon "glitch",which basically tossed LGBT books back into the closet and out of sales rankings. Someone seemed to deem gay literature as a thing too dangerous to dare look upon. (That's right, LGBT literature is apparantly as deadly as the Arc of the Covenant... Hey, maybe that's what's realy in there!).

 But after a few days I've managed to get over my annoyance, at least I'm not stewing in vitrol and gnashing my teeth anymore (much).

And the whole thing did get me thinking about something that I hadn't really considered too much before: how hard is it to apologise?  I don't mean just amazon,(who can't seem to understand that fingerponting isn't an appology), but for people in general-- and fictional characters in particular. And how important is it to hear an appology?  

I can think of a couple books where appologies meant far more than grand gestures, and I, as a reader, forgave a character whom I had been glaring at for hours, (not that giving a printed page the scowling of the lifetime made much impact but I couldn't help myself).  There have also been a few where I didn't forgive a character.  

I'd like to say that I forgave one character because he or she had a good reason for his or her actions or seemed truely repentant, but if I'm honest I have to admitt that I'm not quite that rational all the time.  Once in a while I can't forgive a character because I liked them too much-- and felt too betrayed to forgive them.  Which means of course that the author did a great job in a way, because I really was living the story... up until the ending when I crossed out the, "all is forgiven" scene and penciled in, "die and go to Hell".  (So, maybe I was a little too caught up in it, but if you've read Fingersmith you may know what I'm talking about ).

Trangression and wrongs done are the stuff of good conflict and they can  make for engaging plots. Certainly, multitudes of revenge stories have proven that.  But writing an absolution ending--instead of revenge-- is really tough.  

Often, all an author has to balance pages of hurt and anger from a point of view character is an appology offered by another character. Certainly, switching points of view throughout the book is a good idea if the act of betrayal or wrong doing takes a lot of explaining or is particularly terrible, at least the reader can be aware of the character's motives. 

But of course that kills a great deal of tension and often leads a reader to exasperation, wondering "why doesn't he just  explain and say he's sorry".  Unless, of course the character isn't sorry and only through the course of the book does he or she grow enough to issue an appology at the end.

To me, that kind of story makes for very engaging reading as well as interesting character growth, because a reader understands not only the cause of the wrong done but the remorse for it and the concious decision to make amends.  I think it  also makes for the more meaningful appology: one that is heartfelt. One arising from empathy and genuine regret, not just embarrassment at being caught out, or fear of an angry mob and their lawyers.

(So, maybe I am talking about amazon a little, after all.) 




  

 Perhaps you've wondered if I've been crushed under a giant rubber band ball, or incinerated in a freak keyboard explosion or even terribly spindled while training as human origami.

 Let me assure you that none of these merciful ends have come to pass.  The truth is  I've been hunched in a corner writing in the  word- hole, (as my friendly barista calls my domicile).  Yes, writing and writing and writing and writing... and writing.

And if it sounds like I'm repeating myself, it might be because I'm presently working on two sequels, (Hell Cop 2 and Lord Foster's Devils)  as well as a ten part serial. Both types of story bring up lots of questions that  I've never addressed as a writer before so I imagine that this year will be full of "learning experiences" and I might be sporting a new, "I've pulled all my hair out in bloody clumps" look by next spring.(I have always wanted to be a red-head!).

Right now I'm  really trying to work out  just how much I information I should  repeat from the first book in the second book, (or tenth book, as the case may be).  I don't want to confuse anyone who's new to the material.  At the same time I'm dead set against having Harper turn to Belimai and say, "Sykes, old man, I recall that you were once a drug addict in the employee of the Butcher Street Crone, were you not?" As if they've just met and have to explain their histories to each other or anyone else.

I hope I'll be able to work exposition in smoothly, but when there's an entire book, or two (or ten ,as the case may be) of past history it can be a real trick to cram it all in... That sounds so artful, doesn't it? Ginn Hale: Crammed with backstory!... that just sounds wrong for so many reasons.  

Anyway all this got me thinking about the authors who really write sequels well.  I have a few favorites--Josh Lanyon and Taiyo Matsumoto being at the top of the list-- but I suddenly wondered if anyone else knew of a series or sequel where the second book , (or third, fourth, fifth... or tenth book ,as the case may be) was as good as or better than the first.  I'd love to know about them!

I'd love to write them, as well, but that remains to be seen.   

Most everyday I'm likely to thank a reader or reviewer for all he or she has done for my stories. And I am thankful, but I realized recently,(while listening to a few very young authors complain about editors), that I ought to give a some credit where it's due on the publishing end of things.

So, Happy Valentines Day, Editors!  I wish you were all mine! (I'd say B Mine, but I know most of you would just groan at the spelling error.)

I know we authors often take you for granted and most readers think that all you do is correct spelling and stitch up an ugly world of comma splices, but the truth is that you are the secret agents of literature, moving unseen and yet shaping everything. You are the sweet, spicy, subtle, secret ingredients in every author's recipe. You're the bubbles in our champagne  and the whoopee in our cushions!  (I'm not sure that that last one was quite right but I mean it in the best way.)  

The editors I've had the pleasure to work with have all had an uncanny ability to read a rough draft and, like an expert jeweler or master sculptor, see beyond its ungainly present form and envision its ideal state.  And even more amazingly, they have dedicated vast amounts of their time and energy to fulfilling the potential of the writing I have brought to them.

And as for the editors who have rejected my works; I want to thank you, as well, (and I'm not being facetious). I may have cursed and muttered and shaken my bony fists at the cold dark sky when the rejections came, but the comments you gave me were invaluable in improving my craft.  Even when a comment was no more than,"this story just isn't right for me", it was important to know.  

Looking back on it, I can now see how very necessary it is for editors to love,(not just like or enjoy, but love), the stories that they acquire, because they will be laboring over every word. They will have to fight  with flaky authors and profit minded publishers. They will have to spend weeks analyzing plots and character arcs, shifting sentences and paragraphs and polishing every rough edge.  And in the end it will not be their name on the cover, nor will they be handed an award, nor will critics hail their genius.  Only love could motivate a person to give so much for so little reward.  

So of course, editors reject perfectly fine manuscripts.  Often it has nothing to do with the quality of the writing or the creativity of the author.  It's a question of falling in love.  Either an editor loves the work or they let it go.   As an author, I respect the fact that not every editor or reader will love what I do.  And I'll take an honest rejection over false praise any day...(Well maybe not on a really bad day but 6 out of 7 days of the week, I'd rather not be lied to.)

  Knowing that, I can't help but feel a huge warmth for all the editors out there who have looked at my funky, flawed stories and found something in them to love. I know we authors don't say it as often as we ought to but: WE LOVE YOU TOO!!

Happy Valentines Day!

 So, I just picked up a copy of Primal Red by Nicole Kimberling-- I've been hooked on her writing since working on Hell Cop with her.  She never goes quite where I expect with a story and all the characters are very real and often very funny. Primal Red was all of that and a hot snog, AND it is set in my hometown, Bellingham.  As I was reading I kept thinking, I know where that is... Black Drop Coffeehouse, best coffee EVER... I remember that police raid! That restaurant  was shut down for being a front for prostitution, wasn't it?  

I'm sure that people in Paris,  New York, L.A, London and even Seattle have this experience all the time.  They watch a film or open a book and suddenly they're in a setting that they already know. Characters much cooler than them are hanging out at their favorite shops, working a few blocks from their apartments and solving crimes they've read about in the daily paper.  It's all familiar and right... and yet somehow completely new.

I've been transported into another world by a book, but never before have I been transported into my own world-- my own neighborhood at one point- and somehow found myself looking around with a kind of wonder and fascination.  The details and feel of the people are just perfect and yet there are things going on that I never thought of.  It's like visiting an alternate reality where everything is the same except I'm seeing all the events around me from the point of view of some one  smarter, funnier and much more likely to make out with a fireman in an elevator... It's like I've turned into a young Stephen Fry!

Oh if only!  

I'm sure Stephen Fry would be much better than me at most the things I attempt, (with the exception of putting on a bra, and being small maybe).  I'm certainly hoping I can channel a little of his charm and wit for my interview with jessewave on her blog this coming Wednesday.  Maybe I should re-read Primal Red a few more times.  

 This blurb will use verbs so powerful that they will raise and then destroy the dead all over again.  It will release pheromones, endorphins, and dopamine at a glance... And in its spare time it fights crime, rescues kittens and searches for true love.

Oh, if only it were true.

The fact of the matter is that I'm lucky if I can write a blurb that accurately captures the protagonist's name, much less one that sums up pages of motivation, conflict, action and subtle developments. And yet it's becoming more and more common for publishers to expect authors to produce promotional material as well as stories.  So, once again, I find myself attempting to write a blurb without giving too much away, or describing some completely different story or just sounding plain stupid.

And I realized that this process might be of interest or use to some authors. (I certainly would like to know how other authors come up with their blurbs.) So, here's how I'm going about it.

The particular blurb I'm writing is for the story Shy Hunter, which I have posted for free on the extras page of my website.  The blurb has to be 30 words or less and will be used to promote my contribution to the anthology Queer Wolf.  The title of the anthology at least saves me from having to explain that the characters are gay and that one of them is, at least at some point, a wolf, (which is a relief because Shy Hunter features at least two gay characters, one of whom is a wolf at least some of the time, just sucks as a blurb, even by my standards).

With the premise somewhat covered by the title of the anthology, all of my allotted 30 words are freed up to capture the essence of the story... First, I  attempt to remember what I was trying to do when I wrote the story.  Memory fails me and I settle on just figuring out what the conflict of the story was...hmmmm.  Maybe I'll just type in the characters' names.  David and... was it Edward or Edgar?... (At this point I break down and read the story; it's been at least a year since I've even looked at it.)

I realize two things after reading the story. One: Because a blurb needs to be very brief, every word used has to convey as much information as possible. A  given name tells far less than a relationship.  So, while David, the p.o.v. character, has to be named, Edgar will be referred to simply as his lover. Two: In the future I should consider writing a blurb first and then craft a story to fit it. <g>

There are obviously greater and lesser conflicts in the story, but the central to the POV character is his humanity and how it is threatened by his transformation and his capacity to do terrible harm. Doesn't that sound exciting? After a violent encounter, David fears that he may have the same capacity for violence as his attacker.  When placed in a violent situation he must confront that fear directly...Can't you just hear some psychology undergraduate droning something like that as she reads from a text book? Still, it is the core of the character's conflict and thus it is the core of my blurb.

Now I just hammer at the individual words, attempting to build an interesting proposition to a potential reader.( I try to be specific without giving everything away and where I can I use strong direct language, which reflects the style of the story.)  And here it is.

Since his assault, David must struggle to control the beast within him. But the killer stalking David’s lover may leave him no choice but to embrace his dangerous nature.

29 words. It's not poetry--and it certainly won't raise the dead-- but I hope it will tell a reader what the story is about and capture his or her interest enough that he or she will give the story itself a look... now, I just have to get the story to release pheromones  and I'm good to go.




 



 

 

I know it’s a tradition, but I’m not good at compiling lists of the previous year’s highs and low or bests and worsts.  Thinking back on the year, I feel grateful for all the generosity and encouragement that I’ve received, but my regards  can't be broken down into a top 10.

I’d like to think that my lack of best of/ worst of lists is a sign that I’m forward thinking. (I suspect that it might just be that I can’t learn from past errors.)  But in any case, instead of looking back I try to look forward to upcoming projects. They are my resolutions.

And here they are: 

 Wrap up and publish  Lord of the White Hell 
(Though who knows what it will end up being titled…Seven Habits of Highly Damned Dukes, perhaps.)  If I’m lucky it will find a home before the year is out. There are sample chapters posted on my live journal, if anyone would like to have a read.

Releasing Shy Hunter out into the world of print.
That was something of a tricky proposition since I refused to break my promise to readers and take it down from my website as a free read. Fortunately, James Rasmussen at Queered Fiction has been really understanding and agreed to let me keep it available, just so long as I let everyone know that a print version of the story will appear in the anthology Queer Wolf along with a lot of other cool stories.  The print version will also have the advantage of being edited! 

Hell Cop II
I had a great time working on the Hell Cop Anthology with Astrid and Nicole and I’ve been hoping that they might want to try something like that again.  And as it turns out they are interested and so is our patient and charming editor. So, we’re going ahead with the project and hopefully it will be out in the summer.   

Lord Foster’s Devils, the sequel to Wicked Gentlemen.
This is, of course, the Major project for the entire year.  I have signed the contract—these things are usually done in blood, right? I must deliver the book. I’m nervous and excited all at the same time.

All that and see if I can gain ten pounds!
I guess I better get to work!

HAPPY  NEW YEAR!!!!!

 

 This post is serving the dual purpose of allowing me to attempt to "master" photobucket and respond to those people who have commented that I might want to use a little less goofy of an author photo.  

Honestly, it's hard to locate any photo of me not looking goofy or behaving badly.  In fact a normal looking photo only seems possible to get if I'm near dying or something. (Fortunately I had pneumonia earlier this year so there were a few occasion upon which I looked rather sedate... maybe even sedated.  

Here are the two "best" pictures I could locate. Which do you think would be best gracing the back of a book?  I also have some rather fetching pictures of a gang of hens as my back up plan.

     Me healthy
  Me dying




 

I know I should be writing.  I know I've been bad.
 But honestly, I don't drink.  I don't smoke. I don't eat chocolate, or cake, or drink soda pop or snort crystal.  I don't take drugs-not even asprin. I don't chew betel, or lick cane toads or snort chinchillas. All of that is behind me now.  

But I do have one weakness, one indulgence that I can not resist.  It's a good book.  And sadly, during this holiday season I -possibly- went a little out of control.  Okay maybe it was a bender.

But  I've been reading over the excerpt of  Josh Lanyon's The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks  for months and months and months.  I've read it so much that I've gone completely off the rails second guessing my own convoluted weird twists and theories about what could happen. I've come up with scenarios that  make the tropical polar bears on Lost seem really reasonable.  In fevered states I've invented suspects,(could a crack team of precision trained lap dogs have killed the man and deposited him in Perry's tub?), possible motives, (jealousy, greed, passion,fury over cheap kibble) and the alibis,(were they really out doing their business?).

 And keep in mind that all this is just from reading 14 pages. (For those of you who haven't visited Mr. Lanyon's site, it's full of thrilling excerpts and teasers, but be warned; those excerpts are like crack cooked up in bacon grease. You will get hooked.)

Needless to say, the instant The Ghost wore Yellow Socks  was available I bought it and read it. (Thankfully it was nothing like the strange, criminal canine mystery that I had dreamed up.)  It was a wonderful, fun adventure, populated by surprisingly nuanced, odd, clever and sexy characters.  Perry and Nick partnered delightfully in their sleuthing and their romance.  I really enjoyed it. And I plan to read it again. Tonight. Maybe tomorrow too.

So, no I didn't get that chapter done.  But I am not sorry... at least not until my editor finds out...

Maybe I shouldn't have posted this.

 As promised here is chapter two... I hope. At least half of it...

 I feel like one of those old-time radio announcers: The Lord of the White Hell, chapter one, part two!

 I'm getting close to the end of this book--working title is Lord of the White Hell, but I'm hoping I come up with something else.  Anyway it got me to thinking that I ought to learn how to post excerpts.  So I'm going to give it a go... If I fail or do something crazy/stupid please just tell me and I'll try to correct it or at least tone it down to weird/dumb.

( Read more... )                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      So did it work?                                             </div>

 I have just discovered a literary award that I feel I have a chance at grabbing! It's the "Bad Sex" Literary Award.  I have to say not only did I find it funny, but I thought the winner accepted her award with amazing humor and good grace. It almost made me want to read her book... If only I was  allowing myself to read ANY books right now.  But I'm facing a close deadline and all distractions must be put aside... uhm except posting here, heh.

One of the reasons I even allowed myself to look at the above mentioned literary award, is that I have trouble with sex scenes and right now  my outline requires a very intense sex scene--I curse the outline, all the while knowing I must obey it for my own good.  

Honestly, sex is hard to capture in type.  To me it seems a lot like music, so fluid, personal and inherently tied to the moment that pinning it down into the linear structure of sentences and paragraphs seems almost impossible, and often strips it down to a series of mechanical actions.  Imagine someone describing a violin solo as, "He fingered the strings, producing the correct notes in 3/4 time while employing vigorous bowing to create a strong emotional inflection."  Oohhh it's like I'm reading a music review written by a robot.

Robotic writing-- pure mechanics without insight or humanity-- completely destroys the sublime trick of fiction:the experience of empathy, of being there. Transporting a reader into the story,  that's  what I'm striving for and it's what a well written scene should do. And of course that's why sex and music are so tough to convey, because they are transportative and deeply empathetic experiences. Sex is no more the mere stimulation of genitals than playing the flute is blowing in a tube while moving your fingers over holes. No matter how explicitly the hole fingering may be described, there is something more that must be captured to make it real.  

Of course it could always be left out.  Why not cut the sex scene?  Why not take the demure route and write "they spent the night together".  Well, I could.  But it would be a cheat--and not just because my outline says so.  The truth of the matter is that a world--even a fictional world-- stripped of sex and music and all that is difficult to capture in words is a greatly diminished world, lacking in a whole range of ideas, conflicts and resolutions. (Which isn't to say that every story must have sex to be good, but that if a particular story calls for it, it should not be omitted just because it's damn hard to write.)  

So I have no choice but to choose my words--or really exclude words, like "man-root" and "nether mouth" which make me convulse with laughter-- and try to craft something that captures the sublime act of getting it on.  And should I fail and end up writing a lurching ridiculous scene, I can always hope that there will be a Bad Sex Award awaiting me.
 

I have been informed that very few authors are as bad at self-promotion as I am.  So, in this post I will attempt to prove my critics wrong.

First I'll subtly mention that I have a new publication out, an urban fantasy anthology called Hell Cop. (I contributed one of three linked stories about a supernatural police force).  Then I'll attempt to slip in a link to a review. (So good so far, hmm?)

Then I will urge everyone out there to buy Hell Cop for all their loved ones this holiday season.  What better way to introduce your grandparents to your alternative "lifestyle" than three hundred pages of explosions,magic, crime and explicit gay sex?  And why not get a few copies for co-workers as well?  What  dentist, postal carrier or vet wouldn't want a sizzling e-book filled with drug abuse, men in bunny suits and demons?

 Okay, so now I'm  just  cracking myself up imagining my UPS guy's puzzled scowl upon receiving a smudgy printout of an e-book, which has been sewn together with curly pink ribbon and decorated with glitter glue!  How's that for self-promotion!

In all seriousness I do want to thank everyone who's reviewed and recommended my books.  The truth of the matter is that I could push a publication all I wanted but if it weren't for reader who really enjoyed it and took the time to share it with their friends I wouldn't have anything resembling a career.

So, thank you!

And if you have a chance you should check out Astrid Amara's other writing as well as Nicole Kimberling's. They're both very talented authors and I had a great time working with them.