Sharon Maria Bidwell's Blog, page 42

Excerpt up now

For those who may be interested, an excerpt for Mistletoe and Whine is now up on the site and you can read it HERE. It’s adult rated owing to content and language, but is one of my favourite scenes from the book. Owing to a lot of shifter stories being put under a not very attractive spotlight recently, I thought I would deal with the issue my way…or rather the right way for my characters. This just feels right for Bobby, Chantelle, and Sam. There’s also enough humour and playful interaction to make a quite serious scene fun. Enjoy!

Not at all Bitter

Someone picked my story ‘Bitter and Intoxicating’ as her favourite in the anthology Red Velvet and Absinthe. Mine mine mine. I am…ohhhhh, going to pop. Sorry. Author cool regained. Nope. Can’t stop bubbling!

Press Release for Space 1889 Series Two

The Press Release for Space 1889 Series Two is live, and you can read it here: Space 1889.

I was pleased to be approached and commissioned to write for this series. I’m delighted to have been given such great characters to play with, and awestruck to receive the approval from an editor and author like Andy Frankham-Allen, and an author/creator like Frank Chadwick.

Rentboy Collection

I’ve not reviewed any reads in a while so here are four at once. The Riptide Rentboys:2012 Collection is a series of four stories available from Riptide Publishing separately or in a single volume of both ebook and print. The press publishes stories containing mild sexual references to explicit content, and these stories cover some of the range.

Priceless by Cat Grant is a solid story with all the elements I expected in a rentboy tale. It’s possibly the most predictable, but that’s not intended as a negative comment. The writing is excellent and launched the series well. The author succeeded in making me feel uneasy, adding depth to the story and thereby making the conclusion that more satisfying. Priceless is also the longest of the four and maybe that was why it felt the most complete.

Anne Brooke’s offering is entitled Where You Hurt the Most. I can’t say it feels quite ‘complete’ and I can imagine many picking up on that, feeling the love aspect happens too fast. Yet for me this reads as a glimpse into two people’s lives where things happen just out of frame that I can sense, but to which I am not entirely privileged. This story is the most haunting of the four. Something about it kept me thinking. The story lingered, and I found it was still in my head several days later. Part of me feels this could have been more developed, could have been a much longer story; however, I’m not entirely convinced it would have stayed in my mind for so long had all the letters been crossed and dotted.

Cruce de Caminos (Heidi Belleau and Violetta Vane) is fascinating but I felt fitted least, owing to its paranormal aspects. That’s just my interpretation and is no reflection on the story. The writing is excellent, the supernatural details well presented, faultless, and metaphoric. As a standalone read I’m more than taken with it, but it felt a little too surreal to quite fit with the other stories. Yet I can see that those differences may be precisely why the publisher chose to include it, proving there truly is something for everyone in this collection.

Necessity’s Door, by Fiona Glass is an interesting conclusion and choice by publisher and author as it reflects on some questions being asked regarding the British police as to what is acceptable whilst they are undercover-a subject that has been in the British press recently, and one the author clearly tapped into. It’s a good solid story that spun full circle ending with the perfect concluding sentence. Possibly, a few, very small elements could have been tweaked to add strength, and maybe Jake’s emotions could have been a little more explored, but I had no problem overall and enjoyed this read as much as any of those in the collection.

All four stories were well-written enjoyable reads, gathering together a variety of genres. These are not, and not intended to be, the average gay romance. Riptide tend to publish more literary, cross genre works by outstanding writers, and that is the case here.

Are you ready for some Curt Courting?

Out today, and you can read an excerpt on the publisher’s site, as well as here. This story is a little different for me for two reasons, well, three if you take into account it’s the shortest thing I’ve written for Changeling to date. It’s written in first person, and it’s…well, to be honest, I don’t know that it’s more explicit or whether it just feels that way owing to the first person point of view, but it came together as something of a surprise. Anyway, enjoy!

Other news…ooooo, coming soon. I’ve signed another contract with Changeling and as soon as I receive my signed copy back I’ll have an announcement to make, that I know will please at least a few readers. Yes, there’s going to be a sequel to Hounding the Beat — that much I can tell you.

Update July 2012

The release date for Curt Courting has been bumped up from August to the 13th of July, so not long to wait now, and it’s one you may not want to wait for. This is my first m/m romance told in first person and whether you like that point of view or not, it’s also one where I wavered a little outside my comfort zone. It has its own page, which you can see here: Curt Courting, and I’ll be choosing an excerpt asap.

I’m working on The Teacher for publication — contracted but these are more pre-edit adjustments as I’ve discussed and agreed with the publisher. That’s not bad news — I knew there would be tweaks needed. I just wasn’t sure which way to go so we’re trying to see what works. I love this story. I wrote it a long time ago. I want to get it just right for the audience. As soon as I subbed the new draft for edits, I’ll be back to working on C&C2. I have a title in mind but not settled on it yet; besides, until it’s contracted I never let such things ‘out of the bag’.

On the home front, I’ve just returned from a holiday in Cornwall. Took over 500 photographs. Damn this wonderful camera I have. LOL. And no, I did not, as one friend put it, photograph every current in my cream tea scone.

All things with fur, horns and wings

Fellow writer, Rayven Renshaw, commissioned artist Ash Evans to create a header, and very nice it looks too. It looks equally good on Rayven’s website.

I’m hoping to use a piece of Ash’s work later this year for a contest prize, although it is likely to be ‘late’ in the year. I’d have to tie it in with one of my paranormal titles.