Geonn Cannon's Blog, page 6

Get Tilting at Windmills, the first Claire Lance novel, FREE!

I don’t always remember the inspiration for my novels, but this one stands out with particular clarity in my mind. It was morning, and I was listening to music, and I heard a song called “Lancelot” by Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. It was a song about an old drunk and the woman who loved him, sort of a wild west Don Quixote. Of course, I love Man of La Mancha and I wrote lesbian romance novels by that time, so I decided I was going to write a novel based on that first image I had: a battered and weary woman who has trekked through the desert arriving in a tiny-town bar where she’s forced to take up arms in order to protect someone. The story was inspired by Lancelot, so I named my knight-errant Lance. The rest of the story just cropped up around her, where she was running from, what she was looking for, and how she found herself in the process of saving others.

There are five Claire Lance novels in all, and for a limited time, you can get the first novel in the series, Tilting at Windmills, for free! All you have to do is go here and voila! It’s all yours. A little early Christmas gift from me (well, my publisher) to you.

Get it here!

Spank or Treat 2014: The Special Ingredient

SPANK OR TREAT 2014

Spank or Treat 2014 is officially over! Visit Governing Ana for information on the anthology, including when it will be released in print and ebook! On Friday, October 31st Ana will announce the lucky winners there. Will it be you? We will also announce prizes on the Spank or Treat Facebook page.

For more information, updates, and a list of participating authors, please visit Anastasia Vitsky’s blog.

Like Spank or Treat on Facebook!

Tweet #SpankOrTreat on Twitter!

Join the exclusive chat with Spank or Treat authors! Message Anastasia Vitsky on Facebook or any of the authors to receive an invitation

For more spanking fun, visit Saturday Spankings for additional snippets.

Want an Autograph? Now you can have one!

The majority of my novels are in ebook format simply because of practicality. People buy more ebooks, so that’s where my publisher’s focus has been. We do offer paperback copies (and, this December, “The Rise and Fall of Radiation Canary” will be our first hardcover! Click here to preorder!), but for the most part it’s ebooks or nothing. One of the things that you get from physical copies that ebooks just can’t copy is getting an autograph. Is the author supposed to sign your Kindle? That might be cool, but there’s limited space. What to do? Well, now you can get an electronic signature!

All you have to do is go here, find the book you want signed (you don’t even have to own the book to get it signed) and I’ll send you an autograph for it. You can leave a note so the autograph can be personalized, and the best thing is that it’s completely FREE.

If you do have one of my physical books (the Stargate novel, Underdogs, one of the Riley Parras, etc) you can still send those to me for an autograph but that will cost you postage to get it here and to send it back. I think this is a nice step into the future.

Five Questions Blog Hop!

MY BLOG HOP IS LATE. Day late and a dollar short. I ought to donate a dollar somewhere as penance. I also didn’t get five people to tag. I am a LAME-O. Sigh. But better late than never. EDIT: Actually, not a day late at all. September 22 was the day I was supposed to post. Oh, well. This kind of panic is why I rarely miss deadlines. ::g::

What am I working on?

I just finished a novel called The Virtuous Feats of the Indomitable Miss Trafalgar and the Erudite Lady Boone (shortened to Trafalgar & Boone for obvious reasons) which is a 1920-era steampunk treasure hunting magical adventure story. It’s basically if Indiana Jones was replaced by Helena G Wells from Warehouse 13 and Helen Magnus from Sanctuary and they could both do magic. I have a few novels in the pipeline, including the fourth novel in the Underdogs series (“Red in Tooth and Claw”) and getting a few other novels I have in the pipeline ready for publication.

How does my work differ from others in the genre?

Variety, maybe? I don’t tend to stay in one particular genre. Western, romance, thriller, supernatural, steampunk. I write all kinds of things. The way my books differ from others in their niche is that I focus entirely on the female characters. There’s rarely a male hero swooping in to save the woman at the end. They can save themselves just fine, thank you. For instance, in my latest novel (Trafalgar & Boone) there is a male member of their team who gets left behind when they go off to face the Big Bad. He stays behind at home and basically does the sweeping up. The only damsels in my books save themselves or take turns saving each other.

Why do I write what I do?

Like I said in one of my bios: I write the books I want to read. There’s a boatload of novels out there with male heroes, or werewolf series that focus on the alpha and packs and mating. Seriously, it seems like every werewolf series out there, if it bothers to have a female werewolf at all, makes her main plot finding a mate. The idea of a woman who can change into a wolf is too great a concept to waste on a typical romance plot. So I stuck my foot in the door by giving Ariadne Willow a girlfriend in the first book, and the rest of the series is free to be about Ari as a person, not Ari as defined by who she’s in love with. I also try to keep it anchored in reality. Ari is a werewolf, but she exists in a Seattle that isn’t much different than the one we all know. Riley Parra is partners with her guardian angel against demonic beings, but the world is real. There are exceptions (in Trafalgar & Boone, World War I had quite a few alterations), but for the most part I try to keep everything – even/especially the most fantastic parts – as real as possible.

How does my writing process work?

On a wing and a prayer, mostly. I’ll get the thread of an idea – an image, a character, a line of dialogue – and I’ll build it up slowly while I’m working on other things. I build notes about the character’s name and biography until I have enough to create a story around them. Then it’s off to the races. For instance, my work-in-progress “Into the Fire” started with the image of a firefighter standing in the middle of a burning room staring at an empty chair. Her team was calling to her, but she was ignoring them and just looking at the chair. It took me a lot longer than usual to find out what her story was, but I finally got it.

Who’s next on the blog hop? (Tag 5 people)

Adrian Smith and Amy Mitchell and Del Dryden… a-and… um… I tried to find five people! I failed. Everyone I asked had already done it or been tagged! But if you haven’t done it yet, feel free and say you came from here. ;D

Keeping Up with Everything

Earlier today, some author went on a rampage because apparently people were asking when her books were available in a certain country, what order they should be read in, etc. Now I can understand being a little irritated with a barrage of questions that should be answered by a website. But just direct them to your website and move on. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you by raging at them on your Facebook. With Twitter, Facebook, etc, authors are more accessible than ever. That can be a double-edged sword, but it’s also a way to interact with your fans while possibly gaining new ones. I just don’t understand the vitriol directed at people who are just trying to pay you money and enjoy your work in the order it was intended to be read.

So in that vein, I will go ahead and leave this here. If anyone has further questions, ask me. It should be covered by my website or the Supposed Crimes site, but if it isn’t, I won’t grumble and grouse about someone seeking information on how to support my career.

First and foremost, you should check out

Squire’s Isle Guidepost

This covers every Squire’s Isle story I have ever written. 90% of these stories are completely free, and this page lists them in chronological order. If you read enough to have a favorite character, then you can follow that person’s story by reading the list under their name. A few of the links go to my store, and a few of the stories spoil events that happen in the novels, but for the most part it’s just a series of short stories set in a small town with a suspiciously high ratio of lesbian residents.

Secondly, there’s the Underdogs series. This one can get a little complicated, so I understand having a bit of confusion of where the starting point is. I had someone ask me about the reading order just last night, in fact, unrelated to the whole author rant. So, in order:

* Underdogs Volume 1, starting with “Strays”, is where you go first. These stories are free, they all take place before the first novel, and they won’t spoil anything for you.

* Underdogs, the novel. This can be your starting point if you don’t want to start with the shorts. It’s sort of like seeing a movie based on a television show without seeing any episodes beforehand. It’s a standalone story, but if you read the short stories you get a broader idea of who Ari and Dale are before their Big Adventure starts.

* Underdogs Volume 2 picks up where the novel left off and continues the story of Ari and Dale in the months between the first and second novels. Spoils the first novel, obviously, with hints and foreshadowing about things coming up in the second installment.

* Beware of Wolf, the second novel in the series

* Dogs of War, the third novel.

This can be shuffled around, of course. If you want to read all the novels and then go back to read the short stories as flashbacks, that’s fine. If you want to read all the short stories before shelling out for the novels, I understand! That’s what they’re there for! There’s a post-Dogs of War story coming out in a short story anthology later this month, and I’ll be linking to that all over the place.

As for my other novels, they’re almost all standalone unless they take place in a specific series. If you read them chronologically you might spot a few Easter Eggs here and there in terms of character cameos, but reading the “wrong” one first shouldn’t affect your enjoyment of any particular book (I will say “The Following Sea” might be good to read before “Chasing Dragons,” even though it’s not part of the Claire Lance series).

Will reading in order increase your enjoyment of a story? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes it all depends on the reader. But if you think it will be a better experience, I’ll do my best to help you get everything lined up.

WorldCon Book Sale

Can’t make it to WorldCon (like me)? Miss the draw of the dealer’s room, offering great deals on awesome books? Well, here’s a chance to experience that from the comfort of your own home! Eight books, one of which is Railroad Spine by yours truly, all on sale until August 20! Check ‘em out!

Titles and buying info here!

Ten Years Later

Ten years ago, I sat in a car waiting to go onboard a ferry wondering, “How can I get out of this?”

I’ve spent the time since asking, “How can I get back?”

 

On July 10, 2004, I was away from home for the first time. I was on a trip to a Stargate convention in Vancouver, and through lots of planning and setups it had been decided that it would be much easier to meet up with friends near Seattle and just drive up rather than dealing with customs at the airport. Crossing the border in a car was, I imagine, infinitely easier than flying, and I’m basing that solely on how long the lines probably would have been. At that point Seattle was just a convenient stepping stone for me. I didn’t give it a second thought. When the people I met up with planned a side trip on the drive up to Canada, THAT was when I started having second thoughts. They wanted to go whale watching, which would have involved being on two boats. I was in no way a fan of that idea, so I spent most of the morning trying to think of ways to get out of it without looking like a dork.

People who have only known me for the past couple of years may be frowning at their screens right now. “You didn’t want to go on a boat? You didn’t care about Seattle?” Yep. I had no interest in Seattle. I actively tried to get out of going to San Juan Island and I only went to save face. If someone had given me the red pill/blue pill option of getting out of it with no stigma, I would have without a doubt stayed on the mainland.

I’m not sure when the shift happened. I think it might have been on the ferry to the island. It was just so beautiful and peaceful, and I remember walking around the ferry deck and just staring at everything. I got so many pictures of that ferry ride that I almost didn’t have enough film for the actual island. We went whale watching, and that might have sealed the deal. I was on a little boat out in the middle of this vast body of water (land was in sight, but I was farther from it than I’d ever been) and there were KILLER WHALES close enough to touch. They were playful buggers, too… they spent most of their time hanging out around another boat. When we turned to go back in they immediately came over and chased us. You could almost hear them saying “Aw, come on, don’t go away! We’ll play with you too!”

Afterward we were waiting for the ferry and I wanted to call my parents with an update. So I had to find a payphone (ten years ago! It’s like the past!). There was one between two restaurants, and I looked out over the harbor while I was talking. That’s the moment I think about when my mind wanders back to that day. I remember standing there in the mid-sixty temperatures (in JULY!) and thinking, “This place is special.” At the time I was setting my original stories around Chicago just because it was Random Midwestern Town. That day I decided I would move my characters to a Pacific Northwest island. Why not? What could it hurt?

To this day, I think the Squire’s Isle setting was a big part of what made On the Air special. It was a fine story and I stand by it, but would it have been as good if it was just some random town? Maybe. But I built up my little island during that story, and I fell in love with it in the process. I fell in love with the idea of this beautiful little paradise tucked away in the corner of the country where one woman took a stand and changed things for everyone who lived there.

Ten years have passed. I was an unpublished author standing on an island en route to a Stargate convention. Now I’m a published author who has an official Stargate SG-1 title to my name. I made the conscious decision to move my characters to Washington State, and when Tello decided they wanted to produce Riley Parra, I couldn’t help but laugh when they said they would be filming it in Chicago (of all my stories, that one has the most Chicago-ish setting). It seems ironic that I made the changes, got to this point, and now I’m back where I began but in a much bigger way. I went to the convention as a fan, and now I’m a tie-in author. I moved my characters away from Chicago to give them life and now a producer wants to bring some of them back. It has a beautiful full circle feel to it.

Ten years ago, I was dragged to an island I didn’t care about. I spent maybe a grand total of four hours there, but in a much more accurate sense, I never really left.

 

Underdogs: What’s Next?

Yesterday was the release of the third Underdogs novel, Dogs of War. One thing I don’t want people to worry about when they start reading is the sense of finality that some of the proceedings have. The war is coming to a head and there’s no turning back or turning down the dial. By the time the book ends, people might be afraid they’re reading the last novel in a series. I wanted to reassure everyone right off the bat that this isn’t the case. It’s not the end of Underdogs as a whole, but it IS the end of the story arc that began in the first novel.

One of the things that irks me about on-going series like Dresden Files or The Hollows is that they just keep charging along. Everything builds on what comes before until you reach Book 13, and everything happening is incomprehensible if you’ve missed even one of the preceding stories in the series. I wanted to avoid that pitfall. I didn’t want to string along the hunter/canidae war endlessly until the only way it could be resolved was with an epic novel-long battle that would only be interesting to diehard fans. I wanted Underdogs to be more accessible than that, and even more, I wanted to make sure I didn’t wander too far from the origins: Ari and Dale as private investigators and partners. I didn’t want their story to get too huge too fast.

So with this novel, I decided to provide a bit of closure to what I’m calling “The Hunter Arc”. Hunters are definitely still going to be a part of the Underdogs world, but there won’t be a constant looming threat of war with the canidae. Ari and Dale have fought their battle and now it’s time for them to move on. They’re not soldiers.

The next novel, Red in Tooth and Claw, will be a standalone story. My plans are for Book 5 to begin a second arc that should cover at least two or three books. That way there will be a lot of places for new readers to jump in without being forced to go all the way back to the beginning. Of course, if you are enjoying the ride from the very beginning, you’ll get full enjoyment of the series’ one true arc: Ari and Dale’s relationship. That is one continuing thread that won’t get reset to zero any time soon.

First Kiss Blog Hop! “The Unblinking Eye”

Remember the video where 20 strangers kiss for the first time? Right after it came out, it went viral, and even though it was later revealed that it was shot as an advertisement, the effect was pretty amazing.

Attraction is…attractive.

So attractive, in fact, that it inspired a group of us to get together and write our own version of “20 Strangers Kissing.” Except in this case, it’s over 20 authors, each writing a flash fiction piece about two strangers who share their first kiss on camera. You can find the full list of participating authors here, and you can read my story by just continuing to read on! (And many, many, many thanks to AJ Cousins for inviting me to play along in this!)

 

THE UNBLINKING EYE,

by Geonn Cannon

 

 

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“We don’t have to do this.”

I looked at the camera and the woman hiding behind it. She was my oldest friend, the one who had gotten me the job in the first place, and the director of the video, Tracy Baxter. She saw me looking at her through the preview screen and met my gaze. I looked away, looked at Aurora, and she smiled reassuringly. I returned the smile out of habit but realized that I actually felt it. Her eyes were so blue up close and in this light. Why had I not noticed how blue they were when I did her makeup before? I nodded and put my hand on her arm, just above her elbow. I nodded. This was just a person, a beautiful person I would have been lucky to kiss if I had to choose. If I would have chosen a woman.

“Yeah. I want to do it.”

The director smiled and clapped her hands together. “Okay. Let’s get started.”

Aurora took a step closer as the production assistant started playing music. I was suddenly extremely aware of how many people were in the room and I turned to look at them. Aurora put her finger on my chin and gently pulled so that I was looking at her again. She was smiling still, but not the smile I’d seen in countless ads. This was the real woman for once.

“They aren’t here. It’s just you and me, okay?”

“Yeah.”

We were shooting scenes that would be used for a series of television commercials, quick snippets of people kissing that would be cut together to show a wide variety of pairings. I’d done the makeup for everyone who came through, the men and women of every race, age, and orientation. The last shot of the day was reserved for Aurora, due to her celebrity status, but that caused another unforeseen issue. When Aurora finally got free from her other obligations, the model she was supposed to kiss had already left. She had another job and couldn’t put it off.

What made me offer? I don’t know how I managed without looking like some kind of crazed stalker. But I saw Aurora looking guilty about screwing up the project, I saw the director’s frustration that she had lost a model, and I could tell that no one wanted to just pack up and go. A model of Aurora Lyle’s stature wasn’t just cut from a video at the last minute. So with no one else stepping up, I went up to Tracy and said, “If you just need another person, I’d… I mean, I can step in.”

Part of me must have assumed they would refuse, give me credit for trying to help, and move on. But suddenly everyone was very excited. Aurora even said, “She’s better than any model would be. She’s real, she’s beautiful, but she’s real. If I have to kiss anyone, I’d want it to be someone like her.”

I was too flattered to protest after that. Tracy helped me with my hair and makeup, just a minimal amount so it wouldn’t affect my “natural beauty.” Tracy had smiled at me as she did my eyes.

“I didn’t even know you liked women,” she said under her breath.

I shrugged. “I’ve never really thought about it. It’s not like we’re going on a date. It’s just a kiss. I can handle a kiss.”

We were shooting in an empty loft, with natural light coming from a wall of windows behind me so that Aurora was cast in the best light. It was a small crew, but still more people than I was usually comfortable with watching me kiss. But I focused on Aurora and let the rest of the room fade out as much as possible. I moved closer and put my hands on her shoulders, and she smiled as she tilted her head to the left. I went right and leaned in slightly, rising onto my toes to make up for the difference in our heights. I fought the urge to smile and turned my head right before our lips met.

“It’s okay to laugh,” Aurora said, and she kissed my cheek. I faced her again and lightly pecked her lips. Before I could pull too far away I forced myself to kiss her again. This time I lingered, and she shifted her weight onto her heels to sink down closer to my height. I had no idea what to do with my hands so I ran them up the outside of her arms. She rested her hands on my hips, which I thought was a much better choice. I swayed slightly and she matched my movements, turning it into a dance. She parted her lips and I mimicked her.

I was a little breathless, and I skimmed her neck with my fingers. Her hair draped over my hand as I cupped the back of her head. I broke the kiss, ran my tongue over my lips, and kissed her again. This time there was no hesitation or humor as her tongue eased against my mouth and I let it in. I could tell she was holding back; there was a tension in her that told me she was struggling to stay in my comfort zone, and knowing she cared enough to do that made me want to go further.

After that I wasn’t sure of the choreography. The kiss broke a few times for a better angle, but we were never more than a few centimeters apart before we came together again. At one point her hand tentatively moved to my upper chest and I arched my back to move it closer to the swell of my breast. If I’d been asked, if there’d been talk of her cupping my breast, I’d have said it was off limits. But now I regretted the fact I was wearing two layers of shirt.

“So…”

I tilted my head again, and Aurora matched my move. I stroked the back of her neck with my fingers–

“So, ladies…”

–and moaned a little as her lips glanced over my bottom lip. I opened my eyes to look at her, and in doing so I let the real world back in just a little bit. Just enough, it turned out, to realize Tracy wasn’t aiming the camera at us anymore and the music had stopped. I smiled against Aurora’s mouth and my face burned as the blood filled my cheeks. I pulled my body away from Aurora’s, knowing the kiss had to end but also reluctant to be the one who ended it.

“So. Ladies,” Tracy said again, her smile wide and obnoxious. “As I said, I think we’ve got it.”

“Right.” I stepped away from Aurora and put two fingers against my lips, only then realizing I was smiling like a teenager. I chuckled at myself, used both hands to tuck my hair behind my ears, and summoned up the courage to meet Aurora’s eye. “That was, uh. Nice.”

“It was very nice. Thank you. You saved the shoot.”

“Well. I don’t know. I think I got a little, um. Carried away.”

She chuckled. “One of us got carried away, maybe. But figuring out which… it’s like the chicken and the egg.”

We shook hands and then, feeling silly about how formal that was, turned it into a hug.

“I hope I get to see you on another shoot,” she said.

“Me too.”

“I’m glad it wasn’t too awkward for you.”

I laughed. “No. No, not… no.”

Eventually she left with her entourage, and I was marginally alone with Tracy and the rest of the crew. I made my way over to my makeup table to gather my things, and Tracy found me there a few minutes later.

“Thanks for stepping in. We were losing the light, and you really saved us.”

“I’m glad I could help.” I smiled at her. “So what do you think? Do I have a future in acting?”

She considered the question and then shrugged. “I dunno. I’ll let you know when I see you act.” She winked, bumped my arm, and went to gather the rest of her people.

I watched her go in the mirror, unable to resist a smile as I shook my head and went back to gathering my things.

Underdogs: MIA?

To anyone who thinks my writing has dried up this year, you would not be wrong! It looks like I’ve gone from 100,000 words a month to barely anything at all. The truth is that I AM writing, it’s just that it’s stuff I can’t share, and it requires a heck of a lot of detail work. Firstly I wrote the first draft of an official Stargate SG-1 novel for Fandemonium! I adore SG-1, but the pressure of writing something that was contracted and would have to pass through MGM’s filter was… daunting. I wanted to go through every scene with a fine-toothed comb to make sure it was juuust right. But I got a draft I’m happy with, the contract is winging its way overseas as we speak for their John Hanc– wait, what’s the British version of a signature? The… Magna Carta? Well, whatever it’s called.

Secondly, Tello Films asked me to write a script for a webseries based on Riley Parra! So I had to devote some time to getting that just right and perfect. Plus I had to teach myself how to write a script! Scrivener is amazing, and amazingly intuitive, but there was still a bit of poking that needed to be done before I could produce anything on it. And there were a lot of changes that had to be made story-wise… for instance, if I didn’t alter Priest’s introduction to the series, there was a chance she wouldn’t show up at all. As important as Priest is, that would be wholly unacceptable. But I found a way to get her in without compromising the story. I think it’s gonna be great. ;D

Now one of the main things that people may be scrambling for is another Underdogs story. The production of those may seem to have dried up a whole lot lately, and I can’t blame that on Riley/Stargate. The problem there is… time. There’s barely a month (about six weeks, I think) between “Beware of Wolf’s last scene and opening scene to Dogs of War. That’s not a whole lot of time to have stories. There’s also the fact I’m writing these semi-chronologically, and right now (March 2014) is AFTER the events of the third novel (which takes place during the month of January 2014) so I’m sort of stuck thinking of what they’re doing now (uh, assuming they both survive Book 3. YOU NEVER KNOW. I could pull a Joss Whedon (I will not pull a Joss Whedon (at least not with this particular novel))). I could always go back and fill in some space between Underdogs 1 and 2 (and that’s what I’m planning to do) but the muse doesn’t like throwing things in reverse. I want to address things that happen in Dogs of War, but I know I can’t do that until summer (at the very least).

So I do have inspiration, I have a lot of stories for Ari and Dale. I just can’t tell them without spoiling you for some big developments that are waiting to be explored in the novel.

And that’s the gist! Big projects all around, a little life stuff I won’t go into, and trying to get back into the swing of things while also knowing I could be called away at any moment to work on one of the big projects. I started this year knowing I more than likely would not hit 1,000,000 words again, so I’m not too bummed that I’m not keeping up with the past few years’ output. The few things I HAVE written are so big that I’m not worried there aren’t more little stories to share freely. Maybe now I can focus on those little stories a little more. ::fingers crossed::