Elliot Cooper's Blog, page 3
September 9, 2016
Stowaway Release Day!
I'm happy to share my latest ebook novella is book thirteen in the multi-author Planet Alpha series! If you're in the mood for campy erotic romance in a sci-fi setting, check out Stowaway :D
Thalia dreams of being rescued and claimed by handsome Alphan warriors. But her Xyran captor sets terrible traps for her potential saviors. When she takes matters into her own hands by stowing away on an Alphan ship, Thalia doesn't expect her welcome on Alpha to be contested by anti-human Purists or come with a deadline. Despite the help of her new friends, if she can't secure a bond in one week's time she'll be sent back to a dying Earth.
Thalia dreams of being rescued and claimed by handsome Alphan warriors. But her Xyran captor sets terrible traps for her potential saviors. When she takes matters into her own hands by stowing away on an Alphan ship, Thalia doesn't expect her welcome on Alpha to be contested by anti-human Purists or come with a deadline. Despite the help of her new friends, if she can't secure a bond in one week's time she'll be sent back to a dying Earth.
July 4, 2016
Release Day - Junk Mage!
Ready to get your hands on a sweet, action-packed technomancer and cyborg romance? Junk Mage releases today!Available at:
Ninestar Press
Amazon
All Romance (50% OFF 4th of July rebate sale!)
Barnes & Noble
And anywhere else your favorite eBooks are sold :D
July 3, 2016
Junk Mage Blog Tour - Stop #3
Are you ready for an exclusive excerpt? 
Stop number three for Junk Mage's blog tour is at
Just Love Romance
!July 2, 2016
Junk Mage Blog Tour - Stop #2
Today's stop is over at
Tami Veldura's blog
! Drop by for an exclusive character interview with the main character of Junk Mage: technomancer Quillian Defote :DAnd there's still time to enter the giveaway while you're there!
July 1, 2016
Junk Mage Blog Tour - Stop #1
To celebrate the release of Junk Mage on July 4th, I'm participating in a little blog tour - my first ever!Today is stop number one over at Boy Meets Boy Reviews. Stop by for a super serious* interview and a great chance to win any Ninestar Press book in a giveaway :D
(*seriousness subject to availability; no guaranties)
June 5, 2016
Pre-Order Discount for Junk Mage!
Interested in some technomage and cyborg hijinks? Danger? Sweet m/m romance? Haven't pre-ordered your copy of Junk Mage yet?
Use the coupon code Junk Mage when checking out at Ninestar Press to get 20% off your pre-order! The code is valid through July 3rd, and Junk Mage releases on July 4th. :D
Use the coupon code Junk Mage when checking out at Ninestar Press to get 20% off your pre-order! The code is valid through July 3rd, and Junk Mage releases on July 4th. :D
May 26, 2016
Cover Reveal: Junk Mage
I'm pleased to share the amazing cover for Junk Mage, my upcoming sci-fi m/m romance with Ninestar Press! It's scheduled for release on July 4th, but it's already listed on Goodreads and available for pre-order. Here's the blurb to go with the lovely visual:When technomancer Quillian Defote crash-lands on remote planet Marutuk, he has limited time to repair his ship and get off world. If he fails, he’ll forfeit his position as professor of mechanical transmutation at the prestigious Ivy Arcanarium and ruin his employment prospects in yet another sector.
Hunter, a cyborg guarding a junkyard that holds what Quill needs, is charmed by the wayward mage and wants to help him. But Hunter is bound by honor to dutifully guard his mistress and her possessions, no matter how cruelly she treats him.
Together Quill and Hunter stand a chance of starting a new life together if carnivorous wildlife, a violent necromancer, and stubborn pride don’t keep them apart.
May 23, 2016
Release Day: The Clockwork Menagerie
Autosmith Clement Dyer wants to create his life-like, mechanical animals in peace. He’s tired of being badgered about selling his business to his long-time rival and former lover, Duke Goodwin. He also craves appreciation for his living works of art.
Unfortunately, not all of Clement’s clients see his clockwork creations the way he does, and a prominent but dissatisfied customer threatens to sink his struggling business into the ground.
It's release day for The Clockwork Menagerie! If you love steampunk, cats, rivals-to-lovers, and the sweeter side of romance, this is the novelette for you!
Available at the Ninestar Press website and on Amazon.
April 28, 2016
The Clockwork Menagerie Available for Pre-Order
The Clockwork Menagerie is now available for pre-order on the Ninestar Press website! Want to know a little more about this sweet m/m steampunk romance? Check out my interview from Gillian St. Kevern on her blog :)
March 14, 2016
Plot Bunny Husbandry
One thing I struggle with as a writer is having too many ideas. Sure, it's great to have the creative mojo flowing almost all the time, but not all story ideas are created equal. And not all of them deserve the same amount of attention (or any attention at all).
This year I'm working on stepping up my game. Pushing forward again. Honing my craft, as ever. But this time it doesn't mean what it's meant in the past. I feel like my actual writing chops are solid on the technical side of stringing words together, creating interesting multi-dimensional characters, dialogue, and world building. Those are awesome building blocks that I've worked hard to shape over many years.
Now it's time to focus on being creative "on demand" while sifting through all these demanding plot bunnies!
Here's my battle plan:
Know the difference between a premise and a plot.
Most of the ideas I come up with are parts of a story: characters, a world building element, a fantastical species. These can be interesting things to base a story on, but by themselves they're not a story.
I used to just run with a premise and figure the story would come to me as I wrote, but that's a dangerous tactic that's lead to more unfinished projects than I'd like to count. It leads to gaping, story breaking plot holes. Or, just as bad, leads to the narrative running out of steam due to lack of stakes.
Understand that stakes are the beating heart of a plot.
What keeps a story interesting? What motivates a reader to carry on to the end?
The stakes: whatever it is that the character(s) might lose if they can't change their circumstances.
My stories have often suffered from a lack of compelling enough stakes, so now I'm making sure to think of them in the earliest planning stages. I have a note stuck in my plot bunny notebook: Low stakes are NO stakes!
Write backwards.
Not literally, but plot-wise figuratively. Instead of waiting until I've finished a manuscript to write out my query, or at the very least the kernel sentence of the plot (which is the meat of the query), I switch it around.
I use this formula for writing a one sentence pitch that I learned while participating in #PitchWars on Twitter last year:
When [Inciting Incident], [Main Character] must [Choice/Decision] or [Stakes].
Now I use the formula as the primary foundation when coming up with a new story. It's the plot in a neat little package. And if it's not working out? That means it's not quite a plot yet and needs more work. The result is this realization of a huge problem now happens in the planning stages, before the MS happens, before I've wasted dozens of hours working on something that is inherently broken.
(Rachelle Gardner has a more in depth article on writing a one sentence summary on her blog.)
Cultivating creativity.
Or, plot bunny husbandry.
This all leads to being able to more easily come up with a story and focus on it with confidence and purpose.
Instead of snatching up a plot bunny from the wilds (which may in fact only be a premise bunny), I'm now picking and choosing them thoughtfully. Selectively breeding them in captivity.
I've been having a lot of fun scouring anthology calls for story ideas that spark my imagination. Then I write them down and start on my little process above. Whichever one calls to me the most, that's the one I focus on. Having a deadline really helps, too, which current anthology calls provide.
And knowing that not making it into the anthology (or missing the deadline) won't be the end for my story is a comfort, too. I'll still have my story ready to submit somewhere.
My writing process is still a combination of pantsing/plotting (I figure out the plot, characters and their motivations, beginning, inciting incident, and a few ideas for the end, but connect all the dots as I write.), only now the plot isn't this beast that has to be tamed (or not!) while I'm deep in writing mode. It still throws some punches, sure, but it's not trying to devour the manuscript from the inside out.
I've just finished my first story written this way, and now I'm on to the next!
Hopefully, if you struggle with pinning down plot, these tips will help you too :)
This year I'm working on stepping up my game. Pushing forward again. Honing my craft, as ever. But this time it doesn't mean what it's meant in the past. I feel like my actual writing chops are solid on the technical side of stringing words together, creating interesting multi-dimensional characters, dialogue, and world building. Those are awesome building blocks that I've worked hard to shape over many years.
Now it's time to focus on being creative "on demand" while sifting through all these demanding plot bunnies!
Here's my battle plan:
Know the difference between a premise and a plot.
Most of the ideas I come up with are parts of a story: characters, a world building element, a fantastical species. These can be interesting things to base a story on, but by themselves they're not a story.
I used to just run with a premise and figure the story would come to me as I wrote, but that's a dangerous tactic that's lead to more unfinished projects than I'd like to count. It leads to gaping, story breaking plot holes. Or, just as bad, leads to the narrative running out of steam due to lack of stakes.
Understand that stakes are the beating heart of a plot.
What keeps a story interesting? What motivates a reader to carry on to the end?
The stakes: whatever it is that the character(s) might lose if they can't change their circumstances.
My stories have often suffered from a lack of compelling enough stakes, so now I'm making sure to think of them in the earliest planning stages. I have a note stuck in my plot bunny notebook: Low stakes are NO stakes!
Write backwards.
Not literally, but plot-wise figuratively. Instead of waiting until I've finished a manuscript to write out my query, or at the very least the kernel sentence of the plot (which is the meat of the query), I switch it around.
I use this formula for writing a one sentence pitch that I learned while participating in #PitchWars on Twitter last year:
When [Inciting Incident], [Main Character] must [Choice/Decision] or [Stakes].
Now I use the formula as the primary foundation when coming up with a new story. It's the plot in a neat little package. And if it's not working out? That means it's not quite a plot yet and needs more work. The result is this realization of a huge problem now happens in the planning stages, before the MS happens, before I've wasted dozens of hours working on something that is inherently broken.
(Rachelle Gardner has a more in depth article on writing a one sentence summary on her blog.)
Cultivating creativity.
Or, plot bunny husbandry.
This all leads to being able to more easily come up with a story and focus on it with confidence and purpose.
Instead of snatching up a plot bunny from the wilds (which may in fact only be a premise bunny), I'm now picking and choosing them thoughtfully. Selectively breeding them in captivity.
I've been having a lot of fun scouring anthology calls for story ideas that spark my imagination. Then I write them down and start on my little process above. Whichever one calls to me the most, that's the one I focus on. Having a deadline really helps, too, which current anthology calls provide.
And knowing that not making it into the anthology (or missing the deadline) won't be the end for my story is a comfort, too. I'll still have my story ready to submit somewhere.
My writing process is still a combination of pantsing/plotting (I figure out the plot, characters and their motivations, beginning, inciting incident, and a few ideas for the end, but connect all the dots as I write.), only now the plot isn't this beast that has to be tamed (or not!) while I'm deep in writing mode. It still throws some punches, sure, but it's not trying to devour the manuscript from the inside out.
I've just finished my first story written this way, and now I'm on to the next!
Hopefully, if you struggle with pinning down plot, these tips will help you too :)
