Mark C. Wade's Blog, page 3

The Kelpie of Glansagart Releases Today!

Can a mythological creature commit murder?Jeff felt like a nobody. He still lived with his parents in the small midwestern town in which he was born.When he gets accepted to do research under the supervision of his idol, Martin, he jumps at the opportunity.But the small Irish town wants nothing to do with him. A murder has just occurred, and they're rightly suspicious of outsiders. To make matters worse, Jeff and Martin believe a mythological creature, the kelpie, has committed the crime.Padraig is local newspaper reporter. He despises Jeff, but their flirtatious arguments turns to passion in the bedroom.The Kelpie of Glansagart is equal parts steamy m/m romance, murder mystery, and discovery of Celtic mythology.Pick up this standalone book in the Irish Dream Hunks series with here.

The Kelpie of Glansagart Cover Reveal

This will be a quickie post. Here's the cover reveal for The Kelpie of Glansagart (Irish Dream Hunks: Book 2).I won't say too much about it until the official release blog post. It is up for pre-order now. I must say, I'm always surprised when someone pre-orders before I even announce anything. I put the pre-order up so that people who aren't on the email list or subscribers to the blog (and so on) can get it when they finish the first one.It follows a new couple, so the book works as a standalone. But it does also develop off the world of the first book. Martin plays a fairly significant role, since he takes on this new kid as a research assistant. Sean makes an appearance in a chapter as well.If you are notified of posts via the email list, twitter, facebook, this blog, goodreads, or Amazon, then I will tell you again the night before official release. Getting a big surge on release day helps me a lot more than a slow trickle of pre-orders leading up to release.Though, if you are one of the pre-order people, thank you! I very much appreciate all the support.Also, remember, if you're on the fence about joining the email list, each month I give away a book for free to one random member!

A Rant about Finicky MM Readers

This will probably get me in trouble, but I need to get it off my chest. I've been reading The Palisade (Lavender Shores #1) by Rosalind Abel. It's quite good. It's predictable in the best way possible (like, I just know that's going to happen, and I can't wait to see how they react).Now, I'm not going to defend every single thing Rosalind does, and I'm sure she would do some things differently if she were to rewrite it after all this time and all the experience of writing a bunch of other books. So it's not perfect. That's not the point of this post.I also get that everyone likes different things. People will attribute their likes/dislikes to various elements of a book without really knowing if those elements are the true causes. It's sometimes just hard to tell what worked, and what didn't work, if you haven't seriously studied the craft of writing.(There's a wise saying any author should keep in mind: if a reader tells you the book didn't work for them, they're right; if they tell you why it didn't work, they're wrong.)That being said, I just needed to rant about a few things I see a lot in romance reviews. Let's start with sex. Sex is weird. It's performative. People are into the weirdest stuff that you'd never guess, even if you're their best friend. They say the darnedest things before climaxing. Trust me. I've seen it all.So when I see a review saying the dialogue during sex wasn't in character, my first thought is: EXCUSE ME? You think you know how someone will act in bed because you've read about them for 50 pages? Both characters in The Palisade were pretty stereotypically macho, so "come for your man" is not out of character during sex. And even if it was, who are you to judge?Second, readers need to get over their "no drama," "no angst," "no lies," "no secrets," "no miscommunication," etc. If it's a comedy, miscommunication is how humor is set up. If it's a straightforward romance, miscommunication is how tension is built.Why are you even reading romance if you want none of the elements of a romance? Part of a romance novel is feeling like the characters won't end up together even though you know they will. All those things you think you don't want are the elements of the story that drive the plot forward. I have no idea what the perfect romance would look like to these people. If you got rid of these elements, it would be two characters who meet and then endlessly gaze into each other's eyes lovingly and perfectly communicate their every thought for 200 pages until the story ended exactly where it began. Because how can growth or realizing their love or anything even happen if you can't include any of those elements?People make "poor decisions." Get over it. To say the character wasn't acting "like a grown man" is ridiculous. Now grown men aren't allowed to make poor decisions? Especially when those poor decisions are clearly done in the interest of the plot for entertainment value?Third, romance novels aren't realistic on purpose. So to include "it wasn't realistic" in your review as if that's a negative trait makes no sense. Of course the perfect small town they're in doesn't exist. We read romance to escape to these idyllic locations. Of course the setup was unrealistic. The whole point of romance novels is to have a fun little puzzle, where all the pieces come together.No one wants a realistic romance novel. It would look like an episode of Girls. If you're looking for realistic, there are a million works of literary fiction out there for your consumption. Don't pick up a romance novel. The whole point is to be a fantasy to escape reality. And to tie it all up, you can't have it both ways. If you want realistic and then complain about character inconsistencies, you're being hypocritical. Real life people are complicated and inconsistent. If you're a woman complaining about realism in an mm sex scene, well, how would you know what's realistic? (I know, cheap shot, but so is writing that in a review).Rant over.I'll reiterate that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and if you didn't like something, feel free to try to spell it out in a review. I have no problem with that (I've actually incorporated quite a bit of criticism from negative reviews into my own writing, and I think it has made me better).But for goodness sake, I think some people are way too finicky and have set up standards that are impossible (and undesirable) to meet.

One Year of Merlin's Grove

It's been a bit over a year since I first launched Merlin's Grove. I was a much weaker writer back then, and I had no idea what I was doing with self-publishing. This meant I put out some pretty embarrassing covers (the first one had a slight nostalgic charm to it, but the other two were pretty bad).The series has taught me quite a bit about every aspect of the book industry, and it has strongly guided me into territory I had no idea I'd enter. Namely, I now consider myself firmly in the m/m romance genre with paranormal or fantasy elements.This is quite a niche area, and I think the direction I've gone with the Irish Dream Hunks series is the right one for me (though, I want to return to Merlin's Grove in the near future). Keep your eyes out for the newest one around May 1, 2018.Since I've been thinking through what I've learned, I've decided to update the covers of Merlin's Grove to be more in line with genre standards and to actually look like a trilogy! Here they are:In honor of the one year mark, I've decided to do a free promotion of the first book. So if you haven't found out what Merlin's Grove is all about yet, check out the Amazon page April 5-7, 2018.Also, to support the genre I love, I am doing a free book giveaway each month to a subscriber to the newsletter.The March winner was Chuck in California, and he received a free copy of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. (Don't worry, I ask if you want to remain anonymous before posting your name).Sign up now if you haven't yet!

Free MM Books Each Month!

Okay, we got the click-bait title out of the way. Sorry, but it's true, and I didn't want anyone to miss out.I've been making a lot of changes around here. I finally got my own domain name for my website. Now it's really easy to find me: MarkCWade.com.I spent a lot of time revamping how the newsletter works, and I'm going to reinvest some earnings into getting higher quality covers for the Merlin's Grove series. I'll do a sale when that happens.I've started writing the second Irish Dream Hunks books as well. While all this was going on, I decided I wanted to encourage the small mm romance community that likes paranormal/fantasy/sci-fi elements in their books. So every single month I'm going to give away a copy of a top selling book in that genre to one lucky subscriber to my new and improved newsletter. For free!Don't worry. The newsletter will have no spam or begging for sales. I will merely announce when books go on sale or when a new release happens. You can subscribe at the main webpage or here.

The Harp of Dunnbog Cover Reveal

It's that time again! My next book is the first in a series set in beautiful Ireland, and I have the cover for you. The planned release is early February. I won't be doing a big pre-order like usual, because I don't think that actually helps sales. It might even hurt the ranking, because Kindle Unlimited users don't download until the official release.Martin has just gone through a bad breakup, and he throws himself into a research trip in another country: Ireland. He is there to study ancient folktales through an archaeological site, but he accidentally awakens a spirit trapped there.Meanwhile, Martin starts to fall for the local baker: Sean. This is not on his agenda. He wants to rid himself of any relationship drama for the duration of the trip. But he just can't help himself. Maybe the awakened spirit has something to do with it. Maybe the song played by Sean on his grandmother's harp was magic. Maybe they're just made for each other.This book is paranormal m/m more than Merlin's Grove, which I think had more fantasy elements to it. It still has a lot in common, and anyone that enjoyed that series should love this one.

The Enchanted Triangle (Merlin's Grove Book 3)

Since The Enchanted Triangle has gone up for pre-order, I thought I better get some more information out there about it and my process.A young hot-headed guy, an older cool man, and a mage walk into a bar.No joke. This actually happens, and all Alex can think is that he was in the wrong place at the right time.Now Dan thinks Alex is his blind date, but he's not.The mage has come to destroy the Enchanted Triangle, and worse, he thinks Alex is his enemy.Will Alex be able to figure out what's going on and save Merlin's Grove before it's too late?That's my pitch in its current form. This is probably the most traditional category romance I've written. It draws from the "mistaken identity" trope, but it does it in an m/m romance way. I'm still convinced this is how to make the most satisfying m/m romance. This modern trend of throwing out a century of proper story structure so that the two men have no conflict is terrible in my opinion.I won't say much more about that. As far as the magic is concerned, this book digs in deep. It's the first in the series where someone actually learns how the magic system works and trains to use it to defeat the bad guys.I'm pretty excited about finally having this revealed. The magic system is interesting and unique with some complicated aspects to it. It's not just say some Latin words with a stick in your hand.But it also means I'm probably done with having all the books be standalone. Book 4, if/when I write it, will probably start to cycle back to the Ben/Rudy story and will assume people understand the magic system in Book 3. This will be good for the series, because it's getting kind of ridiculous that this tiny, rural Connecticut town has three prominent gay couples that all the magic happens to. Unfortunately, it probably won't be good for marketing and sales of the books, though.I've decided I can't really worry about that. I've kind of fallen in love with writing about this town, which is quite similar to where I live in real life (except for the magic ... I think). So that's what I've been working on. Go pick it up now if this sounds interesting! 

Trips, Running, and Baking

I've already broken my rule of blogging twice a month. I didn't check, but I think my last one was over a month ago now. But they would have been boring, anyway.Two weeks ago I took a trip with my husband to Seattle. It was great fun. He had to work during the days, so I wandered about, testing a bunch of coffee shops (Caffe Vita was excellent, and Cafe Allegro, the oldest espresso bar in the city, was right next to an amazing used bookstore!). I saw some of the sights, but mostly steered away from any tourist stuff. (Actual picture I took)There was a heatwave going on and Vancouver had forest fires causing a smoky smog. At nights we got to go to some nice restaurants. We were even celebrating our Fourth Anniversary (eight years together total). I can't believe how fast time goes by. The anniversary dinner was right on Lake Union. It was beautiful.So that happened and was great.As I said last time, I'm training to do well in a half marathon. The official race date is September 30, so it's coming up fast. I was getting a bit of pain in my legs, so I reduced my non-running day exercise. Last time I said I was doing yoga, but I think that was too strenuous on my legs for proper recovery. I'm still doing some light cross training and stretching. The pain is gone, so I really think that was the problem.I don't know if I've said this before, but I'm super into baking---mostly bread, mostly sourdough. I decided to stretch out of my comfort zone and try sourdough pretzels:They were super tasty, but they puffed up quite a bit. I also didn't shape them very well, so it was almost a pretzel roll. The last bit of news is that the third Merlin's Grove book is well underway. The rough draft should be done any day now. I'll spend September whipping it into shape, and then I'll hopefully release it sometime in October. I'm quite happy with it so far. The magic was pretty light in the first one. It ramps up a bit in the second. This third novel just fully embraces that it's in both the fantasy and romance genres. Hopefully that excites fans of the series and doesn't scare them away.

Life Updates

I know I've been kind of focused on writing updates. I thought I'd take a breather from that and do a general update. I've been making a ton of changes in my life.I've been into running for a long time, but I've never taken it seriously. For the past nine or ten years I've done some sort of running a few times a week. This could be a short as a few miles only once or up to a bunch of times culminating in a fourteen-mile long run.I know what you're thinking: that sounds serious! Not really. If you build up slowly, doing an "easy pace" long run isn't any more difficult than going for a two-hour walk. You'll be tired and sore afterward, but it's not a real struggle during it.So when I say I've never been serious, that means I've never really done the hard work to "get better." I've run a few half-marathons, but I had the intent to finish, not to get a good time. This summer I've decided to start trying to get better. I've introduced some speed training, and I'm doing yoga every day I don't run to build up some core strength and flexibility. I'm doing a 5K series where I run a 5K race every week for eight weeks. The goal is to try to get better times each week going into my half-marathon training season. Then I'm going to transition into focusing on running a 1:40 half-marathon. Anyway, I know most of your eyes probably glazed over at that.I'm also trying to get more organized. I'm a pretty obsessive person, so doing this could do more harm than help. I started a "journal." It's not so much for feelings or what I did for the day. It's just a way to get organized.I set it up so that I have yearly goals which I break into monthly goals which I break into weekly goals which then gets turned into a daily to-do list. I know. This sounds crazy, but it's a way to make sure I'm always on track for longer-term goals in my day-to-day activities. I've had too many months in the past where I consistently do things every day only to realize I've accomplished nothing relevant.Here's an example. Say I want to make sure I post something on this blog twice a month. That gets put into the weekly breakdown at the start of the month. Then when I make the daily to-do list, it is placed on a specific day. It will get done, and that goal is guaranteed to be accomplished. In the past, I've gone two months without blogging, and I just totally forget to check when I last did it.I also use the journal to keep track of book ideas or blog ideas or books to read and what I thought about them. I also use it for some longhand free writing to get the ideas flowing. It's just become a convenient way to keep track of everything.Anyway, one day I came home from the store, and the dog was feeling particularly destructive:My journal got some frustration taken out on it. It's still usable, though:But Daddy, you've always got your nose in it, why can't I try?I'll end with some writing updates. I sent in a Christmas story to MLR. I think it turned out pretty well. It's got a lot of humor and a snarky, grinch-type main character. He comes to realize something magical about himself, and it's all about the journey he goes on as his feelings about the holidays change. Look out for that in the Nov/Dec timeline if that's your type of thing. More specifically, it's a "reindeer shifters" story.I've started plotting Merlin's Grove: Book 3. It will probably be the last in the series for a while. I thought there was a big interest in that type of thing (small-town Gilmore Girl's vibe), and I thought I was doing a really cool twist on the genre (ancient magic lurking beneath the surface). But whatever, I guess it probably just crosses genres too much to have any appeal. That's fine. I want to move on to other things temporarily anyway.

Release of The Track Coach

It will just be a short post today. I figured there's probably a few people who see these blog posts that don't also follow my other social media.Merlin's Grove Book 2, aka, The Track Coach released today! Today is the last day to get it for $0.99. If you have Kindle Unlimited, it's free! It is a standalone in the series, though people who read the first one will recognize many of the side characters and places.An overconfident alpha male bets he can land the shy geek. This classic scenario goes out the window when he also accidentally summons a Dryad that wrecks havoc on the pursuit. You can see my previous post for more information on how I've adapted the series.Check it out, and don't forget to review it! https://goo.gl/Ng3C6q