Ryan Field's Blog, page 564

Calls For Submissions...Ravenous Romance

I get a lot of e-mails from other writers asking about the publishers I work with and how they should submit their work. One of the things I always tell them is to look for calls for submission on publisher web sites. These calls for submission are usually for anthologies, where writers submit short stories. The pay isn't great and there isn't that much glory, but it's a good way to let a publisher or editor see how you write. And, I happen to love writing short stories. Many times writers who submit to these short story collections move on to writing novels for the same publishers. I did it for years with all the gay presses and a few indie presses.

So here's a call for submissions for Ravenous Romance. And here's the link to the original blog post.

Monday, April 4, 2011
Call for Stories - Dangerous Curves Anthology

Deadline: 15 May 2011


Story Length: 2500 5000

Mira Paul is looking for original, unpublished erotic romance stories featuring curvy, voluptuous, full-figured women. Think Cameyn Manheim, America Ferrera, Sara Ramirez, Christina Hendricks, Jennifer Hudson or Wynona Judd. All the stories must have enthralling characters, a strong plot, steaming sex and a happy ever after or happy for now ending. This is not the anthology for your story centering on a woman who loathes the way that she looks. All stories must feature a strong, sexy full-figured heroine who loves they way she looks and feels and who revels in her ample awesomeness. We'd like to see stories about princesses, models, etc., all the glamour occupations that we would see in a "regular" romance anthology. All sexual orientations welcome.

Submission Guidelines: Email submissions to mirapaul.editor at gmail dot com as a double-spaced Word or RTF attachment with "Dangerous Curves Submission" in the subject line. Please include your name (and pseudonym if applicable), bio, mailing address, email, title of the piece and word count as part of your document. The footer of each page should include your name and page number.

Compensation: Ravenous Romance short story advance of $10, a copy of the anthology, plus a pro rata share of any revenue/subsidiary rights. [image error]

Been Watching the Next Royal Wedding?

I have to admit, I'm a pathetic romantic when it comes to the upcoming royal wedding. I remember waking up at three in the morning as a kid to watch Lady Diana marry Prince Charles. And I'm sure I'll be up again to watch William's wedding.

I also enjoy getting a glimpse of Prince Harry. This guy is, in fact, probably the best looking royal that has ever taken a shower in Windsor Castle. And he seems like a nice guy, too. A real man; no pretense. And he looks capable of doing anything he sets out to do.

Here's the latest I've read about the guest list.

LONDON -- Soccer star David Beckham will be there with his pop star wife Victoria. Elton John is attending with partner David Furnish. And the Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala will be there too, probably one of the few guests at the wedding of the year wearing orange and burgundy Buddhist robes.

The guest list for the April 29 union of Prince William and Kate Middleton is still being kept secret, but details have begun to leak out, with some coming forward to say they are attending and the Mail on Sunday newspaper claiming to have the official invitation roster.

The palace dismissed the newspaper's list as speculation Sunday.

It won't be clear until the day how the royal couple has balanced the protocol demands that they invite statesmen, diplomats, religious leaders, politicians and the like with invitations to the people they really want to see, particularly the crowd they made friends with when they met and fell in love at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

Kate Reardon, editor of high-society magazine Tatler, said many prominent Britons acted as if they didn't really care about receiving an invitation while secretly checking the mail every day to see if the coveted embossed invite had arrived.

"Everyone's been hoping," she said.

The Mail on Sunday list describes an eclectic mix – everyone from fabulously wealthy friends of Prince Charles to a favored bartender and a yoga instructor from the Caribbean island of Mustique, long a hideaway for royals and rockers alike.

William and Middleton have showed their modern side by inviting a number of close friends, including some former sweethearts, the newspaper said.

The wedding is not technically a state event, which somewhat limits the protocol requirements applied to the guest list. But royal obligations still dictate that a large number of the 1,900 or so seats go to guests from the world of politics, not actual friends of the couple.

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The couple have also invited many guests from the charities they work with, and Middleton has used her influence to invite the butcher, shopkeeper and pub owner from her home village of Bucklebury.

Some guests, like leading religious figures, have to be invited because of the magnitude of the event, even if they don't actually have a friendship with the royal family. Seelawimala, for example, has never met the couple, though he certainly hopes to when the big day comes. The head priest at the London Buddhist Vihara monastery has been invited primarily to show the royal family and the British government's respect for Buddhist tradition.

"I'm very excited and a little bit nervous to take part in such a joyous occasion," Seelawimala said. "I would like to meet them, but I know they may not have a chance to meet all of their guests."

He does not plan to wear a business suit or tails, favoring instead his traditional religious robes, which are accepted, as are military uniforms.

Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks also plans to attend, his office said, along with other religious figures. It is expected that the list will include Islamic and Hindu leaders as well as those from other faiths.

Guest lists have a way of expanding. Prime Minister David Cameron, has been invited, of course – so it would have been bad form not to invite Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The leader of the opposition, Ed Miliband, can't be left out or the royals could be accused of showing favoritism.

The Mail on Sunday said Queen Elizabeth II has invited 50 guests, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla chose another 250, the same number as William and Middleton invited, while Middleton's family made another 100 invitations. Europe's royal families, long close to the Windsors, are expected to be well represented.

Sarah Ferguson, former wife of Prince Andrew, has not been invited, but the couple's two daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, are on the list.

Some have declined invitations, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper – who is in the middle of an election campaign – and, reportedly, the King of Bahrain, whose country has faced serious unrest. Officials have declined to comment on his plans.

President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were not invited and many other international leaders are also expected to be watching on TV, not from a seat at Westminster Abbey.

It is not clear if treasured Brits from the world of stage and screen – and pop music – will be on the list.

Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine, said he does not expect stars like Sean Connery and Paul McCartney to be invited unless they have a real relationship with the royal family.

Elton John has been invited apparently because of his friendship with the late Princess Diana, he said.

"William is trying to do everything he can to honor his late mother at the wedding," Little said, citing William's decision to place his late mother's engagement ring on Middleton's finger.

"But really we don't know much. A lot of it is conjecture at this point. And William is not very celebrity oriented. I think there will be a lot of faces at the wedding that we don't know."[image error]

I Wish the President Would Just Shut Donald Trump Up Once and for All

Everyone knows I don't post anything about politics. This is mainly because I don't like politics and don't care much about it.

But I do care about all issues concerning the LGBT community, and legalized gay marriage is right up there in the top ten for me. So far, President Obama has shown more support than anyone in Washington for the LGBT community. He has a way to go yet, but at least he's trying.

It's no secret I'm not a fan of Donald Trump, as you can read here in a past blog post I wrote. I also wrote another post here. I was hoping the LGBT community would boycott this year's celebrity apprentice. However, I did see a few fellow LGBT friends on facebook (gay authors, no less) talking about how much they love Celebrity Apprentice this season. So much for that boycott. And Trump wins again.

However, I do wish President Obama would shut Trump up once and for all with regard to this birth certificate thing Trump has been harping on for so long now.

All the President has to do is just show the birth certificate and it's all over. We all know the President has a birth certificate because anyone running for President in this country is vetted beyond belief. So I'm not worried about that.

But this Donald Trump thing is getting annoying as well as insulting. I thought it was bad when Trump insulted the LGBT community as a whole, but now he's going after the President, too. And I'm hoping President Obama will just mail Trump a copy of the damn birth certificate and Trump can go back to hating gays and running his gambling parlors (I despise legalized gambling in all forms), which he seems to do very well.

Who is Zoe Winters?

Zoe Winters, from what I've read, is an author who has done well publishing her own books. I don't know much else about her, except that she made this hysterical youtube video about the prices of e-books.

After reading this review for one of my books...I figured I'd share Zoe's video here. And, for the record, I'm not publishing my own books. My publishers price them and I have no say in the matter. I try to post as much info and product detail here on the blog as I can, so readers know what they are buying.

A Regular Bud

This short story e-book, A REGULAR BUD, has surprised me from the beginning. It's still on a fictionwise bestseller list, as of right now, and has been for the past few weeks.

A Regular Bud [MultiFormat]
eBook by Ryan Field
Regular Club
You Pay: $2.00 $1.70


eBook Category: Erotica/Fetish Erotica
eBook Description: Though handsome, athletic Noah thinks he's home alone and free to enjoy his private fetish for wearing high heels, his straight roommate's dominant younger brother walks in unexpectedly and catches him in the act. Noah is a young corporate professional who shares his large, old home with his straight best friend from college, Preston. And though Noah is openly gay, no one knows that Noah has a kinky little gender-bending fetish for wearing high heels. But when his roommate's sexy, rugged little brother from Montana shows up one morning, while Noah thinks he has the house all to himself, Noah is caught in the act--naked with his back against the sofa and his white stilettos dangling in the air. Instead of running back out the door in shock, the little brother from Montana doesn't even blink. He drops his duffel bag on the floor and smiles. Then he drops his car keys on the counter and introduces himself to Noah. And when he licks his lips, compliments Noah on his well-defined body and crosses the room to shake Noah's hand, it's Noah who is ready to run out the door in shock.

eBook Publisher: loveyoudivine, Published: 2010, 2010
Fictionwise Release Date: April 2010

Win A Free Kindle: Check Out the Clues Today For the TRS Treasure Hunt

The Romance Studio (TRS) has been running an event all week and it's just winding down. So I'm posting the clues for today below, and here's a link where you can read about the entire event.


04/08 Friday's Clues

PJ Schnyder is an author of paranormal and sci-fi romance who believes home is where the heart is. One of her heroines, Carri, believes a man might only be a lone wolf because he was never given the option to be something else. Who is Carri's wolf and what is his nickname for her? http://pjschnyder.com/blog/

Author Jay Di Meo's home has her name. Her hero James is a reincarnation of Egyptian god Seth, represented by a Jackal. His beloved Silver is the Falcon – which Egyptian god is he? http://jaydimeo.wordpress.com/

Trinity Blacio has been writing professionally for the last eight years. She has titles with several different publishers. Throughout the Running In Fear series what is the one thing Jaycee craved and wanted that she finally got in book 3? http://trinityblacio.com/blog/

Ravenous Romance author Lisa Lane has two series, an erotic horror trilogy and erotic, romantic space opera. In her erotic horror books, how do her vampires take their coffee? http://www.cerebralwriter.com/blog.html

Fiction Writing: Said Bookisms and Unattributed Dialogue

I was looking over a few of the bestsellers on a retail e-book site and reading the excerpts. Now, I'm not trying to be an expert here. Though I have a degree from an excellent university in English, and I received excellent grades, I'll be the first to admit I'm still learning and still looking for better ways to write fiction. I usually do this by reading proven fiction masters, like John Irving, Anne Tyler, and Toni Morrison on a regular basis. I like to see how they handle certain techniques, especially dialogue.

And I thought I'd offer this small post, and example, about Said Bookisms and Unattributed Dialogue, partly because these two things drive me up the wall, and partly because they seem to be so popular these days.

Maybe I'm missing something and it's okay to use Said Bookisms and too much Unattributed Dialogue nowadays? I have been seeing a lot of this going around, especially on more than a few bestseller lists.


But just in case it's not, this example below might help. Here's a link in case anyone wants to dispute this with the author of the ariticle. Don't blame me. I could post five dozen other examples backing this up.

Every writer goes through a stage where they think that they use 'said' too much. So a young writer starts to use substitutes like, he expostulated, she shouted, he questioned, she stated. Don't do it. 'Said' is virtually invisible. Pick up a book with a decent amount of dialogue and count the 'said's. It's astonishing.

Another rule of thumb. You can use unattributed dialogue:


"It's mighty dark in here," Joe said.
"It sure is," Emily agreed.
"Cold, too."
"You got that right."

Unattributed dialogue is the stuff where it doesn't say who said it. But be careful with it; too many times I find myself counting back to see who said what. Attribution is invisible, when in doubt, use more rather than less.

Cover Preview: The Skater Boy

Just received a copy of the new cover art for a new short story e-book that's being released later this month titled, THE SKATER BOY. I figured I'd keep the title simple this time. There really is no need for anything cute and catchy. Once again, this is a modern romance, not your grandma's formula romance. There's a happy ending and the two main characters share a great deal of emotion, with a promise for the future, but it's not something grandma would read. (If she did, you might be peeling her off the ceiling.) Just wanted to warn folks ahead of time.

"Saucy Balls" The Name Should Stay!

I've been following the story of Austin culinary student, Joey Galluzzi, on facebook and
I haven't had a carb (at least not guilt free) in over a year. But I love food, and when I see something that makes my mouth water, literally, I get excited. I often write about food in my novels, sometimes as a way to satisfy my own frustrations about never having opened a restaurant of my own. One of my favorite movie scenes was when Julia Roberts went to Italy in Eat, Pray, Love and she sat down and devoured that huge plate of pasta. My dream come true. Just the look on her face was magic. And when she went after the pizza, I almost couldn't take it.

I spotted Joey's "Saucy Balls" because of the name. And Joey's meatballs look fantastic. If given the chance, I could probably eat three dozen in one sitting. But some idiots, who think they know better, want Joey to change the name. They don't like "Saucy Balls," and I have a feeling I know the reason why. We all know the reason why. I'm not going to get into this, because I've had comments and criticism over the years about titles of my books with the same play on words...Missing Jackson's Hole is a perfect example. But words are just words, and we're the ones who give them meaning.

If Joey hadn't called his meatballs "Saucy Balls" I can tell you for sure I wouldn't have given them a second look. A meatball is a meatball: meh. But a "Saucy Ball" makes you stop and think. And I wouldn't be writing this post right now about his "Saucy Balls" if he'd just called them meatballs.

So If Joey does decide to sell out and listen to all the idiots who think he should change the name, I wish him the best. The meatballs still look wonderful and I'd still eat three dozen in one sitting no matter what he calls them.

But I hope he doesn't change the name. There's nothing wrong with a little humor, especially in these God awful politcally correct times we're living in where we're terrified to say anything for fear we'll be ridiculed or called haters. And, frankly, there's nothing wrong with "Saucy Balls," whether they are made out of sausage, beef, or anything else.

New Cover Preview: YOUNG, HUNG, AND HITCHED

Here's a sneak preview of the next book. It's titled, playfully, YOUNG, HUNG, AND HITCHED. The love story revolves around a newly married gay couple taking a road trip honeymoon halfway across the country, hauling a big silver trailer. And it becomes a trip that will test their relationship beyond anything that's every happened to them.