Shirin Dubbin's Blog, page 6

UPDATE: Chaos Tryst

Roughly 1,100k added to Chaos Tryst so far—the least amount of words I've ever added in developmental edits but the best I've used them.

Revamp and Revise: Keeper of the Way

As I mentioned a few days ago, my popular novella, KEEPER OF THE WAY, is getting a makeover. The rights reverted back to me in December (I said February before but nope) and I've decided to edit and expand the story for re-release! At 15k words the one complaint I've gotten is the story is too short and many readers have asked for more. Some even said, "I love this story. Give me more!" others have said "I loved this book! I only wish it were longer…The story is dense, packed with action and solid description that kept me in all the scenes. Except when I saw [the word] 'orbs.'"

(o_O)

Well, I listened and Keeper is going to have three new chapters, at the least. We'll also learn more about the Aftermath Cleaners. All of this and it'll be orb free…mostly orb fee? Ah hell, a couple of orbs won't stop the party.

Heh. Special thanks to Likari and Fairmasion.wordpress.com!

No What, Lots of Crazy (now with cupcakes)

Am I crazy or what? I'm editing two novellas while writing a third, plotting a fourth and developing a TV pitch. Once you add in design work and life…well…Lawd, hep me now. If you love, or even like me a smidgen, you'll send cookies, cupcakes and biscuits. Preferably from Babycakes in Manhattan. Did I tell you guys about my obsession with Babycakes? Omigoodness.

Sidebar: As you know I have a plague of allergies (ok, just cow's milk, soy, citrus zest and MSG but I'm a writer, I've got poetic licenses and what not. It's a PLAAGUE I tell you). This makes buying baked goods—vegan or otherwise—a bit like asking myself, "Hey, what aliment should we inflict on us today?" Not with Babycakes. "BabyCakes offers all-natural, organic and delicious alternatives free from the common allergens: wheat, gluten, dairy, casein, [soy], and eggs." How owner, Erin Mckenna, pulls off this level of "free" without liberating her goodies from taste, and this while satiating the palate of a certified southern connoisseur like me, is a mystery I care not to solve. She serves up deliciousness, rendering my allergies powerless and that works for me. So bring on the biscuits with "cream" and jam, mint brownie cupcakes, and oatmeal cream sandwiches. Yes m'am, I'll have so more of that.

Big thanks to my friend, Kathy, for delivering me to the baked goods promise land. You're a gem!

Back to the workload: My lovely Carina Press editor, Andrea, sent over the developmental edits for CHAOS TRYST this week. Tryst is the first in my Chaos/Faebles series and features an urban fantasy Goldilocks and her shape-shifting Russian bear. I have a serious jones for this story and the edits promise to bring out the best in it. You guys are going to love it.

My most popular book to date is KEEPER OF THE WAY the tale of fae woman's fight to survive the destined night of her death and the two men who come along with the ride. At 15k words the one complaint I've gotten is the story is too short and many readers have asked for more. I listened and I've got good news. The rights to Keeper reverted back to me in February and I've decided to edit and expand the story for re-release. The ideas are coming fast and furious. This is gonna be good.

My other projects are top secret but [dodges tomatoes and paper cups] I promise to share more soon. As a teaser, one project involves near future SF, a whole passel of ass whooping and a favorite Carina Press author.

Fun stuff ahead, folks!

A Reading: Dusk Takes Dawn – My Beloved

Dusk and Dawn meet face to face and he's one helluva sexy beast.

A Reading from Dusk Takes Dawn - My Beloved



NOTE: Djinn World's divine illustration is of my inspirations for Dusk Takes Dawn, Goliath and Elisa from the Gargoyles animated series.

A Reading: Dreams' Dark Kiss – The Sitch

[image error] Ciaran and Keoni fight together for the first time and face off against a pack of banes [read nightmares]...

A Reading: Dreams' Dark Kiss - The Sitch
///warning: light cussing///

In The End.

When it ended, I looked back on the wasted remnants of what we were. To the right, our could-have-been blossomed, stretching into the horizon. To the left, callousness and dishonesty, perhaps weakness…I lie. Definitely weakness…obscured the path we tread—yet the brokenness could not be hidden. We parted for his need of a woman who's words oozed testosterone fueled fallacies of his manhood. I dreamed he'd find strength in the best of who he is.      He did not. In the end, our truth was simplicity born of wasted moments. I am not sorry.

The Darker Side of Our Love For Werewolves: Prey, Not

In the opening of Running With the Pack, an anthology of werewolf fiction, editor Ekaterina Sedia suggests mankind’s fascination with werewolves comes from our desire to transform ourselves from prey to predator. A very cool thought! I’d never considered humans, as a species, prey.

(I like people who inspire me to examine my way of thinking and thus, hopefully, to grow.)

For me, the savage abandon and bloodlust of werewolves—absent in large extent in actual wolves, a wolf strikes with purpose—is due to the freedom from human mores the animal enjoys. Lycanthropy abruptly strips away the social fastenings neatly tying back a lifetime of angers and one is finally free to take revenge on that jerk who cut you off on the highway, causing you to spill an extra-short-venti-skim-java-concoction into your lap; or on the boss who delights in demeaning you daily…and to exact one’s payback with teeth and claws. At our worst we’d take satisfaction in blood when sanctioned by the beast within. It ain’t hunting or protecting the pack, it’s a killing spree and seldom do wolves do that.

Heck, seldom do timber wolves decide to commit genocide against or enslave red wolves because of what they consider the improper way of howling at the moon. On the flipside, for some groups of people that’s a Tuesday night.

Of course, as I said, this imagines our darkest natures and I like Ekaterina’s thoughts a lot more than mine.

Yet, I’m not sure we can call ourselves prey when we’ve taken dominion over a planet so thoroughly creatures seemingly more ferocious, though sadly (for them) less ambitious, have no recourse but to either become extinct or seek new lives in the dumpster at 7Eleven (or whatever your country’s equivalent). In a few more ticks of time, tigers will avoid the midday sun by taking naps in the beverage case at Starbucks, and bears will point you to the detergent aisle at Wal-Mart so their cubs can enjoy a bit of farm raised salmon because BP sautéed nature’s fish in petrol. That m’dear is the world a dawning.

Ekaterina’s idea caused me to rethink things…still I can’t help but ponder, if we semi-hairless beasties are prey then we must be rabbits with Uzis; hares horrific enough to make the trials of Watership Down read like Pat the Bunny; prey that does not run but instead pulls the trigger.

Isn’t this the reason we read the Vampires Lestat and the werewolves, or go to see the Alien(s) and the alien Predators at the movies? Isn’t it the guilt of war and pollution, racism and genocide, cruelty and apathy, bombings and slaughter that compels us to create a more vicious creature than we could ever be and thus to appear less monstrous?

If there is something worst than our worse we get to rise to level of hero in epic and outstanding ways... And if I’m being honest, we are just as often intrepid and self-sacrificing, charitable and kind, poetic and beautiful, intelligent and inventive as the other things I've named. We are sometimes monstrous and as often heroic. This is why we love the beasts.
>
The introduction of Running With the Pack alone has inspired a new short story to spark within the womb of my darker thoughts on humanity. And I shall dub it: Bunnies With Uzis.

The thought makes me smile.

Good stuff.

I can’t wait to finish reading this book.

Half Kirk, Half Uhura, Totally Spaced Out

Are You Ready For Sherin? from Ulysses E Campbell on Vimeo.

What to Wear to an Anarchist Wasteland and Secret Origins

Question #6
(In which mohawks and epic chases ensue)

So, the peak oil shortage has hit. Yep, right there between questions 4 and 5. The world is now an anarchist wasteland, not unlike The Road Warrior. Possibly that guy in the hockey mask and Speedo is even tooling around on a dune buggy somewhere. What’s your survival plan? What items do you obtain, and which people do you surround yourself with?

Oh heck, I’d prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse and now this—all that ammo and pig brain is going to be useless… Well, with the dawn of an anarchist wasteland, I’d strap on a chain mail dress, get a Mohawk, build myself a Thunderdome, wait to meet a guy with a great ass, and end epic chase scenes with phrases like “Well, ain’t we a pair, raggedy man?” That’s the only way I know how to make it work.

That or use people as batteries to fuel my machines… Hm. Or I could turn half the people into batteries and the other half into life sustaining green wafers. This is a really hard question. Can I have more time?

Read the full interview with Shawn Kupfer
http://47echo.wordpress.com/2011/02/2...

Two Great Digital Reads Up For Grabs

Today is the last day to win both 47 ECHO by Shawn Kupfer and DREAMS' DARK KISS by me!

Comment to be entered. We'll do the rest.http://poll.fm/2opdt