Clancy Nacht's Blog, page 10

Make Mine Manlove Podcast

Rainbow Award-winning, bestselling author Clancy Nacht squeezes in writing amongst her web development day job, her husband, and her three feral rescue cats. Living in Austin, she indulges her love of indie music, photography, and constant influx of new faces a college town provides. With a major in Journalism, she has written for newspapers and magazines but did not delve into creative writing until 2009. Since then she has been published by Loose Id, Cleis Press and Dreamspinner Press.

Jessica Freely can’t resist a wounded hero. As a reader and a writer, her favorite stories are of soul mates finding redemption in each other’s arms. Married to the love of her life in a beautiful relationship based on mutual goofiness, Jessica also warps minds as an instructor in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction MFA program. Her dog, Ruthie, doesn’t seem to care that Jessica’s an award-winning and best-selling author in multiple genres. She just wants to play tug of war with Jessica’s pages.

The Thursday Euclid (scientific name T. Euclidus) is a strange and elusive creature dwelling in the Texas Gulf Coast region. Frequently mistaken for Bigfoot, Chupacabra, or the monster of the week, T. Euclidus is, in fact, a 20-something black sheep with a penchant for indie music, fedoras, and hot and sour soup.

Visit our website listen to our podcasts

Filed under: podcast, promo Tagged: jessica freely, make mine manlove, podcast, thursday euclid

Behind the scenes: inspiration for the novel Gemini

Listen to Clancy Nacht and Thursday Euclid discuss their inspiration for their m/m romantic thriller Gemini.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/makeminemanlove/behindTheBookGemini2.mp3

Cass Manning is a serial monogamist, grad student, and identical twin to Paul, a drug-addicted prostitute. Fleeing his unfaithful boyfriend, Cass returns to Houston after years away only to be drawn into danger before he’s out of the airport.

When Paul dies under suspicious circumstances, Cass must rely on one of Paul’s clients, Kilo, a mercenary willing to protect Cass in exchange for favors. Together they have a chance to bring justice to the corrupt heart of Texas’s political power structure, but Kilo’s mysterious past may tear him from Cass when he needs him most. Even if they outlive their untouchable adversaries, how does a polite academic find lasting love with a soldier of fortune?

Buy your copy of Gemini at these fine e-tailers:

Loose Id
Amazon
All Romance eBooks
Barnes & Noble

Filed under: books, Loose Id, podcast, writing Tagged: behind the scenes, book, gemini, inspiration, m/m, podcast, promo

The surgery and C word blues

When my co-podcaster Jessica Freely told me that she was going to need another surgery, I already knew that Thursday Euclid, my cowriter and podcaster and BFF was headed for surgery. I joked, OMG I’M NEXT! Because we all know these things come in threes and while I had an inkling of what was to come, my mind wasn’t there yet.

Last night I learned that my mother is in stage 4 of colorectal cancer. It’s spread to her lymph nodes and lungs. Today she’s getting a port put in, Monday she starts chemo. Not that anyone wants to drag such things out, but damn.

So Monday Thursday will be having his surgery and my mother will be enjoying the first of many chemo cocktails and I will be… squirming, I guess. I can’t really put my finger on how I feel because it is shocking and when I don’t know how to feel I just go straight to numb with occasional bouts of wanting to scream.

Beyond that, it’s not my surgery or my cocktail of poison to swallow. Mostly I feel useless, but I also know that if it were my responsibility I’d feel panicked. So I try to focus on being easy to talk to, trying to stay up and sunny. Take my medicine on time so I don’t get swamped with migraines… if that can be helped.

I don’t really know how this will affect me or things. When I lost my dad so suddenly and my BFF I spent a lot of time with online friends and started writing. I don’t anticipate losing my BFF, but I am girding my loins that we are nearing the end of my mother’s timeline.

It’s still early for most, I guess. She had me late, but all of my grandparents made fairly quick exits, so I guess that’s just a thing we do. The party hits a lull and we make a French exit.

Filed under: about clancy, feels Tagged: cancer, death, mom, personal, thursday euclid

Jett & Goldie ruin Katy Perry’s concert that had some sort of sports intro

Jett isn’t sure why Goldie even cares about the Superbowl game. He knows he’s just here to watch Katy Perry, but he figures he may as well kill some time explaining. He loves how Goldie seems to hang on his every word even still, though at the moment he does seem slightly distracted in anticipation of Katy Perry’s show. “This is the second quarter. The game is tied. The patriots have the ball. Now, the Patriots — ha what a name — are headed by Tom Brady — he’s married to Gisele Bundchen, she’s very nice, I’ve met her a few times — and there’s this thing going on, deflate gate, where they may be engaged in wrongdoing.

“Cheating. But why anyone’s surprised PATRIOTS are cheating is beyond me — so the point is, that Tom Brady is gonna try to advance the ball down the field toward the end zone. He needs to achieve ten yards to get the first down. You follow?”

Goldie nods, but now the reason for his distraction has become more apparent. Two young people, apparently Katy Perry’s production assistants, are making their way quickly toward them.

When they arrive, they pause, biting their lips like they’re not sure they even dare say what they came around the field to say. “So here’s the thing… we lost our sharks!”

Goldie’s brows furrow and he tilts his head like he’s considering escaped fish. “Well… Glendale is pretty landlocked so…”

The PAs throw their hands in the air, nearly losing their clipboards. “No! Our dancing sharks! They didn’t show up. I know you’re just here to watch, but we need two people to be sharks for Katy’s show.”

Jett shrugs. “Oh. Sharks. Ok. Well, Goldie, we can be sharks but remind me later to explain to you why football is a depoliticized form of internecine warfare that appeases America’s deep tribal mindset of us vs them without undue bloodshed but at the expense of massive cranial trauma to our nation’s unprotected youth.”

Though Jett knows Goldie has to be listening, he gives all indications of no longer caring about football or the struggle of American identity. No, he is lost to Katy Perry’s need for sharks.

“Oh, okay. I’ll do that. So, do we just put the costumes on? Just shark around on stage?”

The PAs look warily at one another but whatever doubts they may have, they rush Jett and Goldie off backstage where the costumes are. “Well, there’s a dance. It’s not that difficult. Just from the video, you know?”

Dance? Jett sighs. He should have known. Capitalist America wouldn’t be happy without dancing sharks. “Just FYI to everyone, I don’t dance. I can shark, but I don’t dance.”

The PAs look at each other, then at Jett. “It’s really easy. Just like this. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh… Teenage Dream tonight… see?”

Goldie executes it perfectly. “Yeah, like from the video, got it. You’ve seen the video, right Jett?”

“I don’t remember any sharks in the video. Isn’t that the one where she’s driving in a car with a guy and it’s all terribly unsafe? And people say bikers are making the roads dangerous. What about teenagers whose behavior is influenced by the irresponsible behavior of pop culture figures in music videos? Whatever. Look, it’s not gonna matter. Let’s get this show on the road.”

The PAs give Goldie the shark costume but eye Jett thoughtfully. “You know, maybe one of us should do it if you’re not feeling up to it, Mr. Golde–Mr. Black.”

“Goldie’s not gonna do it without me. Are you, Goldie?” Jett gives Goldie a flat, expectant look and holds out his hand for the costume.

Goldie pulls his costume up to his shoulders but looks around wildly at the question.

The PAs both look away like they’re afraid of everyone walking. Goldie’s gaze is forced to fix on Jett.

“No. I mean, of course not. You’ve got it, right?” He demonstrates the dance again, his flippers look surprisingly sharp and elegant when contorted into the cheerleading routine that passes for choreography that pop singers execute.

Jett doesn’t bother to front. He just snatches the costume and starts pulling it on with the compelling speed of a professional showman. Once he’s in it, they can’t really get him out of it, and he gives his best, panty-melting grin. “Hey, I was born to perform.” It’s a non-answer, but he’s got his own agenda. It’s fine. It’ll be fine.

The PAs both look up at Goldie with fear and hope in their eyes that he’ll somehow put a stop to this before it turns shambolic, but Goldie just shrugs and says, “He’s got it,” and pulls his head on.

Coming off stage, the PAs approach Jett, heads shaking, but what can they say? One takes the head from Jett’s hands as he says, “I resist the idea that this institution dominates our cultural conversations once yearly and will thwart the smooth flow of its sacred halftime ceremony. Also I made nacho farts in this suit. Ha-ha.”

If you don’t know who Jett and Goldie are, they have two books to their names and where were you?

   

(written with coauthor Thursday Euclid)

Filed under: promo, writing Tagged: black gold, black gold 2, ficlet, freefic, goldie, jett black

Hannibal Season 3 Trailer is here!

Okay, so it’s been here for a few days, but I’m still gathering my thoughts.

I’m very interested in the tunnels that Hannibal and Will are in. Are those the steam tunnels that supposedly run under Hannibal’s Baltimore home that connect him to the rest of the city–which is how he can get from place to place so quickly?

Is there a combination of the book Hannibal and Red Dragon for this season? With the casting of Inspector Pazzi, it looks like Hannibal is in Italy, but with the news of the casting of Dolarhyde and Molly, that’s definitely Red Dragon.

We also get a peek at what is theoretically (in Hannibal Rising) what appears to be Hannibal’s aunt. Quite curious as to where this is going. The trailer doesn’t have much with Red Dragon. It mostly centers on Will and Hannibal, a Hannigram’s dream trailer, but I’d be surprised if they saw much of each other until the end.

My thoughts, just based on a two minute trailer, is that the story will be mostly Hannibal, with some flashbacks thanks to the aunt (who looks young to be an aunt…obviously there are going to be quite a few changes to Hannibal’s origin story, i’m intrigued to see what they’ll be!) to squeeze in some Hannibal Rising and then the set up of Red Dragon that wouldn’t be resolved until next season.

Here are some big spoilery rumors about season 3. They include episode names and numbers, so click with caution. Even if you’ve read the books, obviously there’s some differences and some specificity may be more than what you want. It does speculate on Hannibal’s sexuality but apparently the author couldn’t wrap their head around the possibility of bisexuality.

In any case, we won’t know until this summer. I’m bummed that the release was pushed out, but at the same time, that may be the show’s best shot for success. It’s okay. I’m patient.

In the interim, I’d like to promote my book that was inspired by Hannibal. It’s not Hannigram (though I did write one of those on AO3 if you’re interested) but it does feature a Hannibal-like figure in my short story Still Remains. It’s a m/m sensual horror story, so if you’re into it, please check it out.

  

Filed under: feels, hannibal Tagged: hannibal, hannibal feels

Music and the writing process

For me, the writing process is often filled with adventure, making plans and then changing them, but a lot of discovery. Music is integral to my process whether I’m debugging code, editing, creatiing stories, or designing. Sometimes I think that I should be filmed while writing because I create these playlists for stories and while usually I’m just quietly grooving while I write, now and then, I have to stop to full on lip synch for my life and no one gets to see it.

In fact, on finishing this paragraph, I just had to rock out to Chet Faker’s cover of “No Diggity.” It’s really a whole performance. Someday this will probably be made public. Not today, in spite of a really killer hair day.

Of course, those at GRL a couple of years ago know that I will full on Karaoke, so I was definitely down with the singing along. This brings me back to Axl Rose as it was “Welcome to the Jungle” I performed. I have no defense. Just be glad I didn’t choose “Smack That.” (actually I was always going to do Guns-n-Roses for that performance since we were promoting Black Gold and that was much more rocky, but in retrospect I’m glad I didn’t try to do “Smack That” by Akon because I still haven’t quite nailed down Eminem’s rap)

This all brings me to the fact that I create playlists for certain stories and I usually share them. I had this big plan/idea to share my playlist for Prince Charming Wears Garters. The initial buzz about the story seemed really great, but then, not everyone loved it.

Funnily, some of the complaints were what I had when I’d first finished the story. I worried it was too melodramatic. That was what made me shelve it. I finish a lot of manuscripts that never see the light of day, but I finish them because how do you know what you have until you’re done?

A few things happened after that shelving. One, I kept thinking about it, because really, the basis of it in my head was Don Draper in garters. How do you not think about that? Two, the het romance I put out instead of that one, A Model Boyfriend was criticized for lacking drama.

Oh, you want drama? I got drama!

Still, it took me a bit to finally pull the manuscript up to read it again. I sent it to my Kindle and… I loved it. I’d rewritten a chapter that had been not just melodramatic, but wallowing in it. I liked the balance the story struck. It didn’t work for everyone, that’s life.

But in the back and forth with me feeling kind of neurotic, I realized that I had never shared the playlist for Prince Charming Wears Garters and the story deserves that.

But also, as much as music is part of the writing process, so is releasing the story into the world and watching how others react to it. Even if you don’t agree or think it’s unfair, you learn from that. Learn where your strengths are, where your weaknesses are, and it also changes your relationship to your story.

It also changes your relationship to what you’re writing and how you edit it. It’s not that I won’t write highly feminist characters anymore, I mean, fuck that noise. You don’t like feminists, get out of my treehouse. But, I am mindful to try to balance their presentation as much as I can. Sometimes the story is what it is and characters are who they are. But if i can add nuance and complexity, I try to. It’s all part of the process.

Filed under: about clancy, books, feels, promo, writing Tagged: a model boyfriend, book, feels, prince charming wears garters, process, writing

Red, red wine

My day thus far:

It’s pouring out which is kinda nice since it’s pollen season. I’m not usually affected until it’s majorly bad, but I think with the spectre of migraines everpresent, allergy season is going to be worse for me than it has been in years past
Speaking of, my migraine is into it’s second day. The ones over my eye usually last three days. This is not the full blown migraines that I used to get because I’m on a preventative, so it’s not quite Satan with a poker going through my eye, just Satan with a poker pushing into a few layers of gauze behind my eye. It’s not great, but I’m not vomiting. I’ll take it.
So far I wrote 800 words. I thought for sure I was twice that because so much was getting done, so I think they’re 800 Really Ambitious Words that are Getting Shit Done… and they were written during Satan’s invasion of my eye. I want more, but again, I’ll take it.
My mom sent me 12 bottles of wine. She said she was going to. It’s through that Wall Street Journal thing? But somehow I pictured that I’d recieve one (1) bottle of wine a month for the year, not 12 all at once. It’s like… the pressure now. What am I going to do with 12 bottles of wine? Do I invite Axl Rose over for a party? Because that’s what rock stars do, right? Sip red wine from the Wall Street Journal? Okay, maybe someone else then

Of course, this leaves me kind of short because I really don’t know what to get my mom for Christmas. She complains about nearly everything I buy her. No, I mean, seriously. Even if I buy her something she winds up loving later, it’s always like… “This is too expensive,” or “This is a present you want for yourself.” Which, no. If I want something, I buy it for myself because I’m a grown-ass woman and that’s what we do. I buy stuff for her and I honestly put a lot of thought into what I get her.

She complains about her purse, I buy her a new purse. She wants to read my books on Kindle, I buy her a Kindle. Then she bitches that she can’t use the Kindle and clearly I bought it for me. No. I have a Kindle.

I can’t do the wine trick with her because she doesn’t like wine. Actually this is the first year she’s really gotten me something I really wanted, though I have never been rude enough to tell her when she got me something I didn’t want that it sucked. Sometimes I wonder who raised me.

Anyway, I think that’s part of my migraine. I haven’t found her a gift yet and I am stressed about it. She complains about all of the usual suspects: food (it’ll go to waste) make-up (it’s too expensive and she thinks she’s ugly and there’s no helping that) flowers (wasteful and she’ll just have to clean them up and throw them away.) I always send her hard copies of my books when I get them which is probably dumb because I could save that up for Christmas/Mother’s Day/Birthday and other traps that land me into a pit of self-loathing and anxiety.

I think I’ll pop open one of those bottles of wine now.

Filed under: about clancy, blog, feels Tagged: daily life, migraines, whine, wine

Dramatic scenes of love: we did it better—Le Jazz Hot

This story reminds me of when Thursday Euclid and I were talking about what we were going to do with Le Jazz Hot. It was intended to be a very over the top romcom, like the sort you saw in the early 00s where they were totally goofy and unbelievable, but charming in their own way. And *sigh* oh romantic!

A proper romcom has to have certain elements: one big lie/secret, Two people who are in love, a confession of the lie, time apart to figure out if the lie/secret is something that the protagonist can live with, and the Grand Gesture.

I’m sure there are a lot of other subtleties that I’m glossing over because I keep looking at this picture and laughing.

In Le Jazz Hot, a firefighter meets a drag queen at his birthday party, falls in love, but believes he’s a she. The firefighter then persues the drag queen through her “twin brother” who is the drag queen out of drag. Obviously, this can only go on for so long before the truth comes out and then the firefighter has to decide if he loves the drag queen enough to keep seeing him.

Well, of course he does. So we write it up that the whole station is happy for this revelation and they take the firetruck so that the firefighter can show up at the window of the drag queen’s apartment to show that he wants to date.

Of course, the drag queen is not prepared for someone to show up to his window, so in alarm, he calls the firefighter and the argue about the weirdo outside of his window. It’s pretty cute.

This story from Jezebel…

Crane Smashes Through Home After Marriage Proposal Goes Horribly Wrong

That’s, you know, the other way it could’ve gone. The truck apparently overbalanced and crushed the neighbor’s house when a man wanted to level up his relationship with his lady to marriage status. The good news: she said yes. The bad news, I’m not sure where the neighbors will live now.

Oh well. Love conquers all?

Filed under: books, Loose Id, promo Tagged: le jazz hot, real news, silly

Make Mine Manlove Episode 2

Jessica Freely, Clancy Nacht and Thursday Euclid get together with Prism Book Alliance’s Brandilyn Carpenter to discuss the love/hate relationship between writers and reviewers. Their discussion is prompted by the strange case of stalking perpetrated by Kathleen Hale against a Goodreads reviewer. Different thoughts are discussed but everyone takes a bold stance against stalking and that perhaps authors should try to stay out of the discussions of readers.

Several ways to listen

Libsyn listen page
Make Mine Manlove site
Download mp3

Related links:

 ‘Am I being catfished?’ An author confronts her number one online critic
 Goodreads
 Patrick Bateman
 Goodreads Warning
Oxford Comma by Vampire Weekend

This podcast is brought to you by Martha Stewart’s Pear Rosemary Cocktails and Baconator69 (whom we don’t even know and we’re not sure how he got dragged into this)

Music provided by

Takin Yo Time ( The Wingman Mix ) by Loveshadow featuring Brad and Audiotechnica

Filed under: make mine manlove, podcast Tagged: activism, brandilyn carpenter, jessica freely, prism book alliance, thursday euclid

Scarlett Johansson made my day weird

Scarlett Johansson made my day weird, but in a good way. I noticed on Amazon Prime that they were offering the movie Under the Skin for free. I mean, free if you have Prime. So… free-ish.

I don’t hate ScarJo but she’s not an actress that I generally seek out the movies of, but I remembered a scifi movie with her and Morgan Freeman being promoted not too long ago and while my mom saw it and thought it was dumb, I had some administrative tasks to deal with and I figured I’d turn it on in the background.

Twenty minutes into it, and I’ve seen a lot of Scarlett. More than I’d ever anticipated seeing of her. And no Morgan Freeman. And the movie is… intriguing. Mostly silent. I’m not seeing anything that I recognized from the trailers, but a whole lot of Kubrik-like direction and Glasgow accents.

What in the hell am I watching?

Well, it wasn’t Lucy.

It was a very intriguing sci fi film that, like Snowpiercer, I just can’t explain or do justice, though it is a lean in and pay attention kind of film. If I’d known that, I probably wouldn’t have tried to do other things while watching it because the other things didn’t happen.

After the movie, I wondered what movie I’d thought I was going to watch and looked up Scarlett Johansson’s name and an article popped up about her looking at properties in LA. Now, I’m not a big “let’s learn about all the private lives of celebrities” but I do enjoy seeing celebrity homes. I don’t know if there’s some architecture perv support group or what, but I just find it interesting. I do use what I’ve seen in writing sometimes. Goldie and Jett’s home in Double Black (Black Gold 2)was actually a property that was for sale at the time, though I kind of cobble together details so it’s not quite so obvious where I’m talking about.

In the first book, Black Gold, I had an image in my mind of Ellen, Goldie’s mom’s, house. I hadn’t shopped for it like I did Jett and Goldie’s, but just had, in my mind, a blueprint and style of architecture and decoration.

Apparently, Scarlett Johansson toured the house that I’d pictured as Ellen’s. She didn’t buy it, which… it’s weird to me that a house Scarlett Johansson didn’t buy made the news, but also weird that she toured a house that I thought I’d made up!

See what I pictured as Ellen’s house!

See Under the Skin,but be prepared that it is NOT an action movie. If you don’t like movies with intense psychological elements and limited dialog like The Shining or Eyes Wide Shut, this probably isn’t a movie for you.

p.s. This is some good Scarlett Johansson… I hope she does more movies like this!

Filed under: about clancy, books, feels Tagged: black gold 2, blackgold, feels, goldie, jett black, movies