Marie Sexton's Blog, page 42

Merry Christmas!

Hello, and Merry Christmas! I thought about having Cole do an update, but he's off in Paris, and darling, he simply couldn't be bothered. I guess you'll have to settle for me.

I can't quite believe it's Christmas Eve. While the rest of the world was preparing for the holiday, I was packing. My family and I moved into a new house just last week, on December 18th. We're still surrounded by boxes that have yet to be unpacked, but we did manage to get the tree up, and tomorrow morning we'll be hosting Christmas brunch for our entire family (DH's side and mine).

And yes, since you asked, I apparently am insane.

What's coming up in the new year?

On January 4th, my friend Scarlett Parrish will officially become a m/m author with the release of her latest book, By the Book, from Loose Id. You all may remember her last release, which coincided with the release of The Letter Z. We had Cole interview her (regrettably straight) male protag. We had Piper interview Angelo. Will such shenanigans be repeated? Honestly, I have no idea. But anything is possible.

Sometime around January 17th, Rachel Haimowitz will be here to promote her latest novel, Anchored. Make sure you stop by. I hear there will be giveaways involved!

On February 14th, you'll finally get what so many of you have been asking for: more of Matt and Jared! Their Valentine's Day short, Putting Out Fires, will be released by Dreamspinner Press. (That reminds me: have you checked the links on the sidebar carefully? I added something new and completely silly a few weeks ago).

On February 15th, Heidi Cullinan's Nowhere Ranch will be released by Loose Id. I've read this one, and let me tell you, it is HOT. Maybe we'll have some cross-promotional fun for our back-to-back releases. Depends on how energetic we're feeling.

In April, Paris A to Z will be released by Dreamspinner Press. I am so excited about this release. I probably won't have cover art for a couple more months, but I'll be sure to post it as soon as I have it.

Also in April, my good friend Ethan Stone will have not one, but TWO new novels released by Dreamspinner Press: Flesh and Blood, and Wolf Moon.

Between Sinners and Saints is still in limbo. I don't think there's any doubt that it will be published. It's more a matter of WHO will be publishing it. I'll let you know as soon as I can.

What am I working on now? Well, I'm trying something new. It's sort of fantasy, sort of paranormal. It involves a twinkish artistic type and a burly cowboy. There will be bondage. It's a real departure from my comfort zone, in more ways than one, so we'll see how it goes. Right now, between moving and the holidays, I'm not having much luck getting any writing done at all, but hopefully I'll be able to get back in the swing of things early next year.

And now, I suppose I must get my ass in gear. There is still a lot to be done for tomorrow. Whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, I hope it is fun and joyous. And I will leave you now with this:

Image hijacked from Gay Man in the High Desert: http://highdesertgay.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas!!

One more Strawberries note…

Strawberries for Dessert also made the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books: Best Romance of 2010 list!

Good day for Strawberries!

Two fun things this morning:

Strawberries for Dessert took second place for Contemporary Gay Romance in Elisa's Rainbow Awards. There was some seriously stiff (no pun intended) competition in this category (in EVERY category), and I'm thrilled to have been chosen. For more info, go here.

Also, Sarah Frantz of Dear Author listed Strawberries for Dessert on her Best of 2010 list.

Congrats to everybody who won Rainbow Awards, including Heidi Cullinan, whose book Special Delivery took 1st place in the Contemporary Gay Erotic Romance category, and to LA Witt, who had two books in the top ten in that same category!  And congrats AGAIN to Heidi for taking first place with two different books in the Gay Fantasy category with Hero and Miles and the Magic Flute. ROCK ON!

2010 Goodreads Choice Awards

Please consider voting for Promises.  Go here, and select the Romance category.

Just being included in such an amazing group of nominees is unbelievable.  It would never have happened without those of you who have read it.  Thanks so much to all of you who have supported me in so many ways!  I really appreciate it!

Release dates

Matt and Jared's short story Putting Out Fires will be released by Dreamspinner Press on Valentine's Day, 2011.

Paris A to Z, the third installment in Zach and Angelo's story, will be released in April, 2011, although I don't have an exact date yet.

Yaoi-Con and other things…

My last update was October 20th? That means almost an entire month has gone by. How did that happen? Well, let me back up a bit…

Back in May, I went on Lynn Flewelling's Writing on the Waves Caribbean cruise. At some point, Lynn mentioned Yaoi-Con to me. I said I'd heard of it, and was considering going, at which point she said she would be there and that she thought I should come too. Well, who am I to say no to Lynn? So I spent Halloween weekend at Yaoi-Con in San Francisco. And it was amazing!

I hung out with Lynn, and had the most amazing sushi ever with Jane Kindred and her friend Stephanie. I met scores of authors and other people in our biz. I met Andrew Grey, Z.A. Maxfield, Clare London, Astrid Amara, and Ginn Hale. I met Chris from Stumbling Over Chaos, Jenre and Tam from Jessewave, and Tracy from Tracy's Place. And really, I'm just scratching the surface. I met more people than I could possibly list, and every single one of them was fabulous. I sat on a panel with Lynn Flewelling, Ginn Hale, and Astrid Amara (and I'm still sort of wondering how I got so lucky).

Felicitas Ivey, Clare London, Andrew Grey, Lynn Flewelling, and myself

With Lynn Flewelling and Andrew Grey

Now, some of you may remember that my house has been on the market since May. Wouldn't you know it that in the midst of Yaoi-mayhem, we suddenly got a bite. In one weekend, we received not one, not two, but three offers on our house! Lucky for me, my husband is a good sport, and while I was having Yaoi-fun, he was running around our hotel, faxing papers back and forth. Upon arriving home, we were immediately thrown into house-selling and house-hunting chaos.

The good news is, we found a beautiful house and we're now under contract on it.  We close on both houses on December 17th – because heaven knows the holidays aren't stressful enough as it is, we thought we'd add moving into the mix. In short, we've been in a state of upheaval since we got home, and there's no reason to expect things to get better any time soon. On the bright side, I'm going to have the coolest fucking kitchen in the world. No kidding.

Guess I should start cooking again one of these years.

Yeah, yeah, you're saying. That's fabulous, Marie, but what's going on with your writing?

Between Sinners and Saints is finished and has been submitted to a publisher. I haven't heard back yet, so I can't tell you much more than that. It's probably safe to assume that the absolute soonest you'll see this story will be late next year, but I'll be sure to post more details here as soon as I have them. I've posted a very short excerpt here, and an even longer excerpt in my most recent newsletter, which can be found here.

I got a wild hair the other day to write a Valentine's Day story about Matt and Jared. It kind of came out of the blue, but it really was a lot of fun. It's only about 8600 words. I believe it's going to be called Putting Out Fires, and it will be available from Dreamspinner Press in time for Valentine's Day.

I have also re-tackled the Paris story. I've had this story mostly done for months, but I felt like something was missing. I've now spent the last few days on it, and I am happy to report that I have either a) finished the first draft for about the fifth time, or b) I've finished the fifth draft for the first time. Either way, I guess I can report that I have made progress. It might actually be close to being finished. I know, I've said that before, but I hope (fingers crossed) that I really will have it completely polished and ready to submit to Dreamspinner by next week, which would mean a release date around (I'm guessing here) May.

My next order of business is a silly little Coda Scooby-Doo spoof which has also been half-complete for a number of months. I think I finally know how to finish it. It's juvenile tongue-in-cheek silliness, and once it's done, I'll post it here on my site for you to laugh at, or to roll your eyes at. Whichever seems most appropriate.

After that, I'm not sure what I'll do. I do have another story on the back-burner for Jon and Cole. I have my never-ending fantasy project, Cockaigne. I think I know what I need to do with it – I need to change all 45K words of it from first person to third – but so far I've been too lazy to tackle it. Not a fact I'm proud of, but there it is. Jaime and Levi might end up with a sequel someday too, but I have no idea how soon.

That's about it for now. And since it seems to be such a good way to end posts, I'll leave you with a lovely bit of eye candy.

Short story in the works…

Just wanted to let you know that I'm officially 7500 words into a new short story about Matt and Jared.  Hope the words keep coming.

What now?

I have returned from the HaMEMA, intact and not too much worse for the wear.  For those of you who don't know, HaMEMA stands for Heidi and Marie's Excellent Manlove Adventure.  This is the title for the road trip that Heidi Cullinan and I took from Iowa to McAllen, Texas and back.  It was so much fun.  If you missed it, please check out our site.  You can find a blog, photos, and even a few podcasts.

I am finally almost finished with Between Sinners and Saints.  If you follow that link and scroll down, you'll be able to read a tiny, tiny little excerpt.  I'll be sure to post here once it's done, and once it's submitted, and once it's accepted, and once I have a release date and all the rest of the usual excitement.

Next order of business is to finish the Paris story once and for all.  After that, I really have no idea.  At all.

For those in the San Francisco area, I'll be attending Yaoi-Con over Halloween weekend.  I'll be helping cover the Dreamspinner booth in the vendor room, as well as sitting on a panel with Lynn Flewelling, Astrid Amara, and Ginn Hale.

Holy cow.  Read that list of authors again: Lynn Flewelling, Astrid Amara, Ginn Hale.  And me!  I feel like the little kid who gets to sit with the adults for a while.  I'm so honored to be on a panel with such amazing and talented writers.  So if you're attending Yaoi-Con, be sure to stop by.

And now, just for fun, here's some eye-candy for you.

On the Road

I just wanted to remind everybody again, if you're not following the HaMEMA blog, you really should be.  Heidi Cullinan and I are recording our adventures through America with a blog, pictures, and even a podcast or two.  Check it out!

HaMEMA, baby!!

Heidi and Marie's Excellent Manlove Adventure is about to begin!  I'm sure there will be pictures and reports on Twitter and Facebook, but you can also follow our madcap adventure here, a site Heidi made especially for our trip.

And now, I must pack more…