T. Strange's Blog, page 17

My Zombie Boyfriend - First Sneak Peek!

Here it is, My Zombie Boyfriend's first teaser!

Edward is a necromancer/medical student. Boo is his cat...and the first zombie he ever made.




Something rubbed against my ankles at the bottom of the stairs and I shrieked. Being a necromancer hasn’t made me less afraid of things that go bump in the night—I know just how real those things can be. “Boo! How did you get down here?” I scooped him up and he purred in my arms. I try to keep Boo out of the basement. He tends to eat the scraps. And yes, it is every bit as revolting as it sounds. 
Boo peered at the body on the table, now that I was holding him high enough so he could see. He turned and gave me what was unquestionably a cat frown.
“He…followed me home?” I chuckled, nervously. “I promise I’ll feed him and take him for walks.”
Boo looked unimpressed and started squirming to be put down, making a horrible noise deep in his throat.
“It’s going to be a long night, buddy. Maybe we need some coffee.” One nice thing about an undead cat is that I can feed him anything he wants, in small amounts. He loves coffee, though if he eats too much of anything that isn’t raw meat, it comes out in truly disgusting ways. Because he’s undead, he’s lived longer than an ordinary cat. …though I have to repair him from time to time.



Read more about My Zombie Boyfriend here. Watch this page for updates. 

Chapter One

Here's a question for readers (whether or not those readers are also authors): chapter lengths. Do you find lots of short chapters irksome, or do you like them? Are *** less of a bother than a new chapter, or are they as much of an interruption?

Personally, I like chapters to be fairly short, probably about ten pages long. Every time I tell myself or someone else, "I'm just going to finish this chapter", it ends up being like fifty pages long! I get a little annoyed when chapters are only a page long or something like that (I'm looking at you, Laurell K. Hamilton), unless there's a very good reason for them to be that short. I don't mind *** page breaks (and it's a good thing, because I tend to use a lot of 'em!)

Boot Porn

I get regular emails from Mr. S Leather, and this one pulled a double-whammy.


This is their  Red Stitch 12" Jobmaster I love the contrast the red stitching makes against the black leather, and how high the boot goes. And the shape. The whole thing is just yummy as hell. (Warning: the link has some rather NSFW pictures!)

And then...

I was literally reduced to incoherent sounds at the sight of this. It doesn't help that harness boots are a major turn on for me!They're Mr. S'  Double Strap 16" Boss Boots (Feel free to look at this link at work. Unless your boner will give you away. But the pictures are just boots and motorcycles, not naked bits.)
The things I want to do to those boots...with my Sir wearing them...*drool*

Please Don't Feed The Alligators

This is a free anthology I contributed to. It's got short stories from a congregation (that's a group of alligators) of Torquere authors, so check it out! There are M/M and F/F stories, and there are even a couple of kinky ones (though mine is not. Well...I guess it depends on your idea of kink). You've got nothing to lose--it's free!

Find it here

BDSMonday - Five Myths

It's BDSMonday!

Today I have an article for you, written by Kristen Sollee of Women's Health Magazine. She discusses five major myths about BDSM. It's a great article to show vanilla friends/family/whatever if they react negatively when the topic of kink arises.

Have a great week everyone!

The Jester Prince: Lou

For another night, they all stayed in the prop truck. Marley, at least, had been put into the false back this time. Another joined their numbers, a man in a dark cloak. A silver clasp in the shape of the crescent moon sat in the middle of his chest, holding the fabric closed. He sat straight in front of Tobias. Under his cowl, the bright red light shining from his eyes cast deep shadows across his face, exaggerating his features. "What you staring at, boy?" A southern drawl dripping with rage.
"Nothing."
"Don't fucking lie to me." He lowered his hood. Sharp features and dark skin, so dark it was almost purple. Every part of his face was large: a wide nose, thick lips, huge eyes with a broad space between them, and a forehead that was half again the size of Toby's. Thick dreadlocks, tied at the back, flowed down from his head. "You were staring at me. Go on and admit it."-Zirkua Fantastic
I don't like werewolves all that much. I think they're overrated. Now if we were talking about were-orcas, okay. I can get behind that. But everyone does werewolves and wolf shifters and… dull.
But I played around when it came to my books. I stuck a werewolf in. But I wanted to play it a little differently. I knew he would be an immortal. The answer came to me when I was reading an article. It was some news article about Marie Laveau. I don't remember the contents all that well because that's where it started. Marie Laveau. Louisiana. Werewolves. Loup-Garou. Since he was the spirit of fear, I knew he had to be pretty old. That put the actual Creole (Rougarou) out the window. So I used the French Loup-Garou, which inevitably ended up shortened down to Lou. It's not his first name, of course. Few immortals go by their original names. But when the legends of the werewolf started, he took the mantle of the great, terrifying beast.
How terrifying? Find out in The Jester Prince, Book Two of the King Jester Trilogy.


With the destruction of Zirkua Fantastic, King Jester, the spirit of discord, has been unleashed once more upon the Earth. Only Toby, a fresh, untrained immortal, and the other former members of Zirkua Fantastic dare to stand against his chaos. But their hold is tenuous, and they are only truly safe from his power within the bounds of their camp. King Jester grows more powerful and more dangerous with each passing day. But he's made one mistake. That mistake could be his undoing. He's stolen Toby's soul mate, Marley. When he discovers Marley's location, Toby knows what he has to do. He will rescue Marley, even if it means he has to face King Jester alone.
But the others don't let him go at it alone. Marley has information about the resistance. They can't afford to let him stay in King Jester's control. In desperation, the immortals raise an army to storm the compound. But will it be enough to challenge the embodiment of chaos himself? All they can do is hope. Hope and put their faith in love.
Available through Prizm Books. Buy Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=83&products_id=4250
EXCERPT:He snuffed out the fire with a quick fist and headed back out, ready to join Harlan and Zerga. But a dark figure slid into his path. Red eyes glowed down at him, sharp and narrow. He gasped and crouched, ready to push past, if he got the chance.
Two dark hands lifted and lowered a black hood. "Calm down, boy." Lou glided into the tent and started the fire again. "You'd better sit. I feel like gabbing a little bit."
Toby took his seat again. "You heard."
"That you're planning to rescue that blond boy? Yeah, I heard." He leaned over, the fire millimeters from his dark face. "But you should tell your parents. This ain't the kind of thing you can handle on your lonesome."
"They know." What the hell am I doing? "You can't go telling them I told you any of this, all right?"
"Fine."
The dishonesty poured from his mouth, sat bitter against his tongue. But it poured, uncontrollable, unstoppable. "Coyote was here."
Lou sat up straighter, shoulders tight and high. "Coyote?"
"Yes. And no one's supposed to mention this. I shouldn't tell you." Something true, at least -- I shouldn't tell anyone this story. "I'm going to rescue Marley. They think he'll be valuable. For information. But the fewer people that know, the better." Toby closed his eyes, taking in a few breaths of chill air. "No one can say anything after tonight. Not until it's time to go."
Lou nodded, but didn't reply. He trailed his hand up to his chest, undid the silver clasp. He shrugged the black cloak off into a pool around his waist. A black leather shirt hugged his dark chest. Not muscular, but it looked like he had muscles once, before they deteriorated. A bracelet of spiraling beads clung to his left forearm. A few beads on the bottom were gone, exposing bare string that had been knotted together.
Lou rubbed his eyes. "You know, we pair off. The immortals. It's in our nature, something we can't help. I don't know why. Doesn't really matter, when we get down to it." He raised his arm, pulled on the bracelet a little. "Did anyone tell you about the Others?"

My Zombie Boyfriend

Hi internet!

I'd like to introduce you to My Zombie Boyfriend.

My Zombie Boyfriend, internet. 
It's about cats and zombies (and a zombie cat!) I know you're into those things, so naturally, I thought of you! I'll leave you two alone to get to know each other.

                                                                           ---



So, I've been sitting on this HUGE piece of news since the 7th and I couldn't wait to tell you guys, but I wanted to wait until it was finalized. And as of today--I just signed the contract for my first full-length novel, and it's going to be released as a paperback!

I do mean this is my first novel--I've written longer pieces, but all of them were fanfiction (or about historical people, not original characters, and I don't want to talk about that XD).



I don't want to give away too much this early in the game, but I can tell you that it's M/M (of course).

The story is told by Edward, a medical student/necromancer who finds a body in a park and brings it home...and back to life.

This story has been in my life for years, almost as long as I've known my wife, and I'm thrilled that I can finally share it with the world. It was originally supposed to be a webcomic that I wrote and my wife illustrated, but it never got past the first few pages. We also roleplayed it, and we've spent a lot of time exploring this world. I had a lot of material and ideas to draw upon. (I'd like to note that I offered my wife co-author status and she refused).

December of 2012, the story wanted out. I wrote most of it longhand, and the words just kept coming and coming until I had a novel.

I heard about the ABNA awards, and decided to enter MZB (I call it MZB. You can, too), mostly to give myself some sort of deadline.

Amazingly, even though the novel was very fresh and hardly edited, the concept got it past the first round. It didn't make it through the second, but it really wasn't ready.

I waited and got busy with other projects, giving it the time and space it needed, until it was ready to be edited. I knew I wanted it to be a paperback, but while it had been percolating, Torquere had raised their minimum word count from 50,000 to 60,000 words...so I had to add a few scenes, and beef others up a little. I ended up adding a character who was new to the novel, but not to the MZB universe, and I'm glad I did. I've gotten positive feedback about him already.

I would like to give a huge thank you to Jordan White for being my beta reader and her lovely and entertaining comments. Please check out her blog.

I would also like to thank my lovely editor, Elizabeth Brooks, for reading the first chapter and demanding more!

                                                                             ---

Look for My Zombie Boyfriend from Torquere Press.

I've already started collecting giveaway items for the release day party and I'm so excited to share them with you!

I don't have a release date yet, but updates will be posted here, so stay tuned.

(PS: BDSMonday will follow in a few hours)

LOLs

This was spray painted on a sidewalk in my city on one of the streets I walk frequently. Every time I saw it, all I could think was:
XD 
or 
>.<
So today I brought a piece of chalk...

Inspiration

I really feel that this picture deserves a story. I just don't know what it might be, or if I'll even be the one to write it! (Who knows, maybe there already is one!)

Source

Weird Research Question...

Does anyone know how long it takes for human cells to die after a person's death (not counting all the bacteria, etc, that live in a person)?

I'm also looking for all the religions/faiths that believe the soul stays in/near the body for three days following death.

Thanks!