'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 115

Writing Wednesday – Ice, Ice, Puppy

 

It’s awful outside right now. Ice rain is coating everything, and the temperature is vacillating up and down enough that it’s like a wet skating rink. If you’re local, and you don’t have to be outside, don’t go outside.

The dog, apparently, had to go outside. I tried to let him just out into the back yard, but he gave me a “Seriously?” look, and refused. So, coat, jacket, gloves, leash, boots and out we went. Very unpleasant, to say the least. But he did his business and then immediately turned around to go home, so I think he clued in it wasn’t a winter wonderland of fun after all.

What is wonderful, however, is this awesome news: Because I was a runner-up for the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival short fiction contest, Bold Strokes Books put my novel Light up at a discount of 20%. Also, the winner of the contest, Jerry Rabushka, is also a Bold Strokes author, and his latest novel, The Prophecy, is likewise on sale. This is just one of many reasons why I love my publisher.

(And in case you’re curious, the collection of short fiction that was gathered from this contest will be released in April, and you can pre-order it here.)

The Novel(s)

Work on Triad Soul went much better week. I didn’t quite hit my 10k for January, but I’m back on track and gaining up what I lost now that I’m in February. Also, I learned Scrivener has a way to track word-counts and make adaptable goals as you go. This? Huge. I’m such a “goal” nerd, and having it tracked for me is a huge, huge deal.

The only thing left for Triad Blood now is the line edits, and when I get those, I’ll be dancing in a circle and whooping. I do need to start thinking promotion, too, as May will be here before you know it. There’s some extra awesome news about Triad Blood that I can’t quite announce yet, so that’ll have to wait for another day.

The Short Stuff

My Q&A project proceeds apace for The Biggest Lover, Threesome, Men in Love, and Not Just Another Pretty Face. I think I’ll have posts ready to go all the way through to June at the rate I’m getting responses from authors, but that’s a good thing. Once I get within sight of the end of them, I’ll start hunting for anthologies to talk about in the latter half of the year.

I did submit something in the last hours of January. It’s not the typical thing, but it involved writing, so I’m calling it a win.

On to February!

Open Calls I Know About (and find tempting)…

Theory of Love – Pocket protectors and sexy nerds? Sci-Fi (and/or geeky) Romance, Torquere Press, Deadline: February 15th, 2016.
Less Than Dead – Tales of zombies, be they the enemy, the ally, or something else entirely, Less than Three Press, Deadline: February 28th, 2016.
Men at Work – Tales of erotic gay workplace romance, JMS Books, Deadline: February 29th, 2016.
Transcendent – Short, speculative fiction published in 2015 (ie: reprints) that features transgender characters, Lethe Press, Deadline: March 31st, 2016.
Gents: Steamy Tales from the Age of Steam – Gay male erotica set during the Victorian/Edwardian era, Deadline: May 1st, 2016.
Survivor – SF/F anthology looking for stories of everyday trauma survival, Lethe Press, Deadline: May 1st, 2016.
Magic and Mayhem – Mage/cyborg or tattoo artist/soldier stories (very specific, but it’s for a charity anthology, details at the link), Gay Romance Northwest, Deadline: March 31st, 2016.
Novella Call – The Book Smugglers, Deadline: May 30th, 2016.
Animal Magnetism – Tales of men drawn together over their love of animals, JMS Books, Deadline: July 31st, 2016.

Don’t forget to check the Lambda Literary site for more calls, as well as the Queer Sci-Fi calls for submission page (always a trove!)

Sunday Shorts – “The Biggest Lover” Q&A with William Holden

William Holden is one of the many authors I’ve had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face through the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival. I met him while a group of authors gathered to talk about the sexiness of the circus for a dinner celebrating the release of Tented, mumble-mumble years ago. He’s handsome, and charming, and not at all what you’d expect if you’ve read some of his truly dark stories. I know I talk often about how I’m not a fan of horror or dark-and-scary fiction, but William Holden is one of the rare exceptions where I gird myself for the nightmares and dive in. The release of The Biggest Lover gives me a welcome opportunity to chat with William again, and he was kind enough to answer a few questions for me.

We have all heard the term Rubenesque as a compliment for plus-sized women. The baroque painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens was fond of painting women of the day that were curvaceous and full-figured. The men in his art were not. What is the comparable term for men? Because not every gay man is obsessed with twinks who list the number of visible rib bones on their Grindr profile. Or men who can remember the number of reps at the gym but not their phone number. Some of us appreciate buying in bulk and that includes looking for love. Or just plain sex.  Thank goodness for Bear culture which embraces girth. During Bear Week in Provincetown the stores do not even bother to sell clothes smaller than an XL and a man’s virility is often like the potency of moonshine: the more Xs on the jug the better, so XXXL is a chub in high demand.

It has taken too long for an erotica anthology to feature such men. As Girth & Mirth founding father Reed Wilgoren stated, “Just as people are coming out every day—men and women realizing their sexuality—new Bears and new Chubbies and new chasers are also evolving in the world. There have to be people waiting to embrace them and show them the way, much as who helped me to become what I am and who I am today.” It is our hope that readers who felt denied of attention and affection will read these stories and realize that love has no weight limit, no threshold, and neither should self-esteem.

 

NB: Having read your short fiction before (I found Words to Die By creepy as all heck by the way), I know you have a great (and often dark) imagination, and your stories tend to go places I’ve never considered, which is half the fun of reading your work for me. Did the theme of The Biggest Lover (ie: guys of a size we don’t normally see anywhere in gay erotica) take you anywhere surprising?

WH: I always strive to make my stories unique and original and to go someplace unexpected, so I appreciate your comments and consider it high praise.

When I first heard about the theme for The Biggest Lover, I was at the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival and have to admit I was at a loss for an idea. One night while sitting by the river in New Orleans with my best friend Dale Chase we hatched both our stories. During one of our moments of utter silliness I mentioned the phrase, Moby Dick, and it was a light bulb going off over both our heads. That was going to be the title of my story, and I would take Melville’s classic, and rework it so that the great white whale just happened to be an enormous man. The story takes place along the fishing ports along the East Coast in the early nineteen hundreds. It was great fun to write.

NB: This is exactly what I was talking about by “going places I never considered.” In the same way The Biggest Lover steps outside the usual confines of erotica, is there another anthology theme (be it erotica or not) you’d love to see that you haven’t come across?

WH: This is a great question. I’m not sure this would qualify as an anthology theme, but I’ve always been fascinated and excited to find out what other writers have come up with in anthologies such as The Biggest Lover. So taking that a step further, what if the theme was to give everyone the same opening paragraph, no character descriptions, just a plot point. I think it would be fascinating to see where the individual authors would take the same opening scene.

NB: That’s a really neat idea. The closest I’ve seen to that is Red, which gave all the authors one thing they had to use: a red scarf. But an identical opening scene? That’d be fascinating.

WH: I don’t want to get political here, but I would also love to see an anthology which celebrates all forms of sexual expression. We have gay erotica, lesbian erotica, bisexual erotic, straight erotica, senior erotica, the list goes on and on (you get my point,) and it would be nice to break down the barriers we’ve put up and let sexual expression shine no matter what form it takes.

Ah, this is why I’m a writer and not an editor or publisher. I’d be terrible and coming up with new and interesting themes.

NB: I’d offer you a fist bump if I didn’t think I’d miss. I’d love to be in a world where the erotica didn’t need to be quite so delineated. My favourites are always the ones that have the widest range among the theme, like you’ve said. And speaking of favourites… You’ve split your writing pretty equally between short fiction collections and novels, and you run the range from romance to erotica to horror (and many shades between). I know it’s impossible to choose one and say “that’s my favourite!” but do you have a story, novel, or collection that sits a little higher, or invokes a bit more pride than the others?

WH: Ah, my favourite. This is a tricky question for me to answer.

I’m very proud of my upcoming novel, Crimson Souls, but the pride comes from the difficulty I had in writing it. It was one of the most challenging writing experiences of my writing career and in comparison probably one of the best I’ve ever written. The novel is non-linear; each chapter is from the viewpoint of a different character and how they see and understand the protagonist, Nate, the Midnight Barker. The chapters are interwoven into the overall storyline, which comes together to tell the full story.

NB: Ohmigosh. I love Nate. Not just for nomenclature reasons. I can’t wait for that!

WH: The second part to this is, of course, the story of Thomas Newton (Secret Societies, and The Thief Taker) Thomas and Mother Clap will always have a very special place in my heart because they were the underdogs of their time. Unknown pioneers fighting sexual oppression and homophobia, and I’m proud of having told their story.

NB: You should be. Authors like you who find the queer voices in history have my deepest respect.

WH: I’d be curious to know how other authors feel about choosing a favourite. We as authors spend so much time with a character(s) by the time the story or novel is finished, we or at least I have a strong connection to all of them in some way. Do you have a favourite character, or story, ‘Nathan?

NB: I’m going to half-cheat and answer with my husband’s favourite instead, which was “Elsewhen” from Riding the Rails. And come to think of it, that’s the closest I’ve ever come to writing a historical, though  not quite in that it’s more like the echoing spirits of two soldiers returning to Ottawa after World War II.

One of the reasons I’ve never delved much into historical fiction is I find it daunting on two levels. For one, the research required makes me cringe, as I’d be terrified to make an awful error. But the other thing is I’d be so unsure how to portray what I prefer to write—which is ultimately hopeful stories—in a setting where for queer folk that hope was very unlikely. “Elsewhen” let me cheat, and it was satisfying. It’s also the only story that’s ever dropped from my brain directly onto the keyboard in one uninterrupted session. I had a song playing on repeat, a window open with a single image, and just wrote and wrote and wrote.

I’ll definitely pass that question forward, too. Thanks for taking the time, and I look forward to seeing you this year in New Orleans!

 

You can find The Biggest Lover through Lethe Press’s website here, or, of course, you can check Indiebound to locate your nearest brick and mortar. Otherwise, you’ll find it wherever quality LGBT books are sold.

 

Photo Credit: Mark I. Chester

Originally from Detroit, William Holden now lives in Cambridge, MA with his partner of eighteen years. He has a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science from Florida State University. Over the past decade, he has focused his work on collecting and preserving GLBT history and is a volunteer archivist at Boston’s History Project.

William has been writing for over fifteen years, accumulating more than seventy published short stories in the genres of erotica, romance, fantasy, and horror. He is an award-winning author of such titles as, A Twist of Grimm by Lethe Press (Lambda Literary Award Finalist), and from Bold Strokes Books, Words to Die By (2nd place Rainbow Book Awards for Best Horror and Finalist for the Foreword Reviews INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award for Best Horror). Secret Societies and its sequel, The Thief Taker were both finalists for the Lambda Literary Award. Grave Desire his latest collection of erotic horror was released in October 2015 by Lethe Press.

Crimson Souls, his forthcoming horror novel from Bold Strokes Books, is based on the 1920 purge of homosexual students at Harvard.

William has also written encyclopedia articles on the history of gay and lesbian fiction and has authored five bibliographies for the GLBT Round Table for the American Library Association.

 

Writing Wednesday – Excuses, Excuses

Before anything else: I got almost nothing accomplished word-count-wise this week, and that’s all on me. I did do some, but not even enough to bother checking the number.

I did, however, take the dog for an amazingly long walk, booked some train tickets, made a couple of trips to the post office, and suffered a few headaches. So. There’s that.

Ugh. No excuses. Basically, I felt like crap for a week and I wallowed. There. That’s what happened.

One last reminder, as I think this is the last week for it: the Bold Strokes Books website relaunched a short while ago, and it’s so pretty! There continues to be a store-wide 10% off sale on current available titles, so it’s the perfect time to indulge (that includes Light being 10% off). Among the various anthologies in which I have stories being on sale, Bold Strokes Books has some even deeper discounted: the paperbacks of quite a few are $4.99 to begin with (!) and a further 10% off. To whit:

Blood Sacraments, Wings, Erotica Exotica, and Raising Hell are all $4.99 US regularly in paperback, and that means $4.49 right now. So if you wanted to read all the Triad stories before the novel it’s a really good time (I should point out the e-books for some of those titles are on sale for even less!)
Riding the Rails, Sweat, Tricks of the Trade, and The Dirty Diner are likewise on sale, same price. This is the cheapest I’ve ever seen them, and I’m stoked to be able to pass that on to y’all.

The Novel(s)

I finished my Triad Blood edits (yes, I did do actual writing work) and I also got the front and back matter template put together. That included putting together, in one file, all the critical reviews of Light, which I’d never done before, and now realize is something you should do as you go. So, today’s tip: keep a file, copy/paste reviews into said file (not, like, Amazon or Goodreads, mind, but reviews from more literary sources). Keep track of the links. Then, when it’s time to figure out little quotes for the cover or back or what-not, you’ve got it all in one place already. Go team you.

Also included in that work was figuring out the acknowledgements and dedication. I already knew the dedication I wanted (more or less) but the acknowledgements threw me for a loop. You may recall that with Light there was a super-secret message to my husband (which everyone blew the whistle on and told him to go find because they’re all part of the conspiracy, but I digress) and I realized that was going to be freaking hard to top. Once I realized I couldn’t actually come up with something grander, I relaxed, and the words actually flowed.

But no grand permissions were granted this time. Sorry if you were hoping for a repeat there.

The Short Stuff

Huge thank you to everyone who shared, commented, posted, and/or “liked” my Q&A with R. Jackson last Sunday. It was received well, and as we go forward, I hope it continues to make noise for short fiction. You all know how I feel about short fiction.

Oh, and in other fun stuff, I’ve not got a piece ready to submit yet for the month and the month is, oh, look at that, four days from being done.

This is just like University papers. I swear one day I will learn to pace myself better.

Ha ha ha. No I won’t.

Open Calls I Know About (and find tempting)…

Friends of Hyakinthos – Fantastical gay male-themed stories set during the time of Ancient Greece or involving Hellenism in later cultures, deadline January 30th, 2016.
Theory of Love – Pocket protectors and sexy nerds? Sci-Fi (and/or geeky) Romance, Torquere Press, Deadline: February 15th, 2016.
Less Than Dead – Tales of zombies, be they the enemy, the ally, or something else entirely, Less than Three Press, Deadline: February 28th, 2016.
Men at Work – Tales of erotic gay workplace romance, JMS Books, Deadline: February 29th, 2016.
Transcendent – Short, speculative fiction published in 2015 (ie: reprints) that features transgender characters, Lethe Press, Deadline: March 31st, 2016.
Gents: Steamy Tales from the Age of Steam – Gay male erotica set during the Victorian/Edwardian era, Deadline: May 1st, 2016.
Survivor – SF/F anthology looking for stories of everyday trauma survival, Lethe Press, Deadline: May 1st, 2016.
Magic and Mayhem – Mage/cyborg or tattoo artist/soldier stories (very specific, but it’s for a charity anthology, details at the link), Gay Romance Northwest, Deadline: March 31st, 2016.
Novella Call – The Book Smugglers, Deadline: May 30th, 2016.
Animal Magnetism – Tales of men drawn together over their love of animals, JMS Books, Deadline: July 31st, 2016.

Don’t forget to check the Lambda Literary site for more calls, as well as the Queer Sci-Fi calls for submission page (always a trove!)

Sunday Shorts – “The Biggest Lover” Q&A with R. Jackson

Anthologies don’t always get a lot of noise, and one of the things I try to do here with my Sunday Shorts series is point out some awesome anthologies that are out and about (or about to launch) by speaking with the editors and authors of collections. Quite a few authors and editors agreed to chat with me about anthologies hitting the shelves in the next few months—so many, in fact, that I have enough people to carry these Sunday chats all the way through to next June, which is kind of awesome.

Today starts the first of these anthologies I’ll be showcasing, The Biggest Lover, an upcoming anthology from Bear Bones Books, and I’m chatting with R. Jackson. What’s The Biggest Lover?

We have all heard the term Rubenesque as a compliment for plus-sized women. The baroque painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens was fond of painting women of the day that were curvaceous and full-figured. The men in his art were not. What is the comparable term for men? Because not every gay man is obsessed with twinks who list the number of visible rib bones on their Grindr profile. Or men who can remember the number of reps at the gym but not their phone number. Some of us appreciate buying in bulk and that includes looking for love. Or just plain sex. Thank goodness for Bear culture which embraces girth. During Bear Week in Provincetown the stores do not even bother to sell clothes smaller than an XL and a man’s virility is often like the potency of moonshine: the more Xs on the jug the better, so XXXL is a chub in high demand.

It has taken too long for an erotica anthology to feature such men. As Girth & Mirth founding father Reed Wilgoren stated, “Just as people are coming out every day—men and women realizing their sexuality—new Bears and new Chubbies and new chasers are also evolving in the world. There have to be people waiting to embrace them and show them the way, much as who helped me to become what I am and who I am today.” It is our hope that readers who felt denied of attention and affection will read these stories and realize that love has no weight limit, no threshold, and neither should self-esteem.

NB: Welcome! I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: you’re a force of nature for bi-visibility and bear culture. When I first saw the call for The Biggest Lover, I realized that I hadn’t actually seen a collection like it before. On reflection, I wasn’t surprised I hadn’t; you talk about that a bit in the introduction, how the focus in gay erotica is so much more often on the slender twink or the uber-fit (and don’t even get me started on the lack of chest hair). Obviously, there’s an overlap with bear culture here, but where did the spark for The Biggest Lover come from?

RJ: Thank you for inviting me to this interview, ‘Nathan! Thanks also for your excellent story in the collection, and for your kind words about my work.

I started thinking seriously about editing a collection of chub-and-chaser erotica at least five years ago. As I pointed out in my 2001 interview with Girth & Mirth founder Reed Wilgoren in Bears on Bears, bear clubs are really an offshoot of the earlier big gay/bi men’s clubs (as well as queer motorcycle/leather clubs) that were formed at least a decade earlier. I kept thinking someone would do an anthology on this theme years ago, but nobody must have thought it a worthwhile or lucrative project.

Often an idea for an anthology theme take years to germinate, during which I talk with my readers, my publisher, my husbear, and bear and writer friends. I research scholastic and marketing considerations to determine the prospective readership, and contemplate what story themes and contributors would be fun to include. Sometimes I consult the tarot and my Magic 8-Ball, and pray to Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, art, music, and learning. In my meditation on the subject I ask myself, Is this a topic that is overlooked and underexposed?  Does it have potential to reach many underserved readers? Is it a book that nobody else has done? Is this a book that I’m qualified to put together? If the answers and omens are clearly positive and the stars and planets are in the auspicious positions, then I’ll obtain a contract and issue a call for submissions. After that, it’s a matter of waiting to see what comes in, and deciding what fits my target word count.

NB: I had a blast writing my story in no small part due to being able to include both a bigger man and a chaser with the knowledge their depiction wasn’t going to come back with edits making them more “traditionally sexier” (whatever that might mean). I remember one piece I wrote, quite a few years back, where the editor wanted to cut out arm hair references, struck out a line or two about laugh lines, and asked me if I’d consider dropping the age of one of the characters below the forty mark so the two characters would be within a decade of each other in age. I’m curious: did having The Biggest Lover‘s atypical theme for erotica also translate to any other welcome surprises where the authors explored something you weren’t expecting?

RJ: I’m so delighted to have your story “A Slice of Pi” in The Biggest Lover, your third Bear Bones Books anthology. Obviously I liked it enough to place it at the end, thus giving you the last word in the story series. Anthologies are a fun way to gather a lot of ideas and authors together and form a small sort of community and a dialogue that transcends geographic and demographic boundaries. Stories came in from all over North America and the U.K., from male, female, and trans* authors, including a diverse handful of stories by bears of color. Welcome surprises? I expect every story that is submitted to be a welcome surprise in some manner. It should do something different, even if it doesn’t necessarily succeed, something more than A meets B and they meet C and then they all do XYZ. A good erotic story should grab me by the balls and not let go.

NB: Canada Post hasn’t delivered my copy yet, so I’m salivating at the chance to read it. Okay, question number three is a boomerang question from my discussion with Tom Cardamone that I’m going to revisit with all the editors. He brought up how in collections, the author (or editor, in an anthology) have to select and order the tales, and how it’s such an important part of the process, but we rarely hear anyone talk about it. Also, Publisher’s Weekly mentioned that the stories in The Biggest Lover cover a lot of genres, which definitely intrigues. How did you approach the selecting and ordering of the tales in The Biggest Lover?

RJ: This is my eleventh anthology, so there’s not much I haven’t dealt with before. My greatest fear is the dread that not enough great unique stories for a book will be submitted.

As I researched what was in print in fat gay lit, I discovered this gendered lacuna of men as writers and as subjects. Same situation with my earlier books on bisexuality: most of the fiction, nonfiction, and academic writing available had been by bi women. 

So I put out a private call for submissions to a few dozen writers I’ve worked with before. Some of my regulars are incredibly dependable, so that’s nice, to have a stable of writers to call upon.

I didn’t want it to be too much the same styles as my other bearotic anthologies. Men’s chuberotica is really a new literary topic but some writers are so versatile they can handle any topic thrown their way. 

Yet it’s important and necessary to include at least half new/er writers, because you have to keep it fresh for your regular readers and you have to support and develop young/er writing talent.

In shopping the idea around to some of my regular erotica contributors I saw how enthusiastic some became. I was at lunch at a writers’ conference with authors William Holden and Dale Chase when I tossed the idea out. Bill said immediately, “I know exactly what I’ll write about!” That evening, they told me they’d already been plotting out their stories together. By the next morning, Bill reported that he had already sketched out his piece. Nothing like the feeling when your idea for an anthology theme sparks a talented writer and you watch their story ignite.

As far as nays, I avoided anything body shaming and fatphobic, intense descriptions of feeding, unsafe sex, and sex with minors. Positively, I embraced stories of chuberotic romance that turns our preconceived notions of fatness into affirmative sexual feelings.

Certainly now, romance and erotica seem relatively easy for me to judge: a story has be literate, of course, but it also has to tug at my heartstrings to be romantic and to make my pants tighten if it’s erotic. The latter aspect is usually quite easy for me to judge if a story is working!

When I’ve collected enough solid stories, first I decide which are the strongest pieces to start and end the book. Then it’s just a matter of shuffling the rest around to vary length, tone, subject, and genre, until I get the right mix. I do try to curate the reader’s experience so that each story in progression is the next perfectly unexpected tale.

NB: Well I for one can’t wait. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me.

You can get your copy of The Biggest Lover directly from Bear Bones Books (an imprint of Lethe Press) here, or—as always—check out Indiebound for your closest local brick-and-mortar, or look wherever quality LGBT books are sold.

Ron Suresha is a Lambda Literary Award finalist for his anthologies, Bi Men: Coming out (2006) and Bisexual Perspectives on the Life and Work of Alfred C. Kinsey (2010).

His most recent book, coauthored with Scott McGillivray, is Fur: The Love of Hair, from German publisher Bruno Gmünder. He also authored a collection of Turkish folk Tales, The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin, , which was named a Storytelling World Honor Book. Suresha self-published his first book, Mugs o’ Joy: Delicious Hot Drinks, when he was 39. In 2002, he authored his first trade softcover, the nonfiction Bears on Bears: Interviews & Discussions. Under the name R. Jackson, he has edited the anthologies Bi Guys: The deliciousness of his sex (also a “Lammy” finalist), Bearotica, Bear Lust, Bears in the Wild, and Tales from the Den, published by Bear Bones Books, a Lethe imprint for which he serves as Acquisitions Editor. He also solo hosts and produces an occasional podcast for the adult men’s Bear community, Bear Soup, which runs on BearRadio.net Monday & Wednesdays 10pm Eastern / Pacific.

You can find him online at RonSuresha.com.

 

Dear Torrenter; Thank you for your e-mail. Love, ‘Nathan.

Before I begin, I’m just going to warn you: you’ve probably read this post before. Not this exact post, but a post very much like it. Or a tweet. Or a status update. Maybe from a musician. Maybe from a graphic artist, or a cartoonist, or another author. I’m pretty sure, though, it won’t be new to you. But I’m writing it, again, as I can’t help but feel it bears repeating.

I got an e-mail today from a reader this morning (well, I got an e-mail notification of a message). It was mostly a gushing “I loved your book!” e-mail about Light.

Yesterday, I sent off my edits on Triad Blood, and this morning got the notification that they were now “in the pipeline.” I was having an odd reaction to that news. I’m not sure how many authors feel that up/down mix when stages of book writing pass, but it seems to be fairly common (at least among my author friends). So, the timing of a positive message about my first novel was pretty well received on my part.

And then, at the end of the e-mail, was the sentence declaring how happy the reader was to have found my book on the torrent site where they downloaded it.

There was still joy to be had in this e-mail. I’m not denying that. I’m glad the reader enjoyed Light. It’s always an awesome thing when you find a book that synchs up with you in the right place and the right time, and you come out of it so happy you just want to tell the author how much things clicked for you. I’ve written so many of those e-mails, I can’t tell you. In fact, one of those emails pretty much began my writing career. It made a connection that turned into an opportunity, and I wouldn’t be where I am right now had I not done so.

I also bought the book.

Recently, Jeffrey Ricker (who I adore and who I think of as a big brother when it comes to writing) wrote a pretty darn brave blog entry about writing and income in his family, and I think it might be on point to preface the rest of this post with something similar.

I could not possibly make a living on my writing at this point. Were it not for my husband being willing to support us both, I could in no way have turned my focus to writing so completely. Light took me over three years to write. Triad Blood took less than a year, and I also managed to continue to produce short fiction, some essays, and boost the signal on other authors I adore. I can be a writer because my husband makes it possible. I’m a husband-slash-dog-walker-slash-housekeeper-slash-errand runner-slash-author. I value my contribution to our home. But from a monetary standpoint? That contribution isn’t much.

Now, I do earn money for my writing. But as I have one novel and one novella under my belt, that’s not a massive source of revenue. I’m basically selling two products. One of the reasons I left my job (among many) was that I could produce more products to sell if I did so. This is the goal. This is the new life. Make no mistake: I love it.

But that e-mail. Wow.

Now, I generally approach life through the lens of amusement. Basically, when something less-than-pleasant lands at my feet, I try to crack a joke. I’d rather be laughing at my woes than just woeful about them. I posted about the e-mail and had a good chuckle with some friends (authors and otherwise). The suggestions were amusing. Maybe I could send an invoice? Cover quote “Best book I ever stole!” for the next printing? How special it was to get a rave review from a thief. Huzzahs! It’s by no means a unique experience, and in some ways, these moments feel like little “hey, at least you know you’re being taken seriously as a writer if…” affirmations. As always, my friends made me grin through it, and gave me time to think about the situation.

So. Here are my thoughts, even though I’m sure others have already said these thoughts, posted these thoughts, and you’ve probably even read them before.

However, I’m going to start somewhere a bit different than you might expect.

 

I Can’t Buy Your Book.

First, I want to speak to a very particular audience: those who can’t. Now, to be clear, I don’t mean those who don’t want to. I don’t mean those who’d rather not, or those who might, if they feel like it, but really do prefer free things. I’m speaking of those who truly cannot get the book.

Who are they?

Well, one scenario that immediately springs to mind are those who were like myself: youth who knew damned well that if they were caught with a gay book, it was game over. I got a letter once from a town I had to Google. It was in Illinois. I wrote a short fiction piece for an anthology called I Do Two! and the reader e-mailed me to say that story clicked with him. It was the first gay story where he saw someone trying to make a family work, where there were two dads and a stepdaughter and it was messy and awkward, but they were obviously in a good place together. He told me he’d had to get the book as a download (I’m not sure if he bought it or not, he just said ‘download’) because he couldn’t let his parents see him read a book like that. One of the reasons he’d chosen the book was it wasn’t a naked-torso cover, so if it ended up on his screen, it didn’t immediately ring bells and whistles. It was safe to read that book.

That kid? That kid is not the person I’m talking to. That kid is absolutely welcome to find my stuff however he’d like, and I hope to hell that by now he’s also found a way away from parents who would be that angry over him daring to read a book with characters like himself. I tried to check in with him again, later, to offer to send him digital copies of other books I thought he might like, but the e-mail bounced. I have no idea where he is now, but I have hope he’s moved somewhere better.

There’s also another group I’m not talking about, and that’s those who are so freaking broke it’s crazy. I’ve been there. And while I truly hope you’ve got access to a library for access to the entertainment of books, if you don’t—if you truly don’t—I don’t care if you’re finding reading however the heck you can.

Dirt poor is awful. When you’re juggling “how in the world can I make this much money turn into two weeks of food?” the last thing on your mind is entertainment. I get it.

Those situations aside, though…

 

The Price of Coffee.

One of the first things I generally see is the price-point debate. “Books cost too much.” The usual rejoinder I also see is “how much do you spend on coffee?” In my case, that would be tea, but you get the idea: it takes very little time for someone to make that cup of coffee, you fork over the money for it without a thought, and then that cup of coffee is gone in the space of a half-hour or so. There were farmers, and delivery and distribution networks involved. If you’re in a chain, there was also an entire series of departments involved: marketing, HR, management (to train the employee making the drink), and so on.

Most obviously value that coffee enough to not think twice about paying for it. Why is that? Or, from the angle of this discussion: why isn’t that the thought about a book?

I often wonder if people just aren’t aware of the many layers of time and effort that go into a book. Like I said earlier, my first novel took three years. Obviously, that wasn’t non-stop work (I was working 45+ hours a week at my 37.5 hour a week job throughout that timeline, for one thing, and did occasionally sleep) but with my second novel I can fairly accurately say that it took me roughly 15 to 20 hours a week of writing for, say, ten solid months of the year (there were weeks where I was away, or couldn’t work on it for other reasons). So low-ball that to about six hundred hours as a minimum. Six hundred hours of work for a draft I hand in to my publisher.

But it doesn’t stop there, or with me. The support network that comes next are the unsung rock-stars of publishing. An editor, line-editor, copy-editor (sometimes three people, sometimes one) look at it; a cover artist works with me to figure out what the book should look like; typesetting; the publisher handles the legal bits: getting an ISBN, release dates, production scheduling, distribution, and the small matter of letting the bookstores know the book even exists. By the time my second book is an actual object, at least half a dozen people have worked on it in some way or another before it’s boxed up and handed to delivery people who then hand it to booksellers (or warehouse people who stock the book for online e-tailers). And it wouldn’t be at all what it was without the aid of each and every one of them. If we’re talking an e-book, some of those steps become digital, and there’s a new crew of folk involved in formatting the book the four or five times it takes to make it work for the various e-reader formats, synchronizing the uploads, making sure there are no errors, etc.

All of that has value. So, honestly, when the justification is, ‘Books are too expensive,’ all I really hear is, ‘I don’t value this entertainment enough to pay. I want it free.’

Okay. How about I meet you there.

If You Want it Free, then Go Get it Free.

Go to the library.

No, seriously. Go there. They have books you don’t have to pay for. Many of them even have e-books you don’t have to pay for. Now, okay, some require a membership fee. And, yeah, it’s not quite the same as sitting in your house and downloading it for free in your underwear, but with e-books it’s pretty darn close. One visit to set up an account, and then you’re golden. Ta-da. Free books. If you’ve been torrenting, you’ve already got some sort of internet access, no?

The library analogy also comes up quite a bit with torrenting e-books: “If this is stealing, then so is a library.”

Nope. There are some awesome things about using a library that a reader might not know. One of them is—in some countries at least—there’s the Public Lending Right Program. It, or other animals like it in other countries, basically offsets to some degree the money “lost” by people borrowing the book from the library. I took part in this program (in Canada, you sign up every year with any new titles you’ve released) and honestly the year after Light became eligible I made more money through the PLR program than I did from straightforward sales of the book. For a lot of Canadian authors, the PLR program is huge. I’m no different.

And even if your country doesn’t have a PLR program or the equivalent, the books put into the library (and e-books) are still purchased. It’s a sale. It’s also something the publisher sees: if an author is often borrowed from a library, the librarians will make sure to order more copies of the next book the author puts out. This becomes a pre-order the publisher can see, and gives that publisher more confidence in the potential of the author.

Librarians and libraries have value. They’re awesome.

I’ve also heard, however, the argument that the library doesn’t have the title you want (or there’s a waiting list). In the case of the former, ask for the title. Librarians, those awesome champions of books, listen to that feedback. If there’s a waiting list, or if the book might have to be brought in from another branch, or if the book needs to be picked up the next time there’s room in the purchasing budget, it’s true: you might have to be patient to get your book for free from the library (which still supports the author).

If you’re not willing to do that, and you want the book free right now and to hell with the author, well, own it. Be honest. It’s not that you can’t get the book for free, it’s that you don’t want to wait.

Another free option, if you’re a faithful reviewer, is to check out NetGalley. You can get books for free there, too, and all you have to do is review them. You can even get them early.

Tip Jar.

This one I find a bit trickier to explain. I’ve heard it come up a few times: Someone wants to pay the author directly, not the publisher and all the other middle-men. The artist. There are digital options for this, and I do see them.

Speaking only for myself here, one of the very real reasons I did not self-publish anything was because I like, want, and—yes—need the framework of traditional publishing. Yes, that was a choice I made, absolutely. But here’s the thing: all those people I mentioned back there in the support network that went into writing my novels? I want them to get paid for the product they worked on.

Yes, Light is my book. Yes, Triad Blood will be my book. But no, they’re not only my book. I know that without my editors, the graphic design team, and every one else the publishing company brings to the table, Light would not have been the book it was. Nowhere close. Yes, I worked my butt off to write these books. So does my publisher and all the people who work there.

Or, if we pull the analogy further, tips are something added on to the price, not used to replace it. You don’t go to a restaurant, eat the meal, and then leave a tip for the waitstaff without paying for the food, the cook, and everyone else involved in the making of the meal. If everyone only paid the waitstaff, the restaurant would close down pretty fast, as soon as the food bills came due. And now the waitstaff has no pay check.

That loonie in a hypothetical digital tip-jar doesn’t mean the same thing to me as a loonie on a royalty statement. Because I know when my publisher sees my successes, we all win. My doing well means the publisher can help me do even better next time.

That’s why I don’t have a digital tip-jar. If you want to make sure I’m fairly paid and support the future endeavour of writing, the best thing you can do for me is buy the book, be that through the publisher website, a local brick-and-mortar, or your e-tailer of choice.

 

People will Totally Still Download Your Book Illegally.

Yeah, I know. It’s going to happen. There will always be people who decide that the least effort and a zero cost are the two things that matter the most in getting a book, and to heck with the author. Phrased in whatever ideology they’d like (intellectual property should be free to all, or publishers are evil, capitalism shouldn’t apply to art, or whatever else), they’re going to do it.

And maybe that’s you.

If it is, and you do think the end product—the book you’ve read—was a worthwhile thing, then the only thing I can think to ask is that you say so. Not in a private e-mail to the author (as much as that’s a pick-me-up), but out loud, in public. Post a review. Give the book a starred rating somewhere. Tell a friend. Heck, tell many friends, and a librarian, too. Make noise. It doesn’t have to be a well-crafted personal essay on how much you loved the book. A simple review can be three phrases long and still help other people to decide to buy the book. Finding a positive review is an awesome feeling.

But the one thing I’d like personally is for you not to tell me you torrented my book. Even if you did. I’d just rather not know.

But, Seriously, Thank You.

To the writer of that e-mail though? Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to let me know you liked the book. Thank you for the giddy phrasing and the feeling I got seeing it in my in-box. Thank you for enjoying the characters, the setting (I agree, too few books take place in Ottawa!), and for your honesty about not liking the brother character much. Feedback is useful, especially when it’s constructive like yours was.

I’m glad you enjoyed Light.

I really am.

Writing Wednesday – Very Cold, Send Snacks

It’s freaking cold out.

To the point where my writing buddy (a.k.a. Coach the Husky) actually turned around and pulled me back to the house yesterday because he was too cold. The husky was too cold. As my friend Greg would say: madness.

On the plus side, this stopped me from heading to Bulk Barn to get a bag (or three) of candy. See, I got my edits back for Triad Blood, and it turns out that whilst I edit, I also snack. I think I was vaguely aware of that before the vanishing of the third of a bag of chocolate covered raisins and quarter bag of crisps, but now I know it for sure. Also, I’m pretty much out of junk food in the house, and I’ve got about a half-day left of work ahead of me so… We’ll see how that goes.

What was really cute were the many people who suggested I pick up mini carrots, celery, and some low-fat dip. Y’all are sweet, but it’s cold, and the last thing I want is cold vegetables. I want sugar and fat. But do feel good about telling me to do the healthy thing. You’re good people for it.

Maybe I’ll make a one-cup brownie when I finish today.

And, a reminder from last week: the Bold Strokes Books website relaunched a short while ago, and it’s so pretty! There continues to be a store-wide 10% off sale on current available titles, so it’s the perfect time to indulge (that includes Light being 10% off). Among the various anthologies in which I have stories being on sale, Bold Strokes Books has some even deeper discounted: the paperbacks of quite a few are $4.99 to begin with (!) and a further 10% off. To whit:

Blood Sacraments, Wings, Erotica Exotica, and Raising Hell are all $4.99 US regularly in paperback, and that means $4.49 right now. So if you wanted to read all the Triad stories before the novel it’s a really good time (I should point out the e-books for some of those titles are on sale for even less!)
Riding the Rails, Sweat, Tricks of the Trade, and The Dirty Diner are likewise on sale, same price. This is the cheapest I’ve ever seen them, and I’m stoked to be able to pass that on to y’all.

The Novel(s)

I’ve paused on Triad Soul until I get Triad Blood edits finished. I’ll have to do some catch-up post-editing, but that’s fine. The turnaround window for edits is always narrow, so I knew this was likely to occur. Also, editing means brownies. So, no contest.

The Short Stuff

Huge thank you to everyone who shared, commented, posted, and/or “liked” my Q&A with Tom Cardamone last Sunday. It was received well, and is the first in a long stream of them coming your way. I enjoy the format, and for those authors who are waiting for their questions, I’ll be sending most of them over the next week or so—I’ve got more than thirty of you interested, which is fantastic, but it means I’ve got quite a bit of prep-work ahead of me.

I still haven’t submitted anything for January yet, which is making me twitch. I’ve got eleven days left.

Open Calls I Know About (and find tempting)…

Friends of Hyakinthos – Fantastical gay male-themed stories set during the time of Ancient Greece or involving Hellenism in later cultures, deadline January 30th, 2016.
Theory of Love – Pocket protectors and sexy nerds? Sci-Fi (and/or geeky) Romance, Torquere Press, Deadline: February 15th, 2016.
Less Than Dead – Tales of zombies, be they the enemy, the ally, or something else entirely, Less than Three Press, Deadline: February 28th, 2016.
Men at Work – Tales of erotic gay workplace romance, JMS Books, Deadline: February 29th, 2016.
Gents: Steamy Tales from the Age of Steam – Gay male erotica set during the Victorian/Edwardian era, Deadline: May 1st, 2016.
Magic and Mayhem – Mage/cyborg or tattoo artist/soldier stories (very specific, but it’s for a charity anthology, details at the link), Gay Romance Northwest, Deadline: March 31st, 2016.
Novella Call – The Book Smugglers, Deadline: May 30th, 2016.
Animal Magnetism – Tales of men drawn together over their love of animals, JMS Books, Deadline: July 31st, 2016.

Don’t forget to check the Lambda Literary site for more calls, as well as the Queer Sci-Fi calls for submission page (always a trove!)

Sunday Shorts – “Night Sweats” Q&A with Tom Cardamone

Hey folks! I was lucky enough to corner Tom Cardamone for a few moments over the holidays, and he was kind enough to have a chat with me about his newest collection, Night Sweats: Tales of Homosexual Wonder and Woe, which has just released from Bold Strokes Books. As you all know, I’m a lover of short fiction, and I wanted to take the opportunity to shine a light on what is a freaking wonderful collection.

Set in Japan, small town America, midnight Manhattan, ancient Greece and Rome, and beyond, these stories run the gamut of urban nightmare, gay love lost and found, dragons, super villains, a fairy addicted to meth, and Satan on the subway. Readers of Night Sweats will find tales that push boundaries while supplying ample scares, erotic thrills, much wonderment, and some woe.

NB: I don’t normally read a lot of horror or darker fiction because it gets stuck in my head and I end up having nightmares, which is as pathetic as it sounds. Despite not loving the world of horror, I read Pumpkin Teeth (which I adored), and can’t wait to finish Night Sweats (I’ve been trying to read it during the mornings, so my subconscious has time to chew through the stories long before bed time). It seems to me your darker tales have a way of subtlety to them rather than visceral shocks. “Suitcase Sam” stuck with me for months after the fact, for instance. Do you craft more “subtle” horror on purpose?  

TC: Well thank you for the very nice compliment! When it comes to horror, I think it’s important for writers to consider atmosphere and pacing above all else. Film is really the dominant medium here. As horror has regained box office dominance there has been this “rush to scare” and I’m in no hurry. A certain amount of life is dread and anxiety and it’s certainly always creeping up on me, so I assume it’s the same for the reader.

NB: It’s definitely the same for me.

TC: There’s definitely more horror in Night Sweats than in my previous collection, but I gave a lot of thought to the subtitle: Tales of Homosexual Wonder and Woe. Now I don’t know anyone who thinks gay marriage in the US equates to the end of this global struggle for civil rights, there is still so much woe meted out in the world; gay fiction writers have a certain responsibility to record what’s going on- but that’s where the wonder comes in. We have to actively imagine a better future before we can obtain it, that’s the process of coming out, after all. It’s our lesson to share. 

NB: I have the “isn’t this enough?” and “does that really still happen?” discussions with those outside the community far too often, yeah. Fiction is a wonderful way to explore, and I love that notion of “wonder and woe.”  You have wonderful range that definitely covers both. I’ve read your stories in various magazines and anthologies and you seem to move easily between erotica, romance, spec fic, comtemporary, the fantastical—and of course, the superheroic, a personal favourite. I have to admit you’re one of the names I jump to first if I see you in anthology, as I always wonder what your take will be on an anthology’s theme. You’re often the most unique voice in the table of contents. For a collection of your own work, did you find it challenging crafting Night Sweats as a themed collection—or would you call it a themed collection at all?

TC: You’re going to laugh, but I constantly see anthologies on the shelf at a book store and think, “Oh why didn’t I know about this one coming out?” And then I’ll go home and write a story with that theme! So some of the previously unpublished work in Night Sweats was done in reverse fashion, an odd quirk, I wonder if I’m the only one who does this? 

NB: Ohmigosh no! I joked once I should put together a collection of tales for deadlines I missed and anthologies I didn’t know about in time and call it Better Nate than Never. It kills me when I see an anthology theme and have an immediate idea but I’m past the due date.

TC: Night Sweats doesn’t contain much linked work, though I was really pleased that Bold Strokes agreed with how I ordered the stories, and I’d love to know more about how other writers select and order, it’s such an important part of the process, one little discussed, I think. 

NB: Very true. I imagine a tonne of thought goes into the first and last tales, for sure. Does that mean you have a favourite piece from Night Sweats? (And should I leave the light on when I get to it?)

TC: Did you really just ask me which of my children is the prettiest, the brightest, while the others are still in the room?

NB: I did. My own callous childhood makes me cruel.

TC: Seriously though, I hope “Halloween Parade” darkly captures a unique bit of New York City and also manages to disturb your sleep. I had a lot of fun with that one. It’s hard to call it my favorite, though. Some, like “Overtime at the Beheading Factory,” are special to me because of their origin: that one was a particularly nasty dream that I never bothered to write down until years later an editor reached out to me for a story. “The Love of the Emperor is Divine” is epistolary, something I’d been dying for years to try. 

And there are two tales with gay superheroes in Night Sweats, which you know I love writing and reading, and it’s how we met! You had an excellent story in an anthology I edited, Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy!—not the only anthology where we’ve shared a table of contents, and speaking of tables (this is my official entry into the awkward segue awards), let’s turn the tables and talk about you: I’m sure you’ve got enough tales out there in the ether to call a constellation your own, so what’s the deal? Do you have a collection in the works? Any ideas for the title?

NB: Uh-oh. I have to offer a waffling answer, I’m afraid. I don’t have enough stories that aren’t in print to make a collection. I hope that doesn’t sound like a humble-brag, because it’s not: the aforementioned “missing deadlines” thing means I have a bunch of stories I never finished due to missing the date for the anthology in question. I’ve been quite lucky otherwise in the stories that were rejected have often found new homes. I think—and you can correct me if I’m wrong—that at least half of the stories in a collection really should be new, so I still need to have about six or seven tales I think are solid before I go ahead and pair them with previously published stories for a collection. I’m doing better with writing stories that aren’t specifically for calls now that I’m writing full-time, and it’s in the realm of possibility now, which is a great feeling. I love short fiction. I’d love to have a collection, so now I’m working toward the goal.

And I actually do have a working title, which is incredible for me, or at least for the tales of a particular theme I’m thinking would work best for me. Of Echoes Born. I guess that means right now I’m doing the shouting and waiting for the echoes to come back.

TC: I absolutely love that title! And now that you’ve named your baby, I can’t wait to hold it.

NB: Aw. Thank you.


You can get Night Sweats directly from Bold Strokes Books here (and there’s currently a 10% off sale for the site relaunch!), or check Indiebound for your local brick and mortar, or, of course, ask for it anywhere quality LGBT books are sold!

Tom Cardamone is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning speculative novella Green Thumb and the erotic fantasy novel The Werewolves of Central Park as well as the novella Pacific Rimming. His short story collection, Pumpkin Teeth, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and Black Quill Award.

Additionally, he has edited The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered and the anthology Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy!, which was nominated for the Over The Rainbow List by the LGBT Round Table of the American Library Association.

His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, some of which have been collected on his website

Tom can be contacted at Tom Cardamone.

Website: http://www.pumpkinteeth.net/

Writing Wednesday – Back on Track

Husband is back at work, and I’m back at the keyboard. I had a rougher day writing yesterday, but even then I made my goals, so things are more or less back on track.

Exciting things, however!

First: the Bold Strokes Books website had a relaunch, and it’s so pretty! Also, there’s a store-wide 10% off sale on current available titles, so it’s the perfect time to indulge (that includes Light being 10% off, by the way).

Second: this relaunch also includes a lot of listings for upcoming titles, and the ability to pre-order ebooks, and that includes (drumroll please!) Triad Blood! So. Stoked.

Among the various anthologies in which I have stories being on sale, Bold Strokes Books has some even deeper discounted: the paperbacks of quite a few are $4.99 to begin with (!) and a further 10% off. To whit:

Blood Sacraments, Wings, Erotica Exotica, and Raising Hell are all $4.99 US regularly in paperback, and that means $4.49 right now. So if you wanted to read all the Triad stories before the novel it’s a really good time (I should point out the e-books for some of those titles are on sale for even less!)
Riding the Rails, Sweat, Tricks of the Trade, and The Dirty Diner are likewise on sale, same price. This is the cheapest I’ve ever seen them, and I’m stoked to be able to pass that on to y’all.

The Novel(s)

Other than the awesome news above about the preorder listing, I’m awaiting edits for Triad Blood and am writing Triad Soul. Things are progressing: I hit 5,155 words yesterday for the month of January so far, and given my goal is 10,000 words a month, that’s slightly ahead of schedule, but all the more awesome since I wrote next to nothing the first week of January due to holidays. Life is good.

Also, so far I haven’t had a single character go without a name for any amount of time. This is huge progress for me. Seriously.

The Short Stuff

I have a Q&A coming up on Sunday with Tom Cardamone which I’m excited to share with y’all, and today I’m going to be sitting down and working on some short fiction for one of the calls below and/or my own stuff. I haven’t submitted anything for January yet, so I’m starting to feel a bit itchy about that.

The anthologies in which I have a story that are launching this year are starting to show up in Goodreads and on publisher and e-tailer websites, which is exciting. I promise I’ll yell and wave and dance as they become available (though, again, on Bold Strokes’s site, you can pre-order the e-book for Men in Love: M/M Romance).

I have quite a few short stories coming out this year, which is exciting given that the novel will also be happening. When I wrote Light, my short fiction output dropped off to nearly nil, and Light was released with a giant vacuum thereafter. I’m glad Jeffrey Ricker gave me that kick in the pants I needed to force myself to carve out time for short fiction last year. He’s a giver. I’ll keep it up as best I can.

 

Open Calls I Know About (and find tempting)…

Kagema’s Sons – Stories of hustlers, rent boys, role-players or other love (or sex) for hire, Ink Stained Succubus, Deadline: January 15th, 2016.
Friends of Hyakinthos – Fantastical gay male-themed stories set during the time of Ancient Greece or involving Hellenism in later cultures, deadline January 30th, 2016.
Theory of Love – Pocket protectors and sexy nerds? Sci-Fi (and/or geeky) Romance, Torquere Press, Deadline: February 15th, 2016.
Less Than Dead – Tales of zombies, be they the enemy, the ally, or something else entirely, Less than Three Press, Deadline: February 28th, 2016.
Men at Work – Tales of erotic gay workplace romance, JMS Books, Deadline: February 29th, 2016.
Gents: Steamy Tales from the Age of Steam – Gay male erotica set during the Victorian/Edwardian era, Deadline: May 1st, 2016.
Novella Call – The Book Smugglers, Deadline: May 30th, 2016.
Animal Magnetism – Tales of men drawn together over their love of animals, JMS Books, Deadline: July 31st, 2016.

Don’t forget to check the Lambda Literary site for more calls, as well as the Queer Sci-Fi calls for submission page (always a trove!)

Sunday Shorts – “To Die Dancing,” by Sam J. Miller

In general, I struggle with reading and enjoying dystopia and end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it stories, even when the story is about someone (or someones) fighting their way free of the shackles. It might be an overdose of YA from my days at the chain bookstore, where it felt like every other successful YA title (and thus every other YA title I needed to read to answer questions for buyers) was dystopian. I got tired of hopeless worlds, and said to a former co-worker at one point, “I’m done with dystopias and apocalypses.”

After that, the wonderful Jennifer Lavoie wrote her YA novel, The First Twenty, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. Mostly, I think, because it didn’t focus on the broken world of woe and it wasn’t devoid of hope—it was an apocalyptic world, yes, but it was one where people were trying to fix things.

I stopped avoiding the settings of dark worlds easily imagined coming from our own, and though I still find some are just too dark for me (and I step away), I’m glad I came back to them—specifically for stories like this one.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked folks for suggestions for short fiction I should know, and one of said pieces was “To Die Dancing,” by Sam J. Miller.

So, I’ll just wait while you go read it.

Back? All done? Need a chair and a hot chocolate and a blanket for the shivers? Me, too.

I don’t think I’ve ever read something that manages to dance between hope and hopelessness so well. The shifting of anger and betrayal and bravery and cowardice? Yow.

More than that, at least for me, there was such a “call” here. A reminder of how easy it is to stay comfortable and quiet when the smaller moments happen. I made a vow about that a few years ago, after the death of Jamie Hubley, that—barring my immediate safety—I was done dodging social awkwardness over my queerness. It was time to redouble my efforts at showing people (but especially queer youth) of a future they could have. This story reminded me of all the feelings leading to that moment, even as I cringed and winced and hoped it wasn’t heading where it was starting to head…

One thing’s for sure, though. It’s time to go find more Sam J. Miller.

Review: Soul’s Blood, by Stephen Graham King

Before I say anything else about this book, I’ll start with this: If you love futuristic sci-fi action adventure served up with smart stories, well-built worlds, and just a dash of romance, you don’t need to read the rest of my review, you need to grab this book and start reading.

But hey, if you want to humour me first, here we go.

The Maverick Heart is a sentient AI ship, one of the rare survivors. That sentient being, Vrick, travels the systems with Keene and Lexa-Blue, a pair who do what they need to do to get by and earn their living and freedom to travel the stars. When a former flame from Keene’s past asks them for help (and doesn’t take no for an answer), they find themselves enmeshed in the middle of a culture clash rapidly turning violent that could spell doom for a whole world.

Soul’s Blood juggles a lot at once. The three main characters (I’m including Vrick among these, who is my new favourite AI ever) are all engaging in their own way. I freaking adored Lexa-Blue, the more “shoot first and then shoot second” of the trio, though I’ll admit I’m a sucker for a kick-ass lady in my sci-fi. Keene is more of a “fixer” and technological in focus, and while his relationship with his former love is the starting spark of the story, he’s not relegated to “romance plot” alone, and both men show clear growth from their days of young love; yes, they still feel the spark, but they’re also grown men now, and one of them has the weight of his world on his shoulders.

I already knew Stephen Graham King could write solid space opera, having read and enjoyed Chasing Cold, but with action, intrigue, tech, firefights, and just enough breathing spaces between the chaos, Soul’s Blood brings an A-game.

Best of all, world building is artfully balanced. At it’s heart, the main conflict of the story is one of culture: two vastly different races living on the same planet on the edge of a war that would devastate both sides. Keene’s former love is a technarch of a highly technological society, and trying to stop attacks from a genetically modified people who have a vast array of psionic ability and a hatred of the technology that was used to create them. As Vrick, Keene, and Lexa-Blue learn more of the players and issues at hand, the reader is brought with them in a way that feels very natural. We learn about the specific planet in enough detail that it lives and breathes, and gain glimmers of the other systems outside that world in teasing ways that paint an enticing picture and leaves the reader ready for the next voyage of the Maverick Heart.

I, for one, can’t wait.