Josh Lanyon's Blog, page 34

New Release - SLAY RIDE

I'd forgotten how time consuming and expensive historical fiction is to write! $20.00 on 1940s road maps. $75.00 on Esquire magazines from the 1940s. Documentary rentals, 1940s movies, books on Montana (which I had never written about before), on and on it goes.

But that time and research is probably one reason I lose myself in the writing of historical fiction in a way I rarely do writing contemporary.

Sadly, historical just doesn't sell like contemporary.  A thousand preorders at Amazon is just kind of...disheartening, frankly, but I know the readers who wanted this book waited very patiently and for a long time, and I'm so glad I was finally able to deliver it! It turned out surprisingly well, I think--quite romantic in a tragic historical happenings and violent Christmas kind of way. :-D

If you preordered through Amazon, make sure you have enabled AUTOMATIC UPDATES because I did go back and tweak the original ms. I mean, it's complete and all, but I started thinking it could be a little more emotionally satisfying and I added a couple thousand words. ;-)

And if you ordered through Smashwords, the book isn't out until the 5th, so if you can't wait, just drop me an email with your order number on it and I'll send you a copy.

Anyway, that's the news!

A wild and dangerous ride takes two lonely men into uncharted territory…
1943 Montana. Returning home to Montana after being wounded in the Pacific, Police Chief Robert Garrett was hoping for a little much needed Peace on Earth and Goodwill Toward Man. Instead, he finds himself chasing after a cold-blooded killer on Christmas Day, aided—whether he likes it or not—by eager young reporter Jamie Jameson. 
 Jamie has idolized Police Chief Garrett most of his life. Despite a stolen birthday kiss seven years earlier, he knows his feelings are unreturned. Even if Rob felt the same, there’s no room in their world for such feelings between men. But while Jamie can accept Robert not sharing his feelings, he won’t put up with being treated like a troublesome kid brother. He too has a job to do, and he intends on traveling this bloody and twisted road with Robert Garrett—no matter where it leads.

Available thru:
Amazon
Kobo
Smashwords
B&N
iBooks

Adrien English Turns 20!

Next year is the 20th Anniversary of the original publication of Fatal Shadows, the first book in the Adrien English series.

It's a milestone for me personally, but it's also a bit of a milestone for M/M Romance.

I want to celebrate that milestone--but in order to do so, I need to start planning now.

I threw the question out to my Facebook friends and they came up with a bunch of great ideas including:

1 - A short ( or very short) story of where & what Jake & Adrien are up to now.

2 - A quarterly Cloak and Dagger Books newsletter from Natalie and Angus telling us what’s up in the AE world. There can be a Q&A section where readers can ask their favorite characters questions. Patreon Exclusive and then wide later.

Cover Reveal - FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK: An M/M Mystery-Romance Anthology

The snick of a lock. The squeak of door hinges. The creak of a floorboard...Nothing is more mysterious than footsteps in the dark. Are those approaching steps that of friend or enemy? Lover or killer?


Coming in May. Authors L.B. Gregg, Nicole Kimberling, Josh Lanyon, Dal MacLean, Z.A. Maxfield, Meg Perry, C.S. Poe and S.C. Wynne join forces for Footsteps in the Dark, eight sexy and suspenseful novellas of Male/Male Mystery and Romance.

Thank you to Reese Dante for the moody and evocative cover! It perfectly captures the mainstream vibe I was hoping for. :-)


Pre-order now thru Kobo, Barnes and Noble, iBooks (and eventually Amazon).

3 Things I Love About Writing SLAY RIDE

1. 1940s Fiction & Movies

To make sure my writing "voice" is right I always immerse myself in the movies and books of the period I'm writing about. Not fiction set in that period, but the fiction of the period. (Because those tend to be two very different things.)

It's a great way to absorb the mind set. Which, let's be honest, is often unpalatable to the modern reader. But, in my opinion, it's more important to get the details right than offer some reassuring fake picture of how things used to be.

Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. Etc.

Anyway, it's a great excuse to read books and watch films I naturally love but don't typically have time to indulge in. 


2. Montana. 

Wow. I LOVE Montana. If it just wasn't so far from the beach--and I didn't find real winter intimidating--I would be considering a move. Granted, the Montana of today is not the Montana of 1943, but I love the idea of so few people and so much land. And while it is certainly a red state, it is surprisingly cultured and even kind of artsy in various communities.

And Butte (which serves as the general inspiration for my city of "Bolt") has a fascinating political history especially regarding the labor movement.

Check out the documentary BUTTE AMERICA.





2. Research 
Old Esquire magazines. Road maps from the 1940s. One of the best parts of writing historical fiction is browsing eBay and gathering my research materials. There's a special pleasure in handling the books and maps and magazines of the era I'm writing about--I guess it's partly knowing that the people of that era handled them too.

In this particular case there's the fascination of reading all the accounts of the actual crime that inspired my story.

And the less useful, but endlessly fascinating research rabbit holes I inevitably fall down: sea battles, snow chains and men's fashion for starters.

NEW RELEASE - The Ghost Had an Early Check-out in AUDIO

The Ghost Had an Early Check-out is now available in audio!

Michael Pauley did the narration this time around. I did really love Max Miller's work on The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks, but I felt I wanted a different feel, a different take (now there's a useless description to give a narrator!) for the sequel.

Bad stage direction regardless, Michael definitely delivered.

Anyway, the story is available on iTunes, Amazon and Audible. The compromise I've struck is to launch new audio through Audible but then once the titles have earned out, take the books wide. Usually that shouldn't take much more than a year.

That said, the process of moving titles over is slow and laborious. Of the twelve titles I've taken non-exclusive so far, I've only managed to list one on Findaway Voices!

One step at a time...

Kind of a Cool Thing :-)

Fatal Shadows as a mobile game?

Wellllll, I've signed a contract with the company that does the Moments: Choose Your Story games.

We'll see what happens next. I'll keep you posted.

Proceed to the Route

The problem with not listing books for pre-sale is if I don't have an actual official deadline, it's easy to lose a couple of months chasing the delightful fantasy of Being Caught Up.

At this point, I honestly don't even know what Being Caught Up would look like. Presumably I could open a file drawer in my office and find what I'm looking for. Presumably I would have answered all the email sitting in my second inbox (some of it dating back to 10/18). Presumably I would be able to spend most of my days writing.

Who knows?

Anyway, as I always tell everyone else, you can't just hang out on the diving board all day. Eventually, you have to jump.

So bombs away!

(Wait. Hopefully not! :-D)

Anyway, here's what I've settled on for this year's reasonably solid deadlines. I have yet to update my website, so this is pretty much the only place you can find this info for now.


April 29th - Slay Ride

May 1st - My story "Stranger in the House" in the Footsteps in the Dark: An M/M Mystery-Romance Anthology (by the way, Tantor has contracted the audio rights on this one--AND it looks like we're going to put into print after all.)

June 15th - The Monuments Men
(Kale Williams is saving space at the end of the month to work on the audio) :-)

July 26th - Mainly by Moonlight (Bedknobs and Broomsticks 1) 
The project I'm probably most excited about. I plan on their being TWO books in the trilogy out this year--do-able only because I'll be writing them for my Patreon group.

Then we have a little bit of space where I try again to catch up on stuff and see where I'm realistically at with the rest of the year's schedule.

If all goes well we'll then have:

October 15th - I Buried a Witch (Bedknobs and Broomsticks 2)

October 31st - Haunted Heart: Spring

And last but not least, sometime in December...Blind Side .


So that's the line up. It's pretty action-packed, so although it all seems doable at the moment, there's always a possibility that life is going to get in the way. Still I did manage to complete all of last year's (revised) schedule, so it could happen!

Cover Reveal MAINLY BY MOONLIGHT (Bedknobs and Broomsticks 1)

Because this trilogy is different in many ways from other things I've written, I wanted to get a really fresh look for the covers. I went with legendary Reese Dante who delivered in spades. I love. love, love all three covers--although I'm only going to share the first one with you. ;-)




It's not listed for preorders yet because, frankly, I'm running behind on the writing. SAY IT ISN'T SO, JOSH!!! Thank God there's nothing much planned for this month because I need some quality alone time with just me and my laptop. We're probably looking at a June* release, depending on how previously scheduled projects go.

Here's the very cursory blurb (which I may or may not have shared before?)


Though they’ve only known each other a couple of weeks, San Francisco's first openly gay Police Commissioner John Joseph Galbraith is all set to marry antiques dealer (and, little does John know, witch) Cosmo Saville in a big, society wedding—until Cosmo is arrested for murder after being discovered standing over the body of longtime rival dealer Seamus Reitherman.


---------
*update: JULY is a lot more realistic.

NEW RELEASE Green Glass Beads in Audio

I'd mentioned a while back that Joel Leslie was doing the narration of the Green Glass Beads audio book. OH MY GOSH, HE'S SO GOOD. The book is brilliant.

That wasn't actually my point though. :-D My point is because the novella cannot be tied to an individual work (it's part of the Irregulars anthology) the audio cannot be listed on Audible or Amazon. It's ridiculous, I agree! But I don't have any control over it.

But the audio is available a lot of other places including iTunes and Google Play, so you can still purchase it, and I'll list all those handy-dandy buy links below.

**If you're at the $20.00 and up tier on my Patreon DO NOT BUY THIS AUDIO BOOK. You're going to receive a download code for it shortly. :-)

Everyone else, you can purchase the audio book a whole bunch of places--and, yes, I know it's not as convenient as one-clicking at Amazon or Audible. But preventing a complete monopoly of the audio book market is going to require a little sacrifice from both of us. Choice. Options. Non-exclusivity. These are good things. Good for me and good for you.

Oh, and if you'd like to take a little listen to a sample of the story, you can check it out on my website right here.

iTunes
Google Play
Nook
Kobo 
Audiobooks.com
Scribd
Playster

Five Things I Love Right Now

These don't really have anything to do with writing--but then again everything has to do with writing when you're a writer. :-)

Anyway, I haven't done one of these posts in a while, so I thought it would make a nice change.

1 - One Kings Lane. I discovered them while researching furniture for Cosmo Saville's (Bedknobs and Broomsticks) apartment, and now I can't go on the internet without being peppered by ads for them. But for once I don't mind because honest-to-God I love practically everything they're shoving under my nose. I can't afford most of it (and don't have room for it, even if I could) but I really do enjoy seeing what they imagine I'll like. They're usually right. Like these amazingly cool prints by Jessica Brilli. I love her retro style especially when it comes to swimming pools. 



2 - Catalina Island. What better place for the biennial Catalina Meet (AKA Fanyon Retreat).  Yes, it's expensive and kitschy and the Santa Catalina Island Company is doing their best to ruin everything people like me (their real target audience if they only knew it) love about the place, but still. It helps that I'm always there with family or friends. That I'm always on vacation--even when I'm trying to work.

The thing is, the Catalina Meet is such a unique way to get to interact with readers and fellow authors alike. It's truly special. And because it is so special it's going to be tricky to keep it intimate and cozy and yet allow it  room to grow enough to stay fresh and energetic. 



3 - The Cake Bake Shop. Even if I didn't love cake (and I wish I didn't) it would be hard to resist these gorgeous confections. They're just ridiculously beautiful (and delicious). They're like fairy tale cakes. Even the boxes they come in are beautiful.


4 - Rain. I've been talking about the drought in California for so long it's kind of weird to learn that much of the drought has been alleviated by a seriously wet and snowy winter. It wouldn't take much to set us back, but for now... we're actually okay! When was the last time anyone said that? ;-)

5 - Tulips. It feels like spring. I know that technically it's not, but the light has that certain sparkle and the air smells warmer, softer. That could be a unique-to-California thing though, because I know it's still snowing in the hinterlands. Tulips used to be low on my favorite flowers list, but I've come to love the quirky colorfulness of them.  They're jaunty and yet pointed in the way of a young governess's umbrella. ;-)

Do you have a moment? What are five things you love right now?