Josh Lanyon's Blog, page 55

Cover Challenge #4 FOOLS RUSH IN (Doyle & Spain 2)

This is the sequel to Snowball in Hell. It's set in 1944 Los Angeles -- historical -- which is always SUCH a PIA. And to make it all the more complicated, I'd like this one to look similar to the Carina Press cover for Snowball.

 That's not mandatory, but it's preferable that series books look like they're related.

Here's the blurb:

An anonymous midnight phone call involves reporter Nathan Doyle in a case of kidnapping and murder, placing his fragile relationship with LAPD Police Lieutenant Matthew Spain at risk--as well as Doyle's life.

If you're not familiar with Snowball in Hell (and why should you be?) you can read an excerpt right heeyah.

Among things that happen in this book...there's a body that disappears out of a hotel room and an explosion. I know. Not as helpful as I imagine.

Cover Challenge #3 GREEN GLASS BEADS AUDIO

Here the dimensions are the tricky bit.

Technical:
•JPG, PNG, or TIF file format only.
•No smaller than 2400 x 2400 pixels.
•No smaller than 72 dpi resolution.
•24-bit (True Color) minimum.
•RGB color (not CYMK).
•Images must be a true square, not a rectangular image with borders.
•File name should be condensed book title. Alphanumeric characters only.

Image Content:
•Must contain both the name of the title and author(s).

You don't have to match any previous artwork or covers. Which maybe makes it easier. Or more fun?

It appears that I don't have an official blurb for this story! Whaaa--?! But you can read an excerpt here. And there is a little book trailer here.

Cover Challenge #2 THE MONET MURDERS

Here's the blurb: The last thing Jason West, ambitious FBI special agent with the Art Crimes Team wants -- or needs -- is his uncertain and unacknowledged romantic relationship with legendary Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief Sam Kennedy.


And it seems like Sam is unsold on the idea as well.


But personal feelings must be put aside when Sam requests Jason's help in order to catch a deranged killer targeting wealthy, upscale art collectors.


I'm not sure if it makes it harder or easier that I'm not crazy about the cover for book one. (The model appears to have vanished from Shutterstock, which makes it more challenging too--but in any case he was a bit young for Sam Kennedy and way too blond for Jason West.)


So I guess this could go either way. It's possible that a completely new concept would make me rethink Mermaid's cover--you might find yourself with a commission for two book covers.


Or not.


I honestly don't know because I'm pretty divided on this one.


It might be safer to stick with just picking up style elements from Mermaid and applying them to Monet?


Questions can be posted below -- though clearly I will not have much in the way of answers. ;-)

Cover Challenge #1 SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS

Here's the blurb:


God Help You Merry Gentlemen...


Arriving home early after spending Christmas in jolly old England, sometime amateur sleuth Adrien English discovers alarming developments at Cloak and Dagger Books--and an old acquaintance seeking help in finding his missing boyfriend.


Fortunately, Adrien just happens to know a really good private eye...




Although the existing series covers (by the wonderful Kanaxa)  are getting a bit long in the tooth, I still really like them a lot and am not ready to change them out. So the challenge here is to create something that works seamlessly with the existing series covers. Which you can check out on my cover gallery right here.


Although a couple of the covers featured landscape and not humans, books with humans on the cover sell better, so my advice would be opt for a human male on the cover.


The second thing to remember is this is a holiday story. So a few holiday elements might not come amiss. Or maybe they would. I'm not the artist here. You are.


Any questions? Post them in the comment section below.


Good luck!

Author! Author! S.C. WYNNE

It's been a very long time since I did one of these Author! Author! posts, but I've got some friends, Romans, country--well, people dear to me with books coming out in the near future and Discoverability being the issue that it is, I thought maybe I'd start throwing in the occasional interview with a vampeer.

Get it? VamPEER. Like Vampire only... Okay, never mind.
So today we have the lovely and talented S.C. Wynne author of Starting New from Riptide.

One of the things I like about S.C.'s work is the sheer versatility. She tackles the tough issues and then she can turn around and write something nutty and humorous like Assassins are People too. That's not all that common.


****S.C. is offering a signed print copy of Starting New (and she might even throw in another book, who knows?) to one lucky commenter below. 


And without further adieu, meet S.C. Wynne.




JL - Who are you again? No, but seriously, do you agonize over writing those author bio thingies? Share your favorite author bio. (By which I mean bio for YOU)

SC - I hate writing the bio thingies. I have no idea what to say about myself. If I had to choose one I guess it would be this one:

S.C. Wynne never knows what to say about herself, so writing an About Me section is challenging.  She loves red wine and is obsessed with coffee. She hasn’t won any awards for writing although she did win one for reading once. She’s not a world traveler…yet.  The books she writes are light and romantic with a healthy dollop of humor, and just a dash of angst. 

S.C. is not curing cancer, but does think reading stories that make us happy can’t help but improve our lives. She falls in love with every character she writes and hopes her readers will too.  

JL  - Are you a fulltime writer?

SC - Well, I write full-time, as in every day, all day. BUT, I don’t make a living doing it yet. I own a coffeehouse with my husband. I’d love to make a living writing full-time but building a career takes time. Sometimes I want to stomp my food and scream : “I want a golden goose of my very own, daddy!” But then I remember I’m not five and I continue to hone my craft. 

JL - Have you ever broken a bone? Have you ever broken anyone else's bones? Have you ever wanted to? Do you want to break my bones now? Huh? Do ya? 


SC - would never hurt you, Josh. Not in public. Where there would be witnesses. I broke my little toe once. That is so boring though. I should lie. Yes, I work for the mob and I beat the crap out of a tailor this morning. He didn’t pay up and the boss doesn’t take kindly to that. No, I’ve never broken anyone’s bones. But if anyone tried to hurt my kids I would rip their head off. I guess that would still not qualify as breaking bones though. 

JL - Readers may not know that your day job is owning a coffeehouse. Share what you consider the best recipe you ever created. Seven and Seven does not count!

 SC - Awww, man. Okay, I think my favorite drink is the Black Cherry Espresso Bean. I won’t give you the exact recipe because I have no doubt Starbucks is watching everything I do, but suffice to say it has chocolate, espresso, ice cream and other really, really good stuff in it. 

JL - What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned while researching STARTING NEW?SC - That the New Testament doesn’t ever truly address or condemn homosexuality.  I’d always assumed it directly denounced homosexuality, but it doesn’t. There are possibly three passages in the New Testament that might refer to homosexuality. But when you start looking at the details and the translations of the original Greek it is anything but a clear condemnation of homosexuality. You have to look at the usage and meaning of the words during the time the Bible was written.

This site has some great detailed info on the subject if anyone is interested. https://www.westarinstitute.org/resou...

JL - How did you and the Mister meet?

SC - We were both Navy Seals. One day I was underwater surveying a sunken Russian submarine when my leg was trapped by a steel beam. Thank God, Mister was there. I’m kidding. That would be so cool though. I think I just got a book idea. No we met through an online Christian dating service. I know! It’s crazy. AND, while I’m happily married for over 20 years I would not recommend it. There were a bunch of weirdoes and fake people in that group. I’m amazed and happy that I got lucky with my husband. Not THAT kind of got lucky!!! Get your minds out of the gutter people!! :D

JL - What do you love most about writing? What do you like least?

 SC - What I love most: The stories. The pure freedom to write whatever the hell I want.  I love the M/M genre to read and write. What I hate most are reviews. I have a thicker skin now than when I first began this journey. I dismiss one and two star reviews filled with rude gifs as sad, bitter people. I’m not a fan of spewing, whether it be all over me or out of me. If you can’t be constructive, I have no interest in your opinion. 


JL - Fashion magazines always ask this question: What is the one cosmetic or grooming tool you cannot live without? And do you have any idea why all these fashion models are always pretending the one tool they can't live without is their EYEBROW GROOMER? 

SC - Eyebrows are life!!! Without them we have no expressions!!! I’m looking at that question you sent me right now with my brows up to my hair line. But how would anyone know that if my eyebrows weren’t properly groomed???

 JL - OH, THEY KNOW, SC. THEY KNOW!!!! Next question. Readers of this blog love funny food allergy stories. Can you share any amusing near death experiences brought on by a food allergy?

 SC - I’m sorry… the readers of this blog like what now?? I don’t have a story like that. I apologize for not almost dying from my food for the amusement of your crazy readers!!

JL  - How very disappointing. We probably lost half our readers with that!!!!  There’s probably no use continuing, but okay. Whatever. What do you think is the most important thing to remember when creating fully realized main characters?

SC - Main characters don’t have to be perfect. In fact, they shouldn’t be. Real people are flawed. Even good people have issues. And bad people have good qualities too. Basically what I’m saying is people are complex. Show that in your stories.

JL - Getting back to your food allergies...okay, never mind. Do you eat breakfast? Did you know it's the most important meal of the day?
 SC - I always have breakfast. It’s called coffee. Oddly enough that is also my lunch. Now you have me thinking I need coffee. I’ll be right back.

JL - Come back!!! What are you working on now? What's out next?

SC - Cowboys are involved in this one. I’m tweaking it and expanding it based off of interest from a publishing house I’m hoping to get into. We shall see. But either way this story will be published because sexy cowboys need a voice. Who will stand up for them if not me?

JL  - Do you believe in extra-terrestrial life?

SC - Have you not been watching the presidential race? Of course I do. See how diplomatic I am that I’m not actually pin pointing either candidate?

JL  - STARTING NEW deals sensitively with a number of complex themes including the potential (as perceived by some) conflict between Christianity and sexuality. Do you consider yourself a spiritual person?

SC - I’m spiritual but not religious. I don’t like organized religion and actually find that other people tend to get in the way of my relationship with God. I find the recent climate of one party trying to own God annoying and false. If there is a God and God is love, than he loves all of us.

JL - Tell us something surprising. Anything. Go on. Surprise us!

SC - I’ve developed an unhealthy obsession with watching Wincest videos on Youtube! Only fans of Supernatural will know what the hell I’m talking about!

***


So there you have it!


And here's a little info about Starting New:


Life hasn’t been good to Francis Murphy. He’s survived twenty-one years of homelessness by hooking and taking handouts where he can find them. When the local shelter is vandalized, he’s forced to seek food at the Grace and Light Church, where he runs into the pastor’s son, Randy.Randy Wright believes the best in others. He's immediately drawn to Francis, even though Francis is hardened and wary. When Francis is attacked by one of his johns, Randy and his family take him in and offer him temporary work. Randy always thought he was straight, but something about Francis has him yearning for more than just friendship, and realizing he might be bisexual.Francis is attracted to Randy too, and Randy and his parents say they’ve always believed in gay rights. But talk is cheap. What are the odds that these Christian parents will remain open-minded when it's their own son in a relationship with another man?Remember to comment below for a chance at winning a signed copy of Starting Over!

He did the mash, he did the monster mash...

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm working on this crazy extra project called The Curse of the Blue Scarab . I call it my "monster mash-up," because that's what it is. It's a literary mash-up of a 1912 horror novel called The Mummy by Riccardo Stephens.


Now you may be wondering what the heck is a literary mash-up?


And here's Wikipedia to explain it:


A mash-up novel (also called "mashup" or "mashed-up novel"), is a work of fiction which combines a pre-existing literature text, often a classic work of fiction, with another genre, such as horror genre into a single narrative. Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor renders this admixture of classic text as "somewhere between 60 and 85 percent original text, with new plot twists added by contemporary co-authors". These "twists" often include horror fiction elements like vampires, werewolves or zombies.


That's pretty much it in a nut-shell. However a key point is that these works are almost always works that have fallen into public domain. Meaning, they are no longer under copyright.


Now given that in my case the book is already about a mummy, you might wonder what it is I'm bringing to the mix besides a male/male romance? Well...time will tell.


How on earth does it work? Sometimes better than others.


But, for example, here's the original opening bit of The Mummy.


I was sitting at breakfast one February morning, about nine o’clock, two years ago, with Mudge, my servant, ex-sergeant of Marines, at my back telling some yarn about what he said he had done at Ladysmith.

Though 1 live in the West End, it is only in a little flat over a grocer’s shop, in a small side-street off Piccadilly, where my patients are principally the servants (and principally the men- servants—butlers, coachmen and such-like) from the big houses and clubs.


A couple of news-boys began yelling something through the morning fog, about exclusive information and special edition of the Daily Tale. I knew nothing would satisfy Mudge till he got a copy. So I sent him out.

Presently the outer door was pushed open, and a man's voice asked loudly whether the doctor was in.

“Second door right-hand side of lobby,” 1 shouted, and the man was in before I could swallow another mouthful.






And here is a rough idea of the opening of The Curse of the Blue Scarab.




I remember the fog was particularly thick that February morning.

Pressing its formless face to the steamy window panes, grey and dreary as a specter, it crept down the chimney, dripping and hissing onto the smoking logs.

Drip. Hiss. Drip. Hiss.

An otherwise unremarkable start to the day that was to change my life forever.

Bird, my servant, an ex-sergeant of Marines, was spinning some lengthy and involved yarn about his exploits at Ladysmith while I attempted to read my magazine and finish my breakfast before the business of the day began.

“Those were weary hours. Lying on that hill while the bullets hailed down on us. I can still hear ‘em cutting through the air and clacking on the rocks. You couldn’t hear yourself think...”

“One can only imagine,” I murmured.

My name is Armiston. I’m a physician living and working in the West End. This sounds grander than the reality which is a little flat over a grocer’s shop in a small side-street off Piccadilly. My patients are principally the servants (and principally the men-servants—butlers, coachmen and such) from the big houses and clubs.

“Nine hours we clung to that pile of stones. Cartridges dwindling and men dying. I can tell you hope was fading…”

“I feel as though I’m there beside you.” I turned the page of the magazine, studying the dubious claims in the advertisement for Madam Harper’s hair tonic.

In the street below a couple of news-boys began yelling about exciting information  exclusive to the special edition of the Daily Tale. I knew nothing would satisfy Bird till he got a copy. So I sent him out.

Drip. Hiss. Drip. Hiss.

Presently the outer door was flung open, and a man’s voice demanded whether the doctor was in.

“Second door right-hand side of lobby,” I shouted, and the man was in before I could swallow another mouthful.






It's the same and yet... It is transformed into something new. And hopefully amusing.




This is my relaxation in between working on FAIR CHANCE, the final book in the All's Fair trilogy. That one's turning out to be a rather tense book, so mummies and supernatural goings-on are kind of a relief!

New Releases: MAGIC AND MAYHEM and NIGHT WATCH

First things first.

Magic and Mayhem:  Fiction and Essays Celebrating LGBTQA Romance is now available for preorder at Amazon or Smashwords right now. When you buy the antho you help support the event known as Gay Romance Nothwest Meet-Up, and I think we can all agree we need many more such events.

Look at this line up:

STORIES:

“Broken Art,” by Dev Bentham
“Caroline’s Heart,” by Austin Chant
“Demonica,” by Megan Derr
“The Hollow History of Professor Perfectus,” by Ginn Hale
“Fade to Black,” by Josh Lanyon
“Charmed By Chance,” by Alex Powell
“Sun, Moon, and Stars,” by E.J. Russell
“Slack Tide,” by Karelia Stetz-Waters

ESSAYS:

“Romance for the Rest of Us,” by Jessica Blat
“Sad Queer Characters and the Revolution of Joy,” by Austin Chant
“Dear Rose,” by Rose Christo
“How to Get LGBT Romance Books Into Libraries” by Marlene Harris
“So What is “Character-Type Love Match” Anyway?” by Nicole Kimberling
“My Road to Romance,” by Susan Lee
“To My Future Self,” by E.E. Ottoman
“What I’ve Learned,” by Jordan Castillo Price
“Dear Len,” by Radclyffe
“A Letter to My Former Self,” by Rick R. Reed
“Five Things We Learned Running A Queer Romance Event (and the One Thing We Still Need to Do)” by Tracy Timmons-Gray


My "assignment" was Soldier and Tattoo Artist. :-)

I think I'm almost as excited to read the essays as the stories. 

So that's one exciting piece of news. And then we have a little bitty story from me called Night Watch.


Three years ago investigative reporter Parker Davidson barely survived a brutal attack by his psychopathic ex-boyfriend. It’s given him a dim view of romance. 
When Parker’s ex escapes from a maximum security prison, LAPD Lieutenant Henry Stagge is tasked with making sure that Parker doesn’t end up a victim a second—and final—time. 
Most cops believe Parker got what he deserved, but over the course of a few very tense hours, Henry begins to wonder if there’s more to Parker than he thought. 
Second chances happen in the strangest places—and at the strangest times.
 You can pop over to Smashwords or Amazon and conveniently buy them both at the same time.

There's more to talk about (I know I missed last week's blog, but that's what happens when the writing frenzy starts) but we'll leave it there for now.

The Curse of the Restless Writer Brain

It never rains but it pours.


Having regained my usual ruthless optimism and energy, I'm busily working away at three books right now. Yes, three. I went from unable to formulate complete sentences on paper to working on three books at one time.


Want to know my secret?


Bananas!


Yes, I'm drinking this banana coffee smoothie thing in the morning and it's just fant--


No. I wish I had a quick fix I could offer my equally burnt-out writer friends. I think it was basically just having a bit of time to breathe and swim and read and chat with friends...and catch up some of the stuff that was making me nuts.


That last is always a temporary state of affairs though. The problem with being a self-employed writer is no sooner do you complete one task -- arrange for Italian translations! -- then a new challenge occurs -- just lost narrator for The Mermaid Murders!






But thanks to the bananas, I'm rolling with punches and punching the rolls. Or something.


One of the projects was what I think of as a "throwaway" project. Not that it's not a real project--these are inevitably the projects that end up being the most work--but it's a project that can be relegated to the back burner if needed. And it's a project which I figure won't bring in a lot of money, so it's very much just for fun. And a healthy writer brain needs a few of those in order to keep cranking.


Anyway, I decided to experiment with Kindle Unlimited for the launch of this one. And I wanted to discuss why--given that I'm a staunch and vocal opponent of KU and Amazon's exclusivity policy.


I've had a couple of people challenge my stance given that I've never actually done Kindle Unlimited. Maybe they think I'd change my mind about it if I saw How Much Money You Can Make with it!!!!


See, I think I probably make more money than most authors in Kindle Unlimited, and I believe that I will actually make less putting this crazy little project into the program. But I don't know. And there is some very interesting data on the numbers (and on author earnings in general).


I'm sort of an anomaly in my genre as it is thanks to primarily writing mysteries and crime for an audience that typically doesn't read a lot of mystery and crime. So it's possible my success is an anomaly too. I don't know. Hence the experiment. I'll compare my preorders and first month earnings for a couple of my regular releases versus this KU release and we'll see what happens.
That's reason number one. I haven't seriously ever tried KU before, so I may as well find out exactly what I'm "losing" by taking my high-falutin' stance on the program.

(I can tell you this though. Regardless of what the earnings are, the book goes straight into general distribution when the KU time period is over.)


The second reason is this question of Discoverability that haunts us all in indie publishing. Given the tidal wave of STUFF (good, bad and indifferent) pouring out daily through the various bookselling channels, it gets harder and harder to find new readers. Now why do I need NEW readers when I have so many wonderful loyal existing readers? Because a writer's long-term survival is largely based on continuing to sell backlist, and you need new readers for that. The existing readers already have your (my) stuff in every conceivable form up to and including the coloring book. ;-)

Again, I have my doubts about this experiment because I suspect a lot of the readers who subscribe to KU are loyal to price point rather than author. But maybe I'm wrong. If I'm wrong then it's useful to know that.


Anyway, the book I plan to experiment with is The Curse of the Blue Scarab, which I'm calling my monster mash-up. It is in fact a literary mash-up of a 1912 novel called The Mummy by Riccardo Stephens.


I'll talk a bit  more about the project in detail later on, but I wanted to reassure readers before I list this for preorders that I'm not planning to make this book an Amazon exclusive permanently nor are any of my other titles present or planned going into KU.

Books and Black Orchids

My writing slump seems to have passed.

Partly, I'm sure, that's due to catching up on all the stuff that was mentally weighing me down. Everything from buying screens for the front windows of the house to arranging for the Italian translation of The Mermaid Murders.

But mostly I think my renewed enthusiasm for writing is due to two things: spending time with friends and family AND reading.

More precisely, reading within the M/M genre.

Last year I read an essay by Matt Bell in the NY Times titled "Influence Looming" wherein he muses "Novels have two primary sources: writer's life experiences or their art experience."

It's a real balancing act. The best fiction is that perfect blend of art and reality. Too often the aspiring author confuses writing fiction with the dutiful documentation of memoirs--and rarely are our own lives as fascinating to others as we imagine. But there's also the danger of being unduly influenced by the work of your peers. You don't want to sound like a third generation recording of a what was once a live performance.

Still, it's important to read in the genre you're working in, and regardless of the medium, all artists are inspired by each others' work. Part of how a genre evolves is through this process of influence. So yes, it was interesting to catch up on what's been happening in the genre over the past couple of years -- sample some of the rising stars and see what old favorites have been up to. There's some great stuff out there, although it feels harder to find those nuggets of gold given how very wide and very deep that river of content has grown.

Anyway, the only thing better than reading is talking books and writing with friends. Especially
talking over cocktails. I discovered something called Black Orchids at our local Yard House and our martini shaker has not been silent since (kidding -- no shaker is involved in this recipe).

Black Orchid
  1 ounce Skyy Raspberry Vodka
 1 ounce DeKuyper Blue Curacao
 1 ounce DeKuyper Watermelon Pucker
 Splash: Cranberry juice
 Garnish: none 

I'm not going to share too much information about what I'm working on because I've got several projects going now and only two of them are absolutely certain to be finished this year.

One is Fair Chance, the final book in the All's Fair trilogy. HOWEVER that book won't be released until next year--please don't give me a hard time about it because I have no control of my publisher's release schedule.

The other project is So This is Christmas. It's that long promised Adrien English holiday novella.

(I know, you'd given up hope of that ever happening, but just because it takes me a while doesn't mean I'm not going to follow through on the books I promised.)

Yes, it's a mystery and it picks up right where the holiday codas end. And...and...I think that's pretty much all I'm going to say at this point!

Cheers! Have a Happy Weekend!

A Blog Post

I find myself at a loss today.

I was going to try to avoid anything remotely political or even socio-political, and instead mention that I've put together a print collection of my historical novellas. Three of the novellas have previously been in print, but had been allowed to go OP. And the third, "This Rough Magic", has never been available in anything but digital.

I read an article recently in Publisher's Weekly about "digital fatigue" and the ongoing decline of ebook sales. I've never stopped loving and collecting print books, so I have no idea whether digital fatigue is a real thing or not. Clearly declining ebook sales are real and can be graphed, but they don't seem particularly relevant to me. My sales have stayed pretty steady -- there's just that little problem of not being able -- motivated-- to write.

I'm still not exactly sure what's going on there. Am I just giving into laziness now? Am I more burnt-out than I realized? Or is this a natural lull in my productivity? I don't know. There's really no one to consult.

Is it depression? Is it a product of the fear and anxiety the TV serves with my morning coffee? Yesterday yet another young black man was shot to death by police. And today comes the news that five police officers were shot to death by snipers. The world seems increasingly violent and irrational -- and going on Twitter sure as hell doesn't help.

The world has always been violent and unpredictable. You don't need to be a history major to know that much. And the world is always in flux. Some things get better, other things get worse...and there's no guarantee we won't blow ourselves and the planet up in the near future.

But really...that being the case, what are our options? We can go on Twitter and harass and blame each other for not caring enough or not expressing ourselves properly. We can perpetrate our own violence in the name of...what the fuck ever. We can tune out entirely.

Or we can continue to do the best we can with the resources we have.

We can try to practice the tolerance that we preach. We can stop jabbering on Twitter and try actually contacting our political representatives. We can focus on improving the space around us -- and leading by example. Not in a grandiose way, but in a simple treat-others-as-you-wish-to-be-treated way. Because if that actually ever could happen all across the world? All our problems would be solved.

Just treat the people around you the way you want to be treated.

Don't be so godawful stingy with your understanding, your forgiveness and your compassion. It's not like any of us are in a position to judge. (And anybody who thinks they are in a position to judge is a big part of the problem.)

Today I am focusing on what is right in the world. What is good.

1 - Law and Order (because anarchy doesn't work)

2 - Gardenias

3 - Mockingbirds

4 - Tacos

5 - Love

What do you have to say for yourself?