S.L. Armstrong's Blog, page 10

The “Making Ends Meet” Blog Tour

To celebrate the release of Making Ends Meet, K. Piet and I embarked on a seven day blog tour talking about various issues the book presented. Our hosts were wonderful, and their audiences were great. If you missed it, you can catch up at any of the links below.

Nov 2 – BookWenches – Topic: Writing Believable Children

Nov 3 – Well Read – Topic: Casual Prejudice

Nov 4 – Babes in Boyland – Topic: The Good Guy

Nov 5 – Pants Off Reviews – Topic: Immaturity as a Character Trait

Nov 6 – Bending the Bookshelf – Topic: A Strong Supporting Cast

Nov 7 – Joyfully Jay – Topic: Everyday Drama

Nov 8 – The Armchair Reader – Topic: Why Heteronormativity Isn’t Bad

You can grab the ebook for $6.99 at the Storm Moon Press store or your favorite retailer.

Zach is just seventeen years old, but despite his youth, he has more than his fair share of responsibility. An experimental fling in high school has led him down the path of single fatherhood. Now, he holds down a job, takes his college classes online, and pays his own bills as best he can—all while juggling daycare and chores and play-dates for his four-month-old, Mae. It’s a rough, 24/7 life, but to Zach, Mae is worth every penny spent and every minute of his day.

With no free time to speak of, it feels like a miracle when Zach meets Wil in the check-out line at his work. Handsome, grounded, from the proverbial “right side of the tracks”, and—even better—good with kids, Wil is everything he could want in a boyfriend. But as interested as Wil is in Zach, he has his own life, his own family, his own job and college career to think about. All the various draws on their time means that it’s hard just to find chances to be together. But Zach’s no stranger to hard tasks, and believes he owes it to himself to try.

Includes 12 black-and-white illustrations by Diana Callinger!

The Validity of the DNF Review

I’ve seen some rumblings lately about the dreaded DNF. For those who don’t know what that stands for, it means Did Not Finish. I’ve had quite a number of DNFs in my reading life. When a book is just so bad that I can’t finish it. It usually makes me angry because I’ve spent money on a book that’s just bad.

What does this have to do with DNF? Well, there’s a number of authors who don’t believe that readers who DNF a book should leave any kind of rating or review. Why? Because the reader didn’t finish the book. After all, if they’d stuck it out through those sluggish, badly written, or uninteresting first pages/chapters/sections, the story would have picked up! The book would have gotten better/more interesting/introduced some great twist that would have redeemed the whole thing, and I—as the reader—should have recognized that and continued to read a book I wasn’t into. Only then would my rating and review be acceptable.

Except authors who tend to feel this way about DNFs also don’t respect a reader’s right to leave negative or poor reviews. It goes from the reader not sticking it out to the reader just not liking the author’s style/subject choice/whatever. I actually saw someone mention that a review should never be based on a reader’s personal preference. What? Of course it should! That’s all a review is! And if the reader’s personal preference is to DNF your book, rate it a 1-star, and leave a review saying it was so bad, they couldn’t finish it, that review is valid.

It angers me when authors try to tell readers how to read, how to review. No. We need to step back from that thought process. Would we like to be told how we should read or review the things we read? No. We chafe at the bit when we think we’re being told what we should write, how is it any different? We have no authority or right to demand readers review to our benefit or demand that—if they won’t—that they shouldn’t review at all.

Stow the pride. If you can’t handle DNFs or low ratings or bad reviews, just don’t read your reviews. That’s been my rule for years now. There are some reviewers I break that rule for (I’m looking at you Cole Riann), but, for the most part? I just keep my nose out of reviewers’ business. It’s none of my concern ultimately. People with love or hate what they’ll love or hate, and nothing I say as an author will change that. And it shouldn’t.

A DNF is as valid as a 5-star, and I know I won’t stop awarding a DNF to awful books I simply couldn’t finish.

Recipe Monday: Salata

Growing up, Mum made this awesome salad. Well, I loved it in theory, hated it in practice. It wasn’t until I moved out and started making it on my own that I fell in love with it finally. The difference? In the recipe Mum made, she used dried mint. A lot of it, too. I hated the texture in my mouth. It was just… unpleasant. I turned to fresh mint, which—when chopped finely—didn’t have a texture I found off-putting. And, in fact, it taste better with the fresh mint. It actually tasted like mint! So, this is my go-to salad from my childhood, a Lebanese dish I grew up with in my Siti’s home and my mother’s home.

Ingredients

5C salad greens

1 English cucumber, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

3 ribs of celery, chopped

2 carrots, coarse grated

1/3C lemon juice (I use bottled, shamelessly)

2TBSP oil

2tsp salt

1tsp pepper

1 1/2tsp garlic powder

1/4C fresh mint, finely chopped

In a large salad bowl, combine lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and mint and whisk thoroughly until the salt dissolves. Add the oil and whisk again. Add all the vegetables and toss. Taste it. It should be sour and salty. XD It’s sort of like a pickled salad, really, but you can adjust it to your own tastes. It’s meant to be sour and salty, though. Enjoy!

Hurricane Sandy Relief Effort Auction!

I’m boosting the signal wherever I can. More eyes that see it, the better.

I’m part of a group of authors auctioning off custom, original fiction for the Hurricane Sandy relief effort. The winning bidder of our auction gets a piece of fiction no less than 5,000 words long, M/M, and can be contemporary, paranormal, fantasy, or urban fantasy (and can include BDSM in any of the genres listed).

Take a look at our auction listing and bid if you want something from us influenced heavily by you!

Please, pass on the links anywhere you can!

“Immortal Symphony” Season 1, Episode 1 Teaser + Cover Reveal

K. and I have a serial we’re working on for Storm Moon Press, and I’ve talked about it before. Immortal Symphony is the name of the series, and season one is called Overture. We’ve been working on the first episode (the first season will have six episodes, each episode around 20K words), and I thought it might be time to share something from it! That includes the awesome cover art Nathie whipped up for us.

Dorian grinned as his fingers tangled in the long fringe of hair partially obscuring his latest conquest’s face. The university student’s face didn’t really matter, but his hair was interesting, something new with its bright streaks of red and blue and pale blond. The boy was practically channeling the Union Jack as he slid down Dorian’s body, making the leather seats of Dorian’s car creak. Dorian smiled to himself. Jack was as good a pet name as any. The vibrant colored strands brought out the paleness in Dorian’s skin, and he spared a vain thought for his own elegance before pulling Jack’s lips down over the bulge in his slacks. The tug of his hand was met with resistance, though, and the boy’s lust-darkened eyes met his.

“Professor…” Jack breathed. Dorian knew that tone all too well. It meant the boy was trying to keep himself in check. Religious values, perhaps, or maybe just a battle against the taboo of fucking around with a teacher—or, more accurately, guest lecturer. Either way, Dorian knew the plea beneath those words. Jack was begging to be overpowered, to be left without a choice. A mere gesture, and the boy could be his, but Dorian relished the conquest, the slow, erotic disintegration of those walls modern young men built around themselves.

“Shh,” Dorian soothed. “Just you and me now. You didn’t follow me from the lecture hall to compare notes. You didn’t step into this car to conduct the Inquisition.” Dorian let his fingers trail sensually over the boy’s features and along his unnaturally colored hairline. “You came to give me something. And you’re going to give it, Jack.”

A flicker of lust and doubt passed over Jack’s face. “My name isn’t—”

“But you don’t really care, do you?” Dorian interrupted, yanking at the boy’s hair just hard enough to make him gasp. He saw that inner wall crack and tumble down in Jack’s eyes, and when Jack shook his head and relaxed in his grip, he purred his triumph and satisfaction. “Good boy. Now, suck my cock. Show me what you can really do with that mouth of yours.”

Jack’s groan was followed by more creaking leather, and then moist heat was teasing Dorian through his slacks. Jack’s hands tugged at his belt and rubbed at the hard length of him, but another dominant jerk of his wrist caused all teasing to cease. A quick scramble later, his cock was enveloped by lips and hands.

Dorian let his head fall back against the plush leather, enjoying the texture of it while a slight breeze caught his hair through a crack in the windows. There was nothing like a blowjob after a long morning of guest lectures. Theology could be such a trying subject, and this boy was the perfect distraction. So easily enticed, so easily guided, Jack followed his cues, sucking harder when he moaned and arched his hips.

Works In Progress Update

First and foremost, Happy Samhain!

For those of you going out or taking the kids trick or treating, stay safe!

Now, onto the writing talk. With the release of The Devil’s Midway and Making Ends Meet, I thought it was time to update the works in progress list. What is it K. Piet and I are working on?

K. Piet and I will have a bisexual short in the Milk & Cookies & Handcuffs anthology this December. We don’t write nearly enough bisexual fiction, and couple it with BDSM? We were so there. XD

I’ll have a short in the charity anthology Legal Briefs, which comes out in January 2013 during Storm Moon Press’ three year anniversary celebration.

K. and I are also planning to write shorts for the Dracones, Dark Menagerie, Forgotten Menagerie, Blood Embrace, The More the Merrier, and Bygone Beasts. It’s a lot, and plans do go awry, but I hope we can do something for each of them!

I’m in the process of rewriting Morningstar, blowing it out from a long short story into a decent sized novella. This one I hope to have done by the summer. *crosses fingers*

Human Rights is a quarter written, and it’s a novella I’m really enjoying. It’s so different for me that it’s also a bit challenging to get going any time I want to add to it. But, I have faith. Once I get over the bump of this particular chapter, it’ll be a lot easier.

Right now, K. and I are picking away at Immortal Symphony: Overture. We need to have the first 60K words written and to the editor by the end of January. >.> This is a story we absolutely love, are hot for, and so I don’t think it’ll take long to get those 60K words written. October’s just been hell for us with press events and a release. @_@ We should have all 120K words written for the first season of Immortal Symphony by April, and it will be released from February to July.

And, finally, I am determined to finish Lessons In Cowboy in 2013. It has been set aside time and again, and Cole and North are determined to have their story told. XD

Other than that (as if that wasn’t enough), we’ll poke at Stalemate and 52 Weeks to see if we can add anything to those during 2013. K. is taking 2014 off from her day job, so we’ll really hit the ground running then with all the projects we’ve put off over and over (like Wanderlust: Land of Nod, Polyfidelity, and Other Side of Night: Havva & Amiri).

So, that’s what we have in store! Now I just have to schedule it all into our calendar.

Release Day Is Here! :D “Making Ends Meet”

Back in February, K. and I came up with the idea to tell the story of a gay, single, teen father. We called the story Mae, after the main character’s daughter. It took us a couple of months to write the manuscript, but in June, we sent it off to the editor. Two months of edits, and the title was officially changed to Making Ends Meet (which was far more appropriate). And now, release day. I’m so excited! It even includes twelve gorgeous black and white images depicting various scenes from the book!

Zach is just seventeen years old, but despite his youth, he has more than his fair share of responsibility. An experimental fling in high school has led him down the path of single fatherhood. Now, he holds down a job, takes his college classes online, and pays his own bills as best he can—all while juggling daycare and chores and play-dates for his four-month-old, Mae. It’s a rough, 24/7 life, but to Zach, Mae is worth every penny spent and every minute of his day.

With no free time to speak of, it feels like a miracle when Zach meets Wil in the check-out line at his work. Handsome, grounded, from the proverbial “right side of the tracks”, and—even better—good with kids, Wil is everything he could want in a boyfriend. But as interested as Wil is in Zach, he has his own life, his own family, his own job and college career to think about. All the various draws on their time means that it’s hard just to find chances to be together. But Zach’s no stranger to hard tasks, and believes he owes it to himself to try.

Right now, it’s available as an ebook, but print will come shortly. The ebook is only $6.99!

Happy release day to me!

Recipe Monday: Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes

In our household, carbohydrates have to be eaten in moderation. I was recently diagnosed as a Type II diabetic, which we always expected since I have had insulin resistance since I was thirteen (thanks to the PCOS). I’m on Byetta now, along with my metformin, but there is a desire to lose some weight and not aggravate the diabetes, and so we’re a low-carb-ish family. So, one of the things we love are roasted potatoes. I can control portions better with roasted potatoes than with mashed or the like, so think is my go-to recipe for them. I use Red Bliss potatoes mainly because they’re sweeter than Russets, and I like their skin. They also have a decent carb load, so I don’t feel bloated with a 1/2C portion. This recipe tends to feed three of us pretty nicely as a side dish with a protein and a vegetable.

Ingredients

1lb Red Bliss potatoes

3TBSP oil (I use canola)

1TBSP dried parsley

2tsp salt

1tsp pepper

1tsp garlic powder

1tsp paprika

1/2tsp onion powder

Pre-heat oven to 400F and line a cookie sheet with foil (I have grown to love non-stick foil).

I tend to cut the potatoes into 1-inch to 1 1/2-inch dice. Toss them in to a large bowl with the oil and spices. Make sure all the potatoes are coated, and then pour it all out onto the baking sheet. Bake 20-30 minutes, until crisp and lightly browned all over. Absolutely delicious!

Release Day! “Devil’s Night”

I’ve been MIA for a bit. I blame the hectic month that is October for Storm Moon Press. Three events in one month, and it was just… a lot. K. is at GayRomLit right now representing SMP, and the weekend she returns, we’re at Necronomicon. @_@ But, I bring you a new release!

K. Piet’s and my short story, The Devil’s Midway, is now available from Storm Moon Press!

The infernal host is on the prowl. They want your soul, and they’re not afraid to bargain for it. They’ll promise you everything you could ever desire, but the price tag may be steeper than you can handle. Whether tempting and seducing mortals, defiling angels, or reveling among themselves, the fiendish creatures in these four haunting tales know that while good is okay, evil is just more fun.

Thaddeus sold his soul to save his family long ago, but the deal he struck with the demon Belial has him spending eternity managing Le Carnaval du Diable, filled to the brim with other’s damned into servitude. Belial wants more than Thaddeus’ soul, though, and his constant advances only add to Thaddeus’ stress as he faces a threat to The Devil’s Midway.

Craig Peters finds himself Hell Bound and destined for an eternity of torture at the hands of the demon Karawan, despite having no memory of the sin that condemned him to this existence. Over time, though, those memories return, along with an unnatural attraction to Karawan, which leads them both down a path neither of them could have possibly imagined.

When the Hounds Come Out to Play, Ryu and Keir are released from their chains to hunt the wayward damned and drag them down to Hell. A breath of freedom is an opportunity for fun, however, and Ryu isn’t about to waste it, even if it means getting caught in a case of mistaken identity with a handsome stranger.

Finally, Beltran is a man of heritage and honor, and when his cousin is brutalized, he has few qualms about consulting a local Inca shaman on her behalf. Little does he know the price of the charm he seeks will make him The Seventh Sacrifice in the amaru demon Kitara’s ancient quest for revenge.

Buy it now in ebook ($4.99) or print ($9.99)!

And I’ll leave you with a taste from The Devil’s Midway.

—

“Tsk, tsk, manners, sweet boy.” Belial’s eyes took in the sight of Thaddeus spread out on the floor under Belial’s weight. “Now this, Thaddeus, is the position I think you are best suited for. And…” He leaned in, licked up the line of Thaddeus’ throat. “I know it’s what keeps you up, tossing and turning, sweaty and hard.”

Thaddeus thought he was going to be sick even as his body hardened under the minute shifts of Belial’s body. “Get off of me!”

“Patience.” Belial’s hands tightened around Thaddeus’ wrists. “This is what you were hoping for, isn’t it? It’s why you summoned me. Not because of lovesick Leander or some horny sword-eater or skipping a planned stop. You summoned me to tease me with what you think is beyond my reach.” His nose brushed against Thaddeus’ cheek. “You, sweet Thaddeus, aren’t beyond my reach. In time, you’ll come to me willingly. You’ll beg for my lips, my cock, and maybe, if you’ve been a good boy, I’ll give you a taste.”

Thaddeus bucked, trying to kick Belial off of him, but it was useless, and the smirk that slowly curled Belial’s lips left him hot and cold all at once. Clenching his jaw, he breathed in roughly and spat up into Belial’s face. “Taste that,” he growled, his heart trembling with both triumph and fear when Belial’s smirk turned into a cool frown.

“I could send you on a holiday to the deepest circles of Hell for that,” Belial said, still hovering above him.

“But you won’t. Someone has to keep the other carnies in line, run your little freak show for you.” Christ, he hoped his voice was as even and self-assured as he needed it to be. Any weakness, and he was done for.

A muscle twitched in Belial’s face, and Thaddeus couldn’t tell if it was a change for the better or worse. “You are expendable. You can be replaced at any time by one of the thousands who have sold their souls to me.”

A few drips of Thaddeus’ own spittle fell back onto him, and he was unsure which disturbed him more: that Belial hadn’t retreated even a fraction of an inch, or that he hadn’t lifted a finger to wipe himself clean. The proximity of Belial was still intoxicating, like a haze that slowly moved in toward his center, threatening to choke him, and he fought its effects, fought his own body with all the will he had in him. “I’m not replaceable,” he argued at last, his voice little more than a hiss. “I’m the only one with the balls to tell you ‘no’. Besides, even the Devil has standards. You terminate a contract of my length, and there will be hell to pay.”

Belial actually pressed even closer at that, and a single breath of Belial’s scent caused Thaddeus to forget how to breathe. “You think so?”

Had he ever been this close to Belial before? Close enough to smell the musk and darkness and tang of bloodstained treacle? The fragrance was magnetic, as if it pulled him out of himself for an instant. One moment he was pinned to the floor, every nerve alight with tension, and the next, he felt his walls beginning to crumble, everything inside him collapsing under the invisible pressure. It was then that he realized Belial was smirking again, and he renewed his struggle even as Belial withdrew and finally wiped Thaddeus’ saliva from his nose and cheek.

Recipe Monday: Fried Chicken

First, I’d like to say that I was lucky enough to be selected to be a part of All Romance eBooks’ Passionate Cooks cookbook. My Cranberry Green Beans are in the side dishes category. Grab it. It’s free!

Now, on to today’s recipe. I love fried chicken. I really do. It’s a guilty, lovely pleasure for me. But, over the past twenty years, I’ve yet to find a recipe I loved. I’ve tried various concoctions, but I was never quite satisfied. The other night, though, when the store had run out of pre-made fried chicken bits, I sat down to make some myself. The end result was a huge success with the family, and so it’s now my go-to recipe for fried chicken. We used boneless, skinless breasts, but next time, I’m doing it with bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces.

Ingredients

1 bone-in, skin-on chicken, cut into pieces

2C buttermilk

2 eggs

2C all purpose flour

1TBSP salt

2TBSP raw sugar

1/2TBSP pepper

2tsp paprika

2tsp garlic powder

2tsp onion powder

2tsp dried parsley

oil to fry in

For one, I prefer to fry in peanut oil. If you’re allergic to it, go ahead and use a canola oil.

In a big plastic bag, pour in the buttermilk, 2tsp salt, 1tsp pepper, 1tsp paprika, 1tsp garlic powder, and 1tsp onion powder. Mix it around, and then add the chicken. This should sit in the buttermilk, ideally, overnight. Yeah, it’s plan ahead meal, but the overnight soak does amazing things to the chicken.

In a bowl that you can dip the chicken pieces into, mix up the two eggs. On a plate, pour the flour, 2tsp salt, 2 TBSP raw sugar (raw sugar is best for this), 2tsp pepper, 1tsp paprika, 1tsp garlic powder, 1tsp onion powered, and the 2tsp of dried parsley. Mix it thoroughly. This is a double dredge method. Roll a piece of the buttermilk coated chicken in the flour, toss it with the egg, and then re-coat it with the flour. The best thing you can do is set up a cooling rack on a cookie sheet and place the battered chicken on the cooling rack for 15 minutes. This will allow the crust to set, and it won’t slough off in the frying process.

I heat my oil over medium high. I add half the chicken (as I use a large pan). This will drop the temperature of the oil significantly. When the chicken begins to brown, I turn my burner down slightly. I don’t use a thermometer, so I wind up just watching the chicken and adjusting my heat up or down as needed. Ultimately, the chicken should cook 15 minutes on one side, 10 minutes on the other (which should result in a deep, golden crust on both sides).

Transfer the cooked chicken to a cooling rack over a baking sheet. You can keep it in a low oven for about half an hour before it begins to lose its crispness.

It’s so very good. XD We love it. It has so much flavor and tenderness. If you love fried chicken, give this one a shot and let me know what you think!