Debbie McGowan's Blog, page 8

Monday Moan #amwriting ...sort of

It's not really going to be a moan, but I liked the alliteration, and I am starting off with a grumble.

Seriously, who gets bitten by a spider in England? Me, apparently, so said the nurse at the Minor Injuries unit in our local hospital. I'm on the mend, with the help of antihistamines and, subsequently, more sleep than I've had in months.

I didn't see what got me, but there are only a few bitey spiders in the UK, one of which is a tiny thing we call the money spider, also called the sheet weaver spider (the photo shows why). There's an old wives' tale in the UK that if a money spider runs across your palm, you'll come into money, but the little buggers stick with you. They'll abseil on a strand of web, which you think you've successfully attached to something else only to find you're still carrying a miniature passenger.

*Image credit: Sheet Weaver (Money) Spider's Web: Watchduck (aka Tilman Piesk)

For the above reasons (bite+drowsiness), this is a very short post—an update on what I'm working on and where you can find me online.

What I'm Working On:
Goth of Christmas Past  (HBTC novel)Tabula Rasa (Gray Fisher #2) Alumni  (HBTC #8)Anything else that grips my imagination. ;)My MSc Psychology (waaah)
Waiting In The Wings:
No Filter (Hiding Out #2)Precious (HBTC novella) Checking Him Out At Home (CHO #3.1)Spread Your Wings (sequel to Champagne )
Might Never See The Light Of Day:
Meredith's Dagger: written for NaNoWriMo in 2011; this is a historical/contemporary novel with supernatural elements. Alas, I dislike one of the main characters so intensely I barely get three chapters into reworking this before I give up. The Pastor's Last Drop : historical supernatural thriller-ish novel that is proving impossible to write (read on Wattpad). Love's Folly : an abandoned attempt at Mills & Boon style romance. I made a cover for it, so I guess I ought to finish it at some point.

Where To Find Me:

Website:
debbiemcgowan.co.uk • hidingbehindthecouch.com • beatentrackpublishing.com

Newsletter:
http://eepurl.com/b8emHL

Blog:
http://deb248211.blogspot.co.uk

Facebook:
Profile • Author Page • Fiction is Therapy • Hiding Behind The Couch • Checking Him Out • Publisher Page

Twitter:
Author Profile (@writerdebmcg) • Publisher Profile (@b10track)

Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/b10track

YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/deb248211

Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/DebbieMcGowan

I'm also on Instagram, LinkedIn and Tumblr, but less frequently.


Thanks for reading. :)
Deb x

#WIPpet Wednesday - Goth of Christmas Past - To Be a BFE #amwriting #lgbtqia

WIPpet numbers for 3rd January, 2018:3 paragraphs from Chapter 3 (which happens on 1st December) from Goth of Christmas Past

WIPpet Context:
I’m still snipping Goth of Christmas Past which is finally taking shape.

This week, I’m switching from Krissi to Jay—the other main character. They’re the two people pictured on the cover. Here’s the blurb for further context:

Black hair and band hoodies had a lot to answer for.

That day, eleven years ago, when Gothboy mooched into their business studies class for the very first time, Krissi had taken one look at him and thought, What a freak. He’s so cool!

Now in their mid-twenties, Krissi Johansson and Jay Meyer are successful businesspeople and still best friends. But while one of them is moving forward with their life, the other is sliding ever backwards…revisiting the past and wallowing in regret.

Worse still, it’s Christmas—happy joy joy everywhere! Yay. >.<

* * * * *And here’s the snippet:

The year they’d turned twenty-one, Jay had been away at uni. It was only when he’d come home for Krissi’s birthday party that he’d discovered she’d done what she’d been threatening to do for five years. She’d finally asked about her biological father. Her mum had always been up front and said she didn’t know who he was, but she’d given Krissi her blessing—that was overstating it a bit—to try to hunt him down. The fallout had been epic, and regardless of what he said to Krissi’s face, Jay thought it probably had caused the breakdown of her parents’ marriage.

He’d known them almost as long as he’d known Krissi, and he liked them. They were good people, totally in love—the kind of couple he’d always imagined being together forever, and when one died, the other would throw themselves down on their grave and pine to death or take poison so they could reunite in the afterlife. When Krissi told Jay they were separating, it had come as a serious shock, and he was secretly devastated. If Mr. and Mrs. Johansson couldn’t make it work, there was no hope for anyone else.

So he understood why Krissi had taken it so hard, but he also got why she’d needed to know who her ‘real’ dad was. It was one of the many confidences they’d shared when they first became friends, and one of the few things they had in common. Not that Jay had known about his parents back then, but he’d always felt something was off, like a piece of his life was locked in a trunk, waiting until he came of age, though he doubted his parents would have willingly told him if it hadn’t been for that stupidly massive inheritance.

* * * * *
What is WIPpet Wednesday?
WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where authors share from their current works in progress - expertly organised/hosted by Emily Wrayburn - and the excerpt has to relate to the date in some way. For links to other fabulous authors' WIPpets, visit: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=355404


Thanks for reading
Deb x

Last Words of 2017 #amwriting

Well, I planned to hit a milestone before the end of 2017, and I thought I’d missed it (damn you, Deb, and your rubbish record-keeping), but in the process of writing this blog post, I discovered I didn’t miss it at all. Hurrah!
What am I talking about?

This…
3,003,924
…is how many words I’ve clocked up since I started writing ‘for real’.
Which is rather good, as I was aiming to hit three million, and I did.
However…my annual word count has dwindled over the past four years:
2001: 105,3422003: 8,6002005: 1,0622007: 111,8132008: 122,4142009: 66,7352010: 52,7712011: 101,8202012: 183,3732013: 515,8402014: 486,4252015: 474,6922016: 399,9122017: 373,125

To Be Sure #RainbowSnippets #LGBT

I haven’t posted a Rainbow Snippet in such a long time, but I’m going to do my best to change that in the coming year and get back to posting regularly.

About Rainbow Snippets
Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!).

In this group you'll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story's main character identifies as LGBTQ+. The snippets could range from zero flames to full-on sexytimes, anything goes content-wise. The only rule is snippets will be 6 sentences long–one for each color in the Pride flag.

Today’s Rainbow Snippet
I’m posting from To Be Sure, which is contemporary LGBT+ fiction with romantic elements, featuring two older women (aged 70+): Saorla Tierney, a bisexual woman from Derry, The North of Ireland, and her long-term friend/lover, Aileen Cullen, lesbian and also from Derry. In today’s snippet, Saorla and Aileen are on a plane heading for England and Saorla’s grandson’s baptism.

The story is part of the  Never Too Late  collection - nine stories about friendship, family and love featuring LGBTQIA 50+ characters, which was released earlier in December.

You can download the story for free in the Smashwords Christmas sale (and get the full collection for half-price ). A lot of my other stories are also free on Smashwords until January 1st.

* * * * *The Snippet:

Aileen’s mouth opened and closed in a couple of false starts before she said, “May I ask you something? It’s a wee bit delicate.”

“Go on,” Saorla agreed warily and sipped her coffee for distraction.

“If it had come to the worst in January, would you have moved to England?”

Saorla lifted her drink away from her mouth and rubbed her chest to relieve the sudden reflux brought on by Aileen’s question. As if it wasn’t bad enough to have her son at death’s door the once, the fool had to go and do it all over again. In those long, silent hours at the hospital, waiting for Finn to speak, to explain himself or put their minds at ease, the thought had flitted like an alluring, uncatchable butterfly amid the awful mess of their lives: move away, start anew, enjoy her retirement before she was too old.

The Blurb:
Saorla Tierney's sons are conspiring against her, and at their age, they should know better. After all, she's nearly seventy-one herself, and, quite frankly, whether she still 'has needs' is none of their business.

OK, so, maybe she was a bit harsh with Sean when all he did was ask if she and Aileen wanted a double hotel room. And of course she feels bad for biting Finn's head off when he was only having a wee joke.

Between her grandson's unconventional baptism and the decades-long feud between her sons, even with Aileen at her side it's not as easy a decision as they seem to think. Or maybe it is. Saorla doesn't know anymore, and until she's sure...

To Be Sure is a stand-alone, novella-length character special. Part of Hiding Behind The Couch series. This story follows chronologically from Reunions (Season Seven) and continues in Alumni (Season Eight - WIP).

* * * * *
Thanks for reading,
Deb x

#WIPpet Wednesday - Goth of Christmas Past + Cover Reveal #amwriting #lgbtqia

Before I forget…you can download my books for FREE or at 50% discount in the Smashwords Christmas sale (ends 1st January):
Hiding Behind The Couch series Checking Him Out series When Skies Have Fallen (novel + Christmas short) Debbie McGowan on Smashwords (i.e. all books)
* * * * *

WIPpet numbers for 27th December, 2017:12 x 27 = 324 words from Goth of Christmas Past

WIPpet Context:
I’m still snipping Goth of Christmas Past, and I decided, seeing as ’tis the season, I’d reveal the real cover. The artwork is by Emma Pickering and it’s so perfectly Krissi and Jay. I could hardly believe it when Emma showed me what she’d come up with.

The novel won’t be out until next Christmas, but I’m getting quite a bit of it written now. I also successfully persuaded Nige to alpha-read the first 11k to make sure the structure works. He says so! Plus, he bought me a Goth of Christmas Past t-shirt (black with black print) for Christmas. Cheers, dude. :D

T his snippet  is the continuation from last week’s snippet. Krissi has decided she wants to find out who her biological father is, and she’s started asking questions of her mum and stepdad (Kris).

It’s a long-ish excerpt, but it seemed a good place to move on from, as I’ll probably focus on Jay (the other MC) next time, which will be in 2018, so I’m sending you all love and best wishes for a prosperous New Year.

* * * * *
Here’s the cover:


And here’s this week’s WIPpet:

[Kris] “…She knows it’s important to you, but you’re asking her some really difficult personal questions.”

[Krissi] “I’m sorry. I didn’t realise.”

“It’s OK,” Kris comforted. “You weren’t to know.”

“I wish she’d be honest with me.”

“About what happened?”

“Not even that. She could just say she doesn’t want to tell me.”

“It’s not that she doesn’t want to.”

“She can’t. Seriously, how can she have no memory of it? Like, how drunk was she?”

“Very,” Kris said. He seemed incredibly interested in his tea all of a sudden, and she should’ve taken it as a cue to stop probing, but he’d invited her to sit and talk.

“So she doesn’t even know if it was her boyfriend or a one-night stand, or…?”

Kris shook his head. “She didn’t have a boyfriend at the time.”

“I don’t care if it was someone really horrible.”

“I don’t think it was. She thinks…we think it happened at a party. We were all really drunk.”

“No way. You don’t even drink glögg on Lucia.”

“OK, I wasn’t, but everyone else was.”

“Who was at the party?” Krissi asked.

“Well, I couldn’t give you a comprehensive list. It wasn’t my party.”

“Were any of them ugly?”

Kris laughed. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

“Yeah, but…were any of them mingers?”

“Were they what?” That wasn’t a request for a definition.

“Forget it. So…I was a total accident. A drunk accident.”

“Well, you weren’t planned.”

“Duh, obviously. Who plans to have a baby when they’re still in school?” She hadn’t meant it to come out like that, and now she felt bad, especially as Kris was watching her and trying not to show he was annoyed, except his fingers lightly drummed on his cup—a dead giveaway. He’d always been the stricter parent but he rarely raised his voice, and in return, she tried not to give him reason. “Sorry,” she said again. This time, he didn’t tell her it was OK.

“Krissi…” He sighed deeply. “I’ll tell you what I know, and then it’s up to you.”

* * * * *
What is WIPpet Wednesday?

WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where authors share from their current works in progress - expertly organised/hosted by Emily Wrayburn - and the excerpt has to relate to the date in some way. For links to other fabulous authors' WIPpets, visit: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=355404


Thanks for reading
Deb x

Sock Advent Calendar - Christmas Eve!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve with C H Cleppitt #IWoreHeels #humor #scifi #LGBTQIA #freebook

I’m delighted that C H Cleppitt has joined me for a festive sherry and a mince pie this Christmas Eve.

C H’s brilliant, hilarious novella I Wore Heels to the Apocalypse is FREE this Christmas. What a wonderful gift!

So, tell me…erm, is it safe for badgers to eat mince pies—oh, never mind.

Deb: Do you have any writing quirks?
C H: I don't know that I have any quirks. In terms of writing I just have to sit down and do it when the mood takes me, which isn't always.  Working collaboratively is good because there's always someone pushing you forward.  My stories are very character driven, so I spend a lot of time just getting to know the characters, then I let them run wild and see where they take me. Usually it's all sorts of strange places!

Deb: Jaffa cakes: cakes or biscuits?
C H: Biscuits! I am particularly fond of a ginger nut... Jaffa Cakes are a weird hybrid creature that is not quite a biscuit and not quite a cake, far too confusing on the palate!

Deb: Who is your favourite badger?
C H: Tough call.  There's Badger from The Animals of Farthing Wood, or Badger from The Wind in the Willows, or Badger from Bodger and Badger.  I think it's fair to say that I am very pro badgers, and wouldn't like to pick a favourite...

Deb: Tell us the funniest joke you know.
C H: Joke?! Eeek... erm... no... I have failed on this question.

Deb: How many stories have you published and where can we find them?
C H: I have published 13 stories (how unlucky, better get to work on number 14) which can all be found on Amazon . I have also some free shorts available on Newsnibbles , and have a collaboration with Fantasy author Samuel Z Jones which will soon be released in a quarterly magazine. There are some sample stories from that available to read free on Patreon .

Deb: What will you be doing in the apocalypse?
C H: Not worrying about what anyone thinks of me, and doing whatever the hell I want! One thing's for damn sure. I will NOT be wearing heels.

Blurb:
Is anyone truly prepared for the apocalypse?

Well, Kerry certainly isn’t, and she fairly quickly discovers that looking sharp in a business suit and heels is not going to help anyone when there’s an apocalypse, with possible zombies!

Together with a super spy, an ex girl guide and a personal trainer with manly foraging skills, Kerry must battle terrifying religious cults, rich people and her personal demons, all whilst having the daily chore of deciding what to wear.

This is a laugh out loud comedy with romance, heart and talking badgers, and is not to be missed. What would you wear to the apocalypse? #IWoreHeels

Purchase Links:
FREE ON AMAZON Christmas Eve to Boxing Day (24-26 December inclusive)
Amazon: http://mybook.to/IWoreHeels

My (quite short) Review:
This story made me laugh out loud quite a few times (a lot, actually, but you look bonkers laughing to yourself). The main character is nowhere near as hopeless as she thinks - her humility is one of her many strengths. It's a fun story, and the characters are all endearing in their own bizarre way.

Even more awesome(r), there's a sequel! Everything is Better With a Cape: The Second Part to I Wore Heels to the Apocalypse .

About the Author:
C H Clepitt has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from the University of the West of England. As her Bachelor’s Degree was in Drama, and her Master’s Dissertation focused on little known 18th Century playwright Susannah Centlivre, Clepitt’s novels are extremely dialogue driven, and it has often been observed that they would translate well to the screen.

Since graduating in 2007, she gained experience in community and music journalism, before establishing satirical news website, Newsnibbles in 2010. In 2011 she published her book, A Reason to Stay, which follows the adventures of disillusioned retail manager, Stephen, as he is thrust into village life and the world of AmDram. Clepitt’s feminist fantasy, The Book of Abisan not only crosses worlds, but confuses genres, and has been described as a crime drama with magic. She has often said that she doesn’t like the way that choosing a genre forces you to put your book into a specific little box, and instead she prefers to distort the readers’ expectations and keep them guessing. Her 2016 work, I Wore Heels to the Apocalypse does just that, as just like the characters, the readers won’t know what’s going on in this laugh out loud satirical scifi.

Website: http://www.chclepitt.com/

Sock Advent Calendar - 22nd December

Two more sleeps!Or is it three?Hmmmm....
p.s. Joe - you won. :)
OK, it was by default, but a win's a win, right?

A Snowy Ball - When Skies Have Fallen 1.5 #LGBT #Christmas #NewRelease

I should title this post ‘how not to release a story’…

Yesterday (yep), I released A Snowy Ball —a short Christmas story featuring Arty and Jim from When Skies Have Fallen .

I only decided to write it a couple of weeks ago, and given the date and everything, I decided to go ahead and get it out there.


Why did I write  A Snowy Ball ?
Quite a few readers have been kind enough to get in touch and tell me how much they loved When Skies Have Fallen—and made my day in the process :)—some of whom mentioned they would have liked to read more of Arty and Jim’s day-to-day life. I’d have loved to include more of that in the novel, but the deadline didn’t allow it, and I was quite pragmatic in my storytelling (first time for everything). So that’s the first and most important reason.

The second reason is that if I hadn’t written it, this year would have been the first since 2013 when I didn’t release a Christmas story, and I’m a fan of Christmas stories myself.

Finally, I’ve been working with narrator Tim Hilborne on the audiobook of the novel for the past few months, so Arty, Jim and family and friends have been very much on my mind.

Thus,  A Snowy Ball  was born.

You can find the audiobook of When Skies Have Fallen on on  Audible  and Amazon.

Read Bike Book Reviews' A Snowy Ball Release Day Review


Blurb
London: December, 1981. A White Christmas is on the cards, but as the temperature drops, the pressure on Arty mounts. He's got far too much planned in the coming days to have it all buried under a mountain of snow.

Between his retirement surprise for Jim and the Christmas party at the dance school, Arty might need to curtail his daydreaming a little to ensure everything comes together. Still, if all else fails, at least he and Jim have each other to keep them warm through the impending blizzard.


Purchase Links
Beaten Track [eBook]Smashwords [eBook]AmazoniBooks
Excerpts
At the sound of the front door opening, Arty abandoned both his daydreaming and darning and swiftly rose, switching off the TV on his way out of the room. He stopped in the doorway to watch Jim, bent double just inside the front door and fighting to get out of his boots. “Hello.”

Jim glanced up and offered Arty a weary smile. “Hey.”

“You’re early.”

“Yeah. We had to stop work. Too damn cold.” Jim straightened and began unbuttoning his coat, or tried. He was making very slow progress. “What’s the weatherman have to say?”

“More to come, I’m afraid. Here, let me.” Arty moved in and took over, hoping only he was conscious of his racing heart. The way Jim was watching him at close quarters, it was impossible to say, and Jim had asked more than once if there was something Arty wasn’t telling him. Thank goodness he only had to keep the secret for one more day. He’d never done well at hiding things from Jim. “No wonder you’re struggling. Your hands are freezing.”

“Care to warm ’em for me?” Grinning mischievously, Jim sneaked one hand under Arty’s pullover. Arty gasped in shock, instinctively trapping Jim’s hand with his elbow and keeping it there while he unfastened the rest of the buttons.

“There,” he said sternly, taking a step back and rubbing at the palm-sized cold spot Jim had left on his side. “Do you want to eat first or go for your bath?”

“Bath, I think. Warm up a little. Hey!” Jim called; Arty was already moving towards the bathroom. “I can deal with it myself. You go rest.”

Arty laughed. “That’s what I’ve been doing all day, love.” That wasn’t strictly true; he’d baked, prepared dinner, finished the ironing and most of the sewing, but it was all very sedentary and for no reason beyond those being the more pressing of the household tasks. In spite of Arty being registered disabled, of the two of them, he was in better physical shape, and it was telling on the eve of Jim’s retirement.

***
“Arty? Are you there?” Icy air blasted through the letterbox along with Jean’s call. Quite why she was shouting through it, Arty didn’t know; Jean and Charlie lived in the apartment upstairs.

“It’s open,” he said on his way down the hall. He turned the knob and pulled; the door didn’t budge.

“I think it’s stuck,” Jean said.

“Apparently so.” Yet Jim had left for work barely half an hour before, and the door had opened no trouble at all. “Give it a push,” he instructed.

“I am!” It put up a fight, and when it finally gave, it sprang wide open, sending Arty staggering backwards. Jean stumbled sideways into the hall, bringing half a snowstorm with her.

“Don’t wait for an invite, Jean,” Arty joked. Jean’s eyebrows rose. “Where have you been this early in the day?”

“I stayed at Eddie’s. I didn’t much fancy driving home in the snow.”

“Come on through to the kitchen—the stove’s been on all night.” Too cold to wait, he dashed off before she’d removed her coat. He filled the kettle, calling back, “I wish we’d done the cash-and-carry trip on Monday, like we planned.” The weather had been brutal all week—rain, gale-force winds—and they’d put off the trip as long as they could, but tomorrow was their dance school’s Christmas party, and it would happen, snow or no snow.

***
Even though I have a couple more posts to put out before the end of the year, I’ll take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas and an amazing 2018.

Thanks for reading!
Deb x

#WIPpet Wednesday - Goth of Christmas Past - Testing the Waters #amwriting #lgbtqia

WIPpet numbers for 20th December, 2017:12 paragraphs from Goth of Christmas Past

WIPpet Context:
I’m still snipping Goth of Christmas Past. The pictured cover is NOT the cover, which is finished, but I’m keeping it to myself for now. This novel won’t be out until next Christmas, but it’s fun writing it at this time of year. :)

Apologies to my fellow WIPpeteers for not getting around to you all last week. Work, urgh. Sorry.

This snippet coincides with events in the first season of Hiding Behind The Couch (which you can download for free: http://hidingbehindthecouch.com/?n1=where_to_buy#free). This conversation occurs a few days after the one in last week’s snippet.

* * * * *

“What do you think about DNA tests?”

Kris squeezed the teabag against the side of the cup and lifted it out. “What do I think?”

“Yeah. If I could narrow it down to a few suspects…”

“Too much CSI, is what I think.”

She tutted but didn’t dispute it, seeing as that was where she’d got the idea. “What you gonna do? Ban me from watching it?” She grinned. Kris gave her a look—she couldn’t tell if it was doleful or disbelieving, maybe a bit of both—as he shuffled her sideways to reach the bin. “Anyway, it’d only work if I had a list of suspects to start with. I just…”

He wasn’t looking at her—in fact, he was avoiding eye contact and he never did that—but he was still listening, so she rambled on. The DNA tests were craziness, completely over the top, but what else could she do if her mum genuinely had no idea who he was?

“It would’ve been nice to get it out of the way before my twenty-first—not, like, because I want him to be there in some kind of big father-daughter reunion. That’s soooo…Disney.” She couldn’t get a clear picture in her head of what he might look like, but even so, the mental image of running into the arms of some old man she didn’t know made her feel a bit icky.

“Come and sit,” Kris said, already pulling out a chair. He patted the back rest expectantly. Their cups of tea were already on the table. She complied with his request and sat down, pulling her drink closer and nursing it, waiting to hear what he had to say.

“You won’t like me telling you this, but looking for your dad is upsetting your mum.”

Krissi frowned, confused. “She was OK yesterday. We talked about loads of stuff…well, not about that, because…” Because every time Krissi had brought it up, her mum had changed the subject. “Why didn’t she say something?”

“She won’t. She knows it’s important to you, but you’re asking her some really difficult personal questions.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realise.”

* * * * *
What is WIPpet Wednesday?

WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where authors share from their current works in progress - expertly organised/hosted by Emily Wrayburn - and the excerpt has to relate to the date in some way. For links to other fabulous authors' WIPpets, visit: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=355404


Thanks for reading
Deb x