Cardeno C.'s Blog, page 63

I tried, I really tried, by Felice Stevens

You may have seen people talk about Bullet Journals, washi tape and planning. Did you feel me shudder? 

Not without some envy, I watched on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat as authors and friends made pretty notes about all the work they planned on accomplishing over the next month. I admired their artistic ability and their clever use of stickers and Washi tape.



I went on Amazon and looked up Bullet journals and imagined myself figuring out what I would be doing for the next month and I had an epiphany. I picked out a cute journal with pineapples.

ARE YOU CRAZY? (That was the little voice inside my head screaming at me.)

Sheepishly, I took a step back and listened. 
I don't plan. I don't plot. And, I have to confess, I am not the most well-organized people you might ever meet. I don't even use the calendar app on my phone or the reminder.

"But look how pretty it is." I pointed to the picture of the pineapple journal. "It even has inspirational quotes."

YOU DON'T PAY ATTENTION TO THAT STUFF.

"Maybe I will. they can be really...inspirational. And, see?" I clicked on the Washi tape. "Pretty stickers. Books and bunnies and hearts."

NO FELICE. BACK AWAY. YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO USE IT.

I was about to argue when I realized that little voice in my head was right. I wanted to have a pretty journal where I'd set out all my goals and block out time for me to write. The problem is, I'd never follow it. I know me. I love the idea of the journal but I don't have the discipline to stay with it. I may have the rough idea of a story, but the thought of planning out the intricate details, or actually making an outline (horrors) gives me hives. I get the idea of a story and the names of the characters and sit down and start writing.

Sometimes I think about plotting out a book; I actually went ahead and did it over vacation. I wrote a synopsis and planned out the plot points of a book I'm writing.

Worst night of my life. Not going to happen again.

So, bye, by pretty pineapple journal. 
Don't you think it's cute?

 

COVER REVEAL: IT WAS ALWAYS YOU

★ ★ ★ COVER REVEAL ★ ★ ★

It Was Always You by Cardeno C, Ella Frank, Riley Hart, Lane Hayes, Christina Lee, Felice Stevens & N.R. Walker

Release Date: October 4th, 2016

Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance

Cover Designer: Hang Le

IT WAS ALWAYS YOU charity anthology will be released on October 4th!

It's the collaboration of seven MM romance authors who also run the private Facebook group called The MM Daily Grind. We're pumped to bring our readers SEVEN BRAND NEW NOVELLAS and to help raise money for a worthy cause.

All proceeds from this anthology will be donated to the LGBTQ youth organization ONE.N.TEN!

PRE-ORDER is available now for only $0.99 and is EXCLUSIVE to iBooks!

I hope you help us support this wonderful organization.

**You can also help these LGBTQ youths right now by buying back to school and camp items on ONE.N.TEN's AMAZON WISHLIST.


★ If you are a blogger and would still like to sign up for the release day blitz you can do so here.


Xx Ella, Christina, Riley, Felice, Lane, Cardeno & N.r.

Conferences - Andrew Grey

One thing I have done for a number of years is attend between 6 to 8 conferences a year.  They are hard work and I love them.  I have met some of the most amazing people at conferences, some of them have become dear friends.  I have of course met a number of authors as well as some amazing readers.  And the awesome part is that as the conference goes on from year to year I get to reconnect with those friends on a regular basis.  This particular week I am reconnecting with al my friends at Authors After Dark. 

I really hope I can meet each and every one of you at a future conference. 

Ask Andrew is your chance to ask questions of a gay romance author.  The questions can be about the writing process in general, writing sex scenes, gay men, sex, characters in romance, characters having sex... okay you probably get the picture.    I promise to answer your questions as frankly and with as much humor as I possibly can.

So if you have a question, please send it to andrewgreybooks@comcast.net.  This is different from my usual email so your questions don't get lost.  I will answer one question a week.

Please remember this is meant to be all in fun.  (I was going to say good, clean fun, but who wants that.)    So send me your questions and let's see what mischief we can get into.

Visit Andrew on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/andrewgreybooks  and you can join Andrew's fan group All The Way With Andrew Grey.

Follow him on Twitter:  @andrewgreybooks

Visit Andrew's web site:  www,andrewgreybooks.com

Either Or with BA, Julia, Kiernan and Sean

Today we are answering five random either or questions.

1) butter or margatine
2) Watson or Holmes
3) vanilla or chocolate
4) polar bears or penquins
5) steak or seafood

BA
butter, Moriarty, vanilla, polar bears and steak.

Ask CC (08.01.16) by Cardeno C.

Happy Monday! It's time for an Ask CC post,

Question: "When is your next novel going to come out?"CC: I just released my newest novel called Not a Game. :) 
Question: "I know you just put it out, but will you write Jack's story next in the Friends Series? By the way I absolutely loved Not A Game Tasha B"CC: Hi, Tasha. Yes, I'll write Jack's story. And I'm so glad you enjoyed Not a Game!
Question (grouped together because they're similar):"Just finished reading Perfect Imperfections for the fourth time. Just wondered if you thought about a sequel? Maybe with Jeremy's manager Bill or Reg's ex Kirby as the main characters and still give a what's going on with Jeremy and Reggie. Great book. Thx, Kendra""I love all your books. I am writing this to ask you what happened with Reggie and JJ(Perfect Imperfections) and Ford and Trevor(Strange Bedfellows) after what was in the story. Thank you very much for writing books. Keep writing.""Love your stories. Are there any plans to have a sequel to Perfect Imperfections? Jeremy and Reg are wonderful characters and it would be great to hear how their lives have progressed. Thanks!"CC: Hmm, I'm sensing a theme here. :) I'm not one for sequels generally but never say never, right? And there has been a JJ and Reg story floating in my head so anything's possible on the Perfect Imperfections front.
Question (grouped together because they're similar):"Hey CC !! I just wanted to ask if you are planning to write another book in pack series""CC, Are we ever going to get to hear about Ricky and Morgan from the Pack series? I'm dying to find out what happens with them. Thanks, B"CC: There will definitely be more Pack books. They're on my (way too long) to-be-written list. :)


Question: "When will Red River, the audiobook version be released."CC: The Red River audiobook narrated by the wonderful Nick Russo is now live!
Question: "Hello.  Love your books which are on my list of go-to favorite reads.  I was wondering if you had any plans to expand on TJ & Finn's story?  Thank you!"CC: I don't have any plans to write more of TJ and Finn right now but who knows what the future will hold.

Thanks so much for the wonderful questions! If you want to ask me a question that I'll answer on a future blog post, you can let me know here. Have a great week.
CC
www.cardenoc.com

Don't Twunk With My Heart by Renae Kaye

I find being a writer to be an odd profession at times.  You could see an author as a professional liar and con artist.  Isn’t that what we’re doing?  Creating an elaborate con, editing it and serving it up the customers who like to pretend it’s true?
Being an author is also a balancing act.  You’re stuck between being lost in a fantasy world and the reality of real life.  How much time should you spend in each?  How much promo should you do?  How much should you pay for marketing?  Is spending four weeks promoting a book worth it – or is it better spent creating the next masterpiece-wannabe for release?  How long should you write – novel, novella, short?  What sub-genre?  Will readers be turned away by the switch in genre?
I find that I’m learning every day and—yes I admit it—making mistakes.  From learning my “craft”—oh, is THAT what an Oxford comma is—to learning about racism.  I’m also learning my way through social media and dealing with people in an environment where you can’t judge their expressions which has led me to trusting those who I shouldn’t have.
These mistakes plus reading bad reviews and often wondering what the hell that author did to make it to #3 on Amazon (and are those 20 good reviews of theirs fake) can make you question yourself, question your profession choice, and regularly feel bad about your life. 
But all it takes is a small thing—like a Facebook video that goes for less than two minutes—to remind you one of the reasons you write, and renew that urge to make a difference.
Today, for me, it was a video about body image and men.  The video talked about images in the media that made men want to bulk up and put on muscle.  How more young men are using steroids.  How the pressure is mounting on our society. I was reminded about how one of the things that made me start writing was my desire for more stories where the characters weren’t perfect, alpha-male, good-looking, straight-acting, rich men.  I’d read a plethora of these books and often found I couldn’t relate to the character because I’d never met anyone who that perfect.
As a writer, my first priority is to entertain, and the first person I entertain is myself.  And I’m entertained by characters I can relate to—those who are not perfect in their personalities or their physical appearance.  I write to entertain, but I also know I have a responsibility to represent realism in my books.  Oh, I love a good hero book as much as the next girl, but you can’t live on a diet of chocolates.
I grew up reading M/F romance.  It was tiring reading about women who were beautiful and polished.  Sometimes they were plain women who had perfect skin, lovely hair, a nice figure, nice eyes and spoke softly.  I used to wonder if these authors had ever looked up the definition of “plain.”  I wanted to find a character like me with not-so-perfect skin, large wobbly thighs, a nose they hated, and a face that never made a billionaire fall in love at first sight.  Even in romance labelled as BBW the characters had something about them that would make the hero ignore their chubby cheeks but instead focus on the purity of their skin.
So when writing my M/M Romances I like to keep reminding myself of that dissatisfaction I used to feel.  It brings me joy to write about real people who have real problems.  I don’t mind at all if you tell me that it’s not your cup of tea because you prefer your perfect, macho men, because yes, I like those novels sometimes too.  But for me I like to think that I’m reaching an audience out there that is maybe feeling terrible about their own body image, and can be comforted about finding someone similar to them between the pages of a book and—oh, my gosh, no—that person can find love.
I’ve had readers who’ve disliked my choice of characters, disliked my character because of a personality flaw, and who’ve even made fun of my character’s physical appearance in reviews.  I have to remind myself that they weren’t my target audience.  And if a reader tells me that I should’ve written about the character they enjoy instead, I’m going to blithely ignore them.  Because I love my characters.  I have flaming twinks and grizzly bears.  I have guys with attitude and guys who wouldn’t know attitude if they accidentally tripped over them four times in a row.  I have guys with disabilities, guys with hang ups, and guys with pasts.  I write about the lost, the broken, and the ones who didn’t know what was missing from their lives until their perfect match came along.
Some have perfect bodies – Andrew and Paul certainly worked their bodies hard at the gym as they achieved a satisfaction from that.  Some don’t – and I will never ever apologise for Shawn and his curves.  Some dress up, literally – because who doesn’t like a man in a dress? – and some are grateful they can afford a five-dollar polo shirt.  Some are hairy and don’t give a stuff about what people think of that, and some are rather vain about the fact their chest doesn’t grow hair.
My new release, Don’t Twunk With My Heart features two men who are trying to reach an ideal body image—that of a sleek, polished, young twink.  For Tate, the passage of time has taken him away from being a twink and he struggles with diets to try and hold onto that ideal.  Tate needs to realise that his weight and his image aren’t what gets him respect.  For Kee, he struggles with the insult of “fairy princess” an ex threw at him.  He has to work through his idea of masculinity and self-respect.
I like to think that you need to have love for yourself before you can truly love another.  In this book it is true.  Kee must learn to accept who he is, and Tate has to learn to accept who he will never be again.  Neither character is perfect.  But sometimes they just may be perfect for each other.
Don’t Twunk With My Heart is a sweet little story that I hope entertains, but also reminds you to accept yourself and everyone – even those who have the bad taste to wear pink jeans.
Available now for preorder from Dreamspinner.

How to contact Renae: Email:  renaekaye@iinet.net.au Website:  www.renaekaye.weebly.com FB:  www.facebook.com/renae.kaye.9 Twitter:  @renaekkaye

Back to Reality by Felice Stevens

It had to happen. Family vacation anticipated all year is over, and while there will be other trips, this was the one we all look forward to the  most. We spent 10 days in Costa Rica and ate and drank our way to happy times. I'm including some pictures of the wildlife, the surroundings and our food.





This picture above is of the howler monkeys that wander the resort, looking for the mango trees. Can't blame them.
Now it feels like I'm on the back end of the summer and I haven't done anything, except release a book. The Arrangement is doing well and thank you to everyone who's bought it, read it and reviewed it. Next up will be the re-release of a fully re-edited Rescued, with a bonus addition at the end—the upcoming sequel, Reunited. Stay tuned for that sometime in either late August or early September.
I hope you've heard of the charity anthology I'm doing with Cardeno C, Riley Hart, Ella Frank, Lane Hayes, Christina Lee and N.r. Walker to benefit the One n Ten Charity. This is their website so please check it out: 
http://onenten.org/ 
If you haven't read the The Arrangement, you can find it here:Amazon: http://mybook.to/CarterandReed
iBooks: http://apple.co/29JbH8k
AllRomance: http://bit.ly/CarterandReed
Nook: http://bit.ly/29Sff7u
Kobo: http://bit.ly/29PmDF5

Anthology for charity by Riley Hart

Hello! I'm really excited to announce that I'm participating in an anthology with two other authors at Cafe Risque, Cardeno C and Felice Stevens, along with Christina Lee, NR Walker and Lane Hayes!! The anthology is called It Was Always You. The cover reveal is August 4th and the book will release October 4th with all of the royalties going to charity!!

I'm really honored to participate. One-n-Ten is an incredible program that provides services with LGBT Teens. Please check them out and all the wonderful things they do. You can also visit their Amazon Wishlist to help with back to school and camp items HERE.



I can't wait to help them reach their goals!! More information on the anthology soon and if you're a blogger who would like to participate in the cover reveal and release blitz, you can fill out the Google doc HERE.

The Greatest Writer's Resource - Other Writers - Andrew Grey

Throughout my career I have been aided in my endeavors by so many other authors, its almost staggering.  But I wanted to relate a particular story.  A number of years ago at a convention I met Julie Talbot and Ba Tortuga.  I had known them for some time, but we really got the chance to sit down and talk.  And of course I gained not only friends, but also two writing sisters whom I adore. 

At the time I had bene thinking of writing a bull rider and I needed some information.  The three of us sat down and we talked westerns, bull riding, cowboys and goodness knows what else.  Ba gave me so much information I thought my head was going to explode, but it was one of those memorable talks that I still remember after all this time.  The story that came out of that talk was A Wild Ride and by extension the other two books in that series.  I love those stories very much, partly because they are full of action and fun and partly because my friend Ba helped get me on the path.

By the way I have to say that Ba is my favorite Lesbian and she has the t-shirt to prove it!  Ask her to show it to you sometime. 

Ask Andrew is your chance to ask questions of a gay romance author.  The questions can be about the writing process in general, writing sex scenes, gay men, sex, characters in romance, characters having sex... okay you probably get the picture.    I promise to answer your questions as frankly and with as much humor as I possibly can.

So if you have a question, please send it to andrewgreybooks@comcast.net.  This is different from my usual email so your questions don't get lost.  I will answer one question a week.

Please remember this is meant to be all in fun.  (I was going to say good, clean fun, but who wants that.)    So send me your questions and let's see what mischief we can get into.

Visit Andrew on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/andrewgreybooks  and you can join Andrew's fan group All The Way With Andrew Grey.

Follow him on Twitter:  @andrewgreybooks

Visit Andrew's web site:  www,andrewgreybooks.com

Twerking and more with Julia, BA, Sean and Kiernan

Random questions today are!

If you were a dance move or style, what would you be?

What is your spirit animal?

How many books do you own?

Dr. Who or Star Trek?

What is your favorite piece of clothing and why?

BA says: two-step, the raven, not enough, but if my ebook collection was physical, you'd call me a hoarder, Star Trek, anything jersey that doesn't itch and doesn't touch me.

Kiernan says: 1. The Stroll - it's old and doesn't go very fast.

2. I took a quiz. According to the quiz I took, I'm a llama.