Elinor Gray's Blog, page 8

'Experimental Repeatability' and DPS

I got an email Friday night from Dreamspinner Press, and I'm very excited to announce that they are interested in publishing another one of my short stories! I wrote a tiny fic for my mmom table in May about mutual masturbation and regrets in the morning, and I turned it into an original piece to submit it to DSP's Higher Learning anthology. They didn't want it for that, didn't quite fit the theme, but the editor of the anthology said, please submit this as a standalone, it's too good to let go.

So I did! And they want it for real!

I read it over again yesterday and did a lot of embarrassed face-palming. There are a handful of typos in the manuscript (I'm missing a "he" in there somewhere), and the prose feels stilted, but I'm looking forward to editing it into something nice that people will actually want to pay small amounts of money to read. \o/

I called my sister to tell her all about it, too, and we squeed together. She's my best fiction wingman. She's the reason I started submitting in the first place. :D

Now I'm all riled up about writing original fiction and submitting things, but Supernatural just started to get good again and I'm inspired to write canon fic for the first time in a long time, and I have a number of other obligations I need to get to before NaNoWriMo starts in November. This year it's superheroes. I pitched that one to Riptide Publishing for kicks a few weeks ago and one of the editors was actually intrigued, but I realized I was in a bind since I hadn't written a word of it yet. I haven't even finished naming my main characters. Maybe I'll write a blurb or a synopsis for them mid-November to see if they're still interested, and admit that it's in progress.

Also I need to remember that I'm a full time student writing my undergraduate thesis, and expecting to have time for hundreds of hours of writing and editing is a little overly optimistic. Still, baby steps. ;)

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Original Fiction: 'Desert Rain'

I'm taking more short fiction this semester, and so far it's fantastic. We do these incredible close-reading workshops that are absolutely spoiling me for getting edited in the future: I ask for betas of fic and I get proofreading, which is great, but I need to be reminded that not everyone will read my stories as carefully and with such scrutiny as these other students.

Anyway. My first story was due two weeks ago and I have another due in a week, but I'm going for my first conference today so I wanted to put this down for posterity. This is a first draft.

Desert Rain by elinorgray (draft 1)
Key words: Contemporary, UST, high school, college, road trip, triangle
3,650 words

( Michael doesn't like anyone else to drive his car )

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Epic fantasy porn, you're mine.

Well it took me a year, but I finally managed to submit another erotic short story to a publisher. Incidentally, it was to Circlet Press, with whom I was published in March, and who counted as my last successful submission back in June of '10. Submitting "Sunflowers" to Dreamspinner was a submission, but that baby needs a lot of work. :P

It was fun to write! Once I got past the angst of "oh god I'm so out of practice writing original fic" and went head-first into the porn, everything was fine. I figured out motivation for all characters while they were fucking, and everything got squared away. If nothing comes of this submission I'll definitely still share, because I'm quite fond of my two fantasy quest adventure boys!

The premise of the anthology is what happens in epic fantasy quests behind the scenes. Which is sex. In my fic, Encounter at the Lonely Dragon, Gavin Thorne is dragged back into adventuring by a depressed economy, and has to go questing to make money. I based it in the D&D games I used to play with my dad, and then later with my high school boyfriend and his friends, which was a treat. I just love the idea of having to quest as a job, and not as something people just fall into.

Anyway, Gavin has to sleep in the loft of the stable because everyone else in the world is looking for quests to pay the bills, and he's set up by the barmaid to run into an ex-boyfriend who screwed him over a few years back and contributed to his retirement from adventuring. One thing leads to another, tension tension etc, and they totally have sex.

The fic is only 7k, but it might be fun to revisit them and give them an actual fantasy quest. I've alluded to a lot and let a lot of things to assumption and conjecture, but it might be fun to play more in this world. I've always wanted to write a D&D fic where I actually rolled (my set of D&D) dice to determine the outcome.

Good Stuff on the Way

First of all, apologies for every entry on LJ since March being a twitter update. At least I'm active?

Anyway. I'm about to start a fun project with my cohort (and sister) warrensz ! We haven't gotten it entirely off the ground yet, but we're in the planning stages. It will be a fantasy serial posted hopefully every week, with ficiton by yours truly and art by warrensz . It's called "Night Guild," and for now you can find the empty community at nightguild .

The story? For now, the totally lame back-cover description is When Reid Lander was a boy, he witnessed the ordered assassination of his father in the family home. Seventeen years later, he has finally found the fabled Night Guild of assassins, and means to infiltrate it in order to avenge his father's death. He joins as a novice and begins his training, the need for revenge lingering just under the surface of his consciousness. But as he learns the ways of the guild and falls in with his novices and his superior trained operatives, he begins to understand that the guild is run by a higher power, a lawful power, and the order to kill is not random. Now his perceptions of his father are tainted by the idea that his death was purposeful, and he is determined to find the answers.

YEAH. We'll have character bios and location descriptions up soon, to fill the time while I'm working on my spn_j2_bigbang (due June 9th). It's going to be great!

It's here!

Oh man. I am so excited to finally share this. I heard of the call for submissions back in May of last year, I think, and jumped at the opportunity. I'd just fallen headfirst into the Sherlock Holmes fandom, thanks to the '09 movie and the BBC's new series, and a reread of the original Strand canon, and I was awash with ideas. But it couldn't just be Holmes, it had to be Steampunk Holmes.

So I put them in a Zeppelin. :D

Holmes is, after all, famous for his ingenuity, and his need for intellectual stimulation. How does he occupy himself when a mystery is solved too quickly? In "The Adventure of the Green Zeppelin," by Elinor Gray, we are given a glimpse of what might be going on in the back of Holmes's mind while he works on his cases. It seems only logical that he would have many varying ideas on the go, and Watson, as his friend (and lover) could often benefit from his inspirations. He certainly does here. And really, who hasn't thought of high-flying sex when gazing upon a zeppelin?

( Read an excerpt! )

This anthology features the work of some really fabulous writers, and I am honored, to say the least, to be counted among them.

The Prophet’s Eye by Aoife Bright
The Hysteria Machine by Louise Blaydon ( obstinatrix )
The Adventure of the Green Zeppelin by Elinor Gray ( elinorgray / elinorgray )
Research by Kate Lear ( kate_lear )
Upon the Use of Electrical Vibration in the Treatment of Hysterics by Violet Vernet ( missviolet )
Emet by Cornelia Grey ( corneliagrey )
Songs Without Words by Peter Tupper

The anthology is available for purchase from Circlet Press.

And thanks guys, all of you, for being around while I talked and talked about this. You are all incredibly supportive of me and my baby publishing career.

In gratitude, I want to do a drawing! Comment on this entry and I'll put your name in a "hat" for a free copy. Comment on both the DW and the LJ entry, and I'll give you two, because I'm not above shameless self-promotion. &hearts

EE, FINALLY.

I got an email today that Elementary Erotica from Circlet Press is finally back from the ebookers and is ready to be published. Tomorrow! No author's copy yet for me to fawn over, but you bet your buttons there will be a drawing for a copy soon.

This anthology was a bit of an accident for me. I sent then a story I dashed off when I heard the call for submissions, and I was shocked and elated when they asked if they could have it. It threw me headfirst into the daunting and wonderful world of publishing, all fresh-faced and hardly ready. I'm making efforts this year to get my work into other anthologies by other publishers because I really do want to do this with (at least part of) my life, but I think I need to be a little easier on myself about deadlines and real time. I am a full time student, and it's not life and death.

That said, I'm secretly super jealous when some of my lovely writer friends post about new things they have coming out. I want that! I want cover art and reviews and shiny things!

In truth, I already have them. Fandom is the best resource, and I realized I'm sticking around in the SPN fandom because I love the people so much. I still love Show, but I'm not sure what's going on in canon right now (not because I'm not watching, but because I'm truly baffled), but I love fic and I love fic writers, and I love fandom.

But I'm still going to get a novel published, some day. :D

Three BBs at Once

I don't have a lot of common sense or restraint when it comes to signing up for challenges. This spring, it's the accidental Three-Big-Bangs-At-Once that I've put myself to.

However! I'm enjoying all of them a great deal, and while I'm flying a little blind with "Robin Hood" and looking at a lot more work than I have time for with "Magic College" (those aren't titles, I swear...), they're all fun to do.

EXCERPT TIME.

Futuristic Robin Hood:

He let the cold air cool his blood and slow his racing pulse. If he stayed too long, Robin would come looking for him, always on edge about his crew. Robin was a reluctant leader, but a good one, and he wouldn't stand for anyone wandering off on their own longer than five or six minutes.

On schedule, the metal doors creaked again, and Robin appeared, wrapped in the old coat he'd been wearing when John met him. Christ, had it only been four months? He remembered the first time he'd seen Robin he'd been black and blue, his lip bleeding and his eye swollen almost shut, but he'd pulled John to his feet from the rubble and shoved him into a doorway. He'd clung to John like a lifeline as the city rained down around them, and John regretted putting that black-eye there. Robin had surprised him, that was all, and he'd already been mugged twice. There was a pause in the tumult of noise and Robin had looked up into his face, grinned, and said, "Well, I suppose they're right when they tell you never poke a bear."

Robin hesitated before reaching for him, and John quietly welcomed the familiar hand on his arm. "Come on back in," Robin said. "I won't ask you about it."

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Go to College, Sorcerer

Gareth Ember was the third child of a brood of four, the younger son of a farmer from Grassneck and a weaver famous in Resk. He was born outside Shadowhilt, a great way north of the capital city, and was brought up like the rest of the children in the village— coddled by many mothers, fed by many fathers, running free all day and sleeping at night with his siblings in the bed beside the fireplace. For years, life was simple. The Embers were never rich, but the village didn't count itself wealthy by any means, so they got on just fine. Gareth went to school with his brother and his sisters, learned to read and write, and spent the summers working for his father.

When Gareth turned fourteen, things changed. He put on six inches in a year, and it began to become apparent that he was Talented. Not only was he sore and sullen, voice changing and face all spotty, but his body was surging with magic. He was an anomaly in the village, being the only one in three score years to show any Talent, and he was regarded with awe. At first, the Talent appeared to have no focus, and everything Gareth touched went awry. Pots on the stove boiled over, plants withered and died (or grew to immense proportions in an instant), and all the village dogs set to barking when he was anywhere near. People, while they didn't exactly avoid him, gave him a woefully wide berth, and Gareth spent two years with only a couple of people who cared to talk to him for any length of time.

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Cop!Jared/nurse!Jensen AU

Oh fuck, Jared thinks, entirely grateful that he stifled the desire to make a male nurse joke. This guy is gorgeous, and it's not just the drugs talking. Even from this angle, which is not a flattering angle on anyone, he looks good. Jared can see the line of his throat, the broadness of his shoulders, the hint of stubble on his jaw. He wants to lick that jaw all of a sudden, and feels himself flush with the craziness of the idea.

"How are you feeling?" the nurse asks.

"Awesome," Jared says, his mouth entirely out of control, "now that you're here."

"Wow," the nurse says, the hint of a smile turning up the corner of his beautiful lips, "that was quick. I usually get at least one blood pressure measurement in before I get hit on."

"Really?" Jared asks. "That shocks me. You should get hit on all the time."

"And usually it's women," the nurse adds, smiling openly now. He puts the chart down and reaches for the blood pressure cuff.

"Oh," Jared says, seriously disappointed. He frowns and stares at the nurse's bicep, and the nurse grins.

"Never mind," he says. "Can you lift your arm for me?"

"Which?"

"The one that doesn't hurt."

Jared obeys. The nurse takes his blood pressure, tells him, "One seventeen over seventy five," and writes it down, and then comes at him with the thermometer. "Under your tongue."

Jared opens his mouth, wider than necessary.

"Don't show off," the nurse says.

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Teehee, fiction. ILU.

rejectedddd

Got a reply from Dreamspinner finally about Sunflowers, and the answer was thanks but no thanks. :/

Oh well! Either I'll put it back online or clean it up again and submit it somewhere else. It is a little rough in places, I'm sure, and could use some more polishing.

But that will have to wait, of course, until after my three big bangs are finished and sent in, which means... June.

Meh! Okay. I'm over it.

so many ideas, so little time

Update: I've heard from Circlet about EE. Apparently some shit went down and they moved the release date to February 22nd, but they didn't let us know in case it moved again. O_o Whatever, Circlet. Email me next time.

Anyway. I accidentally started writing a fantasy novel a few nights ago, when a spot of dialogue suddenly fit perfectly with an image I'd been carrying around for a few years, since I finished my first NaNoWriMo in 2009. Then I accidentally thought up two more parts to the story, a beginning and an end, and now I have three stories on my hands that might come together quite nicely.

But I signed up for spn_j2_bigbang as I did last year, looking forward to the opportunity to write me some semi-original J2 AU fic about my nurse and cop who come together in a case and don't want a serial rapist to be the reason they fall in love (creepy much?). But I haven't started it, because I'm worried I'll do both cops and hospitals wrong (thanks anon meme! you rock!).

Additionally, I signed up for novel_bigbang to get myself motivated to write my futuristic Robin Hood menage a tois with Robin as an ex-army sniper, Little John as his protege and lover, and Marian as their arsonist and third party. Then they fight robots. Maybe.

So, with this fantasy idea of a sorcerer who goes to ~magic college~ to learn to control his powers (I call it a Talent, drawn from that 2009 NaNo) and meets the prince, resulting in an awkward and not entirely honest young romance (the prince, that is, is in disguise to go to college), I put myself down for fantasybigbang as well.

*facepalm*

The draft for SPNJ2BB is due May 1st, right in time for me to finish school and start my exams (i.e. I need to be working now before school ends - I have 10 weeks). The rough draft for FBB is due June 15th and the rough draft for NovelBB is due June 30th.

Not to mention all the smaller, call-for-submission things I want to work on for actual publishers.

I have a lot on my plate, that's all I'm saying. Plus a full course-load and a ton of reading to do every night. I'm doing a lot of juggling.

And I like every minute of it. :D

well, this is a bit off-putting

It's a quarter past nine in the evening on February 8th, the day the Elementary Erotica anthology was (is?) scheduled to come out at Circlet Press, and I've seen neither hide nor hair of it (although I've been checking the site compulsively all day like a kid waiting for the ice cream truck). I don't know what to say!

There's nothing to say, really, until tomorrow, perhaps. Then I will email the editor (along with my cohort Cornelia, and perhaps others) to see what's up.

The biggest problem I'm having, really, is that they haven't contacted me (us) about this at all. I had to email the editor and ask when it would be coming out. Isn't that the sort of thing they tell you? I am befuddled.

At any rate, you all have been wonderfully supportive of this, my magical first publication, and so I have to thank you for that. Even if I don't have anything to show for it yet.

&hearts