H.B. Pattskyn's Blog, page 29

Coffee Time Romance

Less than two weeks before Heart's Home comes out... I'm bouncing and on cloud nine... and scrambling to get other stuff done, and terrified that nobody's going to like my book, and stressed about work (or lack thereof), and, and, and!  LOL!

The skivvy on work is pretty boring, so I won't yammer on about it, just ask for good thoughts that things sort themselves out in the best way possible for everybody involved. No matter how frustrated I get, I adore my boss (and I'm not sure, but I might be in a better financial situation than she is, and frankly, folks, that's scary.)

So, let me explain the title of this post. I was invited by one of my fellow Dreamspinner Press authors to participate in a "Not Quite New Year's Eve Author Chat" over at... you guess it, Coffee Time Romance !  The link takes you to a page that informs you you're not logged in/signed up. Not the friendliest place to dump readers, for which I apologize, I'm still learning my way around the site. I'd never heard of it before Anne (Anne Barwell, who happens to be the author of one of the *many* books on my to-read list, Cat's Quill ) sent me the invite to join them on December 30. I don't know who all else, as far as authors go, is planning on being there, but it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun! I usually open on Friday's, so I should be dropping in that day around 2:30--but please, show up sooner than that and talk to Anne and the other authors who are there. It looks like all you have to do is sign up as a member at Coffee Time Romance (free and totally painless), and then follow the links to the chat page (I found it on the calendar page). I might have to bump Anne's book up on my list to try and at least start it before the 30th.  ;-)

In other news, although I'm getting slowly caught up on the ghost book, I'm still struggling... which is why as insane as my work schedule is right now, I'm assuming the Universe is just giving me the time I need to make my first deadline (and collect a tidy little advance check). I truly do believe that the Universe works with us, not against us--the trick is to go with the flow, rather than fight it. I learnt that lesson a long, long time ago.

Also, I'm still pecking at that WIP, Bound to Please.  The thing is, it's done. I know it's done. I knew I'd hit the last chapter about a third of the way through the chapter when Jason, my main protagonist (the whole thing is in his POV--I know, Helen sticking to a single POV for an entire book, 70,000 words!) Anyway, I knew I'd reached the last chapter when Jason realized he was "home" (yeah, home is kind of a theme for me.) Jason is fully human, so it isn't the same kind of home Alun is looking for; Jason just needs a place where feels welcome. Wanted. The things I think we all need. Anyway, so Jason realizes he's found it with Henry and I realize it's the last chapter...but I don't really want it to end. I have become completely enamoured of Jason and Henry. We all know what that means. There are more stories to be written!

But first I have to sell Bound to Please. I expect it to be a tough sell. There's lots of sex... no, seriously, we're talking about half of the book is sex or sexually charged BDSM/kinky exchanges. And of course there's that whole BDSM/kinky thing, which not everybody loves. I haven't written anything that crosses into the generally accepted "ick" factor--mostly because that stuff is kinda icky to me, too (although I still love David Stein's books. They go way, way, WAY too far for me on a deep and personal level, but talk about a guy who knows his stuff! I'd rather read something that makes me personally uncomfortable, yet rings true, than something that just sounds "off", something that rings false, even though it's within my comfort zone. Although while we're on the subject, Another Way , by Ann Martin was an excellent BDSM/kinky read--but of course it was, it was recommended to me by the lovely and talented Tia Fielding!) However, back to limits, the other problem with Jason and Henry is that while they don't want to blatantly go beyond my personal comfort zone, they do want to push my limits a little. A lot. So I'm not sure how readers--or more importantly, editors--are going to react. But I love them. So as soon as I get in the requisite number of chapters to meet my ghost book deadline at the end of the month, I'm going to see about getting Bound to Please revised... I'm told by the members of my critique group that it suffers from a serious "lack of economy of words".  ;-)  Essentially, it's a lot like that Once Upon a Time in Mexico fic I wrote so many years ago; even though Bound to Please is in the 3rd person, we get so fully into Jason's head that his every little thought comes out onto the page.

Happy Monday--and please come visit me on my now TWO chats this month! Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Guys Like Romance Too

Guys Like Romance Too is officially up and running. Yours truly is going to be a guest blogger later on in the year--but in the meantime, go check out all the other cool authors who are dropping by to guest blog!

This is a great time of year to share the love, so no doubt many of them will have contests and give aways (I'm doing give aways for both of my guest blog spots, in... July and September, I think.) 

Have great Thursday! I'm going to take my unexpected day off from work and get some of my own work done!Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Heart's Home Excerpt

In response to a request, here's a small excerpt from Heart's Home ... 16 days and counting!!
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THE morning after a second woman's mutilated body was found in Whitechapel, Alun was yanked from his doss house bed and deposited on the hard wooden floor with a painful thump. He yelped, but didn't fight back. His assailants could only be described as a pair of common ruffians—except there wasn't anything common about them. They weren't even human, they were lycanthropes, not that any human looking at the two huge burly men would ever know it.


As soon as they let go of him, Alun rolled over, belly up, and tilted his chin, offering his throat in submission. Another lycan, a female called Rhianna, crouched in the shadows, in her wolf form. She was a full-blooded lycan, like Alun, but where he was lean and hard muscled, she was emaciated. Her shaggy black coat was gnarled and matted, her dark eyes were dull and sunken in. Alun's heart ached as he counted her ribs from across the room. Females should be cherished, protected, not left to starve. His heart ached all the more because this female was Dark Moon-born, a Spirit Dancer like him, someone who could pierce the veil and transverse between this world and the next—though unlike him, Rhianna was fully trained and initiated and should have been held in highest regard by her pack. When Alun met her gaze, Rhianna's lip curled back in a snarl. She had never made any secret of her distain for him. None of them did.


The fourth and final member of the party stood by the door, calmly watching the scene unfold, a smug, self-satisfied grin on his face. His name was Percival Shilton, and he was the London pack's leader, a muscular, tawny-skinned man with too-long red hair and humorless silver eyes. He strode over to Alun and knelt next to his head, placing one large calloused hand casually on his throat. Alun tilted his head back further and returned his gaze submissively to the floor.


"There's a good cwn," crooned the pack leader, his tone patronizing. Speaking Welsh—cwn was the word for "dog"—when he himself was English, only added insult to injury. Or perhaps injury to insult. Alun wasn't a dog, he was a full-blooded lycanthrope, and they both knew it. Even so, he kept his tongue still. Speaking out of turn would only make things worse than they already were. "You are my little doggie, aren't you, lad?" Rather than waiting for a reply, he released his hold on the Welshman's throat and lifted his hand to Alun's lips. Though it sickened Alun to the very marrow of his bones, he rubbed his face against the pack leader's outstretched fingers, nuzzling them, kissing his knuckles and covering himself in the other's repugnant scent as if he were little more than a lap dog showing obeisance to his master. He kept it up until Percival finally patted his cheek in mock-affection. "Such a good boy," he soothed, stroking Alun's face and hair. "Such an obedient little doggie. Aren't you?"


Alun swallowed back the bile burning in his throat and closed his eyes. "Yes, my Lord." He had to force the words out. Percival settled his hand on Alun's throat again, just lightly, and turned to the two big sneering lycans standing near the door. "See, what did I say, boys? He's a good doggie." But when he looked back down at Alun, his face grew cold. "Or has ye been a naughty little doggie?" he queried, tightening his grip on Alun's neck. "Been sniffing up whores' skirts, cwn?"


Trembling, Alun shook his head. "I swear, m'Lord, I had nothing to do with those women."


Percival snorted. "I'm sure you didn't." It was no secret that Alun fancied men. Percival grabbed hold of his hair, pulling it so tight Alun's eyes watered—but he didn't dare move. The pack leader smirked and pulled Alun's face up right next to his own, so that when he spoke, Alun felt the heat of his breath and smelled his last meal rotting in his teeth. "I'll make ya a deal, ya wretched cwn, 'cause I know ya don't want to be seeing my face again any more than I
want to be seeing yours. You'll find the mongrel who's killing whores before the Yard comes sniffing round the wrong doors an' finds things we don't want 'em to find."


Alun swallowed hard and would have nodded if he could have, but instead, he was forced to speak. "Yes, m'Lord," he agreed, knowing as well as the rest of them that lycans would only survive as long as humans didn't believe in monsters any more. If that perception changed, it would be the Spanish Inquisition all over again.



Percival opened his fist, dropping Alun unceremoniously to the floor. "I don't know why your father disowned you; you're such a good little lap dog. But just so's we understand each other," he stood up and motioned to the two big lycans who had roused Alun from his bed, "I want ya to know what'll happen the next time ya see me…."

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This is one of my favorite scenes--although maybe that's because it leads directly up to the first time James and Alun make love. But it's also the first view we get of lycnathropic society. Alun keeps insisting to James (later, when he's forced to tell James that he's not human), how different lycans are from humans.
The more James learns about werewolves, the less different they seem...

and now for something completely different... or at least something worth smiling at:

Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Stuff Your Stockings Holiday Blog Hop (and Give-away!)

Okie dokie, Mercury Retrograde here we come!  This was in my "drafts" too, and I am VERY sure I posted it....

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I just signed up to participate in something cool ;-)  (It's especially cool for you guys!) 

Stuff Your Stockings Christmas Blog Hop, December 16th-18th . 

The quick and dirty of it is that each participating author (and there are LOTS of us) is going to be doing a give away contest between December 16th and 18th. The timing couldn't be better for me--or for those of you who didn't win a copy of my novel, Heart's Home, in my first give away.

The prize for this one is simple: one signed copy of Heart's Home, and since it's for that winter holiday (which ever one you celebrate), I'm going to whip out my hot glue gun, glass beads, and decoupage stuff, and make a Victorian-esque tree ornament to go with it (perfectly suitable for hanging in a window, too!)

I haven't decided quite how I'll choose the winner--so check back on December 16th for all the details--and for links to all of the other authors' websites/blogs/contests!  The more contests you enter, the more goodies you could walk away with!   I don't think it matter what you celebrate, or if you celebrate nothing at all, this time of year, this just sounds like fun! (You'd better believe I'm going to be a participant in a bunch of other writers' give aways!)Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

One of my absolute favorite songs

As many of you know, there have been a few songs over the years that have come to mean something to me in deep and personal ways. Siouxsie and the Banshees's "Suburban Relapse", Meridith Brooks's I'm a Bitch (or whatever it's really called--Alanis Morissette sings it to, I'm not sure who did it first), Liz Phair's "Extraordinary".  There's a new song to add to the list of personal anthems--and it has come at exactly the right moment in my life, too:





Listen carefully to the words.
If you like it, please support the band by buying the CD--it's an incredible album! Their website is abneypark.com (how easy is that!)
Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Happy American Thanksgiving!

I wanted to wish my American readers/followers a Happy Thanksgiving!

Like many Americans--many people around the world--when I look around me at the state of the economy, the government, the poverty--the sheer hopelessness of so many other issues that feel so much bigger than me (oil, coal, fracking, endangered species--disease, cruelty)--it can be hard to remember to be thankful for all the good things in my life. My family, my wonderful husband and daughter, my friends, both the ones I speak to several times a week and the ones I hardly see/talk to but still love with all my heart; my husband's family, who are for the most part the only family I have. And even so, I had a wonderful grandmother (she passed away in 1994). All of the other wonderful people who have influenced or positively impacted my life in some way.

There is a lot to be thankful for, but more than any of the material things for which I am grateful (having a roof over my head a food in the fridge), I am eternally grateful for the wonderful people in my life. YOU are what keeps me going, whether I've known you for twenty (or more) years, or just a few;
whether we talk every other day via AIM, communicate through FB messages, chat on the phone a couple of times a week, or don't always get in that once a year check-in phone call--whether it's been six months since we've spoken or six years or something in between. I have a truly odd bag of friends, but I love and appreciate you all.  I appreciate my odd bag of acquaintances, too--people I don't know quite well enough to presume to call friends, but whom I still care about because the Universe has seen fit to put some extraordinary people in my circle. It makes up for all the sucky people everywhere else!

I heard Jimmy Buffet on the radio at work today and it made me think of one of my oddest friendships--odd in the way that we met, not odd as in... well odd. The gentleman I think of, every single time I hear Jimmy Buffet, is probably one of my most ordinary friends (you know the type, a regular guy with a regular job, just going through his life, like the rest of us), and yet he is such an extraordinary human being with a heart that overflows with kindness and generosity. I am grateful that people like him exist in this world--and wish that there were more of them!  Sometimes I wonder what makes one person so just plain good and someone else rotten.

I'm happy to know so many of my fanfic readers--happy that so many of you have reached out with personal emails and/or to become my friend on Facebook. I might not know your favorite flavor of ice cream (mine is mint chocolate chip... just sayin'  ;-)  but you guys have meant so much to me over the years, giving me what I needed to write Heart's Home--heck, to keep writing, period. You've given me what I need to continue writing, even though it's almost scarier to write a second book than it was to write the first one! It was one of my wonderful reader/writer friends who showed me with an unexpected gift a year--maybe two--ago that there ARE good people in the world. I am still overwhelmed that so many of you have wanted to play in "my" world and write spin offs of the Bonny Welshman saga! I wanted to name so many of you by name when I did the dedication, but if I'd done that, it would have been pages, instead of paragraphs! (And I couldn't possibly name one person by name and not name everyone else whose name, or at least pen name, I know, that just wouldn't be fair.) 

On a truly personal note, I'm grateful for this crazy gift, for being able to write, to draw and paint, to create things with my hands--grateful to derive so much joy from it and that my gift seems to make other people happy, too. Sometimes I wish there was more time in the day, or that I could make enough money to not have to work--or at least to work fewer days--but maybe in time, that will come. (And really, my monitory needs aren't that great... I don't need a fancy new sports car or anything. Heck, if I was a stay at home writer and artist, I could get by with my old bicycle!)

And that makes this a good time to stop being mushy and go write; I came home with a screaming migraine and a new story idea. Now that the one is gone, I can hammer out a vague and hazy outline for the other... then tomorrow, I have to work on the ghost book.  And go eat turkey with my husband's other brother, his partner, and their family, which includes a new(ish) dog (she's been with them for a while) who is probably grateful for the big hearted humans who took her in and when nobody else wanted her decided to keep her.

Urgh. Which gives me another idea for a story...or actually, an additional "theme" for a work in progress, called (at this point) "The Stray", about a lycanthrope whose more dog than wolf and finds himself in the care of a human he quickly falls in love with... yeah, a writer's brain is always going.

Have a good day tomorrow, whether it's a holiday where you live or just another Thursday.Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

I just signed up for a Super Cool Promo

The blog is called "Guys Like Romance Too!"  (http://www.guyslikeromancetoo.blogspot.com/)
If you look to your right and down.... down....

                                                f u r t h e r.......

                                               keep going....

There! Under "Great Reviews and Previews" See? I'll be doing a guest blog on Carson's blog in July and again in September...and there will be a cool give away to go with each (I happen to think September's is especially cool but that's because it's going to involve artwork!)

All right, my wonderful husband informs me that dinner is ready, so this going to be a super short blog entry--the corned beef has been going since 10 am!  Yum!!!! 

When I come back in a day or two, I think I'll talk about my WIP (that's Work in Progress), which is actually about ready to sit and stew for a while, while I work on something else. Oh and the Ghost book, which is finally chugging along again.  :)

And don't forget about the December Stuff Your Stockings Give-away, the give away I have going now, and the December 24 chat at Good Reads!

~HelenHelen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Special Announcement from Dreamspinner Press

Dreamspinner Press has three special events going on between now and the end of November.

First, they're having a We Are Thankful Sale, 20% off everything on the web site through Nov. 30--not in time to buy my book, but still there are lots of other great books on the site and this is the PERFECT time to buy a few (especially if you're like me and you like audio and paperback copies, which are just simply more expensive that ebooks). Secondly, Dreamspinner has reached 1500 fans again on their Facebook page after FB ate the old one.  To say thank you, there's a code on the page for 15% off one order of any size over the next year .  Please visit http://www.facebook.com/dreamspinnerpress, for all the details. AND that IS in time for you to buy a copy of my book!Finally, every purchase made from the Dreamspinner website between now and Nov. 30 enters the purchaser in a drawing for a Kindle Fire, The winner will be chosen on Dec. 1.
So, buy a book between now and Nov. 30, save 20% AND get registered to win a Kindle Fire. And become a fan of Dreamspinner on Facebook and get a code for 15% off any one order of ANY size, good for any time during the next year.Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Frustrated

I love my job.
I really DO love my job.
But right now I'm frustrated with it.

Okay, so it's not the best job I've ever had, money wise, but it's cutting it, giving me just exactly as much as I need to make. And the economy sucks, so I really can't compare this job to any of the waitressing jobs I had fifteen or twenty years ago. Besides, I have great customers, great coworkers and despite my current frustration, really *nice* owners.

But nice isn't necessarily cutting it. I was told from the beginning not to expect to work on Monday. So... dum-dum-dum, I didn't expect to work tomorrow. Now, if something had come up and someone called in, that would be one thing, but that isn't the case. There's one person on Monday morning, and he works from 6-2.

Only I'm going in tomorrow to join him from 9-2. Mondays are dead. So are most of the other days of the week, but Monday and Tuesday, they only put one person on because it's so dead.

AND, having expected to have Monday off, I made plans. Plans that I'm cancelling, because at 6pm on a Sunday I was told I had to work at 9am on Monday. I can't even rearrange anything, because the rest of the schedule isn't made yet.  Last week, the schedule got posted on Friday.

Think about that for a moment. The schedule for the week starting on Monday got posted the following Friday.

Yeah.

I'm job hunting. Good vibes much appreciated.

Then again, I just said to the Universe that I was frustrated; I didn't go back to school to go back to waitressing when I got a degree, so maybe this is the kick in the pants I need to find something else.

But still. I'd hoped to be here for a while. A year. Maybe two. Sore feet aside, I was getting comfortable here.

Because I like my customers. I like my co workers. And lack of professionalism aside, I like my bosses--in fact I really adore my boss as a human being and hate it that she has to work so hard. (Seriously, the lady must put in an 80 hour week--which makes me feel like a heel for bitching about an extra day, but I really did have plans, work related plans. Ghosthunting Michigan plans.)

Sigh.

I guess it's time for bed, since I have to drive my husband to work at 4am, because no way do I make enough money waitressing for us to afford a second car, even a beater.

Maybe the really cool sounding place I just sent out a resume to will call me soon. It would be full time which isn't what I told the Universe I wanted, but sometimes the Universe has ideas of its own. I *did* say I wanted something more akin to what I trained for, after all.Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Heart's Home -- December 16th!!

It's official, I have a release date!  16 December!  Here's the URL for the ebook; there's a great exerpt up.
(It's also available in paperback--but with an ebook, you can have it in your hands--or at least in your kindle/nook/computer--within seconds!  I've ordered ebooks from Dreamspinner lots of times, it's a totally smoothe and easy process--and remember, technology and I are occasionally at odds, so if I say it was easy....  ;-)

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2669&osCsid=4jl4am0kh19tgemf603er12re7

I'll be adding the url as a link over at the side, under the cover, for future reference.

Okay, I have some work to do today. I had my head handed to me by my critique group (deservedly so) over what I submitted last week, and I'm still sussing out what to use, what to discard, and what to keep sitting on.

Oh, last thing, I participated in my first Good Reads chat yesterday, where I got to "meet" the fabulous S.A. Garcia and equally amazing Sarah Madison--it was a lot of fun! Sarah wasn't able to be there for much of it (she had an unexpected emergancy on the homefront: pig weed in the horse pasture. It's great for humans, but toxic to our equine friends and her equine friends were eating the stuff...)  And I ended up buying one of S.A.'s books as a result of her chatting about it--not the one she was officially signed on to chat about, but one of her previous titles. So far, I'm totally loving it:

Temptation of the Incubus
The above link will take you directly to the Amazon page.

I'm only a chapter or so in, but S.A. won me over on the first page with Amando's... Amando-ness? He's snarky, a bit flighty (he can't concentrate on one subject for more than a few lines), charming in his own way, witty, egotistical, but as an Incubus, it's probably deserved. So....there you have it, an official book recommendation! I seriously cannot wait to read the rest of it! Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author