B.A. Tortuga's Blog, page 103

I am not a member of RWA

I was, once, back in the the day when they flat out told m/m writers we weren't welcome. Back when ebooks weren't welcome. When starting your own publishing company because no one else would publish what you wrote was called running a 'vanity press', even when, like me, you published other people before you published your own work, you hired editors, and you paid royalties.

I kept my membership for a year, went to a single convention, and decided to leave.

I have never regretted that decision.

I periodically go back and look at the organization, which has absolutely made strides (thanks in a huge part to my fellow m/m writers who have more patience with politics and rules and jumping through hoops and playing games than this good old girl ever will and bless each and every one of them for it), and still say, no.

No, I'm not interested in paying to be in a situation where being a second class person is still an option, where chapters have the option to say no, no gay stories for us and where it's okay to wait for months to discuss it and decide if that's okay. This still, right now, is not an organization for my queer, pink-haired, tattooed, mm (and mmf and ff and mf) writing self.

Just sayin'.

BA

Fixin to Head Out to Colorado

After the brutal summer this last year, Julia and I are talking about relocating to her home state, Colorado. We're going to spend a week in the mountains, kicking snow and drinking beer, seeing what we see.

I'm hoping that I can tolerate the cold and that we figure out the neighborhood we want to move to.

I'll keep y'all informed!

New Book Out Today!!!

Cowbell, Book and Candle is my newest paranormal series, featuring Lily, Sara May, and BJ -- three friends from Central Texas.

There are 4 more books currently planned for this series: Don't Mess with Hexes, Royal Witch, Hexy Lady, and Hex and the Kitty. :D They're a little dark, a little humorous, and I adore the universe. :D

Official blurb for Deep in the Heart of Hexes: Lily really isn't the shop-owner type, but she knows she has to go back home after college and take over her granny's weird, wonderful store, just like she promised. The problem is that Granny wants her to get serious about things she's not even sure she believes in. When Granny falls mysteriously ill after an antique shatters in the shop, Lily starts to think that the whole world is off-kilter. Marc deals daily with the kinds of phenomena Lily is struggling against. He knows it's magick, but he's not sure how to convince such a beautiful, stubborn woman how to start looking for solutions of the supernatural variety. Lily thinks Marc is arrogant and amazingly handsome, but she doesn't want to trust him. Can the two of them learn to work together in time to save all that Lily holds dear?
Excerpt:

"Granny? Are you sure these…wooden squirrels deserve a spot in the window?" Lily picked them up gingerly, holding them with the tips of her fingers. Good night, look at the dust.

"Of course they do. The nutcracker is a Texas antique, and every nutcracker needs a few squirrels."

"Granny…" She shook her head. "There's a lovely piece of stained glass that would catch the light…"

A year she'd been working here.

A whole year after graduation, just like they'd agreed to when Granny forked over her college tuition, and Granny had been like…like a boss instead of family. They'd tied it up about the inventory, the ancient pointless cash register, and buying every piece of worthless junk any old man brought in, saleable or not.

Lily had to spend one Saturday a month at the spa just to make sure she didn't smell moldy. Or like chamomile. Or the weird-assed sage bundles Granny had in the old apothecary cabinet. Smudge-sticks, she called them. Lily still had no idea what was supposed to smudge. And then there was that stupid grandfather clock, ticking and ticking.

"Lilith Streigha…"

She closed her eyes and counted to thirty. Twice. "Granny, they need to be dusted at least."

She could do it and drop them. Step on them. Hard.

"Gently. With a feather duster." Granny waggled a finger at her, the green eyes that didn't look anything like hers just dancing. Granny sure had her number. Sometimes it was like she just plucked thoughts out of Lily's head. Half the time she didn't even notice.

"Of course." She stuck her tongue out at Granny, winked. "Bossy old bat."

"Silly whippersnapper." Granny eased down into the old wooden desk chair she'd lined with egg crate foam.

"Uh-huh. You forgot uppity." She headed over to Granny, kissed her cheek. "I really think you should let me change the window display."

"No. Not yet, baby girl." Granny's lips set in that thin line she was getting to know well and those eyes stopped twinkling. She was in stubborn mode. "You need to do a little reading this afternoon. Research some of the books, so when people ask questions, you can answer and sound like you know what you're talking about. You're taking on a big job with this place. Bigger than you understand."

"But…" She wasn't sure about all this witchy stuff. At best it was complicated, goofy and generally pointless, like Momma had always said. At worst, it was dangerous and she'd end up hurting someone. Granny had hundreds of books, pieces of paper, bottles and jars filled with weirdness. She knew some stuff—where to buy herbs, which vendors to buy candles from, which tarot cards were going to sell.

She'd even designed a neat altar piece—a triple goddess with a place for a stone in the center—that had sold out in only a week. Five of them. One set was ordered over the Internet from Dallas.

Still, it was weird, interacting with the more esoteric customers and…

Granny patted her arm, distracting her from her thoughts. "No. No buts, Lilith, my girl. You will do it. All I have will be yours someday, and I need you to educate yourself. There are things out there you don't understand."

"Okay." She sighed softly. One day. One day she'd be able to make the window classy, get rid of the old truly weird stuff. The junk. The pendulums and the crystals and the dry, dusty herbs. She would. Well, maybe not the crystals, those were pretty. "What do you want for lunch today, do you think?"

"I think we should grab pizza. I'm craving pepperoni."

"Good deal."

The bell over the door rang and Hedda, Granny's best friend and fellow witchy woman, came in, followed by a pair of teenage girls dressed in altogether too many black clothes for the month of May. The temperature outside was already well into the upper 90s and would hit the century mark by late afternoon.

"Hedda! Come here, girl! How've you been?" Granny waved Lily over to deal with the customers, greeting her old friend, who looked worried or constipated or something. Not good at all. Sometimes she wondered what all those two got up to in the back room.

"Hey, y'all. How can I help you?"

One of them—who was obviously going for the look of the dark-haired girl in The Craft—smiled at her. "I. My friend. We heard that…I need to do a spell."

Goodie. "What kind of spell, honey?"

"I…There's this guy. He's…"

God, she hated love spells. "I have a few good books on relationships…"

The teenager teared up. "You don't under…"

"I told you she wouldn't get it, Amy. Come on." The other girl, who looked like a bucket of tar had been poured over her head, grabbed her friend's arm. "Y'all are just posers."

"No. No, wait." Lily sighed. This kid was really upset. "Tell me what's up, huh?"

"I don't want him to…I just want him to leave me alone." One stick-thin arm was held out to her, and Lily winced at the bruises. "Please. I just need some help."

"Have you talked to your folks?"

"Her folks are just going to tell her to go to church, lady. We need real help."

"Okay. Okay. Let me see what we can do." She turned to ask Granny what to do, but the sneaky old broad was gone, along with Hedda, damn it. Personally, she thought they should call the police, but it hadn't been that long since she'd been a teenager over at Dripping Springs High. She grabbed Granny's big book and was incredibly grateful that the little Post-It tabs hadn't been taken off.

Love spells. Having babies. Preventing babies. Health. Money. Depression. Protection.

That was it. The white tab right before the red one with 'scary shit - don't look here' written on it.

Lily opened the book and looked quickly. Okay. White candles, a mojo bag with sandalwood, angelica, camphor, and bay laurel. One piece of onyx, one piece of jade. Some salt. No problem.

"We've got everything you need, honey." No. No, Granny said names were important. "Amy, right?"

The girl nodded. "I'm Amy; this is my best friend, Roxy."

"Hey. I need to put you a bag together. You'll need to give me a few, okay?"

Amy had pretty blue eyes. "You think it will work?"

Lily nodded. "I do. I think it will work. We'll make it work."

Especially when she called to the school and talked to the principal, damn it. Kids shouldn't be hurt like that.

She put the mojo bag together, anointed the candles with blessing and protection oil, and gathered the stones up, handing them over to Amy. "Okay. I want you to repeat after me now, then, when you get home, you light the candles and repeat the spell, every day until Saturday, okay?"

The girls looked at her, wide-eyed.

"What's his name?"

Amy blinked. "What?"

"His name. Names are important."

"Ricky. Ricky McAlister."

She'd remember that. Asshole. "Okay, now. Love and light, surround me and my home. Let no one who wishes me harm come close. If Ricky comes with harm in his heart, turn him away. Protect me from harm. So will it be."

The girls repeated it, twice, then she rang them up. Six dollars for two stones. "Come back on Saturday; let me know how it worked."

"We will. Bye."

"Bye, girls." As soon as they headed down the street for the coffee shop, Lily dialed the number for Stella, the counselor at the high school and left a message. This shit was going to cease, now.

Buy here: http://www.resplendencepublishing.com/m8/421-201-107-465-6--deep-in-the-heart-of-hexes-cowbell-book-and-candle-series-book-one-by-ba-tortuga.html

Cover for Deep int he Heart of Hexes

Coming Out February 8![image error]

Country Don't Mean Dumb

I'm stealing my post title from Stephen King today (it's my favorite quote from the Stand miniseries, actually).

I write a lot of Texans. I'm a Texan, through and through. My partner is a fine mix of New Mexico, Colorado, and South Carolina. I have known a ton of southerners, a ton of rural folks, and more cowboys than I can shake a stick at.

I'm here to tell you, we may not speak with perfectly grammatically correct English. We have weird colloquialisms. I write my characters as they speak -- internal and spoken dialogue.

This is a stylistic choice, absolutely. I try to tone it down when it doesn't fit a publisher's house style, but I tend very much toward tight, tight third person. My boys don't worry about the difference between who and whom.

I've been asked, does that make them sound dumb?

Not to me. I'm writing characters that belong in a particular time and space, with the voices they come with -- educated, not educated, brilliant, average intellect, challenged.

Did you know there are 7 distinct Texan dialects? For instance, I grew up in east Texas, but I've lived in central Texas for 15 years. In my home town, I sound like Austin. Here in Austin, they say I sound like east Texas. West Texas doesn't sound like me at all. ;-)

*shrugs*

There's also a difference between the Carolinas and Georgia. Western Colorado and Front Range. New Mexico and Arizona. Shreveport and NOLA.

I believe in letting the characters live in their skins, even when their skins don't sound like TV announcers.

Not only that, I love colloquialisms. I love that in the Ozarks, the answer to "What for?" can be "Cat fur, to make kitten britches." That in West Texas you can be plumb fool for a girl. That we're always fixin' to run somewhere. That we get mad as all get out or that it can come up a cloud outside. That the plural of y'all is all y'all (and only in Texas do you have all y'all ladies). That there is a particular brother in the family that is your bubba and that I'm Sister to my sister, Baby Girl, but Baby Girl to my daddy. That I have a Moma (not a momma) and a sister called Tootie.

I love that our new nephew, Boo, is 3 months old and has 15 nicknames, all of which will stick his whole life.

I love that, in our family, there's a pappy, a poppy, papaw, peepaw, grampy, nana, granny, mawmaw...

This is where my heart lives, in celebrating the voice that fills my ears whenever I go outside.

Is it dumb?

You'd be a damn fool to walk that road. ;-)[image error]

A hell of a way to wake up

We had a wicked bad storm last night and at 7 a.m., there was this sound like the earth was splitting -- my eyes popped open and there was flame, shooting balls of flame right outside the bedroom window as the transformer went kaboom.

Me, Julia, and the dogs popped out of bed like daisies from the snow. The lights were on in a couple of hours, the net and phone a couple of hours after that. Of course, one of the Macs blew up and we lost a switch, but we did not lose the file server.

I'm *so* grateful the transformer blew during a downpour and there wasn't a huge fire, so I won't even complain.

Except that my heart is still racing, 10 hours later. O.o[image error]

Challenges :D

So, I'm doing this yoga challenge -- 30 classes in 40 days which, okay, not too bad.
Except...
Well, you see. Julia and I are considering moving to Colorado, so we're going up for a week in February so I can see how I handle the cold and...
Yeah.
A whole week.
So, I'm doing the 30 classes in 33 days challenge and my butt hurts.
My back hurts.
My hamstrings have moved to Mexico.
My neck... I'm pretty sure it's turned to Rice Krispies.
I'm 7 days in. I'm fairly sure by Feb. 24, I might die.
;-)[image error]

My Boys Touch

There's been a little confusion going around and I figured I'd just be upfront.
I write gay romance. I write lesbian romance. I write het romance. I write threesomes -- lately I'm writing a *lot* of threesomes because they're what wants written.
I don't write m/f/m.
Now, am I saying I don't like it? Nope. I read it. A couple of my favorite authors write it and I enjoy it thoroughly.
Do I typically buy that 3 (or 4 or 5 or 6) people can all be in bed having sex and none of the same sex people in the bed are attracted to each other? Not usually, no, but that's me (and I can tell you, the only time it throws me out of a story as a reader is when there are 3 or more men and 1 woman and they have to take turns sleeping with her in twos because they might touch each other. That always makes me sad).
That's not even what it's about for me when I'm writing.
When I'm writing, I have be honest to *my* muse. To my characters. I love m/m. Love it. Love it enough that I started Torquere Press damn near 9 years ago to publish it because no one else would. In my mind's eye, characters fall in love and I have zero control over the sex(es) of the folk(s) they fall in love with. My boys fall in love -- with the girl, absolutely, but also with each other. Three people who are in love together and, damn it, they're going to be in love together at the end, too.
I'm a sap. I want my HEA -- reading or writing. And, yeah, if there's a menage threesome (or moresome, although I haven't done that yet and the pronoun confusion there sort of makes me dizzy), my boys will touch.
Reader beware. ;-)

10 Weird BA Factoids

1. I'm left-handed. As in whoa freaky living in a right-handed world is hard left-handed.
2. I can fold my tongue 4 different ways.
3. Sean Michael is my best friend. Julia Talbot is my life partner. We really are three different people.
4. I do yoga a lot. I sort of need it.
5. My favorite food is popcorn.
6. My favorite author is Stephen King, with Dean Koontz a close second.
7. I am getting my Master Instructor Qualification in Crochet.
8. I love to swim; I hate to get wet.
9. My favorite color is pink. I refuse to be ashamed for it.
10. I eat kale, apples, and berries pretty much every day. Not at the same time.[image error]

Top Ten Things I'm Looking forward to this Spring

1. Luke Bryan Concert2. Chris Young Concert3. Bluebonnets4. RT in Chicago5. Visiting Sean Michael for a week6. Houston Rodeo7. Austin Rodeo8. Rodeo season starting9. Planting flowers in the front yard.10. Being one season closer to the Tim McGraw/Kenny Chesney concert! :D