Anna Butler's Blog, page 19

Links to Blog Posts on Writing March-April 2018

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When Ideas Collide: Powerful Storms Make Superior Stories by Kristen Lamb

Maybe Neil DeGrasse Tyson Should Embrace The Humanities More by Chuck Wendig – on what makes art, art.

The Most Important Writing Advice You Need Right Now by Chuck Wendig

The Difference Between Idea, Premise, Plot, and Story by Janice Hardy at Fiction University

How to Write When the Last Thing You Want to Do is Write by Janice Hardy at Fiction University

Fizzle or Sizzle? How Genre is Fundamental for Story Success by Kristen Lamb

How Writing in Chunks Can Make You a More Productive Writer by Janice Hardy at Fiction University

Ilana C. Myer: When Do You Stop Researching and Start Writing?

5 Ways to Structure (and Plot) Your Novel by Janice Hardy at Fiction University

How To Become A Professional Writer In Nine Not-So-Easy Steps – by Mark Alpert at the KillZone

 

Sean Grigsby: Five Things I Learned Writing Smoke Eaters

Sarah Elkins: Five Things I Learned Writing Psychic Underground: The Facility

David Mack: Five Things I Learned Writing The Midnight Front

Aaron Rosenberg: Five Things I Learned Writing Digging Deep

R.J. Theodore: Five Things I Learned Writing Flotsam

Bryan Camp: Five Things I Learned Writing The City Of Lost Fortunes

 

 

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5 Quick Ways To Shift Description and Setting Into Deep POV by Lisa Hall-Wilson at Writers in the Storm

How to Write Unforgettable Settings Readers Never Want to Leave by Kristen Lamb

What a Concept! Plotting Your Novel Conceptually by Janice Hardy at Fiction University

The 5 Turning Points of a Character Arc and Sorry, Your Services are no Longer Required: Eliminating Characters from Your Novel by Janice Hardy at Fiction University

Character Building: How Story Forges, Refines, and Defines Characters by Kristen Lamb

Not Your Mama’s Character Descriptions by Margie Lawson at Writers In The Storm

4 Mistakes to Avoid When Building Suspense in Your Novel by Laurence MacNaughton at Fiction University

The Question You Need to Ask for Every Scene and A Tip for Getting Through Hard-to-Write Scenes by Janice Hardy at Fiction University

7 Ways to Master “Show, Don’t Tell” By Laurence MacNaughton at Fiction University

Hook Your Readers: 3 Tips to Catch & Keep Your Audience by Kristen Lamb

 

 

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The Dangers of Premature Editing: Pruning Our Stories vs. Pillaging Them by Kristen Lamb

 

 

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Marketing

6 Top Ways for Indie Authors to Make Self-published Books More Discoverable and More Competitive on Amazon – by Jyotsna Ramachamdran at the Alliance of Independent Authors

 

Social Media

Branding & The Brain: How Social Media Changes but Humans Never Will by Kristen Lamb

 

 

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All done – the final Taking Shield book

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You get some very odd feelings when you write ‘The End’ at the bottom of the final page. Elation, for sure. There’s a real sense of achievement when you reach the last few words, the feeling that wells up inside you shrieking and dancing, and yelling “I did this! I made this!” Quite heady and addictive, knowing that you’ve slogged on for (in the case of Taking Shield) close to half a million words, and your heroes have reached the end of their story. Or, at least, the end of the story you intend to tell about them. What they get up to outside the book covers is entirely up to them and we should probably shield (!) our eyes and look the other way.

So. Elation. Satisfaction. Triumph. A bit of #smugface, maybe.

And then there’s the sadness. Because if you’re anything like me, you love your characters to distraction. It’s a wrench to let them go off to editing without you and when they come back you cluck over them like an old mother hen while you polish and polish to make them gleam and glitter. It’s an even bigger wrench when they stare you mutinously in the eye and demand to let out into the big world out there. We’re ready, they say. Polish us any more and you’ll be down to the nubbins, woman! C’mon. Let us go.  And you sigh and nod, and press the ‘publish’ button.

When you’re on the last book of five, when these characters have been a huge part of your writing life (in one form or another) for over a decade it is one ginormous, universe-wrenching pang of sorrow to write those final words and send your boys off to editing for the very last time. I feel quite lost, actually. A sort of creative empty nest syndrome.

Last week, I came to the end of the story Bennet and Flynn decided to tell me five books ago. It’s now in editing and I’ve been told, quite firmly, to stop picking away at it and let my editors do their job.  And while a bit of me is dancing and singing at finally finishing, there’s a bigger bit that’s very triste and bitter-sweet and woebegone. I shall miss them both terribly, but it has to be done. I have to let them go.

So, for your diary:

Cover reveal  21 May

here and at various other blogs, with a series reminder tour happening between 21-25 May.

PUBLICATION DAY    28 June

 

Fly, my pretties! Fly!

 

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Sign up HERE for my newsletter and I’ll send you a FREE copy of FlashWired

Rebecca Cohen’s Captain Merric – OUT NOW!

 

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A tale of pirates, lost love, and the fight for a happy ending.



After he’s set adrift and left to die by his mutinous crew, the last person Royal Navy officer Daniel Horton expects to come to his rescue is Captain Merric. An infamous pirate, Merric is known as much for stealing his victims’ hearts as their jewels. Daniel’s world is about to be turned upside down when he recognises Captain Merric as none other than Edward Merriston, someone he thought he’d never see again.

Edward can’t believe Daniel Horton is aboard his ship. While Edward is willing to do anything he can to get a second chance at their happy ending, Daniel isn’t interested in digging up the past. But Daniel is one priceless treasure Captain Merric isn’t about to let go of without a fight.



Captain Merric first appeared as a short story in a pirate-themed anthology. Now completely rewritten and extended he is ready to set sail again.

Cover Design: Garrett Leigh @ Black Jazz Design
Length: 55,000 words approx.




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Universal Buy Link





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Giveaway: Drop a comment below to tell Rebecca why you love pirates and be entered into the giveaway to win a copy of an ebook from her backlist (excluding the Crofton Chronicles bundle).


 

Rebecca Cohen is a Brit abroad. Having swapped the Thames for the Rhine, she has left London behind and now lives with her husband and young son in Basel, Switzerland. She can often be found with a pen in one hand and a cup of Darjeeling in the other.





Blog: http://rebeccacohenwrites.wordpress.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rebecca.cohen.710

Twitter: http://twitter.com/R_Cohen_writes

Hosted By Signal Boost Promotions

Shield Books in Smashwords’ 25% discount sale – 04-10 March

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SMASHWORDS Read an Ebook Week Sale!
March 4, 2018 – March 10, 2018

 

Get all these titles at 25% off

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Those of my titles published through Glass Hat that are not already permafree, are offered at a 25% discount at Smashwords with a coupon code (note: coupon is not case sensitive). The link takes you to my page at Smashwords, but here are the details of the discount:

 

 

TAKING SHIELD series

01 – Gyrfalcon   Permafree

02 – Heart Scarab   now $2.99   coupon code QF58V

03 – Makepeace     now $2.99   coupon code DJ49U

04 – The Chains of Their Sins      now $2.99   coupon code KZ42D

 

Find out more about the Taking Shield series here at my website by using the drop down menu above or following this link.

 

NOVELLAS

FlashWired    now $1.49 coupon code JE47H

Passing Shadows   now $2.24 coupon code EF85Q

 

 

 

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Sign up HERE for my newsletter and I’ll send you a FREE copy of FlashWired

Links to Blog Posts on Writing Jan-Feb 2018

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I don’t often pick out particular posts that sang to me this month, but this time I’m making an exception. These two posts by Margie Lawson at the Writers In The Storm blog are excellent reminders on writing with punch. Something I need to learn.

Emotion Commotion: Getting Emotion Right on the Page   and   Putting Wow on the Page!

Both worth a read.

 

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Things to Consider When Considering Self Publishing  –  S.R. Johannes, at the Fiction University

Ask The Wendigo: My Advice To A Young Writer and Three Truths About Writing, And How The Writing Gets Done –

– Chuck Wendig

Assorted Thoughts On Impostor Syndrome, Gathered In A Bouquet and My Cup Runneth Over: Quick Thoughts On Managing Anxiety – Chuck Wendig

The Benefits of Writing a Novel “Just for Fun” – Janice Hardy,

The Religion Of Fantasy And The Fantasy Of Religion – Philip Athans at Fantasy Authors’ Handbook

2 interesting articles on reviews – In Praise of Negative Reviews and On Bad Reviews

 

Ursula K. Le Guin On Writing: “Alas, There Are No Recipes”



Tansy Rayner Roberts: Five Things I Learned Writing Girl Reporter



Brooke Bolander: Five Things I Learned While Writing The Only Harmless Great Thing



Dan Koboldt: Nine Years A Penmonkey, And Nine Lessons



Alan Baxter: Five Things I Learned Writing Hidden City

 

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Six Tips for Sequels – Mythcreants blog, which everyone should subscribe to.

The Difference Between a Sequel and a Scene – Janice Hardy, at Fiction University

A 3-Step Plan for Handling Backstory in a Series – Janice Hardy, at Fiction University

 

How to Get a Great Cover for Your Self-Published Book – theryanlanz at A Writer’s Path

The Latest Trends In Cover Design: Think Pink? –  PJ Parrish at The Kill Zone

3 Ways to Get Book Covers on a Shoestring Budget – J. Kathleen Cheney at Fiction Uni.

3 Signs Your Book Cover Design Misses The Mark – Liesha Petrovich at The Write Life

 

The Sum of the Parts: Writing a Synopsis – Janice Hardy, at Fiction University

Better Book Descriptions in 3 Easy Steps – Sue Coletta at The Kill Zone

4 Reasons Readers Stopped Caring About Your Story – Janice Hardy, at Fiction University

How to Write Kick-Ass Action Scenes (Part 1) and (Part 2)– Laurence MacNaughton at the Fiction University

5 Key Ways to Balance Internal Monologue with Pitfalls to Avoid – Jordan Dane at The Kill Zone

7 Tips for Creating Believable Fantasy or Science Fiction Worlds Janice Hardy, at Fiction University

Structure Matters: Building Great Stories to Endure the Ages and Story: Addictive Design – Kristen Lamb

Getting Dialogue Right: How to Use Dialogue Tags and Action Beats – Ali Luke at the Write Life

Yes, You Can Hiss Without Sibilance – Chuck Wendig

 

 

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The Difference Between a Revision, a Rewrite, and a Redraft  –  Janice Hardy at Fiction Univeristy

Business Musings: Editorial Encroachment – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 

 

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Marketing

5 Ways That Playing with Pricing Can Sell More Books – Penny Sansevieri

 

Social Media

Why Should Fiction Writers Blog? – Anne R. Allen at Fiction University

 

Conventions

The Long Con: Ten Things You Need to Know About Going to Conventions as a Writer – John G. Hartness, Fiction University

 

 

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Business Musings on publishing (2017 in Review) : The Big Five  |  The Small Traditional Publishers  |  Bookstores  |  The Indie Publishing Lesson  |  Indie Publishing: The Good Stuff – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Battle of the Book Business: Publishing Cold War is Ending – Kristen Lamb

The Vexing Conundrum of Amazon – Dario Ciriello at Fiction University

 

 

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The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2018 – Dana Sitar at the Write Life

The Indie Author’s Publishing Checklist –  Jan Lewis at Fiction University

Top Five DIY Book Layout Mistakes – How indie authors can avoid book design pitfalls – Joel Friedlander at booklife

 

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A cheerful post and giveaway — Sean Kerr’s “Dead Camp”

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Book Title: Dead Camp 5: The End Game part 2

Author: Sean Kerr

Publisher: Extasy Books

Cover Artist: Angela Waters

Genre/s: Paranormal Romance

Length: 87,364 words/266 pages

 

 

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Extasy Books | Amazon US | Amazon UK

 

 

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Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway to win one of Sean’s Dead Camp books. The winner may choose which, and Sean will gift the book from the publisher’s website.

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway HERE

 

 

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Suddenly he lay atop of me, baring down upon me in all his spectacular might. Sweat glistened upon his carved chest, rivulets of perspiration dripping off his pert nipples, and I found that I needed to drink him. I leaned forward, my tongue eager to feast, but he pushed me back sharply, filling my gaze with his magnificent head. He liked to wear his hair short these days, and it suited him, making the most of those huge green eyes and luscious lashes. Yet again, I found my gaze returning to the crevice of his chin, my cock rest, and I lashed out quickly, my tongue brushing over the velvet of his lips.

His knees pinned my arms in place at my side, and he sat up, his ass on my stomach, forcing the air up out of my lungs.

“That will fucking teach you to be cheeky,” he grinned.

“You swore!! You actually broke the rules and swore! I’m impressed.”

“We are about to break every rule in Heaven. I think a little curse word is the least of our problems, don’t you?”

His hands moved behind his back, and I felt my stiffening cock encased in the warmth of his palms. With slow, playful jerks, he quickly brought me to attention.

“Stop it!” I demanded, though my words lacked conviction.

“Stop what?”

“That!”

“This?” His hands moved faster, pumping me mercilessly until I squirmed beneath his considerable weight.

“We haven’t…got…time,” I gasped, but already I could feel my blood rising in my cheeks as my balls tightened in his grip.

“There is always time,” he growled, and I knew that it was too late for him to stop.

“But they’re coming…”

“Give me a second and so will you.”

My back arched beneath him as my load exploded up his back. The look of intense lust that blistered across his face empowered my orgasm, and it pumped from the tip of my cock, leaving me weak and wasted underneath him.

He brought his dripping fingers to his mouth and tasted me, his tongue licking the juice from his hand. Suddenly, his lips smashed into mine, and I felt his tongue explode into my mouth with a force that took my breath away. So intense was the kiss, so hard did he press his mouth into mine that it felt as though he wished to climb inside my body, to be inside me, a part of me, never to be separated. I pulled my hands out from under his knees, and I pulled his head into me, my fingers gripping his short hair as I drowned in him. Our tongues and our teeth ground into each other with such terrible, desperate urgency that I tasted blood upon my lips.

 

 

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Hi everyone, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Sean Kerr, and I am a 47-year-old gay man living in Cardiff, Wales with my husband of 28 years, Derek. We have two cats, Rita and Harry, and a host of tropical fish.

By day, I am an Interior designer, and I have had a shop, Home Zone, in Cardiff with my amazing business partner, Jayne for eleven and a half years. It has and continues to be a struggle. The recession hit a few years after we opened, and it has been challenging, to say the least. I consider myself to be lucky though because the shop pays me a wage, and I have been lucky enough to furnish my house with lovely things because of it, and I really do have some spectacular curtains lol.

I worked on building sites for years, and I used the money earned from that to put myself through college, specialist paint techniques etc. I trained in fine art, and then I went out and painted murals on client’s walls, and created Roman Bathrooms and fantasy hand painted bedrooms, all the rage back in the late eighties and nineties. I then became an Interior Designer for a large DIY chain, and that is where I met Jayne, my business partner, and the rest is history.

By night I am an Author, and I am very proud to be an author for Extasy Books. It took me some years to get to this point. I spent a very long time trying to get an agent because I thought it was the right thing to do, and after a heck of a lot of refusals, I nearly gave up. I came so close to hitting the delete button on Dead Camp 1 because I thought I did not stand a chance. At the very last moment, I decided to have a go at approaching a few publishers directly, and I sent the manuscript to six. Within two weeks, I had offers of publication from three! Let’s just say that there may have been tears lol. It was my chance, at last, to become a part of a world that I have always loved and admired from a distance, and it is one of the very best things that has ever happened to me.

I currently have four books under my belt in my Dead Camp series, as well as a short novella called Hush Little Baby. Dead Camp is my take on the Vampire genre, a Paranormal Romance series that is set against a backdrop of World War 2. However, the series uses key moments from History to tell one enormous saga, and I have loved every single moment of writing it. There will be five books in the Dead Camp series.

Hush is a pure horror story with more than a nod towards such classic programmes as The Twilight Zone and Tales of The Unexpected. The project happened just after I completed Dead Camp 3 and it is a story that I had to get out of my system. It’s definitely a different beast to my Vampire saga, and I hope it will make you go to bed with the lights on lol!

Dead Camp 5 is the last book in the series. I will feel very sad to leave it behind. Yet, at the same time, I am so proud of this saga which has been such an important part of my life for the last couple of years. I love writing, so very much. It has always been my dream, and the wonderful Extasy Books has made my dream come true, and it is a world that I am totally in love with. It is a world I hope to be a part of for a very long time to come.

Blog/Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram

 

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Space to Read… Mmmmn, Heaven.

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I can’t remember not being able to read. There has to have been a time when I had to have my books read to me, when Mum or Dad sat there with their forefingers patiently drawing a line under the words they were sounding out for me, but I don’t remember that. I do remember my own finger, shaky and a little grubby, rubbing a dirty line under the words as I sounded them out for myself. I can remember my first couple of years at school where I’d read the entire contents of the class bookcase in the first term, and after that had to resort to stealing borrowing books from the bookcase belonging to the next class up. I may have been lousy at reciting my two times tables, but I was scorching hot at reading. Even Miss Hutchinson had to admit that and she, the sternest of my teachers, was no fan of mine.

My early memories are all bound up in books. Holding books. Smelling that hot papery smell of new books. Reading books. Loving books.

The most important presents I ever got for Christmas and birthdays were always books: The Famous Five, Narnia, The Hobbit.  I know I got other things. Dolls, f’rinstance, that went on to their second owner, my younger sister, years later in the same pristine condition I received them.  The year Father Christmas gave us a record player between us, it had to be mid-January before I even noticed. I’d been given the first half-dozen Famous Five books, you see, by our seldom-seen aunt who lived in faraway Italy.  Nothing else mattered but settling into one of the big armchairs in the living room and devouring those books from one cover to the other. Then starting all over again, because the whole world lay between those covers and there was no way to exhaust it.

[image error]My winter reading space was that armchair. Summer reading was an al fresco pursuit. Halfway up the garden was an old lilac tree – pale mauve blossoms very high up and rather sparse, as I remember –  planted between an equally ancient rose bush on one side and something bushy and green on the other (I was no horticulturalist then and I’ve no idea what that third bush was apart from flowerless and uninteresting). Between them, they embraced a small, circular patch of bare earth. That’s where I spent my summers, back propped against the lilac trunk and feet against the boring bush or flat on my tummy like the Reading Fairy here, with Aslan and Lucy for companions.

I never grew those fairy wings, by the way, although I spent years in school prayers squinting in disappointment over my shoulder when my earnest daily request to the Almighty went unheeded.

These days I’m more likely to read in the little leather sofa in my study, my ‘writing cave’ and I’m just as likely to have the iPad open to the Kindle app as a ‘real’ book. [image error] I do still have real books, you understand, including every one of those Famous Five and Narnia volumes, but for there’s nothing like a Kindle app for the ability to carry your entire library, almost, around with you wherever you go. The problem there is I often have to turf the dogs out of the sofa first, to make room for me. They think they have first dibs on it, you see, because it’s here they can hang over the arms and abuse the squirrels in the tree outside, or tell the sheep in Church Meadow, opposite the house, exactly what they think of them. Which isn’t much.

So when I was asked what my ideal reading space might be if I could design it, I was quite delighted at the notion of somewhere that could be mine. Totally mine with the dogs sitting where they should be (on the floor, darn it!). Somehwere light and airy, and surrounded by books. So here’s what I’d like.

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Big comfy chair or sofa. The sofa in my study is a lot of things, but comfy and squishy-squashy it is not. I have to keep it covered to protect it from canine claws, but even so it’s a shiny leather that means that when you plant your rear end on it, you sit rather tensely and still. relax, and disaster strikes. Any movement, any idea that I might fling myself down on it and put my feet up over the arms, for example, usually has me sliding straight off into an ungainly heap on the floor. It is more penitential than comfortable that sofa, which is why it’s been relegated to the study rather than for general use. And because I live in a traditional Georgian house, I tend to go for traditional furniture, things that are over-stuffed with neat little arms and nicely turned feet. So something like this (points left) would fit perfectly. It has the right shape and even has a matching footstool for those days when I don’t want to sit and read, but lounge about with my feet up and luxuriate.

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Lots of light. Windows to let the sun stream in by day, and big task lights to light the book’s pages by night. I prefer floor standing lights for reading by, because you can tug them around and manoeuvre them into place so you get them to shine directly on the page you’re trying to read.  Something thin and elegant perhaps, like this one.

Books. Lots and lots and lots of books. We do have a great deal already, scattered all over the house. The paperbacks are all in my husband’s… study? Model aeroplane building site? Guitar storeroom? Mancave? Well, they’re all in there, anyway, stuffed two rows deep into plain Ikea Ivar shelving. They aren’t for show, you see, and so utilitarian shelving was the way to go. I keep my collection of jewellery books here in my own study – the history of tiaras, of great jewellery houses like Cartier and Chaumet. I have far too many books filled with pictures of diamonds and gems that I couldn’t ever possibly afford to own. And downstairs, in the drawing room, are my posh books. The collection of decorative pre First World War editions of Angela Brazil’s school stories, big volumes of Edwardian magazines bound in pretty blue covers, several Children’s Compendium of Classics volumes from between the wars, the collected works of Charles Dickens, and the Diary of Samuel Pepys. They live in a pair of bookcases that once graced some senior civil servant’s office in the 1920s, all polished wood and glass doors.[image error]

Something like this, only with cupboards instead of drawers.

Think of a reading nook, a smallish, narrow enclosed space with a window at one end, and each side wall made up of one of these bookcases. The chair and the lamp set in the window, and a few hundred books within easy reach. Heaven.

Well, one day I’ll have that. Until then, excuse me while I go and turf Molly and Mavis off the sofa and take an hour or two to myself, a cup of tea and a good book.

Share pics of your ideal reading space, chums.

 

(All furniture pictures from Arhaus, who I hope don’t mind me pinching borrowing them to use here).

J Scott Coatsworth – Telling Lies, and “Lander”

J. Scott Coatsworth has a new MM Sci Fi book out and has come here today to tell us lies. Yeah, I know. Boasting about being paid for them too. Whatever is the world coming to? Here was I thinking that on Valentine’s Day I should be posting gifs of sparkly pink hearts, and instead I’m facilitating a friend tell porky pies. Just as well he’s so good at them!

So this is a bit of a monster post. I’ve got Scott being mendacious, a load of info about the book, a competition, an excerpt and a review of Lander by yours truly. Now that calls for a menu here that will allow you to skip merrily about this post to read it in whatever order you like. Or, you know, for you to ignore and just read on. Your choice!

Guest Post: “I’m a paid liar” by Scott

About the Book

Buy Links

Giveaway

Excerpt

Review of Lander

About Scott

 

 

Guest Post: I’m a Paid Liar

I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get paid to tell lies. More specifically, I get royalties to tell stories of places that never were, except in my own fevered imagination.

It’s a gig I always wanted to have, since I got hooked on the lies of J.R.R. Tolkien and Anne McCaffrey. These authors wrote fully-realized worlds that sucked me in, that made me wanted to be there, to have a fire lizard on my arm and a dangerous ring on my finger.

You see, we authors live in this weird place. When our eyes are open, we’re in the real world with all y’all. But when we close them, we fall into somewhere else – a world where the rules of regular life are suspended and a world of possibilities opens up.

So I pull out little bits and pieces of things that aren’t true and weave them together into something that feels right.

So yeah, I’m a paid liar, but sometimes those lies, if I do my job, feel true.

J. Scott Coatsworth

 

 

About The Book

[image error]Sometimes the world needs saving twice.

In the sequel to the Rainbow-Award-winning Skythane, Xander and Jameson thought they’d fulfilled their destiny when they brought the worlds of Oberon and Titania back together, but their short-lived moment of triumph is over.

Reunification has thrown the world into chaos. A great storm ravaged Xander’s kingdom of Gaelan, leaving the winged skythane people struggling to survive. Their old enemy, Obercorp, is biding its time, waiting to strike. And to the north, a dangerous new adversary gathers strength, while an unexpected ally awaits them.

In the midst of it all, Xander’s ex Alix returns, and Xander and Jameson discover that their love for each other may have been drug-induced.

Are they truly destined for each other, or is what they feel concocted? And can they face an even greater challenge when their world needs them most?

 

[image error]Title: Lander

Series: The Oberon Cycle: Book Two

Page Count: 294

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Published: 13 February 2018

QueeRomance Ink

Goodreads

 

About the Oberon Cycle:

Xander is a skythane man whose wings have always been a liability on the lander-dominated half world of Oberon. Jameson is a lander who has been sent to Oberon to find out why the supply of the psycho-amoratic drug pith has dropped off.

What neither knows is that they have a shared destiny that will change the two of them – and all of Oberon – forever.

 

 

 

Buy The Book

Dreamspinner – eBook | Dreamspinner – Paperback | Amazon US  |   Barnes & Noble  |   Kobo  |  iBooks

 

 

Giveaway

Scott is giving away a $25 Amazon gift certificate and three copies of his queer sci fi eBook “The Stark Divide.”

Click here to join the Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Excerpt

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Xander stared at the torrent of water pouring over the cavern entrance. Somewhere out there, Quince and the others were lost in the storm.

“What happened to everyone else?” Jameson shouted, putting his hand on Xander’s shoulder.

“I don’t know. Last I saw them was before the lightning strike.” How had things changed so quickly?

Jameson started toward the exit. “We have to look for them!”

Xander pulled him back.

Jameson’s eyes were wild.

He squeezed Jameson’s hands, trying to reassure him. “Hey, calm down. There’s nothing we can do right now.”

“We already lost Morgan.” Jameson’s eyes pleaded with him. “I can’t lose the rest of them.”

Xander shook his head. “It’s no use. We’ll never find them in this tempest. They’re seasoned veterans. They can take care of themselves. We’ll go looking after the storm passes.” The loss of Morgan weighed on him too, though he was less and less certain that Morgan had been a human boy at all.

Jameson looked doubtful.

Xander felt it too, but there really was nothing they could do. “Hey, it’s gonna be all right.” He pulled Jameson to him, enfolding the two of them with his wings. Jameson was soaked, but Xander didn’t care.

Jameson nodded against his chest. “You’re right. Gods, I know you’re right. I’m sorry. I thought we were done with all this.”

Xander held him out at arm’s length. “Gods, huh? We’re doing the plural thing now?”

Jameson gave him a half smile. “Trying it out? When in Rome….”

“How’s your hearing?”

Jameson cocked his head. “It’s better. But everything sounds muffled.”

Xander nodded. “I can tell.”

Jameson blushed. “Am I talking too loud?”

“Just a little.”

Jameson smiled sheepishly. “It’s weird. It feels like my ears are full of water.”

Xander kissed him gently. “It’ll pass.” He looked around the cavern at last, his eyes gradually adjusting to the dim blue light.

The place was a faeryland, filled with rows of golden stalactites and stalagmites, like the bulwarks of an eldritch castle. Each one was a miracle of minute detail, like candle wax dripped from above. The whole cavern was lit by a turquoise-blue glow.

Xander looked around for the source. It came from pools of water on either side of the cavern. The scintillating light shimmered along the walls, creating complex, ever-changing patterns.

“Look, Jameson… it’s beautiful.” They were both a muddy mess. “We’re stuck here until the storm blows itself out. Why don’t we get cleaned up and try to rest? Then we can figure out what to do next. We have a long flight to Gaelan.” He was still shivering from the rain.

“A bath sounds like heaven.” Jameson let Xander lead him to one of the glowing ponds.

“Do you think it’s safe to go in?” Xander asked, pulling off his boots and testing the water with his toes. It was warm.

Jameson looked queasy, but then he smiled. “They called them faery ponds. There’s a microscopic organism that makes the light. It’s harmless, but beautiful.” He grinned. “Romantic, even.”

Ah, that’s how you knew this place. “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” he said, slowly and clearly, gesturing to indicate Jameson and the cavern. His own generational memories were still fleeting, occasional things.

Jameson’s smile fled. He shrugged. “Not me personally….”

“Shhh. I know.” If he closed his eyes and focused, he could see this place too, but he seemed to be able to block them out when they were inconvenient. “Too many memories.” Xander pointed at his head.

Jameson nodded. He looked relieved. He reached out and pulled Xander close, his hands warm on Xander’s waist.

Xander slipped his arms around Jameson and kissed him once, twice. He wrinkled his nose. “You’re filthy and you stink! So do I.” He held up his shirt as proof. It was covered in mud stains.

Jameson laughed. “We can fix that.”

He helped Jameson unlace the sides of his shirt, pulling it off to reveal the naked skin underneath. Jameson returned the favor, his hands lingering for a moment before withdrawing to pull down his own pants.

They shucked their wet and dirty clothes and descended into the water. It was surprisingly warm, silky and smooth around Xander’s waist.

The pool was about three meters across and sloped down to about a meter deep at the far end. There was a warm, gentle current drifting past Xander’s legs, and the stone beneath his feet had been worn smooth by water and time.

Xander washed the grime off his skin, and it drifted off into the water around him.

Jameson pulled him in deeper and gestured for him to lower his head.

Xander lay in Jameson’s arms, and warm water washed over him, carrying the mud and dirt out of his hair. Jameson massaged his scalp, pulling away the twigs and bits of gunk he’d accumulated on the mad run through the forest in the storm.

Xander’s desire threatened to overwhelm him at Jameson’s gentle touch. He dipped his face into the water and rinsed off. It was so fucking good to get clean.

He shook his head, splashing Jameson, who shot him an aggrieved look.

The look turned into a wicked grin, and Jameson splashed him back. Then they were going after each other and laughing, a fine mist of water flying through the air.

Damn, it’s good to hear you laugh again. Xander grabbed Jameson and kissed him, harder this time, and Jameson’s body responded. They fell back into the water, and Jameson was hard against him, his own need naked before Xander’s desire.

After all that had happened, Xander needed to feel human and alive again. He tugged Jameson back to the shallow part of the pool and pulled his skythane down on top of him, Jameson’s skin warm against his own.

He kissed Jameson’s neck and nibbled on his ear, eliciting a low moan.

Jameson wanted this as much as he did. He could tell.

For a long, slow, ecstatic hour, Xander forgot all about the storm.

 

Review

[image error] The Oberon Cycle books (Skythane and, now, Lander) are an odd but fascinating mix of sci-fi and fantasy. I’ll admit that I personally find that a little harder to get into – am I reading hard tech-in-space or ancient gods and prophecies? Threading my way between the two takes a little more effort. Not that that’s a bad thing, but the merger of two can be challenging. I’m also a touch ambivalent about winged humans because the mechanics of that are rarely truly examined. They’d all have to have ginormously enlarged chests, like a bird’s, to have sufficient musculature to fly, I think, and hollow bones to reduce mass and weight–something that’s a bit glossed over in wing-fic!

All that said, I did find this a fascinating premise. A world split in two parts known as Oberon and Titania, with each half occupying a different dimension. Only a few can cross the boundary. This is a world where some humans, the Skythane, have been genetically altered to grow wings (how? Who did it?), and where two men are fated to unite to two main Skythane nations and reunite the long-sundered halves of the world. So far, so fantasy. But the reason for that world spilt? An incomplete attempt to save it from destructive solar flares, caused by an interstellar war, by moving it into a parallel universe. People get to it on spaceships and shuttles. But when you get there, there are nimfeaches, (a sort of ghostly alien butterfly) and fetches, prophecies and destined fates.  The main antagonist here is a commercial company, OverCorp, exploiting the world to mine a drug called pith. So then you’re back in a dirty underworld of criminals and hard men (and women!), ruling a kind of Bladerunner world where people are linked electronically into a worldnet through implants.  You can see why my head was spinning a bit.

To keep all this stuff straight and working, you need good worldbuilding. This is something Scott Coatsworth does so very, very well. The competing fantasy/tech threads are woven very cleverly into a consistent picture. That’s hard enough to do in either sci-fi or fantasy. Combining the two? Scott gets major kudos for his achievement here and a bow from yours truly, because worldbuilding is my **jam**. Love it when it’s done well.

The two MCs – Xander and Jameson are the lost princes returning to their realms to reunite the two halves of the world. They do that. And then there are consequences. Real, horrid consequences. So kudos for that too. Actions have to have reactions, and the outcomes are often chaotic. The personal consequence for these two revolves around the one thing I disliked in the first book where one character is fundamentally and irreversibly changed without his consent by the actions of another. That consent issue bugged me then, and comes around to bug both MCs now, leaving them unsure if their mutual attraction is even real. The person who instigated the change, though, is still… well, unpunished, for want of a better term. She feels a bit of guilt, but rationalises everything away in the name of expediency. That, Scott my boy, is still bugging me.

Anyhow, nice character development here as our two MCs get closer, get apart, get closer. Xander’s ex turns up and there is a very neat twist in his character arc that I truly wasn’t expecting. It certainly makes for a good, explosive resolution to book 2 (excellent battle!) just as a far bigger threat than OberCorp is stirring…

All in all, I enjoyed this. It builds neatly on Skythane and sets the scene beautifully for the third book, Ithani (to come). And while in some senses it’s a transitional book, there are enough plot and character resolutions to be a very satisfying read.

(Just as an aside, I love how the cover symbolises everything about this split world, with the shadow down the middle of the man’s face. While naked torsos leave me a bit ‘meh’, I do think that particular aspect of it is clever.)

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About Scott

Scott lives between the here and now and the what could be. Indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine, he devoured her library. But as he grew up, he wondered where the people like him were.

He decided it was time to create the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at Waldenbooks. If there weren’t gay characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.

His friends say Scott’s brain works a little differently – he sees relationships between things that others miss, and gets more done in a day than most folks manage in a week. He seeks to transform traditional sci fi, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something unexpected.

He runs Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark, sites that bring queer people together to promote and celebrate fiction that reflects their own reality.

Author Website: https://www.jscottcoatsworth.com

Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworth

Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/jscottcoatsworthauthor/

Author Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jscoatsworth

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8392709.J_Scott_Coatsworth

Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/j-scott-coatsworth/

Author Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/J.-Scott-Coatsworth/e/B011AFO4OQ

Desserted by P R Fancier: review

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I don’t often review books, to be honest. Partly because of time, partly because I’m wary of reading too much in the genre I write in so I can avoid being too influenced by other people’s work. But every now and again I love a book so much that I can’t resist putting fingers to keyboard to try and share why I like it so much.

I also have to declare an interest here. I’ve watched the evolution of this book from the beginning since P R is a member of my online crit group. I’ve been with it throughout, and I’ve loved it and the characters from day 1. So yeah. This one I want to share.

 

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Drew Montgomery is a trust-fund baby who decides to launch a food magazine in the age of online publications. Hank is a gifted chef who has taken over San Francisco’s cooking scene, but who struggles with a serious addiction problem. The suspicious death of Hank’s father demands that these two rivals look beyond their initial mutual antipathy. This is a story of fathers and sons. Part romance, part mystery, this is a paean to foodies everywhere.

Word Count: c89,000

Published: December 2017

Goodreads link

 

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I like food, and I have a very unhealthy relationship with desserts. This book–set in a San Francisco foodie world of sharp magazines and award-winning chefs that is so well realised that you can almost smell and taste the glorious food and wine (and get some of those unhealthy dessert cravings I mention)–is my **jam**.

This book is beautifully written, the dialogue as crisp as a twice-baked biscotti, the characterisation as rich as a chocolate torte. A chocolate torte with whipped thick cream. And meringue. You get the idea. Hope so, because there’s only so many baking analogies I can manage since I’m far more skilled at eating them than making them.

Having got the stellar worldbuilding out the way, let’s look at those characters. Now then, I like my characters to be complicated, complex, and a wee bit fucked up and messy. PR Fancier writes my kind of characters. Drew is from a rich family, running an amazing print magazine on the aforementioned SF food scene. More financially dependent on his distant, emotionally abusive father than he likes, he is making a bid for independence knowing that his beloved magazine is in real danger of collapse. Hank is a top vegetarian chef with a *very* unhealthy relationship with the bottle and in a relationship with an emotional incubus. They’ve been enemies since cookery school, and now they’re thrown together trying to solve the mystery of a tragic death. They fight, they snark, they comfort each other, they show sides of their personalities the other never suspected and can only admire. They are wonderfully dysfunctional. I like Hank, I want to be Rose Passey when I grow up, but I love Drew fiercely. His prickles and insecurities are lovingly shown and his growth as a person is, well, just sweet to watch.

No more, otherwise I’ll have to put in spoiler alerts. This is an engaging book: great world, great characters, great writing. I really do recommend you read it.

 

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Amazon  |  Amazon UK  |  Kobo  |  Other On-line Bookstores

 

Joe Cosentino’s “Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back” on Audio!!

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Joe’s back with exciting news about an audio version of once of his much-loved Cozzi Cover books. Actually, I think this was the first book of Joe’s to feature here at Love That’s Out Of This World, so it’s especially nice to revisit it in its new incarnation!  Here’s Joe on creating an audio version:

The making of an audiobook

Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back, the first Cozzi Cove novel

by Joe Cosentino

Listening to an audiobook is an intensely personal experience. The listener enters the world created by the author and performer, and lives in the world of the book. As an author, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have worked with only the finest audiobook performers. If you haven’t yet, don’t miss my The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland (Joel Leslie, Dreamspinner Press), A Home for the Holidays/Bobby and Paolo’s Holiday Stories Book 1 (Joel Leslie, Dreamspinner Press), Drama Queen/the first Nicky and Noah mystery (Michael Gilboe, Lethe Press), Drama Muscle/the second Nicky and Noah mystery (Chip Hurley), Drama Cruise/the third Nicky and Noah mystery (Brad Enright), Paper Doll/the first Jana Lane mystery (Charissa Clark Howe), and Porcelain Doll/the second Jana Lane mystery (Derick Snow, The Wild Rose Press).

When Rae from NineStar Press asked if I’d like to have an audiobook of Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back (TBR Pile Book of the Month and Rainbow Award Honorable Mention), I did the happy dance. Cozzi Cove is a gay resort of my imagination, located on a gorgeous private cove on the New Jersey Shore with a stunning view of the bay, ocean, and lighthouse in the distance. The locations are vivid in my mind. As in most serials, the characters and their lives are a part of me. The humor, romance, and plot twists and turns still captivate and enthrall me.

There is Cal Cozzi, an ex-professional football player, who manages his family’s gay resort in the town named after his great-grandfather who founded it. Cal lives with the love of his life, his husband Lance. Connor, the college student assisting Cal at the resort, is packed with muscles and hormones. He revels in Cozzi Cove, and in checking out each resident for a possible fling on the cove—which he often enjoys. Tommy, the bald, muscular, tattooed resident of Cozzi Cove who owns the local bar has held a torch for Cal since high school. Carla Mangione who runs Carla’s Seafood Restaurant holds a similar torch for Cal’s sister, Taylor, who drops in from Rome, Paris, Wall Street, or Palm Springs. The vacationers in book one include sexy college students, a famous gay novelist, a gay porn star, gay dads, and a computer game designer who sees a merman on the cove. Everyone has a secret at Cozzi Cove, nothing is what it seems at first, and romance is always in the sea air.

Audio book performer Chase Johnson is the perfect narrator for the novel. Chase has an incredibly sexy, masculine voice, perfect for Cal Cozzi. He perfectly embodies Cal’s strength, honesty, and determination. Chase is also quite versatile and realistically portrays the other twenty character-voices in the book. He connects with each of them in terms of their personalities, passions, and secrets. His diction is flawless, and his audiobooks are produced with fine equipment. When he reads the descriptions of Cozzi Cove, I feel as if I am lying on a gorgeous cove at the beach. Chase also portrays the many humorous sections of the novel perfectly, keying into the timing and wit. His timing is also spot on for the many reveals in the novel. I was lucky to have found his audio clips online, resulting in asking him to narrate. After providing him with my insights into the characters and their relationships, Chase took it from there, submitting the audiobook ahead of schedule. I hope we have more collaborations in the future.

So, grab your Speedos, suntan lotion, and shades and head over to Cozzi Cove for a listen of a lifetime. I hope to see you there! And I love hearing from readers. Please let me know all about your trip to the beach at: http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com.

Audio Book version at Audible

http://myBook.to/Cozzi_Cove_BB

 

 

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On Cozzi Cove at the New Jersey shore, handsome Cal Cozzi’s seven bungalows are open for summer and love. Mario and Harold are brothers and college students who happen to look alike, but couldn’t be more different: Mario is searching for love, and Harold is searching for lust. Josh and Greg, a wealthy older couple, are matchmakers for their son, Christopher. When it comes to Connor, the maid, packed with muscles and a roving sponge, anything can happen. Opposites attract as wild Tim with the secret past meets shy Mark, and porn star Chuck Caliber connects with Sean, a virgin romance novelist. And what will happen when computer-game designer Arthur has a midnight sea rendezvous with a merman? Even married Cal faces an emotional upheaval when a gay bashing turns into something quite unexpected. What secrets and passions lie in magical Cozzi Cove?

Cozzi Cove audio book performed by Chase Johnson

Published by NineStar Press

 

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Praise for COZZI COVE: BOUNCING BACK: Book of the Month at The TBR Pile, Rainbow Award Honorable Mention, 3rd Place Best Fiction Book of 2016 on Urban Book Reviews

“I loved this story. It carries you through the full range of emotions, from joy to sadness, from happiness to anger.  The characters are beautifully written….I look forward to a return visit to the Cove.” TBR Pile

“Heartbreaking and heartwarming, sweet beginnings for some, sour endings for others, emotions jumping off the page as you turn eagerly to read more, welcome to Cozzi Cove. The author measured his scales to perfection in delivering the perfect balance of love, laughter and tears in this sexy, fun filled holiday romance entwined with some sadness. Summer magic waved its wand at all who visited and stayed at Cozzi Cove and I was one of those who wanted to stay.” Three Books Over the Rainbow

“poignant and full of beautiful imagery. It’s one crazy mix of characters, all weird and wonderful in their own way…It made me laugh out loud, cry and want to snuggle up with someone I loved. I couldn’t have asked for more.” Divine Magazine

“In true Joe Cosentino style, this book is packed full of drama! This cast of characters will have you laughing out loud one minute before ripping your heart out the next.” Joyfully Jay

“Joe Cosentino has the amazing ability to combine heartwarming, feel good moments with droll, sometimes biting humor, along with insights into the frailties and peccadillos of being human.” “Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back is the very finest in literary fiction with a romance theme, yet it’s more than just that—it’s about human connections and empathy and finding a way out of the fear and inertia faced by so many. It’s also about courage and strength, about respect and coming to terms with all that life has to offer, and it’s about letting go. I loved this book and look forward to the next in the series. This is a highly recommended read, well-deserving of Five Stars.” GGR Reviews

“Cosentino tells the stories of the guests and owners at Cozzi Cove as separate yet intertwining stories, a delivery style that’s genius. It’s a bit like watching segments unfold in soap opera fashion…While the story is rife with the humor and lighthearted romance I’ve come to associate with Joe Cosentino, it also addresses several serious topics associated with the gay community: homophobia, stereotyping and coming out.” 3 Chicks After Dark

“This book is extremely well written and all the stories are equally compelling and cleverly crafted. There are moments when, just as you think you know what’s going on, the truth emerges and turns out to be something quite different….Cal’s guests are an amusing and heart wrenching mixed bag of people, all of whom I found irresistible in their own way….So many wonderful, poignant and often funny stories are told here….It’s a real roller coaster of a ride that’s finished off perfectly as the guests spend their last day at Cozzi Cove then check out to move on with their lives.” OptimuMM Book Reviews

“Another brilliantly written book by this author. He makes you want to take your own vacation in Cozzi Cove. You could feel all the emotion and love flowing from the pages.” Books Laid Bare Boys

 

 

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[image error]Bestselling author Joe Cosentino wrote Cozzi Cove: Bouncing Back, Cozzi Cove: Moving Forward, Cozzi Cove: Stepping Out, and Cozzi Cove: New Beginnings (NineStar Press); Drama Queen, Drama Muscle, Drama Cruise, Drama Luau, Drama Detective Nicky and Noah mysteries (Lethe Press); In My Heart/An Infatuation & A Shooting Star, A Home for the Holidays, The Naked Prince and Other Tales from Fairyland (Dreamspinner Press); Paper Doll, Porcelain Doll, Satin Doll, China Doll, Rag Doll (The Wild Rose Press) Jana Lane mysteries.. He has appeared in principal acting roles in film, television, and theatre, opposite stars such as Bruce Willis, Rosie O’Donnell, Nathan Lane, Holland Taylor, and Jason Robards. Joe is currently Head of the Department/Professor at a college in upstate New York, and is happily married. He was voted 2nd Place for Favorite MM Author of the Year in Divine Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards for 2015, and his books have received numerous awards including Rainbow Award Honorable Mentions.

 

Web site: http://www.JoeCosentino.weebly.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JoeCosentinoauthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeCosen

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4071647.Joe_Cosentino

Amazon: Author.to/JoeCosentino