Anna Butler's Blog, page 36

An Independence Day Coffee Date with K Lynn

Okay, it’s an awful pun, but it seems to me that independence and finding oneself and finding happiness are themes of K. Lynn’s new novella, Coffee Date.  I’m delighted K. Lynn’s here on the blog today to tell us more about it.

 

 

Alice is finally happy with her body and her life—except for the part where revealing she’s trans winds up leaving her hurt and abandoned over and over again. She’s decided she’s done making herself miserable by looking for love.

Love finds her anyway, in the form of Hank, the new guy at her local coffee shop. He’s sweet, friendly, charming… and will probably turn out like all the rest. Determined not to shatter the fantasy and lose him before she has to, Alice holds fast to her secrets.

But if the truth doesn’t ruin everything, the lies will, and it seems no matter which choice she makes Alice is set for just one more heartache.

 

Coffee Date is a 12,000 word contemporary transgender novella that explores Alice’s struggle to find acceptance, and possibly love, in a world that has not been kind to her on either front.

 

Alice danced around in front of the mirror, trying to reach back far enough to pull up the zipper on her dress. She didn’t know why she kept the damn thing, considering it was always a hassle to get it on. Finally, she managed to snag the metal tag and bring it up. Tugging on the material bunched at her sides, she took a look at herself in the mirror. Her hair had suffered for her acrobatics, so she ran her fingers through it to put the escaped strands back in place, but otherwise she was fine. And she was running twenty minutes ahead of schedule. Maybe she would actually make it to work on time for once.

She was so close to being out the door, her hand was on the door handle and everything, when the phone rang. Alice briefly considered not answering it. No one needed her at eight o’clock in the morning; it was probably a telemarketer or something. Seriously, she should just leave. But what if something was wrong? And if she ignored it, the worry would just haunt her all day long. Giving a sigh, she snagged the portable phone off the side table and answered.

“Oh, good, you’re home,” Mary said, not bothering with a proper greeting. “I thought you might have left already.”

“I was just heading out and…”

“This’ll be quick, I promise.”

Which meant it would take a while. Alice had learned to decipher Mary’s promises long ago. She sat down on the couch and waited for her best friend to continue.

“Did you get an invitation in the mail yesterday?”

Alice thought about the stack of envelopes that were still sitting on her kitchen table. She’d thrown everything down last night, too tired from work stress to deal with a bunch of bills, figuring she’d just go through it later.

“What kind of invitation?” she asked, already heading to the kitchen. “I haven’t checked.”

“Well, do it. You’ll know it when you see it.”

“Why don’t you just tell me what I’m looking for? I don’t have time for this.”

She broke off her words when she saw the cream-colored envelope with a return address of her alma mater, which she and Mary had graduated from five years ago. Running her fingers under the seal, she opened it up and saw the stylized card inviting her to attend a reunion of her class. And it was signed with a familiar name.

“Winston Carver requests the honor of our presence,” Mary said when Alice remained silent.

“I’d rather give him the honor of a foot up his ass,” Alice said, tossing the invitation in the trash in disgust.

Mary busted out a laugh at that. “I think we should go just to fuck with him. Give him a little payback for the misery he caused us.”

“Mostly to me,” Alice said, remembering all the torture Winston had put her through during junior year. She’d started transitioning from Al to Alice and didn’t have an easy time as her features started changing and her emotions ran the gambit from anger to tears. Mary had been her rock, standing beside her and supporting her, but Winston couldn’t get past the freak aspect of what Al was becoming. He took particular delight in calling her every derogatory name he could think of, goading others to take part in the taunts as well.

“I bet he’s still a screw-up,” Mary said. “Probably running his daddy’s car dealership and hitting on anything that moves.”

“Well, I don’t care to find out. I had enough of him and his buddies at the time. I don’t need a repeat.”

“Still, it might be fun.”

“Yeah, well, not for me.” Alice glanced over at the microwave clock and her eyes widened as saw that it read eight forty. “Damn it, how’d it get so late? I’ve got to get to work.”

“Think about it.”

“Fine, whatever,” Alice said, gathering up her lunch one-handed. She stuffed it into her purse and headed back to the living room. “I’ll see you tonight?”

“Reservations are at seven. Talk to you then.”

“Later.” Alice thumbed the off button and replaced the receiver on its dock. Having left no time for breakfast, she hoped the line at Cafe Connection wasn’t too long as she headed out.

As luck would have it, there were only two people in front of her when she stopped at the coffee shop. When the place opened just a block from her building last year, she was wary of its sustainability. The small shops often started off with high hopes, but soon collapsed under the economic pressures of having to compete against the larger chains. Cafe Connection, however, had stayed put and even started gaining customers from its larger competitors when word got out about how wonderful their products were. Alice had to admit she had fallen hard for the place and was now known as a regular, stopping in for a cup of coffee on her way to work every morning. Well, when she could spare the time, at least.

The line to the counter started moving again and she dug into her purse for her wallet. Hopefully she had enough cash for an item from the bakery to go along with her drink. The phone call with Mary had put her behind and she didn’t know if she could survive the morning with no food. Plus, it was Tuesday, which meant there were fresh-baked apple cinnamon muffins available. She could already smell them, and her stomach grumbled at the temptation.

“The usual,” Alice said, not looking up. Instead, she continued counting through her change, trying to scrape up enough for her muffin. She really should have gone to the bank yesterday, but she forgot. Her debit card had met with an unfortunate accident in the dryer last week, so she was left to nickel and dime her way through her morning routine.

“I don’t know what the usual is,” a male voice said, causing her to glance up.

She knew everyone that worked here, at least by sight, and the man in front of her was definitely not someone she recognized. He was tall, but built solid with muscle, and would have looked more at home in a gym than behind the counter of a coffee shop.

“Who are you?” she asked, still jarred by the change in her routine. She shook her head once she realized what she’d said. “I’m sorry, that was rude.”

 

You can purchase is from Less Than Three, Amazon, or any online retailer.

Less Than Three Publishing           Amazon.com 

 

K. Lynn has been an avid reader and writer since childhood. While in college, K. Lynn increased her involvement in LGBT issues and writing within the LGBT fiction genre. She has become a long-time fan of the authors that seek to explore the commonality that exists within all sexualities and genders. Most of K. Lynn’s work features LGBT characters, many of whom are in established relationships and show how love perseveres through every trial and tribulation that life holds. She also has a particular interest in seeing transgender characters gain a larger foothold within the LGBT fiction genre, hoping that the market for these works expand in the future.

Contact K. Lynn at writerklynn@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @WriterKLynn

 

 

Links To Blog Posts on Writing – June 2015

You know, if I were a sensible sort of person I’d be compiling this ruddy list all month, adding in links as I read them rather than scrambling to complete it all in one go that takes hours and hours…

Anyhow, here’s a selection of posts and articles on writing that have caught my eye over the last month:

Writing (general)

More on the HUGOs controversy, which lingers on, like the smell of fish when you’ve been cooking. In other words, not in a good way:

Sad Puppies Roundup at TeleRead has a short catch up on the latest developments, including the controversy around Tor Books editor Irene Gallo. All I will say is that while I have sympathy for her, she’s old enough to realise that even what you post on your personal FB is out there for all to read and turn to their advantage. And that given the loyalty shown her by Tor, she should be polishing up her resume.

America’s Largest Sci-Fi Publisher Gives in to Reactionary “Sad Puppies” – more on Gallo at The Gawker

I Stand By Irene Gallo – Chuck Wendig’s trenchant defence of Gallo.

Neil Gaimon’s University of The Arts Commencement Speech 2012 – an old video, but it contains one of the best comments on the impetus behind the writer (any artist) ever: “Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art. I’m serious. Husband runs off with a politician? Make good art. Leg crushed and then eaten by mutated boa constrictor? Make good art. IRS on your trail? Make good art. Cat exploded? Make good art. Somebody on the Internet thinks what you do is stupid or evil or it’s all been done before? Make good art. Probably things will work out somehow, and eventually time will take the sting away, but that doesn’t matter. Do what only you do best. Make good art.”

Your #1 responsibility as a writer – Marcy McKay at the Write Practice on telling the truth your story demands.

If Jane Austen Got Feedback From Some Guy In A Writing Workshop – I don’t often quote BuzzFeed, but this made me laugh.

Gaming The System – Kristine Katheryn Rusch on the some of the extra-curricular things writers do to push up sales and rankings. She does not approve.

 

Reviews

Authors Call On Amazon to Review Reviews Process – at Writers Circle. We all know the review system is imperfect. The Circle is calling for the ability to remove reviews that make it clear the reviewer trashing the book had never read it (happened to a friend of mine, bombed by a vindictive little clique) or are complaining about the price etc.

Amazon looks to improve customer-reviews system with machine learning – as if things weren’t bad enough. Rolls eyes.

How NOT to deal with reviews. Not under any circumstances. An object lesson in stupidity.

 

.

Writing (skills)

Five Failed Character Arcs  A Mythcreants analysis of five major fantasy/sci-fi characters (Hermione, Kirk, Katniss or starters) with some pointers about where they fail to change and grow. Good stuff – it should make you go back and look at your own characters with a more critical eye.

 

Show, Don’t Tell: How to Write the Stages of Grief – useful article on how to convey the stages of grief.

.

Writers on Writing

(a) Chuck Wendig

I Stand By Irene Gallo – Chuck Wendig’s trenchant defence of Irene Gallo, the Tor editor under fire re the eternal Hugos controversy.

Your Most Frequently Asked Writing Questions, Answered! Hold onto your hat. Chuck, as ever, gives no quarter. Print this out and pin it to your wall. Seriously.

Here’s How Amazon Could Fix Kindle Unlimited – in which Chuck becomes the Taylor Swift of publishing. The mind, she boggles.

 

(b) Everyone else

Sarah Madison on Ten Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me As A Newbie Author – an intelligent and comprehensive list of advice for the new writer. You get bits of this all over the shop, but this is the first time I’ve seen it all gathered together like this.

(I’ll add one very minor piece of practical advice: access everything on line in your pseudonym through a completely different browser to your real life persona—something Sarah mentioned to me when I started out. Everything Anna Butlerish is on Chrome and absolutely nothing of RL me is. It means I don’t have to keep signing in and out of email, or Facebook, or Twitter or Pinterest two or three dozen times a day. I just switch browsers. And if you’re laughing at me and thinking what a twit I am for saying something this simple, you spend a day doing everything through a single browser. That should be long enough.)

Rob Hart on Five Things I Learned Writing New Yorked

 

Seven Invaluable Lessons For Writers From James Patterson – a short pithy piece at the Writers Write blog.

Terrible Editors And Why You Shouldn’t – writer KJ Charles is also a professional editor. This is a wonderful post on what an editor should, and shouldn’t, be doing for you. It’s provoked by a piece of horrendous editing that made KJ see red, so it’s that odd duck: an impassioned piece about something many people (ie those who have never gone through an edit!) would think was a dry topic about hunting for elusive commas or something, but of course is much, much more. Excellent advice here.

 

 

Technical ‘Stuff’

The Nine Best Apps And Tools To Help Writers Boost Productivity  A list of tools and sites from Writers Write. To those I’d add ProWritingAid, EditMinion and Hemingway, all of which (like Grammerly) will look at your text and point out passive constructions, too many adverbs etc. They help you clean up the text before you submit it. ProWritingAid seems to me to be the toughest.

.

Marketing for Writers

I’m somebody now: Facebook Verified Pages – Facebook makes my head hurt. A short piece by Lynne Cantwell at Indies Unlimited, about the value of using a verified page. Not much help if you write under a pseudonym, mind. She promises further articles but Facebook depresses me too much to follow it up.

 

How to Work with Influencers to Drive Book Discovery – Otis Chandler at Digital Book World with a fascinating article. This is something we’ve known for years – get Big Name to endorse your product and you’ll reach more people than if your Auntie Maisie give you a good review. Still. Interesting.

Estelle Maskame: how social media made me a publishing sensation – not that I’ve heard of her, but she gets a massive readership on Wattpad, apparently.

30 Inspiring Blog Post Ideas For Writers – Dunno about you, but I’m always trying to come up with something for my own blog, and when I’m also writing 20+ guest blogs for a forthcoming promotional tour, my head just about implodes. This isn’t a terribly sophisticated list from Writers Write, but it gives you a start.

 

Publishing

Kindle Unlimited switches from paying for 10% read, to paying for absolute number of pages read:

Announcement by Amazon

Hugh Howey’s views at The Wayfinder

What If Authors Were Paid Every Time Someone Turned a Page? – The Atlantic’s view

Does Amazon’s New Payment Scheme Require Literary Surveillance? Jonathan Sturgeon at Flavorwire with an interesting take on who is holding the stopwatch and doing the counting.

Here’s How Amazon Could Fix Kindle Unlimited – in which Chuck Wendig becomes the Taylor Swift of publishing. The mind, it boggles.

 

The Real Cost of Self-Publishing – interesting article on self pubbing at Blue Ink Review. Kind of reminds me of all those earnest lifestyle articles in the papers, estimating how much your child will cost you by the time it reaches adulthood. Seems to me you’re better off with books.

Self-Published by Choice – 7 Reasons Why I Did It Veronica Sicoe with some strong reasons for going your own way, mostly around empowerment and control. There’s a good discussion in the comments, too.

A Tale of Two TORS. Be Warned, I’m Annoyed A cautionary tale on the relationship between writer and publisher.

 

Resources

Veronica Sicoe’s blog – You know how I encourage you all to sign up to Chuck Wendig’s blog on writing because, well, Chuck. Similarly, if you love Sci Fi, I suggest you sign up to Veronica’s blog. She is great at all the sciency, techy stuff that makes you think before committing howlers in your text. I found several posts of hers very helpful and thought-provoking as I was deciding on the Maess’s physical characteristics. Really useful resource for the sci-fi writer.

Mythcreants – another sci-fi based blog/site that is invaluable. Highly recommended.

Ten Fantastic Fog Words – my favourite post this month. At The Week, Angela Tung delves into the thesaurus to come up with some wonderful ways of describing fog. I love words and I love language. Perfect post.

Women in Science Fiction – a new website building up a list and bibliography of female writers of SF

– well the results made me laugh. YMMV.

 

That’s it for June. Enjoy the links.

Great Day!

The Land of the Free may just start living up to its self-awarded title.

This doesn’t affect me personally. I’m an ally: I’m not gay, or trans, or bi.  I’m English, not American, and we’ve had universal marriage here for a couple of years now.

But I know so many of you who have been longing to see this day. Today, I’m celebrating with you.

#LoveWins

Woot! Heart Scarab is on the way!

I’m delighted to show off the cover for the second of the Taking Shield series, Heart Scarab.

We’re full steam ahead for a launch on  22 July – exactly a  month to go!

So here it is:

 

 

In Heart Scarab, set more than a year and a half after Gyrfalcon, Shield Captain Bennet’s company is on a planet in imminent danger of being overrun by the Maess. Telnos is an unpleasant little planet, inhabited by religious fanatics in the festering marshlands and unregistered miners running illegal solactinium mines up in the hills. But the Maess want Telnos, and Shield Captain Bennet’s job is to get out as many civilians as he can. The enemy arrives before the evacuation is complete. Caught in a vicious fire fight, Bennet is left behind, presumed dead.

His family is grieving. Joss, his long-term partner, grieves with them; lost, unhappy, remorseful. First Lieutenant Flynn has no official ‘rights’ here. He isn’t family. He isn’t partner or lover.

All he is, is broken.

 

A sneaky little preview of Flynn, remembering the events detailed in Gyrfalcon. Not the public events, mind you. He’s remembering the private ones:

 

Flynn liked kissing. In fact, Flynn considered himself something of an expert in the art of kissing. He’d tried it in all its forms, from the first tentative pressing together of juvenile lips that had you wondering what all the fuss was about, to the discovery that if you just opened your mouth and, you know, kind of moved everything, your tongue suddenly had a lot more positive uses than just allowing you to articulate clearly and swallow things without choking. Flynn got the hang of it, ran with it, and never looked back.

Soft kisses and hard kisses; kisses that were wet and slobbery with people who didn’t know exactly how to hold their lips to get the best and sexiest effect, and wet and sexy kisses with people who did. Kisses that turned the blood to molten lava and kisses that cooled you as you came down. Kisses that inflamed and kisses that soothed; feverish kisses and languid after-sex kisses. Kisses that meant only good fellowship and casual affection, and kisses that were desire incarnate.

Flynn had not only tried them all, he’d made them his own. He was considered by all the relevant authorities to be rather a specialist in the area.

Flynn really liked kissing. He had been gratified by the discovery that Bennet liked it too. Because now he could add slow kisses to the repertoire. Kisses so leisured and intense the world came to a stop while a hot tongue moved over his lips, explored each and every tooth down to the last molar, while teeth pulled at his bottom lip, biting it gently until it was swollen and hot and heavy, and he had to lick his lip to cool it and met Bennet’s tongue with his. Only then, would Bennet’s mouth close over his and start a real in-earnest kiss that lasted several more centuries. Those were kisses Bennet seemed to specialise in.

Flynn was always willing to take tips from another expert. A man should always try to extend his technique.

 

Heart Scarab will be available from Wilde City Press on 22 July. Order it HERE

 

On laudanum, syrup of squills and Auntie Carrie’s recipe book

One of the most delightful and satisfying things about writing a historical novel (well, sorta historical if the Victorians had taken a step to the left and discovered luminferous aether) is research.

Lovely, lovely research.

The first thing I did when I decided to write Gilded Scarab as a steampunk world was cheer and rub my hands together, before rushing off to read up on steampunk’s history, on the steampunk aesthetic, on coffee making, on anything I could think of. I listened to steampunk bands, even, and discovered a new fannish love in Steam Powered Giraffe. When it came to Gyrfalcon, I was looking up such wonderfully esoteric things as interferomatic dispersion, what actually happens if an airlock blows out in a vacuum, and sketching out on paper how the Gyrfalcon’s hangars and launch tubes work.

I love research. Partly for its own sake, because I find it innately satisfying to learn when women athletes were first allowed into the Olympics (the second modern Olympiad in 1900 in Paris, as it happens) or how a naval flag office works. But mostly because it helps me visualise and describe the worlds I’m building, and because those worlds are stronger and more vivid from the details I’ve been able to add to them.

One of my favourite finds sadly didn’t make it into the pages of The Gilded Scarab, but I’m sure that I’ll be able to squeeze something into the follow up book when I start writing it (hopefully, next month. I’m almost finished the fourth Shield book, and The Dog That Swallowed Millions is next on the to do list).

My dearest relative of the older generation was my great aunt, Caroline Edith Winter. She was very dear to me and I miss her terribly, even though she’s been dead for very many years now. I don’t have a lot of her possessions, because Auntie Carrie was never very rich in material things, but I do have a large, A3 size hardback book full of recipes, that she collected from a very young age. It dates back to pre-World War I.

It has recipes for everything you can imagine, hundreds of them, written in copperplate (as you can see-points upward). Pork cutlets, ‘cheap’ pudding, ‘A Good Cake’, home-made lemonade, ginger snaps and Anzac biscuits—this last one a tribute from the war when we Brits were awed by the courage and loyalty of our Antipodean cousins fighting in Flanders for us. If anyone wants the recipe, yell out, although I have to warn you it lacks precision and I hope you know better than I what a ‘moderate oven until done’ means.

And it has recipes for cough mixture, a remedy for diarrhoea, liniment for pneumonia cases, choleria drops, a remedy for rheumatism. Recipes for ‘Cheap Boot Polish’, and mixtures to prevent falling hair or grey hair. And even recipes for making fake gin, whiskey (so spelled!) and rum, which are odd given she was a lifelong teetotaller.

It is a delightful book. I can promise you that when he gets to Aegypt, Rafe is going to be grateful for her remedy for intestinal disturbances. And for the boot polish and cough mixture. But he draws the line at fake spirits. He wants the real thing.

In the meantime, here’s a recipe or two to amuse you. Good luck with buying the ingredients and avoiding the attention of the local Drug Squad.

Cough Mixture

2 drachms each of laudanum, aniseed, syrup of squills, paregoric and oil of mint

2 ozs Spanish (liquorice?)

1 lb treacle

Mix together. Shake well before use. 1 teaspoonful 2 times a day.

A Remedy for Diarrhoea

2 drachms each of tincture of rhubarb, laudanum, essence of peppermint, spirits of camphor, cayenne tincture.

(no dosage instructions, Rafe. Take at your own risk!)

 

 

 

Choleria Drops

1 drachm each of tincture of cayenne, tincture of rhubarb, essence of peppermint, spirits of camphor

2 drachms oil of pennyroyal

3 drachms laudanum

Dose: from ½ a teaspoonful to one spoonful in well-sweetened hot water.

I suspect with the last, if it didn’t stop your diarrhoea, with that much laudanum in it, you’d sleep through the worst anyway.

Isn’t research just glorious?

Indigent : a book with a charitable heart

I am delighted today to be plugging a new book, an anthology published by Cool Dudes, which has been put together by a group of authors wanting to support LGBT charities across the world. **Proceeds from the book will be divided between the following four charities**:

GALA is a centre for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) culture and education in Africa. Their mission is, first and foremost, to act as a catalyst for the production, preservation and dissemination of knowledge on the history, culture and contemporary experiences of LGBTI people.

Lost-n-Found in the USA is Atlanta’s only non-profit organization dedicated to taking homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth off the street and into more permanent housing, Lost-n-Found Youth is dedicated to the advocacy and service of youth from 13 to 25 years old.

Youth Off The Streets is a non-denominational community organisation working in Australia for young people aged 12-25 who are facing challenges of homelessness, drug and alcohol dependency, exclusion from school, neglect and abuse. We support these young people as they work to turn their lives around and overcome immense personal traumas such as neglect and physical, psychological and emotional abuse.

The UK’s Albert Kennedy Trust supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans homeless young people in crisis. Every day they deal with the the effects homelessness can have on young people’s lives.

 

Five authors have joined together to produce stories evoking both loss and hope. Reaching deep within their fiery imaginations, these stories take flight and showcase dreams for a better today and future for LGBT everywhere. Embodying a diverse set of talents and stories, this volume sets out to grab the hearts of those who read the m/m genre and to offer hope to LGBT across the globe.

 

Frederick Eugene Feeley Jr’s “Indigent”, after which the anthology takes its name, brings the reader to witness an apocalyptic war between the good and evil that rages in one man’s mind. Soon he will know that his problems are insignificant compared to those of others.

Mari Evan’s “Stumbling into Forever”, involves a handsome young vampire who will learn that just a sip of blood is the difference between love and freezing to death.

Leona Windwalker’s   “If Only the World”, takes rejection to another level. A heartbreaking story that is turned on its head by the kindness of strangers.

Shaye Evans’ “Rescued”, is a contemporary social statement about the aftermath of a young man’s life after his drink has been spiked at a bar.

LeAnne Phoenix’s “Higher Love”, takes us on an almost spiritual journey through the minds of two people who have never met, but have spoken on a telepathic level. When they do come together, that bond is already cemented but there is a price to pay.

 

Buy at AMAZON

 

 

Well, about all five…

 

Frederick Eugene Feeley Jr (F.E Feeley Jr) was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and lived there for twenty years before joining the military. He is a veteran of the US Armed Services; having done a tour in support of Operation Iraq Freedom in 2002-2003, he turned college student, pursuing a degree in political science. He now lives in Southeast Texas where he is married to the love of his life, John, and where they raise their 1½-year-old German shepherd, Kaiser.

As a young man, reading took center stage in his life, especially those novels about ghosts, witches, goblins, and all the other things that went bump in the night. His favorite authors include such writers as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Anne Rice, whose work allowed him to travel to far off places and meet fascinating and scary characters. As a gay man, he wishes to be able to write good fictional literature for those who love the genre and to write characters that readers can relate to. All in all, he is a cigarette smokin’, whiskey drinkin’, rock and roll lovin’, tattoo wearin’ dreamer of a man with a wonderful partner who puts up with his crap and lets him write his stories.

Find F.E. at his website

 

Mari Evans  a wife and the proud mother of a very active daughter, two dogs and two cats. She’s a very social kind of girl, who loves to talk. It’s both her best and worst quality.

From the moment she could read, she devoured books. Anything goes, as long as it has a happy ending. There were always stories swirling around in her head and as a child she liked to lay in bed and let the characters have their story and happy ending. It wasn’t until 2013 that she actually tried to put one of the whole stories down and submit it to a publisher. To her own surprise and excitement it was accepted. This gave her the drive to keep going.

The decision to write m/m was made when a friend told a story about a young gay man that struck a chord, even as her husband had already encouraged her to try it earlier. Now she found her passion, having already found the love in her family and friends, her life is completely chaotic, crazy but wonderful.

Find Mari on Facebook




 

 

 

Shaye Evans  is a proud Australian and best selling author of the M/M Romance genre.

At age nineteen, Shaye found her love in the m/m genre when she read her first M/M and was instantly hooked, but it took her an entire year to begin writing her own. She has had five of nine short stories accepted to be published in 2014 alone. Something she is very proud to admit—and who wouldn’t be

When not writing or plotting her next piece, Shaye keeps busy by either reading one of over four-hundred books in her collection, designing her next book cover, or shopping. She one day dreams of being a paramedic and her books making it to the movies!

Find Shaye on Facebook

 

Leona Windwalker is a long time staunch supporter of human rights and environmental causes. Her favorite genre is m/m fiction and she particularly enjoys the sci fi, fantasy and action suspense sub-genres, especially if they have a nice seasoning of romance. She has far too many books on her Kindle, has overloaded her phone with even more, and when not reading, writing, being driven to distraction by her children, or being overlorded by her three cats, spends time trying to locate the portal that the sock monster uses to steal socks from her dryer.

Find Leona at  Facebook and Twitter.

 

M. LeAnne Phoenix was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas in the mid-1970’s.  Ms. Phoenix was young and wild (and even free!) during the crazy wondrous decade known as the 1980’s and the even crazier but now grungy decade of the 1990’s. Music is second only to the muses that live and breathe to fill her mind with beautiful men, and music always helps them to tell their stories. She is never without her iPod or her computer no matter where she goes, although, she does like to hike and take pictures of the sky and the moon, and even the occasional shot of the sun through the branches of a tree.

An avid cat lover, Ms. Phoenix has been owned by many throughout her life, though her current owner is one Lily-Rose, who really would like for her to step away from the keyboard and pay her some attention! After all, hasn’t she earned it?

Find Ms Phoenix at her website,  Facebook and   Twitter

 

Indigent is published by Cool Dudes Publishing. You can find Cool Dudes on Facebook 

 

The anthology was edited by

Louis J.Harris, who lives in Germiston, South Africa. He has published three novels, “Stars Fall”, “Revival”, and “Swimmer”, his short stories have appeared across the globe. He is the owner of CoolDudes Publishing and has been an affiliate member of the South African Professional Editors Group.

louisjharris@cooldudespublishing.com

and

Kimi D Saunders who writes as Leona Windwalker- see Leona’s details above.

 

To schedule author readings, signings, or other author events (virtual or live), please contact Louis J Harris at CoolDudes Publishing via email louisjharris@cooldudespublishing.com or by calling +27 83 784 9658

 

Gender Bending with K. Lynn

I’m delighted to welcome K.Lynn to the blog today, to tell us about her new release, His Womanly Ways. With a title like that, you can bet this isn’t your average story.  And you’d be right.

Alex is a womanizer. He makes no excuses for it. Yes, he

picks up women at the local bar, leaving them with just a memory of a good night and a good lay, but he hasn’t had any complaints yet. That is, until he picks up the wrong woman. Not satisfied to be tossed aside as just another notch in Alex’s bedpost, she curses him, wishing he “knew what it was like for a woman.” And he’s about to find out what she means, embarking on a genderswap journey that he can’t stop.

Alex starts slowly gaining secondary female characteristics. Waking up with his cock gone, replaced by a vagina, was bad enough. Then it gets worse, as his body becomes more like a woman than the man he used to be. Alex tries to hide the changes he’s going through, for fear that someone will discover his secret, but keeping this quite literally “under wraps” might be impossible before the curse runs its course.

With the help of his female best friend, Eve, Alex tries to deal with who he is becoming.  He feels like he’s lost his identity, his mind not matching the body he now has. But Eve sticks by him, and they become closer as Alex’s changes progress. What started out as friendship may become something more before Alex’s journey is over. Perhaps this curse was actually a blessing in disguise.

His Womanly Ways is a 65,000 word genderswap novel with adult language and adult concepts.

 

Read an excerpt here

 

Release Date: May 27, 2015 from Torquere Press

 

K. Lynn has been an avid reader and writer since childhood. While in college, K. Lynn increased her involvement in LGBT issues and writing within the LGBT fiction genre. She has become a long-time fan of the authors that seek to explore the commonality that exists within all sexualities and genders. Most of K. Lynn’s work features LGBT characters, many of whom are in established relationships and show how love perseveres through every trial and tribulation that life holds. She also has a particular interest in seeing transgender characters gain a larger foothold within the LGBT fiction genre, hoping that the market for these works expand in the future.

Contact K. Lynn at writerklynn@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @WriterKLynn

Links To Blog Posts on Writing

This link list will now be a monthly round up. Life is just too demanding at the moment to do it more often, but it will remain a selection of posts and articles on writing that have caught my eye over the last few weeks. Enjoy!

Writing (general)

Crucially important post by Shoshanna Evars at The Writers Challenge for those of us who have FB accounts in our pennames. Bookmark this cautionary tale somewhere, kids. It could be very useful some day.

I hate strong female characters – the recent sad kerfuffle of wounded masculinity in the blogosphere re the role Charlize Theron has in the latest Mad Max incarnation, and the rise of series such as Agent Carter and the new Supergirl, makes this golden oldie about characterisation very topical. A good article, worth a read.

One Reason You Will Fail At Writing – “You will fail at writing if you do not understand that you are not an Arteeste, writing for love. You are a business.” by Shantnu Tiwari

 

 

Writing (tips/skills)

Don’t Attribute Dialogue – Jonathan Ball at Writing The Wrong Way. This is a wonderful post. “…the very presence of dialogue attribution weakens dialogue and muddies character action…” Yup! I must do better. I must do better…

Unnecessary Scenes – an interesting post from K M Weiland on how to spot –and then CULL – scenes that don’t matter. I am guilty of each and every one of these…

The 10 Keys To Writing Killer Fight Scenes  Bill Ferris at Writer Unboxed with some ideas on getting action and immediacy into writing a fight scene. Although each tip is short, this is an interesting and helpful read. He covers everything from research to emotion.

How to Introduce Your Hero – Speculative Version  Jeff Gerke at Writers Digest on getting your hero on stage and getting his essential characteristics and personality set from page one.

Ten Tips For Choosing The Right Book Title From Anne Allen, a wide ranging post that also covers things like metadata and keywords.

.

Writers on Writing 

(a) Chuck Wendig

In Which I Critique Your Story (That I Haven’t Read) A wonderful piece from Chuck covering some of the common writerly failings. In his own inimitable style, of course.

Why Endings (Particularly for TV Shows) Are So Goddamn Hard  Not to mention for book series, as I know to my cost. I like Chuck’s analysis here of what makes a good ending, particularly that it shouldn’t be too neat. My crit group will be grinning at me about that, believe me.

What Lessons From What Stories Chuck on how the author is a magician and the magic tricks, if they don’t work out, can lead to disappointed readers.

None Of Us Know What The Fuck We’re Doing – on how writing isn’t about certainty, but about exploration and just winging it. THE FIVE CONSTANTS: 1. Write A Lot (And To Completion) / 2. Read A Lot (And Read Critically When You Do)… etc

We Are Not Things: Mad Max vs Game Of Thrones – a thoughtful piece on how sexual assault in fiction is handled.

How “Mad Max: Fury Road” Turns Your Writing Advice Into Road Kill – another thoughtful piece on what works in the film and how that stacks against standard writing advice and tips.

(b) Everyone else

Gwenda Bond on Five Things I Learned Writing “Lois Lane: Fallout.”

Sandra Gulland on Five Things I Learned Writing A YA Novel

Eli K P William on Five Things I Learned Writing “Crash Crash Jubilee”

Peter Orullian on Five Things I Learned Writing Trial Of Intentions

 

.

Technical ‘Stuff’

30 Ultimately Successful Social Media Tools for Writers – the Writers Write team list 30 online resources – few of which I’d call ‘social’ media, btw – to help you brainstorm and organise your work.

How to Create a Website as a Writer (Without it Costing You Both One Arm and One Leg) This has some very important tips from Stuart Horwitz at Writer Unboxed. Particularly on tagging for search words.

.

Marketing for Writers

170 Twitter Hashtags for Writers & Authors  – Author Kate Larking lists them all

Please Shut Up – why self-promotion as an author doesn’t work – Delilah S Dawson’s thought provoking blog post that should make you think hard about how you use social media. And…

Wait, keep talking: author self-promo that actually works – Dawson’s follow up post with again, some more interesting thoughts on what might help sell you books. Be genuine!

Author Swag and How To Swing It – Sierra Godfrey at Writers In The Storm. An interesting piece on what sort of swag works. Most interesting thing to me – search Pinterest for “author swag” and see the good ideas.

12 Marketing Tips From 12 Industry Experts Some of this falls into the eye-rolling bleeding obvious category, but you might find it useful.

Why Authors Should Never Respond to Negative Reviews of their own books  Well duh. Of course not. But this is an entertaining piece from Craig Stone. Also his blog title is complete awesomesauce: “Thought Scratchings – the bit your brain can’t itch, served in a packet of alternative pig shit.” Awesome!

What Customers Hate About Your Brand In Social Media – good infographic from Writers Write with, you know, actual research findings. Am awed.

.

Resources

45 Must-Visit Sci Fi Websites for Writers – great resource list for those of us who are writing in the genre.

 

On dildo beetles, tiaras, gardening, and pruning out those pesky words…

I took yesterday off.

It’s quite ridiculous to feel guilty. After all, the life of leisure is the one I’m supposed to be leading these days. Early retirement = not stressing over work or deadlines or ministers’ unreasonable expectations. Instead I’m supposed to be a lady who (occasionally) lunches. And yesterday was just such an occasion.

I met an old friend at the Queen’s Gallery (part of Buckingham Palace) for the Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden exhibition. Most of the paintings are from the Queen’s own collection. How nice must it be to swan through your rooms and be able to pick out dozens of paintings to create a specialised exhibition that filled several rooms with paintings, prints and tapestries? Such an embarras de richesses! One I could live with anyway.

The art, being from one source and collected over several centuries, was variable, shall we say. Some items were lovely, the sort you could be lost in all day wondering in what Renaissance heaven ostriches went for a paddle in the moat enclosing the hedge-maze where you were hosting a picnic; some by world famous artists (Da Vinci, Breughel, for instance). Some items were disappointing. A collection of Faberge enamelled flowers looked horribly like the ones you can buy in Swarovski and most of the china was monstrous. One of the most attractive pieces was a small watercolour by Queen Alexandra, long-suffering wife of Edward VII. I’m sure she found her painting a solace, poor dear. Oh the pineapple isn’t hers. That’s by Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) and is described as

A ripe pineapple (Ananas comosus), the caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly of the dido longwing (Philaetria dido) and a beetle (Chilocorus cacti). I confess I first read that as the dildo longwing and embarrassed myself by snorting out a giggle. Really, in the Queen’s own house! I was shamed for my lewd sense of humour.

But the best bit, for me? A tiara, of course. Well, a diadem anyway.

When Albert and Victoria were betrothed, one of his presents to her was a brooch styled as a sprig of orange blossom, with gold leaves and a white enamelled flower. Very pretty, and perfect for a bride to be. Over the years, he added to the parure. The piece de la resistance—my, aren’t we French today?—is a diadem, with not only orange blossom flowers, but tiny green oranges to represent their (many) children. Unripe, you see, hence green. Symbolism, innit?

Anyhow, Victoria wore it for every wedding anniversary, every year of her life, even long after Albert had died. She may have been a bit of a harridan, but she loved fiercely where she loved at all.

 

To my delight, they displayed the diadem with the brooches and earrings. It is really an enchanting piece, charmingly low key (very few diamonds) and with a romantic history. What more could a tiara lover want?

 

Today I’m back at work, trying to make up for yesterday’s laziness.

One of the hardest parts of writing isn’t getting the words down on paper (or screen). It’s getting the right words down. I am not the most concise writer in the universe. Each of the Shield novels clocks in between 95-100K words. And, to be honest, far more of those than I like are padding. I am working on pruning them out of the text of Makepeace (extra points if you spot the gardening joke), the third Shield novel. I’ve run the whole thing through EditMinion, and now I’m doing a search-and-consider-rewriting for all the following words:

A bit

Actually

All at once

Almost

As well

Be

Began to

Being

Currently

Even

Eventually

Ever

Get/got (esp as compound verb)

Have

Having

Here

Immediately

In order

Just

Just then

Knew

Looked

Maybe

Make/made (esp as compound verb)

Might

Much

Now

Often

Only

Perhaps

Pretty

Proceeded to

Quite

Rather

Realised

Really

Saw

Simply

So

Started to

That

There is/are/was/were

Then

Thought

Watched

Wondered

Very

 

Art by Holly Pitre http://www.365daysofprint.com/2011/02/24/holly-pitre-feb-24-2011-1255-words-5-hours-and-13-minutes/

It takes a long time to trawl through 95,000 words for all those to cut them out and rewrite the phrases. But at the end of it, hopefully the book I send the publisher next week will be one helluva lot better for it.

And have a significantly lower wordcount…

 

Time to get back to work.

Have a lovely weekend, my dears.

May and December: Midsummer with Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese

I’m really pleased to welcome Erin and Racheline to the blog today, to talk about their new release, Midsummer; a book that doesn’t shy away from the issues when there’s an age difference between the characters.  It’s a fascinating topic, and over to Erin and Racheling to tell us about it.

+^+^+^+^

Power dynamics are often a huge issue in May/December relationships. For some readers, that’s the draw. For others, it’s a turnoff. For us, with Midsummer, which features a couple with a 17 year age difference (they’re 25 and 42), it seemed like something really fun to play with.

John, our 42-year-old, has the benefit of life experience, including a marriage and divorce behind him. But his love story in this book is his first one with a man. For all the experience he does have, so many things — including how other people perceive him when he’s dating someone of the same sex — is new to him.

Meanwhile Michael, our 25-year-old, may be young, but he’s been happily around the block a few times. He may not be good at fighting fair or having difficult relationship conversations, but he’s been out and comfortable with his sexuality since he was a young teenager. A lot of the things that seem new to John are old hat to him.

But what’s new, and what’s not, isn’t always obvious. When Michael assumes that certain sexual acts are unfamiliar and perhaps intimidating to John, John laughs at him and reminds him that old married people, even opposite-sex married people, can have varied, interesting, and filthy sex too. Meanwhile, when John assumes Michael isn’t mature enough to understand the personal loss he’s experienced, Michael sadly has his own family story that proves him wrong.

 

John Lyonel, a long-time theater professional and teacher, heads to Virginia to play Oberon in the Theater in the Woods’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, intending to focus on his work. John is recovering from the tragic loss of his family and needs a break. The last thing he expects is to become captivated by Michael Hilliard, the professional actor playing Puck, especially since John has never been attracted to men, let alone one so much younger.

They rush headlong into an affair which falls apart dramatically over secrets that John and Michael are keeping from each other. A steep learning curve, the gossipy cast of the show, and the sometimes sinister magic of the woods conspire to keep them apart. But stage lights and stars might work their magic and help them define a new future.

 

Costume fittings and dress rehearsals means that John finally gets to see Michael costumed as Puck. The human characters are dressed contemporarily, in suits and cocktail dresses that become increasingly disheveled as the show goes on. The fairies, though, are dressed in greens and browns with crowns of strange wildness — thistles, cornsilk, and Queen Ann’s lace. Michael as Puck looks deeply inhuman, covered in leaves as if dragged in from the wooded grounds. For their first dress rehearsal, it takes all of John’s considerable experience and willpower to actually focus on the play and not Michael. As taken as Oberon is meant to be with Puck, he should actually be able to remember and deliver his lines.

“Whose idea was this?” he asks Michael afterward, catching him before he can change. Michael blinks at him with eyes done up in silver and green. John wants to devour him.

“Do you like it?” Michael asks, more distant and coy than usual, sliding his hands up John’s chest which, like his own, is bare.

All John can do is groan when Michael looks up at him from under his lashes. He stands on his tiptoes to kiss John briefly, and then vanishes. When he reappears he’s Michael again, in t-shirt and shorts, but John can’t forget the image of him transformed.

 

 

Amazon | AllRomance | B&N | Dreamspinner

 

Erin McRae is a queer writer and blogger based in Washington, D.C. She has a master’s degree in International Affairs from American University, and delights in applying her knowledge of international relations theory to her fiction and screen-based projects, because conflict drives narrative.

Racheline Maltese lives a big life from a small space. She flies planes, sails boats, and rides horses, but as a native New Yorker, has no idea how to drive a car. A long-time entertainment and media industry professional, she lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their two cats.

Together, they are co-authors of the gay romance series Love in Los Angeles, set in the film and television industry — Starling (September 10, 2014), Doves (January 21, 2015), and Phoenix (June 10, 2015) — from Torquere Press. Their gay romance novella series Love’s Labours, set in the theater world — Midsummer (May 2015), and Twelfth Night (Fall 2015), is from Dreamspinner Press. They also have a story in Best Gay Romance 2015 from Cleis Press and edited by Felice Picano. You can find them on the web at http://www.Avian30.com.

Connect with Erin & Racheline online:

Blog | Facebook Page | Erin’s Twitter | Racheline’s Twitter | Erin’s Goodreads | Racheline’s Goodreads | Erin’s Amazon Author Page | Racheline’s Amazon Author Page