Kate Lowell's Blog, page 44

Christmas Ornament Giveaway for Christmas Goes Analog

Shawn introduces Rob to a family Christmas tradition in Christmas Goes Analog, as part of giving Rob a perfect Christmas. To include Rob in the tradition, he gives Rob a Christmas ornament. In keeping with that idea, I decided to give a lucky commenter a Christmas ornament. I found a sweet little pair of what I like to pretend are lovebirds, crafted locally of pewter. The words “Our First Christmas” are engraved across the front.

All you have to do to enter is comment on this post and, at 10pm Atlantic Time (9pm Eastern) on December 10, a winner will be randomly chosen. I’ll drop it in the mail and hopefully you’ll have it by Christmas. (Hard to say, given the state of Canada Pony Express, aka. Canada Post)

So, comment away!

Filed under: Christmas Goes Analog, My Releases Tagged: Christmas, giveaway, mm romance

TGIF

Did you ever have one of those weeks? The kind where you’re just waiting for Friday, starting Tuesday?

That was my week. I’m in the ‘less than seven days to release’ slump, where I question every word I wrote, every sentence I tweaked or reorganized, every choice I made as the plot unfolded. It doesn’t help that this story was written in a mad jumble of stops and starts, during hospital visits, at home, in the palliative care department.

People tell me it’s a sweet, low angst Christmas story. A nice little heartwarmer. And I immediately think, “So, there’s not enough tension. Dammit!” And now I’m questioning that choice too.

But it’s done. The baby has grown up and is hopefully off to college. Or has a job. Something. At this point, it’s kind of on its own, much the same way adult children are on their own. They handle most of the job themselves, but Mom is still there to help out getting them started.

Well, Christmas Goes Analog, you know what? You’re a good kid. I like you. I did my best for you. Time to stand on your own two feet.

I promise I won’t chase after the school bus to hug you one last time. We both know how much the Kitten hated that.

Filed under: Christmas Goes Analog, writing Tagged: mm romance, writer problems

Thanksgiving Tickle

Instead of a tickle, I’ve sent you a greeting card! And a present, but you have to go to Sinfully Sexy today for a chance to win it.

In the meantime, here’s a cute little Turkey Day dance. Click on the image to see the whole card.

One week until Christmas Goes Analog releases! Hooray!

Filed under: Uncategorized

This is how research should always be

This is what Glyn drinks when he’s at home. I really need to be able to describe it accurately, right? Seems to me that, like any author that respects her audience, I have no choice but to throw myself selflessly on that grenade and drink a bottle or three.

For accuracy’s sake.

After all, they do say to write what you know. That totally makes it research, right?

Filed under: Bite Me Later, Random Weirdness Tagged: rambling, whisky, wishful thinking

Soooo NSFW, but I wish I’d found these earlier…

But which one would be best for Shawn and Rob? I think that’s going to take some more research.

Filed under: Random Weirdness Tagged: dirty Christmas

Cakewreck, oh Cakewrecks, how do I love thee?

Why, sweetly, of course. With a good shot of anti-nausea medicine, some days.

But today’s post is a geekily sweet one, chock full of puns and classic references.

Cakewrecks

Eleven days until my own kind of geeky goodness releases and, just like with the squirrel, geek references abound.

Filed under: Random Weirdness Tagged: bad cakes, scifi references

Tuesday Tickle: Bite Me Later

When Bite Me Tender came out, one of the big complaints about the novella was that people were left with a lot of questions about how Glyn and Levi got together. Now, I already knew all this, because, in the process of putting BMT together, I had to figure all that out. But, in the time between, having finished the squirrel, and Knight, and Christmas Goes Analog, and made a good start on a number of other stories, Glyn and Levi’s story kept nosing around, poking itself into plotlines and just plain old shoving other stories out of the way.

So, to make Monique happy, I have the two on the go in this series. Bite Me Later is the story of before Bite Me Tender. Bite Me, Furface! takes place about six months after.

Here’s a little bit from the beginning of Bite Me Later. Keep in mind this is a first draft, just as it fell out of my brain and onto the screen. No spellcheck yet, either. Lol.

Levi leapt off the end of the log and followed the vague path up the brook, until he got to the little pool, with their crate of illegally acquired beer. It helped to have friends who were legal drinking age.

He knelt on the bank and reached into the wooden box to pick out the stones he’d used to weigh it down, then dragged it out. The wolves howled again, closer this time. He glanced upstream, where the sound was coming from, then decided he’d better get back to camp. He liked the wilderness, but he was under no delusion that his appreciation of nature would make him safe if he ended up surrounded by a pack of hungry animals. And there’d been stories on the news over the past few years about an aggressive pack of wolves that had shifted their territory. Local farmers had lost cattle and sheep and even horses, that you would have thought could outrun a wolf. Conservation Officers had gone out hunting the pack, but had never found them.

Hoisting the crate up on his shoulder, he crossed the log bridge at a pace that would have been a scamper in a smaller man. He wished he’d brought his grandfather’s old rifle with him, but it had been just a night of camping and he knew enough not to bring a weapon with him when he was planning to get piss-loaded drunk.

The howls died away as he got farther from the water and Levi breathed a semi-embarassed sigh of relief. They’d be safe if they kept the ccampfire going, anyway—wild animals were afraid of fire. Good thing they’d been collecting deadfall for a couple of weeks now, in anticipation of the grand celebration.

He padded into the clearing and found Bryan lazing by the fire, beer in one hand, burning marshmallow torch in the other.

“When do you start work?” Bryan asked, before casually blowing out the flames and wedging the stick between his knees so he could pick the crisped outer crust off the marshmallow.

“Next week. They want me out at the cabins by the lake, instead of the house in town.” Levi set the crate down next to the cooler and started transferring the beer into it. “I’ll be framing and stuff, and when that’s done, they’ll switch me to putting the decks on the front of them.” He picked up his half finished beer and drank, before going back to his spot beside the fire. “It’s good. Good practice. Good money.”

“Better than working at the hardware store.”

“I could ask if they needed any one else.”

Bryan shook his head and stuck the marshmallow in his mouth. “Naw,” he said, talking around the sticky sweet. “I’d spend the whole time whacking the wrong nail.” He held up a thumb in example. “The store’ll do, until I figure out what’s gonna pay best. Not wasting hard-earned cash on school until I figure out where the money is.”

“Smart. Gramps wants me to go to vocational school, do carpentry or something.” Levi shrugged. “I dunno. It’s better pay if you get your papers. But I’m sick of sitting in a classroom. And I’d have to do summer school to get my math mark up high enough.”

“That would suck.”

“Amazingly.” Levi heard a rustling in the trees and he tensed, but then the wind came up and he realized it was just the tree tops swaying back and forth. He relaxed again, watching the sparks swirl up into the night sky, and emptied his beer. “Another dead soldier.” He got up to get a full one and stopped, staring at the woods just behind their tent.

“Get me one while you’re at it.” Out of the corner of his eye, Levi could see Bryan, with his head down, fixing another marshmallow to the end of his branch.

“Bryan.” Those were eyes.

“What?”

“Come here.”

Bryan looked up from his marshmallow. “Are you that drunk you can’t even carry two beer?”

Levi took a slow step back toward the fire. The eyes came closer, and the shape of a dog-like head formed around them.

“Bryan.” Levi tried to keep the panic out of his voice, but even he could hear the sudden tremor in it. Another rustle to his right, and another pair of eyes.

“What?” Bryan pulled his marshmallow out of the fire and stood up, scowling. The frown faded when he saw Levi’s expression. “What’s wrong, Levi?”

Levi didn’t dare turn his head. “We need to get out of here. Right now.”

Then Bryan looked past Levi and saw what had his attention so firmly fixed on the trees. “Oh my God.”

Levi nodded. “On the count of three, head for the truck.” There were more heads appearing out of the darkness, the flames flickering in their eyes.

They looked hungry.

“You ready?” he asked Bryan.

“Yeah,” came Bryan’s soft reply.

“Okay. One, two, three!” And they turned and bolted into the woods, running for their lives.

Filed under: Tuesday Tickle Tagged: full moon, mm romance, werewolves

Sort of Christmas Goes Analog Cover Reveal

‘Cause Loose Id beat me to it…

Tada! Isn’t it lovely? Yes, the cabin is important, as is the idea of a Christmas tree. Valerie Tibbs was my artist for this cover. I love what she did with the branches in the front. And she got Shawn and Rob pretty well, given what a short turnaround it had. You can just see the sort of uncertain expression on Rob’s face, there in the back. Poor sweetheart. He really is such a lovely young man. I’m glad Shawn is who he is, because Rob’s tried so hard–he needs someone to look after him.

Did I mention it comes out December 3rd? And that I’m going to be giving away stuff? Like books and a Christmas ornament? Because I am.

After all, it’s Christmas. Sort of.

Filed under: Christmas Goes Analog, My Releases Tagged: Christmas, mm romance, traditional Christmas

What’s Your Werewolf Name?

It’s appropriate that I should be writing a werewolf paranormal romance at the time I stumbled over this. Paranormal Romance Junkies sent around this meme. I both love and hate these things, because I am forever hopeful that I will find a cool name through one of them, but I always end up with combinations that make me cringe.

I got Scarlet Fang. *cringe* What did you get?

Filed under: Random Weirdness Tagged:

This is a Parenting Win: Convincing Kids their Toy Dinosaurs Come to Life at Night

These guys have won the internet. https://medium.com/thoughts-on-creativity/6f4cb1886d41

I love this. Really. Not only is it fun, and crazy, and like having Christmas every day in November, but I hope their kids start coming up with their own ideas some day. Maybe it could be a whole family thing, where they plan something that they do together in their own yard. What it does, though, is show that there’s no limit to imagination, and that lots of fun can be had without bells and whistles and touchscreens.

And, that you can have fun by making something fun for someone else. You can’t tell me the parents didn’t have a ball coming up with these ideas and implementing them. Man, I mean–that looks like so much fun, I want another kid, just so I can do this.

I wonder if I can make this work with my 12-year-old. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Filed under: Random Weirdness Tagged: awesome parents, dinsaurs, imagination