Eric Alan Westfall's Blog
September 24, 2017
Cover Reveal for "My Lieutenant"
My Lieutenant, a short story which is MM but is not a romance, as most of it takes place in Auschwitz, will be released soon. Here's the cover:
January 29, 2016
The Wolf Brigade(TM): Call for Cover Submissions
The Wolf Brigade (TM):
Cover Call for Submissions
Would you be interested in earning some money by designing the cover for a hoped-for anthology of MM(M) romance shifter stories set in the alternate universe of The Wolf Brigade(TM)?
Interested? Read on.
Anthology Title: The Wolf Brigade(TM)
Book Background/Concept: Here’s a link to the full call for submissions for the anthology in my blog at Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Submission Deadline: May 31, 2016 (Not a deadline fixed in granite; if you need a little more time I’ll work with you)
Payment Amount:
For a cover using stock art/photos: USD 100.00 (or whatever that converts to in your currency at the time of payment).
It should go without saying, but I’ll say it to be sure, I don’t expect you to pay for the photos in order to submit something. I’m not an artist but I can pretty much get the “feel” for what the completed cover will be like despite all those swirls and things that keep unscrupulous folk (never thee and me) from using the images without payment.
The cover should include both the title and me as editor (full name). To be honest, at the moment I’m not sure whether the title is going to be: “The Wolf Brigade(TM)” or “The Wolf Brigade(TM) Anthology” or “The Wolf Brigade(TM)/An Anthology.” The (TM) is, of course, the trademark symbol. If the book actually materializes, we can figure it out then.
For an original painting:
USD 125.00. Yes, I realize there may be no one out there wanting to take a gamble, and maybe that’s not a high enough amount to entice anyone to try. On the other hand, as my first (and unfortunately “late” since 1995) partner of 30 years firmly believed: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. The cover would not need title/editor. I would take care of getting that done. If you want to send in a sketch or two of an idea, I’d be happy to look at it or them.
Payment Timing/Method: You get paid when I accept the final version. I prefer PayPal, since it should mean you get paid in your own currency. I’ll pay the fee for the payment, of course. I’m willing to discuss the possibility of an alternative method.
Who Owns What: On payment: Me. Everything. To be blunt, once you’re paid, you don’t retain any rights to the cover (whether initial submission, interim revisions, final version) at all. You can, however, put it in a portfolio, or display it on your Web site, or something similar as a sample of your work. And yes, I do realize, I don’t acquire ownership of any stock photos; you’re just obtaining a license for me to use it/them for the cover. Even if the anthology doesn’t happen now, I will still retain all rights to the cover for later use.
Note: If you submit any sketches to me, I have no ownership interest in them, and no right to use them or post or display them for any reason without your consent. If you send in a sketch and decide not to submit, or submit a painting and it’s not selected, you retain full ownership rights to the sketches and final product. You just can’t tie either in with the Brigade for any future use you might make.
Understanding the Brigade: Given that the type of shifting is somewhat unusual, perhaps even unique, I would prefer it if you’d get in touch with me if you’re considering doing this, so I can send you the detailed information about the Brigade and the Brigade’s universe. That will hopefully provide you with a better “feel” for the background.
Bottom Line: If you’re not hooked by now on the artistic possibilities, you probably aren’t going to be. But if you’re interested in the rest of the details, email me at: tas llc 43 @ gmail . com.
Eric
Cover Call for Submissions
Would you be interested in earning some money by designing the cover for a hoped-for anthology of MM(M) romance shifter stories set in the alternate universe of The Wolf Brigade(TM)?
Interested? Read on.
Anthology Title: The Wolf Brigade(TM)
Book Background/Concept: Here’s a link to the full call for submissions for the anthology in my blog at Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Submission Deadline: May 31, 2016 (Not a deadline fixed in granite; if you need a little more time I’ll work with you)
Payment Amount:
For a cover using stock art/photos: USD 100.00 (or whatever that converts to in your currency at the time of payment).
It should go without saying, but I’ll say it to be sure, I don’t expect you to pay for the photos in order to submit something. I’m not an artist but I can pretty much get the “feel” for what the completed cover will be like despite all those swirls and things that keep unscrupulous folk (never thee and me) from using the images without payment.
The cover should include both the title and me as editor (full name). To be honest, at the moment I’m not sure whether the title is going to be: “The Wolf Brigade(TM)” or “The Wolf Brigade(TM) Anthology” or “The Wolf Brigade(TM)/An Anthology.” The (TM) is, of course, the trademark symbol. If the book actually materializes, we can figure it out then.
For an original painting:
USD 125.00. Yes, I realize there may be no one out there wanting to take a gamble, and maybe that’s not a high enough amount to entice anyone to try. On the other hand, as my first (and unfortunately “late” since 1995) partner of 30 years firmly believed: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. The cover would not need title/editor. I would take care of getting that done. If you want to send in a sketch or two of an idea, I’d be happy to look at it or them.
Payment Timing/Method: You get paid when I accept the final version. I prefer PayPal, since it should mean you get paid in your own currency. I’ll pay the fee for the payment, of course. I’m willing to discuss the possibility of an alternative method.
Who Owns What: On payment: Me. Everything. To be blunt, once you’re paid, you don’t retain any rights to the cover (whether initial submission, interim revisions, final version) at all. You can, however, put it in a portfolio, or display it on your Web site, or something similar as a sample of your work. And yes, I do realize, I don’t acquire ownership of any stock photos; you’re just obtaining a license for me to use it/them for the cover. Even if the anthology doesn’t happen now, I will still retain all rights to the cover for later use.
Note: If you submit any sketches to me, I have no ownership interest in them, and no right to use them or post or display them for any reason without your consent. If you send in a sketch and decide not to submit, or submit a painting and it’s not selected, you retain full ownership rights to the sketches and final product. You just can’t tie either in with the Brigade for any future use you might make.
Understanding the Brigade: Given that the type of shifting is somewhat unusual, perhaps even unique, I would prefer it if you’d get in touch with me if you’re considering doing this, so I can send you the detailed information about the Brigade and the Brigade’s universe. That will hopefully provide you with a better “feel” for the background.
Bottom Line: If you’re not hooked by now on the artistic possibilities, you probably aren’t going to be. But if you’re interested in the rest of the details, email me at: tas llc 43 @ gmail . com.
Eric
Shifting for Dollars 2nd Edition!
When I first posted this "call for submissions" on 20 January 2016, I used a link that I am now fairly sure would only work if you're already a member of the group where the CFS is posted.
So here's the full version:
****
The Wolf Brigade (TM):
Shared Universe Shifting for [Your Currency]
Would you be interested in earning some money by contributing to an anthology of MM(M) romance shifter stories set in the alternate universe of The Wolf Brigade(TM)? You’ll be paid for your contribution (half on acceptance, half on publication) and also earn a share of the hoped-for profits.
Interested? Read on.
Anthology Title: The Wolf Brigade(TM)
Story Length: Pretty much up to you. I’m hoping for about 100,000 words for the book, so it could be a short story up to a 30,000(ish) novella.
Submission Deadline: May 31, 2016 (Not a deadline fixed in granite; if you need a little more time I’ll work with you)
Publication: Fall, 2016
Publisher: TAS Books, LLC
Editor: Eric Alan Westfall
Payment: A half-cent (USD .005) per word. If your story is 10,000 words, you get $50. If it’s 30,000, you get $150. Half on acceptance, half on publication. If there are profits, i.e., any amount after recovery of publication and marketing costs (which obviously includes the payments to the authors), you’ll share in fifty percent of the profits, based on your percentage of the total story text. Payments preferably made via PayPal, but alternatives can be considered. Note: If by some (remote, improbable, highly unlikely) chance I include a story of my own, the “wordage” won’t be included in your profit calculations.
Profit-Sharing Example: Assume there are 100,000 words of story text (no bios, title/author, acknowledgments, and not counting any story of mine, etc.). Assume there’s $1000 in profit (we can but hope). If your story is 10,000 words: you get $50 (10% of $500). If your story is 30,000 words: you get $150 (30% of $500).
The Alternate Universe of The Wolf Brigade(TM)
This is going to be a somewhat long “Cliff Notes” version. If you’re interested in submitting, send me an email for the rest of details about how shifting works, and a sample chapter from The Assassin’s Song, which introduces the Brigade.
George Washington saved the life of a young werewolf. By the time his presidency ended, the friendship had evolved into The Wolf Brigade, a small group of elite shifter warriors dedicated to doing whatever is necessary to preserve, protect and defend the United States. The Brigade answers only to the President, and no one knows of the existence of shifters, much less the Brigade, except the President, and as time passes, a carefully selected group of human support staff. Think of the SEAL team that took out bin Laden on paranormal shifter steroids.
In early 2007, the Brigade consisted of:
(1) David Stone (wolf). Captain and leader of the Brigade.
(2) Sergeant Terry Holcomb (black panther), six-seven, three hundred pounds of muscle whose skin is the blackness of a night in a sealed and windowless tomb. His nickname is Baggy, short for Bagheera.
(3) Mario Perez Alonso (jaguar). He describes himself as a “Mex-mix.”
(4) Ali Hussein (wolf). On a mission to Iraq, he looks as though he should be walking among the locals, turbaned and dusty, although he is an Oxford-educated Brit.
(5), (6), (7) Marco and Reginald (both wolves, one American, one British). There is also another wolf.
By 2015, Stone is no longer part of the Brigade. Baggy is in charge, and another cat shifter has been brought in. Note: None of the submissions can involve Stone as a main character, as he is an “MC” in The Assassin’s Song.
The shifters in this alternate universe are somewhat different than traditional MM romance shifters.
Not all shifters, but all Brigade members, have three forms: Prime, Alter and Kind. Prime is the human form. Alter is a form part “animal,” part human. Kind is the “animal” form.
The word “animal” is in quotes because your Kind “soul” (if you will) is not an animal. He is an individual, with personalities and quirks of his own. He resides in Dream (Wolf Dream, Cat Dream, etc.), which is the source of the power (magic?) that makes shifting possible. Your Kind can come to Prime when asked, or visit/intrude of his own volition. Whichever shape you are in, Prime and Kind can share control of the shape or cede it to the other.
Sometimes your Kind is present while you are in Prime just for a conversation. For example, Stone’s Wolf can be quite snarky and annoying at times. Sometimes your Kind’s presence in Prime will add some ability, such as enhanced scenting, enhanced hearing.
Your human side tends to be more in control when you are in Prime, and vice versa. You can surrender complete control of the form to your other half, or blend so well you jointly control the form. The blending is more likely to occur when you’re in Alter.
You don’t have to be naked to shift. Whatever you’re wearing or carrying goes with you, and simply adds to the size and weight of your body in Alter or Kind. Your Kind shape has size and weight of its own in Dream, similar to your human weight. So a shift to Kind or Alter pretty much doubles your size and weight. And if you’re dressed in a hundred pounds of battle gear and weapons, the mass becomes part of your Alter or Kind shape as well.
Although shifters are long-lived, you can be can be injured and die. Either of those can change the Brigade composition. You don’t visibly age until near the end of your lifespan, so team members have to rotate so they don’t face the situation of a man being with the Brigade for thirty years, but looking to be only in his twenties. While the Brigade is superb at creating identities and thorough backgrounds for whatever it needs, you can’t alter fingerprints or change your Prime form to look like someone else, so you have a comparatively limited time to actively serve in the Brigade. Some have served multiple times in the past couple of centuries, waiting 30-40 years between, but technology now makes that more difficult.
While shifters can certainly fall in love, and become mates, there are no fated mates.
Possible Story Ideas
First and foremost, these are nothing more than suggestions. Random thoughts. I’m interested in what you might come up with, with the only provisos being: (a) the story involves the Brigade in some reasonably significant way, and (b) the dynamics of shifting (Prime-Alter-Kind, Dream) are maintained. You might well help the universe of the Brigade to evolve.
Second and second-most, I’m interested in romances. They can be plots that involve military action, or covert operations of the Brigade as a whole or with individual members, but that’s not mandatory. They can involve that whole business of a shifter falling for a human and having to disclose not only the existence of shifters but the existence of the Brigade. I’m fairly certain...though the issue hasn’t come up yet...that most shifters don’t know of the existence of the Brigade.
How did Washington save a young shifter and have that evolve into the Brigade? I have no idea. Do you?
Who are Baggy, Mario, Ali, Marco, Reginald, and the other unnamed wolf and cat shifters? What are their stories? How did they come to join the Brigade? Does Baggy fall in love with an accounting genius human who sneakily handles getting all the funding the Brigade needs? (Overseas missions do involve transportation, supplies, communications, etc., none of which are cheap.) Do a cat and wolf shifter fall for each other? Both inside the Brigade? One in? One out?
You have some 240(ish) years in which to set your story, and so long as the Brigade is involved, you’re not restricted to an American-based story. The main events of our world history probably need to stay as they are, but the details can be different. On the other hand, if you come up with a really great story that alters the American Civil War significantly because of the Brigade, I’m not averse to that possibility. Although we’d then have to be sure that anyone writing a post-Civil War story could be able to adapt his/her plot to the societal changes necessarily wrought by a “different” Civil War.
If you’re not hooked by now on the possibilities, you probably aren’t going to be. But if you’re interested in the rest of the details, email me at: tas llc 43 @ gmail . com.
Eric
So here's the full version:
****
The Wolf Brigade (TM):
Shared Universe Shifting for [Your Currency]
Would you be interested in earning some money by contributing to an anthology of MM(M) romance shifter stories set in the alternate universe of The Wolf Brigade(TM)? You’ll be paid for your contribution (half on acceptance, half on publication) and also earn a share of the hoped-for profits.
Interested? Read on.
Anthology Title: The Wolf Brigade(TM)
Story Length: Pretty much up to you. I’m hoping for about 100,000 words for the book, so it could be a short story up to a 30,000(ish) novella.
Submission Deadline: May 31, 2016 (Not a deadline fixed in granite; if you need a little more time I’ll work with you)
Publication: Fall, 2016
Publisher: TAS Books, LLC
Editor: Eric Alan Westfall
Payment: A half-cent (USD .005) per word. If your story is 10,000 words, you get $50. If it’s 30,000, you get $150. Half on acceptance, half on publication. If there are profits, i.e., any amount after recovery of publication and marketing costs (which obviously includes the payments to the authors), you’ll share in fifty percent of the profits, based on your percentage of the total story text. Payments preferably made via PayPal, but alternatives can be considered. Note: If by some (remote, improbable, highly unlikely) chance I include a story of my own, the “wordage” won’t be included in your profit calculations.
Profit-Sharing Example: Assume there are 100,000 words of story text (no bios, title/author, acknowledgments, and not counting any story of mine, etc.). Assume there’s $1000 in profit (we can but hope). If your story is 10,000 words: you get $50 (10% of $500). If your story is 30,000 words: you get $150 (30% of $500).
The Alternate Universe of The Wolf Brigade(TM)
This is going to be a somewhat long “Cliff Notes” version. If you’re interested in submitting, send me an email for the rest of details about how shifting works, and a sample chapter from The Assassin’s Song, which introduces the Brigade.
George Washington saved the life of a young werewolf. By the time his presidency ended, the friendship had evolved into The Wolf Brigade, a small group of elite shifter warriors dedicated to doing whatever is necessary to preserve, protect and defend the United States. The Brigade answers only to the President, and no one knows of the existence of shifters, much less the Brigade, except the President, and as time passes, a carefully selected group of human support staff. Think of the SEAL team that took out bin Laden on paranormal shifter steroids.
In early 2007, the Brigade consisted of:
(1) David Stone (wolf). Captain and leader of the Brigade.
(2) Sergeant Terry Holcomb (black panther), six-seven, three hundred pounds of muscle whose skin is the blackness of a night in a sealed and windowless tomb. His nickname is Baggy, short for Bagheera.
(3) Mario Perez Alonso (jaguar). He describes himself as a “Mex-mix.”
(4) Ali Hussein (wolf). On a mission to Iraq, he looks as though he should be walking among the locals, turbaned and dusty, although he is an Oxford-educated Brit.
(5), (6), (7) Marco and Reginald (both wolves, one American, one British). There is also another wolf.
By 2015, Stone is no longer part of the Brigade. Baggy is in charge, and another cat shifter has been brought in. Note: None of the submissions can involve Stone as a main character, as he is an “MC” in The Assassin’s Song.
The shifters in this alternate universe are somewhat different than traditional MM romance shifters.
Not all shifters, but all Brigade members, have three forms: Prime, Alter and Kind. Prime is the human form. Alter is a form part “animal,” part human. Kind is the “animal” form.
The word “animal” is in quotes because your Kind “soul” (if you will) is not an animal. He is an individual, with personalities and quirks of his own. He resides in Dream (Wolf Dream, Cat Dream, etc.), which is the source of the power (magic?) that makes shifting possible. Your Kind can come to Prime when asked, or visit/intrude of his own volition. Whichever shape you are in, Prime and Kind can share control of the shape or cede it to the other.
Sometimes your Kind is present while you are in Prime just for a conversation. For example, Stone’s Wolf can be quite snarky and annoying at times. Sometimes your Kind’s presence in Prime will add some ability, such as enhanced scenting, enhanced hearing.
Your human side tends to be more in control when you are in Prime, and vice versa. You can surrender complete control of the form to your other half, or blend so well you jointly control the form. The blending is more likely to occur when you’re in Alter.
You don’t have to be naked to shift. Whatever you’re wearing or carrying goes with you, and simply adds to the size and weight of your body in Alter or Kind. Your Kind shape has size and weight of its own in Dream, similar to your human weight. So a shift to Kind or Alter pretty much doubles your size and weight. And if you’re dressed in a hundred pounds of battle gear and weapons, the mass becomes part of your Alter or Kind shape as well.
Although shifters are long-lived, you can be can be injured and die. Either of those can change the Brigade composition. You don’t visibly age until near the end of your lifespan, so team members have to rotate so they don’t face the situation of a man being with the Brigade for thirty years, but looking to be only in his twenties. While the Brigade is superb at creating identities and thorough backgrounds for whatever it needs, you can’t alter fingerprints or change your Prime form to look like someone else, so you have a comparatively limited time to actively serve in the Brigade. Some have served multiple times in the past couple of centuries, waiting 30-40 years between, but technology now makes that more difficult.
While shifters can certainly fall in love, and become mates, there are no fated mates.
Possible Story Ideas
First and foremost, these are nothing more than suggestions. Random thoughts. I’m interested in what you might come up with, with the only provisos being: (a) the story involves the Brigade in some reasonably significant way, and (b) the dynamics of shifting (Prime-Alter-Kind, Dream) are maintained. You might well help the universe of the Brigade to evolve.
Second and second-most, I’m interested in romances. They can be plots that involve military action, or covert operations of the Brigade as a whole or with individual members, but that’s not mandatory. They can involve that whole business of a shifter falling for a human and having to disclose not only the existence of shifters but the existence of the Brigade. I’m fairly certain...though the issue hasn’t come up yet...that most shifters don’t know of the existence of the Brigade.
How did Washington save a young shifter and have that evolve into the Brigade? I have no idea. Do you?
Who are Baggy, Mario, Ali, Marco, Reginald, and the other unnamed wolf and cat shifters? What are their stories? How did they come to join the Brigade? Does Baggy fall in love with an accounting genius human who sneakily handles getting all the funding the Brigade needs? (Overseas missions do involve transportation, supplies, communications, etc., none of which are cheap.) Do a cat and wolf shifter fall for each other? Both inside the Brigade? One in? One out?
You have some 240(ish) years in which to set your story, and so long as the Brigade is involved, you’re not restricted to an American-based story. The main events of our world history probably need to stay as they are, but the details can be different. On the other hand, if you come up with a really great story that alters the American Civil War significantly because of the Brigade, I’m not averse to that possibility. Although we’d then have to be sure that anyone writing a post-Civil War story could be able to adapt his/her plot to the societal changes necessarily wrought by a “different” Civil War.
If you’re not hooked by now on the possibilities, you probably aren’t going to be. But if you’re interested in the rest of the details, email me at: tas llc 43 @ gmail . com.
Eric
January 20, 2016
Shifting for Dollars or Whatever Your Currency Is
A novel in progress is called The Assassin's Song and one of the two prologues ("Prologue of Pain and Loss") introduces The Wolf Brigade(TM).
It's an elite force of shifters (think the SEAL team that took out bin Laden on paranormal shifter steroids) answerable only to the President, whose duty is to do whatever is necessary to serve, protect and defend the United States from all enemies, domestic and foreign.
So I decided I'd gamble on whether there was any interest from other authors in writing stories set in this shared universe, with the primary criteria being the stories have to involve the Brigade in some significant way, and the nature of shifting has to fall within the parameters of the definitely different, perhaps unique, way in which shifting operates/happens in the Brigade universe.
And since the Brigade was founded because George Washington saved a young werewolf's life (story there, maybe?) writers will have nearly 250 years of history in which to set the story.
The currency reference above is because writers will be paid for their work, successful anthology or not, and if it's a financial success, will share in the profits as well.
You can find the call for submissions at the MMRG Web site in the discussion "Open Calls for Submissions").
Here's the direct link to the Brigade call:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Yes? No? Maybe?
Eric-the-ever-hopeful.
It's an elite force of shifters (think the SEAL team that took out bin Laden on paranormal shifter steroids) answerable only to the President, whose duty is to do whatever is necessary to serve, protect and defend the United States from all enemies, domestic and foreign.
So I decided I'd gamble on whether there was any interest from other authors in writing stories set in this shared universe, with the primary criteria being the stories have to involve the Brigade in some significant way, and the nature of shifting has to fall within the parameters of the definitely different, perhaps unique, way in which shifting operates/happens in the Brigade universe.
And since the Brigade was founded because George Washington saved a young werewolf's life (story there, maybe?) writers will have nearly 250 years of history in which to set the story.
The currency reference above is because writers will be paid for their work, successful anthology or not, and if it's a financial success, will share in the profits as well.
You can find the call for submissions at the MMRG Web site in the discussion "Open Calls for Submissions").
Here's the direct link to the Brigade call:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Yes? No? Maybe?
Eric-the-ever-hopeful.
November 16, 2015
Mr. Felcher's Grand Emporium
I hereby express my over-the-top (what else can you expect from moi?) elatedness that
a/k/a Mr. Felcher's Grand Emporium, or The Adventures of a Pair of Spares in the Fine Art of Gentlemanly Portraiture" is now available for your reading and hopefully, enjoyment as well. Here's the link:
http://www.mmromancegroup.com/mr-felc...
But stock up on wine and chocolate and a reasonable amount of time, because this isn't a short novel.
But it is one I'm very, very proud of.
Eric
a/k/a Mr. Felcher's Grand Emporium, or The Adventures of a Pair of Spares in the Fine Art of Gentlemanly Portraiture" is now available for your reading and hopefully, enjoyment as well. Here's the link:
http://www.mmromancegroup.com/mr-felc...
But stock up on wine and chocolate and a reasonable amount of time, because this isn't a short novel.
But it is one I'm very, very proud of.
Eric
January 31, 2015
Deus Ex and other stories
Who knows, maybe I won't be gone so long any more.
I'm back with a trio of tales of a god and a machine, magic, and M(?)M romance.
Deus Ex : The hells have no fury like a Hera scorned. So Zeus swore off mortal women. Mortal men, like the one impaled beneath him when he found out beautiful singer Sarah was pregnant, didn’t count, of course. Hera hadn’t asked, Zeus hadn’t told. But what to do? Ah. A two-part Plan Alpha so brilliant he didn’t need a Beta, much less a Gamma. First, some one-last-time sex, again looking like the minor Brit lord she’d never meet, although, actually, several last times since there was no more risk. Second, wipe her memory and swipe some DNA so a demigod didn’t get born. Except...Sarah was a rare mortal he couldn’t wipe and swipe. Zeus was in deep...stuff.
Jericho : A magnificent old house on Janssen Place, filled with the beautiful things wealthy, elderly Michael had loved and cherished for so many years. John, the impatient, much younger lover who hated all those things. The feeling was mutual. A cool November night. Magic. Betrayal. And a wolf wind.
Sranjir in the Night : The Terran Federation called the Sranjiri “direbeasts” and thought they’d been hunted to extinction. Not quite accurate. The star-traveling Sranjiri are shifters who have the power to assume a pleasing shape. A young one, illegally on Terra but at least in human form, meets a beautiful young man who’s cruising a subway toilet below Port New York late one night. (Future subways? Re-opened restrooms? Inevitable.) He knew he was in love the moment the human dropped to his knees with an eagerness accompanied by an almost pitch-perfect Sranjiri 17-yes! and leaned forward. What happened next was incredible. But then there was the earthquake. And shifting. And that pesky prophecy his father-grans had fore-muttered. What’s a Sranjir in the night to do?
Royalty Note: 100% will go to a local LGBT organization.
I'm back with a trio of tales of a god and a machine, magic, and M(?)M romance.
Deus Ex : The hells have no fury like a Hera scorned. So Zeus swore off mortal women. Mortal men, like the one impaled beneath him when he found out beautiful singer Sarah was pregnant, didn’t count, of course. Hera hadn’t asked, Zeus hadn’t told. But what to do? Ah. A two-part Plan Alpha so brilliant he didn’t need a Beta, much less a Gamma. First, some one-last-time sex, again looking like the minor Brit lord she’d never meet, although, actually, several last times since there was no more risk. Second, wipe her memory and swipe some DNA so a demigod didn’t get born. Except...Sarah was a rare mortal he couldn’t wipe and swipe. Zeus was in deep...stuff.
Jericho : A magnificent old house on Janssen Place, filled with the beautiful things wealthy, elderly Michael had loved and cherished for so many years. John, the impatient, much younger lover who hated all those things. The feeling was mutual. A cool November night. Magic. Betrayal. And a wolf wind.
Sranjir in the Night : The Terran Federation called the Sranjiri “direbeasts” and thought they’d been hunted to extinction. Not quite accurate. The star-traveling Sranjiri are shifters who have the power to assume a pleasing shape. A young one, illegally on Terra but at least in human form, meets a beautiful young man who’s cruising a subway toilet below Port New York late one night. (Future subways? Re-opened restrooms? Inevitable.) He knew he was in love the moment the human dropped to his knees with an eagerness accompanied by an almost pitch-perfect Sranjiri 17-yes! and leaned forward. What happened next was incredible. But then there was the earthquake. And shifting. And that pesky prophecy his father-grans had fore-muttered. What’s a Sranjir in the night to do?
Royalty Note: 100% will go to a local LGBT organization.
December 5, 2013
Surrender (at AMZ)
I'm proud to say that Surrender...with a significant revision...is now at AMZ, and in the near future at Smashwords. USD 3.99 and corresponding prices elsewhere.
100% of the royalties go to an LGBT organization in my community.
***
The Kingdom and Empire: a thousand worlds across the Heart, linked by magic-driven Gates.
Kilthar: A recent “acquisition” where Imperial law is only a veneer. Clan law runs silent now, and deep, and men who love men are abominations. Abominations caught are abominations killed, or gelded and enslaved. Clan Aeris prefers the latter.
Two men meet on Winterdeath Eve in a Kilthari tavern: Karel, a tall young warrior, heir of Clan Aeris, drinking in silent mourning for his best friend, who endured six months of the punishment for being caught with another man, and then hanged himself five days ago. Caaroc, a taller, older warrior, drinking for his own reasons. They introduce themselves in the privy behind the tavern, and take the chance of meeting in secret again a few months later.
Warriors. Abominations. Lovers. And the additional secret of one puts them both at even greater risk.
And then there is the free-standing Wall, in the sere and dead valley where tir-Lothian ruled two thousand years earlier. On the Wall is an impossibly huge painting that wasn’t there until five years ago, appearing to show an Aerisan warrior with bloody blade, defending a blood-dripping Gaarchan Stone Beast. Yet more abominations.
This is a love story, and it is not an easy one for Karel or Caaroc, or to read. There is explicit male-to-male sex, violence and pain in this dark fantasy, but there is also love. Where there is love, there is hope. There is always hope.
***
I hope you'll try it.
Eric
100% of the royalties go to an LGBT organization in my community.
***
The Kingdom and Empire: a thousand worlds across the Heart, linked by magic-driven Gates.
Kilthar: A recent “acquisition” where Imperial law is only a veneer. Clan law runs silent now, and deep, and men who love men are abominations. Abominations caught are abominations killed, or gelded and enslaved. Clan Aeris prefers the latter.
Two men meet on Winterdeath Eve in a Kilthari tavern: Karel, a tall young warrior, heir of Clan Aeris, drinking in silent mourning for his best friend, who endured six months of the punishment for being caught with another man, and then hanged himself five days ago. Caaroc, a taller, older warrior, drinking for his own reasons. They introduce themselves in the privy behind the tavern, and take the chance of meeting in secret again a few months later.
Warriors. Abominations. Lovers. And the additional secret of one puts them both at even greater risk.
And then there is the free-standing Wall, in the sere and dead valley where tir-Lothian ruled two thousand years earlier. On the Wall is an impossibly huge painting that wasn’t there until five years ago, appearing to show an Aerisan warrior with bloody blade, defending a blood-dripping Gaarchan Stone Beast. Yet more abominations.
This is a love story, and it is not an easy one for Karel or Caaroc, or to read. There is explicit male-to-male sex, violence and pain in this dark fantasy, but there is also love. Where there is love, there is hope. There is always hope.
***
I hope you'll try it.
Eric
November 30, 2013
Dancing in the Dark
Dancing in the Dark (A Tale for Two Voices) is now available at AMZ for USD .99...and appropriate prices elsewhere.
Royalty Note: 20% of the royalties will be donated to an LGBT organization in my community.
***
1963.
An old high school in a dying neighborhood. It’s ruled by two wolf-packs: the Dragons and the Monarchs. Masked at night, by day there is no sign or symbol to mark their allegiance. But still the students know who to fear—the instincts of terrified prey scenting prowling predator.
Two friends, fifteen, too old for boys, too young for men, no pair of lean Marine machines, just ordinary size and shape, one tall, one shorter, not by much. By alphabetic chance, their names are paired when Noah’s two-by-two is called. They never talk about the danger if the packs find out they’re paired in more than class. They make themselves content with the little that they have, though wishing, aching deep inside for something more.
And once, just once, they had a day. Or only hours, not even that. They didn’t dance in light or dark, but in a dimness made of boarded windows, and random holes where nails had been, that draped thin strands of sunlight across them both.
But now...they’re faced with dancing in the dark when wolf-packs meet.
***
I obviously hope you will enjoy.
November 9, 2013
Like a Mountain, Waiting
is now available at AMZ for USD .99 (or a similar amount in other currencies).
The blurb from the pixelated dust jacket:
Royalty Notice: 20% will be donated to an LGBT organization in my community.
***
I was given a prophecy by the Oracle at Delphi, long before the birth of your Christ-child. She said I would be a soldier, and that I could not die until four things had happened. The first was finding “a mountain to the west.” Do you have any idea how many mountains there are to the west of Delphi?
I do.
As the years and centuries passed, I searched, and fought, and searched again. Not knowing how I would know which mountain was the right mountain, but somehow certain I would know.
I exhausted Europe. The British Isles. Iceland, Greenland, eastern Canada. Down into America around the time she was born, and there I found...my mountain. I made it my home. I left only when I was called to battle, for my new country, for others. I survived, of course. Came back to wait for the next call. Wondered, too, as I fought, and lived, and waited...when the second, and third, and fourth would happen. Wondered, too, sometimes, when the millennia made a world’s weight on shaking Atlas shoulders, if the right word was actually “if.”
And then I met him. July 12, 1912. I was so very sure....
This is my story, and the story of my kin in the village-town, and in the homes and farms grain-scattered around my mountain, though not blood kin, for I never married. How could I? My story, told by the man whose life was intertwined so closely with mine for a time.
Nikolai
***
10,737 words of actual story text.
Eric
p.s. I of course bought the first copy. Now I just have to figure out where to market Epub and PDF versions.
September 19, 2013
Cover for The Meeting
Wow is all I have to say at the moment, but I think once it's done that "wow" will go up in "volume"...italics, font size, exclamation points.
I am still naive/inexperienced enough to be awed by the fact that the fine designer who has so far done the covers for Surrender and The Song, and will hopefully be doing it for the Meeting is in Germany. And the artist who is creating DarkFire and Jerril for the cover is in Malaysia. She's extraordinary and her rates are very reasonable for a commission.
Check her out at:
http://dragonreineromanceart.daportfo...
She just sent me the first color rendering for DarkFire, and since the two men are standing close I can see a hint of the colors for Jerril. There are more fine details to be added but as you can tell I'm really pleased with the way things are heading.
Just thought I'd share, with dogs to the right of me, dogs to the left of me, and a humongous storm crashing down outside.
I am still naive/inexperienced enough to be awed by the fact that the fine designer who has so far done the covers for Surrender and The Song, and will hopefully be doing it for the Meeting is in Germany. And the artist who is creating DarkFire and Jerril for the cover is in Malaysia. She's extraordinary and her rates are very reasonable for a commission.
Check her out at:
http://dragonreineromanceart.daportfo...
She just sent me the first color rendering for DarkFire, and since the two men are standing close I can see a hint of the colors for Jerril. There are more fine details to be added but as you can tell I'm really pleased with the way things are heading.
Just thought I'd share, with dogs to the right of me, dogs to the left of me, and a humongous storm crashing down outside.
