Aldrea Alien's Blog, page 34
February 3, 2018
Calling All Romantics!
If you’re into love and romance, you’ve got to check out this free online magazine…
In addition to being Women in Horror Month, February is also celebrated worldwide as the month of love. Valentines Day is the most popular day for declarations of love, marriage proposals, fancy dinners, and gifts of long stemmed roses and chocolates.
We all know, though, that these things aren’t really what love is all about. It’s way more complex, and far more frustrating, than that.
I’ve been privileged to be part of a group of authors who have collected excerpts about different aspects of love from their books into ‘All About Love’ an online magazine, completely free for all readers, which is available now for your reading pleasure. I’m not someone who enjoys reading a lot of romance, especially if it’s clichéd, but I’ve enjoyed reading this magazine because the pieces are varied and interesting, and have been drawn from different genres and styles of writing.
If reading about love…
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January 27, 2018
A New Map…
It’s hot. Too darn hot to think about anything other than staying cool and hydrated. 30°C to be exact. That’s indoors. Not that outside is much better with the lack of wind. We’ve never had AC either and our fans are just moving the warm air around. It’s humid, too, which means we can’t even escape it with a cool shower. Been that way for a few days. At least the night’s are bearable.
So, in lieu of working on anything. I thought I’d show you all the map I had commissioned for the spellster series novels. It’s quite nifty and she’s enabled me to add new cities when and if I need.
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January 24, 2018
Cover Changes – An Unexpected Gift
Most of my stories wind up with a mock or temporary cover as I write them, it helps me think about the theme of the story and the plot. Often, I’ll think up whole scenes whilst fluffing about with covers.
[image error]The first incarnation.
When it came to An Unexpected Gift’s cover, I wanted simple. I see the novella as a fluff piece, a snippet of the characters’ lives after the main story of In Pain and Blood. Things aren’t so hectic, they’ve settled, it’s a little cute, they’re a little dorky and just celebrating being in love. Oh, and birthdays! It’s Dylan’s thirtieth. He gets pancakes, there’s veil-dancing and later he’ll be tied to the bed…
*ahem*
As cute as I see it, it’s also a rather saucy. It’s a story that could be said to have fully ventured into erotic romance. The theme for most of those covers are mostly-naked torsos of men and women. I don’t actually like that trend.
I prefer the more symbolic covers there, so I went that route, skipping across multiple failed attempts… The first was a base and something to toy with in terms of font, but it’s pretty bland on its own.
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Next came the addition of a smoking heart (which was symbolic of the gift in the title). I still quite like this, but inquiring of how it spoke to people had me leave it behind. Too much romance, not saucy enough to be erotica. Which, yeah, I see.
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I whipped this one up somewhere between 2:00am and 2:30am, so I wasn’t totally serious about it. But I had a grand time doing it. Quite like the way I managed to get the hands to look like they’re holding the “GIFT”. And how the bow wraps around his wrists. It’s still a little too cute, though. Even if that does sort of reflect the story in a way… Erotic fluff, that’s what it is!
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Went a little further into the theme with silhouettes. I saw quite a number of these on my perusal through torso-land erotica and thought I give it a try. However, I wasn’t 100% happy with either of these particular versions. The tongue on #1 was amusing (and totally something Tracker would do), but it worked better as a concept when there wasn’t a blindfold. It was so darn hard to erase, too. (By the way, all of these were done with stock photos taken from Dreamstime). The spacing of both the title and the people on #2 seemed a little too distant as well…
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Finally, we’re the most recent version. As you can probably tell, I tweaked the #2 from the last set. I like it. For the moment, at least. Realistically, the top outline would be nothing but coils of hair, but we’ll pretend there’s enough to tie back.
So, what do you think?
January 6, 2018
Weekend Writing Warriors – #8sunday
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I’m working on a completely different piece as the novella, An Unexpected Gift, is now complete (at a little over 20k). Got it done a day or two before the New Year!
But I’m going to stick with that for now because it was fun.
The piece I’ve chosen for Weekend Writing Warriors, Snippet Sunday and Rainbow Snippets carries on from last time: Where Tracker was busily tying a not-at-all-concerned-about-it Dylan to the bed…
Tracker ran a finger down Dylan’s body, chuckling to himself at how Dylan arched off the bed to deepen the pressure. “But what shall I do with you?” There were so many delicious possibilities that he truly didn’t know where to begin. “I could repeat what we did the first night we spent in this bed. You enjoyed that, yes?”
Dylan audibly gulped and nodded.
“Or…” Tracker drawled as he continued his gentle assault on Dylan’s senses, ivory skin pebbling in the wake of his touch. “I could do one of your favourites instead. But which to choose?”
Don’t forget to check out the other excerpts.
Both characters are from In Pain and Blood (which now has a new cover, yeah!) [image error]
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January 1, 2018
2018 Goals and Other News
Last year I set myself a few writing goals in the beginning of the New Year. A lot of them didn’t get done, with In Pain and Blood commanding much of my time. I did get a few more books read than 2016, but fell well short of the twelve I’d set myself…
2018 Goals
Get An Unexpected Gift edited and published. I completed this 20k novella addition to In Pain and Blood just at the end of December and have recently gone through its first self-edit. Next step, critique.
Finish Dark One’s Bride. I had planned to get to this after IPaB last year, and did manage to write a little on it, but it ultimately got pushed aside to focus on IPaB’s release. There’s still a few chapters to write and some more to re-write.
Start on To Target the Heart. It’s sitting there waiting on me to turn my full attention to it. Fortunately, a little more patient than IPaB was as is satisfied in a few snippets here and there.
Figure out what I’m going to do with what I’ve for-now titled Extinguishing the Sun. Ultimately, I’ll likely write it, but it’ll require a lot of attention at it’ll focus.
Read more, as always. I’ve perhaps doubled my reading pile since the beginning of last year and only read a handful of books.
[image error]On another note. In Pain and Blood has got a new cover. I was holding this for the paperback release, but I’m a weak person and it’s too gorgeous. Leonardo did a wonderful job with the characters (in fact, I’ve already an idea or two on what to do for TTtH for when the time comes). The typography was a little touch and go at first, but I’m satisfied with it now.
Amazon’s not yet showing it on the page, but here it is…
What goals do you have for 2018?
December 23, 2017
In Pain and Blood Blog Tour – Day 9
This is the last day of In Pain and Blood’s blog tour…
December 23 stops off at The Novel Approach with one final INTERVIEW
I hope you’ve had fun hopping around and entered the giveaway for your chance to get two scented candles based on the main character and his lover, as well as a poster of the map, a bookmark and a $5 Amazon gift card.
December 22, 2017
In Pain and Blood Blog Tour – Day 8
Starting to get near the end of In Pain and Blood’s blog tour…
December 22 has these three stops:
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words REVIEW
Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews GUEST POST
And, if you haven’t seen it, there’s also this review over on Queer Sci-Fi.
December 21, 2017
In Pain and Blood Blog Tour – Day 7
We’re halfway through In Pain and Blood’s blog tour…
December 21 has three stops:
Drops of Ink INTERVIEW
Squirrel Talk INTERVIEW
MM Good Book Reviews REVIEW
December 19, 2017
In Pain and Blood Blog Tour – Day 6
We’re halfway through In Pain and Blood’s blog tour…
December 20 has one stop with a name that had me thinking:
It’s too bad they don’t yet have zippers in the spellster series world… Actually, now I think about it, probably just as well they don’t. Someone’s likely to go overboard with them.
In Pain and Blood Blog Tour – Day 5
We’re halfway through In Pain and Blood’s blog tour…
December 19 has three stops:
We Three Queens REVIEW
