Blues Release

Buy Links 

Amazon Kindle

Paperback

Torquere Press

Barnes and Noble

All Romance

Don't forget that all Torquere Books are 15% off until Jan 30 with code "winter2015"

Roll is currently 20% off at Torquere books (can combo with code)

So, Blues is out...

Honestly, I feel like this has been a long time coming, even though it was only last year that Roll was published.

It's also sometimes a bit hard to believe that what was supposed to be a 10 page short story ended up being a trilogy of novels and I appreciate every single person who's been with me on this journey to help a couple of troubled young men grow into adults and discover the people they really are.

Classic is currently in second drafts and will be available to round out the trilogy in September of this year, so you only have to wait 9 months...

In the meanwhile, I'm working on a couple of side short-stories; the first one, Crank It Up, takes place near the end of Blues, and if you want to read it, just drop me a note here, or in my email box (lynntownsend (dot) writer (at) gmail (dot) com) and I'll give you the link.

I should be here and there, promoting this week, and I'll keep you posted and links updated as they go live.

Happy reading!

Blues on Tour

It's one of my favorite things; the blog hop.

Sometimes it's just a post of my promo material, sometimes it's an indepth interview, sometimes it's talking to my characters... I get the attention of new readers, bring people in to see my worlds, and get to interact with fellow authors and bloggers.

Tour Dates

These dates subject to change or be added in as I get my shit together

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S31I3NE/
Torquere Press: http://tinyurl.com/RCBlues
Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/BNBlues
(more as they pop up)

- January 29th - Posting on Torquere's blog, Romance for the Rest of Us - The Evils of Reality

- January 30th - Spoilers and Headspace (contains no actual spoilers!) on Delilah Devlin's Blog
Also, my release party on Facebook

- February 1st - on Lindsay Avalon's blog - General Promo and excerpt

- February 2nd - on my blog, Delilah Night from Coming Together: Among the Stars

- February 2nd - On Addiction and Relationships - Victoria Blisse's Blog

I will also be appearing on Janine Ashbless's blog with a Blue Monday excerpt from London Steam

- February 3rd - on Eclectic Me's - general blurb and excerpt

- February 4th - Lily Mac's Blog - general blurb and excerpt

- February 7th - Malin James' Blog - Soundtrack of Blues

- Febrary 8th - V.L. Locey's blog - exclusive NSFW, reach for the ice water excerpt

And more news!

My goodness, it's been a busy week!

Is it really only Wednesday?

I got fun news, excellent news, and fantastic news over the last three days.

On Monday, I got cover art for A Marked Man...

I'm also "in talks" with a librarian friend of mine who apparently has a small section of my books in her library. I keep trying to get her to take a picture for me, but she forgets, and the library in question is about 10 hours of driving from here, so.... (In talks meaning she was asking me "so, how do I get this book so I can put it on our shelf?")

She's also the original Catreen; meaning when Bastian Hooke was a role-playing character, she was in control of his love interest. Now, since those days, both characters have undergone fairly substantial overhauls... Bastian got younger (he was originally in his mid to late 30s for the game, and now he's 27.) and acquired some... interesting relatives. Catreen lost her psionic abilities in exchange for a powerful magic sword and dragon-slaying capabilities. She also gained an extremely... unpleasant ex-boyfriend.

So, I got to show her the cover; she made some suggestions for a cover model for Book 2, A Wanted Woman, which I'm quite pleased with... and she's happy with this portrayal of Bastian... in fact, it's hard to say who's more squee about it, me, or her.

Last night, I got an email from Brandon Clay, my cover artist over at Torquere. I wasn't sure he was going to be my cover artist this time around, but I was hopeful... so I included this note to him in my Cover Art Request Form (CAR)

This page has the cover for Roll, Book one, on it. I'd like the books to match, (also, it's the same cover model in a different pose) I'd like the background to be Blue (obviously) with the same font. “Good Times and Mardian Demo” are the ones that Brandon told me he used (assuming you're not brandon. If you are, hi brandon)

Brandon was really happy to work on a second cover for me, and I think they'll look really good on the shelf next to each other... (It's actually one of the reasons I drive my cover artists nuts by asking about Fonts and colors is that in case something happens and I have a new cover artist by the time a sequel comes out, I want to help the new artist get things that match... I have had art that did Not Match and I was not enamored with it.)

So, here's that...

Rising sophomore Beau Watkins gave up everything to be with his boyfriend, Vin. Beau is disowned by his father, tormented by his brother, is rapidly running out of money, and suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. On top of that, his boyfriend seems to see Beau as little more than a live-in maid. Troubled by word of his missing father and fighting nightmares of his own, Vin Reyes turns to alcohol to drown his pain. What's worse, a handsome transfer student is a little too interested in Beau. Vin throws away everything that's made him happy with both hands, terrified of his own feelings of inadequacy.

When Vin and Beau's happily-ever-after turns into a train wreck of drinking problems, resentment, insecurity, jealousy, and violence, they both try to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives. Their mutual friends, Hector and Ann-Marie, try to help the two young men as best they can, but neither want to listen. Beau accepts a morally questionable job offer to pad his finances and Vin starts a downward spiral of self-destructive behavior that sends him right for rock bottom. Can Vin and Beau win through doubt and guilt, jealousy and recklessness, to find their place in the world? 

Slightly updated my 'blurb. (It's not yet run through my editor, so there still might be slight changes to the 'blurb...)

Also, Blues was moved up in production; it's almost finished, just one last copy edit to go through, and it'll be ready. And once again, through no real fault of my own (seriously, I got on Vamptasy's calendar for Howling Bitch in March very early, like before the book was even FINISHED!) and then submitted Blues in August... it's NOT my fault that the original publication dates got practically on top of each other... but my editor and I talked about it... and we've got the publication date of Blues moved up to January 28th...

So there's that, and that's fantastic...

And this morning, I got up to an email from my publisher accepting Classic (the third in the Rainbow Connection series) for publication in early Fall of 2015...

Classic will be the last of the series that features Beau and Vin as the main characters. Vin has a significant role in All That Jazz, which will be Hector's story, and Beau has a major supporting role in Punked Up, which is Ann-Marie's story.

(My plan for the covers is to continue along the lines of the ones I have now, so Classic will have a yellow title tag and have Beau at the top - still trying to decide if his niece should be at the bottom or if a city-scape of Bangkok... both have substantial meanings for book three... and then All that Jazz will be green, with Hector at the top and Finn at the bottom, and Punked Up will be Ann-Marie at the top and her girlfriend on the bottom with a purple title bar.)

Query; I've got some ideas for some "connections" stories for the non LGBT characters in the stories... Josh, for instance, who my editor says deserves all the bro-points for being a really good friend even when Beau is acting like a horrible ass. (and he really, really is...) and David, the enigmatic bodyguard/driver has some incredible backstory that I've never found a way to work into the novels... or Kate, who has a very sweet story with her husband, Mark... as well as some side stories that I think people would want to see, but also didn't really fit well...

Roll, for instance, originally contained a second sex scene between Beau and Hector that started Beau on his bondage thing. (yes, it's a thing, yes, he ties Vin up again in a Very Hot scene in Classic and Yes, you have to wait a while for it...) After some discussion about it with my editor (who never saw the scene, actually...) I removed it because it wasn't relevant to plot and it might have established that it was Vin moving in on Hector's territory rather than the other way 'round... Jody, for instance, the RC vice prez; is trans and apparently reading through the stories again, that never comes up At All...

Unfortunately, because of the nature of these stories, most of my publishers won't be particularly interested in them. So, I guess the question is; would seeing these stories be something you - as readers - would be interested in?

If yes, keeping in mind that I'd want the stories to be edited and that means paying an editor (Elizabeth loves me. She doesn't love me that much!) and getting cover art... I don't want this to be a halfhearted effort. These stories mean a lot to me, and I just can't see compromising on quality. Would you be willing to pay for the stories; they'd be hosted here on the website, and I would make them available as a kindle or .pdf download.

I was thinking of doing this in a few different ways; the first would be to put a donation bucket up, and once I got a certain amount of donations (say $150, which would cover editing and a piece of cover art) I would post 3 stories for free, and then an additional story for every $50 after that. (with the option to close donations if money gets further ahead than I am... )

Option 2; I could charge a subscription fee to the website ($5 a year) with the stories behind a pay-wall... (I would need at least 30 subscribers to go forward with this plan)

Or Option 3; I could charge 99 cents per story and only people who pay directly get to see the stories. (Each story would be about 3,500 words to 7,000 words, with longer stories being broken into parts...)

I would really, really love some feedback on this...

News!

First off, there's this...

I've been posting a bit on Facebook about this book and what it means to me...

Honestly, I can't even. Wordz!

I've been living with some version of Bastian Hooke in my head for almost 20 years now; he's a permanent resident. So it's really a life's goal to be able to share him with other people. I don't know if that means he'll move out and move on, or not... hard to say. It's sometimes a little disconcerting to have a thief and an assassin living in your head full time and commenting on shit.

A Marked Man will be released December 18th. I'm having a Facebook release party... please stop by, even if it's just to say hello...

Also, other news... Blues' production date has been moved up significantly; Instead of mid-March, Blues will be hitting Kindles everywhere on January 28th! Wooo hoo!

Yeah, I talk. A lot.

Update time and contest, yay. (Tl:dr Go down to the bottom of the page if you're just here for the contest...)

I'm doing a crapton of stuff (that's an English crapton and not a metric crapton) so I'm going to throw a bunch of stuff on the page and walk away, okay?

First; I have all edits back for Coming Together: Among the Stars, and I've started the final layout and read through process. I hope (yes, I will) to have it done by November 1st for send-off to the publisher. All typos and mistakes remaining after this time are totally my bad, because this is my first time editing something, and I'm mildly less qualified for it than I should be, what with having a degree in lit and all...

Starting Monday the 20th (that's next week) I'll be featuring different authors from my collection here on the blog; all of my authors are wonderful and I can't wait for you to meet them...

I am also talking to the International Still's Disease Foundation and having them tell you a little about what the money we raise for this project will be going for. As always, Coming Together is smut for a good cause.

Speaking of which, I recently got accepted into Coming Together: Pro Bono. This collection will be raising money to benefit Dear Author's legal fund with the kerfluffle that's going on with Ellora's Cave. There's a lot of bad shit going on in my circles, and I only have direct confirmation from one author - who is dealing with too much shit to get involved in this right now - so I won't say more, but if you want, there are plenty of places to read about what's going on there.

For me, the Dear Author vs EC is particularly important because I don't believe a publisher should try to silence a blogger/reviewer when someone is calling them out on their bullshit. There has to be a check and balance situation in place. Writers are - unfortunately - treated as commodities by a lot of publishers who know (note that I am not denying that this is the case) that there will always be more writers willing to be exploited for someone else's profit on the whole "exposure" and "excitement" line.

The story accepted into this anthology is one of my first ones out the door, On the Fly, which was previously published in ReadErotica Vol 3. There will be a print edition, for those of you who like to hold your books and smell them. (People keep telling me books smell. I... guess my nose isn't that good.) I don't want anyone to make a mistake; this is a reprinted story! But there will be a ton of other really fantastic writers in the collection with me, so you should probably buy it anyway....

Other news

A reprint of Go Down with the Ship will be available from JMS Books, LLC in their Hot Flash line, short stories on October 19th. This story is still available in the Whetting the Appetite collection, so if you bought that, you don't need to rebuy Go Down with the Ship. If you want to get a little taste of the collection before you buy Whetting, this is a good opportunity to do so.

That being said, for the next few months, you can get Whetting the Appetite at a 20% discount from JMS Books with the code WHET. Also, this collection will be available in print some time in the next few months; I don't have an exact date yet. So, there's that.

On the same line, Room for Dessert, which is a lesbian / adultery story, will also be available from JMS as a stand alone

Further further of interest: My London Steam series, (Shadow of Kenfig, The Blister Effect and Synchronous Rotations) previously published by Torquere Books and currently out of print, will be re-issued with a new cover and some previously unreleased material (about 5 - 7,000 words, not quite sure yet, I'm still tweaking. I must finish tweaking by Nov 16th. Argh.) as a single volume in mid-December.

Yes, I know I'm doing a ton of reprints recently; I guess that's what happens when you have a backlist that's gone out of copyright. I dunno, I'm just going with it.

Ripped, another story from Whetting the Appetite, is going to be available as an audio from Quiver and Arch productions, more information as I get it....

I have been involved in preliminary discussions to have Roll released as an audio book as well, more information, again, as I get it.

In Other, Other news:

I should be getting Blues back from my editor on October 26th for my first round of content edits, so I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year, no matter what anyone says, and if you find I am trying it anyway, you have my permission to slap me. November this year is Local Edit Your Shit Month.

I'm almost finished writing Classic, I expect to have that knocked out by the end of the month, if not sooner.

I still have to go through Howling Bitch for a second draft, but I'm on Chapter 10 of 23, so hopefully that shouldn't take too long... I think I fixed most of the broken stuff...

I completely finished editing Marked Man, which is good, since I just got my cover info stuff yesterday and that's rapidly moving into production.

I have a short story that I need to finish by Nov 1st (another 1,500 words or thereabouts.)

When I attended Mid-Atlantic Erotica Writer's Retreat (MEWR), we played Cards Against Humanity. Here's the recording of that evening... for your entertainment. Headphones required, and you probably shouldn't drink anything.

CONTEST

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sommer (time Blues)

Make with the clickie, donate some assistance for Sommer Marsden, one of my favorite writers, who is going through a really tough time right now...

If you can help, please do. If not, read around these blogs and check out the hot kisses (snogs - is it just me or does the British slang for making out sound more like a fluffy little monster than a kiss?) and spread the word...

Tweet or Facebook

Snog for Sommer! Enjoy the excerpts, win prizes and donate to help @sommer_marsden and family fight cancer! http://ht.ly/Ao8Lv

So, here's your Snog for today, a preview from Blues, sequel to my best-selling New Adult LGBT novel, Roll, which will be published in March, 2015...


Beau drew his lover into his arms, into a tight embrace. Vin's heart was frantic under Beau's fingertips, even through a jacket and vest and t-shirt, loud and anxious and throbbing. Beau ran his fingers through Vin's hair, product-perfect waves of highlighted medium brown. Vin smelled of fancy shampoo, cologne, smoke, and coffee. A rich, masculine scent that never failed to stir the swirl of wanting in Beau's belly.

"You know that I love you, right?" Vin said, his voice muffled against Beau's throat, breath warm. Beau was somewhat taller than his boyfriend, rested his chin on Vin's head, pulling him closer into the embrace, feeling the cold of the truck's side against his back where his shirt had rucked up.

"I know." And Beau did know that.

Vin tilted his head up and Beau kissed his forehead, the flat planes of each cheek. Vin opened his mouth, inhaled. Beau slid one hand around Vin's lower back, pulled him closer, the other hand going up to cup his chin, hold that teasing, torturous mouth just where he wanted it, thumb caressing the stubled skin of Vin's cheek. He descended on Vin's mouth, tasting the sweet flavor of tobacco. Soft kisses, easy and light, not giving in to Vin's wordless demands to thrust his tongue in. Nuzzling, play kisses, meant to drive his lover wild with wanting, until they were both so spun up in each other that nothing else mattered.

He couldn't hold out as long as he'd wanted; Ann-Marie's grief had upset him and Vin wasn't the only one who wanted some sort of reassurance. He deepened the kiss, his tongue plundering the depths of Vin's mouth, tasting, exploring, and then just plain fucking Vin's mouth with his own. The mingled sound of their harsh breathing, air rushing in and out of their lungs, was erotic and close. He could feel the cool exhale against his ear and throat. Beau slid his hand down, worked the thin t-shirt out of Vin's jeans, put both hands beneath to hold and grip that firm skin, caressing and eager. Vin reached up, grabbed a handful of Beau's hair and yanked, bringing a tingle of pain across Beau's scalp. He slid one thigh between Beau's, his cock hard and hot against Beau's leg.

Vin was eager, hurried. His hands cupped the back of Beau's neck, slid down his chest, found the buttons on his shirt and slid one out of the placket.

Beau shivered as cold air rushed in to fill the void, down along his chest and across his belly. His skin erupted in gooseflesh. "Jesus, it's cold out here," he muttered into Vin's ear.

"So?" Vin's clever, quick fingers found Beau's belt buckle and worked it, rubbing the heel of his hand against Beau's groin. The temptation of that hand was too much. Beau let his head loll back against the truck's window, staring up at the stars. Vin opened up Beau's fly, his fingers pressed inside, seeking, searching, finding. Oh, God.

###

I'm offering a copy of Roll to people who comment, plus - and here's the really nice bit - you will get an ADVANCED COPY of Blues to read before anyone else can! So, comment. Donate. Help out one of the best smut writers EVER...

(You do not have to donate to win... just comment. Those who donate and say so will get an extra entry... As a note, 6.15 pounds is ~$10 US. Paypal will do these calculations for you.)

But that Happened Last Year

So, the contract for Blues - offered last week - has been signed. That's moving forward. It'll probably be a few weeks before I have a tentative publication date... altho Torquere is pretty good about not moving the date too much after it's set. In any case, like everything, I'll let you know when I know more details. I've already selected a cover image and I'm ready to go with a lot of the administrative stuff (marketing plans, blurb, back of the book blurb, etc) that I know they'll want from me... helps to have been working with the same publisher for a while. I already know what's expected from me.

Yesterday I was working on Classic, which is book three. It is not the final book of the series, but it is the last book in which Beau and Vin will be main characters. Punked Up will be fronted by Ann-Marie, although at least the first few chapters will have Beau and Vin in them... from the bits of story I have worked on so far, Punked Up will take place about two years after Beau graduates from college. (Classic covers his junior year...)

All that Jazz, which will be told primarily from Hector's point of view, will probably have the boys in cameo roles, and I'm not sure of the timeline just yet. I have a few scenes for that book planned out, but since Hector was already graduated and an "adult" during Roll, he's not as much with the college crowd as Beau and Vin.

Anyway, I was writing Classic, and I did about 1,200 words or so, finished Chapter Two which I may need to go back in and re-write because I sometimes make Vin's grandparents a lot more awful than I want them to be. They are a little awful, and terribly clueless, but they're not abusive, as they sometimes come across in a rough draft. After which, as I tend to do, I posted my word count on my Facebook page.

(side note: I have a real life friend who will not "like" my author page because she hates word counts, step counts, pounds lost, or any other sort of public progress tracking that people do. I'm never quite sure how I feel about this. Conflicted.)

A few minutes after the post went up, I got a somewhat frantic-sounding message from a fan "Did I miss book 2?"

There's a very strange disconnect between writing, editing, and the book actually ending up in a reader's hands.

Just to give you an example of the timeline; in 2013, I started writing Roll in April. I finished it by the second week of June, did the revision in July/August and submitted it at the end of August/beginning of September. I then spent September and October doing a revision of Blood Sight. And November, I started writing Blues. I wrote the majority of the novel during NaNoWriMo and completed the finishing touches in January (taking most of December for vacation and real life stuff...)

Blues was finished its rough draft before I did final edits for Roll.

Roll came out in February 2014, about 10 months after I started writing it. Because I am now balancing two (and possibly three) different novel series, the timeline has altered a bit.

I ended up waiting until June to start the second draft of Blues and sent it in on the 26th of June. It was about 30 days between submission and contract, which is a good turn around.

But for me, stuff that happened in Blues happened in my mental map of last year. I accidentally spoilered a friend of mine on the book because I was so excited about starting Classic that I said "Oh, yeah, well, after the thing with <redacted>, Vin's going to <redacted> and then..." in my mind, Blues is the past and Classic is the now. She said, "What? When did <redacted>? Jeez, spoiler much?"

Oh. Right. Sorry.

Anyway, my current schedule looks like this:

• Write Classic (tentatively finish around the 1st of October...)
• Start looking over the short stories for Coming Together:Among the Stars (August 15th - Sept 30th) Yes, I realize this runs consecutively with writing Classic, but it should be okay, since I'm just in the selection process here...
• Second draft of Howling Bitch in October
• November (NaNoWriMo) write Sins of Angels
• Edit Wanted Woman in December (assuming that A Marked Man is picked up, because there's no point in editing book 2 if book 1 doesn't have a home yet...)
• Also, edit and compile stories for Coming Together during December, turn in.
• January 2015, finish writing Sins of Angels if it's not done yet
• February get in final edits of Howling Bitch for publication in March

At some point, I may wish to get a life...

Eagerly Awaited Sequels

It's official. Roll's sequel, Blues, has been accepted for publication.

I'm not sure of the timeline at present; last year, I submitted Roll at the tail end of August for a February publication date; this year I've submitted Blues at the end of June... we'll see where I fit in on the calendar. I'll let y'all know as soon as I know.

Here's the rough draft 'blurb

College is supposed to be about finding yourself. Sometimes, you lose everything else. Rising sophomore Beau Watkins gave up everything to be with his boyfriend, Vin Reyes. Beau is disowned by his father, tormented by his brother, is rapidly running out of money, and suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. On top of that, his boyfriend seems to see him as little more than a live-in maid. 

Troubled by word of his missing father and fighting nightmares of his own, Vin turns to alcohol to drown his pain. What's worse, a handsome transfer student is a little too interested in Beau. When Vin and Beau's happily-ever-after turns into a train wreck of drinking problems, resentment, insecurity, jealousy, and violence, they both try to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives. 

I already have an idea of what I want the cover to look like, so that should be easy enough.

For fans, I'll let you know a few secrets:

- Vin's family plays a much greater role in Blues, letting readers get a glimpse of the past, plus the reasons why his grandparents kept everything hidden from him.
- Beau discovers one of the reasons college sucks; you still have to keep your grades up while dealing with emotional turmoil.
- There are a few scenes where the ever-popular Hector has the spotlight, paving the way toward Hector's own novel, All That Jazz
- Ann-Marie fans will be happy to see that she has as big a role as ever; helping to keep her friends centered and stable. She's an extraordinarily strong woman, not in the Hollywood, shoot-first and never-ask-questions way, but smart, practical, and there for her friends. She also has her own novel coming up, Punked Up.
- I've already started work on the third book in the main trilogy, Classic, which will follow Beau off to a semester abroad...

The Schedule:

The plan is to finish Classic by mid to late September, then go back and edit Howling Bitch (book 2, Demoniac Codex) which will be published by Vamptasy on March 17th. That will bring me through... I should be done with that by the end of October, so then I'll set NaNoWriMo aside for writing Sins of Angels, Demoniac Codex, Book Three.

In the meanwhile, because I am horribly crazy, I've dragged out an old drawer story, Marked Man, and edited it thoroughly. I sent it off to a publisher, divided into two novels (the original draft of Marked Man was over 180,000 words, which is 3 times as long as Roll, just for point of reference.) I cut out some extraneous material and divided the remainder into two 75,000 word novels, A Marked Man and A Wanted Woman, under the series title The Forging of Souls.

Here's the rough blurb for book one, A Marked Man

Bastian Hooke, known to the underworld as Mace, is an assassin and a thief. He was the last person expected to carry out great deeds. But comes the Seeress with her prophecy and a sack of gemstones, and Bastian finds himself thrown headfirst into a quest he cannot possibly understand. Sought by a dark sorcerer, surrounded by secrets and lies on all sides, he is charged with the protection of the last of the dragonslayers... the very last thing he meant to do was fall in love.

Catreen An'dello has been divorced from her soul for ten years. Betrayed by her former lover to the dragon, imprisoned inside a living statue and nearly driven mad, she wishes nothing more than to forget. Desperate to ease her guilt and soothe her pain, Catreen drives a demon's bargain with the man who saved her soul. 

Can an assassin and a dragonslayer find the strength of will to save the kingdom from destruction?

The plan - provided, of course, that my publisher is interested in this book - is to release both books a few months apart, so Part One in, say,  July 2015, and then Part Two in November of that same year. (those are example dates, as the novel hasn't been accepted yet... )

That'll put me at December, and I'll probably take a few weeks off to do holiday stuff. I have a number of short stories slated for fall publication, including Fair Games, my first independent lesbian story. I'm pretty excited about this one, it'll be in the sequel to Duty & Desire, which is entitled For Love of a Soldier.

* fact about Fair Games, the introduction scene is taken almost verbatim from something that happened to me, quite a number of years ago....

So, that's me and my writing schedule up to the end of the year...

Other things; 

I'm doing my first publisher sponsored book-signing in September! Rose Caraway, Kristina Wright, and I will be at The Fountainhead Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia on the 19th, from 12:30 - 2:30 pm. If you're local to Richmond, please stop by, I'd love to meet fans. I'm very excited about this...

After that, I'm going to the Mid-Atlantic Erotica Writer's Retreat for the weekend, which will involve a lot of wine, a lot of erotica writers, and probably NOT a lot of actual writing... (I'm also bringing my Cards Against Humanity Deck... and seriously thinking about bringing a video recorder, because honestly, someone should film that...)

At some point, Rose is doing audiobooks for all of us who are writing for Sexy Librarian, which will include my zombie short story, Dead in the Water. I'll post that link as soon as it's available, because y'all want to hear that. (especially my friend Elliot, who has been nagging me for YEARS to read my work out loud... which you don't want me to do because I suck at reading out loud.)

Oh, and the deadline for submitting a sci-fi erotica story is coming up Real Soon Now, so if you're interested in doing that, please, please get on it!

Current Events

It's been a busy couple of months for me, and there's really no end in sight... my writing schedule puts me for - and this is just stuff I have planned, contracted, or verbally agreed to with publishers - booked up mostly solid until 2017.

Yikes!

But, in the meanwhile...

Building Us will be released by Torquere Press on June 18th.

Antho blurb: In “Building Us,” by Lynn Townsend, Eric and Temple discover that, for want of a nail, a ring is lost...

Two-Line blurb: Construction foreman, Eric, wants to build more than just a house with his steady boyfriend, Temple. But can Temple convince Eric that it's the relationship, and not the ring, that matters most?

Marketing Blurb: As a construction foreman, Eric knows how to build a house. What he's uncertain of is how to build a life, now that he's finally found the man he wants to spend his with. Temple, a university professor with a stack of erudite publications as long as his – arm – has always played the single's game, until he met Eric.

Will a roof-top proposal lead to “I do” or will the whole thing fall apart when Eric can't put a ring on it?

In case you don't know, and because I do this publishing bouncehouse thing I often can't advertise publications at one house in publications from another house, "Building Us" is the sequel story to "Home Inspection" which can be found in my collection Whetting the Appetite. The two stories have the same lead characters and Building Us picks up with Eric and Temple about a year after they first got together.

This story also contains some of the hottest m/m I've written thus far.

Thing(s) Two:

I've had some guest spots around the blogosphere, first stop was with All Romance cafe as part of their LGBT pride month, where I talk about being the silent B....

Then I dropped in to raise up interest in an older story, Synchronous Rotations, on Guys Like Romance, Too...

And I've got a full length interview coming up June 18th with SSLY Reading Room (Smile, Somebody Loves You!)

Thing Three:

I took a two-week vacation during the middle of May to seriously hate on my story. That happens, sometimes. Which sort of sucked, since I wanted to be done with Howling Bitch's first draft by June 1st. On the plus side, I did some plot work with Elizabeth Brooks (Honestly, if she and my husband didn't spark on each other wrong after about 12 hours, I'd just marry the girl and get on with my life, because I don't know how I'd live without her. And that would be easier if she was in the same house. Oh well.) and managed to get past the hurdle. Yesterday, between the morning where I got in about 3 hours of work, then in the evening, I tapped out another 2 hours, I finally finished the damn thing and wrote The End.

So, Howling Bitch is finished. Which is GOOD because it's contracted already with Vamptasy, and will be published March 17th? 18th? I'd have to check my contract, but it's mid-March of 2015. Which seems like a long time, but to me, it was just March '14 like 10 minutes ago!

I'm going to let it sit for a week or so, then go back and poke some of the plot issues that need to be massaged into place, add a bit in the middle, and then I'll send it out to my beta readers.

Thing Four:

Which means I'll be getting back to Chicago and the Rainbow Connection boys. Blues was written and finished back in Dec/Jan ish, and has been with my beta readers for a while now. I've gotten some good feedback. This novel has not been hit by the "god, I hate my own work" bug - the boys still talk to me regularly. Well, Vin actually yells at me a lot.

The plan is to edit Blues for the rest of this month and then send it in... eh, maybe mid-July?

At which point I'll be ready to start writing Book Three, Classic. (writerly aside, I've already written the opening chapter because I seriously cannot get people to shut. up. And the first chapter of Punked Up has ALSO been written. At the MOMENT, All That Jazz and Punked Up are still looking like 20 - 30,000 word novellas and I'll release them as one book.) And I may write a bonus short story, because right now, there's a scene in my head - and it's important! - that doesn't fit in the timeline of any of the novels.

And that's ... mostly it, that for the time being.

I've got a writer's retreat in September (not a fan/marketing event, but a networking/chat/drinking/writing event) that I'm looking forward to.

And then as fall starts, I have several short stories that will come out; Fair Game in Kristina Wright's For Love of a Soldier, Full Frontal Neighbor in the Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica, and Living Proof with Antimatter Press's Local Magic.

Somewhere in there, I also need to edit and do another word cut of Marked Man, my fantasy romance - I have tentative interest from one of my publishers with that, provided I can slice out another 20,000 words or so from that monstrosity... I may take another look at the rough and see if there's a "good place" to split it in half, because it's currently around 130,000 words, give or take, which would make 2 novels, and maybe we could release them 3 months apart, or something... I dunno, something to think about.

And then I'll want to write Sins of Angels, which is Book 3 of the Demoniac Codex series...

Yeah, busy writer is busy...

Blues, a Sneak Peek

I got this review today, which got me thinking...

When I originally started writing Roll as a novel, I had the first half of the book set up for Beau to deal with his issues, and the second half for Vin to deal with his. As I continued writing, it just wasn't working out the way I wanted; Vin's stuff kept getting shoved off to deal with Beau.

(In my opinion, Beau is the main protagonist in this story, where Vin is the protagonist in the 2nd novel)

By the time I got to a point where I felt Beau was stable enough to deal with Vin's issues, I was already at a full-length novel word count. And while 60,000 is a short novel, 120,000 words is a LONG freaking novel... especially for a romance, which even mainstream romances tend to cap out at about 80,000 words. 130k (ish) would be a 400+ page novel...

I'd wanted to include a sneak peek chapter - since Blues was already almost completely written (altho not edited) by the time Roll was published, but inquiries to my editor said that wasn't feasible. I suspect many things; 1) a lot of authors don't always write sequels, they mean to and don't get 'round to it. Or like Robert Asprin who originally promised 1 or 2 Myth books per year and then there were several years between one novel and the next.... 2) Blues could suck, and then my publisher would have to reject it, leaving readers going "where is it?" and 3) I could change my mind about chapter 1 in Blues and then it doesn't mesh up with the published novel. In any case, I agreed that we should not publish the sneak peek chapter with the novel.

But I have written the whole book - it's out to my beta readers, altho I've only gotten one selection of notes back thus far... (One of my beta readers had a death in the family, and another one recently got married, so real life and all that. THIS IS NOT a complaint. I'm not going to be able to work on those edits until after I finish writing Howling Bitch, so there's plenty of time. I promise!!) In fact, I've even written the first couple of chapters of book three, Classic and outlined more than half of it.

But, in case you want it, here it is... (UNEDITED WORK IS UNEDITED!) Keep in mind this chapter has some spoilers, so if you haven't read Roll yet, you might want to not mess with this, okay? okay.

I've got the Blues...

So there's that!

50,040 words is my "official" count for Blues. I'm about halfway through Chapter 21 and according to my outline, I have about five and a half chapters left to go... that's ish 11,000 - 13,500 more words (most of my chapters have this weird tendency to be right around 2,200 - 2,400 words. I'm not sure why, that just seems to be how it works out. (It's an average. I promise, I don't mold the chapters into that exact format.)

I've been going through my writer's list recently; just because I have finished NaNoWriMo doesn't mean I have... you know, spare time and shit.

I need to:

• spend a few days at my dad's farm for the holidays
• finish writing the end of Mouse Games (I left my poor characters in the middle of a fairly intense bondage scene when NaNo started)
• re-write Down with the Ship
• do my marketing piece for Roll
• buy and decorate a Christmas Tree
• have a Christmas Party
• get my daughter new glasses, shoes, cute outfit
• go shopping for the midwinter spending holiday
• edit all 25 short stories for Promptly (pending delivery of edits)
• start work on my Cover Art Request for Roll
• write a Ghost Story, due Jan 15th
• edit Blood Sight (pending delivery of edits)
• Finish Blues (technically "due" sometime in summer 2014)
• start writing Howling Bitch (due sometime fall 2014)
• prep for Pistols & Guns release date

Yep. Busy writer is busy.

I'm still trying to block out a schedule to actually finish Blues, but at the moment, it looks like I'm going to leave the boys hanging until mid-January... my "plan" (and believe me, I say that with heavy finger quotes and eyerollies) is to claim it as "due" by February 10th. That way I don't let it sit too long... and then after that, I'll spend a few months writing up Howling Bitch. If I work on the schedule that I managed with Roll (April - August) then I should be able to get done with Howling Bitch by about July. Maybe sooner, as I'm really starting to get my feet under me in terms of production.

While I really don't actually enjoy doing NaNoWriMo, I have to say the demanding word counts do... sort of work for me. I can really produce if I feel like I have to. What I might do is set myself a three month schedule (especially keeping in mind that I wrote Roll while also producing one short story every week, which I will NOT be doing this year)

Because - annoyingly enough - The Wormwood Trade has started to get very demanding about why am I not writing it, why why why?

Honestly, I need more time and less life in my life.

Playing with my Novel

Working on Blues has been an interesting experience...

For one thing, I'm coming to the interesting conclusion that real life really doesn't have a plot, exactly. It's just a series of events that happens, and sometimes that leads to good things and sometimes not. But most of the time, in real life, that guy you snubbed back in 5th grade doesn't come back as an evil super-villain, bent on destroying you and everything you stand for.

Which is where I ended up after working on Saturday; my "bad guy" for this book isn't really bad. He's not evil, or even really all that awful. He is, honestly, pretty sympathetic.

Unlike Chris, the bad guy from Roll, who is simply a collection of some homophobic traits wrapped up with a string and named after a guy I threw out of a gaming group for having his character attempt date rape and not understanding why both the other characters in the group AND the players all got mad at him. If you've done any role playing before, you recognize that character motivation and player motivation are not always the same thing.... but in this particular case, there were five real people and five pretend characters who were actively appalled at his behavior. We became more appalled as he not only defended that character's behavior, but that sort of behavior in general.

So, Charles (and yes, I just noticed that both antagonists have names that start with Ch.... yay, subconscious...) isn't a bad guy; he's just not the Right Guy. He was raised by strict evangelical parents, who, when discovering they had a gay son, tried to put him through a sexual orientation change program. This pretty much ends with him throwing out every one of his parents' cherished beliefs, including opinions on things like monogamy. As far as he's concerned, that's all Bible crap and useless for his life the way he intends to lead it. (There might be a bit of me in there, too, as I've thrown out a lot of my parents' beliefs, and I still almost never do anything major without considering if it would piss off my dad and rubbing my hands together gleefully if I think it will. As far as I know, I've never deliberately done something JUST to piss him off that I wouldn't have done otherwise, but that might not be 100% true.)

It's amusing in some ways, because I put traits in him that I've picked up from one of my friends who finds it hilarious that I insert jealousy and monogamy into my m/m stories. Charles's attitudes about monogamy come directly from conversations I've had with this friend. He and his partner frequently had/have m/m/m encounters or m/m/m/m encounters, or swinging couples. "I can't think of a gay partnership that we haven't both had sex with. Not all at the same time. Except, you know, when it was all at the same time."

And don't get me wrong, I love my friend. And I don't disapprove of what he does. I agree with him and to some degree, even envy him that particular lifestyle, so long as that works for him, his husband, and the various partners that they hook up with. I'm pretty sure, however, it wouldn't work for me. Whether it's imposed on me by the patriarchy or my own insecure and somewhat possessive nature really doesn't matter, as far as I'm concerned. What concerns me with issues of jealousy and monogamy is that you do what you and your partner agree to. If you agree to an open relationship, great! If you set limits and rules on it and you're both okay with that, great! If you're like a particular friend of a friend I know whose view on rules is that they exist specifically for him to violate? NOT okay!

Charles is mostly an impediment, rather than a true antagonist. He's the rock that Beau and Vin need to move out of the way in order to proceed down the road. He's not bad (he's not even drawn that way!) he's just not the right guy For Beau.

So, after building him up as funny, sympathetic, and good to hang out with, I had to spend some time tearing him back down, and pointing out some of his flaws; particularly the ones that clash with Beau's values.

And the biggest one is going to be about loyalty. You don't screw over your friends. And you don't hang out with people who do screw over your friends.

Which is one of the areas where I teeter from time to time. I hate "picking sides" when people get divorced (unless, like in some cases, I hated the spouse to begin with, in which case I'm just as happy to put them in the crazy ex pile). Case in point, a little more than a year ago, some of my friends got divorced; I'd known both of them separately of their relationship with each other. I like both of them. And while I consider one of them to be "more wrong" than the other, I can see where both sides weren't happy with what their marriage had become, and while the "wrong event" probably provided the spark to the divorce, it so obviously wasn't about just that one thing.

But it does sometimes make me feel all weird and wobbly inside when I feel like I may have unfairly picked "a side."

(Especially since, in college, whenever there was a break up, I was frequently the one blamed, the crazy ex, and the one losing friends. Without the people on the outside knowing what stuff looked like on the inside. And sometimes, I didn't act as best I could have, in the situation, but I don't think anything I did was so awful as to deserve some of the condemnation I got. So, you know, reverse golden rule, don't treat people the way you didn't like to be treated.)

So, I'm putting Beau right in the middle of that situation, where his current boyfriend does something particularly rotten to his ex-boyfriend. But Charles and Vin never got along, so it's not like Charles is betraying Vin, because he's not. In fact, with the current viewpoint of people usually not liking their ex's, Charles may have considered what he did as something Beau would approve of...

It's been interesting to play with....

Cough, Hack

First off, there's This:

Release day for my best friend, Elizabeth L. Brooks, and her first full-length novel, Foxfur.

She's going to be guest posting with me here in a few days (Friday, I think. I've already set up the post and pre-dated it... )

The book should be up at Amazon in a few days... I'll let you know as soon as I know...

This story has hella history, which I'll let you catch up with on Friday, since Liz talked about it.

And in the meanwhile, I'll let you know that this story takes place in the same world as her older novella, Safe Harbor which remains to date one of my favorite stories. (Not my favorite Elizabeth L. Brooks' story, but it is, but one of my favorite ALL TIME stories ever.)

###

So, I took two days off to be completely, horribly ill. (Because OF COURSE I get sick during NaNoWriMo!!) On the plus side, I've been doing the front loading stuff and I'm way ahead of the technical NaNo goal... (Just over 29,000 words at present, and it's only the 13th)

Of course, now I'm "behind" in the reverse NaNo by about 4,000 words... my "plan" is to go ahead and write like I didn't miss those two days. I'm not going to push the hell out of myself and try to "make up" the words and I'm not going to skip ahead in my word goals... today should be 1,953 words, but I'm going to do Monday's word goal instead, 2,183... If I don't go over at all for the next few weeks, it'll mean that my last few days of NaNo are 364 and 231 instead of 116 and 1... Since I'm almost positive that once I start getting into the low 1,000s, I'll probably go waaay over... this shouldn't be a problem.

The only other problem I see coming up is Thanksgiving, that we're spending with my dad and stepmom and my stepmom's extended family, including my stepmom's cousin who works for one of the Big Six publishing houses as a submissions editor. I've never met this cousin, but my stepmom's been trying to introduce us for a while. I'm a little nervous; one because I've read so many articles from the Big Six sneering down at small and indie publishers. And two, because it's quite possible that she's one of those "ew, erotica" people. I dunno, haven't met her. But I am not about to let someone sneer at my publishing houses or the kind of work that I do, since I love my job and the people I work with...

On the other hand, my stepmom says that she is specifically looking for Steampunk writers, and I do have the outline for Wormwood Trade hanging about, so... yeah, like what I need to do is have a third novel to write in 2014.... sure. Good plan.

Also, I'm working with the lovely and talented Author Rue Volley for my cover-art for Pistols & Guns, which will be coming out at the end of the month, so lots of excitement there...

Once Upon a NaNo

Still plodding along, making progress. I've been posting little bits of my story to my Facebook page, so if you want, you can go over there and see what I'm up to...

(Rough draft is rough.)

Today's writing was pretty emotional for me. I love my characters. Beau and Vin have been busy and active parts of my day-to-day life for eight months now. By the time I'm finished writing Blues (probably mid-December or thereabouts) I will have lived with them for nine months. If that's not all symbolic and shit, I don't know what is.

Anyway, obviously, since Roll hasn't been published yet (It will be in our hands at the end of February, 2014) most of you don't know what's happened thus far, so a shocker of a revelation that happens in the first third of Blues won't mean anything to you.

I'm trying to be a bit realistic with this novel - which is unusual for me. I'm usually a zombie/steampunk/urban supernatural sort of girl (and if that's your thing, the first in my urban supernatural series, Blood Sight, will be released in March) But you know, this one's a coming-of-age sort of thing. New Adult. A genre that some people have decried, but I'm really happy to see coming into its own. So to speak.

College and young adulthood is a crazy time that's not really covered, especially in the romance genre. Admittedly, that's because we all act like complete assholes, break ups, hook ups, screw ups, throw ups. We drunk-text old boyfriends, we sleep with our roommate's high school sweetheart. We fall into swimming pools and wake up all Goldilocks (who's been sleeping in my bed.) If we're really, really lucky, we come out at the end with a degree and a small mountain of debt.

I came out of college with divorce papers.

A few days back (really, it's not even been a WEEK yet since NaNo started) I wrote about one of the couples I established in Roll breaking up. (My editor was a bit distressed about this - but I liked <character>! she complains.) I like her, too. She's not a bad person, just not ready to cope with the realities of grad school and balancing a long-distance relationship with someone who's still an undergrad. Long distance relationships suck. Today, one of my real life friends told me she and her SO had broken up. Because of a long distance relationship. Yeah, so... that happens.

I stumble over myself a bit, in this story. Beau's a misfit from a redneck town. Someone who's smart, smart enough to know that he has to pretend to be normal in high school. I wasn't that smart, but I wish I had been. Still, he feels alienated and alone, and even now, in college where people accept him for who he is, he's still uncertain. He keeps waiting to wake up and have it all taken away.

Vin's a little more like I am now, outgoing, obnoxious, says what he thinks and sometimes thinks not at all before opening his mouth. He doesn't try to fit in so much as he adapts his environment around him; he surrounds himself with like-minded individuals and delights in being the center of attention. And just recently, he's come face to face with the possibility of rejection. He's never really dealt with it before, and his anger and pain are very familiar to me.

Today, it took a while to get my words out. I was just finishing up when my daughter got home from school.

I've been sitting here all day, staring at my pages.

Because I love these two boys, these shadows of the me I used to be. And I know that I have to hurt them, in order to have story.

But I really don't want to.

Row row row Wri Mo

Busy, busy weekend.

I did not manage to get my word goal on Saturday, but I made up for it by writing over 4,000 words on Sunday.

I am exhausted.

I feel like I'm not doing anything else, just writing and sleeping. Which isn't quite true; on Saturday I spent some time with friends watching movies and we had dinner.

On the plus side, the number goals are sliding down every single day. Tomorrow's word goal is only 2,872.

(Only, she says!)

Which is good because I have a ton on my docket for tomorrow.

I have to go vote, I need to make a grocery list, get the shopping done, stop at the Post Office (for those of you waiting for your rafflecoptor prizes, I'm sorry. We only have the one car and I usually only have the car for one day a week, and on that day, some idiot decided to try to rob our local post office. And when he didn't succeed, he claimed the box he brought in contained a bomb. So our post office was closed all day, and most of the surrounding roads were blocked off as the police chased the guy down and then brought in the bomb squad.) That totally happened, even if it sounds like the worst's most ridiculous excuse. We have a social engagement with the husband's friend for lunch. And of course, with the local elections being housed at our high school, the daughter has the day off. And she's got a project to assemble that's due on Thursday.

So... if I get anything done at all tomorrow, I'll be happy.

(No, no I won't.)

Anyway, I'm more than 12,000 words into the novel already, so it's moving along well, and I'm pretty happy with it, so far.

So So WriMo

First of all, I'm going to try this method of NaNoWriMo'ing this year.

If you don't want to go read it, it's basically a front-loading way of going about the project, to take all the energy and motivation you have at the beginning and turn it into process.

It also allows you to write a little less each day, until the final two weeks where you're writing substantially less than most "competitors." Which gives me some wiggle room in case I bork up, have real life, or whatnot.

Honestly, I'm jazzed about this novel. Not about NaNoWriMo. I already know I can write a novel. You already know I can write a novel. That being said, I did put aside 2013 as the Year of the Longer Pieces. And while I already wrote, edited, submitted, and got accepted a Novel this year, what's the harm in doing another one, right?

I'm not a very competitive sort - or, more, I am, but I'd rather not be. I don't like the person I become when I start comparing myself to other people. I don't like feeling bad about myself if I'm behind (as if anyone in the world can actually be the best at anything...) or how I feel about myself when I'm doing "better" than someone else (as if I'm actually improved as a person by beating someone else...) Bleh bleh bleh. Just... personality issues, no! I don't want to go there. I try really, really hard not to. Obviously, sometimes I fail. I see my friends who write 18 pages in a day, or over 2,000 words every day of their regular lives (not even for NaNo, just NORMAL...) and I feel like a fake. Like a poseur. I wonder if I'll ever feel like a "real" writer.

I wonder if people with real jobs ever feel like that. I mean, do librarians feel like "fake librarians"? Do accountants worry if they've got enough street cred with other accountants? What kind of fucked up brain do I have to be able to look at my bookshelf of pretty pretty paperbacks and wonder if I'm just not good enough? Seriously!

Anyway, sorry. I'm awesome! Really!

I do get a little overwhelmed sometimes; not with the realities of my life, but with thinking about those realities. I know I can write a novel. I've written three - two accepted and one still floating about in the ether looking for a home - that I consider worthy of publication and a couple of others that I wouldn't use to paper the litter box. On the other hand, knowing I have to write two novels for 2014 to be published in 2015 (or sooner!) is a little crazy-making. I mean, I know I can do it. The question is, can I do it?

No, don't try to boggle that out. You'll only get as crazy as I already am.

I like NaNoWriMo because it's pushy and crazy and eliminates all the dithering time when I spend thirty minutes looking at and rewriting the same sentence.

I hate it because the editing process afterward is So Much Worse than when I'm able to write/edit/write/edit.

I love it because I am a crazy extrovert in a field of people who are all crazy hermits. I like writing with others. As a social activity. Comparing notes. Wailing at each other when we have no ideas. It's like tag team jello wrestling. Crazy, silly, messy, frustrating, and somehow intensely sexy.

I hate it because I watch a bunch of my friends feel like they're losing at life, somehow. See this article for more thoughts on that. He's already said what I think, so I'll just let him say it, okay? Okay.

Real writers write. I'm still not positive they write every day, under every circumstance. (Hell, I don't write every day, and I've still got two novels coming out next year! So... yeah...)

I'm not sure NaNoWriMo makes any more real writers than there were. Sometimes people need a push to get going, and some people hit the bottom of the cliff and swear no more, never.

The trick always comes down to, what works for you!

I follow the 7th Sea 2nd Edition GameMaster rule in all things.

You don't need any rules. Cheat anyway.

(That being said, I wrote 3,512 words today.... so, I can't even follow my own rules...)

Before I Leave

So... I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year.

I was having this conversation quite a while ago with one of my editors, in which I was laying out my to-write list.

This year I've written Roll, revised it, and sent it in. Got it accepted, it's the first of three (maybe five... both Hector and Ann-Marie, who are side characters, are clamoring for their own stories...) novels expected out of the series, with the second being Blues, and the third being Classic.

I've also revised and finished Blood Sight, my NaNo project from 2011... and it's also been accepted. Aaaand it's the first in a series of four novels; Howling Bitch, Demon Halo, and Ghost Magic rounding out THAT series...

(Both of these novels have been accepted and will be available in early 2014, end of February for Roll and sometime mid-march for Blood Sight...)

To which my editor said to me, in all seriousness, "You realize you've committed yourself to writing two novels a year for the next two to three years, right?"

Um.... well.

Yes.

Except while I knew that math, I didn't really add it all up. Just what I'd soft-committed to. (There's some sort of unwritten rule that, as a novelist with a series title, you have to put out one book in the series every year... it's not written in stone, but it may as well be, loud as some people scream - me included! - when they don't get their annual Harry Dresden fix; or Game of Thrones, or WHATEVER... )

On the other hand, I wrote a novel, a longish short story (Synchronous Rotations), edited two novels (Marked Man is still out there floating around... ), 25 short stories for the Promptly collection, and a handful of other short stories (My Girlfriend's Gun, Tanked, Blood Cries Up, Pistols & Guns, aaand I'm sure I'm forgetting something....) this year.

(Wow, that was parenthetical...)

So. I can do this. I really can.

But I do know it's going to be challenging.

It took me from April until mid-July to write the 60,000 words that became Roll. (and while I was doing that, I wrote at least one short story every week) And it took me November 2012, and most of September to write the 60,000 words that became Blood Sight.

We'll see if I complete the NaNoWriMo challenge again this year. But even if I don't, it'll give me a headstart on those two novels I need to write....

I probably won't be here on my blog much in the meanwhile. But I do post regularly to Facebook so if you want to see what I have to say, pop over there and take a peek. Also, I'll probably be posting daily word counts to Twitter for November.