Pre-Order a Little Stocking Stuffer for yourself

So, last book of the year is out on the 25th of December,,,

Pick up your steaming hot copy of Coming Together: Keeping Warm

Coming Together: Keeping Warm is a collection of erotic fiction edited by Alessia Brio. Proceeds benefit Operation Warm.

FEATURING STORIES BY:

Sommer Marsden
Lisabet Sarai
Allison Wonderland
Leigh Ellwood
Xan West
Robert Buckley
Peach Robidoux
Lynn Townsend
Annabeth Leong
Delilah Night
Jim Reader



So, there you have it; heat up your kindle and support a good cause.

My story in this collection is Pistols & Guns, previously published by Hot Ink as a stand alone short.

The difference is knowing when to shoot...

Half Scot, half Irish, all hot-head, Turner Gillespie ain't about to tolerate no horse-thief taking what is his. Especially when the thief is a scrawny, under-fed kid with a big gun.

Eppie just wants to get away from Ellis Ballard, the man who murdered her mother and forced her into an intolerable marriage. She has money, Turner has a horse; why is this a problem?

When Eppie reaches for her gun and finds herself holding onto a tool of a different sort, sparks fly in the hot, western desert...

But will they learn to trust each other before Ballard comes looking for his wayward bride?

Celibate Cold

So, last night I was sitting around the table with my two best girlfriends, mostly chatting and eating soup and cupcakes (It was Liz's birthday dinner and I made my famous Cream of Reuben Soup) when I got an email...

Celibate Cold, which is the first of the stories for the Torquere line this upcoming year, has been accepted for publication. Celibate Cold will be in the Snowed In anthology, available in January, 2016...

Chase sighed. He tried to concentrate on the falling snow, the faint whistle of wind, but his good mood was shattered again. He needed to leave town. If he could just afford to do so. Or find a reason to stay. But he was stuck, stuck in place, both indecisive and unwilling to take risks. Yeah, that sucked. Big time.

“Fuck it,” he said. His voice was swallowed by the snow and the darkness. “I’m going inside.”

He straightened, tugged his shirt down to clear the wrinkles from crossing his arms over his chest, and took one last glance out at the snowy night. And then he saw something moving out in his yard. Something large and white and staggering right toward him. Like a fucking yeti.

“What the hell?”

Chase squinted. Of course it wasn’t a yeti, he thought. But the creature who was stumbling in his direction was covered in snow from the thighs down and his coat was thick with ice-crystals. He had a hat crammed low down over his ears, but no gloves, and his sleeves were crusted with more snow. He’d probably fallen a few times, to judge by the smears of white down his front.

By the time Chase had identified the intruder as being nothing more than a man, his visitor was nearly to the porch. The man’s teeth were chattering so hard that he couldn’t seem to force intelligible words out. Chase caught a few mumbled syllables.

“Well, you look like three miles of bad road,” Chase said. He helped the man up the stairs and then impartially started brushing snow off his back, not really paying attention to where his hands were until the man startled when Chase’s hands came down on his ass, smacking snow away.

The stranger whirled, his brown eyes wide.

Chase held his hands out to his sides, harmless. “No point in trackin’ that all in m’house, man, and you look a bit chilled to do it yourself.”

The man nodded, stomped off his feet as best he could, which wasn’t very well. Chase sighed. The guy was wearing fucking Oxfords, for Christ’s sweet sake. He’d be lucky if he had any toes left at all. Fool.

“Sex,” the man said.

“What?” Chase had to have misheard that. He stuck a finger--snow covered, and cold--into his ear as if to clear it out. Or wind up his brain. “What did you say?”

“Six. Six miles of bad road.”

“Jesus, fella,” Chase said. “Come in and get warm. There’s a fire at the hearth. Leave your shoes out here.”

Forging of Souls, Duology; Book Two, A Wanted Woman

Buy Link Amazon Kindle

All the rules have changed.

Separated from her lover, Catreen An'dello is forced to forge new alliances with the underground world of thieves, whores, and renegade magi. Catreen must learn to negotiate in a society when the wrong move can mean death and discovers that the fate of kingdoms suddenly rest in the hands of a leaderless hodgepodge of talented assassins, ruthless murderers, and selfish courtesans. Can Catreen find the key to protecting these fringe citizens while thwarting Aleck Merril's world dominating ambitions?

In the hands of his enemies, Bastian Hooke is ensorcelled by ancient, dark magic. He witnesses the forging of a new soulstone and discovers the horrific reasons for their creation. Remorseless, soulless, he is set loose on the city with only one thought; Kill Catreen. Fractured by magic gone horribly wrong, will Bastian be able to mend his broken soul before he destroys everything that he loves and betrays everything that he is?

~~*~~

The dedication to this book changed while I was writing it.

It was dedicated to some friends from an old BBS roleplaying game I used to play -- Bastian was a character there in an earlier incarnation... 

But just before the book was complete and while I was in the middle of the last set of edits, I lost my beloved cat, Grendel. Named for the monster in Beowulf -- an old English epic poem, which is quite good and that I once translated in college -- he'd been a part of my life for the last 15 years. Losing him has been a shock, and I'm still not really settled into my routine post-cat. 

I've shared my living space with cats for most of my entire life -- no one really owns a cat, after all -- but I've almost always had two at a time. Little Bit and Ugly Face (that's not my fault, and he was remarkably ugly, after all... sweet, and I loved him, but ugly...), Puff and Bear, then later Sandi and Bear (same Bear, different companion) and then Sandi with Sterling, then Sterling and Grendel. Sterling left us a few years ago... and we decided that Grendel was just too old to put up with a new cat companion. 

So, ever since we moved into our house, there's only been the one cat.

Strange how empty a house seems when there's no cat.

At some point, I'll write another novel and dedicate it to those friends who missed out on this one... 

Guest Post: Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese (and some more announcements)

Announcements

Hello everyone, your favorite crazy writer here... (I may well be truly losing my mind, it's possible. Come visit me in the mental hospital, would you? It gets boring.)

Today I have... Blissemas with Tabitha Rayne (who I was introduced to recently because she did some lovely portrait work for my dear friend, Malin James... so y'all should definitely go check her out...)

And A Marked Man is out today - I'm having my Facebook release party today as well, so if you haven't signed up, drop by and say hello. I'll be giving away prizes and swag, posting excerpts, taking questions, and generally being "around" for most of the day... 

The Guest Post

Our protagonist in Evergreen, Liam, is a supporting character in Starling, Book One in our Love in Los Angeles series. (Book Two, Doves, comes out January 21, and Book Three is out in June), but this is a standalone story and you don’t have to have read Starling to be able to enjoy Evergreen.

In Evergreen, Liam’s joined by several characters that readers of Starling have already met. These include his fiancee Carly, his asexual boyfriend and also boss Victor, and his costar and ex-lover Alex. Throughout the story, Liam pesters them for help sorting out his woes with his childhood best friend and long-term lover Charles. Unfortunately for Liam, however, they’re all tied up -- figuratively and otherwise -- with their own relationship issues.

Throughout the story we see bits of all of those negotiations. And all of them are kinky in some way to someone. After all, the title of the anthology Evergreen is published in is Santa’s Little Kinksters. But what kink looks like for each couple in the story is different.

Sometimes, that kink is pretty explicit. There’s not much that’s understated about someone being tied to a bed.

Other times, however, the kink is much more subtle. It’s all still kink, though, even if it’s just someone getting excited about the marks his fingernails leave on his boyfriend’s skin.

So here’s to all the kinksters, Christmassy and otherwise, and all the adventures and exploits they get up to at the holidays and year-round.

Blurb:

When bisexual polyamorous TV star Liam Campbell returns home to New York City for the holidays he finds out his his best friend (with benefits) Charles Ortwin has recently acquired a serious boyfriend. Thrown by not being the center of everyone's attention, Liam seeks out advice from three of his chosen family: ex-lover and co-star J. Alex Cook, boss and asexual romantic companion Victor Salcido Santillan, and fiancée Carly Amadahy, each of whom are tied up with their own sensual pleasures.

When a holiday party ends in a series of arguments between Charles, the new boyfriend, and Liam, it takes a snowy Christmas, a bit of honest communication, and some delightful sexual agony to put everything back as it should be.




Bio:

Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese are authors of the gay romance series Love in Los Angeles, set in the film and television industry (Starling (September 10, 2014), Doves (January 21, 2015), and Phoenix (June 10, 2015)), all from Torquere Press. Their gay romance novella Midsummer (Summer 2015), about a summerstock Shakespeare company, is from Dreamspinner Press. Racheline is a NYC-based performer and storyteller; Erin is a writer and blogger based in Washington, D.C. They write stories and scripts about the intersection of private lives, fame, and desire.

Social Media Links:

Joint Blog: http://Avian30.com
Joint Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Erin.and.Racheline
Erin’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/erincmcrae
Racheline’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/racheline_m
Erin’s Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8323893.Erin_McRae
Racheline’s Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1015335.Racheline_Maltese

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Evergreen/dp/B00R4XEG6A/

Torquere: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76&products_id=4330

More Announcements!

The Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica is out on audible.com... so if you like to listen to your smutty stories, they're now available that way...

Even More Announcements!

Torquere's still giving away two free books every day, so here's today's offerings. You are downloading these, right? I am. Every. single. one. I anticipate reading quite a lot in 2015...

Angel of 13th Street by Eden Winters

The Angel. That’s what the young hustlers call Noah Everett, the man who’ll help them get off the streets. Once a hustler himself, Noah doesn’t take his own good advice, which is, “Don’t let this ruin your life.” Haunted by the past and those he couldn’t save, Noah carefully keeps others at bay until his self-imposed loneliness is shattered by determined, ambitious, but homeless eighteen-year-old Jeremy Kincaid.

A ruthless pimp has targeted Jeremy, but if Noah will fight to get anonymous young men out of the life, he’ll fight harder to keep Jeremy from getting in, even if it means a return to old stomping grounds to make a deal with the devil. To save Jeremy, Noah risks more than just his body. He risks his soul as well, because Willie Carnell, pimp, was once Billy Cordell, Noah’s lover.

GET FOR FREE

All I Want for Christmas by V.L. Locey

Alexander Dawson thought this Christmas would be a lonely one. He has no way of knowing that his cantankerous cat, Mister Tibbets, will turn a simple online shopping trip into a cataclysmic Christmas conundrum. Alex ends up on a madcap dash to another state during a snow storm to return a painting to dreamy wildlife artist, Cooper Reynolds.  Once he stumbles across Cooper's remote log cabin, he and the sexy but emotionally distant painter end up sharing more than a kiss under the mistletoe.

Things aren't all holly-jolly for the men though. Cooper gets a terrible case of icy feet, and Alex hits the road as soon as the snowplow clears it, feeling hurt and angry. Can Alex, Cooper, and their feline friends find a way to have purrfect holiday together?

GET FOR FREE

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

For Love of the Soldier

Table of Contents

Penelope Pending by Axa Lee

Drifting Toward You by Kathleen Tudor

Duty by Cat Johnson

True North by Annabeth Leong

Home for Supper by Geonn Cannon

For the Love of George by Victoria Blisse

Blame it on the Dog by Andrea Dale

Special Love by Sidney Bristol

Stones by Tahira Iqbal

Lexie’s Arrow by Martha Davis

Jersey Boy by Tina Simmons

Failure to Launch by Lucy Felthouse

The Aid Station, 1916 by Victoria Janssen

Fair Game by Lynn Townsend

Lucky Charm by Lea Griffith

Long Time Coming by Kristina Wright

So... this is a thing. It should be up for pre-order by the end of the month, and out for publication in November.

I really, really like this short story. It's the first lesbian piece I had accepted (it was accepted before Whetting the Appetite got the green light, even tho there are a few lesbian pieces in there...) and I'm really happy to see it come to print.

They Do

Last year, Elizabeth and I did a challenge; the project was to write one ultra-short story per week for six months.

We both missed a few weeks here and there, but eventually we got to our goal, and about a month ago, Whetting the Appetite came out... but before that, there was months and months of writing short stories and very little gratification for it. We wrote and saved, wrote and saved.

Very early in the process, I wrote a little short called Home Inspection; I'd recently had a discussion with a friend about Grindr - he cruises a lot, you understand. But he also has a lot of complaints about the elitist attitude of the app-users. Much like any sort of dating app/situation/bar, there are people who seem to think that if they're very specific with their requirements, they'll get exactly what they want. (I have a girlfriend who had a list of 27 things that a man had to have, had to be, or had to Not Do in order to get a second date... ) In any case, I'd found the concept sort of intriguing... fiddled with the idea of writing a story about it, and never did. Until this short-story marathon came up.

(As a note, Elizabeth, I'm still waiting for you to write your hook-up story... ::cough cough ahem!:: )

So I wrote a short story about a very unlikely couple; a professional black man and a blue collar white guy.

It's one of my favorites in the collection.

And since I wrote it so early in the year, I had to live with it sitting there, doing nothing, for quite a while. I saw a number of writing calls where I could take the story out, lengthen it up a bit, and send it out. I kept not doing it. Which was, perhaps, harder than it should have been.

My reasoning was, if Elizabeth and I took out the best stories to send in to other collections, we'd be left with a collection of mediocre stories and who'd want to read that? In the end, I'm glad we didn't cherry pick through the collection, because I think we've got some great stories to offer, and I really like the flow of the collection. (Go buy it! Sheesh!)

Eric and Temple, however, have never quite left my mind, even after the deal was sealed. I always wanted to do more with them.

Elizabeth and I teased a bit with the idea of writing a second book, Satisfying the Appetite (maybe?) where we took some of the shorts from Whetting and fleshed them out. I've been out and out yelled at by a couple of readers who want to know what the HELL happened in the end of BoyMart, and I personally want to throttle Elizabeth for the ending of Woman with the Blue Tattoo. There are several stories in there that could become novels or novellas of their own, worlds to explore and universes to expand upon.

I've been mostly working on novels... Blues is finished, I'm waiting for one last set of beta read opinions, and I'll start edits probably around mid-May for submission in June/July... I'll probably start writing Classic in November, and then the two side-stories, All that Jazz and Punked Up...

I'm currently in the middle of writing Howling Bitch - it's going quite well, and I'm enjoying it.

And novels are all good and well; I enjoy writing novels.

But there's something quick and dirty about a short. No matter how much I tell myself "this is the year of working on longer projects," I find myself considering little ideas. I've actually stepped up and started collecting submissions for an anthology project of my own. (This is because I have lost my fucking mind... but still, should be interesting!)

Also, I really like the thrill of getting acceptances back; for a little project, for a big project, for a charity project. All of these things are wonderful, wonderful feelings. But with novels, they're really spread out. I can only write about 2 novels in a year...

So, I give in to temptation. Sometimes.

And I'll put together a short story for this antho or that collection.

Eric and Temple had more to say. I saw the opportunity to let them say it.

Building Us will be available June 15th.

Whetting the Appetite blurb and cover art

So, this exists...

Romance and erotica authors Lynn Townsend and Elizabeth L. Brooks have joined forces to assemble this collection of "flash-fiction" ultra-shorts (most under 2000 words), generated in response to prompts offered by our fans and friends and touching on dozens of aspects of lust, love, and desire.

Subgenres in the collection span contemporary, historial, steampunk, fantasy, sci-fi, and horror, taking you from a modern living room, to the high seas, to Victorian London, to planets and times at the edge of imagination. These stories explore relationships all along the romantic and erotic spectrums, including the thrill of a one-night stand, the fierce burn of rivalry, the heady flush of new romance, the intense trust of BDSM, and all the pros and cons of long-term partnerships. The characters defy conventional gender boundaries, including a preoperative transmale, several aliens, and a few characters whose genders are left open to reader interpretation. Sexual orientations on display vary nearly as widely, with groupings that include m/f, m/m, f/f, and f/f/m -- not to mention those aliens!

With forty-six stories to choose from, there's something here for every moment and mood, something to whet any appetite.

Whetting the Appetite

Not the actual cover

As you probably know, Elizabeth L. Brooks and I started a short story project last year. It was a double challenge; the first part of the challenge was "could we write a short story, consistently, every week?" The second part of the challenge was "could I get my words under control enough to write SHORT SHORT stories?"

We were... mostly successful. There were a few weeks that she skipped; a few weeks that I skipped. Life happens. And while I do have... three... stories in the collection that capped out over 2,000 words, most of them are in the under 2k limit. (We originally set a 1,500 word limit, but that I was almost completely incapable of...)

We ended with 46 usable stories. We each had one that got trashed immediately for being depressing as all shit. (Both Liz and I sometimes have some serious self-esteem issues, and independently of each other, we wrote some hideous "I hate myself" pieces...) Around June or so, we got stuck; it didn't seem how much we wrote, we weren't getting any closer to our goal... we wanted at least 40,000 words so the collection could go to print. And then we realized there were some errors in the spreadsheet. Once those were fixed, we had about 56,000 words. Yay us!

We let it sit for a while, then back in October, I started editing Liz's stories. I wanted them off my plate for NaNoWriMo, so they were all done by Nov 1. Liz took a little longer (this is not a complaint, since like I said, Liz works as a professional editor for not one, but two different publishing companies, and she ends up with a crapton of work.) Finally, around the end of December, we got everything edited, back to each other, and did our corrections. We let it sit for another week, then did final edits.

Oddly enough, a few weeks ago, we changed the title. If you might recall, I've been referring to the project as Promptly, or sometimes Promptly Hot, for quite a while... I was doing final read-throughs and while we do have a number of extremely hot sex scenes, we also have a number of stories that stop just outside the bedroom door, leaving you wondering just what's going to happen now. (Although, in the end, I did take my shapeshifters to bed. They were quite insistent... and now THAT story is a bit long for the collection. Oh well... ) So, now it's Whetting the Appetite.

And submitted.

I've only once had a story picked up faster; Pistols & Guns was only "out" for about four hours before I got my acceptance.

Whetting the Appetite was out for less than 24 hours before JMS Books, LLC picked it up.

And, just to make my life fun and interesting; it's going to be released.... in March.

Thanks to everyone who provided writing prompts; we've thanked you officially in the collection as well. (First name, last initial, but you know who you are... I hope. Because if you don't know who you are... well, the IRS is probably mad at you.)

Gratitude

About 18 months ago, I went to a writer's workshop at our local sci-fi con (MarsCon... which is awesome and if you are local, you should totally go!)

At that time, I'd just gotten notified that On the Fly was going to be picked up for publication, so I had three stories accepted; Golden Moment, Shadows of Kenfig, and On the Fly. Not many. Certainly not enough that I considered myself a professional writer.

(I have since been informed - rather tartly -  that I became a "professional" the moment someone paid me to write. So, there's that.)

Anyway, I attended two writer's workshops that weekend, one for hooking your reader with a good opening paragraph or two, and the other for scene setting. Allen Wold, his daughter Darcy, and Danny Birt were among the panel members who were offering their advice.

I wrote two paragraphs. (I cannot find the original draft with my notes on it from the seminar, but rest assured, it was pretty rough.)

"Do you know, Jamison," Duncan Farnsworth, Earl Leveret said as he stripped off his gloves and deposited them in his hat, "what the absolute worst thing is about being dead?" The sun was skimming the horizon. Another few minutes and he might have had some unpleasantness. Jamison closed the heavy door behind his master and Duncan shuddered with relief. 

"I fear you are about to tell me, sir," his butler replied, entirely uninterested.

"It is simply this; being deceased has done nothing to improve the quality of my social engagements." 

"Perhaps, sir," Jamison said, ushering his lord into the parlor and folding the rain-damp coat over one arm, "you should lay down and play dead with slightly more conviction."

Those starting paragraphs went on to become the beginning of my soon-to-be-published short-story, Synchronous Rotations. (Which will be out July 3rd, from Torquere press.)

Synch is the 3rd of my London Steam saga (started with Shadow of Kenfig and continuing in The Blister Effect) but it stands alone better than Blister Effect did. I've also learned to Make Sure that the fact that it's a continuation story is in the marketing materials. Blister Effect did not do as well as I'd hoped, probably because the only review for it, the reader was fairly confused.

In a reimagined 1890's London, where steam-driven airships rule the skies and monsters roam the streets, Duncan Farnsworth is discovering that being a vampire is not exactly good for his chances of finding love, continuing the family line, or getting a bite to eat. Maneuvering his way around a sarcastic butler, his spinster sister, a run-in with an amorous werewolf, and finally confronted by a dead soldier and a French airship captain, Duncan finally finds exactly what he is thirsting for.

Continuing in the story-line begun in the Shifting Steam anthology, and continued in The Blister Effect, Synchronous Rotations takes a look at another player in that infamous card game, Duncan Farnsworth. If you like your steampunk with a little supernatural on top, Synchronous Rotations should wind you right up.

I sent both Allen and Danny quick emails today letting them know that I had been very well benefited by the seminars.

[sic]... congratulations. News like that assures me that it's worth while to continue with my workshop. I'll be doing it again next year, as I do it at other places as well. But you're on your way to not needing it any more. More stories, more stories! -- Allen Wold

Cupid's Chokehold release

Blurb: Chocolates, tiny heart cards with words, rose petals, champagne, fancy dinners, proposals, tiny cherubs with heart shaped arrows... these are the things that we see every Valentine’s day. This Valentine’s day we explore the aspect of the holiday that goes on behind closed doors! Whether it be long distance relationships, Eros himself looking for love, a forbidden passion finally burning to life... Stories of desires, overcoming our senses, and the hot and steamy outcomes! Stories from some of today’s hottest erotic authors, focused around the day of Cupid will take your holiday to a new level of desire. When desires overcome senses, Cupids chokehold is in full control.


So, there's that...

My story in here, Half the World Away, was originally written for a different anthology altogether.

I want to talk about that a bit because I think it's good for new writers to know that just because something gets rejected - it might not be a good fit for the anthology, it might be too similar to another story that's already been approved, or it may even be too different from the rest of the anthology to mesh well - does not mean the story itself isn't good.

Sometimes it's just not right for that collection. Which doesn't mean that it won't find a home somewhere else. Sometimes an editor will give a suggestion, or make a comment in their rejection letter. I've gotten a few of those. (Do not EXPECT it. And never ask for one! Many editors are very, very busy and they don't have time to red ink every story. But if you DO get a personalized comment, PAY attention to it! You're being given a gift here. Make every possible use of it.)

I've updated, made changes, and resubmitted several stories. Some that got picked up immediately (On the Fly, for instance) and some got picked up after several rejections (Half the World Away has been turned down four times.) In fact, I have a story, Room for Dessert, that has been rejected now 7 times. I'm beginning to think that one just not find a home. I have a few more places to try it, but it may just be homeless. That's what collections of my work are for, right? Includes the never-before-published...

So, you never know. I wish there was a number... you know? If something has been rejected 6 times, throw it away? But there's not. As far as I can tell, in this business, there's no certainties.

Special thanks to J and L, who helped me write this story and provided the inspiration for it. And to the real Devin, who let me use her name, because it is ultra awesome. And to the crew of the Fairweather, who don't even know me, but I know all about them! Also, to NOAA, whose procedures and routines I took incredible liberties with for the sake of story-telling, but who help keep me safe from tornadoes and winter storms. You guys are the best!

Promo For Under My Skin by Sommer Marsden

Nothing creepy about that, no...

Today, I bring to you my special guest, Sommer Marsden. (Check back here in a few weeks for some more personal time with Sommer... ) Her new book, Under My Skin, has just come out and wow, it sounds fantastic! I love Sommer's stuff, although she writes so much faster than I can read, so I have only made small dents into her production pile. But her werewolf series, Big Bad and Long Lost are excellent, and I so much adore the Zombie Exterminator series... I really like Urban Supernatural stuff. It's the orsumest!

Back Cover/Blurb

House bought for a steal online when it turns out there’s a damn good reason—check.

Malicious ghost with a body count to his name—check.

Sad, lingering female spirit pining for her still living (but currently dying) fiancé—check.

What’s a widowed medium to do when a departed soul asks to ride piggy back in her body?

To share her space and get under her skin? Juliet Bale does the only thing she can do—with her twin sister’s good counsel—she lets Lanie share her body to help her dying beloved Elijah cross over. The problem is that with all the reuniting, and sharing one body, things get seriously intimate and Juliet can’t help but see exactly why Elijah Rivers was so beloved.

It’s so wrong to sorta kinda fall for a dying man, and yet—check.



Excerpt from Under My Skin 
© Sommer Marsden

“I’m telling you, Minnie, it feels off.” I tucked the phone under my chin and tried not to trip on the damn thing. My brand new kitchen had a way-old phone. It actually had a cord, for goodness’ sake.

“Off how? Off is relative when it comes to you, twin sister, dear.”

I snorted, and Minnie made a high-pitched sound that said she was laughing at me. “Har har.”

I slipped my silverware—triple wrapped in plastic—into my freshly washed and tidied drawer. I had just spent three hours wiping down the room and cleaning everything. I wanted it as spic and span as possible for me and my own energy. Most people don’t realize when you move in a new home, along with other people’s dirt, you get other people’s emotions.

“I mean, what is off, Juliet? Is the paint too bright or the window too small or…what?” My sister was mocking me.

“The energy,” I said, pushing a stack of brightly colored cake plates into a small side cabinet. “Don’t play dumb, Min. You haven’t just met me. You know, your sister…the sensitive. Resident psychic medium,” I chuckled, making a joke at my own expense.

I swore I heard her smile over the phone line. I could picture my sister in my mind. Same long unruly dirty blond hair as mine. Same startling blue eyes that could turn gray with mood, weather or depending on what color we wore. But we weren’t identical, we were fraternal. She was shorter and curvier than me, her nose just a bit sharper. And her tongue.

“Juliet, let’s face it, any place is going to be off to you, right? Any place you go is going to be steeped in someone else’s emotions and past, yes?”

“Yes,” I agreed, wiping my hands on my shirttails and leaning against the giant butcher block island in the center of the room. “True story.”

"Well, then, just deal with it. There is no clean space for you, really. Unless you build a brand new home from scratch and not a single worker has a bad day or an illness or any of that.”

I nodded even though she couldn’t see me. She was right.

“So take this new home and treat it as your own. Smear your own energy all over the place.”
I snorted, eyeing my shirt. It had been Justin’s. My heart crimped up at seeing it. Three years had not dulled my loss, and despite being psychically sensitive and talking to spirits more often than not, I had yet to see or talk to him. I wondered if it were somehow taboo for us to speak or if he thought it would be too painful for me to see him.

“Hello?” my sister sighed.

“Sorry, I hear you. You’re right. Though I don’t know about smearing my energy all over the place. Kind of makes me sound like a monkey—”

“Juliet!” she snapped, knowing where I was going with that analogy. “Onto other things. How are you doing? I mean…how are you doing?”

She meant moving out of the former home that Justin and I had shared before he died. She meant on my own. She meant finally embracing the fact that I was single and maybe moving on with my new life. Montgomery House was that chance. I mean, how often do you get to buy a house with a name? And I’d gotten it for a song. Which worried me, but…

“I’m fine,” I lied. “No worries.”

“I’m coming to see you soon,” she threatened, and I smiled.

“You’d better.”

* * * *

He was big—big and looming. But he was also thin. The kind of build that made the mind pull up images of a praying mantis or some ungodly sea creature trapped in the darkness near the ocean floor. Just seeing him turn his muddy eyes to me made my heart thunder.

“You’re here,” he said and smiled.

The smile was the most frightening aspect of his appearance. It twisted his face in such a way that it reminded me of a molded rubber mask that had gone askew. Almost as if his skin didn’t quite fit on his bones the right way.

I turned to run, and when I did, his long arm shot out to plant a big, strong hand on my shoulder. Being touched by him was like experiencing the most sudden and all-consuming emptiness imaginable. A sob ripped out of me.

“I thought three was my lucky number,” he said, his voice gravel turned under a tire. Sand scraped across stainless steel. It made my head hurt, and my heart followed suit.

I pulled against his strength, knowing I’d never break free until I awoke. I knew by the energy I was trapped in a dream. Knew he couldn’t really hurt me…not yet. But I also knew that as long as I slept, I was his. This was the secret my new house held. This energy. And this was where I’d be until I could drag myself back up to my conscious mind.

“Three what?” I managed, stalling.

“Three girls before you came.” The cadence of his words stirred goose bumps along my skin.

The fine hairs of my scalp prickled with dread.

“You killed them?”

“I consumed them,” he said. “Their essence.”

The urge to scream was overpowering. The urge to weep even stronger. Instead, I did the only thing I could do. I turned into his grip to face him. He looked surprised for a moment, his long rubbery face and his sick brown eyes showing shock. But then he smiled, and that hole seemed to open in my stomach again. I studied the face. The old-fashioned brown suit. The proper white buttoned-down shirt. Cufflinks, a tie clip, wingtip shoes and close-cropped hair.

Then I bit my tongue as hard as I possibly could and tasted blood. His face lit up when the coppery taste flooded my mouth. Maybe he could smell it. But then he realized what I’d done and frowned at me.

“You’ll be back,” he said. “I’m here all the time.”

I woke up.

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An Even Dozen

god, why did I post this picture? Now I'm hungry...

Eight days into the new year (my biggest problem with 2013? I keep typing 2913 by accident...) and I've already gotten my first story accepted!

So, now I'm up to 12 stories. A dozen! Since May of 2011. That's really, really not too shabby.

My story, Half the World Away, was accepted into Hot Ink Press's Valentine's day anthology, Cupid's Chokehold, Edited by Lainy Lane. I'll let you know when I have cover art and a Table of Contents.

Half the World Away was originally entitled P.B.E.M. (Play by E-mail) and sent off to elsewhere. Later, I wrote a second story, for the same anthology, which was accepted instead. Anyway, I shopped PBEM around for a while, and eventually found a good home for it. I know Lainy will take good care of Devin and Jackson...

Start watching this space on Thursdays; I'm going to start hosting some guest authors to do blogging posts.

And now... now, I think I'll go buy me some freaking doughnuts.

He Loves me...

So, you can get your e-copy of He Loves me for My Brainsss from Torquere...

Thought I'd give you a little sample today...

“Wish you didn’t have to go,” Avesy said, drawing a teasing line down his chest, finger tracing along the waistband of his trousers. Korin forced a half-smile, heart aching.

“I wish you wouldn’t talk about it,” Korin answered. He snatched at the teasing hand, jerked Avesy’s arm down, placed his palm firmly against Korin’s straining erection, ground his hips against his lover’s fingers. He groaned at the touch, then roughly pushed his lover onto his back. Korin tore the buttons free in his eagerness to get his pants off, much too eager, he was going to cream his pants right there if he didn’t get what he wanted, what he needed. There was nothing but hot desire in Avesy’s eyes and Korin let himself sink into those eyes, sink in and drown there, not looking away.

He’d tasted Avesy’s lips a hundred times and more, but tonight, this one night, was sweeter and more bitter than any flavor he could ever imagine. The last time, the very last. And even having memorized every line of his face, every soft nuzzle of his mouth, Korin was startled all over again at how intoxicating those sweet kisses were. How full and lush his mouth was, how heavy his breath, and how Korin’s entire body turned to fire with the simple touch. Like wine. 

Well, I had to move my work hours around immediately, since I discovered that on those days I need to take the husband to work, I don't get back to the house until almost 8:30. So... guess I'll start at 9am. No worries.

I did do some writing on the 1st, even though technically I was still on vacation. I decided to work on my story for a Valentine's Anthology. I was specifically asked to submit, if I could, and I admit that that's flattering.

I'm running a Shadowrun paper and dice game at the moment, and cyberpunk (and cyber sex!) are on my mind recently. What would it be like, to be able to jack into your partner's head, feel what they're feeling? Sometimes it could be really amazing, and sometimes, not so much. I'm exploring that, with the help of two characters, Adria Benn-Parker, a character who's been hanging about in my head for a while and needed something to do, and a new fellow who just showed up recently, Cyberius Jann. We'll see how that goes. It's a pretty tight deadline, so we'll see if I can get something put together by mid-month.

Hey, my first ultra-short story is due to my partner on the 9th (that's going to be the established pattern for the time being, we'll exchange our shorts on Wednesday...) So, I could use some prompts, please. One noun, one verb, one adjective, and two random words of your choice. Please, help a writer out, here?

Merry XXX-mas

So...

My story, Holiday Hours, is going to be in this anthology.

I'm very pleased by this.

There are several things about this particular story and this particular antho that make me happy.

First off; Holiday Hours is another one of those "partially based on true events" stories. I worked a convenience store for several years while in college, so Regan's experiences in the shop closely mirror my own and allowed me to bitch, in character, about something that always bothers me. Even seventeen years after I quit that job, I still refuse to shop on a holiday.

Secondly, my friend Rob West is also on the table of contents - he neglected to tell me the name of his story earlier today when we talked... I've known Rob for a long time and I've given him quite a lot of advice. Some of it quite loudly. Despite yelling at each other about the importance of coherency in emails, we're still friends, and I'm pleased as punch to be in an anthology with him.

Third, there's the awesome title: Milf & Cookies. It really just could not get any better than this.

Ahead of the Storm

Amazon | Kindle | Smashwords | Createspace | All Romance | OmniLit

So, my Zombie story is out a tiny bit early, since Allessia Brio & Sommer Marsden (and me!!) are all on the East Coast and the possibility of getting creamed by the Frankenstorm (and not in a good way!) exists, this new antho, featuring zombies and sex (but not necessarily Zombie Sex! Although maybe there is, I haven't read it all yet. I'll let you know.) is out a little early.

All proceeds from this collection will go to benefit the American Diabetes Association. 

NINE NINE NINE (Nom nom)

So... thrilled, thrilled, thrilled. I might even be so thrilled as to do the Michael Jackson zombie dance... (included here for your edification.)

Ok, maybe not quite that thrilled, but only because I can't dance. I mean, even seriously easy crap like the Electric Slide are beyond my mortal ken.

But I'm very pleased to announce that my zombie piece, Dead in the Water, was accepted to Sommer Marsden's anthology, Hungry for Love.

The Coming Together publications are charity pieces - meaning I get paid in warm fuzzies, and profits from the books go to the charity of the editor's choice, in this case being The American Diabetes Association.

This makes nine acceptances since I started submitting work about 18 months ago... give or take. I can't remember exactly when I submitted "Golden Moment," altho I clearly remember being notified that I'd been accepted on or about my birthday...

It's been a fantastic year and a half. I'm still pulling in about one acceptance every other month.

Special thanks to Jeanne SG for her help with editing this piece, and her wonderful commentary...

PS - If you love zombies and you love erotica (and if you don't like either, what the heck are you doing reading my blog??) I'd like to take this moment to recommend that you read Sommer's Zombie Exterminator series, starting with We Kill Dead Things. It is by far one of my favorite pieces of erotica.

Comparisons

First off, I want to give a huge Thank You to Kim Galloway. On extremely short notice, she helped me edit my story, Deep Breath, which is going to be published in Ladies of Steampunk magazine (or at least, unless the Seans find it unbelievably awful... ) Deep Breath needed grammatical and consistency edits, plus characterization checks, and at least 500 words cut. (The story was a bit on the Long side...)

Kim did a wonderful job, even if she was scarily nice to me. Look for a guest post from her later; her services are for sale (no, not those services! the editing services!) and I'd highly recommend her if you're a writer and need someone to proof and story-content edit your work. Her rates seem reasonable, although I confess I've never paid anyone to proof my work as yet. I'm always more of a "swap work for work" or owing people favors sort of girl. Maybe, when my writing gig starts paying more, I can afford professional services.

I was talking about her with my husband - as you all probably know, he doesn't read my published work, but he does provide a useful sounding board - and being a little embarrassed at the gushing she did.

This was a thorough pleasure to read.  You are a talented and excellent writer and it is obvious that you love what you do, as you do it so well.  :)  It is a rare treat for me to work with something that I so thoroughly enjoy.  Your piece, as is, is strong and well executed before the editorial comments that I made.

::blush::

I told him what she said, and he gave me this flat look. "You're a good writer."

I said, "I feel about average, most of the time. Maybe a little sub-par. And decidedly lazy."

"I want you to go on the internet and look up 'free sex stories' okay? Read a few of those and get back to me about you being average."

"I've read internet porn, hon," I said. Of course I have. If nothing else, I occasionally find good ideas for positions and situations. "I don't compare myself to that. I compare myself to the other writers that share the collections I'm in. I feel like mid- to bottom of the heap in that group."

"So, in essence, you're comparing yourself to all the students who got into William & Mary and saying you're upset that you're not a straight A student?"

"Erm...."

"That still makes you pretty damn smart, you know that, right?"

Comparisons are a bitchy thing... I have a lot of writer friends on Facebook, Sommer Marsden, Rue Volley, Kathleen Bradean, Shanna Germain, and more. And I often see posts like "Wrote 1200 words today, now I can eat breakfast" and I think about my miserable little 500 words that I manage to crank out a few times a week and I feel... vaguely ashamed. Like a pretender. Like I'm just pissing around, wasting time.

And then I have conversations with another writer friend and we're talking about projects I have out and projects I'm working on, and she's like "man, next to you, I feel so slack." (She's published two novellas, and several shorts... so...)

Here's my accomplishments:

In a little over a year - my first writer's acceptance was May, 2011, for a story that came out in October - I've seen 8 stories accepted and three stories rejected. Of those, I was reassured by one editor that a story was very good, just not a good fit for HER collection; one was rejected because I submitted 2 stories to the same collection and the editor had several stories like the first one, and she wanted the 2nd one instead, one that has been rejected twice with no commentary - all of these stories are back out for consideration with other publications. I hope they'll find a home somewhere.

Really, in a year's time, 8 acceptances is really damn good. I've got five stories currently out for consideration, one that I'm about 1/5th of the way done writing and have finished outlining, (due Oct 1) an idea that won't shut up, so I may try to do that one, although the deadline is pretty tight (Sept 15th... yikes!) and at least 3 more ideas that are percolating.

Yeah, ok. Maybe I'm just awesome.

I like Big Trucks and I cannot Lie

This is not the cover.

Congratulations! Your story, Big Trucks, made the final cut. The publisher is very excited about the collection! Sixteen stories will be included in the anthology out of over eighty that were submitted—many by multi-published authors—so be very proud you made it! 

I always love emails like that. It makes up for hitting the send button and looking around for the trashcan so I can vomit into it. I know, I know. But seriously, submitting a story always - ALWAYS - makes my physically ill, so it's nice that there's some payout for it! And not just in a monetary manner. (Not that I won't take the money, oh, I will so certainly take the money!)

I wrote Big Trucks in a few marathon sessions - I think it's probably one of the quickest stories I've ever written. It took me... two, three days tops. I changed the story around a bit, took out some of the excess back story on Steve, my hero, and filled in a little more about Amy, my heroine.

Now, I have an advantage; much like with Snake Dance (forthcoming Real Soon Now!), I have some personal experience. Or at least, some here-say. My grandfather, uncle and cousin are/were EMTs and volunteer firefighters. So, I've heard stories. And once my cousin and I were actually on scene for a fire - my grandfather got the call and we were in the car. He was very firm "Stay in the Car" and we did. (You can express your amazement at my docility if you like.) But I won't ever forget it.

I went to a few web sites that talked about firemen stories; not looking for anything to steal, but just getting a feel for the jargon. I did some web research on trucks and hoses and other firefighting tools, then I sat down, threw some characters onto the page, and poof.

(Also, small confession - the Steve in my story... totally based on someone I know. He's not a firefighter, but he's totally hot and I admit I was thinking about him... the whole time. I'm a bad, bad, bad girl....)

Table of Contents

Smoking Stilettos – Rachel Firasek 

Saving Charlotte – Sabrina York 

Hook Me Up – Adele Dubois

Big Trucks – Lynn Townsend

Lost and Found – Nanette Guadiano

Temperature Rising – Cathryn Fox

Unexpected Detour – Ily Goyanes

Rescue Me – Maggie Wells

Chasing Fire – Elle James

Stoke – Tahira Iqbal

Something’s Burning – Cynthia D'Alba

Fire Hazard – M. Marie

The Fireman’s Rescue – Kalissa Wayne

Falling Ashes – Shoshanna Evers

Fire Extinguisher – Rowan Elizabeth

Her Hero – Catherine Paulssen

Johnny Blaze – Delilah Devlin

Ladies of Steampunk

Here is the news you were waiting for:We are proud and excited to announce!!!The Ladies of Steampunk Magazine defines what it means, in every edition, to have a bounty of Steampunk excellence. Gorgeous Steampunk models in (and out of) elaborate neo-Victorian fashion, articles of Steampunk culture, and the stories behind the people who make Steampunk what it is today, and even some by the very models themselves!Stay tuned and like us on Facebook to pick up your copy soon.

So, I don't know if I've mentioned the Seans (Sean McCaffrey and Sean Makiney) here before... I know I talk about them from time to time on my Facebook page. Anyway, they do boudoir photography for steampunk, gothic, dreampunk settings. I have a copy of their Absinthe Faerie poster that I'm going to frame and put on the wall in the kitchen next to my liquor cabinet. (Have I mentioned that I have five different brands of absinthe now?) The vampire, Marcus, from my novel I wrote last year bears a suspicious resemblance to McCaffrey and Makiney is on my List of People I want to have an orgy with. 

So you know, people I like. Creative geniuses and otherwise cool people... 

I'm online last night, juggling some personal issues and I get a pop up message from McCaffrey.

Hi there. How would you feel about having some short stories featured in our magazine?

Sooo, after some back and forth clearing up details (degree of heat, word count, and deadlines) I'm going to be writing for Ladies of Steampunk magazine.

Orsum!

So... go like them. Because they are orsum!