A Marked Man and other fascinating gaming stories...

First off, Blissemas! Yay. Kiru Taye has stuff for you. Comment, win, wash, rinse, repeat...

It's really hard for me to maintain a Christmas Spirit for a whole month. Go read her blog post while I have a mimosa.

~*~*~*~

So, A Marked Man is out...

In 1982, I wrote my very first short story as part of a class project... it's horrible and terrible and no, I'm not going to show it to you. But it was the first step in a very long journey...

In 1984, I wrote the following sentence, It might look familiar if you buy A Marked Man.

"The thief known as Mace crouched beneath the table."

The rest of the short story - five ridiculous, painstakingly typed pages - goes on to describe the theft of jellies and jams from a bakery as a gift for the thief's mother's birthday...

That was the first time Mace the Assassin made an appearance in my life. It wouldn't be the last. In 86, while I was at horse camp in New Hampshire for twelve weeks, I handwrote out several short stories about Mace and his girlfriend, Maddie. Those stories are lost. My camp roommate might have deserved getting knocked down a hill falling down the main hill on the way to dinner. Oops.

He went into hiatus for quite a long while after that...

And then he made a big time resurgence when I saw the movie The Three Musketeers

Michael Wincott, with the voice and the sneer and the delicious darkness, became the face of Mace the assassin...

I became obsessed with Wincott, watched as many of his movies as I could get my hands on...

I mean, just listen to that... chilling.... seductive. Perfect.

But then I had to put him away again. I wasn't really writing much during that time from about 1992 - 2001, give or take. I'd gotten some pretty brutal criticism and didn't have the emotional maturity or bandwidth to handle it. My life was every kinds of messed up. I did maybe... 8 short stories in those years (I wrote a very bad portal novel in 1990, which I can't even find a rough draft of, and that's probably a good thing... ) and I have several abortive attempts at other novels... the rough of which became the backbone of W.O.L. and a currently backburnered novel called Rains in Eden.

And then it happened. I dragged Mace out of the closet where he'd been lurking and used him as a role playing character...

Once I gave him a voice, a face, a real name behind the assassin's street-name he was called...

I haven't been able to get him out of my head since...

It's a little unnerving from time to time having a professional assassin hanging out in your head, commenting on your life. Just saying. In case that's ever happened to you...

But finally, I got his voice down on paper and into your hands. Despite that, he's still sitting in my mental living room, his boots up on my coffee table, making the casual observation about my life...

The thief known as Mace crouched under the kitchen table. He balanced precariously between a set of embroidered slippers and a pair of immaculate leather boots, praying to whatever gods might look out for thieves that neither of the people sharing breakfast were particularly clumsy.  

If either Sorcerer Aleck Merril or Knight-Commander Jan Lyze dropped a fork and bent to peer under the tablecloth, Mace would be discovered, destroying what could become a legendary heist. Bad enough that he was trapped under the table, an undignified position at best. He hadn't eaten in at least a day; betrayal by grumbling from his empty stomach would just be humiliating. The smell of bacon and toast and jam above his head tormented him.

His back ached from the weight of his backpack, stuffed with jewelry, coins, and a assorted magical devices swiped from the sorcerer's desk. The main prize, an enchanted gemstone, was tucked inside his shirt pocket. It swung gently with each breath he took, chafing the collar of his shirt against his sweat-damp neck. The thief shifted his balance to ease muscles threatening to cramp. 

I hope you enjoy his adventures as much as I did...

~*~*~*~

And Torquere's still doing their 2 free books per day...

Herc's Mercs: The Bigger they Come by Ari McKay

Cade “Hercules” Thornton is an ex-Marine and soldier of fortune; now he’s the owner of Hercules Security, which provides the best bodyguards in the business. After his leg was crushed and reconstructed, Cade doesn’t do field work anymore - until a challenge is issued to him by wealthy Kate Morgan, who wants her “bookish” grandson protected from a stalker. She insists on having the very best bodyguard available, and that is Cade himself.

But there is nothing laid back or bookish about Dr. Jude Morgan. Having lived under the thumb of his grandmother his entire life, Jude is insistent that he doesn’t need a babysitter. Sparks fly when Cade tries to insinuate himself into Jude’s life, and Cade knocks Jude on his ass - literally.

Yet the danger to Jude is real, and Cade is the only thing standing between him and an increasingly more terrifying stalker. Cade’s protective feelings for his client become something more, while Jude begins to realize that his brawny, neo-Viking protector is a man unlike anyone he’s ever known. Yet as Cade and Jude grow closer, so does the danger.

Cade will stop at nothing to protect Jude, but Jude’s stalker is determined to get his man - even if he has to kill Cade Thornton to do it.


GET FOR FREE

Zirkua Fantastic by Voss Foster

Zirkua Fantastic has been running steadily since 1753, amazing its patrons with acts of otherworldly skill and prowess. But that talent comes at a steep price: each artist must give a year of his or her life to the circus. None of them know why, only that the circus' owners will go to whatever lengths are necessary to ensure it. Toby, the hoop dancer at Zirkua Fantastic and son of one of the owners, is content with his life: he enjoys performing and Zirkua's wandering life, and even has a boyfriend among the circus' hawkers. But when a new artist arrives, bringing with him a strange flask and a number of odd occurrences, Toby falls face-first into the truth behind the circus: Its contracts bind King Jester, the immortal embodiment of chaos.

Zirkua's performances and contracts have held King Jester prisoner for centuries, but now something's amiss. King Jester's sister, Dragon, has escaped her own bonds and is working to free her brother, and his power is growing. If he is loosed on the world, it will mean the worst war in human history and the end of civilization... unless Zirkua Fantastic can find a way to stop him.

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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

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!

Irony, Actually

Yesterday, I was talking both on Facebook, and with the man, about my productivity and measurements thereof.

I think I go through this semi-regularly, so you know, it's also very likely that I'm neurotic.

Last week, I wrote about 5,000 words for Book Three of Rainbow Connections and I've already done almost 4,000 for this week.

It never seems like enough, somehow. I always feel like I'm slacking off, I'm not working hard enough, I'm not publishing enough. I'm lazy, worthless, an impostor. I swear, I have impostor syndrome that's so active it ought to have its own secret identity.

So, I'm going over this with the man last night, generally bitching about my lack of productivity. He's sitting there on the sofa watching me with that little smirk like he does when he knows I'm being ridiculous, which - for whatever reason - tends to goad me into longer bouts of self-hatred. It's like I want to prove to him that I'm serious, that any rational adult would run screaming rather than being in a relationship with me.

At the same time, I am aware that I'm being ridiculous.

I may have issues.

After I wrapped up my rant - he didn't say a word, not really - I decided to check email before going to bed.

If you don't know where this is going, it's because you're unfamiliar with dramatic irony (not the Alanis Morissette version, which is just unpleasant coincidence and not irony at all...)

I had an email from my publisher, containing a contract for A Marked Man and A Wanted Woman.

Because, you know, publishing 2 novels a year isn't enough for me.

Contract signed. As usual, you'll know more when I know.


Rough draft 'blurb and tagline

Tagline

His word is his bond; will a beautiful warrior force him to destroy himself to keep his vow?

'blurb

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?

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!