Wedding March, the full story

I almost missed the end of the story; I wrote parts one through four for the blog tour like two weeks ago, and then I was all, oh, I'll finish this off in a few days, no problem...

And I got all wrapped up in working on Strange Shifters, and I had my annual garden club Social that I had to plan, and my daughter's going back to school next week, so there's been a lot of planning and running around for that...

My husband's friend at work went to the Philippines for vacation and brought back some foreign virus, that he then generously spread around the office and that my husband brought home for me. Yesterday my sinuses were so badly infected that it looked like someone had punched me in the eye. Half my face was swollen up and I had a fever and a headache. (I got anti-biotics and I'm feeling much better now, so that's good, but yesterday I was pretty much useless.)

All of the sudden it's Sunday; I'm planning to post the full story on Monday, and it's not written.

Fortunately for you -- and me -- Beau and Vin's world is so easy for me to slip into these days that the rest of the story just poured out of me Sunday morning....

So, here you are, I hope you enjoy it.

Wedding March -- I'm keeping it as a separate page so people can find it easier when this blog post is archived.

Thanks especially to everyone who hosted the story as I wrote it, Em, Vicki, and the two Delilah's. I love you all and you're wonderful...

If you would like this story in a .mobi or .pdf or .pub version for your electronic devices, just shoot me an email at lynntownsend.writer (at) gmail (dot) com and tell me what you want. Otherwise, wait a few weeks, come back here, and I'll have links posted for downloading. (Provided that I can figure out how to do that, thus the few weeks.)

Classic Blog Tour

Hello everyone...

You know, it's hilarious that I spend so much time writing short stories, novels, novellas, editing, and otherwise doing my job that I don't seem to have lots of leftover time to write about writing about...

And by funny, I mean slightly annoying...

THAT being said...

I'm doing a little blog hop for Classic, which comes out on Wednesday, so that's awesome, right...

You can pre-order Classic from Torquere, but the links for Amazon aren't up yet, which is both weird and disappointing....

I decided to do something a little different for this tour (Thanks to Nickie Jamison for the fantastic idea) and I wrote a little short story about Beau and Vin that takes place several years after Classic ends.

Classic is (probably. Maybe.) the last novel in the Rainbow Connection series that takes place from Beau and Vin's points of view. The next novel, All that Jazz, is about Hector, and the fifth novel, Punked Up, is about Ann-Marie. Readers will still see Vin and Beau as they go about their lives, but what's going on in their lives won't be central anymore; they'll be side characters. In terms of when, this novel takes place somewhere between All that Jazz and Punked Up, maybe about eight months before Punked Up. And it covers an event that would not, otherwise, be discussed, so this was the opportunity to tell that story.

I wrote the story in five parts, and each blogger on the tour is hosting a 2-3 page segment of the story, along with the various links and promo material for Classic...

I hope you enjoy it. I'll keep this page updated as the tour progresses, and then next Monday, I'll post the entirety (with part five, for those of you who do math) to this page for you to enjoy.


V.L. Locey is the first to host me on her blog, Thoughts from a Yodeling Goat Herder
Em Lynley is hosting me on Wednesday at EM Lynley.com
Delilah Devlin's got me on Thursday at Delilah Devlin.com
and then another lovely Delilah has me on Friday, at Delilah Night.com

So, drop by, give these ladies some love, and I'll see you on the flipside!

More Book Covers

I think I mentioned earlier this year that this summer was going to be very busy for me and publishing, right?

So, I got these covers in my email box recently...

Mythologically Torqued (which I have been mistakenly calling Mythically Torqued, apparently) just got the cover out...

If you're still reading this, or reading it again, the cover's been redacted for a new cover... I don't know when we'll get the new cover, or what was wrong with the old cover, so I'm just weird and grumpy right now. I'll post the new cover when we get it, probably some time over the weekend.

SIGH.

I got a look at the author list, which puts me in good company with Adrik Kemp and BA Tortuga, among others... (Adrik was in my Coming Together: Among the Stars anthology last year with a brilliantly diverse piece called "Of Gods and Men" and if you haven't heard of BA before, you should take some time to check out an enormous backlist of fantastic work...)

This book will also be released in a paperback edition, weighing in at a hefty 100,000+ words (so I could smack someone with the book and it will hurt.)

You will also, if you prefer, be able to order my story, "How 'Bout Them Apples?" as a stand alone volume, like with all the current Torquere anthologies...

Mythologically Torqued, Vol 2 will be available August 19th.

And....

Yesterday I also got this

I gotta say, it's with some sadness that I bid adieu to Beau and Vin, who've been a huge part of my life for the last few years. Don't worry, they're not gone for good (Vin will be a side character in All That Jazz, and Beau will be a side character in Punked Up) but as main characters, I'm saying my temporary farewells. The two boys are well on their way to becoming adults, and while that has its own trials and tribulations, this particular chapter of their story is done.

(An idea has been lingering for a while of a sixth novel, set after Punked Up, called Bad Rap, which may come back to them when they are a little more established as being adults...)

Classic will be available September 2, also in paperback.

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...

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

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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!