Here, There, and Everywhere

Busy writer is busy!

But here's a round up of some of the guest blog spots I've done... I've got another one coming up on Friday, so really, I should start thinking about a topic, I know.

By the way, if you want to see what I'm up to Right Now, you can always follow me on Facebook... I post there fairly regularly.

In case you've missed them, however, let me give you  sum-up of the guest posts I've been doing.

First, at the Smokin' Hot Fireman blog, I did an article about my grandfather, who was a volunteer EMT and my experiences seeing a house fire right up close.

He [my grandfather] had his definite ideas about things; everyone should know how to swim, how to drive a boat, a tractor, and a stick-shift. You should know how to perform CPR, change a flat tire, and be able to cook a meal, clean up, and how to build a fire. You should stand up straight, read often, and be able to tell a potato plant from a weed. You should be able to sew on a button and how to drive a nail. You should always read the instructions. You should know how to bait your own hook, catch fish, and clean them. And it didn’t matter to him if you were a boy or a girl.

The grand-kids, and there were a gaggle of us, half girls, half boys, called him Poppy.

When he wasn’t farming or swimming, fishing or reading novels, he was a volunteer EMT. Halfway down the stairs, there was a two-way scanner. Middle of the day or middle of dinner or middle of the night, the scanner would make a warbling alert tones and the dispatcher would come on. “Local Peru, local Peru, we have a building fire at…” and Poppy would be out the door, hat in hand. His car—a very normal-looking car in all other ways—had a magnetic fire bubble he would slap onto the roof, plug into the cigarette lighter, and whoop away down the road.

(The grand-kids all loved to fuss about who got to reset the scanner after a call—since if you didn’t remember to press the button, we wouldn’t hear the next call. And woe betide the kid who punched the reset button before the dispatcher was finished with her information. Why yes, yes I did do that, once. Once.)

I stopped by Victoria Blisse's blog a few weeks back, talking about the first time I ever saw a naked man. All things considered, my weird obsession with music might come from this particular event, as well.

Young African-American men would come to wash their cars, listen to their street-music, drink beer out of squat mikey bottles, and socialize with their friends. There was a wide chain-link fence around the wash, and then a very steep hill into my backyard, but this didn’t keep out the noise, the empty bottles, or the young men who needed to take a piss.

As a twelve-year-old girl who honestly hated both types of music available from our local radio station (you had your country AND your western!) I was enthralled. They played motown. And reggae. And rap. And R&B. Music I’d never heard before. No Tiffany or New Kids on the Block, or Duran Duran for them! There was one guy – I never knew his name, but I always knew his car, a 1977 El Camino, dark blue with a light blue stripe – and he played Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald.

I would lay on the picnic table in our back yard, hands laced behind my head, staring up at the spangled patterns of sunlight through the pink and white petals of the crab apple tree, and just listen.

One hot summer day, I’m out there, a bottle of lemonade that my mom had left in the freezer for me gently melting, pooling condensation against my stomach, when someone crashed through the bushes of the embankment.

And then later, I told the second story at Sarah Jayne Carr's blog. Because you know, if there was a first time for seeing a naked man, the second time could only get more interesting...

So, once a year, I'd spend several weeks at rehearsals, making costumes, learning stage makeup and generally hanging out with other theater geeks. (The rest of the year I hung out with the band geeks, about half of whom were the same people.) One evening, we're hanging out in costumes getting ready to do production photos and a dress-rehearsal. The "professional" photographer is late, so we're all in the green room (which wasn't actually green) or spilled out into the hallway, bullshitting and carefully drinking Dr. Pepper through a straw so we don't mess up our lipstick.

Have you ever stuck a straw in a can of Dr. Pepper? It does not want to be there - the straw, I mean - and will keep sliding upward out of your can. If you're not paying attention, the straw will pop completely out of the can and splatter droplets of soda everywhere.

We're theater geeks. And high school students. And if there's ever been a more concentrated group of dirty minded individuals... wait, scratch that. I've been part of more dirty minded groups...

But we are making bad jokes and generally being obscene....

Finally, yesterday I had a guest slot on Elizabeth A. Lance's blog talking about this, that, and the other. She's a lot of fun to work with and kept asking more and more questions and for more and more information, which was lots of fun to do a really interactive interview. Also, I love all the little cute pictures she picked to represent my interests and quirky habits.

Do you play games? If so what kind? If not, why the heck not?

Would you like my geek resume? I play Star Wars; The Old Republic as my current MMO, but have also played Warcraft, Everquest, City of Villains, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Rifts, Pirates of the Caribbean Online, Asheron's Call, Guild Wars...

I also play paper and dice RPGs; including Shadowrun, 7th Sea, AD&D, Vampire, Heroes Unlimited, GURPS, Serenity RPG, various d20 games.

I used to play Collectible Card Games until I came to the realization that my friends were all terrible losers and worse winners and I wasn't having fun, but I do like things like Cards Against Humanity and Fluxx. I'm also a mean cribbage player.

(I also might possibly have a really bad Candy Crush Saga problem)

So, that's what I've been up to. I've also gotten two (2) short stories out and available; Synchronous Rotations from Torquere, and my story, Big Trucks, is out in Smokin' Hot Firemen. As always, my complete library of publications and buy links is here (because I am uber-lazy and I don't want to look all those links up. Again.)



In the meanwhile, I've written most of a New Adult, m/m novel, started a short story, finished WRITING (but not selecting or editing) the short-story collection I'm putting together with my best friend and fellow author Elizabeth L. Brooks, talked to one of my new favorite authors, V.L. Locey about writing the forward for that collection (tentatively titled Promptly Hot.), let some deadlines for short stories pass me by, talked with a company about my urban supernatural romance novel published, and freaked out about various home-disasters (annoying backed up sink is annoying) and national media events, spent some time with good friends, and generally went about pretending that I have a life that isn't entirely conducted inside my head.

Also, apparently I have just a few contributor copies laying around...

And I thought I might give some of them away.

Comment here, or post to my facebook wall between now and July 30th with which book(s) you want: available are Ladies of Steampunk magazine, vol 1, 2 copies of Steamlust, 1 copy of Coming Together: Hungry for Love, 1 copy of Smokin' Hot Firemen (I know there are two copies in the picture, but I mixed the books up before I took the picture and put 2 copies of Duty & Desire on my brag-shelf. This has since been fixed.), 2 copies of Duty & Desire (see above notation), one copy of Lustfully Ever After, and one copy of Cupid's Chokehold.

I'll draw three winners on July 31st and let those winners know on this blog, via email, and on Facebook.

Smootches!

Well, Victoria Blisse is at it again... she of the wonderful Smutty Advent calendar... and now, she's doing a counting kisses contest.

To celebrate kisses (or snogs, or whatever you want to call them) here's an excerpt from my story "Holiday Hours," featured in Milf & Cookies. I have another short story in a Valentine's release from Hot Ink Press, Cupid's Chokehold. (My story there is called "Half the World Away.")

Collin laughingly pushed my hands away when I tried to reach for one of the dinner rolls, tearing it into bite sized pieces and feeding them to me like I was a baby bird. I rolled my eyes at him. Naturally, it was the pie that actually got me into trouble. I was laughing at Collin's description of his nephew's Halloween costume when he offered me a bite of pecan pie, covered in whip cream. I snarfed. And he missed. I took a noseful of whip cream, and sticky pecan down the side of my chin.

"Oh, brilliant," I snorted. "You're a terrible nursemaid." Collin scraped the fork along my chin, catching a dollop of pie filling.

"Really? I get all the way to the end of dinner, and you make me miss, and I'm the one who's terrible?" Collin ate the glop of pie himself. "Hmm. That's pretty good." He leaned in. I knew - from the instant that he'd forked a bite of turkey and offered it to me - that this moment was in the offing. A single quiver, a tightening in my belly that snaked down my thighs and coiled there, waiting, in my groin. I could have pulled back, could have turned it, and nothing would have happened. I didn't. I offered him my pie-smeared nose and cheek, and in those precious seconds, offered everything else.

Collin's tongue slid across my cheek, tasting and teasing. He nipped the end of my nose, sending crinkling tingles down my throat. Under my striped uniform shirt, my nipples peaked with sudden, almost painful intensity. I arched my back, pressing toward him. The scrape of his stubbled chin brushed over my skin, a single rasp, before his mouth came down on mine.

Kissing always seemed to me to be perfunctory, a necessary prelude to whatever sexual adventure was coming my way. Like a preview for a movie, something I didn't really mind too much if we were late to the theater and missed. Not this kiss. Instead of rudely thrusting his tongue into my mouth, prodding and probing, Collin's kiss was a sensual onslaught. He licked at my lips, teased the corner of my mouth, sending shivers along my spine. The tickle of his beard against my sensitive upper lip made me gasp. By the time he plundered the inside of my mouth, I was more than willing, more than ready, and decidedly marking the kiss on my must-see summer blockbusters.

He explored and plundered, tasting and touching. His arms came around me, fingers trailing down to the small of my back, pulling me against him. His breath was hot and heavy and he pulled the air out of my lungs in his eagerness. I surrendered, my hands going up to test the silken glide of his hair, the feel the hard muscles of his shoulders. I leaned against his long frame, feeling every inch of his body against mine.

 Check out all of Hot Ink Press's collections and novels.

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!

Guest Blog Entry: Rob West

I have known Rob for quite a while now. We met through another friend and he joined my gaming group.

(Insert brief rant about how no one likes gaming stories, and yes, I'm going to tell a gaming story.)

(Here, have a song to go with it.)

The hooker had information. She was being harassed by the bad guy and she knew - while not what his plans were - where he'd been going. If approached AT ALL nicely or asked any specific questions, she would have dished out, the plot would have moved along.

Rob's character went over to talk to her. He managed to insult her, imply she was both stupid and ugly, and that she probably didn't know anything useful anyway. She wasn't happy, refused to cooperate, and left my players without a clear path as to where to go next. The other players razzed Rob a bit for this, to which he responded:

"I don't have the 'talk to prostitutes' skill!"

Oh, we noticed that...

(end gaming story)

Rob and I have been friends for going on nine years now, and I've known he wanted to write pretty much from the beginning. We used to have loud, angry arguments about writing. Primarily because he used to write me the most horrible, un-punctuated, terrible grammar, bad spelling emails. Ever.

Bad habits, to me, are, well, habit forming.

I believe that if you write bad emails, you'll write bad prose. Or, at least, writing well will no longer come naturally to you. (For instance, my bad habit of writing ellipses... or using parenthesis - or em-dashes! - in blog posts leads to my doing the same thing in stories, which I then have to EDIT OUT. Did you see what I just did there? did you?)

Rob does not believe that. He believes that he can wear sweat pants with holes in them every day, and still clean up nice and put on a tux for special occasions and be perfectly comfortable. As we're both published writers now, and we still argue about writing emails properly.

What are your greatest challenges in your writing career?


At the current point I am at in my writing career I would have to say not letting myself get burned out by doing too much at once, but at the same time not doing too little or allowing myself to get distracted too much by other activities.

When did you find out that you wanted to be a writer?

When I was a kid and I was lying in bed about to go to sleep I would always run stories through my head. Basically they were “episodes” of shows I liked where I made up what happened. This was where I knew I had stories to tell. Eventually those “episodes” became my own shows and those shows evolved into longer individual stories. I didn’t actually try to write any of these until I was a teenager and I had trouble keeping focused but I knew it was what I wanted to do.

Of your published works, do you have a favorite? Why?

My story “The Truth of the Hunt” in the anthology “Darkest Desires.” I really had fun with that story and loved the characters. I was able to write that one really quickly because it was just so perfectly formed in my head.

Are there any mistakes that you find yourself making regularly?

I will never be good at then vs than. I constantly get it wrong and have to edit it. Also commas are one of my greatest enemies.

Me: commas seem to be everyone's greatest enemy. 

Do you ever want to go back and edit an older story?

I have two storylines I want to return to when I finish my faerie series.

How do you decide on character names?

Sometimes the names just come to me as in the case of the two main characters in my faerie series, and sometimes I have to use name generators. It really depends on the character and the setting. With the characters in one of my older story ideas I have to just make them up as their names are unique to their species and no name generator on the planet could help with that.

Tell me about your first publication. Who was it with? How did you feel when you got that acceptance?

It was an erotic short story called Princess Illia. The anthology is called The Dark Hunger and is an erotic horror series. The main author/editor is a wonderful woman named Candy Crum who also has her own vampire series of novels out. When I got this story in it was amazing because it literally came before my first rejection. Then came the second and third stories I got published. All three of these together showed me that it wasn’t a fluke and that I might actually have a future in this business.

What's the worst thing that ever happened to you that you've incorporated into a story?

Listening to that old man tell his son he couldn’t have a Barbie doll because it would make him gay. I felt so bad for that kid and that scene managed to find its way into a very important part of my faerie story line. There are incidents in my life that are worse than this but I haven’t worked those into a story yet. I will if the situation arises that calls for it.

How much of your life and the people you know end up in your work?

Not so much as of yet but I do plan to do more with this. A character here and there is based on people from my life but just loosely.

What's your writing routine?

I do most of my main writing right after breakfast usually from about 9-12 give or take a few minutes. If inspiration comes at me later in the day I will of course jump on it.

What writers or novels do you consider “must reads”?

To anyone who likes Vampire stories the Eternal Hunger series by Candy Crum is a must read. This series needs to be where Twilight and The Hunger Games are right now. It is very deserving of it.

To anyone who likes Faerie stories I recommend The Faerie Path series by Frewin Jones

Of course for your epic fantasy I would Recommend The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Of course the Lord of the Rings series by Tolkien.

As for my computer desk as you can see it's a mess. On the right are my faerie figurines who act act as Muses sometimes. I don't have nearly enough of them. In front of my monitor you can see the 5 gumball machine items in a row on the right and on the left my row of cowrie shells. Because Cowries are awesome. All of my published stories have come from this desk and the novel I am working on has as well. 

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.