Family Time

Honestly, I don't know about y'all, but sometimes, I'm getting book fatigue. Seems like I barely get one project finished before I'm on to the next... My next upcoming publication is Family Time, with Torquere...

You do not need to have read the rest of the stories with these characters, but if you have, Eric and Temple are back!

They were first introduced in the Whetting the Appetite collection, which contains a short story about how the two characters met, Home Inspection. Home Inspection kinda played off a little of what I knew about the Grindr hookup app. One of my friends was telling me about the app, and also his complete disgust for the amount of fat-phobia and racism that went along with the app. 

So, of course, given his complaints, I had to make Temple and Eric an interracial couple. (I also have a short story with a lesbian interracial couple, although that story was accepted for publication, it's also one of the victims of the Cleis-can't-get-its-shit-together issue. The editor for that collection is attempting to publish with a different company, but I don't know the status. We'll see... pretty sure I can find a new home for it if this falls through, but it may be a while before anyone gets to see it.)

I sort of fell in love with Eric and Temple along the way... So last year, I wrote about them again, in Building Us, which was part of the They Do anthology, released by Torquere. When the Family Time call for submissions came out, I knew I had to revisit old friends.

Cascade Failure deals with the issues of "it's never just one thing" which I've found to be really true in life in general, as well as when dealing with children. You just have those days/weeks where nothing goes right... 

Two-Line blurb:

Parenting never even looks easy. When a high-travel job conflicts with raising a family, will Eric and Temple be able to be there, for their kids, or even for each other?

Marketing Blurb: 

The conflict between work and home life has never been greater for Eric Hopkins—trying to make a better life for his children, Eric takes a job with high travel, leaving him hundreds of miles away when his family needs him the most. For Temple Richardson, local employment and more time at home means dealing with school officials, toddler mishaps, and sick dogs, all while trying to plan the perfect birthday for his spouse.

When one mishap leads to another and the whole day comes tumbling down, can these two very different men get their lives, and their priorities, straight? Or will cascading failure finally rip them apart?

Publication Date: June 17th

Call for Submission: Strange Shifters... a Shape-Shifter collection to benefit Bat World

Coming Together: Strange Shifters is a collection of shifter erotica edited by Lynn Townsend. Sales proceeds benefit the Bat World Sanctuary.

Werewolves get all the glory and attention. What about the shy were-deer or the aggressive were-badger? Where are their stories? Calling all skin-changers. There's nothing sexier than a lover who isn't afraid to let their inner animal out!

Paranormal writer, Lynn Townsend, is looking for your best were-creature stories: were-foxes, shape-shifting llamas, or even were-men, beasts who come out of the forests to assume human shapes and walk among unsuspecting mortals.

The final book will contain the best of erotic shape-shifter tales (tails?), a wide range of characters, pairings, ideas, and situations, exploring what it means to be human... and what it means to be beast.

Standard Rules apply:

No underage, no non-consensual, no scat, incest, or necrophilia. The nature of the anthology allows for some bestiality, but keep them all sentient beasts. Any pairings or groupings accepted and encouraged. Heat level, medium-warm to nuke my brain! Happily-Ever-After or Happy-For-Now not required. I'm looking for satisfying stories and incredible sex first and foremost.

Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2015.

Send double-spaced, 12 point font (Times New Roman or Georgia) in .doc or .rtf format, 2,000 – 4,500 word stories to lynntownsend.writer@gmail.com, with “ATTN: Coming Together, your pen-name, your story title” in the subject line. Indent the first line of each paragraph, do not add extra lines between paragraphs. US English grammar please. Double quotes around dialog. (If your story requires non-comprehensible speech, other punctuation may be acceptable, brackets, etc. Consistency is key.)

Only submit your final, best version of the story; do not send multiple versions of the same story. Up to two stories will be considered from each author. Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable and be clear which one is which), mailing address, and up to 250 word bio. You will be notified as to the status of your story by no later than September 1, 2015.

This is a charity anthology. Contributors will receive ebook copies of the publication. Additional compensation in karma and tax-write offs. Bat World Sanctuary will benefit from all proceeds. Bats are clean, gentle and intelligent, they are vital to the ecosystem, and they enhance our lives in many ways. Insect-eating bats are literal vacuum cleaners of the night skies, eating millions upon millions of harmful bugs. Bat World Sanctuary cares for and rehabilitates bats who have been retired from zoos, harmed by industry, or who need to be relocated from human spaces. Find out more at batworld.org

ABOUT THE EDITOR:

Lynn Townsend is a geek, a dreamer and an inveterate punster. When not reading, writing, or editing, she can usually be found drinking coffee or killing video game villains. Lynn's interests include filk music, romance novels, octopuses, and movies with more FX than plot. She grew up half in central Virginia, half in way-upstate New York and went to college at William & Mary, where she met and later married a guy who grew up half in Kentucky and half in Utica. They have one child, one murder-death-cat, a turtle, and two chinchillas.

So Much Work

I've been doing so much work recently, it feels like I haven't gotten anything done.

I mean, it's almost the end of April. I'd meant to do Camp NaNoWriMo this year because I am behind on a bunch of projects, but no, I ended up with other projects and more projects, and while I've gotten a lot of writing and stuff done, I'm still behind. Sort of.

In some senses of where I wanted to be with done-ness.

I'm about somewhere between a third and halfway done with Sins of Angels, but it's the same place I was last month, because other projects and editing and outlining have gotten in the way. On the plus side, I don't actually need to have it turned in to my publisher until December, so I still have plenty of time, but I hate feeling like I might be rushed LATER, so I'm making up for it by being rushed NOW.

I just got the edits back in for Classic. And an acceptance for Cascade Failure. And marketing documents for two pieces in house. And I'm expecting a beta-read back for A Wanted Woman soon, which is due to my publisher June 1st. Which will mean I need to do those edits VERY Soon Now.

And I'm writing a novella for a series that sounds really fun. I'm most of the way done with writing that, and I expect to be done with it in the next week or so... if I can just get past the sex scene, really. (I write so much sex that sometimes it's hard--oh, so hard!--to avoid writing the same damn scene over and over again.) I mean, I love sex, I really do. And I like crazy sex. But real people have the same sex over and over again. You just do. Especially when you've been with the same person for years....

Cascade Failure, which is a continuation of the Home Improvement series (started in Home Inspection, found in Whetting the Appetite and continued in last year's Building Us in the They Do anthology), seems a bit like my life recently. When one thing goes wrong and then another, and none of the things in and of themselves are very difficult or awful, but they just sort of pile on you until you're at the bottom of a stack of shit going "can I just stop now?"

My husband broke a tooth all the way to his jaw, there were complications with that which prevented him getting into the dentist for almost three weeks... and the joy that is my husband in pain AND on pain meds. Honestly, I'm not sure which is worse. And I chipped a tooth in the same week, because why not? And while my daughter is doing very well in school, we've had a ton of parent-school activities that just keep stacking together... and my cousin's husband died in a terrible car accident... and my mother came to visit for the first time in... honestly, I can't actually remember the last time we saw her at our house? Maybe when the childthing was three? (she's almost 12 now)

I've had a few issues with one of my publishers that resulted in a story I wrote potentially being off the market, after they even had Amazon pre-order dates and everything. I have a couple of other stories out in limbo and editors have not responded to emails for clarification.

I'll be opening submissions for my new anthology Soon... but not entirely sure when, altho we're aiming for a Halloween publication because that's the perfect time to release a shape shifter anthology. (keep an eye on this space for details!)

So, I've been really busy...

Breathe.... breathe...

Cascade Failure 

Teaser: Parenting never even looks easy. When a high-travel job conflicts with raising a family, will Eric and Temple be able to be there, for their kids, or even for each other?

'Blurb: The conflict between work and home life has never been greater for Eric Hopkins—trying to make a better life for his children, Eric takes a job with high travel, leaving him hundreds of miles away when his family needs him the most. For Temple Richardson, local employment and more time at home means dealing with school officials, toddler mishaps, and sick dogs, all while trying to plan the perfect birthday for his spouse.

When one mishap leads to another and the whole day comes tumbling down, can these two very different men get their lives, and their priorities, straight? Or will cascading failure finally rip them apart?

A Wanted Woman

Sequel to A Marked Man, the Forging of Souls Duology concludes this June with A Wanted Woman.

'blurb

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 discover 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'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?

Howling Bitch

So, Howling Bitch is out today...

And you can buy it here from Amazon

It's the sequel to last year's Blood Sight. The books are not entirely stand-alone, and it will improve your reading experience if you take them as a series, but if you don't, I mostly sum-up, and you don't HAVE to read Blood Sight...

'Blurb

Life's a bitch... and then there's Taite. 

Nico Marrone was never the plays-nicely-with-others type. When doing the wrong thing for the right reasons costs him a cushy spot with the Paranormal Police, Nico takes up the only other work he's trained for; supernatural bounty hunting. Called to the far north to find the daughter of a preacher, abducted by creatures unknown, Nico finds himself rapidly in over his head. A desperate mistake leads him into an uneasy alliance with a wild and beautiful lycanthrope, Taite Julien. Can he win her love before she discovers his secrets? 

Otherwise known as Howling Bitch, Taite is just doing her job. Driven by history and duty, the lycans have always protected the innocent from demonic schemes. Bitch races against the legions of Hell to find answers and prevent a literal Hell on Earth. Bound together by prophecy, entangled by forbidden desire, can Bitch and Nico rescue the girl, liberate Taite's people, and maybe even save the world. Or will the truth cost her everything, even her soul? 

Check it out, it's a howling good read.

And join tonight's release party on Facebook for a chance to win prizes, free copies of the books, read some excerpts, etc...

For Your Listening Pleasure

I work, sometimes in passing, with some insanely talented people.

I say "insanely" because they have this weird idea that I, too, am talented... anyway, as a result of working with some crazy writers and podcasters, I have two things of interest...

First off is Nobilis Reed's podcast, where my work has appeared before, for Ripped, now has one of my steampunk stories, Deep Breath, available...

Like steampunk? Submersibles? Robot Sharks? And sex up against the bulkhead? Then Deep Breath is for you. Read by Kristen Bays, who does my terrible dialect writing in glorious performance (seriously, I could NOT stop listening to this, it gives me chills...)

Deep Breath takes place in the same universe as London Steam (and the project-to-come, The Wormwood Trade), in a reimagined London, where Napoleon won the war and Britain is just returning to independence after the assassination of the Emperor's bride (yeah, yeah, back story that never really comes up, but I promise, after I write Wormwood Trade, it all fits together...)

Deep Breath appeared in Ladies of Steampunk magazine, the premier issue, inspired by the lovely photograph at the left there...

The original "idea" for the calendar was for people to write little short flash fiction to go with each month's Steampunk lady, but that fell through when not enough stories were submitted, and the calendar went forward without the stories. The calendar was popular enough that they decided to move to magazine publications, and thus the Ladies of Steampunk magazine was born.

My rights returned to me quite some time ago--but you can still get the premier edition of the magazine, if you want it. It's very lovely--and I hadn't really decided what I wanted to do with the story. Since it's still available in an eMag and print copies, I didn't think it necessary to publish it elsewhere. But Nobilis, who is a lovely person, a talented writer, and a good friend, has been doing podcasting for a while, and offered submissions to a writer's group we both belong to, and I sent in Deep Breath as something I had easily available.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

And then, for more listening enjoyment, Dead in the Water, my zombie story, will also be available in an audio format Real Soon Now...

Rose Caraway's Kiss Me Quick Podcast will be featuring Dead in the Water as its next episode, along with this crazy, sexy cover...

Dead in the Water originally appeared in Sommer Marsden's anthology, Coming Together: Hungry for Love, which featured a wide variety of sexy zombie stories... I love that collection, it's one of my pride and joys. I especially love it because I'd wanted to work with Sommer for a while--she is one of my idols in the erotica corner of the world... when I grow up, I want to be Sommer--and because I adore zombies.

The story was inspired by a sign in front of a boat shop that read "Zombies Can't Swim, Buy a Boat."

So I wrote a story about a group of refugees after the zombie apocalypse who'd taken shelter in a cluster of houseboats and yachts and lived out in the middle of a sheltered bay (okay, I'll be honest, it's set right in front of my parents' bayside cabin...)

In the course of writing the story, I realized that I absolutely didn't know what firing a handgun felt like, so I enlisted some help from a friend, went to a firing range, and actually did use a handgun for a while. I wouldn't say I'm good at it, and I'm still never sure if I enjoyed it or not, but I've been a few times since, and I'm no longer terrified of guns as objects. (I'm still terrified of idiots with guns, but I'm also terrified of idiots with cars, so you know, there's that.)

I really love this story, and I adore Rose. Can't wait to hear it... Take a listen, and let me know what you think...

More Paperbacks

So, I got these in the mail the other day. I must say, I'm very proud of Dex and Seth, they've come so far.

Shadow of Kenfig was the second story I ever wrote in the erotica genre for publication. (I won't even get into all the m/m/f stuff that Liz and I used to shoot back and forth to each other, which is so completely NOT worth publishing... I wish it was, we spent so much time on it... )

Because of some bad judgement on my part, and lack of guidance, the sequels, Blister Effect and Synchronous Rotations, didn't do as well as I had expected....

As a collected volume, however, London Steam has become a best seller on All Romance in genre, and did well enough to allow a print edition. (JMS primarily deals with ebooks... a certain number of which have to sell in order for the book to go to print.) So, I'm very happy with the book, and I hope you will be, too...

If you'd like to win one of these, please SIGN UP for my email list. I promise, it's not that onerous, and I don't spam much... If you're already signed up, you're already entered in the contest...

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