For a writer I am no fucking good at expressing myself. Especially my feelings.
I can't write anything about the Orlando shooting because...
Well, I'll show you what's still inside me right now:
So, anything I say about Orlando will come out poisoned by rage and hatred, and the last thing the world needs is more of that.
Instead:
Donate.
Donate money, donate blood, donate your time. If you want to pray, go right ahead, but please, for fuck's sake, do more.
Over at Diverse Reader there's a big giveaway happening featuring such authors as Nicholas Bella, R Phoenix As Raissa, Joseph Lance Tonlet, Louis Stevens, Jenna Johanis, Varian Krylov, Brina Brady, Jack L Pyke, Wulf Francú Godgluck... and myself! Seriously a fun spotlight post of Dark Erotica: each author had the choice of providing an excerpt, telling you about one of their books using one of their characters, or telling you why they chose to go dark.
PLUS there's a giveaway. The prizes are:
From March 14 to 21, get the F.I.S.T.S. Handbook on sale at Amazon (US and UK)!
The Handbook contains:
Sarge, F.I.S.T.S. #1
Sometimes it’s just about being in the right place at the right time… with the right person.
Sarge is the short story of a burgeoning D/s relationship between two Space Marines stationed on an alien planet where an endless war drags on.
Sergeant Wilkes is a hard man with a long, celebrated military career.
Brawny, tattooed, and utterly submissive, Murphy is just an interesting diversion… until Sarge realizes he has found something truly rare.
__
Murphy, F.I.S.T.S. #2
Sometimes when it seems like it’s too late, the right person comes along and opens your eyes…
Murphy is the continuing story of a D/s relationship between two Space Marines who found each other in the midst of hopelessness and misfortune.
Sarge and his newly minted squad travel across the galaxy on a top-secret mission that could help win the war. However, to Murphy something about the mission stinks, and it’s not just the planet they’ve landed on.
__
Bonus content:
The Missing Reel - Short deleted scene between Andrew Murphy and Sergeant Wilkes.
Howdy! I'm back in the land of snow and cold and ready to get back to writing. I did "cheat" a bit while I was on the beach and did the equivalent of scribbling down scenes on napkins (Notes) and scraps of paper (iA Writer) which I started to sort through yesterday. Kestrel's Talon has hit 60k which is about the halfway mark in the story. I think. I'm a little obsessed with this story... Instead of reading the 10 or so books I had in my pile to read while in Barbados, I spent a lot of time reading over what I'd written of Kestrel and editing. However... the one book I did read was a huge one—Xperiment by Dan Skinner—so there's that.
But mostly, and I really swear, I just relaxed, suntanned, swam, drank, people-watched, chilled out... I have a post in me about Barbados in general, but that will probably be next week. In the meantime, I've put all my vacation pics at the bottom of this post if you want to take a look.
Did you know that I'm running a few giveaways at Goodreads right now? Here they are:
SIGNED COPY
Giveaway ends January 31, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
SIGNED COPY
Giveaway ends January 31, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
SIGNED COPY
Giveaway ends February 28, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
And finally, I've started to work on the Baal's Heart postcards and hopefully I'll have them done before too long. :)
Anyway - just a quick post to say hi! Back to work....
Every time I close my eyes
I see you crying in the pouring rain.
All I want is to kiss your lips
And warm your hands in mine;
Give you my shoulder
And hold your pain at bay.
But neither of us is strong enough,
Nor weak enough to try.
So you sit in the rain
With your tears
And I lay in my bed
Without.
Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and here's to the coming new year! Thanks to each and everyone of you for making this year phenomenal for me. xo
#merryxmas #happyholidays #baalsheart #tom #teamtom #beydeckard #lovetomyfans
I've had a busy summer, what with the rain of plot-bunnies and falling ill no less than three times. As such, I haven't written a blog post with any real meat in a while. Looking at my drafts, I've started six posts but none with anything more than a starting sentence. I've already gotten past that with this post... let's see if I can actually finish it, shall we?
We've all read or probably written reviews of books that say something like "I wish this had happened instead" or "that's not the way it should have gone". Everyone's reading experience is different, and that is the fun of being unique creatures. Life just wouldn't be as interesting if everyone thought or felt the same way. Hell, I don't even watch the endings to some of my favourite movies because I disagree with how it ended (*cougharmageddoncough*). That's perfectly fine and I can't fault anyone for it.
We live in an interesting time where authors (and other artists, public figures, rock stars... the pope) are that much more accessible to their fans. We authors are encouraged to interact with folks on social media... and I've seen discussions between readers about how an author's failure to engage their fans is a detriment to their career in the long run (now, I don't know if I believe that. Certainly having an online presence helps the indie author, but I'm not sure if not being there is a detriment. Personally, I just like hanging out. And... well... the enthusiasm I encounter is rather heartening. [love you guys])
The other side to this, of course, is that fans and readers in general are more accessible to the author. Once upon a time, you only got feedback about your book through professional reviewers, or people you knew, or from readers writing to you. Now, without a lick of effort, I can just skip on over to somewhere like Goodreads and see that one hundred and thirty four people (as of today) have written something about Caged. The vast majority of those are good reviews (woo!) but there are some bad ones among the bunch (and yes, I read them all).
I find that negative reviews, in general, fall into two broad (and sometimes overlapping) categories.
The important thing is this: as an author, you should tell the story you want to tell. All those things in #1? You'd do best to ignore them. Those are just the opinions of others, and if you find yourself altering your words to fit the opinions of others at the cost of your story's "authentic voice", you're doing yourself a disservice. It is your story, your writing. If you want to kill off all the main characters half-way through the book? So be it. If you want to write something in first person POV, go for it! You want to end on a cliffhanger... bully for you! Hell, if you WANT to write stuff based on other people's opinions of what and how you should write... you are free to do that too. Seriously. Be the writer you want to be. Tell the stories you want to tell.
The criticisms in category 1 are there for other readers, not you. It's frustrating when they're based on misunderstandings or biases, yes, but not everyone is going to come to the same conclusion. As much as folks seem to be swayed by popular opinion, I'd like to believe that most can and do make up their own minds about something (like the time everyone and their dog was telling me that Jupiter Ascending was a stupid, shitty movie but I watched it anyway... twice now... and thought that it was a really fucking fun movie. Don't judge.) If someone thinks your book is shitty because it didn't go the way it "should" or because there are historical inaccuracies in your fictional world (hehe)... that's their problem, not yours (and for god's sake... don't reply to reviews. Stay out of reviews. I've seen some really crazy shit happen in the year and a half I've been doing this author thing, and it almost always resulted from someone correcting someone else in a review. Don't do it. Walk away.)
Now... you'd be a fool not to pay attention to the second category. Heh - when I first published Caged, it hadn't been professionally edited. I basically waited until it had made enough sales to pay for editing before getting it done. Not recommended, but hey, everything worked out in the end, right?
What I'm trying to say with all this is: you should concentrate on telling your story. No one else can tell your story. If you let all the complaints in the first category get to you, it's going to stymie your writing. It's going to choke you... and that's bad. You can't be a writer and not write, can you? Have confidence in your story. Have pride in it. Embrace the fact that your story is going to make some people really uncomfortable/upset/bored/horrified/disgusted/disappointed. No one knows and loves your story the way you do.
Write the story your way and fuck the rest. :)
At least that's how I feel about my own writing. I love my stories, and no one's opinion can diminish them but my own. I write them the way they're meant to be written. Point finale.
(Now - I didn't write all of this to have comments about the whole Author vs Reviewer thing... let's stay away from that, hm?)
Anyway - in other news:
Three books in less than two months (woo!), if you're not up to date on the happenings over here at Bey's Funhouse Emporium of Doom (shit... that's what I should have called my blog) here is some information. A big, huge thank you to everyone who has read and left reviews!
 Published August 20, 2015 A bite-sized trans* love story. Amazon Smashwords |
 Coming September 12, 2015 Love story in the Caribbean Amazon Smashwords |
 Coming October 1, 2015 A dark, demonic read. (info here) Will not be available at Amazon Will be available at Smashwords |
Next... well, I'll keep y'all posted.
I'd like to welcome Varian back to my blog and wish her a very happy launch day of her new book Trasmundo: Escape
Read Varian's guest post about the link to art in Trasmundo, stay to take a look at my review of the book, and then comment for a chance to win an ecopy of the novel (winner will be chosen randomly on Monday, Aug. 10 2015).
Without further ado... bestselling author, Varian Krylov!
 Thanks for inviting me for a chat. *Waves to Bey and friends.* Bey asked me to talk a bit about the importance of art in Trasmundo: Escape. First off, for those who don't know, Bey not only designed the beautiful book cover, but also created the wonderful pieces of Luka's art that appear in the novel. I was elated when Bey said he was up for creating some paintings to go in the novel, and I love how they turned out. Probably because I identify with the need to solve life's puzzles by playing with words and images, and that compelling urge to connect to the people around me by sharing the alternate realities that hatch in my imagination, the protagonists in my novels are often creative souls: musicians, writers, photographers. Luka, the main character of Trasmundo: Escape is an artist. Largely because of how people have treated him all his life, he's a solitary and introverted person, so in some ways, his drawings and paintings are Luka's way of reaching outward and communicating. But art is also an escape from a cruel and violent world. The surreal landscapes he creates are worlds he retreats to when his reality becomes too lonely, painful or scary. Apart from the importance of art as an aspect of Luka's character, I wanted to use references to other artists as a way of expanding and layering the tropes of war, exile, and identity in the story. A few years ago, I read an essay by Milan Kundera, and there's a line where he calls literature a silvery bridge linking distant lands and strangers, “the last observatory from which we can embrace human life as a whole.” That line really resonated with me. Since I first started reading literature from other parts of the world, it's been my way of trying to understand other cultures, and people from different places and times. Unlike reading a history book, or a newspaper, when I read a novel set in nineteenth century Russia or France, or contemporary Iran or India, novels show me how like me these people are, despite our unique cultures, languages, and historical circumstances.  In Trasmundo: Escape, I wanted to use the quotes that head each chapter, as well as a lot of other borrowed phrases that are woven into the story itself, and the works of the artists Luka admires, as a way of tying Luka and what he goes through, with the horrors of twentieth century history that happened decade after decade, all around the world. Because, even though Trasmundo takes place in a fictitious country, it reflects atrocities that really took place, like the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, what the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia, and the genocides in Rwanda, and Yugoslavia. Some of the artists who are inspirations to Luka are people who lived through similarly traumatic moments in history. Uruguayan-born Remedios Varo fled Franco's Spain during the civil war and remained in exile in Paris; German artist Edgar Ende had his paintings confiscated and destroyed by the Nazis; Zdzisław Beksiński endured the Nazi invasion, and later the Soviet occupation of his native Poland. I wanted to bring references to these artists, along with quotes from people like Walter Benjamin and Czesław Miłosz, together like threads, and weave them together into a unifying tapestry in Trasmundo: Exile, because when we are lucky enough to live in a time and place where we feel safe, conflicts that happen in places like Rwanda or Yugoslavia can feel so remote. Like they have nothing to do with us, who we are as individuals, and as a society. But unfortunately, I think the frailties that allow people to fall under the spell of the Hitlers of the world are universal, and we all need to be vigilant against those who are constantly circling, watching and waiting for a chance to use our fear and resentment of those who appear different from us, to expand their own power.  For me, this issue meshes perfectly with an m/m romance that also touches on homophobia. Ethnic cleansing focuses a population´s anxiety on religion and culture, but the hatred it foments is intimately twined with the same weakness that drives people to ostracize and persecute LGBT people. And Trasmundo: Escape is about two men, on opposite sides of an ethnic conflict, who look past the pointless hatred stirred up by leaders on both sides of the war, and find a friendship that slowly turns into something else. Something Luka, the young artist, never thought would be his. |
|
For one, the tension in this book was very thick at times, which I loved—the stress of waiting to see whether war’s grasping claws would reach Luka, the worry over whether the risky escape would succeed… even the very precarious beginnings of the main relationship were all driving me forward, the words of the story compelling, and imagery vivid. However, the tension was tempered by Tarik’s calm confidence and the wonderful way that the two MCs came to find solace in each other.
Don’t get me wrong, the book is set against the dark, terrible backdrop of war and the ruthless, degenerates who are drawn to take part in it—but what Luka and Tarik have together spreads warmth and light across that sombre canvas, shaping a story that is both wonderfully sexy and beautifully touching. I can’t wait for the next one.
|
I bleed for you;
Black and white
When it should be red.
Surrounded by ghosts,
I tear back the layers,
Exposing wounds
That will never heal,
To sacrifice words to you.
Naked to your touch,
The skinned confessions I offer
Bankrupt my soul
and leave me aching.
Yet, still I reach forth,
Blinded by hope
And bloody the page anew.
Wondering which retailer pays me the most?
#1 is Payhip. Not a retailer, but an online shop that I've set up myself. This is where I make the most return on my books.
Then after that it gets a little complicated, but these are the three best choices:
At Eden Books*, I make 70% royalties for all titles.
At Smashwords, I make 60% royalties for all titles.
At Amazon, for books OVER $2.99 (USD) I make 70% royalties and for books UNDER $2.99 I make 35%
So... if the book is under $2.99, buy from Eden Books or Smashwords.
If the books is over $2.99, buy from Eden Books or Amazon.
But best of all, buy from my Payhip store :)
Questions? Contact Me!
This will close in 0 seconds
