writing

Doot doot doot…

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Finally got my story written and away to the O Deadly Night anthology last week. A little late, but I've been dealing with a weird situation at home that involved my landlord's sister and cops and installing extra security, etc. All good now.

Then I had some big formatting jobs to take care of... and it was just SO FUCKING HOT in Montreal this past week that I've been a big ol' curmudgeon. And when I'm being curmudgeonly, I can't do anything creative.

Now that the weather is back to clement, I can write again and finally get moving on the rest of My Roommate, Kevin. I'm also going to post some of my WIPs, like my vampire story, for the Silver Subscribers next week as well as this month's giveaway, so keep your eyes peeled.

That's it. That's the update. It's really nice out today so I think I shall write outside.

Uncle Zach (WIP) Sept 19 update

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More info and TW/Themes over here.

Uncle Zach (WIP) Sept 7 update

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More info and TW/Themes over here.

Impatient Pirates and What’s Coming Next… (and a giveaway)

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Every time I sit down to write, it's as if I have Tom, Jon, and Baltsaros standing over my shoulder, Tom clearing his throat impatiently... because they want another book. And lord do I want to give them that... and I'm looking forward to writing it. I'm also looking forward to introducing you to the new characters in their coming adventure. ;)

I still get so many lovely emails/messages about my pirates even now, six years after I first published Caged on a lark. I'm glad I did because it literally changed my life.

But the boys have to wait because I have The Blacksmith's Apprentice to finish. I was going to be done last month, but I decided not to push myself too hard too fast. I have a decision to make about the ending (there are two possible outcomes) and add a chapter I forgot to write. That's all that's left to do. Sounds easy, right?

*cracks knuckles* I can do this.

Oh! And before I forget - you can get a copy of Exposed (epub/mobi/pdf) for ✨free✨ when you join the mailing list over at QueeRomance Ink. Here are the details. Enjoy!

What’s in a Name?

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One of my favourite parts about writing is naming my characters.

Baltsaros is the Greek version of Balthazar but has its roots in Assyrian—the name means “Baal protect the king”. Baal is associated with the god Hadad (god of storm and fertility) who was decreed a false god and where the Christians picked up the name "Beelzebub". So... it's a reference to the captain’s inner devil, his primal sexuality, as well as his obsessive self-interest (Baltsaros protects Baltsaros… at least at the start )
(Side note: His close friends and relatives call him “Saros”, which is a nod to one of my favourite movie villains, Sarris from Galaxy Quest.)

Ah'Puch for a false Mayan “death god”. Katherine… or Kat because I wanted Jon, the wolf pup, to be surrounded by cats (Baltsaros’s black lion; Tom, the captain’s tomcat).

Doug the blacksmith was because fantasy names get tedious.

Byron Anders Danielsen and Michael Ashur Nassar… when you put their names together, it really underlines what Better the Devil You Know is about.

Kestrel and Talon made for a good pair and a title of a book, and Grim who wasn’t so Grim at all.

Gregory Faraday (a nod to my own Irish roots); Emyr Morgan Hughes because it’s a good Welsh name. Stuart Leandro, inspired by the cover model; Timothy Leblanc for the Montreal prevalence of English/French name pairs; James Talbot sounds stuffy and upper-class paired with Rudie Brauer, a lower-class, rural name for his humble beginnings.

Reginald Wilkes and Andrew Murphy… Sarge and Murphy. Just good, solid names.

Then there’s alllll the side characters that I get to name after friends, family, or just names I’ve made up that sound good. Baal’s Heart IV is still a ways out, but I think you’ll like the names of the new folks the pirates will team up with. :D

And, hopefully soon, in Midnight in Montreal you’ll meet Royal, Damascène, Adélard, and Ozéas and in Charlie, you’ll meet Charles Egerton, Alexander Montgomery, and Cutty Turner.

Writer & Reader Expectations and Some Ramblings About Romance

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It's funny, when I set out to write Exposed I was worried about a few things. One, that I would weird people out by using a great Welsh word as a safeword. Two, that my usual readers would find it too lighthearted, compared to my usual stuff. Three, that Emyr calling Greg "Daddy" would bother people. That's what I expected.... and then the unexpected happened: it never once occurred to me that I'd be reading reviews with the words "BDSM", "Dom", or "sub" in them. What's up with that? Did I market the book wrong? I never tagged it as BDSM, never mentioned any kind of D/s relationship, said that it was a little kinky, and told folks it was just a cute love story. What happened?

Just reader expectations, I believe, and ones that I couldn't predict because I don't know what they are. I was just saying to a friend that I have a distinct disadvantage when it comes to writing books that readers include in a genre I didn't even know existed until after I published my first book.

The B/l (or Daddy/lg or Daddy/lb) relationships I've witnessed in my life were just sweet, loving, and devoted... really nurturing things (with some really silly play ...and, yes, occasional spanking thrown in for good measure) and I set out to capture that lovely fondness I've admired so much. (And I often mentally hug Greg and Emyr for really getting there!)

But, there were reader expectations with the words "Daddy kink", (something I tagged it for just as a warning) that I did not know about. And... now I know (and knowing is half the battle! GI Joe... ahem sorry, I'm on cold meds)

So, anyway, next book I write, I'll see if I can word the blurb a little more clearly to reflect what the book is actually about (or maybe not about?)

Which brings me to Romance in general...

Folks reading Caged keep saying "this isn't really a Romance" to which I sit there, scratching my head, wondering where they got the idea that it was a Romance. It has romantic elements, for sure. Life does in general, doesn't it? But Caged? A Romance? Max? A Romance? I don't even know if Exposed is a Romance. I keep squinting at definitions and wondering what this whole Romance thing is about (disclaimer: I'm aromantic1). It feels far more nebulous a genre than what I read: Has robots? Sci-fi. Has dragons? Fantasy. Has robot dragons? Sci-fi/fantasy. thumbs up

With Romance, well... the requirements seem to depend on who you talk to.

I did read two books that are considered Romance when I was younger. One was called Sea Star: Private Life of Anne Bonny which was pretty rapey if I recall, and the other one was about um... the wild west? I think? Maybe about a doomed love triangle? Also rapey. So, my young adolescent self drew the conclusion that "Romance Novels" equated "rapey". However, another thing they both had in common was a lot more plot circling around love and sex than I had ever previously read before.

Hey, all my books have plots that focus primarily on the relationship between the protagonists. So... Romance?

And... Novelist Walter Scott defined the literary fiction form of romance as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents." 2

My characters certainly encounter uncommon incidents. So... Romance?

Also from Wikipedia:

According to the Romance Writers of America, the main plot of a romance novel must revolve about the two people as they develop romantic love for each other and work to build a relationship. Both the conflict and the climax of the novel should be directly related to that core theme of developing a romantic relationship, although the novel can also contain subplots that do not specifically relate to the main characters' romantic love.

Furthermore, a romance novel must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Some romance novel authors and readers believe the genre has additional restrictions, from plot considerations (such as the protagonists' meeting early on in the story), to avoiding themes (such as adultery). Other disagreements have centered on the firm requirement for a happy ending; some readers admit stories without a happy ending, if the focus of the story is on the romantic love between the two main characters (e.g., Romeo and Juliet). While the majority of romance novels meet the stricter criteria, there are also many books widely considered to be romance novels that deviate from these rules. Therefore, the general definition, as embraced by the RWA and publishers, includes only the focus on a developing romantic relationship and an optimistic ending.

All of my books, including Devil (if you look at it the way I do), focus on the relationships of the MCs and have HFN/HEAs.... So... Romance?

I think, maybe, in the end, that my books are Romance books, but only to folks who don't have too rigid expectations. When it comes to meeting more stringent do's/don'ts and customary story development... I will definitely fall short, because I just don't know what those expectations are. But that's a-ok! Despite the fact that I write and will continue to write entirely for myself, plenty of other people do enjoy my books, and that is absolutely amazing.

And... for those of you who have actually made it this far in my ramblings, you get a special something because I'm in a great mood today :)

1I'm the kind of aromantic who'd actually like to feel deeply about someone, hence my exploration of love in my books. Heh, it's like I'm finding love through writing :)

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_novel

Post-pub update and Happy St. Patty’s! 🍀

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Quick break to write a real blog post for once.

Exposed is out and doing better than I thought. :D I was stupidly nervous for this one because I wasn't sure anyone would like it, but I was wrong, like usual. What is it about writing that makes me so nervous? It's probably the reason I do it.

There are the usual complaints about my stories but I managed to introduce a new one with Exposed. So, it goes: not enough plot, too much plot, not realistic enough, too realistic, creepy, too boring, too much sex, too kinky, not kinky enough, and now... too fluffy. I never thought I'd live to see the day. grin I wrote fluffy!

And then there's the politics... authors shouldn't mix politics and romance ;)

The rest of the stuff I always just chalk up to different personal experiences. Like, for this one, I've only got working knowledge of touring in Canada and talked logistics with folks who are responsible for a band out of the UK. I'm not really familiar with how tours work for US bands (though, actually I am better versed now than I was when I started writing Exposed... thanks, Mötley Crüe).

I'm also used to my familial connections with fame and what sort of stuff they encounter in Canada and the UK versus the US... and there's also a sort of easy, non-pestering, polite attitude Montrealers have towards actors/musicians. Like, you run into famous people all the time here, and no one makes a big deal. Folks like touring/filming here because of that.

What's fun about writing contemporary stories is I get to use stuff I know rather than just making up shit in Fantasy/Paranormal/Science Fiction (not that I don't like making fantasy shit up). So, Exposed is a hodgepodge of different things. Some of the places in the book are places I've been that have good memories attached to them... like that particular chiringuito in Torremolinos (and the boxes of wine!), the hotel with the crazy carpets and the barely functional ice machine I nearly sliced myself open on in Munich, the scene kids outside the hotel in Nice, and of course everything about Montreal. I modelled Greg's workplace after the software place I worked at forever.

Little details came from winters spent lying on the beach listening to my parents' Brit paparazzi friend tell his sleazy stories, from friends who've made the hard decision to cancel shows due to political climate, from the very real concerns about personal safety while travelling to the States right now, from my own practical knowledge (Greg owns the same camera as me) and, you know, personal kinks.

The thing from Greg's past is an exaggerated version of something from my own past mixed with an interesting case study I read last summer. Tam is modelled after an old coworker, Rose is modelled after an ex-tour-manager-turned-travel-agent I know (though he regrets the career change heh), Barrie looks like this old lush I know who hangs out in an expat bar and talks to anyone who'll listen about his days in the theatre. And Emyr? Well heh, Emyr is a bunch of different people. Physically, he's sort of based on an actor, mixed in with an ex of mine, a singer in a band my best friend was crazy about twenty years ago (oh god has it been that long?), and this beautiful guy I knew long ago who loved wearing heels. But... in the course of writing this, Emyr really became his own person, and I love him for that. He's just so full of life and I needed someone like that to write about.

All in all, I'm happy.

Post publishing is always such a relief for me. It means that the story no longer lives in its entirety in my head and I can let it go and move on to the next book...

...which is a vampire story! So far I'm having a great time with these guys. It's definitely not romantic. It's on the dark end of the scale... horror-ish. I've already done the cover for it and it's freaky heh. I'll probably show it to my newsletter subscribers later this month when I post about the Exposed paperback giveaway happening soon.

And finally: today is the day that everyone out there with a drop of Irish blood (hey I'm, like, quarter Irish) goes around making sure that everyone knows it.
So, Happy St. Patty's! I'll be celebrating with some Guinness later but for now it's back to work... Here, I'll leave you with a little St. Patty's day history here in Montreal:

St. Patrick's Day has been celebrated in Montreal as far back as 1759, after the Conquest, by Irish soldiers of the Montreal Garrison. In 1817, the beginning of the Irish community here, the observance of St. Patrick's day was marked by special dinners and the celebration of religious services. Read More

Which one first?

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After the very successful release of Kestrel's Talon, I've found myself sort of drifting between three shorter stories, trying to figure out which one I will finish first.

There's The Window in Between, #3 of The Actor's Circle, which is about the third couple that will round out the series finale called simply The Actor's Circle and featuring Tim & Stuart, James & Rudi. 

Then there's Midnight in Montréal, a sort of nod to Montreal by Night from back in my LARPing days ;) It's a vampire book set in modern-day Montréal. I'm having a lot of fun with the setting... The Complications of T is set in Montréal too, but I didn't go outside Tim's apartment. This one covers more ground ;)

Then finally the story I was going to submit for Over the Rainbow is going to get expanded into a longer story. It's about a ballet teacher, and, funny enough, is also set in Montréal at a fictional dance academy.

At least one of the three will be out this summer... Maybe all three?

 

WHAT AM I DOING?

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Every once in a while, I'm overwhelmed by a "what the fuck am I doing?" sort of moment. It goes a little like:

I'm not a writer, I'm a painter... or a computer tech... or a web designer... or a manager... or or or... shit, what am I doing writing?  I don't know how to write... Am I going to keep writing? Is there a point to it? Is it a medical symptom? Have I gone mad? Should I go get an astrophysics degree instead?

Then I sit down and read a few chapters of something I wrote, smile, thank my characters, and get back to business.

It's not so much a lack of confidence thing... more like I am literally trying to figure out how suddenly I've become a writer. It feels weirdly surreal at times. Last week was my two year anniversary and I think it spooked me some. How can it be two years already? What I figured was going to be a hobby that I'd abandon after a few books has turned into a real thing that I do almost every day. I'm certainly not making a living off of it. Not yet. But... it's not nothing.

Anyway - so I've hit the 70k mark on Kestrel's Talon after being a touch spooked and overwhelmed and uncharacteristically concerned about whether people would care for it at all. Thankfully, my brain's gone back to normal and the words are flowing again with me as their target audience (though I do hope at least one other person will enjoy it!). The worst part (ie. hard to write bits) is behind me. The next 50k should be smooth sailing. I'm excited. I'm tempted to release the soundtrack before the book, but I'll wait at least a few weeks until I know for sure I don't need another song. I'm also going to do a few more cover ideas for it... if you've signed up for my newsletter, you'll be able to vote next month on your favourite and help me choose :)

 

Quoi de neuf

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So much writing, so little time!

Work is progressing on Better the Devil You Know. I'm over the third-way mark and I'm digging the way the story is going. I originally thought to release it under a different name because it's different from what I normally write, in that it's pretty dark. I have to say that I have some doubts as to how well it's going to be received. It's dark, not romantic at all, and the end is... well... not sure. It's going to be about 50k when it's done, and it will be done sometime soon. The tags go something like this: murder, graphic torture, sexual abuse, forced incest

The other thing I've been working on is a short story (15k) that will come out either in an anthology or published on its own (or both? I wonder if that's possible?). It's also not my normal fare. I'm not going to say much more about it until I know what is going to become of it, but the tags for this one are: erotic romance, sweet, transsexual, insta-love, HFN

Then there is Let Me Shift, which is actually coming along great... I just had to take a break from it because these two *points to books mentioned above* were yelling louder than I can ignore.

One day I will get back to Sentenced to the Sword, my gladiator story. Especially since I have such a great pic to use for the cover (Thanks to the wonderfully talented Varian Krylov and her gorgeous cover models - Strangers in Strangeland) But before that... I need to get to Saban and tell his story in Learning to Speak (A Baal's Heart Book).

And, because Tom won't stop complaining about how he's "bloody bored as all hells"... I have to get back to the triad soon.

*gestures* THIS is why I've been busy lately and not around much. That and it's summer - BBQs, sunbathing, drinks on terrasses on warm summer nights. :)

The Baal Heart Trilogy is on sale for 25% off for the month of July at Smashwords - you just have to enter the coupon SSW25 at checkout.

Sign up for my newsletter (I'm going to actually send one out soon) to keep up with new stuff and get discounts on books and excerpts and whatnots.

And finally - if you haven't already, you can pick up a copy of Discovery at Amazon today and check out some awesome LGBTQ flash fic, including a story by yours truly.

cover-discovery

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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!

*Not all my titles are available at Eden yet as of 25/09/23 - I'm working on it.

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