Yearly Archives: 2018

A Poem a month

Every month, there is a local poetry group that you can go an listen to poetry or prose at the Shastea Lounge in Pawtuxet Village. I’ve decided to try a poem a month (at least) to have something ready. I wanted to try different forms other than my usual free-style.  I found a website called poets.org that has different forms. The first form I did is Abecedean. You use the first letter of the alphabet to start each line of the poem. Here’s my attempt:

 

My Lust for Gold

Abecederian

 

All the

Boys had me

Charge them

Dollars and cents and

Experience

For sex–

Good sex cost a

High amount.

I never had

Jerks that good, even for

Kicks that were

Limited when I was young.

Men even older

Never insisted

On money but

Preferred

Quality over quantity.

Reaching for

Substance,

Truth and

Unabashed

Vanity

What did I

Xpect for

Your lust?

Zilch.

War Mage – outta my life!

So, the good news, is I decided to make War Mage a short story instead. It will be a 99 center, selling at the venues for a buck a book. I can’t think about it anymore. It’s taking up so much room in my head, so much time and effort, that I finally had to just write down the main plot and get it over with.

What’s next on my bucket list is finishing “Devour”, a multi-part story on the Maxwell Thomas website. I’m also picking at a Grimaulkin anthology, backstories of different characters and scenes that Mike wasn’t privy to, such as Aunt Jane’s death or how Ritter became a knight.  I’m stopping myself from doing Grimaulkin: TNG because I personally hate when an author goes that way with his characters.. Grimaulkin can’t last forever (unlike Harry Dresden that just went on and on and on…).

I’m waiting until after WorldCon to start on Air. I’ll be at WorldCon in two weeks! It seems so close now. I’ll be on WNRI.com on Tuesday at 9 a.m. with Wayne Barber on the Authors’ Hour. I’ll be talking about poetry, podcasting, and Grimaulkin Redeemed, how it feels to write the last book in a series.

I’ll probably do a quick hello from Worldcon.

On my mind

War Mage….

How tough it is to write. But I have to; there’s a fan base that’s looking for it. Or there may be after the Cons I’m going to.

I’ve written eight parts of the “Devour” story on Maxwell Thomas’ website, but I’m putting up one part a week. Right now there’s two parts, so things are going to get interesting.

Writing War Mage is like work. There’s so many things I want to put in there, and so many things I want to make sure I don’t put in there. Like too many vampires. I have to put in the Black Lions, and the dragons, and the werewolves, and, of course, the soldiers, what they’ve gone through. Someone I know suggested I go down to the VA and try to talk to vets there and get information. I don’t know how to go about that, but it’s an idea to try.

My poetry has stalled. I went to a poetry/prose reading and it turned into a revival. Now me, not being Christian, felt a little out of place. After what they did, I’m going to read “Trigger”, a poem about school shootings at the next poetry get-together. The other thing I want to do is try hymns to the muses, or the gods that I believe in and work with. I don’t know how that will go over, but that’s what I’m itching to do. Maybe the muses will give me something before the next reading.

Episode 21 is up and ready of the Dark Mystic Quill. It’s about Success and what it means. It’s available on Apple podcasts.

The book tour

Today I’m going to  an LBGTQ store located in my area to try and pitch my books to put them on their shelf.  Mister Sister is located on Wickenden Street in Providence. Even if they don’t put my books up, I still would advertise them.

We’re getting ready for WorldCon in San Jose. We have no idea what table we’re at (I am suspecting it’s a first-come, first-served kind of thing), but as soon as I find out, I’ll tweet it. My twitter is @warwriter or @MaxwellTAuthor .

I’ll be on the radio at WNRI.com (again!) on August 7 at 9 a.m., talking about Grimaulkin Redeemed. And this time I promise I’ll talk about the book, not about me.

I’m still writing War Mage. Hopefully this time it’s the charm and this will be the last draft for this book. I have to fish or cut bait on this one; ten drafts is enough.

How big are those bathrooms, anyway?

WorldCon 76 is just about a month away, and we plan to have a large presence there. There will be not only my books–Grimaulkin Redeemed is now available and it’s a really nice contrast to the dark colors of the first two, a great eye-catcher.  There will also be books by J Dark in her Glass Bottles series, Building Baby Brother by Steven Radecki, and Children of the Wrong Time by Flavia Ada.  And dragons. And card readings.

I had an event yesterday and sold one book, which I was happy about. These small fairs, though, are a real crapshoot. Most of the people who come to them are older folk looking for stuff for them or their grandchildren. I happened to get lucky and get a 15 year old who was so excited to read his first “New Adult” book that he kept saying, “I can’t wait to read this!” He probably started reading it in the car.

After the event, I decided to sit down and start War Mage again. I’m following my own advice and making up stuff based on research. The history is all wrong, there is no Firebase Jackson, there is no Colonel Parlance, but there is a 10th Mountain Division. I just put them there because from what I’ve read, those guys kick ass. I have the sinking feeling, though, I’m not going to get 50K words out of it. We’ll see what happens.

A new podcast is up at Dark Mystic Quill. It’s about magic and writing. Together.

Fire is on hold until after WorldCon while the publisher gets things ready for that. All I care about is fitting in the bathroom on the plane. If I don’t, you’ll see me on youtube and CNN as the idiot lady who got stuck in a JetBlue bathroom. I’ll be famous! And sell lots of books!

 

Out in the World (Or: The Baby)

First draft.

 

For five years I have worked,
Slaved, bled, and cried;
Now, I send my baby,
Out into the world.

The world will see what beautiful prose
I have wrought. And Spielburg himself will call
To direct the motion picture,
And Brad Pitt will be the leading man.

I have visions of best selling books.
I am number one on Amazon.
Everywhere.
I need to pick out a dress for the interviews.

Until…
I get my first one-star review.

The world has rejected
My baby, my most precious one,
That I paid to edit, and design, and lay out,
Shelling out half my paycheck.

No, this cannot be true!
It must be some mistake,
As I tell the reviewer.
And then I start a war.

My name is dragged through the mud
Of Twitter, and Facebook,
And so much social media
I am a failure.

Or maybe, only this book
Was not what I had dreamed.
It’s time to practice
Having another baby.

Anything but War Mage

Finished Fire, and sent it off to the publisher. It’s a first draft, and I did a cursory glance over it.

I don’t want to work on Air just yet. I feel like I need a break from the erotica. Or more akin to male-male romance stories with spice.

What do I work on now?

War Mage is a monkey on my back. I promised to deliver that over two years ago, and I just can’t do it. I was talking to someone at a poetry open-mic and I told her I wrote m/m erotica. She said she did too, and wanted me to read her stuff. She told me the backdrop, and she said she can’t seem to complete it because it takes place in the Civil War and “I want to get the history right.”

I told her, “It’s an alternate universe. Make it up.”

That’s when a light went on. I can be close to history but not exact. I can make up the villages, the outposts, the FOB’s, the men and their units…I don’t have to be on target. As long as I make it believable, people will come along for the ride and suspend belief long enough to follow. I will, of course, get some people who say, “The 1st Indiana was in Kabul, not in Aslamabad”, but I’m not writing this for military fanatics. If I get the weaponry and typical standard operating procedure right (thank God for Sebastian Junger), I should do fine.

Now comes time to write it. For the tenth time.

Grimaulkin Redeemed soon!

Hey there,

Grimaulkin Redeemed, the last (maybe) of the Grimaulkin series, is coming out very soon. VERY soon. We’re waiting on finalization of some things, but it’s coming out soon. In conjunction with that, Grimaulkin is on sale for .99 for the Kindle edition for a couple of weeks only. After  you’ve read that, Grimaulkin Tempted will be on sale for .99 for the Kindle version as well.  Then you’ll be all caught up and ready for Grimaulkin Redeemed! 

And if you feel like listening to Grimaulkin, it’s on audiobook right now! Really worth that single Audible credit.

I’ve put a request for Water to be reviewed by Boy Meets Boy, so hopefully that will come out soon.

Fire is slated to be out in October. I’m working on “Leo” right now and even though my friend thinks it’s a stupid idea (She’s a Leo), I’m having a blast with it. Once I finish “Leo”, I’ll send everything out to the publisher and we’ll go from there.

I’m trying to think of what series I should do next. The planets? Greek gods? Rickk Riordan and his fanbase has done that to death. Norse gods? Neil Gaiman and Marvel have a lock on that. Celtic gods? Iron Druid series. I’m open to any ideas. More of the zodiac signs, as “Fixed, Mutable, Cardinal?” Planetary aspects such as “Neptune in Fall” or “Pluto Rising”? Full novels?

Decisions, decisions.

Rained out

I had an event scheduled for yesterday, but it got rained out. Even though it didn’t rain. (They decided to cancel because of threat of thunder showers–but this is New England, and the weatherman is 88% wrong.)

Grimaulkin Redeemed is still slated for July 1, but we’re having technical difficulties, so the print version may not be available at that time. I had hoped to have it for my Shastea appearance next Thursday, but such is life. I doubt I’ll sell anything there anyway.

Hm, let’s see. I’ve been working on Fire and am finding myself with a writer’s block on “Leo”. I’m adding some light BDSM to it, and I have to research it. I was upset when I got a $2.99 book from Amazon, and it was a chapter of a book. A chapter! We sell whole books for $2.99. This is why my erotica is more story than sex now.

Anyway…I used Storymatic to generate a new idea, and it was “A long awaited invitation” and “poet”. I was going to do Walt Whitman as Gemini, but then I dropped that idea. I decided to check out Wattpad because that’s where all the cool kids go these days. Wattpad is fanfic, according to my son, so why can’t I just twist history around, and have Walt Whitman have a relationship with Henry David Thoreau?

Bingo!

So for giggles, I’m writing a really bad fanfic of those two getting together, even though they probably never did. I noticed that if I free myself from reality then the story happens. This is what the problem with War Mage is–I’m too stuck in its reality. in satisfying people who were there, that I can’t write it. Maybe I’ll try it in Wattpad to see how it goes.

Earth released–and I am a writer

Earth has been released as of Friday, June 15, and there have already been some downloads. Maxwell is slowly building up followers. It was noted that his bio seemed misogynistic so I changed that, and it seems I got more people that way. I have a newsletter for Maxwell that I’ll put out every quarter or so. I also had a newsletter that went out a couple of weeks ago for my appearances with Grimaulkin.

I’m presently writing “Leo” for Fire, having finished “Sagittarius”. It could go for another 3K words but it wouldn’t really drive the plot. It would be sex for sex’s sake, which is I guess what erotica is. Maybe I’m not writing erotica, but romance. “Taurus” was a romance.

Oh, I got a two-star rating on Pisces at Audible. Something didn’t agree with someone, I guess; though I wish I knew what it was so I can improve or change things. I can’t satisfy everyone, but I can try to satisfy some people.

I went to a cocktail party last night, and when people asked me what I did, I said, first off, “I’m a writer.” It felt so good saying that. My day job pays the bills, but that’s not who I am. I am a writer, first and foremost, a published writer. After describing one of the Earth stories, one woman said, “When you do that in heterosexual style, let me know.” There’s a market for that,  Maybe Max can do some of that, too?

But the point is, I am a writer. Not a cog in the corporate machine, but a writer.