Category Archives: Grimaulkin

Almost there!

Grimaulkin Tempted is to be released on December 1. On December 2 is the launch party at the Author Expo at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet. (The Kindle edition is available right now on Amazon, I noticed.)

I sold two copies to my local fans so far already. I’m waiting on feedback from one of them–he reads fast, and said he would definitely read it this weekend.

Started work on War Mage, getting through a block right at the beginning of the book. I know the things I want to set up, but the problem is how long it will take me to set them up, and I also don’t want to insult the reader. See, Brent is supposed to be a detective, but he’s not. Clues have to be pretty obvious to him. I’m afraid of pissing off the reader by bopping them over the head with obvious clues. I don’t want them to scream at the book, “But can’t you see that blahdy-blah-blah????” How do I get him to grow into being a detective? That’s one of the transformations of the character.

A character needs to be transformed by the end of the book. It’s not the same person as it was at the beginning. Brent, at the beginning, feels that the Army is giving him a second chance, and if he blows it, he’s screwed. In addition, he’s scared. Scared of failure, scared of trust, scared of getting tortured again.  At the end, he might fail in one sense, but he’s a stronger man for it. In the first draft, my beta reader said that he was a pussy at the end. Well, I have to change that. I know the beginning. It’s getting to the end that’s giving me problems.

Earth is supposed to be next on the docket. I really should, timewise, work on that. It’s due for…March? But writing erotica is easy once I get started. I practice it in Champions and I have an excellent partner. I pick up lessons from him that I may use in my erotica.  It’s the story that I get hung up on. Erotica is more than sex, sex, sex, scenery, sex, sex, dialogue, sex… There’s a story, with characters and a plot and a reason for their pairing. For Taurus I’m stealing a plot that someone posted on Queer Romance Ink; well, not really stealing. Modifying. The original plot includes werewolves. My world in Zodiac does not include werewolves. For Capricorn, I’m modifying Hell on Wheels. And for Virgo, it might be a sweet romance in the middle of a tumultuous time.

Well, it’s back to chiseling out of marble that is War Mage. Time to burn some incense and invoke the muses. Let’s see what they come up with for today.

 

 

Grimaulkin Giveaway on Goodreads!

Just in time for Christmas (if you don’t live too far away).

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Grimaulkin by L.A. Jacob

Grimaulkin

by L.A. Jacob

Giveaway ends December 20, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Ah, the smell of new books!

I just got Grimaulkin Tempted in the mail yesterday, both hardcover and trade paperback. It looks so cool!

Although it’s officially not going to be released until December 1, I needed them for the Author Expo on December 2, which will be my launch party! I’ll have special bundles there, buy Grimaulkin 1 and 2, get $5 off. Or pay full price of the two Grimaulkin books, and you can get Homecoming for free. And, of course, you’ll get a copy of Mike’s origin story “Self Defense” for free. And card readings if you want.

I’ve decided to put aside War Mage for the display, although I still will have the dragons as eye-catchers. For the past week, I’ve been working on War Mage, doing some exercises to try and generate ideas for the story. I’ve got the trajectory, point A, the beginning, and point Z, the end. It’s how to get to point Z from point A that I’m having trouble with. I know what the theme is, but it’s really hard for me because I, myself, don’t believe in the theme.

Maybe I should change the theme into something I believe in. But that would make for a dark story. I wanted it to be uplifting. I want the main character to succeed. But the way I have it now, he fails in one way, but succeeds with the theme. If he fails in his environment, it’s the end of the series.

Maybe that’s what the muses want. I’ve been working on this story for 2 years now. It’s been on the back burner for all this time, and I really should get it going. I’ve written it three times. It’s a story that I’ve promised, but I can’t seem to deliver.

I’ll keep working on it over the Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe something will come to me by then that will make the 4th rewrite of the story an actual charm. I should have done it for NaNoWriMo, but I thought the memoir would have been easier. It wasn’t. Check out my podcast as to why.

So my homework this week is to keep working on War Mage, and get myself psyched up for selling Grimaulkin on December 2.

NaNo NoNo

If you’re new to this page, welcome!

I started writing the memoir. Then, I noticed something.

It read like a newspaper report. This happened, then that happened. There’s no guts. No feeling. No reason. No lesson. And when I cast back to try to remember, I don’t remember many feelings at the time. It was do this, do that, make sure this happens. If anything, I was angry at my family, at his family, angry at the world. That’s all that I remember.

So I put it aside. I know I need to go deeper, and I don’t know if I’m ready for that.

Instead, I’m working through the book 90-Day Novel, which requires me to write every day and answer five or six questions a day. Also weekly homework of contemplation on the world. I’m doing this for War Mage, since I’m so stuck on that novel. I have to write 1600 words a day for NaNo. I’m lucky if I clear 1000. So I don’t think I’m going to win this year.

“The Joint” which is my new short story, probably won’t be available at the Author Expo on December 2, but “Self Defense” will be. And also Grimaulkin Tempted! I have a special bundled price: Grimaulkin and Grimaulkin Tempted if bought together will go for $25, with a free copy of “Self Defense” AND a free card reading.

Well, there’s a free card reading with any purchase anyway.

Podcast will come out next weekend. Unsure of the topic, probably NaNoWriMo. Or spells. Or both!

 

Non-fiction is hard

I’m in the midst of writing my memoir, and it’s been really hard. Going back ten years, and gathering bits and pieces of conversations, moments of getting together, things said, people spoken to, quotes and how things went…feelings of other people, and, really hard: my own feelings.

I was numb then. All I knew was I have to take care of things.  It reads like a newspaper article. There’s no feelings here and there. Maybe I didn’t have any. I don’t know. I don’t remember that.

I told my son that he can read this after I’m dead. If he wanted to publish it then, that’s fine. But I can’t see myself publishing it when I’m alive because it makes me look like I was cold and uncaring. After I’m dead, he can do whatever he wants with it.

I don’t even know if I can drag it out for 50K words. Right now it’s almost 9K. I suppose half of it will be “how to handle grief and loss” or something like that. Something I need to research and regurgitate.

On a more happy note, Grimaulkin Tempted is complete and ready for printing. Hopefully I’ll have some copies for sale at the Expo on December 2 (though I don’t expect to do a booming business there due to 124 other authors being there as well). Maybe I’ll do a “2 for $25” deal–books 1 and 2 for $25. Or even $20. I’d prefer $20. That would be a good sale, and being that we’re all a bunch of cheap Yankees…

I’ve also written a story of Mike’s prison time called “The Joint” which is also complete though we only need a cover.  That won’t be ready by December 2 unfortunately. I don’t know when my next appearance will be, but I’m going to strive next year to go to the RI Comicon. Yes, I know, it’s expensive, but I think I can sell more stuff there. So instead of the Narragansett thing, I’ll save my money for Comicon. I need a banner for that.

After NaNo, I’ll tackle Earth.

Oh, and next week I’ll be on WADK at 10:30 on November 8. Only about 15 minutes though. A two-hour drive and $8 toll for a fifteen minute spot. Not worth it, but what the heck, right?

My interview on WNRI was great. I plugged the Press, and Zarra, plugged all my books, and we talked about writing and publishing. It was excellent. I didn’t get to plug my podcast, but that’s okay.

So onward. If I can squeeze out 2K words today, I’ll be happy. I tried to get 3K words yesterday, but the muse was reluctant. And I kept getting interrupted by a bored kid. If I do 2K a day, I’ll succeed.

Post 150!

Today I took a ride to Newport to find the radio station WADK that I’m going to be on November 8 at 10:30. I found the offices, but I don’t think that’s the studio, so I’ll call them tomorrow and ask for directions. This Tuesday at 9 a.m., I’ll be on WNRI talking about Grimaulkin.

Finished the final edits on Grimaulkin Tempted. I did them in about 6 hours. Just little things like extensive commas. I am a comma abuser.

I wrote a tie-in story called “The Joint” which I’m letting rest right now. It’s about Mike in prison, but told from a different point of view.

This NaNoWriMo is going to be a memoir, which I suppose will be published posthumously. It’s going to go into my life, how I was treated by my family, how I treated my family, and about cancer, death and living with autism. I think I’ll get 50K words out of it. But it’ll be hard, because it will be narrative non-fiction, something I’m not really good at.

On the blog of Paper Angel Press will be a press release for Under the 13th Star which has my short story in it. My website will have a link to that book. I might actually send the press release out to the Providence Journal or the Pawtucket Times or even the Valley Breeze to get an interview. If I do, I’ll be sure to post it here. And I’ll buy up all the copies!

 

What to write next?

Last week was a long, boring week. It seems that I’m not writing much, if at all. I’ve been thinking about doing NaNo, but it depends on when Grimaulkin Tempted gets back from the editor. I can turn it around usually in two weeks, so that’s not a problem. The problem is I have no idea what to write for NaNo.

I looked over War Mage and I have 8K words there. Earth, I have 3K. The other thought is to get Earth finished for NaNo, since that’s what’s next on the publishing agenda.

War Mage is slated for May 2018, but War Mage is like pulling teeth. I don’t want to offend anyone in the armed forces with the book, being that I’m coming at it from a non-combatant’s point of view. It’s not like I didn’t do any research on war–I’ve read four books on the Afghan war and two on Iraq. But I do admit it’s nothing like being in combat, and I somehow have to lie about that when I write. I’ve been told that the first scene of Homecoming was very realistic, so I might be able to pull it off. It’s the little things, the slang, the acronyms, the military language that I don’t know. My target audience for War Mage is people who are interested in the military but want a fantasy element to it. Kind of like John Scalzi but with fantasy instead of sci-fi.

Something–the muses, whatever–wants me to try something else. Memoir, perhaps, because memoir seems to sell well in this neck of the woods. The story in the anthology is based on a story my great-uncle told me about when he lived during Prohibition. (By the way, my story is first in the anthology, a place of honor, as I understand it.) I want to get away from the magic for a little while, not because I’m sick of it, but because I know it all too well. The memoir I have in mind is in three parts: Cancer, Death, and Autism. The title is Torn Asunder. Maybe I’ll do it. I know NaNo is for fiction, but I want to do something that is lucrative. I don’t know if I have enough stuff to write it, and if I want to bare my soul yet (some people involved aren’t dead yet). But it could be only for me. And my posterity. I do want to get it down before I die, and the way things are going, I have about six years left.

Okay, so I amend my first statement. I have a few options. We’ll just have to see what I end up with in the next two weeks.

In the meantime, I’m going to try and write at least once a week on my writing blog. It might not always have to do with the game, even though I’m back to playing it again. I have too many characters in that game to keep track of now! And I keep making more! I’m addicted and need to stop. But I’ll try and write a short story once a week. I read a quote that if you write a short story every week, there’s no way you can write a bad short story 52 times in a row. So somewhere there’s going to be a diamond out of all that crap I spew out.

Don’t try this at home

After the festival, I ended up in the hospital for dehydration and elevated potassium. Oops.

So lesson learned: don’t not eat or drink anything for two days.

Finished the editing for Grimaulkin Tempted, and awaiting a new cover.  Also trying to think up the blurbs for it.

I think I might do NaNoWriMo this year. I have a few days off next month so I’ll be able to do it. I have NO idea what to do since I started War Mage already. Maybe add 50K words to it to make it viable? I also started Earth. Those are the two books that are on the schedule for next year. I don’t want to do Grim 3 because I have just the major plot in mind for that. The muse needs to percolate more ideas for that one.

I would hate to waste a month on something that I’m not going to publish, considering I have deadlines.

Also, I’m in an anthology, Under the 13th Star, which is a showcase of Rhode Island authors’ short stories. articles, and poems. My story is first in the anthology! I’m so excited! It will be officially released on Monday, but it’s on Amazon right now with print-on-demand.

Columbus Day Weekend

Well, the big push for my appearances is over, and I just have to wait until December for my last appearance this year.  I learned a lot of good things from my tent-mates, some of which are in my podcast this weekend. (Which doesn’t have the same quality–I kind of rushed through it.)

I learned that my story is first in the Association of Rhode Island Authors anthology, Under the 13th Star, which should be on sale in November. I was so happy to hear that. It meant my story was good enough to lead off the anthology. I was glowing the whole day when I heard that.

And I found my perfect reader for Grimaulkin on Saturday. She’s bi, likes reading gay stories, and we discussed the fact that there isn’t that much gay literature in the mainstream. “Most of it’s about how awful it is being gay, but it’s not that bad,” she said. She bought a copy of Grimaulkin, and I told her, “I wrote this for you. You’re going to love it.” Another glowing spot of the day.

Sunday was overcast and spotty rain, so I didn’t get any customers, nevermind any buyers. Which was okay; I learned about marketing from my tent-mate.

I got Grimaulkin Tempted back from the editor, and I need to make Mike just a wee bit more sympathetic. The ending that I thought sucked was one he didn’t see coming, so I have to drop more clues in the book to make it more plausible. I remembered the subtle clues–I guess they were too subtle. I also got a cover. After thinking about it, and having it on my background here on the computer, it kind of looks more like a bodice-ripper than a teen story. I have to talk to the publisher about it. Maybe changing the title might help.