Homework: check

I just finished my entry into the Corporate Catharsis anthology. Titled “Hextron” (though I may change it to “Hextron, Inc.”) it’s a mashup of old hex magic with corporate America. One of the speeches that one of the VP’s gives in the story made me laugh out loud–I never realized that corporate lingo was so obtuse and cliche’d..

Nothing’s really changed since the last entry. I’m feeling much better now that I’m done with antibiotics. I still have the upper respiratory wheeze, but that’s not as loud as it had been. I’ve added Memory and Metaphor to my reading list and will probably get to that because Blackbird in the Reeds is just boring as hell.

Tree

In the Lenormand card deck, the tree is the card of health. When it comes up in a reading, you have to look at the cards around it to see whether health is good or bad.

The Tree came up on one of my readings, but I don’t remember the cards around it. I think Mountain was one. Mountain means “an obstacle to climb.”

If it’s what I remember, it came true with a vengeance. Somehow I got pneumonia about 2 weeks ago, and it hit me as just shortness of breath. No coughing, sneezing, fevers (though yes, to chills). I learned alot about hospitals and protocols and rules and how they handle blood transfusions (yes, I got one of those), so these things will probably make it into one of my books or stories someday.

That’s the funny thing about how things happen in your or a close person’s life–it ends up as fodder for a story. As a patient who is a writer, you’re part patient, part anthropologist, documenting everything later for use in a scene or something.

And all that endless television watching. I watched NCIS: Los Angeles all day Sunday with the sound off predicting, “Oh, they’re gonna do this, and this is what’ll happen.” And most of the time I was right. I suspect I got the police procedural story formula right!

So although I’m feeling a little better, I’m not 100%. That may take some time. Air will be out next Wednesday (Valentine’s Day!) though it is available for pre-order for only $2.99 on Amazon right now. I had a lot of fun with this book, and I think it’s got one of the best stories of the lot in there. I worked really hard on the history, so I hope people notice.

While in the hospital I wrote a scene for Grimaulkin Collected, not realizing I had already written it. But the second scene was better. That, ladies and gentlemen, is called a rewrite, not a revision. I usually do revisions. I hardly ever do rewrites.

My next event will be next week (fingers crossed I don’t end up in the hospital…again…) at the Cumberland Monestary. It’s the same place mentioned in the Grimaulkin series. Come down and see the place! The stage is gone but the buildings are still there. I’ll be there from 1-3.

Also, I’ll be there looking for writers for my publisher’s new anthology, Corporate Catharsis. Go take a look if you’re interested in participating. I will be entering with a working title “The Hex Office.”

What I’m Reading:
Blackbird in the Reeds
Dustin comes home to find some weird stuff taking over his childhood town. Getting a little slow to start up, but I’m hoping things pick up pretty soon or I’ll be moving on.

Buckling down

With Air in the can, I’m supposed to concentrate on Grimaulkin Collected. The key here is “supposed to”. I will admit that this week I hardly wrote much, mostly because I was recovering from surgery. I had expected to write every day, but couldn’t seem to bring myself to the keyboard.

I have to get Grimaulkin Collected completed by April. If i write a scene a day, I can do this.

What I’ve read:

Writing the Mystery.
Tell me something i don’t already know. If you read enough mysteries, you don’t need this book.

Plot in 8 Parts
Not unlike Holly Lisle, who believes that every scene is a mini-story, this book tells you how to come up with plot points in 8 sections. I stopped after reading the second plot point, because it wasn’t too unlike The Hero’s Journey.

Flash! Writing the very short story
Fun stuff at first. I’m still reading and doing the prompts. They’re fast and easy.

Professional and Personal

Professional:
Aircovers are completed and it will be released on February 14.

Front and back cover

I’m writing a story for Grimaulkin Collected but I’m not sure whether to complete the story or leave it as a cliffhanger for a possible novel in the future. If I do that, I will piss off many readers. That’s one thing I don’t want to do.

Personal:
I have to have a quick outpatient surgery tomorrow and will hopefully not be in too much pain to do some writing. I have until April to get Grimaulkin Collected done. I write a little every day and hope for the best.

The Erotic Formula

I’ve read a few gay erotica books, two by the same author, and found out that she follows this formula.

  1. Introduce the two men as forbidden fruit to each other.
  2. They find out they’re gay.
  3. One has an issue being gay (he was bullied because of it or he’s normally straight).
  4. One is in control and eventually loses control.
  5. First sex scene is kissing, hugging, touching.
  6. Second is nude, but they separate afterward
  7. Third may include penetration, but mostly oral
  8. Fourth includes penetration
  9. Subsequent sex consist of breaking down of barriers of the “top”.

The story itself is secondary to the erotica (obviously). There are a few twists and turns to keep the story going, but in general, the end is the bad guy offers his “listen to my evil plan” speech, and dies at the end.

Now, in short stories, I might have trouble following this formula, as I don’t have time to go through four or five incidents of sex. As a novel, yes, I think I can do this.

An update: Last quarter I sold 77 books! That’s combining my erotica with my Paper Angel Press books. I was amazed. Thank you all so much for continuing to support me!

Air is slated for release on February 14 (natch). Audio version probably a month or so after that.

Grimaulkin Collected is slated for May. I have to get writing a little faster on this one.

What I’m reading:

Shiver. After a break, I finished this book, and glad I did. Even though this book was very like her other book Deadly Lover, it had a nice twist at the end that I didn’t expect at all. I’ll pick up her other books to see if she pulls the same formula out.

Steele My Heart – Tatum West
Sweet romance. Not my thing. Got to chapter 4 and tossed it back to Kindle Unlimited.

Fractured Truth – Ashe Winters
Vampires. Okay…I’ll try it. Only on Chapter 2, but finding it interesting.

Reading

Books I’ve read this week (or tried to)

Elemental Magick – Jacki James
I liked the prologue, from the book’s point of view. Then we got to the character, and at first I liked him, too. I already predicted the story: the book would provide the MC with his HEA (Happily Ever After). However, the first chapter happened so fast, and so wild, that I didn’t like it. So….I returned it to Kindle Unlimited.

Hell on Earth – Macy Blake
By page four, I hated the main character for calling the cardboard waitress, “woman”. Asshole. Returned it immediately.

Course Correction – Mia West
I liked this at first. I liked the idea of fish shifters being rescuers. But for some reason, I got bored pretty quickly. The writer knew what it was like to be on a Coast Guard cutter I suppose…but the character whose point of view the second chapter was in, he disappeared for a mysterious reason and he wouldn’t talk about it AT ALL. Did it have to do with the first chapter’s character? Not even an allusion. Returned it after the second chapter.

Ended up going back to Shiver after a hiatus. I’m watching as Lucus slowly starts to break down with Andrei, who’s accepting his place in Lucas’ life. I’m guessing it’ll be an HEA? But the story is well-written. The characters are starting to grow on me.

Started Steele My Heart, and I’m up to chapter two on that one. What is it with the differing POV’s on every chapter? This is obviously part of the romance formula. Maybe that’s why my romance stories are getting two stars.

A week of nuthin’

This week, I finished the final edits of Air, so that’s on track to be published in February. I also printed out Blood From a Stone, looked at it, and realized that editing it was too daunting, considering the editing I was doing for Yellowtree.

Oh, by the way,. I quit editing Yellowtree because I kept getting so disgusted about what I had written. I kept thinking the whole thing is a piece of crap, so I might as well just rewrite the whole thing, and go back to my original story line of fairies and unseelie and seelie fights, instead of throwing in mermaids and sea tales.

I decided this week I’d take a rest from editing. Instead I started writing up character descriptions and histories from the game I play. I want to write something, anything, daily, so this is a good idea to start. I have three pages of characters to plow through.

I’m also trying to write the Grimaulkin Collected stories, at least part of one a day. I have eight stories that have to be at least 5,500 words each. I have a total, right now, of 3,000 words for two stories. Needless to say I need to add more. Not padding, but subplots.

Oh,, cover reveal!

Pretty, huh? That means it’s real…

Where’s the beef?

I started to revise Yellowtree using class notes I had from a few years ago when I did the rewrite for Grimaulkin, around 2012. Using these notes, I realized a few things.

  1. There’s no conflict.
  2. There’s no antagonist.
  3. There’s no reason for the title.
  4. The sword has nothing to do with the story–it’s a cool prop, that’s all.

Oh, how that hurts.

Now, normally, I would just toss the whole thing in a circular file and call it a day. But I have a story that has to get done, and this is the only one that’s promising (right now, anyway). So I’m going to suffer through the 22 week (compressed, of course) course and do the rewrite as best I can. It will be a better story, because right now, it’s a wreck.

Air is in its final stages and on track. I am also writing Grimaulkin Collected, the anthology with some stories in the Grimaulkin universe. I’ve done Ritter and plotted out Chevalier’s back stories. Now I need to work on the Grey Man from the Atheneum and maybe Mike’s marriage proposal to Scott. I already wrote that in the game–I just have to remember it.

What I’m reading now:

Shiver – Jocelyn Drake and Rinda Elliot (obviously not their real names)

Yes, another Jocelyn Drake book. I liked Deadly Lover so much I wanted to read more by this author. There’s a lot of heavy-handed “cold” motifs in this book. It’s the first in the “Unbreakable Bonds” series, which includes short stories in the series.


However, in this book so far–I’m only on chapter 2.5–I don’t care about the characters. Snow (yeah, see the heavy-handedness?) is too rough, Lucas is too cardboardy, and Rowe is Justin from Deadly Lover. Whoever the writer is for the fight scenes, though, knows what they’re doing. The detail is fantastic, even though my eyes glazed over after page four of the description. I want to write like that when I grow up.

Air completed (V1)

Due to surprise complications at work (basically, IT decided my department wasn’t a priority), I had some free time to finish writing Air. The editor said that I seemed to have more fun writing these. I wouldn’t say it was fun – it was very experimental for me. I wove real history into my stories, using actual historical figures.

But the good thing is, the first editorial pass is complete, with the first corrections in the can. It’s on course to be released for February of next year.

Next is Grimaulkin Collected, an anthology of Grimaulkin stories. I’m going to start doing what I did with Air’s stories–plot them out with enough wiggle room to “discover” the story. Even though my plot cards may not survive contact with the page, at least I have a bit of a guide of where I want the story to end up. Before, I would keep it in my head. Now, setting it down on paper solidifies the ending for me. Also, I can decide whether or not the ending is actually any good.

Switching between Grim’s stories will be Yellowtree. Although I have a story on the page, I can’t seem to answer basic questions. What’s the theme? Who is the antagonist? Why did the protagonist do what he did? Why is the antagonist (if there is one) doing what they’re doing? And most of all, what’s the plot? Until I can answer questions like that, I don’t have a story–I have a protagonist acting and reacting.

So between that and double XP on Champions Online, that’s what my holidays will consist of: writing and gaming. Oh, and reading:

What I read this week:

A new feature of this blog, I think, should be what I read or am reading over the past week. That’s right, I got so much copious free time. Actually my reading time is an hour in bed before my sleep meds kick in.

Be Counted – D.R Perry.
This is a local RI author. She’s really very good, very funny, and, as we say in RI, wicket smaht. This is the second book I’ve read of hers, the first being A Change In Crime. I liked this one, with a couple of exceptions.
1) Errors in name and age. The main character’s sidekick is either named Scott or Patrick. His ex-partner’s partner is named Weintraub or Tierney. The main character himself is, I think, 25 or so, which is way too young to make detective; and his best friend, who is the same age, acts much, much older.
2) Snarky goes so far At first, the snarky comments were amusing. Then they just got irritating. I’m impressed that the author kept up that level of snark, because I couldn’t.
3) Personal preferences. No chapter titles/numbers. Formatting on the Kindle created no indentation of paragraphs. And most of all, the entire novel is in present tense. That is something I can’t do at all and, again, I am impressed by it.
I gave it four stars because I liked the premise, the writing was good, and something I might want to emulate. But, mind you, I didn’t finish the book. Why? The snark level had gotten to me.

Deadly Lover–Jocelyn Drake (in progress)
Okay, so i have a type for romance–enemies that become lovers. I just love to see how other authors can make that twist because I can’t seem to do it. This one is about two mercenaries, alpha males, who are gay, hide it, hide everything from each other even while they circle around trying to pierce each one’s armor. I’m learning a lot about how mercenaries work, how some special ops can quickly go sideways, and how to recover. I don’t think I could write a book on special ops using this book–need to read a lot more Tom Clancy, I’d guess. But this author keeps things tight and tense, and has kept my interest for 35% of the book.

Leaves of Grass–Walt Whitman (up to poem 45)
Whew, fan yourself after reading this! So much masculine love. I needed to read the poems for “Aquarius” (you’ll see why when it comes out). I didn’t read him in college. I remember a long time ago, finding this book in the wild in downtown Providence. I picked it up, leaved through it, didn’t get it, and left it there. Now that I’m older and coming at it from a gay perspective, I can see what he was trying to do. Hot stuff for the 1850’s!