Life is Good

Tonight, Thursday night, is my Friday. I’m out of town all this weekend. But this evening I’m sitting here watching Transformers…IX? X? XI?  Anyway, I’m having trouble following the plot, though there are some good lines and I like Mark Wahlberg as the befuddled dad and wacky inventor turned hero.

 

I’m on my own all this week (for the first time in years) and I got ambitious and made myself dinner. Mashed potatoes, roast cod with garlic butter, and a glass of white wine. This afternoon I had a swim in arctic water and I’m writing a couple of blogs. By the way, if you’re not following Queer Romance Month, you’re missing out. There are some really excellent posts so far.

 

I’m feeling really good. The Boy with the Painful Tattoo is doing well -- I’m sure it helps that I’ve left it at the preorder price this week -- and mostly readers seem to be enjoying it. Which of course makes me happy. I did not do blog tours or review copies or basically anything to promote this one. There just wasn’t time. September was a marathon of obligations and commitments beyond writing. So I’m deeply grateful to the gang at Goodreads and Facebook for the launch parties -- and to the readers who took it upon themselves to spread the word.

 

I’m basically done for the year. Fair Play was finished over a month ago, so all that’s left now is “Baby, it’s Cold,” a Christmas novella in the Comfort and Joy anthology. I don’t think I’ve talked much about this one yet, but I’m joining pals LB Gregg, Harper Fox, and Joanna Chambers for a holiday project. I'm really thrilled about this one.

 

COMFORT AND JOY

 

Housebound for the holidays. Four contemporary holiday novellas about finding love in your own backyard. Even when you don’t have a backyard.

 

Rest and be Thankful by Joanna Chambers

Two stormy hearts find peace when feuding neighbors in the Scottish Highlands are trapped by a blizzard.

 

Out by Harper Fox

Can a stranger unlock the courage and passion in a young man’s captive heart?

 

Waiting for Winter by L.B. Gregg

Some mistakes are worth repeating.

 

Baby, it’s Cold by Josh Lanyon

Or maybe it’s the flu. Breaking up is hard to do -- especially around the holidays.

 

It’s out December 7^th, and I’ll set it up for preorders before the end of the month. You’ll be able to buy the stories as a collection or if you just want one particular story, you’ll have that option too.

 

But first, of course, is Fair Play. I feel good about it and I think it’s going to go over well. Especially since for that one I’ve got Carina Press to help me out. (This is why I still like to work with publishers. Sometimes you just don’t want to have to do everything yourself.)

 

I’ve pretty much figured out the schedule for next year, but I’ll wait to share that. There will be at least one surprise in the mix and at least one title readers having been campaigning for.

 

It’s autumn now. Despite my refusal to give up my afternoon swims. What do you have planned? What will make this autumn different from the autumns that came before?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those Mid-way Mid-draft Blues

Writing is such a weird business. You go days, weeks, months (sometimes years) thinking of nothing but the story you are working. Everything you read, watch, think is basically related to these characters and their world – even when it isn’t.

 

You crawl through the muck of that first draft. Dragging every godawful little word out one by one. Then finally you’ve got something coherent enough to be called “a first draft,” and off it goes to your editor. Who swallows bravely and tries to make sense of it before she bounces it back.

 

There is incredible jubilation after that first draft. Partly because nothing is more difficult than carving that “think” out of the concrete block your brain turns into. But then comes the second draft. That is when you feel the power and the glory (such as it is) of what it is to know your craft. The second draft is the fun draft. It is really, in my opinion, the only joyful part of the writing process. When you take that raw material, look at it with fresh eyes, and you suddenly understand what you were struggling to say.

 

The more time between drafts, the better, in my opinion, but modern publishing doesn’t really allow for this. If you steal yourself an extra week somewhere you are doing great (and giving production teams nightmares).

 

The first draft is just about…getting there. Arriving muddied and bloodied on the doorstep. The second draft is about writing. It’s about how you will shower, dress, and seduce the reader into losing her or himself in the story. It is about clarifying theme and refining characterization, it is about nitpicking every adjective (Dear God, how many times have I said dryly this time? – PLEASE tell me no one “swallowed hard,” etc.) It is the one stage in a long process where you feel like you maybe know what the hell you’re doing.

 

But then you hand that second draft off, and there is a real sense of letdown. Almost depression. Because no matter how hard you tried, the infinite possibilities for this story are gone. The story is what it is. It is now limited in what it can be and what it can achieve. And from this point on the changes are minor ones – you did not explain how Character A knew Character B was stealing eggs from the Farm at C. You repeated a phrase too many times. That kind of thing. The fate of the story is now determined. It is the kind of story it is, and you can already hear both the praise and the criticism.  

 

There is definitely relief – great relief. The book is done. If you were to die at this point, the book could still go forward. It no longer really even needs you. Anyone can do these edits.

 

And so there is a kind of letdown. We start every story with a sense of excitement and endless possibility. Whether you outline or not, every story begins with endless possibility. But by the end of the second draft, this story has narrowed to a particular set of events with a determined outcome. You know how it ends.

 

And that’s where I am this morning. I sent Fair Play off yesterday afternoon and today I feel…meh. I loved writing it. I loved researching Washington and the Puget Sound and the anti-war movement of the 1960s. I learned about Black Bull whisky and Montreal and organic farming. But now it is done and there is a definite letdown.

 

We talk about reader addiction, but I think there is writer addiction too. And that is never more clear than when the rewrite is handed off and that particular high is finished. Done. No amount of accepting commas and removing echoes can bring it back.

 

But there is always the next story…

 

And in the meantime, I thought you might enjoy seeing the cover reveal for Fair Play!

 

Sneak Preview - FAIR PLAY

No cover art yet, but I'm currently working on the edits for Fair Play, and I thought maybe you'd enjoy a snippet for today's blog.

Elliot’s phone rang as he was climbing into his car.

For maybe the first time in his life, he was disappointed to see Tucker’s name flash up.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself. Where are you?” Tucker asked.

“Bellevue.” Elliot stared out the windshield at the distant blue of Lake Washington. A very nice neighborhood with its lofty views and safe distance from downtown Bellevue. “Where are you?”

“I’m here. Home. I’m on Goose Island.”

“You’re early.”

“And you’re…where? You’re not here. Your dad’s not here. What’s going on?”

“It’s kind of a long story.” But Elliot condensed it into a couple of sentences that left Tucker sounding winded on the other end of the line.

“You think your dad went underground. And you’re…what? You’re trying to find him by talking to his former revolutionary pals?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“What the hell, Elliot.”

“What does that mean? What the hell?”

Tucker made a sound of disbelief. Not quite a laugh. And certainly without humor. “You know better than anyone how a civilian getting involved in an investigation can hinder --”

“I’m not just a civilian.”

“Yes, you are. Worse, you’re an emotionally involved civilian.”

It wasn’t easy, but he managed not to lose his temper. Or at least not let his anger show in his voice. “How do you think this should work? Someone tries to take out my dad and I sit around grading papers and painting miniatures?”

“How I think it should work is you take a step back. A big step. Like it or not, you are a civilian now. You’ve been out of the field nearly two years. You need to leave this to Seattle PD.”

“I’m not getting involved in the investigation. I just want to know where he is.”

“Bullshit. He told you to stay out of it. And the fact that you can’t stay out of it -- your inability to respect parameters -- is the reason he left.”

Elliot sat up so straight he almost hit the ceiling of the Nissan. “My inability to respect parameters? What are we actually talking about here?”

“We’re talking about the fact that your father is a grown man capable of making his own decisions. He wants you to stay out of this. You need to respect that.”

“My father is nearly seventy. Someone is trying to kill him. I get that you don’t always understand family relationships, Tucker, but even you ought to be able to follow that I can’t stand aside and not make any attempt to find him.” That time Elliot didn’t bother to hide his anger.

Tucker didn’t usually raise his voice. When he got mad, his voice went deeper, lower. The chassis was scraping the pavement as he growled, “You know, you can really be a condescending prick sometimes.”

“You know what, so can you. And you don’t even have the justification of caring about anybody.”

“I care about you, you asshole. Which is why I don’t want you getting any further involved. Your father made his choices. You live by the sword, you die by the sword.”

“Die by the s-s-sword?” Elliot was stuttering in his rage. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Not literally, obviously! I just mean --”

“I can’t wait to hear it. Actually, I can wait. I’ve got people to see. I’ll talk to you tonight. Unless you decide to stay at your own place again.”

“No way,” Tucker said. “I’ll be here. And you’re damn right we’re going to talk.”

They disconnected simultaneously and forcefully, in fact, had they been pressing something other than cell phone buttons, there probably would have been a detonation.

Dis, Dat, and Da Other

Once again, this is not the post I had intended to write for this week, but there have been a slew of little updates, and I'm deep into Fair Play right now, so maybe we'll just do it this way.


Speaking of Fair Play, here's a little bitty snippet...






“Have you read the book?”
“No.” Elliot grimaced. “I forgot about it, to be honest. After he got that agent, he never really talked about it again. I figured nothing had ever come of it -- until he suddenly had a book deal and the damn thing was going to be published.”
“So you have no idea what’s in it?”
“Zero idea.”
“Any guesses?”
“He’s always talked about stirring people up, rattling a few cages. Christ knows what that means. He might mean cages in general or he might have a few specific cages in mind.”
“How much of a badass could he have been? I know he got a certain amount of notoriety from a string of arrests, but he never did any major jail time and he never made the Most Wanted list.”
“I know. I can’t imagine anyone reading the thing, let alone feeling threatened enough to kill him over it.”
“You could ask to read it.”
 “True.”
“The cops will ask to read it.”
“I wouldn’t bet on it. The prevailing theory is that this is just another right wing nut outraged at the idea of a high profile leftist memoir.”
“It’s not a bad theory.”
“No, it’s the obvious theory, but I can tell that’s not what Dad thinks.”
“But he’s not telling you what he does think.”
“No.”
Tucker slid between sheets and groaned with relief.
Elliot tossed the report aside and leaned over him. “Welcome home, sailor.”
They kissed.
“What a long ass voyage,” Tucker muttered.






Fair Play is now available for preorder at Amazon. Hopefully soon at other places as well.


Also now available for order is the print edition of Fair Game. Remember, this print edition is an experiment for Carina Press, and therefore the clock is ticking as to how long it will remain available.


In other news, Stranger Things Have Happened, the Adrien English CYOA novel is now -- AT LONG LAST -- available for Kindle. Yes, it does have those gorgeous (black and white) illustrations by Catherine Dair.


And finally, a bit of good news for audio book lovers, This Rough Magic narrated by Jordan Murphy is now up for sale at Audible. (It should soon be available at iTunes and Amazon.) Regular viewers may recall that Jordan was the narrator who came in second place with voters during the Armed and Dangerous vocal death match.


Oh! I almost forgot. Next week is the release of the Male Male Contemporary Box Set from Carina Press which includes stories by LB Gregg, Libby Drew, KC Burns and me. (My story is Icecapade.) This is a great way to sample some excellent M/M stories from writers I'm pretty sure you'll really enjoy.


And I think that's it. I will be very hard to find on line for the next couple of weeks while I plow through the rough draft of Fair Play, so if I am slow in responding, the good news is I'm writing one of your most requested stories.
 

Down to Earth

It has been a crazy ass month.

Last night I was saying to the SO that I’d had a confused and unfocused day, and as I was standing fretting and fuming (and he was ignoring me as he lovingly basted the lamb we were having for dinner), it suddenly dawned on me how very few unproductive days I have now.

It is a rare day that I don’t get a ton of stuff done, including some writing. I think that’s one of the big changes post sabbatical. I work much more effectively now. I think overall my habits are healthier -- I had deep tissue massage yesterday, I worked in the garden twice this week, and I almost always sign off the computer by seven o’clock at night. I’m not saying I’m a contender for the Healthy Living Award of 2014 -- I don’t begin to get enough exercise -- but I feel pretty stable in mind and body.

And when I start to stress, I try to remember to step outside. The garden is starting to take shape and in another week or so the pool will be up and I will be swimming again. The chimes are back in the trees, the hummingbird feeders are full (and well-attended by buzzy guests), the newly potted plants seem to be taking root. All is well in the garden.

And when all is well in the garden, all is usually well with me.

Anyway, this is where we are heading toward the end of April. I’ve got the rough draft of Everything I Know done and I’m about to start the edits. I’m probably going to do something very short and sweet to follow that up because it’s a bit angsty. So I’ll finish the rough on Slay Ride, but then I think we’ll let that sit a bit while I -- YES, FINALLY -- get back to work on Boy With the Painful Tattoo. I have to get moving because it’s close to time to start Fair Play, the sequel to Fair Game.

And, if you were on my Facebook page yesterday, you saw my excitement at the news that Fair Game is going to be available in trade paperback for a limited time starting June 2^nd. Carina Press is experimenting to see what demand there is for print in this genre, and I am one of a group of test authors. A lot of people have been asking for this book in print for a long time, so this is your opportunity. I’ll remind you again when we’re closer to the date.

In audio Don’t Look Back will be the next title up. It’s narrated by Graham Halstead for Brick Shop Audio.  It’s one of those stories that seems to slip through the cracks. I know I hadn’t thought about since it was originally published, so I was pleasantly surprised at what a tightly-written little suspenser it is. It is also a bit heavier on erotic content than some of mine, so WEAR YOUR HEADPHONES if the windows are open.

On May 5^th we have the long-anticipated (by me) release of Stranger on the Shore.  It sounds like on the 3^rd and 4^th we’ll be hosting a little launch party on my Facebook fan page. I can’t seem to stop those crazy Fanyons from throwing celebrations. I did tell them we could just do something quiet at home that week, and they tell me that’s what they’ve got planned, but I saw the list of prizes and games, so…I’m standing clear and letting them do what they do so very well. I know when to shut up and be grateful.

And speaking of gratitude, I would like to thank those of you who’ve pre-ordered Stranger on the Shore already. If you don’t want to order through Amazon, you can preorder through Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and maybe even iBooks. Heck, you could even just wait till the book comes out.

So that’s April. Yes, we are already up to April. Can you believe it? Are you making time for sunlight, fresh air, and the good earth?

Coming in 2014

Wait…that’s NOW!

 

So 2014 is upon us like the wolf upon the fold, and I have been hemming and hawing about what’s coming up from yours truly. And partly that’s because I hate to commit lest I fail to deliver, and partly it’s because having the illusion of creative freedom keeps me more…creative.

 

But two projects are contracted and already have release dates. Those would be Stranger on the Shore due out from Carina Press May 5^th (yes, you can preorder, it’s already in edits) and Fair Play, the sequel to Fair Game. (I think FP is due out in November -- also through Carina Press.)

 

So really those are the only two projects absolutely set in stone. That said, there are a couple of things planned for this year that will happen -- I’m just leery about attaching dates to them.

 

The Boy with the Painful Tattoo (Book 3 in the Holmes & Moriarity series). Much anticipated, I know. I’ve got some 15 queries in my inbox at the moment. The hope (and prayer) is to have this out before the summer. It should have been out before now, but to be honest it’s a tricky place in the series -- a turning point -- and I keep mulling over it and trying to decide what I really want to do here.

 

Yes, it will be in digital, print, and audio.

 

Also pretty much for sure this year is Winter Kill (digital, print, audio). That’s the one about the FBI agent and the sheriff’s deputy in the Pacific Northwest (serial killer, environmentalists, Native Americans, etc.)

 

Then we have all the Very Likely to Happen (maybe even before the Will Happens, and those include Ill Met by Moonlight (sequel to This Rough Magic) and Bite Club (sequel to Mummy Dearest). These are both novellas which means pretty quick and easy to write provided I don’t get distracted and lured away by other projects.

 

Ill Met By Moonlight will be paired with TRM in a print anthology -- and there will be an audio book. There should also be a general historical print collection with a new short story. I’m sort of tossing that idea around to figure out what would work best -- should I include IMbM and TRM in that? Or should I leave them in their own print collection? Or both? I’m undecided.

 

I believe I mentioned elsewhere that the last three Adrien English novels have been picked up for Japanese translation by Shinshokan? And we’re continuing to look into more possibilities for translation in other corners of the globe.

 

Finally we have the stuff that should happen, but I don’t want to think about right now: Haunted Heart: Spring, Dangerous Ground 6, Christmas stories, etc. I am very eager to write the sequel to Snowball in Hell, but the original story I’d planned is now pushed back for a book or two within the series. In the words of Stewie the GPS voice…recalculating. And that long talked about project inspired by The Monument Men seems like maybe its time has come...

 

The reality is I can only do 4 -5 projects a year without straining -- strain does not produce the best work, so it’s a matter of figuring out the right projects for the right time. And how I do that is to calculate what I am most eager to write with what you are most eager to read. Sometimes I come up with the perfect solution. Sometimes…not so much.

 

Anyway, that’s where we stand as of this moment. Things could change. They often do. And very often what you have to say plays a part in that. So feel free to speak up now!

 

Christmas Coda 5

 

Elliot and Tucker from FAIR GAME

 

 

The stuffing in the sweet potato roulade was made with parmesan and cheddar cheese, crushed garlic, nut bread crumbs, sage and parsley. The moussaka was made with portobello mushrooms and seitan. There were Provencal stuffed tomatoes, buttermilk biscuits, and ginger-brandy cheesecake for dessert.  There was a lot of food. A lot of wonderful food.

What there was not, was a turkey.

But there was plenty to drink, and Elliot kept Tucker’s glass topped up – and his own.

Tucker was dealing manfully with the absence of turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes at Christmas dinner. But then Tucker had a turkey all prepped and ready to go into the oven when they got home to Goose Island that night.

Roland, who had also had his share of alcoholic beverages, was saying, “When you look at it that way, when you consider how much money is spent on stuff that people don’t want and don’t need, it makes sense to skip buying presents and just donate to the person’s charity of choice.”

Tucker drawled, “What charity were you thinking of donating to on my behalf?”

Roland stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Hmmm. I guess the NRA doesn’t really qualify as a charity, does it?”

Elliot laughed and popped a stuffed olive in his mouth. His two favorite people in the world and they couldn’t be more unlike each other.

Tucker glanced across the table. His blue eyes gleamed in his tanned, freckled face. He gave Elliot a slow, deliberate wink.