New Year’s blog hop

House of Manlove holiday1-origin_6550714623-1…from the authors (and friends) of the House of Manlove M/M erotic romance critique group. Just a friendly gathering of authors musing about their goals for 2015.

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What are my 2015 writing goals?

Finish and sub Moro’s Shield, the sequel to my M/M space opera debut Moro’s Price. 48K out of 70K words written.

Finish and sub the very tentatively-titled Leopard’s Leap, the spin-off novella following two male side characters in the Moro books. 20K out of 35K words written.

Finish and sub the tentatively-titled Singer in Rhunshan, the fantasy novel I’ve been revising for commercial SFF markets during 2014. I’ve also got to carve out the synopses for its sequels, as this is the real start of my embarrassingly-huge Lonhra Sequence fantasy arc. 64K out of 85K written.

Finish and sub Red Amber, a standalone M/M paleolithic fantasy novella. 10K out of 28K written.

Finish and sub Mask of Falling Stars, a standalone M/M space opera/sword & planet fantasy not set in the Moroverse. Outline and first four chapters only.

Plot several very distant projects: M/M erotic romance with hipster werewolves in a Southwestern USA resort town, book must live down to horrible pun title; M/M erotic fantasy romance with sorta Tolkien-style dwarves (I blame Mr. Flibble, Elizabeth Boyer, Amberfox17, and Peter Frickin’ Jackson for that one); and a M/M contemporary urban fantasy set in central Arizona, with a Carthaginian fennec fox shapeshifter and a Latino detective.

In more general terms, I want to create more writing time this year, because I recognize I desperately need a damn backlist. I apologize to the readers who check out Moro or my shorter stories, go looking for more published work, and can’t find it yet. Life gets in the way, alas. The last two years have been exceptionally messy and chaotic. 2015 may be worse, but I’ve got no choice: between laughing and adapting, or crying and getting depressed, the first method is the one that helps me write and create.

I want to learn more about writing and revising from my agent, editors, and trusted beta readers. They’ve all been responsible for taking my writing to new levels over the past two years. I know I can do better. I know I’m on the right path, just by the number of other authors who once settled for ‘just good enough’ and are now trying to reinvent and rehabilitate their writing. It’s a bit easier if you’re just fanatically picky from the start…

Artwise, I want to finish ‘Glimpse’, a M/F erotic flash fiction piece, for use in a book art sculpture-necklace; I’m never going to look at alphabet beads the same way again. I also plan on finishing ‘Night Flight’, a large-ish fiber art book I’ve been working on for intermittently 5 years. I’ve got a total of 12 new fiber arts and book arts pieces outlined for 2015, but those two are the ones that I want to finish in the first half of the year.

Finances willing, I hope to enter more juried art shows in 2015, from local contests to national and international exhibits. It’s time to flex my art muscles again.

Projects that are off the board for 2015 (probably not permanently trunked, I just don’t have the need or drive to work on them right now): secondary-world fantasy called Bloodshadow (breaks my heart, but it’s a mess). Secondary-world fantasy duology Battleground and Hunting Ground (because the worldbuilding’s changed while the stories were in limbo). Cyberpunk thriller called Rust (because I finally read Neuromancer and re-read Snow Crash, and just, no, I’m not good enough.) M/F contemporary paranormal romance about tea and desert irrigation (because I’m not thrilled with either main character). A literary fantasy novella about Venetian glass beads and two gay guys in modern Venice (because I need to do dissertation-level research first for it, ugh.)

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Please follow the rest of the participating bloggers in the House of Manlove’s 2015 New Year’s blog http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=476052

Heloise West  http://velvetpanic2.wordpress.com/

C.V. Madison  http://cvmadison.com/

Alexis Duran  http://alexisduranblog.com/

Jena Wade  http://www.jenawade.com/blog/

Kimber Vale  http://kimbervale.me/

Evelise Archer  http://sexyforreview.blogspot.com/

Kate Lowell  http://thebluntinstrument.wordpress.com/

L. Dean Pace-Frech  http://deanpacefrech.blogspot.com/

Jennah Scott  http://www.jennahscott.com/

Amelia Bishop  https://ameliabishop.wordpress.com/

JT Hall  http://jthallwriting.wordpress.com/

Chris McHart  http://chrismchart.com/

Skye Jones  http://skyejonesromanceblog.wordpress.com/

Haley Whitehall  http://haleywhitehall.com/blog/

Shiloh Saddler  http://shilohsaddler.blogspot.com/2014/12/2015-newyears-resolutions-blog-hop.html?zx=afa1f652987fd53a

 

 

 

14 Comments on "New Year’s blog hop"


    1. Thanks, Skye. It’s one of my oldest stories, with genders and POV switching several times as I thought my way through it. I was surprised when it worked as a M/M romance.


    1. But politics and worldbuilding give a story guts. It was the politics and worldbuilding that made “Dune” a great read and a classic of 1970s space opera. Maybe not the best parallel because that wasn’t promoted for an M/M audience (note to self: there has to be some Feyd/Paul slash out there … do I have a spare hour this afternoon?) but none the less, an illustration of the power of politics and worldbuilding to shape a good yarn and a faithful following. Political intrigue opens the way to creating wonderful villains, too. As with Baron Harkonnen in Dune. He was scary because he was intelligent, ruthless, cruel and prepared to do the unthinkable. (One of the things I didn’t like about the David Lynch 1984 movie was that they gave the Baron a bad skin condition. He didn’t need to have minor grotesqueries added – he is frightening enough as Herbert wrote him.) For your story, I can’t imaging Moro without the worldbuilding and the politics.


      1. Thank you. I couldn’t, either – although Moro was *supposed* to be on the simplified side of my writing. That obviously didn’t happen.

        As for the Lynch version of Dune, yes, that was unfortunate but expected. Consider this was still during the heyday of ‘evil leaves physical traces’ and ‘the evil homo gets a bad ending’ tropes, so I guess Lynch thought he had to ugly up the Baron for popular sensibilities.

        For another project, I’ve had to research real-life serial killers and cult leaders. Many of them are very charismatic people, they know it, and they use it.


  1. What a lot of projects you have going! I’m impressed (and a little jealous)
    I hope you are able to accomplish your goals and have a happy and prosperous 2015 🙂
    Also I’d LOVE to see your art necklaces! Those sound fantastic.


      1. Oh, thank you!! I just looked through a bunch of them. Gorgeous! I particularly love the tiny books from a few years ago, and the road trip memory ones. They are all magnificent. What a great combination of writing, bookbinding, and jewelry art. Just beautiful 🙂 I’m so glad I got to see them!


        1. You are welcome – thanks for looking. And never be jealous of goal lists like this. For me, they are a stern reminder to get back on track.

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