After some Real Life derails, I’m hard at work at both Leopard and on Moro’s Shield. The latter begins only a few hours after the end of Moro’s Price. Working blurb: On the run from two human empires, Moro seeks Sonta help for his damaged nervous system. Val must make amends for one of his teenage…
Read More Teaser for ‘Moro’s Shield’My friend Kate Lowell wrote a very thoughtful rebuttal to my previous post about aiming high in publishing. It’s good enough that I have to examine it in full. Bear in mind, my normal response to rejections is usually a mild obscenity, followed by a shrug, followed by 1) revision if I feel the editor…
Read More Pebbles, Pachinko, and Publishing, part 2This is a shameless re-direct to Allie Ritch’s blog, where she showcases the first group of one-line promos from some of our fellow erotic romance authors. It’s a quick and tasty derail: one sentence from a book, the author’s name, a buy link, and a website link. I’ll be in the second group in a week…
Read More Hooked On One-LinersToday a friend of mine wrote in an AbsoluteWrite.com forum: “…I have the choice to work my way up the ladder and let my confidence grow with my skills.” Well, yes and no. This is the foundation myth of many new writers, and of many lower-tier publishers: first submit to lesser markets and gain credibility…
Read More Pebbles, Pachinko, and PublishingTo the good and kind people who keep buying Moro’s Price: thank you. In between Real Life Dramas, I am working on the next installment, Moro’s Shield. I am also playing with a spin-off sci-fi M/M erotic romance novella provisionally titled Leopard’s Leap. If and when it finds its way to an outlet near you,…
Read More Teaser for ‘Leopard’s Leap’I don’t have a site counter on the Blue Night blog, so I don’t know how many people read it. That’s part of the fun. Really? You have never put a message in a bottle and thrown it into the sea, or tied it to a balloon? The law of averages says you’ll never get an…
Read More Fun With Spam, Part 2As a book artist and writer, I have to do a shout-out for the sprawling, insane, and wonderful Tucson Festival of Books. Held on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, AZ, 2013’s event will run from March 9 to March 10. From its founding in 2009, the Festival has quickly grown to a beloved…
Read More 2013 Tucson Festival of BooksAn interesting and saddening (to book lovers) article from the Phoenix New Times. Anyone involved in publishing and book selling already knows about the industry-wide practice of stripping printed book covers, sending the covers back to the publisher or distributor for credit, and trashing the rest of the book. As a writer, I cringe at…
Read More Where do books go?The witty and fabulous Kate Lowell just tagged me for the Very Inspiring Blog Award. Thanks Kate. I’ll try to live up to the high standards placed upon me (cough cough.) I’m supposed to share seven facts about myself. Er, that is, things I can share in a public forum. Then list the blogs and sites…
Read More Very Inspiring Blogs (and sites)I’m joining such august company as John Scalzi, Cory Doctorow, and Popehat, so I feel included in the wave of righteous anger spilling over the internet right now. This stands to get me in more trouble, but I feel so strongly about it that I must post. I simply must. To that end: Space Marine…
Read More $pace Marin3Okay, now that I have the attention of the four or five non-spammers who actually read this blog, here are the details. My insanely talented and prolific friend and fellow author L.A. Witt is hosting a book giveaway over on her blog. Here’s her reasoning: “Know anyone who hasn’t tried reading M/M romance, but might like…
Read More Gay Romance book giveawayEtsy.com and Amanda McKittrick Ros are brilliant examples of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, “a cognitive bias in which unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly rating their ability much higher than average. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their mistakes.” Or, in street-speak, “You are not only not as talented/smart/beautiful as you think you are,…
Read More Etsy.com and Amanda McKittrick RosThis isn’t yer momma’s romance, kids. I’d like to share some breaking news cross-posted by romance writer Tara Lain: Hi everyone— This was just posted on RRW about the new J R Ward book— Hi guys, I just thought I’d share that earlier this morning the virtual signing opened for J.R. Ward’s Lover At Last…
Read More The walls come tumbling downA couple of online discussions made me consider just what rocks my writing self. While I love technically-accurate science fiction that ‘works’ on realistic levels, I respond most deeply to stories that can blur the line between fantasy and science fiction. Space Opera. Sword & Planet. Planetary Romance. Not all the same thing, but they…
Read More So that’s what I writeJanuary 21 is designated as ‘Blue Monday’: the day most likely to result (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) in depression and winter ennui. The holidays are over, the weather often sucks, summer vacations are a long way away, the job market scares us, we’ve already broken many of our New Year’s resolutions…you get the…
Read More Blue MondayWell, it may be one of those great, brilliant, heartbreaking lost causes – but I can always hope that some of Mesa’s finest might wake up and realize what a treasure they’re close to losing. The employees of the Monsterland Bar & Grill are putting together a fund-raising campaign to buy the bar and keep…
Read More Monsterland updateI’m not talking about would-be writers who haunt workshops, conventions, and online forums; usually while talking about the writing they are doing, or about to do, or have set aside for a little while so they could commune with their Inner Genius some more. Today’s hint-o-madness concerns the people who actually, day in and day…
Read More Writers are crazyI am quoting from James Altucher’s grim, realistic, and transcendent article in TechCrunch, which every reader of this blog should go read, instead. Right now. Seriously, my blog can wait a few minutes. 10 Reasons Why 2013 Will Be The Year You Quit Your Job If you’ve come back to my site, well, thank you.…
Read More “Kiss your hands so they can make magic.”I just found out that one of my favorite places in central AZ is closing: the wacky, gorgeous, always-fun Monsterland Bar & Grill. http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/dining/articles/20130111monsterland-mesa-closing-party.html This place opened as a Halloween haunted house, added a bar, added music and parties, and then a restaurant. The spooky vibe carries over in twisty entryways, gravestones, animatronic werewolf heads,…
Read More Adios, MonsterlandAfter playing with Bloodshadow for too damned long, I finally got a reasonable sketch of the main character Tel Girshanha. I might be using a version of this image as a cover, if I ever have to self-publish this crazy book. For anyone following the backstories in both Moro’s Price and ‘Saints and Heroes’ –…
Read More Sometimes I get it right