Age warning: the books and links shown here contain adult material. From May 3 to 4, 2018, this book and some other BDSM titles will be half-price at the NineStar Press website. Check them all out. Splurge a little: my fellow NSP writers offer really good reads! MORO’S PRICE is a space opera romance about…
Read More Flash BDSM romance sale: ‘Moro’s Price’ half-off!I’m contracting THE PURIST to NineStar Press for a release date sometime in 2018. It almost certainly *won’t* have this cover, and possibly not this title, but I look forward to seeing what NineStar does with it. Way back in 1996 or 1997 I wrote a 6K short story set in my Lonhra Sequence fantasy…
Read More ‘The Purist’ has a home with NineStar PressSince I’ve a nice uptick in sales lately on this M/M space opera romance, here’s a mood board of my original art inspired by the story, cover background from Natasha Snow, and images from Alphonse Mucha, The Nature Conservancy, and Pinterest. I don’t know any other way to respond to the anniversary of 9-11, or…
Read More Moro’s Price mood boardFinally, finally, after way too many years of having only a vague idea what Sfassa, one of the main characters of THE PURIST, actually looks like when she’s human-ish, Hayley Amber Hasselhoff (yes, David’s daughter) showed me the way. I also owe a shout-out to model and wrestler Lindsay Hayward, and the other stunning plus-size models…
Read More Sfassa in Sirrithani guiseI’m thinking about this for a fantasy short story cover. Still revamping the previously (anthology) published 25-page story, but seriously thinking about self-publishing this and some of the more-obscure Lonhra Sequence side stories. I have a lot of them. Granted, this cover will be mostly taken up by text, but I like that it directly…
Read More Playing with cover artPlaying with bits of art I’ve collected or created over the years, to give myself another visual image-set for THE PURIST, a big fantasy novel currently out in Queryland.* Yes, this is SINGER IN RHUNSHAN revisited, massively revised, and (I hope) getting closer to being fit for outside reading. For now, I’m so happy the…
Read More ‘The Purist’ mood board 3As of November 26, 2020, the second edition of MORO’S PRICE will no longer be available. I’ve unpublished it, in preparation for a new self-pub version arriving soon. For some reviews of the first edition, go here. I’m pleased that my longtime friend Sherwood Smith bravely took up an ARC of this version, then gave…
Read More Moro’s Price 2nd EditionOn a writer’s forum, I read a recent discussion of different storybuilding tools, among them the Snowflake Method. This existed long before there were alt-righties and GamerG4ters whining about ‘liberal snowflakes’, so settle down. Randy Ingermanson’s method shows writers how to start small, with basic but sturdy frameworks, and build ever-increasing detail. This can help…
Read More Accidental worldbuildingSince I’m no longer querying manuscripts to literary agents, large publishers, or query pitch contests, I’m removing my bio lest it confuse current pitch researchers. In the meantime, here’s something pretty.
Read More Not my RevPit bioTo keep my mind off #pitmad and to get ready for #revpit in two weeks, here’s another mood board I cobbled together for my high fantasy mms SINGER. Art credits include: Michael Whelan, cover for Tanith Lee’s ‘Night’s Sorceries’ Renaissance gold chain, Incollect https://www.incollect.com/articles/revival-jewelry-looking-to-the-past-for-inspiration Venezuelan thunderstorm, The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/southamerica/venezuela/11728250/Catatumbo-Venezuelas-everlasting-lightning-storm.html Blue Planet, BBC advertising St. Herman’s Cave, Belize http://www.vivabelize.com/tours-activities/land-activities/st-hermans-ceremonial-cave-exploration/…
Read More Mood board for SingerCharacter names and titles are important in fiction (duh!) Different genres have different naming trends and types, if not outright rules. A clever writer can exploit or twist those, while a tone-deaf writer can suffer for them. Of course, it helps to read massively and currently in your target genres. I have a perennial problem…
Read More Character names and titlesOr: faux inlay technique on wood. I make artifacts and jewelry, along with book art and a ton of other largely useless but fun things. I belong to a loose-knit group of like-minded souls who, upon occasion, will make Harry-Potter-inspired magic wands as props and cosplay pieces. This newest piece is made from a Blood…
Read More Blood Orange and Jasper Magic WandI’ve been at a plateau for a while on the big fantasy project: polished, but not quite gleaming. This weekend, three things happened: I wrote a decent pitch for an upcoming pitch contest. I tightened the first chapter, and bridged new and old versions with really strong scenes. I forced more emotion into one character,…
Read More When writing goes exceptionally wellMy debut novel MORO’S PRICE, a M/M space opera erotic romance, was first published in 2012. I’m pleased to announce that a newly revised version will be coming soon from NineStar Press. If you liked the original version, I think you’ll love this one. If all goes well, you’ll also be seeing the direct sequel…
Read More New version of Moro’s Price coming soon!So, since I didn’t get Singer In Rhunshan into PitchWars (and knew it would be a longshot), I’m back to the revisions on Moro’s Price. For those of you who didn’t know, the latter is a big space opera-ish M/M erotic romance set against a futuristic but by no means scientific background. When wrote it…
Read More Valier, digital pastel, 8-26-2016So, apparently I’m doing this thing called Pitch Wars next week. I have my first chapter reasonably polished, hammered together something that might pass for a hook, cooked up an 800-word synopsis, and achieved a query that didn’t make my current CPs barf. I am exhausted but happy. For people stalking my mms, there’s plenty…
Read More My Pitch Wars bioI say ‘first edition’ because I have several future paths for my first published novel, now that its association with Loose Id LLC has come to an end. Moro’s Price no longer exists as an ebook on Amazon.com, or on the Loose Id website. Over the next month or so, it will leave AllRomance Ebooks,…
Read More Moro’s Price first edition 2012 to 2016I’ve always loved the red-orange tones of carnelian: 1) Grew up in northern New Mexico. 2) A kidlet obsession with ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. While designing the worldbuilding for the Lonhra Sequence, I somehow got fixated on the idea that the Dana homeworld’s vegetation was primarily red to purple (I blame Barrayar for that, probably).…
Read More Carnelian CollarSo a few days have passed. I did about as well in #SFFpit as I expected: one of the small publishers I know and trust liked my entries, as well as a few other people. It was a long shot with some hidden value beyond the pitch day, so I wasn’t that worried for the…
Read More #SFFpit: the epilogueAfter some hours of delay, assumed coding problems, and many thousands of panicked writers around the world…the 2016 Wattys are up and running. The Wattys are Wattpad’s *huge* annual writing contest, split among many countries, languages, and genres. It’s a fascinating way for me, as an American, to see some of the best of the…
Read More The Wattys are here