Monday Updates

Hope everyone had a nice Halloween. Mine was blissfully quiet. It's now November!

I went over my galley this past weekend for Manfred's Curse so it's now good to go to the final process before it's release this weekend. Manfred's Curse is my final Amber Allure release for 2010. Never fear, I shall have plenty coming up in 2011. I hope those who read it will find it fun and lighthearted as I intended it to be when I wrote it.

I also did the first round of edits for my Christmas release from Silver Publishing, The Naughty Ones. It had been a few months since I read it so while going over the edits I remembered how much I liked my Christmas Elves story. I mentioned the story to a friend recently who thought writing a sexual romance story about Christmas Elves was some how sacreligious. LOL.

I am now back to tackling the secret story. I hope to have news on that soon. Have a good week everyone. 

Happy Halloween...Here's Candy

Manfred's Curse Excerpt

Shout out to Ava March and Devon Rhodes for their pimpage of my contest. Thanks girls.

Here's an excerpt. It's short (the story is actually a SHORT story not even a novella, so do keep that in mind, but it's quite possible there will be a sequel in 2011). So here's the excerpt:

...Conrad couldn’t believe what was about to happen. Was he crazy? Maybe. But he’d seen Manfred change to a cat and back to a man with his own eyes. He might be hallucinating…or not.

But there was no denying when he looked into Manfred’s golden eyes something in his chest shifted. And definitely something in his groin. It was entirely possible this cat-man had intentions of harming him, but he didn’t think so. He’d been wrong before, though. He wasn’t always the best judge of men.

Manfred tossed him on the queen-sized bed and immediately started yanking at his jeans. He hadn’t bother putting on shoes after his shower so at least they didn’t have that problem to deal with. Conrad unsnapped his jeans, which made Manfred’s tugging on them a lot easier.

Just like that, Manfred had shed him of his jeans and briefs, freeing his hard-as-nails cock to spring free and slap against his belly. Before he could do anything else, Manfred crushed Conrad underneath him, holding his arms above his head with one strong grip. The man’s other hand closed over Conrad’s cock, jerking it.

“Oh…oh…my God.”

Manfred kissed him, devouring his lips, nibbling them as he kissed, and sending shockwaves through Conrad. It was like being attacked by an animal. Well, hell, Manfred was, wasn’t he?

The other man let go of Conrad’s arms and reached for his black T-shirt. Conrad immediately saw the intent. “No, wait, I’ll—”

Manfred ripped his black shirt down the middle and tore off the shreds, tossing them aside. “Sorry,” he murmured against Conrad’s lips, not sounding sincere at all.

Having dropped the robe from his perfect naked body before pouncing on Conrad, Manfred’s biceps were sleek and tanned, and begging for Conrad’s touch now that his arms were free. He skated his fingers down the massive muscles, his own skin burning at the contact, his desire ratcheting with each stroke across the skin.

And speaking of stroking, Manfred pumped Conrad’s dick hard and fast, stopping for just a few seconds each time that expert hand brought him to the edge.

“You’re driving me crazy.” Conrad moaned.

His mouth hovering over Conrad’s, Manfred smiled. “You’ve been driving me crazy for weeks, baby. Lube and condoms?”

His eyes threatening to drift closed, his body blazing from the sensations, Conrad managed to say, “Under the bathroom sink.”

While his soon-to-be lover disappeared to the bathroom, Con lay back and tried to get his thoughts together. Almost fucking impossible considering the state of his aching cock. But this was a really big step for him. He wasn’t one for random sex encounters, although he couldn’t say he’d never had one. Hell, he wasn’t dead. This, however, had the possibility of being more than just a one-time thing. Manfred lived with him. As a cat, yeah, but still...

Manfred's Curse Blurb and Contest

An unsettling storm arrives in Conrad’s seaside village, and his life turns upside down when his housecat shifts into a sexy man.

Manfred was used to being a cat and shifting to his human form whenever he wanted, until he crossed paths with a vindictive witch, who cursed him. Now, he finds the man of his dreams in Conrad, but before he can claim Conrad as his own, the curse must be broken for good...

Please leave a comment to be entered. Contest runs from Thursday October 28, 2010 to Thursday, November 04, 2010. You will receive your book after the book releases November 07, 2010. You can still enter if you have won recent contests.

Monday Updates

Still away...so catch you when I return. You will know. So yes that means no Musings this week.

Sunday Eye Candy

Thursday Thoughts

I'm working on a secret project, lol. I've deicded not to mention it until I have news about it. Of course I am mentioning it sort of, huh.

I'm actually away right now so have set up blog posts in advance.

So...Hope it's going well for everyone.

Wednesday Musings

As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a whisper whispering.
I heard a whisper whispering,
Upon this fine fall day...


As I went out walking this fall afternoon,
I heard a laugh a' laughing.
I heard a laugh a' laughing,
Upon this fine fall day...

I heard this whisper and I wondered,
I heard this laugh and then I knew.
The time is getting near my friends,
The time that I hold dear my friends,
The veil is getting thin my friends,
And strange things will pass through.
- The Veil is Getting Thinner

How innocent were these Trees, that in
Mist-green May, blown by a prospering breeze,
Stood garlanded and gay;
Who now in sundown glow
Of serious color clad confront me with their show
As though resigned and sad,
Trees, who unwhispering stand umber, bronze, gold;
Pavilioning the land for one grown tired and old;
Elm, chestnut, aspen and pine, I am merged in you,
Who tell once more in tones of time,
Your foliaged farewell.
- Siegfried Sassoon, October Trees

October's the month
When the smallest breeze
Gives us a shower
Of autumn leaves.
Bonfires and pumpkins,
Leaves sailing down -
October is red
And golden and brown.

Don't Forget Spirit Day Tomorrow

Don't forget to wear purple for Spirit Day tomorrow. May we never forget the young lives lost because of intolerance and hate.

An Interview With Myself

What are your final releases of 2010?
Manfred's Curse from Amber Quill Press and The Naughty Ones from Silver Publishing.

What is your first release for 2011?
I don't have anything scheduled right now. That does not mean, however, that I won't be releasing books in 2011. It just means nothing is currently scheduled. Once some works have been finished I should have better ideas of what the release dates for 2011 will be.

Do you listen to music when writing?
Sometimes, but often I have the television on in the background or I write at work at lunch.

What songs do you find the most inspirational?
Most of the songs I use are haunting songs. I rarely listen to up songs when writing so I don't find them inspirational. Three of the songs I find most haunting are How It Ends by Devotchka, Foolish Games by Jewel, and Exile by Enya.

Though I haven't used How It Ends for direct inspiration yet, I have used Foolish Game. This is the song I had in mind when I created Kyle from Beyond the Norm and the song often played while I was writing it.
For Exile, early in my writing I was writing a medieval Irish warrior story and in the book the hero's best friend gets killed in the epic battle, it's quite tragic, because the best friend was a major character throughout and he dies, so while he is dying and my hero is dealing with it, Exile plays in my head and in my house, and trust me...it was heartbreaking.

Do you have any sequels planned for 2011?
I haven't entirely given up on The Other Side's sequel nor Sorcerer's Lover 3, but they are both low priority for me at the moment. I am considering a direct sequel to Manfred's Curse but that will depend on time issues and how well the initial story was received. Anything else I have planned could be series related but not other direct sequels are planned at this time.

You once mentioned co-writing a historical with Ava March. Whatever happened with that?
It's on hold for now because both of us have been extremely busy. It doesn't mean it won't ever happen, we have the barebones planned out for it, but at the moment, we're both working on other obligations.

Sunday Eye Candy

Thursday Thoughts

So as you may or may not know, I do a lot of my writing at lunch at the evil day job. The other day I sat down to write on the current chapter of the work in progress, The Impersonator, when I realized I didn't have the most updated version at work that day.

Pushing aside my irritation at myself, I decided not to waste the time and I began writing the third Sutter's Bay story, Galaxy's Heart. So, I think, at the moment anyway, that Galaxy's Heart. will be the next story out in 2011 other than The Impersonator.

Already I've found another character who seems to be wanting his own Sutter's Bay story so I think that gives me four or five stories in the series.

In other news, Manfred's Curse is my next release in just over three weeks. My first foray into shapeshifting, but perhaps not my last. Manfred's Curse is very short though, just about 6,000 words, which makes it my shortest story I believe. In other words don't expect too many details...sordid or otherwise...but I hope you will enjoy the little fun story I wrote.

It's hard to believe October is almost half over already and soon November will be upon us. November is one of my favorite months, it's representative of Fall for me. And as we know, before we know it, November will be but a memory and December and all that comes with that month will be here. I am going to be so very, very busy this December. I have a number of holiday-themed events already planned, so I don't know how much writing will get done. I hope some. EH has managed to talk me into writing a free story for December, of course. She's quite persuasive.
 
Anyway, I've babbled on enough for today. Have a good day.

Wednesday Musings

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf's a flower.
- Albert Camus
 
All those golden autumn days the sky was full of wings. Wings beating low over the blue water of Silver Lake, wings beating high in the blue air far above it . . . bearing them all away to the green fields in the South.
- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Believe in yourself, your neighbors, your work, your ultimate attainment of more complete happiness. It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in Autumn.
- B. C. Forbes

Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. What was is not and never again will be; what is is change.
- Edwin Way Teale

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
- John Muir

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
- George Eliot

I saw old autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadowless like silence, listening
To silence.
-- Thomas Hood

Monday Updates

Hope everyone has a good week.

I didn't get much writing done over the weekend but I intend to get some done this next week. I'm leaving for vacation soon so I want to get what I can get done now. I should finish the chapter I am working on currently for sure. Hopefully get a good jump on the next one too.

Sunday Eye Candy

A Post for Drew (We Miss You)

There's an online friend out there who disappeared in early May, right before his 21st birthday. In the few months myself and some other friends knew him, Drew greatly touched our hearts and our lives. You couldn't meet a sweeter, kinder guy and Shayne and I used to joke that we were his adoptive parents.

Drew has an artist's soul and is sensitive and very smart. Not long after the holidays of last year, Drew's father suddenly died. Drew was much too young to lose his father and both Drew and his mother struggled with the loss. Drew even dropped out of college to stay with his mother during this difficult time. He went several weeks without talking to us, but eventually he started responding to our notes and did his best to try and mingle amongst us again.

Until early May. It's been months since we've heard from him and many of us have emailed him numerous times. The recent rash of young gay teens committing suicide has me thinking of Drew and other young gay men and women struggling with day to day living in a country that is still incredibly intolerant at times.

I miss my adoptive son, Drew, very much and I still hope he will come back and tell us he is all right. I look for a note or a word from him every day. I hope some day he sees this post or reads his messages and knows how much we all miss him and will never judge him. We just want him to come back to us.
 
Please wear purple for Spirit Day, October 20, 2010.

Thursday Thoughts

The other day Ava March and I were talking about posting on our blogs stories we were thinking of doing because often those stories don't materialize for a variety of reasons or don't get written as soon as we'd thought. Ava thought it was better not to mention the ideas we have running through our heads because of that exact thing. When it's posted it almost feels like a promise and if it doesn't happen we worry about disappointing readers.

The truth is this happens. I've done it myself. Whether mentioning a new story idea or saying I intend to write a sequel on a particular book there have been times when ideas or sequels have gotten dropped or postponed indefinitely. It's not intentional. Things happen. Books don't sell as well as you'd like or something else comes up that pushes it aside. This is an ever changing industry and that includes the authors.

So, I guess I'm wondering if when I get a new idea I should just not mention it or if I should continue to post about them. Sometimes, like with The Impersonator, I know I am writing it because I have a deadline. For instance I know I have to do my ghost story by June of 2011. But other stuff is open and changing all the time. I have ideas of what I want coming in 2011 of course.

Anyway, so if anyone cares to say whether they want me to shut up on ideas for what I intend/want to write or it's okay to continue babbling, feel free to state them.    

Wednesday Musing

Autumn Song by Daniel Gabriel Rossetti

Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf

How the heart feels a languid grief

Laid on it for a covering,

And how sleep seems a goodly thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

And how the swift beat of the brain

Falters because it is in vain,

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf

Knowest thou not? and how the chief

Of joys seems—not to suffer pain?


Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf

How the soul feels like a dried sheaf

Bound up at length for harvesting,

And how death seems a comely thing

In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

September Best Sellers at Amber Quill Press

1. Wolf's Survival

- T. A. Chase

(Gay / Werewolf)


2. Twice In A Lifetime

- Shawn Lane

(Gay / Contemporary)


3. Sonoran Heat

- Katrina Strauss

(Gay / Contemporary)


4. Tommy's Blind Date

- Anne Brooke

(Gay / Contemporary)


5. Driven To Distraction

- Anah Crow & Dianne Fox

(Gay / Contemporary)

6. (Boys Of The Zodiac)

Libra: Outlined In Ink

- Vivien Dean

(Gay / Suspense)


7. Wicked Cool

- Val Kovalin

(Gay / Suspense)

8. Workin' On The Railroad

- Deirdre O'Dare

(Gay / Contemporary)

9. The Brothers

Of Hogg's Hollow

- G. R. Richards

(Gay / Contemporary)

10. Sonata Appassionata

- Cat Grant

(Gay / Contemporary)

Monday Updates

Hmmm...nothing really to say. The Beach House is out and already made it to the pirate sites, and I'm not so happy about that, but fairly used to it I guess. Anyway, I hope those who bought it and read it enjoy it.

Working on The Impersonator still. Am well ahead of the deadline at this point so pleased with my progress there.

It's not as hot here as it was a week ago at least. Still warmer than I would like but it doesn't really cool down here until December or so.

Anyway, I'll check in later in the week and hope everyone has a good week.

Sunday Ey Candy

The Beach House is Available

http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/BeachHouse.html

The Beach House Winner

So you will know whether you need to run out and buy The Beach House this weekend....

Here is the winner...

There were 14 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

Chris - Applause Applause

Lily

Kaetrin

Eyre

Linda C

T.T. Kove

Leni

Chrysalis

Rachel

Andi Anderson

Linda

Em Woods

Little Phoenix

Madbeagle

Chris, I believe I have your email address so when the book is released I will send you your copy.
Congratulations and thanks for entering everyone!