At Long Last and Until the End of Time Update

Well now that the contracts have been signed and officially acknowledged I can mention that I have sold the rights to At Long Last and it's sequel, Until the End of Time, to be re-released by Loose Id sometime later this year. Since Scott and Preston hold a special place in my heart this is good news that they will be out in the publishing world again once the closing of Amber Quill concludes later this month. There will be some edits on At Long Last and Until the End of Time but not sure to what extent at this point. I do know the plan is to package them together when the time comes.

At this point I have no other news on the fate of my other Amber Quill work including Most Likely to Succeed or Car Wash. When I do I will post here.

Writing Progress

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd go ahead and do so now.

To be honest, I'd stopped writing for a bit. Taking a longer extended writing vacation than I had intended.

 

But I have commitments so I had to force my laziness away!

 

I am currently working on a chef story for a pax coming up sometime next year for Amber Quill. The story is called, Tempted to Taste, and I am also excited to say it is part of the Sutter's Bay series though with main characters I had not yet introduced. Expect some secondary character appearances from previous characters from the story. Tempted to Taste centers around an aspiring chef, Ryan Callahan, who perhaps bites off more than he can chew when he is hired as the chef for a seafood restaurant in Sutter's Bay. And of course Ryan's would be hero is the owner of the restaurant, Chris Harrison. 

 

Other than that I am making very slow progress on a few other stories including Arresting Love (mostly written but stalled), Lincoln Hill #2 (started but stalled), and a nerd/geek sci-fi convention story.

Saturday Updates

I'm at the stage now where I am reviewing the galleys for Beyond the Norm so that is pretty exciting. Book comes out in less than two weeks now as it comes out on September 03. I will be doing a giveaway of a copy of course. I'll probably post about the giveaway next week.

I know I mentioned my submission of my Christmas story, The Best Gift, but the deadline for the Christmas stories has been extended so I will be waiting a few more weeks for the decision than I originally thought. So, some time in September I should know.

And speaking of Christmas stories, I'll be posting more about this as the holidays approach but look for some free Christmas stories on here featuring Kevin and Michael from Car Wash and Noah and Charlie from Pulling Away. These will be sexy stories, I promise.

Just recently, one of my publishers showed us some covers up for grabs for possible inspiration of a story for them. Though many of them were very tempting, I am trying to resist. I really have too many stories I must write now. Really. So I am remaining strong.

Upcoming Project

This will probably be my last post for May. It's pretty hard to believe it's nearly June.

For those of you who follow this blog (and amazingly there are a few), you probably have figured out by now that I am incredibly wish-washy. I’ll claim I am going to work on any one story and then all of a sudden I’ve changed my mind. This is one of those times.

As a couple people know, the story I was working on, Ticket to Ride, has been giving me fits. Not sure exactly why I am not feeling the story. I like the characters but so far they haven’t really helped me find a plot. Technically as it is supposed to be for a song-titled PAX out much later this year and isn’t due until September there is no rush for me to push it at this point. I might even need to re-think the title and choose another song title or choose another story for that and give these characters something else. It is definitely something I need to mull over for a while. Which leads me to the conclusion this is just not the time for me to write it.

I thought I might start the continuation of Nick and Ray’s story from The Other Side, but I am not really feeling that right now either. I wouldn’t mind starting Tempted to Taste, which is Ray’s brother, Devon’s story with a hot little blond chef named, Ryan, but the problem with that is that story takes place after the events in The Other Side 2 and it just doesn’t make sense to me to write them out of order.

I know Ava March would like me to start the historical, Undeniable, but honestly if you must know I’d rather turn my already written medieval paranormal, Sinful, into a m/m romance than create something new in the historical department. Which I will say I am most definitely going to tackle this summer (Sinful that is). My big strong warrior, Mathias, is going to get his man. This will take some fairly significant re-writes as you can imagine.

Anyway, what is the point of this long rambling nonsense? I have chosen the next project I will be working on, of course.

I feel like some angst. Angst on par with Perfect Man, as a matter of fact, so I am going to work on Pieces. As in pieces of my heart or I am in pieces or as one of my favorite candy, Reese’s pieces, lol.

Pieces is about a hero, Patrick, whose lover committed suicide. How is that for angst? My plan is to have the darn thing done by the end of June. Really. Piece of cake. Or is that pieces of cake? Lol.

Don't worry, Shayne, one of the heroes will have long hair, just for you.

And Then a Sequel Occurred to Me

So my latest work in progress, Ticket to Ride, is coming along. I have close to 1,500 words done on it and it isn’t due until September 01 so I think I should be fine. As long as I actually come up with a plot. I know, 1,500 words and no plot. Don’t ask.

But, along the way, last night as I was contemplating it and what other works I needed to write, my brain kicked into high gear. It does that to me sometimes. And I came up with an idea for a sequel for At Long Last. I don’t expect it to be terribly long. Possibly only Amber Kiss length which is under 10,000 words. I think of it as more of a little interlude with Preston and Scott. Anyway, I think I plan on getting that down in the next week. As I’ve stated before, I can write a story in 4 days if I force it. I don’t know about forcing this one, but I think I am going to get it done and off to AQ at least in the next week – two weeks. I have decided on Until the End of Time as the title. Don't worry it will make perfect sense when you read it!

Beyond the Norm Finished and Future Plans

I finished Beyond the Norm. It ended up being about 24,500 words or so. It's off to my critique partner for a final read.

And just in case anyone is interested, these are the books I plan on working on/hope to have finished/out in the rest of 2009:

The Other Side 2 – For those who didn’t like my Happy For Now ending this is the continuation of Ray and Nick’s story. Many if not all the dangling plot points from the first book should be answered in this book.

Ticket to Ride – Not really sure what shape this story will take but some of the characters are Malcolm and Jordan. I chose the song title because I am a Beatles fan and the theme was a song title. I know that Malcolm is going to be younger than his lover and he’s going to find a plane ticket in his lover’s name that he didn’t know about but that’s really all I have and I will be working on this one soon. If I get it worked out completed I think it will be out in December or so.

Pieces – this is my next really angsty one. I really want to work on it this year. I started it, but then stopped to finish up Beyond the Norm. The characters are Patrick and Josh. Patrick is still trying to recover from the suicide of his long-time lover who also happened to be Josh’s cousin.

And if I have time:

Never the One – I also started this one. It is my cop partners-murder mystery story. Characters are Tyler and Eric (Boone). I am really going to try and make this my first novel-length gay romance so wish me luck on that.

Tempted to Taste – A related story to The Other Side, this will be the story of Ray’s brother, Devon (yes, he is gay also-you’ll see more in TOS2) and the hot little blond chef, Ryan, hired to work in his restaurant. My plan is to make Ryan a little more flamboyant than some of my other heroes.

Undeniable – My return to the Regency period with the story of a third son of a lord and his love with the butler. Ava March has been nagging me to write this since forever.

If I can get all these stories done this year I will be surprised.

I promised my friend, Shay, I would write a long-haired hero just for him so I will have to think about which one of these guys will have long hair. Perhaps my hero in Ticket to Ride.