#Vampire Romance: because it’s hot, that’s why

There are some who see the paranormal–the vampires and the dragons and the shifters and whatnot–as silly, unnecessary complications that clutter up an otherwise perfectly good story with weirdness. For some of us, the need to read paranormal comes from a desire for something darker. Something outside the box. We watched the horror or the fairy tale as children and we imagined a world where those things could be real. And we liked it.

I am blessed to call Mary Calmes a friend for many reasons, but one of the things we have in common is a mutual love of the dark fairy tale re-imagined, manlove-ified, and all grown up. Join us today at Andrew Grey books, to find out more about what we love so much about our paranormal heroes.

Today’s Quickie: Gearing up for GayRomLit, Sudsy Studs, and More Free Books!

Aight! I am all signed up for GayRomLit! I hope to see you there. I’ve signed up to do a reading, and I’m already trying to decide what I’ll read. Maybe something filthy, I kinda like having an excuse to say naughty words out loud. If you’re on the fence about attending, they’ve already got about 100 authors signed up last I heard, and the total head count cutoff is 400 people, so act fast. It’s gonna be a BLAST.

If you didn’t go to GRL last year, you may have missed out on the author scavenger hunt, headed up by Damon Suede. 17 authors pitched in beads, and the goal was for readers to unscramble anagrams and clues, and find each author to get a bead for their bracelet. Well if you didn’t get one, I blogged over at Guilty Pleasures about our new homoerotic soapy drama Boxer Falls, and if you stop by and leave a comment you’ll be entered to win one of last year’s bracelets, as well as an ecopy of my latest paranormal novella, Immortal Valentine.

Get Yer Free Fiction!

Happy Sunday, folks! A copy of my boy-meets-vampire novella Immortal Valentine is being given away over at Reviews by Jessewave today! Stop by and leave a comment for your chance to win.

Episode 8 of Boxer Falls, a gaytime drama is up at the Goodreads M/M Romance group! We’ve got amazing, weekly, FREE m/m drama written by the likes of Damon Suede, Poppy Dennison, Amy Lane, Mary Calmes, Eden Winters, and many more guest authors yet to come.

This week’s episode was written written by me, and it’s a pretty steamy one–here’s an excerpt:

…Oz’s jaw unhinged and his eyes lost focus. Before he knew it Quinn’s cock was hitting the inside of his cheek. He readjusted to get his teeth away—he knew that much at least—and oh, hell, he wanted to swallow the thing whole. It was heavy, and solid, and perfect in his mouth.

Up above, Quinn shifted and a bar stool rocked like the guy was leaning his weight on it. “Shit, Oz—”

Sure. Yeah. Fucking. He responded with an “Mmm-hmm” and put some suction into it, working his hand to spread the excess saliva around and challenging himself to get the head as far toward his throat as he could. Quinn seemed to have the courtesy to stay still and Oz was gratified by appreciative moans and groans and fingers clutching and the back of his head.

–BAM!–

“Holy—” Oz looked to the window where the noise had come from. He pulled away with his blood rushing in his ears. Swiped a hand over his mouth. Shit. Shit! What if pictures of this get splashed around? This is the sort of stupid impulsive thinking-with-your-dick move your brother would make, Oz, for God’s sake.

Quinn cocked his head and took a step forward, gaze trained on the window. “S’okay, Oz.” There’s a tree close to the building. Branch hits the window sometimes if it’s real windy.” He laughed. “Probably gonna crash through the glass one of these days.”

Oz didn’t realize how much tension that bump on the window had injected into his muscles until the redhead’s easy smile and explanation made it all leak back out again. Tree. Wind. Right. Jeez. Quinn stepped forward and Oz rubbed that hipbone that fascinated him so, and next thing he knew Quinn’s dick was back to making friends with his tonsils. This time it wasn’t fear jacking up his pulse…

Woo! I just love those two. If you haven’t checked out Boxer Falls, I hope you’ll stop on by. Also, we’ve had a couple of folks mention that they had difficulty locating the message thread. When you enter the M/M romance group, there will always be a link at the very top of the discussion threads, where it says “Moderator Spotlight.” Mod Lori very awesomely updates this for us each week with the latest episode but if you click the link it actually takes you to a convenient list of ALL the episodes, so it’s an easy way to find everything. We also plan to have a newsletter up soon, and I’m going to update my site here with links to all the episodes for easier access. Hope to see you in the discussion thread!

Coming soon: Gay soap, and Vampires, oh my!

Okay, it’s 6am in Washington DC, and I don’t think I’ve had enough cinnamon coffee. Let’s see if I can string together some informative sentences, shall we?

Coming soon! Boxer Falls–A Gaytime Drama! Damon Suede, Poppy Dennison, and myself have gotten together on a little free read project called Boxer Falls (sprung from the sexy and demented mind of Mr. Suede, of course). Sort of like a serial story, only we’re doing it in the theme of a gay soap opera, via the Goodreads MM Romance group. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and I do hope you’ll check out Boxer Falls!

Be sure in particular to visit the Cast of Characters thread, where we’re getting readers involved by asking you to help us choose some of the soap opera cast, and we’ll have a couple of other polls as well during the month of December. The first “episode” of Boxer Falls will go up in January!

(And writers, we’ll be looking for guest contributors so let us know if  it’s something you would be able to write a thousands words or so of an episode for.)

AAAAAND for all you vampire lovers out there, I hold in my hot little hands the Amber Allure contract for Immortal Valentine, an M/M romance due out Valentine’s Day weekend!! It’s a sexy little boy-meets-vampire story about a one-night stand that turns into forever, and I really hope everyone enjoys it. So look for that soon!

M/M Woman Going Wylde

Come chat with me! Tomorrow, 12/9, the authors for Amber Quill press will be taking over Beth Wylde’s Yahoo group all day. Stop in to chat, ask questions, read excerpts, and all that fun stuff. I’ll be on around midday more than likely, and probably again in the evening–it’s a bit hard to plan these things when you have kids–I may be sharing an excerpt from my upcoming release, Immortal Valentine, as well. I hope you’ll stop in to enjoy all the authors, and I’ll make a point of sending out a twitter message before I jump into the chat.

Find Beth’s yahoo group, here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bethwylde/

Drowning

and i’m so sad
like a good book
i can’t put this day back
– Tori Amos

There’s debate about whether an author should create a character in their own likeness. Certainly, there are reasons why it can be a no-no–or why it should at least be handled carefully. And even though I am aware of those reasons, I walked right into that trap recently. Generally speaking I can shake off critique okay, but recently I put a great deal of myself into a character and then took it way too hard when a person whose opinion I treasure told me how annoying he was.

WAY too hard.

I know I shouldn’t have, but…tricky word, that “should.” And it’s one of the pitfalls of using too many of your own attributes in your writing. We writers aren’t necessarily all that interesting.

The realization hit me midway through plotting my next book, a contemporary novel entitled Drowning. One of the heroes suffers from depression–something I’ve been struggling with lately–and it certainly gave me pause. And I don’t know if this will make me change course yet or not. Amor Prohibido featured a hero with a history of abuse which I also have some experience with, and I’ve gotten great feedback about that book. That said, my abusive relationships are a decade-plus in the past, so maybe perspective is the key.

Probably.

Anyway, I’ve gotten a ton of questions about what I’m working on next–thank you SO much for asking everyone. So the short answer is, I’m not entirely sure. I’m on the fence about Drowning–whether I should shelve it until I feel more “ready” or plow ahead and see what comes of it. I *know* I want my next thing to be a contemporary novel. I’ve gotten a lot of AWESOME feedback about the free short story Yes, Sir that I wrote for GayRomLit 2011. I may try taking Nate and Gray out of the dream world and into the real world to see how their relationship progresses. Or maybe it’ll be something else entirely…we’ll see what the new year brings, I suppose.

NEXT THOUGH! I just turned in my Valentine novella, Immortal Valentine, to Amber Allure!! It’s a sexy little boy-meets-vampire story about a one-night stand that turns into forever, and I’ll be editing that through the holidays. Keep an eye out for that just before Valentine’s day.