Giveaway: Losing Ground

I'll set up the giveaway for Losing Ground right after the one for Errant Prince ends, I said. I may (or may not) be a dirty liar. ::cough::

In any case, The Errant Prince has been out a few days now. Thank you to everyone who's bought it or read it! I hope it was enjoyable. (If you haven't gotten yours yet, you can pick it up at LT3, Amazon, Kobo, and ARe and most other major retailers.)

Losing Ground is a novella that ran as my last standalone serial. (If ya'll recall back last summer/fall I was asking what I should write next; that was the winner. ^^) It's slow burn, urban fantasy, and probably the closest I'll ever get to writing contemporary (excepting the Paranormal Days short stories). I had a lot of fun writing Carter and his family, who are all very close, and then Tai, who shows up with no family or friends (and uh, trust issues out the wazoo). Here is the official blurb:

Carter Bellwood's family has Earth-claimed the Bellwood territory for generations and they've always had an excess of Earth energy to back it up. Until Carter, whose energy is barely a fraction of that his mother has. But he's the only Earth wizard in his generation and set to inherit the territory—if there's anything left of it. The territory is being ravaged by a disease that kills all plant life it comes into contact with. They can't cure it, can barely contain it, can only watch as their territory turns into a barren landscape.

Then a new Earth wizard shows up. Tai is everything Carter is not when it comes to the strength of his magic, and more importantly he knows how to cure the disease. But he's also terrified and clearly on the run from something, and Carter's not sure Tai's help is worth the risk of him trying to stake his own claim on the territory—or the risk that whatever he's running from finds him...

You can preorder most everywhere at this point (save 15% if you get it through LT3) or you could roll the dice and try and win one of the giveaway copies... :3

(I'm trying a new giveaway tool, so let me know if you have issues with it. Also, fair warning, I will delete with great vigor any entries that don't follow the rules.)

Entry-Form

Housekeeping Post

All righty, so it's currently four in the a.m. (my hours are SO WEIRD right now, I can't). But this is a housekeeping, linky, all the news sort of post so it doesn't really require any sort of brainpower (I hope, b/c I am lacking in that).

THE ERRANT PRINCE

OK, so ya'll know this one is coming out this month, February 18. It's a pretty damn good book. I really suck at marketing my own books (possibly b/c I'm too close to them? IDK), but I really liked writing this one, what with the flirty soldier dude and the cranky stubborn prince dude and the drama that could've been but totally wasn't. :3 Plus MAGIC. I <3 magic.

Ahem. So. Giveaways! There are three. If you follow my blog, you know about that one. If you follow LT3's anything, you know about the Goodreads group one. There's also one at Hearts on Fire Reviews. And you can pick it up from LT3 (15% off until Feb 17), Amazon, ARe, and Kobo, if those are your druthers.

LOSING GROUND

I'm not sure I've talked about Losing Ground yet? If not, bad self. Losing Ground is preeettty much the closest I'll ever get to contemporary. It's urban fantasy, basically elemental magic and territories in a modern-day setting. The romance in this one was super sweet and low key. I really enjoyed writing it, particularly with the contrast of Carter, who's v. knowledgeable about magic and is outgoing and stuff, but very low in power, versus Tai, who knows next to nothing about magic and is super shy and very much a homebody. I also worked very hard at making them both bisexual; they both have ex-girlfriends, but in my typical low-key style, (AKA no one gives any fucks about that).

This one is running as serial at the moment, but it'll release at LT3 on March 4 (which is less than a month away!). No giveaways up yet, but I'll probably pop one up once The Errant Prince's giveaway ends, and obviously you can watch the LT3 GR group for when March's giveaways go live. It is up at LT3 for preorder, and also at Amazon, ARe, and Kobo.

FAIRYTALES SLASHED: VOLUME 6

This one is also a soon-to-be-released serial thing. I've got two fairy tales in this anthology. The Dragon of Bellerose Island is a (vaguely if you squint) beauty and the beast spin. It features Leandre, who's been kidnapped and forced off to this mysterious, magical island that no one ever returns from (because the villain thinks he's like, special or something and finds it more fun than throwing people from a cliff). Leandre finds far more than he bargained for. I have in mind a couple of other stories with this 'verse, but I'm not sure when I'll fit them into my schedule (see also: the first one is in an anthology).

The second is called The Cursebreaker, and it's a short, sweet little original fairy tale. The two of them are 100% ridic in all the best ways, and also magic. (Theme? Theme.) This one was only just listed on LT3, so that's the only place you can get it ATM, but I will keep ya'll updated as it gets around to third parties (usually 3-4 weeks in advance of release date).

AXBRIDGE

Axbridge is the last one (everyone goes oh thank god the post will end soon). This is a short story that I wrote for a charity thing I did last year? The year before? In any case, it took me an age and a half (and approximately seven scrapped false starts), but voila!

Axbridge is the name of the town the story is set in. It's set in the same 'verse as Battle of Will, but is completely stand alone. (Features other characters.) It was a lot of fun to explore some of the aftermath of the end of the war that happened in Battle of Will, and Isani and Tannis were equal parts fun and had me on the edge of tearing my hair out. ^^ (I think that's a good sign? People seem to like the books I struggled the most.) It's due out May 20, so again, it's only up on LT3 ATM, but you can nab your copy for 15% off if you are so inclined.

THAT'S IT. 

I'd give you a writing status update, but (1) this post is hella long already and (2) I want to try and actually hit some sort of milestone first. :3 So until next week. I hope ya'll are having a good February. ^^

The Errant Prince

The Errant Prince releases this month! (How is it February already? IDEK, but I feel there are some shenanigans at work here.)

I wrote The Errant Prince in its entirety last February, because my writing process can typically be described as "working on what I planned, working on what I planned, working on what I planned, fuck everything I'm writing this random short story goddammit it's a novella" and then restart (see also: Drinker Class X). :3

The Errant Prince features two stubborn idiots who are sometimes awkward, sometimes flirty, and definitely suck at doing anything normally (also my first trans MC!). In celebration of its release, I'm doing a giveaway, wherein you have the chance to win one of two copies of the ebook. (Provided the rafflecopter works. I am always iffy on my ability to embed these things. ;3)


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thank you if you've already preordered! If you don't want to take the chance on winning, you can still grab a copy from LT3 for 15% off until February 17! It's also up on Amazon, Kobo, and ARe for preorder if you prefer one of those vendors. ^^

Geek Out: Recs and Babbles

I meant to write (and post) this post last week, but Life. In any case, it seems timely for this week, as LT3's Geek Out collection is releasing, and oh man, do we have some awesome stories. You can check out the full collection here (and buy the bundle here!).

I'm going to talk about my favorites. I have four favorites. (I am, as ever, indecisive as hell. ;3) I also kind of suck at reviews, so hopefully I will make sense. Disclaimer! I am one of the owners of the publishing company publishing these books, but the opinions and fangirling here are honestly presented.

Love Rampage by Alex Powell
Maíra has always wanted a unicorn, but isn't quite prepared when one shows up on her doorstep and kidnaps her—and proclaims that Maíra must confess her feelings to the girl she loves. Maíra is definitely reluctant to follow through with that, but everything changes when Carol is kidnapped by a demon... 

This book is my #1 favorite of the collection. 100% absolutely adored it from start to finish. Basically this book is perfect. It's lighthearted, fairy-tale style writing that makes fun of itself even as it explores more serious topics. Maíra is amazing, the unicorn is so hilariously bossy and one-track mind, I love it. Carol is also amazing, and the book is so tightly plotted and sweet, I'm just 100% over the moon with it. A++ recommend, will re-read forever.



The rest of these are in the order that I opened them in my browser tabs (aka no particular order), as they are all close seconds to Love Rampage. ^^



Long Macchiatos and Monsters by Alison Evans
Jalen, lover of B-grade sci-fi movies, meets the far-too-handsome P in a cafe while deciding whether or not to skip uni again. When P invites them along to a double feature of Robot Monster and Cat Women of the Moon, Jalen can hardly believe that hot boys like bad sci-fi, too. But as their relationship progresses, Jalen realizes P leaves them wondering if they're on the same page about what dating means, and if that's what they're doing.

So I am ebook formatter extraordinaire for LT3, which means I get books in advance for ARC formatting as well as general ebook creation. I often get glimses of books while I do this, but I don't often read books at this stage. Rare is the book that I have to stop formatting so I can read it. Long Macchiatos and Monsters is one of those books. I had five hundred gazillion other things to do that day (as per usual), but I put them off because I was so intrigued by the glimpses of the characters I got as I verified formatting. P and Jalen are by turns sweet and amazing and quirky and lovely. I love the way they meet (coffee shop) and bond (over terrible B-movies). I have no idea how to wrap this up, so I'm going to stop fangirling here. ^^

(Also this cover legit makes me want to go out and get froofy coffee, even though it's ten at night and that would be a terrible idea.)

Defying Convention by Cecil Wilde
Danny and AJ have been online friends for years, and secretly in love with each other. When the opportunity to attend a comics convention comes up, they decide to go and share a room. But friendship online does not always translate to friendship offline, and both are anxious about how the meeting will go, and the friendship change, when faced with challenges easily avoided behind the safety of computer screens...

Defying Convention explores a theme I've seen done a bunch of times (relationship begins at con, major conflict arises b/c what is to be done after when the two MCs go their separate ways???). The twist here is that Danny and AJ have been online friends for years. I really enjoyed the way that played into their interactions, and I loved, loved, loved how comfortable they were with each other. This one has probably the most personal vibes with me; how Danny and AJ meet up and interact with each other resonated strongly with me, as that's 100% how I met Megan: online first, meeting up with a short visit first, and man was that first visit nervewracking, even though I knew it would be fine. I won't spoil the ending, but I loved it. I don't think they could have had a more perfect ending. I was genuinely flailing at the ending.

Double Take by J.K. Pendragon
Studying magical science at the prestigious Kemet Academy is a privilege and dream come true for Teka, a poor student from D'mt. But focusing on school doesn't mean xe can't also admire Hasani, the handsome graduate student overseeing Teka's work.

Then late one night at the school library, Teka runs into Hasani and is completely astonished when the stern, quiet man xe knows by day acts so flirty and casual, it's like he's a different person. When the late night encounter leads to dating, Teka can scarcely believe xyr luck.

But the luck plays out when xe discovers why Hasani seems so different between night and day, a discovery that seems to have no resolution except heartache...

I'm sure no one is surprised to see this one in the list of my favorites. Magic university? YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU. Add in the threesome/twincest and the deft way that was handled, and I was over the moon. This is a short story (most of the Geek Out books are), but the worldbuilding was extraordinary. I loved how well laid out the magic was, the different customs for different provinces (?? I can't remember if they were called something different). I love Teka and xyr by turns shy and forward demeanor, and Hasani was amazing. Both of them. :3 I can 100% believe the way everything went down (vague statement is vague, but I am not spoiling the fun here). (Also, did I mention magic university??? Because magic university!!! ...I may have a book type.)

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I'm going to take a moment here and link the other four books in the collection: Horse Crazy, Manifest, Of Anime and the Baeci, and Sext Based Adventures. You should definitely drop by and check them out, see if they might vibe with you. ^^

I was going to post a writing news sort of update with this, but uh, it's long enough already, so next week. Over and out, and I hope ya'll have a good week.

News and Such

Various odds and ends of news for this post:

(1) The Errant Prince (gay/trans fantasy novella ft. stubborn idiots who like to flirt a lot) is about a month away. It's up for preorder most places that allow it (including Amazon, ARe, etc.) and is also up on NetGalley for reviewer-type people. ^^

(2) Losing Ground (bisexual M/M urban fantasy ft. all the angst and sweetness (mostly the sweetness, NGL)) is up at LT3 for preorder. It comes out in ebook on March 4.

As always, you can save 15% if you preorder direct through LT3. ^^



In other news, as a general head's up, I'm taking a few steps back from social media for productivity and personal reasons. I do still have some more posts in the works (recs, for one), but I don't know when they'll get posted. I will also still be around and check feeds irregularly, but if you need me for anything immediate, you'll have to email or text me. I imagine I'll be back to "business as usual" soonish, but for now I'm playing it low-key.

Why You Aren't an LGBTQ Ally

LGBTQIA, sometimes LGBTQ, sometimes just LGBT.

Mostly, just G.

I swear, it's not a week anymore if I'm not stumbling across some new review site or publishing company or website or blog that touts how much it supports the LGBTQ community and how they're great allies…

… only to read further and find that by LGBTQ community, they mean the M/M community. That they'll only review M/M books because well, they don't have any reviewers on staff who want to read lesbian romance or romance with trans characters (and heaven forbid if you lob a curveball and throw an asexual romance or 'worse' at them). Or they'll say LGBTQ, but if you look through their site, you'll find nothing but reviews of M/M books.

That, by publishing LGBTQ romance (wait, wait, I've got this wrong, GLBTQ romance, there we go), they mean they publish M/M. And yes, I know that's where the big sales are. I run a publishing company and I'm heavily involved in the finances of said company. M/M romance does very well for itself. I've also seen lesbian romance do very well for itself (some of LT3's best sellers in 2014 were lesbian books).

Trans and other queer books don't sell well.  

Because on the whole, (1) readers don't buy them, (2) reviewers won't read them, (3) writers won't write them, and (4) publishers won't publish them. (Obviously there are exceptions. But on the whole, this is true.) There are queer books out there (sometimes they're hard to find, though that will hopefully be less of a problem in the near future when Amazon revamps their categories). There's fewer of them than there are M/M romances, but they are there. That they don't sell, however, is not the point of this post.

I'm sure you're wondering, well, what the fuck is the point of this post, then?

The point of this post is that these books deserve the same treatment as M/M romance books. They don't get it. They don't get it, and I'm fed up with reviewers, readers, writers, and publishers who pull themselves up on high pedestals and trumpet their liberal viewpoints to the world. They're diverse! They're allies! They support the LGBTQ community!

Except, here's a novel concept: You do not get to call yourself a supporter of or ally to a broad and diverse community because you like and focus on one specific segment of that community. Full stop.

(Related: you do not get to call yourself an ally in your own defense when a marginalized person is telling you that you're being a bigot. I don't give any fucks about your self-appointed allyship. Your Ally Card is currently being burned in effigy.)

If you want to be an ally, you cannot limit yourself to simply M/M romance. That's just not good enough. I don't begrudge anyone a preference for M/M romance. I do begrudge people claiming that they support the LGBTQ community, but who then follow that up by doing nothing for the L, B, T, or Q (or I, or A).

I'm not the best writer when it comes to diversity in my fiction. The majority of my books feature bisexual romance (*). It's a problem I'm actively working on. I want to write more lesbian romance. I want to write asexual romance. I want to write more trans romance. I will write these books, because it's important, because supporting the entire community is important.

(*Most of these books pass as gay romance since two cisgender men end up together at the end, but I pretty much always write my characters as bisexual. It only occurred to me recently that people would read that wrong, so I'm getting better at explicitly saying so in-book.)

The point of this post? To issue a challenge to you. Step up. Give something other than an M/M romance a chance. At some point you gave an M/M book a shot and fell in love with that genre. What's stopping you from giving that same chance to a lesbian or trans or other queer book?

Looking Ahead to 2015

I'm sure ya'll have seen about a million of "what's coming in 2015" posts, but here's another from me. ^^ Sorry?

The biggest change in 2015 is that I will no longer be writing for LT3's serials. That line is closing down (if you missed the post last week, you can read about it at LT3's blog), which is going to free me up to work on other projects. The good thing about serials is that it forced me to write and write regularly. One huge drawback about them was that it was nigh impossible to write follow up stories. Serials should be accessible to new and existing subscribers, and writing, say, the sequel to Stolen Hearts for a serial wouldn't work for that (and other reasons).

My aim for 2015 is for it to be the Year of the Sequel. :3 Which, hopefully means that yes, I will finally get that sequel to Stolen Hearts written. My immediate goals for 2015 are:

Write Book 2 of the Stolen Hearts series (tentatively titled Captive Hearts)
Finish/edit Book 2 of the Kingdom Curses series (The Northern Wall)
Write a short story for the Silver & Gold anthology (*)

(*) Mayyybe. This one is starting to morph into something longer. >_> Because short stories are nigh on impossible.

Tentative goals for later in 2015 are books 3 and 4 (and uh, possibly 5?) of the Kingdom Curses series. I'm trying not to plan myself into a corner, as I am all too aware of how easy it is to be distracted.

2015 will already see two novellas and one anthology release for me. ^^ Ya'll have heard me talk about The Errant Prince already. The other novella is Losing Ground, which is an earth elemental magics story that's my final stand-alone serial. It wraps and releases as ebook in March, and was just listed on LT3 (so you can preorder, if you're inclined!) It's urban fantasy, which is probably the closest I've gotten to contemporary in forever. ^^

The anthology stories are the two fairy tales I wrote for LT3's Fairy Tale serial. The Dragon of Bellerose Island and The Cursebreaker are their titles, and they'll be released in Fairytales Slashed: Volume Six in May when LT3's serials wrap. (They're both cute. Super super cute, I can't even.)

I'll try to update throughout the year with my progress on various things, and if there's ever anything you want to see or are curious about the status of (or if I plan to write at all), let me know? ^^

2014 in Review

So, 2014 is almost at a close. It was a busy year, though I swear it didn't seem like it while it was occurring. Writing wise, here's what I managed to accomplish. ^^

First up, at the very beginning of the year, Battle of Will released in ebook and in print. It's probably the longest story I've ever written, coming in at a whopping 132k. o_O Little wonder I wrote little else while I was working on it. But it was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to working on the sequel at some point next year (I'll post about 2015's projects next week).

Second up, The Duke's Deception also released at the beginning of the year, a week after Battle of Will. This was a short freebie that I wrote for a charity prompt, and it was also a lot of fun (and a relief to write something shorter!). It topped out at 8k. ^^

In June, Quality Assurance published. This wasn't a new release, but a split-from-anthology release. Originally pubbed in That Famous Happy End, it got cleaned up, freshly edited, and re-released as a stand alone. It's in the Paranormal Days 'verse, and is actually the story that kicked that 'verse off (though obviously you don't need to read the stories in any particular order).

In October, The Heart of the Kingdom released. It ran as a serial first and was meant to end after book 1, but as ya'll have heard before it's spawned into a 3-4 book series. (That will also be posted about again next week. ^^)

I also wrote The Dragon of Bellerose Island; that was released in serial at the beginning of the summer and will be included in Fairytales Slashed: Volume 6 when it comes out next year.

Also, in... I want to say July or August, LT3 re-released Living Words and Saving Liam. They both got spruced up and had some excess language cut out, and were given shiny, shiny new covers.

I wrote a bunch this year, though it doesn't seem like it. ^^ That's the downside of publishing instead of simply posting. The Errant Prince was finished this year; that comes out in February 2015. I wrote Losing Ground, which is currently running as serial and comes out in ebook in March 2015. I wrote a short fairy tale (The Cursebreaker, I think I called it), which wraps up Fairytales Volume 6 and runs in serial in early spring next year. I wrote most of The Northern Wall this year (have to finish that before I get even a hint of when it might possibly be published).

So in all, it was a pretty good writing year. ^^ I'm hoping next year will be even better, since I have a loooong list of books I want to write (and I'm sure you're all hoping for certain sequels and books yourselves). Hope 2014 was not too heinous for ya'll, and that 2015 is better than 2014 by leaps and bounds. <3

Somewhat Random: On LT3's Submission Guidelines

This recently came up in various places, and my brain works in mysterious ways and won't let it go. So, new post time! This is not my usual type of blog post, so feel free to skip this one if you don't care about non-writing stuff. ^^

Being a publisher is pretty cool. I really enjoy my job and a lot of what goes into it. I think I would go stir crazy if I were just (hah) an author. It's also interesting some of the things people don't often realize? For instance, publishing is a very specific business, particularly at the small press level. LT3 is very much a small press with one focus: LGBTQ romance. We don't publish literature, poetry, YA, etc. Our brand and what our readers expect is sweet (sometimes explicit, sometimes not) romance featuring queer characters who end up happy at the end of the book.

You should run screaming in the other direction if a publisher touts that they publish every genre (unless they're HUGE and have multiple imprints and such). If it's a 3-person operation that does, say, (1) LGBTQ erotica, (2) het erotica, and (3) LGBTQ YA, that's not a good thing. The markets for a het erotica book and an LGBTQ YA book are two entirely different things and it's a sign of being stretched too thin or not devoting anywhere near enough resources to marketing the books.

This is one reason that LT3 has not branched out into YA. We don't have the resources or the time to devote to building a YA imprint, so we don't publish YA. Likewise, our core market is sweet (typically non-explicit) LGBTQ romance. Hence we also tend to stay away from books that are heavily erotic and/or include non-consensual sex that's been eroticised (spell check is telling me this is not a word, so that could be a terrible spelling on my part, and if so uh, blame the fact that I got less than optimum sleep last night).

So when you see a press that has very specific guidelines about what they do and do not take, there's usually a practical reason for it behind the scenes, even if it's not entirely evident what the reason is.

My Life in Edits

First up, before I completely forget for the 1539208th time, LT3 is throwing a Holiday shebang, wherein you can buy books for 25% off (36% off preorders) and also enter to win Kindles and LT3 cash money (or well, LT3 gift money, which is almost like cash money??).

Shameless plug, this means you can pick up the newly released The Heart of the Kingdom for 25% off, or preorder The Errant Prince for 36% off, so uh, go and buy my books??? (I'm sorry, I'm in an excessive punctuation mood apparently.) You should also look at the other amazing books up (GEEK OUT, GO LOOK AT GEEK OUT). Ahem.

I've gotten some really lovely reviews for Heart*, for which I am thankful! I hope if you've read it, that you enjoyed it (or at least, that it didn't make your eyes bleed or fall out of your head from rolling them too hard ;3).



With that out of the way, this week is going to be subsumed by edits. I can feel it. The doom of edits, it doth approcheth. I've got content edits for The Errant Prince, and I've got cleaning up to do on The Northern Wall and also the untitled short story I wrote in NaNo. I'm going to work on the short first, since it's most overdue and also will be quickest.

Then Errant Prince. ^^ Then The Northern Wall, much to Megan's relief, as she's still waiting on me to write the final chapter or two. :3 /I may be a jerk.

Then. Then. Maybe I'll get the chance to write again. Or maybe it'll be Christmas and time to do all the January stuff. One of those.

In any case, this has been your regularly scheduled rambles. If I forget to post again before Christmas, I hope ya'll have a lovely holiday. I'll be traveling up north to New York to visit family and experience real snow for the first time in like, two years. Peace <3