Hop winner, What Matters Most, LiAW and/or all of the things

Warning, this post contains a fuckton of babbling. And some language unsuitable for small children.

The winner of the Hop drawing was the lovely Katey Hawthorne. I didn't realize until I drew her name and followed her link that she's the author of a book I loved to pieces, Nobody's Hero. It's a contemp superhero book, about a man who doesn't want to be the superhero and doesn't want to follow the chosen path. He and his love interest are very different people, and the way she pulls them together and fleshes out their families and makes it *work* is just wonderful and well done. ^__^ Ya'll should definitely check it out. I'm going to stop fangirling now, I swear. :3

I was holding off on posting this b/c I didn't want to take away from the Hop (and I managed to space on it right before because I'm wonderfully organized like that), but a short story of mine, What Matters Most came out at LT3 last week. ^__^ It was originally meant to be a holiday story, and then the plot got away from me and it was all "holiday? what holiday? fffft." So it was less holiday and more generic fantasy, so we skipped rushing it out in December and slated it for May instead. ^__^ I really like the way it turned out. There's a melancholy feel to it that I can't often pull off. Standing up for what is right, Kyros has found, is a lonely endeavor. It's also a dangerous one, as the people he's fighting have already killed his friend, threatened others, and are now going after Kryos' mother to finally force him to stand down. Knowing full well his mother won't listen to the men he's sent to take her to safety, Kyros reluctantly returns home to the village he has not seen in years. But returning home means encountering the man he never forgot, and Kyros find himself forced to choose between doing what is right and what matters most…

The Love is Always Write stories have begun posting on the M/M Goodreads group! Megan's has already posted (and is awesome! Linguist, kings, misunderstandings and kidnappings and rescues, oh my!), and she's made absolutely gorgeous covers for both hers and my story. ^__^ I'll be creating downloadable versions (epub, mobi, and pdf), so if you're not a member of the group, you'll still be able to get your hands on a copy. (Mine won't be available until the story is posted, obvs, but I will drop a note when it is.) Playing with Shadows is another story where I'm really, really pleased with the vibe I managed to pull off. It's all OH GOD RUN AWAY or whatnot, I don't know. Sort of horror, but not. Definitely "scared for your life" sort of vibe. ^__^ I'm also, uh, working on a prequel. And a sequel is going to be in the works. IDEFK how that happened. Prequel is awesome so far. Lots of violence. :3 I'm blowing shit the fuck up, it's awesome. Uh. Babbling. Anyway! Check this shit out. Or don't, if that is your preference. ^__^

And now I'm going to shut up and go away for another five million years. /o\