Monday, August 26, 2013

Blood Cries Up

So.... I got this today.

Also my editing and marketing schedule, which is quite tight.

I need to read/review/make changes by the 3rd of September... that's 8 days. Yikes! On the plus side, I can usually manage to do my edits in one or two sessions.

I should get copy edits by the 14th, and my marketing document is due back on the 16th. Proofing copy is due back on the 20th, and release date is scheduled for October 2nd.

You should totally mark that on your calendar, because this is an awesome story, I totally love it, and you will, too!



Friday, August 16, 2013

Two Years and Three Months Later

My novel, Roll, was accepted for publication by Torquere Press.

(Working) Blurb

Fake it 'til you make it was Beau Watkin's motto. A college freshman who had it all in high school; the cute girl, the popular, jock lifestyle, a loving family. And a burning secret that must be hidden at all costs; he's gay. Vin Reyes is the president of the college's Gay Student Association, heir to wealth and power. Openly gay and a political activist, Vin hides other, more dangerous, secrets behind his devil-may-care smile. Secrets even he doesn't know - everything - about.
When an enemy from Vin's past unexpectedly puts Beau in harm's way, they have a choice. Will they roll together, or fall apart?

That's a working blurb. I need to tweak it a bit. Right now it sounds like a spy story, or something, when really, it's more of a coming of age/coming out novel.

Roll is the first of three novels expected for the Rainbow Connection series.

(You Might Be Interested to Know: Hector Lange, one of the side characters, makes an appearance in a short-story "After the Party" in Promptly, the collection Elizabeth and I are putting together.)






Oh, and since I'm pretty sure I forgot to mention it here, my short story, Blood Cries Up, is also going to be published with Torquere, for their October short story line up, Lights Out.




Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Cleis Press, BDSM stories submissions call

BDSM stories

Deadline: November 1 (or 2, if you need to recover after Halloween)
Length: 2000-4000 words (I might take a few at 1500 words)
Payment: $75 for non-exclusive rights

What am I looking for?

"Bend over. Grip onto your ankles. Now wait for it."

The muscles tighten, release, tighten. You think you can't hold on, hold out. You think you're going to fail. Because you are. This is a game you can't win.

"Did I say you could move?"

Did you move? You didn't realize. All of your concentration is on staying still. So when the first blow lands, you forget what you were supposed to do.

"We'll call that a warm-up."

Count. How could you forget to count? He sat you down ten minutes ago, explained exactly what was going to happen tonight. And still, you managed to fuck up. Already. And you've only just begun.

I'm looking for the chill in waiting for the first blow. I'm looking for the feel of the paddle, the sting of a smart remark, the wonder, hope, worry, and release.

Bind me with your words. Make me perch on the edge of my seat. Unveil your devices slowly. Let me finger the leather, feel the weight of the chrome. Thrill me.

Do I want only POV's from subs? No. I'm open to stories from tops, bottoms, and in betweens. Maybe we call those switches. Do I want second person? Sure. But I'm game for first, third, um, fifth. I accept straight, gay, trans, orgies, dungeon scenes and Sunday afternoon picnics in the park (if they incorporate kink).

All of my standard no-nos apply. No underage. No incest. No beasts. No no-con. Any questions, please drop me a note at msalisontyler at yahoo dot com. Sub by pasting your story and a 50-word bio into an email. I like you a lot, but no attachments, please.


Send to: msalisontyler at yahoo dot com

XXX,
Alison

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Queer Erotic Stories, Writer Call

Me and My Boi: Queer Erotic Stories

Editor: Sacchi Green

Publisher: Cleis Press

Preferred Length: 2000-5000 words

Deadline: December 1, 2013

Payment: $50 per story and two copies of the anthology

This book is a celebration of all things boi, butch, masculine-of-center; the people we love who put their own personal spins on the gender spectrum. Bois who like girls, bois who like bois, bois who like both; those who don’t label themselves bois at all but can’t stand to wear a skirt. Tell me stories about more-or-less female-identified, screw-the-binary free spirits of all flavors. Transwoman characters who identify as lesbians are fine, as long as the focus is on the lesbian experience. Cool bois, hot bois, swaggering bois, shy bois, geek boys, drag kings, leather bois, flannel bois. Young is fine, but so are butch daddies, mentors, and role models.

As always, give me fully-developed characters, vivid settings, original voices, intriguing themes, and steamy sex that develops naturally out of all the rest. I’m finding some confusion among writers about exactly which part of the gender spectrum I’m looking for, so I’ll be more precise. At least one character should be on the boi/butch/tomboy/or even “passing” side of identifying as lesbian, but not quite over the edge to being transmen, although they may be contemplating traveling that path. Female-identified but with some degree, sometimes, of masculine gender presentation. Ask if you’re not sure.

E-mail submissions (.doc or .rtf files only) and queries to: sacchigreen@gmail.com.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The other 90%



I just finished writing a ghost story that I sort of impulse wrote.

And now I'm looking at what my next - still? - projects are.

I have to finish Roll, another 4,500 words should polish that off. And eventually SOME of my beta readers might get back to me with suggestions or comments. Ahem hem!

I have 2 months to finish Blood Sight, a vampire novel that I wrote about a year or so back, probably another 10,000 words to add and polish up.

Plus I have a novel's worth of short stories to sort through, edit, select, read and review for the Promptly Hot collection I'm working on with Liz.

So, I will finish my shit.

I will finish my shit.

I will finish my shit.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Author Interview; Shannen Crane Camp


Do you ever want to go back and edit an older story? 

All the time! Especially with my first book “The Breakup Artist”  because it was my debut novel, my first publisher didn’t really have ‘time’ to edit it properly, and it’s got some editing issues. It gets ripped apart a lot on Goodreads because of that so I’ve learned to stop reading reviews for that book all together

It’s still my first baby so I love it to pieces, but if I could, I’d go back and edit the heck out of that thing.

How do you decide on character names?

I have a problem with having too many character names to use them all. Seriously, sometimes I’ll introduce a character just so I can use that name! The only problem is, my character names are also my baby names, so all of my future children will have the same names as my characters. I think that’s cool but they might not forgive me for it.

What's the worst thing that ever happened to you that you've incorporated into a story?

I’m, unfortunately, a really bad sleeper because I have a lot of nightmares. Luckily, that means I have a lot of good material for my books. My latest work in progress “Under Zenith” has a scene in it that’s straight out of a nightmare I had where I was stuck in this underwater chimney and had to try to swim through it with no room to move my arms. Doesn’t sound that scary now but I was seriously terrified! It made for a great scene though

How much of your life and the people you know end up in your work?

I’m awful about putting my friends in my books. I do it all the time! Granted I always ask them first and they usually change a bit in my books so they aren’t exactly like my friends, but I love using personality traits and even names of friends for my characters. It’s like a fun little shout out to them. And as much as I try to avoid it, I unintentionally put a lot of myself and my life experiences into my books. I guess you write what you know, right?

What projects are you currently working on? Are you willing to share a small excerpt from a work in progress?
My current work in progress is a New Adult speculative fiction book called “Under Zenith”. I’m slightly in love with it because of the relationship between my main characters. My main boy Hayden is this rude British guy who’s always so mean to Isla (my female lead). But it doesn’t matter because she’s this southern girl with a lot of grit and she give him a run for his money.

Here’s an excerpt!


“What was that?” I asked, angrily getting to my feet and ignoring the pins-and-needles sensation that was now travelling through my entire body.

“I thought we decided to call it a zombie,” Hayden retorted, throwing a few sticks of wood into the dusty fireplace and pulling a lighter out of his pants pocket.

“Not that,” I spat, probably not making any sense at all. “Why did you leave me out there to die you--,” I stopped myself, trying to keep from using a few choice swear words that had gotten my mouth washed out with soap as a kid.

Just because I was dead didn’t mean I’d ignore all the good life lessons my mama had taught me.

“You almost did a good job out there,” he answered, finally managing to get a fire going. “Almost.”

“Oh, well I’m sorry I didn’t live up to your high standards of zombie dodging.”

“Maybe the next task will go a bit smoother,” he said with a shrug.

I really didn’t like this guy.

“What kind of place is this? What kind of afterlife makes you run away from zombies under the guise of completing an agility test?” I asked, sitting on an old wooden rocking chair and disturbing a few spiders that had been resting in the woodwork.

“Guise? Fancy word for someone so…,” he let his words trail off.

“What?” I asked threateningly, daring him to finish his sentence.

“Southern.”

“I graduated from a well-respected university yesterday, thank you very much,” I informed him.

“With a degree in vocal performance,” he pointed out. “Then you got yourself killed.”

“Oh yeah? Well what did you major in? How to piss people off?”

“Yeah, that was my major,” he deadpanned. “You know what your problem is?”

“I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

“You worry about the wrong things. All of your anxiety is completely misplaced,” he said, his British accent getting thicker now that he was upset.

I wished I didn’t find the accent so alluring. Though I’d never admit that to Hayden. He didn’t need a reason for his ego to be inflated any more than it already was.

“How is it misplaced?” I asked, trying to keep my cool as he took a seat on the moldy bed across from me.

“You’re dead, Isla,” he said simply, as if that should explain his cryptic opinions. “You died last night and you haven’t said one word about being sad or upset. All you’ve done is worried about your family’s finances, or questioned my chivalry, or figure out some new and interesting way to make me want to throw you off a cliff.”

He shook his head in disbelief and threw me an eye roll.

“Aren’t you the least bit upset that your entire life was stolen away from you at such a young age?”

I didn’t say anything to him, not wanting to get into something so personal with someone so unfeeling. Of course I was upset, but as long as I didn’t explore those feelings, it would almost be like they weren’t real.

I may not have been scared of wolves or men, but I was definitely terrified of my own weaknesses, and emotion was one of those weaknesses.

“What about the fact that you won’t ever see your parents again? Does that bug you?”

“Are you trying to get a rise out of me or something? Because I don’t really get what’s going on here. Why do you care if I’m okay with being dead? Is that really part of your job description as my afterlife liaison?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders at me and laid down on the bed, placing his hands behind his head and closing his eyes.

“I don’t care. I just think it’s weird,” he said.

Is there a character or story that's stuck in your head and won't leave, from either your work or someone else's?

I swear any time I hear any passage from an F. Scott Fitzgerald book it makes me want to be a better writer. The way he words things is simply beautiful! I’ve created entire stories in my head just with the excuse that I could use the same kind of language as him.

Talk to us about your domestic life; a favorite recipe, craft, your pets, children, house, or favorite set of socks.

The Husband and I don’t have any kids but I have the most unruly and adorable Miniature Schnauzer named Hemingway! She tries to stop me from writing on a regular basis. In fact I can’t hear her right now so she’s probably knocking over the trash can or something. She’s a pill but I love her!





The Breakup Artist:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Goodreads

Finding June
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Goodreads

Chasing June
Goodreads

Pwned
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Goodreads

Sugar Coated
Goodreads

Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shannencbooks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShannenCbooks
Blog: http://shannencbooks.blogspot.com/