A two-fer today! I’m over at Sid Love’s (along with Amy Lane and Madison Parker) to talk about our contributions to the Grand Adventures anthology. And Rainbow Book Reviews has posted a lovely group review of the anthology and the individual stories.
Thanks, all! 🙂
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Posted in anthology, grand adventures, rainbow book reviews, review sites, reviews
Today is the release day for the Dreamspinner Press Grand Adventures anthology, which includes the second edition of my short story “Stripped.” The lineup of authors is amazing, and everyone involved has donated their time and efforts so that 100% of the proceeds will go directly to authors Eric Arvin and T.J. Klune. Prints of the cover art are also available. Here are the buy links:
Cover art prints: Large || Small
(You can also donate directly to Eric through GoFundMe.)
To celebrate release day, a bunch of the anthology authors will be taking turns chatting on the Dreamspinner Facebook page today. I’m up from 9–10 p.m., along with Amy Lane (yay!), so come on over and join us in some shenanigans! (She’s Shenan and I’m Igans.)
The full list of stories and authors:
Forward by S.A. McAuley
An Unexpected Thing by John Amory
The Twinkie Ignition by J.E. Birk
When Friendship Becomes More by Sophie Bonaste
Isle of Waiting by Sue Brown
The Jogger by KC Burn
Holding Court by Cardeno C.
For Dear Life by Mary Calmes
Under the Full Moon by Ellis Carrington
Stripped by Shae Connor (2nd Edition)
That Place Across the Hall by C.C. Dado
Mistaken MD by Phoenix Emrys
Cops and Comix by Rhys Ford
Last First Kiss by LE Franks
Tomorrow by John Goode
From Fantasy to Friends by CR Guiliano
Witness Protected by Dawn Kimberly Johnson
Water Under the Bridge by Mia Kerick
A Gentle Shove of Human Kindness by Amy Lane
Air (Roads #1.75 million) by Garrett Leigh
An Atheist and a Yoga Instructor Walk into a Bar by Rowan McAllister
Stalking 101 by Moria McCain
Simple Desires by Tempeste O’Riley
Object of Care by Zahra Owens
Kid Confusion by Madison Parker
Fall Train by Jaime Samms
The Exhibition by Andrea Speed
What You Will by Tinnean
Prologue by Brandon Witt
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Posted in Uncategorized
About once a month, our office has some kind of food-related social event, usually a potluck lunch with a theme. This month, we settled on a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, and I signed up to bring an Un-Birthday Cake.
As a general guide, I used the classic Alice in Wonderland cartoon cake design (as in this adorable gif). I wasn’t able to come close to copying it, but I got the color and the general shape right, at least. I used a tube pan and made a 1-2-3-4 cake, which is a little more solid than a typical cake mix cake. I got super lucky and found some hot pink frosting, so I wouldn’t need to deal with food coloring. (It even came with pink sprinkles to make things super glittery!) I also got some cream cheese icing for the trim.
I’d never made a tube cake before. I was most concerned about turning the thing over once it was done, since I needed it to be wide-side-up. I made the cake a day ahead, so it would have plenty of time to cool before I took the frosting to it (and also in case it fell apart completely). It came out great! Here’s the cake:
And here’s the final frosted version (complete with lettering that looks like it was done by a Mad Hatter):
Finally, here’s the recipe. This is an easy to make (and easy to remember!) recipe for a basic yellow cake. My grandmother made this for everything when I was growing up, usually with 7-minute icing. Yummy! (This version came out a little dry, so I’m going to play around with things a bit: self-rising White Lily flour, and possibly shortening in place of part of the butter.)
1-2-3-4 Cake
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 cups sifted cake flour*
4 eggs
1 cup milk
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans, one 13 by 9 rectangular pan, or one tube or Bundt pan.
Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing each one in completely. Add flour alternately with milk, blending each addition completely. Add vanilla and mix just until smooth. Do not overbeat.
Pour batter into pan(s), spreading with spatula as needed to even out. Bake 20 to 25 minutes for round/rectangular pans, 40 to 45 minutes for tube/Bundt pan, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan(s) for 10 minutes, then remove from pan(s) and set on rack/plate to cool completely before frosting.
*Sift the flour before measuring. You can also substitute self-rising flour and omit the baking powder and salt.
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Posted in friday feedbag
I am not a morning person. Anyone who’s tried to carry on a coherent conversation with me before I’ve had coffee, a shower, or both can attest to how slowly I wake up. And oh, how I ever hate the blaring of an alarm clock.
It’s not that the alarm doesn’t wake me up. It’s that it DOES. I can’t sleep through something like that. I am a long-time snooze button master, though. I rarely turn off the alarm and go back to sleep (mostly, I don’t let myself turn it off until I’m sitting up), but I will snooze it forever. And ever.
I’ve tried a lot of tricks to make it easier to wake up. Some years back, my mom gave me a “progressive alarm clock” (from a Christmas wish list). It looks somewhat like a Dalek, but rather than EXTERMINATE, it ALARMINATES. It has settings for the usual buzzer-type alarm, but it also has various nature sounds and offset timing, so you can set it to start playing birds chirping first and then blare a buzzer fifteen minutes later. It also has a light built into it, and another setting will turn the light on a half-hour before the buzzer, starting at dim and gradually increasing in intensity. (There are settings for aromatherapy and to put you to sleep at night, too, but I haven’t used those.)
So for a while, I had my alarm clock set for a light to come on first, then songbirds, and finally the alarm. It worked for a while, too, especially in the winter when I’m waking up in the dark. But then I stopped noticing the light and the nature sounds, so I was back to the alarm blaring me awake. And snoozing it forever.
At the moment, I’m using two alarms on my phone. The first one is set to a soothing melody, at a volume loud enough to rouse me but not to blast me out from under the covers. I usually snooze my way through that one, but at least my brain is waking up. The second alarm, which goes off a half-hour later than the first, is set to something louder; at the moment, it’s a line from Spaceballs. (“I knew it! I’m surrounded by assholes!”) I change the tones occasionally so I don’t get too used to them.
Does any of this make it any easier for me to get up? Nope. The only time I ever wake up easily is when I can sleep until I wake up on my own. And that usually means sleeping until at least 9 a.m., so I only get that chance on weekend and holidays. But I’m waking up when I need to wake up, and as long as I have a day job, that’s going to be a requirement.
What I’ve started having trouble with more recently is making myself go to bed at night. You’d think since I clearly love to sleep that I wouldn’t have to force myself to do it. But alas, here I sit late into most evenings, unable to tear myself away to go burrow under the covers. I’m shooting myself in the foot every time, because the later I’m awake, the less sleep I’ll have by the time my medley of alarms wakes me. But my friends are in my computer! And they’re all saying such fun, interesting things! And if I go to bed, I’ll miss it!
*smacks self*
Ahem.
In truth, it really doesn’t make that much difference. If I go to bed at 10, I tend to wake up at 5, unable to go back to sleep. If I stay up until midnight, I want to kill my alarm when it goes off. Either way, I end up sucking down coffee to get my brain in gear so I can actually, y’know, function.
I think the harsh truth here is that I’m never going to wake up easily, no matter what alarms I set or what time I go to bed at night. I’m just going to have to be an adult and deal with it.
At least until I win the lottery and can sleep whenever I want. 😉
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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Posted in musings
Eric Arvin and T.J. Klune are two well-known and well-liked authors in the gay romance community who are happily coupled and planning to marry later this year. In December, Eric suddenly had to undergo brain surgery that’s left him mostly paralyzed. It’s been a very hard few months, but through everything, their love has only grown stronger.
Eric and T.J. are both published (in part) by my primary publisher, Dreamspinner Press, which decided to put together an anthology, Grand Adventures, with all proceeds going to help Eric and T.J. pay the many extra costs associated with managing Eric’s condition. I was happy to contribute a second edition of my short story “Stripped,” and when I saw the lineup of other authors, I felt a little giddy. And the cover! OMG. So much love. (You’ll be able to buy prints and maybe even t-shirts of the cover art soon, too!)
The anthology will be released on March 31 and is available for preorder now in ebook or paperback format. It’s a fantastic way to help out two great guys.
(P.S. You can also donate directly to T.J. and Eric through the GoFundMe page set up by friends. Since everything at Dreamspinner is on sale right now, consider donating the difference between the purchase price and the price you pay for your preorder!)
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Posted in charity, coming soon, grand adventures, preorder, short story, stripped
We’re just a month away now from the release of the Butt Ninjas From Hell anthology, the sort-of sequel to last year’s Butt Pirates from Space. This time around, the anthology has eight contributing authors: returning authors are Kage Alan, T.C. Blue, Kiernan Kelly, and me, and our first-timers are JP Barnaby, Eden Winters, Ally Blue, and Jevocas Green. The ebook comes out on April 16, with print following a couple of weeks later.
To whet your whistle, here’s a little snippet/tease from my contribution, “Clean Up on Aisle Me!”
“Jonny?”
Bert’s voice still sounded breathy. Jonny waved a hand. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “Just gotta find my equilibrium again. I think it tried to escape to another dimension.”
Bert chuckled as he sat next to Jonny. One of his large hands came to rest in the center of Jonny’s back. “The others are gone, so feel free to catch your breath,” he said. “The first battle’s always the hardest, especially without any real training behind you. You did a great job—”
Energy surged through Jonny, and he spun around in a move worthy of a ninja, landing straddled across Bert’s lap. He grabbed the back of Bert’s head with one hand and used the other to shove that damn mask far enough down that he could get his mouth on Bert’s.
At that moment, Jonny didn’t even care if Bert was gay. He was there, they were there, both of them alive and well and on the correct plane of existence, and damned if Jonny wasn’t going to go for everything he could get.
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Posted in anthology, butt ninjas from hell, clean up on aisle me, coming soon, excerpt, m/m, publishers, release date, short story, snippet, Wilde City
Today, I’m guest blogging over at Pants Off Reviews to kick off the run up to RainbowCon. Come on over and check it out! 🙂
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Posted in conventions, guest blog, rainbowcon
In a recent blog tour post for the re-release of her book Double Blind, Heidi Cullinan talked about how she’d originally written the book, the sequel to Special Delivery, during National Novel Writing Month. (And oh, by the way, if you haven’t read them? GO. Get caught up on the series now, because Tough Love is out next month.) Anyway, Heidi talked about how writing Double Blind was low pressure because Special Delivery had been sold but not released yet, so there was no one champing at the bit for her to finish.
My first novel, Sand & Water, was written during NaNo, too. (A year after Heidi’s, in fact.) I had a pretty solid story summary and the first 200 words written when I woke up on November 1 and dove in. I wrote 63,000 words in November and the other 23,000 or so in December. (I also realized about 30,000 words in that the original summary wasn’t going to be enough story, so I added on the remaining story that I’d thought might fit into a sequel. First lesson: you’re probably going to need more story than you think. LOL) And then I revised for a couple of months, submitted, and got published later that year.
I haven’t finished another novel since.
Oh, I’ve tried NaNo again. Sand & Water was my second NaNo project, actually. I wrote a fanfic project the first time around. But in the three years since my last success, I haven’t come close to finishing anything. I’ve tried several different methods, including some of the ones that helped with Sand & Water, but nothing has worked.
It’s a bit too early in the year for me to decide if I’ll give NaNo another shot in 2014. But even if I do decide against it, the experience has taught me that one size doesn’t fit all applies to everything, not just to differences between authors. Every story stands alone. Even when you’re writing a series, each book needs its own space and its own special handling.
Sand & Water is a fairly light, sweet romance, low on angst and conflict. I still like it. It’s the kind of book I like to read, and I’m proud to have my name on it. But writing it was akin to someone with a lot of debt paying off an account with a low balance. I got a great sense of accomplishment and pride, but that was just the first step.
Almost two years ago, I started on a new novel centered around a main character who’s loosely based on a friend of mine. I’ve written on it sporadically throughout that time. I’ve set it aside to work on shorter projects and then come back to it. It’s been my NaNo project. I’ve summarized it, used various plotting methods, brainstormed, and put into practice every other idea I can think of to get the damn thing written.
It’s still not done.
So. My goal for the rest of March is to finally finish this book. I’m pulling out all the stops. Call it National Novel FINISHING Month, maybe. But by April 1, I am determined to have a draft, no matter how rough it might be.
No foolin’. And no excuses.
Maybe Heidi will send Randy Jansen over to ride herd until I’m done.
Now that I’m signed up for GayRomLit, my conference schedule for 2014 is set. There are several other events I would love to attend, but I’ve had to keep things reined in due to limitations on time and money. Here’s where I’ll be this year:
RainbowCon, April 17–20, Tampa
Attending author
Panels: Author Etiquette (Thu 3pm), Author Q&A (Thu 4pm), Using Stereotypes to Your Advantage (Fri 3pm)
Outlantacon/Gaylaxicon, May 2–4, Atlanta
Guest
Panels TBD
Dragon Con, August 29–September 1, Atlanta
Volunteer
Daily Dragon staff; panels TBD
GayRomLit, October 16–19, Bloomingdale (Chicago)
General attendee
Posted in conventions, dragon con, gaylaxicon, gayromlit, outlantacon, rainbowcon
Here’s a question I keep seeing crop up with some regularity: when should authors look into switching to a different penname?
Some things seem clear. If you’re writing adult fiction with graphic sex scenes, then you’re probably going to want to use a different name if you write something that’s for YA (or younger) audience. Or, say, if you’re hit by a plotbunny for an inspirational. If you write romance and cross over into an entirely different area—maybe crime fiction, or even nonfiction—a name change might be in order.
But what if you’re just switching subgenres within romance? If you write gay romance as A.B. Cee, do you need to switch to C.B. Ayy for “mainstream” (M/F) romance? Do you need an erotica penname separate from your romance handle? How about if you usually write light, fluffy romance but your new book is dark and disturbing? Is it worth the additional time, effort, and expense to promote two (or more) identities? What’s more dangerous: dividing your potential audience and possibly confusing readers, or taking a risk that readers will buy something they don’t want to read (and complain loudly about it)?
I’m not about to say that there’s a single answer here. Some authors have done well with two (or more) pennames, even within the romance genre. Adult versus YA seems to be a fairly clear-cut decision, as does romance/erotica versus non-romance genres. But some authors have dividing lines between M/F and M/M, between erotica and romance, between contemporary and paranormal/suspense/historical, and so on.
Two fellow authors who’ve posted about this very question recently are Marie Sexton and Sarah Madison. Marie has a new story in the works that’s a huge shift in tone from the usual for her, so she’s chosen to use a slightly different penname. She talked about her reasons here. And Sarah has been struggling with the penname decision, mainly for M/F vs. M/M stories, and she’s decided to take a survey to see what readers think. The survey is here if you’d like to share your thoughts. It’ll be open through Saturday. 🙂
Personally, I already have enough trouble juggling two identities, real-life and penname—and mine are fairly similar, so even that’s not a huge issue. I would definitely use a penname if I were to write for the under-18 crowd, simply because of the content of my published adult work, and I most likely would if I branched out beyond romance. But for romance, without some concrete numbers proving that it makes a substantial difference, I’m likely to stick with this name no matter what type I write. And even with that proof, I might stick with it anyway.
Why? Well, for multiple reasons, but in part it’s because I feel pretty strongly that one of the best ways to help move LGBT+ romance into the mainstream is to treat it as if it’s already there.
I completely understand why others have made, or will make, a different choice. In particular, for those who’ve been writing in both M/F and LGBT+ for a while, setting up different names was probably necessary when they started publishing, and it makes no sense to change that. For others, publishers or agents may have suggested (or insisted on) a different name, or authors might have needed to separate things for personal reasons. Some feel that readers won’t pick up an M/F book written by someone who also writes M/M, and that could have a big effect on sales. There are many valid reasons to use more than one penname for different types of romantic pairings.
Thing is, none of those reasons really apply to me. I use a penname because I have extended family who might cause drama over what I write, but my main purpose there was to shield my grandmother, and she’s been gone for almost year. I’m not reliant on my writing to pay the bills, and I don’t expect to move in that direction, so sales aren’t as much of a concern for me. And because I write part-time, I don’t have the time (or energy) to maintain an additional persona if it’s not truly necessary.
At the moment, the next few projects on my writing slate are gay romance, but coming up after that is at least one M/F pairing. More may well follow, but I have no plans to leave gay romance behind. I’ll write whatever kind of romance tickles my fancy. And as of right now, I plan to stick with Shae Connor for all of those stories. I hope people who like my writing will come straddle the fence with me. 🙂
Image courtesy of naypong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Posted in author life, musings, writing
shaeconnorwrites 