Saturday, December 31, 2005

Final frontier

All set to start work on the final preparations for Forbidden Fruit. Every time a new issue's due we get a sudden flurry of work when everything becomes due at once - the articles, the stories, the contracts, the artwork, the design and html programming of all the content - and muggins here runs round in ever decreasing circles trying to get it all done. There's usually a point where my head hits the desk and I think I'm never going to make it, but every issue so far has been up and running on time so I've managed it somehow. LOL. And these days I have valuable and much appreciated assistance from my fellow partners in crime (aka editors) Emily Veinglory and Kay Derwydd, as well as our growing team of regular contributors, who help everything to run more smoothly.

Even so, we're tossing around ideas for submission deadlines and reading periods now that the magazine is so popular. We're getting rougly three times as many submissions per issue as we used to and it can be hard finding time to read them all in the middle of other work. Having a reading period blocked into the diary ought to make it easier to sit down and concentrate on the magazine's content and nothing else for a couple of weeks - but we'll have to try it and see.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Writing resolutions

One of my friends was asking about making New Year's resolutions with a writing theme, and it set me thinking about resolutions that I ought to make. There's the usual suspects (finishing more of my works-in-progress before starting anything new; finishing more full stop) but I think this year my main resolution has to be to learn how to say no.

We're getting so many more submissions in for Forbidden Fruit these days that reading them all takes up massive amounts of time, and I should really be using whatever's left to write. But last year I joined far too many forums and email lists (some important sources of publisher information) and my time has been spread way too thin. I think I'm going to have to back away from some of them, and also to volunteer a bit less for stuff like betaing and proof-reading. It's a shame, but if I keep going the way I am, something's gonna give and I'll either have no time to write, or end up having a seizure!

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Seasons' Greetings!



Hope everyone has a great, relaxing holiday. I'll be back after the break!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Title scorer

This is a bit of fun - Lulu's book title scorer. You enter your book title plus a few other details and click the button, and it tells you how much chance you have of the book being a bestseller.

Lulu's Titlescorer

I promptly checked as many of my titles as I could think of and was delighted when One Degree of Separation came up as 72.5%! Now if I could just get the sales to match its 'bestseller' status.... LOL

Monday, December 19, 2005

Christmas anthology

Here's something to snuggle up with after the turkey!

Sultry Shades of Christmas
Edited by Nancy Jackson
Print Edition:Coming Soon
eBook ISBN:1-897217-39-0
Published December 16, 2005

Synopsis:
The golden glow from a fireside interlude
Rich shades of holly and ivy strewn across the mantle
Red-hot kisses exchanged beneath the mistletoe
Soft, pale moonlight cast over new fallen snow
The magic a white Christmas brings

Sultry Shades of Christmas is a batch of romantic holiday stories laced with a sensual ambience. Enjoy the festive tales with the one you love, and allow the magic of each author to inspire and invoke a bit of naughty spirit within.

From prized jewels, exotic candles, spicy treats, and magical ornaments, to fond memories, renewed confidence, love revisited, first love, and precious gifts, each story will spark an emotion and warm your heart.

Authors include

Emma Wildes, Brenda Williamson, Daniel R. Robichaud, Susan M. Sailors, Bryn Haniver, Lynne den Hartog, Robert Buckley, Fiona Glass, Phillip Sweeney, Sommer Marsden, and Rachel Olivier.

Get your cockles-of-the-heart-warming Christmas copy today :) Sultry Shades of Christmas

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Great news!

Isn't it funny how news comes along in little 'rushes'? Yesterday I had those two lots of bad news about the anthologies, today I've had good news in spades.

First, Whiskey Creek Press - Torrid have accepted the second story I sent them for their Torrid Teaser line. 'Crossed Wires' will be teamed up with 'To The Rescue' and both will be published as a single e-book, probably some time in the new year.

And second, the Sultry Shades of Christmas e-book (containing my romantic Christmas story 'Home for Christmas') has just been released, and the paperback will be out soon. As I didn't think this was due till *next* Christmas it's a wonderful early present to find it's already available!

Now I've just got my fingers crossed for my novel...!

Friday, December 16, 2005

Bad news

Two lots of bad news in one day as two anthologies I'd submitted stories to have been either cancelled or postponed by their editors. I hate to say it, but this seems to be turning into a trend. I've read or heard of a number of anthologies being cancelled, often at the last minute, and it's getting harder all the time to find markets to submit collections of stories to, or publishers willing to publish them. As a writer of short stories, I'm obviously hoping the trend will reverse soon! In the meantime, I now have at least one story left without a home.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Re-makes

I'm surrounded by hype for King Kong at the moment - it's on every breakfast cereal packet, every fast food advert, every lifestyle tv show. It set me wondering whether or not I actually approve of re-makes, especially of such wonderful classics as this. After all, there's not much creativity or original thought involved in the process - and yet it's the new director, cast and crew who get all the fame and fortune. To put it in writing terms, I might just as well re-type War & Peace in a jazzy font, stick a snazzy cover on the front, add one or two steamy sex scenes (my 'artistic interpretation of the dynamics between the characters') and republish it under my pen name. Which would hardly be very honest of me... but if I could get as much publicity and money as Peter Jackson is for a similar stunt with King Kong, perhaps I'm doing the wrong thing. :)

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Phew

I finished Sticky Wicket at last. This has been quite a marathon for such a short story - first it got left while I was in hospital, then the characters refused to 'play ball' (sorry about the pun *grin*) when I coaxed them into the shower, and finally there was the word limit problem yesterday. But I eventually persuaded the men that they wanted each other more than a quick wash and a cold beer LOL and wrote the last scene just before lunch.

The story's still a smidge over the word count so I'll go back over it in a day or so and see if I can hack out anything else. After that, it's off to the anthology editor with it. I just hope the American and Canadian publishers understand cricket, because I've piled the references in and cricketing jargon must be one of the most baffling in sport.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

That'll teach me...

...to read submission guidelines before I finish a story. I was nine-tenths the way through the final sex scene on Sticky Wicket and thought I would check the word count to make sure I was still on track. Imagine my horror to find the limit was 3,500 and not the 5,000 I've been working my way towards! I promptly lost all interest in the sex and hurtled off to try to chop 1,500 words out of the story to give myself enough room to finish it. I'm not sure I've managed it yet and in the meantime the inspiration has wandered off again. Memo to self: next time, write the damn story first, then worry about length. ::rolls eyes::

Monday, December 05, 2005

Erotic romance writers' webring

I've created a new webring for people who write erotic romance (points to pretty pink nav bar at bottom of blog *grin*). If you write erotic romance, have a website and are a participating member of the Erotic Romance Writers' Forum, please feel free to apply to join. Personal websites, fiction archives, blogs - any site is welcome as long as it has some relevance to the subject matter (well, duh...) and follows the above criteria. I look forward to seeing some of you there!

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Another new release!

Thanatos by Emily Veinglory

Image hosted by Photobucket.comA new electronically published short story, now available from Chippewa press.

Vampiress Lynn is starting to feel the pull of thanatos, the Death Wish. So when a cute hunter crosses her path, it seems like an easy way out. But libido, the life instinct, might still prove to be the stronger force....

Rating: Explicit!
Genre: Paranormal, Erotic Romance
Length: Short Story
Format: ebook, PDF/HTML Author: Emily Veinglory
Editor: Catherine Chant
Artist: Djinn
Proofreader: Brandy Overton

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Nice surprise

Logged on this morning to find a lovely surprise waiting for me - a really cool review of 'Elfmeet' from Fallen Angel Reviews. Here's a little of what they said about the book:

"Elfmeet is an erotic story by Fiona Glass that is short, sweet, and highly enjoyable. I felt this story was very well put together and had the perfect mix of past and present that made the book flow smoothly instead of feeling sudden and rushed as some short stories do. Readers will enjoy this original and enchanting tale and be left wanting more."

You can read the rest of the review at
Fallen Angel Reviews

Needless to say I'm one very happy bunny. :)

More reading material!

Press release from ERWF Member K M Frontain:




The Soulstone Chronicles

For a nice big read. For fantasy with romance. For romance that crosses aeons.

Follow the adventures of a polyamorous god who’s managed to get himself born human.

http://www.lulu.com/Frontain
http://soulstonechronicles.bravehost.com/
http://kmfrontain.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Eeek - deadlines

Various deadlines that still seemed to be a comfortable way off a few weeks ago have started to loom ominously, so I got my head down and worked on a story for one of them. 'Sticky Wicket' is a short, sex'n'cricket story that I'm hoping to sub to a Torquere anthology by early January. It had stalled rather while I was in hospital but a writing friend urged me to lavish some time on it, give it chocolates, take it to the movies and give it another go. I'm not sure if it was the cinema tickets or the hot coffee LOL but something worked and I've made some headway at last. Still not finished, mind you, but I've only really got the sex scene and some final 'wrapping up' to do now.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Response - or lack of it

I'm getting really tired of publishers who don't respond within the time they say they will. Currently I'm waiting on three different publishers, none of whom have replied within their own stated response time. One (a well known US print publisher) has even forbidden writers from calling or emailing to check the progress of their manuscript. Since they haven't even acknowledged receipt I have no way of finding out if they got the damn thing in the first place! Another that I'm waiting on is a multi-authored anthology, and I can't keep the other writers informed because I'm not being told myself. It's all very aggravating, not to mention disheartening. You go to all the trouble of following a publisher's guidelines on formatting, content and style of submission, you post it off (and as most publishers are in America these days that's no small price to pay) and you wait patiently for the end of the response time to be up. And wait... and wait... and go on waiting... and in some cases, simply never hear.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that publishers and editors are extremely busy, harrassed people. Their desks probably have piles of unread manuscripts that resemble the Tower of Pisa and their bosses are probably holding them to all sorts of unreasonable targets and deadlines. But it's common courtesy to send a reply of some sort, and it only takes a minute to drop a one-line email to a waiting author to say 'sorry we haven't got back to you, we'll write as soon as we can'. And it takes only a few minutes to set up an automated response to submission emails, that will at least let writers know their material has been received. Some publishers can do it - so why not all? I honestly don't know. But I can't help thinking they'll start to lose the goodwill of potential authors - which can hardly be a Good Thing for their business....

Monday, November 28, 2005

De-junking

Worked really hard over the weekend tidying my study and especially my desk. I usually work in a welter of gadgets and gizmos and fluffy toys and bits of paper and other crap that 'might come in useful one day'. Every now and again, though, it gets completely out of hand and I find I can't see the desk any more. The worst offender was a set of three overflowing desk trays, supposedly labelled 'in', 'out' and 'pending' but really just three versions of 'should have been filed weeks ago'. LOL. I set to work, went through everything and threw out most of it, with the nice result that I have a clean tidy desk and hopefully a clean tidy mind along with it. Dunno how long it'll last but I'm going to enjoy it while it does!

Oooh - a new book!

Press Release from ERWF Member Kay Derwydd:

"Novel Visions" by Kay Derwydd
Available at Chippewa Publishing
http://www.chippewapublishing.com
$2.00

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Jonathon Cayle is a horror novelist visiting New Orleans for a two-week long book signing stint. Unhappy with his life back in Atlanta with his girlfriend, he is grateful to be able to explore his preference for men while he’s out of town. What he finds in New Orleans, however, is the last thing he ever expected.

**Excerpt**

He sat down on the bed, kicked his boots off, and draped his coat over the end of the bed to let it dry out. The stability of a regular mattress was a welcome relief. He was sick to death of Nadeen's obsession with waterbeds. He switched on the television to the news then began to undress. He only watched the news half-heartedly, feeling a bit out of the loop with the local bits, but he left it on as he went into the bathroom to fill the tub. He had an hour before Jess would be back and a nice soak in hot water would do him some good.

As he sank down into the steaming water, he felt calmness sweep over him. Now this was heaven. No Nadeen, no ringing phones, no socialite visitors; just himself, a hot tub, and the decadence of New Orleans right outside his window. With the soothing effects of the water, he was finally able to think about his next book.

He was in town to do the signings for The Hart Files, but he knew the plotline demanded another book. Rather, the main character demanded another book. Kain Hart: now there was a man to be reckoned with, and what better place to do a book signing for a vampire novel than New Orleans? Jonathon smiled and closed his eyes; if only Kain Hart were real. He chuckled quietly. If Nadeen knew he lusted after men, she would have a fucking heart attack. Jess knew, however, and she was constantly trying to set him up with some cute guy she knew.

Jonathon groaned at the thought of finally touching a man again. The last time he had was nearly a year ago, long before he started dating Nadeen. Within two weeks of the beginning of their relationship, she had made it clear she was not fond of gays and lesbians. Jonathon's heart collapsed in on itself that day, but he stayed with her; only the gods knew why.

As the steam wafted up around him and the tub, Jonathon felt himself drift off to sleep several times. If he had more time, he would give in. Every time he did, he was treated to a delicious dream of Kain Hart, his darkly sensual vampire from his latest novel. Oh, if only he were real. With a Kain Hart to keep him company, Jonathon would never return to Atlanta or Nadeen. He could not help but grin at the thought of the socialite bitch's reaction should that happen. So lost he was in his daydream of Kain, he did not hear the knock on his suite door until the person was nearly banging on it.

****

http://chippewapublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=65&osCsid=39c41bcf9792a7e07f1c663e8c0f0712

Friday, November 25, 2005

Time wasting

I cheerfully wasted almost the entire afternoon hunting down, re-coding and previewing different blogger templates for this site. There are some truly amazing designs 'out there', only some of which are too complicated for this css-dunce to understand. LOL. I finally plumped for this one because it has a writing theme. Thanks to blogspot templates for the design.

Of course, all that messing about meant that I didn't achieve a single thing I actually wanted or needed to - including chasing down stories for Forbidden Fruit, reading stories for Forbidden Fruit, accepting stories for Forbidden Fruit (LOL) and emailing one of my publishers about payment terms. But I figure everyone needs a day off now and again.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Sultry Christmas

The contract for the Sultry Shades of Christmas anthology came through yesterday but I didn't have time to look at it. I put that right today and after querying a few minor details with the editor, I printed it out, filled in the blanks and shoved it in an envelope ready to mail to Canada. I might have been a bit previous with my announcements, though. It now looks as though the anthology's planned for Christmas 2006, not Christmas 2005 as I'd thought. Not that it matters - it gives the editor and publishers longer to ensure a really good product. Must admit I'd been wondering how on earth they were going to get it out in time for this year's festive season!

And talking of anthologies, I've given Chippewa Publishing permission to put one of my contracted stories in a new one they have planned, called (rather wonderfully) 'The Twelve Elves of Christmas'. LOL I think 'Lost Property' was due to come out at stome stage as a stand-alone e-book, but I'm happy to have it included in an anthology and although the overall return will probably be less, it'll be nice to have a payment in hand rather than waiting for the royalties to come through!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Coming back again!

I've had a request from one of my readers to reinstate this blog because it's easier to track via RSS than the one on my personal webspace. Which is a very reasonable request - and as I'm a very reasonable person *grins* - here I am, back again, turning up like an old penny.

Not that there's much to report just now. I've been scribbling away on one or two new ideas, I'm betaing a novel for a friend, and I'm sorting out edits on a story that I hope is going in the latest Chippewa Publishing anthology. But for now, that's it! I'll check in again soon when I should hopefully have some more news.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Crossed Wires

I had two sets of feedback from my betas on 'Crossed Wires', both of them very helpful. It sounds as if my fear that I'd quite literally 'lost the plot' with having to cut the story down so much is unfounded, which is one less thing to worry about. However, one beta pointed out that one of the minor characters didn't have a name and calling him 'the second man' all the way through one particular scene was very cumbersome. She was absolutely right, so I added an introduction into some dialogue and gave him a name, and it reads a lot more smoothly as a result. After that I rewrote one or two more sentences, gave it a quick spell-check, and whizzed it off to the editor at Whiskey Creek Press, who's been waiting with baited breath for a companion to 'To the Rescue', for my Torrid Teaser duo. She wrote straight back to say she'd got it (why can't more editors be as polite and helpful as that?!?) and I'm hopeful she'll like it.

My one concern is the subject matter, as it's a tale of undercover cops, telephone sex lines andd a snuff gang. But as I never actually describe the sordid happenings, just refer to them, I'm hoping it'll be okay.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Challenge

Torquere Press are running a neat challenge on their readers' yahoo group - readers throw out ideas with a Halloween theme and us poor mugs (aka writers LOL) have to try to come up with story, or at least a snippet, based on that idea. The first idea to come up was pumpkin carving. For some reason all I could think of was the pottery scene in the film 'Ghost' (don't ask why... I haven't a clue!) and I scribbled a very short, very silly little story along those lines and sent it off.

It's odd - up to a few weeks ago I couldn't do flash fiction to save my life, and everything I started was turning into a novel before I'd gone three pages. But suddenly, for whatever reason, I've knocked off about half a dozen of these shorts in the last few weeks and am having lots of fun with them. Most of them are contemporary and many feature mistakes, slip-ups, cock-ups and minor injuries and I'm even wondering whether I could collect enough of them together to bundle into an anthology. I could call it 'One of Those Days' or something. Hmm. I rather like the idea!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Finished!

Yaay! I finally finished rewriting Crossed Wires. I managed to pare it down to about 8,500 words in the end, and that included upgrading both the sex scenes, so I'm really pleased. It's out for betaing at the moment and once I've had a few comments back and had another look at it myself, I'll be sending it off to Whiskey Creek Press.

Here's an incredibly brief snippet, just to set the scene:

Reuben Duncan was grumbling. First he groused about the state of the canteen coffee. Then he started on his overtime payments - or lack of them. By the time he'd got onto the perils of cigarettes, even the squad's regular smokers had decided enough was enough and stalked out, slamming the door behind them. Which left Eddie, weathering the storm as usual.

"Job not going well?" he said gently, knowing from past experience that sympathy worked wonders when Reuben was in one of his moods.

Reuben snorted, took a swig of the much-maligned coffee, screwed his face up and tipped the rest down the sink. "Well? It's not going at all. Four days I've spent in that place, four sodding days, and what've I got to show for it? Absolutely bloody nothing. I'm beginning to think there's nothing there to find. And I never want to see a phone again."

Eddie sucked in his cheeks, suppressing the bubble of laughter that threatened to erupt. Wouldn't do to set his partner off again... but mischief won over caution. "So, erm, who are you today, then? Rampant Reuben? The squad's Siren of Sex?"

"Pack it in, Eddie."

"Okay, keep yer hair on, there's no need to take it out on me. Besides, you've got to admit it's funny, the thought of you as a telephone sex-line operator."

Reuben rubbed a hand through his hair and scowled. "Nothing funny about it, mate, not when you have to listen to the blokes on the other end. There's some right nutters out there."

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

New m/m yahoo group

HOMO-PROMO YAHOOGROUP:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homopromo

Do you love to read about hot handsome men getting it on together? You might call it 'gay romance', 'original slash' or just 'M/M'. Well if that's what you like to read do I have the yahoogroup for you! Homo-promo is a place to swap gossip, post reviews, hear about new releases, contests and promotions, and chat with your favourite writers of that spicy manlove we all love. (Bisexual, threesome and other M/M+ content also welcome.)

M/M and M/M+ writers are also welcome to join our happy band which already includes the following authors: Lena Austin, Ally Blue, Rachel Bo, Kay Derwydd, Kate Douglas, Fiona Glass, Jeigh Lynn, Jet Mykles, Willa Okati, Barbara Sheridan, Kira Stone, Silvia Violet, Emily Veinglory & Samantha Winston.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Being ruthless

I'm still hard at work on the undercover cop story for WCP's Torrid Teasers. It was some way over their preferred word count so I started butchering some of the unnecessary verbiage, plus one or two scenes with minor characters that didn't really add to the story. And I'm amazed just how much I've managed to hack off it - about 4,000 words at the last count! That puts it well under the target size, and even gives me some extra words to play around with if I want. Which I may well do. The sex scenes are a bit lacking and for a 'Torrid' line, probably not hot enough so I'll see what I can do to spice them up a bit. :)

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Halloween

Lots of publishers and magazines are putting on contests and special offers for Halloween - it's an 'embarrassment of riches' and quite a job choosing between them all! I decided to enter Torquere Press's Halloween contest and duly sent off the story I've been working on all week. I've had to trim it considerably to fit the word limit, but hopefully it still makes sense. Now I just have to wait till the end of the month to find out if I've won anything.

And I renewed the domain registration on Forbidden Fruit so the magazine should be safe for another two years!

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Scribbling

Old stories can come in really useful sometimes. I rarely throw them out, no matter how many years ago I wrote them or how dreadful they sound, because I can always rewrite or recycle the ideas. I've done that with two this week. Torquere Press are running a 'things that go bump' contest for Halloween so I brushed off a short story set in a haunted house, cut it down to the required word length and will send it off in due course. And whilst I was browsing the old files for that, I came across a story I'd completely forgotten about, even though I only wrote it last year. (I know, I know, it's my age creeping up on me. LOL) It was an 'undercover cop' story set in the world of sleazy telephone sex lines and I reckon it could be perfect for the Torrid Teaser that Whiskey Creek Press - Torrid want to put together with 'To The Rescue'. It's a bit overlong so I spent the morning hacking it down (not too difficult as it was surprisingly wordy) and it needs a bit more sex. But once that's done, it can go off too. I wish all my *new* stories were as easy to write!

I started one after we got back from holiday, inspired by lakes like Thirlmere and Haweswater which are actually artificial reservoirs. The valleys they're set in were dammed, and several old villages were drowned in the process. Local myth says you can still hear the church bells from the villages ringing from under the water and I thought it was a great idea for some sort of ghost story. I haven't got very far with it yet but it's definitely one for the work-in-progress folder....

Monday, October 03, 2005

Check for 'Checkmate'

The latest edition of Torquere Press' newsletter, Fresh Off the Vine, is out, complete with Halloween theme. And 'Checkmate' is right in there on the front page, with the other Halloween flash-fics and snippets. For your Halloween giggle, scroll down to the third story on the page (and then scroll back up, because all the other stories are well worth reading too).

Fresh Off the Vine

I've been getting a sudden snowstorm of spam masquerading as comments on the blog, so I've turned on word verification. If you'd like to leave a relevant comment to one of my posts, you'll just need to copy a single word, to prove you're not a bot! Yes, it's a pain, but so's deleting endless guff about rss or specialist lighting systems or even worse, porn. Gack.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Second place!

Drought's End, the little m/f sex-in-a-thunderstorm flash fic I wrote for the desdmona.com contest in the summer, has won silver in the sex-writer.com Steam Heat contest!! I still can't quite believe it, since I so rarely write anything het - but people seem to like that one so perhaps I should have the courage of my convictions and write some more.

Saturday, September 24, 2005

It's out!

Chippewa Publishing have now released Elfmeet as a single-story e-book for the princely sum of $2. For your dose of gay elves, go here:

Elfmeet - Chippewa Publishing

I'll be on holiday next week so it'll be a few days until I update this again.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Another 'vine' success :)

If you like short, fun, dialogue-only stories, keep your eyes open early next month. Torquere Press will be featuring Checkmate, a flash m/m story with a Halloween theme, on the front cover of their Fresh Off the Vine newsletter, due out 3 October. Happy reading, and Happy Halloween!

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Elfmeet released very soon


Chippewa Publishing will be releasing Elfmeet on Friday 23 September as an e-book! The cover artwork is just gorgeous.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Yes, another one...

I've started a new novel. Yup, another one, and no, I still haven't finished the last one. LOL.

But it's looking ever more likely that we'll be moving house soon, and it's going to break my heart because I just love my current home. So I started thinking about the things we do for our partners, and the things we have to give up for love, and I wondered whether it's always the best thing, or whether it stores up problems for later on. And lo and behold! another novel was born. I've made some changes to the basic concept in order to protect the guilty. *grins*. We'll be moving from a big city to a small provincial town but in the novel the main character does it the other way round, leaving behind the cottage he bought with a bequest from his grandmother and moving to the big, crowded, dirty, noisy city to be with his lover.

I won't spoil the surprise by saying what happens next, but suffice it to say that love doesn't necessarily conquer all. I'm calling it 'Give Me to Drink Mandragora' which hopefully suggests its dark mood as well as hinting at the problems caused by uprooting.

I've only done part of the first chapter so far but I'm hoping to get further with it before we go off on holiday at the end of the week.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Concentration, or lack of it

Isn't it weird? Give me a whole day to myself, without interruptions, and I can't write a thing. But today, with the decorators in, hammering, humping ladders about, demanding cups of tea and generally getting in the way, I sat down and made slow but steady progress on the cricketing story.

Partly I guess I was inspired by the England cricket team winning the Ashes yesterday. Partly I told myself I needed to finish something for the anthology and simply got my head down. Either way I added over a thousand words and am relatively pleased with the way it's coming along. 'War and Peace' it is not *grins* but it's a lighthearted romp and I'm hoping it will at least be different from all the baseball, basketball and US football stories that'll probably be sent in.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Another one away

I've sold another story - Torquere Press have taken 'Salad Days' for their January 2006 newsletter which is great news! This is the story I challenged myself to write to try and kickstart my writing again, so it's particularly pleasing to have had it accepted somewhere. Ideally I'd have liked it to come out a little sooner but that's the first space they have available, which is fair enough. And beggars can't really be choosers. LOL

Friday, September 09, 2005

All-new keyrings

Forbidden Fruit has keyrings for readers to win! Each issue we'll be giving away a free keyring with the Forbidden Fruit artwork and logo, for contests and the like. This issue, play 'hunt the penguin' to win one! See http://www.forbiddenfruitzine.com/news.htm for more information - and here's a pic of the keyrings to whet your appetite!

Thursday, September 08, 2005

The Kitchen Sink

I've been thinking about the possibility of getting a few of my stories together for another anthology, called the Kitchen Sink. I realised the other day that I already have two or three stories on a similar theme, set in the kitchen or around chores and mishaps at home. All are quite short and very light-hearted and I reckon if I could write another ten or so it would make an entertaining theme for a collection.

I'm going to add the story about the fennel (see below!) and have just started scribbling something about socks in the wash. It'll be a challenge to see how many new ideas I can come up with. :)

Monday, September 05, 2005

Noticeboard

I don't always have a story in each issue of Forbidden Fruit these days - we get so many other great submissions that I don't need to! But I was rather tempted this time because the next issue (Jan '06) will have a theme of 'communication' which sounded like a lot of fun. I've written a 'story' in the form of notices left pinned to a board - and thanks to the wonders of html, I've even been able to make it look like a noticeboard!! Not sure yet if we'll actually use it for the issue - it depends how many other stories we get in as well. But it sure was fun to set up and write!

Sunday, September 04, 2005

Forbidden Fruit

It's that time of the year again - early September and time for a brand new issue of Forbidden Fruit. This new issue marks a series of new beginnings for the magazine - a new editorial team, a new team of regular contributors for both art and fiction, a new non fiction section and two new serialised stories on the fiction section - not to mention the Gay Zombie Penguins! Please see the News page for further details - and don't forget to check out our extended content while you're at it!

Here's the link for those of you who don't already have us bookmarked:
http://www.forbiddenfruitzine.com/

Finally...

I actually managed to sit down and write something late last night - and not just 'something', but a whole short story from start to finish. Not that it was up to much *grins* but I was beginning to despair of ever writing more than a paragraph at a time. I realised that it had been so long since I genuinely wrote anything that I was getting stale, so I tried the old challenge of picking three words at random from a dictionary and writing a story that includes them all. I ended up with 'hurdle', 'solve' and 'fennel'. o.O But I managed to invent something, and it even made sense!!

Here's a snippet from the start, with the fennel. The other words come later, honestly. *grins*

[snippet removed as story now accepted for publication]

Saturday, September 03, 2005

The Couch Critic

My friend Gina has a new review site out where she posts articles she's had published as well as reviews of tv shows and books. It's entertaining, it's called One Couch Critic and it's at http://thecouchcritic.blogspot.com/, so why not check it out?

Friday, September 02, 2005

Win a book!

A copy of my book One Degree of Separation is being given away by Erotic Romance Reviews for Women (http://www.errw.bravehost.com/home.html) as part of their Super Sexy September launch. Pop over to their site, join up to the ERRW Gossip Corner yahoo group (where readers and writers alike can chat and swap notes) and you can take part in contests all this month and win yourself free books and other prizes. Including, of course, One Degree. :)

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Linguistics

Watched a fascinating tv programme last night about the development of the English language (British not American) since the Sixties. The people interviewed were very knowledgeable and made some interesting points. For instance, that it was the combined influence of the Beatles and Radio Caroline that opened the BBC up to regional accents; and that since English 'borrowed' about 50-100,000 French words in the middle ages, many of the English words France is now objecting to started life as French. LOL

The most telling point of all related to the English language's ability to absorb new words and phrases, thereby refreshing itself and keeping itself alive. Or, as one contributor put it, English tends to lead foreign languages up dark alleys and mug them for all their best words. LOL. One linguistics professor stated categorically that this was the single most important reason why English is the current world-language while French is not. Fascinating stuff.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Balls to you too ;)

Got inspiration on Sticky Wicket, the story I'm hoping to submit to Torquere's new sporting erotica anthology. (And what a great idea that is! LOL) The story is based on one I wrote as fan fiction years ago, but with serious rewrites. The old version wasn't from any one character's point of view, and kind of fizzled out with no proper ending, and had hardly any sex in it - not even sexual tension. Soooo, I'm hacking it about. When I've finished it should be from Peter's point of view, with heaps of sexual tension as he and his lover play cricket, but can't get themselves declared 'out' in order to retire to the pavilion for some rumpy-pumpy. I'm hoping it'll be a vast improvement on the original. I've written about a thousand words so far, still got loads to do so I'm about to re-apply nose to grindstone.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

New book review site

I've decided to re-invent my old Live Journal as a book review site. I read so many books these days and it's hard to keep track of what they were, let alone remember what they were about or how good they were! So I'll be posting details and a brief review of everything I read, print or e-published, large or small, good or bad.

Book reviews by Fiona Glass

Entries so far are 'Dancer' by Colum McCann (a fictionalised biography of Rudolf Nureyev) and 'Love Dot Com', a fun novella about electronic love by Julia Talbot.

Much busy-ness

Working hard on the new issue of Forbidden Fruit, mostly on coding up the stories to html. Even with a template it can be surprisingly hard work, especially as my web authoring softward doesn't like Word documents or rtf! I have to change everything into text files, which are the only ones not to either get chewed up or come out in a single never-ending paragraph with no punctuation. *grins*

Good news is we're pretty much full. All the fiction slots are filled now, and we're just gathering up the last few bits of non-fiction and fun. Everything looks set for release in early September, barring last minute disasters. LOL

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

All That is Gold

A brief teaser from the new story, setting the scene. :)

-----------------

Duncan Bell stood in the blazing sun, contemplated his luggage and the long, dusty track that faced him, and sighed. It looked as though it was going to be one of those days. The taxi driver who'd brought him from the airport had pocketed the fare and disappeared in a cloud of dust and exhaust fumes straight back over the nearest hill. The path was stony and deeply rutted and there wasn't a scrap of shade to be seen - and he'd left his hat on the plane. And worst of all, his suitcase alone weighed half a ton and there were bags of technical stuff as well - and he wasn't exactly built like Superman. There was no way he could transport himself and all this clobber down to the temple site.

"Knew I should have stopped at the bloody hotel first," he muttered, kicking a handy stone. His foot caught some of the low-growing plants and the scent of fresh warm herbs wafted up to his face - and suddenly things didn't seem so bad. A warm breeze blew up from the cliffs below, carrying more of the same scent and the sharp green smell of the sea and he breathed in deep. Nice. You didn't get this sort of air in Liverpool, that was for sure. The sea there stank of diesel from the ships, or the raw sewage they pumped out at the river mouth, and the streets were paved not with herbs but the grim remains of last night's take-away. Much as he loved his home, there were times when he was glad to get away.

He tugged his handkerchief out and wiped his face. His fair hair and skin were no protection at all against the potency of the sun, and he needed to decide what to do. It might be hours before anyone on site thought to wonder where he was; either he stood here and fried to death, or he found somewhere to stash the bulk of his stuff and walked down to the temple himself. There was a hut on site, or so Gloria had said - hopefully he could cool off there.

The cliff top where the road had petered out was barren and remarkably devoid of hiding places, but it was so deserted he had the feeling he could leave the suitcase out in full view and it would still be here when he got back. A sea-bird sailed the thermals above his head, a dog howled from a neighbouring farm, but apart from that he could have been the last human on earth. Even the team of archaeologists working on the site seemed to have left no record of their passing.

Glancing around he spotted a small hollow filled with creeping plants and rested his suitcase and two of the bags in that, draping as much greenery over them as he could. Then he plucked his sunglasses out of his top pocket, perched them on his nose, and with only his laptop bag slung over a shoulder, set off down the track.

Monday, August 22, 2005

Ah, that's better

I finally got going with some writing again after weeks suffering from terminal writer's block. Right up to our holiday I was getting on fine but three weeks away, followed by two weeks catching up on the washing, followed by simply tons of admin, meant I got out of the groove and couldn't seem to get back into it again. But today I sat down with an idea for a new story that I'm quite excited about, and wrote the first 600 words or so. Not much, but at least it's got me through that awful brick wall. I hate not being able to write - I get really irritable and frustrated, and sit staring at page or screen but the words just won't come.

The new story should be a blast. I've set it on Malta again which makes it the third story that particular island has inspired! It revolves around an archaeologist, a newly discovered temple and a young woman who may not be all that she seems. *grins*

It's official

Erotic Romance Writers International Member



I'm a member of Erotic Romance Writers International!!

Thanks to Sable for all the hard work of setting the guild up, and for the gorgeous graphics!

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Brand new erotic romance awards

An announcement on behalf of Erotic Romance Writers International:

The Fruity Awards 2006

Erotic Romance Writers International are both pleased and proud to announce their brand new Fruity Awards for published 'queer' erotic romance. Co-sponsored by Forbidden Fruit, the Erotic Romance Writers' Forum and Erotic Romance Reviews for Women, the Awards have been set up as an antidote to certain recent award ceremonies, in an attempt to divert attention and prestige back to the people who deserve it most - the writers.

All e-books published during 2005 are eligible, providing they fall within one of our three categories - male/male, female/female, and pansexual (or 'open queer' which includes but is not limited to bisexual, menage, transgendered, cross dressing and other unusual or experimental forms of queer writing.)

Voting is open now at the ERWI's new website at http://www.bysable.com/awards.html . Nominations can be made until 1 December 2005, at which time the members of the ERWI will choose the most popular books in each category. These will be read by our judges and first, second and third places awarded on the basis of quality of writing and sheer enjoyment. There will also be one overall winner chosen from the top three books in all three categories. The winners will be announced on 1 February 2006.

We do hope you will take the time to nominate your favourite queer erotic romance titles from 2005 and look forward to reading the work of some excellent writers.

Sable St Germain, Erotic Romance Writers International
Emily Veinglory, Erotic Romance Writers' Forum
Fiona Glass, Forbidden Fruit Magazine
Delinda Jasper, Erotic Romance Reviews for Women

Grammar vs writing

Some of us on the Erotic Romance Writers' Forum have been having a really interesting discussion about the benefits or otherwise of sticking rigidly to formal grammar when writing creatively.

It's a fascinating topic. Obviously all writing needs a certain amount of grammar otherwise the readers simply wouldn't understand it. And I believe a writer needs to understand and use good grammar first before choosing whether or not to discard it, otherwise they won't really understand what it is they're getting wrong and why.

But after that, I'm not sure that good writing is just about enforcing the rules of grammar. In its strictest sense, grammar can be very inflexible - to the point where it stifles creativity and stops anything new or original in its tracks. You only have to look at some of the wonderful fiction being published, particularly in Britain, these days to see that good writing doesn't necessarily have to include perfect grammar. The novel 'Dancer' by Colum McCann, for instance, contains one sentence that is THIRTY TWO PAGES long, with no punctuation other than commas and line breaks. It's terrible grammar, and yet in the context of that novel it works wonderfully because McCann is using it for a particular reason. The style of prose reflects the nature of the character whose point of view that chapter is written from. He's a social butterfly, flitting from one situation to the next, one lover to the next, and the breathless style of the narrative brings that to life far more vividly than any straightforward description could.

Myself, I love to bend the rules. *grins* I think British English has developed into a more fluid and less inflexible language than its American cousin and I enjoy experimenting with new ways of saying things, and new ways of getting an impression of my characters across. I don't suppose I'll ever be as good at it as McCann, but I can always dream!

Good response

Thanks to everyone who responded to our cry for help - we've had four new stories in already which is brilliant news!

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Story required for Forbidden Fruit

We've finalised the contents list of the new issue now, and although we've got heaps of great stories and other paraphernalia *grins*, we do still have space for one more story. Sooo, if anyone's reading this and happens to have a spare male/male story between two and ten thousand words, in pretty much any genre (except bdsm), please feel free to email me on fiona.glassATblueyonder.co.uk and we'll talk!

The magazine doesn't pay for fiction but it does offer excellent exposure to an avid and growing readership which includes fellow authors, editors and publishers. We also offer the chance to promote yourself, your work and your website on our 'biographies' page. Full guidelines are available online at http://www.forbiddenfruitzine.com/subs.htm if you need further guidance.

If we get snowed under with more good stories than we possibly have space for, we'll consider holding some of them over for our January 2006 issue (subject to the author's approval, of course).

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.

New stories

Spent the day reading two new stories for Forbidden Fruit. Both are first installments of new serials (one set in Ancient Greece, one an archaeological mystery) and both are great - full of intrigue and action and engaging characters. I can't wait to read the next installments myself! Which is excellent news, since our previous serial-writer has sadly decided not to send us any more installments and I didn't want to leave our readers hanging.

And I've been contacted by the artist who's going to be doing the cover art for my Chippewa elf story. He does absolutely wonderful illustrations so I feel very lucky that he's been chosen. I've sent off a brief synopsis of the story and descriptions of the characters to help him - and I'll be really excited to see what he comes up with!

Friday, August 19, 2005

Betas

I was chatting earlier to my friend Liz about the benefits of having a good beta or writing partner to help with your work. She's been lucky enough to find one recently and was waxing lyrical *grin* about how how much it's helped her, both in terms of physical stuff like technique and for sheer motivation. I lost my writing partner last year (cites irreconcilable differences LOL) and it made me realise how much I miss that close relationship. Having someone on the same wavelength, who writes similar stories in a similar style, and who understands your writing and what you're trying to say possibly better than you do, is a wonderful thing and something I found enormously helpful in the past. I would love to find a replacement but you can't just prod the first writer you come across and say 'fancy a beta darling?' - it needs to be someone you get on well enough with to survive the arguments *grin* and someone who hasn't already got a beta of their own. Here's hoping there's another lost writing soul out there somewhere!

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Busy bee

Working hard on coding up the new issue of Forbidden Fruit, ready for early September. Thanks to a new and enthusiastic team we've got some great stuff to go in - heaps of great stories, two new serials, articles, even a penguin cartoon! Now it's just a question of translating it all to html and bullying it onto the relevant pages. Sometimes that can be a thankless and tedious task but this time I've got so many people helping me that it all seems to be falling nicely into place.

In a few spare moments I also came up with a graphics design for the Fruity Awards, a brand new set of awards that several of us on the Erotic Romance Writers Forum have come up with. Co-sponsored by the Forum, Forbidden Fruit and Erotic Romance Reviews for Women, the awards will be open to any published erotic romance e-book in one of three categories: male/male, female/female, and pansexual (open queer). Nominations should be open soon and we're hoping it will be an antidote to certain recent award ceremonies that were so controversial they diverted all the publicity and prestige away from the people who most deserved it - the writers. Further details coming real soon!

Testing testing

OK, I got really fed up with both my msn and LJ blogs because neither of 'em seems to have everything I want. One has a picture gallery and lots of space for links but no friends option, the other has hardly any space for links. *grumble* So I decided to see what blogger has to offer. Watch this space. LOL