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.

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!

Seasons' Greetings!

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

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

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

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...!

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.

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. :)

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.

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::

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!

Another new release!

Thanatos by Emily Veinglory

A 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

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/