Those scavenger hunt prizes

I've just had a full list through of all the prizes on offer in the Blast in the New scavenger hunt I'm takiing part in. Here it is, and I think you'll agree it's pretty impressive:

Ann Cory Two Prizes - Breaking in Levi & Butterfly Kisses
Ann Lory Two Prizes - Eternal Embrace & Eternal Obsession
Ashleigh Raine One Prize - Lover's Talisman
Camille Anthony Two Prizes - Reflections & Christmas Bunny
Celia Kyle Five Prizes - Touch Me, Tri Me, Serve Me, Love Me & Wicked Shift
Dawn Montgomery Two Prizes - Bound in Lust & Babes in Toyland II
Emily Ryan-Davis One Prize - A Rose of Any Color: Maledom
Fiona Glass Two Prizes - Shifting Perspectives & Watery Grave
James Buchanan One Prize - Lord Carabas
JJ Massa Two Prizes - Sweet Treats & Metamorphosis
Jodi Payne One Prize - Founder
Kate Hill One Prize - Make Love, Not Money
Kit Zheng Two Prizes - Torn & Exposure
Laura Baumbach Two Prizes - Roughhousing & The Collector 9: The Lost Temple of Karttikeya
Lia Sebastian Two Prizes - Office Relations & Seventh Sense
Marteeka Karland Two Prizes - Executive Decisions: By the Numbers & Black Star: Diamond
Maura Anderson One Prize - Texas Tea
Michelle Hasker One Prize - Screaming Orgasm
Phyllis Marie Campbell Two Prizes - Always My Love & Ten Ways to Melt a Man's Heart
Rayne Forrest One Prize - Hero
Sedonia Guillone One Prize - Ace in the Hole
Shelley Munro One Prize - Romantic Interlude
Shonna Brannon Three Prizes - In the Nick of Time, Falcon Hunter & Spirit Within
Stella and Audra Price Two Prizes - Choice of Backlist Books
Tuesday Morrigan Five Prizes - Monstrous Kink, Violet Storm, Nutcracker, Frost Bite & Wicked Intentions

That's a grand total of 47 prizes!! As well as my two books, there are a number of works from other m/m writers as well as heaps by erotica and romance authors.

So, if you haven't started searching yet, what are you waiting for? LOL. Hurry over to my website and find the first of the hidden graphics today.

What a nice surprise!

Well, that was an unexpected but lovely arrival in my inbox this afternoon - a message to say that Night Owl Romance have reviewed Roses in December, loved it, rated it 5/5 and chosen it as one of their top picks!!

I'm ever so slightly overcome, especially as I don't think I specifically requested the review, which makes it even more of a pleasant surprise.

You can read the review at the Night Owl Romance website, and you can find out more about the novel at Through the Glass Darkly.

This really made my day!

Scavenger Hunt!!!

Want a chance to win copies of my books Watery Grave and Shifting Perspectives? Then hurry along to my website right now, and take part in the Blast in the New scavenger hunt organised by Celia Kyle and Tuesday Morrigan, with e-books from 27 participating authors on offer!

All you need to do is hurry over to my website and find the Blast in the New button hidden somewhere amongst the books and stories. When you find it, click the link back to the Blast in the New blog and follow the instructions on how and where to find the other 26 buttons and how to enter the contest. It's as easy as that!

Each participating author has donated two e-books as prizes; the lucky Grand Winner gets copies of them all!! My offerings are Watery Grave, a collection of three short horror stories with a watery theme from Torquere Press (more details here) and Shifting Perspectives, an anthology of shapeshifting stories from Aspen Mountain Press which includes my short story 'Feathered Friend' (more info here).

Best of luck and happy hunting!

My Yahoo group

I realised to my intense shame the other day that I'd been completely neglecting my Yahoo group, which I set up a year or so ago to keep readers, and anyone else who's interested, informed of all my news. These days there are so many blogs, social networks, lists, groups and whatever else to keep updated, it can be difficult to keep track of them all! *hangs head in shame*

I've made a very early new years' resolution to update the list more often, and to try to make it a bit less dull and introduce some chat and fun. To that end I've renamed it Pane in the Glass (I know, I know, but I couldn't resist!) and now I'm issuing an invitation. If you enjoy my books, want to know when I've got new stuff coming out, want to ask me questions about my writing, or just join in and chat, then please wander over to Pane in the Glass and sign up now. And - hello!

Working on: Got Ghosts
Words today: 1018

Starting over...

Writing's a funny business at times. You get a perfectly good idea, sit down and scribble for weeks or months, and then the doubts creep in. You shove the thing back in its folder, put it to one side for weeks or months more, and then quite suddenly, when you weren't even thinking about that piece of work, inspiration strikes.

This happened to me recently with the novel I started earlier in the year, set in the Lake District. I'd written about half of it when my confidence began to slip. Was it gripping enough? Wasn't it too similar to some of my other books? I tried to ignore all those annoying little voices, but gradually the writing ground to a halt and in the end I put the whole thing back on the shelf.

Then, a couple of days ago, I had one of those blinding moments of absolute clarity, when I realised what was wrong with the novel, what needed to be hoicked out, and what I could use to replace it with. Of course!! Of course... it'll mean ten times as much work, a load of rewriting, and simply tons of extra research before I can even put fingernail to keyboard. But I think it'll be worth it, and I'm sure I'll be much happier with the book as a result.

Working on: Got Ghosts
Words today: 1420

What's that? A sequel?

Loud gasps of amazement. My regular readers will know that I rarely (or even never!) write sequels, mostly because my stories are very stand-alone, and many of them have a twist in the tail or element of surprise which would be lost in a follow-on. But for once I've broken my own rule, and have just finished the first draft of a sequel to Feathered Friend. It's called Steal The Sky, and involves the further adventures of Avery and a pigeon race that goes horribly wrong. :)

I don't have a specific home for it yet, but I'm hoping Aspen Mountain might consider a follow-up anthology to 'Shifting Perspectives' in due course. I'll keep my fingers crossed, and keep you all posted.

Currently working on: Got Ghosts
Words today: 211

On a brighter note...

In Their Own Words, a great new blog where authors can post interviews with their own characters, has just published my interview with Nat Brook, the soldier hero of Roses in December.

This was meant to be a short interview but turned into something of a novel in its own right. Rather unusually I've done it in the form of a job interview, which ties in neatly with the book - although I'm not going to say why. You'll have to read the interview, or the book, or both, to find out why! :)

Another publisher bites the dust

I heard the sad news yesterday that Chippewa Publishing, and its erotica division Lady Aibell Press, have ceased trading. This leaves my two stand-alone short stories, Elfmeet and Lost Property, without a home, at least for now. I've taken the details, links etc to the books down from my website and can only apologise for the disappointment if anyone was on the point of buying them! I will keep everyone posted on whether I can find new homes for the stories.

New gay books forum

Regular readers of my blog and website will know that I'm something of a fan of gay books in general, especially if they're on the romantic side. ;) I realised a few weeks ago that I've read dozens but didn't have anywhere to chat about them with fellow enthusiasts. So I set up a new forum to do just that. It's called 'Read the Rainbow' (all I could think of at short notice when Forumer prompted me for a name LOL) and it's right here if you want to take a look, and hopefully join in.

So far we've had discussions on books as wide ranging as Mary Renault and Annie Proulx, Patrick Gale and E M Forster, as well as some more general chat about finding gay books, recommendations, cover art and even 'film of the book'.

Why not pop your head round the door and join in the fun? Hope to see you all there!

Getting my wires crossed

I realised the other day that I'd never uploaded an excerpt for my story 'Crossed Wires' on my website. The story features in a two-title volume of m/m adventures from Whiskey Creek Press: 'Torrid Teaser: The Rescue/Crossed Wires', and although I'd remembered to quote a section from the first story, the space for 'Crossed Wires' was blank!

That's all fixed now, though, with a (hopefully) tantalising cliff-hanger from the story added to the Torrid Teaser page. Read... enjoy... and don't worry, it does have a happy ending. ;)