There is no more hilariously inappropriate way to start out today, than with a picture I just took of a double cherry. Yes, it will go into my cereal later. But now posterity can admire the posterior… Over here, catch Zoe Rider’s interview with Gail Bridges (she of the sex-as-Olympic-sport novel America’s Darlings).
Read More 2014 AbsoluteWrite Erotica Writers blog hop Day 5Day Four of the AW Erotica Writers blog hop dawns with the usual levels of snafu and triumph. Thanks for alerting me to broken links; they’ll be fixed as soon as possible. Today, Scarlet Day interviews M/M author Zoe X. Rider here. If you like your M/M with an edge of hard rock, blue-collar angst,…
Read More 2014 AbsoluteWrite Erotica Writers blog hop Day 4Welcome, welcome, step right up! Day 3 begins with Emily Veinglory interviewing Scarlet Day. Emily is a powerhouse erotic romance author, published through several houses – I know her for her great M/M fantasy novels. Scarlet’s made a name for sizzling shifter menages in vivid tropical settings. Check out the interview, then browse Scarlet’s book descriptions…
Read More 2014 AbsoluteWrite Erotica Writers blog hop Day 3 (adult content advisory)A little later today, Anais Morgan will be interviewing Emily Veinglory here. Be sure to check the authors’ blogs outside their scheduled interviews, excerpts, shameless pandering, and smack talk: you never know what extra content people will share! Being erotica writers, this group is a very sharing bunch…
Read More 2014 AbsoluteWrite Erotica Writers blog hop Day 2I mentioned something about a necklace being one of my giveaway prizes for our 2014 AbsoluteWrite Erotica Writers blog hop. That would be this thing: Details: ‘Garnet Dusk Necklace’ is part of a line of semiprecious beaded necklaces I make for gallery sales. This one is 18″ worn as a choker, and 36″ when worn…
Read More AW Erotica Writers Blog Hop Day 1Tomorrow 6-23-2014 is the big day, ushering in the next two weeks of excerpts, interviews, insult contests, and shameless pandering that is the 2014 AW Erotica Writers Blog Hop. (Thanks to Ana J. Phoenix for the lovely header!) If you haven’t visited the AbsoluteWrite Water Cooler (link to the left), it’s part of a massive…
Read More 2014 AbsoluteWrite Erotica Writers Blog Hop 6-23 to 7-7I hang out online with writers: whether they are aspiring, inspiring, chaotic, orderly, or jaded, these folks show a world’s range of approaches to their craft. On a couple of different forums, our conversations turned to revisions and self-editing. When to stop, when to keep going, when to enlist fresh assessment from beta readers or…
Read More Good enough should not be good enoughM. Crane Hana: Today, Blue Night is hosting my fellow Loose Id author and AbsoluteWrite member Maryn Blackburn. Her debut erotic romance novel Brick By Brick was released this week. Maryn: Thanks for having me, M.C. (My mom would be so pleased I remembered my manners.) I’m Maryn Blackburn, author of Brick by Brick, a…
Read More Brick By Brick, from Maryn BlackburnAnyone who doesn’t follow the FIFA World Cup (soccer, to Americans) will not know what those numbers mean. The rest of us do. 100 minutes of pure adrenaline. Unbelievable goals and heroic defenses. An underdog team against one of the legendary Group of Death teams. And the US players won. Pardon me for grinning foolishly…
Read More US 2, Ghana 1Twitter is a wonderful tool for writers. It creates interactive communities and allows extremely customized newsfeeds. Twitter also opens doors between authors, agents, and publishers, through intermittent pitch contests like #pitmad (Pitch Madness), #AdPit (Adult fiction pitches), or #SFFpit (science fiction & fantasy pitches). In general, contests like these allow participants to post their novels’ short…
Read More Twitter pitches in publishing…has really been going on since Wednesday night, for a lot of people. I plan to be there sometime tomorrow, Saturday June 7. I’m not on panels, I’m not pitching my book, I’m not in the dealer’s room. I’m just going for fun. Here’s the main page: https://www.phoenixcomicon.com/page/1 So, it’s not as huge as San…
Read More 2014 Phoenix Comic ConListing my writing projects reminds me I’m not just doing this for myself anymore. Not only are a plaintive agent and a few editors counting on me, I actually have a few hundred readers waiting for me to get my act together. Writers stop or pause writing for all kinds of reasons. For me, over…
Read More Current manuscript list…especially when I find out that some anonymous, enterprising soul has just read and given me kudos on my old, obscure fanfiction pieces on AO3. Most of ’em. Maybe around 20 of them. Stuff I haven’t even looked at in years. Dude/Dudette/Dudeperson, I totally adore you right now.
Read More I love my fansIn 2000, the same year Meisha Merlin published Grimsley’s Kirith Kirin, they also published the anthology containing my first-ever pro short fiction sale. In another universe, Meisha Merlin would have survived and possibly published my debut novel (whichever one that turned out to be.) MM had a rep for taking on daring, quirky books that…
Read More Kirith Kirin, by Jim GrimsleyThe bolo tie (bola tie, or shoestring tie) is a crazy, wonderful invention from the American Southwest: a braided leather cord with decorative metal tips, threaded through a slide-tension lock with an ornate bit of metal or stonework on the front. I’ve seen both men and women wearing them. I’m biased because I grew up in what…
Read More Badger bolo tieThe latest review is at Night Owl Reviews. Check it out. I am unreasonably happy about it, and I’m trying not to grin foolishly while I type this post. Publishing is very like taking a piece of your soul, wrapping it around a jewel, and heaving it off the top of Mt. Everest. The chances are…
Read More Another review for Moro’s PriceAt least one major SFF publisher* has cottoned on to something that small-press digital romance publishers and many self-publishers already know. The e-book market had revitalized the novella format and made it so profitable that novellas and novelettes are all many erotic romance authors publish. In wider self-published genres, shorter fiction is also well-represented. Tor.com…
Read More Return of the SFF novella?Gone at the age of 86. …But to describe her as only a poet denies the scope of her life and work. Great poetry is dear to me, all the more because I am a lackluster poet. Maya remains a titan and an inspiration, and the world is a darker place because her flame isn’t…
Read More Maya Angelou, poetIn honor of Douglas Adams, the universe of ‘the Hitchhiker’ s Guide to the Galaxy’, bemused travelers everywhere, and the elusive recipe that is the *real* PanGalactic Gargleblaster…don’t go anywhere without your towel. Towelday.org will tell you more.
Read More Happy towel dayYears ago, I took a tutorial workshop on how to make wet-shaped leather masks, and another world opened up to me. The first step was enduring a few hours of relative stillness with straws stuck up my nose and my hair stuffed in an old pair of pantyhose, while a props-maker friend (Marine Veteran, boss…
Read More Steampunk eyeglass mask