I was in countdown to the March 3, 2020 release of K.M. Szpara’s (M/M Dystopia? Romance? Slavefic? Cautionary screed?) DOCILE, from Tor Books. I’ve been hearing about this book for over a year. I’d planned on actually ordering it. Then I read the first eight chapters on a free Kindle Sample offer. Oh, dear. I…
Read More Review: DOCILE by K.M. Szpara(This is a long post. If you just want my review and not my commentary, stop before the spoiler breaks.) People keep saying Emily Skrutskie’s space opera adventure BONDS OF BRASS is basically Finn/Poe fanfic, and I disagree. Oh, the pedigree is there, but this story has a much deeper….birthright, if you will. If you…
Read More Review: BONDS OF BRASS by Emily SkrutskieAs per this Facebook post, the erotic romance publisher Loose Id is closing. https://www.facebook.com/LoosenYourId/posts/10156261079630101 The four owners (The Quad, in LI nicknames) have decided not to squander the market’s good will, and are winding down the business by May of 2018. This was my first romance publisher: they took on the first edition of my…
Read More End of an Era: Loose IdA few years ago I posted this excerpt of a rewritten fantasy short story, ‘Red Amber’, a M/M erotic romance about creativity, grief, pride, and lost love. Here’s the current mood board for it. While I’m waiting on edit letters for THE PURIST, I’m settling back into this story. I have 12K of it written, so…
Read More ‘Red Amber’ updateSo, since I didn’t get Singer In Rhunshan into PitchWars (and knew it would be a longshot), I’m back to the revisions on Moro’s Price. For those of you who didn’t know, the latter is a big space opera-ish M/M erotic romance set against a futuristic but by no means scientific background. When wrote it…
Read More Valier, digital pastel, 8-26-2016I say ‘first edition’ because I have several future paths for my first published novel, now that its association with Loose Id LLC has come to an end. Moro’s Price no longer exists as an ebook on Amazon.com, or on the Loose Id website. Over the next month or so, it will leave AllRomance Ebooks,…
Read More Moro’s Price first edition 2012 to 2016Basic, useful writing stuff first. Here is a quick shout-out to Kristen Lamb, who tells it like it is over on her blog…far better than I can. If nothing else, new writers should learn (and tattoo in glowing ink on the inside of their eyelids) that Editing Is Most Of The Damn Job. Some smug…
Read More The Reality of Writing and Diversity, 5-18-2016C’mon over on the Snarkology blog, and visit with Racheline Maltese. When she and her co-author Erin McRae jumped into the LGBTQ+ Romance niche market, they already had publishing experience in poetry and short SFF fiction, as well as long- and short-form nonfiction. Their path to publication had some hitches: unlearning some ‘stuffy’ professional habits…
Read More Paths to Publishing – Racheline MalteseThis morning I was delighted to listen to a Publishers Weekly webcast about the history, current state, and future prospects of digital publishing as it relates to LGBT and M/M romance and related genres. Brief (personal) definition: M/M is simply a romance or other story with a romance subplot featuring male homosexual relationships. LGBT fiction…
Read More Three digital M/M and LGBT romance publishers sound off