A year after I outlined it, I’m starting the first actual writing on a new standalone M/M fantasy novel or novella: Mask of Falling Stars Nearly-blind expert maskmaker Parril Morni ignores his better judgment and travels to the city of Altenlida to help his aunt secure the winning bid on some very important festival masks.…
Read More Mask of Falling Stars – begins!Well, yes, most writers do. But there is a special, oddly pure bond when it comes to readers of my free stories, whether those are fan fiction or original fiction. I’m not making money directly from those stories. I get nothing out of them except the initial satisfaction of writing, and the reviews and comments…
Read More I love my readersWhere do people (non-writers) get the idea that writing is a glamorous and lucrative career? For most of us, it is emphatically not. I would have earned more as an optical scientist or by selling term life insurance. That I did not take those or other sane paths speaks to my deficiencies, not strengths. Never…
Read More The Writing Life or something like it(Psst. If you don’t care about the Marvel Comics Universe, or fan fiction, don’t read this post. It’s okay, I don’t mind.) So, I don’t blow a lot of my spare time on Tumblr, Twitter, or Facebook, because there are just not enough waking hours in the day, or scientific equipment that can measure precisely…
Read More Stark Raving Mad (language advisory)I’ve blogged about how industrialization has simplified the process of making art and craft: hobby stores gave us relatively cheap and pre-prepared art materials, artists like Bob Ross showed us how to cleverly fake our way toward a sense of achievement, and Ebay and Etsy give us outlets to peddle the results. Sometimes it’s a…
Read More Pour a drink and lift a paintbrush (language advisory)First, y’all know what a revenge query is? Revenge queries are the boomerang query letters that a relatively seasoned (i.e. jaded) writer has lined up, to send out to new markets the same day that the first query comes back with a rejection letter. Rejections are a lot like band-aids, turns out – it’s better…
Read More More art I should not be doing.Courtesy of Scottsdale Estate Collection and their great Ebay site, you can now find some of my beaded jewelry for sale online, including pieces seen on this blog. There are well-meaning folks who insist that fine jewelry can only be gold, silver, diamonds, etc. Sure. I’ve even made some of it. But a cadre of…
Read More My beadwork jewelry for sale online(Nope, don’t look at me. I didn’t enter this year. Moro’s Price came out last year, and I didn’t even know what the Rainbow Awards were at the time.) But several fellow authors from Loose Id are on this year’s honorable mentions list, and may be finalists when the formal announcements are made tomorrow, October…
Read More 2013 Rainbow Awards honorable mentions are out! (Adult content advisory)I just found out that one of my fiber art pieces has been juried into the wonderful new show Eco Editions, which will be seen at my friend Laura Russell’s 23 Sandy Gallery, in Portland, Oregon, from November 15 – December 28, 2013. I’ve been in 23 Sandy shows before, and they’re always beautiful and thought-provoking examples…
Read More Art and the Animas River…steal words from other people. Now, hold on there, pilgrims. I know that most artists ‘steal’ from each other. Most of the time we try a little finesse, taking bits here and riffs there, and sewing it up into a recognizably different package. There are only a few basic plots, after all. But with the…
Read More What to do when you can’t write…(adult language advisory)Use every pre-made tool you can, but learn how to make your own tools and components. I have mixed feelings about assemblage art: collage, stampcraft, scrapbooking, 3-D mixed media, and similar techniques. I love them. I’ve made money from them both in the corporate art world and in freelance work. I benefit enormously from the…
Read More Craft credo #2 (adult language advisory)(Beginning an intermittent series about making stuff. These are my personal philosophies about art and craft. As such, they are guaranteed to piss off some people. Please don’t feel singled out, and please feel free to answer me with your own thoughts on the matter.) Credo 1: The more we call some artifact or process…
Read More Craft Credo #1 (adult language advisory)“Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone,” runs the quote from poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Maybe not. The NY Times Bestseller list almost always has at least one example of ‘Misery Literature’. Misery memoirs (and their cousins family histories and autobiographies) have been made into major movies and won significant literary awards. And…
Read More Misery Memoirs and Pay-to-Play PublishingErotic romance author Kathleen Tudor also writes M/M erotic romance as D.K. Jernigan. To celebrate her upcoming Circlet Press editorial retreat, Kathleen is hosting an author giveaway over on her blog and Facebook page. Up for grabs is a paper copy of the sizzling Storm Moon Press M/M erotic romance anthology Dracones, with a story…
Read More D. K. Jernigan author giveaway (adult content advisory)Like many writers, I do lots of other creative things. I’m a gluten-free cook always looking for the best and most affordable ingredients (there will be posts on that later, I promise). I’m a costume and props maker. As a fiber artist, I’m under contract to provide award ribbons for a major twice-yearly regional art…
Read More My art for sale onlineAnother AbsoluteWrite member has a M/M erotic romance novella being released today: Roughing It, by Holden Wells. To be honest, I’ve only read part of this 35,000-word book – but that part was seriously edgy and hot, with lots of emotional content as well as a convincing M/M perspective. It’s on my order list. From…
Read More Roughing It, by Holden Wells (adult content advisory)Today, Evernight Publishing releases Anais Morgan’s new contemporary M/M erotic romance Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now. I read a beta version a few months back, and loved the story. Not just for the main characters, but the gritty reality of the Big-Box home-improvement store setting, and the triumphant resolution (and it’s not quite what you think,…
Read More Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, by Anais Morgan (adult content advisory)To celebrate Labor Day weekend and the end of summer (here in the States), I’m featuring a couple of new releases from fellow erotic romance authors. First up is C.P. Foster, with the sizzling second book in her Arcaneology series. I’m picky about vampire erotica stories, simply because there are so many of them in…
Read More Secret Studies, by C.P. Foster (adult content advisory)It’s an old love, going back to my discovery of silversmithing back in 1979. I first had to learn on copper scrap and wire. (Thank you, Hunt Brothers, for jacking up the price of silver back then. You taught me frugality when I started using the good stuff.) One of my earliest jewelry obsessions was…
Read More I love silverApplicable quote heard yesterday: “YouTube and Spandex are a responsibility, not a right.” Applicable parable (paraphrased from a kid’s book I can barely remember and can’t track down): There once was a vain and clever gaucho who won admiration at every festival he attended, for the intricate ponchos he wove and flaunted. But weaving was…
Read More Cosplay, Manufactured Drama, and the Lazy Gaucho