![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
And to prove how silly and vain I am, and how a new release has made it all about me, me, me, I took a screen cap of the amazon ranking for SY last night (and yes I know it changes like every minute):
- Mood:
chipper
The last couple of weeks since the release of Seeing You from Samhain Publishing have been really wonderful. Overwhelming in a good way.
And crazy. I’m starting to sympathize with that poor chicken running around looking for its head. *g*
I’ve been guest blogging a fair bit. I know my own blog is very jealous of the time I’ve spent with others, and I’d promise to blog more on here but I think I might be blogged out for a bit. Surely I can’t be interesting enough to talk THAT much. Heh.
Don’t think I ever posted about it, but I was over at lovely and talented Clare London’s spot for her month-long birthday bash (which was a blast!). I talked about the value (or not) of the epilogue and one of the reasons why I love epublishing so much.
I spent some time over at the Samhellion blog talking about size.Of fiction, get your mind out of the gutter! I like ‘em long these days.
Today, tomorrow, and Saturday I’m over at DIK, invited by the fabulously discerning and prolific Jen from Well Read. I have to say it’s a blast, with sand, sun, fruity drinks–and of course–hunky men. Yesterday I answered some questions about the REAL Dakota, and today I'm talking about some of my favorite tropes in romance. Tomorrow I”ll be talking about one of my favorite topics, sexual tension. Stop on by and make sure to leave a comment on any of the three posts as I’ll be picking two commenters to receive a FREE FREE FREE copy of Seeing You. (the FREE FREE FREE…well that’s a flag for anyone skimming this post, aren’t I sweet? *g*)
Seeing You has also received some great reviews for those of you who are thinking about buying–you should!–or are curious. 
Wave over at Reviews by Jessewave was the first to offer a review, giving it 4 out of 5 stars and hitting on an ingenious marketing strategy: curiosity. She said, "I thought that the best part of the book was Wade’s unusual courtship which you will have to read for yourself – let’s just say that the author showed a great deal of imagination." You can read the rest of the review here.
British Bulldog over at Rainbow Reviews also gave it 4 stars out of 5 and thought, "The story’s greatest strength is how it shows the slow coming together of Wade and Dylan, as both men heal from Simon’s death." He also commented on my "first-class job" and "mastery of words." (That TICKLED me, I say!) You can read the rest here.
Jen over at Well Read gave Seeing You a grade of Very Good and found that "as a study in overcoming grief this novella was spot on" and it "managed all this without being too heavy on the angst." You can check out what else she said here.
Joan/Sarah F. from Dear Author also reviewed Seeing You (I was completely flabbergasted that it had even been reviewed on such a popular site). She gave it a B- and thought it was a "beautifully-done story of loss and recovery." You can read the rest of the review here.
Mrs. Giggles also reviewed Seeing You, and while some parts worked for her, some didn’t and she gave it a 78 out 100. The review itself made me laugh out loud three times while reading it, which is probably an odd reaction to enjoy a less than positive review of your own work, but what can I say? I’m strange. You can read her review here.
And finally the lovely Elisa Rolle reposted her review of Seeing You, saying the "mood is definitely not light, but the story is very romantic." You can read the rest of the review here.
So that’s what a few people have thought so far of my wee little story. And though it’s early days, it seems to be selling pretty well. SY spent two weeks on the MBaM Bestseller list, with a few days at #2. It’s also listed as one of the highest rated and bestselling gay and contemporary ebooks over at ARe. It fluctuates a lot (and I’m not sure how much it really means) but it’s been staying pretty high in a couple popular Amazon categories. (I think at the moment it’s #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Gay & Lesbian and #6 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Fiction > Gay.)
And after all this news I should probably say…If you haven’t already and you’d like to, you can pick up a copy of Seeing You here.
So there it is. Post-release news and updates. I hope you’re not as tired as I am! *g*
Seriously though, I can’t tell you how pleased I am. I love hearing from readers and reading reviews (truly I do, whether positive OR negative) because I like to see what worked for someone and what didn’t. And if you’ll forgive me a moment of emotionalism on my professional blog…I wrote Seeing You over two years ago and it was very different from anything I wrote before it and everything I’ve written since. It’s special to me, flaws and all, and I thought for a while of not trying to publish it (but submitted it impulsively the first time around). Writing it helped–in a small way– during a time when my heart was breaking as someone I loved was losing a battle to a terminal illness. The grief…well that was my own. But the recovery…that was how I imagined it to be at the time. Whether I was successful or not in terms of the story, I’ll leave that up to the readers. And now in some ways, I feel like I’m quietly closing a chapter in my life–and I’m smiling about it. That’s a good thing. :)
- Mood:
cold
My cowboy novella, Seeing You--the ebook edition--is out today from Samhain. Click here to pick up a copy!
Wave at Reviews by Jessewave already gave it 4 stars,you can read the review here.
Blurb:
Love can be found among the pieces of a broken heart.
The night his brother, Simon, was killed in an accident, Dylan took on a double load of guilt. Guilt for walking away unscathed…and for secretly loving Simon’s partner, Wade. Unable to bear the pain, Dylan left the Lazy G ranch to rebuild his life elsewhere.
A year later he reluctantly responds to his sister’s plea to come home, where he finds the Lazy G falling apart. And so is Wade. Wade has stopped caring about the ranch, about everything that should matter most to him.
Though there’s more ranch work than one man can possibly handle, Dylan throws himself into the task. Wondering how he’s going to find the strength to pull Wade out of the fog of grief when his own is still as raw as a fresh wound. Wondering when Wade will finally see that his second chance for happiness is standing right in front of him.
Warning: Contains explicit, emotionally charged m/m sex. Extra box of tissues required. You could use your sleeve, of course, but we don’t recommend it.
Excerpt:
( Read an excerpt )
- Mood: chipper
First I would like to say thank you to Kathleen Bradean, Kassa, and Jenre for contributing the following prompt words: rumbling, lather, dense, mistletoe, rum, bunt cake, vegan, cut-glass whiskey tumblers, bad smells, snow, chips, and bamboo. Very much appreciated!
Despite the lack of published ficlet, I promise I did use them. It's just...I think I've lost the knack of writing short. Or maybe just tiny. All I know is that I took those words you supplied and sat down to write a simple holiday short, aiming for 2k or less.
And the next thing I know the short I loosely planned around a workaholic managing the family grocery store dynasty, a young manager eager to prove himself, and an MIA personal shopper started morphing into...more. The person shopper idea disappeared completely, and the workaholic is desperately trying to save the family legacy from a hostile takeover (instead of just being a workaholic for, uh, work's sake *cough*). Then add in a missing girl, corporate espionage, betrayal, and...
Well, you've got way more than a two thousand word ficlet. It's like I couldn't help adding more conflict, more, uh, meat to the story, delving deeper into motivations and creating this whole Wiggens clan. I'm excited about this one, though that's dimmed a little by the idea that maybe I'm not cut out to write shorts anymore.
Not sure quite how long this one will be, it's currently at 11k and it feels like it could be long novella/short novel length. I haven't decided whether I'll continue working on this now, or put it on hold while I finish the novel I was working on (which is about halfway done) prior to asking for the word prompts. Either way, I'll keep you posted!
(Oh and for anyone thinking that Wiggens sounds an awful lot like...well, you're right. *g* I was just having fun, though it's a little different now that I'm not writing a free short. I might have to change the name now.)
- Mood:
working
It's a fiction blog--excerpts, free reads, drabbles, etc. It's not for news, promotions, contests, etc. Just fiction, all free and all the time. Pretty awesome, huh?
In keeping with that, I thought it's about time that I wrote another word-prompt ficlet. So hit me with some word prompts (do your worst, I say!) and in a couple days I'll write and post the ficlet to the AGR blog.
Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season!
- Location:home sweet home
- Mood:
rejuvenated - Music:Let It Snow
Hope you're all staying warm and enjoying the hustle and bustle of the holiday season!
- Location:chained to my desk
- Mood: busy
- Music:countdown to doom (Property final)
Oh, and thank you to Elisa and Mara for my v-gifts! Much appreciated!
Anywho, I haven't posted anything about this So You Think You Can Dance season (I love this show), so I thought I'd share my favorite routine of the season so far. Surprisingly enough, it's a...Cha-Cha. Can't remember last time my favorite wasn't a contemporary piece, but this was fun and sexy and just cool. Enjoy!
(If you want to skip the intro stuff, the dance starts at 1:22)
Woo! So enjoyable. Now I want to go see Burn the Floor in the city over break!
Okay, don't mind the singing--that's probably just the dayquil carrying a tune--but I do want to give my new cover art a chance to shine because I think it's scrumptious.
So ta-da! Here's the new cover art for my cowboy novella, Seeing You, done by the very talented Natalie Winters.
Seeing You will be out from Samhain Jan. 19, 2010!
- Mood:
sleepy
Or at least the case opinions, written by judges, (which is pretty much all law students read) can be. Mostly it's when you come across a case where the judge was either a frustrated playwright or literary critic, and they add what I like to think of as flourishes to the opinion. Or you wonder how many more references to Dickens or Shakespeare they can make, because you're studying the law and they're quoting fiction. And every once and a while you come across a case where you read the opinion and think, "Ha! This judge was taking the mick, right?"
So I thought I'd share a little from what has become my top favorite case I've read in law school, because I do love the absurd. And ghosts. :)
Stambovsky v. Ackley, 572 N.Y.S.2d 672
So I won't bore you with all the legal issues and jargon, but basically this guy contracts to buy a house and then discovers it's haunted and wants the contract to be cancelled.
The opinion starts out, "Plaintiff, to his horror, discovered the house...was widely reputed to be possessed by poltergeists." The opinion is only a couple of pages and we have these phrasing gems throughout:
"plaintiff hasn't a ghost of a chance"
"spirit of equity"
"[basis for granting relief] elusive if not ephemeral"
"Pity me not but lend thy serious hearing to what I shall unfold." (Oh yeah, that's from Hamlet. Didn't I tell you they like to quote the Bard?)
"'Who you gonna' call?'" (Apparently they also like to quote Ghostbusters.)
"[transaction will] come back to haunt him"
"most unnatural bargain"
"[this notion is] a hobgoblin which should be exorcised from the body of legal precedent and laid quietly to rest"
Ha.
But the best line in the whole piece? "...as a matter of law, the house is haunted."
Ha. Ha.
- Location:Library. Where else?
- Mood: chipper
So what can you do? If you live in New York you can--and should!--call your state senator to let them know they must vote on this issue now. No more waiting! And that they must vote in favor of marriage equality for all.
You can do this by using the nifty callback form thingy Empire State Pride Agenda set up. Or you can go to the NY State Senate website and use the box on the left that says, 'Find my Senator."
If you don't live in NY...you can spread the word to anyone you know who does live in NY, so that they can make sure to voice their opinion before the legislature heads back to Albany in the coming weeks.
- Mood: busy
I'm trying to decide what to do with it, if anything, and wondered what my dear f'list thought. If you have an e-pubbed short story that's no longer available, what do you do with it?
Because I could do nothing with it, stick it in a file some place and forget about it. Or I could make it available on my website as a free story, or I could put it in my to-do list for stories to work on and rewrite and expand it when I get the chance.
And if I do put it on my website...what do you think about reading on the website vs. a downloadable pdf? I have two other shorts on my website that I just stuck in directly, but they're only 2k. First, A Dance is 7k-ish.
What do you think?
- Mood: busy
- Music:drip-drop-drip of rain
*gulp*
2 1/2 months? Seriously? Wow.
You all must have thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth. Maybe even the backside.
So I apologize for my absence, but speaking of backsides...I recently started law school. *g*
Which explains why I haven't been around much, though I have continued to read my f'list so don't think your shenanigans have gone unnoticed, ;)
So it's been a time problem. It's been interesting adjusting and ironing out a schedule that works for me, but I've finally managed it--er, mostly--and I won't say I'll have more time in the future (b/c where in the world would I get that from?) but rather that I'll be using my time more efficiently and will be able to do things like say hello on here and share writing updates.
Speaking of writing...
Well. I hate to report that spring and summer were very hit and miss for me in terms of writing. I was struggling with what was, at the time, a devastating illness in my family. In August, that prognosis changed, a miracle in a way, and things have been looking up since then. I started feeling the urge to write more and more, until it once again became a daily craving.
Now it's just eking out time to write amidst the craziness, but I actually think I'm more productive now than I was when I had all day to write. Is that backwards, or what?
So while I have no official news right now, I'm cleaning up a few WiPs so I can finally--finally!--submit them. Um, after midterms of course. *g* And I'm hoping for good news on a current submission--but I'll keep you posted, I promise. :)
Oh, and I have an official release date for the ebook edition of Seeing You: 2/23/10 from Samhain Publishing.
(You can still pick up the print anthology of Studs & Spurs, which includes Seeing You, from MLR Press here or here.)
- Location:chained to my desk
- Mood: busy
- Music:click-click-click of computer keys
I'm beyond late posting these reviews, but I was waiting for some news about Seeing You and I thought I'd do it all up in one post. :)
The lovely and discerning Kassa reviewed the Studs & Spurs anthology and she gave my contribution 4 stars and called it "a sweet and romantic story." You can read the rest of the review here at Kassa's LJ or here at reviewsbyjessewave. Thanks Kassa for the review!
The wonderful and prolific Elisa Rolle also reviewed the Studs & Spurs anthology. She also called it a "sweet romance" and said, "The mood is definitely less light, but the story is not less romantic." You can read the review here at Elisa'a LJ. Thanks Elisa for the review!
And in other related news, I recently signed a contract with Samhain to publish Seeing You as a standalone ebook. I'm so excited to be working with them, I really am. There's no set release date yet, but it looks like probably February 2010 for the ebook edition of Seeing You.
I have a new novella, Seeing You, out now from MLR Press as part of the Studs & Spurs print anthology! I'm lucky enough to be included with three supremely talented authors: JL Langley, Kiernan Kelly, and Angela Fiddler. Yee-haw!Blurb for Studs & Spurs
Saddles, spurs, Stetsons . . . and love? Sexy cowboys grab hold of more than a saddle in these entrancing stories from four talented authors of the genre. Kiernan Kelly takes us on an adventurous cattle drive to the Oregon Territory with a greenhorn and an old hand. Angela Fiddler’s retired rodeo men accept each other and the black riders. Two men overcome grief, rebuild a ranch and find love in Dakota Flint’s story. And JL Langley offers a light-hearted tale of a city boy and a rancher filled with love, laughter and a marriage of convenience?
Blurb for Seeing You
Everything changed for Dylan the night his brother, Simon, was killed in an accident. Unable to face the pain–or Simon’s partner, Wade–Dylan leaves life on the Lazy G ranch behind. Over a year later, Dylan gets a call saying he’s needed at home and he returns to find both the Lazy G and Wade in bad shape. Will Dylan and Wade be able to deal with their grief and rebuild the ranch? And will Wade see that sometimes you can find happiness again?
You can buy Studs & Spurs online through IndieBound.org:
Or you can order through Barnes and Noble or Amazon.
( Read an excerpt. )
I'll be traveling quite a bit in the next couple weeks, and even though it's not for pleasure or fun, it has me thinking about the summer trips my family has planned that are supposed to be fun.
And we're driving, not flying, which is great for me because I LOVE road trips. That's a bit weird, eh?
But it's true. I like the driving part, I like the riding part. Packing the car for a long road trip feels so much more...momentous and adventurous, I guess, than running to the airport to catch a flight. And as a kid, I liked looking out the window as we moved through small towns and big cities, through farmland and forests and mountains. My imagination would run wild as I made up stories about people who lived there. Seems a bit odd to me now, how much I lived in my imagination, but if I'm being honest, I still do that in a way. Only now I'll see something and think, wouldn't that be interesting for my current project or wouldn't that make a cool story.
So what about you? Have any trips planned for this summer? Do you share my love for road tripping or do you feel a little more like this on long car trips:
(Heh.)
- Mood: calm
I'm borrowing my positive thing for the day from my sister, J, b/c we're leaving to go to her college graduation which is this weekend. Yay! Go her!
And since I'm the sweetest little sister ever (*cough*) I won't be teasing her about graduating a year after I did. Slow and steady still wins the race! I'm so proud of her, truly.
Plus, I seem to have misplaced my voice and can only manage odd croaking sounds. It's really kind of creepy sounding, actually.
So yeah, no teasing. I'm sure she'll be disappointed. Heh.
Hey, TGIF and all that, what's good with you folks?
- Mood: tired
I woke up sick today. So my positive thing is...I showed up?
Yeah, okay it's kind of lame, isn't it? I don't think it counts when you have what is likely just a cold.
But it made me think about other situations and I do want to say for the record that yes, I do think just showing up can be a positive thing. When things are tough and you think that's all you can manage, or you doubt you can even manage that but you do it anyways. You show up. Go you. Be proud.
Anywho, since it's just a cold and I don't think I really deserve points for showing up, I'm going with...chicken soup.
Yes, my positive thing for the day is the chicken soup I just had for lunch. Maybe it's just the comfort thing, but it always makes me feel better when I'm sick (if I can eat, of course).
And now I'm going to climb back into my bed and watch Anne of Green Gables, which also never fails to make me feel better.
But please carry on today's positivity, folks!
- Mood: tired
Woo, today was a busy day and I'm doing this on the fly. Which is probably good, because this one's definitely more lighthearted.My positive thing for the day: I'm going to see Wolverine tonight. Finally. I know everyone and their sweet ol' granny have already seen this movie, so I'm a bit behind. But tonight it is the night!
And I hear rumors of a nekkid Hugh Jackman.
Uhn.
That's all I have to say about that.
Okay, maybe I'd add n "Mmmm" just to be sure.
(And yeah, I know this photo is from "Australia" but I just like it. He was flippin' edible in that movie.)
So what's something positive you did/said/saw/thought/received today?
- Mood: mellow
Granted they only live 20 min away and I spend a huge amount of time at their house, but it's still a big deal. It's kind of like packing up the mountain to go see Mohammad. It's pretty shocking. K is totally preggers right now, and with 7 kids, soon to be 8, it's always been easier for the rest of the family to go to her and save her having to wrestle the kids into the car.
But today it was such a joy to see them pulling into my Mom's driveway. I can't think of many things better than a "hug tight" from a 3 year old. He smelled like clean laundry, sunshine and grass, and I'm pretty sure a rogue bit of maple syrup the washcloth missed after breakfast. And I love the sweet innocence of a smile from a one year old. Doesn't matter what else is going on, you smile at her and she smiles back. A simple exchange. Joy for joy.
Not to mention, I'm not biased or anything (yes I am) but these are two of the cutest kids ever. And oddly enough--or maybe not so, since I look the most like my oldest sister--my youngest niece looks exactly like I did at that age. A total mini-me. As I said, cutest kid ever. *g*
And of course I was in their face with my camera...it's a habit I picked up last year.
( Click to see. )
So what's something positive you did/said/saw/thought/received today?
- Mood: calm
( The reason behind my positivy week--just a quick warning, it's quite personal. )
So I thought I'd host a "Positivity Week" on my blog. Each day I'll post something positive I've seen or done or thought, and invite everyone to comment with their own positive thing. It can be anything, doesn't have to be something big or grand...something you did for someone or that they did for you, something you saw, something you think, etc. :)
For my first contribution to positivity week, I did this at my Mom's today:
( click to see what I accomplished today )
So what are some good things going on with you?
- Mood: calm
