Wednesday 30 April 2014

End of Another Month

The thing is I apparently suck big time and can’t do anything.
Yeah, that’s what’s been repeating itself inside my head as the month went by, and i haven’t even written 2k, or at least not even 2k of words I get to keep.
 
Moonlit Wolves: The Rub of My Werewolf, is quite simply killing me. I worse thing is I’m going to get this all out, it’s going to be short and it’s most likely going to suck. And I’m sorry for that.
 
So, all else I did this week was write out a skit for Desperate, which will most likely end up being scrapped. This is going to be a BDSM series, which will end up not actually being about that at all.
Ok, not true. Book 1: Desperate, this will probably turn out to be book 3, since it’s a harsher storyline and I’m not going to be making that mistake again. this book is actually scaring me a little because, well, one of the Mc’s Ben, if I remember correctly, well, he would probably be on the line of a sadist, and being in the situation he ends up in, with his personality it would end up turning him into a killer, and I believe Thomo would be his first.
So, I have to scale Ben back, so he kinda turns into a sadist while in the whore house, but like I said I want these to have some form—my form—of romance in it, so he can’t kill he’s lover.
Like yeah, it’s romantic in a sick kind of way as he’d because of Thomo that he doesn’t stop, that connection makes him need to find the high, or whatnot.
 
Anyway, I’m battling with Thomo at the moment of if he’s just a pain slut, needing the bondage to get off but not the submissive, or if he’s a submissive that would do anything the dom wants no matter how much they hurt him.
He’s not really all that happy about his own kinks so there’s moment where he turns around and say its just the pain and bondage he needs.
Anyway, this seems that it might be the book I write next because it needs to be written and I quite like it even if I don’t really want, or know, that much about that lifestyle.
 
I finished, Gotta Start Somewhere, and submitted it, but it won’t be until mid-May that I’ll find out what’s happening that way, but like I’ve said before I find it hard to believe they would knock it back.
It’s about a big hairy boy and he doesn’t get tied up and fucked into the mattress, actually the sex scene is a lot more about the main’s hair being loved on. theirs is a bit of a ‘gross’ point to it but I feel that it’s something that had to happened in order for the MC to feel loved.
 
In total count, I’ve finished a 6k short story, put a little bit more on Book 6, and thought up a 3 book series that I’s like to turn into 6. these books are probably going to stay short because I feel thing will get to tangled if I make them too long, though I will be trying more for 30k rather than the 18k I’ve been able to push out at the moment.
As well as one short story, which is going to be my first short at horror-romance, which will be interesting and hope will work in how I actually write, but I know it will defiantly only work if you read it to the end.

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Stuck in Your Head # 94

I’m going to give you the line from the books I’ve read that make my mind crave the rest like chocolate & Coke.
 

 
“I did, at one point, consider telling them that you’re using your telescope to study biology rather than astronomy, but I decided to play nice.”
--page 8, iBook
 
Another Six Months by Kim Dare
(FIT Guys #1.5)
First Published
Contemporary Romance
 
Free Short Story.
 
This story is a follow up to Worth Waiting For. It catches up with Colby and Noah - the main characters from that book. If you haven’t read that title, this story may make very little sense to you!
 
The events in this story take place approximately six months after the end of Worth Waiting For, and before the start of Worth a Shot.
 
Series includes
Worth Waiting For, Worth a Shot,

Monday 28 April 2014

The Numbers Are In

I’m not actually sure how to make this interesting because, to me, numbers are what they are, they are unchangeable, and they are hard to misinterpret.
 
Anyway, my March invoice had just come in and I thought, since I took off with my first quarter talking about my history and what I’ve learnt (or I’m just making this shit up and it was a dribble of words—my specialty) I thought I would follow it up with a simple post on the numbers
 
Quite simply I made (or at least held in my hand) $605
 
Now I’m quite happy with this number, I am actually quite surprised with even getting this much in the first place; I honestly didn’t expect anything for at least a year in publishing. I’m not sure if it was due to what I’ve written, helped with promoting, but I know I’m not doing awesomely, I’m not making millions, but then I don’t believe I’ll even make that kind of money.
So it’s been a pleasant surprise that I’ve made this much in just 3 months.
 
Okay, so first up, these numbers, as far as I can tell, came from the site itself, I’m not sure if I’ve just not sold anything in the third party sites, or if the three month mark on that hasn’t come up yet.
So here’s what I sold:
 
January 2014:
·         Loved by a Werewolf — 150 units
 
February 2014:
·         Loved by a Werewolf — 50 units
·         Forever with my Werewolf — 94 units
 
March 2014:
·         Loved by a Werewolf — 17 units
·         Forever with my Werewolf — 28 units
·         Seeking my Werewolf — 95 units
 
So all up I sold
·         Moonlit Wolves series — 434 units
·         My Kevin – 693 units
 
Like I said, my expectation of how I was going to go when I first pushed that send button, and as I waited was nothing on how much I actually sold.
I am new, people, I have only been at this game for 3 months (ok, so nearly 4, but we’ll back track that) and I have sold how many.
 
Anyway that’s the numbers from me, and I know I shouldn’t be talking ‘bout it on an account of its money and all, but it’s interesting and if more people did it, I’d be interested to know how they did because it’s all about realism and the fact that this is how I started out. It will be interesting to know what I’m like, and what my numbers are in a few years when my name has some meaning behind it.
 
It’ll will also be interesting to see what April brings in since I ended getting 3 books onto the top 20 chart on the site, though I’m still not sure what that truly means, but it’s making my crappy week so much better.
But then this was a big promoting for me. I did it for what the books really were rather than what I thought they were and I think that helped, or at least it got the right type of person looking at the series, and that matters more than anything else, doesn’t it.
 
Anyway, that’s what I got, it’s what I promised, and I hope it’s what you’d be interested in learning.

Saturday 26 April 2014

Cigar Time, Gentlemen #51

This posting is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY.
It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers.

Friday 25 April 2014

..

 
Amber Kell
Kim Dare
Stephani Hecht
RJ Scott
Charlie Richards
Jet Mykles
Josh Lanyon
Mary Calmes
Amy Lane
Mercy Celeste
Andrew Grey
Diana DeRicci
Toni Griffin
Carol Lynne
Eden Cole
Belinda McBride
JL Lanyon
Tere Michael
 
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Gene Showalter
Christine Feehan
JR Ward
Olivia Cunning
Kresley Cole
Maggie Shane
Laurell K Hamilton
Susan Krinard
Rachel Mead
Celine Kiernan
Kristin Cashore
Daniel Waters
Alex Duval
Jane Oliver
Cassandra Clare
JK Rowlings
 
And all those I’ve forgotten at this moment that have inspired me to sit down and write, but more importantly, that even though it’s hard, it’s defiantly worth it.

Thursday 24 April 2014

Hadn’t the Pleasure #101

The books that have been collecting dust for so long they have become stained from it
 
 
Murder, mystery, sex and magic. It’s just another typical night under a crescent moon…
 
New Orleans Police Detective Taylor Campbell has done his best to leave Xander Cooper alone. Years ago, he joined the Army to get away from the temptation of the younger man. But a series of murders around Xander’s restaurant has Taylor running scared. And when he happens upon Xander holding off a group of thugs, his honour is forgotten.
 
Xander Cooper fell in love with Taylor when he was a teen. Now an adult, he’s waited and watched and hoped that Taylor would one day see him as more than a little kid meant to be avoided. He didn’t expect murder to bring Taylor to his bed. For Xander, giving Taylor his heart is easy. Letting him in on the family secret is another thing all together.
 
He didn’t expect that Taylor would have secrets of his own. Secrets that make a little thing like Xander being a witch seem tame…
 
Reader Advisory: This book contains scenes of violence, rough sex, mild BDSM, dubious consent and cheating.
 
Under a Crescent Moon by Mercy Celeste
First published 25th October 2013 by Totally Bound
iBook, 177 pages
Paranormal Mystery Romance
 
“ It’s Midnight Cinderella played on the radio. Again. Some song, same time every night. of course, that would be because the playlist on the jukebox was the same one I hit every night. For some strange reason I love Garth Brooks and his brand of rodeo and honky-tonk mixed with southern rock, country music. “

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Realisation and Explanation

I make excuses when I’m being criticized. Ok, maybe that’s not completely true. Well, yes, it is, but more so I always feel this need, deep inside my tongue, to explain why it is I might have done this, or that.
 
The problem is it’s quite a hard things to realise I’m doing when I don’t really think before speaking. I tend to make the excuse real early on before things sink in and then I sit back, and reflect and realise I’ve done it this way, mostly because I know, even as I explain that I’m doing it wrong and that I’m going to do everything I can to fix this.
 
So I’m sorry for everyone out there who I’ve done this with, it’s a gut reaction and I am, and do, take what you’ve send to heart.
 
What I feel a deep seeded need to explain is Loved by a Werewolf, and quite clearly the whole Moonlit Wolves series, but don’t worry people I ain’t changing them.
 
I wrote this series in what I felt light romances, and clearly, I was wrong.
 
I’m not wrong about my ability to write that type of story as I have, My Kevin is a romance, and my first Movember book is one as well, but apparently when it comes to paranormal what see and how I feel and what I believe should be expected from one isn’t love or loving or even nice. Its blood and gore in a level not even I noticed until someone pointed it out to me.
 
The thing is I know I haven’t written on scene gore, not really, not more than a body laying at another’s feet, because I made me point not to.
 
This is what I wrote, Book 2:
 
Wetness ran onto Tim, his neck and lower face slathered with the thick chunky downpour. His mind worked double time trying to figure out what it was. His chest ached from rapid breathing. It didn’t help that he had been tied to this tree too long. His arms—hands, elbows—ached.
     Tim’s head went grey, fuzzy and slow. He wanted the wet stuff off his face, even if his mind wouldn’t come up with what it was. He wanted—
     Something hit him. Slammed into his thighs and Tim’s world tipped on its hinges and went toppling into darkness.
 
Now, if I wanted to go graphic it would have been more like this: [sorry bout roughness]
 
Blood splashed across his face, chunks of soft meat slapped softly at his neck as Colin’s teeth dug into the man’s neck, looking for a prize as he pulled his throat apart. Tim’s brain tried rebelling from the carnage that was happening around him, as his chest rose in heavy breaths.
     The beast Colin was at the moment took a short time to remove the man it was killings arm off him, the limb feel, it’s fingers caressed Tim on it’s way to the ground, hot wetness was left behind making Tim shiver. His stomach bubble up into his throat, he was sure if he’d had anything to eat he’d have projectile vomited just from the smell.
     The sound made it worse, the screams and yells of the men getting attacked and then a settled silence broken by some animal grunts and human noises Tim didn’t want to name.
     His eyes sprung tears as he fought the need to yell and scream, encouraging the beast along as he wanted to beg them to stop. To save the life of someone who would turn around and stab him in the back.
     He wanted off the tree so he could join in on the carnage because the fear that vibrated his arms and legs demanded vengeance for what he’d been through.
     Guilt ate at him as his mind suddenly had too much, he couldn’t deal with any of it. Not the blood pooling around his legs, socking into his pants. And defiantly not the emotions that wanted to pull him apart, making him something worse than the beasts killing what they could get their hands on.
 
Or I don’t know something like that, I just wrote it up now for this.
 
But this is kinda my point, I wanted to write something like the bottom one. I wanted to have full on blood carnage but I decided before I wrote the book that I wouldn’t make it violently graphic, only I failed.
 
The thing I didn’t understand as I wrote it, and quite honestly until I spoke to my mum about it, was the fact that what I did made it more. It made you have to put in your own thoughts of what had happened, while putting you in the mind of a person going through it.
Clearly you understood exactly what was raining down on Tim without me having to point it out because it was so horrific he’s mind turned blank as it rebelled against him understanding what was happening around him.
 
You as a human have enough experience with gore and horror to fill in blanks I’ve given you emotions for, and what makes it worse is the fact that I’ve done it without understanding what I’ve done. I’ve made you be able to think up your most horrifying thing you want to think of as I splatter the dude with blood and have him pass out.
 
This is kinda brilliant and makes me want to see what I could do with something more horror orientated, because, at the end of the day, romance and horror aren’t that far removed. They are both emotionally related. It’s about making you feel things rather than telling you what’s happening.
 
Obviously, it would run more between what I have above and what I have written below because it’s needed, but here’s the thought I had.
The idea: contemporary horror-ish romance (Stockholm syndrome)
 
A boy falls in love with a ghost who terrorised and killed all his friends. In the end the cops come and the kid kills himself because he can’t live without the ghost.
      But what really happened in the hotel, that night, when the only one standing the next morning was a boy, with a knife in his hand and blood down his body smiling like a loon as he sliced the blade across his throat.
 
What you think? Something you’d be interested in reading?

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Stuck in Your Head # 93

I’m going to give you the line from the books I’ve read that make my mind crave the rest like chocolate & Coke.
 
 
““I love looking at you,” I said after a moment.
“Well, don’t take your eyes off me.”
And I hadn’t from that day forward. How was I supposed to watch over him from thousands of miles away?”
     --page 40, iBook
 
Where You Lead by Mary Calmes
First Published 25th December 2013 by Dreamspinner Press
Contemporary ‘holiday’ Romance
 
ATF agent Peter Lomax isn’t a hearts and flowers kind of guy, but he can be possessive, and it caused problems until Carver Fleming. Carver may be part of the art world, but he gets Peter, loves belonging to the man, and Peter treasures the way Carver understands them together.
 
Carver loves Peter, but he's fully aware that six months doth not a commitment make. Carver wants to make the relationship last forever, but he’ll have to leave their life in Chicago to take care of the family he loves. He wants to do it with Peter by his side, but going from the city of Chicago to tiny Colt, Kentucky is a big change.
 
Carver has only one Christmas wish: Please, oh please, let Peter fall enough in love with Carver's family to follow Carver home.