#AmWriting#MafiaRomance#QueerRomance@romancelandia
Okay. I want to write some fun, fast novellae and I'm thinking of mafia romances. Only, I don't want to write the Dark Romance tropes (I, uh, really don't like them), and I do want to write queer romances.
It's the mafia part that holding me up, I think. Are queer mafia romances popular? If I'm going against type by writing queer mafia romance, will I get away with also not writing the Dark tropes?
So, it's almost Valentine's Day, and if you're a lover of romance, and February has you looking for low-angst romance, may I point you in the direction of the "Candy Hearts" anthology? Because not only do you get sixteen low-angst queer romances, the proceeds all go to the Transgender Law Center and the National Center for Transgender Equality.
I wrote a Village novella for this one, "Valentine's Dave."
Candy Hearts: ❤️ What’s sweeter than a low-angst queer romance? How about 16 of them brought together in one anthology collection to help support the Transgender Law Center and the National Center for Transgender Equality?
The collection includes my new Village novella, "Valentine's Dave."
Sixteen low-angst Valentine's Day queer romance novellas, where every story has a secret—a secret admirer. I've got a new Village novella included, "Valentine's Dave."
The first Candy Hearts Anthology will be available for a limited time; all proceeds to benefit the Transgender Law Center and the National Center for Transgender Equality.
This memory has been lost in the mists of time. I've wanted to be a writer as long as I can remember. Lack of discipline and dyslexia proved too great a barrier, till better discipline and technology made it possible. I would utterly die without word processing, spelling and grammar checkers. (My pre-computer manuscripts are indecipherable)
The most recent advent of this desire or more precisely the realization I could do it was after I started producing endless streams of fanfic. Including what turned out to be an abortive 3 volume Otherside Picnic novel. I completed about half. If I could do that, I could write something more planned.
Funny thing though, horror and romance were at the bottom of my list of things to write till I actually started serious writing. Probably had a lot to do with all the romance I was exposed to was straight and I can't see myself in them. #queerauthor#LesFic#queerromance
If you 💜 trans, nonbinary, & ace romance, BIPOC authors, queer M/F, polyam, ownvoices m/m, off-the-beaten path sapphic books, older MCs, & more, get a curated new release list monthly in your inbox: https://tinyletter.com/skyekilaen
I updated my reading order, which you can download as a PDF. It has all the links to the ebook & audiobook versions of my novels and short stories, sorted by series.
My latest curated queer romance new release list is up now. All over the rainbow in terms of queer rep, yay! 🏳️🌈 📚 If you like anything from sci-fi to historical, fantasy to contemporary, there's a queer romance here for you.
It's urban fantasy/historical romance set in Madison in 1969. It's got a little noir mystery vibe. It's got a low-angst relationship. There's no homophobia and no cliffhanger.
My monthly newsletter centers self-pub & small press queer romances that may get overlooked. Trans, nonbinary, and ace romances, BIPOC authors, queer M/F, MCs over 40, polyam, & more.
Want to write a romance novel? Come jump-start your happily-ever-after!
Leave class with a concrete plan for your project + feedback from an editor who specializes in romance (= me). We'll explore key romance building blocks from a perspective committed to diversity & inclusion.
Good morning #bookstodon! My other pen name has the first of a new series of mm rockstar romances releasing today! It's still 99c for a couple of days.
A tired rock star and a judgemental gardener...what could possibly go wrong?
Just a handful of quick #WritingWonders answers for this month to get caught up! (Hi, gang! 👋 I missed y'all and hope y'all are well. I'll probably participate only sporadically till this #WIP is finished.)
My new WIP is a #queer supernatural mystery #romance codenamed #SeymourAndMilo (because I haven't made an official title announcement yet). The image is a crop of the in-progress book cover I've been working on, just so you can see what the protagonists look like (left: Seymour, right: Milo).
Day 1: If one of the protags showed up on my doorstep? I'd squint warily through my peephole like a true Millennial, then think to myself: "Oh my God, what is this [hot goth guy/hot priest (depending which one it is)] doing at my door???"
Day 2: Most readers will probably adore Milo from the start. Seymour's a prickly burr, but if folks stick with him they'll quickly learn he's all squish underneath.
Day 5: Seymour has been involved in a pretty significant (meta)physical altercation in the past. (We don't talk about it.)
Day 6: MILO: [can't think of anything that makes him /angry/-angry...maybe the U.S. mental health care system?] SEYMOUR: "Are you looking for a fucking monologue?"
Day 10: Weapon of choice? SEYMOUR: "My hands. But...not in the way you think." MILO: "My height and extraordinary chill. And, of course, the power of luv 🥺"
Day 15: Intimacy scenes? It's a romance. In a word: Yes.
Day 16: I'm good at and enjoy writing intimacy scenes. They can be a little awkward to share, of course, depending on the audience.
Day 17: SEYMOUR: "My ex-girlfriend, Lottie." MILO: "I give a lot of hugs, so I'm really not sure who the last person I hugged was...but I've never kissed anyone."
Day 19: Support the status quo? Hell, no. Seymour and Milo are both rebels in their own ways. (Seymour go smash; Milo gently expose the uncomfortable emotional truth that make you That Way.)
Day 21: Seymour's only a few months sober and drinks way too much coffee. Milo favors chamomile tea.
Day 22: Seymour doesn't have a friend group. Milo...doesn't either? Milo has a parish (and maintains good relationships with others in helping professions in Beacon Bay Isle and the surrounding townships). And no, Milo never causes drama in his parish...aside from pissing off the senior rector, usually by "going off script" when it's his day to give the homily.
#PennedPossibilities 18 (Hi! I'm seeing this hashtag floating around...could someone please tell me where the prompts are coming from? 🙏 )
SEYMOUR: That's a personal fucking question. I...guess you could say I've let go of everything I ever loved or wanted. Not because I had to. Because I just don't have it in me to hold on. Good things never stay, right? Or at the very least they never stay good. So I get out ahead of the bullshit. As soon as they go hot, I go cold. (That's right, I'm a serial ghoster. And yes, as a professional ghost-whisperer, I get the irony.)
MILO: Something I loved and had to let go of was the Catholic Church...and with it, all the moral high ground I had with my parents. They used to be so proud of me for following my calling to become a priest. Now I'm finally ordained, but because it's in the Episcopal Church and not the Catholic Church, to them I'm just a "lapsed Catholic." But for me it wasn't a choice. I wasn't going to stay part of any institution that wouldn't be welcoming to my trans sister.
(Might do one extra #PennedPossibilities each day till I've caught up on the ones I find most inspiring—because some of these are really good!)
I think when his story begins Seymour has a latent conviction that he's going to kill himself one day. It's his worst fear and the reason he keeps his life so closed off—so many things trigger him, and suicide's a very real possible consequence whenever he gets triggered. His best hope if he avoids that fate—so he believes—is growing old alone with the stray cats he feeds and his ghost pals who live in his house with him (between intermittent forays into toxic relationships).
Milo doesn't put a lot of stock in destiny; he's a mystic, and to him God represents a timeless present moment in which all things are possible, so in his mind the future's never fixed. That said, his belief in big dreams and fresh starts usually finds its application sparking hope in others who need it, and Milo's never imagined much for himself beyond a life of contemplation and social service.
The answer to 19 is short, so throwing 2 in there also, on my quest to get caught up!
Fun fact: Milo played center for his Catholic high school boys' varsity hockey team. (Probably the whole extent of the physical violence he's committed in his life.) Seymour has never played sports but is addicted to video games, especially CRPGs.
Seymour hasn't done much in the way of taking meaningful risks yet in his life. He has a history of taking certain habitual risks to distract himself: excessive alcohol consumption, risky sex...taunting angry ghosts. (The latter's actually a bit more on the meaningful side, since he's doing it to help the ghosts, but still not a deeply radical risk for someone who habitually disregards his own physical safety as a way of dissociating.)
Milo is intimate with the reality of impermanence and takes meaningful risks as a way of life, including being radically emotionally honest, connecting empathically to traumatized people, and trying to rehabilitate demons instead of sending them to hell. That said, there are risks he hasn't yet considered taking—such as seeking fulfillment for personal desires he pushed out of mind a long time ago.