Writers, your audience exists in today's world. No matter what you write, today's world is the place it exists in. I say this because even when you write the darkest of hopeless horrors, your audience still exists in today's world, and that means you have to consider what ideologies, your work might prop-up or suggest—even without authorial intent, which I get is harder—but come on, a romantic lead who is a part of the KKK?
That's not even a low bar to clear. It's on the fucking ground.
Royalty statement days are like quarterly time travel documents went and had a baby with math, but today I’d like to say thank you to everyone who picked up Felix Navidad!
(This is what it’s like when you release a book in December. You find out what happened half a year later.)
Okay, I'm usually pretty anti-get-the-Straight-guys-to-do-queer-things-as-an-object-lesson because so much of it doesn't land right: they're never in the actual position of queer dudes, there's always the "and that's done" safety moment thereafter, and it tends to minimize queerness into actions rather than existence, but... I really enjoyed watching this.
Once again, #Ottawa, no sidewalks seemed to be salted this morning, so drivers, expect people walking on the roads because the sidewalks are deathtraps. Also, beg-buttons at intersections can be iced over, which means we pedestrians can't even beg to cross the road like the lesser beings we are.
One last, super-important, thought about covers: if you're book is about a werewolf (or werebear, or any other shifter) and the cover art has a completely smooth-skinned man with zero body hair what-so-ever, I'm going to be annoyed.
(Especially if we're talking about a gay werebear. I mean, COME ON.)
Gentle reminder for anyone who might be thinking of purchasing books for their significant other(s) this holiday season: take a photo of their bookshelf.
I promise you the bookstore clerk will be able to use this to good effect.
Husband has just left for the airport, Husky is now pacing around with his usual look of utter betrayal when one of us leaves, and I am ready to attempt to make my lap-top send a day's worth of Can*Con Virtual watching to my television. Prepare for hijinks.
For #Pridemonth today, how about a tease of something I’m almost finished, once again given the absolute magic (no pun intended) of an InkSpiral Design cover?
Curtis, Luc, and Anders are trying to stop someone who is killing people who can see the future… but how do you outwit someone who can outwit psychics?
If you're following me, it's very likely you've already got my wee romantic-slash-comedic-slash-erotic "Rear Admiral" but did I mention there are over TWO HUNDRED more stories?
This "give parents more say over their kids" is such garbage when talking about queer (especially trans) youth having the freedom they need to be themselves.
I need all my parent friends (queer or not) to get how very much they should be 100% behind "my kid doesn't need to tell me until they're ready to" and that being their job in this situation.
Make a situation where they'll want to tell you, yes. Then wait. They might still not talk to you. That's okay.
#WritersCoffeeClub 2/25. How do you feel about Amazon's influence on books & publishing?
Oof. Okay, I don't buy from Amazon unless I have zero other option, I release my books wide when it's up to me, and as much as I wish the massive amounts of money that go to Amazon would generate tax income and create safe (and fair) jobs, I also know you can't compete with "cheap, accessible, and easy" (for authors and readers) on that scale, no matter how awful they are, or to whom.
So, once again #Ottawa, if you're a driver, prepare for pedestrians to be walking in the road (there's no sidewalk) and for the beg buttons at intersections to be crusted over to the point where they can't request a walk light.
One of my least favourite things, picking names for characters.
I'll often finish an entire draft with placeholders like [Name] or [Friend] or [Sister] in square brackets and then do a find/replace thereafter once I've chosen a name for them.
One solution is to use them as hat-tips for people who've been awesome to me in my life. So many of my characters are named for people that way; fellow authors, co-workers, etc.
"This policy statement affirms APA’s support for unobstructed access to health care and evidence-based clinical care for transgender, gender-diverse, and nonbinary children, adolescents, and adults."
Max is an amazing seat-thief. Like, you get up to make a cup of tea, you come back and there he is, wherever you were, curled up and looking oh-so-smol-and-cuddly.
So, I've been writing since I was a kid—mostly what I suppose now we'd call "prompts" or fanfic off artwork inside D&D manuals, boxed sets, and/or magazines; then writing up TTRPG sessions/snippits about characters, but that was for me.
Writing to be published started once I was at the uni, speed-bumped by a creative writing prof who tore me to shreds, then given a shot via people I'd met via bookselling, who were editing anthos.
#writerscoffeeclub Mar 17: Have you taken high school or college courses in Creative Writing? Were the classes useful?
I tried my university Creative Writing class, offered by a prof who'd had a book picked up from Random House, I believe. He read my sample stuff—queer and spec-fic, to be clear—and wrote "Trite" and "Common" and didn't accept me into the class. Was soul-crushing. Didn't write for ages.
Anyway, he still has that one book. My sixth small-but-trad-pub novel releases next month.
#WritersCoffeeClub 03/23—How important is humour in your work? How do you work it in?
Fairly important, as humour tends to be my personal coping mechanism of choice, which translates into my POV characters quite a bit.
Also when I write romance, humour is fun. Also sexy. Like, being funny on the fly is clever, and cleverness is sexy, so my love interests tend to know how to land a joke.
#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 20 - Do you name or number chapters? If you name them, how do you decide on a name?
In my debut novel, “Light,” it started with ‘Black’ then each chapter was a colour of the spectrum, heading toward the final chapter. After that, until “Stuck With You,” I’d only ever numbered chapters. With SWU, I was asked to come up with titles by the publisher, hence the “list of things about Caleb Khoury” theme.
Today's Star Trek Adventures is with my USS Bellerophon group, and they're warping off into the Shackleton Expanse. This adventure is right out of the Modiphius Shackleton Expanse Campaign book. I spent a season creating some set-up using a mix of mission briefs and my own noggin, but this time it's entirely from a pre-printed adventure.
