Before anything else: I got almost nothing accomplished word-count-wise this week, and that’s all on me. I did do some, but not even enough to bother checking the number.
I did, however, take the dog for an amazingly long walk, booked some train tickets, made a couple of trips to the post office, and suffered a few headaches. So. There’s that.
Ugh. No excuses. Basically, I felt like crap for a week and I wallowed. There. That’s what happened.
One last reminder, as I think this is the last week for it: the Bold Strokes Books website relaunched a short while ago, and it’s so pretty! There continues to be a store-wide 10% off sale on current available titles, so it’s the perfect time to indulge (that includes Light being 10% off). Among the various anthologies in which I have stories being on sale, Bold Strokes Books has some even deeper discounted: the paperbacks of quite a few are $4.99 to begin with (!) and a further 10% off. To whit:
- Blood Sacraments, Wings, Erotica Exotica, and Raising Hell are all $4.99 US regularly in paperback, and that means $4.49 right now. So if you wanted to read all the Triad stories before the novel it’s a really good time (I should point out the e-books for some of those titles are on sale for even less!)
- Riding the Rails, Sweat, Tricks of the Trade, and The Dirty Diner are likewise on sale, same price. This is the cheapest I’ve ever seen them, and I’m stoked to be able to pass that on to y’all.
The Novel(s)
I finished my Triad Blood edits (yes, I did do actual writing work) and I also got the front and back matter template put together. That included putting together, in one file, all the critical reviews of Light, which I’d never done before, and now realize is something you should do as you go. So, today’s tip: keep a file, copy/paste reviews into said file (not, like, Amazon or Goodreads, mind, but reviews from more literary sources). Keep track of the links. Then, when it’s time to figure out little quotes for the cover or back or what-not, you’ve got it all in one place already. Go team you.
Also included in that work was figuring out the acknowledgements and dedication. I already knew the dedication I wanted (more or less) but the acknowledgements threw me for a loop. You may recall that with Light there was a super-secret message to my husband (which everyone blew the whistle on and told him to go find because they’re all part of the conspiracy, but I digress) and I realized that was going to be freaking hard to top. Once I realized I couldn’t actually come up with something grander, I relaxed, and the words actually flowed.
But no grand permissions were granted this time. Sorry if you were hoping for a repeat there.
The Short Stuff
Huge thank you to everyone who shared, commented, posted, and/or “liked” my Q&A with R. Jackson last Sunday. It was received well, and as we go forward, I hope it continues to make noise for short fiction. You all know how I feel about short fiction.
Oh, and in other fun stuff, I’ve not got a piece ready to submit yet for the month and the month is, oh, look at that, four days from being done.
This is just like University papers. I swear one day I will learn to pace myself better.
Ha ha ha. No I won’t.
Open Calls I Know About (and find tempting)…
- Friends of Hyakinthos – Fantastical gay male-themed stories set during the time of Ancient Greece or involving Hellenism in later cultures, deadline January 30th, 2016.
- Theory of Love – Pocket protectors and sexy nerds? Sci-Fi (and/or geeky) Romance, Torquere Press, Deadline: February 15th, 2016.
- Less Than Dead – Tales of zombies, be they the enemy, the ally, or something else entirely, Less than Three Press, Deadline: February 28th, 2016.
- Men at Work – Tales of erotic gay workplace romance, JMS Books, Deadline: February 29th, 2016.
- Transcendent – Short, speculative fiction published in 2015 (ie: reprints) that features transgender characters, Lethe Press, Deadline: March 31st, 2016.
- Gents: Steamy Tales from the Age of Steam – Gay male erotica set during the Victorian/Edwardian era, Deadline: May 1st, 2016.
- Survivor – SF/F anthology looking for stories of everyday trauma survival, Lethe Press, Deadline: May 1st, 2016.
- Magic and Mayhem – Mage/cyborg or tattoo artist/soldier stories (very specific, but it’s for a charity anthology, details at the link), Gay Romance Northwest, Deadline: March 31st, 2016.
- Novella Call – The Book Smugglers, Deadline: May 30th, 2016.
- Animal Magnetism – Tales of men drawn together over their love of animals, JMS Books, Deadline: July 31st, 2016.
Don’t forget to check the Lambda Literary site for more calls, as well as the Queer Sci-Fi calls for submission page (always a trove!)
'Nathan Burgoine 