Struggling for Inspiration

I've been creatively uninspired for months now. Aside from one adapted short story, I've produced nothing of worth since last November. None of my usual tricks seem to be working to refresh the creative well, either. I blame the weather. No, seriously. So far this year, we have had a single day where the temperature topped 60F--and I wasn't even here to see it. Okay, I was coming home from a visit to one of my dearest friends who happens to live in NYC, and we did have a couple of reasonably sunny days while I was there, but it doesn't appear to have been enough. Funny thing is, I'm not a sunshiney person. I like the rain. I like the overcast skies. But, frankly, even I am fed up with them. I'd swear it's still winter here, except the crocuses are done blooming and the cherry trees are finishing up, too. Theoretically, that means it's spring.

::glances outside::

Yeah. Not so much.

Usually, a change of geography will jump start my creative brain. I figured I'd be all over my computer on the flight home, or at least once I got home. Again, not so much. So I must force myself back to the grind, which shouldn't be such a trial because I enjoy writing...when I'm actually writing.

If you have any tips or tricks that work for you, I'd love to hear them. I can't control the sun and my vacation has yielded nothing but happy memories and a few photographs. What do you find helps you out when you're stuck on the slow boat to meh?

Release Day - Compass Hearts!

That's right! Compass Hearts released today from Torquere! Woot-woot! I'm so excited that this little novella has finally found a home and can now go out to readers who, I hope, will love it as much as I do. It's been a long road for this one, originally written as an anthology submission in 2007. Four years old and it's finally leaving the nest. *teary-eyed* But seriously, I very much hope you like this story. There are sexy college boys and cold winter nights. Put those elements together and what's not to like, right? ;-)


As the fourth son of merchant parents, Matthew Morgan has always been superfluous. The only guidance he ever received was to behave and stay out of the way. Now, at a university half a world away from home, he must discover who he is and what he wants. Too bad he's never made a decision in his life.

When Ash Thearon meets Matthew, the handsome fellow student he's been ogling all quarter, he finds him sweet, sexy, and more than a little puzzling. To solve that puzzle, he must first collect all the pieces, which is easier said than done. The new friends quickly become lovers, but Matthew's sheltered life has taught him only how to follow. Ash wants the give and take of an equal, and Matthew's tendency to try too hard to please others leaves Ash wondering how to teach him independence without losing him.

I think of this as a "quiet" romance. I'm not sure I can define that adequately outside of my own brain, but see if you don't agree with me when you read it. 'Cause you're going to read it, right? I sure hope so. And to make it easier for you, here's a handy link so you can buy it now! :-)

Oh, and there's a bonus scene available either at the above link or over on my website.

Happy release day, everyone!

One Day More!

No, not until a new revival of Les Miserables, until Compass Hearts releases from Torquere!

And, to whet your appetites for sexy college boys, here's an excerpt for you.

***

He barely recognized his own voice as he went on. "The human body is... fascinating." There was a question, an invitation, underlying his statement. He hoped Ash would hear it and understand. Despite this sudden swell of bravery, he knew he couldn't say that out loud.

A slow smile spread across Ash's face. Matthew grinned back, guessing his message had gotten through. His guess was confirmed when Ash asked, "Have you ever had a live model?"

"No." Matthew's cock strained at his breeches. He yearned to draw Ash, see him stripped and posed. He couldn't remember ever wanting anything so much or so urgently in his life.

Then reality crashed down on him. His face fell. "My materials are at my apartment." In the time it took to get there and back, the moment would be beyond lost. And there was no way he was taking Ash back to his flat. He didn't want Ash to see it. It was so unbearably grim, lacking in any charm or comfort, especially when compared to Ash's quirky and inviting room upstairs.

"What do you need?" Ash asked.

"Charcoal pencils, largish paper."

"I have that."

"You do?" Matthew perked up at this spark of hope. It was almost too good to believe. "How? Why?"

"Botany class. We do a lot of plant sketching. I not only have charcoal pencils, I have pressed pigment pencils."

Matthew's eyes lit up and Ash grinned and grabbed his hand. "Come on." Ash pulled him to his feet and toward the stairs.

Matthew's practical side asserted itself and, still clinging to sense, he asked, "What about our books?"

"No one will bother them. Come on!" He practically dragged Matthew from the parlor. By the time their feet hit the stairs, though, Matthew was plenty willing to follow him up.

Inside the cozy comfort of the little attic room, Ash went immediately to the window seat. He opened it and fished around inside, coming up a moment later with a large tablet and a tin box. "Here." He handed the box to Matthew who opened it and looked in wonder at the myriad colored pencils within.

"Where did you get these?" he asked, awed and envious.

"Some of them I bought in town. Some of them my dad gave me before I came here." Ash flipped through the tablet of his botany drawings, Matthew looking over his shoulder. The plants were barely recognizable, and then only because he'd labeled them. "They're awful, I know," said Ash. He pulled a disgusted face. "It's all right to say so."

"I just have one question," said Matthew.

"Yes?" Ash turned and looked up at him. "What?"

"Are you actually passing botany?"

Ash burst out laughing. "All right, Master Critical." He flipped to a blank sheet and shoved the tablet at Matthew. "Let's see you do better."

"That much I can guarantee."

"I've never been an artist's model." Ash's eyes looked deep blue in the lantern light and his voice was husky. "Tell me what to do."

Matthew swallowed hard once. The heat and tightness in his groin were intense, and he was glad for the tablet he held in front of him. What was he thinking? He'd never get through this! Panic began to rise in him, quelling his arousal. No. I want to do this, damn it! Steeling himself and taking control of his fear, he said with as much authority as he could muster, "Strip."

***

And tomorrow I'll have an "author bonus" scene to post both here and over at my website. It will give you a little insight into a lesser-seen character of the novella. I'll also have a buy link so you can be the first on your block to rush out, so to speak, and get a copy. ;-D

It's almost here!

Release day, that is! This Saturday, 2 April, my next novella will be coming out from Torquere, Compass Hearts.

How do you define yourself when others have always done it for you? Half a world from home, Matthew must find the answer before his loses the one man who may truly love him.

As the fourth son of merchant parents, Matthew Morgan has always been superfluous. The only guidance he ever received was to behave himself and stay out of the way. Now, at a new university half a world away from home, he must discover who he is and what he wants. The only trouble is, he's never made a decision in his life.

When Ash Thearon meets Matthew -- the handsome fellow student he's been ogling all quarter -- he finds him sweet, sexy, and more than a little puzzling. To solve that puzzle, he must first collect all the pieces -- something more easily said than done.

The new friends quickly become lovers, but Matthew's sheltered life has taught him only how to follow another's lead. Ash wants more than that; he wants the give and take of an equal. Matthew's tendency to try too hard to please others leaves Ash wondering how to teach him independence without losing him.

And I must give a shout out to Alessia Brio for the gorgeous cover art!

Year of Reading Youthfully - Epilogue

So, if you've been following my YoRY posts, there may be one question as yet left unanswered in your mind: Why is the author of erotic m/m fiction reading young adult novels?

Am I right? ... I thought so.

The simple answer is: Because I like YA fiction. And it's true. I don't like all of it, but I don't like all of any category of books. What I have found lately, though, in returning to the realm of YA, is that a lot of it is, quite frankly, better written than "grown-up" fiction. That's not to say "adult" fiction, with all of its sundry connotations, but books written with non-children as their target audience, whether erotic or otherwise. With a few notable exceptions (::cough::twilight::cough::), we seem to expect more of young adults and children as readers than we do of adults. I'm sure there are many sides to that discussion, and I'm not going to cover them all here because no one person can sum up the whole of literature. That's just a silly idea. But in my experience over the past few years, I've found that I've tossed aside a goodly number of adult-targeted books of a variety of genres because they bored me or they irritated me. (I've tossed aside a couple of YAs for these reasons, too, just so you know.) Either the story was far too simplistic or predictable, or the characters weren't interesting or even likable. In one case (an erotic romance), the title character was, frankly, a loathsome person and I saw no reason to give a damn whether he lived or died. Another book (technically a mystery), which I unfortunately finished because it was for a book club, was utter shit. Award-winning, gods know why, because it was GARBAGE. (On the up side of finishing it, one does like to be fully knowledgeable about one's subject when eviscerating it with friends.)

The books I have continued to read and finish (or intend to finish) for my own enjoyment have a high expectation of the reader. Boneshaker and The Ark, for example, are both books that expect a certain level of attention, comprehension, and retention from their readers, and that makes me more interested and excited to actually read them. They make me think while at the same time providing me with an escape and entertainment. Maybe that's why I've been diggin' on the YA so much. It takes a lot to get a teenager to sit down and focus on something that isn't a video game, or a TV show or movie, or any one of far too many means of social media and electronic communication. We're all moving too fast these days, and it seems to me the current teen/tween generation are taking the brunt of it. So, to get one of them to sit down, slow down, and read tens of thousands of words on a single subject... Well, you'd better be damned good at what you do to make that happen.

So there it is, for what it's worth. And now if you'll excuse me, I have a stack of books awaiting my attention. :-D

Defying Definition - YoRY Part 7

Okay, so that heading's not entirely true. The last two books from my Year of Reading Youthfully aren't hard to categorize on their own, they simply don't belong in any of the previous categories, nor do they fit together in one.

First, there's Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner, which is essentially your basic contemporary YA fiction. I picked this book up at Powell's in Portland, OR, because of the title and because the staff recommendation card said it was "the raunchiest book I've read...on this floor." "This floor" being the one that houses the Children's, Middle Readers, and Young Adult books. I thought at the time that with a title like that and a recommendation like that, it must be worth checking out. So I read the back and promptly put it in my basket.  Here's what the back of the book says:
"Shakespeare has always hated his name. His parents bestowed it on him as some kind of sick joke when he was born, and since then his life has been one embarrassing incident after another. But Shakespeare will have the last laugh. He is chronicling every mortifying detail in his memoir, the writing project each senior at Shakespeare's high school must complete. And he is doing it brilliantly. For as much as he hates his name, Shakespeare is a good writer. And, just maybe, a prizewinning memoir will bring him respect, admiration, and a girlfriend . . . or at least a prom date."

So, you see why I couldn't resist. And it's written in two styles, although both are the voice of the title character, Shakespeare Shapiro. (His more popular younger brother is name Gandhi, by the way.) The narrative goes back and forth between his daily life, written in first person, present tense which seems to be a popular format these days with YA books, and the assignments he is given for his senior writing project, i.e. his memoir. In both, however, he tends to cast himself as the hapless victim. Now, lest that sound too irritating for you, it is done with such good humour and honesty that I never once got fed up with his "poor me" point of view. Fact: His little brother is cooler and more popular. Fact: His parents are nut-jobs, well-meaning as they might be. But also fact: His life is put in perspective when he gets to know another student in his memoir class and discovers just how normal and lucky his life really is in comparison to some. Yes, the boy can learn!

A friend gave me Jake Wizner's second book, Castration Celebration!, for Solstice, and I'm looking forward to reading it!

Second, there is The Boneshaker by Kate Milford, which is magical realism. I picked up this book by accident. See, I went to the library to put a hold on Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (which is flipping awesome, by the way. Go read it!). I wasn't paying very close attention and I put a hold on The Boneshaker first. I was going to cancel that hold until I read the book blurb and I thought, "Well, that sounds cool!"

I was right.

 Here's what Goodreads says:
"Thirteen-year-old Natalie Minks loves machines, particularly automata—self-operating mechanical devices, usually powered by clockwork. When Jake Limberleg and his traveling medicine show arrive in her small Missouri town with a mysterious vehicle under a tarp and an uncanny ability to make Natalie’s half-built automaton move, she feels in her gut that something about this caravan of healers is a bit off. Her uneasiness leads her to investigate the intricate maze of the medicine show, where she discovers a horrible truth and realizes that only she has the power to set things right."

It's set in a little town in the flat middle of the U.S. in 1914. Near a crossroads where once thriving, now ghost-, town stands. In short: mysterious illness; traveling medicine show; clockwork automata with no source of power; and a bicycle no one can ride. Oh, and you know who you're likely to meet at a crossroads, don't you? Better be sure you know what you're doing before you make a deal with him.

I love magical realism! I wouldn't be completely hooked on Jack Flanders if I didn't. The Boneshaker is about a regular 13-year-old girl dealing with extraordinary events that turn her ordinary world on its ear. Of course, it's not that simple, but I don't want to spoil things for you. Natalie is bold and brave and foolhardy and vulnerable and absolutely real. The author totally nailed the voice of the character and immediately drew me into her world and her story. (Unlike The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which is garbage. Don't waste your time. It jumped the shark in the first paragraph.)

So there you have it. My Year of Reading Youthfully. Of course, I'm still grooving on my YA novels. I have three new ones from NZ to read, you know! Plus the new Wizner I mentioned above, and the others I've mentioned in previous posts. So it's not like I'm stopping just because a year is up (and has been for a while now), it's just that I can only keep so much information in my memory for so long. And now it's here for you to read. I hope you check out some, or indeed all, of the books I've talked about. You'll find them worth your while and you might rediscover something in yourself while you're at it.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you around again soon. After all, I have a book coming out in less than a fortnight! ;-)

YA Books from NZ!

The books I ordered from NZ arrived today! Yay! Very excited to have the rest of the Blood of the Lamb trilogy and Banquo's Son to read. But first I really should finish the books I'm already reading.