Udates to MaiaStrong.com

I just updated some links over on my website's Bookshelf. Samhain Publishing has been doing a huge amount of shifting about and redesigning, and now that they seem to be all settled in, I've updated the links for The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing (ebook and print) and the follow-up freebie, Wand'ring Home. Everything else should still link up just fine, but if you find otherwise, do let me know.

Halloween Quizzage Finale!

So it's Saturday. We can still have a quiz, right? Right!

You Should Be a Mermaid for Halloween

According to our quiz, you'd make an ideal mermaid. Your runner up costume: Geisha

The Halloween Costume Generator

Blogthings: Quizzes and Tests and Memes, Oh My!

Hope everyone has an enjoyable Halloween!

Blessed Samhain to all my fellow pagans out there. :-D

A Note from Samhain Publishing

From Angela James, Executive Editor at Samhain Publishing:

Samhain is open to submissions.

In the most recent issue of the RWA’s Pro newsletter (Prospects) it was reported that Samhain is closed to submissions. We’re unsure where the erroneous information came from, but we are not closed to submissions and have no plans to be. We continue to accept submissions in all genres of romance, as well as science fiction/fantasy/

urban fantasy all with romantic elements. Submissions guidelines can be found http://samhainpublishing.com/submissions. All questions and submissions can be directed to editor@samhainpublishing.com

Free Holiday Stories

I'm having fun this afternoon reading the holiday freebies from Samhain. So far I've read: The Gift of Giving; Baby, It's Cold Outside; and A Midnight Clear. All have had their various charms. What's not to love about m/m romance set in London, right? And I love stories set in and around Seattle, esp. when they involve spice and snow. ::wicked grin:: I'd been particularly looking forward to Ciar Cullen's Baltimore historical and I wasn't disappointed. If you haven't popped over to DL these fun freebies, what the hell are you waiting for? Off you go now.

I admit it

Instead of proofing the novel I finished recently, I'm digging through Samhain's Coming Soon pages looking for evidence that other winners of the contest I won are being published, too. So far I've identified these two:

Touch of Fire by Maria Zannini
All that Glitters by Aislinn Kerry

I thought I had another when I saw "pirate", but the coming soon title is an historical and the winning first line is clearly a sci-fi.

More may show up over time as more titles are added to the "coming soon" pages. These are only the ones releasing through 22 July.

Release Date!

Squeee! I have a release date! My cover art isn't yet official and they spelled my name wrong on the page, but these things will change in time. I'll mention the latter to my editor and there's nothing I can do about the former but wait. The important thing is that I have a release date!

I suppose you want to know what it is. LOL! JUNE 10! And here's the link to the coming soon page over at Samhain: The Ballad of Jimothy Redwing.

::happy dance::

ETA: Oo! The cover art is up now, too! Look! Isn't it yummy?! I raise a toast to the cover art goddess, Anne Cain. :D

Dream, dream, dream

I dreamed this morning that I'd sold a particular short story. Since that story is currently with my editor at Samhain, I'm hoping the dream was prophetic. Time will tell.

Since there's nothing else doing right now, I'll tell you a little about the story in question, shall I? It's about 25,000 words long and I wrote it last year for Samhain's Gay Valentine Anthology open submission. Obviously it wasn't chosen, but having since seen the three that were, I can understand why. They settled on a theme of "serving" - serving country, serving time, serving...something I don't remember - and this story doesn't fit with that at all. It's in the same universe as the novel I sold, though, and it's just as m/m erotic romancy as the novel, so I have high hopes that my editor will like it. The biggest challenge of writing it wasn't the length requirement or the genre; it was incorporating Valentine's Day into a world that doesn't have it. It doesn't even have saints, as a matter of fact. I think I did a pretty good job of it, considering. :)

Exerpts

There are a lot of exerpts to read on the Samhain Cafe. Today esp. since tomorrow is release day, but lots in general. I don't read many because I know what I like and if I can tell from the blurb that something's not my bag, I skip it. No harm, no foul. Only there was a title the other week that I thought might be cool and fun, so I started reading one of the two posted exerpts. ... The author lost me with one word. One stinking word. ::sigh:: I hate that. I can't entirely blame them, or anyone else, when something truly tiny just shuts me right out of an otherwise good read. On the other hand, when it's something I consider very basic and simple and easy to get right, I can't help but get a bit pissy about it. Of course that leads me to wondering if or when I might be making the same piddly sort of mistakes. Gods, I hope I don't, but there's the fatalistic part of me that figures it's inevitable. I suppose it's one of the advantages to writing in a fictional universe though; I don't have to know the dialect-specific quirks and turns of phrase of another region than my own because all the regions I write about are inside my wee brain. I'm making them up and they can talk any way I want. They still need to be consistent, but no one else can say, "Hey! No one from CityXYZ would ever say that!" because, hey, my city, my rules. ;)

Am I the only one who goes whacko about tiny shit like this? Seriously. I know I'm a grammar freak and other things where language is concerned, but I can't be the only one. Can I?

Legitimate!

My copy of my Samhain contract arrived yesterday. I'm feeling like the bastard child who's been formally recognized by the king. ... Or maybe I've just been watching too much of The Tudors. LOL

In other news, I blogged over at Slash & Burn for the first time yesterday. Stop by and check it out. Just scroll down to Tuesday the 22nd and you'll find me.