My m/m sci fi vampire short "Cultural Hospitality" is now available from Torquere Books! This was one of the most straightforwardly fun stories I’ve written in quite a while — the submissions call wanted vampires and masquerade balls, both of which already felt like deeply self-indulgent ideas for me to play with. So I piled on some interspecies romance, a bit of literal intoxication, and the sweetness of “I didn’t think I could have this happy ending, but I was wrong,” and basked in the entire writing process.

Here, have an excerpt:

( Dracula, hmm? )

The publisher and I both make the most money per copy with direct sales from their website, so they put up new releases on their own site first. If you don't want to create an account there to buy, though, it should be available through the major ebook retailers within the next week.

And if the vampires-in-masquerade theme is as much catnip for you as it is for me, you can always pick up the entire anthology's worth of the theme. ;)

Now that the contract is signed, a really thrilling announcement: my short story "Resurrection Man" has been accepted by Riptide Publishing for their Bump in the Night anthology! I'm so excited to have the chance to work with Riptide, after reading and admiring so many of the things they've produced so far. Expect to hear a lot more about that later in the year when we get close to its release.

In other exciting upcoming news, Torquere has sent the authors a copy of the cover for Masks Off Too!, the vampire masquerade antho they're releasing next month. Cover under the cut:
( totes worksafe )

I've been sort of following Storm Moon's anniversary blog hop over the course of the month, as one does, and today Lor Rose has a post about her muses, and how she believes that ultimately every author has them. (TW for a lot of jokey language about mental illness.) I sat there for a bit trying to compose a response to the post, but really I think what I want to say ought to be a post of its own.

I have never been a "muses made me do it" writer. I know there are people who get a lot of mileage out of that model, who picture themselves in dialogue with their characters or with a Classical Muse-type figure who spurs them on. But it's never worked for me, for a few reasons:

1. This is hard work. I'm not channeling inspiration that comes from someplace external; I'm not writing down ideas that some magical third party dictates to me. I am conceptualizing characters, building worlds, designing plot arcs, and crafting sentences of my own volition and by my own effort. Some days it goes so smoothly that it does feel almost like a blessing from the gods! Other days it's like trying to plow a field with a hand trowel. But it's still all about me, either way. Blaming a muse for any of it feels like I'd be brushing off that reality: I had to work for every one of those words. They're craft and labor as much as they're inspiration and magic. After all that, I can't imagine WANTING to give the credit to my imaginary friend.

2. Being creative =/= being crazy. This one is a really personal prickly spot for me; I am a writer and I am also a long-term depression sufferer. It took me seventeen years of living with varying degrees of depression before I managed to actually get help and get it under control. A huge part of why it took so long, why I spent all of my 20s being an emotional disaster area, was the idea that the way I felt was just "normal" for a creative person. "I write what the voices in my head tell me to!" is a glib and frivolous riff on that really pernicious idea, and I have no desire to participate in it. (For the record: I am more consistently creative and productive now that my mental illness is well-managed than I ever was as a "crazy" writer.)

Creative minds do work in a variety of ways, obviously; there are clearly people for whom it's helpful to treat their writing process as an internal dialogue, to engage themselves in conversation as a way of getting their creative drive going. But it's not all of us; it's not me. The only voice I'm listening to when I write is my own.

I should probably get going. I've been having a field-vs-hand-trowel week, and I hope to make a deadline at the end of the month. Back to the word mines with me!

My next short story release will be available next month! "Ivory Black, Flecked with White" appears in Dreamspinner Press's Snow on the Roof anthology, a collection of m/m romance featuring older men. "Ivory Black" is a historical, established relationship piece:

Renaissance painter Felice has enjoyed Lucio's patronage, and his love, for years; neither of them are young men anymore. When the youthful good looks of Felice's latest model make Lucio jealous, Felice must find a way to convince his lover that in a painter's eyes, there is no conflict between age and beauty.

The anthology is available for preorder now on Dreamspinner's site, in ebook or in paperback. Once the book releases, on February 11, it will be available through all your favorite online retailers as well. :3

( and here's a quick excerpt from Ivory Black )

After fussing about it for ages, I finally sent out my first novel on submission a few minutes ago.

*deep breaths*

The Dragon's Tale is a city-based low fantasy novel in the vein of Swordspoint crossed with Plunkett & Macleane -- I've been describing it to people for years as my "alternate history boy/boy street thug romance." It's also my baby. I really hope it finds a home.

Signed the contract last night, so I am now happy to announce that I will have another short with Dreamspinner in February: Snow on the Roof is an anthology of m/m romance about older men, and will include my story "Ivory Black, Flecked with White," about an Italian Renaissance painter and the man who has been his patron and his lover for years.

Yay more stories going out in the world!

Whew. Three short stories out the door this month; here's hoping December will bring me good news on one or more of them.

December's drafting will probably focus on some pieces that friends have commissioned to help me come up with suit money; I'll also be dedicating some time to the final round of pre-submission edits for The Dragon's Tale (FINALLY, I know).

Also I suppose I should be sending out resumes in search of a new day job. I'm not ready to go back yet, but the unemployment office doesn't want to hear that.

And then I went silent for ten days!

Since we last spoke, I've gotten a rejection from one place I really wanted to work with and an acceptance from another one. I've sent out a short story and finished a draft for another one in time to revise it before it, too, needs to be sent out. And I've found another call due at the end of the month for which I currently have 3k of a necessary 5k. And I've done a quick copy edit pass on my first novel before sending it to a couple of people so I could get feedback before it goes out into the wide world of submission.

...I feel like I've been slacking -- the last two days all I've done was play video games and eat pie -- but writing it down makes it look less so. Yay!

In a month or two when the rent keeps happening and I'm not getting paid, I'm sure I'll be more sorry about unemployment. But right this minute, honestly, it feels like such a relief to have time, at last. I've wanted to have time for myself for years.

And I'm not even entirely fucking off with it! Yeah, there's some Skyrim in the evenings (my dunmer is almost to level 50, you guys! she stopped the civil war and now she's chasing down the betrayer of the thieves' guild!), but I'm also settling in to be my own project manager:



Also, I'm the kind of boss who lets my employees use the internet at work. Aw yis.

Lost my job today.

I'm...okay in the short term; I've been living below my means for a while, so I have enough of a cushion that I don't need to worry about being suddenly homeless in the winter. Here's to hoping I can find something within a reasonable amount of time.

...I'd been pining for some time off for so long, too. I just wish it weren't this expensive.