I just got my story back from the formatter (check them out if you ever need anything formatted for Smashwords and you’re as untalented as I am when it comes to that sort of thing). I’ll be publishing it this weekend.
Also, is it possible to have a fandom soulmate? Because I’ve recently discovered The Untamed and I’m pretty sure I want to marry it. If I do, you’re all invited.
The song “Two Princes” played on the radio while I was out running errands on Saturday. I chose to take that as a sign that I need to continue diligently working on my next Harborview Immortals story instead of acknowledging that I was listening to 90s on 9 and the song came out in the 90s so it probably plays on that station a lot.
Speaking of “Two Princes,” I’m eagerly awaiting cover art for Two Princes. I think it’s going to turn out wonderfully.
I decided to create an actual Facebook page in addition to the personal account I currently have. I’ve been avoiding it all this time because (I’m lazy) I didn’t want to have to keep up with yet another page on top of the pages I manage on my alter ego’s account for work. However, since it’s just about the extent of what I care to do social media-wise outside of posting here, I suppose I should get it over with.
In non-writing news, I’m going to Blerdcon in a couple of weeks. I’ll be going with the bestie and two other dear friends who I haven’t seen in ten years, and I’m really excited. I’m also cosplaying for the first time in my long, long life. It should be disastrous fun. 🙂
I decided to take a “vampire vacation” during the month of August, meaning I stepped away from Harborview Immortals to focus on other stuff like the original short stories I mentioned previously and fandom and other general geekery. I read a bunch of manga and finally finished A Game of Thrones—the book, not the show—and watched a lot of movies and anime. I also managed to destroy my laptop by spilling soda all over it. RIP Izumi the Laptop, First of Her Name. (I haven’t decided on a name for the new one yet, but I feel like he might be a boy this time around.)
Now that we’re into September, I’ll be getting started on a new HI story. This one will be… well I’ll just say a massive amount of shit is about to go down. Decisions will be made, lives will be changed, new threats will arise, all that fun stuff. I can’t wait to get to it. I’m also going to wrap up Scars from the Past, which will delve into the ugliness of Jacob’s past as a slave and how he ended up with a scarred back. It’s not a pretty story, but I hope it’s a good one.
That’s all for now. Have a nice day!
Once you get to a certain age, you look back at some of the choices you made in your life and wonder what in the hell you were thinking. What you see here is pretty much all I wore for most of the mid 80s. The black Michael Jackson “Beat It” jacket with removable sleeves, parachute pants (I had pretty much every color imaginable), and jellies. Tell you what, I rocked the hell out of this ensemble. In 90° Florida weather, no less. You probably couldn’t pay me to wear any of this stuff today, and any photos of me from back then are hidden away and will never see the light of day, but I have very fond memories of sweating my ass off in a fashionable manner. 😀
I think I might write a story set in the 80s one of these days since that seems to be a thing now (like Stranger Things on Netflix—watch it!). It was a great decade to be a kid, wardrobe notwithstanding.
It was also a great decade for music, although I was just young enough for the meanings behind a lot of songs to fly right over my head (like “She Bop” by Cyndi Lauper, a song about masturbation that my friends and I gleefully sang in elementary school, lol). This was my favorite song for a good chunk of 1986 and most of 1987:
Ahhh. Good stuff.
Pics courtesy of SlimFitJackets, Retroland, and MentalFloss.
Before I get into the point of this post, I just want to say that Last Summer will be available for download and online reading later tonight. I was going to wait until Sunday, but apparently that day has been designated as Game of Thrones Day in my house, whereupon the entire day will be filled with binge-watching the season in preparation for the season finale. And oh man… just… never mind. I don’t want to start geeking out about it here. Except to say that it’s going to be sooooo gooood.
Speaking of Game of Thrones, I wanted to share this video of GRRM asking Stephen King, point blank, “How the fuck do you write so many books so fast?” As someone who is casually making her way through the ASoIaF books as opposed to being a super hardcore book fan, I’ve been very intrigued by the whole situation with the show catching up to and now surpassing the books. I can’t imagine how GRRM is dealing with a massive fanbase that is screaming at him to hurry the hell up and finish the next book, especially when trying to write a story that is so incredibly complex, even more so than the show. Continue reading ““How the f*ck do you write so fast?””
I sat down at 1am to play a “little bit” of Diablo 3 and now it’s almost 9am. Sounds about right.
I was looking at Facebook about a week ago and came across the image presently being used in my header, the one that will also be used for the cover of Last Summer. At first I pulled a total Urkel and thought to myself, “Did I do that?” before realizing that no, I did not do that. The image was being used for an article about something, I don’t remember. Seeing that made me really glad that I opted to commission G to do something original for the main stories. Well, original in that I know no one else will have my cover. The cover for Family Matters was a decision made mostly out of necessity as there was no single stock image anywhere that really conveyed the heart of the story. I looked. For a very long time. While I originally wanted to do a “standard” M/M cover, I quickly discovered that there was nothing out there that came remotely close to representing four main characters of three different races. But I’m glad it all worked out the way it did because I love the end result.
(In case you’re wondering, yes the original font was changed.)
Two pretty awesome bits of news before I go. The Rising Son will be finished this weekend. Woo-hoo! This is presuming that D3 doesn’t suck me in again. I’ll try to resist the urge. Lastly, out of curiosity I did the math and discovered that Family Matters has been downloaded an average of five times a day since it was published. For having done absolutely jack squat in the way of advertising, I’m really happy about that. I know it’s probably because the book is free and free is a great price, but I’m still counting it as a win. 😀
All right, bedtime. Have a nice weekend!
E*
Back in the late 1990s/early 2000s, I started watching a lot of LGBT movies, and thankfully, I wasn’t lacking for options between Netflix and the local video stores. Some of the movies weren’t great, but when you’re desperate to see even the tiniest hint of yourself represented in films, you take what you can get.
One of those not great movies was The Velocity of Gary. In a nutshell, it’s about a hustler named Gary (Thomas Jane) who falls in love with a former adult star named Valentino (Vincent D’Onofrio) who has a girlfriend named Mary Carmen (Salma Hayek). The arrangement is interesting and complicated and, eventually, sad (because a lot of LGBT movies back then had to go for the emotional jugular). I saw a review that called it a “poor execution of a good idea,” and I think that really does sum it up. I don’t hate it, but it definitely could have been better.
However, despite the issues with this movie, it does have one very nice thing going for it. And that would be this:
I own this movie because of that scene.
Thomas Jane has said that he’s proud of having one of the longest gay kisses in screen history. (Valentino was bisexual so it wasn’t a “gay” kiss, but I’ll let that slide.) And I’m proud of him for doing it. 😀 😀 😀
And no, it’s not that awesome thing that happened on The Walking Dead tonight although I haven’t been able to stop smiling about it for the past three hours. 😀
The OTHER reason I’m smiling is because the Family Matters cover is done! Well, it still needs to be lettered, but the image itself is finished, and I’m super happy with how it turned out. My most heartfelt thanks to G. Raven for doing such a fantastic job. ❤ I can now announce that the book will be published on February 29, presuming there are no snags or zombie apocalypses to postpone things even further. Look for more info on that later this week.
No TBT post this week seeing as how it’s Friday, but I do want to announce that Family Matters is properly formatted and ready for Smashwords! Right now, I’m just waiting on the cover art. Once I’ve got that, everything will be in order and the book will officially be published. Finally. (And yes, it will still be free.)
I also want to let you all know that the tentative release date for Book 2 is June 19. I purposely chose Father’s Day because it just seems fitting for the story, plus I originally wanted to do it for Family Matters (I suppose I still could if I wanted to wait that long to publish it, but nah). Between then and now, I will be knocking one of the non-vampire short stories I mentioned a while back off my to-do list. Which one? You’ll see. 😀
That’s all for now. I’m off to continue my The Walking Dead marathon in anticipation of the mid-season premiere this Sunday. Because zombies. ❤
E*
Back in the early 2000s, my comic book geekery and my growing frustration over some of the attitudes I experienced towards bisexuals in the LGBT community resulted in YA story called “The Amazing Fence Riders.” (Lol, that title.) It was about a group of college-aged bisexual friends who had the misfortune of dealing with the stereotypes that came with bisexuality and other forms of biphobia and bi-erasure, as told by the main character, Molly, who happened to be a raging Spider-Man fan, hence the “Amazing” part of the title. I wrote the entire thing longhand—something I can’t even imagine doing anymore without my hand falling off.
Here’s a bit from the beginning:
“There is no such thing as a bisexual.”
With those eight words, spoken to form one of the most ignorant sentences ever uttered, Mark Brabender sparked what will forever be known as The Fence Rider Revolt… and also came perilously close to losing a few teeth when Trent McLaren lunged at him. Fortunately, Tyler Hughes was able to subdue him before things turned even uglier. And by subdue, I mean that Trent, who was at least half a foot taller and thirty pounds heavier (all muscle, mind you), stopped himself before he bowled over his own boyfriend.
But before I go on, let me back up. It was the weekly meeting of our campus’ LGBT organization, Qmunity. The Ls and the Gs made up most of the group, with about thirty members in all. There were only five Bs and one T. Our small but outspoken bisexual contingent was used to attacks on our sexuality—so much for unity, huh? The fact that Alexandra and Renny were both dating guys served as supposed proof that the fight for equality didn’t concern us because we could “choose” the straight path if we wanted.
Whatever.
###
There’s a lot going on in the story: the group meets with resistance when they try to include the Bi Pride flag in the local Pride parade and also when members in opposite-sex relationships want to march with their partners (because it doesn’t look “gay” enough), and relationship stuff, including Molly’s own tentative beginnings with a lesbian who is hesitant to commit because she can’t get over the B word.
A lot of personal experiences went into this story. I don’t think I really ever planned to do anything with it; it was more about having an outlet for my frustrations. And although biphobia and bi-erasure still pop up from time to time, I’m glad that things are generally better nowadays, at least as far as I can tell.
Emma Peterson Writes 