2013 was a great year for me writing wise. I published a bunch of book that I am deeply proud of. I was nominated for three awards, made some amazing contacts, new friends and wrote some blog entries and guest posts about things I care a lot about.
In the rest of my life 2013 had been a year of change and transition. Many things have changed, many of my focuses and life priorities have changed. I have done a lot of hard self-analysis and questioned things I've always just assumed I wanted for myself.
I am looking forward to 2014. It should be an exciting year for me.
So far my writing plans for 2014 are:
Offer Not Ourselves Alone for publication:
Not Ourselves Alone is set in the not so distant future, in a society ravaged by resource shortages, an ever increasing totalitarian government and the possible encouragement of their world from another much more sinister realm.
Once a graduate student Austin was kidnapped and experimented on by his government only to be abandoned once fighting broke out. Given absolutely no reason trust the outside world Austin has holed himself up the ruins of an abandoned military hospital. Deeply traumatized he spends his time hiding from everyone and everything as a means to survive. His only escape is the novels his scavengers, repairs and collects.
Than one day wounded stranger collapses inside the hospital. Austin must make the choice between walking away and leaving him to die or saving his life and possibly allowing an enemy into his space.
Ian was also once a student, now he is an outlaw, risking his life to smuggle people out of war zones. Left for dead on a mission he now must find his way through an abandoned city filled with mutant monsters, and possibly dangerous cultists, through refugee camps, and across contaminated zones with the ground itself is poison.
And now, for better or for worse, he will do it with Austin.
post apocalyptic, m/m romance
The Mechanical Universe series:
The mechanical universe is a series of loosely connected novellas all set in the same steampunk fantasy universe. This universe draws inspiration from the French Imperial court, Regency novels such as Jane Austen and some good old fashioned steampunk technology and history-fucking. So far I have signed contracts for two novellas in the series.
A Matter of Disagreement:
As a scholar of spell craft and literature Lord Ashcroft de Bourbon, Andrea, has been watching his funding drain away due to the rise of mechanical animation. Now he faces the possibility of no longer being able to peruse his own research and worse having to let go of his research assistants, some of which rely on him to support their families. Mechanical animation, the source of Andrea's problems, combines mechanical engineering with spell craft. It has become the darling of the Emperors court garnering enthusiastic support at the expense of every other discipline. In retaliation Andrea begins a very public campaign to knock the mechanical animation field down to size via pages academic journals and publications. While his intellectual attacks garner him notoriety they do not solve his financial problems.
When Andrea his dragged to a court party by his social latter climbing brother, Mathis, he comes face to face with the man who pioneered mechanical animation, Léon Gregory de la Marche VI, Marquis de la Marche. The Marquis is not what Andrea expected, handsome, interesting and surprisingly reasonable Andrea is immediately attracted to him. Yet as soon as the question of academics is raised sparks of the angry sort fly between the two. Mathis angling to marry the Marquis' sister though and Andrea knows that continuing to antagonize the Marquis will only make his position worse, so he begins trying to rebuild some of the bridges he has burnt. While the Marquis seems just as eager to put their differences behind them progress is slow going as tempers flair and personalities clash. When things go from bad to worse in Andrea's professional life the tensions between him and the Marquis reach a head and something will have to break.
Duende:
Famed opera singer Aimé has a lot in common with Badri, the Royal Ballet Company's most popular male lead. Both are ground breaking artists who struggle to be taken seriously among the Empire's elite. Both have dedicated their entire lives to their art and both harbor a secret admiration and desire for the other.
This year for his birthday Aimé treats himself to a night at the ballet seeing Badri perform After the show Aimé decides to meet Badri and tell him how much Aimé admires him as an artist.
The awkward first meeting causes Badri to seek Aimé out again and desire between them instantly flares. Yet neither are sure if their demanding careers can leave room for romance. As they draw closer together though Badri and Aimé begin to ask themselves, could this be something more?
I have two more stories which I am almost done with that are also in this series. One is called Puppy Story (yes I do have the stupidest working titles ever) right now and revolved around the capital's police force.
Both stories are nearly complete and I do also hope to write a lesbian romance story set in the same universe.
fantasy steampunk, m/m romance with trans* and genderqueer characters (so far!)
A Contemporary Paranormal Romance:
One of the things that I have been wondering about for some time now is whether I can write a more commercial story. Generally I don't think about that kind of thing. I write the stories I want to write, with the characters I want and don't worry if it will sell well or not. I would however like one book that sold reasonably well. I would also like to challenge myself to write with some of the tropes and parameters of the genre not just against them.
Because of that, one of my goals for 2014 is to partner with my sister (not cowrite as much as I write and she edits me) and try to write a novel length contemporary paranormal mystery (paranormal because I don't think I could hack a story without some magic in it). The trick is to write something that I will enjoy and feel good about but will also have wider appeal than my usual fair.
The whole process so far has made me think a lot more about the ethics of writing, why I do what I do and what is really important to me when it comes to who I write about and the way I write about them.
I have some ideas for characters already and am doing some world building. I am kind of excited about it and my plans for it. So we will see how it goes.
Riptide Publishing:
I would love to hook up with Riptide Publishing. I've had my eye on them for a while now and they seem like a great press to work with. I would love to pitch them a lesbian romance or a romance with trans* characters but have nothing in the works at the moment.
So thank you everyone for 2013!
To all the amazing friends I made
To the talented authors I met
To the unbelievable connections with so many awesome, creative minds within the GLBTQ community
And thank you to everyone who bought my books.
Here's to 2014!
Let it also be an incredible year.
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