A little ranting and rambling for a Sunday

I've neglected this blog again, so what else is new right? I just can't seem to get the hang of posting every day or even every other day with all the writing I'm trying to do and all of the RL crap that I'm dealing with. And to be perfectly honest, sometimes I don't see a lot of point in taking the time to blog at all.

In whining news ~ I generally have a congregation of one - thank you Lisa - and sometimes two - thank you Diane - and though I guess I write this mostly for myself, it gets discouraging. I know I'm whining, maybe even being a self-righteous bitch, but venting is part of blogging, is it not? Anyhow, my mood is low and RL is busy at the moment, both of which would explain the maudlin tone of this post so far.

In writing news ~ I'm stuck in a world of revising, adding and editing at the moment. My latest manuscript - Domestic Relations - is in the final stages of being completion before being submitted and it's driving me up the freaking wall. It seems when I get to this stage in all my longer stories, I end up wanting to throw my laptop or iPad out the window so I never have to look at those damn words and those stupid characters (that I know I still love) anymore.

It makes it harder to immerse myself in what I'm doing and what I need right now is to just get the damn thing done and out of my hands. One of the issues is not having had anyone look it over for me, except near the beginning, so my insecurity rises sending my confidence crashing to the ground and all I'm left with is what-the-fuck am I writing and who-the-fuck wants to read this anyway. ~~big dramatic sighs~~

In publishing news ~ Countdown to Daddies comes out June 15 (I think) and Lucius' Bite (Family of Misfits 1) on the 22nd from MLR. Both of which I will be away for - great. I'm thinking about doing a give-away but not sure there's a point to that either. Yeah, I'm not what you'd call a sparkling example of an enthusiastic writer at the moment which is really too bad because it's a big jump for me - two releases in one month, one of them my first novel-length and print edition. My free read for LIAW ~Lazy Sundays~ is due out on July 5 and I have a pretty cover courtesy of Megan Derr. Still love characters boys so hard.

In RL news ~ I leave on the 5th for London to board the ship for our 12 day Northern European cruise and unfortunately, I'm not excited yet. I know I will be and maybe getting this book finished and out of my hands for a while, will let me relax enough to freak out and get excited. I also know part of the issue is figuring out what to wear when you're so used to messing around in your pjs and sweats all day, and completely loathe having to put on real clothes everyday, especially when I hate how I look in everything. ~stops whining~

Also in RL, I saw Seether a week and a half ago. Awesome as usual though they never get true credit for what they do. Also went to baby boy's gig this past week ~til 2 in the morning may I add~ watching him always makes me happy.

AND I got to live out a bit of a fangirl moment this week as well.
Not sure how many people outside of Canada know of Great Big Sea but they are an absolute favourite of mine and I got to meet, get a pic and autograph after seeing Alan Doyle (lead singer) on his solo tour. The venue was under 500 people, a theatre actually, and it was the most awesome show ever. His voice is amazing and when he sings without instruments, I get total goosebumps. Wasn't going to post the pic with me in it but what the hell - don't judge, just had my hair did that day and hadn't fixed it my own way though (and it's a horrible as fuck pic of me). Alan is sweeter than pie, called me "love' and even tried out my crutch. Lol. Love him. Check out his album. :)

Finally something else much less appreciative - unfortunately this could be considered a self-righteous rant as well. I was one of the organizers of the Hop Against Homophobia and though it went far better than expected, one incident has put a damper on the whole thing for me. One of the participants, who put themselves out there in their post, received a comment so vile and unnecessary it made my skin crawl. The commenter slammed the blogger's way of life, character, profession and even their family under the guise of religious belief. It was an atrocious mix of words from a person clearly looking for attention, completely delusional in their thinking, someone so homophobic I wanted to crawl through the screen and wrap my hands around their neck. Yes, I know violence will not solve the problem but the over-the-top road rage I feel when I'm stuck in traffic has nothing on what I felt when I read that comment. I'm not looking for answers or advice. I just needed to vent about an issue that despite not being something that personally affects to me, makes me seriously question the thoughts, words and actions of people who claim God guides them. No offence to anyone with religious beliefs or anyone who believes in God, but that boat sailed for me a long time ago and at the moment I'm really glad to not be on it.

 In closing, I'll make myself happy with some Thor (Chris Hemsworth) pics (update - I've seen The Avengers 4 times now - don't judge)
:)

"Finally Home" is finally out!

I had a message this afternoon from the lovely T.A. Chase who informed me that Finally Home was out a day early. I was so excited but at the same time nervous. It was so awesome seeing it on the webpage for people to actually buy - that was the exciting part. The nervous part - and I'm told this is common - was that a) no one would buy it and b) no one would like it. But for now I guess I'll just let myself revel in the excitement. :D

In other news, Christmas was good - tiring and over-stimulating for us hermits but good nonetheless. And today was an extra special day as well, since this evening I finished the first draft of my Private Dicks story. It's 15,000 words - right smack in the middle of the word count parameters for the sub call - and I really love my characters, Jade and Mason. Now it's onto the editing (my own), the beta-ing (someone else) and finally, submitting it so see if it makes the cut. :) Next up are two Valentine's stories.

Happy Holidays everyone. :)

And um... yeah, here's the link for Finally Home at MLR and at Amazon.

Thank yous, MLR Schedule and Remembrance Day

Thank you to those who commented on my post yesterday. I appreciate the support but still wonder if I'm worthy of such loveliness in my life. As I said, it's not a good time right now but I'm trying to keep my head above water. It also wasn't a good day for friendships as I hurt someone I care very deeply about. I haven't made any decisions but my thoughts revolve around shutting myself up in my "writing cave" as some people so aptly refer to their writing, and letting friendships slip to the wayside so as not to cause any more undue stress for the people I care about. I guess I'll just have to wait and see where my heart takes me next. I am a people person, someone who needs that contact and validation whether in RL or online, but the insecurity that's bogging me down is intense right now. Regardless of that, thank you again.


Now I will shamefully pimp my first published story - coming out December 27. I'm so proud to be associated with so many fabulous authors in this Christmas schedule. Thank you, karma, for that.

And on this 11th day of November, please take a moment to remember those who lost their lives so we could be free whether for Remembrance Day or Veteran's Day.

Acceptance of my YA story

I met a new friend at the Gay Romance Literature retreat and he offered to take a look at my Young Adult short story because he's young himself and I'm well... older. :)  He's also the new editor at Featherweight Publishing which is a part of MLR Press that publishes children's and young adult titles.








The story is the one based on the following picture and was written for the Gay-Straight Alliance group's "Traveling to Better Project" on GoodReads.

It's only 5,000 words but I struggled big time with it, more than likely because it's a whole different way of writing. I think it ended up being pretty sweet and yesterday I got an email from Featherweight saying it had been accepted and sending me a contract. I won't get any royalties from this story and neither will Featherweight, as you can see in the explanation below, all the proceeds will go to a charity of my choice. I think that's a pretty cool thing and it still gets my name out there as a published author.  I'm not sure when it's coming out yet but please consider giving it a go when it does - it is for charity after all. :)

--Featherweight Press is currently seeking submissions for their upcoming Helping Hands line of stories. The Helping Hands stories focus on GLBT characters and issues. The author and editor royalties from all stories in the Helping Hands line will be donated to a charity dedicated to helping GLBT youth that the author chooses.--

In other news, I just finished the line edits for Finally Home and I think the next step is galleys - don't ask me what that is though. Guess I'll find out. Did I mention it comes out on December 27. Lol - I'm sure I'll mention it again.  I also have 8000 words on my NaNoWriMo, largely due to something we do on twitter called Word Wars. It's a great source of creativity and yeah, competition too. As long as I keep up my pace, I should be okay.

Enjoy your weekend, friends. And please leave me a comment so I'm not so lonely over here in the blog world. (I'm not begging yet but...)

I'm going to be published...

Okay, not OMG Bacon! But OMG, I've been offered a contract for my Christmas story from MLR Press! The email came this morning at a time when it was really needed, when I was a little down in the dumps, and Oh Emm Gee, it put met through the roof. MLR is where some of my fave writers are - SJ Frost, Jet Mykles, James Buchanan - how intimidating is that? I'm going to try and act out of character for now and pretend it's not intimidating at all, pretend I'm not shaking with nerves of happiness and fear. I'm going to get on with my day and ignore the fact I have to sign a contract that I really know nothing about, write not 1 but 3 blurbs which were totally invented by the devil himself, decide on a them for the website that Zathyn Priest is helping me make (*squees*), and still have to finish my YA story for the Gay-Straight Alliance for Monday. Just gonna relax and chill and everything will be fine. *faints*

PS I'm also going to have to convince my beautiful Ivan to overlook his cowboy-phobia and read my boys. :P