Sunday, July 13, 2014

Eagerly Awaited Sequels

It's official. Roll's sequel, Blues, has been accepted for publication.

I'm not sure of the timeline at present; last year, I submitted Roll at the tail end of August for a February publication date; this year I've submitted Blues at the end of June... we'll see where I fit in on the calendar. I'll let y'all know as soon as I know.

Here's the rough draft 'blurb

College is supposed to be about finding yourself. Sometimes, you lose everything else. Rising sophomore Beau Watkins gave up everything to be with his boyfriend, Vin Reyes. Beau is disowned by his father, tormented by his brother, is rapidly running out of money, and suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. On top of that, his boyfriend seems to see him as little more than a live-in maid. 
Troubled by word of his missing father and fighting nightmares of his own, Vin turns to alcohol to drown his pain. What's worse, a handsome transfer student is a little too interested in Beau. When Vin and Beau's happily-ever-after turns into a train wreck of drinking problems, resentment, insecurity, jealousy, and violence, they both try to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives. 

I already have an idea of what I want the cover to look like, so that should be easy enough.

For fans, I'll let you know a few secrets:

- Vin's family plays a much greater role in Blues, letting readers get a glimpse of the past, plus the reasons why his grandparents kept everything hidden from him.
- Beau discovers one of the reasons college sucks; you still have to keep your grades up while dealing with emotional turmoil.
- There are a few scenes where the ever-popular Hector has the spotlight, paving the way toward Hector's own novel, All That Jazz
- Ann-Marie fans will be happy to see that she has as big a role as ever; helping to keep her friends centered and stable. She's an extraordinarily strong woman, not in the Hollywood, shoot-first and never-ask-questions way, but smart, practical, and there for her friends. She also has her own novel coming up, Punked Up.
- I've already started work on the third book in the main trilogy, Classic, which will follow Beau off to a semester abroad...

The Schedule:

The plan is to finish Classic by mid to late September, then go back and edit Howling Bitch (book 2, Demoniac Codex) which will be published by Vamptasy on March 17th. That will bring me through... I should be done with that by the end of October, so then I'll set NaNoWriMo aside for writing Sins of Angels, Demoniac Codex, Book Three.

In the meanwhile, because I am horribly crazy, I've dragged out an old drawer story, Marked Man, and edited it thoroughly. I sent it off to a publisher, divided into two novels (the original draft of Marked Man was over 180,000 words, which is 3 times as long as Roll, just for point of reference.) I cut out some extraneous material and divided the remainder into two 75,000 word novels, A Marked Man and A Wanted Woman, under the series title The Forging of Souls.

Here's the rough blurb for book one, A Marked Man

Bastian Hooke, known to the underworld as Mace, is an assassin and a thief. He was the last person expected to carry out great deeds. But comes the Seeress with her prophecy and a sack of gemstones, and Bastian finds himself thrown headfirst into a quest he cannot possibly understand. Sought by a dark sorcerer, surrounded by secrets and lies on all sides, he is charged with the protection of the last of the dragonslayers... the very last thing he meant to do was fall in love.
Catreen An'dello has been divorced from her soul for ten years. Betrayed by her former lover to the dragon, imprisoned inside a living statue and nearly driven mad, she wishes nothing more than to forget. Desperate to ease her guilt and soothe her pain, Catreen drives a demon's bargain with the man who saved her soul. 
Can an assassin and a dragonslayer find the strength of will to save the kingdom from destruction?

The plan - provided, of course, that my publisher is interested in this book - is to release both books a few months apart, so Part One in, say,  July 2015, and then Part Two in November of that same year. (those are example dates, as the novel hasn't been accepted yet... )

That'll put me at December, and I'll probably take a few weeks off to do holiday stuff. I have a number of short stories slated for fall publication, including Fair Games, my first independent lesbian story. I'm pretty excited about this one, it'll be in the sequel to Duty & Desire, which is entitled For Love of a Soldier.

* fact about Fair Games, the introduction scene is taken almost verbatim from something that happened to me, quite a number of years ago....

So, that's me and my writing schedule up to the end of the year...

Other things; 

I'm doing my first publisher sponsored book-signing in September! Rose Caraway, Kristina Wright, and I will be at The Fountainhead Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia on the 19th, from 12:30 - 2:30 pm. If you're local to Richmond, please stop by, I'd love to meet fans. I'm very excited about this...

After that, I'm going to the Mid-Atlantic Erotica Writer's Retreat for the weekend, which will involve a lot of wine, a lot of erotica writers, and probably NOT a lot of actual writing... (I'm also bringing my Cards Against Humanity Deck... and seriously thinking about bringing a video recorder, because honestly, someone should film that...)

At some point, Rose is doing audiobooks for all of us who are writing for Sexy Librarian, which will include my zombie short story, Dead in the Water. I'll post that link as soon as it's available, because y'all want to hear that. (especially my friend Elliot, who has been nagging me for YEARS to read my work out loud... which you don't want me to do because I suck at reading out loud.)

Oh, and the deadline for submitting a sci-fi erotica story is coming up Real Soon Now, so if you're interested in doing that, please, please get on it!

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