Exciting news
Well, it’s exciting to me, at least 🙂
Firstly a rather belated announcement that The Reluctant Berserker is now out in ebook format from all reputable sellers of electronic wares.
Any excuse to post the cover is a good excuse 🙂
Secondly, I can now announce that I have just signed a contract with Riptide Publishing on three new contemporary m/m romances. Two volumes of which are with them already and the third I’m writing at the moment.
If you remember, a long time ago I asked what people would like to see out of a choice of story ideas. Unanimously everyone thought that a romance between a re-enactor and a morris dancer was what they wanted. So I wrote Blue Eyed Stranger, which is exactly that.
Then I decided I quite liked having my own fictional town to play with. As I am just coming out of a mid-life crisis myself, I thought “lets do a m/m romance with some slightly older gentlemen, who are also trying to figure out what to do with themselves now the first half of their lives is over.” And that became Trowchester Blues.
And then I decided “well… if I’m talking about things that are relevant to myself, lets talk about asexuality. You really don’t see many asexual characters around.” So the story I’m writing at the moment is a love story between a gay man and a homo-romantic asexual man. It’s currently about a third of the way through, and also features murder and pottery, because… Because. The temporary title of this one is Blue Steel Chain.
You see what I did there with the Blue thing? I’m so proud of myself 😉
This is the first time I’ve ever done a series, and I’m having such fun reintroducing characters and settings. I don’t know why I didn’t do it before.
I note that I still can’t leave history entirely out of it, contemporary or not. We have a re-enactor in Blue Eyed Stranger, the owner of an antiquarian bookshop in Trowchester Blues, and an archaeologist in Blue Steel Chain. And Trowchester itself of course has Roman walls, Saxon churches and a Bronze age hill fort. But hey, authors are allowed their themes, right?
Trowchester Blues is due out first, on the 15th of December 2014. Then the others follow in April and July of 2015. I foresee 2014 being pretty busy!
This is such good news!! I really like your contemporaries, and these sound excellent. Also, I have a high regard for Riptide; from a reader’s point of view their editing appears to be very good. By that I mean that every book I’ve bought from them has been tightly written, well-paced, etc..
Congratulations!
Thank you! Yes, as an author I’ve been very impressed with Riptide too. And they seem genuinely interested in stories with other letters of the Quiltbag. They don’t force you to add sex scenes either. And yes, they do a content edit before the copy edit, which is something not all small publishers do. I wouldn’t have signed up a book I haven’t even written yet with a publisher I didn’t have complete confidence in 🙂
Excellent news. I’ve been eagerly awaiting Blue eyed stranger since you first mentioned the idea. Now I’ll just have to be patient, but I’ve still got The Reluctant Berserker to read 🙂
That one had quite a journey 🙂 Initially it was a novella, but when I submitted it to Riptide my editor said she thought it would be better if it was expanded into a short novel. So that was what I was doing in January of this year.
It does take a long time from submission to release, doesn’t it? I should write lots more so I can finally get a schedule without these long gaps in it.
I hope you enjoy The Reluctant Berserker! Thank you.
These all sound lovely Alex! Looking forward to them, the historical angle is of course a favorite theme of mine as well. Congrats on signing with Riptide.
Just finished The Reluctant Berserker. Thanks for another sleepless night 😀 Could not put it down – loved it!!
I’m off to see if I can catch a glimpse of Spring…
*g* Hee! Thanks Dianne 🙂 I’m really glad to hear you enjoyed The Reluctant Berserker! I was nervous about the reception of that one because I had to develop a different ‘voice’ for it, which wasn’t the same as the one I used for my other historicals. I’m glad it didn’t put you off!
I’m sure I will be doing other historicals in future. You know me – my muse never likes to stay on any one thing for too long. Having (nearly) done three contemporaries, I’m thinking of another fantasy, but after that I might do Brid’s story, or I might go even further back and do something Roman or Stoneage.
Thank you 🙂
I certainly am hoping for more historicals from you! I’ve seen a lot of love for Berserker amongst readers and other authors as well, so good on you 🙂
Oh, that’s good news 🙂 Thanks for letting me know. And yes, while I do tend to cycle through fantasy>historical>other many times, I don’t see myself ever permanently settling on just one of them. I need the variety or I get fed up.