I’ve been reading a lot of indie books recently, and noticed that most of them had covers only their authors could have loved. This prompted me to see if I could find a way of making some cheap cover art for smashwords – so cheap it was available to anyone, no matter their budget. And that prompted me to open a shop on Etsy.
What do you think?
http://www.etsy.com/shop/CoverArtforAll
An eyesore or a boon for mankind? It’s your call 😉
Hurray! Now it is possible to get them both at once and read them together as they ought to be read 🙂 And don’t they make a handsome pair?
To celebrate, here’s an excerpt from Dogfighters:
Blurb
Fight a fire-breathing dragon with a wooden airplane? It’ll take a madman…
Under the Hill, Part 2
Kidnapped by the faerie queen, Ben is confronted with his own supernatural heritage, a royal family and a lover he doesn’t remember. His first instinct is to turn his back on them all and get back to Earth. Compared to this, Chris and his wacky cohorts seem almost…normal.
Back on Earth, Chris Gatrell is having trouble convincing the police that he didn’t do away with Ben and hide the body. Determined not to lose another sweetheart to the elves’ treachery, he presses his motley crew of ghost hunters to steal a Mosquito bomber…and prays the ghosts of his WWII crew will carry them through the portal to Ben’s rescue.
Meanwhile, Chris’s elf-trapped WWII love, Geoff, has a dragon and he’s not afraid to use it. If only he could be entirely sure which of the elf queens is the real enemy—the one whose army is poised to take back planet Earth for elf-kind.
In the cataclysmic battle to come, more than one lover—human and elf alike—may be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Excerpt
It could have been reassuring, Chris thought, picking his way between the brambles that had overgrown his garden path, to discover that he had begun to feel confident and at home in this decade. He must have done, mustn’t he, for the arrest and the time in a cell to feel so shattering. If he’d been uprooted and shoved straight back to the insecurity and unreality of his first weeks in the nineties, it must show that he’d begun to put down roots. They couldn’t have been severed as they just had been, unless they’d been there in the first place.
It continued to rain, the drifting, light drizzle that floats beneath umbrellas, that clings and soaks into every surface. He thought for a moment that the path was flooded at the end, until his foot crunched on broken glass. Fragments of his sitting-room window now formed a wide puddle beneath it. The hole where it should have been looked dark, except for the shards, still hanging on by threads of putty. Inside, he could see that someone had smashed the TV and spray painted Murderer on the wall in dramatic red paint. He looked down, his head bowed by the weight of care. God, this is too much. Who chose me to be the scapegoat of the universe? Isn’t it enough to ruin my life once? It has to be done on a regular basis every ten years?
The shards of window overlapped each other in the grass, slicked with the continuing downpour. He looked at them numbly, just as something stirred behind them. Somewhere between the water and the glass, between the glass and the grass beneath it, Ben looked out from another world.
“Sh*t!” The relief was so intense it made his skin feel as if it had been rubbed all over with chilli—a kind of hot/cold tingle so intense as to be almost painful. “Sh*t. Ben, oh thank God.”
Ben looked all the more like the prince of his dreams, clad in peacock silk with emeralds around his neck and wrists, and a pearl-inlaid sword belt buckled around his waist, but there was something shattered and fragile about his expression that matched the broken glass.
Heedless of the damp, Chris splashed to his knees in the mud of his garden, hunting through his pockets. Pen, yes. Paper? He found a bus ticket, wrote in large letters R U OK? and held it up.
Ben had come prepared. He grinned, looked away, and scratched a reply on the top of a long sheet of parchment. Yes. Invasion imminent. You must tell someone.
Already done took the back of the ticket, but further searching of the bins outside the front door—tricky when he didn’t wish to take his eyes off Ben in case the connection was lost—netted him a pizza box, that folded inside out and gave him ample space. I will come for you. Think I can reopen the place where you were taken. Can you go back to transfer point on your side?
Ben ran the emerald necklace through his fingers as if it were worry beads. I think so. They trust me—long story. He still wasn’t looking in Chris’s face. He dipped his quill, fiddled with the feather. Geoff is here.
A stab of something unrecognisable and that feeling of too much sensitivity grew until he felt flayed, every drop of water against his face a torment of hope and despair. You’ve seen him?
Spoke to him yesterday. He’s fine. Ben finally looked up, smiled, all challenge and fire like his old self. I hate him.
Chris laughed, the first time in a week, and something wild and giddy started up in his stomach, blue-white and tasting of oxygen neat out of the bottle. Can you bring him?
I’ll try.
Good lad. Time, how did you synchronise time between the two universes? Ah… Just get there, OK? I’ll get the passage open. It’ll be early tomorrow if I’m lucky, but check back, yes? Check in tomorrow and we’ll take it from there.
Shadows under Ben’s eyes, and the rain slid across his smile like tears. Will do.
~*~*~*~
Reviews:
“Beecroft weaves together a wonderful pair of books with interesting characters and more than enough twists to keep the reader surprised until the end.”
– Library Journal
“…brisk and engrossing sequel to Bomber’s Moon…a treat for readers who like their romance with a healthy dose of adventure.”
– Publishers Weekly
“Beecroft has […] skillfully built a world that is creative and unforgettable.”
– RT Book Reviews, 4 stars
Both volumes now available in ebook and/or in paperback here at Samhain.
It’s so nice to see an older story get a new review. The Wages of Sin is very close to my heart, partly because it’s right in the centre of the venn diagram of my interests, being a historical, paranormal murder mystery, m/m romance. Partly it’s dear to me because it practically wrote itself – something that doesn’t happen to me often. And then again, partly it’s dear to me because of Jasper. Jasper – enough said 😉
So it’s lovely to see this review from Sophia Rose at the Delighted Reader blog. I’m particularly glad I managed to get that balance right between Gothic (which I like) without being the kind of creepy-scary that makes you afraid to switch out the lights (which I don’t.)
http://www.delightedreader.com/posts/review-the-wages-of-sin-by-alex-beecroft/
All in all, I found this story with its touch of the Gothic an enjoyable reading experience that tingled my spine, but wasn’t horrifying enough to give me the willies and send me running to hide under my covers. This will appeal to those who enjoy m/m historical ghost story romance with Gothic overtones.
Thank you, Sophia Rose!
*G* I’m not sure about the grammar of that title. But I am delighted to announce that I’ve just signed the contract with Samhain to publish Too Many Fairy Princes, a contemporary fantasy on crack.
Blurb:
When Dave Wilson’s boss clears out the coffers of his failing art gallery and disappears, leaving him to confront an angry loan shark and his brutal henchmen alone, the last thing he needs to find, behind the bins at the back of his house, is a fugitive elven prince.
Equally, Kjartan has quite enough to do, defending himself against his murderous brothers in the competition for the succession to his kingdom’s throne, without having to get involved with Dave’s financial problems too.
But they’re both going to have to make the best of it, because fairy tales run rough-shod over reluctant heroes. Especially if they start off with too many princes and not enough happy endings to go around.
~
I have no information yet about when to expect it. Late this year I suspect, or possibly early next. Watch this space and you’ll know as soon as I do.
Sorry about this. I normally write my ‘Write on’ post on Sundays in readiness for the Monday coming, but was ill over the weekend, and still am, so I wasn’t able to. I will catch up as soon as I can put one word infront of another again and have them make sense.
In the mean time I thought I’d share Tolkien’s essay On Fairy Stories from which I learned a great deal about the importance of using concrete, direct words (such as grass, green, bread etc instead of verdure, verdigris, nourishment) to create a sense of immediacy and solidity in my settings. I hope this link ought to be in the public domain! But I trust an educational establishment to know whether it is or not. I can’t recommend this essay highly enough for anyone who wonders how stories work, and how to get a style that brings their world to life.
Last week, I enjoyed revisiting the image that helped start off Shining in the Sun, so this week I thought I’d share one of the images that inspired me when I was writing The Wages of Sin
It’s technically not quite right for Jasper, who has black hair and red-brown, sherry-coloured eyes. But the spirit of it is perfect, with that half-seen, is-he-sinister-or-isn’t-he beauty, with a handful of cobwebs and a challenging air.
Hurray, I found the person who had awarded this to me. It was http://www.cranehanabooks.com
Thank you Cranehana 🙂
It comes with rules:
I’m supposed to share seven facts about myself. Then list the blogs and sites I find inspiring. So here we go.
1. I was going to be Christened Robyn, and have always regretted that my mum had a last minute change of heart. I’ve made up for it by giving myself unisex names ever since.
2. I never actually intended to become known for historicals. I’ve always been a Fantasy fan. Other than Mary Renault’s historicals (which I read because so many of her characters were gay) I don’t believe I’ve ever read any plain historicals. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy writing them, but I think I appreciate them as a fantasy fan would – what I enjoy is the exoticism of a world very far from our own.
3. My favourite Star Wars film is The Phantom Menace. It never ceases to annoy me that everyone else in the universe puts it down. No other Star Wars film has Qui-Gon Jinn, therefore Phantom Menace is the best. I rest my case.
4. Part of the reason why I get so het up about being classed as an erotica writer is that I am asexual, and being lumped in with erotica means that everybody talks to me about sex all the time, which is intensely boring. Surely there are more interesting things to be thinking about?
5. My favourite film of all time is probably Blade Runner. Still as stylish now as it ever was, but when it first came out it was mindblowing.
(I thought Loki in The Avengers was about to launch into Roy Batty’s speech: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” But it didn’t quite get there. “I’ve seen worlds you’ve never known about. I have grown, Odin’s son, in my exile.” Nah. Close, but no orgone accumulator.)
6. If I was an elf in Tolkien’s universe, I’d be a Sindar. I’d dance and make music and dwell in the twilight, half way between one thing and the other.
7. I think more people should study social anthropology and philosophy. The more open our minds were to the fact that the way human society does almost anything is almost infinitely malleable, the less hidebound we’d be.
Sites I visit often:
The Mary Sue Lighthearted and interesting site about F/SF from a more female perspective than the mainstream magazines.
TV Tropes Don’t click on this link unless you have half a day to spare. I mean it!
The Retronaut History in photos. (So it rarely goes back before the invention of the photograph.)
Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog Servaunt of the Kynge. Blogger. Wryter of verse. Wearer of litel woolen hatte.
Dean Wesley Smith Hard nosed writing advice from someone who regards his writing career as a business.
Ferretbrain Some fascinating and often hilarious reviews of SF/F
Georgian London and some equally fascinating forays into a different astonishing world.
The Hathor Legacy Feminist blog of great interest – it’s hard to sum up.
History in the Margins Whacky history stuff!
Inkbutter I’ve got to say, I prefer E45 to their actual product, but their blog is fascinating if you’re at all interested in tattoos.
Of course Jessewave and Elisa Rolle
Shrinking Violets a writer’s blog for introverts.
Faith Seeking Understanding A thoughtful Christian blog which I don’t necessarily always agree with, but which always has interesting things to think about.
Haikujaguar MCA Hogarth’s blog – also always interesting and gracious.
Which struck me as a more interesting way of saying “several small things served up together.”
Evidently I’m not alone in being puzzled and even depressed by the fact that there seems to be no place in this world for m/m romance with sparse sex scenes other than being lumped in with “erotica”. Elin Gregory (she of the awesome On a Lee Shore which I highly recommend to you if you like naval m/m) is sounding out readers and authors alike on the question of whether she should start new Facebook and Goodreads groups focusing on the sweet end of m/m romance. If you think that sounds like a good idea (I do!) hie thee over to her place and tell her so: Elin’s LJ
~
A lovely review for Under the Hill: Dogfighters from RT this month
Though I can’t get used to the way people treat them as separate books. I should expect that – the fact that you can hold one in each hand should be a clue – but to me it’s always going to be one big story packaged in two volumes.
It’s probably worth while saying that I have learned from this experience not to write such huge books. Or – if I’m going to write such huge books – to do it in such a way that the pacing is suitable for two books rather than for one. (Dogfighters is the breathless acceleration to the climax of both books, and is not structured to be read as its own entity.)
I’d like to say I’ve learned that, but then I went off and wrote The Glass Floor, which is equally huge and equally structured as one big story rather than two episodes. We’ll have to see what becomes of that before I decide emphatically what lesson I ought to have learned and actually try to put it into practice.
~
Two days ago, someone awarded this blog a “Most Inspiring Blog” award, and I thought “oh, how lovely, I’ll talk about that tomorrow.” But then I didn’t talk about it yesterday because I was distracted by the need to rant. And today, I can’t find that blog again. I only found it in the first place because somebody came to my blog through a link, and that showed up on my site stats. But my site holds the stats only for yesterday and today. I can’t get back to ‘the day before yesterday’ to re-find that link.
If that was you and your blog, thank you so much! Any chance of a link so I can re-read the rules and keep the meme going?
~
And finally, thanks to everyone who expressed an opinion on what I should write next. It was a landslide vote for Hoist By His Own Petard – a morris dance romance. (With reenactors). Accordingly, I started working on a plot plan for that last night, and am looking forward to starting to write it next week.
So, today I have finished the first draft of The Crimson Outlaw, which came in at 31,073 words. Huzzah! I feel the need to celebrate and also to tell everyone. But, I only wrote 1773 words of my daily 3000 words before I ran out of story. So to what should I turn next?
I’m thinking I should write one more novella in first draft, and then I can start editing The Glass Floor *and* The Crimson Outlaw. By the time I’ve done those, I can edit the third novella with a fresh eye. And then I can start a new project again. I don’t seem to do well doing more than one thing at once.
Help me, Oh my gentle reader, what do you fancy most out of these choices?
My Evil Valentine – (sort of contemporary but with superheroes. Probably set in London. Almost certain to be crack along the lines of Too Many Faerie Princes.)
The Ice Knight – (semi-historical set in Romania. A character turned up in The Crimson Outlaw who needs his own story.)
Hoist by his Own Petard – a romance between a morris dancer and a reenactor. (Contemporary, set all over the UK, mostly in fields and ruins.)
There’s a Tea Shop one too, but I suspect that may be novel length and I still can’t decide if it’s a contemporary or a fantasy.
Any thoughts?
~
Speaking of Too Many Faerie Princes, I should have some news to announce on both that and Pilgrim’s Tale (now renamed Leofgar And The Reluctant Berserker) fairly soon. Watch this space 🙂
So, according to this article in Library Journal
I am a popular erotica writer (much like that other purveyor of full on steamy smut, Josh Lanyon.)
I have mixed feelings about this. It’s nice to be called a particularly popular author of anything, particularly in a respected publication like Library Journal. But on the other hand it’s kind of grieving to be constantly associated with a genre I don’t think I belong to. Surely I would know if I was writing erotica?
They define it this way in the article:
In a sexually explicit romance, the development of the emotional relationship drives the story. The sex scenes are integral to the story, but they are not the primary way in which the relationship develops. For erotic romance, the development of the relationship again is the focus of the story,…
“Erotica is not a romance at all,” explains author Hart. “The content is graphic, and the plot has a sexual premise, but the movement of the story is not about the emotional relationship or ‘happy ever after’ of the characters.” Berkley’s Hwang agrees. “I think the difference is really about how the sexual component is used.” An erotica story can be about anything, but the journey of the main characters is generally shown through the lens of their sexuality and sexual practices.
Right? So erotica is about the sex, while romance is about the love story.
Now I refer you to the review I had for Blessed Isle yesterday:
Admittedly there’s more sex in most of my other books. But the sex scenes don’t drive the plot, the romance does. By LJ’s own definition, what I write is “sexually explicit romance,” not “erotica.” They even reviewed the Under the Hill books in their own magazine with these words
So I don’t know. I’m grateful to be mentioned, but I despair that I’ll ever be seen as a writer of the kind of stuff I think I write. Sometimes I wonder, am I really writing what I think I’m writing? Have I got it wrong? As @suleikhasnyder said on Twitter, maybe I’m an accidental erotica writer – maybe I really did slip and fall on it?
After all, I’ve been reading along with a sporking Gehayi is doing of 50 Shades of Gray, and from what I’ve read of it so far, I certainly wouldn’t call that erotica. There’s far too much angsting and conversation, and angsting about the conversation, and conversations about the angst. I may have blanked the sex scenes from memory, but I only remember there being one of them so far, and I didn’t think that was very sexy.
So if that’s what the mainstream literary world considers erotica, perhaps – by their standards – my stories about battle, religion, self-acceptance and angst, with some explicit sex scenes, really are erotica too?
Perhaps my perception of what is a ‘normal’ level of sex in a story has been warped by too much exposure to the outer reaches of slash fanfic, (where I scarcely bat an eye at incestuous tentacle porn any more) and because I’m nowhere near the extremes, I wrongly think I’m not within the fringes?
I don’t know. I do think that, if I can’t shake the label, perhaps it’s time to own it. Hence – Alex Beecroft, Accidental Writer of Erotica. I apologise in advance if you come to my books and are horribly disappointed by the lack of sex. But I’ve decided that after 5 years of protest, I cannot stop the world with my own two hands.
Sign up to my newsletter, and you’ll recieve my exclusive collection of m/m short stories, Insubordination. These stories are available nowhere else.
You’ll also get the earliest notification of bargains, sales etc, and have a chance to influence my choice of covers and what I write next.
The signup form is here: Alex’s Newsletter.
© All Rights Reserved Alex Beecroft – Author of Gay Romance |
RSS Blog feed | Designed by Get Cesigned | Disclaimer