De-blog

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!). In this group you'll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story's main character identifies as LGBTQ+. The snippets could range from zero flames to full-on sexytimes, anything goes content-wise. The only rule is snippets will be 6 sentences long–one for each color in the Pride flag. * * * * * I'm going with another snippet from Reunions ( Hiding Behind The Couch #7) this week. The scene from which this is taken features George and Josh and comes a couple of pages after last week's snippet. Prior to this scene, Josh and George had a 'bit' of a falling out (it was pretty horrific). Now, Josh is in the car, all set to go and find George, but he doesn't get that ...

WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where authors share from their current works in progress - expertly organised/hosted by Emily Witt - and the excerpt has to relate to the date in some way. For links to other fabulous authors' WIPpets, visit: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=355404 So, it's the 27th July, 2016, or (2707/2016)=691, but that's too many words, so I halved it, thusly 346 (rounded up, plus the last little bit so it wasn't entirely left dangling in anticip-) words of my work in progress, The WAG and The Scoundrel , which is a white-collar crime mystery (ish) / romance (ish) (LGBTQ). It's the first book in the Gray Fisher Series , which is a spinoff of Hiding Behind The Couch . It's scheduled for an October release. :o In the scene below, Gray's at home alone, and he's trying to figure out his feelings about...everything! Here's the WIPpet: It was as well Gray had steered clear of the spirits. The time was fast approaching two a...

The post title may seem a contradiction, but I've taken a break from The WAG and The Scoundrel to write this post, so... Reflections in brief: I've just hit 60k words, which is quite awesome. I plan to write 75k words, but it's not set in stone. That usually means somewhere around 100k words, but I don't think that will happen this time. There again, I didn't think it would happen last time. Some characters are chattier than I anticipated, which is nice. I think. And there are too many of them (see below). Word clouds are an excellent (if not distressing) way to see which words should not be in there as much as they are. Trying to write to a genre is one of the greatest constrictions on my creativity. I am no longer writing to a genre. I don't care. Mostly. Look at all these characters! Main: Gray Fisher - ex DCI running the SIU. Now a PhD student and part-time lecturer / TV extra Will Richards - ex investment banker, animal rights activi...

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!). In this group you'll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story's main character identifies as LGBTQ+. The snippets could range from zero flames to full-on sexytimes, anything goes content-wise. The only rule is snippets will be 6 sentences long–one for each color in the Pride flag. * * * * * I'm going with another snippet from Reunions ( Hiding Behind The Couch #7) this week. The scene from which this is taken features Josh and his mother-in-law. The snippet is Josh's mental processing (he's mid-hug). Prior to this scene, Josh and George had a 'bit' of a falling out.   Note: this snippet includes passing reference to mental health issues and spoilers for e...

WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where authors share from their current works in progress - expertly organised/hosted by Emily Witt - and the excerpt has to relate to the date in some way. For links to other fabulous authors' WIPpets, visit: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=355404 So, it's the 20th July, 2016; here's 20 sentences from chapter 7 of my work in progress, The WAG and The Scoundrel , which is a white-collar crime mystery / romance (LGBTQ). It's the first book in the Gray Fisher Series , which is a spinoff of Hiding Behind The Couch . It's scheduled for an October release. Eek! The characters in the excerpt below are Gray Fisher and Will Richards. Through a bit of sneaky match-making (in a previous story), they've reached the level of...friendship. It could go anywhere, depending on how much Will and I can get Gray to loosen up. Here's the WIPpet: If Gray had not been so at peace, he might have worried about the fact he was, in that m...

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!). In this group you'll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story's main character identifies as LGBTQ+. The snippets could range from zero flames to full-on sexytimes, anything goes content-wise. The only rule is snippets will be 6 sentences long–one for each color in the Pride flag. * * * * * I'm going with a bit more from Reunions ( Hiding Behind The Couch #7) this week. Kris and Ade are flying to Sweden to visit Kris's parents, whom Ade is meeting for the first time. It's also his first time flying, so he's a bit excitable. This wee excerpt follows on from my previous Reunions snippet. Ade has just discovered what he thought was chocolate and vanilla ice cream...

Slight blog overload this week, but life is unpredictable, so I'm posting a few days early. My Christmas novella, A Midnight Clear , is available for free until July 31st in the Smashwords Summer/Winter sale (use SFREE at checkout). If you're not a 'Christmas in July' person, you could download it and save it for later. ;) The blurb: It's a cold, desperate December when a young girl flees home, in search of food, shelter and the real Santa Claus. Stranded in George and Josh's hometown, she discovers that the spirit of Christmas can be found in the most unexpected of places. Includes the story of The Little Match Girl, by Hans Christian Andersen. Length: 26,000 words (75 pages) approx. Suitable for younger readers and adults, aged 12+.  A stand-alone story from the Hiding Behind The Couch series. Also part of Boughs of Evergreen - A Holiday Anthology (proceeds to The Trevor Project). * * * * * An excerpt: "Hey," George said ge...

My first proper WIPpet Wednesday - there's maths involved! :o WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where authors share from their current works in progress - expertly organised/hosted by Emily Witt - and the excerpt has to relate to the date in some way. For links to other fabulous authors' WIPpets, visit: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=355404 So, it's the 13th July, 2016, and I'm going with easy maths because my brain is tired. Page 13, I counted 7 lines down and 'wipped' the next 16. This is from my just-gone-to-editor WIP, Class-A , which is both part of Take a Chance - a YA/NA LGBTQ (M/M) anthology (which I'll explain more about in a future post) - and a very short interlude in my series, Hiding Behind The Couch . For followers of the series, Class-A happens during Ruminations (starting with the law halls of residence party). The characters in the excerpt below are Simon and Jess, law undergraduates. Simon is the main character in this story,...

On Pinterest this morning, I saw a list of 'six things that make your writing look amateurish' or some such condescendingly arrogant title. I visited the linked page, which had been liked sixty-one thousand times! Some readers may not be surprised to find out that in my first paragraph, I hit three of the six 'no-no's listed. For the curious, I used an -ly word (they're like swear words, but more swearly-er), and italics for emphasis ( bad, bad, bad ), and...some other thing. Oh, yes. I did that thing where the thing is doing a thing for which there is no thinging word for it and you're not Shakespeare (or Stuart Ayris), so the chances of getting away with making up your own word are, at best, slim. Do I sound like I'm mocking? Good. Because I am. Wherever authors look, there are 'experts' telling us how NOT to write. Well, balls to all that. My advice, for what it's worth, is this: just write the damn story. The fussing and editing com...

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, readers, and bloggers to gather once a week to share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!). In this group you'll find anything from romance and historical fiction to mystery and YA. The common thread is that every story's main character identifies as LGBTQ+. The snippets could range from zero flames to full-on sexytimes, anything goes content-wise. The only rule is snippets will be 6 sentences long–one for each color in the Pride flag. * * * * * I'm all over the place with writing this weekend. I have three WIPs on the go, and I'd planned to snip from something else entirely, but I couldn't find a section that worked. I've opted instead for this little section of Reunions ( Hiding Behind The Couch #7), where Kris and Ade are flying to Sweden to visit Kris's parents; Ade is meeting them for the first time. It...

I've heard of (and been part of) many a discussion about the pure horror experienced by readers of M/M romance when all of a sudden, SMACK! BAM! in the middle of their hot man-on-man action, there's an intimate scene between a man and a woman! Gasp! More often, it's described as a 'hetero' scene, yet in many cases, the reason the scene has found its way into an M/M romance is because one of the two male main characters is bisexual. It may even relate to other aspects of gender/sexual/relationship/identity, but that's for another post. All I'm getting at is, the way I see it, it's at best hypocritical to be a proud member or ally of the LGBTQ community and then spit bi-erasing disgust when faced with the reality of love is love . Preachy bit over. I mention it, in part, to make clear my writing philosophy, which is essentially to follow where the characters lead. I love the process of getting to know a character, walking alongside on their journe...

Finally, finally, finally... I'm posting my first RainbowSnippet! :) I've been in the Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook for a few months, and it's a fab idea (thank you, Charley). We get to share snippets from our LGBTQ+ stories, make recommendations of stories we've read etc. and readers of our posts can follow the trail back to other #RainbowSnippets. So, without further ado, this is a six-line snippet from Cherry Pop Valentine, which is a short story (11k words) I wrote last year for a Valentine's Day challenge. This month (July), it's available for free in the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale (use SFREE at checkout). Here's the snippet: In the final clip of our band on stage, Sven brings a single rose across to me at the piano and kneels. I take the rose from him, and we fade to black. Ten years together, and even though he’d said yes to us one day getting married, we’d decided not to bother with a civil partnership and instead wait out the cha...