De-blog

This morning, I got to add ANOTHER phrase to my most-hated corpspeak list, and I thought I'd celebrate by blogging about it! I should also point out that I STILL hate the word 'blog', which is why my blog is titled de-blog (or deb log). Back when I created my blog, I was part of an IT steering group (steering group, ffs), where people 'in the know' talked about these 'innovative new technologies' such as blogging, content management systems, dynamic web content, and so on - what we now call Web 2.0 - a technology scarred by the favourite buzzwords of the time. innovative dynamic we will add your distinctiveness to our own... I knew technology. I'd been writing PHP for six years by that point. I'd been hacked and I knew how to hack. I knew as much as I needed to, all of it self-taught. Skip a couple of years... The web moved on, as did I. Well, actually, I moved back to writing fiction and I'm almost proud to say that I haven't ha...

I've been invited to answer these questions by C.M. Walker, author of M/M Romance. Her current titles include Pledge Number Seven and Gravitational Force . Both can be downloaded from her website cm-walker.com . What am I working on? I'm currently writing Crying in the Rain - a standalone story (novella, probably, but it's still growing), but with characters that will be familiar to readers of the Hiding Behind The Couch series. Crying in the Rain explores the romance blossoming between Kris and Ade, who meet for the first time whilst both working on the same radio play. It's told mostly from Ade's perspective, and "romance" is very much not on his agenda. He's recently come out of a traumatic long-term relationship, and is barely getting through from one day to the next, yet finds he can't ignore his attraction to Kris, and the feeling is mutual. But starting a relationship isn't going to be easy for either of them. It's going t...

This week, our final Pride roundtable discussion is led by Rick Bettencourt and Lane Hayes. You can read what they had to say by following the links below: Rick Bettencourt's Post: http://rickbettencourt.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/lgbt-roundtable-discussion/ Lane Hayes' Post: http://lanehayes.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/lgbt-pride-month-roundtable-discussion-what-does-gay-pride-mean-to-you/ Our panelists are a diverse group of readers, writers, and supporters of gay fiction, including Larry Benjamin , Rick Bettencourt , Brandilyn Carpenter , Rob Colton , Andrew Q Gordon , Lane Hayes , and  Debbie McGowan . Each week, two people will answer two questions related LGBT pride, rights, and related topics. We will also be giving away free copies of our eBooks and an Amazon gift card. (Enter on the RC on any of the blog posts.) There are special entries for each week of June, so don’t miss out on those. Please join in the discussion in the comments. You can g...

This week, our roundtable discussion is led by Brandilyn Carpenter and Rob Colton. You can read what they had to say by following the links below: Brandilyn Carpenter's Post: http://www.prismbookalliance.com/2014/06/lgbt-pride-roundtable-discussion-with-giveaway/ Rob Colton's Post: http://robcolton.com/post/88924899130/lgbt-pride-a-roundtable-discussion-week-3 Our panelists are a diverse group of readers, writers, and supporters of gay fiction, including Larry Benjamin , Rick Bettencourt , Brandilyn Carpenter , Rob Colton , Andrew Q Gordon , Lane Hayes , and  Debbie McGowan . Each week, two people will answer two questions related LGBT pride, rights, and related topics. We will also be giving away free copies of our eBooks and an Amazon gift card. (Enter on the RC on any of the blog posts.) There are special entries for each week of June, so don’t miss out on those. Please join in the discussion in the comments. You can gain entries into the giv...

I've been tagged in the Lucky Seven Game by the wonderful Hunter Frost. How does it work? Go to page 7 or 77 in your current WIP. Go to line 7 Post on your blog the next 7 sentences or 7 lines—as they are! Tag 7 people to do the same.  It caused me a bit of a dilemma, as my current work in progress is Two By Two - Season Six of the Hiding Behind The Couch series - I'm well into writing the final episode of this instalment, and everything is a spoiler! Thusly, I'm going with page 77 of the full season, and here are the seven lines:     “You know when you go collecting tadpoles?” he said.     Krissi frowned. “Yeah?”     “And you get the ones with two tails, or the ones that just kind of wiggle and get nowhere?”     “Hmm?”     Ade nodded. “That’s what my sperm are like.”     Krissi giggled. A lot. Then blushed. “I’m sorry,” she spluttered. “Th...

This week, our roundtable discussion is led by authors Brandon Shire and Larry Benjamin. You can read what they had to say by following the links below: Brandon Shire's Post: http://brandonshire.com/challenges-for-the-future-of-lgbt-rights/  Larry Benjamin's Post: http://authorlarrybenjamin.blogspot.com/2014/06/gay-pride-month-virtual-roundtable.html Our panelists are a diverse group of readers, writers, and supporters of gay fiction, including Larry Benjamin , Rick Bettencourt , Brandilyn Carpenter , Rob Colton , Andrew Q Gordon , Lane Hayes , and  Debbie McGowan . Each week, two people will answer two questions related LGBT pride, rights, and related topics. We will also be giving away free copies of our eBooks and an Amazon gift card. (Enter on the RC on any of the blog posts.) There are special entries for each week of June, so don’t miss out on those. Please join in the discussion in the comments. You can gain entries into the giveaway, but...

This week on my blog, we're trying something a little different. In honor of LGBT Pride month, I am among a great group of panelists who will be hosting a month long discussion about Pride, LGBT Youth, Allies, and more. Our panelists are a diverse group of readers, writers, and supporters of gay fiction, including Larry Benjamin , Rick Bettencourt , Brandilyn Carpenter , Rob Colton , Andrew Q Gordon , Lane Hayes , Debbie McGowan , and Brandon Shire . Each week, two people will answer two questions related LGBT pride, rights, and related topics. We will also be giveaway free copies of eBooks by our participating authors and a Amazon gift card. You can enter on the RC below. There are special entries for each week of June, so don't miss out on those. Please join in the discussion in the comments. You can gain entries into the giveaway, but more importantly, you can be part of a important and fun discussion. Though only 2 panelists will be posting each week, we will all be j...

Checking Him Out is back from round #1 with my editor*, and she's pretty bloody awesome, that editor. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a bolshy, stubborn author who digs her heels in. Luckily she seems to know how to handle me, as I've come out the other side smiling and happy - a very different outcome to the one I had recurring dreams about two nights ago! *Addendum: it is now edited and with the proofreaders! There was also an interesting plot hole that she spotted, and it took me about ten minutes of sitting, staring at the screen, saying, "What the hell is she on about?" over and again, before the penny dropped. It's fixed now, and I've got to say that right at this point in time I think this is the best story I've ever written. It's probably just a post-writing / post-editing moment of euphoric bias, because I love my Hiding Behind The Couch series beyond the capacity for rational thought. However, Checking Him Out was a ne...

Blog hop! What a great idea, like playing the Wikipedia game of link-clicking and getting lost in a whole new world of knowledge, except here you get to meet some authors you might not have met before, so without further ado... In this post I'm going to tell you a little about my writing process and what I'm currently working on. I was tagged by the fabulous Larry Benjamin , author of What Binds Us , Damaged Angels and Unbroken (shortlisted for this year's Lambda Literary Awards ). You can read Larry's blog post here: http://authorlarrybenjamin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/my-writing-process-blog-hop.html Larry's website is here: http://www.larrybenjamin.com What am I working on? I've just finished editing the second edition of my first novel, Champagne , and after a very drawn-out discussion with a reader last week about how much the story affected him, I'm thinking about writing a "sequel" that would bring resolution. I deliberately wrote...

Welcome to Part Two of our Roundtable discussion on sex in gay fiction, with authors, Larry Benjamin , WS Long , Andrew Q. Gordon and Hans Hirschi , all of whom write gay fiction. Deb McGowan , author, editor and publisher is the discussion's moderator. Miss Part 1? Don't worry, you can read it here. http://authorlarrybenjamin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/lets-talk-about-sex-roundtable.html Don't forget we are also running a giveaway of eBooks and a $30 gift card. Just click the Rafflecopter link on this page to enter the drawing. You have until 12:00 a.m. April 8, 2014, to enter and winners will be drawn on April 9, 2014. Winners will be notified by email. DM: Welcome back gentlemen. Let's just dive in and pick up where we left off, shall we? What's your approach to writing sex? WSL: The sex scenes should propel the story, involve the characters at that moment. That's the only reason to include it. If the sex doesn't add to the plot then don...

Here's something a little different, AND you get to enter a giveaway! Awesome! I recently moderated a discussion between four authors - Larry Benjamin , Andrew Q. Gordon , Hans M. Hirschi and WS Long - all of whom write gay fiction. If you're not familiar with the genre, the fact that these guys are, well, guys, makes them quite rare, as much of the work published as "M/M" (male/male) fiction is written by women, and is more often than not romance. Not that I'm suggesting this is a bad thing (I've been known to write gay romances in my time), but it does mean that, for whatever reason, on-page sex is a common feature in gay fiction. Thus, sex in gay fiction is the topic for this roundtable discussion, posted in two parts. The first part can be found on Larry Benjamin's blog: http://authorlarrybenjamin.blogspot.com/2014/03/lets-talk-about-sex-roundtable.html The second part will be posted here on my blog on Thursday April 3. In addition, ...