De-blog

In The Stars Part II Trailer Out Now! ♥ It's a labour of love. ♥ I've blogged about it before. Hiding Behind The Couch - my series about nine friends. I've blogged about it a good few times, in fact, because I have a problem. It. Sells. Bugger. All. It sells so much bugger all it made me do that one word to each sentence thing! It doesn't get many reviews either, even though I can see that the first two novels are being downloaded from my website . Because, you see, the first two books are free . Book four is technically free too, as it's available in instalments from Smashwords , with 'user sets price'. So what's going on? When it does get reviews, they're generally great. I've done interviews in the press and online. I've run giveaways, taken part in blog hops, made video trailers... I can't even be bothered to list the rest of the things I've done here, but the bottom line is this: It's contempor...

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, ...

In my head I'm screaming and kicking wildly. No, no, NO! I will NOT become a Fanyon! I'm in denial, because the reality is that I am completely in love with Josh Lanyon's writing. Yes, it's a little formulaic, and there are some parallels to be drawn in terms of characterisation between series, but it's well written and an easy read. What also helps is he's a bringer of Happily Ever Afters, and I like these. A lot. Last night I finished the fifth novel in the Adrien English Mysteries series - there is a book six that's a kind of 'write it yourself' thing - I may take a peek, but I prefer to have the story already told. So, effectively, book five is the end of the story. The full series, in order (links go to Josh Lanyon's website): Fatal Shadows A Dangerous Thing The Hell You Say Death of a Pirate King The Dark Tide Stranger Things Have Happened I started book one on February 9th, and today is March 7th. Talk about getting suc...

So, I'm utterly exhausted! I've been back home for just a little over an hour, and it's a real effort to type. Yesterday I was at the London Author Fair - the first event of its kind - held in Covent Garden, where I met up with Hans M. Hirschi , author of Family Ties , Jonathan's Hope and The Opera House . Two weeks ago I wasn't planning on going to London at all. I used to live down there, and visiting always reminds me of why I moved away. I swear the water is just piped straight from the Thames (makes me ill and leaves a really yucky residue around cups - that can't be right, surely?). Then there's the whole 'cheapest' ticket for a return journey of two stops (Russell Square to Covent Garden) being a £9 travelcard . Seriously? Do you think you could maybe tell me Covent Garden was going to be closed later before I buy a return? Anyway, gripes aside, I had a really good time. The London Author Fair was very useful - lots of seminars and works...

I'm releasing each episode of In The Stars separately, via Smashwords and Amazon , and it's turning out to be quite labour-intensive, but hopefully well worth the effort. I've just made episode 3 (Pisces) available, as I will be on my way back from the London Author Fair on March 1st, which would be its 'official' launch date. This follows the release of episode 1 (Capricorn) on January 1st, and episode 2 (Aquarius) on February 1st. The episodes are available from free-1.49 USD (reader sets price on Smashwords), and the full novels are 6.00 USD in ebook format - paperback also available.* To set in context, In The Stars is part of my series, Hiding Behind The Couch . In its full form, In The Stars consists of two hefty, full-length novels (books 4 and 5 of the series), spanning the period of one year in the life of The Circle - the nine friends central to the series. What I wanted to do with this particular instalment is give new readers an opportu...

So, you've heard the black dog metaphor? For the past couple of months or so, he's been the spectre of a Cairn terrier - tiny snatched glimpses of a fairly benign little feller , just visible out of the corner of my eye. Yesterday he was a Staffordshire bull terrier, sitting in the hallway, panting, impatient: "Come and take me for a walk," he goaded. Pant, pant, pant, pant... "No, you're OK. I'll just sit here and write, and maybe you'll go away, or someone else will take you for a walk." Which they did - thank you, Jose. Today, he's back. He's grown some overnight, too. By now he's looking something like an underfed Newfoundland: a bit scrawny, all fur coat and no...meat on his bones. (See, even I can manage a little attempt at humour in these dark moments.) I'll pick up on that ole black dog visual contact again in a minute, but I want to mention something else (yup, mental health's a bit haywire, so don't expect log...

"You should watch Dexter ," my sister advised me a couple of years ago. "I think you'd really like it." And she was probably right, but I haven't followed her recommendation, even though, in spite of her being the biggest fan of Dexter that I know and therefore perhaps a tiny bit biased, I do trust her opinion. But, alas, I missed the beginning of the series. I find it very difficult to motivate myself to start from the beginning of an established series and go through the motions of catching up, which means Dexter is just one of the many casualties of my impoverished TV viewing diet (although in part it's because I prefer reading/writing to watching TV). I'm guessing I'm not alone in this, and that the same might also be true of any series - TV, films, books - and it's left me in a bit of a quandary that I'm hoping this blog post will address. For the last 7 years I've been writing the Hiding Behind The Couch series. So f...

I've been a bit busy over the past few weeks. I re-designed my website, although I kind of cheated, as I used a template - it's now in HTML5, which is rather groovy. Check it out here: debbiemcgowan.co.uk While you're there, also check out my 'read' page for excerpts and free ebooks . I've decided to give away book one of the Hiding Behind The Couch series (also called Hiding Behind The Couch) for free indefinitely. For the next few weeks you can also get book two (No Time Like The Present) for free, and I'll be giving away others for free from time to time. I've also written the rather funky little novel called Double Six . It's a sci - fi fantasy, a bit 'timey-wimey' and all that, written for young adults, but adults will enjoy it equally, I think. And here's Chapter One for you to read, and hopefully think, "Oh, I'll give that a go!" - it's only about £1.49 / $1.99 for ebook , and £5.99 for the paperback, av...

As a prelude to the launch of In The Stars in 2014, I've made a video trailer for In The Stars Part I , which incorporates some quotations from the book - tricky to choose without spoilers whilst also trying to be intriguing. Music is "Stars Might Shine" by Albin Loán , a Swedish singer songwriter who lives in Sydney, Australia, which is apt, as one of the series' characters is Swedish and this is of relevance to the In The Stars storyline. Zodiac illustrations have been adapted from those created by the wonderful Emma Pickering for the sections of the book(s). In the Stars follows 'The Circle' through a year of their life, and the timeline is separated by the zodiac, with an ongoing theme that questions the notions of religion, fate, horoscopes, clairvoyance and science, as well as some references to Shakespeare, who oft pondered these matters. I'm a sceptic and a social scientist, but I have endeavoured to provide a balanced story, for as much a...

Hey, Larry! Could you polish this freshly minted shiny new penny just a little bit more for me? I can't quite see the world reflecting back at me perfectly enough yet. This is how I felt sending editing notes to author Larry Benjamin, after he sent me the manuscript for his latest novel, Unbroken , published by Beaten Track on 20th September 2013. It began back in March, when Larry emailed me: question--do you want to read Unbroken? Do I want to read it? Do I want to read it? Are you serious? After the question with the most obvious answer in the world, Larry wrote: You don't need to feel pressured to publish it Don't feel pressured? Aggggghhhhhhh! Larry Benjamin, you know, whose first novel was published by Carina Press (which is part of Harlequin Group, who are HUGE) says I don't need to feel pressure to publish it? Say what? (it may suck for all I know) Ha! Fat chance of that! So, this email exchange began on Wednesday 13th March. On Thu...