Beastly Businessmen and Guitar Gods Blog Tour

Synopsis:

Fairytales and Myths for the Modern Gay

The modern age is devoid of magic.

Or is it?

How else could a stolen guitar or a lost shoe lead to love?

What but magic could spark romance at a workplace assessment?

Or turn a mean-spirited monster into a man?

Six fairytales and myths are given a contemporary MM twist in this collection of stories, proving that sometimes the mundane can be magical too.

Dragged Into Love (Þrymskviða)
When Theo’s landlord steals a prized guitar in lieu of rent owed, he informs Theo he will return the instrument on one condition: he wants a date with Theo’s twin sister.

Love's Code (Ariadne and Theseus)
Andre must pass the examination if he wants to keep his job.

However, he is distracted by his unspoken love for fellow programmer, Eren.

Guessing Games (Rumplestiltskin)

Sasha told a little white lie in his job interview and it won him the role.

Only now he is faced with a pile of work he doesn’t know how to complete.

Assignations and Ultimatums (The Strange Elopement of Tinirau)

Hunter and Ross are in love, but Ross’ father keeps trying to set him up with undesirable, yet powerful, older men, the latest of whom happens to be Ross’ boss.

Lost and Found (Cinderella)
Cillian is dreading the work masquerade ball, but once there he finds himself romanced by a dashing stranger, only to flee when he discovers the man's identity.

A Debt is A Debt (Beauty and the Beast)

Dunstan Griffin is not a man to let a debt slide, so when debtor Alfred Siskin offers the EA services of his son, Wynn, in lieu of payment, Dunstan accepts.

Audio Excerpt:

Buy Links

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Luke Not Loki—Behind the Names in Beastly Businessmen & Guitar Gods

I am one of those authors who likes to spend time considering the names of her characters to ensure each is appropriate and says something about their personalities and/or journeys. That was particularly true for a piece like Beastly Businessmen & Guitar Gods, where I needed to not only reflect the characters as they are in my stories, but also who they are representing in the original myths and fairytales. So I thought I’d share a few lines on some of the reasons why the characters in the six tales have the names that they do.

Dragged Into Love (Þrymskviða)

Theo, Luke, and Fran are named for Thor, Loki, and Freyja, the characters they replace in the tale.

Love’s Code (Ariadne and Theseus)

Andre is named to represent Adriana in the myth. Meanwhile, Eren’s name means ‘saint’ of ‘white lineage’ to suggest the noble Theseus.

Guessing Games (Rumplestiltskin)

Alexander means defending men; although, some of the reason behind his name is, I confess, because I envisioned him looking a little like John Mitchell, played by Aidan Turner, in Being Human. Jack, I can’t talk about too much, since guessing his true name is part of the story. Suffice to say, his name is suitable for his character and comes from folklore.

Assignations and Ultimatums (The Strange Elopement of Tinirau)

Hunter Bray was so named to represent the young warrior from a neighbouring tribe in the original story. The name Ross derives from ‘promontory’ or ‘headland’ and is appropriate given the ending of the original tale. Lastly, Cameron Kopp has a name that suits his physical appearance—crooked nose.

Lost and Found (Cinderella)

Cillian Ellison and Mark Chalmers. These ones were to create a visual connection to Cinderella and Prince Charming.

 A Debt is a Debt (Beauty and the Beast)

Dunstan Griffin’s name abounds with the idea of a dark beast (Dunstan is literally ‘dark stone’ and the griffin a mythical creature), while Wynn means ‘fair’, to connect him to Beauty.

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About the Author:

NICKI J. MARKUS was born in England in 1982, but now lives in Adelaide, South Australia with her husband. She has loved both reading and writing from a young age and is also a keen linguist, having studied several foreign languages.

Nicki launched her writing career in 2011. She published works through Wicked Nights Publishing and Silver Publishing before both companies closed their doors. She is now self-publishing some of her works, including the novella Time Keepers and the fantasy novel The Ragnarök Chronicles.

Nicki also writes M/M fiction under the alternate pen name of ASTA IDONEA and has had several short stories published by Wayward Ink Publishing. She is currently working on her first M/M novella.

Nicki works as a freelance editor and proofreader, and in her spare time she enjoys: music, theatre, cinema, photography, sketching, and cross stitch. She also loves history, folklore and mythology, pen-palling, and travel.

Social links:

Website     |     Facebook     |     Twitter

Mortal Thoughts VBT

Blurb:

The heist is cursed from the start. Doug Mulcahy and his gang hijack a mining plane and a fortune in black opals - gemstones with a rep for being unlucky. Following a brutal shootout on a remote airfield, the hijackers flee in the crippled plane only to crash-land soon after. Shaken and battered, they stagger through the outback until they stumble upon a strange little house and an ethereal woman. Taking the woman hostage, the thieves wait for her husband to return with his truck. But it all goes to hell when a rogue gang member forces himself onto the woman. The house is drenched with blood, the husband returns, and the men realise nothing in this place is as it seems. And the horrors are only just beginning...

Excerpt:

The one-room office was a tight fit, shaped into narrow corridors by desks, radio equipment, kitchenette, filing cabinets and an antique photocopier. A wall-mounted fan oscillated back and forth, achieving little more than shifting the hot air around. Occasionally, for no discernible reason, it emitted a loud, ripping fart.

There was a small, lifeless waiting room glimpsed through a partition door, crammed high with sagging cardboard boxes. Neck explained that a delivery was overdue to be collected. Normally the boxes would be left undercover outside, he told Doug, but thieving had worsened lately. Doug readily sympathised.

There was one other notable feature of the office, and since entering Cutter had barely taken his eyes from her: a young, pretty woman sitting at the corner desk laden with paperwork. She wasn’t introduced, and after initially looking over the visitors, went back to working on her computer and fussing over a stray twist of hair, picking at her clothes, brushing her bared skin self-consciously. Whenever she glanced back up at Cutter, he answered her increasingly shy looks with an unwavering smile.

Duckbill scanned Doug’s clipboard while Neck directed the young woman to scroll through old emails, looking for any sign of the order.

The sound of the whirring, farting fan rose sharply for a moment before its pivot began to slow, the dusty blades becoming visible in their cage, slowing to a halt.

“Great,” said Neck. “Open the windows will you, Sonya?”

“They are open.”

“Open them wider.”

It was through the windows they heard it first – the distant droning of an approaching plane.

Duckbill bumped into Doug and Cutter in his rush to get outside.

“No-one’s due this morning,” Neck muttered for everyone’s benefit. “Sonya, get them on the radio. Ask them who they are and their flight plan.”

Doug spied Sonya rolling her eyes as she went to the radio.

The droning dropped to an abridged roar as a low-flying plane buzzed the building. Its shadow flitted past the windows.

“No, let me,” Neck insisted, elbowing Sonya aside.

Duckbill came back, stopping in the doorway. “It’s circling.”

Neck turned from fussing with the radio, his cheeks and Adam’s apple a heated pink. “Get that truck out of the way!”

“Sure,” Doug said congenially, “right after you sign the invoice.”

Neck clicked the radio repeatedly. “It’s not working!” He ducked under the desk. “For god’s sake … don’t tell me it’s not plugged in!”

“Maybe it’s blown a fuse,” Duckbill suggested.

Neck stood again, rubbing his ear furiously having clipped it on the edge of the desk. “Does it look like it’s in trouble?” he asked Duckbill as he reached for a mobile phone lying nearby.

“From what I could see, it’s flying fine,” Duckbill said.

Doug was closer to the mobile. Reaching to pick it up for Neck he bunted it away instead. It slipped down between the wall and desk.

“Whoops. Sorry.”

Neck pushed past Doug and Cutter, heading outside, glancing down at Doug’s nametag. “Just get out of the bloody way… Russell.”

The plane’s engine noise began swelling again. Duckbill skipped aside as Neck passed through the door. Doug looked over at Sonya, shrugged and gestured, “Ladies first,” yet she declined to exit until he and Cutter went ahead. Doug wasn’t offended. It wasn’t about him. It was Cutter. He made anybody nervous.

RUB, RUB THE CALLOUS OF MY SOUL: On Writing & Rejection

Rejection sucks. There’s no simpler way to put it. Whether it’s for a job, a rental application, or a date – nothing sucks, blows or suckblows like the big N-O. But it’s particularly rough for writers. The first three scenarios are bad enough because you’re being assessed as a person but for a writer, in most cases, the person judging your work knows nothing about you – your income, employment history, appearance and personal hygiene. Which let’s face it, for some writers, myself included is not a bad thing (my agent tells me No Pants Day is not a thing for most non-writers but a luxury for those who are.)  But writers are putting something even more personal and fragile out there – a vulnerable little piece of themselves – a fragment of their souls (mine’s kind of dark and twisted so it might just like a little of the pain) and when it’s rejected it can be a soul-destroying thing.  Especially for the first-time submitter. But here’s the good news – it’s a good thing to be rejected – even better to be rejected and criticized. And I’ll tell you why in a minute but first let me tell you a little story – because that’s how it happened with me – with a little story.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a kid – I’ve thought about writing novels since I was a teenager but seeing as it’s taken me two decades to get around to completing my first novel (UNBIDDEN), it’s a good thing I went into screenwriting. But before my first screenplay and waaaaaay before my first novel I dipped my toes in the writing pool the way a lot of beginners do – with a short story.  It was no surprise a horror story. Well “horror story” is pretty light – it was probably the most horrific story I’ve written – shocking, depraved, gory but it was also chilling and visceral and original (I can still see that). So I sent it off to a national magazine that published horror fiction (old school style – printed on a dot-matrix printer and mailed in an A4 envelope) and then nervously waited each day for a letter not only accepting my story for publication but an accompanying mini-novella of gushing praise for my writing skills and a heralding of mine as the new voice in horror fiction the world was waiting for.) 

The letter came – within a week (Why wouldn’t it? They’d have to move quickly to snap up the story before a rival publication did). So I ran up to my bedroom, shut the door to privately savour the moment of triumph, took a deep breath and peeled open the envelope. Within was a short and polite rejection of the story as well as some accompanying feedback. They recognized that I was a writer of “some obvious talent” (Yes! Yes! They were right of course) but that the story itself lacked a central character that elicited any sympathy or empathy or any character arc or narrative logic. These were nonsense words and phrases to me – my central character was a murderous necrophile – why would he be sympathetic? And narrative logic? This was a nightmarish, surreal story meant to defy logic. The fools! Couldn’t they see that? My chest filled with sadness - my solar plexus became a black hole that drew in and devoured my heavy heart and then every vestige of self-confidence cowering in my brain. I fell into a deep sleep and I don’t think that I wanted to wake up. But I did. I felt quiet refreshed. I reread the letter, put it to one side,  went out and made myself a cup of coffee then sat down to write another story. It was better than the rejected one but still to this day remains unpublished. That doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that I had my rejection cherry popped. The first time always hurts the most and leaves you the most confused. Remember the first time someone broke your heart or broke up with you? You thought you’d never survive the humiliation and the hurt but you did. And each time it happens it gets easier to deal with, easier to take – and most of the people you lay down with are going to be gentle and others are going to be rough but none of them are going to shock and sting like that first time. So get stung. Then sleep it off, have a coffee, get up and start writing again.

You get conditioned against rejection and the irks and pain of criticism. You develop a resistance to it – a hardness.

The phrase I like to use is a callous of the soul. Because like I said, it’s a little bit of your soul that you’re putting out there to be slapped, bruised, scalded and kicked. But each time it happens you get tougher and stronger. And every time someone else entering the field can’t take that first shocking hit to the system and bows out, crippled and cowed by their first smackdown, then that’s good for you. Making it in writing – novels or screenwriting or advertising (three tough arenas that I’ve battled in at various times of my life) – is only partially about talent or ability – it’s also about determination and tenacity. It’s about taking the licks then taking your bruised arse to a comfy chair and a forgiving keyboard.

Because twenty years later you might have a supernatural crime novel with Harper-Collins or three or four feature films with your name on it.

Thirty publishers rejected Stephen King’s debut novel CARRIE. Many more rejected his earlier manuscripts. And when he’d become established he resent some of those earlier rejected works to publishers again and this time no-one rejected him.

Because sometimes before you get to be King, you have to be told you’re a knave.

The fools…

Best

TJ Park

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March 14: BooksChatter
March 15: Writer Wonderland
March 16: Rogue's Angels
March 17: Writers and Authors
March 18: Two Ends of the Pen
March 21: Sharing Links and Wisdom
March 22: Natural Bri - review only
March 23: Lisa Haselton's Reviews and Interviews
March 24: Long and Short Reviews
March 25: T's Stuff
March 25: The Cerebral Writer

Author Bio and Links:

TJ Park is an Australian novelist and screenwriter. He was raised on a steady diet of Stephen King novels, British science-fiction television, and the cinema of John Carpenter and Sergio Leone. Not much else is known about him. That's just the way he likes it.

Mortal Thoughts is $0.99.

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Nature of the Beast Blog Tour

Synopsis:

After sorceress Alexandra tries to kill her insane father, her fae uncle expels her from the Otherworld in an attempt to keep her safe. Living among humans, she keeps her connection with the supernatural by working for vampires and werewolves.

When she stumbles upon a hurt werewolf pup her efforts to heal him inadvertently break the bonds tying the young lycan to the pack, making her his new alpha.

This is the least of Alexandra’s worries though, for back in the Otherworld her father has not forgotten her. He dispatches an assassin to kill her. But just who is this mysterious foe, and what will their arrival mean not only to Alexandra but to the delicate balance of the world?

Book trailer

Buy Links

Don’t miss the March Sale! All Wayward Ink Titles titles are 35% off on the WIP website and 30% off on AllRomance, and 30% off on Amazon.

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Inspiration, how and where I get it

I’m often asked how I come up with ideas and my first reaction is to stare at the person who posed the question, because I cannot see how people don’t have a head full of ideas. Or how it feels to not juggle several plot bunnies at the same time. Then I remember that the question is honest and that not all people are creative in the same way or used to toying with and transforming their thoughts into stories, that they do not live in a world of their own, like I do.

For me, it doesn’t take much to come up with something to write about. A headline in the paper, a song, a short conversation with a friend, or, why not, a challenge of some sort, and voila, a story is born. I take that spark and turn it into a plot or a character. Or, as it was the case for the first book of the Taking Chances series, Nature of the Beast, I found a title I liked and had to come up with a story that fitted. And sometimes the trouble is you have the perfect title, but you cannot make up your mind on the story because you feel none of your ideas will do it justice, or you think of saving it for a later, for a different kind of story. Crazy, I know, because I’ll probably forget the title or the idea I was saving for later long before I get to use it.

Coming up with the story of Nature of the Beast was different. I didn’t get the spark signaling that new idea, that new plot bunny. I had the characters for so long in my head, they are almost like my imaginary friends. I practically grew up with them. They’ve starred in so many different scenarios I can’t even remember half of them. What I do remember is how much I loved Sean and Alexandra and how well David fit them when he came into the picture, because he wasn’t there to begin with. At first there was only Alexandra, who made her appearance when I was in my teens, followed shortly by Chris and Sean. A couple years ago, came David and I fell madly in love with him.

With such wonderful characters, I knew I had to write their story. It was difficult in the beginning. Carrying them with me for so long made me reluctant to share them with the world, but in the end I felt I had no choice. So here we are, at the beginning of Alexandra, David, and the beautiful strange man that holds both their interest. I hope you will all like it as much as I do.

My Review:

3 stars

I liked the characters, as they were interesting and varied. I really liked Alexandra as she is a strong female character who also cares about the people in her life. She also has her flaws that she struggles with, and these were very apparent throughout the story. These struggles just made her an even stronger character in my mind, since she didn’t just get over her issues, but had to actively work against them and will likely continue to do so throughout the series.

However, there were so many characters thrown at you that they were hard to track at times. There would be mentions of characters (“my lycan friend”, “the angel after who I wasn’t supposed to lust”) who hadn’t even been introduced yet coming out of nowhere. Or characters would be introduced that seemed important, but then never mentioned again. I don’t know if this is because they will become relevant in future books in the series, but I wasn’t a fan of the way it was handled, because it came across awkwardly in the story, confusing me, the reader.

The action was constant and exciting while the mystery behind what was going on was very intriguing as well. However, there were pacing issues throughout the story, and sometimes the events occurring didn’t add up or make sense to me. This book also didn’t focus on romance, though there were hints of it. At times, it felt like the author was trying to focus on romance, and then she would just change her mind. This also affected the pacing of the story and hurt it.

I think the biggest issue with the story is that it was the start of a series. The author was trying to introduce so many elements that will likely be addressed in future books. Because there was such an info dump with little explanation or resolution, it affected the quality of the story. However, while the story did have its flaws, it also set up an interesting series. The world the author created is fascinating and I can’t wait to learn more about it. The ending was also intriguing because while the immediate mystery throughout the book is solved, there is a greater overarcing mystery that is revealed at the end of the book, as well as the mystery behind Alexandra’s future romantic partners. Because of this, I am eagerly looking forward to book 2 to see what happens next.

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About the Author:

Born in Romania, land of the Iele and Vlad the Impaler, AIMEE BRISSAY has spent all her life surrounded by books. She has ridden side by side with d’Artagnan and The Three Musketeers to retrieve the Queen’s diamonds, set sail on the Erasmus in search of the Japans, fell in love with Rhett Butler and roamed the Wild West along Old Shatterhand. She has walked on the footsteps of the Olympian Gods and searched for Zalmoxis’ sanctuary in the Carpathians. In her mind, she’s never been the damsel in distress but rather the knight in shiny armor fighting for a cause.

With a background like this, turning to writing was no surprise.

Aimee discovered erotica early on in life and has never looked back. Now she can write anywhere, even in a crowded room or a busy subway station, but she loves solitude.

When she’s not at her evil day job, she can be found writing or playing with her cat. She welcomes messages from readers and promises to answer all of them as soon as possible.

Aimee Brissay can be found at:

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Finding Shawn Blog Tour

Synopsis:

Shawn and Alex have been friends since first grade.

Alex, the rock star quarterback, appears to be basking in the limelight of his success and his new romance with Pam.  But appearances can be deceiving.

Shawn is the key man in the football team’s solid defense. He’s also the senior class’ most eligible bachelor. But Shawn has no time to get involved with a girl—at least, that’s what he tells his friends. 

In reality, he does have a love interest… Tony Valito. 

Side-by-side, the relationships between the two couples blossom.  One in the open. The other in secret. That is, until Shawn’s world erupts when the rumor that he’s gay gathers momentum.

In trying to find Shawn, perhaps his friends will end up finding themselves. And everyone will discover how dangerous are the lives of high school athletes.

Excerpt:

Alex makes a fist with his free hand and brings it to his mouth. He blows hard into it. He’s holding back a tidal wave of emotion.

Coach Roberts sits down next to Alex. “Why don’t you go home and get some sleep? You look like hell.”

“I can’t,” Alex mutters.

“Sure you can, Alex. We can take it from here.”

Alex slams his feet firmly on the floor. “Sure you can. I can’t. But you can.”

The coach is confused. “What are you saying, Alex?”

It’s been eating at him for hours. He blurts it out. “My best friend was lying on the floor, bleeding to death, and I couldn’t do anything. Not a damn thing. And I didn’t stop Peter and Dan when I had the chance. And now Shawn is in there and you want me to go home and go to bed. This sucks. I suck.”

Joe goes over and kneels down in front of Alex. “Don’t do this to yourself, Alex. There’s plenty of guilt to go around. Right now we need to be strong. We need to be strong for Shawn. And for Pam. And for Julia. There’ll be plenty of time to point fingers. But not now.”

Buy Links

Don’t miss the March Sale! All Wayward Ink Titles titles are 35% off on the WIP website, 30% off on AllRomance, and 30% off on Amazon.

WIP     |     Amazon US     |     Amazon UK

Amazon AU     |     Amazon DE     |     ARe

Laying Down the Tracks to Finding Shawn

Finding Shawn started out as a simple story that I wanted to tell, about the bullying of a gay teen by a high school athlete.  But along the way the two primary characters, Alex and Shawn took on lives of their own. And as I started exploring their friendship the characters just sort of exploded. It happened when I tried to understand their relationship. Why were they best friends? What bridge existed between them? 

Enter Pam, Shawn’s sister and confidant. How would she handle having a gay brother under the claw of an overbearing cop father? And how would keeping Shawn’s secret from Alex, her boyfriend, effect their new romance?

How did Shawn meet his love interest, Tony, and was Tony worth jeopardizing his reputation and potential athletic scholarships?  And how would a macho group of football players destined for greatness handle the outing of one of their own? As I began to answer these questions the book suddenly became so much more fun and exciting.  It was like weaving together a road map into the unknown.

Along the way, I pondered how the story would develop and how people would react in different parts of the country.  There was no doubt that this story and the way these characters responded might be different if this had happened in the deep south or in a very rural conservative community.  Utica, NY is a mix of inner city and backwoods. There are night clubs and bars that host a punk band one night and country western the next night. Utica also has a very depressed economy. The 2008 depression hit Utica back in 1998. It’s number one industry is tearing down abandoned buildings.

So it was a perfect setting for a sports centric community that revered its winners while it ignored their flaws. Of course sitting in the spectator seats is not the same as showering with a guy. What would his teammates do?

After the first few chapters, the book started to write itself. Scene after scene just flowed out. Shawn, Alex, Tony and Pam were real people with their own personalities and skeletons in their closet. And what they did, how they reacted to the fast paced events was dictated by those personalities and experiences. 

So please, jump in and meet my friends Shawn, Alex, Tony and Pam. They’re all great people. I hope you get to like them as much as I do.  And I hope that Finding Shawn will touch you in many ways. I look forward to your feedback and questions.

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About the Author:

PHIL MARCELLO started writing as a boy in the sixties. Growing up in the projects wasn’t easy, but reading and writing were a couple of healthy vices he picked up along the way. Life happened, but Phil never entirely lost his interest and over the years, he started, but never finished, over a dozen stories.

Fortunately, he saved them all and now has the time and desire to complete them. Phil knows it will take years, but as he enjoys writing and views it as his art form it’s a labor of love he gladly undertakes.

PHIL MARCELLO can be found at:

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Happy St. Patrick's Day

I’ve been waiting for today, since it’s one of my favorite holidays. I get to let my Irish flag fly, which I love to do. I know this is considered a big drinking and party holiday, but for me it’s more about celebrating my heritage (I’m already rocking the green with my nails). Oh, and the awesome food. Corned beef, fish and chips, boiled cabbage, mash and bangers, leek soup, potato pancakes (which I absolutely love). Not to mention the fantastic music. My favorite band is Flogging Molly, though I also enjoy The Cranberries and of course, U2. All in all, today is a fun day to celebrate a part of my cultural background, and for those who celebrate, I hope you enjoy yourselves. And on that note, here are my favorite songs from the top three bands. Enjoy!

(Though Ode to My Family is a close second).

Announcement: Email Error

Those of you subscribed to the blog via email may have noticed recently that you are receiving emails for old posts on top of new posts. As I said back in January, I want to improve my post tags. So I have been going back and updating the tags for quite a few posts. Unfortunately, this has resulted in posts being re-sent through email to subscribers along with new posts. I am aware of the issue, and have contacted Blogger about it.

That being said, it’s not a huge issue, and it shouldn’t lead to an increase in your email. Since I’m updating the tags on older posts while posting new posts, you should still be receiving at the most one email a day. That being said, I will be taking a break from updating the tags until the issue is resolved, though there are a number that I’ve already changed over this past week, so you may still see older posts in your email for a few days. Again, I'm sorry about this and I will let you know once I figure out what's going on.

Anyways, have a wonderful night, and see you tomorrow for St. Patrick's Day!

The Guy With the Suitcase Blog Tour

Synopsis:

Pierce is homeless. 

Young and strong-willed Pierce has been living in the streets of New York City for six months, since his parents kicked him out of their perfect, Christian, suburban house. Pierce is gay. And he is suffering the consequences for being true to himself.

Rafe is homeless. 

He is also sick. Impressionable, but far from innocent, Rafe ran away from home almost a year ago. His sickness is slowly killing him. But Rafe is not a hopeless case. He has learned to get by. Nights of paid passion turn to sheltering warmth from the imminent New York winter.

And then there's a suitcase. Pierce's suitcase, which holds secrets from everyone including its owner.

When their worlds collide, their lives intertwine and when the world seems bent on bringing the two souls to their knees, fate has other plans for them.

Caution: Contains adult language, New York City streets, tough life choices, sexual tension, stubborn brutes and swoon-worthy romance.

Buy Links

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10 Steps to Writing Your First Gay Romance

Step 1: Make friends with readers of Gay Romance

If you’ve never written a gay romance before, there’s no one better to teach you what’s in and out, what’s hot and what’s not so hot and what makes a great romance than…readers of gay romance.

Step 2: Befriend Gay Romance Authors

Well, you’ve managed to find out what the people want, but you don’t know how to go about doing just about everything else (minus the writing). What better time to friend authors of gay romance and learn from the pros, their successes, and even their mishaps. Once you’ve completed Step 2, you’ve also joined the community, so…welcome! Sure, it’s got some drama (what can you expect from queen-loving geeks?), but you will get tons of support and love. And hugs. Lots of hugs, virtual and otherwise.

Step 3: Come up with an awesome idea for a novel

The next step is coming up with what you want to write. You’ve learnt what the crowd wants, you’ve learnt what publishing comes with, time to put it to use and create an awesome pairing with an amazing love story to match.

Step 4: Create mouth-dripping cover

Now, if you’re like me, having a cover, gives you the motivation and inspiration to write your book even faster. So that would be a great time to create it. Having the cover will also help you complete the next step.

Step 5: Pitch It

It’s time to get the words out there about your book. It might not be written yet, but that’s no reason to not share your journey building it up. It’s time to pitch it, be it to publishers, agents or simply your friends and community on Facebook. Getting the hype up for your book before it’s even outlined (see next step) will do miles for your book’s success.

Step 6: Create Outline

Time to create your outline. I know you may not be a plotter, but, well, if you are, this would be a great time to write it.

Step 7: Get your alphas to review

No, I’m not talking about alpha males, although, those would be nice too at this stage. I’m talking about people who will read your outline and tell you if there are things that don’t make sense, if it sounds good, or if it sounds like a terrible idea. Hopefully it will never be the latter.

Step 8: Write your novel

Time to punch down those words. The book ain’t gonna write itself.

Step 9: Edit your novel

Once you finish it’s time for the hard work to…continue. Haha, sucker! Did you really think it was all over once you typed 'The End'? Well, there’s a big NO coming your way. NOoOoO! Time to edit, chop, trim, and edit again what was your first attempt at writing a gay romance. Also this would be a great point to employ your betas to tell you if your book makes any sense now that it’s more than a bulleted list. 

Step 10: Publish your novel

Congratulations! You’ve just published your first gay romance. Do not be fooled, newbie! This is NOT the end of the journey. Just because you hit publish doesn’t mean your work is done and you can dust your hands. You thought writing your first gay romance was an easy job? Well, it ain’t. And now you get to do it all over again. If you’ve got the guts.

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About the Author:

Chris Ethan is a book whore. He enjoys selling his feelings for money and other pleasures and is blatantly unashamed to do so for as long as he breathes. Chris Ethan is also a persona for Rhys Christopher Ethan, author of fantasy and sci-fi. He uses Chris Ethan to share stories of adult queer romance with those who need it. Before you delve into his books however, be warned. He likes putting his characters through shitstorms and hates anything conventional. But then there's that darned happy-ever-after. Also, he likes swearing. Deal with it!

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