Category Archives: Jana Blogs

New Anthology Release

front-coverThe 2016 Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction anthology, “Flight”, is here, and I have a story in it! It’s a really cool concept:

A 300-word story should be easy, right? Many of our entrants say it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever written.

Queer Sci Fi’s Annual Flash Fiction Contest challenges authors to write a complete LGBTQ speculative fiction micro-story on a specific theme. “Flight” leaves much for the authors to interpret—winged creatures, flight and space vehicles, or fleeing from dire circumstances.

Some astonishing stories were submitted—from horrific, bloodcurdling pieces to sweet, contemplative ones—and all LGBTQ speculative fiction. The stories in this anthology include AI’s and angels, winged lions and wayward aliens. Smart, snappy slice of life pieces written for entertainment or for social commentary. Join us for brief and often surprising trips into 110 speculative fiction authors’ minds.

The book us available in eBook form (4.99), and will soon be available in paperback with b/w illustrations inside (12.99) and in a special collector’s edition with color illustrations (24.99).


Buy Links

Amazon eBook | Kobo | All Romance | Goodreads


Excerpt Like Falling: Moriarty said something about falling being like flying. For an evil genius, he’s an idiot. Falling is nothing like flying.

Author Bio:

In the first year of the Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction contest, we received about 15 entries for the theme “Endings”. In the second year, it was 115 for “Discovery”.
This year, we had more than 170 entries from people around the world, and from all parts of the LGBTIQA rainbow. “Flight” represents 110 of those people and their stories.

Author’s Note – My Story is Like Falling and I had fun writing it. I gave you a little taste above. I’m looking forward to getting my own copy and reading them all. I hope you do the same. (And yes, I’ll agree with the intro, this IS hard to write. Flash fiction is a challenge.)

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Sunday Small Talk

I’ve been doing a write every day in September challenge and on one hand it is working.I am writing. On the other hand it’s usually about 200 words a day which is pretty sad.

To be fair to myself, I did have to make three exams (and grade one, the other two will be this week) and I was busy editing Cassadaga Nights. I hope to send it off in a day or two.

I’ve also edited through the first three chapters of Blood Red Roulette and found many of the suggested changes already done on the opening chapters so maybe it’s later that I forgot to carry them through? I’m not sure. I guess I’ll see as I go. I have cleaned up some of the opening stuff that was still, sadly repetitive, as a function of so much time taken in the original writing.

In my small progresses this week were both Behind Blue Eyes which won’t be happy until it’s four books long or something and I started the contemporary romance that I was challenged to try and write for Dreamspun Desires. We’ll see how it goes.

And this weekend was bad for writing between my steampunk adventures and the mothman festival but good for inspiration. I still want to revisit Aaron and Rhys in a long work and they do love their steampunk

(so do I)  photo 20160917_124909_zpsslalrj9g.jpg

I’ve also long wanted to use the Mothman Festival as a backdrop. I need the right urban fantasy anthology.

Rainbow Snippets

I had planned on moving onto to a new wip but I’ll be honest, I’m utterly wasted. I had a great time on the steampunk train ride but nearly 3 hours in an un-air conditioned train car in full steampunk gear left me seriously dehydrated because it was 90 degrees with equal humidity. I literally have no idea how women survived that for real in the 1800s and conclude they were made of sterner stuff than I.

So I’ll continue with my Florida psychics. Santino has just did his best Luke Skywalker act for Ryan, showing off with his psychokinesis (and explained that he’s feared being hauled away by the government if they knew which is what Ryan is reacting to in sentence 1)

“I can’t believe you actually showed me when you put it that way.”

Santino shrugged. “Who’d believe you? Maybe a few psychics in town but I’d just play dumb. I’m pretty good at it.”

“I’m not touching that one.”

If you’d like to play along, Rainbow Snippets is a Facebook community where we post up 6 sentences of one of our LGBT stories every Saturday. It’s been fun and you can find it here. Be sure to check out all the offers! It’s been a great supportive group!

Guest Blogger – Charley Descoteaux

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The release date for Safe House, Buchanan House: Book Four, is coming soon! To celebrate, Dreamspinner has created a bundle sale—Pre-order Safe House and get Tiny House (Buchanan House: Book Three) for $0.99! The sale runs September 12 until release day—September 19!

This is a true series so to get the most out of it I recommend to read the books in order. With that in mind I’ve stocked a Rafflecopter with two chances to win the first book in the series, Buchanan House. Visit any stop on my tour between September 12th and October 1st to enter!

 

SafeHouseFS_v1Safe House (Buchanan House: Book Four) by Charley Descoteaux

It’s never too late for a new beginning…

Kyle Shimoda is an asshole magnet, has been for as long as he can remember. At forty-seven, he doesn’t see much chance for improving his luck in love. His friends who run Buchanan House, a gay retreat on the central Oregon coast, know he wants to find “someone nice” to settle down with, and they set him up with Officer Brandon Smith. Kyle has a turbulent history with law enforcement, but he can’t deny his attraction to the buff cop.

Brandon has been a police officer in Lincoln City almost since the day he graduated from high school over thirty years ago. He’s cultivated the facade of a serious, disciplined law enforcement officer, but beneath his overdeveloped chest beats the soft heart of a drama queen. A cancer scare shifts Bran’s focus from finding a serious relationship to having as much sex as he can—putting his goals squarely at odds with Kyle’s. If he can’t find the courage to be honest about his feelings for Kyle, the happiness they’ve both been searching for could slip through their fingers.

 

Read Chapter One at the Dreamspinner store to meet Kyle. Meet Brandon in the excerpt below.

 

Chapter Two

Brandon barely paid attention as he drove between the cemetery and the apartment he shared with two roommates. He’d hoped to find a voice mail from the doctor after the funeral, but no such luck. He did find one saying the new guy, Dylan, had called in sick, and Brandon was expected at work within the hour. He would have been happier to stay at the cemetery and talk with Paulie a little longer. And Kyle. Bran had met Kyle before, but they hadn’t spoken. He had noticed then how handsome Kyle was, and he was even more striking with his hair longer, framing his high cheekbones and full, sensuous mouth. His silky black hair looked so touchable.

This isn’t getting me to work any faster.

At least work will be a distraction.

He hurried home and changed into his uniform. His quick spot check in the bathroom mirror turned into a lingering appraisal. Brandon ran an open hand over his chest, not to smooth the impeccable fabric of his uniform shirt, but to reassure himself that nothing had changed. He grimaced at his reflection, thinking a little less gray and a little more brown in his hair might be a nice change.

Brandon shivered as he recalled the MRI he’d endured three days prior, which had revealed a suspicious lump in his chest. Forty-seven minutes in a tiny tube while the machine hummed and took pictures of his breast and lymph tissue. Just thinking about the way it had felt to lie there made him shiver—it was worse than the needle biopsy he’d had the following day. With every inhale his shoulders had brushed the walls of the tube on both sides, and less than halfway through he’d had to talk himself out of fleeing. He wasn’t a tall man—something that had bothered him throughout his life—but until that day he had taken pride in his body, in the bulk he’d cultivated without sacrificing speed or agility.

During that forty-seven minutes, he would have been happy to trade his broad shoulders for a smaller frame.

Since I’m making empty wishes, I might as well make one for a better-looking face. A face that could attract a handsome young guy like Kyle instead of scaring him half to death.

Bran’s stomach roiled at his own thoughts, and he resolved to not even think the word death again until—unless—he had to. He was tempted to forgo shaving the sandy brown stubble from his face but fell back on the habit, hoping for the comfort a routine could provide, and reached for his electric razor.

Everything seemed to be happening so fast. Less than a week ago he’d gone in for his yearly physical, and now he was waiting for the call that would tell him whether he needed to make another appointment for that week or next year. In the interim he’d been squeezed into a tube and had a biopsy. And relived the worst time in his life over and over, the time when he’d learned about his father’s diagnosis.

SafeHouse_headerbanner

Pre-0rder Safe House at the Dreamspinner store and get Tiny House for $0.99! Sept. 12-19: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/safe-house-by-charley-descoteaux-7536-b

 

Enter Sept 12 – Oct 1!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Three winners! Prizes: One signed paperback of Safe House (US Only); one ebook copy of book one of the series, Buchanan House; one backlist book (any ebook except Safe House)

 

BIO

Charley Descoteaux has always heard voices. She was relieved to learn they were fictional characters, and started writing when they insisted daydreaming just wasn’t good enough. In exchange, they’ve agreed to let her sleep once in a while. Charley grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area during a drought, and found her true home in the soggy Pacific Northwest. She has survived earthquakes, tornadoes, and floods, but couldn’t make it through one day without stories.

 

Rattle Charley’s cages:

Blog: http://cdescoteauxwrites.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charley.descoteaux.3
Dreamspinner Author Page: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=879
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharleyDescote
Goodreads: http://tinyurl.com/aqe7g7r
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/charleydescote/

 

Series: Buchanan House
Book Number: 4
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: September 19, 2016
Pages: 200
Cover Artist: L.C. Chase

 

 

Sunday Small Talk

I missed it last week in order to finish Modified & Sacred (the absolutely terrible title I slapped on my Sf story out of pure desperation after like 40 minutes of pain trying to come up with something better.) It went out to the anthology. Here’s hoping.

If nothing else, it’s about 800 words from being a full on novella so if it doesn’t make the anthology, I have very little to do to expand it and try it that way.

My story with Aaron and Rhys (and the crew) from Kept Tears will be in DSP’s Love wins anthology and all the proceeds will go to a charity for the Pulse shooting victims. That makes me very happy.

Soonish, I think I’ll be able to share the cover of Once Upon a Time in the Weird West. There’ll be a big ta-doo for it. I’m looking forward to it (and I’m sure you’ll love the cover). It’s due out in December (as is Love wins).

And I’m one or two paragraphs away from finishing Cassadaga Nights expansion into a novella. It might get done tonight (well if I stop watching Star Trek but since Amok Time, Mirror Mirror & Trouble with Tribbles are on back to back maybe not). I am thinking of just calling it Cassadaga. I don’t like the title and I think the ‘nights’ part of it is half of what’s bugging me. I’ll wing it at my first readers and go from there. I have a couple places in mind to try it.

Now that that’s done, I’m not sure how much new writing I’m going to be doing in the next few months (so maybe this weekly post will go bi-weekly). What I’m mostly going to be doing is revising Blood Red Roulette. If I don’t start that soon I will not get it done. I don’t want that to happen. I’m over being disappointed and that’s the time to get to work before I set it aside and go onto something new and shiny.

And my nano isn’t going to be in this genre this year. It has been the last two years and I promised myself to alternate it every other year so I’m overdue on that.

However, I will still be occasionally noodling around on Behind Blue Eyes and with the contemporary story which I could have sworn I started but a thorough search of my files on both computers and all flash drives showed up nothing, not even the name file and I KNOW I did that. I’ll search the tag for these posts next. Maybe I just wrote up the notes.

So nearly three finished in the last two weeks, that’s good, right?