On Sean's Sexuality

So being the little eavesdropper I am, I've noticed a couple of conversations here and there about the subject of Sean's sexuality in The Druid Stone. I've also seen the book shelved or categorized as "Gay for you" by various readers. Now obviously I have a lot of Thoughts on this topic, since Sean is half my baby, and I figured I'd share them here rather than intruding on reader spaces, my policy being strictly "Peep but don't poke".

As always, your interpretation of my writing is just as important as (if not more important than) my intention for the text. So think of these as some thinky-thoughts, not the Almighty Words Of The Author Which Make All Other Interpretations Incorrect. By all means, choose not to read this, choose to read it then disregard it, whatever. Or hell, treat it like the theories of any other reader. No need to prioritize my interpretation over anybody else's.

But for the curious, here's what I think, written up in a handy-dandy FAQ, of sorts:

The Druid Stone Update! Giveaway info and a favour to ask

The Druid Stone has now been out a little under two weeks! We spent a few days at 1 and 2 on the Carina most popular list, and broke the Top 50 of the Amazon Gay and Lesbian lists, our first time ever getting on any sort of Amazon bestseller list with a release (cool!). We've received lots of wonderful reviews, positive and critical, that have given us lots to think about. Our blog tour is going great, and we're getting elbow deep on work on a sequel starring a secondary character. Can you guess who?

If you've bought it or added it on Goodreads, thank you for your support. If you've reviewed it, thank you twice!

If you haven't yet bought the book, or you'd like to win some Irish bling, check out the following links for our giveaways!

Fiction Vixen Weekend Spotlight
(Ends today!) Read an exclusive excerpt of The Druid Stone and meet King Finnbheara. Leave us a comment for your chance to win one of two ebook copies of the book.

Carina Press Blog: Three Top Tips for Cowriting
(Ends Aug. 23rd) Learn a little about how Violetta and I cowrite all our books, as well as some advice on how to cowrite your own. Leave a comment to enter to win a super cute sterling silver pendant of an Irish triple spiral, which is featured heavily in The Druid Stone!

LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers: The Immortal Bisexual in Fantasy Fiction

(Ends Aug. 26th) Read about the trope of The Immortal Bisexual, from Jack Harkness way back to the Greek and Roman gods. Leave a comment for your chance to win a ebook copy of The Druid Stone.

And now for the favour:

I discovered last night that The Druid Stone is up for New Author Book of the Month on the Goodreads M/M group! Any author in this genre knows that to be featured there is awesome exposure for your book, so I'd like to ask that if you're a member of the group, and if you liked The Druid Stone or are interested in reading it, that you please vote for us in the second poll listed here! It would be very, very much obliged! :)

The Druid Stone is now available!

In the spring of 2011, I was a few months pregnant, mourning the somewhat sudden death of my grandmother, and dealing with a lot of mental health issues. Not surprisingly, my stressful job as a substitute teacher wasn't going so well. Basically, I was a wreck.

The one bright spot in my life was fandom, where I argued over favourite episodes, shared my love for characters, and wrote a whole pile of fanfic, which was the first time anybody had ever really read my writing. Violetta and I met each other through fandom; we edited one another's fanfic and even dabbled in co-writing. In May, she came to me with the idea that we try and take our enjoyment of co-writing and turn it into an original novel. We brainstormed, planned, argued a bit, and after months of work with the help and support of our fandom friends--especially April L'Orange and Emma (also known in cen_sceal), who edited our first draft--we wound up with a manuscript that would one day become The Druid Stone.

I don't want to get too terribly emotional about things, but this novel means a lot to me. I mean, I'm proud of everything I've written, and I've put all my heart into all of it every single time, but this novel is particularly special. Not only was it my first (that was finished, and saw the light of day, anyway), it kept me going during a rough spot in my life, kept me hoping, gave me something new to look forward to and explore. Opened up opportunities to me that I always thought were impossible. Getting accepted for publication by Carina Press out of the slush was a dream come true. Every day since has just gotten better and better.

So thank you. Thank you to the people who helped me realize this dream, my cheerleaders and editors and marketing people and reviewers and my readers, of course, who are the reason for it all. But thank you especially to Violetta for helping me make my dream come true.

(tears, flailing)

And now, without further ado, here's...

 Five Facts about The Druid Stone

1. Since Violetta and I first met in Torchwood fandom, and because that fandom gave us so much support and joy, we left a few Torchwood-related Easter eggs throughout The Druid Stone, including a cameo by a well-loved character. (The scar on his face should be a clue!)

2. Violetta is a massive David Bowie fangirl. We channeled him when we wrote King Finnbheara, both the real life glam rock version and the King Jared one. We didn't manage to work in a reference to "the area", but I'm sure Sean noticed.

3. A specific scene from near the end of the novel, set in the mound, originally featured lyrics from the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis. In a later draft, those lyrics were replaced with less legally-dubious ones from a song in the public domain.

4. Muff, in County Donegal, is a real town. It really does have a Muff Diving Club. We included it thanks to my Irish husband, who suggested it after I asked if he knew any Irish towns with ridiculous names.

5. The model for Sean used on the cover is almost a perfect representation. When we wrote Cormac, however, we had someone else in mind: specifically, a young Paul Newman.

♔

The Druid Stone is now available from the following retailers:

Carina Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | All Romance eBooks

It is also available as an audiobook from Audible (with an Irish reader!) 

For more information, including reviews, pronunciation guide, a soundtrack, and info on our upcoming Blog Tour, check our dedicated website at KnockmaNovel.com.

5 Healing Alternatives to Lashing Out at a Negative Review

If you've published something, you've probably gotten a bad review. It's a reality of putting your work out there and getting it read. People are going to have a range of reactions, and with the rise of sites like Goodreads, Amazon, and free personal blogs, they now have more forums than ever to express them. And some of these people... are going to be assholes. Sure, you're going to get critical reviews, reviews that point out your head-hopping or how much they dislike your choice of narrative devices. And then you're gonna get the reviews that will tell you you're the worst thing since EL James, or that you didn't get hugged enough as a child, or, or, or. I don't need to give examples, because as authors I'm sure you can fill in the blanks.

But rather than responding in GR comments or complaining on twitter about how "THEY'RE ALL JUST SEXUALLY REPRESSED AND JEALOUS" or, for god's sake, creating an entire website where you 'out' where reviewers live and work (do not do this. if you choose any one thing on this list to give up for author-lent, make it this one), try going through this list.

1. Disengage

Sometimes, all it takes is making a conscious decision not to look anymore. Unless you're being harassed through e-mail, in your blog comments, or internet nasties are using other methods of bringing the criticism directly to your attention, you have the power to limit your exposure. Turn off google alerts for your book's title or your name. Stop refreshing your book's Amazon page. Log off of Goodreads, or limit yourself to your update stream / favourite groups. Use Leechblock if you have to. Find something else to do, whether you get started on that next book or you take a brain break and watch an America's Next Top Model marathon. Just get away from the negativity for a little while. Later, you can decide whether to look at the criticism with a fresh eye, or continue ignoring it. It's up to you!

2. Break them down for scrap

Take a nasty review. Take a piece of paper. Make two columns on the paper: useful critique / useless criticism. Break the review down to its points, and list them in either column. Is there anything to be learned from this critique, however un-tactfully stated? If there is, put it to constructive use. If you're like me, this will help in a substantial way to take the sting out of the review. Part of what's hurtful about reviews is they make us feel so powerless. We're not allowed to respond, even in a veiled way. We're not allowed to defend ourselves or argue the reviewer's points. We can't take the book back and have a do-over. We can't limit a review's influence. This strategy is all about taking positive steps in the one thing we can control: we can improve our writing. 

This isn't about demanding reviewers act as your beta readers, or publicly announcing that people can be vaguely positive but must be constructive with their negative critiques. Readers have a right to react to your books in any way they please, as long as it's not libel and it doesn't go against the TOS of whatever place they're posting at. This exercise is for you and you alone, to try and make sense of a reader response that on the surface is hurtful to you, and give you an empowering, constructive way to respond.  

And if you find your columns are lopsided, with all the points falling under "useless criticism"? Crumple up the piece of paper, throw it out, and move on! (Refer to point 1 if necessary)

3. Seek a shoulder to cry on

Not in public. Even if you don't reply to a reviewer directly, publicly complaining about negative reviews is unprofessional and uncomfortable for your readers to watch. It damages your reputation and harms your platform. Also, what you say on your public twitter or blog or facebook has a way of getting back to the person you're complaining about one way or another, and if they choose to engage you in a new forum (and especially if they bring friends), you've turned one bad review into a whole pile of drama. 

However, what you say to your mom, or significant other, or best friend or even your cat in person has a very likely chance of staying with them. Also, they're pretty much guaranteed to sympathize with you. You can also complain in a private forum such as through email or instant message to someone you trust such as an online friend, a co-writer, a member of your critique group, etc.  

There is nothing wrong with feeling hurt or discouraged or ganged-up on. These are normal feelings when something you've put a lot of time and love into is criticized. Go ahead and ask for a hug and a pat on the back, you're only human! But as an author, you're a public figure and you need to consider where you express these feelings and how. 

4. Pump yourself up

When I was a teenager, I had a lot of body image issues. I was overweight and somewhat fashionably impaired, and I got teased a lot for what I looked like. Being in my own body was often a bad place to be. I had a full length mirror in my bedroom to try on all my various outfits to try and determine which one made me look the least fat or the least slutty or the least bit like a lesbian, which were my general day-to-day goals as a teenage girl. (Now, I'd be quite happy to look like a fat slutty lesbian, but I guess I'll have to settle for fat slutty bi girl.) The point is, this mirror in my room was basically a source of constant misery. Until... someone wrote on it, in big red letters, "Smile, you're beautiful!" Now, I'm not saying it magically made me stop crying over my thunder thighs or picking at my skin, but it was damn better than nothing, just one positive message in a whole world of negative ones. 

So how does this translate to being an author? Bookmark and revisit a positive review, one that really gets you and your book. One that showers you with love and thoughtfulness and makes you think "yeah, that's why I became an author". Somebody out there loved your hero as much as you do, thought that line of dialogue was really funny, understood that metaphor you had woven throughout the whole novel, enjoyed that risk you took or appreciated that safe choice you made. 

Read that review as often as you need. Nobody needs to know. It'll be our little secret. 

5. Read or revisit this post

That's all. Just go there. Now. Shoo.

Teasing "The Druid Stone"

We're one month out from the release of The Druid Stone! Our first ARCs are now finding their merry ways to reviewers. (If you're a reviewer who wants one, give me a holler! Otherwise, we'll be submitting formally later this month.) Yesterday the cover art was included in the Carina Facebook "Cover Thursday" feature.

You guys may not know this, but this was actually my and Violetta's first novel! Actually, other than a bit of dabbling in fanfic, it was our first time ever writing together, period. Violetta first approached me about the possibility of writing a novel together in early May 2011. I was unsure, but intrigued. She said M/M, I said urban fantasy, she said paranormal investigator, I said Irish modern druid, she said cursed Irish-American, I said mixed-race runaway with an estranged family, and slowly it all came together. We hitched April L'Orange along to help us with some beta-reading that turned into some amazing, thorough edits, and by August, we were submitting it! Less than a week after it landed in Carina's slushpile, I went into labour with my daughter, and just before Christmas, Angela James was on the phone telling us Carina was going to publish our book! In the meantime, we've written two more novels, three free shorts, three short novellas... yeah, it's been a long road to publication. ;)

So here's your The Druid Stone update: first of all, we're working on a book of short stories all centring around Cormac's druid-for-hire business, be that official cases he takes on, or just supernatural events he happens to get entangled in. Secondly, we're staring the novel-length sequel, which will feature a bit of Sean and Cormac, but mostly centre around a mystery secondary character as he navigates supernatural Dublin, which holds onto more of its Viking roots that just the name.

In the meantime, have a treat of a teaser! Since we write in Google Docs, and since big files make it go wonky and slow, when we initially wrote The Druid Stone we wrote with one file per chapter. And to help us navigate that big list of files, we named each with a standout line from the chapter to help us remember which was which.

Here's our list!

Prologue and Chapter 1: All together now, boys!
Chapter 2: Good riddance!
Chapter 3: Take a walk on the wild side
Chapter 4: Where the hell did you get it
Chapter 5: You can't buy Ecstasy in Muff
Chapter 6: It's a family thing...
Chapter 7: Burn him!
Chapter 8: Tell me to stop.
Chapter 9: Fuck Notre Dame
Chapter 10: There will be many lights in the darkness
Chapter 11: You were doing everything right for me
Chapter 12: Kilkenny's always winning
Chapter 13: Walk backwards. Very slowly.
Chapter 14: There is nothing you can say to justify this
Chapter 15: You still guard the old ways
Chapter 16: A woman did this to you!
Chapter 17: So I'm your ferryman, am I?
Chapter 18: Tell me about Michael
Chapter 19: I loved him too much
Chapter 20: We're running out of time
Chapter 21: Run for your lives.
Chapter 22: History!
Chapter 23: If you're waiting for me to give you permission...
Chapter 24: I'm not done with you yet
Chapter 25: Nothing out of the ordinary for us
Epilogue: Marjoram, for sure.

Got any predictions? Any chapters you're particularly looking forward to? Any guesses where the sex scenes are? ;)

"Cruce de Caminos" Quiz Winners!

Photo credit: D. Sharon Pruitt, Flickr Creative Commons

Congratulations, Kassandra and Merrian!

You both gave me perfect quizzes and won the random.org draw of eligible entrants. Check your email this morning for an awesome ARC of The Druid Stone! To everyone else, it comes out August 6th from Carina Press, but you can pre-order it on Amazon for 20% off right now! Be sure to follow me here or on my twitter for more contests and prizes!

News Roundup

Now Available


The War at the End of the World

September, 1941. 

War correspondent Joseph Byrne has been cheating death all his life, ever since he spent two years in an iron lung as a boy diagnosed with polio. In the years since, the Fetch, a strange being charged by Death with collecting Joseph and transporting him into the unknown, has been condemned to watch and wait. 

Now, with Joseph working in a Finland caught in a tug of war between Nazi and Soviet forces, it seems a foregone conclusion that the Fetch's sentence is at its end and Death will have Joseph for her own at last. Joseph, an openly Jewish American, has no doubt where his allegiance lies, no matter the danger. But after all these years at Joseph's side, watching him overcome adversity to grow into a brave and principled young man, the Fetch has come to realize that there are forces stronger and so much sweeter than even the purpose you were made for.

Our free Love is Always Write short is now available for your ereaders! You can download it directly in a variety of formats from Storm Moon Press, or from ARe. It's a dense paranormal WWII historical that clocks in at around 10k words. You may want to read it twice!

♔

Hawaiian Gothic

Gregorio “Ori” Reyes thought there was nothing left for him in Hawaii. A former Army Ranger and promising MMA fighter, his dishonorable discharge turned him into the family disgrace, and his childhood best friend Kalani never could love him back--not the way Ori needed to be loved--even before Kalani’s doctors declared him to be in an unrecoverable coma. Ori’s return to Hawaii seems fated to be a depressing reminder of every chance he never took... until Kalani himself impossibly welcomes him home. 

Kalani’s body is bedridden, but his spirit is free to roam, and it turns out it’s not just Ori who had unspoken yearnings. Kalani is eager to prove that he can still savor all the pleasures of this world. Together, they remember all those years of surfing, wrestling, touching and aching but too afraid to act; now, they cross that final barrier and struggle against each other in an entirely different way. 

Passionately but tenuously reunited, the pair must solve the mystery of Kalani’s unlucky life, sorting through dark family history and even journeying to the Hawaiian ghostworld. And the greatest terror of their journey is that Ori might have to put Kalani to rest.

Hawaiian Gothic has been available on Loose Id's website since June 12th, but if you prefer to buy from third party retailers, you can now purchase it from Amazon and All Romance eBooks.

♔

The Druid Stone

Sean never asked to be an O'Hara, and he didn't ask to be cursed by one either. 

After inheriting a hexed druid stone from his great-grandfather, Sean starts reliving another man's torture and death...every single night. And only one person can help. 

Cormac Kelly runs a paranormal investigation business and doesn't have time to deal with misinformed tourists like Sean. But Sean has real magic in his pocket, and even though Cormac is a descendant of legendary druids, he soon finds himself out of his depth...and not because Sean's the first man he's felt anything for in a long time. 

The pair develop an unexpected and intensely sexual bond, but are threatened at every turn when Sean's case attracts the unwelcome attention of the mad sidhe lords of ancient Ireland. When Sean and Cormac are thrust backward in time to Ireland's violent history—and their own dark pasts—they must work together to escape the curse and save their fragile relationship.

The Druid Stone comes out from Carina on August 6th, but if you've got a Kindle you can now pre-order it on Amazon for 20% off! Woohoo!


Giveaways


If you read our Riptide Rentboys short "Cruce de Caminos" and are interested in following Sean's journey when it picks up -- five years later in Ireland -- with our novel The Druid Stone, there's still time to enter to win a copy! Just take the Cruce de Caminos quiz! E-mail me your answers, and two lucky winners will be chosen. You have until July 1st (Happy Birthday, Canada!) to enter.

How about an amazing Hawaiian Gothic totebag, so Hawaiian hunks can help carry your things? (Figuratively, I mean. If you want an actual Hawaiian hunk to carry your stuff around, I'd suggest dating one.) Check out our review and/or interview at Mrs Condit Reads Books and leave a comment on either with your email for a chance to win. Since this is a physical prize, it's only open to people living in North America. You have until July 2nd to enter!

Reviews


Hawaiian Gothic has had an absolutely amtiazing critical reception so far. You can check out a roundup of reviews here. And while you're on the site, why not check the sidebars for some great extras like a pronunciation guide, MMA videos, and a soundtrack?

Lisa at The Novel Approach gave "The War at the End of the World" 5 stars:
...a beautiful tale of the inexplicable and mysterious journey we all eventually take, and it left me saying, “This can’t be the end.”

Jenre at Well Read gave the anthology Like It or Not 3 stars, and had this to say about our offering "Salting the Earth":
Although this was not my favourite story in the anthology, it made me think and is perhaps the most complex story in the collection, which can only be a good thing!

Coming Soon


Violetta and I have signed two contracts (!!!) in recent weeks.

First of all, an upcoming novel tentatively titled Mark of the Gladiator, (the story formerly known as TMQF), which will be released as a part of Riptide Publishing's "Warriors of Rome" line. It's all about a disgraced gladiator who is given one last chance to prove himself as a warrior and a man by training a troupe of demoralized gladiatrices. He's quickly enamoured with his new master, who's the ideal Roman man, but things get complicated by the arrival of his master's brother, a young poet and dandy and ne'er do well. There's attempted fratricide and love and even talk of freedom, but only if he can avoid being sent to the cross or the mines. You can expect to see it out in November 2012.

Also, coming in December 2012, "The Saturnalia Effect" is getting a big exciting re-release from Storm Moon Press in an extended edition! We're just starting work on it now, but what I can tell you is that we're planning on adding something in the range of 15k words, which means more sex, more violence, and more magic. (And an epilogue, for those of you still agonizing over the end!)

Finally, this isn't signed and sealed yet, but we're in the planning stages with our awesome editors at Storm Moon Press of putting together an anthology of erotic horror shorts centred around the world of Irish druid-for-hire Cormac Kelly, including our non-con short "Salting the Earth", a newly edited and revised version of our freebie "Out of the Tombs, Exceedingly Fierce", and a whole bunch of new material. Fans of The Druid Stone won't wanna miss it!