Adventures in Writing

Okay, obviously things have gotten a little behind over at Dark Diva Reviews. They're just having their voting for the July Book of the Month now.

And Dark Horse is in the race! If you feel like supporting it, the voting page is here.

Dark Horse is currently:

#10 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Erotica > Gay
#46 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Gay & Lesbian

at Amazon. I know they're niche markets, but still, I'm pretty pumped!

And it's the Number One 'Reader Rated' book at AllRomance e-books.

This is fun!

I finally got my author's copies of Dark Horse (well, not FINALLY - it's only been in print for a week), and I thought I was mostly over the excitement of being published, but...apparently not quite!

I think the paperback is really beautiful - it's a 'trade paperback' size, which, now that I think about it, is what was mentioned in the contract, I think, but I was still somehow expecting one of the smaller, thicker types. I'm really glad to be surprised, though, because the cover of this version is gorgeous. The image is really crisp and beautiful, and there's a back cover, with the same horse but without the boys, and it's just really...real. To have the book in my hands.

Another excellent land mark on this adventure.

I've been playing with a short story about Evan and Jeff's early relationship. It's fun, and I still love the characters, but sooner or later, I'm going to have to stop writing about them, right? I mean, I'm already well over 500K words - it's just getting a little silly!

Maybe after I'm done this story...

Although I'd love to send Dan back to Rolex, and have him win on his own. My problem with that is that I don't know enough about the ins-and-outs of high level eventing to make it authentic. I was thinking of doing a Sports Illustrated style story, 'reporting' on the event - it'd be a chance to just hit the highlights without needing to wallow in my lack of knowledge, plus a chance to experiment with an outsider POV AND a whole different writing style.

So maybe TWO more stories before I leave the boys alone.

Dark Horse

"Dan thinks about just driving, leaving the whole mess behind. He's got enough money. He could just arrange to get his stuff and his horse shipped to wherever he's going. Taking off is what he used to do when things got to be too much, and it worked pretty well, really."

Dan Wheeler thought he'd found lasting love and stability with his life and work partner, Justin Archer. But when Dan finds himself alone again, still working as a horse trainer for Justin's parents, he has to find a way to accept that his perfect life is gone forever.

Then he meets billionaire Evan Kaminski, who arrives to buy a horse for his younger sister, and Evan's lover Jeff Stevens, a horse trainer who seems to understand more than just Dan's job. Struggling to deal with all the upheavals in his life, Dan finds himself drawn to both Evan's mercurial passion and Jeff's quiet wisdom. Is Dan strong enough to take a chance on new love, or would it be better – safer – for him to be alone?

Working on Out of the Darkness, the sequel to Dark Horse. It's a bit tricky - I LIKE that there's not one huge central conflict, because I think that's true to life, where we just struggle through a variety of little issues in our relationships. At the same time, it's not really a traditional narrative structure, and I'm worried that it could be a little unsatisfying for readers. I'm not quite sure what to do about it.