two more dips

I've been neglecting Gravemen 2 in favor of a F/F story a lot lately.
Half the time it feels like it's a ridiculous story, but I'm still having a lot of fun writing it.

in which i continue to torment my characters

I've been writing quite a bit today. :) I'm quite pleased with my ability to ignore the siren call of video games thus far lol

~~~

Asdelar saw him turn and come towards them, and read the

angry intent clear on his face. His eyes widened in alarm.

“Hinego, no!”

It was Nohls who saved him.

He'd lingered on the stairs, waiting for Hinego. When

he saw the Red make a move, he rushed down the steps and

seized the smaller man in a bear hug, effectively pinning

his arms.

Hinego fought back instinctively, but the Sergeant was in

full Banam-hin armor, and was practically crushing Hinego

to him, head tilted wisely back to avoid a skull cracking

into his nose.

nameless

I spent a good deal of time yesterday working on GM's sequel, though I still have no idea what to call it. I keep going "oh, I'll post a little snippet on the blog", but there are so many spoilers in the first 20+ pages, I can't think of anything I could safely post that I didn't already.

Suffice it to say, I am not being very nice to Asdelar. o_o

Hmm~ I need more writing music...

Ah. Wait, I do have something random to babble about. I've seen a couple people ask about the engravings on the armor of the Banam-hin, wondering why I didn't go into much detail about it. In part this was because Asdelar didn't wear the armor in GM, but it was also a bit deliberate. I didn't want to specify; I figured vagueness was better so that anyone could imagine the engravings looking elegant/spiffy in a way that suited them. The fact that the armor is pleasing to the eye is more important that the specifics of what the designs look like, though in my mind the designs lean heavily towards elaborate curving lines.

DiD

Locked myself out of my own blog for awhile there oops.

Anyway, LT3 is calling for submissions for a F/F collection, "Damsels in Distress", and I'm seriously thinking of doing something for it. Just gotta throttle some cooperation into my muses. It'll be funnnn

Seeing that did remind me to work on GM2, though. So I'm trying to be good and get some more done on it tonight before bed.

it still doesn't have a title ughhh

Instead of working on the GM sequel, I've spent the last few days reworking an older story of mine, a YA fantasy. I feel slightly guilty, but at the same time it's a story I've struggled with off and on for several years, and it finally feels like it's picking up speed and actually going somewhere.
*excited wheeze*

GM2 snippet

I haven't posted here in awhile and I'm having a brainfart about what to talk about, so ermmm
Here's a little tidbit from the GM sequel I've been working on off-and-on.

"Who are you calling 'uppity'?" a voice growled from directly behind them.

Asdelar turned in surprise.

The man behind him looked like he'd been crawling in mud for the past two days—which, given the scrapes Reds often got themselves into while pursuing justice, was probably not far from the truth. His features were handsome despite the scowl and dirt, but his dark eyes were more tired than irritated.

"Hinego!" Asdelar jumped to his feet and embraced him fondly. "I was just looking for you."

"Oof, let go," Hinego protested, pushing against the solid armor he was crushed against. "I'm sore all over."

"Sorry." Asdelar loosened his grasp, and smothered another weak protest with a sloppy kiss. "I just missed you, that's all."

Hinego's face was red from such a public display of affection, but he'd become grudgingly accustomed to Asdelar's excitable nature. "I had to make my report. I was going to grab a bath and a few hours' rest, but Burtra said something about a blond Blade hassling her at the door, and I figured I'd better let you know I was back first before you annoyed anyone else."

*slips onto bookcase*

gahhhh lookit what I had waiting for me in the mail when I got back from vacation!
<333

mmmm musiiiiic

Tormenting the boys to the sound of Two Steps From Hell :D

I'm in a rare "write until your fingers fall off" mood, which hasn't happened in quite awhile, so I'm working more on the Gravemen sequel.

Since I usually write at a snail's pace, I may at some point put little excerpts up here, if only so I have something to do with the story while I chew on it.

Giveaway Winners

 Ok, time for the giveaway to come to an end! I held off until late tonight just to be safe.

I had my sister randomly draw the names, and the winners are Darcy and Suhely!
I'll be emailing you sometime tonight or tomorrow. If you see this before you get my email, go ahead and let me know which ebook format you'd like. :)

Thanks to everyone for dropping by and expressing such an interest <3333

blog hop schedule

So the blog tour kicked off the other day, and I completely forgot to put links here for anyone keenly interested in seeing me babble nervously about The Gravemen. Here are the lovely people letting me have a guest spot on their blogs:

On the 15th I was over at Babes in Boyland
Today I was at It's Raining Men
The ones still coming up are:
17th- The Armchair Reader
18th- World of Diversity Fiction
and it looks like I'll be wrapping it up with Megan Derr.

Thanks to those who came over from any of these guest posts to put in their name for the giveaway. :)

Fontttt

Just got my ebook copies of The Gravemen.

Is it weird that I'm so jazzed about the beautiful font they used for the chapters?

I'm a little weird.
Still.

PRETTY.

Blog tour + Giveaway

Less Than Three Press is doing a blog hop to celebrate their fourth anniversary (go throw confetti at them!). I'm supposed to be dropping by a few blogs to talk a bit about The Gravemen. More details later, though it looks like the first one kicks off on the 15th over at Babes in Boyland.

Anywho, in celebration and to thank people that drop by the various blogs to see me babble about Asdelar and Hinego, I'll be giving away 2 ebook copies of The Gravemen. To get in the drawing, you can either comment on the blog post where I'm doing a guest spot, or comment here and mention which guest spot you saw that led you over here. Easy peasy. :)

Ah, also-- you can apparently preorder The Gravemen now at a discount that lasts until April 16th. :)


Edit: Oops, I forgot to mention-- I'll be drawing the winners after the blog tour is done, so on the 20th. That way even people who see the later posts have a chance.

the boys

I don't think I've actually doodled the main characters from "The Gravemen"-- or if I have, I lost the sketches at some point.

Decided to use them for my daily drawing warm-up today.

Also, this song came on my playlist while I was drawing and it amused me how much it fit the beginning of their relationship.

Sorry for giving you such a grumpy emotionally stunted love interest, Asdelar hahaha

Writing Links

Stumbleupon is an awesome resource for finding some great stuff on the 'net.
Thought I'd share some really neat writing links here for anyone interested.

• Zen Writer A small writing program that helps you concentrate just on what you're writing. You can adjust the background and even music to fit what you're working on.
• Tip of My Tongue Perfect for when you can't quite remember the word you're thinking of.
• 100 Exquisite Adjectives Exactly what it says.
• I Write Like An amusing thing that compares a sample of your work to published authors to find who writes in a style similar to your own.
• Plot Scenario Generator Even if it doesn't generate a perfect plot, it does tend to get the plot bunnies going when you're completely stuck.
• 20 Common Grammar Mistakes I love things like this. Very helpful.
• Write Rhymes Good for poets and songwriters, but also for novelists who might have songs, riddles, whatever in their stories.
• Written? Kitten! Get rewarded for writing a set amount of words with a picture of a cute kitten.
• The 10 Types of Writers Block (and How to Overcome Them) yessss
• AutoCrit Put a block of text in the form and it does a quick edit job. Not perfect for anyone, but this is a great quick tool to check for mistakes or even notice bad habits.
• Writing Contests, Grants, and Awards A list of contests etc, mostly for poetry or short stories.

GM- some background

I guess I should actually talk about "The Gravemen".

It's not very long or involved because it was an attempt to see if I could write something that wasn't 180k words hahaha Also, I wanted to see if anyone would be interested in it before taking it any further. As it is, I'm trying to work on a sequel in my spare time now.
...What spare time isn't taken up by video games, I mean. *cough*

The King of Predala has two main elite fighting forces that are collectively known as Gravemen. The Imalt-wor are men and women trained mostly in hand-to-hand combat. They're the long arms of the law; they travel the country keeping the peace and commanding obedience and respect. The Banam-hin are the elite swordsmen whose duty is solely to the Crown. They are rarely seen outside the palace, and protect the royal family and the capital during peacetime. During war, they're usually the King's strongest play. More casually they're known as Blades, just as Imalt-wor are referred to as Reds, due to their red sashes of office.

The King's great-niece has gone missing, and Asdelar and Hinego have been discreetly sent out to ferret her out. Since they're from two opposing branches of the Gravemen, there's already some mild hostility there; what doesn't help is that Asdelar is a cheerful laid-back flirt, whereas Hinego is strict and arrogant. Asdelar becomes fond of Hinego, and proceeds to tease him mercilessly for the majority of their journey. Hinego, on the other hand, has been hurt before, and is too embarrassed by Asdelar's casual advances to do anything more impressive than puff up like an indignant cat. Don't take either of them too seriously; I clearly don't.
they're going to murder me in my sleep

Here's an example of them being very mature:

"You have a map and a limited idea of what the landscape

of your own country looks like," Hinego said a trifle snidely.

"If you're bored, why don't you study it?"

However, Asdelar refused to let the taunting get to him.

Besides, it only infuriated Hinego more when he kept his own

cool. "There's no need to be so catty about it," he remarked,

which got exactly the reaction he'd anticipated.

"Catty?" Hinego glared at him darkly. "Women are ‘catty',

Lorem," he spat. "I am merely suggesting you use your brain

rather than your mouth for once."

That was an opening Asdelar simply could not pass up.

"Talking isn't all I can do with my mouth, you know." And

he smiled suggestively for good measure.

Hinego predictably began sputtering in shocked affront,

though the faint coloring to his cheeks was an unexpected bonus.

He let the insults go on for a few moments before giving a

short laugh and waving a hand dismissively in the air.

"Don't get your feathers ruffled, Idra. I'm not foolish enough

to tangle with a Red, on the field or off it."

Hinego flung him a scorching glare and urged his horse into

a trot, leaving his laughing companion behind.

intro thing

Right, so... I have no idea what I'm doing. The closest I've come to a blog (unless using livejournal as a teenager counted) is my tumblr, and that's mostly for me to post stupid doodles and fangirl over video games.

But it's been pointed out to me that it's kind of silly to try and get published and not have a writing blog, so... here we are. Insert awkward silence here, I guess. I'll try to edit the layout a bit more later.

Assuming I didn't mess the layout up in my flailing attempts to edit it, there should be a link to "The Gravemen" on the sidebar. It's a novella ebook I have coming out on April 17th from Less Than Three Press. It's a M/M fantasy, though it's barely rated PG-13. I guess I'll talk about it later. I don't write exclusively LGBT stuff; that just happens to be the first thing I got around to submitting somewhere.

Like 99% of writers, I'm extremely insecure about my writing, so apologies if that leaks out here from time to time.

Also, my sister writes, but she's much more serious about it than I am. You can go bug her at courtingmadness.

(For any poor souls that wandered here from tumblr or wherever, yes, Melissa North is a pseudonym, no you still cannot have my Lucky Charms.)