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.)