Give Me All the Mysteries!

In addition to traditional gothic horror and Victorian ghost fiction, detective fiction rounds up my literary Holy Trinity. I bought a used copy of Agatha Christie's complete Poirot short stories (a hefty volume, that), and I'm now getting ready to buy the complete Inspector Morse book series once my refund for my returned order goes through (long and stupid story, that). As much as I would rather borrow the books from the library, only a couple of these Morse books are available -- in audiobook format, at that. 

Anyway, I've been trawling the 'net for stuff on classic detective fiction that isn't Agatha Christie, and I stumbled across a Youtube channel that recommends obscure classic detective novels. I'm now spoiled for choice and am dying of bliss. One of the recommended writers, of course, is Dorothy Sayers, whose books I haven't tried yet, and as luck would have it, my public library has her novels, and none of them are currently checked out. SCORE.

There's also Ann Cleeves, whose books are more recent, but I've always loved British mysteries and detective fiction. Again, I've never tried her stuff before, and I'm looking forward to seeing where her books take me since I also find inspiration from other writers' works (as all of you should know by now).  

I've been painfully aware of my heavy use of the internet during the weekend (primarily for my subscriptions to different Youtube accounts specializing in video essays on books, economics, art, and paranormal stuff) and would like to eat away at that with books beyond just my usual go-to genres in e-book format. Doom scrolling is not my thing (not anymore), and sometimes even those video essays just don't rouse my interest enough to click (I really miss the pre-internet days). 

I guess I'm feeling the need to hit pause on my preferred e-book genres to clear my head as well as my preferred brain-clearing methods in streaming format. Sticking to nothing but the same stuff for months and months, I think, is partly to blame for my sluggishness in writing or breaking out of my usual approach to writing. Managing to complete Achille and Florian was a boost. Changing Valérian from a straightforward third person narrative to epistolary fiction has helped propel it forward. But I think my brain needs more. Much more.

So maybe setting all of my recently purchased MM books aside in favor of non-queer content in the genres I've always loved will feed the fire some more. Valérian IS partly inspired by Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca, after all. While it's not detective fiction, my WiP heavily leans on mystery and creeping horror and atmosphere, and shifting my full attention from purely MM stuff to everything else outside my usual reads will also work its magic on the book. 

I can't remember exactly when, but there was a time a while ago (I'm talking over ten years ago) when I didn't touch a single MM romance for two straight years or something like that and just explored a bunch of different books like Angela Carter's anthology of reworked fairy tales and Robert Coover's Briar Rose. And I think some of the books I wrote during that break were some of my best or favorites because I felt more experimental than usual and just went for it. I think Arabesque and Rose and Spindle were a couple of those, but I can't remember the others.  

But yeah. This time around it's classic detective fiction, and we'll see how this "sabbatical" from my go-to genre will help the muse.  

Third Time's a Charm, Mayhap?

Okay, so Valérian is now underway. Or make that Valérian v. 3 is underway. And I'm again taking a risk on my approach to this book after the setbacks it suffered. 

In order to keep the focus on not only Roland's experiences as a recent immigrant to America but also on Valérian's more peripheral accounts about his life as an upper-servant for a filthy rich (and darkly eccentric) brother and sister pair, I need to carve a space between the two brothers. And that was where I fell short the first two times I attempted to write this book.

There was too much focus on Roland, not Valérian, even though Valérian isn't in the picture for about 95% of the time. Everything we learn about his movements is second-hand, and I had to not only dump my first two drafts but also approach this version completely differently.

The most effective narrative form to use in this instance is epistolary. 

Yes, I'm back to letters and journal entries for my storytelling, and that's the best way of giving Roland's PoV a more pressing quality to it, i.e., he's responding almost in real time versus after the fact (like a long flashback), which is how first person points-of-view work. Epistolary fiction is more disjointed and, if done right, allows the reader to fill in the blanks since the narrator (or journal-writer) isn't communicating to an audience. He's writing down his own thoughts and reactions while also recounting IN LIMITED DETAIL moments that stuck with him. 

I've already done epistolary fiction before, the most notable effort being my Ghosts and Tea series. I'm fucking proud of that fact, by the way. There's also a half-traditional and half-epistolary approach in Primavera. For Valérian, I'm back to sticking to pure journal-writing with letters sprinkled throughout. 

Now as with Ghosts and Tea, I'm trying to strike a balance between traditional narrative and realistic journal-writing. Books from the classic canon that are epistolary fiction like Dracula and Clarissa are unrealistic in that the scope and depth of the journal entries as well as the letters between characters are just too much. As much as I love both books, I had to wince through several scenes, picturing Jonathan Harker, for instance, writing extensive entries with detailed dialogue and descriptions. 

I've mentioned before that the most appropriate example of a real journal entry in Dracula would be the captain's log on board the Demeter. Short, to the point, and terrifying without blasting us with impossible details. 

But since this is also fiction and purely escapist, I'm trying to walk that tightrope that lets me provide enough information for the reader while not going overboard with it. My aim is to SUGGEST horror and terror until the penultimate scenes where Roland unravels the mystery that dogs him.

At any rate, the book's moving along -- slowly and carefully for sure, and I'm not in a rush. I want this to work. Epistolary fiction is my favorite narrative form, and it sucks that it isn't common, but I get why it isn't. 

One might argue that I'm jinxing my book by using an approach that isn't popular, but it works for the story, and that's all I need to know. 

So, yay!  

Now Available: 'Achille and Florian'

It's finally out after a year of messing with it. This final version is a complete overhaul, by the way, with only one chapter from the first version getting salvaged. This book also isn't getting a gallery page because of its length (novel) and its contents (taboo). 

This post will serve the same purpose as a gallery page.  

Florian (left) and Achille (right) though Achille should be a little older than that (image from Pinterest)

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I had a few story ideas kicking around in my head, all of them way off the beaten path for me. I've, of course, read books in the same genre and so have an idea how other writers approached the same subject. I wondered how I can put my own stamp on it if I were to take it on.

I honestly have no idea when curiosity turned into resolve, but it did along the way, and I decided I really should challenge myself. I've been writing non-stop in my preferred genres for so long that the occasional burnout rears its ugly head. For a while now (maybe around two years and counting), I've actually been wondering if this writing gig will continue past my 20 year anniversary in 2028. 

Yeah, it's been that long, and I was starting to feel it. 

how I imagined the heroes' palace (image from Pinterest)

I don't want to stagnate despite all of the new ideas coming in for future books. My expansive backlist is there for anyone who's curious and interested in my stuff. I'm not getting any younger, either, and my day job takes precedence (as much as I hate to say it, but bills need to get paid), so I also need to ease up on the gas pedal and take care of myself. 

And one way of doing that, I suppose, is to shake off the creative cobwebs and dive right into something I never thought I'd actually tackle. I mean, I want to ease up, but I don't want to stop, either. 

So now we have Achille and Florian, which has opened the door to possible future books like it. Not necessarily the same genre (fantasy in this case with some humor woven in), though. If I do pursue this, I don't want to get stuck.  

child of the Earth god (image from Pinterest)

What primarily inspired me to pursue a taboo story was Anne Rice's The Sleeping Beauty Chronicles, which I read over a decade ago. While Rice's series was more kink and dubcon, there really wasn't anything else that would've completely kicked it off the publishing world. My book has some dubcon but no kink. As I've mentioned in the previous blog post, I pretty much threw everything I wanted to try into this book (short of the kitchen sink as the saying goes).

And from my experience, I already know what I'd like to pursue in future books should I decide to move forward with possible future releases. I suppose I'll post more about that sometime in the future once the dust has settled, and I'm back in the game with Valerian. 

The book page for Achille and Florian is over here, where you can read the blurb, the warnings, and the tags. It's only available on Smashwords as I've explained before, and it's not available in print for the same reason. 

So! onward and upward, eh?  

BTW, I'm currently behind on updating my site, so apologies for that. I'll have the links up on my Book News and Book List pages by the weekend for sure. However, you do have this post plus the widget on my sidebar. That oughta tide you over.  

Aaaannd It's Up for Pre-Order ('Achille and Florian')

So! My side project is complete and uploaded to Smashwords for pre-orders. You can check out the book page over here for warnings and all that fun stuff. Now I don't know if anyone without a Smashwords account can see the page, but it IS in a "hidden" category because of it contents. 

If you do have a Smashwords account, you'll need to go and update the erotica filter on your account page to include all erotica, not just mainstream, in order to see all the "hidden" books.  

I'm sticking to my new pseudonym for the author name. I'm also now planning to move forward with my sort of follow-up book in the "naughty, naughty" collection (which I've titled Ouroboros) under the same name, and with this surprising development -- and, no, never have I even considered trying out taboo erotica at any point since 2008 -- the doors are now open a teeny bit wider.

Please note that "planning" is one thing. "Doing" is another. I'd love to challenge myself again, of course, but it might take longer than my usual books, and it might still fall through. This is a completely different ball game I'm talking about, so yeah. Heavy emphasis on "planning" for now, not actually "doing". 

Now granted it was a difficult process for me since I'm not a pure erotica writer, but I found my stride after a false start, and at least now I know where my strengths lie at least where stories in this genre are concerned. I did throw everything in there if only to learn first hand what I'm comfortable writing about. If you look at the book's warnings as well as the search tags I used, you'll know how far I went. To what extent I was successful in achieving a balance between story, sensuality, and titillation, I hope I got the job done. 😅 It's now up to the readers to decide. 

Oh, yes, I did another update to the cover art:

The book's release date is October 1. I'll also be updating my site / blog with links to this new project of mine, but it'll be sometime closer to the publication day. 

And now to restore myself and go back to Valérian.  

'Achille and Florian': Done (and Updated Cover Art)

My side project is finally done after over a year of working on it (on and off) and then going back to rewriting it entirely. It started out practically a PWP with no real story holding it together, hence my decision to trunk it and let it sit for a while until I figured out how best to make it work. The book being a PWP (or "Plot? What Plot?") was actually much harder for me to work with because I'm not a pure erotica writer. I can write sex scenes, but they can't be the only thing in the story, and I do find it much more difficult to tackle.

I'm glad I went for it, though. I really am. It bit me hard in the ass, but I appreciated the challenge, and after a bit of time with the story, I did find my rhythm. 

One thing that squirmed through my fingers was the book length. I'd at first planned for this to be another long novella -- even shorter than my usual stuff. But with the inclusion of a relatively complex plot, the book's going to be a novel by the time I'm done with the edits and revisions. There are several chapters that tell too much, and those need to be broken apart and turned into passages that show instead, which will add to the length.

Not complaining. I do read my backlist now and then, and that distance of time between writing and reading allows me to pick out problems that I'd been blind to despite multiple passes prior to publishing. I'm well aware of my weaknesses, and I'm hoping to do better with my future projects. Some books are worse than others in exhibiting these problematic writing tendencies of mine, but all I can do now is move forward with those in mind so as not to make the same mistakes.

Oddly enough, it's been an easier task tackling those issues in this instance, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because Achille and Florian is so far out of my comfort zone that I'm not sunk in familiarity and, therefore, more mentally passive when it comes to how I work out a scene. If that makes any sense. 

Admitting that also makes me wonder if I should make this a more regular thing but not to the same extent as my usual books in order to keep my brain sharp. I'm able to write for the Grotesqueries collection pretty frequently and steadily, and taking on new stories under this umbrella is a no-brainer but is overly comfortable like wearing broken-in favorite shoes. My NC-17 stories, though, require a lot more time and patience with myself (because sex scenes and taboo subjects). If this turns into something kind of expected, there'll be a much wider gap between them compared to my long novellas. 

Oh, yes -- I updated the cover art! 

This look is more in line with the fantasy / historical fantasy / fairy tale aspect of the story, and the tagline is also indicative of the tone. There's a good bit of dry humor worked into the plot because the story requires moments of levity, and as you know, I love writing humor and even prefer it. I'd use it more often for my long novellas, but most of the plots tend to be dark, so humor in almost all of those books is way more muted. 

At any rate, here you go. It'll be released sometime next month, and as it's a novel, I'm not putting together a gallery page for it. Also it's NC-17, so definitely not going there. The release announcement, though, will provide some background info and all that good stuff that readers normally get from the gallery pages, so there's that. 

And as an addendum, I've settled on the title Ouroboros for the next book in my "naughty series" in the event I do end up working on it. I was doubtful at first because of how I thought readers might take Achille and Florian, but now that I've succeeded in finishing something I never believed I'd ever write, I'm feeling a little more confident in my ability to tackle another story regardless of reader response to the first book. So we'll see. I do need to go back and work on Valérian before I can think more about it. Also I need to recover from using writing muscles I rarely ever use.