Hey, Fear and Desire got another good review, this time from You Gotta Read Reviews. The reviewer had something in common with my main character! Come see what it was.
Fear and Desire gets 3.5 Cherries!
Fear and Desire is available at Lyrical!
The story has now been reviewed by Whipped Cream Reviews, getting 3.5 out of 4 cherries. Go check it out and see what cost me that final half a cherry! 
Fear and Desire Cover
Hey everyone! The amazing process of editing Fear and Desire, which taught me so much it’s hard to believe, has resulted in many things. First and foremost of course, an excellent story, which is now complete and waiting for release. Secondly, in large part it taught me more about how to revise, which led to me revising some older writing for practice and with an eye to submitting it somewhere.
Anyway, here is the beautiful, ethereal cover of Fear and Desire. Enjoy!
Fear and Desire Blurb
Cassie’s been touched by an angel — and found it terrifying.
Defying her fear of heights, Cassie has moved in to the tallest building in town. She’s doing pretty well until a thunderstorm blows an unexpected visitor through her balcony window, and she finds herself nursing a wounded angel back to health.
Tending to the angel’s wounds teaches Cassie a lot more than she expected about fear… and about desire.
Coming soon from Lyrical Press!
Coming soon right here… a page with the cover art!
In Other News…
Two posts on the same day, whodathunkit? But I wanted to let you know that my local critique group has now got its own website!
It’s a face to face critique group, with the basic format of putting our work on a private online group, then critiquing and meeting in person to discuss, and also to work in one another’s company. We read and write fantasy, science fiction and any other type of fiction. And even if you just like to read and critique, you’re welcome to come! The rest of the information is on the website: http://www.denverfictionwriters.com
We aren’t all about the erotica, that’s for sure, but there are some who are willing to write and read it. So if you’re local to Denver and have been doing it in the closet (pun very much intended) give us a try if you need critiques and career support.
Editing ‘Fear and Desire’
I really heart my publishers. Lyrical has instituted a pre-editing stage, when your work has been accepted, but before the editors get their claws–ahem, hands on it. During this stage, they give you a handbook and a checklist, and you do a LOT of work on the piece to correct errors that authors frequently make.
What a hugely valuable tool. Who would have thought it was helpful to do a search-and-destroy on words like ‘and’ or ‘the’? Yet it really, really is. And that’s only one example of this brilliant checklist.
I am humbled, shocked and mildly dismayed to find out how many ‘frequently made’ errors I am still making. I feel wrung out, and yet confident that my writing will be much improved.
In short, I’m learning how much I still have to learn. Yes, I’ve said that before, and I’ve learned it before. As a writer, as a woman, as a mother, as a human. I am still learning that I am still learning.
All I ask is the opportunity to go on learning that, for as long as I live.
Fear and Desire
Great news! My erotic novella, ‘Fear and Desire’, has been accepted for contract by Lyrical Press!
Some few (very few) may have remembered this piece, which was up in incomplete form as a free read here. I think maybe one person requested the whole thing.
However, that is only the last stop for the long and checkered history of this story.
Sometime in the 90’s… I could find out if I really tried, but let’s not… I wrote a story called Fear and Desire. At that time I was writing free erotica for a moderated news board, under the name of rosemerry. You can probably still find some. I don’t advise it. Some of the elements of my current fiction are there, the name Sharadzi from Djinn for example (in a totally different story) and a few others.
But the thing is, the old Fear and Desire was written then. I say the ‘old’ version, because what happened is, I was considering writing a new erotica piece for Lyrical and mining the past for ideas (as every writer does). And I thought, what about that story? Maybe if I polish it up…
But instead of doing that, I rewrote it from scratch. I didn’t even read the old version, just wrote a new version based on the same idea. It is more or less the same story, just written as I would write it now instead of as I would write it then. Hopefully much better!
So the new version is now to be published. And that’s the odd, patchwork history of ‘Fear and Desire’. I hope when it comes out, it’ll be worth the wait!
The Mellow Mutt
It ought to be a laid-back bar name, don’t you think?
But no, it is the new pet in our household. We have acquired the world’s mellowest dog.
Don’t believe it? This dog has so far: moved from the Dumb Friends League to our home… met my cat… been on a walk during which she saw a rabbit… ridden in my car twice… been around takeout food… met sundry people she didn’t know… and been walked past numerous other dogs. Yipping? Growling? Barking? Lunging? Scrabbling? Leaping? Nipping?
NONE.
I call that impressive. Any dog that can see a running rabbit and do no more than tug wistfully on her leash is what I call Mellow Dog Award Winner 2009.
Maps
If you have fun with worldbuilding in your stories, maps are great. When you’re stuck for ideas, often starting from the landscape up can help.
Also, shifting your brain into a different area of creativity (drawing instead of writing) can loosen up the ideas. So draw a hand-made map!
If nothing else, it can help you keep track of which direction your characters are going and what they’re going to encounter next. It can help you keep your mind on terrain and environment, remind you to do good descriptions.
And most of all, it’s fun!
Fun With Critique Groups
It’s nice! I’ve got 4 or 5 new people in my critique group, pretty much doubling the numbers. Of course, more than 20 people responded to the invitation, and only 5 signed up; about what I’d expect. It’s interesting how that works, isn’t it? I wonder if those numbers are typical across the board for anything people show interest in and then sign up for and then have to actually show up.
In any case, this is a good writer’s group for me because, for once, I’m not the best writer there, so there is some actually useful criticism and learning to be had. Now, this is not self-praise, I just haven’t been able to find good groups in my life–not that many writers where I’ve been. Anyhow, it’s a good thing!
