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Guuuuys guys LOOKIT! My Kickstarter is Funded!!

May 14th, 2012
by ctan.
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We did ti! We did it! You did it. MY KICKSTARTER IS FULLY FUNDED. I went off to work at my taekwondo school tonight at 5:30 only $63 short of the goal. By the time I got home at 7:30, one magical backer (number 101!) splurged to top it up! Wooooooo! THANK YOUUUUU!!!

There are seven days left in the campaign, so you have only a week to get your autographed printed copy of the Daron’s Guitar Chronicles omnibus book or other time-limited swag. (Deets as usual here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1458565937/darons-guitar-chronicles-omnibus-book)

Posted in: writing news.
Tagged: ·

NLA Writing Award Winners! (The Prince’s Boy got honorable mention!)

May 11th, 2012
by ctan.
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Seriously, this one was just an honor to be nominated. I was up against some very good writers and some very fine books for this year’s NLA-I Writing Awards. I was concerned that perhaps the way The Prince’s Boy skirts non-consensuality and dubious consent might be a problem for some judges. But they saw fit to give it honorable mention. (And congrats to Jeff for winning!)

Laura Antoniou won a short story award, Mollena for essay, and tireless anthologist Rachel Kramer Bussel bagged both the win and the honorable mention in the anthology category. Gayle Rubin won the non-fiction book award.

Circlet Press is running a congratulations special for 50% off the ebooks of The Prince’s Boy to celebrate, both volumes 1 & 2 (catalog: http://www.circlet.com/?page_id=3), and of course the whole serial is still free to read on circlet.com.

In other news, the Kickstarter for Daron’s Guitar Chronicles is only about $550 from the goal with 10 days left! I’ll post more about that separately, but full deets here: http://kck.st/IlE7Bi

Here’s the full NLA-I press release: Continue reading →

Posted in: writing news.
Tagged: · · ·

Stormtrooper Shuffle video

May 1st, 2012
by ctan.
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Basically, I just enjoyed this too much not to share it. I know there are other Star Wars parody music vids out there, but I just really liked this one…!

Posted in: general blather.

Kickstarter update! 29% funded with 20 days go!

May 1st, 2012
by ctan.
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So a little over a week has passed on the Daron’s Guitar Chronicles Kickstarter, and it’s going great! We’ve been averaging about $100 per day, and at that pace we’ll just hit the target with maybe a day to spare? It’d be AWESOME if it sped up because I worry I don’t want to hit people over the head with it. But the one day I didn’t post, tweet, or Facebook about it was the one day donations were zero. So that seems to say I have to mention it every day to keep it going until we hit the target.

As of this writing we’ve raised $819 with $1,933 to go to make the $2,750 target. One thing I should point out is that if you’re waiting for your paycheck to clear before donating, your donation WON’T be charged until the last day of the campaign. Kickstarter waits to see if the target is successfully reached, and if it is, they charge everyone at once at the end. So you won’t be charged until May 22 at the earliest.

Here’s the link to the Kickstarter page, which has all the info on rewards (one of which is you just pre-order the paperback tome for $25) and where you pledge! http://kck.st/IlE7Bi Thanks! And remember, spreading the word and telling other people why you think the project is worthy of support helps, too!

Posted in: writing news.
Tagged: ·

Trying to embed that Kickstarter video one more time…

Apr 23rd, 2012
by ctan.
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I uploaded it to Youtube and we’ll try it with the old style embed code and see if that works. (For those who missed my earlier post: I launched a Kickstarter! Please help me put Daron’s Guitar Chronicles into a paperback edition! Full details on the Kickstarter page here: http://kck.st/IlE7Bi)

Posted in: writing news.

I’m an NLA Writing Award finalist! Woo!! Complete list of finalists:

Apr 1st, 2012
by ctan.
1 comment

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR NLA-I WRITING AWARDS

(Columbus, OH) — National Leather Association–International (NLA-I), a leading organization for activists in the pansexual SM/leather/fetish community, announced today the finalists for its annual writing awards for works published in 2011. Named after activists and writers Geoff Mains, John Preston, Pauline Reage, Cynthia Slater, and the groundbreaking organization Samois, they are awarded annually to recognize excellence in writing and publishing about leather, SM, bondage and fetishes.

The finalists for the Cynthia Slater Non-fiction Article Award are: Continue reading →

Posted in: writing news.

Seeking dominant woman/submissive man artwork…

Mar 22nd, 2012
by ctan.
9 comments

Help me find cover art for a gorgeous book about a dominant woman and her male submissive!

So, Circlet Press will be publishing a book very soon called The Viscountess Investigates by Cameron Quintain. It’s an erotic mystery in a BDSM fantasy world which intersects our own, in which a dominant woman (the Viscountess) and her submissive (the aptly named Severin) are a detective team who must move through the various BDSM “dominions” (alternate universes reached through a kind of S/M-based magic) to search for a killer.

It’s a smart book, very sexy, with touches of victoriana, leather culture, and many many sf/fantasy references. Most importantly, its main characters are not young fluffy porn models.

The search for a cover photograph or image has so far proved fruitless. Most of the stuff out there with any kind of BDSM theme is of 18-year-old girls with teased hair and blue eyeshadow in collars and PVC. Um, no.

What I would love is something like:
- a tasteful image of a woman’s boot-clad leg, being kissed by a worshipful male submissive
- a shot of her leather gloved hands, one holding a whip/flogger and one a Sherlock-Holmes-style magnifying glass
- A woman in Victorian dress with a man (clothed or no) kneeling at her feet

Now, you’d think a photo of a man kissing a shoe or boot wouldn’t be too hard to find in stock photo sites, but it’s just a barren wasteland.

Our budget is not huge, but I can offer up to $50 for use of an image if someone has one to sell me the rights to. It needs to be 300 dpi and a minimum of 6×6″ in size (6×9″ is ideal, but we can deal with other aspect ratios). Suggestions, pointers, artist friends, please send them my way. Thank you!

Posted in: general blather.

Calligraphy: in which I engage in fanart of a sort…

Mar 3rd, 2012
by ctan.
2 comments

So, I am not an artist. Art class was always one of my favorites in school, but I’ve never had any talent at drawing or really in transferring either what I see or what I imagine onto paper. As the de facto art director for Circlet Press over the past 20 years, I’ve become a decent designer, though, and as a writer by trade, the one form of visual art that has continually drawn my interest since I was a teenager is calligraphy.

So, I’ve dabbled in it here and there. But when a creative pursuit (such as writing) is one’s livelihood, that often doesn’t leave a lot of time for other creative hobbies. Acting, playing music, and lettering have all taken back seats so far back they may as well be in a different bus from me. (Writing fanfic is by far my favorite hobby… and it’s indistinguishable from what I do for a living, except for the non-commercial part.)

But on February 20th I decided I wanted to spend about 15 minutes a day practicing my lettering and learning/inventing some alphabets. About five years ago I actually set up a calligraphy work desk and now, five years later, I’m finally USING it!! So, under the cut, picspam of the letterings I’ve been doing!

Continue reading →

Posted in: harry potter fandom.
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Creative people panel, ahoy

Feb 9th, 2012
by ctan.
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I’m going to be on a panel of creative folk speaking on the subject of “Tales from the Net: Making A Living as a Creative Person” at the Mass Pirate Party Conference!

We’re looking for one or two more panelists, so if you know a musician or webcomic artist in the Boston area who might like to speak, the fellow to contact is Jamie O’Keefe. More info here: http://www.masspirates.org/blog/conference/

Posted in: appearances.

Ascendio is coming!

Feb 7th, 2012
by ctan.
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The programming folks for Ascendio, the Harry Potter convention in Orlando this coming July, will soon begin announcing some of the chosen programs, presentations, and panels. I have a sneak peek here of a few items in the Quill Track that I will be speaking on!

Accio Books! How Digital Publishing Has Made Gatekeepers Of Us All

Panelists: Cecilia Tan, Mark Oshiro, Lev Grossman, Erin Pyne
Summary: With the advent of the e-book and the ease with which writers can self-publish to platforms such as Amazon Kindle, many authors are bypassing the traditional book publishing model in favor of self-publishing. This panel will discuss new avenues for publishing, and the pros and cons of going the traditional route, vs. self-publishing.

Schools of Magic: A Staple in Fantasy
Panelists: Lev Grossman, Cecilia Tan, Molly O’Neill
Summary: J.K Rowling was far from the first, and won’t be the last, to write a fantasy using a magical school setting. From A Wizard of Earthsea’s Roke to the Unseen University in Discworld, from Jane Yolen’s Wizard Hall to Tamora Pierce’s Carthak University, the magical school or university is a staple in fantasy literature. Why? In books intended for a young audience and featuring young protagonists, school may seem a logical setting for the age group, but there are many more reasons why an educational setting lends itself to fantasy storytelling. Lev Grossman sends his main character to Brakebills in upstate New York, while Cecilia Tan hides her Magic University inside Harvard.

And I’m not speaking on, but am looking forward to this one:
Katniss, Bella, and Hermione: Finding the Balance Between Asskicking Prowess and Emotional Realism in the Girls of YA Fiction
Panelists: Lindsay Ribar, Beth Revis, Aimee Carter, Michelle Hodkin
Summary: You’ve got Katniss, the champion fighter whose hard life has left her with little room for romantic emotions; and you’ve got Bella, who lives for love but trips over her own shadow and needs supernatural boys to save her. With literary role models like Hermione in the mix – Hermione, known for both her sensitivity and her asskicking skills – why are there still so many high-profile heroines who tend toward one extreme or the other? This panel will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of extreme portrayals of these various female protagonists, and what kind of heroines we want next from the YA market.

For more information on Ascendio, registering for the con, and other fun stuff that will be going on, check out http://hp2012.org/

And note that they are still taking proposals for presentations through February 29th! (Here: http://hp2012.org/?page_id=463)

Posted in: appearances, harry potter fandom.

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