writing talk

The #ICFA39 Panel on Power & Politics in SF/Fantasy/Horror

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I’m live-blogging this from the writers panel on Power & Politics at ICFA 39 (International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts: Orlando, FL). When I do a live-blog typing like this I capture about 60% of what is said, so this is just a fraction of all the commentary and discussion. (And any bad grammar or things that don’t make sense are definitely my fault and not the panelists!)

Sally Weiner Grotta, Sam J Miller, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Fran Wilde, Stephanie Feldman at ICFA 39

On the panel:

  • Fran Wilde
  • Mary Anne Mohanraj
  • Sam J Miller
  • Sally Weiner Grotta

Moderated by Stephanie Feldman (Crawford award winner and current anthologist in Who Will Speak For America.)

Stephanie Feldman: My opening statement: All art is political; it either enforces the status quo or challenges it. Does speculative fiction have a particular relationship to politics though?

Panel: (silence)

Mary Anne Mohanraj: Okay. I’ll put on my professor hat for a while. When we’re teaching we talk about cognitive estrangement. By saying here we are on another planet, we’re talking about aliens, then you can start exploring gender, race, neoliberal economics, and it lowers people’s defenses. If I talk about moms in Oak Park and my neighbors read it, there would be an immediate defensive reaction. But if I talk about tentacle creatures on another planet there’s a distance there which lets us get at issues.

Fran Wilde: I think the way we can re-key the map of history is the most important thing we can do and almost an obligation. Read Everfair by Nisi Shawl (who’s in the audience). It take King Leopold’s war and makes it all work out. When science fiction does it, it’s felt as entertainment, but it helps make us better humans.Continue reading →

general blather

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2018 NLA-I WRITING AWARDS

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I just got this press release from NLA: International with the finalists in the NLA Writing Awards and thought I’d post it to share with all. This year I wasn’t involved in the judging so this is my first time getting to see the finalists! Looks like a great crop of books and stories!

(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. 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:

  • “Super Tight: A Fetish For Restraint” by Claire Rudy Foster which appeared April 20, 2017 on TheRumpus.net
  • “A Defense of Erotic” by Jeff Mann which appeared as the introduction to his book Consent which was released April 28 , 2017 by Lethe Press
  • “California Dreamin: West Coast Directors and the Golden Age of Forbidden Gay Movie” by Jack Fritscher which was released in the U.S. in early 2017 after originally being published by Editions Mustache in the U.K. December 14, 2016

The finalists for the Geoff Mains Non-fiction Book Award are:

  • The Big Workbook For Submissives by Rebecca Blanton (Auntie Vice Productions)
  • Better Bondage For Every Body by Evie Vane (Wanton Press)
  • Gay Pioneers: How Drummer Magazine Shaped Gay Popular Culture 1965-1999 by Jack Fritscher (Palm Drive Publishing)

The finalists for the Pauline Reage Novel Award are:

  • The Master Will Appear by L.A. Witt (self published)
  • Insatiable by Jeff Mann (Lethe Press)

The finalists for the Samois Anthology Award are:

  • Unspeakably Erotic: Lesbian Kink by D.L. King (Cleis Press)

The finalists for the John Preston Short Story Award are:

  • “Winter Fantasia Captive Club” by Jeff Mann which appeared on Great Jones Street reading app
  • “The Artist” by Daniel Erickson (self-published)
  • “Sand Trap” by L.M. Somerton (Pride Publishing)
  • “Falling Action” by Kiki DeLovely from the anthology His Aura: A Collection of Transmasculine Erotica ed. Shaun J. Phree (Phreedom Publishing)
  • “Pygmalion” by J. Belle from the anthology Unspeakably Erotic: Lesbian Kink ed. D.L. King (Cleis Press)
  • “The Brute and The Brat” by Sinclair Sexsmith (Maverick Press)

The winners will be announced at the National Leather Association – International’s Annual General Meeting, which will be held October 21, 2018 in Reno, NV in conjunctions with NLA-Northern Nevada’s event, Revelry. We hope our finalists will attend the AGM to receive their awards and congratulate the winners. Please keep an eye on our Facebook page for more information.
For more information about the awards, please contact the Award Committee Chair, CandiAnne Shafer, at awards@nla-international.com
 

recipes

2017 Duck Day Wrapup, Picspam, and Links

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I haven’t had a spare minute to do a full write-up of this year’s Thanksgiving extravaganza that corwin and I put on, as usual, until now, that is! This post incorporates all the Instagram photos and links to various recipes I referred to online. (corwin’s recipes were mostly in books, I think.)
We always have a theme. Sometimes that theme is a cuisine (French, kaiseki). Other times it’s more conceptual, like the year we did the “Silk Road” so we could pull Far East, Middle East, and Mediterranean together, or the year Chanukah overlapped with Thanksgiving so we did each course as a different Festival of Lights (including Diwali and Yule).
This year we thought it would be fun to do something we’d never done before: AMERICAN. Here’s what the spoiler-free version of the menu looked like on our guest’s plates:Continue reading →

writing talk

WATCH POINT blog tour & giveaway wrapup!

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It’s been a blast launching WATCH POINT, my gay Navy SEAL abduction romance, and I would like to thank all the blogs and sites that featured the book, reviewed it, hosted my essays, and participated in the giveaway! All told 154 comments were entered the drawing for a Cecilia Tan gay fiction prize pack, including some Daron’s Guitar Chronicles swag, The Prince’s Boy, and such!
Scroll to the bottom to see the ultimate winner! 🙂

Some highlights from the tour:

  • I did a “Down and Dirty” interview for USA Today’s “Happy Ever After” column, in which I reveal my love of Sour Patch Kids, Yuri!!! On Ice!, Queen + Adam Lambert, and Peter Tork of the Monkees.
  • At Heroes & Heartbreakers, I blogged about how everything I learned about wilderness survival, which is put to good use in Watch Point, I learned not on the Internet, but in the Girl Scouts:
    “At first, I resisted [my mother’s attempts to get me into Girl Scouts]. I resisted anything that was associated with the word ‘girl.’ I got the Handbook with all the merit badges in it and was mildly disgusted how many of the badges were for things like cooking and sewing. (I’d already learned to sew.) But I stuck it out because there was talk of going on a camping trip. Real camping! Staying overnight in a tent in the woods! I couldn’t wait for that. The Girl Scout motto is ‘Be Prepared.’ I brought my own camping kit (including canteen, frying pan, etc), Swiss army knife, and other tools…”
  • At Love Bytes Reviews I posted a list of Eight Things I Learned About Navy Seals:
    “The average man trying to qualify to be a SEAL can do 79 situps in two minutes. The best of the recruits can do 100. They may be the only romance heroes who actually have the abs pictured on the book’s cover.”
  • At Bayou Book Junkie I wrote about why I had to write our hero, Eric, in not just the first person but in present tense, something I don’t normally do, but which just worked perfectly for him:
    “In the case of Eric the puzzle I needed to solve was how to let the reader see what’s going on in Eric’s head even though Eric himself avoids introspection? It was important to give the reader a deep look inside because so much of what Eric does– like kidnapping Chase–looks villainous from the outside. But inside we know he’s deeply concerned with honor and justice. This parallels Eric’s sexuality, which includes role playing and BDSM which may look abusive from the outside, but from the inside we experience as deeply caring, careful, and loving.”
  • At The Novel Approach I wrote about explicitly giving Eric half-Asian/half-white ethnicity and why that choice was important thematically to me:
    “I am a mixed-race person, and being ‘mixed-race’ has been the ‘hip fad’ three or four different times in my life. Like bisexuality, it is a trait that is easily appropriated by authors as an easy ‘outsider’ marker, a metaphorical symbol of their character’s uniqueness.”
  • At OMG Reads I blogged about “Military Romance as Guilty Pleasure“:
    “I am against using the term ‘guilty pleasure,’ because it is so often applied against things that we shouldn’t be guilty about [especially liking romance]. But I do have a wee bit of guilt over one corner of romance, and that’s military romance. My conscience nags me: how can you enjoy reading and writing Navy SEALs when you don’t agree with American military might being abused around the world?”
    I write about the paradox of loving military heroes, but not the way our government abuses them. In Watch Point we get into the subject of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as the reason why Eric is no longer in the military. In future Wayward Warrior books I’m planning to also touch on other ways our government has failed to serve those who serve us, including budget cuts to veterans programs and so on.

Reviews

Dog-Eared Daydreams reviewed the book, saying:
“If you think Watch Point is your usual falling-for-your-captor story, you’ve got another thing coming. This is my first Cecilia Tan read and I was more than impressed with how she made this such an original tale of vengeance, freedom, and kink.”
The Novel Approach loved it, as well:
“I’ve always loved miscalculation as a romantic catalyst, and Eric falls into the trap of underestimating Chase from the start … and watching Eric’s respect for Chase grow was the lit match to the short fuse you know damn well is going to blow up before the happy ending.”
The one negative review (if I can call it that?) was from Boy Meets Boy Reviews, who were disappointed that the dubious consent was not dubious enough. Riptide Publishing is pretty serious about making sure content warnings are used, and Watch Point is tagged with dubious consent, BDSM, military, enemies to lovers, and hate sex. As the review states: “Most of those tags (IMO) should come with a “lite” disclaimer,” and “All the people who do not do dub or non-con, this is the dub-con for you. This might be the fluffiest dub-con I’ve ever read.”
I don’t disagree at all. Compared to my dub-con fanfic–or even to what goes on in The Prince’s Boy—Watch Point is *relatively* lighter on the transgression. 100% valid review! I still support the content warnings, though, since this is still a kidnapper/kidnappee setup, so for those who find dubious consent triggering or problematic, this is not an allergen-free book. People who are sensitive to those issues should still proceed with caution.

The Winner!

To pick the winner I compiled all 154 comments left throughout the tour in a spreadsheet, assigned by row number, and then I used the website Random.org to pick the winning number. People who left comments on multiple blogs were entered multiple times; each comment counted as an additional entry into the drawing. The number that came up was 94 and so therefore the winner is Lisa for a comment left at the Erotica for All blog!
I truly appreciate all the comments, thoughts, and enthusiasm from everyone on the tour. I’m emailing all of you a little something in thanks for making it a really fun and memorable week. 🙂 So thank you HB, Paul, James, Didi, Joanne, Nancy, Christina, Timitra, Jennifer, Ginger, Lee, Debby, Trix, Shirley, Jennie, Lee, Tanya, Diane, Jodi, Lennis, Brian, and everyone else whose names may not have come through. 🙂
Here’s the full itinerary of giveaway stops:
1. November 6, 2017 – OMG Reads Essay on Military Romance
2. November 6, 2017 – Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents
3. November 6, 2017 – La Crimson Femme
4. November 6, 2017 – Diverse Reader – Excerpt from Ch. 1
5. November 7, 2017 – My Fiction Nook
6. November 7, 2017 – Bayou Book Junkie – Essay on the First-Person Present-Tense Narrator
7. November 7, 2017 – Creative Deeds
8. November 7, 2017 – Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews
9. November 8, 2017 – The Day Before You Came
10. November 8, 2017 – MM Good Book Reviews – Excerpt from Ch. 2
11. November 8, 2017 – Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
12. November 8, 2017 – TTC Books and More
13. November 8, 2017 – Erotica for All
14. November 9, 2017 – Jessie G Books
15. November 9, 2017 – Dog-Eared Daydreams – Review
16. November 9, 2017 – Book Reviews and More by Kathy
17. November 9, 2017 – The Novel Approach
18. November 10, 2017 – We Three Queens
19. November 10, 2017 – Love Bytes Reviews
20. November 10, 2017 – Open Skye
21. November 10, 2017 – Unquietly Me

writing talk

Researching Settings in WATCH POINT gay Navy SEAL romance

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There are only two main settings in WATCH POINT, my gay Navy SEAL romance.
One is the mansion of the billionaire Aiden Milford where he lives with his son Chase. I wanted this to be in Massachusetts. I’ve lived in MA since 1990 but decided to do some research about where to put the Milford Mansion. (I knew I didn’t want to put it in Milford, for example.)
I settled on Duxbury partly because I like the word “Duxbury” and because of articles like this one in the Boston Business Journal naming it the 6th “Most affluent” community in the state.
While Googling “Duxbury mansion” I came across various candidates for the Milford estate:Continue reading →

writing talk

But how much research do you need for a Navy SEAL romance?

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A writing buddy of mine asked, after I’d read my fifth or sixth book on the subject, “But how much research do you need to do to write a Navy SEAL romance?” If you’re me, turns out you need a lot. When I pitched the idea to Riptide to write WATCH POINT for their charity holiday bundle, I hadn’t written military romance before, much less US Navy SEAL romance.
The first thing I did was read some (heterosexual) Navy SEAL romances to get an idea of what was going on in the genre. Mostly I was disappointed by the lack of Navy SEAL content in these books, but this is often my gripe with romance novels, where the characters’ jobs are just a label applied to them. Their profession doesn’t actually provide a tapestry of rich details for their story to unfold on, and those stories always feel thin and half-finished to me.
If the heroine is a brain surgeon, I expect to learn something about what it’s actually like to be a brain surgeon and how being a surgeon, going through med school, etc… shaped her personality and her worldview. If the hero is a firefighter I expect to learn something about firefighting while reading the book–and he better run into a burning building at some point in the plot.
Ultimately, I found memoirs by Navy SEALs to be great for providing details and backdrop, especially Chris Kyle’s AMERICAN SNIPER, Marcus Luttrell’s LONE SURVIVOR, and Howard Wasdin’s SEAL TEAM SIX. I also learned a lot from BATTLE READY by Mark L. Donald and THE RED CIRCLE by Brandon Webb. I read them all cover to cover, but I still had other questions. For that I ended up delving into a lot of blogs and websites devoted to Navy SEALs, some of which are geared at men who might want to join the SEALs, while others are aimed at their families, or at guys who just want to be as strong, fast, or deadly as a SEAL without actually joining the Navy.
Among the questions that dogged me while I was writing WATCH POINT:
– what kind of shoes/boots do Navy SEALs wear?
– how many SEALs typically work together?
– what slang terms are specific to the SEALs (vs the rest of the Navy, US military in general)?
I wasn’t able to find answers to all my questions in the books and websites, but I hopefully built enough of a unique point of view for Eric, the hero and narrator of the book, that it comes across believable and immersive.
Of course, what’s “believable” in a romance novel can be debated: we expect the reader to suspend some disbelief in order to fully enjoy the thrill-ride of the book. So “believable” can be a moving target, and very much in the eye of the beholder. But here are links to a ton of the online resources I used while writing the book (and which I’ll return to if I ever write a sequel…!):
So here’s a pile of what I learned with links to the online resources:

SLANG

One thing I had read quite a while ago is that books often make the mistake of having Navy SEALs referred to as “soldiers” whether in the text or in dialogue, i.e. “Do you hear me, soldier?” and that this is wrong. SEALs should apparently never be referred to as soldiers, since they’re in the Navy, they’re Sailors. But since they’re a very specialized part of the Navy, not exactly serving on ships in the same way as someone “sailing,” I wondered if there was another term. The term SEALs seem to use for themselves is “operator.” When they go into the field (or water…) to do something it’s called an “operation” and the men are operators.

  • At Wiktionary there is a page of Navy Slang. From what I understand the SEALs have their own slang, but every SEAL is a Navy sailor and would be familiar with this. My favorite entry:
    “Fuckface: Any person or thing which has a face.”

  • A page on slurs used by one branch of the military for another, ie. swabbie, ground-pounder, jarhead, squid: https://www.beforejoiningthemilitary.com/squids-jarheads-grunts-the-chair-force-and-other-military-stigmas/
  • Navy Boot Camp Slang: from NavyDads.com — https://www.navydads.com/forum/topics/navy-boot-camp-slang-learn-to
    “Once your soon to be Sailor ships out for Recruit Training Command it’s time to speak the language. Your Sailor will arrive as a SR ( Seaman Recruit ) and after passing battlestations they will be known as United States Sailors. Navy Dads wishes them the best from the first few days when they’re known as smurfs to when you arrive at PIR to seeing them as Sailors. Good luck to them during boot camp and good luck to you learning their language.”
    Overall, NavyDads.com has some great resources. They have other glossaries and slang pages, as well.

    General Navy Stuff

    Navy Boot Camp (not the same as SEAL BUD/S): https://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/navy-boot-camp-schedule.html
    “How My Negligent Discharge in Iraq Ruined My Army Career”: https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/05/16/how-my-negligent-discharge-in-iraq-pretty-much-ruined-my-army-career/
    Handgun commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the SEALs: https://www.gunsholstersandgear.com/2013/01/20/sig-p226-mk-25-special-edition/

    SEAL Life and Experience

    SEAL Boots/Footwear: https://sealgrinderpt.com/discounts/top-10-navy-seal-hiking-boots.html/
    –As it turned out my question about what kind of boots a SEAL wears was copiously answered by this blog post. The Bates 922 is apparently what’s issued at BUD/S but every terrain and operation requires a different kind of shoe.
    SEAL Selection and training: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_SEAL_selection_and_training
    Hell Week: https://navyseals.com/nsw/hell-week-0/
    A Navy SEAL’s tips for Surviving Hell Week: https://thechive.com/2017/01/31/navy-seal-shares-10-tips-to-train-for-hell-week/
    Among the great tips he gave, don’t bulk up with weight lifting: you’ll regret having to carry that muscle mass. Also: “Occasionally pour water in your boots to work out as that is how you will work out at BUD/S (many times). It is good to have drain holes in your boots to drain excess water.”
    A SEAL speaks out on training from BUD/S to Teams: https://www.businessinsider.com/current-seal-speaks-out-and-talks-about-seal-training-from-buds-to-teams-2012-6
    Among his tips: “Never stand between the Zodiac and the beach. That f***er weighs a ton and comes fast.”
    I of course also looked up how much a Zodiac actually weights and other specs since the use of one is pretty important in the book.
    * Combat Rubber Raiding Craft
    * Zodiac Milpro Website
    One thing I couldn’t find out anywhere though was do Navy Sailors or SEALs have a nickname for the CRRC/Zodiac? I felt like there must be, but I didn’t find it in the various slang lists. Eventually another writer I know who is married to a Navy officer asked him for me! (Thank you, Kristina Wright!) Zodiac is a brand name, and US sailors more commonly call all the rubber boats “cricks” by pronouncing the acronym CRRC, which stands for Combat Rubber Raiding Craft.
    Chamber Ride (exercise in anoxia): https://mfwright.com/chamber.html
    SEAL Platoons: https://www.americanspecialops.com/navy-seals/seal-platoon/
    Structure of the SEALs: https://navyseals.com/nsw/structure/
    The “Budweiser” (trident insignia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Warfare_insignia
    History of the Seals 1984-2012; https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/u-s-navy-seals-from-goldwater-nichols-to-the-present-day-1984-2012/
    SEAL Frog Bone Tattoo: I decided against giving Eric a tattoo. I read a lot of blogs and articles about it. SEALs who may be captured or do clandestine work don’t want tattoos that could identify them as US military or special forces. Apparently a lot of guys who get the SEAL trident tattoo are fakers trying to make people (usually women they impress) think they are ex-SEALs. Some guys get the trident AFTER they are no longer active on operations. A tradition did start in 2005, apparently, of getting a skeleton of a frog (SEALs are “frogmen”/divers) tattooed if a SEAL in your platoon/squad/team dies, and overall the military are getting much more lenient about tattoos. If I write more books about Eric’s team, at least one of them will have the frog bone tattoo.

    Misc

    At one point in the story our hero refers to a Breitling watch with a 24-hour face and manual wind. There are a bunch of models I looked up. The Cosmonaute is the classic version but there are many others.
    WATCH POINT can be bought singly or as part of Riptide Publishing’s 2017 Charity Bundle to benefit the Russian LGBT Network.
    Find Watch Point other sites: Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

    • writing talk

    Romance hero picspam: Eric the Navy SEAL in WATCH POINT

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    Watch Point is my gay Navy SEAL abduction romance, which is in Riptide’s holiday charity bundle right now. The book can be bought singly or as part of Riptide Publishing’s 2017 Charity Bundle to benefit the Russian LGBT Network. You can also purchase Watch Point on other sites: Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
    Our narrator, Eric, is an ex-SEAL who worked as a bodyguard for a billionaire after being discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Our story is about what happens when Eric kidnaps the billionaire’s 22-year-old son for revenge. (Hint: lots of kinky sex and angst.)
    I didn’t have a specific actor or model in mind when I dreamed up Eric. When I imagine a character it’s usually from the inside out. Their heart is more important than their eye color, to me. But inevitably I have to go hunting for images to give to the cover designer, publisher, publicist, and so on, which will match the description in the book.
    I don’t know where I found this guy, but I had a sticky note on my computer screen for a couple of months that just said “Remington Hoffman.” It was there for so long I forgot what it was for. With a name like that it could have been a romance hero, no? Because I’m too busy writing books to watch TV or see more than a small handful of movies a year I’d never seen him before and didn’t know he’s a model and actor.
    But when I turned the manuscript in to the editor in June, I Googled the name to see why I’d written it down. And I realized I had found a guy who could be cast as Eric if Watch Point was ever made into a movie.
    Examples:

    From a random Pinterest board. Haven’t been able to find original source, but this was the photo that first caught my eye. Hello!

    Here he is on the cover of Men’s Health magazine. Eric being an ex-SEAL even his “out of shape” is still pretty damn well in good shape, but it’s lean muscle, good for running through jungles and up beaches and whatnot, not overly bulked up. I read a lot of blogs by Navy SEALs giving advice to guys who want to be SEALs. They all said don’t build weight-lifting muscle mass. You won’t want to carry that extra weight around any more than you’d want to carry 30 extra pounds of flabby fat. The more I read about Navy SEALs the more I <3 them.
    From Hoffman’s online modeling portfolio at the Look Modeling Agency.

    Remington Hoffman posted this image to his Instagram about being a SWAT officer on THE CATCH. Works for me!

    Finally, I think this is someone else, not Hoffman, but I could not figure out who. The filename said Philippe, but it doesn’t seem to be Philippe Koo, either? Google Image search turned it up at IMDb but I couldn’t find what page it was on. He’d make a good Eric, too.

    WATCH POINT can be bought singly or as part of Riptide Publishing’s 2017 Charity Bundle to benefit the Russian LGBT Network.
    Find Watch Point other sites: Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

    writing news

    Launching today! WATCH POINT! Hot gay Navy SEAL romance from Cecilia Tan

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    It’s launch day! Boom! Watch Point, the gay Navy SEAL abduction romance you’ve been hearing me talk about for the past year is finally out in the wild! The book can be bought singly or as part of Riptide Publishing’s 2017 Charity Bundle to benefit the Russian LGBT Network.
    Find Watch Point other sites: Amazon | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
    The charity bundle also contains Roan Parrish’s The Remaking of Corbin Wale, and Katie Porter’s Came Upon a Midnight Clear. 20% of all proceeds, whether you buy the bundle or the individual books, goes to the Russian LGBT Network.
    WATCH POINT is probably not your “typical” Christmas romance. There is cuddling by the wood stove and there is a Christmas party at a mansion with carolers. But as is usual in my books, the focus is on the erotic attraction between the characters. I don’t know of many “Christmas romances” that carry warnings for dubious consent and heavy kink…! Our scenario involves an ex-Navy SEAL kidnapping his billionaire former boss’s son for revenge and taking him to an isolated island in Maine… More plot details below.
    Continue reading →

    writing news

    WATCH POINT: new gay Navy SEAL romance from Cecilia Tan and Riptide Publishing

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    Just got the news that WATCH POINT is up for pre-order! This gay Navy SEAL abduction romance can be bought singly or as part of Riptide Publishing’s 2017 Charity Bundle to benefit the Russian LGBT Network.
    The bundle also contains Roan Parrish’s The Remaking of Corbin Wale, and Katie Porter’s Came Upon a Midnight Clear. 20% of all proceeds, whether you buy the bundle or the individual books, goes to the charity.
    WATCH POINT is by far the most trope-tastic thing I’ve ever done, a Christmas-themed, Navy SEAL, billionaire, abduction romance. It all fits together perfectly, though. Oh, and did I mention erotic? Of course it’s erotic–it’s me who wrote it, after all. It’s one of the few “Christmas romances” I’ve seen that carries warnings for dubious consent and heavy kink. (Description at the bottom of the post.)

    20% of all proceeds will be donated to the Russian LGBT Network.

    Continue reading →

    general blather

    Circlet Press 25th Anniversary Celebration (at Cecilia's house)

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    It’s hard to believe that 25 years have gone by since I founded Circlet Press by hand-stapling 100 copies of Telepaths Don’t Need Safewords on the floor of my Fenway studio apartment (the apartment was too small for a table). This week I’ll be opening my doors (at my much larger home in Cambridge) as part of our 25th anniversary celebration!
    Two things are happening on Saturday September 23rd!
    1. Massive book sale! 12 noon to 4pm
    2. Party! Happy anniversary Circlet! 8pm to midnight
    The massive book sale is just what it sounds like. We’ll be selling not only lots of Circlet books, some at bargain prices, some rare out of print for reasonable prices, we’ll also have tons of other books that we’ve accumulated in our 25 years as a publisher, including lots of science fiction, fantasy, romance, erotica, and YA. I get a lot of books in goody bags at conventions, publicists mail them here hoping for comment or review, and tons come every year when I serve on award juries, so there is a lot to choose from! Come on down and bring a shopping bag!
    The party, on the other hand, is for all supporters, patrons, donors, and friends of the press! If you’re not a donor to the Kickstarter or the Patreon, go on and chip in now!
    Kickstarter: https://kck.st/2xL0iEm
    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/circletpress
    If you’re coming to the party, RSVP below so we’ll know how much food to get!