"Stephen"

"Stephen"
From Harp & Sword Chronicles

Sunday, January 31, 2010

New Website!

I have a new website up, listed in links, but will put here as well:
http://www.myristica.net/
I have a blog space on that website, so I probably won't be on this one as much. Check me out there first for updates. I'll probably use this one for spiritual stuff and that one for the writing updates.
I'm having fun with both so...:)
Thanks to Jesse Fox for following me! (((((Huggles Jesse)))))
Onward and upward and searching continuously.
I'll be blogging on the Pagan_And_Pen blogsite February 13th from 8am-12pm PST. Check out the calendar on my website for link. New stuff I'm investigating that I want to talk about, as well as promoting my new releases. Hope to see you there!
~Myr~

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Words of wisdom...

I don't have any. LOL! No, seriously, in joining chats this past weekend (m/m chats) I find I am very inept at voicing my opinions. The Aries temper in me pushes my 'pride' or 'ego' button and I fall into the trap without looking. I have a narrow vision, it seems, on the realities of life. Not that anyone blasted me for saying things, just that...what they said on certain topics, as compared to what my opinions were, made me feel like I was a fish out of water. It was a heavy lesson, but being that I'm a new kid on the block and wet behind the ears, the greenie, the rook, it was more a wake-up call.

Yes, I want my name out there. I want to make myself known, but there are ways to do that and speaking up just because you think your opinion holds even a drop of water is not the way to do it. No one treated me unkindly, let me get that out there up front, I had three responses to my comments and all were nice and diplomatic. No, what I'm trying to say here, and again, being woefully inept at it, is that I'm feeling and realizing my own inferiority. I would never make a good public speaker. I'm learning how to expand my knowledge, my vision, so-to-speak, but I'm still a kid in this area. A teenager in my mind. I need to grow up. Also, I don't know the etiquette. I had a woman contact me privately about what 'not' to say in those posts. She gave me valid reasons for my opinion being out of turn, but it still hit me hard that I had done something wrong out of ignorance. I learned from it and that's the good thing, still no one likes to be pulled aside and told they did something wrong, especially when you thought you were trying to help another author. I won't go into details, but it's an author/writing/publisher thing, something I'd never heard of before because I've not known anyone who experienced the situation, so I had no idea this thing happens.

It's not easy to realize that the world of authoring is not like the world of fandoms. In the world of fandoms you can leave if you don't feel welcome. In the world of authoring, you have the choice of giving up or pushing forward and learning. This is all a very dramatic reaction, I'm sure, but it was still a heavy wake-up call. For me, it's better to keep my mouth shut, and simply listen and learn. Never will I give up, but my strategy to get my name out there has just taken a very bad review by yours truly and it's time to block/delete/revise.
So...with that in mind, I need to learn how to speak my mind by getting other opinions on a subject first. So, I'll be asking a lot of questions in the future, simply to understand how others in this writing world of m/m love stories think, what they expect. I'll sift through that information, form an educated opinion, and go from there. Huh. Easy to say. Hard part is to actually do it. I have a tendency to forget lessons learned.
Write On!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

"The time has come," the Walrus said.


Changing things around, getting face lifts, adding gadgets. Now that the three story lines I've been working on for the last 10 years have been picked up for publication thru Dark Roast Press, I can focus on the work of promotion.


As you can see, I've sort of veered from my Jimmy Page fun and am now focusing this blog on things that deal with authoring and promoting. Some spiritual ponderings will still be added as I have to pursue what inspires me on a writing as well as a personal level, but the majority of this blog will be used to share my work and to offer contests and all sorts of fun things for the readers and followers. It's also a means to help other authors promote their work. As soon as I find the blogs to writers I enjoy, I'll let it be known I'm following them. So, if I've commented on your writing and you have a blog let me know where I can check it out. ;)




Please do follow me if you are interested.




For this first post since facelifting my blog, I'll begin by saying I'm once again tackling the sequel to "Crimson Dawn" (Harp & Sword Chronicles hovered over my head to get the first two books for that series done, so I had to get those off my plate, first.) Now, though, Kevin, Vic and the others are back on my plate and I'm focusing on really making a splash in the sexuality of this installment. The first book was sort of the backdrop to where the characters are going, a means to introduce them and set up the foundation. This one is purusing the romance between Kevin and Vic and the challenges thrown before them that Hampton can't seem to veer away from, and he's enjoying doing it, too.




Creep.




No, seriously, Hampton is a bad guy, but is he more an anti-hero than a villain? Curiouser and curioser, said Alice. We shall see. One thing's for certain, he won't be expecting how much Kevin loves Vic; enough to sacrifice his...well, I won't say it. It'll give it away.


And I'm getting over my fear of sex-scenes. I guess with all the promotions I've stumbled across dealing with nothing but sex scenes it sort of gets old and tiring. (Dig it, burned out on sex...or is it more desensitized? Riddle me that one, Batman.)




But, it sells, it captivates, and honestly, if written well, it really and truly is beautiful to read. M.L. Rhodes does it wonderfully. Mel Keegan is another favorite. When sex scenes sound like porn I do skip over it. I want to read scenes that capture the 'feelings', not just physical, but in the soul of the persons involved. What does the sex trigger for them? What does it do to make them fulfilled? It should be a mystery going in and when leaving give you a sense of 'Man, that was just as good for me as it was for them.' Of course, this is just my opinion on the matter. I'd be interested in what others have to say as other insights always 'dilate' the mind.




I'm not good at writing sex scenes. It's just something I need to practice at because of the desensitized predisposition I've had on the subject for the last few years. They are very difficult to write, and to those who do it well and hold my attention I say, "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!" But what a great way to gain inspiration! :)


Friday, January 15, 2010


And this one is the second book cover. Still waiting word on release date, but should be sometime this month, if not next. No nude guys on these covers, but I think the designs are breathtaking, if I do say so myself. No I didn't photoshop these, but I did find the pics and the fonts and formatted the placing of words. The gal at Dark Roast Press found the colors to use and put in the borders as well as put the designs together. I was floored at how well the color of the font fit the pictures! Yay, Winnie!

First cover to my "Harp & Sword Chronicles" series picked up by Dark Roast Press. Release date TBA. In't it purty. See above for the second book cover in the series. Hopefully both will be released at or near the same time. :)