Harper Kingsley blog

December 9, 2012 0 comments

FAIZEL 01

He had never seen anything so beautiful. He wondered what those cupid lips would taste like. How smooth would that skin be beneath his hands?

Charlemagne ghosted around the edge of the room in ever closer circles, trying to get a good look at the man he was admiring before he himself was seen. He wasn’t too worried though, as the man was staring at the stage in fascination. Charlemagne used it as an
opportunity to admire the man and subtly warn off any other vampires drawn to the man’s beauty.

A low-level growl was thrumming at the base of his throat. The lesser vampires were quick to get out of his way.

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It was odd to be so enamored by someone on first sight. He enjoyed the experience.

Charlemagne circled his prey several more times, before closing in. “Hello. My name is Charlemagne. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The guy gave him an “Are you for real look?” But there was a hint of laughter in his starry black eyes. Charlemagne found himself charmed.

“I suppose I should introduce myself, since you were cool enough to come all the way over here.” The man smiled with those rosy red lips. Charlemagne thought of those lips wrapped around him. “I am Faizel.”

“I guess I’m busted,” Charlemagne said. “I saw you from across the room and I had to meet you.”

“Cheesy, but charming.” Faizel kicked out the chair next to him. “Why don’t you take a seat? I’ll let you buy me a drink.”

Charlemagne laughed and sat down, tugging his chair closer to Faizel. Close enough that he could smell Faizel’s cologne and the deeper, headier scent of the man’s skin. He wanted to bury his face between the man’s legs and breathe him in.

It was a battle to keep his inappropriate thoughts off his face and out of his voice. “I suppose it was a bit cheesy. I think I’m a product of my times, which I’m sure took place long before your idea of cool was developed.”

Faizel grinned, displaying a set of pretty teeth. He really was near to physically perfect. “It’s nice to see a guy be honest about his own flaws. It’s somewhat refreshing.” He laughed. “I think I might want to keep you. What do you think of that?”

Charlemagne couldn’t help admiring the bold challenge in those dark eyes. “I might just let you keep me.”

“I’m still going to make you buy me those drinks, but how about we get out of here after?”

“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Charlemagne purred. He could nearly see himself falling in love. And he never once thought to try and stop his fall.

December 8, 2012 0 comments

Using A Tablet to Write (a Novel)

I guess I’m a member of the tablet family.

I just got my Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and I’ve completely fallen in love with the ease of use. The minute I took it out of the box I was incredibly happy.

Then like four hours into my having it, Amazon did an update and wow, completely changed my world.

Swype.

The new keyboard allows sweeping from one letter to another to write words with your stylus. It’s so easy to do. It’s like drawing and it bypasses the need for an external keyboard at all. And with how quickly it learns your draw patterns, you could be drawing up your novel in less than five minutes.

I can already see people unable to write or type because of disability being given a voice of their own. And it’s at an amazingly affordable price.

Don’t believe me that the new sweep writing is awesome? Well, I wrote this whole thing with ColorNote Notepad and it was shockingly easy. Even more so than regular handwriting. I didn’t even have to hit the space bar–I just flowed from one word to the next and I barely had to touch the screen. So if you have a weak grip, all you have to do is just touch the screen with your stylus in a swirling pattern and you’re writing. Just make sure you catch the first and last letters and maybe a letter in the middle.

Having a tablet is great for me and my budding writing career because I don’t let myself get as distracted as I do when I use my laptop. Switching between apps means I don’t have my browser open as a window I can jump to. I have no self control and I would immediately spend
seven hours screwing around on the internet.

With my Kindle I have done an amazing amount in a short amount of time:

I have played games — I will admit that this might be a bit of a problem for me, since I’ll probably want to play all the time.Still, great fun, lots of free games if you’re cheap (like me.)

I have read books — Okay, this is where the Kindle won me over. Not only did I load my Kindle books, I also put on a bunch of downloaded books with Calibre (you might have to update your version of Calibre.) Still, I was able to download stories from Tthfanfic and AO3, then
move them to where I wanted with ES File Manager. So I now have a portable fanfic machine. Makes me so happy.

I have Tweeted — I got the Twitter app and I’ve been sending tweets and it was pretty easy, so that’s nice. I do like keeping you apprised of my still being alive.

I have watched Netflix and Hulu movies — Netflix needs to learn how to buffer, or maybe I just need to change up my settings, but Hulu was beautiful. I also checked out Viki, which worked great, I just wish DramaFever would come out with a Kindle capable app. Still, love watching what I want when I want.

I chose the Kindle Fire HD even though my brother tried to talk me out of it because I was hoping to write with it. Since I didn’t get a separate keyboard,I was starting to think I might have made a mistake because I had to tap hard to get the stylus to work. The Swype update
is a big step forward for writers using tablets. The words just seem to flow.

My big request is for the keyboard to be moved up the screen. It’s hard trying to see what I’m doing. My hand gets in the way of seeing the Amazon keyboard.

Anyways, love the Kindle Fire HD. Does what I want and didn’t cost ridiculous amounts of money.

My advice though, if you’re going to use one to write on, you can write what you want on a free notepad app, then email your writing to yourself as a backup. Then it’s simple to select and copy from your email and paste the writing into your word processing program. Backs
everything up easily and doesn’t cost anything. And yes, I am incredibly frugal, but what I really like is being able to write in bed without the heavy weight of a laptop over-heating on my legs. Very very nice.

I totally recommend the Kindle Fire HD as a winning Christmas or birthday gift. Now that I’ve got mine I have no problem with them being sold to the point of selling out of stock. Enjoy. Happy holiday shopping.

December 3, 2012 0 comments

NOVEL: The Panic Pure, by Harper Kingsley [mm suspense] – Chapter Nine

Title: The Panic Pure
Author: Harper Kingsley
Genre: mm suspense thriller
Rating: mature

Summary: Daniel Worth, billionaire and CEO of Worth Enterprises is questioned by FBI agent Marshal Newman about the disappearance of one of his employees. They strike up a conversation and soon are regularly meeting and begin dating. However neither realizes just how close danger is lurking.

CHAPTER NINE

Being in a relationship was actually quite a bit of work, something he hadn’t really expected. It had always seemed to him, as an outsider looking in, that relationships were something that just happened, easy as breathing. The truth was a bit harder to face.

He had to ask Sophia to make room in his schedule and basically had to rearrange his whole life to be able to fit Marshal into it. It was not something he had ever expected to have to do, and he had to see his ability to adapt and change as a sign of progress. He’d even brought it up in his last few sessions with Dr. Landry and she had told him she was very proud of him.

There were still many things that he simply could not force himself to do, but he thought that he had made great strides. He couldn’t eat in restaurants or allow himself to be trapped in the confines of a public cinema or theater, but Marshal didn’t seem to care. He just seemed happy to spend time with Danny, and that was enough.

Danny whistled soundlessly as he finished up a report on his ideas about the Kerr-Bosnan prospectus. He’d decided that most of the ideas were pretty stupid, but he still had to waste some of his precious time pointing out what exactly he had a problem with. Destroying someone’s dreams should have been a little harder.

Finally finished, he saved his work then shut down his laptop.

He stretched his arms above his head and yawned hugely. It was such a relief to finally be done. Some part of him had been sure he would be wading through hundreds of pages of mostly worthless data for the entire day and night. So to be finished so much earlier than he had expected was an alien kind of pleasure.

Before, he had never felt happiness over finishing work early because he hadn’t had anything to do with the time freed up. It was just something that happened and he would then spend the rest of his day finding more work to fill in the time before he could go home and play with his Legos.

He couldn’t help smiling as he packed away his laptop and the rest of the things he would be taking home with him for the night. Then he started pulling on his coat as he left his office.

“Can you call Arthur and tell him I’m done here?” he said.

Sophia looked surprised, but hurriedly lifted her phone to make the phone call. He never went home early. It was probably something she was going to mark down in her diary as an oddity.

Danny listened while she told Arthur to bring the car around and that he was going home early. Even from across the room, he caught the note of incredulity in Arthur’s voice when she confirmed that yes, he really was going home early.

He sighed and shifted his bag from hand to hand, waiting. “Is he going to be too long?” he asked after she’d hung up.

Sophia smiled at him. “He says he’ll be here in roughly five minutes. Traffic isn’t too bad this time of day and he’s only a few streets over. He was running some quick errands for Olivia and filing some paperwork at the County Clerk’s office.”

Danny felt a momentary flush of curiosity, but Sophia probably didn’t know what Arthur had been filing. Not that it really mattered. Arthur was the one person in his life that he trusted without question. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll start heading down there.”

“Certainly,” she said. “He’ll call your cell when he’s out front.” So don’t worry, went unsaid.

He nodded and left, walking toward the elevator.

There was something almost naughty about leaving early. He felt as though he was doing something illicit, but instead of feeling guilty, he felt a cool thrill. It was exciting to do something he didn’t usually do.

His life had been ruled by clocks and schedules for so long that he couldn’t even imagine any other way. Except now he was breaking with his regimented routine and instead of being frightened… he was excited.

Somehow, letting Marshal into his life had freed him from some of the bonds of his neuroses. It was a kind of freedom he hadn’t even realized he was missing.

December 3, 2012 0 comments

NOVEL: The Panic Pure, by Harper Kingsley [mm suspense] – Chapter Eight

Title: The Panic Pure
Author: Harper Kingsley
Genre: mm suspense thriller
Rating: mature

CHAPTER EIGHT

When Marshal got the call from Danny and was asked to meet him that night, he felt as though he’d been struck hard in the chest. He just had this incredible sense of impending doom, as though a thousand pound weight had been dropped on him from some impossible height.

“What’s wrong with you?” Joanna asked. It had become her question for him of late. It seemed like she asked it every time he saw her.

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said, avoiding her eyes.

She made a harsh sound in her throat. “Seriously, you look like your cat just died. Or maybe like your dog ate your cat then choked and died too. What is going on with you now?”

He sighed, giving in. “Danny called to say he wants to talk to me tonight. I’m going over there after work.”

“So?” she asked. “You can talk to him about what happened last night, rehash your feelings, all that jazz. It’ll be like a girls night in.”

“Except neither one of us is a girl and I’m pretty sure he’s going to tell me that he never wants to see me again.”

Joanna raised her eyebrows at him speakingly. “Really. I don’t know when it happened, but I’m very pleased for you that your psychic powers have finally kicked in.”

“What else could he want to talk about?” Marshal rubbed his forehead, feeling the start of a tension headache. “Last night was the kind of awkward that no one wants to experience twice and he’s probably already realized that I’m not worth the trouble. He’s going to dump me.”

“Wow, why don’t you get that sand out of your vagina?” Joanna said crassly.

He gave her a disbelieving look. “You did not just say that.”

“Oh, I totally did.” She leaned forward intently. “Look, I’m no Dr. Drew or anything, but I have eyes and a brain, so I know you’ve totally got a thing for this guy. If you didn’t, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have to listen to all your wangst every single day and we could actually get some work done with like half the drama. So when you start acting like a chick…” she shrugged, “I start treating you like one. You know, one of the ones on their period.”