0 comments on "Teaser 01: “Idlewile” [musician, drama, novel]"

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Okay, so “Idlewile” is the band story I’ve been working on. Though to be honest I don’t really know if I would call it a “band” story, since Idlewile is a solo singer. It’s just that “song story” seems like an awkward description for it.

Anyway, “Idlewile” is my latest passion and I’m fairly racing through getting it done. It’s like I’ve been struck by a mad case of the prolifics. Hopefully it’s easily transmitted.

I came up with the idea for “Idlewile” after watching a bunch of kdramas and catching up on some celebrity news. I just suddenly decided that I wanted to do a story based on the life of a pop idol. And from there, my brain created Idlewile – whose real name is George Idleston – a young man with a rather bleak past. He was raised in an orphanage until he was recruited into the boy band Anathema at 14.

And right there is where I run into trouble. “Anathema” is the name of a UK band! So I need a new band name – one that hasn’t already been used.

That’s where I need help from you. I am currently asking if anyone can think up a good name for a boy band that hasn’t already been taken.

Leave suggestions in the comments and I’ll choose. Whichever suggested name gets chosen, the person that came up with it will receive a free copy of “Idlewile” when it comes out and I promise to acknowledge you in the foreword section.

Any help is much appreciated, though I’ll probably need to ask for more help in the future.

The world of Idlewile – pop stars and soap operas – is such an alien world to me that there are many things that leave me questioning. I know what I want to see happen, but there’s just a couple of things I might not be able to work through on my own.

~Peace, love, joy

Idlewile hadn’t donned a costume like the other singers and was still wearing his customary jeans and leather jacket, though he had put on a dark purple top hat and a silver and green feathered eye mask. Even from the back, his strut was all arrogant confidence and his hips rolled in an interesting manner.

Whatever Idlewile was singing, it wasn’t in English. It might have been Swedish or German, though Chris’ tin ear couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that it sounded really catchy and it was probably going to become the next hit song. The kids would totally love it, even though they didn’t understand a single word.

Small Gods at Amazon
0 comments on "Where are all of the book remixes at? The Book Remix Project?"

My brain just totally popped with an idea that I feel like I should immediately share with the world:

Book Remixes

I’ve admitted my secret “shame” before – my fondness for reading fanfiction – and one of the things fanfic authors like to do is a story remix.

It’s basically when someone writes a really awesome story that lots of people love. A fanfiction story so great, that someone writes a fanfiction for it. A fanfiction of a fanfiction. It’s like some kind of unintended mindsuck, like the movie “Inception” (which has a very hearty fandom behind it.)

In fanfiction, one author asks the other for permission, then rewrites their story in a different way. Like a lighthearted comedy story could be taken to a very different extreme, or the whole story could be basically the same, except the very end. Sometimes there are remix contests where all kinds of fanfic authors throw their stories into a hat, then other authors rewrite the stories in their own way. It’s just one of those stupid fun things people like to do.

So what stops indie authors from doing the same thing? Like each one of the remixed books could have REMIX in the title and an explanation of what they are on their description pages, or maybe there could be a story collection. It could be like a fun contest for authors to enter – either to exchange books amongst themselves, or to rewrite classic literature in the common domain.

I just think it would be a really fun thing to read.

Imagine: CJ Cherryh rewriting “Brave New World.” And Aldous Huxley rewriting “Fortress In the Eye of Time.”
Mark Twain rewriting “Pride & Prejudice.” And Jane Austen rewriting “Huckleberry Finn.”
Joss Whedon rewriting “Twilight.” And Stephanie Meyer rewriting “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (or even better, what if she rewrote “Angel?”)

Fortress in the Eye of Time at Amazon
3 comments on "Me-date. As in, what’s up in the world of me"

Kdrama: Found a ton of Korean movies on YouTube (no, I’m not going to list the links. They’re just on there and I didn’t have to do any work to find them.) I was really pleased and I caught some movies I haven’t otherwise had a chance to watch, so that’s pretty cool.

Anyways, because of some of the shows I’ve seen, I’ve been struck by some amazing inspiration 🙂  Just general concepts I’ve been putting together in my brain. That’s what happens when you see a whole bunch of eye candy working together in one TV show or movie.

Personal Woes: I need to stop obsessively checking my Twitter and Facebook. Why? Because every time I do, I get my feelings hurt when I find out someone’s de-followed me ;9_9;

It’s kind of crazy just how sensitive I am to something I really should be able to just shrug off. But I guess I’m more delicate than I like to pretend.

What I’m Working On: I’m putting “Pomegranate 01” together and I’m hopeful it will be available for purchase soon *fingers crossed* Right now it’s comprised of “The Hand of Ares,” “And A Single Petal Fell,” “Daisy,” “LeNoir,” and I’m deciding whether I want to include “Icarus.” When it’s all ready, it should be a pretty mean mix of fiction 🙂 I just have to get a cover on it (sounds like that Beyonce song, doesn’t it?)

Working on the story I’m publicly calling “Band!Fic” which should be a nice mm piece. Thinking about whether I want to pub it myself, or send it out. My only problem is that I’m mildly incompetent at talking to new people or being judged, which makes submitting my stuff near to impossible (I’m thinking about taking up Xanex or something, though all the side effects scare the crap out of me hardcore.)

Still, Band!Fic is coming along crazy fast. I literally wrote 5000 words in an hour and I’ve developed a ton of back story that I can sprinkle throughout. I still haven’t made up my mind about whether I want it to be by me, Harper Kingsley, or if it’s going to be “Sol Crafter.” The problem is that I honestly have a hard time writing any kind of sex stuff — I’ll write a scene and it always just seems to awkward and semi-awful to me that I want to hide the story away. So I kind of want Band!Fic to be a Sol Crafter piece, but I worry about how people are going to take the lack of overt sex. There’s hints so far and sweet romance, but it’s pretty PG right now and I’m thinking it’s probably going to stay that way — which should make it a good choice for a gay YA read.

Round Up: Writing, writing, hanging out, reading, writing. That’s basically it.

I’m not going to give anyone a set date for publications, mostly because I’m so bad at keeping to deadlines. I’m terrible about it, in fact. It’s one of the greatest shames of my life. But I will say that these will all be coming out in 2012, so follow the blog to get the heads up or Like my Facebook page because stuff usually shows up there.

“Vedran’s Hand” – The Duel is approaching, Dragon is being stupid, Vedran is the Emperor, and someone is staging a coup. And, btw, I’m kind of falling hard for Kameris, who was only supposed to be a secondary character, but is quickly becoming a favorite. mm fantasy, novel.
“The Brand” – Tensions are rising between Pen, Wrath, and Ilis. Plus, the assassination attempts are starting to get pretty serious. Yeah, it’s totally that harem thing, and I might be biased, but I think it’s getting pretty good. mm fantasy, novel.
“Fiends” – The fiend Teablossom is a jerk, but a very charming one. And it’s always kind of beautiful when someone finds out they really do have a heart, even if it’s small and black like a coal. mm romance, novella.
“Allies & Enemies” – Book two of “Heroes & Villains.” The continuation of Vereint’s adventures as a superhero turned supervillain turned regular Joe turned… well. Starts with a BANG! ends with a whim… BANG! And I would just like to note that Vereint is a total BAMF in this, like scarily so. superhero adventure, mm, novel.

Count Zero at Amazon
0 comments on "“What are you doing?” he ejaculated vigorously. – “Obviously not what you’re thinking of,” she answered calmly. “Here’s some tissues.”"

So my grandpa was a self-publishing fool. He signed his books up with two companies and refused to believe they might be shady or anything. Now I have to get his books off their lists, re-edit and reformat everything, and republish them.

He died several years ago and it’s just one of those things – I really don’t want to see his stuff being maintained by a group of people that really don’t care about him or his writings, just the money he paid them (thousands and thousands of dollars. Enough money to just make you sick.) At the time he published his stuff, there wasn’t a whole lot of self-publishing options, so he went with the old-fashioned pay some company to do nothing approach. They got thousands of dollars from him, but he was happy as long as he had a couple copies of his books.

I told the family that I would take over his stuff though. I mean, he put so much of himself into his books, and the sad thing is that they would have been pretty good if he would just have listened to anyone about a few changes. He simply got bogged down by the details – like 1000 words right in the middle of the action about shoeing a horse or loading a wagon,

He tried so hard to be Louis L’Amour, and he simply would not listen about just writing his own stuff. He was such a stubborn, frustrating old man. It’s no wonder he lived to be 97 – he was just too ornery to quit.

And I’ll always remember the time he used “he ejaculated” instead of “he yelled,” then refused to change it even though I kept telling him he should. Then, when I went and changed it for him… he waited until I was gone and put it back. He finally changed it for real when the self-publishing company told him he should. Right up until then, he kept insisting I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Crazy old man.