I happened upon the Amazon ranking for Lone and laughed like a maniac because I am a child.

I happened upon the Amazon ranking for Lone and laughed like a maniac because I am a child.
First, I’m sorry for the recent influx of spam on this blog. My blocker is usually really good, so I don’t know what happened with that.
Next, the second addition of my werewolf story, Lone, is available for preorder! Although I think the book reads much more smoothly now, and I like a few of the VERY small tweaks I added, I still don’t think I would recommend it if you’ve read the already. Overall plot is the same.
Release date is April 8th, 2022. Second set of apologies for the short notice. I meant to post the announcement this past Sunday, but I got sicker than usual and was actually told I had to stay in bed. I find that mildly ironic being the reason I was sick this round was acute insomnia that even sleeping pills couldn’t fix. >.>
The bed is sooo boring. I don’t even have a TV + game console in my room. But I do have a budget friendly yet kick-ass sound system, and a stack of books I hadn’t read, so it wasn’t all bad.
Last apology: I haven’t been able to update the main website because even though I.T. support says my login info is correct, I can’t log in. So they’re currently working on the problem now. There’s also a bunch of anime missing from my Funimation account that Funimation insists is in my library. Totally unrelated but I felt like griping. š
I sincerely hope the second half of your week and following weekend is filled with good times. š¤š¼
Oh! Purchase link for Lone: https://books2read.com/u/bpw7Dq
As of right now it’s not available on Amazon yet, because Amazon’s gotta be Amazon, but should be soon.
My next re-release is going to be “Lone,” my werewolf story. It can be a hard read because it deals with trauma and how it can affect your self worth, but it is also one hell of a love story.
Here’s the blurb:
Seth Anderson has finally found sanctuary in Brier, Iowa. Even better, he’s found Rafe: a strong, giant of a man who owns the town pool hall. Seth has never been so close to anyone. When he’s asked to give a series of lectures in DC, it seems only natural that Rafe come along. But in a few surreal days, his true nature is exposed and he brings both their lives crashing down around them.
Because Seth is not only a werewolf; he’s also something much, much worse.
*****
Did the cover myself. Fair to decent, yeah?
I’m aiming to have it up for sale this month. Then I’ll have something new to show ya. š
Wear a mask. Get Vaccinated. Vote.
One of my publiahers, Amber Quill Press, is shutting its doors for good. Their official closing date is March 30th, but they’re already beginning to wind things down.
This means that two of my books — Lone & Warm Rush: Chasing Winter — are going out of print. That makes me especially sad, since those were the only books I had available in paperback. If you were planning to buy the hard copies of either of those novels, I’d do it now. I’m not sure when exactly they’ll be pulled down, but if what happened to Want Me was any indication, the prices after AQP closes could skyrocket to $150. I love Lone and Warm Rush, but they are definitely definitely not worth that much. O.O
If there’s an upside, it’s that the e-book formats of both both books are seriously discounted on the AQP website, if you’ve been meaning to check them out.
It’s still sinking in that AQP is closing, so I haven’t decided what to do with my orphaned stories yet. Did you know that I wrote Lone especially for AQP? They were invitation-only and I certainly didn’t have an invitation, but I kept the finished manuscript under my bed for at least a year on the slim chance I’d receive one someday. Then, out of the blue, the invitation appeared in my inbox and I am not exaggerating when I say it was one of the happiest moments of my life.That’s what I’m going to focus on for now. Business stuff later.
I’m not ready to say goodbye, Amber Quill, but I will say thank you for allowing me to be part of your writing family. I will miss you dearly.
Main characters in my finished and published stories, ranked in order of straightforwardness, starting with the most straightforward and ending with the least:
Rafe Dirisio — | (Lone) |
Paul Graham — | (Paulās Dream) |
Joe Wilson — | (A Pictureās Worth) |
Kian Somers — | (Paulās Dream) |
Zakai — | (Paulās Dream) |
Joel Beckett — | (Want Me) |
Keith Taylor — | (Chasing Winter) |
Ace Donovan — | (One Good Hand/One Good Year) |
Riley Jameson — | (One Shot) |
Walker Cain — | (Want Me) |
Nick Carlyle — | (One Shot) |
Spade Hart — | (One Good Hand/One Good Year) |
Seth Anderson — | (Lone) |
Draven Donnor — | (Just Perfect) |
Mason Ripley — | (A Pictureās Worth) |
Asher Croft — | (Paulās Dream) |
Jesse Winter — | (Chasing Winter) |
Dorian Burns — | (Lone) |
Cody West — | (Just Perfect) |
You might be thinking, āWhat?! How is Jesse so far down on the list, and how is WALKER square in the middle??ā If you are thinking that, what follows is what passes for logic on my end:
First, this list only gauges straightforwardness, and does not take badassitude into account. Though, really, when you think about it, Jesse is plenty badass. Whenever Keith–who is gigantic and endowed with freaky super strength–steps out of line, Jesse never hesitates to knock him right back into it.
Second, the ranking is value-neutral. So whatever nefarious schemes a character might have going on (Iām looking at you, Draven), they donāt count for anything in this list.
Last, straightforwardness does not mean trustworthy. So, while Spade is arguably the most trustworthy character on the list, he waits till damned-near the end of the first book to tell Ace what he is, which Ace doesnāt take well. At all.
But anyway.
Jesse is in the bottom three because through most of Chasing Winter what he says and what heās thinking are totally out of sync. For example:
āYou always told me that willpower could accomplish anything.ā
If I had known heād remember every damned thing I said, I would have tried harder to stay away from such trite clichĆ©s. āYes, I did say that.ā
Keith grinned. āIām making you uncomfortable, arenāt I?ā He left the couch and searched out his briefs. āIāll get out of your hair.ā
I grabbed the top of the couch with my right arm and pulled myself up to watch him dress. Now that he wasnāt touching me, I feltā¦oh, God, I felt more alone than I ever had in my life. āThank you.ā
And heās like that through most of the book. So now heās on the bottom of a totally arbitrary, written-by-the-whim-of-the-author list on straightforwardness.
Jesse was fairly easy to place. If youāve read Just Perfect, then you know why Cody ranks rock-bottom. No brainer. Same with Rafe and Paul. Rafe wears his heart on his sleeve and is always sure everyone around him knows where he stands. Paulās heart is frozen solid for a while, but even then everything he does has a reason and he has no qualms about explaining those reasons to you.
Walker wasnāt so easy. Sure, he locks Joel to him in a horrifying spiral of magic that pretty much ruins both their lives, but remember–nefariousness has no weight on this list. Heās also a liar by nature, which would naturally rank him lower. But he doesnāt fuck around when it comes to his obsession with Joel. Never deviates. Never lets Joel forget that heās never going to deviate. So, yeah, horrifying. But hey, straightforward.
Youāre probably safer if you just donāt believe in anything Dorian does or says. Ever. I know it sort of worked out in Lone, but dude. Trust me on that one.
Riley was also hard to place. One Shotās told from Nickās point of view, and heās royally freaked out through most of that story, so itās hard to gauge how much of Rileyās actions are warped by that filter.
Seth was a pain in the ass. Heās got that crazy Ravager-magic-want-it-now-so-will-HAVE-IT-NOW thing going on. And first instinct is to rank him higher because even in human form heās all āLook at my massive brown puppy eyes donāt you want to pet my hair?ā But Seth doesnāt even know himself, so by default that cripples his ability to be straightforward with Rafe.
So thatās my logic, such as it is. I think itās pretty easy to see why I put the others in their places on the list.
My question: Do you agree with me? Disagree? Where would you rank these guys, and why?
Interesting fact: I was not aware that āstraightforwardnessā was a legit word until I typed it up for the first time and didnāt get the red spell-fail squigglies. Prior to that Iād assumed I had made it up. āSquigglies,ā however, is apparently fake, which feels wrong to me. >.>
Two things happened in my writing life recently that were kind of interesting and kind of related. FirstāI finished a novella. I think Iām going to title it Just Perfect despite the fact that itās one of my darker stories but weāll see. Itās in a revision stage, after which Iāll submit it to a publisher, so keep your fingers crossed. The second is that Iām currently working on another story and I finished writing a sex scene that I started inā¦2009, I think. Yeah, I got stalled pretty badly there. It might have been a good stall though because when I look at the plotline it doesnāt seem believable to me anymore, and I think Iāve got a better direction now for the book. Silver lining and all that.
The thing that kind of relates these two stories is language. When I was writing Just Perfect, I was afraid Iād lost the sense of lyricism I was so proud of in books like Lone and Paulās Dream. Some might say Iām a little too in love with that sort of writing, but Iām really attached to pretty words, sentences that flow. The language in Just Perfect is hard, straightforward, and to the point. It wasnāt until Iād finished the story and read it all the way through for the first time that I realized this was Dravenās (the main characterās) voice, and that it fit. Heās an assassin, after all. And one who likes his job.
The story Iām working on now has more of the pretty words I thought Iād lost, which makes sense. Both characters in this one are nicer, gentler, a lot more innocent. They think differently so they express themselves differently.
I forget, sometimes, that itās the characters who set the tone for a story, and that as long as you stay true to them, the words may not always be āpretty,ā but theyāll always flow. And just because Iām stretching my writing muscles from time to time, doesnāt mean Iāve lost my touch.
It might even mean Iāve gotten better. (This is me, trying to be more optimistic as per my New Yearās resolution.)
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Still settling in from Yaoi-Con. Somewhere in between me realizing I don’t have enough shelf space for my new manga and me realizing I don’t have enough wall space for my new art, I got a couple of sweet reviews:
Boylove Addict wrote that “This book is literally going right into my keeper shelf.” They said some other great stuff, too, and you can read the full review at:
http://boylove-addict.livejournal.com/58769.html
You can also learn more about Lone (as well as read an excerpt) on my site.
Paul’s Dream left Serena Yates at Queer Magazine Online “totally breathless,” and I’m stoked over that. She also used words like “amazing,” “engaging,” and “evil.” I probably shouldn’t be *as* stoked over that last one, but hell, drawing up a no-holds barred villain was surprisingly difficult.
To read all of this review, go to http://www.queermagazineonline.com
And of course you can check out more Paul’s Dream stuff on my site.
I think jetting off to San Francisco did me good. Wrote 2700 words yesterday and plan to write tonight. Hoping this means I’m slipping back into a good groove.
I entered my Lone trailer in a contest. You can check it out along with the other entrants at Entries Part 1, and Entries Part 2. The voting rules are:
Votes will be counted via email.
One vote per person and per email. No multiple email accounts should try to vote over and over again.
Send vote to thepenmuse(at)gmail.com, subject: Entry #
Voters you have until Monday Jan 18th!
A lot of good trailers are entered. Even if you don’t vote, they’re fun to watch. š
I have an excerpt up for One Shot! You can check it out, along with the blurb and other good stuff, on the story’s page on my site: http://rowanmcbride.com/stories/oneshot/. Let me know what you think. š
Lone has a page now for the Recommended Read stickers it has received since its release, as well as the various screencaps I couldn’t resist taking because I’m a digital packrat and {sigh} a geek (although, on a totally unrelated note, my geek card has been taken away, upgraded, taken away, and upgraded again several times over the past week, lol). Check out the brand spankin’ new awards page at http://rowanmcbride.com/stories/lone/lone_awards.html.
Thank you to everyone who’s read Lone. It’s had an amazing response and it was a pleasure building an awards page for it.
I’m holding a poll on my Yahoo!Group (the platform I use for my newsletter) regarding Want Me. You have to sign up for the mailing list to vote, but it’s a very low traffic list (news only, my record being five updates in one month) and you can always set your preferences to “no mail.” Whatever option you decide, I’d appreciate your input. The link to my newsletter is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rowan_mcbride and the direct link to the poll is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rowan_mcbride/polls.
I think that’s it! I had a fab time at Dragon*Con. I’m planning on posting a more detailed update regarding the convention (plus pics!) on this blog in the next few days. W00t!
I go through a lot of revisions. Before even submitting a story to a publisher, itās quite possible that Iāve combed through it at least ten times before sending it in. This does not include the rather complex system of beta readers I have, each with their specific purpose in vetting my story. Does the concept make sense? How are the characters? Does everyone remember to take their shoes off with the rest of their clothes during sex? Did I use that semicolon correctly?
Overkill. I know this.
Yet there are still errors.
My editors at all my publishing houses are excellent. They find stuff that no one before them found. They spot plot holes I hadnāt even considered. I may grumble and grouse about how they want me to butcher my work of art, but after the first few minutes I get over it because theyāre usually right. I make those edits. I start to feel good. Comfortable, even.
Yetā¦
Below are two short passages from two different novels. Non spoiler, but both containing pretty horrifying typos. Typos that were caught in the late stages of editing–in the case of Lone, the final pass before the manuscript was set to go to the printers.
From Lone:
He grinned and walked around to the side of the house, where an older man was shopping wood. He had the same Dirisio jet-black hair, with shocks of white at his temples.
Should have been:
He grinned and walked around to the side of the house, where an older man was chopping wood. He had the same Dirisio jet-black hair, with shocks of white at his temples.
From One Shot my upcoming novella:
Riley touched our noses together. āAnd, for the record, I donāt think youāre sexier than me.ā
Should have been:
Riley touched our noses together. āAnd, for the record, I donāt think Iām sexier than you.ā
Two TOTALLY different meanings there, gaw.
Now, let me just say that I like to think of myself as pretty good at catching my own mistakes. I know my beta readers rock, and my editors are amazing. Still, though it was no oneās fault, the above errors were a last minute catch, and every time something like that happens I ask myself compulsively āWhat if we hadnātā¦?ā
Which, of course, inevitably leads to āI wonder what else we didnātā¦?ā
And suddenly Iām staring up at my ceiling fan at four in the morning.
Part of being a writer is letting your cherished story go. For me, āletting goā means not looking at the book months (if not a full year) after itās out there. Even now I suspect thereās a spelling error in Lone but I refuse to look. At this point thereās nothing I can do about it and who needs the stress?
By the time a story of mine goes to publication, Iām so sick at the mere mention of the title that my stomach twists. But eventually I always go back, read through it again. I can honestly say that even though I sometimes cringe at a turn of phrase or grammar error, Iāve never been ashamed of any of my stories. Now that Iāve gone through this process with five releases, itās a comforting thought, despite my tendency to freak out.
So thatās one of the things that keeps me up at night. Iād wager Iām not the only writer out there who goes through it. As usual, thereās no real point to this post. Just thought Iād share that a part of me lives in a constant state of fear. š