This past week, I’ve been hard at work on Before The Edge. I thought I was close to being done… and then Lisa insisted that she was hungry, and I had to find her someone something to eat. So that’s another scene, and a couple of sexy moments to fine-tune. Still on track to finish by next week.

While my muse was thinking over that extra scene in in Before The Edge and how I would need to adapt the rest to make it fit, I played in my Demons and Lullabies sandbox. This is another one that I intend to finish this month, although I think I might be short on my target word count. I could probably add a scene or two. Which brings the question – if you’ve read Fangs and Lullabies, is there a specific scene you’d like to see in the sequel, either showing Jacob growing up or the two vamps’ relationship?

Here’s a hint of the bit I was working on today…

A dull, throbbing pain was pounding behind Andrew’s eyes when he woke up. He had never understood how vampires could get hangovers when their blood lay still in their veins. Of all the strange ways their bodies worked, however, this had to be the less pleasant. The pain seemed even worse for not being the result of a good time. If this was anything like what Nicholas had endured for weeks after a bit of metal had found its way in his brain years earlier, Andrew felt more sorry than ever that he had waited until Nicholas had collapsed before getting him to see an actual doctor.

“That bad?” Nicholas asked, keeping his voice low as though he knew that any louder would hurt.

Andrew grunted. “No.”

“Liar.”

Despite the pain, Andrew smiled. “Takes one to know one. You lied to me about being in pain often enough.”

Nicholas huffed. He rolled onto his side, and laid his wrist against Andrew’s mouth. “Shut up already and drink.”

“You always say the sweetest things,” Andrew said with a snicker, but he did take hold of Nicholas’ wrist and angled it for a bite.

Nicholas’ quiet sigh could have been one of pain, but Andrew knew it wasn’t. He closed his eyes again and took slow, even sips from Nicholas’ blood. With each mouthful, his headache slowly receded. The animal blood Jacob had given them earlier had helped, but he’d been right about one thing: it hadn’t been enough.

“What was he thinking?” he muttered when he pulled his mouth away from Nicholas’ skin. “Why would he do something like that?”

“You know why,” Nicholas answered at once. “He wanted us to get better faster.”

“We don’t drink human blood. He knows that.”

When Nicholas was silent for too long, Andrew turned his head on the pillow to frown at him. “Did you tell him—”

“That I’ve been known to frequent blood bars on occasion?” Nicholas cut in tonelessly. “No. He doesn’t know about that. But he’s smart. It wouldn’t take much thinking for him to guess that fresh human blood would be better than frozen animal stuff.”

A friend of mine who writes M/M romances (Jane Davitt; I highly recommend her novel Room At The Top, which she wrote with Alexa Snow) pointed me to this post by Smart Bitches, Trashy Books about a chapter of RWA banning same-sex romances from their annual contest.

What I find rather baffling is that this ban takes place because some members of the chapter are ‘uncomfortable’ with such material, even in sweet, sex-less romances, while at the same time the rules state that “We recruit judges nationwide and even worldwide”.

So… the members who don’t care for this genre wouldn’t have been asked to read or judge it… but the fact that they personally don’t like it means that the genre is banned?

It’s one thing for a reader not to enjoy a particular genre, whether because of the setting or gender of the characters. Everyone is entitled to their reading tastes, and whether they mirror their attitude in ‘real life’ or not is not for me to judge.

It’s a different thing altogether for an organization to discriminate against said genre. I’m not a member of RWA. If this behavior is accepted in this organization, I don’t think I’ll ever care to join. What I did instead was sign this petition.

A week or so ago, Megan at Riverina Romantics posted about M/M romances and asked her readers to share their opinions. Here’s the answer I posted about why I write M/M… and why I’ll keep writing it.

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When I first started writing, way back then in my fanfiction days, I was strictly a het writer… but I would sneak to the ‘other side’ and read M/M stories, too worried about what anyone would think of me reading them to dare leave feedback for the authors. And then one day it hit me. What was I worried about? I was reading stories that told about love, and relationships, and heartbreak, and okay, *sex*, but all these were the same things I wrote about in my stories. The gender of the characters didn’t change anything.

With much trepidation – and it turned out, to the happiness of my readers – I popped my M/M cherry and started writing both M/M and M/F to the point that, today, I write both without ever thinking twice about it. I think most writers focus on one or the other, but for me it’s never been an option. I enjoy both too much.

I know some of my readers might not appreciate my M/M – I know it because I’ve heard from some of them, especially when I write a threesome and my heroes ‘play’ with each other as well as with the heroine. In Living Out of the Box, in particular, one reader was really upset that the hero, Anando, seemed to enjoy bottoming for another man under the heroine’s directions. I am sorry when that happens, but I’d never NOT write a scene or a book because of fears I might turn off readers.

The one limit I have is that I don’t write full F/F stories. (I’ve had very minor glimpses of it when the story called for it, but nothing major.) It’s not because I have an issue with two women together, but rather because of the way I write. I’m a very visual person, and when I write I ‘see’ the scene in my mind. It’s just a lot more fun for me to mentally ogle characters with dangly bits (or not so dangly if you know what I mean… ) than to imagine characters with boobs. I’ve got some of those and some days they’re more trouble than they’re worth

Just under the deadline, a few words about my writing week.

I’m still working on Before The Edge. To win the little competition I’m having with my friend, I must finish the first draft by February 15th. I think I’m at 2/3 of the story by now, so that should be no problem. Oftentimes, this is the point where I start doubting myself, my story and my writing, but so far I’m still pretty happy with it all. I guess it helps that I love Brett and Lisa so much.

This week, I also continued working on the first chapter of One Last Lullaby as well as plotting further chapters. I’m going slowly, but on purpose. Jacob is older in this than in Fangs & Lullabies, and I want to get his voice right.

The other thing I wrote this past week was flash fiction: two short pieces that take place during the first part of the new series I’m planning. I’ve figured out the series’ name and the title for the first book… but I’m not ready to share quite yet Stay tuned to know more soon!

This past week, I’ve set aside everything to focus on one work in progress: Before The Edge. I entered a little friendly contest with a dear friend, and we’ve given each other a month to finish a project. The one I chose is BTE, a prequel to On The Edge that shows how Brett and Lisa first met before Leo came along. It’ll be a short story, somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 words I think, and I’m about 1/3rd done. Brett is being absolutely adorkable and I just want to pinch his cheeks. Lisa… wants to pinch a very different part of his anatomy

Before the contest started, though, I did work on One Last Lullaby. Let me just say this: the first chapter starts with a sword fight between Andrew and Jacob… and ends with Andrew and Nicholas in bed… Why, yes, I am a tease, didn’t you know?

I have also finished the edits for His Sire’s New Pet – but should I include that in my Writing Wednesday? Since I’m making the rules, I guess I will! There’s always a moment of self doubt after I’ve looked at a story for too long, but that doubt was nudged back when the first reviewer said she enjoyed the story. I can’t wait to see what she thought of it… and what you guys all think!

And alright, if you’re my friend on Facebook you know I lied when I said I set everything aside to work on Before The Edge. I was browsing through old files the other day, just looking at ideas of stories that I never wrote and probably never will write, and one of those ideas shifted into something else – something that I will definitely be writing. I’ve been feverishly jotting down notes about the heroine and the two heroes, about their world, and how its magic works, and how they are going to grow closer, fall apart and find each other again other the course of 8 or 9 novellas… Oh, this is going to be a FUN one to write!

Tomorrow, back to The Edge for Brett and Lisa’s second date

One of my New Year resolutions was to try to blog more often, so here’s my attempt at holding on to that vow! On Wednesdays, I’ll ramble about what I’ve been writing that week and how it’s going.

This past week has been all about my boys, Nicholas, Andrew and Jacob from Fangs & Lullabies. The sequel, Demons & Lullabies, is nearing completion. Another 10,000 words should do it. It’s based on scenes organized by year like Fangs & Lullabies, so I’ve been jumping around in my timeline. A few days ago, I finished the ‘Prom’ arc in Jacob’s seventeenth year. It was a fun one to do, and an eventful night for Jacob… although not in the way you might think!

Today I’ve been working on an arc in Year 6, with Nicholas and Andrew disagreeing vehemently about what toys are appropriate for Jacob. Let’s just say Andrew is not a fan of foam swords…

Other than this story, I’ve been working on my next freebie, One Last Lullaby. Usually I don’t outline freebies, but since I already have an idea of where I want to go with this one, I’ve been developing a plot. It feels a little odd to have a grown up Jacob to play with, but I look forward to it. And of course playing with Andrew and Nicholas is always fun! This story will focus on Jacob’s (love) life, but his fathers will have their own scene at the end of each chapter during which they discuss Jacob’s (mis)adventures. I still have more plotting to do on the outline, but I’ll probably start working on the first chapter proper in the coming week. I expect to start posting the freebie in March.

And now, back at it. Andrew and Nicholas have argued enough, it’s time for them to make out up…