Submissions to the Rough Edges anthology are now officially closed. That does not mean you’ve heard the last from me about it — I will share my submission stats once I’ve got a table of contents and I guarantee you’ll hear lots about the book as we progress through to publication (and beyond!).
Now I’m going to read through submissions and get to work on that process, but I’m also pitching my next anthology idea to Red Moon Romance’s Editor-in-Chief Eileen Wiedbrauk so with a little luck I should be announcing a new anthology soon.
Back in January I wrote a blog post listing my goals for this year. Since the year is more than halfway done I thought it would be a good time to press pause on all the stuff on my to-do list, take a look at my goals and see how I’m doing as I progress toward them. I find that if I don’t do that every now and then it’s really easy to get off track and spend a lot of time putting out fires/doing things which do not get me closer to accomplishing what I want to accomplish. I’m okay with goals changing and evolving over time, but I don’t want to fail to reach them just because I became distracted đ
My goals for 2015:
As a writer:
Self-publish all my old âSteffie Sherwoodâ stories
I kept changing my mind about this one. I want to share those stories because I don’t want them to be ‘wasted’ by just sitting on my hard drive but many of them will require a degree of editing I just don’t have time for. I could put them out as they are, but I don’t feel like they represent the same quality of fiction I’m creating now so I’m hesitant to do that either. My current plan, subject to change of course, is to pick a couple of my favourites, bundle them together and sell them for $0.99. I haven’t gotten this done yet, but it’s on my to-do list. So I’m officially changing this goal to be ‘Format and publish a small collection of the best of my Steffie Sherwood stories.‘ Further, I’m going to set a goal of having this completed by September 1st.
A writing under glass event is one where I write as publicly as I can given the circumstances. That may mean taking prompts from my blog readers, daily updates and excerpts–that sort of thing. I have yet to do this in 2015 so I’m officially declaring September my month to write under glass. I’m making it a month long event because I can’t stop everything else I’m doing, but I can minimize it so I can dedicate at least three hours a day to working on something ‘under glass’. I’m not sure yet what that will be. If Twin Magic isn’t finished by then it might be that–if it IS finished I’ll look to my Twitter followers and blog readers for feedback on what should come next.
Aside: All the pictures in this post were prompts from my first, less than successful, writing under glass event đ
Figure out why my tags and categories on this website have suddenly stopped working* >_<
I got this one done right away. Woohoo! I’ll take my victories where I can find ’em LOL
Publish at least one story through a traditional publisher
My short story, Circles Within Circles, was included in the Demons, Imps and Incubi anthology published by Red Moon Romance. I’m super proud of this story and look forward to writing more with these characters. Goal accomplished.
Complete one of my half-finished longer projects (incubus, Twin Magic or 2012âs NaNo novel)
I’ve been making steady progress on Twin Magic but just when I thought I could see the ending, the story took a bit of a turn on me and now it’s going to be a bit longer than I’d first anticipated. This goal isn’t accomplished yet, but I am on track.
Begin adapting ### ####### for re-release
I changed my mind. As much as I like this novel, I don’t think I love it enough to adapt it for re-release, I’d rather spend my writing time working on something new. I’m abandoning this goal.
Build a solid list of people on Twitter who I enjoy following and interacting with.
I’m still growing that list but there is a solid core of people I follow on Twitter now who I feel are *actually* people (as opposed to bots or “social media content management” platform/groups). I enjoy connecting with them and, since they haven’t blocked me yet, I am optimistic the feeling is mutual :-p
As an editor:
Edit at least two titles for Red Moon Romance that are released this year or next
This may include the Secret Santa anthology Iâm currently working on, but bonus points if they are in addition to it đ
I have edited two titles for Red Moon Romance in addition to the holiday-themed anthology (Luminous Dreams and Skye Falling). Whoot! Goal accomplished. Surpassed, really. I have one other title I’m in the process of editing for RMR and have a couple manuscripts I’ve passed on up to the Editor-in-Chief for permission to publish. So I feel like it’s safe to say my editing goals have been smashed đ
Successfully acquire stories to create a strong table of contents for the anthology I proposed to Red Moon Romance (hint: see picture above) and deliver the manuscript on time
This is referring to Rough Edges which is still open to submissions until Friday. So I guess I’ll be better able to evaluate how successful I was in this regard after that… still, I feel like I did everything I could to spread the word about this anthology so no matter what happens I deserve at least partial credit for that đ
Overall I think I’m doing pretty freaking well at moving toward my goals. With a due date for the Steffie Sherwood collection and a month of Writing Under Glass scheduled I’m confident that I’ll achieve the other goals I set for myself as well.
Yay!
How about you? How is your year going so far? Do you regularly set goals for yourself? How often? How do you evaluate your progress or success? Lemme know, I’d love to hear about it đ
Today, as we count down to the submission deadline for Rough Edges Doug Blakeslee is sharing some thoughts on his favourite cowboy in this guest post đ
“Lone ranger silver 1965” by Pleasure Island | Uploaded by We hope at en.wikipedia
When I was a kid, the TV was full of western TV shows; Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Lone Ranger, etc… The mythology was big in those days and you had a smidgen over two dozen on the air in 1959. Cowboys and Indians was a game we played and everyone wanted to be The Lone Ranger or Cisco Kid or Mat Dillon [from Gunsmoke]. Halloween was a parade of kids in ten gallon hats, chaps, and cap guns. The last one only if your parents were permissive enough. These were our heroes and we wanted emulate them. My generation bought into the myth of the cowboy and what we thought they represented. And the one that stood out was The Lone Ranger.
Ignoring the terrible movie remakes, the TV show captured the imagination of many kids. Clayton Moore will always be The Lone Ranger in my mind having made a strong impression in the mind of a young boy. Perhaps it’s because the creator took the pains to make the character as positive a role model as possible. They tried to emphasize ideas such as: to have a friend, one must be a friend, all men are created equal, everyone has the power to make world a better place, and being prepared to fight for what is right at all times. These aren’t bad sentiments and many of them are going strong in this day and age. The Lone Ranger was always on the side of good, there was no gray areas or moral quandaries. Good vs. Evil. A much more simple time with straightforward ideals to our modern and sophisticated sensibilities.
I have to think that these are the reasons for the failure of latest remake. It lacks that spirit and focuses more on the action, the wow factor, and Johnny Depp as Tonto. Having watched it, I have to wonder if the writer and director read/watched/listened anything about the Lone Ranger. They took the window dressing and decided to make an action blockbuster, keeping only a few touches from the original code and ignoring the rest. I’ve heard the arguments about reframing/reinterpreting the mythology for a modern audience, but I think that’s bunk. Some ideals will always attract an audience as long as you stay true to them. In the effort to be hip and modern, they lost the message. I hope I live long enough to see a remake that’s worthy of the original TV series.
Doug Blakeslee lives in the Pacific Northwest and spends his time writing, cooking, gaming, and watching hockey. His interest in books and reading started early thanks to his parents, though his serious attempts at writing only started a few years ago. From time to time he blogs about writing and other related topics at The Simms Project at http://thesimmsproject.blogspot.com/. He’s been published in such anthologies as: âSomeone Wickedâ, âAstrologica: Stories of the Zodiacâ, âFossil Lakeâ, âA Chimerical World: Tales of the Unseelie Courtâ and others. His current project is an urban fantasy novel about a war between the Fae. He can be reached on Facebook or simms.doug@gmail.com.
Rough Edges, my cowboy romance/erotica anthology is still open to submissions of works from 3,000 – 20,000 words long until July 31st. That is less than two weeks away so send me your best now! đ
As is apparent if you’ve read Merry XXXmas or know me from other places, I love to tell a story from one point of view and then flip things over and tell it again from the another point of view. So when I was offered the chance to do exactly that as a guest blogger on Literary Escapism I jumped at the chance. Check out my post there where I take on a scene from Circles Within Circles. In the original story you’ll read in Demons, Imps and Incubi this scene is told from the pov of Mary but in this scene you’ll get to see it from my demon, Cairn’s point of view.
If you’ve already read the story it’s a fun way to see a slightly different perspective on the scene and if you haven’t, well, consider it a teaser.
Here’s a teaser of the teaser…
…he held his arms up, palms out, to stop her protest before it could build too much momentum. âYou are asking me to cast a powerful spell on a target far away. My powers are weak from centuries of banishment and disuse. I need to recover them.â
âWell, thatâs very well and good,â she said. âBut I donât seeââ
âIâm an incubus,â he said.
Her thoughts were written across her face as clearly as the arcane symbols she had etched into the packed earth floor around him. He watched, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning as confusion was replaced by understanding, then shock, and finally anger.
âYou want me to have sex with you, or you wonât save my brother.â Anger simmered beneath her words and her eyes narrowed.
âOr I cannot save your brother,â he corrected.
Submissions to Rough Edges are closing in just a couple weeks, so I wanted to share a little somethin’ about a sort of western story I’m not seeing in the slush just yet. If you have a Weird West romance I’d love to see it!
~ Cori
Welcome to the Weird West
A Guest Post by Brantwijn Serrah
Artwork for the cover of Jonah Hex vol. 2, 1 (Jan, 2006). Art by Luke Ross
Thereâs always something so ruggedly satisfying about stories of the Wild West. Tombstone, Riders of the Purple Sage, Lonesome Dove, True Grit, just about anything by Louis Lâamour (hot damn, that man wrote a lot). The Western genre has enjoyed something of a resurgence in the last decade or so, with the popularity of books like Stephen Kingâs Dark Tower series, televisions shows like Deadwood and Firefly, and movies like Appaloosa, 3:10 to Yuma, and Cowboys & Aliens.
Thereâs also a sub-genre of Western fiction, a little lesser known, but not as unknown as you might think. Chances are youâve run across this sub-genre without realizing it. Itâs called Weird West, and if you can believe it, itâs made cowboy fiction even more colorful than before.
Weird West fiction combines traditional âspaghetti westernsâ (those rugged, macho, Clint Eastwood style westerns) with elements of other genres like steampunk, splatterpunk, sci-fi, horror, and fantasy.
Iâve even named a few of these cross-genre titles already. The Dark Tower, Firefly, and Cowboys & Aliens are allâyou guessed itâchildren of the Weird, Weird West.
So are Bravestarr (a sci-fi western cartoon from my childhood), Jonah Hex (A DC Comics property), certain episodes of Supernatural, and even Eastwoodâs High Plains Drifter.
But probably my favorite Weird West tales are the ones combining the rough, frontier flavor of traditional westerns with the dark mystery of paranormal horror. These stories bring in elements of ghost stories and cryptozoology; Native American mythologies and monsters like skin-walkers and wendigoes; sometimes even European legends like vampires, werewolves and witchcraft. They take us to the mesas of New Mexico and Arizona and warn us to keep an eye out for rattlesnakes, coyotes, and Lovecraftian terrors. They send us after outlaw gangs and ghost riders in the sky. The best Weird Westerns seamlessly weave these bizarre beings and strange happenings into the âeverydayâ, for their plot and cast.
As Frank Fronash points out in this article, a âtrueâ Weird West tale does more than simply transplant a supernatural plot into a western setting. In the Weird West, âweirdâ is the reality. The eerie elements of life are, yes, eerieâŚbut theyâre bigger than one moment in time. Itâs not the story thatâs weirdâŚitâs the world around the story. And for the people in the story, thatâs life. That is their frontier.
In The Dark Tower series, the context of Roland the gunslingerâs world is never clearly explained, but is strongly hinted to be a post-apocalyptic reality slowly coming to the end of its existence. Items which may be familiar to our contemporary societyâChevron gas tankers, World War II Fighter Planes, GPS trackers, and various other machineryâare ancient, forgotten relics to Rolandâs people, but horse-carts, cattle herding, six-shooters, and lively saloons are common. Distance, geography, and even the concept of time are wearing out and becoming unreliable, and more and more of the planet is returning to a wild, unpredictable and sparsely populated frontier. To outsiders, this is a drastic contrast to âourâ world, but it is so normal to Roland and his own people, they even have an idiom for it. âThe world has moved on,â they say, and to them the phrase encompasses everything strange and unfamiliar. To them, this is life, and always has been.
In certain works such as Cowboys & Aliens, Ginger Snaps Back, From Dusk Until Dawn, and even The Lone Rangerâall of which are classified as Weird West by Wikipediaâthe supernatural spin is an oddity to the characters, an âunknownâ to all but maybe one wise character attuned to the greater picture of things. This, by Fronashâs description, is a dilution of true Weird West. These stories may be set against a western backdrop, but the âweirdâ element is simply a nugget of paranormal/fantasy genre dropped in. Stories like this could take place in many other settings and not be significantly altered in character. Sure, theyâre weirdâŚbut theyâre not uniquely tales of the West.
I agree with Fronash that the truest, eeriest, and most delicious examples of this sub-genre come from a sense of the Weird being inextricably linked with the âheartâ of the West: those wide, uncharted wildernesses; the daunting and yet thrilling sense of the unknown; the gritty rough-hewn heroes carved from survival and sacrifice; and a dusty but determined sense of chivalry.
I donât mind tipping my hat to some of the less-intricate Weird Westerns, though. Every Weird West tale begins somewhere and every Weird West fan has to start somewhere. The popularity of Cowboys & Aliens among audiences demonstrates the capability of these adventures to draw new interest in the genre.
But always remember the real flavor of Weird West fiction goes deeper, and spreads farther, like a current of strange and powerful magic running under the land itself.
Brantwijn Serrah: When she isn’t visiting the worlds of immortals, demons, dragons and goblins, Brantwijn fills her time with artistic endeavors: sketching, painting, customizing My Little Ponies and sewing plushies for friends. She can’t handle coffee unless there’s enough cream and sugar to make it a milkshake, but try and sweeten her tea and she will never forgive you. She moonlights as a futon for four lazy cats, loves tabletop role-play games, and can spend hours watching Futurama, Claymore or Buffy the Vampire Slayer while she writes or draws.
Brantwijn has published two full-length erotic novels: Lotus Petals and Goblin Fires. In addition to these, Brantwijn has had several other stories published by Breathless Press, including contributions to the 2013 Crimson Anthology and 2014 Ravaged Anthology. She’s also had a short story published in the Cleiss Press Big Book of Orgasm and the anthology Coming Together Through The Storm. She has author pages on GoodReads and Amazon, and loves to see reader comments on her work. Her short stories and audio readings occasionally pop up at Foreplay and Fangs, her blog at http://brantwijn.blogspot.com.
Submissions to the Rough Edges anthology are now officially closed. That does not mean you’ve heard the last from me about it — I will share my submission stats once I’ve got a table of contents and I guarantee you’ll hear lots about the book as we progress through to publication (and beyond!).
