Also, the holiday story fest put on by the M/M Romance group on Goodreads — the event for which I wrote “The Gift” — is wrapping up with an e-book anthology of all the stories written for the event. The book is called Stuff My Stocking, and it’s a free download on Goodreads. Lots of fun stuff there.

2 submissions = 2 pts.
3654 words written = 0 pts. [hides under keyboard]
12,800 words edited = 2 pts.
TOTAL = 4 pts. which is extremely disappointing

If one of the subbed stories had been 2200 words longer, I’d have gotten another point for the pre-sub clean-up edit — I need to write longer. Of course if I’d written more, I’d have gotten some writing points too, so….

I got an acceptance on one of the stories I subbed in August, though, so that’s cool. It was for Torquere’s Halloween Sip Blitz (short Halloween stories released in a bunch, sort of like an anthology only not all in one book). It’s another Cal-and-Aubrey story, the characters who starred in “Unfinished Business” and were supporting characters in A Hidden Magic. They’re great guys and their character dynamic together is a hoot; I love writing about them.

Earlier in September, my husband and I went on a late-anniversary trip (the rates were better a couple of weeks after the actual anniversary, and I’m not sentimental enough to insist on spending more money for the same trip just because of the date) to San Francisco. I’d planned on blogging about it at the time, or shortly after getting home, like I did last year, but the first four or five days were a total disaster. My, umm, natural cycles hit about ten minutes after we checked into our room, and it was a killer. I haven’t had that bad a time since I was on the depakote, which messed with me something awful — known possible side effect, and I hit the side effect jackpot with that particular prescription. Then just as that was slowing down to the point where I could consider maybe leaving the hotel the next day, my husband (who’d been going out by himself, bringing food back periodically, and generally leaving me alone to cuss and wish for menopause) came back with some wrap sandwiches from this little Mediterranean place. He got me a chicken wrap, and the chicken was a bit dry, but I didn’t think much of it. About five hours later I had a case of raging food poisoning.

That took another couple of days of vacation time.

Once I was a few minutes’ walk from death’s door, we went out and had a some fun. We went to the same dim sum place we went to last year, and the food was just as good. Then we walked up to the Museum of the African Diaspora, which is small but has some cool exhibits. We watched a film about Celia Cruz, the Cuban salsa singer. I’m not really into music much, so I’d never heard of her, but the film was very good, interesting even if it’s not one’s style of music. They had some computerized displays with touch-screen monitors in the walls, about different kinds of foods from Africa, and another set about personal adornment, showing native styles of clothing, jewelry, makeup, hairdos, piercings, pretty much anything, and each style morphed into a style you see today in the modern West, to show descent. I hadn’t thought about that, specifically, matching up modern American styles with traditional African influences, so that was interesting too.

We rode the trolley up to Castro and went to A Different Light. I got a bunch of books, and a couple were even on sale — half off, yay! I like e-books, but I really miss being able to just look and browse. Some of the e-book vendors have done a fair job duplicating the experience (and others need to put a lot more work into it) but there’s nothing like browsing actual books on shelves, you know? I’m not one for buying a lot of gew-gaws or souvenirs on vacation — I don’t hit all the fashion boutiques or the big department stores either — but I’ll usually drop some serious cash in bookstores, so I guess that makes up for it.

After the bookstore, we walked up a few blocks to a little cafe Jim had found online. The food was wonderful — I had a really excellent macaroni and cheese — but the chairs were horrible. They were the kind with the bars coming down from the back, diagonally to attach about a third of the way up either side of the seat. I’m sure that’s a fine style if you’re skinny, but if you’re fat it’s torture, and I’m not even kidding. It’s amazing how many restaurants have chairs like this; for places that sell food, and that make more money if their customers eat more, you’d think they’d want to encourage people to come and eat, and people who eat a lot to come often. Sorry, I was in serious pain well before we were finished, and I’m not going back there no matter how great the food was.

We took a formal tour on our second-to-last day there; the brochure advertised a bus tour of the city, lunch in Sausalito, and then a trip up to Muir Woods where we could walk around for a while. My Great-Aunt Angie took me on what sounded like almost the exact same bus tour (no Sausalito lunch stop) thirty-some years ago, and the woods had been beautiful, so I was enthusiastic about going again. Jim agreed, so we went. Turned out this one was different. On the tour I took with Aunty, we just drove around the city while the guide did his patter, which was interesting and enjoyable, and then we went to the woods. This time there were nine stops on the tour, seven of them in SF, and it seemed sometimes like we were stopping to get out every three blocks or so. Which would’ve been fine except it started early in the morning and it was cool and dewy (as San Francisco is) and the first stop let us out in a neighborhood street a few blocks from the top of Lombard Street, where we were going to walk down. Getting there, I brushed against some shrubs or something hanging out into the narrow sidewalks, and my leather sandal got wet. So, wet leather strap, swells a bit and roughens, then a long walk down a steep hill with the skin at the top of my foot rubbing against the edge of the wet, rough leather strap with every step. By the time we got to the bottom of the hill, I was way past blister — I had an open sore with a couple shreds of skin hanging off, and of course my sandal rubbed on it every time I took a step.

I really wanted to be able to walk around the woods, though, so I skipped about half the remaining stops — just stayed on the bus. It actually wasn’t bad; some of the stops, like Chinatown, were in places I’d been through just a year ago. And as a bonus, once we found a place to park, the driver — who’d been basically silent the whole trip so far — chatted with us and told us a bunch of stuff about Chinatown, which was where he’d grown up. That was pretty cool.

The Palace of Fine Arts is gorgeous, but you mostly go look at it for the outside architecture, and I could see that fine through the bus window. I got out at Grace Cathedral, because it’s beautiful and I haven’t been there since I was in college (I went with a couple of classmates for an art history project), and I looked at the sculpture garden outside the new DeYoung Museum, which was very, umm, modern, and I probably could’ve skipped that too without missing much. Lunch in Sausalito was nice, although we chose a place the tour guide recommended primarily for its speedy service, because you do not want to miss the bus on these tours. Then most of the tour folks caught the ferry back to San Francisco with our original guide, while the dozen or so of us going on to Muir Woods got into a smaller bus with a new guide.

If you’ve never been to Muir Woods, I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance because it’s gorgeous. Quiet and dim, huge redwoods, laurels, a little creek running down the middle of the valley… and we saw deer! I know that’s kind of a boring, everyday thing for some folks who read this, but it was pretty darned cool for us. The paths are fenced — low, wooden railings on either side — and you’re not supposed to go off the paths. The deer come amazingly close to the paths to feed; it seems like they’ve figured out that so long as they don’t get too close to the path, all the two-legged critters that walk up and down it won’t bother them. The first one, a large doe, was about ten yards or so away. The second, a really small deer our pamphlet said was full-grown, just small, was within about three yards of the path, perched on a big, fallen log and reaching up for leaves over its head. You couldn’t quite have bent over the railing and touched it, but it was pretty close to it. That was pretty amazing.

The valley is narrow, and the path runs on either side of the creek, with a series of numbered bridges. Our guide said that up to bridge three, over to the other side and back was about a mile loop. Up to bridge four and back was two miles. Usually I’d have gone for bridge four, cane and all, but with my foot still torn up I thought bridge three was the more prudent walk, and that one worked fine. We didn’t hurry, and we still got back with plenty of time to spare before leaving; we sat on the railing in the middle of bridge one and just hung out in the quiet, listening to the water for a bit.

The bus took us back to Sausalito, where we took the ferry back to SF. The tour started and ended at the Ferry Terminal building, which is like a three minute walk from the front entrance of our hotel, so that was convenient both ways. At that point I just wanted to collapse and sleep, but I’d made arrangements to see a friend that night, so I took off my sandals and just sort of dozed for a bit.

I’ve known Karen since seventh grade homeroom. She took BART from Livermore, where she lives, to the Embarcadero stop which is about thirty seconds’ walk from our hotel. (It was worth delaying the trip a bit to get back into this hotel — great location. ) Karen isn’t a mass transit person, so it was something new for her, but everything went well, both coming over and going home later that evening. I put on my sneakers (lucky I packed two pairs of shoes!) and we went up to the Stinking Rose — the garlic restaurant we went up to last year) taking a cab instead of walking. The prime rib is just as big, and the garlic-cream swiss chard is just as awesome. We had something yummy for dessert, I don’t even remember what, then cabbed back to the hotel. Karen stuck around a bit to talk, then went home; Jim walked her down to the BART station, not only because it was late at night, but to make sure she got on the right train okay, and that all went fine.

The next day, we came home. We got to the airport, checked our baggage, and my pants split. [facepalm] Not the classic up-the-back, luckily, but just the fabric on one side high on the inner thigh. You know, where the fabric gets worn if you’re fat? It was uncomfortable but Jim assured me it didn’t show, so I just ignored it as best I could and we went on. The flight was uneventful, but I lost my pedometer in the cab on the way home from the airport. [headdesk] It’s like Murphy needed a couple of last pokes to remind me he was still on duty after a few good days.

Between this and our last cruise, where I also got sick and sprained my foot, the universe owes us about a dozen completely perfect vacations, seriously, LOL! I’d have had a hard time writing about this in a story and making it sound believable, with one thing piling on top of another, on top of another, on top of another. I don’t think I’ll ever be that good a writer. Here’s to October being better. [crossed fingers]

Angie

All his life Rory has been different, hearing and seeing things no one else can. After he is attacked by Goblins, Rory is introduced to a whole new world, one he’s having a hard time accepting.

The author has done an excellent job weaving a story that is sure to hold the reader’s attention until the last page. I was glad to see on the publisher’s site that this was the first book in a series and can’t wait to see what will happen next.

This is a wonderful review; I’m so glad Lydia enjoyed the book. [beam] This kind of commentary makes me want to get right back to work on the next novel in the series.

Angie, walking a few inches off the ground

PS — Fictionwise has A Hidden Magic for 15% off right now, $5.09 instead of $5.99. I guess it’s not up on the iBookstore yet? Anyway, I don’t know how long the discount will last, but I’m guessing not long.

Drawing: I’m hanging out on Torquere’s LiveJournal community today, playing host, talking about whatever comes to mind, and holding a drawing. For each of my posts you comment on today, you get a ticket in the drawing, and tomorrow I’ll pull a name and send the winner a $5 Torquere gift certificate.

Sale: It just happens that Torquere’s having a sale today and tomorrow. Enter “prejuly” in the coupon code box when you check out, and you’ll get 15% off your purchase. Add that to the fact of the backlist books’ prices going up on 1 July, and that makes these two days a really wonderful time to grab some bargains. Or to just have your five dollars go that much farther if you win the drawing.

==========

From “Unfinished Business:”

After a morning of saving the world, apprentice mage Cal Toscani heads down and works a full day in his busy restaurant, because foiling the bad guy doesn’t pay the bills. After midnight, bruised and aching from the aforementioned foiling, and exhausted from a long day of work, Cal goes home hoping for a hot bath, a nice massage and some sex, not necessarily in that order. His lover and master, Aubrey Fletcher, unfortunately remembers that he’d given Cal a lesson that morning before everything got exciting, and he’s determined that Cal’s going to finish that lesson before anything else happens — yes, right now. Cal finds himself naked in bed, trying to figure out how to remove Aubrey’s spell, while a naked Aubrey does his best to be distracting. Cal’s pretty sure he’s going to explode long before he figures the damn thing out!

==========

Cal grinned, tossed his jacket onto a chair, then spread his arms and did a slow rotation in place. “No orc bites!” he reported, his expression a parody of relief.

Aubrey just raised an eyebrow, then pointed at him and drew a twitchy little sigil Cal couldn’t quite catch before it was gone. An ominously familiar warm weight on either side of his head made him groan. Those damn ass’s ears again!

“Now?” he griped. “Come on, I just finished work, I’m tired, I want a shower and was kind of hoping for a nice massage and sex. Can’t we finish this tomorrow?”

His master crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway. “Do you think enemies–”

“–will wait until you’re rested and ready?” Cal chorused with him. “No, I know, but come on!”

Aubrey just stared at him.

“Fuck.”

One corner of Aubrey’s mouth twitched and his eyes twinkled up into Cal’s. “Maybe.” He uncrossed his arms and moved closer, leaning in until their bodies touched from chest to knees. “Maybe you need some incentive?”

Cal felt a hand slide between them and rub at his suddenly-interested cock. The hand moved away again immediately and he moaned in protest.

“You have six pairs of ears right now,” said Aubrey. His eyes were still twinkling and the old bastard sounded like he was having a grand time. “They’re quite colorful and rather cheery, but I’m assuming you want to get rid of them. For every pair you banish, I’ll escalate.” He lifted up on his toes for a moment and gave Cal a quick kiss, then backed away.

==========

Read the Rest

New prices will be in accordance with wordcount rather than by line: up to 10K words will cost $1.99, up to 20K will cost $2.99, etc. Novels will stay the same price as before: $5.95 or $6.95 depending on length.

New books released in June already reflect the new pricing; backlist books will have their prices increased on 1 July. If you’ve had any older Torquere books on your wish list for a while, now’s the time to go grab them.

Best Deal: for anyone who’s been meaning to get my novelette “A Spirit of Vengeance,” Torquere sells it for $2.49 right now, but Amazon has the Kindle edition for $1.99. After 1 July, it’ll be $2.99, so you can save a dollar — one third off the new price — if you can read Kindle books.

Angie

Vampire Bunnies — what is it with vampire writers in the last however many years deciding that a vampire’s fangs are his or her incisors? o_O Whenever I read about a vampire’s sharpened incisors extending, or whatever, I have to laugh — I get this mental image of a psychotic Bugs Bunny or an undead beaver something. Definitely not the image most writers seem to be going for. [snicker]

How to Keep Someone With You Forever — gakked through Nagasvoice over on LiveJournal, Issendai posted this piece on how to keep people from leaving you, whether “you” is an individual in a personal relationship, or a company trying to hold on to its employees. A good subtitle would be “How to Create a Sick System.” This is important reading for anyone who might be caught up in a sick system, or who has a loved one who’s stuck in a sick system. But it’s also fascinating as a writer who might want to put a character into an emotionally poisonous situation some time. This is fascinatingly awful, and the fact that it’s real just makes it moreso.

Angie

Fictionwise is having one of its 40% rebate on everything sales, for purchases made with a credit card. The link takes you to the two of my books they sell, but the rebate applies to everything. The way this works is when you purchase a book with a rebate, the rebated amount is credited to your “micropay” account, which can be spent later like cash. I like their rebate-on-everything sales because usually their rebates only apply to DRMed books, and I don’t buy those. You don’t have to join a club or anything; just create the usual online buyer’s account and your rebate amount will be stored there for whenever you want to use it.

All Romance eBooks is having a promotion where authors and/or publishers are donating their royalties for the month of May to the National Center for Lesbian Rights — which supports the rights of all LGBT people now, not just lesbians. The NCLR is representing Clay Greene in his attempt to get justice from Sonoma County for the horrible way they treated him and his partner, Harold Scull.

From NCLR’s info page on Greene v. County of Sonoma et al.:

Clay and his partner of 25 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place, including wills and powers of attorney, naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.

County workers also removed Clay from his and Harold’s home and placed Clay in an assisted living facility against his will. Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in a nursing home. Because of the County’s actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 25 years, and he has been unable to recover his possessions.

That’s really despicable. The county claimed Harold and Clay were only roommates when it came to visitation rights or the authority to make medical and financial decisions, despite Clay having a legal power of attorney (which was ignored). But it seems the county was treating them as legal partners who owned property in common when it sold the entire contents of their home to pay for Harold’s medical costs. They couldn’t even be consistent in their gross mistreatment of this couple.

All my stand-alone short stories up on ARe are part of the fund raising effort. I’ll donate all my royalties from ARe to Clay Greene’s legal fund at NCLR, to help him get some sort of justice out of this mess, and give Sonoma County officials the slap they clearly need to jar a few brain cells loose. If you’ve been thinking of trying some of my work, this’d be a good time to do it — some good stories and helping out with a worthy cause. (And in actuality, I’m donating all my royalties for the quarter — through the end of June — since my statement doesn’t break it down any farther than that.) Here’s ARe’s info page about the fund raiser, which includes a list of all the authors and publishers participating, with links to their books.

Angie

They said they weren’t going to be in the office until Monday because of the holiday, but it looks like they’re still working. Not exactly shocking with a small business; I thought it might happen quickly, but I didn’t want to really hope, you know?

Anyway, this is awesome. [beam] If you want me, I’ll just be wandering around six inches off the floor somewhere….

Angie

Angie