Good reviews for Ad Astra!

Good reviews are always gratifying.

I've been fortunate in that I've never had a truly savage review -- in fact, even the less favorable reviews have always seemed, on balance, to be fair. I would even go so far as to say that they generally point out what I, too, thought were the weak spots in a particular story.

But it's lovely to see my latest work has been generally well received. When the lowest score for a books is 3/5, that's nothing to sneer at as an author. 

To cherry pick a few lines to feather my cap (to mix a metaphor):

Another reason for that is the fact that his relationship with Nicholas (who btw is his husband) was on the kinky side, but it was so easily introduced, so easily narrated, that it was as if the writer was writing vanilla sex for crying out loud. It blends beautifully and the scene itself was not so much erotic as it was sweet, effortless, and sensual. So, do you fault me for wanting a full on novel on these guys? (Thomaidha Papa)

If you like stories that imagine what the future will be like, if you enjoy reading about man who are clearly devoted to each other, ...and if you're looking for a short, hot read with lots of love and some kinkiness, then you will probably like this short story. (Serena Yates)

I love futuristic and science fiction stories, and this short one was great! Jacob and Nicholas are husbands, pilots, fighters in the future ...This was a wonderful short that reminded me of how important it is to love, even in the fighting forces, and that being together is so much better than being apart. (Christy Duke)

So, if you think you might enjoy it I can only encourage you to buy it. All author royalties for Torquere Press Charity Sips are donated in their entirety to a worthy organistation (this year to Outserve-SLDN), AND those donations are matched by Torquere Press. So you'll be doing a good deed and (hopefully!) getting a good read at the same time. 

New Release! Charity Sip Release & Blog Hop!

Our Bloghop Starts Here: Torquere Press

Each year, Torquere Press does a charity drive supporting an LGBT cause. (These stories are out now.) The authors donate their royalties and Torquere matches that amount. Each year the stories are themed reflecting the cause the drive is supporting. I don't participate every year; I don't always have a story that would fit.

But this year's cause is close to my heart -- to the extent that it's difficult to talk about why. Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent etc. Growing up, I wanted to join the military -- I had big dreams, and they didn't work out. Perhaps ironically, it wasn't because of my LGBT status, though I've often wondered how things would have turned out. If I had gotten my dreams then, would they have been dashed later? It's impossible to know what might have been.

Anyway. From their about page:

"Outserve-SLDN is the association of actively serving LGBT military personnel and is a non-partisan, non-profit, legal services, watchdog and policy organization dedicated to bringing about full LGBT equality to America's military and ending all forms of discrimination and harassment of military personnel on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity."

If you think the difficulties facing American service people who are LGBT ended with Don't Ask Don't Tell, please educate yourself further. Trans* people are still barred from serving. The fight is far from over.

September Update!

Well, September's been anything but boring, but sadly all the interesting things are happening in my private life instead of the wonderful world of writing. BUT there will be a proper writerly post in about week, as Torquere Press are organizing a blog hop to promote the upcoming Charity Sips.

Tune in for that, as there will be something like 24 stories coming out all once, all in aid of OutServe. The stories themselves are out on Friday the 19th, so if you must have them immediately (and who would want to wait?) make sure to mark your calendars.

To help get you in the mood I created a mood board for my sip, Ad Astra (to the Stars).

A little snippet for those who haven't seen it yet (so very NSFW):

August Update

You may have noticed some new banners up around the blog -- that's because I'm promoting the Rainbow Awards. If you haven't heard of them, you should definitely click. They're the brain child of Elisa Rolle, who works incredibly hard on them, practically year round, while at the same time reviewing QUILTBAG fiction and writing about QUILTBAG history.

The Rainbow Awards reviews QUILTBAG writing across a wide swathe of genres (including nonfiction and biography/memoir), with few restrictions (the books must be 41K+, for example). There really is something for everyone to find here.

I can be sure of that because I'm on the jury again for the fourth year running. It's a strange experience. Inevitably, I end up reading books I'd never have selected for myself. There are books I receive and think "oh, this is going to be a chore" and some of them have turned out to be favorites of mine. (And of course, the reverse is true. I've seen books I thought would be a treat to read, and no. No they were not. But such is life, and they may very well be someone else's favorite book.)

So! Keep an eye out for it, and if you're interested in getting involved, make sure to have a look here. If you have a book that might be eligible, check out the criteria -- books are still being accepted until September 5.

Winner Announcement -- Hot Summer Romance Giveaway Hop! (And misc. housekeeping)

Congratulations to Swordlily! (Swordlily, I will also be contacting you by email shortly.)

Many thanks to everyone else who joined in on the blog hop -- I hope you all had a good time.

A quick side note: I'm hoping to start a newsletter, for anyone who's interested in my stuff but might not particularly want to hunt down my blog and check to see if it's updated -- if you're into blogs, you might not want to join as it'll basically be a repeat of the blog posts. 

If you're interested in joining, please feel free to add your email address to the comment of this post, OR email me at molly.anne.church AT gmail DOT com. Please make sure the subject line or somewhere in the text of the mail says "newsletter" so that I can find it easily when I search. 

Lastly, and very importantly, for those of you who are interested in supporting the Torquere Press Charity Sips drive, this year supporting  OutServe-SLDN, a non-profit that provides legal services and support to LGBT military individuals and families, I can tell you that the release dates for ALL of the Charity Sips (including Ad Astra (To the Stars)) will be September 18th. 

Hot Summer Romance Giveaway Hop!

Welcome to the Molly Church stop on the Hot Summer Romance Giveaway Hop bus tour!

Today I'm offering up a sneak preview of my upcoming (September) Torquere Press Charity Sips release, Ad Astra (To the Stars). Torquere Press Charity Sips are an annual drive where both Torquere and the authors involved donate their profits to a QUILTBAG cause -- this year's recipient will be OutServe-SLDN, a non-profit that provides legal services and support to LGBT military individuals and families, working toward equal representation and benefits. 

BUT! Before I get to the sneak preview, let me remind you that it's not called a giveaway hop for nothing! Comment here for a chance to win your choice any of my currently available stories (available in pdf format), which you can check out here. And that's not all! Insatiable Reads are offering two grand prizes: a Kindle Fire and a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate -- and there are many other prizes to be won, so please make sure to hop around. The hop is open through the 21st, and I'll be picking/posting a winner sometime on the 22nd.

And now... to the stars: Ad Astra (To the Stars) features Jacob and Nicholas, two naval pilots/astronauts, and is set a little bit into Earth's future. Jacob is recovering from an injury that's left him with frequent vertigo and near-constant nausea, neither of which are doing anything to help his restless mood. Nicholas, however, is just glad that his husband is recovering, and is happy to be there for him while he does. It's 4K long, light sci-fi, and has just a sprinkling of kink.

(As well as a snippet, there is also a mood board available for those so inclined.)

The following snippet is so very Not Safe For Work:  

Free Story: Easter at the O'Leary's

"Easter at the O'Leary's" is a short sequel to Summer Storm, written for the Torquere Social Happy Hour, to prompts supplied by the members. It contains no spoilers for "Summer Storm", and it's not necessary to have read "Summer Storm" to follow it. (For those interested in such things, "Summer Storm" now has a pinterest board.)

+++ +++ +++

Slinky had fit into Cathal's family's hodge-podge of celebrations with supernatural ease. Admittedly, his parents called Slinky 'Caelan', a name which meant 'slender person' (the best Cathal could do at short notice), and they didn't know he was a shapeshifter out of ancient lore, but Cathal knew when to count his blessings and when to cut his losses. Still, Cathal had no misgivings about  bringing Slinky home for Easter.

That might have been a mistake.

It started fine: Saturday, on the beach -- Slinky up earlier than Cathal, sunning himself under the bright but freezing early-morning late-March sky. Cold did not bother Slinky (it didn't bother Cathal, much, either, but there was a difference between doesn't bother me, much and I revel in it, peasants. Slinky skated over such distinctions without ever noticing, but his lover's alien-ness bothered Cathal even less than the cold.

Cathal found Slinky at the end of the shore without trouble; there were a few fishermen checking their nets, and Slinky lay on the beach entirely unselfconscious of curious human eyes.

The hardest part was always the drive. Slinky found human transport stifling, even when Cathal's family was at the other end. Still, he manfully swallowed most of irritation during the long trip to Cathal's parents' place. It didn't always help. Sometimes Slinky got, well, epically car sick. By the time they got to Chez O'Leary, Slinky was looking more like a leprechaun than a selkie.

Cathal's mother immediately packed Slinky off to bed, before dispatching Cathal with a cup of tea and a reproachful look. It didn't last too long; by the time he was back downstairs, Cathal too had been provided with tea. Cathal didn't last much longer than supper; the early start and Slinky's travel sickness had taken something out of both of them. Cathal put himself to bed beside his lover, ready for it to be Easter Morning already.

The next morning, Cathal found Slinky out under his parent's oak tree. Slinky had fortunately recovered much of his color, and Cathal was only too happy to canoodle with him until his parents got back from Mass and the celebrations could properly begin. Slinky, however, having diligently absorbed Catholic Christmas traditions, had apparently turning up with gifts for everybody. An amber necklace for Cathal's mother. A driftwood sculpture for Cathal's father. A fountain pen for Cathal, accompanied by a parchment-heavy envelop marked only "sealed with a kiss" that Cathal dared not open in company.  But Cathal's parents only smiled indulgently, and passed around the chocolate Easter eggs, and a hammer, and it was Slinky's turn to be confused.

Buy Link for Summer Storm

Saturday Spankings Blog Hop!

Welcome to my little stop on the Saturday Spanking's Blog Hop!


My contribution:

Yare'ach genuflected before his Lord, grateful that the posture hid his face, for he was certain his regret was writ bold across it. When Lord Ayve order him naked, he felt only relief that he would be permitted to expunge his fault so easily. The minor pain of a beating was worth it. He'd have taken a thousand and still fallen to his knees in gratitude. 

The context:

A Hope in Hell  tells the story of the meeting and beginning of the love affair of Yare'ach, an angel trapped in Hell, and the demon Lord Ayve. A Hope in Hell attempts to create a unique and plausible vision of Hell, and sympathetic but strong characters who, in trying circumstances, find a way to reach out to each other. Sympathy, the sequel to a A Hope in Hell, also included in this edition, continues their romance.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Buy link for A Hope in Hell

July Update

In good news, it's been a very busy month for me!

My portal fantasy -- which now has a name, which is a secret for the moment, in case it gets changed -- got finished, and then a good friend had a look at it, and now it's no longer finished, because she made some suggestions that were just to good to ignore, so it's in edits again. But I think it should be done (again) this week, and then sent off to the submission mines. (The kinkster in me still gets a little giggle every time I "submit" a story, even though I've been doing it for years. Apparently I am more easily amused than I once thought.)

ANYWAY, that's already 20K+, and set to get longer, and is a f/f, well, portal fantasy. Portal fantasies, for those of you wondering what I mean, are stories like the Chronicles of Narnia. Characters start in one place (generally our Earth) and cross some sort of portal (a fancy word for doorway or entrance, and related to the words port, porch and portcullis, for example), to wind up somewhere else, having adventures.


I also wrote, and sent off a couple of nights ago, a submission for Torquere Press' annual Charity Sip drive.  It features Jacob and Nicholas, two naval pilots/astronauts, and is set a little bit into Earth's future. Jacob is recovering from an injury that's left him with frequent vertigo and near-constant nausea, neither of which are doing anything to help his restless mood. Nicholas, however, is just glad that his husband is recovering, and is happy to be there for him while he does. It's 4K long, light sci-fi, and has just a sprinkling of kink.


PS: A word about the August update: that will probably go up on the 2nd, as I have Things To Do on the 1st.

Lifts the furniture covers, blows away the dust, sweeps out the cobwebs... And I'm back.

I have updated my website, and it's frankly past time to update the blog. So what have I been up to in the meantime? Mostly writing, plus generic life stuff. I can't talk about all the writing, but I have published a new short story, "Summer Storm", with Torquere Press.

I've also rounded up my backlist, tidied it up a little, and put it up on lulu.com. So if you missed A Hope in Hell or my Corvo and Ardán series, fear not! They are available once again. Reviews for both can be found here.

As for the blog, well, it would seem I am not much of a blogger. One a week was clearly far too often, but never is even worse. I've decided to aim for the first of the month, as a sort of bloggy new resolution. So I'll see you in July, and tell you a little bit about my latest project, currently living with the terrible name 'portal fantasy'.

News, and Going Dim

But not going dark -- more on that below.

News first:

The BIG news is:
Brown: Grisaille in Sand and Sunset is out from Torquere Press!

In smaller news:
1.) Pentimento: Poppy is now available from All Romance Ebooks.
2.) Gray: Grisaille in Stone and Sky is written, and has gone off to the editor.
3.) I am Torquere Press' Featured Author until May 7th.

In not-fun news, this blog is going dim for a while -- it's not because I haven't been putting up something new weekly, though it's for the same reason:

I'm in pain, and an awful lot of it. Getting Grisaille in Gray done was excruciating, and I've learned that voice-recognition does not work for me, for writing fiction. It works (when it works, which is not all the time, either, for other reasons) for posts and email.

So I'm going to be taking time away from the computer, not just typing. There may be odd posts occasionally, but I will not be trying to update weekly. I apologize for this, but it's largely out of my control -- the only part that I do have control over is trying to heal, and I have to take responsibility for that.

Free Story: The Queen and the Soldier

Originally written for the Torquere Social Happy Hour, "The Queen and the Soldier" is a short >1K m/m story written to the prompts supplied by various members.

***

Saturday is like an extra Friday

I'm pretty sure this really will be a short round up, unlike last week's short round up.

For those curious, my speech recognition software is still making my teeth clench, which is at least a different kind of repetitive strain injury. But moving along to the interesting news (some of which I have already covered):

1.) I have a new website (which is to say, I have a website): www.mollychurch.com. Please check it out.

2.) I have a new release, Pentimento: Poppy, available from Torquere Press.

2b) If you're interested in an excerpt or a "sexy snippet" for Poppy both are available (just follow the links).

2c) An extra scene, which doesn't appear in Poppy is also available.

3.) Another free story in the Dylan and Xavier semi-series was written on Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day) in honor of release day. It follows in a separate post.

New Release - Pentimento: Poppy is OUT NOW

Pentimento: Poppy (10700 words and published by Torquere Press), is out now.

To celebrate that, and St. Patrick's Day, I'm throwing a bit of a party on the Happy Hour LJ.

In other news, I have a website: www.mollychurch.com. Please check it out!

Fortnightly roundup

Not such terribly big round up this time, though I have been busy. Still, it's the kind of busy that takes an awful lot of time but isn't necessarily all that interesting to talk about.

Point the first: Software :/
I am still having problems with repetitive strain injury (RSI), but I do now have software for speech recognition. It's pretty good if I remember to use a normal-ish volume for my speaking voice, but actually I tend to speak fairly quietly what I'm talking to myself, which is what it feels like I'm doing. I expected to have problems with pacing, by which I mean I expected the software not be able to keep up with what I want to write. This is not such big problem, especially since I have now switched off the automatic punctuation. It is a bigger problem when I'm writing fiction, because I do type much faster than software works, but it works fine for blog posts and e-mail, and reasonably well for chatting via text in gchat and Skype.

Aside from the issue of volume, the software does not like it if I forget I'm talking to it and speak with any emotion in my voice whatsoever, which has the side effect of making me wonder if the people I talk to are equally annoyed by the sound of my voice. Yes, I have begun to think that the software sentient, and furthermore has something of a cruel sense of humor. this was not helped by discovering chapters of 2001: A Space Odyssey in the training section of the software tools.

Point the second: Editing :)
I have discovered I love editing. This is not something I would have expected of myself; honestly, I was fully prepared to find it nothing more than a necessary chore. It is necessary, because nobody catches all their own mistakes. Also, an editor can point out something that isn't necessarily an error, but also doesn't necessarily work as well as it seems to him the author's omniscient standpoint, because the context simply does not exist in the story.

But for me I think it goes deeper than that -- I love words. I love sentences. I love punctuation. I love looking at them, and fiddling with them, and making them work together. It's like loving apples and cinnamon and cream and pastry, all each individually, but toying with them over and over in different combinations to create subtle variations on apple pie. An editor becomes in many ways a taste tester, a second set of taste buds who can point out that not everyone loves cinnamon as much as you do and that maybe you should cut it back a bit, or that you're being stingy with the sugar, or that if you add any more fat, the pie is going to need to come with a warning. After all, you can always make the cinnamon loaded version for yourself, but you'd like your guests to enjoy this pie.

I am also reminded of Neil Gaiman's comparison between writing and building dry stone walls ( which you can find here):

A dry-stone wall is a lovely thing when you see it bordering a field in the middle of nowhere but becomes more impressive when you realise that it was built without mortar, that the builder needed to choose each interlocking stone and fit it in. Writing is like building a wall. It's a continual search for the word that will fit in the text, in your mind, on the page. Plot and character and metaphor and style, all these become secondary to the words. The wall-builder erects her wall one rock at a time until she reaches the far end of the field. If she doesn't build it it won't be there. So she looks down at her pile of rocks, picks the one that looks like it will best suit her purpose, and puts it in.

The editor is also a bit like a friend, or stranger, who comes along after a long day, when the light is growing dim, and who points out that maybe this rock is better than the other. They are very often right.

Anyway, I'm off to do more editing. And I'm going to enjoy it. But that brings me back to my first point, about software: I'd really like a copy of white smoke, one of the versions that recognize and correct dyslexic writing mistakes. That would be awesome. Though I have a funny feeling that the mistakes the speech recognition software introduces into my text would just confuse it. It might be something to hold off on until I'm back to typing full-time.

Oh, and PS -- I love this, too:

Perfectionists like chasing the horizon;
You kept perfection, gave the rest to us,
so let me earn the wisdom to move on.
...
Lord, let me be brave, and let me, while I craft my tales, be wise:
let me say true things in a voice that is true,
and, with the truth in mind, let me write lies.
-from Neil Gaiman's Writer's Prayer

Try, try again

Aside from apparently having some black hole in my memory where the fact that it is Friday falls in, I have had two good reasons for not being properly up-to-date with my blog - my apologies.

Reason the first: I am having a real problem with RSI, making it important to prioritize story-writing. I am still having problems there (although I may be investing in some speech recognition software - I hope to try it out today), so this will be a short post.

Reason the second: I had news, but wasn't ready to share it. Well, it wasn't sharing-ready. It is now.

News:
1.) Grisaille in Brown is out on April 28th. The title is Brown: Grisaille in Sand and Sunset.
1b) I just got, yesterday, the cover-art request form (for Grisaille in Brown). I'd seen it already, so it wasn't like I didn't know what to expect - but it was surprisingly hard to pin down what I wanted to say. I'll definitely be filling them out in advance, in future. But the really interesting thing for me wasn't just the filling out the form, and musing on what the cover might look like (though that was fun). The really interesting thing was that it was just how hard it was to answer some of the questions. I really think that thinking about those questions in advance will help me as a writer, and that was something very cool to discover.

2.) Those keeping up at home may remember that Grisaille in Brown is the first part of a two part (I hesitate to say series, because the stories do stand alone, but) series, and that Grisaille in Gray is out in September. BUT! There is another piece rounding out our tale, currently called Pentimento: Poppy, with is an interlude, of sorts, between Brown and Gray. Again, they all stand alone, and I think there are advantages that Poppy is out first, in terms of storytelling, regardless of chronology.
2b) Pentimento: Poppy should be out, all going well, March 17th, which yes, is St. Patrick's day (come along to the Torquere Social Happy Hour that day!)

3.) Speaking of the Happy Hour, I will be there the following days:
Tues. March 9th
Weds. March 17th
Thur. April 22nd
Weds. April 28th

Okay, back to Grisaille in Gray - which, please be patient if/when you see me writing it as 'Grey' here, as grey is the default spelling of gray in my head - but the title is 'Gray'.

If at first you don't succeed

Yes, I forgot the Friday-blogging thing the very first Friday after I announced it. But, in my defense I was VERY busy Friday, writing something, but it's a little bit of a secret. Hopefully I can say more next week.

Free Story: Facade

Originally written for the Torquere Social Happy Hour, "Facade" is a short >1K m/m story written to the prompts supplied by various members.

***

I used to be such an organised person. Anyway, in the spirit of organization, I think I shall name Fridays as my blogging day. Well, we'll try it for a while, and see how it goes.

First! some catching up.

I, on a rather spur of the moment whim, took over the Torquere Social list for another day - I don't think I'll do it again until April, though, as I do feel a bit silly, with nothing new out recently. But, it meant another installment of Dylan and Xavier, and their world is becoming increasingly clear - and murky, too, but that's worlds for you - to me. I'll put that up in a bit.

Second, what I'm working on at the moment... well, actually, my brain is hopping with ideas, which is always good - wonderful, actually - but it does make settling down to work on one thing very difficult. Fortunately, deadlines come in handy for this sort of thing, so what I am working on is Grisaille in Gray, but I'm not entirely sure what do start on after that. I think I know what it will be, but we'll see.

Free Story: The Club on the Cliff

Bleurg. So. Tired.

Acts of god and war, indeed - well, acts of tiny virtually immortal biological agents anyway.

But I'm mostly better now. Today's update will probably not include the fabled story I started writing for my Torquere day - and if I don't get it done soon, it'll probably have to keep til next year, and nobody wants that. Although I suppose early in the new year would still be okay - but although it's not Christmas themed, it is Christmassy. You'll see why when you see it.

Anyway, enough whining. There is plenty of time yet.

So! Today's update will include a repost of my latest prompt story (another Dylan and Xavier story, and for those curious, yes, there might be more to their story at some point, though it's unlikely to be at any point very soon).

I will also update my lj (including with my previous post, which I failed to copy over due to an attack of extreme featherheadedness).

But, onto Dylan and Xavier.


Written to the prompts supplied here.

***