Elin Gregory

 So Halloween – love it or hate it, at this time of year it’s impossible to ignore it. Suddenly the internet is awash with images of pumpkins and people in costume and excuses for parties and frivolity. 🙂

Like this blog hop, where, by following this link:  

http://thebloghopspot.com/event-page/

… you get access to masses of author’s blogs, each one offering a giveaway and celebrating the holiday.

My own giveaway is a $10 gift card – just comment with your favourite Halloween costume, and don’t forget to add your email addy. I’ll pick a winner on 30th.

This fascination with Halloween seems a bit strange to me. I come from an area of the UK where Halloween has always been a quiet and private affair. There were parties sometimes, usually children’s fancy dress parties, with bobbing for apples and cake and jelly, or adult fancy dress parties with copious amounts of beer, but it wasn’t the huge holiday that is celebrated in the US.

I suppose that this maybe because the holiday came about in different ways. In the US trick or treating stems from the strong late 19th century tradition of  ‘guising’, when children would go from house to house in elaborate costume begging for a penny, or food. In England if there ever had been such a tradition it was transferred to early November and Guy Fawkes Night, where children would make a n effigy, dress it and drag it round the streets asking people for “a penny for the Guy” in a macabre re-enactment of how Guy Fawkes, failed terrorist and/or political martyr, was treated before execution. In a poor society one can’t afford two major festivals in a week so Halloween lessened in importance.

Now that burning people in effigy is considered politically incorrect and household firework displays are too expensive, Halloween is becoming more popular again and very much along American lines. It doesn’t work as well – it’s very difficult to skip from house to house dressed as a fairy when it’ s sleeting and most of the neighbours are baffled by what’s going on – so tends to end up as a party in someone’s house. Sometimes they bob for apples, but I think it’s far funnier to get them to bob for white marshmallows in a bowl of flour, as long as you don’t mind the mess.

Good luck with the blog hop  and if you comment don’t forget your email addy 🙂

I’ve been poking around the internet – as you do – and have found some articles that interested me enough to share.

First off a discussion at a convention about women in sensible armour.

Kirsten Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman sprang to mind. The armour was very sensible but why didn’t she wear a helmet. Also, she had spent 10 years incarcerated in an 8 by 10 cell room so how did she build up the body strength required to use plate armour credibly? A chain mail bikini – though OMG how it would chafe – would be easier to adapt to. But the movie was, I assume, made for Twilight fans rather than the straight male gaze so it made sense for her to be kept covered up.

Why did I go and see it? For the laughs and for Chris Hemsworth in a light coating of grime.

Secondly a very nice piece in USA Today by Aleksandr Voinov about the frustrations of romance authors when faced with the prejudice of mainstream publishing and how you can quadruple it if you write anything at all featuring LGBT characters. Voinov knows what he’s talking about from both sides of the business having published mainstream works and LGBT themed fiction and co-started a publishing company – Riptide – to give a more inclusive opportunity for writers who don’t conform to the norm.

And finally Humble Bundle! This is a project where creative types get together to offer a bundle of goodies at whatever price you care to offer. The more you offer the more additional goodies you get. 84k bundles sold in 2 weeks, raising over a million dollars. That’s pretty good going.

Finally, theres another blog hop over this weekend with masses of prizes. Worth a look , y/n?

Our guest today is Charlie Cochet, author of The Amethyst Cat Caper and  The Auspicious Troubles of Chance, and rapidly getting a reputation of being the ‘go to’ person for stories set in the Dirty Thirties!

Thanks, Charlie, for joining us today. Let the interrogation begin.

Elin: All the stories and excerpts of yours that I have read have been set in the 1920s and 1930s. What for you is the big draw of the Jazz Age that keeps you revisiting it?

Cary Grant, looking gorgeous

Charlie: Ever since I can remember, I’ve loved classic films, thanks in large part to the handsome, talented, and witty Mr. Cary Grant. He opened a whole new world for me with his movies. Whether it was Hollywood glam or not, his films just drew me in and held on tight. It was a time of elegance and charm. To me, there’s nothing sexier than a man in a well-tailored three-piece suit. The clothing, the music, the movies, the cars, you name it, I love it. I also find the history fascinating. The 1920s and 1930s brought about huge changes. In the 1920s, we were coming out of a terrible war. It was the dawn of the teenager, where folks were breaking away from their parents old fashioned ideals, a break from tradition, and a move into the modern world. Skirts got shorter, jazz music blossomed, it was the age of the flapper, and dapper daddy. With Prohibition came even bigger changes in society, especially in cities like New York, where it brought the gay community into the spotlight. Gangsters and bootleggers ran amuck. It was the age of anything goes.  Lindberg flew across the Atlantic, the first talkie was released, and a young fella named J. Edgar Hoover became director of a fledgling Bureau of Investigations.
Continue Reading »

Hi there Kym Amaral!

I’m emailing you about what kind of gift card you would like – I’m not sure if Amazon dot co dot uk ones  work on Amazon dot com or vice versa. Congratulations on being first out of the hat – in this case an antique ARP warden’s helmet. 🙂 I’m sorry, other commenters, that you couldn’t all win, but there’s another chance this weekend in the Howloween Blog Hop.

Meantime back to the writing –  it’s medieval mayhem with Olivier, a frustrated squire, caught between love for his gruff and indifferent knightly master  and a saucy archer who gives him the eye. It’s just over 10k words and I have NO idea what to do with it, but am enjoying using words like brassard, gorget, palfrey, cuisses and cods!

Have a good week! xx

It’s Sunday again and time for another six sentences of something. Cick this link to find loads of others!

This week and in honour of the current blog hop about alpha males, I’m taking an excerpt from a short story that I’m struggling with a bit. You see there was a call for submission from Circlet Press to write short stories, 7k max, about villains, and I had this sudden mad urge to write about the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Remember him? “This? It’s only a flesh wound. Come back here and I’ll kick you to death!” But Circlet means erotica and comedy erotica has to be done with a very sure hand. So I’m doing my own thing as usual – ie violence and more than the average readers wants to know about armour, plus a character who is so completely alpha that he’s actually rather unlikeable. 🙂 It’s called “A Taste of Copper” and if I manage to finish it you’ll be the first to know.

Here, after a brief bloody encounter, Olivier the squire, deals with his master’s injuries:

~~~

His heavy shoulders and chest gleamed with sweat, goosefleshing slightly in the chill air. The wound in his bicep gaped like a hot wet mouth.
Olivier knelt at his master’s side, and used a little of the hot water and a clean rag to clean around the gash.  He searched the wound and removed a shred of thread from the torn shirt, then he took a silver needle and silk thread, seared one in flame and soaked the other in spirit, and closed the wound with three even stitches. Maheris breathed deeply through his nose, his right hand clenching on the arm of his chair until Olivier was sure the wood would crack, but he made no sound. Olivier pushed his hair back from his cheek with his wrist, grimacing at the scent of blood in the air, sharp as sucking a copper penny, mingling with the far more pleasant smell of Sir Maheris’s sweat.

~~~

PS If you’d like a chance to win a ten dollar amazon thingy plus a copy of my novella “Alike As Two Bees”, leave a comment and your email addy here.

Yes the Alpha Male Blog Hop starts today! Over 200 authors will be blogging with prizes to win at every stop. I hope you have your blogging stamina in fettle because some of the prizes are fantastic.  More on that below, though. First my thoughts on the alpha male.

In real life the alpha male is a pain. We all know them – they are the guys who cut you up at the traffic lights, the ones who talk over you during meetings, the ones who refuse to explain things because they are too busy to waste their valuable time. Yes, IRL alpha males are often yahoos. Even more dangerous are the aspirant alphas, young men so touchy about their status, about their honour, and so demanding of ‘respect’ that they are prepared to shoot you in the face to get it.

But in fiction, either written or visual, a well written alpha can be great fun. They are the guys who sweep willing heroines off their feet – probably, it’s 30 years since I read het romances – and who butt heads deliciously in gay fiction as each tries to prove that he’s just that little bit more than the other. Alphas drive plot, whether they are protagonists or the bad guys.

I’m going to list some of my favourite alphas in books and movies. See if you agree with them. Continue Reading »

My guest today is Theo Fenraven, a man of many talents. He doesn’t just write gay romance and erotica but edits manuscripts as well and is an excellent photographer.

Photos in the text below have been provided by Theo.

Welcome, Theo, to my comfy chair. If you’re ready, we’ll begin.

~~~

Elin: In Three of Swords and its ‘coming soon’ sequel Knight of Wands, you have written an exciting contemporary story with a considerable paranormal twist. What attracted you to this genre?
 

Theo: I don’t know that it’s the genre that attracts me as much as the idea of people being more than they are. I loved the television show, Heroes, for that reason. While they were living their lives, admittedly in a hyper-stylized fashion, they also had to deal with unexplained powers. I love that idea. Also, it keeps me from getting bored. 🙂 It’s hard for me to write a straight romance. I always have to futz it up with stuff to keep my interest.

Elin: Have you always been a story teller, or did you read something one day and think “I could do that”?

Theo:I’ve always been a writer. I remember doing it as far back as elementary school.

Elin: How important to you is your other creativity – your photos are stunning. Do your other arts help or hinder your writing?

Theo:Everything I do is an effort to maintain balance. When writing, I get really focused and end up spending a lot of time in my head. Photography takes me out into the world and while it’s still a creative activity like writing, lets me see things a different way. I’ve been told I write visually, and I think taking pictures contributes to that.

Elin: Three of Swords is set on a houseboat – a very unusual setting about which you seem to know a lot. Have you had experience of river travel?
Theo:I love the idea of living on a boat. It sounds romantic and fun and yes, different. While I’ve certainly been in rowboats and on larger vessels, I’ve never been on a houseboat. This is where research pays off. I did a LOT. I also know two people who’ve rented them and they filled in those interesting little details you don’t know if you haven’t done it. Details are important to a scene; they make it come alive. I would love to rent a houseboat next summer and take it for a spin.

Elin: Have you a WIP about which you could tell us or do you like to keep them under wraps until they are ready to be published.

 Theo: As you’ve mentioned, the sequel to Three of Swords is Knight of Wands, and I’m writing the last quarter of the story now. I’m planning an early November release. Following that will be the third books in the series, which will complete the trilogy. I’m not sure what I’ll write after that, but I always have ideas churning in my head and it’s very possible I will eventually offer more Gray and Cooper stories. I’ve rather fallen in love with these guys.

Elin:  Could we please have a taste of one of your works.

 Theo: How about a short excerpt from the first chapter of Knight of Wands? I warn you, you still won’t know what’s in the wall safe, but it reintroduces Gray’s cousin Harper and a problem she’s dealing with. This is the first time anyone has seen anything from the sequel. I hope you enjoy it!

~~~

When my grandfather, Graham, was killed, I inherited a houseboat, Cooper, the young man living on it, and a mystery that led to a treasure hunt. A letter from Graham sent us downriver on a quest. What we found was murder, more letters, keys, and the astral plane.

Cooper and I were in our berth on The Constant Companion, which was anchored in Lynxville, Wisconsin, instead of at our home marina in Red Wing, Minnesota. Following posthumous directions from Graham regarding a hidden safe, we knelt on the floor by the wall outlet. Crystal, our calico kitten, sleepily watched from the bed. Duplicating Graham’s actions in the ‘movie’ we’d seen on the astral plane, I slipped the key into the screw, turned it, and pulled the mini-safe open. Cooper and I leaned forward to see what was in it.

That’s when my cell rang.

Cooper frowned. “Are you kidding me?”

I sat back on my heels. “Might be important.” As hardly anyone called me, almost every call had some importance. Stretching to grab my jeans off the floor, I dug in the back pocket and retrieved my phone. “Yeah?”

“It’s me, Harper.”

“Hey, how are you?” I grinned at Cooper, who was pointedly not digging through the small safe behind the outlet. It had to be driving him crazy, waiting on me. I put a finger over the speaker so Harper wouldn’t hear. “It’s my cousin. She sounds upset. We’ve waited this long, five more minutes can’t hurt.”

He nodded, looking forlorn. I watched his eyes flick to the safe and fought laughter. I knew how he felt, I really did, but Harper was going on about… “What?” I interrupted her. “Hon, start again. I missed the first part of that.”

“I said Sian is knocked up. She slept with some guy and now she’s pregnant.”

I blinked. “Wow. Um, thought you guys were exclusively, you know, lesbian.”

“That’s what I thought.” Her voice sounded teary. “A few months back, we talked about having kids one day. I figured we would use artificial insemination or adopt even, but without discussing it with me first, she fucked someone and now she’s ‘with child.’ Jesus. She did it while I was in Red Wing. I don’t know if I’m ready for this, Gray. I just accepted that new job. You know, the one I told you about at Grandpa’s funeral?”

“I remember.” Harper and I had talked briefly at my parents’ house after Graham Vecello’s funeral. “How can I help?”

“I need to get away. I’ve talked to my new employer, told him there’s a family emergency, and they’ve agreed to let me delay my start date. Okay if I stay with you a while?”

I looked at Cooper, who gazed back at me almost patiently. “I gave up the apartment, Harper. Graham left me his boat. There’s a couch here with your name on it.”

“You’re not in St. Paul anymore? What about your job?”

“Quit.” Cooper smiled at me. Explaining him would wait until she was here. “Via a letter he left on the boat, Graham sent me on a journey down river, told me to talk to some people.” I paused, wondering how to tell her what had happened to me since we last saw each other. “Graham was murdered.”

“I know. Someone shot him outside a pharmacy. Gray, are you all right?”

“I’ve been better. His letter sent me to a woman who was subsequently killed. She was a fortune teller who could really see the future.” As could I, the few times I let myself go there.

There was a long silence, and then she said cautiously, “Gray, sweetie… you sure you’re okay?”

I bit back slightly hysterical laughter. “There was a second letter. Graham was involved in something before he was killed, and I’m trying to find out what it is. I’ll tell you more when you get here. Long story short, Graham left something for me besides the houseboat. You called just as I was finding out what.”

“Bad timing on my part,” she said drily. “I’m catching a plane out of here tomorrow afternoon. Where can I find you?”
I told her. “But we won’t be there until day after tomorrow. Stay with your folks until I’m back, okay? We’re traveling upriver from south of La Crosse. Looking forward to seeing you.” I ended the call.

~~~

Theo: Find my new releases at Voodoo Lily Press. * Visit my author page on Amazon. * Say hello to me on twitter: @fenraven. * Converse with me on G+. * Follow my blog on WordPress.

Elin: Thank you, Theo, for being such a good sport and good luck with Knight of Wands.

 *tosses bits of screwed up paper into hat*

*picks one*

*unscrews it*

*reads*

Rush!

Many thanks for your comment and your gift card is on its way to you. Please let me know if there’s a problem.

I’m sorry you couldn’t all win, but maybe next time? I’ll be doing another blog hop next weekend with a copy of my novella “Alike As Two Bees” as the prize. Hope to see you then.

Meantime, happy reading.

It’s Sunday!

And what does Sunday mean?

Another Six Sentences, of course!!

I should imagine you all know the drill by now, but just in case – go here and you’ll find a terrific linky list of authors each of whom has provided a six sentence slice of fiction to delight, entertain, horrify or educate you.

Or you can click the link after you’ve read my six.

Since last week we hit a natural break in the long and tortuous tale of how Cynfal obtains a set or armour and all the fancy pants bits to go with it, including a very stylish if somewhat damaged bed warmer, before heading south to slaughter Saxons, we’ll take a little break. More next week and I hope a lot more n November when I hope – fingers crossed – that I’ll be finishing the damn thing during Nanowrimo.

This week and just this week I’m going to do the kind of shameless self promotion thing that I have been trained since childhood NEVER to do but as an author one is expected to do and draw my six from my story “Set In Stone” that was published in a Halloween Heat M/M erotica anthology from Etopia Press last week. No links because that would be against the SSS rules.

Joe is the new boy on the Mountain Rescue Service team based near Brecon and is being urged by the rest of the team to spend Halloween night up in the hills alone by an ancient standing stone:

Bethan’s brother interrupted the rumble of agreement. Greg is a big, calm, brown bear of a man—Grizzly Adams dressed by Berghaus—the muscle of the team, and the one I would most like to have permanently on my top rope, if you catch my drift. Right now, he looked worried.
“I wouldn’t spend the night by Maen Madoc at this time of year.” His rich, strongly-accented baritone added weight to his words. “Not at the dark of the moon— when the way between the worlds wears thin.”

Many, many thanks to commenters. I try to reply but I frequently lose the plot a bit. However every comment is much appreciated and while I don’t always manage to reciprocate I do read everyone else’s sixes. I learn a lot 🙂

Welcome to the Halloween Heat author blog hop. I and my fellow contributors in Halloween Heat I are joined by Tara Lain from Halloween Heat IV to offer you the chance to win prizes by hopping from blog to blog leaving comments.

Comment below for a chance to win a $10 Amazon gift certificate with the name of your favourite horror story and your email address. then follow the links below to go from blog to blog and win other prizes. Posts open for comments until Sunday midnight EST – I’ll pick the winner on Monday.

Halloween Heat I
An Anthology of Erotic Paranormal M/M Romance

Five erotic stories of gay love and passion with a paranormal twist—ghosts and spirits and otherworldly delights, perfect for Halloween.

“Love Lies Deep” by Tristram La Roche
“Idle Hands” by Reneé George
“Costumes” by Dianne Hartsock
“Eden” by Kiran Hunter
“Set in Stone” by Elin Gregory

Buy Halloween Heat I here:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
All Romance eBooks

Halloween Heat IV
Erotic Contemporary M/M Romance

Two hot tales of contemporary gay romance to fill your goodie bag this Halloween.

“Trex or Treat” by Tara Lain
“Desert Candy” by AC Fox

Buy Halloween Heat IV here:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
All Romance eBooks

My story, Set in Stone, is set in the Brecons Beacons in Wales. They aren’t as high or craggy as some but the Mountain Rescue volunteers work and play as hard as any. New boy, Joe, accepts that he has to earn his place but his initiation, to spend the night at a remote standing stone high in the hills, is more exciting than expected.

Read on for a SFW excerpt.

I eased out of my sleeping bag, keeping low, and crawled into a hollow behind the standing stone. I should have known that there would be more to the hazing than simply denying me the comfort of the bunkhouse for the night.

Try to ambush me and you’ll deserve all you get, you silly bastards.

There – I heard the scuff of a foot on the turf, a breath. I roared as I hurdled the stone.

I saw him clearly, massive shoulders gleaming in the light of a huge full moon, hair flying as he whirled and the blade  in his hand leapt out toward me. I ducked and hit him in the midriff with my shoulder, grunted as the hilt cracked down into my ribs, swore as we crashed into the standing stone. I snatched at his wrist and twisted. The blade, too long for a knife, too short for a sword, fell to the ground. He had my other wrist now.  As we strained against each other, feet hooking and kicking to try to throw the other off balance, my lungs filled with the sharp scent of mingled wood smoke, mutton fat, sweat and blood. But mostly—my breath caught as I breathed it in—he smelled of man. Strong, healthy, and aroused. Distracted, I stumbled as he hooked at my ankle. My back and head slammed into the stone with a startling clash of metal and we stared at each other. Moonlight shone on his pale eyes, the lime spiking his dark hair, the whorl of blue on his cheek under his left eye. The twisted beasts on the finials of the band of gold around his thick neck snarled at me. He laughed.

Dianne Hartsock

Kiran Hunter

Renee George

Tara Lain

and finally Tristram La Roche whose post will be going up at midnight tonight.