Last Minute Giving news!

It arrived, just today, and hot off the presses!
 The audiobook for Candle in the Dark!
http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Candle-in-the-Dark-Audiobook/B019OZZOMU

 Follow the link for a sample. Evan Harris did a great job, and it's $6.95 for almost three hours of listening pleasure.

Let me say, listening to this, editing the audiobook, was one of my great pleasures this year.

Make it one of yours. It's sweet, romantic and very sexy.

Release Day: Winter Shivers

It's here!

Eight tales to give you chills on the long winter nights.

Folks, I'm proud of this anthology. We have some great stories in it, like Correll's "Bansidhe," a creepy Victorian tale and Rosick's terrifying "Rerun." They're all really excellent and cost me some sleep, and Gabriel not only nightmares but tears. (Gabriel is not a horror reader)

The stories, with a little bit about each:

Rerun: The young couple stumbles onto a creepy old motel, with somewhat more long-term results than usual. It's the one that gave me a sleepless night.

Hungry House: Heed the legends and don't buy the house that's too cheap. This story, or monologue rather, was good enough for me to violate my usual rule of "no present tense."

Sacrifices: In a place where almost no one leaves home, the price of returning may be higher than the prodigal likes

Closing in: Being snowbound is bad enough. Being snowbound with ghosts in the house is worse.

Where all light fades: Be careful bringing tribute to the dead. They may want to thank you personally.

Still House: Sometimes, there is no getting away from family legacies. Even when the legacy is murder.

Bloodhound: Dogs are our friends and protectors, against so much more than we know. This one left Gabriel a wreck.

Bansidhe: Love can transcend class barriers and distance. But other forces remain stronger.


Right now, if you buy through Inkstained Succubus, you can get 10% off the cover price ($5 ebook, $12 paperback). And if you buy this with Winter Chills, the second volume, you get a 20% discount on Winter Chills.  Buy the Winter Cold set, it's the economical choice, and you get 16 great stories for $8.50.

Buy Links:

Inkstained Succubus
Amazon

Cover Reveals!

The Mad Scientist has been hard at work in the bowels of the airship!

And just see the new creations!

 

When they are complete, the authors' names will be on the front as well,

The books are available for pre-order only from Inkstained Succubus at a discount.
Winter Shivers is 10% off. (4.50, ebook)
Winter Chills is 10% off (4.50 ebook)
If you buy both, Winter Shivers is 10% and Winter Chills is 20% (8.50 ebook)

They will ship as soon as they are done.

News!

InkstainedSuccubus.com is back online!

Whoo hoo!
Of course, books are still sold through Square.


And, the sales are still running.
The Literary Underworld has all IS books on sale for 15% off.

All crafts, including commission work, are 15% off at Conspiracy Arts Until Dec 1 with the code ISBlackFriday

Admit it. you KNOW someone who needs a TARDIS paddle.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales, Audiobooks and other fun things

There's a few of these.

All Inkstained Succubus books are 25% off at The Literary Underworld.

There is also a discount at All Romance E books

And at Conspiracy Arts, our craft subsidiary, the coupon code ISBlackFriday will get you 15% off. (this is case sensitive)

~~~

The name of the company has always been Inkstained Succubus Productions. I always intended for us to go multimedia.

And I can announce, we have three books in progress:
Candle in the Dark (and oh honey, "Savor" is SO hot!)
Resistance
Skin and Bones

If you are an ACX reader, please go audition!
~~~

We're hard at work to get  Winter Shivers and Winter Chills done in time for holiday giving. If you have a horror fan on your list, these are a must-have. (as is "Skin and Bones," above, Hansel and Gretel vs the Wendigo)

~~~

Badass closes Dec 15. 5-15K, m/m happy ending. Give us sexy manly men, being macho and adventurous. Send it to inkstainedsubmissions@gmail.com

~~~

Our last con of the year is Geekonomicon in Biloxi MS. Watch this space for next year's plans

~~~

And because holidays are stressful, even at the best of times, here's wishing you love and happiness, and a few laughs to take the edge off.

 

A brief pause

It's the day before Thanksgiving. Everyone has been posting all the things they're thankful for all over social media.

Here aboard the Airship, we have our own list.

For my crew: The Mad Scientist, Quartermaster, Lab Rat, Dark Harlequin, and Ground Crew alike.
Without them, there would be no press.

For you, the readers, authors and editors. Without your stories, and your faith--however tenuous--in me, there would be no books.

For my father, who helped us out to get my teeth taken care of, and that spilled over into getting Gabriel's done too.

For the peace and quiet. My family is in Ohio and Kansas City. The Crew is in Tennessee. And I'm floating alone in the ship, just me and the cats. Loving this. Me, and the cats and my knitting and movies with my mental casts on the aertheric tank. (how on earth does a 29 year old manage to look 15?)

So from us and ours, to you and yours, give thanks for all you have. The year has been hard. Not everyone who was at our table last year is here this year. But we are here. And that's enough.

Christmas aboard the airship

So the First mate and Mad Scientist had his say.

Here's where you Captain comes down.

I celebrate Christmas for the same reason I mail Father's Day cards: my dad expects. I love my dad and won't have too many more years with him. So, I'm doing what I can to make sure he knows I love him.

I do not, however, love Christmas.  I never have, and I will spare you the tedious family backstory.

Christmas is--at best--a performance. I've quit performing lately. It takes all my energy to put on my professional face for work. And I am tired of pretending to be overjoyed about the birthday of a deity who specifically orders the deaths of me and mine, whether for our faith in other gods or for our sexual orientation.

As a pagan, I will be celebrating Yule. Yes, there are only 4 days difference, but the holidays are not the same, for all that our trappings got swiped.  I've asked the kid at home how much celebrating he wants to do. Mudd has put in an order for the traditional Christmas Lasagna and fudge. Also chocolate cookies, maybe. Otherwise, I may have to work. (I do on Thanksgiving) Because everyone has 9 PM scrapbooking emergencies.


That said...

We are looking to have Winter Shivers and Winter Chills ready for holiday gift giving, if you know someone who likes good horror.

The annual Yuletide YouTube celebration will be taking place at The Den of Debauchery's SubAnnex

There will be great sales on Inkstained Succubus books at The Literary Underworld and All Romance Ebooks.

And all month we will be featuring excerpts from Candle in the Dark.

My Sexy Saturday: Their Sexy Gaze

We're starting our holiday* promo. This week's theme seemed apt, given the cover.

The shoot for this photo was a blast and the boys were just great.

And we have some sexy, lovely holiday stories under the cover.

*"Holiday" at Inkstained Succubus is an inclusive term. It covers Samhain/Halloween through Epiphany/12th Night, inclusive. Christmas is one of many. We regret to say there are no Hanukkah nor Eid stories in the anthology. None were submitted.

Buy Links:

Candle In The Dark ebook from Inkstained Succcubus
At Amazon in Kindle or Paperback
At All Romance Ebooks

From "Savor," in which Patrick receives a mysterious invitation to dine at the most exclusive restaurant for men. His server, Gio, encourages him to Savor the experience. 


Your Seven Sexy Sentences:

We met fifteen years ago, when I was on a blind date with someone else. He was a new chef and had come out of the kitchen to greet and mingle with the customers. When he came to our table to introduce himself and ask how the meal was, my date gave the same old standard reply, “It's great.” When Greg looked at me, our eyes locked and I went on for at least thirty minutes about the brilliant flavor combinations, especially the pastrami taco with the spicy cabbageslaw, pickled onions, and chipotle aioli.

The two of us became so involved in the discussion of Mexican food that my date ended up leaving. I stayed until the restaurant closed. We sat in the empty restaurant drinking some of the best margaritas, feeding each other scraps from the kitchen, and talking about nothing of great importance.

The Other Sexy People: 

SOS to our Readers and Writers and Reviewers

We're getting the audiobook section of the business underway.

In order to build producers' interest in the books, we need reviews. There is not one Inkstained Succubus Book that has more than three Amazon reviews. Reviews and ratings drive how many people see a book.

So we, the publishers, are asking you, the authors and readers, to help us out.

If you're in an anthology, review the other stories in it. If you've read our books, leave some stars and a couple sentences at Amazon.

Word of mouth is the best advertising. (and for our authors it means more sales and more money)


Reviewers:

If you are interested in review copies, drop me a message.


Even while the Website is down,
you can find us at
Amazon
Square Marketplace
All Romance Ebooks

A Moment on Christmas from the Lost Laboratory

Hiho, the Mad Scientist here.

Let's talk about Christmas.

Let's talk about Christmas as a pagan in America. I know you've heard a lot about this, but I'm fairly certain you haven't heard my thoughts, or anything like it for that matter.

Here we go.

Christmas is probably my favorite holiday. For those of you joining this program already in progress, Pagans celebrate yule. I'm not supposed to celebrate Christmas. I am an avid member of the "War on Christmas", or so I'm told as I haul out the three giant tubs of decorations. But I love the holiday with all my little black heart.

My family is ridiculously drama-filled. There were entire years Paw didn't talk to the rest of the family. Without splaying my family drama all over the internet, let's say the rest of the year was...stressful. But my mom did one thing for me I will never blame her for. We had umpteen million boxes of Christmas stuff. We decorated like we were COMMITTED to the idea that Santa was going to see us from the North Pole. Dad got her a revolving Christmas Tree stand because she hated the idea that some of the ornaments would face the wall, and she'd sit there decorating while it spun with it's 10000 lights and just find a branch. I have no idea how she did it. I have one 20 gallon box and my tree already looks full. She had three.

But it wasn't the decorations. It was the stories. We had ornaments and decorations from 4
generations of our family, and I heard the stories every year of where each one was from, or who bought it, or some story about the family member who it was bought for. She'd put on the record player (yes, with the spinning and the needle) and listen to old Christmas albums and have Dad make a fire. He was the one who always insisted on the Spiced Cider in the crock pot. Christmas was a time for me when the rest of the year fell away. The whole family would come together, and the presents would pile halfway up the tree, and nobody had a bad word to say to
anyone else. Nanny would spend half the day tasting the dressing to make sure it had enough sage, and Paw made the best fudge while the cousins sat in a corner and gossipped with each other. Nanny would sit in her favorite chair, wearing a brilliant silk mumu (because on my Nanny, it looked like a queenly robe), and her legs all twisted up under her so she could hold court. My mom would always refuse to open her presents until last because once they were opened she felt like it was over, and she'd always laugh and bat at her brother when he gave her heck for it. It was a safe sanctuary, teaching me what the concept of a "sacred time and place" were.

Now, as an adult and a pagan, I get reminded every year how Christmas isn't my holiday. How I'm supposed to remember how consumerist it is. How Christians hijacked my holiday and how depressed it makes everyone. How stressed this holiday makes people, and how I should simplify and not bother. And I've finally had enough.

Tradition can be defined as "the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs,information, etc., from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or by practice." Christmas is my tradition. It meant a sacred time and place where the family came together and shared a roaring fire, and gifts, and love. I may no longer celebrate the birth of Christ, but since it didn't happen in December anyway, it doesn't really matter. It's a cornucopia of my traditions all bundled together - the tree, the yule log, St. Nick. This is OUR HOLIDAY, pagans. So they gave it a different name. We appropriate things all the time in society. And I want to share that idea of something sacred, and loving, and perfect with my family now that I have one. Taking time out of the year to say, "Okay. That sucked. But we're all still here, and we love each other, and we're going to be okay."

Stop the "War on Christmas". Take it back. It was ours, and we need to stop running from reclaiming it. Have Yule. Have Christmas. Have it for our reasons. Take it back.

Just some Christmas thoughts.

I'll be in tow!

Gabriel Belthir
First Mate and Mad Scientist

p.s. On the subject of Christmas decorations, let's start a movement for the embrace of artificial Christmas trees, people. It's representative decorating, because let's be honest. It's not the pagan way to celebrate a holiday by watching a plant slowly dying in your living room. Seems a little contrary, no? So save a tree. Buy an artificial one.

Gabriel

As many of you know, Gabriel, our First Mate and Mad Scientist, has been having a lot of health problems.

We haven't expounded on them. He has bad teeth, the result of incompetent dentistry.
Several of these have become so severely infected that even several courses of antibiotics have not knocked it back.

Tomorrow, Gabriel goes in for oral surgery. With these bad teeth gone, we hope his health will improve and he won't spend a week prostrate with pain, looking as if he has the mumps every time a pressure system moves through.

Any good thoughts you can send tomorrow afternoon would be appreciated.

My Sexy Saturday:Something About Sexy

(we're late today because your captain got tangled in the safety harnesses and getting me free was a bit of a chore)

Hungry Hearts Ebook from Inkstained Succcubus

Your Seven Sexy Paragraphs:

From "The Graveyard Angel":

“I'd sort of worried...that I’d imagined you.”

He stood and spread his wings, shining like polished seashell in the moonlight. “Quite real, I assure you.”

Tentatively, Emily rose and reached out to touch his chest. He had been sculpted with a bare torso, a delicate waist-wrap draped to his calves, and white hair that curled around his ears. The flesh beneath her fingers was cool, but solid.

“It's just...during the day time, the thought of you seems fainter. It grows thin...” Her fingers traced back and forth over his sculpted chest, up to the collarbone, then down over his pec, her hand gliding across his smooth skin like vapor on a pond.

Ian's pale hand closed gently over hers.

Emily stepped closer, looking up into his beautiful face, her gaze coming to rest on his artful lips. “I’m just glad I didn’t dream you.”

His wings came down to cradle her. “I’d be happy to be dreamt by you.” He leaned down and kissed her, pressing his perfect lips against hers.


The Other Sexy People:

Money Money

Quarter Three Royalty statements are out.
Those who are paid by Paypal should have their money. Checks will be written after work tonight and head out in tomorrow's post.

Sales were better than ever this quarter, although we did have to cancel a personal appearance because of illness. Keep promoting your work.

Tweet.
Post.
Tell people you have a book.
Ask friends to review it.

The holidays are coming and books make great gifts!

squareup.com/market/inkstained-succcubus is the marketplace.
We are also available through Amazon and  All Romance Ebooks.

My Sexy Saturday: All about Sexy

In keeping with our featured author, here is a clip from "Misfit Prophets Beneath a Bankrupt Sky."

Misfit Prophets Beneath a Bankrupt Sky ebook from Inkstained Succcubus

Blurb; Isaac's rich father arranged to have his son's lover beaten to death. Instead, the men fell on Isaac. Now comatose, Isaac has discovered a new skill and it's up to his beloved Raymond to find a way to make a new life for them,


Your Seven Sexy paragraphs:

Amelia had left for a moment to grab something to eat from the kitchen and Raymond’s thoughts were drifting, the book he had been reading to Isaac falling unnoticed into his lap. He stared at a picture of a schooner sailing a stormy sea on the opposite wall, losing himself in the roiling swirls of gray and blue. Raymond was wondering what it felt like to be on that wave-tossed deck, and feeling more than a little seasick, when he said, “I really don’t think you would need to hold back my hair, Isaac.”

He blinked and turned to face Isaac with a look of numb surprise.

“Did you say something?”

He swore he had heard something, and he held his breath, wishing with all of his heart that it was true – that he hadn’t imagined it as he had so many times before. There was always the hope that Isaac’s status would change, that through some miracle he would wake up the Isaac he had been, even after so long. But the silence remained unbroken, Isaac lying as silent and still as always.

Raymond sat back in his seat with a sigh, lifting the book back up and trying to focus on the words before giving off a huff of frustration. “This book is as dull as dishwater, Isaac. If I have to read another chapter about the beauty of Madame Olenska’s gloves, I am going to kill myself.” He tilted the book to stare at the sedate cover, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “It’s no wonder this guy isn’t getting laid.” Raymond smiled fondly in remembrance, chuckling wistfully under his breath. “I had you in my hand by our second date.” He paused a beat and then said, “No, it does not make you sound easy, so quit trying to tell me I am a liar.”

Embarrassed to find that he was talking to himself again, Raymond fell silent once more. As the minutes ticked by, he scrunched his face in concentration, as if tuning in to something just beyond his hearing. Then his eyes widened and he stumbled to his feet, the chair he was sitting in thrown back and the book falling from nerveless fingers to land with a thump on the carpet.

“I’m going crazy,” Raymond muttered, pacing on the carpet as he ran his hands through his hair. A few beats later he said sharply, “Of course I am, Isaac! I’m hearing things! And my hair does not look ridiculous like this!”

The other sexy people:

Planning for 2016, as well as the rest of the year

Third Quarter is almost in the books. (there's still time to buy books and feed your favorite authors this quarter!)

In October, we'll be featuring Zanne here and on the Twitter feed.
We'll also be tweeting about Hungry Hearts, Dreadmire and "Skin and Bones," our horror offerings.

Zanne is the author of 1KRV5, Misfit Prophets Beneath a Bankrupt Sky and "Persephone is Bleeding" in Hungry Hearts.  And if you haven't read zir work, be prepared for writing on par with Bradbury.

All our books are available at Amazon, at All Romance Ebooks and at the Square Marketplace.

So, as fall begins, we're thinking toward 2016.

Books:

We will have all three current anthologies--Pan's Garden, Have Quest Will Travel, and Winter Shivers--completed and out by the new year.
This will clear our desks to begin looking at stand-alone pieces for 2016.

Until Gabriel's health improves, we will be limiting the number of books we publish. We have 6 anthologies planned for next year. We will take up to six more stand-alone books.

Misc:

We will continue featuring authors and books on Twitter and here.
If you would like a month, let me know.

Submissions:

All anthology stories should be 5000-15000 words long. They should also be SF/fantasy/horror. Please know what we consider fantasy and contemporary.

We pay 40% royalties divided among authors. (never less than 5%, which means for a standard ebook, the writer gets 25c/copy). A novel author who sells an ebook at $5 gets $2 in royalties. Their $15 paperback gets 40% after printing and shipping (usually about $7), so out of the $8 we make for the book, $2.80 goes to the author. They can also buy paperbacks at 40% discount.

Standard Manuscript Format (and PLEASE put the word count on the front page)

First person and third person are fine. Past tense is preferred. (I have been known to say "Present tense" and stop reading after the first sentence).

Stand-alones:  Anything over 20,000 words goes to print. 45,000 is considered a novel, per the SFWA guidelines. We take any length from 20,000 to 100,000 words. 

Send to inkstainedsubmissions at gmail

Anthologies: 

December 15: Badass
M/M erotic, with enough testosterone to power a small city.

Whether your hero is a master of mayhem or a thinking cowboy, a pirate, a treasure hunter or a spell-binder, show him doing what he does the best for the reward he wants the most. HEA/HFN ending required (I personally like "Happily ever after, until the next crisis!")

We want big sexy macho guys, being manly and having phallic-worshipping sex.


January 15: Kagema's Sons

M/m erotic.

This is the rent boy anthology. Cheap whores in grimy alleys of a dirty corporo-run city, languid hokkan (male geisha) on gleaming terraces of a Japanese settled planet, sinuous street-dancers fast with their hands and faster with a knife, who get taken on an adventure... Let us see all the permutations of sex for hire.

March 15: Xenophile

All orientations, erotic

Our alien lover anthology. Any orientation known to humanity or other sentients. One person in the relationship must be a non-Terran. All heat levels of romance. M/m, m/f, f/f, poly and trans welcome. HEA/HFN required

June 15:  Mythos for the Modern Age

Non-erotic. SF mythology.

Think Gaiman's American Gods or Ellison's Deathbird Stories. We know where rain comes from. What are the gods we need for the modern age, for the future?

July 15: For Sale by Owner

M/m, BDSM erotic

Show us the transfer of ownership of a bottom from one top to another.

September 15: Friends with Strange Benefits.

All orientations.

Paranormal romance anthology.  All orientations welcome, but show us something new, something other than oversexed vampires, tough female leads in leather jackets, werewolves having a bad hair day 3 nights a month and schmoopy zombies.   Erotic encouraged, HEA/HFN required.

Conventions:

Our current travel radius is 400 miles.

This gives us a range from Dallas TX to Kansas City MO (we have family there), Springfield IL to Cincinnati OH, Indianapolis IN to Knoxville TN, Atlanta GA to New Orleans.

If you have a convention in that area which you like to attend, tell us about it!
We're drawing up the 2016 schedule now.

Current list:
MidSouth Con (Memphis)
FroliCon (Atlanta)
Mephit Furmeet (Memphis)
River City Comic Expo  (Little Rock)

My Sexy Saturday: Sexy Today

So today, there really is no theme except sexy today. Authors are free to post whatever they want within the normal rules. Just make it sexy, sexy and more sexy.

We're kicking off Halloween early here on the airship with a sexy interlude at the Scholomance. This is the school, high in the Carpatihans, where the Devil himself teaches 13 of the world's best and brightest. Only 12 leave. And this session, Chris is paying everyone's "Tuition fees."

Buy Link:
Into Dark Waters ebook from Inkstained Succcubus

And just for fun, the cheese romance novel cover, from the Romance Cover generator.

Your Seven Sexy Paragraphs :

"Sweet boy," he whispered.

Chris gasped, "Don't leave yet."

"I'll stay within as long as I can." Morgenstern rolled them back to spooning, cradling Chris gently and whispering filthy French poetry until the young man calmed down.

"So good," Chris said softly.

"So very good, little artist. A work of art in itself." When Chris laughed, Morgenstern kissed his neck, his ear and his cheek, his lips light and comforting. "You came to my bed fearful: afraid of pain, afraid of my size, afraid of your inexperience. Have I quelled your fears?" He shifted as he softened enough to leave Chris's body.

Chris rolled to face him. "All of them." For the first time, he looked deep into Morgenstern's eyes, losing himself in them, drowning in honey and amber. "I've wanted this for months." The intensity in his voice drew an answering nod from Morgenstern.


"I knew the first night, from the way you looked at me. You were not simply storing me up to draw. But Walpurgis night seemed a much more appropriate time for a," he chuckled, "virgin sacrifice."


The Other Sexy People:

Open Calls

All stories should be between 5000 and 15000 words. Shorter or longer will ONLY be considered if exceptional. (over 20,000 words is a novella)

Badass remains open until Dec 15. This is M/M erotic, with enough testosterone to power a small city. Whether your hero is a master of mayhem or a thinking cowboy, a pirate, a treasure hunter or a spell-binder, show him doing what he does the best for the reward he wants the most. HEA/HFN ending required (I personally like "Happily ever after, until the next crisis!")

January 15 is the deadline for Kagema's Sons, the rent boy anthology. (M/m erotic)

Xenophile is open until next March. this is our alien lover anthology. Any orientation known to humanity or other sentients. One person in the relationship must be a non-Terran. All heat levels of romance. M/m, m/f, f/f, poly and trans welcome. HEA/HFN required

June 15 brings Mythos for the Modern Age to a close. Think American Gods or Deathbird Stories. We know where rain comes from. What are the gods we need for the modern age, for the future? (non erotic)

For Sale by Owner ends July 1. How do you transfer ownership of your boy? (m/m BDSM, erotic)

And you have a whole year to come up with something for Friends with Strange Benefits. This is a paranormal romance anthology.  All orientations welcome, but show us something new, something other than oversexed vampires, tough female leads in leather jackets, werewolves having a bad hair day 3 nights a month and schmoopy zombies.   Erotic encouraged, HEA/HFN required.

Send submissions to inkstainedsubmissions at gmail.

Website down, how to handle the outage

The website is down.
We know this. We're working on it.

The books are still for sale at Amazon, ARE and our Square:
https://squareup.com/market/inkstained-succcubus


In the meantime, we monitor the comments here.
We are available through  e-mail.
Angelia: inkstainedsuccubus@gmail.com
Gabriel: inkstainedsubmissions@gmail.com

You can find us on facebook 
or twitter https://twitter.com/InkstainedSuccu
or pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/inkySooky/
And don't forget etsy. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ConspiracyArts

We apologize for the inconvenience

What we're looking for in a submission

Greetings from the desk your captain has repeatedly faceplanted into.

Yes, it was intake day at the Airship! We went through the submissions for Winter Shivers.  We got far more than we could use, making this our most successful call yet.

In fact, we got so many really excellent stories, that Winter Shivers will be a two volume anthology!


So, other than writing a lot of "You're good, keep it up, you just weren't right" letters, why am i face planting?

Because it's all so simple.
We don't ask for a lot out of our authors and their submissions.

But we do like the word count on the front page. Makes it easier.

We need the story in a format we can read. This is .doc or .docx  No .wps, .rtf, .odt or other odd formats.

We really prefer Times New Roman or Georgia font.

And please, if you have page breaks, be sure when you convert your file that they stay at the bottom of your page.

At least all the subs were on point and no one sent us a cutesy contemporary holiday story.

On the other hand, far too many stories were in present tense. I only accepted one, because it was utterly outstanding and yanked me right in. The others, I was done by page 3. Present tense is not our style here at Inkstained Succubus.

On the whole, keep writing. Remember, Badass closes Dec 15!

My Sexy Saturday: One Sexy Boy

We all know it just takes one sexy boy to get us going. That boy will turn into the man of our dreams. They can start out on the wrong side of the tracks, the right side of the tracks, the rich side or even the poor side. They can be good or they can be bad, we will love them all the same. They can space ship captains or one who is hired to protect us with their lives. They can be farmers and casino owners and the list goes on and on. But all of them started out as one sexy boy. They give us hidden looks, a longing gaze, with love’s promise shining in their eyes and all the things that come with love.  We love sexy and it’s always so fun to share.

Buy Link

Your Seven Sexy Paragraphs:

“If you know what's good for you, you'll not associate with his kind.” Applegate stormed off.

Kevin managed to hold in his laughter until Applegate left earshot. His rescuer shoved the stack of books off to the side and perched on the edge of the table. He picked up the book of shadows and held it out.

“I understand not wanting him to see, but casting? Really?”

Kevin looked at his hands, not daring to meet the man's gaze. “It's not illegal.”

“No, but it isn't exactly accepted, either.”

For a year, he’d mooned and dreamed about this man and now that he’d finally met him, it turned into a lecture. Kevin shook his head and stood. “Look, thanks for distracting him, but I don't need a lesson on magic. Professor Applegate is my adviser, so I can't afford to make him my enemy.” He proceeded to pack up his laptop and set aside the reference books for the library staff to reshelve. He went out of his way to avoid looking at the man as he prepared to leave. He paused after slinging his
backpack over his shoulder, recalling what the man had said to Professor Applegate. “What did he mean by 'your kind'?”

The man flashed him a grin which revealed pointed incisors.

The Other Sexy People:

Five Things I'd like to see in Urban Fantasy

Urban fantasy is a hot genre. I like to write it myself. It differs from contemporary fantasy in that the city takes on a life of its own, and is integral to the characters.

When Anita Blake goes to Branson or Las Vegas, it feels different than when she's working at home in St. Louis. Other examples are Harry Dresden's Chicago and the New York of Diane Duane's Young Wizard series. I'm sure you can name more

But I'm noticing to many UF novels feel similar, right down to the leather-jacketed heroine with the crossbow pistol and tramp stamp tattoo.

So here are things i'd like to see in Urban Fantasy.

1) Cities that look like their demographics. If you're writing Memphis, at least half the people in the city are black, and a significant percentage are Hispanic. There aren't many Japanese people, but we have a large Vietnamese population.  Nashville has a large Kurdish population, while Kansas City has the second largest Sudanese and Somali populations in the US, but the River Market area is historically Italian.

I had a first reader comment "your Memphis is very white in these opening chapters." I reminded her that there were only 4 characters so far, and three were all related (a father and 2 of his kids) while the fourth was a Puritan from Massachusetts Bay Colony. The cast diversified after we got out of the house.

2) Paranormal creatures that fit the demographics. Here in Memphis, we have 10,000 Asian people. But because we have 9000 Vietnamese and only a few hundred Japanese, we would be far more likely to have a Ma cà rồng (Vietnamese vampires) than a kitsune. We have enough of a Celtic population to support a Fae presence, and it's admixed with Native American, which would blend the two traditions.  We have a strong Voodoo tradition from the gulf coast.

3) Vampires who reflect the era of their turning. To paraphrase Armand in The Vampire Lestat, "We are deeply in love with our time and wish to hold onto it forever. That is why we became vampires." And to quote Parke Godwin: "Personalities whom death had rendered more permanent than improved."
I write a vampire Elvis who still dresses like it's 1976, gives evening concerts and generally lives as if he's still the King. I have a 1950s juvenile delinquent who wants revenge on his school tormentors (he turned about 19), and somehow, seeing the worst of them growing old and feeble is the best part.

Don't be afraid of antiquated slang for immortal characters. An undead flapper might let out with a "va-va-voom." Your vampire prospector might still use "tarnation."  The revenant colonial will use "zounds!" (which means Gods Wounds and is fairly strong.)

4) New and exciting supernatural beings. Every city is going to come with vampires and werewolves and demons. What makes your city different and unusual? Is there a Popobawa stalking the rent-boys? Maybe a Valraven eating children's hearts to become human again. Or maybe you just have the local legend creature making trouble.

5)  Better Magic. Make the magic believable, Make it taxing.  Think the system through. And ask why people with this much power don't rule the world. Is it ethics? Is it population? Or maybe they do, but keep it quiet.

Fall is Falling Down

We're finally docked back at the usual mooring after a long and arduous journey.
We survived River City Comic Expo, Mephit FurMeet, Imaginarium, a migration and a debut.
Frankly, ducks, we're knackered.


Today's the deadline for Winter Shivers. This horror anthology should be one of our best.
The next deadline is Dec 15 for Badass so be working on those adventures!

We have the edits for Pan's Garden back and will be working on those. Have Quest Will Travel is still in need of cover art.

The website is currently down, but we should have it up and running soon.
Our store has migrated to Square, since the traffic from the site did not justify the expense of hosting it ourselves.


River City Comic Expo in Little Rock was a great time and one of the BEST set up and break down experiences I have had. The sales were good and the people were great. We look forward to it next year and thank Tommy Hancock of ARPulp for the invite.

FurMeet is always a blast. We debuted the Conspiracy Arts line as well as the books. While the books sold, so did the paddles.

The paddles and altar plates and boxes and other goodies are available in our Etsy shop.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ConspiracyArts

Imaginarium was, as always, a learning experience.
This is a great writers' convention and I learned a lot.

There was a death in the InkySooky family this month. We lost a submitter, content beta, commenter, and sometime collaborator. Your Captain's writing partner and friend, Darren Bloomquist, was murdered.


If you write horror for us: Elizabeth Donald, CeeCee Sanchez, Emily Moreton, et al,, I would like to feature you in the October twitter and blog work. 15 tweets about your book or story, plus a blog post about it.  I'm trying for one focus a week.

My Sexy Saturday: My Sexy Girlfriend

This is our nod to all the sexy girlfriends out there. We know all about a sexy girlfriend and how their lover feels about them. There are the hidden looks, the longing gaze, the love shining in their eyes and all the things that come with love. The girlfriends can in all shapes and sizes because sexy has no bounds.  We love sexy and it’s always so fun to share.

From Fated Bonds

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Your Seven Sexy Sentences

“Do you accept me, both wolf and man? Will you take me tonight as yours?” His cock lay snug against her, heightening her anticipation, but he made no move to join them.

The intensity of his voice wrapped her heart in emotion. The shadows in his eyes removed any doubt of the importance of this moment for him. She lay her hands against his cheeks. “Of course I accept you. I'm yours as well.”

The Other Sexy People:

Guest Blog: HC Playa

These aren’t the answers you’re looking for…

I have enough published novels and short stories that when I say I’m an author, people believe me. With that territory comes the inevitable questions.

“What’s your process?”

The thing is, unlike grammar, plot, and voice conventions which can be taught, the actual process of writing cannot. There is no one right way. In fact, I would say that the only wrong way is one that produces no story. Writing and storytelling are art. Just like with painting, one can learn the proper way to hold the brush and apply the paint, but the image must come from your soul.

There are a million blogs (probably—I didn’t count them) giving advice on ways to be more productive, to finish stories, etc., but in reality these are little more than personal anecdotes. What worked for Van Gogh likely didn’t work for Da Vinci or Rembrandt. Just as learning the dos and don’ts of writing is a growth process, figuring out what works for you and what doesn’t is also one.

Knowing yourself is the best, most honest route to knowing how best to create.

“Where do you get ideas?”

I’ve never met a writer with a dearth of ideas. They chase us down and threaten to hogtie us unless we write them. They are spoiled, demanding creatures that insist we pay attention, no matter what we ought to be working on.

Live. Do. Be. Then listen to the world with the same openness you did as a child and you will never lack for ideas.

“How do you keep writing?”

How do I not? Oh, sure, sometimes life gets in the way, but I know I’ll get back to it as soon as I can. Sometimes I need time away from a particular story for perspective. Perhaps I am at an emotionally difficult section and need to approach it when I am in the right frame of mind. This is not the same as simply not writing. While I set one story aside, I may work on another, or work on that whole “live, do be” part of the equation.

My characters demand that I tell their stories. Abandoning them would be like saying a forever goodbye to my best friend—gut wrenching and painful.

“But writers’ block!” you say.

“Life block,” I say. Put aside the paper or screen, and listen to your soul. What does it need? Are you tired? Scared? Unhappy? Deal with whatever it is that is dampening your passion for writing and odds are good that when you try again, that blank page won’t remain blank.

(You can follow the character blogs at https://crossroadsoffate.wordpress.com/zanes-log/)

Mephit Fur Meet and a Birthday on Board!

Your Mad Scientist  and First Mate is having a birthday today!
Please give zir good wishes as ze embarks on a new year!

Our sexy, naughty kitty-boy got no spanking this year, though, as pain levels elsewhere were too high.

And we spent the weekend celebrating at FurMeet.

This is one of our favorite conventions and we had a glorious time. Lisa the Lab Rat got to show off her best work. The first picture is her in the Fur Suit Parade, her first year for marching in it. The second is a tired Lisa-Bunny in her blankie sleeper.

Your Captain showed up in full furry steampunk glory, corset, ears and tiny top-hat

The sales were good. And we are off to Imaginarium next weekend in Louisville KY. The Expo hall is free for everyone!

My Sexy Saturday: Talk Sexy To Me

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Updates

Hello!

Been a bit hectic around here, taking care of many things, including a death in the family. Our Quartermaster lost his grandmother a couple weeks ago, so he and the Mad Scientist were out of circulation.

But we're trying to keep some content moving through.

Current word:

All Royalty checks and statements are out.

Pan's Garden and Have Quest, Will Travel have all been contracted and they are out to the editors. (Gabriel will be poking editors with a stick this week)

The Fall Death March has begun.

The 29th, we will be at River City Comic Expo in Little Rock AR

The 4-6, Labor Day Weekend, we will be at Mephit FurMeet, Southhaven MS (it's a Memphis Suburb)

The 11-13, we will be in Louisvilel KY for The Imaginarium. If you're in driving distance, please come! The expo hall is free to the public!

October 2-4 is ConTraflow in New Orleans

Oct 16-18 is Festival of Souls in Memphis TN


There are new markieting ideas coming around, so look for more twitter activity at @inkstainedsuccu
And more blog content at better times.
We're not twiddling our thumbs, waiting for edits to come back.
Saturday, the bridge of the airship was a hive of industry. There are 6 Hats of Cunning +1 in that pile. Two tails and 4 wooden spoons also got made, but they aren't quite done. We're planning to use this to finance art covers.

My Sexy Saturday: That Sexy Time of Day

There are people who make love in the morning. There are people who make love at night. Or maybe it’s the afternoon. Whenever it is, it’s that sexy time of day. 

From Resistance By BR Sanders

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Seven Sexy Paragraphs


Rivna saw her father to his room. She brought him tea and bread and refused to leave until he’d eaten it. Doe arranged some blankets on the floor, half-heartedly trying to eavesdrop and chastising herself for it. It was deep into the night when Rivna stepped into the front room and eased the door closed behind her.

“Are you hungry?” she asked.

“No,” said Doe.

Rivna blew out the lamps in the front room one by one. Doe heard her shuck off her clothes, and then Rivna’s warm body was next to her own beneath the blankets.

“What was all that about?” Doe asked.


Rivna curled around her and sank her face into Doe’s hair. “No one ever knows. Let’s get some sleep."

“What did he mean, have I gotten myself out of trouble?”

The Other Sexy People:

Guest Blog: Diversity in Secondary Fantasy

Please welcome BR Sanders to the Inkblot.

Sanders is the author of Resistance and Matters of Scale.

Diversity in Secondary Fantasy

by B R Sanders

I’m a big believer in diverse books. We need them, and we need diverse creators. I believe this from the bottom of my heart. Some of the push back that I’ve gotten when I broach this topic is that I write secondary world fantasy--I write about elves in worlds that are not our own. So how can diversity be relevant to that? It’s all fictional anyway, and the people aren’t even real people, huh?

Well, I’ll show you how. Challenge accepted. The entirety of my novel Resistance is set in the City of Mages--just a single city. That’s it, one city. The two characters in the excerpt below, Shandolin (the lead character) and Shoket, are both elves, and both have lived in the City of Mages their entire lives.

Gradually, the skin of the people on the street moved from pale and freckled like Doe’s to gray and smooth like Shoket’s. As he veered off from the alleys, he walked with a thoughtless confidence. Shandolin realized he knew where they were going.

“You spent much time here?” she asked him.

“A bit, yeah. The Brotherhood raised me up, right, but it made sense to get me in good with the tinkers, seeing as I’m at least half, if I’m a drop. I went to this schoolhouse. Went here all day and then ran jobs at night with Rivvie ‘til I finished my education.”

“You think that bard was telling the truth?” Doe asked. “You think Moshel’s in the schoolhouse?”

“If I was as Semadran as he is, and as hunted as he is, that’s exactly where I’d go. You know Moshel this well, and you really don’t know shit about the tinkers, do you?”

“I really don’t,” Doe said. “He won’t tell me. None but him talk to me. Secretive bunch.”

“They are, yeah.” Shoket pointed to a spire peeping out from the corner of a decrepit stone apartment building. The spire was fitted to a domed roof made of wood polished so that it gleamed in the harsh sunlight. It was not a building the Semadrans had inherited from the City, but one they had built themselves.

“That’s the schoolhouse. Tinkers are used to living close together, isolated in one tiny neighborhood. They’re too poor to have much in the way of markets. They’re not religious enough to build temples. The schoolhouse is the heart of any Semadran neighborhood: the best built, the biggest, and the most protected. You’re in trouble? Find the schoolhouse. You’re lost? Find the schoolhouse. You’re hungry? Find the schoolhouse. You’re a mouthy shaper who’s got a history of pissing off the Qin but the neighborhood loves you anyway and you need a place to lie low? Find the schoolhouse. If he’s not in there, I’d bet even money he’s out of the City altogether.”

Ok, so what do we see here? Something that basically anyone who’s ever lived in a large city knows--that there are ethnic/racial pockets within a city. Shandolin may have lived in the City her entire life, but the City she knows is not necessarily the City Shoket knows because she is one kind of elf and he is another kind of elf.

It’s easy to write secondary worlds in fantasy without any granularity or depth. It’s easy to build cultures in broad brush strokes with no depth or shading. But often what is easy to write does not necessarily make good writing. In creating the City--and its denizens--I wanted something that felt real. I wanted something that felt lived in, that felt like it had a history and had a future.

Cities are peculiar, organic things with cultures and sub-cultures that sometimes mix and blend and sometimes don’t. Shandolin, who is mouthy and strident and arrogant and passionate, was a perfect vehicle to explore all those little cold and hot spots. She barrels in, politeness or not. Sometimes that causes trouble for her, sometimes it doesn’t, but always it means she learns something. Always, at least, she’s curious.

Even restricting the setting just to a single city, I was able to embed a lot of diversity in Resistance. Shandolin visits a number of different ethnocultural pockets like this one throughout the course of the book. She also travels up and down the class ladder.

But beyond just in-universe explorations of diversity, Resistance puts its diverse characters front-and-center. The book passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors, and also interrogates alternative genders. Pretty much every leading and secondary character of note who kicks ass is queer. Like super queer. Many of the characters, like Shoket, are intentionally coded as people of color. Resistance is not a tourism-tokenization type book; it is a book that empowers and uplifts diversity in fiction. It just does it with elves instead of humans.

Pronouns: they/them/their. B R Sanders is a white, genderqueer writer who lives and works in Denver, CO, with their family and two cats. Outside of writing, B has worked as a research psychologist, a labor organizer and a K-12 public education data specialist.Stay in touch with B with their newsletter, at their blog, over on facebook or follow them on twitter @B_R_Sanders.

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