Sunday, May 31, 2015

Hearts on Fire Reviews 1KRV5

Congratulations to Zanne for a great review!
Hearts on Fire gave 1KRV5 a 4.25 heart rating!

http://heartsonfirereviews.com/review-s-zanne-1krv5/

"I had to read this novella twice in a row before I could review it because I couldn’t think how to say anything that would make this bittersweet tale sound as emotional and haunting as it is."

Thanks to Lucy for a great review and congratulations to Zanne. Thank you for sharing it with us!


Friday, May 29, 2015

Congratulationss

The Inkstained Succubus family just got a little bigger.

Mindy Houston, author of Beyond the Veil, a comedic fantasy novella, delivered her son, Emery, this week. He's 8 pounds, 11 oz, so he's a whopper!

Mom and baby are doing fine. Mindy's not home from the hospital yet, since she had a C-Section.





















So go buy the book, and keep Emery in diapers!

Buy Link:

Friday, May 22, 2015

A Dozen Ways to be an Unprofessional Writer

We just finished intake for an anthology here at the airship. So, let us talk about professionalism. Better yet, let us talk about unprofessional author behavior.

These may be exaggerated for comedic effect. Or not. (the pink crayon has happened) And full confession, I've done at least two of them.


How to be an Unprofessional Writer


1) Do not pay any attention to the call. At all. Editors just put that there to mess with your head. If the editor wants m/m, send them heterosexual pegging. If the editor asks for maledom/femsub het, send them that hot lesbian kink scene. When you're sending to Inkstained Succubus, a kink-positive, pagan-woman-run press, be sure to send the most misogynistic, sex-negative bit of Christian Inspirational sub-shaming you have. You know they'll like it.

2) Send a cover letter. Be sure it is long. Use many different fonts and colors. Flatter the editors. Neg the editors so they will feel obligated to take on so fine a writer as you to build up their pathetic house. Praise your own work. Write it in pink crayon on orange construction paper.
By no means should you do something as simple as "Here is [story title] for your [Anthology title]. It is attached as a [wordcount number] word file in .doc format" followed by a three sentence summary, a three sentence biography, your writing name and legal name, address and phone number.

3) Forget to attach the document file. If you do remember to attach it, use an orphan format such as TeX or .rtf or .odt. Never, ever send a file in .doc  Make them work for it.

4) Misspell your own name. Bonus points if it comes out Roonil Wazlib.

5) Misspell their names. Address the note to an entirely different house than the one you sent it to. If you're sending it to Inkstained Succubus, call us Samhain. If you're sending to Ellora's Cave, call them Torquere.

6) Never format the story. Inkstained Succubus provides a handy dandy template to put your story into that will format it for you. You must ignore this! Always put pages of stuff before the actual story. Never use this easy-to-understand guide to formatting a short story.  This is your chance to show off your mastery of fonts and pagination and graphic insertion! Don't limit yourself to a simple header of name, address and word count.

7) Send the story to the editor's personal email, not the submission email on the call page. This is how they know you care.

8)  Be sure you've written the story in present tense. In second person if possible.

9) Never take NO for an answer. If the editors reject you, it is a challenge, not a final decision. Send them a letter pointing out exactly how you did everything right and how they are completely wrong. Extra kudos for quoting the entire house style manual (which you clearly know better than the people who wrote it) at them.

10) If you are given a revise and resubmit letter, change two commas. Ignore all the other suggestions.

11) If you are accepted, ignore all edits. Do not fill out that annoying little personal information sheet. All your info is on your twitter page. Not one single typo can be altered of your deathless prose!

12) When the galley edits come around, do a complete rewrite. Change everyone's name, the main plot and alter the sequence of events. It's only a minor change after all...

13)  Never tell anyone you have a book published, Not your friends. Not your family. Don't mention it on any social media. You wouldn't want it to sell.




Please feel free to add your own tips on how to be unprofessional.


Saturday, May 9, 2015

My Sexy Saturday: Sexy Today

This week’s theme is Sexy Today. We all have our idea of sexy and it means so much more than it did fifty years ago. Sexy can be any age and many are saying that being in your 50s is the new 40s because people live longer, love longer and enjoy a quality of life longer like no other time before. This week is all about being sexy today no matter what your age.


Buy Link

Our Sexy this week is from "That Time They Talk About."
In an alternate universe, the Confederacy developed a nuclear weapon. To devastating effect.

Your Seven Sexy Sentences.

Room three. Three nights, three silvers per night, room three. It all fell together neatly as if foretold. She watched the girl and ate the food, staring at the tintype of Clara.They sat for the picture long ago, when her own hair was still brown. Clara was barely eighteen, almost an old maid by her family's  estimation. The wild girl settled into a fine woman over the years, tough and strong, unafraid to ride the great birds, quick with her tongue and quicker with her guns.

The rice and carnitas gone, she pushed away the plate and picked up the tintype. She tried to rise, but a hand landed on her shoulder and held her in her seat.

“Leaving us already, stranger?” the man asked. “Don't you know it ain't polite to leave without offering to buy a drink for the whole place, at least when you're new in town?” She tipped her head and gave him a look that made most men back right off. He was either dumber than most or less cautious. He never moved his hand.

“Come on, grandma, buy us one.”

Sí, cervaza,” one of the other farmers said.

“Don't make him get ugly, old lady,” added one of the night-doves hanging on her meal-ticket of the evening.

“He already ugly. Muy feo!” tossed out someone on the other side of the room. The men laughed. She had heard that tenor in crowds before. It never boded well.


The Other Sexy People: