MarsCon!

I spent several hours writing up a recap of MarsCon for my personal blog (http://wherelizlives.blogspot.com/2014/01/marscon-2014-report.html) so if you want the general report, that's where to go. This'll be a quick review of the panels/activities for which I was an official guest, plus a little treat at the end. ;-)

But before I dive into that, a little announcement. Last week, Lynn and I submitted the collection of flashfic that we spent most of last year working on, and only a couple of hours later, it was accepted! It looks like Whetting the Appetite is going to be out sometime in March from JMS Books, and if we sell enough copies of the ebook, then it will be scheduled for print publication! Whoohoo!

Anyway, MarsCon:

The number of erotica/romance authors was fairly small this year, so most of us wound up on the same panels over and over together, but that was okay. Sadly, neither Helen Madden nor JM Snyder made it this year, but I got to sit with Kat Lively and Michael O'Brien (Shokolada) again, and my new authorial friend this year was Nobilis Reed, who was a bit at loose ends, not knowing too many people at the Con, so we sort of scooped him up on a few occasions.

Friday night started with the "adult" version of Match Game, which was sort of like Cards Against Humanity, only without the actual cards to keep us in check. A sample: "The Blue Fairy is a dominatrix now. She told Pinocchio to stick his nose in ______ and lie."

We had some pretty raunchy fun with that, oh yes we did.

And when that was done, we had the "adult" version of Fairy Tale Rewrites. Each author chose a story, and then the audience provided some additional bits to work in. We wrote for about twenty minutes while the MC led the audience through a sexy MadLibs game (...I'm so mad at myself that I forgot to get a copy of that! but maybe Lynn kept hers?). Then we read our stories out loud to general amusement. They weren't judged, but I can tell you that I'm pretty sure Michael would've gotten first place, but I think I had a fair shot at second.

I'll post my story for you at the end of this post. (That's the treat.)

Saturday afternoon, I spent about an hour sitting in the signing room, which was mostly a wash, as the only book I sold was a pity sale to a friend, and I could've just as easily have sold that book while wandering the halls. Oh, well.

After that, I sat on a panel to discuss the Hunger Games (book and/or movie). That went very well, actually -- the other panelists were well-prepared and thoughtful and insightful, and the audience was lively and participatory (a couple of them maybe a little too participatory, as they had to be reined in to let the others get a word in edgewise once or twice).

That night was four hours of panels about erotica and romance and writing and publishing. The first couple were pretty simple -- talking about publishing and finding a home for your work; the second was a discussion of why erotic fairy tales are so popular. The third panel on the schedule was "Erotic Role-Play" and we decided that we didn't really want to get too deeply into bedroom roleplay, so instead we talked about introducing sexual situations in roleplaying games. And the last panel was supposed to be about masturbation, but from what I was told, the person who proposed that panel and offered to run it dropped out... so we just talked about whatever we felt like talking about, really, taking audience questions and moderating discussions. It was good. But boy, were we wiped by the end of it!

Sunday, I did another Fairy Tale Rewrites (this time PG); the results of that can be found on my personal blog report (link up at the top). Once again, not judged, though I think the solid winner would have been Danny Birt (and that once again, I'd have been a solid contender for second place).

I think this year went even better than last year, though, and I'm looking forward to next year already, so very much!

And in celebration, I have a coupon code that's good all the way through Friday this week -- enter "MarsCon2014" at checkout at torquerebooks.com or prizmbooks.com and get 20% off your entire purchase!

And now, for your patience... an erotic retelling of The Princess and the Frog.

I chose the fairy tale; the audience selected for me:

A person: a Frenchman
A sexy situation: accidental nudity
A location: Central Park
An object: butter

And keeping in mind that we only had 20 minutes to write (I've fixed typos here, but nothing else), the story:

Agnes sat by the pond in Central Park, weeping.

"Whah are you weeping, ma chere?" said a voice.

Agnes looked up and blinked away her tears, then rubbed at her eyes, not certain she had seen correctly. The man was wearing a ragged coat over a dirty striped shirt, and trousers rolled to his knees, soaking wet to mid-thigh. Despite his unkempt appearance, however, his face was strikingly handsome, with full lips and bright green eyes. A long pole stretched over his shoulder; at the end of it was a tightly-woven net containing a dozen or more frog carcasses.

"I... I dropped my golden ball in the pond," she responded. "I can't find it!"

The man's face lit up. "Ze ball!" he exclaimed. "I have found zis! One of mah frogs had swallowed eet!" But then he paused. "And what are joo giving moi, for your treasure?"

Agnes bit her lip. "Anything," she gasped. "Oh, anything!"

The Frenchman took Agnes' chin. "Anything?" he asked archly. Agnes trembled in his grasp as he leaned in for a kiss.

Startled by her own longing, Agnes stepped back -- and tripped over a branch, falling into the pond. As she fell, Agnes' summer dress, caught on the branch and tore, revealing what she wore underneath -- which is to say, nothing.

She wiped mud from her face and looked up at the Frenchman with wide eyes, lip trembling.

"Ah, ma chere," the Frenchman murmured. "Come, come with me, and we shall see you properly settled."

He helped her from the mud and muck and tucked her arm through his, leading her through the park to a secluded spot covered with cardboard. He lit a fire in a small grate and helped Agnes remove her soaked dress. While she warmed herself, he tossed the frogs into a pot to cook. "Will you dine with me?"

Agnes could not help but grimace. "No, thank you."

"Ah, ma chere," the Frenchman chided, "you must not turn up your nose. In France, we know that enough garlic and butter makes *anysing* delicious." Agnes did not want to be rude to her host, so she tried a bite -- and was soon devouring the delectable frog legs, melted butter running down her chin and over her breasts.

The Frenchman smiled as they finished their feast. "Will you come and lay upon my pillow?" he asked, gesturing to a nest of blankets.

Agnes hesitated again, but before she could refuse, the Frenchman took her hand and led her to the nest. The blankets were amazingly soft, and Agnes forgot all as the Frenchman dipped his head to lick the butter from her breasts. Agnes gasped softly, and forgot all her protests.

The Frenchman roused her to climax once, twice, thrice, before sinking into her to sate his own desires. She fell asleep in his arms.

She woke to the sight of the sun, a golden ball rising to reveal her Frenchman wearing a fancy suit and Gucci loafers that could never have stepped in mud. Behind him was not a cardboard hovel, but a magnificent brownstone. "Joo have freed me," he exclaimed. "I thought I would be trapped as a frog-gigger forever, but for joo! Marry me, ma chere, and joo shall never want for whatever baubles -- or butter -- you desire."

Happy New Year! Are We Ready for MarsCon?

Holy crap, have I really not blogged since mid-November?

The end of the year just destroys me, it really does.

I hope you all had a great holiday season, then, whatever that entails for you! (For me, it includes my birthday, Thanksgiving, my son's birthday, and Christmas, most of which include multiple gatherings and events. This is why I have not blogged since mid-November!)

I can't recall if I'd posted it here before, but I'm going to be a guest at MarsCon again this year.

Back in late October or early November, the organizer sent around a list of panels and things and asked people to let them know what they were interested in doing.

Last week, they sent me my schedule. Apparently, when I'd marked stuff as "I'd be willing to do this," they'd taken it all as, "I really want to do this!" because I'm booked for nine hours of panels and contests and events across all three days! Plus an optional, additional hour if I want to sit in on the book signing.

So are you coming to MarsCon? Because if you are, chances are good that you'll be seeing me! And just to make sure you can find me if you're looking for me, here's my schedule:

Friday (17 Jan):
10-11 PM - Adult Guest Match
We play TV’s old Match Game but with a MarsCon genre twist. Our guests will fill in the blanks, you try to guess what they will say. Match the most guests and take away a MarsBucks prize. This is an adults-only event, so expect raunchy fun.

11 PM - 12:30 AM - Erotic Fairy-Tale Rewrites
The host will give our writers prompts, the audience will give each some naughty element to include, and then keyboards will clatter and pens will fly as the writers race to create the best erotic fairy tales.

Saturday (18 Jan):
2-3 PM - Author Signing (maybe, if I can squeeze it in!)
Get books signed by the MarsCon Guests of Honor and other participating writing guests.

3-4 PM - Hunger Games Roundtable
Did the second movie Catch Fire or fizzle? What’s the best thing about the Hunger Games trilogy? Join other fans for a roundtable discussion of The Hunger Games books and films.(Note: This is my only event that's not adults-only!)

Genre erotica publishing block (no descriptions given, but the titles should be pretty self-explanatory):
8-9 PM - Publishing Erotica: Finding and Accessing Markets for Your Work
9-10 PM - Fairy Tail: The Popularity and Practice of Writing Fairy Tale Erotica
10-11 PM - Role Playing Games for the Bedroom
11 PM - 12AM - Hands Solo: The Erotic Possibilities of Self Pleasure

Sunday (19 Jan):
12-1:30 PM - Twice Upon a Time: Fairy Tale Re-Writes Game
The host will gather improvisational prompts from the audience and then our writers are off, building improvisational fairy tales based on your favorites but with new characters, settings, and events thrown in at every step along the way.

As you can see, I'm going to be insanely busy, but to be honest, they all sound like so much fun that I couldn't bring myself to ask the organizer to drop me from anything! (Though if you'd like to drop in to that four-hour block on Saturday night to bring me snacks or water, I'd probably be very grateful!)

I Haz A Happee

Awesome things that have happened to me this week, so far:

- I had a very productive day on Monday, editing-wise, dealing with a slew of admin tasks (both editing and for the Day Job), editing two stories, and doing some work on Foxfur's edits.

- I engaged in a fantastically fun email flirtation with one of my authors (to remain nameless, though she's welcome to out herself in the comments, of course):

Author: ...[Writing Partner]'s got me trained pretty well and I'm obedient, so we won't cause you too much trouble.

Me: ...bah; there needs to be SOME trouble, or I start feeling deprived. (If I had disposable income, I'd *totally* get a flogger made in the shape of a red pen to hang over my workdesk at home... The pun of it being something to make red marks with is just too delicious! And also, because an editor is nothing if not a switch, a pair of handcuffs made out of laminated printouts of painful slushpile entries...)

Author: ~blink~
MARRY ME!

My safeword is "Oxford comma". ;-)

(The more I make that joke, the more it lodges in my brain. I may end up with it being nothing more than the plain truth...)

- I found out that there is an honest-to-gosh real live creature that looks like a smiling Muppet squid: http://www.seathos.org/tag/banded-piglet-squid/ (via the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/IFeakingLoveScience). How can that not immediately make your world a happier place to be?!

- Being the inveterate punster that I am, I discovered and then leapt upon this Woot sale (link will be dead after Aug 9th). I mean, I'm not the biggest Flash fan, but how could I pass up a FLASHDRIVE?! *flails with punny glee*

- I went to a friend's birthday dinner. I had some fun conversations and a delicious meal. And a slice of the most decadent chocolate and peanut butter cake evar.

-  I had the day off from the Day Job on Tuesday, which is an awesome thing all on its own. It was dark and rainy, so I went back to bed after I fed the cat and didn't get out of bed again until 8:30. (My kids are early risers, so trust me, sleeping as late as 7 is lovely, and any day I get to sleep past 7:30 is a red letter day!) And to crown that, I had a chiropractor adjustment in the morning and a relaxing massage in the afternoon. Blissout!

- And then I had a productive, writer-y sort of evening, sorting through the slush pile and then reading and making notes on the stories Lynn and I have collected for our project.

Tentacle Contest

I didn't post last week, I know -- bad writer.

My excuse is that I was sick. Not really sick -- I barely broke a low-grade fever -- but I had that congestion/cough/bricked-up sinuses feeling that goes along with your average head cold (and possibly minor sinus infection). I kept waiting for it to morph into the flu my kids'd had the previous week, but it didn't. I was mildly miserable and barely able to maintain half-intelligent conversation for the best part of three days, and then it cleared up and turned into a cough that is apparently going to stick around to see the spring.

So not only was I not really coherent enough to write a cogent blog post, I also pretty much took the week off from everything requiring intellectual endeavor -- I managed to squeeze out a promptfic for my project with Lynn, but didn't even do any editing. I hate to tell you how backed up my slush pile got.

(That's not a euphemism. Oh, how I wish it were.)

Luckily, I'd gotten ahead of schedule, so I had some wiggle room to take some time off. (Except for that damned slush pile, which just never stops.)

Anyway, I feel like I owe you something special as an apology for having missed a week. So I think I'll have a drawing for a handmade (by me!) octopus. You know you want one! Tentacular cuteness! All you have to do is leave a comment -- on the blog, on the LiveJournal, or on the Facebook page. Not sure what to say? Tell me your favorite cold or cough remedy! (And leave me a way to contact you; the last time I had a contest, the LJ winner never got their prize!)

I'll draw a name (or maybe two -- you never know!) in time for the next week's entry!

Pre-Internet Fandom

Sometimes, Tumblr is all about pictures of cats and Benedict Cumberbatch. Or, you know, Benedict Cumberbatch with cats. But sometimes, it results in the most fantastic conversations. I'd just link this, but it's hard to read on Tumblr because of all the nested quotes, so I'm going to pick it apart and hope I manage to credit-link everyone correctly. Trust me, you want to read it!

spicyshimmy:

how is it possible to love fictional characters this much and also have people always been this way?

like, did queen elizabeth lie in bed late sometimes thinking ‘VERILY I CANNOT EVEN FOR MERCUTIO HATH SLAIN ME WITH FEELS’

was caesar like ‘ET TU ODYSSEUS’

sometimes i wonder

And then anglophile contributed a hysterical picture:

dressthesavage:

the answer is yes they did. there’s a lot of research about the highly emotional reactions to the first novels widely available in print.

here’s a thing; the printing press was invented in 1450 and whilst it was revolutionary it wasn’t very good. but then it got better over time and by the 16th century there were publications, novels, scientific journals, folios, pamphlets and newspapers all over Europe. at first most were educational or theological, or reprints of classical works.

however, novels gained in popularity, as basically what most people wanted was to read for pleasure. they became salacious, extremely dramatic, with tragic heroines and doomed love and flawed heroes (see classical literature, only more extreme.) books in the form of letters were common. sensationalism was par the course and apparently used to teach moral lessons. there was also a lot of erotica floating around.

but here’s the thing: due to the greater availability of literature and the rise of comfy furniture (i shit you not this is an actual historical fact, the 16th and 17th century was when beds and chairs got comfy) people started reading novels for pleasure, women especially. as these novels were highly emotional, they too became…highly emotional. there are loads of contemporary reports of young women especially fainting, having hysterics, or crying fits lasting for days due to the death of a character or their otp’s doomed love. they became insensible over books and characters, and were very vocal about it. men weren’t immune-there’s a long letter a middle-aged man wrote to the author of his favourite work basically saying that the novel is too sad, he can’t handle all his feels, if they don’t get together he won’t be able to go on, and his heart is already broken at the heroine’s tragic state (IIRC ehh).

conservatives at the time were seriously worried about the effects of literature on people’s mental health, and thought it damaging to both morals and society. so basically yes it is exactly like what happens on tumblr when we cry over attractive British men, only my historical theory (get me) is that their emotions were even more intense, as they hadn’t had a life of sensationalist media to numb the pain for them beforehand in the same way we do, nor did they have the giant group therapy session that is tumblr.

(don’t even get me started on the classical/early medieval dudes and their boners for the Iliad i will be here all week. suffice to say, the members of the Byzantine court used Homeric puns instead of talking normally to each other if someone who hand’t studied the classics was in the room. they had dickish fandom in-jokes. boom.)

And then there were some random OMG comments, and then this, which is what made me need to share this with you guys:

aporeticelenchus:

Ancient Iliad fandom is intense

Alexander the Great and and his boyfriend totally RPed Achilles and Patroclus. Alexander shipped that hard. (It’s possible that this story is apocryphal, but that would just mean that ancient historians were writing RPS about Alexander and Hephaestion RPing Iliad slash and honestly that’s just as good).

And then there’s this gem from Plato:

“Very different was the reward of the true love of Achilles towards his lover Patroclus - his lover and not his love (the notion that Patroclus was the beloved one is a foolish error into which Aeschylus has fallen, for Achilles was surely the fairer of the two, fairer also than all the other heroes; and, as Homer informs us, he was still beardless, and younger far)” - Symposium

That’s right: 4th Century BCE arguments about who topped. Nihil novi sub sole [Nothing new under the sun] my friends.

This entire discussion fills me with a ridiculous glee, and I had to share it. And in case you're wondering, I stumbled on this via the always-marvelous snakewife.

Contact High

Wow, MarsCon was a blast.

The overall con report is on my personal blog, but let me tell you about the writing and editing stuff in particular.

There are people you admire from afar. You think, "I could never be that clever and talented and cool."

Sometimes, you're lucky enough to meet those people in person, and sometimes, you're lucky enough that they're just as clever and friendly in person as they seem to be on their Facebook page (or whatever). And then it seems they actually like you back and are genuinely amused by your anecdotes and interested in your opinion, and your mind... it is blown.

That was my whole weekend.

Every panel I was on included Helen Madden (aka Cynical Woman) and she was snarky and funny and brilliant, and she spent the whole weekend crocheting a devil-doughnut and taunting me with her adorable amigurumi books and making me want to run out to the craft store right now. (I challenged her to have a panel next year on kinky crafts. I'm not sure, but she may have accepted that challenge.)

I sat on three panels with Shokolada, trading quips and talking about the differences between self-publishing and editing for a publisher, and the differences between erotica and erotic romance. Later, his lovely ladyfriend stopped me in the hall to tell me that she'd really enjoyed them. (And apparently she also asked a friend of mine whether I was a dom or a sub, which I found incredibly flattering.)

I was in a writing contest against Kathryn Lively, and there was actually a smidge of doubt as to the winner. (I posted my story yesterday, if you missed it.)

I sat in a plotbuilding workshop with Allen Wold, who is practically a professional writing workshop instructor and who never fails to teach me a lot. In the room with me were at least two would-be writers who'd been at some of my panels the night before and who were obviously building stories that were better than mine could ever hope to be.

AR Moler stopped Lynn and I in the hallway and we made plans to all go out for coffee sometime soon.

JM Snyder and I spent a good chunk of one panel entertaining the audience with our favorite editing nightmares. I got to use the line, "My safeword is Oxford comma," and it got a fantastic reaction from the room.

I handed out business cards and postcards and bookmarks and collected many of the same. I'm absolutely positive there's someone I'm leaving out of this report that I will kick myself later for forgetting.


I came home exhausted from lack of sleep and aching from all the walking (seriously, someone with a pedometer clocked it at nearly a quarter of a mile from the Con Suite to the dealer's room)... and I already can't wait for next year's.

Conned!

Let me remind you -- I'm going to be a guest at MarsCon this weekend, in my hometown of Williamsburg, VA, so if you're at all local and like sci-fi/fantasty conventions, you should definitely drop by and say hi!

I'm going to be participating in three panels and one contest. Here's the details on those:

Friday, 8 PM – The Horror, the Horror: The Life of an Erotica Editor
Elizabeth Brooks, Kathryn Lively, Michael O'Brien, Helen Madden
Sure, it's hot and steamy once it's on the bookshelf, but did you ever wonder what goes into compiling an erotica anthology? Our authors and editors will give you a behind-the-scenes look on the process of curating an erotica anthology. From query letters that will make your hair stand on end to endless formatting nightmares, the roller coaster ride of story selections to the tragedy of writing rejection letters, they will peel away the sexy veneer and show you the dark side of editing erotica.

Friday, 10 PM – An Alien inside Me
Elizabeth Brooks, Sapphire Phelan, Michael O'Brien, Helen Madden
Discussion panel: Erotica from alien points of view and orientations other than your own.

Saturday, 9 PM – Afraid of the Dark?
Elizabeth Brooks, JM Snyder, Michael O'Brien, Helen Madden
How far is too far for erotic genre romance? Our panel of erotica writers explores the limits of what readers, and publishers, will take.

Saturday, 11 PM – Erotica a la Carte: Iron Chef
Nobilis Reed, Helen Madden, Leigh Ellwood, Elizabeth Brooks, JM Snyder
MarsCon’s erotica writers put their creativity and quickness to the test as they compete for a spot in the finals of this multi-Con writing event. Competitors are given a secret ingredient, and twenty minutes to write a piece of smutty flash fiction using their ingredient. When the time is up, stories are read aloud. Winners are judged by audience acclamation so come pick your smutty favorites in an hour of fast-paced fun.

And that's just the stuff I'll be in! There's tons of other stuff to do, from the family-friendly (magic show, no-sew costuming and crafts, face painting, pirate sing-a-long) to the no-fooling ID-checked-at-the-door adults-only (Steampunk sex toys, 50 Shades fanfic). There are geeky panels and activities for writers, readers, anime-fans, movie-fans, gamers, artists, and crafters. There are comedy, costume, and dance shows, and tons of geek-oriented music (including the awesome Jonah Knight, who let me use one of his songs for my book trailer for Brainsss). There are presentations from NASA on the future in space exploration. There are self-defense workshops from a local dojo. And there's the best damned Con Suite in the history of cons. Ever. Ever. Seriously, if you've ever even thought about going to a sci-fi con and are remotely in the area, check out the website at http://www.marscon.net/ -- look at the programming, look at the photos from years past, and come out!

And if you do come, find me and say hi! I'll have books for sale and postcards and bookmarks for free, and I'd love to chat!

I'm gonna be a busy woman.

Trailer Park

On the off chance you hadn't heard already, I made a book trailer for Brainsss. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out (sorry, LJ folks; the Blogger/LJ crosspost strips out everything but text. But you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRdQSbMJi_E):

There were some interesting challenges I had to get through to make this trailer.

First and foremost was deciding to do it at all. I really don't like the sound of my own voice that much, and I knew making a trailer like this was going to involve recording myself and then listening to the playback a whole bunch of times. I even thought about trying to find someone else to do the story summaries.

The next (and ongoing) challenge was learning the software. My laptop came with iMovie installed, but this was the first time I'd ever fired it up. (Yeah, seriously.) Though to be honest, this was a pretty minor challenge. I'm not a programmer any more, but a) I am not afraid of screwing around with software to see what it will do, and b) Apple generally makes a pretty tight product. I had some minor issues with figuring out how to do a couple of things, and I was minimally annoyed by a couple of limitations (which is why most really dedicated video bloggers use paid software, like Final Cut Pro). The biggest software challenge I had was when I was exporting the finished movie -- the number of options were enormous, and it took me a while to find a reasonable balance between resolution quality and file size. (My options ranged from a 6G HD-quality movie down to a barely-readable iPhone version for only 150K. The one I settled on is around 20M.)

Then I had to find the pictures. I couldn't just put up the book cover and leave it there the whole time if I was going to be reading all those individual story teasers -- I knew the thing would clock in at over two and a half minutes, and so the viewer would need something to look at. Zombie pictures were the obvious choice, but... well. There's a ton of zombie pictures on the web, but zombie pictures that are in the public domain, or else CC licensed for commercial use? Not so many. But I lucked out and found several that looked great, and in a few cases, were even particularly suited the stories I paired them with.

I was particularly pleased with the images that went with "W.O.L." (which includes a scene with a character getting his first look at a zombie through a thick window), "Delicious Caleb" (just for that tongue sticking out, really -- the zombie seems to be saying, "Mm, delicious!"), and "Two Guys..." (the image is not only silly enough to match the story's irreverent tone, but the main character has this thing about showers, so it was particularly appropriate).

The final challenge was in the music. I was originally going to let it slide without any music at all -- once again, there's this problem of finding something licensed for commercial use, and I'm not an audiophile, so I didn't relish the prospect of spending potential hours listening to public domain tracks so I could find one that would suit.

But then Lynn (yes, the same Lynn who wrote "W.O.L.") invited me to her Christmas party, which featured live music performed by one of Lynn's favorite musicians, Jonah Knight. (Yes, I am in that "groupie" picture.) Jonah writes creepy/horror/sci-fi/fantasy music. And between the two sets, I was chatting with him, and I said, "So I'm editing this book of zombie romance stories, and would you be willing to let me use "The Dead Crawl From the Earth, Alive" as my background music on the trailer, if I credit you?" and somewhat to my surprise, he said yes. So there you have it.

Though I can't take credit for the bit at the end, where I finish talking and the lyrics you hear are, "It seems you can't control the undead." It worked out almost perfectly like that, and I was so happy about it that I futzed with the timing (by no more than about half a second) to make it work out more precisely.

In the end, aside from still not liking the sound of my recorded voice, I'm really happy with the way the video turned out. Almost as happy as I am with the book, which should be released on January 2. Mark your calendars and plan to set aside some of your Christmas money!

Meme'd!

BA Tortuga tagged me on the Lucky Seven meme!

Rules: Go to page 7 or 77 of your latest work. Read down to the seventh line and then online the next seven lines or sentences. Then head off and tag seven more writers.

I'm not sure if "latest work" means latest published, or current work-in-progress. So, with typical floppiness, I offer both!

From my latest publication, Assumption of Desire:

...karaoke night. No fewer than six tables had been pushed together in one corner, and they'd been liberally festooned with streamers and balloons. Half the balloons were long and phallic, though a few over the women's chairs had been cleverly twisted into yoni. Holding court over one end of the tables, fully decked out in sequins and feathers and glitter was -- of course -- Jesse.

Ah, Jesse, you scamp.

And from my latest WIP, working title "Taming the Dragon":

...who would want his daughters married to a man who might not give them sons?

It was a life of luxury and leisure, but it did little to calm the seething anger that haunted Zhan's breast. As he laid each night in the fine cotton and silk sheets of the wide bed, Wen Fai curled on his pallet nearby, Zhan could summon no sense of gratitude for his absent host, nor forgiveness for his father's betrayal.

***

One morning, as Zhan was studying a triad of short poems in praise of the Emperor's third wife, his contemplation of the subtle rhythm of the syllables was interrupted by a loud...

I note that my writing software has much wider margins than my published pieces, heh.

And finally, to tag onward! I choose: Lynn Townsend, JM Cartwright, Rowan McBride, and Chris Owen. And just because there's no reason to stay in-genre, I tag my favorite sci-fi/fantasy duo, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. And because it's good sometimes to reach for the unreachable stars, and also because, well, why not?... Neil Gaiman.