Hungry For Your Love Release Day!

It's finally here! Hungry For Your Love: An Anthology of Zombie Romance releases today from St. Martin's Press! The book features my short story "White Knight, Black Horse," and was originally published in ebook by Ravenous Romance last year.

Check out a few reviews of the ebook, and see what the Zombie Watch Network had to say.

I'm really excited about this one. The anthology contains some wonderful stories, like "Revanants Anonymous" by Francesca Lia Block and "Captive Hearts" by Brian Keene. I can't wait to run down to my local bookstore and see it sitting on the shelves!

100 Words About: Wind

There was a big windstorm here last night. Our house, being 150 years old, makes a lot of noise in the wind, but not so much as The Dog does. She's afraid of storms and wants to be with us. Problem is, storms usually come at night, and we don't let her in the bedroom.

First she'll camp out in front of the bedroom door. Then, when she gets scared enough, she'll start to scratch at the door and whine. Being 80lbs of pure muscle, this is starting to do a number on the custom-made door.

In the past one of us has gone out and slept on the couch for a little while, but last night we caved. We doggie-proofed the bedroom as much as we could in a couple minutes, brought in the dog bed, and let her sleep in there.

The Husband slept like a stone. I spent all night wondering just what she was licking. Apparently she grooms herself a lot more than I ever realized. Or maybe it was just because of the scary weather. But she was remarkably well-behaved all night.

Of course, we'll see how tonight goes…

Image: dan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Projects

I'm taking a break from my own stories to do a little side work on a role-playing game. It's fun to play in someone else's universe. It's even more fun to get to shape someone else's universe, muahahaha. But seriously, it's a neat project, though the part I'm doing is rather small so far, but I'm hoping to weasel my way into working on more of the project once this bit is done.

I'm also trying to frame the Encore and NaNoWriMo projects, and this is proving harder than I'd hoped. I have plenty of ideas for Derrick and Nate, but I'm having a hard time figuring out the frame—the beginning and the end points of their larger narrative. The beginning is especially messing with me, because if I can get started I can usually find my way to the ending pretty well. I'm not used to having troubles with beginnings. Usually my problems are in the middle. I think I'll probably have to start where the short story leaves off, write from there, and then figure out what (if anything) I need to add in the beginning once I've gotten to the end. This will mean (groan!) extra editing.

The NaNoWriMo project is particularly difficult in that I still don't know what happens. Silly, no? But this is much more typical of my plotting issues. I have this great beginning, and some vague ideas of where I want things to end up (more like several options, Clue-style), but no real idea of what goes on in the middle. Sigh. I should just give up on the outlining thing and pants it, but I'm afraid to try pantsing during NaNoWriMo. That sounds like a great way to derail myself fast. My first time out I'd like to have a little more of a plan than what I have currently.

Well, I still have another month to figure that out. Hopefully my research will give me some extra ideas for the middle. In the meantime I'm having fun inventing alien cultures and playing with space opera horror.

100 Words About: Too Many Books!

I have an impressive stack of books to read at the best of times, but right now my to-read pile is getting out of control! Ever since I started listening to podcasts, I have more authors that I want to read or listen to than I know what to do with. I keep hearing about all of these great books…

And the research! Between the research I'm doing for the Encore expansion and my NaNoWriMo project, plus everything I'm reading about writing, podcasting, public domain, and physics (for world-building), not to mention all the Mythos stuff I just finished (joy!) for the last short story I did, I don't know when I'm going to get to the authors I'm already trying to follow. Heck, I still haven't read the 12th Wheel of Time book, and the 13th is coming out in two months! What's a girl to do?

Image: Catherine Hadler / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tuesday a Little Early

Hey kids, short post this week. I'm about 1000 words into a short story I had originally planned to submit for Toy Box: Pine Switch, but I'm not getting that done by the 15th. I may finish it later and post it as a Christmas freebie.

This last week has been quite hectic. I finished sewing the outfit for the wedding I went to last Saturday the morning of the wedding. The wedding went off great, but then on Sunday I had a double-gaming day, so no time to write. And tonight, well, I'm exhausted. And whiskeyfied. It never hurts.

Next Sunday I'll be out of town for a work conference until late Wednesday, but never fear, I will make Tuesday's post! I'm heading to Boston for the first time, but I probably won't have much free time. I'm hoping to stop by Copp's Hill Burial Ground, but it may not be possible. I have two Mythos stories out on submission and I can use all the help I can get. ;)

Speaking of submissions, I'm trying to hit some more professional markets. The sad part of that is that there are very few professional markets for erotica. Not that I mind working on my horror and sci-fi stories, but I want to make sure I'm taking care of my erotica readers. Never fear, plans and research are still going ahead for the expansion of "Encore", as well as a cyberpunk erotica novel or novella that I'm planning on working on this November. If all goes well I will podcast the cyberpunk piece, and maybe a couple other stories as well. First, I have to read up on podcasting. Research, research, never enough hours in the day...

100 Words About: Samsara

I'm not a Buddhist, but I think in Buddhist terms about a lot of things. I love the idea of intelligent compassion, and Impermanence has become part of my personal philosophy in a way that no other spiritual doctrine has.

The part of Buddhism I'm not into the most is Nirvana.

The whole point of Buddhism is reaching Nirvana, severing one's ties to Samsara, the wheel of pain, the cycle of death and rebirth. Well, I'm sorry, but I like it here, pain and all. (Being a masochist helps with that, I think, but there is plenty of pain I don't enjoy.)

In terms of the Parable of the Burning House, I think I'm standing in the doorway. Yeah, I know the house is on fire, and that I can walk out of the house, and that walking out of the house might even be a good thing. But I'd rather stand in the doorway and watch the pretty flames, and feel the adrenaline rush of doing something supremely stupid and possibly self-destructive.

The fact that I'm willfully choosing to remain on that threshold makes me feel better about it, which is weird when you think about it. So often we excuse people's behavior by saying that they didn't know any better. Unlike many people on the wheel, I know I can step off of it; I just choose not to. I don't think this makes me better than anyone else, just better informed. I made the decision long ago to make active choices in my life, but I'm still figuring out the balance between self-esteem and pride, humility and lack of self-confidence or self-worth, and individuality versus emptiness. I think balance is important, and it's one of the things Buddhism has always seemed to lack, at least to me. But maybe that just demonstrates how far I am from Enlightenment.

Works for me.

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tired Writer

I wrote probably around 4000 words of short story this weekend, and edited it a couple times, and still am 326 words over the word limit for the market I wrote it for. Argh! Hoping my writing group can help me with that tonight.

Other than that, the thing I spent the most time on this Labor Day weekend was sewing a bodice for a Victorian dress that I need for this upcoming weekend. Why? Steampunk wedding. I've been soooo good the last few years, I hadn't sewn anything new. (It doesn't hurt that I have a fairly extensive costume wardrobe from my earlier sewing days.) We even went to a costume shop and tried on stuff, and got The Husband's wedding costume there. But I kept looking at the prices on the dresses I was trying on and saying "$200? I could sew this, and then I wouldn't have to have a hoop skirt."

Sigh.

And, of course, my sewing machine decides to go on the fritz halfway through the bodice.

Double sigh.

Fortunately I was able to use a friend's machine, but I failed to bring a small part of the pattern so I have a little bit of handsewing to do before it's done. I was going to embellish the sleeves originally but now I'm like, screw it. It's good enough. I have at least one other short story I want to get done before the 15th.

On another subject, I've gotten a few emails about the Lucky 7 Contest over at Torquere Press. The card you are looking for is at www.mercyloomis.com, it's not on the blog anywhere. There was a problem for folks trying to view the page in question in Internet Explorer, but it's fixed now. Thanks to Kathleen, Angela, and MMJ for the emails; especially Kathleen for letting me know some of my pages weren't loading at all. Had to go into the HTML, which I'm not all that conversant in, but I think I've got it settled. If you have issues with any pages on www.mercyloomis.com not loading right in your browser, please do send me an email at mercy.loomis@gmail.com! I appreciate the help!

100 Words About: Responsibility

My mother and I were talking on Saturday, and I was telling her some of our many adventures with The Dog, especially things like not being able to stay overnight anywhere since we got her and trying to help her get over her fears. She shook her head and commented that owning a dog sounded too much like parenting.

It was stormy here last night, and we had plans to go to a friend's house and play board games. As we sat in the living room eating tacos for dinner, The Husband glanced out the window at the pouring rain.

"You know, I never would have considered staying home for the cats," he said.

I looked down at The Dog, blissfully gnawing on a new beef bone. "What, because she might get scared while we're gone?" She's afraid of storms, but as long as we're in the same room with her she's fine.

"Yeah." He looked a little sheepish.

"The cats aren’t emotionally dependant on us," I said, smiling. "The dog is. When you take responsibility for another's emotional well-being, it creates obligation. It is a little like parenting."

We did go out to game night though. The Dog's gotta grow up sometime.

(And the storms were mostly over.)

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Torquere Press is Giving Away a Nook!

Torquere Press is celebrating seven years of publishing by giving the readers gifts! Head on over to their contest page to check out the Lucky 7 Contest! As the press release says:

"Seven years?! No, we can hardly believe it either. Seven years of bringing readers the best, the sexiest, the most romantic GLBT fiction. And to celebrate, we're giving away prizes -- great themed gift baskets, gift certificates for free books every day, and a scavenger hunt that will give readers a chance to collect a deck of cards that will win big - -a Nook from Barnes & Noble!

Readers will get the chance to "collect cards" by visiting each participating author's website, blog, or Facebook page. By collecting all the cards and filling in the form, players have the chance to win free books daily, a gift basket once each week, (including BDSM, werewolf and ménage themed baskets), and be entered in the grand prize drawing for the Nook."

And yes, I'm one of those authors! So hie on over to www.mercyloomis.com and get looking!