Isn't It Weird How I Only Blog At Night???

Last night I managed to finish editing (line editing but not copy editing, but the difference is splitting hairs to me anyway) Under His Touch. The new edition clocks in at just around 14k. I am always surprised how worth it the effort is to revise and fix up old stories. I'm always surprised by things past me missed, or what new skills I've developed. Of course I had to polish this one up anyway because I want to write the sequel now, but that doesn't mean it didn't need it.

And now I'm taking the night to outline stuff for the sequel, mostly making up my character sheet and locations sheet. I might make a timeline, but that's so time-consuming. But so worth it. But since these are simple stories that have no flashbacks and don't require too much focusing on dates, I'm not going to go too hard into that.

I DID make a huge decision regarding the sequel though, or two, to be specific, which is that:

1) There's not going to be a time-jump of three years. I don't know why I thought I'd do that. I want to see their relationship develop. Skipping two or three years is skipping the most interesting stuff, watching them adjust going from friends to a couple especially as Declan navigates his sexuality and coming out. Instead I'm going to give it a time-jump of like five or six hours. So it opens with them waking up the morning after and picks up right where we left off.

2) I think they're going to stay in Rockton, so I'm staying away from the vacation idea. I might have them go on a vacation for a future story as a special episode or something, but for the sequel I think they should stay in Rockton, especially since I want to develop the town and setting a little.

So I've got to completely scrap that first chapter I put up on Wattpad, but I'll post it on this blog or something as an extra scrap, like an easter egg or bonus content or whatever.

I have also slowly yet steadily making plans to release my next few musical projects. I want to put out my next album soon but I have one demo for it and nothing else but like half a page of notes. I do have track titles and a concept for the sound, imagery, etc...

BUT. In the meantime I'll probably release more digital/instrumental music like my last song Rejuvenate. I was going for a Final Fantasy/video game score with that, so I might continue in that vein or create some ambient music of some kind.

I've been reading CHARM by Tracy Wolff and so far I'm mixed on this entire series. I loved the first three books, but book four dragged a lot for me, and this book is a mix of hilarious fluff, filler content, and random new developments like a shadow world/alternate dimension and it's turned into portal fantasy. On the one hand I appreciate the balls to go from dark academia paranormal boarding school, to straight up save-the-world urban fantasy, to full Isekai, all without giving a damn what anybody else thinks, but it's kind of a set-up book for the next one and I'm just eager to get to THAT.

Because I'm mainly here at this point for Jaxon and Flint and whatever scraps of them I can get. And I WANT that spin-off book. I want my gay dragon vampire story. I do. And I deserve that.

In the meantime I know there's a lawsuit going on with Tracy Wolff and her editor, and I'd be pissed if I were her. It sounds like Tracy Wolff wanted to write a series that was nostalgic for Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, and her editor fed her a concept and ideas another author had created and written. It's sad because clearly Wolff actually created her characters, world, and wrote her own story, but knowing large parts of it she thought were her collaborator's ideas turning out to be plagiarized has to sting. I don't think she's the guilty party here and I don't think it should stop her from writing more books - I honestly expect to see them settle out of court or something with a caveat that the OG author is credited as a partial creator in future printings, but we'll see what a judge thinks.

I do have a soft-spot for this series because it reminds me of the vibe I was going for with the Lilac Xia-Jones stories when I started them. Another series I have to continue and have lots of plans for. But need to make new covers for...

So I have lots of work to do. But that's not new.

I have a really good cheeseburger waiting for me, but I'm not going to eat it until I've written at least 3k words. So that's how you know I'll get my writing for the day done today, instead of flaking out. :)

My Top 5 YA Standalones (Quarantine Reading List Edition!)

I've been eyeing ideas for a couple of different standalone novels recently and it's got me asking myself what I think constitutes a good standalone novel, what makes it more beneficial for a story to be a single piece rather than a series, etc.

In the process I've obviously been revisiting a lot of the standalones I've loved in the past. And I decided a few of them are a little too slept on by the bookish side of the internet.

So, here's my shoutout for my top 5 YA standalones that I think deserve more love. If you're trying to capitalize on your quarantine lockdown time to read more, here's a couple titles your TBR could benefit from meeting.

5: Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan

Do you like revenge? Do you like mysteries? Do you like thrilling, dangerous situations involving rich, beautiful people and their shocking, dirty, blood-stained scandals? Do you enjoy a nice Old American lavish murder mystery aesthetic? If the answer to any of these questions is yes or veering in the general territory of yes, then hi! I have a book for you.

Daughter of Deep Silence is by the same author who wrote The Forest of Hands and Teeth, a popular YA zombie series known for being pretty darn brutal. Here she engages us with the tale of a girl named Frances who, after surviving a devastating terrorist massacre on a cruise ship, takes on the role of her dead friend Libby, with the help of Libby's father, in order to expose the cover-up and show the world the truth, while also taking her own revenge on the people responsible for the mass-murder she miraculously survived. After spending years away in Europe, Frances, now living as 'Libby' returns to America in the wake of her adoptive father's death in order to put their long-laid plans for revenge into play, starting with the senator leading the cover up, and his handsome young son, the only boy on their cruise who ever overlooked the glamorous Libby for the plain and shy Frances. Naturally, hard feelings ensue, as 'Libby' lies, sabotages, schemes, and poisons her way into their lives in an insane, desperate attempt to find the truth and avenge her mother and father, and the real Libby, no matter what it costs her...

Sound insane? Sound amazing? Sound like something you binge-read at 3AM with a flashlight while your power is out? It is. Believe me. Been there, done that. And it was so, so worth it. Pick up a copy of this glamorous book ASAP if you can. (Or order it online, because hey, social distancing.)

4: More Than This by Patrick Ness

More Than This is a mystery box of a novel I think it's best if you go into blind, so I won't spoil too much of the plot. Our main character is a teen boy who just died. Now he's woken up in his old neighborhood, although it seems abandoned and damaged, and the memories of his past that haunt him are his only company as he attempts to discover the truth about his current predicament.

Patrick Ness wrote the Dr. Who spin-off BBC's Class, which only got one season. I thought it was superb YA and I only watched it because of him and because of this novel. I'm not a huge WHO fan, but I'm a massive fan of Mr. Ness and his writing, all because of this book. I first read it when I'd been awake for 24-hours, and was planning to go to bed ASAP. I told myself I'd read a single chapter or two at the most, and ended up staying up and reading the whole book in two sittings. I had to put it down halfway through and go on a short walk because I was way too anxious over the plot and characters. Ness builds a ton of dread and tension by expertly unwinding multiple mysteries and narratives all at once, and it's honestly amazing to behold.

The vagueness of this book, the cover, the blurb, the John Green blurb on the cover, etc, all put me off of it for a while, but when I did eventually grab a copy and get into it, I was so glad I hadn't let my original reservations keep me away. This novel is YA gold and should be considered as such.

Also for those of you who like super gay stuff (as do I) it has LGBT+ content, and it's OwnVoices fiction, too, which is always nice! It's always rewarding to see a gay man get praised and be successful for writing gay male characters, since in the YA sphere, it's usually female authors leading the charge with gay/bi male content.

3: Origin by Jessica Khoury

Origin is the story of a girl named Pia who is immortal and impervious to all injury. Created by a group of dedicated scientists situated deep in the Amazon rainforest, she's the result of dubious genetic experiments and is sheltered, her information about the outside world censored, even as she is prepared to become a scientist in her own right and take over control of the laboratory one day. Once she sneaks out of her heavily guarded compound and meets a boy named Eio in the jungle, she begins to bond with him and his exploited indigenous tribe while they work to discover the hidden secrets of Pia's immortality.

Origin is a book that's close to my heart for various reasons, one being that I saw Jessica Khoury's posts on Query Boards back in 2011 or 2012. I knew of this novel before it was agented or published, and I loved watching her journey as an author. It's always nice to see somebody achieve their dreams and share in their excitement and enthusiasm. Another reason would be the happy memories I have attached to the book itself: in 2012 or 2013 just as I was about to start high school, I went school shopping with my mom one day, we took my dad's truck and went clothes and supplies shopping, it was a beautiful spring day and she let me peek inside the bookstore and pick something out for myself. I was immediately drawn to this book as I recognized the cover and I cherish it to this day as part of a fun, sunny memory with my mom. Which I should consider myself lucky for, considering Pia's mom? She's kind of a nightmare.

Pia's story is about rebellion, self-declaration, and loyalty to a cause, no matter what it costs you personally. I find it beautifully written - I know not everybody loves first-person, present-tense, but for me it's always been a personal favorite. From the mysterious compound and their hidden agendas, to the rush of first love between Pia and Eio, to the intense action scenes, I genuinely adore this novel.

Since its publication it's no longer technically a standalone; it has several 'companion' novels, but none of them are direct sequels, simply books set in the same world and genre about completely unrelated scenarios and characters. The sole connecting thread being the 'Corpus' company. Pia's story is just one of several in an anthology, so I think technically it can still be called a standalone, so I'm slapping it on here. It deserves it.

2: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

It should be a crime to send your child to school like it's any normal old day after they've stayed up late reading this gem of a novel. Or at least that's what I would tell my own parents if they still listened to any of my insane ramblings. I read this in one night back when I was in middle school. No sleep that night, for sure. It was worth it, even though I was comatose the next day.

Tiger Lily is a novel that demands your attention and refuses to yield it until you've read it all. You can not simply 'pace yourself' with this one. It tells the story of Peter Pan and Tiger Lily, from the perspective of the fairy Tinker Bell. It rips out your heart unapologetically and stomps on it for fun, and it expects you to say thank you, and you should. I was hardly expecting a novel like this when I went into it, but Tiger Lily is that rare book that creeps up on you and takes you by surprise. It lives up to any and all hype; it's lyrical and lush, it's enchanting, like all fairy tales should be, and it reveals a dozen new sides to the story of Peter Pan and adds a new dimension to the life of this famous island and its inhabitants, from Hook to the Lost Boys, to Tink herself.

I have read a few other YA re-tellings/sequels/spin-offs of Peter Pan and I usually walk away disappointed. I ask myself why I even still do this and keep opening a can of worms I know is sour and gross as all hell. It's because of books like this, though, the kind there's no accounting for.

I think Anderson also deserves much credit for writing a firsthand account from a character who hardly speaks, can't properly communicate, etc. Tink is truly a silent witness and it's rare to see an author pull off a main character from a first-person POV like that with such grace. She was at the top of her game here, on every last page. We love to see it.

1: The Minnow by Diana Sweeney

The Minnow more than deserves the number one spot on this list. A heartbreaking, mature-skewered dark YA contemporary with lyrical prose and surrealist imagery, it features an orphaned main character whose hometown was the victim of a devastating flood. In the aftermath of this natural disaster she ekes out a living in a new world that she struggles to cope with, while attempting to balance visits with her aging grandmother who lives in a home and grappling with her own unexpected pregnancy by a much older man. A crystal clear glimpse into grief, trauma, small-town poverty, family ties, and the strength of a community, The Minnow is optimistic, but never naively so, and unrelentingly beautiful; a novel that reads like looking at stained glass feels.

I wasn't sure which genre this book was before I went into it initially; I'd received a copy on NetGalley and I figured the cover was lovely so I'd give it a try. I ended up discovering one of my favorite novels of all time.

The Minnow pulls zero punches, and it's best if you make peace with being heartbroken again and again before going in, because that's what you're in for. I can't stress enough how much I love this novel, the vivid world and characters, and the cutting voice Sweeney uses to illustrate the life of her main character. I think it's one of those desperately underrated books that could stand the test of time and become a classic, if only somebody would shine a light on it, so here I am, trying to do just that.

Thus concludes our (my) top-5! Comment below and tell me what your favorite YA standalone is, because I'd love to check out some more incredible books.

If you enjoyed this list you could always check out more of my content, or pick up a copy of my newest story, Faces in Weeds, a horror thriller set in the south! Get it here.

Beacon & Chosen Double-Feature Book Release

Hi! Long time no see. I've been spending most of my time wallowing in bed, watching too much Netflix. Sometimes I get a little writing done, though.

Sometimes I even publish it O_o

In that vein, I've got two new books out! The first is Beacon, a young adult urban fantasy which I've been teasing you guys about forever and decided to just go ahead and drop.

(You can get it here.) [$1.99]

The second is Chosen, which is a previously un-announced spin-off of Beacon. It's a new adult paranormal romance about an unrelated set of characters in the same world, and you can (and should!) read it as a standalone.

(Grab a copy here.) [$0.99]

I'll add new pages for Beacon and Chosen at the top of the blog! I'm also going to be fiddling with the blog design for a while tonight, so don't freak out if things look a little wonky or ugly for a while.

I started working on an exciting new project the other night, but I'm going to try to reign myself in and finish Forsake This Violent World tonight before moving forward on that. I'm also still editing Shadows of Ourselves to catch errors I missed in the first edition, so I can put out a cleaner new one. Nothing has changed or been cut or added, I'm just addressing grammar mistakes and spelling errors I never caught the first time around.

My editing process has also changed a lot since I wrote Shadows of Ourselves, so it's nice to go back and fix those oversights I was once oblivious to.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. I'll post more about Chosen in the next few days, including an exert from the story & a few facts about the book & writing process.

~

Follow me on twitter here.

Storm of Masks Cover Revamp & New Edition

I've been neglecting this blog again. I know, who's surprised?

It's hard motivating myself to work, so when I do I tend to spend my words on my manuscripts instead of the blog these days. I did post about this on Twitter & Instagram, though! I figured I should share it here while I was at it, since work is flying by.

I'm publishing a new edition of Storm of Masks really soon, with several additional scenes, a new chapter, and a newly added epilogue & prologue. The new edition will also contain my novella Dreamseeker as a free bonus!

So, why a new edition? Basically, I originally envisioned Storm of Masks as a standalone novel, but the characters weren't done with me - or each other - and the idea for the sequel kept spinning out of control in my head until I couldn't ignore it. Now that Storm of Masks is the first book in a duology, I thought it needed a few minor tweaks and prods in a right direction.

Since I'm a total cheater, I decided that while I'm at it I may as well add some new material and explore things I didn't have time to in the original edition. Those new elements will also come into play in book 2, Riot of Souls.

Jen herself and a few minor characters get a more of the spotlight in the edition, which I feel like they definitely deserve, and there's a bit more spook factor, which I feel like we all definitely deserve.

And, just because I'm me, I shoved a few more pop culture references and a tad more gay stuff in there. :) And, you know, way more ghosts...

I also felt that, since I know the world in and out now, and in a more concrete way than I did the first time around, I could tighten some of the world building and fantastical aspects and harness them better.

I think the finished product is something pretty special, and I'm really excited to share it.

I've had a tough go of things lately, and my mental health really took a hit for a while - to the point where I almost, almost, seriously considered quitting writing & publishing altogether. It turns out I had to walk away from my work for a while and allow myself to just exist so I could work through some leftover stress I'd been putting off dealing with. After a few days away from the keyboard, my brain fog started to clear. I'm in a better place now and the writing bug has taken back its home in my brain, so for the foreseeable future I might manage not to be a total mess for once? Yes, this is as shocking a development for me as it is for y'all.

Anyway, while I leave you to drool over this cover, which really suits the book better than the original, I'm gonna hop back on putting the final touches on the book!

Final release date to come!

Balance

Storm of Masks is out, and you should probably buy it and read it and let it get you super excited for the fall. I mean, if you want.

That's actually not what I wanna talk about, right now, though. I put the book out the other day and it's been nice not being near the end of a project for a while, so I can just float. I'm so glad it's done and out there and it's just out of my hands - I wrote the best book I can, and it has to sink or swim on its own.

I've spent the last couple days just hanging out with friends, listening to music, catching up on BoJack Horseman and rewatching Jessica Jones. Fun, easy stuff.

I'm still working, but since SoM is published, I'm taking a couple days to play around with various projects and outlines and see what direction I wanna go in next. I think I may dive into the second books in the Evernight Falling Saga and the Seraph Chronicles. If I could finish ToS and Atrocity and put them both out around the same time, I'd be sososo happy.

One thing I've been focusing on a lot though is life outside writing. I've been publishing since the tail end of 2014, and it's been my absolute life focus since early 2015 - work, work, and more work. I'm not burning out, really, just more like taking a step back. I'm not where I hoped I'd be at this point with my career and lifestyle, and I'm trying to assess what needs to change. I know I'm dedicated to my books and can't stop writing, no matter what I do. I've essentially stopped trying to be a marketing machine and am just working on putting out a large, diverse body of work, so there's something for everyone.

But it isn't enough for me anymore to only focus on work and live my life. In the next year I'd like to get out a lot more and also bring up my income a bit, so I'm not a constant ball of worry and stress.

It just doesn't seem worth it to me to literally kill myself for my job and not see results, so right now I'm drifting and trying to figure out what new approach I'm going to take, while trying to balance work and actual recreation more.

I tend to write all day when I write, so it's around eight hour bursts of writing. I typically write 6 to 7 thousand words a day, as well as work on outlines for other wips. It takes a lot out of you to put in that much work and see very little reward, but this is both a numbers game and a test of patience. I know hard work pays off, but it's still, you know, hard.

So I'm compensating with a short vacation. Netflix and long walks and hanging out with the people in my life, being a human being before an author for once.

As much as I love what I do I think I've become a bit of a workaholic and let it turn into my sole focus, but I'm alive and I want to experience this world before I lose it, because we all will someday. I don't like that I often push away valuable, enriching experiences in search of more work time, so right now that's where I'm at, is trying to find a happy middle ground.

Storm of Masks Cover Reveal

If you noticed I haven't been blogging much this summer, it's because I have so many projects going at once...including one that I'm finally ready to share!

Storm of Masks is a paranormal romance set in a small town, full of mystery, ghouls, and holiday festivity! Halloween is my favorite holiday, and fall is the best season in my humble opinion, so I wanted to write a book celebrating them as we get closer to that magic time of year.

Storm of Masks is set in the small town of Ashbrook, which is home to an annual Fall Festival gearing up to Halloween, which the locals go all out for.

It's usually Jen Gordan's favorite time of year...but this year, she's gained the uncanny ability to see ghouls. And they're everywhere.

To get answers she has to turn to the charming new boy in school, Carter Lord.

I'm glad I held off on sharing this one, because it originally had a different name, but Storm of Masks came from a line I drafted closer to the end of the book, and I really loved it, because it fits the book perfectly.

Everyone wears masks; the living, the dead. They hide parts of themselves from us and let others radiate. It's not always deceptive, either; it's part of life.

I wanted to explore the different parts of people that war with each other and the facades we build against those around us. Anybody you think you know can be keeping secrets, and isn't Halloween the best time of year to start yanking off masks for a peek at what's underneath?

I can't wait to share this story, but for now I'll leave you all with a quote from the book!

       The days went on like that, a blur of rotting leaves and morning conversations, the bitter burn of hot coffee and the bite of frost filling the air. Long hours in stifling classrooms listening to shuffling sheets of paper lulled me into a sense of peace. I buried myself in routine and academia, doing my best to ignore the ghouls.

Untold - Book Summary + Cover Reveal!

So if you're wondering why I've been strangely absent since the release of Shadows of Ourselves (which has been my best selling book yet and gotten good ratings so far, so thank you guys <3) it's because I'm already working on a million other projects.

I have the sequel to Blood of Midnight to get out, plus Maelstrom, both books in the Dreamworld Duet, and two standalone titles I want to release soon. Yeah, there's a lot on my plate...but that's just the way I like it.

And now I can actually talk about one of those standalone projects, because I just posted the page for it (it's called Untold) and it now has a tab at the top of the blog! You can also add it on Goodreads here!

Untold is an urban fantasy novella about a group of humans called sentinels, who are tasked with policing the dangerous mythological creatures that still roam our world, long after the fall of the gods.

It has ifrits and basilisks and selkies and nixies and ogres, and it's a heap of fun! Plus, hot boys!

Here's the cover:

And here's the summary:

Lyra and her sister Rachel are sentinels—humans tasked by the ancient gods to guard humanity against the beasts they left behind. Living in a sheltered Canadian island community, Lyra and Rachel have always been kept away from most danger by the magical protections that drew their parents to the island in the first place. But now those protections are wearing off, and Lyra and her sister have no choice but to face beasts out of their worst nightmares—gorgons and nixies and basilisks—if they want any hope of saving themselves and their town.

When a charming demigod named Callum strolls into town hot on the heels of a blast of magical energy, Rachel is weary of him, and cautions Lyra to stay away—but she can’t deny her attraction to Callum. Or the fact that he could be their only chance of turning the tide against the horde of monsters descending on their home.

Now, Lyra will have to race against time and conquer her own weakness. . .or risk plunging the entire world into chaos. 

I'm pretty excited to write it. It's set in a small Canadian town on a secluded island, and it really touches on my roots: I grew up in and around the biggest city in the province of New Brunswick, and my time was split between living in various parts of the city and in really rural areas.

I remember stretches of months growing up where the only other humans I saw were my parents and my brother, because neighbors were just too far away.

This novel is set in a place that really feels like home in a lot of ways.

Also, it's got interwoven threads of different mythologies and legends. A large chunk of things are from Greek mythology, though, and I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from hero myths.

My family is Greek, and growing up I was so, so, so fascinated by those myths. My mother's name is Athena, and she has a tattoo of the goddess on her ankle. When I was in elementary school, some of the first writing I ever did, in one of those daily journals they made us keep, were stories of Zeus, Aphrodite, and Athena, going on adventures and exploring caves together during lightening storms. I still have relatives in Greece who I would love to meet some day, and all in all, I simply love the richness of the mythology and the scope and scale of those myths - interpersonal conflicts and really contained events have ripple effects that touch on the rest of the world, and that's a big part of the plot here; what these characters do and what they choose will change more than just their own lives, and they're decidedly aware of that.

I'm really excited to share all of these projects with you, but for now this is the one I'll probably be talking about most! I'm hoping to put it out within the next 15 days, at the very most.

Coffee, enthusiasm, and writing strategy are all on my side with this one. Can't wait to share <3

Too Much and Too Little

While going over SOSAS another time I've been listening to The Walk, by Imogen Heap, on repeat. I've also been stuffing my face with barbecue chips.

But I thought I would take a break from that to post a quote from the book really quickly:

You can buy the book here, or just wait until it's out in paperback. The new edition will have a map of the world in it. If I can figure out how to format that.

Or, you can request a free review copy by sending me an email, which I talked about in my last post. The gist of it is this: you like free books, I like honest reviews. And giving out free books.

So shoot me an email at ApolloBlake@mail.com for a free ebook if you're interested. Now, back to work!

Blood of Midnight is free for the next two days!

Blood of Midnight is going to be free in the Kindle Store for the 24th and 25th! If you're looking for a fast read with some dark subject matter, intense action scenes, and vampire court intrigue, pick it up!

You can find the book here! And here's a quote;

Discussing YA: How Queer Characters Make Your Book More Realistic

Look, queer people exist. You don't have to like us, you don't have to want to write about us. But we exist. And if your fictional world doesn't at least acknowledge that we exist, it's gonna feel unrealistic, and at least a third of your readership is going to think you have ingrained homophobic tendencies. Seriously.

I can not tell you how many times I've had the immersive experience of a book ruined simply because it felt so unrealistic that every character in it was heterosexual.

And the thing is, you don't even need to write queer main characters. I mean, you should, yeah. Representation is important, and a big chunk of getting over ingrained self-hatred and internalized homophobia is about seeing healthy, happy reflections of yourself represented in fiction. But that said, if you, for some reason, be it personal preference or publisher interference or just the fact that you're one of those trash human beings who really thinks queer people are evil, don't want to or can't, write queer main characters, you can still include them.

Stephanie Perkins included two gay dads in Lola and the Boy Next Door, which created valuable representation and added a note of realness to the novel, but they were still minor, background characters. Kiera Cass mentions that girls can like girls without ever introducing a lesbian character in her book The Heir, and Marie Lu show both minor and major characters having same sex attractions without it taking up the focus. Jessica shirvington had a gay couple develop as frenemies, to friends, to lovers in her Violet Eden series, while only confirming it as romantic in the last book.

You can include diverse depictions of humanity's interaction with sexuality and gender without it being all about that, or taking focus from other aspects of your work.

Look, I'm not here to argue that queer people aren't evil. Why? Because it's 2016, and I don't feel like I should have to defend us in that way. If you're still hanging onto those beliefs, you're delusional, and I can't cure mental illness and paranoia through a computer screen.

What I can do is reason with you, so here's some reasoning: ignoring the existence of queer people, no matter what you think about us, both marginalizes a chunk of potential readership and also makes your art suffer.

It doesn't feel realistic to read a book where every single character falls into a straight romance with a heteronormative bow wrapped around it.

It doesn't feel realistic to read a book where every single character is just presumed to be straight when we know so little about them.

It doesn't feel realistic (or entertaining) to read a book where characters so obviously fall into a storyline or situation where an exploration of their sexuality or deviation from the straight 'norm' would make for a better journey or story, and watch it not happen.

I can name a slew of YA books where queer people just ... don't exist. Readers can handle queer characters. What's more, we want them.

A large fraction of your readers, even if they aren't queer people themselves, know someone who is gay, have a relative who is lesbian, are in a club at school with a kid who's trans, are talking online with peers who are asexual - if you think they aren't ready for this representation, or that they aren't actively interested in reading it, you're dead wrong.

There is no end to the benefits of writing a queer character, or having these conversations. At the end of the day, the only one you really need is this, though: we exist. We exist in the real world, and our absence in your books is out of place, a glaring elephant in the proverbial room, and it hurts the quality and tone of your work.

If you're too afraid to write queer characters because you think it will somehow bog down or ruin the entire book to have a gay person in it, you should probably be worried about your writing skills as a hole. Just saying.

Discussing YA: sex & masturbation in YA novels.

So today we're gonna talk about sex. And masturbating. Why? It's important. That's right kids, it's time to talk about the birds and the bees. And I don't mean the ones who make you think oh fuck, not again, when they start chirping outside your window at four am to remind you you still haven't slept, yet.

Nope. I'm talking 'bout the ones you use to make babies. Or not, if you're me, and hate children, which I am, and do.

Moving on: kids and teens need to read about positive portrayals of sex and masturbation.

Teenagers need to be reading scenes where teenage characters engage in healthy, safe, consensual acts of sex and self-pleasure. They need to read these scenes with straight couples and queer couples, across spectrums of gender identity.

Why? Because if they don't we're opening them up for an intense whirlwind of unhealthy attitudes and experiences and harmful situations/

Teenagers are having sex. They're thinking about sex and talking about sex and engaging in it. They're touching themselves and exploring their bodies and often putting themselves in dangerous, unhealthy positions and relationships in order to do it.

Why is this important? Because we live in a society that commodifies people's bodies and the idea of sexual pleasure, in a world where a capitalistically informed version of sex and relationships, one governed by heteronormative ideals and harsh beauty standards. And it's fucking with kids heads.

So, my writing advice for this week is just this: let your characters have a good relationship with their bodies, let them have sex without feeling ashamed or being shamed by others.

Talk about sex in an honest, frank, healthy way. It's on your readers' minds and it's a part of their lives. Teenagers lives are not rated pg-13; they just aren't. They do drugs and have sex and witness violence, like any other humans do. We need to stop crafting stories for teenagers in which they see glorified, perfect versions of themselves that have no flaws and no disposition towards human behaviours.

I.E. teenagers aren't perfect and often, writing perfect characters who never do a thing wrong or ignore emotions and experiences that aren't 'appropriate' can be harmful to your readers.

Does this mean cramming pointless sex into every scene or sacrificing substance or tone to include these scenes? No. But it does mean they should be considered and treated as a part of normal, daily, teenage life, which they are.

Escaping the Rage Machine (And a Cover Reveal!)

Rage is gone. Like, totally lost. My laptop broke and I just lost the entire novella. So it won't be coming out.

Instead, I'm putting out a novella called We Die Like Angels, set in Midnight City - the same location as Things We Saw At Midnight. If you haven't read that, it doesn't really matter. This is its own thing.

And it's very romantic and funny and dark and very gay. So yeah.

Here's the cover:

I don't have a cover yet since I'm still outlining right now, but I'm estimating like, three or four days for drafting. Maybe five. And then around eight for editing - three days to let it sit and five days to actually edit. And then I can publish.

I dunno. I'm angry I lost an entire title I'd already drafted and was halfway done editing, but at the same time I wasn't in love with that story. I'll still publish it if I ever recover those files, but it seems unlikely.

This, though, I'm fascinated with. The idea of the main romance angle came to me in a dream, and I just knew it was a Midnight City kind of story.

The main character is a guy named Milo:

Who finds himself in a very bad situation, with a very antagonistic love interest. Who is a drug ring leader. And shameless flirt.

Other things? It's first person, present tense. It's edgy. It's really aesthetic. It's also super, super gay.

Souls of Salt & Seawater is out! (Book Release & Cover Reveal)

GUYS. SOULS OF SALT AND SEAWATER IS FINALLY PUBLISHED.

I've been working on this project for months and I promised as soon as this book was out, I'd be shouting about it from the rooftops, so this is me doing that.

The book will be free in the Kindle store on the 19th and 20th! If you want a copy sooner than that, though, you can buy the book here:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BWN5VZW

I'm diving into work on other projects now, but I hope you all enjoy SOSAS, and I'll have a paperback info post up in a week or so! Thanks for all the support guys!

(*If you're a book blogger/reviewer and would like a copy, feel free to email me - JinxKing@null.net, and I'll shoot you an epub!)

FRENZY - Book + Cover Reveal!

So, I've been working on this project as a little aside for a while that I haven't been able to talk about, but it looks like I'm going to finish revisions and move onto copy edits within the next two days, and be able to publish the book within the next two weeks. So I can finally announce it.

And, because I'm just that cool, I'm going to reveal the cover at the same time, and give you all a bit of Souls of Salt & Seawater news!

So, the cover:

And a bit about the book:

If the word Gnome conjures up images of tiny bearded statues hanging around on front lawns, then think again. . .

Eighteen year-old Gnome Evelyn Torres isn't exactly having the day she planned. Sure, her skill and power as an earth elemental are at an all-time high. . .but her life is kind of a mess. Her online date turned out to be of the non-human variety. A man claiming to be the father she's never spoken to has suddenly reached out to her. Oh, and the icing on the sundae? A horde of Goblins has gone into a seriously nasty frenzy - and they're after her.

Monsters tossing debris overhead? Not exactly her idea of a great first date. Being in crush has never been this deadly. . .

Frenzy works both as a standalone novella and as a prequel to the upcoming Maelstrom in an action-packed first glimpse at the Menagerie world that will leave you pining for more. . .

So, yeah. It's set in the Menagerie world, the same universe as Maelstrom and Shadows. It's got cute romance. And family drama. And fashion. Oh, did I mention the horde of angry Goblins?

And, now, the question most of you are probably asking:

Where is SOSAS? Why is this coming out before that?

I announced Souls of Salt and Seawater this summer - before I'd actually started writing the book. I did that because there was a lot of hype surrounding it and a lot of people asking me to complete Alice's story, and I was so enamored with the potential it had that the book kept getting longer and longer, and it became more than just Alice's story - it became this worlds story.

Josmea is a world that I, as a writer, tend to play around in and explore for the next ten to fifteen years of my career. Souls of Salt and Seawater is just a small patch of a wider, richer tapestry I plan to weave - which is why I want to take my time with it and make it the best first impression of this world and these characters that I can.

That said, the book is coming soon. I'm still working on revisions right now, but I'd estimate I'll be done major revisions within the week and then move onto copy-editing. I don't even have a publishing date for Frenzy right now aside from soon, so I'll just say that SOSAS is coming soon after that.

I've announced and pushed back the books release twice now, so I've learnt my lesson about announcing dates before the minute I'm ready to hit publish. As soon as the book is ready, you will all know, because I will be shouting it from the rooftops and sending out free copies like there is no tomorrow.

As for actual pricing, both books will be initially available only on Amazon and Kobo, and they'll be $2.99 each in both marketplaces.

You can find Frenzy on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28600479-frenzy

Reading Recap - 2016 #1

I don't know if this feature will stick (if it does it probably will be monthly as opposed to weekly in the future) but I'm thinking I'll start linking reviews here. My book review blog on Tumblr is http://golden-tomes.tumblr.com/ (an aside: I'll be adding a 'where can you find me?' type page to this blog soon to make finding me elsewhere easier) but it takes me a while to cross post reviews there, so instead I'll link them here first.

So, without further ado, here are the books I finished this week, along with links to their reviews:

 Gilded Review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/602433525

 Say You're Mine Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1489792540

 Darkness Falls Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/726088599

 Storm Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/736041826

A Darkness So Divine Trilogy Details + Cover Reveal!

So, a few days ago, I posted the covers for the A Darkness So divine trilogy on my Tumblr:

The trilogy is a spin-off of the Lilac Jones Adventures (which are currently free on Wattpad) but where TLJA are lighter young adult stories for younger readers, ADSD borders on new adult, and is much darker. It still has a grim, kind of snarky, sarcastic humour to it, but the characters are older, more mature, and dealing with much darker issues than Lilac did in the prequel.

Book #1, The Diamond Society, sees Lilac moving to the tiny town of Northbank, New Brunswick, with her recently divorced mother, for a fresh start. But Lilac soon realizes that the tiny town is anything but quiet: Northbank is home to a quietly seductive group of paranormals, each harbouring their own secrets and powers. . .

Lilac is quickly caught up in the lives of two local teenagers: Jesse Holmes - the town outcast who may or may not be an incubus; and Hadley Snow - resident popular girl and part-time Valkyrie (who might have murdered her summer fling . . . oops!) As Lilac and the teens go to desperate lengths to uncover the secrets of Northbank and ensure it's future, they're forced to contend with a dark power brimming beneath the surface of their quaint home that, if left undefeated, could destroy all them. . .

Book #2, The Winter War, sees each of the main trio discover more about their inherent powers and histories while their present relationships develop and grow, all while startling revelations change everything, and a desperate war looms in the horizon. . . Book #3 The Chain of Thorns, concludes the trilogy as new enemies converge on the town and the trio must band together to save everyone they love from certain death. . .

In my mind, the series is akin to The Vampire Diaries, The Mortal Instruments, and The Nine Lives of Chloe King. I really love urban fantasies, and for this trilogy I'm drawing inspiration from some of my favourites, like My Blood Approves, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and Dangerous Creatures - essentially, it's my take on one of the teen supernatural dramas I loved as a younger teen (and still occasionally binge-watch!) and putting it in a setting I can relate to.

I grew up in Saint John, which is the largest city in New Brunswick - but I also spent time living in rural areas of Hampton, and now live in a municipality outside the city limits. In Northbank, I wanted to incorporate the feeling of small-town life in New Brunswick, capturing some of the isolation and boredom, while also showing the dynamic relationships between the locals and some of the more lively sides of the community. I've drawn from a lot of real-life experience in outlining the town and the settings the characters interact in, and I'm excited to bring those to life and use my own reality as an inspiration for how they feel on the page.

I also really wanted to capture how interesting and vivid the lives of teenagers going on. How these young people have such dynamic inner-lives, and so much on their plates; and what happens if you throw in a dash of magic and personal tragedy? What happens when they're dealing with grief and growing up and fighting evil? They all fit into certain archetypes: Lilac, the loner; Hadley, the popular girl; Jesse, the rebel. And their relationships with each other and their parents, friends, and love interests shape their story. I also embraced the diversity of Canadians in writing them, and I'm excited to bring more representation into the genre.

All in all, ADSD has been a lot of fun for me, so far, and I'm really excited for it! But I'm done plugging myself, and I should get back to work, so I'll leave you with this new footage from Shadowhunters!

Your Favourite Candy's Cotton, That's Why All Your Teeth Are Rotten~

~Title from Sippy Cup by Melanie Martinez.

A lot has happened. I haven't written much in the last two weeks, and I don't know if I mentioned why or not, but it's because I went on vacation. I bought a lot of books. And chocolate. And I got my first tattoo!

My cousin and I went to visit my grandmother and my aunt in a small town near Quebec and it was a damn experience. The town was tiny, but charming - every house looked like a witch lived there and if you went inside you'd find a cozy place with a pantry full of herbs, a grimoire and a bunch of cats. It was all wide porches with wicker chairs, small town gossip filtering through the oppressive heat, sweat beading on foreheads, the strong tide at the river - where we saw a massive truck get stuck in the water - and the kind of laughter you can only enjoy in the company of good family and close friends.

It was an eight-hour bus ride, both ways. I have never gone on a longer or further trip before, so it was fascinating, and I was paying attention to every tiny detail - the tricks people would pull to sneak extra luggage aboard, like tying a pair of shoes to your bag or having a huge overflowing purse on top of your carry-on, and the way you could feel the dust and pebbles scatter over the road underneath the bus as we flew along.

We went for walks every single night while we were there; we being myself and my cousin, led by my aunt and her plethora of unique and colourful sisters. They led us around town like saints leading the blind, pointing out local hotspots and talking over each other a mile a minute during a heated discussion on Justin Trudeau. It was on a late run to Tim Hortens for our Gramma one night that I first saw the tattoo shop across the street.

"Let's get tattoos," I jokingly said to my cousin.

"Okay," she told me - except unlike me, she was dead serious.

So we did it. We researched, planned, discussed, and deliberated before settling on a matching set of tattoos: the outline of a crescent moon on opposite wrists. The left for her and the right for me:

I love it. I'd always planned on getting tattoos, but I never thought I'd get my first one on a whim, on the last day of a vacation, without telling my parents - but it happened.

Our tattoo artist was a cool guy, and the shop was incredible - I'll write a bit more about the shop and my experience there when I get the name off of my cousin - but I liked it there. The sensation of getting a tattoo was similar to the wasp sting I got once, like a sharp pinch that lasted for just a few seconds. It is a small tattoo.  But I love it, and every time I look down at my wrist it just feel right.

I am a very big night-owl. It's 12:15am as I write this, and my work day is just getting started. I'll be writing for hours, reading, listening to music, blogging, and trying not to die in this heat. My cousin is a night-owl too, though. We're nocturnal together - and we're so alike. We were born seven days apart - as my mom left the hospital with me, my cousin and her mom were just being rolled in. We stay up late reading side by side, arguing, having movie marathons, just lying in the dark talking and playing games like twenty. questions, having heart-to-hearts. We became who we are today in the dark. So I think the moon is very fitting for us.

So I just wanted to let you guys know I'm still working on Souls of Salt and Seawater, and Shadows, and soon I'll be staring the rewrite on BOM. I'm not not working just because I'm not blogging.

And now, bonus, or 'books I bought on vacation' time:

1. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer (I already had this, but it and Twilight are the only ones I have in paperback, and now I'm one step closer to having all the hardcovers.)
2. Crystal Kingdom by Amanda Hocking (Already had this too, but it was an arc and I needed a pretty finished copy!)
3. Just One Day, Just One Year, & Just One Night by Gayle Forman (Which have been priority reads for months!)
4. Echo by Alyson Noel (Ordered on Amazon, not here yet!)
5. Fallen by Lauren Kate (need to snark-read this in anticipation for the movie - ordered on Amazon, not here yet either!)