An Update Of Sorts. Warning: All over the place.

I know, I know. I use this thing so sporadically, and so much has happened since the last time I updated this thing. So, what was it, the 19th of July? Since then, One Two Three, Salvation came out to two wonderful five star reviews. You can read them here and here. Thanks so much to Cat and Nanee for saying such kind words about my novel. It means a lot to me :)

That brings me to my next bit of news. I signed a contract for the next in the series, Drawing By Heart, and it's set for release on November 23rd. Now, some of you might remember this as one of the three novels I was working on for NaNoWriMo this year, which makes this even more special for me. I love this particular story and it keeps the suspense and mystery going more than I'd expected.

What I really came here to show off, so to speak, is the beautiful new cover I have for Drawing By Heart. It was done by a different cover artist this time, which had me a little bit apprehensive, but it came out beautifully. I wish I'd been able to keep one of the models from the other cover, but the model for Kay is absolutely fucking perfect and I can't wait to show it to you! (image redacted)

Isn't it beautiful?

That being said, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo again this year, as I always do, but I'm going in without a single damn idea as to what I'm going to write. It'll probably hit me a couple days in or something. I hope to see some of you doing the same thing, and look forward to sharing word counts and sprints like we did last year.

One more thing. Mrs Condit reviewed One Two Three, Shatter for her retro reads, and gave it 5 stars as well. You can read that review here and she also nominated me for Author of the Month. I didn't win, I was up against some stiff competition, but she did give a nifty little nominee badge I can display right here:

OKAY, I think this entry is 'all over the place' enough that I should probably end it here before it goes off in a completely different direction. Hopefully I'll start using this more, especially as Drawing By Heart comes out, but I said that about One Two Three, Salvation too, didn't I?

Til next time!
~Joey

My First Nomination!

So I know I've been relatively quiet here lately, been doing editing and workshops to get my latest manuscript up to standard, but I just wanted to share this wonderful bit of good news that just came my way and it'd mean the world to me if you voted for my book. One Two Three, Shatter has been nominated for the GLBT Contemporary Romance section of The Romance Reviews' Best Books of 2012. This is my first ever nomination and I'm so honored. I'm in some great company too.

Just click the button and follow the links to the voter page. You do have to log in to vote, though, because the system tracks the voting that way.
Thanks guys!

Next Big Thing Pt. 2

So I got tagged for this puppy again, this time by Erin O'Quinn. Since the other one was NaNo-related, I figured I'd do this one for one that I'm about ready to publish.

1) What is the working title of your current/next book? Kill To Believe.

2) Where did you get the idea for that book? Honestly, I can't remember! It just sort of came up one day. I wrote the first draft a couple years ago. It was a prequel of sorts to another story I wrote but will probably never publish called Impress Me.

3) What's the genre of the book? Noir, crime, M/M romance/erotica.

4) If you could pick actors to play the lead characters in your story, who would you pick? Oh Lord, this is a difficult one. Nathan would probably be played by Brad Pitt, Snatch and Se7en-era. Mike, possibly Cillian Murphy? He might be a little bit too moody for his character, though. For Charlie, I'd have to say Mark Wahlberg.

5) How would you describe your book in one sentence (10 words or less)? Nathan's been through violence, but Mike's a whole different animal.

6) (a) How will your book be published, submitted through the traditional route to a traditional publisher or will you be handling it yourself through Indie Publishing methods? (b) If you're an Indie Author, will you be publishing through your own Indie Publishing company or in a collective with other Indie Authors? I've got it submitted to Total-e-Bound Publishing right now and they're looking it over. :)

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of this book? A few months, I believe.

8) What other books within your genre are similar to yours? Hmm, another good question. I'd have to say Scarlet Blackwell's Fade To Black.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book? Honestly, it started with me reading one of Scarlet Blackwell's stories. She's always been a source of inspiration for me.

10) What about your book will pique the reader's interest? If you like dark story-lines, a little crime and guns in your romance, and intense erotica, this novel is for you.

I'm tagging Samantha Kay, Kate Vines

Introspect: Bane of My Existence

I think the hardest thing about being a published author is looking back on work you've done years past-- published or not-- and realizing how much better you could have made it if you'd been patient enough to write the stories when you had the skill and experience to execute them more effectively.

Take Kaleb's story for example. When I wrote it, I thought it was the most intense story I'd ever written. I frequently called it my masterpiece and I didn't think I'd ever be able to top it. Then, about a month ago a reviewer pointed out that with that story, not only did I leave questions unanswered, I pulled back in the more poignant parts and wrote it like it was in a third person point of view instead of Kaleb's, and it took away some of the power of the emotional scenes. That's something I try not to do now, and I'm more aware of it because of that comment and just growing as an author, I just wish I'd waited and rewritten Kaleb's story until I had more faculties, more ability to put emotion into writing.

I learn a lot every time I publish something, and I think through publishing something I thought was my masterpiece, I found a story that was similarly worth telling without the sheer amount of angst. Kaleb's story is one angst after another until he settles down, but the one I'm working on now isn't that way. Kay's more or less just a normal young adult who, sure, had a different upbringing than most people, but it doesn't ever cause him angst.

I think it's a little bit funny that Kaleb and Kay have about the same amount of words to their stories, but Kaleb's is all in one novel and Kay's is spanning three now. I should have broken Kaleb's story up into more than one novel, because there was so much more about his life that I could have touched on, some less intense and some more. Live and learn, I suppose.

I feel the same with my novel, Phoenix. I could probably write that novel so much better now if I'd waited to publish it. I could have given Blake an intensity that I hadn't managed when I wrote it. I do have a sequel in mind for that world, but it's on the backburner. It's almost funny, how different the writing is going to be between the two sequels.

The Next Big Thing BlogHop

The Next Big Thing is a series of questions on our work-in-progress, at the end of these questions I shall then give you links to other participants of the Blog Hop, who are due to answer their questions by the 28th November, so don't forget to check them out!

I was tagged by Samantha Kay.

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:

1. What is the working title of your book? I have three right now. One's Drawing By Heart, then its sequel Fire and Oxygen and finally a suspense thriller called Gallagher's Torment.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book? Well, Drawing By Heart and Fire and Oxygen are sequels to One Two Three, Shatter and the sequel to that in consideration right now, One Two Three, Salvation. Gallagher's Torment came out of a need to write something darker, more suspenseful and move away from the whole literary fiction/romance part of life.

3. What genre does your book fall under? Drawing By Heart is literary fiction/LGBT romance/coming of age, and Gallagher's is mystery/suspense/paranormal with a slight underlying romance.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? I have the whole thing cast out in my head, haha. Some are musicians, others are actors. In Drawing By Heart, the main couple are Nick Matthews and Justin Chatwin and there are a literal ton of other cast characters but that could take up this whole thing! In Gallagher's Torment, the cast of characters are Jeremy 13th (Finnish musician), Elisha Cuthbert, Tyler Blackburn, Sierra Kusterbeck, Claire Holt, and James McAvoy.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Drawing By Heart: When he has to make a choice between the past and the present, what will Kay X do to protect the ones he loves?
Fire and Oxygen: When something drastic and terrifying happens to Kay to create conflict on his end, how will he and his boyfriend weather that storm?
Gallagher's Torment: Craig Gallagher's mother was a woman driven insane, but he's terrified going back to the house she nearly killed him in will unlock the same madness inside him.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? Probably self-published. I don't have an agent.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Twelve days for Drawing By Heart. Six days to write Gallagher's Torment. I've been working on Fire and Oxygen for four days, and it's only in its infancy.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? Oh, I have no idea, honestly. Maybe one of Scarlet Blackwell's novels.

9. Who or What inspired you to write this book? My muses. The characters themselves. My girlfriend.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? If you're already into Kaleb's world and Kay piqued your interest at the end, you'll want to see him grow up and become a man in his own right. If you like a hot couple, intense chemistry, and a solid love story weaved in with a coming-of-age tale of a young man who grew up in a home different than most people, you'll like Kay's trilogy. Also, if you like paranormal and ghost stories, you should check out Gallagher's Torment.

I don't actually have anyone to tag as of right now, but if you want to do it, you can! That's just how I roll.

Baby, It's Cold Outside (but the blog's not)

So, I decided that my blog looked a little bit cold and closed off with the monochromatic spectrum, so I added a little heat to it. Well, a lot of heat, I suppose. I like it quite a bit better now. It's more engaging, more welcoming. More me, I guess is what I'm going for. It needed something to hook the reader.

Now that I've got you hooked, I hope, I've been hard at work on Kay and Johnny's third novel, and I've got a lot of great ideas for it. Total word count for November is 92k today. I'm also looking into places to submit his first story to. I already sent it to Silver Publishing for consideration, but I think it was a bit preemptive considering I'm doing some editing on it now and it's a hot mess. It's getting better, but there are typos everywhere, stilted sentences, the works. It was sort of a NaNo on its own; I wrote the whole thing in a span of a few weeks, about 55k, back in June and July. I can't wait to introduce you guys to these boys. I'm very passionate about them.

I've only let one person read anything of theirs so far, and I got a great response. Maybe she's biased, but she's also objective when it comes to writing-- she's not afraid to speak her mind and tell me something's off-- so I take her at her word. I'm excited to pull you all into their world. To start you off, I'd say read One Two Three, Shatter for a nice, solid backstory on the universe. To buy, click on the cover in my sidebar! It won't bite. Maybe then you'll start to see what I'm babbling about, but Kay and Johnny are a whole different beast than Kaleb and Trent. Not better, just...different. I love them both to pieces, though.

In the next couple days, I'm gonna be talking about my WIPs due to the blog hop I'm taking part in, so you'll get an introduction there as well. For now, back to editing for me!

'Til next time. :)

Working on covers

It's when I begin working with a cover artist that I realize that sometimes even with a 158,000 manuscript, it's difficult for me to express my exact vision. It's hard to explain something that's been in my head since 2008. There's so much about this world that I've created that I find difficult to explain, like exact nuances of my characters or exactly what I want the cover of my books to look like.

I find it kind of funny that neither of my books look like romance novels, but then again that was because they aren't exactly romance novels. I prefer writing stories about worlds to stories about a small part of them that's focused on a relationship.

I love the covers I've gotten so far, and I only hope I can continue to express my vision in a way that brings people into my little worlds that I've created. I only wish I had a further reach so I could touch more people.

About Publication

You know something funny? As passionate as I've always been about writing, I ever imagined that I actually would get published. I'd hoped for it, of course, but I'd never let my hopes get up that high because it's such a tough market and so many publishers seem to be so selective about the manuscripts they take on. I've always thought my writing was too controversial, too out-there, too genre-bending, because they never just stick to one subject. They push boundaries, they touch on taboo subjects, and they're just generally complex. Too complex most of the time.

Now that two of them are getting published - the two that mean the most to me - it's surreal that they're actually going to be out there, for anyone to read. It's what I've wanted since I was a little guy, but I always thought it was one of those pipe dreams that never came true when it came down to it. Here I am, though, getting published. I've got the cover art done for one manuscript and the core editing done on it too. I can't stop staring at the cover because it's so beautiful and so perfect. It's in the Coming Soon section of the publishing website. It's just... so surreal, thinking that, you know what, I finally did it. I accomplished one of my biggest dreams.

I am a published author.