The Soulstone Chronicles

Resigning

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:36:25 GMT

Well, my health pretty much did me in. I couldn't keep up with the editing. Last Friday, I resigned as an FB/WCP editor. I spent my computer hours this week going through files and emails to track down the most current copies of everything and I uploaded them to the FB editor forum for the other editors to choose. My authors were contacted about the resignation. Some answered the email. A few did not. Either way, I'm still availalbe to answer questions, forward emails to the boss, or whatever else that needs doing aside from editing.

I put this off for more than a month. I hung on despite knowing long ago that I wasn't keeping up. I hope my authors will forgive me. It was time to admit it and pass the work along to those capable of sitting down at the computer for longer lengths of time than me.

I'm not out of the loop entirely. I'll be doing cover art, one cover at a time so as not to overwhelm myself. I already have one cover to do. The last few days have been migraine and back pain hell. I had to cancel a session with a student wanting English tutoring this morning. Thank God today wasn't a kennel day. I'd have been limping home after.

So there it is. My latest in the publishing adventure. Yes, I will still write. No, I'm not writing just now; not even editing my old stuff right now. My mind needs more settling time. My mind feels like a million particles in a tornado just now. Very little ability to concentrate on anything to do with words. Pictures come easier, hence covers.

Best wishes to all my authors who were so patient with me and understanding. I hope to see your stories published soon. And to my bosses and fellow editors, you're all wonderful. Thank you.

Star Stepping: An Anthology of Fantasy & Sci-Fi Tales

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:31:58 GMT

This anthology is available on the Wild Child Publishing site.

For interviews and websites of the authors, please visit Debbie Mumford's blog.

Contents:

Beneath and Beyond by Debbie Mumford

Archaeologist Erin Carstedter is a no-nonsense kind of gal. If something can't be defined by scientific method, it doesn't exist. Erin's beliefs are about to be tested by a ruin beneath the polar ice cap. What Erin discovers in those icy depths will challenge her thinking...and change the world.

Read excerpt.

That Old Sweet Smell of Deception by Martin Owton

An ancient dragon tempted out to war for the first time in centuries finds the world greatly changed and dragons a rarity. Does an enemy wizard hold the key to saving dragonkind?

Read excerpt.

Fatal Wager by Andy Heizeler

Read excerpt.

A Pixie Story by Joe Miller

Mike awoke to find himself in a strange land. To then find himself surrounded by a whole hoard of pixies, each one with an arrow aimed at his heart, one could hardly guess how things would turn out.

Read excerpt.

The Honorable Lady by Kim Knox

Royal officials are vanishing and Evia-ben-Thiak doesn't intend to be one of them.

As a high-ranking member of the court, she fears for her life. So, she takes the only option open to her. She hides on a boat sailing to her home-island.

However, the boat is not the sanctuary she hoped for. A friend from her childhood, the now-feared sorcerer, Makovik is also onboard. To be seen with him could end her career; have her thrown in the deepest dungeon. But more than that, she finds he has a plan.

And his actions will change her life forever...

Read excerpt.

Wakinyan's Valley by Debbie Mumford

In a post-apocalyptic world, Mark Whitehorse and his friends search for a safe haven where they can raise their families. When they stumble across a hidden valley, they believe their search is over. But the valley is already inhabited. Will the band of survivors find refuge...or something else entirely?

Read excerpt.

Storms of Light and Shadow by Patrice Sarath

Some gifts are better left unopened.

Read excerpt.

Under a Full Moon by Tom Fowler

A weretiger wizard immune to the lunar cycles suddenly finds himself caught in a painful transformation -- one he suspects was caused by someone else. Can he stop it before he becomes a rampaging monster, and can he find the man who did this to him?

Read excerpt.

Casey by Noelle Sterne

An ordinary junior high school boy, Casey suffers the trials of a teenager until one day his life is changed forever.

Read excerpt.

Bastet by R. S. Pyne

Captain Kai Brenhin Righa of the corsair fighting ship Raven is quite happy not being human. The transition came without warning, a blessing from a stowaway with the face of an ancient Earth Goddess and a strange sense of humor. Now Bastet is back and she needs a favor.

Read excerpt.

Nana Genevieve by Julie Nordeen

As science creates robots that behave more and more like humans, how will we know when they cease to be our creations and become self-aware beings of their own? Nana Genevieve knows. And she'll make sure the world understands...if it's the last thing she ever does.

Read excerpt.

The Tie That Binds by Debbie Mumford

Twin brothers Cameron and Kyle McClellan have always shared a psychic bond. Though the adult men lead very different lives, when career military officer Kyle is wounded in Iraq, Cameron's ability to decipher their special link may mean the difference between his brother's life and death.

Read excerpt.

Star Stepping Table of Contents

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:20:03 GMT

Debbie Mumford has begun a series of interviews with her fellow authors of the Star Stepping anthology, which will be published though Wild Child Publishing on June 3rd.

I pop over to Debbie's blog regularly. Today I'm glad to have done so. The first interview I read reminded me of the reasons I enjoy a good SF story: the potential for an original idea; the ability to put human nature and an extraordinary situation together and see what happens; the ability to fantasize about the practical aspects of possible technology.

Do go over and meet Debbie and her fellow authors. This industrious lady has posted three interviews so far.

More on being in the now

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:03:47 GMT

I've been using the stuff I learned from Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth to help with chronic pain. His advice does work. Interestingly, being in the now (as he keeps saying to do) can put a person through all the stages of grief (from denial to acceptance). I went through such when taking a walk. Instead of avoiding my pain by daydreaming, which I usually do, I persisted in confronting the now while not judging what happened. Even when I became angry that I had to do this, I accepted that I was angry and did not judge the feeling of anger. A few minutes later, a greater portion of my pain at the time vanished. I enjoyed the walk, mostly in the now and without a lot of mental gear in place to avoid my pain. The anger vanished as well, btw. It was my ego (what Tolle calls the ego, anyhow) acting up and getting in my way of being in the now.

Lovely experiment, but I need to put it into practice more often. I've been semi-successful, because the daydreaming has become something of an addictive practice over the years. I need to dream to write, but I also want to enjoy my actual life when I'm away from the computer. There is life beyond the computer.

The computer, writing: to some degree, both were a means to avoid pain . I've noticed for years now that I wasn't really "there" with my family and kids. The last few months, I'm more there. Means less time spent on the computer, but it also means I may actually improve my health at last.

The facts as they stand now: my blood pressure has, indeed, lowered, though my pulse is still too rapid; because I'm being in the now with my life, I don't have a pile of laundry hiding what should be an upstairs sofa (and believe it or not, that pile of laundry adds to my stress the longer it stays present); I've spent more time with my husband, even doing things like helping him when he gets the scrap wood (skids and crates) for next winter's firewood from a local industry .

Truthfully, I'm not much use to him when it comes to the physical labour. I hold the skids up in the trailer while he loads them, or I drag the less heavy stuff closer, sometimes bang a sledgehammer on bigger constructions to break them apart (my idea of weightlifting for health--dislocate my shoulder, give myself more neck pain, and put myself out of breath in five swings, lol.) Mostly I'm there for company, to be there now with him.

It sounds strange, maybe, to add to the pain in my neck through labour, but one of the things I have to do is stay mobile and stay strong to keep my bones from worsening, which means I cannot avoid pain. I laugh off the extra, and that I'm happy being with my husband helps me stay in equilibrium. When I lose that equilibrium, I cry like you wouldn't believe. The Tolle book has helped me keep that equilibrium better.

I like my husband, you know. Been married what? Almost fifteen years. I really like him. He's good company and I've been missing it, off in daydream land with a story instead of living in the world.

Don't get me wrong. I intend to continue writing, but I intend to live, really live, as well. My health demands it, in more ways than the physical.

So yes, I recommend the Tolle book to all of you. It's worth a read. There is no mystery to what he is saying. There's no sitting on a mountain like a holey hermit, or starving yourself to achieve some sort of spiritual enlightenment through ascetism. It's all very simple. Just be in the now.

Good deal and good excerpt

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Sat, 03 May 2008 23:00:32 GMT

Marci, our fabulous publisher, has released the first PODcast of a Freya's Bower excerpt. Ok, I'm going to do my lazy bit and cut and paste. Here it comes:

20% Discount!

Freya's Bower is offering a 20% discount coupon for account members who are also signed up for the store newsletter and purchase more than $3.25 in ebooks. If you already have an account, just sign up for the newsletter. You can sign into your account here, or create a new one. You can use the coupon as many times as you like until May 31st.

And there it is.

On with the good excerpt, another from In the Gloaming, this time from Esmeralda Bishop's Robin's Cap. Robin Redcap, btw, is a scary little... You should read the excerpt. (He dyes his hat with fresh human blood!)

Blurb:

Tales of ancient evil surround Hermitage Castle. What happens when legend becomes reality? Graham Parish and Kat Davis are about to find out.

***

Kat stiffened in his arms. “Graham, what is that?” she breathed, fear shaking her voice.

He peered around her and shot to his feet, pulling Kat behind him. He backed up, pressing her to the wall.

There, before them, stood the subject of his thoughts. The powrie’s grin spread across his face, its razor sharp teeth gleaming in the dimly lit room.

“Graham, what the hell is that?” She screamed the words in his ear. Her grip tightened on the back of his shirt. The material flattened across his chest.

Shrugging, Graham tried to loosen her grasp. “That is Robin Redcap.”

He felt Kat jerk behind him. “The troll from the fairy tale?”

The faerie growled. Graham got the impression he didn’t take kindly to being called a troll. Redcap moved. A colorful burst of blurring light streaked across the room. The creature materialized where the light stopped.

Graham swallowed. He had no doubt the creature was fucking with them by showing off its speed.

“How do we get rid of it?”

Good question. Should he tell her getting rid of it was not an option? The only end result would be it getting rid of them.

Subconsciously he had known that, but had refused to admit it until now. Now he was faced with the reality that they would not survive this night.

Redcap moved again; this time the beam of light headed straight for them. Graham grabbed Kat as he stumbled backward, trying to put space between them. Kat clamped onto his arm, bringing it against her chest and screamed in his ear.

The closer the creature crept, the scarier it looked. Deep wrinkles lined its filthy face. Its red eyes filled with bloodlust. The metallic smell of blood and the musty odor of death hung in the air.

The powrie’s lead boots clunked heavily on the floor.

Kat screamed.

Redcap smiled. “Don’t be afraid, kitty. It will only hurt a lot.”

***

Visit Esmerelda at her web site, her blog, or her MySpace.

To purchase In the Gloaming, click here.

And now I'm going to thank Nita Wick for all the hard work she put into posting these excerpts, because I'm just a lazy butt who copied them from her blog. Nita's blog link here.

Nita is wonderful. She's on the ball with her blog, her website (linkie!) and with regards to promoting In the Gloaming. Thank you, Nita!

April Freya's Bower interview and an In the Gloaming excerpt

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:24:12 GMT

Our publisher, Marci Baun, interviewed Debbie Mumford not long ago. The PODcast is up on site and ready for listeners. Here's a link. On her blog, Debbie said she enjoyed the chat (via Skype) and forgot it was an interview. You know what this means, of course. It's got to be a candid and warm conversation with a wonderful author lady. :-)

This next excerpt is from Kelley Heckart’s The Enchanted Meadow, one of five stories published in Faith Bicknell-Brown's fairy anthology. Faith is planning a second anthology. You can find out more about it, I believe, on her writers' group, which is dedicated to discussions about all aspects of writing.

***

Blurb:

Warriors from the Raven clan are sent to guard the king’s cattle. They are unprepared for the strange, otherworldly happenings in the new winter grazing land, including nocturnal visits by a beautiful lass. Only their leader, Taran, can save them—if he remembers how.

***

Alina wanted to cry out to him, but her throat would not form any sounds. The one who had betrayed her and trapped her in this tree had taken away her speech so she could not ask for help to escape her prison. So many centuries had turned, each season passing in a blur of muted colors, her hope fading. Now someone had come, a mortal who could help her, but she needed to communicate with him in some way. Sighing, she realized she was not even sure she knew how to break the curse.

He watched her now with curious eyes, unaware that she also watched him. When she concentrated all of her power, she could imprint an image of her face on the tree trunk, becoming one with the tree. Only he had seen her face in the tree bark, so she knew he was more than a simple warrior. He had the mind of a druid. Only the one who could help her would be able to see into other realms and pay such close attention to her tree. She sensed the affection in his caress. Shivers of pleasure shot through her body at his gentle touch, giving her a sense of hope.

She studied him, admiring the confident way he commanded his men even as he faced the unknown. He stood regal and powerful, the blue warrior marks he earned shadowing the austere planes of his handsome face. Long, golden-copper streaked hair plunged down his back in a wild tangle. She yearned to run her hands through his thick mane again.

As if reading her thoughts, he glanced back at her tree, his bright blue eyes darkening to a deeper hue in the shifting light, his face softening from its usual hardness. When he looked in her direction, he let slip his true feelings he hid from his warriors. Her heart sang with compassion for him.

She felt herself blush at his penetrating gaze. His eyes awakened that feeling of familiarity in her again, but she still could not place it. If she escaped her prison, she could go to him now. Frowning, she thought how she hated the tree that felt like a tomb. The world beyond the tree taunted her with its bright autumn colors, a world so full of life and freedom. She could not bear to look upon it any longer.

To help her bide her time, she thought about their coupling. Her body flushed at the memory. She recalled how wonderful his muscles had felt beneath her touch and the way he had kissed her, caressing her secret places with his skillful tongue, making her moan and quake. A twinge of desire flickered inside her at the thought of having him touch her again tonight.

When they discovered another missing cow, they would have to stay. At least she hoped so. She continued to hide some of their cattle to keep the warrior there so eventually he could help her escape.

At first, she only wanted to use him to help her escape, but now her body trembled with affection for the golden warrior. After he rekindled what had been dormant for so long inside of her, she began to yearn for him and his tender, passionate touch. Could she let him go? And if he should eat of the apples….

***

Visit Kelley at her web site or MySpace. To keep informed about her new books, contests and other book related news, you are invited to join her Yahoo group.

To purchase In the Gloaming, click here.

Excerpt week continues

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:22:23 GMT

...in the style it began: late. I guess I'll be skipping a day before posting each.

This next is from from Cora Zane’s story, At the Edge of Twilight. Cora is a North Louisiana author with a penchant for shapeshifter stories. But this story is about fairies, of course. Expect the unnerving.

Blurb:

Lured by otherworldy music, Colleen braves a midnight garden and meets a man full of secrets…one who’s determined she should stay with him forever, locked within his world at the edge of twilight.

***

Hands shaking, Colleen clicked on her flashlight and held the rake handle out in front of her for protection. She levered the dull beam of light toward the old tree and scanned it back and forth across the tall grass.

She saw nothing, no movement that should not have been there, but she couldn’t chase away the sensation of being watched. The music played on, more loudly than before, but now it seemed further away than she had originally anticipated. She pushed on through the tall grass, toward the hated oak tree, and raised the flashlight higher. The beam stretched longer and longer still, until the light stretched so far away it bled away into moonlight and wilderness.

She stopped beneath the sprawling canopy of the oak, the hard-packed earth barren save for the running roots that poked through the rotting carpet of dry, dead leaves that crunched under her feet. She moved to the far side of it and stopped there to listen. The lilting, woodsy music crawled over her, through her, made her shiver.

“Hello?”

Abruptly, the music stopped, and Colleen could’ve sworn her heart stopped with it. She lifted a hand protectively to her throat and waited for someone to emerge, to say something.

Seconds ticked by. A minute. Only night sounds answered her. Swallowing hard, she turned a circle where she stood and gathered her courage around her. Despite the silence, she was convinced she wasn’t alone.

“This is private property,” she announced, trying to seem brave to whoever might be watching her. Something dashed off through the leafy foliage to her right.

Colleen yelped in fright and stumbled back, her heart kicking violently against her ribs. She scrabbled out from under the darkness of the tree, too terrified to immediately recognize that whatever had run away had been too small to do her any harm. By the time the thought finally occurred to her, it was too late to regain her calm façade.

She turned in a circle, scanning the nearest trees and bushes with the flashlight. Her ragged breaths sounded loud to her own ears, but her nerves were shot, she couldn’t have controlled it if she’d tried. I never should have come out this far, not at night.

Overhead, black clouds drifted, stretching open in places as the jet stream caught them, thinning them so they revealed fragments of moonlit sky the color of bone. She moved to the far side of the oak and stared across the threshold into the patchy wilderness beyond the back yard.

Long years had passed since the last time she trekked past the oak tree. Her aunt had forbidden it, had alternately bored her and scared her with tales of dangerous wild animals, of missing children lost forever in the woods.

How clear everything looked over there. A faint blue gleam settled over everything, revealing the spiky needles of the pine trees and highlighting the leafy canopies of the sweet gums and maples. In a small clearing just beyond the wood line, stood a broad ring of mushrooms so white they appeared almost to glow. Plucking up her courage, she walked toward the white caps gleaming in the dark, wondering all the while, Where did the music go?

“They draw the eye, do they not?”

Colleen nearly jumped out of her skin. The beam of the flashlight zigzagged wildly as she spun around in the direction of that voice. She bungled the rake handle; it slipped from her fingers and landed somewhere among the ferny bracken at her feet.

She couldn’t bring herself to look for it; she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the silhouette of the man watching her a few feet away. He sat on something, or perhaps crouched down. The beam of the flashlight made a narrow circle on the ground in front of him, and instinctively she jerked the light upward, shining it in his face. He pulled an arm up over his eyes, and all she could make of him was an olive green sleeve and that he had russet-brown hair.

***

Visit Cora at her web site and her blog.

Purchase In the Gloaming

Excerpt week

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:41:11 GMT

Excerpt week

Beginning yesterday, I was to post excerpts from Into the Gloaming, but seven cases of chokecherry wine, which I began bottling on Sunday, demanded a shopping trip for corks (bought 250 so I wouldn't have to worry about needing any for a while) and more bottle washing (the last two cases of the bottles from hell; in other words, commercial wine bottles recycled for my use; equals labels with sticky glue; meaning an hour of scraping and scouring per case to get all the sticky crud off). In the end, I ended up with seven cases of chokecherry or chokecherry blend, plus one extra bottle. Eighty-five bottles. Unless my math is off this morning, which it might be.

I'm skipping chokecherry picking this year. I have enough to last two years easily. My wine cellar is all but full. And yet I have three kits of white wine to start and two kits of red. And I still intend to do my second attempt at dandelion wine. The first attempt made an incredible delicate wine. Well worth the effort.

So. Nine months of aging in the carboy. That's how long the chokecherry sat about before bottling. When I first began wine making, I had no idea, really, how much aging was required to make a good wine. But four batches of chokecherry have taught me that wines made from astringent berries require more time to become palatable. Chokecherry makes a wonderful wine, but it does require that extra time. Maturing at least a few months in the bottle will help as well.

On with the In the Gloaming excerpt. Today is Nita Wick's day. She's an author from Tennessee and...oh, my! Nita! The heroes page! Whoa! (Hot! Hot, hot, hot! Eyes melting!)

Links! I have them below the Gloaming cover, and you'll also find the excerpt from Nita's story, The Dream. Remember the scary children's tale about trolls under a bridge? Perhaps you'd like to revisit the bridge.

Links: web site: www.nitawick.com
blog: www.nitawick.com/blog
MySpace: www.myspace.com/nitawick

The Dream by Nita Wick

Lost in one of Scotland's enchanted forests, a sleeping Katie dreams of trolls, faeries, and her fantasy lover. And never has a dream felt so real.

Excerpt

"Have you no sense at all, lass?"

"What?"

"Sittin' on the trow's bridge. Are you daft?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake. I didn't know it belonged to a troll. I got lost. I just needed a place to rest, but I fell asleep." She shrugged. "And now I'm dreaming."

He grunted. "What are you doin' out here in the forest in the first place?" He didn't slow his pace.

Jogging to keep up with him, she said, "The bellboy at the hotel said the forest is enchanted. I didn't believe it, of course. But I thought it was a good excuse to see the forest and some of the countryside while I'm on vacation."

"Did it ever occur to you that there are tour guides for a reason?" He had the irritating tone of an adult reprimanding a mischievous child.

She frowned and pulled her hand free. "What is wrong with you?"

He halted and turned to gaze down at her. "Me? You're the one what's wanderin' around in the forest talkin' to trows."

She crossed her arms. "Look. This is my dream, and I don't like your attitude. Shouldn't you be making mad, passionate love to me now?"

He leaned down, his face hovering just above hers. "Is it your habit to offer sex to complete strangers?"

Rolling her eyes, she groaned. "Never. But this is different. You're not a stranger. And?"

"Do you even know me name, Katie?"

"I?." She thought back to all the erotic dreams she'd shared with this man. "Well, I guess you never told me."

He raised one brow and spun on his heel.

She ran around him and stood in front of him, blocking his path before he'd taken more than a few steps. "So what is your name?"

Blowing out a long breath, he rested his hand on his hips. "Aidan. Aidan McLain."

"Aidan." Katie searched his features and smiled. "It fits you. I like it."

"I'll tell me ma you said so. Can we go now?"

He stepped around her, and she fell in line behind him. "Go? Where?"

"I dinnae know where you're goin', lass, but I'm goin' home."

She stared at his back for a moment before she let her gaze fall to firm buttocks encased in tight denim. She followed him in silence, enjoying the view until they came to a clearing. The little meadow lay nestled in the forest like a hidden treasure. Summer wildflowers bloomed and swayed in the gentle breeze.

"Oh, how lovely. So this is where you'll make love to me. In a bed of wildflowers. This dream may turn out all right after all."

He stopped without warning, and she ran into him. Facing her, he placed his hands on her shoulders. "You're not dreamin'."

"Of course I'm not. That was a real troll. And a fantasy man really can come to life. What's next? Are you going to show me your unicorn?"

Why we create

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:06:50 GMT

Another review out, and a recommended read as well. Click the Dark Divas image to visit the review page.

Do we create art to get admiration? One might wonder if that's the case, but I believe it's only the case "after" the artwork has manifested in the world. Prior to that manifestation, there is this urge to create. Why?

I am following Oprah's on line workshop with Eckhart Tolle and, the day after, I visit Oprah's site to download the transcripts and MP3 format of the weekly broadcast. (Here's a link for you.) Of course, there are always interesting links to the sides. Today, I followed one to a page on creativity.

I quote Julia Cameron:

But what we are actually talking about is that any time that you are engaged in a creative act, you are engaged in a spiritual act. And that's probably the single most important sentence: Any time we're engaged in a creative act, we're engaged with an inherently spiritual act.

And I offer a link to the article:

http://www.oprah.com/spiritself/beliefnet/200802/know_create_b1.jhtml

Back to my take on things. After the creative act is done, we promote a product; hence reviews, chats, book signings and what not. Beforehand, it's a spiritual act.

I can attest to this.

Oh, perhaps some of you might not think I can, since I write erotica, but let me remind you that the act of love can transcend the physical mechanics. Eroticism can lead to spiritual awakening.

But sure, if pleasure ain't for you, you can find some way to suffer to awaken spiritually instead.

Creation is an act of pleasure, from starting a writing project, to starting a child in the womb. (If it's not an act of pleasure, something else is involved in the scene that has nothing to do with creation.)

Back to my erotic writing. Almost all of my stories--well, perhaps all the stories, actually--have in them a theme beyond erotica, beyond relationship, action or adventure. So far, I always delve into the concept of faith, immortality, spirituality, ethics.

Sure I write to entertain, but I also write as an act of faith.

When I read the article on Oprah's site, I felt validated, recognized as a being and as an artist. I'm sure others will as well, whether they write, paint, quilt, work with wood or whatever medium that suits.

WCP Podcasting, editor appreciation

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:00:12 GMT

Freya's Bower started Podcasting a few weeks ago. Wild Child Publishing now has a Podcasting page as well.

I'm intrigued by this Podcasting thing. It's another way to promote, but it's more planned (beforehand at least) and you get to hear the author speaking. There's something warmer about that than loop chats and live chats on a Java window.
Some specifics for the Wild Child Podcast (I'm being lazy, doing the cut and past thing):

Join Marci Baun for our inaugural podcast where she interviews Jack Maeby, author of The Thorazine Mirrorball. To listen, just click on the link. If you are on a PC and would like to download the file, right click on the link below. If you are on a Mac and would like to download the file, control click on the link.

Title: Wild Child Publishing's Inaugural Podcast
Interview Date: March 25, 2008
Length: 18 min 02 sec
File Size: 16.9MB

Listen now!

All of our podcasts are also available on Pod Show.com and soon will be on iTunes.

And now for editor appreciation. I'm going to talk about myself for the remaining blog post. Yes, indeed.

I am.

Actually, I woke up this morning and found an email from fellow author/editor M.E. Ellis. She left a link to a blog post written by author Debbie Mumford.

Linkie time:
http://talesfromthecrit.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/in-praise-of-editors/

Ok, I got to say this. Debbie has some kind of empathy tracking radar, because I needed that. I really did.

Won't get into details, but Debbie rescued me this morning. She's a gem. And ain't it funny, but I said that to another editor just the night previous, before I'd read this blog post.

Definitely, she's got an empathy tracking radar.

Thank you, Debbie!

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:47:30 GMT

Well, it's release day for In the Gloaming, and we five authors are having our first chat on Brenda Williamson Romance Party. Fairy lovers, come and join us.

Oh, and my sort of fairies, though based on actual fairy lore, are not the wee sort. I'll post excerpts. Come and read them.

We have reviews already!

Cocktail Reviews
Score: A champagne bottle and a flute!

By Nutty Nana:
"In The Gloaming really is a superior set of tales. I have read many authors and many anthologies, and this is the first one for me where every tale is rich and enthralling in their own right. I turned the page expecting more and found myself deflated that the book had ended. I wanted more, damnit!"

Read the entire review.

----------------

Paranormal Romance

By Beth Senters:
"In the Gloaming is a collection of amazing stories written by five very talented authors. Each story is so unique and well written. From finding true love to defeating evil, there is something for everybody in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I know others will too."

Read the entire review.

New stuff catch up

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:51:06 GMT

I have four, maybe five, news items to post. Wait, no, I think it's more like six or seven.

I get a lot of email. In them, I receive interesting things to make note of, but if I delete the emails, or file them away, I forget the interesting things. I even forget I filed the emails in a safe place.

Awful, but that's me. So I work around it. I leave the stuff I should blog about in my inbox where I can see them and I drag them out of the garbage if I accidentally delete them. Eventually, I post about them.

Today is catch up day. I was supposed to blog this tomorrow, but hell, I have the kids home for Easter holiday. It's a fight for computer time now, all the way to Tuesday.

First up, reviews and releases. Next week, March 25th, In the Gloaming goes live on Freya's Bower. I have a short story called The Icicle in it. You may remember it from an earlier blog post, where I cut and pasted an excerpt of the first draft.

Wait a mo...gathering image, links...

There we are. Faith Bicknell-Brown created the image of the fairy and the cover artist gave it that lovely purple overlay with shinies. Click the link to see a bigger version of the cover.

The story behind writing this short is a bit unusual. I wrote it for Faith, specifically. She wanted more fairy stories for her anth, and so I hunkered down and gave her one. Then she wanted more orgasms... Demanding woman.

LOL. Faith is a lovely woman. She has a tough as hell job and is still a lovely woman. If she wants orgasms, she gets orgasms.

Let's see. I

'm supposed to be going on about reviews and releases here, but since I'm mentioning Faith, you should know she has a Podcast interview on Freya's Bower. It's the inaugural Podcast. Linkie time:

http://www.freyasbower.com/content/blogsection/46/107/

And she has an interview on a new blog called Author's Studio, also an upcoming loop chat day on Romance_Bistro, and I have just realized I am not yet a member of this group. Must do that sometime...

Back to reviews. In the Gloaming has two already, and hey! I have a webpage on my site with all the pertinent data. I attacked the html and fixed my site a bit. I have, at last, a general page that lists my pubs. I also have a legit Soulstone page for the epic. No more "All your base are belong to us." Gee, I might miss that quote.

Here's the link to the In the Gloaming page, with all the reviews so far listed.

http://soulstonechronicles.bravehost.com/gloaming.htm

Last and very wonderful news, Marci Baun, our publisher extraordinaire (you should search my previous posts for Podcast interview links), has finagled a foreword written by a celebrity for the third Dreams and Desires anthology. I can't say who the celebrity is yet, but I can say that the profits for this particular anth are destined for the St. Bernard shelter near the 9th ward of New Orleans. Katrina destroyed the shelter. It must be rebuilt, and WCP/FB will do it's part to see that this happens. Yay, Marci!

What a mess of a post. I rambled through the catch up, but I think I listed everything. I hope.

Brilliant work on Marci's part. I really believe in this lady. She's got it together.

Ok. Me stuff. Because of the chronics (my new word for body pain bullshit), I had to set aside some manuscripts, pass them on to someone more able to keep up with the work load. I was at once sad and relieved to do this. I then posted I was working on the mm anth at last, but then spent the next week in agony. Well, shit.

On the plus side, doing the Oprah thang (reading the Eckhart Tollé book) is reinforcing many things I already knew about why I should continue with meditation and Zennish stuff. Meditation won't get rid of the physical problems, but it'll help me cope with them and any work slow downs that result.

My eldest fella is reading the book at the same time as me. Last night, he apologized for getting orange juice dribble on a page (he was eating a tangello). I laughed and said he should get out a pen and write "Alex was here."

Orange juice happens.

Anyhow, I have, technically, four full-sized manuscripts to edit. The mm anth counts for two. A horror novel for WCP counts as the third. Then I have a dark fic mm story for FB (novel-sized) and also a novella by the same author. Last, I picked up a short, short novella-ish thing to edit yesterday and that's half done. It was a rush job, but what a wonderful rush job. Lovely story. I'll post more about it later. It should go live very quickly.

And that's it, I guess. More catch up later.

Wait! One more thing, good for authors with only a few pubs:
http://authorspayit forward.blogspot .com/2008/ 01/free-website- template- from-ls.html

Bard of Pain

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:48:57 GMT

This is a special review for me. First of all, Dusk Peterson, like me, is a self-published author. Second, Dusk has worked hard to publish a quality story, done the footwork necessary to knowing how to self-publish, shared the knowledge gained from that footwork, given stories to beta readers for criticism, polished those stories and polished them again.

I was one of Dusk’s beta readers. Bard of Pain is not the only story by Dusk that I’ve read. A few years back, I also “beta’d” Mystery and Rebirth (The Eternal Dungeon). Dusk has been kind enough to list me as an editor of Bard of Pain before I could in fact claim to be one. I’m honoured to have read these stories, let alone have Dusk consider my opinions of them. I learned from this author. I had surprises while reading, surprises that inspired.

In all three stories, I discovered compelling characters who were confronting problems capable of destroying a human being, sometimes physically, definitely mentally. But there’s something very special about Dusk’s dark fic. Dark, very, but there’s this smidgen of light in every cavern Dusk throws a reader, and the brightness of that light is practically overwhelming by the time you get to the end of the novel, and it is like crawling to the opening of a cavern. It’s like getting a miracle.

I’m not exaggerating. Follow any of Dusk’s protagonists through a story and you’ll not only glimpse the mind of a troubled being, you’ll see that character’s transformation. You’ll witness a moment of revelation. Sometimes, just like the character, you won’t see the revelation coming. You’ll feel it looming, but you just won’t see it. It’ll be like rocks tumbling out of the way, unveiling that light I spoke of.

Bard of Pain is a story about a young man who seems to exist to torture people. Warfare makes it easier for him to enact his blackest desires. He becomes an officer and serves the Northern Army as a torturer, though extracting information from prisoners is hardly the most satisfying or true reason for which he commits atrocities on another human being.

When you read Bard of Pain, you might find yourself despising the protagonist, but you’ll be fascinated all the same. Surely, he’s going to be damned for all his evil acts. Surely, he’ll get what he deserves.

He does.

Oh, spoiler, right? No, not really. Read the story. Let Dusk throw you in a cavern and tumble some rocks for you. That promised bit of light I mentioned beforehand? It’s well worth chasing.

destined for an agent

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:37:34 GMT

I'm starting a story that will be meant for mainstream, not that I'm going to avoid adult content. It's just that it will be meant for mainstream and therefore sent to agents. Not erotica, in other words. SF. The plot's in my head, mostly.

Well, that's how I write. I write with a "mostly" and wing it.

For a long time,

I didn't have a plot idea that I could see writing that didn't have some erotica in it. I mean, I don't believe in avoiding erotic elements in a story if the story calls for it, so I had a hard time coming up with a plot that didn't need much of that sort of thing. I have to write something that I'm interested in or I just don't write.

Sounds like I'm only interested in erotica, eh? Not true, really. My stories have a lot more plot than erotica, but I was very interested in close relationships for a long time and needed time to explore that area.

But there's my mom going "Why can't you write something mainstream?", and me going "Well, I don't have it in me yet." And there I was playing the Wii and a certain well-known cartoonish video game hero blew a plot into my head.

This was about a month ago, but someone else was playing the Wii today and the plot ballooned. So I wrote the first pages. That's what I always do to solidify a plot in my memory. If I really want to write it, I get the first few pages done at least, that way, reading them brings the entire idea back.

So. SF. Very SF. And not a hard plot to manage. I think I can pull off a reasonable story for mainstream at last. And it's interesting enough that I can have fun with the writing and still have close relationships in it, if not scenes with sex. I can do the "implied sex" routine for a change.

I'm happy tonight. I solved a problem that had been bugging me.

Sure, I'll get to my other stories that I need to finish, but this idea may be the kick in the mental butt I needed to regain my motivations as a writer. :-)

Meet the reviewers

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:20:57 GMT

This is a loop chat on Beth Wylde's group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bethwylde/

This Saturday, 15 March. Some of the reviewers are already introducing themselves and listing their interests. Not all interests are romance or erotica.

The Price of Gold

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:16:55 GMT

Ansley Vaughan's new novel, The Price of Gold, has just been released on Freya's Bower. Here's the blurb and the book specifics:

Alex Westgate is a man who has everything. A successful trader in the exclusive London gold market, he possesses a smart flat, a fast car and a fashionable girlfriend. But something is missing, and one person is worried about him—his mother.

On the way down to the coast to visit his parents, Alex is involved in an accident that brings him into contact with someone who will shatter his preconceptions and turn his ordered existence upside-down. The goddess Freya, confined to earth because of a malfunctioning chariot, introduces him to her own kind of mischief and zest for living.

Alex is plunged into a nightmare world of sea-monsters, belligerent Valkyries, man-eating wolves and shape-shifting cats. As he learns some hard lessons about love and relationships, it becomes clear that Freya's presence on earth is more than just a coincidence. It's a matter of life and death.

Will he survive the experience to learn the final lesson; that there's more to the human journey than worrying about the price of gold?

This book is part of the Goddess Freya Series.
Please be aware that there is one scene of M/M in this book, but it is primarily M/F.

Rating: Sizzling

Genre: M/F/Multiple partners/Contemporary/Paranormal

Book Length: Category Novel

Price: $5.25

http://www.freyasbower.com/content/view/362/106/

Congratulations, Ansley!

More news from Debbie

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:16:04 GMT

She's on a roll. Debbie is the author to turn to for your sweet romance fix. Sweet romance is popular reading material. It's what people like. It's comforting, because, you know, it has danger and heroic acts and mystery, but it always ends up with that satisfying HEA. Debbie does sweet romance very well indeed.

Ok, so here's the links:

An interview on Ecataromance, where she recently won a few high placements in reader polls.

Another interview on LASR and a contest. LASR is short of Long and Short Reviews, reviews for long and short fiction.

Old ideas, new presentation

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:03:53 GMT

Yesterday on Oprah... Yes, I watch Oprah. Not daily. I check her shows for interesting topics and sit my butt down when she has one. Otherwise I change channels or do housework while half-listening.

So, yesterday during a show with Valerie Bertinelli (I half-listened), Oprah mentioned just before a commercial that only 300 000 people have signed up so far for her live web event. The subject of this event is Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. Oprah seemed mystified by the low sign-up numbers.

After doing a small amount of research to discover what this book was about, I wasn't mystified. It only took going to the forums on Oprah.com to confirm my theory. Sign ups are low because, well, in North America there is a huge resistance to spirituality that hasn't been derived from or prescribed by religions based on ancient Judaic myth. Some members of these religions are insistent that no other spiritual view is valid, and damn you to hell if you try anything but the right religion, meaning theirs.

Darn, but the "you are going to hell" factions are dead set against meditation. And yes, Eckhart Tolle's book is, basically, another book about spiritual improvement through meditation, through heightened self-awareness.

That's a simplistic description, I know, but like the blog title says: old ideas, new presentation.

I've ordered it from Chapters. I have other books about Zen and meditation, but I'm hoping this one presents the concepts in a manner that doesn't drop my head on a pillow within five minutes. Really, meditation has been the only thing I've done that's helped me with the personal problems I've faced and still face. I wish I'd known about it when I was in my teens.

Pronouns, names and POV in slash fiction: edition one

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:25:19 GMT

For those who don't know what slash is, visit this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_fiction

For those who do know what slash is and who write slash fiction, on with the blog post: pronouns, names and POV. This topic will have a number of posts, and that's why I called the first edition one.

A lot of writers who send in submissions with slash content have awkward use of pronouns, names, and POV. These three things are related when it comes to clarity in a story. I'll begin with the type of poor use I dislike the most: pronouns assigned to the POV character only.

Ok, so let's say a guy named Joe is the POV character of a scene, and the other guy is called Gary. Joe and Gary. I'll write a short scene showing what I mean about pronouns assigned to POV character only.

He entered the room and found Gary seated on the foot of the bed. Gary looked up and smiled.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," Gary replied.

He moved closer. Gary stood, arms opening to welcome him. They embraced, his hands sliding around the defined muscles of Gary's flank and rising up to splay across that perfect back.

All right, there it is. I hope it was very clear to you how badly written this sort of prose is. It's horrible; horrible to edit, horrible to read.

What do we see up there? Truly, only Joe has the use of pronouns. Believe it or not, I have seen published ebooks in which authors have assigned POV through pronouns. This method of POV assignment is awkward, and the fault gets compounded with more faults to make up for the sloppy/lazy use of pronouns.

First screwy thing that happens when assigning pronouns to the POV character only: bad traffic directions for the reader. Look at line two ("Hey," he said.): Readers will assign a pronoun automatically to the last person mentioned, whether this person is mentioned by proper name or not. The last person mentioned was not Joe but Gary. There is instant reader confusion the moment "he" is used to mean Joe in place of Gary when nothing was done to refocus the reader on who is performing the next action (in this case, speech is the next action). Instead of "he said", it should have read "Joe said".

Remember this: pronouns accord to the last noun mentioned. Whether that pronoun is he, she or it, that pronoun accords to the last noun mentioned. Readers logically tag their attention to the last noun mentioned. The moment a writer misuses a pronoun to refer to a noun other than the last one mentioned, the writer has misdirected the reader. Reader misdirection is not a good idea. Pronouns, the proper use of them, are like traffic signs on a busy highway.

You'll see the same misdirection happening in my example in the first line of para three (He moved closer). Again, last person acting was Gary, but who did I mean? Joe. Awful. Just awful traffic directions. Reader moves forward by one line and sees Gary standing up. Gary couldn't have been the one moving forward. So, once again, through poor use of pronouns, I've made my reader take a step back to work out my writing logic, rather than letting the reader sink into my story smoothly.

Stupid thing to do, assigning pronouns to POV only.

Compound problem: The other character's name will crop up a lot, enough to start getting awkward.

Compound problem two: to offset compound problem one, authors throw out words like those arms instead of Gary's arms, or that back, instead of Gary's back. Or, worst of all, you'll see the author saying the other man, inadvertantly making the reader think a third man is present. Or you'll see overuse of the man or his lover instead of the name Gary. His lover is at least better than using the man throughout the story, but still, if the author truly knew how to use pronouns and understood POV, this fault wouldn't be seen.

Why is using those arms and that back a fault? Well, those and that are words used to refer to nouns previously mentioned, but in my example, was his back mentioned beforehand? No. And yet authors with this terrible style choice do use those and that to refer to nouns that never came up in the story beforehand.

What does this say to me when I read a submission? That if I accept, I'll have a nightmare edit on hand. I'll have to teach this author the trade rather than do my real job.

Don't get me wrong. I do teach authors how to write better and I'm often happy to do so, but a novel written with this magnitude of errors just doesn't get accepted. The author is well below the point of where I can efficiently teach him/her the tricks of POV, which includes proper understanding of pronouns.

Last note on this style choice: Replace he with I, his with my, him with me, they with we. Do you see that? A story written in this style is first person revisited as third person. I have to wonder if authors with ebooks published in this style wrote first person novels that they hastily revamped into third person using search and replace. Whatever the case, I see it and think "not professional at all, not finished, worse than draft".

One of the excuses for this fault: Well, we write slash and we don't want the character names to show up in the text too often.

Get out my bazooka. That's an excuse that deserves destruction. Go read a well-written book with two male characters, and I'm not suggesting a slash fiction book. Any well-written, best seller with two male characters acting at the same time in the same scene: you want to bet the author did not use this style choice? So a name crops up more often. So what? And besides, if an author takes the time to analyze the use of pronouns and POV, names can be avoided to some extent. Pronouns can be avoided too. It's all a matter of carefully choosing your sentence subjects.

But that's enough for this post. We'll get to choice of sentence subjects later.

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:22:32 GMT

Adelle Laudan requested help blogging her upcoming author chat, so here's the cut and paste. She'll be chatting along with Zinnia Hope and M.E. Ellis, two other Freya's Bower authors. This is a loop chat on Zinnia's author group. Just click on the hot chicks to visit.

New reviews for Debbie Mumford novels

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:53:57 GMT

I'm late posting this, but here we go. Debbie Mumford's stories did very well this January during what seemed to be poll month.

Dragons' Choice won best fantasy/SciFi/futuristic romance ebook in the eCataromance. com Readers' Poll and also won an honourable mention as best SciFi/fantasy book for 2007 at Rites of Romance.

Second Sight earned 3rd place honors for best paranormal romance ebook of 2007 in the eCataromance. com Readers' Poll.

And for reviews, two new ones came out on Flash Me Magazine, a PDF publication. The reviews are only available in the PDF version, but you can see the announcement here. Subscriptions are available here.

Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Dawson reviewed Dragons' Choice. Ms. Dawson said:

"Mrs. Mumford's delightful storytelling makes every scene vivid and entrancing. She has an excellent ability to look at humans from a dragon's point of view."

and:

"The book flows between brother and sister in a seamless fashion, carrying two stories easily. Mrs. Mumford's light tone and vibrant characters make every chapter a pleasure to read."

Editor Jeannie Eddy reviewed Second Sight. Ms. Eddy commented:

"The first few chapters drew me into what promised to be a dark, gritty, intriguing story with likeable and sympathetic characters. I especially liked the imagery and Jenny's interaction with her `tiger'."

Well done, Debbie. :-)

Cupnjava gets a really cool interview

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:08:25 GMT

Cup, who is a very nice person, and I'm not being partisan as her editor for Freya's Bower subs, has an interview on Gay and Lesbian Times. She's so nice, she shared the spotlight with a few of her peers, myself included. Wonderful lady. Thank you, Cup!

This is a nice interview, not only because it gives Cup some exposure with the gay and lesbian community, but because it discusses homoerotic fiction written by straight women. That, I think, is important, because, hey, some of us straight people see past the typical social boundaries and it's nice to get recognized for it.

Well done, Cupnjava.

Hey. I'm passing the Mwah Award on to you. Follow the trail back from Bernita to Vesper.

I have others to choose for this award. M.E. Ellis, my fellow editor what smells somewhat brain-fried like I do, you deserve a humongous MWAH! You do. You have a big heart. Don't ever let anyone make you think otherwise.

Faith! Big heart too. I love your humour. Folks, she should write a novel loosely styled after real events she's mentioned in private. She'd have a bestseller and a movie and a T.V. show. Not kidding.

Debbie. You're a lady. I mean, you're a real lady. You're accepting and polite and pretty much everything that makes a person comfortable. You know how many people have that gift, of making a person truly comfortable? You get a big Mwah.

Marci. You're the base on which we all stand. Without you, we sink in mud. Thank you for being our rock.

Second Sight review

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:25:10 GMT

Second Sight review

Debbie has given me the link to a wonderful review for Second Sight. I shall pass that link on to you:

http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/

Quoting:

I fell in love with the characters and especially with Jenny’s “tiger”. All in all, a great and satisfying read I enjoyed.

Four and a half out of five books, folks! That's darned good. Well done, Debbie. :D

The polls are open

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 19:45:23 GMT

http://www.critters.org/predpoll/

Time to vote for and/or nominate your favourite publisher, author, novel or story. The lists are already fairly long, but don't let that stop you. :-)

Debbie Mumford has had two novels nominated. Check out LASR and vote for either Dragons' Choice or Second Sight. And Dragons' Choice has been nominated as Best Scifi/Fantasy Book 2007 at Rites of Romance Reviews. I hope you'll visit and add your votes, if the polls are still open. I'm a bit behind on blogging. Sorry, Debbie.

Anyhow, the preditor and editor polls are closed by January 15, so off you go, folks. I believe Debbie has her Sorcha's Heart sequel in the fantasy section. :-)

Extending anthology deadline

kmfrontain@yahoo.ca — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:25:16 GMT

Reposted part:

Freya's Bower invites you to submit your short stories with mm content for an all mm anthology. Any genre story: fantasy, western, contemporary, science fiction,horror, historical. We'd like to have a nice mix of genres for this anth. Stories should be between 6,000 to 10,000 words, but we will consider manuscripts a little shorter or a little longer. For submission guidelines as to what Freya's Bower will accept as story content, please visit http://www.freyasbower.com/content/view/12/59/

Double-space your manuscript. Include a header with the title of the story, your name and numbered pages. Indent each new paragraph .5 inches. If there is a scene break, indicate it with a centered***.

All submissions must include:

1. your full name, a pseudonym if used,
2. a brief synopsis, subject or genre,
3. the story attached
4. 'Submission to mm anthology' must be in the subject line,
5. Mail submissions and/or direct queries to kmfrontain@yahoo.ca

Updated part:

Submissions for the anthology closes January 31, 2007.

Links to help writers who want to sub:

http://sgold.members.sonic.net/verb_power.htm
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/chadvce.htm