Top Reads of 2011

I love to read. I read over 200 M/M or male ménage books in 2011.

Not all of these books were published in 2011, in fact a few of them were published between 2007-2010 instead, but I just got to read them late. This is my Top Reads-list.

Best of the Best in no particular order:

Nothing Ever Happens by Sue Brown - This is a book about finding love where you don't want to find it. It has a controversial theme (cheating) and in general, it's not for everyone. But boy is it a great book!

Static by L.A. Witt - If you're looking for a unique story, this is it. Transgender-theme.

Bear, Otter, and the Kid by T.J. Klune - The loveliest family story of the year. Great writing and just generally perfect, faulty, annoying, witty characters.

A Solid Core of Alpha by Amy Lane - The biggest genre-surprise of the year. I don't like sci-fi. This book blew me away as a writer, as much as it did as a reader.

Hot Head by Damon Suede - What's not to love about firemen and a great gay for you-story that is written in such a great way? Mhmm...

Kindred Hearts by Rowan Speedwell - Language, characters, making me read historical without cringing... Perfect.

Honorable Mentions:

I'll Be Your Drill, Soldier by Crystal Rose - Army story. One of the best, heart wrenching, funniest stories out there.

Duck! by Kim Dare - This will forever be one of my favorite BDSM and shifter-books.

Take My Picture by Giselle Ellis – One of the most heart wrenching, beautiful stories out there.

Acquainted with the Night by Tymber Dalton - You could call this book crack-fiction. It's a multiple partners-story, a sci-fi story and a story where males can get pregnant. It's certainly not for everyone, but it will forever remain one of my favorite books despite my intentions of never reading it, lol.

Remastering Jerna by Ann Somerville - If you like BDSM, you need to read this book. That's all.

Private Eye by S.E. Culpepper - A lovely, slow build and strong, likeable characters.

Rules of Engagement by L.A. Witt - Sensual, sexy, gorgeous book. (published in 2009)

Yakuza Pride by H.J. Brues - Made even someone who doesn't generally go for Japan-themed things swoon. In so many ways...

Snakeskin Boots by Xara X. Xanakas - Shifters. All kinds of shifters. So much fun!

Room at the Top by Jane Davitt & Alexa Snow - One of my top BDSM-books of the year. Very fresh in the genre.

Dark Horse (and the rest of the series) by Kate Sherwood - Some of my favorite M/M/M-books.

Another Way by Anna Martin - I'm biased, because Anna is a friend, but I love this book so much.

Basic Training by Marquesate - I really like this a LOT. Another solid army-themed story.

I Was An Alien Cat Toy by Ann Somerville - Despite the stupid name, this books is GREAT. I didn't like the ending, it's not your typical HEA, so be forewarned. But it's a lovely book nevertheless.

Muscling Through by J.L. Merrow - Different, funny, gorgeous story.

Between Sinners and Saints by Marie Sexton - Everyone who knows me knows how I shy away from anything religious. A religion as a theme makes me gag. That said, this is the only book I've read where it didn't annoy me at all. A great read.

My Fair Captain (and the rest of the series) by J.L. Langley - I do know this is a book from 2007, but I just read it this year. Amazingly good read for someone who couldn't care less about regency or sci-fi.

Visible Friend by K.Z. Snow - I don't read paranormal as such, but I loved the unique take in this story.

The Locker Room by Amy Lane - Who wouldn't love Xander and Chris.

Special Delivery and Double Blind by Heidi Cullinan - Both of these were published in 2010, but I read them this year and fell in love with all the main characters. Lovely writing and a great story.

Keeping Promise Rock (and the rest of the series) by Amy Lane - These books changed me as a writer, reader and as a person. I'm not even hesitant to say it. I love them so much.

Zero at the Bone by Jane Seville - This is a book from 2009 too, but I read it in early 2011. Definitely one of the best books I read all year.

Driftwood by Harper Fox - This was pretty much a done deal for me. It has everything I love in it and you should read it. Just because I say so.

The Weirdly Miraculous 2011

Everyone is doing these end of the year-posts, so I decided to look back a little too. Yeah, I'm a regular sheep following the herd...

This time last year I was waiting anxiously to hear from Dreamspinner Press about my anthology submission. It was nervewrecking, mainly because I loved the story, Auld Lang Syne, and it was my first foray into what I knew I wanted to write: original M/M-fiction.

As some of you know by now, the story didn't make it into the anthology, instead Dreamspinner wanted it separately, and the novella is out there on it's own. I still remember the feeling of getting that email, by the way, early in 2011, saying they wanted it. It was all so worth it...

Incidentally my first published work was a M/M/F-short story for another publisher, Summerhouse Publishing. An online acquaintance had founded a publishing company and I had a story. It ended up published, and even though I've since fallen out with Summerhouse, I don't regret sending them The Double Ds.

At the end of the year 2011, I have met the goal I set myself way back in ancient history: I have had a novel published. By Any Other Name is a decent first try and I know many people have liked, even loved it. It's not my favorite thing of what I've written and I see faults in it, but it is a decent book with a LOT of things in it that I still managed to make mine. I wanted to write a different book about abuse and a menage-relationship, and I think those boys pulled it off just fine.

I'm also pretty happy with the other things I have out there by now, all of which you can see on my Goodreads page in case you're wondering. :)

All the while I've been writing, all through 2011, I've been also battling some personal issues, the main one has been depression, the "friend" that has been following me for most of my adult life.

During 2011 I've made a lot of new friends, resurrected some old friendships (to a point) and I've certainly erased some people from my life (some of them repeatedly, because I'm a sucker for punishment...). I've learned that your time is limited, you'll not life forever, and so you should try to surround yourself with people you actually like. If someone makes you feel bad or evokes negative feelings, they should go, no matter who they are. Nobody is worth making you feel bad.

All in all, 2011 has been a decent year. I feel like I can maybe learn from my mistakes and failures or things I perceive as either, like selling my beloved stallion who was stressing me out and going to waste being a yard ornament, or having a person I once considered a friend make me feel like crap all the time because of their social inaptitude and general obliviousness to other people's feelings. Oh and never mind the so called gay porn "star" and his antics, that was "fun" too.

Getting into those situations and letting them bother me as much as they did were failures and mistakes for sure. But I think I've learned from them. Now I'm tougher. Again.

The positive of 2011 is that I'm an author now. If I die tomorrow, the people left behind can call me an author. That's what matters to me. This is what I always wanted to be, This is what I didn't think would happen, or at least I needed a miracle. Well guess what. Miracles do happen. ;)

I think that my usual "I will not make New Year's resolutions!"-mantra will be effective this year too, but at least my first thought when the year is changing won't be "I will survive one more year." like it has been for so many years. I have some living to do, surviving won't cut it anymore.

Happy New Year and have a much better 2012, everyone!

(Oh and keep your eyes open, because there will be more stories out there from yours truly soon enough, starting from January 25th. I'm not going anywhere.)

The Great Escape is here!

As promised, here it is.

The Great Escape, otherwise known as By Any Other Name holiday story is now online.

You can download it here on gdocs, but if you can't, for whatever reason, please email me and I'll send it to you instead.

Have a happy and peaceful rest of the year!

By Any Other Name-freebie coming right up!

I wasn't going to do this, but I will anyway.

Suddenly yesterday, Thom, Dru and Skye began chatting in my head. They want a Christmas story. So I'm in the process of writing one right now. You should have it before Christmas Eve and I'll post the link for a .pdf download here, on my Facebook and my Twitter. (You can find links for those on my website, www.tiafielding.com).

On other news, I've contracted a first book in a series that I call, at the moment, Finnshifters. It's basically my take on the shapeshifter-lore and the story is placed in Finland. In my universe there are "cat and dog" shifters, and the first book is about Mikael, a half-shifter who runs his small family farm his dad turned into a shifter sanctuary, and the shifter he falls in love with. Naturally it's also about the "farm family", a lot of different kinds of people and I hope you'll like it!

Chuffed, book 1, will be out at some point in May-June 2012.

NaNoWriMo!!

Finally done! The book is not written yet, and it's been a struggle to get it over 50k words, but it's almost there. Needs maybe 10k more words and revising some parts and a lot of beta-work and stuff, but it's ALMOST THERE!

I'm so happy about this... Seriously. It was such a struggle with everything that has been going on lately. From depression to horse that mangled his leg to a dog that got hit by a train and survived to tell the tale... Yeah, it's been difficult.

But I'm proud to be able to post this badge and tell you that eventually my vampire M/M-romance will be out there somewhere, because it's ALMOST DONE!! *does a happy dance*

Don't Read In The Closet vol 3

The third volume of Goodreads' M/M Romance group's Don't Read in the Closet-collection is now out!

You can download it for free and it has a story by me in it also. :) So head over to the Volume 3 page on Goodreads to check it out!

Dreamspinner has some nice things going on!

Hi, everyone!

I thought I'd let you know that Dreamspinner has a We Are Thankful Sale going on through Nov. 30th. That means everything on the DSP-website is 20% off! Now is a good time to go and shop for the holidays!

If you use Facebook, you should definitely go and like Dreamspinner, because there's a code on their FB page that gives 15% off on ONE order of ANY SIZE over the next year! That's awesome!

Also, every purchase you make before Nov. 30th enters you into a drawing for a Kindle Fire! So go do some shopping already!! :)

And the Results Are in!

The winner for my little Halloween-contest/giveaway is Rowan!

I've contacted the winner and I really want to say thank you to everyone who took their time to share their lovely stories! Now I wish we celebrated Halloween where I live!

Thanks, everyone. :)

Signed Paperback Giveaway!!

For the next week, you can email me at tiafielding@gmail.com for a chance to win a signed paperback copy of my novel By Any Other Name!

I might toss in a little swag too and maybe something else...we'll see.

All you have to do is email me and answer this question: What's your most fun Halloween-memory? If you don't celebrate Halloween, tell me what you'd carve into a pumpkin lantern if you did?

The giveaway is open until November 5th, and I'll be contacting the winner on November 6th. 

Happy Halloween!!

Free Stories!!

Dreamspinner Press has a Halloween thing running for this month.

There are 31 stories hidden on author pages, product pages, series pages...you name it, if it has something to do with the author who wrote the freebie, it might be there...

Gary the Gargoyle marks each story and I have a little bit called The Maze hidden on one of my product pages. So go look and download it, it's free! :)

A little update

So, I've been writing and writing and reading and reading....aaand signing contracts!

I am happy to report that at the moment, the first half of 2012 brings you at least three stories by yours truly, all published by Dreamspinner Press.

One is a short story called Lucky. The genre is contemporary M/M, though one of the main characters is FtM transsexual.

Second one is called Something New, it's a novella, and revolves around a YA writer called Frank, who makes decisions about his life and ends up moving, finding a new life and a new love (a hunky, younger fireman called Conner). This is essentially a family story.

Third one, which I call "that Twitter story" in my head, is another novella. It's  the story of Matt, a bicycle messenger in London. He collides with a "rich guy's Mercedes" and as a result ends up spending a lot of time online while he heals. On Twitter, he begins to stalk his favorite gay porn star aaand...the rest you have to read yourself. ;)

I'll update when I have more news about current submissions and other stuffs.

By Any Other Name has its own playlist!

Did you know?

Well, it just came to me, that I haven't actually shared the playlist with my readers, so here it is.

There are spots for songs mentioned in the story, and some of these fit. Any guesses on what fits where? :)

Let's take that one back, eh?

An update for my last blog post:

The F/F-vampire story that was meant for Halloween will in fact NOT be published by Summerhouse Publishing. They've reversed the rights of that story and it is looking for a new home. So there won't be a Halloween-story from me this year, but we'll see about next year.

Then again I might rework the story and turn it into something else. Valentine's day maybe? We'll see. Once I have further news on that particular little story, I'll let you guys know. :)

And before someone asks, here or via email, yes, there are reasons for this. What I will say, though, is that I'm not very pleased with how things were handled. If you follow me on Twitter, you might already know as much as I'm willing to say openly, if not, don't worry, it's not quite as dramatic as your mind is trying to tell you right now.  ;)

Anyways, I'll let you know. :)

I should be writing, but...

Okay, a proper status update is in order, I think. Not right now, but I was writing and my brain got shuffled like a deck of cards and here I am, updating my blog. Praise the ADHD.

Anyway. My first novel, By Any Other Name has been out for almost a month now. It's doing really well, better than I expected, actually. So I'm quite happy. I know the issues the book has and some reader reviews have stated those, so I don't really disagree with the "not-so-good" reviews this time.

I have two submissions in at Dreamspinner right at this moment. They're both contemporary and I like both of the stories. Not too angsty, but still not too fluffy romance either. I like both of them and we'll see if DSP picks them up or if someone else might.

There are two release dates you might want to know about. The first is a Halloween-story for Summerhouse publishing. It's called Finding Eternity, and it's a F/F-short story with vampires and blood and angst and all the good stuff. The release date is October 28th.

The second one is a short story with a trans-theme. It's called Lucky and it will be published by Dreamspinner Press in January 2012. I'll keep you posted for the exact date when I get it.

I'm working on a short story for one of the DSP's anthology calls, who knows if it will end up there or not, but I'm working on it anyways. It's about men and...trout. Don't ask. ;)

There's also another, longer story in my WIP-folder, it's BDSMey and good, I hope. This story is on hold right now though. We'll see when I get back to it.

Aaand then last but not least, I'm going for two new things soon-ish. One is a three story-series about shifters, and we'll see about what happens with it. It would have M/M, F/F and M/F/M-stories in it.

The second new thing is my plans for this year's NaNoWriMo. That one is a vampire story, very dark and angsty. At least that's my plan for NaNo anyways. Who knows where the muses will go...

Oh, and on yet another piece of news, my swag is ready and will get to me at some point in the next few weeks I think. So then I'll be sending them to some contest winners etc. And I might just hold another contest eventually. :)

That's about it. Back to the writing now!

On a more positive note

During September the second half of September, AllRomanceEbooks has a Dreamspinner Press-rebate going on. You might want to go there and take a look yourself to see how it works. Lots of great DSP-stories to pick from!

About bullies and bitches

I'm the first person to tell you that I'm a bitch. Yes, I am also just and fair and honest to a fault, but there's a bitch within me that occasionally bubbles out and does damage to the deserving, mostly.

Yesterday was a really odd day for me. I tried to correct someone's phrasing on Twitter, because frankly it made them sound racist and that just doesn't fly, and they totally blew up on my face. If you follow me on Twitter, you know who exactly I'm talking about, and possibly know the carnage that happened after he got ticked off at me and the world and then took it out on certain individuals and finally groups of people who were his fans. WERE. Past tense, I assume, after the rant and bullying and offensive language he used against fans who frankly pay his bills. He alienated quite a few of those fans by calling them, us, names, being a misogynistic, raging man who very obviously has even more problems that most of us ever thought he had.

Not that anything about that was truly a surprise, after all he had been abusive, as most of us who follow the world of gay porn know. What I never ever expected, was to be called stupid by someone online, someone who has a certain profile to maintain and who, in a sense, caters to his fans. More than anything, I never expected to be called names in such a mean way by someone I have never met or talked to in person.

I tend to try and see the good in people, but after being bullied and attacked over something so trivial as suggesting re-phrasing in a sensitive issue, the bitch in me comes out. Yes, was I truly bitchy and did I say things about the man, hours later than it all started (for me personally) as I watched him insult people that I now call online friends and acquaintances.

Should I have kept my mouth shut? Obviously, but the bitchy side in me that was born twenty years ago after being bullied in school and decided that she would NEVER be bullied again kind of snapped.

He was being sad, pathetic and in those ways, extremely amusing, showing his true colors for everyone to see. Like his ex states in this interview (that deals with the aftermath of that abusive relationship and tells the story of an extremely brave young man who survived it all), a zebra is never free of his stripes. No matter how he tries to hide them, they will be out there for everyone to see, eventually.

Also, Devon Hunter wrote a blog post, as did JP Barnaby (who did that interview with the said young man) and if you're interested in seeing more of what took place, do click on the links. Like JP states, internet is forever, and despite the tweets not being there in this person's timeline (he deleted the worst of it at some point) most of them are surely saved on several hard drives all over the world, because that's how the modern (internet) world works.

Win some swag from yours truly!

Hello, everyone!


I'm running a bit of a swag giveaway. You can find the details here, at The Romance Studio's Party-site. 

About respect and writing

I vented about this on Twitter last night, but it didn't leave me alone like I thought it would.

When we write, and by we, I mean us females who write M/M-romance, we get so much prejudice, so much "You can't do that" thrown our way it feels that much worse, when we get it from another writer.

Now, I'm thinking the issue is mostly "girls can't write guy/guy"-stuff. Bullshit. Anyone who is creative, has the words and the emotions, can write what ever they want. It's just about being a good writer.

We also have people who write to aspire being The Great M/M-romance Writer, and then we have people like yours truly, who wants to write for people who like to read for the entertainment value. I don't CARE if I'm the next big thing out there, but I do respect those who actually are. I'm not ambitious like that, I write because I have no choice.

Now, then there are people who look down on us poor beings who write entertainment. And I'm looking at one certain male author at the moment, singling him out because he singled us out first. I read his "how to write M/M-romance"-guide, and it came across terribly prejudiced and condescending. There was no respect what so ever for us who like to write things he doesn't write.

In fact, this gentleman takes it as far as making this prejudice and disrespect part of his own books. There is a series of his that I liked a lot, that didn't contain this as much as the NEXT series did. The next series... Let's just say, the main character is a writer who dislikes and mocks everything he doesn't like. This, incidentally, is exactly what the author of the series does not write.

So when did he turn his writing, which by the way is pretty good all the time, award-winning even, into a tool for disrespecting the people who don't write the kind of books he does? I don't know, and I frankly don't care. He's talented, he is, but when he works something like this into his books, I just throw my hands up and wonder what the hell did he and/or his editor see in this next quote.

She was a big girl. A very, very big girl. One of those very big girls who you fear won’t live to see forty if they don’t take action now.

Is this how he sees all women that are "big"? Is this just how he sees "big" women that are writers (as the character referred to in the quote just happens to be)?

Whatever the reason of this sort of politically very incorrect sh—stuff being published by someone who is supposed to be an author for us to look up to, I only have one thing to say; I quit.

I quit reading his books, and I'll hold my chubby head up high and keep writing stuff that I and my readers find entertaining. They might never be the next big thing that wins awards, but hey, at least I did my best?

Been a while again

Sorry!

But I do have some lovely news.

The old url to this blog now takes you to my website. Yes, it's finally done!

Also, I'm happy to tell you all that my first novel, By Any Other Name will be out in a week, so do keep an eye out for the book on Dreamspinner Press website. :)

I need to go get a cup of tea and finish watching a movie, but I just thought I'd update the blog before I forget. :)

I'll try to update some more soon, tell you a bit about my WIPs etc. Just bear with me here.

It's summertime alright...

I'm melting. Like...almost literally. And not because I saw something cute. It's WAY TOO HOT in here! I'm one of those people who are most content around 23-24C (roughly low seventies in Fahrenheit). Today, and for the last few days, it's been around 27-33C (eighties in F). I can't...just...no. At least I have a fan to keep me cool during the night. (Instead of a fan who would make the nights hotter... now that's a thought...)

I really have been a bad author with this blogging-thing. There are a few positive things though, that I'd like to mention.

I have my July novella's release date. Auld Lang Syne will be out July 20th, so that's SOON. Yay! It's also on Goodreads already and on Dreamspinner's Coming Soon-page.

My nerdy self is absolutely delighted over my new Bazinga!- t shirt (you get cookie points for knowing this reference).

I've been reading more than I've been writing, though a plot bunny swept me away yesterday and made me write about 1k words down before I forgot them. I still have two other stories as WIPs and much more started. Trying to work on those two first.

Oh! There's the Hot July Days-event in the Goodreads M/M Romance-group and it's already in progress! My story, Hawk's Sparrow, will be up eventually, so go join the group and take a look of the wonderful stories already posted! :)

That's about it! Until next time,

- Tia

Big News!!

So I got an email today from Dreamspinner Press. They're contracting my first novel, By Any Other Name!!

It will be out around August/September and I couldn't be happier! Also, since BAON was written during the 2010 NaNoWriMo, then I'm thinking maybe this year I'll write the sequel?

We shall see. :) Anyway, I'm going to go outside to the warm, light summer night and do another happy dance!

Latest News!

I've been doing some promo-stuff and I've been featured in two lovely blogs and there's more to come too.

Here's the first one, the lovely Sue Brown had me over at her blog, and here's another one, First Timer Friday at Naughty in the Backseat-blog.

Oh and I also got the blurb for my cowboy-novella and I LOVED it... I'll share it with you guys later when I have a cover and a release date.

May 29th is here!

This means three things!

One, it is my 30th birthday today! Yay for me, I actually LOVE getting older and despite being a sarcastic person in general, that wasn't sarcasm.

Secondly, tomorrow is the day when I become a published writer! You can find my short story The Double D's from here or from here if you prefer Smashwords. I'll add buy-links later when I get them.

Thirdly, my other short story, Unwind, will be out on Wednesday, so I shall post more about that later.

That's it for now!

Oh wait, not exactly... I've written a story for the Goodreads M/M-Romance-group's Hot July Days-thing. A bunch of writers are writing stories for readers' prompts. Mine is a werewolf story, yay! It will be posted on the M/M-Romance group where you can read it for free and I'll later add it to my website (once that is done). Also, all those stories are compiled and made a free download anthology-thing eventually, when they're all out.

Shall keep you posted on that one too. :)

Now I'm done, promise!

Promo weekend!

This weekend I'll be joining some other Dreamspinner Press-authors for a chat about this June's Daily Dose, First Time for Everything, at the Literary Nymphs' yahoo group.

My short story, called Unwind, is included in the Daily Dose and will be on sale June 1st.

I'm planning on a few other promo-things, interviews and stuff, so I'll keep you posted about them as well.

It's been a while...

but I'm still here! Promise!

We're getting closer to release dates, I'm also working on stories (like a sequel to the novella coming out in July) and such... Busy. Well, most of the being busy is actually spring and the ton of work around the yard one has to do while living on a tiny little farm. There's loads to do, and time for writing is a luxury.

Anyway, I have someone working on a proper website for me, and I'm hoping it will be done sometime soon. Once it is, there will be teasers and freebies and whatnot posted there.

I mentioned Piece of Tales-blog last time I actually updated mine... I'm a guest-blogger-person there every other Wednesday these days, I try to review or something. I wouldn't call what I do review, but like...something? Anyway, there's another post tomorrow in case you're interested.

While waiting for my thingums to be released, I'm having to look into promoting and all that. Somehow it seems weird, having to do that. I mean writing is work in itself now, adding to that seems...almost too much. I know it sounds silly, but it takes a while to get used to living what you've dreamed of for a long time.

Other than trying to find time for writing, I've actually played PC-games a bit. Some WoW, which is an all time favorite, but also my beloved, pre-ordered The Witcher 2, which was out today. So that's what I've been doing today while it rained and my muses were being annoying bitches. Good game, that one. Very difficult, but still, very good as well.

I've read some, right now I'm reading J.L. Langley's My Fair Captain which has been recommended ti me by a few separate people and it's so good so far I'm happy I finally got into reading it. I almost wish I could pull off writing something like that... Maybe one day, eh?

Anyway, this was a rambling thing, just to tell you I'm still breathing. Oh and next weekend, there's a promo-thing at Literary Nymphs I'm online-attending with a bunch of other Dreamspinner Press-authors, so I shall give you links then. Hoping to have my website up by then but if not, I'll try to be more patient. ;)

In case someone was wondering, haven't sold the stallion yet, no good enough homes have come forward asking about him. Meh. We shall see.

<3 - Tia

I forgot this one...

So, despite knowing that I'd given this flash fiction-story to Celia to post on the Piece of Tales-blog, I forgot it completely... Luckily I just remembered it, eh?

The story is thousand words, it's from the point of view of Quentin, an owner of a gay club, who spots a good looking young guy, Milo, in the security cameras... You read the rest.

Also, there's a Milo's point of view, from earlier that day, that will be one of the stories in Fandom Fights Tsunami, a tsunami relief story-compilation. You can find information here, in case you're interested. I gave Milo's story for the compilation of stories that you can receive by donating to the cause. There isn't much we can do when these things happen so far from us, but I still wanted to do something for Japan.

I'm also happy to report, that my first novel has been sent to the publisher and I'm hoping to get a contract soon... I'll have details for you later this well, I hope.

I have some promo-dates too, but I'll get to those closer to the actual dates.

It's springtime where I live, and I'm relieved to see the snow finally gone (except from the places where it was piled up...). That does mean a ton of yardwork though, getting the whole large yard to look good after the winter...not that easy of a task.

I'm also selling my horse, my beloved stallion who has been with me for practically since he was weaned from his mother when he was 7 months old. I first met him when he was a couple of weeks old. He's turning 5 years old in a few days. It hurts to even think about selling him, but I will if I can find a good home for him. He's of a rare breed, so I won't sell him to just anyone, not that I would if he was your average mutt of a horse either. :) Why am I selling him? Because he goes to waste with me. He deserves more of his life than being a yard ornament. I love him enough to let him go.

Anyway, random Tia is random... ;) More news as I get them!

Dreamspinner Press' Daily Dose for June!

Alrighty, my short story Unwind is in DSP's Daily Dose for June. If you don't know what the Daily Dose is about, here's some information of this particular Daily Dose:

First Time for Everything
From true love's first innocent kiss to finally getting down and dirty on the kitchen floor, there's a first time for every sort of cherry to be popped. Whether discovering the ravenous thrill of sex or the heartwarming power of romance, these men are going to take the plunge and try something new—something romantic or kinky, daring or safe, passionate or relaxed, even comforting or scary—all in the name of love. The First Time for Everything Daily Dose package delivers 30 M/M stories about all kinds of first times.
Summer reading fun! A story delivered automatically to your bookshelf each day in June. Over 1,500 pages of fiction selling individually for a total $81.20. Buy the package early and save:

April - $39.99     May - $49.99*
*Sale of packages for daily delivery ends May 25.
Beginning June 1, stories will be available individually as priced or as a bulk package for $54.99.

Now, my story will be for sale beginning June 1st and it will be $1.49, but I do suggest you take up this opportunity to buy the whole package in the discount price.

The blurb for my story, Unwind:

Pub owner Sam and detective Jared have been together long enough to know each other through and through, so when the usually wordy Jared sends a clipped text message to Sam saying he’ll be late, Sam knows something’s wrong. If Jared is in a foul mood and wrapped up in a case that’s gone to court, he’ll be insufferable for who knows how long! Without some serious unwinding, their upcoming anniversary celebration might be ruined, so Sam plans something completely different for the evening: a foray that will take their lovemaking farther than ever before. With some luck and a little gentle coaxing, Jared should be unwound in no time.

 Here's the link for where you can check out all the 30 blurbs in the collection. 

On with the latest news!

So, a few pieces of news and links and stuff.

Here's the link for my Dreamspinner Press author bio. I'm SO excited to see it there! :)

My first short story that I posted the cover art for a while back has now its own page on the Summerhouse Publishing-website. You can see the information, including the summary for the story on The Double Ds product-page.

Also, there's some news on my first full length novel sometime soon... Stay tuned. :)

Inspiration: Porn

I remember being curious about porn when I was maybe… nine years old. Someone had given my dad a hard core straight porn tape as a gag gift and I honestly don’t want to think if that was all it was… That tape, watched at a time when I was left alone for about half an hour kind of made me think ‘gross’, but it also made me more curious.

Now, that wasn’t the first time when I saw people ‘doing it’. I suppose I was about five years old when I found a stack of magazines with nude people on them from my uncle’s room at my grandparents house… 

See, corrupted at an early age and all by myself, mostly. 

I think the first time I saw anything outside the straight porn stereotypes was about my late teens. By then I knew I was a lesbian (I’ll get to this definition later…), so naturally it was lesbian porn I was looking for. Sadly I could immediately tell there wasn’t much at all I could get my hands on. There were no super fast internet connections or good computers yet, at least not in my house. 

The lesbian porn I could find in the next five years or so just made me annoyed, I mean if you don’t have money or means to go right to the source, it isn’t good. We all know the ‘lesbian porn’ one can find, right? The not very real looking fake women with false nails and… Mhmm… No, I don’t find those girls hot at all.

So eventually, because I do love anything ‘pretty’ and always have, I got curious about gay porn. After all the men are usually very good looking. Maybe I didn’t want them more than I wanted the ugly guys in straight porn, but I’m a woman, we generally want more than just the mechanical image of fucking and that was what I was after.

At that point, maybe six years or so ago, I didn’t really look at it like that. I hadn’t really bothered to look into what made me tick more than on the surface level. I just knew that gay porn turned me on, as soon as I saw the first clip ever. 

It took me a while to realize it was more about the dynamics and yes, the whole deal about it being forbidden that turned me on than the actual hard core fucking I saw. I also became more interested at the performers than what they were doing on film.

Now, I know some people are confused about someone who just called herself a lesbian being turned on by guys in the first place. In general, I don’t get turned on by men. I don’t want to fuck men (no, wait…pegging, hmm…), I don’t want to go anywhere near a cock in real life and I certainly can’t picture myself ever falling in love with a man. Not head over heels, not immediately, not like I’ve fallen in love with a few women, at least. Then again I’m a big believer on never say never so…

Anyway, I like to label myself queer, when labels are needed and they can be put in a bit more complex way, lesbian, if I need the simple explanation to who I might be.

Now, I’m trying to wind down with this, bear with me.

This whole rant came from a need to write down something about what porn means to me, so here goes: 

I want the escape. I want to watch something hot and “pretty”. I want inspiration for the stories I write. 

But once I get to know a little bit more about the performers, I begin to care too. It’s not just once I’ve received (or sent) an email from a friend about something that has happened in an adult entertainer’s life. Not because we like to gossip, but because these guys are people to us.

And it shocks me sometimes, to see how much the male fans treat these guys like robots. Men might be differently hardwired, but these guys put a lot on the line to do a job almost nobody respects, even in the glorious, liberal 21^st century.

Me? Today I’m bummed because I had technical difficulties and I didn’t get to see how much Samuel Colt and Chris Porter’s puppies Eggs and Bacon have grown in their live cam show early this morning (my time). Or how much more muscle mass Chris has now than the couple of months ago since the last show, because I know how hard he’s worked for that. No, I’m not saying the live sex doesn’t interest me, but it’s not the main point for me, not at all. 

I’m also hoping that one day I get to meet Kennedy Carter, who is one of the most genuinely nice guys I’ve ever “met”. Maybe we’ll be in the UK at the same time, eventually. 

There are a handful of other performers out there that I try to follow too, but lately, and because of Twitter, these are the guys that seem to mean the most. The more that I get to see glimpses into their lives, the more I want to support them (in more ways than buying the occasional website subscription I can afford). 

There’s nothing wrong with being interested in porn, for whatever reason you watch it, and there’s certainly nothing wrong of being the performer, or working in the industry in some other way. 

Humans are, luckily curious, sensual beings and that’s how it should be.

My first cover!

Here it is, the cover for my story The Double Ds that will be published by Summerhouse in about two months time. As you can tell by the cover, it is a M/M/F-story.

I'm SO excited! :)

Also, I'm trying to get someone to make my a proper webpage. I have nothing against blogger, but I'm an old school webpage kind of girl... So, keeping my fingers crossed here... :)

New publisher!

I've contracted my M/M/F- short story with Summerhouse Publishing, and it will be published in a couple of months time!

As usual I'll be telling all the news and giving you links as soon as I have them. :)

Latest news

My short story has been contracted and it will be included in an anthology this summer.
I'll tell you more closer to the date, but I'm pretty excited!


Also, tons of ideas in my head swirling around... Just need to get them out. Wish me luck!

It's mid March already??

This just hit me today. March 15th. That's like...wow. Two and a half months of 2011 gone already? How did that happen??

In some weird way, despite the depression and other struggles I've had this year, everything seems to be quite okay. For one, I'm writing. I'm writing quite a bit.

What's up with that, you ask?

• A novella, working title Auld Lang Syne, will be coming out in June. It is going to be published by Dreamspinner Press.
• I have other submissions in on other publishers as well, there's M/M, M/M/F and soon a whole novel of M/M/M that has some interest from a publisher already. 
• Currently I'm writing a shifter-story, because it just wants to get out of my head... Should be interesting enough, I hope. At least the general idea is a bit different and hey, my shifters will have actual packs with pups and all, not just packs that consist of a handful of gay males... Where do the new wolves come from in those stories?? Not everyone is gay, people.

I'm getting back to the routine of writing every day, making myself write despite producing a ton of utter crap that way. At least I'm writing, the editing comes later...

I'm also reading a lot, right now I'm greatly enjoying the novel Red Skies by Joanne Kells. You can find the book in the Dreamspinner Press website/store. Very good, detailed (but not too detailed), complex story with interesting characters that are actual guys and cowboys, not "girls in guy's clothes", like quite a few male characters seem to be in M/M-fiction.

Other than reading and writing, I've been trying to will my new piece of ink to heal fast. I love my tattoos and always want more, but the healing can be annoying at times.

I'm also gathering strength to start making a website for myself but can't see that happening, just not into that so much anymore.

That's about it this time, folks.

Stress, stress and oh, look, more stress!

It's the time of the year when my darling horse gets all sorts of stupid and wild and realizes he's a stallion. Yes, he basically forgets he had gonads for most of the year and come February, it all comes back to him...and the stupidity begins. He refuses, adamantly, to stay inside his paddock and because of that, he's completely impossible. Not only is there a surprise factor every morning about where we find him, but the real problem is him possibly causing harm to himself or say, the family cars. If he's feeling very adventurous, he might trek in the snow and go into the neigbor's yard and... You get the idea.

So, when you take into notice that I normally suffer from depression and anxiety, these past couple of weeks have not been very easy for me, because despite being an insufferable ass, the horse is my baby. Because of that added stress, I'm going to escape next week for almost a week to go on a little vacation. Nowhere sunny or warm, sadly I can't afford that, but I'm going to go visit some extended family and get far enough away to not be bothered no matter what the stallion gets up to. Yay!

Now, if we're lucky, this might mean that I'll get some more writing done while I'm away... I certainly hope so, because stress doesn't equal good writing.

Speaking of writing... I now have one contracted novella (will be out around July via Dreamspinner Press) and I have a few other submissions sent around, including one M/M/F-short story, one M/M short story and my first novel, which is M/M/M. 

I'm sure I'll be updating the blog as soon as there are more news. Keep your fingers crossed!

More news! And this time it's good!

So, I'm happy to report that my short short story Waves was published in Dreamspinner Press' February newsletter.

I can also tell you, that I'm currently doing revisions to a novella length story that has been picked up by a publisher. I can't really tell you more until there's something more concrete, but you should be able to see something by yours truly out there soon enough. ;)

Here's a link to the newsletter, where you can check out some of my writing. I'm also going to put up some freebies to this blog, so keep posted. :)

-Tia

News or Something Like That...

My first anthology-submission wasn't accepted into the said anthology. However, the publisher is considering contracting it separately, so I'm waiting for a word on that.

I also sent another submission to another publisher today, it's a short one, M/M/F-story. Soooo, we shall see what comes out of that as well.

My first full length story has been pre-read by a dear friend and I'm going to re-work it a bit before I'm even going to have it pre-edited etc. But it looks good, apparently, so who knows, maybe eventually I'll actually have a real full length novel out there... ;)