'Icarus in Flight' and Dickens

Icarus in Flight -- along with Masks: Rise of Heroes and Banshee -- marked my debut as a gay YA author back in 2008 (yes, it was THAT long ago). It was also my first earnest attempt at writing a full-length coming-of-age gay novel in a genre that's always been close to my heart: historical fiction. I also tried to write something as close to being realistic as possible, which included a deserved HEA for Daniel and James.

The original version of this book ended more as a HFN, which was somewhat within the goal I had, but over time, I realized it was also too vague for readers. In its current form, after I got my rights back and re-released it as a self-published book, I added passages in the final chapter that made the ending more clear-cut and hopeful / happier. 

This was also one of my first attempts at writing a pastiche, and anyone who's read Dickens can see echoes of David Copperfield in the book, particularly the characters. 

Clare Holman as Rosa Dartle (left) and Cherie Lunghi as Mrs. Steerforth in the 1999 adaptation of David Copperfield

Daniel and James mirror David and James (Steerforth) in the novel, and I've always been a fan of the romantic friendship between the two. In my romanticized version of their relationship, Daniel and James take things several steps further. 

Kitty Ellsworth in the book was inspired by Rosa Dartle, but her antagonism toward her younger brother is also about love thwarted in addition to resentment toward James's favored position as the only son and heir to a vast fortune. He can do no wrong in everyone's eyes while she had to settle for scraps of affection from her own parents. 

Another item of note was that this book was originally finished well over the word count required by my then-publisher, and there were sex scenes all over since it was originally intended as an adult gay romance that I couldn't sell to independent romance publishers. So I ended up deleting at least 10K words (all of the sex scenes plus a lot of unnecessary passages) until the editor deemed it proper for a gay YA coming-of-age romance. 

For my writing playlist, I listened to a CD of Chopin's waltzes over and over again (I still have that CD even though we no longer have a player to use for it). The "Grand Valse Brillante" was particularly inspirational in establishing James and Daniel's blooming relationship. 

Icarus in Flight is one of my March Backlist Bonanza books, which means its e-book price if half off throughout the month. Go to Smashwords or Kobo for .epub copies. Other online stores are listed on the Books2Read page. 

The Personal History of David Copperfield by Armando Iannocci (2020)

Incidentally, I've only now discovered this five-year-old adaptation of David Copperfield, and I'm about to watch it. I might be a purist when it comes to certain classic books being adapted (Dracula being up there), but I'm also down with tongue-in-cheek versions of my favorite novels as long as they're done with clear affection for the source material. 

Also Tilda Swinton. Full stop.

Yep, Still Here and Getting There

So March hasn't been awful, but I did get sick. AGAIN. This time I gave it to my husband, and now he thinks he's at death's door. Really, men and illness... what babies. We girls still have to get up and do chores when we're sick, and no one takes care of us. Ha! Babies, the lot of 'em!

And just for that, take THIS, world! 

Goddamn, I gotta see this. I'm dying just watching the trailer. 

Anyway, I'm doing much better now though I'm behind on my promo posts for this month's Backlist Bonanza books. I'll be doing that next weekend since I also have a three-day weekend awaiting my pleasure, and that means lots of time to spend on more important things than the day job. I mean, seriously. The day job is just there to pay the bills. Mental and emotional health? Writing's it for me. And that's what matters more.

Compline is coming to a close. I'm down to two final chapters, and it'll be a round of rewrites and revisions followed by edits. I've amassed a bunch of scattered notes on what needs to be done for the next stage, and I'm looking forward to it. 

As always, the book will be an oddball, which is par for the course when it comes to my stuff. I write what I want to read, and while the audience out there is miniscule, there are still folks who either enjoy the same stuff I do or are willing to take a chance. This book is a retelling of the Pied Piper folktale, and it's not as straightforward as what I've done with Voices in the Briars, which is a retelling of "Bluebeard". 

Compline is more like a breaking apart and then rebuilding of the Pied Piper folktale. If you're familiar with the original story, you'll be able to pick out significant elements from it, which I've reworked into a completely original plot. It was definitely tougher to write than Voices in the Briars, but, hell, I'm glad I took it on since "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" is one of my favorite folktales ever. 

I have one more fairy tale retelling in the pipeline: The Shadow Groom, which is my take on the Brothers Grimm's "The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was". I've only known this story as "The Boy Who Did Not Know How to Shudder" as a kid, but I love the story and can't wait to work on it. Maybe there'll be more fairy tale retellings after that, but I haven't thought about it yet. Still too many books already on my plate through next year. Gotta rein myself in before I do myself some serious harm.

I don't follow film awards like I used to way, way in the past, but I kept a close eye on this year's Academy Awards for one reason only: the Best Animated Film award. I desperately wanted Flow to win, and it did! I not only love that film so much that I bought my own copy, but its success really gives hope to so many visionaries and creatives out there whose only stumbling block is the tools available to them.

It's the classic tale of the scrappy underdog triumphing against the odds.

To think that a small independent film from Latvia would overtake behemoths with bigger budgets and bigger ticket sales -- it's a great feeling, and I've never been this excited for the future of animation. 

March Backlist Bonanza: 'Icarus in Flight' and 'The Cecilian Blue-Collar Chronicles'

New month, new backlist sale. This time it's on the following books:

ICARUS IN FLIGHT

James Ellsworth is a bit jaded, especially for his young age. He hates school and longs for his parents' estate, where life is far more pleasant. Meeting new schoolmate Daniel Courtney is a much-needed distraction, one that will prove more and more engrossing as James and Daniel grow older.

When his father dies, James is thrust into a position of responsibility, not just to his estate, but to his mother and sister as well. He leans as much as he can on his friendship with Daniel, but young Courtney has his own problems. His brother, George, is all Daniel has left in the world, and when he loses his brother to a freak accident, Daniel is left alone and without prospects.

All the while, the two young men are discovering a relationship that their Victorian world will never approve of. Trying to deal with their loss and their love for each other drives them apart -- James to a life of debauchery, Daniel to a life of study and work.

As they grow older, James and Daniel discover that life is not what they thought it would be when they were schoolboys together, and that, even as they try to make their own way, they will always come back to one another.

and 

THE CECILIAN BLUE-COLLAR CHRONICLES

In the year 8016 on the newly colonized planet Cecilia, space-age technology, hapless Earthling colonists, and a magical realm no one knew existed, will come together in a collision course when two young men from different worlds cross paths and fall in love. Sheridan Diggins, an astro-cab driver barely scraping a living, finds himself thrown into the deep end of a magical pool when Yuli Soulweaver, the prince of the dead, decides to come to the surface and woo him.

Of course, as it usually happens, nothing goes as planned, and murderous entities from Yuli's world come after Sheridan to stop him once and for all. In the distant planet Cecilia, there are no grand space operas. No thrilling space adventures. No exciting scientific explorations of unknown quadrants. Only a young Earthling suddenly embroiled in high stakes drama when science and magic come together in the most hilarious ways possible.

Contains the novellas Sheridan Diggins and the Dead Horde, The Golem Upstairs, The Romeo and Julian Effect, and Monsters, Science, and Fanatics.

Both of these books are firsts for me. Icarus in Flight was my first attempt at a purely historical romance. What I mean is it's realistic historical romance with not a whiff of speculative elements anywhere. Lots of research went into this book, and it's also the one gay YA book in my backlist that has mature themes.

The Cecilian Blue-Collar Chronicles was my first ever attempt at writing a purely sci-fi collection of novellas (this current volume is an omnibus)... and I utterly FAILED. Because I couldn't work with the plot without weaving more fantasy bits into it.

As with previous months, I'll be posting more background stuff for each of these books in the coming days. Both are marked down by 50% with Icarus in Flight at $1.49 and The Cecilian Blue-Collar Chronicles at $2.49 through the month.

Now Available: 'The Perfect Rochester'

It's finally out! Narcisse's adventures in mortal-immortal coexistence and all the annoying drama that comes with the territory is available. Seriously, it felt like a dog's age, waiting for this day to come since I resisted the temptation to release the book a month or even two months earlier. But discipline is golden, and I'm doing my best to stick to my plans, whether or not the lure of calendar adjustments is good. 

At any rate...

This book takes place concurrently with Nightshade's Emporium, and while it's not necessary, it does help to have read that book in order to get some of the references made to Viktor's own personal drama as the god of death. 

And here's the blurb for The Perfect Rochester:

Being a primordial god has its perks unless one considers maturation, and centuries spent largely isolated from humanity begin to bear awkward fruit. Narcisse Nightshade, primordial god of sleep, is about to discover just how clumsy his coming-of-age at twenty immortal years can be. Prone to collapsing in defensive sleep and finding comfort in his specifically woven dreamscapes, he's used to enjoying his solitude his own way whenever the ills of the mortal world threaten his waking hours.

Until one night a stranger suddenly appears in his dream—a windswept, raging, Victorian dreamboat who instantly catapults Narcisse into a highly irregular adventure playing detective. How on earth did this invader manage to enter a private dream? What did he want from the god of sleep?

Narcisse fumbles through his own coming-of-age with the help of immortal messengers, a soulless older sister bent on exacting bloody justice, a hovering mother widely feared by their feuding kin, and Chaos itself. What he discovers about this elusive mortal opens the floodgates to his own inner world and his heart, and perhaps—perhaps—the god of sleep is a great deal more human where it counts the most.

Taking place concurrently as the events in Nightshade's Emporium, The Perfect Rochester is a romantic comedy about dreams, elusive and otherwise.

The book has its own Book Gallery page over yonder, and you're more than welcome to dig in there and read up on a few behind-the-scenes tidbits (plus extra music videos). The Perfect Rochester is available in e-book format for 99 cents and print for $9.00. 

Hurry Up and Leave, February

Nope, this month dragged like a mofo, and just about every day has been a waist-deep slog through Satan's cesspit. This week (and the month) is ending on a higher than usual note, and I'll take it. Jesus. With any luck -- Mercury retrograde aside* -- March will be a full purging of this month's nasty juju. 

So we axed Netflix a few months sooner than planned. We're just not checking out the site anymore for entertainment, and I'm really less inclined to follow any kind of series nowadays and would rather settle in for one-shots. The only series I'm honestly watching are re-watches, i.e., favorite series I've seen before and have become comfort viewing. Like, for instance, the Granada production of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett. I mentioned I'm on a Poirot kick and am checking out episodes and reacquainting myself with them. I'd lose myself in Cadfael all over again as well as Inspector Morse, but they're hard to come by.

On the whole, though, my primary source of entertainment is books. I've posted about Amazon Kindle and the changes in their policy of ownership previously. My epub reader is now packed -- PACKED -- with my library from not just Amazon, but Smashwords and Kobo as well. Since I re-downloaded the app and re-uploaded my library, every book is currently marked "unread", which is sending me over the moon. 

Because it means I'll be rereading my choice books (I went through my collection and removed the ones I remember not being thrilled with from my app) and rediscovering them.** Yeah, baby.

I also have a Hoopla app downloaded, and that's an alternative to my preferred fare of genre fiction. I don't use it as often since not all books I want to read are available there, but it does give me access to authors with massive backlists. 

One more thing I did for myself to preserve my peace of mind is to delete my Disqus account as access to it encouraged me to dive right back in political sites for socializing and commentary, and that's the last thing I need (or even want). I've come to terms already with distancing myself from my favorite sites like Joe My God, but mental health is paramount, and the less negative distraction I expose myself to, the better. The same goes for Youtube, where I'm now actively muting political accounts. My current sources of entertainment and information there are video essays on films and books. Also cats. And cooking. And nifty science accounts on how things are made. Also history. And ghosts on video.

And speaking of actively sequestering myself online, I recently watched Conclave. 

It's an intelligent film that's gorgeously directed and acted with cinematography that's just as beautiful and meticulous as the procedure of choosing a new Pope. Ralph Fiennes carries the weight of the film with painful gravitas, and his face conveys so much without him speaking a single word. The movie takes it time and allows the viewer to sink slowly into every scene, which has almost an unearthly quality to it. It's contained, restrained, and equal parts luxurious and claustrophobic. 

The one thing about it that didn't quite wow me as much was the plot. It's touted as a thriller, which it is in a more restricted sense, but it's not a standard thriller by way of its use of suspense. There's mystery, of course, and a gradual unearthing of conspiracies, but the tension of high stakes isn't really there. At least I didn't feel it as much as I thought I would. Things were resolved surprisingly quickly and easily, I felt, which means there was a bit of an imbalance in the screenplay's emphasis (more was placed on Lawrence's search for the truth over the final battle between two ideologies). That said, what ultimately made it work in spite of all that was the palpably increasing weight being placed on a man who doesn't want the job but is gradually realizing he might just have to make that sacrifice if he didn't want the wrong candidate ascend. Fiennes's portrayal of a reluctant Dean is just incredible.

As a (lapsed) Catholic, I deeply appreciate the movie's unflinching exposition on men of God being mere mortals and prone to weakness and corruption. We see that not only in the Catholic church but other denominations as well in the real world. 

And on that note, I'm getting myself mentally prepared for my next rental, The Substance. Yep, that's a whiplash move from one end of the entertainment spectrum to the other.

* I don't believe in Mercury retrogrades, but I love blaming them for day-to-day fuckups.

** I'll probably re-download them once more and give them another shot. Chances are I'll be able to pull my head out of my ass and actually enjoy them in the second round.