'The Cecilian Blue-Collar Chronicles' and the Space Everyman

This book is an omnibus containing four novellas I originally released individually via a small press. I wanted to try my hand at writing sci-fi but not hard sci-fi because I'm really one of the least technical / scientifically inclined people on Earth even though science fascinates me. I also grew up watching (of course!) Star Trek, Star Wars, and a number of other sci-fi shows on TV back in the 1970s like UFO, Battlestar Galactica, and Sapphire and Steel (the last one on the list being my favorite). 

I mean you gotta balance all the ghost / gothic / horror anthology shows with sci-fi, right? That was my childhood.

One short-lived series I really, REALLY loved watching as a kid was Quark. It's a sci-fi comedy that spoofs a lot of the heavyweights like Star Trek and 2001: Space Odyssey, and it follows a crew of a space sanitation service.

That's right: an honest to God space trash collector. Who wouldn't love this premise???

So my memories of that show were my foundation for The Cecilian Blue-Collar Chronicles, and this time, we're following the daily misadventures of a young cab driver (but sci-fi!) who's a few generations from the original settlers of the planet Cecilia. The Earthlings (former Earthlings, that is) are actually refugees from Earth following a global catastrophe, and evolution dictated by their new environment changed their appearance by way of color, so colonists walk around looking like a 1960s acid trip.

I did try to stick to pure sci-fi, plot-wise, doing my own spoof of sci-fi tropes like aliens and the rough environment of a planet. 

However, there were elements in the plot that wouldn't work as sci-fi but were needed for the story to make sense, so I had to turn the series into a hybrid of sci-fi and fantasy. So all the characters coming from Yuli's world are fantasy-based while everything else above ground is sci-fi in its wonkiest form. Yes, there are space ships and astro-cabs and ray guns, but Earthlings are Earthlings, and the original refugees brought whatever knowledge they had from Earth to Cecilia, so buildings, food, etc., are adapted versions of old Earth stuff -- but forced to work with a wilder terrain and so on and with questionable results. 

All in all this series was incredibly fun to write though it also only grounded home my limitations as a sci-fi writer. I'd happily watch my favorite sci-fi shows again for the nostalgia and will just have to live vicariously through them as a writer.

The Cecilian Blue-Collar Chronicles is currently 50% off through the end of March. You can go to Smashwords or Kobo for a copy, and for other online stores, check out the book page on Books2Read.

'Compline': Done!

One more book to scratch off my list, booyah! Compline is now done in first draft form, and there's a lot of revision work to come. I did ease up on the preliminary word count as there are a good number of things I need to add to the material still, and that requires more room than usual. Given the way I struggled getting this book off the ground and pausing midway through so I could add Lukas's chapters into the mix, I honestly didn't think I was going to get this story done.

So! As per my tradition whenever a new WiP crosses the finish line, I'm indulging in a celebratory music video courtesy of my childhood soundtrack. 

I also changed my site's background into a lighter and more cheerful design, but I might end up tweaking things some more, so be prepared for another cycle of an evolving look whenever you visit this place. Apologies in advance for the mindfuck. 

But yay, new book! Yay!

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Okay, never mind. Went back to the darker blue background and will stick with it. I've grown so used to it (plus blue comes second to green as my favorite color, so yeah) so that anything brighter or lighter than that doesn't sit well with me now. At least it's a subtler design than the previous blue background I used.

'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.