Comfy Chair Post

I have a new victim in my Comfy Chair - Paula Sophia, author of Shadowboxer and Hystericus.

Shadowboxer, the story of a police officer who has to juggle his jb and his pride in his profession with his long suppressed desire to be a woman, blew me away. Highly recommended.

Paula Sophia is a serving police officer, a poet and a very fascinating lady.

Find out more here.

Six Sunday - a bit late

I have been forgetting to cross post my Six Sunday posts, so here is this weeks:


My six this week are taken from my WIP A Fierce Reaping – a story about a Romano-Celtic warband preparing to ride south to tackle Aethelfrith, a Saxon warleader who is pushing the boundaries north to threaten the lands of the Gododdin. War and mayhem is good fun to write but I think it’s more fun to read when a threat to loving relationships ups the stakes.

Following on from last week’s six, Cynfal is walking some horses back to the picket lines and meets Gwion, the harper, whom he rather fancies. He suspects the feeling could be mutual so speaks to him and asks where he is going. Gwion is going Cynfal’s way but seems uncertain of his welcome:

Gwion shrugged and patted the bay again. “I could help?”
Even croaked the suggestion was tentative, as though too many offers of help, pleas for companionship, had been rejected.
Cynfal nodded. “I’ve been told to walk the horses so it’ll take longer but I’d be glad of some company.”
Gwion’s smile was dazzling as he took the reins of the bay and came to walk at Cynfal’s shoulder.

Previous Six Sundays are listed here, most recent at the top.

Editing Pirates

I’ve been busy for the past month editing and revising my pirate novel “On A Lee Shore” and, wouldn’t you know it, the damn thing has got bigger instead of shrinking. This is because as I read it through I’ve realised that I have missed out bits that I knew about the characters that the reader has no way of knowing.

I’m at a bit of a loss to know what to do with it when it’s finished because I don’t think it’s sufficiently romantic and certainly not erotic enough for the M/M market. M/M readers do seem to require plenty of explicit boinkage laid out in finely detailed black and white. Maybe it’s a skill I should acquire or maybe I should get a writing partner who is good at that kind of thing?

Meantime, the story is what it is – an only-loosely-historical action adventure romp that I’ve had a whale of a time writing – and I’m not apologising for that.

Here’s an excerpt from close to the beginning: