Tag: erotica

Angels

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

So this weekend I want to take a break from the eight freaking weeks I’m behind. It’s stressing me out, and when I get stressed out, I stop writing. A weekend off is just what I need.

Except it’s not exactly off…

I will be working the weekend through on a new series, whose only title is Angels so far. The series title will come to me. The titles for each of the books has come to me, which is fabulous.

These books will be more along the lines of the Contracted series than of D.o.t.A or Wraith’s Rebellion. Meaning, more erotica, less adventure and such. While writing up the plot I got the base down and then stopped, looked at it and went, “how many places can I add sex without it seeming too much?”

The first book (His Grace) is an introduction to the Angelica brothers: Sam, Gabe, Ralph, and Mike. We start off with Grace at a bar, running into Gabe and er… getting to know one another… and then going from there through her introduction to Sam.

This is a world where the quickest, and least lethal, way of exorcising a demon or saving a soul from evil spells is having sex with them. Basically, sex is like the turning it off, then turning it back on again of the soul and Grace has an error on her hard drive that needs to be fixed.

Demons keep latching onto Grace’s mind and trying to locate her in a bustling city, it’s Sam’s job to figure out why the cute, innocent, young woman is being hunted by demons when she presents with none of the signs of a supernatural creature. She’s just a human who likes helping other humans. As far as demonic hosts go, she’s about as far as a human can be.

He was just supposed to save her soul, but the more time Sam spends with Grace, the more he thinks about her, craving the taste of her lips and the warmth of her skin under his fingertips.

The Missing Link

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Or in this case, too many links.

Prototype has been on my work desk, so to speak, since September when it seemed to fight every step of the way. Since then I’ve revisited it in the planning stages several times. Each time I can only shrug and put it back on the shelf, uncertain of what happened.

I think I figured it out. 

I  was walking to the bus stop and thinking about Contract Signed which is m/m. That’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea and Signed would be my first published m/m so those who are not long time readers are not going to be expecting it so much.

Just because I keep talking about it, doesn’t mean people are listening. In fact, for me it almost guarantees that no one who the warnings are for are listening. That’s the way it goes, how it’s always gone.

So, walking to the bus stop, I’m trying to figure out how to word that once the trilogy is complete and ready to go. It kind of comes to me, except inside my head me was all “if you don’t like this, give me about an hour.”

And I went, “What the fuck does that mean? Who can come up with a solution in an hour? This is problem solving time, not fantasy!”

To which the voice inside my head said something very mean.

A few minutes later I was presented with another status update that started with, “and for all you readers, here’s a m/f story.”

To which I did role call to try to put something in that spot.

Prototype is always at the top of role call. Every month I’ve started, or said I was going to start, a new story, Prototype is the first story brought up as a possibility. 

This time the voice didn’t ask. The world was dumped on me and then we proceeded arguing with one another about it being broken and which of us was to blame for it being broken. 

Yes, I talk and argue with myself inside my head. But it’s nice to have a sounding board sometimes. 

At some point the voice in my head started ripping scenes out of Prototype and basically throwing them out as I protested that it couldn’t go. We needed that and that and…

And then it hit me in the face with the pared down version. 

Which had removed the general world building and just focused on the characters.

“It’s a series. There will be plenty of time for world building in books two to sixty.”

Yes! 

I don’t know when I’ll be able to work on it again. Nearly everything but chapter one news to be thrown out. That’s okay though. It’s not the first time I’ve had to start from scratch on a story.

Just Keep Writing 

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Three weeks, I could not work. Which is now totalling about six weeks out of work. Driving me crazy, is what it is. 

Masked Intentions goes live in nine days and I don’t have the final draft up. Not because I have been lazy or because it needs more work, but because I haven’t been capable of work for six weeks. 

I think I had two days around Christmas before everything went to hell.

I haven’t been on social media or marketing or anything. My sales reflect that. And I can maintain that…

If I can work. 

So now I have to make that all a habit again. Get back to working on all the things.

The moment everything was fixed, I went back to writing. But I’m now six weeks behind on my plan. That really messes with everything. 

I couldn’t even write on my phone, so Death Mask isn’t written yet, it’s in a perpetual state of half-done chapter one. So I’m skipping ahead to chapter two and will return to chapter one later on. 

On the computer, I’m writing the Signed trilogy, which resides in the Contracted world. This is Nate’s story, so m/m and bdsm, and all that explosion of crazy. I completely blame Nate and his Master. They kept messing with me so I figured I’d start the world up again to torment them and it all just came spilling out. 

At Death’s Door will probably have to wait until March for release, so that I can do all the fixes that I was supposed to do over the last six weeks. It’s going to take longer because I can no longer remember what the fixes are. So now I need to read the entire thing before I can start edits so that I can get the bigger picture again and catch all the problems.

So annoying.

Because all I want to do is write. 

Sure, I could ship this work out to someone else, but that costs money I don’t have, and I’m not earning from the books themselves. In the last month I’ve only sold one book.

Probably because I couldn’t do anything or access anything or get my head to work. 

I’m on kdp select, and discovered that Contract Taken was up for free days. I’ve grabbed three and have moved a few free copies with the help of marketing and some from social media.

This morning the book was sitting at #9 on Amazon’s free-romance section. Suppose that’s good, but we’ll have to see how that goes.

A review blog somehow picked up my book and listed it. It’s weird because I don’t recall applying to them or anything of that sort. I’m not certain how I landed on that page, basically. They also made a “review” on Goodreads that was just the description.

I have no idea what their plan is, but I’m afraid to ask.

When everything was in the middle of breaking, Dorian did something stupid. He booked a trip to Cuba for the two of us at at five star resort.

I’ve never been to Cuba, and we all know I’m not comfortable being gifted expensive things. Hence why he’s stupid. 

I appreciate it, I will try my darndest to enjoy the trip, but accepting such a gift makes me uncomfortable. Even if I had purchased the ticket myself, I’d probably be uncomfortable. That’s money I could put into covers or marketing.

I’m starting to sound like Beth. While I’m not certain that’s a bad thing, it does sound a little crazy. If I had the money to go to Cuba, I should go to Cuba. Experience for an author is absolutely necessary.

Who knows, it could spawn a story. I could end up writing a best selling novel because I want to Cuba.

Oh, but think of the promotions I could have bought with that money… Bookbub and ENT and all the things. Such shiny things.

Suppose a beach and all inclusive resort stay will have to do. 

Signed – or Why I Hate How my Mind Works

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I can no longer play games on my desktop, it’s that messed up. It was a free upgrade, and still works for things like editing and writing. Basically, my computer is forcing me to work when I wanted to play video games.

This time of year is high stress for me. I want to relax sometimes and just unwind by killing things in a wasteland, or lighting my dolls on fire. 

Instead, I opened Signed yesterday afternoon and started writing. The first chapter took six hours to write, the second two. I was up until almost two in the morning writing when I wanted to be playing a game and taking over the world.

I dreamed of Signed last night. 

This is a problem with me, and I know it is. Sometimes I get caught on tangents and can’t get off until it’s written out. The entire trilogy is acting like that.

All at once. 

I’ve had books overlap before, both playing out on repeat inside my head as I finish one and am going to start another, but never three. And certainly not from the beginning of the first book. Two chapters in, Nathaniel’s Master is tying him up in all kinds of places and doing all sorts to him. 

Half of it won’t even make it into the book, a line has to be drawn somewhere, damn it. 

More just keeps getting tossed onto the pile. And more. 

Then Dorian made a comment, because he’s expressed a desire to be there when I do research on these things. I suppose, so he knows what he’s getting himself into. 

“Why in male/male domination porn does one always where that little strap thing over their shoulders?”

If you saw it, you’d know the one he meant. It’s the kind of thing that might hold wings on for a Halloween costume, except made of leather.

At those words, Mr. Wrightworth popped into my head, grabbed a random male character, slapped one on him and grabbed it by the strap that runs between the shoulder blades. 

“Men typically don’t have hair to tangle a hand it, a grip on a shoulder does not give the control one needs. With this, however…”

Thanks for that thought, Mr. Wrightworth. 

“Aya, why do you have that look on your face?” Dorian asked.

I could only whimper in response. 

It is with great uneasiness that I head into work, worried about what might happen in my errant thoughts. I plot my stories at work. Most  of the time this isn’t a problem at all and all revolves around PG13 type of material. 

Smutt is left for the bus rides or at home. Work is the place to figure out how they say things and what the reaction would be to having breakfast taken away.

Nathaniel and his Master don’t seem to want to obey my rules though. They don’t react to threats to beat them, because they went into this knowing things were not going to go well for them.

So my uttering threats does absolutely nothing. I can’t threaten the other of them, holding one hostage because… I don’t even know why. 

I have two days off coming up. Without the ability to play games I only have one hope: a writing marathon to get as much of Signed written as I can before I go back to work.

That’s right, I’m aiming for a fifty thousand word weekend, if only to shut the pair of them up for a few hours.

Wish me luck.

Updates

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

What have I been up to?

Well, Prototype in a month was a bust. I seem to be missing something to tell the story, even though I know how it all ends. That kind of sucks, but I’ll keep working on it and maybe do a re-write. That seems to work well for me recently.

I’ve almost written another book, At Death’s Door is part of a trilogy called Wraith’s Rebellion. All the writing is done on my phone. Isn’t that a nifty thing? More like crazy as could be, but I have long commutes and haven’t wanted to read anything. It doesn’t even feel like work because it’s doing a great job at distracting me from hours on a bus.

The Contracted trilogy is up for pre-order on Amazon, and I’ve reached out to the cover artist to do the wraps she had promised. Coming up with other options well, I know she’s very busy and might not have the time to put them together.

I’m considering getting Indesign as I’ve heard you can do the ebook formatting on there and have Amazon accept the fonts. I’ll believe it when I see it, but it’s kind of expensive. Its subscription based and would cost me the same to hire out for the work, and that’s a problem. So I’ll keep looking around.

My laptop was failing to the point where it couldn’t work with some web pages, WordPress included. It works on my phone, but I’ve been writing At Death’s Door on there. So that’s kind of why I’ve been absent.

I won’t accept large gifts from people. It’s never ended well for me even to accept gifts in general. Dorian knew that, and one day showed up with his brother’s old computer. He set it up before I arrived and absconded with my laptop. The act of it led to our first fight in months, because there were things on that laptop I needed.

Apparently, his brother upgraded to a full on gaming rig, and Dorian told his brother he’d recycle the old computer. His brother isn’t the sort to ask if Dorian recycled it or not.

So my computer issue was fixed, though the monitor is driving me batty. I may have to save up and buy a new one, but those are a great deal cheaper than getting the entire rig.

I’m thinking about working on an angel and demon story. Woooo scary.

Because it’s just not possible, and I should know better.

But then… I also said no vampires.

My list for October is simple. Finish Prototype, finish At Death’s Door, do the first edit for Masked Intentions, and get the final copies of Contract Broken and Contract Renewed up. Preferably, get the hard copies of the Contracted Trilogy settled so I can do a giveaway.

I am planning on resisting the urge to write. However, as I can now write on my phone, most bets are off.

I also have this nifty world building app, which I put At Death’s Door into before I started writing. It has helped immensely. I barely follow the plot I wrote up, but the few times I’ve gotten stuck, I’ve been able to refer to it. The chapters are broken up, and I’ve found it much easier to dart all over. No extra pulls or anything, all the chapters linked together and at my fingertips.

If there’s mention of Hitler or random insanity that’s inappropriate, that’s because I caught the person sitting beside me reading my screen. Most of them moved pretty quickly.

Except for the one woman, who is on the bus every day with me. The next day she also sat beside me.

People are weird.

Okay, a Little Work

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Dorian would be about to kill me, if I hadn’t done work while making a roast dinner. Beth’s been teaching me for a while, mainly because I’ve seen how Dorian reacts to her food. He loves it, I was jealous.

When I told her I was jealous she told me, and I quote, “Quit your fucking bitching, any moron can learn to cook.”

She had to add an addendum, when I somehow screwed up a hard boiled egg. It exploded.

… along with about fourteen after it.

So today I made Dorian a roast dinner and he reacted almost the same way. I know him well enough to know when he’s putting on a farce. It probably didn’t hurt my chances, that I did the entire thing in a summer dress with a loose skirt and bare feet.

It’s not the barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen thing with him. A woman barefoot is somehow seductive to him—in the kitchen or not—add in a skirt and what he calls ‘flouncing’ and I had to slap the man off of me so that I could carve the roast.

I’m years away from cooking like Beth, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying.

So while I made a wonderful dinner, I also filled out my Goodreads author page, set up the Amazon Author Central page, and slapped up an author profile image.

I need a better camera. Or to get one professionally done, both will cost about the same.

 

Working and Working More

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I had Tuesday off my day job and worked sixteen hours to get Contract Taken up on Amazon. I did a preorder in case anything went amiss … it did.

Now, I could have simply pulled the book and started again but I’m worried if I tried that, it’s never go up. So yes, I’m doing a preorder on my first book. This is not usually suggested. 

But at least the book will go up.

When Dorian found out what I had done, he scolded me.

About the long work day on my day off, not the preorder. 

I was up at 9am and didn’t get to bed until 2am. I did take probably 15mins every four hours to do chores, feed myself, and feed the cats. The last hour was spent trying to find a way to use fonts in a book on Amazon.

It looks so … unfinished without them. Unpolished, like I just don’t care. I’ve seen others use them, but I just can’t seem to figure it out myself.

Using a free epub converter (I discovered this morning) does the same thing! 

When I told Dorian that he scolded me again! 

Because I told him I wasn’t going back to work until next week. I will start writing today (get between me and writing, and I’m likely to bite you. In his case, literally) but I swore I wouldn’t do anything else.

It’s a long weekend, meaning Dorian and I are both off. I get the feeling I’m going to be … er … tied up most of the weekend and at this point I’m not sure it’ll be in a naughty fashion. I’m in so much trouble, he couldn’t even bring himself to threaten to smack me.

Someone asked a valid question though, and she’s willing to do a review on the book, but can’t use Amazon. So I was just trying to do a fulfillment now rather than next week when I’m running around like a crazy person before heading on “vacation” to a wedding across the country.

I don’t know what to do about the font and formatting thing. I don’t want to have to pay someone to format for me. I should be able to do it myself, but no one wants to tell me how.

I have just over a month to figure it out.

Dear ‘Zon… Just no.

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I spent fifteen hours yesterday working over Contract Taken until the editing was done. Only to realize the whole thing was corrupted and I had to basically start over. Then I got it all nicely done up and found out that Amazon strips basically all the formatting out.

I know it’s not because your Kindles are incapable of displaying fonts. I’m looking right at them on my kindle, to which I placed a .pdf. It looks fantastic. It looks like I spend hours working on it (let’s face it, I spent almost a year on this).

So I’m a little peeved. Just a little. Okay, maybe I threatened to light my office on fire, but I was at the end of a sixteen hour work day and it was two in the morning. My Google-fu was also failing me.

I know others have used fonts in their kindle books. Beth was all, “of course it works!” so I grabbed her first book and now she’s also threatening to light her office on fire.

So it is up for pre-order with no inside visible because I desperately want to sort out the fonts before I do that. When it comes time, every other retailer will have the awesome copy and Amazon will have the one that looks like it’s a text book on boring topics.

 

Updates

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

My goal over the weekend was to write approximately thirty thousand words, I only made twenty-five thousand. I’m sure that if I wanted to do a dump and run type of publishing, I should be scolding myself, but I made twenty-five thousand words over the course of two days.

Technically over the course of about eight hours.

Saturday I wrote for two hours, then spent six hours running errands an the like. By the time I got back I all but crashed. Later in the evening I did get out another chapter. On Sunday, I wrote for an hour or so and then somehow got distracted.

About eight hours later I had a mailing list set up, though I can’t seem to link it through my blog like I’m supposed to be able to do easily. I haven’t returned to that to play with again, because I’m trying to get as much writing done while I can.

On my commutes I’ve been reading Contract Broken. There seems to be less errors in the book, though the ones that are there are pretty glaring. I don’t know if it’s because I did better at editing, or I’m doing worse at editing this time around.

Last night I contacted my cover designer, haven’t heard back yet. Contract Taken may be ready to go.

The rest of last night, I just crashed. That’s all. Crashed. On the couch, with two cats sleeping on me.

Dorian came over after a social event he had to attend for work. We were supposed to have some fun, but he found me sprawled on my couch, passed out as my streaming services played. He tucked me into bed and I slept until Grover decided to stand on my chest and lick my nose as he drooled.

Apparently I “overslept” and he was hungry.

I tried writing a bit more it hasn’t quite worked. So tired…

Dorian has suggested a day off. I think he’s crazy. I’ve been back at work less than two weeks and had a day off just last week. Pfft, over worked? How is that possible?

As I’m trying to edit Contract Broken, Nathaniel has been talking very loudly, he does that every time I try to touch the book. Probably because he’s barely in it. I now have a basic outline for the way the book goes.

Except he keeps popping in with random scenes he did with his Master and I squeak, hurt myself, or full on stumble in real life.

If the book Nathaniel was dictating didn’t centre around his getting beaten up and forced to submit, I’d alter it just to screw with him for his annoying behaviour. There’s little I could do to him that his Master hasn’t, however.