Thursday

I've plotted out a schedule for myself. The trick is trying to write new updates for The Gold Book while still trying to publish The Rainbow Book and also managing to write entirely new novels and short stories to give you something non-ITL to read.

I'll try to pull off a balancing act and give you both new ITL content and new non-ITL content.

The first major step in the upcoming non-ITL content will be a new book of short stories.  The writing's finished; it just needs a final read-through, then some formatting and cover art.  The formatting and cover art are Diamond's area of expertise, but she's busy with other projects, so we shall wait patiently.

Wednesday

Hi, Mandy! Thank you!

I spent some time working on non-ITL stuff, like the upcoming short story collection, prepping and editing and writing blurbs. Now it's back to ITL. I really enjoy Tano, and it's fun to see Remin connect his mature, devout, responsible self with his sensual, avaricious, sexual self.  We've heard a lot about the old Remin, but it's great to see him in action.

In other news, I just had a birthday. So, that was nice.

Comments!

Hey, comments! Hello!

To K: Thank you! It's really a fantastic thing, to have real, live people excited about my work! I really appreciate it!

To Amber: Thank you! I'm very glad to hear how excited you are about ITL. It's terrific to have other people enjoy that world.

To Sylvie: For now, I plan to publish everything myself, through Lulu.com. I've found it easier, and I've decided to put all of my eggs in one basket. It may not be my brightest plan ever, and I'm happy to speak with any publishers.

 Thank you all for reading my work, and for stopping by my blog! I hope to use this space to let people in on what's going on behind the scenes.

Upcoming fiction

I've been working behind the scenes on a lot of different bits of fiction.  A short story collection, a mystery, the first volume of The Rainbow Book, etc.  It's a lot of fun, and I look forward to showing you all of this new work.

Currently, I'm trying to prep some things for publication.  The formatting and cover art and such are Diamond's field of expertise, so I'm putting together character sheets, blurbs, author's notes, that sort of stuff.  It's fun to set everything in order.  I hope that you all enjoy the new fiction when it finally makes its way into the world!

The short story collection should be the next thing to hit publication.  Fingers crossed.  I finished what I hope will be the last of the edits yesterday.

The Places of ITL

Primary setting: Orina Anoris.  Main capital: Orikodisata.

In The Purple Book, you'll learn about:

Nosupolis, a little mountain country in the middle of nowhere, ruled by King Mindo
Ilaeia, a major cultural center, home of some of the world's most important art, ruled by King Ouia
Lorbain, one of the world's major powers, ruled by the unethical Sultan of Lorbain
The plains, where clans like the Kela live and battle each other for access to precious resources like water
Vafiance, a nation suffering greatly from a long drought

There are also places like Mannillea (where Ambassador Dillane is from) and Grenade Sandwich (not how it's actually spelled in ITL, just how I pronounce it) which has been at war with Vektin Kchet.

There are hints in The Purple Book of Orina Anoris' rival, the Jacacean Empire.  You'll learn more about Jacacea in The Rainbow Book, I assure you.

People have asked for a map of ITL's world, but the series is so large and will go on for so long that I don't want to limit myself.  I see no need to pin every detail of the geographical world down concretely.  Also, I personally have no ability to draw a map.  I tried to sketch one for a short story and ended up failing miserably.  Maybe I'll post it later so you can all point and laugh.

The People of ITL

The main location of ITL is a country called Orina Anoris.  It's ruled by the Seven Siblings.  The current generation of the Seven Siblings consists of eight brothers (don't ask):

Kudorin, the pharaoh
Remin, the royal high priest (the gold one)
Orinakin, the royal diplomat (the purple one)
Selorin, the royal high judge (the blue one)
Desin, the royal farmer (the green one)
Anosanim, the royal architect (the orange one)
Talin, the royal artist (the red one)
Rini, the royal gift (the silver one)

Kudorin, as the pharaoh, needs two spouses.  One of each gender.  An Anorian and a foreigner.  When the series opens, he's already married to his Anorian wife, Anikira, but he still needs to marry a male foreigner.  As the royal diplomat, Orinakin is responsible for bringing male suitors to court Kudorin.

In The Purple Book, he brings Bade (a prince from the middle of nowhere), T'rin (a warrior from the plains), Dillane (a young and accomplished ambassador), Aiae (an infamously pretty and celebrated painter), and Dranz (a celebrated war hero).

There are a bunch of other characters of note you'll want to get to know.  Like Vade, Bade's twin brother.  Norisa, Desin's pet tiger.  And the belas.  Belas are like concubines, although they're well-paid for their work and are in no way coerced; being a bela is entirely voluntary.

In This Land

Since "In This Land" (ITL) is the largest of my current writing projects, I should probably explain what it is.

ITL is an ongoing series.  A new part is uploaded once every week.  It's been going on steadily for several years now, so that "new part weekly" idea isn't some vague wish, it's a steady reality.  You will receive new fiction every week.

It costs $4.99 a month to subscribe.  Subscriptions are made through PayPal.  The first few parts of ITL are available to read for free to give you an idea of what you're in for.  There are also short stories set in the ITL world, some free and some available only to subscribers.

ITL is a romantic and erotic story.  Lots of love and lots of sex.  It takes place in a fantasy world, primarily in a country called Orina Anoris, which is ruled by eight brothers.

Each of the brothers is associated with a different color.  While all of the brothers are involved in the entire series, and all of them have their own lives and plots and sexual relationships, ITL is broken into separate "books."  The first book is The Purple Book, where the brother associated with the color purple (Orinakin) is the main character.  The Purple Book features the story of Orinakin's romance with some guy named Bade.  The Red Book will feature the story of Talin (the red brother) and his romance with some other guy.

All of ITL is available through subscription.  The individual books are being published in literal book form (print and e-book) through Lulu.  The Purple Book is first (in five volumes), The Rainbow Book will be published next, then The Gold Book, and so on.

So, if you want to subscribe, that would be fantastic.  You are also welcome to purchase the volumes individually as they are released.  Each published volume comes with a new short story, to thank you for purchasing.

Next few posts: the characters of ITL, the details of this fantasy world, what else I'm writing, snippets of upcoming stories, etc.

What I write

I write gay romantic erotica.  Or gay erotic romances.  You'll usually get two men (or more), some sort of emotional journey/romantic content, and explicit sex.  I try not to make it too porntastic with drilling cockrods and such, but I don't discreetly fade to black too often, either.

I started off writing original fiction with no audience whatsoever.  Then I wandered into the world of slash (m/m fan fiction) for a few years with my first site (which went very well, thank you)*.  Then I opened a second site for original fiction, where I've devoted my attention for the past few years.

My original fiction falls primarily into two categories.  The first would be modern, everyday fiction.  Short stories and a novel about ordinary, modern-day guys getting laid and falling in love.  The second would be ITL, which I'll get into later.

I've been considering going back into slash, once I can sort out my schedule and devote some time to it without compromising my commitment to ITL.

Most of the fiction on my site is free. You can find my novel, Off the Record, and some short story collections here. "Hot Weather" has been published through Samhain.

With the preliminaries out of the way, let's get into the good stuff.  More on ITL, discussion of what's coming soon, and excerpts later!

*No, seriously, thank you.  The readers and fans from my first site gave me an incredible amount of support.  Those of you who are still with me today are some amazing folks.  Thank you forever.