 Flame Con is this weekend! I'll be at the Times Square Sheraton (NY, NY) all weekend if you'd like to stop by the Mischief Corner Books table.
Tons of fun panels, lots of cool queer creators - it'll be a fun time! :D
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From the Noblest Motives: Variant Configurations 2 is finally complete. Aaaaaaaahhhhhh! This is the book that's been nearly ten years in the making. I'm not kidding. The series was always meant to be a three book arc, and I originally started the second book back in early 2013. Almost. Ten. Years. Ago. Due to various issues - time constraints, publisher issues, other projects - it never got past the first chapter. Then when I was read to go back to it, I hated the first chapter. I hated the whole concept for the second book. I trashed the whole thing and started over about a year ago and have been working on it off and on ever since. Now. Now it is complete - mwahahaha! Currently at a little over 72K, the next step is developmental editor, which may add or subtract words. We'll see how I did. :D Damien and Blaze and Shudder's story continues!  Conventions have been few and far between this year, so I'm excited for the couple still coming up! Flame Con takes place in the Times Square Sheraton in Manhattan, August 20-21. I'll be there for Mischief Corner Books and the table will be here at Pub #9:  We'll have books by Toni Griffin, Freddy MacKay (who will be with me :D ), Evelyn Benvie, J. Scott Coatsworth, and a number of other authors (yes, mine, too, lol), plus these new releases!   Come say hi, pick up some fun swag, buy some books! :D
Yep. Working on it. :) I have such a beautiful cover for it courtesy of Natasha Snow, so I have to finish now. From the Noblest Motives is a little over 60K and closing in on the end. What was planned out as a twelve chapter novel has become fourteen, I still have to go back and fill in some things, and the final word count after content editor gets hold of it is anyone's guess at this point. I'm just not a fast writer. All the writing advice in the world hasn't changed that over the years. I futz over words, over sentences, keep having different, sometimes better, sometimes additional ideas. So it's never a straightforward, damn the torpedoes, tally-ho! sort of enterprise. I'll get there. And then I've seen a mock up of the cover for book 3. So I better get a wiggle on.  Yes, I sang the intro to Hammer Time for that title. Sorry. It's time for a cover reveal for Variant Configurations 2! From the Noblest Motives features our Shudder McKenzie in full earth surfing mode - huge thanks to Natasha Snow for this gorgeous image. :D Release date coming very soon! I'm closing in on the end of the story and should be getting it to the publisher in the next couple of weeks. (I hope.)
 Extra exclamation points because I'm excited! Rarely Pure and Never Simple launches this coming Tuesday! Available for pre-order now and the paperback is up, too. :D Some interesting things from the blog tour so far:
Remember, there's a lovely giveaway, too - the more tour sites you visit, the more times you can enter.
For pre-orders - all the linky links! https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/rarely-pure-and-never-simple-2 https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6442877135 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B29FV5L4 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rarely-pure-and-never-simple-angel-martinez/1117315996 Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3SDX6JW  The paperback version of Rarely Pure and Never Simple is up at Amazon! :D
Rarely Pure and Never Simple - Print Remember that you can pre-order from the usual sites until June 28, and if you prefer to purchase from the publisher (which, thank you!), the buy link goes live there on the 28th as well. Currently #37 in LGBTQ+ Science Fiction - yaaaaay!  Back in September of 2021, my writing had hit the wall of walls. Nothing was working - I was simply unable to can.
Then a character appeared in the middle of the night, standing atop a fence post. I didn't know his name or where he'd come from. I just knew he was running from...something. "Maybe I'll write something just because," I said. "A serial that I'll post weekly. Something short. It'll be fun." Thirty-nine posts and a novel-length story later, we have Shadow Run. I'll have to rename it, since there's a franchise already out there of that name, but it WAS fun. It just wasn't short. :D There will be an Epilogue post for Monday, and I'll leave the posts up for a bit. Eventually, I'll take it down and give to Editor to start the process of putting the story in book form. Zie deserves that, I think, after all I put him through. Thank you all for coming along on this journey where you all got to find out what happened next pretty much when I did. It did help - I've got a release coming up! This is not a drill! Pre-order is up! You can pre-order Rarely Pure and Never Simple at: Amazon Barnes & Noble Kobo Apple iBooks Release date is June 28! Rarely Pure and Never Simple
Variant Configurations 1 Variant children are vanishing at an alarming rate. It will take a uniquely mismatched pair of trackers to untangle a web of conspiracy and misdirection to find them. In his isolated cabin, variant Damien Hazelwood avoids human contact as much as possible to prevent attacks of blind berserker panic. But his rare talent as a locator makes him the go-to contractor for tricky missing person's cases and when agents bring him a troubling contract involving missing variant children, he finds it impossible to refuse. Licensed tracker Blaze Emerson can't help being irritated when he's expected to follow the strange, twitchy locator's lead on his latest case. He works alone, he's damn good, and as a variant sparker, he has both the fire and the firepower to take on anything out there. Though he has to admit there's something intriguing about a man who can find people with his brain. With vastly different temperaments and backgrounds, Damien and Blaze need to negotiate quickly how to work together if they're going to crack this case. Add in the sudden appearance of Blaze's outlaw ex, the perils of tracking in the wilds, and a maddening lack of discernible motive or method, and they soon find themselves in as much danger as the kids they're trying to rescue. Variant Configurations takes place in a future Earth where humanity is reclaiming its spot in a gradually healing world. This book contains mentions of past abuse, action-adventure style mayhem, and the beginning sparks of a slow burn, series-spanning relationship.  More chatty than newsy - but editing is an ongoing process. I'm often in some stage of editing. Every publisher or self-published author has a different process for edits. Some authors only self-edit and have done (please don't do this.) Some have several rounds with different sorts of editors.
I have three levels of bosses - I mean editors - to pass before a manuscript goes to formatting: the content editor (who has opinions about my stories), the line editor (who has definite opinions about my hyphen issues), and the proofers (who don't let me get away with anything.) Content editor (CE) is sometimes even there for me when I'm not finished a manuscript - which is good. I tend to wallow when I get stuck and CE will start prodding at where the sticking points are. We sometimes meet so that the prodding can become more specific and surgical. (Meetings in which I don't get away with saying "a bunch of stuff happens" or "there's things". Cruel. Just cruel. Call the Society for the Protection of Sulky Authors.) That's where we were this week for both Shadow Run and For the Noblest Motives - at sticky spots. I have homework and projects now. Wish me luck... |
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About Angel
Angel writes (mostly) Science Fiction and Fantasy centered around queer heroes. Currently living part time in the hectic sprawl of northern Delaware and full time inside her head, she has one husband, one son, two cats, a love of all things beautiful and a terrible addiction to the consumption of both knowledge and chocolate. |
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