General Update

I suppose I should handle a personal update first. I’m getting a few e-mails from concerned friends about rumors going around myspace. I appreciate you keeping me informed about the rumor mill. It’s nice to know that people are looking out for me. Please, allow me to address those rumors. Yes, my husband and I are splitting. Also, please, grant me the privacy to keep private issues private. I refuse to get involved in an internet mudslinging party.

I’ve been insanely busy with everything, but I’m doing well.

Now, on to writing updates! .

“Personal Demon” has been accepted by Freya’s Bower and will be included in an m/m anthology book! Woo-hoo!! I’m working with an editor I respect and trust, Karen Frontain. Freya’s Bower is a publisher I’ve wanted to work with for a while. I expect this experience to be wonderful!

As many of you know, Chip/LAP has closed. Erotic Dreams publishing has closed also. I’m sniffing out a lead as to what to do with “Full Circle”. The word is that Forbidden Publications is interested in considering Chip/LAP orphans and they handle m/m stories. I’ve contacted them for confirmation and hopefully, I’ll have a submission package for them shortly. I’m also chasing leads for “Tainted Past” and “Selling Foxx”. Those are a bit tricky as there can be no formal announcements as to their fate or any official decisions prior to the rights reverting back to me. Chip/LAP’s rights to those titles ends on Nov. 30th.

“About to Sin” is nearly finished and currently hits at over 96,000 words. Only 40,000 of those words were ever published. I believe “About to Sin” is strong enough and long enough for print publishing. I think I owe it to myself and my readers to at least try for that. I don’t know if I will succeed, but I must try. I’ve compiled a very short list of agents who deal with titles similar to “About to Sin”. My goal for this title is to have it completely written by the end of the year and polished and submission ready by February.

Open calls of submissions:

Freya’s Bower is doing an m/m anthology edited by Karen Frontain. FB and Karen both have excellent reputations. That call of submission is open until the end of December. From what I understand this will be an e-book anthology. Here’s some information about it.

Freya's Bower invites you to submit your short stories with m/m content for an all m/m anthology. Any genre story: fantasy, western, contemporary, science fiction, horror, historical. We'd like to have a nice mix of genres for this anth. Stories should be between 6,000 to 10,000 words, but we will consider manuscripts a little shorter or a little longer. For submission guidelines as to what Freya's Bower will accept as story content, please visit http://www.freyasbower.com/content/view/12/59/

Double-space your manuscript. Include a header with the title of the story, your name and numbered pages. Indent each new paragraph .5 inches. If there is a scene break, indicate it with a centered***.

All submissions must include:

1. your full name, a pseudonym if used,
2. a brief synopsis, subject or genre,
3. the story attached
4. 'Submission to mm anthology' must be in the subject line,
5. Mail submissions and/or direct queries to kmfrontain@yahoo.ca

Submissions for the anthology close December 31, 2007.

Also, Phaze will be handling Coming Together with Pride edited by Alessia Brio. Phaze and Alessia Brio both have excellent reputations. Here’s a link for more information: Coming Together with Pride . The calls of submission close at the end of December. Coming Together with Pride will be both e-book and print (if my information is correct). Special note: authors will not be getting royalties from this title. This is a charity title and proceeds will be going to HIV/AIDS research. For future reference, keep an eye on Alessia Brio and her Coming Together series. The authors in her anthologies are wonderfully talented and she has several anthologies dedicated to a variety of special causes. I believe there’s another anthology planned to help those hurt by the fires in California. As a reader and/or writer, please support these anthologies. Another special note: stories for this anthology can be m/m, f/f, m/f, etc...even though it's "with Pride" the stories need not be homosexual in nature and the stories themselves need not address HIV/AIDS.

Special note about Phaze: They will not handle any titles with a Catholic priest or nun in a sexual situation.

Call of Submissions: Coming Together: with Pride

I wanted to spread the world on this anthology.

http://www.eroticanthology.com/withpride.htm

Net profits will be donated to HIV/AIDS research. Coming Together has produced several charity anthologies: breast cancer research, a charity in the UK that deals with premature babies, and hurricane relief efforts to just name a few.

Alessia Brio is the editor for the Coming Together series. I've not had much interaction with her, but what I've seen she seems competent and pleasant. Phaze is publishing this edition of the series and they're reputable.

Alessia is seeking shorts up to 12,000 words and any genre is welcome. I assume the normal taboos apply (no pedophilia, no necrophilia and no bestiality.) The story does not have to deal with HIV/AIDS.

An anthology is a good place to get exposure. One such as this isn’t a paying market, but it is writing credit and the book will be both print and ebook. Besides, knowing that you did something for charity just feels good. I’m not sure who else will be submitting to them, but there’s usually good talent with this series. Even if you don’t want to submit anything to the anthology, please, check out the work and help these good causes.

Call for Submissions: Freya’s Bower

Freya's Bower is looking for submissions to go with a faerie anthology.

Here’s the blurb:

This anth is fantasy at it's highest. An element of legitimate faerie lore research must be present in the story. This is a pet project of mine, and I'm a avid fan of faerie lore, so I'll know if you fudged the details, lol.

Okay, 10K min wc and 20K max. Rating sweet to beyond sizzling. Deadline for submissions is August 1. Submissions MUST have "SUBMISSION: FAERIE" in the subject heading.

I'll select 4 to 5 submissions, depending on word count. Any content is acceptable minus the taboos listed on our Freya's Bower submissions page. Lesbian and m/m content is accepted.

I want to see some well thought out stories. Beautiful faeries with wings and sparkles are nice, but show me some imagination and wow me with strong prose and good grammar/puncutation.

For this anth to be considered for print format, a minimum of 75 electronic copies must be sold (that shouldn't be too difficult with 4 to 5 authors promo'ing), but this does not guarantee print format.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact me at editorfaith@sbcglobal.net

If you don’t know about FB. Let me tell you what I know. They have an excellent reputation for not only quality, but treating their authors quite well. Nothing against my publisher, but I do hope to have a title under FB one day. I also know one of their editors, KM Frontain. She’s quite talented and I’d love to work with her one day.

So get cracking on those faeries people!

Dust off that font.

Many epublishers are sending out “critical need” notices for m/m stories. We can’t write it fast enough. I’m not kidding you.

Normally, things go like this. You write a story. You polish it and then you send it out. The other day, I had a publisher come to me asking for a piece.

M/M is on fire now, but that doesn’t mean you can slap anything up on the screen and call it done. You also have to know the house you’re sending it to.

Do NOT send a happy fluffy story to Velvet Mafia. Phaze, as of last time I read their guidelines, specifically requested that there be NO submissions involving priests or nuns. There’s another publisher, the name escapes me right now, that states they do not want the word “cunt” in any submissions. FB and EC have very specific house styles and, no matter how well the piece is written, if it doesn’t meld with their house style, you can forget it. According to the editors I’ve spoken to, most rejections are not due to bad writing, but that the piece doesn’t fit the house.

Chippewa/LAP wants yaoi submissions. For those of you who don’t know, there’s a difference between yaoi (my normal genre) and other types of m/m erotic fiction. There are other publishing houses seeking yaoi. If a house wants yaoi, then they want yaoi.

And, keep an eye on your word count. If a publishing house caps themselves at 90k don’t send them a 115k word piece. If they bottom out at 10k don’t send them a 5k piece. I spoke to a guy the other day whose AGENT submitted a piece that broke the top word count for a publishing house. That agent should have never considered that particular house. Period.

Also, know what erotica is before you give it a go. An erotic story is not a “stroke story.” Oh yes, erotica is hot, but it’s also a full story with developed characters and this pesky thing called plot.

“Critical Need” does not mean desperate.

With all of that stated, if you’ve been thinking about dipping a toe in the waters of m/m now might be a good time.