If anyone wants a signed copy, or a bookplate then just follow the instructions from HERE

Speak Its Name is a “Trilogy” from Linden Bay Romance - three novellas in one volume by three writers of Gay Historical Romance. It will be available as an ebook at first, followed in a few weeks by a print version. Buy here

Aftermath - by Charlie Cochrane (1920’s Oxford)

Gentleman’s Gentleman - by Lee Rowan (Victorian)

Hard and Fast - by Erastes (Regency)

CHAPTER ONE

In which I meet the young lady my father has meant for me and I deflect my father from spoiling his own endeavors.

There are certain things expected of a third son. That one will not put oneself forward, that one will join the army, or the church, or the bar. That one will not, in an attempt to inherit and whatever the provocation, murder one’s elder brothers and that one will, if at all possible in the circumstances of being a third son, marry well.

This is particularly important if one’s family is wealthy, (but not titled), and one’s brothers have married ladies who have increased the financial aspects of the line, but who have disappointed one’s father in being, like him, rich but ignobly born. One is taught that one does not talk of the origin of such income. One’s ancestors may have their portraits on painted walls and may well have been forced by circumstances to work for their subsistence but that same shameful toil enables their grandsons and further scions to live in comfort without ever having to mention such endeavors.

One is taught, from the nursery and all through one’s schooldays, that one should be a gentleman above all things. To be a good shot, to honor one’s parents, to do well for the school and to be gallant to the fairer sex. One is schooled to deal kindly with staff, and otherwise with bullies and cads. One is equipped for life.
But I have never been taught what I should do if I fell in love with someone of a sex that was not, as I expected it would be, opposite to my own.

To say that I was shaken to discover this about myself, would be an understatement in the same vein as were I to airily state that the Taj Mahal was an attractive mausoleum or that Switzerland was a trifle undulating. The sight of a curving cheek, a chestnut curl, a well turned ankle and a trim waist, these are all things that I expected to wake the first stirrings of Eros, and indeed they did; it is just that I did not think they would come from such a wholly unexpected direction.

You might, were I so injudicious to write this account down, raise an eyebrow, your quizzing glass and your voice. You might order me out of the club—blacken my name and drive me out of England and on to the continent—or you might ask me how this came to be. But would I answer you?

I might.

I’ll keep you posted as to where and when and all that.

Speak Its Name (the new anthology of three gay historical romances) is now up at the Linden Bay Website in their coming soon section. It will be available first as an ebook, and then in print in 4 or so weeks later. We worked hard with the publisher on the cover, Linden Bay insists on naked men on their gay book covers, but I think we’ve managed to diffuse the nekkidness and instil the romance.

It contains the following:

Aftermath by Charlie Cochrane - a tale of 1920’s Oxford Undergraduates

Gentleman’s Gentleman by Lee Rowan - A Victorian soldier/spy drama

Hard & Fast by Erastes - the Regency that makes Heyer spin in her grave!

To celebrate we’ve got a few chats lined up in the next couple of weeks. Today all three of us will be over at Coffee Time Romance where we’ll be giving away a download of the book (though you won’t be able to get it until 1st June) and we’ll be taking requests for m/m drabbles from the peanut gallery.

We’re also going to be over at Love Romances Cafe with many other authors from the Linden Bay Romance stable.

I hope you can pop in and read some excerpts. I’ll probably be sharing some work from Transgressions and Frost Fair too. Busy busy!

Erastes thrust us back into post-Napoleonic Europe in Standish, with vivid scenic descriptions and lively period language. He has created a story that readers will enjoy not just because of his style of writing, which is fabulous all onto itself, but because of the lessons learned by two incredibly written characters. This is a story to be read and embraced.

The authors of Night Moves have brought us four fantastic stories about vampires. While each story presents characters with an allure that keeps readers begging for more; the similarities will end there. …There is no weak link in this anthology.

The Erotic Readers and Writers’ Association has reviewed Fire & Ice from “J is for Jealousy”

In “Fire and Ice” the inimitable Erastes tells a torrid tale of homosexual passion. Erastes writes erotica like Oscar Wilde with an erection: mingling wit and wisdom with the power to engage and excite. Regardless of a reader’s sex or sexuality, Fire and Ice should be received as an outstanding story, well told, and unarguably erotic. It will warm and cool in equal measures.

And if that wasn’t enough, I’ve posted a post on Lust Bites about historical fiction writing vs accuracy and hygiene in sex scenes.

How do you solve a problem like smegma?

It’s a long story, which I can’t tell right now, because someone was instrumental in getting me put forward for Perseus’s attention and I can’t mention their name because they haven’t finished their contract negotiations yet.  We heard the good news several weeks ago but we decided to wait until we signed -but due to my bad news regarding my employment, the other author said “go ahead”.

It seems that Perseus (under their Running Press imprint) are going to launch two gay historical romances - Transgressions and the other one in Spring 2009 and that’s just wonderful news - not just for me and [the other author] but for the genre in general. They plan to print in paperback and to put them into stores, - which so far, no-one else has done in a blanket fashion.  It will be a risk for them, but they have a reputation for taking those sorts of risks, and all publishing is risk isn’t it?

I’m still pinching myself, because - although both R W Day and my mother insisted that Transgressions was “more mainstream than I realised” - I didn’t think that it would ever happen. I don’t think any author does think that, do they? They may travel hopefully, but I don’t think they believe in the arrival. Plus the gay historical has been cracking the egg of birth for a couple of years and is still not being recognised - but perhaps that will be changing.  I really hope so.

Will of course keep you posted as the fun starts here.

It’s the first time I’ve been invited anywhere on the strength of my writing, so it’s very flattering. It’s in late June/Early July I believe.

Frost Fair is moving along, just hit 4000 words on it, but there’s not much sex, or indeed even any shipping. There’s child labour and pollution on the frozen Thames, that’s what there is. I hope it doesn’t want to be a novel, because if so it’s going to be very disappointed.

This is odd to me, because I just don’t write like that. I’m a very - I don’t know what the word is for it - organic? spasmodic? idiotic? writer. I know the era and (generally) I know the ending, (but this can be as vague as “HAPPY for now”). I just… start and let my fingers continue.

I know a lot of writers who plan. Research. Outline. I know some writers who won’t even write a word for a whole year of research, and I find it rather intimidating.  I just write.

For example - I wrote “David was not where he should be - he rarely was” as the first sentence to Transgressions. Other than the fact that I knew my main characters were called David and Jonathan - that’s all I knew. Everything else happened as it happened.  I research as I go. When I was writing Standish I would stop every other sentence to check something out - “Ambrose opened his post” STOP - Was there post? Check this.  “Ambrose picked up the newspaper” STOP - What newspaper? delivered? how old?  and so on….

So the thought of writing a proposal in advance was very scary, but thank goodness they were happy with the idea. Now all I have to do is write the blinking thing by July….

Details? You want details?  Well you can’t have ‘em. It’s a novella.  It’s another gay regency - I don’t LIKE to be type cast but I find it easier to stick with what I know for something with a deadline. It involves a printer, a lot of ice, a true cad of the first water and a big misunderstanding. You’ll just have to be patient.

I then went through all the come down emotions that I assume most writers have to deal with, smugness, relief, euphoria, happiness, sudden dissatisfaction, and then a realisation that, for the first time in over two years I had nothing waiting for me to finish - I had no WIP.

Well, that last about 24 hours. Now I’ve started two short stories (there are a ton of anthologies around at the moment) and pitched a proposal to a publisher for a Christmas/Holiday project.

This doesn’t mean that “Fleury” or “The Further Fortunes of Fleury” (or whatever) is being forgotten about, he’s (barring miracles) definitely the next novel I’m going to be working on. I admit freely that the research is scaring me not a little, but I think once he gets off the ship and lands in whatever city he lands in, it’s going to be fun.

So - the book is dead - long live the book!