cheese egg! –

Anyway. With that lovely image in your mind – Great Yarmouth Library is the definitely brilliant.  For a start off it’s SELF SERVICE which I have no clue how that works. So freaking cool and excellent for grumpy misanthropes. All you do is put your books into a cupboard and somehow it recognises all the titles.  So no disapproving arseholes complaining about a cat hair caught in between the pages. 

PLUS they have a teeny tiny gay section (knowingly called “Loud and Proud” and I found PA Brown’s LA Heat there, which of course I had to borrow, just for solidarity. I mean how cool is that, to have someone’s book in a local library who is on one’s friends list? very! that’s how cool. I shall be ordering as many gay books as i can to make the section bigger.

And they have a cafe!! cake!

My book haul, apart from LA Heat is “Lord John and the Hand of Devils” which I’m fairly sure I’ve read but LJ is so bloody bland I can’t remember a word of it. “Mr Midshipman Fury” by GS Beard (Age of sail)(I doubt if there’s any sailor snoggage) Buccaneer by Tim Severin (piratey goodness) and Obelisk by EM Forster.

Still no Spring though.

I’ve just applied to join the East Anglian Writers – always nervous to do that kind of thing, and got an email back straight away from them saying that they are really interested in what I write!   

So if there’s anyone else out there in Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Essex or Bedfordshire – do join! It would be great to meet you. Apparently there’s a Broadland event this summer which will be excellent and CLOSE. They might have ideas on how to get to speak at literary fests and the like, which will be useful.

They have a Blog too.

-  – –

Last week I sent a query letter to an agent, once again.  He surprised me by emailing within a few hours and asking to see the full manuscript so I sent it off with a cheer (because getting to that stage is great enough) – and then yesterday I got an offer of representation.

I’m stunned.  Three years I’ve been looking for an agent and admittedly most of the time I’ve been “doin’ it rong.”  I tried to get an agent for Standish (after it was published – D’OH, aren’t you glad it was me making these egregious errors and not you?) and then Transgressions. (before, thank goodness!) I am not surprised that Transgressions didn’t get picked up, because it’s very genre, and at the time, it was still going to be viewed as “OMG Gay historical? What the hell is that?”  So I finished Junction X and started trying to get that represented—and being that it’s sort of literary, and non-romance I had hopes.

And yay!

Of course this doesn’t mean a sale, it’s an agent, not a publisher. But it’s an agent!  He really likes the book (obviously, I suppose) and I’m really quite excited.

Watch this space!

Noble Romance have officially accepted my 1930’s novella “Tributary” – it will appear in a four-author anthology of gay historical romance called “The Last Gasp.”  No release date yet, but I’m assuming Summer.  I’m HUGELY proud of this anthology, as Noble Romance commissioned me to put it together, find the stories etc and the range of stories/talented writing I’ve got are simply amazing. And they aren’t any of them what I expected.

The Last Gasp refers to a way of life that has now gone forever, so all the stories reflect that:

Authors: Charlie Cochrane, Jordan Taylor, Erastes, and introducing Chris Smith

Blurbs under the cut.

Sand by Charlie Cochrane

“Safe upon solid rock the ugly houses stand: Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand.”

People come to Syria for many reasons; tourism, archaeology, or because they need to leave Edwardian England to escape potential disgrace. Andrew Parks is one of those, burying past heartache and scandal among the tombs.

Charles Cusiter has travelled here as well, as chaperone to a friend whose fondness for the opposite sex gets him into too much trouble at home. Out in the desert there aren’t any women to turn Bernard’s head – just the ubiquitous sand.

The desert works its magic on Charles, softening his heart and drawing him towards Andrew. Not even a potentially fatal scorpion sting can overcome the power this strange land exerts.

The Ninth Language by Jordan Taylor

Thousands of outsiders descend on Canada’s Yukon Territory during the 1898 gold rush, wreaking havoc on the landscape and the indigenous people who live there. Amid the backdrop of this once pristine land, a man struggling against the destruction of his home and culture finds himself indebted to one of the men causing it. These two strangers discover solace and wholeness where they least expect it: each other.

The White Empire by Chris Smith

Edgar Vaughan sincerely believes that six-thousand miles is enough to give him a fresh start. Escaping in 1838 from the drawing rooms of Belgravia and the constraints of his landed family, he takes up missionary work in the trading post of Hong Kong.  On arrival, he finds the region on the cusp of war; the Chinese Emperor has outlawed the importation of opium — the key link in the trade of the East India Company.  Between Edgar’s sense of isolation, the sight of the puling opium addicts, and one memorable encounter with a man in a peacock waistcoat, Edgar finds himself embroiled in the very marrow of the British Empire’s machinations. He finds himself torn between espousing the expeditious whilst protecting his new acquaintance, and doing what is right and risking the wrath of the British Empire.

Tributary by Erastes

It’s 1936 and a generation of disaffected youth waits in the space between a war that destroyed many of their friends and family, and a war they know is bound to come.  Guy Mason wanders through Italy, bored and restless for reasons he can’t even name, and stops at the Hotel Vista, high in the mountains of Lombardy.  There he meets scientist James Calloway and his secretary, Louis Chambers, and it’s there that the meandering stream of Guy’s life changes course forever.

In happier news – “Muffled Drum” is moving along—I’m actually inspired by this, and for the first time since Junction X I find myself speaking the scenes aloud when I’m in the car and am getting ideas for pertinent scenes, and slowly the story is gaining an outline.  I know that jigsaw puzzle doesn’t work for everyone but it definitely works for me – I may not know what is going on most of the time, but if i have various scenes in my head then I have somewhere to aim for.

Why doesn’t facebook have a “dislike” button. Or better still a “punch in the nose” button?  I don’t like being given a smile from God.

Early night tonight I think. Vitamin C overdose and then writing tomorrow or else.  Night all.

Talking of reviews—I read a great book this week “It Takes Two” by Elliott Mackle which I’ll be waving my hands excitedly about on the 7th March.  It really is worth reading, and I encourage anyone who likes the genre to seek it out and read it. I can’t stop thinking about it.  He also has one of the best websites I’ve ever seen.

I’ve been watching “White Collar” which is brain-gum enjoyable. And the Caffrey actor is so pretty it’s hard to dislike anything he’s in.

Hilarious Beaker Youtube short.  I love how the Muppets are using Youtube as a medium. Beaker’s my favourite.

SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the book. beware.

Isn’t it GREAT?  *DIES LAUGHING*

Some REALLY needs to write a book called “Here be Dragoons” with this cover. *ovaries exploding* WOOF!!!!

Yes, I know I was writing “Blackguards!” about Fleury but it sort of ground to a halt and I need to think about it a lot more, and I was suddenly aware that it was nearly March and I had about 3k words to the year, I thought I’d better write SOMETHING. So it’s The Muffled Drum and starts at the battle of Battle of Jena-Auerstedt.  Unsurprisingly, if you’ve been following the blog for the last couple of day, it includes Hussars.

Gratutious Hussar.

<<<This picture is from an earlier time, though – medieval Hussars actually went to battle wearing WINGS. Can you believe it?

This is more the kind of thing I’m doing, though.>>> HUSSAR!

For those who are interested – I got the title…

from this Napoleonic War Poem by John Mayne from 1805.

If war poetry is your thing, this is a great resource – poems from 1793-1815.