Ephemera & Tales

I am so excited to finally see Saffron Stains in e-print.

I mean, any day you have a book come out, that's a good day, and something to get excited about, sure, but this one's extra special to me, because it features Kael and Jem who are the very first queer characters to have shown up in my head. I have been trying to tell their story for years, and finally, in Saffron Stains, I feel like I've written them a story that's good enough for them.

Saffron Stains is a British urban fantasy - Kael's an elf, Jem's half elf, half brownie, but they live in a medium sized town in the south of the UK, and neither of them have yet worked out how to use magic to pay the gas bill, or do the washing up.

There's a snippet of Kael and Jem from the opening to Saffron Stains at the Torquere website, and here's a little bonus snippet of Kael and Jem, which does not appear in the book.

( behind the cut )

I'm hosting over at torquere_social today, if you'd like to head over and join us?

Back in 2005, Torquere published their second anthology of shape shifters, Shifting Too, which contained one of my stories, Sleeping Bears Lie. In 2007 that story was shortlisted for the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards, just after the anthology went out of print.

Since then the story's been extended - it's now about one-third new material - and it's just been published as a stand-alone Single Shot.

Set in Alaska, Sleeping Bears Lie is a story about how lying to keep secrets can screw things up, but then, so can telling the truth. It's about identity, and what it means to know someone, and if you need to know someone's history to love them in the present. It's about a relationship that's not easy, but might be worth it anyway.

It's an unusual perspective for me - first person present tense - but I wanted the reader to be riding long with Dan, seeing Matt through Dan's eyes.

The whole idea for the story came out of thinking about were- and shape-shifter stories, and how often, even in stories where humans aren't supposed to know anything about supernatural creatures, the person who gets involved with the werewolf / vampire / witch / etc finds out pretty early on and normally takes the news pretty calmly.

You could say this story started from a 'what if' - what if the shifter partner did hide their true selves. How would that work? Could that work?

You'll have to read Sleeping Bears Lie to find out what the answer was for Dan and Matt, but to get you started, there's an extract from the start of the book up on the Torquere site here , and a second snippet, from the following morning, under the cut tag.

( Read more... )

You can buy Sleeping Bears Lie, in a variety of electronic formats, direct from the Torquere Press website for the princely sum of $2.49.

I love hearing from readers and my inbox - and comments box - are always open.

Happy reading!

Okay, so the Torquere Press site has an extract up from the start of Staytape, which I hope introduced the characters and the place a bit, and I've just posted a second, steamier, extract over here.

Happy reading!

I have a new story coming out through Torquere Press today! I'm posting about it early because I'm about to vanish offline for the weekend, but at some point during the day, the new e-book and an extract will appear on my author's page.

It's a Single Shot called Staytape. It's about Kit and Dirk, eyeliner and photography, kilts and corsets. It's about love, and trust, and doing the things that scare you because if you never get scared you're not growing.

I don't know yet which extract they'll put up on the site, so I'll hold back on posting one here, and save that for another day. Instead, I have a whole short story for you.

A version of this story - Fair - came out in an anthology called 'Naughty' a few of years back. I was writing Staytape at the time when Fair reverted to me, and it wasn't till I re-read Fair that I realised they could be connected. I still don't know who the narrator of Fair is, although I can see him crystal sharp in my mind's eye, but his friend, Kit? That's the Kit from Staytape, only about ten, years ago, when he was still in his hometown, still a teenager, still figuring out who he might be. The styles of the two stories are quite different, but I hope you can enjoy both.

******

Fair
By Alex Draven

Candy-floss is grainy sweet on your tongue and sweat pricks where the sun hits between your shoulders and Kit grabs your hand and pulls you up short, ducking down the quiet lee between two butcher-striped tents. Power cables roll under your feet and when you look down the grass is trodden flat and bedraggled and Kit's glitter-painted boot still manages to sparkle.

( read on )

And to celebrate, I have an e-book out! Favour is one of Torquere's Halloween Sips. It's sweet like candy, and it has laser-quest, fake fangs, and boys making out in graveyards. If that sounds like your kind of thing, it's also a mere $1.29, so an affordable treat.

( have a little (work safe) taster )

Pimping with a different purpose ;)

Torquere Press published their anthology Men in Uniform today. I have a story in there as Alex Draven, which is my first published sci-fi story, and just look at the company it's keeping!

Men in Uniform - there are other formats avaliable, but I'm linking here so you can see the various story snipets, so you can try before you buy.

Also : many many thanks to ms_mana who had a hand in making Skin a better story than it would otherwise be.

I'll leave you with a moment from Skin.

( taster this way )

Rob Night was kind enough to take one of my stories for Torquere Press' new anthology Shifting Too, alongside authors like BA Tortuga, Sean Michael, Julia Talbot and Sara Bell. Seven shape-shifter stories in all, and no prizes for guessing from the title what form mine take ;) They're not characters you'll have met before, but there's a snippet of 'Bears here, if you want to try a taste.

( Read more... )

Torquere Press have a new anthology out today - Naughty - with some fantastic stories by a fleet of great authors, and including a new Alex Draven [aka me] story, called Fair.

What is Naughty? To some folks it’s the opposite of nice. To some people it’s pure raunch. In the Naughty anthology, edited by M. Rode, it’s something extraordinary. The stories in the Naughty nudge. They wink. They hide in dark corners and do things that no one would do in polite company. These stories are bursting at the seams with sex, intrigue, and the occasional spanking. The characters will engage you and their actions will leave you gasping.

They're also releasing the Screwdriver edition of Post Obsession, one of my favourite of their serialised stories, and yet another great Julia Talbot.