What’s Up?
Wow. Last week I was a busy Tam. It was my birthday on Thursday, which I celebrated by being as sick as a dog! Then Saturday was my cousin’s wedding, where I had to flee the service after having an asthma attack in the middle of the vows. So, might need to send the happy couple a bit of an extra present to make up for that! Honestly, it’s lucky I had abandoned my phone and bag as I fled. Otherwise I would have just had to get in the car, drive away, and entirely abandon this identity from shame.
Other than my fit of the wheezes, and my cousin’s disappointment she couldn’t have her pug as a bridesmaid, it was a lovely day. It was a really bright summery day, the sun even came out!, and my cousin and her boyfriend are away on their honeymoon now. I also got to catch up on my family gossip, which a wedding is always good for.
Next week I am probably going to go away for a couple of days on a writing/editing retreat. Once I get back I should have some good news for you that I’ll be able to share. So soon! Any day now :D
I have been making plans with Rhys Ford for NEXT September, when we will hopefully be at the UK Meet in Southampton. Well, I say ‘making plans’. It was more of a two hour ramble where Rhys tried to keep us on track. We made ONE (1) decision. I’m not good at plans!
Oh, and I assume that anyone on the list already likes me so I’m not doing any hard sell to you guys. However, I am supposed to be working on my marketing. So…
If you haven’t read my Digging Up Bones series? People do like it.
EBook Deal of the Day!
415 Ink: Book One - $1.99 Ebook
The hardest thing a rebel can do isn’t standing up for something—it’s standing up for himself.
Life takes delight in stabbing Gus Scott in the back when he least expects it. After Gus spends years running from his past, present, and the dismal future every social worker predicted for him, karma delivers the one thing Gus could never—would never—turn his back on: a son from a one-night stand he’d had after a devastating breakup a few years ago.
Returning to San Francisco and to 415 Ink, his family’s tattoo shop, gave him the perfect shelter to battle his personal demons and get himself together… until the firefighter who’d broken him walked back into Gus’s life.
For Rey Montenegro, tattoo artist Gus Scott was an elusive brass ring, a glittering prize he hadn’t the strength or flexibility to hold on to. Severing his relationship with the mercurial tattoo artist hurt, but Gus hadn’t wanted the kind of domestic life Rey craved, leaving Rey with an aching chasm in his soul.
When Gus’s life and world starts to unravel, Rey helps him pick up the pieces, and Gus wonders if that forever Rey wants is more than just a dream.
Recommendation of the Week
I’m going to admit this, I judged these books by the cover. They just look so vibrant and fun, and they sounded good too! So why not take a risk. This is the first book of three and tosses you straight into the world of geeks, comic books and gamer boys. After all even geeks get to fall in love, right?
Geek Life: Book One
When opposite worlds collide, it’s anyone’s game.
Proud geek and comic book artist Morris Proctor wants nothing more than to live in semiseclusion with his devil cat and gamer friends. Despite what his well-meaning family thinks, he’s perfectly content with his status quo. The last thing he needs is to date another nongeek hell-bent on changing him.
Then he meets his adorkable new neighbor, Theo Boarman, who doesn’t know Star Trek from Star Wars, but who tempts him like no other.
Theo has spent the last year recovering from the loss of his parents and trying to play both roles for his teenage brother, while working to keep the family restaurant afloat. Dating is the last thing on the menu, especially with a man who thinks the height of dining is shoving a packaged meal into the microwave.
But if Morris gives him one more shy smile or flaunts that kilt he wears so well, Theo will be forced to convince him that a hot summer fling is just the recipe to let off a little steam.
When that fling gets serious fast, Morris has to decide if he’s willing to give his heart to Theo on the chance that they’re a perfect mix.
PRG’S Work in Progress Contest!
Do you have a manuscript that you would love to receive feedback on from seasoned reviewers? Well this is YOUR opportunity to get a new set of eyes on the first 3 chapters or the first 30 pages of your Work in Progress!
The Paranormal Romance Guild’s (PRG) Work in Progress (WIP) Contest will open for entries on August 1, 2019. The last day to enter is August 31, 2019, by 11:59 PM.
Literary Cat Names
I mean you always think you are going to name your cat something cool and witty like Edgar Allan Purr or Stephen Kitty. The truth is that then you get them, look into their little sleepy face, and go ‘Oh, he looks like a Fluffypants! Doesn’t ooo, doesn’t ooo look like a Fluffypants?’. Come on, let’s not pretend you thought I had any cool wHere cats, dogs, or anything that isn’t an insect is involved. I’ve ‘awwww'ed’ over baby snakes.
Like little shoestrings with eyes! So wee and wriggly.
It doesn’t hurt to have ambitions though, so check out this list of literary cat names on Bookriot and see if there’s anything that suits your latest fuzzy feline friend better than ‘I think he looks like a Ferdinand!’
Personally I think ‘Pennywise’ is just asking for trouble, but it is your cat!
Best Headline of the Week (or ever!)
I love writing, and I hope that people enjoy my books, but I don’t think I will ever write a line as amazing as ‘multiple felony warrants unrelated to the squirrel’.
I have always loved the Gashlycrumb Tinies. T is for T(ammy) who flew into bits. Sounds like me!
Bear that Pretended to be a Man (DnD)
There have been games where I am the bear, and there have been games where I was the man that rolled the unexpectedly good perception check. I played a completely rubbish mage in a DnD game and kept messing up the game for the DM without any intention of it. She accidentally became the sole, very coddled, worshipper of a nearly dead god, then destroyed an entire campaign by defeating a monster that was meant to be the big bad for the next three games (using like, throwaway potions), and then—just as we were about to be knighted by the Queen—made such a bad roll that I got us run out of the town.
I sometimes imagine myself as an urban explorer. It’s something I’d definitely enjoy, if it wasn’t for the fact I always get caught when I do anything inappropriate and I’m clumsy as heck and would definitely fall down a hole.
The priest’s little face is what makes it. So disappointed!
Kickstarter of the Mumble
I picked mumble because I’m not going to put Kickstarter stuff all the time. However, if something looks really cool or I really want to see it make it to market I’ll throw one up every now and again.
Like Hill Agency. I will admit I love detective novels - hey, that’s why I write them - but my big weakness is the hard-boiled genre. This looks amazing, the aesthetics are gorgeous, and I really want to see what happens with it.
So! Check it out.
Hill Agency, which started as PURITY&decay (a DMG Feb Fatale game Jam prototype)was first shown at imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, and it needs you to get the next level.
The year is 2262 and you're, Meeygun Hill, a tough as nails P.I. working in the slums of one of the last major cities in North America. Life is all missing kids and cheating spouses until a dame from the Risen-City barges in and changes your life. Her sister has been murdered and the cops are useless. It’s up to you to find out who the real murderer is.
Murdered sisters, mind wiping drugs and flying palaces, this case goes way farther than the banks of this one detective's little slum in this indigenous cybernoir. A narrative detective game in the spirit of Oxenfree and The Shiva that lets you solve who did it. Interview witnesses and suspects, collect evidence (and sort what is important from the red herrings), compile a case and make your accusations!
Useless Site of the Week
Look. Look. Just put the sound on? Cos, honestly, I’ve no idea WHY this is so funny but I am pure dying here. Go on. Turn the sound on.
Poetry of the Week
Once upon a time the performance poetry scene in Belfast basically consisted of a poetry night run by Debi and Mark Madden in their cafe in the Cathedral Quarter. Mark is a talented wordsmith with an accerbic and iconclastic turn of wit. Check out one of his performances at his old site below.