Book Recommendation…

Alan Morgan March 26th, 2008

I don’t often pimp books. But this time, I’m going to have to. Rogue, by Rachel Vincent, is on sale now, and if you’ve read the first (Stray) you know what a good writer she is. Rogue is even better.

ROGUE final resize

Here’s the blurb:

Okay, so cats don’t always land on their feet

I know that better than most. Since rejoining the Pride, I’ve made big decisions and even bigger mistakes: the kind paid for with innocent lives. As the first and only female enforcer, I have plenty to prove to my father, the Pride, and myself. And with murdered toms turning up in our territory, I’m working harder than ever , though I always find the energy for a little after-hours recreation with Marc, my partner both on and off duty.

But not all my mistakes are behind me. We’re beginning to suspect that the dead are connected to a rash of missing human women, and that they can all be laid at my feet–two or four, take your pick. And one horrible indiscretion may yet cost me more than I can bear…

This is a 5 out of 5 in my book, pardon the pun. She advances left-over plot threads from Stray, and then goes and pulls out further plot threads from Stray that you didn’t even realize were there. Now that’s the mark of a good writer… to hide something in plain sight and you don’t realize it until the second or third book.

Buy it now. And if you haven’t read Stray… buy them both.

Alter-ego Blog…

Alan Morgan March 24th, 2008

So, I have a new blog for my alter-ego, Aeryn Morgan. If you follow this blog, please add the following as well:

http://aerynmorgan.com

Thanks. I’m going to try working on some posts over there to liven things up a bit.

Chapter 17 Snippet

Alan Morgan November 18th, 2007

It’s been some time since I updated this blog, so here’s a snippet for your patience:

They rode in silence, neither really in the mood for small talk. Glenn pulled into the parking lot behind his apartment, and unlocked the security door to the building. As he held it open for Shiobhan, she “accidentally” brushed up against him with her ass. He grinned and ushered her up the carpeted stairs towards his apartment, tossing his keys on the empty counter and lightly kicking the door closed behind them.

Shiobhan smiled, wrapping her arms around him, running the palms of her hands up along the muscles of his back, pushing him towards her. Their lips met, igniting the passion that had sparked in every silent look they had shared on the ride over. He pulled her closer, his hands sliding down to cup her ass as her body molded against his. She fit against him like she belonged with him, like she had always belonged with him, a missing part that completed him when he hadn’t even realized he was incomplete. “Gods,” he said when the kiss finally ended, shaking his head.

“What?” she asked, unzipping her jacket and hanging it on the back of a chair.

“I had no idea what I was missing,” he said with frank honesty. “It’s been a long time since I felt a fraction of the passion…” Shaking his head again, he took off his coat as well. “Where are my manners?” he asked, crossing the kitchen to the fridge. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Sure. What do you have?”

“Killians, water…” Taking a sniff of the milk container and wincing, he set it back in the fridge and kept looking. “That’s about it, actually. Sorry, we usually keep things stocked a bit better, but…”

“Killians is fine,” she said, smiling as he popped the top of the bottle and handed it over to her. He started to reach into a cupboard for a glass, but she raised the beer to her mouth and drank, her lips wrapping around the bottle while her eyes looked straight at him.

Damned if she isn’t a lively one, he thought to himself, taking a long swig of his own bottle.

“So what’s with the decoration?” Shiobhan asked, looking around the empty apartment.

“You like it? I thought I’d go for a new look– noveux Spartan, I like to call it.” Sighing, he said, “Truth is, Melissa cleaned out just about everything that was hers or ours. She left my stuff alone, but if she had any claim to it, it’s gone.” He shrugged and took another drink. “Truth is, in a way I’m kind of glad. A clean break is always quickest to heal, and now I don’t have anything to remind me of her. She’s obviously not who I thought she was, so I think it’s for the best.” His gaze roved over her, suddenly hungry. “But you didn’t come here to hear me talk about her.”

“Indeed,” she said, slipping out of her shoes. “I assume there’s still a bed left?”

“Bought and paid for long before I met her.”

“Good.” She slid her blouse over her head and dropped it on the floor before unzipping her jeans and stepping out of them. Standing before him in a dark red lace bra and panties, she crooked a finger and then turned to walk towards the other room. Glenn swallowed, his eyes drawn to her curves, the smooth white flesh, the sway of her hips as she moved. Tossing him a look over her shoulder, she asked, “Are you coming?”

Chapter 15

Alan Morgan August 6th, 2007

Despite migraines, arthritis, and other assorted health issues, chapter 15 is complete and sent to the beta readers.

Plotting…

Alan Morgan June 10th, 2007

I’ve been a bit stuck on Blood of the Goddess for a bit now, and a thought came to me while I was driving in to work tonight. A while back I’d been part of the “Above and Beyond” class over at Evolution Writers, which my wife Nonny had been teaching. Thinking about A&B, I think some of the exercises might help me sort through the problems I’m having and help me move on. For the curious, I’ll post these publically, though most of it will be behind a cut link so as to not spam you.

I’m skipping the first exercise as it was mainly designed to help you pick an idea to work on in the class; that’s already a given as to what I’m going to apply the course to. The second exercise is about the story premise:

* * *

Premise:

Siobhan runs a florist shop in the heart of Providence near Thayer Street, close to Brown College and Johnston & Wales University, called The Wild Rose. It also serves as a New Age store, selling pagan books, herbs, and oils for use in ritual. The shop has been in the family for many generations, though the New Age materials were added by Siobhan when she took over running the shop after her mother Mary’s death.

Her father moved away from Rhode Island, seeking to start a new life and to distance his daughter Sarah from the influence of her older sister. Years have passed without contact between them, until one day Siobhan receives a call from James asking for her help. To her surprise, James is acknowledging his own talents, and a vision of danger gives him great concern for Sarah or one of his roomates.

Surprised to learn that her sister is going to college in Providence– and upset that she was not told before– she agrees to look in on Sarah. She can tell that James is wrestling with his conscience, but his Native American heritage makes it clear to him that gifts are not given without reason. The catch: Sarah hasn’t talked to Siobhan in years, and James has convinced her that her sister is a devil-worshipper.

While trying to track down her sister, she runs into an attractive ex-Marine who is under attack from someone with dark talents and her ex-fiancee Robert, who turns out to be a werewolf. While both men try to help her find her missing sister, they both have their own problems that require her aid. Soon she starts to see that their problems and her sister are connected, and she’s in over her head.

Can she find her sister and stop the evil rising in the heart of Providence before it’s too late?
Continue Reading »

The Dark Garden

Alan Morgan May 23rd, 2007

As most of my readers know, I don’t generally promote other authors. However, a friend of mine is releasing her first print book in a few days and I know that I’m eagerly waiting to get my hands on a copy of it. So… here’s a little out-of-the-ordinary promotion:


Countdown until release:

Progress & Title Change…

Alan Morgan March 16th, 2007

Did some 414 words this morning on Providence, kicking off Chapter 15. I’m not sure exactly what I want to do with this chapter; I know the first half of it, but I can keep it just to Shiobhan and Robert, or have Glenn come back and get involved in the conversation. Really not sure just yet. Cleaned up the outline the other day, but haven’t really planned out the next set of chapters yet. Need to do that soon– before I can finish 15, I think.

Also, I’ve decided to finally give Providence a tentative title: “Blood of the Goddess”. There’s two meanings to this, which won’t be clear until the end of the book, but I think it fits. I was going to try to use a theme for the whole series, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen. Guess I’ll take it as they come, one step at a time.

(Disclaimer: rant ahead.) And can we pretty please get rid of the fucking snow and freezing temperatures already? I want my damn spring already, my arthritis is sick and tired of winter, thank you very much.

Erotica Reader Survey

Alan Morgan March 7th, 2007

Keziah Hill posted over on Romance Divas about a friend of hers who’s running a survey about erotica readers. I thought it was interesting, so I’m posting the link for the rest of you to take a look at. The survey itself is quick, though I think some of the questions were a bit strict… multiple choice and/or a weighted scale (No Interest, Low Interest, Some Interest, High Interest, Definite Interest) would have been better for each subgenre she listed.

Anyways, here’s the link:

http://remittancegirl.com/2007/03/who-am-i-writing-for.html

Chapter 14…

Alan Morgan March 7th, 2007

Just finished up chapter 14… 1890 words. Yay!

I’ve been out of commission since January due to the osteoarthritis. Just when the weather started to warm up, I caught a nasty cold (probably bronchitis) which I had for two weeks. I’m finally getting over that– still somewhat congested, but otherwise back to my normal self.

Oh, and the weather has gone back to single-digit and teen temperatures again. Some days I really do hate living in New England.

Update

Alan Morgan January 30th, 2007

It’s been a long time since I updated. I’ve finished chapter 13 and am currently working on chapter 14 now. I had intended to get a story into Forbidden Publications for their Valentine’s Day theme, but didn’t manage to get it done in time. Life’s been pretty hectic, dealing with the stress of financial and health issues. There’s more info on that on my personal LiveJournal, if you’re so inclined.

Since it’s been a while, here’s a snippet from chapter 13:

Taking another drink of coffee, he said, “Vincent called around to some of the other Packs, to see if it was a Pack war he hadn’t been told about. Turns out that some of the other Packs have run into similar situations. We usually leave a few folks behind when we hunt to keep the den safe, but that’s over now. Word is, someone’s hunting us—and that’s pretty bad news. What’s worse is we haven’t found any of the missing, not a trace. Just vanished as if they never existed. Don’t even turn up any bodies afterwards.”

“That’s horrible,” Shiobhan said. “Any ideas what’s going on?”

“Jordan has a theory. He thinks some humans have figured out about us and have declared war. He’s a paranoid bastard, but I’m not sure he’s wrong. Whomever is doing it is good—not a trace left behind, and we have very good tracking senses, let me tell you. Possibly military or one of the government agencies with initials for names.” Sighing, he said, “Problem is, Jordan isn’t for waiting to catch the bastards responsible. He’s about ready to take the Pack on the offensive and start bringing the fight to humans.” Looking up, he met her eyes squarely and said, “And he doesn’t really care about getting innocents involved.”

Speechless, Shiobhan just stared at him while her brain tried to process what he’d just said. “You mean…”

“I mean he’s about to take the Pack and start hunting humans.”

Further Plottage…

Alan Morgan November 25th, 2006

So, I’ve been thinking about Glenn and really think that he needs to be more prominent in the story. Which is fine, because I think I can put him as the POV character again for chapter 9. Don’t need to focus on Shiobhan as she deals with filing police report and such– but rather, I can focus on his emotions as he deals with his breakup with Melissa. And the breakdown of the magical bonds that she placed on him…

Also have a few other subplots that I need to develop soon:

  • Introduce the cultists Melissa is working with
  • Show that Sorcha is alive
  • Amp up the attraction between Shiobhan and Glenn (this is something that I need to revise into Chapter 1, as well…)
  • Involve what help Robert needs from Shiobhan

I can probably do the first two– if not three– in the next chapter with Glenn. I’m thinking he has a dream when he’s in the hospital, his magical gift all the stronger for having been contained/shielded by Melissa. He can see the cultists with Sorcha, showing she is alive, and showing some interaction between them and Melissa– though he doesn’t realize that it’s her. (Don’t want the readers figuring it out quite yet.) And when he’s dealing with the aftermath of the breakup, Shiobhan keeps intruding on his thoughts…

But Robert does need to play into this as well… he needed help from Shiobhan, and he’s been good about putting Sorcha above himself at the moment. But that can’t last forever, because he’s dealing with a deadline… and it’s something he will have to face. Possibly related to a Pack issue? Or someone hunting shifters? Not sure yet, he’s been fairly tight-lipped even to me… will have to crack his shell open soon and get more out of him other than he wants Shiobhan back (which she won’t let happen). Once burned, twice shy… she’s over him, or at least enough that she isn’t hooking back up with him again.

Progress :)

Alan Morgan November 5th, 2006

I just realized that I haven’t updated this in some time. I took the last part of October off as I got sick with a nasty bug, but I did finish up chapter 6 in October and just finished chapter 7 today. Hurray for progress :)

A quick snippet:

She reached into her purse and pulled out a vial, checking the label and nodding in satisfaction. Opening it, she dabbed a few drops on her fingers and moved to the side of his bed. Leaning forward, she placed her fingers on each of his temples and gently began rubbing the oil in. He breathed deep, smelling something crisp and clean, as the coolness of the liquid and the gentleness of her touch seemed to pull the pain back. Realizing that he had instinctively closed his eyes in pleasure, he reopened them to realize he was staring down her shirt at a delightful expanse of soft skin, and closed them again.

He opened his eyes again when she was finished, and looked around in amazement as his vision seemed sharper and clearer. Shaking his head, he felt no remnants of pain or tension, the fog that had been clouding his mind gone. “I have no clue what was in that, but that certainly worked miracles.”

Smiling, she handed him the small bottle. “Here, keep this. Hopefully, you won’t need it, but if you do, you’ll have it handy.”

“Thank you,” he said with sincerity. “I was thinking of heading there tomorrow around nine, I figure it’ll be dark by then and I’ll have a better chance of remembering if it’s as close to the other night as possible.”

“We’ll see you there, then, Mr. Chase– Glenn.”

“Count on it.” He watched the two leave, part of his mind wondering what their deal was, another part concerned that they were right and her sister being kidnapped was the reason he’d been attacked. Neither part objected to watching Shiobhan walk away… only that she disappeared from sight far too quickly.

Hope you all had a happy Samhain / Halloween! And good luck to everyone participating in NaNoWriMo. You’ll need it!

A map and a plan…

Alan Morgan October 15th, 2006

Finished up chapter 5 yesterday, which fulfilled my goal of 3 chapters in September & October for Evolution’s Novel Mission. Yay :) I’ve gotten too used to not meeting any goal that I set for the longest time, it really feels nice to actually hit one for once.

Did some brainstorming in chat, as I was in a bit of an indecisive quandry about where the story was going next. I mean, I know the overall plot and the story end (or at least parts of the end), but it’s the journey that I’m somewhat clueless on. But after thinking about the way it’s been going and what’s going on right now, and the larger conflicts in play, I managed to piece together a string of the next few chapters (through to chapter 8). This is a good thing, because nothing stops me colder in my tracks than wondering, “So what happens next, again?”

So, now I have a map and a plan, time to get back to it.

On a roll…

Alan Morgan October 7th, 2006

Managed to finish up Chapter 4 after working on it today at work and yesterday before work, coming in at 1595 words. Have another snippet:

She made her way to East Andrews Hall without further incident and found Room 110. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door before she lost her nerve and chickened out.

The door cracked open and a girl with purple spiked hair answered. “Yeah?”

“Hi, I’m Shiobhan McGowan. I was looking to see if my sister was home?”

“Jennifer,” the girl said, holding out her hand as she opened the door the rest of the way. “You must be the ‘devil worshipping freak’ my roommate’s talked about. Speaking as one freak to another freak, glad to meet you.”

Shiobhan shook hands with Jennifer and stepped into the room, smiling as she felt the cool embrace of the wards around the room welcoming her. “Indeed. Merry meet, and nicely done,” she said, hands indicating the shields.

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her– the opposite, in fact– and I have to live here, too. But, no, Sarah’s not here now.” A frown crossed her face as she stopped to think. “Actually, I didn’t see her come home last night. I was a little out of it, coming home from a campus GBLT meeting, and was too tired to think anything of it. But it’s not like her.”

“Any idea where she might be?” Shiobhan asked, the uneasy feeling settling in her stomach with an increasing weight. “My father asked me to check in on her, and I’m a bit worried.”

“Not really,” Jennifer admitted. “We don’t exactly run in the same social circle, I’m sure you can imagine.”

For any readers interested in following the whole story as I write it, I’ve set up a mailing list via Gmail to send chapters out to folks. This seems to be working fairly well for some fellow writers of mine so I figured I’d hop on the bandwagon. Anyways, just drop me a line with your email address and I’ll catch you up and add you to the list for further chapters.

Also got some rampaging plotbunnies that gave me some more details about the end of the book and the sequel to come. Not everything is what it appears to be… *cackle*

Progress!

Alan Morgan October 3rd, 2006

Finished up chapter 3 of Providence Paranormal for a total count of 1460 words.

Chapter 4 shifts back to Shiobhan’s POV, which– right now– is where the action is at. Glenn’s next chapter should have more, but right now he’s still trying to figure out what happened to put him into the hospital. And, more importantly, why.

Have another snippet :)

Just another mushroom, fed bullshit and kept in the dark, he thought grimly. If something bigger was going on, the way his gut told him it was, then last night was no accident. The cops might not be inclined to follow up on one more random act of violence, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t. He promised himself that he’d look into things as his head started pounding and he gagged with sudden nausea. Bright lights appeared from out of nowhere, swirling and strobing with a painful intensity.

Staggering, he made it back to the bed– barely– and hit the call button before the darkness surrounded him. His vision faded from him, first grey, then black, deepening until a pindrop of red exploded within and he felt no more.

September Progress

Alan Morgan October 2nd, 2006

September wasn’t too bad to me, ignoring financial issues. Managed to get 2623 words for the month– not a lot to some of you, but that’s slightly higher than my yearly average. If I was managing to write every day it would be a lot higher, but my biggest problem with writing is that I don’t do it consistantly enough. Partly due to work and partly due to discipline.

Anyways. I figure I’m about halfway through the 3rd chapter of Providence. Here’s a snippet for you folks:

“Okay, hon. Rest up and I’ll send the doctor in in a moment.” He caught himself staring at her shapely ass as she walked out the door and reminded himself, You’re engaged now… stop checking out every chick you see.

Yeah, right, like that’s going to happen, his more rebellious side argued, and he sighed. He took stock of the room, standard hospital issue, white walls, uncomfortable chairs, TV tuned to some morning talk-show. Politics… not something he really cared to listen to anymore. He picked up the remote and flipped through the channels, finding nothing but more of the same old early morning crap he never bothered watching. Can’t they get a bloody TiVo in here or something? Christ.

Chapter 3 is going a bit slow because there isn’t a lot of action/conflict involved yet. I have some ideas that I’ve been thinking about to spice it up a bit, but they really belong in another chapter or two later. He still has to talk to the cop about his assault, and then in chapter 4, Shiobhan goes looking for her sister and meets her sister’s roommate.

Productivity…

Alan Morgan September 20th, 2006

For the past year, I’ve been keeping track of my word counts via Evolution’s WIP Manager and Progress Meters.Today I decided to futz around with Excel and graph my productivity:

Productivity Graph #1

Now if I can only start hitting those high points on a monthly basis, and avoid the low points (ouch @ July…), I’ll be a happy camper. Part of that is buckling down, and part of that is also settling on a project and working on it regularly to completion.

Providence plotting…

Alan Morgan September 20th, 2006

Further plottage for Providence paranormal. Went rereading through the first two chapters and realized how much I like this story and do want to work on it. But I had a lot of questions about it and wasn’t sure what was going on. So I sat down and did some freewriting to help get me past this block.

Notes under the cut… some of these refer to the previous notes I had made.
Continue Reading »

Current status

Alan Morgan September 3rd, 2006

I’ve got several WIPs that I’m working on, so this is a general update.

Providence Paranormal:

This is temporarily being shelved while I try to plot out some more of the conflicts that I want to have in it. I need to do some digging into who the hero is, what the romantic conflict of the story is, what is going on behind the scenes involving the sister, and how the hero is tied to the sister. I’m thinking this is going to be in the 50k+ range, and may aim it at LSB or possibly even NY print.

Savage Lands:

I’m thinking about this story a bit lately. I’m wondering if I want to continue it in the serial idea that I was going to go with before, or if I want to expand it to be more like a Tryst length story for each installment (10-20 per “episode”). If I do that, I need to figure out who the romantic interest is and have her involved from the beginning.

Upon Wings of Hope:

I’ve been really bad about keeping up with this WIP. This is the one I was primarily going to run through the Above & Beyond coursework with, and I’m behind on that. I need to finish up Marten’s bio, which is the last bio I need, and then I need to do the homework for the stakes assignment. I’ll need to do that for Alissandra, Marten, and Litala.

Luzon:

I’m putting this back on indefinite hold. I want to get some of the other projects done first and return to this with some fresh ideas. I think I’m going to change up some of the things I wasn’t planning on before and probably darken the tone a bit. I think I also have a lot of characters for this story and I’ll need to reevaluate who the “main” characters are and how necessary some of the support characters are. I definitely do not want to fall back into the trap of forgetting to involve the familiars like I did the first time around.

Love at First Kiss:

This is a romance idea that I’m aiming at Cobblestone for. I’ve got some details over on the WIP manager at Evolution, and I’ve started working on this. Some 1kish words at the moment, I want to finish this over September/October, revise it and send it off. Looking to actually finish something for once.

Hitting the Books:

Once I finish up with Love at First Kiss, I’m going to work on this novella and push that out to Cobblestone as well.

Shadows in the Light:

This is a dark idea that came to me a while ago, and it’s something I’m going to work on plotting out. I’m thinking along the lines of L. A. Banks / Chris Golden tone… dark, gritty, gory… but yet with a stong romance amidst the hell. This is going to take a bit of research and may end up being a series, so I’m not rushing to work on this right away, but will chip away at it a bit here and a bit there.

Recent acquisitions…

Alan Morgan September 2nd, 2006

So Nonny and I went out to Borders the other day… hoping against hope that we’d get lucky and score ourselves a nice hit of book-crack (new J R Ward and Lilith Saintcrow books out soon). Unfortunately they didn’t have Lover Awakened or Dead Man Rising, but we did make a few purchases anyways.

We got:

See a common pattern? If not, look again. Which one of these books is not like the others.

The one that doesn’t belong to a Romance Diva, of course. :)

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