It’s been a little quiet round here of late, by which I mean the tumbleweeds bowling through an apparently deserted blog have been a little hard to miss!

My absence has been due to health issues. I’m very glad to report they’re now on the way to being resolved, with an underactive thyroid at the root of it all.

But it is taking time, and some days I feel like one of the professional invalids in Georgette Heyer’s novels, reclining gracefully on the chaise longue while half-dressed muscular attendants fan with me palm fronds and feed me…  Wait, I think I may be getting my genres confused.

The good news is that I am recovering, and hope to be well enough to start writing again before too much longer. In the meantime, the wonderful Will at Pride Promotions has been lining up a blog tour for the release of Blowing Off Steam at the end of May. More details to follow on that closer to the time!

I’ve also taken the plunge and signed up for Twitter at long last. If anybody would like to follow me there, I’m @JoyLynnFielding.

The lovely Emily at the Sharing Links and Wisdom blog is running a holiday party all this month, with a grand prize draw for a $50 Amazon gift certificate!

I’m there today, with one of my Strength of the Pack books up for grabs, talking about Christmas – and seeking tips on how to prevent a Labrador from rooting through all the presents before anyone else can get to them.

The problem is that on his first Christmas with us, he was very timid and anxious (he’s a rescue dog) and so to reassure him that there was nothing nefarious in all those brightly wrapped parcels, I made sure the first two presents that were unwrapped were for him.  That was a disastrous move, because he then thought every present was for him.  And he’s still convinced of it now.

In this photo, he was so eager to claim his present that I didn’t even get a chance to remove the tag before he took it back to his basket.

Interested in winning a Kindle Fire, loaded with books from more than 30 m/m authors?  Hie thee over to Fall Fantasies, where a different m/m author is being hosted each day during the month of October. For every comment you make, you’ll receive an entry into the draw (just remember to put your email address in the comment so you can be contacted).

I’m there today, talking about the things I love about fall/autumn, and the one thing about it that I really don‘t love.

The lovely people at Rainbow Gold Reviews are today running a party for those of us unable to attend GayRomLit retreat this weekend. Taking place all day here on Facebook, it’s guaranteed to be fun, with all sorts of people stopping by to chat and oodles of prizes to be won.

 

 

It’s that whimsical time of year again when the days grow shorter, the leaves are turning, and the fires are being lit. So why not make yourself comfy and spend your evenings snuggled up with some of the hottest M/M romances around. Fall in love with the sexy men from some of your favorite Manlove writers.

And if that isn’t enough to tempt you to visit the blog, there’s a Kindle Fire HD to be won, containing books from every contributing author! I’m guesting on October 24th .

Contest details: The contest runs from October 1st to October 31st. Each day a new author will be showcased, and each day you will have a chance to enter to win our grand prize of a brand new, just released Kindle Fire HD with an eBook loaded on it from every author in our contest. We will also be offering 2nd and 3rd prizes of swag/gift baskets with carefully chosen items from our wonderful authors.

So, come visit every day to discover which new book is being added to the Kindle and leave a comment to enter.

Rules of the Contest:

• You may enter once per day, but only once per day. Each day the contest runs from 12:01am (PST) to 11:59pm (PST). Once that day has ended, no further entries may be added for that day. You must wait for the next day to enter again.
• To enter every day, you MUST comment every day, on that given day. Any entries added after the 11:59pm (PST) cutoff time will not be entered.
• You MUST leave your email address in your comment or we will have no way to contact you if you win. Any comments left without an email will not be considered.
• Please your comment on the author’s page to be counted each day.
• You may only win one prize.
• Winners will be chosen on November 1st and announced on the blog.

I’m blown away to learn that Carnevale and A Gilded Cage have been awarded an Honorable Mention in this year’s Rainbow Awards, meaning that a judge has given them a rating of 36 or higher out of 40.

This pair of short stories was written on a large canvass with vivid imagery.  The sights, sounds, and smells of Venice of long ago and the beautiful countryside vineyard are detailed and brief as to let the reader see what they will as the story progresses.  What takes center stage is the true sexual awakening of Perry, a young gentleman from England, and his attachment to Jack, the former Englishman that can’t go home.

I’ve been tagged for this Fabulous Five blog hop by the equally fabulous Chris T Kat, whose latest book Tidal Change is now available from Dreamspinner.

What am I working on?

What I’m hoping to get to work on in the next few days is the final book in the Strength of the Pack series — Karl’s story. I wanted to start it as soon as I finished Blowing Off Steam, but things that were happening in the non-fictional world had to take priority.

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

I think that’s more for a reader to answer than it is for me. I can talk until the cows come home about characteristics of my work, but whether those differentiate it from others in the m/m genre, I really couldn’t say.  If anyone would like to venture an opinion, I’d love to hear! 🙂

Why do I write what I do?

I write M/M because I find the dynamics within M/M relationships fascinating. I read and enjoy M/F on occasion, but I don’have a particular interest in writing it. I struggle to come up with a female main character who interests me (though I love having strong female characters in supporting roles where the story permits) and on the odd occasion I’ve mused over a M/F plotline I’ve ended up entangled in all society’s baggage about gender roles.

As for the genres I write within M/M – I write whatever story comes to me at the time, and I can rarely tell in advance what that is going to be. I never expected to write one about trains, for example, though in retrospect I probably could have predicted the Masquerade series, with my love of all things Regency. I know it’s not exactly a Regency, being the tail end of the Georgian period and set in Venice, but it’s close enough.

How does my writing process work?

I tend to write in very short, concentrated bursts, then take a break doing something completely different (often just sitting quietly, with no stimuli) and wait for the next part to become ordered in my subconscious until it’s ready to be told. I try to capture concepts and feelings as they flow rather than get the sentence structure perfect, which means my first draft is a bit of a mess.

I always have a plan for the book in mind – I’m wary of starting one without knowing how it’s going to end, in case I write myself into a corner – but I don’t plan it all out in minute detail. Probably because half of the time the characters end up doing things that I hadn’t allowed for!  I often end up with themes emerging that I hadn’t expected.

Those who are paying attention will realise I’ve stopped at four questions rather than five. That’s because the fifth element is tagging someone else for this blog hop, but it seems as if I am the last person in the world to have done it!

 

I’m delighted to have the lovely Chris T Kat here today. Her new book, Secret Energy, was released yesterday – and while I haven’t yet read it (something I’m hoping to remedy later today), I’m already in love with the cover.

Welcome, Chris!

Joy, thank you very much for the opportunity to be a guest on your blog. Dreamspinner Press published my new release, Secret Energy, on August 29th. Secret Energy is a shape-shifter story, and the sequel to Secret Chemistry (http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3520).

Shape-shifters are humans that possess the ability to (consciously or sometimes subconsciously) alter their shape. The best-known trope in literature is the wolf-shifter, although the animal world is large. Wolves are followed by cats (big cats, like tigers, etc.) and dragons. Mostly the stories have the humans shift into animals when they’re already grown up.

While I like these kind of stories, I adore stories in which the human shifts into the baby form of an animal. It just gives me the warm fuzzies to portray small animals with their typical baby fur and behavior. It also allows me to portray the characters in a different way. That’s why I chose to write Jay as a child and Tim as a teenager in Secret Chemistry. Although there are no baby shifters in Secret Energy, Robin is a bundle of energy. 🙂 Continue reading “If I was a shifter what animal would I be? – Guest blog by Chris T Kat” →

The lovely Blogger Girls are hosting me today, with a Rafflecopter draw for a copy of Riding the Whirlwind. Drop by to enter, and to find out just how whipped I am by my characters. 😉