Tomorrow is the Release of The Willow and the Stone

To say I’m excited might be putting it lightly.  It feels like I’ve waited forever for this day to come.  Now as long as PayPal’s shenanigans against my publisher don’t cancel the party, the long wait is over. 

Tomorrow instead of the usual ‘First Four Friday’, I’ll be posting the blurb and first chapter of The Willow and the Stone.  I truly hope you all enjoy my book.  Thanks to everyone who sent supportive messages.  Thanks to Randy and Jeanette, who looked it over and made sure I didn’t inflict horrible typos and continuity errors on the rest of you.  Thanks to Holly for reading and critiquing those first stumbling drafts.  And thanks to Peter for just being there and listening to me fret and whine and worry.   You’re all the best!

Six Sentence Sunday - The Willow and the Stone

A roaring blast pounded her ears.  Lightning flashed blinding white.  The alien fell and blanketed her with its insectoid body. Her hypnosis broke, and Renee shrieked.  She kicked and clawed at the hard flesh of the monster, expecting to feel the needle prick of its siphon in her neck at any moment.  Her maddened screams echoed throughout the warehouse.

Coming March 16 from New Concepts Publishing

First Five Friday - The Willow and the Stone

Chapter 7:

This brisk morning everyone devoured their meal, anticipating the hard work of harvesting the Rock's crops.  Every table filled with the harvest crew — all except the table where Leo sat.  He breakfasted at one end while half a dozen others huddled at the other.  Surreptitious glances in his direction told him several conversations centered on him.  He ate with little appetite.

Coming next week!

Uh Oh … Is PayPal Big Brother?

                My publisher, New Concepts Publishing, is very small.  And until I came along, it was putting out one genre:  erotica.  (Did you get the pun?  Putting out?  Are you groaning now?  Ha-ha.) 

                Anyway, so they publish a bit of the naughty for the ladies.  And yes, I’ve read some of their titles.  No big deal.  Stories with graphic sexual encounters; so what?  I’m a big girl and I’ve had a child.  Obviously, I know something about graphic sexual encounters from personal experience.

                Last week, New Concepts Publishing posted the following news:

What happened to all the books? Many of our books have been banned by the Morality Police. Like our contemporaries, we are no longer allowed to sell books using PayPal if they find them objectionable. Due to the graphic nature of some of our books, we can no longer sell them through the New Concepts Publishing website. We have been working toward a solution to this problem and will post new information as it becomes available.

                Wow.  Censorship.  Not cool.

                Officially, PayPal’s issues with erotica include graphic scenes of incest, bestiality, and pedophilia.  Okay, I can see why most businesses would get squeamish over such material.  But here’s the weird part:  NCP doesn’t publish books with those things in them.  It’s right in their manuscript submission guidelines. 

                Also victims in this bizarre morality crackdown are sites Siren/Bookstrand, Smashwords, and All Romance e-Books, along with others.  PayPal, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to cut off these publisher/distributors’ ability to sell their inventory to paying customers.  Hard hit were also self-published authors, who have received little to no warning before they were suddenly unable to fill orders.

Again, a large number of these books do not contain the “graphic scenes of incest, bestiality, and pedophilia” PayPal objects to.  A large number of these erotic stories take place between unrelated, consenting adults.

                Another issue:  PayPal has extended its definition of pedophilia to 18-19 year old women having intimacies with older men.  However, it is still apparently okay for erotic stories of 18-19 year old gay men to have such encounters with older men.  So let’s add gender discrimination to the list of PayPal’s sins.  You do know most erotica writers and readers are women, right?  Double whammy on us gals.

                Don’t forget, Ebay and PayPal are owned by the same company.  It is still perfectly legitimate for people to buy and sell print erotica of any type via PayPal on Ebay. 

                One would say to the affected publishers, “So use another service besides PayPal.”  Unfortunately, nothing on par with PayPal exists.  They are very nearly a monopoly when it comes to being the go-between for businesses and banks.  There are so few options left to the small publishers as to be almost non-existent.  To go with another company means incredibly high fees, along with accounts payable and receivable incompatibilities. 

                PayPal says it’s the credit card companies dictating the issue.  And we know what bastions of morality our banking institutions are. 

                To put it bluntly, PayPal is telling us what we can spend our money on.  It’s like a restrictive parent telling us that the money we earned can only be used to buy what it approves of.  It’s tyrannical, dictatorial, and more obscene than the books it doesn’t like. 

                PayPal, what I do with my money, so long as it’s legal, is my business.  You have no say in where I spend or what I spend it on.  Many people I know are cancelling their accounts with you in protest.  Because while it’s erotica now, which quite a few will have no quarrel with, it will be certain political views tomorrow.  Or you will decide a particular religion or religions must be suppressed.  It always starts with something small and unnoticed then grows like the proverbial snowball as it tumbles down that slippery slope.   I for one want to see you stopped before you get too far.

                I say no to PayPal.  It is an unethical, power-mongering company who thinks it not only knows what’s best for me, but that it has the right to force its policies down my throat.  I hope others will also deny this company its strong arm tactics.

  

Six Sentence Sunday - Willow in the Desert (WIP)

There was something moving within the dust, and the whirring sound grew steadily louder.  It wasn’t the heavy thuds of cow hooves at all.  This was a finer, lighter sound, like the pad of children’s shoeless footfalls.
 It made Royce’s throat close with anxiety.  He halted, noticing out of the corner of his eyes his fellow Gulchers doing the same.  “What the hell is that?” he asked.

First Four Friday - Willow in the Desert (WIP)

Scene 1:
Royce Cummings sat on a splintered park bench, eating a slab of ham and grape tomatoes with his bare hands.  The ham was pure salty goodness, but he couldn’t help wishing it was between two slices of pillow-soft white bread with a couple of slices of Swiss cheese and some spicy brown mustard slathered on thick.  Six years hadn’t cured his craving for store-bought white bread, for Swiss cheese, for spicy brown mustard, or any kind of mustard for that matter.  Hell, he’d settle for that dijon stuff they used to make the funny commercials about with snooty men in the backs of limos sneering over sandwiches.

First draft of this new one is complete! (sequel to The Willow and the Stone which releases March 16)

Now Underway: Willow in the Desert

With The Willow and the Stone set to come out this month, I decided it was time to start writing the sequel that's been nagging at my brain for ages:  Willow in the Desert.  I don't want to give too much away at this point since The Willow and the Stone still hasn't seen the light of day, but it's impossible to completely contain my excitement as I move along on this work-in-progress.

The alien menace returns in a new and more deadly form, and humans face their greatest challenge yet.  Returning characters and new ones take center stage as mankind fights to survive a greater foe than ever before.  I'm through the first draft of this story, and I hope to have it completed by autumn.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share an excerpt from The Willow and the Stone, slated for release March 16.   Enjoy!

Only minutes after the dark descended, the sound of alien chittering buzzed through the fog.  All three prisoners lunged to their feet and clutched frantic hands.  Quiet returned for a moment.  Carli's rasping breath roared in her ears.  She pressed against the bars as far as she could get from the door she couldn’t see in the fog.
The cage rattled.  The sound that haunted her nightmares exploded in her ears from all around.
Chittering.  Chirping.
Renee screamed.  Her dim form jerked away into the mist.  Adam thrashed then he too disappeared, his hand torn from Carli's grip.  Mute with terror, she crouched on the ground, shaking her head in silent negation.
Something caressed her cheek with a bristled touch.  A quick pain stabbed her neck.  She found her voice.  "No!  No!"  Sobbing denials, she slapped at the face of the thing that pulled her close.  Her limbs swung heavy, useless.  Her eyes thudded shut.  The wild thumping of her heart slowed.