It’s been a good week for me. For all of the busy (and there’s been a lot of busy), I’ve gotten some work done on Percussion, including a detailed outline that will take me through the rest of the story. Hooray!

Also, Anah found a new review of Renovations 6: Coming Home at Joyfully Reviewed: “If Coming Home is the last of the Renovations chasers, it’s the perfect ending. If not, I look forward to more!” (read the review here)

Yesterday, Anah and I were interviewed at Jessewave’s blog. You can find the interview here. The discussion is still going on in comments, and we’re having a great time with it.

Speaking of Jessewave’s blog, Pandora Project: Runaway Star was chosen as one of their Favorite Gay Novels, as was Anah’s Uneven!

I’m also honored that Other Magical Creatures, including my novella “God of Wine”, has made it through the first round of Elisa’s Rainbow Awards.

Oh! And Becoming Us, which will be out next week, is on Dear Author’s list of October Recommended Reads. Hooray! It’s always an honor to find that my/our work actually works for someone, especially enough that they’d be comfortable recommending it to other people.

I have other big news, but I’m waiting until the ink is dry before I say anything. Call me superstitious, I don’t care.

I don’t know who had decided that Thursday was the start of the weekend for college kids, but every twenty-one-year-old vampire, leprechaun, and mage in the city had claimed the God of Wine as their bar of choice on Thursday nights. I guess coming here made it easier for them to find someone they had something in common with.

Me, when I looked for people I had something in common with, an affinity for alcohol wasn’t the first thing on my list.

When Dean finally came back, I headed upstairs. I lived in one of the apartments over the bar; Dean lived in the other one. He had the top two floors of the building all to himself. My place wasn’t nearly so big and, being right over the bar, it wasn’t particularly quiet, but it worked for me.

Before I even got the door open all the way, I could tell I wasn’t alone. Proximity to other people made my libido sit up and beg. It was one of the pitfalls of being a succubus, but my self-control was pretty good, otherwise I couldn’t have worked in the bar. They’d be all over me like I was a bitch in heat.

Fortunately, there was only one person I knew who was good enough to get past the magical wards and locks on my apartment. Torsten. “Tor, damn you, I took your key back for a reason.”

I heard Tor’s laughter before I could see him. He came sauntering out of my bathroom, all power and sleek, feline grace. Tor was a bounty hunter, but he didn’t hunt bail jumpers. He hunted magical creatures, like the ones downstairs in the bar. Our regulars weren’t the type he was usually hired to go after, though. On the one hand, that meant he wasn’t poaching my customers. On the other hand, it meant he was usually out of town.

I wasn’t one for being left alone, which was why we’d finally parted ways last year. Tor still dropped in now and then to say hi, though. I didn’t mind, but it would’ve been nice to have some warning.

“You couldn’t come in downstairs and say hi like a normal person?”

Tor raised his eyebrows, smirking a little. “I could’ve, but what fun would that be?”

“Now I remember why we broke up.”

And GOD OF WINE is “hotter than hell.”
-ErinSchmidt, Rainbow Reviews (read the review here.)

Becoming Us

I’ve taken notes on my intersex ghost story, and outlined “Safe” so that I’ll be able to write them later without going “OMFG WTF was the story?!”

I really need to get on the stick and work on “At the Corner of 4th & Honesty”, since it’s due in a month.

What else? Um. I have the Torquere LJ on Thursday, and will likely be talking about “God of Wine”, Renovations 4: Full House, and Out to Lunch, as well as putting up a poll I’ve been planning.

To Do
Write “At the Corner of Fourth and Honesty” (for Kit Zheng’s project)
Finish “Percussion”
Revise “Becoming Us” (with Anah Crow)
Write “Southern Comfort” (with Anah Crow)

In Dianne Fox’s GOD OF WINE, succubus Maggie is a bartender for ex-god of wine Dean. He understands her needs, and lets her come and go as she pleases. When ex-boyfriend Tor blows back into town, he and Maggie get back together. Only this time, they’ve both got their eyes on Dean, too. Can Maggie find happiness with two very different men?

You can find it here, and you can find an excerpt here.