WIP - The Harem Master

So once upon a time I wrote a dumb series of fluffy stories about a king and his harem. I totally thought it would be a one off type thing, but it spawned (and I really really should have known it would).

But I haven't had time/chance/inspiration to go back to the stories I had planned for it, or even finish the one I did. Poor Menagerie remains unfinished, and there's a story I finished years ago that I've never actually published because I wanted to write the other two that go with it first (The Prince's Harem, about Shah's youngest son. I wrote the story for the guard, not for the slave or the thief).

There was another idea I always wanted to play with in this verse, but the exact story never came to me. One of the things you hear frequently and often about fantasy is that what the author knows vastly exceeds what makes it on the page.

And I know a lot about Tavamara, including it's not-so-pleasant history. For this new story I went back back several generations, to a king abusing his power and a harem master caught in the middle of the mess.

If you've never read Sandstorm or The King's Harem, no worries. This one stands just fine on its own.

Onward to rough snippet. This story will begin running as an LT3 serial in August.

Friday Recs

Two books this week. I've had the first lying around forever waiting patiently to be read. Finally read it, adored it enough I went looking for more and found the second! Which I loved even more. Can't wait for third, which comes out in May ^__^

So far this is a very fun, sweet series. It's a nice change up from a genre that seems mostly full of sex slaves and fuck or die. Spice n Solace is about a brothel owner, basically, who has to sort out a problem with a high end client and is mistaken as his whore for the evening. He's rather adorkable for a dude that manages hookers for a living. I like the client, too. They're very cute, very hot, and it was just overall a lot of fun to read.

Alien n Outlaw is even better, with the alien who likes humans but has no idea how to about flirting with one, and then the hapless, game for anything thief he collides with :3 Very cute, and I love the effort put into the differences between species, the compromises they make to be with each..

Definitely rec these for anyone who likes good space opera type stuff, or just cute, fun stories in general.

I seem to be on a sci-fi kick lately. I'm a huge fan of Alpha Trine by Lexi Ander, and because I am the publisher I have already read its sequel, Striker, at least three times. It's good to be me! :3 Must find more books like these and the above, cause I still want.

Everybody have a good weekend <3 p="">

WIP: The High King's Golden Tongue

Of all the (many, many x_x) stories I am working on right now, I admit this one is my favorite. I am taking a 12,000 word short story that I wound up extremely pleased with (and was way more popular than I could ever have anticipated or dreamed) and turning it into quite the beast. When I started the rewrite, I thought the final product would be in the 40-60k range. I definitely think it'll be more like 80-100k now, if I'm going to do the job right (and I always do my damnedest to do it right).

THKGT is comprised of basically three parts:  meeting, shenanigans, post-shenanigans.  Now, when endeavoring to make/keep it a short story, I kind of started at the very end of the first part, then cut out most of the second and third and smooshed the remaining bits together. This was acceptable for short form.

For long form, that's not really an option. Everything takes longer, and this is very much what is called a slow burn romance. That romance, in fact, cannot even realistically take place until the third part, and that's the main reason this story has to be so much longer.

In addition to that, more must be done with the politics and strife, and there are way more characters to juggle. I also have a sub-romance going for Rene, whom I'm sure most fans of the short story will remember.

I posted a snippet of the rewrite before. That was the new beginning, and was Allen's POV, so today we'll switch to Sarrica, the most stubborn, head-desk High King you will ever meet.


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Friday Recs

Short List:

Cambion by Cari Z.
Strength of the Wolf by Kendall McKenna

This was a fun book I finally got to read when I made myself take a day off. I always enjoy characters who are extremely sexual, by choice and/or design, and their lovers have no problem with that. Greatly enjoyed both the leads, but I admit my favorite character was Steven and I can't wait to see him get a happy end someday. Looking forward to more adventures all around, there's definitely plenty of world left to explore (but you can also walk away at the end of this if that's your druther). A good read for peeps fond of paranormal and supernatural shenanigans :3

One of my fav werewolf series. I hate the covers, because they don't even come close to doing the books justice. My favorite part is how fucking well McKenna portrays the military. That is such a hard fucking thing to find. I'd read these books for that alone, but I love the werewolf culture she's built, and how it meshes (and clashes) with human culture. Looking forward to the next book.

WIP - Rabbit Season

This story takes places in Backwoods Asylum verse. Over the years, I have found that my favorite stories are the ones I write for specific people. Midnight was an auction story (the winner asked simply for a story where a draugr got a romance). Rabbit Season is being written as party of a charity thing. It was supposed to be 10k, and I would list it for free eventually, but it's looking to be more like 20-30k so it will eventually go up for sale on LT3.

But, the request was, in the end, fairly simple. She wanted twincest, preferably with threesome. She gave me a few prompts, but is pretty chill and did not mind me taking bits of prompts one and four and mashing them together :3 She has vetted the first 8k of this story, and I'm having a lot of fun writing it.

Writing fantasy in a genre dominated by contemporary can make an author feel very lonely at times, even an author as relatively successful as I know I am. So every positive review, every comment, email, dm, etc, makes my day. And when I get to write to order like this, for someone who is fun and chill and seems really excited about what I'm doing, is a real treat. I love my readers, heart and soul, and sadly busy as I am I get a bit distant from them (unlike the days of LJ, where I could interact more).

So chances like this make me happy, cause I get to interact with the reader, and feel a little less isolated, and it's easier to remember that there is a crowd out there that likes magic and dragons just as much as cops and firemen.

And now that my unplanned babbling is over, onward to snippet. While this section is harmless, please note this story does eventually contain threesome with twincest. And I'm sure everybody has guessed what kinds of shifters are involved just from the title.

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