Sweatin' away...

And it's not just the heat outside.

I slacked off horribly the week before, but this week I piled on nearly 7k on RSCF. I'm hoping that by the end of today I'll have 8, but we shall see. Kiddo has some homework that needs to be done yet.

Now, I've just got to figure out if one of my leads is going to have a crisis after his first kiss with a man, or if they're going to go all the way then he's going to to get all conflicted. Decisions, decisions!

Synopsis, the pansters worst nightmare

I've been working on Friends with Benefits to start off the Sweat70. I'd always intended it to be short, so I finished it up, and I've spent the weekend going over it, editing, polishing, then writing the dreaded synopsis.

No "Hey Ed, I've got this great story, its about this, and that, and they do this while doing that, wanna take a read?" this time around. I'm sending it somewhere new. So that means cover letters, full synopsis etc etc.

Do you know how hard it is to write a synopsis when you totally pantsed the whole manuscript? Crap (amongst other bad words) was heard quite a bit around our house yesterday. I've never quite known if what I'm doing is right when it comes to a synopsis. Am I not being exact enough, do I need to be more blow-by-blow, am I being too blow-by-blow? It's as confusing as hell because everyone has a different opinion on it -- who's advice do you take?

Hopefully I've been doing something right -- after all I've managed to sell 3 books thus far -- surely someone would have said your synopsis suck arse by now ... wouldn't they?

So it's done, the emails sent, and tomorrow I have to start on something new for the Sweat70 while I wait, chewing my non-existent nails till I hear back on the new sub. Wish me luck!

Sunday Snippit

A little something from what I've been working on finishing while doing the 70 Days of Sweat. I posted the first paragraph of this a while back (I'd put the first line up in the Samhain firstline comp), but I've polished it up a bit since. Though a little spicy humor would be a good way to start a Sunday.

“Kiss me.”

Shane turned so fast from the kitchen bench that he slipped on the tile floor and landed hard on his ass. His short trip left him sitting on the floor, looking up at his best friend -- his very straight best friend -- and damn close to hyperventilating. “What did you say?” He really must have been tuned out; Shane would swear he had just heard Jason ask him to kiss him.

“Kiss me.” Jason shrugged and reached out a hand, easily pulling Shane upright with one tug. “Actually I want you to do more than just kiss me, but I thought a kiss would be a good place to start.”

Shane opened his mouth to question Jason again but couldn’t decide on what to say, so shut it again with a snap. Taking a seat at the kitchen table he tried to start again, and failed.

“Nice fish impression, Shane.” Jason wore his best shit eating grin. “Wow ... I think this is the first time I’ve ever managed to render you speechless.”

“Well, you smug bastard, it’s not everyday your straight best mate comes up to you and asks you to pucker up. What the hell’s up with that?” The question was followed up with Shane’s signature sarcastically cocked brow, but dropped back with concern as his friend collapsed back on himself a little with a sigh.

“Okay, here’s the deal …” Jason’s voice drifted off a little, and Shane watched silently as Jason tried to work his way around what he was trying to say. “You’ve always been up front with me that you’re gay -- and I don’t care one way or the other if you’re gay, straight, or like to get it on with purple dinosaurs -- but lately I’ve been having second thoughts on the strictly straight deal.”

“Are you trying to tell me you’re gay?” Shane didn’t believe it for a moment; curious maybe; but gay? No way.

“No … but maybe a bit bisexual though.” Shane got caught up in Jason’s eyes as his look pleaded with him to understand; as if Shane might think he was a freak.

“A bit bisexual? I hate to tell you this, Jase, but you either like to get your groove on with guys as well as girls, or you don’t.”

Jason frowned at this statement. “I know that, you idiot, why do you think I wanted you to kiss me?” He rubbed away the frown with his fingertips, but the confusion was still there when he looked up again. “I need to know if a guy does it for me, or not.”

Moving to his feet again, Shane turned back to the bench to clear up the mess he had made -- he needed some space to think for a minute. “Okay, spit it out, Jason. I feel like I’ve walked into a conversation half way through -- what’s the deal?”

The heavy sigh from behind him spoke volumes about how twisted up inside Jason was, even if he had been joking a moment before. “Alright, can we grab a beer and sit on the couch? This might take a while.”

“Sure. Grab a bag of chips will’ya, I’ll grab some beer.” Drying his hands Shane headed towards the fridge. Opening the door he grabbed out a six pack. Hell, grab two. He had a funny feeling tonight might be more than a one beer night.

70 days of Sweat

I decided to jump on board with Alison Kent's 70 days of sweat challenge, so I thought I'd make a note of what I'm working on as a base point.

Friends with Benefits (I wanted to call it Fuck Buddies, but I didn't think it would swing with any publishers ) stands at 7774 at present. Would like roughly 20-25k.

Red Skirt, Cool Fountain stands at 12655 and I'm shooting for 50k.

Then there is Position Vacant: Mrs Claus, the sequel to Position Vacant from last Christmas. I've not started that yet, and I'll need to hit 25k+ on that.