Small Rewards

Last weekend, the Love Romances Cafe on Yahoo Groups hosted a promotional chat for Dreamspinner Press, and as part of that, I posted an excerpt from my current WIP: The Taken Ones, which is the sequel to The Demon Catcher.

And I thought that I'd better share it with you all too. :)

Given that this is a WIP, it is, of course, completely subject to change, but as it stands, the scene below is the first scene of the novella -- in which Euan and Leon run into someone from Leon's past.

( WIP Excerpt: The Taken Ones )

Thank you for reading! Any constructive comments are most welcome.

NOTE: This post is supposed to be up on the DSP blog right now, but there are some technical difficulties, so it's going up here instead -- and hopefully up on the DSP blog soon!

If you head over to the Dreamspinner page for The Demon Catcher you will see that there is already one excerpt up, from the beginning of the novella. But right here, exclusively for the readers of this blog, is ANOTHER EXCERPT.



I chose this excerpt, from about 1/3 of the way through the novella, for two reasons. Firstly, it's an exciting scene set just before a very crucial turning point for Euan's character -- things are never going to be the same for him again. Secondly, this is the first scene that I wrote for this novella -- so it's special to me, and I'm glad to be able to share it with you.

( The excerpt is under the cut: )

It's all happening, folks! My novella, The Demon Catcher has a cover and is scheduled for release on January 5th, 2011 -- it will sell for US$3.99:


Art by Paul Richmond

From the website:

Brother Euan has always been skeptical about the existence of demons. He may have spent his life in a monastery dedicated to the God Ajen, but that doesn't mean he has to indulge in superstition. Even the unnatural storm that batters the monastery one night isn't enough to make Euan believe.

But superstition becomes the least of Euan's worries when Leon of Tremea arrives at the monastery to investigate the reports of demonic activity. Leon is nothing like the frightened, shame-filled monks, and when Euan is assigned to assist Leon in his work, he finds himself struggling with desires he'd thought firmly under control. After a second demon attack on the monastery—one that not even Euan can explain away—Euan's beliefs and assumptions about the world are shattered, and with nothing to hold him back, he opens himself to his feelings for Leon. But then Euan discovers that Leon is not all he seems to be....

I'm really happy with how the cover came out, and very pleased that the release date is so soon!

AND, you could win a copy before the release date, if you add it to your wishlist AND buy a title from Dreamspinner during December: in fact, anyone who buys a book from Dreamspinner during December goes in the draw to win EVERY e-book on their wishlist between December 26th and December 31st.

I sent "The Demon Catcher" -- my original short story -- off to Dreamspinner last week. I'm extremely pleased that I managed to do this, regardless of whether or not it is accepted. I'm very grateful to everyone who took the time to offer me constructive criticism via email -- I found the editing/re-drafting process to be rigorous, and very beneficial.

I am also continuing to work on my new story set in the same 'verse, with the same characters, which is challenging but enjoyable. One thing that I'm finding new and slightly disconcerting about writing these original characters is waiting for them to reveal their motivations to me. I need to keep writing in order to get a sense of the characters, but then when I discover something new about them, I need to go back through what I've already written to ensure that it's consistent. I also find that I'm a bad judge of how much information that I need to give about what a character is thinking and feeling -- often, I like to leave that stuff implicit, but this can have the effect of making my characters seem rather detached and emotionless. This early on, I think readers need a little bit more. Of course, part of it is that I'm still not sure exactly what motivates my characters 100% of the time -- right now, I'm sketching the outline, and I'll have to come back to colour it in as things develop.

In the context of the short story, dealing with motivations was simpler. Euan (my POV protagonist) and Leon (my dashing hero) were immediately attracted to each other, they had a specific set of issues they needed to work through in order for that attraction to go somewhere (Euan's religious upbringing), and then at the end, it seemed believable enough that both of them wanted to stick together in order to explore their relationship further. Now, I need to work out how they feel about this thing lasting longer -- how do they perceive each other over an extended period of time, and how are their perceptions affected by their past experiences? I also want to avoid setting up a dynamic between them where one party is desperately in love and the other is cold and distant -- basically, I want both of them to be pretty well into each other, and for any tensions in their relationship to come from somewhere other than non-mutual-affection.

Another thing that I'm realising as I continue to write is how much I'm structuring this like a TV show, rather than a novel -- which makes sense really, given that most of the fiction I consume these days is television based. In many ways, "The Demon Catcher" is like the pilot episode, while the story I'm writing now (which I think will be novella-length) is like a three-episode arc in the context of a larger series. I imagine that this would pose some problems for traditional publishing platforms, but since I'm open to non-traditional platforms -- well, we'll have to see how it goes.

First, we'll see if Dreamspinner accepts "The Demon Catcher", and if they do, whether or not they'd be interested in more stories in that 'verse. If not -- well, I will find my own ways of getting the stories out there. :)