New Book Release: To Feed on Dreams Volume 2: The Way Back

Volume 2 of To Feed on Dreams, called The Way Back is out now!

To Feed on Dreams is a space opera with two couples - m/m and an ace couple. It should be read in order.

Volume 1: Exiles

Javi is rebuilding his relationship with Razz, even as his friendship with Arien is torn apart by other people’s schemes. Arien fears they will never be able to claim the happiness they want with Tapuh, chained by duty as they are. Only when Javi and Arien find each other again can they regain control of their destinies.

Published by JMS Books

Buy links
JMS Books
Amazon.com
Amazon UK
Smashwords

To Feed on Dreams Book 1: Exiles

My newest book is out now. It's the first book in a two volume story and the next one will be out in July. Watch this space!

To Feed on Dreams is a space opera with two couples - m/m and an ace couple.

Book 1: Exiles

Javi didn’t intend to kill a soldier. Arien doesn’t want to be assassinated. So entry-level jobs aboard a cargo freighter provide the best route off planet for a pair of fugitives. Javi also didn’t intend to fall in love with the freighter’s First Mate, Razz Jensen. Arien wants to find Tapuh, their bodyguard and fiance. But when they do, it only leads them to a new destiny they never wanted.

Published by JMS Books

Buy links
JMS Books
Amazon UK
Amazon.com

Rebooting your Resolutions

So it’s mid February. How are your resolutions going? ‘Fess up – they’re not doing so great, are they? (Neither are some of mine. I’m no paragon.) You’re not alone. Many people’s big plans for the new year have fallen by the wayside by now. The gym is getting quiet again. Dry January got a little…damper than expected. The writing goals went a bit pear shaped in the face of all that great stuff on streaming, or all the new books you got for Christmas. But that doesn’t mean you have to forget about them. As we stare down the barrel of Spring, let’s look at why resolutions fail and how to revive them.

Accentuate the positive

My 2023 resolution - separate from my goals, which have to be SMART, cause I’m that sort of Type A nerd - is to become more hopeful. Which started out as “become less cynical”, but goals and resolutions should always be phrased as a positive admonition to do, not to not do something. (Excuse me, into Yoda turned I have.)

This is sort of an expansion on my last post about me and the Gavle Goat and why it became important to me that the goat did not burn.

2022 was kind of a hard year for me. My dad passed away. And the world was full of grim news all around, as usual. I was far too addicted to doom scrolling on Twitter, watching the world burn and feeling more and more despairing about it all. After the last few years a lot of people feel like their mental health is in a fragile state.

As we go on through 2023 I want to do the following to help me become less cynical and despairing and more hopeful and positive.

Me, Mastodon, and the Gavle Goat

 Me, Mastodon, and the Gavle Goat

What is the Gävle Goat anyway?

The Gävle Goat is a large straw goat erected as a Christmas display in the town of Gävle in Sweden. It’s a representation of the traditional Yule Goat - or Julbocken - which features in various Yule and Christmas traditions in Scandinavia.

Back in 1966 Stig Gavlén, an advertising consultant, came up with the idea of building a large Yule Goat display to attract people to the local shops and restaurants. On 1 December 1966, the local fire department erected the first Gävle Goat. It was 13-metres high, 7 metres long, and weighed 3 tonnes. Impressive! It stood through to the 31st of December, when a vandal burned it down.

The Revise and Resubmit Rejection

(Repost from my old blog.)

Writers are all too familiar with rejection. But there’s a more unusual type of rejection I don’t see much about online – the revise and resubmit rejection.

What it is

A rejection – but, it’s not the “and the horse you rode in on” type of rejection. Sometimes instead of just being told “No” by a publisher, the author gets a “no, but…” A revise and resubmit rejection says the publisher doesn’t want it as it is, but if the author is prepared to get the red pen back out and make some specified changes, they will be prepared to consider it again.

What it’s not

It is not a guarantee that they will take it if you make those changes, only that they will consider it again. It’s not a contract. It places no obligations on either party.

Is your book an albatross?

(Republish of a post from my old blog.)

What is an albatross book? It’s a book you’ve been working on for a very long time but essentially is dead weight. It’s dragging you down, like the albatross hung around the neck of the Ancient Mariner. I lugged around two albatross books for years without even writing them. Only after I got rid of them could I start to actually write.

It’s usually the first novel. Or your Great Novel. Your magnum opus that will shake the literary world to its core – if you ever get around to writing it/submitting it/selling it. If you have actually written it and started submitting it, it’s getting rejected, but you keep on editing it and keep on trying because my god twenty years of blood, sweat and tears has gone into this thing!