Author: Andi Marquette

Andi Marquette once wanted to be a seafaring pirate. But she realized that could be a problem, growing up in the Rocky Mountain West and Southwest. So she became an editor, anthropologist, and historian instead. But that, too, didn't satisfy her weird cravings for stories and strange realms. Now, she's a writer ensconced in Colorado and when she wants to go pirate-ing, she just makes something up.

Order Up Blog Tour! Day 1!

And the winners of an ebook copy of Order Up are…
Danielle and
elizaanderson

Thanks, everybody, for playing and for joining us on the Order Up blog tour!

Hi, kids! I’m kicking off this here blog tour, which begins today and ends June 24th (excluding weekends). Every author in my co-edited (with R.G. Emanuelle) anthology Order Up: A Menu of Lesbian Romance & Erotica (Ylva Publishing) will be blogging about their story that appears in this, a food- and love/sex/romance-themed anthology. There’ll be giveaways, excerpts, and the stories behind the stories.

cover_A_Order-Up_500x800

HERE, my friends, is the TABLE OF CONTENTS.

In honor of this awesome-ness, I’m giving away TWO EBOOK COPIES of ORDER UP! If you want in on this fun-ness, leave a comment below! Make sure you include your email address in the comment fill-out form (NOT in the comment body). We’ll draw the winners FRIDAY JUNE 10th AT 10 PM EST.

THE SCHEDULE for this blog tour:

June 6: Andi Marquette, blogging at her site (The Situation Room).
June 7: Jove Belle, blogging at her site.
June 8: Cheyenne Blue, blogging at her site.
June 9: Brey Willows, blogging at her site.
June 10: Lea Daley, blogging at R.G. Emanuelle’s site.

June 13: Cheri Crystal, blogging at Andi Marquette’s site.
June 14: CK Combs, blogging at Butchtastic.net.
June 15: Liz McMullen, blogging at her site.
June 16: Marie Sterling, blogging at R.G. Emanuelle‘s site.
June 17: Rebekah Weatherspoon, blogging at her site.

June 20: Jaye Markham, blogging at Andi Marquette‘s site.
June 21: Emma Weimann, at Andi Marquette‘s site
June 22: N.R. Dunham, blogging at Andi’s site.
June 23: Pascal Scott, at R.G. Emanuelle‘s site.
June 24: R.G. Emanuelle, blogging at her site.

So let me tell you the story behind “The Secret’s in the Sauce,” my story in this here anthology, about Van, a woman who takes her best friend Terry to the emergency room because Terry had a slight cooking accident that involved marinara and it required a little bit of medical attention. The thing is, the doctor at the emergency room might also have some attention to give to Van, if Van is open to it. 😀

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by Categories: Blog Tour, New Releases, Things you might like, Ylva PublishingTags: , 21 Comments

Tips for Newbies

HI, kids!

Ermahgerd. I’ve been crazy busy over at Women and Words, the other place where I blog and admin and carry on. We’ve started a Women and Words podcast, which is me and my co-admin, author Jove Belle, chatting about the week’s crazy/fun and other things related to writing, editing, publishing of interest to LGBT writers and readers. We hope.

You can find us AT THIS LINK RIGHT HERE (or, the Lesbian Talk Show).

I also just finished up a novella that’s in editing AND I’m getting ready to go through the edits of another project AND my colleague R.G. Emanuelle and I JUST RELEASED our second anthology of food-themed romance and erotica (F/F). It’s called Order Up: A Menu of Lesbian Romance & Erotica. Our first food-themed anthology, All You Can Eat: A Buffet of Lesbian Romance and Erotica, was a Lambda finalist last year. Hope you check those out. Heh.

And now, onto the business of this blog. I got to thinking about this because I’ve been working with some new writers, and I thought some quick n’ dirty tips might prove useful to those of you who are on the cusp of publication or have JUST published something If so, GO, YOU! And if that’s the case, then you need to…

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by Categories: Promo n' marketing, Publishing, Publishing bizness, Writing Life, Writing tipsTags: , , , 3 Comments

FanF*ckingFiction! Cool things I’m learning from fanfic

Hi, all!

Ermahgerd TEH BIZZYS! I have been BIZZY. No surprise there, right?

So today I thought I’d chat a bit about fanfic. NOTE: I am not TEH EXPERT in such matters. In fact, I am not even AN expert. I am somewhat of a newb in this realm. But I’d like to chat about fanfic and what I’m discovering as a writer and reader.

So join me in my traipsing!

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by Categories: Writing, Writing LifeTags: , , , , 8 Comments

Bring out your dead: on killing characters and historical tropes

Hi, peeps! (see what I did there, given the holiday? Heh.)

I hope this weekend treats you well and that everything is fab with you and yours.

This, my friends, IS A MAJOR LONG-ASS POST. But one in which I need to unpack a few things with regard to certain tropes.

I’ve been thinking about the characters I write, and the characters I’ve grown attached to through other people’s writing, and how it affects people when a writer decides to kill a character.

Writers make decisions all the time on which characters live or die, and that depends on a variety of factors, including the genre, narrative arc, and the personal arcs of the characters themselves. It also depends on where the story may be headed, especially if it’s a series, and how that character is going to fit into a larger picture down the line, if at all.

So there are any number of factors involved in a decision to remove a character either from the printed page or a TV show or movie. And there are any number of things that can happen, both inside the story and outside once the character’s death occurs.

There are also much larger currents at play, and those, too, have a role in reactions. Especially outside the story, among those who are following it.

Specifically, I’m thinking here of a couple of series on TV that I follow. Those are The CW’s The 100 and AMC’s The Walking Dead.

And here’s where I put the SPOILER ALERT. If you follow both these series and you have not seen the most recent episodes, DO NOT READ ANY FARTHER. STOP NOW.

I MEAN IT. SPOILERS.

NOT KIDDING.

Okay, fine. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Let’s proceed.

And because this is a looooong piece, with lots of rumination, grab your fave delicious beverage and snacks before reading on. I’ll wait.

dum dee dum. la la la. ::checks the Twitterz:: ::plays around on Facebook::

Okay, ready? Let’s go.

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by Categories: History, Random WTF stuff, Things that might make you think, TV shows, WritingTags: , , , , , , , , , , , 8 Comments

How not to be a jerk when you promote

Hi, peeps!

Happy Friday n’ all a’ that. Oh, and don’t forget to turn your clocks forward this weekend, if you’re in a place that does that whole Daylight Savings Time thing. If you’re not, well, stay asleep.

ANYWAY. Let us discuss some promotional tips. Please start with this blog by fab spec fic author Delilah Dawson titled “Please shut up: Why self-promotion as an author doesn’t work.”

And then, after you get pissed at her, read the follow-up, “Wait, Keep Talking: Author Self-Promotion that Actually Works.”

Okay. The point of Dawson’s first post was to get you thinking about how you go about promoting your work. Everybody knows you have to do some kind of promotion. But there are good ways to do it and not-so-good ways. Dawson lays out the not-so-good ways in the first post. And then she lays out the better ways in the second.

I like to think of self-promotion as “not being a jerk” and I already subscribed to Dawson’s approach before I actually read her blogs. So here’s a list of 10 things I recommend, culled from my own experience and Dawson’s advice, with regard to self-promotion as an author.

Shall we?

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by Categories: Promo n' marketing, Publishing, Publishing bizness, Things that might make you think, Writing, Writing LifeTags: , , , 2 Comments

Blurring the Lines, AKA The Breakfast Club with KD Williamson

Peeps! I have the awesome-ness of hosting another author here in my special space!

Please give a warm, fuzzy, space bandit welcome to fellow traveler KD Williamson, whose latest novel, Blurred Lines, is so hot off the press at Ylva Publishing that tendrils of steam are still emanating from the cover.Blurred-Lines-by-KD-Williamson

A bit about KD: She’s a Southerner and a former nomad, taking up residence in the Mid-West, east coast, and New Orleans over the years. She is also a Hurricane Katrina survivor. Displaced to the mountains of North Carolina, she found her way back to New Orleans, where she lives with her partner of ten years and the strangest dogs and cats in existence. She’s also into all things geek, from video games to superheroes.

And now I’ll let her tell you about her latest below, so I’m just gonna step back and let that happen.

Welcome aboard, KD!

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by Categories: Books, Guest Blog, New Releases, WritingTags: , , , 5 Comments

Crisis of Faith (in writing)

Greetings, peeperas y peeperos!

I hope this past weekend was awesome for you.

Me, I’ve been having deep thoughts all over the place, like these over at Women and Words.

And the ones I’ll be revealing here. Don’t freak out when you start reading. Read the whole thing. There’s an HEA.

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by Categories: Inspiration, Publishing, The Writing Crazy, Things that might make you think, Writing, Writing LifeTags: , 7 Comments

Work(s) in Progress! A stop on the Ylva Blog Hop

Hiya, kids!

So Ylva Publishing, one of my houses, is kicking off 2016 with a blog hop. Which means a whole bunch of Ylva authors are posting blogs on set days during the month and each author alerts readers to upcoming blogs in the hop (see below for the list of authors who have already participated and to see who’s next in the hop).

Since I’m up in here hoppin’ for Ylva, I’ll mention the book I just released with them over the holidays called The Bureau of Holiday Affairs, which is a reboot of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday story. I think, though, I’d like to chat about what’s coming down the pike for me, but if you want to know the backstory behind Bureau, you can read it HERE.
The-Bureau-of-Holiday-Affairs-800 Cover reveal and Promotional

Anyway, I thought rather than telling you stories about my sordid past (ha ha) or whatever else sordid, I’d chat a bit about some works-in-progress that I’m doing for Ylva, since readers might be a bit interested in what I’m doing now (and not the past), especially with the holidays all behind us n’ stuff.

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by Categories: Blog Hop, Stuff going on, Super cool blogs, Things you might like, Works in Progress, WritingTags: , , 4 Comments

Author McCrankyPants strikes again over newfangled tech things

Hello, peeps! I thought I’d burden you today with author insecurity #72: tech inadequacy.

I was chatting with a colleague the other day who asked me if I used a social media management tool and I about flew right off the handle.

BECAUSE LOAD ME DOWN WITH YET ANOTHER @%$&^%^*%&^@%*&$ THING I HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION TO ONLINE! WTF????

I already feel freaking inadequate when it comes to every new &^A&*#^%A(*&#@^*A&@()% iGadget that comes down the pike. And every time I turn around, there’s something else. AUTHORS! USE THIS! DOWNLOAD THIS TOOL! CONSOLIDATE! DIVERSIFY! ARE YOU ON INSTAGRAM? PINTEREST? IT’S THE LATEST THING! HURRY! DO YOU WANT TO SELL BOOKS OR NOT? GET THIS, FOOL!

YOU’RE BEING LEFT BEHIND LIKE A PILE OF CLOTHING IN A WAYWARD RAPTURE!

Oh, NOES! Andi didn't jump on every tech toy bandwagon out there! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS, PEOPLE!
Oh, NOES! Andi didn’t jump on every tech toy bandwagon out there! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS, PEOPLE!

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by Categories: Life Stuff, Random WTF stuff, TechnologyTags: , 7 Comments