Autism Fact: Autism is a developmental disability. It’s a difference in how your brain works. Autistic people can have good mental health, or experience mental health problems, just like anyone else.
Welcome to RJ Scott’s Autism Awareness Blog Hop! Thanks for stopping by.
My instructions were simply to write my hopes and dreams for myself, my child, or humanity. I suppose my one big hope for humanity would be that we stop focusing on our differences and start focusing on what unites us. Judging other people and choosing to hate them simply because they are different from us is destructive, no matter what. Whether that person is “different” because they have autism, or because of their religion, or their race, or their political affiliation, they are still A PERSON. Rather than assuming the worst — assuming they’re stupid or evil or uneducated or “weird” — we need to start giving people the benefit of the doubt. We need to start focusing on what brings us together, not what drives us apart. We are all human. We are all struggling to stay sane and happy as we spin through the abyss on this giant rock. We all want to be heard, to be understood, and to be loved. We all care about our family, our friends, our community, and our world. So let’s stop trying to make every damn thing about us versus them. Let’s STOP assuming everybody who’s “different” in any way is automatically “them.” We are all part of “us.”
“WE ARE GROOT.”
So stop spreading hate, and start spreading a bit of love.
Now, for the general “please consider buying my books” plea: Terms of Service is now available for preorder HERE. Haven’t read book one yet? No worries. Here’s your chance. Leave a non-hateful comment, and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win two ebooks of your choice from my backlist. Winners will be chosen on Saturday, April 28.
Terms of Service is now available for preorder. It’ll be released on June 25. Find it HERE.
Dr. River McKay moved to Denver with his husband, Terrence, hoping to give their failing marriage a new start. A year later, Terrence is gone and River’s left brokenhearted. Now, he’s decided it’s time to get back in the game. A chance encounter at the hospital introduces him to Phil, a strong-willed pharmacist who isn’t impressed by River’s degree.
Phil can’t deny his attraction to River, but dating is out of the question. Phil only does one kind of relationship — domestic servitude, where he gives the orders and his partner obeys. To his surprise, River agrees — not because he likes the idea, but because anything’s better than being alone.
They know the arrangement won’t last. Phil’s set in his ways and incapable of showing affection outside the bedroom. River’s unused to obedience and still in love with his ex. But their time together will change them, making them question everything they thought they knew about control, respect, and love. When the unexpected threatens to tear them apart, they’ll be forced to choose between the comforts of the past and a future they can only find together.
I’m thrilled to announce that I just wrapped up the first draft of Terms of Service. This book nearly killed me. I know, I say that every time, but this time was worse. I made it all the way to 56k late last year before trashing the entire thing and starting over. I’d originally planned to release it in February, but that clearly didn’t happen. Finally, the first draft is complete!
Now, that doesn’t mean the book is done. I have a lot of tweaking to do, but that’s fine. I can revise all damn day. But getting to this point — first draft complete, needing only a bit of polish — is a HUGE step for me. I totally want to celebrate.
Terms of Service will probably be about 123,000 words by the time I’m truly done fiddling with it. Although it’s part of the Heretic Doms Club series, it isn’t nearly as dark or gritty as One Man’s Trash was. Terms of Service will be released on June 25th. (Hallelujah!!) It’ll be available in audio right around that time as well. I’ll have a preorder link for the ebook ready very, very soon.
I have a couple of other announcements I’m sort of sitting on. Trying to decide on the right time to share those. I think another week or two. For now… here’s the blurb for Terms of Service. 🙂
Dr. River McKay moved to Denver with his husband, Terrence, hoping to give their failing marriage a new start. A year later, Terrence is gone and River’s left brokenhearted. Now, he’s decided it’s time to get back in the game. A chance encounter at the hospital introduces him to Phil, a strong-willed pharmacist who isn’t impressed by River’s degree.
Phil can’t deny his attraction to River, but dating is out of the question. Phil only does one kind of relationship — domestic servitude, where he gives the orders and his partner obeys. To his surprise, River agrees — not because he likes the idea, but because anything’s better than being alone.
They know the arrangement won’t last. Phil’s set in his ways and incapable of showing affection outside the bedroom. River’s unused to obedience and still in love with his ex. But their time together will change them, making them question everything they thought they knew about control, respect, and love. When the unexpected threatens to tear them apart, they’ll be forced to choose between the comforts of the past and a future they can only find together.
From now through the end of the year, all of my self-published titles at Smashwords are either FREE or reduced to $1. (That includes Damned If You Do in both English and Italian, this year’s release, The Well!)
It’s the holiday season, and I’m giving away FREE AUDIOBOOKS! But like Santa, I’m basing your present on whether you’ve been naughty or nice. 😉 How do you play? Simple! If you think you should get the “nice” prize (an audiobook of Winter Oranges), post something nice in the comments. If you think you need the “naughty” prize (audiobook of One Man’s Trash), post something naughty. There are, however, a few RULES:
NICE: I’m looking for stories that give us the warm fuzzies. I want things that help restore our faith in humanity. People being nice to other people, or to animals, or… whatever. These don’t have to be personal stories (although they can be). You don’t have to tell the whole story here – linking to an article, a tweet, or even an Instagram or Pinterest post is fine. Just share something that will make us all smile.
NAUGHTY: Yes, we all know humans are capable of some pretty bad behavior. I’m NOT looking for stories about people behaving in cruel, malicious, and/or criminal ways. Posting about the latest public figure accused of sexual misconduct is NOT what I want, and will not count as an entry. For this particular contest, we want the FUN kind of “naughty.” Think of Simon’s Cat – notoriously naughty, but also funny as hell. (Good example: https://www.instagram.com/p/BcSjRSZDtlf/…). Or, you could go with the SEXY kind of “naughty” (just keep it within FB’s rules, so you don’t get in trouble with the FB police!). These posts should make us laugh, or maybe swoon – not remind us how shitty people can be. (We’re all aware, really. We don’t need reminders here.)
FINAL NOTES:
You can enter here on my blog, or here (on Facebook).
The first word of every entry should be either “naughty” or “nice,” just so there’s no confusion.
TWO ENTRIES allowed PER PERSON (just in case you’re feeling both naughty AND nice).
Don’t like audiobooks? No problem! Winners can choose to receive an ebook of the book instead.
I’ll choose several random winners (of both the naughty and nice variety) on Friday, December 15.
Today only, get my romantic comedy Damned If You Do for only $1. Go to this page. Click “buy it now.” Enter code UW4XUTUW at checkout. Offer valid only for Black Friday (November 24th).
After four tours in Afghanistan, Warren Groves couldn’t settle into civilian life. For the last twelve years, he’s survived by working odd and often illegal jobs for some of Denver’s less fortunate. His personal life is equally unsatisfactory. He can barely remember the last time he had sex, let alone the last time he got to use somebody hard and rough, the way he likes. Fate intervenes when a favor for a friend leads him to a pretty young rentboy named Taylor Reynolds.
Taylor’s spent the last few years on his own, working as a hustler, going home with anybody who’ll give him a warm meal and a place to sleep. He enjoys having a bit of force used against him, and he makes Warren an offer he can’t refuse — all the sex he wants, as rough and dirty as he likes, in exchange for room and board.
At first, Warren thinks he’s struck gold. Taylor’s the perfect roommate — he cooks, he cleans, and he’s dynamite in the sack. But Taylor has some dark demons in his head and some even darker cravings. Falling for somebody as volatile as Taylor is dangerous enough, but when Taylor’s urges turn truly self-destructive, it’ll be up to Warren to decide just how far to let things go.
Today, I thought I’d share an excerpt of the opening chapter of ONE MAN’S TRASH, which comes out in just four days!! (I’m seriously freaking out about this one. I have a feeling you’ll either love it or hate it.) Also, the audiobook, narrated by Joh Solo, is DONE. It should be available for purchase any day now.
My original plan was to release book 2 of the Heretic Doms Club series (working title, Terms of Service) in early February 2018. Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll probably have to delay that release date.
After taking most of 2016 off, I was hesitant to commit to a four-book series. For better or worse, I talked myself into it. It seemed like a no-brainer, really. I had small starts already on books two and three. I had a rough outline for each of them. My only real concern was book four, which I hadn’t much thought about yet.
At this point, book four is the least of my worries!
“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
Book 1 of the Heretic Doms Club, One Man’s Trash, comes out in just two weeks. My original plan was to have the other books in the series released every three months. Seeing as how I finished the first draft of One Man’s Trash back in June or July, I figured that gave me plenty of time to wrap up Terms of Service time for February, and even get a good start on book 3 (Gray’s book, so far untitled) before the end of the year.
Seemed logical at the time.
What Went Wrong?
Unfortunately, there were several factors I failed to take into account when I decided on this release schedule. First, my October was much busier than usual. October is normally a really productive month for me, but this year, not so much. Granted, I wrote over 18k words last week at a writing retreat, but it couldn’t make up for the fact that the rest of the month was a bust.
Second, I didn’t account for the fact that these books are longer than my usual contemporaries. I usually publish three or four books per year, but most of those books fall below the 60k mark. My contemporaries especially tend to be short (with Between Sinners and Saints being the one exception.) (My genre mash-ups, on the other hand, always seem to come out long! Song of Oestend, Release, and their sequels are all over 100k.)
But, the Heretic Doms Club books seem to be exceptions to my norm in more ways than one. One Man’s Trash is around 110k. Terms of Service is currently sitting at about 56k, and it’s *maybe* halfway done. It’ll probably be well over 120k by the time it’s done.
It’s still possible, right?
Logic says I could bust my ass through November, NaNoWriMo style, and still get the first draft done by Dec 1. The problem is, for an early February release date, I’d basically have to start edits immediately, which I hate. I’d much rather take at least a month (maybe two) to find beta-readers and work on revisions. Now, *maybe* I could still make that work — revisions through December, into rushed edits by January, and then get that final version uploaded at the very last minute for an early February release — but man, that is really not how I like to work. At. All.
The current state of my WIP.
Besides, that all assumes the story is progressing nicely. And unfortunately, that brings us to the biggest thing of all I failed to consider: this story is a hot fucking mess. I’ve been wrestling with it for months now, and while I may have 56k words, I’m not sure they’re very good. I’ve been tempted more than once to ditch the entire thing and start over. The only reason I haven’t done it yet is that I still don’t know how to fix it.
In conclusion…
I hate being wishy-washy. I really do. I hate breaking promises I’ve made to readers, and I hate failing at goals I’ve set for myself. Even now, writing this post, there’s a little voice in the back of my mind telling me that if I stop fucking around and just buckle down, I can make that release date as promised. Part of me really wants to get these books OUT.
But I just don’t think that’s realistic. When I look at what my family has planned for the next two months (HOLIDAYS are coming, for fuck sake!), I have to accept that finishing this book is a long-shot at best. And even if I managed to get this one wrapped up in time, I’d already be behind schedule for book three.
So maybe it’s better to say now, up-front, before book one even comes out, that these books won’t be released every three months as originally planned. Every six months is probably a far more realistic goal. I just have to hope readers are still interested in meeting the rest of the members of the Heretic Doms Club six months from now. (And six months after that, and six months after that.) I’m not even going to give a new release date. Terms of Service will be finished when it’s finished. That’s all I know. Once that happens, trust me, I’ll be shouting about it from the rooftops.
As always, thank you for your ongoing support. If you haven’t yet preordered One Man’s Trash, you can do that here.
