Author Archives: penelopefriday

About penelopefriday

Writer, Editor, Proof-reader. More fun than that makes me sound :)

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

A mixed bag this week. I’ve got to be honest and say I haven’t had the best of weeks, but I still managed to find some things, so you ought to be impressed 🙂

  1. I finished my article about female abolitionists around the Regency Period, and sent it off today. I’m quite pleased with the way this one worked out, actually.
  2. Ooh, and the business cards I designed last week have come through. I have Business Cards! Like a real authorly type!
  3. I am surrounded by really good friends and family, and I have had a chance to remember how lucky I am for this.
  4. After being unwell last weekend, Splendid Son is much much better and is taking part in a football tournament this afternoon (to which I’m about to go so that I can cheer him on – please let it not rain too hard!)
  5. I’m really enjoying Euro 2016 AND Wimbledon. Lots of sport all over the television – my sort of thing!
  6. Although our cooker broke this week, it turns out that it’s still under guarantee, which is excellent. Usually they wait until just after the warranty period has run out, and we could very much have done without that. So hurrah.

Satisfied Sunday Six

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  1. MY NOVEL THE SISTERHOOD IS OUT THIS WEEK. I do not apologise for being in all capitals, either, because I am ridiculously excited about it. It’s a really good book, actually. I’m so pleased with it (though my beta reader, JL Merrow, and my editor, Amanda Jean, need to take some of the credit).

You can buy it at Bella books or at Amazon – but it does appear only to be available on American sites at the moment. Does this mean I can do further squee when it’s available in the UK?

2. I saw the ARCS (the final copies) of All About The Boy at the beginning of the week, and they’re gorgeous. Goodness, my work looks so good in it. I know that sounds silly, but it does. And talking about editors? Sasha Vorun is bloody marvellous, too.

3. Then yesterday I went on a course about marketing, run by Miles Allen. It was really interesting and useful: it doesn’t matter how well I write, I need people to read what I’m writing. And it’s difficult to know how to reach an audience. This helped. (Plus I accidentally sold a book in the car park afterwards to a man who had been somewhere completely different and did not look like the target market for a lesbian historical novel 🙂 He was also, incidentally, an extremely lovely man.)

4. In non-writing news, Splendid Son got a trophy for ‘most improved player’ in his under 10s football club, so I’m very proud of him.

5. Lovely Partner also was part of a fencing group who came second at a tournament last weekend, so I’m proud of him, too.

6. I have written half of my article about women’s role in the Abolitionist movement in Britain (the abolition of slavery). This is for Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine, and I know a lot about it because slavery accidentally ended up as a fairly major plot in The Sisterhood. (This is entirely due – and this is a true story – to a random comment my mother made when I was ranting about the book when it was a quarter written. Something she said managed to change the entire course of the book. If you know an author and you make a random suggestion, please be aware that they may end up miles deep in research and cursing your name, even as they write the best book they’ve ever managed!)

The Sisterhood

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I’m so thrilled to announce that ‘The Sisterhood’, my historical lesbian novel, is out! And I have received my author copies and this is a picture of me looking suitably delighted 🙂

 

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“The simple fact was that Charity Bellingham should have been born a boy.”

 

But she wasn’t, and when she meets the beautiful, kind Isobelle Greenaway, she gets the opportunity to learn a lot about herself and London society, not to mention getting involved in the movement for the abolition of slavery and being introduced to ‘The Sisterhood’, a secret society of ladies…

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. I have friends visiting! This is absolutely excellent, and I’m having a brilliant time. With any luck, they are having a reasonable time also.
  2. I have finished the final edits on All About The Boy, a gay erotic anthology which is coming out with Nine Star Press on 25th July. Looking forward to that!
  3. My cat Rory, who was unwell last week to the point of staying overnight at the vets’, has made an apparent full recovery and is back to his brattish best. This is such a relief.
  4. Splendid Son got some results from some standardised tests and appears to have done marvellously well on them, which is really good news. I’m very proud of him.
  5. I went to the doctor this week and am now being treated for depression. Whilst it’s obviously not good that I have a definite relapse of what is for me a sporadic illness, it is definitely a good thing that I am being treated for it and will hopefully therefore improve over time.
  6. I have been reading some of JL Merrow’s books which I’ve not read before. Bloody hell, she’s good. I thoroughly recommend them, and it is SO NICE to be reading something new which I’m so unreservedly enjoying.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. I filed my tax return this week, which is a joy and a relief to have over and out of the way. I feel quite accomplished.
  2. I also spent a lovely time with a most excellent friend and her two small boys and new cat. Both cat and boys are  very friendly, and it was splendid.
  3. I started knitting a scarf again this week. It’s a while since I’ve knitted anything – I’ve somehow been out of the mood – so it feels good to get started again.
  4. The sun has been shining this week, which is lovely. I like sunny weather.
  5. I got some nice compliments on something I wrote, which is always welcome.
  6. >placeholder<

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. Petticoats and Promises is a Golden Crown Award Finalist for lesbian historical fiction, which was a nice thing to find out.
  2. Splendid Son and a friend came second in a local maths competition this week, so I am also bursting with maternal pride. (He was also man of the match in his football match today, so he’s having a good week.)
  3. I wrote a couple of difficult emails this week, which was good going on my part – and they were taken well by the people to whom they were written, which was good going on theirs. I’m counting this a success.
  4. I wrote a short (unpublishable, but I didn’t write it for publication) story a couple of days ago, which was pleasing.
  5. I’m getting on with the edits for an anthology I’m putting out with Nine Star Press, which is pleasing. I should have finished them by next Friday, I think.
  6. I had a truly awful day on Wednesday when I couldn’t do anything, but it turned out that it was actually just a sickness bug and not the start of the apocalypse.

Slightly Frustrated Self-Promotion (Day 3)

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So, on to Day 3 of promoting Thrace. We’ve had Let Tsygons Be Tsygons and Electric High, so now let me introduce you to An Equal Opportunity Murderer.

 

The obligatory quick reminder of what Thrace is about:

Thrace is a science fiction anthology, consisting of three novella length stories. It is definitely one of the favourite things I’ve ever written, and has had a lot of positive reviews and pretty much no readers, which is very very sad. It is set on the planet Gielgud, which is home to an indigenous (and androgynous) species called Tsygons, but which has been colonised by humans, who have pretty much taken over the place. The stories are very plotty, especially the first and third, but with a certain amount of sexual content as well (because, well, it’s me, and that tends to be how my stories come). But I honestly think it’s quite good…

 

Although it’s the third story – and rightly so – in the anthology, An Equal Opportunity Murderer is, in fact, the first story set in Thrace which I wrote. It’s about a couple of crime operatives, Nick and X7612, and their attempt to track down a murderer who is killing both humans and Tsygons across the city. (And, incidentally – because I am that sort of a writer – deal with their attraction towards each other.)

 

You have no idea how difficult it was to find a suitable snippet from this story. Weird. It just doesn’t seem to have ‘snippetable’ sections. (But it does mean that I have just invented the word snippetable, which has to be worth something, yes?) So… to lead you up to this segment, Nick and X have been instructed by their boss to pick up an ‘ultra-reader’ (‘useful piece of tech’ to you and me) from Nick’s home. But they’re about to find out that their problems, chasing down a violent killer, have just got worse…

 

Nick’s rooms were on the first floor of the building. He had three; good going for a single guy. X7612 had never been there before, but then he’d never visited X’s place either. Even when they socialised, they tended to meet in the city. There was something a bit too personal about rooms. They were for established lovers, not friends. And X and Nick were nothing more than friends, he reiterated to himself.

X7612 pulled the bike to a kicking stop. “Here okay?”

“Yeah. Won’t be a second.” Nick was up the stairs before he had finished speaking. At his front door, he pressed his palm to the scanner and the door slid up. He took one step forward and then stopped dead. “X!” he yelled, leaving his rooms wide open as he dashed back down the steps. “X, for fuck’s sake…”

X7612 was sitting so still on the bike that zie almost looked as if zie was part of the machinery, hir dark gheil-dress blending nicely with the leather seat. Zie shut hir eyes, leaving only the middle one open and gleaming in the darkness.

“What?”

Nick swallowed, wondering whether he’d sprinted back to X for hir professional view or because he just needed to have someone he knew he could rely on around. Someone for support, not to mention comfort. “We’ve got problems.”

 

Slightly Frustrated Self-Promotion (Day 2)

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As I was saying yesterday, last summer I re-published Thrace, and I’m spending three days telling you about the three novellas the anthology comprises. Yesterday, you got information on Let Tsygons Be Tsygons. Today, we’re looking at Electric High. (And I’m still terrible at synopses.)

 

Background, for anyone who didn’t read it yesterday:

Thrace is a science fiction anthology, consisting of three novella length stories. It is definitely one of the favourite things I’ve ever written, and has had a lot of positive reviews and pretty much no readers, which is very very sad. It is set on the planet Gielgud, which is home to an indigenous (and androgynous) species called Tsygons, but which has been colonised by humans, who have pretty much taken over the place. The stories are very plotty, especially the first and third, but with a certain amount of sexual content as well (because, well, it’s me, and that tends to be how my stories come). But I honestly think it’s quite good…

 

So. Electric High. Are you ready for this? 🙂 Electric High is the ‘odd one out’ in the trilogy in that it focuses on the relationship between two humans, rather than between a human and a Tsygon. Rayme, a human, works in a Tsygon bar (and pick up joint) as a dance-bar operative, and provider of (legal) electric highs (the equivalent of alcohol). Rayme ended up on Gielgud after he got into trouble on his home planet Earth (you might have heard of it?), and he’s now trying to put his life back on track. Whilst at work, he meets a very attractive man called Zeth, who comes into the bar and for whom he falls very quickly. They get together, but is Zeth really the sort of person Rayme needs in his life…?

 

Snippet time:

 

“What’s your name?”

The Guy had followed him and was leaning on the bar. Things were looking hopeful.

“Rayme. Yours?”

“Zeth.”

Zeth. Cute name, too. Cute everything, in fact, Rayme thought.

“Where ya from?” Rayme asked.

“Gamma forty-two, originally.”

“Staying for a while?”

It’d be just Rayme’s luck if Zeth had just come in for a quick blast of something before his shuttle took him elsewhere. That was the trouble with Gielgud: nobody with half a brain wanted to stay there more than five minutes, in Rayme’s experience.

“What do you mean, staying?”

Was the guy an idiot? That would explain a lot. “When’s your shuttle out?”

“Wha…? Oh!” Zeth grinned. “I’m a local.”

“You live here?” Rayme was surprised. “What’re you doing in the outskirts if you’re a local? We don’t get many Gielgud humans out as far as this.”

Zeth gave an embarrassed shrug. “Fancied a change,” he said evasively. “So, can I have a canister while I’m here? What’ve you got on offer?”

Rayme went through the list, from gentle MoodNhancers to BaseBlack, but when he’d finished, Zeth wrinkled his nose. “You’ve not got anything stronger?”

“BaseBlack is the strongest there is,” Rayme pointed out.

“Yeah, in theory, but everyone knows there are other things on offer,” Zeth said suggestively.

Ah. That was what Zeth was doing out here: he was an electric-head. Bloody typical. Rayme had got out of all that sort of scene when he left Earth and now the first guy he really liked on Gielgud was into illegal highs.

Slightly Frustrated Self-Promotion (Day 1)

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So, I was trying to update my ‘novels, novellas and anthologies’ page to catch up with all the things I’ve published/are coming out/have had re-published of late. I really shouldn’t be allowed a website – I’m horrible at keeping it up to date.

(Which reminds me… do tell me, as readers – what do people want from authorly websites? What do you want? And does it really matter – is anyone reading mine anyway?)

Anyway, last summer I re-published Thrace, which is… well, this is what I’ve just put on my website:

Thrace is a science fiction anthology, consisting of three novella length stories. It is definitely one of the favourite things I’ve ever written, and has had a lot of positive reviews and pretty much no readers, which is very very sad. It is set on the planet Gielgud, which is home to an indigenous (and androgynous) species called Tsygons, but which has been colonised by humans, who have pretty much taken over the place. The stories are very plotty, especially the first and third, but with a certain amount of sexual content as well (because, well, it’s me, and that tends to be how my stories come). But I honestly think it’s quite good…

 

So, I’m going to spend the next three days giving you a little bit more detail about each of the three novellas which comprise Thrace. (And forgive me: I am terrible at synopses.)

Ready? Let’s go…

Let Tsygons By Tsygons (oh, come on, I bet you couldn’t have resisted that pun any more than I could!), focuses on Jed Wilson, a medi-supporter (newly qualified doctor, pretty much) who has landed a job on Gielgud’s central city, Thrace. Tsygons keep coming into the hospital with mysterious symptoms, and Jed and his Tsygon colleague, V367L (you get used to the Tsygon names; zie’s called ‘V’ for short) have to try and find out why. Things are made more complicated by the fact that Jed, despite knowing much less about medicine, is V’s boss – because V is a Tsygon, and Jed is human – and that Jed is rather attracted to V, but unable for many reasons to act on this attraction. And it seems that there is much more going on than first meets the eye…

Meet the characters in a snippet of the story:

V367L gave him a considering look, then plunged into a detailed technical description of hir job, of which Jed understood about a quarter. Bad-tempered or not, the Tsygon clearly knew a hell of a lot about what they were doing here. In order to stop the flow of brain-hurting information, Jed interrupted.

“You’re my boss, right?”

V367L gave Jed an inscrutable look. “No,” zie said. “You’re mine.”

“Huh? But… but you know about ten times more than I do,” objected Jed. “Or did you not want the job?”

“I’m a Tsygon,” V said, as if that explained everything. “Nevertheless, you’ll be working with me a lot. Does that bother you?”

“Should it?” Jed asked, startled.

“Some humans,” shrugged the Tsygon, “aren’t too keen.”

“What, because you’re a… a…” Jed hit the tact barrier and bounced off it. “Because you’re not human?”

V raised an eyebrow. “You noticed?”

Somewhat to Jed’s surprise, it seemed V367L had a sense of humour. He leaned in close to hir, and whispered, “I guessed.”

V laughed suddenly. “Jed Wilson, I might like you.”