Joy Comes With the Morning

It's Hop against Homophobia time!  This is such an amazing idea and Robin and I feel so lucky to have a chance to bring a focus to this issue.  Obviously, we both feel so strongly about the idea of combating homophobia with information, knowledge, and patient education, so we think the idea of getting several hundred of us together to talk about it is incredible.

Here's how we thought we'd do things.  I decided the only way we could really talk about homophobia and what that means to us now is to share my personal story.  As I told Robin the other day, it's pretty much the most generic 'Gay Person in the Midwest' story in the world, but I think sometimes, sharing something like that is the most important thing you can do.  Not because it's extraordinary - nothing about my life has really been that - but because it's not.  Because there are so many people, I know, who have grown up like I have, who have faced the same things I did.  I wish I'd known that, when I was younger.  Maybe this will be our own little Oprah moment, a way to all sit on the couch and have a drink and talk.

Of course, we also want to give some stuff away.  Everything's better with a give away!  Leave us your thoughts in the comments below, share your own experiences, ask questions, just say hi.  Make sure to include some way to get a hold of you, and you are entered to win this awesome prize pack.

Included are:  A signed paperback of Blood Howl (just in time to read before the sequel, Blood in the Sand, gets a release date announced), your very own whistle necklace (so you'll never get lost), and a dog tag and cling sticker from one of my favorite non-profit groups, the Human Rights Campaign.  (The profits from buying those, just like everything else from the HRC store, goes straight back to the organization.)

We're so incredibly grateful to the organizers of the Hop against Homophobia.  This is a fantastic idea, and we look forward to seeing what other members of the m/m fiction community have to say.  Writing gay fiction, for Robin and I, is one of the most rewarding experiences we could hope to have.  Not only do we get to do what we've always wanted to do - write - but we get to develop characters we believe in and stories we love.  Really, we have it pretty damn good.

Now That We're on the Other Side

Amazingly, it's been a little over two weeks since the release of Blood Howl.  Robin and I were talking about it yesterday, and it seems impossible it's been so little time.  It feels like months since we were sitting up all night, waiting for that clock to tick over, like two impossible children on Christmas Eve.  How incredible, to know that the story we dreamed up, that we worked over and offered out, hearts in our throats, has now actually be read by people we've never met.  More than read, in some cases, people are actually enjoying it.

It still blows my mind.  I know Blood Howl isn't perfect.  Indeed, it's more of an appetizer than anything, getting our toes wet in this complex world we're now exploring fully.  But it is something we are proud of, it is the story we wanted to tell, and we realize we are incredibly blessed to have done been able to share that.  Robin and I are hard at work writing the second in the series, but I found myself, today, taking a little time to think back.

If you've read the book, what's your favorite part?  I'll admit, mine is one that actually wasn't planned out at all.  At least, it wasn't until we were almost on top of it.  The scene at the zoo (and if you've read the book, I hope you know what I'm referring to) really came out of the characters themselves, and Robin and I following along a silly impulse.  Somehow, in the writing, it became one of my favorite moments of the whole book.

So what about you?  Do you have a favorite scene?  A line?  A character?  I must admit, I'm dying to know.  I feel like everyone who's read the book is now a friend, is someone that I share a secret with.  After so many months of my sweet partner and I being the only two who knew these characters, this story, it's dizzying to think that there are others we could discuss it with.

So please, if you'd like, let us know if there was anything that stuck with you.  I'd love to brew up a pot of coffee (tea for my better half, thank you very much, though I'm sure Robin would share) and sit down with you all and talk.

-Alex

Saturday Snark, Blood Howl Style

It's Saturday, and that can only mean one thing.  Time for Saturday Snark at the lovely Marie Sexton's blog!  For our humble contribution, we submit this exchange between Jed and David in Blood Howl.  Enjoy, and don't forget to share your own snark!  :)

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Sitting proudly in a glass vase were brightly colored foil wrappers, arranged like flowers. “I hope you got the triple extra large,” Jed smirked, reaching out to flick the edge of one of the condoms, the entire bouquet waving gleefully at them. “Or the ribbed, those are nice.”

“Glow in the dark,” David answered with a sly smile. “To help you find your cock.”

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Robin Muses About Redford and Character Making

Now that a week has passed since Blood Howl's release, I thought I'd take the time to talk a little about the character of Redford Reed. I like babbling about characters and inspirations, so you get to read it!

Obviously the following will contain massive spoilers for Blood Howl:

Stuff Round-Up For The Week

Well, it's been a week since Blood Howl's release, and a lot has been happening. I thought I might start doing a regular round-up for media.

This week has been crazy! As first time authors, Alex and I weren't really sure what to expect - still aren't sure, in many cases - but it's been a learning experience, one we're both grateful as hell to undertake. It's a tremendous amount of fun connecting with fellow authors and readers.

We've started work on the second in the series. The series itself is called Sanguis Noctis, and Blood Howl was, obviously, the first in it. We have at least three more books planned out in this series, with the possibility of more.

Interviews We've Done:
Champagne Sips: Our Interview With MM Good Book Reviews
Interview with SJD Peterson - Plus Exclusive Excerpt

Reviews That Made Us Grin Like Idiots:
On Amazon
On Goodreads

Promo Stuff:
Over the last week we posted six excerpts. One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six. We ended the posts with an e-book giveaway. People told us spooky stories, and we gave away a free copy of Blood Howl.

Writing:
Up to 30k words in the second book! Today we wrote a sex scene that was 2800 words. Nobody will ever accuse us of brevity.

BH Giveaway - Winner Announcement!

Good morning, lovely people!

First of all, thank you all very much for sending in your stories. We thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them. Alex and I were both kids that loved to walk around graveyards at night and checked out 'haunted' houses just to see if the stories were really true. Nothing quite like deliberately scaring the crap out yourself, I always say.

The time has now come to announce who wins a free e-book copy of Blood Howl. Alex and I debated back and forth, and we just couldn't choose. In the end, we had to pick our three favorites and then draw them out a hat (my old and battered top hat, to be precise).

So, without further delay:

Lorraine Ulrich, you win! :D We don't have an email address for you, so please email us at saxon.kidwell@gmail.com, and we will hook you up with your e-book!

Blood Howl Giveaway! And the sixth excerpt.

Today, we’re happy to announce we’re doing a free e-book giveaway! 

In the spirit of urban fantasy, we want you to give us your scariest stories. Ever had a brush with the supernatural? Got a local urban legend? Leave them in the comments, and we will be picking our favorite — and whoever gives us the best spooky story will win a free e-book copy of Blood Howl.

The contest starts right now and lasts until 11:59pm on Wednesday, 9/14/11.  So think of something to give us chills and leave it below!

Also, we are now two days away from Blood Howl’s release date, and we wanted to give you a special treat for this last excerpt.

This one might be less than work appropriate...

We're Getting Closer

Wandered around a bookstore today, just studying the covers, flipping through a few things that caught my eye.  Nothing I haven't done a thousand times before, nothing that isn't an almost mindless activity for so many people every day.  We touch the pages, we wait for something to speak to us, we peruse the blurbs on the back and decide, right then and there, if this is something we want to take home with us.  For all the warnings about judging books by covers, it's what we do.

And then it hit me.  Two weeks from now, our book will be there.  It will be slid into the shelves, patiently waiting for someone to take a chance on it.  All of the stress and the late nights and the inspiration, all of those things we breathed into the ether hoping that they would take form, it will become a solid reality.  People might read it, and they will love it or hate it, but it will be read.  Those ideas that were nothing more than fantasy have become as solid as they ever will be.

People sometimes compare their art to their children, and perhaps that's true, but the best way I can describe it is the sensation of pulling out pieces of ourselves and then walking away.  Everything that we can do in the creative process is done, and now we just have to hope that our book, our creation, speaks to someone.  Kind of a scary thought, to be honest.  But the most exhilarating fear in the world.

-Alex

Upcoming Release: Blood Howl

Gun for hire Jed Walker doesn’t figure it for a difficult job—a simple smash and grab retrieval—except his new client doesn’t want money or goods. He wants shy, gorgeous Redford Reed, a man who turns Jed’s world upside down inside a day. He is in no way prepared to fall hard and fast for his newest assignment.

Redford Reed lives his life locked in his grandmother’s house, haunted by a terrible curse and watching the world pass him by until Jed shows up, sent by a man who will stop at nothing to claim Redford as his own. Teaming up with Jed is Redford’s only chance at survival, but as the violence escalates, so does the tension between them. Even though they each finally have something to live for, now it’s going to take all Jed’s skill and every bit of courage Redford has just to stay alive.


Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Art: Anne Cain


It was a lot of fun to write this book, and we're excited to finally be close to it's release. Dreamspinner Press has been absolutely fantastic to work with. They were our first choice to publish with--how happy are we that they decided to publish us? The only answer can be: extremely happy.


Blood Howl will be the first of an urban fiction series, the second of which we are working on the plot for right now.


Release Date: 12th September. Buy it here!