Monday, January 28, 2008

Writing...writing...writing

Sometimes the words just wont come. not because of writer's block but just because they are happy to stay within your mind organising themselves until they want to be ready. Yesterday I didn't write as much as I wanted to in the end because the words just decided to go away for a little while. It might have been because I was trying too hard, or because I was tired and am still a little ill I don't know. Either way I decided to call it quits and went away from the computer.


Today I had a few errands to do so didn't start writing till late but now the words are flowing better, and I can't understand why I was having the problem I was yesterday. I really must learn that sometimes rest and not doing anything is a good thing! In fact the rest must have been a good thing because I was woken up early with a full plot line just racing through my head not wanting to let go.

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Telly: None
Choc/Yummy: Nothing at the moment
Mood: Slightly happier
Writing: Just under 1k - now only just over 1k to go!
Reading: Once a Rebel by Angela Ashton

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Melting Point Excerpt





















Title Melting Point - Coming Together: Under Fire
Author Nicole Gestalt
Genre/Series Erotic Anthology - Contemporary BDSM Erotic Romance
Release Date Now Available
Publisher Phaze
Publisher URL http://www.phaze.com

Blurb:

Clarissa is lead through her first experience with wax by the very sexy and steady handed Martin.

Excerpt:

"Will it hurt?" Clarissa asked, the nerves causing a slight tremor to enter her voice. Martin smiled and looked down at her. He ran his hand down her body, briefly circling her nipples.

"Not one bit, my love. After all, you are lovely and smooth after that shower."

That shower!

Just thinking about it made her body cry out in pleasure. It was the first time she had allowed anyone to intimately shave her, and Martin had taken great delight in getting up close and personal with her body. Each touch had sent shivers through her body. He had masterfully taken a razor to her; there was no wasted motion, each movement had a purpose. As she lay on the table, Martin pulled up four flat pieces of wood from the sides, forming a shallow box. She looked at him quizzically.

"It's to prevent any wax running off the table; I had it specially made for the purpose. Don't worry, you just sit back and relax, and I'll have it all ready in no time."

Copyright © 2007 Nicole Gestalt

Available in both paperback ($16) and ebook ($7).

ISBNs
ebook : 978-1-59426-857-1
print : 978-1-59426-881-6

Link to
Book:http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=Coming+Together+Under+Fire+by+Alessi\
a+Brio+and+Will+Belegon,+eds.

Other Authors included in Coming Together: Under Fire are:

Will Belegon, Alessia Brio, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Shanna Germain, Brenna Lyons, Lefty McGee, Stephanie Vaughan, Teresa Noelle Roberts, Sommer Marsden, Michelle Houston, Jeremy Edwards, Mari Freeman, Laurence Doyen, Lisabet Sarai, Vana Lafayette, Jamie Hill, Rachelle Le-Monnier, Vincent Diamond, Justanne Farrow, Jude Mason, Dr. Mabeuse, Tilly Greene, Selena Kitt, Sapphire Phelan, Victoria Blisse, Aurora Black, Skylar Sinclair, Rebecca Leah, Samantha Sommersby, Gabrielle Miel, James Buchanan, and Gwen Masters

Updates and Chats

Well the past week has been a busy one for me as far as author chats are concerned. I feel like I've been running all around the Internet. I've 'crossed' so many time zones I'm presently just totally exhausted. However the writing hasn't dropped because of this I'm glad to say.

Yesterday I finished a short first person POV piece which I will be editing once I have my cup of tea in front of me. The pieces was from the woman's perspective and I think it works quite well although I'm sure to find some cringe worthy things in the read through!

I've hand written another piece that I will be editing at the beginning of February. I'm not going to go through it straight away because I've got some other pieces that need my attention first.

Cold Fire has been sent to the editors so I'm expecting edits to appear in my inbox at some point although I'm unsure how long they will take. To prepare for this I'm trying to get as much work done before they turn up as I can so I've been writing away every moment I have.

I've also plotted out a BDSM fantasy piece that I think could work quite well as a series. Once today's work is out of the way I will be getting on with it! I always love being excited about the next project, it's what really keeps me concentrated on the present one.

In book news Coming Together: Under Fire is now available from Amazon, both in the UK and USA. The links follow:

Amazon USA: http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Together-Under-Alessia-Brio/dp/1594268819

My story Melting Point is only short but focuses on waxplay. I'll post a blurb and excerpt up for it a little later.


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I've borrowed the following format from Portia Da Costa
Telly: None
Choc/Yummy: Nothing at the moment
Mood: So sleepy!
Writing: Just outlines of BDSM piece
Reading: Once a Rebel by Angela Ashton

Monday, January 21, 2008

Just Fifteen minutes

The other day I was doing some research into a subject that one of my WIP's centres around. I stumbled across an interesting 'rule' that had been implied in a Master/slave household. Each morning the slave would get up and do fifteen minutes cleaning in a certain room. It got me thinking what can you do in fifteen minutes? I hate cleaning it's one of the main things that spins me into a complete panic however I've now started to use the same routine so each day I do just fifteen minutes cleaning in a room I feel needs it. So far it's working pretty well so much in fact that I find myself feeling able to do another fifteen minutes later in the day.

Perhaps I should break things up more into fifteen minute blocks. It will definitely cut down on procrastination and looking at emails etc...

I'll let you know how it goes :) In the mean time I've got fifteen minutes of cleaning to go do! Give it a go and let me know how it goes for you.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

And so it ends...for now

Today was the last day of the second round of Seventy Days of Sweat. I'll be putting up my 'word count' later this week once I've finished counting it. Although I wrote much more this time I didn't do as much as I would have liked. However I have had some success with the pieces I've done and I have written much more varied things then I would have done had I not done the challenge.

Hopefully there will be another one to come but I'll post more information up about when I find out more.

I hope everyone who took part enjoyed themselves and accomplished even the smallest goals.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Nicole's Newsletter

Great news!

The January/New Year newsletter is now available.

The newsletter contains all my newest hits for writing, as well as information about my newest releases. I run competitions only available to those who read the newsletter and each month post up an interview with a different author.

If you would like to receive the newsletter contact me and I'll send it to you.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Writing Goals

To make sure I hit deadlines and submit to markets I would like to get to I have a wall-chart that has all the deadlines marked up on it.

I put the 2008 wall-chart up on the first of January and am now currently filling it up. I've got down to March and I have a very busy few months ahead of me. By the end of the year I want to have written much more then I had last year. If this is going to be the one thing I do full-time I need to get down to it and work hard. At present however every time I sit down to write I hear the remaining mince-pies calling me and the boxes of unopened chocolate begging to be opened.

Yesterday I sat down and worked out some plots for a few short pieces that I want to do so I'll be working on them from today.

When you are given a theme it is always fun to see where that one word will take you. It's always a good idea to brainstorm and go from there. I start this process by getting the definition of the word itself then I write down my first thoughts about the word, before letting my mind wander from that point on. Even if you only use one of the ideas you then have lots of other story ideas to go back to at a later date all of which may work in the right place.

My sudden fiction is going well, this year I've set myself the task to write a new piece and send it out every month. I'm currently on 4 for this year so I'm a little ahead of myself but that's so much better then being behind like I was last year.

Seventy Days of Sweat ends next Tuesday I've been doing ok with it although I've not signed in for a month or so due to various reasons but I have been keeping an eye on what I've been writing and how much. I have enjoyed doing this challenge as it has given me a reason to keep focused which is pretty invaluable. Hopefully they will be doing it again because the support from all the different writers has just been fantastic.

Right now I'm going to start work on a short piece as yet unnamed but with a BDSM taste.

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Freedom to Serve in Coming Together: With Pride

As promised here is the information about the anthology that my short story Freedom to Serve has been accepted into.

Like Coming Together: Under Fire this is another chairty anthology. It is called Coming Together: With Pride, money raised from the sale of this book will be used to benifit AVERT. I am very happy to be a part of this anthology since it's a subject matter thats quite close to my heart and is something that recently in the UK at least has been recieving a lot of publicity (which is a good thing because where there is knowledge it minimises misunderstanding and increases prevention).





















Coming Together: With Pride is a multi-author anthology of erotic fiction edited by Alessia Brio. ALL proceeds from the sale of this volume will benefit AVERT.

PUBLISHER: Phaze
EBOOK ISBNs
1-59426-891-6
978-1-59426-891-5

PRINT ISBNs
1-59426-892-4
978-1-59426-892-2

TENTATIVE RELEASE DATES

June 2008 (ebook); July 2008 (print)


CONTENTS:

Introduction (Rachel Kramer Bussel) Today (Kally Jo Surbeck) Raven (James Buchanan) A Girl's Best and Earthy Things (Heather Fowler) Dom at the Bar (Mari Freeman) Echoes of the Past (Mychael Black ) A Brief Discourse... (P.S. Haven) The One That Got Away (Remmy Duchene) When the Angels Fall (Helen Madden) Customer Service (Eon de Beaumont) Nuit Blanche (Giselle Renarde) Western Pleasure (Shanna Germain) Chemistry (Lisabet Sarai) Fire and Ice (Cassie Exline) An Early Winter Train (C. Sanchez-Garcia) Selling Foxx (I.M. Cupnjava) Be Prepared (Storm Grant) Freedom to Serve (Nicole Gestalt) The Personal Is Political (Jean Roberta) Past Perfect (Alessia Brio) About Coming Together (Alessia Brio)

If you would like to find out more about it please visit: Coming Together: With Pride

First hit of the year!

I got news yesterday that I have had my first acceptance of 2008. I'm very excited about the project that it's been accepted for although I'm not going to say anything about it until I know I'm able.
Now I must concentrate on the other submissions I've got to make even though I want to bounce up and down in celebration.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Onwards and Upwards

Well the first rejection of the year is in. The piece that has been rejected has already been sent back out. I'm glad the first one is over and done with and now the only way to go is onwards and upwards!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

The first post of 2008

I want to wish everyone a happy new year. I hope you all had a great and productive year last year and wish you all the best for this one.

Since it is now a new year I thought I would round up my submission stats for last year.

I began submitting on 1st January 2007 with my very first written piece since then I've continued and I hope this year will bring even more submissions and fingers crossed acceptances.

My stats for 2007:
  • Fiction pieces submitted: 17
  • Non - Fiction pieces submitted: 3
  • Sudden Fiction pieces submitted: 20
  • Acceptances: 3
  • Rejections: 22 (there are still a number out that I'm waiting to hear back from)
  • Total: 40 Submissions

Overall I'm very happy with my progress considering I really only began to write seriously from the last week of December 2006. My ebook Summer of Fire has been getting some fantastic reviews and my short piece in Coming Together: Under Fire was so much fun to write I'm going to be working with the characters again. Of course this year has just begun but I've already got a short ebook coming out in the summer and I hope to add to that statistic very soon.

I have learned so much about writing and myself this year I know things will only go up.