Guest Blogger ~ Thom Lane

I'm welcoming Thom Lane today, a new author with Loose Id. Thom volunteered to be grilled, er, interviewed and shares a few of his secrets with us.
So, let's get right down to the nitty gritty!


1. What are your nicknames?
Thom-cat is too obvious to mean mentioning, right...? I had a girlfriend once who used to call me Dickens, because I was always writing. Mostly these days people just call me Thom.
2. How does your hair look currently?
Hair? I'm a man; I don't have hair. I have an interesting skull.
3. What’s new in your life right now?
That would be the man in my bed. ;>)
4. How many colors are you wearing now?
Just two: I am black and red all over.
5. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
Intro, definitely. Even when drunk. But I do love parties and company, I'm just the quiet one in the corner.
6. What was the last book you read?
For work? Simon Schama's Citizens, about the French Revolution (research for a book). For fun? Laurie R King's The Language of Bees.
7. Who is your favorite super hero?
A confession: I never got the superhero thing. Even as a kid, I liked my heroes less than super.
8. What has made you happy these days?
Apart from the man in my bed, you mean? That would be my books: especially the Amaranth series - Dark Heart and Healing Heart so far, with many more (I hope!) to come - from Loose Id. I am loving writing these stories. Hot men, kinky bondage and magic, in a fantasy world: what's not to love? Also, they have fabulous covers.You can't judge a book by its cover - but these are perfect.

9. What’s your current obsession?
I refer you to my previous answer(s): (a) man, (b) Amaranth.
10. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
Getting out of bed? About two hours (there's a lot of radio to listen to, y'know?). Once up, I'm efficient: ten minutes in the bathroom, two minutes to pull clothes on, five minutes to feed the cats and discuss their day, and then I'm at the computer.
11. What was the last story you wrote?
It's called Runaway Heart, it's a new Amaranth story, it's on my editor's desk...
12. What’s the last thing you laughed about?
Something he said while he shaved, which I am so not telling you.
13. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head?
Tragically, it's something I wrote myself. How sad is that?
14. What’s the last movie you saw?
Inglourious Basterds.
15. Is there anything else you'd like readers to know about Thom Lane?
I write, I have cats, I have a man - that about covers it, I think.The rest is silence.

Thom's Loose Id books can be found at this link
Thom's presence on the Internet (for now) is his LiveJournal

New Contract for sequel to The Sweet Flag

I am so happy to share that Aftershocks, the sequel that tells the story of Kazvan from The Sweet Flag, has been contracted by Loose Id!
I'm writing my butt off (don't I wish that could happen -- skinny butt d/t writing)to get his story out asap!
And, for those who've asked for it: there's going to be a menage!

Guest Blogger - Lynn Lorenz

Common Powers ~ Lynn Lorenz

First let me say, I truly love paranormal stories. I’ve been reading them since dirt was young. As a young girl, I’d been immersed in them. Not just the usual stories of childhood, but I remember watching classic horror movies and gobbling up every book I could find at the Nix Library on Carrolton Ave, in New Orleans. And although those stories were wonderful, the ones that fascinated me most were the ones about my own family. One of my novellas, coming out in October from Liquid Silver Books, is Second Moon, about a werewolf and a witch, and it’s dedicated to my mother and my grandmother, both dead, and their paranormal influence on my life.

Those two women, both gifted in non-normal ways, were open about their gifts, even while denying they were anything special. My mother did astrology charts and made predictions of the future for members of our family and her friends. I can rattle off the many ones that came true, from the sudden death of an uncle to my own marriage, but let’s just say I’ve never not believed.

As for my grandmother, her dreams told of future events. My mother and aunts would gather at every holiday and invariably told stories about Grandma’s dreams and how they’d come true. I listened to them as a child, but hadn’t really experienced them until, while on a summer vacation in Waveland, Mississippi, at a small remote fishing camp in the marshes, she woke up one morning, declared she’d had a dream and made us pack up and leave with two paid weeks left of vacation. My father was furious, but did it, swearing and fussing as he dragged our boat out of the water and back onto the trailer. We drove home to New Orleans in so a thick silence that even I knew to keep my mouth shut. Two days later, Hurricane Camille hit and the camp was wiped from the face of the earth. My dad went back to find his friends, having grown up in Biloxi, who’d stayed, but nothing was left. There were no survivors.

I can even tell you of my own experiences, with my mother and grandmother’s spirits, or of the many haunted houses I’ve been in while living in New Orleans. So, even though I believe in certain paranormal events, writing about werewolves or vampires, which I do, is different than believing in them. And I find it easier to believe in spirits, premonitions, and hauntings, than UFO’s or alien monsters.

All of that exposure led to my new series, Common Powers. I wanted to write about people, like my mom and grandma, who had a gift. Small powers, perhaps not completely developed or accepted, and how they affected the lives of the men who bore them. In Soul Bonds, Sammi has the ability to hear other’s thoughts and feel their emotions, and for lagniappe, he can direct those feelings back to his lovers, making for some truly erotic sex. He’s searching for the one guy who can hear his thoughts and he finds a soul mate in Mitchell. In Rush In The Dark, my new release, Brian has had premonitions all his life and never quite knew what to do with them, until he becomes a PI. Rush can see in the dark, and has kept it hidden, just like being gay, from everyone in his life. Their gifts can either bring them together or tear them apart. I’m already planning my next book in the series, that will be about a man with the power to heal with a touch and a police chief that needs to be touched.

As much as I love to talk about me, what I want to hear about is your experiences with the other world. Are you a believer?

Lynn's Links:

Website: http://www.lynnlorenz.com/index.htm
Loose Id page:http://www.loose-id.com/searchresult.aspx?CategoryID=402

Blog: www.georgiascrossroadscafe.blogspot.com

K.Z. Snow blogging this Wednesday

KZ Snow takes a new look on the HEA ending on August 27th. Sometimes it takes more than two to tango!

Kiernan Kelly ~ Sex and Laughter

Kiernan Kelly is a prolific author with her own unique twist to her writing.

Enjoy!

A Brief Introduction

I'd first like to thank Jeanne for the opportunity to participate on the Sweet Flag blog! That said, I suppose I should introduce myself.

My name is Kiernan Kelly, and I primarily write gay romance, having been published for the first time over three years ago. I haven't stopped since, and continue to work with several different publishers.

At the present, I have four full novels available, a contemporary romance, Riding Heartbreak Road, two historical romances, In Bear Country, and its sequel, The Barbary Coast, and a paranormal, Seti's Heart. In addition, I have a plethora of short stories and novellas available from Torquere Press, Starbooks Press, Cleis Press, Aspen Mountain Press, Coscom Press, and coming soon, MLR Press, the titles of which can be found at my website, www.KiernanKelly.com.

Inspiration comes from everywhere, at any time. I've been given inspiration from my husband (who gave me the idea for a mummy in Seti's Heart), my kids, my friends, the strange-looking man at the carwash, the front page headlines of a newspaper – even a single word or phrase can catch my attention and send my imagination spiraling out of control.

Although I've written in nearly every genre, from contemporary to shapeshifters, vampires to angels and demons, I seem to have garnered a reputation for extremely odd situations and characters, usually written with a clear tongue-in-cheek flavor. For example, I wrote a short story about a satyr (Satyr-Day Night Fever) who was a porn star and who fell in love with the film's straight assistant director. I had a recent flash fiction piece included for release in Bits of the Dead, which starred a zombie goldfish named Cletus.

Curses are often a common theme in my stories. I've written cursed fairies (Fionn of the Fae series), cursed Egyptian kings (Seti's Heart), and cursed Vikings (A-Viking) and cursed just-about-everything-else. In addition, I've written holiday-themed shorts where I turned Jack Frost into Santa's lover (Just a Touch of Frost), and had Kris Kringle working as a detective in New York investigating a serial killer (The Naughty List).

I've written superheroes whose weakness was having an orgasm a the most inconvenient times(A Dirty Job, in the Unmasked: Erotic Tales of Gay Superheroes), miners doing the horizontal hula six hundred feet underground (Sandhogs, in the anthology Hard Hats), and have even delved into military BDSM (Take it Like a Marine, in the anthology Don't Ask, Don't Tie Me Up).

I'm not entirely sure of why I pick such peculiar themes, except to say that not only do I find the strange and bizarre fascinating, I also have the attention span of a gnat. I couldn't stick to a genre without a hefty dollop of super glue.

Truthfully, as a reader, I've always enjoyed reading diverse subject matter. I love horror, romance, historicals, sci-fi, and fantasy. Everything from Stephen King to JRR Tolkien has found its way to my bookshelf, so I never felt the inclination to stay within one theme when writing.

Humor feels almost as good as sex to me, so it's only natural for me to combine the two often in my writings. Some folks don't believe there's room for humor in erotic romance, but I respectfully disagree. I'm human - I like to laugh, I like to have sex, and sometimes I like to do both at the same time. J

Werecats and the American Civil War

Introduction
I am J.M. Snyder, author of gay erotic/romantic fiction. I began self-publishing with iUniverse in 2002 and while I still enjoy the amount of control I retain when publishing my own books (which I do infrequently through Lulu Press), I now work with Amber Allure, Aspen Mountain, and Torquere Presses. My short fiction has appeared online at Ruthie's Club, Tit-Elation, and Amazon Shorts, as well as in anthologies released by Aspen Mountain Press, Cleis Press, and Alyson Books.

I will keep this post at the top of the page while I'm chatting here. Scroll down to read the latest entries!

Between States
Today I'd like to talk a bit about my e-book series, Between States, which is about shapeshifters. Currently there are two stories available in the series: Under a Confederate Moon and Beneath a Yankee Sky, both published by Amber Allure Press.

If the titles of the first two don't clue you in, the stories are set during the American Civil War. Caleb Chilson is a soldier in the Confederate army (for those who may not know, that means he fights for the South). Brance Brenneman is a Union soldier, fighting for the North. Once a month for a few days while the moon is full, they shift into bobcats and spend their nights hunting in the woods. By morning, they return to human form and rejoin their respective armies.

In the first book, Under a Confederate Moon, told from Caleb's point of view, the two meet in shifted form. Brance is wounded, and Caleb has never met another like himself. After assisting the older bobcat with his injury, Caleb refuses to leave him, though when morning comes, he realizes they fight on opposing sides. When he returns to his unit, Caleb is brought before his commanding officer on charges of desertion. To save himself, he blurts out the location of the Yankee camp. Fighting ensues, and Caleb must decide what matters more to him ~ the war raging between humans or the undeniable attraction he feels for a fellow shifter.

In the second book, Beneath a Yankee Sky, readers get an inside look at the elusive Brance. The son of an Amish preacher, Brance knew the simple life on a Pennsylvanian farm wasn't for him and he left home at an early age. By the time this story opens, he and Caleb have deserted the War Between the States, choosing to forge their own path together. However, trappers in the woods threaten their safety, and when the hunters see the two shift into bobcat form, Brance knows they're in trouble. A cleverly placed trap snares Caleb, and Brance must fight to protect the life ~ and the man ~ he's come to love.

Coming up
Later this fall, a third story will be released, entitled A More Perfect Union, and in early January 2009, a paperback collection of all three stories will be available, entitled Between States. Both will be published by Amber Allure Press.

Thanks for taking the time to read my posts, and thank you, Jeanne, for having me here today! I'll post two excerpts later in the day, one from each book in the Between States series, and will be giving away a copy of both e-books to one lucky winner who comments on any of my entries.

Coming this Wednesday ~ Emily Veinglory

Where to begin?
Emily Veinglory's imagination cannot be fenced in. She has a wonderful post for The Sweet Flag Blog this Wednesday.
The subject is a favorite of paranormal readers and writers, but of course, Emily puts her own special twist on the familiar!
Join us on Wendesday, July 30th when we wave the flag!