Tuesday, October 15, 2013

A first preview for "A Succubus for Remembrance"

In an ideal world this would be where I show off a cool new cover and a coming soon link.  As I normally write in a state of complete chaos those aren't ready yet.  It also didn't help that the last few stories ended up being 10,000+ word monsters and a couple needed full rewrites.  In the meantime, while I'm trying to get my shit together, here's a peek at the contents list:

1. A Succubus for Remembrance
2. The Skinning Knife
3. Vernon the Volunteer
4. Trent the Traitor
5. Hugh the Hero
6. Slugjob
7. Iron Girders and Steel Springs
8. Ways to Break a Good Man, #1
9. Ways to Break a Good Man, No.2
10. Ways to Break a Good Man, 3
11. Vampiric Boobies
12. Streetwalking with a Succubus
13. Nazi vs. Succubus

Some of those will be familiar, but not as many as with previous collections.  This time over half will be brand new stories making their first appearance with this collection.  These are also some of the longest stories I've written.  This time I built the running order from my ideas file and then wrote the stories afterwards.  I wouldn't recommend this approach to any budding writers as you end up with a 90K monster instead of the more sensible 70K words it should be! :D

The list isn't 100% finalized.  "Nazi vs. Succubus" was supposed to be a succubus-themed parody of the Ilsa nazisploitation films.  I let horror-head out of his cage for that one and he ended up rampaging off into some very dark and disturbing territory.  I'll have to run that one past the folks at eXcessica to make sure it doesn't cross the line.

Overall A Succubus for Remembrance might be a little darker and more monstery than my other collections.  Perversely, it also has my highest number of happy-ish endings so far.  Some questions are answered - such as what did happen to Hugh in "Trent the Traitor" and you'll also get to see "Ways to Break a Good Man, #1" after I confused everyone with the title "Ways to Break a Good Man, No.2" last Halloween.  More of the devious witch Annette Brite's background will be revealed, the hell-space campaign continues to worsen, and I add Octopus Girl/Scylla to the list of monster girls I've written stories about.

Provisionally, the collection should be out early November, although there is a chance the date might slip (Chaos writing, sorry).  I'll be giving out further details in the coming weeks as well as excerpts from the new stories.

4 comments:

  1. Is there significance to the fact that the "Ways to Break a Good Man" stories are numbered in different formats ("#1", "No. 2", "3")?

    I'm looking forward to the scylla story! I've always wanted to see more of those since mjm's chapter from "Succubus Ranch".

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    1. They share a similar theme rather than being a series, although succubus-wielding mob boss Koontz features in two of them. Also localisation. #1 is set in the US, No.2 is set in England.

      I was going to say it was my first tentacle girl story, but then I remembered "Cerulean Circles".

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  2. I look forward to the collection, especially the sequel to Trent the Traitor. I was interested in hellspace since I read "The Soul Worm," but "Trent" pushed that idle curiosity over the edge into fascination.

    "Trent" was also the first of you stories I've read since 2011 or so, and I have to see you've improved tremendously. The writing is good enough for me to take off the feature blurring "porn/fanfic/epub" lenses I must wear to be able to enjoy the atrocious writing characteristic of nearly everything published online. There are vocal flourished spread throughout; I grinned when you compared a castle to a crouching toad, and the repetition of the Golden Boys line (I can only achieve that kind of repetition on the second draft of a story, and even then I've usually forgotten it halfway through).

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    1. Thanks. Both "Vernon the Volunteer" and "Hugh the Hero" are new hell-space stories. They'll reveal hints of a larger story I'll carry on through subsequent collections.

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