Sunday, June 27, 2010

Editing Chris Newman is Exciting!




Return to Albrecht Manor is the sixth book in Christopher Newman's Noah Ravenswood Series-- about a paranormal investigator and practicing Wiccan who defends Ohio, and the planet, from otherworldly invasion, finding and losing love along the way.

His apprentice, Dr. Sarah Bookings, Phd, shoulders her share of the supernatural adventures and has an equally complicated love life.

Hey, sex happens, and that means plenty of scope in the human heart and libido for interference by the forces of the uncanny, for good or ill.

Noah and Sarah have different hookups in every installment. The plots feature plenty of secondary pairings, both heterosexual and unusual, human and inhuman as well. Plenty of horror and suspense round out the mix until I could easily imagine Chris writing for one of the darker graphic novel series out there.

In this one, Noah's just finished clearing out a flesh-eating ghoul from a small town cemetery when he gets a call from hereditary 'baron' Marcus Albrecht, for aid in laying to rest the unquiet spirit of his recently deceased father, at the palatial estate where Dr. Sarah had some very dangerous erotic adventures with an entity claiming to be the older man. She hates going back, but the situation calls for her research expertise. Local elementals predating the founding of the state of Ohio have been disturbed. Pretty soon it's demigod against demigod, and the corpses of human casualties begin to pile up in the secret passages within the walls...

In any other hands the pulp-style sex and violence could strain our suspension of disbelief. Chris keeps the most outrageous narrative ingredients both credible and suspenseful. My main task as editor is to make sure the narrative flows once it has been set down whole from the mind of Chris, full-grown, like Athena from Jupiter's forehead. I move paragraphs around in a way that makes them easier for the human brain to assimilate smoothly, eliminating choppy transitions and making the descriptive passages easier to visualize. I rarely need to actually cut anything. It all belongs somewhere.

Sometimes it's like he's actually taking dictation from the muse and he'll use a word that's really close to the one obviously meant but it merely sounds similar; it didn't annoy the spellchecker but it makes no sense in context. His lucky editor then gets the happy task of translating into English idiom. Or Italian, French, or German. Chris loves to throw in exotic quotes that take me back to grad school days. 98 percent of the time I guess right!

It's a roller-coaster ride to read Chris' work, and just as much of a thrill to whip it into shape for you to read. He's one of our most prolific authors and also supplies work to at least two other presses besides Dark Roast. His imagination never seems to stop.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Editing insights part 3: Jamie Lynn Miller




Jamie Lynn has previously written for us about EMT fire fighters -- Burnin' For You, Where There's Smoke---
and television actors --
Darkness Falls --

In her latest contemporary action-filled romance, the attraction is between a police officer and a movie star. Gentle and compassionate authenticity is Jamie's forte; the feelings between the two evolve believably and gradually in the face of conflicts and situations that feel pulled from actual Los Angeles life.

To top it off, there's a dog hero! What more could you ask of a heart-warmer?

Jamie is one of our founding authors, with her first release at our previous press a compelling reason to establish Dark Roast as a vehicle for promulgation of all sorts of love stories. Though plenty of dark and terrible things happen to her characters, she holds true to the golden romance formula that love is the solution-- however it may come, and however it may flow. We end up in love with her lovers as well.

I never have a problem with the pacing of the events in Jamie's writing. She needs a few grammar and spelling reminders, and I generally help with the paragraphing, but that's about it. Her feel for contemporary mindset and stream-of consciousness are superb and let us see through the eyes of the characters as if we inhabit them. I seldom have to ask her to add crucial details or re-order a sequence. The flow was already in her loving tale from the beginning. I sense that she takes care of her characters as if she's their fairy godmother!

I first worked with Out of the Shadows in excerpt form, as Jamie allowed the first section to be part of our free anniversary read, Barista's Choice, available at our main store. You can sample it that way and I guarantee it will whet your appetite for the rest. But it also stands alone as a well-balanced hurt-comfort story. It made me wonder if the rest of the book might just be filler! I was ever so wrong. It is merely the first of three extremely natural stages in the development of a relationship, and to top it off, there is nonstop action. It's easy to see why Jamie's other books with us have been so well reviewed and placed sixth in last year's Reader's Poll at P & E.

If you have a taste for unusual pairings in a contemporary setting, you will love Jamie's lovers as much as I do.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Editing insights on our new releases part 2: Myristica





On her personal website, http://www.myristica.net/ our mystic Myristica speaks of her battle against endometrial cancer. She dreamed it before the diagnosis. Death itself stared her in the face and she stared it down. Finally Death turned away. She clings to this vision and it is behind her continuing dedication to building her fantasy worlds of love and the supernatural.

That is also where you can visit in depth the many worlds she has been creating, two of which she shares with us through our fortunate publishing venture, Dark Roast Press Ebooks.

She writes most naturally in a serial style and so the episodic nature of her characters' struggles with cosmic forces and weird entities comes out in sections. The first volume of the Crimson Dawn series, Hallowed Echoes, was my first chance to experience her worlds. It is set on an alternate Earth contemporaneous with our own where supernatural beings from many worlds and dimensions keep an uneasy alliance in order to dwell peaceably among the dominant human race which on the whole remains unaware of them. For many of them see humans as a prey species, one that needs careful de facto management at the best and brutal subjugation at worst.

Skillfully intertwined with the unfolding epic are the individual romances between her main characters, who exhibit a stunning diversity of gifts and often uncanny powers, from the barest mundanes with wry wit to immortal mages to brutally intelligent monsters. Yet each has distinct personality and we lucky readers want all of them to find happiness and prosper in their different fashions. Myristica conjures forth great empathy for every point of view she writes from.

From the first volume this first segment of the next volume, Double Vision, continues the investigation by human detectives of the brutal killing spree being blamed upon the Vampire Guild, headed by the chilling Thomas Hampton. In order to thwart the real killer, an extraterrestrial predatory shapeshifter, they will need the help of the immortal lovers first introduced to us in the previous book GeminI Souls, currently dwelling quietly upon Earth at a popular dance club. It is shorter and we have priced it accordingly, but more Myristica is in constant demand by her dedicated admirers.

I cannot and will not summarize the plot. It is complex and will pull you in on its own until you, too will be praying for the next installment to make its way from Myristica to us.


Editing insights on our new relases part 1: JC Natal




Dark-Roast-Press-Ebooks

J C Natal incubates her works for a long time, and also sends them to careful beta readers before they ever reach the desk of Helgaleena. And the wait for the sequel to the award-winning Rysykk's Rise was stretched tortuously long for one of her fans at least-- me! But the careful conceptualizing process results in the quality of vision her many loyal fans expect.

She has created two future Earths for Dark Roast Press; one is the universe of In Service where debt slavery is a way of life, and her bleak vision, redeemed by love, rocketed the book to number two in the P & E Readers' Poll during the first year of our e-press existence. In the very same poll Rysykk's Rise, set in a completely different universe, was in the top ten of its category.

There is a gene that renders a segment of the future Earth's population vulnerable to a horrible virus known as the Rysykk Plague. Those who survive it can digest only one nutrient: blood. Discrimination against them is harsh and when an individual is known to carry the gene, life becomes an obstacle course of political and criminal misuses.

In the first book, this highly stratified future's underbelly has been our hero's only home until his teens. Alarin is 'rescued' by an industrialist ostensibly in need of a rent-boy. Bit by bit his full history is revealed, and how his heritage can aid him in winning equality for the minority who could, or have, been changed.

Rysykk's Remedy faces our hero and his lover, the enigmatic Maleus Bryant, with challenges in the glittering surface of the ruling elites and back upon the lowest levels, where the unscrupulous are using Bottomsiders for guinea pigs in cruel genetic experiments. I didn't think the level of action and suspense in the first book could be surpassed, but it is. Alarin and his future wife are directly involved in the rescue of Maleus this time. That is all I will divulge, but the world-building is gripping and moves you at your deepest emotional levels, just as our hero's mission plumbs the foundations of future supercities.

I had very little polishing to do on this particular tale. Just a few commas and so on. All the rest is pure JC Natal. And it was worth the wait.

NEW SUMMER RELEASES!

DARK ROAST PRESS
PROUD TO ANNOUNCE
NEW RELEASES FOR JUNE 2010



CLICK HERE
TO STEP INTO
ANOTHER WORLD
OR GO TO
WWW.DARKROASTPRESS.COM




BOOK 6 IN
CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN'S
NOAH
RAVENSWOOD SERIES




NEWEST RELEASE
FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR
JAIME
LYNN MILLER





THE NEXT CHAPTER OF
MYRISTICA'S
THE DIMENLIEN
CHRONICLES




THE SEQUEL TO
J.C. NATAL'S AWARD WINNING
RYSYKK'S
RISE

Helga's quite gratified by this batch of great stories of love, suspense, and horror, no matter what their settings. I have resolved in the coming days to blog individually about what it was like to edit each of these, working with four very different erotic minds.

The staff have dubbed this our Supernatural Summer-- sample our romance flavors and find out why! New titles start at $2.99 OR Scroll down to previous blog entries for links to our free sample reads, at Facebook and at the Store.


Rick R. Reed Reality , the great author Rick R Reed's blogging home, featured Dark Roast Press author and promo supervisor, Jesse Fox.



What Makes Jesse Write? is the title.

http://rickrreedreality.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-makes-jesse-write-dark-romance.html#comments

She tells a snippet of autobiography which I for one found very moving.

Jesse was a founding LGBT author with Dark Roast, and also wrote an exclusive MM short story which we offer FREE to those who join the Dark Roast Press Lovers group on Facebook!

Dark Roast Press Lovers Group


You owe it to yourself to check out the romance flavor of Jesse Fox.

Free Read for our Lovers at Facebook

The following is a gorgeous MM vampire short story available to those who join Dark Roast Press Lovers group on Facebook:


join here http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1674214&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=111148805583028&aid=-1&id=1382169295#!/group.php?gid=111148805583028


Jesse Fox and Samhain in Top Ten!


http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Ten-Best-Romance-eBooks-of-2009&id=3468431

Jesse Fox wrote a seasonal tale of mythological MM hurt-comfort that will seriously twang your heartstrings. It certainly did the trick for Erin.






http://www.darkroastpress.com/store

Hot Tip for June---

http://www.queermagazineonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3251:hot-fiction-tip-for-june-ill-be-your-drill-soldier-by-crystal-rose&catid=117:book-suggestions&Itemid=562〈=en




Queer Magazine Online has found us to be both hot and inspiring. See what they are on about at the link above our Winnie's great cover.

Just another fine erotic romance from Dark Roast Press Ebooks




Do you have a taste for something a little different? Not the usual erotic-romance? Something perhaps a little darker? Come sample what the Black Coffee Klatsch has to offer! You might just be surprised…


In celebration of Dark Roast Press’ 2nd Anniversary we would like to announce A FREE DOWNLOAD




http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000753821725&suggestfriends=#!/pages/Dark-Roast-Press-Ebooks/113032922058495

Six stories of excellence guaranteed to whet your appetite for more!