New site!

Well, sort of new. Check it out:

www.christinedanse.com

Island of Icarus will be released on November 29th in ebook format and in audio format. Yes, I am very excited. :)

Bestill My Heart

A few weeks ago, I squirted some lotion onto my hand--but I didn't rub it in until I'd taken a picture. Here's why:

Pretty weird, huh? Yeah, I thought so.

By the way, that's lime-patchouli lotion--my favorite. Yummm.

I'm So Excited, I'm Tearing Down Curtain Rods

Per usual, I woke today at around 1 p.m., rolled over in bed, and groped for my cell phone. Thumbing on the screen, I saw someone had left a voice message. I assumed it was a bill collector for the "Sarah" person who had apparently used this phone number before me. (I cannot tell you how many times I have painstakingly explained to various different agencies that I am not, indeed, this Sarah. It's forced me to screen all of my unknown calls.)

But, no. The message was very much for me. It was Carina Press, and they were calling about my male/male erotic romance novella, "The Island of Icarus." They were sorry they had missed me, and would be sending an e-mail.

I can't remember the last time I flew out of bed so fast! I yanked my towel off the shower rod so quickly that the whole thing clattered down, then ran out to the living room to check my computer.

I...have my first book deal offer. :)

I, uh, bounced around in circles in ways I never knew I could. I'm very, very excited--to say the least! WA-HOO!

Now that the words "contract negotiation" have been mentioned, I'm beginning to ponder the wisdom of going into this without an agent. Errr... o.0

I have had one heck of a long and tiring--but absolutely lovely!--day. Good night!

Love, fangs, and fur. :)=

May Update...In Fact, I Probably Will

Sitting here at the table, starting to feel the edge of hunger and figuring I ought to say "Hi" to my blog.

Got my steampunk romance submission, The Island of Icarus, in to Samhain, and now I'm waiting until the end of the month for an answer. Crossing my fingers. Crossing them really hard.

Working on a steampunk short for a Cleis call. After that, a zombie romance short. Oh, yeah, and working on the final edits for my erotic werewolf novelette. Excited about that.

Hope to get a few book reviews up sometime this week. The Difference Engine, Whitechapel Gods, and Her Colorado Man. (Yeah, that last one was a doozy. I thought I'd give a cheesy Harlequin historical romance a go. Sorry I did.)

Gosh, I usually feel a little more interesting, but suddenly I'm pretty tired and can't write anything more than a truncated list of current life events.

All right, off to eat and walk the dog.

Er, that is to say, off to eat some food and then walk the dog. I usually don't make a practice of eating said dog. Ah, grammar.

Love, fangs, and...snore...

April Observations

April. The return of warm South Florida nights. Open the door into the damp, comfortable embrace of subtropical evening.

I just finished The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. The novel's ending words spiraled upward into a sudden exultation that swelled in my chest. (Literary orgasm? I wondered. I was sitting in the empty school hallway, loathe to leave until I'd finished those last couple of pages, and glad that I did.)

On the way home, the world was suddenly much more real and much more broad. Burning ember, tiny explosion of cigarette butt hitting the pavement, flung from the car in front of me. The smell of someone's house or car, pleasant and sweet, wafting in through my open window.

I love to finish books. I love that moment of completion. Suddenly, I am popped back out into my world, the real world, and for a few minutes, at least, it suddenly just...makes sense. For a moment, I have a context with which to see it all, broad and narrow all at once. I am alive to details.

Single pink hibiscus flower against the nondescript condominium wall, blossoming upward, stigma licking the air, all alone amongst the dark green leaves. Brave and beautiful.

Wonderful Free Fantasy E-zine

Browsing through fantasy and science fiction markets, I found a professional free e-zine that makes me positively drool:

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

The cover art is amazing. The stories are amazing. They specialize in literary adventure fantasy, and to my delight, they also publish steampunk! Ha!

I just finished reading A Serpent in the Gears by Margaret Ronald. It features a dirigible, clockwork lifeforms, a quirky crew of scientists and spies, and flying serpents. I think I found love. :)

For readers: All of the content is free. Two stories are published per issue, and two issues are published every month. Select stories are also available in audio format as podcasts. Subscribe for free via email or RSS.

For writers: This is a pro-rate market. They pay $0.05 per word, and prefer stories under 10,000 words.

The magazine is supported by donations. I'm heading over to donate now. :)

Change of Gears

I'm still waiting for that haircut. :P

In the meantime, I've assembled most of the rest of my steampunk outfit: shirt, pants, and boots from clockworkcouture.com, as well as the perfect brass-buttoned steampunk vest from -- get this -- Hot Topic. I hadn't stepped into a Hot Topic in over a year. What wonderful luck?

Changing gears with several fiction projects. The story I was writing for Phaze will now be finished for Samhain, and I'll be writing a different story for Phaze instead. I'm also pretty sure now that I do, indeed, want to finish the steam dragon story I was writing for the "Magic in Trafficking" anthology for Drollerie Press. I'd been playing with the idea of using it as the beginning of a web serial, instead -- but I really don't have the time or resources for that monumental undertaking right now. So, single short story it is. (Perhaps with web fiction sequels.)

Dizzy yet? I am.

Looking at a small stack of stories now that need to be edited. Among them: Nightblood, my first complete novelette about werewolves; the "Trafficking in Magic" story for Drollerie Press; and the beginning of the steam dragon story.

Whew! In any case, it was a nice drizzly day today. Bait tracked mud into the house after I walked him. When I tried to dry his feet, he thought I was playing. I think that dog is a mutant rabbit, and not a dog at all.

Love, Fangs, and Fur. :)=