Category: Gothic

Coming This October!

9/12/2014

Both Water Like Crimson Sorrow: Shades of Midnight Book 2 and Autumn Burning: Dreadtime Stories for the Wicked Soul will be out in October Thanks to Michael Fish Fisher and Dave McGlumphy for the great covers! Autumn Burning has been coming along quite nicely and I think Sam Gregory , who came up with this great antho, agrees that we're going to have a great book to put out there in October. Keep an eye out for it! Water Like Crimson Sorrow is the gorier, more brutal half of the original ELBF book. I'll be submitting the 3rd book very soon.

And Now for a Few Updates on My Work in The Coming Months

8/15/2014

I'm going to be polishing Water Like Crimson Sorrow some more today, which means you'll be seeing it out on the market in another month or two. For fans of ELBF when it was a self-titled book, this will be the 2nd half of that book and will feature it's very own well-deserved cover. Once that's out, I will be submitting book 3 (which will be the first new book for you folks that read the first ELBF before we split it) Cool Green Waters. CGW features quite a bit more about three characters that had less focus in the first book. Mateo, Zero and Michael become far more interesting and detailed here and we also get a bit more about Raven and Katja, of course! Expect a lot of action, suspense, dark happenings and some elements that are a little more on the sexy side of things (Mateo happens to run an S/M club) as well.

I have a wee bit of book four to work with too, but it will be a bit before it's ready. That book, titled Hollow Black Corners of the Soul will hopefully be completed in the next year or two, so don't worry! I also have a few ideas in mind for book five which also features some surprising return characters. By the way we'll be calling this series Shades of Midnight, rather apt considering each title features a color, eh?

I will have a short in the JEA horror collection Rejected for Content and will again be taking part in a collaborative 666 project, this one, called Lycanthroship, will feature werewolves and is set shortly after WWII. Both of these books should be working toward completion and are hoped to be out this Fall.

Apocrypha is still in the works, with Robert Lyons working on his, I might just put together a few more for that too. I also have a couple of other books to work on finishing up like Other Dangers, Jodie, one that's barely developed called The Farm and another which will have dark, posssibly YA fantasy themes and doesn't have a title yet. Long story short there will be a great deal more to expect in the coming years and I do hope you'll enjoy them all as they do. In the meantime, please look into my 3 latest releases below:

What to Expect Out of the New Eyes Like Blue Fire

7/14/2014

I'm just over halfway into ELBF's edits now and something had occurred to me. If you enjoyed the book when I published it originally you might be wondering if it will be worth picking up a copy of the JEA release. Well, the answer is yes. While the indie print of Eyes Like Blue Fire was a solid one it, like many indie books out there, needed just a bit more polish and refinement to make it the book it always deserved to be. It was also a pretty good sized novel in it's own right and in many ways the events that take place in the first half make up a story worthy of being on it's own, separate from the later half, which stood well on it's own too.

As a result the editors at JEA and I felt it would benefit from being divided into two separate books, ELBF and Water Like Crimson Sorrow. So there will be two books coming out from that one original manuscript and as a result there will be some areas of both chunks that will be getting a well-deserved fleshing out and polishing up before they come out. Why? Well there are some clear points where it needed some refining and others where I could have done more to make the story stronger in that first release. I've enjoyed polishing ELBF these last few months because I was able to see the gems hidden in the rougher bits and make those rougher bits a lot more like the gems. I really think even the fans of that first release are going to enjoy reading this new ELBF and getting a clearer version of the story they love so well. It also means that I'll be able to really focus on that world and get the next book out that much sooner.

Eyes Like Blue Fire: New Cover and Upcoming Re-release

2/6/2014

Now that I have a new home in JEA, I've become an editor there and Wendy Won't Go has made its way onto Kindle I think it's time I announce the re-release of my first book Eyes Like Blue Fire! I don't have a definitive release date yet (we're editing it up and making sure you get a great copy of the book) but I am proud to present the lovely new cover made for me by Marla Ringling Rhysen. I'm so happy to have a cover that really seems to catch some of the atmosphere of the book! This scene is where Katja first walks up on Raven in the cemetery and anyone who's read the book will know that is a very pivotal scene. I hope you all like it and that you agree about it fitting my novel :) Please feel free to tell me what you think and keep an eye out for its release in the coming months!

Getting to Be My Theme Song and Facing ELBF's Flaws

9/30/2013

One of my favorite songs from the long ago days of my youth. Some days are just going to better than others and we're going through a lot right now and hoping for the best. I won't go into it because it's just too personal to cover here but suffice to say I'm feeling less than secure. I will explain a bit about what I can with my stress over my writing.

Eyes Like Blue Fire hasn't exactly been a big success and while that sucks I am making an effort to see about improving the book overall and rereleasing it after I sort out the bugs. It was my first book and it was originally written in high school, I had very little luck getting folks to read it back then and spent a lot of years looking for proofreaders and editing it myself. I probably took way too long fussing over it and the lack of readers added to my anxiety over it's quality but with little changing on that front all I could really do was rewrite and edit it until I felt I had something solid I could submit. That 2nd rewrite actually had me invested and encouraged enough to start it's sequel Cool Green Waters in 2002 which I knew to be a better book because of everything I
I'd learned rewriting ELBF. I got about halfway into that and then went back to working on Other Dangers in fits and spurts.

ELBF was the one book I finished and the one I was most insecure about. It didn't help that most of my friends were guys and that as guys they really didn't get my attraction to the gothic romance elements that are the base for the gothic horror in ELBF. If you've ever read any of ELBF you'll note that in the beginning it's centered on Katja and her struggle with love and it's complications in her past. Well eventually it does move on from those initial romantic elements to deal with some very dark horror elements that Katja must face to get to a new place in her life.

The fact that ELBF is neither completely horror or paranormal romance makes it a bit of a pariah in both genres. In paranormal romance it's an outcast because the horror elements are very dark and bloody, neither Katja nor Raven fit the stereotypes of the genre (Katja is the hero but a very reluctant one while Raven isn't a musclebound badass with no weaknesses), while there are action sequences these scenes do not make up the bulk of the novel, and while the romance is important to the plot it isn't the overall focus. In horror it's an outcast because it has strong romantic themes, the horror elements aren't the overall theme and the goal is not to scare as much as to convey the emotional and personal change that needs to happen for the lead characters.

ELBF was written before PNR had really had it's big rise to fame and it was never meant to be a part of this genre despite the fact that it's the only romance genre that's approached vampires and I knew it was never going to be a straight up horror novel. Still people pick it up thinking that is one or the other of these genres and then either find a pleasant surprise in it's differences or write it off because it has elements of the opposing genre (another reason it's been difficult to market. I've had it attributed to PNR like Twilight and Vampire Diaries despite the lack of similarities and written off because it doesn't suit the tropes of the genre of their choice. The animosity between the two genres due to such novels creates a bit a of shutoff and rejection point in some readers. )I never meant the book to be a genre stereotype. I wrote it to for what it was and what it was meant to be.

ELBF was written in my Anne Rice and Poppy Z. Brite days. I was lonely and I was struggling to understand myself as a person. I was Katja and I was Raven I wanted to find myself in the eyes, the heart, and the touch of another human being so badly that I couldn't see how inherently flawed that outlook was. I dwelled on my past and all of it's pain refusing to let it go and try to face my future and the being I could be. I couldn't see past all of these personal tragedies, these flaws that I'd pasted up all around me. Completing that first draft was one of the few really brave things I did in those days. I was and in many ways still am an introvert. I had few friends and the friends I had were not always going to be able understand where I was coming from because even I didn't understand it for a very long time. It is no wonder then that the original book and I suppose the current version are still colored by that outlook. It made many transitions over the years I reworked the novel but in the end the book is still about coming to terms with ones past and choosing to move on to the next thing.

Let me try and explain the book as it is. Please be aware there will be spoilers ahead if you haven't read ELBF.

The first part of the novel focuses on her past because it's exactly where Katja's focus has remained for the majority of her life up until the point at which she meets Raven. In that past we meet Sebastian who colored her view of the world by being her first love, Sabine the daughter they had and lost which became a symbol of her hopes for the future, and of course the very flawed Anton Freneau. Anton really is the idealized partner a young woman seeks before she knows what she wants. He rushes in to rescue her from the tragedy of her mortal life only to fail her because he can't deal with his own issues. She isn't able to let him go because he was the person she pinned all of her hopes and dreams on without realizing that his promises were as flawed and impossible as Sabastian's not just because he is unable to fulfill those promises but because Katja hasn't come to terms with herself as a person. Anton is so incapable of facing his own issues in fact, that he forces Katja to do the worst thing she has ever done in her life and instead of taking responsibility for his flaws dumps all of that onto Katja who doesn't even know all of it has become her debt in life. Full of regret and refusing to move on Katja creates a loop of memory and loss that she relives while physically going out into the world and acting without much thought or consciousness for her actions.

When she meets Raven it's a strange experience because her mind is focused on Anton and Raven himself is focused on his own lost love Kathryn. Now some of this similarity is meant to be clearly in their minds and is meant to be read that way but some of that is actually there because Raven based his ideal partner elements on his ideal of what Katja was when he was a child (he only knew her through a painting and at a time of great conflict in his life) and according to what we understand of Anton's actions he placed a bit of his soul in Raven's family line. In this first meeting they're seeing what they want to see in each other and as a result things go much farther than either has intended and Katja runs. She runs because she hasn't moved on from her past and because she isn't really ready to confront the reality of her ideal partner in a man like Raven who isn't without flaws but is far more evolved in personal development. Raven mourns her loss because he struggles to feel grounded in a life that has had very few really solid people and she offered some sense of that solidarity by embodying both Kathryn and the base ideals he's been seeking his whole life. Their interaction over the distance is colored by this and their own evolving relationship with their pasts. This is where Marie comes in.

Marie Gaston is the horror of Katja's past balled up into one big nasty nightmare of a person and she is all of the things Katja has chosen to ignore so that she can dwell on the things she would rather see. She (and all of the other characters who are also damaged by their pasts) must face her in order to claim her future with Raven and the person she would be if she were to move on. Marie doesn't come into the novel as it stands until about a third of the way into it because (as in life) it isn't until Katja's confronted with a new path and romance with Raven that the elements of her past that could do the most damage rear their ugly head. It's also about this point that our other villian Trudeau comes in. Trudeau is Raven's personal demons and dreams attempting to offer him a distraction at the same time as digging open old wounds. The pair of these beings together are causing Raven serious damage in order to damage Katja and her potential future. we also meet Zero at about this point and he's Katja's confidence and a sort of conscience trying to tell her that Anton's life was a lie and that it's poisoned all of the people he's touched. Zero's role is to get her focused on addressing her problems and past so that she can be the person she needs to be to battle and overcome our villains.

Raven plays the role generally given to women in these novels not just to switch up gender roles but because he's actually an extension of Katja coming under attack and therefore not capable of facing the threats that have far more to do with Katja than himself. He's sort of a barely begun dream that doesn't have the strength yet to rescue her or himself from the threat. He is also representative of the aspects of masculinity which are not about battles and strength but emotions and the confusion they cause. These aspects get far less focus in novels than they should precisely because men are more often translated as "the strong one" and the one that has to attack the evil in order to fulfill his gender role. The truth is that men are not always the ones who are strongest and they deal with emotional turmoil just as much as women do. Raven is a more emotional side of the masculine and therefore not the stereotype.

Ok that's a lot I'm sorry. Anyway the point is that book is about facing up to one's self and one's past. It isn't supposed to be a straight up romance novel and it isn't just about the horror these characters face either. It's about the personal journey of one woman and the people she affects as she takes that journey. The opposite is expected of it and I'm having to work out what I can change about the current book to make it more marketable without sacrificing the entirety of the story or huge chunks of the point to do it. I'm hoping my friend can help me see the bits that need work (for whatever reason) and perhaps the 2nd version will do better. I guess it boils down to wanting all of that work to have been all it needed to be it's best. It makes me anxious about my other writing despite the fact that this is my only work (with the exception of CGW of course) that has these sort of niche elements. everything else I've written might have genre bending elements but nothing I can see causing those pieces to be as hard to find readers for as ELBF has been. I suppose one could say that making this my first book means that I've always gone about things the hard way...anyway I'm a tad frustrated but still determined to see this book through. For the moment my focus is going to be on Apocrpyha and seeing that to market and perhaps working on Other Dangers if I can't work on CGW as a result of that frustration for the time being.

I have Jodie, that fantasy story with the boy and his mother, a couple of YA books, the novel about a farming couple and their farm going all Lovecraft and a few other books to complete as well. I suppose that's another reason I want to be done with ELBF I spent so much time working on it or not at all that there are so many other projects backed up as a result. With luck all of out personal issues will play out to a positive end and that will allow me to relax too. Anyway now that I've gone on forever, I hope that things are good with all of my readers and those who follow me because they know me in person or online. I want the best for so many people.

3 Page Feature at Chuckles Book Cave (Previews for Two of my Next Books!)

8/15/2013

This is one of my best features on a blog yet! If you'd like an early look at my short story collection Apocrypha and Cool Green Waters (Broken Edges #2) this is a good place to find them as well. Have a look:

Page 1 a listing of interviews and blubs for Eyes Like Blue Fire as well as a few samples from the book : http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/featured-author-amanda-m-lyons.html

Page 2 A long piece from Eyes Like BLue Fire and a sample from Cool Green Waters http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/featured-author-amanda-lyons-news.html

Page 3 A sample from Apocrypha, specifically a bit of Wendy Won't Go a ghost story: http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/new-release-apocrypha-by-amanda-m-lyons.html

A Few Recent Interviews

6/10/2013

http://themyesterioumuslimahshaven.blogspot.ca/2013/06/interview-with-amanda-lyons.html?m=1

http://lauriethoughts-reviews.blogspot.com/2013/06/eyes-like-blue-fire-by-amanda-m-lyons.html?spref=tw

http://jillmsanders.com/amanda-m-lyons/

http://authoressentials.virtualwritersinc.com/2013/05/eyes-like-blue-fire-by-amanda-m-lyons/

Research, Brainstorm, Write Cool Green Waters Gets Back Underway

5/31/2013

I've been digging through and trying to write more of Cool Green Waters the sequel to Eyes Like Blue Fire this last week and it seems to be fits and starts for now.

I know where I want to go with it (for those of you who've read ELBF this book centers on Mateo, Zero and Michael in greater focus than Katja and Raven who still have some major events in the novel themselves) but I keep running into things I can't quite be certain of or which end up leaving me a little uncertain.

First of all I just got done doing a little research on racial interaction in 1600s England. The good news there is that Mateo would not be dealing with the racism we associate with the long ago U.S. and which we as Americans tend to assume of other nations in the same era. Nor would his mixed parentage have made him too much of a target for bigotry beyond the fact that children conceived out of wedlock were still pretty taboo in 1600s society.

Ok second bit: I love research but I wish I could have gone forward without having to dig this up. I fear it's thrown me off on where I was going to go and now I keep drawing a blank...which is utterly idiotic when you get down to it because the research actually indicates that I don't have to make things more complicated than with Katja and Anton's interaction in the first book (if racial interaction in that time had been more tense their relationship would have to reflect that on some level). Instead it can be about their personal demons which I far prefer in relation to all that's been going on before the part I'm writing.

I guess what it comes down to is that I'd like to be typing out pages like nothing right now but I'm just not getting them. Part of that's wanting to get the sequel done and out there ASAP and then also the idea of getting Other Dangers completed too. I figured I'd try to complete a first draft of Cool Green Waters first because there'd be some demand from fans of ELBF and since it's self-pubbed I'd do the same for CGW once it was edited. If I got that done I could finish the first draft of Other Dangers and decide which manuscript to edit first. Other Dangers is intended for traditional publication so I'll need more time to work on it than CGW.

Maybe it's just not getting a lot of writing time right now...gah!

It's just kind of funny to know what major bits you intended to happen in this book and the next (yep I do have plans for a third book with a pretty big surprise coming up for Katja) but having a tough time getting through the in between bits.

Mateo's Song

5/27/2013

This is a song from a highly overlooked band called Ours. From what I've read it was written after the singer, Jimmy Gnecco's girlfriend committed suicide. In any case, it's a powerful song and I think it also suits the story of one of my vampires Mateo, who must take on the weight of a great deal over the course of his life. Some of that weight comes from events he can't control though he dearly wishes he could. We first learn about Mateo in ELBF and the past that comes to damage him also affects other characters in that novel. In Cool Green Waters the second novel in Broken Edges we will learn more about him and the darkness that has overtaken his life since that fateful night. Meantime enjoy the song and please do go look up both Ours and Jimmy Gnecco, it's wonderful stuff!

Interview with Sumiko at Things That Go Bump in My Head

5/15/2013

http://sumikosaulson.com/2013/05/15/interview-with-amanda-lyons-author-of-eyes-like-blue-fire/