Cecil Wilde's Blog

I’ve been quietly making changes to the way I work for a while now, not for privacy reasons, but because contrary to all appearances I actually hate to talk about myself unless it’s to explain a particularly stupid thing I’ve done.

I’m splitting up the band my work from here on out, and I’m focusing on being a Legit Working Author because let’s face it: it’s the only marketable skill I have. That means I gotta do stuff all business-like (gross). Cecil Wilde will continue to exist–it’s gonna be my actual real legal name very soon–but I’m already not publishing certain things as myself, and I intend to move stuff to other noms de plume (I’ve probably fucked that up trying to make it plural, don’t ask me to do your French homework) as and when the rights to them revert to me.

I also intend to make all my pennames public knowledge (unless I discover there’s big money in necro or something) because: literally everything I write is trash and I’m not worried about people knowing that. Also because I have enough trouble being one person, being multiple people seems very hard. But primarily because–and this is why I published everything under the one name to begin with–I want people to see how much work I’m actually doing, and what it looks like. Not to brag, but as an example of what it actually takes to eek a living out of words.

The heart books will be written as Cecil Wilde. The books that I know won’t even pay for my time writing them. Those books, I will own under my own name. Everything else is going to pennames. The first of these is E.J. Waugh, who writes primarily about exotic dicks on shifters and dudes getting pregnant. It’s a living. I am, frankly, proud of this work, but in the way a commercial artist is proud of their work. I am hella proud of the smut-in-progress I have open in another tab, which will go under a second name. I’m excited to write the contemps I’m plotting in the back of my mind for a third name. I am not ashamed of this at all, it’s what I do (or will do, at least), for a living.

I love books like Defying Convention and A Boy Called Cin and a bunch of spec fic stuff I’m working on slowly because I can’t afford to dedicate a lot of time to it and also feed my cat. I like feeding my cat. My cat likes me feeding my cat. So the compromise is: I don’t have to have a real job, but I need to be a grown up about my not-real-job job. I am okay with this. I’ve reached a place of perfect stillness with the universe by accepting it.

Why am I telling you all this?

Two reasons. One, I need to get it the fuck off my chest. Two, because a lot of people at the beginning of their authorly journey come to me for advice, and I always say ‘I can tell you how to make a living writing, but you won’t like it’. I’ve known how to do this for years, but I’ve resisted it and I cannot, honestly, tell you why. I’ve been extremely stupid about it.

I’ve also known this was coming since Legally Wed came out. I wrote it as an experiment to see how much money there is in writing to trend. The answer is: six months’ income out of one book that took three weeks to write. When I started getting emails from the press to say ‘wow this is doing well’, I knew this was going to happen. When I finally saw my royalty report, I couldn’t justify walking away from that kind of money. My mental health is a fragile beast and the only way around it is cold, hard cash. Security, one might say, in less vulgar terms.

So. Cash money comes first, writing the things I want to write for funsies comes second. You’re all invited to my sweet pervert mansion when I hit the NYT Bestseller list with dragon dicks and personally ruin books for everyone.

I’ve compiled this list both because I love queer spec fic, and because I have a point to prove: it’s out there, there’s tons of it, and it’s easy enough to find. The process for compiling this list was simple. Here’s the tweet I sent out:

Hey nerds, I’m makin’ a list. If you a) are queer and b) have written queer spec fic, TELL ME. Even if you’re 100% sure I know.

— Cecil Wilde (@softestpunk) June 4, 2016

It got a massive response–some from people who didn’t have anything published, some from people who only had shorts in anthologies, but also: a bunch from people whose work you can go consume immediately. I present the latter category here, in all it’s wondrous glory (in order of response).

Alison Evans – Wolfskin

Kelly Haworth – Negative Y

Emily Skrutskie – The Abyss Surrounds Us

Alaya Dawn Johnson – a literal treasure trove of queer spec fic

Heidi Belleau – The Druid Stone, The War at the End of the World, Hawaiian Gothic

Lev Mirov – A ton of queer sff poetry

Emily Singer – Kitsune Tales, Parmeshen (webcomic!)

Shira Glassman – so much happy queer fantasy

E. E. Ottoman – lots of queer spec fic

Sam Schooler – The Practical Guide to Trying Not to Die, Writing Your Own Ransom Note, Blasphemer, Sinner, Saint

Andrea Speed – many queer zombie books

Elliot Cooper – The Clockwork Menagerie, Junk Mage

Kirby Crow – a ton of fantasy and horror/paranormal titles

Pat Schmatz – Lizard Radio

J. K. Pendragon – much queer spec fic

Caitlin Ricci – do you like shifters? (Who doesn’t?)

Ada Hoffmann – The Scrape of Tooth and Bone, other works in anthologies

Amal El-Mohtar – assorted short spec fic for days

Alicia E. Goranson – Supervillainz

Cathy Pegau – Rulebreaker, Deep Deception

Dylan NDR Edwards – Valley of the Silk Sky (webcomic!), many other cool comics

Devin Harnois – Double-Souls, How to Make Friends and Not Incinerate People

I have preferred Goodreads pages where possible, because they allow for further exploration of an author’s works (and the works of similar authors, though the algorithm is imperfect).

I don’t intend to keep this list updated, but do feel free to make a comment to add yourself to it if you and your works qualify! This is intended to be a proof of concept, more than anything else. If you want queer spec fic, ask. It’s out there. People will excitedly tell you about it with very little provocation.

If you want to connect with a bunch of creators (some of whom didn’t have work that was readily available and linkable), I’ve also got a twitter list of queer SFF creators.

For everyone who’s made it this far, I hope your new year is challenging. I hope you grow and learn and change. I hope you experience new things, perhaps things you never imagined you’d experience. I hope you make it through to the next one, and the one after, but even if you don’t, I hope that, as far as you get, you have a helluva journey.

I hope there are puppies, kittens, late nights, early mornings, coffee, second-hand books, warm summer evenings, cold winter nights, chances to break things, chances to fix things, and the clarity and good health to appreciate all of these for what they are.

I hope you share your life with interesting people, even if only for a few moments at a time. I hope you make things of your own, and I hope other people appreciate them.

I want you, if you are reading this, to do me a favour this year: live it. Settle down into it and get comfortable with the size and shape of it, and make use of every inch you can get to. Even if that use is in more naps.

Be well, be kind, and keep accumulating stories. They’re all you’ll leave behind when you’re gone.

Happy New Year, whatever it may bring.

It’s December 1st once again, so that means a whole lot of people have a brand-new book sitting on their harddrives (and hopefully backed up somewhere). Congratulations, that’s one hell of an achievement! Even if you didn’t quite finish NaNo, you did super well, and I’m proud of you.

You may want to be sitting down for this next part, though.

Ready?

You’re not finished.

Yeah, look, I know, okay? You just wrote 50,000 words! That’s so many! You should be able to take the rest of your life off after that. You can, if you want. I can’t stop you. But you won’t really be finished with your book.

But Cecil,  I wrote ‘the end’, isn’t that enough?

Maybe it is! And it’s fine if that’s all you want. It is 100% okay to sit on your book forever now. If you want a finished book, though, there are more steps ahead. Here they are, in brief:

Reward Yourself

You wrote 50,000 words. In a month! I can’t stress enough how awesome that is, and you have definitely earned a reward. This is also a self-care thing. Writing does not bring instant rewards itself, and keeping your own spirits up is really important. It’s easy to get sucked into the idea that you haven’t done anything if you don’t get external rewards right away, and that’s just not true. So whether it’s a chocolate bar, a new gadget, or a night on the town, do something nice for yourself to celebrate. Most people won’t write 50,000 words in their lifetime.

Take a Week Off

Seriously, take a break. Do something else with all the extra time you managed to dig out of your days during November. That’s truly free time now, so make the most of it. Let your novel percolate in the back of your mind for at least a week. I guarantee that by the time the week’s over, you’ll have something to add to it (feel free to take notes about that, to save you from forgetting your perfect solution to the huge plot hole you left in chapter three).

Revise, Rewrite, Repeat

Probably twice. A ‘rewrite’ doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking where you individually re-commit every word to the page, but let’s be honest here: a NaNo novel is by nature rushed. It’s going to need some work. Don’t be afraid to do that! The whole point of a first draft is to give yourself something to work on. You’ve got the skeleton worked out and there’s probably some straight-up genius stuff in there. Go find it! And throw out or polish up anything that’s not meant to be there.

I’m afraid you’re still not finished, but this is where the process gets hazy. Once you’ve got a final draft you’re happy with, you can do basically whatever you want with the book. Shop it to agents or publishers. Start planning to self-publish. Print it out and make it into a ton of paper hats and distribute them to strangers.

Whatever you choose to do with your book now, I am so proud of you! Most people will never write a book, and a significant percentage of them will always mean to one day. You actually did it. That’s huge. You’re great.

So, off you go. Celebrate your victory, take a break, and then get the hell back to work.

Oh, but before you go: tell me about your novel! What did you write, how many words did you get, which part are you most proud of, which part are you dreading getting back to? Tell uncle Cecil everything *chinhands*

Perfect Match is out today! It’s the story of Hunter–a first-time sub who’s never been with a man before–and Milo, a long-term Dom and sex blogger. What’s supposed to be a convenient arrangement for them to both get what they want out of their sex lives turns quickly into something more, and as ghosts from Hunters past come back to haunt him, they both have to figure out how they really feel about each other.

It’s available at Liquid Silver Books, Amazon, and all good ebook retailers.

Today I signed a contract with the lovely Less Than Three Press for a novella titled Books, Balls, and Boys, to be included in their Intertwined collection–a collection of stories about polyamorous relationships.

Books, Balls, and Boys features Spencer, Declan and Kai, adorable dorky college boys who get pushed together by fate and end up in love. Spencer is a linguist studying for his Master’s, Declan is a football player struggling with his grades, and Kai is a football player struggling with homesickness.

Since it’s Christmas and you’ve all been very good, I’m making a novella–Mr February–available for free! Download it here, or navigate to the ‘freebies’ tab above.

After his apartment building burns down, he’s diagnosed with having had myocarditis, and he thinks his new kitten is lost forever, elementary school teacher Jay gets a visit from the attractive firefighter–Liam–who pulled him out of the building while he was passed out, and things start looking up. Liam has Jay’s kitten, and also has a spare room going in his apartment, and he’s happy to take care of Jay while he recovers in exchange for help with the rent.

It’s short, it’s sweet, and it should brighten your day! Please enjoy and spread the word, and have a great holiday season and a happy and safe new year.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! I’m a day or two late, but my Christmas story, The Wish Augur, has just been released by Less Than Three Press!

If you’re in need of a little holiday season pick-me-up, I think this’ll do the trick. It’s still on sale, so now is the perfect time to grab it and give yourself a break from all the stress of the Christmas season!

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve signed a contract for Perfect Match, with Liquid Silver Books! All things working out as I intend, it’ll be the first part of a series focusing on people who have in some way been involved with the in-universe Playmates BDSM matching service.

This book centres around Milo–a long-term dominant who’s not so into the S&M end of things–and Hunter, a brand new sub who’s looking for someone to take care of him and relieve the stress of his high-pressure corporate job.

It’s currently slated for release February 2015, so keep an eye out!

Good evening listeners,

Today we have Terri Schaefer of Liquid Silver Books joining us to answer a couple of questions about the magical world of romance publishing! Please give her a warm welcome.

Liquid Silver have been easily one of the best presses I’ve worked with and that has been in no small part thanks to yourself, Terri. You clearly enjoy your job, but what’s your favourite part of it? 

First of all, thank you so much!  As an author myself I know how scary it can be to send your baby to a bunch of strangers  My favorite part is reading a book that makes me either tear up OR say “gotcha”!  Since we sell romances, it’s usually the weepy part—LOL.

When do you know a manuscript is something you want to pick up?

After about the third chapter (obviously shorter for novellas).  After the third chapter you can see whether the pacing and flow are consistent, and whether the characters are still people you can root for.  That’s usually where I can also start to see if there’s going to be a romantic arc (more on that in a bit)

What are some of your personal favourite tropes and scenarios? Things you’d like to see done more? 

I love friends to lovers (any genre) and small town contemporaries in any “pairing” (I say that in air quotes because I do love me some menages ).  Weres/shifters tend to do very well with us, especially MM.  We’re also seeing consistent sales on FF stories, and I’d love to see more of them come my way.

Do you have any words of advice or wisdom to impart for new authors? 

First, find a critique partner(s) who will rip the band-aid off.  Someone who tells you how wonderful your work is will not be doing you a favor.  Find someone who loves your voice, but has the capacity to be critical.  Second, as a word of caution, I’ve been seeing a LOT of first-person contemporaries in the last six-ish months, and while they may be really good reads, most of the time they’re not romance, they’re women’s fiction.  Authors need to understand that most genre publishes are going to stick to some tried and true rules, be it romance, sci fi or mystery.  In romance, we need to have a hero/heroine (or whatever your relationship dynamic is) who struggle over internal and external obstacles to be together.  That’s the ultimate goal, not solving the mystery or freeing the freedom fighters or getting the bad guy or finding the treasure Those things are the external obstacles, the vehicles, for the romance to ultimately succeed. It’s a tough nut to crack, especially in first person, since we’re never inside any other protagonist’s head, if that makes sense.

Finally, and this is the one that might get you in trouble: are you a coffee person, or a tea person? 

LOL.  I’m a switch hitter. Two cups of java  in the morning (nothing fancy, just black with some whole cream) and then Yogi Detox tea at my desk, and maybe some Egyptian Licorice if I’m in the mood.

Thanks SO much for having me!!

Terri

Thank you for visiting the blog and sharing your insights! And to everyone reading, be sure to drop by Liquid Silver and check them out! (You can even look me up there!)