person using macbook pro on table

November updates #musings #amwriting

With everything going on politically early November, NaNoWriMo recent issues, and the full time job, this month has been surprisingly productive on the writing front. I’ve been working on editing one story I did almost 10 years ago with the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads.com Love is an Open Road event. The other is a new story called, tentatively, As of Yeti.

Coil Me Up Updates

book cover coil me up by eloreen moon & adan depiaz with two men  arms in a grip together chest bare with a brown python snake pattern on the left forearm and green anaconda snake pattern on the right forearm

To the left is the cover of Coil Me Up that Adan DePiaz assisted me with finishing the story so it would be published on time for the free M/M Romance group Do it in the Closet events’ anthology publications that year. I contacted Adan earlier this year and asked if they were interested in doing revision and republishing, with the intent on possibly writing a sequel. They were not interested in the writing space anymore with life taking them in a different direction. Life has a tendency to go in ways not expected for sure. I can’t say much to that since since publishing my contemporary romance in 2018, I’ve been hunkered down with Real Life™ family and work. There hasn’t been much time to edit existing stories, let along finish new ones.

I’m working on revising the story for publishing a second edition with the intent to write a sequel I had started to frame out when Adan and I had finished the first version of Coil Me Up in 2015. It will be republished under my name solely but I’m still thankful to Adan for the assistance at the time. I wish them good luck and maybe some time in the future they will revisit writing again. If they do, I would love to collaborate with them then. 🙂

I still like this cover but it probably needs a refresh. Perhaps the next cover artist will keep some of the elements. We’ll see.

I plan to update the story, do a little more background additions, and prep the setup better for the sequel. Perhaps it will turn into a trilogy or a series. I will have to see how the muse goes.

As of Yeti New Story

Also with Adan, we had outlined, somewhat, a MM romance with a Yeti and a human. Since Adan is not writing anymore, they gave me permission to run with it.

I’m working on daily updates to both stories 100 words a day each. I’ve had some local in-person events with Pandalanta writing group on Discord a couple of weekends this month: Street Hop Slumber party overnight last weekend and MARTA Hop the weekend before. I have my replacement Apple MacBook Pro 2019 new-to-me laptop I got around mid-year and I have been itching to write again since. It was a low level itch until November 6th happened.

I took 3 days to wallow and then I decided that I needed to just do it and make time to write and edit. I’ve been intending on doing updates/new stories, with a second edition of Together that will include the epilogue I wrote for a blog tour I did five years ago. That’s also on my plate to do but Coil Me Up and As of Yeti are on the forefront to complete.

Additional notes

As mentioned earlier this year, I moved my blog to self hosting, started doing more blog tour/review posts and now I’m going to do more direct posts as well. Maybe I’ll get my act together about a separate newsletter. For now, I’ve got all of my social together in one place on linktr.ee/eloreenmoon, including Bluesky and the ability to follow my posts here as I publish them. I don’t quite have my blog’s social sharing setup for Bluesky yet, but they are working on a custom icon for it and I should get that updated soon. Just have to fix a minor error updating Pages and go from there.

Speaking of Pages, I have updated them to make them more current. I periodically update as changes are made, like the consolidated social media location. I did start a Twitch account but I’m still on the fence about posting videos. I’m not a video kind of person. Introverts unite! -wink-

I don’t have a Patreon contest subscription for readers either for the same reason, although I have been considering it the last few years. I think I needed to get the motivation/desire/drive/muse back in order to make it worth it for readers. Again, we’ll see. If there are readers who would like to subscribe to exclusive content, feel free to let me know in comments or other social media ways.

I’ve also considered publishing the last 10ish years of flash fiction stories in one volume with new content as well. Still noodling that since the last piece in 2023 had to wait 12 months for the rights to it to revert back to me. Since Queer Sci Fi didn’t do another contest this year, it has been over 12 months and likely prime to gather that together. I’ll have to think on that some more too.

Well, let me get back to my writing. Perhaps early next year, you might see some new books published. 😉

~Eloreen Moon

person using macbook pro on table
Photo by Antoni Shkraba on Pexels.com

Cinco de Mayo and another free book for joining #newsletter this month #newslettersignup #freebook #queerscifi #LGBTQ+

For the month of May, Coil Me Up is part of the freebie giveaway if you sign up for Queer Sci Fi’s Newsletter. They are all speculative fiction, fantasy, paranormal, science fiction, and the like.

Coil Me Up is the the second story I wrote, about a year after Charon’s Dilemma, for the M/M Romance Goodreads group. Thank you to the group for having the platform for the story prompts then and now, and to Aden, who unfortunately no longer writes, for the assist with this story. I was struggling to finish it on time for publishing in the group and they jumped in when I needed the help. It was a lot of fun and I hope that I can collaborate with them again in the future.

It’s been almost 10 years for this story and I’m looking forward to revisiting it and the universe. Perhaps I will finish a sequel. I do like mythology, especially of the Greek and Roman kind, and had started an outline for a second book, with notes for a possible trilogy or continuation of a series. I hadn’t quite gotten that far in the planning/thinking, but you’ll see what I mean when you read it. If you like it and want to see more, feel free to let me know here, in email, or on the various social media platforms.

For the M/M Romance Goodreads group, maybe I will look at the group posts again and see if there are other story prompts to inspire. I’m still a member but it has been many years since I’ve read anything there, nor selected a prompt to create. We’ll see how it goes. I did get my website in order so who knows, perhaps this is the year I put a few more stories out.

~Eloreen

It’s almost the end of April and another free book for joining #newsletter #newslettersignup #freebook #queeromanceink #LGBTQ+ #epilogue

This month, I have Together as part of the freebie giveaway if you sign up for QueeRomance Ink’s Newsletter. These stories are more towards romance with MM characters and Gay literature.

Together is the first story I wrote and published with Amazon and was part of a people of color charity anthology back in 2017-2018 originally called Beautiful Skin. I was proud to be a part of it because stories about people of color, or written by people of color, are beautiful and make the work richer. The anthology is out of print now, but the story is still available. A couple of years later, I wrote a flash fiction ficlit, an epilogue of sorts, as part of a blog tour I did August 2020. Thank you again to Sharita for the idea so many years ago. You will need to read Together in order to enjoy the vignette below.

While re-reading it for this post, I did a little more editing on it so it would flow a bit better. This is version two of the teaser that hasn’t been published before. -wink- Eventually, I will re-release Together with the epilogue. Perhaps I can get my act together this year. 🙂

~Eloreen

Saturday Night Date Night

Victor

It was Saturday morning and my turn to pick what we were going to do for our date night tonight. I thought making plans for two people for semi-regular dates was nail-biting. Try planning a date for three people regularly. We all have such different tastes and personalities that it can be a challenge. Luckily, we took turns choosing. If I had to do this every time, I’d go crazy and probably flail.

“Whatcha doing?” Enrique Cruz, my little writer said faintly but rapidly getting closer, startling me slightly. I quickly closed out of the browser I was looking at so he wouldn’t find out my plans and ruin the surprise. I had set things up to do this thing a few weeks ago with my best friend and business partner, Angela Carter, since I was neck deep on some major software updates that we’d rolled out for our mobile game we had first released a couple years ago. This Saturday night date night was special and too important to not have help. It was the one-year anniversary of myself, Enrique, and our other partner, Miguel Armenta, finally getting together as committed partners to each other. If the three of us could legally marry, I would have popped the question a while ago.

When he got close enough, I turned around in my chair and quickly pulled him into my arms and lap for a quick peck on the lips as a distraction. Except, it wasn’t quick. At all. He deepened it and claimed my mouth like it was going to disappear. Silly man. I wasn’t going anywhere.

Someone moaned. Might have been me. Then I felt another set of hands sliding down my naked chest as I had just gotten up from our bed earlier and didn’t bother to put a shirt on to finish the plans.

I gasped a mumbled explicative as my senses fired up when Miguel’s hands found my nipples and started rubbing them just like I like them. Something was nagging at me though. Something important.

Suddenly, I wrenched my now swollen lips away from En’s assault and placed my hands on El’s to stop his movement. I panted a little while I waited for my brain cells to get online and thing again. Fuck, we didn’t have time for round two.

“Stop.”

They tensed, stilling instantly.

“Sorry, nothing’s wrong, loves.” I kissed En first to reassure and then turned my chair, vaguely noticing that at some point the screensaver had kicked in and my chair was sideways. Someone must have moved me to get to me, the little minx.

“Mornin’,” I gave El a kiss on his impish lips to reassure him as well. They both relaxed and then I had a double lap full of my men. Good thing I had splurged for a high-weight computer chair.

“I’m sorry, my dears,” I started after they settled. “While I would love to go back to bed, we need to get ready for tonight’s date.”

Miguel glanced at the clock on the screensaver. “It’s only 11 am.” He turned back to me, confusion in his blue eyes. Then they cleared and narrowed. “What did you plan?” He stood up to get a better look at my facial expressions.

I was so close. I really couldn’t hide anything from El. Both of them really, but especially El with his sharp litigator mind. It’s why I had Angela make the arrangements in the first place. I was about to see the details of said plan when En came into the room.

“Nothing,” I said innocently. Not really, and it wasn’t working for either of them if their disbelieving expression where anything to go by.

“Uh, huh,” En said flatly, and stood up too. Yeah, that didn’t work either. En was a sharp observer too. They put their crossed arms on their equally naked chests nearly at the same time. That was hot.

I broke down. “Ok, there is something going on with tonight’s date night, but I actually don’t know what the details are yet.” I looked at them sheepishly. Out of habit when I got embarrassed about something, I looked down pulling my dreads forward and tried to hide behind them.

“Look at me,” El said with love and reassurance in his voice. I felt his hand gently lift my chin so I would look at him. When our eyes met, he continued. “I love you. You know we will love anything you have planned for us.”

“Yes, but I wanted it to be a surprise,” I sighed. “It’s why I had Ang make all the arrangements with my contingencies in case there was something on my initial list that wouldn’t work.” I had several options and back up plans to keep this particular date a surprise that I had to keep myself in the dark too.

En interjected, “You are fine, honey. I love you, too.” He put his hand on my neck and his forehead to mine. I closed my eyes content as they both returned to my arms and lap.

Speaking of lap, we needed to get moving if we were going to get started on this afternoon’s activities. “Let me up,” I said as I gently pushed them to their feet.

“There’s stuff starting in an hour or two and we are ending at The Melting Pot downtown.” I said the last thing absently missing the expressions on my men’s understanding faces as I went back to the computer.

“Fuck me, he’s proposing,” En blurted out at the same time El sucked in a breath shocked.

I paused from logging in. Damn, they really did know me well.

It’s March… when did that happen? #freebook #newslettersignup #queerscifi #anniversary

I looked up and it’s suddenly it’s March. I had signed up to be one of four authors to provide a free book as a four-pack when you sign up for Queer Sci Fi’s Newsletter. Great place to find wonderful queer spectrum books and stories. Check it out!

Join the queer sci fi email list...
Four book covers Imperfect Illusions by Vanora Lawless, No Shelter But the Stars by Virginia Black, Charon's Dilemma by Eloreen Moon, and Warring Lions by Astrid V. J.
...and get four spec fic ebooks free
https://www.queerscifi.com/join-our-maillist/

This is the first story I wrote and published way back in the Goodreads.com MM Romance Group days 10 years ago (this month actually) where authors would get prompt suggestions and you would pick the prompt you like and write a story to be published there later on. It was fun and I did it the following year year but life got in the way.

If you are a reader of my blog, you’ll know that I will eventually edit this story, possibly put a new cover on it, and rerelease it. Perhaps I’ll do that this month as an anniversary of publishing for the first time. If you do join the newsletter, read my book, and want to know more, have suggestions, or like it, let me know. I’m open to suggestions for revamping it. Perhaps even a sequel. You can stalk, I mean, follow me on social media, or email me eloreen at eloreenmoon dot com for any feedback. If I like any suggestions for updating and/or a sequel, perhaps I’ll include it and send you a free copy of the book in question when complete. -smile-

~Eloreen

Welcome to the new Moonbeams over Atlanta #newyear #newhosting #writing #blogging

Greetings and Salutations! Welcome to 2024 readers!

Person standing front ‘Welcome Board’“/ CC0 1.0

After a few hiccups, I’ve migrated my site from WordPress to self hosting. I intended to post this mid-January, but work was plenty busy and the #DreamHost pro services migration team had to help me figure out a few things. This transfer has been a long time coming. I’ve had the domain for awhile but never got the time to get it moved over from my first blog site at eloreenmoon.wordpress.com. Now that everything is in order (mostly), I’m going to delete that site in the coming weeks.

Plans? I have no plans… Well, actually, I do. I plan to restart blogging, get back into writing and publishing stories, and perhaps self publish here on the site. There are several of my older stories I would like to revamp and republish. A few that I started, but didn’t finish. A few that I got 80% there and then life got in the way. You should see my folders for the various stories I started. I have at least 15-20. *smile*

Since my original newsletter account was killed because of inactivity, I’m going to take a look at options and then set things up again. Perhaps I will have an edited and republished earlier story ready to provide for signing up. So many things to consider.

I know I’ve been saying this for years but there really is a light at the end of the work tunnel. The company I worked for was bought early in 2023 and we’re on the home stretch for the final integrations. We are bigger, better, and offer more support. I hope to see my nights–and a few mornings (I’m NOT a morning person)– plus weekends free up soon. Maybe in a couple months, possibly three months. We’ll see.

landscape photography of snowy mountain
Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

It has definitely been a mountain to climb in this work-life balance. I realized recently that it’s been over 10 years since I started this blogging/writing journey. What better way than to have that website I’ve been wanting for the last 5 years. Now, if only I can get a good price on a MacBook Pro as I liked being able to write on that OS. And I want to get into Vellum, which is only available on a Mac.

If you would like to follow along, fell free to follow my blog, or any of my social media. I will likely post here first then it gets shared to social media second. If you don’t want to follow along anymore, on the blog or social media, feel free to remove yourself. You can also message or email me directly. My contact information is on the page designated for that purpose.

Eventually, there will be a restart to the Newsletter for those that rather have things in their emails, and with it, a free book for joining. Depending on timing, it might be a revised version of an older work, or a new one. It will depend on what stories I manage to get to and finish them for publishing before I restart the newsletter. This self publishing gig is hard.

I think I’ve rambled enough on this post. *wink* Hopefully, the social sharing will work correctly. That was the main hiccup I had and wanted to resolve before I started posting. Please let me know if you succeeded in seeing the link to this post on social media (by interacting/commenting or contacting me on the various platforms). I’m curious to see who sees these posts. 🙂

New Kindle Together #promotion and #newsletter, #writing, and #socialmedia updates

Apologies everyone who was a newsletter subscriber and it stopped and faded away fall of 2022. I just found the emails that Mailchimp had sent then that they deleted my account when it went inactive for 24 months. Oops!

Partial view of two Dell monitors with text and images on them  on a white desk with a coffee mug in the middle below them, a black pen and mousepad with a partial picture of a mouse, and what looks like an Apple keyboard below the coffee mug and papers to the left with scribble notes
Photo by Picography on Pexels.com

I’m working on recreating my newsletter with Mailchimp and re-adding what I had before. I believe I’ve relinked my Mailchimp account so my blog should post to it again. Not that I have any subscribers anymore. Oh well. Such is life.

Mailchimp changed a bit so I’m trying to figure out what I should do. Being out of pocket in writing and online presence in general for the last four years is tough. Covid fog is a thing. I’m slowly coming out of my self-induced online isolation as I slowly come out of the offline one. I’m an introvert (most everyone who knows me in person will know this) and so not being social is the norm most of the time. I do like to see people on occasion, and I live in a polyamorous household, but I do have to retreat to my bedroom to recover from socializing. I’m hoping that I have enough spoons to see this through.

If you are one of those that would like to be back on the newsletter, feel free to email me and I can add you again. I believe I have a signup form back on my blog but it might be pretty bare bones as I get everything setup in the next week or two. As always, if you do signup up and want to opt-out later, feel free to do so. Previously, I provided a free copy of one of my earlier works for signing up called Charon’s Dilemma via the automation of Mailchimp but I don’t quite have that updated yet. If you would like it, sign up for my newsletter and let me know to send it to you and I’ll manually send it in whichever format you prefer. I have EPUB, MOBI, and PDF. If you are like me and like all formats, I can send that too. 😀

Stay tuned to the blog and I will follow up as things progress.

Top-down look at a white coffee mug with coffee in the center, a Kindle tilted 45 degrees to the bottom right with a red and green small-leaf succulent and a larger large-leaf succulent immediately to the right and above the Kindle on a white background.
Photo by Adrienne Andersen on Pexels.com

To celebrate getting back into things with writing and online presence, I’m running a book promotion for the US Independence Day (July 4th) weekend July 1st through 5th since the 4th is on a Tuesday for my eBook of Together on Amazon.com worldwide where you can purchase it for free. It’s on Kindle Unlimited as well but I thought I would see if others who don’t have Kindle Unlimited would like it too. If you would like the book, please purchase during this time and consider doing a review on Goodreads and/or Amazon and sharing on social media. I’m most everywhere even if I’m not active on the platform specifically currently. I’m trying to get back into the social media game. 🙂

Along those lines, I will potentially do a second version of the book to include the short story I wrote for a blog tour I did for Together as an epilogue a few years ago. Some of the people who had read it before then wanted more about my characters. I appreciate my readers especially those who give me feedback as well. Really, Really, please let me know how you like it especially if this is the first time you have read anything of mine. If there was something you didn’t like, or formatting issues, let me know directly with feedback from here or directly to my email that’s posted on my About Eloreen Moon page. I’m still pondering and may look into do some editing of both before publishing them together for the first time. It may or may not have a new cover (I really like my cover) but refreshing covers is something that is done in this industry. I will have to see after I do edits and figure out costs for all of it.

Drawing of lightbulb on yellow Post It note pinned with a red thumbtack to a background of a corkboard.
Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

For those that want more writings from me, I do have flash fiction published in a few anthologies (details in About Eloreen Moon page here and Goodreads.com) on topics across all LGBTQ+ and genres. I’m working on a few new projects and will probably edit and re-publish other writings I did in the beginning, including Charon’s Dilemma and Coil Me Up. It’s one of those things that I will start somewhere one word at a time. It’s a little daunting being out of the loop for so long and starting up again. It’s almost like starting over but different. -wry smile-

Speaking of Coil Me Up, I talked with Adan recently and she’s given permission to re-edit and re-publish it fully under me again. She had helped me with writing a few chapters to get it finished for the the contest that inspired the story when it was originally published in October 2015 and hasn’t had motivation to write for quite awhile. I hope that we get to collaborate on something new as it was a lot of fun working with her. It is about snake shifters and if that’s not your thing, feel free to pass it up.

I think I will close with a picture of my favorite flower that’s about to bloom this year: Oriental Stargazer Lilies. I used to have Starfighters but I think they died out several years ago and these have been going strong for at least 4-5 years now. I’m not 100% sure but I think the ground-cover plant below them are baby strawberries from another pot elsewhere on the porch…

General election today #Vote #GeorgiaVote #musings

I voted. Polls close at 7 pm EDT.

I am working on a #NaNoWriMo18 #LGBTQwrimo #NaNoLanta story. I’ll update on the next day or two. All the things.

I do have a question: Would you like to see a newsletter on your inbox of future releases, ARCs, and a freebie story? If so, comment here. I’m looking into setting one up monthly, possibly as frequent as weekly.

Today is the Day! #musings #facebook #event #BeautifulSkin #LGBTQ #AuthorTakeover #writing

So, I had planned on writing some this month, get my act together for this author takeover for Beautiful Skin (thank you Wendy Stone for running it!), and post more about what is going on.

You know how plans go, right?

What’s an author takeover? Well, in Facebook, there’s a group called RGR – M/M and LGBT Book Events that’s attached to RGR (Rainbow Gold Reviews) that I’ve been a reviewer with for the last almost 5 years (it’s been that long, wow). Authors spend scheduled time talking about the theme and their books. Today, we are celebrating the Beautiful Skin Anthology that released late August 2018. Come join us!

Details below. You do have to be a member to participate, but it’s a public group. Join and us admins will add you to it. *wink*
***Author Takeover Event***

Saturday September 22nd here in this group
Stop by to celebrate the “Beautiful Skin’ anthology with these amazing authors!

4:00 – 5:00 T.s. McKinney
5:00 – 5:30 Victoria Sue
5:30 – 6:00 Dora Esquivel
6:00 – 7:00 SJ York
7:00 – 8:00 T.B. Bond
8:00 – 9:00 Eloreen Moon

***All times are EDT***
**Authors are responsible for their own giveaways**

There might be prizes involved with my take over at least. *whistles*

I might just have something to announce/reveal during my takeover too…

Amazon eBook | Amazon Print

I’m working on the next Persons of Color Anthology that’s paranormal-based. I’m not sure when I will finish. I’ll have to see. Work has been… busy. We’ll just leave it at that. There’s some personal family stuff that I’ve been dealing with and so my plate has been full. Since writing relaxes me, I’m going to try to find time to work on stuff this weekend in between things. I will definitely be in a much better place if I can accomplish things. 🙂

As always, I will try to do more blog posts, maybe restart my blog story or start a new one, and be around more. It’s fun to sink into the world of reading and writing. I miss it.

 

Eloreen

Release Day for Beautiful Skin Anthology by Multiple Authors #OrderNow #PersonsOfColor #Romance #LGBT #NewRelease

*•.¸(`*•.¸(`*•.¸★¸.•*´)¸.•*´)¸.•*´
*****Beautiful Skin: A People of Color Anthology*****
¸.•*´(¸.•*´(¸.•*´★`*•.¸)`*•.¸)`*•.¸

 

Release date: 8/23/18 (Amazon Print | Amazon)

Add this wonderfully diverse anthology to your Goodreads TBR list today, because you won’t want to mi!!

Link to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41067383-beautiful-skin

1 Day Until Beautiful Skin Anthology by Multiple Authors #ComingSoon #PreOrder #PersonsOfColor #Romance #LGBT #1Day

 

*•.¸(`*•.¸(`*•.¸★¸.•*´)¸.•*´)¸.•*´
*****Beautiful Skin: A People of Color Anthology*****
¸.•*´(¸.•*´(¸.•*´★`*•.¸)`*•.¸)`*•.¸

 

Release date: 8/23/18 (Coming Soon Print; Pre-Order eBook Amazon)

Add this wonderfully diverse anthology to your Goodreads TBR list today, because you won’t want to miss it when it releases!!

Link to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41067383-beautiful-skin