Josh Lanyon's Blog (17)

I don't even know how I came across it, but I happened to stumble over Lee Goldberg's very old (2004ish?) blog on fan fiction. I gather it was part of an on-going rant on the subject, but that one post alone and all the comments it inspired wore me out.

I recently discovered fan fiction myself -- in this case, fan fiction for a 1970s British cop show called

Got a very nice review at Night Owl Romance for Snowball in Hell, the story that appears in the second PARTNERS IN CRIME anthology. Interesting point the reviewer makes about writing historical fiction in the style of the era.

I did a very modified pulp "voice" on this one. It didn't work for this reviewer -- or at least it took time for her to adjust to it, but I think it was the right decision, and I will continue any stories with these characters in that particular style

So at one-thirty this morning I was putting the final touches on SNOWBALL IN HELL, which is my contribution to the second Partners in Crime anthology: I'll Be Dead For Christmas.

Forty-five thousand words -- and Sarah Black's BLUES ANGEL is about thirty-five thousand, so that's a nice hefty pair of stories for the second volume. And, while both stories are gently themed with Christmas, if you enjoy GLBT mystery with more than a touch of romanc

Got word from my little partner in crime, Sarah Black, this morning that the very first of our gay mystery/crime novella pairings just went live on Barnes and Noble. Partners in Crime, Volume I - Boy Meets Body.

Cards on the Table by Josh Lanyon
Fifty years ago a glamorous Hollywood party ended in murder-the only clue a bloody Taro

It's been a while since I've posted at Crimespace. I have to wonder about the usefulness of all these little online communities. Not that they aren't a lot of fun, but typically they turn into nothing but self-promotion fests -- well, that's not entirely fair, because the posts on the front page of the forum are often interesting and plenty of people participate, but I have to admit I basically use my own pages to note down what I'm working on and where it can be found. A less than subtle elb

I admit I'm not the most aggressive promoter on the planet. Basically I limit my efforts to cyberspace, and because I have a strong niche audience, I've done reasonably well -- targeting both print and ebook readers.

So I'm not about to take credit for one of my publisher's latest promotional schemes -- in fact, I went along with this mostly out of amusement. (Bemusement?)

And what's the promotional gimmick? Candles.

Yep. Candles to promote the SCARED STIFF anthology comi

Few things are more bewildering to writers than reviews. It's fascinating (in a sometimes painful way) to see how differently intelligent readers react to the same work.

Example: three reviews for THE DARK HORSE, my erotic GLBT suspense novel.

Watched two fictionalized "accounts" of real life crime stories yesterday: The Black Dahlia and Hollywoodland.

Of the two, I vastly preferred Hollywoodland, starring Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck and Diane Lane. It's about the unsolved death of George Reeves (the actor who played Superman on TV back in the 1950s). It was intelligently written and well-acted. On the whole, a successful effort, I think, at explaining satisfactorily something

Nice review for THE ADRIEN ENGLISH MYSTERIES double ebook:

"These were two of the best books I think I've ever read. Fast-paced, entertaining, beautifully written, genuinely scary in parts, witty, funny and with wonderfully complex mystery plots which left me wanting to turn the page regardless of the romance. But the romance was gorgeous! You can feel the chemistry between sharp-witted but vulnerable Adrien and 'straight as a stick

You just never know.

This week Loose Id released THE ADRIEN ENGLISH MYSTERIES, which is basically the revised and re-edited versions of my first two novels FATAL SHADOWS & A DANGEROUS THING in a double ebook. Which is great. I'm happy with the rewrites, think the books are much stronger for taking a second whack at them, but I was surprised--pleased, mind you, but surprised--how many of my original readers are going back and buying this double ebo

Maybe that's not fair. Three quarters of the way through I was still thinking Casino Royale was the best Bond movie I'd seen in a long time. I liked the lack of gimmicks, I liked Daniel Craig's lean, savage Bond. And I liked the idea of taking the Bond franchise back in time, back to the beginning of his career as a 00.

But then he fell in love with the Girl With the Scary Makeup, and the plot went to hell. I don't mind Bond falling in love--or something like it--but I

Who knew?

But I guess my new career as a writer of gay romantic suspense is off to a sizzling start. (He said, bemused.) I got my first review, and I admit it's sort of a relief since I had no idea how well my stuff would go over in the no man's land of e-publishing.

"The Dark Horse is an absolutely riveting suspense tale, by far one of
the best this reviewer can remember. Rich in depth of
characterization with a twisty plot that keeps the reader guessin

So my little foray into e-publishng goes live this morning. The Dark Horse is an erotic M/M (AKA gay) romantic-suspense novella being released from Loose id (one of the leading epublishers in alternative romance). Interestingly, alternative romance is everything from love between werewolves to love between men.

Did I mention you need a sense of humor in this business?

The Dark Horse
Josh Lanyon
Genre: LGBT Suspense
Length: Novella
Price: $4.99

Just completed a short story for a cop anthology destined for epublisher Aspen Mountain Press.

I'm not much of a short story writer, so this was an interesting exercise. I'd originally planned to use the cop protagonist from my Adrien English series, but none of the ideas I batted around did anything for me. Nor did any of the other ideas that came to me. Finally, running out of time, I started what I thought would be a sort of light-hearted story about a travel writer who goes camping