Elf's Random Musings

The reason I really haven't been that active on the forum as of late is because my job is deciding to bury me under absurd amounts of overtime again as well as heaping more work upon me as well as an email I got about two weekends ago.

Years ago I almost had a novella series deal with a company called Black Death Books for a Law Unto Herself series. Paper work was being drawn up, we were coming up for ideals for marketing the series, and the second book finished. Then the economy happened and the imprint for that series (it was for pulp fiction type stories) never happened.

Luckily, it wasn't a bad break up. I mean shit happens. And I had the knowledge that I was talented enough to get accepted for a freaking series.

Then the computer that had that stuff on it died a horrible death, and I didn't recover the first book that was already ready for print and the second in the series. It was rather specialized stuff for that imprint anyway. It wouldn't be something I could easily sell. And this was before the days that e-publishing really hit, and I swore to myself I wouldn't self publish.

Well, cue a couple of weekends ago I get an email from this company with a call for submissions for an imprint for Erotic Romance. One of the genres they specifically request is Urban Fantasy, mainly stuff with Vampires, Werewolves and Witches. The company had been doing pretty well, even had the likes of Joe Landsdale published under them. (He's the guy responsible for "Bubba-Ho-Tep" and a few of the Batman: The Animated Series episodes.)

Not to mention, Erotic Urban Fantasy Romances sell. Even if I don't get accepted I can publish it as an ebook rather easily. I've had an idea for a romance series for years. If you've read my stuff you know I can write romance and porn. I was just so focused on the Law Unto Herself Chronicles (which I have something in the works that you guys will hopefully be seeing soon) that I thought writing a romance novel would be "selling out".

So I decided what the hell, I'll go for it. I've been joking for years that the first book I'm probably going to get published is a romance novel. I'm going to take the plunge and write some of my Porn with Plot and see if it sells.

I'm getting started on the thing, and then I realize before I can write anything I need to do research on different time periods and the like. Oh, and make a whole Urban Fantasy universe that isn't like the world I created for Forest and Friends. That means I have to make Those Vampires Different. And nix the heavy Fae elements that I have in my original verse.

Jesus Christ I forgot how much world building can be a giant bitch. Character creation I can do. In fact its something I like to think I'm good at, but making a world for them is something else all together. Especially making it unrelated to my main 'Verse as much as possible.

Since I want my real name to be for my more "serious" (well as serious as Urban Fantasy 80's movies in written form can be) work, I decided that I needed a pen name for the romance novel.

C.J. Texas was what I came up with.

That's part of the reason I really haven't been active that much lately. I'm in my eyeballs with stuff and it's time to get serious. No more playing around, it's time to get my A-Game on.