Daily life: Prison lit, Smashwords, ePub, and the m/m fiction community

"I am not a historian. And even if I was I wouldn't know everything about every era. So generally, if I'm reading a story about 1800's Australia, or 1920's Ireland, or Tudor England, my default mode is that I'm a little on edge. This is because I want to like the book, and I trust the author not to jolt me with glaring anachronisms. If there are small mistakes I won't catch them – and if the book is good enough – such as Dash and Dingo was, I can forgive the odd gaffe. We all make mistakes – hell we are human. But if the book unravels as I'm reading it, and there's glaring nonsense heaped on 'omg she didn't' then I know I'm NOT in a safe pair of hands."

--Erastes: A Safe Pair of Hands.

"I suppose I don't see what's so wrong about getting the facts right. No-one complains when mystery writers use the correct poisons or the right ballistics, after all. I don't feel I'm being preached at when I read murder mysteries, and I enjoy learning about things I didn't know. Just because something is romance, historical romance, doesn't mean that it should automatically be allowed to warp the facts. 'Oh I know cocoa powder doesn't have the same effect as belladonna' said Agatha Christie, 'but it's fiction, so why does it matter?'"

--Erastes, in the comments section of the same article. The whole thread is worth reading, because other historical novelists and readers chime in with their thoughts.

( Background to my entries )

( Writing and Simplicity: Bunches of stats )

( Writing: Text-to-speech, braille, and my Muse )

( Writing and Simplicity: My writing schedule this month )

( Writing: The Muse swoops in and takes hostages )

( Writing: Prisons in the 1910s (Life Prison research) )

( Writing: One stick too many (e-publishing, print publishing, and 'Rebirth') )

( Writing: More from the prisons in the 1910s (Life Prison research) )

( Writing: First, let's kill the lawyers. Then the software manufacturers.) )

( Writing and simplicity: Internet addiction thoughts )

( Writing: Yet more interesting prison writings from the 1910s (Life Prison research) )

( Writing: Smashwords improvements planned; plus, Smashwords versus Lulu )

( Simplicity and Writing: Internet addiction and ePub creation )

( Simplicity and Writing: Another day of Internet addiction . . . but I'm ready to upload )

( Writing: Erastes on the history of gay historical fiction )

( Writing: How do I find a place within the m/m fiction community? )

New editions: "Night Shadow" in ePub; "Blood Vow" in Kindle; plus, news about my future e-books

The following e-books, both from the Main Bookshelf, have appeared in new e-book editions.

New Kindle e-book edition:

Blood Vow (The Three Lands). He has taken a blood vow to the Jackal God to bring freedom to his land by killing Koretia's greatest enemy. But what will he do when the enemy becomes his friend?

New ePub e-book edition (free):

Night Shadow (Darkling Plain). A prince who could see beyond his borders but not see the people around him. . . . An enemy who would take any measure to get what he wanted. . . . And now a stranger has brought news to the prince of an approaching danger.

I'm in the process of converting my entire backlist into ePub e-books. Some of the e-books will have bonus material about the creation of the stories.

If you're not familiar with the format, ePub is the MP3 of the e-book world: a common e-book format that can be read by many e-readers and mobile devices. Since an ePub e-book is simply a bunch of HTML files collected together in a special way with a few other files, you can easily read ePub e-books in your Web browser, as well as in e-readers, mobile devices, etc. More information is available in Easy Ways to Read ePub E-books.

My first ePub e-book is now online: "Night Shadow." If you plan to read my e-books at any time in the future, I'd appreciate it if you'd download this free e-book. If you encounter any problems with the formatting or layout, please let me know so that I can correct them now, before I publish more e-books.

duskpeterson.com update: New stories and new excerpts from upcoming fiction

—John had a way of speaking, softly and simply, words that were most chilling. ¶ A new Kindle e-book edition is issued of the friendship fiction novel Blood Vow.
—The darkness that Farsight had sensed during the past weeks was quiescent, perhaps driven into sleep by the light. ¶ A free edition of the suspenseful fantasy story "Night Shadow" is the first in a new series of ePub e-books.
—Reminding himself that he was not to kill anyone in this dungeon. . . ¶ A holiday gift story is posted at The Eternal Dungeon.
—He had prepared himself for the possibility of death at the hands of the enemy. He had not expected his King to die in the moment of his victory. ¶ Two stories are posted at a new series site devoted to rare litfic: gen, het, and slash.
—The Turn-of-the-Century Toughs bibliographies are updated.
—New blurbs, cover art, and excerpts are posted from upcoming fiction.

The details.

FIC: Revenge (Subtext)

Revenge is sweet . . . unless you are haunted by dark memories of your own misdeeds.

(This story is also suitable for Main Bookshelf readers.)

He had prepared himself for the possibility of death at the hands of the enemy. He had not expected his King to die in the moment of his victory.

FIC: Cold Stars (Subtext)

The prince was told that he must find himself. But what if finding oneself means losing one's love?

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

"I thought that he would return once his wounds were healed. I would never have left him if I had known this would happen."