Hope everyone's holidays are going swimmingly. We're prepping for family new years visits around here. Allllways an interesting experience. Family + champagne = hours of entertainment.

And possible hangovers.

Anyhow, just dropping by to say that if you have a Kindlegraph collection and would like to add Equilibrium and/or Riot Boy to it, you can drop a request here. I know, I know, I'm late to the party -- but, um... fashionably late?

Maybe not. But I made it!

Happy new year <3

Check out the Free Reads page for a little gift, from me to you. "Best Gift Ever", another fluffy, smutty-sweet Equilibrium short story. This one's all about Christmas, family, love -- oh, and the odd sugarkink. Just here and there. You know how it is.

That awesome cover? Yeah. Drawn by Astro. Grrrr, Sammy. Grrr.


(PS: Sneak peek at the Nobody's Hero blurb in the back... :D)

Okay, so Nobody's Hero will not be here for the holidays, but that is the name of my next superpowered romance! I reckon finding out that it's a go is my big present. (And here I thought it was the opera tickets I convinced B we needed.) There aren't many details just now, but since I think this one will be arriving sooner rather than later, I wanted to introduce the boys to the world. Check out the spankin new Nobody's Hero page to get a sneak peek at Jamie and Kellan.

Jamie might think he's nobody's hero, but I dunno. Looks like he gets to be the hero of one story, anyhow. As for Kelly, well... *cranks Flogging Molly*.

Of course I'll add in more info -- a blurb, some excerpts, etc. -- while we're prepping the story, so it can't hurt to watch that space if they sound like your kind of guys.

There's some cool stuff going on for the hols, too, and I wanna give a quick heads up about the Big Ass Holiday Authors Giveaway over at Jessewave's site on the 22nd. I'm throwing one copy each of Equilibrium and Riot Boy into the mix, and -- dude. There are so many awesome books about to be up for grabs, I don't even know where to begin. The rundown is here, sorta like a pre-game warm-up.

I should have a little present for y'all that day, too. I might be a heathen, but I do love this time of year :D

Wow I totally didn't mean for that post title to rhyme. But now I have to leave it there. Just because.

A couple of way exciting things went down this week.

1. There was just a completely badass review of Riot Boy posted by Daisiemae over at Night Owl Reviews. She gave it five stars -- as in a Reviewer Top Pick! Check out what she had to say:

Riot boy is the first book I’ve read by Katey Hawthorne and it definitely won’t be my last. I loved Ms. Hawthorne’s creative world building skills and uniquely sexy characters that seemed to live and breathe off of the written page. Riot Boy was a book that once I started I had to finish it in one setting and has a very fast paced storyline that kept me captivated with it until I finished the last word.

I am, just, kinda, like, wow. Which, as reactions go, does not speak well for my writing ability, I know. Sorry. Just, that's rad, c'mon!

Oh, speaking of! There was a super cool review last month by Kassa, too. It's a three out of five stars, BUT she does recommend it and say it's really fun and worth a read. I thought it was cool as hell because it was almost one of those "I really liked this in spite of myself" reviews. Which always make me proud.

Thank you so much to these wonderful reviewers for giving Riot Boy a shot. Anyone who takes the time to read it, let alone write something about it, good or bad... man. I have so much love.

And just as a reminder, since it's the middle of the month, my interview with TRS is still up. It's very Riot Boy oriented. Fun stuff, for sure.

2. More Superpowered Love is on the horizon! This next one is a bit more, well, thinky, I usually call it, than my last two. As in, there is a dearth of exploding things and street fighting, and a great deal of conversation, affection, family issues, societal pressure, and personal growth.

Well, love, too. Lots of love. Also cats, electricity, paddy rock, vampire movies, comic books, and really adorable Jockey briefs.

I will have more definite news very soon. I'll be working on a new page for it, where I'll throw the character stats as usual, but you can get a sneak preview on my tumblr.

Willoughby Spit, everyone's favorite little punk band, would never consider their set complete without a glam injection. And for that, they go to New York Dolls, of course. While they play "Trash" as part of a setlist in Riot Boy, perhaps their most Brady song is "Looking for a Kiss"...



(For those seeing this on a feed: New York Dolls - "Looking for a Kiss" here!)

The opening always cracks me up. "When I say I'm in love, you best believe I'm in love l-u-v!"

Awesome.

More soundtrack to come soon, but this is just a quick update to point to my Featured Author status over at TRS this month. They have a review of RIOT BOY going up soon (there's a bit of it on the featured page), and a little interview with me about the book and a couple of other random things. Check it out and let me know what you think, and thanks to the good folk at The Romance Studio.

As I've mentioned many, many times before, the soundtrack is very important when I'm writing. It keeps me focused -- keeps those little characters from wandering off in random directions when they see something shiny and want it for their nests. For Riot Boy, this wasn't as much of a problem with Etienne, but Brady's a real magpie sometimes.

Never woulda guessed, huh?

But I think this is my first book where the soundtrack wasn't just important to the mood, but pretty much shaped the plot itself. Or where it was so much to my own taste, which might have something to do with it :D I've posted links to "Orgasm Addict" and "Ghetto Defendant", two key components of the "first date", elsewhere -- those lead to their excerpts. So let's try something new...

Blondie!

(For anyone seeing this on an rss feed with no embed: video link here)

Ohhhh your hair is beautifuullllll.

I'm dropping off for the rest of the week for Thanksgiving. To all my American pals, happy turkey day -- even if you're like me and bringing shame to your family by not eating turkey. And to everyone else, happy weekend a little bit early :D

Reblogging from kvtaylor.com



Please take a moment to remember.

Thanks to Beatrice, who pointed out that Riot Boy got its first review over at Jessewave's site, and thanks to Raine for taking the time to do it -- and with so much style. Rather prettily written, isn't it? I am particularly pleased that the soundtrack got as good a review as the book itself. Like I say in the comments, in these cases, that's just as important, if not more.

Also happy she pointed out the "Fuck Me, Etienne" shirt, since as you know, that was my alternate title :D

And yeah, I'm going to post these as they come in this time, but I'll also stick 'em on the Riot Boy page as I update it. Just wanted to get this one in there for the weekend. Yay!

Different in that it comes from the other me, and asks you to do stuff. But hey, some of y'all may like it!

So you may or may not know that I am two people. I write dark fantasy as KV Taylor, and have for some years. My first full-length novel as such, Scripped, is coming out at the end of this week, and I'm pretty excited about it -- obviously. But I realized it might appeal to some superpowered love readers as well, because while it's primarily a dark paranormal/urban fantasy, it does have a romantic subplot. Actually, most people who've seen it refer to it as a paranormal romance. If a very disturbing one. Think Faerie Stockholm Syndrome and you're there.

But you can win cool dark fiction eBooks by doing a signal boost for me, and the post about this giveaway is here! If you do end up pre-ordering the print version of Scripped, I'm hooking up the first couple of people to email me and let me know with these cool signed, numbered chapbooks I made. Again, these are dark fantasy, but the first story is a love story. A nasty fairy tale style love story, but still. So if you decide to order it, definitely email kate AT kvtaylor DOT com and tell me so I can hook you up. (Scripped will be an eBook too -- I'll post on Friday when everything drops.)

I thought I'd excerpt the prologue, which might explain a little about why I thought it was relevant:

Scripped: You might escape the fae, but you can never go home.

And now back to your regularly scheduled superpowered updates~

Hey y'all. I had a rad time at the TRS party, and I hope everyone who dropped by feels the same. It's after midnight now, so the prizes are ready to be distributed. I didn't expect the number of entries I got, especially on the packs giving away Riot Boy, so I decided to do a first place and a runner up for each. (I decided to do that for all the packs, actually, because it seemed unfair to leave out the other one!) So here's what we have:

Riot Boy Prize Pack A: The Annotated RIOT BOY

Excerpts and fun facts and all other manner of amusing things are happening allllllll day long at The Romance Studio. I'll update this post as I go as a Superpowered Love index, but definitely check out the whole party to catch the fabulous featured books.

Post #1: Riot Boy by Katey Hawthorne [An Introduction, containing the blurb and the first excerpt on the Riot Boy page.]

Post #2: The Importance of Punk [The never-before-seen "Orgasm Addict" snippet. By which I mean the song. Geez, what did you think...?]

Post #3: The Importance of Poetry [The all-new "Ghetto Defendant" and Arthur Rimbaud snippet.]

Post #4: Putting the Love in Superpowered Love [Another all-new excerpt from the first time our heroes hook up. Gets a little bit hot up in there... or maybe cold.]

Post #5: Equilibrium by Katey Hawthorne [An Introduction, featuring the first scene -- which isn't on the Equilibrium page here! C'mon, Sam and Hansen need love too.]

Post #6: Putting the Superpowers in Superpowered Love [More all-new Riot Boy excerpt stuff, this time from Brady and his... less-than-savory awakened clan.]

Post #7: Better get those handcuffs... [The rated-R excerpt you can find right here at Superpowered Love's Riot Boy page. Mmm-hmm.]

Watch this space for more all through November 10th. And don't forget, today is your last chance to enter The Big Riot Boy Release Party Giveaway~

It's true. Riot Boy is a thing, a real thing, and you can get it from Loose Id riiiiiiiiight now! Riiiiight here, even! Not sure yet? Hey, it's cool. Check out the Riot Boy page here at Superpowered Love, where you can meet Et and Brady, our intrepid *cough* heroes *cough*, catch some excerpts, and generally get an idea of what this is all about.

Gonna wait a few days? I'll be updating the page regularly as the book pops up on other sites like Amazon, All Romance Ebooks, Sony Store, and Fictionwise. Until then, well, you could always win a copy from The Big Riot Boy Release Party Giveaway, going on right here until November 10th is over.

Why November 10? Why, because I'll be hanging out at TRS's release party, of course! There will be excerpts -- many excerpts, most of which will have to do with the prizes offered in the fabulous Riot Boy packs.

And in the meantime, I'mma wear my "Town Called Malice" shirt for Brady, today. Sing it with me: Stop dreamin of the quiet life cuz it's the one we'll never know...

(The Jam does not endorse Riot Boy. But Riot Boy endorses The Jam.)

Barring disaster, Riot Boy should be seeing virtual shelves next week. (Please don't hate me if a disaster happens, though.) Freakoutgowildscreamingyay! To celebrate, I'm giving away loads of cool stuff. Want some? Awesome.

ETA: 10/11, 11.59 PM
This contest is closed. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to enter! Announcements coming up soon <3 

Here's how it works:
-Choose a prize pack -- you can only enter for one, and each has its own page.
-Comment on your chosen pack page (not on this post) with some contact information to let me know that's the one you want. Please be willing to email me your mailing address, if you win. I'll write you a very sweet letter on pretty paper, if you do. [ETA: This giveaway is international -- anyone, any continent is welcome to enter!]
-I'll number the comments and let random.org choose the winners at 11.59 p.m. EST, November 10, at the end of The Romance Studio's release party. Where I will be hanging out all day, drinking absinthe cocktails and posting excerpts and generally making a nuisance of myself. And Brady. But more on that later.
-Profit.


Click through for visual aids, links to the booty, and, of course, to enter!

A: THE ANNOTATED RIOT BOY
for those who haven't bought RIOT BOY yet...
1. Riot Boy by Katey Hawthorne (ebook, delivered via email in the format of your choice)
2. "A Season in Hell" and "The Drunken Boat" by Arthur Rimbaud, trans Louise Varese (dual language edition, paperback)
3. Combat Rock by The Clash (audio CD)
4. Absinthe spoon

B: THE RIOT BOY SURVIVAL PACK
for those who already own/are planning to buy RIOT BOY...
1. "A Season in Hell" and "The Drunken Boat" by Arthur Rimbaud, trans Louise Varese (dual language edition, paperback)
2. Candide by Voltaire (English language edition, paperback)
3. Singles Going Steady by Buzzcocks (audio CD)
4. Absinthe spoon

C: RIOT BOY MEETS NERD BOY PACK
for those who would like both RIOT BOY and EQUILIBRIUM...
1. Riot Boy by Katey Hawthorne (ebook, delivered via email in the format of your choice)
2. Equilibrium by Katey Hawthorne (ebook, delivered via email in the format of your choice)
3. The Singles Collection by The Kinks (audio CD)
4. Absinthe spoon

Troubleshooting:
If Blogger won't let you comment on your chosen page, send an email to kate AT kateyhawthorne DOT com, letting me know which prize pack you want. I'll comment for you, and you will be entered in the proper order, I promise

Some notes on the booty:
-I'm very sorry if you already have the album on the pack you like, but at least you have something worth regifting when the holidays roll around, right?
-Brady says that if you think you don't like the album offered with the pack you want, you haven't listened properly. Try again. (I say, hell, it's free, why not?)
-I would actually love to send you absinthe with the spoons. Alas, I could get into trouble for that, and I can't really check your IDs from here, anyhow.
-This edition of "Une Saison en Enfer" is not the same one Etienne owns, but I have it on good authority that it's a nice translation, all the same.
-Voltaire is hilarious.
-No, you absolutely do not need to read Equilibrium to get Riot Boy, or vice versa. They're wholly unconnected, apart from happening in the same world.
-Riot Boy will be released a few days before the end of this contest. If you can't wait, go for pack B!

Questions? Concerns? That's what this post is for! <3

Yeah, I just ended that subject with a preposition. Two turntables and a microphone. (Am I showing my age with the Beck reference? Awesome.)

Seriously, though, looks like November's where it's at. Don't ask me where October went -- I felt the same way after September, to be honest. 'S okay, it's November, and that's even better. Why?

1. Obviously, Riot Boy! Yes, this is the month, my friends -- and very likely sooner rather than later. On Friday I'm going to start a massive Riot Boy Release Day Prize Pack Giveaway, even, to give a good run-up. It'll run from the 4th to the 10th, when I'll be participating in one of The Romance Studio's brilliant release parties. At the party, I'll be posting loads of excerpts, fun facts, and behind-the-scenes info -- most of which will relate to the fabulous Riot Boy Prize Packs, of course.

But more on that later. For updates on the prizes and such, follow the blog, or visit me on twitter -- @taylorkv.

2. Nanowrimo. Oh, haters gonna hate, but I love it. In fact, the first book I ever sold (which will come out -- er, probably by the end of the year) was written for Nano originally. I didn't participate last year, but I'm doing a grand experiment over at kvtaylor.com this time around. The goal: to rewrite one book from scratch by the 14th, and then write another novella by the end of the month.

Can it be done? Maybe. Can it be done without driving me madder than I already am? Maybe not.

And yet, I am undaunted. Come share my pain -- friend me if you're doing Nano!

That's it from me. Back with Riot Boy fun on Friday. <3

Quick update on the little "Jealousy" short freebie. You can still get it as a pdf or htm file from my box.net folder, of course. But as of today, it's also available in multiple formats as a Smashwords edition and for reading or downloading at Goodreads. So if you've been kinda iffy about downloading it from me directly, prefer ePub, etc etc, this one's for you.

I've also created a Free Reads page, since this is something I'll do every now and then, and I like to keep things tidy. For now, it's just "Jealousy", but there will of course be more in the coming months. I like free stuff as much as the next person, what can I say.

In other news, I've been adding reviews for Equilibrium to the page as they've come in. So far people seem cool with the absolute dorkiness of the thing. And by "the thing" I think I mean "Hansen".

Here's the list, so far:
Beatrice @ MM Good Book Reviews - 4 (of 5) hearts
Raine @ Reviews by Jessewave - 4+ (of 5) stars (Also a recommended read for September)
Midia @ The Romance Reviews 4 (of 5) stars

Thank you, kind reviewers and readers of all sorts, for taking the time to check out my first release. You make my life.

PS - Equilibrium is 2 months old today! Awwww...

Just in time for the weekend -- assuming your weekend starts Friday. (What, doesn't it? Er...)

Thanks to Raven the Wonderful Editrix, here's a free short story featuring Hansen and Sam, post-Equilibrium. It's pure fluff-and-smut bonus content, meant to go with your morning coffee or late afternoon martini. It's called: "Jealousy: A Love Story", and you can have it as a pdf or a web page (in a zipped folder), whatever floats your boat.



Oooh, flash widget not workin for you? Yeah, I use an iPad, too. Here are the download links:

Jealousy HTM (zip file)
Jealousy PDF

I tested these babies on my computer and iPad, but please let me know if they give you any crap.

And just in case: no, it won't ruin the book for you, if you haven't read it. It does spoil the "Will we see HEA?" suspense... but seeing as I've flat out said I'm all about the HEA, not much of a spoiler, right? Right!

Happy spirit day!

I've collected quite a lot of questions over the last few months, especially once a second book was announced. These have come from my family, my friends (both romance readers and those who usually don't touch the stuff, but have made an exception for me -- thank you!), and fabulous readers. I'm grateful for these questions, because my bio page was pathetic -- but now I've added a Superpowered Love FAQ, and talking about books is more interesting. So while I'm not completely sure it's riveting, it's at least marginally more amusing. Yay!

And as a quick reminder, RIOT BOY excerpts appeared this weekend. If you haven't seen, go and check them out. There will be more when the time for the release party comes, but until then, these should give you some idea of the guys who will serve as our intrepid, er, heroes.

Some colorful new excerpts have just been added to the RIOT BOY page. Yay! So if you're interested in a sneak peak into Etienne's brain, odd though it is, he is very happy to provide. There are two short bits, rated PG and R. But don't be fooled, that's just the beginning.

Riot Boy: Punk rock, Rimbaud, handcuffs, and supervillains. All the important things in life. Obviously.

And coming soon. Oh so very soon. As in weeks, rather than months!

(What? Me? Nervous? Noooooooo.)

I'm bored of talking about myself, so let's talk about other people. Awesome. I asked for input last week after my own little venture into character/place inspiration, and a surprising amount of readers and writers had posts for me to read, said they would write one in the future, emailed, tweeted, etc. Today I'm going to collect the first couple -- the ones that were ready to go. I'll do it again in a month or two when some of the people in brain recovery and/or still searching for theirs have em. Hell maybe it'll be a regular thing.

So, before I do this, I want to point out that I am an equal opportunity romance reader: historical, queer, straight/cis, menage, erotic, unfulfilled, steampunk, scifi, smut, humor, even angsty bloody teardrop emo vampire romance -- okay, I'm more likely to pick up something with a historical or speculative element than a contemporary, but that's just cuz I'm an unabashed genre nerd. So with that disclaimer in place, check these out:

Kirsty Logan. Kirsty writes incredible things -- she writes about all sorts of things, but she hits you in the heart. I first got to meet her when she did a... sort of supershort epistolary lesbian vampire erotica piece (complete with beautiful Abigail Larson catalogue illustrations!) at The Red Penny Papers: Pullen & Bumber's Catalogue of Particulars.

Kirsty does a series on her blog called Thievery about her inspirations -- and I can't believe I forgot this, because I distinctly recall reading the "Girl A" piece about halfway down the first page right now not long after I got to work with her at RPP and falling in love with it. The most recent entry is one about her award-winning story "Underskirts", the lovely Susie, and the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Please to read it here, because it's fabulous.

Belinda McBride. Belinda is a busy, busy woman, if you haven't noticed. She's just had Blacque/Bleu out in August (this is in my basket already, btw), and this Tuesday saw the release of When I Fall, the sequel to An Uncommon Whore. (Link to the series page, there.) Yeah, I know, right -- and that's just the really recent stuff. So you know she's got some serious head voices going on. 

She was kind enough, in the middle of this whirlwind of awesome, to send me a link to this post: Thursday at the Tire Store. In it, she prettily dissects what goes on in her authorbrain on a rainy afternoon, wrapped up in the awkward, quiet, mostly male atmosphere of -- you guessed it. The tire store. It's a fascinating thing... and uh-huh. That's exactly how it works for me, and most writers I know. ('Cept I wouldn't have put it as prettily. Articulation. I need it.)

Speaking of busy, Jessica Freely. Yeah, so, Broken's the next romance I'm reading, if anyone wants to know. I clearly need to add Amaranth & Ash to the list because... guys. Guys, the post she linked me? It could not have been more perfect. It's actually called Rorschach Rocks My World. Bonus read -- totally click through to the article Rorschach Doesn't Do Dirty Communist Liberal Gender article she links from a Bryn Mawr course.

(Okay, I'm gonna talk about myself a little after all: I love Rorschach. So does Sam. Just sayin.)

Louise Bohmer is -- well, like me. Her work is split between horror and erotica, and the wires get crossed now and then. She's working on a collection of her erotica shorts as L. Bohmer right now (yeah, so, I was lucky to get an early look and... yum), and when she unleashes it on the public, I'll be sure and have her stop by to talk about it in depth. Click through to the post for the delicious cover.

She left a telling comment on my original blog post confessing to an affection for cheesy 80s videos... and hair. But if you've seen my playlists, you know I really have no room to mock.

Last month she did a post called Falling In Love With Characters Again -- another one I can't believe I didn't think of instantly, as I made an extensive comment on it at the time. I don't think that before that post I knew she was a fellow pervy horror person, as I'd only read her wonderful horror-sans-perv. Well, as close as it gets, anyhow. ;) Oh, now I know. I adore her story of character rediscovery... and the visuals are nice, too.

And Lisa Kessler. Lisa is a paranormal guru, my friends. I met her via the first Vampire Awareness Month ages ago, and through her seductive combination of vampires and music -- two things that really ought to be together always, but more on that another time -- the Stoker Nominated "Immortal Beloved". (It's a two-parter, but the second part, I think you gotta buy the book. Good book, though!)

Lisa has loads of other romance going around -- right now, most notably, I think she'd point to Book one in her Night Series (vampire-esque, but there's more to it than that), Night Walker. I don't have a post to link you, but we had an awfully fun email exchange on the subject, and yep -- music, music, music:

Yeah I usually have songs that remind me of the hero and heroine on the playlist...

For Night Walker I had "I want to spend my lifetime loving you" from Marc Anthony for Calisto, and "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge for Kate (especially since she spent the entire end of the book almost dying!) LOL

Then the bulk of the playlist was the Mask of Zorro soundtrack.  It was very Spanish sounding and dark and heroic.  It really helped me keep in the mood of the book.

I'm editing Night Demon now, and Lukas and Gretchen have two theme songs each! LOL  Lukas is "If I can't Love Her" from Beauty & the Beast and "Broken" from Seether.  And Gretchen's are "Falling Slowly" by Linda Eder and "My Immortal" from Evanescence.  The rest of the playlist has most of the soundtrack from Apocalyto and a few songs from the new Fright Night soundtrack.  Very dark and scary.

Yeah. That sounds familiar. Except she has better taste than me. Oh, and Calisto plays piano, so we get those tracks in too, I've been told. As someone who has done very similar things, listening to a piece over and over when it's actually in the scene... I feel you, man.

Sooo yeah, that's enough for this time. I just had to share because this is pure awesome. Anyone else has any, hit me and I'll save em up for next time. Published, unpublished, whatever. These stories are great.

Man, the places the voices take us...

Warning: strong language in this post. Which is the same as most of my posts. But fair is fair.

Apart from the general concept, there's specific reason the next book is called RIOT BOY. So the first excerpt is more of an explanatory snippet. Bonus content: tacking on a snippet that explains the alternate title that, believe it or not, The Editrix and I actually considered. I like RIOT BOY lots, but the other title is pretty awesome too.

So here we go, the reason Etienne refers to Brady as Riot Boy before he knows his name. (Random note: Susanne is Et's big sister.)

I looked to the other end of the bar. Now those guys didn’t belong. Black and white clothes, hair gel, skinny pants, and tattoos for all, metal in their faces for some. One of the metal-free guys looked up, eyes flashing with the electric blue glow above the bar, and caught my glance. He smiled, wolfish and cunning, his long bangs falling artfully over his face, tight gray T-shirt stenciled in black spray paint to read: RIOT GEAR.

An old trick from the Clash -- good taste. I was out of practice with the eye-fucking, but it’s funny how fast it comes back when someone’s worth a good, hard look. Handsome somewhere under that hair, all hard lines and broad shoulders but lean like a panther. Took me a good five seconds to realize his eyes were so striking because they were painted up with black liner.

“Don’t flirt with the gutter trash, Et.” Susanne elbowed me in the ribs.

“You introduced me to punk at twelve. If I’m looking at --”

“It was a phase.”

You can probably guess the alternate title from this tiny snippet:

Susanne grimaced over her beer. “Willoughby Spit.” That pretty much said it all.

Lucy snerked and kicked me under the table. She was tarted up again and looking great. Suse had on a Penguins T-shirt this time, but it was a fitted girly blue one, so it set off her eyes. She only wore that color when she wanted to make a good impression; however, since I liked my limbs intact, I kept the observation to myself. Lucy wasn’t complaining, either.

“They’re good, I promise,” I said.

“So you say.” Lucy winked and looked over my shoulder. Her mouth fell open, and then she laughed. “Oh, God.”

Before I could investigate, there were arms twined around my neck and lips against my ear. A kiss, then Brady said, “Hey, sweetheart.”

As he pulled away, I turned, grinning ear to ear. “Hey, Brady --”

I halted when I saw his shirt, mostly because I was laughing too hard to continue. My face went hot, from 98.6 to 200 degrees in a second flat. It wasn’t the only part of my anatomy to react, either.

The shirt was white and clinging, hot as hell on him, of course. But stenciled in spray paint across the chest in the usual blocky lettering were the words: FUCK ME, ETIENNE.

“Tried to convince the band to change our name, but they didn’t go for it. I settled for the shirt.” He smirked, slipping into the chair next to me. He reached across the table for Suse’s hand. “You must be Susanne.”

While I think most people would secretly -- or not-so-secretly -- like to read a book called FUCK ME, ETIENNE, it's probably a bad idea for people who surf for books at work. I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble here.

Except Etienne. Obviously.

The other title we liked was L'ENFANT TERRIBLE. But that's another story for another time. But seriously, real excerpts next week on the RIOT BOY page. <3

You may see it over there on the sidebar -- you can get a better look at it on the RIOT BOY page. But I'm gonna post it again because my god, it is cool.

Haha, punny. Sorry. Just -- the ice is so pretty. Oh, and the dudes too. Obvs.


P.L. Nunn. I mean, that's really all I can say. Just, P.L. Nunn.

ETA Oct 9: If anyone out there has similar blog entries on inspiration, be it initial inspiration or continued inspiration for a character, place, whatever -- please hit me with a link. If blogger is a jerk and won't let you comment, email kate AT kateyhawthorne DOT com. I am sick of talking about myself, and would like to do a link collection post on the subject soon. You guys are more interesting. (If you have no current blog post, just email me the story and details -- I'll write it up and include it and link to you and your stuff!)

I, like pretty much every reader and writer I know, collect inspiration. Some people start with a world or a plot. I tend to start with a character or three and build things around them. Often, as when dealing with something as complex as a whole world that exists just beneath the surface of my own reality (see: the awakened superpowered folk of whom I often write), that ends up changing the characters a little. Which is cool, because that's how it should be -- environment affects real people, and it ought to affect fictional characters, too.

But it starts with the character, for me. And sometimes it comes from unexpected places.

Sam from EQUILIBRIUM, as I've said before, started with my best friend. She's adopted, and this is not a huge deal. I asked her if she ever wanted to read an adopted character with zero angst about it, whose bio parents did not end up being royal or special or at all relevant to his existence. She said yes, please. And she happens to love erotic romance. That's why the book is dedicated to her.

Hansen from EQUILIBRIUM started with a discussion in the car. My husband was driving me and said best friend to Union Station, and informed us that all relationships must be in Nash Equilibrium. A massive dissection of this theory followed, during which B was drawing diagrams on my white board. I immediately saw this dorky vegan know-it-all trying to explain this to someone, and it was on.

Brady from RIOT BOY is all over the place. There's a story he tells about the advent of his band's name, Willoughby Spit, in the course of the novel -- that actually happened. We were driving to Virginia Beach and came across the exit for Willoughby Spit, which is a real town on the Chesapeake. Little punk rock guitar-playing addict that I am, I'm going, "That's a great name for a punk band!" When Brady popped up, I went and made him the bass player instead of the guitarist, because Paul Simonon was, and is, the hottest punk rocker ever.

Etienne from RIOT BOY happened when I was spending a lot of time in the hospital for family stuff. I was aching for a happy ending and reading RIMBAUD: COMPLETE WORKS AND SELECTED LETTERS, and I had this very clear image of him drinking wine and hiding from the world with it.

Jonah from SCRIPPED* was a woman, at first -- but I already had the other two characters, and realized that the story didn't work unless he was a man. Which, as one might imagine, changed things considerably. He's a non-hero, inspired by old school fairy tales -- the kind where once you're lured into faerie, you're probably better off if you never make it out again. You know the kind I mean. Bit of a kickback against the dangerous Faerie Propaganda of Yeats, really.

They all get injections from elsewhere -- some traceable, some not so much. Sam got my favorite, the "whatever" bisexuality**, which seemed to match up with his "whatever" adopted kid attitude. Hansen got an interest in costume drama and vegetarianism. Brady got a checkered comic book villain past. Et got a high school football career and a cop sister. Jonah got a more timid form of bisexuality, the one that's uncomfortable with itself, but is dragged into the light and finds peace there. Partly because he's younger than Sam, partly because that's just Jonah.

And of course there are the other books, but these are the ones that are out or have a fast-approaching release. So now I'm asking you: what weird things have sparked your characters, places, events? Seemingly inane moments in a day, pictures in a window, music on the radio, anything. Which ones stick out as having been more of a discovery than a creation, just because of their inspiration, to you?

And I'm asking this not just of people with books/stories/whatever out there -- any reader/writer invents all day long. Hit me!

*Okay, this is my upcoming book as KV Taylor, for the record, which means it's more horror than romance -- though most people who've read it have referred to it as a supremely broken paranormal romance, anyhow. But it's relevant here since Jonah's, well, mine.

**Note that I've been meaning to make for some time now: 
I could get into trouble for saying this, but I'm guessing bisexual people probably don't write much GFY. It kind of feels like a denial of our already often denied existence. I know it's not intended that way, and have read and enjoyed plenty of GFY -- mostly because it's natural for me to interpret it as latent bi/pan/whateversexuality finally screaming too loudly -- often due to a deep attraction to one individual, yes -- to be willfully ignored any longer. Which is why I think of it as OFY... now I know the term exists. 

We like it both ways, and for those of us comfy with that, it's totally not a huge deal to go from dating a string of men to our first woman, or vice versa, in either direction. At least, no huger a deal than any new relationship. See also: WHATEVER.

Comic rant incoming -- but I will reward anyone brave enough to read through with hot art links. Promise.

Hey, remember that one time when I got excited about the DC Reboot?

Yeah, me neither. I started out buying Flashpoint and all that good stuff. I mean, I'll probably finish it. Just, my enthusiasm has been dampened, so I haven't gone on buying the other new titles I was initially really excited about. You know how they say there's no such thing as bad publicity? Yeah, I'm not totally convinced.

First, there was the lack of women writers on the New 52. Batgirl spoke up at ComicCon, and she's my hero. Not that the problem is fixed, but DC was at least forced to acknowledge that it exists. And they're rolling out more women-headed projects, which is rad. But, uh, it's gonna take some time to prove intent.

And then there's this week's Starfire and Catwoman debacles. I don't even need to say anything, because it's been said. I particularly liked this response, which is a woman having a conversation with her 7-year-old who was a Starfire fan. (It's been pointed out that this is unlikely to be a real word-for-word conversation, and I agree. It makes the point, though.)

I am all for women characters screwing whomever the hell they like. Obviously. In fact, I like that last panel of Bats and Catwoman. That's not what this is about. Give me repeated close-ups of Bruce Wayne's bulging package while he's giving his lines. Also, take away anything else that makes him badass and make his character description read: "hot and easy". See what happens.

Hilarious/hot examples of such things from awesome artists on my tumblr flist:

Bats and his contorted spine confuses the ladies
Nightwing gets sexy -- oh wait, he's always sexy

(That Nightwing artist, Astro, totally did character portraits for an upcoming project of mine -- I haven't even subbed it to my editor, so I shouldn't talk about it, but OMG the pretty!)

Ahem.Yeah, dude superheroes end up shirtless, but that is so, so not the same as sexualizing a character. Illustration given via twitter by my friend Corinne Duyvis yesterday -- David Kawena's incredible Disney Heroes gallery. That? Sexy. Yeah, I know it's Disney. That's what makes it so head-spinny.

Though seriously, I always had a thing for Prince Eric.

Anyhow, I'm sure this all sounds totally hypocritical coming from me.I write romance novels about superpowered people. Highly sexualized superpowered people. But hey, guess what? That's what I'm supposed to be writing -- and hopefully I'm not sacrificing personality, character development, and/or realism and making the characters into walking genitalia. I also know that I'm playing into a stereotype by making it all about the romance. RIOT BOY is actually a really good example: if I'd written it from Brady's point of view, since he does most of the ass-kicking (being, yanno, the superpowered one), it'd make a badass comic book. But it's from Etienne's point of view, because it's a romance novel.

And ohhhh, of course that's all you want to write, you're a girrrrrrrrrl.

The sexism. It burns us, precious. Let's just ignore the many brilliant men who write romance, first of all. And then, yeah, forgive me for being interested in more than ass-kicking, sometimes. Hell, my first beta is a straight cisgendered white guy, and he doesn't complain. (Well, I do get the odd text bemoaning my wanton use of the word "taint" or ironically thanking me for explaining how to give a killer BJ, but hey.) And apparently girls like to write bloody horror and psychologically damaged fantasy too, since I also do that. Awesome.

Right, done ranting. Thanks!

[ETA: In happy DC news, this preview of Huntress looks friggin goregous.]

Cool stuff coming up:

1. Freebie story. I'm in the final stages with a little EQUILIBRIUM bonus content for y'all. It's a short story called "Jealousy: A Love Story", and it's from Sam's PoV. Just getting a little spit polish right now from The Editrix, to enhance your reading enjoyment. Prepare for adorable smut.
2. RIOT BOY Cover art. Not sure how soon, but not long now. I've seen initial versions and ffffffffuck, man. Guh.
3. RIOT BOY Excerpts. The second line edits are sorted, I'll give a taste of RIOT BOY. It'll be a little different from EQUILIBRIUM, since it's first person, too -- and god knows Etienne and Hansen have zero in common, so yeah. Let's see how this goes!

No, not the kind of blurb from People of Note telling you how awesome it's gonna be -- just the kind that gives you some idea what the book is about. Still, it's something! The RIOT BOY page just had a little update, its first of several in the next -- well, it won't be long before it's released into the wild from the good folk at Loose Id. Within a couple of months, let's say. Barring disaster, explosion, etc.

I'll have excerpts for you in a few weeks, but for now you can get the idea and meet Et and Brady, if you're curious.

So the only bad thing about having two pen names is that, seeing as they're both still me -- as in not manufactured personas that bear no resemblance to one another -- they sometimes overlap. That's usually in the area of queer fictioning, which Katey Hawthorne and KV Taylor both do. A lot. Therefore when I post about queer issues and what have you, I want to do it for both names, but I feel like I'm spamming the internets. So I'm just going to link this year's Celebrate Bisexuality Day post over on my dark fiction authorblog, kvtaylor.com, and if any of y'all queer fiction types are interested, you got it!

The long and short of it: yay for bi folk! We are awesome! *high five*

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the EQUILIBRIUM one month birthday giveaway. As of 11.59 p.m., random.org has spoken. The winners of the two copies are:

Kateyhawthorne.com blog:
**13. Judi (Loveless3173) **

and

Goodreads blog feed:
**3. Nikyta**

Congratulations, and I hope you enjoy Hansen and Sam's dorky (though occasionally also kinda hot, one hopes) adventures. I'll be in touch very shortly to find out your format preferences and all that good stuff.
Didn't win? Don't worry, I'll definitely do another of these when RIOT BOY hits the virtual stands in, oh, I don't know. A month or two, let's say.

And happy birthday, Hansen and Sam.

I am so easy to please, really. Was at Whole Foods. Saw these. Had a faint Hansenvoice in the back of my head go: Squee!


(Cue the "What's up with the weird chick photographing the bakery case with her iPhone?" looks.)

I've always been a fan, but I think Hansen might be right, y'all. These things are god's gift. If everyone lived in DC, I would totally make the next contest prize a dozen vegan gingersnaps.

But that could be awkward if someone in, say, Australia won. So maybe not the best idea.

Excerpt sneak attack!

He lifted up on his elbow and bore down on me, one hand on my chest, his lips inches from mine. The smell of warm breath—and gingersnaps, since we’d tanked a half dozen before bed. “How you feeling about this equilibrium thing now?”

“Never gonna forgive me for that, are you?”

“Did as soon as you said it. But if I’m gonna fall for an economist, I better learn how to bullshit a bullshitter.”

Equilibrium equation:

Economic Theory x Superpowers + Vegan Gingersnaps = Love

Right, I didn't really come here to talk about cookies. (Did I mention how good these things are? I'm not even a dessert person and still -- okay, I'll stop.) I came to drop a gentle reminder that there are still 2 days left in the birthday contest. Don't forget to enter both here and at Goodreads for double the chances, and thank you and good luck to those who've already dropped a comment in one place or the other!

The full version of the EQUILIBRIUM mixed tape has 15 songs, but this will be the last one for the blog. I've been picking out the ones I actually listen to for myself (as opposed to listening to them for Hansen), like I say, and so it seems appropriate to end with one of my longtime obsessions.

Massive Attack: "Teardrop"



Yep, if you watch HOUSE, that's pretty familiar. The album Mezzanine was released when I was, uh, in high school, I think. And I still listen to it regularly. But I think this song was the first one I loved. "Love, love is a verb, love is a do-word. Fearless on my breath." Niiiiiice.

(I also managed to hook my awesome editor, Raven, on Massive Attack. Go me!)

The four blog tracks are here, and the whole set is in the back of...

The RIOT BOY soundtrack is pretty different. And longer. But it's also entirely populated by things I listen to regularly, so I'm really gonna have a hard time picking :D

I'm out of town this week, so apologies if I'm slow getting to responses on the EQUILIBRIUM giveaway thread. As you read this I'm somewhere on a lake in Wisconsin. (People pick the oddest places to get married, really. Oh, these romantics...) But there's still time to enter, so have at it!

EQUILIBRIUM will be one month old on September 23rd! Yeah, I know, one month, woo -- but it's my first, so I'm excited.

Full disclosure: I would be this excited if it was my 200th. That's just an excuse.

To celebrate the advent of Hansen and Sam's adventures with fire, electricity, and, um, each other, I'm giving away two copies -- eBook, in any Loose Id available format your heart desires. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post or the mirror that'll pop up at the GoodReads feed. (It takes a few days to get there, but it will.) I'll number all the comments in order and then count on random.org to choose a winner -- one each from here and from GR.

Cool thing: if you comment on both, you're entered for both drawings. Can't win both, but double the chances, right?

Or you could just get straight to the good bits with the superpowers and hot dudes and grab the book from Loose Id. But nothing wrong with trying your luck!

If you do comment, please leave your email address or email me to let me know how to reach you in case you win. If you're commenting via GR I can always message you there, but definitely feel free to leave me your email, drop me a line, or whatever you like to make sure.

Starts now, and ends at 11.59 pm, September 22.

Happy birthday, boys.

Our next to last installment in the blog version of the EQUILIBRIUM mixed tape (the full version is available in the back of EQUILIBRIUM itself, if the dorkiness of the limited selection here doesn't turn you off. Ha!):

Kaiser Chiefs: "Love's Not A Competition, But I'm Winning"

Yeah, I know, I can't embed it here, but it's a short song and extremely good. This is neither a Sam nor a Hansen pick; though the Kaiser Chiefs are a very good Hansen Band, I don't think he'd like to admit that this is kind of, uh, his attitude sometimes. It's not very flattering... yet kinda cute. In an insecure way. Or so Sam seems to think.

I listened to Kaiser Chiefs a ton while writing EQUILIBRIUM. Every book has a mix, but there's always one band or artist that gets more love than others while it's going on. And this time it was these guys. So much so that Sam almost makes a direct reference in the course of an argument.

What? A bonus excerpt illustrating my point -- and Sam's? Great idea! So, "the concept" to which Sammy is about to refer is that of Nash Equilibrium. Which, as you might've guessed, is integral to the plot. In a nerdy "I have no love life so I use fancy theories to explain it away and still feel intellectually superior" kinda way. Hansen is cute like that. (Again, according to Sam.)

He’d stopped smiling. “You seriously think that?”

“It’s not a judgment, Sam. Just, you like pussy. That’s a fact.”

He sat up, throwing his legs over the side of the bed. “There’s no law that says you can’t like it both ways. That makes me a liar?”

“Don’t be like that. It just means, um, you’re straight.”

“Oh, thank god. Because yesterday I kept imagining bending you over my desk, and I got jack shit done at work. Almost thought I wanted to fuck a guy, for a second there. But no, I’m straight, so that’s crazy talk.”

Okay, no one could survive that much porn without inventing a few fantasies. But still, it was so not fair to say that when he was in the act of getting out of bed. Blue balls: awesome way to start the morning. “Sammy—”

He stood, which left me watching an ass straight off of Michelangelo’s David as he collected his scattered clothes off the floor. “You think you’re real fucking smart with your fancy game theory, but it’s not that complicated. The whole concept hinges on successfully calculating the risk and reward for everyone involved so you know what their smartest move is. If you can’t do that, you have no idea when you’re actually in equilibrium, and you make a bad call. Then you lose everything.”

That…was perfectly accurate, yes. I pushed myself up to sitting.

He pulled on his shorts and straightened his pants and undershirt over his arm. “So maybe you should ask what I want and what I’m putting on the line before you make any calls.”

“Sometimes people don’t even know what they want—”

“It’s not a fucking game. It’s not business or politics or any of this pointless bullshit you throw up around yourself to make you feel safe. This is not a competition. We’re on the same side. We were always on the same side, Hansen.”

I closed my mouth with a click—almost bit my tongue in half too.

He looked down at me, standing there all gorgeous and angry with his hair fucked up from last night’s adventures. And then he smiled, suddenly and brilliantly. As if to tell me that I would be forgiven, but I would pay for it first. “Think about that while you’re beating off in the shower this morning, huh? Because you almost didn’t have to, but you made the wrong call, Mr. Smart-Ass Know-It-All Economist.”

And he was out the door.

I fell back into the pillow. Yawned.

I could calculate risk and reward fine, thanks—just a little bit too late.

Punk rock!

Much to my surprise and delight, I've had inquiries about whether or not I'm doing more with the slightly alternate reality first presented in EQUILIBRIUM. For those of you who haven't read it, there's really only one difference between it and our reality: a small subset of humanity has superpowers, and they refer to themselves as "awakened".

The answer is yes, absolutely, there will be more in this vein. Sam and Hansen are sort of a baseline: normal guys who want to live normal lives and happen to have superpowers that alternately help and screw things up for them. But it's clear that there are others who apply their gifts in different ways. For example, I have books in the works dealing with...

• Law enforcement officers with awakened superpowers. (Police officers, federal agents, oh yeah, being able to taser someone with your hand comes in useful. Who needs a gun?)
• Vigilante superhero awakened types. (Because you know someone is going to think they can clean up this town on their own... by putting people on ice.)
• Public-spirited awakened types. (With power comes responsibility? Hey, you can't do a superpowered thing without an Uncle Ben reference.)
• Insular awakened societies within a given city. (You think nobility is weird about intermarriage? Imagine if they were breeding for powers...)
• Sleeper witch-hunters. (Conspiracy theories, supposed alien abductions -- fear and hate are powerful, dangerous motivators, man.)
• Dissent within awakened communities. (Anarchy seems like a great idea when you're the one throwing fire from your hands.)
• Awakened/sleeper relationships. (Oh, so by the way, honey, I have superpowers.)
• Awakened scientists. (Science is sexy, but it's also... ethically complicated, let's say. And with so much up in the air about how, exactly, their powers work, it can get messy.)
• Supervillains. (The heroes are annoying. The villains really make life difficult for everyone.)

My next trick is called RIOT BOY, and will explore at least two of the above. It will also have French poetry, pierogies, tattoos, Poirot reruns, handcuffs, an independent book store, Buzzcocks references, Pittsburgh, and a small town rock star. And by rock star, I mean a guy in a punk band that plays mostly covers in a dive bar, and is happily going nowhere while giving the world the finger.

But let's face it, punks are sexy. Really, really sexy.

This is all to say it will be just as nerdy as EQUILIBRIUM, if in a slightly different way. You can meet the leading men at the shiny new RIOT BOY page, if you're interested. And see what I mean about sexy punks.

Right, time for a Sam Pick! Sam doesn't have precisely the same voracious musical habits as Hansen, mostly because he doesn't need to, since Hansen's kind of dictatorial about music like that, but he does have a few bands that work for him. (Outside of Johnny Cash. As he will repeatedly remind anyone who asks.) One of those is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Odds are good he found them thanks to Hansen, but Sam's not too proud to admit it.

So another song from the EQUILIBRIUM Mixed Tape -- full listing in the back of EQUILIBRIUM -- BRMC's "We're All In Love":



And yeah, that's another band I really like. Admittedly, I'm going through the mixed tape listing and picking out the ones I think are the most fun -- as in bands I actually listen to regularly. I've actually seen these guys three times, and would pay for thirty more.

As a side note, thanks very much to everyone who checked out EQUILIBRIUM. It made the LI bestseller list for its first week, which kind of has me floored, seeing as it's my first -- not to mention a bit, uh, dorky and weird for this particular genre. If you're considering it but not totally sure yet, check out the EQUILIBRIUM page here to learn more about these imaginary people for whom I have actual playlists, check out excerpts, all that good stuff. Also, there's a big version of that fabulous cover. :D

Or, if you're already convinced, check it out at Loose Id:

I do this confusing two penname thing, but it's not a secret or anything -- I'm proud of what both of my personalities do. (Ha!) I suppose my bothering with two names might seem weird unless someone's read stuff by both, then it becomes obvious that the readers of one aren't likely to have much in common with the readers of the other. I do it so as not to burn myself and any readers nice enough to give me a chance by giving false expectations. If you read KV Taylor you can be pretty sure things are going to get ugly and frightening somewhere... and probably stay that way. If you read Katey Hawthorne, it's a good bet you will come out with far less psychological trauma. The idea, in fact, is that I'd hope people would come out with a smile.

Both write a lot about sex, though.

So this is a long way of explaining why my GoodReads profile looks so barren. I want to interact with book people, to be easy to find and get hold of for the GoodReads community. It's such a cool way to meet people with similar interests. But at the same time, there's no point in my reviewing everything I read on two profiles -- in fact, it'd skew the rankings in a weird way. So finally, I've gone in and updated my original GoodReads profile, the one with which I review everything I read, with proper shelves. It's definitely not a complete listing of Stuff I've Read since I started it, but I'm trying to keep up.

The ones relevant to Katey Hawthorne are:

Romance
LGBTQ
and
Comics, Graphic Novels, and Trade Paperbacks

That last one is getting a lot of action lately because I got a ton of GNs and TPBs for a recent birthday. Yay!

The only thing weird that I do is that I don't star reviews from someone with whom I have a contract. (Currently: Belfire Press and Loose Id). I feel like if I'm giving 3 stars + I'm being self-serving, and if I'm tempted to do 1 or 2 I'm not being supportive. And we need all the support we can get. But I do comment on those books with complete honesty, just because I love talking about books. I mean, what's a writer if they're not a reader first, right?

So I'm one of those people who can't write a book without music blaring. I know that distracts the hell out of some people, but I'm at once incredibly focused and a little bit mad when I write -- perhaps why I tend to write a lot of pulp, as it makes me feel at home in that way. Anyhow, as a result of this practice, I end up with playlists in iTunes for everything. While I'm writing or editing a given project, the list goes everywhere with me. It plays at my desk, the headphones go into the iPhone for grocery shopping, it plugs into my truck for driving.

It's like athletes who have songs they have to listen to that get them into the zone on the sidelines. Only, uh, dorkier.

So with EQUILIBRIUM, my awesome editor Raven suggested we do a playlist in the back of the book, just for fun. How convenient that I had it ready, complete with picks by both Hansen and Sam! Of course, let's do it. So in the back of your book you'll see a little section labeled "Equilibrium Mixed Tape". Because yeah, when I was a kid, we made mixed tapes, dammit.

Just for fun, I thought I'd drop a couple of them here in blog posts. This one is a Hansen Band, Arctic Monkeys. Sometimes the bands/artists that work for given characters or stories aren't really my favorites (sometimes I end up liking things I didn't originally because of a character or story, even), but I genuinely adore the AMs. Just saw them live here in DC a few months back, and it was killer.

So here we go, a Hansen Pick from the Equilibrium Mixed Tape: "Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend"



... it should pretty much be his theme song, I'm thinking.

Gosh, I guess it's official: EQUILIBRIUM must be earth-shatteringly awesome. It had a birthday quake.

(Yeah, I know, lame joke. But seriously, that quake knocked a bunch of crap over on my desk and emptied out the Pentagon -- kinda in my back yard. I live on the east coast; I did not sign up for this.)

It's that time, my friends. EQUILIBRIUM, my first paranormal romance, is live and available from the wonderful folk at Loose Id. It's full of electricity, fire, fights, sex, friendship, hot soccer players -- er, loads of great things, really! I hope it amuses -- if you snag it, let me know what you think.

Want more info? We've got that! Check out the EQUILIBRIUM page right here at Superpowered Love and see if it looks like your kind of thing. There are character sketches, excerpts, blurbs, all kinds of good stuff. Give it a shot! You never know, they might convince you.

And at the very least, you might enjoy refreshing the page for Honeyed Fox Ale, the beer of choice in Marietta Falls, WV since 1863, to see what sorts of interesting slogans they come up with. I hear it changes the more you refresh. Poor little fox, he's so done in... explains some of those shocking slogans, really.

I realized that in my haste to get on with the superhero science and perfect the EQUILIBRIUM pages, I didn't really have anything about myself here on the site. I mean, there are links in the sidebar to other places where I do random absurd things on the net, but I think one is expected to have a little bit of information. With my first release impending, I really should have my shit together here.

Except, what do you say about yourself? If I thought I was interesting, I wouldn't write about imaginary people, would I?

No, but here I am, all the same! So in an effort to introduce myself to anyone who stumbles by, perhaps after seeing the shiny cover for EQUILIBRIUM on the Loose Id site, or maybe after the (holy god, so soon!) release, I thought I'd do a hello post.

So hi! I'm Katey. I'm about to turn 31, and I live just outside Washington, DC. I like to read George RR Martin, Frank Herbert, Georgette Heyer, Henry James, Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Wendy Pini, Jane Austen. I have a congenital Spider-Man addiction, passed down to me from my father; I have a lot of his old comics bagged and boarded on my shelves. I visited F. Scott Fitzgerald's grave earlier this year and left him a thank you letter. He is my favorite writer ever.

I write horror and dark fantasy as KV Taylor, and my first dark fantasy novel is up for preorder right now. It's about fucked up Appalachian fae and contains an extremely broken love story and lots of knives. I just sold another about vampires that might be even more fucked up. My favorite vampire movie is 30 Days of Night, because I like the blood on the snow. I like the graphic novels, too. I run Fae Awareness Month in June. These are my two favorite monsters -- and anyone who says the fae aren't monstrous has been reading too much Yeats.

I was raised by hunters, and have been quietly but intensely vegetarian for over half my life; I live with a man who was raised strictly vegetarian Hindu, and cannot get enough cow into his system. I don't generally rant about politics, but I do care about human rights, and occasionally throw stuff out in that vein. I can be expected to write a post or two a year mocking bisexual stereotypes, as I feel it's important to represent both personally and through my fiction that that shit is not okay. (All sorts of stereotypes, but we all have a soft spot for our own, don't we?)

I like Sapphire and Tonic, Black Bush on the rocks, and decent wine. Coffee is nice, too. I quit smoking when I got married, but I cheat when I drink too much. I didn't believe in happy endings until I met my husband; I still don't write them all the time, but I save them up for romance. Everyone else finds her annoying, but I'm pretty sure I only like Sookie Stackhouse because Anna Paquin is so goddamn hot. Franz Liszt is my dead boyfriend. I've spent days in libraries in Philly and DC reading through old newspapers just to get the weather right on a given day in a historical.

I wrote EQUILIBRIUM for my best friend. A lot of Sam came directly from her (with permission, of course). My aunt printed out a poster for me to give her for her birthday.

This is what my desk looks like right now:


I can't resist speedsters. This is the toy I just bought while on a roadtrip to Cleveland, perched atop my corkboard:


No idea if any of that stuff is any more interesting than the bio page. But I hope it's at least marginally more entertaining, and will serve as a proper introduction. If you see this, please link me back to your introduction, give it to me in the comments, or drop me an email. It's like a virtual handshake, that way. :D

The Superpowered Science page is ready for the world!

Lucky, lucky me, I have an in with the premier superpowers research association in the world -- which happens to be right here in Washington, DC. How convenient.

But that's not how I have the in. I have it because Irene Ballagh, Neuronaut-in-Chief at the Hamiltonian Society, is an old friend, and she's written up an explanation of how awakened superpowers work -- or as near as we can get with the information we have, anyhow. The Hamiltonian Neuronautics Society is of course controversial. In some quarters they're laughed at -- superpowers? No such thing! In some they're hated -- they're not supposed to prove this stuff, let alone write it down.  And in most, well, people just pretend they don't exist. But still Ballagh and her tireless staff of researchers and scientists carry on. Lucky for us.

Check out what she has to say about electric and thermomanipulators on the Superpowered Science page, if you're wondering how they do what they do. Believe it or not, right?

(Seriously though, thanks very much to Irene Ballagh, who is an honest-to-god neuroscientist, for creating the awakened version of superhero science just for Equilibrium -- and everything that's to follow. Neuroscientists: they make the best writers. They are also badasses. Facts are awesome things.)

So it's the first anniversary of Mina Kelly's TEASE, and she has an extremely cool contest running. You can get stories, books, movies, and the best thing ever, she's going to sponsor a seal pup in the winner's name! (Look, if you can't get a hot selkie from the ocean, at least get an adorable seal pup.)

Check it out here!

... and I have no idea why I'm telling everyone about this because I want it for myself. Dammit!