Kitchen Wolves, and what do we call chairs?

While editing Omega Blues this week, I got caught up on a tiny detail: What do I call the bar that joins chair legs? In the story, I have a wolf climbing onto a chair slowly. I described the wolf standing on the chair's 'rung' and then wondered... ladders have rungs, but what do chairs have?

Image from Visual Dictionary Online

In this picture, Visual Dictionary Online call the 'rung' part a spindle. Other places on the internet label it as a stretcher or spacer or, on circular chairs, a foot ring. My woodworking experience makes me lean towards 'spacer,' but what does it matter if no one's going to understand what I'm talking about?

With words like this, there's a balance to strike between what's technically accurate and what readers will understand. None of these words turn up in the Wikipedia article on chairs, and chairs aren't high on the search results when you google them, so I have to assume they're not in common usage and, even worse, they might confuse readers and drag them out of the flow of the story.

For the sake of making the story easy to read (in a tense moment with a wolf in the kitchen and climbing closer, every sentence is precious!) I defaulted to 'foot rest' which I think is a happy medium between accurate and easy to understand.

Of course, now that I've crawled this far down the rabbit hole of furniture names, I should talk to a carpenter about the (American) technical term and drop a reference to it earlier in the chapter: "I'd seen Will making these chairs, shaping the legs on a lathe and fitting the whojiwhatsit bar between them," to lead seamlessly to "The wolf put a paw on the whojiwhatsit of my chair." Sort of a Chekhov's spacer bar. Or perhaps I could run a quiz for my readers and see what the average Omega Blues fan calls that part of a chair—not necessarily technically accurate, but at least most people would know what I'm talking about.

But this is the sort of small detail that I get caught up in, and the reason it took me two and a half years to edit my last novel. The whole point of making Omega Blues a serial story was to hold myself accountable: I have to get a chapter edited every week, whether or not I know the correct or common word for a chair's rung.

With that out of the way, here's the link to the new chapter of my m/m werewolf romance, Omega Blues on free serial-fiction site Wattpad! This chapter is called Kitchen Wolves and has—whoa!—wolves turning up in the kitchen.

Omega Blues is a free serial story, with a new chapter uploaded every week. So you can read it as it's uploaded and enjoy the thrill of waiting (like with oldschool TV shows) or you can wait until it's finished and read the whole novel at once!

New werewolf m/m romance chapter!

The third chapter of my Jagged Rock spin-off novel, Omega Blues, is now up on Wattpad!

Omega Blues is a full-length novel that I update with a chapter every week. So you can read it weekly if you like the excitement of seeing new chapters every week, or you can wait until it's all finished and read it in one binge.

I wrote the draft for Jagged Rock a little over a year ago, but I'm editing the chapters weekly. This is my first time writing a serial story and one of the cool things I'm seeing is all the distinct memories with each edited chapter, instead of the vague mass of memories that jumble up after editing a whole novel over months.

Work was full-on this week and I traveled out of town for a punk festival, so I ended up editing the chapter while sitting on the door between bands. Now I have a double set of great memories: all the fantastic bands and people, and finishing a fresh chapter of Omega Blues.

I hope you enjoy the new chapter and are looking forward to fresh story and fresh memories in weeks to come!

The Best Magicians

 “Ninety percent of most magic merely consists of knowing one extra fact.”
― Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

What is it about magic that makes it so addictive?

Sure, we'd all love superpowers. But real-world magicians are fascinating for the way they can make the impossible seem possible. I love movies about magicians in the same way that I love heist movies or a great crime TV show (my favorites are the Ocean's Trilogy, Guy Ritchie's blockbusters and TV show Elementary): The thrill of seeing a problem that can't be solved, then watching it get solved anyway.

While writing Coin Tricks, my novel with a street magician romantic lead, I had a great excuse to delve into stories about magicians. Here are my three favorites, and what I think makes them so great.

HellblazerComic book series

From the Hellblazer wiki

What makes John Constantine a stand-out magician is how seldom he uses magic.

Each volume of the comics follows an arc: John gets into trouble, he wise-cracks as the mystery deepens and he digs himself further into trouble as you start to think his enemies are stronger/better/smarter than him, then finally (usually in the last few pages of the comic) he delivers a scathing come-back and a simple piece of magic that bring him out victorious.

Still of Keanu Reeves from the 2005 movie Constantine

Hellblazer hasn't translated to the screen well. First Keanu Reeves played JohnConstantine deadpan and skilled at fisticuffs with a comic-relief sidekick. Nearly 10 years later the TV show cast Matt Ryan as closer to the Sting-inspired comic book John Constantine. Unfortunately that decade delay between the movie and the show saw 10 years of Supernatural, a show with similar themes and a character (Castiel) dressed to look like Constantine. The sad fact is that by the time Constantine hit the screens, Constantine's image was already familiar and all the angel-and-demon themes had been done to death.

Matt Ryan as magician John Constantine

Misha Collins as angel Castiel in Supernatural

But—like how I prefer the monster-of-the-week early format of Supernatural—I think the best Hellblazer comics aren't about a grand war between angels and demons, they're about a dirty magician just trying to get by.

Highlights include the time Constantine embarrassed a whole group of white supremacists, the time he tricked a monstrous talking dog not to attack him by rolling on his back in a posture of submission, or that time a demon melded a gang of hooligans into one ferocious monster which Constantine destroyed by pointing out that different parts of it supported different football teams (so it tore itself apart).

The Prestige

Film

Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman in The Prestige

The Prestige is brilliant even if you don't frame it as a Batman vs Wolverine movie with illusion and sleight-of-hand in the place of superpowers. With an all-star cast and writer/director Christopher Nolan (of Inception, The Dark Knight and Memento fame, the latter two and The Prestige were also written with his Jonathan Nolan), it's no surprise that The Prestige is a complex and psychologically thrilling tale that's beautiful to look at.

But what makes it the best magic film is the contrast between the different magicians—the two stars and their fabricators/mentors and assistants all have their own perspectives on magic and we're shown these different views seamlessly as part of the plot and character development. It's especially satisfying to see the difference in a successful magician who wants to be famous and out-do his rivals, contrasted with a successful magician who just wants to surprise and satisfy people and to hear their applause.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Novel

Michael Chabon's Pulitzer-winning novel is a brilliant blend of the pulp and the literary, showing that an intricate and emotionally-driven plot dealing with death, war, race and sexuality can still fit beside pop culture elements like comic books and superheroes.

All too often we're told that anything fun is frivolous and superheroes only belong in popcorn-selling blockbuster movies, and that if a novel isn't serious and difficult to read then it can't be edifying so isn't worth reading.

I never understood the appeal of the Golden Age of Comics until I read Kavalier and Clay. The plot focuses on two comic book creators in 1940's New York City and their struggles to create art (while getting paid) in the midst of war and turmoil. Their most famous creation, The Escapist, is inspired by Houdini, and both comic creators are passionate about performance magic. There's so much passion and joy in this novel (as well as plenty of misery and heartbreak), and it's so vividly written that you feel exactly what it was like to be a young comics creator in the boom of comics and superheroes.

Magic and magicians weave their way through a twisting tale which also features superheroes, comic books, a massive clay golem and exquisite prose. What's not to love?

Omega Blues: chapter 2

Chapter two of my Wattpad serial m/m romance is now live!

Omega Blues is the spin-off sequel to Jagged Rock. Both stories are completely free to read.

Being a werewolf has always felt like a curse to Bren, even after he's let into a friendly pack of mostly-humans led by his alpha nephew Will. The Jagged Rock Pack are friends and members of a rock band, standing together even after their vocalist came out as a werewolf. It's Will's plan to turn all the members of the band into werewolves, and that sounds like a great plan... except for Matt.Matt is funny and kind and endlessly helpful, the sort of guy anyone would want for a friend. Unfortunately, as a werewolf he's marked out to be an omega which comes with its load of weaknesses and agonies.It's Bren's job to look after Matt and help him with the transformation. He didn't plan on falling for him, especially because Bren's never felt anything like love or attraction before. It's another complication in his already difficult life.Matt's had a crush on Bren from the moment they met, and he loves teasing and flirting. He's delighted to think he might have a chance.Matt would do anything to become a werewolf, and Bren would do anything to stop him. How can the two have a chance at happiness or a life together?

First chapter of my free Wattpad story!

Nearly two years ago I wrote a free novel called Jagged Rock for the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads. It featured a college rock band with a werewolf for a vocalist, and enough characters that I've always wanted to write spin-off sequels about them finding their happy endings.

Introducing Omega Blues!

Omega Blues is the story of omega werewolf Bren and human bass-player Matt. I wanted to make it free and as I've always loved the thrill of serial stories, I decided to write one and give readers the experience that I've always loved.

Omega Blues is available free on Wattpad, a site for sharing free serial fiction. I'll upload a new chapter each week so you can follow the story weekly, or wait until it's finished to read the whole thing.

If you're worried about reading something that won't get finished: don't! I have a complete first draft and, while it needs extensive revision, I have at least the total framework for the novel.

I am thoroughly looking forward to the serial writing experience, and I hope you're looking forward to reading it!