Hello, folks! Smashwords is hosting its annual “Read an eBook Week” sale, which means you can get an excellent deal on loads of discounted books, including some of mine!

Smashwords Read an eBook Week Sale

Sale continues through March 13th!

 
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[This ficlet is not part of a larger work. I don't have any other stories involving these characters. It's just a fun little story written using the three prompt words in the subject line. I very much hope you enjoy it. :)]


Passage, Winter, Collection


"It's beautiful." Beni doesn't know shit about art. He doesn't have the first clue what he's looking at beyond the fact that he enjoys the colors. It's abstract. Blue and purple and faint hints of magenta.

He genuinely likes it. There's no need to pretend for the sake of politeness.

Julian shifts beside him, the barest movement as weight eases from one heel to the other. Nothing restless in the change, so far as Beni can tell. It's hard to picture Julian as anything but calm, cool, easy in any setting. He's seen glimpses to make him suspect there's more—glimmers of more passionate reaction beneath the surface—and those teasing hints would be enough to make him stick around even if he weren't already enamored to an alarming degree.

At least the fascination seems to be mutual. Surely Julian wouldn't have weaseled Beni's phone number from a mutual acquaintance otherwise. Surely he wouldn't have called less than a week after their first awkward meeting if the spark beneath Beni's skin had been entirely one-sided. )
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[This ficlet is not part of a larger work, though the characters (Trace and Franklin) appear in another microfic you can find via the tags below. Just a fun little story written using the three prompt words in the subject line. I very much hope you enjoy it. :)]


Trail, Distortion, Function


Trace's heart sank as he deciphered the readouts flashing across his console. Most of them were flickering tones of orange and yellow, silent alarms and warning indicators.

"Sir?" He kept his eyes on the screen. "My navigation equipment is malfunctioning."

He didn't have to be looking at Franklin to notice the way this report made his captain tense. The shuttle was among their smallest, which meant the pilot and copilot's seats were only a foot apart at the front of the narrow cabin. )

 
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[This ficlet is not part of a larger work, though the characters (Trace and Franklin) appear in another microfic you can find via the tags below. Just a fun little story written using the three prompt words in the subject line. I very much hope you enjoy it. :)]


Criticism, Affinity, Essential


"Look, just let me try." Trace's elbow nudged his arm, gentle but with an edge of stubbornness.

"Because you have such an affinity for reprogramming recalcitrant locks?" Franklin bit out in reply. He regretted both the words and the tone as soon as they emerged—it wasn't Trace he was frustrated with—but he still barely managed to bite his tongue and stop talking.

"Nope." Miraculously, Trace still sounded calm and easy. "But you've been trying to open that door for over an hour."

"If you think criticizing will help—"

"It wasn't criticism," Trace cut him off in the same level tone. A moment later Franklin felt the delicate curl of fingers at the nape of his neck, cool and grounding. "But Captain, you're frustrated. Let me try. Hell, you can take a crack at the comm panel if you want. I couldn't get any power to main or subspace frequencies. Maybe you'll have better luck."

Franklin huffed an irate sigh, but he dropped the diagnostic device and sat back on his heels. A moment for the ache in his shoulders to register, and he rearranged his limbs to sit properly, legs crossed and eyes drifting shut. )

 
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Much as the timing has been a challenge (<—understatement), I've been making steady progress toward getting my back catalog released into the wild. Today Running Hot is up for preorder. Some sites lag a little in their new listings, but I'll get everything updated as the links go live.

Book cover: orange flames and shite text, Running Hot by Yolande Kleinn

Release date will be August 25, 2019.

I really do appreciate everyone's patience while I work on this. Getting "Running Hot" up and running (lol) made me more certain than ever that I need to take the time to give every one of these titles a fresh editing pass. I've grown so much as a writer since I first sold these stories. I don't intend to overhaul them or make substantial changes, but even simply polishing up the prose feels good and necessary.

I know there's a fine line between perfectionism and necessary revisions, but it will be worth it for the finished product.

The main things slowing me down are the other projects I'm revising simultaneously. I've got multiple drafts I'm working on, right on the cusp of submission-ready. It's not as simple as picking one and declaring it the highest priority—everything is a top priority—I don't want to leave my back catalog to languish, any more than I want to slow myself down with regard to the exciting new stories no one has seen yet. Finding a balance is challenging, but I'm doing my best to give everything the brain-space it needs.

On a lighter note, I have a cover reveal to share! With "Simple After All" not re-releasing until November, I'm going to try and get one more novella up in September/October. "Restless Shadows, Waiting Roads" was one of the first stories I ever sold, and rereading it has been fun as hell. For some reason, I don't seem to be writing much magic and fantasy lately. This magical-romp-in-the-woods-with-a-demon has given me an itch to do more.

Meanwhile, for your enjoyment, here is the new cover  )

 
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So, possibly folks have already noticed, but: it's been a bit of a week.

I won't go into a detailed list of ways in which the publishing world has been stress-inducing this past week (month? year?). I'm just here with an update about my titles and back catalog for anyone who might be wondering.

My plan was already to re-release "Running Hot" and "Simple After All" this year, after the rights reverted to me last month. I still intend to do so, with one title this summer and one sometime in November. But with Less Than Three Press closing its doors, I now very abruptly own the rights to my entire remaining back catalog. These are titles I fully intended to self-publish eventually, when the rights reverted in due course, but I'm not ready to put them immediately back into circulation.

I wish I could do them all at once, but every single one is going to need updating and formatting. It will take some time.

An Intimate Charade has been my first priority, and is already being re-listed. I didn't want to leave such a new release out of print, especially one I'm so excited about and proud of. At the moment it's only up on a couple retailer sites, but I'll be updating links as they come available. Edit: title is now available at all major e-tailers, click the link for details.

As for the rest of my LT3 titles: "Ashes on a Distant Wind", "Matters of Heart"; "Open Skies"; and "Restless Shadows, Waiting Roads"... I'll revise, format, and list them as quickly as I can. I don't love having so many titles unavailable at once, but I need to take the time to do this right. Trust me, you want that too.

Please bear with me while I get all this sorted out. My hope is to have everything up within a year, maybe less. I'm determined to bring the best possible products to market, and I appreciate everyone's patience and concern.

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This post is jumping the gun a little, as I usually prefer waiting until I have solid dates lined up to share cover reveals. But I'm excited as hell about these two graphics. So it's happening now. ^_^

Two stories I'll be re-releasing, hopefully this year: "Running Hot" (mechanics in love) and "Simple After All" (a curmudgeon at Christmas on the North Shore). As almost-always, I've designed new covers to go with these releases. And now I'm sharing them with YOU.

Click below the cut to see both covers... )

Stay tuned for updates -- I'll post with release dates and further info as soon as I have them.

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[This ficlet takes place one year before the events of An Intimate Charade. It's self-indulgent as hell, so indulge me. :)]

An Intimate Charade Ficlet: Poker )
[This ficlet takes place a few years before the events of An Intimate Charade (and sometime after the events of Navigation). I have almost as many head-canons for Edda as I do for Laia and Gamina... So many stories to write, so little time!]

An Intimate Charade Ficlet: Coffee )
[This ficlet takes place seven years before the events of An Intimate Charade (and shortly before the events of Coffee. Having read the actual book is probably not necessary for the story to make sense, though full confession: writing this made me want to dedicate a whole book to these two side characters. Gamina Rielle and Laia Keeth own a very large corner of my heart.]

An Intimate Charade Ficlet: Navigation )
 
[This ficlet is not part of a larger work. I don't have any other stories involving these characters. It's just a fun little story written using the three prompt words in the subject line. I very much hope you enjoy it. :)]


Pretty, Fabricate, Comply


"There are rules, you know. Procedures. Safety regulations. Reasons we are not supposed to be up here." Gordon's handsome face looked a little too determined. Almost as though it were costing him conscious effort to keep his habitual stern glower in place.

Sam smirked, crossing his arms atop the sturdy metal railing that ran the perimeter of the roof. "And you comply with every rule that crosses your path?"

Gordon didn't answer. He couldn't very well answer without either lying—transparent and unconvincing—or conceding the point. The glower on his face took a faintly sullen turn, but his posture remained taut. He clasped his hands stiffly behind his back, and his gaze left Sam in favor of casting out across the city.

Sam did not mind his employer's rigid posture or sour expression. He knew how significant it was that Gordon was here at all—that he had accepted Sam's invitation despite the rules, and joined him on this inconceivably high rooftop.  )

 
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A couple days into 2019, it's hard not to be a little introspective. I'm not going to make a list of last year's accomplishments, or come up with resolutions for the coming year. Those aren't really traditions I go in for, not least because I'm competitive as hell. The last thing I need is a string of posts I can find and compare myself to year after year, which will inevitably leave me feeling disappointed when I don't hit new milestones or write as many words as before or or or…

But I've got a lot of things right now that I'm grateful for:
* A day job I sincerely love, where I get to work with books every single day
* A supportive family who will always have my back
* Incredible, kind, talented, indescribable friends that make me feel lucky as hell
* Time and energy to keep writing, even when the query/submission process is overwhelmingly daunting

At the moment, I've got one manuscript in submission limbo. Took a while (not an unreasonable amount of time, just longer than my brain and heart wanted to wait) to hear back from my absolute top choice agent. The good news is, I got farther than I expected. She liked my query enough to request a partial manuscript. The bad news is, the partial didn't win her over. Obviously I'm going to try again… And obviously I'm going to sell this manuscript elsewhere… But rejection stings no matter what.

One thing I will say for this coming year: I have more stories than ever reverting to me after their contract terms expire. Historically, I've been slow as hell about revising-reformatting-rereleasing old stories. The very few I've done so far (Sage & Sand, Wonderly Wroth, Especially at Christmas) have taken me ages to get done. Not because they're long or especially challenging, but because every time it's like starting over with no knowledge of the process.

I'm going to try and stay more on top of this going forward. I already have covers designed for the next couple stories. That still leaves additional editing and then the dreaded formatting-to-publish (not to mention questions of what to do with two or three more stories I haven't touched yet). But I'm determined to stay on top of my back-catalog and get things wrangled so that nothing stays out of print too long.

And of course, there are things I'm writing right now. I can't wait to finish and share them with you, guys, they're going to be so good!

In the meantime: Happy New Year! May you find luck and safety and wonderful friends on your own forward path. Let's make 2019 excellent!
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[This ficlet is not part of a larger work. I don't have any other stories involving these characters. It's just a fun little story written using the three prompt words in the subject line. I very much hope you enjoy it. :)]



"Do you really have to go?" A plaintive note snuck into the question, but Alec didn't waste any effort worrying whether it made him sound desperate. So what if it did? Maybe it would convince Grant not to leave. Surely some underling could go in his place.

Wasn't that the point of being a CEO? The ability to delegate? )
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So the thing is, one of my favorite parts of re-releasing old stories is the fact that I get to design new covers for them. I don't love the revision process, or formatting the actual contents of the book. But cover design? That's more fun than it has any right to be.

I've got a handful of stories (most of them very short) that have reverted to my control this past year, and a couple more that will be coming back to me soon. Which means I need to get off my butt on formatting and re-releasing these titles. Sage & Sand is still set to come out on December 13th, after almost a year on the back burner. I'm hoping to move a lot faster in 2019, with at least two stories to re-release, possibly three (in between new things I'm working on and will hopefully be able to announce soon/along the way).

Anyway. That was rather a long tangent to preface the fact that the next story I'll be re-releasing is Anticipation (smutty PWP friends-to-lovers fic in the range of 7,000 words). I don't have a release date chosen yet, but what I do have is a cover design to share.

I'm gonna tuck the image below a cut for the sake of the dramatic reveal... )

True Things

Nov. 10th, 2018 08:22 am
yolandekleinn: (Me)
So. Here's a truth: I don't like writing about me.

I never really have. Even as a kid writing blatant self-insert fanfic—projecting every scrap of youthful angst onto characters I wanted to be—I only ever wrote fiction. I kept to the pretext of writing stories and nonexistent events. I never successfully kept a journal; I think I gave up on anything like a diary somewhere around sixth grade.

No matter how many issues I hash out through fictional characters, knowingly or otherwise, the hardest stories for me to write are the ones that hit close to home. The sweet but overwhelming family in "Simple After All" tracks so near to my own that drafting the story was surreal as hell. I'm working on a book now in which a character picks up their violin and discovers the joy/difficulty of playing again after years away.

And then there's Ilsa Vance, my asexual space detective who has a falling out with a close friend in "Open Skies". She's by far the most difficult character arc I've ever written—not least because I was determined to give her the support and acknowledgment I never received from the friend who said the same hurtful things to me.

This habit isn't likely to change. Projecting onto fictional characters has its merits. Even better, the blatant escapism and entertainment of my less personal stories is satisfying in ways I've never really known how to express. (My family, bless them, has supported me at every turn, despite my inability to articulate why I sometimes bury myself in fiction for days or weeks at a time.)

But. Maybe it would do me good to branch out a little. Take a more direct approach now and then. Try and shake off the fierce but irrational voice in my head insisting The Real Me is too boring to waste words on, and instead put myself out there a little more.

That's what this is. No promises, but I'm going to do my best. And hey, if you're reading this and there's anything you'd like to know, go ahead and ask. I may not possess a whole lot of insights or life-hacks, but what I've got I'm happy to share.

Cheers.
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Thievery
By Yolande Kleinn

"I forgot what it's like here. The noise, the people, the ridiculously low ceilings... Was it always this crowded?" Gareth asked without looking at Lee, too busy gaping around him at the rush-hour chaos of crowds both human and not. The station's companion hub on the planet's surface wasn't nearly this claustrophobic, but space was valuable in orbit. Magre Station used every possible trick and then some in its design, and the result was a genius arrangement of uncomfortably tight corridors and quarters.

Click to read on... )
 
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Exciting news of the day: July 23rd is the day Torquere Press releases "Rode Hard", a cowboy themed anthology of epic proportions. In my own contribution, "Sage and Sand", a young man runs into some excitement (danger! bandits! rescue?) on his father's mail route. The story is historical fiction, m/m romance, with a nice helping of adventure to warm the blood.

Here I bring you a teaser snippet in anticipation of the coming release. Enjoy!


Teaser: Sage and Sand

He doesn't know this Marshall Maddox. He's got no reason to trust him beyond the fact that so far the man hasn't tried to shoot him. )
 
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Here it is, that thing you didn't even know you were waiting for. This one's an actual drabble, one hundred words exactly (please be impressed by this; word limits and I aren't always friends). This is a snapshot, not part of a larger project. Just a brief exchange that was kicking around my brain.

The night is slurred with meaning, and Drew aches in all the best ways. )

 
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