Unfortunately, “The Radiant Boy” won’t be available in time for Christmas (the book will go on sale in January 2010). A small consolation: the price for “Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased)” has been lowered by £ 1.00!

Christmas Special:

Buy “Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased)” for
£ 7.50 (Europe) or £ 8.50 (elsewhere)!

First class postage is included in these prices!

ABOUT THE BOOK

REVIEWS

PLEASE ORDER THE PRINT EDITION HERE!

PLEASE ORDER THE E-BOOK HERE!

HMS Privet has the reputation of being a cursed ship: every first lieutenant serving aboard her dies gruesomely. Lieutenant Daniel Leigh is determined to solve the mystery and volunteers for the place himself, putting his life in desperate danger. Little does he suspect that he will fall in love with the captain, John Meadows, and end up fighting not only for his own life, but for the soul of his lover, too.

Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased) – a Georgian ghost story featuring a cursed ship, a vengeful ghost, a haunted captain and a very daring lieutenant.

Illustrations: Amandine de Villeneuve
Editor: Alex Beecroft

Contains male/male romance.

I received the illustrations and the cover art by Mlle Amandine de Villeneuve and was once more completely stunned and in awe of her talent at drawing as well as catching the personalities of my characters with pen and Indian ink.

“The Radiant Boy” is almost finished, and I can promise you eery tales set in the Age of Sail, tributes to the classic ghost stories of the 18th and 19th century. Mlle de Villeneuve has produced once more truly amazing artwork, and I’m over the moon that I can share the raw art for the cover with you today.

Charlie, the main character in the title story of “The Radiant Boy”

I’ll give you soon more information on publishing date, price etc., but costs should be about the same as for “Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased)”. A release in E-book format isn’t planned yet (thanks to assorted e-pirates, screw you lot), and just like the tomes in the past, this little book comes with – a book curse. Where firewalls fail, curses might help.

I herewith hug and kiss Mlle de Villeneuve through the screen; I won’t call her George, though, unless she insists…

Hello my dears

I’ve lost the content of my mailbox thanks to this genius of a provider… so now I’m in the process of setting up my mailing list again. If you would like me to add your address, please either post it here, send me a message via LJ or mail to emma at emmacollingwood.com

Please note: you will ONLY receive a mail from me if a new book is out. I’ll neither contact you about articles I’ve written, essays, politics, fanfic, chainletters nor any other thing that is not “hey, my new book is out!”. So we’re talking about a maximum of ten mails per year. Don’t fear the spam!

Thanks for your support.

Emma

And it only took me a year or so to get it done. This is the second book in my series of “Penny Dreadfuls”; format, layout and print will be the same as they were for “Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased)”.

Unlike “Samuel Blackwood”, “The Radiant Boy” has no erotic content. These are simply four old-fashioned ghost stories that could have happened in the Royal Navy of the 18th century. The stories cover four timeless themes of ghostly folk lore: Visitations, Harbingers of Death, Poltergeists and the classic Haunting.

THE RADIANT BOY
Hauntings in the Age of Sail
Georgian Royal Navy Ghost Stories
by Emma Collingwood
Illustrations by Amandine de Villeneuve
Edited by Timothy T. Tarbottom, Esq.

The Visitation:
“The Radiant Boy”

The Harbinger of Death:
“Crawford’s Casket”

The Poltergeist:
“The Last Journey of HMS Dover“

The Haunting:
“Last Service”

I’ll meet up with Mlle Amandine de Villeneuve one of the next weekends to discuss the cover and the illustrations. If everything works out according to our plans, pre-orders will start in May and the book should be out in June. Huzzah and cheers!

The third (and last) book in the “Penny Dreadful” series will be “Jackdaw”.

I’ve updated my website, added a few bits here and a few there and hope it’s now easier to navigate. I’ve put up links to various “freebies” – free reading material and excerpts from my upcoming books. All this and more can be found here:

EMMA’S PORT OF REGISTRY

The “I Do!” anthology has now its own website as well, courtesy Chris Smith. Information on the purpose, the authors – and there are excerpts as well.

I DO! YES! REALLY!

The e-book version of “I Do!” is available already, the print edition should follow on 21 January. I’ll keep you posted.

Two people of legal age who are in love with each other have the right to get married if they wish to do so, period. As far as I’m concerned, any person and organisation who fights love in this world full of hate is a danger to the public.

That’s why I support this fantastic project, which gave those of us who can’t protest “on location” against hare-brained propositions like California’s No. 8 the chance to support those who take a stand. And you can be supportive, too, and get a book full of great stories in return. That’s what I call an excellent deal!

The following authors have donated stories to the “I DO!” anthology in support of Lambda Legal Fund, which will receive all profits from the anthology. Printing and distribution costs have been kindly donated by MLR Press.

Tracey Pennington, Alex Beecroft, Charlie Cochrane, Clare London, Storm Grant, Lisabet Sarai, Sharon Maria Bidwell, Jeanne Barrack, Marquesate, Z.A Maxfield, P.A Brown, Allison Wonderland, Erastes, Zoe Nichols and Cassidy Ryan, Emma Collingwood (hey! That’s me!), Mallory Path, Jerry L. Wheeler, Moondancer Drake, Fiona Glass, Lee Rowan.

The story I’ve contributed is called “Semi-detached”, and set in modern London, it features characters from my upcoming book “The Purser, the Surgeon, the Captain and his Lieutenant”. Is gay marriage a matter of  equality, commitment or home improvement? Thomas comes to the conclusion that it’s all about knocking down walls.

“Semi-detached” features James, Thomas and Sebastian, the characters from “The Purser, the Surgeon, the Captain and his Lieutenant”. The story is set in modern London, and here’s a short excerpt:

“The working class has arrived,” Sebastian announced, “looking cranky as usual, but he bought beer. Good man.”
Upon noticing Thomas’ black eye and split lip, Sebastian arched an eyebrow.
“The proletariat’s been struggling. What happened, mate?”

“I Do!” offers something for everybody, from sweet to hot and funny to touching. Order the e-book now, or wait for the print edition which should be out by the end of January (the perfect Valentine’s Day gift!) – or hey, why not just buy BOTH?

For more information, including of one-line blurbs for the stories, please visit the “I Do!” page on my website, or check out this entry in Alex Beecroft ’s LJ. She got this whole thing moving.

Please feel free to link, forward, spread and herald to whoever and wherever you feel it makes sense. All profits go to Lambda, we’re not keeping anything for ourselves.

‘Semi-Detached’ finished – now keep your fingers crossed it will get accepted

Great article by Alex Beecroft: Fanfic to Pro-fic, musings

Chris Smith on self-critique

WordPress is not very discussion-friendly – if anything, the format represents an oversized soapbox for people who like to hold monologues.

But that’s over now! Well, almost. I created my own community, and you are cordially invited to join, lurk on or ignore

p_s_c_l

What you can expect to read there are excerpts, short stories and drabbles, the odd review (it happens), art etc. There will also be some posts about my research on naval history and 18th century Britain in general, articles I’ve written and so on and so forth. What I expect in return is honesty. Look, I know some folks are touchy when it comes to their work, and I understand it, but if you think I’ve goofed it up and wrote nonsense, tell me. The cult of nice is not for me.

I write Age of Sail adventure with paranormal elements and gay romance. Don’t give me that look, my stories are good. Not my fault if there are prejudices towards certain genres. Give it a try, you might like it. It’s a bit like Marmite.

I’ve written an article for the wonderful Macaronis:

“The Kick-Ass Heroine Just Left The Ship” – do we hate women and sugar-coat history?

To them, romance is icky. It’s not intellectual. It’s written by women wearing fedoras and read by women with no career or too much time at hand. Romance is the equivalent to stepping barefoot on a slug.

My evil socialist feminist thoughts on historical gay romance, let me show you them…

Erastes has put this in words so beautifully; I simply quote and add that I’ll be there too, would love to see you ’round and LET’S HAVE FUN!

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It is with great pleasure that The Macaronis, purveyors of fine historical romance out of the closet, announce the grand opening of `Speak Its Name’ chat group

To be located at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpeakItsN, this is a group for the enjoyment, discussion, and promotion of GLBT Historical Romance fiction. Discerning adults are most welcome to join us.

There will be a splendid inaugural celebration on Friday 31st October, where a dazzling array of authors – Lee Rowan, Alex Beecroft, Charlie Cochrane, Erastes, Mark Probst, Emma Collingwood and Margaret Leigh, to name but a few – will be on hand to ply you with wit, wisdom and goodies. Your attendance is most warmly anticipated. R.S.V.P.

By which we mean: Friday 31st October sees the grand opening of the Speak Its Name Yahoo group, for the enjoyment, discussion, and promotion of Gay Historical Romance fiction. Come and join The Macaronis for the celebrations – there’ll be authors, goodies and fun galore.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpeakItsName

* * *
You can already register now, though the group will not officially open its doors before Friday. Don’t be late to the party!