Considering this, you can understand why I feel so proud to be recognized on that site. For once, Something Like Summer wasn’t the star performer. Hell’s Pawn won a Rainbow Award for Best Gay Fantasy and also won an Honorable Mention in the Best Gay Novel category. Of course the most popular kid in school didn’t go completely unnoticed. Something Like Summer scored an Honorable Mention in the Best 2011 LGBT Cover contest. My lovely husband has much to be proud of. His art was up against hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds!) of covers, with some really stunning work on display this year.

The biggest winner in the Rainbow Awards is the reader, since it’s not just the top sellers that are gaining recognition. A lot of overlooked books rise to the top through this contest, which means we can look over the list of winners and runners-up on Elisa’s site and discover great new books to read. But first, I’m off to buy some champagne!

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Werewolves –

Easily the best monster ever, werewolves have always played second fiddle to vampires. I’ll never understand why. What’s so great about sleeping in a coffin and exploding when the sun comes out? Werewolves have it so much better, living a normal life for all but three nights of the month. And there’s none of the delicate constitution of vampires. The only thing that can kill you is a silver bullet, which most hunters are way too cheap to keep in stock.

Werewolves are also sexy! Taylor Lautner aside, a man that is in touch with his primal animal instincts must be a tiger in the sack. Or a wolf, as the case may be. I suspect all that shapeshifting back and forth is great for muscle tone too. The only werewolf to appear in my books so far is Nikolai in The Cat in the Cradle. His rarely seen human form is as handsome as can be, and I even gave him his own short story, but I’d like to write an entire book about lycanthropes some day.

Skeleton Warriors –

If there were runway models in the world of monsters, skeletons would be the most sought after. That’s not a skinny joke either. Skeletons simply look great no matter what you put them in. Whether they are wearing a sombrero, a bride’s gown, a pharaoh’s cowl, or a classy suit and top hat, skeletons never fail to impress.

My most favorite skeletons accessorize with a simple shield and sword. In Jason and the Argonauts, an evil wizard tosses hydra teeth to the ground like he’s spreading grass seed. What grows is a terrifying army of skeleton warriors. Not only do they look great, but they make effective soldiers as well. What are you going to do, stab their flesh? Poke out their eyes? There’s not a lot of ways to damage a pile of bones, especially when it’s animated and trying to kill you. See for yourself:

Demons –

I’ve always found demons interesting. I don’t mean generic devils. The demons I like have strange names and roles in Hell’s hierarchy. Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Mammon, and of course Lucifer. Each has their own story, but better than that is the creepy art portraying them. Few things inspired the artists of old like the threat of burning in Hell. Hieronymus Bosch made this his life’s work, and even though his paintings are over five hundred years old, their nightmare visions remain terrifyingly original.

Of course demons also have their charming side, appearing in the night and seducing innocent women (and not-so-innocent gay guys) with sinful promises of passion and pleasure. The most famous of these are the incubi. Okay, so succubi are more popular, but we’re talking about hot demon lords here. My favorite of course is Rimmon, who has a starring role in Hell’s Pawn. I certainly enjoyed writing him, and had more than one feverish incubus dream while working on that book.

Multi-headed dragons –

I’ve never been much for dragons, the generic beast of fantasy novels. I have nothing against them, but they’ve never interested me much. But give me a dragon with more than one head, and suddenly I can’t get enough. I love hydras, and not just because their teeth can raise armies of skeleton supermodels. Hydras are cool because they’re so damn hard to kill. It’s hard to say how many heads a hydra starts with, but cut off one and two grow back in its place. The only way of preventing this is by burning the severed neck stump. Unless you’re really good at multitasking, the hydra’s other heads are going to kill you while you’re trying to deal with just one of them.

The best hydra of all is Tiamat. Forget Babylonian mythology, I’m referring to the modern Dungeons and Dragons creation. This Tiamat is a dragon with five heads, each a different color and possessing different kinds of breath. It’s like someone combined a pride flag and a hell spawned dragon for the ultimate expression of gay fury. The red head breathes fire, the blue head shoots electricity, and the green head spews delicious martinis that render foes drunk and vulnerable. Not only that, but while Tiamat is devouring you whole, the other four heads can function as a decent barbershop quartet!

Those are some of my favorite beasties. Even though I poked fun at them, they still capture my imagination to this day and always will. Come this Halloween season, I wish you many delightful nightmares filled with sword fighting skeletons and debonair demons. Oh, and be sure to leave a comment below and tell me about some of your favorite monsters!

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As for the story, I did another rewrite and had the book edited again to bring it up to par with my other releases. There’s even some new content! A few scenes have been flushed out, the story matured ever-so-slightly to get away from the Young Adult taboo that causes so many adults to tremble and flee. But wait, there’s more new stuff! Andreas designed a glorious fantasy map that covers the northern portion of the Five Lands. The southern map will be included in the second book.

That’s right! Now we’re finally to the kittens reference. The Cat in the Cradle is now part of the Loka Legends series. I wrote the second book earlier this year, and rarely have I ever been so excited about a project. For those that haven’t read the first book yet, much of it has to do with Dylan and Tyjinn and the love they feel for each other. I wanted to continue Dylan’s story and see where the growth he experiences in the first book would take him. I don’t want to give anything away, but believe me—if you don’t read the first book you’ll be missing out on an amazing sequel.

As always, buying options are to the right. You’ll find them below Hell’s Pawn, which is still king right now. Or you can learn more and read free chapters on the book’s product page. I hope you guys will join me for my first series. Something tells me it won’t be my last.

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*Update* Flesh and Blood is currently unpublished but will be released again in another format sometime in the future.

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The long version: I enjoy dropping hints in my books about other places, other adventures. Ideas occur to me that have no place in the current narrative, and it gives me some release to at least leave a nod to them. The Cat in the Cradle makes mention of a handful of such tangents, Nikolai’s origin chief among them. What sort of experience would compel a person to shed the last vestiges of their humanity? Not a very pleasant one, I have to admit, but the most interesting stories are unpleasant. Besides, it’s almost Halloween, the perfect time to celebrate the grim and gruesome.

I asked Andreas for a rough sketch I could use for this story, but of course he went above and beyond and created a cover worthy of a full blown novel. He’s crazy, but that’s why I love him. If you want to see more of his art, stop by his website or his blog.

*Update* Flesh and Blood is currently unpublished but will be released again in another format sometime in the future.

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In fact, I’m not really a believer in the distinction between adult fiction and that for young adults. I’m reading Terry Pratchett’s latest novel, I Shall Wear Midnight, which is billed as being for young readers. In the story, a thirteen-year-old girl is beaten so hard by her father that she miscarriages. This is by no means the main plot, but it’s pretty dire stuff for any age group, and more serious than I recall any “adult” Discworld novel being. Mention is also made of an event in a previous “young reader” Discworld book where an old woman, suspected of being a witch, has her home burnt down and her cat stoned to death. Eventually she dies from exposure to the winter. Cheerful stuff for the kiddies.

Mr. Pratchett isn’t alone. Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials series,” (The Golden Compass and two other volumes) deals with hard hitting issues such as political and religious corruption, death, and separation. There are some truly disturbing scenes in those books that shook me as an adult. Bridge to Terabithia is pretty heavy too, since the death of a friend isn’t easy for anyone to handle, regardless of age. Some aren’t at all disturbing, but are simply great stories. What isn’t there for an adult to appreciate in A Wrinkle in Time? Are you ever too old for a fantastic adventure?

I’m not complaining about any of these books. I honestly love them all. I just find the category of Young Adult to be condescending to young people. Adults tend to forget just how aware they were when they were younger and how much they could really handle. Sex isn’t something that can truly be kept from younger people these days, and good ol’ Hollywood has been spoon feeding us violence for generations. Not even book length can be taken into account for why this category exists. Just look at the tomes the last couples of Harry Potter books became.

I’ll admit that I’m a big kid at heart, so maybe the truth is that my tastes are just immature, but sales and specialized versions (such as those silly Harry Potter covers for adults) suggest that I’m not alone. More likely is that adults have forgotten just how wonderful and wise young people can be, and how many lessons can be learned by revisiting the experiences and viewpoints of our younger selves.

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This is a happy discovery for me since this image of Kio is spot on. I suppose it would be a rare moment that the cat would be so lost in thought and not more expressive, but this is how Kio appears in my mind. Great job, Andreas!

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I guess some writers might edit alongside writing new material, but I’m too eager to get the books I’ve already finished out there. Any hour that I’m writing could be used toward that goal, and so that’s what I do. I can’t wait to get caught up though. Getting back into my old habits after being gone so long isn’t easy, but I’m sure I’ll slide into soon. Speaking of creative enterprises, the art above is the work of Brian Shepp, who has done an entire series of deities and spirits. He even painted my man Manannan, which is how I found his site. You can check out Brian’s stunning work here and buy something if you’re rich. I know I would. Anyway, I love stuff like this. I’ve always had a fascination with the old gods, if not a ongoing relationship, and they feature heavily in my third novel. That one seems a million miles away, but some of these gods also make an appearance in The Cat in the Cradle, albeit in different guises. I wonder if anyone will recognize who they are?

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No doubt such romantically barren fantasy novels helped to usher in the era of slash fiction. Without every character being paired up with a wife, child, and white picket fence, readers were left free to imagine what couples they would most like to see. I suspect this is also the reason why Doctor Who has such a large gay following. Until recent years, the Doctor wasn’t tongue wrestling with anyone. Picturing a neutral hero in the sort of relationships you enjoy is much easier to do than with a flamboyantly heterosexual hero. Maybe that’s why fantasy novels held such sway over me when I was young.

Really though, I like it better these days. I prefer openly gay characters in books and no longer having to make up hot guy-on-guy romances. Besides those for my own stories of course. Speaking of which, I stumbled upon a rough sketch Andreas did of Tyjinn that didn’t make it in the novel or the art book. I’m not sure whose idea it was that Tyjinn should be wearing so little, but I approve. And speaking of sexy fantasy figures, if you name your favorite over on Reviews by Jessewave in the next couple of days, you can win a free print copy of The Cat in the Cradle. How sexy is that?

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