Ah, the last update of the year, and I almost for it. That’s what happens when I’m off work — I forget what day it is 😀

First of all, I’m very excited by the sales numbers for my books this month, especially for Christmas Confessions: Dragon Lover. In the fifteen days that it’s been out, I’ve sold 26 copies through Amazon and 9 copies through Smashwords. I won’t get the numbers from the third party sites for a while yet, but that’s pretty darn good for a self-pubbed dragon-porn short story, lol.

Of course, the one thing that I didn’t get for Christmas was reviews for my books. I did hear from some wonderful readers who told me how much they loved my stories, but it’ll help my sales more if potential customers can read the comments on Goodreads or Amazon or Smashwords (or wherever the book was purchased) *hint hint* Disclaimer: I’m not fishing for fake reviews or five-star reviews, I’d just like some honest reviews because my book pages look so empty and lonely.

Looking ahead to 2014, I hope to republish most of my previously published work, as well as write some new material. I’d love to be able to finish Moonlight, but I don’t know if that’s possible. There’s still so much story left to tell. I’m going to keep at it, though. Slow and steady, right?

I will also be republishing Magebound and FINALLY publishing Spellwrought. I did a first format of Magebound for e-book, which is the easy part. Formatting the print book takes a lot longer. I’m also having a hard time finding an idea for a short story to include with Magebound. I’ve been considering some ‘behind the scenes’ vignettes following characters other than Lark, the POV character. If anyone who has read the book before has any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.

Anyway, thanks for helping make 2013 a great year, and here’s looking forward to an even better 2014. Happy New Year, everyone!

Author’s Note: Happy Monday everyone! Here’s the newest chapter of Moonlight. Sorry it’s a bit shorter than the last few and ends on a cliffhanger. Yes, I’m evil.

I was also busy finishing up Dragon Lover, and the other day I finally decided to take the plunge and start formatting Magebound for publishing next year (since next year is almost here!). I was a little afraid that when I started reading it, I’d discover that I hated it, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I still like it. Yay!

Moonlight Ch. 35

So, I bet you’re wondering where Christmas Confessions: Dragon Lover came from, aren’t you? Well, I’ve noticed over the past few months that “dragon erotica”, “dragon/human erotica” and “dragon porn” have shown up a lot in my website stats as search terms that brought people to my website. I figured if it was that popular of a topic, I should write more dragon/human stories, so after NaNoWriMo ended, I started brainstorming some dragon themed stories.

I should have known better. I get ideas when I’m not even trying; once I began actively trying to think them up, they wouldn’t quit. I have more than a dozen outlines for short stories featuring dragons, and one of them happened to be a Christmas story that demanded to be written. Now.

Flash forward two weeks and I have CC: Dragon Lover for you.  This is the first of a series of Christmas Confession stories I want to write, each one about a different “confession”, from werewolves and selkies revealing their true natures to more mundane secrets, like crossdressing and hidden fantasies. I also want to write more stories about Andrew and Sydney, the stars of Dragon Lover. They are my first established couple as main characters and I have to say, I absolutely adore them.

As far as other writing goes, I’m working on the next chapter of Moonlight, I’m going to format The Shadow Faerie’s Secret and Long Winter’s End for spring releases, and I’m going to start working on Extras for Magebound and get that ready for a summer release. And maybe I’ll find some time to work on something new, too.

Finally, here’s an excerpt from Christmas Confessions: Dragon Lover:

“Sydney, I— I don’t— I can’t—” [Andrew] stopped, looking down at the floor as he tried to organize his thoughts into a complete, coherent sentence. “Sydney, I love you,” he said finally. “This…confession doesn’t change that—” He paused, his heart breaking as Sydney smiled, a bright, wide grin of joy and relief. “But I have to be honest with you, too. You are not a dragon. You can’t be. Dragons do not exist. You’re having some kind of delusional episode, and as soon as I can make an appointment after the holidays are over, we’re going to see a doctor and get you on medication. And then we’ll talk about getting a place together, because I still love you, and together we can work through this. Okay?”

“You’re actually taking the news better than I thought,” Sydney said. “I was afraid you’d leave me.”

“No, never,” Andrew said, shaking his head. “You can’t help being this way; it’s a chemical imbalance or something.”

“And if it’s not? If I really am a dragon?”

“You’re not.”

“But if I am, if I can prove it?”

“You can’t,” Andrew said, “but if you could…then I’d have to believe you.”

“And you’d still love me?”

“As long as you didn’t eat me, sure,” Andrew said. Sydney rose from the sofa and peeled his T-shirt off over his head. “What are you doing?”

“Proving it to you.”

“Hang on,” Andrew said as Sydney unbuttoned his jeans and shoved them and his boxers down around his ankles. “I don’t mind when you use sex to settle an argument, but this is different. Put your pants back on.”

“Please,” Sydney said as he stepped out of his clothes and kicked them out of the way, “try not to freak out. I won’t hurt you.”

“Syd, stop this, please,” Andrew begged. “You’re not a dragon.” Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, something strange happened to Sydney. Andrew first thought it was a trick of the light, or that Sydney was going to be sick, because his skin turned green, every inch of him, as green as grass, as green as the needles on their Christmas tree, then his eyes lost their color, turning a silver that reflected Andrew’s shocked face back at him. Sydney shuddered, his skin cracking, hardening, shiny green scales covering him in gleaming armor as his body changed shape, falling forward onto all fours, his torso lengthening, neck stretching, a long, whip-like tail growing out of the base of his spine. His face elongated, his blond hair twisting into black horns. It took less than a minute and when it was over, Andrew found himself face to face with a twenty-foot long emerald green dragon.

Buy Now!

I have a new novelette out featuring M/M dragon/human erotica, deep penetration, dragon/human transformation and shapeshifting, hemipenes, electric sex, and unconditional love. It’s the first of what I hope to be two series, one following the lives of Andrew and Sydney, and the other a series of unrelated stories with a Christmas Confessions theme. Like I don’t have enough to keep me busy as it is, lol.

Christmas Confessions: Dragon Lover by Katica Locke
15,800 words

M/M dragon/human erotic romance
Explicit dragon/human sex

E-book: $0.99
Smashwords
Amazon

As Andrew and Sydney celebrate their first Christmas together, a startling confession throws their seemingly perfect relationship into chaos. Could Sydney possibly be telling the truth, that he is a thousand year old dragon, or is he stark raving mad? Andrew can’t decide which would be worse, until Sydney proves that he’s not crazy.

After Sydney climbs down Andrew’s chimney in a desperate attempt to win back the love of his life, Andrew realizes that, whether skin or scales, what truly matters is on the inside. On a night of magic and miracles, the two soul mates discover the power of unconditional love and acceptance.

Thanks for checking it out! ^_^

Author’s Note: Yay! A new chapter! I’m still snowed in, the city brought to a standstill by eight inches of icy powder and overnight temperatures in the negative degrees. Last night, we were only two degrees away from the all-time record low for this area, set in 1972, going back to when records started being kept in 1890. Very, very cold! So cold and icy, they canceled school for tomorrow, which is good since I’ve come down with a cold 😦 This way, I can recover a little before I have to face playground duty again. It’s supposed to start warming up in the next few days, so things should get back to normal soon. I hope everyone is staying warm and dry and safe out there. It’s some crazy weather.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Moonlight Ch. 34

See what I woke up to this morning! 😀 It’s been snowing all day and right now, we’re up to five or six inches, which is extremely rare for my corner of Oregon. Usually, we’re lucky if we see a few flurries each winter. Of course, most people would feel luckier if it didn’t snow, and I do feel bad for everyone adversely affected by the weather, but I have never really grown up when it comes to snow, and it’s all I can do to stop myself from going out and building a snow fort! 😛

This also means that school was canceled for today, so I had extra time to finish readying Faerie Christmas for release. Here is a link to the Smashwords page where you can purchase the ebook for $0.99. I went back and forth a few times over the price, trying to decide between $2.99, $1.99 and $0.99, but I finally decided that since it was previously published and it is a short story, and I really need some publicity to get people interested in my other books, I would set the lowest price and hope for lots of buyers who like it enough to purchase my other works.

And since I am snowed in, I should be able to finish another chapter of Moonlight to post on Monday, so be looking for that. ^_^

Technically, I finished it late Saturday, so I managed to get it done before December, lol. I did a first edit for obvious mistakes and formatting, and now I’m letting it cool for a bit before I take another pass at it. It weighs in at just over 60k words, but that’s 15k for the original version and 45k for the extended version, but no special features.

Now I’m working on a cover for it. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I love making covers. I know they’re simple, but I like the way they look, the simplicity, the lack of half-naked men. Don’t get me wrong, I like looking at men as much as anyone, but I just find it…exploitative and gimmicky. I know it’s a marketing thing, that readers who want erotic fiction look for rippling abs and smoldering good looks, but I don’t want to be another sheep in this herd of conformity. That may mean that my books get ignored because people can’t tell at a glance what they’re about, but I’ll take my chances. Some of you have already complimented me on my covers for Breach and Broken Wings, and I really appreciate that.

Right now, I have three concept covers that I’d like some feedback on. They aren’t finished, some things are rough-edged or pixelated, but I’ll polish up the one we decide on. Here they are in thumbnail size, since that’s how they will appear on most retail sites, but you can click on them to get bigger versions. Remember, this book will be e-book only, so we don’t have to worry about how it will look in print.

Voting is now closed so I can get the cover finished. I’ve decided to go with Cover 2. Thanks so much! 🙂