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Submission Call for Pink Petal Books

*****PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED*****

Call for Submissions for “Dangerous Places-Dangerous Men” anthology.

Pink Petal Books, a high-quality boutique publisher, is actively searching for erotic short stories between 7k-15k words for an anthology to be released in April 2012. At this time, we are looking for four to six tales for a 50k-word finished electronic and print book. Both published and unpublished authors are welcome.

Theme: Dangerous places- Dangerous men

Do you have a survivor-type story? A shipwrecked hero, a heroine stranded on a desert island with a hot rogue, or a couple who’s lost in the steamy jungles? Did your hero drop into a war zone or does he work in an extremely perilous occupation?

If you have or are currently working on a story that might be suitable, please send directly to [email protected]

Dangerous Places-Dangerous Men Anthology Guidelines:

• 7k-15k word stories must have romance, and either a happily ever after or a happily for now ending.
• M/F, M/M, F/F and ménage accepted
• Heat rating: crank up the heat! All erotic heat levels accepted

Submission deadline is January 15, 2012. Submit the full short story plus a blurb to [email protected] with “Dangerous Places-Dangerous Men” in the subject line. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Publishing And Payment Information:

This anthology will be released in print and ebook format simultaneously. Approximately ninety days later each story will release as individual ebooks.  Royalties are paid monthly, and our general royalty structure is 40% of the sales price for all sales from our website. For third party sales, we pay 40% of what we receive. All print books pay 10% of cover price regardless of sales outlet. For anthology sales, all authors in the anthology will split royalties equally. Individual ebook sales will receive full royalties.

For more information about our submission guidelines and publishing program, please visit our website at: https://pinkpetalbooks.com/Submissions.html. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]

I’ve only been writing for publication since 2009, but in those two and a half-ish years, a lot of things have changed. For one thing, my writing has improved (at least I’d like to think it has). I’ve changed decisions about which publishers I’m willing to work with. I’ve learned some things about promoting my work, though not as much as I would like.

And I’ve changed my mind a little about the kinds of things I like to write.

Since I started, I’ve had in mind that I would like to write some M/M romance. I never quite dared to try, though. I figured I wasn’t a male, and I wouldn’t be able to write two male characters “right.” I’d seen complaints online about women who wrote men who sounded like women, and about authors who started writing M/M just because it sells well. I didn’t want to be either of those.

Last fall, right about this time, I had the chance to participate in an anthology from a different publisher honoring a writer friend of mine. That author is a gay male, so the anthology was to contain M/M short stories. Still not sure I could do it, I wrote one. And it was accepted, and published in the anthology.

Around the same time, I had an idea for an M/M novel. With help and patient question-answering from the above-mentioned friend and a few other writing friends (including Pink Petal’s own Lex Valentine), I was able to finish the novel. It was accepted by another publisher and was released in June.

After that, a number of M/M ideas floated into my brain, and I want to write them. Some are novel-length and will be going to the same publisher who published my first M/M novel. Some are novella-length, and I wanted a different home for them.

I’ve also realized that in some of my M/F romance, the heroines in particular are a bit interchangeable. In the contemporaries, the plot is kind of cookie-cutter. I’m not having as much fun with those as I used to.

So going forward, I’m planning to do some M/M for  Pink Petal Books. Hopefully the qualities that people like about Karenna Colcroft’s stories will be present, and I’ll have the joy back. I’m working on my first M/M novella for PPB now, so I’ll keep you all posted on what happens with it.

The Trinket Seller’s Daughter
by Nicole Hurley-Moore
historical romance novella
$2.54 $2.99

Lost in the forest, Emelin runs for her life after her traveling party is massacred by outlaws. Sir Allard de Gerril is in pursuit of the ruthless Archer and his band when he finds Emelin. Bound by vengeance the pair seek out Archer, but as they journey through the dark woods revenge gives way to passion. With each passing day, Emelin dares to dream that there is a place for a lowly trinket seller’s daughter by the knight’s side. Yet as Archer begins to hunt the couple, Emelin fears that she and Allard will not have a future together as they may never escape the tangled wood alive.

Purchase direct from Pink Petal Books.

Love Me Or Lose Me
by Rita Sawyer
steamy contemporary novella
$2.54 $2.99

Darcy and Thomas had a good thing going or so she’d thought, heck they’d even moved in together. But lately Thomas was so focused on
being the king on the courtroom he barely paid attention to her. No matter what she did he seemed to not notice or not care. So Darcy
decides to leave and see if he noticed that. The break will give her some time to reevaluate their relationship and figure out where she
wants to go from here. She leaves him a cryptic message telling him she’s going away for a while, but leaves out where she’s going.

Thomas follows Darcy to her sister’s house. He is ready to do whatever he has to win her back. He even enlists the help of her
three brothers. He knows he has a lot to explain and make up for, he only hopes Darcy gives him the chance.

Purchase direct from Pink Petal Books.

Encounters: Weylyn’s Gift
by Lex Valentine
erotic shifter romance short story
$1.25 $1.49

Werewolf Weylyn Randall is bi-sexual and happily carefree. He spends his nights fucking and playing bass in a band.  His days are spent
recuperating for another go-round when the sun goes down. Nothing gives Weylyn more pleasure than getting his “were” on. After years of this hedonistic lifestyle he doesn’t think there’s a mate out there for him. He’s happy having encounters with whomever strikes his fancy and hooking up with best friend and occasional lover, Drake Keating, whenever possible. Then Drake sends him a gift in a plain brown wrapper. Along with the gift comes a magical woman and between the two, they unleash the next phase in Weylyn’s wild
sex life.

Purchase direct from Pink Petal Books.

Those who know me are well aware of the fact that I am a detail-oriented plotter (to put it nicely) when I write. However, I’ve had a story on which I’m working that isn’t plotted. (Cue surprised GASP!) I work on this story when I can, which sometimes depends on time, sometimes depends on the muse. However, as I started working on the story last night I realized something—I didn’t know the timeframe of the story. I wanted something to happen around Halloween, and yet, I think the story (I’m only about 10K into it) started around mid-August and only a few weeks had passed. While it’s possible that I had come all the way to late October, I don’t think so. Which means I’m going to have to read the novella, track down the time, and figure out exactly when I am.

Whether a writer plots or writes the story as it comes, timing is a very important part of the story. And it’s also, to my mind, one of the hardest things to keep track of even in a fully plotted out tale. If a character says something happens three weeks ago, and then in the next chapter it’s been three years, the reader is going to catch the discrepancy. It throws the reader for a loop, makes him or her wonder what’s going on, and in doing so, actually makes the reader question the writer’s ability. I think we’ve all read those stories where there were time shifts or time jumps.

Even if it wasn’t intentional, sometimes writers will give the impression that the story is taking place during one season and it turns out to be another. These situations, too, cause problems for the reader. And a lot of them go back to setting and making sure it’s as solid a part of the story as the plot and characterization.

So how can a writer fix the time issues?

First, when working on a plot, pay special attention to the WHEN of the story, not just the WHO, WHAT, and HOW. Read through the outline, or synopsis (or flip through index cards, whatever works for you) to check the timing of the story. Does it make sense? In a romance, it’s especially important that the characters be able to fall in love and a happily ever after kind of love at that, in whatever time frame the story’s been set. If the story takes place within the span of a few days or a few weeks, it better make sense.

Then, once the story is written, read through it again. Better yet, print it out and grab a red pen (or a different color from the one you’d use for usual comments). Mark down the time. Chapter One – Spring. Chapter Two – Fall. Whoa, where’d summer go? That way you can see what has happened or what needs to happen to make the timing realistic.

Third, make sure you have critique partners which are well versed in checking for time. It’s a crucial part of writing a believable story. They need to keep an eye out for it.

The best thing I’ve found for making the timing a good part of the story is to make the setting and the when as much a character as the characters themselves. A rich, vivid setting involving all five senses will help ensure the timing to come alive.