Welcome to Julia Talbot's blog!

Welcome, everyone! Here's where I blather about writing, life with my wife BA, and my two basset hounds! I love to hear from readers, so comment here or email me!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Poultrygeist

Once upon a time, there was a very smart rooster named Rodney. He was a lab chicken, genetically enhanced so that his scientist creator, Dr. Bob, would have someone with whom he could play chess and discuss viral particle physics.

Rodney was a happy rooster. He had all the corn he cold peck, but he also had intellectual stimulation, a fine human companion, and occasional electroshock therapy, just for thrills. Dr. Bob had created a tiny pair of electrodes, just for that purpose.

One cold, blustery October day, however, Dr. Bob got a shipment of alpacas in from South America. Apparently, the alpacas, usually very docile animals of much yarn, were all suffering from a terrible virus, one that produced unusual amounts of rage and spittle.

Rodney observed the alpacas with Dr. Bob for days, scratching out notes on a tablet with his beak.

Notes: Subjects spit, bite, and smell like ass. ~R~

Nearly a fortnight after the alpaca arrival, Bob began to exhibit strange symptoms. Worried for his human friend, Rodney ordered pizza online, and managed to pry open a bottle of wine. They would share a meal, and he would find out what was wrong with his human.

Bob sat with him, breaking crust, but the wine seemed to be some sort of catalyst, driving Bob mad. The man picked up the bottle and tried to bash in Rodney's chicken skull.

Rodney ran, but not before Bob broke the bottle and shanked him just like a prison bitch. Squawking, Rodney ran, for the blood seemed to enrage the alpacas, too, who broke free of their cages and started eating the computer equipment.

Rodney hid, bleeding and terrified, pretty sure one of his eyes had fallen out. When the lab quieted down, he was certain the alpacas had eaten one another, so he stuck his head out from under the full spectrum laser stand, determined to escape this horror alive.

A terrible laugh split the stillness, and the animated corpse of his dear human friend reached for him, flesh hanging off the skeletal fingers.

Rodney flapped his wings and ran right at Bob, determined to put his friend out of the misery of being undead.

Unfortunately for Rodney, it was a trap. The alpacas appeared from the deep freeze, ice crystals bunched in their fur, and descended on him, tearing Rodney apart.

His pieces would never be mended again, but when they began to move independently from one another, even the alpacas ran...

Poultrygeist had begun...

The End

Happy Halloween

XXOO

Julia Talbot

Sunday, October 28, 2012

The adventures of Og

I was reminded recently by several folks that I used to write a barbarian named Og, who had a chicken companion named Syuck.

I promise all y'all I will not make Syuck into a zombie.

Og came about when I misspelled "Oh" during a rant in which I used "Oh, the humanity."

BA Tortuga asked me who "Og, the humanity" was, and I was off and running. There are footnotes. If I can find some of it buried on my old LJ, I promise to post some here ;)

In the meantime, poultrygeist is working it's way into reality.

In other news, my Ellora's Cave release has been delayed. As soon as I have a date, I'll holler! Bites nails. I hate technical difficulties...

In other, other news, BA is making cranberry bread. Guy Fieri has the neatest colander, and colander is a word that never looks right no matter what you do...

Off to look at my emails. Fear the inbox

XXOO

Julia

www.juliatalbot.com

Friday, October 26, 2012

Poultrygeist and other titles

I was asking on Twitter last night for people to tell me NOT to write a book titled Poultrygeist.

No one has been trying to discourage me. No, indeed. In fact, people have been encouraging zombie chickens. You just wait until Halloween, y'all.

Hell, I wrote a charity Sip for NOH8 this year titled Dead Cow Pants.

Can I just mention here how hard it is to find royalty free pics of men in leather pants? It's either leiderhosen or chaps. You can tell which one I find sexier.

In the meantime, ponder zombie chickens. I promise, Poultrygeist is coming...

XXOO

Julia

www.juliatalbot.com

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

GRL round Up 2012

Hey y'all!

Finally got caught up on sleep, emails and not on edits, so I thought I'd do a wrap up on my impressions of GRL 2012 in Albuquerque.

First off, let me thank everyone who organized the con. Carol, JP, Ethan, Damon, Heidi, Teresa, and all the volunteers. Brandi and Randy were particularly helpful. If I missed anyone, please hit me with a rock. Y'all did a great job, and we appreciate it.

Next, the hotel. We'd read the online comments, and we were scared. With our various food allergies, especially, we were frightened of being out on the pueblo with no way to get into Albuquerque proper. Well, the hotel (The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on the Isleta Pueblo) was awesome. It was really inexpensive as con hotels go, and it had three great restaurants, a coffee shop, and a little bitty drugstore. The best part? 90% of their Mexican food was gluten free, and they had good enough cross contamination practices that BA Tortuga, my partner, never got sick once. We gorged on tacos and Frito pie, and the night we ate at the steakhouse, Embers, with the amazing ladies at Resplendence Press, we were amazed at how yummy it all was. Everyone at the bell desk was incredibly accommodating, too, especially Donna, who was always in the know.

We got late Tuesday night, and were there through Monday morning, which, Lord, y'all, that's a long time to be away from bassets. (My niece, who housesat for us, thought it was a long time to be WITH bassets.) We laughed, and hugged and basically behaved badly with our friends and fellow authors until Thursday, when most everyone else showed up. At the opening dinner, we sat with the ladies from Ndulgent Bloggers, and those ladies are a hoot! We had a Torquere Press luncheon in Old Town on Friday, which I thought went really well, thanks to La Hacienda, who catered our almuerza. After the luncheon it was off to the CVS to pick up good drugs for my injured BA, and then she got to hallucinate all night at the Resplendence karaoke party. Dude, if you've never taken mind-altering substances and listened to Damon Suede sing, you NEED to come next year.

On Saturday, we attended the booksigning, which was so neat, as I got to meet so many readers and chat about books. The most interesting thing anyone said to us was that BA and I were the "old ladies" of m/m, and she was more interested in reading new folks. So, tell me the truth, guys, am I over? (winks) I think not. I have too many stories to tell.

Saturday night we did the bowling party with Amy Lane, Marshall Thornton, Kiernan Kelly, TC Blue and AR Moler. That was so much fun, y'all! We had 4-5 readers per lane, gave out amazing bags of stuff, drank lots of beer, and (mostly) bowled badly. It was a hoot to get to know everyone! Brunch Sunday with Ariel from Dreamspinner capped us off, and it was great to get to say I'll be a Dreamspinner when my advent calendar story comes out!

Mostly, it was so much fun to hang with everyone and meet new people. Andrew Grey, you owe us coffee! (g)

Thanks to everyone who made it such a great trip. Next year is in Atlanta, and while I loathe that town (sorry if I offend, it's true) I might just have to suck it up and take one for the GRL team ;)

XXOO

Julia Talbot

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Think you can't change the world?

Or, what I learned from GRL 2012

Hey, y'all!

I've been mostly absent, which I apologize for! I had family in visiting starting the 12th, and I went to GayRomLit on the 16th, so I've been in a bit of a whirlwind.

GRL is always amazing, and I fully intend to do a con report, but I have to relate a story from the other day first. I was at a publisher spotlight, and was discussing m/m with one of the readers there. She was telling me that reading glbt romance had changed her life, an she wasn't talking about just her tastes in reading.

This reader, a self-proclaimed military wife and soccer mom, said that m/m had changed the way she saw the world. A friend had given her a gay romance, and she read it and never looked back. But what I loved about what she talked about was how she said she'd never been a homophobe, but she'd never really been an activist in any way. Now she's not just a GLBT activist, but she's more aware of how she and her family interact with the world at large. And she says how her candidates view GLBT issues, women's issues, and things like marriage affect who she votes for.

How awesome is that?

I often say the m/m genre is changing the world one book at a time.

Think you can't change the world?

Think again

XXOO

Julia Talbot

Friday, October 12, 2012

Moon Shine!

So, I've been co-writing some with my girl, BA Tortuga.

It's been a blast, playing with the boys. I can't wait to see what y'all think!

Our new release, Moon Shine, is a hot little story about a moonshine runner who happens to be a werewolf, and this yummy man who shows up on Jenson's doorstep, frantic because he's just been turned. Lucky for David, Jenson knows just what to do to release all that tension.

Here's where you can find it!

You can also find it at All Romance Ebooks and Amazon.com

Who doesn't love some bitey werewolf hotness?

Happy Friday, y'all

XXOO

Julia

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Sunday round up

what writerly things did I do this week?

I did 2K on my newest novel. That may not seem like much, but I'm only working on it as I have time.

I did my edits for my Dreamspinner Advent calendar. So much fun, that story, y'all, and I can't wait to show it to you.

I did about 15K on co-writes with my partner, BA Tortuga. We've always passed the writing torch back and forth a little, but lately, a la Cereus Opening, we've been writing a lot together.

I did my newsletter! Find it on the front page of my site, www.juliatalbot.com for a free snippet featuring Jed and Eli from Jumping Into Things.

I also finished up an emergency Halloween story, got my promo stuff ready for Crazy in Love and did a lot of book packing for GRL

Woo!

Only a week left before then!

XXOO

Julia

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Passionate Cooks

Hey y'all!

Most of you know that my partner, BA Tortuga, and I like to cook. Hey, we like to eat, too ;) A lot. But still, we enjoy playing in the kitchen. So when All Romance Ebooks opened up the Passionate Cooks cookbook for submissions, I was so tickled!

I decided to go super simple with the Menage Peanut Butter cookies. Three ingredients and pretty much foolproof. I'll post pictures when I make them this weekend. In the meantime, y'all should go get the cookbook. It's free!

Here's the link!

The cookies are gluten free, too! Sommer Marsden and BA Tortuga have GF recipes, as well, and my buddy Tory Temple is in there as well!

Yum!

XXOO

Julia

www.juliatalbot.com

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

covers for upcoming stories

have a look!

Okay, so that's a pitbull. I was scrolling through my pics and couldn't resist. She lives with BA Tortuga's daddy.

Here are the covers ;)

Crazy in Love, m/m paranormal, Torquere Oct 17 2012

Fever for Three, m/m/f paranormal, Ellora's Cave, Oct 19, 2012

Woo! As soon as I have new covers, I'll toss them up.

XXOO

Julia