WIP day! Snippet from Dragon Mesa 1

Hey y'all!

I'm writing Dragons again! I should be done. I'm not. However, I'm close.

Here's a snipped from Dragon Mesa 1, Kept.

A flash of light caught his eye, and that interloper was watching him, at least it seemed like it.

Damn it. He pressed back into the lee of a fissure in the rock, turning his back enough to protect Chaya.

Sister?

Kaya, stay down!

Bar-D?

Why? Why did Kaya have to show up now? Unlike her sister Chaya, she wasn’t bonded to Bard, and therefore didn’t always listen to him.

Sister? Sister? Kaya came swooping through the air, spinning headlong down the arroyo. Sister, is that you?

Kaya! Be good. Good. No sparkly man!

He heard her pull up, but it was too late, she crashed into the man down there, hitting him hard enough to send them both winding.

Shit. Fuck a doodle doo. Bard wasn’t sure what the hell to do, but Kaya was his Chaya’s twin. He couldn’t just leave her to be caught.

So he ran.

XXOO

Julia

Happy Release Day! Two Cowboys and a Baby by BA Tortuga

"Country don't mean dumb."

This is my favorite line from the Stand, wherein Mainer Stephen King takes up for country folks all over who might talk slower or come to things from an angle that city folks don't think of.

That's what happens in Two Cowboys and a Baby by my amazing and talented wife, BA Tortuga.

Hoss McMasters finds a baby on his doorstep. What ensues is a tropetastic romp from a Deep east Texas perspective. Hoss is a cowboy's cowboy, just like the guys I grew up with, and I adore him. Bradley is a redneck boy who will do anything for a job, and he makes me laugh. These two are stubborn, clueless and amazing.

It's here on Dreamspinner

And here on Amazon!

Read without prejudice! These boys are country, but they're a wonderful ride!

XXOO

Julia

Advance Review of Lickety Split, by Damon Suede

Damon Suede doesn’t write comfortable books.

Hey, don’t worry, he knows I think that. We talk about it often.

When I offered to do a review for his upcoming release Lickety Split, I wasn’t sure what I would be getting. The cover says cowboy book. The blurb says all the tropes are there: city mouse country mouse, enemies to lovers, May-December.

With Damon Suede, nothing is ever so simple.

Here’s the basic idea. Patch left deep southeast Texas years ago, out and proud and headed for New York. When his folks pass away, he returns to his hometown to sell the family farm. Complication comes in the form of Tucker, much older and proven enemy of Patch. Or is he? Tucker turns out to be on Patch’s side, and the two find some smokin’ hot reasons to be together, but can any relationship like this really work?

Now we get to the meat, so to speak. Patch Hastle might just be the living, breathing embodiment of you can never go home again. He lives the kind of life that, growing up in Southern New Mexico, I could only imagine by watching it on TV. New York dwelling, sophisticated DJ, jet setting off to Ibiza to do a gig… People only do that in movies, right? Except Damon Suede knows this guy. I think he’s been this guy. So, when Patch comes home to Texas, as readers, we can feel how much he doesn’t want to be there. At all. Not one bit.

Then there’s Tucker. He’s about as down on his luck as a guy can get, and when we first meet him, we only see what Patch wants us to see. There’s a lot of deep East Texas in Tucker, a lot of redneck. I grew up with guys like him, and in order to understand them, you have to see how they connect to the land. There’s more to him than first meets the eye, though, and that’s the best part of this story. How Patch learns to love Tucker, and through him, regains some perspective on the farm, and on how he feels about the Texas dirt.

I think Lickety Split has a lot to say about Texas, and about the people who live there, good and bad. It’s not always comfortable in that sometimes you have to fight to like Patch, and fight to believe he and Tucker will ever make it. Now, it also has the farmboy fantasy in spades, and yeah, the sex left me squirming and flushed, which is just what I want in a book.

Read it.

I bet it surprises you with how it turns all those tropes right on their heads.

Order Lickety Split here!

It will be available March 13 2017

XXOO

Julia

Not Dead

been working on my website with Lex, my designer, on BA's website, and on www.evilplotbunny.com where we sell our self pubbed books. I'm thinking of migrating to a wordpress blog because this one became a place to post about the Torquere debacle. Still not over by the way. Anyhoo, I do love y'all, and hope you'll keep up with me for right now at evil plot bunny and at my more general lifestyle blog, www.twooldbroadsinlove.com

XXOO

Julia

Torquere still isn't closed

why is that?

So, not long ago, Torquere announced to their authors list, at least, that they were closing.

All of the authors who have gone unpaid and unanswered cheered. Yay! They're doing the right thing and reverting rights.

Except they're not.

Two days ago, Kristi sent this to Torquere authors.

"We are having to change internet carriers and are without from last night until 12/27 when they can come hook it up. I can not check the TP email or use my Mac until then. I have access to my gmail and my phone during this time."

Now. I know Ms. Boulware-Talbot. She worked for me for 3 years before she took over TQ. She's had her TQ emails on her phone for all those 5 years. So even if this mysterious outage is real, why can't she answer emails.

I'm baffled, y'all. I understand wanting the weekend off, but be honest and say I'm not working from Friday to Monday. I know maybe 5 authors who actually got their reversion letters.

Why are the sales channels still up? Why is the site still up? Where is the public announcement?

More smoke and mirrors and more bullshit.

Julia

How not to close a publishing business (Torquere Press LLC)

So, in an email to their author list dated Dec 13, 2016, Torquere Press LLC announced they were beginning the process of closing.

Here's where they announce their main point:

While we realize this announcement may not be totally unexpected to some of you I’m sure many of you will have questions. Please be patient with us as we will take some time in getting all of the hundreds of rights reversions together. The process of us wrapping up Torquere will take at minimum 90 days if not longer.

Right. Now, see, I can totally understand taking time to make sure all rights are reverted correctly.

What I can't understand is leaving sales venues up for that time. Make a public announcement so readers can download any files they've bought, give people 3 or 4 days, then shut down the website and distributor site accounts instead of stealing yet more money from your authors.

The only nod at all to the fact that they have not paid anyone since June 2016, and that was for (4th qtr distributor sales and 1st qtr TQ sales-- I did not get paid for that 2K statement thanks) was this paragraph:

We are very saddened that we have to end things this way, but we believe it is for the best for everyone involved. We will continue to support each of you in any way we can when it comes to self publication questions, or even helping you find a good new home for your current and future books if we are able. We are still looking at options on how to get everyone paid and caught up and appreciate your patience while we are dealing with this matter.

You see how they did that? We're keeping your books hostage while we slowly take down the sales areas, but we have no plan in place to pay you the 10s of 1000s of dollars you already earned and we didn't pay! But here's the kicker.

We have done everything we could to turn things around but with the saturation in the industry, the financial hardships we are in, my health in constant decline along with the negativity we have had hurdled our way. We feel like we are currently fighting an uphill battle. We have so many happy memories and will hold on to those as we make our choices for our futures in this industry. It has truly been an honor and privilege to work with each of you.

IOW, we love y'all for making us money, but it's your fault that we failed. Uh, hello! If they hadn't stolen thousands, no negativity would have come their way. No one wants to be a victim of theft. But I'll be damned if I won't expose a thief when I'm faced with one.

So again, I urge the owners, Kristi and Joanna, to do the right thing. Announce to your readers, distributors and creditors that you're closing. Give people 3 days to download any files. Turn off your payment gateway. Close accounts at Amazon and other distributors as those books will remain in people's libraries even when you take the books down. Once you are no longer making illegal money off people, you can send reversion letters over a reasonable period of time. You're done. Stop punishing authors for your mistakes.

Julia

writer beware blog re Torquere

Just parking this link here http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2016/12/small-press-storm-warnings-torquere.html

An open letter to Torquere Press LLC

Dear Ms. Boulware-Talbot and Ms. Talbot,

I would like to speak out on behalf of all of the unpaid and unanswered authors of Torquere Press LLC. You may say I am no longer a Torquere author, but as long as you owe me and my wife the nearly 4K combined you owe us, I am an unsatisfied author of your company.

Therefore, I take it on myself to speak for all the authors who have not been paid, some since 3rd qtr 2015, most since June 2016. I speak out for the author you still owe $18600.00 not including the 10K you paid for a bounced check, which also has not been received. I speak out for the author you owe $35.00 for an anthology story. I'm calling you out for all the authors who have requested payment, rights reversions, or just a simple update and have remained unanswered.

I'm also writing on behalf of your staff, some of whom I hired when I was the owner of Torquere Press Inc, and therefore I feel responsible for. Those staff who worked for you for free for too long while you made promises you didn't keep, then threw them under the bus by telling the authors you paid the staff rather than author royalties. Which is not true.

So, here's my challenge to you both.

Own up to your shit. Give the authors a reversion letter. Even if you do it the cowardly way like Ellora's Cave and put it up publicly for all the authors to grab. Then close the business. Stop stealing. Stop sitting on your butts and making income off the authors you refuse to answer. Clean out your emails and give people their books back. The money is gone. We get it. While it would be a decent thing to do to pay us, you're not going to. But this is people's lives. It's their copyright, their property.

Give it back. Answer for yourself, and for once, do the right thing.

Take down the websites and the distributor accounts and stop acting like you can just walk away. You can't, and doing the right thing now might stop some of the legal actions said authors and staff are already in the act of starting.

Sincerely,

Julia Talbot

How Torquere continues to implode, or, "Good Lord and Butter"

So, here's the latest update from Torquere:

"Sales we (sic) lower from distributors end of October than September. We are paying the editors their invoices from the books that have released. We are not ignoring the fact that we are behind on royalties and we are trying our very best to get things above water."*

Now, let's break this down, shall we?

Item the first. What does it matter to the authors who are owed money what kind of sales in there were September and October 2016? There are authors who are owed money from as early as 3rd Qtr 2015. In the thousands. The money all Amazon vendors received on Oct 29 was for August 2016. TQ still hasn't paid any author that I know of for April, May and June of 2016, and now they're using August money to pay editors rather than putting it away to pay authors? 3rd qtr 2016 royalties are due out no later than Nov 30. Do we think anyone will get paid? No, because by Torquere's own admission the money is gone!

Item second. They're not ignoring that they're behind. Except they are. By the accounts of at least 20-25 authors I've seen on social media, they've stopped answering emails. They're not giving rights back, even though they said in a public update they would. At least when they were issuing reversions they were better than other failing pubs, but now they're playing the we keep your books and your money game just like the rest.

Finally and, I think, more importantly, they're paying their editors with the recent payment from Amazon.

Goggles.

Yes, editors need to get paid for work done. However, as an LLC, it is the owner's responsibility to do that with her own money if paying the authors what they have earned ends up leaving her upside down. The onus is not on the authors to pay the businesses' bills. By contracts that the owners of TQ signed, the money earned by authors is to be paid to them no later than 60-65 days (and in some cases 30 days) after the end of the quarter. That 30-40 percent (with many at 35-45) should NEVER HAVE BEEN USED FOR ANYTHING ELSE.

So. Where is the money? Low sales are not to blame, because regardless of how much or little an author made, they should get paid. I know maybe 5 authors who are owed upwards of 50K all told. That doesn't count the other 100 or more authors and what they're owed for 2nd and 3rd qtr 2016. It's time for all TQ authors to stand up and demand to know where all that money went. Speak out. This needs to be stopped.

* I did remove a few more personal remarks from the email to be as fair as I can.

XXOO

Julia

Terrible Trick

Hey y'all

What an awful trick. I had planned a great Halloween blog for yesterday but I got sidetracked, and I feel shady writing it today and posting it backdated...

Also I feel very grumpy today. I keep trying to honor All Saints Day and live today kindly and with a little humbleness. Instead I'm dwelling on stuff that's not worth my time, because I loathe people who make vague threats against people I love. Even when those threats are empty and meaningless, it makes me mad. So have some good thoughts for me, and send your leftover Halloween candy.

Happy Birthday to my great nephew Boo, who is 5 today, and was a Ghostbuster for Halloween. You make my day, baby boy.

Hugs, y'all

XXOO

Julia

Fall Leaves and Adult Hot Chocolate

The leaves are just starting to turn here in Albuquerque because it's been a warm fall. They cottonwoods all along the acequias and the bosque turn a bright yellow, cutting a swath across the whole Rio Grande valley. We live up on the mesa, and we get to look down on the amazing sight every time we drive down into town.

As the nights get cooler, we love to it out on the front porch or out back by the firepit and have a hot chocolate.

The best hot chocolate is an adult hot chocolate. We've had a lot of variations on this theme, with Kahlua or Baileys or something in it. The best one we've found so far is to get a really good dark chocolate mix and add whipped cream vodka. Oh, y'all, it's fall heaven. Who needs pumpkin spice?

We also bought salted caramel Bailey's to try. We'll report on that as we try!

XXOO

Julia

re-release: In the Hearts of Tigers with Sean Michael

At All Romance Ebooks

Or at Amazon

Previously published in the Shifting Anthology

XXOO

Julia

Dusts off blog

Been avoiding blogging again because of the mess with Torquere, still unresolved.

Too damned bad, Julia. Get up and pull up your socks!

Hugs all the good people out there

XXOO

Julia

blaming authors for publisher failure part 2

Two separate publishers in less than a week, y'all. Two. Both owe me money. One in the thousands. One I have no idea because they never sent statements, but even if I go with the lowest amount they paid me monthly, I guess around the 500.00 range or more. And both have blamed authors for their business issues.

Now, think on this. That 2.5K is my 35-40% net. That means they made twice that as a publisher on my sales alone.

Publisher 1:

"We are just as stressed as [sic] when you aren't making money we aren't either. We have none coming in personally either. We haven't had a paycheck either."

Publisher 2:

We're not swindling money from anyone.For God’s sake, we wouldn’t be closing to begin with if their titles were making money!

Both of them seem to forget a major point. Regardless of their personal or professional debt, THEY HAVE TO PAY ME FOR ANY SALES I MADE! This is not a charity. They signed a contract saying they would pay me and then took my money. Period. There is no excuse or plea for patience that makes up for that, and yes, it is a swindle. No doubt about it.

Don't lie. Don't make excuses. Pay us what you owe.

NO xxoo

Julia

How publishing works redux, or pay your damned authors

So many things to talk on today. Let me gather my thoughts.

Ooohhhhhm

Okay, first I want to talk about the EC-like complaining the owners of Torquere are doing. On Twitter, one says: Cont)but I am pretty fed up.I am done playing nice and trying to pacify people.Things are what they are and ARE being resolved.That is all.

The other says: When people are putting all they have in to try & fix things attacking them doesn't inspire a desire to work harder. Just a thought to keep.

Once again, blaming the authors for their failing. You can't misappropriate thousands of dollars of authors' money, not pay the for books you have a contract to pay them on, and then expect them to believe you when you say things are being resolved.

This is not OUR fault as Torquere authors. We wrote books, promoted them, and helped sell them. Kristi and Joanna then took that money, and spent it. There's no, "Oops, I tripped and lost 20K". There's no overhead that should ever spend the money of a press' authors. This was someone taking the money and spending it, and then not being able to figure out what to do when it suddenly caught up with them because authors began to wise up.

In an update to the author list this weekend, the owners said the payment they were about to receive from Amazon was disconcertingly low. Really? That payment is for July 2016, and has been posted in Amazon since the 15th of August in report form. If you're really trying to make things work, make things right, you should be on top of the incoming revenue as soon as you have access to the information. You should also be putting that money aside to pay the quarter it is actually earned in, not to try to pay off debts you owe from third qtr 2015 onward. That's right. At least one author hasn't received a full payment for anything since 2nd qtr 2015. That's April May and June, 2015. On the Torquere site sales. That qtr paid for Jan-March 2015 on distributors.

Asking for payments and demanding rights reversions for breach of contract are not attacks. They are sound business decisions from authors who have been treated at best unfairly, and at worst criminally.

Pay your authors. Then you don't have to deal with all that nasty hand holding and pacifying people who earned money they will never see.

Julia

Update to the TQ debacle

No payment, no emails to tell anyone what's going on, lots of authors saying they're getting no answer while one of the owners bitches on Twitter about having to pacify those pesky damned authors.

Blaming authors for Publishing Failure

Or, how fast can Torquere Press LLC turn into EC?

Pretty fast.

In a statement issued to authors today, owners of Torquere Press LLC Kristi Boulware and Joanna Talbot admit to having financial problems and basically tell the whole of their authors they're not getting paid unless a loan can be procured. Not only that, they blame the authors who pulled their books between January and April 2016 for this failure, saying those authors leaving TQ caused them to not have enough money to pay overhead.

Pardon me? This is not how publishing works.

The simple equation of ebook publishing is this:

An author writes a book. The publisher edits it and puts a cover on it. The publisher lists it on their site and on distributor sites. Sales happen. The publisher promises to pay a % of sales to the author. This is a contractual obligation, not a gift or charitable act. The author has earned this money based on their hard work writing and promoting the book and on their talent. Payment must happen no matter how many or few sales are made. The publisher is supposed to put whatever percentage the author has earned into an escrow account until it's time to pay and only use the publisher's percentage to pay overhead and salaries.

End of story.

Now, unfortunately, due to the delayed nature of distributor payments, many times publishers don't realize they're in trouble until they have a bad quarter and end up not having enough of their money to pay bills or salaries or for that vacation they took, and they "borrow" from next quarter's author money. This is called robbing Peter to pay Paul. If the publisher is lucky, they have a good quarter next time, or their spouse has a day job, or whatever. They can pay the money back and get back on track. That's sadly not the case here.

Here's a timeline for everyone who thinks this is all brand new.

3rd qtr payments for 2015 were due no later than November 30, 2015. At least 3 authors, including TQ's bestselling author of all time, were not paid. Despite repeated email requests for information, two of these authors got no reply until they caught up with the owners on FB. One was paid via Paypal on the last day of December 2015. One finally received a check on Dec 31. 2 weeks later in January 2016, that check bounced for NSF. That was what was marked on the check. Not stop payment. NSF. Despite repeated requests for payment, the author with the bounced check was forced to turn in the owner for check fraud in late February for nearly 10K. Due to this issue, that author pulled her titles. Since mine and my wife's payment was late per the contract, we also pulled our titles because as former publishers and authors who went through the EC collapse, we could see what was happening. That was at the end of January.

The next round of payment owed were for 4th qtr 2015, payable no later than the end of February. I received my payment March 29. 1st qtr 2016 payments were due no later than May 31. I have not received it, despite a statement balance of $1558.41.

Most authors who were paid for that qtr report being paid June 30. 30 days late.

Other authors who were not paid, or who were again paid late, finally pulled their books.

2nd qtr 2016 was due no later than Sept 3rd, even by the newer contract term of 65 days past the end of the quarter. It has not been paid to anyone to my knowledge and now the letter has been issued that overhead takes priority over author payments and that up until "a few months ago" owners were still drawing salaries, which should have been the first thing to go once a check was bounced.

So I ask this. Where is the money? By statements alone, some 30K is owed to a handful of authors who have been repeatedly stiffed. That is 1/3 of what Torquere received in actual sales for THOSE authors alone. So where did all that money go? Why was author money being spent in the first place, no matter how bad the business was being mismanaged?

My advice to all Torquere authors is this: she offered your rights back. Write today and get them. NOW. Run. Write RWA and report non-payment. Write Writer Beware and report non-payment. Go public. This is theft, and it's unacceptable to ever blame authors, distributors, or advertising contracts for author money being spent on anything other than royalties.

XXOO

Julia

Trying to get back in the groove after the Bad Things

I've never been one for writer's block. I can usually plug away, even through life's crises. Some days I might only get 100 words, some days 5K. But usually I get words.

This last month or so, though, every word is a struggle. It's not a lack of ideas or inspiration. I'm just so TIRED.

We've had medical struggles. Both of us. I usually talk more about the wife, but I have a chronic injury condition of the feet where bones break randomly, and have been in a boot for 10 weeks. Again. I hurt all the time.

Then you add in the stress of not being able to pay bills because publishers are not paying. EC has not paid me since December 2015. I only have one book left with them and hope to get it back in November, but come on! The books were still selling well when they stopped paying. They owe me, no doubt, at least a few hundred bucks. Then there's TQ who, at this writing have not paid me for the wife for 1st or 2nd qtr 2016. This is all they would ever have to pay us as we pulled our books. If they would just PAY us. At this point they owe me and BA a combined $3000.00 and the news is not good. Even the authors who defended them when they went 30 days past the payment deadline for 1st quarter are now wondering why 2nd qtr payments are almost week past due. Where's the money? I mean, she had to stop using my money and BA's and Sean Michael's to pay everyone else because we pulled our books... so now who gets the shaft?

Worrying this to death and just trying to muddle through the day has made it tough to write. I think I need cheerleaders. LOL. Anyone who wants to volunteer?

On the good side, Grizzly List 3 will be in at the publisher this week! I hope for a January release.

XXOO. I do love y'all. Thanks for hanging with me.

Julia

All the Books! A Guest Post from BA Tortuga

Hey, y'all!

BA Tortuga here, taking over the wife's blog.

Did y'all know I have all the books out these last few weeks?

I do. I have a lot. So I want to tell you all about them. Come sit close. We'll have coffee and I'll give you the short and dirty list.

I have Mr. Unlucky at Totally Bound.

Addie is a photographer with a past she wants to forget. Bodie is the unluckiest man in love who ever existed. Can they get their shit together?

Buy Link

See what I mean about quick and dirty?

Reclamation 2 is out at Changeling! No Time to Lie

Marshall and Ben believe their mate, Jakob, has been killed. When Jakob escapes from a cult, there is nothing that will stop them from reclaiming him.

Awful blurb. Good book. Werewolves and kidnapping and weird cults! Buy it here.

Real World is out from Dreamspinner. Sequel to Ever the Same

Dan is ex Army and trying to assimilate to the real world. Weldon is bisexual, a widower, and has a ton of kids. Not exactly a match made in heaven, right?

Buy it here!

Then there's the reprint co-write with the wife, who is so kindly hosting me today.

Link to the Crescent. NOLA. Werewolves. Vamps. Sexay!

get it here or at amazon!

Pant pant. I'm exhausted. I hope y'all are reading!

Much love y'all

BA Tortuga

www.batortuga.com

@batortuga on Twitter

facebook!

Firemen! Smokejumpers!

Ex-lovers who meet up again!

Intrigued yet? I am. Oh, wait. I wrote it.

I love firemen. And Colorado. And old lovers with an ax still to grind when circumstances toss them back together.

Get it here!

Smooch

XXOO

Julia