The Blue on Blue audiobook is out and Im thrilled to say that Gary Furlong is again narrating (yay!) I think Gary’s performances have been incredible — he’s really brought the Bitter Legacy books to new life for me. I wonder if that’s how scriptwriters feel when really good actors perform and animate their work. Anyway - if you hear it, I really hope you enjoy it! ♥️
Promoting ‘Blue on Blue’ this month, (the last in the ‘Bitter Legacy’ trilogy) I’ve been asked a fair bit about the writing process and what I’ve learned since I started writing for publication. Which has been hard to answer because I don’t usually think about why I’m doing anything writing-wise while I’m doing it, and I don’t think about it after I’ve done it either. That explains a lot, I hear you cry.
One of the main things I’ve talked about though, is structure.
When I submitted the first draft of what was to become ‘Bitter Legacy ‘ to Nicole Kimberling at Blind Eye Books, there were so many things wrong with it. But chief among them -- I’d never tried writing a mystery before, so I instinctively went with the way popular mainstream mysteries/crime thrillers are written. There are always other POVs as well as the main cop’s – usually we’re in the victims’ heads before they get the chop, sometimes we hear from the perp too, sometimes random characters…
So though until then I’d always written in tight third, single POV, in that first draft I went with that mystery structure as I believed it was: I wrote a POV for all the victims, before their swift demise. The first thing Nicole had me do was chop all of that out and write to a totally different structure... romantic suspense, which has its own rules. And now when I read mainstream popular mysteries, I sort of squirm at all those POVs, which seem a bit incoherent and chaotic. To me. Now. Yes, I’ve become the structure police.
Anyway – the point. I thought since we’re all looking for distractions, and ‘Bitter Legacy’ readers have only seen the book’s victims through other characters’ eyes , maybe some of you may like to hear who they (always) were as people, from their own mouths as it were. So I’m going to shove the original four (embarrassing, but never mind) POVs into the ‘Codas’ section here on the website. A quick warning though - there’s no new info there - they’re the same people as we saw in the book. It’s just a bit of fun 🙂♥️
I’m so tremendously on the marketing ball I forgot to mention, Blue on Blue is out. I embarrass myself too. 😶
Links are on the books page of the website!
Gary Furlong’s done it again. I’m still getting my head around the fact that a book I wrote can feel almost new to me — but hearing your characters come alive is really something else!
For anyone who may be interested, OOD Audio’s available at Amazon and Audiobooks. com.
Just a quick heads-up that the audio book of Bitter Legacy is now out. It’s narrated by the brilliant Gary Furlong, and comes via Tantor Audio. If you do listen, I hope you enjoy it. :)
You can find it at Amazon or Audiobooks.
The audio version of Bitter Legacy has a release date - November 12th through Tantor Audio. The voice artist is the very talented Gary Furlong. The Object of Desire audio looks likely to be scheduled for January also with Gary.
This link gives an audio taster, if you fancy a listen: https://tantor.com/bitter-legacy-dal-maclean.html
It’s all very exciting! Well… it is for me. ;)
Well… I think it is.
I’ve been asked quite a few times if there are going to be audio versions of Bitter Legacy and Object of Desire and I can finally say — yes.
Tantor Audio have acquired rights to Bitter Legacy, Object of Desire and the upcoming Blue on Blue in one fell swoop (yay!) so… I’m not absolutely sure when, but there will be audio versions of all three books.
Bitter Legacy and Object of Desire are also going to be published in French. (Yay again!)
So…thats the news!
❤️
A very quick catch up for anyone who might be interested in the Bitter Legacy trilogy (I think it’s pretty likely to be a trilogy). Book 3 finally has a title! It’s called Blue on Blue (henceforth BOB) and, just to reiterate, it’s set after the events in Object of Desire and written from Will Foster’s POV, touching on both BL and OOD. It’ll be published by Blind Eye Books again. And it’s gone to editing (feel my pain). More soon! ❤️
Had I mentioned I’m honoured to have been asked to add a story to this book? No? What a marketing powerhouse I am. 🤪
“Footsteps in the Dark” is a Josh-Lanyon-inspired MM Mystery Anthology featuring some of the best writers in the MM Mystery genre, as you can see from the list on the cover. And me. It’s out in May 2019.
It’s the first time I’ve ever attempted to write a novella, and since I find it hard to shut up I thought it’d be an impossible challenge. But it turned out to be fun to do and I was ultimately amazed by how quickly it came together. compared with writing a novel. My story for the anthology is called “A Country For Old Men” and it’s set in the Western Isles of Scotland as a bit of a change of pace.
The third book in the Bitter Legacy universe is taking shape by the way, and definitely coming too. I suggested before that it might be written from Will Foster’s POV, and that’s how it’s turned out. I’m deep in Wills head at the moment, and I’ll find it hard to let him go I think. But the same applied to Jamie and Tom. And to Calum for that matter, the voice of ACFOM. How fickle am I? 😄
Release day for 'Object of Desire'! Scary monsters 😬
Anyone who's interested, can find it at Amazon or at Blind Eye Books among other places too numerous to mention. I hope anyone who reads it, enjoys it. ❤️
Rev up the winnebago! Todays the start of the 'Object of Desire' blog tour! Wooh! I have my packed lunch.
First stop - the brilliant Elin Gregory put me in The Comfy Chair at her blog and grilled me about the writing process. Or-- she tried. Its not her fault. It's a very comfy chair.
Here are some more definite dates and links in case anyone's interested. More may be added. Or not.
Today Interview on Elin Gregory
Thurs 5/17 Interview on It's About the Book
Fri 5/18 Feature and Excerpt on Smexy Books
Sat 5/19 Feature and Excerpt on Gay Book Reviews
Mon 5/21 Interview at The Novel Approach
(Release Day!) Tues 5/22 Feature on Dirty Books Obsession
Wed 5/23 Guest Post on Joyfully Jay
Thurs/Fri 5/23-24 Guest post on Just Joshin'
Fri 5/25 Interview on Ellie Reads
It’s almost spring-like today- have some daffodils!
In the spirit of letting anyone who's interested know what’s actually going on (for a change), I’ve started work on the third book in the 'Bitter Legacy' universe for Blind Eye Books. Well 'work' is bit grand - I'm wandering around creating tortuous plots in my head and researching things compulsively -- but it's beginning to take shape. If only in my head.
I’m pretty sure Book 3 is going to come from Will Foster’s point of view, and will feature a selection of characters from both 'Object of Desire' and 'Bitter Legacy'. That’s the plan at this point. It may all change of course as plans do, but it’s looking likely that’s how its going to go.
Will’s definitely less of a romantic 'antihero' than Tom Gray or Ben Morgan were – he’s more like James Henderson in that. But --he has his own uncertainties and scars and flaws. Bless his sexy half-Italian socks. This'll be an established relationship book of course which is a new challenge for me, and with Will we'll back in the POV of the hunter rather than the hunted. So -- that's my news.
'Object of Desire' is now up for preorder in ebook, on Amazon. For anyone interested, the link is here:
News! OOD has a cover (above) and a specific release date and an initial blurb. There's also link to preorder on paperback.
Now we just need to get the edits finalised, and it's time to reattach the gin drip, and back on with the bucket. Wibble.
A little piece of genius from the lunatics at Blind Eye Books. I want to make it absolutely clear that I was held at gunpoint.
To anyone who may be interested or isn’t following on social media -- Book 2 is finally swaying drunkenly over the horizon.
It’s still a relatively distant horizon (May 2018) but… it’s definitely staggering into view.
Book 2 now even has a name-- the title is “Object of Desire” (henceforth OOD) and it’s set in the Bitter Legacy universe. Like BL it’s coming out through Blind Eye Books and edited by the brilliant Nicole Kimberling, who broke it to me, after reading the first draft, that I’d accidentally written a psychological thriller. I’d thought Id written another mystery. Yes, I really am that on-the-ball.
I can’t share any excerpts yet because we’re still screaming, wrestling and gouging over them (edits have just begun, pictured above), but it’s okay to say that the central character of this book is a bit different psychologically to James Henderson. His name is Tom Gray, and he’s a model at the very top of his game. Sadly, poor old Tom isn’t going to have a particularly nice time of it. I say that as if it isn’t my fault.
I’ll try to do better to keep this blog updated on progress (and thank you very much to the readers not on SM who poked me severely about that, because I needed it). Aaand, back to edits… *Cracks knuckles. Dons body armour. Bursts into tears.*
I'm over at The Tipsy Bibliophile blog today, with the lovely Laura Adriana discussing... what makes Ben (from Bitter Legacy) tick. Laura's running a fascinating series on interviews on 'Romance with Heroes who are Trauma Survivors'. She herself is a social worker who advocates for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, so she knows quite a bit about the subject. She's interviewed Megan Erickson, CS Poe and Amy Lane (who'd up tomorrow) for her series. But today she wanted to cover heroes with childhood trauma, and asked if she could delve into the psychology of Ben Morgan, who's one of the more... controversial characters in Bitter Legacy. Anyone interested in finding out what motivates him, this is for you!
https://thetipsybibliophile.com/2017/05/24/dal-mclean-writing-heroes-with-childhood-trauma/
And here's a bit of festive fluff. Courtesy of Blind Eye Books, a Christmas coda to Bitter Legacy is up here on the website, and at The Novel Approach as part of their 5 year Blogiversary celebrations. BEB are also offering a Giveaway at TNA.
So, for anyone who might be interested in how Jamie is getting on, both links are below. I'll also be at The Novel Approach and on my SM today if anyone wants to ask any questions, or shout at me.
I very much hope you enjoy it and -- Merry Christmas! X.
http://www.thenovelapproachreviews.com/?s=dal+maclean
Or, you can find the story on the Codas Tab on this website.
Well. Incredibly, release week is just about over, and it's almost time to go and lie down in a darkened room. Bitter Legacy has now officially been unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Sorry, world.
So -- this is where I thank everyone who's been so kind, both to me, and about the book. I've barely had to put on the bucket at all this week! Well... maybe once or twice. But thats not bad? I've copied links to Blind Legacy's reviews on this website's Books page --which contains the grand total of one publication. Yep. But thank you to everyone who took the time to review an unknown author. And a massive thank you as well to Blind Eye Books for such a great book launch. (This feels a bit like the Academy Awards when it reaches Best Sound Editing...)
Anyway --I know Bitter Legacy can be a bit of an emotionally tough read, if you're not expecting it, so I should also thank everyone who got to the end! :-p But for any hardy souls who still want a little more of the boys, there should be a short Christmas coda to Bitter Legacy coming out around... Christmas, shockingly enough. I'll let you know more about that when I can.
I also wanted to mention that I'm at the wonderful Josh Lanyon's blog, Just Joshin' today, to take the consequences of an interview in which Josh and I talked about fencing, Dengue Fever, Gaelic, and Tom and Jerry. Uh huh. We had planned to have a good giggle, but sadly, Josh has had a family emergency, which puts all this stuff into perspective. Still, being Josh -- generous and indomitable -- she's posted the interview anyway, so if anyone would like to read our nonsense, or ask any questions or comment, please feel free. I'll be here today:
http://joshlanyon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/author-author-dal-maclean.html
I've actually had a lot of fun guest posting on a few blogs this week, which was a new experience. If you missed any of them, there are excerpts, more nonsense and most pertinently, still live Giveways, here:
https://harperfoxblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/03/introducing-dal-maclean/
http://sinfullymmbookreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/featured-guest-author-dal-maclean-with.html
http://joyfullyjay.com/2016/10/giveaway-guest-post-bitter-legacy-by-dal-maclean/
Thanks, guys, for having me!
And that's it. Would it be redundant to say... thank you again? :-D
