Phew! I've completed the first draft of Issues and Returns, my short story submission for the 'Misbehaviour'-themed 
Black Lace collection due out next year. It was tough going: the stories are supposed to be around 6000 words and for a long time I was convinced that I'd never make it to 4K. As it happened, I finished it off at 6.5K so now I'm cutting!For this story I drew once again on my gruesome employment record, setting it in a university library. No, I don't say which university! - Do you think I want hoards of irate librarians getting mad at me? But I've always associated academic libraries with feeling horny. It's the silence I think: all those people, and so much tense silence.
There are 4 Black Lace short story collections in the pipeline, all contemporary non-paranormal anthologies. I've promised to submit copy to each collection, so that's Number Three done and dusted. I've been accepted for Number One ("Seduction") and we're all anxiously awaiting news on Number 2 ("Liaisons").
Fingers crossed...
Later that day:
Well it looks like we'll be anxiously awaiting news about Liaisons for some time yet - Black Lace has just extended the deadline - to October!
I find academic libraries to be very erotic, too. I think it's the combination of art books I can barely lift, carpeted stacks that look perfect for trysts, and that special sort of library air-conditioning that seems to invite naps or better.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to take your story into the nearest academic library and hunker down with it in a quiet corner!
Aw - thank you Jeremy. That is in fact pretty much what happens in the story. A dirty book, a quiet corner of the library...
ReplyDeleteYep. Books are sexy.