The Dark Lord and the Seamstress

Yet Another COVID-19 Blog Post

Yet Another COVID-19 Blog Post

I promise you, I’m not here to talk about “living in interesting times” or “steps we’re taking to ensure the health of our customers and employees” or even to remind you to stay home and wash your hands.

(But no, really – stay home and wash your hands.)

I just wanted to remind you that if you’re looking for stories to fill your Social Isolating Time (and up your GoodReads Goal count), you can find my free stuff by clicking the links below.

Stay safe out there, friends and fellow bookworms.

– J.M. Frey

Download FOUR different novels in either .epub, .mobi, or .pdf format.

Click here.

Password is: BookWormY (case sensitive)

Offer expired May 1st. Sorry! But you can still find all of my novels here.

 

 

 

Listen to audiobooks of THE MADDENING SCIENCE, ANOTHER FOUR LETTER WORD, THE ONCE AND NOW-ISH KING, THE DARK LORD AND THE SEAMSTRESS, TIME TO MOVE, and OFFICIAL SELECTION (NSFW).

Click here.

 

 

 

Read THE MADDENING SCIENCE in it’s entirety on my website. This is a tale about identity, trust, and the strange alchemy that is attraction.

Click here.

 

 

 

 

This 2019 WATTY AWARD Winning novel is completely free on Wattpad for the moment. Grab your chance to read it, and comment on your favourite parts, while it’s still available.

Click here.

 

 

 

 

Using the social-isolation time to work on your own writing? Here’s a collection of advice blogs and Q&As that may help you make the best book you can.

Click here.

JM FreyYet Another COVID-19 Blog Post
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A Summary of My 2015

I wrote two novels, a novella, a few shorts; two novels I wrote launched; five anthologies in which I had shorts or essays launched; I signed and announced two new book series (whaat??); got injuries that I am still recovering from (come on, me, being immobile is so 2006); had my heart absolutely crushed to sludge twice; moved back home with the rents (best. roomies. ever.); made my comic-writing debut; and made some amazing new Tumblr friends that I adore to pieces (one of whom just proposed to me last night. I’m moving to the Deep South, y’all. I hope she realizes that I’ve decided her joke was serious. :p ).

So in short: I’ve had lots of amazing things happen on the professional side, some really awful stuff happen on the romance side, so absolutely crappy stuff happen on the health side, and have had some amazing friends and family helping me through it all. Really am blessed in that category, and I won’t forget it.

Now onto the granular breakdown:

January

  • Announced that my two comics “Bloodsuckers” and “Toronto the Rude” had been accepted into Toronto Comics Vol 2. (I got a great pair of illustrators assigned to my stories, too!)
  • Midway through the month I took a slip on the ice outside of my house and (though I didn’t have a full diagnosis until November) herniated a disc, got micro-tears in the muscle of my back, wrenched my knee, tore the muscle at the top of my ankle, and tore the squishy stuff in the socket of my hip. Slept for the rest of the month with the really good drugs.

February

March

April

May

  • Unable to work full time due to my injuries, I moved home to live with my parents, and focus on getting better and meeting my contracted writing deadlines.

June

July

August

September

October

  • Attended EerieCon17
  • The War of the Worlds” happened, and I realized I was really, really not healthy enough to be treading the boards yet. It was interesting and extremely painful.
  • Began writing “Untitled Geek Dating Webseries Screenplay: Season 1”
  • Second round of edits for “The Untold Tale” begins

November

  • NaNoWriMo: wrote two short stories,one novella, and finished writing “Untitled Geek Dating Webseries Screenplay: Season 1”
  • Wrote and Launched “Ivy”, an Accidental Prequel
  • Finally got all the diagnosises for my slip and fall. Have now had enough MRIs and XRays to glow in the dark.
  • Finished line edits for “The Untold Tale”

December

 

Goals for 2016

  • Finish a short story for Peggy (so close to being done!)
  • Finish the second Accidental Novella (so VERY close to being done!)
  • Write two more Accidental Shorts
  • Write “Untitled Geek Dating Webseries Screenplay: Season 2” (And possibly 3, we’ll see.)
  • Write “The Silenced Tale”
  • Assemble all my Peggy Barnett short work into a short story collection, add a few new stories
  • Be faithful to my diet and loose some of the weight that makes my injuries worse
  • Walk every day, or ride my Recumbent Exercise Bike

Goals for 2017

  • Publish the Peggy Barnett short story collection
  • Write “The Skylark’s Search”
  • Write “The Skylark’s Sacrifice”
  • Finish some short stories set in the Skylark world
  • Be faithful to my diet and loose some of the weight that makes my injuries worse
  • Walk every day, or ride my Recumbent Exercise Bike
JM FreyA Summary of My 2015
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Will There Be an Audiobook for “The Untold Tale”?

A few people have asked whether there will be an audio-book version of “The Untold Tale”.

The short version is: “No.”

The long version is this:

My publisher is small and independent. They don’t have the means or the capitol to produce an audio book. However, I still control the rights to an audiobook, which means it’s possible that there will be one in the future.

And that depends on readership demand.

So, what can you do to help “The Untold Tale” get an audio version?

Well, the best way to do that is to get Audible’s attention.

First, buy the book. Especially pre-order the book via Amazon or buy it on released day on December 8th. If everyone buys the book on day #1, the book will shoot up the charts on Amazon, which is affiliated with Audible.

Secondly, review the book on GoodReads and Amazon. And ask everyone you know who reads the book to review it as well. It can be as simple as clicking on the stars, or a long, thoughtful review that’s a thousand words. Most reviews are about a paragraph, or the size of your standard Facebook update.

Thirdly, email Audible ( greatideas@audible.com) and let them know that you want one! (And, ahem, feel free to  suggest some  narrators  for it ). ^_^

In the meantime, enjoy the free audiobook of The Dark Lord and The Seamstress, the only book I have in audio currently.

And hopefully I’ll be announcing an audiobook deal sooner rather than later!

JM FreyWill There Be an Audiobook for “The Untold Tale”?
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Post the First Sentences of Your 10 Last Stories and Search For Patterns

I was tagged in this challenge on Tumblr, and because I’m super curious about this, and I wanted to do this for both my fanfic AND my original fiction. I wonder what patterns there are (if any), and in what way they will emerge.

Fan Fiction:

“What?” Dum Dum asked, prodding his seatmate in the ribs with his meaty elbow for the umpteenth time. “Seriously, Falsy, what?” (The Driver)

Mark nodded without looking up, bent to shovel. “If it’s hard on yer back, you could feed them instead.” (Basil and the Bales)

There was a time, Myrddin mused, that he would have been inclined to reach out to the horizon and murmur a soft spell, just to make the sun linger a few seconds longer on the horizon, just to treasure the rich red hues and the marvelous indigo that spread like an exhaled stain across the tops of the far mountains. (The Once and Future Kingdom)

Carson Beckett poked his head into the primary astrophysics lab hopefully, and sniffed the air. “Oh,” he said softly to himself when he realized it was empty and the enticing scent he was searching for was not there. (Five Times Doctor Rodney McKay Was The Topic of Conversations He Had No Idea Were Going On)

Johnny Sheppard was born when he was ten years old. Or, one hundred and fifty seven years old, depending on how you wanted to count it. (Flight)

I am wrongways up, and it hurts. My swimming pool has leaked all over the cloister again, and the bottles of the library books are akimbo on their shelves. My Time Lord is not within me. I moan, wheeze futile, and then open my external scanners wide, and search for the two Hearts I cradle within my own. (Not The Doctor I Was Expecting)

Kalp is uncertain, but his employer says that the dark blue of his work apron makes the green striation markings around his eyes and mouth attract attention. (Trenti)

On Christmas morning, John unwraps a big box. That’s what it looks like, anyway, and it’s from the Millers, even Madison. John is too excited opening the present to stop and read what the box says, but Rodney sees enough through the flashes of garish paper to make an educated guess at the contents long before John can sit back and take it all in. (Mondayish)

Jack Harkness was reminded of the children’s book he had seen in Gwen’s apartment. “Alexander and The No Good, Terrible, Very Bad Day”. Or something like that. What-fucking-ever. (Respected II)

When Johnny Sheppard was six years old, he begged his father for a toboggan for Christmas. He got an algebra set. (Tobogganing)

Original Fiction
(already-announced projects only, I’m afraid…)

Once upon a time, when we were all Bella Swan, my first crush was a sarcastic know-it-all Immortal named Methos. (“How Fan Fiction Made Me Gay”, The Secret Loves of Geek Girls)

The envelope from Elgar Reed came a few months after Alis’ first birthday. (The Silenced Tale)

The first indication that something was off was the phone call from the Smithsonian Museum. His typewriter, the old race-car red Olympia De Luxe his aunt had given him in the late’ 70s, had been stolen. (The Wondrous Woes of the Writer)

The air above the barn rips apart, wind against wind, power thrust into the multitudes between of the skies and raking through the void. Feet braced apart, bracketing the barn’s peak, a slight woman reaches into the sky and slices again. (The Forgotten Tale)

Once upon a time, oh yes, so very long ago, there was of course a lovely girl who came to learn to sew. (The Dark Lord and the Seamstress)

Creepy bastards like this always go for the eyes. Bevel doesn’t know why. They just do. (The Garrulous Ghost of Gwillfifeshire)

When I catch sight of the cart and its cargo approaching through the thick glass of my study window, I assume the body in the back is a corpse, brought to me for study and then burial. But no one handles a corpse with such care, and driver is directing the horse to travel slowly, avoiding each hole in the dirt road. (The Untold Tale)

In Saskwya thievery was punished with the forceful, bloody removal of a thumb. This was usually done on the spot by the soldier who caught the perpetrator and with whatever sharp implement they happened to have at hand, clean or not. Robin Arianhod still had both of her thumbs. She was thankful, because she couldn’t have picked the lock on the factory door if she had been missing them. (The Skylark’s Song)

When Mary comes to, she is lying face down in the grass beside the road. (The Dark Side of the Glass)

A body collapsing with no muscular control onto plush carpeting makes a kind of muffled thudding, all raw meat and cut strings. (Triptych)


 

So, do you see any patterns? Let’s discuss it in the comments!

JM FreyPost the First Sentences of Your 10 Last Stories and Search For Patterns
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FREE AUDIOBOOK – The Dark Lord and the Seamstress

A coloring book for grown-ups with an illustrated love story told in verse about the importance of looking beyond someone's (poorly dressed) exterior and into their heart. Features a little trickery, a little romance, and a little bit of sartorial fun!

Listen to the Audio Book for Free

A coloring book for grown-ups with an illustrated love story told in verse about the importance of looking beyond someone’s (poorly dressed) exterior and into their heart. Features a little trickery, a little romance, and a little bit of sartorial fun!

Get the first nine coloring pages free on Pinterest

Amazon

Goodreads

 

JM FreyFREE AUDIOBOOK – The Dark Lord and the Seamstress
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