Just wanted to let our loyal readers know that there is a super awesome sale going on today on ARe. They have hundreds of titles on sale for what works out to being 50% off (after the rebate they’re offering). This includes all of our published titles and the pre-order for the Parliament of Twilight: Episode 2, live on their site as of this morning.
And if you just can’t wait for the eBook release on May 5th, we do have the print version of both Episode 1 & 2 available right now on Lulu.com with a sweet little 10% discount that isn’t available on any other website.
And for those of you who are into the illustrated editions, Episode 1 is available in print and eBook everywhere. No official release date for Episode 2’s illustrated edition, but Nevi only has a few more pages to finish up. We’re hoping to have more news on that in a few weeks.
Wow, has it really been nearly three months since my last post? HOW did that happen? We’ve been neck deep in personal drama, writer angst, and WORK WORK WORK! There are a few things that we need to update everyone on.
First, Dani Hermit is taking over the main cover design duties. For personal reasons, Nevi Star is taking an extended sabbatical from doing professional art. So, after much discussion we have decided that she can work on the art for the Parliament of Twilight at the pace that suits her. We will be releasing 2 versions of the books. The first will be the “regular” editions and they will come out much faster. Dani will be doing the covers using her mad photoshop & digital art skills. When Nevi’s art is completed and formatted, the “special edition” with illustrations and hand drawn covers will be released.
Both versions will be available in eBook and paperback, though we are still discussing only having the illustrated versions done in paperback since they don’t look as nice in eBook version. Haven’t made any choices on that front yet, but we will keep you updated.
What that means for you, the fans, is that the Episodes will be able to be released a little bit faster and a little bit cheaper! Episode one is available right now on Lulu.com in paperback! The eBook is taking a little longer to get formatted but I will post the links the moment that they are live and working.
In personal news, we lost our baby kitty Owen just before Christmas. We are still broken hearted over this loss and were depressed for quite a while. But fate brought two new kitties who needed a loving home across our path a few weeks ago. Khoshekh and Erika are adapting quite nicely to being pampered princesses and we are adapting to being a two cat household. It’s still surprising for me to leave one room where I was petting a kitty to find another cat waiting for love and attention!
Erika (the orange tabby) and Khoshekh (the dark calico) on Dani’s desk “helping” her write!
Nevi and I are working on finishing up the final scenes for Episode 3. We’re already excited to begin the plotting for Ep 4! The editing and formatting on Episode 2 are only a couple weeks from being done. Less if they aren’t as demanding as the ones for Ep 1 were.
We are working (very casually) on a couple side projects that we are hoping will see the light of day later this year, but for the most part we are focusing on writing and publishing the Parliament of Twilight books.
That about covers it. Sorry for the rambling! And thank you to everyone who has been supporting us through this confusing, heart-breaking, insane, amazing journey!
After much thought and many, many hours of telling myself I wasn’t going to do it, I decided to do NaNoWriMo. What I will be working on with my writing partner Nevi, is a rewrite of a fanfic we wrote back in 2005. The story veered WAY off the canon of the series and we’ve been talking about making it into an original story for several years now. Now that we have a nice rhythm for our Parliament of Twilight stories, we thought that working on something else in the in-betweens would be fun. And would definitely be a good way to keep us from getting lazy.
So if you want to keep track of our progress or if you’re doing NaNo and want to add us to your writing buddies, our username is hermienevi. My username for when I go it alone is just hermie, though I don’t think I’ll be doing this year (unless I get an undeniable urge to torture myself with two concurrent NaNo novels AND still working on the POT stuff.)
In other news, while we were in Pennsylvania at Nijicon, we were interviewed by the Podcast Capes and Scowls. You can find that audio here. We’re a few entries down under “Parliament of Twilight.” Leander, the super nice fellow doing the interviews, was amazing and we’re really grateful he gave us this opportunity. There are a few other interviews from Nijicon, so if you’re looking for other M/M, Yaoi, Slash, or boy porn creators, give them a listen too.
For those of you who have already picked up a copy of POT: Ep 1, you can join in our fun new game of casting the actors we’d like to see play our characters in a movie or TV series. If you haven’t picked it up yet and want to be bombarded with smoking hot reasons to do so, come on over and look at what people have been suggesting. In order to make, like, or comment on the suggestions, you need to sign up to the site, but the process is free, easy, and you can just use your Facebook if you like. There are some really great suggestions and you can see the comments made by myself and Nevi. They really give you little nuggets of insight into our writing process and inspirations.
EDIT: the nice fellow from Capes & Scowls is Leander, not Lysander. He is not the adorable elf from that book I loved when I was younger. But he totally reminded me of him, so I got confused. I’m sorry.
Not sure what that means, exactly, but we’re settling back into a pattern now that the crazy of conventions is over for a little while. Nijicon was a lot of fun, even though we didn’t make much in the way of sales. We did met some really great people and discovered new artists and authors. I’m already looking forward to next year. I hope that the lovely ladies who put this together will be able to make it happen!
What we’re working on now is starting the planning for POT: Ep3, getting the editing process into full swing on POT: Ep2 (which we finished writing over the weekend away!), and organizing our products for the Etsy shop. We’ve got the convention bug now, so we are looking at going to 4 or 5 next year and have already started applying to various artist alleys.
Nevi is working hard at planning out the art pieces for POT: Ep2 as well as coloring a few of the black and white pieces from Episode 1 to sell as prints. What you’re going to see in the coming months is LOADS of new art from her that is focused more on our original characters than fan art. Also, for those of you who have seen and loved the characters that she designed for the Yaoicon 2014 mascot contest, Isaac and Maru, they now have a story of their own in development. Look for it in mid to late 2015!
Isaac and his merman lover Maru! Story coming in 2015, but they can be purchased as a print in our Etsy shop!
We can’t wait to get to work on this story, which is actually a hefty re-working of an older story that Nevi and I did together AGES ago! This is going to be something we’re working on around our main title of the Parliament of Twilight, so no worries about that series slowing down because of other projects! But with the vast world and demanding cast of characters, it’s going to be years before we see the end of the POT. We decided there was no reason to wait to work on some of these other worlds that Nevi and I are wanting to create.
If you haven’t yet picked up your copy of the Parliament of Twilight: Episode 1, hop over to our shopping page to find your dealer of choice and get yours today! And while you’re looking around, check out the Etsy store where Nevi has several art prints available as well as the paperback!
Hey all, not much to update today in regards to studio news, but thought I’d share this little thing. I’ve turned on the “Ask me a Question” option on my Goodreads profile! You can ask me anything you want and every morning, I will look over my questions and answer one of them! Right now, all I have to answer are the generic questions that Goodreads gives to you when an author turns that on, but I’m still going to answer them. They’re pretty interesting, and they get the “standard writer questions” out of the way right off. So, if you’re interested in asking a question about writing, the books, me, or just about anything, go here and leave your question!
Other than that, you can check out our Shopping page for places to pick up your copy of POT: Ep 1 or some of Nevi’s art. I’m slowly filling up our Etsy and Storenvy shops with prints, paperbacks, and other odds and ends. There will be a huge dump of merchandise the week after Nijicon (we’ll be back on the 21st, so the dump will start on the 22nd, I expect.) I don’t want to run out of postcards, prints, or posters before we go to the convention, so that’s why I’m going slow with filling up the shops.
That about covers everything. Working on the final chapter of POT: EP 2 right now. Nevi has a few art pieces planned out and will be finishing them at about one per week. We were hoping for a Christmas release, but with the madness of conventions slowing down most of our process, we probably won’t have EP 2 out until mid to late January.
In case you haven’t been following my Facebook feed, the eBook version of Parliament of Twilight: Episode One will be available to purchase tomorrow! There are pre-orders up on Smashwords, Amazon, and many other online retailers.
If you prefer a paperback, the ones we have printed through Lulu.com are gorgeous! You can order them straight from Lulu or from our Etsy shop. They are also available at many online sellers (such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble). Also, while you’re at the Etsy shop, check out the stickers & prints that Nevi has made! We’ll be constantly adding more as we fill up our stock.
Parliament of Twilight: Episode One cover!
Anyone who is in the Philadelphia area should come by and see us at Nijicon! It’s the first major Yaoi-based convention on the East Coast! It’s going to be very exciting. It also caters to slash, M/M romance, and just about anything else that’s bromance, gay, boy’s love related. We’ll have copies of the book, art prints, some Rainbow’s Anthem plushies (rumor has it she’s working on a set of Junjo Romantica dolls!).
And our special is still in place. Anyone who shows up with their own copy of the PoT: Ep 1 paperback to be signed by myself and Nevi will get a free 8 x 11 art print to take home with them!
Wow, what a weekend! Having our first convention experience was exciting, exhausting, terrifying, amazing, and above all else, educational. We will be looking forward to returning to Ramencon over and over for the years to come! While we didn’t do the amount of sales we would have liked, we did really well for first timers. We had amazing neighbors, both beside us and across the way. The people who stopped to browse at our table were so nice and friendly. Overall, even with a few bumps and bruises, it was just so great!
our booth at Ramencon 2014, day 3.
But now that we’re back, we have 2 announcements. Firstly, the paperback for our Yaoi novel, the Parliament of Twilight: Episode One, is available at a discount on Lulu.com. It will be coming available on other retailers in the coming weeks, but at the full price of $14.99. And secondly, if you prefer an ebook version, it is up for pre-order on Smashwords (and MIGHT be showing up on some other sites for pre-order, but definitely once it releases).
If you’re interested in buying prints from Nevi Star (my writing partner and the cover artist), stay tuned! I have to fiddle with the setting and we will have an Etsy & a Storenvy opened by the end of the week. Please don’t be shy about contacting us via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or a comment on our blog about the books, art, life as writers, or suggestions for fanworks you’d like to see from Nevi! We’re super friendly and happy to hear from our readers!
The books came this morning and we are so stoked for Ramencon this weekend! They look great inside and out. I’m so impressed with the print quality from Lulu! They’re always so nice! Also, just an FYI, the paperback will be available at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and other retailers in the next few weeks for $14.99. But if you want it now and for a super price of $12.74, go to Lulu! They will be available to purchase directly from us at Ramencon and Nijicon for $15.
The books are amazing!
Also at the conventions we will have 8 x 11 art prints, 13 x 19 posters, stickers, free previews of the novel, and Rainbow’s Anthem will be joining us with her adorable plushies. And Dani will be wearing the amazing Twilight Sparkle hoodie that was made by Seth from Rainbow’s Anthem, if you want to see what else she makes!
Have you been by Yaoi A Go Go‘s table at Yaoi-con this weekend? If not, drop by and say hello! The lovely ladies of Yaoi a Go Go have a huge stack of our FREE previews of the Parliament of Twilight: Episode One on her table. Say hi from Hermit & Star!
those are our books, behind the fishbowl and in front of the girl in the kimono!
In other news, it’s ready! Parliament of Twilight: Episode 1 is up for sale on Lulu.com! We’re waiting on our paperback copies to arrive, but all the online previews look amazing. We’ve had a great success with publishing paperbacks with Lulu in the past, so I’m very confident that this one is going to be just as awesome.
Very soon, copies will be available at our Etsy & StoreEnvy sites (once I get them live!) Also, we will have a stack of books with us next weekend in Merrillville, IN at Ramencon! If you’re in the area, why not stop by? It’s a smallish con, so we won’t be hard to find! And we’re going to have our amazing, rotating, editorial ninja Seth in tow, along with her collection of super cute Cuddle Buddies looking to be adopted! And we’re taking it on the road in a few weeks all the way to Nijicon, in Valley Forge, PA.
Also, we’re offering anyone who brings their own copy of the Parliament of Twilight: Episode One to be signed a free sticker or 8 x 11 art print. And that’s either at Ramencon, Nijicon, or if you happen to catch us out at the mall with a pile of stickers in our messenger bags! It could happen!
It’s ready! Parliament of Twilight: Episode 1 is up for sale on Lulu.com! We’re waiting on our paperback copies to arrive, but all the online previews look amazing. We’ve had a great success with publishing paperbacks with Lulu in the past, so I’m very confident that this one is going to be just as awesome.
With seven brand new pieces of black and white artwork, as well as tons of new written material, this book is great for someone who has never read our work, or for a returning reader who wants to know where it all started! As you might know, you can get the first three books we put out (Ghost House, Monster, & Inertia) as ebooks from most websites for only $0.99. We’re calling those the Tales from the Parliament of Twilight, because they tell a big chuck of the story, focusing on three main couples. Ghost House has Jacob & Brodie. Monster tells the story of Julian & Siris. And Inertia keeps things hot with the tale of RT & Skye’s first weekend together.
Around those love stories, these books attempted to map out the complicated world of the Parliament of Twilight. The only problem was that each book was intended to be the start of a separate series, each taking place at a different point along the timeline of the world. It made for confusing reading and even more confusing writing. So, after a long and hard look at the story we wanted to tell, Nevi and I made the choice to stop telling three different stories and combine them all into one cohesive story line. The result amazed even us!
The Parliament of Twilight books are going to revisit the stories told in the three books already published, but by putting them into the context of the story as a whole, you will find dimensions of the narrative opening up in a way that we just couldn’t achieve in the old format. We’re shifting our focus away from pieces of story between steamy sex scenes. Not to say that we’re taking out the sex! We couldn’t do that. The world of the Parliament of Twilight is unflinchingly sexual. Changing that would undo the integrity of what we’ve created. But the sex scenes aren’t going to be point of the books like they were becoming when we tried to conform to the pattern set forth by writers who are at the forefront of our genre of Paranormal Romance and Horror.
While we love the works of JR Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Bec McMaster, and others like them, we have found that containing the story to one pair of lovers at a time just doesn’t fit our writing style. So we’re working with an ensemble cast, full of unforgettable characters, romantic entanglements, apocalyptic prophecies, evil conglomerates, and wild adventures. They’ll be fighting monsters, dodging ex-lovers, forming friendships and rivalries, and chasing happiness, blissfully unaware that every move is part of some greater scheme. It should be a wild ride (for us as much as our readers!)
Also, anyone who brings their own copy of Parliament of Twilight: Episode 1 to our table at Ramencon or Nijicon to be signed will also get a free piece of 8 x 11 art!
Also, check out our shiny new Patreon.com account! Donate as little as $1 to help us get the next book ready for publication!
Hermit & Star 