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Tag Archives: GQ series
A Vital Chemistry (Ganymede Quartet Book 3.5)
A Vital Chemistry (Ganymede Quartet Book 3.5) FREE
First love, new love.
On Valentine’s Day, Martin prepares to tell Henry he loves him. It’s not appropriate for a slave to burden a master with his feelings, but Martin doesn’t think Henry will mind. He won’t let himself hope for Henry to return the sentiment, but the truth is that he feels loved. He knows how that feels because he was loved before—by his friend Richard at Ganymede.
Martin treasures his memories of Richard, but he’s glad to be with Henry here and now. There’s a vital chemistry that draws Martin to Henry, and it’s unlike anything he’s experienced before. There’s more between them than Martin thought possible between master and slave, and he wants to believe it will endure, but he worries Henry will someday fall for a free man. Can Martin trust in Henry’s love?
This story is told from Martin’s point of view and runs parallel to events that take place in Chapter 12 of A Willful Romantic (Ganymede Quartet Book 3).
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A Willful Romantic (Ganymede Quartet Book 3)
A Willful Romantic (Ganymede Quartet Book 3)
Love is everything, but sometimes it’s not enough.
At the dawn of 1901, Henry Blackwell is gathering the courage to share his feelings with his companion slave Martin. Henry is in love, and he’d do anything to make Martin love him in return. In anticipation of making such a declaration, Henry works to be a better person, the sort of man whose love is worth having.
But simply having love returned isn’t enough. Henry wants unreasonable things, impossible things. He wants his love for Martin to be accepted and acknowledged, even admired, by the world at large. He desperately wants there to be a place in the city where he can behave as he likes with the person he loves. Practical Martin doesn’t approve of Henry’s romantic notions and urges caution. Henry struggles between keeping Martin happy and pursuing his dream of acceptance.
This is the third of four installments in the Ganymede Quartet, continuing the story from A Proper Lover (Ganymede Quartet Book 2).
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common themes
So, in addition to the series I’m currently putting out, I’ve got all these notes and fits and starts of future stories, and I can’t help but notice that certain things come up again and again.
- Tall, dark and handsome.
- Hot gingers.
- Severe Nordic blonds.
- Twins.
- New York City.
- Cross-dressing.
- People who are perhaps a little neurotic.
- Elaborate world-building.
The GQ books do indeed include all these elements by the end of Book 4.
It’s not as if these common themes are a surprise to me, of course. I’m well aware of my obsessions. These elements don’t all show up in every single story, and my expanded casts have a wider variety of hair and skin colors, but the above tend to be the features of the stories I tell myself.
The Mr. has a fantastic idea for a contemporary paranormal story that would require writing burly, macho dudes doing stereotypically male things, and it would probably sell really well, and I might end up writing it after all, but right now it seems so far out of my wheelhouse. I keep wondering where would I put the flamboyant people and the descriptions of outfits?
If you write, what do you know to be your common threads? If you’re a reader, what details or themes make you want pick up a new book?
Martin, Martin, Martin
Awhile back, I posted a poll that a few people were kind enough to respond to (feel free to click a button there if you haven’t done so yet), and I am not at all surprised to discover that Martin is generally the favorite between the main characters. Many people did not wish to be forced to choose between Henry and Martin, which is understandable. Poor Henry alone is much less popular than his beloved. Which is also understandable ;)
Anyway, I’m in the midst of working on the Martin story that will accompany Book 3/A Willful Romantic, so my brain is full of Martin and Ganymede and slaves. I know there are a number of people interested in Martin’s back story and training, and some particularly significant parts of that will be covered in this piece. As I’ve said before, I really like doing the Martin stories. I can’t promise I’ll write it, but if there are any specific aspects of the GQ world readers might like to know about from Martin’s point of view, please do feel free to tell me what you’re interested in.
As for the poll, Henry and Martin are both my babies, so I guess I’d have to be in the “don’t make me choose” camp. I think they’re both ridiculous, really, but I have an affinity for Martin, although Henry certainly endears himself to me through his foolishness. I have things in common with both of them (Henry’s social anxieties, Martin’s work ethic), but I actually think Henry’s cousin Jesse is most like me, albeit a better version, friendlier and less cynical.
So: Be on the lookout for books in the near-ish future. I’m still aiming for mid-March.
Goals/plans for 2015
If I had goals for 2014, they were along the lines of “write books” and “publish books,” and I met those goals, so yay! me. This year isn’t going to be terribly different, really, but I know more about accomplishing those goals, which theoretically ought to make the process easier.
WRITING:
- Finish Ganymede Quartet series. This means the main books plus their accompanying Martin stories. GQ Book 3+Martin story will be out in March 2015. Book 4 will be out in June 2015. I don’t have a schedule for finishing the side stories that will either extend the series timeline or tell side characters’ stories, but I currently have over 20 (!!!) stories extensively outlined (and one basically finished), so I fully expect I’ll complete some of those by the end of the year.
buckskin and blue roan
There are two types of horses in the GQ books: working horses that pull the Blackwells’ carriages, and recreational horses, most of which see little use. The horses that get the most exercise are Henry’s Marigold and Martin’s Partita.
The Blackwells keep their horses in a stable several blocks from their home, which was the custom at the time–there were whole neighborhoods of stables smelling of horseshit, which rich people understandably wanted at some distance from their grand residences. Henry and Martin walk the few blocks to the stables whenever they want to ride.
Just to give you an idea of how RL rich people housed their horses, this is Cornelius Vanderbilt’s stable, built in 1880. This photo was apparently taken in 1916, after the family had converted the stable to a nightclub (!!!), the era of horse-drawn anything being well past for the likes of the Vanderbilts.
I don’t see Mr. Blackwell wanting anything quite so decorated, actually, but I do imagine the Blackwell stables being fairly grand nonetheless.
But on to the horse visuals :)
Penny arcade
Throughout the GQ books, Henry and Martin make frequent trips downtown to the arcade in Union Square to look at “peep shows” and play games. The arcade in the books is based on the Automatic Vaudeville penny arcade on Union Square which probably opened in 1903.
POV: Henry vs Martin + a poll
I usually like to write stories from a single point of view. It’s obviously a limited perspective, but I enjoy the constraints. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no such thing as a reliable narrator. Characters misinterpret things, miss things, draw the wrong conclusions, and it can be tricky and fun to work the “truth” into a story alongside the character’s perceptions. For instance, I think it’s obvious to the reader that Martin is DTF from the get-go, but Henry, equipped with the same amount of information, simply doesn’t get it.
When I started writing the Ganymede Quartet books, it seemed obvious to me that the story needed to be told from the master’s point of view. Whether or not he’s actually prepared to take responsibility, the fact remains that Henry’s the one in charge and he sets the tone. It’s Martin’s job to adapt and respond and accommodate and serve. Obviously, Martin is better-equipped to steer this particular ship, but, unfortunately for Henry, the roles in this relationship weren’t assigned based on fitness or merit. If you’ve read A Most Personal Property (GQ Book 1), you know that when the opportunity finally arises for Martin to take charge, he does so with great effect, but he does wait for Henry to create the opportunity. He’s very well-trained.
I think it’s apparent that Martin is miserable for most of AMPP, and writing weeks of self-doubt and misery even greater than Henry’s, from the perspective of a character who has even less power to effect change…I don’t think anyone wants to read that book, actually.
Food and restaurants in 1900
If you are reading the GQ series, you will no doubt have noticed that there are a lot of mentions of food Henry is eating. He eats huge breakfasts, is presented with lavish smorgasbords at lunch, is served haute Victorian cuisine for dinner, and sneaks downstairs at night for extra cake. He eats large quantities of a great many things, and Martin is just as voracious. I grew up with a skinny brother who did nothing but eat, so it seems entirely realistic to me that teenagers would put away such epic quantities of food without noticeable effect.
FOOD TIMELINE: If you’re a writer, or if you’re just interested in food history, you need to know about the Food Timeline. It was extremely helpful to me whenever I was smart enough to use it. You can find out when people started eating different foods, how they prepared them, and when they became commercially available, among other things. Continue reading Food and restaurants in 1900