Writing and career news

Finally getting around to posting this update. I’ve been so busy with so much writing-related stuff, but not much actual writing… !

The biggest writing news this month is that I finally launched the Vanished Chronicles via Patreon. That’s right, after nearly 10 years of hearing me talk about it, and after the whole saga of Tor Books putting me through endless delays and reversals (and in the end having to give me the rights back…) you can finally start to READ the dang thing.

I’m so pleased with how it reads now. I was worried that I wouldn’t like it anymore, but I really love the characters and the story, there’s so much great going on in it… and it’s only gotten more relevant, not less, with time.

What was once entitled “Initiates of the Blood” is now “Bound by the Blood,” it’s book one, and the first two posts are up (the prologue and chapter one). New chapters appear every Friday. Here: https://www.patreon.com/collection/886649?view=condensed

If you’re not already a paying patron, you can also read chapter one for FREE over on my blog: https://www.ceciliatan.com/archives/4849

I know one post per week is going to feel slow to some folks… especially since this is romantic suspense, with a lot of cliffhangers. So I have pledged that if the patreon monthly pledge amount climbs to $500 a month, I’ll double the number of chapters per week to two. So if you’re intrigued, want more, and want to jump on the bandwagon, you can join the patreon for as little as $2 a month. (You can also “follow” for free, but patreon doesn’t let us show any of the naughty bits — they have to go behind the paywall.)

I’ll also give patrons some chances to “earn” an extra post sometimes, because I’m generous like that. 🙂

Collage of colorful book covers

DGC VOLS 1-10 ARE IN KU

Another month, another new edition! And book 11 is going through a final proofread before I upload that one, but it’s imminent. Cover art is also done for books 11 and 12, and sketches have been approved for the 13th and final book. Just waiting on the final art to come in! Can’t believe this massive project of re-releasing and re-doing will finally be finished!

Book 11 will be the first one that never had a book edition of any kind before, not even an ebook. So I’m eager to get that one out. Another couple of weeks.

WIP Report

Confession time: I have not written a single new word of fiction since election night.

The dragon book is looming in the background, waiting for me to get my braincells back together enough to get back to it. I discovered a few days after the election that I’m B12 deficient, so that might also explain the recent lack of energy. And here I was, blaming politics?

Politics is still awful, but it’s especially difficult to face pronouncements like Project 2025 which (as I ranted about last month) literally states that anyone who creates or distributes “pornography” should be jailed. Pornography by their definition includes not only explicit erotica, but anything that includes queer or trans characters, gay relationships, or poly relationships (for example). And guess what I write? All of the above.

As I may have mentioned, I’m waiting to see if Patreon will hold the line if new anti-porn measures are enacted, and whether I’ll literally have to leave the country if they’re serious about jailing pornographers. It’s a little challenging to face into those headwinds and make any progress.

But I will be trying to re-establish my writing rhythm next week. Now that I have finished physical therapy for my knee, I should turn that into writing time, right? Instead of having to haul my ass to the PT gym, I’ll just haul my laptop into my lap without even getting out of bed, and try to put down a thousand words before I even put socks on.

Also, now that most of the production work on the DGC relaunch and the serial set-up are done. I do need to remind myself that those things were taking up the same creative hours that I would have spent on Windmark.

Dragons, I’ll get back to you shortly!

Tour Dates & Upcoming Appearances

2025:

  • January 17-20: Arisia, Cambridge, MA (new hotel: Hyatt Cambridge)
  • January 30, 8pm “How to Write a Sex Scene” Class: online for Passionate Ink
  • February 2, 2-4pm: Lovestruck Books, Cambridge, MA
  • February 6-9: Capricon, Chicago, IL
  • March 19-23: ICFA, Orlando, FL
  • June 2025: Daron’s Guitar Chronicles Pride Release Tour (details TBA)
  • June 25-29: SABR 54 in Dallas, TX
  • July 17-20: Readercon, Burlington, MA (Guest of Honor)
  • August 13-17: Worldcon in Seattle, WA
  • September 25: Writing Bisexual Erotica: online for Passionate Ink

    NOTE: ICFA and Capricon are back on the 2025 schedule!

  • Also: the new romance bookstore in Harvard Square will be opening soon! Lovestruck Books has been building out a gorgeous space where Church St. intersects Brattle St. They’d been hoping to have an event with me and some other local writers in mid-December, but the construction isn’t quite done yet. So we’re looking to reschedule to February 2. Check their website for updates!

 More About Readercon

As I mentioned on social media and in newsletter, I’ll be a Guest of Honor at Readercon this year. July 17-20 in the Boston area. They’re taking panel suggestions until the end of December (https://readercon.org/contribute) and they’re collecting written appreciations (or roasts…) of the guests of honor now. Let them know if you would like to write one (250 to 1,000 words) by January 1st, and you have until March 31 to deliver it!

Let’s End with a Book Recommendation

I get sent a lot of books to “blurb.” Publishers and authors really rely on the testimonials of praise from other authors to say things about a book they can’t say themselves. After all, if the publisher just prints “This book is effin great, just buy it,” on the back cover, the reader is going to think well, sure you would say that, you’re the publisher.

But if they see a quote from an author they like saying “No really, this is great!” it carries a lot more weight.

Usually the art of crafting a blurb means you have to come up with a way to say “this is great” that is unique and punchy and clever. You want to say something truthful and specific, but not give away spoilers. Doing blurbs also means getting a sneak peek at not-yet-published books.

But a lot of the time I don’t actually have time to give a blurb. I want to actually read the book, you know?

Well, I got sent a book to blurb recently and I’m now at something of a loss for what to say because what I think is “THIS BOOK IS EFFIN GREAT, JUST BUY IT.”

The book is Lee Mandelo’s latest anthology, AMPLITUDES: STORIES OF QUEER AND TRANS FUTURITY and it it just packed with awesome. I haven’t even read every story in the book, yet, because now that I tore through about half of them I’ve been slowing down to savor them.

There are 22 stories in the book, nearly 100K words, and my intention when I sat down to give a blurb was to cherry-pick the stories by authors I know (Sam J. Miller, Meg Elison, Sunny Moraine and others …) but I found myself just starting at the beginning and then being unable to put it down.

These stories are science fiction so sharp you could cut yourself. The strength of the collection showcases not only what a terrific editor and anthologist Lee is, but how much trans, queer, and nonbinary talent there is in the genre, and what vital stories these voices bring. There’s a LOT of resistance and revolution and joy in this book, and seems like we’re going to need it.

I know it’s a bit unfair to tell you how great a book is when it’s not even going to be published for months, but you can pre-order it (Amazon, Bookshop).

Okay, that’s enough of my blather. Next newsletter we’ll be in 2025. I’m sure there’ll be things to say about it then.

Until then, take care, if you have loved ones in reach, hug em, and I’ll see ya in the new year.

-ctan

Not my usual monthly update… (got married)

Yeah, so… biggest news of the week is that corwin and I got married.

You might be surprised to find that, given all the romance I’ve written, I considered myself “anti-marriage.”

I’ve never been anti-love, of course. I’ve always been a fan of soulmates finding each other. It was just “marriage” that made me itch.

When I was a teenager I rebelled against most things that required me to perform femininity. So I never fantasized about wedding dresses or diamond rings or being a bride. (I fantasized about swordfighting and bonding with dragons and piloting a starship.) By my twenties, I didn’t want to participate in any institution that my same-sex coupled friends were barred from.

By my thirties, gay weddings were becoming fashionable but not yet legal, and I was against the state having a say in my relationships.

But then same-sex marriage was legalized here in Massachusetts, the first state to do so, in 2004, thanks to a decision by our supreme court. My city, Cambridge, flung open the doors to City Hall at midnight, sat a marriage clerk right in the lobby, and started welcoming couples in. Hundreds of people gathered outside to cheer every time a newly married couple emerged from the building.

That’s the City Hall where corwin and I got married this week.

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Duck Day 2024 Wrap-up & Picspam!

Bright colored booklets that say Duck Day 2024 with a small brass key dangling from each one.

Duck Day 2024: Foods & Dishes You Can’t Get Anymore

Here we go, our annual Thanksgiving gourmet cooking extravaganza, in which we make no turkey, but do make duck. Each year with a different theme.

This entire menu came about because when we sat down to plan this year’s theme and looked into our notes for recipe ideas, one said “choco taco” and another said “numb nuts ice cream sundae.”

You might think that meant we wanted to do all frozen confections, but no… the common thread that connects those two dots is “Foods you can’t get anymore.”

The ChocoTaco was infamously discontinued in 2022, more on that later. “Numb nuts” were one of the bar snacks we often enjoyed at a restaurant called Night Market, which had been a terrific but somewhat short-lived (2014-2019) place in Harvard Square. At Night Market, chef Jason Tom plied his jazzy takes on Asian street foods in a tiny street-art decorated basement space that made it feel like a fried-rice speakeasy.

I’ve often recreated a few of Night Market’s standards at home, including their sweet kaya toast served with a raw egg yolk swimming in soy sauce. (This reminds me I have yet to try making their “Lik’Em Stik”, which was rice balls served with a “dip” of tasty bits that included black beans, fried garlic, and other stuff—maybe crunchy soy beans? maybe chili crisp? tiny dried shrimp?—I’m not sure exactly what was in it and this may be part of why I haven’t yet tried to recreate it.)

Anyway. We all know that yearning for a dish we can’t get anymore. This menu is an homage to restaurants we miss.

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Sample chapter: The Vanished Chronicles Book 1: Bound by the Blood

I continue to be gobsmacked at how quickly the patreon jumped up over the past week! We’re now only $29 short of the monthly goal that will trigger the serialization of Bound by the Blood, the first book in my long-long-long awaited “BDSM meets sex magic in modern NYC” paranormal romance series.

(UPDATE: WE HAVE REACHED GOAL! AND the serialization has begun over on Patreon. See all chapters that have been posted: https://www.patreon.com/collection/886649?view=condensed)

To encourage folks to get us to the goal, I’m posting a sample chapter here! Now, you’d think I would post this on Patreon itself, BUT they have a rule that says if there’s anything naughty, it has to stay behind the paywall. So I’m posting it on my regular ol’ blog(s).

Enjoy!

Let’s start with the night I met Clive—boots laced up, my corset cinched, and a bag of whips on my shoulder. I’ll start somewhere you might recognize: a nightclub with an upstairs dance floor. The city is full of clubs like it—a thousand different vibes to suit a thousand different crowds. Upscale, downtown, psychedelic, cyberpunk, Bollywood, cowgirl, you name it.

A shirtless man would grab my attention in any of them, but especially in Purgatory.

Before I saw him, I had been asking myself why the hell I was there. The place was goth, but once a month the dance floor turned into a dungeon. People go to these places—all of these places—to hook up. Not just for sex. People go to bars when they’re lonely, when they’re looking for connection.

I wasn’t ready for connection. Not so soon after severing ties with Ethan. But there I was, anyway.

Clive—I didn’t know that was his name yet—was standing by the empty deejay booth, looking comfortable in his bare skin. A typical darkwave dance-trance playlist was on, but that night was for a different sort of dance. Two leathermen had been flogging a third on the St. Andrew’s cross, but they were mostly done, just running their hands up and down his bare back and buttocks. One of them snapped the elastic waistband of his thong and all three of them laughed. A witchy long-haired androgyne smiled in their direction and then glided down the stairs. A few mixed-gender couples nursed drinks at the tall cocktail tables along the far wall. It was early, not yet crowded, and the spanking bench and other play stations were empty…

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The Time is Now (to support a sm*t writer in your life)

I sent out my email newsletter in the wee hours this morning, and in this post I’m going to expand on some things I said in it. (Because even 12 hours later, some things already need updating!)

“Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.”

These are the literal words in Project 2025, the ultra-conservative blueprint for America that the Trump administration admitted yesterday they have been planning to use all along.

There are so many things I’d rather be writing about right now. There are dozens of fights for our rights we’ll need to have in the coming year, but since I am an erotica writer, I’ll stay in my lane for the moment and concentrate on the Project 2025 Porn Ban. Yes, it’s real. As Newsweek reports, it’s “a key agenda item in Project 2025.”

You might think in the wake of 50 Shades that BDSM is just accepted everywhere, and with the success of Sarah J. Maas’s ACOTAR and fantasy/romantasy books with a lot of “spice” in them, that whether something has sex in it is no big deal now. But this is not the case. It’s already more difficult to sell and publish erotic writing than any other genre, because it’s already against the ToS to promote erotic writing on Facebook or Google Ads. B&N just did a purge of erotic ebooks. Amazon regularly figures out what the hot erotic trend is and then suppresses it in search (as they did with bigfoot erotica, dinosaur porn, stepbrothers, and so on).

With Project 2025, they won’t just shut down sites like PornHub. They want to scrub sex-related content from all American life, which means increased pressure on Amazon and Patreon and Barnes & Noble to sanitize themselves—which they’ve already been doing! These efforts will only intensify.

But if you think wellllll maybe we can live without some smut, remember, for Project 2025 folks, “banning porn” doesn’t just mean going after the explicit “X-rated” material. It also means anything with queer or trans content, because to them, any representation of queerness is obscene.

But those of us who do write explicitly erotic material (as usual) will be the first to go. They’ve said in plain words that people like me belong in jail for what we write. If you don’t agree, and you believe we have the right to write about sex, and the right to read about it as well, now is the time to support your erotica writing friends as best you can, whether that is by buying their books or supporting their crowdfunds, or in reviewing, posting, and talking about their books, or even just posting an encouraging word to them!

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Let’s Talk About Fear (and erotica)

Thinky Thoughts: Let’s Talk About Fear

Welcome to the spookiest month of the year! I figure this is a great time for some thinky thoughts about fear—specifically how crucial fear is in erotic fiction. For me, at least.

I was a fraidy cat as a child. I was one of those kids who would see Godzilla on television and then not be able to get to sleep for weeks, because I was convinced that Godzilla was definitely coming out of the sea that very night to step on our house. Or that space aliens were coming to kidnap me. Or whatever other horrible thing I could imagine.

What was extra-confusing to my parents is that things other kids were afraid of—like talking to adults, or jumping into the deep end of swimming pool, or snakes—didn’t bother me at all. My mom talked to the school psychologist about it and was told that “gifted” kids with vivid imaginations were prone to such terrors.

Tell her it’s just her imagination, they said. That went okay, I guess, when the reason I couldn’t sleep was my fear of “giant germs that could come through walls.” (No idea where I got that idea from…Star Trek, maybe? Or Space 1999?)

The “just your imagination” strategy failed, though, when …

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Now Available: The Blossoms of Summer erotic steampunk

Mockups of the book cover shown on a tablet and a paperback. Cover is dark with gold lettering reading The Blossoms of Summer, with exotic flowers painted entwined with the letteringAvailable for purchase almost anywhere books are sold, including:

The Blossoms of Summer

by Cecilia Tan

An erotic steampunk adventure novella, told in epistolary fashion, through letters and diary entries.

A botanist travels by airship beyond the known lands of Canton in search of breathtaking beauty and finds himself seduced by his exotic discoveries.

Botanist Robert Meriweather has been tasked by the Continental Occident Company to travel beyond the known lands of Canton to search for the “forbidden flowers,” specimens of such breathtaking beauty that the mere sight has caused men to forsake their homelands. Robert’s orders are to bring these blossoms back to England, where all of society’s rewards—and his betrothed, Livia—await him.

Robert soon finds himself on an unexpectedly erotic adventure, in which he must abandon all his Victorian social moires to succeed in his mission. But he will never abandon Livia and his dream of marrying her as a gentleman of standing!

Paperback: $9.99 ISBN: 978-1-963897-16-6
Ebook: $2.99

 

 

 

Starting August 1: an erotic steampunk adventure

A black and gold promo banner that reads An Erotic Epistolary Tale, starting August 1 on Patreon

So….. I’ve been threatening to start publishing some erotic fiction over on my Patreon for a while now and I’m finally organized enough to get it going.

As a kind of test run before we do anything longer, I’m going to start with an erotic steampunk adventure entitled The Blossoms of Summer, which is an epistolary tale of an airship adventure told through a brave adventuring botanist’s letters and diary entries.

It’ll run every day for six days, starting on August 1.

Here’s the official description that will go on the book, which will launch after the serial runs:

Botanist Robert Meriweather has been tasked by the Continental Occident Company to travel beyond the known lands of Canton to search for the “the Blossoms of Summer,” secret and hidden specimens of such breathtaking beauty that the mere sight has caused men to forsake their homelands. Robert’s orders are to bring these “forbidden flowers” back to England, where all of society’s rewards—and his betrothed, Livia—await him.

Robert soon finds himself on an unexpectedly erotic adventure, in which he must abandon all his Victorian social moires to succeed in his mission. But he will never abandon Livia and his dream of marrying her as a gentleman of standing.

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Are we in a Golden Age of Queer & Trans SF/F?

Hello and welcome to another ctan monthly updatet! It’s Pride Month, so today let’s talk about queer science fiction and fantasy.

First some housekeeping: Mailchimp has been driving me nuts, with the newsletter sometimes displaying so tiny on mobile devices it was illegible. I’m trying on a new template today, with new fonts. Please let me know if this one looks better to you (or worse!) than before so I can keep improving it.

Second, my apology this is a bit later than I intended, but I had knee surgery on Wednesday and as you can imagine it’s put a bit of a cramp into my schedule. I’ve discovered I would rather have my knee hurt and my brain work than be “pain free” but feel seasick from narcotics. Apparently opioids are not my friends! Bleah.

And now to my slightly linkbait-y topic: are we in a “Golden Age” of queer and trans SF/F? Yes, yes we are, end of essay.

Just kidding, of course I’m going to explain WHY my answer is yes.

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The Unexpected, the Sublime, and the pastime of looking up.

Welcome to my latest monthly newsletter! If you’d prefer to get this directly in your email each month, you can sign up here: http://eepurl.com/TEWfv

or you can join my patreon to get not only posts like this but other writer-y stuff and fiction as well.


Thinky Thoughts: The Unexpected, the Sublime, and the pastime of looking up.

The last thing I expected this month, after just having seen the total solar eclipse in April, was an even more mind-blowing celestial event! But a Coronal Mass Ejection resulted in spectacular auroras at both poles of the Earth, and with little to no warming I decided to abandon other plans and hop in the car late Friday night to chase it.

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