...don't forget that gay marriage is now legal in Connecticut (and of course Massachusetts). Here's a story about it:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--gaymarriage...

As someone who grew up in New England, I find that fascinating, because I never saw NE as particularly progressive. Of course, I was living in Maine, which pretty much explains the disconnect.

Hey guys!

I just wanted to share with you all the most recent book review of Orphan's Quest, posted today by Ruth Sims, award-winning author of The Phoenix. For those of you not familiar with the book, The Phoenix is a gay-themed Victorian novel that was named Foreword Magazine's book of the year in 2005, so a glowing review from her is a pretty big get. In fact, I'm already seeing a spike in my Amazon sales!

Anyway, here's the link for anyone who wants to check out the review:

Click Here for Ruth's OQ Review

Don't forget, my e-books are always free for you guys. No strings attached. You just have to message me and ask for the link. Remember to specify whether you need Book 1 (Orphan's Quest) or Book 2 (Scion's Blood). Book Three, Numen's Trust should be out early next year and that, too, will be free for Oasis members.

Hope you all had a fun Halloween. I stayed home and watched horror movies, which is one of my favorite pastimes - sicko that I am. :-)

Hugs to all,
PNC
http://www.chroniclesoffirma.com

Hi guys!

Just wanted to share the cover of Numen's Trust, Book Three of The Chronicles of Firma, with you:

Just a reminder - Oasis members can get my ebooks free by sending me an email at patrick@patnelsonchilds.com. You can also message me here, but I don't sign onto Oasis much these days, so the other way is much faster. Just mention Oasis when you email, and tell me if you want Book one (Orphan's Quest) or Book Two (Scion's Blood), or both. Numen's Trust will be out in late August or thereabouts, and as soon as it comes out, you can ask me for that one too.

Hugs to all!
PNC

Randon Notes on Being a Writer - #42

Genius never strikes at convenient times. Be prepared to lose sleep, be late for appointments and drop all the things you're supposed to be doing when those AHA moments hit (and leave enough time, because the AHA is usually followed by several hours of mad typing or scribbling).

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVER SAY TO YOURSELF: "I really gotta go to bed. I'll remember to write this all down when I wake up in the morning". You will remember only that you had a stroke of genius, it will be gone forever from your consciousness, and you will kick yourself in the ass for days - nay - forever. It's a mistake that most writers make several times in their lives. It's like forgetting what an ice-cream headache feels like and, once again, wolfing down that DQ Banana Cream Pie Blizzard in just a few tasty gulps.

So remember, children - "Don't Wolf the Blizzard!" Keep a notebook & pencil or laptop with you at all times, and when nuggets of gold hit you, get up out of bed, out of the shower, off your boyfriend - AND WRITE THEM DOWN.

Here endeth the lesson. Now I'm gettin' my ass to bed.

Hugs to you all,
Patrick

Hi Guys!

I got this email today and thought I'd share it, and my response, with all of you. I blanked out the sender's email address as a kindness to him/her. I guess I must be doing something right if I'm getting hate mail from religious fanatics, huh?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 4:28 PM
To: pnchilds@glynworkspublishing.com
Subject: question to pat nelson?..:

sir---i happened to come across your work chronicles etc------i do feel so sad for you putting this garbage out to young people who are confused and vulnerable----please grow up and get some help for yourself------change is possible----i would like to refer you to richard cohens international healing foundation who work with gay men-----look up his book sometime coming out straight or gay children straight parents----a world of info on causes of homosexuality 10 of them and see if you fit into any of these i will be praying for you please do not destroy kids lives-----you are made in the image and likeness of
God----use your talents for writing for a wonderful God given project------at least you are honest about your aids problem------i thank you for that----------------from a caring parent of a young adult whom i hope and pray is not influenced by you--------------------again explore and look into your life at your deepseeded feelings-----God bless you sir-------and i will continue praying for you

_____________________________________

From: pnchilds@glynworkspublishing.com [mailto:pnchilds@glynworkspublishing.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 5:48 PM
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: RE: question to pat nelson?

Dear sir/madam,

Thank you for your letter. It serves as a perfect example of the deep-seated fear and bigotry that is still, unfortunately, all too prevalent in this country. It is precisely this attitude that motivates me every day to continue my writing and my efforts to help gay and lesbian youth to realize that there is nothing at all wrong with them or the way that they love. Your type of narrow-mindedness is what really poses the greatest danger to young people, who at that age are all struggling to find, accept and love themselves. I plan to keep fighting every day to oppose those who self-righteously use God as an excuse to promote intolerance, and who (like Richard Cohen) perpetuate the myth that homosexuality is an affliction that needs to be cured.

I hope that one day you will see the light, or if not, that at least your children will. There is already more than enough ignorance in this world.

Regards,
Pat Nelson Childs
___________________________

Please visit my Myspace Profile and add me as a friend.
_________________________________

- Pat Nelson Childs
"bringing strong gay characters to Sci-Fi & Fantasy"

I chose my new publicity photo. What do you think? Not too goofy I hope.

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to say a quick hi to everyone here on Oasis. I miss you all. I'm not on here as much as I used to be or want to be, frankly because I'm behind schedule on book three of The Chronicles of Firma. But I do sign on frequently to check messages, so you guys can always write to me if you want a free e-copy of one of the books or for anything else you need. All my teenage and young adult fans give me huge moral support, and I'll always love you guys and do everything I can to make your lives better.

For anyone reading this who might be new to Oasis and not know who the heck I am, I invite you to check out my MySpace profile (link below)and add me as a friend. That's the best place to get info on me and my books for the moment. When the websites are up and running again, I plan to have some stuff going on there for GLBT teens. As that stuff develops, I'll come back and share it with you. In the meantime, as I said above, please feel free to hit me up anytime, either here or thru MySpace. I love hearing from you.

Hope you all have a great winter or, if you have S.A.D. like I do, an early spring.

Love and hugs,
Pat

My editor flipped over the OQ trailer and instructed me to get busy and do one for Scion's Blood ASAP. Well, here it is:

Or click here to go to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lh3PatV9Bc&rel

Pass the word if you'd be so kind and repost anyplace you can think of. Don't forget - Broke? Oppressed within your household? Just private me about getting the e-book version of either of these titles FREE OF CHARGE. My offer still and always will stand. No kid is going to miss out on reading my books cuz they have pinheads for parents or simply can't afford to buy them.

Life's been bad these past couple weeks, and having you guys around - all my friends - teens, YAs and even some grown-ups - well, it's one of the reasons I am still around. Don't feel bad asking me for the books because it's the least I can do in exchange for what you all bring to me.

I love you all,
Patrick

Hey guys!

Check out the trailer I did for Orphan's Quest!

Or click here to go to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kRjEkjKaKI

Spread it around, dudes!!! The series is really doing well now thanks in part to you all of you.

I'll do one for Scion's Blood in another month or so, next time I take a day off writing. Lol.

Muchos Gracias!
Patrick

Hi Guys!
Sorry I have been absent lately. Two two novels going at once, plus some health issues, has kept me away more than I wish to be. I wanted to share this poem with you, though. A friend of mine posted it on her blog and I couldn't resist borrowing it. I hope you all have a wonderful 2008. One of my resolutions is to try and spend more time with you here on Oasis this coming year. I really do miss you all. Love, Patrick
------------------------------------------

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Just posted a new blog entry. If you want to check it out, here's the link:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=13365...

CAUTION: Contains sadness and self-pity. Read at your own risk.

Now I'm going to go try and finish Chapter Seven.

Hugs amigos.

"After all, tomorrow is another day." - Scarlett O'Hara

Hey guys!

I'm still offering the ebook of my first novel, Orphan's Quest, for free to anyone on Oasis that wants to read it. I only ask in return that you give me your opinion and encourage others to read it. Of course, if you want to buy a copy, it can now be special ordered from any bookstore in the US, the UK and probably Canada as well (yay!).

For those of you who have already read OQ, I have the almost-final draft of book two, Scion's Blood, available for those of you who enjoyed the first book and want to find out what happens next with Rokey and Flaskamper. Every one of my first readers said it was even better than book one, so I think I can safely recommend it. I'm still working on the final draft for the November release, but there shouldn't be any major changes, so I don't mind letting you read the manuscript as it stands now.

So, for anyone who wants a good Fantasy read with awesome gay heroes (and very good reviews to date), just reply here and tell me which book you want or else you can private me and let me know. I'll reply with the link you can go to and download the .pdf file for free. Why? Because I love you and I enjoy sharing my work with you. Do I need another reason?

If you'd like to be on my emailing list and get my monthly newsletter and all that jazz, just send me a note that says "subscribe me" to Trajectory@glynworkspublishing.com. You'll get news about what I'm doing bookwise, get the chance to win stuff and generally be a part of the small yet very cool group of people I call my fans.

This is not a trick. You will not be subscribed to a credit monitoring service or enlisted in the Portugese navy. It's an honest to (insert name of higher power here) free thing from me to you - my adorable-though-occasionally-f***ed-up kids. So shoot me a message and get reading before school starts and you have to go back to reading Silas Marner and all that other boring shite again.

Hugs one and all,

Pat Nelson Childs
"Continuing to spread joy through genre fiction"

Hi Everyone!

Yes I know, I've been gone for a long time. I'm sorry. I took a bit of time away to let my broken heart heal (long story), and was somewhat successful. I also just took a 2 week road trip, which I highly recommend to anyone. I didn't have much money to spend, but busses are cheap and friends are plentiful, so I had lots of fun crashing with friends in New York City, Ann Arbor and Chicago. Having been cooped up here in Maine all winter, I was desperate for a change of scenery.

Now that I'm back of course, the work really begins. The new and improved edition of Orphan's Quest is out. For those who might want a copy, you can now special order it in any bookstore in either the US, the UK or online. My big push now is to get the stores to stock it on a permanent basis. To that end, I'm sending out thousands of promotional postcards to bookstores and review copies to potential reviewers. I'm also working on designing free stuff like bookmarks, fridge magnets, T-shirts and all the kinds of stuff that help increase the buzz and spread the word.

For those of you who are new to Oasis and are wondering who the hell I am, I am a Fantasy author (I write Fantasy novels with gay heroes) and a fairly regular contributor of occasionally helpful advice here on Oasis, as well as a guy who has been living with the dreaded HIV virus in my body for the past eleven years. I am not a pedophile, just an overgrown teenager who likes to use his considerable life experience to help young people figure shit out. So if you need help, give me a yell. I'll do my best to be of service.

Healthwise, I've been doing great. It only took me a few days to recover from my cross-country road trip, and now I'm thinking of trying to organize a book tour some time in the coming months. First thing's first though. Get it reviewed by more people. Get it in more bookstores. After that, I'll think about doing some signing events. If I come out your way, I hope you'll come and see me. I'd love the chance to meet some of you face to face, and a nice, well-chaperoned signing event would be the perfect venue for it. Once I get my ass in gear, I'll let you all know where I'm going to be and when.

In other news, I'm working on editing another friend's book and helping my protege get his first novel underway. I'm also finishing up the final draft of my second book, Scions Blood, and have even started the third one, Numen's Trust. Book Two is due out in November and Book Three in February. I'd call the chances of November happening Very Probable; The chances of meeting the February deadline - Snowball meets Hell. But I'm gonna give it my best try.

So how is everyone? I have peeked in on the site a few times over the past couple of months. Things seem to have slowed down a bit. I attribute this to the lazy days of Summer. I figure once fall rolls around, those of you who took a break will be back with more angst in need of soothing. Don't worry. I'll be here to help you. I heard through the grapevine that some of you were asking about me, which made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I really am sorry if any of you thought I had abandoned you. I would never do that. I just needed to spend a little time away for personal reasons, the nature of which I can't get into. I'm back now though, ready to share with you all the wisdom I have gained from my 20+ years of making really stupid mistakes. And yes, I'm still making them - just not quite as often - and I'm actually learning from them nowadays.

Before I go and read all the recent posts, I want to talk for a bit about writing projects. I tried to launch two this past year - the Samers Guild Project and the Gay Like Me Project. Most of you know that neither was a success. As I said in an earlier post, I'm going to keep an eye on the Gay Like Me forum. If you guys want to keep posting stuff there, I strongly encourage it. One day, I still hope to have enough material to compile the book that we'd all like to see get published. Now that I own a publishing company, that part of it isn't a problem anymore. If we can get the stories, poems and artwork we need, I'll be more than happy to put it out under the Glynworks Publishing imprint and spend the money necessary to market it. The one thing I can't do is write it. That's up to you guys. So keep the submissions coming. For those of you who don't know the drill, we're looking for stories that depict life as a gay teen (and by gay, I mean gay, lesbian, bi, tran, queer or whatever alternative orientation you choose to identify as). We want autobiographical stuff mostly, although some fictionalized accounts would be considered as long as they are based on truth. While we also want some poetry and artwork, we want the main thrust of the book to be creative, autobiographical accounts of your lives as gay (GLBTQ) teens - the good, the bad, the ugly. The ideal length would be 500 to 3000 words, though longer would be fine. All works would be published under your Oasis screen name or another pseudonym of your choice. This is for legal reasons and is non-negotiable. Okay, there's the spiel again. I'll make it again every few months for the benefit of the new arrivals. One day, we're going to get it done.

Okay, I've prattled on enough. I want you to know that I really missed all of you guys, and I'm glad to be back with you again. I'd like to have some more of you as MySpace friends. You can add me here: http://www.myspace.com/patnelsonchilds. There's some great music on my profile right now, so I encourage you to check it out.

I hope you all have a great rest of the summer.

Love and hugs,
Patrick

So many of you took advantage of my offer to download the e-book of my first novel, Orphan's Quest, for free that I decided to go one better this time and give Oasis members the chance to download book two, Scion's Blood, before it even comes out! My early reader group has told me that they like it even better than the first book. Hopefully you'll agree. The release date isn't until November 30th, but I've got the manuscript posted in a secret location. If you want to read it, all you have to do is message me and let me know. I'll reply with a link to the pdf file. The same rules apply as last time - just let me know what you think of the book when you finish it and PLEASE do not pass the link on to others.

Now if you're new to Oasis, or just never got around to asking for the Orphan's Quest download, the free download is still available for that e-book, and you'll definitely want to read that one first. Just message me and ask for the Orphan's Quest link.

Thanks again to everyone who has given me feedback on Orphan's Quest. I genuinely value your opinions and they do impact the way I write. In fact, I made several changes to Scion's Blood based on feedback I got from you guys on OQ. Of course, I also like hearing the good stuff. You guys are a very important section of my audience, so it makes me feel good when I hear that you like what I'm doing.

Anyway, go ahead and message me for either OQ or SB. I'll be checking my inbox at least once per day. If you want your request to reach me instantly, you can email it to pat@oasismag.com. Those will come straight to my laptop, so you'll get a quicker response.

Hope you all have a wonderful summer!

Ciao!
Patrick

Hi Guys!

Just wanted to show everyone the finished cover for the new edition of Orphan's Quest that Glynworks Publishing (my new publishing house) is releasing on August 31st. Karent Petrasko (www.karenpetrasko.com) did the artwork and our own Under Darkness did the graphics. I'm very pleased with it. It's definitely a big improvement over the previous cover and a HUGE improvement over the original one. Karen will be doing the covers for all three books of the trilogy so they'll all make a nice-looking set. Unlike the self-published editions, this one is going to get the full marketing treatment and should start appearing in bookstores and libraries this fall and winter. Then at the End of November, Scion's Blood will be released. I'm excited, not just about the books, but about the publishing house. It's called Glynworks Publishing, and my plan is to eventually publish gay-themed works by other Fantasy and Sci-Fi authors. Maybe some of you will have your first works published under the Glynworks imprint. That would be totally cool. First thing's first, though. I have to get my own trilogy published and pulling in enough money so that I can start looking at other people's manuscripts. Still, the whole idea has me really stoked.

Anyhoo, just had to share. Have I told you half of this stuff already? If so, I apologize. My memory is a bit wonky.

Ciao for now!

Hugs,
Patrick (CEO & Executive Editor, Glynworks Publishing) :-)