Guest Profile for February: Writer and Very Good Friend Warren Rochelle

Am tentatively considering a series of guest blogs from interesting writers that I (may) know personally. Warren and I have already done a trade with my interview answers on his blog, so here's the return visit:

Warren Rochelle is a novelist, essayist, teacher of creative writing, fantasy, science fiction and Utopian texts at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is the author of three novels, The Wild Boy (2001), Harvest of Changelings (2007), a Spectrum Award nominee, and The Called (2010), nominated for the Spectrum Award and the Lambda Literary Award—all published by Golden Gryphon Press. He has also published several stories, including the 2004 Gaylactic Spectrum Award Finalist, “The Golden Boy.” His short fiction has appeared in such journals and anthologies as Icarus, Aboriginal Science Fiction, Romance and Beyond, The Silver Gryphon, Collective Fallout, and Queer Fish 2. His short story, “Bath,” most recently was published in Jaelle Her Book: A Memorial.

For more information, please visit his website: http://warrenrochelle.com

And the questions:

1)     When did you know you wanted to be a writer? 

When I was very young, my mother, who was a secretary at Duke University, would bring home stacks of used typing paper and I would draw stories on the blank sides. But, it wasn’t until I was in the third grade and read The Chronicles of Narnia that I knew I wanted to be a writer.

The Candace is on the Loose

Remember the story I called "The Price of Kush?" About an imagined version of the warrior queens of Kush, circa 1500 BC? It was written for Milton Davis and Charles Saunders' anthology Griots: Sisters of the Spear, and the e-version was released early in December 2014.
The print version is on the way, but in the meantime, here's a shot of the magnificent cover art, and a blurb for the Candace herself.

Kush is the dark companion of the ancient Egyptian empire, the source of its gold, its exotic African goods and many of its slaves. The newly crowned Candace of Kush faces the latest in a long line of imperial threats, as the first Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom struggle to reclaim Egypt from the depredations of strong Kushite rulers to the south and the Hyksos invaders in the north. Should the Candace refuse to get her country involved in war, or should she accept an invitation from the Hyksos to share their attack on the Pharaonic capital, hoping to stave off future Egyptian threats to Kush by hitting first? 

And if she goes to war, what will be the price?

Available now on Kindle, with a dazzling array of other Griot stories, for only $4.89 USD.

ISBN: B00H5FV8WC

 URL on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Griots-Sisters-Spear-Milton-Davis-ebook/dp/B00H5FV8WC

Well, I'm back, she said...

Or maybe this shd. be titled After Long Silence, the alternate title of Sheri S. Tepper's The Enigma Score.
I don't, however, mean to use the Gandalfian update on absence: "Wherever I have been, I'm back." In fact, I shall probably comment on where I've been at some length, and with pictures to boot.
But for an opening salvo, let's update on the writing from Where We Were when I left. At the beginning of September when:
"The Honor of the Ferrocarril" had come out in June in Gears and Levers 3.
It's now also out in Across the Spectrum from Bookview Cafe Press. 
"Spring in Geneva" was going up in instalments on the blog, and due out from Aqueduct.
Now out from Aqueduct in October, with a wonderful cover thanx to the graphics skills of Kath Wickham at Aqueduct. Paper version only at the moment, but an ebook on the way. Check out and/or order on Amazon here

"The Price of Kush", or by its working title, "Candace," is in process of formatting for an ebook with Milton Davis for Griots II: Sisters of the Spear. Seen some of the art, and it is sensational. Holding breath that there might be some for Candace as well.
And while I was away, amazing, wonderful. A post popped up in my Inbox about a manuscript I'd sent off before I left, with v. little expectations. I even left the answer till last to open, thinking, Only another rejection, let's not bring ourselves down till we have to. But again, lo and behold! Amazement. "The editor loved it," quoth the publisher. "Do I work directly on the contract with you?"
Hosanna! Hosanna and Huzza!
So, the fourth Amberlight book, titled Dragonfly, shd. be coming out from Jupiter Gardens Press in the near future, both p.o.d. and e-versions I expect. Nowhere near the proofs, even yet, let alone actual release, but it's on the way.
And my current frustration is that I knocked up a placemarker cover when I e-booked the ms to read on my Kindle:

 From an image I collected off the Web when writing the ms. But now, hanged if I can locate it to ask permission for its texting-over (no, the title and name weren't there on the original) and use as a cover. Dratsab, dratsab, dratsab, as Lois Bujold's  Temple sorceress likes to say in The Hallowed Hunt.
So, if anybody who sees this took the photo, or knows who did, or can re-find it on the Web, let me know, please! A comment on the  bottom of this post will work pretty well.