Erotica—stories about characters that have hot steamy sex. Aside from the obvious things such as reminding people that they're sexual beings, giving people a safe place to celebrate being a sexual being, helping sexual assault victims heal just a teeny bit and providing more therapy to writers than readers would ever want to know and a few other things, what other types of good come out of erotica?
I'm going to tell you about two things going on right now.
First, there's "Coming Together: For The Cure" anthology edited by Alessia Brio and being published by Phaze. This anthology will be generating money for breast cancer research. Coming Together: For The Cure website
Second, K. M. Frontain is making a personal sacrifice. The royalties she earns on her title Loved Him 1 will be donated to Gai Écoute, an organization in Quebec that helps GLBT teens who have been turned away from their families. She'll be turning in her donation come January. K. M.'s myspace blog post dated July 07, 2007 explains this in more detail. KM's myspace. Friend her darn it.
Certainly there are other authors who are doing things to give back to humanity and I mean no disrespect by failing to mention them here. If I don't know about the selfless deeds, I can't report them.
So, please, help these Alessia Brio and KM Frontain in their efforts. Purchase those books (Coming Together isn't ready yet) and also buy something else by KM Frontain so she can eat.
I know there are certain religious groups *cough* fundamentalists *cough* and a certain company who has banned me because they run a "wholesome romance website" and my readers (those who enjoy the beauty of male/male couplings) aren't her audience for her "wholesome" business. *rolls eyes*, --who don't see the good that we do. However, I think if they understood how much erotica writers give of themselves through their work and acts of charity like these, they'd be more welcoming of the work that we do.
Kudos to them! Keep up the great work ladies!
Cup
Yes, that's one more thing I can add to my banned from list. Let's see here…my list is now (not in order of occurrence)…
1) Asked to leave a Christian outreach center. (I didn't even get to say anything.)
2) Banned from an IHOP location
3) Snubbed by countless priests.
4) Asked to leave the Methodist church by the same preacher who'd encouraged me to go into the ministry.
5) Banned from the Consumption Junction chat room.
6) Snubbed by a Pagan fellowship board because I have a priest listed in my top friends. (on myspace)
7) Banned by a "wholesome romance" website.
8) Rejected twice by publishers for writing a story that's "too controversial" due to "religious themes" and "rape/torture" themes.
9) Banned from a Christian Outreach chat room. (Once again I didn't even get to say anything.)
It feels like I'm skipping something.
Anyways…
I'm doing AWESOME! Now, if I could only get the Roman Catholic Church to protest one of my books, I'd be GOLDEN!
A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord's hand.
~Mummer's Dance by Loreena McKennitt
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Thank you!
When I check my inbox, myspace, LJ or blogspot and I find feedback from readers, I’m always floored and humbled. I’ve often said that I have the best readers in the world and I’m constantly reminded of that.
Thank you, dear readers, for allowing me into your computer screens. Thank you for allowing me to entertain you. Thank you for telling me what you like about my work. Thank you for telling me what didn’t work for you, providing me with the opportunity to grow and giving me a second chance to show you my growth. Thank you for not turning your backs on me when I make mistakes.
I don’t expect to change the world with my work, but if I can, for one brief moment, pull you from the chaos of the world, entertain you and remind you of the beauty of sexuality; then, my work is done.
Thank you for giving me that opportunity. Thank you, The Powers That Be, for giving me a gift to share with the world. Thank you, technology, for giving me a keyboard and spell check so that can I express myself and hide the fact that I’m a horrible speller.
I close with a few quotes from great minds:
The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.
John Irving (1942 - )
The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.
Leo Rosten (1908 - )
Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.
Thomas Berger
We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)
Thank you, dear readers, for allowing me into your computer screens. Thank you for allowing me to entertain you. Thank you for telling me what you like about my work. Thank you for telling me what didn’t work for you, providing me with the opportunity to grow and giving me a second chance to show you my growth. Thank you for not turning your backs on me when I make mistakes.
I don’t expect to change the world with my work, but if I can, for one brief moment, pull you from the chaos of the world, entertain you and remind you of the beauty of sexuality; then, my work is done.
Thank you for giving me that opportunity. Thank you, The Powers That Be, for giving me a gift to share with the world. Thank you, technology, for giving me a keyboard and spell check so that can I express myself and hide the fact that I’m a horrible speller.
I close with a few quotes from great minds:
The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.
John Irving (1942 - )
The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.
Leo Rosten (1908 - )
Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.
Thomas Berger
We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Faith and Sexuality or Why Write Erotica?
(Some of you may find this post offensive.)
Why write erotica?
That question, in various forms, has to be the most common question asked of me. People understand why someone would want to be a writer. When you tell someone you have stories inside you that claw at you until they're told, they understand.
Everyone—everyone—has some kind of creative outlet in their lives. It might not be as recognized as writing, drawing, singing or dancing, but everyone has something that allows themselves to express their creativity. (Sewing, cooking, prayer, home decorating, gardening, etc.) Thus, everyone understands why someone writes.
What they don't understand is why someone writes erotica. I'm going to tell you why. Other erotica writers might word it differently, but when you listen to what they say, we all say the same thing.
We want to remind everyone that they are sexual beings and, for those who do remember, we want to give you a place to celebrate it.
Sure, we say things like "it's hot" and stuff like that, but the bottom line of what we're doing is celebrating beauty and life through sexuality.
Everyone expresses sexuality differently. Everyone defines beauty differently. For some, celebrating life means highlighting the eloquence of death. For some people embracing the beautiful means surviving ugliness. And for some, those very few people who are truly asexual, they express sexuality through silence and platonic love. Non-expression is a form of expression.
Every single one of us is the product of a sexual experience. Sex brings life—how can we not celebrate and enjoy that? Oh sure, biologically speaking, there are sexual acts that do not carry the potential for creating life…or is that true? Well, maybe not.
If you define creating life as producing a child, then yes. There are a lot of forms of sexual expression that don't do that. If you define creating life as fostering the spirit of living, then all forms of sexual expression do that at least on some level. Alone, partnered, or in a large group sexuality becomes a form of life and fosters the spirit of living.
When we place restrictions on expressing sexuality, we run into taboos and shame. And here's where I start offending people.
I believe religion is the biggest enemy to sexuality. Not faith, but religion. Religion—where you deal with rules and processes of prayer. Religion where you deal with condemnation and "shoulds", "oughts" and "shouldn'ts".
It doesn't have to be that way, but, sadly, all too often it is.
Faith, the mother of religion, is a glorious friend of sexuality. For those who believe in a creator deity, they know their body was fashioned for work and pleasure. They know the pleasure of witnessing a sunrise should be cherished as much as feeling their own skin or their lover's skin beneath their fingers. How better to thank your deity for life than to enjoy that life?
Additionally, sexuality is how we perpetuate the species. (All forms of sexuality including homosexual expressions are based off this instinct. Instinct drives us to do this, but does not promise results.) The creator deity you see when you pray or worship knew this when they created us. The deity planned this. Why would that deity give us such a powerful form of communication and then give us all sorts of limitations on how to express it?
Religion's rules are an attempt at preserving the sacredness of sexuality. I understand what religion is trying to do with this. It's trying to keep the virtue of sexuality from becoming the vice of sexuality.
I don't believe that humans are inherently evil. I don't believe that without religion we'd fall into a pit of destruction and become selfish hedonists. (Not to be confused with selfless hedonism.) I don't believe STD's are punishments for orgasm just as I don't believe the flu is punishment for breathing.
So, why would religion even want to limit forms of sexual expression? I think it's a misguided attempt at keeping us from becoming obsessed with all things sexual (thus a vice). When we do that, we miss out on the beauty of non-sexual things in the world. Sexuality as a vice is detrimental where as sexuality as a virtue is wholly positive. (Note: I believe the line between vice and virtue varies from person to person.)
When I sit quietly and think of the most personal and intimate thing I can possibly do, two things come to mind and I can't decide which one is more initiate—expressing myself sexually or expressing myself through prayer. Both are equally intimate, powerful and beautiful. That can't be a coincidence.
When we're intimate with someone, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. We express desires and needs that we might not otherwise express. We allow our mouths to be manipulated through kissing and other ways. (That's trusting someone with our breath and voice.) We cannot wield a weapon while someone licks and nibbles our fingers. We close our eyes and allow someone to put their teeth upon our necks. We literally open our arms and give someone access to all of our tender bits. How is that any different from prayer? We're showing the same vulnerability. One cannot fight a god that they worship. And, when you pray and offer your concerns, worries and celebrations are you not allowing that deity a glimpse at your most tender bits?
Humans need language and physical gestures to communicate. Deities do not need these things. So, when we pray are we whispering thoughts or greeting a lover? Some of you just realized I'm saying prayer is having sex with God. And you would be right. Don't believe me? Try praying without words. Clear your mind and just feel the presence of your god(s). Take a quiet moment and bask in the base sensuality of raw faith.
Some of you may think I'm picking on the Christians with this. No, I'm not. Yes, Christians either by design or accident usually end up at the forefront of any puritanical statements. But, they're not alone. Are you familiar with some of the "family purity" practices of Orthodox Judaism? Or some of the sexual limitations of Muslims or Hindus? Yes, even some Pagans have hang-ups. There are extremists in every religion. Extremists manage to scream loud enough to get noticed by the world and some times they scream loud enough and long enough to become tradition.
With that stated, I'll close post…
The next time you wonder why someone would want to express themselves through erotic arts, take a moment to set your religion aside and examine your faith. Perhaps you'll find your own answer. If you don't find it, try praying without words.
Why write erotica?
That question, in various forms, has to be the most common question asked of me. People understand why someone would want to be a writer. When you tell someone you have stories inside you that claw at you until they're told, they understand.
Everyone—everyone—has some kind of creative outlet in their lives. It might not be as recognized as writing, drawing, singing or dancing, but everyone has something that allows themselves to express their creativity. (Sewing, cooking, prayer, home decorating, gardening, etc.) Thus, everyone understands why someone writes.
What they don't understand is why someone writes erotica. I'm going to tell you why. Other erotica writers might word it differently, but when you listen to what they say, we all say the same thing.
We want to remind everyone that they are sexual beings and, for those who do remember, we want to give you a place to celebrate it.
Sure, we say things like "it's hot" and stuff like that, but the bottom line of what we're doing is celebrating beauty and life through sexuality.
Everyone expresses sexuality differently. Everyone defines beauty differently. For some, celebrating life means highlighting the eloquence of death. For some people embracing the beautiful means surviving ugliness. And for some, those very few people who are truly asexual, they express sexuality through silence and platonic love. Non-expression is a form of expression.
Every single one of us is the product of a sexual experience. Sex brings life—how can we not celebrate and enjoy that? Oh sure, biologically speaking, there are sexual acts that do not carry the potential for creating life…or is that true? Well, maybe not.
If you define creating life as producing a child, then yes. There are a lot of forms of sexual expression that don't do that. If you define creating life as fostering the spirit of living, then all forms of sexual expression do that at least on some level. Alone, partnered, or in a large group sexuality becomes a form of life and fosters the spirit of living.
When we place restrictions on expressing sexuality, we run into taboos and shame. And here's where I start offending people.
I believe religion is the biggest enemy to sexuality. Not faith, but religion. Religion—where you deal with rules and processes of prayer. Religion where you deal with condemnation and "shoulds", "oughts" and "shouldn'ts".
It doesn't have to be that way, but, sadly, all too often it is.
Faith, the mother of religion, is a glorious friend of sexuality. For those who believe in a creator deity, they know their body was fashioned for work and pleasure. They know the pleasure of witnessing a sunrise should be cherished as much as feeling their own skin or their lover's skin beneath their fingers. How better to thank your deity for life than to enjoy that life?
Additionally, sexuality is how we perpetuate the species. (All forms of sexuality including homosexual expressions are based off this instinct. Instinct drives us to do this, but does not promise results.) The creator deity you see when you pray or worship knew this when they created us. The deity planned this. Why would that deity give us such a powerful form of communication and then give us all sorts of limitations on how to express it?
Religion's rules are an attempt at preserving the sacredness of sexuality. I understand what religion is trying to do with this. It's trying to keep the virtue of sexuality from becoming the vice of sexuality.
I don't believe that humans are inherently evil. I don't believe that without religion we'd fall into a pit of destruction and become selfish hedonists. (Not to be confused with selfless hedonism.) I don't believe STD's are punishments for orgasm just as I don't believe the flu is punishment for breathing.
So, why would religion even want to limit forms of sexual expression? I think it's a misguided attempt at keeping us from becoming obsessed with all things sexual (thus a vice). When we do that, we miss out on the beauty of non-sexual things in the world. Sexuality as a vice is detrimental where as sexuality as a virtue is wholly positive. (Note: I believe the line between vice and virtue varies from person to person.)
When I sit quietly and think of the most personal and intimate thing I can possibly do, two things come to mind and I can't decide which one is more initiate—expressing myself sexually or expressing myself through prayer. Both are equally intimate, powerful and beautiful. That can't be a coincidence.
When we're intimate with someone, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. We express desires and needs that we might not otherwise express. We allow our mouths to be manipulated through kissing and other ways. (That's trusting someone with our breath and voice.) We cannot wield a weapon while someone licks and nibbles our fingers. We close our eyes and allow someone to put their teeth upon our necks. We literally open our arms and give someone access to all of our tender bits. How is that any different from prayer? We're showing the same vulnerability. One cannot fight a god that they worship. And, when you pray and offer your concerns, worries and celebrations are you not allowing that deity a glimpse at your most tender bits?
Humans need language and physical gestures to communicate. Deities do not need these things. So, when we pray are we whispering thoughts or greeting a lover? Some of you just realized I'm saying prayer is having sex with God. And you would be right. Don't believe me? Try praying without words. Clear your mind and just feel the presence of your god(s). Take a quiet moment and bask in the base sensuality of raw faith.
Some of you may think I'm picking on the Christians with this. No, I'm not. Yes, Christians either by design or accident usually end up at the forefront of any puritanical statements. But, they're not alone. Are you familiar with some of the "family purity" practices of Orthodox Judaism? Or some of the sexual limitations of Muslims or Hindus? Yes, even some Pagans have hang-ups. There are extremists in every religion. Extremists manage to scream loud enough to get noticed by the world and some times they scream loud enough and long enough to become tradition.
With that stated, I'll close post…
The next time you wonder why someone would want to express themselves through erotic arts, take a moment to set your religion aside and examine your faith. Perhaps you'll find your own answer. If you don't find it, try praying without words.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Writing Ethical Question
No, this one isn’t about social responsibility in relation to condom use or SSC in BDSM presentation. We all know how I feel about that. (Actually some of you probably don’t and I should do another post about that.)
This is about providing feedback.
I was out blog hopping several months ago (yes, this has been weighing on my mind that long) and I came across a sample chapter of a book someone was planning on trying to get published.
It was bad. I was real bad. It was POV errors like crazy, completely flat, telling and not showing, painful to read, riddled with grammatical errors bad. If it wasn’t the worst writing I’d read, it was definitely in the top 5.
I kept my mouth shut. This writer wasn’t a part of any crit group with me. He/She did not come to me for feedback. They did include that standard line asking for feedback in the blog post, but other than that, I had not been invited to state my opinion. This was also not on any writing board or anything like that. It was just posted on the writer’s blog.
After a few weeks, I wondered if I should drop that person a line asking if they wanted a crit of the work. I have crits to do and my own WIP’s and contracts to fulfill, so it’s not like I’m wanting for something do. I, simply, started to wonder if keeping my mouth shut was the right thing to do. I keep reminding myself that this person does not know me and has not come to me for help and we all know how well unsolicited advice goes over. Then, I remind myself of my early writing and how it would have been nice to have someone point out some errors before I broke the 100k word mark in Purpose Chaos.
So, here’s my dilemma: Do you think I'm doing the right thing by keeping my mouth shut and not offering unsolicited advice to this writer?
This is about providing feedback.
I was out blog hopping several months ago (yes, this has been weighing on my mind that long) and I came across a sample chapter of a book someone was planning on trying to get published.
It was bad. I was real bad. It was POV errors like crazy, completely flat, telling and not showing, painful to read, riddled with grammatical errors bad. If it wasn’t the worst writing I’d read, it was definitely in the top 5.
I kept my mouth shut. This writer wasn’t a part of any crit group with me. He/She did not come to me for feedback. They did include that standard line asking for feedback in the blog post, but other than that, I had not been invited to state my opinion. This was also not on any writing board or anything like that. It was just posted on the writer’s blog.
After a few weeks, I wondered if I should drop that person a line asking if they wanted a crit of the work. I have crits to do and my own WIP’s and contracts to fulfill, so it’s not like I’m wanting for something do. I, simply, started to wonder if keeping my mouth shut was the right thing to do. I keep reminding myself that this person does not know me and has not come to me for help and we all know how well unsolicited advice goes over. Then, I remind myself of my early writing and how it would have been nice to have someone point out some errors before I broke the 100k word mark in Purpose Chaos.
So, here’s my dilemma: Do you think I'm doing the right thing by keeping my mouth shut and not offering unsolicited advice to this writer?
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
A blogging award!
K.M. Fontain has named me a Rockin’ Wench Blogger! Thank you KM!
And that has reminded me that I need to show my blogspot a bit more love. I give plenty of attention to my LJ and my myspace, but I neglect this poor little blog. I think that’s because I’m actively trying to be professional here and I don’t want a whole bunch of cross-posting on my blogs.
So, here’s what you can expect from my other blogs.
LJ is my most personal blog. That’s where you get to see me batshit insane. When I fight with bouts of insomnia and I get that spazz session just before crashing, I post it there. I also post fanfiction there. So if you’re one of those “Oh noes! The EEBILS of fanfiction!!!111ONE!!!” Types, then give it a pass. I also do a lot of fangirling there. So, yes, you get to see me at my fanigirling worst with things like, “OMG! Hakkai and Gojyo are so freaking HAWT!” or “OMG! Have you seen the raws of the Burial Arc yet?” or “I have new doujinshi to share!” and all that other great kind of stuff.
Myspace is an intellectual-personal blend between LJ and Blogspot. That’s also where I’ll put out some of my humor such as translating the first few chapters of the Bible in netspeak:
Genesis 1:1 G0d wrote BIOS.
Genesis 1:2-25 G0d slung code.
Genesis 1: 27 G0d used a hex editor and cheat code.
*Adam_01 has entered the chat*
Genesis 2:2 Reboot.
Genesis 2: 16-17 G0d: “Eat this and u phail.”
Genesis 2: 20 Adam_01: :( *sniffle* “lonely”
Genesis 2:21-22 G0d used another cheat code.
*Eve_02 has entered the chat*
Genesis 2:23 Adam_01: “OMG! R0xz0rz! Cyber? Woot!”
Genesis 3: 1 Eve_02: “WTF! No wai! 4 real? G0d sayz dat?”
Genesis 3:2 Adam_01: “Yes wai!”
Genesis 3:4 xXxSerpentxXx: “Caffeine good. Eat FTW!” (FTW=For The Win)
Genesis 3:7 Adam_01 & Eve_02: >.<
Genesis 3:8 Adam_01 & Eve_02: -.-‘
Genesis 3:11 G0d: *tsk*
Genesis 3:12 Adam_01: “She r teh h4x0rz.”
Genesis 3:13 G0d: “WTF!”
Eve_02: *points* “D00d! xXxSerpentxXx is teh sux.”
Genesis 3:14-15 G0d: “FuQ! I r pissed! KOS4LIF!” (KOS=kill on sight)
Genesis 3:16: G0d: “Eve u sux. u phail @ lif.”
Genesis 3:17 G0d: “Adam w/ teh no ballz or skillz!”
Genesis 3:23: G0d: “GTFO muh internets! STFU! U sux x2 !!!111!!!ONE!!!”
Genesis 3:24—and so on: World v2.0
“And so on” until God c:/format with TEH big flood and World v3.0 came out.
Then World v3.5 with the release of the Jesus patch.
World v4.0 is expected around Armageddon.
And I shared Priest Kitty there! (I wrote the caption, but didn’t take the picture.) Love cat macros!
That kind of stuff. I also post writing tips and struggles on that blog. That blog has turned into an odd little mix of things because I have old high school friends, readers, editors, publishers, fellow writers as well as two priests and bishop friended on myspace.
My blogspot blog was intended to be a blog for writers (published, self-published, and not-yet-published.) The intent was to only include things that could clearly be linked to my writing life. So, there was no angsting about my biopsy (which turned out fine), pending surgery, bitching about being broke, or any of that. I think that lack of a personal touch is keeping this blog from feeling like a real blog. Poor blogspot, the bastard child of my blogging life.
So, I come to you with a question. Do you want me to make this blog more personal or do you enjoy the way it is?
And that has reminded me that I need to show my blogspot a bit more love. I give plenty of attention to my LJ and my myspace, but I neglect this poor little blog. I think that’s because I’m actively trying to be professional here and I don’t want a whole bunch of cross-posting on my blogs.
So, here’s what you can expect from my other blogs.
LJ is my most personal blog. That’s where you get to see me batshit insane. When I fight with bouts of insomnia and I get that spazz session just before crashing, I post it there. I also post fanfiction there. So if you’re one of those “Oh noes! The EEBILS of fanfiction!!!111ONE!!!” Types, then give it a pass. I also do a lot of fangirling there. So, yes, you get to see me at my fanigirling worst with things like, “OMG! Hakkai and Gojyo are so freaking HAWT!” or “OMG! Have you seen the raws of the Burial Arc yet?” or “I have new doujinshi to share!” and all that other great kind of stuff.
Myspace is an intellectual-personal blend between LJ and Blogspot. That’s also where I’ll put out some of my humor such as translating the first few chapters of the Bible in netspeak:
Genesis 1:1 G0d wrote BIOS.
Genesis 1:2-25 G0d slung code.
Genesis 1: 27 G0d used a hex editor and cheat code.
*Adam_01 has entered the chat*
Genesis 2:2 Reboot.
Genesis 2: 16-17 G0d: “Eat this and u phail.”
Genesis 2: 20 Adam_01: :( *sniffle* “lonely”
Genesis 2:21-22 G0d used another cheat code.
*Eve_02 has entered the chat*
Genesis 2:23 Adam_01: “OMG! R0xz0rz! Cyber? Woot!”
Genesis 3: 1 Eve_02: “WTF! No wai! 4 real? G0d sayz dat?”
Genesis 3:2 Adam_01: “Yes wai!”
Genesis 3:4 xXxSerpentxXx: “Caffeine good. Eat FTW!” (FTW=For The Win)
Genesis 3:7 Adam_01 & Eve_02: >.<
Genesis 3:8 Adam_01 & Eve_02: -.-‘
Genesis 3:11 G0d: *tsk*
Genesis 3:12 Adam_01: “She r teh h4x0rz.”
Genesis 3:13 G0d: “WTF!”
Eve_02: *points* “D00d! xXxSerpentxXx is teh sux.”
Genesis 3:14-15 G0d: “FuQ! I r pissed! KOS4LIF!” (KOS=kill on sight)
Genesis 3:16: G0d: “Eve u sux. u phail @ lif.”
Genesis 3:17 G0d: “Adam w/ teh no ballz or skillz!”
Genesis 3:23: G0d: “GTFO muh internets! STFU! U sux x2 !!!111!!!ONE!!!”
Genesis 3:24—and so on: World v2.0
“And so on” until God c:/format with TEH big flood and World v3.0 came out.
Then World v3.5 with the release of the Jesus patch.
World v4.0 is expected around Armageddon.
And I shared Priest Kitty there! (I wrote the caption, but didn’t take the picture.) Love cat macros!
That kind of stuff. I also post writing tips and struggles on that blog. That blog has turned into an odd little mix of things because I have old high school friends, readers, editors, publishers, fellow writers as well as two priests and bishop friended on myspace.
My blogspot blog was intended to be a blog for writers (published, self-published, and not-yet-published.) The intent was to only include things that could clearly be linked to my writing life. So, there was no angsting about my biopsy (which turned out fine), pending surgery, bitching about being broke, or any of that. I think that lack of a personal touch is keeping this blog from feeling like a real blog. Poor blogspot, the bastard child of my blogging life.
So, I come to you with a question. Do you want me to make this blog more personal or do you enjoy the way it is?
Monday, July 09, 2007
The Problems with having a Priest Fetish
There are several problems associated with having a priest fetish. First, it's DAMN hard to find good priest erotica. As a general rule, I won't publicly complain about someone else's writing. I feel that's unprofessional. However, I've not liked most of what I've found and what I have liked is from a writer who REFUSES to post her stuff and share it with the world (or try to get professionally published.) So, if you know of some good gay priest smut, PLEASE, tell me.
The second problem is that it's difficult to take religious matters seriously if you have the visual. My religious path is an odd mixture of this, that and the other thing. Lately, I've been considering attending mass, because it's one of the few I haven't attended in person. Do you have ANY idea how difficult that is when you find all that imagery a turn on? >.< I can't even look for churches with old and unattractive priests, because the imagery is STILL there.
Another problem is trying to keep it hot without being sacrilegious. The beauty of religious erotica is that it is not blasphemy.
Yet another problem is figuring out which storylines are played out. Is a timid torn priest tired or is an aggressive, assertive and confident priest tired? As a general rule, I do not like the erotica that has the priest going from "hello" to opening his robes in a breath. That destroys my willing suspension of disbelief and as I'm getting to know some priests (yes, I'm actually making friends with priests. No, I do not hide my priest fetish. Yes, I'm being smart and friending only gay priests. *sweatdrop* And that just might be backfiring on me. Oh it's helpful to prevent anything physical from happening, but my MIND is running so fast I can't keep up with it.) But, as I'm getting to know some priests, I'm finding out that they aren't anything like I expected. The percentage that actually keeps that promise of celibacy is…well…small enough to REALLY make you wonder about those seminaries.
This is further complicated by all of the "it's no fun if…" stuff. It's no fun if the priest is a non-celibate priest. (Yes, there are Catholic priests who have not taken a vow or promise of celibacy.) It's no fun if they aren't Catholic priests (Episcopalian priests have the right look, but none of that forbidden fruit thing going on.) It's no fun if they aren't in that SEXY collar and don't even get me started on how unbelievably sexy cassocks are. *bites knuckle* It's no fun if they're straight. Yes, there are plenty of people out there who fully appreciate the sexiness of a straight priest, but for me I want that straight priest either being pursued by another man or longing for one (even if it's just idle curiosity and exploration.)
It also makes it damn hard to write a sex scene with Father Daniel. I want him in his clerical shirt for it, but I also don't want to force that into the story. Also thinking about him tied up on a bed all wanting and full of lust is enough to…well…let's just say you DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT write good erotica one-handed. (Take care of business and then return to the writing or write it and then take care of business, but do not do both at the same time.)
As you can obviously tell, I'm really picky about my priest erotica. Can anyone else feel my pain with this?
EDIT: (updated:4/1/2011)
Judging by the stats, this is a very popular post. It seems a lot of people are seeking religious erotica and/or priest erotica. I have a short (and cheap) title out called Personal Demon .
Here's the blurb:
Temptation in an alb...
Those of the most devout faith face private struggles. When the man inside the priest fights carnal desires, the priest can only pray he has the inner fortitude to resist. Eve succumbed to the serpent. Adam succumbed to the apple. Now, Father Blake Krey stands in a private Garden of Eden tempted by his own Personal Demon.
If you read it, I hope you enjoy it. If you don't read it, I hope you find something that you do enjoy.
The second problem is that it's difficult to take religious matters seriously if you have the visual. My religious path is an odd mixture of this, that and the other thing. Lately, I've been considering attending mass, because it's one of the few I haven't attended in person. Do you have ANY idea how difficult that is when you find all that imagery a turn on? >.< I can't even look for churches with old and unattractive priests, because the imagery is STILL there.
Another problem is trying to keep it hot without being sacrilegious. The beauty of religious erotica is that it is not blasphemy.
Yet another problem is figuring out which storylines are played out. Is a timid torn priest tired or is an aggressive, assertive and confident priest tired? As a general rule, I do not like the erotica that has the priest going from "hello" to opening his robes in a breath. That destroys my willing suspension of disbelief and as I'm getting to know some priests (yes, I'm actually making friends with priests. No, I do not hide my priest fetish. Yes, I'm being smart and friending only gay priests. *sweatdrop* And that just might be backfiring on me. Oh it's helpful to prevent anything physical from happening, but my MIND is running so fast I can't keep up with it.) But, as I'm getting to know some priests, I'm finding out that they aren't anything like I expected. The percentage that actually keeps that promise of celibacy is…well…small enough to REALLY make you wonder about those seminaries.
This is further complicated by all of the "it's no fun if…" stuff. It's no fun if the priest is a non-celibate priest. (Yes, there are Catholic priests who have not taken a vow or promise of celibacy.) It's no fun if they aren't Catholic priests (Episcopalian priests have the right look, but none of that forbidden fruit thing going on.) It's no fun if they aren't in that SEXY collar and don't even get me started on how unbelievably sexy cassocks are. *bites knuckle* It's no fun if they're straight. Yes, there are plenty of people out there who fully appreciate the sexiness of a straight priest, but for me I want that straight priest either being pursued by another man or longing for one (even if it's just idle curiosity and exploration.)
It also makes it damn hard to write a sex scene with Father Daniel. I want him in his clerical shirt for it, but I also don't want to force that into the story. Also thinking about him tied up on a bed all wanting and full of lust is enough to…well…let's just say you DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT write good erotica one-handed. (Take care of business and then return to the writing or write it and then take care of business, but do not do both at the same time.)
As you can obviously tell, I'm really picky about my priest erotica. Can anyone else feel my pain with this?
EDIT: (updated:4/1/2011)
Judging by the stats, this is a very popular post. It seems a lot of people are seeking religious erotica and/or priest erotica. I have a short (and cheap) title out called Personal Demon .
Here's the blurb:
Temptation in an alb...
Those of the most devout faith face private struggles. When the man inside the priest fights carnal desires, the priest can only pray he has the inner fortitude to resist. Eve succumbed to the serpent. Adam succumbed to the apple. Now, Father Blake Krey stands in a private Garden of Eden tempted by his own Personal Demon.
If you read it, I hope you enjoy it. If you don't read it, I hope you find something that you do enjoy.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
About to Sin: Updated
I think it's nice that after a blog post about religious erotica, I find out that Erotic Dreams has updated my story there.
Ever wondered what would happen if Anand exchanged his back pew for a front one? Read and find out. ^_^
http://www.eroticdreamspublishing.com/EroticDreams
It's free to read. All you need to do is register with the site (which is also free and spam free), log in, click fiction and it's the first story. If you've ever wanted to check out gay religious erotica, this is a no-risk way to do it.
Ever wondered what would happen if Anand exchanged his back pew for a front one? Read and find out. ^_^
http://www.eroticdreamspublishing.com/EroticDreams
It's free to read. All you need to do is register with the site (which is also free and spam free), log in, click fiction and it's the first story. If you've ever wanted to check out gay religious erotica, this is a no-risk way to do it.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
It doesn’t have to be sacrilegious.
There’s a multitude of genres under the umbrella “Erotica.” One of the genres I particularly enjoy is “Religious Erotica.”
So what is religious erotica and what is it not? First things first, do not confuse religious erotica with inspirational romance. Those are two very different beasts. Inspirational romance is, generally, tamer than erotica and Christian themes are quite common. Religious erotica uses religious themes, of various faiths but Roman Catholicism is favored. Or it uses religious imagery. It plays up the taboo or forbidden element of sexuality blended with faith. It’s the juxtaposition of religion and sexuality.
Maybe it deals with a Roman Catholic priest struggling with temptation. Maybe it’s two members of laity who know this is wrong, but cave to carnal desires. Maybe it’s the setting or an underlying theme.
I’ve been toying in the realm of religious erotica for a while now. Obviously, About to Sin is religious erotica. That’s full on religious erotica that not only has a priest in a sexual situation, but I also use religious imagery in the setting and I make Father Daniel’s faith a major character motivation factor.
Full Circle, by all rights, could be considered religious erotica and there’s not a single member of clergy in it. If I explain fully why this is, it will ruin the moment in the story that Tami Parrington says, “…will shock the shit out of [my readers].” I can tell you this. The book starts in a destroyed sanctuary. Religious history plays a critical role in the story and Kendrick’s faith is nearly unshakeable. If that man had a choice of what to do with his last breath it would either be: stating his love for Byron or praying.
The beauty of good religious erotica, in my eyes at least, is that it respects religion. It’s not blasphemous or sacrilegious. Even after befriending some members of clergy, I’m not ashamed of what I’ve written. I don’t know if they are reading my story or not, but the thoughts of it does make me nervous. I’m not nervous that they might be offended by the story. I’m nervous that I jacked up something liturgical and they’d call me on it. (You bet your ass they’d call me on it too. They’d GLEEFULLY call me on it and they’d NEVER let me live it down.)
One piece of religious fiction that I wish had been more erotic was Tami Parrington’s Hell’s Own. It’s a story about a demon, Alexander, who escapes hell. Lucifer sends guys out to recapture his pet. God sends people out to snag the demon. I wanted Alexander and Michael the Archangel to get it on so bad I could taste it. There’s a hilarious scene where Lucifer calls (yes, calls as in on the phone a vidphone to be exact) God that had me laughing so hard I had to walk away from my computer to calm down. God was so “oh what now” with his attitude and Gabriele nearly soiled his robes. Too freaking funny! What she does with Adam (yes, THE Adam) is pure genius. I don’t know the status of that book and if it ever gets published, I will pimp it. I promise you.
Religious erotica can be light and funny like Hell’s Own. It can be flippant and irreverent. It can also be dark angst. What it shouldn’t do, in my eyes, is cheapen religion or faith.
There are things I won’t do in my religious erotica. I won’t make a predatory priest the hero. I have used it as a plot point and I have no problems making the antagonist a predatory priest, but what makes religious erotica work for me is that it’s the GOOD guy who is struggling with what he thinks is bad. I won’t make a charlatan a hero. If I’ve presented a priest/pastor/whatever as hero, you can bank on me thinking he’s a good guy even if you disagree.
Someone who isn’t into religious erotica may never see the respect in the story. Or they may find the whole concept blasphemous.
I don’t see a dang thing blasphemous about Anand and Daniel using Boy Butter (best name for lube ever) and having a blacklight reactive Pyrex dildo show up. Using confession-like language as pillow talk? Not sacrilegious in my eyes. Getting it on in a confessional booth? Yep, I totally have the balls for that. Playing a game DURING mass? Yes, I’ve gone there. Sex inside a baptismal tub? That’s in Full Circle.
Religious imagery is beautiful and powerful. Sexual imagery is beautiful and powerful. In my mind those naturally go together. The next time you find yourself in church look around and make note of all the phallic symbols. Look closer and you’ll find female equivalents. The Pagans make no bones about what dipping the athame into the chalice means. The Great Rite carried out—symbolic or otherwise. Do others see it when they dip those communion wafers into the wine? Or submerging someone fully into a basin of water? Does anyone look at those long taper candles with the brass heads and NOT see it as a phallic symbol? The shape of most sanctuaries can be likened to a huge intimidating womb add the long wide aisle that divides the pews, and you totally have symbolic representations of sex.
Even when dealing with same-sex couples there’s usually something going IN somewhere—oral sex, finger play, anal sex. Someone is the chalice and someone is the wafer/athame. It’s all the same. The difference is semantics. The union of flesh is one the most powerful things we can experience as humans and that act can produce life. Why shouldn’t we celebrate this? Why shouldn’t we write about it?
(As a side note: Sex can also be completely not worth taking off your socks. Sometimes, it’s just lame.)
Religious erotica dances a very fine line. And that’s a line that some publishers do not want to go near. Some publishers refuse submissions that have a priest or nun in a sexual situation. In my eyes priests, nuns, rabbis, etc have stories to tell and there’s nothing wrong with telling them.
So what is religious erotica and what is it not? First things first, do not confuse religious erotica with inspirational romance. Those are two very different beasts. Inspirational romance is, generally, tamer than erotica and Christian themes are quite common. Religious erotica uses religious themes, of various faiths but Roman Catholicism is favored. Or it uses religious imagery. It plays up the taboo or forbidden element of sexuality blended with faith. It’s the juxtaposition of religion and sexuality.
Maybe it deals with a Roman Catholic priest struggling with temptation. Maybe it’s two members of laity who know this is wrong, but cave to carnal desires. Maybe it’s the setting or an underlying theme.
I’ve been toying in the realm of religious erotica for a while now. Obviously, About to Sin is religious erotica. That’s full on religious erotica that not only has a priest in a sexual situation, but I also use religious imagery in the setting and I make Father Daniel’s faith a major character motivation factor.
Full Circle, by all rights, could be considered religious erotica and there’s not a single member of clergy in it. If I explain fully why this is, it will ruin the moment in the story that Tami Parrington says, “…will shock the shit out of [my readers].” I can tell you this. The book starts in a destroyed sanctuary. Religious history plays a critical role in the story and Kendrick’s faith is nearly unshakeable. If that man had a choice of what to do with his last breath it would either be: stating his love for Byron or praying.
The beauty of good religious erotica, in my eyes at least, is that it respects religion. It’s not blasphemous or sacrilegious. Even after befriending some members of clergy, I’m not ashamed of what I’ve written. I don’t know if they are reading my story or not, but the thoughts of it does make me nervous. I’m not nervous that they might be offended by the story. I’m nervous that I jacked up something liturgical and they’d call me on it. (You bet your ass they’d call me on it too. They’d GLEEFULLY call me on it and they’d NEVER let me live it down.)
One piece of religious fiction that I wish had been more erotic was Tami Parrington’s Hell’s Own. It’s a story about a demon, Alexander, who escapes hell. Lucifer sends guys out to recapture his pet. God sends people out to snag the demon. I wanted Alexander and Michael the Archangel to get it on so bad I could taste it. There’s a hilarious scene where Lucifer calls (yes, calls as in on the phone a vidphone to be exact) God that had me laughing so hard I had to walk away from my computer to calm down. God was so “oh what now” with his attitude and Gabriele nearly soiled his robes. Too freaking funny! What she does with Adam (yes, THE Adam) is pure genius. I don’t know the status of that book and if it ever gets published, I will pimp it. I promise you.
Religious erotica can be light and funny like Hell’s Own. It can be flippant and irreverent. It can also be dark angst. What it shouldn’t do, in my eyes, is cheapen religion or faith.
There are things I won’t do in my religious erotica. I won’t make a predatory priest the hero. I have used it as a plot point and I have no problems making the antagonist a predatory priest, but what makes religious erotica work for me is that it’s the GOOD guy who is struggling with what he thinks is bad. I won’t make a charlatan a hero. If I’ve presented a priest/pastor/whatever as hero, you can bank on me thinking he’s a good guy even if you disagree.
Someone who isn’t into religious erotica may never see the respect in the story. Or they may find the whole concept blasphemous.
I don’t see a dang thing blasphemous about Anand and Daniel using Boy Butter (best name for lube ever) and having a blacklight reactive Pyrex dildo show up. Using confession-like language as pillow talk? Not sacrilegious in my eyes. Getting it on in a confessional booth? Yep, I totally have the balls for that. Playing a game DURING mass? Yes, I’ve gone there. Sex inside a baptismal tub? That’s in Full Circle.
Religious imagery is beautiful and powerful. Sexual imagery is beautiful and powerful. In my mind those naturally go together. The next time you find yourself in church look around and make note of all the phallic symbols. Look closer and you’ll find female equivalents. The Pagans make no bones about what dipping the athame into the chalice means. The Great Rite carried out—symbolic or otherwise. Do others see it when they dip those communion wafers into the wine? Or submerging someone fully into a basin of water? Does anyone look at those long taper candles with the brass heads and NOT see it as a phallic symbol? The shape of most sanctuaries can be likened to a huge intimidating womb add the long wide aisle that divides the pews, and you totally have symbolic representations of sex.
Even when dealing with same-sex couples there’s usually something going IN somewhere—oral sex, finger play, anal sex. Someone is the chalice and someone is the wafer/athame. It’s all the same. The difference is semantics. The union of flesh is one the most powerful things we can experience as humans and that act can produce life. Why shouldn’t we celebrate this? Why shouldn’t we write about it?
(As a side note: Sex can also be completely not worth taking off your socks. Sometimes, it’s just lame.)
Religious erotica dances a very fine line. And that’s a line that some publishers do not want to go near. Some publishers refuse submissions that have a priest or nun in a sexual situation. In my eyes priests, nuns, rabbis, etc have stories to tell and there’s nothing wrong with telling them.
Call for Submissions: Freya’s Bower
Freya's Bower is looking for submissions to go with a faerie anthology.
Here’s the blurb:
This anth is fantasy at it's highest. An element of legitimate faerie lore research must be present in the story. This is a pet project of mine, and I'm a avid fan of faerie lore, so I'll know if you fudged the details, lol.
Okay, 10K min wc and 20K max. Rating sweet to beyond sizzling. Deadline for submissions is August 1. Submissions MUST have "SUBMISSION: FAERIE" in the subject heading.
I'll select 4 to 5 submissions, depending on word count. Any content is acceptable minus the taboos listed on our Freya's Bower submissions page. Lesbian and m/m content is accepted.
I want to see some well thought out stories. Beautiful faeries with wings and sparkles are nice, but show me some imagination and wow me with strong prose and good grammar/puncutation.
For this anth to be considered for print format, a minimum of 75 electronic copies must be sold (that shouldn't be too difficult with 4 to 5 authors promo'ing), but this does not guarantee print format.
If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact me at editorfaith@sbcglobal.net
If you don’t know about FB. Let me tell you what I know. They have an excellent reputation for not only quality, but treating their authors quite well. Nothing against my publisher, but I do hope to have a title under FB one day. I also know one of their editors, KM Frontain. She’s quite talented and I’d love to work with her one day.
So get cracking on those faeries people!
Here’s the blurb:
This anth is fantasy at it's highest. An element of legitimate faerie lore research must be present in the story. This is a pet project of mine, and I'm a avid fan of faerie lore, so I'll know if you fudged the details, lol.
Okay, 10K min wc and 20K max. Rating sweet to beyond sizzling. Deadline for submissions is August 1. Submissions MUST have "SUBMISSION: FAERIE" in the subject heading.
I'll select 4 to 5 submissions, depending on word count. Any content is acceptable minus the taboos listed on our Freya's Bower submissions page. Lesbian and m/m content is accepted.
I want to see some well thought out stories. Beautiful faeries with wings and sparkles are nice, but show me some imagination and wow me with strong prose and good grammar/puncutation.
For this anth to be considered for print format, a minimum of 75 electronic copies must be sold (that shouldn't be too difficult with 4 to 5 authors promo'ing), but this does not guarantee print format.
If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact me at editorfaith@sbcglobal.net
If you don’t know about FB. Let me tell you what I know. They have an excellent reputation for not only quality, but treating their authors quite well. Nothing against my publisher, but I do hope to have a title under FB one day. I also know one of their editors, KM Frontain. She’s quite talented and I’d love to work with her one day.
So get cracking on those faeries people!
Chicago or BUST!!
As some of you may or may not know, I’m desperate to get to Chicago for a visit. (If you don’t know this, then you don’t follow my myspace.) But, I’m a writer. A new writer. And if you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know we’re paid less than minimum wage. >.<
So I need Hotel Discounts. Well, I checked out their website for my fantasy-but-it-is-gonna-be-real-dang-it trip and I was pleased with what I saw.
First, unlike some other sites, I quickly found where I typed in the destination city and the prospective dates of my trip. I can’t tell you how many times airline sites have made this a major pain.
The first page of results gave me an at-a-glance of costs and ranks for the hotel. They also provided maps and that helps me figure out how close I’d be sleeping to what is making me crave Chicago so badly. I mentioned ranks earlier, they have these stars that rank all of the hotels. I don’t know if these are user ranks or those official ranks that the hotel industry uses. Probably the official ones.
Wowza, I had no idea Chicago had so many hotels! Geez…if I would have checked all of these individually, I’d gotten NO writing done.
It seems the per day hotel stay will range from $177.00 to $400.00 a night. Ok…can someone tell me what a hotel offers that’s worth $400 for a place to sleep? Are my mountain roots showing with that?
Geez…
Now, when I click on an individual hotel, I get all sorts of goodie information about it. The site calculates my expected cost for my entire trip which is great for people like me who suck at math. The rest of the page is filled with information and pictures of the hotel everything from amenities to property rules.
Maybe I’ve been living under a rock or something, but this seems cool to me. I’ve tried other sites, but I don’t think they were this informative. Out of curiosity, I poked my nose around and checked the rates with one of the hotels directly. This really is cheaper. I refuse to type the price the hotel told me. It’s that scary.
So, everyone cross your fingers for me! I want to visit Chicago so badly I can taste it! The real scary part of this? Is that I want to get to Chicago to visit a priest. >.< Talk about jumping in the fire.
So I need Hotel Discounts. Well, I checked out their website for my fantasy-but-it-is-gonna-be-real-dang-it trip and I was pleased with what I saw.
First, unlike some other sites, I quickly found where I typed in the destination city and the prospective dates of my trip. I can’t tell you how many times airline sites have made this a major pain.
The first page of results gave me an at-a-glance of costs and ranks for the hotel. They also provided maps and that helps me figure out how close I’d be sleeping to what is making me crave Chicago so badly. I mentioned ranks earlier, they have these stars that rank all of the hotels. I don’t know if these are user ranks or those official ranks that the hotel industry uses. Probably the official ones.
Wowza, I had no idea Chicago had so many hotels! Geez…if I would have checked all of these individually, I’d gotten NO writing done.
It seems the per day hotel stay will range from $177.00 to $400.00 a night. Ok…can someone tell me what a hotel offers that’s worth $400 for a place to sleep? Are my mountain roots showing with that?
Geez…
Now, when I click on an individual hotel, I get all sorts of goodie information about it. The site calculates my expected cost for my entire trip which is great for people like me who suck at math. The rest of the page is filled with information and pictures of the hotel everything from amenities to property rules.
Maybe I’ve been living under a rock or something, but this seems cool to me. I’ve tried other sites, but I don’t think they were this informative. Out of curiosity, I poked my nose around and checked the rates with one of the hotels directly. This really is cheaper. I refuse to type the price the hotel told me. It’s that scary.
So, everyone cross your fingers for me! I want to visit Chicago so badly I can taste it! The real scary part of this? Is that I want to get to Chicago to visit a priest. >.< Talk about jumping in the fire.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Looking for a rec.
All I’ve got to say is that googling: priest porn –child ; or googling priest erotica gay does NOT lead to any good stuff. >.<
Sometimes a gal needs a fix that doesn’t come from her own mind. Anyone know where some good priest erotica can be found? Or just religious erotica for that matter? And I don’t mean that without a care jumping into bed crap. I mean good, solid, priest erotica. Someone who is a good priest and faltering. I want to ache for this guy. I don’t want to read about a priest who just casually opens his robes and screws without conscience. That’s just porn in a priest robe.
Shit. I think I’ll just have to write some more. There’s a serious deficit of good religious erotica in this world and someone needs to fill it.
Sometimes a gal needs a fix that doesn’t come from her own mind. Anyone know where some good priest erotica can be found? Or just religious erotica for that matter? And I don’t mean that without a care jumping into bed crap. I mean good, solid, priest erotica. Someone who is a good priest and faltering. I want to ache for this guy. I don’t want to read about a priest who just casually opens his robes and screws without conscience. That’s just porn in a priest robe.
Shit. I think I’ll just have to write some more. There’s a serious deficit of good religious erotica in this world and someone needs to fill it.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Eight Habits
I’ve been tagged by JH Bogran.
List eight of your habits.
1)I virtually pet John and Bryan’s dogs nearly every morning. (Yes, I know, that’s sickeningly sweet.)
2)When I’m on a writing binge, I keep my nails painted and I prefer odd colors or as my mother calls it “that horrid stuff I put on my pretty nails.”
3)I’m one of those annoying knee-bouncers and my friend Debbie says the faster I type the faster my knee bounces.
4)I’ve become so accustomed to listening to music while I type, that I wear headphones to check my e-mail even if I’m NOT playing music.
5)During mini-breaks, I refresh my myspace home, check my yahoo inbox and check my g-mail inbox in that order. If I do it in a different order something feels off. However, I check my g-mail first when I wake up and it’s the last thing I check before going to bed.
6)I have my kitchen organized to minimize coffee making speed. I did this by design and on purpose. I can reach the coffee pot, water source, coffee, cups, spoons, sugar and milk all within a half of a step.
7)I write consecutively and I do not type out an outline.
8)I make my character designs by starting with current personality then I use psychology to figure out the backstory. The last thing I come up with is appearance. (About to Sin is an exception because when you see two really freaking hot guys, ya gotta start there.)
List eight of your habits.
1)I virtually pet John and Bryan’s dogs nearly every morning. (Yes, I know, that’s sickeningly sweet.)
2)When I’m on a writing binge, I keep my nails painted and I prefer odd colors or as my mother calls it “that horrid stuff I put on my pretty nails.”
3)I’m one of those annoying knee-bouncers and my friend Debbie says the faster I type the faster my knee bounces.
4)I’ve become so accustomed to listening to music while I type, that I wear headphones to check my e-mail even if I’m NOT playing music.
5)During mini-breaks, I refresh my myspace home, check my yahoo inbox and check my g-mail inbox in that order. If I do it in a different order something feels off. However, I check my g-mail first when I wake up and it’s the last thing I check before going to bed.
6)I have my kitchen organized to minimize coffee making speed. I did this by design and on purpose. I can reach the coffee pot, water source, coffee, cups, spoons, sugar and milk all within a half of a step.
7)I write consecutively and I do not type out an outline.
8)I make my character designs by starting with current personality then I use psychology to figure out the backstory. The last thing I come up with is appearance. (About to Sin is an exception because when you see two really freaking hot guys, ya gotta start there.)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
And when you hit a road block…
And when you hit a road block…
Or "This is how writers solve problems."
Ok, so this isn't really writer's block at least the way I understand it to be. Writer's Block is when you're dealing with The Most Evil Blinking Cursor. That's when your mind draws a blank and you either don't know how the story you're working on ends or you don't know how it starts. Either way, ya ain't getting font.
For the past few days…umm…weeks… >.< I've been dealing with a road block with About to Sin. Oh, I know how the story ends. I have it all solved, wrapped up and a nice neat bow on top of it. I'm not even blocked with how the scene after next will play out. That's been mentally written for a while.
Nope. Not knowing is not my problem.
The problem is, I think, that I'm 1) letting myself get distracted and 2) I can't pick which option I want. I'm facing a sex scene and I can't figure out which scenario will better serve the story and character development. Both ideas are valid. Both ideas fit the story. Both ideas make progression. But, which one is best? That's my dilemma. That's my wall. That's what's making me bang my head against the screen.
Option one: That gives me a really hot hurt and comfort kink scene, but there's a logic leap that I don't think I can expect readers to accept. If Something Really Bad happens, would you be thinking about sex? Nope. So, if I want to do that then I need to do a distraction blended with hurt and comfort sex scene. I can pull that off and readers accept that and it would fit the characters, but that means I can't use that card later on. Later on is when I think it would not only serve the story better, but show character growth as well as give the readers a little something they've been wanting.
Option two: This gives me a really hot "what…wait…I don't understand" kink scene. I don't have to deal with the Point of Crisis bringing emotional baggage and I can focus on the conflict of interest between the characters. And there in lays the problem. With Anand's ethical base, I'm not sure him doing this would fit. Oh, he's totally into the kink and the actions aren't the problem. The problem is that he knows Daniel is doing this for the wrong reasons. Sure, he knew that from go, but he thought he could change that. By this point in the story, Anand CARES for Daniel and seeing this destructive behavior is unacceptable. What I DON'T want is to have a character in a sex scene who doesn't really want to be there. So, I have to force his hand somehow. Or…OR I could pluck on his…yes! I can use THAT. I can pluck on his Superman Complex (you've not really seen his Superman Complex yet), manipulate his stubborn streak as well as use the fact that he's a guy. As Billy Crystal said, "Women need a reason to have sex. Men need a place." (However, women are my target audience not men and I need to make this believable to them not just the characters.) But, using the guy thing seems like cheating to me.
I don't want to cheat my readers, but if I focus on his Superman Complex, possessive nature, get him out of this Pit of Angst (yes, you do actually get to see Anand angst and he's not a pretty angster) and then pluck his stubborn streak, I might—might—actually get to pull this off.
Option two will shift The Epiphany to this scene and not the next, but that's all right. The next scene might work better if I don't have call upon technical information that I might not have QUITE right. You can research things to death and it seems like every time I find information, I find something that contradicts it. But, if I do that will I still get the Rip Your Heart Out Point of Crisis scene? Oh yes, sweethearts, I hope to make you cry. I do that because I love my readers that much. Will I steal any power from that scene?
Hmm…guess we won't know until I get it written.
So, I think it's option two. Now…let's get to typing, shall we? And hope I've solved this problem.
Or "This is how writers solve problems."
Ok, so this isn't really writer's block at least the way I understand it to be. Writer's Block is when you're dealing with The Most Evil Blinking Cursor. That's when your mind draws a blank and you either don't know how the story you're working on ends or you don't know how it starts. Either way, ya ain't getting font.
For the past few days…umm…weeks… >.< I've been dealing with a road block with About to Sin. Oh, I know how the story ends. I have it all solved, wrapped up and a nice neat bow on top of it. I'm not even blocked with how the scene after next will play out. That's been mentally written for a while.
Nope. Not knowing is not my problem.
The problem is, I think, that I'm 1) letting myself get distracted and 2) I can't pick which option I want. I'm facing a sex scene and I can't figure out which scenario will better serve the story and character development. Both ideas are valid. Both ideas fit the story. Both ideas make progression. But, which one is best? That's my dilemma. That's my wall. That's what's making me bang my head against the screen.
Option one: That gives me a really hot hurt and comfort kink scene, but there's a logic leap that I don't think I can expect readers to accept. If Something Really Bad happens, would you be thinking about sex? Nope. So, if I want to do that then I need to do a distraction blended with hurt and comfort sex scene. I can pull that off and readers accept that and it would fit the characters, but that means I can't use that card later on. Later on is when I think it would not only serve the story better, but show character growth as well as give the readers a little something they've been wanting.
Option two: This gives me a really hot "what…wait…I don't understand" kink scene. I don't have to deal with the Point of Crisis bringing emotional baggage and I can focus on the conflict of interest between the characters. And there in lays the problem. With Anand's ethical base, I'm not sure him doing this would fit. Oh, he's totally into the kink and the actions aren't the problem. The problem is that he knows Daniel is doing this for the wrong reasons. Sure, he knew that from go, but he thought he could change that. By this point in the story, Anand CARES for Daniel and seeing this destructive behavior is unacceptable. What I DON'T want is to have a character in a sex scene who doesn't really want to be there. So, I have to force his hand somehow. Or…OR I could pluck on his…yes! I can use THAT. I can pluck on his Superman Complex (you've not really seen his Superman Complex yet), manipulate his stubborn streak as well as use the fact that he's a guy. As Billy Crystal said, "Women need a reason to have sex. Men need a place." (However, women are my target audience not men and I need to make this believable to them not just the characters.) But, using the guy thing seems like cheating to me.
I don't want to cheat my readers, but if I focus on his Superman Complex, possessive nature, get him out of this Pit of Angst (yes, you do actually get to see Anand angst and he's not a pretty angster) and then pluck his stubborn streak, I might—might—actually get to pull this off.
Option two will shift The Epiphany to this scene and not the next, but that's all right. The next scene might work better if I don't have call upon technical information that I might not have QUITE right. You can research things to death and it seems like every time I find information, I find something that contradicts it. But, if I do that will I still get the Rip Your Heart Out Point of Crisis scene? Oh yes, sweethearts, I hope to make you cry. I do that because I love my readers that much. Will I steal any power from that scene?
Hmm…guess we won't know until I get it written.
So, I think it's option two. Now…let's get to typing, shall we? And hope I've solved this problem.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
About to Sin Updated!
*sweatdrop*
Nearly forgot to mention this here. *slaps hand* Bad writer! No font!
Erotic Dreams has uploaded part 7 of the story. And it's getting hot, so grab a fan.
Erotic Dreams Website
Nearly forgot to mention this here. *slaps hand* Bad writer! No font!
Erotic Dreams has uploaded part 7 of the story. And it's getting hot, so grab a fan.
Erotic Dreams Website
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Porn Versus Erotica
You could google this and find out all sorts of information, but I figured I’d give my take. By all means, google it and see how others agree or disagree with me.
I write erotica. I don’t write porn and if my editors catch me one more time calling myself a smut writer, they’re likely to inflict serious bodily injury upon me and anyone who happens to be standing near me.
And that confused me.
What’s the big deal, right? A rose by any other name is still a rose, right? Besides, no one really thinks there’s no difference between porn and erotica, right? It’s a joke. No one would read what I write and call it porn or smut, would they?
What my limited exposure to the world of publishing hadn’t yet taught me, at the time of my confusion, is that most people do not realize there’s a HUGE difference between porn and erotica. My little joke did nothing more than help perpetuate that misunderstanding.
One of the unwritten duties of an erotica writer is to help educate the public about our genre. So, here’s an attempt at touching upon that duty.
Q: The length of the story determines whether it is porn or erotica, right?
A: Nope. Erotica, just like the men I write about, come in many shapes, sizes and ethnicities. Yes, “stroke stories” and porn stories do tend to be short. However, just like porn movies, they can drone on for hours while nimbly dodging anything close to plot.
While erotica stories do TEND to be longer than written porn, it’s possible to have a short story that really is erotica and not porn. It’s also possible to have erotic poetry and that tends to be quite short. There’s also a thing called “flash fiction” which are 100-500 word pieces and those publishers want erotica NOT porn.
Q: Oh! So it’s the level of explicitness that makes it porn or erotica?
A: Nope. Erotica ranges from being very explicit to “smoke and mirrors” or fade-to-black sex scenes. When you are looking at a publisher’s catalog make sure you check the rating of the story to ensure you’re buying something that suits your tastes.
A word of caution. Many publishers still list ANY M/M story in the highest or second highest rating. This is due to the subject matter. M/M writers and readers don’t like this, but we have to live with it. You might very well have a M/M story that’s quite tame, but listed as the highest rating. This is where author branding will help readers and authors connect.
I write very explicitly. My readerbase has come to expect this and if I were to change without valid reason, I would be burned in effigy. Never piss off a yaoi fangirl. We’re rabid on a good day.
Some erotica stories are so mild there’s a special category for them. That’s called “inspirational romance.” I should note that some people do not consider these stories to be erotica at all and plant them firmly under “romance.” I am not that familiar with this genre and my limited exposure indicates that “inspirational romance” tends to carry Christian themes, HEA, not-dark, and uplifting stories and very mild sex scenes usually a fade-to-black thing.
I remember asking another writer/editor with a lot more experience than I have what “inspirational romance” was. She didn’t know and finally said, “Prudish praying.”
Personally, I think that’s casting the genre in the wrong light, but I’ve never read an “inspirational romance.”
Q: So…um…the romantic element makes the story erotica and not porn?
A: Nope. Some romance is not erotic and some erotica is romantic and some erotica isn’t romantic and some porn isn’t romantic AND some….I could go on.
I write “erotic romance” which means there’s usually a plot or subplot that involves two or more characters falling in love. (Insert sweet and sickening “aww” here). However, there’s something that needs to be in the story for it to be “official” romance and that’s an HEA.
This is a point that’s HEAVILY debated, but when the “authorities” change their stance, I’ll change mine. (Personally, I WANT this changed.)
HEA is Happy Ever After. Sometimes it’s Happy For Now, but whatever the case, the story ends with the main couple together and happy. Maybe you’ve gone as far as to get them married or just have them living together, but the reader is left with the impression that this couple remains together after “The End.”
That’s why sometimes I say I’m an “erotica” writer instead of an “erotic romance” writer. I will write stories that are called “dark erotica” and those may or may not have a happy ending, may or may not have depressing themes, may or may not have a bad guy that wins, may or may not…I could go on. (LOL!)
Nice and confused about the genre “dark erotica”? Good. Welcome to the club. It’s one of those “know it when you see it” things. I have two WIPs (Work In Progress) which have been stamped “too dark for publication” by a few publishers and editors. I’ve found a potential home for one of them. *rubs hands together*
Q: So, if it doesn’t have anything to do with length (double entendre intended), explicitness or romance, what makes a story erotica and not porn?
A: Now, you’re asking the right question. Erotica has a fully developed story and completely fleshed out character designs.
Q: But, that’s what ALL stories are supposed to have—so what makes a story “erotic mystery” as opposed to regular mystery?
A: Once again, we’re getting into the good questions. Erotic mystery will contain sex scenes and sensual elements that a regular mystery won’t have.
Q: That’s can’t be right. I’ve read “regular” books that have sex scenes and they weren’t listed as erotica!
A: And that would be correct. Here’s the key. The sex in erotica cannot be removed. Important things such as character motivation changes, character development and plot points will happen DURING the sex scenes in erotica. If you skip over the sex, you’re missing out on important parts of the story. In short, skim the sex (and WHY would you do that?) and you’ll be confused.
Some authors will avoid the erotica label due to the believed stigma that comes with it. Other writers will embrace the label erotica, because we know sex sells. Get them with the sex and keep them with the story. Some “regular” authors are starting to label some of their titles as erotica to fuel their readerbases.
So, to recap…erotica has fully developed stories with carefully crafted characters and the sex scenes help move the story.
Porn…well…with porn you don’t get any of that. To be honest, the porn that I’ve read is basically a scene where the characters meet or already know each other, scratch their itches and move on. It’s just sex. There’s a reason why they’re called “stroke stories.” Also, it seems they’re full of telling and not showing. I remember one story where the “plot” was a guy who seemed to confirm his heterosexual status every third line while sneaking a tryst with another man. It actually included the line, “I moved into a 69 position and sucked him off.”
Wow…gee…umm….ice water anyone? Need to cool off after that? Anyone? Anyone at all? Umm…ok…it will be here if you need it.
The whole story went on like that and it was approximately 2,000 words or so. Whereas in “About to Sin” during the first 2,500 words, you get some hot sensuality; but you also, learn that Anand has a strong sense of ethics and that Father Daniel is a tortured soul.
Q: So erotica has a literary element that porn lacks?
A: Oh, now we’re getting into “literary erotica” and that’s…
Q: Please, no more genre talk. You’re making my head hurt. That’s just too confusing.
A: Sorry… in short, some erotica authors do consider themselves “literary authors” and some think that’s pretentious. Your best bet is to find out what the author labels himself/herself and go with that. Since I will vary on genre, I always label my stories.
And if you think genre is confusing on the reader’s end, just imagine what it’s like as a writer. So, I have this story that deals with dark themes, but it’s HEA and there’s romance, but there’s also…and so on. It’s enough to drive ya mad.
Here’s the simplest explanation of genre I can think of and I think it works quite nicely. All genre labels are is where the book would be shelved in a bookstore.
Q: Isn’t it really a battle of gender? Males write porn while females write erotica?
A: You have NO idea and I mean you have NO idea. I’ve met more “gender confused”, “transgendered” and “gender issued” people since I’ve started writing fulltime than I had my entire life. But, the stats do seem to indicate there are more biological females behind the keyboards than males. I don’t know how valid that information is.
Some writers will not reveal their real gender, some will and some don’t self-identify as female or male. Some publications REQUIRE male pennames. Some want gender neutral pennames. My target audience is yaoi fans and those readers tend to look for stories written by women. That’s why I’m comfortable revealing my gender.
I’m not comfortable putting either gender as being focused on porn or erotica. There’s way too much gender-bending going on and some of it intentionally.
The gender of the penname tells you nothing. I come from a yaoi background which is DOMINATED by female authors, artists and readers. Others come from backgrounds where women are viewed as incapable of writing M/M. I happen to find it quite funny when people talk about one author’s work being more valid than another because of gender AND they have the incorrect understanding of the author’s gender.
It seems I’ve confused a few readers too. Some people say I give very feminine font and some say, “If I didn’t know you, I’d sworn that was written by a gay man.”
I consider both of those a compliment.
I write erotica. I don’t write porn and if my editors catch me one more time calling myself a smut writer, they’re likely to inflict serious bodily injury upon me and anyone who happens to be standing near me.
And that confused me.
What’s the big deal, right? A rose by any other name is still a rose, right? Besides, no one really thinks there’s no difference between porn and erotica, right? It’s a joke. No one would read what I write and call it porn or smut, would they?
What my limited exposure to the world of publishing hadn’t yet taught me, at the time of my confusion, is that most people do not realize there’s a HUGE difference between porn and erotica. My little joke did nothing more than help perpetuate that misunderstanding.
One of the unwritten duties of an erotica writer is to help educate the public about our genre. So, here’s an attempt at touching upon that duty.
Q: The length of the story determines whether it is porn or erotica, right?
A: Nope. Erotica, just like the men I write about, come in many shapes, sizes and ethnicities. Yes, “stroke stories” and porn stories do tend to be short. However, just like porn movies, they can drone on for hours while nimbly dodging anything close to plot.
While erotica stories do TEND to be longer than written porn, it’s possible to have a short story that really is erotica and not porn. It’s also possible to have erotic poetry and that tends to be quite short. There’s also a thing called “flash fiction” which are 100-500 word pieces and those publishers want erotica NOT porn.
Q: Oh! So it’s the level of explicitness that makes it porn or erotica?
A: Nope. Erotica ranges from being very explicit to “smoke and mirrors” or fade-to-black sex scenes. When you are looking at a publisher’s catalog make sure you check the rating of the story to ensure you’re buying something that suits your tastes.
A word of caution. Many publishers still list ANY M/M story in the highest or second highest rating. This is due to the subject matter. M/M writers and readers don’t like this, but we have to live with it. You might very well have a M/M story that’s quite tame, but listed as the highest rating. This is where author branding will help readers and authors connect.
I write very explicitly. My readerbase has come to expect this and if I were to change without valid reason, I would be burned in effigy. Never piss off a yaoi fangirl. We’re rabid on a good day.
Some erotica stories are so mild there’s a special category for them. That’s called “inspirational romance.” I should note that some people do not consider these stories to be erotica at all and plant them firmly under “romance.” I am not that familiar with this genre and my limited exposure indicates that “inspirational romance” tends to carry Christian themes, HEA, not-dark, and uplifting stories and very mild sex scenes usually a fade-to-black thing.
I remember asking another writer/editor with a lot more experience than I have what “inspirational romance” was. She didn’t know and finally said, “Prudish praying.”
Personally, I think that’s casting the genre in the wrong light, but I’ve never read an “inspirational romance.”
Q: So…um…the romantic element makes the story erotica and not porn?
A: Nope. Some romance is not erotic and some erotica is romantic and some erotica isn’t romantic and some porn isn’t romantic AND some….I could go on.
I write “erotic romance” which means there’s usually a plot or subplot that involves two or more characters falling in love. (Insert sweet and sickening “aww” here). However, there’s something that needs to be in the story for it to be “official” romance and that’s an HEA.
This is a point that’s HEAVILY debated, but when the “authorities” change their stance, I’ll change mine. (Personally, I WANT this changed.)
HEA is Happy Ever After. Sometimes it’s Happy For Now, but whatever the case, the story ends with the main couple together and happy. Maybe you’ve gone as far as to get them married or just have them living together, but the reader is left with the impression that this couple remains together after “The End.”
That’s why sometimes I say I’m an “erotica” writer instead of an “erotic romance” writer. I will write stories that are called “dark erotica” and those may or may not have a happy ending, may or may not have depressing themes, may or may not have a bad guy that wins, may or may not…I could go on. (LOL!)
Nice and confused about the genre “dark erotica”? Good. Welcome to the club. It’s one of those “know it when you see it” things. I have two WIPs (Work In Progress) which have been stamped “too dark for publication” by a few publishers and editors. I’ve found a potential home for one of them. *rubs hands together*
Q: So, if it doesn’t have anything to do with length (double entendre intended), explicitness or romance, what makes a story erotica and not porn?
A: Now, you’re asking the right question. Erotica has a fully developed story and completely fleshed out character designs.
Q: But, that’s what ALL stories are supposed to have—so what makes a story “erotic mystery” as opposed to regular mystery?
A: Once again, we’re getting into the good questions. Erotic mystery will contain sex scenes and sensual elements that a regular mystery won’t have.
Q: That’s can’t be right. I’ve read “regular” books that have sex scenes and they weren’t listed as erotica!
A: And that would be correct. Here’s the key. The sex in erotica cannot be removed. Important things such as character motivation changes, character development and plot points will happen DURING the sex scenes in erotica. If you skip over the sex, you’re missing out on important parts of the story. In short, skim the sex (and WHY would you do that?) and you’ll be confused.
Some authors will avoid the erotica label due to the believed stigma that comes with it. Other writers will embrace the label erotica, because we know sex sells. Get them with the sex and keep them with the story. Some “regular” authors are starting to label some of their titles as erotica to fuel their readerbases.
So, to recap…erotica has fully developed stories with carefully crafted characters and the sex scenes help move the story.
Porn…well…with porn you don’t get any of that. To be honest, the porn that I’ve read is basically a scene where the characters meet or already know each other, scratch their itches and move on. It’s just sex. There’s a reason why they’re called “stroke stories.” Also, it seems they’re full of telling and not showing. I remember one story where the “plot” was a guy who seemed to confirm his heterosexual status every third line while sneaking a tryst with another man. It actually included the line, “I moved into a 69 position and sucked him off.”
Wow…gee…umm….ice water anyone? Need to cool off after that? Anyone? Anyone at all? Umm…ok…it will be here if you need it.
The whole story went on like that and it was approximately 2,000 words or so. Whereas in “About to Sin” during the first 2,500 words, you get some hot sensuality; but you also, learn that Anand has a strong sense of ethics and that Father Daniel is a tortured soul.
Q: So erotica has a literary element that porn lacks?
A: Oh, now we’re getting into “literary erotica” and that’s…
Q: Please, no more genre talk. You’re making my head hurt. That’s just too confusing.
A: Sorry… in short, some erotica authors do consider themselves “literary authors” and some think that’s pretentious. Your best bet is to find out what the author labels himself/herself and go with that. Since I will vary on genre, I always label my stories.
And if you think genre is confusing on the reader’s end, just imagine what it’s like as a writer. So, I have this story that deals with dark themes, but it’s HEA and there’s romance, but there’s also…and so on. It’s enough to drive ya mad.
Here’s the simplest explanation of genre I can think of and I think it works quite nicely. All genre labels are is where the book would be shelved in a bookstore.
Q: Isn’t it really a battle of gender? Males write porn while females write erotica?
A: You have NO idea and I mean you have NO idea. I’ve met more “gender confused”, “transgendered” and “gender issued” people since I’ve started writing fulltime than I had my entire life. But, the stats do seem to indicate there are more biological females behind the keyboards than males. I don’t know how valid that information is.
Some writers will not reveal their real gender, some will and some don’t self-identify as female or male. Some publications REQUIRE male pennames. Some want gender neutral pennames. My target audience is yaoi fans and those readers tend to look for stories written by women. That’s why I’m comfortable revealing my gender.
I’m not comfortable putting either gender as being focused on porn or erotica. There’s way too much gender-bending going on and some of it intentionally.
The gender of the penname tells you nothing. I come from a yaoi background which is DOMINATED by female authors, artists and readers. Others come from backgrounds where women are viewed as incapable of writing M/M. I happen to find it quite funny when people talk about one author’s work being more valid than another because of gender AND they have the incorrect understanding of the author’s gender.
It seems I’ve confused a few readers too. Some people say I give very feminine font and some say, “If I didn’t know you, I’d sworn that was written by a gay man.”
I consider both of those a compliment.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Do they know this is up in the Sistine Chapel?
Ok, so I was out looking for things to help get me in the right frame of mind for writing. I came across some pictures of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment and I zoomed in to get a better look.
The fresco in question, for those of you who don’t recognize the name.
And I discovered something in this section (upper right section of the whole piece).
I don’t want to alter the pic in any way, so I’m not circling it, but…
In the center do you see the dude clinging to the column?
Now, shift your eye down and to the right.
Yes. That is what you think it is. Yes, they do look more intimate than the straight couple that’s beside them.
Proof that Michelangelo was a yaoi fanboy.
We better not point out to the Vatican that they have gay men on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. They’d probably paint over it.
Oh, and don’t look at me like that. It’s not weird to look at fine art as inspiration for writing. I know another erotica writer who writes to choir music.
Website from where I snagged the pictures
The fresco in question, for those of you who don’t recognize the name.
And I discovered something in this section (upper right section of the whole piece).
I don’t want to alter the pic in any way, so I’m not circling it, but…
In the center do you see the dude clinging to the column?
Now, shift your eye down and to the right.
Yes. That is what you think it is. Yes, they do look more intimate than the straight couple that’s beside them.
Proof that Michelangelo was a yaoi fanboy.
We better not point out to the Vatican that they have gay men on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. They’d probably paint over it.
Oh, and don’t look at me like that. It’s not weird to look at fine art as inspiration for writing. I know another erotica writer who writes to choir music.
Website from where I snagged the pictures
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Dust off that font.
Many epublishers are sending out “critical need” notices for m/m stories. We can’t write it fast enough. I’m not kidding you.
Normally, things go like this. You write a story. You polish it and then you send it out. The other day, I had a publisher come to me asking for a piece.
M/M is on fire now, but that doesn’t mean you can slap anything up on the screen and call it done. You also have to know the house you’re sending it to.
Do NOT send a happy fluffy story to Velvet Mafia. Phaze, as of last time I read their guidelines, specifically requested that there be NO submissions involving priests or nuns. There’s another publisher, the name escapes me right now, that states they do not want the word “cunt” in any submissions. FB and EC have very specific house styles and, no matter how well the piece is written, if it doesn’t meld with their house style, you can forget it. According to the editors I’ve spoken to, most rejections are not due to bad writing, but that the piece doesn’t fit the house.
Chippewa/LAP wants yaoi submissions. For those of you who don’t know, there’s a difference between yaoi (my normal genre) and other types of m/m erotic fiction. There are other publishing houses seeking yaoi. If a house wants yaoi, then they want yaoi.
And, keep an eye on your word count. If a publishing house caps themselves at 90k don’t send them a 115k word piece. If they bottom out at 10k don’t send them a 5k piece. I spoke to a guy the other day whose AGENT submitted a piece that broke the top word count for a publishing house. That agent should have never considered that particular house. Period.
Also, know what erotica is before you give it a go. An erotic story is not a “stroke story.” Oh yes, erotica is hot, but it’s also a full story with developed characters and this pesky thing called plot.
“Critical Need” does not mean desperate.
With all of that stated, if you’ve been thinking about dipping a toe in the waters of m/m now might be a good time.
Normally, things go like this. You write a story. You polish it and then you send it out. The other day, I had a publisher come to me asking for a piece.
M/M is on fire now, but that doesn’t mean you can slap anything up on the screen and call it done. You also have to know the house you’re sending it to.
Do NOT send a happy fluffy story to Velvet Mafia. Phaze, as of last time I read their guidelines, specifically requested that there be NO submissions involving priests or nuns. There’s another publisher, the name escapes me right now, that states they do not want the word “cunt” in any submissions. FB and EC have very specific house styles and, no matter how well the piece is written, if it doesn’t meld with their house style, you can forget it. According to the editors I’ve spoken to, most rejections are not due to bad writing, but that the piece doesn’t fit the house.
Chippewa/LAP wants yaoi submissions. For those of you who don’t know, there’s a difference between yaoi (my normal genre) and other types of m/m erotic fiction. There are other publishing houses seeking yaoi. If a house wants yaoi, then they want yaoi.
And, keep an eye on your word count. If a publishing house caps themselves at 90k don’t send them a 115k word piece. If they bottom out at 10k don’t send them a 5k piece. I spoke to a guy the other day whose AGENT submitted a piece that broke the top word count for a publishing house. That agent should have never considered that particular house. Period.
Also, know what erotica is before you give it a go. An erotic story is not a “stroke story.” Oh yes, erotica is hot, but it’s also a full story with developed characters and this pesky thing called plot.
“Critical Need” does not mean desperate.
With all of that stated, if you’ve been thinking about dipping a toe in the waters of m/m now might be a good time.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
About to Sin--UPDATED!
Erotic Dreams Publishing has updated About to Sin. This closes out the second chapter. The thrid chapter should beging on the 22nd.
If you get a chance to read it, I hope you enjoy it.
If you get a chance to read it, I hope you enjoy it.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Updates!
The fanfiction for About to Sin has been posted. I've updated my website with information about About to Sin and the fanfiction.
I so freaking THRILLED to have fanfiction! ^_^
Updated Page
I so freaking THRILLED to have fanfiction! ^_^
Updated Page
Monday, May 14, 2007
Romantic just not for all? WTF!
Dusk Peterson brought something to my attention that ticked me off.
Hyatt Hotel Targets M/M Author
They WANT you to attend the convention. They WANT your money, but they won't stand up for you at all. Bullshit. Bullshit--plain and simple.
The Author's Own Words
Hyatt Hotel Targets M/M Author
They WANT you to attend the convention. They WANT your money, but they won't stand up for you at all. Bullshit. Bullshit--plain and simple.
The Author's Own Words
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Time to brag!
I checked my e-mail when I got home from Mom’s house and WOO-HOO! I’d been sent a piece of fanfiction!
Yes! About to Sin has inspired fanfiction!
*happy dance*
*big o’le happy dance*
I know some authors out there find fanfiction to be some kind of serious affront and yes, it is, technically, a copyright violation. If other authors want to be pissed, then so be it.
I am going to be thrilled and honored that someone found my story so inspiring and moving that they felt the need to write fanfiction. I’m also going to be blown away by it.
I probably shouldn’t do this, but I’m trying to encourage her to post it on AFF (adult fanfiction). If she does, I’ll share the link.
Yes! About to Sin has inspired fanfiction!
*happy dance*
*big o’le happy dance*
I know some authors out there find fanfiction to be some kind of serious affront and yes, it is, technically, a copyright violation. If other authors want to be pissed, then so be it.
I am going to be thrilled and honored that someone found my story so inspiring and moving that they felt the need to write fanfiction. I’m also going to be blown away by it.
I probably shouldn’t do this, but I’m trying to encourage her to post it on AFF (adult fanfiction). If she does, I’ll share the link.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
13 Things on My Desk
This is a cool little meme. It gives a glimpse of the writer behind the words.
I stole this from Nicholas.
1)4 coffee mugs
2)One neglected cup of water
3)Bottle of Tums
4)Mail
5)Backscratcher
6)Smokes
7)Ashtray
8)Cell phone
9)A black wooden box that contains a necklace (I move it to my tower when I’m working so hubby knows to not bother me.)
10)A stack of recovery disks that I still haven’t put away from my last crash.
11)Two coasters
12)My computer (keyboard, monitor, trackball and tower)
13)Wrist pad beneath my keyboard
And that’s it. That’s all that’s on my desk. I have a few things sitting on top of my tower, but that’s it.
*looks at coffee mugs*
Three of these really need to go to the kitchen.
I stole this from Nicholas.
1)4 coffee mugs
2)One neglected cup of water
3)Bottle of Tums
4)Mail
5)Backscratcher
6)Smokes
7)Ashtray
8)Cell phone
9)A black wooden box that contains a necklace (I move it to my tower when I’m working so hubby knows to not bother me.)
10)A stack of recovery disks that I still haven’t put away from my last crash.
11)Two coasters
12)My computer (keyboard, monitor, trackball and tower)
13)Wrist pad beneath my keyboard
And that’s it. That’s all that’s on my desk. I have a few things sitting on top of my tower, but that’s it.
*looks at coffee mugs*
Three of these really need to go to the kitchen.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The Five Senses.
Sight, smell, taste, touch, sound—we experience them every moment of every day with some notable exceptions (D/deaf, blind, etc.) And our characters experience them too.
But, do your readers?
We type in two dimensions (height and width), but we need to write in four (height, width, depth and time). Within those four dimensions, we have all five senses.
All writers have comfort zones when it comes to writing the senses. My major comfort zone is sight. If I’m not careful, I’ll give my readers a whole lot of visuals and very little everything else. Taste and smell are my most difficult areas.
When I think about describing a taste or a smell, how do you do that? How do you really show your readers the sweet smell of honeysuckle on the breeze? Or the warm robust aroma of a cup of coffee? Or perhaps it’s a rancid scent of death or the salty taste of a lover’s skin.
What’s helped me is when I take a sip of my coffee, I take a note of how it tastes. A long hard mental note.
*sips*
The aroma of the chocolate flavored coffee hit her nose before the liquid touched her lips. Although the coffee had turned tepid, the scent still hinted at warmth. Whatever the manufacturer used to for chocolate flavoring, reminded her of a distant Hershey bar. The smell, overlaid with sweet, carried an undercurrent of bitterness.
The tan nectar of life flowed over her lips and flooded her tongue. The acidic bite of the mid-grade coffee tingled upon her tongue and the lingering sweetness made her wonder if she added too much sugar to this cup.
Hmm…better, but still needs a bit of work. I got a little purple there for a moment.
Regardless of the type of scene, all four senses are engaged with our characters and, consequently, all four senses need to be engaged with the reader. Anything short of that, and you’re cheating your reader. They key to writing with all four senses is observing with all four of them.
But, do your readers?
We type in two dimensions (height and width), but we need to write in four (height, width, depth and time). Within those four dimensions, we have all five senses.
All writers have comfort zones when it comes to writing the senses. My major comfort zone is sight. If I’m not careful, I’ll give my readers a whole lot of visuals and very little everything else. Taste and smell are my most difficult areas.
When I think about describing a taste or a smell, how do you do that? How do you really show your readers the sweet smell of honeysuckle on the breeze? Or the warm robust aroma of a cup of coffee? Or perhaps it’s a rancid scent of death or the salty taste of a lover’s skin.
What’s helped me is when I take a sip of my coffee, I take a note of how it tastes. A long hard mental note.
*sips*
The aroma of the chocolate flavored coffee hit her nose before the liquid touched her lips. Although the coffee had turned tepid, the scent still hinted at warmth. Whatever the manufacturer used to for chocolate flavoring, reminded her of a distant Hershey bar. The smell, overlaid with sweet, carried an undercurrent of bitterness.
The tan nectar of life flowed over her lips and flooded her tongue. The acidic bite of the mid-grade coffee tingled upon her tongue and the lingering sweetness made her wonder if she added too much sugar to this cup.
Hmm…better, but still needs a bit of work. I got a little purple there for a moment.
Regardless of the type of scene, all four senses are engaged with our characters and, consequently, all four senses need to be engaged with the reader. Anything short of that, and you’re cheating your reader. They key to writing with all four senses is observing with all four of them.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
So, you want to be a writer?
I’ve had several people come to me and ask me how one goes about becoming a writer. The simple answer is that you write a book and get it accepted by a publisher.
Actually, that’s not the simple answer. That’s the only answer.
If you’re really focused on being an author, let me give you a few words of warning.
During the first step, you’ll be in one of two places in your life. You’ll either be working a job that pays the bills until the royalty checks come in or you’ll be fortunate enough to (be fired, on unemployment, living off a family trust, living off family, or whatever) be writing full time.
Most likely you’ll be working some kind of job. This means you will have to squeeze in writing whenever you can. When you get home for your 9-5 and you’re tired, you’ll have to reach within yourself and find the right mindset to write. And this will need to happen in between feeding the kids/cat/dog, doing laundry, spending time with the kids, making dinner, getting the gum out of your youngest’s hair, getting the dog out of the trash, taking the trash out, dealing with the phone calls for your oldest child, going to the grocery store, doctor appointments, therapist appointments, chatting with friends, dinner with your mother-in-law and all of the other wonderful things we call life.
If you’re lucky and you don’t have a regular 9-5, you’ll have a bit more time to get distracted by all the wonderful moving images on TV, internet, and life outside your window.
Months if not years will go by and your novel will finally take some kind of form. Then, you’ll tell yourself that it’s crap and you’ll walk away from it.
Then, you’ll think that maybe, just maybe, it’s not totally crap or that you might be able to fix it.
More time will pass and you’ll finally get to “The End.”
After which, you’ll be forced to nit-pick your beloved novel that contains your heart and soul. You’ll polish it, edit it, cut it, tweak it, fix it and finally, finally, you’ll reach a point where you might consider submitting it to a publisher.
That’s when you realize you have to…
1)Figure out the genre of your book that’s so deep and innovative that it breaks all genre boundaries. Your novel is oh-so-original that it can’t possibly be shoe-horned into a genre label. The publishing industry will be forced to recognize your genius by creating whole new genre’s just for you.
2)Get a reality check and realize none of that is true.
3)No, really it isn’t.
4)Really.
5)Yes, even your novel.
6)You’ll take a hit to your pride and realize that genre labels really do fit your story.
7)Find and create a list of publishers that handle your genre.
8)Realize that you have to create a submission package that includes: a cover letter, synopsis, part/all of the manuscript. You’ll argue with the screen about how you should be able to tell the publishers to read your manuscript and let it speak for itself. You’ll get frustrated and angry about having to take your X number of words novel—that thing you put your heart and soul into—and beat the crap out of it until you break every writing convention and TELL the story in a synopsis.
9)Finally, you have your submission package ready and you start to shake. Your breath goes short and sweat rolls down your back. You look at your composed e-mail and try to work up the nerve to click send. Hours go by. You pace for a while. You give yourself a pep talk. And, finally, you squeeze your eyes closed and you send your baby off to those evil manuscript eating people called publishers.
10)You wait.
11)You wait some more.
12)You wait even longer.
13)You get rejected. Sometimes in very rude ways and sometimes for idiotic reasons. You cry, scream and tell everyone you know how stupid Publisher X is.
14)You go to your next publisher on the list.
15)You tweak the MS (manuscript) to fit their house style. You change margins, indentions, where the page numbers are, and what marks to use for a scene break.
16)You submit and this time it’s a little bit easier.
17)You get rejected.
18)You submit again and yawn while you do it.
19)You get rejected and this goes on and on. Until…
20)You get accepted.
As a side note: I should mention that submission hell (as we so lovingly call it) isn’t necessarily bad. Full Circle, Selling Foxx, Tainted Past and By Invitation Only were accepted by the first publisher that received them. With About to Sin, the publisher tracked me down and asked me to turn it into a series. So, yes, it can happen the first time out of the chute.
Then, editing starts.
You’ll spend the next few months hearing about (mostly) what’s wrong with your pride and joy. Pick your battles here. This is very important. Yes, you can push back against an editor, but if you fight them too much you’ll risk getting a reputation as a PITA (pain in the ass) author. If you really do disagree with your editor tell them so and tell them why. But, pick your battles.
It’s a well-known fact that I don’t like dialog tags and I especially don’t like the word “said.” My editors will put that in my stuff. I don’t fight them on that. It’s a little thing and a personal pet peeve. I will fight them on using the masculine forms of blond and brunet (versus blonde and brunette). I will fight for occasional bits of verbiage. But, I won’t fight over a stupid dialog tag. There are other things where I’ll push back, but for the most part, I try to defer to their experience.
Once the editing is done, you realize that your pride and joy that you tried so hard to polish was quite rough and now you have a golden novel that’s waiting for readers.
This is where the real hard work kicks in. Yes, writing the novel is the easiest part. This is where you start networking and marketing. It’s not enough to write the novel, you must sell it. You get on every board you can find, join every yahoo group you can snag, learn about promo items, loop chats, live chats, and book signings.
You register your copy right with the copy right office. You DO register it, don’t you? You’d better.
Finally, readers and reviewers grab your manuscript.
You wait for feedback that never comes. (This is another place where I’m lucky. I have a very dedicated and awesome readerbase and many of them drop me lines telling me what they thought of my story.) A few reviewers hate you and a few love you.
You continue your marketing and networking efforts.
Then, the first royalty check comes in.
You cry.
A lot.
You just realized the kid working at McDonald’s makes more money than you. You just spent X number of months/years working for way less than minimum wage.
Yes. Expect to be broke.
I know, I know, King isn’t broke and Rice isn’t broke. Well, you’re not King and you’re not Rice. And you don’t want to be. You want to be yourself with your own style, but you do want their royalty checks.
After you realize that you’re not quitting your day job for a while, you experience a stroke of insanity and start the process all over again.
And that’s how you become a writer.
Actually, that’s not the simple answer. That’s the only answer.
If you’re really focused on being an author, let me give you a few words of warning.
During the first step, you’ll be in one of two places in your life. You’ll either be working a job that pays the bills until the royalty checks come in or you’ll be fortunate enough to (be fired, on unemployment, living off a family trust, living off family, or whatever) be writing full time.
Most likely you’ll be working some kind of job. This means you will have to squeeze in writing whenever you can. When you get home for your 9-5 and you’re tired, you’ll have to reach within yourself and find the right mindset to write. And this will need to happen in between feeding the kids/cat/dog, doing laundry, spending time with the kids, making dinner, getting the gum out of your youngest’s hair, getting the dog out of the trash, taking the trash out, dealing with the phone calls for your oldest child, going to the grocery store, doctor appointments, therapist appointments, chatting with friends, dinner with your mother-in-law and all of the other wonderful things we call life.
If you’re lucky and you don’t have a regular 9-5, you’ll have a bit more time to get distracted by all the wonderful moving images on TV, internet, and life outside your window.
Months if not years will go by and your novel will finally take some kind of form. Then, you’ll tell yourself that it’s crap and you’ll walk away from it.
Then, you’ll think that maybe, just maybe, it’s not totally crap or that you might be able to fix it.
More time will pass and you’ll finally get to “The End.”
After which, you’ll be forced to nit-pick your beloved novel that contains your heart and soul. You’ll polish it, edit it, cut it, tweak it, fix it and finally, finally, you’ll reach a point where you might consider submitting it to a publisher.
That’s when you realize you have to…
1)Figure out the genre of your book that’s so deep and innovative that it breaks all genre boundaries. Your novel is oh-so-original that it can’t possibly be shoe-horned into a genre label. The publishing industry will be forced to recognize your genius by creating whole new genre’s just for you.
2)Get a reality check and realize none of that is true.
3)No, really it isn’t.
4)Really.
5)Yes, even your novel.
6)You’ll take a hit to your pride and realize that genre labels really do fit your story.
7)Find and create a list of publishers that handle your genre.
8)Realize that you have to create a submission package that includes: a cover letter, synopsis, part/all of the manuscript. You’ll argue with the screen about how you should be able to tell the publishers to read your manuscript and let it speak for itself. You’ll get frustrated and angry about having to take your X number of words novel—that thing you put your heart and soul into—and beat the crap out of it until you break every writing convention and TELL the story in a synopsis.
9)Finally, you have your submission package ready and you start to shake. Your breath goes short and sweat rolls down your back. You look at your composed e-mail and try to work up the nerve to click send. Hours go by. You pace for a while. You give yourself a pep talk. And, finally, you squeeze your eyes closed and you send your baby off to those evil manuscript eating people called publishers.
10)You wait.
11)You wait some more.
12)You wait even longer.
13)You get rejected. Sometimes in very rude ways and sometimes for idiotic reasons. You cry, scream and tell everyone you know how stupid Publisher X is.
14)You go to your next publisher on the list.
15)You tweak the MS (manuscript) to fit their house style. You change margins, indentions, where the page numbers are, and what marks to use for a scene break.
16)You submit and this time it’s a little bit easier.
17)You get rejected.
18)You submit again and yawn while you do it.
19)You get rejected and this goes on and on. Until…
20)You get accepted.
As a side note: I should mention that submission hell (as we so lovingly call it) isn’t necessarily bad. Full Circle, Selling Foxx, Tainted Past and By Invitation Only were accepted by the first publisher that received them. With About to Sin, the publisher tracked me down and asked me to turn it into a series. So, yes, it can happen the first time out of the chute.
Then, editing starts.
You’ll spend the next few months hearing about (mostly) what’s wrong with your pride and joy. Pick your battles here. This is very important. Yes, you can push back against an editor, but if you fight them too much you’ll risk getting a reputation as a PITA (pain in the ass) author. If you really do disagree with your editor tell them so and tell them why. But, pick your battles.
It’s a well-known fact that I don’t like dialog tags and I especially don’t like the word “said.” My editors will put that in my stuff. I don’t fight them on that. It’s a little thing and a personal pet peeve. I will fight them on using the masculine forms of blond and brunet (versus blonde and brunette). I will fight for occasional bits of verbiage. But, I won’t fight over a stupid dialog tag. There are other things where I’ll push back, but for the most part, I try to defer to their experience.
Once the editing is done, you realize that your pride and joy that you tried so hard to polish was quite rough and now you have a golden novel that’s waiting for readers.
This is where the real hard work kicks in. Yes, writing the novel is the easiest part. This is where you start networking and marketing. It’s not enough to write the novel, you must sell it. You get on every board you can find, join every yahoo group you can snag, learn about promo items, loop chats, live chats, and book signings.
You register your copy right with the copy right office. You DO register it, don’t you? You’d better.
Finally, readers and reviewers grab your manuscript.
You wait for feedback that never comes. (This is another place where I’m lucky. I have a very dedicated and awesome readerbase and many of them drop me lines telling me what they thought of my story.) A few reviewers hate you and a few love you.
You continue your marketing and networking efforts.
Then, the first royalty check comes in.
You cry.
A lot.
You just realized the kid working at McDonald’s makes more money than you. You just spent X number of months/years working for way less than minimum wage.
Yes. Expect to be broke.
I know, I know, King isn’t broke and Rice isn’t broke. Well, you’re not King and you’re not Rice. And you don’t want to be. You want to be yourself with your own style, but you do want their royalty checks.
After you realize that you’re not quitting your day job for a while, you experience a stroke of insanity and start the process all over again.
And that’s how you become a writer.
Monday, April 02, 2007
About to Sin--Published!
Erotic Dreams will be publishing “About to Sin” and they’ve started the series this month. The series is so long that they’ll be presenting it in 2,500 word segments either once a week or every other week (I’ll let you know when the timeline has been finalized.)
This story and some others are available to read FOR FREE! (Please, don’t ask me how they can let readers read for free, but still pay their writers. I can’t figure that one out.) You will need to register with the website, but that’s free too.
To read the fiction:
Go here Erotic Dreams , register, log in, click “fiction” and enjoy!
Summary:
A chance meeting between an out-and-proud ER doctor and a closeted Catholic Priest leads to life changing decisions, confusion and love.
Excerpt:
It'd been a good night at "Swill 'N' Chill" so far. The DJ seemed to on his game with the music. James, the bartender, wasn't fucking up the drinks, and a come-hither bottom-boy spent the past two hours checking me out. By this point, I'd had a few good laughs, a lot of good drinks, and some pretty good dance partners, including Mr. Too Cute For His Own Good.
As the third remix of "It's Raining Men" blasted the speakers, I made my way to the bathroom. It's a good song, but I'd heard my fill of it. Enough was enough. The bass beat vibrated the walls in the unisex-but-mostly-used-by-men bathroom. What was it with gay bars and their unisex bathrooms? Or maybe it was the patrons who didn't bother heeding the sign on the door.
After tending to my business, I washed my hands and checked myself in the mirror. I'm no spring chicken and most of the twinks here tend to bore me intellectually. That's fine. I don't come here for the conversation. When they're moaning below me, I don't care that they started high school while I studied A&P in med school.
I narrowed my eyes and studied a spot on my black mesh shirt. Did some twit spill their beer on me? I pinched my shirt and looked down. What the hell was that? It didn't smell like beer. A little circle of darkened black. This shit better come out or someone was getting their ass beat.
Still pissed about the enigmatic stain, I stepped back and bumped into someone. "Pardon," I muttered just before looking up.
Oh holy hell.
"Father Daniel?"
This story and some others are available to read FOR FREE! (Please, don’t ask me how they can let readers read for free, but still pay their writers. I can’t figure that one out.) You will need to register with the website, but that’s free too.
To read the fiction:
Go here Erotic Dreams , register, log in, click “fiction” and enjoy!
Summary:
A chance meeting between an out-and-proud ER doctor and a closeted Catholic Priest leads to life changing decisions, confusion and love.
Excerpt:
It'd been a good night at "Swill 'N' Chill" so far. The DJ seemed to on his game with the music. James, the bartender, wasn't fucking up the drinks, and a come-hither bottom-boy spent the past two hours checking me out. By this point, I'd had a few good laughs, a lot of good drinks, and some pretty good dance partners, including Mr. Too Cute For His Own Good.
As the third remix of "It's Raining Men" blasted the speakers, I made my way to the bathroom. It's a good song, but I'd heard my fill of it. Enough was enough. The bass beat vibrated the walls in the unisex-but-mostly-used-by-men bathroom. What was it with gay bars and their unisex bathrooms? Or maybe it was the patrons who didn't bother heeding the sign on the door.
After tending to my business, I washed my hands and checked myself in the mirror. I'm no spring chicken and most of the twinks here tend to bore me intellectually. That's fine. I don't come here for the conversation. When they're moaning below me, I don't care that they started high school while I studied A&P in med school.
I narrowed my eyes and studied a spot on my black mesh shirt. Did some twit spill their beer on me? I pinched my shirt and looked down. What the hell was that? It didn't smell like beer. A little circle of darkened black. This shit better come out or someone was getting their ass beat.
Still pissed about the enigmatic stain, I stepped back and bumped into someone. "Pardon," I muttered just before looking up.
Oh holy hell.
"Father Daniel?"
Saturday, March 31, 2007
I have the best readers--correction
The wonderful woman who sent me the gift, has informed me that it is a sake set! How cool is THAT?
I have the best readers!
From time to readers will send gifts to writers. It might be something as simple as a birthday card or a note telling us how much they enjoyed your story.
One of my readers, Dynamint, as she is called on LiveJournal attended the Hounen festival in Japan. This festival is commonly called “the penis festival.”
For more information on this fertility festival check out this link.
This is the package she sent me.
A penis (with a face vase), a vulva bowl, a penis incense holder and coupled vulva and penis candies! These will be treasured indeed! Since I’ve started writing, I’ve received a variety of gifts from coffee to gift cards and from porn to jewelry now I have ceramic penises and vulvas!
One of my readers, Dynamint, as she is called on LiveJournal attended the Hounen festival in Japan. This festival is commonly called “the penis festival.”
For more information on this fertility festival check out this link.
This is the package she sent me.
A penis (with a face vase), a vulva bowl, a penis incense holder and coupled vulva and penis candies! These will be treasured indeed! Since I’ve started writing, I’ve received a variety of gifts from coffee to gift cards and from porn to jewelry now I have ceramic penises and vulvas!
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
My First Rejection Letter.
I pulled nearly everything out of my shed and started going through it. Some things needed to be pitched and some things came inside the house. While rummaging down memory lane, I found what would have to be my first rejection letter.
I’d queried them and they rejected me. They were really rather nice and told me that they thought I was “probably a good writer for someone who wasn’t quite yet thirteen.” The woman who typed the letter went on to explain that all stories presented to them must come through an agent and that they wished me the best in my writing endeavors and life.
On the upside, she told me that I could use the Star Trek characters for anything that wasn’t for pay, but if it were to be published I’d have to get it licensed.
Now, if only my current rejection letters were that nice. Maybe, I should start telling publishers I’m twelve. Oh, wait, that won’t work well for erotica would it?
I’d queried them and they rejected me. They were really rather nice and told me that they thought I was “probably a good writer for someone who wasn’t quite yet thirteen.” The woman who typed the letter went on to explain that all stories presented to them must come through an agent and that they wished me the best in my writing endeavors and life.
On the upside, she told me that I could use the Star Trek characters for anything that wasn’t for pay, but if it were to be published I’d have to get it licensed.
Now, if only my current rejection letters were that nice. Maybe, I should start telling publishers I’m twelve. Oh, wait, that won’t work well for erotica would it?
Monday, March 26, 2007
Looking for an old friend and writer!
The erotica writing world is small. It seems as if everyone knows everyone else and reputation, good, bad or indifferent, travels faster than introductions.
And yet, I can’t track down a particular writer.
Jennifer and I attended the same college, Christopher Newport University, during my freshman year. She was a English major and at the time I leaned toward history. I laughed and talked to her more than I attended class and it showed in my grades.
She was extremely influential in my life. More influential than she’d ever realize. Jennifer was the first Democrat and feminist I’d ever met—college student by day, stripper at night and erotic writer for SMUT magazine during her free time. I know that some people do not think that stripping and being feminist can exist in the same person. She made it work and she told me one time, “What’s more empowering than seeing men give me the most valuable thing in our society, money, for looking at me in what could be considered a bikini? They grovel. They really grovel.” (We lived in a state that where strippers were and still are not allowed to get fully naked.)
She loved Rocky and Bullwinkle (her secret passion) and bondage (her not-so-secret passion). While introducing me to the gloriousness of Vermont Maple Sugar Candy, she’d tell me stories about Republicans that I’d never heard before. I was raised in the Republican household and hadn’t yet found my own political affiliation.
Jennifer wrote under her real name telling me, “If I write something, I want full credit for it. I want everyone I know to know I wrote this.” She defined what it meant to me to be a sexy, confident, intelligent woman.
After she graduated, she tried to get her Master’s Degree in Alabama. A good ole boy told her, “Ya know, you’re pretty enough that you don’t need college to get a husband.” And she came back to Virginia for her MS.
For as much as I cared for her and as influential as he was in my life, I cannot recall her last name. If anyone knows anyone who fits the above description, please let me know. I’d love to talk to her again. If anyone knows a writer for SMUT magazine (circa 1993 and/or 1994 at least) with the first name of Jennifer, please tell me and I’ll try to track her down that way. Even if it’s 12 different Jennifers.
When I knew her, she was about 5’6” or 5’7”, maroon hair (possibly a natural brunet), had the body to be a well paid stripper and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind about a damn thing.
And yet, I can’t track down a particular writer.
Jennifer and I attended the same college, Christopher Newport University, during my freshman year. She was a English major and at the time I leaned toward history. I laughed and talked to her more than I attended class and it showed in my grades.
She was extremely influential in my life. More influential than she’d ever realize. Jennifer was the first Democrat and feminist I’d ever met—college student by day, stripper at night and erotic writer for SMUT magazine during her free time. I know that some people do not think that stripping and being feminist can exist in the same person. She made it work and she told me one time, “What’s more empowering than seeing men give me the most valuable thing in our society, money, for looking at me in what could be considered a bikini? They grovel. They really grovel.” (We lived in a state that where strippers were and still are not allowed to get fully naked.)
She loved Rocky and Bullwinkle (her secret passion) and bondage (her not-so-secret passion). While introducing me to the gloriousness of Vermont Maple Sugar Candy, she’d tell me stories about Republicans that I’d never heard before. I was raised in the Republican household and hadn’t yet found my own political affiliation.
Jennifer wrote under her real name telling me, “If I write something, I want full credit for it. I want everyone I know to know I wrote this.” She defined what it meant to me to be a sexy, confident, intelligent woman.
After she graduated, she tried to get her Master’s Degree in Alabama. A good ole boy told her, “Ya know, you’re pretty enough that you don’t need college to get a husband.” And she came back to Virginia for her MS.
For as much as I cared for her and as influential as he was in my life, I cannot recall her last name. If anyone knows anyone who fits the above description, please let me know. I’d love to talk to her again. If anyone knows a writer for SMUT magazine (circa 1993 and/or 1994 at least) with the first name of Jennifer, please tell me and I’ll try to track her down that way. Even if it’s 12 different Jennifers.
When I knew her, she was about 5’6” or 5’7”, maroon hair (possibly a natural brunet), had the body to be a well paid stripper and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind about a damn thing.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Good Enough?
A friend of mine threw a book at me the other day and said, “You write better than this, why aren’t you in print?”
Well, she’s a friend and that’s part of her job, right?
She threw another paperback at me. “This is another writer I know and I read her stuff because she’s a friend. I’d never tell her this, but you’re better.”
Ok, well, I’m helping her pack and move. She might be feeling obligated to boost my ego.
This went on for three hours. At first my reply was, “I have sex in my books. They won’t publish me.”
She threw one more book at me—one from the Anita Blake series. I was willing to shut up at that point, but she continued. I’ve not read a single book from that series and I know about the sex in it. The woman became a book-canon. Every time a book hit me, I heard her say, “Sex.”
Ducking behind boxes, I started checking the books and figuring out the publisher. Tossing them back at her, I countered, “Agent needed.”
Eventually the pulp assault stopped. “So,” she asked, “Why don’t you have an agent?”
I don’t know why I don’t have an agent. I haven’t tried to get one for one thing. I always figured that since I have no sales figures yet, I’d be crazy to approach an agent. Why would they care about me? Why would they be interested in me? Fact of the matter, in my mind, until I can point at sales figures and have some quantitative way of measuring myself, I’m not good enough for an agent. Not good enough to even try.
She grabbed my shoulders as I was trying to help her pack and she bore a hole through me with her eyes. “I read these books. I put them down and went about my day. I don’t ask them if they’ve written more because I need to know what happens.” She does that to me. Sometimes on an hourly basis. “You know me, Cup, I don’t care about the male physique. It does nothing for me and their hangy-downy parts smell like beets.” She hates beets. “But, I want to read your stories despite the sex.” Despite the sex? All this time I thought people read my stuff just for the sex. Then she paid me one of the biggest compliments I’d ever received. “I want to meet your characters. I want to hang out with them.” I write them that real? “I love Anand and Father Daniel’s tortured soul grabs me.” Whoa…she’s serious. “Even Scott, that sick bastard, I want to meet him.” She looked around the room and shook her head. “I don’t want to meet any of these.”
Thunk.
I remembered what one editor told me, “You’re better than you think you are.”
Another editor contacted me about one of the free stories I have on my website. He told me, “I wish I’d written that.”
Another writer and editor, who I absolutely adore and (kind of) idolize, told me, “You’re one of my favorite authors.” My titles aren’t even out yet. How can I be one of someone’s favorites? Much less one of the favorites for someone who is one of my favorites.
As writers, how do we separate ego stroking from genuine praise? How do we know when it’s time to start looking for an agent? These are questions I can’t answer.
I still don’t feel that I’m ready to run with the big dogs and their agents, but I don’t know why I feel this way. I think it has to due with sales figures, but some people get agents for their first books. This is an irrational concern.
At one point, I told myself I wasn’t good enough to get published. Now, I’m telling myself I’m not good enough to get an agent. I was wrong about getting published. Could I be wrong about getting an agent too?
Well, she’s a friend and that’s part of her job, right?
She threw another paperback at me. “This is another writer I know and I read her stuff because she’s a friend. I’d never tell her this, but you’re better.”
Ok, well, I’m helping her pack and move. She might be feeling obligated to boost my ego.
This went on for three hours. At first my reply was, “I have sex in my books. They won’t publish me.”
She threw one more book at me—one from the Anita Blake series. I was willing to shut up at that point, but she continued. I’ve not read a single book from that series and I know about the sex in it. The woman became a book-canon. Every time a book hit me, I heard her say, “Sex.”
Ducking behind boxes, I started checking the books and figuring out the publisher. Tossing them back at her, I countered, “Agent needed.”
Eventually the pulp assault stopped. “So,” she asked, “Why don’t you have an agent?”
I don’t know why I don’t have an agent. I haven’t tried to get one for one thing. I always figured that since I have no sales figures yet, I’d be crazy to approach an agent. Why would they care about me? Why would they be interested in me? Fact of the matter, in my mind, until I can point at sales figures and have some quantitative way of measuring myself, I’m not good enough for an agent. Not good enough to even try.
She grabbed my shoulders as I was trying to help her pack and she bore a hole through me with her eyes. “I read these books. I put them down and went about my day. I don’t ask them if they’ve written more because I need to know what happens.” She does that to me. Sometimes on an hourly basis. “You know me, Cup, I don’t care about the male physique. It does nothing for me and their hangy-downy parts smell like beets.” She hates beets. “But, I want to read your stories despite the sex.” Despite the sex? All this time I thought people read my stuff just for the sex. Then she paid me one of the biggest compliments I’d ever received. “I want to meet your characters. I want to hang out with them.” I write them that real? “I love Anand and Father Daniel’s tortured soul grabs me.” Whoa…she’s serious. “Even Scott, that sick bastard, I want to meet him.” She looked around the room and shook her head. “I don’t want to meet any of these.”
Thunk.
I remembered what one editor told me, “You’re better than you think you are.”
Another editor contacted me about one of the free stories I have on my website. He told me, “I wish I’d written that.”
Another writer and editor, who I absolutely adore and (kind of) idolize, told me, “You’re one of my favorite authors.” My titles aren’t even out yet. How can I be one of someone’s favorites? Much less one of the favorites for someone who is one of my favorites.
As writers, how do we separate ego stroking from genuine praise? How do we know when it’s time to start looking for an agent? These are questions I can’t answer.
I still don’t feel that I’m ready to run with the big dogs and their agents, but I don’t know why I feel this way. I think it has to due with sales figures, but some people get agents for their first books. This is an irrational concern.
At one point, I told myself I wasn’t good enough to get published. Now, I’m telling myself I’m not good enough to get an agent. I was wrong about getting published. Could I be wrong about getting an agent too?
Friday, March 23, 2007
Best name for lube EVER!
Anand, the doctor in my story "About to Sin", keeps a tube of Moist: Lube-On-The-Go on his keychain. However, at home, he's getting a tub of Boy Butter and I can NOT forget to give him a Squeeze Bottle too!
I hope these companies don't mind the free product placement! LOL!
That's all, back to work for me.
I hope these companies don't mind the free product placement! LOL!
That's all, back to work for me.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Synopsis Help
I hate writing synopses. I dread them and they terrify the crap out of me. I never feel that they are compelling or interesting.
Needless to say, I need a lot of help when it comes to honing my synopsis skills. They are a critical element to every submission package out there. I must and all other writers must learn to write these damnable things well.
Claire at the HEA Café has posted a workshop
that is extremely informative and helpful. I urge everyone to read what she’s posted.
Needless to say, I need a lot of help when it comes to honing my synopsis skills. They are a critical element to every submission package out there. I must and all other writers must learn to write these damnable things well.
Claire at the HEA Café has posted a workshop
that is extremely informative and helpful. I urge everyone to read what she’s posted.
Dialog Tags
I was reading over here about dialog tags.
I hate dialog tags. They irk my nerves. I’m reading along and I’m all sucked into a story when all of a sudden someone says something and THEN the writer tells me they said it. One, the quote marks are enough of a clue, thank you very much. Two, the word “said.” Can’t we come up with something better than said? And a string of “saids” is enough to send me in the shower with a scratchy luffa.
Yes, yes, there are some people who go over the top with their dialog tags. And, yes, yes, there are times where they are needed. And yes, yes, there are those few rare times where “said” really is the best for the situation.
Fine. Fine freaking dandy. I’ll accept that. A few “saids” sprinkled here and there, I can handle. Yes, one of my editors goes behind me and tacks them in there. Usually when I break a piece of dialog with an action tag and haven’t punctuated it properly. Personally, I think it’s her form of punishing me for not punctuating correctly, but I digress.
I like action tags. You’re already having the characters doing things maybe they’re setting the table, killing the bad guy, feeding the cat, or scratching their noses, but whatever they’re doing in the story can be used to identify the speaker of the sentence.
The best writing advice I have ever read was “use what you have.” That meant to use the characters you’ve created. If a character such as a desk clerk can also be the one who talks to the police about the make and model of the suspect’s car then use the desk clerk. Don’t create a new character when you have a side character that’s being lazy.
However, I think it holds true for action tags versus dialog tags. As humans, even in bland conversations, we do things. Remember non-verbal communication makes up somewhere around 75% of the information conveyed. Body language, eye contact, voice inflection—all of that is a part of communicating in real life. It needs to be there for your characters too.
Do they doodle or fidget with things? Are they sighing, rolling their eyes, or making or avoiding eye contact? All of those things can be used as action tags as well as SHOW the reader something. If a character is avoiding eye contact, are they being dishonest? Trying to distance themselves from the topic of conversation? Or are they really bored and more interested in the butterfly on the other side of the window. All of these, if done well, can give the reader insight into the character.
If done well—that leads me to a word of warning about action tags. In the latest round of edits for “Tainted Past” I’ve caught myself falling into a lull of sorts. Certain things that I’ll have the characters do that in and of themselves isn’t a problem, but repeated over and over again IS a problem. Don’t be lazy like me and end up getting a habit you’ll have to break. Keep an eye on your comfort zones and make sure you’re not falling back to the same-old same old.
Also, do NOT throw in a bit of action JUST to use as an action tag. Readers and editors see right through that. If there isn’t a natural action that fits the scene, then use a dialog tag. Yes, use “said” if you must.
As far as punctuation goes...
Action tag. “Line.” A period separates the tag from the dialog.
Dialog tag, “Line.” A comma separates the tag from the dialog.
And it gets more complex from there.
It seems this is another habit I had to break. I had originally been taught that a period meant the action was completed by the time the dialog started and a comma indicated that the action was ongoing at the time of the dialog.
Gotta love the living ever growing English language.
I hate dialog tags. They irk my nerves. I’m reading along and I’m all sucked into a story when all of a sudden someone says something and THEN the writer tells me they said it. One, the quote marks are enough of a clue, thank you very much. Two, the word “said.” Can’t we come up with something better than said? And a string of “saids” is enough to send me in the shower with a scratchy luffa.
Yes, yes, there are some people who go over the top with their dialog tags. And, yes, yes, there are times where they are needed. And yes, yes, there are those few rare times where “said” really is the best for the situation.
Fine. Fine freaking dandy. I’ll accept that. A few “saids” sprinkled here and there, I can handle. Yes, one of my editors goes behind me and tacks them in there. Usually when I break a piece of dialog with an action tag and haven’t punctuated it properly. Personally, I think it’s her form of punishing me for not punctuating correctly, but I digress.
I like action tags. You’re already having the characters doing things maybe they’re setting the table, killing the bad guy, feeding the cat, or scratching their noses, but whatever they’re doing in the story can be used to identify the speaker of the sentence.
The best writing advice I have ever read was “use what you have.” That meant to use the characters you’ve created. If a character such as a desk clerk can also be the one who talks to the police about the make and model of the suspect’s car then use the desk clerk. Don’t create a new character when you have a side character that’s being lazy.
However, I think it holds true for action tags versus dialog tags. As humans, even in bland conversations, we do things. Remember non-verbal communication makes up somewhere around 75% of the information conveyed. Body language, eye contact, voice inflection—all of that is a part of communicating in real life. It needs to be there for your characters too.
Do they doodle or fidget with things? Are they sighing, rolling their eyes, or making or avoiding eye contact? All of those things can be used as action tags as well as SHOW the reader something. If a character is avoiding eye contact, are they being dishonest? Trying to distance themselves from the topic of conversation? Or are they really bored and more interested in the butterfly on the other side of the window. All of these, if done well, can give the reader insight into the character.
If done well—that leads me to a word of warning about action tags. In the latest round of edits for “Tainted Past” I’ve caught myself falling into a lull of sorts. Certain things that I’ll have the characters do that in and of themselves isn’t a problem, but repeated over and over again IS a problem. Don’t be lazy like me and end up getting a habit you’ll have to break. Keep an eye on your comfort zones and make sure you’re not falling back to the same-old same old.
Also, do NOT throw in a bit of action JUST to use as an action tag. Readers and editors see right through that. If there isn’t a natural action that fits the scene, then use a dialog tag. Yes, use “said” if you must.
As far as punctuation goes...
Action tag. “Line.” A period separates the tag from the dialog.
Dialog tag, “Line.” A comma separates the tag from the dialog.
And it gets more complex from there.
It seems this is another habit I had to break. I had originally been taught that a period meant the action was completed by the time the dialog started and a comma indicated that the action was ongoing at the time of the dialog.
Gotta love the living ever growing English language.
Technorati
I'm claiming this blog at Technorati. Supposedly this post with this...
Technorati Profile
Added to the post will help the Technorati crawlers talk to my blog. *shrug*
We'll see.
Technorati Profile
Added to the post will help the Technorati crawlers talk to my blog. *shrug*
We'll see.
Work Hazard
I normally do the bulk of my writing in the overnight hours. The phone isn’t ringing and children aren’t running amok in the streets. Also, everyone in the house is quiet.
There is a hazard to this especially when it’s mixed with someone, oh like me, who gets startled easily. My desk is a few from the front door. So, picture this.
It’s around 3:00am and I’m working by the light of my monitor. I’m in my grove and feeling it. Thirsty, I sip my coffee and my front door opens scaring me half to death. I spill coffee all over my desk (luckily missed my keyboard). My roommate enters just as I’m about to spray the intruder with compressed air like it’s mace.
That’s when I realized the motion senor on the porch light went out.
So, I went link hoping looking for some ideas for home lighting at Maxim Lighting.
I found a few that I like. Some are pricey and some a reasonable and cheap.
I love this one. It’s a very unique design, but it also seems like changing the bulb would be a pain in the ass.
This one looks very elegant, but again I don’t want to disassemble it to change the bulb.
This is a very clean and design and I think even I could change the bulb. Same thing for this one .
This one is positively elegant and beautiful. Modern, but still hints at history.
These last two are my favorites.
Favorite Number One and Favorite Number Two they’d both fit in perfectly with what I want to do with my screened-in porch and look like the bulbs would be easy to change.
I want to do a medieval/fantasy thing on the porch. At one time, I had this huge tree at the corner and I wanted to put some gargoyles on the trunk to make it look like they were climbing the tree. The tree fell ill and had to be removed. I still miss that tree. I’ve found some faery statues that I can put on the supports for the porch. I’d like to put a bird’s nest in one corner and get a fake raven to put in the nest. Not an obvious touch, I figure most people will miss the raven, but I’ll know it’s there. Both of those lights would be perfect for that.
I have one gripe about the product descriptions on this site, I can’t tell if any of these lights have motion sensors built in. Maybe, once I decide, I can e-mail them and ask.
Oh, by the way, I just finished the fourth installment of About to Sin. That puppy capped out at just over 16k words. Whew.
There is a hazard to this especially when it’s mixed with someone, oh like me, who gets startled easily. My desk is a few from the front door. So, picture this.
It’s around 3:00am and I’m working by the light of my monitor. I’m in my grove and feeling it. Thirsty, I sip my coffee and my front door opens scaring me half to death. I spill coffee all over my desk (luckily missed my keyboard). My roommate enters just as I’m about to spray the intruder with compressed air like it’s mace.
That’s when I realized the motion senor on the porch light went out.
So, I went link hoping looking for some ideas for home lighting at Maxim Lighting.
I found a few that I like. Some are pricey and some a reasonable and cheap.
I love this one. It’s a very unique design, but it also seems like changing the bulb would be a pain in the ass.
This one looks very elegant, but again I don’t want to disassemble it to change the bulb.
This is a very clean and design and I think even I could change the bulb. Same thing for this one .
This one is positively elegant and beautiful. Modern, but still hints at history.
These last two are my favorites.
Favorite Number One and Favorite Number Two they’d both fit in perfectly with what I want to do with my screened-in porch and look like the bulbs would be easy to change.
I want to do a medieval/fantasy thing on the porch. At one time, I had this huge tree at the corner and I wanted to put some gargoyles on the trunk to make it look like they were climbing the tree. The tree fell ill and had to be removed. I still miss that tree. I’ve found some faery statues that I can put on the supports for the porch. I’d like to put a bird’s nest in one corner and get a fake raven to put in the nest. Not an obvious touch, I figure most people will miss the raven, but I’ll know it’s there. Both of those lights would be perfect for that.
I have one gripe about the product descriptions on this site, I can’t tell if any of these lights have motion sensors built in. Maybe, once I decide, I can e-mail them and ask.
Oh, by the way, I just finished the fourth installment of About to Sin. That puppy capped out at just over 16k words. Whew.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
*Sweatdrop*
I’ve been busy like crazy.
Full Circle is still waiting for cover art. LAP doesn’t normally take this long to get art work done. A comedy of errors happened with Full Circle’s cover art and the president of Chippewa, Rebecca, is personally involved with getting things right and rolling. I can’t ask for more than that. Problems will happen. That’s a given. How they are solved is what makes awesome companies stand out above the rest. I have no complaints about Rebecca’s efforts in solving the issues around my cover art.
Selling Foxx is in the hands of the proofreaders and art department.
Tainted Past is in editing.
About to Sin has a deadline looming near. I’m currently working on the fourth installment. This little one-shot that started at 4k words way back when. Has become a multi-chapter story and the current installment is at 14k (and counting) words. >.< (Holy Shiznic! It just hit me that I've written about 12k words in 5 days. O.O I rock! XD)
I’m still helping my friend pack and trying to recover everything from my HDD crashing.
Whew...
Well, back to work...
Full Circle is still waiting for cover art. LAP doesn’t normally take this long to get art work done. A comedy of errors happened with Full Circle’s cover art and the president of Chippewa, Rebecca, is personally involved with getting things right and rolling. I can’t ask for more than that. Problems will happen. That’s a given. How they are solved is what makes awesome companies stand out above the rest. I have no complaints about Rebecca’s efforts in solving the issues around my cover art.
Selling Foxx is in the hands of the proofreaders and art department.
Tainted Past is in editing.
About to Sin has a deadline looming near. I’m currently working on the fourth installment. This little one-shot that started at 4k words way back when. Has become a multi-chapter story and the current installment is at 14k (and counting) words. >.< (Holy Shiznic! It just hit me that I've written about 12k words in 5 days. O.O I rock! XD)
I’m still helping my friend pack and trying to recover everything from my HDD crashing.
Whew...
Well, back to work...
Thursday, March 15, 2007
While I was out…
While I buried my HDD, PayPerPost geared up for some major announcement. I haven’t a clue what the real announcement is, but they’re hinting at something that will increase site traffic.
We all know the most popular genre online.
Yep.
Google.
But! What’s the most popular thing that Google is used for?
Anyone?
Oh, come on…there’s even a song about it! Ok, I’ll start the song and you join in on the keyword. “The internet is for…”
“Porn.”
Yep, you guessed it. Thank you Avenue Q for wonderful music! Gotta love Broadway! (That show was on Broadway, wasn’t it?)
Now, I don’t think PPP (PayPerPost) is willing to drop their family-friendly ways. (That phrase has always confused me. To whose family are they being friendly? Not mine. My cats don’t care how many naked dogs in compromising positions with squeaky toys there are online. Why don’t they just say kid-friendly? That’s what the phrase really means. All right, all right, that’s not what it REALLY means, but that’s what they (that anonymous vague “They” that does everything) wants us to think it means. But, I digress.)
I don’t think PPP is jumping in bed with porn. Nope. I think they’re going to increase site traffic by gathering more adult oriented advertisers.
After all, what sells? And has been selling since 1066 and All That (that’s for anyone who read the book)?
_ _ _ sells.
I’ll give you a hint the three-letter word that fits into the blank rhymes with “vex.” Personally, I’d appreciate some more condom advertisers. Ya know, something that’s actually useful. Something juicy like the special line of products by Pyrex. Things that buzz, hum, whirl, and shake and things that help other things slide and slither.
Who wants to bet I’m wrong? Who wants to hope I’m right? Can you imagine a whole host of international bloggers getting paid to blog about the things that our Victorian roots would see us hanged for?
Kind of makes me wish I’d won that first writing gig I tried for. Ya know, that product reviewer job. The one that didn’t pay in money. It paid in things. Fic fodder things.
One generation ago, I’d be forced to hang my head in shame for typing this post. Ain’t life grand?
We all know the most popular genre online.
Yep.
Google.
But! What’s the most popular thing that Google is used for?
Anyone?
Oh, come on…there’s even a song about it! Ok, I’ll start the song and you join in on the keyword. “The internet is for…”
“Porn.”
Yep, you guessed it. Thank you Avenue Q for wonderful music! Gotta love Broadway! (That show was on Broadway, wasn’t it?)
Now, I don’t think PPP (PayPerPost) is willing to drop their family-friendly ways. (That phrase has always confused me. To whose family are they being friendly? Not mine. My cats don’t care how many naked dogs in compromising positions with squeaky toys there are online. Why don’t they just say kid-friendly? That’s what the phrase really means. All right, all right, that’s not what it REALLY means, but that’s what they (that anonymous vague “They” that does everything) wants us to think it means. But, I digress.)
I don’t think PPP is jumping in bed with porn. Nope. I think they’re going to increase site traffic by gathering more adult oriented advertisers.
After all, what sells? And has been selling since 1066 and All That (that’s for anyone who read the book)?
_ _ _ sells.
I’ll give you a hint the three-letter word that fits into the blank rhymes with “vex.” Personally, I’d appreciate some more condom advertisers. Ya know, something that’s actually useful. Something juicy like the special line of products by Pyrex. Things that buzz, hum, whirl, and shake and things that help other things slide and slither.
Who wants to bet I’m wrong? Who wants to hope I’m right? Can you imagine a whole host of international bloggers getting paid to blog about the things that our Victorian roots would see us hanged for?
Kind of makes me wish I’d won that first writing gig I tried for. Ya know, that product reviewer job. The one that didn’t pay in money. It paid in things. Fic fodder things.
One generation ago, I’d be forced to hang my head in shame for typing this post. Ain’t life grand?
But, I can write.
I’m at 1,700 words for the first draft of the fourth installment of About to Sin. It’s moving slowly because I’m helping a friend move. Ever try helping a 50+ year old woman with ADD pack?
I don’t recommend it.
We’ll start in one room and before I know it she’s followed some “Red Ballon” into another room. I go behind her and repack all of the boxes. She’s the only person I’ve ever known who tried to put cosmetics, jewelry, weaponry, and physics books in the same box.
However, I have received permission to fictionalize her situation. In a way I feel helpless. I can’t wave a wand and heal her broken heart. I can’t snap my fingers and make her understand why her lover did what she did. I can’t wiggle my nose and allow her to remember 10 awesome years and erase one horrible day. I can’t do any of that, but I can write.
I want to see her with a happy ending and I can’t think of any way except writing it. I’m no therapist. I don’t understand, fully, what it means when she says that her therapist says her lover had been dissembling. But, I can write.
What are the ethics of fictionalizing fact? I can disguise it enough (no one, no reader, no publisher, no editor would accept the real way they broke up) to shatter the fact behind it. Also, I write m/m so even the genders will change. And the fact will be the start of the story not the meat or the end. So, I’m not worried about the other woman discovering the story, seeing herself and suing me. My friend has given me permission, so I’m not worried about her thinking I’m trying to capitalize on her pain.
Can anyone think of something I’m missing on why this is a bad idea? (No, not the story, but fictionalizing fact in general.) I’ve never walked down this road before. Is this something that's generally not allowed? I don’t want to put my publisher or myself in a compromising position. If I have to, I’ll write it just for her. If I do that, I’ll keep it lesbian which will be interesting for me to write. LOL!
Any advice?
I don’t recommend it.
We’ll start in one room and before I know it she’s followed some “Red Ballon” into another room. I go behind her and repack all of the boxes. She’s the only person I’ve ever known who tried to put cosmetics, jewelry, weaponry, and physics books in the same box.
However, I have received permission to fictionalize her situation. In a way I feel helpless. I can’t wave a wand and heal her broken heart. I can’t snap my fingers and make her understand why her lover did what she did. I can’t wiggle my nose and allow her to remember 10 awesome years and erase one horrible day. I can’t do any of that, but I can write.
I want to see her with a happy ending and I can’t think of any way except writing it. I’m no therapist. I don’t understand, fully, what it means when she says that her therapist says her lover had been dissembling. But, I can write.
What are the ethics of fictionalizing fact? I can disguise it enough (no one, no reader, no publisher, no editor would accept the real way they broke up) to shatter the fact behind it. Also, I write m/m so even the genders will change. And the fact will be the start of the story not the meat or the end. So, I’m not worried about the other woman discovering the story, seeing herself and suing me. My friend has given me permission, so I’m not worried about her thinking I’m trying to capitalize on her pain.
Can anyone think of something I’m missing on why this is a bad idea? (No, not the story, but fictionalizing fact in general.) I’ve never walked down this road before. Is this something that's generally not allowed? I don’t want to put my publisher or myself in a compromising position. If I have to, I’ll write it just for her. If I do that, I’ll keep it lesbian which will be interesting for me to write. LOL!
Any advice?
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Modernizing Tried and True Plotlines.
I’ve been quiet because I’m working on a couple of tight deadlines. However, I still found a plotbunny birthing site. While doing some link hopping, I found a site that lets you send Anonymous Email. Talk about taking the message in a bottle or a letter left by a secret admirer into the 21st century!
Yeah, yeah, you can use anonymous email for a lot of different things and there’s a section on their website that shows examples of that. For example, telling your boss that they are micromanaging a project to death, telling a friend who is struggling with something that someone cares (without hurting their pride) and there are other “touchy” situations where someone might want to send a secret letter.
None of those, however, pull at the heart like someone who loves someone else, but just can’t work up the nerve to tell them. There’s a plethora of reasons why Lead Character Number One might not want to tell Lead Character Number Two their feelings, but with this kind of thing in a contemporary romance novel, a writer can set up a dual relationship between two characters.
Hmm…I think I’ve found my next WIP. How much ya wanna bet it’s gonna have a happy ending? Oh! I could title it: “Message in an Inbox.” Nah…needs a better title. “He has Mail.” Hmm that’s a little cheesy. Ok, ok, the title needs help, but the idea is good.
Yeah, yeah, you can use anonymous email for a lot of different things and there’s a section on their website that shows examples of that. For example, telling your boss that they are micromanaging a project to death, telling a friend who is struggling with something that someone cares (without hurting their pride) and there are other “touchy” situations where someone might want to send a secret letter.
None of those, however, pull at the heart like someone who loves someone else, but just can’t work up the nerve to tell them. There’s a plethora of reasons why Lead Character Number One might not want to tell Lead Character Number Two their feelings, but with this kind of thing in a contemporary romance novel, a writer can set up a dual relationship between two characters.
Hmm…I think I’ve found my next WIP. How much ya wanna bet it’s gonna have a happy ending? Oh! I could title it: “Message in an Inbox.” Nah…needs a better title. “He has Mail.” Hmm that’s a little cheesy. Ok, ok, the title needs help, but the idea is good.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Computer woes update
Greetings from my new HDD!
Let’s all take a lesson from this and learn to back-up more frequently. >.< Yeah, I lost a lot of work and I’m kicking myself for it. I didn’t lose EVERYTHING. I found a back up that I’d forgotten I made. WHEW!
Not only did I get a new HDD, but I also snagged a 4gig flash drive for back up. I’m gonna eventually get an external HDD and do a FULL back up every two weeks or so.
Let’s all take a lesson from this and learn to back-up more frequently. >.< Yeah, I lost a lot of work and I’m kicking myself for it. I didn’t lose EVERYTHING. I found a back up that I’d forgotten I made. WHEW!
Not only did I get a new HDD, but I also snagged a 4gig flash drive for back up. I’m gonna eventually get an external HDD and do a FULL back up every two weeks or so.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Computer Problems
My computer has crashed. I think I've lost everything. I think I'm going to cry for a few days.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)