Word-Whores

Man Candy: The Female Gaze Unleashed

2020-08-03T18:32:00.000-04:00

by Allison Pang

If you follow my other blog at all, you know I'm no stranger to the concept of man candy. It's pretty much a weekly staple - though I tend to limit it to Saturday nights (or days when I just didn't feel like blogging. So, hey - throw up a smexy man and we're good to go.)

Sadly, I tend to get a lot more hits on those days than any other. Maybe I'm a boring blogger...or maybe the female gaze just needs more of an outlet than it's been getting. Not that I'm into objectifying for the sake of it (and not that I'm always above it, either.) I tend to keep my blog pictures tasteful for the most part, although my personal collection certainly dips into the more risqué, I don't find I need to go there on the blogs.

(Part of this stems from the fact that I do sometimes try to be "professional". Yeah, you can stop laughing there. Plus my blog feeds into Facebook. Which a lot of family/work people read it. So, yeah, they know I'm pervy. They don't need to know how *much*)

Anyway, I'm just going to toss up a few pictures in no particular order. My tastes vary depending on my mood, and it's not always about teh sexxy bods. I totally agree with Jeffe about the hands earlier this week. I'm a sucker for hands. Feet too, although honestly, as long as they don't have troll toes, I'm pretty easy going.

I'm a sucker for a dude in a kilt. And doubly so for Ewan McGregor. He looks so totally bad-ass and casual all at the same time.

Plus he's not afraid to get naked in his movies.

Le Sigh, for Robert Downey Jr.

To be honest, I didn't like him much when he was younger, but I'd definitely dig him now. :)

(I've found that although I like looking at the young bods of teh smexxy guys, I'm definitely more attracted to men who look like they've seen something of the world.)

Mmmm. Guys who are good with animals rock. Just like this guy's thighs.

And well, duh. Of course, I'm gonna throw in some shirtless David Garrett in there. (Tho I admit that I actually enjoy his non-posed pictures better, particularly the ones where he's losing himself in the music.)

I'm a sucker for artists and musicians in general and I'll take talent over looks any day of the week.

And here's a little Eric the vampire action, aka Alexander Skarsguard.

NOM

Patrick Dempsey is another one I couldn't stand when he was younger, but he aged so very, very well.

Probably one of my favorite models (so nice I used him twice, since that's him up there at the top). Theo Theodoris is basically Greek perfection.

Unfortunately, he's actually in prison now for drug issues. (It's a pretty sad story, but if you're interested in finding out more, go check out the Free Theo site on Facebook)

Hmmm. And I guess just some of my favorite random hottie pictures to round it out. :)

...Guess I better stop now. *cough*

When You're Reading to an Empty Room

2016-05-15T12:01:00.000-04:00

We've moved!

Please go to our renovated blog, THE SFF SEVEN.

Self Publishing Can Spin On a Dime

2016-05-14T00:00:00.000-04:00

I LOVE self publishing because I'm very much a control freak and I have a business background, so I also enjoy running my own 'small business' in terms of all the activities required besides the creative writing.

The Carina Press imprint of Harlequin plucked my book from their slush pile and gave me a wonderful start as a - gasp - published author! with Priestess of the Nile and Warrior of the Nile. I learned so much from my association with them - which was harmonious and collegial - and even now, I see people's eyes light up when I tell them my first publisher was Harlequin. Everyone has heard of HQN, even the scientists and engineers at the old NASA/JPL day job.

But along the way I got into self publishing too, so I'm a hybrid. I like working to my own schedule, choosing what I want to write next and when I want to release it. I love the cover design process,working with Fiona Jayde for my science fiction romances, and with Frauke Spanuth for the ancient Egyptians. I have terrific independent editors and a wonderful formatter, so I'm set. I pick, choose and pay for my own promo and truthfully, I'd be doing that even if I was still traditionally published because the burden is on the author for the most part.

I can spin on a dime and make decisions before breakfast, and implement them by lunchtime. (Yeah, I'm not very patient either.)

IF I were to be offered a traditional publishing contract in the future, I'd have to consider long and hard whether my goals for the specific project could be met without giving up too much of my control AND my intellectual property rights. The things I've read recently about the clauses in publishing contracts make my blood run cold. I have an extensive background in government aerospace contracting, which is a specialty of its own, but rest assured I know how to read the teeny tiniest of fine print. I'm not signing away my rights till the universe goes bang. Not unless it meets my goals in that case to do so. Offer me seven figures and a movie deal and we can talk LOL. Negotiaions open!

Speaking of all this, I released a new book this week: LADY OF THE STAR WIND. Here's the story:

Are they merely luckless lovers … or a legend come back to life?

Mark Denaltieri, ex-Sector Special Forces, has been hired by the Outlier Empress to rescue her granddaughter, Princess Alessandra, from kidnappers. Since the Empress once had him tortured and banished, she’s the last person Mark wants to work for. But he takes the job. He’ll save Alessandra, his first love, and discover why she didn’t speak for him when he desperately needed her. Then he’ll be on his way, finally free of his past.

Alessandra would rather her rescuer was anyone but Mark–after all, he let her believe he was dead all this time. But when the couple are forced to flee her captors by Traveling via a strange crystal globe, they find themselves in a lovely Oasis on a desert planet, the old attraction sizzling between them again.

They soon discover they are far from alone. The Oasis holds the entrance to another world, one in which the inhabitants are convinced Sandy and Mark are the Lady of the Star Wind and her Warrior, come to free them from an evil Queen.

Mark and Sandy must work together to unearth an ancient mirror, and crown the true king of this land. Can they fulfill the prophecy of the Lady and her Warrior … and this time, will their love survive the test?

Buy Links: Amazon KOBO Barnes & Noble iBooks will be up on the 18th

The Hanged Man

2016-05-13T02:30:00.000-04:00

Are you familiar with the tarot card The Hanged Man? He's from the Robin Wood Tarot Deck, which is available here.

He means "Life interrupted. Change in your point of view."

This has happened. Not so much the 'change in point of view', but the life interrupted thing? 100%.

That means this won't be about publishing options. You know what those are. We've all of us peered at the various modes, venues, pros, cons, contracts, pitfalls and deathtraps. And wondered if maybe, just maybe, the grass isn't greener in someone else's pasture. I've come to the stunningly obvious conclusion that there is no right answer. Only the right for you answer. And I still don't know what's right for me. That's all I have on the subject because Hanged Man.

Except. It isn't the man that's hanging. Nope. It's my house. Look.

That's our boat. And our home. High and dry on the hard. At Christmas time, a key component on the drive leg (part of the engine) broke and we could no longer put the boat in reverse. Not a problem, unless you want to dock. Ever. Or get out of dock. Think of trying to get your car into or out of your garage without reverse. Now do it on ice that's moving under you. Yeeeeeeeeah. Clearly, this has to be fixed. Got into the process of fixing that itty, bitty broken part only to find the metal of the drive disintegrating. Seriously. BIG chunk of metal was gone like something had taken a bite out of it. Apparently Poseidon takes what sacrifices he wants and in this case, he needed a chunk of cast aluminum for something. We went from $10 part needing repair to having to replace the entire drive leg. That isn't a $10 part. Multiply by 300.

Anywho. The leg was ordered from the UK, ransomed from customs, and delivered. The boat yard gave me a haul out date and time. And here I am. Took three people to get the boat out of dock to make the trip. Docking here in Port Townsend was a bit like playing bumper cars, but I limited it to bumping my boat and the dock, not anyone else's boat - all under the eye of the local Coast Guard station. Sigh.

My brain is all boat right now, because I'm paying by the day for that spot on dry land while I replace that drive leg, and my family is scattered to the four winds because we can't live in our home while it's in the yard. So I'm crazier than usual. Sorry. Still. The trip up did have it's good points. I even had help navigating.

Photo credit to Emily Olesin, friend extraordinaire who was willing to get up at 5AM to help crew the boat several hours north to our haul out.

Also: Happy Friday the 13th!

Publishing Options and the Real Gatekeepers

2016-05-12T13:23:00.001-04:00

Let me answer the question "What Publishing Method Is Best?" with the vague answer, "That depends on you." I can tell you that, for me, the Traditional Publishing route was the best route. Hands down. I'm thrilled to have my books with DAW, and all the benefits that gives. I'm not cut out for the self-publishing game, which requires a larger degree of chutzpah and hustle and salesmanship, let alone having to wear the Editor and Publisher hats. Not for me.

"But, Marshall," you'll say, "Not everyone gets that option. There are the gatekeepers, Marshall! The gatekeepers!" Yes, that's true. I think that's a value-added feature, but for someone striving to get through the gatekeepers to a publishing deal, I can see how it's mostly a frustration. And thus self-publishing can appear alluring. You get your stuff out there! The people will decide!

Yeah, it doesn't really work that way, because "out there" isn't enough. There's the next level of gatekeeping; the quieter, more insidious one.

The Filter of Who Gives A Damn.

The fact that your book is out there, even with a pretty cover and the sabre of a Big Five Publisher to rattle, doesn't mean much when there is SO MUCH OUT THERE.

For example, the now-shuttered SFSignal (sniff) would put out a monthly list of All The Stuff they could find that was coming out that month in SF, Fantasy and Horror. For February, the month The Alchemy of Chaos came out, they listed 229 books. That's just the ones that have some form of publisher behind them. And Alchemy is there, at #61.

But most of the review sites, news sites, blogs, etc. that talk about Genre Lit only have so many that they can talk about. They have to pick, say, 10-12 each month to highlight as the ones they think are the most interesting. When it comes to actually reviewing, there's the logjam of how many books the reviewer can actually read and write about. Even a hyper-prolific speed-reader isn't going to break, say, 50 reviews a month.

But the thing is, it's not that no one gives a damn, it's that they only have so many damns to give. Publishing in and of itself isn't a zero-sum game, but the inches devoted to talking about what books are coming out is.

The thing is, no one really knows what the magic bullet is for having a book be one of the Books People Are Talking About, beyond that special alchemy of a great book at the right time that gets into the right people's hands. And even with the power of a Big Five Publisher behind you, they have limited power of what they're going to push, and how much they spent on something is a factor on how hard they'll push. The book they gave a half-million dollar advance to is the one they're gonna try to get Time or Newsweek to talk about. Not the twenty they gave $10K advances to.

And for a self-published book? Getting one of those limited supply Damns is pretty damn hard. Not impossible-- just ask Andy Weir-- but pretty damn hard.

If you aren't a person who can hustle to get one, just getting your book "out there" isn't going to be enough.

So make good choices, and good luck out there.

Traditional vs self publishing

2016-05-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

Let me make my disclosures before I reveal my judgment call...

I have six mass market novels available from Simon and Schuster's imprint Pocket Books.

I have a prequel short available in a trade paperback anthology, as well as from my website via e-version...or I used to. The title of the short MARLBOROS & MAGIC apparently, after a year of availability, triggered something in Amazon's system that said I can't use Marlboro in the title because it is trademarked.

--SIGH--

So I have to rename it, reload it, and somehow manage to help folks understand it is not something NEW.

I really don't want to piss folks off because they were 'suckered' into buying something they already have...

Shhhh...I also have an unrelated novel coming out from a small press next year (announcements coming later).

And there's that 7th installment into Persephone's world...

Every week I get emails from someone new asking about the rest of the series. Sadly, there is no interest from the original publisher. So I will be forced to finish it without them.

I have inquired with the fans if they want ebook or print. So far, it's about 50/50. So however I choose to 'deliver' the novel, it must have book options.

I may offer it to the small press; I may make it self-published. I am still totally on the fence about it and uncertain which is the best option for me. To acknowledge the pros and cons of both possibilities that my blog-family have been talking about this week, I like the idea of the amount of control self publishing provides, yet I'm not sure I want the total commitment of time. Relinquishing some control gives me more time to, yanno, write. Social butterfly that I am not, letting others handle promotional stuff is an attractive feature.

Traditional publishing:

-is so SLOW
-typically need agent to even be considered by editor
-likelihood of being the editor's selection for his/her available slot in publication has odds similar to those of winning the lottery
-print and ebook, distribution
-there will be some sales
-expectation of quality should be sound
-they (should) do majority of marketing, author does some, they may pay for some marketing such as banner ads or blog tours at the author's request
-they do editorial, copyediting, typesetting
-they do cover (little to no control by author)
-they format all ebook types
-price is set by them

Small press publishing:

-faster, but still takes time
-agent good but not necessary
-likelihood of being the editor's selection for his/her available slot in publication has slightly better odds than those for winning the lottery-there will be some sales-expectation of quality can vary by press (do your research)
-ebook and print on demand, possibly print and distribution
-they do some marketing, author does some; books included in regular marketing that small press does and is present wherever they have tables, etc.
-they do editorial, copyediting, typsetting
-cover may be negotiable, may be their choice
-they format all ebook types
-price is set by them

Self publishing:

-FAST
-no agent necessary
-you will be published when you hit the publish button-there may be single digit sales (0 is also a single digit...reality)
-quality (often in the eye of the beholder) is entirely your responsibility (and your reputation is on the line)-ebook and print on demand, 'distribution' unlikely-author does ALL marketing, pays for promotion and ads, sets up and pays for blog tours and signings, sets up and pays for tables at conventions, etc.
-author pays for editing, copyediting, typsetting
-author pays for cover
-author pays someone to format all ebook types
-author decides price

And this is just off the top of my head...so it is a lot to think about.

5 Pros & Cons of Self-Publishing

2016-05-10T14:14:00.001-04:00

I am one of the self-publishers in the bordello; some call us "author-preneurs" or "indie-authors." Some have other less than awesome names for us, but thhhpppp on them. There are advantages and drawbacks to this path, just as there are with Traditional Publishing. Since I don't have firsthand experience with NYC, I'll defer to my housemates and stick to what I know.

Here are my Top 5 Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing:

Pros:

Control: For better or worse, you have the final say in 90% of what, when, and how your book is unleashed on the world. It's awesome. It's frustrating and frightening. It's an enormous time-suck. If you're not comfortable with managing processes and owning accountability, this ain't the path for you.

That missing 10% goes to technology, distributors, and collaborators.

Content: Whether you write super-niche stories or last month's trendy genre, nobody is going to tell you "you can't." How well your book is received by the public is something you can influence but not control. Accept that.

Pay for an editor, please, for the love of any Divine Being, pay for an experienced editor. A dev editor is good, a proof editor is a bonus. A copy editor is a must.

Deadlines: They are yours to set, to meet, to watch fly past, or to constantly adjust. Because self-publishing does require you to collaborate with other people at various points, you can't be completely blasé about schedules and dates. But if you're a slooow writer like me, you can create a release plan that accommodates your sloth-like creative process. If you're one of those super-fast writers who can churn out quality books quarterly or faster, then there is nothing to stop you from doing so.
Ownership: Of your name, your world, your characters, your rights, your time, your everything. Want to release an audio version of your book? Do it. Want to branch into graphic novels? Go for it. Want to finish out the series even though sales have declined? The fans will thank you. Prequel? Novella? Why not? No asking permission. No worrying about conflicts of interest or interest in general. You're limited only by time and resources.
Do-Overs: That cover you loved last year fall flat with buyers? Redo it. Those super-modern references now out of date? Change 'em. Find all the typos after you hit "publish"? Fix 'em, reupload.

Cons:

Financial Investment: Like any start-up, don't expect to be in the black in your first year. How quickly you can build a large backlist directly affects how long it will take you to earn a profit. Maintaining a profit depends on how often you release new books.
Predators, Plagiarists, and Pirates: Yes, it's a Trad Publishing problem too. They have legal departments and parent companies with teeth. You have a bookmark file of the DMCA & Take Down Notices to deal with Pirates. You pray for enough readers who care to tell you if chunks of your work are showing up in someone else's book, blog, anthology, or toilet paper roll. You're hooked into at least a half-dozen self-pubbing communities to stay abreast of the latest predatory practices, people, and tech.
Brick & Mortar Placements: Don't expect to see your book on an actual tangible shelf anywhere, especially not a national chain or airport kiosk. You might be able to swing it with local indie shops. Part of it is stigma (there is a lot of shitty self-pubbed work out there, not gonna pretend otherwise; OTOH, there's a lot of awesome work out there too). Part of it is the Unsolds and Returns bookstore business model. Part of it is bookstores' slow adoption of the Expresso Print-In-Shop-On-Demand technology. Yes, there are ways to get your book in a store. Is the ROI worth it? YMMV.
Conventions: Not every book convention welcomes self-pubbers. Even if we provide our own paperbacks and/or manage the sales of said books. Initially, convention organizers simply didn't know how to incorporate self-published (and at the time typically e-book-only) authors, promotions, and sales into their traditional Con model. Self-publishing has been around long enough now that the know-how is there; however, the desire isn't. It is 100% marginalization.
Translations/International: So.Many.Boobytraps. Beyond the expected distribution challenges and finding quality translators, there's a quagmire of legal differences. It's not impossible, and there are authors who have success in non-English markets. But this is a time you really, really want to hire a boutique firm who deals with everything for you. If you can connect with a US agent who specializes in foreign rights sales, that is a sweet spot for many self-pubbers.

So, is self-publishing something you want to try? Check back every day this week to see what other self-publishers, hybrid-published, traditionally published,and micro-press published authors have to say. You may find a mix of options is the best path for you.

Kicking it Old School

2016-05-09T17:25:00.002-04:00

I'm an old fashioned guy. I believe in the sanctity of marriage. I vote my conscience. I try to remember to pay my bills on time. Oh, and I prefer traditional publishing.

Here's the thing: I have no problem with self-publishing, but if you're going to do it you have to do it right. i was recently on a lunch date with the lovely EJ Stevens who is, in fact, a very successful self-published author. We were discussing the matter in depth and what she said made perfect sense. She said, And I'm paraphrasing," Self-publishing works for me, because I'm a control freak. I want input on everything and I want the world to fit my schedule."

I respect the hell out of that, I also know that trying to be in control of everything would make me homicidal. Because I know in my heart of hearts that I would fail at least as often as I succeeded.

So for that reason alone I'm a traditionalist. Do you know what the publishing houses have? An ARMY of people working with them to make sure the books un on time. Oh, don;t misunderstand me. I KNOW most of that army is dedicated to other authors. But they re there and they can be employed in some circumstances.

Angry Robot, for instance, the publisher on a good number of my books, employs a small army, God love them, and in a most unusual fit of circumstance and intelligence, they use that small army to spread the word on books coming from all of their authors. That means the PR team in the UK and in the US of A are actually looking at my work and finding the best places to market it. They may not have a zillion dollars for advertising, but what they DO have is people who know how to employ that smaller budget properly (as opposed to spending more than I make in a year on a single ad in Publishes Weekly for an author who is already selling millions of copies, but I'm not pointing fingers here.).

Aside from that, they also have editors, book designers, distribution deals, the aforementioned marketing department, and EXPERIENCE. I'm not saying that said experience is always monumental and all knowing, all wise, but I'll take my chances with someone who knows all the things that I am too high strung to learn about publishing myself. Too high strung and too busy. Full time job, full time writer. Got a novel due in three weeks. No time to worry about marketing plans and edits. That's what my publisher is for.

Lastly, what you get from a publisher with any smarts is a good vetting. Is my book any good? No clue. I'm too close to it. Maybe. Hey, I know, I'll try sending it through a few publishers and see what they think. No takers? It might need more work. Someone wants to buy it? Wants to PAY me? Sweet! Let's get the agent in there to handle the dirty work. now I can go back to writing. Later, when it's dreadfully inconvenient, they'll send me edits, and I will pause in what I am doing and take care of them. but that is another tale.

Why I Like Being Hybrid

2016-05-08T10:32:00.001-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to everyone, whether your mom was good or terrible, still with you or not, and whether anyone's ever acknowledged your own mothering. Special love and gratitude to both my own mother - the blonde in our family photo there - and to my second mother, my aunt sitting next to her. I'm blessed to have you in my life!

Secondly, we have a winner in the WORD WHORES REBRANDING BAKEOFF! Okay, no pastry items were involved (more's the pity), but we sorted through name suggestions from numerous sources and voted on our favorite.

The new name?? THE SFF SEVEN.

I like it a whole bunch! The change will kick in next Sunday, May 15. We'll keep you apprised!

In the meanwhile, we have seven winners! People who kindly brainstormed name ideas are:

Sullivan McPig
Stacy McKitrick
JanetLee
Heather
Kevin Reitz
B.E. Sanderson
Lynne Facer

You get to pick any book from any of the SFF Seven! Comment here to let us know the book and format preferred, along with a way to privately contact you to send it. Thank you, everyone, for playing!

In other news, to celebrate the upcoming release of THE PAGES OF THE MIND (and the concurrent release of THE CROWN OF THE QUEEN), Book One of the entire series, THE MARK OF THE TALA, is on sale for only $2.99. If you've been thinking about getting caught up on the series, now's a great time to get started!

Amusingly (or not, really) I saw a customer review somewhere that said they'd bought the book at the sale price, but then "the author raised the ebook price to $9.99 for the subsequent books." So, yeah, I know that MY PUBLISHER, Kensington, has the standard ebook price set at $9.99, which is a lot for the current market. I can't do anything about that. That's a drawback of traditional publishing - which is having a publisher, like mine in New York City - that was established before newer publishing models, and focuses on print book production, distribution and sales.

It's kind of interesting to me that self-publishing has become so well-established and prevalent these days that readers assume the authors set prices. But I also understand that these things are not transparent to the average reader.

This week, we'll all be discussing the different forms of publication and which work best for us. We've got a variety of publishing paths in this group, so there should be a nice variety in the discussions.

For my part, I consider myself to be hybrid at this point - which means I have books both with my traditional publishers and that I self-publish. I'm ever so grateful that I have the option to do both. A lot of authors who've been successful in the traditional publishing model had difficulties with the drawbacks there - price-setting, yes, but also long lead times, corporate politics, books going out of print, never to be resurrected, etc. With self-publishing so much more accessible and acceptable these days - and here I'd like to tip my hat to the intrepid writers who truly blazed this trail and made it so smooth and even for later-adopters like me - being a hybrid writer makes a great deal of sense to me.

There are a lot of things I do like about traditional publishing, and I'm forever glad I both took that path and had the opportunity to do so. That's something important to remember - many authors who self-publish took that path because the doors to traditional publishing remained firmly closed to them, for a variety of reasons. For them, it wasn't a "choice" so much as the most viable alternative.

Similarly, however, authors who did take the traditional path are not stupid. And I feel I have to say this because I've been told to my face by more than one person that I'm stupid for going with traditional publishing instead of self-publishing, where I could have more control and make more money. I have many good reasons for making the decisions I did. One of them is that money isn't everything. It's not even the most important thing.

Also, we decisions we do for complex reasons, many of them in the privacy of our hearts and minds. Chuck Wendig once said that, when people criticize him for going with traditional publishing when he could be making more money self-publishing, he feels like they're saying he should have married someone other than his wife.

I asked him if I could quote him here on that because that's a perfect analogy of how it feels. Nobody else can make these choices for us, these powerful decisions that affect the course of our lives. Second-guessing those choice, particularly by someone who hasn't been inside our skulls, hasn't walked in the quiet of our hearts, is simply inappropriate.

So, this week, as you hear each of our seven weigh in on the various publishing paths, keep that in mind. The kind of publishing that will work best for you is the one that works for YOU. Educate yourself. Weigh the options. But choose according to your heart, mind and gut - not someone else's.

After all - you'll be the one married to your decisions.

What Did I Read As a Kid? Everything!

2016-05-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

I was wildly imaginative as a kid - still am. I've been a voracious reader since the first day I figured out Dick and Jane saw Spot. So I read anything and everything I could get my hands on.

I read the Bobbsey Twins, Cherry Ames, Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, the Dana Sisters, Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Tom Swift Jr., Rick Brant....also older series that were passed down from my grandparents, like The Dare Boys and some prime G. A. Henty adventure novels.

Comic books! I had literally thousands and we will NOT discuss what eventually happened to them when I got married and moved out of the house. Some wounds still hurt too much! But Magnus Robot Fighter and The Brothers of the Spear were two of my favorites series.

Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, tales of King Arthur, Last Days of Pompeii, Little Women. The biography of The Swamp Fox.

I read ALL of it and much more before I was twelve and absorbed the elements I personally enjoy most - adventure, high stakes, brave/smart/valiant/honorable heroes and heroines,friendship, family, interesting settings, a happy ending and ROMANCE. That's required. I used to have to search long and hard to find it in the things I read as a kid but I can suss out any hint and add my own 'shipping' and re-imagining as required.

I've talked before about how Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Catseye by Shadow Hawk and Year of the Unicorn were also important to me, in terms of inspiring me to take all the elements boiling and fizzing in my subconscious and start writing stories that satisfied my cravings.

Andre Norton were two specific books that pushed me into eventually developing my own series in the ancient Egypt paranormal and the science fiction romance genres. Norton's

Obviously I kept reading after age twelve, and have many more favorite books and stories that influenced me along the way..but that sums up my early influences.

Where Am I Going and Why Am I in this Handbasket

2016-05-06T03:00:00.002-04:00

"And you may ask yourself

Well . . how did I get here?"

Talking Heads

It should come as no surprise to you that I have a story about how I ended up here. I'm an Air Force brat. Dad was in the military long enough ago that we moved often. Post assignments were generally for two years rather than the four or more they are now. That meant that either you were moving or the kids you'd made friends with were moving. Nothing was permanent. You learned early how to not get attached to place or to people because you were a perpetual tourist, flitting in for a short bit before being blown out on the breeze of Uncle Sam's whim. It had benefits - we saw amazing sights and had one of kind experiences.

But a military kids live always leaving or being left.

Kids handle that in one of two ways - they either learn to make friends with anyone and everyone very quickly. Most do this by becoming joiners. My sister went this route. On the other path, the military brat learns not to count on other people. She becomes self-contained. Has a tendency to sit on the sidelines, hanging back, both intellectually and emotionally isolated. I went that route. Less disappointment, sure, but lonely. Not that I *wasn't* that kid that no one wanted on their kickball team. Sports were not I and there wasn't a word for 'geek' in those days. Well. The word existed, it just didn't mean what it does today. Yes. I am that old. Shut up.

Books were my friends. They were reliable. They were friendly and I didn't have to be anything more than I was - a sickly kid who nearly got shipped to Germany for major surgery because the base doctors didn't think I'd survive Iceland. Horse books got me through that. Swampfire. A Pony Called Lightning. I still measured my age in single digits and I was on a serious Western kick. Roy Rogers was my hero. And maybe The Lone Ranger. So try to be generous while judging 9 year old me.

Books kept me company when my cousins and my sister ditched me alone at my grandparents' house. My Aunt Betty brought me a box of tattered paper backs, every last one of them written by Andre Norton. Ordeal in Otherwhere was the very first of hers I read. I promptly read every last one of the books in that box and went to ask for more and even began collecting Andre Norton books, myself. Aunt Betty and I had a friendly competition going for years over who had more. Got a note from her several years ago after her house burned down. It said, "You have more Andre Norton books than I do, now."

The thing I don't know how to convey is that books have been unfailing friends. Through good times, through times I wasn't certain I could survive, a book in my hands saw me through often with renewed determination and with new courage. Isn't that what friends are supposed to do?

How did I get here? Stories are still my nearest and dearest friends. I need them to survive. And if anything I write can be someone else's friend, I'll maybe have paid the kindness forward.

Who Are Your Influences?

2016-05-05T11:22:00.001-04:00

So, whenever that question pops up, I can't help but think of Jimmy Rabbit, trying vainly to hold auditions for the Hardest Working Soul Band in Dublin.

It's funny, because when I think about the books that influenced me, I'm kind of at a loss. I mean, nothing that I read in my youth really match what I write. I cite Zilpha Keatly Snyder and David Eddings as influences, and it's true. They both opened my idea of what fantasy could be, and more specifically what it didn't have to be.

That was important, because on some level I was always dissatisfied with the trappings of 'traditional' fantasy. Even though Eddings fits in that category, it did it in a way that defied my earlier expectations. Both Green-Sky and The Belgariad showed me that Fantasy didn't have to fit neatly into the genre boxes.

I'm kind of thrilled that there is such a wealth of fantasy nowadays that doesn't fit neatly into the boxes. The stuff that's proliferating today is exactly the sort of thing I craved back in the day. And I'm glad to be a part of that. Because the stuff I'm writing is, to a large degree, the sort of thing I wanted to read back then.

Hopefully that will influence some writer of tomorrow.

My Path

2016-05-04T09:00:00.002-04:00

How did I get here? What breadcrumbs led me to this place where writing is what I do?

An avid reader from an early age, my reading preferences, like many young readers, had much to do with short adventures. Such as Donald J. Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown series. That young lad's mysteries led me to longer stories with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. I'd read and re-read from my school library a shortened and illustrated version of Walter Farley's Black Stallion, but when I found the full novel I was in love. I read, no...I devoured all of his Black Stallion books, delighted to see how Alec and his magnificent horse dealt with a new problem. The spin-off Island Stallion series was just as good. Then I needed something else, a new fix.

Enter the genre fantasy.

I read the lot of Weis & Hickman's Dungeons and Dragons books and their Darksword trilogy and Rose of the Prophet trilogy, Piers Anthony's Blue Adept books, David Eddings' Malloreon series, Steven Brust's Jhereg series, his stand alones To Reign in Hell and Cowboy Fengs Space Bar and Grill. There were many, many others. I read EVERYTHING.

The problem was...the boys got the best adventures. The men bore the brunt of the danger. Sure there were some interesting and strong women in Weis and Hickman's tales, but they weren't the lead.

I didn't see myself represented in these books.

Then I found Jennifer Roberson's Sword Dancer.

As I understand it, at the time, Ms. Roberson was not able to write the story from the female leads POV and expect to get it sold...so she wrote it from the male lead's POV. Del was smart, strong, able, and determined. She was my hero during very formative years.

Though I had always dabbled in writing, this was when I began in earnest, and I wrote for me. To be honest, the Dragonlance art of Larry Elmore and Clyde Caldwell (and others) had as much to do with my imagination spring-boarding into my own stories as the novels I had read.

Then this whole Urban Fantasy thing happened, with female leads in abundance...and I was able to join the ranks of my favorite authors and have mass market paperbacks of my own on the bookshelves of book stores and chain stores alike.

Release Day: The Silent Army by James A. Moore

2016-05-03T09:07:00.002-04:00

On shelves virtual and actual today THE SILENT ARMY, Book 4 in our very own James A. Moore's gripping Seven Forges Epic Fantasy Series. ~pops champagne~ ~throws confetti~

The City of Wonders has been saved by nearly miraculous forces and the Silent Army is risen, ready to defend the Fellein Empire and Empress Nachia at any cost.

The power that was hidden in the Mounds is on the move, seeking a final confrontation with the very entities that kept it locked away since the Cataclysm. Andover Lashk has finally come to accept his destiny and prepares to journey back to Fellein. The Sa’ba Taalor continue their domination over each country and people they encounter, but the final conflict is coming: The Great Wave of the Sa’ba Taalor stands to destroy an empire and the Silent Army prepares to stop them in their tracks.

Caught in the middle is the Fellein Empire and the people who have gathered together on the final battlefield. The faithful and the godless, the soldiers and killers alike all stand or fall as old gods and new bring their war to a world-changing end. Some struggles are eternal. Some conflicts never cease. The Gods of War are here and they are determined to win.

BUY IT NOW

Amazon | B&N | BAM! | IndieBound

The Long and Winding Road

2016-05-02T20:14:00.002-04:00

I love the notion of this article.

It's the execution that causes me trouble.
Why?
Because EVERYTHING sent me down his path.

When I was much younger I started with comic books. not one or two, but everything i could get my paws on. i read them. re-read them, studied them, absorbed them.

Even before that I was watching The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, every possible incarnation of Sinbad I ran across and the same with Hercules. The Night Gallery, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Lost In Space, Planet Of The Apes, Star Trek....

No limits. If it was anything of the speculative bend, I was there absorbing.

When I grew into my teens I well and truly discovered a love of books. before then they were just those stupid assignments my teachers gave me. turns out I didn't much care for Hemingway. I've learned to appreciate him, but he's still notify favorite, if I'm being truthful.

Piers Anthony, Lloyd Alexander, Anne McCaffery, Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft, Madeline L'Engle, Ursula K. LeGuin, Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, J. R.R. Tolkien (and again, if I'm being honest, more for his imagination than his storytelling for me), The plethora of writers and artists who made up most of my comic book reading, including but not nearly limited to Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Gerry Conway, Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Curt Swan, Denny O'Neil, Jim Shooter...The list is too long. Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, Rick Hautala, seriously, folks, I absorbed them. As I write this I have been up for around 16 hours. I guarantee you I'm missing a few hundred. Marion Zimmer Bradley. What an amazing voice! Mark Twain. Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury.

Every last one of them a a hundred or so more shaped what i rite these days. They started me on the path. When it comes to sword & sorcery, if I had to pick one I'd say Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock. That's the absolute smallest number I can give you and it's not nearly large enough.

Tomorrow THE SILENT ARMY comes out.

ALL of them helped make it with their words and their ability to awaken a sense of wonder in me.

The Books That Sent Me Down This Path

2016-05-01T13:20:00.000-04:00

1990

This week's topic in the soon-not-to-be-a-bordello anymore - new title and contest winner to be announced soon! - is the book(s) that got us started on our genre.

This is always a hugely difficult question for me to answer because it feels like squeezing decades of reading into less than a thousand words.

Probably because that's exactly what we're trying to do.

But I'm trying this topic's particular focus on which books really sent me towards my niche genre of fantasy romance. I've discovered an interesting trend through this reflection on my past.

1991

A bit of history first. I trace my decision to become a writer to November of 1991. This is easy for me to look up, because my epiphany hit in the middle of the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. (They have a convenient and nicely organized sidebar of past meetings that I check any time I need to confirm the exact date.) Actually, as epiphanies sometimes do, mine came in the form of a complete meltdown, in which I burst into tears in front of my PhD adviser and ran from the building.

At this point I discovered that pursuing my life's ambition should probably not make me that crazy. And that maybe what I really wanted out of life was something else entirely. To my vast surprise, it turned out that the "something else" was to be a writer.

1994

During that convention I was reading Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. I remember it vividly because my mom, who went with me to that convention, was reading it also. We even hunted down the house in the story and discovered Anne Rice actually lived there. I'd been a fan of Rice's since I received a copy of Interview with the Vampire in my Science Fiction Book Club shipment. This book, though, it wrapped me up, masticated my heart into tiny pieces and tucked them back inside me, totally changed. Yeah, I was already an emotional wreck - a lot happened to me that year, including meeting David, who turned out to be the love of my life - and that book was part of it.

It planted the seed of what I really wanted to write, without me even knowing it.

1995

Because I'd *always* loved to read anything paranormalish. From the time I picked up Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong in 5th grade - not coincidentally the same year I read Interview with the Vampire - I consumed everything along those lines that I could find.

Two things, however, kept me from writing in that genre at first. Actually, I should say publishing. I did start writing this fantasy THING. It involved terrible fragments that went nowhere because I had zero craft or support in that direction. This is key, I think. My first publication was an essay, in 1997, and I came to write it because I took a class called Essays on Self and Place in 1996.

1998

Note how many years it took me from epiphany to publication.

1996

So, because I didn't know anyone who wrote genre, and there weren't visiting writer classes I could take in it, I didn't get focused on writing fantasy. Also, being in an academic environment, I thought I needed to write "important" things, not genre.

Alas.

But all during these years, that's what I was reading. It's interesting to review the books and series that pop into my head as formative - and then see the progression of dates. I've added them in as captions so you can see, too.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I *did* become an exhaustive reader. I didn't read all of these exactly when they came out, but pretty damn close. I haunted my local Hastings Book Store (because the indie book stores didn't carry genre), which had a rack of these books. I picked up Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart based on the cover and started in on Anita Blake because a colleague and similar fan of romance/paranormal crossover recommended them. And we'd both glommed onto Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books.

2002

A couple of things happened in the early 2000s. "The turn of the century" I liked to call it, but nobody thought I was funny. My first collection of essays (Wyoming Trucks, True Love and the Weather Channel) came out in 2004, to critical acclaim and practically zero income.

2002

Also, I became very aware of my unadulterated addiction to a number of series. I spent vast amounts of money on my autobuy books - JD Robb's In Death books, Gabaldon, Carey, Laurell K Hamilton and a few others. A good friend who'd begun to manage one of the local indie bookstores - and who was savvy and unpretentious enough to recognize book buyers like me - fed my addiction. She knew when my next autobuy book was coming out before I did and would have it ordered and waiting for me.

2005

Of course I couldn't resist.

Then, one day, she handed me Twilight. I wasn't interested. She said, no, really - my editor friend in NYC said she just spent the weekend reading this book and was spellbound. My friend thought I should at least read it, because early indicators were that it would be big. Then she asked me why wasn't I writing this kind of book, as much as I loved them.

At least I didn't cry that time.

But it was a second epiphany. I dug out those horrible fragments and began to play with them. It took several more years - and a lot of learning the craft of both writing novels and learning genre - but here I am, with my books right in there.

Pretty cool!

On Reviews

2016-04-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

Jake the Cat ignoring me this morning because I was not properly attentive!

I don't review. I mention books from time to time, especially in my various columns and posts art USA Today Happily Ever After and Amazing Stories Magazine (Archive of USAT and AM posts), and I think it's a fairly safe assumption that if I take the time to interview an author or mention the book, I enjoyed it.

I don't read reviews either, unless a reader tweets me or notifies me they've written one they want me to see. If someone calls a review to my attention, then I go look at it. I very much appreciate the time that readers and book bloggers put into writing reviews, to help other readers decide if the books are something they'll enjoy or not! And I know I need reviews to help Amazon in its algorithmic ponderings of the book in question.

I just can't read them.

I learned this lesson about myself in the early, wild days of eBay when feedback on buyers and sellers wasn't capsulized in nice anonymous stars about price, timeliness, communications and etc. In the old OLD days, people could and did write some outrageous things, much like a one star book review from a troll (not just an unhappy reader who has good reasons for why the book disappointed them - that can certainly happen even with the best book). We didn't get many bad reviews because we were highly conscientious sellers but every once in a while the customer would be unhappy. And wow, those words would wound me every time. I was doing my best, I was a widowed mother of two with a day job, trying to make the mortgage payment, didn't they realize they were taking food from my children's mouths if they left bad feedback....yup. I took it all onboard and I'd argue, in passionate e mails, to get the feedback removed or softened, or make the buyer happy. Good thing I learned NOT to do this on eBay so I'd be prepared for being an author LOL!

I finally made my daughters read all our Seller feedback first and only tell me if I had a specific thing I needed to know. Did the item arrive broken and a refund really was needed? Fine. I'd deal with it.

So that's my tale, folks.

In a non-review, I read an ARC of Jeffe's next release The Pages of the Mind (Uncharted Realms) and could not put it down. I LOVED it. Interview will be forthcoming when the book comes out in June.

The One Star Review

2016-04-29T04:00:00.000-04:00

Moon set on the western edge of the continent.

Reviews. Am I wrong in thinking there's so much weird psychology wrapped up in them? I mean, sure. 95% of reviews aren't meant for the author at all. They're meant for other readers, a fact I appreciate. All hail ANYONE who spends the time and energy to read a book and the write a review. That's the greatest gift a reader can give an author, I think - it's time and life energy spent on your book. Doesn't even matter whether the review is good or bad. It's still a chunk of another human being's life being dedicated to your work. So please, if you review books (mine or anyone else's) thank you. I owe you chocolate.

The other 5% of reviews, though, that's where things get strange and where the agendas become far more transparent than I suspect the reviewer wants. You know how it is. Writer slogs for years trying to learn her craft and get published. Because then all her problems will be solved! Finally, the call comes. The first precious book goes out the door into the wide world. Someone reads it. Then someone else. Reviews start coming in. And they're okay! Until - hey! ONE STAR?? WTH? Your heart lands in your shoes as you read.

Interesting story: It happened to Enemy Within. A reviewer on Amazon left a one star review saying he didn't understand why anyone liked the book, there was nothing new in it. (Even more interesting - I just went to find the review to quote it and it's gone. Huh.) Why did that review in particular stick with me? Was it because it was the first critical review of the book? Not hardly. If I want to play my critical review trump card, I note that no one less than Angela James wrote a very constructive, if critical review of the book. No this one star review stayed with me because the reviewer's agenda was plain in his dismissive tone. He's a frustrated writer. He had an idea that was similar-ish, but his was SO MUCH BETTER - the only problem was that he hasn't written it. He may never write it. It's much easier to take pot shots at the work someone else did than to do your own and face that the reality will never live up to the idea.

It seems like if a critical review is constructive and calls out issues that bothered the reader, then it's an honest opinion. The snarky one or two line reviews that don't actually give you any specifics - those set off my psychology senses (100% unqualified as they are) I think it's Julia Cameron who, in her ARTIST'S WAY books points out that the most vitriolic critics are creatives who aren't creating. I do my best to keep that in mind when some nitwit drops a snide, unhelpful line of bitterness into the flow of actual reviews.

Would I get 'author behaving badly' demerits if I pinged that reviewer with a note saying 'write yer damned book already?' :D

PS: Don't forget to offer up suggestions for a name change! See Jeffe's post on the matter. You do NOT want me naming this blog. Just saying.

Perils of the Writer: Reading Your Reviews

2016-04-28T11:34:00.001-04:00

I have some writer friends who tell me they never read their reviews.

I honestly have no idea how you can do that.

Like, I can keep myself from interacting with the reviewers. I know that a review is not an invitation for a dialogue. Even when, for example, a dialogue breaks out from a review. More than once I've seen a review that pointed out something the reviewer found a negative (which: their opinion, fair enough), and then a reader grabbed onto that negative and extrapolated it to an extreme. For a sense of the sort of thing I'm talking about (but not an actual example):

Reviewer: I did sometimes feel frustrated because the protagonist made some dumb choices, even though they were choices that were true to the character.

Comment: Ugh! I can't stand books with IDIOT PROTAGONISTS. WILL NOT READ.

While this is not a real example, it's not an exaggeration of what I've seen. It feels like watching a game of broken telephone-- someone interprets a thing one way, and then someone else interprets their interpretation even further in that direction, so now you're seeing this ill-formed, uninformed opinion of your work, and you want to try to course correct it...

But really all you can do is twist your hands to try to psychically move the bowling ball away from the gutter. You sent the book out there already, and opinions are going to form, regardless of what you want. Regardless of what you intended the takeaway from your book to be, people are going to take their own thing. They're going to read the same thing and come out with very different feelings. Thorn and Murder have both been praised for rich, elaborate worldbuilding and criticized for thin, hollow worldbuilding. Neither reviewer is more "right" than the other (though I could tell you which one I agree with more). I've seen reviews that make me feel that the reviewer was being sloppy in their reading, or that they inserted some of their own biases-- but that also makes me wonder if I was sloppy in my writing, or started with my own presumptions.

The main thing for me is, I always read them, and I always look to see what I can learn and what I can use in order to improve my craft. Because what's the point of doing this if we're not striving to get better as we go?

Reviews

2016-04-27T09:04:00.001-04:00

Reviews are not something I do. "Grading" my peers seems disingenuous and dangerous, aside from the fact that I don't get to read nearly as much as I once did. That said, I make recommendations to folks who ask and I support my writing pals by linking to their stuff on Facebook when they are promoting something. I have also given a few blurbs when approached to do so.
My reviews have been mostly good, but there are some bad ones out there. I understand that this is the law of averages, and as my subject matter is such that some folks will object to it, I don't mind. Really. Reviews don't make or break my day. It's the constant contact from folks who've just discovered the series and want more--that makes my day. There isn't much that can break my day, and certainly not someone's opinion of my books. That just isn't me.

I Love Book Reviewers, But I Will Not Be One

2016-04-26T10:21:00.001-04:00

I love reviewers. I truly appreciate the time and effort they take to write the review, to educate, inform, and instigate conversations. Like Jeffe, I really love book reviewers who write the insightful "why I loved/hated this book" reviews. As a reader, book summaries or cliff notes of the novel just annoy me. Oh, and spoilers? Grrrrr.

But.

I will not leave reviews for books. I will review shoes, paints, clothing, rugs, service providers, dog foods, shampoos, kitchen gadgets, etc. I will not review books. I will not publicly comment on the works of other artists in my field. Regardless of genre. I have made one exception. I will not make another. This makes my Goodreads page very dull, 'cause it's all about me, me, me. SorryNotSorry.

In my experience, there are three general categories of authors who do review books:

The Hat-Tip: There are plenty of authors who actively review the good, the bad, the ugly. There are authors who will only review a book they feel deserves five stars and heaps of praise. There are authors who will only review books 30+ years old or books far outside their genre. These authors ask for nothing in return for the review; they do it for the love of reading and being active in the readers' communities.

The Tainted: There are authors who will review in exchange for a review. This is a great temptation, especially when trying to trigger the magical algorithms to increase the visibility of a book. This is very common in the authorverse; so much so, that it's an unspoken expectation among certain circles. I withdrew from those circles...then reached for the bleach and a wire brush.

The Terrible: There are authors who use reviews as a portal to refer potential readers over to their books. There are authors who eviscerate anyone they perceive to be competition. There are authors who engage in reviewer wars--for books they have written and for books written by others.

I will not leave reviews for books. It's a respect thing in which I endeavor to treat my peers equally; regardless of their ability to entertain with a story. At the end of the year, when we Word-Whores list our Top Reads, that's closest I'll get to a review. Even then I have to be careful, because...opinions, I have them. Often in caustic abundance. For all that it is easy to elevate with praise, it is equally easy to condemn by omission.

I'll stick to writing the books. I leave the reviews to the readers, gods bless 'em.

Through a Review Darkly

2016-04-25T17:38:00.002-04:00

In a perfect world I would have found the article I wrote several years ago about this subject and posted it here. It was witty in the extreme and filled with examples both good and bad of reviews.

Instead, here we are with me pushing several deadlines.

So today I'll hit the highlights.

1) A review is as good as the reviewer. Most reviewers online can and will tell you why they like or do not like something. A lot of times their reasoning is, well, odd. I have, somewhere on Amazon, a one star review on Bloodstained Oz which was co-written with Christopher Golden. It wasn't that the reviewer didn't like the book. The tale received one star because the book was a signed, limited edition and at that time the alleged reviewer could not afford a copy. That, folks, is not a review in the real world. It's an online argument about pricing.

I have had many reviews that sang my praises and at least as many that suggested I try another area. Ultimately, as individual statements, one flatters and one condemns. Neither will be the end of me or send me intitial sales that defy imagination. I'm okay with that.

2) A GOOD review will actually be done by someone who has actually read the book. I've been astonished a few times to read reviews that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the books in question. They ranted about the author. They explained that having read a DIFFERENT book by the author, the reviewer decided the next book must either be amazing or the worst thing ever written. I have, again, somewhere on Amazon, had a review that said the reviewer heard that my last book wasn't very good, so, one star review.

3) I keep mentioning Amazon because ENOUGH reviews on Amazon actually affects how Amazon presents an author. Allegedly, if a book receives more than 50 reviews (which can range from rants about your face all the way to deeply thought out reviews from people who border on scholarly) Amazon starts pushing you books harder. They are mentioned in Amazon emails, newsletters and other publications. Amazon, for the record, is genuinely a large portion of any book's potential sales. For better or worse, the world is changing and has moved into a different sales platform for books.

4) Any review can potentially help you. I used to live in Atlanta and it was a sure bet hat if the pompous windbags who did reviews of movies and books for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution hated a book or movie, I would give it a try. I mean that. I quite literally never agreed with them on a single review that I ran across. It might be there are a few where I would have agreed if I had ever seen them, but they were my metric when I was on the fence about a movie or story. Just because a review is negative, it doesn't mean the review is bad.

5) Bad reviews hurt. Grow a thick skin. You've now reached the stage where you are selling stories? Someone is going to hate them. has nothing to do with you and everything to do with someone else's opinion. I have never once run across a review that cut me top the point where I bled out, or a review that sent me into heavenly shivers of delight. Ever. Some have come close in both cases, but I recovered.

6) 8 days from now my next book, THE SILENT ARMY comes out in the US. It came out last month in the UK. So far there have been three reviews, all favorable. I'm still bracing myself for the negatives. They are, in my humble opinion, as inevitable as the tide. I will disappoint someone. YOU will disappoint someone. The sun will continue to rise in all events. It will also set each night.

7) In my humble opinion the only true purpose of a review aside from sales is as a litmus test of sorts: If five reviewers out of ten say something is wrong, you might consider looking into it. if one in ten does, you can safely ignore it.

In the near future I will have a map of Fellein, the world where my Seven Forges novels are set, completed by an artist I know. Why? Because people kept asking for one. I'm taking the hint.

How a Vicious Review Opened My Eyes

2016-04-24T12:25:00.000-04:00

This is one of my favorite photos from the RT Booklovers Convention in Las Vegas last week. Darynda Jones and I were on a panel and I think we were laughing here about people dissing fantasy heroines as unrealistic while loving Conan.

Hard to say, but it makes me smile every time.

Speaking of problematic labels... It's come to our attention here at the Bordello that our moniker, while entertaining in a snarky way, has become a problem. Apparently most firewalls object to the use of "whores" in the URL and, well, everywhere else on this blog. So, while we shall remain forever Word Whores in our hearts (and elsewhere), we've decided to rebrand.

And we're looking for suggestions for a new blog name! Put your ideas in the comments and we'll select our favorites, then run a poll in the sidebar. The winner will receive their book of choice from each of the seven of us! Caveat: our selection will strongly depend on domain/blog name availability, so you might check on that if your eyes are on the prize.

This week's topic is: Reviews.

Just that, and only that. Not like it's an enormous topic or anything, people.

The first thing that springs to mind is my very first encounter with a book review. Not a book report, which I feel like I began writing with a #2 pencil when my first grade teacher asked me to put into words all my feels about a book. No, this came a bit later, sometime after I was forced in 6th grade to read The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper. (A book I loathed with the fire of a thousand suns - also a first for me.) I felt alone in my hate. The teacher who forced me to read it certainly didn't understand - and did not appreciate my mouthy opinions on the topic. Everyone else who'd already learned to loathe reading didn't understand either. My parents, friends, everyone I ranted to, responded along the lines of, "So? Everyone has to read books for school that they hate." But I never had read a book I didn't like before.

A horrible thing to discover.

At any rate, some time later - maybe a year or two - I came across an essay by Mark Twain called, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses." (Apologies in advance for some of the racist language in it - you know how Twain was.) Reading that terribly snarky essay LIT UP MY WORLD, people! Twain detailed everything I hated about The Deerslayer and taught me more. Through his eyes I finally understood why I'd loathed the book.

This is what a good review does.

These days it's anathema for one author to so viciously criticize another. It's not even acceptable, in many circles, for a reviewer to completely eviscerate an author's work this way - though it can and does happen. A huge difference here is that Twain does so with wit and incisive intelligence, which not all modern reviewers can lay claim to, particularly of the internet troll variety.

Still, a well-thought out essay on why a book did not work for a reader can be a wonderful helping hand. From Twain I first began to understand how a book could go wrong for me. He walked me through how to parse prose from plot, character from ... well, whatever Fenimore Cooper used to transmit dialogue.

Do I like it when I get a scathing review of one of my books? Of course not. But a well thought-out discussion of why a book didn't work for a reader reveals important qualities of the story to other readers. And it makes us think, which is always a good thing.

Do Pictures Inspire My Writing?

2016-04-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

No, not usually, except in the most general sense that looking at photos and art can be inspiring and nurturing to creativity. Earlier in my writing career, long before I was published (and before Pinterest), I used to cut out pages from magazines and take bits and pieces of pictorials to help me come up with ideas for futuristic clothing. High fashion spreads were especially useful because they tended to feature really interesting garments, backgrounds and accessories. I also loved photos of jewelry, the more unusual the better. But I don't do that much anymore, as I've gotten better at visualizing details for my characters and settings while I'm in the flow of writing the science fiction romance novels. I won't say I'm never inspired by a specific photo these days, but it's rare.

There was one of actor Charlie Hunnam that was pretty darn inspiring…but I digress!

One of my novels, Mission to Mahjundar, did spring into my mind pretty much fully formed from two pictures I saw in the same general time frame, long before it ever reached final draft, much less was published. I don't have the rights to use the photos so I can't share them here (although I do have the tattered magazine pages in a file somewhere).

I saw a photo of a windswept, abandoned temple, standing alone on a plateau, somewhere in the Middle East. The image remained with me and I pondered – as one does – what adventure would bring people to this remote location and what would happen to them there. What would they be seeking? Would they find whatever they needed? This became the temple of the Ten Gods, where Shalira must go on her wedding journey, to seek a key to her mother’s long-closed tomb. The key thing that put all the other elements together in my mind and set off the plot was a perfume ad in a magazine. The illustration was very dark in tone, with a woman in a purple-and-gold hooded cloak holding a beautiful crystal bottle that glowed golden. The light from the bottle illuminated her face. And I thought, that’s it! That’s Shalira inside the tomb. Then I needed to know who would be there with her…and my Sectors Special Forces soldier, Mike Varone, told me he would be, of course!

I was inspired to write a short story about ancient Egypt by a picture of statue of a handsome soldier that had clearly been one of a pair at some time. I thought about a lonely museum worker who might picture herself standing hand in hand with the warrior…and then I had to figure out how to make that happen. This photo below is not the one which inspired the story (Available in the Five Minute Love Stories anthology) but is from roughly the same era, and has a similar look.

Photo by the author

My upcoming May release, Lady of the Star Wind, has a subplot pretty much entirely inspired by an ancient mirror I once saw at a museum, although the Mirror of the Mother in my novel is very different.

When it comes to the ancient Egyptian paranormal novels I write, I do spend time looking through my large collection of books, tomb wall painting reproductions, 1800's prints and advertising cards, and other artifacts.

Photo by the author

Inspired by What I See

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Visuals as inspiration - mine start simply enough. Witness this mild mannered umbrella that opens out into a demon trap.

Then we get a little bit more complicated. Tell me this sign doesn't cry out for some major backstory. SO MANY BACKSTORIES. The story of the idjits summoning things at Subway - The story of the thing summoned - The story of the poor, beleaguered manager of the Subway shop. "God damn it. I'm trying to make a sandwich and now I've got to clean up another decapitation because you people can't get your séances right? Seriously?"

To this video of awesome that is straight up going in one of my scifi stories because the heroine is a demolitions expert and this is the coolest thing just about ever. Well. Okay. The ping pong balls and liquid nitrogen were cool. But this is definitely a close second. And yes. Things that go BOOM win. I am apparently very easily amused.