First point - it's Q4b because August started with a Friday so my Friday posting slot is out of sync with the rest of the week and it's annoying me.
Second point - Okay, I’ll admit it. I completely forgot it was Friday today. But I do have my excuse ready.
Good news always throws me off balance and today I had some good news come through.
Silent Night – Book two in the Perfect Timing series – has just been accepted by Total-e-bound. I’ll have a few more details for you and the blurb in due course.
It probably goes without saying that I’m very pleased, very excited, and I now have absolutely no idea what my FAQ was going to be this week. I’m sure I made a list of questions at some point, no idea where I put it.
*Goes off to check what questions I’ve already used*
Okay… I’m back and I have a question for myself.
Q. I've been to your website and your blog - do you turn up anywhere else on the web?
A. I'm in an on line critique group. There's also a bit of old fan fiction lurking around somewhere (for the record, the fan fiction I wrote was actually a set of nice sweet little stories. No sex at all!). I'm also listed as a participant and a winner of Nanowrimo 2004-2007 and Script Frenzy 2006-2007.
Apart from that, you'll now be able to get another dose of blogging from me on the 27th of each month on Total-e-bound's blog.
Yes, you're right, the question is a blatant excuse to tell you that, but it's midnight and my minds gone a bit blank of other questions. Next weeks question will be better - promise.
I'll post up a link to the TEB blog when I get myself organised.
Other news... I'm back to the re-writes of Whispers - my anthology sub - added 1000 words to it today. I need to add another 4000-5000 over the weekend.
That's it for me. I'm off to bed.
Sleep well everyone :)
Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAQ. Show all posts
Friday, 29 August 2008
Friday, 22 August 2008
Friday's Answered Question 4
Q. What don't you write?
A. It sounds like a daft question when you first read it. But as I said at the end of last Friday's post, some people have some funny ideas about what kink means.
There are two acronyms that I'd like to start the conversation with. SSC and RACK. SSC stands for Safe, Sane and Consensual. RACK stands for Risk Aware Consensual Kink. Whichever you prefer, the important word is in both.
Consent.
I remember reading a quote on the internet a long time ago (no idea where - if you know, let me know) but it went something like. "The difference between vanilla (that's non-kinky) sex and rape is consent. The difference between kinky sex and rape is consent."
So that's the first thing I don't write - rape as erotic content. Now, just to be clear, I have written a few stories where rape occurs before or during the course of the story. Bad things happen to good people. To my mind, rape survivors need someone to write them a happy ending just as much as anyone else, so I don't shy away from that.
*Sigh* okay, I've been trying to find a more grown up way of saying this since the start of the post, but it's not working. So here's the basic version - the rapist / abusers / etc are the baddies. The goodies don't do things like that.
On the other hand the goodies are usually more than a little kinky. So, they might tie someone up, turn their lover over their knee or push their lover to their limits. But you can be sure all parties involved will enjoy every minute of it.
Erotic pain might be involved if one of the parties is masochistic - but that's pain they enjoy. Exhibitionism could well come into play in some of the stories - some characters get off on it. Submission is almost always there in some form or other. And none of those things would be any fun unless there were sadists, voyeurs and dominants on hand to join in.
What else don't I write? Well, I don't write unhappy endings. Hate reading them. Hate writing them. If I want to be depressed I'll watch the news.
That doesn't mean there aren't sometimes sad bits in the middle - it's not all roses and rainbows - but you can always read on safely sure it will all work out right in the end.
Apart from that, I'm quite happy to give the characters free reign and see where they take me, so you'll see a wide variety of content in different books.
So, I hope that all makes sense.
If not, feel free to leave a comment and I'll have another go :)
A. It sounds like a daft question when you first read it. But as I said at the end of last Friday's post, some people have some funny ideas about what kink means.
There are two acronyms that I'd like to start the conversation with. SSC and RACK. SSC stands for Safe, Sane and Consensual. RACK stands for Risk Aware Consensual Kink. Whichever you prefer, the important word is in both.
Consent.
I remember reading a quote on the internet a long time ago (no idea where - if you know, let me know) but it went something like. "The difference between vanilla (that's non-kinky) sex and rape is consent. The difference between kinky sex and rape is consent."
So that's the first thing I don't write - rape as erotic content. Now, just to be clear, I have written a few stories where rape occurs before or during the course of the story. Bad things happen to good people. To my mind, rape survivors need someone to write them a happy ending just as much as anyone else, so I don't shy away from that.
*Sigh* okay, I've been trying to find a more grown up way of saying this since the start of the post, but it's not working. So here's the basic version - the rapist / abusers / etc are the baddies. The goodies don't do things like that.
On the other hand the goodies are usually more than a little kinky. So, they might tie someone up, turn their lover over their knee or push their lover to their limits. But you can be sure all parties involved will enjoy every minute of it.
Erotic pain might be involved if one of the parties is masochistic - but that's pain they enjoy. Exhibitionism could well come into play in some of the stories - some characters get off on it. Submission is almost always there in some form or other. And none of those things would be any fun unless there were sadists, voyeurs and dominants on hand to join in.
What else don't I write? Well, I don't write unhappy endings. Hate reading them. Hate writing them. If I want to be depressed I'll watch the news.
That doesn't mean there aren't sometimes sad bits in the middle - it's not all roses and rainbows - but you can always read on safely sure it will all work out right in the end.
Apart from that, I'm quite happy to give the characters free reign and see where they take me, so you'll see a wide variety of content in different books.
So, I hope that all makes sense.
If not, feel free to leave a comment and I'll have another go :)
Friday, 15 August 2008
Friday's Answered Question 3
Q. What do you write?
A. Not the most interesting question in the world, I'll grant you - but I do have to cover the basics at some point. It might as well be now.
Over the years I've written a bit of everything, and I'll probably keep doing that. However, at the moment I do have a focus on erotic romance stories - and those are the projects you'll be reading about on this site.
Saying that, within the scope of erotic romance, I've got series of stories that swing more towards the paranormal, suspense, crime, fantasy or comedy elements, so there is still a bit of everything going on inside my head.
I write about a 50/50 split between m/m and m/f stories - with occassional forays into f/f and a few menages here and there. The very vast majority of these stories contain some sort of BDSM (bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism - if you're wondering).
Sometimes that means the stories are about characters who live the complete lifestyle, and sometimes it's just a game they like to play when they have sex. There are a few books where the kinks aren't so obvious - where the dominance and submission doesn't have a lot to do with leather and whips, but everything to do with the characters personalities and how they interact.
Despite the subgenres and the kinky sex scenes, they are all still romances with happy endings. I don't like reading stories where I cry at the end - I don't intend to write stories which make other people do that either.
Which leads me nicely on to the plug for next Friday's Answered Question:
Next weeks I'll be talking about what I don't write. Because some people have some funny ideas about what kink is.
A. Not the most interesting question in the world, I'll grant you - but I do have to cover the basics at some point. It might as well be now.
Over the years I've written a bit of everything, and I'll probably keep doing that. However, at the moment I do have a focus on erotic romance stories - and those are the projects you'll be reading about on this site.
Saying that, within the scope of erotic romance, I've got series of stories that swing more towards the paranormal, suspense, crime, fantasy or comedy elements, so there is still a bit of everything going on inside my head.
I write about a 50/50 split between m/m and m/f stories - with occassional forays into f/f and a few menages here and there. The very vast majority of these stories contain some sort of BDSM (bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism - if you're wondering).
Sometimes that means the stories are about characters who live the complete lifestyle, and sometimes it's just a game they like to play when they have sex. There are a few books where the kinks aren't so obvious - where the dominance and submission doesn't have a lot to do with leather and whips, but everything to do with the characters personalities and how they interact.
Despite the subgenres and the kinky sex scenes, they are all still romances with happy endings. I don't like reading stories where I cry at the end - I don't intend to write stories which make other people do that either.
Which leads me nicely on to the plug for next Friday's Answered Question:
Next weeks I'll be talking about what I don't write. Because some people have some funny ideas about what kink is.
Friday, 8 August 2008
Friday's Answered Question 2
Q. How long have you been writing and why?
A. Forever. Cheesy as it sounds, I can't ever remember I time I wasn't writing stories in my head. It took me a while to start getting them down on paper.
I started getting serious about my writing - writing every day and actually finishing the projects I started - in 2006.
Nanowrimo is partly to blame. I started doing that in 2004. I did the 50k in 2004 and 2005, but my turning point was switching from fantasy novels in those first two years and writing erotica in 2006.
Not only did I do more than the 50k in Novemeber, I actually kept writing through December and January and I actually finished the story - all 200+k of it. What can I say - it was a long story!
I kept writing through 2007. At the start of 2008 I began editing all the first drafts I aquired over the last year or so. I had the crazy idea that I'd like to get something accepted when I was still 24.
Turquoise and Leather was accepted on 30th June 2008. I turned 25 in the middle of July. Wonderful things for focusing the mind - deadlines :)
As for why? Simply for my sanity's sake. I have to much going on in my head - too many characters telling me their stories. If I didn't get some of it out on paper, it would quickly drive me around the twist.
There we are then. I was going to finish this post off by telling you what next weeks FAQ would be, accept I haven't actually decided what it would be. So um... tune in next Friday to find out what I'll be talking about next Friday :)
A. Forever. Cheesy as it sounds, I can't ever remember I time I wasn't writing stories in my head. It took me a while to start getting them down on paper.
I started getting serious about my writing - writing every day and actually finishing the projects I started - in 2006.
Nanowrimo is partly to blame. I started doing that in 2004. I did the 50k in 2004 and 2005, but my turning point was switching from fantasy novels in those first two years and writing erotica in 2006.
Not only did I do more than the 50k in Novemeber, I actually kept writing through December and January and I actually finished the story - all 200+k of it. What can I say - it was a long story!
I kept writing through 2007. At the start of 2008 I began editing all the first drafts I aquired over the last year or so. I had the crazy idea that I'd like to get something accepted when I was still 24.
Turquoise and Leather was accepted on 30th June 2008. I turned 25 in the middle of July. Wonderful things for focusing the mind - deadlines :)
As for why? Simply for my sanity's sake. I have to much going on in my head - too many characters telling me their stories. If I didn't get some of it out on paper, it would quickly drive me around the twist.
There we are then. I was going to finish this post off by telling you what next weeks FAQ would be, accept I haven't actually decided what it would be. So um... tune in next Friday to find out what I'll be talking about next Friday :)
Friday, 1 August 2008
Friday's Answered Question 1
Q. Why do you call the stories you write about two guys male/male rather than gay?
A. This is actually a real question someone asked me. Okay, it wasn’t for this posting segment and once isn’t exactly frequent, but I’ll take what I can get :)
The answer is actually simple. Sometimes the men in the stories about two guys are gay. Sometimes they are bi. Sometimes they are… okay, I’ll grant that it’s not likely they are entirely straight if they’re having that much fun with another man, but still, they don’t always consider themselves to be gay.
In some of my stories – mostly the ones that have a paranormal or fantasy element – the characters don’t understand what “gay” is. If a werewolf finds his mate and that mate happens to be another man, so what? He has his mate – he’s happy. And if a vampire bites down on another guy, he’s more likely to think - He tastes nice! than ask deep and meaningful questions about his sexuality.
Even in the contemporary stories a lot of the characters think Oscar Wilde was right - people are not homosexual or hetrosexual, they are just sexual. If a guy happens to prefer guys to girls it doesn't define him any more than it would if he happened to like blondes more than brunettes. So, lot of my characters are not too keen on labels. So I suppose that’s what it comes down to for me really – labels.
If the stories are “gay erotic romance” it either implies the characters are gay – which isn’t always accurate, or the readership is expected to be gay – which certainly isn’t the case (Honestly, I’m very happy for anyone at all to buy the books, without prejudice over race, religion, sexuality or anything else you can think of!).
Male/male doesn’t label the characters or the readers, it labels the content. If you read the book you can expect the sex scenes to be between two men – you can expect male/male content.
Oh, and since I’m on the subject, I’ll also mention that I don’t label the stories I write about a man and a woman as heterosexual or straight stories – I write male/female.
And that's it for me - it was actually going to be a short post but I gave up on that idea about three paragraphs ago.
If you have any thoughts on the topic, feel free to leave a comment :)
A. This is actually a real question someone asked me. Okay, it wasn’t for this posting segment and once isn’t exactly frequent, but I’ll take what I can get :)
The answer is actually simple. Sometimes the men in the stories about two guys are gay. Sometimes they are bi. Sometimes they are… okay, I’ll grant that it’s not likely they are entirely straight if they’re having that much fun with another man, but still, they don’t always consider themselves to be gay.
In some of my stories – mostly the ones that have a paranormal or fantasy element – the characters don’t understand what “gay” is. If a werewolf finds his mate and that mate happens to be another man, so what? He has his mate – he’s happy. And if a vampire bites down on another guy, he’s more likely to think - He tastes nice! than ask deep and meaningful questions about his sexuality.
Even in the contemporary stories a lot of the characters think Oscar Wilde was right - people are not homosexual or hetrosexual, they are just sexual. If a guy happens to prefer guys to girls it doesn't define him any more than it would if he happened to like blondes more than brunettes. So, lot of my characters are not too keen on labels. So I suppose that’s what it comes down to for me really – labels.
If the stories are “gay erotic romance” it either implies the characters are gay – which isn’t always accurate, or the readership is expected to be gay – which certainly isn’t the case (Honestly, I’m very happy for anyone at all to buy the books, without prejudice over race, religion, sexuality or anything else you can think of!).
Male/male doesn’t label the characters or the readers, it labels the content. If you read the book you can expect the sex scenes to be between two men – you can expect male/male content.
Oh, and since I’m on the subject, I’ll also mention that I don’t label the stories I write about a man and a woman as heterosexual or straight stories – I write male/female.
And that's it for me - it was actually going to be a short post but I gave up on that idea about three paragraphs ago.
If you have any thoughts on the topic, feel free to leave a comment :)
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