Janine Ashbless's Blog, page 108

Better

Unless they've spent the day writing up a storm. I think that's the only thing that just might be better than sex. Not sure.

Though, come to think of it, when I do that it involves quites a lot of sex too...
;-)

Oxford: the naughty bits

I had a day in lovely Oxford last month. I'm sort of ashamed not to have been there before and I will certainly go back. Beautiful architecture, idyllic punting scenes on the Isis, the pub where Tolkien and CS Lewis used to hang out with their Inkling friends ... no, I'm not going to show you any of that! I'm going to share pictures of sexy stuff I found in the Ashmolean Museum!

Because the best thing about Culture is the cracks through which you view the eternal dirty mind of humanity.
  Yes, it's a prehistoric vase shaped like a giant booty
 Beware ... she may look hot but she's a smallpox goddess
The art of the decolletage was perfected in ancient Crete
Well, you wouldn't being mummified to diminish your feminine allure, would you?
Remnants of a giant statue of the phallic god Min, doing precisely what you think he's doingCulture ... I can't get enough of it ;-)

Taxing times

Yes, it's that filling-in-the-self-assessment-tax form time of year again. These are the files full of receipts and paperwork I've kept for each year since 2003.

The fact that the box is close to full is a reminder that I've been an, ahem, professional writer, for 10 years now. How did that happen?!

In those ten years I've seen a load of changes:

I've seen erotica books go from something you bought in paperback to something you're likely to buy in e-form, or just read for free on some website.I've seen my first publisher, Black Lace, crash into nothing and then magically reappear.I've seen guy-on-guy fiction go from something forbidden by mainstream editors to a bizarre but recognised alternate reality all of its own. I've seen the rise and rise of erotic urban paranormal romance: shifters, shifters, vampires, shifters.I've seen the 50 Shades of Grey bubble expand - and now it's deflating again.I've seen several really good writers give up on erotica because they're fed up with the silly rules, the sneering of the establishment, and/or the lack of financial reward for their work.I've seen the reading market absolutely swamped with self-published e-books of, let us say, "varying" quality.I've seen BDSM become mainstream, AND the rise of a new puritan censorship - simultaneously and sometimes perpetrated by the same people.I've seen Amazon take over the goddamn planet. We are all its slaves now.The landscape is changing. Goodness knows where it'll be in another 10 years time. And since I can't guess, I suppose I'm going to just go on writing my stuff, my way. Maybe one day the bandwagon will catch up with me...

xxx

Eyecandy Monday: health and safety

I like to keep my readers in top physical form.
I wouldn't want them seizing up when they read my books ... ;-)

For the advanced class:

Simple, really

Fantasy Girl

This week I went to see Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. It's a YA urban fantasy, based on a book series. It's not a great movie by any means (it's good fun if you like that sort of thing, that's all), nor is it clarion-call for feminism. But it got me thinking.

It's a film with a teenaged female protagonist that fully acknowledges not just her centrality in her own story, but her sexual desire. It's a movie with a teenaged-girl point of view that doesn't treat her as an unawakened child.

Getting her wet: the roundabout routeNow, I can't remember any movies from when I was a child that did that. Except Dirty Dancing (1987) ... which incidentally became a massive cult hit among women who identified with the coming-of-age story. But that was marketed as a straight romance. In the supernatural field ... well, there was The Company of Wolves ... but as an 18/X-rated movie that was specifically not meant to be watched by the adolescent girls who might be feeling that way right then. Oh - Labyrinth .  That was the one! For most of my life action movies aimed at teens have had a male protagonist. Girls feature as the love interest or backup to the hero, from Lost Boys to Harry Potter. It's still overwhelmingly the case (I'M LOOKING AT YOU, PERCY JACKSON).

"We'll go when you say the word, Percy! Because you're the only one in our gang who's white and a dude."But nowadays we have Twilight. We have Mortal Instruments. We have The Hunger Games. Movies based on best-selling books that have humungous female readerships. Girls as a demographic read way more than boys, and they are finally being taken seriously as a cash-cow by Hollywood producers.
Now sure, I'm not saying these are good movies. I saw Twilight (on TV) and I thought it cheesy as a ripe parmesan (and no, I cannot bring myself to read the books), though Hunger Games is actually pretty good.


But wow, look what's happening: they feature girls' fantasies - which are oddly not dissimilar to boys' movie fantasies too - empowerment; being someone who is secretly "special"; getting the most desirable boy; looking cool as fuck in front of everyone; independence from the family circle (the whole coming-of-age thing); being someone who matters to the world.

 I can do MAGIC!! I'm a wizard, Harry!In City of Bones, Clary is ridiculously beautiful but doesn't really see it or make capital out of it (Ugly Duckling fantasy!). She is desirable, but crucially she also desires. She meets sexy shadow-hunter Jace and there's no fudging the fact that she fancies him. Meanwhile, her longtime male friend Simon follows her into peril because he desperately loves her, and at a critical moment reveals his feelings. Now, if Simon had been the protagonist of a boy's movie, what would have happened is gawky plain boy would have proved his staunchness/courage/unselfishness/ninja fighting abilities to super-hot female (probably the only female in the movie except his Mom) and when he told her the scales would have fallen from her eyes and she'd have lurved him back. Because that's what he'd be entitled to, for all his hard work. Because that's the presumed fantasy of all the boys in the audience who are identifying with the hero.
What Clary does in this chickflick is convey, more or less, "Well, that's embarrassing. I appreciate the sentiment and feel bad for you, but ... No. Just no."

 Sorry, Jace is just WAY hotter, Simon. "Ah fuckit."Good grief, they are starting to get it.
Girls are being seen as a movie audience with a financial footprint. One to cultivate. One to cater to. One, just possibly, that writers and directors might respect in future.
Well, we can dream.

The purchasing power of teenage female lust, made manifestI wonder what it would have been like, to grow up with empowerment/romantic/sexual fantasies I could recognise on the screen, instead of piggybacking on male fantasies (straight or gay), or the presumed fantasies of much older women. How would it have been to see young good-looking men presented as heroes, instead of plump crusty old farts like James Kirk inexplicably fucking their way round the galaxy?  Or to imagine myself as Katniss, not Indiana Jones?

How would it have affected me?
I can only imagine.

"The writing is out of this world"

"This book in one word…Wow!" 

Another lovely review for Named and Shamed, this time from I'm a Voracious Reader:
 

 " Humiliation is not my particular sexual kink which is why the book gets a 4.5 from me, but the writing is out of this world and the characters are well-fleshed. *cough* So to speak."

Full review
Thank you, Voracious Reader!
 xxx

 Buy at : Buy at

Eyecandy Monday

Very appropriate for the story I'm writing right now ... Oh, if only she had wall-bars to hang on to  :-) 

Suffering badly

I'm working on a short story right now :-)

Nine Worlds photos

Nine Worlds Geekfest: a place to make new friends...


And meet up with old ones ...

With Kristina Lloyd
To show those Steampunk ladies how a thoroughly MODERN young woman dresses...

With Miss Emily Ladybird
and to feel superior to the rest of the human race ...

The view from the breakfast room window: plane-spotters gathering to watch the morning flights from Heathrow. Ironically, hundreds of LARPers, cosplayers, gamers, fanfic writers, bronies and comicbook fans must have looked out at them and thought, "What a bunch of nerds."
Hand on heart, I thought Nine Worlds was a whole heap of fun. Even though this was its very first year it was REALLY well organised (half-hour breaks between sessions! YES!!), and they had pulled out the stops to make it feel inclusive and safe. The female attendance must have been up around the 50% mark, there were dedicated feminism and LGBT streams, and plenty of cross-dressing cosplayers enjoying themselves. And unlike Eastercon, I went as a punter and steered clear of doing readings or appearing on panels, so it was much more relaxed experience for me!

Especially, it must be said, after this gentleman's workshop:

Mr Kit Cox: gourmet gin-tasting

Other educational highlights - the mathematical secrets of The Simpsons:

Simon Singh, mathematician
- And how to kill someone with a wooden sword:

SQWEEEEE!! Game of Thrones fan moment! It's Syrio! (Miltos Yerolemou)
Life-lessons we could all benefit from, I feel...
I'm definitely hoping to go back next year. I still didn't get round to the Brony Q&A :-)