K.M. Frontain's Blog, page 21

My tweets

Thu, 13:20 : I have 377 pages of mostly new R3 material written and about 125 pages of old material to edit, mesh or weed out. Big book. Very big. Thu, 13:23 : And I'm still writing the new stuff that will mesh with it or replace it. The remaining books won't need this huge rework. Thu, 13:37 : Redemption Three is getting huge(r) http://t.co/TqhJXC1x Thu, 13:40 : That's it. Nap time. Yes, I do that. Naps good for relieving the trauma of brain overdrive. Thu, 16:28 : Redemption 3 is getting huger(r) http://t.co/YjodfqMa Thu, 16:30 : Still tired despite nap. Had weird dream. Thu, 18:26 : Well, that's it. Can't concentrate. Going to be evil to myself and do dishes. Maybe I'll eat after. Eat? More dishes? Darn it. Thu, 21:12 : I'm making a sort of curry thing with potatoes, carrots, pork and peas, and this Suraj garam masala smells like ginger bread, which I like. Thu, 21:12 : Last garam masala I tried wasn't so pleasant smelling or nice tasting. Fri, 10:47 : Character Voice http://t.co/fxZjHmmd

Redemption 3 is getting huger(r)

It was huge before, but right now I have 377 pages of mostly new Redemption 3 material written and about 125 pages of old material to edit, mesh or weed out. That’s 186k words right now. Big book. Very big. And I’m still writing the new stuff that will mesh with old stuff or replace it. Redemption 2 was almost 150k.

The remaining books won’t need this huge rework, though some stuff will be altered or removed to fit with the new ending of R3.

I’m thinking, though, that I may need to cut the ending material of the old R3 at a different point and tag it to The Sun Bane. It will be an evil cliffhanger, though, if I do that. It’s that or keep it big, maybe charge an extra buck for the larger book size??? Or keep it the same price despite the size???

Fan art by Ambra

I’ve spent most of the morning working on, yes, more new material. I still haven’t gotten to the pivotal fight scene that messes everyone up. Seriously, I may have no choice but to split this book.

What about an R4? I could have four books in the Redemption set instead of three. Hrmm…

Edit: For those wondering why I’m doing a virtually new version of R3, it’s because six years of mental settling gave me enough space to see some   plot poos, character flaws and avenues that should have been dealt with but weren’t.

My tweets

Wed, 18:41 : Latest #review Soulstone Chronicles: "outstanding. Twisted and perfect. I am looking forward to more in this series." http://t.co/lolF82n3 Wed, 18:42 : I'm having concentration issues. I think it's time to go do a bit of asteroid busting on the PS3. Wed, 19:33 : What the heck is this pirate day thing? Thu, 11:15 : Amazon! Why you so slow price matching? Why am I thinking of Germs, Guns and Steel suddenly? Random mental data smoosh.

My tweets

Wed, 07:49 : Still says publishing on my Amazon bookshelf, but I have a link: http://t.co/lVO3x5uk Wed, 10:35 : #review The Gryphon Taint "outstanding. Twisted and perfect. I am looking forward to more in this series." https://t.co/Rl5TYDEi Wed, 10:35 : Thank you to Rick Petrey for the review on Smashwords. https://t.co/2z0iC0xH Wed, 10:45 : #review The Gryphon Taint http://t.co/Hqi8mRd4 Wed, 10:45 : #review The Gryphon Taint - outstanding. Twisted and perfect. I am looking forward to more in this series.... http://t.co/aHtiYWhx Wed, 10:53 : New review on Smashwords for The Gryphon Taint http://t.co/aKsCPf3y Wed, 10:56 : I am seriously considering using my Wordpress blog from now on. It's so nice and clean looking and easy to use now. Wed, 10:57 : And now, to get Tumbler to stop sending tweets to Twitter. Wed, 11:01 : Ok, I think I got Tumblr to stop posting to twitter. I have this horrific double post. Wordpress to Twitter and Tumblr, Tumblr to Twitter. Wed, 11:02 : I'm not sure I'll revoke access to LJ. Maybe just post at different times of day...? Yeah, that might work. Wed, 11:31 : RT @OpenMedia_ca: How the #TPP could affect Canadian #netfreedom: http://t.co/zIhkKHyJ Speak out at http://t.co/bNfCRRu5 #cdnpoli

New review on Smashwords for The Gryphon Taint

Fan art by Ambra, based on character from The Soulstone Chronicles series by K.M. Frontain

outstanding. Twisted and perfect. I am looking forward to more in this series.

This review is for the entire Gryphon Taint set, but it’s on the The Gryphon Taint: Volume Three page. I’m very happy about the “twisted and perfect” line.  Thank you, Rick.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/172179

Series available on Smashwords, Amazon, Nook, Sony Bookstore, iTunes, Kobo. Amazon has yet to price match two books in the series as free.

My tweets

Tue, 13:33 : 3yrs in jail for sending another man an SMS saying "I'm very much in love w/u". Please help #FreeRoger: http://t.co/T22JqzMi Tue, 17:47 : I've relisted The Icicle on Smashwords at 99�. It's had lots of downloads this past two weeks while it was free. Tue, 18:24 : I'm setting up The Icicle for Kindle. Should be available there by tomorrow. Tue, 18:25 : I've screwed up multiple times on small details in the manuscript and had to redo the epub several times. Annoying. Tue, 18:26 : Next time should be the final attempt. Then converstion to mobi time. Tue, 18:26 : WTF! Stoopid fingers. Converstion. Yeah. Yeah! Pfffft. Taking these fingers to the kennel and making them sweep dog poo. Tue, 18:27 : Wait... Maybe that's why the fingers are rebelling. Tue, 18:40 : Wow. This time when Smashwords reviewed my book changes, it went premium within an hour. Tue, 18:47 : All right. The Icicle was loaded up to Amazon. Should be available there in a dozen hours or so. I've priced it at 99�. Tue, 19:51 : Help me lower the price on Amazon. http://t.co/xTBDPjTL Wed, 01:49 : RT @bigbigtruck: New page! - http://t.co/qUiun9XC - Officer, I cannot tell a lie; I put those hashbrowns at the bottom of that pile of g ... Wed, 01:54 : Twitter's new look is actually looking/feeling good on my tablet. And yes, I should be asleep by now. Must...put...tablet...down... </lj-cu

exploding peas

This came up on G+ in comments after a bad cooking experience. Cut and paste of my responses:

I commiserate. I can't count how many times I destroyed a meal either forgetting it or being sloppy with spices. And then there were the exploding peas...

And someone asked about the exploding peas, to which I answered:

Um, yes, I can be brilliantly stupid in the kitchen. A long time ago, in a kitchen that hopes never to see me again, there was an incident with a double boiler and an attempt to cook two different vegetables separately. Somehow the pressure of the bottom container resulted in the launching of the top container, and the peas were everywhere. Heh heh. Never did that again.

Original post.

I'm more often on G+ now

I'm having an easier time posting images on Google+ and Wordpress, so if you want to follow me there, please visit either site. Twice now, I've tried to use the add image link here on LJ, only to have the link java (I think it's java) fail to let me click anything after the upload window opened.

On Google+, find me here. And on Wordpress find me here.

My latest posts are over on both sites.

My tweets

Fri, 13:35 : Gryphon 1 and Bound 1 are still not free on Amazon. If anyone wants to help change this, visit my blog for links. http://t.co/fSsc3fpI Fri, 13:35 : RT @elfquest: Elfmom here: We'll keep saying it over and over - and you pass on the word as well - "FINAL QUEST WILL SEE... http://t.co/ ... Fri, 13:36 : @elfquest My favourite comic in my university days. Still have the graphic novels. Fri, 17:49 : Chase Community Giving, just voted for Nanowrimo. http://t.co/0FJkkesC #InOnTheGiving Fri, 18:09 : #2sentenceminimum http://t.co/sfSfUA8z Sat, 09:27 : #censorship stops necessary discussion http://t.co/xc3hYrK9

#censorship stops necessary discussion

This is important. Content censorship wherein certain words are targeted to slow or halt internet traffic is a bad thing. Yes, maybe Google or whichever other entity wants to protect consumers (yeah, right: themselves, it's to protect themselves) from undesirable content, that entity has also stopped intelligent discussion about the same topic, discussion that results in awareness, change and improvement.


I happened upon this problem looking up the rape is love trope. This is a very old trope. I started reading romance at age eleven and that's the age I was introduced to it, after picking up a Harlequin Romance from my mother's shelves and reading of a woman who marries a rich rich man who then proceeds to convince her she's wrong about every reasonable thing and that the sex on the wedding night was not only right, it was legal and not rape. I spent the next few years ingesting story after story with the same trope (shame on Harlequin Romance), which led to a slow broil and a disdain for women who don't feel like carving out a man's guts if he's stupid enough to think violence makes him a man.

Just so you know, strong men have very big shoulders. They are very comfortable in their skins, which means they don't use religion to blame anyone else for their stupidities, faults and sins. They don't hurt women, and they do stop others from hurting the weak and innocent.

If Google censors my post, it's because of the word rape. Rape! RAPE! RAPE! Just want to see if Google notices.

I was checking out this trope because, yes, I did delve into it in my own fashion when I wrote The Pearl. What sort of person rapes? A human? An animal? Some of you would answer human animal. Yeah, ok. Granted we're a mix. But do hormones and instincts justify rape? I don't think so. Unlike animals who react solely by instinct with regards to sexual function, human perpetrators have the power of choice. So does that make us (mankind) something worse than animals? Yes, sometimes I think it does.

The questions of 'What is human in a human?' and 'What is animal in a human?' often come out in my stories. In The Pearl, I pretty much make a case for rape being the act of an animal (monster). Can you really respect a human being who reacts to life on such a low level, who never "wakes up" to the potential we are born with? I'm talking potential for decency and other good things, not our potential for destroying civilisation, life and planet.

Recently I saw a quick interview with Scott Bakula on Space. This is not an exact quote because I can't remember it fully, but he mentioned believing science fiction can discuss morality without boring (irritating?) the viewer. I believe this is true of fantasy, including romance. There's a reason why the rape is love trope comes up so often in fiction. It's because of hope.

Yeah, strange. One hopes that somehow the perpetrator will wake the fuck up, realize he's human, not a penis, and then real love can occur. It's a valid concern, when much of the world's population of women are still forced into arranged marriages, where sex is still enforced on married women as a duty they must submit to, where this attitude is still incorporated into religions, on this planet ruled by men who choose to perpetrate and who ignore perpetrators in their cultures. Hope is the only thing that get some of us women through the day.

If you read a rape is love trope, note there's a difference (huge difference) in the writing when an author tries to wrangle this concept from the viewpoint that the man has erred but did so out of love, or from a momentary mental/moral lapse, as compared to a perpetrator/enabler who wrote a story which pretends that a victim wants/likes rape and absolutely wants more rape. The latter isn't about hope. It's rapist mentality written in a way to justify more rape. So far, I've mostly seen it written by male authors, and how sad is that.

Parents all over the world, wake up. The time to begin talks about justness and fairness and decency is when your child is eight and younger, when you still have a chance to stop them from being bullies who take on the attitudes of enablers and perps.

Damn, but this mild irritation over a missing trope on a website turned into a rant. Well, here are the links to my failed research on this trope. Make your own decision on whether Google was right to censor this topic. I think it was wrong for the reason stated above. Discussion shouldn't be censored.

http://www.themarysue.com/tv-tropes-rape-articles/

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RapeIsLove