Marie Sexton's Blog, page 27
September 25, 2012
In Case You Missed It
September 8, 2012
Saturday Snark!
September 1, 2012
Saturday Snark!
August 25, 2012
Saturday Snark!
Today’s snark comes once again from Saviours of Oestend. You can enter for a chance to win this book by scrolling back one post to the Follow the Rainbow Blog Hop. This scene is Olsa and Deacon having one of their moments.
“When the settlers crossed the ocean and found this land, it was full of wild things.” She picked up the salt bowl and dumped it out on the table, spreading the rough crystals across the table top with her hand. “There were wolves, like this.”
“You’re making a hell of a mess,” Deacon said.
“Disrespectful brat,” she scolded. “Hush and listen.”
“Fine. Wolves, all over the blessed table.”
Saviours of Oestend is a sequel to Song of Oestend. You can buy both here.
This is a blog hop of sorts, so authors, JOIN IN! Put up a quick post on your blog with a snarky line (or two or three) from one of your books. Important: Be sure you enter your link into the linky tool below. Also, be sure to include a link back to this post so your readers can check out all the snarky links.
Readers, please follow along to find some fun new snarky characters. Keep checking back for new links, and comment often! :-)
August 24, 2012
Follow the Rainbow Book Reviews Blog Hop
What Writing GLBTQ Literature Means to Me
This is a pretty big blog hop, and I’m sure there are a lot of really wonderful, articulate answers out there. I thought about it a lot, but in the end, I didn’t really feel I had a whole lot to say. For me, it all boils down to one simple word: love. I like to write about people finding love because that’s something everybody can relate to. Love transcends all, regardless of the rules. It changes our lives, no matter our orientation. It trumps our false, black-and-white societal concept of gender. Love recognizes the truth of the grey areas in between. Love cherishes our differences. And that kind of love deserves to be celebrated.
I think it’s as simple as that.
One winner today will have their choice of a pdf of either Saviours of Oestend or Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: A Clandestine Classic. To enter the contest, please enter your information in the Linky Tool below.
Saviours of Oestend is a sequel to Song of Oestend. For those who like full disclosure, highlight over the paragraph below. It does contain a spoiler for Saviours of Oestend, so if you don’t want to know, then don’t look!!
SPOILER BELOW!
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is m/m. Saviours of Oestend features a trans* character. There are two romances. The secondary one is m/m, but the primary romance is m/mtf.
END SPOILER
For more of the Follow the Rainbow Book Reviews Blog Hop, go here.
Thanks for stopping by!
August 19, 2012
Reminiscing Redux
A couple of days ago I wrote this post. It wasn’t planned at all, just a random stream of consciousness type of thing that turned a bit heavy. It wasn’t really meant to be whiny, but in hindsight, I think it was. Somebody on Twitter kindly pointed out that there are nice, supportive people all around the world too, and the truth is, she’s right. Sometimes I need to reminded.
Over the last several months, ever since my bunny post, I’ve had myself in a self-enforced internet exile. From the outside, it may not have seemed as harsh as it was, but the truth is, I have some rather stringent filters in place to limit what I see, no matter where I am online. As neurotic as it sounds (and it is, I don’t deny it), having those filters has helped my psyche tremendously, but the truth is, there’s a down side, too. In filtering out 75% of the world, I ended up blocking the good as well as the bad. I know that sounds like a no-brainer, and maybe it is, but it’s really become clear to me over the last few days that in severing my contact with a great deal of negativity, I also severed my contact with the positive.
I don’t know for sure what the solution is at this point. I’m sort of cracking the doors open an inch at a time, waiting to see what happens. No matter what, I do want to say that I really do appreciate all of the readers who buy/borrow the books, who read the books, who stop by to comment on the books or who email me about the books. You guys are my #1 inspiration. You’re the light that puts the rest in the shadows. Both of those posts may sound like I’m angry at readers, or maybe at reviewers, but I swear, neither of those things are true. At all. Having an opinion about my books (even a negative one) doesn’t make you a wolf in my mind. It’s attacking people personally — not just me, but others out there as well — that makes somebody a wolf. And those are the people I can do without. But no matter how much we authors bitch and complain, we do love the readers. Always. Because in the end, the readers are why we’re here — we’re creating something out of these crazy voices in our minds, and we’re just hoping that it touches somebody, somewhere, the way it’s touched us. That’s all. So to all the readers, thank you. I’ll even go so far as to speak for every other author I know without bothering to ask them first: thank you. We do love you, and most of us would have quit this game ages ago, if not for you.
Now, a rather graceless change of topic: Italy!
As I mentioned earlier, I leave on September 6th. I thought I’d post my itinerary, in case anybody is interested.
Sept 7-11: Rome
Sept 11-12: Siena
Sept 12-17: Florence
Sept 17-19: Lucca
Sept 19-23: Venice
I’ll be taking along a lovely, nearly-naked paper mascot and posting pictures over at Coffee and Porn in the Morning. (Think Flat Stanley, except way sexier.) I’m sure I’ll be tweeting pictures too. With any luck, I’ll come home inspired!
August 18, 2012
Saturday Snark!
This week’s snark comes to you from Saviours of Oestend. This is a much longer bit than I usually use for snark, but there are so many pieces of it I like. And I had so much fun with Frances.
This is near the end, after they’ve partaken of Olsa’s “tea”.
Dante wasn’t sure what to think of that. It seemed crazy, and yet, he couldn’t dismiss it, either. His perception of himself was blurring. The ends of his consciousness were suddenly hard to define.
“I can feel the birds in the trees,” Cami said. “They’re watching. I can see us through their eyes.”
“I’ll be damned,” Simon said, his voice full of awe. “I think I feel it, too.”
They were silent for a moment, and Dante could sense them all reaching out and up, their consciousness somehow expanding, and stretching, and merging.
“I can feel you guys, too,” Frances said. He laughed. “I know Deacon’s got a hard-on.”
“You would too if you could hear what Aren’s been whispering in my ear.”
They all laughed at that—even Dante—yet he was distracted. He could feel something pulling at the edges of his mind. Something that was dark and twisted. It swarmed around them, just past the edge of their campsite. Dante knew he wouldn’t see it if he turned to look, but it was there, constantly shifting and moving, watching and longing, hating and unbelievably miserable and frustrated.
“Now I can feel y’all trying to listen in,” Deacon said. “Mind your own damn business.”
They started to laugh again.
“I can feel the wraiths,” Dante said.
Their laughter died in an instant, and he felt them all draw breath. He felt their shared consciousness turn its attention upward and outward, afraid and unsure, searching for what he felt.
“Blessed Saints, Dante,” Frances breathed. “You sure know how to kill the mood.”
Saviours of Oestend is a sequel to Song of Oestend. You can by both here.
Authors, please share some snark. Put up a quick post on your blog with a snarky line (or two or three) from one of your books. Important: Be sure you enter your link into the linky tool below. Also, be sure to link back to this post so your readers can check out all the snarky links.
Readers, please follow along to find some fun new snarky characters. Keep checking back for new links, and comment often! :-)
August 17, 2012
Another Random Update, or “Reminiscing about the Meadow”
It’s no secret that I’m a terrible blogger, but I feel like I should be saying something. So, what does everybody want to hear about?
School starts in four days. Not that I’m counting the minutes or anything. (Actually, now that I say that, I’m sorely tempted to go find a countdown widget for my blog.) I’m a mom who values silence and often opts for simple over wise. I’m not necessarily proud of that fact, but there it is. This is the first summer I’ve kept my daughter home with me instead of shipping her off to daycare, and while it wasn’t as horrifying as I anticipated, I’m definitely ready for her to go back. Our house has somehow become The House to play at. I think it’s because Lazy Mom = Permissive Mom. If only I’d had the energy to be Strict Mom, they might have all found someplace else to play.
Lesson learned.
I’m also counting down the days until I leave for Italy! I’ll be there September 6-23. I’m going with a group of women. I think there are ten of us (maybe twelve?), and I’m the baby of the group (which I love). We’ll have several nights each in Rome, Venice and Florence, and shorter stays in Siena and Lucca. I’ll try to post some pictures and updates, as I’m able. I’ll also be doing a few updates over on Coffee and Porn in the Morning, so please check that out as well.
Writing this year has been erratic at best, full of spurts and stops. Partly it’s because I traveled too much, but mostly it’s because I’m finding motivation hard to come by. I’m sure everybody gets tired of hearing authors complain about their work, but the truth is, sometimes it really is work, and nearly every author I’ve talked to is facing this exact same crisis on some level. More and more of us look longingly back at the now-dead stereotype of Joan Wilder, an author locked alone in her apartment with her typewriter and her cat and a few bottles of vodka. Many of us would trade our eye teeth for that. But that’s just not the world we live in. Sometimes I think I’d be better off going back to my full-time office job.
That never lasts more than about a minute, though.
The truth is, writing can be fun and rewarding, but it can also be a bit soul-sucking. And I know some people will scold me for that, because for some reason, we’re never supposed to admit it. It’s always supposed to be fun, and there are plenty of people who feel we have no right to complain. Maybe they’re right. I don’t know. What I do know is, it takes a lot of heart and serious guts to pour so much of oneself into a project, and it’s often hard to remember what the bright side of it is. Somebody pointed me at this article recently, and what struck me hardest was this quote:
A book is whittled down from hope, and when I start to cut my fingers I push it away from me to see what others make of it. And I wait in terror for the judgements of those others—judgements that seem, whether positive or negative, unjust, because they are about something that I didn’t really do. They are about something that happened to me. It’s a little like crawling from a car crash to be greeted by a panel of strangers holding up score cards.
(Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/08/everything-is-fiction.html#ixzz23popDjjm)
That image is so apt: standing by wreckage, battered and confused and wondering what the hell happened, only to look up and find more horror. And that may sound like I’m talking specifically about readers and reviews, but honestly, that’s a very tiny part of it. It’s not just seeing your work torn to shreds. It’s also seeing it pirated within minutes of release. It’s being told that you should be happy about it (not just by the pirates, but in one case, by an editor). It’s knowing that you can’t say anything real on any platform without being attacked. It’s feeling like it’s you against the world. All. The. Time. It’s knowing that even something as innocuous as this blog post will undoubtedly draw fire. That there is no safe haven. No place where we can be ourselves. That no matter what we do, the wolves are there, ready to tear us apart.
It’s exhausting.
I’m beginning to sound melodramatic, so I’ll try to rein it in. The short version is, 2011 was a bad year for me, and although 2012 has been a bit better, it’s a slow process to get back to where I was. I’m not sure I’ll ever really find my way back to that pretty little meadow where I started. This is just another step in the process, I’m sure. The bunny’s not so much afraid anymore as he is angry. He’s pissed, and bitter, and if he chooses to play, it’s often in fields I’m unfamiliar with.
I guess we’re both steal healing.
Anyway. That went a bit wild and heavy for something that was supposed to be simple and off-the-cuff, didn’t it?
The bright side is, 2012 hasn’t been a total loss. I did finish Saviours of Oestend, which I’m very proud of. I joined Total E-Bound’s Clandestine Classics with Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I started the Tucker Springs project with LA Witt. That one’s a tad bittersweet, because I failed to write the novel myself, but Heidi helped me and the novel is done. It’ll be out in only a few weeks actually (you can pre-order it now!). Heidi and I also finally finished The Chicago Project (renamed Family Man). We started this book a year and a half ago, and we finally wrapped it up back in July. It’s with a publisher. There’s a contract in the works. I won’t say much more than that until it’s official, but we do anticipate its release in early spring of 2013.
What am I working on now?
I know everybody wants me to say that I’m working on Jon and Cole. Or maybe Matt and Jared. At the very least, you want me to say, “Something in Coda!” But the truth is, Coda is pretty far from my mind right now.
I’ll wait a minute for you all to quit screaming. 
Now, don’t get me wrong. In many ways, Coda owns my soul. I love those boys. They’ll always have a special place in my heart. But Coda was really born of innocence. It came from wonder and joy and excitement, and those are feelings the bunny is hard pressed to remember right now. I’m not saying I’ll never go back, but it’s either going to take time, or it’s going to take some kind of wondrous, magical elixer for it to happen soon. For better or worse, that’s just not where my muse lives right now. My muse lives in dark alleys and wind-swept prairies. Maybe someday he’ll come home.
So, what am I working on? Right now, I’m about 36k into a dark, kinky cyberpunk about a whore and sex slave. It’s called Release. I had hoped to finish it before leaving for Italy, although at the rate I’m going, that’s not likely.
Other than that, I have absolutely nothing going. Sure, I have ideas. I have inklings. I consider other things now and then. But Release is the only thing I’m serious about at the moment.
Anything else? Let me think.
I had three print releases on Monday, so if you missed that, scroll back one post. We’ll have more snark tomorrow, and the wonderful and talented Anne Tenino will be hosting a giveaway, so please stop by. If you don’t have it already, you can download my app. It contains excerpts from each of my books, plus all of my updates and announcements. You can find that here:
iOS: http://tiny.cc/mariesexton_apple
Android: http://tiny.cc/mariesexton_droid
Of course after Italy is GayRomLit! I am a Sponsoring Author (although admittedly, I don’t remember exactly what that means). At any rate, I’ll be there with swag and books and more swag.
Speaking of which, what kinds of swag do you all like? I’ll probably order more. I do have trading cards for Matt, Jared, Angelo, Cole, Deacon, Aren, and Valero. I’m ordering Dante and Cami soon. We’ll probably have some for El and Paul by then, too. Hit me up for some if you see me at GRL.
I’ve probably babbled enough for one day.
Take care, and enjoy the last bit of your summer.
August 12, 2012
Hot Off the Presses!
I have THREE print releases in one day, believe it or not!
Monday, August 13th seems to be the great paperback release date! The first release is Saviours of Oestend, which can be bought here. Also the paperback of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: A Clandestine Classic, which can be bought here. (Jules Verne wasn’t exactly brief, so this one should be a tome!) The last release is The Letter Z and Paris A to Z. I’m thrilled to have these two novellas now available together in one print anthology. You can find that here.
Thanks, and I hope you have a great rest of the summer!
August 11, 2012
Saturday Snark Continues!
Once again, I bring you snark direct from the lips of Jules Verne!
One of our nets had hauled up a type of very flat ray that weighed some twenty kilograms and with its tail cut off, it would have formed a perfect disc. It was white underneath and reddish on top, with big round spots of deep blue encircled in black, its hide quite smooth and ending in a double-lobed fin. Laid out on the platform, it kept struggling with convulsive movements, trying to turn over, making such efforts that its final lunge was about to flip it into the sea. But Conseil, being very possessive of his fish, rushed at it, and before I could stop him, he seized it with both hands.
Instantly there he was, thrown on his back, legs in the air, his body half paralysed, and yelling, “Oh, sir, sir! Will you help me?”
For once in his life, the poor lad didn’t address me ‘in the third person’.
The Canadian and I sat him up. We massaged his contracted arms, and when he regained his five senses, that eternal classifier mumbled in a broken voice, “Class of cartilaginous fish, order Chondropterygia with fixed gills, suborder Selacia, family Rajiiforma, genus electric ray.”
“Yes, my friend,” I answered, “it was an electric ray that put you in this deplorable state.”
“Oh, Master can trust me on this,” Conseil shot back. “I’ll be revenged on that animal.”
“How?”
“I’ll eat it.”
Which he did that same evening, but strictly as retaliation. Because, frankly, it tasted like leather.
You can buy Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: A Clandestine Classic here.
This is a blog hop of sorts, so authors, JOIN IN! Put up a quick post on your blog with a snarky line (or two or three) from one of your books. Important: Be sure you enter your link into the linky tool below. Also, be sure to include a link back to this post so your readers can check out all the snarky links.
Readers, please follow along to find some fun new snarky characters. Keep checking back for new links, and comment often! :-)
