K.C. Burn's Blog, page 20

Blogging at Contact – Infinite Futures on Green Energy

It's not in-depth or anything, but I've done a wee bit of reading on a source of green energy that's not only interesting in and of itself, but it's given me a great idea about sweaty men in loincloths. Okay, fine… most things make me think of that, but nevertheless, stop by and check it out! Contact – Infinite Futures is the newly launched Sci-Fi blog from me & my fellow Sci-Fi Carina Press authors.

I'm not really a resolutions sort…

Probably because I can never keep them.  However, this year I've decided to make a resolution I might have a "whelk's chance in a supernova" of actually keeping (thank you, Douglas Adams, for one of many colourful phrases I've never forgotten).  My goal this year is to complete and submit six manuscripts.

Now, I'm kinda cheating, because I've got one that's already a first draft (last words finished this morning & my first attempt at cyberpunk) and one that's got 10K already written (first attempt at a contemporary).  But if stacking the deck is what it takes, well, call me a cheater   It also helps that I've got tons of ideas besides those two.  I want to write a third MIA book (oh, poor Oliver — I intend to put him through the wringer).  I'd like to write a sequel to my upcoming Carina release, and this one would involve alien nookie.  And I've got an idea for another contemporary as well as a time travel one.  And those are only the ones I've made notes for.

For a change, I've even got titles picked out for half of them, which is highly unusual, since I usually use a generic working title until I'm ready to submit.  Then I agonize over choosing something suitable.  For instance, MIA Case Files: Wolfsbane spent several months as "the agency".  Blood Relations was "vampire agency".  Spice 'n' Solace, my upcoming Carina Press release started out as "rent boy".

The cyberpunk is currently "the hacker" although I've chosen a proper title now, and the contemporary has a working title that I might want to keep.  MIA 3 already has  a title, too.  Because I'm weird about titles, I'm not going to share the ones I've picked out… not yet.

So…  back to the resolutions.  I have an idea of how long I want each one to be, and if I subtract the words I've already written, that means about 215K for 2011.  I think that's manageable, even with a full time job.

As an adjunct, I'd like to find more time for Facebook — probably more people say they should spend less time on it, but I need to feel more comfortable with that style of communication.  So for me, the easy resolution will be the writing bit.  The hard bit will be Facebook.  And if I manage to exercise more and eat right, that's just gravy!

Hope everyone has a fabulous 2011!

Review – 2010 Reading Challenge – I Spy Something Bloody

For the final DIK Reading Challenge of the year, I'm reviewing Josh Lanyon's I Spy Something Bloody.  Mark is a special agent looking to get out of the game after a failed mission.  Injured, the first person he calls for help is Stephen Thorpe, the man he loves, the man he left behind several years previously.  Tired of waiting for Mark to return, and after a string of broken promises, Stephen has moved on, not interested in letting Mark back into his life.  Mark's desperation breaks through to Stephen, who reluctantly allows Mark to return for temporary sanctuary, neither of them realizing that Mark's job has followed him  from Afghanistan to Virginia, putting both of them in danger.

Despite all the trappings of secret agents and contract killers, this is a story of an emotionally broken man at the point of  either trying to fix himself and the wrongs he's done or giving up on life entirely.  We feel every second on Mark's painful journey of self-discovery and the dawning realization that his decision to act might have come to late to salvage the only relationship that ever meant anything to him — that still means the world to him.  The story didn't have the mystery elements I had come to associate with Josh Lanyon stories, but it certainly didn't disappoint.  There was action, suspense and lot of emotional tension followed by an eminently satisfying conclusion.  Definitely worth reading.

Come visit Contact Infinite Futures!

I'm blogging at a new group author blog (Contact Infinite Futures) today, about Fringe, more or less.  Stop by and take a look — we're a bunch of sci-fi Carina Press authors.  I know, I know… Wolfsbane & Blood Relations aren't exactly sci-fi or futuristic, but my upcoming release (Spice 'n' Solace) from Carina is.  I'll be blogging at Contact Infinite Futures regularly, and my fellow bloggers are great authors, so please come visit!

The Cookie Conundrum

Nutterbutters.  Peanut butter cookie with peanut butter filling.  I don't remember ever seeing these back home in Toronto, so I'd never tried them until recently.  I like them, but I'm not entirely sure why — the peanut taste isn't quite as strong as I'd like.  Fudgee-O's are cookies that I've not seen down here in Florida.  They're chocolate cookies filled with chocolate, and they're better than Oreos, in my opinion.  But, as I ate my Nutterbutters the other day, I realized that I think they're both made by the same company… and for whatever reason one is Canadian & the other is American.  Weird, eh?  Still, I think it would absolutely GENIOUS if they combined the two.  Seriously.  One chocolate cookie, one peanut butter cookie, with chocolate and peanut butter filling.  Holy crap, I'm drooling just thinking about it.  Someone get on that, okay?  Please?

I'm never going to meet my deadlines…

We recently got a new blu-ray player — our old DVD player died.  We can get Netflix directly through the blu-ray player — so cool!  I'm loving it.  We finished watching Lie to Me.  When the series started, we weren't able to work it into our elaborate and often excessive TV schedule.  But access it through Netflix?  Perfect.  We enjoyed it quite a bit, enough queue up the second season when it became available.  Tim Roth is great, although my all-time favourite Tim Roth role was in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.  Love that movie!

Anyway, when we bought the player, my hubby said I could also get one movie (non-Netflix-ian).  I really wanted to get Sahara, because I adore that movie.  Hubby laughed at me.  Said I might be the only one who did.  And I already own it on DVD.  I didn't *need* it on blu-ray, I just wanted it.  However, instead I grabbed the recent Star Trek.  Which was also awesome, although I did expect Kirk to kick a little more butt than he ended up doing.  But the casting was exceptional, especially Karl Urban as Bones.  And it was visually impressive.  I'm looking forward to seeing it in all its blu-ray glory.

Of course, the real problem with the new player?  The easy Netflix access means I may never have to get off the couch again — I can already feel my butt getting bigger

Review – 2010 DIK Reading Challenge – Caught Running

Again, my month has disappeared!  For this month's DIK reading challenge, I'm reviewing Caught Running by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux.  This is the story of Jake Campbell and Brandon Bartlett, who attended high school together as polar opposites — jock and nerd — and who have returned to teach at the same high school, with the same divisions drawn, Jake as a Phys. Ed. teacher and Brandon as a Biology teacher.

They never interacted with each other in high school, nor do they as colleagues.  But when a shortage of teachers mandates Brandon must assist Jake in coaching the boys baseball team, they need to overcome the stigma the labels have created for each other, not only to get along and cooperate for the sake of the team, but also if they want to shape their attraction to each other into a lasting relationship.

This is a very sweet story.  Both Jake and Brandon suffer under the weight of their assumptions — that others perceive them as the stupid athlete and the inept smart guy.  But Jake has a brain he's afraid to show, and Brandon has an athletic side.  They have more common ground with each other than they initially believe, and their friendship and growing attraction bloom from it.

Brandon and Jake are both lovable in their own way, and it's easy to see how they can fall in love with each other.  There are a few black moments where it appears that their preconceptions and fears will rip them apart, but it all works out in the end with a satisfying conclusion.

I've read a few other books by this writing duo, and I haven't  been disappointed yet.

Random Thanksgiving Prattle – Blogging at Flirty Author Bitches

If anyone is actually online today, instead of shopping, I'm blogging today at Flirty Author Bitches about… well…  mostly the differences between American and Canadian Thanksgiving.   For me, a lot of them seem to involve food.  And hey, commenting at FAB enters you into a monthly draw for prizes, so stop by!

Out of My Editing Cave… And Chatting!

Whew. Super short post today. I'm still catching up from edits (my 'cursed' story and my upcoming release for Carina press) and preparing for vacation.  However I'll be participating in a huge M/M Chat at Literary Nymphs on Thanksgiving Weekend with an enormous number of fabulous and talented m/m authors, so please stop by!  The festivities begin 9 am (eastern) on November 26 and extend through November 28 on the Literary Nymphs yahoo chat group.

I'm hoping to relax a bit over the next couple of weeks and get started on a new project, which was supposed to have been the first time I did NaNoWriMo.  Ah well, there's always next year to try!  This story should be less vexing and go more smoothly than the 'cursed' one — seriously, never again am I using that word in a working title for a story!  But it is done & submitted, so we'll see how it goes.   Of course, I submitted it with a completely unworkable title.  If it gets accepted and they don't make me change the title, I will probably fall over and die from the shock.

And on that happy note, hope to see you at the Literary Nymphs chat!

Porn and Pedicures

Probably I should have called this "another one of my neuroses" but that title isn't very catchy, is it?

Anyway, I write explicit, erotic, m/m romance.  I've had people ask how I, as a straight woman, can write gay male sex (I have a great imagination) and what do I do for research (not a lot ).  Authors always have to imagine themselves in another's point of view, often someone of a different gender.  They have to imagine, and make the reader believe in, a character whose experiences, beliefs, background, culture, family, job and emotions are different from their own.

Romance authors regularly write about men having sex, from the man's point of view and often quite graphically.  Do I know, truly, what it's like for a man to have sex with a woman?  Nope.  But as far as I'm concerned, it's not that much more of a stretch for me to imagine what it's like for a man to have sex with another man.  If I have questions, I've got friends I can ask, and there's also the handy-dandy internet… hence the porn part of the equation.

Now, I've watched porn, both gay and straight (although not as much as you'd think).  Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad and sometimes it makes me terribly uncomfortable.

Good porn (IMO) has a plot and story – hey, I'm a writer!  Bad porn… well, there's a bunch of reasons for it, depending on taste.

Then there's the squicky porn.  And I'm not talking about specific sex acts (although I can think of several acts that would fall under 'squicky' and 'bad').  In the back of my mind ALWAYS is the concern that there's some sort of coercion or exploitation involved.  So if I see porn where the participants don't appear to be enjoying themselves… well… that brings the exploitation concerns forward and slaps an ick factor on the whole thing.

But I also feel the same type of discomfort when I'm getting a pedicure.  It feels so 'lady of the manor', like I'm oppressing the masses or exploiting them.  So, I get pedicures – I like the result but hate the experience, and I watch porn on occasion, knowing there may be times where I feel incredibly guilty for doing so.

Am I being super sensitive?  Maybe.  Or, maybe I'm just plain nuts!  I could make a strong argument either way.