K.C. Burn's Blog, page 9

Changing Minds – Hop Against Homophobia

Writing a blog about homophobia was tricky.  I very rarely write – books or blogs – about heavy, serious subjects.  I adore happy ever afters, I’m not a political animal and I despise conflict. But just because I appear to be a fluffy bunny doesn’t mean I don’t have strong feelings or opinions.

I’m a straight, white woman rapidly approaching 40.  I have never experienced homophobia personally.  I have, however, had my thoughts and opinions dismissed out of hand simply because I am a woman.  I have been judged based on my appearance and I’ve been bullied.  I know this is not on par with what gay and transgendered people have to endure in some parts of the world, or on a daily basis in some realm of their life.  But my limited experience allows me, as an author, to extrapolate that feeling, to project that into a character, and indirectly, to affect a reader’s emotions.

Yes, I write to entertain.  Yes, I write to placate the voices in my head like any other author.  But if my writing, if my characters can make even one person look at GLBT people with acceptance or support, then I believe I’ve accomplished something good.  Worthy.  I’m not going to change the world all on my own, but I might be able to change one mind. One mind is one step in the right direction, I hope.

Thing is, I bet most of you hopping through these blogs don’t need your mind changed.  If you’re not GLBT yourselves, you’re allies and supporters.

Here’s the contest bit:  Tell me your favourite GLBT cause or charity. I’m offering up one ebook — choice of my backlist — to a randomly chosen commenter who comments before May 21.  And, because I do want to help change minds (more than one book at a time) I’m going to donate $1 for each comment, to the GLBT cause or charity that gets the most “votes”.  Just in case, I’m going to cap it at $100 (I’m not exactly rolling in dough).  Since I might fall over in surprise if I get anywhere close to 100 comments, I’ll donate a minimum of $20, no matter how few comments.

Don’t forget to leave an email address in your comment so I can contact you if you win, and check out all the other great blogs offering support!  There are over 250 m/m authors participating, and lots of great prizes to be won.

New Cover Art – Alien ‘n’ Outlaw

Wow, feels like I waited forever for cover art and blurb for this one, but it doesn’t actually come out until early July (from Carina Press), so this is pretty far in advance.  As will hopefully be clear from the cover, this is the sequel to Spice ‘n’ Solace.  Jathan makes a brief appearance, but it’s all about R’kos, the alien Jathan negotiates with in Spice ‘n’ Solace.  What do you think?  Super hot, right?

Alien ‘n’ Outlaw

R’kos, son of the Ankylos Emperor, is expected to settle down. But he’s much more attracted to human males than to his own species. Eager to explore his forbidden longings, he steals a ship and heads to Elora Ki to see if he can find the right human guy.

Darien robs the corrupt to give to those in need, but now he needs a ride off Elora Ki, stat. Pursued by drug lords, he accepts help from the amorous stranger who calls himself Ricky. As they fly together along Darien’s route, their friendship quickly turns into passion.

But when Ricky is injured, Darien must contact the embassy to get his alien lover the medical care he needs. As Darien finds himself accused of kidnapping, and Ricky fears his family’s disappointment, can the two protect their growing relationship? Or are their differences just too great?

What the F**K are you listening to? – blogging at Flirty Author Bitches

I named it Musical Interludes over there, but really the post devolved into… yeah.  It was recently made clear how narrow my musical tastes are, because I don’t recognize a lot of mainstream or classic music.  Is it because I’m Canadian?  Maybe.  Growing up with significant Canadian and British musical influences (I don’t think Brit Pop in the 80s/90s was as popular here in the States), I seem to have even less in common with my colleagues and friends here.  Stop by and see if you recognize anything from a random selection from my iPod

Tips for Building a Space Prison – blogging at Contact Infinite Futures

Hubby and I saw Lockout this weekend, and I discovered some awesome “tips” for building a space prison, in preparation for a prison break story.  I outline them at Contact Infinite Futures.  Stop by, because seriously, you can’t get much cooler than space prisons.

Expanding My Horizons – blogging at Loose Ends

I’m at Loose Ends today, talking a bit about my first ever solo presentation on a writing topic. I presented last weekend, and it was a lot of fun, but scary, too. And it was a quick & easy post, because today is my anniversary, so aside from a bit of writing before heading out to celebrate, I’m trying not to work this weekend. It’s eleven years married, and this summer will be twenty years together with my guy. Hard to remember a time we weren’t together. And in case you missed it, the “expanding my horizons” title has to do with the writing presentation, not the anniversary celebration!

The Backlist Strikes Back!

Join me and a dozen other LGBT authors as we talk about our favorite older releases. We’ll be at EM Lynley’s blog for a week of time-traveling fun, starting April 18. Other participants include: Clare London, L.C. Chase, Victor Banis, P.D. Singer, Shira Anthony, Sean Michael, Trina Lane, Kiernan Kelly and more!

 

Prometheus – blogging at Contact Infinite Futures

I have to admit, things are still unsettled on the family front, so I haven't had a lot of time for being online or prepping blogs.  I've somehow managed to write 8K words in the past three weeks, which is not great for me, especially when I'm not doing anything else like editing or storyboarding or whatever.  But I did manage to see the trailer for Prometheus, and at Contact Infinite Futures, I want  to know who's planning to see it, and what's your favourite sci-fi movie and hero/heroine.

Oh, so many men!

Today, I'm… double posting!  I've got a new installment at Lords of Aether (poor Caleb) and I'm also the guest author for Boxer Falls, a gaytime drama on the M/M Goodreads Group today!  If you're a member of Goodreads, you can see the post today, but if not, the episode will be posted at the Boxer Falls website next week.  Come take a look!

 

The Perils of Audiobooks

I think it's time for a retro blog, and I choose this particular one because First Time, Forever is my first audio book and has been released from Audible.com. Audio books have different issues, as I discovered a year ago Thanksgiving when we drove back to Toronto from Florida to visit family & friends.

Whenever we take long road trips, we get books on CD, preferably unabridged.  *Note: we now use Audible.com for traveling.

One of the ones we purchased for this road trip (and I'm not going to divulge title or author, but it wasn't from any of my wonderful publishers) was a mystery of sorts, but in the style of Carl Hiaasen or Tim Dorsey. I believe it was set (not written) in the seventies, and not just because of the entire chapter devoted to the detective's acid trip.

Let me digress for a moment to talk about copyright. Getting approval to place song lyrics in books is horrific and expensive. So, when I come across lyrics in a book, I assume the author has made all the lyrics up and then I promptly skip over them without reading. Sorry, but there it is. I just don't care. Unless it's a limerick with a clue to a treasure, I'm not interested. The same goes for poetry.

Now, back to our audio book. This particular book had EIGHT full length, presumably original, songs in it. Let me say that again — EIGHT. Not only is it difficult to skip over small bits in an audio book (at least with the car stereo controls), the beleaguered actor who's doing the reading has to SING THEM… unabridged, remember?

It was excruciating. Partly because I think the poor bastard had to make up a tune to go with each one. So, authors… if your stuff might be going to audio… just think for a moment how it's all going to sound in the end.

The story in this one was decent, but I will never buy a book from that author again because I'm so scarred. If you really, really must include your song lyrics, take pity on us and make them an appendix, please!

Also, we discovered that plot devices are particularly obvious in audio format. So, author, beware!

Aimless and Haphazard – blogging at Contact Infinite Futures

I pretty much take the title to heart for my post today at Contact Infinite Futures.  Some of you may know I've had a rather trying time in real life lately, and even though I'm doing my best to keep up with my commitments, it does mean I'm going to occasionally spew out some random thoughts in a blog post (and of course, for this one, vaguely sci-fi related) and hope they've got some sort of coherency.  So, take a look, if you dare.