Kate Genet's Blog, page 7

Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby

There’s been a lot of discussion lately in various places over sex in books. Some readers have been saying they wish they never came across it, others say it might be okay as long as it isn’t graphic – sex should be left to the arena of erotica. Some are okay with the sex if it’s part of the story and not gratuitous in any way. But I don’t know if I’ve been listening to the wrong groups, but the consensus seems to be that these readers would prefer to stay out of character’s bedrooms – ‘I know what lesbians do in bed, I don’t have to read about it’.

So, does sex belong in books (other than erotica) or not?

Obviously, because a lot of my work has sex in it, I’m going to have to say, that depending on what sort of story you are writing, yes it does.

What sort of sex scenes do we commonly come across? There’s the ‘fade to black’, the non-graphic and the graphic.

But first of all, why would a writer include sex scenes in a story in the first place?

Not able to speak for all authors without being terribly presumptuous, here are my reasons for including sex scenes:

People are sexual creatures, and physical intimacy is one way of cementing our romantic relationships. Most everyone does it, and it’s an important part of most people’s lives. For characters in a book to be well rounded and convincing, they’re probably going to want to be sexually active at some point. It’s not something that can be ignored, in romances both new and established. For the writer, it’s an effective way to demonstrate how your characters are feeling and responding to each other, and a pretty fabulous way of creating emotion in the reader without having to resort to great gobs of narration and interior monologues on the part of the characters. It’s like drawing a quick and easy diagram to show where the characters are at with each other and themselves. After all, we’re at our most vulnerable and open when we’re making love, why wouldn’t the writer use this to build their characters and stories?

As to levels of explicitness, that depends on what sort of story you’re telling. In my Michaela and Trisha books, the lovemaking is sensual but not graphic. I use sex in these books precisely because that’s how these characters naturally express themselves, and they themselves use it as a pleasurable bond-building exercise.

But surely, I don’t have to have any detail of the act at all? I could just lead them into the bedroom and close the door, right? Well, of course. But I don’t want to, because I think there are things that the reader can learn about the characters by seeing them at their most vulnerable and tender.  The way they touch each other tells a great deal about how they’re feeling, both about themselves and each other. Important information in the context of the story.

What about the graphic sex? What justification is there for that? My novel Building Character has some pretty graphic sex scenes in it. Why? Because it’s a novel about sexual obsession, for starters, and the main character is a woman who’s only intimacy with others is sexual. It’s a novel about unhealthy boundaries and obsessions (with a supernatural twist). There was no way I could have let this character take the reader right up to the bedroom door then close it in their face. Apart from the fact that the sex was rarely in a bedroom. And because emotions other than tenderness, love, sensuality and attraction were at play, there was no point writing sex scenes where the physicality was more of the shimmering, suggestive sort. It had to suit the story.

That’s what sex scenes in a book should do – add an extra dimension to the characters and the story. I’ve no desire to read or write gratuitous sex scenes, but neither am I going to pretend that the well rounded character isn’t going to want to do the horizontal tango on occasion, and that the reader couldn’t learn something about that character from the experience.

 What about titillating the reader? Isn’t that too why we write sex scenes? Because we want to excite the reader? Well, there I have to say that if that’s the main reason for writing a sex scene, then it’s erotica you’re writing. Of course, a good love scene should stimulate the reader, but every scene in a book should pull some sort of emotional response from the reader. That’s what we writers do with our stories – try to make our readers feel something, and learn something about themselves and this large, confusing thing called life.

 

 

(Note: Building Character is currently unavailable as I re-edit and update the cover. It should be back on sale next week.)

Filed under: Writing Journal

The (Un)Importance of Readers

Thank you, Kira Lyn Blue, for nominating me for a Sunshine Award – “a recognition from fellow bloggers to those who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere”. But the truth is, I’ve been feeling far less than sunshiny about writing lately. In fact, I’ve been in a major grump about it. And let me tell you, when a writer gets in a grump about writing, the sky’s pretty much falling.

 My book sales took a dip before Christmas. This wouldn’t usually bother me – I rarely used to check the sales numbers anyway. As long as that cheque was arriving in the mail every month, I was happy. I don’t write without expecting to be paid for it, but I don’t write for money either. Except this dip in sales was more like a crash off a cliff and my sales have lingered twisted and wounded at the bottom of the cliff ever since.

 I’m not going to go into the details of why I think this happened, because I’ve no real, sure idea. The consequences however, they’ve been on my mind. I’ve had to look about for a day job again, and that’s some big deal since poor health makes it impossible to work outside my home. But finding other ways to make money isn’t necessarily a problem, except that it means less time for writing. And I like writing. I like it better than anything else.

 Except once I realised I wasn’t getting as many sales, I began to question what I was writing, and why. Unfortunately for me, I write in a small niche genre within a small niche genre. I long came to the conclusion that lesbians don’t generally like reading horror. Even when it’s called supernatural suspense or some other fancy name. On the whole, they’re big romance readers. I hate writing romance. I might have romantic relationships in my books, but tell me to write a typical romance story and I’ll lock myself in a cupboard until you’ve gone home (and I have a particular fear of being locked in small cupboards ever since a rather alarming experience at the age of 9).

 But I found myself considering the task. Because of the money. Because of liking to pay the mortgage and eat and other unreasonable things. I knew however, that there’s no way I could do it. It’s just not in me. I’d be bored writing it, and it would never get finished. I’m already pissed off enough that my most popular books are slippy sliding into that paranormal romance category.

 Which led me to being really fucking annoyed with readers. Why, I ranted to myself (and my poor partner) does the average reader want so little from a book? Why do they like to stick to one genre? Why do they go loopy loo over incredibly formulaic writing? I got quite hot under the collar on the subject. When I calmed down a little, I looked at the work I’d been doing, writing my novellas about the dimension-travelling Reality Dawn and thought to myself that therein might lie my salvation. While not romance, they might find a decent audience. They might be my life-line back into being able to quit the day job and stick with the writing.

 Immediately upon having considered this possibility however, the fun was sucked out of the whole project. The Reality Dawn books were no longer me enjoying myself and trying something new, moving slightly north of horror into fantasy. Instead I found myself trying to figure out whether readers would like this or that about them, whether they would prefer if this or that happened, if they would want more of this or that from them.

 The whole thing suddenly got very boring and very painful. They weren’t even properly finished and they were no longer my stories. I wasn’t having fun anymore, and I wasn’t writing because it pleased me to. I was writing for a bunch of people I didn’t even know and wasn’t feeling at all impressed with. Worse, I was allowing this imagined crowd of readers to dictate the course of my stories.

 Well, that was a situation that couldn’t last. There were only a few options that I could see. I could drown my sorrows in the bottom of a glass of bourbon – useless suggestion as I don’t drink. I could write solely for profit, turning out copy I thought readers would buy by the bunch. Which could possibly work. I can write well enough to make just about anything sound good, what would it cost me to write what sells? Only my storywriting soul. So, not an option at all. I can slant my writing with an eye to the market, but I’m buggered if I’m going to sell my soul to it. I haven’t been able to get rid of the belief that the stories I have inside me are worth the telling, even if they’re light years from pure, unadulterated romances.

 So, one option left. Forget about the readers. Forget about their preferences, their desire for this sort of story over that. Stop thinking about the large group called average reader and what their average little hearts want, and just write as I damned well please.

 That’s the option I chose. I stuck a great big ‘fuck you’ sign over the picture of average reader slobbering over a cheesy romance, and went back to going my own way. Writing for myself and my ideal reader. Doing it, not just because I want to get paid, but because I’m a writer and I have stories to tell.

 The funny thing is, having thought this epiphany would lead me to start some deep, dark, and twisty novel full of scary shit and other things that go bump in the night, I opened Word and started the third Reality Dawn book. There are dragons in it, and Reality Dawn and her sidekick Rae are having the time of their lives. Just like me.

 As for the money? I might not have a large market of readers to keep me in furs and pearls, but I have plenty of books to write – for myself and the ideal reader who finds they like what I do. Time to get back to it.

Filed under: Writing Journal

Modern Writers Could Try Channeling Hemingway

In these days of social media, writers are more available to their public than ever before. This works out in a lot of ways – increased, almost immediate feedback, the chance to get to know and connect with your readers, and the opportunity to let readers inside your life in a way never possible before. Which hopefully translates into wider readership, better sales.

 But we’re no longer able to be just writers anymore, squirreling away our words in the back room, writers are now a brand, constantly selling ourselves. We’re public property; readers have access to us, and the expectation that we will want to invite them into our writing room, offer them a cup of tea, and chat to them over cucumber sandwiches about how we came up with their favourite characters and what book we are planning to write next. We even have to smile and nod our heads enthusiastically when they insist, against all propriety  that we write a sequel to their favourite book. The temptation to let the readers dictate the course of our career is unavoidable now, and a huge pressure to deal with. Because we want to sell our books.

 We are expected as well, to reveal all our trade secrets – there is no room for secrets in this glass house we now live in. Readers have always been interested in glimpses of our writing process – when we prefer to write, how long each day we work for, how, goddamnit, we get our ideas.

 But nothing is sacred these days. If the readers are not peppering us with their questions, we are wooing them, in the name of branding and building readership, by taking off our skin, hanging it on the door, and telling them as near as possible how exactly we do what we do.

 Besides the alarming side effect of a group of those readers going away thinking it’s not hard and that they could do it themselves – write a book, make some money – we are left exposed, shivering and bleeding over our Facebook and blog pages, where we used only to bleed over the pages of our manuscripts.

 Writers are, if I may generalise, odd creatures at the best of the time. We do well in fertilised darkness, away from scrutiny. As Paul Theroux said about the art of writing fiction, it is “a messy and mysterious business.” I’ve always felt as though trying to explain the process is a limping endeavour at best – at worst it sucks out the joy and leaves our words dry and lifeless on the page. There is no real way, no matter how much we know of the process, or are able to express it, that the act of doing so does not leave us gasping for the quiet, dim, and rarefied air of our writing room, where we may close the door and create our stories in peace.

 Recently re-reading the Paris Review’s interview with Ernest Hemingway (Spring 1958), two things struck me immediately. The first, the way Hemingway also knew writing to be that messy and mysterious process. Many times during this interview he stressed that the craft of writing should not be tampered with by an excess of scrutiny—

“…that though there is one part of writing that is solid and you do it no harm by talking about it, the other is fragile, and if you talk about it, the structure cracks and you have nothing.” … ”As a result, though a wonderful raconteur, a man of rich humor, and possessed of an amazing fund of knowledge on subjects which interest him, Hemingway finds it difficult to talk about writing—not because he has few ideas on the subject, but rather because he feels so strongly that such ideas should remain unexpressed, that to be asked questions on them “spooks” him (to use one of his favorite expressions) to the point where he is almost inarticulate. Many of the replies in this interview he preferred to work out on his reading board. The occasional waspish tone of the answers is also part of this strong feeling that writing is a private, lonely occupation with no need for witnesses until the final work is done.”

 So what is the part of writing that is solid and does no harm to talk about? Bare facts, I suppose – I sit in this room in the morning and I write. What is the fragile? Well, when the mysterious is subjected to too much scrutiny – when the creative flow is reduced to dry attempted explanations of how it works, then the act of looking and analysing and explaining turns the creativity into something quantified and examined and mechanical. Mechanism is the death of creativity. Better just to go into that dim, quiet room, and let the magic flow.

But that, of course, means a level of unavailability. That room has to be quiet. The door has to be closed. The windows shuttered. The readers have to wait outside. Everyone has to wait outside. Other writers will know this, be superstitious about it themselves, and will leave the writer alone, coming together to talk about a great many subjects surrounding the topic of writing, but all of them knowing, that the mysterious process that goes on behind that closed door is sacrosanct, and fragile, that the flow of creativity that puts the initial words and story on the page is a place where the writer struggles alone, and necessarily so.

What was the other thing I noticed from the interview with Hemingway? That he wasn’t afraid to tell his interviewer that he wouldn’t answer a question, that indeed, the question was stupid – “These questions which inquire into craftsmanship really are an annoyance”. If only we had the freedom to be so ornery now. Imagine if Hemingway was forced to do blog hops and guest appearances in reading groups – he would refuse. He would tell you to read the book, and if you enjoyed it, got something from it, then to go and read another. His part of the job is done. He wrote, you read. After all, everything a writer has to say about their work, is in their work.

It goes against the temperament, and the process, of many of us writers to have to come out of our writing rooms all the time to talk to the crowds waiting by the door. Sure, it is flattering for a while, to see such interest in ourselves and our work, but I’m sure I’m not the only one to think that the sort of appreciation we really want is just for the readers to read our work, and let us get on with the business of writing. This new transparence most likely makes the reader feel good, but does it truly benefit the writer?

Hemingway, in his own, indomitable way, says it best, so I’ll leave you with his own words on the subject.

“A sensible question is neither a delight nor an annoyance. I still believe, though, that it is very bad for a writer to talk about how he writes. He writes to be read by the eye and no explanations or dissertations should be necessary. You can be sure that there is much more there than will be read at any first reading and having made this it is not the writer’s province to explain it or to run guided tours through the more difficult country of his work.”

(http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-art-of-fiction-no-21-ernest-hemingway )

Filed under: Writerly Workbox

So You Want to Date a Writer? – 10 Things You Need to Know

So, you were out with a few friends a while ago, and met this interesting new woman. She said she was a writer, and that’s pretty cool, right? You read some, you’re not totally illiterate; in fact, kicking back in front of the fire with a good book rates fairly high on your feel-good scale. Especially if there’s pizza involved.

 But on the whole, you wonder about these artistic types, right? Before you book the U-Haul, here are a few things you might want to consider…

You’ve heard of the temperamental artist, right? No? Well, let me give you a heads up. Artists, and yes, that definitely includes writers, are temperamental. We live in our heads probably more than we live in the world, and it can be a pretty freaky weird place inside a writer’s head. You know the sorts of things that happen in books, right? Well, they happen in the writer’s head first.  And if we spent the day plotting how to get away with murder, we’re likely to be thinking about places to dump the body while we’re taking that romantic walk along the beach with you.
Because, you see, the trouble is that we writers think about writing all the time. Yes, I mean all the time. When we wake up in the morning? Check – a lot of our most inspired ideas come from our dreams. At the movies? Check – we’re secretly and scornfully making lists of all the plot holes. During sex? Well, we’d never admit to it, but yeah, there’s a little voice in our heads saying we should probably use this position in our next book. There’s this famous quote about writers – “A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” (Eugene Lonesco)
And if, by your bad luck, you do question us about our ideal vacation, you’re going to be shocked to find that it doesn’t include you. I’m warning you – our dream vacation is two or more weeks alone in a secluded area, probably by the sea or high in the mountains, where we can think about writing twenty four hours a day. Put away those brochures and stick your suitcases back in the closet – you’re not invited.
So, the vacation is out, how about some good, old-fashioned socialising? Or not. Unless it’s meeting up with a bunch of other writers, most of us would probably choose to stay at home and read a good book. For this reason, it’s essential that you be an avid reader. We like to talk about books; we could talk about books for days on end. And if you really want to be special to us, you absolutely must read our own books. And preferably, take notes.
We writers are needy people. We’ll hand over our new manuscript to you as though passing a precious new-born child. We’ll expect you to sit down right there and then and read it. We don’t care if there’s laundry to be done, or your old mother needs a ride to the hospital because she broke her hip. Read the book. And while you’re reading the book, we’ll watch you, anxiously, to check that you laugh in the right places, wipe tears from your eyes in the right places, and if you do need a bathroom break, we’ll pounce on the manuscript to see where it got so boring that you could possibly have put it down, whatever the purported reason.
After you’ve waded your way through our latest masterpiece, we’ll sit you down, shine a strong light on your face, and proceed with the interrogation. For every question or hesitation you express about our work, we’ll have a pre-prepared augment on hand for rebuttal. Every one of which will start with “But…”said in the most childish whine you’ve ever heard. If you’ve a real criticism about the book, no matter how nicely you say it to us, be prepared to see us prostrate ourselves on the floor and beat at those boards with fists and feet. We writers are not good with criticism.
That’s after the book is written of course. You probably won’t have seen us for the several months before this glorious day. During the writing process, don’t bother phoning to remind us about that dinner at your parents – we’re too distracted to remember to change our underwear, let alone manage to dress up enough to impress future in-laws. In fact, unless we’ve christened a character after you, we’ll be lucky to remember your name.
Having staged an intervention and dragged us out of the house for our own good, be aware that you’ve now invited a child out for a stroll in the park and coffee afterwards. We’ll be so busy gawping at the world around us, and mentally describing exactly the sensation of sun on our skin and wind in our hair, that you’ll think we’ve regressed to the age of two when we start giggling and pouncing on stray leaves, only to exclaim how beautiful and incredibly interesting every detail of them is.
A week later, you’re likely to get a phone call from us, speaking in a high-pitched, and frightened voice about how the finger joints in our hands have swollen to three times their size from all the typing, and do you think they’ll need to be amputated, because quite frankly, if they have to be amputated, we don’t think we could cope not being able to type, and there’s no way we could change the way we do things, the books have to be typed or hand-written, that’s just the way it is. Perhaps your could type our farewell cruel world note for us?
The swelling will go down after two days of you applying ice packs and soothing our creased brow, but by that time, it is too late. We’ve realised our fragile mortality, and so frightened have we become of not being able to write all the books we need to in the puny amount of time left on this earth to us, that now we have writer’s block and no words at all will come. No matter what you do, we will languish, pyjama-clad, in front of our computers for the next month, drooping steadily further and further down over the keyboard.



Filed under: Writing Journal

The Stories Inside Us

There are two pieces of advice for writers that are heard just about everywhere – write what you know, and write the stories that are inside you. The first, write what you know, isn’t as straightforward as it initially sounds. If you’re an electrician, it doesn’t mean you should w

rite onl

y about being an electrician  – that might not be so incredibly interesting ( though if your character were an electrician on a hue onl

ge space ship, that might be kinda cool, as long as there were a lot of other things going on too). What it means, of course, is write

according to your interests, and your experience, and the things in the world that make you wonder. It leads to authenticity in your work, and makes a lot of sense.

 The second one is fairly easy too, on the surface. Write the stories that are inside you, the stories that move you, the stories you don’t want to go through life without telling. Write what you want to write, and the readers will come. That’s the theory, anyway.

 In the last two months, I’ve written two novellas, part of a new series, and they’re both sitting on my hard drive gathering digital dust. I came up with the idea of writing a series about a sort of lesbian Doctor Who, travelling through parallel worlds and having a great time. I love the TV series, and others of that genre, and I thought writing something like that would be fun, and maybe appeal to a broader reading base than my novels.

 I was right, the novellas were fun – fun to write, light-hearted and fast paced. Even the weird stuff that happened to the characters was in a lighter vein that I’m used to writing, and there was no sex, no soul-searching, just a good fantasy adventure.

So why are they sitting unpublished on my computer? There’s nothing wrong with the stories, they’re well written, and I think, perfectly enjoyable reads. I should publish them. They’ve had beta reading, been edited, I’ve even worked on the covers for them. It’s all good. I’m pretty sure a lot of readers will enjoy them.

 Which is the problem.

If readers end up enjoying them, they’ll do what readers do best – ask for more.

 Of all my work, the Michaela and Trisha books are my most popular. I’d never intended to write a series of books about Michaela and Trisha, but I kept getting requests for more. Which was great, really – what writer wouldn’t like their readers writing to them asking for another book with their favourite characters? So, of course, I wrote more. I had fun too. Those books, like my two new novellas (which I’ve called the Reality Dawn series) were easy to write.

 Which brings me to the crux of the matter. Fun, popular, and easy to write, doesn’t necessarily make them the stories I want to write. Sure, I can do it, even enjoy it, but they’re not the stories which burn holes in my brain at three o’clock in the morning. They’re not the stories that make me rub my hands in glee at the challenge of getting words down on the page, building a complex, deep, and often very dark storyline.

 I know we all like to read for entertainment. Open a book and escape reality for a while. Escapism and entertainment are perfectly good reasons to read.

 But it’s not the only thing I want to achieve when I write. I want to write books that make me think, and think hard, while I’m writing them, and maybe while you’re reading them. The story is always the main thing, the narrative always paramount, but it’s also the perfect vessel to dig deep into human consciousness, into what makes us tick, what scares us, and what  illuminates us.

 The stories inside me that I really want to write are darker, deeper, and longer than my Michaela and Trisha, and the new Reality Dawn books. I want to claw open a hole in the world and see what comes out. I want to get so deep inside someone’s head that I can see what drives them, what scares them, and how far they’ll go to get what they need. There’s not much escapism there, though. Or if there is, it’s of a different kind – instead of the fantasy, it’s almost the nightmare. They’re stories where choices have huge consequences, where characters have to face themselves and what they believe, and adapt, survive, grow, because there’s no choice. Where the darkness they’re facing is most often their own.

 That’s the sort of story that excites me. It’s more of a challenge to write, and most likely to read, but quite frankly, that’s what  turns me on.

Filed under: Writing Journal

A Writer’s Favourite Pastime – Reading

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately. I usually do, fitting it in amongst everything else there is to do in a day, but every now and then, I have something of a book feast. Here’s what I’ve read in the last couple of weeks:

One Solstice Night and One Imbolc Gloaming, both by Elora Bishop. These are completely charming stories, both novellas, the first two in a trilogy. The third has just come out, so I’ll be heading along to pick that one up soon.

Unintended Consequences by Marti Green, an extremely well written mainstream novel about a possibly innocent prisoner on death row.

White Space Episode 1 and Available Darkness Episode 1 both by Sean Platt and David Wright. These are the guys who wrote Yesterday’s Gone, which is in something like season five now. I couldn’t get into Yesterday’s Gone, but these two I thoroughly enjoyed and will be going back to buy the complete Season One of each. I got them mainly because I’m interested in the serial and episodic fiction idea and wanted to see how they handled it. Despite these being labelled as episodes, the story is serialised rather than episodic, where I would expect each episode to have a complete story in it. I’ve actually just written two novellas as episodic fiction, in which they are complete stories, but continue on in a series, rather like television programmes.

Diary of a Provincial Lesbian and Always You Edina, both by VG Lee. These two are the best books I’ve read in ages. I didn’t want to do anything but read while I was involved with these two. They’ve reminded me how much I enjoy British writing.

After the Night, by Rachel Dax. Another British writer, and even though it’s a romance, which is a genre I’m not usually interested in, I enjoyed this. The fact that the story was set in the 60′s in a British women’s prison added extra depth and held my attention.

After Shadow, by Kim Pritekel, a very long novel about a medium. More of a fictional biography really, than a novel, since it starts at the character’s childhood and follows her development for the next twenty years. It almost didn’t make it onto my reading list, as the blurb was atrocious, not even punctuated properly. I revisited and downloaded a sample after hearing more about the book on a reader’s group. A word to authors and publishers – make sure your blurb is excellent, because you really do stand to lose sales if it isn’t.

I think that’s all I’ve read just recently. Of course, I also did the beta reading for my partner Kelli Jae Baeli, who published two novellas recently, Quintessence, and Somewhere Else. This morning I started The Neighbours, by Ania Ahlborn, and it has me hooked too. I do spend a great deal of time reading, practically every spare minute. There are just so many wonderful stories out there.

As for my writing, I’ve spent the last few weeks working on a new series of novellas, a sort of lesbian Doctor Who series, which has been a lot of fun. I’m also hatching another story now, something darker and longer about a woman with the ability to insinuate herself into the dreams of others. That and all the reading I want to do should keep me plenty busy over the next few months

Filed under: Writing Journal

Irrevocable

I’m pleased to announce the release of my new full-length novel Irrevocable. It’s actually been out a week or more, but in my own inimitable style, I forgot about it and simply turned my attention to the next project (which is something exciting I’ll tell you about next time). It reminds me a lot of the way I like to knit – one of my hobbies – where I’ll happily spend hours knitting something then when it’s finished won’t bother to sew it together, taking up the needles again instead to make something new. I might get away with that when I’m knitting teddy bears (I currently have the body pieces of perhaps ten bears, all sitting jumbled in a shoebox) but it’s not such a wise thing for my writing.

After all, if I don’t promote my work at least a little, you’ll never buy it and I’ll have to spend more time working to pay the bills and less time writing. I’d hate to lose my writing time.

So anyway, here it is: my new book Irrevocable. I hope you enjoy it.

Irrevocable

It’s their last road trip – travelling down the coast to say goodbye to Lillian’s mother. Serenity is watching her wife Lillian die, and struggling with the way death has laid its dark shadow over everything she loves so well.

The last thing she needs is an encounter with the supernatural. Or even an encounter with the enigmatic woman who lives further down the beach.

How is it all connected? Serenity keeps seeing mysterious lights in the sky, and she’s sure they’re watching Lillian. But what are they and what do they want?

Serenity isn’t going to like the answers, nor the choices they force her to make.

Available at Amazon, Amazon UK, Smashwords, Kobo

Filed under: Writing Journal

Book Blast!

I just had a terrific time being interviewed over at the Virtual Living Room, a group for readers of lesbian fiction. They’re such a friendly and interesting bunch over there!

I thought I’d share the questions and answers with you all:

Book Flash – Febr 2, 2013

Kate Genet, Disbelief

 

Hi Kate,

thanks for joining us today to try out our new feature “Book Flash”.

A Book Flash is something we thought might be helpful to learn a bit more about

new books and new authors because at the moment we have the great luxury of so

many lesbian fiction being available. When we came up with the feature you just

had announced on list that “Disbelief”, your new novel was available and I

mailed you – fortunately you said yes AND we found a time convenient for both of

us – not an easy feat since we live in Europe and New Zealand respectively.

A Book Flash is a short features where the author answers basically 7 preset

questions about her new book in about an hour … and of course any questions

which may be posed by our members.

The first set of question is: Tell us a bit about yourself and how you came to

be a writer? Is this your debut or are there other books available?

Kate Genet:

Hi everyone,

thanks for inviting me along for this – the very first Book Flash!

Many of you will know already from the Under the Southern Cross weekend that I’m a New Zealander, living in the South Island of NZ. I have a partner, who also writes lesbian fiction, Kelli Jae Baeli. I’ve always been a writer, I think, first deciding it was something I wanted to do when I was just 9 or 10 years old. I remember a teacher setting us a project where we had to write a book, organising it into chapters and everything. I started out doing the sort of story everyone was doing, then threw that one away and let my imagination out. I think I wrote a prose poem about a girl who ran away every full moon, lol.

I started writing seriously in my early twenties, doing non-fiction. I got a book contract the first time I sent anything out and had a (non-fiction) book about dreams published here in NZ when I was 24. I decided to swap to fiction not long after that, went to university to study creative writing and English literature, and when my health got too bad to continue working a couple of years ago, decided to write full time and self publish.

So here I am! I think I now have several short stories, four novellas and about four novels published now.

Henriette: Kate, I can only hope the beauty of NZ doesn’t distract you to much from writing !

BTW it is already Sunday in NZ and I must say the juggling of time zones was for

the most difficult thing in setting up The Book Flash — daylight saving time

and even worse changing of time zones is something my brain can’t process easily.

Here is the second set of questions to let our members know a little bit more

about you and your new book:

What genre would you put your book into? And what is it about? How did you come

to write in that genre? Is it your “usual” genre?

Kate Genet: It makes it all the more pleasant – I love being able to look out the window and see all the native trees on the hillside where we live and down below the beach spreads out beside the lights of the city. Not that I actually look out at it all once I’m writing – when I’m in the ‘zone’, nothing exists but the story in my head and the words on the page. I don’t write for long stretches – only two or three hours every day, but I’m very focused while I write. I play music through headphones while I write to block out the world, and it’s a case of only disturb me if there’s a fire or someone’s bleeding!

 

Henriette: Sigh, I want to start traveling right now . But back to Disbelief:

What genre would you put your book into? And what is it about? How did you come

to write in it? Is it your “usual” genre?

 

Kate Genet: Disbelief is the forth book in a series that was never meant to be a series. I wrote the first book, Silent Light basically just for fun; it was my first piece of overt lesbian fiction, and then I thought it would be fun to write a second book to go with it, since it was fairly short. It soon became obvious they were my most popular books, and when readers started asking for more, I eventually gave in and said I’d write a short story with Michaela and Trisha in it. Apparently I don’t do short very well, because that story turned into the longest novella in the series. Disbelief I wrote because I enjoy these characters a lot now, and they had come to a turning point in their relationship and I wanted to explore that.

My normal genre is supernatural/horror fiction, and of all I write, this series is the least hard-core. It’s more like paranormal romance, I suppose, because while creepy stuff happens, the stories are just as much about the relationship Michaela and her girlfriend Trisha are trying to build. Readers seem to have really bonded with these girls, and I guess I have too, because I keep writing about them. Michaela is the sensible, logical one, but she has a deep interest in the supernatural and would probably like to be a ghost hunter, I think. Trisha is rash and brash, with a terrible potty mouth (don’t blame me – she was born that way!) but they’re perfect together, though Trisha is only just realising that. They balance each other, Trisha brings Michaela out of herself to a big degree, and Michaela reigns Trisha in. They have strengths and weaknesses that complement each other. I know them so well now, that the things they’ve done and seen feel like real memories to me!

 

Henriette: he, he … yep, there are readers who keep clamoring for more of their favorite

characters … here you go with some fun for the next set of questions:

Coffee or tea?

Lace or leather?

Morning bird or night owl?

Spicy&hot or cool&collected?

Planner or pantster (flying by the seat of your pants)?

 

Kate Genet: Oooh fun

Coffee, lots of it, and not that fancy flavoured stuff my darling Jae drinks – hers doesn’t taste like coffee, it tastes like desert!

Leather. Leather jacket, boots, have a real thing for great pairs of boots (I just checked with Jae and she says I’m very androgynous in my fashions, lol – despite the fact that I have very long, girly hair)

Definitely a morning bird, well  I was until I became a parent, then I was just tired. But I’m at my best in the morning, and it’s when I prefer to write.

Spicy & hot, or cool & collected? Hmm, Checked with Jae on this one too, and she said that the fact that I’m cool and collected is what makes me spicy and hot lol. Yeah, I’d say I’m on the cool and collected side. Reserved, wry, coool as a cucumber.

I’m a pantser, absolutely. I start writing at the beginning of a story, without a plan or outline in sight, and I just write through to the end, starting each day where I left off and moving forward. I rarely even read what I’ve already written, just keep going until it’s done. Jae’s a planner and I look at the way she writes her book and there’s no way in a million years I could outline and piece together like that, it’s just totally foreign to me.

Henriette: lolol – great answers!!! Here you go again:

How do you write? Every day? Longhand? A special place? Do tell

  

Kate Genet: I try to write every day, but home and family mean I have to be flexible. When I’m working on a book I have a goal of 10 thousand words a week, and I must have got a lot faster at typing or something because I often make that goal in three or four days now, in which case I just keep going or take some time off for all the other things there are to do to keep life ticking over.

I can’t write at a desk anymore – I have Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome, so I’m usually sitting back on the bed, or in my office chair with my feet up resting on the bed (our writing space is in our huge bedroom, where it’s quiet and private). I use a laptop and it’s all I use. I don’t write longhand, because I can almost type fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. I also never write in coffee shops or the like, because I wouldn’t be able to concentrate. I keep to a routine, same time every day, same place. I write for two or three hours and that’s it for the day. The rest of the day is spent on the business part of the writing job, or on being a mum and looking after the home.

   

Henriette: I am sorry about your illness! And you are writing quite a lot – wish I could be

so disciplined . You already told us that your characters stay with you -

here are some more questions:

What do you look for in your main characters? What is important to you?

 

Kate Genet: Discipline is hard but essential, if I waited around for inspiration, I’d never finish a book. That blank page can be awfully intimidating.

 

My characters are always ordinary people shoved into extraordinary situations. What I want from them is strength, the strength they often don’t know they possess, and conviction. All characters have to grow throughout a story, and I want my characters to be women who discover just who they are and what is possible for them. It’s amazing what you can do when you have to. They tend to be women who have to find a way to rely on themselves, believe in themselves, and open themselves to possibility; women who are in a difficult situation yet come to discover that they are stronger than they ever knew, who won’t give up on what they want and need, and who come to realise that the connections they make in their lives mean more than just about anything. They can start off as screwed up and doubtful as they like, but that’s where they have to end up. And I’ll make them go through a lot of bad things if I have to, to make sure of it.

 

Henriette: I already am in love with your characters and maybe they reflect a bit of

you as well? …. let me change to love & romance:

How about romance and how about love scenes in your book? none, explicit, fading

to black? Is it easy for you to write those scenes?

 

Kate Genet: Hmm, reflect a bit of me. Yes, they probably do, actually, it’s hard not to put something of yourself in what you write. Michaela in Disbelief, is probably the closest of all my characters to me, and Fen in Building Character is who I always thought I might be if I didn’t have kids and now a wonderful wife.

I was pretty red-faced the first time I wrote a love scene. I hadn’t had sex in a long time (TMI?!) so that didn’t help, lol. Most of my sex scenes are romantic rather than explicit, which I like, emphasising the sensuality and tenderness of the act. But then along came the book Building Character, and that called for sex scenes on a whole different level. The ones in that book are far more graphic, lusty rather than loving. I surprised myself with those ones, but I enjoyed writing them just as much as I enjoyed writing every other scene, though reading them over during editing made me blush a few times.

I find it easy to write all the different types of love scenes, but I only put them in there when I’m sure they’re part of the story. I don’t want them to be gratuitous at all, but on the other hand, sex is a big part of life and it would be unrealistic for the couples in my book not to jump into bed on occasion. I suppose I could do the fading to black thing, but you can convey a lot about how your characters are feeling and relating by what they do in bed.

I don’t really write romance, in that it’s not the main focus of my story, but there’s always romance somewhere in there because the need to connect on a romantic level with another person is such a deep-seated thing. It’s often part of my character’s growth – the ability to be open and giving and trusting, which is a huge thing for a lot of them, after the things I put them through.

 

Henriette: Kate, I love your answer – and sometimes not-so-explicit can even be more erotic than explicit.

The Book Flash is coming to the end and I very much enjoyed your answers!! I have to admit I had listened mentally to your NZ accent . Now the wrap-up question:

Are you self-published or using a publisher? Where can we get your books in print or as an ebook? Are the ebooks available DRM-free or in multiple formats?

Thanks for trying out this new feature with me and I think you did splendidly!!

Henriette

 

 Kate Genet: I’m self-published. I thought about going with a publisher, but wanted the freedom to write exactly the sort of stories I wanted to, to any length, with deadlines (and the ability to not meet them) I set myself.

I don’t put any DRM on my books, thinking that readers should be free to read them where and how they want, and share them too if they like. They’re available pretty much everywhere, all the big digital stores such as Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Sony, Apple, Smashwords etc. I like making them available as widely as possible, and in as many formats as possible. So far, I’ve only published my work as ebooks, but this year I’m planning to get them all out in print as well. Busy year ahead!

Here are a couple links for Disbelief:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Disbelief-Michaela-Trisha-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00B4LC764


http://www.amazon.com/Disbelief-Michaela-Trisha-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00B4LC764


https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/277742

 

And as a special thank you to the Virtual Living Room (and now readers of my blog), anyone who hasn’t tried my Michaela and Trisha stories (remember, Disbelief is the forth in the series) but thinks they might like to, here’s a coupon for you to download the first book Silent Light, free from Smashwords:

NV94L

and the link for Silent Light is:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/38908

Happy reading everyone!

Many thanks to you, Henriette, for inviting me along – I had a blast!

Kate

 

 

 

Filed under: Writing Journal

Disbelief – new Michaela and Trisha Book Out Now

I’ve been so busy doing the last of the editing and formatting for my novel Irrevocable, I forgot to let you know that DISBELIEF, my new Michaela and Trisha book is now out!

This is the forth book in their series, which is pretty good considering I never really thought I’d make it a series in the first place. I thoroughly enjoyed writing this one – it took only a couple of weeks and was a real breeze. Disbelief focuses on the girl’s relationship (good grief, I wrote a romance!) more than anything, and barely has a spooky thing in it. Nevertheless, I’m sure fans of these two won’t be entirely disappointed – as usual, they manage to get themselves into something of a predicament, but that’s all I’m saying. If you want to know more, you’ll have to read the blurb, then go get the book. It will be available on all the usual places, but right now you can get it from Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords. It takes a few weeks to be distributed to Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple and others.

I’ll leave you with the cover and blurb, and get back to my editing. I’m looking forward to getting Irrevocable out – because that will mean it’s time to write another book, and I came up with a very interesting idea today…

Happy reading!

When Trisha discovers that Michaela is planning a romantic weekend away, she’s suspicious that Michaela is going to follow through on her threat to ask Trisha to marry her. She should be over the moon at the thought, but instead she’s sick and scared.

Things are good just as they are, why change them?

Trisha’s never felt she could cope under pressure, and marriage means lots of pressure – not to mess up ever again.

She agrees to the weekend trip anyway, but nothing goes as planned. Lost in the forest, Michaela badly injured, it’s up to Trisha to be the strong one for once.

Or will she let her own disbelief threaten both of them?

 

Available at Amazon, Amazon UK, Kobo, and Smashwords

Filed under: Writing Journal

Irrevocable, and a New Michaela and Trisha Story

The end of the year is upon us, though not as disastrous an end as some people were anticipating this December, I’m guessing. When it comes to my writing, I haven’t achieved even half of what I planned to way back at the beginning of this year’s calendar pages, but I’m not complaining.

I finished my novel Irrevocable a couple of weeks ago, much to my satisfaction, and it’s sitting safely on the hard drive ( and in a couple storage clouds way off there in cyber-land), hopefully maturing and mellowing like a good wine. I’ll pick it up soon and work on the editing, making sure it’s in working order and getting it ready to go out in the world like all good little stories have to in the end.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on another Michaela and Trisha story – my idea of taking a break, actually. Going back to Michael and Trisha is like slipping on my most comfortable clothes and hanging out on the sun lounger with a long drink of something cold. They’re old friends now, and easy to get along with.

They sure aren’t dull though.

I enjoy writing their stories; they come fairly effortlessly, and after writing a tense, dark story like Irrevocable, I’m happy to kick back and have some lazy fun.

Weird thing is, this time around, Michaela and Trisha aren’t up against anything supernatural. Trisha is struggling with her new-found psychic gift, but the danger’s coming at them from a different quarter in this story. One that’s testing the strength of the bond between the two women and pushing their faith in each other to the limit.

I was hoping to have it done by the last day of the month, and maybe I will at that, but I’m learning that when I say ‘the story’s only going to be this long’, I’m usually kidding myself. It’ll be as long as it takes, and it will end when the characters say it’s done. I am, however, hoping to have both this story and Irrevocable out next month. I’ve big plans and a lot of stories to tell next year, so there won’t be any hanging around whistling tunelessly.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Filed under: Writing Journal