Darrell B. Nelson's Blog: Darrell B Nelson's Writing

Indie Writers and the Last Crusade

“If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don’t listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.”
—Lillian Hellman
Search the Internet and you will find two absolute rules about being an Indie Author.
1) Reach out and connect with your readers.
2) Never, under any circumstances, contact someone who reviewed one of your books.
I like the first rule, but the second rule seems to clash with the first.
I've written a lot of reviews, and I personally like it when the author contacts me. I do understand there are two reasons why some people say you should never contact a reviewer, one legitimate and one not.
The legitimate reason is as an author you've lived with this character for six weeks to a year. Then someone takes a quick glance at them and judges them. It's hard not to get emotional over that.
The illegitimate reason, is some reviews are written by the same people who get on message boards, shout stupid baseless accusations, followed by illogical statements, and name calling. Then get upset when you call them out.
So I would like to try an experiment, I'd like to hear from authors I've reviewed and get their feedback, not only on the review but their views on the craft, the vision, and their thoughts on writing.
Think of this as part writers workshop, part venting over reviews, and part author interview, or maybe just a bunch of writers babbling to themselves.
I do want all the authors I've reviewed to know two things. First, I know you love your characters, you see things in them that I haven't. Two, I make mistakes, I know from time to time I've probably criticized someone for something that wasn't even in their novel. All I can say is a great book needs three things. A writer, a reader, and imagination. The first two are self explanatory, the last, imagination, has to be present in both the reader and writer. Sorry if my imagination went the wrong way. I promise, I won't get upset if you point out I made a mistake.
I will publish any responses, however if I feel the responses cast the author in a bad light I will ask them if they wish to rephrase it before publishing it.
My first interview: Emma Jaye
Emma Jaye Interview

How many sex scenes is "too much"?

If you said one, you guessed way too high.
Reviewers have said that I put too many sex scenes in my novels. Mind Thief had three, plus a multiple ones not shown. I can see how some reviewers might say that's too many. Dymon's Lair had a rape scene that male reviewers objected to. The females I talked to said they understood why it was there. The one that baffles me is reviewers who didn't like the sex in Showgirls and Aliens. There wasn't any.
I understand that some people are offended by sex, that is not my intention when writing a sex scene. Other scenes, like grinding up a girl's hand and feeding to her, serve that purpose.
Some people say they are offended by any rape in a novel. But in An Extra Topping of Horror, I had a cult of devil worshipers who needed to have Linda, the beautiful Daughter of Darkness, forcefully take a male's virginity as a sacrifice to the Devil. The males all mistook the offering as an attempted murder and ran off. The people who had told me they were offended by rape, all thought that was one of the funniest parts of the novel.
I really don't know (or care) how many sex scenes are too many, but I would like to get into the mind of people who are offended by sex, especially in my books that don't have any. Does anyone have any thoughts as to what place, sex, has in a novel?

Hello Everyone

Thanks for visiting my shiny new blog.
I plan on updating it erratically. The quickest things I will comment on is answering any questions about my writing or my books. I'll also share any news about my books. Finally, I'll post my reviews of books.
I'd love to hear from you. I truly believe there is no such thing as I dumb question, but I do reserve the right to give dumb answers.