Stephanie Abbott's Blog, page 24

"Lady of the Deep" – Ras Mohammad National Park, Egypt – Jacques de Vos – Featured Photographer

Reblogged from PhotoBotos.com:

. . "Lady of the Deep" – Ras Mohammad National Park, Egypt – Jacques de Vos – Featured Photographer When you think of Egypt you tend to think of pyramids and sand.  Lots of sand!  If someone asked me where this image was taken you could have given me 1,000 chances to guess and I would have needed at least 1,001 to guess Egypt.  After seeing Jacques award winning image below, I now think of Egypt as a place I need to go for diving and free diving as well.  Please read about his photoshoot below …

This is a terrific website to follow.



Filed under: Fun Stuff Tagged: blogs to follow, nature photography, photography, professional photography

Yep, Life is Getting Harder for the Indie Author

Reblogged from Self-Published Author's Lounge:

This is a piggyback on Joleene Naylor's post which talks about Amazon removing about 4000 books.  Details are in her links, so I won't go over it except to say that it looks like authors (in general) are seeming to have a harder time keeping their books on sites where we need to sell them to make a living or to be on our way toward making a living.  Sorry I'm posting so soon after you, Joleene.  The post Joleene just made falls in line with the same topic I have in mind, which is the fact that …

Some great points I never considered…



Filed under: Writing Tagged: authors, paypal censorship, religious censorship, ruth ann nordin, smashwords censorship

"Don't worry, they're not banning OUR books"

You know, I am a great believer in the free market. I think a company like PayPal can do whatever they wish. If they want to play nanny to consumers by attempting to unduly influence the market, they have that right. Same with BookStrand and Smashwords … if they want to knuckle under, well, they have their own bottom line to think about. But it surprises me that more AUTHORS and ARTISTS aren't up in arms.

Now me, I write all kinds of stuff. Cozy mysteries. Fantasy adventures. M/M romance. I am not sure if anything I've written would be affected by these policy changes. My book SOMETHING DIFFERENT is on Smashwords as of right now … we'll see. But I find it depressing to see some writers defending PayPal's new rules on the following grounds.

"Pseudo-incest books are tacky.  It's not incest, but "Me and Step-Daddy" books are almost incest, and incest is bad, mm-kay?"

Don't like it?  Don't read it.  I have enjoyed the amazing experience of being looked down on by "zombie writers" (folks who write exclusively about the Zombie Apocalypse) and vampire writers and "menage" writers (yes, they write romances about threesomes) because some of my books contain erotic content. I know there's always going to be competition and jealousy in artistic circles but it's really amusing to find yourself at the bottom of the pecking order with some books, and near the top (mystery) with others.

"Rape fantasy books are disrespectful to rape victims everywhere.  Furthermore, rape is illegal, so why should writing about it be okay?"

Again: don't like it, don't read it.  I am not even going to delve into the difference between reality and fantasy, which apparently is too abstract for some professional writers to grasp.  I am going to say this.

ALL murder mysteries deal with illegal acts.  Are all murder mysteries, especially the gritty ones that describe the act from the killer's viewpoint, disrespectful to murder victims?

ALL woman-in-jeopardy/kidnapped child/slasher/serial killer stories deal with illegal acts.  Same question.  Should victims and surviving families be offended?

In certain places in the world, menage love stories deal with ("glorify") illegal acts.  Same with my m/m romances. They are disrespectful to  folks who object to homosexual sex and love on the grounds of religious or cultural tradition.

EVERYTHING we write is theoretically disrespectful to someone, if they choose to object to the existence/sale of books that differ from their personal world view.

You know, I really do encourage free speech and disagreement and I don't give a rat's ass if you think I'm right or wrong.  But if you're a published author who feels good about this because YOUR books aren't affected, I wish you'd reconsider.

First they came for the communists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me. – Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

 

 

Filed under: Emma Jameson, S.A. Reid, Stephanie Abbott, Writing Tagged: authros, censorship, paypal censorship, smashwords censorship, writing

ICE BLUE in paperback

Just wanted to make sure everyone knows my cozy mystery ICE BLUE (a Kindle bestseller for more than 6 months) is now available in paperback here.  I thought the future of indie authors was entirely in ebooks, so I nearly didn't try the paperback route.  But ICE BLUE has been available for 3 weeks and to my surprise … it appears I should have made it available sooner!

When BLUE MURDER, book #2 in the Lord & Lady Hetheridge series arrives (hopefully late March or early April) I'll be sure to make it available in print from the first.

Filed under: Blue Murder, Emma Jameson, Ice Blue, Lord and Lady Hetheridge Series Tagged: british detective, cozy mystery, D.S. Kate Wakefield, D.S. Paul Bhar, emma jameson, Ice blue, Kindle, London, Lord Hetheridge, may-december romance, mystery series, paperback, scotland yard, women sleuths

Move Mention: The Artist

I enjoyed The Artist.  It's a great tribute to old Hollywood.  Jean Dujardin is outstanding as George Valentin, star of silent movies and a cheerful egotist.  He's riding high when he meet Peppy Miller and a momentary flirtation leads to her big break.  But as the industry changes, George finds himself cast aside in favor of "fresh meat" like Peppy, who speaks and sings in the new talkies.  George's final film, Tears of Love, is a flop while Peppy's Beauty Spot catapults her to true fame.

There's lots to like about The Artist, including John Goodman (he chooses the best films, doesn't he?) and James Cromwell as George's devoted valet.  The actors sometimes mimic silent movie conventions, mugging wildly, and other times just silently act, showing us how difficult it can be to express complex emotions without saying lines.

I also appreciate a movie that isn't plowing the same old ground.  (Cough, cough, The Help.)  I can honestly say I've never seen an almost totally silent, black-and-white film (from the modern era) and it was refreshing.

Finally, I can't finish this post without mentioning Uggie, a Jack Russell terrier who won a Golden Collar for his work as George's devoted pet and co-star.  Dog lovers will adore him.

 

 

Filed under: Movies Tagged: george valentin, golden collar, golden globes, jean dujardin, john goodman, oscar buzz, silent movies, talkies, the artist, uggie

SOMETHING DIFFERENT has a new cover!

I'll take awhile for the image to appear in all venues.  But this is it:

Filed under: S.A. Reid, Something Different Tagged: adultery, ebook, gay, gay fiction, gay romance, gay-for-you, gfy, Kindle, novel, rent boy, S.A. Reid, Something Different

Movie Mention: A Dangerous Method

This is a film I've been waiting to see. Yet in all honesty, it felt like a truncated mini-series, where a lot of the essentials were cropped out. Michael Fassbender plays Carl Jung, a psychologist and theoretical heir to Big Daddy Siegmund Freud.   As he falls in love/lust with a patient (Keira Knightley), Jung finds himself breaking his own rules.

For me, the film continually gives us enough to keep us interested without ever giving us enough.  Is Jung sexually frustrated at home or just tantalized by the possibility of an adoring mistress?  Did Keira Knightley's adoring patient/mistress write those anonymous letters, bringing Jung's reputation down?  Did Freud truly try and seduce his subordinate's former mistress?

I wish the movie had provided those answers.  Ultimately I know that Freud died of cancer, Keira Knightley's character (Sabine?) was shot dead by Nazis and Jung died peacefully of old age.  But the parts in between go unanswered, and I was left wishing for much more.

Filed under: Michael Fassbender, Movies Tagged: david cronenberg., michael fassbender, movies, viggo mortensen

Movie Mention: The Descendants

I really enjoyed The Descendants.  It's from Alexander Payne, who's written and directed several good (and challenging) movies over the years, like Citizen Ruth, About Schmidt and Sideways.   This is one where casual moviegoers will probably come for the stunning Hawaiian scenery and George Clooney and stay for the movie's surprising depth, not to mention great performances all around.

Clooney plays Matt King, a man facing two huge turning points at the same time.  On the business front, he is the sole trustee of an astonishing parcel of virgin Hawaiian land: the closest thing to paradise on earth.  Due to legal reasons, his family can no longer hold on to the land in perpetuity, so the trust must be dissolved.  The sale will make Matt and his entire extended family rich, but who should get the land?  As a man long disconnected from his feelings, Matt is struggling to decide if he can really sign away that untouched expanse to become another golf course for the world's elite.

On the home front, things are dire.  Matt's semi-estranged wife Elizabeth has suffered a catastrophic head injury.  With Elizabeth in a swiftly deteriorating vegetative state, Matt can no long play absentee father.  His troubled daughters need him.  And he spends the movie trying to discover what he needs, and he feels, as he begins to recreate his life.

Filed under: Movies Tagged: alexander payne, george clooney, hawaii, movies, the descendants

Guest post on topic: Love Between Friends

Go here:

http://www.tglong.com/blog/2012/02/for-the-love-of-love-17th-february-love-and-friendship/

Filed under: Stephanie Abbott Tagged: friends, friendship, love, Valentine's Day

Nothing goes together like Valentine's Day + Auto Correct

Filed under: Stephanie Abbott