Lisa Henry's Blog, page 16
November 20, 2013
BDSM Week at Boys in Our Books; and news!
Hi everyone!
Today I am over at Boys In Our Books, talking about BDSM, YKINMK, and other acronyms. Actually, that's a lie. It's just those two. Anyway, head on over if you want to talk about kink, trust, and the eternal question: what's with those hats that leather men wear?
In other exciting news, only a week until JA Rock and I actually meet! How exciting is that? Pretty exciting. I mean, it must be. I've used the word "exciting" four times in this paragraph already. That's the sort of shit a line editor would pick up on right away, you know.
And speaking of line editors, wow, it's a busy few weeks coming up. Here's a list of the stuff I have to edit:
When All The World Sleeps - with JA RockMark Cooper Versus America - with JA RockKing of Dublin - with Heidi BelleauSweetwater
The more I look at that list, the more terrifying it appears. Oh, did I totally mention I got a contract from Riptide for Sweetwater? Yeah, that happened.
Wyoming Territory, 1870. Elijah Carter is caught between two very different men, between revenge and despair, in a boom town teetering on the edge of a bust.
Contains rough BDSM, cheap whiskey, and handsome cowboys. Mmmm...
And, naturally, a shitload of angst.
Today I am over at Boys In Our Books, talking about BDSM, YKINMK, and other acronyms. Actually, that's a lie. It's just those two. Anyway, head on over if you want to talk about kink, trust, and the eternal question: what's with those hats that leather men wear?
In other exciting news, only a week until JA Rock and I actually meet! How exciting is that? Pretty exciting. I mean, it must be. I've used the word "exciting" four times in this paragraph already. That's the sort of shit a line editor would pick up on right away, you know.
And speaking of line editors, wow, it's a busy few weeks coming up. Here's a list of the stuff I have to edit:
When All The World Sleeps - with JA RockMark Cooper Versus America - with JA RockKing of Dublin - with Heidi BelleauSweetwater
The more I look at that list, the more terrifying it appears. Oh, did I totally mention I got a contract from Riptide for Sweetwater? Yeah, that happened.
Wyoming Territory, 1870. Elijah Carter is caught between two very different men, between revenge and despair, in a boom town teetering on the edge of a bust.
Contains rough BDSM, cheap whiskey, and handsome cowboys. Mmmm...
And, naturally, a shitload of angst.
November 16, 2013
Mark Cooper Versus America - coming in January
Woot!
Mark Cooper Versus America will be out on January 28 from Loose Id.
That's two days after Australia Day, which is fairly good timing for a story about an Aussie boy. At first I thought it would have been perfect if it had been the 26th, but guess what? The 28th is my birthday, so that's even better! Happy birthday to me!
I like Mark Cooper, lots. Because he's funny, and he's snarky, and he's a little bit sweet and insecure -- not that he'll admit that in a million years. He also knows that the correctly terminology for a guy's backside is "arse". Sounds better than ass, doesn't it? Got a lot more grunt in it.
For those who don't speak the language, that says "Come on, Australia." Because syllables are for foreigners.
Anyway, JA Rock and I have got a few fun things planned for the release of Mark Cooper Versus America, and now, given the timing, I think I'll have to dig around in my mum's kitchen and pull out the recipes for lamingtons and pavlovas, just so I can share the Aussie love.
Okay, the Kiwis will claim they invented pavolvas. Don't believe them. It's a lie. Everyone lied. History lied. It's a conspiracy. They're just saying it because the feel bad that their national bird can't fly and looks like a mop with a pointy beak.
Okay, so our national bird can't fly either, but it can kick you to death, and that's pretty cool, right? Anyway, before I get too carried away, here's the blurb for Mark Cooper Versus America :
Mark Cooper is angry, homesick, and about to take his stepdad's dubious advice and rush Prescott College's biggest party fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi. Greek life is as foreign to Aussie transplant as Pennsylvania's snowstorms and bear sightings. When the fraternity extends Mark a bid, Mark makes it his mission to get kicked out by the end of pledge period. But things change when he's drawn into Alpha Delt's feud with a neighbouring fraternity.
Studious Phi Sigma Kappa Deacon Holt is disappointed to learn Mark's pledging Alpha Delt -- Phi Sig's sworn enemy. Mark's too beautiful for Deacon to pass up an invitation for sex, but beyond sex, Deacon's not sure. He wants a relationship, but a difficult family situation prevents him from pursuing anything beyond his studies. Mark and Deacon's affair heats up as the war between their fraternities escalates. They explore kinks they didn't know they had while keeping their liaison a secret from the brothers. But what Romeo and Juliet didn't teach these star-cross'd lovers is how to move beyond sex and into a place where they share more than a bed. That's something they'll have to figure out on their own -- if the friction between their houses doesn't tear them apart.
And here is a lovely pavlova:
Oh yeah, that's at least 600% sugar...
Mark Cooper Versus America will be out on January 28 from Loose Id.
That's two days after Australia Day, which is fairly good timing for a story about an Aussie boy. At first I thought it would have been perfect if it had been the 26th, but guess what? The 28th is my birthday, so that's even better! Happy birthday to me!
I like Mark Cooper, lots. Because he's funny, and he's snarky, and he's a little bit sweet and insecure -- not that he'll admit that in a million years. He also knows that the correctly terminology for a guy's backside is "arse". Sounds better than ass, doesn't it? Got a lot more grunt in it.
For those who don't speak the language, that says "Come on, Australia." Because syllables are for foreigners.
Anyway, JA Rock and I have got a few fun things planned for the release of Mark Cooper Versus America, and now, given the timing, I think I'll have to dig around in my mum's kitchen and pull out the recipes for lamingtons and pavlovas, just so I can share the Aussie love.
Okay, the Kiwis will claim they invented pavolvas. Don't believe them. It's a lie. Everyone lied. History lied. It's a conspiracy. They're just saying it because the feel bad that their national bird can't fly and looks like a mop with a pointy beak.
Okay, so our national bird can't fly either, but it can kick you to death, and that's pretty cool, right? Anyway, before I get too carried away, here's the blurb for Mark Cooper Versus America :
Mark Cooper is angry, homesick, and about to take his stepdad's dubious advice and rush Prescott College's biggest party fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi. Greek life is as foreign to Aussie transplant as Pennsylvania's snowstorms and bear sightings. When the fraternity extends Mark a bid, Mark makes it his mission to get kicked out by the end of pledge period. But things change when he's drawn into Alpha Delt's feud with a neighbouring fraternity.
Studious Phi Sigma Kappa Deacon Holt is disappointed to learn Mark's pledging Alpha Delt -- Phi Sig's sworn enemy. Mark's too beautiful for Deacon to pass up an invitation for sex, but beyond sex, Deacon's not sure. He wants a relationship, but a difficult family situation prevents him from pursuing anything beyond his studies. Mark and Deacon's affair heats up as the war between their fraternities escalates. They explore kinks they didn't know they had while keeping their liaison a secret from the brothers. But what Romeo and Juliet didn't teach these star-cross'd lovers is how to move beyond sex and into a place where they share more than a bed. That's something they'll have to figure out on their own -- if the friction between their houses doesn't tear them apart.
And here is a lovely pavlova:
Oh yeah, that's at least 600% sugar...
November 11, 2013
How awesome is my mum? Rhetorical question.
So my mum hasn't actually read any of my books. Mostly because I won't let her. This one time, when I was about sixteen, she found this thing that I wrote, that may or may not have been an early attempt at m/m dub con, and I don't ever want to have that conversation ever again, thanks.
Anyway...
I told mum that I was writing a sequel to the as yet unreleased Sweetwater , and she made all the usual noises of encouragement, and then asked me if I'd got a plumber in yet to fix that leaking tap. God, no, okay? Can we just talk about me, please?
I mentioned that the sequel will be from the POV of the cowboy, and this would mean a lot of research since the actual day-to-day activities of cowboys in Wyoming in 1870 are very much a mystery to me. A few days later, this turned up in my house:
How awesome is my mum?
Anyway...
I told mum that I was writing a sequel to the as yet unreleased Sweetwater , and she made all the usual noises of encouragement, and then asked me if I'd got a plumber in yet to fix that leaking tap. God, no, okay? Can we just talk about me, please?
I mentioned that the sequel will be from the POV of the cowboy, and this would mean a lot of research since the actual day-to-day activities of cowboys in Wyoming in 1870 are very much a mystery to me. A few days later, this turned up in my house:
How awesome is my mum?
November 7, 2013
The Difficulties of Consent
So today I got to thinking about non-con and dub-con, which I love to read and to write. And guess what? I'm not going to apologise for that. I like exploring the blurry lines and the grey areas and all the nasty dark little corners in the human psyche. Just because.
But if you don't like to read non-con or dub-con, I have no desire to change your mind. Each to their own.
The problem I'm having lately with non-con and dub-con is one that I've sort of touched on before. You write a story, and then it is edited, and changed, and sometimes it's different to what you intended.
My first draft of Tribute was way harsher than the final draft. Some nasty shit went down. And I was advised by my editor and publisher, who obviously know more about this sort of thing, that I needed to strengthen the romance side of things. Stockholm syndrome is apparently not a happy ending. Who knew?
Disclaimer: I am in no way complaining about my editor and publisher, because guess what? They know what sells, and I wanted to sell this book.
But the issue I had, I think, in the end, was that you have this bastard of a character who basically imprisons the young prince, has his evil way with him in lots of varied and interesting ways, and then you have redeem him sufficiently that not only will readers buy the fact that the prince falls in love with him, but also that he's worthy of that love. I think we'll all agree that the HEA in Tribute was on shaky ground.
Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to the next issue: that of non-con and dub-con and the Amazon crackdown on books featuring them.
The recent publicity surrounding the pulling of self-published erotica with non-con and dub-con was a vast overreaction to the issue, but it's been coming for a while. Those of us who aren't self-published knew, because whenever we wrote non-con or dub-con our editors would tell us that it would be difficult to get the third party vendors (aka Amazon) to put it up for sale.
In The Good Boy , J.A. Rock and I culled the absolute shit out of a scene between Lane and Acton, because our editor felt it would be too graphic for third party vendors.
In Tribute , Kynon, despite being in chains, verbally consents to being made Brasius's. That was put in because my editor felt it was important. Surely the fact he's in chains and has his kingdom to save negated whatever choice he ever had in the matter? It wasn't true consent, and I think we all knew it. And I was totally okay with that.
Because there is a place for the rape fantasy. It is a healthy and normal part of human sexuality, and, I think, allows people -- although the rape fantasy seems to be more popular in women -- to indulge in the fantasy of being "forced" to engage in sexual acts without taking responsibility for initiating them. At its most basic level, I think the rape fantasy is all about "Well, you can't do anything about it, so you might as well enjoy it."
And I can't emphasise enough that there is a world of difference between the fantasy of rape and a real rape.
The main issue I have with the guidelines from Amazon is that there is no acknowledgement of this difference. As though somehow the rape depicted in Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and the rape depicted in The Virginal Nun meets the Rampaging Viking (not a real title, I hope) are in any way comparable.
Rape is rape. And rape fantasy is rape fantasy.
So this is where writers get creative. We dilute our non-con into dub-con, and then we soften the blow of that dub-con by making it all okay in the end. Is this disingenuous? Hell, yes. But we do it because these are the rules we have to play by. In an attempt not to have their books pulled, authors are writing what any court of law would consider non-con, and twisting it ever so slightly into dub-con. Because that way your book has a better chance of escaping the cull. And to me, disguising non-con as dub-con seems a lot less honest than saying, "Yep, it's total non-con. Enjoy."
Which is why, BTW, I never even tried to put The Last Rebellion up on Amazon.
They don't like that sort of story over there. Meanwhile, go and order a copy of GTA V. There's this awesome part where this woman is getting raped on the side of the road and you can see the guy's dick and everything...
Nah, it's okay. It's not written in a book, so it's totally fine.
But if you don't like to read non-con or dub-con, I have no desire to change your mind. Each to their own.
The problem I'm having lately with non-con and dub-con is one that I've sort of touched on before. You write a story, and then it is edited, and changed, and sometimes it's different to what you intended.
My first draft of Tribute was way harsher than the final draft. Some nasty shit went down. And I was advised by my editor and publisher, who obviously know more about this sort of thing, that I needed to strengthen the romance side of things. Stockholm syndrome is apparently not a happy ending. Who knew?
Disclaimer: I am in no way complaining about my editor and publisher, because guess what? They know what sells, and I wanted to sell this book.
But the issue I had, I think, in the end, was that you have this bastard of a character who basically imprisons the young prince, has his evil way with him in lots of varied and interesting ways, and then you have redeem him sufficiently that not only will readers buy the fact that the prince falls in love with him, but also that he's worthy of that love. I think we'll all agree that the HEA in Tribute was on shaky ground.
Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to the next issue: that of non-con and dub-con and the Amazon crackdown on books featuring them.
The recent publicity surrounding the pulling of self-published erotica with non-con and dub-con was a vast overreaction to the issue, but it's been coming for a while. Those of us who aren't self-published knew, because whenever we wrote non-con or dub-con our editors would tell us that it would be difficult to get the third party vendors (aka Amazon) to put it up for sale.
In The Good Boy , J.A. Rock and I culled the absolute shit out of a scene between Lane and Acton, because our editor felt it would be too graphic for third party vendors.
In Tribute , Kynon, despite being in chains, verbally consents to being made Brasius's. That was put in because my editor felt it was important. Surely the fact he's in chains and has his kingdom to save negated whatever choice he ever had in the matter? It wasn't true consent, and I think we all knew it. And I was totally okay with that.
Because there is a place for the rape fantasy. It is a healthy and normal part of human sexuality, and, I think, allows people -- although the rape fantasy seems to be more popular in women -- to indulge in the fantasy of being "forced" to engage in sexual acts without taking responsibility for initiating them. At its most basic level, I think the rape fantasy is all about "Well, you can't do anything about it, so you might as well enjoy it."
And I can't emphasise enough that there is a world of difference between the fantasy of rape and a real rape.
The main issue I have with the guidelines from Amazon is that there is no acknowledgement of this difference. As though somehow the rape depicted in Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and the rape depicted in The Virginal Nun meets the Rampaging Viking (not a real title, I hope) are in any way comparable.
Rape is rape. And rape fantasy is rape fantasy.
So this is where writers get creative. We dilute our non-con into dub-con, and then we soften the blow of that dub-con by making it all okay in the end. Is this disingenuous? Hell, yes. But we do it because these are the rules we have to play by. In an attempt not to have their books pulled, authors are writing what any court of law would consider non-con, and twisting it ever so slightly into dub-con. Because that way your book has a better chance of escaping the cull. And to me, disguising non-con as dub-con seems a lot less honest than saying, "Yep, it's total non-con. Enjoy."
Which is why, BTW, I never even tried to put The Last Rebellion up on Amazon.
They don't like that sort of story over there. Meanwhile, go and order a copy of GTA V. There's this awesome part where this woman is getting raped on the side of the road and you can see the guy's dick and everything...
Nah, it's okay. It's not written in a book, so it's totally fine.
October 27, 2013
The Boy Who Belonged
Yes, it's a cover, courtesy of Fiona Jayde, who also did the cover for
The Good Boy.
December 17, you guys! Mark your calendars! (Mine's still on June, but you might be more organised than I am.)
I always like getting covers. They're like Christmas presents. They're like that odd sense of anticipation you got as a kid, when you knew what you wanted but you were afraid to get your hopes up in case it was underwear again. But then it turned out it was a bike, just like you asked for!
And no, I'm not just making that analogy because The Boy Who Belonged is a Christmas story.
Okay, fine, I am. You got me.
Also, it's starting to feel a lot like Christmas, right? I say that as an Australian, since we don't celebrate Halloween much, and don't have a Thanksgiving at all, so there are no pesky holidays I need to get out of the way first. No, Christmas is the next cab off the rank for me.
And as much as I dislike the fact that the Christmas displays are already in the shops, it really is starting to feel like that time of the year. By which I mean, of course, the following:
1. It's getting hot. 2. The mangoes are almost ripe. 3. The rain has come.
I've heard about these white Christmases though. One of these days I'm going to get me one of those.
Oh, and I should add, if you can stand any more of my rambling, you should visit A.B. Gayle's blog, where I'm doing a lot more of it!
December 17, you guys! Mark your calendars! (Mine's still on June, but you might be more organised than I am.)
I always like getting covers. They're like Christmas presents. They're like that odd sense of anticipation you got as a kid, when you knew what you wanted but you were afraid to get your hopes up in case it was underwear again. But then it turned out it was a bike, just like you asked for!
And no, I'm not just making that analogy because The Boy Who Belonged is a Christmas story.
Okay, fine, I am. You got me.
Also, it's starting to feel a lot like Christmas, right? I say that as an Australian, since we don't celebrate Halloween much, and don't have a Thanksgiving at all, so there are no pesky holidays I need to get out of the way first. No, Christmas is the next cab off the rank for me.
And as much as I dislike the fact that the Christmas displays are already in the shops, it really is starting to feel like that time of the year. By which I mean, of course, the following:
1. It's getting hot. 2. The mangoes are almost ripe. 3. The rain has come.
I've heard about these white Christmases though. One of these days I'm going to get me one of those.
Oh, and I should add, if you can stand any more of my rambling, you should visit A.B. Gayle's blog, where I'm doing a lot more of it!
October 23, 2013
Dark Space - now in dead tree format
What is it about a paperback that still feels more real than an ebook?
Is is the weight? Is is the smell? Is it the way that I can now stroke Brady's face without accidentally turning the page on my Kindle?
Whatever it is, you can now do it as well. Dark Space is out in paperback! You can pick it up here from Amazon.
In other news, The Boy Who Belonged is now live on the Loose Id website. No cover art yet, but I'll be sharing that as soon as it's done.
Twenty-one year-old Lane Moredock finally has a normal life. Six months after he was wrongly made a suspect in his parents’ Ponzi scheme, he’s settled down with his older boyfriend, Derek, and is working and attending school. But his happiness is threatened when his mother launches a Christmastime PR campaign to help appeal her prison sentence, and asks introverted Lane to be part of it.
Derek Fields has his hands full taking Santa photos, bird-sitting his sister’s foul-mouthed macaw, and helping Lane prepare for a television interview neither of them wants him to do. As he eases Lane through his anxiety, he worries that Lane sees him as a caretaker rather than a boyfriend, and that their age difference really does matter. He and Lane compensate for the stress in their lives by taking their D/s relationship to new levels--a relationship that Lane’s mother insists he should be ashamed of.
As Christmas draws nearer, the pressure builds. Pushy elves. Snarky subs. A bad fight. A parrot in peril. How the hell is Derek going to give Lane a perfect Christmas when the Moredock legacy threatens to pull them apart before the new year?
The Boy Who Belonged is scheduled for release on December 17.
Is is the weight? Is is the smell? Is it the way that I can now stroke Brady's face without accidentally turning the page on my Kindle?
Whatever it is, you can now do it as well. Dark Space is out in paperback! You can pick it up here from Amazon.
In other news, The Boy Who Belonged is now live on the Loose Id website. No cover art yet, but I'll be sharing that as soon as it's done.
Twenty-one year-old Lane Moredock finally has a normal life. Six months after he was wrongly made a suspect in his parents’ Ponzi scheme, he’s settled down with his older boyfriend, Derek, and is working and attending school. But his happiness is threatened when his mother launches a Christmastime PR campaign to help appeal her prison sentence, and asks introverted Lane to be part of it.
Derek Fields has his hands full taking Santa photos, bird-sitting his sister’s foul-mouthed macaw, and helping Lane prepare for a television interview neither of them wants him to do. As he eases Lane through his anxiety, he worries that Lane sees him as a caretaker rather than a boyfriend, and that their age difference really does matter. He and Lane compensate for the stress in their lives by taking their D/s relationship to new levels--a relationship that Lane’s mother insists he should be ashamed of.
As Christmas draws nearer, the pressure builds. Pushy elves. Snarky subs. A bad fight. A parrot in peril. How the hell is Derek going to give Lane a perfect Christmas when the Moredock legacy threatens to pull them apart before the new year?
The Boy Who Belonged is scheduled for release on December 17.
October 20, 2013
A tourist in my own town
How often to we get so distracted by daily living, that we forget to actually live?
Only today I got this in an email from J.A. Rock: But how do you live right next to the Great Barrier Reef and never mention it?!
To which my answer has to be: Meh. It's some coral and some pretty fish. Seen one natural wonder of the world, you've seen them all.
Familiarity hasn't bred contempt, exactly, but it has bred a kind of shitty lazy attitude, and brings me, kind of, to something I was thinking the other day: Why have I never set a book where I live?
I live in tropical North Queensland, Australia. It has palm trees and oceans and reefs and rainforests and shit. People pay a lot of money to visit places like this. They buy postcards, and t-shirts, and, inexplicably, stuffed cane toads.
I think that it's about time I tried being a tourist in my own town, and saw it through fresh eyes. Because, guess what? It's kind of nice:
If you guys are wondering what brought this on, it's that J.A. Rock who is currently fighting the forces of Mordor in NZ, is heading to Australia in November. So yay!
I guess she doesn't just exist on the internet after all.
Also, I guess I should clean my house.
Only today I got this in an email from J.A. Rock: But how do you live right next to the Great Barrier Reef and never mention it?!
To which my answer has to be: Meh. It's some coral and some pretty fish. Seen one natural wonder of the world, you've seen them all.
Familiarity hasn't bred contempt, exactly, but it has bred a kind of shitty lazy attitude, and brings me, kind of, to something I was thinking the other day: Why have I never set a book where I live?
I live in tropical North Queensland, Australia. It has palm trees and oceans and reefs and rainforests and shit. People pay a lot of money to visit places like this. They buy postcards, and t-shirts, and, inexplicably, stuffed cane toads.
I think that it's about time I tried being a tourist in my own town, and saw it through fresh eyes. Because, guess what? It's kind of nice:
If you guys are wondering what brought this on, it's that J.A. Rock who is currently fighting the forces of Mordor in NZ, is heading to Australia in November. So yay!
I guess she doesn't just exist on the internet after all.
Also, I guess I should clean my house.
October 12, 2013
J.A. Rock's Field Guide to S'mores
Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, J.A. Rock's Field Guide to S'mores.
(Tip: While reading, play "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor in the background.)
The Guide:
The Execution: Well, I have to admit that I went a little bit off plan. For starters, I didn't have the courage of 10 000 men. I had the courage of two nine-year-old boys, a six year old girl, my sister and my mum. So, you know, that's probably the equivalent of the courage of 20 000 men.
Also, it's 30 degrees here today, and not really the sort of weather for a campfire. (I Googled it for the Americans - that's 86 of your degrees.) So instead of a campfire, we had a next of tea lights on my dining room table. Seemed to do the trick.
There were also no sticks involved. My garden is infested with possums. I'm not using any utensil a possum might have peed on, thanks. So we used chopsticks. Again, it seemed to work.
But I wasn't the only one who went off plan. Here is Meg with her "s'more": What can I say? She's a rebel.
We also ran into some problems with Step 3. While I don't think it was intentional, Tom's friend Hamish did set fire to his marshmallow. Twice. But then he ate it anyway. In fact, he was so impressed with s'mores that he made extra for his parents and his grandmother, and wrapped them up in foil to take home.
The verdict: S'mores are incredibly sticky. Like, you think a thing's going to be sticky, and then it's stickier than you imagined would be possible. And how yummy were they? Well, I'll let Tom tell you:
(Tip: While reading, play "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor in the background.)
The Guide:
The Execution: Well, I have to admit that I went a little bit off plan. For starters, I didn't have the courage of 10 000 men. I had the courage of two nine-year-old boys, a six year old girl, my sister and my mum. So, you know, that's probably the equivalent of the courage of 20 000 men.
Also, it's 30 degrees here today, and not really the sort of weather for a campfire. (I Googled it for the Americans - that's 86 of your degrees.) So instead of a campfire, we had a next of tea lights on my dining room table. Seemed to do the trick.
There were also no sticks involved. My garden is infested with possums. I'm not using any utensil a possum might have peed on, thanks. So we used chopsticks. Again, it seemed to work.
But I wasn't the only one who went off plan. Here is Meg with her "s'more": What can I say? She's a rebel.
We also ran into some problems with Step 3. While I don't think it was intentional, Tom's friend Hamish did set fire to his marshmallow. Twice. But then he ate it anyway. In fact, he was so impressed with s'mores that he made extra for his parents and his grandmother, and wrapped them up in foil to take home.
The verdict: S'mores are incredibly sticky. Like, you think a thing's going to be sticky, and then it's stickier than you imagined would be possible. And how yummy were they? Well, I'll let Tom tell you:
October 9, 2013
News...and s'mores
Okay. So time for some news!
Firstly, the awesome Heidi Belleau and I have signed a contract with Riptide for our m/m novel set in post-apocalyptic Dublin. It's called The King of Dublin , and it's heavy on the violence and the non-con. Why is it that the most violent and depraved things are also the most fun to write?
The King of Dublin is about Darragh, who journeys from his home village in Cork to Dublin, and gets tangled up in the gangland wars and power struggles of the self-proclaimed King of Dublin, and with the king's pet slave, Ciaran. Hilarity ensures. No, wait, I don't mean hilarity. I mean bloodshed and trauma.
In other news, Dark Space will be coming out in print soon from Loose Id! Yay! I'm always so happy when trees die on my behalf.
And in other, other news, if any of you guys are on Twitter and have been following J.A. Rock and me, you might have noticed our fairly aggressive fights about spelling, bears, and confectionary. This is because in Mark Cooper Versus America , our hero Mark is constantly banging his head against the wall of cultural misunderstandings.
Well, in the course of writing Mark Cooper Versus America , I might have thrown in a line about having to try everything once...even s'mores. And then I confessed to J.A. that I had no idea what s'mores actually were. And the more she tried to explain, the more confused I got. WHAT THE HELL IS A GRAHAM CRACKER?
Last night I got home from work to find a parcel waiting for me. It contains:
1. marshmallows2. chocolate 3. crackers 4. a book about avoiding bear attacks
...and handwritten (and illustrated) instructions on how to make s'mores.
Guess what I'm doing this weekend?
Firstly, the awesome Heidi Belleau and I have signed a contract with Riptide for our m/m novel set in post-apocalyptic Dublin. It's called The King of Dublin , and it's heavy on the violence and the non-con. Why is it that the most violent and depraved things are also the most fun to write?
The King of Dublin is about Darragh, who journeys from his home village in Cork to Dublin, and gets tangled up in the gangland wars and power struggles of the self-proclaimed King of Dublin, and with the king's pet slave, Ciaran. Hilarity ensures. No, wait, I don't mean hilarity. I mean bloodshed and trauma.
In other news, Dark Space will be coming out in print soon from Loose Id! Yay! I'm always so happy when trees die on my behalf.
And in other, other news, if any of you guys are on Twitter and have been following J.A. Rock and me, you might have noticed our fairly aggressive fights about spelling, bears, and confectionary. This is because in Mark Cooper Versus America , our hero Mark is constantly banging his head against the wall of cultural misunderstandings.
Well, in the course of writing Mark Cooper Versus America , I might have thrown in a line about having to try everything once...even s'mores. And then I confessed to J.A. that I had no idea what s'mores actually were. And the more she tried to explain, the more confused I got. WHAT THE HELL IS A GRAHAM CRACKER?
Last night I got home from work to find a parcel waiting for me. It contains:
1. marshmallows2. chocolate 3. crackers 4. a book about avoiding bear attacks
...and handwritten (and illustrated) instructions on how to make s'mores.
Guess what I'm doing this weekend?
October 1, 2013
Plagiarism
Another week, and another plagiarism scandal.
Two, actually.
And I really don't understand it. If you're going to be a Cheaty McCheater pants, why do it the hard way? Because, frankly, if you're going to take the effort to grab together a bunch of fan fics and then try and edit them together into something cohesive...well, if you've got those skills, wouldn't it be easier just to write your own damn book?
And this advice is brought to you by the laziest person on earth, I swear.
The second instance was very much the tried and true method:
1. Find something free online.
2. Steal it.
3. Slap a cover and your name on it, and sell it on Amazon.
This pisses me off a lot. It pisses me off on behalf of the readers who bought something in good faith, and it pisses me off because every time it happens it makes writers wonder if it's worth the trouble of putting their stuff out there for free. Eventually, everyone loses, because of one asshole who thought that stealing someone else's work seemed like a good idea.
Grrr.
Okay, that's the rant over. I'm cross-posting this to Booklikes as well. If you're over there, you can find me at http://LisaHenry.booklikes.com/
Two, actually.
And I really don't understand it. If you're going to be a Cheaty McCheater pants, why do it the hard way? Because, frankly, if you're going to take the effort to grab together a bunch of fan fics and then try and edit them together into something cohesive...well, if you've got those skills, wouldn't it be easier just to write your own damn book?
And this advice is brought to you by the laziest person on earth, I swear.
The second instance was very much the tried and true method:
1. Find something free online.
2. Steal it.
3. Slap a cover and your name on it, and sell it on Amazon.
This pisses me off a lot. It pisses me off on behalf of the readers who bought something in good faith, and it pisses me off because every time it happens it makes writers wonder if it's worth the trouble of putting their stuff out there for free. Eventually, everyone loses, because of one asshole who thought that stealing someone else's work seemed like a good idea.
Grrr.
Okay, that's the rant over. I'm cross-posting this to Booklikes as well. If you're over there, you can find me at http://LisaHenry.booklikes.com/
