Lara Zielinsky's Blog: Newsletter, page 35

AMA 2

Free ebook contest rules: each response/comment about my answer to any AMA today will earn you a chance in a random drawing to get a free ebook copy of any of my Amazon-listed titles (follow the link to my author page). Contest entries will be collected until January 18, 2019 11:59 PM (GMT -5:00)

Ask Me AnythingQuestion: What was the hardest thing about transitioning from fan fiction to original fiction? Hey, thanks for the question. You're right that I've stopped writing fan fiction. Here's what that transition was like.
The hard part is creating whole new characters and plots. But there was something that happened in fandoms that made me realize it was a really easy transition to original fiction. But it was quite the winding road to get here.

Let me start off by saying, fan fiction is a wonderful place for writers to cut their teeth and learn the craft. I've posted stories related to fandoms on the internet since 1998. (I'd actually written fanfiction since the 1980s though.) Just as a sampling, you can check out my stories at fanfiction.net or archiveofourown.org which hosts my stories for Xena: Warrior Princess, StarTrek: Voyager, Once Upon a Time, Swingtown, Boston Public, and StarTrek: The Next Generation.

The fact remains you're always playing in someone else's universe. And it's a very gray area at times what I feel comfortable reading about, or doing with, these not-mine characters. One thing I always had a hard time doing was "retro writing," writing the characters as they were in a season that was no longer airing. I'm always too aware that the characters became different than that, had experiences that, even if I didn't like the overall impact on their character, I liked the episode for one reason or another. The few times I tried to pretend something didn't happen and write the story I wanted anyway, elements would creep in that the event was part of the character's history and thus, impacting the storyline.

For example, Dark Swan. The concept was FANTASTIC. But the execution left Emma (and I think Jen, but that's another thread entirely) inhabiting the shell of an independent woman and her character arc became subservient, a complete 180 and with no plans to "redeem" her from that (it was touted as being her happy ending so often, it was clear the writers had no plans to grow Emma's backbone back into place, which would have been a helluva interesting journey).

My muse just fizzled out after that. I couldn't write substantive works in the OUAT universe any more.

"There's always AU (or uber)," you say? And a lot of AUs proliferated within the last few years in the OUAT/SwanQueen fandom. When the Xena bards did that, usually starting from the "many lives" aspect of Xena and Gabrielle's soulmate bond, it led to what I consider the first new boom in lesbian fiction since Ann Bannon, Patricia Highsmith, Karin Kallmaker in the late 20th century. To read more about the early part of the 21st century and my take on the lesbian fiction boom, read this post.

Absolutely I would not be writing original stories today, though, unless I had the welcoming and encouraging environment of fandoms. With eager beta readers and readers who offer comments and kudos, the support is ever-present. And the critique of plot or characterization cemented an understanding for me about two key elements of fiction: engaging, heartfelt characters within an intriguing plot.

AMA 1

Welcome to my little bit of the writing world.

I'll be answering reader questions today. I hope you'll enjoy getting to know me and decide to follow my blog by email or subscribe to the RSS feed as you get to know more about me and the stories I publish.

Free ebook contest rules: each response/comment about my answer to any AMA today will earn you a chance in a random drawing to get a free ebook copy of any of my Amazon-listed titles (follow the link to my author page). Contest entries will be collected until January 18, 2019 11:59 PM (GMT -5:00)

Ask Me AnythingQuestion: How do you get inspired to write? Hey, thanks for the question. My story ideas are inspired from a lot of different things. 
One way I get story ideas is reading the news. The why or the how will just pull at my subconscious and I'll think "what drives that sort of thinking?" I currently subscribe to my local newspaper and several electronic versions of papers. I also regularly read several blogs and listen to several podcasts (see this post) on various topics related to those I use in my writing.
Here's an example of this inspirational process: my first novel Turning Point was formed from the intersection of an on-set story about two actresses and the psychology of a closeted person lashing out because they can't handle their attractions. To make that a romance with an HEA I worked my way through the "why" of the thinking of each of the characters, and plotted situations that challenged them to become self-aware and eventually accept her attraction to this woman.
Another way I'll get story ideas is from my TBR pile. I don't copy ideas, but I'll read something and see how it might easily twist in another direction.  This process of alternative thinking inspired most of my fanfiction writing. That creative method continues to inspire my original writing, too. 
Another thing that really drives my writing ideas is the "trope." But here's the contrary thing. The spark might be a trope or a cliche, but I'll write the story counter to expectations. This might actually be my favorite inspiration technique. How can I make something logically or psychologically flow and yet avoid what people see as cliches in this story type?
Here's an example of these two things causing an idea to form: the story I wrote for the To Love and To Cherish anthology titled "Traditional Values." This was a charity anthology to donate money to the Marriage Equality project. I was an organizing editor (along with Beth Wylde) as it was a project spearheaded by the group Sapphic Planet, of which I was a member. I also wanted to contribute a story. The concept of "traditional values" and the far right's supposition that somehow same-sex marriage demeaned the concept would have been the perfect set up. My character Kennedy McMasters was the daughter of a Catholic New York cop. While he'd accepted Kennedy was gay, she wasn't so sure he'd accept this. After all to christianity and Catholicism in particular, marriage is a sacrament. 
So Kennedy's anxious and nervous as she wants to ask her girlfriend to marry her. The expectation as I set it up in Kennedy's mind is her father's going to shoot down the idea, he's going to deny his "blessing" to her for this. Instead something else happens, leaving Kennedy's head spinning and realizing other things are "traditional" too, and just as valuable, maybe moreso.

"Traditional Values" is now part of my anthology So Many Ways, though I do have a few paperback copies of the original multi-author collection To Love and To Cherish still on my shelf at home.
Thanks for the question! I hope you'll check back for more questions and answers!

Starting the year with a look back

So Many Ways is now available in Amazon. This ebook (with print option) contains several my previously published short stories. They were submitted to anthologies between 2005 and 2010. All the rights to these stories have long since reverted back to me. I decided to gather them under one cover and offer them up as a sampler to fans and new readers.
What will you get? The stories in So Many Ways run the heat spectrum from sweet to spicy, but all are stories featuring women loving women.

Here's the list of stories inside
(and where they originally appeared):
"A Penny for Your Thoughts", Telltale Kisses, Bookends Press, editor: Stephanie Solomon-Lopez, 2007."Les Triumphante", Ultimate Lesbian Erotica 2009, Alyson Books, editor: Nicole, 2009."Traditional Values", To Love and To Cherish, loveyoudivine Alterotica, editors: Beth Wylde and Lara Zielinsky, 2010."Feeldoe Fantasy", Toybox: Strap-ons, Torquere Press, editor: Michele Rode, 2010."Premises", Swing! Adventures in Swinging from Today's Top Erotica Writers, Logical-Lust, editor: Jolie du Pre, 2010.Note: The short story "Just for Now" and novella "So Many Ways" were standalone PDFs in 2008 with small distribution. They appear here now, available to a wider readership.


So Many Ways is available FREE to Kindle Unlimited members and 99 cents for everyone else. I hope you will consider this collection worth purchasing. Thank you.

So Many Ways excerpt 3

The countdown to the new year continues, and I have another excerpt from my short story collection  So Many Ways   which will drop at the same time as the new year ball.

So Many Ways  is going to be available free to Kindle Unlimited members beginning January 1.

Today: Premises.

Author note: This story marked my shift toward writing definitively bisexual-identifying women characters. While previous characters may have have histories with men, were choosing to separate entirely from a heterosexual identity. Jen and Kay definitely are into men AND women.

Story setup: A dating couple attends a swingers club where they meet and engage in group sex with a married couple.



Premises excerptJen stepped from the car, careful not to snag her ebony fishnets, and adjusted the short skirt as she stood. After straightening, she had to pull her right heel from the soft sand of the parking field. Pushing a loose golden curl away from her face, she looked back out toward the roadway they had left. Her spine still vibrated a little from the washboard conditions of the unpaved road.Chris walked around the back of the car toward her. She smiled into his darkly handsome face and accepted a kiss as he took her hand. “You still sure?” he asked. His green eyes searched hers by the light of a string of Japanese paper lanterns.“I wanted to do this where no one would know us,” she said. “This place seemed perfect since we were already vacationing nearby.” She might have had her first time at an off-premises club closer to home, but she preferred the anonymity over meeting someone she might eventually see at the grocery store. Also, this being all on-premises, she wouldn't possibly kill the momentum if she met someone who might suit, so it was a chance to get a little wilder. She might eventually grow to love swinging, but she had had to be honest—Chris had wanted nothing less—and she was a little nervous.She had confessed she had always fantasized tasting another woman's lips and skin, and was turned on by the idea of Chris watching her with another man or woman. They rented movies and talked over more of the realities. Chris had been swinging with a previous girlfriend, and he had stressed it took honesty.Moving away from the car and finding the stepping stone path to the entrance, Jen's head turned at the sound of another car pulling to a stop. She held Chris back a moment with a slight squeeze on his arm, and they stood silent, still mostly in shadows. Another couple got out of the car, and walked easily and familiarly along the stepping stones toward the fence.Jen studied the couple avidly, her newly accepted sexual tastes sampling their appearance. He was broad shouldered, a little older from the evident retreat of his hairline, wearing a pair of khaki shorts and a Hawaiian print shirt open to the navel showing a furred chest glinting silvery in the lighting. Where Chris was dark, handsome and slim, this man by contrast was maybe a football or soccer player in his youth. She had a vision of both of them together, sandwiching her body, or rising over him while Chris plunged into her ass. Raw and primal heat surged through her veins.As the couple reached the gate, Jen turned her attention to the woman as the introductions were made in voices too low to carry back to her. The lanterns’ swaying light played with the petite woman’s hair and features, revealing fiery highlights in the short styled dark brown curls. Jen's fingertips tingled with the desire to stroke through it. Her mouth went dry and she licked her lips at the sight of the woman's profile. She had a lean, mature face and was probably more than a few years older than Jen. Her bone structure cast her face vaguely heart shaped with rounded cheekbones drawing down to a prominent but roundly pointed chin. In contrast to Jen, the woman’s lips were thin, a faint ribbon of dusky red against healthy tan skin.



Pre-order  So Many Ways  today and your copy will download automatically on January 1.

So Many Ways excerpt 2

The countdown to the new year continues, and I have another excerpt from my short story collection So Many Ways which will drop at the same time as the new year ball.

So Many Ways  is going to be available free to Kindle Unlimited members beginning January 1.

Today: Traditional Values.

Author note: This story was produced for a charity anthology To Love and To Cherish specifically put together by a group of authors (we called ourselves "Sapphic Planet") who wanted to raise money for Marriage Equality USA, because at the time (2010) marriage equality was not yet a done deal. I wanted to showcase, with my story, that "traditional" marriage things, like asking for family blessing, and "quizzing" your child's intended, show that same-sex marriage would be absolutely no different than heterosexual marriage. And I feel that it should all just be called marriage.

Story setup: Reuniting with her girlfriend, police officer Kennedy McMasters pops the question.

Traditional Values excerpt“Listen. We can go out on the boat for the whole weekend.”“A whole weekend?”“Four days. You, me, and the open Gulf.”“What about --?” Kennedy laid her fingers across Jean's lips.“What good's my promotion if I can't take time off to be with my family?”That brought the forgiving tears. “Family?” Jean choked softly.“Well? Wanna be a McMasters?”“How?”“Canada's legalized marriage. Or if you'd rather, Massachusetts is closer.”“Now?”“Well, we don't have to go up to the frozen north today, but...” Kennedy smiled. “Dad'll want to come along anyway.”“You've talked to your father about this?”Kennedy understood some of Jean's surprise. Michael McMasters, Kennedy's father, was a retired Ocean Cove cop himself, second generation Irish-American and devout Roman Catholic. Such a profile, as the department psychologist would say, practically dictated the personality of a man who would be in total, even vocal opposition to such a liberal, and queer, idea.But it had only taken Kennedy being shot, nearly fatally, six months ago, and Jean's daily vigil at her hospital bedside for Michael McMasters to consider “something different,” as he had told her, his eldest daughter, over beers at O'Brien's Tavern. “That gal deserves til death do you part, like your mama and me,” he said.Kennedy had not shared that conversation with Jean, treasuring something even more personal in that one conversation with her father. When he accepted Jean's love for her, he also had conveyed an acceptance of Kennedy's true self.“I think you'll be beautiful in white,” Kennedy interrupted her own ruminations with a gentle smile, and tug on a lock of Jean's golden hair wrapped around the fingers of her right hand.“Will you wear your dress uniform?”“You really want a reminder that I'm a cop?”“It's who you are, and who I fell in love with.”
PS - I wanted to leave this one with a different after-note. 

I have 4 copies of the print edition of To Love and To Cherish remaining here at home (otherwise this book is out of print). I was both an author and an editor. 

For $10 -- I will autograph a copy and mail it to you. I'll donate 50% of the sales ($5 each book) to Human Rights Campaign which is still working on equality issues, because the law didn't change some people's minds and legal challenges need money to keep going.
If you're interested, drop me a note using the contact form and I'll get back to you ASAP to make the arrangements.

Authors who contributed to To Love and To Cherish include Beth Wylde, Adriana Kraft, Kissa Starling, Moondancer Drake, Jean Roberta, Jolene Hui and many more.

Excerpt So Many Ways

So Many Ways is going to be available free to Kindle Unlimited members beginning January 1.

I thought I should do a couple posts sharing excerpts from the short stories in this collection of my earliest published stories.

All the stories in So Many Ways are about women loving women, whether that's a woman discovering her physical love of women for the first time ("Les Triumphante") or a long time couple finally deciding to take the plunge and get married ("Traditional Values"), or even a pair of bisexual women enjoying time together in a swing club with their significant others ("Premises").

Over the next three days, I'll share short excerpts from the stories.

Today: Les Triumphante.

Author note: This story has probably my favorite setting: Boston, Massachusetts. If there's any place my soul would like to call home, it's this beautiful, historical city. I love walking around, even in the rain there's beautiful resonance in everything from Cambridge (where I attended an impromptu concert on a front lawn), to the ruggedness of South Side. From the Boston Commons (where I saw my first "rock" concert) and the Esplanade (where I enjoyed the Boston Pops on Fourth of July) on the Charles River, to the rocky beauty of Menotomy Rocks Parks (which I played in as a child) near Arlington.

Story setup: Connie Rook has boarded a party boat in Boston's harbor seeking a night of self-discovery in a woman's arms.

Les Triumphante excerpt
Connie Rook leaned with outward nonchalance on the railing of an 80-foot 2-deck party boat, a plastic champagne flute cupped in her hands. Alternately she looked at the sky blazing with reddish-purple streaks of light, and the sunset's reflection in the rippling and dark waters of the river.An hour ago she had met Val at a small port building, relieved she had finished her work in time and been able to make the trip. Val had told her she would have a "fantastic" time, then led her through a short maze of the other buildings on the docks and up onto the gangway for the boat, Les Triumphante.Connie made her way into the throng of women already aboard. Tossed a few greetings, she had been pleased after looking around at the other women, to realize she had chosen the proper level of attire, business informal. She wore a peach v-neck sweater, her throat accentuated with a single silver chain, and long white slacks with closed toe white sandals.There was a buffet set up on the lower deck. One half of the large area was a dance floor. On the other half guests circled around a drink bar. She found herself awkwardly moving from conversation to conversation, frequently listening in, but finding little of interest to chime in, or feeling her own thoughts might be unwelcome.Maybe I should've stuck with Val, Connie thought. But the other woman, though at first introducing Connie around, had quickly hooked up for the weekend. Connie could see her enjoying attention from a curvy Latina. The looks Connie had received were clearly of the 'you should move on' variety. Val had only offered a distracted 'have a good time' as Connie moved to the small bar, and requested the special she had heard the woman in front of her order, a drink full of swirling color the bartender had called a "Rainbow Sunrise." She nodded her thanks, paid her money, and escaped to the top deck.The top deck was open and breezy, and populated mostly by couples. The pairs of women walked leisurely around the deck engrossed in quiet, intimate conversations. She had made eye contact with a few, but no one moved to talk to her.Maybe I'm just not cut out for this, Connie thought sullenly. Dating wasn't a problem usually. It was the unattached searching between that she could do without. She tended, she realized, to stumble over her prospects. Brad, Michael, Harry, Josh and, she admitted, definitely Kate. She inhaled, the mind-blowing first-time experience with the woman seldom far from her thoughts. The whole reason she had come to this all-woman cruise, to figure out what happened next.Did she even know the games? Solemnly she downed the remains of her drink and studied the refracting moonlight through the curved surface."Hello."
Connie turned her head to see a woman with brown curly hair in a ponytail. She wore a half-smile under light brown eyes. Her outfit was a braided blue wool turtleneck and dark blue, perhaps even black, slim-fit jeans and cross-trainer athletic shoes. Connie had seen almost no jeans among the attendees and wondered at the woman's choice. Then she noticed the woman looked a bit younger than most of the other cruisers, probably not yet thirty years old.

Pre-order  So Many Ways  today and your copy will download automatically on January 1.

Editorial Services Reminder

I woke up this morning to an editing request from a previous client friend. That reminded me I haven't talked about the editorial services I offer.

I have a full page discussing my services. A quick edit of a short story or novella is super reasonable:
$1 per 500 words My turn around time for a quick edit of a story up to 10,000 words is one day.Quick edits correct spelling, grammar, verb tense, and/or point of view inconsistencies. Advising on plot structure or major revisions would be a developmental edit.

If you're looking for something like a developmental edit, I have worked out a three-phase process and pay as you go rates. Go ahead and read about it and then drop me a note.

~ Lara

The Christmas Episode

Every show has (at least) one Christmas episode, so it isn't surprising the prevalence of Christmas stories in the fandoms I have participated in. Xena had the Santicles episode. Even Voyager had one, IMHO, which they revamped as "Ancestors Day" (the one where Mulgrew played her own ancestor Shannon O'Donnell).

I've written about Christmas in a few stories, so I thought it'd be nice to link them together in one place.

The Christmas Story, Star Trek: Voyager, Janeway/Seven (pre-relationship). Janeway and Seven discuss the meaning of the holiday and alter the nature of their relationship.A Little Magic, Once Upon a Time, Regina/Emma (pre-relationship). Emma Swan and a magical mishap bring about a little adventure for her and Regina at Christmas time.Family Tree, Once Upon a Time, Regina/Emma (established relationship). Emma, Regina & Henry's first Christmas together as a family, decorating the Christmas tree.Sweater, Once Upon a Time, Regina/Emma (established relationship), Emma comes to the mansion bearing gifts.I also wrote a short Christmas celebration (too short to make anything but free) titled Caribbean Christmas  for my characters from the lesbian pirate romance novella,  The Queen's Gift . 
Christmas also was a pivotal time in the plot of my first novel Turning Point (excerpt here) with major events happening at various holiday celebrations. You will also find a Christmas celebration in my forthcoming novel We Three between my trio of lovers Jess, Elena and Eric (sneak peek here).
I'll close with a simple heartfelt wish for all of my readers:

May your days be merry and bright, and full of love
~ Lara

Gatekeeping, Intersectionalism, and Maturity

A writing friend, A.M. Leibowitz, discussed her experiences with intersectionality and gatekeeping in their latest blog post. This is something of a (really long) response from me.

Intersectionalism, or the simultaneous belonging of a single thing/person to more than one group is at the heart of this post. Like A.M. I too am bisexual, married to a man. When I came out, several years into my marriage, most of my extended family didn't comprehend that I could be faithful to the "demands" of both. My father-in-law actually asked my husband if I was cheating on him. (My husband said no, and in fact he had been the one supporting my coming out. He'd known for about three years by then.) But the family behaved awkwardly around me for years after that. I just didn't fit their expectations of my multiple identities.

It's this impression of obligation or requirements for belonging, that you must be/do all the things in order to be considered a "valid" member of the group that leads to the other concept A.M. was discussing. Gatekeepers decide the list of behaviors that qualify for membership. My very married in-laws had decided they knew what defined marriage and I definitely wasn't fitting it, so I couldn't be married.

I'd faced intersectional issues before. I am a Jew married to a Catholic, also a Democrat married to a Republican. "How does your marriage survive?" I get asked everywhere. (We've been married 26 year this coming May.)

I most often reply: We are adults. Adults understand that people don't neatly fit into a single box. It's really not that hard to hold two thoughts simultaneously. Our brains are flexible like that.

When I get tired of being polite, I add this: Exclusion based on criteria is the same crap that forms teenagers' cliques. It's immature and petty and people are supposed to outgrow this as their brains mature. Unfortunately, for many, immaturity has become a permanent condition instead of a phase and lasts well into adulthood. Frankly it's disgusting.

Children have, as one of my fanfic commentators said in a fanfic review, "bento-box sorting brains." That's what they do to make sense of a world they need to learn about, compartmentalizing, being literal, these are necessary neurological developmental points. A child is being exactly on-point when they insist things have to be all one or all another, and "can't be bowf" as my toddler character in that story said. But his mom showed him that the block had more than one side, and that it was just fine the way it was. (If you want to read this story, it's a fanfic I wrote for the OUAT fandom called "What Color Are Castles in the Air?")

Maturation of one's thoughts and behaviors is imperative for human development. The higher orders of thinking are analysis and synthesis. These require recognizing that things "can be both." That one thing could fit in more than one category. That more than one type of problem can be solved by similar methods, or by combining things that seem disparate into a new solution.

Now to conclude with why I decided this was appropriate for my author blog. I think this arena discussion discussion of intersectionality and people being comfortable and accepted in multiple groups is a perfect opportunity for an author.

Authors can write stories that show multifaceted persons finding their "place" and claiming their right to "be both" and fit comfortably in many categories. So keep writing intersectional characters whether they be bi, married, ace, promiscuous, principled, multiracial, neuro atypical, social (and many, many more).

So keep writing and if there's a gatekeeper who says your work doesn't belong within their box, find another way to put it out there. Know you are doing the right thing, the mature thing, the "grow humanity" thing.

Happy writing!

~ Lara

Year in Review Best Books (LGBTQ)

My 2018 Favorite Reads Lesbian and bi-women fiction is my primary interest, so that's the recommendations you'll find here.

Here's two lists that got me thinking about this topic. My personal recommendations follow.

Autostraddle (ranking) "50 of the Best LGBT Books of 2018"Goodreads (listing) "2018 Lesbian Releases"
My Favorite Reads of 2018(in no particular order) Magic, Murder, and Mistletoe by Ellen Jane. This lesfic mystery-romance story read just like a holiday Hallmark movie in many ways. The leads were just delightful and the mystery was just at the right level of suspense and revelation. Sweet, sweet fun. Loved how the magical element was portrayed, both unusual (to the practitioner of magic) and yet wholly accepted by the non-practitioners once it was revealed. That made the whole thing for me.
Cinnamon Blade: Knife in Shining Armor by Shira Glassman. Queer superheroes, and intersectional with several other minority representations. The challenge for the superheroine was not "I can't let my love interest know" actually (which is a plus). And the challenging villain wasn't some sanctimonious stand-in for mainstream social mores, but a "run of the mill" superheroes villain. Refreshing, light adventure (with a little romance mixed in).
Cythera by Jo Graham. This queer (lead reads as pan/bisexual) science fiction story contains the best elements of science fiction -- interplanetary conflict, ordinary people caught in the middle, called upon to attempt extraordinary things, challenged mores. At the heart of the solution is Cythera,basically an interstellar courtesan who must teach about sex and love to completely inhibited youth. The story was paced incredibly well, the stakes driven higher and higher and complicated at every turn. Blew me away.
The Road Ahead by A.E. Radley. A "road trip" romance that put a pretty pair of ladies in the same car together and then contrasted all their differences in every scene on their LONG road home (the route is a rather neat triptych from southern Spain all the way to the north of France and the English Channel).
I did read a few other stunners, but they were "behind the times" as it were, published in 2017. I only had a lot of reading time in the second half of the year, so some were older books I had picked up and only finally got around to reading.
Lara
Don't forget you can ask me anything. I'll be posting the answers to all reader questions on January 15, 2019. Use the Contact Form over in the right hand column.