H.B. Pattskyn's Blog, page 13

Fall into a good book!

I have a new book coming out in September (date isn't set yet, but I'm expecting early/mid). Hanging by the Moment is a very, very special project for me, on so many levels. One of the main characters is bisexual, just like me. He's Native American (which I'm not, but I don't know that we see enough ethnic diversity in romance)--and he's HIV positive. While there have been some great books either currently out or soon-to-be released casting HIV-positive characters in leading roles, we've still got a long way to go to overcome the stigma associated with being positive.  To celebrate, I'm doing four things (because I'm crazy).  I've signed on for two blog hops in September; one is because the topic is something I don't think we can ignore and even though September is my Bi-pride celebration here, LBGT people, especially our teenagers, are more likely than most other groups to commit suicide.  
The other one is because I am an absolute fan of The Romance Reviews and jumped on the chance to participate in a blog hop. I'm hoping to get some new visitors, especially as I'm celebrating/raising awareness about bisexuality--and celebrating the release of Daniel and Pasha.     Three: I'm hosting my own special Bi-Pride Month here in September--if anyone would like to sign up to be a guest blogger, I'd love to have you! You don't have to be bisexual or even have a character who's bisexual (although if you want to promote your books with bi characters.... just sayin'  *G*).     And four: I'm launching my own blog tour/book release celebration! More details will be forthcoming as I get things sorted and scheduled. (And no, I won't be blogging every single day!    http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4161
 I mentioned I was crazy, right? I'll be giving away a copy of a book of the winner's choice for both the suicide prevention/awareness, and TRR blog hops, and I'm putting together an awesome book and swag goodie bag for my blog tour/virtual release party celebration. (Anyone who comments on any of the blogs on the tour--including this one--will have a chance to win).  And in the meantime, we're trying to move. LOL.  My husband hasn't found a new job yet, but he's looking--and he's looking out of state. Now you know exactly when he's going to find his dream job right? Right. Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Washington DC

No, there's not any kind of political statement, it's just where I happen to be! I'm sitting in my *gorgeous* room at the incredible Hotel Rough (*seriously* recommend it!) looking out over a beautiful old Church just a short half an hour walk from the National Mall...where my foot decided to start acting up yesterday. *sigh*  I got to see the Natural History Museum (total fun!) and a little bit of downtown.  Today I'm heading down to the OutWrite Book Fair with Shira Anthony, Marguerite Labee, and Ken Murphy.  If anyone happens to be in D.C., stop by and say howdy!! Hopefully I'll have some pictures or something interesting to share tomorrow...all I took photos of yesterday were rocks and mummies  ;-)Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

How short?

After getting my third and final round of edits back on Pasha and Daniel ( Hanging by the Moment ) and seeing some of the editor's comments, I emailed one of the senior editors with a question about sentence length and punctuation. The sentence that precedes this one should give you a fair idea of why! Well...except it doesn't have any EM dashes or semicolons; those are two of my favorite forms of punctuation. Yes, I was actually making a point with that last sentence. As one of my editors pointed out, a semicolon can be used completely correctly and still be distracting.  The senior editor gave me some great advice and sent me a link to the following article, which is really eye-opening (especially when I started looking at exactly how long my sentences tend to run). I don't think many of them are actually "run-on sentences"--or at the very least, most are fairly grammatically correct--but I do tend to be a bit...wordy. And yes, I love punctuation way too much.  Anyway, here's the link: http://strainindex.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/the-average-sentence-length/ In a nutshell, the average reader prefers sentences between 11 and 17 words long. Twenty is the ideal maximum. But beyond that, the average reader prefers sentences with words that average out 1.74 syllables each and have an average of 5.67 letters each. So. Sort sentences with very short words is the preference of the average reader. I'm really not sure I like what that says about us as a society, but what it says to me as a writer is that instead of using my thesaurus to find the best  word to describe something, maybe I should be using it to find the shortest word.  Your thoughts? PS--in light of the general insanity of the last month, July's newsletter won't be happening. August's will come out around the middle of the month (and I may switch to an every-other month model.)   Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Writing Blues

So it's been a while since I posted. I've had the blues. This time it wasn't the editing blues, it was the writing blues. And it's not just that I've been fighting off depression, because really this time of year is pretty good for me.  Well, except for the heat, but I spent most of that week tucked up in my office hiding out with the air conditioner! No, the blues are what happened when I realized my story wasn't coming together because I was trying to tell too much story--which might not have happened if I'd outlined like I said I was going to.  So guess what I'm doing today??  I'm not actually outlining *that* story, I'm starting over on something new (using one of the story elements from that story, one that was never a part of the original idea) and outlining a new novel. I'm hoping to have it done *ahead* of schedule for a change. But...(isn't there always a but?) I'm also starting to pack up my house because we're moving! Nothing is set in stone just yet, hubby is still looking for a job, but he's got what feels like a promising nibble, so could, conceivably be gone in a month. Yikes! But it's a good yikes. Except for the part where I have to pack up my house...and condense it down to only what will fit into a two bedroom apartment, probably just about the time my tomatoes are starting to get ripe.  I don't recall planting seeds of change with my garden this year, but it's definitely going to be a change for the better. And I'm pretty stoked about the new story I'm working on too (and the fact that after I finish it, I should be able to fix A Place to Belong.) In the meantime, I am thrilled beyond belief to have gotten the second round of edits on Hanging by the Moment out the door last week! Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Black and White

Today's post isn't about writing. It isn't about any of my books. It isn't (directly) about any of the things I usually blog about.  Today, I'm just going to vent and probably ramble.  The Trayvon Martin case and its verdict has received national--even international--attention. I'll be honest, I didn't actually follow it that closely; I live in Detroit and I'm sad to say people are shot and killed here all the time. Some are Black, some are White, some are Latino, some are Asian, some are guilty, some are innocent, some are young, some are old. Sometimes the good guys lose and sometimes the bad guys get away with murder. And once in a while the justice system works the way it's supposed to. I in no way mean to make light of the situation, but while the Martin case is tragic on just about every level, it's hardly unique.  Maybe I'm cynical.  But in the wake of Zimmerman's "not guilty" verdict, there has been (as I'm sure you're all well aware) a wave of stunned outrage and sadness across the country and therefore the Internet. I understand it. I even tend to agree that if Zimmerman were Black and Martin White, we may well have seen a different outcome. If the shooting had occurred in a different state, we may well have seen a different outcome. And frankly, as a suburban White woman, I know I'm not qualified to even begin judging what life must be like for a young African American male. How could I be? I know "racism" exists. I see it all the time.  But.  I am so frustrated by Black and White.

It doesn't help that my husband works with a number of Black men who frequently play the "race card" at work to get away with things White employees would never be allowed to get away with. One of these men went so far as to say--probably accurately--that he got the promotion because he's Black. He certainly wasn't more qualified than the other candidates going for the job. He doesn't have a college degree, he lacks seniority at the company, and last year this particular man was  fired from the company for excessive call-ins, but managed to get himself re-hired. I don't care if you're black or white or purple, this doesn't sound like a candidate for manager to me. This particular man has been overheard advising new Black employees on how to play the "race card" at work as well (and any number men just like him have been overheard telling supervisors "you can't write me up, I'm Black"). Clearly "racism" is a two way street. And obviously this is just one bad example; I am NOT saying that there aren't White people--and Latin people and Asian people--who are just as bad. I'm just venting.  I think what happened in Florida is a tragedy. I think it is very likely that a White man got away with murder. I KNOW that there is a woman out there not only grieving the loss of her son, but grieving because she feels that the justice system failed her. I know she's not the only parent/sibling/boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse/grandparent who feels that way. I have no doubt that many of them are correct: the justice system fails a lot of people.  I also know that I'm sick of Black and White. I'm sick of the "race card"--and believe me, I know that it's not just one minority or another who plays it. I don't pretend to understand the difficulties of being a minority because even though I am one (I'm bisexual), most people don't realize it. All they see when they look at me is "suburban white woman". What I wish they'd see is simply: Human Being.  Because there is only one race. The human race. We all belong to it.  But as long as there are people like (some) of the guys my husband works with, as long as there are people who join groups like the KKK, as long as there are people who protest at funerals (Westboro Baptist Church), and spew hatred from the pulpit, as long as there are people who see the world as "Us vs. Them", there will always be tragedies like the one so many people have been focused on in Florida--because no matter what you believe about the case, the fact remains that a young man lost his life and that is a tragedy.   Image credit: soupstock / 123RF Stock Photo  Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

The Gay Rights Movement Part II: National Gay Blood Drive

Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Editing Blues

It's been a heck of a week. I've been elbow deep in edits on Pasha and Daniel (Hanging by the Moment). But I'm pleased to say that my first round of edits are in, despite some really rocky moments.  Part of the problem was that I just kept feeling like my editor didn't "get me"; now that may have been my fragile writer's ego (my husband tells me it's pretty fragile all right!) And it may have been that we just didn't "click". Whatever the issue, it made it really hard for me to trust her when she said things like "you're right, maybe you do have too many characters running around the beginning, maybe you should cut a few." Yikes! That's like....murder!! Only in the end, my wonderful senior editor convinced me (without really convincing me) that sometimes the most painful cuts are the ones a story needs most. (All she actually did was relate how she'd had a hard time following that advice too, but was glad she had.) In the end, instead of cutting a couple of the "background characters" (i.e., the proverbial old guys playing checkers over a barrel in the General Store), I cut what I thought was a pivotal character in Pasha's life. By cutting her, I eliminated a bunch of bulky backstory and streamlined several scenes. Some of her "part" was absorbed by one of the background characters, but most of her part in the story was absorbed by Amy, Pasha's co-worker and probably his best friend (that's one of the things that develops during the story).  All of this has put me hopelessly behind in my WIP.  And my blog. I'd wanted to come home on from the Counting Crows / Wallflowers concert on the Fourth of July and tell y'all about the wonderful time we had (and we did!) My husband and I were there to work the AIDS Partnership Michigan table, at the invitation of the Grey Bird Foundation . I had an awesome time and got to meet some wonderful folks from Care House in Oakland County. They do absolutely amazing work.  And as a result of generally running late this month, my newsletter will be at least a week late, too.... sigh.  But I have some exiting, if utterly trivial, news: I'm getting a haircut today (and I do mean CUT).  So take a last look at the long hair: here's me at the APM table at Meadowbrook Music Festival, all set up before the Counting Crows concert.   Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Father's Day

Father's Day is an odd holiday for me. Not only have I never met the man whose name appears in the "father" slot on my birth certificate, I'm not even 100% certain he's my biological father. I suspect  he wonders the same thing and that that, along with the rest of my mother's behavior during their brief and turbulent marriage are the reasons he beat feet and ran for the hills. Whether or not that's a valid excuse, I don't know.

I considered trying to find him once, as an adult, just before I married my first husband--that was before I'd put a couple of things together in my head and began to suspect that he might not actually be my biological father after all. After I divorced my second husband, I took a new surname, Pattskyn, because I'd never known the guy anyway, so whether or not we share DNA is irrelevant. His family doesn't get to claim me. Not that they likely would  ;-)

It should probably be obvious by this point that Mother's Day is also a bit of an interesting holiday; I don't have a relationship with my mother at all, and that's by choice.

What I did have is an awesomely wonderful grandmother. She raised me practically singlehandedly (she had some help from her sister Mary and Mary's husband Jesse), but for the most part, my grandmother was mother, father, nurse, confidant, best friend, and worst enemy. Pretty much everything a parent is supposed to be! One thing she never did was disown me or say she didn't love me, even when I came out as bisexual and Pagan (in the same summer, no less.)

In Hanging by the Moment I based  a lot of Pasha's relationship with father--both good and bad--on my relationship with my grandmother. Like all human beings, she wasn't perfect. She had good days and bad days, excelled at some things and flopped at others. But no matter what, she always loved me--because that's what family does.

Even though she's been gone many years, I still want to say "Happy Father's Day!" because even though she was a woman (and therefore technically not "father") she was there for me every step of the way from the day I was born until the day she died.
 Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Cool New Swag!

I just got in some awesome new swag: tote bags! Tote bags are seriously one of my favorite items.

I ordered 2 designs:
HIV awareness
"Together we can make this an HIV / AIDS Free Generation
Awareness, Understanding, Compassion"


And:
my Love Letters tote bag:
"Romance where boy meets boy"



And as promised, I've selected a random subscriber to receive their choice one of tote bags AND a $10 Dreamspinner Gift Certificate.

Part of my "evil plot" here was to let the winner come to the website and pick their design because sometimes sending big ol' picture files totally screws up someone's email. Of course, showing off cool new swag if fun too!

I'll be donating a bag with the top design to AIDS Partnership Michigan's fundraiser / silent auction in October--and a number of awesomely wonderful Dreamspinner authors have offered to help me fill it with books and swag!

A HUGE thank you to

Shira Anthony
Cate Ashwood
Lex Chase
Shae Connor
Grace R. Duncan
Lane Hayes
Marguerite Labbe
Tempeste O'Riley
Andrea Speed
Tali Spencer


The rest of the bags will be given away as part of promotions/giveaways in the coming months--including random unannounced giveaways to my newsletter subscribers.

If you haven't signed up yet and you'd like to, you can click SUBSCRIBE .

Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author

Pansexual


I totally dig androgynous guys (girls, too!)!
Tilda Swinton is seriously one of the
sexiest human beings on the planet!
 I identify as bisexual; probably that isn't going to change (simply because I've been identifying myself that way for over 20 years). But recently I realized that the label (oh how I both love and hate those labels!) that best fits the way I look love is pansexual. Although I have to admit, it took me a few weeks from the first time I heard a friend identify himself as pansexual to really wrap my head around pansexuality myself, the more I thought about it, the more it fit. (Kudos to hubby to putting into simple terms for me: pansexuality is being attracted to anybody regardless of anything to do with gender.)  And no, that really isn't the same thing as bisexual--and again it was hubby who reminded me that pansexuality includes attraction to folks who fall "on the in between" of male and female as well as transgendered persons.   Well, duh.
I guess I hadn't thought of it in those terms because I identify a person's gender as whatever they tell me it is. If you identify as male, in my head you're male. If you identify as female, that works for me too. Why shouldn't it? It's kinda your business, not mine, right?  (Yeah, I know that's a whole 'nother can of worms).   Seriously, who doesn't think David Tennant is sexy?I've met only one person that I know with certainty is a biological hermaphrodite. I don't know the right pronoun to use, but this person said it loud and said it proud and that made me smile. I wasn't sexually attracted to the individual, but that's just a matter of the person's particular physical traits (eyes, nose, hair) simply not doing it for me (the same way I'm not attracted to every female I meet or every male I meet). But I can speak with certainty that it had nothing to do with gender. Why? As my husband pointed out: I just don't look at gender any more than I look at skin color. I tend not to pay too much attention to the outside of a person anyway; yes, of course I notice things like "yowza, Johnny Depp is hot!" or "damn, I would *not* kick Drew Barrymore out of bed for eating crackers!" but that's just first impression stuff. Nobody gets into my bed just by looking great on the outside.  So I guess that makes me pansexual, I just hadn't realized it because I hadn't thought about it. That's the problem with not looking at what's on the outside of a person nearly as much as I look at what's on the inside of a person.   
http://read-the-wind.deviantart.com/art/On-Being-Pansexual-256982283That said, I'm still going ahead with a celebration of bisexuality in September, because I still label (yup, both love and hate those labels) myself as bi, I just don't limit my definitions of "male" and "female" or preclude the possibility of being attracted to someone who doesn't fit into society's neat little idea of gender. (Anybody interested in contributing to September's celebration should contact me! I'm planning a whole month of blog posts and I can't possibly write them all myself--and honestly, I don't want to! I want other perspectives).

Any thoughts on this whole bisexual/pansexual thing?

I know one of the things that sometimes comes to mind (or is asked) is "do we need another pride event, isn't all this covered under LGBTQ pride month?"

The answer is yes and no.

Yes, bisexuality is covered under LGBTQ, but it is still largely misunderstood, sometimes even within the community. Most people assume that I'm straight because I'm married to a man--but I still look at women and think "dang, she's hot!" and I mean it in a totally sexual way. And certainly if bisexuality is misunderstood, pansexuality is even more misunderstood.

Does that mean I'm going to change my label eventually? Who knows.

I think the bottom line is to a) be proud of who you are and b) raise awareness because it's only through awareness and education that begin to erase intolerance, fear, and hatred. At the end of the day what matters is that we learn to love each other for who we are inside.

  Before I get back to work, I want to remind folks that we're in the last few days to sign up for my first author newsletter.  SUBSCRIBE  here for a chance at a $10 Dreamspinner Press Gift Certificate AND some cool swag! First newsletter comes out June 15. Everyone who is signed up by midnight on the 14th is eligible to win.  And this won't be the first giveaway that only newsletter recipients are eligible for, either.  When Hanging by the Moment comes out (Sept/Oct) I'll select one or two subscribers to receive signed copies. What's that tagline: membership has its perks?  ;-) 
Helen Pattskyn, Fantasy Artist, Gay Romance Author