Laila Blake's Blog, page 12

Lilt Podcast Episode 14

A new week and a new episode of Lilt, the chatty lit podcast with me and L.C. Spoering. Lilt is a short, weekly show about our experience of reading, writing and the publishing industry. We discuss books we like, writing concepts that interest us, and the ever-puzzling publishing game. We’ll also give tips on all things writing, editing and promotion – as always, this is a repost of the episode first uploaded to liltpodcast.

 

Lilt — Episode 14

in which Laila and Lorrie wrap up their reading month September and chat about Janet Fitch, Haruki Murakami and Alice Sebold and the strange experience of reading disappointing books by authors you love.

Lilt Episode 14 – Laila Blake / Lorrie Spoeringmap :: {skin:’red’, animate:true, width:’500′, volume:0.4, autoplay:false, loop:false, showVolumeLevel:true, showTime:true, showRew:true, downloadable:true, downloadablesecurity:false, id3: false}

(If the application doesn’t work for, please click here for the audio-file!)

What about you? Have you read any of these? What did you think?

The books mentioned and discussed in this episode were:
Paint it Black -Janet Fitch
White Oleander - Janet Fitch
Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami
After Dark - Haruki Murakami
The Almost Moon - Alice Sebold
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Lucky - Alice Sebold
Wonder Boys - Michael Chabon
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
A Child in Time - Ian McEwan
The Casual Vacancy - J.K. Rowling
Slam - Nick Hornby

Our intro music was taken from the Free Music Archive: GeeNerve - Pink Fish Signs (Take Two).

Dark Secret Love by Alison Tyler – Interview

Today, I have the supreme pleasure of hosting Alison Tyler on her month-long blog tour for her fabulous new novel Dark Secret Love. I have known Alison as a writer for a while and, last January, she accepted the first erotic short story I ever wrote for a submissions call into one of her wonderful anthologies. Since then, I’ve been in contact with her a lot for various projects and I can honestly say that it would be difficult to imagine a nicer person to interact with. She is someone who genuinely supports writers and readers alike, and it makes me really happy to see how well Dark Secret Love is doing already.

Alison was nice enough to take the time and answer a few questions below and at the bottom of the entry, I will post my own review of her latest novel Dark Secret Love.

Interview with Alison Tyler

You are one of the most respected women in the erotica market with so many publications under your belt, it’s hard to count them – but does Dark Secret Love still represent something new and different in your career?

Writing is a necessary function. Like drinking coffee. I need my fingers on a keyboard, or wrapped around a pencil, or scribbling frantically with my favorite BIC. But DSL was a unique experience. I wrote the book(s) in increments of about 1,000 words a day. Nearly every day. For almost a year and a half. Then I tied up the words for more than five years before trying to figure out how to turn the raw material into book form. For the longest time, I was seriously paralyzed by how to tackle a project so immense.

How do you feel about exposing as much about yourself as well-written and heartfelt erotica seems to demand?

My single-author short story collection for Cleis is called Exposed. I’m obsessed with the sensation of peeking out from beneath my long bangs—or over the top of my dime-store shades—at readers. In fact, I’ve been working (for several years now) on a new collection of stories called Full-Frontal Fiction. So maybe I’m a bit addicted to disrobing with my words.

Something funny, though. People often are dead sure that certain of my stories must be true. And some are/some aren’t. “How could I write something that sounds real without living through it?” Well, it’s called being a writer. I think if you are truthful with your words, honest with your emotions, your characters will live and breathe on the page. This can be more difficult than it sounds. Sometimes characters rebel. You tell them what you want them to do, and they disobey. Often, if you listen, they know more than you do!

What do you like about the erotica market and what would you say are some of the more problematic or unfortunate issues?

You might not believe this, but when I started writing, I didn’t realize I was writing erotica. I thought I was just writing stories.

So any issues I have with the erotic market is probably true for the whole system of publishing. Since I grew up in a house with a writer and a publisher, I can often see situations from both points of view. How do writers make a living? How do publishers survive?  I suppose the topic that bothers me the most right now is payment for e-books. In the past, authors made maybe 7-10% royalty. Now, I know from experience that doesn’t translate to publishers running around with 93% in their pockets. (Here is one of my posts on the topic.) But I think the numbers should change for e-books—especially for e-only publishing houses—or at least shuffle closer to the middle. When you take out the printers, the warehouses, the fulfillment from the equation, you are cutting a lot of the expenses.

Do you have any advice for young writers trying to break into it?

Don’t stop. Fill the pages. You can’t edit if you have nothing to work with. (And I’m a slut for revisions.) Write for as many calls as you can manage. When I started, I pitched to every magazine I could find: Yellow Silk, Libido, Playgirl, Penthouse, Playboy. I had a file filled with rejection slips for years until I built a small bonfire and ashed them.

Has everything really changed since 50 Shades of Grey?

Well, I don’t use the color “grey” in my work anymore. Not that I ever really did. Thank god the series wasn’t called 50 Shades of Chrome, or I’d be totally screwed. (I am dipped in chrome.)

What is more fun – writing or editing anthologies?

I can’t write all the time. But I’m a whirling dervish who needs to be kept busy. Editing lets me flex a different side of my brain. I adore editing on a theme. This fulfills the part of me that always yearned to be a gallery curator. I can choose a topic and build an entire exhibit—I mean, collection—around a solitary idea. Often my favorite stories simply dip their pearly painted toes in the water of the theme.

Curators have so much fucking fun. I loved a recent exhibit built around the light bulb.

With so much erotica in your work-life, what do you read when you are just trying to unwind?

On my nightstand right now: Electroboy by Andy Behrman, Hello Sailor by Eric Idle, Thrill Seeker by Kristina Lloyd, and Wrecking Crew by John Albert. I’m dying to read Restricted Release by Sommer Marsden, but I don’t have a copy (or a Kindle) yet.

Okay, I lied. I don’t have a nightstand. In my purse is Electroboy. In the car is Hello Sailor. And I often carry Wrecking Crew around with me, you know, for company. There are books all over my world. I dip in and out when I have a second. Some days, I can’t manage to read any more words, though. My eyes simply refuse. That’s when I give up and watch Rome or The West Wing.

How do you keep it from getting boring – what’s your secret to keeping it fresh and relevant even after your hundredth short story?

The 100th one was so long ago. I mean, like 20 years ago (say it aint’ so, Joe!). As you might imagine, I don’t tally numbers anymore.

The thing is, there is always something new you can bring to the Formica table, or polished wooden bar, or blanket stretched out on a Santa Monica Beach. I could spend my whole life writing about two characters. I know I could. I’d change the scenery, the situations, the weather, the world around them, the way they related to one another, the positions they desired, the kink in their coffee.

I’m always running into brand-new ideas. Often when I can’t possibly take a break from what I’m currently working on to focus. That’s when they usually get me.

If you don’t believe an exciting event is right around the corner (or down that shadowy alleyway), why bother opening your eyes in the morning?

Well, I guess there’s the coffee.

Alison Tyler is a shy girl with a dirty mind. Find her 24/7 at http://alisontyler.blogspot.com because she doesn’t like to sleep.

 

Review: Dark Secret Love

Dark Secret Love is a book I wanted to read ever since Alison posted the cover on her blog for the first time and described the project. It’s not only the most beautiful cover I’ve ever seen in the genre, the premise made me a little giddy, too. I read most of the classic bdsm novels when I was still a teenager – I stole Justine from my grandparent’s library, found the Story of O in tatters in a box of old paperbacks. I don’t know where I got the others, what secrecy was involved but I always wanted to find out about this, needed to read. That doesn’t mean I loved them all, the truth is I didn’t find what I was looking for in any of them – but each of them had a strong voice that pulled me through anyway.

It’s that voice that I often miss in contemporary erotica, why I actually read in the genre pretty rarely, especially when it comes to longer works. Dark Secret Love has that voice – a different one really, a brand new one. When I tried to sort it into my goodreads shelves I didn’t even know where to put it at first – erotica? romance? contemporary lit? It has elements of all of those and that’s what makes it so good – it breaks some rules, it emerges out of the sea of slightly stale sexy stories as something different.

Dark Secret Love, like the tag line suggests, is a story about submission, but it’s also – and I think more so, a story about submissives, about the long and difficult emotional journey of that particular sexual orientation. It’s a story about a young woman searching and trying, about her failing and trying again. And it doesn’t matter that what I personally was ultimately looking for was very different from the heroine’s – it’s the struggle that resonated.

Alison Tyler doesn’t gloss over the difficult parts, she doesn’t start the story where the heroine meets the man of her dreams – hell, even when she finds him, it’s a complicated thing. Because being sub is sometimes really complicated, and there is communication involved and a lot of contemplation and experimentation until it feels all right to be who you are. I loved how Dark Secret Love captured this.

For me, it wasn’t erotica or romance – it didn’t feel like genre, much like Alison expressed in the interview above – it just a story of a woman. And due to the nature of her story, it contained a lot of beautifully written sex and submission, but it has a lot more to offer. In fact, I thought this would have still been a great and compelling story without any adult material in it at all. That was just a  bonus, made it more real, even more tangible.

There was a beautiful authenticity to her voice, that made reading almost an act of voyeurism rather than the idea of taking the place of the heroine, like it is so often the case in erotica. This is not a shell of a character I could project myself on, it’s a very much alive and loud person of her own who tells me her story. And I loved every minute of it.

Especially as an author myself, I don’t want to finish this review without praising Cleis Press for the cover design and formatting. It’s so gorgeous, understated and sweet – it gives me exactly the right feeling to read this novel and the chapter headings, the font, everything was just perfectly designed and made the reading experience that much nicer.

You can purchase a copy pretty much anywhere where they sell books and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a deeper and more honest, unglossed view into the world of sadomasochism and bdsm in general.

New Anthology Release: Shameless Behavior

 

Bringing together some wonderful writers, Lana Fox of Go Deeper Press, has released their latest anthology. It’s called Shameless Behavior – Brazen Stories of Overcoming Shame, and as the title implies, every story tackles a different area of sexual shame. I was incredibly touched to be included, especially because sex positivity is an issue I am quite passionate about, and look at it, all shiny and out for the world to see!

You can get Shameless Behavior on the Go Deeper Press website or from Amazon – other outlets to come, but for now, here’s a snippet of my story in the anthology. It’s called Doll-Faced Demons and it’s about a woman bringing her girlfriend home to meet her homophobic family and how the two of them overcome the feeling of shame that clings to very walls of that place.

 

From: Doll-Faced Demons

in Shameless Behavior

     “I shouldn’t have brought you here. I’m sorry,” you finally say, shaking your head between my breasts. When I open my mouth to object, you give me that look—the one that is so quintessentially you: when your wide-eyed sweetness turns into wide-eyed scorn with the tiniest flicker of your brows—and I am struck silent while you rise from the chair. Your  fingers run over the spotless table, then you look around. I follow your gaze to the plush toys on the meticulously made bed.

     “I can’t believe you lived here,” I admit with a wry smile and lean in to kiss your shoulder. “It looks nothing like you.”

     I don’t know what I expected, but you chuckle—a choked, beaten-down idea of a laugh, mirthless and sad.

     “She threw it all away, all my things,” you say. “Reverted me to this.”

     We look around together, and I take your hand. How I hate your mother, more than I could ever have expected to. You know my parents, who accept you like a second daughter and invite us to barbeques; who write to their representative about legalizing our marriage; who walk around stupidly proud, telling everybody about their adorable daughter-in-almost-law. I walk in the parades, I share important things on Facebook, but I was always so, so lucky. I had no idea.

     “Here,” I say and smile, then kiss your hand and let go. I grab two teddies and a doll from the bed, toss them at you.

     “What?” you say.

     I wriggle my eyebrows and pilfer through the drawers of the desk.      There it is—nice, shiny and sharp: a pretty pair of scissors.

     “My rebel,” you smile at me, then, looking at the poor little prisoner bear lined up for execution first, you chuckle. Suddenly, there is that real smile I love.

     “I think this one needs a makeover. What do you think?” I ask and jump on the bed, reaching for an honest-to-God collector’s Barbie. Standing on top of the blankets, getting them all in

disarray, I hold her up by her feet, and—snip, snap—the blonde locks go flying toward the floor. Barbie has a pretty, edgy new haircut now. You stare, a hand covering your mouth, but then you start laughing.

     “God, I want to fuck you,” you whisper.

     Oh, yeah. That’s my girl. “Does that door lock?” I ask, and my grin only gets broader, more gleeful when you shake your head. “Even better,” I say. “Come here.”

     You take my hand and I pull you onto the bed. We are both wearing shoes, feeling like revolutionaries. Off with their heads, or their rules, at least.

     “Would you believe me if I said I’ve never done that?” you ask.

     “What?”

     You giggle and slap my shoulder with the poor, little teddy bear. It feels nice. Playfully, I threaten you with the scissors. I have the sudden impulse that I want to cut your clothes off, piece by piece, until you’re naked and in tatters and all mine.

     “I’ve never jumped on the bed,” you say. “Or mutilated toys.”

I shake my head, then hand you the scissors. I love how your eyes are sparkling again.

     “Go, mutilation virgin—the bear had it coming. He’s been voting Republican for years.”

Lilt Podcast Episode 13

A new week and a new episode of Lilt, the chatty lit podcast with me and L.C. Spoering. Lilt is a short, weekly show about our experience of reading, writing and the publishing industry. We discuss books we like, writing concepts that interest us, and the ever-puzzling publishing game. We’ll also give tips on all things writing, editing and promotion – as always, this is a repost of the episode first uploaded to liltpodcast.

 

Lilt — Episode 13

in which Laila and Lorrie discuss the term Writer’s Block, why it’s so destructive and how to deal with it in ways that helps to keep writing anyway.

Lilt Episode 13 – Laila Blake / Lorrie Spoeringmap :: {skin:’red’, animate:true, width:’500′, volume:0.4, autoplay:false, loop:false, showVolumeLevel:true, showTime:true, showRew:true, downloadable:true, downloadablesecurity:false, id3: false}

(If the application doesn’t work for, please click here for the audio-file!)

What about you? How do you battle those days when writing just feels impossible?

Helpful programs discussed in this episode are:
Write or Die
Focus@Will

Our intro music was taken from the Free Music Archive:
GeeNerve - Pink Fish Signs (Take Two).

Bodyshaming in Fiction

This will be a short one because part of me can’t believe I feel compelled to write this. I recently started a book and came across some really gross body-shaming that kind of had me stare at the page for a while. I read it again, blinked, and of course blamed myself at first – as fat chicks are taught to do. And really, everybody can do whatever they want, can feature characters who are callous and mean – but especially when it’s the protagonist who does this – I really don’t have to keep reading, when the author or their character basically just told me I’m hideous and not deserving of love. It’s interesting that I find so much of this in erotic fiction, which is arguably the one where it is most important to make the readers feel wanted, like this could happen to them, too.

So I thought here is a tiny, handy guide to check if you use body shaming language.

Body shaming

“She turns around, her panties barely covering her perfect ass. It seems like all the girls my age are doomed with cellulite, it’s disgusting, but she has none.”

This is the actual quote that stirred me to write this, and it’s kind extreme in that the disgust and shame is not just implied, but told us straight-out. Here, the female protagonist is described basically on the back of women who are less pretty than she is. She is beautiful in comparison, not really by herself. Even in real life, we have to check ourselves all the time not to think like that, stuff like “oh, wow at least I don’t have acne scars like that,” or whatever are really a toxic way to boost our self esteem, because it just makes us all the more consscious of all the little flaws where the best we can do is: “at least my thighs aren’t as big as that!”

And do we really want to live like that? More importantly, do we want to sleep with guys who see us like that – the prettier piece of meat on the endless conveyor belt?

There are other ways to body shame in fiction, usually more centred on either the heroines own thoughts about other women or a a certain way do describe her own body issues, or just in callous descriptions of the supporting characters.

Apart from hurting your reader’s feelings, though, it’s also really not the best description –  it’s basically a non-description, a description of what she doesn’t look like. Let’s try one of what she does:

“She turns around, her panties hugging her ass, sculpted, sanded and polished to a perfectly smooth sheen.”

Now, that still leaves us with a pretty generic description of photo-shopped, underwear catalogue or men’s magazine kind of beauty – but nobody is forced to actually try and promote a healthier, kinder body image. I just don’t think it’s too much to ask to stop actively telling women they are disgusting. 

Personally, I still think the above description is lacking a little, though. It makes the hero sound so shallow. We all are, and we all like to look at pretty pictures, but I think in fiction we can easily make men more likeable by either adoring something that isn’t the bland socially acceptable standard for beauty, or if that is the heroines body type, to focus on other things, like how her body feels, what reactions it evokes in him etc. Maybe something like this:

“She wriggles out of her jeans, and I want to be polite but I can’t look away, it’s mesmerizing. Her ass has the cutest little jiggle I have ever seen, a roundness that makes my fingers itch to explore, to capture and bite all of her little soft places.”

Still far from perfect – it also creates a somewhat different atmosphere from the original so to maintain that it would need more editing, but at least for me, I like the guy who has that description in his narrative and I don’t actively start rooting against him .

I’d love to hear from some of you though, does fiction hurt your feelings sometimes? Does it hinder your reading experience?

 

Lilt Podcast Episode 12

A new week and a new episode of Lilt, the chatty lit podcast with me and L.C. Spoering. Lilt is a short, weekly show about our experience of reading, writing and the publishing industry. We discuss books we like, writing concepts that interest us, and the ever-puzzling publishing game. We’ll also give tips on all things writing, editing and promotion – for all episodes check out liltpodcast.

 

Lilt — Episode 12

in which Laila and Lorrie discuss writing sensitive and thoughtful

male characters and why there is nothing to be scared of.

Lilt Episode 12 – Laila Blake / Lorrie Spoeringmap :: {skin:’red’, animate:true, width:’500′, volume:0.4, autoplay:false, loop:false, showVolumeLevel:true, showTime:true, showRew:true, downloadable:true, downloadablesecurity:false, id3: false}

(If the application doesn’t work for, please click here for the audio-file!)

What about you? Who are your favourite sensitive male characters?

101 Everyday Ways to be Allies to Women

Our intro music was taken from the Free Music Archive: GeeNerve - Pink Fish Signs (Take Two).

An Agoraphobic’s Personal Guide to Going Outside

I’m calling this a personal guide because anxiety manifests differently in all of us. There is no one answer, no one solution and I am nowhere near the end of my journey, nowhere near ready to look back and say “here, this is how I did it.” I’m beginning to think I might never be, that this is not a cold or a phase, that in battling anxiety and panic attacks, I shouldn’t focus on the unattainable goal of getting well, but on managing anxiety.

And because these insights are rare and far in between, it’s good to talk about them when they come.

 

Part One: Preparation

1. Listen to yourself

Or to John Krasinski.

For me, no strategy always works. There are days, especially for small errands, where planning makes it so much harder than it has to be and I rely on finding a strong moment where I surprise myself and just leave the house in whatever I was wearing, however I look, just to get it done and not freak myself out about it unnecessarily. On other days, and especially when it’s something longer, an appointment, work etc. planning has its advantages. Do what feels right in the moment. And when you have a day where you feel fragile and frayed, don’t force things that you could do the next day just as easily.

2. Try to get enough sleep

This sounds obvious and also not all that helpful. If you are like me, anxiety and sleep don’t really go together. I can lie in bed until 5 in the morning and feel almost electrically charged. But it’s still important. For me, that means, for example, not to schedule high anxiety situations too early in the morning. If I have a dentist appointment at 8, I will stand in front of my door half an hour’s bad sleep and I capitulate. If it’s scheduled for 11 or 12, I do fall asleep eventually, and at least have a couple of hours. This fortifies me for the high anxiety situation.

3. Make sure you have your own coping aids at hand

For me, that basically means make sure phone/mp3 player and kindle are charged and that I have functioning headphones. But it can be other things…

4. Choose clothes carefully

Go high on comfort. Wear something that you can move in without fidgeting, something that doesn’t ride up or droop down, something that doesn’t make you want to hide your problem areas, something that doesn’t constrict movement or breathing and something you won’t sweat in. The best clothes for leaving the house are clothes you can forget you are wearing. One less thing to worry about. For me that also means flats, but if heels give you confidence, then heels are better for you.

Also, make sure to bring things that make you feel safe and protected. For me that is a wide, broad shawl I can wrap around myself. It just gives me an extra layer of protection. Sunshades can be good too, hats if you’re a hat-wearer .

 

Part 2: The Dreaded Outside

1. Music

The crucial thing for me is having music to listen to. Not only do the headphones build a kind of sound barrier to the noise outside, having good music to listen to can make you feel like you’re not really part of what’s going on, you’re in your own world and it’s easier to blend out the rest.

I choose music that makes me happy, that makes me feel open to the world because it has to be a nice world when there are people who make and love such music in it. There is a place for angry music, to let those feelings out but for me that is for home or really, really bad days.

Walk with the rhythm of the music, let it buoy you up, allow it to make you happy. And, if that’s not too weird, turn it really loud when you are in high pressure places like public transportation and see the people as a movie montage or music video that is happening all around you. Makes them less scary.

2. Smile

Now, I’m a feminist and I get a little prickly when people tell women to smile – especially greasy guys on the underground. However, smile anyway. Not only does it help to improve your outlook, it also makes people less likely to look at you strangely or do any of the things that get under your skin. Smiling can be a shield, it can turn their bad moods around and away from you.

Plus, give to get, you know? You don’t know what kind of days or issues the people around you have. Maybe they are just as uncomfortable being outside as you are, and a smile makes everything less threatening.

3. Find nice things

Music helps in this for some reason, as though when you see the world around you as a music video, you see things that suit the theme and you see them in a different way. Like two almost scary looking punk guys with spiked dog collars and black clothes walked past me today and then they suddenly interlaced their fingers, held hands as they kept walking. That just made me happy. So whatever it is, babies, dogs, people who like each other, find them and concentrate on those things.

4. Harness the lightning

Or something like that . Let the weather around you buoy you up. The earth, the sun, our atmosphere has so much spare energy that’s right there. Soak up the sun or if, like me, sunshine isn’t your thing, breathe in the wind, even the rain. On my way back home it was pouring outside and I got wet all the way down to my underwear – but it was nice. I tried to look at the rain and the rumbling thunder as something that I draw from, something that could fortify me and it did, it felt good.

Lilt Podcast Episode 11

A new week and a new episode of Lilt, the chatty lit podcast with me and L.C. Spoering. Lilt is a short, weekly show about our experience of reading, writing and the publishing industry. We discuss books we like, writing concepts that interest us, and the ever-puzzling publishing game. We’ll also give tips on all things writing, editing and promotion – for all episodes check out liltpodcast.

 

Lilt — Episode 11

in which Laila and Lorrie discuss the term “strong heroines”,

where it comes from and why it has become somewhat problematic.

Lilt Episode 11 – Laila Blake / Lorrie Spoeringmap :: {skin:’red’, animate:true, width:’500′, volume:0.4, autoplay:false, loop:false, showVolumeLevel:true, showTime:true, showRew:true, downloadable:true, downloadablesecurity:false, id3: false}

(If the application doesn’t work for, please click here for the audio-file!)

What about you? Who are your favourite heroines and why?

The books mentioned and discussed in this episode were:
The Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Divergent - Veronica Roth
The Vampire Diaries - L.J. Smith

Our intro music was taken from the Free Music Archive: GeeNerve - Pink Fish Signs (Take Two).

The Victimization of Women in Works of Fiction

Triggers: rape, reproductive rights, violence against women

Hesitantly subtitled: Part One, because I’m pretty sure I am just beginning this thought process and I simply feel the need to have a conversation about it and learn. So this post is not a big sweeping statement, it has no claim to the truth – but I said I would not review books on the blog, instead write about thoughts I had while reading them. And sometimes, these thoughts are not completely formed and I am asking for help. So please, let me know how you feel about this in the comments!

I read a book, urban fantasy, mostly for research reasons because I have to admit that this is not usually my genre. It started off pretty normal, some tropes I found annoying, some characters I loved – your general reading experience. But as I started to get towards the ending, I was growing more and more uncomfortable and the longer after I finished, the more that discomfort turned to anger about the way violence against women is used as gratuitous gore to make books “dark”.

In this example – which is not the only one by far, just the most recent thing I came across – the main villain is a mythological creature that rapes females of all species (yes, women are basically the same as animals to it), hijacks their uterus to make slave creatures (hello, a punch to our reproductive rights, too) and then either he tortures and kills them or feeds them to the children. Or something. Another sideplot outlines a female villain, who used to be some big bad’s mistress and because he made her infertile out of his fear to produce a child (it’s just easier than using birth control all the time, am I right?) rape-guy just used her as a red herring to be slaughtered, because he could not hijack her uterus for servants or children.

Now, I don’t know what to say about this other than… what?! And Why?!

Here is the thing, I don’t think rape, violence against women or reproductive rights should be a taboo subject in fiction. I actually thought the last season of The Walking Dead used the idea to a pretty chilling but realistic effect, while maintaining the integrity of the story by letting the characters act in the most logical way.

This is different, this is gratuitously coming up with the most disgusting rapey fictional monster you can, just to pepper the pages of a book with female corpses rather than substantial female characters. And then readers advise the following: “not for you if you dislike dark fantasy”. Now, it’s no news to me that dark fantasy basically stands for “really really rapey” because every other kind of media has gore and violence anyway, but why does it have to be?

Rape and violence against women is all around us, all the time. It makes sense to include it in fiction, to name it and to give it the role that it has in our society. But when I read stuff like this, I always feel like there’s a difference between dealing with a difficult subject and just throwing it in to try and create the greatest amount of “motivation” for the character. I mean, in a world where people raise the dead for fun and feed them corpses, you need to really up the ante to give a character – and the readers – the chills, right?

But while we give them the chills, I really do feel like it has a way of normalizing horrible things. If you’re “just” raped in that verse you get away easy. And seriously – that’s how people think in real life, too. That’s how judges seem to think and the media. And I don’t think we can put that big a responsibility on author’s shoulders: to say, their collective quest to write the “darkest”, most chill-inducing piece of rape fantasy has a part in this. I don’t think that would be fair.

But my question stands: why do we keep writing, publishing and reading this? And why is it somehow considered a little bit on the sensitive side if “dark fantasy” is too much for me? Is that the goal? To read so many rapey novels that this seems normal and totally cool?

This is not the most coherent post I have ever written, but I can’t stop thinking about this and trying to find ways to avoid using rape or the threat of rape as cheap thrills in my writing.

What do you think? How do you feel about this? I really want to know!

Lilt Podcast Episode 10

A new week and a new episode of Lilt, the chatty lit podcast with me and L.C. Spoering. Lilt is a short, weekly show about our experience of reading, writing and the publishing industry. We discuss books we like, writing concepts that interest us, and the ever-puzzling publishing game. We’ll also give tips on all things writing, editing and promotion – for all episodes check out liltpodcast.

 

Lilt — Episode 10

in which Laila and Lorrie wrap up their reading month August and chat about

Jane Eyre, The Great Gatsby, and the Hunger Games.

Lilt Episode 10 – Laila Blake / Lorrie Spoeringmap :: {skin:’red’, animate:true, width:’500′, volume:0.4, autoplay:false, loop:false, showVolumeLevel:true, showTime:true, showRew:true, downloadable:true, downloadablesecurity:false, id3: false}

(If the application doesn’t work for, please click here for the audio-file!)

What about you? Have you read any of these, what did you think?

And what did you read last month?

The books mentioned and discussed in this episode were:
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

Our intro music was taken from the Free Music Archive:
GeeNerve - Pink Fish Signs (Take Two).

We will also spend August participating in a Book Challenge on our tumblr accounts (Laila’s | Lorrie’s) — why don’t you joing in?