Anna Butler's Blog, page 47
July 22, 2013
FREEBIE : Download “Candlelight” for free
Candlelight is a (short!) short story (about 1,700 words) written for the 2013 UK GLBTQ meet in Manchester. It’s available here as a free, downloadable .pdf that you will be able to transfer to any e-reading device and – hopefully! – enjoy as a moment or two’s diversion. Join Jack Lincoln as he plans to romance lover Adam Hollister, and share the moment when Jack is entranced by how Adam looks by candlelight…
Click here to download
Candlelight
July 19, 2013
And it’s off… Gyrfalcon and synopses sent to Riptide
It’s hard to let go, you know? I’m a terrible one for polishing and repolishing things I’ve written, refining and refining until I sometimes fear I’ve robbed the story of its energy. But today I managed to stop (finally!) fiddling around with Gyrfalcon and I pressed the send button. It’s now on its way to Aleks at Riptide publishing. Aleks sat through the pitch at Manchester, bless him, and kindly asked to see it all. So pray for me, peeps. I’m going to need all the help I can get here.
So in honour of the day, here’s some inspirational images that are in my head when I’m thinking of Bennet and Flynn:
This is Bennet, looking monochromatic — as Flynn saw him first — but sadly not in Shield uniform. Looking a little too scruffy for a Shield Captain, too, so we’ll have to decide that it must be his day off. But the hair and eyes are perfect for Bennet: the hair is wild and as Flynn once says, with more cowlicks than an entire field of heifers, and those pale, pale grey eyes. Nom nom. No wonder Flynn falls in love for the very first time.
AND
Flynn, looking equally as disreputable. Perhaps they’re having a day off together. Flynn is all gold-dusk skin and brown curls shot through with the same gold, and startling green eyes. Of course, when he’s on duty, the beard will be gone (damn those regulations! He’s so pretty with it!) and the curls will have to shorter. But this is Flynn. No wonder Bennet ends up leaving Joss. I could be tempted to leave myself.
SEE THE TAKING SHIELD BOARD AT PINTEREST
July 18, 2013
Happy Holidays to be published 12 August
Dreamspinner’s new ‘Cuddling’ Anthology – including my (cough) immortal words (cough) – is available now for pre-order as either an ebook or print. Publication date is 12 August
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You can pre-order the anthology here:
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My contribution is Happy Holidays.
The remit of the anthology was showing established couples rekindling the romance. In Happy Holidays, John Hogarth and Kit Lewis met in art college and hooked up there, both professionally and personally. Fifteen years on, they’re running Hogarth Lewis together—a small, but growing, branding and design agency that’s garnering work from some of NYC’s finest institutions and starting to make inroads with larger corporations and significant industry players. They have just landed their biggest contract yet with Bowyer Industries. On the professional front, they’re up and coming.
Kit wants to keep their personal life up and coming too. Feeling that after fifteen years it may be time to make sure John isn’t bored, he comes up with a creative way of injecting a little romance and excitement into their relationship by planning a series of seductions based on celebrating various major holidays from around the world. John doesn’t object to celebrating Physical Activity and Exercise Day in Japan, or the Landing of the Thirty-Three Orientales in Uruguay, but his personal favourite may turn out to be the Day of Union of Eastern Romalia with the Bulga. He particularly likes Kit’s dedication to serial and frequent reunions…
Read a teeny tiny extract here
Froth and fun, people. Froth and fun.
July 15, 2013
UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet 2013
I spent the weekend in Manchester, at this year’s LGBTQ fiction meet. Their fourth, I believe; my first.
After getting over the initial shyness – I know those of you who know me don’t believe it, but actually I am quite shy when there’s a group of people who know each other and I’m the outsider (plus being hard of hearing doesn’t help in large groups) – I had a wonderful time. And not least, that was because it was so well organised.
All right, it was tiny compared to Galacticon back in Houston in May, and the venue didn’t dick about the way the Houston conference centre apparently did (who in hell thinks it a good idea to put a formal law graduation with graduates in cap, gown and $2000 dresses right plump in the middle of a huge fan convention where people were wandering around as cybermen, or cylons, or colonial warriors? Puh-leeze). But still, it was refreshing to have a couple of days where everything ran smoothly and the panels and discussions were such fun. The difference, it seems to me, is that the delegates to the panels are passionate about what they’re doing, and fling themselves into the discussions and listen so receptively, because they’re with like minded companions and can *be themselves* openly and freely. That was very refreshing.
And it was lovely to meet people Facebook friends: Kate Aaron, Sue Brown, Clare London, Josephine Myles, Charlie Cochrane. Great writers, lovely people.
I’ve already posted about how the walk around Canal Street on the Friday
evening brought back to me how much I love the original Queer as Folk and how that crystallized for me why reading and writing gen fiction was so deeply unsatisfying. What I forgot to mention was that last weekend was also Sparkle, the big UK trans gathering, so an area that’s already vibrant and colourful was positively hopping. Loved it. I’ll really have to rewatch the series soon.
Day one of the conference itself started so well! We were all at little round tables—usual conference set up—and I sat with Serena Yates. We had never met before, but when I introduced myself with my penname, she said it was familiar. Well, I’ve not done *that* much professionally but I mentioned Dreamspinner’s Make A Play anthology and Contact Sport, and she not only said she’d loved it, but she remembered my name from it – and she’d reviewed it. Cue **massive** ego rush on my part, because of course she’s one of Goodreads’ top reviewers and her review on Goodreads had been wonderful and she *got the jokes*. So naturally, since Serena showed herself to be a woman of discernment and intelligence, we had a lovely time. I may have been a bit presumptuous, but I had three print copies of FlashWired with me (the ones where I got the spines wrong and they ended up blank white. I must fix that). I gave one to her. I hope she likes it, but it’s a different beast to Contact Sport. Serena’s a new friend on FB and Goodreads now. A gain!
Sessions were fun and fast. I loved the one on cover art, the one on social media, on good blogging… so helpful, all of them. And funny. These are people who are not just good at their trade, they’re amusing and intelligent too. That’s a nice combination.
And on Sunday morning came the big moment when I was allowed to corner Aleks from Riptide and pitch the Taking Shield series to him. He was kind enough to ask me to send him the synopses and the whole of the first book to him (I gave him the synopses and a sample 50 pages on a flashdrive), and he was also the unwitting recipient of another copy of FlashWired. So this week I must do one more runthrough on Gyrfalcon and email it all to him. Poor man. He gave me a nice hug afterwards. Of course this doesn’t mean anything other than someone at Riptide will look at it and see if they’ll be interested in it, but that in itself was another nice boost.
And finally I came away realising one big thing. I don’t write m/m romance. I don’t write it as the genre expects: the focus of my story is not on the romance or the kissing or the erotic sex scenes. It has some of those things, but that isn’t what the story’s about. If we must have a definition, I write gay lit. I write stories where the characters happen to be gay, and their relationships are a strong theme within the narrative. But they are *not the reason for the story*. The gayness is part of who they are and what they’re doing, it’s not the totality. So, of course, I’ve been marketing FlashWired all wrong. Why on earth push it to m/m romance readers when it isn’t the usual m/m romance? Of course they’ll hate it. It isn’t what they’re looking for and I’ve (inadvertently) misled them. So a rethink on marketing is on the cards and I will expend time and energy on getting it done better. Not before time, you’ll agree. And I can’t argue with that.
Roll on next year.
July 12, 2013
Queer Street
Well, really that should Queer As Folk Street. I’m in Manchester for this years UK GLBTQ Fiction meet – my first – and I’m just back from a guided walk around Canal Street, the iconic street in Manchester’s gay village.
Oh Lord. Queer as Folk. Queer as Folk. Not the not-nearly-as-good US version (sorry US cousins, but really? Brian? What the hell fuck is with the name Brian? Naff as hell that.), but the real one. Queer as Folk.
Stuart, Vince and Nathan – what do I owe you?
M/m romance. Just m/m romance and the **entire damn reason I write**. That’s what I owe them. Discovering how wonderful m/m romance is, how *hot* it is. Well, yes I know. Shallow, that’s me. So shallow you can see right through me. But it’s true. Until then, I’d never seen mainstream depictions of gay men other than the horridly camp “I’m free!” of Mr Humphreys or Larry Grayson’s “Shut that door.” The only depictions of gay men were so camp that you’d think they all wore tents and spent their lives singing Boy Scout ditties around an open fire.
But Russell T Davies? Russell T is gay, and knows his stuff, so to speak. And dear lord, didn’t he glory in showing it to us, widening our horizons, making us fall in love with beautiful men and beautiful bodies. And in my case, have a personal epiphany about what I found so unsatisfying about the gen fanfic I was reading and (the Lord help me!) the gen fanfic I was beginning to write. It’s quite a moment when you have that Wait! Hang on! Holy fuck but that’s why I hated that crap! That’s why it wasn’t working for me. Apollo shouldn’t be kissing that dreadful Mary Sue, he should be kissing Starbuck!
And the rest, as they say, is history.
So, thank you, Russell T. Thank you, Canal Street. And, above all, thank you Stuart, Vince and Nathan for literally changing my life. I love you, boys. May you live forever.
July 9, 2013
Equal Rights Blog Hop Round Up post
Thank you to everyone who took part and who commented on my bit of the blog hop. It’s been lovely ‘meeting’ you all and I hope you drop by again.
I promised a copy of FlashWired to one person, randomly chosen, from the commentators. I got my Mum to draw names, if not out of a hat, but at least picking one screwed up piece of paper out of the pile in my hand. So FlashWired goes to Cornelia.
Thank you all. I think the Blog Hop’s been a great success!
July 4, 2013
Equal Rights Blog Hop – the easy peasy, lemon squeezy bit
I’m proud to blog today in support of the Equal Rights Blog Hop.
Mind you, I doubted my right to blog about the theme of the blog hop—that is, what it means to me to be a part of the LGBT community. Because I’m not. As a writer of m/m romances, I’m barely on the edge of the communities that count themselves as LGBT, but I do count myself as a straight ally. That means, of course, that I have no direct experience of anti-LGBT prejudice. There’s what I read, of course, and see. And there’s what I know of my own privilege, things I don’t have to think about and dammit, that I should be thinking about and how the lack of that impacts my LGBT friends.
When I was single, it used to annoy the hell out of me how society is structured around couples. It was uncomfortable to go alone to concerts or the theatre, or walk into a pub on my own or a restaurant. Sometimes it was worse to be the gooseberry when generous friends invited me along so I wouldn’t be alone.
I might have worried a bit about what people thought when they saw me sitting alone at table, a book propped against my glass. Pity, do you think, for someone who was obviously a failure at meeting society’s expectations? A little self-congratulation that they weren’t so pathetic that they had to sit alone in a restaurant? You can see why it was a little uncomfortable for me.
But, by and large, it was **safe**.
I didn’t have to worry that the looks were not just pity, but contempt, hate and anger. I didn’t have to wonder if I’d be insulted and yelled at or spat upon as I ate my meal. I didn’t have to size up everyone looking at me to try and gauge the level of threat they offered, to wonder if that angry-looking bunch over there would jump me to put the boot in as I left the theatre.
Privilege. I had it then and didn’t know it. Now I realise how very lucky I was and am. How, even when single, I wasn’t ‘other’. How safe I was and am, and how risky it still is for gay, lesbian and transgendered men and women.
And then it was borne in on me that it’s wider than that. It’s not about rights for one part of our society but about ALL our rights. If, as a woman, I demand and expect all civil and human rights—and responsibilities—then that same principle applies to everyone. And if the rights of one group are threatened and denied, then all our rights are at risk of being threatened and denied. We’re all in this together. To different degrees and coming at it from different angles,with different experiences and maybe with a different level of anger and hurt. Sure, that’s true. But this mess? This is a *human* mess that we need to sort out, or we’re all diminished.
That’s what makes me an ally. It’s the least any rational human can do—sign petitions here, write to MPs there, support gay marriage whole heartedly, and support equality in every aspect of our lives, everything from council tenancies to pension rights. Whatever makes my life mine, makes my interactions safe, gives me my place in society—that by right belongs to everyone, not just the straight. Or the white. Or the able-bodied.
It’s probably not enough and I should do more. But it’s offered with love and respect. Because people matter, not their sexual orientation or their gender, their colour or their physical or mental abilities. Just their humanity matters. Whatever else in this battle is hard and painful, take that statement as the truth that should underpin it, the principle from which everything flows.
Every person matters, you see. That’s the bit that’s easy peasy.
.
.
And to support this, I’m offering a free e-version of my novella, Flashwired. If you want to enter the giveaway, comment here with your email address and I’ll name the winner after the blog hop ends.
.
.
As I said, I’m proud to support the blog hop today. Go HERE to Queertown Abbey to see who else is participating and join in. There are prizes to be won there.
Below are the authors who have joined us.
1. Sarah Madison
2. Tempeste O’Riley
3. Zahra Owens
4. Tara Lain
5. Rick R. Reed
6. Gale Stanley
7. Berengaria Brown
8. Hayley B. James
9. SJD Peterson
10. S.A. McAuley
11. Cassandre Dayne
12. RJ Scott
13. Kendall McKenna
14. Lily G Blunt
15. Iyana Jenna
16. Sage Marlowe
17. Jess Buffett
18. Jane Wallace-Knight
19. V.L. Locey
20. Elin Gregory
21. J.P. Bowie
22. Charlie Cochet
23. Stephani Hecht
24. Remmy Duchene
25. Charley Descoteaux
26. Charlie Cochrane
27. Caitlin Ricci
28. Dianne Hartsock
29. Sean Michael
30. Harper Bliss
31. BA Tortuga
32. Anna Butler
33. Michael Mandrake
34. Erica Pike
35. May Water’s Erotica
36. S.J. Frost
37. Megan Slayer – Too Hot to Handle
38. L. J. LaBarthe
39. Megan Derr
40. Susan Mac Nicol
41. Elizabeth Noble
42. Elinor Gray
43. Michael P. Thomas
44. Tami Veldura
45. Cari Z
46. Ryan Field
47. Kissa Starling
Equal Rights Blog Roll – the easy peasy, lemon squeezy bit
I’m proud to blog today in support of the Equal Rights Blog Hop.
Mind you, I doubted my right to blog about the theme of the blog hop—that is, what it means to me to be a part of the LGBT community. Because I’m not. As a writer of m/m romances, I’m barely on the edge of the communities that count themselves as LGBT, but I do count myself as a straight ally. That means, of course, that I have no direct experience of anti-LGBT prejudice. There’s what I read, of course, and see. And there’s what I know of my own privilege, things I don’t have to think about and dammit, that I should be thinking about and how the lack of that impacts my LGBT friends.
When I was single, it used to annoy the hell out of me how society is structured around couples. It was uncomfortable to go alone to concerts or the theatre, or walk into a pub on my own or a restaurant. Sometimes it was worse to be the gooseberry when generous friends invited me along so I wouldn’t be alone.
I might have worried a bit about what people thought when they saw me sitting alone at table, a book propped against my glass. Pity, do you think, for someone who was obviously a failure at meeting society’s expectations? A little self-congratulation that they weren’t so pathetic that they had to sit alone in a restaurant? You can see why it was a little uncomfortable for me.
But, by and large, it was **safe**.
I didn’t have to worry that the looks were not just pity, but contempt, hate and anger. I didn’t have to wonder if I’d be insulted and yelled at or spat upon as I ate my meal. I didn’t have to size up everyone looking at me to try and gauge the level of threat they offered, to wonder if that angry-looking bunch over there would jump me to put the boot in as I left the theatre.
Privilege. I had it then and didn’t know it. Now I realise how very lucky I was and am. How, even when single, I wasn’t ‘other’. How safe I was and am, and how risky it still is for gay, lesbian and transgendered men and women.
And then it was borne in on me that it’s wider than that. It’s not about rights for one part of our society but about ALL our rights. If, as a woman, I demand and expect all civil and human rights—and responsibilities—then that same principle applies to everyone. And if the rights of one group are threatened and denied, then all our rights are at risk of being threatened and denied. We’re all in this together. To different degrees and coming at it from different angles,with different experiences and maybe with a different level of anger and hurt. Sure, that’s true. But this mess? This is a *human* mess that we need to sort out, or we’re all diminished.
That’s what makes me an ally. It’s the least any rational human can do—sign petitions here, write to MPs there, support gay marriage whole heartedly, and support equality in every aspect of our lives, everything from council tenancies to pension rights. Whatever makes my life mine, makes my interactions safe, gives me my place in society—that by right belongs to everyone, not just the straight. Or the white. Or the able-bodied.
It’s probably not enough and I should do more. But it’s offered with love and respect. Because people matter, not their sexual orientation or their gender, their colour or their physical or mental abilities. Just their humanity matters. Whatever else in this battle is hard and painful, take that statement as the truth that should underpin it, the principle from which everything flows.
Every person matters, you see. That’s the bit that’s easy peasy.
.
.
And to support this, I’m offering a free e-version of my novella, Flashwired. If you want to enter the giveaway, comment here with your email address and I’ll name the winner after the blog hop ends.
.
.
As I said, I’m proud to support the blog hop today. Go HERE to Queertown Abbey to see who else is participating and join in. There are prizes to be won there.
Below are the authors who have joined us.
1. Sarah Madison
2. Tempeste O’Riley
3. Zahra Owens
4. Tara Lain
5. Rick R. Reed
6. Gale Stanley
7. Berengaria Brown
8. Hayley B. James
9. SJD Peterson
10. S.A. McAuley
11. Cassandre Dayne
12. RJ Scott
13. Kendall McKenna
14. Lily G Blunt
15. Iyana Jenna
16. Sage Marlowe
17. Jess Buffett
18. Jane Wallace-Knight
19. V.L. Locey
20. Elin Gregory
21. J.P. Bowie
22. Charlie Cochet
23. Stephani Hecht
24. Remmy Duchene
25. Charley Descoteaux
26. Charlie Cochrane
27. Caitlin Ricci
28. Dianne Hartsock
29. Sean Michael
30. Harper Bliss
31. BA Tortuga
32. Anna Butler
33. Michael Mandrake
34. Erica Pike
35. May Water’s Erotica
36. S.J. Frost
37. Megan Slayer – Too Hot to Handle
38. L. J. LaBarthe
39. Megan Derr
40. Susan Mac Nicol
41. Elizabeth Noble
42. Elinor Gray
43. Michael P. Thomas
44. Tami Veldura
45. Cari Z
46. Ryan Field
47. Kissa Starling
June 27, 2013
Writing Flashbacks
One of the the issues with Heart Scarab, the second Taking Shield novel, is that it isn’t entirely linear.
Joss, Bennet’s older, long term lover, makes his entrance in a long flashback in chapters three and four. I won’t give away the plot, but he’s just back from a night on the tiles to be greeted with unwelcome news. The flashback takes the reader back more than eight years, to when Joss is teaching a seventeen-year-old Bennet about life and love. And, of course, mummification. 
I’ve weighed all the pros and cons about using flashbacks. I know that they can be a distraction from the story ‘time flow’ and there are decisions to be made about leaving the characters dangling while we take a look at the past. And yes, they can lack immediacy because it’s old stuff, already done and dusted, and the readers know the characters as they are now—will they care about what the characters were like and what they were doing eight years previously? Will I confuse the reader, jumping about in time like this? Will they end up thinking I’m just dicking about to be clever? And can I pull it off so it *works*?
But I also think the benefits can be enormous. A flashback, done well, can take us into a character’s past in real time, rather than trying to deliver important back story through boring blah blah blah exposition that has your reader glazing over. A flashback can add tension to the narrative and real depth to the characters. It can make the readers attitude to them change, get them more and better invested.
So while I seriously considered ditching the chapter, it’s an important look at their relationship as it was (passionate and vital) compared to the relationship as it is now (fragile and crumbling). As a bonus, it also contains one of the lines I love the most in the entire story. But it’s long enough that I split it into two chapters of several little scenes in which Joss remembers the past. Joss’s other big chapter, later in the story, is another retrospective one, where he’s marrying up the past and the present.
Indeed, that’s Joss’s function in this story. He’s the mechanism for the reader to find out about Bennet’s first (and long lasting) love, the one that sets his second great love into context. And while Joss is about the past and has a share in the present, it’s Flynn that represents the future. So this is an important, can’t-really-be-ditched couple of chapters that put Flynn into context in Bennet’s life. By seeing the depth of Bennet’s love for Joss, the reader realises what he’s sacrificed for what he can get of Flynn.
For that reason, I’m sticking with at least trying to keep the flashbacks. So, how to write them in a way that’s coherent, that flows well, but which is clearly back in the past and not in the story’s linear time? Without writing clunky subtitles “Flashback” or “Eight Years Earlier…”
The first thing I’ve done is keep the non-linearity. The story just wouldn’t work by starting with the flashback. It’s too retrospective, too far back in the past and the leap forward to the present would be too jarring. Instead, I’ve got two opening chapters that are strong (I think!), full of action and ending on a dramatic high. That makes Joss’s two chapters a real change of pace. And in some ways, yes the reader is going to be left hanging wondering what’s happened to Bennet. I can only hope it keeps them reading, desperate to find out more.
On a purely technical note, I’ve tried to orient the reader and signal it’s a flashback. I’ve started the retrospective in the past perfect tense for line or two, to let the reader know that this is a move back into the past. I hope that it’s smooth enough that most readers won’t consciously see what the verb tenses are doing, but unconsciously they’ll realise what’s going on. Of course, maintaining past-perfect for the long period of this retrospective would not only be hard, but has the potential to stop hovering in that unconscious zone—I think the reader will start to notice it’s an unusual tense if it’s sustained for more than a few easing-them-into-it lines. So after those few lines, I’ve switched to ordinary past tense (I’ll reverse that process at the end of the flashback to signal we’re back in proper story time):
A scarab, a long-dead mummy and a shared love for archaeology had brought them together in the first place. Joss’s laboratory in the first sub-basement at the Thebaid Institute had been cool, keeping the mummy at the optimum temperature to prevent damage. Joss had set the spotlights on their stands to bathe the mummy with unshadowed light.
“Here,” Joss said. “Can you feel it?”
The boy’s slender hands, smooth inside the skin-tight protective gloves, had moved tentatively over the mummy’s intricately bandaged chest. “I think so.”
Joss put his own hand over the boy’s. Bennet stilled for a second, letting Joss move his hand into place.
“Here. Just here.” Joss pressed lightly down, letting the boy feel the amulet where it lay on the mummy’s rib cage. “Got it now?”
Enough, do you think? That opening sentence should set the scene and tell the reader we’ve moved back in time. I think it works, but I’d welcome views and comments.
Now all I have to worry about is that chapter four involves both a graphic sex scene where Bennet is technically (if only just!) below the age of consent (sigh) and a scene that *insisted* on being written on second person PoV, and which works so well for me that I’m truly reluctant to change it. Not to mention that’s where my favourite line is sitting.
Any views on using flashbacks? What works for you? And most important, what doesn’t? Would you do it? Would you say, get the hell out, Anna and ditch the retros for more damn action already? Tell me.
Taking Shield
I’ve just worked through the outline for the entire series. The five Shield novels? They’ve just become six. The last one, Day of Wrath, was already over 82k words and nowhere near finished. I’ll have to split it into two.
Wow. That’s a bit of a facer. Six.
