James Osiris Baldwin's Blog, page 3
October 29, 2016
October 28, 2016
October 26, 2016
Blood Hound Paperback Giveaway!
October 20, 2016
October 15, 2016
October 12, 2016
Sneak Peek: Cold Cell
August 10, 2016
Blood Hound is a Finalist in the 2016 Dragon Awards!
Holy shitsnacks, guys! The Grumpiest Ukrainian Wizard in the world is a DragonCon Dragon Awards Finalist!
If you want to enable the Magical Russian Mafiya takeover of DragonCon, register to vote here: http://application.dragoncon.org/dc_fan_awards_signup.php
You’ll get a confirmation email, and then DragonCon will send you a ballot.
If you don’t want to vote for me, check out Ronnie Virdi’s Grave Beginnings, another great Urban Fantasy title that also made it to the finals!
August 7, 2016
Blyat’ Suka! A Layman’s Guide to Russian (and Ukrainian) Swearing
Please be warned – this post is probably not safe for work.
I write books about gangsters and other assorted ne’er do wells, and they swear – a lot. They swear in multiple languages, too, which is admittedly one of the most fun research tasks I perform on behalf of the Alexi Sokolsky series of novels. This handy glossary will help you decode the various curses, insults, exclamations and interjections used by Alexi and the other characters in Blood Hound and Stained Glass.
Bozhe moy/Bozhe mir
Probably the mildest curse in this list. Kind of like ‘Oh God’ or ‘God damn’. Safe to say around Grandma.
“Pizda!”
A strong term for the female genitalia. Also kind of synonymous with ‘whore’. Can be used to describe either a situation (‘this shit is pizdets’) or a person (you pussy!).
“Pizda rulu…”
“Something bad is happening.” Literally means ‘cunt to steering wheel’. Try driving down the freeway using your crotch, and you’ll understand.
Suka
‘Bitch.’ If you play any online FPS, you’re probably familiar with this one.
Khuy (pronounced ‘hooie’, but with more phlegm on the ‘h’)
Dick, cock, wang. Khuy is one of the main roots of whole world of Russian swearing. Khuy & Pizda make Mat’ go round.
In addition, khuy is probably one of the most flexible words in Russian and Ukrainian slang, used as an affix for all sorts of things. It is also considered extremely rude, far more offensive than ‘dick’ is in English. You know how some people use ‘fuckin’ like an adjective? Yeah.
Behold, a few choice examples of the wonder that is khuy:
“Suka khuilo!”
Replace suka with any name for shits and giggles. This is a Ukrainian combination and is extremely rude. One of Alexi’s favorites. Currently used by Ukrainian nationalists to refer to Vlad Putin.
“Po khuy!”
“I don’t fucking care!”
“Ohuitelny!”
“Cool!” Dicks are awesome, I guess.
“Poshel na huy!”
“Fuck you!”
“Khuy tebe v zhopu!”
“Shove it (a dick) up your ass!”
“Khuy na ne!”
“No fucking way!”
“Na khuy?”
“Why the fuck..?” Usually implies that you’re not interested in some offer.
“Ne valyai duraka!”
“Stop screwing around!” Add bonus dick by saying: “Ne valyahui duraka!”
Govno
Shit. Poop. Excrement. Ukrainians and Polish people often say ‘Korva!’ instead.
“Meni tse treba yak zuby v dupi.”
Ukrainian. Roughly translated, it means: “I need this like I need teeth in my ass.” My personal favorite. Alexi uses this when shit is pizdets’.
Blyat’!
Bitch/whore! Pronounced kind of like ‘blyiad’ Often used as an affix.
Zhopa
Asshole.
Ebanashka
Idiot. Someone who takes it in the zhopa.
Idi v zhopu
Go to hell. Literally ‘go up an ass’.
Tselka
Virgin. Used in a derogatory fashion. Alexi hears that one a lot.
Chyort!
Damn!/Hell! Literally means ‘devil’. Often used in combination (Chyort voz’mi, chyort poberi!)
“Ya tebya imeyu!”
“I’m having you!” How to tell someone they’re your bitch.
Pedarasti
Pedophile/pederast. Unfortunately still used as a slang term to describe someone who’s gay, as homosexuality and pedophilia are virtually synonymous in the minds of homophobic people in Eastern Europe.
Hohol
Racist. What Russians call Ukrainians they don’t like.
Katsap
Racist. What Ukrainians call Russians they don’t like.
Pindos
What Ukrainians and Russians call Americans they don’t like. Very racist.
Musor
Literally means ‘garbage’. Generally used to refer to police.
Zalupa
Dickhead.
Now if a Russian guy ever picks a fight with you, you know what to say in the seconds before you end up on your zhopa.
Blood Hound and Stained Glass are available here. For more incredible dick-related content, you can subscribe to my New Releases Mailing List to get notified when I release something new.
July 27, 2016
Stained Glass Release Celebrations: 28th-30th July
The last five months, from March through to the end of July, have been a single-minded slog on book two of the Hound of Eden/Alexi Sokolsky series. Stained Glass was pumped out in record time for a book of its length – 527 pages – and has received rave reviews from the first ARC readers.
If for some reason you haven’t read my books, you can get the first chapters of both published works for free:
Blood Hound (Alexi Sokolsky Book #1): Chapter One
Stained Glass (Alexi Sokolsky Book #2): Chapter One
(Chapter 1 of Book #3 is also available, but you have to be on the mailing list to get it)
There’s a series of promotions and celebrations accompanying Release Day on the 28th!
28th July: Stained Glass RELEASE DAY! 99c promotion on Amazon for 3 days only (RRP: $3.99)
30th 6pm EST/3pm PST slot in Ronnie Virdi’s mega-release party event. I will be doing a reading on the YouTubes.
99c Blood Hound Week: 30th July – 5th August
Free Blood Hound promo! 6th August – 7th August
If you want to help, sign up to the Thunderclap! It will automatically post on your Facebook on the 7th August: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/4...
I’m pretty excited about this release. Not only does it officially make me a series author (yay!), this book gives a lot of insight into Alexi’s past, his sense of morality, and his determination and constitution. It also introduces quite a number of new characters, and reveals a lot – good and bad – about many of the old characters from Blood Hound.
April 16, 2016
Strong Female Characters and Mansplaining
This blog started out as a comment on Facebook to a male author that got way out of hand – long enough that it warranted its own post. It was written in response to this blog post here: The Fallacy and Potential of the Strong Female Character.
One thing I find conflictual in the SFC argument – on both sides of the argument – is this weird double-standard of ‘SFCs are sexualized bimbos! Bimbos/bitches can’t be SFCs!’ vs ‘SFCs are just men with tits! Why can’t they preserve their femininity! They should be powerful as women, not because they act like dudes!’. It results this push towards: “The only right female characters are characters who are complex and feminine in this very particular way.”
There’s a basic problem with looking at female characters with those parameters. Firstly, it imposes a judgement on what is considered active and not, feminine or not, and questions the right of certain kinds of women to protag. When judged by this strange paradox, you’re saying a character is either too female or not enough, and female strength should only be embodied by the median. Which, incidentally, is generally only a specific kind of independent white femininity.
What about butch femininity? Furiosa comes to mind, but not just her. What about Ripley? Butch women often both strongly 
identify female, and strongly identify with presentation and activities often considered masculine. Is someone who embodies practical, physical, active traits, who wears compression bras and ski caps against the weather while they’re sniping from a tower ‘acting like a dude’? Are stone butches not women, able to take protagonist roles?
Conversely, women can be powerful in the nude or in skimpy clothing, and some women are and feel very empowered in those states. The embrace femme identity and feel empowered by it. Are these women not strong enough because they feel good this way, not dynamic enough because they happen to be under the gaze of the viewer? Is it not the viewer’s problem? Why do pundits make the presence of big breasts and skimpy clothes the problem of the female protagonist, and undervalue her because she’s high-femme?
With the standards we use to judge whether a female character is ‘complex’ or ‘feminine’ enough, who decides? And why?
Is the same athlete less powerful, more or less female because she’s in a swimsuit? Who decides whether or not she can protag?Many women move between states of masculine and feminine, just as men do. A soldier in lingerie is still a soldier, as Motoko Kusanagi often proves. They don’t embody the grey zone of comfortable femininity.
In other words, who defines the feminine, and at what cost to the validity of other characters?
Part of the problem is that female characters don’t have male counterparts – not directly. We don’t ask these questions of male characters, or discuss the judgement of their masculinity or their ability to protag based on their sex. I think that often, the discussion of female protagonists ends up unintentionally reinforcing the binary and reinforcing the object-focus of women’s bodies and activities in fiction.
For example: Male protags get away with acts of toxic masculinity without being regarded by the public as not suitably male. Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files, for instance, is always attempting to coddle (and often fails at relating to) women, and never grows in this respect. No one would ever say he’s ‘too masculine’ to protag. No one questions his complexity because of his unconscious masculinity. His clothing or lack of it is never judged, or even remarked on.
But women – frail and not, sexy or not, white or not, femme or butch – get put under this lens and scrutinized. And I think that we should be very aware of that as male authors.
