Shiloh Walker's Blog, page 77

I’m no Barbie

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So I’m late to the ruckus… I don’t work much on weekends and I had a date night, no kids, no pups, just me and my guy and a hotel and relaxation, something we so needed, and this wasn’t getting in the way.

But I don’t want to not post my thoughts on this.

I’m not a Barbie Doll.

 

Image via Altered Barbie

I never have been, nor will I ever be.

I’m not going to go into the whole back story…

You can read about it here, here, some of the shit that a female SF has to deal with here or Jim Hines lists a bunch of links here.

Suffice it to say, there’s a bunch of sexism going on within SFWA, people are getting tired of it and are speaking up and others don’t like the fact that people are speaking up over something pisses us off.

Crap like this has been going on for a while and seems to be coming to a head within SFWA.

I’m not terribly active in the SF/F community and at times like this, I can’t decide if I’m happy of that or if I regret it.

Had I attended any of these cons where I saw female authors being talked over, being talked down to, being referred to as ‘token’ females…well, I’m…ah, well.  I’ve never been known for keeping my mouth shut and playing nice is a skill I never learned.

I don’t think I would have made a lot of friends, but I’m not necessarily looking to make friends.

I am a member of SFWA, based on the PNR romances I sold. My contribution to the SF/F writing world would be minimal, although I spend an awful lot of dollars…really, writers, a lot of female dollars are spent in your world–more, probably, than you realize.  Maybe you should ponder that and appreciate it.

But back to the writing world, the closest I come to the SF/F world would be my UF series, the Colbana Files.  And yucky-gross, those have sex in them.  Girl cooties and all that.

I’m a reader of SF/F.  I love the SF written by authors like Ann Aguirre and S.L. Viehl.  Hey, those are women. Character-driven stories like the Grimspace series and Stardoc just call to me and I make no bones about it.

I love Myke Cole’s stories and one of my die hard faves? Dave Wolverton’s Serpent Catch.  I’m a mad lover of Star Wars, I adore LOTR.    I’m something of a geek.

I read SF.  I read fantasy.  I love and adore UF.

I haven’t followed as much of this fray as some people and it’s probably a good thing, because my blood pressure can’t handle it.

I hate sexism.  The SF world has sexism in spades…dinosaurs (FYI, using these term doesn’t have anything to do with their chronological age, more to do with their refusal to come out of the stone age) who think it’s okay to ask women to fetch coffee, people who think it’s okay to refer to women on panels at the token female.  There are people who thinks it’s totally A-OK to have chats about women but they don’t focus on the person’s abilities…sexy they were, how hot they are.  Screw their abilities.  They become body parts and sex objects.

And when people object? Forget people listen to those objections… we should act like Barbie…and carry on with quiet dignity.

Um, yeah.  You can shove that up your tailpipe, buddy.

Being a woman very often means you’re going to be insulted, ignored, condescended, treated as insignificant, devalued, viewed as an object, and the list goes on and on and on…we get so blind to the shit that comes our way at times.

Maybe the problem is that we carried on with quiet dignity for too long.

All women want is to be treated as the equal.  That’s not that frickin’ hard.

At least…it shouldn’t be.

FYI, no woman is your fricking Barbie doll or your coffee girl.

I’ll keep my SFWA membership, because I know the asses aren’t the majority, even when it seems that way.

And maybe I’ll even try to figure out where the regional SF/F cons are and start hitting them.  Who knows… maybe what some of these things need are more loudmouths on hand.  It’s possible we’ve been quiet and dignified long enough.

Also, for a good kick, head over to that Altered Barbie link up top.  ;)  Some really interesting twists on Barbie…and very few are dignified.

Heat Wave… Saturday Snippets

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Untitled, I dunno what I’m doing with it and I don’t know what it’s going to be. But I’m working on it.

“Have you ever wanted something so bad, but been so afraid to reach out?  And even if wanted reach out, you didn’t know how?” I asked, the words muffled aganst his skin.

He stroked a hand up my back.  “I’ve been wanting something pretty fucking bad for the past few months,” he said, his voice gruff.  “And yeah, I’ve been afraid to do anything about it, because one wrong move is going to ruin it.”  He rubbed his cheek against mine and murmured, “What’s the wrong move here, sugar?  Do I move back?  We can go out to dinner, catch a movie.  I can come back another day…”

I pushed him back.

My heart thudded in my ears, roaring like a lion as I stared into his eyes.

The wrong move.

After an entire lifetime of them, it seemed like I should be able to recognize the wrong movie easily enough.

But it wasn’t as easy as one might think.

If the wrong move was reaching out to grab the hem of his shirt and drag it up, would I hear warning bells?

I don’t know, but I did that, and I did it slow, listening for said bells.

There were none. Just the roaring in my ears.

My hands trembled as I stripped his shirt away. He ducked his head as I went to pull it off and I paused, lingering over his short hair, stroking my hands over his scalp.  He kept his head bowed and I leaned in, pressed my lips to his head, felt a rush of need, a rush of emotion and yearning and warmth and wonder crash through me.

I didn’t want to feel like this.

It frightened me.

But there was no stopping it.

My hands fell away and he lifted his head, staring at me, the velvet of his eyes intense, hot as molten chocolate, lingering on my face before dropping to rest on my mouth.  “I want to kiss you,” he said, his voice blunt and uncompromising.

“Then do it.”

Maybe if I let him take control here, I could handle this better.  It wasn’t a scary thing if I wanted him to take control of it, right?

One hand stroked up my middle, stopping on my neck, just under my chin and he angled my head back, lowered his until his mouth was just a breath away.  “Do it,” he whispered.  “Just like that.  What about our date?”

“Maybe I want this to be the date,” I said, forcing the words out of my tight throat.  “Or maybe we can do this, then go out.”

He laughed, rubbing his lips over mine.  “Sugar, if this keeps up, you and I are going to be horizontal and I think you know it very soon.”

I blinked at him, my heart jumping up to lodge in my throat.  Horizonatal.  With him.  The idea didn’t bother me at all.

“Or maybe vertical…” He caught one of my legs, dragging me open and leaning in against me.  “Right like this would work just about perfect.”

My breath froze as I felt him rock against me, the silk of my panties gliding back and forth.

And the sensation was too much, way, way too much.

My nails bit into his shoulders as I clutched him against me.  He sank his teeth into my lower lip.

And I climaxed, right there.

“That,” he growled.  “That is just about perfect.”

 

Feeling the Blood Kiss (Guest Blog)

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So… I saw the Kickstarter and full confession I checked it out because my inner fangirl saw Amber Benson of Buffy was in on it…but I backed it cuz it sounded cool.

And it does.  David wants to tell you more about it, and you can also read about it here.  If it sounds cool to you to you as well, maybe you can help back it, too…

On to David Raiklen, Producer/Composer

Blood Kiss Image via Kickstarter Page

First, thank you Shiloh for letting me guest blog, I feel honored to contribute. There’s a sense of magic and romance on this site.  And that leads to Blood Kiss.

There’s a sense of wonder and magic in the screenplay and the people involved. I want to help bring a unique story to life, and work with some of the most wonderful creative people in the world. Neil Gaiman, Amber Benson, Michael Reaves, and Tom Mandrake are warm, funny, creative, and inspiring. Every day one of them says or does something that makes me think, laugh, and do better than I could before. Being part of a great team is key to having a successful project, and somehow I fit into this creative team. We blend our skills and make something new happen every day. I’m a composer and love the Golden Age of Hollywood. That was an era of gorgeous melodies and lush orchestrations.

Blood Kiss is set in that world and gives me a chance to update those grand romantic gestures and spice them with otherworldly electronica. To do that takes money to hire live musicians. People are better than boxes. And more authentic. That means we have to raise enough money to hire great performers, string players and brass. In a project like this everything goes on screen and the more we raise the better our production values. Everyone knows what classic movies sound like and I have to create that sound. A real challenge. But with the support of fans it’s possible.

And did I mention that Amber Benson sings? She plays Ruby Day, a world-famous chanteuse with a dark secret that hardboiled Detective Joe Belicek discovers. But it’s too late, he’s in love with her.

Michael tried to get the studios to see the value in a new kind of character driven, glamorous Hollywood vampire tale. They didn’t get it. But you do. We can do this together with your support. That’s kind of amazing, that Michael’s dream can come true, Neil gets to act, Amber can sing, I can orchestrate melodies, do things we really believe in and do well. With fans giving us the green light.

A big reason I’m part of Blood Kiss is that crowdfunding gives me a chance to to my best work, be creative in ways the old system might never allow. If we have great success, maybe we can even change the system a bit.

We all want to make the best movie possible, and that involves a lot of people, time, money, and resources. With such strong personalities there are differing opinions, and finding a middle way that works for everyone is a real challenge sometimes. Designing the campaign for Kickstarter took months, and everyone contributed. Because we believe in the project, the final version looks great and holds your attention. All the parts fit and help tell the story.

In a sense it’s a microcosm of how the whole filmmaking process works.

Collaboration-Communication-Completion.

I’m grateful to Michael, Neil, Amber, Tom, Daniela, Leah, Dave, Dan, Tommy, and Fernando for doing amazing work. Please see their work at PledgeBloodKiss.com.

We’re making magic here!

Thank you again!

This is me

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Having a rough week.  Working on a project.  I just wanna do what that fella is doing.

From I Can Haz Cheezburger

 

 

Book club… State of the Union

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Pretty please read all the way through… looking for another group, but if you don’t give me all the info, I can’t choose you.

Okay, so far, it seems like the book club idea is something that people are interested in.

This is what’s going on over the next few months

Book obsessed chicks are reading Stolen

Twi-mom bloggers Wendee & friends are doing a book club reading of Lost in Love

Triple M is doing a group read of The Unwanted

There’s another group lined up-one of the Fresh Fiction book club groups-that will be doing a read of WRECKED.

Now… I’m interested in having a group, and this would be good for an online group who is okay with a PDF ARC and likes PNR/RS, doing a read of The Protected just a few weeks prior to it’s release in September.

I’m looking for group that has between 15-20 people and 5-10 need to be willing to post reviews.  Reviews can be to GR or blogs although I would appreciate them going to Amazon or BN once the sites allow reviews to be posted.

This is more romantic suspense than PNR, but it does have a PNR slant because of the psychic angle.  And for those who liked The Missing, this one will probably really appeal.  :)

And Gus is an ass.  I loved him. He’s sexy and he’s broody and he’s an ass.

 

Rising from the bed, he paced over to her.

She remained where she was, although her hand curved

around the weapon’s grip. Her pulse slammed away in her throat,

and her eyes watched him with a world of caution. “I keep him

safe,” he said softly. “Call your boss and bring him back.”

“No.”

Shooting out his hands, he grabbed her arms and jerked her

upright. Nose to nose, he leaned in, staring into her eyes. The scent

of her went straight to his head, straight to his dick. Why had she

done this? The last thing he could do now . . . actually, the last

thing he should have done ever was trust her, want her . . . and yet

that was what he wanted to do. But she’d let them take Alex.

“Call him,” he said again. “Or you’re not going to like what I

do when you refuse this time.”

She reached up and laid a hand on his throat. “Well, here’s

the problem. If you hurt me, I can tell you this, right now, Jones

is never going to turn that kid back over to you. It’s just not going

to happen.” Her thumb stroked over his skin and that light touch

seemed to echo through every damn inch of him. “Of course, I

realize that isn’t necessarily going to stop you. I remember what

you said you’d do and I’m prepared—”

“Prepared.” He cut her off. Fury and lust tangled inside him

and he lowered her back to the floor. Eyeing the door, he crossed

over to it and grabbed the chair, wedging it under the handle to

keep it shut. It wouldn’t last for long, but he wouldn’t need long

to make his point, he figured. Turning back around, he stared at

Vaughnne. “You have about thirty seconds to use that gun or

you’ll regret it.”

A slim black brow arched.

Then, she laid the gun on the table by the bed. “I’m not using

it on you. I’m not calling Jones. You do what you think you have

to, Gus, but I did what I had to. You want Alex safe. You make

him safe. Eliminate the threat.” Her eyes narrowed and she added

softly, “FYI . . . I am not the threat, but if you’re too stupid—”

The rest of the words were caught against his mouth.

I do want to make a note, I’ve had a number of people email me…paraphrasing here…

I’m not in a book club, but I’d love to review your books…

That’s awesome and I love you, but pretty please, if you want to review them, please contact my various publishers.  This isn’t just about reviews.  It’s that uber-crucial word of mouth and trying to introduce my books to new groups of readers.  As I’ve mentioned recently, I’m probably going to have to end the Grimm series, and the FBI books are going on life-support, thus the need to try something new, get things pumping again for the other books.

Bloggers and reviewers who belong to book clubs are more than welcome to contact me about the book club idea, but if you are solely interested in reviewing, please contact the publishers for review copies.  Thanks…

For those who’ve served

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May you all have a safe and happy Memorial Day.  For those who’ve served, thank you.

For those who’ve lost one in service to our country, may you find peace today.

Snippet Saturday… author’s choice…

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Going with BROKEN, one of my older titles…

He opened the door—

And stopped dead in his tracks as somebody all but fell into his arms.  Somebody…a woman.  And not Theresa.

He caught her just above her elbows, automatically steadying her.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice soft and low.

Then she lifted her face and Quinn found himself gazing into the biggest, brownest eyes he’d ever seen in his life.  Feeling a little dazed, he studied her face while she stammered out another apology.

Quinn barely heard it.

He was too busy staring at her mouth.  A very pretty mouth, a cupid’s bow mouth slicked with deep, vibrant red.  Under his hands, he could feel silken smooth skin and unable to resist, he stroked a thumb along her inner arm.

Her skin was soft, soft and warm.  He was also pretty sure she had the creamiest, most flawless skin imaginable.  Her shoulder-length hair was a shade caught between blonde and brown, nondescript, but for some reason, he found himself thinking about tangling his fingers in that hair and holding her head still while he kissed that red-slicked mouth.

Well, hello…he could all but feet his libido kicking up as he stared at that mouth.  Every last one of his senses tuned in on her—

The way she looked…sex and sin.

The way she smelled…sex and sin.

The way she sounded…sex and sin.

The way she felt…the way she might taste.  Sex and sin. He knew it without a doubt.  She’d taste like sex and sin.

His mouth was all but watering.

“Ahhh…excuse me,” she said, tugging against his light hold.

“Uh…yeah.”  He uncurled his fingers and let go, although he hated every second of it.

She immediately backed away, putting a good five feet in between them and eying him nervously.  In that moment, he was acutely aware of the fact that he hadn’t bothered shaving that morning, or the morning before.  He was also acutely aware of the wrinkled state of his gray T-shirt and the worn jeans he wore.  He hadn’t gotten into the habit of wearing the unofficial uniform worn by most of the guys who worked for Gearing, but he’d swapped out the black T-shirt that read Bond Enforcement for a plain one. Wearing those particular shirts outside of work had ended up causing him a headache or two so when he remembered, he changed out of them before leaving the office.

She continued to stare at him, her face expressionless and her eyes measuring.  She might have just continued to stare at him indefinitely if Theresa hadn’t come bustling down the hall.   “Quinn?”

Tearing his eyes away from the unknown woman, he smiled at his landlord.  It no longer seemed so weird to smile at somebody—as in he didn’t worry his face might crack if he wasn’t careful.  Still, the smile on his face did feel odd.  “Hey, Theresa.  I didn’t know you had company.”

She beamed at him.  “This isn’t company.  This is your new neighbor.  She just moved in to the upstairs apartment. Sara…I’d like you to meet Quinn Rafferty.  Quinn, this is Sara Davis.”

Sara.

Neighbor.

Staring into Sara’s dark brown eyes, his heart sank just a little.  Great.

Some people collected books.

Some people collected knickknacks.

Some people collected coins.

Theresa collected lost souls, as evidenced by the fact that he was living in her basement after she’d charmed him into changing her tire outside Dierburg’s a few months earlier.

The last woman to stay in that apartment had ended up being a battered woman hiding out from her ex.  Before that, it had been a girl who’d been all of nineteen, with two kids and a third on the way.   When that one had left, she’d ended up stealing from Theresa and skipping out on the piddling amount of rent that Theresa had coming.

If Sara Davis was living in Theresa’s upstairs apartment, that made her pretty much off limits.  It didn’t matter that his dormant sex drive was all of sudden flaring up on him.

The last thing Quinn needed to be around was another lost soul, not when he still struggled to find his own.

Read more



Other authors to check out…

Lissa Matthews

Felicity Heaton

Mari Carr

News about the Barnes Boys

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So…my publisher has agreed to buy two more books about the Barnes brothers.  I’ll be writing a book about Zane and one other book for one of the brothers.  I don’t know which, probably whichever speaks the loudest.  After that, I’m not sure if I’ll write more.  It all depends on how these go.

Also…

Night Blade is a daily deal today.  :) On sale for $1.99 at Amazon

A bend in the road

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It’s one of those… it’s decision time…points in my career.

Writing is full of them.  Many of these decisions suck.  The ones I’m making right now aren’t fun, but they have to be made.

Namely… about Grimm & the FBI books.

I’m probably going to be putting the Grimm series to bed.  When I have time in my schedule, I’ll write Will & Mandy’s story, but that’s probably going to be it.

The FBI series may be either over, or pushed to the side for the foreseeable future.

The Grimm series, as much as I love it, and I do love it… I have more fun with that series than any other one out there, save for the Kit books, but the books barely scrape by.  For some reason, it’s just never caught on well.

The FBI books are just slowly going…pffft.  I may not be shelving that one yet.  I’ll see how things go with the releases of The Unwanted and The Protected, but The Reunited and The Departed, two of the better books I’ve written just didn’t do all that well.  When you put your heart and soul into a book and the sales just aren’t there…sometimes it’s a good idea to move onto while you can.

I know ‘numbers’ aren’t a reader concern, but they have to be a concern for the writer.  As I’ve said when talking about the Hunters books…

In the end, I had to make a hard decision.  Writing can be full of them.  A writer’s daily life is all about the words…but in our business lives, if we don’t focus on something else…numbers and sales, we can end up being one of the writers who don’t keep writing for a living.

Since I kind of like what I do, and since my family kind of needs me to keep working…well, in the end, I knew what the right decision was, even though it wasn’t an easy one.

Does this mean I’m absolutely shelving these two series?

As far as the FBI books go?  Nah, not absolutely.  The Unwanted is a novella coming out from Samhain, an experiment of sorts.  It’s going to have a lower price and maybe that will appeal more.  If it goes over well, maybe it will just work better in that format.  It will require those who like print to wait longer to get the books, and I’m sorry for that, but sometimes you have to make those hard choices. I’m a prolific writer, but that doesn’t translate to high-selling.  It just means I write a lot.  People have heard of me, but hearing of me doesn’t mean they’ve tried me and some of the series that just aren’t catching on, well, it’s coming down to decision time.  Either they catch on, or I let them go.

I’ve got a few options with the FBI books, so I want to try those out.  But I don’t see that many options with the Grimm. I’m going to be honest, I’ll probably wind that series up soon. If something wild and crazy hits me for Rob or Finn, I may write those later down the road, but I’m not counting on it.

Those who enjoy the series, if you want to help keep them going, the best thing you can do, as I discussed yesterday… word of mouth & reviews.  Those reviews key into that discoverability thing and without that discoverability factor, it makes it harder for people unfamiliar with my work to find my books on retailer sites, namely Amazon and BN.

I won’t be making a hard and fast decision on the FBI books until I see how The Unwanted goes.  Maybe it will turn around.

Tomorrow…I have slightly better news.

Why Amazon & BN reviews matter

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I had a reader ask me why the Amazon & BN reviews matter… 

I’ve noticed you’ve been pushing for more reviews…the book club thing and periodic requests for reviews, etc on twitter, FB.  I don’t ever pay attention to them.  I ask friends or go to blogs.  Store reviews just don’t matter to me.  What’s the big deal?

Well, bottom line… they are a very big deal.

I can’t claim a lot of hard knowledge on this but these are some of the things I’ve discovered with selfpublishing.  The number of reviews I received on Blade Song helped get me some of the ‘promo’ deals, like the daily deals, which actually benefits readers, too.

But again, this is just stuff that’s either been my experience or things I’ve learned in workshops, etc.  None of this has come straight from the horse’s (Amazon/BN’s) mouth.

Reviews at Amazon and BN add up to two key things:

‘discoverability’
‘promo’ offerings from online retailers offer (sales, etc)

 

So what’s with the ‘promo’ thing and what does that matter?

The promo thing translates to sales…and who doesn’t like sales, right?

X number of reviews can lead to things like

‘daily deals’
‘gold box’
other stuff

 Reviews alone aren’t going to get the daily deals, gold box deals, etc.  The majority of the reviews need to be positive.  Your pub has to push for the deal, there’s wrangling and hassling, etc.  I didn’t do any of it to get the daily deal… Inscribe did it all for.

But it’s not just the promo thing.  Increased reviews leads to increased discoverability.  You show up in search results more…people who looked at this also looked at…etc, I think.

If people aren’t seeing your book, they can’t buy your book.

Once you hit X amount of reviews on Amazon (and I think BN), you move into a different ‘algorithm’ which means your books show up more on book searches.  When your books pop up, more people see them.  If your books aren’t popping up a lot, then people can’t see them to buy them.  Decreased book sales will eventually lead to your publisher deciding not to renew your contracts…and that leads to canceled series.  Which has happened to me twice.

Yes, the readers looking for you will find you, but the casual buyer?  Not so much.  The browsing days in a bookstore are fading so the discoverability factor for online shoppers is becoming crucial.

The market is getting tough and yes, reviews are important, more now than ever.  You don’t have to be a professional reviewer… just say…hey, I liked this book and here is why.  Or even…this book didn’t appeal as much…and this is why.  I don’t want to be that author who is constantly begging for reviews, but if you enjoy a book of mine, if you feel inclined to leave a review, posting it to Amazon or BN is a huge help and I very much appreciate it.  :)