Josh’s Comments (group member since Jun 17, 2010)

Josh’s comments from the Q&A with Josh Lanyon group.

Brenda wrote: "Oh man, I was getting really emotionally overwhelmed by Ann Cleeves' Matthew from The Long Call (who is VERY HEAVILY autistic-coded, but again, not named as autistic, so non-autistic people can sti..."

In fairness, it could be the author themselves doesn't know or hasn't decided that the character IS autistic.

Not everyone recognizes autistic people as autistic--and that can be good or bad (being someone fiercely antagonistic to any kind of labeling for any reason, I actually think it's good--but of course I don't think mine is the only opinion on this or anything else).

And sometimes a character starts out one thing and gradually (or not so gradually) reveals himself. So an author may begin a character and a series thinking one thing, and then the book--like life--changes. That's the creative process.

SamSpayedPI wrote: "I'm currently slogging my way through The Guardianship of Julian St. Albans.

I loved The Courtship of Julian St. Albans, and [book:The Apprenticeship of Julian St...."

NOTE TO SELF. ;-D

Melissa wrote: "Josh wrote: "I took the time to update my preferences on Bookbub and now I actually open the newsletter and occasionally click. Well, it turns out I click a lot more often than I realized because i..."

I think I've returned maybe five books in my lifetime. :-D

Hope all of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful holiday.

As I commented elsewhere, this was probably the best Thanksgiving I can remember in a long while.

It's been a grueling few last months, but now I just have to get through the holidays and Blind Side and plan out next year! Piece of cake. :-D

But actually, compared the last month, it will be a piece of cake. And I'm really excited about my plans for next year.

Several of the things I tried to concentrate on: taking audio and print wide, for example, have slowly but surely started to pay off. It's going to take more work and more time, but I'm confident this is the way to go.

And I'm excited about the new schedule. I'm going to be experimenting with Dragon dictation and things like that. So I won't be working less, but maybe I'll be working smarter? Hopefully.

Anyway, I feel bad that I've been such an infrequent visitor here over the past few months. The last two in particular, I didn't even have time for half my Facebook posts or blogs or even Patreon.

But now it's homestretch time and the Advent Calendar begins, so I'm planning to pop in more often and just visit a bit. ;-)

Antonella wrote: "Moving letter of a 65 years old gay man in the closet to the therapist of «The Atlantic», and her answer:

Dear Therapist: I Will Probably Take the Secret of My Sexuality to the Grave"

That is painful.

Brenda wrote: "and why it’s really not a healthy thing for the entertainment industry that Disney now owns practically everything (and I think you could substitute in Jeff Bezos and Amazon in relation to books here and make the same point). ..."

Truth on both counts.

Ije the Devourer of Books wrote: "I am having so much fun. I am really enjoying the history and the architecture here. We have traveled from Marrakesh to Casablanca and then to Rabat the capital. Today we are in Fez and we went to ..."

Wow. What a fascinating trip!

Karen wrote: "Josh wrote: "Very interesting article on how we view aging

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20..."

As a 67 year-old who is c..."

Yes to all of that. I see it in my lack of flexibility -- I am determined to resume yoga this winter -- changes in my vision (SO frustrating to need glasses for almost everything now), weight gain, and just a ton of stupid little aches and pains that have a tiring cumulative effect.

Five Things I Love (since I haven't checked in in forever)

1 - Gingerbread cocktails

2 - New cover art! Two series--H&M and DG--are about to relaunch with all new covers

3 - The holidays

4 - Headache tablets (see items 1 & 3 above)

5 - Snow (I mean the tame, domesticated kind we have here in Southern California where it looks pretty for a couple of days and then vanishes without any real effort or after effects)

The best thing about today...

I Buried a Witch is complete--I LOVE those characters and that world--and it comes out tomorrow.

AND Thanksgiving is over, and it was maybe the best one ever. Certainly the best one in years. Partly because we had snow. Real snow. It's still out there! It's still bending rose bushes into the pool. Everybody was in a terrific mood, the food -- it was one of those nights when somehow as if by magic the food is perfect and even almost hot. :-D The rooms were full of flowers and shining lanterns and the wine was flowing like wine. As were the gingerbread cocktails. And the snow was so beautiful and it created a feeling of hush and insulation.

That was The Best holiday I can remember.

I took the time to update my preferences on Bookbub and now I actually open the newsletter and occasionally click. Well, it turns out I click a lot more often than I realized because in two months I've spent over $100. on a LOT of titles, most of which (if I'm honest) I'll probably never even get around to reading!

Which goes to show how effective a tool Bookbub and its ilk are -- just because something is ,99 I start thinking Oh! I should grab that now.

And I've been doing that since I arrived on the doorstep of M/M Romance. Even if I did nothing but read for fun for a month, I'd barely make a dent in the books on my kindle--and I'm a fast reader!

I've approved a lot of memberships over recent weeks. You're all very welcome and if you want to say hi, this is the thread. Don't be shy. :-)

Alison wrote: "Emma, if you're looking for a short Ginn Hale that's completely awesome, Swift and the Black Dog is a novella-length option."

Wicked Gentlemen is wonderful. Has a lovely Peter Pan vibe (well, that doesn't accurately describe anything but the mood) Oh! And the stories Ginn did for the two supernatural cop collections--I'm blanking on the titles but there were two collections of stories with Ginn, Nicole Kimberling and Astrid Amara and I think they are all so great.

Johanna wrote: "Jordan wrote: "I disagree with everyone who claims your bedroom must be cool at night for you to sleep well. They say you should stick a foot out to keep your body temp low. Not me. If any part of ..."

I like the bedroom cool, but the bed warm. :-D

Josh wrote: "Very interesting article on how we view aging

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20..."

Also very funny (I thought)

Very interesting article on how we view aging

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

Brenda wrote: "Josh wrote: "They're not even Christmas mystery movies, which that at least I could get behind."

Seriously!!! Why isn't there a whole channel of Hallmark Christmas Murder Mysteries!!!! Dammit, I W..."

I know!!! That would be so fun. I would love that to pieces.

Not getting sleep is one of the worst things you can do to yourself.

Jordan wrote: "Josh wrote: "1 - A warm bed on a cold night

2 - Falling asleep reading (preferably at night in my bed) :-D

3 - The SO loving his college courses

4 - Peanut butter toast and cocoa

5 - The promis..."

Creative writing and online marketing.

I thought the former would get his creative juices flowing and the latter might be useful for the old book biz. It's been interesting. He loves the writing course (no surprise) but he feels the marketing course is pretty lame -- although he's very proud of his 106% score.

:-D :-D :-D

Jordan wrote: "Josh wrote: "Let's get crackin'!

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/10..."

This is a great list! Yes, we should be doing mo..."

I just sent that book as a birthday present to someone!