Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What Are you Reading?
Idamus wrote: "Lillian wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Lillian wrote: "Have bought a cheap Nook so that I don't have to risk taking my Kindle on holiday. Now I just need to fill it. New books or favourite re-reads? So far..."LOL. Nope off to do some writing in a moment :)
I was going to start them just before the last book came out and then I heard people bemoaning about waiting for the next one and, well, you know how I am about being left on tenderhooks in both plot and relationships. (I still blame the 'To Be Continued...' line at the end of the 4th Season of New Adventures of Superman for that. Season 5 NEVER happened! *sob*) I definitely will read them though, at some point.
Lillian wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Lillian wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Lillian wrote: "Have bought a cheap Nook so that I don't have to risk taking my Kindle on holiday. Now I just need to fill it. New books or favourite r..."Well, next book in the Cut & Run series is in March and there's a spinoff in the Fall, so you could probably start reading (unless next book is evil too...)
Idamus wrote: "Lillian wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Lillian wrote: "Idamus wrote: "Lillian wrote: "Have bought a cheap Nook so that I don't have to risk taking my Kindle on holiday. Now I just need to fill it. New book..."I guess I could read up to the book before the last one and then stop until I see how things pan out :)
Johanna wrote: "I started to read Bad Boyfriend by K.A. Mitchell yesterday (I had it on my Kindle although I have no idea when I've bought it). And today I started to listen to Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelli..."Luck in the shadows is the first of a trilogy and then there is later books with the same characters, I love them! I am sure you will have fun. They are fantasy though, not m/m as such, so little romance and lots of action. But the romance that is in there, is rather sweet though.
I have just started Black Dog Blues by Rhys Ford. It is a fantasy with a rather new spin on the world building, very well thought out I think. And the book is very good so far with a very compelling main character. I read on her blog that she got some pepper because there are little to no sex in it, which made her raise the question if there has to be sex in a book for it to be considered m/m or a romance.For me it doesn't have to be, but I am old enough that I can remember people getting prosecuted for having explisit sex in their books and the books were forbidden, and a romance ended with the first kiss and the readers had to figure the rest out by ourselves. Not that I want those times back, but there must be room for variations withing any genre, right?
Mod
I'm glad to hear all that, Anne! :-)
Mod
Bad Boyfriend is..... hot!! But I liked it.... I really liked it.... Eli and Quinn just clicked as a couple.... love them together....."
It's hot alright. :-) But maybe a bit unbalanced? I'm only 25% through though, so it's probably not fair to say anything yet, but I would have appriciated more story and less sex in the beginning.
After KC's good review and 5 stars for The Hardest Thing: A Dan Stagg Mystery by James Lear I read it on Tuesday. It's very hot, lots of sex, but still there's a plot and action and a small part of romance that nearly makes your heart break. Like KC wrote, the author manages to use sex to actually, literally advance the plot. No easy feat. ;)Compared to The Back Passage it's darker. But also more complex maybe? Dan is no shiny hero. He has his faults and needs a new objective in his live to have a reason to go on. That he might have found in the young man he was contracted to guard.
Long story short: I really liked it. :-D
Mod
Oh, cool. Thank you Calathea and KC! That sounds like a book I want to read ASAP. :-)
Johanna wrote: "Anne wrote: "Johanna wrote: "I started to read Bad Boyfriend by K.A. Mitchell yesterday (I had it on my Kindle although I have no idea when I've bought it). And today I started to listen to Luck in..."I am sure you knew it all already ;)
Anne wrote: "For me it doesn't have to be, but I am old enough that I can remember people getting prosecuted for having explisit sex in their books and the books were forbidden, and a romance ended with the first kiss and the readers had to figure the rest out by ourselves. Not that I want those times back, but there must be room for variations withing any genre, right?"I totally agree :)
Johanna wrote: "Ame wrote: "Johanna wrote: "I started to read Bad Boyfriend by K.A. Mitchell yesterday (I had it on my Kindle although I have no idea when I've bought it). And today I started to listen to Luck in ..."Yes there is a lot of it no denying that.... but Eli and Quinn as a couple just got to me.... you can read a book with lots of sex and it's boring... you skim through the sex scenes waiting for them to be over do you can get to the real story.... but I didn't get that feeling with this story.... I just really liked it and not for the sex... well ok a little bit for the sex.... but because of the chemistry between those two guys.
Hambel wrote: "Anne wrote: "For me it doesn't have to be, but I am old enough that I can remember people getting prosecuted for having explisit sex in their books and the books were forbidden, and a romance ended with the first kiss and the readers had to figure the rest out by ourselves. Not that I want those times back, but there must be room for variations withing any genre, right?"I totally agree :) ..."
And so do I.
Bad Boyfriend is definitely the best book in that series. I'm trying to find a mystery book I read long ago, I thought it was titled The Etruscan Urn. It was about an ex-pat (don't remember if Brit or American) in Italy. No amount of Googling or mining GR has uncovered it.
I am reading Love, Like Water by Rowan Speedwell. I've heard good things about it. Just started it this morning.
Averin wrote: "I'm trying to find a mystery book I read long ago, I thought it was titled The Etruscan Urn. It was about an ex-pat (don't remember if Brit or American) in Italy. No amount of Googling or mining GR has uncovered it. ..."Could it be this?
The Etruscan Chimera by Lyn Hamilton
Thanks, but no. I went through a phase in junior high where I'd read random books from the authors beginning in G shelves. No longer remember why. Discovered Graham Greene and Winston Graham that way. I'm fairly certain it was about that time. So it would have been written no later than 1975.
Here's an interesting little discussion thread about ebook pricing: http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/.... Do you have a spending limit based on a book's length? Do you think more and more readers are unwilling to pay for ebooks at all, given how much free fic is now available?
K.Z. wrote: "Here's an interesting little discussion thread about ebook pricing: http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/.... Do you have a spending limit based on a book's length? Do you think more and ..."Funnily enough myself and acouple of GR friends were having this discussion the other day, in particular about MLR publishing. I rarely buy books from them because of the price. It has to come highly recommended and then I try to use my free book at ARe to buy it.
K.Z. wrote: "Here's an interesting little discussion thread about ebook pricing: http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/.... Do you have a spending limit based on a book's length? Do you think more and ..."An example of what you were talking about.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Mod
To me, a price is a price. This is why I'll never understand buying a car. I can't go to the drug store and dicker over the price of a Hallmark card or the medicine droppers I bought last night that should have been $2 less.
If the book is something I'm dying to read an it's by an author I know already and love, I'll pay the price right away, or I'll wait until I can afford it. If the author is not someone I've read before, I'll just wait until I can afford it or until I get a gift certificate.
But I don't usually look at the price compared to the length of the book. If I did that, I might not buy anything! lol.
K.Z. wrote: "Here's an interesting little discussion thread about ebook pricing: http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/.... Do you have a spending limit based on a book's length? Do you think more and ..."Mmm, that was interesting reading. I'm not going to comment there - I disagree with a lot of what's been said and I'm not good at phrasing things like that overly politely...
I particularly twitched at the 'still waiting for a refund' comment, but that's a different discussion really!
I kind of have a spending limit, but that has nothing to do with the length of a book and everything to do with a limited budget - yay for not being well enough to work (not sarcastic at all, honest!). And I've learnt that just because something is cheap does not mean it's good - I'd rather buy 1 book at $8.99 that I will re-read than 2 at $3.99 that leave me wishing I hadn't bothered.
I do buy quite a few books through ARe so tend to use the 10 for 1 code on higher priced books; often MLR or LooseID given their editing can be a bit variable.
Riptide I tend to buy from direct - yes their books cost a bit more, but they're well edited. And Samhain and Dreamspinner have so many special offers that I often buy from them direct - and I'll often try new authors because of the reductions.
So for me, the quantity of free fic out there hasn't made any difference to what I'll pay (I can't speak for anyone else). I do read free shorts - and the good ones will make me look for other work by the author. The bad ones just make me go running for a good book :)
Sarah wrote: "K.Z. wrote: "Here's an interesting little discussion thread about ebook pricing: http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/.... Do you have a spending limit based on a book's length? Do you th..."Couldn't have said that any better than you.
K.Z. wrote: "Here's an interesting little discussion thread about ebook pricing: http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/.... Do you have a spending limit based on a book's length? Do you think more and more readers are unwilling to pay for ebooks at all, given how much free fic is now available? ..."I can't imagine just getting and reading free fiction. There is a lot of crap out there, so eventually those readers are bound to notice that (one hopes).
I don't like paying $14 for a brand new Big 5 book, but I will do it if I want to read it badly enough. Last one I bought at $14.99 was Lover At Last by JR Ward.
My personal book budget is pretty generous, since we both have jobs and no kids. So again, if I want to read it badly enough, I'll get it. I'd like to keep it under $7, but again, if I want it, I'll get it.
So I suppose the short answer is no. Price doesn't keep me away from what I want to read. I also pretty much ignore the Amazon lending program. If I want to read it, I'll pay.
Do any of you know what AO3 is? One commenter made a reference to it, but I've no clue what she was talking about.I admit I've downloaded a good amount of legitimately free fiction, but, more often than not, it ends up sitting on my Kindle until I delete it or I'll read a chapter and then delete it. So I've begun to regard freebies with skepticism.
But I also admit I shy away from ebooks priced higher than $6.99 or $7.99 (just can't afford 'em), and shorts that seem too costly for their word count.
I usually don't worry about prices on e-books, both because I can afford them, and compared to Norwegian books, they are all cheap. I don't check the length, except when someone try to sell me a novella for the price of a full size novel, unless it is by someone I really love.I always download a sample first, unless the book is an auto buy, there are too much crap out there. I can afford the books I want, but not to pay for rubbish.
BTW, it does make me nervous as a writer to hear people grousing about the cost of digital books, which is why I asked for your input. But what puts me off is when readers imply they're unwilling to pay anything, because free stuff is abundant -- and just as good.
K.Z. wrote: "Do any of you know what AO3 is? One commenter made a reference to it, but I've no clue what she was talking about.I admit I've downloaded a good amount of legitimately free fiction, but, more oft..."
Arkive of our own
http://archiveofourown.org/
K.Z. wrote: "BTW, it does make me nervous as a writer to hear people grousing about the cost of digital books, which is why I asked for your input. But what puts me off is when readers imply they're unwilling t..."Most free stuff are bad, they can never compete in my opinion.
K.Z. wrote: "Do any of you know what AO3 is? One commenter made a reference to it, but I've no clue what she was talking about."It's a pretty new fanfiction-archiv with (as a good friend tells me day on and off) very good fanfiction. Not everybody can publish their ffs on AO3, you need recommendations from already authors from AO3 or something like that.
K.Z. wrote: "BTW, it does make me nervous as a writer to hear people grousing about the cost of digital books, which is why I asked for your input. But what puts me off is when readers imply they're unwilling t..."I don't object to paying for quality work. I expect an ebook to be formatted properly so I don't have to adjust my settings. To not say "x" number of pages and have 10-20 of them blank because of bad formatting (or something more sinister). To have been proofread by someone competent with language.
K.Z. wrote: "BTW, it does make me nervous as a writer to hear people grousing about the cost of digital books, which is why I asked for your input. But what puts me off is when readers imply they're unwilling t..."I think that will work itself out eventually. I remember jumping on every free book and offer I found on Kindle when I first went digital 4 years ago. Now I am way more skeptical and selective. I will eventually also just delete many of the free stuff on my kindle account I'll never read.
Those who are new to digital go a bit nuts I think, and then it evens out. The music industry went through the same huge changes 15 years ago and the price of a new album is still pretty much the same from vinyl to CD to MP3.
Tharayn wrote: "K.Z. wrote: "Do any of you know what AO3 is? One commenter made a reference to it, but I've no clue what she was talking about."It's a pretty new fanfiction-archiv with (as a good friend tells m..."
That's not actually true. You don't need any recommendations from other authors, all you do is apply for a code. They put you on a 'waiting list' but my wait was less than a day. I think it is more to regulate the number of people joining the site at any one time than anything to do with quality control.
Lillian wrote: "Tharayn wrote: "K.Z. wrote: "Do any of you know what AO3 is? One commenter made a reference to it, but I've no clue what she was talking about."It's a pretty new fanfiction-archiv with (as a goo..."
Well then you had luck? A friend of mine (who loves this site) said it was pretty restrictive when she joined as an author. I didn't said anything about quality control, just that my friend said, that there are pretty good ffs there. But I'm not much interested in/don't read fanfiction so I don't really follow what happens on AO3 (just what she casually tells me).
Jordan wrote: "Psycop would be awesome in audio book. I'm starting to thoroughly enjoy rereading old favorites in audio. I love that series! "That would be so awesome. I think that is my personal favorite M/M series ever.
I've enjoyed a LOT of fanfic at AO3, but to me it's just another website to suck up my time enjoyably - it's NOT where I go to find quality fiction (though I've been surprised a number of times).
As for cost of books, I agree with the others that are ready with the credit card up to $6 a piece, then start waivering if the book is more than that. Now if the book is exceptionally long, I'll take that into consideration, but usually $7 is the absolute limit.
The only standing exception is Kaje Harper's books at MLR. I think they are very overpriced at $8.99 each, BUT she puts out so much quality free stuff that I justify the price by telling myself that $2-3 of each book that I'm paying for goes towards the ones that I didn't have to buy. Fair is fair :)
As for cost of books, I agree with the others that are ready with the credit card up to $6 a piece, then start waivering if the book is more than that. Now if the book is exceptionally long, I'll take that into consideration, but usually $7 is the absolute limit.
The only standing exception is Kaje Harper's books at MLR. I think they are very overpriced at $8.99 each, BUT she puts out so much quality free stuff that I justify the price by telling myself that $2-3 of each book that I'm paying for goes towards the ones that I didn't have to buy. Fair is fair :)
Mod
I didn't read this as a romance, rather like a gritty fantasy with a slow-building romance element. I found it more akin to Kim Harrison's The Hollows, or Seanan McGuire's October Daye books, or even more apt for their grittiness, Stacia Kane's Downside series. As an aside, these are among the series I've stalled out on, meaning I'm a book or more behind in each.
But I'm ready for the next episode in Kai's story. The MCs (or their species?) seem to be bi and there's very hot sexual tension with none of the graphic follow-through we've grown to expect from Rhys's other books. And I love the cover. Well, all of her covers appeal to me.
Mod
I'd say start with PsyCop. You can read one and see if you become as caught up in them as some of us did. : )
K.Z. wrote: "BTW, it does make me nervous as a writer to hear people grousing about the cost of digital books, which is why I asked for your input. But what puts me off is when readers imply they're unwilling t..."There are two things that piss me off as a reader.... and one is nothing any author can do about.... and that is the fact that Amazon has different prizes going by location.... like I live in Europe and quite often books are more expensive for me than for those living in USA. Why I have no idea..... like I was putting a book on my wishlist that costs 11.85.... which I find expensive so I put it on my wishlist and hope for it to down in prize... but as I put in on the list I see the prize for it in USA is 6.99. And this pisses me off.
Why is that? Why does Amazon do this? Is it really so expensive "sending" an e-book across the Atlantic?
The other thing that pisses me off is when authors write an ordinary length novel... cut it down in maybe 5-6 chapters and sell it off for the prize of an ordinary book. That I do not buy. It just feels like greed.
End or rant. Hope I didn't offend anyone.
Ame wrote: "K.Z. wrote: "BTW, it does make me nervous as a writer to hear people grousing about the cost of digital books, which is why I asked for your input. But what puts me off is when readers imply they'r..."I thought the different pricing was a matter of trade agreements. What was upsetting to me was to find out that writers published in the US, for example, receive less royalties if one buys their books via an amazon-not-US. Better to go with the original/independent publisher anyway.
KC wrote: "Ame wrote: "K.Z. wrote: "BTW, it does make me nervous as a writer to hear people grousing about the cost of digital books, which is why I asked for your input. But what puts me off is when readers ..."So if you buy from Amazon in UK you get less?
The different pricing? Yeah maybe it's a trade thing... but then I don't understand the rules... because there can be two American authors selling their book at the same price at Amazon.... still one is more expensive than the other.... could it be publishing houses???? Just thinking out loud.....
I do see that authors from New Zealand and Australia are more expensive for me to buy than American authors at Amazon.... that is most definitely a trade thing....
Mod
I just finished reading it yesterday. The dialogue and descriptions are so well done. This was the second book I read this week that has MCs spending some significant time of their lives in New Mexico (the other was Brat Fararr, something I'd completely forgotten since my long ago first read).
Love, Like Water is set in NM, and is pretty spot-on in descriptions of the high desert here. I'm not personally horse knowledgable, but a relative boards horses, and most of that side of things rang true. I have some quibbles about the Albuquerque descriptions, which were interesting because they were small things that wouldn't necessarily stand out unless you live here or have visited enough times. My notes are listed below.
(view spoiler)
Tharayn wrote: "Lillian wrote: "Tharayn wrote: "K.Z. wrote: "Do any of you know what AO3 is? One commenter made a reference to it, but I've no clue what she was talking about."It's a pretty new fanfiction-archi..."
They have original fiction there too. And an easily downloadable format.
Lillian wrote: "An example of what you were talking about."Whoa! O_O
*gulp*
K.Z. wrote: "Lillian wrote: "An example of what you were talking about."Whoa! O_O
*gulp*"
Yep!
Lillian wrote: "They have original fiction there too. And an easily downloadable format. "I've seen original fic there, too. It was set up to serve fandom by hosting fanfiction though, if I remember correctly. The downloadable formats are a real plus point.
Mod
But that's pretty much what exactly I expect from KA Mitchell's books, and I choose them when I'm in that sort of mindset. ;-) Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.
Hambel wrote: "Lillian wrote: "They have original fiction there too. And an easily downloadable format. "I've seen original fic there, too. It was set up to serve fandom by hosting fanfiction though, if I remember correctly. The downloadable formats are a real plus point. ..."
I came across it a while ago for fan fiction. The download formats were added later and I didn't notice them at first. They are excellent - I prefer to read on my Kindle than on my laptop.
Mod
But that's pretty much what exactly I expect from KA Mitchell's books, and I choose them when I'm in that..."
I'm enjoying it. :-) And I'm ashamed to say that I didn't realize this is the author who also wrote Florida Books and Ohio Books. I liked her Collision Course and Regularly Scheduled Life! And now I also know what to expect sex-wise... :-D
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
Books mentioned in this topic
Subtle Bodies (other topics)Husband Material (other topics)
Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night (other topics)
A Shattered Silver Crown (other topics)
A Shattered Silver Crown (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jordan Castillo Price (other topics)Alexis Hall (other topics)
Katherine Fabian (other topics)
Iona Datt Sharma (other topics)
Cynthia Zhang (other topics)
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Don't you dare stop writing *glares*
Well, if you don't love those series, you don't love them and we'll just consider you weird ;p
Nah, taste is different, give them a go