Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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Writing Questions for Josh
Cleon wrote: "Nothing political, but why not move to France, Paris especially ? :D ..."Thanks, Cleon! That was very funny.
Susinok wrote: "I also blame the media for giving so much attention to the more extreme sides and giving them more power just because it makes for a good, dramatic opinion program (I won't call it news)..."Same thing happens in the UK. They seem to vie with one another to be more outrageous and garner more media coverage. And even the media which laughs at them is giving them the exposure they want...
Hj wrote: "after a while discovered your website, which in turn mentioned Goodreads. I think that's why I looked at GR - I didn't know about it"Me too! I forgot to mention that I arrived to GR because of Josh, I hadn't a clue about GR before.
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The three musketeers. I remember. :-)
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-- ..."
:-D
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I think what makes the group so enjoyable (for me as much as everyone else) is that this isn't an Ask Josh A Question forum. It's a lot of readers conversing and me joining in when and where I can. The only common thread is enjoying my work and so we have some great discussions.
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I hope so too. I see possibilities for disaster and revolution in a way I never did when I was younger. But then when you're younger you innocently assume that life as you know it will always be exactly that -- life as you know it. I'm talking things like child labor laws and the right to vote and social services and disaster relief. But the longer you live, the more you understand that -- as I think Marcus Aurelius said -- the only law is change.
Everything changes. Civilizations fall. Governments topple. The polar ice cap melts.
Jeez. I believe I need coffee this morning!
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Josh wrote: "Susinok wrote: "I just pray that system keeps working. So far it has. I also blame the media for giving so much attention to the more extreme sides and giving them more power just because it makes ..."*blinks blurrily* Coffee, yes. Something to brighten your morning. *grins wryly*
*toddles off to dig out some chai tea*
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I do not argue politics with family and friends. That's my rule.
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Hambel wrote: "Yep, that's me as well. I'm always here though. In a non-creepy way :D ..."Me too. Though even now I'm reading these posts almost 24 hours behind.
I don't blog much or spend a lot of time on Twitter or Facebook. I don't really get Facebook. I enjoy interacting in the FB groups I'm in, but otherwise my newsfeed seems to consist mostly of status updates from other writers and photos with amusing captions. Not a lot of interaction, though I think that's probably my fault. LOL
I am reading Life of Pi. A passage in the book reminded me of the topic of discussion here:In the story, the MC is describing his parents' zoo. They once had a single rhinoceros that grew lonely by itself. Until they could find a mate for it, the MC's father tried an experiment: He put several goats in with the rhino. In fact, the experiment worked so well that even when a mate was brought to live with the rhino, it would not be parted with the goats. The rhinos and the goats lived peaceably as a small herd, guarding each other.
One day, the MC (who was of school age) found one of his teachers standing in front of the enclosure, regarding the animals. The teacher said, "This is interesting... If we had politicians like these goats and rhinos we'd have fewer problems in our country."
;D
Josh wrote: "At least that's my theory. I guess we could do an unscientific polling. How many readers here discovered me through my writing and how many discovered me through my online social media..."Well, I didn't know a thing about your social media presence until I had been reading your books for a year or more. I think I originally found you through reading JCP and a recommendation to read "Man Oh Man" by a friend who also is a member of this group. Once I hit your books, though, there was no stopping me until I had read everything I could grab. My E-book shelf of Josh is simply groaning.
Josh wrote: "Antonella wrote: "I was pushed by Eve/thelastaerie and Lia to read the AE series even though I didn't read misteries. Once I met Adrien I fell in love ;-)."The three musketeers. I remember. :-)"
Wow, you remember this! I'm flattered!
Josh wrote: "I hope so too. I see possibilities for disaster and revolution in a way I never did when I was younger. But then when you're younger you innocently assume that life as you know it will always be exactly that -- life as you know it. I'm talking things like child labor laws and the right to vote and social services and disaster relief. But the longer you live, the more you understand that -- as I think Marcus Aurelius said -- the only law is change. "I've experienced great turmoils in my country's history right during high school and the terrorist attacks when I was at college. It was frigthening and very dark chapter of our country and some still feel the aftermath of the atrocities committed during 1998.
But life went on and things got back to normal eventually. I think under too much stress and paranoia, eventually people start to not care so much and instead adapt a come what may attitude in life.
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Jordan wrote: "Not to change the subject slightly, but that one line just caught my attention: "The only law is change." It sounds like it would make a great tagline for a book. Not sure what about, but something..."Oooo. I agree!
Jordan wrote: "You too? Gosh, and here I thought I was the only one. It's driving me bonkers because I keep wondering how my writing would have evolved differently had I read at least one book with a gay character when I was a kid. I mean, it's in the past now, and I'm voraciously making up for lost time, but still, one has to wonder. "I'm so glad I'm not the only one :)
Not sure I can make up for lost time, since my tbr is already enormous, but... I do keep adding more books to my wishlist LOL
Josh wrote: "I do not argue politics with family and friends. That's my rule. "I mostly don't either... but I'm not very politically minded.
I do have a friend who knows a lot about politics, and he's always willing to explain some finer points... but discuss? no
Rant about the unfairness? yes... but everyone does that lol
The theme song for this question is Garbage's "Androgyny."What influences a writer to choose male or female main characters in a romance?
Reading over that question, I think it sounds a bit "duh." ^_^; Let me explain: I'm of a we're-all-humans-here-so-everyone-should-just-be-able-to-love-whoever-they-want mentality. I'm drawn to M/M along with M/F, and I'd read more F/F if I could find better quality stories (I'm looking forward to reading some of the recs I got on the books discussion!). Really, I'm open to any kind of relationship (including those that can't be conveniently abbreviated with a forward slash), as long as the characters ring true and the emotions move me. (Tiffany Reisz's Original Sinners series impresses me in that it prominently features bisexual characters and heterosexual, homosexual, and menage sex scenes--and is on mainstream romance shelves.)
In my own writing, my couples are usually heterosexual, but then I'll also get characters who beg to both be male or female. Sometimes I'm perplexed by my choice, especially since my characters don't always fit the gender "norm" and might just as easily be of the opposite sex. This is especially an issue in science-fiction and fantasy, where I can make up the rules. So I'll swap the genders in my head to feel out how that would work. In some cases, the story would still technically work (especially in, say, fantasy worlds where homosexual relationships aren't stigmatized, so those issues aren't a plot point), although it doesn't feel right. And I just don't...get why. Of course, in other cases, the story wouldn't work if the characters were of another gender, and I feel more confident in those. (I read somewhere once that a good science fiction story is one in which the setting is integral to the plot and isn't just a backdrop that could be swapped out, so I usually test the "solidness" of my story by attempting to place it in another setting. If my space opera still works as a Viking historical, I might have problems. I use the same test for the sex of my characters. Male/female...would the plot collapse or hold together?)
There's more to my thought process, but I'll spare y'all the dissertation. I think it boils down to my own questions about the meaning of gender identity, sexuality, equality, and humanness. Hard to wrap romance in a tidy bow when you don't want to believe in traditional gender roles.
Anyway, I was curious to know why other authors choose the genders they choose.
(btw, I apologize for all of the paranthetical comments. They can probably get annoying to read [I realize they break up the flow]. But really, I can't help myself. ^.^;; )
Thank you!
Christine wrote: "The theme song for this question is Garbage's "Androgyny."What influences a writer to choose male or female main characters in a romance?
Reading over that question, I think it sounds a bit "duh..."
I think writers want to write about people that interest them. As a reader I’ve never been able to identify with the female love interest in a romance. I suspect a lot of readers have the same problem. Those female characters are straitjacketed into thinking and acting a certain way and to be honest, so is the male character in het romances, though that’s probably more to do with the publishing industry than anything else.
In m/m romance the writer has much more latitude—at least in my opinion. Gender stereotypes are not required. Writing male characters falling for each other gives me the freedom to write them as real people rather than stereotypes.
I’m sure people will point out there’s plenty of m/m books with stereotypical characters and the same tropes as het romance, but that is the author’s choice.
To sum up, I choose to write m/m romance because that’s what I like to read. Hope that makes sense.
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What influences a writer to choose male or female main characters in a romance?
Reading over that question, I think it sounds a bit "duh..."
The first thing I thought of when I began reading your comments was this trilogy: Wraeththu If you haven't read it yet, DO. Such a fantastic read that deals with characters which are neither male or female, but are also both at the same time. It's such a hard thing to explain. I always wondered why I couldn't get a clear bead on this trilogy from people, to determine whether or not I'd like it. And then I read it. And I understand why, and I can't explain it either. And I love it.
Anyway, in answer to your question... For some reason I'm not a fan of writing female characters into a romance. I guess it's partly because I'm not attracted to women and I don't like having to describe them in any sort of sexual way. The thought squicks me out. Big time.
Guys, I like guys. And I like gender neutral characters too. In the horrid book I just wrote for nanowrimo (which will be rewritten at some point in the future) I added in a gender neutral character. I tried to give him GN pronouns but that was a huge bother, and since he hasn't had any surgery, sexually, he's still a he, so I ended up going with male pronouns, which is what the Hara in Wraeththu do.
I would still like to find good GN pronouns to write with because I do feel it's more fair to the GN characters/people to use something else, but I have yet to find something that works in writing. What I'd been using was pronouns from the Finnish language. They just sounded awkward when inserted into the English language.
Anyway, basically, it comes down to the fact that I write about those people I'm attracted to. So far, it's men, and GN people with male genitals or none at all(there is a sci-fi WIP about that), but I'm not completely adverse to GN women. (That would be a woman who considers herself GN, has short hair, looks like a boy, but has not had surgery done to make her officially GN.)
I've not considered writing about them yet. And that is probably due to the fact that I put myself squarely in the MM genre which doesn't leave room for that kind of character as a main character. She could be a minor character, but a main character probably not.
btw, there is a term for a GN person who's gone through the surgery but I'm afraid I'll butcher the spelling and I'm so tired that looking it up is probably impossible at the moment. Lazy of me, I know, but I'm about to fall asleep. Literally.
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What influences a writer to choose male or female main characters in a romance?
Reading over that question, I think it..."
And Pender's summary is a good one too. I write what I like to read. Most definitely. If I like it enough to read it a thousand times, then I'm golden. I love it when I get a story like that.
ok, bed time for me...
I'm going to sound even more peculiar than usual here but I think characters exist as they are somewhere in the ether. It never feels to me like I'm making these people up. It's not like channeling or anything terribly complicated like that. More like there's a waiting room of characters, and if I think of a job, or maybe a hair color or some bit of back story, then an appropriate person steps forward. Somehow, at least for now, most of the people hanging out in my waiting room are gay guys who are in the market for a relationship. I'd like to sound smarter or more deliberate (or at least more sane), but we are who we are.Okay, the crazy lady is going off to get more coffee now.
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Dev wrote: "I'm going to sound even more peculiar than usual here but I think characters exist as they are somewhere in the ether. It never feels to me like I'm making these people up. It's not like channeling..."I like that idea. Most of the time my characters spring to mind fully formed. The times they don't are when I have to struggle and the story usually gets put on the back of the wip pile.
Josh--is it okay if I spread the word about your Holiday blog or are you being deliberate in where you announce it?
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..."
Hmm. Not sure that's true though. I know that sounds harsh, but there's a lot of really subpar writing in our genre and a lot of that comes down to the fact that you can be published here without being terribly good at writing.
So, while we all want to comfort ourselves with the lie that the only reason we can't make in mainstream is the subject matter...that's largely NOT the case.
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No! Please feel free to share!
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On the other hand, this makes perfect sense to me, and much of the time I think it really is this simple.
I also suspect it has something to do with the tiresome roles and restrictions we place on women in our society. For all the blah, blah, blah about men and power and so on and so forth, women remain the designated drivers. Often under ridiculous restrictions (take a look at the push to restrict access to birth control, if you don't believe me).
And women rule the world in the most practical sense while being smaller and physically weaker. Is it any wonder that they might enjoy exploring the possibilities of being male? Especially when you add in the fact that the vast majority of women are attracted to males.
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My instinct is to reject this, but you know, creativity and imagination are such powerful, strange, and largely unexplored realms. Maybe there's some weird truth to this.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses. :)@Pender: Yup, makes sense!
@Jordan: Wraeththu--I think I've heard of this! Thanks! Adding to my list.
I guess it's partly because I'm not attracted to women and I don't like having to describe them in any sort of sexual way. The thought squicks me out. Big time.
You know, I always thought it was interesting that the majority of women I know who write M/F don't fly the straight and narrow. *lopsided grin*
And: Oooo, Finnish pronouns--neat! Sorry that didn't work out. :(
@Dev: Doesn't sound peculiar to me. :)
@Josh: For all the blah, blah, blah about men and power and so on and so forth, women remain the designated drivers.
It's the biggest conspiracy there is. Approximately half the population on Earth is in on it. DON'T TELL ANYONE. ... *blinks*
...On a more serious note: Sadly, I wish I could agree with you, but I do think I know what you mean.
Josh wrote: "Pender wrote: "I’m sure people will point out there’s plenty of m/m books with stereotypical characters and the same tropes as het romance, but that is the author’s choice...."
Hmm. Not sure that's true though. I know that sounds harsh, but there's a lot of really subpar writing in our genre and a lot of that comes down to the fact that you can be published here without being terribly good at writing.
So, while we all want to comfort ourselves with the lie that the only reason we can't make in mainstream is the subject matter...that's largely NOT the case."
I don't think I expressed myself very well there. Maybe I shouldn't have said, "choice". Perhaps "skills" would be better. IMO the only limitation in m/m romance is the author's ability, and as Josh pointed out, that's not much of a limitation when it comes to getting published in the genre.
Josh wrote: "Pender wrote: "To sum up, I choose to write m/m romance because that’s what I like to read. Hope that makes sense. ..."On the other hand, this makes perfect sense to me, and much of the time I think it really is this simple.
I also suspect it has something to do with the tiresome roles and restrictions we place on women in our society. For all the blah, blah, blah about men and power and so on and so forth, women remain the designated drivers. Often under ridiculous restrictions (take a look at the push to restrict access to birth control, if you don't believe me).
Is it any wonder that they might enjoy exploring the possibilities of being male? Especially when you add in the fact that the vast majority of women are attracted to males. ..."
Yes. This idea is what I was working towards when I started thinking about this yesterday.
I'm paraphrasing here, but I remember reading somewhere once that women lost their "goddess" status and power when the process of reproduction was no longer a mystery, but simply a consequence of having sex.
Josh wrote: "Hmm. Not sure that's true though. I know that sounds harsh, but there's a lot of really subpar writing in our genre and a lot of that comes down to the fact that you can be published here without being terribly good at writing."Sadly.
After reading a friend's slash fic earlier this year, I was craving more M/M. I picked a title that seemed to be popular, and I really disliked it--crass, poorly written, characters fell flat. The second title I picked up, which was by a different author, was better, but still not the quality I was looking for. Then I picked up Icecapade and felt like I'd finally hit my target. ^_^ I've been afraid to try any other M/M author, honestly. Well--until I got some recommendations. ;)
Honestly, this business of subpar writing makes me (more) unsure about my own work. I figure, someone will publish what I'm writing--lord knows there are plenty of little e-presses cropping up all the time--but that doesn't mean I'm any good. So now after being published, I think I'm even a little more neurotic and nervous about my stories than ever before. I feel like I'm my only quality filter--and I don't trust me yet.
So--low standards are not good for readers or writers, I'd say. (I wonder how it's working out for the publishers.)
Christine - Having high standards sure works for me (and Riptide...) :)
I think it must work well for publishers. They will get a reputation for quality, for excellent editing and for careful choice of authors (as Riptide is), and readers will feel safe buying from them. You feel it's worth taking a risk on an author new to you because they wouldn't be published by that imprint if they weren't good - so, more sales for the publisher. It must involve extra cost for the publisher (especially compared to those who seems to exercise little if any editorial control), but the rewards will come as the reputation grows.
That's the hope. But above all, I think we owe it to customers not to take money for bad or poorly-executed books. That business model works for others, but it's not what I want to spend my life doing. :)
Christine wrote: "The theme song for this question is Garbage's "Androgyny."What influences a writer to choose male or female main characters in a romance?
Reading over that question, I think it sounds a bit "duh..."
The current novel that I am writing has a good part of it placed in the past in a profession that was almost 100% male. Because I believe in characters telling me about themselves, two of my characters decided that they were a couple and challenged me to deny them. Of course I couldn't, so they are one gay couple in a novel which might have more than one by the time it is complete, even though I hadn't intended to write any in this book.
Characters - what's to do? They have their own lives and agendas - LOL.
Aleksandr wrote: "Christine - Having high standards sure works for me (and Riptide...) :)"lol, whoops! Foot in mouth! Didn't mean you! (I've been poking around the Riptide site, and looking forward to reading Incursion. ^_^ )
Yes, from some publishers I can expect consistent quality. Others put out a good bit of quality but also some dreck. And other publishers I just typically avoid, unless I really love the particular author.
Erulisse wrote: "Characters - what's to do? They have their own lives and agendas - LOL."*grins*
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Yes. But I think the quantity publishing model works well too -- certainly for the financially savvy publisher -- although probably more so during a boom genre rather than at other times.
And if you're a discerning reader or a writer who cares deeply about the work, that's a great source of frustration. But it's also the reality.
I think some of this will shake out, and in fact we're already seeing some of the shakeout as the pie continues to be cut up into ever smaller pieces for writers competing with the return of pro writer backlists and public domain works -- not to mention the flood of new works by new authors with dreams of fame and fortune sparkling in their eyes.
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What influences a writer to choose male or female main characters in a romance?
Reading over that question, I think it..."
I've had that happen before. When I was still trying to write het in my original fic, but was writing slash fanfic, suddenly my het characters started yelling at me that they were actually gay and wanted to be with one of my main characters. I was like "wha....? Oh. That's what you want. And you'll be happier? The novel might actually work this way? OK." lol. Some characters just have to take over to point the writer in the right direction sometimes.
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What influences a writer to choose male or female main characters in a romance?
Reading over that question, I think it..."
:-D
Josh - oh, it absolutely works. I mean, I work in financial research. You see investors invest in crappy assets, hoping that some turn around and multiply their investment, you see people specialise (say, in biotech, which is EXTREMELY hard to grok). I'm more like Warren Buffett - I'd invest in stocks I'd be happy to be holding in 50 years' time and wouldn't mind being seen in public with. Rich-making are many models. Happy-making for me just this one. :)
Aleksandr wrote: "I'm more like Warren Buffett - I'd invest in stocks I'd be happy to be holding in 50 years' time and wouldn't mind being seen in public with. Rich-making are many models. Happy-making for me just this one. :) "Well said!
Though I'd love to get rich from writing... I'd rather write books that I love, than sell myself out... (at least, to me, it'd be like selling myself out)
Josh wrote: " not to mention the flood of new works by new authors with dreams of fame and fortune sparkling in their eyes."Wha...? No! Those are tears from yawning, I swear!
Blaine - Actually, I know quite a few writers who make a living without selling themselves out. Financial success is not a contradiction to artistic integrity. Honest. :) There's this crazy programming in some people's heads that you can only ever write for love and money demeans it or makes it less worthy. I honestly don't think that's true - or even useful.
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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I discovered you through your writing, and after a while discovered your website, which in turn mentioned Goodreads. I think that's why I looked at GR - I didn't know about it, and when I looked at it I thought it looked like a useful place to (try to) keep track of my books. I didn't even realise the social media aspect of it, at first.
I read quite a few blogs by authors, but invariably they are authors whose books I've already read and liked enough to seek them out. I'm always happy for authors to spend more time writing than interacting!
I don't like the idea of Facebook - I wish one could follow people on it without having to become a member and share information.