Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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Writing Questions for Josh
Josh wrote: "You know what I love? I don't write it, but I love it when someone does it well. A story where one character is harshly unfair and judgemental (for what seems like truly valid reasons) of the other..."Josh, any recommendations for books like this? I'm a total sucker for these kinds of plots. :)
I have a competency kink when it comes to characters. I like seeing cool people do cool stuff.
Aleksandr wrote: "I have a competency kink when it comes to characters. I like seeing cool people do cool stuff."Me too! That's why I hang out here with the cool people.
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Me too! That's why I hang out here with the cool people."
Heh heh. :)
Susinok wrote: "Aleksandr wrote: "I have a competency kink when it comes to characters. I like seeing cool people do cool stuff."Me too! That's why I hang out here with the cool people."
LOL :D
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Err... So... they want to get rid of stereotypes, but don't like the alternati..."
Basically they need to read in another genre for a while. That's the solution. The catch is their social life revolves around the m/m community. So you have this kind of wailing that most resembles babies teething. :-) There's nothing that can be done for it. This is the genre, these are the tropes, some authors are better than others.
The cure for this kind of boredom is to read something else until they once again are eager to read in m/m.
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Is it a good idea to tell someone doing beta on your story what your worries are as far as its flaws or weaknesses before they even read it? I guess I keep thinking it's..."
If you want to make sure they look for particular things, yes. But basically you just want their gut reaction (or I do, anyway) and then I balance that against all the other gut reactions. :-)
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I never seem to find this! I look and look and look. Nobody writes it. I think the last time I read it was an Andre Norton novella years and years ago! And it wasn't m/m though I do think Andre Norton had mildly homoerotic elements in much of her work.
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Yes. I like smart and I like able.
I don't mind mistakes so long as the character is mostly smart and able.
Lou wrote: "I have a kink for body and facial hair. Yeah, I know, such a superficial thing. :P"Mmm me too.
Oooh, Andre Norton. I grew up on Andre Norton. She's the reason I love reading, she's the reason I love writing, she's the reason I love sci-fi/fantasy. Andre Norton's stories shaped me in so many ways. (And some of her stories were definitely homoerotic.) Sigh. I miss her still.
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Favorite Andre Norton???
Things I like in m/m romance (or any fiction):I have to confess I like rodeo clowns *ducks*
and cowboys,
and cops,
and flamboyant twinks,
and I love big, tough guys with hidden vulnerabilities.
Hell, I'll even read about guys named Pooter and Bug.:)
I'll read gay-for-you, and enemies-to-lovers, and . . . Well, just about anything.
But. . . it has to be decently written. I want a plot that goes somewhere and please, please, please a plot that makes sense. Characters that are people I like, and enjoy spending time with. Dialogue that sounds like people talking. Settings that neither overpower the rest of the story nor disappear completely.
And yes, I like sex scenes - lots of sex scenes. :) But not sex without plot; that's just boring. L. Sprague de Camp wrote somewhere that all scenes must fulfill multiple roles - they have to demonstrate character, show the relationships between characters, advance the plot, etc. Then he said "If you find it hard to make every incident both illustrate character and carry the story forward to its inevitable conclusion - well, did we ever say that writing was an easy way to make a living?" That quote has a prominent place on my bulletin board.
Caroline wrote: I’m not sure I’ve read enough M/M romance to be able to comment on what I like or don’t like. Caroline, that was a beautifully written post!
Josh wrote: Favorite Andre Norton??? Oh, good grief, you would ask me that. Bunches of them.
Witch World, Plague Ship, The Defiant Agents, The Beast Master, Lord of Thunder, Moon of Three Rings, Storm Over Warlock, Victory on Janus, The Last Planet, The Stars Are Ours. That's a start. :D
Of all the sf and fantasy reading I have done, I do not think I have read much Andre Norton. Maybe one or two books at most. I need to correct that.
Josh wrote: "I never seem to find this! I look and look and look. Nobody writes it. I think the last time I read it was an Andre Norton novella years and years ago! And it wasn't m/m though I do think Andre Norton had mildly homoerotic elements in much of her work."Andre Norton! I loved her Animal Magic and Dragon Magic as a kid. Now I have this compulsion to collect her books, but I never actually get around to reading them. Have a whole stack of old Andre Norton paperbacks and hardcovers, and a slew of free Norton titles on my Kindle. One of these days...
Oh, Andre Norton was superb. I was wondering what I wanted to read tonight - now I know.:) Thanks for reminding me, Josh. What's your favorite Andre Norton?
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Oh, good grief, you would ask me that. Bunches of them.
Witch World, Plague Ship, The Defiant Agents, The Beast Master, Lord of Thunder, Moon of Three Rings,..."
I like how she connected the Warlock series with the Witchworld series.
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I don't have a single favorite but some of the ones that still hold a lasting place on my bookshelves are Earthman's Son, the Last Planet, Voodoo Planet, Storm Over Warlock, Secret of the Lost Race, and Catseye.
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Sometimes what I like about Norton's work is that her stories give me ideas for other stories, or the story that I think could have taken place between the pages of her story. :-)
Kiracee wrote: "Caroline wrote: I’m not sure I’ve read enough M/M romance to be able to comment on what I like or don’t like. Caroline, that was a beautifully written post!"
Thanks - I quite enjoyed writing it.
Can someone explain to me what a knitting based story is before I make a total fool of myself.
Simon wrote: "Can someone explain to me what a knitting based story is before I make a total fool of myself."I am not certain, but the Amy Lane knitting series come to my mind. How to Raise an Honest Rabbit, The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur Bearing Critters, and a couple more. They do mention knitting ;)
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I am not certain, but the Amy Lane knitting series come to my mind. How to Raise an Ho..."
Yeah, those Amy Lane books were the first ones that came to my mind too.
Yes, the main reference was Amy Lane, but there was also this absolutely delightful-but-not-sappy YA short story: Sock it to Me, Santa!. Warmly recommended! You can buy it here for only $0.99 USD: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
Disclaimer: The author didn't pay me!
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My current WIP is something a little similar, except one of the MCs is threatened, but doesn't tell the others. There's police drama, but not a whole l..."
That's it exactly. My first WIP, has more of a mystery to it, but even then, in the end it's still way more romance suspense in the end. I love reading mysteries, but rarely attempt to write one. Suspense is just my thing, I guess.
And yeah, GR didn't give me the notice that people were posting in this thread. So... now I'm catching up on 200+ messages.
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I'm curious about everyone's experience with the amount of time it takes to edit their work. I have a piece that is around 50,000 words and I feel like it's taking me for..."
Yes. So true. The longer you leave something, the more clear it becomes in your brain. my first WIP I haven't touched since (gulp... last summer) and it's getting a complete rewrite because now I can finally see where I went wrong with the last draft. That's a major Woot! right there, and yet, I wish it hadn't taken so dang long.
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I do a lot of work electronically, but at some point, I usually need a hard copy in hand--usually for heavy rewrites. Edits I can do on a screen, but when I am making huge glob..."
I'm the same way. I need to be able to see where a scene falls within the parameters of the entire document. Same thing usually with my notes. That's why I really like physical paper index cards, though my current WIP, I'm keeping my notes all on the computer the way I used to write fanfic. I'm trying to change the notes, but when it comes to editing, yeah, printing is the way I prefer to go.
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You did carefully consider the question of regular backu..."
My Dad was in IT for a long time, and he taught me from a very young age to always back up files. Always. It's so automatic now that Even if I've only added a period to a document, I'll save it without thinking. I attempt to save emails I'm in the middle of writing too. That's rather annoying, but at least I know my documents are well backed up, and saved often.
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I agree. Snark is definitely mean. And Wit, isn't. I've had snark delivered to me, at work actually, and the funny part was the person who delivered it started out by saying "I hope this doesn't come out as snarky..." lol, everyone who read that, saw the snark asap. So, yeah, no snark.
Wit, yes. I like wit.
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In fanfic, reviews essentially ARE for the author. They're more for the author first, and second for other readers. So, maybe that idea is moving in on published books and their reviews? I know as a fanfic writer, I would respond to reviews if I felt the need. I didn't have bad reviews, so my responses were always happy ones. I'd have people, regular readers, suggest ideas for future works through reviews, and sometimes I would take them up on it, sometimes I wouldn't. Usually my responses were something like "Thanks for reading, and glad you enjoyed it."
Of course, for real published works, I wouldn't do that now. And I'm glad Josh is giving with his thoughts and advice, or I would probably continue what I started in the world of fanfic.
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Warmly recommended! You can buy it here for only $0.99 USD..."
I second Antonella's recommendation!
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I would definitely unfriend someone for that, but I've not heard of people setting up private groups just to be snarky. I would have assumed they want to be heard by the masses. But maybe it's better if they're keeping things to a private group.
I know of one group at least who are private and all they do is complain of authors on Amazon who behave "badly" in their eyes. I was invited when it was set up but I didn't stay long. The group is called "Authors (or Writers, I forget) Behaving Badly". Most of the authors they spoke about I had never heard of. I am guessing they are lesser known or self published newbie authors who haven't gotten the etiquette down. Sort of an odd premise for a group though. Not at all a fun place to be.
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That's what I don't get. Why would someone want to stay friends with you if your book was that bad that they had to rant about you or the book?
Jordan wrote: "That's what I don't get. Why would someone want to stay friends with you if your book was that bad that they had to rant about you or the book? ..."The way these social sites work, its a way to keep tabs on people. You can see where they post, etc., if it's not in a private group. So if someone really wants to be a headache, they can friend you to "stalk" you and comment every place that you happen to be.
It's definitely the ugly side of social networking.
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If I do read something there, and it's rare, (mostly cause the site takes too long to load for me), I just don't read the comments. Best way to keep blood pressure low. Well, that, and avoid the blog posts you know will rile you up.
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Takes way too much time and energy to get as enraged as they..."
Yeah, I don't go to review blogs either, except in rare circumstances, if there's something I know I want to check out. But I don't go there just to see what books their reviewing. Someone else has to point out a link and go "Oh! look at this pretty thing they're talking about." Then I might go look. You know, like if Josh goes and does an interview. I'm there. Otherwise, yup, GR is it for me.
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See, that's one reason why I left the M/M Romance group. Comments like that. So, I don't know what the readers are dissatisfied with.
btw, BO always needs to be dealt with! I've known adult men with BO issues who didn't deal with it. Try sitting at dinner with them for a couple of hours. Not fun. It's no better with teenage boys. I work with that age group, so I've smelled them too. Thankfully, it's usually just in passing with them, but still. We are stuck in the same room together. Ick!
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The way these social sites work..."
You're not kidding.
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Do you mean the links K.Z. provided referred to in the post above yours? If you do, the GR link is to the M/M Romance group here and is just a discussion in response to a question about dislikes in the genre. The other link is to K.Z.'s blog with posters responding to her thoughts/questions about free online stories and other issues.
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The funny thing is that I have friends who are not into writing, but are constantly telling me I need to send my work to the big publishers, and wonder why I sell myself short by going to a tiny press. It's hard to make them understand that big publishers just don't publish M/M Romance. These people constantly tell me, 'well, you never know unless you try!' and 'oh, I'm sure they do!'. They're well meaning, but they're not in the industry, and they don't read the genre, so how can they know?
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Humour.
No underestimating of me as a reader, in other words, I can think for myself, you don't have to for..."
Prey I think this accurately describes what you described. lol. Though there is a lot of angst, so that might be the one thing on your lists that it has that people don't like much of.
Jordan wrote: "Dev wrote: "Anne wrote: "I like good, logical world building and real, flawed but lovable characters.Humour.
No underestimating of me as a reader, in other words, I can think for myself, you don't..."
Jordan, I love that series!
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josh - I'm funny, I can get along with pretty much anything, though I strongly dislike crying (if a character cries, the author must make it count) in ..."
I'm the same way. Though I do like crying, if it's justified. I like making my characters cry, if given the chance, which is probably why. But yeah, I'll read almost anything, especially if it's done well. Heck, I didn't used to like threesomes, but now I'm writing one, so yeah. There's the proof.
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..."
I don't get the joke!"
You don't get around much, do ya? ;-)
There's been ..."
There has been? Wow, I guess I don't get out much either. I'm only a very casual knitter, so I doubt I'd go for books like that... but the idea? I dunno. Odd.
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I've never understood the gay-for-you thing. I remember when I read Faith & Fidelity I considered both guys just a little clueless about their orientation until they'd found the right person who could turn them on. I was surprised when other readers thought differently. And, apparently, I was on the same wavelength as the author, because somewhere I read that she didn't view the book as GFY at all, and she'd the one who wrote it. So... yeah. Hope that makes sense.
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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"Oh, that one definitely makes for some nice tension between the characters!
And that's what I like to read in stories: the tension."
Yes, definitely. Tension and dynamics are both really important.
Josh wrote: "Of course it's only really satisfying if the unfair character then grovels sufficiently. :-D"
Of course!!! LOL. ;)