Of the eight or so people who read my blog, I think all of you except one know Vincent Diamond, but I'm going to plug the release of Vincent's new book anyway.

Here's the cover:




Very handsome fellow, yes? Vincent is a wonderful friend and wonderful writer. You can read an excerpt at V's blog: vdiamond

Enjoy. :)

Current Mood: mellow

I did it! I finished reading a book! It's ridiculous that I think of that as an accomplishment, but sometimes I have a lot of trouble reading. The book was called Beginner's Greek, and I read it for the Amazon Vine program. It was really pretty good, particularly the second half. I did read a review from a reader that said she thought the female characters were shallow and only likable for their looks. Hmm, I liked them. I thought they had some depth. Oh, well. Next I'm going to read James Michener's Caribbean. Or try anyway.

Oh, Claiming Danny is now on Amazon as a Kindle edition and it's a $1.59 now. There's no picture yet. I hope they put one up.

John is insisting that we make cookies. I'll let you know if we burn down the apartment complex.

Sometimes I wonder how much of never getting any writing done is my ADD.

I've been reading a book called Beginner's Greek since early March and I'm only about 270 pages in. I am reading it for the Amazon Vine program, so I suppose it's not my first choice of something to read, but it's mostly pretty good except the novel's author is an investment banker, and I don't understand investment humor.

Still it takes me so long to do anything. I wish I could find a way to trigger a (safe) bipolar high. Then I'd get things done.

I wonder if I should quit Amazon Vine. KC would be annoyed because they often put my reviews first unless there are better Vine reviews, which sometimes happens. But since it sometimes takes me months to read a book I wonder if I should just concentrate on reading writers that I really think will improve my writing. Um, or books that I'm really dying to read because they're fun.

What's embarrassing is if I spent all my free time on books for the next 3-4 years, and I wasn't allowed to buy any more, at my speed, I'd still have plenty to read.

Current Mood: sleepy

I wrote to my cousin in India that I had that story accepted in the Preditors and Editors anthology. As it was the first time anyone has taken something with no gay content, it's the first time I could risk my family over there possibly asking to read it. Very happy about that even if it's not a great thing to have to hide most of my writing.

I just saw a Todd Solondz movie called Storytelling, and once again I'm wondering whether I want to go through writing this story I've been working on. Various people have told me that I shouldn't shy away from something just because it's controversial.

I finally received my copy of Hard Hats. They accidentally sent it to the wrong address. I don't know if I can explain, but there's something about the texture of the cover I really like. Something about it makes it nicer to hold than other trade paperback books, and it's not the photo or the fact that I have a story in it. Hmm. I read the stories by my two friends, Dale and Bill, and they were both great.

Current Mood: blah

Wow, look at this:

www.duotrope.com


Over 2,000 markets for short fiction, poetry, novels and short story collections. Did everyone know about this, and I'm just late to the party?

They do have an erotica genre search and you can look up "GLBT" as a theme, but I don't think it has all the e-publishers yet. Maybe the site is new?

Anyhow, I'll let you know if it helps me place/sell any work.

Current Mood: sick

Nicked from angusdevotee (and everybody else)

“This short survey is to encourage readers, writers, and poets to share a few simple things about ourselves. There are only twelve questions, and none of them have to do with eye color, sexual preferences, or high school crushes. Please read, answer, and repost. We might learn something from each other.”

1. Three authors that have inspired or influenced my writing are:
Joe Keenan, Charles Yu (His story "Class Three Superhero"), and JD Salinger (when I was younger).

2. The hardest part of the writing process for me is:
Revision

3. One book I have always intended to read, but I haven’t yet is:
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

4. (True or False) I sometimes read non-fiction for pleasure.
False, I think. Unless you count books on various obsessions of mine such as gemstones, colleges or airplanes.

5. (True or False) I came from a family that read a lot.
Both. My mom reads a lot. My dad thinks reading is a waste of time unless it's a book about medical physics. However, he does want to someday write a novel in which physicists take over the world. Now you know where my silly streak comes from.

6. My favorite movie adaptation of a book is:
Apocalypse Now (if that counts as an adaptation of Heart of Darkness)

7. The most boring book I ever read all the way through is:
Paradise Lost. (Apologies to Mr. Milton. It would have been The Faerie Queen, but the question specifically said I had to read all the way through.)

8. Poetry is:
pretty, but sometimes puzzling.

9. My favorite place to read is:
outdoors by the pool in my apartment complex on one of the three days a year we have cool weather. I sit there and pretend I'm king of all the palm trees.

10. The funniest thing I have read recently is:
puckishprose's livejournal. I wish he would post more.

11. The most mind challenging thing I have read recently is:
Now You See Him by Eli Gottleib.

12. When I stop by my local library the librarians must think:
"Oh my goodness, it's someone not here to use the internet! How did he ever get a parking space? Hey, isn't that the fellow who offered to volunteer a couple years ago whom we still haven't called? Well, look sharp in case he wants to borrow either of our books."

Curses, foiled again.

Mavety rejected "Long Time Coming," but I have to say it was a kind decline. The editor said "there's some good stuff" but that there was a lot of dialog which made it feel more like a play and x-rated stories ought to be more visual. There was something that bothered me about "Long Time Coming," but I didn't know what it was, and since things bother me about most of my stories, I didn't know whether it was just a lack of confidence. I wonder if there's a way to rework the story. Maybe not though.

I saw the MySpace page for the Preditors and Editors' book, and it says it's an anthology of "horror, science fiction and fantasy." It is? Well, I'm glad they took my story anyway, but when the call I saw said "any genre" I guess I didn't quite understand. No biggie. At least I hope not.

Hey! Gary Braunbeck, an author with a pretty major house (Dorchester/Leisure, I think), is going to be in this anthology, and he has also been in an anthology with Stephen King. So I'm only two degrees of separation away from Stephen King. woo hoo! :)

Current Mood: not too bad

Well, good grief. I submitted a story to the Preditors and Editors anthology on March 28th, and it was accepted on March 31st. I'm sure that's the fastest acceptance I'll ever get. The acceptance is for my real name and, thus, it is not erotica. It's a humor piece that I think is one of my best stories. I've had a rotten time placing humor anywhere, but I'm hoping this doesn't turn out to be something where I hear "You dumbhead! You could have had this published in (insert name of high paying or influential market)! But now they'll never touch it!"

Anyhow, the editor said something like "Wow...very cool. It will read nice in the anthology along with the others. Thanks for your talents."

That felt good. I read the cover art is going to be done by Danielle Serra who apparently is pretty well-known. Well, yay. :)


My new story for the Daddies anthology (hopefully) is now about a 1000 words long.

Current Mood: a little sick but not bad

and I'll be your antagonist for this evening.

My friend, Tennessee, is trying to teach me about Meta-fiction. I'm not sure my sentence qualifies though.

I heard about Preditors and Editors being sued. The plaintiffs are the people at PublishAmerica. I'll be amazed if PublishAmerica has a leg to stand on. I guess Preditors and Editors can't afford legal fees, so there's going to be an anthology of short fiction done as a charity to raise money for them (him?). I read about it at southernweirdo's blog.

I could send them my best literary story. The problem is that it's a graft or pastiche or whatever the word is of "Hills Like White Elephants," so I feel like half all the best lines aren't even mine.

Or I could send a humor story, and see if someone will finally be interested. Since those stories are so important to me I have a lot of trouble sending them out. The humor market is so difficult and subjective that it feels hopeless.

If you want to submit/donate a story, send to ScrewPA@hotmail.com. "Any genre" (honestly don't know if that includes erotica) Double space 12pt font, Times New Roman preferred Deadline: April 5, 2008

In other news I wrote about 350 more words of my new erotica story, "The Obsession of Darling, Shane". I'm more nervous about this story than most. It seems wrong to write it.

Current Mood: tense

My friend Dale lives in San Francisco, and she's already received her contributors' copy of Hard Hats. She read my story, and she said she really enjoyed it! Yay!! She said "great sex, great longing, and great villains - it has it all." That made me so happy. ::beam::

I wrote 640 words today, finishing "Wishes in the Sand" at 2700 words. Technically that means I reached my goal, but I'm going to say I have to write some more before I'm really off the hook.

Current Mood: bouncy

woohoo! A book with a story of mine came out. I'm in print! Yay! Well, I guess I was in print before with the sale to Honcho, but now I'm in a book that's on Amazon. Here's the cover:




You know what I noticed? I bought a copy of Hard Hats as a gift for my ex-Polar Bear since he helped me with construction work-talk and the book's page said "4 more in stock" and its sales rank was about 1,342,032. A while after my order it said "3 more in stock" and its sales rank was around 73,664. Wow. Big leap.

Current Mood: cheerful

okay, my bf will be gone on business for a week, so this week I must:

a) finish one, if not two stories
b) read Beginner's Greek for the Amazon Vine program
c) critique two pieces from my writing group
d) watch Western movies

If I don't finish any stories, I'm not allowed to buy a book, eat cake, or go to my favorite restaurant (Mission Burrito) until June. If I finish TWO (2) stories, I'm allowed to buy a book next weekend.

Okay, off we go.

Current Mood: good

stolen from chronicpaint

You are The Magician

Skill, wisdom, adaptation. Craft, cunning, depending on dignity.

Eleoquent and charismatic both verbally and in writing,
you are clever, witty, inventive and persuasive.

The Magician is the male power of creation, creation by willpower and desire. In that ancient sense, it is the ability to make things so just by speaking them aloud. Reflecting this is the fact that the Magician is represented by Mercury. He represents the gift of tongues, a smooth talker, a salesman. Also clever with the slight of hand and a medicine man - either a real doctor or someone trying to sell you snake oil.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Current Mood: unable to sleep

I won't mention the name, but perhaps you heard about a Harvard student who received a major deal for her first book and then it turned out to be at least partially plagiarized. Well, I've just read most of it, and she should have plagiarized better because it's dreadful. The protagonist is an Indian teenager and the plot is that she needs to "get a life" so she has a chance of getting into Harvard. So dialogue from her parents includes "Beta, perhaps you should reread The Art of Seduction" and "You need to be channeling Cruel Intentions .

I'm very familiar with Indian parents. I'm sorry, but they would never tell their daughter to channel Cruel Intentions. KC pointed out no sane parent of any variety would suggest that.

Perhaps you've all seen The Gender Guesser . It analyzes your writing and tells you if it thinks you're male or female.

So, I gave it a bit of Claiming Danny which is written from the butch top pov.

It guessed WEAK FEMALE (possibly European)

Hmm. Then I gave it some of Simple and Easy written from the pov of a submissive but not really effeminate bottom

It guessed FEMALE

Then I gave it a passage from an attempted hetero sweet novella that I had planned to someday submit under a female pseudonym and

It guessed WEAK MALE (possibly European).

I don't know if this means I'm a terrible writer or that the Gender Guesser is incompetent. And is it a compliment or insult to Europeans that their writing is "gender weak"?

Current Mood: okay

KC got her second round of revisions today, and she was told to write an acknowledgments page. I'm mentioned! Yay! My name will be in a book published by a major house. :)

I'm back on a drug called Provigil, and I have five times more energy. I actually vacuumed, did laundry, cleaned a sink, and edited Pilsbury's rather bad query letter all in one day.

Speaking of Pilsbury, he was very nice to me the other week, but I'm still thinking of dropping out of my writing group. Hard to explain. I don't like my writing, so I don't want to bring it, but recently I'm not liking anyone else's either, and I hate being a sourpuss, even if I'm trying to be a helpful, constructive sourpuss. And, yes, I critique with the good/bad/good sandwich method.

Hmm.

Current Mood: not bad

Does anyone have the March issue of Instinct? Go to page 26. Somehow they have a review of a book done as a pie chart. A very bitchy pie chart. Hmm, I guess it got my attention, but I think I'd be awfully unhappy if I were the author.

Current Mood: okay

Updates from Kermit Your News Frog.

1) Emerged at least temporarily from a deep depression because I had a story accepted by Alyson. Yay. I'd figured it had been declined. Anyway, I'm happy. Probably a sign I should stop this not-writing-at-all business.

2) Been reading a book called Three Fortunes in One Cookie while cooped up in bed (I was sick again) and it's awesome. The ending (so far) seems to be about forgiveness, and that's a theme in my novel. Most of my favorite books make me want to write, and this is like that. I wonder if I should go back to my novel instead of writing x-rated stories.

3) I get to name a college for KC's new book! One subject they teach is paranormal studies, so I thought maybe "Blackthorne University." How does that sound? I'm picturing buildings that, if lightning struck behind them, would look very Scooby Doo-ish. Any suggestions?

Current Mood: sleepy but cheerful

Stolen once again from chronicpaint

Current Mood: sick

Let's see. What's going on.

1) am very depressed. Not totally sure why. Now on a seventh medication. Blah.

2) think I was rejected from an Alyson anthology, but I have to guess since no one told me. But the book is on Amazon with a page count, so I suspect the editor has finished considering manuscripts.

3) was #1 for Forbidden for about a week and half, but the ratings were crummy again. (actually, crummier). I wonder if this is something like my grandmother's relationship with a TV show called The Judge. She was always like "Good grief, Miss Agnes! That program is so scandalous, it's not fit! What time does it come on?"

4) I have a story I want to submit, but it's 4000 words and my publisher wants it "as close to 5000 as possible." I don't know how to make it longer without putting in unnecessary filler.

5) Read a quote that said you really have to write a million words before anything you write will be any good. Egad. I bet I've written a little less than 200,000 if you get to include journals and letters. Hmm.

6) got some flowers from John. He's trying to cheer me up. ::hug for John::

Current Mood: mopey