Vixenwriter

People are aware of the existence of things called dictionaries right? Because there seems to be this feeling that one can just toss out words whether the meaning applies or not.

Opinion: A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof.

Fact: Knowledge or information based on real occurrences.

So the difference is - if I say something like, “Oh EC authors get paid nothing and they sell no books at all” and I’m not an EC author or have no Fact to base that statment on, it’s not just an Opinion but an incorrect opinion.

Moreover

Realistic: Tending to or expressing an awareness of things as they really are.

So to say that someone spewing incorrect opinions was only attempting to give a “realistic viewpoint” is wrong.

There are other examples but I’ll bite my tongue about them because I’m really trying to watch what I say (grr).

Yes, I have a bit of an anal nature about words. I’m a word whore and a control freak - I totally admit it. And I promise to never, ever go back to a certain message board, even if I do read it in Karen’s blog and I’m dying to go. It’s not good for my blood pressure.

Hiya! This morning I’m hanging out at Novelspotters from the 9 - 10 spot (noon to one eastern) talking about my upcoming Samhain release, Giving Chase. Come and hang out!

Sword and Crown

30,000 / 35,000 (85.7%)

I kicked ass last night, wooooooot!

In other news, connected to the whole fangirl discussion taking place on various blogs, I will admit to being a Susan Elizabeth Phillips fangirl. I love that she writes heroines you don’t really like at first. She makes them so three dimensional that you fall in love by the end of the book. Sugar Beth, I think, from Ain’t She Sweet is the best example but certainly there are many secondary characters that she turns into main characters that would qualify.

What I like is that she consistently tells a non traditional romance story with unexpected characters and that is sooooo rare. I admire that, as a writer and a reader and I aspire to do half as well.

So when I got Fancy Pants I was all set to love it as I always do but I have to tell you, I just didn’t. It wasn’t awful, hell, most authors should aspire to do as well as this book. But it just didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t like the secondary character, Dallie’s wife and I had a really difficult time overcoming her presence. There was too much, a secret pregnancy, which I rarely enjoy and I didn’t this time either. I do like the way SEP handled the son, it wasn’t the usual have a kid and stash him off in a nursery somewhere while the parents went about life as if they didn’t have kids. But I just didn’t like Dallie. I thought he was an ass. I think, coming from reading two really wonderful SEP books in the last month (Match Me and This Heart of Mine), might have been an influence. Anyway, FP is long and it happens over many years and there are wonderful characters who I probably would have loved in other circumstances but I have to say Fancy Pants has been my least favorite SP since Breathing Room. Won’t stop her from being an auto buy for me though. I still think she’s an amazing writer and putting out books that keep romance interesting and worth reading.

Started Master of Wolves last night after I shut my laptop down. I love Angela Knight.

Sword and Crown

23,000 / 35,000 (65.7%)

And now, more magic, more sex and the showdown with the big bad. I’d hoped to be about another 3K ahead by this point in the weekend but I didn’t get much writing done in the daytime yesterday and last night I honed the big scene, which I quite like. Still, I’ll be finished by Monday night, Tuesday at the latest.

The struggle has been pacing because as I’ve said, I don’t normally write novellas. I’m tempted to go into too much detail on external stuff - which I can do in my novels. But I like the intensity of focus in a novella. I just don’t know if I’ll be doing any more until the end of summer/beginning of fall.

I like trying new things. Sudden Desire is my first quickie (12K words) and Sleight of Hand was my first novella at 25K so the challenge with S&C was in being more detailed but not too detailed that I didn’t keep the focus on Rhea and Jax. It’s fun and I learn new things as I go and it keeps me from being bored.

Closing in on the home stretch in Sword and Crown - I’m in the middle of a sex scene that is so far eight pages long and it’s only just starting. I know, it’s a novella and I usually keep things a bit shorter than a 20 page sex scene but this one is big and important and it may just end up being 20 pages long after all, LOL.

Oh, guilty pleasure admission three hundred and twelve - I watched the “Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search” show on CMT. It’s horrifying and fascinating. It ended last week. I’d still not go into a CU bar or anything but I’ll admit that dancing on a bar isn’t as easy as it looks, even when you shake your boobs. Or maybe especially when you do because I’m a good dancer but not coordinated enough to avoid bottles, glasses, people’s hands and still not fall off the bar.

But why do people refer to grown women in these kinds of contests as “girls?” You see it in beauty contests and in model search stuff too. It bugs me. The language de-womanizes them. And okay, so there was all this talk about how “Coyote Girls” were “real women” which bugged me a lot. Not that you can’t be sexy and be a woman, you certainly can! And not that you’re bad for wanting to work at CU or anything. But infantalizing women with language and then saying that is womanly? That jumps on my last nerve. Truthfully, the women, especially the ones in the last group, were smart and hardworking and pretty damned talented - especially the one that won.

The show ended up in New Orleans, the finale would take place at the grand re-opening of the bar there. Seeing New Orleans so normal in one area and still totally devastated elsewhere just breaks my heart. I’m glad to see normalcy returning in dribs and drabs but I wish it got more attention. It’s such a magical place.

I think they should have RT in NOLA.

I got several really wonderful notes from readers this last week and I just want to say how much it means when someone takes time out of their day to write me or to post at my loop or come to a chat. It’s really touching and I appreciate it so much. So thank you, all of you.

People responding anonymously on internet message boards and blogs is nothing new. I used to be more uncomfortable with it than I am now. Because before I started this writer gig, I was more than free with my opinions (and you aren’t now? I can hear you asking).

While in general, I do think it’s just best to say it and put your name up there, there are times when I just won’t reply at all, even when I really want to, because I have to be mindful of this public persona thing.

Not that I’m a shy virgin or anything. I talk shit with the best of them. I’m mouthy and opinionated and I don’t usually hesitate to tell people to fuck off. And yep, there are people who think I’m a foul mouthed feminist pornographer. And I am two of those three.

But recently, I’ve seen several cases in which authors reply anonymously and while I’m uncomfortable about it, I can see why they do it. I don’t agree with the anonymous commenter at AAR who bashes erotic romance and accuses us all of all sex no plot even when she admits she doesn’t read the genre. But I can see why she won’t put her name up.

We have this silly, but totally important thing which is public perception. I can skate the lines and flout the rules but after a certain point, I’m committing career suicide, even if I feel really strongly about something. And that sucks because just because I write books doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions about things! But you don’t want to know what Lauren Dane thinks about George Bush and so I have a private journal for that stuff.

And you probably do want to know which authors I think are fake assed suck up bitches. That would send my hits through the roof! But in the end, it would be a “really bad thing” and so I don’t do it. Or I save it for Anya and Megan who listen to me cause they’re saints.

Anyway, I’m sort of babbling but this issue has been on my mind lately.

Just an FYI - due to distribution problems (for both authors) the book signing in Silverdale for Sunday the 21 is cancelled.

We’ll reschedule later in the summer/early fall.

Excellent discussions ’round the internets today on sex in romances.

I started with Jaynie, who led me to Alison, who led me to Lydia and then Julie and back to AAR where Karen Scott put up a great post a few days back regarding the Blaze “is not a romance” debacle from the RITAs.

And there’s this comment - which first makes this statement about Karen’s post - “I think we can safely say that the column is nothing more than a flagrant attempt at garnering attention and fanning a flame war.” Like the very mention of someone caling a HARLEQUIN romance “not a romance” because it has sex in it is blasphemous or something.

Anon then goes on to make the point about these thin lipped anti sex people perfectly. You see here, she conflates porn with erotic romance several times. She makes sweeping generalizations about sex at the expense of plot (and then says she “understands the appeal” but the books wouldn’t be her first choice). My question is - if she doesn’t read the genre, how the fuck does she know what’s in or not in the books?

Look, I read a lot of romance and there are shitty books that lack plot across the genre. Just because there’s no sex doesn’t mean there’s a plot, by the way. So why assume that because there is sex it’s at the “expense” of plot?

This is precisely why there needs to be an erotic category in the RITAs. That way no one has to sully their minds by reading my smutty, pornographic books which lack plot, or Alison’s (and her Blazes rank among my very favorites ever), or anyone elses.

But I’d like to say that anyone who believes sex isn’t romantic is missing out on some really great sex. Even when my characters have down and dirty sex, it’s romantic and connected. Because sex a great medium for connection and romance.

And what matters most is not what anon thinks, but that the genre is read by many, many readers and it’s insulting to them more than to me or any other author - to constantly refer to them as porn hounds who care about nothing more than pink parts touching.

If you don’t like it, don’t read it! It’s that simple. It really is.

I feel accomplished today. I finished the big edits for GC last night and got them to my editor and then I turned back to Sword and Crown and got some really good work in on it as well. In fact, I plotted out the big scene where Rhea finally lets Jax back into her heart. I can’t wait to write it. I have about four thousand words or so until I get there. So by the weekend I’ll be ready for it.

I also got out the May issue of Vixenwriter earlier today and put up an excerpt of Sudden Desire up at my myspace and LJ page. I don’t do excerpts here because there’s no way to put the text behind a cut which is annoying. But it’s free and we can’t have everything in life can we.

Washingtonians! I’m doing a booksiging with the marvelous Charlene Teglia this Sunday, May 21 from 1 - 3 at the Waldenbooks at the Kitsap Mall in Silverdale. I’d love to meet those of you I haven’t yet and say hello to those I’ve been lucky enough to meet before.

I’m chatting tomorrow at Novel Talk with my fellow sisters in trouble, Megan Hart and Anya Bast - also known as the Maverick Authors. 6 pm pacific/9 eastern. Come on out. Our chats are always fun. And usually sort of on the verge of chaos. But we give prizes out.

Slumps over. Whew! I just finished and sent off my edits for Giving Chase back to my editor. As edits go, this on was pretty comprehensive, but I’m pretty darned happy with the results.

Now I’m back to Sword and Crown (which I feel breathing down my neck with that Jun 1 deadline!) I’ve plotted a bit during the time I’ve been doing these edits so I feel ready to go.

My middle kiddo is at his kindergarten roundup with my husband right now. I can’t believe he’ll be five in two months. Man, where does the time go?

Okay, so I have to go - my kitchen is a mess (always) and I need to make dinner before my kids tear the place up.