Aloha – We’re back!

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May
24

Sorry for all the quiet — my wife and I spent a week in Hawaii on our honeymoon/first wedding anniversary vacation, and we only just got back last Thursday. Our trip was fantastic — we went skydiving, and shark cage diving, and parasailing; we went to a luau and on a bike/hike tour through the jungle; we snorkeled in Hanauma Bay and took a dinner cruise. So much adventure (and romance, hee…) We have now been together for four years, though it doesn’t seem like it could possibly have been that long. Certainly not long enough, that’s for sure. ^~

This weekend was spent unpacking and recuperating, and processing all our photos into a pretty photobook via Snapfish. Now I’m back at work and (rather reluctantly) getting back into the swing of normal life again. We’re hoping to finish tiling the bathroom this weekend (at last, at last!!) and plans are in full motion for our next big project… getting pregnant. :P So life is resuming its regular crammed-full pace and I’ll be back to blogging regularly very soon.

I haven’t touched the PotH manuscript since we got back, other than a few little tweaks here and there, but I’ll be diving back in this week with more updates. However, I am very excited to announce that my proposal for a roundtable discussion at the upcoming Sirens Conference in Vail was accepted!! I’ll be leading a discussion of queerness in monster fantasy, with a special focus on the concept of the lesbian vampire. Very much looking forward to it, and reading through Bold Strokes’ paranormal line as a part of preparation. Will likely need to craft an additional reading list, too, because the conference focuses on women in fantasy literature and there are oh-so-many amazing writers and books to be discussed in the genre!

So if you’re going to be in Colorado in October you should definitely come to the conference, which promises to be really exciting!!

In other news, I’m thinking about submitting a paranormal short story for an upcoming BSB anthology. I’m just not quite sure what exactly I would write about — kicking around a few ideas — or whether I’ll be able to get something like that done before the deadline, in the midst of work on PotH. Also, I always feel a wee bit intimidated when I start thinking about writing a short story, because they’re not really my forté. I have such a hard time crafting something within such limited space. Too long-winded for my own good, I guess. ^~

One Year Ago Today…

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May
15

And what a wonderful year it’s been, too. I still feel like the luckiest woman in the world. <3

When I just can’t write anymore…

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May
8

… I Daz. :P This image has been lurking around in my imagination for a while now. I like the idea of something like this for the next book cover. I had the hardest time describing what I wanted for SotG’s cover (in fact, Rad suggested the cover pose because I was at a complete loss for what to ask the artist for — thank heavens for her help!! I love the SotG pose.) They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, anyway, and so I present to you the very first peek at Kade and Erinda. :) I plan many many more renders of these characters as I’m working through the story… it’s really inspirational to stop and create a scene I’m looking forward to writing.

Homophobia in a Lesbian Romance?

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May
4

Finished chapter twelve tonight. A little alarmed, because halfway through this chapter the book suddenly veered into a very coming-out/self-acceptance/okay-to-be-gay direction that I was not expecting at all. I’ve reread the sections several times, and in the context of the story it all fits smoothly. But I worry how these scenes will be recieved by readers.

I’m writing for a queer readership, primarily. And the story is a little too adult in nature to be YA, wherein a little coming out is generally more well-recieved. The self discovery that takes place for Kade is completely organic and true to the setting, but I don’t want to be “preaching to the choir,” so to speak, when it comes to the book’s readers.

In essence, Kade comes from a conservative religious background in which queerness is never discussed. It’s not even mentioned as an existing “problem” in their society, so she’s made to feel like something of a unicorn — a one-of-a-kind freak. Not only that, but she’s accused of possibly also ‘corrupting’ her best friend along with her, as if her natural inclinations are symptoms of some dreadful contagious disease. (Raise your hand, anyone, if you’ve ever encountered homophobia of this type? That’s what I thought.)

So there has to be a point at which she discovers that she’s not alone, which would, of course, rock her world for a while as she tries to digest what that means about everything she’s ever believed up to this point and the choices she’s made in her life thus far.

With all the applause out there for books wherein homophobia does not exist, and one’s sexual identity brokers no need for explanation, the irony is that I’m actually worried about offending my gay audience in describing a gay character’s struggle to overcome her own homophobic world view in the context of what she knows to be true about herself. Am I perpetuating homophobia by writing about it this way? Or is it just a realistic depiction of the struggles a sheltered young person might go through as they figure out who they are? I’m hoping for the latter, but a bit concerned that it’s going to raise the hackles of some readers.

As I explained in a previous entry, when it comes to romance I personally prefer the fantasy happy ending to too much ‘realism.’ I wonder if queer readers feel the same way about homophobia, preferring the fantasy of worldwide acceptance (which will hopefully one day no longer be a fantasy at all) to the more realistic depiction of its impact and the barriers it creates for people who love one another. I’ve read many complaints from readers who say they’re tired of the coming out story, tired of writers who are constantly depicting queerness as a struggle. They want to read about the worlds they would much rather live in — worlds in which their lives are no more remarkable than anyone else’s. I don’t disagree, and yet somehow these books I’m writing for Ithyria are consistently revisiting issues of homophobia. In SotG these issues were sort of flirted with, but not in any serious sense. Now it looks like in PotH the gloves are coming off and it’s being tackled head-on. Once upon a time, none of this would have even mattered, because I’ve always just written stories more for myself than for any particular audience. Writing for a publisher, though, and having my work revised in order to be more suited to its audience, has made me a lot more sensitive to the POV of the reader.

I still feel, in re-reading the chapter, that it just fits. That the scenes belong. So I suppose I’ll wait and see what an editor has to say in revisions. But if anyone out there in the blogosphere feels like chiming in with their opinion, I’m all ears… I’m genuinely interested in finding out what kinds of stories you prefer to read.

Darkness Embraced: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel, by Winter Pennington

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May
4

Been cranking through my reading list while I’m working on the PotH manuscript, because I find reading is heavily inspirational to my own creative process. Finished Darkness Embraced: A Rosso Lussuria Vampire Novel a couple days ago. I’m not even sure where to begin in describing this book. For the whole first half of the story I was wriggling in awe over the sheer imaginative power of the Rosso Lussuria world. The Elder trials, the power structure of the vampire clan, the vampires’ special abilities, the lavish use of Italian, even the vivid description of the main character’s losing battle with consumption in the opening pages were all full of AWESOME. I didn’t much care for Renata (though she redeems herself in the end) but I really liked and identified with Epiphany. Then comes the part about the sword, which I won’t describe because I don’t want to spoil it for anybody, but suffice to say the sword is one of the best parts of the whole book and deserves a whole awesome award all to itself.

About halfwayish through the story, however, we are introduced to a new character, a Dracule, who engages in a relationship with the main character that left me with my head tilted farrrrrr to the side. *falls over laughing* Now, I consider myself a relatively open-minded person, and even so, this plot development had my eyebrows in my hairline for a chapter or two. Not necessarily in a bad way, mind you, but certainly in a challenging-to-my-poor-little-mortal-brain kind of way. Nonetheless, the subsequent conflict and development of Epiphany’s relationship with Renata were exciting and satisfying, and the Dracule turned out to be entirely relevant and even necessary to the plot, so it never felt like a contrived excuse for kink, but rather an important element of conflict resolution.

I believe I enjoyed this book even more than Winter Pennington‘s Kassandra Lyall series, in fact, but that’s because I’m a sucker for inventive fantasy. A dark, edgy, fun story that feels almost like a grim fairy tale… Hoping there will be more books in the Rosso Lussuria series (mostly because I want more Cuinn!!)

Blood Hunt – L.L. Raand

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May
2

Recently finished Blood Hunt, the second book in L.L. Raand’s Midnight Hunters series. *fans cheeks* Let me tell you, dear readers, that L.L. Raand (otherwise known as Radclyffe, Supreme BSB Boss of all Bosses) writes some very, very, very steamy stuff. WHEW. And her new paranormal werewolf series is chock full of heat.

Blood Hunt picks up where its prequel, The Midnight Hunt, ends. The conflict gets bigger in this book, this time expanding to include humans and vampires who are also plotting all kinds of evil plots. And when I say evil, I do mean evil. The things these bad guys are willing to do in order to promote their agendas of hate are just…. UGH. Thankfully we have the ultra-sexy werewolf Alpha Sylvan Drake to cheer on as she and her newly acquired mate hunt these awful people down. There’s a also lot more vampire action in this new installment, and some really interesting compare/contrast can be done between the vampire and werewolf species — the way they think, the way their social hierarchies are run, and of course (probably most especially) the way they sex each other up. ^~

Favorite character thus far in the series (other than Sylvan, because seriously, how could anyone not have a major crush on her) is actually Sophia. Yes, I do have a thing for the shy, quiet types. :P Also have a thing for angst and sexual tension, which poor Sophia has got in spades. The young werewolf Gray earns some serious respect in this story too… that girl has got a spine of steel.

Great read, super fun, and I love the world and mythology in these stories. Here’s hoping Rad decides to write like… twelve more of them. >D

1:17 AM. Chapter Eleven finished

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May
1

And in the wee hours of Sunday morning, Chapter Eleven is finally done. The battle, bloody and gory though it was, is ended. I’m sure I’ll be re-reading and tweaking the heck out of the prose in the very near future, but for now I’m pleased with it. Chapter twelve has got some really good scenes in it too, ones I’m looking forward to writing, so here’s hoping it will flow a little more cooperatively than this one did.

Funny how the really troublesome sections always feel the most satisfying once they’re finally conquered and done. :P

Now for a little sleep, perhaps?