I'm still waiting on release dates and acceptances (or rejections), so I don't have much to report.
I'm thinking about a story for the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival's short story contest this year. I won last year with a story that I'm considering submitting to Best Gay Romance 2010. Or is it 2011? I'm starting to see pub dates that far out in the submissions calls. With the publishing world in upheaval, those distant pub dates worry me. Too much can go wrong. But back to the short story contest... I'm so wrapped up in another project that it's hard for me to think of short stories now, and I've already promised an editor that I'm thinking of a story for her anthology (checks looming deadline. yipes! better get on that.) So I may skip the contest. But if you write, I urge you to submit something.
Spank! Edited by D. L. King To be published by Logical Lust late summer or early fall 2010 Deadline: January 15, 2010 Payment: $25 and a copy of the book in available electronic formats, plus a copy of the print edition, if the book does well enough to go into print.
D. L. King is looking for hot spanking stories.
Sometimes all you need to get hot and bothered is a good bottom warming... Whether getting or giving is your passion, this book is designed to create the same blush on your face as the one found on your bottom after a few good, hard whacks.
What makes for a sexy spanking story? Short, plaid, Catholic schoolgirl skirts? Bent at the waist, a bare bottom with the boxers and pants down around his knees? A stern schoolmarm, or head master, standing in front of a blackboard, holding a rattan cane? A dungeon wall covered with all sorts of paddles, floggers and canes? A scolding? A punishment? A pert bottom settling over charcoal gabardine trousers? A ritualized display of dominance? The crack of a hand coming down on already heated flesh? Send me something guaranteed to make naughty girls and bad boys, the world over, squirm in their seats when they read this book!
I envision this anthology as being primarily heterosexual, but I’ll happily consider GLBT stories, as well. Remember, no underage characters, please. Stories should be between 2,500 and 5,000 words, double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman or Courier New. Please indent the first line of each paragraph one-half inch and do not include extra lines between paragraphs. Please make sure your document contains no other pre-set formatting.
Send your story as a .doc (not .docx) attachment and include the title, pseudonym (if applicable) and your legal name and mailing address to spankantho@gmail.com. (If you are unable to send a Word attachment, I will accept an RTF.) Subject line should read: Submission: TITLE. Please include, as a second attachment, a 50 to 75-word bio, along with ways you might help promote the book should your story be accepted for publication. Direct any questions to the same address. Original stories only. You must own all rights to any reprints.
This isn't writer's block. I have ideas. I'm working on other projects under my other pen names. I just don't have a good gay erotic story lurking in my brain.
Sometimes I get flashes of scenes, but a novel can't revolve around two hot young things making out like kissing is their oxygen. They're so happy frotting on the couch that I hate to break them apart for an interrogation.
Me: excuse me
Hot gothy guy: little busy here
Me: I noticed. If you don't mind sliding your hand out of his shirt for a sec, could I ask a few questions? What's your situation?
Hottie geeky blond dude: I was having the best night ever, then this weird writer broke in, and now I'm losing my hard-on.
Me: I'll write mind blowing sex for you to make up for it.
Gothy: We can take care of that ourselves.
Geeky: I knew I should have locked the door.
Me: Any of you being stalked by a creepy ex-boyfriend? Witness a mob hit? Have meddling family?
Geeky: You're kind of stalkerish. And you're meddling.
Me: *writes notes* Okay, good. You're kind of a smart-ass. I can work with that. How about you, Gothy boy? Are you an artist? Oh! How about a dj at a BDSM club?
Gothy: I'm majoring in life sciences, and I'm not a goth.
Me: dyed black hair, guyliner, black clothes...
Gothy: great. I'm a stereotype. Isn't that kind of lazy writing?
Geeky: don't encourage the crazy writer to stick around
Me: so how did you two get together? Was one of you running from a werewolf and knocked the other one down? Or has one of you been secretly in love with the other one from afar for months and just worked up the courage to talk to him?
Gothy: *rises from couch* let's go to my place. We have security gates.
Geeky: I'm over it. Both of you, out.
Gothy: *gives me a hard look* Oh, I am so going to blog about this.
Since I've been writing a lot of vampire stories lately, they're looming large in my writerly musings.
Some people (okay, many) despise Twilight. Most of the people who hate it aren't the intended audience. I think Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights are stupid too, but I don't waste time blogging spite against Emily Bronte or Shakespeare. Come to think of it, I don't blog spite against living writers either.
There's a strong contingent of True Blood haters out there too. I've read all the books, and I watch the show, but I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan. Does anyone like vampire Bill? If there was a People's Choice Award for vampire the public would most like to stake, he'd probably win by a huge margin. What's his big sin? He's boring.
Now I'm watching Being Human on BBC America, and while I have yet to read rants, I'm sure there are people who pour bile on the series. If you haven't seen it, the Being Human vampires can go out in daylight, and they seem to turn everyone they bite, which poses a huge geometric progression problem. Should gaping flaws like that bother the viewers of a series that features a ghost, a vampire,and a werewolf as flatmates? It's pure fantasy, right? It bugs me, but that doesn't stop me from watching - yet.
Then there's the Underworld franchise, the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, The Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon (now in graphic novels too!), Eden Bradley (maybe under a different pen name) has one coming out, and there are about a bazillion m/m erotica tales available in eBook. Torquere picked up my novella Bonded (no release date yet), so I'm part of the problem, er, trend.
With all this grousing about vampires, it's clear that many fans of vampires don't like the way they're being portrayed. It's also clear that many fans love the stories they're reading. But I'm musing on the unhappy legions, because I wonder what it is they want to see.
While some of the grousing I read is about the vampire "rules" being broken - they snort at Twilight's glittery vamps - that's only the opening shot in an increasingly nasty chorus of vitriol. Some of it's aimed at the writer personally, with unflattering tones of religious bigotry. If holy water and crosses are okay, why is sexual abstinence beyond the pale? (Yes, an erotica writer said this.)When a vampire who gets sexual satisfaction from feeding chooses not to feed, it's considered noble. When a waitress, a young girl, or a vampire hunter (all female characters) decides to listens to her head instead of her desire, it's prudery or forcing a religious agenda down the reader's throat. Right.
The biggest complaint against the current crop of vampire tales seems to be quality of writing. A lot of it is jealous writers slinging mud at commercially successful writers, because we all know that this is about art and the ugly aspect of money should never sully the purity of an artistic vision. Unless, of course, the writer wants to eat, pay rent, etc. Writing isn't a community service (hear that, pirates?), and wanting to make a living off it isn't a moral offense. However, I agree that there's a lot of bad writing out there. Saying nasty things about it isn't going to stop the fans from buying it though, and if fans are buying it, publishers will continue to offer it. The only suggestion I can make is: If you don't like the writing, don't buy the books.
So I guess that where all this musing leads me is to the conclusion that readers want a well-written vampire tale that stays within the accepted trope of vampire rules. Oh - and they want sex. Lots and lots of vampire sex. That, I can do.
I know next May is far off, but Cecila Tan of Circlet Press mentioned that she might come to Saints and Sinners Literary Festival this year. As soon as she posted it, I sent a reply begging her to come. Hopefully this means that they'll have a science fiction panel. It's been three years since the last one, I think. I remember Ian Phillips leading it, but I'm trying to remember if the rainbow fleur de leis was on the wall behind the panel as I (sadly) tend to link years to the interior decoration.
Which reminds me. I should get off my butt and extend Free Radicals to a novella for Circlet since they expressed interest in a longer version.
After my vacation, I took on a few projects and have been wrapping them up at a good pace.
While I swore I was going to work on Vampires! In Space! I couldn't work up any enthusiasm for it. Then a new vampire crew pushed to the front of the creative line. I'll be polishing that novella this week and submitting it soon. This is an unprecedented turn-around time for me. I started writing two weekends ago, and by the end of the three-day weekend, had almost finished the first draft. I spent Friday night on the final thousand words. Now I have to let it sit for a week, no matter how much I want to jump right back in. A little distance is good for a story.
That leaves me with some time on my hands. I've been bad about writing short stories this year (although I submitted two to Todd Gregory's vampire anthology that's scheduled for release Oct 2010) as I've been writing novels, and those are such a huge time-suck. Short stories don't earn much. Sure, they get my name out there, but so would a good novel. Novels take more time, but have the potential to earn much more per hour invested. I'm trying to decide if I should go scan the calls for submissions to see if one of them sparks an idea. If not, I always have another novel in the creative queue. Sadly, I doubt I'll ever get to Vampires! In Space!
How did I manage to get sunburned in San Francisco in the summer? It's usually freezing cold and foggy there, so I didn't put on sunscreen.
First stop was coffee with Thomas Roche. I've admired his work for a long time, so it was a real pleasure to chat with him. The only thing that sort of gets me down is that so many writers aren't working on anything anymore - Thomas being one of them. It's as if everyone burned out at the same time.
Friends John and Rory took me to lunch at the Beach Chalet. We sat out on the back lawn on Adirondack chairs and wriggled out feet in the grass while eating mushroom and goat cheese pizza. My face was fried by the time we left.
Later, as Jason, John, Kurt, and I were doing a change of venue bar hop through the Castro, we somehow adopted a lost couple from Winnipeg, Canada, and the next thing they knew, they were in a gay bar playing pool and listening to Kurt's porn star "date" itinerary. To give him credit, at least he's narrowed it down to just two a day.
Saturday, I had lunch with D.L. King and Mike Ford. Great lunch. This is why writers need to hang out together. Most of us are too smart to put anything in writing, but in person, the gossip about publishers, editors, and fellow writers flows. We can't help it. We're storytellers by nature and holy bejezus, do we have some doozies. Besides, who else will wince sympathetically at your latest editorial disaster? Not your significant other, unless s/he writes. Only another writer understands.
So all in all, a good trip. Except that my face is bright red. I'll bet people at my reading thought I was blushing like mad. I would have explained, but who would have believed I got sunburned in San Francisco?
Toy Boxes: Floggers
