Lemonade

I'm still feeling numb about yesterday. I'm very hard on myself, especially when things don't go right, and it seems things haven't gone right a lot lately. But I can't let myself be affected too negatively by things I can't control.

As Ranger Buddy would say, Suck It Up.

I'm going to try to stop moping and worrying. Things I can control as a writer:

1) writing a good story
2) entertaining my readers
3) promoting wisely and generously
4) look for opportunities
5) keep on writing

Writing Jed's story has been the challenge of my life. He, of all my protagonists, is the most internal and least approachable. With Rick Harden, at least, there's the self-loathing that softened him for some hard lessons. However, Jed is an assassin and his work makes him compartmentalize his emotions and his real self. And that's why, with his story, I have to go back to his past, relive it, and see how this man became the person he is.

Easy to explain. Hard to execute!

But I have been loving the rollercoaster ride of euphoria and depression this man's been giving me for over a year now. And as a character, he's taught me to look hard at myself (as he does to himself) and be dispassionate about certain things. By dispassionate, he doesn't mean,being unfeeling or disrespectful. This man has passion in spades. It's just that he keeps it under control and doesn't allow it to rule him.

Dispassionate, if you look in Jed's battered little dictionary, means "not affected by personal or emotional involvement," the ability to stand in mayhem and still appear to be at a distance, and to take care of what's important first so everything falls back into place and proceed as planned.

I shall work to be dispassionate about this setback and put my head down and continue my writing. It is important to finish Jed's quest. He is, in some respects, my crown jewel, the one that I keep polishing so everything is reflected back in their brilliance--romance, the power of love, adventure, high tech noir.

In the meantime, I hope to entertain you here in my blogs and Yahoogroup. I've heard of authors giving away electronic versions of their stories, so I'm going to look into this for the next project. How it works and whether it works--I have no idea. Maybe you can advice me on this if you've done it before. Would you, as a reader, download a book in chapters? Would you read it? It's not a novella ;-). Big Bad Wolf is at least 90,000 words. At least. I haven't reread it in a while.

And is that good promotion, I ask myself. I feel that I owe you (my readers and friends) something for your patience between now and the end of next year. I also feel that a book such as BBW would be a nice bridge over the River Momentum, if you get what I mean.

However, it's also a risk. BBW was written by an earlier version of Gennita Low ;-). I pitched it to an editor during my first RWA when I didn't even have a story and had no idea what a pitch was. All I knew was the advice the other writers standing in line told me: "Write what you know and a different type of story."

Well, I thought...I know roofing and I bet the editor had never heard of a roofer as a heroine before. Ahem. So, I pitched. About a roofer girl and a spy. The editor loved it--so different, she enthused. She wanted to see the first three chapters. Gulp. The rest was history. I went home and wrote that story pronto.

Big Bad Wolf was my first time entry into the RWA Golden Heart Contest for unpublished writers. It was my first attempt to be professional (of course, I broke like a thousand rules doing that) about my writing. To my surprise, it was one of the finaling entries in 1999.

So, as you can see, I hold this story fondly in my heart. But again, dispassionately speaking, is it good enough as a promotional tool? Oh, I have no doubt there would be many a snicker about the roofer-heroine as a Mary Sue for the author. There is a certain discomfort in that because Jaymee, the heroine, does many things a petite roofer would do. ;-) She also lives in Florida, not very far from where I am, in fact. Lastly, she spouts Florida hurricane codes like someone you know would.

Sigh. It's a gamble, isn't it?

Looking up at the five things I've stated that I can control as a writer, this IS an opportunity to showcase the very beginning of COMCEN (with some rewriting, of course...you don't think I'm going to let this loose into the wild AS IS, do you?!). Those who are into his Jedness would definitely get their fix...just a little. Those who are curious as to exactly what happened would get some questions answered. It all sounds pretty good, doesn't it? ;-) I'm making myself excited just thinking about it, LOL.

But I'm a contracted author. I have to be careful what I give away and how I do it. In my heart, I want to keep my readers happy and also share with them something I think they'd enjoy. How I go about doing it--and that means talking to agent, editor and publisher about the benefits of electronic promotion--will need some figuring out.

You know what? Jed would be pleased with this very dispassionate post.

Ha.

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Uber Penis Description, or Should Penises Look Human?

Ha, how should I label THIS subject, New Blogger? :-P

I need your honest opinion about some really deep thoughts about certain elements in our romance genre. Our genre has really, really grown, expanding into sci-fi, fantasy, and horror territory, with intricate worldbuilding that has grown from what I fondly call the "medieval alien from some other dimension here to kidnap and breed with his mate" to really layered heroes, from were-animals to demons, who really display that side of their nature and never stray away from the fact that they aren't human. That is to say, their appetites--physical and sexual--are reflective of what they are. The werewolf would do it in a certain way; the demon another; the vampire yet another.

The question is about the, ahem, hoohoos of our Non-Human Alpha Hero (NHAH).

In the days of "medieval alien," he was always pretty much Fabio in disguise with just violet contact lenses. LOL. Okay, I'm not going to cite any examples or incite any fans into bashing me. I'm truly not bashing because I love paranormals and fantasy romance and read them the most compared to other lines.

Today's NHAH, though, is written in a more "realistic" way. LKH's Jean Claude, the sexy vampire, is really depicted as a corpse when he sleeps. When the heroine, Anita Blake, touches him, she talks about how cold he feels. Of course, blood heats him up, but that only emphasizes his non-humanness.

After all, a walking dead hoohoo would look like a human hoohoo, so for those of us who can suspend their disbelief and not get grossed out about our heroine sexing it up with a walking corpse, we can accept their coupling. But then there's the were-animal NHAH. In most romances, the authors have the sex done in human form, so I, the reader, am still in a happy place enjoying the story.

My good friend, the wonderfully talented (and beautiful and sweet and yes, I hate her) Marjorie Liu, pushed the envelope in Tiger's Eye, her first published novel, when she had Hari in half-animal form while he was in bed with the heroine. It was very nicely done and I had no problem with it, but I remember that scene became a conversation piece in one of the forums I hang out in because everyone wanted to know whether Hari's hoohoo was in were-tiger form or not. I mean, have you ever seen a cat's hoohoo when they are, ahem, excited? A Big Cat's Hoohoo has got to hurt, yo (Yes, Marjorie, I have demented friends but we all LURV AND ADORE YOU).

Then lately, I've read a few reviews that brought up even more details describing the hoohoo of the NHAH. For instance, a barbed penis. I read this while drinking coffee. Never read about a barbed penis engaging in human encounters while drinking coffee. I think I still have some caffeine stuck behind my eyeballs.

A barbed penis? With a human heroine? Ow, ladies, ow.

Are we stepping into TMI territory? Obviously, we're reading about the supernatural here, so we have to accept some out-of-the-ordinary details, but must we go that way in love scenes? Will a hero's barbed penis engaging in romantic human love stop your reading pleasure for...oh a few minutes? Or are you able to continue without a flicker of your worldly eyelid?

I'm not being judgemental here. I'm just wondering how old-fashion I am. I'm having painful moments writing about seduction in a virtual reality environment where the sex is all in the mind because I know some readers are going to object to the way I'm doing it (yes, I know, the writer is supposed to write the story and not worry about her readers but nonetheless, outside the box is outside the box and I'm aware of how far out of it I can push certain readers before they refuse to budge. Especially in a romantic suspense).

I laugh at the thought of a naughty scene with a barbed penis, but I can't help but wonder what the next bold description of the hoohoo of a NHAH would read like. Green, with stripes? Scaley (Hey, you laugh, but there's already a female demon making love in scaled form--talons, forked tongue, red eyes and all--and the hero loving it)? Double-jointed? Wait, wait, double hoohoos, one higher one lower? One with bunny ears, ala the Rabbitator?

Can you come up with some good description for a NHAH's hoohoo? ;-) Your imagination must be better than mine if a barbed penis didn't even faze you.

Read about any good penises lately?

Bear with me while I learn. The first button likes the POST. The second button likes the BLOG site. Please help me by "liking" me. Thanks!
NO NEED TO CLICK TILL I TELL YA: RESERVED FOR NOT SAFE FOR WORK STUFF