Request For Gennita's Funniest Adventures

A new reader emailed me, saying that she's been trying to go through all my blog entries, all the way to the beginning (gulp), because she wanted to read my funny posts like this one:

Gennita's Suspenseful Massage Incident

Quote:

"I suffer from insomnia and spend most of my nights reading. I just discovered your books and some of them were damn funny. So I decided to google you and it gave me a link to the massage incident you wrote about. It was so funny that I had to check your blog out for more of your humor. Surely you have more than that post to keep me laughing. I really enjoy your sense of humor and was hoping to find more Adventures of Jenn. Can you give me the links to some of your more memorable funny moments so I can have a good time laughing during my sleepless nights? Please?"

Wow. Thank you for buying my books and I'm glad you enjoyed them. I think going back through all my posts (from 2004!!!) would be totally insane. I can imagine all the Sexy Veges keeping you up!

Anyway, I'm not sure whether Jenn's Adventures are that interesting, but hey, maybe the following will jog some of my regular blog visitors' memories and they can laugh along at my silly moments. And of course, a source of amusement for new readers who haven't read them before:

Gennita's Play About The Plagiarised Black-Footed Ferret

Gennita's Identityless Nightmare At Atlanta Airport

Gennita's Head Kissed The Concrete

What A Girl Learns With Her Eyes Closed

Gennita's Guide To Swinging Your Ass Fifty Feet In The Air

Gennita's Annual Adventure With The Bugman

Gennita Says No To Sexy Vagi

Gennita Discovers Porcupine Porn

Gennita's Scary Uber Bunny Story

Gennita And The Uber-Screaming Frog Incident

Gennita Learns About Auras

Hopefully, the ones I've picked are funny to you, Shona. I don't know; most of these stories seemed so traumatic, I'm sure it explains my brain damage ;-).

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Evil Author

Jed: "So? How did it go?"

Author: "I think she understands you."

Jed: "Is that so. When are you going to announce the news?"

Author: "When it's official. But right now, it's all looking very, very good indeed, especially for Fall."

Jed: "It'll be nice to have you messing around in my head again. I was getting bored."

Author: "You could sound a bit more enthusiastic. You know what this means, don't you?"

Jed: "What?"

Author: "I can now write that scene in which you're given the pills."

Jed: "Like I said, it's going to be nice to have you in my head again."

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One Side Says, No! Other Side Says, Why Not?

This post is written for those looking for VIRTUALLY HERS in book stores.

The new poll above is done out of curiosity on my part because the first rejection for Virtually Hers has come in (given without having even read the ms). I was expecting it since it's very rare for a big publisher to pick up on a series' second book. No word on Grace Happens yet because it's December and near Christmas. Manuscripts, for some reason, don't get read around this time of year ;-P.

I just felt like doing a quick head count because I'm getting about ten emails a day asking for Virtually Hers from readers who don't come to this blog but are searching for this book. My Stat Counter is also noting that many visitors are coming here from Search Engines looking for Virtually Hers. VHers, as you know, was supposed to come out right now (December 2008) and that's why there are so many inquiries. So I thought I would get you and the new visitors (and add my emails) to do my poll to gauge interest.

To be honest, my expectations for Virtually Hers and Virtually One being picked up aren't very high right now. Many writer friends have advised me to just put those stories in the drawer and wait a few years. And even if I were fortunate enough to get a new New York contract for this series, it'd probably be another year (or more) before you see them in print, hence the "no, I can wait" choice in the poll.

I figure, while I'm trying to sell new stories (Grace's and the Viking urban fantasy) to New York, why let a crucial part of the GLOW world die in a drawer? If I do sell the other commando stories in the future, I'm sure people would come back and pick up Jed's and Hell's trilogy (or more) at Amazon, right? Especially if I get them out in a timely manner without years of waiting.... ;-)

This being the month VHers was supposed to be out, I just feel really guilty leaving so many readers hanging for the rest of the story, especially when I have Book 2 available and Book 3 waiting to be finished (couldn't before while waiting for editor approval). Their disappointed emails these past three weeks are weighing heavily on my puny writing shoulders.

Guilty, guilty, guilty. I just don't do it well.

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The Reading Experience

There are always lots of talk around the blogosphere about how we read books. The most often--and, to me, the strangest--topic is about romance readers using the heroine as a "placeholder" while reading our stories. A placeholder acts like a "proxy," so in that sense, a reader is experiencing the heroine's story as her own. This is shocking--shocking, I tell you!--because of course that just proves that romance readers, being mostly women, are just unrealistic people who want to be, or fantasize about, being "raped," "forcibly seduced," or any of the romance tropes that bashers always sneer about. Never mind that, if we use this logic, then we must conclude that readers who enjoy crime stories fantasize about being serial murderers and torturers and those who love their fantasies are really fey wannabes, right?

Anyway, this discussion usually results in a hand-wringing party among the romance readers because everyone gets their backs up when they're being accused of actually having "rape" fantasies and living that through the heroines. Like I said, funny how this is often hurled at the female readers, but never at male readers who read hardcore murder/crime. Would they get all worked up if I accuse them they harbor violent thoughts toward women because of their reading material?

Someone somewhere in some discussion ***g*** brought up an interesting point. If romance readers choose to put on the fictional skin of the heroine, why is there so much resistance among them to read first POV? Many readers just would not pick up a book that starts with "I." I don't have this problem, but many of my friends don't buy those books, or at least, very rarely. When I ask them why, their usual answer is because they want the hero's POV too.

So, does that mean the romance reader actually use the HERO as a placeholder? Heh.

For myself, I read for the emotional engagement. If a story is well-written and managed to immerse me deeply, I do feel angry when the heroine is being unfairly treated. If the hero acts like a bastard, I want to bash him (now is it me who feels that way or me play-acting as the heroine?). On the other hand, I "jump" from one character to another, so if the hero is getting a wallop of a deal, I'm all for his angst and anger too.

This "participation" doesn't make me want to be either the hero or heroine. A good story has the power to take the brain away somewhere for a few hours and most of us who love to read know how we can be swept away to never-neverland by just opening a book. That's the magic in reading. The experience itself is a placeholder/proxy of my day (or few hours, actually). It's like this--hmm, washing dishes or walking in a bad-ass world with vampires and magic? Or, hmm, doing bills or bantering with a lord in a Regency about horse-riding and ahem, studding? Or, hmm, clean the fridge or getting into the mind of super male spy and how to take down super female spy in some mind games?

With the popularity of urban fantasies these days, which is mostly told from first POV, I'm wondering whether those who have been so resistant to it have changed their minds and are now enjoying these books? I must admit, even the best written ones made me one frustrated reader when the heroine (main character) acted incomprehensibly mullish and thickheaded. Yes, Danny Valentine, I'm talking to you.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about how you read your romances. I understand how some readers really see themselves as the heroine. Doesn't bother me at all. I realize it's only for a few hours and that it's a form of daydreaming. I do that all the time on the roof, LOL.

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POST #2: You Like? You Want? You Care?

Question: Should I take the chat area at the bottom of the page out? It IS rather small for a big chatting crowd, but three or four people can have a good time without the board going off-screen too fast. This way, if you have a quick question for me I can leave a longer answer in the chat area. What do you think?

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The time change always messes me up. I wake up thinking I have an extra hour and I don't. Like, it's almost 9am now and I feel behind already. It's 8am, feeding time! Grrr.

I spent the weekend writing, which make me very happy. I need to do more of this writing thing.

One email came in last week telling me that I don't talk about my books and characters enough on my blog. She said that the COMCEN Blog, Kirkland Files, and Intermundia posts are great, but I don't answer any reader's questions. She meant Gennita Low the author. She's fine with all the fun information with, and interaction between, COMCEN and readers, but she'd like more dissection from my point of view.

See, that's a tough call. I think readers would find it tedious if I "dissect" my books non-stop. I can talk about the characters when there is a chat going on, but for a daily blog post? That would be dull, wouldn't it? To be honest, I'm not even sure how exactly to resolve this problem because there's an inherent part of me that loves to accommodate my readers. What they want, I try to provide, within reason.

Do you feel a need for me to have a weekly GIMME A QUESTION about my books session? Like, perhaps, I ask for a question to be posted in the Shoutbox and I'll use that as a springboard for a longer post for the day. Is that something you'd like as a reader?

Just groping around here. In a non-sexual way, I mean, heh.

You may grope HIM if you like --> --> -->

Oh yeah. Angels. That reminds me. I have a snarling limping demon to deal with today.

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