Scholastic reverses decision to ban gay friendly books from fairs

It's always nice to see sanity prevail.

Thanks to Erec for drawing my attention to this.

Often Inspired

I've got loads of ideas bubbling away in the back of mind, ready for Nanowrimo, and have come up with the beginnings of a plot outline and some character descriptions. It's going to be a Steampunk Erotica story. With zeppelins. I'll be sharing the journey with the folks from the forum at Often Inspired, a fun and supportive community of writers. Now I just need dedication, hard work and a lot of coffee.

Nanowrimo

I've taken the plunge and registered for this year's Nanowrimo. This is probably a completely mad thing to do, since I have quite a number of other time consuming commitments at the moment, but so does just about everybody else who signs up for it, and really, what do I have to lose? My mind, my family's patience, but other than that?

Now I just need to figure out what the heck I'm going to write about. I've had an idea for an historical novel in the back of my mind for a while, but I've left it a bit late to get the research done in time this year. Hmmm. Maybe some steampunk? We'll see... Wish me luck!

The Pronoun Problem

I have a pet hate. You know when you're reading a story and the author feels the need to use the characters' full names every single time they're mentioned?

John Featherington-Smith looked up at the sky. "Hmm. It looks as though a storm is on the way," mused John Featherington-Smith. "I had better close all the windows." With that, John Featherington-Smith walked home to the neighbourhood where John Featherington-Smith had lived in all his life... Etc., etc., etc.

I don't know if the authors do that because they are particularly proud of the names they came up with, or if that's just how they talk in everyday life, but the repetition really annoys me, and being annoyed distracts me from the story. To keep from breaking the narrative flow you can just use a pronoun instead (or at the very least just the character's first name- Surely if we get to share a steamy sex scene with him we're on a first name basis by the end of the tale!). This works okay in a heterosexual story, but I found that when writing lesbian erotica (and presumably the same apples to m/m action), all the 'she did this' and 'she did that' can get confusing. How do you make it clear to the reader which 'she' you're talking about each time? I try to get around it by describing the women (it helps if they're very physically different, or at least have different coloured hair), but it's tricky. If there are any other writers of girl-on-girl out there reading this, what do you do? I'm open to suggestions.



Photo by Ignacio Leonardi

Recent Reads

Since I'm not ready to talk about my own work just at the moment I thought I'd post about what I've been reading recently.

Everyone Worth Knowing by Laren Weisberger
Novel
Genre: Chicklit/Romance(contemporary)

This is the second novel by the bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada. There aren't as many laugh-out-loud moments as with her first book, but it was a lot of fun, and had me hooked on page one. I comiserated with Bette's struggles to balance her crazy new job with her personal life (though thankfully I've never had to deal with that kind of overlap between the two myself), and any romance reader could relate to the heroine's coming out of the closet as a romance fan. I'll definately be checking out Weisberger's next book.



A Twisted Bard’s Tale~ Selena Kitt
Genre: Erotic romance (lesbian)
Short Story (ebook)

This little story was a different take on Romeo and Juliet. I was expecting an alternate story with the two young lovers as women, but Selena Kitt takes a different, more interesting tack than that. It was amusing and original, and the sex scene was pretty darn hot. I recommend it as a fun, quick read.

Sweet Escape

I have a couple of stories in the pipeline at the moment, but nothing to show just now. However, I did want to share a random shopping tip. I've just been enjoying a couple of days of self pampering, and I am absolutely in love with this facial scrub from Ocean of Bubbles.com. Citrus, shmitrus! Why would I want citrus when they also have chocolate or Vanilla Liquor (the one I'm enjoying at the moment, which smells divine!)? They're all made with natural ingredients, mostly food, which makes sense since if you can't eat it you shouldn't really put it on your skin.

Great, now the subject heading of this post has put the Pina Colada Song in my head. It's a little early in the day to go in search for cocktails. Maybe tonight...