Jumping from the idea of power, directly into a powerful position, is often the seedling that overgrows into a sort of Kudzu of Corruption. All due respect, Mr A, this is not your A-game.
Continue reading →I want a new category on Amazon that more accurately reflects the changes afoot in our ideation of a woman’s place in the world. In order to do this, I feel I have to branch out in my writing and create stories in genres that are typically male-dominated. Women need in a voice in those, too. Thus, I will be adding this new tag to all my books. I call it #FemFic. I hope all of you in the Twitterverse will use it, too–help get it going. IF it can gain traction, i will petition Amazon to include it in … Continue reading →
I’ve always believed that every ill in our society falls under one or more of three categories: Greed, Ignorance or Zealotry. I was faced with an example of one or more of these while updating my author page on Goodreads. I came across a negative review, quite by accident, of one of my earlier books. Against my better judgment, I read it, and was horrified. The reviewer, obviously, did not like my book, and that’s fine, in and of itself, but this reviewer made statements that were patently false. She claimed the character in my book was “helping a pedophile.” … Continue reading →
I have missed sitting down with a physical book and reading. My recent decision to take a sabbatical and just allow myself to be creative and deadline-free, had me standing in front of my fiction bookshelf, seeking something new. Something enjoyable. As most of you know by now, I have become quite finicky about my fiction reading. I read so much of my own work in pumping out work in the last ten years, that I have had little time to read for pleasure, and when I do, it’s inevitably just before I go to sleep, and by then, my … Continue reading →
Says right there, it’s heavy. And yet it rises to the top. There are heavy hearts. Heavy minds. But it says right there it’s heavy and yet it rises to the top. Be the cream, my people. Be. The. Cream. #bethecream Save … Continue reading →
Recently, I posted a inquiry to my readers, about a publishing aspect of my work. All the responses were encouraging and thought-provoking, but one in particular touched upon some deeper themes. Here it is. TO MY READERS–A QUESTION: As authors, we want to please everyone, but that’s just not possible. For instance, on my newest novella, Saturation Point, I have 4 and 5 star reviews and personal messages and emails that tell me how much they enjoyed the introspective nature of this book, and the characters, but on one review, the reviewer was bored because there wasn’t dialogue on every … Continue reading →
How did this happen? How did a man like Donald Trump find himself in the running for the highest office in the land? The inevitability of this quagmire is predicated on the nature of the man himself. Initially, I believe he just enjoyed the attention he was getting. No surprise for a megalomaniac and narcissist. His usual bloviating in the realm of politics just happened to strike a nerve with the appropriately marginalized hate-mongers, and the situation grew exponentially like a virus. The more his ego was stroked, the more he got drawn into the vortex of the political process. … Continue reading →
I have had some criticism from a few readers who were disappointed when I introduced new characters and locations and plots in my series fiction, and allowed the main characters to have a slightly smaller role to make room; apparently these readers wanted the same story again, the same characters, the same sex scenes, the same dynamics, the same formulaic challenges, the same everything. Essentially, they wanted to read about characters who lived in a vacuum, and never had any interaction with others, nor any natural progression. This mindset is not only elitist, fearful, and unrealistic, but within fiction, stale, … Continue reading →
I’m in a bit of a funk, a tizzy, a doldrum (take your pick) about writing at the moment. Call it Scribe’s Melancholia. I’m having to seriously consider ignoring my book-marketing, because it’s so time-consuming and takes me away from what I’m really supposed to be doing–writing (Hello). Back to old-school, where writers were sequestered in a dark room with a candle and their muses, and never had to actually market themselves as a product, nor deal with their creations after they were delivered to the publisher. Further, it’s impossible to predict what people will buy anymore. And as far … Continue reading →
Today, I woke, sat down to my first cup of coffee and found a headline that gave me the sensation of a lead weight in my stomach. North Carolina May Declare Official State Religion Under New Bill Republican North Carolina state legislators have proposed allowing an official state religion in a measure that would declare the state exempt from the Constitution and court rulings. The bill, filed Monday by two GOP lawmakers from Rowan County and backed by nine other Republicans, says each state “is sovereign” and courts cannot block a state “from making laws respecting an establishment of religion.” … Continue reading →
If those readers who are now huffing and puffing and busting a vein on their foreheads would give it a bit of thought, they’d see that they should be glad that I care that much about the quality of my own work. Another writer friend of mine recently posted a blog about the inordinate amount of winking that goes on in lesbian fiction. I had to think about that….I know what she means. There are always some little irritants with those books…I just haven’t read a bad one in so long…because I…sort of…avoid bad books whenever possible. As for the … Continue reading →
Bound to happen….don’t know why I’m surprised. I’ve been publishing excerpts intended to market Supernatural Hypocrisy. Someone just gave me a pissy little review on one of them a while ago, so I went to his site and left one of my own. Amazing what people do. His review was on Thatness & Whatness, and only said “Review by: Brent Adams on March 31, 2013 : star Not impressed. Doesn’t seem well thought out or researched.” So I looked at his wordpress site, and it was one of those generic, newly made ones with all the defaults still up, and … Continue reading →
Welcome to the Irony-Fest, please sign in and wear your name tags. This topic has become a comedy of ironies. Herein lies the oft-repeated back-handed compliments and erroneous and mixed opinions we authors often deal with, in relation to our work. It seems that some readers just don’t understand nor appreciate what authors are offering, and why. And they don’t seem to understand the function of short works in this regard. Would that we could be treated with the same respect that other professions enjoy, without suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. In one blog, Distracting Fiction: Brand … Continue reading →
In a sign-meme on Facebook recently, there was a quote by Ronald Reagan: “I do not believe in taking away the right of the citizen for sporting, for hunting and so forth, or for home defense. But I do believe that an AK-47, a machine gun, is not a sporting weapon or needed for defense of a home.” ~Ronald Reagan, in a speech at his 78th birthday celebration in Los Angeles on February 6, 1989. KG MacGregor makes all salient points on this, in her blog Baby, You Can Drive My Gun when suggests using driving laws as a template … Continue reading →
