I have an offical Amazon author page!  And what’s more, I have books available for purchase on Amazon (for the Kindle).  I have had books on Amazon before, but somehow this feels uber official.  Ironically, the books up before are not on my list, because they are anthologies (which I think I can fix, but we’ll see).  At any rate, I have to update my bibliography page to include all the new tasty links and I’m thrilled.

More good news, my crit partners returned Sun and Moon with mostly positive comments and I should be able to get it in to eXtasy today or tomorrow.  Phew, one less late obligation from last year off my plate.  I sincerely hope I get a couple years off now.

Also I titled my new story Jason/Bell.  I’m very amused by this title, and hope to include lots of fanfic references as well as satire the romance genres.  I think Jason is going to grow temporary fangs, hee hee.

Now I’m off to do yoga and fufill several appointments.  Don’t you hate it when you’re itching to work on a story but real life is getting in the way?

Is it wrong  for a writer to hate Scrabble?  I get irritated when I think of the perfect word, a complex word with a rich layered meaning, and it is worth 5 points.  Then my opponent plays “ox” and gets 50.  Scrabble bites.

I managed to catch the Bodyworlds exhibit this weekend.  I enjoyed it, and I don’t see what the big fuss was about.  My favorite part was seeing all my various recent maladies from the inside.  I also appreciated the giantness of the lungs, considering how poorly mine work anymore.  My trainer asked me if I saw Yoga Lady, and while I did my first thought was “dang I’ll never be that flexible.”  Hee.

Last thought: I know what whale poop looks like. Fear me.

Sun and Moon (I’m still not fond of that title, really) is off to my crit group, and after another round of edits I will send it in to eXtasy.  I’m so. very. happy. to be done with that story.  I like it, it’s got some naughty parts and some nice parts and it is a sweet little love story for a hot afternoon.  This story taught me the value of planning.  I am NOT a pantser.  I cannot sit down and let the words flow and see what happens.  I need a plot, a beginning middle and end.  If I don’t have that at the start, my story will fizzle and die about six thousand words in.  Every time.  It’s a rule.

Knowing that, I’m trying to stave off the next crash and burn with some preliminary work.  I think the next project will be a Jason Bell story, while I still work on edits for Waking Kiara.  I’m thinking of setting it in the future, with Jen’s granddaughter finding the old manuscripts in the attic or something.  Jason Bell is a dreamy guy, after all, in any decade.

I’m about to embark on a road trip with my family, so between that and wordpress upgrades, I fear for my sanity.  Hold me.

That’s right, my six shooter beat its six shooter and I am victorious!

I also renamed it, again.  That one has a rough time holding a title–what do you call a fairy tale?  Usually they are named after the characters, and in my files I had actually named it Jocasta, the heroine’s name.  I’ve currently settled on Sun and Moon.  No promises it stays though.

I’m still wondering about the plot–too fast, too slow, what can I cut out to make it cleaner but still flow at the right pace?  Should I add more from the villains’ point of views?  Dunno.  I’m going to let it stew and read it all the way through again in a couple days.

In related news, I just took a quick and dirty capitalization lesson from my editor.  I get the basics, when a title replaces a name you capitalize, got it.  But it gets complicated.  Quickly.  Especially when you have queens, priestesses, princes, guards, goddesses, etc. all in the same story.  Stupid capitalization.

Anyway, HA!  Take that, sidebar progress meters.  Another chapter on Kiara down and another story in the bag.  Or, rather, the editing room.  Yay!  Time for a tiny ice cream sandwich to celebrate (why are the Trader Joes soy ice cream sandwiches so small?  It’s a mystery.)

What’s next?  I really want to return to Jason Bell and his crazy sexing antics.  I think I just might…

On one end of the dusty street running through the one horse town is me, gun strapped to my hip and a glint in my squinty eye. I have a six pointed badge that flashes in the sun of high noon.

On the other end of the street is my story, Fair Play. It also has a six-shooter, and a bandoleer. Because, why not? Every good western needs a villain with a bandoleer**.

Who’s going to draw first? I’m really not sure. I keep opening the stupid thing and staring at it, and the stupid thing stares back at me with absolutely nothing useful to say. I managed to get my characters down the road a ways, anyway. But I’m still not sure I’m going to win this fight.

On the plus side, I did get another 1000 words out of the thing, and edited yet another chapter of the endless Waking Kiara edit-palooza. She’s finally going to get both men at once, woo!

*yes I know this wasn’t from a western. But that’s the image I always get, all Clint and dirt and grit.
**I googled this word to make sure I spelled it right, and discovered bandoleers for concealed carry rigs. I’m now more afraid of humanity than ever.

In the story I’m working on (read, forcing into submission one stinking paragraph at a time), I have a great beginning. Great, as in, I know what I’m trying to set up and I think I did so. I have a pretty cool ending idea–an HEA that lets everyone get what they want. I have some ideas for a surprise or two. But getting from here to there is proving more difficult than usual. I’m so desperate for the plot to move I literally added the “man with the gun” (well, in this case, the man with the knife in his boot, the bastard). I’m not even sure why my trio got attacked yet, I just hope that adding some action will help me get further into the story.

What do other authors do about this struggle? Especially pantsers–this very issue is why I’m not a member of that club. Any story I don’t plot out, at least a bit, ends up like this, saggy and meandering without any road map. I’m curious how the other half lives

WTF? Where did that come from? I’m in the dreaded and particularly saggy middle of one story and in some intense edits for another. Do I really need this woman knocking on my brain? “Oh hai, I’m a character with a very emotional backstory for–get this–a murder/thriller mystery novel. Get to work on me instead.”

I did about 500 words, realized I had a potential book in it, and put it aside. I can’t be having that much project ADD, damn it. But I suspect she’ll be there when I’m ready. I have another one, too, on ice, waiting for me to work on her story. Poor ladies, I often wonder if they sit around in the back of my head and wait for their story to continue.

Writing ADHD. Cure? Some kind of self bribery, I expect.

OH, I also figured out where my tendency to clip sentences comes from. Jonathan Kellerman does the same thing, just drops you in the middle of a sentence, very stream of consciousness and clipped. Lots of frags. I suppose he makes a living on it but the rest of us have to remember to have an object AND a subject. Whatever. But now I know where I picked up the habit!

Being a narcissist myself, I of course realized that these changes not only affect women, but anyone who enjoys reading or writing pornographic materials. After all, according to the proposed changes, a parahilia may be defined as:

any intense and persistent sexual interest other than sexual interest in genital stimulation or preparatory fondling with phenotypically normal, consenting adult human partner.

Well, that pretty much locks out anything beyond some good old fondling followed by good old missionary. On the page I linked above, narrow-minded Blanchard goes on to define “obscene phone calls” as outside the “normal” range of human sexuality. Phone calls. Because, you know, when my husband is out of town, we never EVER engage in some naughty phone/internet lovin’. Never. Because we’re normal.

He goes on to state that he proposes a new classification system, allowing one to have a “paraphilia” without it being called a “disorder.” Which I guess I appreciate? I mean, why bother? Typically the DSM describes disorders or “issues” that are to be treated in a counseling/medical setting. You don’t see, for example, Excessive Happiness Disorder. If you aren’t going to focus on the paraphilia for treatment, why list it at all? Seems to me it is a sort of underhanded ploy to make any sexual diversity deviant. Have we really gone so far backward that we’re now snickering under our breath when we talk about a little spanking, or a bit of bondage? Really?!

Also, why is anal sex with a dildo NOT paraphilic, but tying your lover’s hands over her head is? I’m just confused by that. Who gets to make the distinction between normal and abnormal? And why is that the line?

And don’t even get me STARTED on the stuff Feministing talks about, the problems with Gender Identity Disorder and Transvestic Fetishism. That only counts if you’re a man, btw. Only men who dress like women have a problem, women who dress like men are fine. AUGH.

Oh oh, and I almost forgot the “phenotypically normal” part. Holy shit people, they are saying that if you somehow do not fit the society’s view of physical normality, you are not to be seen as sexually attractive by normal people. This includes fat folks (well shit), older folks, disabled folks (srsly. If you’re in a wheelchair and I’m hot for you, I’m abnormal. WTF?), gender queer folks, etc. The insanity of this hurts my (apparently very fucked up) brain.

So. Do you read erotica with bondage, ever? Do you read shapeshifting erotica, and get off on it? Do you like to read about fucking machines and tentacles sometimes (oh admit it, we’re among friends) and find the ideas silly but arousing? What about the kinda sexy idea of a vampire sucking your blood? Ever roll played teacher and student (with props)? How about the hot story I read this morning where a dominant gets his submissive pierced–oh crap, I’m crazy! Well, we knew that. Is your partner kinda chubby? Married to someone who doesn’t fit a cisgendered stereotype? You fall squarely in the proposed changes, you are now diagnosable.

Want to complain before these recommendations become set in stone until the next revision (ten+ years)? Let the APA know how you feel.

Just to be subversive, I’m gonna go have some hot threesome fantasies with a side of tied up boys. You?

Giving birth to my own kids was an entirely different experience from observing. Even aside from the obvious things, there’s no observing when you’re in the throes of surgery (c-sections, both) and bad reactions to drugs and nerves about being responsible for a tiny person and having no clue how to take care of one. And we were still as happy as people could be

I’m pretty excited, so send her lots of luck for a safe and healthy induction and delivery!