erastes

We have snowdrops! It’s been a very odd winter, although they do say it will be getting colder over the next couple of days. Some places in the UK have daffodils!

I’ve had a couple of really nice reviews:

Muffled Drum was reviewed by Elisa Rolle and this is part of what she had to say:

I enjoyed Muffled Drum, above all I loved the unexpected “sweet” romance I found.

She really liked it, although I had to smile at the trepidatious way she reads my stuff, just in case something horrible is going to happen. That being said – Carina isn’t a “romance” publisher, for the record, they will publish any genre, and don’t insist on a HEA, although obviously they will put “Romance” on a book that has one.

The second review sort of blew me away because it’s from the American Library Association( their GLBTRT wing ) and they loved  Mere Mortals and gives it a big thumbs up! perfect fireside reading! bit.ly/yeW4lt page 10 (it’s a PDF)

I’m over at Clare London’s Birthday Blog Month today yakking about Horses.

Do pop over and comment?

http://clarelondon.livejournal.com/390263.html

Improvement is slow, but today is the first day that I’ve thought “yes, i’m getting better” Mainly because yesterday my gums were so white you could see the red veins within them, and today they are nice and pink again. Hurrah. I’m still getting out of breath far more than I should but I’m not so deathly tired. Yesterday I was dizzy just sitting upright.

By Tuesday, when I go to the docs I’ll probably be a lot better, but at least I can ask him how to avoid it again, and get the Ferrous Sulphate on my prescription, perhaps.

Started watching Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Oh Dear. They tried Too Hard to make it bleak in a Swedish thriller kind of way and to match the dour tone of the book and the 70’s TV series and they just went a step too far. I watched for about 45 minutes and it was incomprehensible. It just seemed to jump from one plot to another and I dare say it all tied up eventually but I really couldn’t be arsed to keep the concentration up that high. Beautifully shot and Oldman deserves an Oscar—he’s unrecognisable, as he so often is, but really. Too bleak. Too dour. Too…MYSTERIOUS.

I think if you are going to do one political act today, then do this one rather than the other.

(from thimble_kiss

If you are a transgender person in Sweden and want to legally change your gender, the government forces you to undergo surgery that will render you permanently infertile and forever unable to have children. That's right: in 2012 Swedish law still mandates forced sterilization in order to do something as simple as changing your gender on a driver's license.
Right now a reform of the law is being debated in Sweden. We need a massive show of support across Sweden and Europe against forced sterilization that will finally convince Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfledt to speak out and break the deadlock.
Whether you are straight, gay, lesbian, bi or trans, Swedish or European, will you take a moment to raise your voice and ask Prime Minister Reinfeldt to take a stand for human rights?
Take action now : http://allout.org/stop_forced_sterilization

I’ve been tweeting and Facebooking, but I appreciate not all of you hang out there, and that’s probably a good job too.

So it seems I’m badly anaemic and have a big iron deficiency. This isn’t a great surprise considering how much blood I’ve lost this week. what I’ve been thinking about though is that it probably has been going on for quite a while because at regular intervals I get these tired spells where I have to sit down for a spell. right now it’s ludicrous though, I took my prescription into the chemist and thank God for chemist’s chairs! I collapsed onto one and it took a good minute to catch my breath. (After I’d walked a good 15 paces from the car!) The chemist was a real sweetie and rushed around looking after me. I have to take 3 pills a day for the next two weeks and then one a day thereafter. Hopefully that will keep it at bay.

Reading up on the problem, it seems that mainlining tea as I have been doing over the last few years isn’t a good thing either, so I’m limiting tea to two times a day, each one at least an hour after taking my iron pills with orange juice. I’m taking this very seriously. I think it was one of the lowest ebbs of my life last night when i was going to bed and I was lying face down on the stairs with both cats and dogs looking worriedly at me because I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. It’s even wearing me out typing.

It’s a shame because I love tea. However I can have one at midday, so only a few minutes to go.

I am scarfing iron rich food too, including black pudding which I absolutely love so it’s great to have an excuse to scoff it.

A friend pointed out to me yesterday that she’d been rewatching Sophie’s Choice and Sophie was anaemic. But all she actually was was pale and interesting, not walking six paces and then having to sit down with her head between her knees. That would have been a fun addition to the film, I think!

So – that’s me. Going to try and get 500 words done today, if I can tear myself away from STUPID FACEBOOK GAMES.

How are you all?

http://www.bookwenches.com/january12reviews.htm#832504503

A segment:

If you are at all a fan of historical fiction, then I strongly encourage you to read Muffled Drum. Erastes is a very skilled, talented author who brings the era she writes about to three-dimensional life. She gives her readers rich, realistic detail, believable characters, and undeniable emotion. Her novels will pull you in, surround you, and keep you fully involved until the very end. And while she doesn’t offer a sticky-sweet, idyllic conclusion, she nevertheless gives us a happy ending that is warm and satisfying. I’m very impressed with this author, and I think that if you were to read her writing, you would be as well.

Thank you, Book Wenches!

I’m blogging on Clare London’s blog on the 20th, and my mind is BLANK. I can’t even think of interesting things to blog about on my blog and I’d like to do something a bit more fun for Clare.

Any suggestions my faithful peeps?

The awards have been announced over at Speak Its Name so pop over and learn what I thought was the best book, who was the best author and what was the best cover. There’s also a section of Reviewers’ Favourites and Readers’ Choice!

Congratulations to all the winners and runners up.

http://speakitsname.com/2012/01/03/speak-its-names-best-of-the-year-2011/#comment-8047

snuggling!  (well, back to back, anyway!) and yes, they are on the couch…bad dog!

My books are appearing on one or two end of year lists which is very gratifying.

Jenre lists Mere Mortals as her favourite gay historical—in fact she says all 3 of her top gay historicals are by me which is lovely!  Its worth reading both part one and part two of her 2011 round up.

MizLoveLovesBooks lists Muffled Drum as “best gay historical” – thank you guys!

And Muffled Drum and Junction X BOTH made “best of” at Reviews by Jessewave. wow. There’s some seriously good company there. Thank you!

I’m not going to brood over “I Knew Him” any longer. It’s entirely counter-productive. It will get written when it’s percolated and is ready to be written. I trust my brain to fill in the gaps when it’s ready.

In the meantime, here’s the very rough beginnings of something I started recently which I was going to call “Summer’s Lease” but I find that someone has done a short story with that title. I might stick with it, after all it's not going to be published for a good while yet. ( The Strawberry Rows )

Those who know me, know why. Nothing sinister, just Slough of Despond time, but i’m working through it, day at a time. Roll on 2012.

Junction X had a wonderful review over at It’s Raining Men (scroll down to the 2nd review) with a 5+ mark and lots of praise.

I’m flattered at having my books added to the interminable lists over at Goodreads, but I had to sit on my hands not to comment on site (if one can even do that) as someone has added Junction X to the list “M/M Relationships Between Underage or Barely Legal and Adult Characters”

I mean. ARGH. What is this? encourage a Pedo week?

Now, I’m not going to justify my decision to have Alex as 17 when the relationship begins BUT I do NOT understand the obsession that some people have about this. First of all—hands up who know how many states in the USA (because apparently this is the only country’s laws that matter) cite 18 and over as Age of Consent? about seven or eight. Yes. Really. If you don’t believe me, go and check. The AVERAGE AGE OF CONSENT for America is SIXTEEN for gay males. So why does everyone bang on about 18 being the age of consent and 16 is underage?

But with Junction X you get into a completely different ball game. First of all—there was no age of consent for gay sex in 1962. The law didn’t change for homosexuals for another nine years, and then you had to be 21.

There are other books on that list which stretch the mind too—RW Day’s Strong and Sudden Thaw where it’s set in THE FUTURE for frack’s sake.

In other news I’m THIS CLOSE to closing Speak Its Name (the review site) to self-published books. I know that this would mean I would miss the very very rare gems in the rough that are published, such as The Painting by FK Wallace,  but I had to churn my way through book after book after book with no discernible editing—authors who wouldn’t know what homonym meant if you wrote it down in words of one syllable, and couldn’t punctuate their way out of a paper bag. And my editors will confirm that if *I*’m noting these errors, then they are egregious, because as far as I’m concerned, punctuation is mostly a dark art.

I’ll think about it a bit longer, because I hate to close Speak Its Name’s doors to anyone, but I don’t see why I (and the other reviewers) have to be punished because an author either can’t be arsed to go the normal route, or has been rejected and decides that their work of genius MUST BE SEEN BY THE WORLD ANYWAY.

I wish they’d go and write crime fiction. or Het Romance.

OK this is getting embarrassing now. but so lovely!

Alan Chin reviews for the Examiner:

The plot is a simple one, without any subplots to cloud the water. But there is something to be said for a simple story told well, and this story is told extremely well. Erastes has obviously worked hard to improve her writing style and voice, and it shines here.

Book Binge:

Edward's story was fascinating and heartbreaking. I can't even imagine what to grade it. The writing was great. But the story...I was unprepared for the way it went down. Don't go into this thinking you're getting a romance. There was a story about two people falling love, yes, but sometimes you fall in love with the wrong person...
But in the end, I have to give Junction X a 5 out of 5. It was compelling as hell and to be so wrapped up in a book that it breaks your heart? That's talent.

or rather “hee hee!”

Just read a book where the couple are using a sock as a safe “word” because one of the characters can’t speak.

Perhaps SOCK wasn’t a great word to stick into a gay sex scene.

“All he had to do was to let go of his sock.”

hee hee!

There are certain things I am good at with the Elder Scrolls games. I’m a red hot archer and can hit an enemy who hasn’t even the slightest clue I’m there from a great distance—which means I deal more damage for a sneak attack. I’m also great at lockpicking and sneaking. I’m absolutely not the kind of hero who charges into every room swinging his axe (ah-hem) wildly and roaring.  I would probably drive anyone else watching me play absolutely bonkers as I do just about everything in “sneak” mode and creep so slowly around the tombs etc to avoid detection. If I have a companion I’ll let them charge ahead, take the fire while I fire off arrows from behind some cover. The slow-mode serves me well when it comes to traps because dart traps (think Indiana Jones) coming out of the walls are easily triggered but if you are creeping along you can simply stop and they run out before you get near them.

What I suck at is all out fighting, because the enemy (damn cheek) has the audacity to dance about around me and just doesn’t stay stock still in front of me so I can hack and slash at him. I don’t live very long on direct attacks, so I’m not looking forward to all the dragon slaying I have to do. I’m rather betting you can’t hide in a corner while everyone else does the work.

So, yeah – I am enjoying it a lot—but as I’d recently been playing Oblivion, it’s actually not it that much different although the graphics are a bit better – although not the sumptuousness I was expecting.

I’ll say one thing though, the horses are so slow and so bloody ugly it’s better to walk.

www.cheyennepublishing.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Cheyenne Publishing to reprint 1979 historical gay romance novel, Wingmen, by Ensan Case

Camas, WA, USA – December 1st, 2011 – In 1979 Avon Books took a risk by publishing a gay romance novel about two Navy flying aces who managed to find love in the midst of their bombing raids in the Pacific during World War II. While many breakthrough, gay-themed novels of the 1970s did get recognition and are fondly remembered by LGBT readers, Wingmen somehow slipped though the cracks, partly because the traditional romance readers who made up Avon's customer base weren't yet ready to embrace gay love.

In February 2012, Cheyenne Publishing will reprint this authentic wartime romance in paperback and for the first time in the eBook format.

Ensan Case was only 28 years old when he wrote Wingmen in 1978. Discouraged by its less-than-stellar reception, he gave up writing and turned to other pursuits. Recently, on a whim he did a Google search and was amazed to discover that there was new interest in the long out-of-print book. He decided to shop it around to some independent publishers and ultimately accepted an offer from Cheyenne Publishing.

Cheyenne Publishing is an independent press founded in 2007, and specializes in LGBT historical novels as well as LGBT-themed young adult books. Last May Cheyenne Publishing's Normal Miguel by Erik Orrantia won a Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance for 2010.

Contact:
Mark Probst
webmaster@cheyennepublishing.com
PO Box 872412
Vancouver, WA 98687-2412

I love it! Interesting that Phil and Valerie are larger than Alex, though.

Well it worked for me! I was going to go for 1000 words over 2 hours but I ran out of time at Dad’s due to lunch taking an age to cook, and programmed it for 500 words in half an hour and did it easily in 20 minutes. Hurrah! I did go wrong and try and close it down when my screen froze and it shouted at me which made me laugh, but then I got a fanfare when I did the required amount!

As I’ve mentioned before, when I learned to walk I refused to walk unless people applauded which probably explains much of my funk this year, as I don’t have the cheering squad I used to have – they are all too busy and good for them, so there’s no problem, but if I can use a programme that will kick me and applaud when I do good then that’s good enough for me.

I can’t believe how much more cheerful I feel that I’VE WRITTEN!!!!!!

laptop back and powered up. hurrah!

A bit of a Proud Dog Owner moment. Sasha and I tend to go to the park at 4, after leaving Dad’s and we only have about 20 mins before it gets too dark, but she runs about 300 miles in that time, so she gets her exercise.

But yesterday I was so proud of her, there were many dog trainers in the park yesterday –must be a local obedience club or something and dogs were sitting and lying down all over the place and Sasha was just running around with her ball as usual having a whale of a time.  All in all, three dogs broke away from their trainers and WOULD NOT return, despite them screaming their names, to investigate the mad squeaking Staffie. A Jack Russell was first and he chased her and she chased him (a bit) but came back to me every time I called her.  Then a black Lab, then a greyhound, both of which stood and sniffed and said hello to her. I keep a strict eye on her when this happens, not for fear of what SHE would do, but I worry that they might bite, and then she would retaliate, and as her jaw is so huge and muscly, she’d be the one in trouble and Staffies have such a crap reputation.

But she was a darling, just stood, and was sniffed, ran around with them a bit but came back to me. (Which is more than the other dogs did for their screaming owners. hee hee)

There was a horrible programme on BBC Radio 2 today, discussing rogue Staffies. It pissed me off so much that they were perceived as Demon Dogs. It’s just that they are strong and powerful. People who allow Chihuahuas to snap and snarl at anyone – that pisses me off – because people just laugh at the funny little dog. My parents let Aslan (Yorkie) to get away with snapping over food because he was—frankly—amusing. But if he’d been the size of a Rottie it wouldn’t have been funny at all. There are No Bad Animals. Just bloody bad owners.

my laptop cable has died – someone’s been chewing it… so my access will be a bit limited until I can get a new adapter which is coming by post.

Back asap!

Or rather – a response to it.

If you are really a guy, show us your dick

Which is on tonight ITV3 at 9.

Wonderful wonderful cast: Daniel Radcliffe who is amazingly good, the wonderful David Haig as Kipling, and Kim Cattrall (I know!) as Mrs Kipling

Harrowing, beautiful, heartbreaking and not a French Fancy to be had.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851430/

I’ve been mulling over coming clean for a long time. You see, there’s something in my bio – or my historical bio – that’s incorrect, and the guilt has gnawed at me long enough.

I don’t use that bio any longer, I changed it the moment I thought someone might find out the truth, but nothing is ever erased on the internet, so in case anyone ever sees it, I’d like to set the record straight here.

It seemed pretty innocent – and a fun thing to do at the time – until it got out of hand and I started talking to other people with the same interest and I had to back away in case they ever asked me anything too probing and it was obvious that I was a bit fat phony.

Hand on heart, I never meant to deceive anyone, and if anyone feels betrayed by this admission, then I apologise again, and if you want to defriend me, I’ll understand. Or if you decide that you can’t buy the books from someone with such deception in their hearts. I’ll understand too.

Here goes. It’s hard to have to say, so I’ll just come right out and say it.

I do not now, nor have I ever owned an Iguana called Neville.

Or any kind of Iguana. No reptiles of any kind. I’m so sorry!

I just hope you can forgive me.

There’s a conversation option in “Deus Ex Human Revolution” which is “Crush” – now after having been playing Dragon Age 2 – it was only natural to think that it meant “chat him up” so I used the crush option. This is what my character said:

“This again? You know as long as I’ve known you Wayne, you’ve been blaming other people for your crap.”

Not exactly a great chat up line. Looks like it means “Crush him with meanness.” And really not as much fun.

LOL!

I’ve just noticed that the Green Carnation Prize has changed their rules this year and now allow all genders and persuasions of writers to enter, rather than just gay men which they did their first year.

However.

How can you have a prize that includes all books published UP TO DECEMBER 2011 and then have a submission deadline of August?  I mean the ACTUAL AWARD is in December—so if your book comes out after August you are actually stuffed.

Not that I’m eligible, because my books are not published in the UK despite living in the UK—but I would like to enter one day when I am eligible, I’ll just have to make sure it’s published mid-year! Not all publishers are able to provide copies four or five months in advance.

http://greencarnationprize.wordpress.com/about/

The prize is open to any novel, short story collection or memoir written by any LGBT author worldwide published in the UK in hardback or paperback between 1^st January 2011 and 31^st December 2011 are eligible.

The Green Carnation Prize is currently seeking submissions from all UK publishers for this award with a deadline of Friday 5^th August 2010. Followed by;

•       Longlist 2011 Announced – 1st September 2011
•       Shortlist 2011 Announced – 1st November 2011
•       Winner 2011 Announced – 1st December 2011 (to coincide with World Aids Day)