20 million discontented females in the British Isles and every one of them is writing a book

Bonus points for knowing where that quote came from.

I haz a cold.

Added a slew of books to Speak Its Name’s LIST today. There definitely seems to be gay historicals, fiction and non-fiction popping up all over the place. Good thing too.

Good news In Washington state but Bad news in Maine—I was discussing it this morning with Gehayi.  I suppose that it strikes me as rather odd that there are referenda about this kind of thing.  Democracy gorn mad. I have a friend in the US who is constantly saying that I should move over there.  Career wise it would probably be a good thing, there’s no gay writing network here to speak of outside London, and we don’t have those conferences which seem to be so vital to promotion, but wild horses couldn’t convince me to live in America (sorry, American Friends).  England ain’t perfect, by a long shot, but god, at least we have coherent laws which don’t change when you drive over an imaginary line.

Just done a review on SIN that will show up tomorrow but I got quite annoyed with the Americanisms.  Why oh why are Americans so obsessed about writing about England?  I do understand that it’s a popular location, but really-authors-if you don’t know your sidewalks from your pavements, if you don’t know what’s wrong with calling trousers pants, if you really want to have cranberries in Victorian times, then write about your own country will you?  What’s wrong with setting a Victorian era story in an American city?  New York gets more snow, for example!  I have hesitated for years now about writing The Further Adventures of Fleury because the research scares me silly. I can waffle on for ages about 1820’s England, but 1820’s America?  eek.  It was (and still is) different depending on where you go.  If Fleury moves around a lot, and he’s planning to, I’ll need to research New York, Boston, New Orleans, California.. it’s rather scary. AND THAT’S WHY I DON’T WRITE IT. Because I know you guys will be positively GLEEFUL when I make mistakes. I have American friends (and if I didn’t I’d ask for help) to help me avoid glaring errors—and it’s NOT difficult to find a Brit picker.  I do charge a modest fee, but there’s loads of English people out there who will probably do it for nothing, and isn’t that better than me glaring at you?

 

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