Bits and Bobs

[erastes]

Happy Birthday tammylee!!

Speak Its Name is an Editor's Pick on Queerlisting.com !! - Queerlisting is a good listing site, btw - if you aren't on it. I get a high percentage of referrals from it.  Nice to see SiN getting some outside attention.

A new and mixed review of Standish on Amazon. I think he liked bits of it... This soft male porn isn't always a realistic rendition of what sex really looks/sounds/smells/feels like. But the love, the intimacy, the closeness and the need for physical attention and affection are indeed well-portrayed.

Which is reassuring, and having affirmation of such from a man is pretty nice.  He couldn't "figure out the ending" though, which is a shame. I suppose it was a cheat, leaving it for the reader to decide, but it was important to do it like that. I couldn't write a definitive ending, not with what Rafe had been through.

The reviewer also wanted more normal people and is sick of the rich and privileged. I kind of agree, and evremonde made the same complaint recently. I hope he likes Frost Fair, because Gideon Frost is "shabby genteel" and often don't 'ave tuppence to rub together. Oo! And Transgressions of course; no-one in THAT is rich at ALL. It's all seen from the perspective of the yeoman class. I'm probably likely to steer away from earls and the like because there are lots of people doing that very well.  When Fleury eventually gets to the New World, he's going to meet a lot of poor people. And shag them too, if I know him. And I do.

Oh well, back to editing. *slaves*

Comments

If you need resources

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

On poverty in early America, especially as it pertains to food/domestic, I've quite a bit of stuff. Shoot me an email if you come across stuff you need -- quite a bit of this stuff I've actually cooked/eaten so I can give you tactile details and so on.

Generally, tho, I'm very Northeastern USA and Eastern Canada (Or at least hwere those boundaries are now) If he lands way south of me (say Pennsylvania or lower) my own resources are scarcer, but I could point you in the right direction.

Re: If you need resources

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I have a feeling I'm going to need a LOT of help with 1820's America! I'll definitely yell!

[madrigalist.livejournal.com]

What the HELL does it say about me if I tell you I read that title as Bits and Boobs?

And I don't even have any sex in this debut novel of mine...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No boobs here!!! (unless you count my complete inability to know the correct use of a comma

*feels intense sorrow for my poor editors*

What a BEAUTIFUL cover your book has got! Who did it?

[madrigalist.livejournal.com]

We all have editors living in fear of commas. It is our sworn duty to drive them nuts. (the editors, not the commas.)

Would you believe a 16 year old Phantom of the Opera fan designed the concept? She blew me away with it! I had a private artist outside of my publishing house (with their blessing) do the actual layout. I wanted to get fans involved in the book's release. The design wraps around to the back of the book as well A bigger picture is on my profile here on LJ.

I am looking forward to getting Standish. Once I start working full time next month I have a big order to place of all those books I have been lusting for...

Mav

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's incredibly lovely. I've often thought of asking my flist for cover art but never had the nerve! Most smaller publishers seem to be happy to let the art come to them, I feel. Perhaps even bigger ones, too. I can't wait to see what Perseus come up with for Transgressions.

I hope you like Standish. I can see its flaws now, after all these years, but - I still like the story.

:)

[tharain.livejournal.com]

When Fleury eventually gets to the New World, he's going to meet a lot of poor people. And shag them too, if I know him. And I do.

Funny. When I was researching the family a few weeks ago, and found the relative who was listed in the Census of 1880 as an "Idler," he was living in a house where the head of the household was an Irishman. I immediately thought "OMG! Fleury is shagging my great-great-great-great uncle!"

Then I realized Fleury would have had to have been 110. NOT that this would have stopped him.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing*

I do love the profession "Idler" I wish that our passports still had professions on them, for I'd change mine to that.

oh

[girluknow.livejournal.com]

(spoilery comment, if you haven't read Standish yet)...


I didn't find the ending of Standish ambiguous *at all*. I had a definite sense of an understanding reached, a decision made, and that the choice was love. I didn't need more than you wrote to know where Ambrose and Rafe went from there.
I guess it is true that readers can see the same story in a variety of ways.

Re: oh

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Nod nod. If you have paying attention to Rafe's life and past, and the mental "box" he'd been living in for so many years, I was hoping that was what you'd see. It's about Ambrose growing up, but it's also about Rafe maturing too, he's been behaving like a spoiled 16 year old for all of his life. I'm very happy that you saw that.

Of course another friend (a real life one, too) said that as far as she was concerned, Rafe only opened the window to yell abuse at Ambrose, but then she's a sick person and I should cut her off.

:)

But it is interesting, and that was part of the reason I did it, too, so people COULD have their own interpretations. Some people accused me of setting it up for a sequel, but it's not true, their story is done.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the birthday wishes! Even tho I have spent the day diligently working on my business I did take an hour off to watch leaked episodes of Avatar and eat tofu chocolate cream pie. =9999

Congrats on the editor's pick!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Excellent for the scoffing. All birthdays should have scoff in them.

[lusiology.livejournal.com]

I forgot to mail you back when I finished Standish. I was totally convinced that our hero was going to be spirited away to America by Fleury and Rafe would end up a completely broken man for his dalliance with Alvisi. I actually exhaled in relief when Ambrose discovered the letter from Fleury and cheered inside when Fleury did the devil in.

I'm going for a hopeful ending: Rafe threw open the window and called out to Ambrose, who turned around and ran back to the house, taking the stairs two at a time to reach his future. Bravo! I will be looking out for more of your fic.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No probs!

I'm glad you liked it, and I'm sure that's what really happened. In my head they are still together 20 years later, so ... well. That's probably what did happen. Ambrose was always a bit soft.

:)