Ink!!

[erastes]

I got a fountain pen for Christmas (thank you, charliecochrane!) - now I haven't owned or even used a fountain pen since I was at school and I'd forgotten what a sensual pleasure they are.  It's even loaded with blue-black ink which was my colour of choice at school.  I've been doing the edits on Transgressions with it today and it made the task a real joy. (Almost!) It makes my handwriting legible too, which makes a change.

The only snag was that when one of the cats leapt up onto the manuscript (as one of the boys will always do, they can't bear the thought of being ignored for five minutes) and rolled around on it - Lucius in this case, he acted a big furry blotting pad and ended up covered in blueblack ink. Well, ok, not covered, but smudges on his face and legs. He's buggered off now, in high dudgeon.



Yes. Don't judge me. How could I resist? It looks like a strawberry Campino!

I discovered The Historical Romance Club today and got all excited for five seconds. But I can't join their club. :(

"Genres we Do Not support include: standard contemporary romance; romantic suspense; inspirational; and alternative lifestyle—m/m, f/f. "

Hmmm.  As gehayi just said to me: 

"...of all the genre fiction in the world, romance fiction is the most bigoted. Sci-Fi has had gay couples forever. Fantasy, almost as long. The first overtly gay detective appeared in the 1950s. Romance still needs to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the Century of the Fruitbat. And that was LAST century."

Hear hear. I've asked HRC why they don't "support alternative lifestyles" - I'll just see what they say. I know what you are thinking..."Erastes? What about the New Year Resolution?"  Yeah, yeah. Still got three days...

Comments

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

I think it's a not unreasonable question.

Do your paws end up all covered in in? Mine always do...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Not yet.. I remember living with leaky pens at school!!! no sign of leakage yet!

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

I spent about 10 minutes trying to craft a rant in response to the HRC quote, but I just can't. Good grief, people!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, sorry!! Didn't mean to raise anyone's blood pressure!

Good grief sums it up, though, I think!

Devils Advo here.

[ggymeta.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

This isn't going to make me popular, so here it goes...

Is this a private club online, or is this a club supported by publishers, magazines, and affiliated conventions?

I ask because, even though alt-phobia is sickening, if this is a club made up of historical romance fans featuring works by their favorite authors-- they have every right in the world to exclude teh-gay. There are groups out there that are repugnant in their very organization...but if they're privately operated by individuals all sharing the same belief system, it's their right to exclude whomever the hell they want. :)

It's no different than a blog that reviews only historic gay content called Regency Romance Factory, and will not consider content that's hetero. Now think about someone sending you an email about how it's wrong for you to exclude het regency because the title of your blog doesn't clearly define that its gay only--but your rules do; so you should at least have a category for het-regency. :/

If that blog is for the niche fandom--I'd be pretty annoyed if someone demanded to know why I didn't cater to the mainstream - it's my blog, right? Now it looks to me like this Ingela Hyatt person started this club on her own, and for like-minded romance fans. They don't want to review or hear about alt-lifestyles and that's their right. :( No, it's no socially acceptable, but it's their right to be assholes.

Firing off a letter and making a fuss just seems... >.> wrong.

Re: Devils Advo here.

[ggymeta.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

PS I understand why you requested information - after all, the title for their site is catch-all: Historical Romance Club, but honestly...Gay historical romance isn't "so big" right now that they're somehow 'insane' for not even considering it. :)

If they mail you back politely and say, we just don't read that sort of thing, then what? Just don't go 'Loco'philos on me, ok?

Re: Devils Advo here.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No - I was very polite.

[marquesate.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand first and foremost if the tag "alternative". Huh??? What the doodah? What the hell does "alternative" mean? So, if I shag sideways in a cable car in plain view of the goats in the Alps with my M/F (!) partner, that's not alternative?

[alankria.livejournal.com]

But don't you know, girls liking girls isn't normal.

[marquesate.livejournal.com]

Well, I "understand" that, but then they would call it un-normal or something. It's the "alternative" I don't get. The alternative to a norm, granted, but does that go for any alternative to the norm or only for same sex alternatives?

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

It is in our house!

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

I find it a great *cough* alternative to the other option, personally : D

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Nod nod. Vegetarianism - polyandry - nudism are all "alternative lifestyles" as far as I'm concerned.

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

Being a corrie-fister, I find fountain pens nigh on impossible to use, even if they do write beautifully. Gel-pens are a reasonable (and cheap) alternative.

As for the HRC - looks to me like another bunch of people who are trying to pretend 'gsyness' doesn't exist. But then I also wonder why romantic suspense and inspirational novels are excluded.

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

oops - that should be 'gayness'

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes it's odd, but as Tina said it's their club so I suppose they can state the rules. I thought that perhaps if I questioned it they might think again - there are few enough places to advertise gay historicals as it is, so they are missing some revenue, at the very least.

[mongrelheart.livejournal.com]

Heehee at your big furry blotting pad!

"Alternative lifestyle", grr. I think the term ought to be retired. The idea that m/m and f/f are alternatives to what's "normal", belongs to a bygone era.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's a term that really annoys me. It's not like vegetarianism. It's not a choice.

[haydenthorne.livejournal.com]

"Alternative lifestyle" implies choice.

If anyone deserves to be slapped with a label of "alternative lifestyle," it would be me and my husband - married, heterosexual, child-free. Emphasis on child-free because we choose not to have kids despite pressure (and guilt trips) from all sides. We actually need to join a child-free couples' social group or something, so we can rant and laugh at the constant WTF reactions we get for our lifestyle.

I'm frankly done with hetero stuff. I've been reading it since I first learned to spell. At this point in my life, I prefer friendship stories between men and women in addition to GLBT stuff.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

You have a peppermint dragon?

"Alternative." Feh. It's not a 'lifestyle,' ladies, it's my life.

I wouldn't want to join a club that was so overtly stupid in its mission statement, but at least you have to give 'em points for honesty.

[the-sea-to.livejournal.com]

Fountain pens are love. I fucked the nib on mine. Need to get in replaced. Just a nice standard thick parker.

[the-sea-to.livejournal.com]

NOT LITERALLY FUCKED.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

*falls off chair*

NIB KINK!