Two Surprise Reviews, News and Views

[erastes]

In publishing news, as you may have seen on Alex Beecroft’s or Charlie Cochrane’s LJ – Samhain are going All Change. They are closing down Linden Bay Romance – changing the name to Linden Bay and are relaunching it as a Young Adult line. They are incorporating all of the books that meet their criteria from Linden Bay into Samhain and letting some go. The incorporated books will be re-edited, and relaunched as ebooks, with some going into print in some distant future, around ten months time.

SOOOOOO – I took the step (as they said that anyone could who wanted to) and pulled Frost Fair and Speak Its Name from their catalogue.  The main reason for this decision (although there are several) being that I want my books to be primarily – or at the very least – equally available in print and ebook. My sales at Samhain have proved that I sell four times as many print copies as I do ebooks (and I’m quite sure that piracy is responsible for that) BUT when it comes down to it, Samhain don’t print novellas and that’s all I can offer them while I’m under contract with Running Press. I want my books on people’s shelves, that’s the bottom line, really.

But the GOOD news is that another publisher immediately said “GRABBY HANDS” and wants to publish both books in eprint AND print, with a new covers which will be commissioned by me (and in the case of SIN, with charlie and Lee) and the ideas the publisher has for the layout and cover are making me a very happy Erastes.

A perfectly lovely review (with spoilers, so beware) of Transgressions over at Ferret Brain. Thank you Kyra!

I love Kyra’s reviews, they manage to mix humour and no-punches held deep reviewing. I snorted tea through my nose over the surly but passionate gay Puritan refrain.

But I particularly liked the way she discusses and compares the heterosexual tropes of romance with the emerging genre of gay romance. I have never considered having my guys faithful to each other, it seems absolutely right for anyone who is separated “forever” (or so they think) to hook up with someone else, rather than mope forever  - and let’s be honest here. They are GUYS. Like gay marriage, the great thing about the genre is that it will be what we are going to make it. One thing I don’t want anyone to start doing—and I hope to goodness that the new RWA special interest GLBT chapter don’t start doing this—is to start laying down RULES what gay romance is and what it isn’t. Hmm. There’s a subject for a Jessewave Column…

And Joyfully Reviewed reviewed Standish. I must be going mad, but I thought they already had, but I’m obviously wrong. They seemed to like it!

I’m absolutely loving the cheesiness that is Legend of the Seeker. With one major proviso – there’s not enough hotness. Kahl should be hot. Evil Overlords need to be SMOKING. Not look like Severus Snape’s less attractive brother.

I watched “Search for Gollum” yesterday – very very good.

And why has no-one told me about Krod Mandoon??? Sean Maguire and Matt Lucas in a Jimmy Somerville Medieval Quest Legend of the Seeker Spoof Sitcom???? With a gay medieval warrior? BLISS!

I have just received Eragon on DVD. Don’t ask me why I ordered it.

Comments

[cruisedirector]

...really gay Jeremy Irons?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

You know - I think you might be right!!

My flist knows me better than I do. I KNEW there was a reason. Did you see him as Vetinari? My ovaries exploded.

[cruisedirector]

I have not read the Eragon books, so I don't actually know what gets revealed later and this is all speculation.

But I was worried at first that it would turn out that Jeremy Irons was Eragon's father, before I realized that of course John Malkovitch had to be Eragon's father, because the quarter of the story that isn't ripped off from Tolkien or McCaffrey is ripped off from George Lucas -- "No, Eragon, I am your father!" was surely inevitable.

Which meant that Jeremy Irons was free to teach Eragon all about sex as well as the magic of the elves.

That made it a MUCH more enjoyable movie for me than it really should have been. *g*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Frankly dreadful movie, i lost interest quite early on. I hate to say it, because it was a horrible book, but the book was actually better.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm. Nice review at Ferretbrain. I will be doing one at my LJ once I excavate Transgressions from the book reef. (I seriously have a reef of books beside my bed.)

I do agree, however, that it would be nice to have a bit more emphasis on the "what makes X loveable to Y" -- I noted that it was a lot more clear in Alex's book why the lovers would be together after the long separation.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I hope you enjoy it.

I suppose I thought I had made it clear that they were soul mates, but everyone takes different things from books.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Some of us are stupid and need to have it spelled out in detail. :-)

Really, I haven't yet had a chance to sit down with "Transgressions" and read it carefully. I read the first several pages, the end, and a smidge of the middle before buying it, and then devoured Alex's "False Colors" that evening. I planned on reading "Transgressions" that weekend, but it was the weekend Amazon.fail happened, so the book got put down into the giant reef of books I am reading/have read/have bought and lost in there/am trying to take notes upon. I know I liked the characters as I read them, but I don't know how they grow through the novel.

It does seem to me that soul mates are very easy for the author to declare and very hard for the reader to believe in, depending on the plot of the book and how much time I see the lovers spending on falling/in love. A two-day romance does not work for me. A two-week romance -- again, not really. Two months, much better. And two years? You have me. This is true for het or m/m romance, imho -- too many het romances try to make me think these two are destined together forever, and I'm thinking "no way... I bet they don't even like each other once the ust wears off". It's one of those tropes that really makes me cranky -- it's like, please to allow much more time in the book for relationship things, and not so much on the crime solving/adventures/etc. Your mileage, of course, will vary depending on how much you like a intensely character-centric book.

[sleveen.livejournal.com]

So I should forget about hearing from Samhain on the adult m/m novel I sent them? I guess?

I don't think I could write YA. Unless it involved the vicarious exploding of teenagers. Then I could totally write it... ^______________^

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh I don't think it will make any difference to their submissions process, at all, so if you haven't heard after a certain time, chase 'em up.

I certainly couldn't write it, I know that