erastes

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.