Love in Dark Settings

One series a month

2012-02-06T10:13:22Z

So I counted up how many e-books I'd have to publish to get my entire backlist into e-book format, and it added up to - oh, let's call it a round 100.

Um.

The only way I'm going to be able to do this is to give myself a challenge. So I hereby challenge myself to prepare one series each month for publication, until I get my entire backlist published. That's seven series, if I count "Sweet Suffering" and "Main Street Leather" as one series each, which I intend to do. So seven series in seven months, including the unpublished stories that have been sitting on my hard drive, whining for attention. On busy months, I'll publish the shorter series.

I'll start the e-book publishing in April. I've put a progress meter on my sticky post - the first time I've ever displayed one of those.

Seven series. Seven months. As of April, the clock is ticking.

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If you care about free speech, please read this

2012-01-18T21:08:46Z

To alert those of you who have not yet noticed: this is a day when many websites (Wikipedia, etc.) are protesting two U.S. government bills that could have a devastating effect on freedom of speech, not only in the United States, but throughout the world. As Dreamwidth Studios (which runs the Dreamwidth blog network) says, "Pending in the United States legislature are two bills, closely related, that are designed to grant broad, new powers to the government in the name of fighting piracy and theft on the Internet. These bills are known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, HR 3261, Wikipedia) and the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA, S 968, Wikipedia). . . . We provide a space for the creation and sharing of legal content and in no way support or condone piracy or the theft of Intellectual Property. Laws like SOPA and PIPA, if passed, pose a very real and serious risk to the continued viability of sites like ours."

As the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts it: "PIPA and SOPA . . . would drastically change the way we use the Internet (for the worse), and punish millions of innocent users who have never even thought about copyright infringement. . . . These bills must be stopped if we want to protect free speech and innovation on the web."

If you're a U.S. citizen, you can contact Congress through this online form or through this EFF site. In addition, Dreamwidth Studios suggests, "If you are not a United States citizen, you can still help. Spread the word about these laws. If passed, this will not just affect people who live in the US - it will affect everybody who uses web sites based in and/or owned by American businesses."

Wherever you live, please pass on the word, in the same manner that you would pass on the word if you heard that your favorite writer had been censored. These bills threaten the free speech of everyone.

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Important announcement concerning my website

2012-01-18T18:00:34Z

As I've mentioned in the past, I earn my living through writing. Up till now, virtually all of my living expenses have been paid for by a donor. However, that source of money is gradually going to be phased out. This year, the donor - and the small amount of money that Noakes can afford to pay me for rent - will pay for my necessities: food, shelter, and medical care. However, my writing income will have to pay for everything else: my transportation, my professional expenses (books, convention attendance, library subscriptions, computer expenses, etc.), my cat's vet expenses, and so forth.

I'm currently earning $50 a month from my writing. This is a problem.

I've known for a year that this change was coming, and I've been spending all year considering solutions to the problem. I've also paid attention to what you guys said would improve my financial situation.

Last January, Tizzzzez told me:

"I think that you give away too much for free. This is very generous but doesn't necessarily encourage people to buy. I used to read your books via the free route until very recently when I decided that I was too impatient to wait to read them in this way. I would have started buying them much sooner if they hadn't been available in full for free."

This is advice I've heard from quite a few readers, and I've always resisted that advice because (1) I love being an online fiction writer, and (2) I love my online fiction readers, and (3) I was convinced that, in the long term, this particular business plan (giving away past stories for free in order to entice readers into buying new e-books) would work.

However, I no longer have the long term. I have the short term, and I have a financial crisis during that short term. So, with exceedingly great regret, I'm going to have to take down most of my online fiction.

At my AO3 account I'll post - now and in the future - a selection of my fiction, including, of course, all my holiday gift stories. I'm currently in the process of posting past stories there. If you're a member of AO3, you can subscribe to my account to receive notices of my new stories in your e-mail. (I'll also continue to post notices at my blog and lists and website, of course.) If you're not a member, you can still read the stories and comment there - or here - on what you've read. The navigation and HTML at AO3 is a lot better than it has ever been at my website. And hurrah! AO3 will allow you to download my stories there as e-books (Mobi/Kindle, ePub, PDF, and HTML).

So, while the removal of most of online fiction is likely to be a kick in the stomach for you folks, the remaining fiction is going to be in a new-and-improved environment. I hope you'll take that as a sign from me that, despite this awful necessity to trim my online fic presence, I still love my online fiction readers.

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New logo for my website

2012-01-08T08:52:05Z

Here.

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Daily life: I've been gifted with Eternal Dungeon fanfic! And Three Lands fan art!

2012-01-04T10:17:52Z

"Because you were talking about being new and everything, I am sort of trying to nurture your posting process and draw you out the way people were nice enough to do to me when I was new and terrifed, so you keep posting forever and ever and ever . . .

"(only unfortunately my version of subtle nurturing and tactful drawing-out is 'OMFG C'MERE EVERYBODY COME LOOK AT THIS OMG SQUEE!!')"

--Maculategiraffe to fellow writer Mydonald.

How I reply to comments at this blog (usually).

First the dull stuff:

WHAT I DID FOR MY MUSE RECENTLY

I proofread, edited, laid out, and posted my holiday gift fic.

I'm halfway through proofreading, editing, formatting, and submitting to e-zines three Life Prison side stories.

Lest I gain a swelled head over a certain award, I discovered a horrendous typo in the front matter of The Eternal Dungeon (readers, please alert me to these things) and am having to rush out a reprint.

I'm currently agonizing over my financial situation, in relation to my writing.

That's all. I've been too busy with holiday stuff in the past month - well, okay, and mindless web surfing - to get much writing-related work done. But I just downloaded two apps - HoursTracker and Story Tracker - which I hope will help make me more productive in the new year.

They'd better. I've got a ton of e-books to publish.

MY NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

1) Follow whatever parameters I set for my Internet usage. (I'm about to try the whitelist method.)

2) Care for my health, especially in terms of exercise, sleep, nutrition, and doctors.

3) Spend as much time as possible on professional work and on sorting my belongings.

4) Finish publishing my omnibus e-books, and start bringing out more e-books beyond that.

5) Send all the extraneous household items to charity, and put my books, music, papers, and remaining household items in order.

6) Spend more time with my friends and family.

And now the really good stuff:

LINKS RELATED TO MY WRITINGS (did you hear the squeeing in the subject heading of this post?)

Devilc finished her Eternal Dungeon fan fiction, In Darkness, Chained. "Prisoners always play games with their Seekers, but the Eternal Dungeon has never seen a player this adroit, nor a game played at this level." Includes spoilers for the series. I'm still in the midst of reading the story, or I'd undoubtedly be babbling more here.

J. Albert Rusla drew fan art for Law Links (The Three Lands). The art and accompanying comments are spoiler-free; click on the art to enlarge it. Those of you who have already read the novel might enjoy his spoilerish comments after reading Law Links. Not content with all this fannish activity, Mr. Rusla also posted this five-star review of The Three Lands. I do not deserve readers like this. They're like one-person marketing departments.

Speaking of which, A. B. Gayle went wild and crazy and posted a bunch of reviews of my stories. (Click on the "view" links at the right side of the page to view the reviews. The reviews for "Bard of Pain," "Life Prison," and "Rebirth" include spoilers.)

A few more links:

Five-star review by Brenda Cothern of The Eternal Dungeon. "Reading The Eternal Dungeon was like taking a walk back into an alternative history that could have actually happened."

Long recommendation by maderr of The Eternal Dungeon. "My favorite fucking part of this entire damn series is that it's all the shit I normally hate."

Brief recommendation by Scot Walker of the Three Lands story Re-creation. "If you like [Mary] Renault you will like Re-creation."

Last of all, a new essay by me:

Ted Carter's poetry collection Aphrodite includes an introduction by me about the circumstances under which these sensuous New Orleans poems were written. Excerpt and ordering information.

Sorry, guys, I'm still catching up on replying to your comments. I decided to post this now, rather than make you wait forever.

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Plus Love (Loren's Lashes; holiday gift story)

2011-12-21T16:52:59Z

Everyone calls her a fag hag. But Gay Pride Day has arrived, and her best friend is about to give her a new name.

"Tell me you're gay!" Gary nearly knocked her to the floor as he scrambled over her. "Please tell me you're gay!"

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Daily life: The house rebels

2011-12-16T22:03:34Z

"I wish to revise my previous stance. Although I still want to go Home and resent being called here and forced into this job again, it has now become bearable for one reason and one reason only: this kid has fuzzy slippers.

"You need to understand the importance of this fact. Fuzzy slippers. Warm oases of fluffy, soft goodness; cradling my feet and washing away with their healing touch all the pain of this existence. And not just any slippers, no: they have giraffes on them.

"Ladies, gentlemen, both, neither and other: nirvana has been achieved."

--Cobecat: It's All Been Done.

*Deep breath.* This is going to take multiple timelines to explain.

THE FUN BEGINS

Going downstairs to fetch my laundry around dawn (I'd been awake all night, thanks to Internet addiction), I discovered that the basement was flooding. Guess I should have paid attention to those flash flood warnings.

I traced the problem to a drainpipe - or rather, the drainpipe that we haven't had in the corner of our house for years. Water was pouring down from the gutter and pooling against the house, right above where the water was pouring into the basement.

I also figured out that I was probably right in suspecting that our basement wall had undergone hairline fractures last August, during the earthquake. Did you know that a lot of water can travel into the house through hairline fractures?

I put a garbage can under the flow from the gutter, scooped out the pool water with a measuring cup, and went to wake Noakes. We made an attempt to drain the garbage can with a bit of plastic tubing, but that didn't work. So he tipped the garbage can every fifteen minutes, while I tried to turn off everything I could in the laundry room. The furnace and hot water heater were right next to the flooding water.

I became acquainted, for the first time, with circuit breakers.

I went upstairs and relieved Noakes of his can-tipping duty so that he could get more sleep. After another four hours - hello, I've been up for thirty-six hours now - Noakes rose, and I went to bed. By the time I got up (four hours later; we were taking this in shifts), Noakes had figured out how to position the garbage can so that the water drained out in the direction opposite to the house.

We both donned extra clothes as the house got cold.

THE FUN INTENSIFIES

Blowing on my hands the next morning to keep them warm, I went downstairs to see whether the basement had dried enough that I could put the furnace and hot water heater back on. This involved coming close to the gas-powered hot water heater, with whom I had no previous acquaintance, such matters being the province of the house's co-owner. (He was in Baltimore throughout all this, by the way.)

I discovered that there was a fist-sized hole in one of the vents connected to the hot water heater.

I panicked and turned off everything that might be remotely connected with the hot water heater. Then I checked the basement's carbon monoxide detector and learned that, miraculously, it was still working.

I went online and found the hot water heater's manual online. It said, in so many words, "If a problem develops with this particular part, PANIC."

I called the gas company and spent an hour trying to find someone who would take this matter seriously.

A couple of nice gentlemen from the gas company showed up soon afterwards. They confirmed that, yes, we were lucky not to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning, because that particular vent directed the hot water heater's exhaust fumes to the chimney. They turned off the main connection to the hot water heater, as well as the main connection to the furnace, and handed me big red panic tags. They told me to call a plumber

I spent several days trying to find a plumber who was qualified to do this sort of work.

MEANWHILE, THE KITCHEN SINK FEELS NEGLECTED

So it decided to get my attention. The sink faucet started dripping rapidly. This is the sink with the leaking pipe, remember? Somewhere in the midst of all this, I woke up one day to discover that the kitchen floor was flooded. With water that I'd recently learned was sewage. And I had no hot water with which to wash my hands after I cleaned up the mess.

(See above about finding a plumber.)

Having determined that the bucket under the sink was filling up every two hours, and deciding that I really would like to get some sleep before January (by this time, 120 hours had passed, and I'd only had eight hours of sleep), I brought inside the ever-handy garbage can, attached Noakes's plastic tube to the faucet, snaked it over the growing mountain of unwashed dishes, and directed the dripping water into the can.

Then I slept. I was warm, thanks to the electric radiator that James Buchanan persuaded me to buy. (A pause as I kiss James's boots.) But Noakes doesn't have enough floor-space in his bedroom for a space heater, so he got to sleep in the frigid cold.

(We're up to Day Five by now.)

WE SETTLE IN FOR THE LONG HAUL

Thermal underwear. Thick trousers. Flannel shirt. Thick sweater. Jacket. Scarf. Winter cap. That's what I wear now when I leave my bedroom.

Honor the Cat is spending much of her time in my bedroom. I'd say, "She loves me for my radiator," except that she follows me into the cold bathroom for a pet.

Noakes claims he's warm, as long as he stays in bed.

All of the bugs in the house have died, except for the ones that had the good fortune to be in my bedroom when this started. I feel like Noah's Ark.

So the repairman shows up. "Oh, my goodness," he says, the moment he sees the hot water heater.

Remember that fridge of ours that died? The hot water heater was installed in the same year: 1989. It's overdue for death by a decade.

THE SALES DEPARTMENT HAS THE MISFORTUNE TO DEAL WITH SOMEONE WHO MAKES THEIR LIVING DOING ONLINE RESEARCH

Salesperson (brightly): "Yes, both heaters have Energy Star ratings!"

Me: "But the U.S. government's website says that the minimum rating for Energy Star hot water heaters is 67, and both the heaters you've told me about have ratings of 59. Also, I'm looking at the Rheem catalogue online, and it doesn't list the heater you told me about among its heaters that have Energy Star ratings."

A pause.

Salesperson: "Could you hold for a moment while I talk to my supervisor?"

NOAKES AND I AGREE THAT HOMESTEADING IS NOT FOR US

It's Day Ten. Honor is happy; the heat is back on this afternoon. So is the hot water heater. I still haven't found a plumber to fix the kitchen sink, and we still don't have a drainpipe or a crack-sealed basement. But hey, we have to make that garbage can earn its wages, right?

Don't become a homeowner. I'm just saying.

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"The Eternal Dungeon" is honored in the Rainbow Awards 2011

2011-12-09T08:55:19Z

I'm pleased (oh, let's be honest: I'm stunned) to announce that my historical fantasy novel omnibus The Eternal Dungeon has received several honors in the Rainbow Awards, founded in 2009 by book reviewer Elisa Rolle to showcase each year's best LGBT fiction and nonfiction.

This year, the award contest's judges selected from over 300 books from 68 publishers, ranging from small speculative-fiction publishers (e.g., Circlet Press and Lethe Press) to larger publishers (e.g., Random House/Knopf and Harlequin's Carina Press). The Eternal Dungeon was honored in the following categories:

* Winner, Best Gay Fantasy.
* 2nd Place, Best Setting Development.
* Honorable Mention, Best Gay Novel/Book.

Incidentally, Marie Sexton tied for two of the honors I received, so obviously I should take a look at her work. For that matter, there's an embarrassment of riches in this year's awards; I encourage you folks to read through the whole list, not only of the winners, but of the other nominees as well.

Some of my blog readers were among those honored. (If I miss your name here, please mention it in the comments and link to the online information about your honored work. There were a lot of awards given, and a lot of folks follow my blog. Plus, I don't always connect nicks with pen names.)

Lee Benoit:
3rd Place, Best Gay Fantasy (for Moonspun).

Megan Derr (aka maderr):
Winner, Best Gay Paranormal/Horror (for Midnight).

A. B. Gayle:
3rd Place, Best Gay Contemporary Romance (for Caught).

Storm Grant:
Honorable Mention, Best Gay Paranormal/Horror (for Shift Happens).

Clare London:
One Perfect Rate - Honorable Mention (for 72 Hours).

Cecilia Tan:
Honorable Mention, Best Gay Fantasy (for The Prince's Boy).

Man, do I have one distinguished group of blog readers.

What strikes me about this year's awards is that, alongside reasonably well-known names (e.g., Greg Herren and Erastes) and really famous names (e.g., Felice Picano and Patricia Nell Warren), there are a lot of names I don't recognize, some of which, presumably, belong to newcomers to the field of GLBT literature. Hurrah for new blood.

To my mind, though, the real winner of the contest is Elisa Rolle, who not only supervised the distribution of 300+ books to the judges, but also posted descriptions of every single nominated book and posted every single cover, sometimes several times, and always with complex formatting. In all, she made over a hundred posts for the Rainbow Awards 2011, without in any way flagging from her usual duty of writing book reviews and providing information on the history of the GLBT world.

I secretly suspect that she's a one-hundred-employee factory. :) But in any case, my hearty congratulations to her, the judges, the winners and honored authors, and the many readers who have been contributing to the development of this contest. We're all in debt to you.

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Daily life: A quick update of what I've been up to for the past three months

2011-11-25T10:53:07Z

"I feel like sometimes my life is a fanfiction co-authored by Dusk Peterson and Mercedes Lackey."

--J. Albert Rusla.

It took two frickin' weeks to set up my new computer, so here's a quickie, before I go back into writing hibernation on Saturday:

I'm back in business, thanks to my lovely little ultraportable and my new ergonomic keyboard.

I finished writing "Master and Servant 1: The Abolitionist" (Waterman), except for one scene that still needs on-site research in Southern Maryland.

My arm is improving, I'm coping with the cold weather (thanks, jesse_the_k!), and my overall health is improved. I can recline on a couch again! And sit for short periods, as long as the chair is really soft.

I've been reading. Lots.

I got an enormous amount of housework done during the period when I had no laptop (*cough, cough*). I finished the preliminary sorting of my mother's papers, having finished the preliminary sorting of my own papers last year. (Now I only have to go through the remaining 117 boxes.) I sorted my books, and set aside books to give away. And I gathered together clothes and household objects to give to Goodwill.

Noakes and I did some holiday stuff, but the only big excitement around the house has been broken appliances. We lost our refrigerator, we're down to one working burner on the stove, two of the sinks have leaking pipes (I have to dump a full bucket from under the kitchen sink each day), our furnace broke down briefly (on nights when the temperature was thirty degrees, of course), and the dishwasher, clothes dryer, and hot-water heater are all threatening to go on strike.

Did I mention that the English ivy in the yard is advancing en masse? Just call my home Apocalypse Now.

I'm off to spend time with Layle. I'll see you again in late December, when I'll be posting my holiday gift story, which I wrote last summer.

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Author appearances in 2012: Con.txt and Conclave

2011-11-25T09:20:54Z

I've updated my author appearances page to link to information on the two conventions I'll be informally attending in 2012, both near Washington, D.C.

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On gender identities and lying

2011-11-19T18:52:22Z

Jessewave has cut off the comments for this thread, as I discovered *after* I composed a reply. Since this is on a topic where I feel I have something to contribute, I'm posting my reply here (as an open letter to the m/m fiction community; I don't expect Wave to go bouncing around to various people's blogs, reading their posts on this subject).

I don't know A. J. Llewellyn, so I can't comment on the authenticity of his apology. I can say that I'm very much disturbed by the features of his apology that are mentioned by Wave; nothing that I write here is meant to minimize the series issues that Wave raises in her post. However, I'm also noticing a disturbing trend in this thread: a tendency to assume that an authentic GLBTQ person would never lie about their gender/sexuality.

Being in the closet, by definition, means lying. It means letting people think that you're something other than what you actually are. In some cases, it can mean devising an entire fake background: an imaginary girlfriend (to hide the fact that you actually date men), an imaginary vacation (to hide the fact that you actually spent your vacation at Fire Island), and so forth. This is lamentable, especially when it results in other people being hurt (for example, a wife who is married to a closeted gay man), but it is a very common experience for GLBTQ folk.

I came out, genderwise, in 2005. I knew my actual gender identity for eight years before that. And I lied about my gender, sometimes in words, sometimes by simply keeping silent. I let people think I was a woman. I let other people think I was a man. I didn't tell *anyone* that I was androgynous.

To this day, virtually all of the people I meet offline assume that I'm my biological sex, and nearly all the time, I don't tell them otherwise. I'm not in the closet anymore, but it's simply easier not to have to deal with their embarrassment or their shock - or their sheer boredom - at learning that I'm not what they think I am. And when I meet someone online who assumes that I'm the opposite of my biological sex . . . well, it's really nice to meet someone who sees me partly for what I really am. It balances out the people who see only the other half of my gender identity.

What I'm trying to say is that having a nonstandard gender identity can make the issue of honesty a complex one. That's the T part of the GLBTQ experience, which I hope we won't forget.

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вадцать тысяч золотых звезд (Russian translation of "Twenty Thousand Gold Stars")

2011-10-09T02:08:24Z

Основное правило его жизни – не раскрывать ничего о себе.

English-language blurb for the novel:

White Rose has lived a double life for too long. For too many years, he has struggled alone to determine how he should handle an ethical dilemma he never wanted to face. Now, finally, he has found help online. But is it the right help?

Twenty Thousand Gold Stars describes an online world where anonymity is all-important, and where a knock on the door can spell disaster. Yet behind the masks that are unwillingly donned, men and women seek answers to imperative questions that will determine, not only their own futures, but the futures of those they meet in real life.

* * *

I'll link to this eventually from my website, but I wanted everyone to have a chance to see the fruition of months and months of work by Rose Red and her beta reader. Unfortunately, I can't read Russian, but I can testify to the dedication of this team, from the number of inquiries about words that were sent to me during the translation process. (English-language readers can have fun by going to the ends of the posted chapters and seeing which English words had to be explained to Russian readers in footnotes. Impressively lengthy footnotes.)

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"Love in Dark Settings Omnibus" is going out of print

2011-09-22T20:33:19Z

This is to let you know that, as of October 15, all of the items at my Lulu store, including "Love in Dark Settings Omnibus," will cease to be available. This is because Lulu has decided to no longer permit the sale of any digital files except ePub and PDF. So you might want to browse through my Lulu store now (most of the items are free) and see whether there's anything there you'd like. I don't plan to republish any of these items, except the booktrailers, if I can find a proper host for them.

(The e-book prices are the same as earlier this year, incidentally, because Lulu has frozen my access to all of the files; I can delete the files, but I can't lower any prices.)

http://stores.lulu.com/duskpeterson
http://www.lulu.com/product/media-download/love-in-dark-settings-omnibus/11788657

(For those wondering: I'm still without a laptop, but one should arrive next month.)

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I'm taking a sabbatical

2011-08-31T18:37:18Z

So, a bunch of things have happened at once. My laptop has died. The earthquake and hurricane put me a week behind on my publishing schedule. Fall weather has come, which means that my eyes will be in decline from this point on. And I haven't been able to get done the things that I had planned to do this summer: housework, sorting my mother's papers, mentoring, doctors' appointments, regular exercise, and most importantly, taming my Internet addiction and developing a balanced schedule for myself.

I know that the main reason I haven't been able to do any of this is because of my Internet addiction. But I also know that my Internet addiction has been partly fueled by my need to go online for publishing reasons. And I'm very concerned that my health may be badly affected by my work schedule.

At this point, I could do one of two things: I could rush to finish my e-books for this year, which would involve continually switching between Noakes's laptop (which doesn't have an Internet connection) and his desktop (which isn't set up for accessibility), and then spend the remainder of the year plotting, composing, and editing stories for fifty hours a week, which is what I did last spring. Or I could take a break from writing and publishing till the end of the year.

I'd rather take a break. I've been a full-time writer now for 19 years and haven't taken a sabbatical in all that time. I have equally important stuff which needs to be done, such as putting this house into livable order.

I very much regret taking a break from writing at this juncture, when I feel time's wings at my shoulder, but I hope that one of the results of this sabbatical will be that I end up with a more sensible work schedule.

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Earthquake, hurricane - you planning any other surprises, Mother Nature?

2011-08-29T21:07:50Z

My power's back up, but Internet service and phone service are still down. I'm typing this on a library computer. Did the rest of you get through the storm okay? I'm thinking especially of Musicman and Catana.

No damage at our house, though the winds were really strong - 50 mph gusts, according to the radio.

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Hurricane Irene

2011-08-26T02:30:43Z

It will hit my area - how badly I don't know yet. Fortunately, my house is well constructed for sitting out storms. It has endured several hurricanes since I moved here in 1974.

What about the rest of you on the East Coast? Are you making preparations for the storm? And are any of you still mopping up from the earthquake?

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Earthquake

2011-08-23T23:25:54Z

Sorry, guys; I was so rattled by the earthquake that I posted directly to LJ rather than here. Here's my two entries on it:

http://duskpeterson.livejournal.com/152965.html
http://duskpeterson.livejournal.com/153210.html

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Switching to Twitter for a while

2011-08-11T18:54:28Z

My health won't permit me to use my laptop at the moment, so I'm switching back to my Twitter account for a while for Daily Life mini-entries. If any big stuff happens, I'll post here too, of course, but Twitter is better for tiny updates typed with one finger on an iPod Touch.

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News on my Smashwords e-books, Turn-of-the-Century Toughs, and "Love in Dark Settings Omnibus"

2011-08-10T03:58:19Z

Details about my new pay-what-you-can-afford pricing at Smashwords.

A map of the Turn-of-the-Century Toughs world.

Also, I've learned that, as of October, Lulu will no longer sell digital files (other than ePub and PDF). This means that all of my Lulu e-books, audio books, and booktrailers will no longer be available - most notably Love in Dark Settings Omnibus.

Fortunately, I'd already planned to publish all of my fiction as multiformat e-books this summer. However, if you'd like to buy a zipped HTML edition of all the fiction and nonfiction at my website (which is what Love in Dark Setting Omnibus is), now's the time to do so.

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Daily life: Lagging behind

2011-07-30T21:12:44Z

"Follow our instructions. Seriously, I'm not kidding. I don't care if you are a publishing expert with 20 years experience, follow the damn instructions. There is one exception. For those who want to fail, spend 300% more time on the formatting, and have no fear of being driven terminally insane, and are generally narcissistic bastards, you may do as you please. For the rest of you, follow the instructions. Repeat after me, 'I will follow the instructions in the style guide or have a pox upon my house.' Now say it 37 times, turn around and hop on one leg."

--Brian Meeks, parodying Mark Coker putting "the fear of god" in self-publishers in The Smashwords Style Guide.

How I reply to comments at this blog.

SUNDAY: My task list for last week

Reformatted and reuploaded e-books. That was my most important task, and I got it done, thank goodness.

Fiction back-up. Didn't get it done, because of the heat.

Make doctors' appointments. Didn't get it done, because of the heat.

Get new software for e-mail. Didn't get it done, because of the heat.

Sort Mother's papers. Didn't get it done, because . . . Well, you get the idea.

The only member of this household who's happy about the heat last week is my pair of eyes. They've been watching lots of movies.

MONDAY: Back to work, and evidence that the Clean Air Act isn't working

The heat has lifted in Maryland (it's only in the nineties this week, chuckle chuckle), so I'm back on my regular work schedule. Today I did a load of laundry; I had ten bedsheets waiting to be laundered. I was going through two or three a day during the heatwave. I also sorted more of my mother's papers and continued editing "Law of Vengeance" (The Three Lands) and "Silence" (Life Prison). However, I had to cut short the editing, because it was a lovely, cool evening, and so I made the mistake of opening the windows and doors. The result? By midnight, I was getting so little oxygen into my lungs that I kept falling asleep.

Darn it, I feel like a poster child for the anti-pollution movement.

THURSDAY: This week's menu

. . . on my gluten-free, corn-free, dairy-free, nightshade-free, citrus-free, low-fat, very-low-sodium, anti-inflammatory diet.

BREAKFAST

Rice cake.
Tuna fish with vegan mayonnaise.
Spinach.

Rice crackers.

Apple.

Water.

Cereal: Rice milk, flaxseed, puffed millet, quinoa flakes, and trail mix (raisins, sunflower seeds, peanuts, dates, apricots, pumpkin seeds, almonds and apple).

LUNCH

Brown rice.
Carrots and carrot greens.
Brussels sprouts.
Beans in pods.
Onion.
Garlic.
Sesame seeds.
Soy Monterey Jack cheese.
Cream sauce (almond-cashew cream substitute and tapioca flour).

Strawberry smoothie (strawberries and rice milk).

DINNER

Wild rice.
Carrot (shredded).
Broccoli.
Dulse seaweed (in place of rice cheese).

Peach.

Water.

Sweet spread on rice bread.

LATE MEAL

Rice English muffin.
Peanut butter.
Banana.

Bean chips.

Stawberry smoothie.

* * *

Amazing to think that I survived my adolescence on canned soup, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, milk, and Oreo cookies.

FRIDAY: Slow but steady on editing and layout

I'm halfway through with the final editing of "Silence" (Life Prison). The story has been betaed at the last minute by an intrepid volunteer who was willing to work to my tight deadline. Man, do I have loyal readers.

I've also finished the front matter and back matter for the leather omnibus. But I'm going to have to take a break this weekend to catch up on e-mail and to prepare for what I can no longer put off: calling doctors' offices to make appointments. I'm especially worried about my breathing situation; I'm getting very little oxygen at night.

SATURDAY: The old way and the new way of submitting manuscripts to SF/F magazines

The old way (circa 2003):

1) Format the story according to the standard manuscript format.

2) Type up the cover letter.

3) Type up the acknowledgments postcard and the publisher address.

4) Print out all the above.

5) Sign the cover letter.

6) Stamp the acknowledgments postcard, the return envelope, and the submissions envelope.

7) Put return addresses on the acknowledgment postcard, the return envelope, and the submissions envelope.

8) Put First Class labels on the submissions envelope and return envelope.

9) Put the publisher address on the submissions envelope.

10) Paperclip the manuscript.

11) Insert everything into the submissions envelope and tape it.

12) Take the envelope to the post office and stand in line for fifteen minutes.

Are you getting a sense of why I stopped submitting to SF/F publishers? Well, here's the new way of submitting:

1) Format the story according to the standard manuscript format.

2) Save in RTF format.

3) Discover that the header is garbled when the document is opened in Microsoft Word.

4) Reopen the story in WordPerfect and delete the header.

5) Go into Microsoft Word, figure out how to do a header in it, and insert the header.

6) Check the manuscript and discover that, somewhere along the way, entire sentences have been deleted from the manuscript. At random.

Okay, that's enough work for today. I'll try again tomorrow, from scratch. But I really wish that the top SF/F magazines would start treating "electronic submissions" as though they really were electronic submissions, and not just files to be printed out and scribbled on.

REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF FICTION AND NONFICTION NARRATIVES

A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire. Also available in a cleaner but shorter version for download here. I don't know how I missed knowing of this before, but it's jaw-dropping. It's a thirteen-minute film, from 1906, of San Francisco, shortly before the city was hit by the earthquake. The camera simply rode a cable-car down the street, capturing all the tiny details of daily life in a shopping district. Wikipedia describes it as a "time capsule."

OTHER LINKS

The Best Writing Advice EVER, by Angela Scott. "Readers are dumb. They are unable to infer a single thing. Spell it out clearly. If you're still uncertain that your reader gets the gist of what is taking place, then by all means, write it again. You may have to write it several times to ensure that the concept has been thoroughly explored and explained—'Harold said, sadly. The tear sliding down his cheek proved his unhappiness. He cried a little more. He had never been so unhappy in all his life.'"

For the Sake of Vanyel, by Nicole Kimberling. "Though our company still produces books that are primarily intended for GLBT readers, it is the sales dollars and support from the M/M community that allows Blind Eye Books to continue. Not acknowledging that simple fact is, at best, juvenile — like asking your mom to drive you to the movies, pay for your ticket and buy you popcorn, and then pretending you don't know her once you're inside the theater."

Competing with Free: eBooks vs eBooks. From An American Editor. "This is not to say that I do not buy nonfree ebooks – I do. When I come across an author whose free ebook captures me, I'll buy the author's other ebooks – but free comes first."

Square: A New Tool for Book Signings. From Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. "It's a little white cube that turns your smart phone or tablet (like an iPad) into a credit card accepting machine."

Kindle Singles now has a submissions page.

Raising a gender-less child: possible? "A family in Toronto has provoked strong reactions with their decision not to tell people the gender of their baby."

. . . And yeah, and this means I'm still in the throes of my Internet addiction.

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FIC: Wax | Broken | Torture (The Eternal Dungeon; Life Prison)

2011-07-25T03:31:52Z

These stories are written in response to the 50 Darkfics challenge, which offers one hundred one-word prompts on dark themes, to inspire authors to write stories on those topics. The darkfic written for this challenge ranges from lightly humorous to suspensefully dramatic. All of the stories here are set in the Midcoast nations of the Turn-of-the-Century Toughs universe. Turn-of-the-Century Toughs is my cycle of historical fantasy series about disreputable men on the margins of society, and the men and women who love them. The novels are set in an imaginary version of Maryland and other Mid-Atlantic states between the 1880s and the 1910s. One of the series in the cycle, Waterman, combines elements of the 1910s with retrofuturistic imagery from the 1960s.

#92: Wax (The Eternal Dungeon). The Record-keeper of the Eternal Dungeon goes in search of a very special supply.

#34: Broken (The Eternal Dungeon AU). Layle Smith is not always the ideal man for the job.

#10: Torture (The Eternal Dungeon/Life Prison AU). The High Seeker of the Eternal Dungeon visits a foreign prison.

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Daily life: Hot. Hot. Hot.

2011-07-25T00:17:32Z

"If shopping at your local Borders is part of your weekly routine, and then Borders is gone, you may end up doing something other than buying books."

--Michael Norris, concerning the impact of the closure of the Borders bookstore chain on the publishing industry.

How I reply to comments at this blog.

SUNDAY: Continuing to plunge into publishing

Numerous layout problems today, so I wasn't able to get the e-book reformatting finished, the way I'd hoped. It's frustrating having to work with three layout formats of the exact same e-book: DOC, HTML, and Kindle.

What I've got left to do before I can do my next online update: e-book reformatting, graphic design and e-books covers, and more web-page layout.

I'd like to get the update done by mid-week, and then spend the rest of the week making doctors' appointments and resolving my months-long e-mail software problem. (Going into D.C. to resolve a problem with my eyeglass prescription, and going clothes shopping locally - I'm down to five pairs of socks - will have to wait till it's cooler. It's supposed to be around 100 degrees on Friday, which could mean a heat index of 110 degrees or higher.)

Next week, I'll finish editing the three e-zine submissions, format them according to editors' specifications, and send them off. I'm hoping that will take only a week, since the stories are short.

Then I'll tackle the Life Prison e-book. I've left myself two weeks in which to do the layout, publishing, marketing, but it might take three weeks.

That will leave me late August and mid-September to publish the other three e-books. "Michael's House" will be easy. The other two will not.

Darn it, I wish summer lasted five months, rather than three.

MONDAY: Done.

Update ready to upload, thank goodness. I'll do that tomorrow. It's good to be ahead of schedule for once.

TUESDAY: The Three Lands and editing

Only managed to get the Kindle editions uploaded. I'll have to continue tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I've started editing Law of Vengeance on my iPod Touch, since I don't have any other iPod Touch work to do at the moment. The novel won't be ready to publish till next year, but I might as well started now, because it's a biggie: 150,000 words. It took three months to prepare "Law Links" for publication; I don't expect "Law of Vengeance" to take any less time.

I really need an iPad for editing, though. It's a pain to have to scroll forward in my word processor after every couple of sentences.

WEDNESDAY: Work and weather

Finished the update; I can start work on Life Prison next week.

Meanwhile, the East Coast is bracing itself.

"I think we're going to need the air conditioning," I said.

I don't say that lightly. Air conditioning dries out my eyes to the point of pain within thirty minutes. But here's what the heat index is going to be like in the D.C. area for the rest of the week:

Thursday: Up to 111 degrees.

Friday: Up to 116 degrees.

Saturday: Up to 110 degrees.

See that yellow spot on the map I linked to above? That's us. Right now, at nine PM, the heat index is 87 degrees. I've been sweating like a pig all day. Before I go to bed, I'll have to take my third shower for the day, and change my bedsheets for the second time today.

Noakes the Texan think we can get through this without air conditioning (which aggravates his asthma), but he has a fever from the flu, so I'm not taking any chances. The first sign that either of us is overheating, and I'm flipping on the air conditioner.

THURSDAY: The heat index was 119 degrees in my town today

Just sayin'.

FRIDAY: Weather reports

Thursday, 9 PM: Heat index of 87 degrees. It's a Code Orange day: air quality is dangerous to "susceptible" individuals. That's me.

Thursday, 11:30 PM: I fall asleep before I'd meant to - with my window open! - and sleep for six hours straight, a sure sign that I'm not getting enough oxygen.

Friday, 5:30 AM: Heat index of 85 degrees. Code Red: air quality is dangerous to normal individuals.

8:30 AM: Heat index of 99 degrees.

10 AM: Heat index of 108 degrees.

11:30 AM: I fall asleep, again because I'm not getting enough oxygen. (I know the difference between this and falling asleep because I'm sleepy; when I have oxygen problems, I have to struggle to wake up, because I can't easily draw in a full breath of air.)

1:30 PM: Heat index of 113. I check the peak flow meter (a medical device that shows how well I'm breathing) and compare the results with Noakes, who is asthmatic. His result is fifty points better than mine. I tell him to wake me if he sees me napping.

4:00 PM: Heat index of 119 degrees. The Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang report: "DC at epicenter of heat wave." I opt for a cold lunch. Afterwards, I decide that it's impossible to dwell on one's own mortality when eating a jam sandwich and reading Diana Gabaldon's latest story.

6:30 PM: The heat index goes down to a balmy 110 degrees. Noakes gives our cat a bowl of water. With an ice cube.

Thursday, 1 AM: It's cool enough for bed: a heat index of 101 degrees.

SATURDAY: A lesson in leatherboy-speak

Noakes said, "Would you like me to make the muffins tonight, Sir, or would you prefer that I cook them tomorrow night?"

For those of you who don't know leatherboy-speak, let me translate that into regular language: "It's hot as heck - I don't want to slave over a hot stove tonight."

The remarkable thing about Noakes's leatherboy-speak is that it trips off his tongue without any effort on his part. There are entire workshops devoted to teaching people to speak this way. Noakes just knows how to do it naturally.

(And no, I didn't make him slave over a hot stove.)

REVIEWS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF FICTION AND NONFICTION NARRATIVES

Adventures of a cat slave, by Steve Berman. The cat isn't the slave. "Brief hand kowtow at 9:20pm. The master demands his slave extend one hand so he can rest his forepaws upon it and purr with delight at this show of submission."

OTHER LINKS

I've added quotations to my journal profile and have updated the Background to my Health page.

The Results of my 100 Day Social Media Blackout, by author Monica Valentinelli. "Did getting off of social media hurt my book sales or my chances for publication? No. The new release that I had hit a sales milestone on the retailer's website, I continued to sell copies of my e-book, and I sold new stories. In terms of 'success,' I encountered zero difference between being online-or-off." Also see the article and blog entries she links to.

ForbiddenFiction (not safe for work), a new publisher soliciting submissions. "We are willing to publish many different genres – contemporary, mystery, historical, western, science fiction, fantasy, romance, adventure, thriller, and horror. Some of the types of fiction we look for include stories involving sexual violence, age disparity, sado-masochism, slavery, power differences and very dark themes. Our stories cover a range of sexual practices, gender and orientations.

"Much of our fiction will be serialized, available free on our website. Original, cutting edge novels will be published a chapter a week, with the option to buy an e-book or print copy at any time. All readers will have the option of commenting and interacting with authors in a community-style environment. Paying members will have access to bonus material in addition to the free stories."

They're from the fanfic community, not surprisingly.

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Archive of Our Own now allows members to post "fannish" original fiction

2011-07-16T14:50:33Z

I learned about this because franzeska was kind enough to write to me. She gives a run-down of the news at her blog and quotes the exact rules (which are important, because non-fannish original fiction is still banned). She also gave me permission to quote a section of her private message to me that seemed important to me to emphasize:

"AO3 is, as ever, not-for-profit and doesn't allow ads for offsite commercial m/m presses or even break-even zines, but original m/m fic is more than welcome if the author thinks it belongs there. (I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but it's been pointed out to us that the norm in some circles--among fan artists for example--is to use the free stuff to attract attention to items for sale on other sites. Most people don't read TOS carefully; I don't want anyone getting a nasty surprise!)"

I'd like to offer a big thank you to the Organization for Transformative Works for this change. I know that they don't want AO3 to become another FictionPress, so it's brave of them to let us ficcers post our fannish originalfic alongside our fanfic.

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FIC: On Guard (The Eternal Dungeon) 19/19 - the last installment of the novel

2011-07-16T14:29:20Z

The ties forged between the noble-minded Eternal Dungeon and the abusive Hidden Dungeon have set off an unpredictable chain of horrific events, in which the love between two Seekers (torturers) will be tested to the straining point. Caught in the middle of the struggle are Barrett Boyd and Seward Sobel, two loyal guards who will find themselves questioning their most fundamental beliefs about the Eternal Dungeon's ideals.

"He's your friend, isn't he?"

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

Note that I have also posted this novel's historical note, as well as an excerpt from the next novel in the series (which has major spoilers for the last installment of "On Guard," so don't read it till you've finished reading "On Guard").

All of the novel as part of an e-book.

If something puzzles you about a story I post, throw your thoughts out by posting a comment. Some other readers might have ideas about how to solve the puzzle. (I'll only respond if someone directly addresses me; I'd rather hear your theories.) You can also post a question to get a discussion started, or offer feedback. One-word feedback is fine.

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