Help, I’m alive!
OK, that’s maybe not the title I’d have gone for if I’d been going for informational value. I just have the song running through my head at the moment. “Help, I’m alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer.’ Let me see if I can find it somewhere so you can have it running through your head too.
All of which is an enormous aside, because what I mean is ‘Help, I’ve finished the novel I was working on. What should I do next?’
I really want to write some heroines. This is a problem, given that everything I’ve ever published is m/m. If I write some heroine led books, where would I publish them? Who would read them? Why on earth would I be even contemplating starting again from scratch when I should really buckle down and concentrate on writing the books I know people want me to write?
Actually maybe the song is not that inappropriate after all. ‘I tremble. They’re going to eat me alive.’
Why do I do this to myself? Why can’t I settle on anything? Oh god, it’s far more appropriate than I thought, or else it’s my author’s mind turning everything into a metaphor, but look – I’m such a butterfly. I can’t stay on one flower very long.
I could try, though. What do you think? Have you got m/m books you badly want me to write? Any suggestions? Or should I go off and write another Lioness book which no one may ever read? And then that one with the squad of Faerie paranormal investigators? And then whatever comes next?
Speaking of which, I’m badly in need of someone to beta read Lioness of Cygnus 5 for me. It’s an all action sci-fi romp in which a hard-bitten female space captain and a cowardly techno-criminal are shipwrecked on a penal planet and have to work together to survive. Anyone fancy reading it and getting back to me with questions and suggestions for how it can be improved?
I would gladly read for you, also yes on the heroine front, I struggle to find credible women
Alex, you’re making me laugh, which may or may not be your intent. I would answer, write what you want. I am a reader, though, so I don’t know what makes sense for an author to do, you know, if they care about that whole selling books thing. I wish it was as easy as, write a great story, but we know how many great stories languish.
I will say, though, if you feel the desire to write more heroines, I honestly feel like you should. I think you come from a great perspective on things and would truly add something with yours. Outside of romance and ya, I actually almost exclusively read stories where the woman is the main focus/perspective. Up until I started reading m/m, I read almost only women authors, too. I felt quite sexist, but given how many successful male authors there are, I’m sure they weren’t missing me much! All that’s to say, if it makes good sense to you in some way, I’d say go for it.
Sci-fi is my least read genre, but I have enjoyed many, so if you want a reader, I’m yours for the taking. 🙂 Totally understandable if you want someone with a bit more experience, though.
Woohoo! Thanks Karen 🙂 I would be very glad if you could take a look at it. If you email me on alex@alexbeecroft.com, I’ll send it over straight away. Thanks for offering!
I don’t know how credible my heroine of this one is, mind you. She’s a bit of a wish fulfilment character. She’s no less credible than James Bond or Hornblower, but I’m not sure she’s any more so 🙂
Thanks Carolyn! Yes, business wise it makes more sense to keep doing the things I am doing in order to build up a decent backlist and get people used to the idea that I’ll have a new book out twice a year and it’ll be something they know to expect. Reliability – it’s a good thing 🙂
It’s just that from an artistic/creative sort of pov I can’t seem to keep up interest in any one thing for that long. Plus, you know, prolonged exposure to feminism and self-examination and growing as a person, puts you in touch with parts of yourself you weren’t familiar with before, and they need to be explored. I haven’t read a lot of books with heroines or female authors because I was quite alienated from my feminine side, but now I’m thinking it’s definitely time to do something about that.
Thanks so much for offering to have a look at it! It would be great if you could 🙂 Drop me an email to alex@alexbeecroft.com and I’ll send it right along. Thank you!
I did an F/F story last year – at least in part because I was missing writing women as the lead characters. I include women in my m/m books as much as I can and try to make them awesome. But still, they’re not the leads, so they don’t get the POV and I miss them. The last time I wrote a novel length story with a female lead, and loads of other women characters, was my NaNoWriMo 2007 book!
The F/F short is with JMS books. Right now I’m working on the draft of a longer F/F story, intended to be novella or novel length. It’s a journey into the unknown for me. It’s a romance, but I’m still trying to figure out if it will be as explicit as my M/M stuff. I’m getting out of my comfort zone! Like you say, the question is, who is going to read it when my previous ones are all m/m? The F/F market must be even smaller and more niche than the M/M market. I’m trying other new things too this year. Got a m/m fantasy novella coming out in summer. I’m trying contemporary and working on an idea for a mystery. Gotta keep moving forward and trying new things.
Lioness of Cygnus 5 sounds great, by the way.
Hell yes write us some heroines, please!
Oh, Alex… please write the characters and stories that speak to you! I will happily read anything from your pen, keyboard… mind, whatever! Caveat… still patiently waiting for more Charles and Jasper 😉 I’d ask to read Lioness too, but alas my plate overflows at this time.
Just finished Blue Eyed Stranger and was captivated once again by your insight into the characters and ability to transport me to the scenes in the story. view coming for release day. 🙂
LOL… Review coming 😉
@Becky Black *g* I’m reassured to know I’m not the only one going through this. Thank you! I think my main problem is that I really like stories that aren’t wholly focussed on the romance, so they probably don’t fit into the romance genre at all. I feel that’s probably a struggle you’re familiar with too. But yes, I do feel like you’ve got to keep trying new things or you stagnate. And I know there are people out there saying ‘I want books with queer protagonists that are not all about the relationship’ – so there’s a market somewhere. But it’s still a bit daunting moving into new territory. What’s your fantasy novella called? That’s definitely going to be right up my street.
Thank you!
@Tigg LOL! Thank you! You know, I might just do that, in that case 🙂
@Dianne T. Oh thank you! I actually started researching and writing a plot plan for a second Charles and Jasper novella, which was going to be set in 18th Century Liverpool and involve arson and the slave trade. But then I thought ‘This is too horrible. I don’t think it could ever be entertainment,’ so I psyched myself out about it and ended up doing Lioness instead. I must try again, because I did want to know about Lily the ghost girl in that, and it was shaping up to be a nice way to set some spooky stuff in the 18th Century 🙂
Yay! I’m really glad to hear you enjoyed BES 🙂 You’re now thoroughly equipped to bluff your way as a morris expert in conversation if the subject ever comes up 😉 I’m really looking forward to seeing what you thought of it. Thank you!
@Alex. yes, lots of my stories have tended to be sort of “we’re falling in love in the middle of all this other stuff going on.” 😀 I’m someone who came to the m/m genre from the fandom side, rather than from the m/f Romance side, so the romance structure and tropes aren’t in my blood the way they are for some.
The fantasy novella is called Immutable and will be out in the summer in the Dreamspinner Press Bittersweet Dreams line, because it doesn’t have a happy ending.
@Becky I’m the same – I was (and still am) immersed in fandom but I’ve never actually read romance, and I am beginning to find the romance structure and rules a bit too restrictive for me. Also, I’ve always been a gen writer. I like friendship fics and found family fics just as much as sexual-chemistry fics (if not sometimes more), and I’m definitely feeling that I miss that diversity in original fic.
Cool! I’ll look out for that one, definitely 🙂
Interesting… I realize I never read “romance” before diving into the MM genre. I acknowledge I first forayed into MM looking for smut, but got bored after about 3 books worth of sex, sex sex. I needed plot, substance, intrigue, character growth etc. and was so happy to discover that there were/are authors such as Alex out there delivering just that – and brilliantly!! In my beloved historical settings no less!! I do love reading relationship arcs but if there is a “romance structure”, I’m not aware of it!
BTW, my review for BES is here 😉 http://itsaboutthebook.com/2015/04/07/blue-eyed-stranger-trowchester-blues-2/
Thanks Dianne 🙂 Yes, I’m the same – I came into m/m romance from SF/F and fanfiction, so even the love stories I enjoyed were not romances in the classical sense. It was quite a revelation to me to find smut that appealed to me *at all*, but now I know where to look for it and there’s no chance of it running out, the pressure to read as much of it as I could get my hands on has gone and I’m back on my usual thing of reading almost entirely for the story. I like there to be some saving of the world or bringing murderers to justice in addition to the relationship stuff 🙂
Ooh, what a lovely review! Thank you so much! People definitely seem to be liking the unusual proposal scene. I’m relieved 🙂