I can’t remember if I posted this before. I know I meant to. But look what I came across in a book of short essays by Dorothy L.Sayers, the author of the Lord Peter Wimsey books:
A man once asked me…how I managed in my books to write such natural conversation between men when they were by themselves. Was I, by any chance, a member of a large, mixed family with a lot of male friends? I replied that, on the contrary, I was an only child and had practically never seen or spoken to any men of my own age till I was about twenty five. “Well,” said the man, “I shouldn’t have expected a woman [meaning me] to have been able to make it so convincing.” I replied that I had coped with this difficult problem by making my men talk, as far as possible, like ordinary human beings. This aspect of the matter seemed to surprise the other speaker; he said no more, but took it away to chew it over. One of these days it may quite likely occur to him that women, as well as men, when left to themselves, talk very much like human beings also.
Indeed, it is my experience that both men and women are fundamentally human, and that there is very little mystery about either sex, except the exasperating mysteriousness of human beings in general. And though for certain purposes it may still be necessary, as it undoubtedly was in the immediate past, for women to band themselves together, as women, to secure recognition of their requirements as a sex, I am sure that the time has now come to insist more strongly on each woman’s – and indeed each man’s – requirements as an individual person.
That was written in1938. Over 70 years ago. I can’t decide whether to laugh or smite something at the fact that we’re still having the very same conversation now. I don’t study men from the outside like some sort of anthropologist documenting a strange species. I ask myself “if I was him, with his upbringing and his beliefs and his personality (bearing in mind that society places different constraints on a man to the constraints it places on a woman) what would I do?” And then I write that down.
Yes the ‘bearing in mind society’s constraints’ part of it means that my male characters, when hopeless and grieving and angry, are likely to drink a lot and then hit something, while my female characters are more likely to express the same emotion by crying. But it’s still the same emotion being felt for the same reason – and that’s because both of my characters are human, which is a far far bigger similarity than any difference caused by sex.
I do believe I’m starting to get the hang of this book trailer lark. Though that might just be the usual ridiculous enthusiasm brought about by having finished it without the computer crashing more than three times in the process.
I was going to wait until Shining in the Sun was out before posting the trailer, but then I found out that I simply couldn’t wait. Ah well, it’s not long now. Due out on 8th of June!
I’m still trying new things to get around the fact that my vid making talents don’t stretch to moving pictures. I wanted it to be a little different from the usual book trailer, while not having the skill to do anything other than the usual still picture + text thing. So I tried to get round that by making the whole thing look a bit like a cartoon. What do you think?
There aren’t many people who make me feel effortlessly outclassed, but this lady is one. Clever, beautiful, faster than a speeding puma, and – by the sound of it – soon to be able to fly:
Kiana Firouz, 27 years old, is an outspoken Iranian LGBT rights activist, filmmaker, and actress. When clips of her video documentary work featuring the struggle and persecution of gays and lesbians in her country were acquired by Iranian intelligence, agents began to follow Firouz around Tehran, harassing and intimidating her. She fled for England where she could safely continue her work and studies.
Firouz, understandably, has requested asylum from the British government. Much to everyone’s shock and dismay, the British Home Office has rejected her application for refugee status. Yes, they know she’s gay. Yes, they know she could be deported back to Iran at any time, and that if this happens, Firouz will most likely be sentenced to torture and death after being found guilty of the “unspeakable sin of homosexuality” because she has participated in explicit lesbian sex scenes in the movie, and been a fierce proponent for human rights in her country.
In Iran, the punishment for lesbianism involving mature consenting women consists of 100 lashes. This punishment can be applied up to three times. After a fourth violation of Iranian law, a woman convicted of “unrepentant homosexuality” is finally executed by hanging,
She still has an appeal left (I think) so please sign the petition now and maybe we can change this decision.
Later Edit
A friend just did some digging and emailed me to say “are you sure this is legit, because I can’t find anything about it on any of the news channels or even the major GBLT websites.” I’ve gone away and Googled it some more, and find quite a few people saying that their contacts have mysteriously disappeared and they haven’t heard anything from Kiana or her supporters for a while and they’re getting worried. So now I’m starting to wonder if it’s some kind of publicity stunt for the woman’s new film. If so, that would be disgraceful. But it’s probably worth while signing the petition anyway, in case it is genuine.
I should make a regular thing of this, though more than half of my reading at the moment is research. I can always include a quick run down on my research books too 🙂
My big news for this week is the Last Gasp anthology featuring stories by Erastes, Chris Smith, Charlie Cochrane and Jordan Taylor. It was pretty much guaranteed to be good right from the start, given that line up, and it didn’t disappoint.
Erastes’ story, Tributary, is set between world wars and features an angry young protagonist who is sick of himself because he wasn’t able to fight in the first world war. It’s full of the lush detail of a spectacular setting, a privileged caste who are disenchanted with their own advantages, and war wounds, both physical and spiritual. Lots of pain and lots of sensuality, and an ending that startled me because I hadn’t been expecting it, but it was just right.
Chris Smith’s The White Empire is odd. I shouldn’t say that it’s a laugh, because it’s probably the grimmest of the stories, but there’s something about her hero, Edgar, which is so awful that you can’t help liking him for it. He’s a bit like the Prince of Wales. You can’t believe anyone could be so rude, but it’s refreshing that he’s at least not insincere. And in his appalling way he develops into quite a hero, until by the end you’ve forgotten that you didn’t like him at all. It’s great fun.
Speaking of great fun, Charlie Cochrane’s story, Sand, is IMO the lightest (in a good way) in the book. A story in which one of the heroes almost dies from a scorpion bite might not seem like a good candidate for cheer, but Charlie’s trademark humour and lightness of touch makes this one a perfect pick me up to the more angsty stories that surround it.
Jordan Taylor claims that she can’t do happy endings, but I thought that the ending of hers was perfect, and it made a good ending for the anthology too. This story has a really finely observed culture clash, and as someone who loved anthropology at university, I really enjoyed the way the heroes in this go from not even being able to understand each other’s frame of reference, through anger and repulsion and acceptance and out into love. I thought it was totally convincing from an emotional POV, and also a setting we don’t see much of.
The whole book was a refreshing change from the usual eras that historicals tend to concentrate on. Not an easy read – there’s some really heart wrenching moments, and I’d almost say that the focus is more that of historical fiction with gay characters rather than on romance with a capital R – but touching and thought provoking, sad and hopeful. A real experience of a book that has kept me thinking about it for the past week and discovering new things to appreciate and admire. Definitely recommended 🙂
So, I’m 61K into “Under the Hill”, and I’m now completely sure that I have a Fantasy novel on my hands, not a romance. This is all well and good, except that two of the characters (George and Chris) have backstory together – massive, massive backstory. I find myself really wanting to write their massive backstory as a m/m romance novel.
The trouble is – can I write a Fantasy, sell it to a Fantasy publisher, and then use two of the characters in that book for a Romance, which I would inevitably have to try and sell to a different publisher? Will any Romance publisher want to touch a romance, knowing that in the Fantasy I’ve written, my two characters will have been separated by cruel circumstances and never be able to get back together again?
It would be a lot easier just to take the setting for the romance and do it using different characters. That’s my backup plan. But that wouldn’t be half the fun. The whole point is that it would be C&G’s back story. Argh! This sort of thing was much easier in fanfic.
Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing in publishing? Characters who’ve migrated through different genres? Is it at all possible? Do you think it would be wise?
It’s a site which takes public domain books from Project Gutenberg, reformats them to read properly on an e-reader, gives them an excellent cover made from public domain art, and then lets you download the end product for free. Free books!
I’ve been and grabbed The Mystery of Udolfo, The Scarlet Pimpernel, a couple of Agatha Christies and The War Workers already, and will probably go back for more later 🙂 Yay for free ebooks!
I’m having one of those years where I seem to be doing nothing, while standing in bemusement and watching the time fleet past me. How did it get to be May already? Rose is on study leave as of this time next week, and then she’ll have a couple of weeks of exams in June and be off for the rest of academic year. Whoever thinks of these things doesn’t spare a thought for a poor author who’s looking for some time alone to write.
I did do over 2,000 words on Under the Hill today, and though I don’t think they were very good words, still they were better than no words at all. More to the point, they may not have been the best words, but they contained some intriguing ideas, some of which took me by surprise and made me go “ooh. That’s cool!”
There is so much work still to be done on Under the Hill, but it’s going to be epic when it’s finished. It’s got to be the most ambitious thing I’ve ever tried to do, and though it may take me forever, I suspect that if I can get it to be what I want it to be, I’m going to be prouder of it than of anything else. I just wish it wasn’t still quite so much like a disassembled jigsaw.
Anyway, on the subject of thumbs up, I thought I could get into the habit of doing brief mentions of books I read and enjoyed. That would be: Read the rest of this entry »
All this month over at Coffee Time Romance, authors published by Samhain are doing a mass posting of excerpts, plus a mass give-away of books. For every excerpt posted, all you have to do is comment on it and you could win that book.
and later in the month there will be one of Shining in the Sun, which will give you a chance to get hold of a copy before it’s officially released in June.
I’ll be keeping an eye on all my threads all month, so if you fancy coming by just to chat, that would be nice too 🙂 I won’t be there today, though, as I managed to get food poisoning yesterday, and having recovered enough to feel that I could drink a cup of tea and check my emails, I’m now going back to bed.
27. Along similar lines, do appearances play a big role in your stories? Tell us about them, or if not, how you go about designing your characters.
Some characters’ physical appearances make a difference in their story, and some don’t. Generally, if my characters are handsome they receive more attention of the “phwoar, I’d do him” variety from people of the appropriate orientation. They also tend to be treated with suspicion by people who are not of the appropriate orientation, who assume that – being good looking – they probably didn’t get where they are now by skill or hard work alone. I wouldn’t say it was a big role, though, it’s more a case of something that I bear in mind when deciding who will react to them in what way.
28. Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities? Describe them, and if there’s nothing major to speak of, tell us a few smaller ones.
Well, Sulien self-harms, but only when things are very bad. Alec has asthma, but manages it pretty successfully. John and Darren have varying degrees of post traumatic stress, but they are coping with it and are showing signs of recovery by the time the books end.
29. How often do you think about writing? Ever come across something IRL that reminds you of your story/characters?
I guess like everyone else, my answer to the first part of this is “all the time.” When I’m not writing, I’m hoovering up research material and thinking “ooh, wouldn’t it be cool if…” Or I’m wondering how L is going to convince F that he needs to kill B, because he’s not the kind of person who would do that kind of thing normally. Or I’m thinking that what I wrote yesterday is weak and might be better if I changed it in [whatever] way. Or I’m noticing the sound of rain and wondering what word is most redolent of the experience of standing under a tin roof and hearing the heavy droplets bounce off. (Patter, smatter, scattershot?) Or I’m listening to people talk and trying to hear the rhythm and vocabulary.
Real life tends to come first. I watch a film about tall ships and think “I Want!” and start that research hoovering thing so that I can have ships of my own. I go on holiday to Cornwall and see all the slim, svelte, beautiful surfers with their salt tangled hair, and I think “Ooh, you need to be in a story, mate!” The family go on a weekend trip to Duxford air show, and I listen to the whumm, whumm, whumm of a Lancaster engine and think “I’m so having one of those.” And then I have to figure out how to fit it into a story that was supposed to be about elves. It’s a kind of kleptomania, I guess, though eventually I do give it all back.
The Boat of Small Mysteries - A cozy mystery aboard a narrowboat, in which a murder and a disappearance keep our aroace detective from fully relaxing into the idyll of country life.
