but the timing of this does not fill me with glee.
False Colors and Transgressions now available in Kindle versions
complete with sales ranks
I always wonder which to start with, but it would be churlish not to start with the good news in this case. Late last night I got a gorgeous, intelligent, insightful and above all positive A grade review for False Colors from Dr. Sarah F of Dear Author:
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/04/09/review-false-colors-by-alex-beecroft/
“Rarely, oh so rarely, I’ll read a book that is so sublime, so transcendent, I actually come away from it a little melancholy, because it’s over and I can never read it for the first time ever again, because I know I’ll never be able to do justice to it in my review or analysis, and because I know I won’t meet its equal for many a year. But the process of devouring the book, of eking out its layered, textured meaning, of savoring its descriptions, and the emotions–oh, the emotions!–leaves me flying for days and the melancholy only makes it all the sweeter.
This is one of those books. It ravished me. It scoured my insides. I feel like I’m stuck in it and I don’t ever want to get out.”
Rarely, oh so very rarely, does an author get a review that makes her think that someone has read the book they wanted to write – has seen between the lines to the perfect form that you tried so hard to capture, only to feel as if it eluded you every time. This is the kind of review that authors dream of! And I can die happy now I’ve achieved it.
Also squee for Dr.Sarah’s descriptions of the characters, particularly John as “religious, resourceful, smart, and a natural leader.” I’m so glad John’s leadership qualities came through. Much of the book he’s in the position of being the nervous virgin, and I really hoped that wouldn’t make him seem somehow weaker than Alfie, because he so is not. Backbone of steel, that boy 🙂
Thank you so much Sarah! This is one to frame. I will hang it by my monitor to remind myself that I can’t be that bad, after all 🙂
Bad news
Just as I was rejoicing over such a lovely review, I went to check False Colors’ sales ranking on Amazon. It had been somewhere in the top #5 of gay romance for the past fortnight, and I’d got addicted to watching it go up and down.
Imagine my shock when it had disappeared altogether. It turns out that False Colors and Transgressions by Erastes were only the first of a purge of sales ranks from innumerable titles in Amazon’s gay and lesbian list, and their het erotica list. Most of MLR Press’s titles, many Loose Id titles and Samhain titles… Long term bestsellers like JL Langley’s The Tin Star and My Fair Captain have also lost their sales ranks and are suddenly completely absent from charts they have dominated for years.
Now I’d like to think this was a computer glitch, and it will all be restored in a couple of days, but this link from last year about Amazon disappearing its erotica novels in the Kindle store by removing their sales rank makes me wonder whether they’re doing the same thing again, only bigger and to print books.
http://www.businessinsider.com/2008/4/the-kindle-store-blushes-over-smut
And that pisses me off. In the same world where Dear Author can write about False Colors:
This stunning book is not an erotic romance. It’s a romance between two men, sure, but that doesn’t make it an erotic romance. It’s not focused on sex, even though it’s all about their sexuality — because the book does NOT shy away from dealing with the fear and shame and hatred of being a sodomite, an “invert” in the eighteenth century. This book is romance, pure and simple. I don’t think I’m giving anything away to say that John and Alfie don’t even kiss until the end, although there is one incredibly hot sex scene between them. But the emotions are so rich, so bright and hard and painful, even the good ones, that this book can be considered nothing less than the best of romance, heart-wrenching and perfect.
is Amazon choosing to hide my book because it’s a romance about gay men, and that somehow makes it erotica? Are they censoring it because having two men fall in love with each other somehow makes it automatically shameful and perverse and all about the sex? I really hope I’m mistaken here. I thought we’d actually seen some improvement since the 18th Century!
And personal feelings of ‘it’s not erotica! If I’d wanted to write erotica, I’d have put in more sex’ aside, what’s wrong with erotica anyway? Not one erotica writer deserves to have their work hidden from potential buyers by an organisation supposedly set up to sell books, with no warning and no explanation.
I so hope I’m getting my knickers in a twist about nothing, and that this is just Amazon instituting some interesting new service, and everything will be back to normal in no time. But if it isn’t just a glitch, what the hell is going on?
I had been saving up to buy a Kindle, in order to read more of that m/m and f/f fiction of which Amazon currently appears to be ashamed. This has made me change my mind and decide to buy a Sony and get my books straight from the publishers instead. And I’ll read my review again to put a smile on my face before bedtime. Thanks Dr. S!
Some time ago I voted in a poll by the American Family Association. I can’t remember why now, but it was some sort of protest vote. Anyway, ever since then, they’ve had me on their newsletter, and they keep sending me ‘One News Now’ and encouraging me to vote on (IMO) non-issues like whether Darwinism should be taught in schools or not. (My answer was going to be ‘of course it should, and I don’t see what being a Christian has to do with it’, but there wasn’t a ticky box for that one.)
Anyway, sidetrack aside, I was interested to read this in their newsletter today:
Rick Warren disavows Prop 8
hopeful news, I would say 🙂
First of all, I ought to make it clear that this is titled ‘answers for the men’ not because these answers are somehow less true than the answers for the women. That isn’t the case. There is just a difference in emphasis, depending on who is asking the question.
Why do women write m/m fiction? Part one – Answers for the women can be found here on the Macaronis blog. That post was written as an answer to a piece written by a feminist writer who felt that women who write m/m fiction are bowing to the pressures of patriarchal society. Women should want to write about women, she felt. Writing about men, and particularly in a format that excludes a woman from the central pairing, is just a case of reinforcing society’s belief that only men are interesting and worthy to be written about. It’s a kind of gender betrayal.
Obviously, coming at the question from that sort of direction deserves an answer written to take into account the biases and subtext of the question.
And the subtexts and biases are quite different when a gay man asks the question. So the two answers are equally true, but slightly differently slanted depending on what really concerns the questioner.
When a gay man asks ‘why do women write m/m fiction’, it’s my impression that the question is often coming from a different place of discomfort:
Exploitation
Which is:
Like an Animal: Erotic Tales of Werewolves, an anthology published by Circlet Press containing the following stories:
LUNACY by Elizabeth Reeve – f/f
THE MOON IS MY MISTRESS by Vicka Corey f/f
CAROLINA JASMINE by David Hubbard – m/m
CARNIVAL OF THE GROTESQUE by A.D.R. Forte -m/f
DARK DIVINE LIGHT by Becca Ovadia – f/f
LUPINE HOUSE by A.N. Cortez – m/m
AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN BUDAPEST by Joe Nobel – m/f
OK, I freely confess that I don’t really like erotica, and also that I really don’t like werewolves. Werewolf erotica? Brrr! No thanks! So I wouldn’t have normally bought this book at all. However it contains the debut story of a friend of mine – A.N. Cortez, and I (a) wanted to show solidarity, and (b) already knew that she wrote beautifully. So I knew at least one of the stories would be worth it.
I didn’t realize until I started reading it that it was a mixture of m/m, f/f and m/f erotica. M/F erotica squicks me out (that is, I have a strong, irrational feeling of discomfort when I read or see it.) In fact, I have to look away from m/f kissing in films and TV, it’s that bad. Again, I might not have bought it if I’d known I was going to be reading m/f.
So, with all of that as a background, I think it’s remarkable that I enjoyed this as much as I did. The standard of writing in the entire anthology is very high indeed, and I loved (as I expected I would) A.N. Cortez’ Lupine House with its fairy tale/high fantasy setting where werewolves and nobles compete with each other in cruelty and decadence. Gorgeous writing and a very interesting concept. I personally could have done with less sex, but that’s just me missing the entire point of erotica!
I enjoyed the set-up of Carnival of the Grotesque as well, and the interesting pagan look at the world in Dark Divine Light. In terms of writing quality and the imagination of the set-up, I felt Carolina Jasmine was the weakest of the bunch – lots of ‘was’ sentences, (and I say this as a defender of the word), and not much to make the story stand out from any other ‘boy meets werewolf, falls in lust, they shag’ story. But having said that, I’ve seen many a worse story.
Lunacy was a very interesting start, with me wondering why one of the lovers getting her throat torn out was not a dampener on the relationship. And The Moon is my Mistress took my breath away with its absolutely gorgeous writing. From what I can tell of An American Werewolf in Budapest (I couldn’t look too close, it was very m/f and very erotic) it packs an awful lot of punch and if you liked slightly dark, rough het sex with an edge, you would think it was wonderful.
So altogether – a really good book that’s simply not my cup of tea. If you *did* like werewolves and you *did* like erotica, and you don’t have hang-ups like me, then I think you would love it.
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Yay! Boys of Summer first draft is FINISHED!!! Woohoo!
64168 / 60000
Complete with horribly sappy romantic ending that may not make any sense, but I don’t care because it’s OVER! FREE, I’m free at last! I owe myself chocolate and at least one day off 🙂
I didn’t really enjoy writing this one – my first and probably only contemporary. There weren’t enough alien invasions, pirates, warships, elves, weevils, tricorns or dragons. However, I will now put it away for a short while so that when I come back and read it I can see what it needs to make it the best contemporary I can do. I do love the characters, though; Darren and Tony, and Krissy and her family, and Caroline, and Kyle, Mrs. Goodchilde, Mr. Stokes and even Max, the villain. Maybe Darren and Tony can get a sequel where they have to save the Queen from mutant, time travelling, octopii?
Meantime, what should I do with this book now that I’ve got it? It’s likely to be at least 70k once it’s polished, if not 80K, and isn’t at all explicit at the moment, though there are several places where a sex scene could go if required. I can try and see if an agent wants it, or I can add sex scenes and see if MLR Press want it, or I can see if Samhain wants it with or without sex scenes. I suppose the first thing is to try and find out if it’s any good, so I’ll send it out to beta readers and take it from there 🙂
Woohoo! I’m not sure how Amazon have managed it, but it looks as though False Colors is in stock and available to buy now, even though the official release date is 13th of April.
I’ve just been told by my editor that the back cover says the book is set in 1662. It should say 1762. I’m not sure how that happened! Particularly as it says 1762 all the way through the inside, until you get to the bits set in 1763. The aim is that we can put it right in the second printing. So if you fancy an amusing limited edition with the wrong date on the back, now would be the time to get it!
Ooh, and it has its first review:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0762436581
“Kudos to Running Press for creating a series not flawed by nude bodies on the cover and stories clouded with predictable sex. Kudos to Alex Beecroft for a story of men at sea, piracy, war, betrayal, love, and redemption. There’s nothing false about this colorful and historical romance which I’ll be suggesting to readers for a long time to come! If you enjoy getting lost at sea with complex and interesting characters in a story that will challenge and excite you, then this book is for you.”
(Not celebrating too much in case Amazon is playing some sort of April Fool’s joke on me 😉 Paranoid? Moi? 🙂 )
I know Amazon ratings don’t mean a lot, but it did give me a thrill this morning to find False Colors in the top 100 of Historical books on Amazon. Actually making a slight impact outside the ‘gay fiction’ lists.
LOL! Just for the moment, False Colors by me is above its namesake, False Colours by Georgette Heyer, and even better (from my POV) it’s above ‘The Fortune of War’ by Patrick O’Brian! OMG! I wouldn’t dare breathe in such company! It’s terrifying, and wonderful 🙂
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