Love in Dark Settings

My writings: Love in Dark Settings Omnibus (all of my fiction, nonfiction, and fiction recommendations in one HTML e-book) | E-books | Online fiction and nonfiction. Coming this year: Paperbacks.

This blog is intended for people who are permitted to read fiction and nonfiction in the adult section of their public library. Parental supervision is recommended. If you're just here for announcements of my friendship fiction, I also post them at my warfiction blog, for which parental supervision is not required.

How I reply to comments at this blog.

Versions of this blog: Dreamwidth | InsaneJournal | LiveJournal.

My updates e-mail lists, feeds, and social networking profiles.

"I write every day for at least two hours, and I spend the rest of my time largely in the society of ducks."

--Flannery O'Connor.

( Background to my entries )
( Writing: Looking beyond British boarding schools to American boarding schools (Prison City research) )
( Simplicity: Online time this month )
( Writing: Kipling and the wonders of DRM-free ePub e-books; plus, my ideal e-book reader )
( Writing: E-publishing news on the Internet; plus, thoughts on Lulu's latest ventures )
( Simplicity: Post-online time and computer purge )
( Writing: Trying out ePub e-books on FBReader )
( Mentoring and Simplicity: The computer purge and a DVD writer )
( Home: A Thanksgiving Day exchange with my father )
( Writing: A look back at what I was writing in March 2002 )
( Home: Space Epiphany (from a letter I wrote on 1 March 2002) )
( Writing and Mentoring and Simplicity: Word totals for October and November 2009, and how this affects my Internet time )
( Writing and Simplicity: Computer quest; Or, why I need to clean my house )
( Simplicity: The story of how my addiction to the Web began )
( Writing: What my word count reveals. (Drum roll, please.) )
( Simplicity and Writing: Changes to my schedule, as a result of my wordage research )
( Writing: More thoughts on my wordage )

"My biggest writing mistake is that I can't leave well enough alone. Even after the manuscript has come back from the various proof-readers I use, inevitably, the urge to pick a scab overrules all logical sensibility."

--C. Anne Gardner. Because, um, yeah.

( Background to my entries )
( Writing: Wordage and my Internet addiction (a look at the past) )
( Writing: My ability to write descriptions )
( Simplicity: And the computer file purge continues )
( Writing: More schoolboy fiction )
( Writing: The advantages of being blind, word-count-wise )
( Writing: Switching over to editing The Three Lands; plus, W. Somerset Maugham )
( Home: Fall leaves and gardening )
( Writing: Switching over to writing The Eternal Dungeon; plus, The Beta Reader Problem )

"Look, I do know this: stories matter.

"Sometimes they come to me in the middle of the night, I wake up and I know there was once a person with a name, a history, a life -- and sometimes they died a hundred years ago and sometimes they haven't been born yet, but they're so real, they're right there, like I can touch them. I write them, when I can, and grieve them often, in ways I've learned to be smart enough not to talk about.

"At times that bothers me, the silence I feel obligated to that comes with storytelling. It bothers me when I write, which is one manner of inhabiting a character, and it bothers me when I act, which is another. But I've learned to live with it because stories, and the people they are about, are, in the telling, more important than me.

"I'm just a translator, a medium, a canvass and a liar. Their stories matter so much that in the telling of them, all I can wish is to disappear.

"And I love them so much, the people I tell into being.

"Which means that when it comes to the business of awards my gut says, honor them. Not me. Not writers. Characters. Stories. Honor them."

--RM

( Background to my entries )
( Writing: Man, oh, man, I'm offline for a month, and the entire e-publishing world changes )
( Simplicity and Writing: My time online; plus, the Prison City stuff I found )
( Writing: For your amusement, the Nautical Telegraph Code )
( Writing: The Lambda Literary Awards discussions in the blogosphere )
( Simplicity: Getting back on track )
( Writing: Squee! My name was mentioned at Yule Treasure! )
( Home: What happens in today's society when you aren't geek central )
( REVIEW: Recommendation of Rudyard Kipling's 'Stalky & Co.' )
( Writing: Monthly totals )
( Writing: My Muse moveth )
( Writing: My Muse really moveth; plus, Rosemary Sutcliff and P. G. Wodehouse )
( Writing: My Muse slows down a bit; plus, turn-of-the-century romantic friendship fiction )
( Writing: Triumph! The Turn-of-the-Century Toughs world is now the Mid-Atlantic )
( Home: Reasons why I often feel I'm a conservative )
( Writing: Not-quite-good-enough writing )
( Writing: My unfocussed Muse )
( Writing and Mentoring: I've decided to make my winter schedule my year-round schedule )

"In the midst of winter, I finally realized that deep within me there lay an invincible summer."

--Albert Camus.

I'm posting separately this entry some medical problems I've been having recently. (Don't worry, they aren't life-threatening, just painful and annoying.) I figure that people who are interested in reading my Daily Life entries may not want to wade through tons of medical stuff, and vice versa.

( Background to my entries )
( My doctor and my wallet )
( Well, whadya know. I have a stress-related illness. )
( Pillows. )
( Tiny food. )
( Less talking, more progress )
( Sleeping and posture )
( Desk posture )
( Now my glasses have decided to misbehave (but wow, once they behave, life'll be great) )
( Yet another bodily complaint )

I pressed my Muse hard and persuaded him to finish writing Law Links (The Three Lands) today, November 8. I began writing that novel fourteen years ago, almost to the day: November 15, 1995.

By coincidence, this year happens to be the thirtieth anniversary of the original draft of the first Three Lands story I wrote, Blood Vow. In honor of that, I thought I'd show three versions each of two scenes from the novel, so that you can see how my writing has ceased being absolutely dreadful progressed.


( The first appearance of the Chara in 'Blood Vow,' just after my 16th birthday. Spoilers for Part One of 'Blood Vow.' Warning for bad teenage humor. )
( The same scene re-written one year later )
( The final version of that scene, age 45 )
( The first appearance of Lord Carle, in a passing reference, as part of a flashback )
( The second appearance of Lord Carle. Warning for a horrible simile. )
( The final version of that scene, age 45 )
( Journal entries about 'Blood Vow,' 1979-1995, with major spoilers )

Exciting discussions! I'm happy to see that you guys have been busy in my absence.

( Reply to yonmei about LGBT writers and self-identification of orientations )
( Reply to mightymaeave, dharma_slut, and Rose Red about the GLBT literature thread )
( Reply to maevele about the Lambda Literary Awards )

"The trouble is. . . that too many historical writers have been more in love with history than with writing. They are so fascinated by their discoveries (how well I know the danger!) that they are tempted to put them all in. So, as their knowledge increases, the story gets bogged down in detail. They describe and explain where they should be content to indicate. There is a good deal to be said for writing historical fiction in the depths of the Indian jungle. . . . But the more courageous way is to face your reference-books squarely across the table, and convinced yourself that you, not they, are going to write the story."

--Geoffrey Trease: Tales Out of School.

( Background to my entries )
( Home and Writing: Wellness clinic; plus, steaming ahead with Prison City )
( Writing: Slow progress with Prison City )
( Writing: Inspiration and perspiration, or How I write stories )
( REVIEW: Recommendation of Evangeline Walton's 'The Cross and the Sword' )
( Writing: Status report on how my stories are going )
( Writing: My Muse continues to stutter out scenes )
( Simplicity: Gearing up to go online )

"When I was writing Trumpets in the West in the middle of India, with scarcely any reference-books, I discovered just in time that the stage-coaches in 1686 carried no outside passengers. It meant rewriting a complete chapter. Probably no child would ever have noticed the mistake, and perhaps no History teacher would have minded. . . . Similarly a whole chapter of Thunder of Valmy had to be rewritten when I discovered by chance that a certain morning at Versailles in May, 1789, had been grey and drizzly, not sunny as I had first pictured it. What does it matter, a pedantic detail like that? Just as much, or as little, as the workmanship which old-time sculptors and carvers put into figures so far from the ground that no human eye would ever appreciate it."

--Geoffrey Trease: Tales Out of School.

( Background to my entries )
( Mentoring: An exchange between my apprentice and me )
( Writing: #1 reason to love the U.S. government (Prison City research) )
( Writing: #1 sign that it's time to stop gathering research material )
( Writing and Simplicity: Starting into my writing season )
( Simplicity: Purging my hard drive )
( Writing: Slugging away at the Prison City lighthouse research )
( The play 'Fishing Gone' (Prison City Research) )
( Writing: Rugby, watermen's dialect, and steamboats (Prison City research) )
( Writing: Playing around with EPUB e-books )
( Writing: Preparing my domain for next year; plus, novel-reading related to Prison City )
( Writing: Speaking of demoralizing . . . )
( Writing: 1910s watermen's dialect (Prison City research) )
( Simplicity: Freeing up space on my computer )
( Simplicity: Freeing up space on my computer, Part 2 )
( Writing: Turning over the slate )
( Writing: My Muse moveth )

An update for those of you who don't read my regular Daily Life entries: I've settled that the Calvert Cliffs cove near Cove Point in Calvert County is a suitable home for my protagonist. I've written the Hoopers Island watermen chapter. I've rewritten the Solomons Island chapter. I still have to write the lighthouse chapter and the Calvert Cliffs chapters.

But meanwhile (or rather, before I wrote the Hoopers Island chapter), I went off to Dorchester County again, this time with spiralred.

( Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex (at Bishops Head Point) )
( Hoopers Island )

Thanks to Spiralred and her willingness to tramp through uncharted marshland, this trip gave me the material I needed to write the Hoopers Island watermen chapter - not to mention a new scene featuring a marshland pond - though I'm still struggling with nature terminology. I'd really like to get someone from Hoopers Island to look over the manuscript - though how the heck I'd find that someone, I don't know. Maybe I can stand in the island store again, holding my manuscript and looking like a pathetic tourist till someone takes pity on me.

I'm entering into my usual fall/winter hermitage in order to write write write fiction. (Wish me luck. Last year's hermitage wasn't much of a hermitage.) With luck, I'll come online about once a month - or less - to pick up e-mail, do needed research, and post Daily Life and Progress Report entries. If you need to get ahold of me over the fall and winter about a time-sensitive matter, please CC your e-mail to my personal assistant (i.e. my apprentice).

Also, if my Muse is cooperative (*pauses to glare at exceedingly uncooperative Muse, who smiles cheerfully back*), I'll be coming online some time in late December to post my holiday gift fic. I can't say at this point which December holiday I'll be posting it on. Hey, I need to leave an element of surprise in the gift-giving.

Finally, a round-up of "thank yous" and "you're welcomes" for the recent posts from MightyMaeve, Lizardlez, and Thetammyjo; a big thank you to Rose Red for continuing the book-buying struggle; and a "sorry" to Yonmei for breaking off in the middle of our discussion - but keep posting, please!

That goes for the rest of you too. Post any replies to my old posts that you want, and I'll get back to you in one of my "reply to comments" round-ups.

I need two maps made: the Eternal Dungeon (based on my sketch) and the Turn-of-the-Century Toughs world (based on a map of Maryland and a bit of the surrounding states, as described by my notes). Does anyone here have the skills to do that?

If you're interested, please drop me an e-mail. Please note that I'll be online infrequently after today, but I'll get back to you eventually.

( Fourth Priority Resolutions: Disorganized Things That I'm Not Tripping Over )
( New resolutions that don't fall into the above categories )

Looking at the four parts of this list, my feeling (other than a hysterical desire to scream, "Just burn it all down! Get it out of my life!") is that 90% of my recent problems with mental and physical clutter have arisen because of the Internet: excessive Internet usage has prevented me from having time to put the rest of my life in order. Now that I'm making some progress on the Internet front, perhaps I'll be able to accomplish more next year in digging myself out of the quagmire I'm currently trapped in.

As it is, I'm reasonably pleased with how this year went. I made progress in tackling some very serious problems, and I found that it wasn't as hard as I thought to get rid of belongings, which caused me to decide to get rid of more items than I'd originally planned. Most importantly, I achieved my #1 goal, which was to get my Internet usage under control - a goal that, for over a decade, I'd been struggling tooth-and-nail to achieve.

That I succeeded is mainly due to my determination to find a solution to that particular problem within a year of my mother's death; I wanted that to be my gift to her, because she hated how the Internet took me away from my family and friends. It's no coincidence that I finally achieved my solution on the very week of the anniversary of her death. Thank you, Mother.

. . . in response to their appalling clarification of their change in rules.

( The letter )

I'm planning to publish three new Three Lands novels next year. The question I've been facing is whether I should post them online as well.

I know that most of you are here because of my gay fiction, but a lot of the same types of characters, plotlines, and themes show up in my friendship fiction. (Seriously. Why do you think the main plotline of Michael's House is friendship fiction? Why do you think The Eternal Dungeon and Life Prison are half gay fiction, half friendship fiction?) So would anyone here be interested in a Three Lands discussion next year in connection with me serializing the new Three Lands novels?

Calvert County is a peninsula in Southern Maryland, squeezed between the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent River. (The lake across the street from my house feeds into the Patuxent River system.) The county is unfortunately fairly gentrified these days, but the inhabitants are proud of their historical ties to the water - hence our trip there.

( Calvert Marine Museum and Drum Point Lighthouse )
( Solomons )
( Our endless quest for my protagonist's home )
( Post-trip research )

So I still don't know for sure where my protagonist's estate is located, but for better or worse, that's my only trip to Southern Maryland this year. Now I just need to read the turn-of-the-century texts on lighthouses that I downloaded last weekend - which I can do throughout the fall - and I'll be all set to finish writing "Master and Servant."

Except that Spiralred has invited me to join her in a visit to Dorchester County next month. Yay!

"When publishing was a matter of standing in front of a large enough audience and telling a story, publishing could be assayed by literally anyone. If a storyteller wanted to tell a story, he did so. If he was good enough at it, he got the accolades and respect of his audience, and perhaps even payment, in the form of food, shelter, etc. The developments of technology, beginning with written languages, continuing through such crude printing technologies as woodblock and hand-cast metal type, and eventually reaching block-long high-speed web-fed printing presses, took this immediate access away from the average storyteller. Now, in order to put his story in the hands of his audience, the storyteller had to do one of two things. He had to acquire a printing press, or he had to go to someone who had one.

"There were, perhaps unfortunately, more storytellers than the printers could handle, and they (like all industries) learned how to say no. The perceived function of the owners of the printing presses as a gatekeeper has its actual origin right there: the printers simply could not hope to publish everything. Nor could they hope to attract all the readers in the world, and in an attempt to differentiate their services from those of their competitors, they began to add what they perceived as value. They added editing. They added color. They added illustrations. And they added snobbery.

"But the question remains unanswered: do we want a gatekeeper to the public square? Do we want a not-so-disinterested third party telling us what we can and cannot read? Remember the fireside? Remember the storyteller who stood there, regaling his audience with the story of how he conquered a saber-tooth? Aren't we capable of deciding for ourselves whether we want to spend our time listening to him? I said that if he was good enough, he got respect and accolades. What I didn't say was that if he wasn't good enough, he got ignored. He lost his audience. He either stood by the dying fire alone and spoke on and on to nothing and nobody, or he went home and hoed his potatoes. His publishing career was over. Market forces did him in, not some gatekeepers somewhere, standing with crossed lances, turning him away."

--Levi Montgomery.

"The importance of gatekeepers does not lie in their ability to prevent bad books from being found, but in their ability to make the good ones easier to find."

--Response by Marion Gropen, co-moderator of the Self-Publishing list, followed by a spirited debate at TeleRead.

( Background to my entries )
( Writing: If you're seeking software by which to convert e-books into the EPUB format . . . )
( Mentoring: Quotations from my apprentice )
( Simplicity: My diet )
( Writing and Mentoring: The servant problem )
( Writing: Lambda Literary Awards )
( Writing: Final days of my publishing season )

Lambda Literary Awards is apparently excluding certain previously eligible writers from eligibility, based on their gender and orientation. Boys Next Door has a summary and links to the blogosphere reaction. See also the additional commentary by TeddyPig.

( My thoughts, and a quotation )

There's a brief, humorous interview with me on page 18 of Issue #36 of the Leather Times (the newsletter of the Leather Archives & Museum), covering the topics of simplicity and favorite historical periods. (Thank you to Syd McGinley for alerting me to the fact that the interview was now available.)

PDF file of the issue (for adults only; the newsletter is not worksafe). LA&M's warning page. Online PDF to HTML converter.