Love in Dark Settings

"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 )

"Only on [the Erotic Romance Writers Forum] would someone have an 'immediate need' for text on fisting."

--Cupnjava, responding a couple of years ago to one of my research requests.

( Background to my entries )
( Two exchanges with my apprentice )
( Prison City research: The oyster wars )
( REVIEW: Recommendation of Syd McGinley's The Complete Dr. Fell, Volume 1: Lost )
( Historians need to be sent back to school )
( Protocol prep )

"As for the intellectual property, I try not to get too worked up about it. There's a lot of people angsting about piracy and copying of stuff on the Internet, publishers who are very, very worried about the whole idea of ebook piracy. I like to get a little bit of perspective on it by remembering that back before the Internet came along, we had a very special term for the people who buy a single copy of a book and then allow all their friends to read it for free. We called them librarians."

--Charlie Stross.

( Background to my entries )
( Internet time )
( Finished culling books )
( My apprentice, me, and david stein's new book on gay masters and slaves )
( Publishing season finished )
( The dog days of August )
( Preparation to clothes culling )

"My definition of 'porn' as opposed to 'story' (and I don't have a problem with either one, but I do think there's a distinction) is not the ratio of sex to whatever else, or sexy stuff (eg slavery) to whatever else, but basically the lack of complex characterization and motivation driving the characters' actions, in porn. In porn, you don't need any motivation beyond 'Laura is horny, the pizza deliveryman is there, grunt grunt grunt' whereas a story is like, 'Laura was so incredibly bored and sexually frustrated that morning, on account of David being on the antipsychotic medication that killed his sex drive, that when the pizza guy showed up they had all kinds of wild crazy sex. She felt no guilt; as the pizza guy drove into her, drawing her body slowly towards its peak of ecstasy, she reflected that it was surely no different from taking iron supplements when you became a vegetarian for moral reasons. She'd stay with David, of course, see him through his difficulties, but there was no sense wasting away through neglect of her own body's needs. The only trouble was that the pizza guy, be he ever so well-hung, was no more a satisfactory substitute for David, David's dear familiar body over hers, his eyes gazing down at her as they had done before the hallucinations began, the sweet married sex with no fumbling, than iron pills were a substitute for a good juicy rare sirloin. Afterwards, the pizza guy, who was younger than she'd guessed at first, with a heartbreaking little soul patch on his chin, wanted to cuddle, but Laura managed to fend him off and get him back into his uniform-- "Franklin," said his nametag, which she hadn't bothered to read before undressing him. She tipped him generously before shutting the door. Franklin. Jesus. No wonder he was up for boning bored housewives. She wondered briefly whether she'd just deflowered him, then got down to the business of getting the sheets in the laundry and the pizza buried deeply in the trash where David wouldn't see it when he got home.'"

--Maculategiraffe, in an idle moment. As one commenter to her journal put it, "Why the hell can't I write plot that easily?"

( Background to my entries )
( 'Rebirth'; plus, my Internet time this week )
( Looking forward to next year's publishing season )
( My optimistic plans for writing and editing this winter )
( Stage One of my book culling ends )
( Why old books deserve to be reread )

"As for the future, computers offer publishers two possibilities: to streamline the process of transforming raw text into print, and to go beyond print into the realms of publishing material on disks specifically for use with computers. Such material is called software (as opposed to 'hardware', which refers to the machines themselves) and includes word processing programs. There is a lot of computer software available already - computer games, educational programs, business programs and 'on-line databases' (systems whereby people can subscribe and gain access to a central bank of information via a link to their own computer). Most of what is available now is not put out by publishers - and much of it is not sold in traditional bookstores, but in computer stores or department stores. It is a big step for traditional publishers to contemplate. But the market is wide open and publishing will have to change radically to meet the challenge. The future is already here."

--Geoffrey Rogers: Editing for Profit (1985).

( Background to my entries )
( Back to the future: computers and publishing in 1985 )
( Publishing progress again; plus, excerpts from historical novels )
( Little snippets )
( Erotica versus pornography; Scribd versus Smashwords )
( Barnes & Noble's e-bookstore and e-reader: We Are Not Impressed )
( Amazon shows once again how much it loves self-publishers; plus, not enough hours in the day )
( What I can learn from television addicts )
( Reworking my schedule )
( Anniversary )
( Getting rid of books and magazines )
( E-mail, Torchwood, and The Eternal Dungeon )
( New approach to trimming my book collection )
( Scything my way through my inbox )
( Monthly totals )

In memory of my mother, who died a year ago this week.

Authors I'm currently reading or plan to read during the next few months (excluding research literature):

Gay literature: Marquesate and david stein.

Heterosexual romance: Mary Stewart.

Historical fantasy: Diana Gabaldon (the next Outlander novel is due out on September 22).

Historical fiction: Catherine Christian, Cynthia Harnett, Norma Johnston, Naomi Mitchison, Sharon Kay Penman, Rosemary Sutcliff, Geoffrey Trease, and Barbara Willard.

I'm fairly top-heavy with dead authors, as you can see. What I'm desperately searching for is authors that my Muse likes, namely:

1) A fair amount of description.

2) Good stylistically.

3) Has all the usual elements I like in a story: dramatic tension, interesting and sympathetic characters (I include "angst-ridden villains" as sympathetic), and preferably an interesting theme.

It's category 1 that's killing me. I have loads of books on my shelf that fall into categories 3, and a select number that fall into category 2, but I have the darnedest time finding authors who insert descriptive passages into their stories, other than something along the lines of "He looked over his shoulder, frowning."

What I'm looking for is descriptive passages like this:

( Examples )

Can any of you help with suggestions?

"Books are normally built up from gatherings or signatures - printed and folded sheets - with each signature forming a unit of 8, 12, 16, 24, or 32 pages. The 16-page signature is by far the most common. Typographers therefore work to make most of their books seem divinely ordained and conceived to be some multiple of 16 pages in length. Seasoned book typographers recite in their meditations not only the mantra of points and picas - 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72 . . . - but also the mantra of octavo signatures: 16, 32, 48, 64, 80, 96, 128, 144, 160, 176, 192, 208, 224, 240, 256, 272, 288, 304, 320, 336, 352, 368, 384, 400. . . .

"In a work of continous prose, the illusion of divine love for the number sixteen is obtained by straightforward copyediting."

--Robert Bringhurst: The Elements of Typographic Style.

( Background to my entries )
( ISBNs )
( Death and leading )
( Oo, shiny! Font Conference video )
( Life outside the Internet: gardening )
( Gardening, layout, and publishing plans )
( Prison City research day )
( A WTF moment: 'Career Building Through Fan Fiction Writing'? )

Josh Lanyon: Man, Oh Man! Writing M/M Fiction for Kinks and Cash. (Author's Website.) A popular writer offers advice on authoring M/M fiction, as well as quoting professionals working in that field. ¶ Male homoerotic nonfiction, authorship manuals. ¶ Nonfiction books and nonfiction e-books. ¶ On-screen sex. On-screen violence (occasional). ¶ Review.

"UK booksellers are not yet reduced to the condition of their American cousins, who have gone beyond firing staff and are now using their bodies for food and heat. They fear the Kindle like it was the breath of the devil's cock on their shoulder - despite the fact that Mr Bezos's clever little board has probably not sold a million units yet. Because, as any American bookseller will shriek at you while gouging their own forearms open with Stanley knives, only 34 Americans actually buy and read books."

--Warren Ellis: The Kindle is a mewling, crippled pining thing.

( Background to my entries )
( Mapping out my publishing time )
( Oo, shiny! Closer v. 2 )
( GLBT Bookshelf (wiki for GLBT literature folk) )

Manna Francis: Control. (Author's Website.) The fourth volume in the Administration series, about a pathological torturer and his lover, who despises torture but loves SM. ¶ Male homoerotic fiction, male/female friendship fiction, BDSM fiction, employer/employee fiction, erotic fiction, mental illness themes, mysteries, prisoner fiction, science fiction. ¶ Online fiction and online samples of fiction books. ¶ On-screen sex. On-screen violence. ¶ Archive of my reviews: Buried Treasure.

( Read more... )

"'You have been reading some of that Vulcan-human pornography that you Terran medical staff are abnormally interested in.'

"'Only a little,' McCoy protested feebly.

"'In the first place, for Vulcans sex is a necessity only once every seven years; in the second, the Vulcan male sex organ is neither unusually thick nor unusually long; while it is green, it does not possess tentacles, and in no way does it resemble a towering pillar of green flame. In fact, given our different species, the male sex organs are very much alike, except that in Vulcans the organ is more withdrawn within the body. Now if your curiosity is satisfied, shall we go to bed?' Spock snapped."

--Jane Carnall: Through a Glass Darkly.

( Background to my entries )
( A local meeting of slashers )
( Making further changes toward simplicity )
( Fade to black and pacing )
( What I've learned about simplicity in the past six years )
( Looking at my decision the morning after )
( My Muse goes into editing mode; plus, Guy Gavriel Kay and cellphones )
( Income )
( Noah's Ark redux )
( Iced tea as culture )
( Swine flu )
( How much posting I've done at Web forums since 2000 )
( A memoir on the history of original slash )
( Review of Star Trek (spoilers only for the trailer) )
( Too much fic to read! )
( The Eternal Dungeon editing continues apace; plus, Prison City research )
( Update on how I'm doing in keeping off the Internet; plus, a thank-you note for reader posts/e-mails )
( Scheduling the next couple of weeks )

"The Internet arrived as an incalculable blessing. We should never forget that. It has allowed isolated people to communicate with one another and marginalized people to find one another. The busy parent can stay in touch with far-flung friends. The gay teenager no longer has to feel like a freak. But as the Internet's dimensionality has grown, it has quickly become too much of a good thing. Ten years ago we were writing e-mail messages on desktop computers and transmitting them over dial-up connections. Now we are sending text messages on our cellphones, posting pictures on our Facebook pages, and following complete strangers on Twitter. . . .

"And losing solitude, what have [we] lost? First, the propensity for introspection, that examination of the self that the Puritans, and the Romantics, and the modernists (and Socrates, for that matter) placed at the center of spiritual life - of wisdom, of conduct. Thoreau called it fishing 'in the Walden Pond of [our] own natures,' 'bait[ing our] hooks with darkness.' Lost, too, is the related propensity for sustained reading. The Internet brought text back into a televisual world, but it brought it back on terms dictated by that world - that is, by its remapping of our attention spans. Reading now means skipping and skimming; five minutes on the same Web page is considered an eternity. This is not reading as Marilynne Robinson described it: the encounter with a second self in the silence of mental solitude."

--William Deresiewicz: The End of Solitude.

( Background to my entries )
( Now on my list of must-read books )
( Back in the days before the Internet ruled OK )
( Cautiously optimistic about a possible breakthrough in my fight against my Internet addiction )
( Continuing on track )
( Prison City research )
( More progress )
( The death of real-life media )
( And yet more Prison City research )
( Marketing )
( My moronic mania, and how I'm taking advantage of it )
( Prison City research. Again. )
( I need a break )
( Offline )
( Clearing clutter and getting editing done )
( Simplifying my reading )
( REVIEW: Recommendation of Blake Nelson's Gender Blender )
( Catching up on the news about my life of simplicity this month )
( Steady progress with The Eternal Dungeon )
( Making progress in clearing my inbox )
( And an odd sort of progress with my leather fiction )
( Interlibrary loan and Prison City research; plus, a decline in literature )
( Deciding which POD printer to use, and deciding how to lead my life )

"We had a master who was nicknamed, I never knew why, Marchand. And, one day, a boy who was doing translation paused at the French word marchand. 'Please, sir,' he said, 'I don't know what marchand means.' There was no laugh, not even a titter. We were all too surprised. The master's face did not alter. 'It means merchant, Smith,' he said, ' and you will stay behind afterwards and speak to me.' He received six of the best [strokes]. And it was, no doubt, such a master who made the historic retort to the boy who, during an hour that was devoted to the discussion of Old Testament history, inquired what 'harlot' meant. 'A harlot, Jones,' the master answered, 'is a lady who finds herself in unfortunate circumstances, and you will take two hundred lines.'''

--Alec Waugh: Public School Life: Boys, Parents, Masters (1922).

( Background to my entries )
( Going easy on my writing schedule )
( My Muse darts in )
( Public schools and canes and Harry Potter )
( Monthly totals )
( Why I hate my Internet addiction; plus, team sports )
( Looking forward to next summer's publication schedule )
( Why I love my broken wireless connection )
( My Muse's amazing run )
( REVIEW: Recommendation of Alec Waugh's The Loom of Youth )
( REVIEW: Recommendation of Ernest Raymond's Tell England )
( Romantic friendships, male and female )
( Next summer's schedule (yet again) )
( REVIEW: Recommendation of E. F. Benson's David Blaize )
( School-life research )
( Small-town news )
( A new idea for distributing my fiction )
( More thoughts on my omnibus edition )
( My 2008 e-book sales figures )
( Trying to get myself back on track )

"Two years in Internet Crime had taught Dave that you could learn a lot about a man by looking at what he named his variables, a thought that was so incredibly nerdy that he felt socially inept just for having it."

--M. Chandler: Shadow of the Templar. The quotation in my userpic this time is also from that series.

( Read more... )

( Domain stats and comms )
( New Year and new plans )
( Good news about the bat )
( Freddie Mercury and my singing voice )
( Freddie Mercury and flagging )
( Jesse )
( And Jesse arrives )
( My Muse's squatter rights; plus, the origins of my new prison series )
( The Chesapeake Bay, the Oyster Wars, and how this all fits in with my new prison series )
( Serendipity )
( Getting back into the work mode )
( Retrofuture shortcomings )
( REVIEW: Recommendation of M. Chandler's Shadow of the Templar )
( Cutting to the chase )
( Another day, another no dollar )
( Inauguration Eve )
( Inauguration Day )
( Off the Web again )
( Tedium, i.e. proofreading )
( Schedules, writing, and determination )
( Papers and arts and crafts )
( Feudalism, caste systems, and all that jazz )

"We should have a Slavefic Tropes wiki! . . . Like . . . You Know, That Thing Where the kindhearted but inexperienced master leaves the broken slave alone all day in a house full of food, and when he gets home the slave faints from hunger at his feet - and when he wakes up, the master is like 'what the hell, kid, I left a seven-course meal for you in the kitchen!' and the slave is like 'But master, I didn't have permission to eat!' You know, that thing! And we could have links to all the fics where that happens, and variations (like 'I didn't have permission to jack myself off' and 'I didn't have permission to sleep anywhere but in the refrigerator')! . . .

So we could index the character tropes, like the Oliver Twist sweet trembling orphan slave, and the Artful Dodger mischievous cruisin'-for-a-bruisin' slave, and the You Can Beat Me Up, But You Can't Break Me Down defiant and angry slave, and so on. And the slave trainer master, and the reluctant master ('I never wanted a slave, for slavery is morally repugnant, but due to circumstances totally beyond my control I am FORCED to have a criminally attractive and sexy and submissive slave kneeling at my feet,' with subtropes for 'AND OH WOE IT IS TERRIBLE' versus 'and um, actually it's quite hot, as it turns out'), and the cold scary master with an eventual heart of gold, and the spoiled-and-entitled-but-goodhearted young master. . . .

"And there could be indexes for plot tropes, too, like the Oops, There's My Core of Steel moment when the sweetest most obedient boy in the world suddenly discovers there is one thing he Cannot And Will Not Do, Not Even On Pain Of Death. And the Did I Hurt You Darling moment, when the gentle master finally gives way to his passions and nails the slave to the mattress, and afterwards he's like 'shit, shit, I didn't mean to, are you okay?' and the slave is like blissed out in a puddle all over the mattress and going 'um, YES?'"

--Maculategiraffe, of course. And, er, yeah, I've done the Did I Hurt You Darling moment. But hey, at least it was prisonerfic.

Topics in this post: Author envy. Recommendations of two slavefics. Old Guard. My Muse drops in like a kamikaze attack. When micromanagement isn't enough. Law Links. Keeping to the schedule (mine and my apprentice's). Captive of my Muse. Miscellaneous reading and writing topics. Weekly totals. That darned water-engine research; plus, Christmas preparations and writing plans. Those reins of power again. Review of Jane Carnall's Keptverse. New comments my writings; plus, prisonlit. Negotiations and dependence. Review of Jane Carnall's MirrorM*A*S*H and its sequel. Christmas and typography and Olympia 1949. In service to my Muse. I've got to get myself offline now. Yes, now. Demanding bunnies. Monthly and yearly totals. Borrowing a character and promising to give him back afterwards, only slightly worn.

( Read more... )

( Review of Poisontaster's A Kept Boy )

( Review of Maculategiraffe's The Slave Breakers )

( Review of Jane Carnall's Keptverse )

( Review of Jane Carnall's MirrorM*A*S*H and its sequel )

"Really, she must try and concentrate on [her protagonist's] alibi. . . . And she had not properly worked out the speed of the steam-yacht. One ought to know about these things. Lord Peter would know, of course; he must have sailed in plenty of steam-yachts. It must be nice to be really rich. Anybody who married Lord Peter would be rich, of course. And he was amusing. Nobody could say he would be dull to live with. But the trouble was that you never knew what anybody was like to live with except by living with them. It wasn't worth it. Not even to know all about steam-yachts. A novelist couldn't possibly marry all the people from whom she wanted specialised information."

--Dorothy L. Sayers: Have His Carcase.

Topics in this post: Internet addiction (a subject heading I'd hoped not to have to use again) and the state of the publishing industry. Reins of power. Prison literature. Doug back safely. Figuring out my upcoming schedule. Winter grocery staples list. Back to our regularly scheduled program. Internet troubles again. Getting beyond misdeeds. Proofreading. Recommendation of Patricia A. McKillip's Alphabet of Thorn. Interregnum. Fighting off the Internet fiend and low spirits . . . and how my Muse helps.

( Read more... )

( Recommendation of Patricia A. McKillip's Alphabet of Thorn )

"The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair."

--Mary Heaton Vorse.

Topics in this post: Weekly cycle. Pleasure and torture - design and finances. The art of avoiding the obvious (turn-of-the-century toilet paper). Editing and proofreading. A reason to love het: Mary Stewart. Overwhelmed. Not again. My Muse and death. Re-examining fundamental principles in my publishing work. Publication schedule redux. Victorian water engines and evil things to do with them. Changes in my diet. How to spend a holiday. Happy (late) Thanksgiving! Progress in scanning. Soaring upwards with writing counts . . . and staying there. Monthly totals. Bits of progress on chores.

( Read more... )

( Recommendation of Mary Stewart's The Moon-Spinners )

( Progress report on my writings: November 2008 )