This week I’ve got about seven topics, so comment on what interests you, ignore the rest. Or talk about anything you want.

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The M/M LOVE THINGIE

I don’t get it. I mean I really don’t. I’m at a loss as to why two men making out appeals to red-blooded heterosexual women. An Ellora’s Cave editor wonders too:

What precisely attracts you to M/M? “It’s hot!” doesn’t cut it for me. Why exactly is it hot? I’m not complaining or judging, and while it’s not my favorite genre, I don’t hate it, by any stretch of the word. Though the genre’s thoroughly saturated the market, it still sells consistently well, so I’ll happily continue editing it….. I just truly want to understand the psychology behind a straight fan’s love of gay erotica…or at least toss some theories around. Because let’s be honest with ourselves—this is not gay erotica. Not really. At least, not according to my gay male friends, anyway. (The ones who’ve read some EC M/M. They can appreciate the story, but thought the romantic elements in no way reflected the relationships they’ve been in).


I found the last comment very interesting, about how these books do not reflect real gay romance. So are these stories mostly heterosexual women’s fantasies of gay relationships? You know, much like hetero romances don’t reflect reality. Should M/M writers strive for more realism? If not realism, perhaps they could have more gay-authenticity (for lack of a better word)? If you buy M/M books and you’re straight, what’s the appeal for you? And even if you aren’t into these books, if you have a clue as to why hetero women are in lurv with them, please share. Inquiring minds REALLY want to know.

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DAMN! WHY DIDN’T **I** THINK OF THAT?

Have you seen the new show called DATING IN THE DARK? I did and I loved it. Here’s the set up. Every week, three women and three men come to stay in a beautiful mansion. The men bunk together in one section of the house and the women stay together in the other. But the two sexes never see each other. The only time these two groups get together is in a pitch black room. The first meeting is with all six, and in subsequent pitch black meetings the people begin to suss out who they’d like to be paired with. Then they go on individual dates, again with no lights. After that, the show does an E-harmony type thing where they tell each person who they’d be most compatible with, and they’re given a choice.

Once these choices are made, the couples continue to date in the pitch black room, only now they’re with each other exclusively. It’s like a regular date only they’ve never seen the other’s face. They can touch, talk, kiss, laugh, drink, eat … you know, all the things you do when the lights are on, they just can’t see each other. Eventually, they get a chance to work with a sketch artist who draws a picture as they describe what they think the person they’ve chosen looks like, then the other person gets to see the actual drawing.

Finally, comes the reveal where the couples are allowed to see each other for a few seconds with a spot light on them. They’re not allowed to say anything. Also, while each person is revealed the other remains hidden so the one being revealed can’t see their facial reaction. In the end, if the person is still interested in seeing the other in real life, they’re to meet on the balcony, if not they leave the mansion. So the people who decide they like what they saw must stand on the balcony and wait to see if the one they were paired with feels the same way. If yes, the person meets them on the balcony.

One guy liked what he saw and at the end of the show he went out on the balcony only to see his girl walk out the door and leave. She wasn’t interested. I felt bad for him because they really got along in the dark, but once she saw him, the physical attraction wasn’t there for her. I thought he was okay looking. Not Brad Pitt, but who the hell is?

On a brighter note, there were some happy endings. The two other couples decided to see each other again. I especially liked one couple in particular because it had a nerdy girl paired with a cute but shy guy. After their reveal, she was worried he wouldn’t like what he saw, and he did have initial doubts about whether he wanted to continue the relationship, but he soon realized she actually “GOT” him. He had a troubled background and she was the nurturing type. She understood where he was coming from and that’s what attracted him to her. They spent a lot of time having heart to hearts and he genuinely grew to like her. She was the first on the balcony waiting and she didn’t think he’d show, but when he did her face lit up. It was truly romantic. I’m getting all kinds of story ideas from this. Unfortunately, I bet a hundred other writers are too. :roll:

Here’s a snippet of the cute guy/nerdy girl. I think they’re adorable together.

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COLD HARD REALITY

From a popular agent’s blog:

# of queries read last week: 159
# of partials/manuscripts requested: 1
genre of partials/manuscripts requested: YA

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CONTEMPORARY COMEBACK?

Theresa Stevens, Managing Editor at Red Sage Publishing writes the following over at Edittorrent about the “state of reader interest in general”:

We’ve just come out of almost a decade of a culture of fear. The media would have had us believe that a terrorist lurked in every shadow. And what was popular during that time period? Vampires. Werewolves. Rogue villains being defeated by Navy SEALs. “Get it while you can” erotic romance story types. It all fits with that particular zeitgeist. And which story types felt less compelling? Low-conflict contemporaries. Anything purely relationship-driven. Small-town sweethearts. Not that these particular story types went away, but they sure weren’t the ones getting the big buzz. Now we’re in a serious economic situation, and families and friends are pulling together to help each other through it. We’re shifting away from “fear of other” and into “we’re all in it together” …. the result is that the conference buzz was about books with weepy family plots (Jody Picoult) and warm, emotional women’s fiction/romance feelings (Kristin Hannah, Susan Wiggs).

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Oh! Oh! I thought this little snippet from Monday’s Edittorrent was very interesting too:

“A NYC print publisher has slipped under RWA’s stated “$1,000 for all books” requirement on a recent 2-novel contract (yes, in print). This is the second NYC house to do so, though RWA may not know about this one yet.”

Your move RWA. :popcorn:

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I’M ANAL

Angela James posted about 10 things to double check before submitting to her. One item hit close to home:

The dreaded ECHO. I’m not sure how an author can really check for this other than reading very, very thoroughly, but using the same word too often too close together is a common author quirk and a common editorial comment.

This is a personal favorite of mine. I’m notoriously anal about echos when I critique. Sooooo, when you critique, what one thing are YOU anal about?

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SHORT STORY CONTEST

Writer’s Digest 10th Annual Short Short Story Competition is on and the deadline is Tuesday, December 1, 2009.


PRIZES
First Place: $3,000
Second Place: $1,500
Third Place: $500
Fourth Through Tenth Place: $100
Eleventh Through Twenty-Fifth Place: $50 gift certificate for Writer’s Digest Books

Click HERE for more details.

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JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER

I picked up the following interesting gem from Editorial Anonymous. I’m still scratching my head over this one:

“Let’s say you have a book told in first person. The narrator describes herself as black, with very short hair, and is mistaken for a boy early on in the book by teachers and fellow students. The narrator is a compulsive liar, but unlike some of her other claims in the course of the novel, no doubt is ever cast on this description. Now let’s say you’re Bloomsbury. Your books for ages 14-18 always have a photographic cover, but they don’t always have a face on them. There are also no minorities on their covers. So what do you put on the cover of this book?”

This is what you put on the book! A face that looks nothing like the character. :lmao:

Okay, I have to admit, the cover is spectacular. VERY imaginative. It’s just not true to the story. So what did the author have to say about this brouhaha? I swiped this from her blog:

“I’ll have more to say about the US cover of Liar later. But I think it’s important to remember that covers are outside an author’s area of control. So if people have a problem with the cover they should be letting the publisher know because they’re the ones who have the power to change it, not the author.”

Following this, one of her blog readers responded with:

I don’t think your publishers realize just how much of a problem the cover may be in the US. While it’s a fantastic shot, I don’t believe they realize how fragile race relations are in this country and they may be in for quite a backlash. Hope it doesn’t derail the message in your novel.

Here’s another reader’s response:

“I am certainly interested to see how Bloomsbury handles this; the disparity between the cover and the contents is no small issue to me.

Of course it’s not the author’s fault. I hope people realize this, but darn. I’m still scratching my head over the publisher’s choice. It just doesn’t compute.