Title: Backwards Traveller
Rating: NC-17! Um, soft NC-17, but yes.
Pairing: John/Paul
Authors: tini_91 and obstinatrix
Summary/Notes: New York in the late 70s feels like a world away from Europe almost two decades earlier, but when John settles down to write some more of his short 'fiction', he finds that, frankly, he misses Paris. This is 1961, in retrospective. We were also quite inspired by this clip, where John talks about being inspired by the romance of Paris.

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Yaaaaaay!

So, just in passing, some of the indies I’ve enjoyed lately:

L.M. Ironside has put out her sequel to The Sekhmet Bed; the sequel, The Crook and Flail is the story of Hapshetsut’s journey to the kingship. This was accessible, enjoyable historical fiction set in Egypt; I’m not an Egyptologist, of course, so I don’t know how accurate it is, but then again, how accurate is anything that far back going to be when half the time we’re not even clear on the lives of people we’re contemporaneous with? But I digress. In this novel, we return to meet Hatshepsut as she’s just about to reach her majority; she was raised by a mother who believed she has a boy’s spirits but a girl’s body, and Hatshepsut sometimes believes this and sometimes isn’t sure, and sometimes is attracted to women like a man, and to men like a woman—sometimes dresses like a man and sometimes like a woman. I couldn’t help but think this story would speak to a lot of my readers. If you enjoy historical fiction, Egypt, or gender issues, I encourage you to check this book out, and its prequel, The Sekhmet Bed. At $2.99 each they’re quite affordable!

I heard about Captive Prince from Webfiction Guide’s forum, because apparently this story was a Livejournal serial that just (a few days ago) got picked up by Penguin. It’s advertised as romance/erotica, which isn’t something I usually read, but I was curious about a story that could make the transition. And… I would never have thought of it as romance or erotica. The plot—younger prince sold as slave by older brother during a coup—sounds like a set-up for the typical “blah, blah, learns to become a good sex slave” sort of thing. But it never becomes that story. Instead, it’s about politics, and two extremely different and fascinating personalities interacting: this prince-turned-prisoner and the man he’s given to, also a prince, but of an enemy country, and one so tangled up in deceit and treachery that it has produced an heir to the throne who trusts no one and can think ten or twenty steps in front of his enemies. There was a touch of the Sherlock vibe to it, I thought, though eventually (a book and a half later!) we do get to the romance.

Whatever the case, it was supremely well-written. The characters in particular were brilliant, I thought. There’s a volume 1 and 2 up, and I’d snag them before Penguin jacks the price up from $3.99 each. If you like political intrigue, (eventual) male/male romance, or just like character studies, go pick this one up. (And if you’re on livejournal, the author’s there at freece.)

And that’s what I’ve been reading on my downtime. As always, if you’ve got a recommendation, I’m all ears!

Mirrored from MCAH Online.

So far I have been to Intergenerational LGBT Dialogue, which included a bunch on shifting vocabularies and how those reflect and/or can help shape self-identification; the delightful Imaginary Book Club (each panelist described/reviewed an imaginary book, and the others then commented on it, including inventing reviews they had seen, fanfic, possible movie adaptations, etc.; and most of the Xenogenesis. I wish I had reread the books pre-con (and might have if I had read the program schedule in time). (Good panel, I left for purely physical reasons.)

I am underslept, possibly jet lagged, and taking some time in the room to talk to Adrian by IM.

Cross-posted from Dreamwidth (http://redbird.dreamwidth.org/1386960.html), where there are comments. I welcome comments here or there (OpenID and "anonymous" are fine if you don't have a DW account).

Welcome to Geek Pride Day!

Today is the 25th of May.

It is the date of the original release of Star Wars, in 1977, 36 years ago.

Happy Birthday to:
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803)
Sir Ian McKellen (1939)
Frank Oz (1944)
Barry Windsor-Smith (1949)
Stan Sakai (1953).

And it is International Towel Day, celebrating the life and works of Douglas Adams. The Amazing Moxie Ann Magnus























seen with me here at Outlanta Con 2012, is the International Towel Day Ambassador.



(the explanation for Soxie is very meta)

Those who read me know I am a complete geek. Sometimes I conceal my sources, sometimes I embrace them and sometimes they just show like a cheap slip.

So, tell me, loves. What's YOUR favorite bit of random geekery in one of my stories?

Tell me yours and on Monday, I'll tall you mine. Leave a comment, and I will enter you in a drawing for an especially geeky craft item. Could be a TARDIS washcloth. Could be a Hat of Cunning +1. Might be Amigurami. We'll see. And if you don't read me, just leave your favorite geeky quote in the comments!


But for Towel Day, let me show you the most appropriate one:

Lincoln leaned in, his smile terrifying. "Tell me everything, pretty one, and we won't send you back used."

Kane took a deep breath, trying to decide what to say. He could tell Lincoln everything, and the leader might hand him over to the pack. He could lie his butt off, or he could say nothing. "In the beginning, the world was created. This made a lot of people very angry and was widely regarded as a bad move." Or he could be a smart-ass and quote Douglas Adams. Damn his memory bank for paying out that half-forgotten bit, and damn his mouth for running away with it. If his hands had been free, he would have face-palmed.

Lincoln scowled, but three of the other men snorted laughter. Kane put on his most innocent expression and batted his big blue eyes, feeling like an idiot. "Well, you did say everything, my lord Lincoln."

--Barbarossa's Bitch

Some of my characters, like Kane, are sometime-geeks. He has a couple of moments, this, his naming scene and the first time he's hauled out for examination by the Wildpack .

The men hauled the captives out of the trailer. Dylan supported Missy, helping her walk on unsteady legs. They blinked against the light after days in the dark of the semi-trailer. He held her up when the men lined them up. Missy hung onto him, her taut skin of her pregnant belly shiny in the hot sun.

A tall, thin man in black leather pants and boots, wearing a mask of black and gold spirals and a spiked codpiece, strode along the line. Dylan looked around and bit down on a laugh. He had fallen into an old disaster movie, what with the ragtag array of vehicles and men, and the masked leader. He silenced his memory, which was yelling the quote from Road Warrior about "The Lord Humungous, the ruler of the wasteland, the ayatollah of rock-and-rollah!" and kept his face straight and his eyes down.

Some of my characters, like Kane, are sometime-geeks. He has a couple of moments, this, his naming scene and the first time he's hauled out for examination by the Wildpack .

The men hauled the captives out of the trailer. Dylan supported Missy, helping her walk on unsteady legs. They blinked against the light after days in the dark of the semi-trailer. He held her up when the men lined them up. Missy hung onto him, her taut skin of her pregnant belly shiny in the hot sun.

A tall, thin man in black leather pants and boots, wearing a mask of black and gold spirals and a spiked codpiece, strode along the line. Dylan looked around and bit down on a laugh. He had fallen into an old disaster movie, what with the ragtag array of vehicles and men, and the masked leader. He silenced his memory, which was yelling the quote from Road Warrior about "The Lord Humungous, the ruler of the wasteland, the ayatollah of rock-and-rollah!" and kept his face straight and his eyes down.


On the other hand, Sean and Gabe from Shell-Shocked are raging geeks. They live in a mass-media world, their personalities shaped by the movies and TV of their youth.

"I follow Joss Whedon's philosophy of sex, as set down in the sacred text of Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Sean's face changed from glum to mock-serious.

Gabe giggled. "Sex is bad, all vampires are gay and sexbots are hot?"

Sean finally smiled at this. "Maybe not the last part."

Later, Sean alters a backpack so he can carry Gabe around, making Gabe more mobile than the wheelchair.

Sean stood up, the pack and Gabe on his back. He didn't stagger under the weight, but it was close. Gabe was heavy. "You still okay?"

"Yeah. This is nice." Gabe wrapped his arms around Sean's shoulders and kissed his neck.

"I like that," Sean smiled back at him. "Kinda heavy, but I'll be okay." He circled the room. "You're not gonna get seasick and barf down my back are you?"

Gabe just laughed and squeezed him a little. "No. Not the seasick type. And now we even have four hands to carry our stuff."

"Yeah, but only my lone pair of borg legs to carry it up."

Gabe kissed his neck and shoulders. "We can stop as often as you need." He kissed Sean again. "I really like this."

"All right." Sean shot an impish look back. "If you're set, Master Yoda, let's go shop."

"Forward, Sean Skywalker!" Gabe laughed all the way to the lobby.


Some of my books are nothing but fannish love letters. Heart of a Forest contains references to every Robin Hood movie (even Men in Tights), and many to Pyle's adaptation of the legend. But, if you know my head and my mental casting, you also see where it makes nods to Love! Valour! Compassion!, "Firefly", The Lion in Winter and Camelot.

The influences are fairly obvious in Curse of the Pharaoh's Manucurists. The Indiana Jones movies and Edgar Rice Burroughs are the most visible. But there are other tings, small and subtle for those who want to see them.


Remember, leave a comment with your favorite bit of geekery, and I will enter your name in a drawing for something awesomely geeky. It might even be a Hat of Cunning +1.
The Awesomeness of the prize will go up in direct relation to the number of comments. With enough comments, we might even get into full length Dr. Who scarf territory. But the prize will be straight off my hook or needles, made just for you.

I'm currently on a bus on my way to a restaurant where a gathering of The New England Horror Writers is being held.

On the menu: Greek meatballs in a red sauce, chocolate-covered bacon, and red wine.

Restaurant visits do not come my way often.

"It is thirteen miles by interstate from the insane asylum in Danvers to Route 113, which takes the traveler into the ancient city of Newburyport. The old coast road through Innsmouth, Rowley and Ispwich is longer, older and much narrower. The sprawling Boston metroplex sends out squamous suburbs, growths that threaten to swallow the whole of the state. Already, the twisting streets and oddly uniform houses creep down Highway One to Providence and up Route Three to Nashua. The world seems very small and urban and hardly the place for fear and the unnameable. The Space Age and Information Age have both come and gone." --Miskatonic Mistletoe, Riding the Nightmare

Today's photo dump is hosted by pictures of the abandoned Danvers Asylum.

( language, underwear and fake album coversCollapse )

On Thursday Predatrix sent me some comments on the rough draft of Nice Tie, which I will be trying to work on over the bank holiday weekend. Not that I've got to it as of late Saturday afternoon... The gist of it is that a) the story works overall, b) the first four fifths is mostly pretty good, the last fifth has a bad case of plot being obtrusive.

I'm not surprised by (b). When we discussed it, the section she pinpointed was precisely the section I'd been wrestling to get down over the last two months. A couple of other comments about spots earlier where the characters were doing things for the sake of plot also mark points where I was hit by an inspiration particle that changed what I was doing with the plot. So one of the things I need to do is go back and make that all blend together a bit more smoothly. (Amongst other things, I need to do a bit of in-cluing much earlier on about Alex having seen a colleague's problems with an abusive/controlling partner, plus make it clearer that the reason for the lack of "why did you not mention this boyfriend before" is the lack of privacy to have that conversation.)

The other thing that I think is going on is that for much of the last section it's almost all dialogue and very little description/business, which makes the pace feel forced and is adding to that feeling of things happening for the sake of Plot. Predatrix agreed when I suggested that -- she hadn't consciously noticed it, because she's even less visual a writer than I am, but on having the possibility pointed out to her she thought it was a likely component of her reaction.

But (a) is good. Given the way this story changed and grew as I was writing it, I did wonder if it made sense outside my own head, and if there was enough story to support the word count it had grown to. (b) I can fix, as long as I have (a).

It's gong to take me a while yet to get this ready for submission, which is a shame because I'd hoped to have it ready to send off to my editor by now. But at least I've got something novel-shaped to work on, which is a distinct improvement over the last few years.

Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/242200.html, where it has received comments.

At the broaduniverse table with Andrea Hairston at #wiscon. Come by and say hi. Until 12:45.
Then on to my 1PM panel on women in traditional ballads.
Then onto tea and dinner and the TOTU party tonight.