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.

( And then the power went out )

"I don't go around asking authors about their gender credentials to see whether they're straight women, in order to know whether I'm allowed to read their stuff."

--My gay male apprentice, an avid reader of gay romance, commenting on the controversy over whether m/m fiction is created solely by and for straight women.

"I wonder whether all those guys who are upset about m/m romance writers appropriating their culture are sitting around wearing pink triangle buttons? Because if they are, they've appropriated a symbol that means, 'Line me up for the gas chambers.'"

--My apprentice again.

( Background to my entries )
( Mentoring: Refining my conversation skills )
( Writing: Hurrah! I can easily produce e-books for Kindle now )
( Writing: Kindle e-book royalties soar to 70 percent . . . but there's a catch )
( Writing and Home: Life in 2003 )
( Writing and Home: Life in 2004 )
( Writing: Yet again, my e-mail offers interesting reading )
( Writing and Simplicity: Wrapping up a moderately awful month )
( Writing and Simplicity: Stronger measures against my Internet addiction (with an interlude on food) )

Hey, you guys know that you can reply to any of my Reply to Comments, don't you? One of the reasons I place my replies in a separate post is so that people won't miss seeing the conversations sparked by past posts.

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( Reply to lusiology about British children's dramas )
( Reply to Anonymous (hey, don't forget to sign your anonymous posts, guys) about Socrates and Plato )
( Reply to catana1 about language in historical novels )

. . . and thank you to MightyMaeve, Clare London, sa_tsl, and slashbluegreen for your kind comments about "The Unanswered Question."

Clare London is holding her second annual blog month, in which she brings in other authors and readers to talk on any topic they wish. I had so much fun reading last year's contributions (including comments posted in reply) that I asked to participate in this year's fest. You'll find me over there today, talking about Historical Fantasy - Why Not Just Write Historical Fiction?

The prince was told that he must find himself. But what if finding oneself means losing one's love?

Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

"I thought that he would return once his wounds were healed. I would never have left him if I had known this would happen."

Revenge is sweet . . . unless you are haunted by dark memories of your own misdeeds.

(This story is also suitable for Main Bookshelf readers.)

He had prepared himself for the possibility of death at the hands of the enemy. He had not expected his King to die in the moment of his victory.

—John had a way of speaking, softly and simply, words that were most chilling. ¶ A new Kindle e-book edition is issued of the friendship fiction novel Blood Vow.
—The darkness that Farsight had sensed during the past weeks was quiescent, perhaps driven into sleep by the light. ¶ A free edition of the suspenseful fantasy story "Night Shadow" is the first in a new series of ePub e-books.
—Reminding himself that he was not to kill anyone in this dungeon. . . ¶ A holiday gift story is posted at The Eternal Dungeon.
—He had prepared himself for the possibility of death at the hands of the enemy. He had not expected his King to die in the moment of his victory. ¶ Two stories are posted at a new series site devoted to rare litfic: gen, het, and slash.
—The Turn-of-the-Century Toughs bibliographies are updated.
—New blurbs, cover art, and excerpts are posted from upcoming fiction.

The details.

The following e-books, both from the Main Bookshelf, have appeared in new e-book editions.

New Kindle e-book edition:

Blood Vow (The Three Lands). He has taken a blood vow to the Jackal God to bring freedom to his land by killing Koretia's greatest enemy. But what will he do when the enemy becomes his friend?

New ePub e-book edition (free):

Night Shadow (Darkling Plain). A prince who could see beyond his borders but not see the people around him. . . . An enemy who would take any measure to get what he wanted. . . . And now a stranger has brought news to the prince of an approaching danger.

I'm in the process of converting my entire backlist into ePub e-books. Some of the e-books will have bonus material about the creation of the stories.

If you're not familiar with the format, ePub is the MP3 of the e-book world: a common e-book format that can be read by many e-readers and mobile devices. Since an ePub e-book is simply a bunch of HTML files collected together in a special way with a few other files, you can easily read ePub e-books in your Web browser, as well as in e-readers, mobile devices, etc. More information is available in Easy Ways to Read ePub E-books.

My first ePub e-book is now online: "Night Shadow." If you plan to read my e-books at any time in the future, I'd appreciate it if you'd download this free e-book. If you encounter any problems with the formatting or layout, please let me know so that I can correct them now, before I publish more e-books.

"I am not a historian. And even if I was I wouldn't know everything about every era. So generally, if I'm reading a story about 1800's Australia, or 1920's Ireland, or Tudor England, my default mode is that I'm a little on edge. This is because I want to like the book, and I trust the author not to jolt me with glaring anachronisms. If there are small mistakes I won't catch them – and if the book is good enough – such as Dash and Dingo was, I can forgive the odd gaffe. We all make mistakes – hell we are human. But if the book unravels as I'm reading it, and there's glaring nonsense heaped on 'omg she didn't' then I know I'm NOT in a safe pair of hands."

--Erastes: A Safe Pair of Hands.

"I suppose I don't see what's so wrong about getting the facts right. No-one complains when mystery writers use the correct poisons or the right ballistics, after all. I don't feel I'm being preached at when I read murder mysteries, and I enjoy learning about things I didn't know. Just because something is romance, historical romance, doesn't mean that it should automatically be allowed to warp the facts. 'Oh I know cocoa powder doesn't have the same effect as belladonna' said Agatha Christie, 'but it's fiction, so why does it matter?'"

--Erastes, in the comments section of the same article. The whole thread is worth reading, because other historical novelists and readers chime in with their thoughts.

( Background to my entries )
( Writing and Simplicity: Bunches of stats )
( Writing: Text-to-speech, braille, and my Muse )
( Writing and Simplicity: My writing schedule this month )
( Writing: The Muse swoops in and takes hostages )
( Writing: Prisons in the 1910s (Life Prison research) )
( Writing: One stick too many (e-publishing, print publishing, and 'Rebirth') )
( Writing: More from the prisons in the 1910s (Life Prison research) )
( Writing: First, let's kill the lawyers. Then the software manufacturers.) )
( Writing and simplicity: Internet addiction thoughts )
( Writing: Yet more interesting prison writings from the 1910s (Life Prison research) )
( Writing: Smashwords improvements planned; plus, Smashwords versus Lulu )
( Simplicity and Writing: Internet addiction and ePub creation )
( Simplicity and Writing: Another day of Internet addiction . . . but I'm ready to upload )
( Writing: Erastes on the history of gay historical fiction )
( Writing: How do I find a place within the m/m fiction community? )

Parental guidance is recommended for this post; NWS links ahead.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to say about this m/m fiction versus gay fiction debate going on. (See the posts linked from mm_fiction_news and metafandom.)

( Some not-work-safe links and some *very* work-safe links )

So I'm a bit uncomfortable with this drawing of battle lines between genres and between genders and between sexual orientations, as though all of us belonged on one side or the other. I don't want to have to stop being this, just in order to be able to be part of this.

"If B&N wants to maintain a 20th century business model, they should start selling sculptures. I figure they've got at least ten years before consumers get hold of 3D printers and scanners, and force them to invent new ways to make money on [Rodin] downloads."

--John, commenting on the LendMe feature of the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader.

( Background to my entries )
( Writing: Rape, torture, and therapy (with spoilers for KatBear's 'Jailbait' )
( Writing: Google Book Settlement redux )
( Writing: More news on Google Editions (with my summary of the various options available to e-book self-publishers) )
( Writing: Summary of my sales this year )
( Simplicity: Reworking my monthly schedule again )
( REVIEW: Recommendation of Syd McGinley's 'The Complete Dr. Fell, Volume Two: Found' )
( Simplicity: Getting my messed-up schedule back in order )
( Writing: I've been bittorented )

Doug and I went to a Friday night lecture tonight (December 4) at my alma mater, St. John's College in Annapolis, that was entitled "Why Plato Wrote." Friday night is the only time of the week when lectures are held at St. John's; all of the classes are discussion classes, in which the students and tutors (i.e. instructors) talk about the Great Books that everyone has read. So of course, immediately after the lecture, the lecturers are forced to undergo a Q&A session with the students and tutors.

In the Q&A, the lecturer mentioned Plato's Phaedrus, in which Socrates talks about whether writing can be helpful. Socrates has, you will see, a generally poor opinion of writing.

( What Socrates and Robin Hobb have in common )

The reason I spend so much time encouraging story discussions and fan fiction about my stories - I realized tonight - is precisely because I graduated from a college that honors discussion as playing a central role in keeping books alive. When a reader posts a piece of Eternal Dungeon fan fiction, or when readers at my blog discuss my stories amongst each other (with me keeping out of the way as much as possible, because "any of the bystanders could have explained those poems better than their actual authors") . . . that is when my stories become, in Phaedrus's words, "living speech."

Any thoughts, folks?

"Bad fortune, I think, is more use to a man than good fortune. Good fortune always seems to bring happiness, but deceives you with her smiles, whereas bad fortune is always truthful because by changing she shows her true fickleness. Good fortune deceives, but bad fortune enlightens. With her display of specious riches good fortune enslaves the minds of those who enjoy her, while bad fortune gives men release through the recognition of how fragile a thing happiness is. And so you can see Fortune in one way capricious, wayward and ever inconstant, and in another way sober, prepared and made wise by the experience of her own adversity. And lastly, by her flattery good fortune lures men away from the path of true good, but adverse fortune frequently draws men back to their true good like a shepherdess with her crook. Do you think it is of small account that this harsh and terrible misfortune has revealed those friends whose hearts are loyal to you? She has shown you the friends whose smiles were true smiles . . ."

--Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (circa 520 A.D.) as translated by V. E. Watts.

I began posting here about my recent illnesses because I figured there might be others here who had gone through these illnesses too, so we could swap stories. As a result, I've been both surprised and touched by the really nice comments I've received, here and elsewhere, wishing me well in my quest for health. Thank you all for your kind thoughts.

The good news is that I'm well on my way back to good health, so I don't anticipate any major health crises in January.

( Background to my entries )
( More about my back )
( More about my jaw )

At any rate, I'm now sleeping reasonably well (with the aid of no less than nine pillows; that's how many it takes to prop my various appendages into the right position) and have no jaw or back pain the daytime except when I exercise, in which case my back flairs up. I'm a bit worried about that latter problem, because part of my creative process comes from plotting while I'm dancing, but maybe by the time I start my composing cycle again - on January 1 - my body will have healed enough that I can do some dancing.

And man, is "good health" on my list of things to be thankful for as the new year begins.

Reminding himself that he was not to kill anyone in this dungeon . . .

The remainder of "The Unanswered Question" is now online as my 2009 holiday gift story to my readers. With special thanks to my apprentice for doing a rush job on the beta report this week. (Amidst his Christmas preparations, he betaed my 36,000-word novella in three days and did online research for me on Victorian uniforms. He deserves a medal.) You can see the prompts from my readers that inspired the novella and my response to their prompts (both with major spoilers, so they're best read after you've finished the story).

Oh, and Telepwen, notice how neatly I've included the Bacardi.

"Damn, that man is perhaps the most forgiving in all history. He's nearly saintly. Well, except for that little murder episode."

--Catnotdead on a certain character in The Eternal Dungeon.

( Background to my entries )
( Writing and Home: Trying to get back into the groove of my holiday fic; plus, it's a White Advent )
( Writing: Trying out ePub e-books on the EPUBReader add-on for Firefox )
( Home and Writing: TMJ, dry eyes, my Muse, and the side effects of hurt/comfort )
( Writing: Favorite novels in March 1997; plus, story ideas during my teens; plus, where many of my current stories came from )
( Writing: E-book bonus material ideas )
( Simplicity: Brief update on the computer file purge )
( Writing: My holiday story is finished )
( Simplicity: Adjusting my Internet time slightly; plus, a detour into Ptolemaic astronomy and base 60 math )
( Mentoring: An exchange with my apprentice )
( Home: So now I've got back pain. )

"Just like music, Hollywood's first reaction to [piracy] will be 'Well, that's just not fair. That's jumping the turnstile, that's breaking the rules. We have to shut that down, because if you remove that option [i.e. piracy] then people will be more patient.' You won't remove that option, and you're losing valuable time if you focus on removing that option at the expense of improving that option and bettering that option, beating that option.

"The music people used to say, 'How can you can compete with free?' And now you ask anybody in digital music and they'll tell you, 'I'm just trying to compete effectively with free.' They've embraced the very condition that up until very recently they said they would reject. I'm telling you, you are going to compete with free. Sometimes you're even going to win, once you make the commitment to living in the marketplace as it is and not as you wish it were or as it once was."

--Eric Garland.

( Background to my entries )
( Writing: Terrific e-book self-publishing news from Smashwords )
( Writing: More thoughts on Smashwords )

Meanwhile, if any of you have published through Smashwords, I'd be interested to know whether you've had good experiences with them. Have you had any bad encounters as a result of their adult content policy? Did you have any technical problems in getting your e-books onto their site? How have your sales been?

"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 )

( Reply to lemursexbot - i.e., my apprentice - about critiques of my Prison City manuscript )
( Reply to dharma_slut about the LLF thread )
( Brief reply to yonmei )

"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 )