Love in Dark Settings

My writings: Love in Dark Settings Omnibus (all of my fiction, nonfiction, and fiction recommendations in one HTML e-book) | Kindle 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.

LiveJournal mirror to this blog.

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

"I am more and more certain that I still have not left the world but keep lingering on the edges. I am plainly and simply scared of 'no return,' and fear that the road of total commitment . . . is arduous, painful, and very lonely. . . .

"It is this type of extremism, of absolutism, of total surrender, of unconditional 'yes,' of unwavering obedience . . . that frightens me and makes me such a wishy-washy soul, wanting to keep a foot in both worlds. But that is how one stumbles."

--Henri J. M. Nouwen: The Genesee Diary.

( Background to my entries )
( Taking a second look at my life )
( Spiders, housework, and me )
( An unexpected visitor )
( Miscounting The Eternal Dungeon )
( Progress with publishing and with my Internet addiction )

What was happening during this time: Just a few items of everyday life.

Background to my retro daily life entries


( Trespassing )
( Kid power )
( Questions about death )
( Neighborhood kids )
( Book dedications and our car )

"If you really don't want to post actual warnings, a generic 'I don't warn' statement is better than nothing. Though, please always warn for mpreg and watersports. That way I can find stories I want to read. I mean avoid. Umm, yeah."

--Not giving credit on this one, for obvious reasons.

Below, a slightly edited version of my response to Jane Carnall's post about the warnings issue. Only likely to be of interest to folks in the fan fiction community.

( Read more... )

"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'? )

Anyone need one? If so, let me know where to e-mail yours, or just drop me a line.

Some of you will have heard this already - I only just received this news - but Minotaur, a member of the slash community and of Gaylaxicon, died on June 14.

The entry on him at Fanlore, with related links. See especially the testimonials section.

The details of his death, as posted by his roommate, and news about memorials in his name.

I owe a lot to Minotaur; at the time I entered the slash community, in 2002, his Slash Page Database Project was one of the few Web directories collecting links to original slash and original yaoi (as well as many other types of slash and yaoi). The database helped me to find other original fiction sites and to get the word out about my own.

I also crossed paths briefly with Minotaur through his appearances at Connexions and Con.txt. I was very sad to hear of his death.

"'I wouldn't want to make it look like a gardener's garden, all clipped an' spick an' span, would you?' he said. 'It's nicer like this with things runnin' wild, an' swingin' an' catchin' hold of each other."

"'Don't let us make it tidy,' said Mary anxiously. 'It wouldn't seem like a secret garden if it was tidy.'"

--Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden.

That's what I want too: a "lovely wild place" that "would be a wilderness of growing things." But I'm darned if I can find any writings on this topic.

( Can you folks help me find what I'm looking for? )

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.

As an antidote to a really discouraging day struggling with InDesign, I've decided to put together a guide to the most popular print-on-demand services used by self-publishers. At least two of you folks here might be interested by this information. :)

(Those of you who are knowledgeable, please correct any mistakes I've made.)

Currently, the Big Three are Lulu, CreateSpace, and Lightning Source. All three services take care of printing and distributing books for self-publishers, for fees that range from moderate to zero. All three are recommended frequently enough to suggest that they're reasonably satisfactory services. I've only used Lulu myself, but I've hung out at forums where CreateSpace and Lightning Source self-publishers post.

( Lulu )
( CreateSpace )
( Lightning Source (LSI) )
( Running the numbers )
( Further reading )

This is flash fiction for my upcoming Prison City retrofuture series, which is partly set in a 1960s world that has Jetsons-like devices. It was written in response to this prompt by Lothy at the slavefics LJ community.

Depositing money in the bank was always the worst problem.

"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) )

You guys are the best. I'm loving your discussion of the last installment; I'm learning so much from it about my own characters.

Best of all is Telepwen, who has posted a delightful little piece of Eternal Dungeon fan fiction, Fall Together. It has major spoilers for Rebirth 5: As a Seeker.

I've also added a link to this story on my page devoted to fan works set in my worlds.

New online fiction.

The torturer was naive, inexperienced, and lacking in knowledge of the world. The prisoner was tough, worldly-wise, and had an infallible plan that would give him escape from this place. So why did the prisoner feel as though the torturer had the edge?

I could see before me a ceiling-high slate tablet covered with prisoners' names, and a goodly number of those names were crossed out. I knew what that meant.

Index to series links:

Darkling Plain at the Main Bookshelf.

The Eternal Dungeon at the High Bookshelf.

Comments, queries, discussions, and calls for lynching me are welcome. (Okay, not the last, but I'm expecting a few calls after the previous installment.) Main Bookshelf readers should be aware that High Bookshelf stories may be mentioned in the comments below.

This is (I'm sure you High Bookshelf readers have noticed) the final part of the first volume of The Eternal Dungeon. The second volume of the series is coming soon.

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... )

So here I am, publishing stories about the propensity of a certain character in The Eternal Dungeon to self-destruct, and meanwhile, I'm trying to convince a close friend not to kill himself.

( Read more... )

I think it's past time I blogged about this, because, while most of the published authors reading this probably know about it already, some may not. And readers are affected by this news as well.

Google Books is making arrangements to have a monopoly on offering digital access to out-of-print books. A deal that it made with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers allows it to sell access to all out-of-print books that are still in copyright (read that a second time) unless the copyright owner opts out of the settlement. Alternatively, the copyright owner can make a claim in order to receive a share of the profit on the books by them that Google sells.

( Why I like Google Books )
( Why I don't like this plan )

Regardless as to how you view the matter, authors should take a look at the Google Book Settlement site. The site provides instructions on how to opt out of the settlement or (alternatively) to make claims to receive money. The deadline (which was supposed to be May 5) has been extended to September 4.

New online fiction. Parental supervision is strongly suggested for this story.

If the High Seeker wants something, no power in life or death will hold him from taking it. What he wants now has brought danger to the Eternal Dungeon.

One of the jokes of the Eternal Dungeon was that Layle Smith had designed the Seekers' hoods, and that he had done so for the sole purpose of forcing prisoners to focus their attention upon his cold eyes. It was a joke that inevitably brought nervous laughter.

Comments, queries, and oodles of vigorous discussions are welcome.

"George R.R. Martin is the hugely successful purveyor of an ongoing, seven-volume fantasy series called A Song of Ice and Fire. Four books are done. The first three came quickly, then there was a five-year wait for the fourth. The first indicated publication date for the fifth instalment, fiercely awaited, was 2006. That has rather obviously been missed: Martin is still writing it. The natives are restless.

"How restless? Well, on his blog, cutely called Not a Blog, Martin fired back two weeks ago at what he called 'a rising tide of venom' about how late he is. Seems some of his loyal and devoted readers are savagely attacking him for taking holidays, for watching football in the fall, for attending conventions, doing workshops, editing a volume of short stories, even for being '60 years old and fat' (I'm quoting here, trust me) - the implication being he might drop dead before fulfilling his obligation to do nothing else but finish the damned series. . . .

"Martin wasn't happy. 'Maybe it's okay if I take a leak once in a while?' he wrote. His blog response was accompanied by a flashing 'angry' icon face.

"It is all too easy for another writer to sympathize, and I do, hugely, but I can't help but note that the only reason readers know about holidays and football games (and his favourite team) is that Martin has told them. On his blog."

--Guy Gavriel Kay: Release the Fans!

( May 2009: 5 stories and 1 novel reprinted )

What was happening during this time: I was kicked out of school, just in time for an early summer vacation.

Background to my retro daily life entries


( School suspension )
( The Fourth of July and the Beatles )
( A hubristic child-writer's goals; plus, my family, and a description of my family's favorite toy, namely our electronic typesetter )
( Brain (early fictionalized autobiography) )