megwrites

Are the tipjar paypal buttons annoying or causing anyone trouble with their reading or their f-list reading? Because if it is, I'll take the buttons off. If not, I'll leave them because I could REALLY use some money in the tipjar right now and I want people to very easily be able to find where to do that if they feel so inclined.

So, thoughts, anyone?

I'm backed up on reviews and I'm wondering how many per day would the folks on the f-list consider excessive?

Because I want to post them. There are a couple of books I'm really eager to discuss with the world at large (The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi, for one and Cast In Fury for another), but I don't want to overwhelm anyone.

So, what say you f-list?

Actually, this is something I've been wondering for a while now.

Are YA books actually intended solely for young adults anymore? Because it seems like a lot of YA bestsellers are becoming more and more popular with the decidedly not-so-young adult set, and I'm wondering if authors have started keeping older audiences in mind when they set out to write books in the YA genre.

I can't say I read very much YA myself, nor do I imagine that I'll be writing it any time soon. Which is not an insult to the genre. I can see why readers outside the advertised age bracket are attracted to some of the books coming out in the genre. Many of them are better written, less cliche, and all around more exciting that some of the so-called "adult" fare.

However, I guess the genre boundaries interest me, as well as what attracts adult readers to some of the works in the genre and what factors into the minds of those who write it. How does writing a book for a younger audience change what you do, or does it?

For that matter, how does one differentiate between a book that's "YA" and a "children's book" or a "middle grade" book - and where did the term "Young Adult" originate from?

Whenever I see calls for queer SF/F, or queer fiction in general, I always wonder if I would be allowed to submit, if I fit under the category of "queer", if what I write fits under the category of "queer".

I write plenty of things with/about people who are neither cisgendered nor straight, I write stories of gay couples and lesbian adventurers (that lesbian pirate story will see an audience one day, I hope) and folks who began life as one gender but knew they were another.

But does that count? I don't think I've ever written a story that was centered on anyone's sexuality so much as what they're doing. I mean, yeah, the sexuality enters into it sometimes and for different reasons, but that's never been the thrust of the story.

Is queer fiction just fiction with queer people or is there another element to it?

For reference: I am a cisgendered, bisexual female. Yeah, I know. It seems like every girl who gets drunk at a party and smooches other drunk co-eds for the enjoyment of cheering frat boys claims to be as well.

Which is precisely the problem. Seems like, sometimes, being bisexual doesn't count for anything. I'm not straight enough to be heterosexual. The women I've loved and been with don't go away, the things I feel for and about other women don't go away. Yet, I can play straight if I have to (around certain family members, for instance). I'm engaged to a cisgendered male, so people make understandable presumptions. And for that reason, I often wonder if I have a place at the queer table, if I'm allowed. Do I count?

I guess there are moments when I feel as though I have to fight both sides just to be recognized, just to have my identity acknowledged as real, legitimate, and not just a phase or a state of confusion. Because I'm definitely not confused about this, and I never was. I've always known that I'm not straight, and I've always known that I'm not gay. I didn't just "go over to the dark side" during college and come back when it was convenient, but keep the name to give me street cred. I'm not a lesbian in denial.

This is me. I'm here. I'm real and I really feel these things. I'm not lying, and I'm not too stupid or confused to know what I feel. I'm a conscientious adult who knows her own mind. And for the record, I've never once kissed a girl for anyone's pleasure and enjoyment but my own, and every time I have been with women, I've been stone cold sober and there way nary a frat boy in sight.

I've seen collections of Gay and Lesbian fiction (collectively and separately), and that's a good thing. My word, I'm not crying for less Gay/Lesbian fiction. I say, more! Let us have more queerness, queerness all over! But I don't think I've ever seen collections of Bisexual fiction. And I wish I did. It'd be nice, you know? Nice if every once and a while I saw stories about people that were like me.

I thought I'd pose a question to the almighty f-list and see what you say.

What types of stories would you dearly love to read, but have never seen written, or not written nearly enough?

For example, werewolves in spaceships or unicorns that aren't helpful, wonderful creatures but evil one-horned ponies of death, or maybe just something as simple as, "I'd love to see a story with a main character that (insert something you think is underdone)".

For me, one book I'd like to see is an urban fantasy novel that is heroine-centric, but the heroine is not the typical leather-clad, beautiful, sassy vampire-huntress, but instead someone who is perhaps not so attractive, damaged, and stops punning long enough to actually fight evil. In fact, I'd love for someone to flip the entire Laurell K. Hamilton/Kim Harrison type novels on their head.

I know I'd like to read a lot more novels in the SF/F genre as a whole that feature main characters that are characters of color and/or disabled and/or transgendered and/or queer and/or otherwise different from the usual. I know that some exist out there, but not nearly enough if you ask me.

So what are the books, characters, plots, and settings that you'd love to read but haven't found yet?

What does "chewing the scenery" mean, precisely, and where did this phrase originate from?

My little internship at Unnamed Publishing Company is not going so very well. It's not the worst job I've ever had, but it's certainly not the best. The company I work for is not really a literary publisher, so I'm keeping in mind that a job at a more literary press/company might be more my speed.

Still, this internship and this job? Not. Working.

At this point in my life, I'm past the, "What the hell do I want to be?" question. I know precisely what I want to be and it's what I've wanted to be since I was eight: A Writer.

BUT. Being a writer pays peanuts. Actually, less than peanuts, because peanuts you could live off of. I've got bills and loans that need paying. The people at the bank care about as much about my happiness and my dreams as lions care about the fleas on the back of the antelope they're about to bring down and suffocate with their razor sharp teeth.

I bet there are maybe five hundred people on the whole of planet Earth who make enough to make their living solely off of writing. Five hundred out of six billion...carry the four...and...yeah.

My odds suck. Hence, having a day job.

The year of unemployment that preceded having this internship taught me that, if I didn't have to worry about money, I wouldn't even consider having a job. I'd write. And I'd love it, and it would fulfill me and I'd be happy as a clam in a gram of spam (trust me, this is great happiness).

The question now is, "How the frick do I keep food on the table and not make myself miserable doing it?"

My f-list is mostly composed of writer, and entirely composed of very intelligent folks. So maybe I could pose a question.

What kind of day jobs do you think match well with being a writer? What about them makes them compatible with writing (especially writing with publication in mind) and how does one go about getting said job?

1. I totally just realize the last fifty pages or so if what I've been writing on the Tower!Guy novel are so, so, so, so crappy. FRAAAAAAAAK. Frakkity frak frakkin' frakked frakker. There aren't enough made up cuss words for this situation. *headdesk*.

2. Does anyone know where there are some good, quality places to get critiques on your novel? Because hitting up people I know isn't working. The Boy is a forensic scientist. Thus, his literary eye? Does not exist. And not to be elitist or catty, but I need places that are populated by, yanno, writers who can write and who know what they're doing. Because I need someone who can be as demanding and professional about the writing as an agent/editor is going to be.

3. Go here. Tell me the books that I absolutely must have, or at least books that you think deserve to be plucked from the shelf and sampled (btw, I usually give books about the first chapter or 20 pages to impress me). I have a couple of Barnes & Noble gift cards and enough left on my metrocard to get me there.

4. Think of as many phrases, words, cliches, and sayings as you can that contain the word "night". It will be extremely helpful, thanks.

5. Kick me if I don't have at least 1500 words by midnight tonight, okay? Okay.

The basic question is this: is having a novel with a word count above 100,000 the absolute death of any hopes for publishing a work you may have?

It's come upon me that even with the massive editing I've been doing, that Revenant Blues is going to be a little on the hefty side.

I've taken out big spots of unnecessary dialog, characterization, description. I've even cut most of the ending part out and gotten straight to the big finale.

But. Still. This thing looks like it's going to come to 140,000 - maybe less if I go through again and go line by line and get rid of some of the prose-level flourishes I sometimes indulge in. I could maybe get this sucker down to somewhere in the 130,000-120,000 range. That's if I start wacking away like a weed whacker at everything.

But there is just no way to cut out 40,000 words without taking out chunks of the book that would leave it unable to function.

I've been carving this thing down to nothing but that which is absolutely relevant to the story. I've been cutting out favorite scenes and such - to no avail. The word count keeps staying high.

In one of the books I'm reading on agent-hunting and the like, there's a big emphasis on having a novel that's 100,000 words, and a lot of quotes given by agents to that effect.

But I also noticed that these agents didn't really work in the fantasy field, either. These were people from the literary, suspense, and romance neck of the woods.

So I need people who know. I need people who can give it to me straight. Help!

Firstly, I hope the first three days of 2007 have been terrific for everyone, and that 2007 will prove to be a year of great luck, great growth, great fortune, and great happiness for you all.

I keep getting reminded that "firstly" is not actually a word. But given that I just typed it up and used it in a sentence - it's a word.

Hey, "googling" isn't a word either, but I don't see people correcting the pants off people who use that.

Secondly, I need a little help from my peeps.

Let's say that a person wants to start scraping together a synopsis of a novel, so that they can have this synopsis to send out when agents/publishers ask for "sample chapters and synopsis".

What, exactly, should this synopsis look like? What's the format? I know manuscript format pretty well, but is there synopsis or outline format? How should I handle that?

Since I know a lot of you out there have submitted, are submitting, or will submit I thought you might have some pointers. Or possibly a handy dandy little example so that I can see what it's supposed to look like.

And for those who didn't get the subtext, yes. This does mean that given some more editing/tweaking/rewriting I am going to - *gulp* - start sending Revenant Blues out.

Not that I don't fully expect, anticipate, and count on catastrophic failure or anything. But, still. I've heard that your chances of getting published rise dramatically when the manuscript is somewhere *besides* your harddrive.