Notable Blog Posts & Other Fun Reading

May 14, 2013 by 14 Comments

My favorite blogs to read are those that teach me something. Even if there’s something me and the blogger have in common and I think I totally know it all, I usually end up learning something new just because there’s a whole other perspective there. Here are some of the blog posts I’ve “favorited”:

  • Terrible Minds (author Chuck Wendig’s blog) — How To Maximize Your Word Count And Write Every Day and 25 Humpalicious Steps For Writing Your First Sex Scene, by Delilah S. Dawson — I absolutely adore the way Chuck writes a blog post! He’s LOL funny in the rudest, crudest, most honest ways and always has something helpful to say about writing. Even if I wasn’t writing anything, I’d still read him because he’s just that good (and FUNNY!).
  • NY Times — Yes, I’m Really Bisexual. Deal With It. — Wilson Diehl does a fantastic job, I think, explaining why it’s relevant — even when in an opposite-sex relationship — that someone’s sexual identity is bisexual. Given that this recently came up here when Jazz answered a couple questions, I thought you all might like even more information from another source. It is a touchy subject, Jazz can get really growly about it, and I can understand why. When we were first dating, it was a big conversation. Now? He’s bi, I’m gay, and we’re married. No biggie. But it still matters.

If you’re a slash fan, here’s something you might get a kick out of: Archive of Our Own. There’s probably a bunch of you who’re already so cool you knew about this ages ago, but I only recently found it. Since then? Ravenous devouring. I’ve got a special bookmark and updates that come through when anyone posts a story involving Supernatural slashing of Dean and Castiel. (Wing porn? Got it! Priest kink? Yeppers!)

My latest discovery, though, went sideways and upside-down when I found a Supernatural/Labyrinth slash. Yes, you read that right, Dean gets stuck in the Labyrinth courtesy of Sam (filling in for David Bowie as Jareth). So, OK, yes, it’s mostly the Winchester boys getting naughty in the Labyrinth setting, but it works for me. If you want your Jareth being naughty with the girl, Sarah (or Jareth with Toby, the baby brother all grown up!), well, they’ve got that too.

And pretty much every TV Show or Movie ever made has a slash story in there!

(You can read without an account, but getting mine only took a couple hours without an invitation. And I really recommend using the Sort & Filter options to get exactly what you want. “Kudos” is their version of “liking” something, so sort by that if you want the archive’s “best of” kind of listings first.)

Took me a second, but then I got it ;)

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Six Sentence Sunday: SPLINTERS #6

April 7, 2013 by 14 Comments

I was recently inspired to write a bit about Al seeing — really seeing — Duke’s land. After coming back from vacation, I wanted to enhance what I’d written given some of the emotions are similar. Here’s what I decided on:

Duke takes my hand and leads me up a little incline where a tree leans with the direction of the wind. Looks like a tough old tree, telling off the wind because it’s not moving from this spot. It makes me think of the kind of people Duke is, living out here in the middle…of…

My brain just fumbles to a stop as I gaze over the land Duke’s brought me up here to see.

It’s so vast. I can see the horizon way out there. Is that the curve of the planet? Just gold and blue and specks of life, splashes of green and brown, the rolls of hills dotted with cloud shadows. I can hear the wind and my breath and my heart. The sun bakes down on me, and then Duke’s hand is squeezing mine.

Before now, cowboys were just sexy like denim and strength. This man beside me is so much more than any of that. I’m staring at the land, but I’m seeing him.

All my life, I’ve been the leaves on this tree, shaking in the wind, trying to hold on.

Duke is the roots.

Be sure to visit tomorrow because I have a guest post from LGBT YA author Madison Parker, and I might be doing something naked in it. And winning an acting award.

What? Both could totally happen ;)

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Did you know Plot Bunnies sing?

March 5, 2013 by 9 Comments

I don’t know why I didn’t realize it before, but those movies in my mind when I’m listening to a song? Those are plot bunnies. Story ideas coming to me with soundtracks built in. The songs I love the most always tell a story in my head…which is why some videos disappoint me: That’s not the video *I* already shot for this song.

Here are some songs the plot bunnies have been singing to me lately…

Daylight by Maroon 5 – Takes me back to those nights before we were living together when Jazz would stay over with me, but leave in the morning. Even though I’d see him again or talk to him during the day, there was always that little sadness about not being able to keep him. There’s a story in there :) and it has a happy ending.

When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars – He screwed up, he knows it now, can he fix it and win his love back? Choke on the feels, people. Ugly cry. But this will have a happy ending too. Maybe not the one he expected, though.

It’s Time by Imagine Dragons – This is one of those songs that feels like a life anthem to me. (It’s also one of the videos that just doesn’t fit.) It’s a plot for someone starting over or getting started. Life-changing while finding himself. Something that will have the reader cheering at the end because he made it. Like Alec :)

Just so you know, I’m taking notes when stuff like this comes to me, but there’s only one story I’m working on right now ;)

What songs give you movies in your mind? (Not sure if WP will let you leave share links to YouTube, but you can write in titles and artists when you say what you see.)

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He can, but she can’t? Gimme a break.

February 22, 2013 by 32 Comments

So this is me jumping into the weird debate about whether female authors can write gay male romance. Pretty sure you can guess my feelings on this subject from the title of this post, huh. Here’s why I think this is so much crapola…and the “you” I’m talking to is the fictional dude who provided the quotes I’ll respond to.

“No woman will ever accurately portray the gay male experience because she can’t live it.”

I’m sorry, but if you have to live the life of your character before you can write about him, then I don’t ever want to meet Stephen King or James Patterson. This is, to me, taking “write what you know” to an extreme it just doesn’t need to go to. It’s fiction! It’s even romantic fiction where a happy ending is usually guaranteed. Yes, having experienced falling in love, dating, even living together and marrying are good life experiences to draw on for this line of writing, but I really doubt they’re any more required than murder is for a mystery writer.

“No woman has ever written a realistic gay male because none of them are like me.”

snowflakeWell, little snowflake you, I’m sorry you’ve been searching for that book of your exact life and haven’t found it. Don’t blame the authors for not psychically connecting to you and writing everything down, though, OK? It’s not their fault you’re so unique.

On the other hand, do you really think finding a story about a gender fluid, cross-dressing, married twenty-something with my history of baggage is so easy to find? It’s not. Some have gotten close, but no one’s written my story either. So maybe I’ll write it, and maybe you should do the same.

“Women don’t write gay men, they write women with–”

Oh, dude, don’t even go there.

This connects back up with the previous complaint, IMO, because it sounds like you haven’t found an author who’s written how your mind works. Just because we share some similarities doesn’t mean all men think or do anything else exactly alike. My mind would probably scare the crap out of butch boys, and visa versa, so again, don’t expect any author to write you every single time.

Now I will admit to having the misfortune of coming across a few authors who I doubt have spent much time around other people let alone any men, gay or otherwise. If you can’t tell the difference between good writing and bad, then you deserve to wallow in stories about characters that barely pass for human. There’s a list of some good authors on the right that might help you find your way.

I’m sure there are probably more complaints out there, but I’m done now because I’m tired of it all. People are writing stories about gay men falling in love, getting married, having kids, and being shown in a positive light. A lot of the small press publishers who provide these stories also now have YA lines too. I’ll allow that the quality of the stories definitely varies, but come on!

POSITIVE STORIES ABOUT GAY MEN IS A GOOD THING!

I’ve talked to people who lived through the 70s and 80s and 90s and hid who they were, but now we have romance novels? That’s significant! Now we have bunches of mothers teaching their kids that love is love and acceptance is the way to live their lives? That’s change we need!

I’m going to support anyone who writes a story about a man who isn’t straight, regardless of whether he’s just like me. They may not all be stories worthy of awards, but just the fact I can read them does it for me. So, excuse me, I have books to read by authors I adore and no more time for “you”.

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My Domain

February 3, 2013 by 18 Comments

Yep, I took the plunge and bought ThornySterling.com :D

I’m all official now. So very important. A V.I.P. even.

Well, in my head anyway ;)

I also bought the little package that lets me fiddle with the fonts and colors, but it’s having some trouble in Chrome right now. On my end, anyway. You shouldn’t experience anything weird. I’ve updated the fonts so they read a little easier — like, I didn’t realize the old font was gray, not black! — and I may come in and mess around with color schemes from time to time.

I know authors are supposed to be all about branding and consistency, but I’m flighty and I change my mind a lot. That could be the same thing… Anyway, never fear if you stop by and everything’s yellow or something. Ooo, yellow! {ahem} It’s still just me ;)

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The People In My Head

January 24, 2013 by 23 Comments

I thought I’d share some of the things I’ve learned about writing today. Well, not what I’ve learned so much as how. I’m not going to pretend I’m so great that I can write about writing like an expert, but I’ve gotten pretty good at finding what works for me when I want to learn something new about writing.

One thing I’ve sometimes needed help with is creating characters. I think I’m pretty good at observing real people and I’m getting better about knowing what I’m feeling and why, but sometimes sticking to the fictional character requires reacting or acting how they would not how I would. That would be acting out of character which, even if you don’t specifically realize that’s what happened, you can definitely say that doesn’t seem right and you’re popped out of the story for a moment.

So, two books I really like for dealing with who these fictional people are and how they might act are:

  • The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines, 16 Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, and Sue Viders — This one is great because it takes an archetype like “The Best Friend” and explains it in a lot of detail, gives examples from movies, and then shows how this type of person might work with someone of a different archetype. It’s all really basic, idea-starter information, but that’s why it’s so fabulous. Also, I’m not limiting it to only women can be these archetypes or only men these other ones because that’s ridiculous. (I’m not linking to any site for this book because it’s only available in ebook for a reasonable price. I got mine from a library sale of used books last year for like $3, but print copies are going for over $40, which is just crazy. The author link up there has some really basic info about archetypes from the books that’s like a sneak peek.)
  • The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi — This one is a printed version of some of the emotions available from The Bookshelf Muse. It’s a lot of lists that let you get a lot more creative about expressing an emotion like impatience or hurt without going for cliches or coming right out and telling the reader how the character feels. (Visit their website — and scroll down the right side — and you’ll find a ton more information on weather, settings, physical attributes, and a lot more that’s all for free.)

As for writing books related to the romance genre, I’m not thrilled with the ones I’ve found in bookstores and the library. They seem aimed at creating the characters and stories that drove people away from reading romances in the first place. Plus it’s all about selling to New York publishing houses or getting an agent and that’s just not happening for me. Not that I’m putting myself down, just that I don’t want to make writing that much of a business because it has to stay fun.

I liked Stephen King’s On Writing and other books about writing in general without an emphasis on genre, but I haven’t spent a lot of time reading bunches of them. A few had just enough to make me think I was doing it all wrong, so I put those down quick because I’m writing my way and that’s that and nobody’s going to make me feel bad about it. I don’t sell because someone doesn’t like my style, fine. Their loss. Bad reviews? You’re entitled to your opinion. But I’m doing it my way.

As far as I can find, there’s only one book about writing M/M and that’s Josh Lanyon’s Man, Oh Man! Writing M/M Fiction for Kinks & Cash. It’s a little tiny bit out of date, but I heard he’s updating it this year, so I’m excited about the new version. That’s just going to be awesome.

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