Is super authordom a good thing?

JK Rowling. Suzanne Collins. E.L James. Stephanie Meyer. Dan Brown. They're all authors who have risen to dizzying heights of super success. People will probably continue to read their books long after they die. They have crossed that thin line into artistic immortality. People will always know who these people are and what they wrote. Long after they are gone a little bit of their souls will remain in their books. A little bit of them.

They certainly have their fans, yes...but is super stardom always a good thing? Popularity seems to be a double edged sword. For every person that calls themselves a fan there are two more people laughing at you. Look at Dan Brown and Stephanie Meyer. These authors have had incredible success with their books and yet among certain circles of people they are laughed at and labeled terrible and untalented. Obviously, you can't please everyone. There seems to be an opinion among some that most of the world's successful authors have not achieved their success through talent but sheer dumb luck. People love to take swipes at Dan Brown's research or Stephanie Meyer's plotting and characters.

And that's all fair game. They're in the public eye. People are allowed to critcise them. Are these people bitter? jealous? Probably, on some level. Good luck trying to get them to admit it. None of the authors I listed up above are geniuses. I loved the Hunger Games books (the first one was brilliant!) but they were not without their flaws. I enjoyed the Twilight books but have since grown out of them. I continue to adore the Harry Potter books.

I sometimes imagine what it would be like to achieve success in publishing...to gain loads of fans...and also become an object of hate and jealously. Look at E.L James the author of the Fifty Shades series. James started her series as fan fiction and after it achieved success on line she rewrote it and published it under her own name. Risky, yes. Frankly, I'm surprised that her publisher took such a huge, huge, risk like that. Now James is going to have to live with the stigma of being a fan fiction author for the rest of her life. In the eyes of many she is a lazy fraud who could not be bothered to invent her own characters or story. She just plucked them out of another, redressed them, gave them new names and there you have it...the world's current best selling erotic trilogy!

Anything she writes in the future will be judged for any signs of plagiarism. James has herself to blame for that. She could have written an original erotic novel. But instead she made the foolish and risky decision to publish fan fiction. Now she is sitting on top of the world and many believe she does not deserve to be there.

Is success worth it if it means becoming a laughingstock?

Feeling the excitement again!

I am really, really getting into my new short story "Carry Me Away" to the point where thinking about it gets me excited. It has made me realise how dead I was on the inside before I started writing this. I had lost all my love for writing. It had become a horrible chore. No, not a chore. Chores I can do. The idea of working on Deep Embrace had become like torture. Like ripping off my nails. Who wants to do that? All I can think about is Zeus. He's in my new story. His character fascinates me. I've written about him quite a few times. In my first story with him (Atlantis Reborn, trunk novel) he was a tortured, mentally ill bastard. In Forever in Your Arms (short story, trunked) he was nicer, because it was set hundreds of years before he goes nuts, so I got to write about him in a hero's role. In "Carry Me Away" he has a love affair with a mortal Leda to make his wife Hera mad. He is selfish and doesn't think about what effect his brief fling will have on Leda. Leda is a mortal who is miserable because she is about to marry someone against her will. Her parents are forcing her into it. Zeus feels a connection with her because he feels trapped in his marriage to Hera. So he seduces her, makes her pregnant, and then leaves and never sees her again. All this on the night before her wedding. He does not make her pregnant by accident. Oh no. He does it on purpose. He knows what he's doing. Why does he do it? Two reasons. To make Hera mad and he thinks he is giving women like Leda a "gift" of having his child. Zeus is miserable and has affairs to make Hera mad and because he is searching for his true soul mate. He wants the fantasy! A loving wife and child! He selfishly tries to live out that fantasy again and again with dozens of mortal lovers. He really thinks that he is "gifting" them with his children. One on level he is. The children will be half god and will inherit powers that they can use to protect their mortal mothers. At the same time...having his children will also make his lovers lives very difficult and even dangerous. They will have to spend the rest of their lives ever wary of Hera finding them and punishing them. And in most cases they will be chased out of their families and villages in shame for having a child out of wedlock. Most of these mortal mothers usually try to keep it secret that their child is a demi-god and who their father is you can understand! Is Zeus a bad person? No, he is fascinating though. He is selfish and arrogant but can also be caring and kind and generous. He is super fun to write about. I've wanted to write about Leda and the swan for so, so, long!

Carry Me Away!

I've been suffering from some terrible writers block for the past few months. I WAS trying to rewrite my novel Deep Embrace. I got about half way through and hit a wall that I had seen coming toward me for a while. Deep Embrace suffers from some major plotting problems. I've known it for a while. It was really hard to finish the rough draft sometimes because all my inner editor would do was scream "THIS IS NOT WORKING!" and I would have to go "LALALALA!" and try to keep going because I am a firm believer in finishing something. The problem with Deep Embrace is the plot is too thin and half way through it completely derails. I honestly don't know if I will ever go back and finish it. I'm leaning towards no...which doesn't completely upset me. Some projects fizzle. They're called trunk novels. It's okay to admit sometimes that not everything I write is going to be publishable. Frankly, I'll rather be honest with myself and say "This isn't working!" rather than get it published simply for the joy of being published. I want only my best work to be published. Deep Embrace failed as a short story and it has failed as a novel. I told myself for the longest time that I was not working on it because I was focusing on my university work. And that was true. But I could have found the time. The truth is I started putting it off because I did not want to do the work I knew was needed to fix it. I am taking a break from it for the moment and I'm working on a short story! Chances are high that Deep Embrace will remain unfinished. It is very important for me as a writer to enjoy the act of writing. When it becomes a chore and you start to dread it and deliberately put it off...maybe...just maybe...you've run out of steam and it's time to stat on something new. So that is what I am doing. I am writing a short based on the story of Leda and the swan. So far it's going great. I'm really enjoying myself. I can see the whole thing maybe clocking in under 2k which is incredibly short for me! Highest it could be is maybe 5k? That would be a stretch. I actually found myself looking up short story markets today and feeling excited about publishing again. It feels real good. Like coming into the sun after being in the dark for a long time. I actually worried that I was drifting away from being a writer at one point. But that's not true! I just needed a new story to Carry Me Away again!

Ashamed of Erotica? Not me!

Have you heard of the book "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L James? It's probably the most popular book in the world at the moment and strangely --- it's erotica. I'm not sure of any other erotica book has ever risen to such dizzying levels of fame before. I mean...it's erotica! The closest thing to porn you can get in fiction. My husband will disagree with that though. He calls all romance books porn. He teases me about it all the time. I always tell him not all romance books are porn! Porn is 98% sex and 1% plot. Romance books have much more plot. Yeah, there's sex. But one or two sex scenes in a book does not make it porn. "Fifty Shades of Grey" though...from what I've read it has about 300 pages of sex. I have the book on my ereader waiting to be read. I am hesitant about reading it now. I'm not sure if I'm going to think it's okay, love it to death, or hate it. I've heard that's great and also complete garbage. People are calling it "Mommy Porn" which is an interesting label. I'm sure mothers read erotica before this book came out. People are claiming that most are buying the book on ebook because they're too embarrassed to be seen reading the hard back in public. Seriously? The front cover of Fifty Shades has a picture of a tie on it. A tie. I've seen erotica book covers and ven just plain old romances that have enough naked flesh on it to make you gasp! I bought Fifty Shades on ebook because I am trying to cut back on the number of paper books I purchase because I do not have space for them in my bookcases anymore. I am certainly not "embarrassed" to be seen reading it. I'm not a prude. When I was younger (and hornier) I read romances purely for the sex bits but now I'm bored with sex scenes in books. I've read it all. I even read a love scene that took place on the back of a horse once. THE BACK OF A HORSE. I skip a lot of sex scenes in books now. I am very curious about Fifty Shades and how much I will enjoy it. How hot is really? Some people claim its disgusting. Fifty Shades is not meant to be taken too seriously, I think. It began as Twilight fan fiction. Frankly, I'm surprised it ended up getting published at all considering how it started. What publisher would want to risk getting sued? Fifty Shades is written in an "alternative" universe to Twilight that has all of the characters in different roles and there are no vampires. They went through and changed all the names, apparently, but from what I've read on line there are still a lot of similarities in the characters and some scenes. It got me thinking I would not want to be E.L James. Imagine writing a trilogy of books that become insanely successful that were based off a fan fic? People are judging her for not inventing her own plot or characters. That would be a tough burden to carry on your shoulders. I wouldn't feel like a real published author. And imagine the pressure she must be under to write something original which you just know people will study up and down to see if she plucked it from somewhere else!

First Echoes in the Wind review!

The people over at "You Gotta Read Reviews!" have been nice enough to review Echoes in the Wind! It's the first review that I've seen so far and I think it's pretty good! Check it out!

Echoes in the Wind Interview!

I've been interviewed for Echoes in the Wind at Fallen Angel Reviews! You can check it out by clicking here!

Romance Characters with "morals" -- does it spoil the fantasy?

I tried to read Colleen Houck's "Tiger Curse" series earlier this year after blogging about it here. I barely got through the first book. I kept bouncing back and forth between liking it, loving it, and hating it. Colleen has flashes of real talent. But she also makes massive rookie mistakes. She has long, boring, pointless scenes that do nothing other than drag the book out and make it longer. She has "Info dump" scenes which is when a character will either explain to the reader or another character an important part of the plot. She had those a lot. And the main character in her series Kelsey acts like a real bitch toward the end of the first book and makes you want to reach into the book and either shake her silly or strangle her to death. In the "Tiger" series Kelsey develops a relationship with cursed Indian Prince Ren who turns into a tiger every few hours throughout the day. In the first book when Kelsey realises she has feelings for Ren she panics and decides since Ren looks like a fashion model, is a prince and very rich, that it was only a matter of time before he cheated on her or broke up with her and broke her heart so to protect herself from harm becomes a rotten bitch and treats him like shit for the second half of book one before breaking up with him (even though they'd never reached the point of being in a relationship) at the end of the book and then runs back home to her America. Sound like a weird plot for a romance? Yeah, you bet. Firstly, what sort of heroine treats the hero like shit? And why would he just stand around and take it and still like her at the end of the day? In the second book I struggled through 177 pages of boring, pointless fluff before one moment made me put the book down and not pick it up again. It was when Kelsey said that she wanted to wait until marriage before doing it with Ren. Oh and I should mention that before she dropped that bombshell she acted jealous if Ren spoke to other women and still wondered if Ren was making a mistake being with her and wondered, again, if she should dump him "for his own sake" as if he is not capable of making up his own mind and understanding the consequences of some things. It wasn't until I got to the part about sex that I decided I could not read any further. When I read romances I want to be swept away on a ridiculous fantasy train ride of fun. I don't want to read about up tight, bitchy, "moral" heroines who want to save themselves for marriage. There's a market for that. It's called Christian Romance. And if that's what floats your boat, more power to you! But it's not me. I don't read romance just to read the sex scenes. Actually, I find the sex scenes rather boring and have started skipping them. It's the lead up to the sex that gets me in now. The flirting, the build up, that's what gets me. I have to like the characters and their relationship. And frankly I don't know how anyone could like Ren and Kelsey's relationship. I thought Kelsey was a believable, flawed character, she just was not likable. I liked Bella in Twilight more! And that's saying something considering she's as detailed and deep a a bit of card board! I almost felt a bit cheated with Colleen Houck's series. I don't know if it should have been labelled romance. Maybe it would have fitted better in Christian fiction? It certainly is tame and conservative enough. Kelsey not just runs from any sign of attraction or affection from Ren - she swings a wooden club at it!