I am so bored of comic book heroes

The Flash is showing on foxtell at the moment and the few glimpses I've had of it bore me to death. It's such a typical comic book cliche plot: insert young male nerd who is incredibly smart and is usually a scientist + random weather event or science experiment gone wrong = super hero! I think he gets hit by lightning and that gives him his speed powers and his super hero bod. How boring. Why does it happen? How does the lightning do that to him? I prefer super heroes who have magical origins like Superman or Sailor Moon. It's more believable than a random act of God turning them into a super hero. I think I prefer super hero worlds that are more magical because I can suspend my belief more. I don't like the comic book worlds as much where science is responsible for all the good and bad things that happen. I feel like it has been done to death and it just does not interest me anymore. Part of the reason I like Sailor Moon is because she is an ordinary, average girl. She is not really smart. She is not brave. She is just a student at school. She doesn't have huge aspirations. She just wants to be a housewife and be happy. In the ads for the Flash he says he is your "average forensic scientist" like that is a job that is really common. That bugs me for some reason. If you are a forensic scientist you are not normal in any way. You are clearly a very intelligent person and have managed to find success in a very small field. There isn't a huge need for forensic scientists. I know some people might think Usagi might not be a great role model because of her desire to be a simple housewife instead of getting a career. But I disagree. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be a housewife and a mother. There's nothing wrong with being a forensic scientist, either. I am just tired of comic book heroes always being made out of cookie cutter molds so to speak. This is why Buffy was so good. She was the opposite of a cliche. Instead of being the beautiful blonde being chased by monsters she chased them. It was fresh. It was new. It was exciting. We need more human super heroes. People like Buffy and Usagi. Because in real life most people have an average job and an average intelligence and might hesitate to put themselves in danger.

Fifty Shades of Grey has ruined the romance/erotica genre

I detest the term "Mummy porn" I also hate the term "Mummy blogger" why is it once you have had a child that as a woman you are always a mother first and whatever else you want to be second? Long before Fifty Shades of Grey came out the media had a weird fascination with romance writers. Every so often they would do a puff piece about some bored housewife who has gotten into dabbling in the romance genre and it has always irritated the shit out of me. I read one the other day about a female cop doing it and the article was called "Smutty Mummy" and it made references to fucking Fifty Shades of Grey (of course) as if that book was responsible for the sexual awakening of every woman on the planet.

Let me clear something up. Women like sex. Women like porn. Women like these things as much as men. And romance/erotica is NOT porn. "Mummy Porn" does not exist. Romance/erotica is very, very different to porn. Romance novels are not smut. It is not porn. They have a plot and characters. They are stories that revolve around romantic relationships. It is not just about the sex. Yes, all things do LEAD to sex. But it is not three hundred pages of endless fucking. How boring would that be? Porn is nothing but sex. A romance novel is exactly what it says it is: a romance. Not just a fuckfest. Just because something has sex in it does NOT make it porn.

I am not anti-porn I just grow tired of the giggling and finger pointing the media does when they do a puff piece about a romance writer. What is their fascination with romance writers? What about horror writers? or fantasy? or historical fiction? What is it about female romance writers that is so interesting to them? Men write romance as well. What would you call their books? "Daddy porn?"

I read Fifty Shades of Grey from beginning to end and I am very curious about the film and I'm actually looking forward to it. Will it be hot? Eh, maybe, but I reckon it'd way, way tamer than what people are expecting. If we see actual cock and balls I'll be very surprised. Fifty Shades of Grey was not terrible but it was not great either. It's good that it's gotten people interested in erotica but I really hate this idea that the media has that women did not like sex until that book came along. There is a big wide world of much better erotica fiction out there that women and men have been enjoying for a long, long time.

Bayonetta is an interesting twist on a strong female character

I bought myself Bayonetta in the Boxing day sales and just played 45 minutes of it for the first time. I already knew a bit about Bayonetta before hand. I knew she was over the top sexual to the point her actions in the game border on satire. Her body proportions are unrealistic. She has huge legs that go up to her arm pits and long arms. But that's okay. She carries guns in both hands and has some attached to her ankles. When she fights her clothes sometimes disappear and she goes completely nude. In one scene her clothes get ripped off her and she moans as her dress slides off her and her battle outfit appears. She has this one attack when she goes nude and her hair wraps around her body. I had my concerns before purchasing this game that Bayonetta's antics would add nothing to the game and just irritate me. But Bayonetta is different. She isn't just eye candy. She isn't a damsel in distress. She is strong, smart and powerful. She uses her sexuality as a weapon to distract her enemies. She is proud of how she looks. She struts around because she thinks she looks awesome. It's not to entice men. It's her saying "I am fucking great"

I saw a video on You Tube the other day of a 5 year old girl telling her Dad how she likes Princess Leia's slave costume in Return of the Jedi despite the fact that Leia is forced to wear it by Jabba. Her Dad tries to explain to her how it is bad to make her dress up like that against her will and that she would not like to be a slave. Her daughter says no, she would not like to be a slave, she would just get rescued and then would ask if she could continue to wear the dress. The comments in YouTube were as disgusting as you could expect full of trolls. A lot of them thought it was disgusting that the little girl thought it was okay to dress like Slave Leia and that she thought the look was pretty. Women should be more than eye candy for men. But then other people argued that the whole point of feminism was to let women decide for themselves what they wanted to wear without judgement from others. If that girl thinks that look is pretty and would like to dress like that then there is nothing wrong with that. She should be free to dress how she likes without judgement.

Which brings me back to Bayonetta. A lot of people think that Bayonetta is a bad role model for women because of how she dresses and acts but shouldn't Bayonetta, just like the little girl who likes Star Wars, be able to dress and act how she likes? I think people who have concerns about this game should play it for a little bit because they will see that this game is satire, for adults, and embraces both sexes.

You don't need a professional editor to prepare your book for publication

I just read this interesting article on Listverse about the top ten worst dreams to chase and number two was writing a novel. To be honest I was surprised it was not number one. The article said that it's very hard to get published and even then your chances of being successful is very slim as well. All true. But then they said that you have added expenses like a professional editor among things. You don't need to hire a professional editor to get your book up to publishable standards. If you have the money and want to do it and save yourself the time, sure, do it. But they charge through the roof to do something that you can do yourself. As a writer it is YOUR JOB to learn how to write creatively, to learn grammer and spelling, and what makes a manuscript publishable.

You should be able to do the job of an editor yourself. Read editing books, talk to other writers, do research on the internet, even take a class. But you should be able to do it yourself. It bugs me so much when people tell writers that getting an editor is an expense that they would have to endure because it's NOT. A decent writing teacher or person with experience in the industry would encourage their students to do their research and learn how to prepare a manuscript themselves. You are a writer. Write. Learn your trade. Don't spend money on services that you can do yourself if you can teach yourself.

Now if you are going to self publish there is one thing I do recommend that you go ahead and do and that is get a professional looking cover made. If you have the skills to do it yourself then save yourself the money but if you're like me and do not have the skills or equipment to do it then look around on the net and pay between $50 and $100 for a good cover. I would spend good money on a cover because people really do judge a book by its cover. I've seen far too many shitty ebooks out there that have covers that look like they were made in MS paint. Get something that looks so good it would not look out of place in a real life bookstore. Get something you can be proud of.

As for the rest of the expenses of being a writer all you need is a computer and an internet connection.