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Nobody I've told this joke to seems to appreciate (or get) it, so I thought I'd try a more appropriate audience. Must be my delivery.

Did you hear the one about the Hollywood producer who checks into a hotel room? He picks up the Gideon's Bible, reads the first line of Genesis, and automatically yells: "Rewrite!"

In another version, it's a college writing teacher. When he reads the line "In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth", he clucks his tongue and scribbles in the margain: Show, don't tell.

Lydia Sharp has a great post about how watching TV and movies can make you a better writer. I know some writers take issue with television in particular, but I notice that as I've become more selective about what shows I watch, I have also discovered that many of these shows have helped me as a writer.

What if my God was dead and I knew it? This was the question that kicked off In the Death of Winter, the most recent one of my stories to post on this site.

I didn't want to write about denial, or clinging to outdated beliefs. I wanted to write about a character persisting in a hope she knows to be false. Bolormaa, the main character, has been a priestess of the winter God Erlik for most of her life. Young when she devoted herself to him, she has grown old. Her relationship with the god was once powerful, brutal, and true, but he's gone now and isn't coming back.

Yeesh, what a week! I was whumped by the flu and then a family medical issue came up that was worrisome. Happily all is well now! But I managed to slog through my daily word count though the work was laborious. *sighs*

Until yesterday! The characters, as usual, took off and went in a different direction that I had planned so now I'm playing catch-up (with fries, please). I think I'll be finally able to send off my outlines for the next two novels in the trilogy because I have a far better idea of where this is going right now. And the new direction? Hotter and kinkier, my friends! ;)

Fast plug: Saw The Avengers last week and will again next week. I highly recommend it! They helped get my Kink Muse going! ;)

True tidbit about me: I'm a science geek. When I'm not writing, I really love reading those pop-science books about the out-there science disciplines. Cosmology.  String theory. One of the best-known of the out-there science theories (thank you very much, Jurassic Park)  is Chaos theory and the butterfly effect. It's the idea that the development of a system can differ drastically if even the slightest of the starting conditions are altered. It's usually explained with the example of a butterfly flapping it's wings in Europe effecting the formation of a hurricane off the coast of Africa.

I couldn't help but remember this theory as I was working on the revisions for my erotica manuscript. Before I started hacking at the starting draft, I wrote character sketches for all of the characters in the book. The more I developed my main character, the more I realized that she would have had a much harder time dealing with a supernatural world where sex is everyone's favorite pastime.

Something that distinguishes my writing (other than, of course, being laden with kinky, dirty, passionate sex) is that all of my characters of flawed. They are not shiny, happy, perfect, idealized people. They fuck up, even though they may have the best of intentions. They try to apologize or fix what was broken. They move on, or bury dark secrets under layers of pain and regret. And I love that about them. Flaws are interesting. They keep us wanting to know more, to understand. They hook us and keep us invested.

On the great debate “who knows you write erotica,” one reason I don’t tell people I write erotica… the devious mind behind my nineteen-year-old, sell-the-teeth-in-your-Gran’s-mouth lad.

Everything I've ever read about how to "be a writer" basically says there is no formula, but the general rule is that you wake up every day wanting to write. I don't really like this rule. I wake up every morning wishing I didn't have to go to work and calculating how much time I'll have between getting off work and the TV show on that night. Of course, I also wake up thinking about my days off and planning just exactly what I'll have time to write on those days.

In addition to my own stories I write for here, my livejournal, and whatever, I also do freelance writing for a few people/companies which takes up a lot of writing time that I'd rather dedicate to my own stuff but can't.

Geppetto Falls Off the Wagon has gone up for purchase, and I didn't even notice. April was a hard and hectic month with lots of reviewing, job applications, editorial work and, worst, the suicide of a dear friend. So somehow Geppetto's launch passed me by. Belatedly, I've notified everyone I know by email, Facebook and Twitter (sending out the emails and not clicking on the address for my late friend was awful) but so far, while a few people have congratulated me, there's been a distinct lack of shows of interest in buying the thing. A couple of people reposted my notice, which has me wondering about the social dos and donts of publicizing your own work. Would I look desperate if I posted a reminder on my Facebook page every day? Or would it look like I was bragging about a publication overmuch? Would people tell me to shut up about it?

My job necessarily involves spontaneous lessons in erotica cover design. D.M. Atkins has all kinds of business, marketing, publishing, law, and human sexuality information crammed in that purple-braided head than I could possibly anticipate. We never know what I need to know until I stumble across a gap in my knowledge.

For example, I initially proposed a cover for "In the Death of Winter" that strongly implied one character is fisting another. Sounds hot, right? I made sure the hand and crotch were off the top of the image. It should be fine. Did you know clear depictions of fisting are automatically obscene according to certain decency laws, and even censored depictions are too pornographic for the front cover? I had no idea.

Well, back to the drawing board -- literally.

This is such an exciting time of year where I live.  Not only do we get to shed pounds of clothing, but we can sleep with the window open and spend time outside.  I'm one of those people who checks my plants and flowers daily-they grow daily, you know :)  This year is extra special because my first book on FFP is about to be launched! Summer break is right around the corner-I'm an academic-and then I can devote hours to my next two books.  What a great time of year!

"And they all lived happily ever after." It happens at the end of a fairy tale, to let the reader know that, no matter what horrors appeared in the course of the story, it all worked out in the end. You're safe now.

But what if you're not?

As far back as I can remember, there have been fairy tales that left me feeling unsettled. Hans Christian Anderson's version of "The Little Mermaid," or, worse, "The Little Match Girl." But the most memorable of all was Bluebeard. I read my book of fairy tales over and over, but only got the courage to dip into Bluebeard one in every four times or so.

The images stayed with me—dead women locked into a tiny room, blood on a key, being alone in an isolated house with a murderous husband. Perhaps the strength of those impressions explains why it's my favorite fairy tale as an adult.

Sigh...it actually took much longer than I thought. I thought the revisions would never stop! LOL! But, through careful tutelage, and spending probably ten times longer on edits than it took to pen the story originally, my story has moved into the "in production" phase. Again, sigh, but with a smile and sense of accomplishment.  :)

I will have to say the final version is much improved over the original submission. So much, in fact, it really amazes me it was a). accepted to begin with, and b). the staff's ability to see a "diamond in the rough." Wow.