NTL COMING OUT DAY Ebook Sales! (Daisuki is $1.50 for one week only at Smashwords!)

Really excited today to bring attention to something great! In honor of National Coming Out Day (today) a bunch of authors (including me!) are giving away their queer-themed works for FIFTY PERCENT OFF for the next week ONLY! Now, this was a bit last minute, so there's not much up yet today, but you can bet the list is going to grow!

So that said, you can now purchase "DAISUKI." off Smashwords for only $1.50! Head to the master list to grab your promo code and check out some other great works! (Please note that many of the words are adult in nature.)

BOOK REVIEW: Queer Japan: Personal Stories Of Japanese Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals And BisexualsQueer Japan

Queer Japan: Personal Stories Of Japanese Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals And Bisexuals by Barbara Summerhawk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I bought this book on a whim when I was searching Amazon for books about lesbianism in Japan - as you can imagine, there isn't a whole lot out there, so this book jumped out at me. One of the lowest reviews stated this book focused mostly on lesbians and they were looking for something about gay men. Even better! If there's anything I've learned from the LGBT community, it's that it's still mostly made up of male voices. This book sounded just like what I needed.

The format of the book is basically (translated) essays and interviews with LGBT volunteers. There are lesbians, gay men, bisexual men and women, and of course trans* people. (Some people cover more than one category.) They also run a full range of elderly people to younger. Some were also married (in heterosexual marriages). But all of them have one thing in common: struggling to embrace themselves as queer in a society more repressive than my own in America.

As an American queer woman who has both lived here (in America) and abroad in Japan, I was excited to find out more about the difference and solidarities in the struggles of being "queer". I was not disappointed. All of the essay writers and interviewees were wonderfully frank about their life stories and their hopes and fears for a friendly future in Japan. Some of the writers were also incredibly involved in their gay communities, fighting to change the atmosphere for queer people in Japan. But the most interesting bits were the "mundane" parts - struggling to keep a relationship together, fighting with preconceived norms, going through horrendous "treatments" in their early lives...while the essays can be very grim at times, it's telling, and it's real. As a queer person I don't want to hear "it gets better". I want to hear the truth and how it affects people. But in the grimness, there is always hope. Each and every one of these writers is either living out their hopes or clinging to it. I found this compilation incredibly inspiring, and it renewed a lot of my own hope for the future.

Of course, there are a couple minor, minor gripes. First, it's a bit dated. It was published c.1997, and I want to know where most of these people are now, how much it's changed. I know a bit of the current queer circles in Tokyo, but it sounds like a lot of the old organizations have disbanded. Are new ones in place? Are people fending for themselves? Do they even have to? How much progress has been made? Obviously, this book can't answer those questions for me. But it was a start. Also, there were minor editing mistakes, mostly in the whose/who's and where/wear areas. Not sure how those glaring ones slipped through, but it wasn't enough to take away the power of the actual text.

I recommend this book to anyone looking to 1) research the queer world in Japan 2) connect with people like themselves, whether queer or not. This is particularly great for those doing lesbian research, since it wasn't overpowered by male voices like most of these compilations are.

View all my reviews

Friday Flash: "We could get discharged!"

Totally spaced out writing something this week, what with all the editing going on in my personal life, ha! So here, seems only fitting that I should give you an excerpt from the files this week. Decided on a little of the usual confrontation between Danielle and Miranda because it's fun. (Also, brief note, as this series takes place in 2007, DADT is still a thing.) Enjoy!

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            She rummaged through her locker in the showers. Her pride wasn’t as hurt as she announced earlier, but she was embarrassed about the public tousling from Miranda and then beat to boot. She wasn’t expecting to overthrow her and become the little cancer-patient-that-could; however, it would have been nice to prove to Miranda that she was capable of defending herself.

            “For the love of God, where is it?” Danielle muttered, stuffing herself further into the locker in hopes of finding the undershirt she left there earlier.

            “Looking for this?”

            Danielle pulled herself out at the sound of Miranda’s voice and braced herself. Over her shoulder she saw her captain, still in gym clothes and with the same smirk on her face, dangling a wrinkled, white undershirt over her right hand. “Uh, thanks,” Danielle muttered, and reached out to snatch her shirt back. Miranda lifted a wary eyebrow and lowered her arm. “Where was it?”

            “I found it on the ground. Didn’t want it to get dirty.”

            Danielle continued to frown as she brushed off some dust on the white fabric and considered how she was going to get Miranda to go away. She was not comfortable undressing in front of her.

            “Look, Danielle…” Miranda approached her with the wariness of a cat sensing a predator, the odor of slight sweat becoming stronger the closer she got. “I want to apologize for what happened back there. You know I’m under a lot of pressure.”

            “I guess.” Danielle slammed her locker shut once she had all her clothing back. “But you know we’re going to be talked about now by anybody with two retinas and half a brain.”

            Miranda continued to stand with a placid countenance. “I don’t mind.”

            Danielle threw her clothes down on the bench and swerved around, her cheeks flushing red as Miranda’s cool suggestion ran through her ears. “Well I do, you know!” she shouted, and then realizing that her volume was too high, looked down at the ground and uncurled the fingers from her fists. Miranda stood without a glance of surprise on her face. “I mean…” and a rough spot formed on the back of Danielle’s throat as she tried to pass her next few words on, “I’m not interested in you, you know. And it’s just easier if people don’t assume those things. We could get discharged for Christ’s sake!”

            Miranda lowered her eyes and saw a glimpse of gold on Danielle’s wrist. “I thought I told you to get rid of that,” she snapped, her voice flatter and firmer than any of their body parts combined. “You better do that before Noyes sees you. Get back to work within the next fifteen minutes.” Miranda then pivoted on her cross trainer heels and stalked towards the locker room exit.

            Danielle was left to stand in sheer awe at how Miranda ignored her statement. Didn’t she realize what such flirtations would mean for the both of them? In the end Miranda had more to lose than Danielle did – longer time under recruit, a higher status, a bigger paycheck, more benefits, a life in general…or Danielle had to assume. She did not know much about her superior’s personal life because it was just not appropriate.. They were not friends beyond general work-related acquaintances, and although it was obvious that Miranda was romantically interested in her, Danielle hoped to do nothing to inspire more of that thought in her commander's mind.

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lol office romances.

Friday Flash: Red Scare, Part 1

AHAHAHA you don't get any of that.

This post is brought to you by The Past! It's Thursday here when I'm typing this, but since I'll be on an overnight business trip tomorrow with the crappiest laptop ever I'm scheduling this bad boy for the usual Friday programming.

This week's Friday Flash is inspired by a Flash Fiction February prompt. I obviously didn't participate, but I needed some prompts so I looked them over and found one that made me go "Yessss."

Here's what we're doing this week. And next week. Because I had another idea.


9. Red Scare. It’s coming. But what is the “red scare”? It could be the Hollywood communists, or could be the dreaded Valentine’s Day. Maybe it’s a blood pathogen. Break out your most paranoid noir, sci fi, or futuristic speculation.

Ignoring the last one. Because as a female-bodied woman, there's only one thing I think of when I see "Red Scare".

As usual, I'm writing this using CROSS// characters.

(This week's post contains some sexual talk and fun human biology shenanigans. Wee!)

Danielle stared at the calendar.

Twenty-five.

She picked up a red pen and hovered over the current date, a Monday. She could do it. She could just draw the same circle she did every month.

But it would be a lie.

Cursing, Danielle slammed the pen down and watched the clock on the wall announce the midnight hour.

Twenty-six.

--

The bar was as rowdy as it could be on a Thursday night. Danielle sat in the corner with her date, a lean woman named Amy whom she met around work a couple of weeks before. They chatted about the usual – their families, their jobs, their hobbies, their likes and dislikes – but it was all just a precursor to what Danielle wanted and what she was sure Amy wanted in the end-game. Danielle glanced at Amy’s sleek shoulders between bites about essays by the founding fathers; Amy conveniently brushed her leg against Danielle’s every time she shuffled in her seat. Their conversation degenerated from pleasantries to forced conversation in the span of five minutes, and after that they muttered low enough to force the other to lean in closer to hear.

Danielle had danced this dance before, but it had been a long time. Too long. Amy was the muse that awoke the not-so-dormant urge inside Danielle’s stomach that told her to throw her date down into the booth in front of God and every other lesbian in the bar. Amy reached the point of taunting Danielle with hisses between her teeth as she folded her fingers over Danielle’s knuckles.

They kissed long enough for Danielle to know that this was what she wanted. Finally! After the longest of dry spells something (or someone) was happening! Danielle kissed her with renewed vigor as Amy suggested they “get out of here”. Her place, another place, any place was okay, as long as sex was a guarantee and…

Danielle agreed and excused herself to go to the bathroom. Amy offered to pay their tab as Danielle slunk into the nearest ladies’ stall and nervously undid her jeans in fear of what she felt was not her body’s presumption of sex.

There was a reason why red was not Danielle’s favorite color.

She swore, not that even she could understand what came out of her mouth in between the spits and the wails of a missed opportunity. After a five minute bout of cursing biology and whacking her head against the stall wall, Danielle fixed herself up for the inevitable and went out to reconvene with Amy to give her the bad news.

Of course, she couldn’t look more beautiful now that Danielle decided she was no longer attainable that night. A lock of black hair obscured Amy’s face as she fussed with her cell phone and waited for Danielle. It took every reserve of restraint to not reach out and push it away or take Amy’s hand in the process.

“Are you ready?” Amy glanced up and saw the frown on Danielle’s face. “Oh no. What’s wrong?”

Danielle explained that “something had come up” and she didn’t think she could have sex that night. When pressed for more fervent information, she admitted her discovery in the bathroom.

“I don’t care!” Amy slapped a hand on her chest. “I’m a twenty-first century dyke! Red don’t scare me!”

Danielle grimaced. “I care.” She applauded Amy for not caring as much as she proclaimed, but that was a difference between them that could not be compensated. Danielle knew that within the hour she would be crawling on the floor begging for medication with the last thing on her mind would be the image of a beautiful woman nose-deep between her legs. Danielle felt self-confident most days, but not quite that self-confident.

Amy muttered that she “understood”, but her eyebrows said otherwise. Danielle stared at the floor and asked if they could write a rain check. The muse inside her was huddled in the corner of her conscience, bawling.

--

Danielle stared at the calendar, in her apartment – alone. She picked up her red marker and drew a circle around the date, a Thursday.

Twenty-eight.

Always on time.

Why Queer Characters Are Important In Fiction

I'm queer. Most of you probably knew that already (or could gather it). I'm a woman who loves me some other women. I'm very fortunate and privileged to be able to share this so openly with you - for I have very rarely felt personally threatened to be out in any society I've lived in, including my super conservative home area. There have been some instances in which I was the target of "gay bashing" in my university days a couple of years ago, but for the most part I've been lucky to be comfortable with who I am and sharing that with those closest to me.

Therefore, I have never shied away from embracing my array of queer characters. I mean, straight people write about straight characters all the time, why shouldn't I have my lesbians and gays (and everyone in between?) But there are very big differences in writing about straight characters vs. queer characters, whether you intentionally made them that way or they just "happened" to be queer during development. (Yes, I shall never forget the day I realized my old guys were queer. Should've seen that one coming, eh?)

1) Queer Characters = Queer Themed? Even in today's publishing world, whether self or traditionally, having queer main characters means taking big chances. The biggest one, and my biggest point, is that any main queer relationship in a story gets that story labelled "Gay" themed and can have two big repercussions. The most noticeable one is that it may be turned down or "requested" to be "made straight" if going to the traditional publishing route. This leads into the other repercussion:  labeling. Whether you write mysteries, science-fiction, YA, thriller, etc etc, if you've got you some queer main characters having queer love, odds are you're all packed together in the bookstore's "LGBT" section. Which is great if you're shopping for books with queer characters in them, but not so great when leading into...

2) It's a Gay Gay Gay Gay World Welcome to a society that says "oh, you're gay? Let's make this all about your sex life" because that's all queer people care about, right? Oh, and how woefully awful it is being gay. In fact it's so awful that if I'm a queer character, my entire plot and development has to be all about how Awful it is and how Awful I feel and how Awful the outcome between me and mine is going to be. Stories with queer characters often go down the road of making it all about how they're gay. There could be other plot going on, but let's face it, all that matters is that this person has gay sex. Or wants to. Oh, and of course there's going to be hate crimes around every turn and the love interest will either die a horrible death or suddenly realize they're straight. Or everybody will die. Happy endings do not generally exist for queer characters in any medium, because we queers need to be constantly reminded that Being Queer is Awful. (Yes, many of these things do happen. And it is awful. But that doesn't mean we want all our fiction to be Awful. We want happy endings too sometimes!)

3) Visibility, or, oh! You're gay! Straight people are everywhere. In fact, it's the perceived norm. Everyone is straight until proven queer, and this goes for fiction as well. Thus, straight people don't really have a representation issue. Anywhere. Even in Pride. Trust me. But as much as I love going "oh! she's a lesbian!" it's always wonderful to find that out later as No Big Deal. This kinda ties into #2 up there. I may be queer, but it's not My Life. I've got bigger stuff going on than constantly thinking about how Queer I Am. Which I'm guessing is the same for a lot of straight people. I don't need the first thing known about a character to be that they're queer, unless that actually IS what the story revolves around. But if romance is secondary to the plot like in most cases? Let me find out by seeing him flirt with another man, or seeing her get a phone call from her girlfriend after that long day at work. Or heck, have her get a call from her boyfriend and then go flirt with that cute waitress. Or any number of possibilities.

With these three main considerations, you can probably see where the title ties into everything. Queer characters (who have developed naturally, and not queer to fill some Minority Quota alongside the Token Black Guy) are important in all sorts of fiction, in all sorts of mediums. But of course I'm mostly talking about novels here, since that's what I care about. Right now queer characters tend to either fall into fetishism or Life Is Awful. Or teaching tools. Or all of the above. It's critical that queer characters begin to be seen in "normal" life and situations more and more as we go along this wonderful writing journey - hence why I tend to write a lot of queer characters in my fantasy...because while I am queer myself and want to write characters similar to me in that regard, it's also important to me that readers be able to see queer people in the same exact shit straight people get involved in. Which is why I tend to steer away from the Awful unless it's just general relationship awfulness. Because that is amazingly fun to write regardless of who's involved.

I look forward to the day where I can see LGBT characters represented in mainstream genres and not relegated to the back corner. Yes, I realize that there are a lot of books like this already (the Kushiel series keeps jumping up at me) but most of those types of relationships are fanciful background shenanigans. What I really mean are the series lead by the LGBT heroes who really don't give a damn about it. Think Lord of the Rings, but Aragorn ends up with, I dunno, Hugo Weaving in the end instead because that's just how they roll.

Welp, excuse me now. I'm off to work on my urban fantasy series with some power lesbians and old gay guys (omg they're gay??) and yeah I guess a few straight people running around too. Oh, and the dog. I dunno how the dog swings. I don't think he cares.

Why My Debut Novel Will Never Be Traditionally Published

...or, why I'm self-publishing it without even trying to find an agent/publisher to begin with.

Ever since declaring last year that I would be self-publishing my debut novel CROSS//Rebirth sometime in the near future (you know, when that whole editing thing is done with) I've been thinking more and more about the reasons why I've decided to go this route. I've written a post before about the pros of me self-publishing my novel - but now I would like to talk about why, well, my novel just doesn't stand a chance with traditional publishing with nothing to back it up.

Save for an awesome hello-thar miracle, the CROSS// series will never be picked up for traditional publishing without maybe seeing large success in the "indies" market. Why? Because the today's "traditional" market doesn't want it.

Here's why.

1. Not only is Rebirth the first part of a series, but the final draft will probably come to be about 325k words. Definitely over 300k, without a doubt. The first draft was near 350k. It took me three completed Nanowrimos and a lot of off-season writing to complete, and this isn't including all the discarded prologues I had before finally settling on a set that I really liked. And although I write science-fiction/fantasy (in this case, contemporary/urban fantasy) and am given a lot of leeway in terms of high word count, both of these things majorly count against me. Most "tips" I see online from agents and established authors suggest that debut authors keep their writing to under 200k. Oops. Yeah, not happening. Also, in this market, most agents/publishers aren't willing to gamble on series and want to see stand-alone stories from unknowns. Well, my novels will always be really, really long. And I will always be working on some big series. That's just how I've always been as a writer.

2. There is a lot of cursing. Like, a shitton. I joked at the end of the final draft that there were 135 "fucks' and even more "damns" and "shits". Guess what - I actually wasn't joking. And most of those haven't been cut out in subsequent edits (unless the whole chunk/scene was deleted) because it's in dialogue. My characters curse a lot. And they curse even more with the words we know and love since the series takes place in contemporary America and they all mostly speak American English.  This really isn't up for debate in my mind. However, I have deleted a lot of old "bitches" and a couple other victim-filled words that make me uneasy to see now. My way of thinking is...if it makes ME stop and look at it, it must be unnecessary. The gendered/sexuality slurs have been saved for making somebody look horrible ~just like in real life~.

3. So many queers the whole series looks like what you find at the end of the rainbow. Sexuality is a MAJOR theme of the series. Most characters should be considered queer until expressed otherwise. Boys love boys and girls love girls, although sometimes the girls love the boys too and the boys get put into a female body and boys are angsting about other boys because that's just not done andddd *huge breath*, guess what! Don't assume that the two MCs, while opposite sexes and genders, are going to end up together! Odds are higher that the FMC will end up with another woman and that the MMC will be ~forever alone~ (that's what happens when you're straight in this world, I guess.)

And after the recent debacle of authors being asked by prospective agents to either delete the queer characters or straighten them up ugh, no.  Not happening in a million years. Like, my head hurts just thinking about it.

4. There's occasionally "graphic" sex...and it ain't always sexy. Even just assuming that all of the sex in the series is of the heteronormative variety (hint: it's not), it's still probably too risque for most traditional places...especially when you consider that some of the sex scenes are purposefully just awkward as hell and even depressing at times. Now, the only sex that makes the final cut in any of my drafts are those that have something plot related happen in them, but in Rebirth that amounts to one actual graphic scene, one scene where sex is going on in the background (and heavily referenced to, because damnit, those characters are busy) one where a woman is giving herself a hand (see what I did there?) and, sadly, one that is assault. Only one of these scenes are explicit in the sense that the reader gets a play by play of what is happening, but it all leads up to the the part where somebody totally screws up and there is a lot of resentment for the rest of the book. But sex is sex to a lot of people. I may not be writing erotica or sex for the sake of sex (I save that for nano tbh~) but any sex is too much sex for some markets. And since it's plot related and related to one of the major themes (sexuality) it will be a hot day in Antarctica before those scenes get deleted or, save me, "fade to black".

5. If you couldn't tell, it's a really "adult" series. Then again I've never said that I write YA or below, and my target audience has always been adults with anything I write. But the market is very pointed towards YA at the moment and some agents I once looked at even two years ago are now calling only for YA. Plus, the term "adult" tends to turn a lot of people off - I mean, all that cursing and sex! Stuff that adults do! For shame amirite. Oh, and there's occasional drug use. And a lot of smoking. Not that much violence in comparison, actually. (Minus some abuse and guns.) But if there's anything that living in America has taught me, it's that sex is WAY MORE EVIL!!! than violence.

6. Finally, the POV is icky icky omniscient. I only got this memo this year, but apparently omniscient is so two centuries ago, you guys. Everything has to be third-person limited or MAYBE first-person on a good day. But omniscient? Apparently people turn their noses up at omniscient now. Which, like I said, was news to me. But if I go on and on about this point I'll have a completely different blog post I am saving for the future.

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I think if I only had one, maybe two of these points going on I could risk going traditional without too much damage. But as it is, CROSS// is just not traditional publishing friendly. And I am okay with that. I don't mind alienating potential readers for the story I want to tell in the way I want to tell it. I mean, I could still try, but what's the point when I don't really care and it would probably just be a bigger pain in the ass than it's worth? I'd have to wait a few months for a proper rejection, and in those few months in which I'm not allowed to do anything publicly with my MS I could be moving forward with self-publishing and getting my name out there.

Yeah, I like that one.

Anyone else got a story doomed in traditional publishing but has a good shot at being self-published? And furthermore...why is that? I bet it's all the gay sex, isn't it.