Right now my nerves are on fire, I’m jittery as hell, and yet I’m also so exhausted I can barely move. I might be about to cry, or scream, or maybe pass out. Why do I feel this way?
It might be that I gave in to my intense chocolate craving today and had far too much of it than is healthy (plus lots of tea), so perhaps this is caffeine overload.
It might be that my erratic hormone cycles are about to coalesce into something.
Or maybe it’s merely that I’m deep in the guts of the rewrite for TAKING THE LEAD, my next romance novel for Hachette/Grand Central/Forever…
Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.
Racheline Maltese and Erin McRae were gracious enough to invite me to write a guest blog at Avian 30. I originally met Racheline through Harry Potter fandom, and as those of you who were at my erotica reading at the Geeky Kink Event–or who saw the video of it on YouTube–know that I write Harry Potter fanfic for fun. So I tackled the subject of writing fanfic in my guest blog.
Racheline writes, “So often, when we talk about fanfiction I feel like that discussion is defensive, fearful, or defeatist — there are certainly incredibly good reasons in the history of fanfiction culture for this to be the case. Cecilia’s take is refreshing, because it’s not about that at all. It’s about different ways to tell stories and what it’s like when the world finally catches up with what you love.”
What, I wrote about love? Grin. Of course I did.
“Yep, these days fanfic is not just considered “cool,” it’s red-hot mainstream,” I wrote. “Which puts writers like me in the odd position of being like those hipsters who were doing something ‘before it got big.’ Unlike those hipsters, though, I don’t complain about people discovering our ‘secret.’ We weren’t TRYING to create an elitist cabal that others would long to join. Fanfic writers are the intersection of two of the nerdiest groups on Earth: writers and fans. I don’t think most of us thought of ourselves as ‘the cool kids,’ we were just doing something we love! But these days even nerddom is going mainstream: certainly fandom is.”
In the essay I talk about how fandom’s “arrival” at the same time as widespread acceptance of certain gay rights (a la marriage) and the sudden mainstreaming of BDSM (a la 50 Shades of Grey) is NOT A COINCIDENCE. They’re all part of my fight and my peers’ fight for the right to wear our hearts on our sleeves, to not hide what we love or how.
“Fandom is about love, intense intense love, with dashes of deep devotion and maybe even some obsessive need. Fanfic is about expressing that love–which results in some intense intense fiction, incredible emotional rollercoasters–and about satisfying that need. That sounds like exactly the recipe one should follow to cook up a bestselling romance novel, doesn’t it?”
Go on over to Avian30.com to read the whole thing and comment if you agree or disagree!
Confessions of a Fanfic Hipster
Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.
Okay, we’re doing it! Organized Advanced Smut-writing Month (OrgASM) is happening Jan 1st through Feb 14th!
What is OrgASM? Organized Advanced Smut-writing Month (OrgASM) is kind of like NaNoWriMo, except each participant sets their own goal (novel? 2 short stories? post in your WIP every week? do a kink meme or fest? pro fic or fan fic welcome…) so long as the writing is erotic or about sex! All those who self-report as winners/having reached their goal will get an ebook of the new anthology Fantastic Erotica and a $25 gift certificate for any ebook(s) sold through circlet.com! Anyone who wants to work on an erotic writing project can join–you don’t have to be a previously published author, nor have any connection to Circlet Press.
Signups are going on now, and you can start posting your progress anytime between January 1-14. The challenge runs until Valentine’s Day, February 14th, so your “month” can be from Jan 3-Feb 3, for example. Totally up to you! Links and details below the cut:
( Read the rest of this entry » )Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.
Watched Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lighting Thief with my mom and dad (whom I’m visiting this week). And it brought up a whole bunch of thoughts for me.
First off, on the subject of watching movies in the first place. I don’t do it often. I go to see maybe 5 movies a year, typically on opening night as a social sort of thing (Harry Potter, Star Trek, etc) and once in a while because everyone has raved (Inception). But my parents are retired and they like movies. My dad has always loved movies and thinks the Turner Movie Channel is the most awesome thing ever. Well actually he finally just got a DVR, and THAT is now the most awesome thing ever. Since he knew I was coming to visit, he has been SAVING UP movies on it that he thinks I might like watching.
Also right now, I am in the middle of reading a PILE of books, as I’m on a couple of award juries right now. So I’m reading things like Katharine Beutner’s ALCESTIS (Greek myth retold from a female point of view, and just one step to the literary left of Jacqueline Carey, good stuff) that I would not probably have gotten around to picking up in a bookstore.
But the thing is, although I do buy a fair number of books every year, the majority of them are nonfiction. I don’t buy a lot of fiction. I’ve been telling myself for years it’s because if I’m going to read a novel, I should read one in my slush pile instead of one for fun. For fun and enjoyment I actually read 5-6 published novels a year. About the same number as I take in movies, actually.
This may not be a coincidence. Sitting here with my dad, who has saved up movies I might like, it’s becoming clear to me that I am not just “too busy” to read or to watch movies usually. (I also have no TV.) I make a real effort to stem my intake of fictional media. This effort used to be unconscious, but I’m becoming more and more conscious that I do it on purpose. The question is, why?
Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.
Watched Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lighting Thief with my mom and dad (whom I’m visiting this week). And it brought up a whole bunch of thoughts for me.
First off, on the subject of watching movies in the first place. I don’t do it often. I go to see maybe 5 movies a year, typically on opening night as a social sort of thing (Harry Potter, Star Trek, etc) and once in a while because everyone has raved (Inception). But my parents are retired and they like movies. My dad has always loved movies and thinks the Turner Movie Channel is the most awesome thing ever. Well actually he finally just got a DVR, and THAT is now the most awesome thing ever. Since he knew I was coming to visit, he has been SAVING UP movies on it that he thinks I might like watching.
Also right now, I am in the middle of reading a PILE of books, as I’m on a couple of award juries right now. So I’m reading things like Katharine Beutner’s ALCESTIS (Greek myth retold from a female point of view, and just one step to the literary left of Jacqueline Carey, good stuff) that I would not probably have gotten around to picking up in a bookstore.
But the thing is, although I do buy a fair number of books every year, the majority of them are nonfiction. I don’t buy a lot of fiction. I’ve been telling myself for years it’s because if I’m going to read a novel, I should read one in my slush pile instead of one for fun. For fun and enjoyment I actually read 5-6 published novels a year. About the same number as I take in movies, actually.
This may not be a coincidence. Sitting here with my dad, who has saved up movies I might like, it’s becoming clear to me that I am not just “too busy” to read or to watch movies usually. (I also have no TV.) I make a real effort to stem my intake of fictional media. This effort used to be unconscious, but I’m becoming more and more conscious that I do it on purpose. The question is, why?
Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.
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timeasmymeasure
