Buying Online
Feb 8th
When you think about it, it’s amazing how confident people are about buying stuff online.
It nearly always works. You pay, then you get the item. We take it for granted. At least I always have. Faith is a wondrous thing.
This is the first time I paid for something and didn’t get it. It was some e-books, sold by none of the vendors we’ve heard about. Not a big loss, I paid less than eight bucks. But still.
I paid 2Checkout.com via Paypal. 2Checkout, which is a large and respected payment processor for many merchants, says the merchant isn’t responding to them.
Well, that’s too bad, but I want my money back. They didn’t respond when I politely requested a refund. Humph.
Paypal has this neat way to open a dispute with a click of the mouse. Let’s see how this works. This is day one of “Will I or won’t I get my money back?”
Where to Start?
Feb 8th
I’m overwhelmed right now. So much I want to do–that I’m thankfully able to do–that getting a grasp on what exactly to do is difficult.
Writers can write anything, so I think my problem isn’t unique. But it isn’t just writing, I have several projects I want to do.
I’m looking at all the balls scattered on the floor and wondering which to throw in the air first.
I think I need to take a deep breath, resolve to slow down, and not toss up more balls than I’m able to juggle.
Then I’ll throw up one at a time.
The Blackest White Folks We Know
Feb 2nd
This article at the Root, a black news site, amused me. I can agree Jeffrey Toombin is probably a brother.
I also knew Christina Aquilira would make the cut, ’cause girlfriend can sing, but Bob Barr, the Libertarian politician wth the blue eyes? Then I looked again. “That ain’t collagen … that’s collards and Coltrane.” Heh. Better not shake his family tree too hard.
But Anderson Cooper? There’s no black card there. He’s just that gay dude who likes to party with the sistas.
I can believe Robert Downey has a touch of soul. Probably not, he’s just a cool white dude, but be still mah heart.
Emeril? Oh dear. Why Madonna? She’s just a wild white girl, clearly Italian. And Bill Maher just likes his chicks bronzed and dipped in chocolate. He should get no black card for that, other than a nod for his good taste.
Teena Marie sure looks old lately. Or is it me too? We’re both old, gotta face it, but if she were black, she wouldn’t crack that hard.
Justin Timberlake? Pleeeze. Of course they threw Bill Clinton in there. I think a lot of black dudes identify with him and his horndog, joint smokin’ ways, plus he has a ‘fro. But nah.
What white romance novelists can we give a black card to? I don’t want to get myself in trouble, but I could make a list.
Changing Hosts
Jan 31st
I’m moving everything to a new host and I have a lot.
It’s like a roller coaster ride. Gotta do this, gotta do that. Frick it if you drop something!
Let’s hope nothing breaks. I might be offline a bit.
UPDATE: I’m all moved–with only a bit of adventure
Decluttering: Tackling the Romance Genre
Jan 29th
Years and years ago I used to enjoy reading romance, including historical. It was like chocolate, sheer pleasure and relaxation. I read a lot of SFF too, but it wasn’t my chocolate romance fix.
Then I wrote a romance and sold it. It changed everything, especially my love for the genre. I wonder if I’d have been better off if it played out for me the same as it did for Holly Lisle, who wrote a romance and didn’t sell it, then wrote a kick ass SFF novel, still one of my all time favs. What if my first romance never sold and I went ahead and wrote something in the SFF genre?
Who knows?
You know what did it for me? The debacle over HEART’S DESIRE and Laurie Gold. Romance never tasted the same after that. The closest words that described my feeling about the romance genre after that? Dread. Disappointment. Borderline Despair. I forced myself to write past all that, but after a few years of continued Ds, it simply didn’t work.
The strict racial segregation of the genre ruined Romanceland (who is only just now starting to realize racial segregation matters–15 years after the fact) and the genre itself for me. Yep, ever since around ‘98–for well over 10 years.
Of course I read romance, but not with the pleasure I used to experience once upon a time. It became my vegetables instead of my chocolate. I do love the paranormal genre because it fits into my SFF tendencies. I recently finished a Patricia Briggs reading binge and was satisfied. Still not chocolate, but satisfying.
I really need to sort out these feelings, decide which I’m going to take with me and which to leave behind. In other words, I need to move forward.
First step: Reading Traditional Romancey Romance
I think I can get lost in the story with a lot of the romance sub-genres. I have avoided traditional romance for nigh on decades. It is time to face it. I haven’t read a lot of authors traditional romance readers get excited about, at least not recently.
For example I’ve never read Lisa Kleypas, and I’ve only read one book of Loretta Chase (which I found very overhyped). I have never bothered with Laura Kinsdale either. Do these authors have the chops to own their hype? Can they make me taste chocolate again?
I used to enjoy historical romance when young–young enough to be pretty racially unaware. I’ve read most all of Georgette Heyers with relish, went through Barbara Cartland like popcorn. The hyped romance authors emerged afterwards.
My next plan is to read some traditional romance. I want to go back to the foundations of the genre and gauge how it feels.
I’ll finally get around to reading Kleypas, Kinsdale, and Chase, at least three books each, maybe more. I could do a category Harlequin run.
So this weekend, I’m going to chill and read. But I’m not looking forward to it as nearly as much as I did as a young’un. I need to find out why.
What’s so great about straight (hair)?
Jan 23rd
With all this talk about racial characteristics, no matter how much denied, I realize that they make up a part of one’s identity in a profound way. Example, I’d lost most of my hair. It’s growing back in, and now I’m able to pull it back into a decent ponytail. But funny thing, it’s come back in far more straight than it used to be. It doesn’t feel like my hair anymore.
My relatives say it’s my native American blood coming out. I don’t know any full-blooded native Americans first hand, so to me my hair looks southeast Asian now. Not the straight sort like my-aunt-by-marriage from Trinidad has, but the wavy, curly sort. One of my doctors is Southeast Asian, around my complexion. She cut her hair recently. I was shocked how much I look like her, someone whose culture and ways are alien to me.
I stare at my no-longer-kinky hair with some resentment before I brush it and pull it back in a ponytail. Will it change back to my hair? Or will it be like this forever unless, God forbid, I lose my hair again? I suppose straight is an improvement over no hair at all. I might as well get used to it.
Race Discussions in Romance Seem To Have Evolved
Jan 22nd
I was looking at the latest at Dear Author over the cover kerfluffle.
It used to be just me and ONLY me as far as the black point of view. Nope, I wasn’t perfect, but I did the best I could.
There used to be several people such as A with wordy and clueless racist passion against blacks in particular. Way more than one. People you see everyday online too and other authors. There was this chick who wrote for Cobblestone who reminds me of A. Very, very proud of passing and feverishly supporting whiteness in every way while absolutely hating her blackness–not that she ever stated it straight like that.
These multiple people would jump on me, call me names and whatnot. Everybody else would stand by–maybe with a touch of hand wringing, detailed derailing analysis and basically, simply tons of derailing, period. Other minorities than blacks would ALWAYS come up. “They have it as bad as you Negroes, so why are you complaining, Negra?” Folks would stroke out defensively if the word racist was used, and go on and on about how uncomfortable the word made them and how the issue wasn’t stated to their liking, but not tolerate any discussion of actual racism.
Now there are multiple, thoughtful, frank and intelligent people who support the minority point of view and won’t allow derailment of the discussion–and dare to use the word racism. Those former status quo and racism defenders have mostly faded away into lurkdom.
Thanks to the owners of the romance sites and blogs that kept bringing the unpopular and uncomfortable subject up. Authors such as Jill Sorenson who seemed as if she was business-as-usual at first can pull back and admit understanding of a different point of view. Thank you, Jill, your later comment was appreciated.
This is what I once envisioned. Things seem to have improved a good deal.
Lord, it is frickin’ goooood to stay out of it. Super nice delete function at DA, BTW.
Whitewashed Covers
Jan 20th
Dear Author and Salon both have a piece on Bloomsbury’s new cover of a book by a white women with a black protag, and the protag is rendered as white.
Why publishers do this is because books with people of color on the cover don’t sell as well to white people, the greatest majority of readers, as books with white people on the cover.
The onus is on white people for this one. Corporations do what makes them the most profit, period. If white people on the cover sell better, then white people will continue to be put on the covers. This fact indicts this culture and the majority of readers as racist, something Americans in particular rush to deny.
If they want to stop being racist, they need to work in changing themselves and their culture–something I understand that’s easier said than done.
This is question that hasn’t been raised–and I’m waiting on it. Why are ONLY white (or nonblack) women allowed to write black protags, complete with fake white people on the cover, and get out of being thrown in the Negro book niche? ONLY white (or nonblack) authors have gotten this privilege so far.
Tell you what…if you let me write black protags, but market them as mainstream and all the goodies that entails, just as if I weren’t a black woman–you can put panda bears on the cover for all I care. White people on the cover are fine. Stuff my cover full of fake, imaginary white people who aren’t in the book if that will make my book green, the color that matters most. You have my permission, y’hear?
The problem is this–the segregation of blacks in publishing. White authors are finally feeling some boundaries and limitations and hollering about it.
Notice we don’t get to complain about our covers and get picked up in a positive fashion by media. Millenia, what do you think about these privileged mainstreamed white authors fussing?
Book Piracy Blues
Jan 19th
When you’re getting a percentage of every book sold, seeing your book ripped off and passed around as a torrent or whatever can cut to the heart.
As a new e-book author, I can relate.
But hey, bitching and moaning isn’t going to help the matter. I know B&M can make one feel better, oh, I do know this intimately. But as far as book piracy, it isn’t going to help one little bit.
Why the frick not, you inquire?
Because the perpetrators have not the tiniest frisson of guilt. Not a whit. Fergidabbout guilt or shame. B&M just gives them an excuse to resent you.
The music industry has much more experience with this. Learn from them. Whining and crying didn’t work at all. Then the big corporate players with their high dollar lawyers got into it. Didn’t help and pissed the consumers off.
If a musician gets famous, even if they don’t get paid for their tracks, they can get paid for their concerts and endorsements. Book authors don’t have this. But we do have the heft and satisfaction of real books.
A popular and famous author is always going to sell books. Can’t say the same about CDs. the sentimental value isn’t there with cold, hard plastic. When e-readers become more ubiquitous, will that still be the case? Maybe not, but there will be some way for rich and famous creators to get paid. Computers can’t write books.
In the meantime, we need to roll with it. People trolling for book torrents are readers. Readers do occasionally buy the books of the authors they love. They tell other readers about the books they like–readers possibly more honest or less computer savvy. Potential readers are more likely to give a new author a try if they can download torrent for free.
There is a way to profit from this piracy thing. At least a way to do something other than bitch and moan.
If you’re feeling mean, you can upload a copy of your book that’s only 3/4 of the book to all the popular torrent sites, with instructions at the end about how to download and pay for the rest at the proper e-pub site.
Some folks, dying to finish your opus, might go and buy. You might piss off some others.
My point is to be creative.
I like happy readers. If they like your stuff, they tend to be loyal, seek out your backlist, spread the word, etc. Personally, I’ll be courting that geeky ripoffing torrent crowd. They’ll come around and buy once in a while.
And BTW, watch out for those torrent sites, dear readers. They will break the hell out of your computer, for real.
MLK Day
Jan 18th
It’s being redefined as a day of service and volunteer work. I still have a cold, layered on top the other cold I can’t shake, so my day will be at home writing and addressing an edit.
MLK was a great man who changed our country profoundly, successfully using tactics Ghandi pioneered.
Sometimes it’s wondered if Malcolm X didn’t have the better idea with separation rather than integration and revolt instead of peaceful resistance. Nah. Too many of us would be dead. Martin Luther King had the right idea at the right time. We are survivors, all of us.
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