The Blogger of Seville

Gay for you?

2011-01-14T21:12:00.001-08:00

The gay romance genre comprises a number of sub-genres. The usual sorts, such as fantasy, science fiction, historical, and so forth. But one of the sub-genres unique to m/m romance is what's sometimes abbreviated as GFY - Gay For You.

In a GFY story, the characters were not previously gay, or at least didn't know they were, until they met that one special someone and embarked on a gay relationship with them. The implication is usually that one or both protagonists wouldn't be in a same-sex relationship except with this one other person. Because they're Gay For Them.

Personally, I'm fine with GFY stories, but there are lots of readers who really don't like this particular story trope.

I've seen "Zero at the Bone" referred to as a GFY story a number of times. I never thought of it that way myself. I can see how it could be considered as such. Neither Jack nor D has really ever had a long-term or significant relationship with another man before. Both were at one time married to women, although both relationships were over long before they met each other. Jack is described as having had at least physical relationships with men. D hasn't, but he's had romantic and sexual feelings for men before.

So in my mind, it was clear that they were both gay before they met each other. They just hadn't had a gay relationship before. That could be considered GFY. But they were both gay for more than just each other, so using that definition, it wouldn't be.

What do you think?

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T15:38:00.001-08:00

I hope all of you had a good 2010. It was a year of big changes for me and lot of activity. Sadly not a lot of it involved writing, but that's certainly changing! Writing A Very D Christmas has really gotten me excited again about writing about Jack and D. Now all I need is a plotline.

Yoo hoo! Plotline? Here, boy! *whistles* Damn, he was just here.

I had a very nice holiday. Over Christmas I was finally able to visit Lake Tahoe. After having written about Jack and D holed up there, it was awesome to see it. It is just as beautiful as I'd heard it was. Pictures don't do it justice.

Anyway, the new year finds me here at my laptop, writing on a variety of projects, one of which is definitely another Jack and D book.

Remember to pick up "A Very D Christmas" before January 31st! It will remain available for purchase, but only until 1/31/2011 will any of the proceeds go to benefit The Trevor Project. Click the link above to download the story for $1.99.

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year!

It's a very D Christmas, after all.

2010-12-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

Awhile back, I decided that I definitely, positively, 100% wanted to have a new web story available for this holiday season. I even had a title..."A Very D Christmas." So I started writing it. And writing it...and writing it...well, pretty soon it was long enough that I no longer felt super comfy offering it for free. It was expanding into short-novella territory, upwards of 40 pages.

Then I had the idea - why not make it a fundraiser? I could offer part of the purchase price as a holiday charity donation. But which charity? There was only one answer: the Trevor Project.

The recent spate of teenage LBGTQ suicides has spurred interest in the Trevor Project as well as Dan Savage's associated It Gets Better Project. Both are amazing, worthy causes and I know you'll be just as excited to support them as I am.

So now, "A Very D Christmas" is for sale for $1.99, $0.50 of which will be donated to the Trevor Project in the name of all my readers.

Please click over to my website, the story purchase link is on the front page.

http://http://janesevillebooks.com/

If you would like to leave a comment about the story, please do it on this post.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, hopefully

2010-11-11T13:58:00.000-08:00

Soooooooo yeah. It's been like a year and a half since I posted here. But I have finally figured out how to keep several identities active and signed in (the secret = two web browsers. shhh, don't tell).

I have received so many wonderful letters from readers. I wish I could have replied to each and every one of them. I am going to at least send out a group reply to everyone who's written me so that you know I got your note. But I appreciate all the kind words and encouragement.

Here's the sitch.

Not long after "Zero at the Bone" was published, I had significant, life-changing surgery. I was not ill nor did I have a serious condition, but it was a major procedure that's wrought huge sea changes in my life. Most of my mental energy since the summer of 2009 has been dedicated to that process. I have been writing, but almost all of it has been comfort writing. Easy and fun. Unfortunately, writing for publication hasn't been my priority. I'm returning to the point where that's something I want to focus on again. I know many readers are wondering about a sequel to Zero. Finding my way to that story has been difficult, more difficult than I ever anticipated it would be. But hope springs eternal.

In the meantime I hope to have a more active Web presence in the future, even if there's no publication date for anything new from me on the horizon. Thanks for hanging in there!

2009-06-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

There are too many books in the world!

I do enjoy reading books besides just m/m fiction. But I haven't been doing much of that lately, that's for sure. There's a new book called "Bones of Summer" by Anne Brooke from Dreamspinner that I want to read, and Josh Lanyon's new one, and I'm trying to catch up on the huge backlist of staples of the genre that I haven't read yet...I wish I could read while sleeping.

I hope to have a new Web story up by the end of the month. Come July, I am having surgery in the middle of the month and I'm hoping to have some good writing time on the sequel during my six weeks of leave from work, as well as another m/m book I've begun that isn't connected to "Zero."

Mmm. Hungry. Think I'll have a burger.

Pride in Cinci

2009-06-18T18:27:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I attended the Cincinnati Pride festival as part of the contingent from Dreamspinner Press, which also included fellow authors Ariel Tachna and Nicki Bennett. It was a beautiful day and everyone was in a great mood. I wore my big patchwork hippie dress. I've never been quiet so exposed in my life, I don't think.

We sold some books and gave out a lot of promo CDs, which had two free short stories on them along with chapter-length excerpts of all the novels. I think that's a fantastic idea!

We talked to a lot of people. Men, women, young, old. As usual, we ran into people who were shocked (shocked!) that straight women might want to write about gay men. I don't know why it's so strange to people, honestly. But I'll tell you, people were a lot more interested when they found out we were authors who'd written some of these books!

I really wish I were doing a table in Columbus for our Pride, which is this weekend. I mistakenly thought that if I were there on my own, I'd only have my book there, which would look kinda pathetic. But my lovely publisher would have sent me boxes of other people's books for the table, and a nice cloth with the name on it, and all that stuff. I could totally have done it. Sigh. Oh well, next year.

I've been reading some great m/m novels lately. I really need to get Josh Lanyon's new one, "Somebody Killed His Editor." I still haven't read all the Adrien English books...I've been sort of rationing them out so I won't be so bereft when they're done.

Do you hear what I hear?

2009-06-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last night I participated in a Pride event at my local GLBT community center. They've got a lot of events all month, including our citywide Pride festival in two weeks. Last night was the opening of an art show (which included three paintings by my cover artist, Paul Richmond) that included a theater performance and two readings, one by yours truly.

Choosing an excerpt to read is a little tricky. I don't want to read any of the naughtier bits, despite Paul's frequent exhortations that I do so. I always want to include as much dialogue as I can, because it's easy to read and has a more natural rhythm than descriptions. The other issue is that I write in so much of the characters' internal thoughts, and that's difficult to convey aloud. It's done with italics in print, but aloud you have to somehow distinguish it from spoken dialogue or just straight narration. So I wanted an excerpt that didn't include as much of the internal-monologue stuff. I ended up going with the second half of chapter 3, which is probably Jack and D's first real conversation, in the car on the way to Quartzsite, then their visit to D's bunker for ammo and money, then the wrap-up scene in the motel where Jack figures out that D was in the military.

The reading went over very well. I got a lot of very flattering praise from the audience members. Actually doing the reading was sheer hell, though. It was a beautiful day yesterday but in the upstairs meeting space where the reading was held, it was beastly hot. To add insult to injury, they had theatrical stagelights aimed at me, which upped the temperature by about twenty degrees. By the time I was finished, I was dripping.

The other thing about reading aloud is that there's nothing that exposes all the flaws and little missteps in one's writing than hearing it spoken. The thing about reading is that your eyes skip over things. You don't notice everything when you're reading because your brain fills in the gist of sentences and you don't take in and digest every single word and syllable. When you hear text spoken, on the other hand, you hear every single word. I found myself making small adjustments as I read. I do read my writing aloud to myself as I polish and edit, for exactly this reason, but nothing's ever perfect. I found myself cursing my own folly in giving Jack a three-syllable last name, as I ended up pronouncing it over and over again.

Regardless, it was a great night, and I hope more good things will come of it.

Date Night

2009-05-10T14:20:00.001-07:00

Comment post for new Web Story, "Date Night."

You can read the story here.

Pushing it like it's crack, yo

2009-05-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

OMG. So back when the book came out I sent in a copy to the San Francisco Book Festival, a kind of book competition for independent publishers. I got word yesterday that it took runner-up in its category! Yay! The only thing is...I'm looking at the list of winners and there's a wildly differing number of Honorable Mentions in each category. Fiction has like twelve. Some categories don't have any. I strongly suspect that they named a winner and a runner-up, and then any other book that was entered got an Honorable Mention. Which means that in my category, there were only four entries.

But I don't care. I'll take it. I'll also be entering the New York Book Festival this month.

In the meantime I'm working on my Amazon.com addiction. Addiction to refreshing my sales rank, that is. I'm looking into some kind of a twelve-step program. But it looks like the book has reached some kind of self-propelling critical mass. At the start, it was at #200K, then at #300K, then it'd come up to #80K, and such. The highest I've seen it is #13K, which meant #6 in the Gay Fiction bestsellers. But the last week or so it never falls below #100K, and mostly bounces around between #15K and #60K, keeping it on the bestsellers most of the time. To me this means there's people buying it fairly regularly, every time the rank bumps up, and the more it stays on that bestseller list the more people will see it.

I'm also becoming really glad to be with Dreamspinner. Based on what I see and what I'm hearing from readers, DSP is getting a real reputation among m/m readers for publishing good quality books that are about more than the steamy mansex (not that there's anything wrong with that). I think the strong reviews and sales for recent releases like Sean Kennedy's "Tigers and Devils" and Isabelle Rowan's "A Note in the Margin" have really done a lot for the label's cache. I'd like to think I helped a little, too.

More reviews coming in, all of them very strong. I'm collecting them here. I'm also kind of amazed at the reader reviews...5.00 average over 6 reviews on Amazon, and 5.00 average out of a whopping 10 reviews on Goodreads.

So now...I have to think about more writing. I'm writing the sequel. I've started a focus group of beta readers who'll be reading as I write. I've got a new Web story half done. I have a half-formed idea for a non-Zero-related novel as well, we'll see if that goes anywhere.

I may need oxygen here pretty soon. Oh, and I might be going to MediaWest in a few weeks.

I need a nap.

Stranger than fiction

2009-04-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

So this is what it's like to be a real live published author.

*looks around*

Yeah, it isn't much different. Except for the obsessive stalking of my Amazon sales rank.

It's strange to think that people all over the world could be (and likely are, at least a few of them are) holding my book in their hands and reading it for the first time, having reactions to it, liking it or hating it, staying up late to read it (a few have told me they did), rooting for Jack and D, maybe getting emotional. Some are tossing it aside without a second thought upon finishing, some are going online and talking about it, some are writing me emails, some are joining my mailing list.

It's quite something to have put something into the world that other people react to, you know? It's not my first time doing that, but this is the first time it's been...I don't know, official.

Just looking at the book itself, for me, is strange. It's...real. It's something I wrote, and it's a real live book with a bar code and a copyright page. It's weird to read the pages horizontally, with a new page to the side instead of below, as I've been reading this book on computer screens over the entire course of its creation.

It's a trip, man.

It was inevitable.

2009-04-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know how much I'll be using it, but I now have a Facebook profile.

Jane Seville on Facebook

I mean it isn't as if I don't already have a blog, a website, and this mailing list. But you have to have a Facebook, or you just don't exist!

Oh, that's right. I don't actually exist. But I might as well! See, I have a Facebook!

*hugs the Facebook*

It's all part of the Queen of All Internet thing I have going here. Blitz-style attack! Hit em on all sides!

Day Five and Counting

2009-04-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

So some reviews are starting to trickle in. So far everyone's been very complimentary! One blogger said she'd like to give the book "a million out of ten" but would settle for 10 out of 10. Gay fiction blogger Jenre didn't even wait until she finished the book before blogging about it. She posted a thoughtful discussion of antiheroes, and a truly appropriate picture of Timothy Olyphant in "Hitman" which could SO be a picture of D.

http://jenre-wellread.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-anti-can-your-hero-be.html

Last night, I was up waaaaay too late finishing "A Note in the Margin" by my fellow Dreamspinner author Isabelle Rowan. It was really good, I'll probably feature it on the Jane Recommends section of the website once I'm ready to put up a new title.

Books and merchandise, ahoy

2009-04-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

So this having-a-book-out thing is kinda surreal. I find myself obsessing over the Google Analytics on my website and drilling down to absurd levels of detail on the reports. It appeals to my OCD tendencies, I guess.

My publisher informs me that the sales are very strong so far! Yay! One can only hope they grow as word spreads of the TOTALLY AWESOME book someone just read. Hopefully the book will get some positive reviews on the various gay fiction review sites, and that'll help sales as well. I've gotten a few very nice fan letters, which is gratifying. In the next few days people will begin to receive their paperbacks. Words cannot express how anxious I am to hold that book, a physical, real book that I WROTE, in my hands.

I'm also delighted to learn that my fantastic cover artist, Paul Richmond, has just gotten another job doing a cover for MLR press, another of our indie gay romance publishing houses. He's sure it's because someone saw my cover. I'm thrilled because that's exactly what I hoped would happen when I asked him to paint my cover. My web designer, Brian Williams, might even get some work out of having done my website. Spread the love!

So, have you heard I have merchandise? I have merchandise. First is a lovely high-quality 11 x 17 giclee print of the cover art. The link to buy that is on my website. Second, I have a CafePress store! There's various stuff there featuring the cover imagery, like this mug:

And then then I made up this fun seal, for the Jack Francisco Hitman Rescue Society. There are items featuring the seal, like this mousepad:

The CafePress store is here.

The day has arrived!

2009-04-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

My book is now available for purchase. Oh. Em. Gee.

Buy it here!

Since a few people have asked whether it would be better for me for them to buy it from Amazon or from the publisher, the answer is it's better to buy it from Dreamspinner direct (which is where the above link directs you). The publisher, and therefore me, make more money if there are fewer middlemen. Also the Amazon link likely won't be active for a few days.

There are also high-quality giclee prints for sale on the Jane Seville Books website as well, I just picked up the first batch from the printer and they're gorgeous.

Catastrophe averted!

2009-03-30T20:38:00.001-07:00

Well, kids, one week from today my book will be released on an unsuspecting world.

I had an alarming moment yesterday while checking my galley proofs. To my shock, I suddenly realized that an entire chapter of the book was missing! It was never there, actually, it somehow got left out of the master document that I originally submitted to Dreamspinner. And even though the chapter contains a key plot development, it is easily overlooked, and I overlooked it myself through several drafts. Thank goodness I spotted it in time! My editor in her wondrousness assures me it can still be changed in time for the release date. Whew! Felt the breeze as that one went by.

In the meantime, it turns out that planning a big book release party is a lot of work. First the food, which I now have all sorted out, and now it's the promo materials. I've designed a poster, which was a bit hairy seeing as I have zero experience that kind of thing, and I'm having fliers printed.

But seriously, it's all going better than I could have ever hoped. Everyone I've dealt with has been super excited and helpful, everything's been available and convenient and hassle-free.

I say as I totally jinx myself. Oh geez.

Double standards

2009-03-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

First, a link. Elisa Rolle, who's a pretty well-known blogger who discusses and reviews gay fiction and film, is having an Excerpt Weekend in which she posts blurbs and excerpts to upcoming books. I sent her an excerpt of "Zero at the Bone" and it's been posted today:

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/547874.html

Second, something a little sad.

I've been planning my book release party for awhile now and so far everything's been going really great. I've made a lot of contacts and everyone's been happy to help. I've already gotten some food donated from a local restaurant and I was out trolling for more. I emailed a local Whole Foods. The marketing person emailed me back and said they'd be very interested in participating, how many people did I expect, what time did it need to be ready, etc etc. And could I send her more information about the event and the book, which I did.

Then she emailed me informing me that they couldn't participate because of the "graphic nature" of the book. Huh. I don't know where she got "graphic nature" because the info I sent her was from the Facebook event I did for the release date and it doesn't say that anywhere.

It's unpleasant to think of but I have to wonder if she'd object to sexual content between a man and a woman. Lord knows there are plenty of mainstream literary novels which contain plenty of strong sexual content. "Tropic of Cancer," anyone? Does Zero's categorization as "gay fiction" earn it a different set of rules as to how much sexual content is acceptable? It's no steamier than the racier lines of Harlequin romances, which they sell in grocery stores, for Pete's sake.

I was nice about it but I did point that fact out. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but if there is a double standard at work here, that's a disappointing attitude from a company like Whole Foods.

2009-03-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! My business cards have arrived!

They look so fantastic I can hardly believe it.

They were made by a fanastic British company called Moo Printing who make the neatest business cards, minicards, and everything else printed. Such high quality and such a great price, too. I got 200 bards plus that nifty holder for about $60. And you can upload as many images as you like. Highly customizable.

Anyway. Plans continue for the book release party. I just wrote to a cafe in the area of the center where the party will be held that's known to be a gay hangout to ask if they'd be willing to provide some simple food in exchange for promotion on all our materials. That'd be nice not to have to worry about that aspect of it myself. Well, me and my team of dedicated draftees...uh, I mean volunteers.

Girl Scout cookies are an easier sell.

2009-03-15T15:51:00.001-07:00

Today I was in Yellow Springs, Ohio. It's a very crunchy-granola hippie arts-and-crafts town about an hour from Columbus. I went into a little bookshop which was heavily slanted towards the alternative lifestyles. The pagan/feminist/GLBT/green-living vibe was everywhere.

A-ha! I sez to myself. Perhaps yon shopkeeper would be interested in carrying a gay romantic thriller by a local author!

I bought a magnet. I engaged the man in conversation, commenting both on the awesomeness of his stock of Story People greeting cards and the Rodrigo y Gabriela music he was playing. Then, I made my move.

"My name is Jane Seville, and I own a bookstore in Columbus," sez I. "I have a book coming out soon. It's a gay romantic thriller."

And the guy kind of...chuckled. Like, "oh yeah? seriously?"

"Yes!" I sez. "I was wondering if you'd be interested in stocking it, it'll be available through Ingraham." I threw that last bit in there so he'd known, in all his dubiousness, that yes, it's a real book with a real publisher and a real distributor. Not a vanity press or some spiral-bound self-published thingie.

He told me to email him when it comes out and he'll have a look. I left feeling a little off-center. I'd thought that the keeper of such a leftie shop wouldn't be so giggly at the idea of someone having written a gay romantic thriller (which is rapidly become a phrase I despise even though it's handy and accurately conveys the book's genre). I would like the book to be in more bookstores than just mine. I'm planning to go around to my indie-bookstore compatriots and tell them about the event once the book is out, hopefully they'll stock it, too.

I just hope they don't all laugh at me.

Preparations for what I hope is a frenzy

2009-03-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

Somehow, in the course of a week, I've gone from tolerably occupied to unbelievably busy.

Not that it isn't exciting. In a month, my first novel, "Zero at the Bone," is being published by Dreamspinner Press. In that time, I'll need to review the publisher's edits, return them, then correct the galley proofs when they arrive. In the meantime, my web designer and I are busy setting up the Jane Seville Books website, and I'm setting up this blog and the Google Group I've opened for news and announcements.

Meanwhile, my cover artist, Paul Richmond, and I are planning a big event, a sort of signing/reading/book release party. Luckily he is the Zen Master of promotion and is dying to take it over because I don't know if I can do it!

Then there's the Zero sequel to begin, my store to manage, my dog to walk and my mainstream-fiction novel to rewrite for the fifth time. That's a lot to handle, especially when you're a Nonexistent American. Things are always just a little harder for the metaphysically challenged. I can't even get good service in a restaurant. It's like they don't even see me.

But hey, at least I don't need to sleep. Good thing too, because I won't have much time to between now and the release!