kellysbishop.com

So we have another storm brewing in romancelandia. A. J. Llewellyn writes m/m romance. Until very recently, she claimed to BE a gay man, even going so far as to hire a man to go to her book signings for her. Now that someone’s outed her, she’s claiming to be a transgender who identifies as a male. A lot of people are skeptical and I admit I’m one of them.

What amazes me is that she really thought she’d get away with this. I mean, come on, this is the age of the internet. All of our lives are a lot less private than they were say fifty years ago.

As to why she did, well I’m no psychiatrist but I do have my own theory. I think part of it may be that she fell into what I like to call the “Hemingway Trap”.

Ernest Hemingway created these ultimate macho men characters and then spent his life trying to convince himself and everyone that he was just as much of a he-man as his characters. But no one is ever as sexy, macho, desirable, brave (or whatever special quality you’d like to have) in real life as a FICTIONAL hero. In my opinion, his inability to keep up with his larger than life creations had something to do with his suicide.

I wonder if in her own way, Llewellyn was trying to BE her characters because they were special and she doesn’t feel she is??

Whatever her real motivation, it’s a big mess that didn’t have to be.

Sigh.

I know I’m not done, done. But damn this feels good. A lifelong battle with Writer’s Block just might finally be broken.

I’m going to call it “Galactic Bride” – a steamy SF Romance. It will be either a short story or a novella, depending on how much I add/subtract when I edit.

If it sounds like I’m making a lot of fuss over one little story, well I freely admit I’m just taking baby steps here.

But it feels so good.

By the way, I did go ahead and set up a FB Fan Page. (Yeah, she’s thinking positive.)
http://www.facebook.com/IndieWriterKellySBishop

Wheeeee! I’m having fun.

I remember my mother telling me that when she was a child, Grandma & Grandpa would go to the next town over if they wanted to see a movie. Because he was a Southern Baptist preacher and somehow movies were too racy??? (This is the 1930′s & 40′s, I’m talking about people…) You’d think aww how cute & silly and boy have things changed. Think again.

Apparently a Pennsylvania parent found out that her son’s English teacher was writing erotic romance in her spare time – using a pen name. Judy Mays has been both a writer and a teacher for a loooong time now. But when the parent ran to the local news station about it, somehow it was considered “newsworthy” and “shocking”. The news station ran an incredibly inept piece that should be shown in journalism school as an example of how to be an embarrassment to your profession in one quick tabloid sound bite. If anyone actually gets fired, I hope it’s the reporter.

In the internet outrage that’s boiled up, several people have written that this is exactly why they use a pen name/or will once they become published. But Judy Mays DID and was still outed. My objection to pen names is that it may give the writer a false sense of security. If you believe you can publish under a different name and nobody will ever find out who you really are – just have a little chat with Judy. That may have been true BEFORE the internet and social media. Not now.

You can show your support for Judy on Facebook at this link -

http://www.facebook.com/SupportJudyMays

And as of now, there have been over 160 comments. Most positive but naturally not all.

What I find interesting is that several of the people who aren’t happy put it in terms of “betrayal” like she’s forgetting the fans who made her a best seller. Connie made it clear the books she’s self-publishing are sequels to As You Desire and All Through the Night. She’s wanted to do them for years but apparently the publisher’s weren’t interested. So the choice for these two stories was for Connie to do them indie or they’d never get published at all. How the heck is this a betrayal???

I think Connie is the biggest name author in the Romance genre to strike out on her own so far. But I don’t think she’ll be the last.

The roller-coaster ride is just beginning.

A few of mine:

Only buy fiction in kindle/ebook format. (Hey, after moving myself from VA to FL, I am so over hauling boxes and boxes of books.)

Don’t buy fiction in kindle/ebook format if it is priced over $9.99. (I broke this rule once for a Nora Roberts and felt like an idiot when they lowered the price a couple months later.)

Don’t buy fiction allegedly written by a celebrity not known for her ability to spell much less write. (Yes, Snooki I do mean you.)

Those are pretty firm. Others have been more like “guidelines” as they said in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

For a long time, I was so done with any more versions of King Arthur. I really meant it too, I was tired of them, no one was coming up with anything new to say, same old same old. No more! And then I stumbled on Angela Knight’s Mageverse series. Well… maybe I spoke too soon. She’s got a new one out this month. Happy Sigh.

And then there was the beware of recent subgenre hoppers rule. This may seem unfair but in my experience, when an author has written several books in only one particular subgenre and then suddenly switches to another, the results are often not so good. I think it usually has to do with the author’s voice. Some authors’ styles need to be tweaked a bit to adapt to the new subgenre. Unfortunately, they don’t always seem to get that switch right.

So when one of my favorite historical authors, Lisa Kleypas came out with a contemporary, I was not happy. I refused to read it. Not going to bother. Nope, nope, nope. She published three books and I still wasn’t going there. I finally caved last month and read Sugar Daddy, Blue-Eyed Devil and Smooth Talking Stranger back to back……

(sound of crickets chirping)

Ok, so I was wrong. REALLY WRONG. This time.

I’m still keeping the rule. I’m just willing to make exceptions. Every once in a while. Maybe.

Guidelines.

Damn it to hell, has it really been almost two months since I’ve posted?? Sigh. Must do better….

Well, the big news in publishing recently is that Borders is apparently delaying their payments to the big publishers. Death spiral.

Meanwhile over on his blog (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/), Joe Konrath writes that his self-published ebook income is averaging about $1,300 a DAY.

It looks like traditional publishing is in for one hell of a roller coaster ride this year. I don’t know if I could duplicate Konrath’s success (even at a smaller income level) but it does seem to me that the best thing an author can do is try to keep one foot in each camp – published with a recognized company and self published. Especially the newer authors.

So that’s my goal for this year. Finally finish something (TWO somethings), one to submit and one to publish on my own. I like keeping my options open.

Angie Fox, a NYT best-selling author has decided to self-publish the next novel in her popular demon slayer series rather than sticking with her publisher, Dorchester, which has been having financial problems. It will be available in ebook format and POD.

It will be VERY interesting to see how her numbers compare. Well, assuming she’s willing to share them.

It’s not so much that I want to write like a maniac (well maybe I do). I just want the writing to be more fun and less angst.