Blog seems to have moved okay.

So this one is officially closed. Please go to http://rowanmcbride.com/blog/ and check it out if you'd like to keep up with future posts.

Right now it's bare, but functional (Oh, pretty sidebar pics, how I miss you). I'll be tweaking it along with the main site over the next weeks and in theory things should be better (with sidebar pics!). And assuming no glitches pop up between now and then, I'll be announcing the winner of the "Some Like Janice" drawing over there. Not here. There.

So hope to see you there. :-D

So I got this note from Google:

Important Update to Adult Content Policy on Blogger

You are receiving this message because you are the admin of a blog hosted on Blogger which is identified to have Adult content. Please be advised that on June 30th 2013, we will be updating our Content Policy to strictly prohibit the monetization of Adult content on Blogger. After June 30th 2013, we will be enforcing this policy and will remove blogs which are adult in nature and are displaying advertisements to adult websites. If your adult blog currently has advertisements which are adult in nature, you should remove them as soon as possible as to avoid any potential Terms of Service violation and/or content removals. Sincerely, The Blogger Team

I don't know what it means. Other than my blog might be deleted because I most certainly do blog about Adult Content and I link to my books as well as my publishers and I imagine that's me monetizing my Adult Content by advertising my own Adult Content.

So I've ported my blog over to http://rowanmcbride.com/blog/. It's WordPress and I've never used WordPress before so it's gonna look rough for a while. But fear not, people who entered the contest below. The comments have been ported as well so I still have your entry info. XD

It feels weird to think that this blog might not be here the day after tomorrow.

Some Like Janice

I had a lot of misunderstandings as a kid. But I think that those misunderstandings happened because I was already wired differently and didn’t know it.

For example: Janice, the Muppet from The Electric Mayhem. I met her when I was around…six, maybe? When I saw her I thought she was a man in woman’s clothing, and I never mentioned that “fact” to anyone because I assumed everyone knew it. Janice was a natural part of my world. As I got older my view of her became more complex, but she was always Janice. It wasn’t until my first year in college someone decided to “correct” me, and they were pretty cruel about it as they set out the canon material that stated in no uncertain terms she was a woman. At the time I didn’t understand why it hurt so much, because I didn’t understand what was going on inside of me at all well.

Then there’s “Some Like it Hot.” A movie I saw when I was very young and remains one of my all-time favorites. When I was a kid, I didn’t understand it was a comedy. Sure, it had some truly hilarious scenes, but for me it was always about the love stories. Joe/Josephine (played by Tony Curtis), who was all about hooking up with Sugar (played by Marilyn Monroe), and Jerry/Daphne (Jack Lemmon) who suddenly won the attentions of Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown).

I loved Daphne. So, so much. While Joe pretty clearly disliked dressing and acting like a woman, the lines were much more blurred with Daphne. Even with something as basic as picking out feminine names for themselves. At first, Joe and Jerry decide on Josephine and Geraldine, but at the last second, Jerry blurts out that her name is Daphne, earning a look of confused consternation from Joe. When Joe grabs her for explanation, Daphne replies:

Daphne: Well, I never did like the name Geraldine.

Names are important. Especially when you’re picking out your own. I never liked the name my parents picked out for me, and for a long time I felt guilty about it. That scene, that one little line, gave me permission to think about what I might like to be called instead, and that whatever I chose didn’t necessarily have to be a retooled version of what I had.

And then there are the scenes with Osgood. They are funny, and I laugh every time I watch them, but for a long time I didn’t understand they were meant to be *gags.* I thought their relationship was like any other romcom relationship, and I adored it. Especially their final scene, which is also the final scene in the movie:

Osgood: I called Mama. She was so happy she cried. She wants you to have her wedding gown. It’s white lace.

Daphne: Yeah Osgood, I can’t get married in your mother’s dress. [nervous laughter] She and I… Well we’re not build the same way.

Osgood: We can have it altered.

Daphne: Oh no you don't! Osgood, I'm gonna level with you. We can't get married at all.

Osgood: Why not?

Daphne: Well, in the first place, I'm not a natural blonde.

Osgood: Doesn't matter.

Daphne: I smoke! I smoke all the time!

Osgood: I don't care.

Daphne: Well, I have a terrible past. For three years now, I've been living with a saxophone player.

Osgood: I forgive you.

Daphne: I can never have children!

Osgood: We can adopt some.

Daphne: But you don't understand, Osgood! Ohh...

[Daphne pulls off xyr wig]

Daphne: [In a much deeper voice] I'm a man!

Osgood: [shrugs] Well, nobody's perfect!

See? See? Osgood loves Daphne for who she is. The stuff on the outside doesn’t matter to him. That means there’s hope for me, right? I mean… right?

I didn’t know it was supposed to be a gag. And now I choose to believe it wasn’t. I choose to believe that Osgood and Daphne got married and that Janice is far more complex than her bio on Wikipedia would have me imagine.

The scene I quoted above is my favorite scene in “Some Like It Hot,” as well as one of my favorite scenes of all time. Not just because it’s funny and that last line gave me such a terrific happily ever after, but because through that entire exchange, where Daphne’s desperately trying to convince Osgood that they can’t get married, she never once says “I don’t love you” or “I don’t want to be with you.” In the grand scheme of things, none of the other reasons matter, and Osgood happily has an answer to each one until we get to his “nobody’s perfect!” line. Daphne has no response to that, and the last moments of the film show her confused and taken aback, in a “Holy shit, is this really an option?” kind of way. It was a revelation for her.

It was a revelation for me.

And that, right there, is why we need more movies/shows/cartoons/comics/books that tell gender queer and trans* stories. Because I was lucky enough to meet Janice and Daphne and take them to heart, but how many other kids who were just like me didn’t have the luxury of accidently misinterpreting what they saw on TV? How many children had the “truth” of those characters explained to them long before they were old enough to build their own truths, their own stories?

How many kids never had a chance to discover that a third option even exists?

I think we’ve come a long way since the day I met Janice. Networks like Hub are airing shows like SheZow that I couldn’t have imagined existing even five years ago.

I’d like to see more shows I couldn’t imagine when I was a child. Because I could imagine a *lot.* We all could, even if we weren’t aware. Some liked Joe. Some liked Kermit. Some liked Daphne. Some liked Janice.

Some still do.

_______________________________

Note: This post is part of the NER LGBT Pride Blog Fest. It lasts all June, and there are a lot of authors posting interesting articles this month. The site is also giving away its own prizes, so if you'd like to read and enter, go to http://naughtyeditionreviews.com/ and please check it out.

I am giving away an e-copy of Paul's Dream, as well as a never-before-seen expanded print of the cover designed by the fabulous Anne Cain.


Nice, yeah? I'll sign it if you want. ;)


To enter, all you have to do is join my newsletter (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rowan_mcbride) and post a comment with your email address below. If you're already a member of the newsletter--no worries. All you have to do is post here.

I'll announce the winner July 1st. Good luck. XD

The Naughty Edition Reviews Blog Fest has begun! For the month of June, go to http://naughtyeditionreviews.com/ to celebrate LGBT Pride, read interesting articles, and win a variety of prizes. Lots of authors will be featured, including yours truly on the 13th.


PS: The Fest started on the 1st, and I'm very sorry for being so late in letting you know. I'd been having some technical difficulties. :(

I miss you, Fictionwise

I used to buy all my ebooks from Fictionwise. I loved that they offered multiple formats, and if you changed up your reading device you could just go to your Fictionwise library and download the same book in the format you needed. I also loved the fact that most of the books I wanted were DRM-free.

On a totally selfish note, my ratings on FW tended to be higher I *think* because the genres were so wide and varied that there wasn't as big an expectation of "traditional romance" from readers. Hell, I bought my very first straight up erotic e-book from FW. It was Captain Hook/Tinkerbell and it was incredibly weird. But wonderful.

When B&N shut it down, I was heartbroken. My friends? Not so much. Apparently they hadn't been buying there for a while.

So now I float from retailer to retailer. All Romance Ebooks is good for M/M and other romantic stories. I dislike the fact that you're stuck with the first format you choose, though. Their Omnilit branch is one tab away and holds their "mainstream" collection, but I haven't tried that yet. I don't buy from Amazon if I can help it. I have a Nook, so shopping should be super convenient but I sideload most of my books through Calibre so not so much. I do tend to get a lot of graphic novels through the Nook store which worries me since I feel like the demise of the format I'm buying them in is inevitable. Sometimes I buy direct from publishers, and a lot of them have varied formats plus offer different loyalty programs. If the publisher is new or sketchy, though, I don't like to give them my credit card info. In those cases I go to a third party retailer for sure.

Fictionwise shut down a while ago, but I started thinking about it again when a reader emailed me asking if more of my books would be uploaded to Kobo soon. This is my trade and I should have been familiar, but sadly I didn't even know Kobo was a thing. After going to the site it was pretty easy to see that LSB and Torquere uploaded books to Kobo, but my other publishers did not, so unfortunately I had to tell her that I didn't know whether my other books would be uploaded there. I do intend to ask about it, though, since I know how it feels when your preferred retailer doesn't carry what you want. And, yeah, it had me really missing Fictionwise again.

So help me out. Where do you buy your e-books? Why do you like to purchase them from there?

"Want Me" review and giveaway

There’s a great review for “Want Me” posted on Sid Love’s blog. If you have time, hop on over and read it. You’ll also have a chance to win a copy of the book. :)

CONTEST ENDS: 10th May, 2013 @ 11:59PM (Central Time)

Quick Note

Want Me is up on Barnes and Noble! As of now (April 16, 2013) the book is available for 17% off cover price. XD



B&N Link

The book's up on Amazon now. Still waiting with baited breath for the Nook Book to appear. :D

Amazon.com

Want Me is on sale!

Joel Beckett is blessed. He's popular with the ladies, a star on the football field, and worshiped by everyone on campus.

Including Walker Cain.

Only Walker's worship has crossed the line, driving him to invoke ancient magic that binds them together in an inescapable downward spiral. Now reality is shifting, and with each new life Joel is forced to watch Walker steal away another of the blessings he'd always taken for granted.

It's never enough. Cursed blood runs hot, and with every turn of the spiral, Walker breathes the seductive words that Joel can't resist. The words that could drag them both into Hell.

Want me.

---

This is the ebook edition of "Want Me," and has been revised for Loose Id. In addition to tightening up the prose, etc, it contains a new chapter and a bonus alternate ending. Both were a hell of a lot of fun to write. ;)



Available now at
Loose Id
All Romance Ebooks


W00t!

---

4/3/13 ETA: All Romance Ebooks link. Still waiting for Amazon/B&N links. :)

4.0

I always get a little bummed when one of my stories dips below 4.0 on Goodreads. I think some part of my mind still equates that sort of point system with a grade point average. Through most of junior high and high school I had a 4.0 or higher, mainly because most of those schools weighted the grades based on the administration’s definition of difficulty. So I could conceivably get five points for trigonometry, but only four points for art history which is balls. Let me tell you that being able to recognize artists and styles and time periods by looking at a painting is at *least* as cool as being able to calculate sines and cosines.

But I’ve gone off on a tangent.

The point is that four stars is not perfection. A book’s rating is not a grade point average. I won’t fail to graduate with honors and disappoint my parents if a few most of my stories drop below 4.0.

Last time I checked, only two of my books had a rating of 4 stars or above. And what a weird pair--Paul’s Dream and Want Me. On the spectrum of my writings, those two occupy opposite poles. Paul’s Dream is one of my better written books and leans a little closer to traditional romance, so I get that. Want Me is also one of my better written books but oh my god it’s a dark, twisted, muscle theft story. I figured the theft alone would turn a lot of the readers right the hell off.

The first edition of Want Me was self-published, though, and only available in print. The price point was around sixteen bucks and I think that probably kept new readers from trying it. In other words, if you bought the book you were generally (a) already familiar with my writing or (b) specifically looking for a muscle theft story.

And the reviews for Want Me were freaking great. Almost all of them had some variation of “Oh God this is so creepy WHY AM I STILL READING IT???” which is pretty much one of the most awesome things ever. XD

The second edition of Want Me comes out next week in ebook format. I’m guessing that means its overall rating will plummet to around 2 or 3 stars. But that’s okay. It just means that readers feel strongly about it (in the case of 2 and below) or they think the story is about as good as most of the stories they’ve read (in the case of 3 stars).

Don’t get me wrong. Four and five stars is a rush. But I once got five stars on a book because Ace was strong and sensitive, then one star on that same book because he was weak and unstable. So I try not to take scores too seriously. It’s all relative, and I never took physics in high school. ;)

---

Note:While preparing this post I had to link to my Goodreads page. Turns out Want Me has already dropped below 4.0. XD


Want Me will be available April 2nd, 2013 from Loose Id.

"Want Me" has a cover!

Nice, yeah?


Art done by Fiona Jayde. Story's coming out in April. :)

Words

Note: The following is a brief post about slurs, and hence might contain triggers.


Some time in late high school or early college, I started to correct my friends whenever they used the word “gypped.” In most cases it wasn’t a confrontational correction, because--like with so many other casual slurs--they had no idea what it really meant. I’d say something like, “Did you know that word comes from the word ‘gypsy’?” Usually that was more than enough. They’d be horrified, they’d tell their friends, and within a couple of years I stopped hearing the word in any of our circles.

Generally speaking, I have good taste in friends. They’re good people. They just didn’t know.

Here’s something I didn’t know until last year.

“Gypsy” itself, is a slur. It’s been used for centuries to run Romani people out of villages, towns, cities, countries. It’s been used to deny employment or to justify slavery. The Romani have been victims of lynching and concentration camps, of hatred and erasure.

You might be tempted to tell yourself, “But that’s overseas. Here in America ‘Gypsy’ has a completely different connotation.”

No. Not really. In part because many Romani who survived the Holocaust moved here, and many survive to this day. They have children and those children feel the pain of their parents and grandparents acutely, so that connotation hasn’t disappeared, nor should it. Remembering that something happened is the first step in making sure it doesn’t happen again. Plus America has its own set of stereotypes, as well as its own history of enslaving Romani people.

A short, but by no means encompassing, list below:

• Gypsies are thieves/charlatans who will rip you off if you let them.
• Gypsies are fortune tellers.
• Gypsy women are whores.
• Gypsy men are killers.
• They have the power to curse people.
• They all love to dance and play tambourines and wear bandanas.
• They’re hypersexual and hot tempered.
• They’re all homeless and at best travel in roaming caravans criss-crossing the country.

But… But… I have Romani friends and they *self-identity* as Gypsy!

And that’s their choice. The people within a marginalized group can choose to reclaim a word used to shame and hurt them in an effort to turn it into a positive. However, it’s almost never okay for people outside that group to use the word to identify said group.

But the DICTIONARY says--

Stop. Just stop. Many dictionaries still list a definition of “nigger” as a snag or hindrance.* I dare you to use that term around me and try to use that definition to defend yourself. Pro-tip: You won’t have a chance, because I’ll already have blocked you.

So, yeah. “Gypsy” is not a good word. And I used it a lot.

I used it in the first edition of Want Me. Joel often calls Walker a “gypsy” because Walker is a wanderer (see dictionary excuse above). I didn’t think anything of it because I have American-Romani friends who self-identify as Gypsy (see friends excuse above). But since then, I’ve come across several articles** and firsthand accounts written by people who were pained by the term. They were emotional, and true, and hard to read. And if they were hard to read, I knew I had no concept of how painful it was to live that reality.

Honestly speaking, I don’t care about offending people. I do, however, care very much about hurting them.

When it came time to edit the second edition of Want Me, I took it as a second chance and made some changes. The story still starts with Joel using that word, but as his world gets bigger and deeper he--as he does with so many other things--matures out of it in a way that I think is believable and organic. I was glad to have the opportunity to make those changes, to have a chance to mature with him.

To anyone who was hurt reading the way the word was used in the first edition, I apologize. Full stop.

______
* A few of those articles:

• "The Problem with the word 'Gypsy'."
• "A Brief Introduction to Romani History."
• "The Pariah Syndrome: An account of Gypsy slavery and persecution."
• "Flowchart for Justification of Using the Word Gypsy."

** To be fair, Dictionary.com (from which I paraphrased this particular definition) tries fairly hard to explain that it is a slur, is offensive, and should not be used. And although I disagree with some of the things in its usage note, “Gypsy” doesn’t even get that treatment.

Chains is Available!

Blurb:

A new prisoner has been brought to the castle. They say he's a warrior. They call him a demon. They whisper that he can grant wishes.

Saiven can't resist. He sneaks into the secluded dungeon to see, but the man chained to the wall is not what he expects. Smiling. Teasing. He introduces himself as Faolan, and Saiven is caught.

This...man. He makes Saiven feel things he should not feel. Draws forth confessions that were meant to stay secret. Faolan freely grants him warmth and laughter. But now...

Now it's time to find out if Saiven is strong enough to earn a wish.

---

Available at:

Smashwords
All Romance eBooks
Goodreads

It should be filtering its way through other online retailers as we speak.

An excerpt for "Chains"

Is up on my site! You can read it at:

http://rowanmcbride.com/stories/chains/chainsexcerpt.html

Suspiciously Well Targeted Ad

This was on my home page today. Not gonna lie. A little freaked out.