Sending Relief to Japan

Yaoi-Con is auctioning off some amazing stuff, and all proceeds will go to the relief effort in Japan. More information can be found on their main site, while the actual auction is at http://ycon-auction.livejournal.com/. I've already put down a bid on a Vash and Wolfwood poster.

If you'd like to donate money through more traditional channels, click here for six ways more ways to help the victims of the earthquake/tsunami.

Also, prayers appreciated for my best friend's mother. We haven't been able to contact her yet.

Pretty Words

Two things happened in my writing life recently that were kind of interesting and kind of related. First—I finished a novella. I think I’m going to title it Just Perfect despite the fact that it’s one of my darker stories but we’ll see. It’s in a revision stage, after which I’ll submit it to a publisher, so keep your fingers crossed. The second is that I’m currently working on another story and I finished writing a sex scene that I started in…2009, I think. Yeah, I got stalled pretty badly there. It might have been a good stall though because when I look at the plotline it doesn’t seem believable to me anymore, and I think I’ve got a better direction now for the book. Silver lining and all that.

The thing that kind of relates these two stories is language. When I was writing Just Perfect, I was afraid I’d lost the sense of lyricism I was so proud of in books like Lone and Paul’s Dream. Some might say I’m a little too in love with that sort of writing, but I’m really attached to pretty words, sentences that flow. The language in Just Perfect is hard, straightforward, and to the point. It wasn’t until I’d finished the story and read it all the way through for the first time that I realized this was Draven’s (the main character’s) voice, and that it fit. He’s an assassin, after all. And one who likes his job.

The story I’m working on now has more of the pretty words I thought I’d lost, which makes sense. Both characters in this one are nicer, gentler, a lot more innocent. They think differently so they express themselves differently.

I forget, sometimes, that it’s the characters who set the tone for a story, and that as long as you stay true to them, the words may not always be “pretty,” but they’ll always flow. And just because I’m stretching my writing muscles from time to time, doesn’t mean I’ve lost my touch.

It might even mean I’ve gotten better. (This is me, trying to be more optimistic as per my New Year’s resolution.)

;)

Thanks for the recs!

I know it's sick and wrong, but I like a little darkness to read during the Valentine's season. Now I have what looks like a fantastic list to choose from.

Thanks again--I'll be having a lot of fun, I'm sure. :)

-- Rowan

Need a book rec

Looking for something dark, twisty, and sexy to read. Little help?

The Jascian's Toy - 14

Chapter 14 of The Jascian's Toy is on my website. You can read it at http://rowanmcbride.com/stories/serials/ .

Hope you enjoy this installment. Remember there's a comment section for the story now here.

Happy New Year!

Searchin' the Search Phrases: 2010

End-of-the-year tradition time! One of mine is to go through the search phrases that resulted in a hit on my site over the past year. The most common phrase was "Rowan McBride," although this time around there were a slew of creative misspellings of my name, which has me siked because it means that people who aren't all that familiar with me are looking for me, and in theory that's a good thing career-wise. XD

Also, "Author Rowan" will get you to my site without any trouble. Who knew?

There were phrase and story title combinations that help me from a stats and marketing point of view, but as always my favorites are the ones that make me laugh or tilt my head in confusion. Listing them in no particular order below in the hopes that they'll make you do the same.

• dalek haiku
  Yeah baby!
  



• watching him orgasm
  Who? Was he hot? Did he know??



• rat pack cardboard cutouts
  I want an invite to that party.



• bhargava s 33 theorem asserts
  You know what google says the rest of that sentence is?
  

  ...that an integral quadratic form represents all odd numbers if it represents 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 15 and 33. - T. D. Noe (noe(AT)sspectra.com), Mar 30 2006

  
  Know what it means? Me either, but since Seth and Nick are the math geeks on my site, I'm choosing to blame them even though neither of them use this particular theorem in their stories.
  
  Look at that. I actually searched a search phrase this year. Title of blog segment validated.



• he rubbed his hand up my thigh
  Hey, hey now. Maybe you should slow down there...



• he slipped his hand into my pants and stroked my stiffening cock
  I didn't. I swear.



• pushed myself forward as if i felt a slow big fingers caressing my hairy crack
  O.O



• what s wrong? isn t that what you wanted
  About here is when I began to wonder if I was being *deliberately* molested via search engine.



• how to play three blind mice
  I can actually help you with this if you're looking to play it on piano, guitar, recorder, or xylophone. Weirdly enough I don't know all the words, so I can't sing it. Not that you'd want me to.



• his ass cock whimpered or load or deep or again or another or cum his pucker -she -her
  This searcher either doesn't know what the hell they want or knows EXACTLY what they want and is a Boolean genius.



• i got skin grown over my shoulder
  I'm no expert, but I think that's supposed to be there.



• site http //www.rowanmcbride.com/superhero
  This page doesn't exist, but it totally should.



• you and the little mermaid can go
  That sounds like the beginning of the best cursing out ever.



• plunder rowan mcbride
  Pass. That's pirate pillow talk, and I'm all about the ninjas.



• i buried my head in his chest and he wrapped his arms around me he laughed into my hair and i felt his warm breath on my face
  I don't have a smartass comment for this one. I'm just feeling sentimental at the end of the year and liked the imagery.

And my favorite search phrase of 2010 is:

• jascia sex tube
  I don't know what the hell it is, but I feel like the story needs one. Bad.
  

That's it. For me 2010 was about finding my muse again. It took a while, but I feel like there'll be some good stuff in 2011.

I hope there's good stuff in 2011 for you too. ;)

Happy New Year!

-- Rowan

Check out what happens...

... when you Google muscle theft:




Yeah, baby! This blog takes the top two spots in the results. How cool is that?

No idea how long it'll last. I only found out because a friend happened to be searching for muscle theft stories, but I'm glad he dropped me a line to let me know in time to screencap it. :D

Incidentally, the fifth result on that list is a portal to the O'Zone, and O's site is a good one for growth, theft, and a long list of other interesting genres. It's also how I ended up on The Evolution Forum, which is the first place I ever read muscle theft fiction I liked. So without O, I probably wouldn't have any theft stories.

Life's quite the tapestry sometimes.

Or maybe my brain's short circuiting because I've been up for two days.

Closing out this rambling now.

:)