Comments on: REVIEW: I Do, Anthology

By: Sue

Sue — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 05:44:27 +0000

I’m about halfway through this book and so far I’ve loved several of the stories. The one about the French Foreign Legion stands out as my favorite so far. Not all have been wonderful, and I have passed on a few of the stories, but I think of it kind of like an album of music. For every brilliant song there will be a few duds that just don’t work for you.

By: Alex Beecroft

Alex Beecroft — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:12:37 +0000

*g* I have to admit that the process of putting this one together in a little under three months was one of the most nervewracking things I’ve done, and proved that I’m not really temperamentally suited for the job of organizing something like this. So volume two, if there is one, can be helmed by somebody else. That doesn’t necessarily mean that there won’t be one, though, because I know there’s still a lot of enthusiasm for the idea that could be marshaled by the right person.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:55:32 +0000

Will there be future anthologies? I hope this one is selling well enough to raise money for the cause.

By: Alex Beecroft

Alex Beecroft — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:44:50 +0000

Thanks, Jayne! Well, we were in the fortunate position of being inundated with submissions for inclusion, so we could afford to be very picky. Everyone was so keen to do something against Prop 8 that we could have filled another volume with the stories we had to turn away.

And thanks SonomaLass. While I’ve been dropping hints about how an ebook reader might be a good birthday present for me this year, I still love print, and for presents there’s nothing like it.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:15:43 +0000

I too appreciate the review. I tried an anthology not that long ago of lesbian erotica and it was beyond painful – I think I maybe got a third of the way through it, and that was on the thought that it had to eventually get better. (It didn’t).

Ouch. And the main reason why I’m so leery of anthologies. But I don’t recall any misused foreign words in this one.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:11:47 +0000

I’d like to congratulate the committee who handled the selection of the stories which were included here. Good job.

By: “I Do” anthology review by Dear Author « Marquesate’s Camouflage Men: Military Gay Erotic Fiction

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:55:55 +0000

[...] 18, 2009 by Marquesate The anthology had a lovely review from Dear Author. It really is absolutely lovely, there can be no other word for it. It is well worth reading, [...]

By: Clare London

Clare London — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:02:48 +0000

Thanks for the lovely review, Jayne, you were not just encouraging and enthusiastic, but you caught the spirit of the anthology – and you loved reading it all! As a (small) contributor, I couldn’t ask for more! ^_^

As an author, I was honoured to be part of it and to work with all the talent they’d amassed there. As a reader, I’m like you, sometimes ambivalent toward anthologies. But this one was a treat, all the way through. I found new authors, and new genres too, things I wouldn’t usually have read. That’s the *good* side to anthologies, I think. :)

By: Elisa

Elisa — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:49:24 +0000

Thanks for the link! And I agree with you, there are so many good stories in this anthology, that everytime I finished one I would like for it to be longer. Elisa

By: Midknyt

Midknyt — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:05:51 +0000

I too appreciate the review. I tried an anthology not that long ago of lesbian erotica and it was beyond painful – I think I maybe got a third of the way through it, and that was on the thought that it had to eventually get better. (It didn’t).

Note to people wanting to throw in foreign words in your story – one, spell them right (one story had a Latina girl and a guy called her grandmother “abuella”). Two, make sure you picked the right word (previous mentioned story had the grandmother tell the guy to get all his sons together, when really it should have been brothers or homeboys or something different). Three, don’t do a cheesy misunderstanding, but if you are, at least make sure that you have the pronounciation right so it could be a misunderstanding (black belt instructor yells at the woman “Yame!” in Japanese and the woman yells back “I don’t eat sweet potatoes!” Beyond that being horribly corny, in Japanese the vowels are pronounced, so it wouldn’t sound like yam, it would be yah-may. Actually, it took me a second to get it because I was reading it correctly so I didn’t get why the hell the woman was bringing up sweet potatoes in an argument.)

Ugh. And that was only a small part of what was so bad about the anthology.

Anyway, so I wasn’t sure if it was an anthology thing or a not as high of standards for LGBT thing, so I would have stayed far away from this book. But now I’ll give it a look. :)