I was blown away by your debut book, Wicked Lovely, and thus my expectations for Ink Exchange were quite high. While the smooth narration and elegance of prose are still present in Ink Exchange, the storyline didn’t deliver for me.

Leslie, friend of the protagonist in Wicked Lovely, lives a very sad existence. Her mother is gone. Her father is a drunk who occassionally remembers to pay the bills but often does not. Her brother has a drug habit and has, on at least one occassion, used his sister as currency to support that habit. Leslie’s response to her situation and her past trauma is to supposedly to respond in increasingly sexual ways, although this is simply alluded to through slurs and innuendos and not something of which the reader sees evidence.

The story is quite complicated and I think that without having read the first book, readers might be quite lost as to the interplay between humans and the faery world. While Leslie plays the role of the outsider, the entirety of the story is not narrated from her point of view. Instead the point of view of the two other leads, Irial, King of the Dark Faery Court, and Niall, member of the Summer King’s court, flesh out much of the story. Niall and Irial thrive on the darker emotions of humans and helpless faeries. Irial and his court is suffering from his lack of ability to feed. Leslie decides to get a tattoo which is the symbol of Irial and through it, the Ink Exchange, Irial is able to feed off humanities despair through Leslie. Of course, this means Leslie must feel it as well.

I think that you use the cover of the faery world to tackle some serious issues that teen or young adult might face. In Wicked Lovely, there was an implied rape scene where Keenan, the Summer King, uses the elixir of the faeries to intoxicate Aislinn. In this, the core of the story is of young Leslie, growing up the victim and repeatedly exposed to abusers. She suffers her father’s neglect, her brother’s betrayal. Niall and Irial and a host of others take turns using Leslie for their own purposes. The goal of the story seems to be Leslie’s reclaming of self, of gaining self actualization and ceasing to become a victim.

One of the problems, however, is that in the power struggle between Leslie and her abusers, Leslie never gains power because the worldbuilding dynamic is set up in such a way that mere humans are pawns. These pawns can either be treated well or they can be treated poorly, but the power rests solely in the hands of the faery world. The only protection Leslie has is not within herself but external. In many real ways, Leslie’s life would be the same regardless of what choices she makes.

For all that this story is about Leslie finding her personal strength and recovering from past tragedies, she is still victimized in the end, saved only by the choices of others. This story particularly highlights that there is little in the control of a human and that unseen others, more powerful, ultimately decide our fate. This message is at odds with purpose of Leslie’s story.

If it was intended for Niall and Irial to represent a forbidden something, whether it be drugs or sex or alcohol, it seems that the message that was sent was that no matter how greatly you are self directed, the other something can defeat you. To that end, I felt that the story failed in its delivery, no matter how beautifully it was written. B-

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells. No ebook yet.

If you truly want to make sure your Bigchurch man is the right one for you, I guess you better cross reference with profile with AdultFriendFinder.

Via Newsweek.

In a letter to Assistant Attorney General Thoma Barnett, head of the Justice Department’s anti-trust division, the coalition argues that such a deal would give Google almost 90% of the search advertising market and strengthen its influence over internet users’ access to information.

“We face a possible future in which no content could be seamlessly accessed without Google’s permission,” the letter states.

If you are an affected customer/author, you can contact the Attorney General at

Office of the Indiana Attorney General
Indiana Government Center South
302 W. Washington St.
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Phone: 317-232-6201
Fax: 317-232-7979

E-mail: Constituent@atg.in.gov

Consumer Protection Division
302 West Washington Street, 5th Floor
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Via Publishers Weekly.

I first heard of your book, Wicked Gentlemen, when it was nominated in the GLBT category of our DA BWAHA March Madness tournament. Wicked Gentlemen made it to the third round of the tournament, which means it was the runner-up in the GLBT category.

At the time we were collecting votes, K.Z. Snow mentioned that the prose and storyline in the pdf excerpt posted on your site were phenomenal. Since I’m always hungry for the combination of phenomenal prose and storyline, I proceeded to read the excerpt. I was very impressed, and I quickly ordered the book.

Wicked Gentlemen is comprised of two closely connected novellas which blend the genres of steampunk paranormal, M/M romance, suspense and allegory smoothly and expertly. The first novella, “Mr. Sykes and the Firefly” is written in first person and narrated by one of the book’s two heroes, while the second novella, “Captain Harper and the Sixty Second Circle,” is written in third person, in the POV of the book’s other hero.

Both novellas are set in a world patterned after Victorian England, but one in which the descendants of demons, known as “Prodigals” have risen from hell to accept salvation from human priests. But instead of salvation the Prodigals encountered persecution. They are confined to the city, where most of them live in a subterranean ghetto called Hells Below. If they are suspected of any crime, they can be arrested and interrogated by the Inquisition, a religious police force.

Belimai Sykes is a Prodigal who resides above ground and makes his living by offering various services for hire. Like other Prodigals, Belimai possesses pointy ears, black nails and yellow eyes. Besides these, his demon ancestors also bequeathed him paranormal abilities, but since the nature of these aren’t revealed immediately, I won’t spoil their discovery for readers. In his past, Belimai was captured and tortured by the Inquisition, an experience which left him scarred and addicted to a drug called ophorium.

As “Mr. Sykes and the Firefly” begins, two men arrive at Belimai’s door. One is a physician, Dr. Edward Talbott, and the other an inquisitor, Captain William Harper. The two men are brothers-in-law. They want Belimai to investigate an abduction. Harper’s sister, Joan, who is also Tablott’s wife, has gone missing. She was last seen in a carriage which had been broken into. While Dr. Talbott reported the break in, his wife rode home in the carriage. But on their arrival at the Tablott residence, the driver and groom discovered that the interior of the carriage was empty.

Before her disappearance, Joan had been receiving warning letters from a Prodigal named Mr. Roffcale. Joan and Roffcale were both members of the Good Commons Society, an organization of activists that agitates for suffrage for both women and Prodigals. Joan’s involvement with the Commons was not a matter of public knowledge, though she often wrote controversial pamphlets. Now Captain Harper has arrested Roffcale and is holding him in a cell, but he hopes to avoid interrogating Roffcale since he doesn’t want Joan’s activism to become publicized.

Belimai agrees to take the case, and he and Captain Harper go to the Inquisition House to question Roffcale. Just entering the Inquisition House is agony for Belimai, who is assaulted with painful memories of his stay there. But worse is yet to come. When Belimai and Harper reach Roffcale’s cell they find only his disemboweled remains.

The sight leaves them both shaken, and when Captain Harper suggests that he owes Belimai a drink, Belimai prefers getting drunk to a sleepless night of trying to forget the murder. While they are drinking together, Belimai warms to Harper, despite his being an inquisitor. A drunk Harper then ends up in Belimai’s bed, but the next morning, they dismiss their lovemaking in what is a wonderful bit of dialogue and narration:

“About last night…” Harper shifted slightly. “I think it would be best if we got it clear between the two of us–”

“I have no intention of telling anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about.” I smiled so that Harper could see my long teeth. “And I don’t think you’re likely to go bragging about it, so what’s left to say?”

“No, I meant between us… We were both pretty drunk. I just wanted you to understand that… ” Harper paused, unwilling to go on. Steadily, the pause began to spread into a lingering silence. He seemed unable to make himself speak of the night before. It amused, but didn’t surprise me.

“You want to make it clear that it was just a drunk fuck?” I filled in for him at last.

Belimai is incredibly hard on himself, but his self-deprecation is also part of what makes him fascinating. For example, his response to the above conversation is as follows:

It was pleasant to find another man as willing to let go as myself. Others had lingered in my bed and concerned themselves with the syringes scattered across my desk. They had clung to me as I descended into ruin. Some had attempted to save me. I had been wept on, slapped, and pulled into a dozen chapels by men who had mistaken me for their true love.

None of them had understood that my moments of sweetness were pure ophorium. Everything that they seemed to love about me came from the needles they detested. The man they desired was an illusion, an ugly stone made briefly beautiful by a trick of the light. In their own ways, each of them had fallen as deeply in love with my addiction as I had. None of them had known how absurd they were, begging me to leave behind that drug that was the source of all they loved most about me. My kindness, my calm, even my careless ease. Ophorium made me their perfect lover because it erased the truth of what I was.

But Belimai is in fact a better person than he believes he is, and Captain Harper is also not quite what he first appears to be. As they investigate Joan’s disappearance and Roffcale’s murder, which seems to be related to other killings, they begin to see through each other’s facades, even as things become more and more dangerous for them.

Wicked Gentlemen is a one of the most original books I have read in a long time. Though I’m not an expert on the paranormal and fantasy genres, the world building here struck me as fresh, consistent and startling.

The world of Wicked Gentlemen is constructed of unexpected combinations of pieces from our own history and mythologies that fit together into a flawless design. You also use physical, sensory details like the Prodigals’ sensitivity to light and holy water, and the humans’ sensitivity to heat, to make the reader feel that world.

Not only that, by making the priesthood police force threatening and dangerous, and the Prodigals victims of persecution, you raise thought provoking questions about the line between maintaining law and order and allowing personal freedom. But though it can be read as an allegory about racism, homophobia, and other forms of persecution, Wicked Gentlemen never feels preachy.

The characters of Belimai and Captain Harper are both appealing and extremely interesting, and a few of the secondary characters are almost as intriguing. Even though some of them only appear in a few pages, they felt very real to me.

The mystery and suspense plots are also well-executed, especially the one in the second novella, “Captain Harper and the Sixty Second Circle.” I wish I could say more about this novella, as I enjoyed it very much, but since it picks up where Belimai and Harper’s lives and relationship were left at the end of “Mr. Sykes and the Firefly,” I think that to do so would reveal too much.

Suffice to say that Harper, when we finally get his point-of-view in the second novella, is just as intriguing as Belimai.

The contrast between Belimai and Harper is the engine that drives the book.
Where Harper is a respected member of high society and a priest-inquisitor, Belimai is viewed by the same society which so respects Harper as guilty until proven innocent. If Harper is the pinnacle for which some men aspire, Belimai is viewed as the dregs.

The gap in their positions, and Harper’s seeming flawlessness in comparison with Belimai, is epitomized in the first moment of intimacy between them:

I led Captain Harper back to my rooms and peeled off his black coat and his priest’s collar. Slowly, I worked his gloves off, exposing his long fingers. His nails were as pink and glossy as the insides of a seashell. Each was tipped with a perfect white crescent. I kissed the soft skin of his palm. His stainless body was everything mine could never be. I hungered for that perfection.

It is that gap in their status that makes their relationship forbidden on all sorts of levels. Not just because they are both men, and the world in which they lived is Victorian in its sensibilities, but because of the mistrust, prejudice, and bigotry that separates their two races, and also since their stations in life are so very different that most of their acquaintances would not understand the relationship if they became aware of it. The barriers they face make their hunger for each other extremely compelling.

Harper and Belimai’s personalities are different as well, at least on the surface. Belimai is a sarcastic, self-deprecating rebel who is often contrary just for the sake of being contrary; Harper is seemingly devoted to duty. But the disappearance of his sister triggers long-dormant impulses in Harper, impulses that reveal that he too, is at heart a rebel, if one of a more quiet and less overt sort.

Just as the two men contrast, so do the two novellas, which differ not only in their suspense story arcs and POV characters but also in the fact that the first is narrated in first person and the second in third person.

Although I found that choice unusual, it worked for me because it made the book more textured and varied, and because while first person narration was suitable to Belimai’s talkative personality, third person was more appropriate for the quiet and private Captain Harper.

I have just a few quibbles about Wicked Gentlemen. First, there were a few times when I felt that the grittiness of the descriptions was slightly overdone, such as for example in a scene in which Harper just barely dodges the contents of a chamberpot. Second the description was frequently vivid and sharp; I loved, for example, this bit of ophorium high:

Two hours later, the night blossomed. The sky unfolded in rich waves of purple and blue velvet. Breezes traced pale violet ribbons through the darkness. Tiny buds of glittering stars burst into brilliant illuminations.

But as much as I loved your writing style, I noticed, after a while, that all the sentences were either short or medium-length, and I would have loved a little more variety in sentence length — an occasional long sentence here or there would have been nice.

Lastly, there were so many interesting characters, situations, and backstories in Wicked Gentlemen that I would have loved for the book to be a bit longer so that these could have been explored in more depth. More of Belimai and Harper’s relationship would have been good, too.

For our readers who may be wondering, I should mention that there is only one explicit love scene — but that one is pretty high on the heat meter. There is also violence in the book, but though I tend to be fairly sensitive to violence, I was able to handle it.

Although Wicked Gentlemen is not perfect, it is so sharply observed, so uniquely constructed, so original, and so touching in places that I have to give it a high recommendation. I am not in the habit of reading M/M romances but I enjoyed this one so much that I was very glad of the chance I took by spending $12.95 on it, and I’m now off to buy the anthology Tangle, which contains your novella, “Feral Machines.” As for Wicked Gentlemen, it’s an A- for me.

Sincerely,

Janine

This book can be purchased in trade paperback from Amazon or directly from the publisher. No ebook format.

She signed a number of authors including Becca Abbott and took money in form of subscription fee payments by readers anxious to read her Taming Riki work. In March of 2008, Kira found Jesus and decided to stop publishing and declared all contracts null and void. She promised to refund money paid for the Taming Riki work which was never delivered.

On April 8, 2008, other investors in the Yaoi House stepped forward (the first comment), claiming that they would be honoring contracts and resolving the issue of outstanding orders that seemed not be filled.

On May 1, 2008, Kira reappears and claims that she did not find God but was instead suffering hallucinations as a result of bi-polarity.

I know now that God wasn’t acutally talking to me with Divine imperatives..that was in my head. It just seemed so real. And…some things happened to me, that I gues I won’t tell you about, but they go along the lines of hallucinations.

I think that we know, having seen the signs before of bad publisher behavior what happens next. Yep, people voicing their upsets with Kira bailing on them speak out and Kira responds with

Have fun with your rant. Anyone who participates will of course be banned from my site.

On May 4, 2008, in response to what is happening with the contracts and the money that was taken from readers, Kira denies that there has been any transfer of power:

Let me be clear about one thing. Legally I am still the manager of both Yaoi House and Yaoi Underground so what I say goes, with regard to my fiction. I have the power not to sign the final contract that would transfer those rights to Harial, which would mean nothing would change with either company and both would remain in my control.

A number of advisors and business partners leave Yaoi House because of, well, the instability. And Kira responds with accusations toward the people who want their refunds and contracts honored. I mean, the nerve of those people.

I admit I’m very angry about this because it’s clear from the posts in this group that people KNEW or at least SUSPECTED I was not in my right mind and yet everyone was proceeding to take away everything I’d worked on for the past few years, in a matter of DAYS. Almost no one here stood up for me and gave me the benefit of the doubt! No one except Esther! You all FUCKING KNOW ME and you KNOW I would never desert you or my stories or these companies! You KNEW that this “Kira Morningstar” was not the same person as “Kira Takenouchi”. And you didn’t even care that I was mad, that I was all alone in the horror of my mind with no one to help me–my shareholders knew I was sick and yet they deserted me, everyone deserted me and just chose to believe the worst, that I’d actually just thrown everything away and walked away. You didn’t stop to think…Okay wait…she’s bipolar…maybe she’s just ill. Let’s give her a chance to come out of this. And then all you cared about was getting your refunds or getting A BOOK with one of my titles on it, written by anyone else under the sun apparently.

On May 8, 2008, Kira seems to have calmed down and wishes her former business partners the best of luck and actually offers up an apology.

I’ll be dismantling the YH subscription site because I suspect all the writers have gone with Harial to her new domain. I hope so. They got the raw end of the shaft, too. I’ll be too busy with my own writing to try and maintain such a subscription site–and I don’t even want to, because it’s Harial’s baby. To be honest I’ll mostly be focusing on my own books now, unless we’ve signed new contracts with authors I’m not aware of. Or if we have, perhaps they can follow Harial. Maybe she’ll
publish print books too.

Harial…I just want to say publicly that I am so sorry for what I put you through

This olive branch is thrown down and trod upon three days later:

In case some of you are unclear about what has happened, Harial has started her own company.

Apparently some of my investors who joined her thought they could secretly keep shares in my companies while they invested in a competing company! They would be privy to my plans which they could then use to their advantage at their company. They apparently also thought they could take my authors, not realizing that the contracts between Yaoi House and its authors are still legal and have not been legally voided by new signed documents. So, for instance, posting Learning to Serve on their site is completely illegal, because a signed contract with Yaoi House is still in effect.

(Um, what about the post that all contracts were voided?)

Other authors are getting threats of legal action if they try to move their works to another subscription service.

Apparently, our contracts are still valid and will be so for two years after we hand in the manuscript. Which goes against what my contract says, but let’s not get into details here. Apparently, what Kira is trying to do is prevent any of the authors to sell the manuscripts or post the stories in question on the new publishing house’s subscription site

It sounds like some Yaoi authors are getting some raw treatment and that Kira Takenouchi is still trying to remain in business. Wonder what ever happened to those unfilled subscription payments?

Dear Author is offering up an ad space for Brenda Novak’s Diabetes Auction. It is a one day auction taking place on May 17, 2008. We are aren’t doing ads, we are just doing it for this charity event (and the winner of DA BWAHA) so it is a unique opportunity.
Amazon readers are still being harassed. Steve Hedge, who just surpassed the 1600 reviewer mark, got the Reba Belle treatment in that all his comments were deleted and he can no longer post reviews. It’s completely unfair.
Carol Stacy, from Romantic Times, says that the complaints are being heard and they are interested in hearing everyone’s opinions. But she would like to remind people that there were several good things about the convention as well.
The romance v. porn debate is going on at Karen Knows Best.
Romance readers and authors are banding together to raise money for the relief of Myanmar.
A new publisher warning is Kira Takenouchi who formed Yaoi House. I’ll post more information tomorrow.

P.S. Happy Mother’s Day
That’s it.

I hadn’t read a contemporary in a while and since I’d been meaning to try one of your books, I picked “Willow Spring.” The second-chance-at-love plot is also a favorite of mine, so with no vampires or werewolves likely to pop up anywhere, I fired this one up on the old Ipaq.

Overall, I think this is a nicely done story. There’s nothing that’s horribly bad, the writing is smooth, the characters are believable and the plot, while nothing new, is standard. Alana Freemont has grown up and matured in the eight years she’s been away from her small hometown in the hill country of Texas. She’s a good mother, a polite woman, excited to see her old friends and concerned that her seven year old daughter is taking the death of Alana’s husband badly. Alana’s hopes that a new place with the possibility of new friends might help Melanie open back up seem well founded. Melanie acts like a child — and I think that’s a good thing. She’s polite to strangers yet can get a little cranky if cooped up inside too long. She’s thrilled about moving to a big ranch, getting a pony and having a pool. I’m not usually keen on lots of scenes with small children yet Melanie charmed me.

I also liked Bill Everly, Alana’s lost love. He was surprised at her return, had to work out his anger and hurt that he thought she’d left him high and dry all those years before yet was more than willing to try for a second chance with the woman he’d never stopped loving nor thinking about. He’s taken the loss of his parent’s wealth well, is a steady worker, wants to make it on his own and has paid his dues by earning his degree part time over the years. He’s also concerned about his sister’s abusive marriage yet is hampered by a restraining order placed by his often drunk brother-in-law. And the boy is good to his momma, which says a lot about what kind of husband he’d be. The only problem I had with him was his way to easy acceptance of the Big Secret that Alana drops on him with only a few pages to go in the book.

Yep, that was a major issue for me. I knew what the secret was. You dropped enough subtle hints throughout the story that it shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone to guess it. And the fact that Alana started up her relationship with Bill, got courted, engaged and the book’s almost over before she finally tells him was ridiculous. She’s already made an attempt to totally manage Bill’s life (which, thank goodness he gently informs her he won’t just give in to) then she avoids this little time bomb for weeks all the while dithering about knowing she should tell him. He’s already mad that she made no attempt to contact him for eight years and then this? I think these two might have some serious issues to deal with in the coming months. And it’s enough of an issue for me to give this story a C grade.

~Jayne

This book can be purchased in trade paperback (expensive) or ebook format (lots cheaper).

Readers, though, the way that I look at it is this: Would the hook itself interest you in reading the book. If yes, what interests you and if not, what would you change to make it more appealing?

***

[date]

[agent address]

Dear [agent name],

I’m seeking representation for a contemporary urban fantasy/paranormal romance, Minotaur. It is a little over 90,000 words.

Ferdinand MacTaurus is a minotaur in search of his cloven roots. He’s looking for his father, Abelard, who’s been missing for years. Stranded during a blizzard, he meets Lilith and Maggie tramping through the snow. They offer him a place to live in exchange for a little light bookkeeping (he’s an accountant with a Harvard degree). Ferdinand’s involvement with Maggie gets him a bit too much in touch with the parts of him that are bull. Their relationship goes through a series of ups and downs as Ferdinand learns to channel his inner animal.

At the same time, Ferdinand’s search for his father has triggered the enmity of powerful people. That, and Lilith’s social activism, leads to Ferdinand being framed for murder. Imprisoned, he is taken off to be tortured, but this final indignity arouses the beast in him, and he fights off his captors. When a tape of the torture session is posted on GrueTube, public opinion turns in his favor. It seems people will overlook the horns and tail, judge him for who he is rather than what he appears to be, and give him a fair shake.

But the forces of evil have rigged the jury. On trial for his life, it looks like he is headed for the Big Barbeque when Abelard MacTaurus returns, armed with a faux leather briefcase and a lot of legal legerdemain. Ferdinand is acquitted when the victim comes back from the dead to testify.

To summarize, this book has a soft core of minotaur romance that is wrapped in darkly satiric shell and sprinkled with crunchy bits of comedy. I think it would appeal to readers who like distinctly different characters and a lighthearted treatment of the paranormal genre.

I’ve lived in Japan, India, Brazil, and Guatemala and have written professional reports while working as an archeologist and marine biologist. Currently I’m writing full time.

If you are interested in Minotaur I can send a synopsis, sample chapters, and/or the whole book. Thank you.

Sincerely,

[my name and address here]

[SASE enclosed]

***

In addition to feedback on the letter, I’m hoping your readers will address whether or not the querying-a-literary-agent is really a viable approach for an unpublished writer with no industry contacts. I’m beginning to think that entering contests and subbing to publishers who consider un-agented work would be more productive. Of the authors who read your blog, I wonder how many got their start with a cold query? If you’d pose that question, I’d be grateful.

***

Interested in participating as an author or an aspiring author? Send your query to jane at dearauthor.com. All queries are kept confidential.

# 99 - Leslie G
# 63 - Laurie
# 42 - Susan G
# 89 - Stacie Mc
# 33 - tammyk

We also gave away two copies of the June Caroline Linden book.Jayne reviewed the book here and one of the previous winners, GrowlyCub, post her review here.

#12 - laura d
#34 - deputman

Please send me your snail mail address right away (jane @ dearauthor.com). Congratulations all.