Library Card Gifts

Apparently, Zazzle is hosting a contest of sorts to show off their die cut invitations (Which are not invitations etched onto 20 sided die. Unfortunately).

I ignore those e-mails typically, but as I looked at their die-cut examples an idea popped into my head. (I later learned that the finalists get decided through a pinterest popularity contest so I don't stand a snowball's chance in phoenix.)

The template was surprisingly easy to create. It's recognizable to those older than 25 and has a vintage hipster vibe for the typewriter crowd.

As you can tell by the names on the card, I wasn't taking it all seriously. Even assassinos need Save The Date cards. But I came to like the template so much I wondered how it would look on other things.

A whole lot of other things.

A light switch cover for your library!

 A pillow for your napping library bed (people have those, right?)

And a t-shirt for wearing. What else are ya gonna do with a t-shirt?

But what makes it really fun is that I did all the customizing work for you. All you have to do is head to the site, put in your favorite book and author, add in a few made up dates and you can have any of those objects personalized to your reading taste. The possibilities are endless.

If you know a librarian or book reading friend, this would make a good gift, assuming they're not naked Morlocks who recline upon rocks. If they are, you might want to get them an Eloi giftbasket instead.

I am not a prize to be won!

Once again, a man has decided that rather than it somehow being his own fault that women of the world will not throw themselves upon his feet, it's the fault of 51% of the population. And, he took it to the point that he would rather slaughter innocents than face up to his own shortcomings.

This is a tale that's been told over, and over, and over, and over again.

"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them." 
--Margret Atwood

And once again, people are racing to find excuses for this monster. Oh he's mentally ill, he's not really a representative of the PUA/MRA asshole community, it's all a false flag. He probably wanted to kill men as well. He was attacking the privileged society in general.

People don't want to do the hard work to change things. They want to bury it in a shallow grave and forget it ever occurred until the next one occurs. Because it will happen again as long as women are treated like the toy in the happy meal, the prize in the crackerjack box, the guarantee any man has for being born with a Y chromosome.

Men, you're not entitled to sex, or a relationship, or even a fucking smile. We're not here for you.

And yet, one needs barely look at media to see the same story told over and over again. The men are the ones who save the galaxy, the women are the gift they're given for fulfilling their prophecy. Women are only put into mainstream books, movies or tv to be the one relationship, the one guarantee that the hero, no matter how much of a raging asshole or completely undeserving person he is, will get her.

And why? Not because he's a good person, kind to animals, shares the woman's same interests and is attractive? No! It's because he's the guy! And by dint of his penis, he deserves her. That's the way it's always been.

Women aren't people. They're a bundle of hair, and soft skin, and fatty tissue in the right areas that only exist at the whims of the men around them. Admitting they're thinking and feeling human beings with their own voice would alter the course of society.

A society that thinks women's work is worth 77 cents on a man's dollar.

A society that thinks women's health and the right to choose if and when they have a pregnancy is not her right.

A society that thinks rape is something women make up and even then it isn't that big of a deal.

A society that thinks a woman's voice is as worthless as a drink of water in a rainstorm.

Trying to change that is scary and too much work. It's easier to maintain the status quo and occasionally act shocked when once again a man decides he deserves women to the point of kidnapping and holding them in his basement for decades. Promptly forgetting it ever happened a few weeks later is far easier than trying for change. 

The old deflections are already rearing their head. Not all men murder women because they won't sleep with them. No, but enough men do. Enough men think they have the right to end the life of anyone who they perceived to rebuff them, enough men think they have the right to fuck any woman they want, enough men think they have the right to whistle and catcall any woman they want, enough men think they have the right to demand a smile from any woman they want. Enough men do all this that women spend their entire lives learning how to deflect, how to prepare, how to fight off all this bullshit just so they can get through their day.

Women are taught how to not get raped instead of men being taught not to rape. Because some men will always rape, is the argument of why. Because some men will always kill women, so why bother trying to stop that? Once again, blaming the victim for existing is easier than trying to alter the idea that men deserve that vagina.

I'm sure billions of words will be spilled blaming the PUA culture, or the MRAs,  or even women for being too picky about who they spend their time with; trying to compartmentalize it all down to "Someone Else's Problem" as if there aren't a million little boys taught that they're better than girls just because. That they deserve this or that, that they're the saviors of the world because they have a penis, and that penis means they're rewarded whatever vagina they want.

Because this will happen again, over and over, until we stop treating over half of the population like an aberration on the default setting of human.

Launch Day!

It's finally here, the day I've been putting off like crazy. The official everyone please go buy my book, please oh please!

To celebrate, the ebook version originally $4.99 is only $2.99 today. 

Available at amazon.

I also have TerraFae free for a week. It sort of fills in some history left a bit vague in The King's Blood that only a fanatic would care about.

And finally, if you want to feel the actual spider smashing sized book in your hands, you can enter to win a free copy from Goodreads. I have no say in who gets chosen, so you can't blame me.

Giveaway to enter

Now, dump the boiling oil on the Visigoths! Or, are we not doing that? Fine!

Bloghopping

I flamed out, tumbled off a cliff, and exploded at the bottom of a ravine a few weeks ago about book marketing. (A week of nothing but rejection will do that) But with that magic launch date looming it seemed a good time to re-energize and talk about that writing stuff. (Don't worry, I've put some fun pictures in to pass the time if the words are boring)

Kris Silva sent me one of those author chain letters that are less about how eating this one food will travel back in time and kill your grandmother and more about the process. So away we go.

1. What am I working on?

I'm in the midst of the research, plotting, sitting around daydreaming stage of a novel novel idea I have (ba-dum-tish). After plumbing the depths of fantasy, then YA fantasy, then sci-fi fantasy I decided to stick with what I knew best and jump to an historical fiction idea.

To give the roughest of sketches, the setting is in 1500 Granada, Spain right after the end of the reconquista when the final vestiges of Islam were kicked out by Isabella and Ferdinand. Right around the time when the ghettos and inquisition started up.

But it's also a chance to tell the tale of a roguish highwayman, a morally grey robin hood of sorts, who's actually a highway woman. She's been hiding as a man for years so she can operate her little den of miscreants to raise coin. Never one to tread in politics or join a cause, she is swept up into the riots boiling through Granada.

The nice thing about a historical piece is that, instead of having to come up with food choices/culture/holidays everything that makes a setting, I can just research them. The bad thing is that I lose myself chasing down answers that may no longer exist. Trying to find maps, recreate mosques long torn down and built over with cathedrals; I'm not certain which horse is the prettier color at this point.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Assuming fantasy genre since the historical fiction is little more than a gleam in my brain stem, the satire comes to mind. If there is a trope or cliche, I will pick on it. I like to think of it as loving, but I probably ruffle a lot of feathers with it.

I use fantasy a bit differently than others. For some it's an excuse to make a world where up is down and birds are our masters and overlords. I like to tweak an expectation, a norm in culture and see what havoc that wreaks on my characters. It's all about messing with the characters. I'm so god awful at plots, but I do love making some twisted and complicated characters.

3. Why do I write what I do?

Oh crap, I think I already covered this. I didn't read ahead, I swear!

Human foibles fascinate me so. I want to know why people do what they do, what drives them. And if I can throw a dragon or two in while they're having an existential crisis about accepting the unforgiving role of hero or fallen savior, all the better. (Note, I will never actually write a dragon story. To me, sending in a few soldiers to fight a dragon is comparable to five people armed with sticks attacking an aircraft carrier. I don't see anyone getting out of that alive.)

Fantasy and sci-fi are the perfect arenas for playing. It's much easier to alter a society to fit your themes than to try and mine it in some obscure setting in the real world. Also, cell phones ruin everything.

4. How does my writing process work?

That implies that it does, in fact, work. Let's see, I begin with an idea. Usually it's a small scene of two people having a conversation, reaction, or fight. I do a lot of action scenes in my head because when in doubt, stab someone. That idealet blooms as I chase after why someone would act that way, what would push someone to make that choice, what consequences are there for the actions.

Then I start to fill in those pesky plot details, finding the beats for action and respite, pick a setting; all the dressing for the side of the character salad.

Trolling baby name websites is one of the important stages. I suck at naming things, characters will go through multiple options before I pick something. Even then, names can change on a dime. Originally, Aldrin was named Andrin - a real name - but it took maybe a chapter before his name altered in my brain. It has to zing, has to flow from the tongue. I'm very much in favor of you need to be able to pronounce whatever crazy fantasy names you make up for something, unless that's the joke.

After that, it's just scooping out all the ideas in my brain and ladling them across the page. Maybe then making a gravy to go with.

Now to pick some people to get to dance to my bidding. Mwhahaha.

I believe I shall begin with Tony Noland. Author of a superhero novel where they use grammar powers to fight! (so cliché) and tweeter friend.

Monica Marier, who's still working on that Linus book we're all waiting for. Patiently. *hide the pitchforks guys*

Mandaray, another twitter friend I forced to read and review my book.

And finally, Brian Schwarz, a fellow winner in the WriMo contest who has a dystopian sci-fi thriller dropping soon. 

You all get to answer those same questions I did, then find four new people to infect with the virus. Fly my pretties!

We'll be fine

Because drag racing and smoking are passe, the olds need something new to freak about that all the kids are doing to destroy society.

Technology's always been a favorite sticking point. Change is scary and humans would dig nails deep in until blood dribbles down rather than adapt. Enter this meme:

Never mind that in order for someone to take that picture they also had to be ignoring their companions, because who cares about logic. This is all about outrage!

What do you think the chances are that right after that picture was snapped, some of the people would turn to their companions, share a video or picture they found, laugh together over an e-mail, or inform someone of the bad news they were waiting on?

Pictures lie. We want to pretend they don't because they build such a beautiful, easy to manipulate narrative. But one second taken of crowds of people could mean anything. Take that first image. Where some would rather see a bunch of people sitting at a table ignoring their "frens?" "ferns?" (I have no idea what the hell a fren is. Is it a frenemy?) I see four very stressed out people who seem to be watching their phones for bad news.

Perhaps they learned that a friend of theirs in another part of the world is caught in the middle of a terrible storm and they're glued to look for any updates. Or they're sitting pins and needles to hear that a relative survived a surgery. You do not know. I do not know. That's how easily pictures can be flipped and used for someone's angle.

The narrative would rather people return to the good ol' days, when sharing information was so much slower and controlled by those who got to say who is and is not an idiot. Amazing how often those people declared non idiots were straight white males.

Should we go back to the pony express as well? Or perhaps give up all mail services and rely upon some wandering merchant to pass your letters if she gets out that way? Can't ignore your friends around you for someone else you never speak to anymore because they moved two towns down.

Humans love interacting, they need companionship and groups. If they didn't we'd all have cool stripes and be tigers. So when you see another "OH MY GOD, NO ONE TALKS ANYMORE AND IT'S RUINING SOCIETY!" meme, calm down.

We'll be fine.

Edited to Add: I didn't touch the stupid idea of Einstein even saying that because it was so ludicrous to begin with. He was afraid of technology, specifically the atomic bomb that he helped to create. That seemed to do a shit ton more damage than a cell phone.