Cover Art for Cyn Balog's FAIRY LUST & What Grinds My Gears
(Image nicked from here.) Cover art for Cyn Balog's Fairy Lust (September/October/November 2009).
You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?
*When book releases are listed by season. eg Fairy Lust will be out in "Fall 2009". First of all, I'm in the Southern Hemisphere, so listing seasons are relevant, so I convert them to months. But I see their point. UK (and thus Australian) rights may not have been sold. Still shites me.
*When unpublished/uncontracted writers say they're writing a "book". No. You're writing a story. You're writing a novel. You're writing a manuscript. But until you're contracted or published, you're not writing a "book". At least not until you've finished a decent first draft.
*When in interviewers, the interviewer asks the author to "tell us about [insert title here]". At the start of all my interviews, I post the book summaries. If summaries are not available, then of course it makes sense to ask the question. But if the information is readily available, it just comes across as a lazy question. Your readers aren't as dim as you think we are.
*In celebration of the new James Bond book, blog favourite Jeanne C. Stein at Biting Edge found some trivia: For instance, did you know that Ursula Andress and George Lazenby (who, btw, best fits Fleming's physical description of Bond) were both dubbed in their movies? Their accents were considered too hard to understand. I'm not pissed at Jeanne - I'm pissed at film studios who insist on dumbing down their content. I believe that people aren't as stupid as people think we are, but of course there'll always be some bad eggs who'll spoil the whole breakfast. But clearly my knickers are in a knot particularly because I love foreign accents, and don't find them difficult to understand. When the Pope visited the US this year, we got some TV news reports down here syndicated from American TV stations. They subtitled the freaking Pope! And he was speaking ENGLISH! And his words were clearly audible! I'm not much for religion, so I wasn't paying all that much attention to his message, but I could distinguish the words clearly. I reiterate, folks: Audiences are not as stupid as you think we are!