drumroll
One of the things that keeps me from being the Productive Smut-Writing
Citizen I want to be is my predilection for the creation of circular
dependency trees, where doing A requires doing B first, B requires C,
and C demands the prior completion of A.
This week, the mighty bOINGbOING* picked up my homie Balan Nubilis'
essay in this venue from a couple years ago, whence it travelled to
Erosblog, and several smaller venues.
This actually presented me with a bit of a dilemma.
Balan's essay, posted in early '06, concludes with a stirring call to the pornographers of the
world to reach further afield in pursuit of marine invertebrates to
write porn about than the endlessly-recycled cephalopods.
What with one thing, another, and yet another, I didn't actually take up
his challenge until late 2008, when Circlet Press issued its call for
"steampunk" erotica, a solicitation that inspired me to fuse together
several disparate projects from my ideas hopper.
The writing process is like medical soujurns--inexhaustably fascinating
to the one who has experienced its travails, but deathly dull to anyone forced to
endure it second-hand. So I will merely say that I submitted the
long short story (or, according to some, novelette) "The Ontological
Engine, or, The Modern Leda," little enough after deadline, that it
took a relatively modest tantrum to persuade Circlet to accept it
anyway. This post commemorates its submission.
A couple months later, I recieved "unofficial" notice from the editor
that the story had been accepted for their genderqueer anthology "Up for
Grabs," rather than the steampunk one.
A month or so afte that, I recieved my contract, along with word that
UFG was still a couple months from publication.
So exactly when to crow about this here stayed murky, especially since
the publisher asked me to refrain from posting excerpts until it was
available for sale.
So. When I got the influx of BB readers, eager to read up on
lophotrochozoan nookie, I was conflicted--part of me was tempted to
append an announcement of the forthcoming story, another figured that
an ad for a yet-to-be-published pornographic e-book would be considerably more
annoying to readers than useful.
AND THEN I got word that Circlet was gonna do some public readings, in
which I might be invited to participate. More stuff to announce...but not yet.
So I sort of sat there vibrating through all this, waiting for something more to happen, that would collapse the whole loop.
* I liked it back when it was cool, and have the old pre-web print zines
and RIOTNRRD t-shirt to prove it.
(why the icon, I hear you cry. Well, my sweetie made it for me in mid-December, and, like a dork, I never actually posted anything during that months. I figure if stores can start their Christmas sales in September, I can damn well use my Rudolph icon through the end of January)
ETA: Did I mention the anthologies in question are all e-books? It looks like I didn't. Well, they are.
Citizen I want to be is my predilection for the creation of circular
dependency trees, where doing A requires doing B first, B requires C,
and C demands the prior completion of A.
This week, the mighty bOINGbOING* picked up my homie Balan Nubilis'
essay in this venue from a couple years ago, whence it travelled to
Erosblog, and several smaller venues.
This actually presented me with a bit of a dilemma.
Balan's essay, posted in early '06, concludes with a stirring call to the pornographers of the
world to reach further afield in pursuit of marine invertebrates to
write porn about than the endlessly-recycled cephalopods.
What with one thing, another, and yet another, I didn't actually take up
his challenge until late 2008, when Circlet Press issued its call for
"steampunk" erotica, a solicitation that inspired me to fuse together
several disparate projects from my ideas hopper.
The writing process is like medical soujurns--inexhaustably fascinating
to the one who has experienced its travails, but deathly dull to anyone forced to
endure it second-hand. So I will merely say that I submitted the
long short story (or, according to some, novelette) "The Ontological
Engine, or, The Modern Leda," little enough after deadline, that it
took a relatively modest tantrum to persuade Circlet to accept it
anyway. This post commemorates its submission.
A couple months later, I recieved "unofficial" notice from the editor
that the story had been accepted for their genderqueer anthology "Up for
Grabs," rather than the steampunk one.
A month or so afte that, I recieved my contract, along with word that
UFG was still a couple months from publication.
So exactly when to crow about this here stayed murky, especially since
the publisher asked me to refrain from posting excerpts until it was
available for sale.
So. When I got the influx of BB readers, eager to read up on
lophotrochozoan nookie, I was conflicted--part of me was tempted to
append an announcement of the forthcoming story, another figured that
an ad for a yet-to-be-published pornographic e-book would be considerably more
annoying to readers than useful.
AND THEN I got word that Circlet was gonna do some public readings, in
which I might be invited to participate. More stuff to announce...but not yet.
So I sort of sat there vibrating through all this, waiting for something more to happen, that would collapse the whole loop.
* I liked it back when it was cool, and have the old pre-web print zines
and RIOTNRRD t-shirt to prove it.
(why the icon, I hear you cry. Well, my sweetie made it for me in mid-December, and, like a dork, I never actually posted anything during that months. I figure if stores can start their Christmas sales in September, I can damn well use my Rudolph icon through the end of January)
ETA: Did I mention the anthologies in question are all e-books? It looks like I didn't. Well, they are.