Miscellanea

[frogs_of_war]

 I read (listened to) a book this week with a stalker as the male lead: Murder in Thrall by Anne Cleeland. The main character is a first year cop in London and her boss (DCI?) is a well breed (repressed) Lord. She is a huge enough character (and interesting in all the right ways) that she can carry the story. It's all from her POV except for a

Comments

[2metaldog]

Funny you mention a publisher for that piece. Torquere Press (my publisher) does take all manner of sexuality. However, in a recent discussion on the TQ author page, apparently trans/het doesn't sell well comparatively speaking. I'm not trying to discourage you, but it's good to know the market and what does/doesn't sell as this will affect whether or not a publisher offers to publish a story.

I have a story currently published with TQ that features a hermaphrodite that identifies as male (Misu has male and female sex organs but no breasts to speak of and is androgynous enough to be mistaken for a pretty man/woman depending on how he's dressed). The Dragon's Muse has okay sales, but does a LOT less than some of my other titles.

Published works are also touchier about things that are very unusual like... tentacles, animal parts (genuine, not shifters) and the like so you may want to be aware of that, too.

[frogs_of_war]

It could all be genre. I started writing this years ago before the characters first showed up in the last long story I wrote. I should have just posted it at the same time. Lavender feels she isn't good enough which makes me want to root for her even more than I would for any other character. My genderless character doesn't care what other people think of nem

[2metaldog]

TQ did publish a short I wrote called Promenade A Deux which has one of the mains, El-Ashir, as a Gen-Mod. He is 50% deathstalker scorpion, 25% fire ant and 25% human. He has 4 arms (2 body-builder type upper arms and 2 regular typep lower arms) and a scorpion's tail as well as multi-faceted eyes like an insect. His lover is the head "bug guy" at the military facility and he is entirely human. Sales were disappointingly low although everybody who read it really enjoyed it. I have it posted to my author LJ now that the rights have reverted back to me

[frogs_of_war]

That sounds like an interesting character. Would you mind if I printed off some of your stories? That way I could read them while my family hijacks my computer to watch TV shows/Movies at night. I spent over an hour trying to find something to do this evening. I regretted not printing out something of mine to edit, although I did get all the dishes washed and the laundry folded, but I would have enjoyed reading more. I really have to get a way to write not on my computer.

How does one get to be 50% mollusk, 25% fish, and 25% mammal? Gen-Mod stands for Genetic Modification? Their choice or their parents'? And why (socially, financially, environmentally, etc) choose it?

How much effort do you put into stories that you can't sell? Has your attitude to such stories changed since you've gotten published? What about to writing in general? Does it feel like a job or just writing with a different reward?

[charisstoma]

Doesn't Less than three press do GLBT and Torquere Press?

I missed a chapter didn't I or was it more than one? *cringes*

[frogs_of_war]

I might look into it. I guess LT3 is looking for trans stories.

Two. But I guess I'm feeling prickly about this because 1) I really like the character, 2) Lavender doesn't think she's as good as everyone else and this just feeds into that, and 3) because I have the first bit of the next story written and ideas for either one or two more (depending on whether they have one for their wedding or if it just gets referenced in the one when Diego's mother drops the babies off on them and Lavender needs to decide if she's willing to come out for those kids from For an Uninterrupted Date now that no one would ever question the F on her ID card).

[mell8]

Trans fiction isn't my cup of tea, so I admit I haven't been reading BMQ. I'm sure it's a wonderful story though! Sometimes writing isn't about pleasing your readers or how many comments you get. It's a personal journey. Write what makes you happy.

LT3 does publish all GLBT and they're really pushing Trans fiction at the moment. You should check out their current collection call: http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/collection-calls/#geek

[frogs_of_war]

I would like it to be. I wrote for three years before I posted my work anywhere. But now that I've gotten feedback, I've become kind of addicted. I don't always write for the most comment although I did one story precisely to see what got views. The come down once that story was over was sad, but a learning experience. I'll move on. I'm just not at the point that I can put something up that I know won't get attention.

Thanks for the link.

[moonlily42]

Hey :) i just wanted to say that im really enjoying reading Be My Queen and i'm sorry for not frequently leaving comments or reviews to tell you this! I'll definitely try to be better about that because i know you write what you want to write but also getting feedback and encouragement is important to keep up the morale and everything lol I think you are a very good writer and i've enjoyed everything i've read by you so thank you for putting it up on sites like this and fictionpress so we can read it

[frogs_of_war]

Thank you. I know most people don't comment. I haven't been commenting much recently, so who am I to talk. Thanks for the encouragement.

That happened to me as well, but then someone pointed out that Google's spam filter was eating FP's email. I looked and there the last month of them were. The FP do not replay address has to be added to contacts or something.

Gestures is coming along fine, but since characters change personalities whenever I rewrite, I'm worried that Colt is now too into Lion and Python (they are about to meet Orion). I've been taking deep breaths and moving on. Every time I've rewritten a story, I've liked the characters better in the new version, but I still freak out while in process. Of course sometimes I've had to rewrite more the once... *shudders*

[elizaben]

Personally I haven't commented on "Queen" because I haven't yet read the story. I'm waiting for some chapters more before I start.
Regarding the comments, I think that you should try using AO3 more as it seems that FP is steadily losing readership. Also, in AO3 people can leave kudos, which show that the story was read and appreciated.

Het/trans will have fewer readers but they will need the story more. There are really few of these stories, so if it's what you want to write I think you should do it. Just my opinion, of course.

I hope you're welll.

[frogs_of_war]

I do like AO3's kudos. I put up a few stories. I need to get the rest of them over.

I'm going to wait to post more BMQ until I see if anyone will publish it. LT3 has a call out for stories with trans characters. I thought I'd give it a try.

In the mean time I've posted Trifecta, a triple slash story.

I do have a few more trans stories, one het one slash. I hope to get around to them, but I'm about to hit very full weeks at work and I'm still in the middle of rewriting Gestures (33k in), which is taking up all my free time.