Violetta Vane > Recent Status Updates

I'm in awe of how Morgan writes action, and actually learned to write it myself by studying him down to the sentence level. This is a unique, cool series. BUT. As with the previous one, I don't really like the main characters. Gay, straight or lesbian, they're all Too Old For This Shit and complain about it constantly. Looks like there'll be a lot of rape, too, ugh, but it's not eroticized & happens to both sexes.

The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod/Jeff Vandermeer: Weirdness A, Prose Density A, Swashbuckling A, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness A. Great women characters, deep themes, creepy-ass monsters and gorgeous prose. Favorite so far.

The Green Bird/Kage Baker. Weirdness C, Prose Density C, Swashbuckling A, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness A. A comic story with a sense of humor that didn't grab me. Still very well done.

My first blog post is up today at the new group blog, LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers. Check it out if you like Game of Thrones. Or even if you hate it! It's a discussion of Renly/Loras and there are already a lot of interesting comments. http://lgbtfantasyfansandwriters.word...

Finished in the waiting room! Brilliant voice, awesomely original story. Structurally maddening >: Overall super enjoyable. Will write full review later.

I liked it, and then I didn't like it... now I like it again. Very unique and loads of fun! Don't know when I will finish due to editing deadline, but looking forward to it.

I just can't deal with this anymore. DNF.

I'm having a really hard time with this book and I might not finish reading it. The style of sex writing doesn't suit my tastes at all.

As done as I can be with a book that doesn't have an end and never will!

"David?"

"Yes."

"How are you girl?"

"I'm fine."

I want to go a convention like the RWA so I can have literary conversations just like this one:

"You know, I liked the book. Has it done well?"

"It's done pretty well."

"It moved me very deeply," the Colonel said. "You're a deceptive son of a bitch."

"So are you, John."

"I hope so," the Colonel said.

David is okay with private gender fluidity but flips when it's taken into the public sphere.

"I have a wonderful surprise for myself for tomorrow. I'm going to the Prado in the morning and see all the pictures as a boy."

"I give up," David said.

"I never wanted to be a painter nor a writer until I came to this country. Now it's just like being hungry all the time and there's nothing you can ever do about it."

"The country is here. You don't have to do anything about it. It's always here. The Prado's here," David said.

"There's nothing except through yourself," she said. "And I don't want to die and it be gone."

The dude is a bit ambivalent about all the fingerbanging but he's warming up to the incest roleplay.

I was very young and totally missed the fingerbanging the first time I read this book. Here 'tis:

He lay there and felt something and then her hand holding him and searching lower and he helped with his hands and then lay back in the dark and did not think at all and only felt the weight and the strangeness inside and she said, "Now you can't tell who is who can you?"

"You see," she said. "That's the surprise. I'm a girl. But now I'm a boy too and I can do anything and anything and anything."

In the cafe he found the paper and ordered himself a fine à l'eau because he felt empty and hollow from making love.

"I have these flashes of intuition," he said. "I'm the inventive type."

"I'm the destructive type," she said. "And I'm going to destroy you. They'll put a plaque up on the wall of the building outside the room. I'm going to wake up in the night and do something to you that you've never heard of or imagined. I was going to last night but I was too sleepy."

The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod/Jeff Vandermeer: Weirdness A, Prose Density A, Swashbuckling A, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness A. Great women characters, deep themes, creepy-ass monsters and gorgeous prose. Favorite so far.

The Green Bird/Kage Baker. Weirdness C, Prose Density C, Swashbuckling A, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness A. A comic story with a sense of humor that didn't grab me. Still very well done.

No more dancing around this. "Jap" is a racial slur and I'm so fucking sick of it being used for cheap historical flavor. Second paragraph of the first page of this book? JAPS. JAPS JAPS JAPS. I get slapped in the face with this word every other time I pick up a fucking book.

There are writers I know are good in this anthology, so I'm going to take a breather and keep going after skipping the first story.

Abrizonde/Walter Jon Williams: Weirdness B, Prose Density A, Swashbuckling B, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness A. Awesome mechanicals! One of my favorite writers does not disappoint. Ending is a bit flat, so not perfect.

The Traditions of Karzh/Paula Volksy. Weirdness A, Prose Density B, Swashbuckling A, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness B. Fantastic and fast-paced. The pelgrane was genuinely scary.

The Copsy Door/Terry Dowling: Weirdness B, Prose Density B, Swashbuckling C, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness D. Great tone, but a bit predictable.

Caulk the Witch-Chaser/Liz Williams: Weirdness C, Prose Density D, Swashbuckling C, Vance-Fidelity C, Trickiness B. The prose was a bit dull, but nice creepy ending!

Inescapable/Mike Resnick: Weirdness C, Prose Density C, Swashbuckling B, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness C

I'm going to try to grade all of these stories! Just a couple for now; will save most for the review proper. I do love this book.

- The True Vintage of Erzuine Thale/Robert Silverberg: Weirdness A, Prose Density A, Swashbuckling C, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness C

- Grolion of Almery / Matthew Hughes: Weirdness B, Prose Density B, Swashbuckling A, Vance-Fidelity A, Trickiness B

Good stuff but damn slow going. Must. Exercise. Brain-Meat. More. Plus.... research!

I was annoyed at the "all Asians hate the Church because ancestor worship" thing. Then a character uses the word J*p... and an in-narrative recognition that it's a racial slur immediately follows. THIS IS RIDICULOUSLY, PATHETICALLY RARE... AND I LOVE YOU FOR IT STACIA KANE!!! YOU GOT ME BACK! (so sick of seeing this word sprinkled around for flavor like it's nothing)

OMFG this is so goth it hurts. Terrible = Glenn Danzig - 30 years + 14 inches.

A couple quibbles, but the sex and the writing style are fantastic.

Got distracted and forgot what I was supposed to update about... our Love is Always Write story is now posted! EPUB up soon.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/8...

Obscure historical setting. Intermittently dead/invisible MCs. Told in 1PP (a first for us). Damn, I love this story :-D OK no more updates for a while.

Woke up still angry this morning about the story in Michigan, where a woman lawmaker was censored for saying the dreaded word "vagina". The Republicans can legislate it, tell women what to do with it... but they can't SAY IT??? I have a vagina and it's not a dirty word. VAGINA. VAGINA. ARRRGH.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2...

Thoughtful, but disturbing, interracial/class exploration.

So far this is absolutely excellent writing.