Lilith Saintcrow

I was up at 6 this morning (don’t ask) and haven’t slowed down since. So, my brain is tired and you get link salad instead of coherence. It’s barely noon and I can’t wait to crawl back into bed tonight. I was not made for mornings, guys. I just wasn’t.

So, link salad!

* A great NYT article on female desire. (Hat tip to Violet Blue.)

* Falconesse with the math behind Harlequin’s vanity press: how many books you’d have to sell to break even, hidden costs, and the like. Recommended reading for anyone who wants to self-publish, vanity publish, or get published.

* Patrick Stewart (yes, THAT Patrick Stewart, my favorite shiny-headed captain) on domestic violence. This hit home for me, hard.

* Monica Valentinelli on Too Much Free.

On another note: the latest Jill Kismet, Flesh Circus, is just out a few days ago, and I ran across a torrenting site this morning where people were putting up requests to have it torrented. Guys, I’m glad you like the books. Really, I am. I’m thrilled.

But stealing from me, by torrenting my work, makes it harder for me to make a living writing those stories you love. That means less stories for you. Cut it out.

I mean, I can always find another job. One I might not love as much, true, but I can always find another one. It’s the readers who will miss out on the stories they love–yes, even those readers who trumpet that they SHOULD get the books for free, for a variety of woolly-headed inaccurate reasons that boil down to cheapness and entitlement. I like what Mike Briggs has to say about this–he goes through and destroys those arguments one by one.

It’s frustrating to me that the book is just out and already several someones are looking to steal it. Human nature being what it is, I’m not surprised. I’m just…frustrated. And disappointed.

Over and out.

You can win a copy of Strange Angels over at the Library Lounge Lizard. (Just one of those sentences I never thought I’d type. Wow.)

Really I am very boring today. There is not much to report. So here, have a few links:

* The Symphony of Science, or Carl Sagan rocks the Universe. The videos made me cry. We do indeed live on a wondrous planet in the middle of a wondrous universe. Anyone who is bored has only to look at their own hand, or barring that, out their window. There is stuff to be interested in all over.

* Maria Geraci on “why read things that offend you?” Here’s the germ of it:

I guess what I’m trying to say is that stories are about real people. And real people (especially single men and women in their 20’s and 30’s and beyond) have sex, occasionally cuss and do other assorted things/behaviors that you’d find in any movie/TV series out there. Here’s another big shocker: Teenagers also have sex and use profanity! Maria Geraci

* Hivelogic’s Podcast Equipment Guide. I keep thinking I’ll do some podcasting one of these days, maybe when the kids are in school and I have some time and quiet.

Yeah, time and quiet. Why are you laughing? It could happen.

* Kit Whitfield, on how submissions are like dating. Hilarious, and full of no-nonsense advice and information.

You say: ‘I know you don’t usually accept unsolicited manuscripts, but please, just have a look at this.’
Dating equivalent: ‘I know you’re married, but please, just go out with me once.’ Kit Whitfield

*snort* *giggle* *choke* *guffaw*

In other news, I’m thinking of putting together a new section for the website, where I’ll list the “soundtracks” to all the books. It will be a Project, and an enjoyable one. Once I finish the current Jill book (hit 50K last night, huzzah!) I’ll look into that. If, of course, there’s interest. Would anyone care to hear about the songs I put together for, say, the Valentine series? The Watcher books didn’t get a soundtrack, but pretty much everything else has. Drop me a line in the comments if you’d be interested in that section on the site, mmmkay?

Last but not least: Tzia, thanks for pointing out I’d forgotten to link to Borders. I’ve fixed that. And to Maria from Russia, thank you for your kind letter. It is very good to know one’s work has made someone else happy. I don’t mind your questions, even though I can’t answer a lot of them–I am just thrilled that you’ve read the books so deeply as to have those questions. Thank you very much.

And now I bid you a civil adieu. I’ve got Perry strapped into an iron frame and Jill standing there with a flechette. Methinks this is about to get interesting.

Five things make a post this Monday.

* I believe I have an essay in an upcoming SmartPop anthology from BenBella Books. It’s titled Ardeur: Unauthorized Essays On Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. And it’s available for preorder on Amazon now. (Hat tip to Literary Escapism, I almost forgot about this essay.)

* I’ve taken to wearing hoop earrings again. They make me feel quite gypsy. It’s a shame I can’t wear gold.

* It’s getting awful close to the release date for Betrayals, the second Strange Angels book. I’m so damn busy I haven’t had my usual case of release nerves yet. Watch, now that I’ve said that they’ll show up and give me huge jitters.

* I’ve been reading The Luck Factor lately, and doing the exercises. That is, by the way, my problem with most self-help books, or more precisely the way most people tend to use self-help books–no real effort is required of the reader, so one gets an ersatz jolt and things one’s done actual work. But I digress.

Wiseman makes the interesting point that lucky people are persistent because they expect things to turn out well. In particular, he talks about people who win a lot of Internet and mail-in contests. Several of them say “if you don’t enter, you can’t win,” and point out that they spend time doing this and enter a lot of the contests. This is very similar to what I call my shotgun theory of publishing–keep submitting different things to people, and sooner or later someone will like something in your work enough to publish it. However, if you do not submit or you only flog one manuscript, you significantly lower your chances of getting initially or consistently published. It was (I won’t lie) gratifying to find this principle applied in other areas.

* I’m still in the phase of The Book That Will Not Die, in Heaven’s Spite. But we’re coming up on the last third of the book, so I can look forward to a brainbusting gallop to the end if I can just get through this bit. *crosses fingers* If I can just get us to the showdown in time…

A few more things, since I’m still tender today.

* Luck is a skill. This makes sense–the luckier I feel, the luckier I am. Maybe I should grab Wiseman’s book and give it a go. It’d be better than sitting around feeling unloved, unwanted, and waaaaaaaah. (Much better.)

* Martha Beck on who to trust. This article made SO MUCH SENSE to me. In a “why didn’t I think of it this way before?” way.

* How the books we save for posterity get selected.

So, today, an experiment. I’m going to focus on being lucky. I’ll tell you how it works out tomorrow.

ETA: I did get the best pictures up from the shooting expedition the other night. Here they are.

* There’s an interview with me up over at Books Obsession. Go show ‘em some love, if you can.

* I am currently obsessed with Girl Genius. Fiction saves lives, and online steampunk graphic fiction not only saves lives but does it with style. I don’t know how I’d've gotten through the last couple days without it.

* It’s been a terrifically windy day, more storms on the way, and a huge chunk of a tree down the street fell and spread all over the road. I love the wind, but I’m eyeing the pines across the street nervously. When I get to feeling bad, standing outside in the wind helps.

* Low-down blue day today. Getting better as night rises. I’m taking my supplements, exercising, trying to focus one moment at a time. But Jesus. The human heart is a rum piece of work if it can stand this sort of strain and keeps going back to it. Still, I’m better than I was two weeks ago. That’s something, right? Right?

* I know where the current book ends. I’m just in the second third of the book, where getting there is a slog comparable to the goddamn Pilgrim’s effing Progress. Up one hill, down one Slough of Despond, up another hill…it’s enough to make me wish for an army of robot gnomes to start my plot of world domination.

And that is five things, which makes a post. Thank you. I’ll be here all week. No applause, just throw cash…