Tempting Tasty Tidbits Anyone?

Even though I enjoy watching programs like "Top Chef", I'm not in any way a gourmand. I'm very basic about what I cook and what I eat, and more chocolate is better than less. When in doubt, add bacon. So this week's topic isn't too near and dear to my heart. I honestly don't recall ever being reduced to hunger pangs by a description of any foodstuff in a book.

I remember that the Nero Wolfe detective series featured a lot of fine dining, the allegedly perfect scrambled eggs and a lot of orchids (to admire, not to eat). There was even a Nero Wolfe cookbook issued, I now find out.

I used to really enjoy the Diane Mott Davidson Goldy Schultz mystery series, about a caterer who split her time between the kitchen and crime scenes. No criticism of the series intended - I just drifted away from reading mysteries at some point.

(Interesting that the only books which came immediately to mind as having food are murder mysteries. Hmmm.)

Can I be really candid? If someone includes recipes in their novels, I skip that part. I appreciate their efforts but I'm not going to be making any dishes after I finish the book. I admire people who do, everyone has their own hobbies and fun things, and cooking isn't for me.

I tried to find a passage in one of my own novels where I'd discussed food in more than a sentence or two in passing....this excerpt toward the end of Escape From Zulaire (on sale for $.99!) was about the best I could do. Andi, the heroine is speaking:

“What time is it?”

“Still the middle of the night, I fear. Come, I have some food if you’re hungry.” Rahuna walked over to the couch.

“Starved. You must be my guardian angel.” When was the last time I ate? “Any coffee?”

Rahuna tugged her to her feet with elaborate caution while she clutched at her side. Matching his steps to her halting pace, he supported her as she hobbled out of the office. She picked the closest chair at the first table in the restaurant. Like a waiter at a fancy restaurant, Rahuna pulled the seat out for her with a flourish. “There’s coffee. The soldiers said since this was our last stop before the capi­tal, we might as well finish the supply. I saved two cups for you.”

Before she could thank him, Rahuna hurried out, returning with a large tray from which he spread a bountiful meal for her, including an omelet, fruit, breads, preserves as well as the promised coffee.

“Where did all this come from?” she asked around a mouthful of fruit.

“South Amri was abandoned by its owners in a great hurry. The power was still on when we arrived. There’s a big generator out back, behind the buildings. Corporal Rogers wouldn’t let us use many lights when we got here, but we were able to cook. Well, I was able to cook.”

Andi took a bite of the omelet, which was tasty and, although not hot any longer, still warm enough to eat. “Where is everyone?” Taking some of the toast, she made a sandwich with the omelet in the middle and munched happily.

“Lysanda and the boy are asleep in a small, private dining room over there.” Rahuna pointed vaguely to the other side of the restaurant. “She wasn’t comfortable to be left alone in this big, open space. Abukawal is on guard on the roof, watching the off-ramp. The soldiers are outside behind the restaurant, working on the truck and the other vehicle you brought in.”

“It was Gul Tonkiln’s car.” I still can’t believe he might be dead. Assaulted by memories and the pang of sorrow, Andi closed her eyes for a moment. Yet another person who didn’t deserve to die in this insane Clan war.

“Andi?” Rahuna laid his hand over hers. “Come back from wherever your mind is roaming.” He handed her another triangle of toast. “It would seem Lord Tonkiln has lost his firstborn, as well as the others who perished at the summer compound.” Voice low and hushed, he said, “Tonkiln’s paid a high price for refusing to take the early warnings seriously.”

“You don’t think there’s a chance the rebels might be holding Gul for ransom?” Appetite gone, Andi set the toast down, untouched.

Rahuna shook his head, lips pursed, eyebrows drawn together. “This doesn’t seem to be the rebels’ pattern. I fear poor Gul has passed to the next world, murdered no doubt. I continue to give thanks to Sanenre your captain intervened on my behalf, to spare me a similar fate.”

“Mmm, my captain.” Andi felt like purring. “Has Tom said what he’s planning to do now? How do we get to the capital from here?”

Picking up a ripe fruit and contemplating its bruised skin, Rahuna shook his head. “Not to me. He and his men have been modifying the two vehicles. The captain wouldn’t even take time to eat, nor let the sergeant have a break. I brought them food out back, in the garage. The men gulped bites here and there as they worked. So, I believe we’re going to take the vehicles.” Rahuna bit into the fruit and munched on it, giving a small sigh. “The comlink here at the station was inoperable, by the way. A severe disappointment to the captain. Rogers said several vital parts were missing.”

“Tom hoped to call for an air evac.” Andi sipped her coffee then devoured the last two bites of her omelet, which now tasted like cardboard. 

The story:

Andi Markriss hasn’t exactly enjoyed being the houseguest of the planetary high-lord, but her company sent her to represent them at a political wedding. When hotshot Sectors Special Forces Captain Tom Deverane barges in on the night of the biggest social event of the summer, Andi isn’t about to offend her high-ranking host on Deverane’s say-so—no matter how sexy he is, or how much he believes they need to leave now.

Deverane was thinking about how to spend his retirement bonus when HQ assigned him one last mission: rescue a civilian woman stranded on a planet on the verge of civil war. Someone has pulled some serious strings to get her plucked out of the hot zone. Deverane’s never met anyone so hard-headed—or so appealing. Suddenly his mission to protect this one woman has become more than just mere orders.

That mission proves more dangerous than he expected when rebel fighters attack the village and raze it to the ground. Deverane escapes with Andi, and on their hazardous journey through the wilderness, 

Then Andi is captured by the rebel fighters, but Deverane has discovered that Zulaire’s so-called civil war is part of a terrifying alien race’s attempt to subjugate the entire Sector. If he pushes on to the capitol Andi will die. Deverane must decide whether to save the woman he loves, or sacrifice her to save Zulaire.

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Should Women Write More Like Men to Succeed?

Thanks so much to Jim for pinch-hitting for me yesterday! He graciously stepped up when David, the love of MY life, surprised me with breakfast out and a trip to the botanical gardens. I didn't want to say, "but... but... but, my Word Whores blog post!" so I sent up an SOS and Jim answered. He also wrote a really lovely post to kick off this week's topic, about whether love and romance belong in SFF. 

Kinda coincidental on my part, huh?

A lot of the time I prioritize my writing tasks and obligations (even if internally imposed) over everything else. David is a wonderful partner for me in that he gets that. He's always in my Acknowledgments as the person who makes everything possible because that's very true. So when he wants to do something special with me, that goes right to the top of the list. Love and romance are a big part of my life, as well as in what I write.

In a way it worked out really well for Jim to kick off this topic, because he's much more of a "guy's" author of fantasy than I am. I mean not just because he's a man and I'm a woman. When I stray from fantasy, I write contemporary romance, often erotic. When he strays, it's into pretty hard-core horror. I feel pretty safe saying that there are a lot of male readers who will not read my fantasy books because of the romance in them. This isn't spitting into the wind. A couple of days ago a guy, who identifies as Bearded Guy, posted to a Reddit fantasy thread a spiel directed at female authors of fantasy. I mean, he titled it, "Female Authors, Let's Talk."

He starts with this:

As everyone (probably) knows women are underrepresented in fantasy. I'm by no means an expert on the history of the industry but its easy to see that there is still a lack of female authors. Why this is, I can't rightly say. What I do know is yesterday I caught myself shamefully contributing to the problem.

Let me preface this with the little fun fact that I can't stand romance novels. They really don't jive with me on any level. So, with that in mind, yesterday I was looking at recommendation threads and lists. (Namely the post by Krista D. Ball about books that don't get recommended much).

While looking through all the authors and books I noticed myself spending less time reading (or skipping all together) the descriptions of books suggested that were written by female authors. The reason for this I think is because out of a handful I did read they all were either UF or romance. As I said earlier I don't like romance a bit. UF I'm not too keen on either.

So after noticing I was skipping female names in the list to read about the books written by men I felt shamed. In the industry though it does seem to me like women are getting more attention and being published more. But, there is an expectation that (at least on my part) they write UF, YA, or romance. Looking at the people I've seen on panels and heard about on here that assumption is sadly reinforced. 

Perhaps I don't have enough exposure to a lot of the newer authors but I have yet to see many successful female authors in what could be called (and I also hate titles, fun fact) normal/mainstream fantasy. 

From there the comments start with recommendation of female fantasy authors who keep that icky romance out of their books. Then, as the story got passed around, more people jumped in. Happily for me, other people - Janny Wurts, in particular - called him on his fundamental premise that he hates romance. As she points out - and as Jim did, too - men will tolerate from other men and from the male POV, what they won't tolerate from women. It's not so much the question of whether romance and love should figure into SFF, but whether men will accept it from the female perspective.

Which still seems to be no.

That's fine by me. I'm a firm believer that everyone should be able to read exactly what they want to. I want people to love reading my books, no slog through them. That said, I know A LOT of female SFF writers who work *really* hard to keep the girly stuff out of their books. Women writers on panels with me have said as much publicly. In private more than one has told me that I'll never be respected as a fantasy writer if I don't cut out the romance.

I hate hearing this.

It reminds me of being in college and grad school, where I studied neuroscience and most of my cohort were guys. More than once professors advised me to think and behave more like a man if I wanted to succeed. In those exact words.

I didn't believe it then and I don't believe it today. Females are half of the human race. We bring value from that perspective. We are the yin to the male yang. To bring balance, we don't convert yin to yang so we can have a big bucket of yang. When people say this kind of thing, the implicit assumption is that female is lesser and not worthy. When Bearded Guy asks for books by female authors that are writing "normal/mainstream fantasy," he's revealing the tacit belief that romance is not normal. That, to take it a step further, that the traditional male perspective is mainstream and female is not. To me he's saying, "I want to read and support female fantasy authors who write like male authors."

Maybe I'm oversensitive, but I don't think so. Kristan Higgins wrote an amazing article for Publisher's Weekly that went up nearly at the same time as Bearded Guy's. She talked about teaching at a writing conference at Mt. Holyoke College, where this happened:

The keynote speaker was Andre Dubus III. In his address, he described the typical romance reader as “some woman reading a schlocky romance novel while simultaneously watching soap operas and eating.”

During the q&a period, Judith [Arnold] (a friend of mine) asked Dubus about his knowledge of romance books. He admitted he’d never read one. Most people who criticize romance haven’t, she countered. Dubus said he was put off by “those cheesy covers with Fabio” and went on to apologize—and change the subject.

I really want to ask Bearded Guy what romances turned him off the genre. Mostly I don't want to hear romance in fantasy bashed anymore.

I'm really all for balance. 

Book Release: Veronica Scott's STAR CRUISE: MAROONED

Fans of Sci-Fi Romance rejoice! Veronica Scott's latest intergalactic novel is available in eBook now!

STAR CRUISE: MAROONED

Meg Antille works long hours on the charter cruise ship Far Horizon so she can send credits home to her family. Working hard to earn a promotion to a better post (and better pay), Meg has no time for romance.

Former Special Forces soldier Red Thomsill only took the berth on the Far Horizon in hopes of getting to know Meg better, but so far she’s kept him at a polite distance. A scheduled stopover on the idyllic beach of a nature preserve planet may be his last chance to impress the girl.

But when one of the passengers is attacked by a wild animal it becomes clear that conditions on the lushly forested Dantaralon aren’t as advertised – the ranger station is deserted, the defensive perimeter is down…and then the Far Horizon’s shuttle abruptly leaves without any of them.

Marooned on the dangerous outback world, romance is the least of their concerns, and yet Meg and Red cannot help being drawn to each other once they see how well they work together. But can they survive long enough to see their romance through? Or will the wild alien planet defeat them, ending their romance and their lives before anything can really begin?

Buy It Now & Leave a Review:

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Vladesimus Tangential Thingamajigie

There comes a time in every author's life when someone somewhere is going to say, "Hey! My third cousin six times removed just finished a book. Will you talk to her?" When that happens, if the author in question agrees to the chat, genre is likely to be one of the first points of discussion. Why? Marketing, my friend. You have to know which round hole you intend to pound the square peg of your book into. Only partially kidding on that last bit. If those of us writing intend to sell anything to anyone, we'd better be prepared to describe what we've written. Genre is the generally the broadest description - beyond 'book' - that we're likely going to get away with using. You have to know your genre before you agent shop, before you can query a publishing house or an editor.

I'm not sure what quirk of the brain is exposed by the human impulse to label things, but we, as a species, do seem hung up on parsing, sorting and neatly stacking our piles of stuff. Maybe the whole human genome is a tad OCD. Whatever, we're most comfortable being able to point at a thing and saying, "That's a vladesimus tangential thingamajigie!" And if the human race is a little OCD, the publishing world is far and away more so. We all know authors who's books got to marketing before being sent back with a note that says, "We don't know what to do with this." "But it's a vladesimus tangential thingamajigie!" the author whines. Sure, and the marketing department only has a slot for vladesimus tangential thingamajigies with pie. Genre matters.

The moral of that paragraph being: When authors start mashing genres together looking for the secrets of cold fusion and hoping to ignite a tiny gleaming star in the eyes of reader everywhere, it has to happen with the awareness that the whole unstable project could detonate instead of meshing into something brilliant and stable. Let's contemplate the mental image of smoking, irradiated messiness for a moment. I have a few of those. They still glow in the darkness under the bed, hauting me in the night. Sad. Thing is. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it works so well that the mash-up of genres becomes a genre unto itself. Paranormal Romance. Scifi Romance. Medical Mystery. (That last included to prove it's not just the romance market that's willing to spawn genres.)

It's a razor's edge to walk, writing something that defies genre - especially if you aspire to sell into a publishing industry that's super invested in slotting stories quickly and easily. If you're self-publishing, the final arbiters of genre are your readers. So classification of your story is between you and them. Just remember, if you write it, you have to tag it so your readers can find it.

If you ask me about crossing genres, I have to tell you to go for it. My first two books were Scifi Romance. Then I had to add a bit of the erotic to that because, you know, mixing two genres wasn't enough. Don't worry about what's selling or not. Read. Write. Have fun. Stay true to your story your way for at least one draft. If you're writing what you'd want to read, genre will likely take care of itself. When your draft is completed, you may find your book already falls handily into a publishing box. But if not, that aspect can be tweaked on rewrite.

Maybe the trick really is writing what you wish you could read. Please do. I know how much I love it when I get to read a book I wish I had written. Also? Vladesimus Tangential Thingamajigie. My new band name. You know. For when I learn to play something that would be acceptable to a band.