tag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007hrjhrjhrj2022-04-14T17:06:24Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:734420The Language of Roses is released!2022-04-14T17:06:24Z2022-04-14T17:06:24Zpublic21Today is official release day for my Beauty and the Beast novella, The Language of Roses. (Although pre-release orders through certain ebook outlets started trickling in yesterday.) The book release is the reason I decided to take this week off as vacation -- not because I was going anywhere or doing anything, but because I wanted to have the mental and emotional space to enjoy the experience (and to push the online promo.) Maybe someday I will once again have a real live in-person bookstore release event. It isn't so much Covid, for this one, as a lack of appropriate local bookstores. (Combined with me not being a big enough draw to do anything at a general bookstore. Oops, back away, back away.)<br /><br />I am incredibly proud of The Language of Roses and think it may be the best thing I've written to date. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that it might just be good enough to catch people's interest for award nominations, but the first step is to work on visibility and getting the word out. Here's my plea. If you like my writing (or think you might), please give this story a try. As a novella, the ebook price is quite cheap and it can be read easily in a single session. And if you like the story (or think people you know might like it), please help create some buzz. We're currently living in a golden age of sff novellas, but it isn't an even playing field out there in terms of visibility. Small press novellas have to struggle to be seen. My publisher, Queen of Swords Press, is doing a wonderful job of promoting and supporting the book, but we need help carrying the ball.<br /><br />Oh, and here's the universal book link: <a href="https://books2read.com/languageofroses">https://books2read.com/languageofroses</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=734420" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:723900Plotting and Planning for Penning2020-10-30T15:57:35Z2020-10-30T15:57:35Zpublic7The timing of pulling out my untitled regency romance novel file and deciding to work on the outline (and finally pull together character names) was such that I thought it might be fun to try NaNoWriMo this year. Normally November is an awkward month for writing projects because I usually spend a week in NYC and I find it difficult to focus on fiction while traveling. (I used to be able to do it, but brains change.) This plan is also the only hostage I'm offering to hope, because if the election goes bad, then all bets are off.<br /><br />I have a complete, detailed outline, with each scene roughed out. 16 chapters, 47 scenes, 16 character sketches (some very minor characters). I'm treating this as an "exercise in writing differently" similarly to how <em>Daughter of Mystery</em> was an exercise. This time, it's an exercise in writing to formula. I took a "how to plot a romance novel" guide (which I found very aggravating and annoying when I read it) and adjusted, expanded, and rearranged the plot to match (roughly) its prescribed structure. I"m not taking the book's advice on certain aspects of character. (For example, I don't think that romance protagonists have to be "utterly broken with respect to romance" to make a good story. I don't think that they have to meet the one and only person in the universe who can "fill the hole in their heart".)<br /><br />I probably have more non-romance plot than the formula suggests. And I'm introducing the first sex scene much later than is recommended (well, the first sex scene between the romantic protagonists). So there will still be plenty to complain about for those readers who expect a highly specific reading experience.<br /><br />One of the tricky elements--something I've never found natural--is a leavening of comedy. I have one significant (but not romantic-protagonist) character who came to life when I decided he'd be a "devil may care young man about town suddenly deciding to do something more serious with his life" who manages to trip regularly while trying to do the right thing. And I have a Wise Spinster Aunt who will be crisply snarky just when my protagonists need pulling up. And I have at least one planned "must not let these two people bump into each other" farce scene. Now if only I can pull it off.<br /><br />What I don't have yet is a title. Usually titles come to me fairly early in the story development process. But sometimes they come late. I didn't nail down the title for "Gifts Tell Truth" until I was getting ready to send it out to beta readers -- it spent a long time in a file labeled "Jeanne and the Spy". This time I have a file titled simply "Regency". I've started to get a few ideas but none has grabbed me by the throat yet. <em>The Urchin and the Amazon</em> is one. At some point I may open up to group brainstorming.<br /><br />So, 16 chapters, 47 scenes. To draft the whole thing in November, that would be slightly over a scene and a half per day, or slightly more than a chapter every two days. I know the NaNo target is a specific word count, but I rather think this is going to end up longer than that minimum.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=723900" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:722953Office Birdwatching - Ho Hum2020-10-22T01:56:20Z2020-10-22T01:56:20Zpublic4If the birds want me to post more about them, they need to up their game. So far we've established a solid set of regulars. The chesnut-backed chickadees, the house finches, the gray titmouses (titmice?), and the Anna's hummingbirds (plural, I had two at once at least one time). I know there are scrub jays and mourning doves in the yard, because I hear them regularly (and see them when I'm out in the garden) but they aren't interested in the feeder.<br /><br />On the other hand, the numbers are increasing, so word is getting around. They even squabble about access sometimes, though rather unnecessarily since I've never seen more birds than there are access points.<br /><br />The cats have been interested but not excited. The outdoor visiting cat (presumably belonging to a neighbor since it doesn't look scrubby enough to be a stray) is similarly interested but not excited. The squirrels have not yet discovered the feeder, but they're working hard on the acorns and walnuts at the moment.<br /><br />In other news, I've been spending my morning pre-work time getting my notes and outlines together for a regency romance I've been noodling on for years. I have my timelines all set, the characters all have names and full backstories, and the chapters and scenes are roughed out, though they need another pass before I figure I have everything aligned properly. This means that the timing is such that I'm thinking about using it for a NaNoWriMo project (which I've never done before). That's assuming that I don't spend most of November in a nihilistic funk because the election goes the wrong way.<br /><br />My other major project this month has been getting the podcast moved over to the new site. Doing it on a gradual basis has not only prevented burnout but means I could plug each day's work on twitter and build up a rhythm of promotion. I need to re-activate my regular promo posts through Hootsuite, especially now that the LHMP has its own twitter account and I won't feel like I'm spamming my friends quite so much. All the existing podcast episodes will be up no the new site as of tomorrow, so then comes the work of convincing listeners to subscribe to the new show. When I first started, it was hard to tell how many people were listening because of <em>my</em> content and how many were simply there for the podcast-group as a whole. Now that the old channel is down to just me and one other show, it's a bit easier to estimate what a successful transition might look like.<br /><br />As always, I wish that the blog/podcast didn't feel like talking to myself in a dark empty room. Chatting with other podcasters recently, I've been sounding people out on what kept them going during the "building an audience" phase, and the times when there was no audience feedback. They were pretty much unanimous that the only thing that kept them going was being part of a team so that the show felt like a conversation even when it was just them talking to each other. That...was not a comforting answer. <br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=722953" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:705572Inspiration Strikes2020-02-11T18:49:32Z2020-02-11T18:49:32Zpublic3I don't want to just copy the post in it's entirety over here, but if you want to know what my next most immediate writing project looks like it's going to be, <a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/inspiration-strikes-and-peculiar-coincidence">check out today's blog.</a> It came with a message from the universe.<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=705572" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:701298"Not that you'd call mermaids in the strictest sense"2019-11-01T14:56:53Z2019-11-01T14:56:53Zpublic2 I've collated up my photo-essay Halloween ghost story in a single document on my website, for those who are interested and don't want to hunt through social media. (Though the best experience was reading the posts as they came out in real time, with commentary from facebook friends.) <a href="http://www.heatherrosejones.com/photoessays/notthatyoudcallmermaids.html">You can find it here</a>.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=701298" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:701052Spooky Halloween Story in Maine2019-10-30T16:27:38Z2019-10-30T16:27:38Zpublic2 I've been posting an improvised spooky story about my family visit in Maine. There are slightly different versions appearing on facebook and Twitter. I don't plan to echo it here because the format is designed for short-form with photos. Since my facebook account is locked, if you want to read it and we aren't already connected on fb, then twitter is your best bet. The story isn't linked as a single thread, but there shouldn't be too much other stuff in my feed if you want to browse it. The twitter version starts on Oct 29 so scroll back from the current feed, <a href="https://twitter.com/heatherosejones">which you can find here</a>.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=701052" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:696306Podcast-i-versary! Episode 100 airs today2019-04-06T14:38:52Z2019-04-06T14:38:52Zpublic0 I wanted to do something special for the 100th episode of my podcast The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast. And after pondering the logistics of several ideas, I decided to produce an extra audio fiction episode, featuring my Italian Renaissance short story "Where My Heart Goes" about Duchess Margaret of Parma and Laudomia Forteguerri.<br /><br /><a href="https://thelesbiantalkshow.podbean.com/e/the-100th-episode-where-my-heart-goes-the-lesbian-historic-motif-podcast-episode-33a/">Here's the link to the podcast.</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.alpennia.com/blog/lesbian-historic-motif-podcast-episode-33a-100th-episode-where-my-heart-goes">Here's the link to the transcript.</a><br type="_moz" /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=696306" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:695919Trying to Predict and Shape Reader Expectations2019-03-29T21:07:58Z2019-03-29T21:08:23Zpublic6<a href="http://kjcharleswriter.com/2019/03/29/with-a-guest-appearance-from/">K.J. Charles has a really useful blog today</a> about how to manage character introductions and call-backs in a "linked main characters" series of the type that is quite popular in romance these days. Just how do you feed the desire of continuing readers to recognize side characters who were main characters in a previous book without doing it in a clumsy and intrusive way? How do you make sure your call-backs and foreshadowing don't distract too much from the central characters of the current book.<br /><br />I've encountered this aspect of reader expectation from the opposite side: what do you do when your readers enter the book with a "serial linked main characters" reading protocol, but that's not what your books are doing?<br /><br />I was genuinely bewildered the first time I encountered a reader opinion that Margerit and Barbara should have "known their place" and stayed out of the spotlight in <em>The Mystic Marriage</em>. Like...I had somehow accidentally given them 50% of the point of view time when they should have known they were only minor side characters in the book. I suppose if you expect all books series to follow the rules of this particular mode of linked romance series, then my approach was a major error. Except that's not what I was doing.<br /><br />The Alpennia series was never intended to be a set of independent romance novels in a loosely linked setting (which is a perfectly wonderful concept, and in fact I have an idea for doing a series like that at some point). From the very start (or at least, from the point when I realized it was going to be a series), it was planned as an accumulation of an ensemble cast, with each character being significant to the story, though perhaps moving in and out of prominence in different books. But how could I have signaled that more clearly to set up reader expectations?<br /><br />Honestly, I'm not sure I could have. Just as all my efforts to warn people that <em>Mother of Souls</em> wasn't a capital-R Romance novel were in vain. And I'll predict that there will be readers who come out of <em>Floodtide </em>feeling betrayed that it, too, wasn't a romance novel. And no doubt readers who will greatly enjoy the more action-oriented thriller aspects of <em>Mistress of Shadows</em> will probably tell you that "Heather has finally hit her stride and figured out how to pace a book properly."<br /><br />I like to think I'm doing something more interesting than the things those readers wanted me to have done. And I hope that when the series is complete, even they will look back and conclude that--whether or not it was to their taste--the result wasn't a mistake or poor technique on my part.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=695919" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:694318The next book2019-01-21T22:46:06Z2019-01-21T22:46:06Zpublic8I suppose I should be blogging about this on my website, but I feel like that's a more formal place and I'm really just nattering? In any event...during this morning's pre-work writing session, I opened up the Scrivener file for <em>Mistress of Shadows</em> and started populating it with roughed out chapters and content outlines. I have several documents of disorganized notes for various plot events and characters. I have a clear sense of the overall shape of the story, though not all the details about how to get from here to there. I also have a good idea of some of the topics I need to research that are both trivial and essential. (Top two: the likely everyday cultural-religious practices of a working class Islamic woman in early 19th century France; and the legal status (and everyday consequences thereof) of a black woman, ditto. I have basic information and some solid leads on more detailed sources.)<br /><br />What's <em>Mistress of Shadows</em>? It's the 5th Alpennia book, next after <em>Floodtide</em> which won't be out until late this year. It's the story of how Barbara finds herself again after a disabling injury that shakes her sense of self to the core. It's the story of how Serafina confronts her past and claims her future. It's the story of how Efriturik ponders just what he would be willing to sacrifice to claim the throne of Alpennia. It's the story of how a multi-national coalition hunts for the sorcerers who threaten to devastate Europe with forbidden magic. It's the story of Zobaydah, who traded her future, her honor, and her pride in exchange for safety for her family and now is trapped in a web of intrigue from which her only hope of escape may come from her deadliest enemies. It's the story of those who wait at home in Alpennia for the ones they love to return, unsure whether to hope they return changed or unchanged. It's a story of love, of loss, of loyalty, of triumph, of trust, of treason, and of murder.<br /><br />*rubs hands together*<br /><br />This is going to be fun.<br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=694318" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:693655Like I need another writing project...2018-12-28T03:22:19Z2018-12-28T03:22:19Zpublic7 Usually I do my talking-about-writing on my blog, but this is a bit more in the "unofficial talking" line, so I thought this might be a better space.<br /><br />There's an Alpennia story that I would like to have exist, but I'm dithering a bit over whether I want to write it. Whether I <em>can</em> write it.<br /><br />I've solidly established that the Alpennia books are "closed door" with regard to on-page sex. The major reason is that that's the flavor of story I wanted them to be, but there's also a certain amount of being very uncertain of my ability to write good, believable sex scenes. I'm a bit more open to giving it a try in Alpennia short fiction, though I haven't done so yet. But the story that I want to have exist would pretty much require explicit sex scenes, one of which would definitely not be appropriate to include in the books being published by Bella Books.<br /><br />You see, the story I want to have exist is Antuniet and Jeanne's trip to Prague--or more specifically, their stop-over in Heidelberg to get Antuniet pregnant. I know how that story goes. I know the unexpected emotional speedbumps. (Antuniet is perfectly certain that she can grit her teeth and treat the whole thing as a business transaction. She's less able to cope with other parties refusing to do so. Jeanne has a talent for arranging other people's social lives, but she never expected to play go-between for her beloved with her beloved's sperm donor.) The things we learn about the characters. (Jeanne and Antuniet have a serious talk about how Antuniet feels about sex.) The minor redemption of a character who got a bit of a bad rap in <em>The Mystic Marriage</em>. (Tentative bit of dialogue: "Will you allow me to admit that I was a complete ass?") You know the bit in <em>Mother of Souls</em> when Barbara metaphorically pins Antuniet against the wall and demands to know if Jeanne knows about the pregnancy and Antuniet says with studied casualness, "She was there"? That scene.<br /><br />In a way, it's a story that would work better written as fan-fic. For the briefest of moments I contemplated writing it and then posting it anonymously on AO3, but I feel like that would be breaking some sort of authorial trust.<br /><br />But I've created a folder and a document with plot notes, which is no guarantee but indicates more than a passing fancy.<br type="_moz" /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=693655" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:692045A totally random post2018-09-06T17:58:16Z2018-09-06T17:59:26Zpublic1It isn't just that I'm not blogging here much -- I'm not "blogging" over at alpennia.com much at the moment. (Just posting the LHMP entries and getting caught up on some reviews.) It's mostly a time management thing. I'm solidly on schedule with the revisions for <em>Floodtide</em>, but that means prioritizing it first and then scrambling to make sure that I have the LHMP/podcast writing done on time.<br /><br />Although <em>Floodtide </em>has needed a fair amount of cleaning up and filling in, it hasn't been as serious as I'd thought it was. (I think there are a few more places later in the story where past-me wrote an IOU to future me with regard to some key scenes.) The big revision item once I'm done with this pass will be to draw up some sort of "plot rhythm" diagram to make sure action and development is relatively evenly distributed.<br /><br />One fun thing about <em>Floodtide</em> is writing Roz's first-person voice. I think I'm going to have to draw up some notes for the editor with regard to the linguistic structure of her voice. While I'm happy to have help ensuring consistency, there are some systematic things I'm doing that I'd hate to have to argue at every single point.<br /><br />Still waiting (more patiently than I'd have predicted) on any response about the submission of "The Language of Roses". It's submitted through one of those online tracking systems and every once in a while I peek to see if it's moved in the queue. There was some initial movement up, then a long static period. Based on things other people have said, I think the initial movement was from all the obviously unsuitable submissions being sifted out, and the current movement would then be the "actual consideration" group starting to be processed. I think I'm going to try to avoid peeking from now on, because it's less stressful to pretend that I won't hear anything for months yet than to see it move to the top and be expecting to get a rejection at any moment. Yes, I've set my expectations to "expect a rejection" because that way I can be delighted rather than disappointed. Right after submitting, I allowed myself to imagine being accepted but that was when I knew it was far to early to hear. I also allow myself to think, "Well, here's the other market it would be great for, once I'm free to send it." The tricks we play on ourselves. People loved the excerpt I read from it at Worldcon. I keep telling myself that's a reason for hope.<br /><br />I've unexpectedly had a request to look at my one completed but not-yet-sold short story (and Arthurian piece inspired by the <em>Romance of Silence</em>), so who knows what might happen there. I don't tend to write much short fiction on spec--normally I have a specific market in mind, so I don't have a lot of stories floating around through the submission rounds. I'd written this one for a particular story call, tried it a couple other places after that, then put it away figuring I'd wait until there was an opportunity it could target fairly closely. Maybe some day I'll have enough writing time that I can do more shorts on a just-because basis and then toss them to the winds.<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=692045" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:688974Lesbian Book Bingo: All the Stage is a World2018-01-19T21:35:26Z2018-01-19T21:35:26Zpublic4The second category of <a href="https://jae-fiction.com/lesbian-book-bingo/">Jae's Lesbian Book Bingo 2018 challenge</a> is Historical Fiction. <a href="https://jae-fiction.com/lesbian-historical-fiction-lesbian-book-bingo-2/">Check here for the thread with suggestions of books for this category</a>, and for a chance to win prizes if you comment.<br /><br />As I announced previously, since I don't read enough books to have a chance at filling my bingo card, I thought I'd play along by writing short fiction pieces for each square, using a historic setting and tying them all up loosely in a single overall story. But what do I do for a historical fiction category given that I'm trying to do the whole thing in a historic setting? Obviously the solution is to include something that is historical fiction for the characters in my setting! We're still following the same two characters currently, but I've switched viewpoints. (There will be more characters later, but they'll all connect up in the end.) At this point, I've sort of narrowed down the setting of the current ficlets to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Years%27_War">Nine Years' War</a> some time in the early 1690s. I'm dodging making too-specific references to what military action my heroines might be taken part it since I haven't pinned down a more specific date (or exactly which regiment they're with). If you're interested in more details of passing women in the military in the Low Countries and Germany in this general era, there's no better source than <a href="http://alpennia.com/lhmp/dekker-rudolf-m-and-van-de-pol-lotte-c-1989-tradition-female-transvestism-early-modern-europe">The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe</a> by Dekker and van de Pol.<br /><br />My book <em>Daughter of Mystery</em> will be one of the featured book suggestions for the fantasy category, but my work fits in a lot of different categories on the bingo card. For those who might be visiting here for the fiction and brainstorming for ideas for their bingo squares, here's a brief rundown of what categories the Alpennia books and my self-published novelette fit into.<br /> <ul><li>"The Mazarinette and the Musketeer" (self-published novelette, see links below for information on all books) - LGBTQIA+ characters (bi women, trans man), historical fiction, you might possibly fit it into "women in uniform" since a Musketeer uniform is a key plot point.</li><br /> <li><em>Daughter of Mystery</em> (Alpennia #1) - friends to lovers, butch/femme (sort of), fantasy, historical fiction</li><br /> <li><em>The Mystic Marriage</em> (Alpennia #2) - LGBTQIA+ (one main character is demisexual), friends to lovers, age difference, fantasy, I think you could even use "workplace romance" since the romance develops in an alchemy lab, historical fiction</li><br /> <li><em>Mother of Souls</em> (Alpennia #3) - friends to lovers, fantasy, historical fiction, LGBTQIA+ (since both women are bi), but I'd rather people didn't use it for the "women of color" square because I'd prefer people to chose own-voices books for that in preference to mine</li></ul>And now, on with the fiction!<br /><br /><strong>All the Stage is a World (Lesbian Book Bingo: Historical Fiction)<br /></strong><br />The only thing more miserable than standing sentry through the wet miserable night on the edge of the army camp would have been sitting inside the walls of the town we were besieging. No, even worse for everyone would come when the siege broke into open battle but I mostly avoided thinking about that before time and tried to forget it afterward. The dark was thick with the smoke of campfires and the orange glow of them was scattered across the fields like a hellish reflection of the stars above.<br /><br />Lena—no, I needed to think of her only as Pieter, and I’d only called her Lena for a few days anyway. Not long enough that the name should seek to betray us like that. Pieter shuffled a few steps to keep her legs warm. Another hour at least before we’d be relieved.<br /><br />A trickle of wet fell into the collar of my uniform coat and I adjusted the wide brim of my hat to send the rain somewhere less uncomfortable. “Are you cold, Pieter?” I asked.<br /><br />She snorted. “Of course I’m cold, Martijn! Times like this I wish I hadn’t traded skirts for breeches.”<br /><br />Skirts for breeches, a job serving beer at De Leeuw in Zendoorn for the army life, but I knew she didn’t regret the gamble. I saw it in her eyes ever time we marched past towns and rivers she’d never seen before. No matter how sore our feet were or how quickly sleep seized us when we made camp, that look of wonder and surprise never dimmed.<br /><br />I moved closer and huddled against her for a little more warmth but she stepped away with a shake of her head.<br /><br />“You never know who might be watching.”<br /><br />She was right. As bad as it would be for anyone to guess that we were women, it would be worse if they decided we were too-affectionate men. Sharing a bedroll for warmth was one thing, but embracing while on watch was another. The pleasant tumble we’d had back in Zendoorn rarely had a chance to be repeated.<br /><br />“I’ll tell you a story to pass the time,” I offered. Even the stories I’d grown tired of were new to her. “What would you like?”<br /><br />“Tell me about…” She thought in the darkness for a while. “Tell me a story about people like us. Tell me that we aren’t alone. You said you’d had sweethearts before…”<br /><br />I didn’t want to tell her about Mayken, not all the private memories. But… “I know a story about people like us. I saw it on a stage when I was in London. A grand story set in olden times with pagan gods and two girls just like us. Would you like that one?”<br /><br />“Oh yes!”<br /><br />I tried to remember everything I could about the play, all confused with shepherds and gods and comic rustics. In the end, the play had left me shaking and filled with questions.<br /><br />“Once upon a time, there was a band of shepherds who had angered the god Neptune, I don’t remember why. But Neptune demanded that every ten years they must sacrifice the most beautiful and most virtuous maiden in the land. You might think that fathers would be proud to have beautiful and virtuous daughters. Neptune wasn’t the only god in the story. The virgin goddess Diana roamed the woods near where the shepherds lived, and she loved chaste girls. Or you might think that the shepherds would encourage their daughters to be a little less virtuous, if it meant they would live. And the goddess Venus was happy to encourage them in that. But men are strange creatures, so they protected their daughters’ virtue carefully and the mourned what came of it.<br /><br />“There was a girl named Gallathea who was so pretty and so pure that her father was certain that she would be chosen as the sacrifice, so he took her away to the woods and commanded her to dress in men’s clothing and hide herself away until after the choice was made. Gallathea was embarrassed to wear breeches and a doublet—just like you were at first, Pieter. I still remember how you blushed looking down to see your legs showing! But she did what her father commanded and went to hide in the woods.<br /><br />“And there was another beautiful virgin named Phillida. Her father was also certain that she would be chosen to be the sacrifice. So he took her aside and said she must disguise herself as a man and hide away in the woods until Neptune had received his due. Phillida thought it was an immodest thing to do, but she obeyed her father and she, too, put on breeches and a doublet and went to hide herself.”<br /><br />“Well that was a silly thing!” Pieter said. “Wouldn’t anyone notice they were gone? Wouldn’t they remember two such pretty girls and ask what happened to them?”<br /><br />“Hush,” I scolded. “It’s a play. People do silly things in plays. Now let me continue. So Gallathea and Phillida chanced to meet each other in the wood, and of course each one thought that the other one was a boy. A very pretty boy.” I smiled at Pieter in that way I knew would make her blush, though I couldn’t see it in the dark. “And they fell in love.”<br /><br />I couldn’t see her, but I heard her sigh—a quiet little sigh that I remembered from times when I’d touched her just so.<br /><br />“Both Gallathea and Phillida, they each thought they were in love with a boy, you see? And while they’re hinting at being in love with each other, Diana’s virgin huntresses meet up with Cupid and mock him and he decides to make them all fall madly in love. Some of them fall in love with shepherds and some with Gallathea and Phillida, thinking they were men, but Gallathea and Phillida fall in love without Cupid’s help. But when they each see that the other spurns the love of Diana’s ladies, they begin to suspect that the other might be a woman in disguise.”<br /><br />Pieter gave another disgusted snort. “I know you said people do silly things in plays, but why would they think that? There are lots of reasons to spurn a woman who’s chasing after you.”<br /><br />“Ah,” I said, “but they both are thinking a lot about being in disguise, so maybe it just seemed more likely to them. Let me finish. Do you want a story or not?” It had worked to distract us from the cold, but now I wanted to tell Pieter how it ended.<br /><br />“So Gallathea is worried that if Phillida is really a girl like her, then her love won’t be returned. But if Phillida is a boy like she seems, then falling in love puts her chastity at risk. And Phillida is thinking the same thing. And at the same time, the shepherds pick a different girl to be the sacrifice, but Neptune won’t take her because she isn’t pretty enough. And he gets mad at the shepherds for cheating him, and he’s mad at Diana for making girls all worried about being virgins and then Diana and Venus have a fight about whether it’s better to be in love or to be a virgin.”<br /><br />“They don’t sound like gods, they sound like people arguing over the price of cabbages in the market.”<br /><br />We both giggled at that, because it was true.<br /><br />“Anyway, the fathers confess what they had done when Gallathea and Phillida come back and then the two know they’ve both fallen in love with a girl, and they’re unhappy because they think it means they can’t be together but they swear to all the gods that their love is true and they’ll never love anyone else.”<br /><br />Pieter gave a little sigh again, but this time it was the kind of sigh you give when you see people being happy. I felt a bit of worry twisting up my belly, because I think Pieter thought we were in love like the girls in the play. And I…I wasn’t sure. I liked her well enough, but I wasn’t sure about being in love. Not like Gallathea and Phillida were in love.<br /><br />“What happened next?” Pieter asked all in a rush.<br /><br />“Venus tells everyone that love will triumph and that she’ll turn one of them into a boy so they can get married.”<br /><br />“Oh.”<br /><br />There was a long silence after that. I couldn’t tell what Pieter was thinking, just that she was disappointed in how the story ended.<br /><br />“Martijn.”<br /><br />“Yes?”<br /><br />“Martijn…would you want to turn into a boy if it meant you could marry the girl you loved?”<br /><br />I’d thought about it. I’d thought about it when I'd seen the play. I'd thought about it when I’d been with Mayken. We’d talked about getting married and me leaving the army to settle down with her. And I just…I wasn’t sure. In the army I was Martijn and Martijn was a soldier and a man. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to be Martijn for my whole life. Not even if it meant I could marry Mayken. That was why she’d stayed behind and I marched away.<br /><br />I shook myself to push the memory away. “There aren’t really pagan gods, you know. They can’t do that. Only God can make miracles and God isn’t going to make that kind of miracle so it doesn’t matter. It’s just a story.”<br /><br />I don’t know what I would have said after that, but I saw a lantern bobbing in the dark and two voices called out the sign. We answered with the countersign and the watch had changed.<br /><br />Back in our tent, it took an hour of holding each other close to warm up enough to sleep. I lay there wondering what happened to Gallathea and Phillida after the end of the play.<br /><br />* * *<br /><br />*Historic note: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallathea">John Lyly’s play <em>Gallathea</em></a> was first performed in 1588. I haven’t yet pinned down the precise date of these sketches yet, but my current approximation is during the Nine Years’ War of the Grand Alliance, in the 1690s. It’s extremely unlikely that Lyly’s play was still being performed at that date, though some plays of the era did have long runs through multiple revisions and adaptations. But I’ve taken the liberty of having my character see a performance.<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=688974" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:688743Am I crazy or what? 2018 Lesbian Book Bingo Ficlet Project2018-01-09T18:45:26Z2018-01-09T18:45:26Zpublic7If you follow my RSS feed, you'll have already seen this.<a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/lesbian-book-bingo-2018-follow-drum"> I'm helping promote a "Lesbian Book Bingo" reading challenge (because I got included in the suggestions lists and got my publisher to help with prizes), but to make up for the fact that I'm unlikely to read enough lesfic to make any bingos myself, instead I'm writing a mini-story for each of the 24 genres/tropes that make up the squares</a>. There's a featured genre/trope twice a month and I'll be following along with that schedule, so the first one is "women in uniform". Of course, I'm adding to the challenge by making all my ficlets be historic and planning to have them all be loosely connected in some fashion. My first ficlet is "Follow the Drum" and concerns Lena, a young Dutch woman in the later 17th century, who has a hankering for military drums and uniforms, but not in the usual way.<br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=688743" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:686373What the Frankentastic Podcast is Reminding Me about Lesbian Historical Fiction2017-11-14T17:58:34Z2017-11-14T17:58:34Zpublic0<a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/what-frankentastic-podcast-reminding-me-about-lesbian-historical-fiction">Some thoughts on the depiction of same-sex relationships in history inspired by the Frankentastic podcast (a re-gendered reading of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein).</a><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=686373" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:684823From a Certain Point of View2017-11-07T19:30:01Z2017-11-07T19:30:01Zpublic0I'm doing National Novella Revision Month. <a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/certain-point-view">Here are some thoughts on revising "The Language of Roses".</a><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=684823" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:684380NaN'laReMo - That's National Novella Revision Month2017-11-03T20:57:30Z2017-11-03T20:57:30Zpublic0I've been dithering about getting into the rhythm of revisions (as opposed to first-drafting) for a while now. At first I said that I was letting Floodtide rest a bit and I'd just get a first draft of "The Language of Roses" done then return to it. But then I got caught up in that thing where it's nice to actually finish something to balance out the long slog that is novel writing. So I told myself I'd go ahead and revise Roses then return to Floodtide while Roses was out with betas. And I dithered. It's mostly the problem that I"m a very habit-bound creature, and the organization of my time is very different for first-drafting versus revision. And I wanted to get a bunch of blog and podcast stuff set up in advance so I wouldn't be caught by surprise during the holidays. And blah blah excuse excuse.<br /><br />OK, so NaNoWriMo is good for something, even for me, because it got me to make a public commitment that I'll get Roses revised and out to the betas by the end of November. It has 24 chapter-like-segments and so far I've done one per day in the first three days of November. If I can keep that up, I'll have no problems, even with a trip east and an additional once-through. (I also still need to come up with a bunch of names appropriate for a vaguely fantasyish 18th century France, but that's just a matter of pulling out the books.)<br /><br />I've also tentatively contracted with a sensitivity reader because a key character is both asexual and aromantic, and while I kind of have to work to not write characters as asexual, I'm very solidly romantic and there are a lot of ways that romanticism gets subtly encoded in absolutely everything.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=684380" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:680807Hyddwen: The Second Branch of the Merchinogi2017-09-05T14:35:06Z2017-09-05T14:35:06Zpublic0<p>How delightful to wake up this morning to find <a href="http://podcastle.org/2017/09/05/podcastle-486-hyddwen/">the release announcement for "Hyddwen"</a> in my Twitter mentions! This is the second story in a series inspired by my love for medieval Welsh literature (and the gnawing feeling that what medieval Welsh literature needed was more lesbians). I love love love what Pip Hoskins, the narrator, has done with this one! If you enjoy "Hyddwen", you might want to go back and listen to <a href="http://podcastle.org/2015/02/20/podcastle-351-hoywverch/">"Hoywverch"</a>, the first story in the series, though you get the essential recap within the story itself.</p><p>If you enjoy fantasy fiction and listening to audiobooks, I strongly encourage you to subscribe to the Podcastle podcast. You may have read my occasional short reviews of some of their output. In addition to doing audio reprints of stories published elsewhere, they publish a lot of great original work and recently won the Best Fictional Podcast at the Academy of Podcasters Awards. All their podcasts are free to download, but if you like what you hear, you can support them through venues like Patreon.</p><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=680807" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:675400Taking Dictation2017-07-26T15:54:26Z2017-07-26T15:54:26Zpublic0<a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/taking-dictation">Today's writing process blog was inspired by a question from Sara Uckelman about how I use dictation to write first drafts.</a><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=675400" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:674542Moral Panic in Alpennia?2017-07-11T19:07:40Z2017-07-11T19:07:40Zpublic0<a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/alpennia-blog-can-devout-alpennians-enjoy-pleasures-flesh">A reader sent in an interesting question about whether my characters consider their lives and loves to be immoral.</a><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=674542" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:673107Ankle-deep and Rising2017-06-27T22:40:43Z2017-06-27T22:40:43Zpublic0<a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/ankle-deep-and-rising">My current writing process blog.</a><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=673107" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:667211Floodtide: Stepping into the Unknown2017-05-24T20:48:13Z2017-05-24T20:48:13Zpublic2<a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/floodtide-stepping-unknown">Just a little writing progress blog because I've been falling down on my blogging schedule this month.</a><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=667211" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:664299Alpennia Blog: Class and Sexuality in Rotenek2017-05-16T19:55:58Z2017-05-16T19:55:58Zpublic3<a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/alpennia-blog-class-and-sexuality-rotenek">I think maybe I'm ready to start posting some teasers from </a><em><a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/alpennia-blog-class-and-sexuality-rotenek">Floodtide.</a></em><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=664299" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:656044Shifting Writing Gears2017-05-02T23:20:52Z2017-05-02T23:20:52Zpublic0<a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/shifting-writing-gears">A writing progress report and a solicitation for title brainstorming for the Jeanne-and-the-French-spy story.</a><br /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=656044" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:654223Shall We Dance?2017-04-25T15:11:29Z2017-04-25T15:11:29Zpublic0<a href="http://alpennia.com/blog/shall-we-dance-showing-attraction-without-overt-erotics"> Today's Alpennia blog is very near and dear to my heart: techniques for showing your characters falling (or being) in love that don't rely on sex scenes.</a><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=654223" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2010-09-08:610007:653775So things happened this week2017-04-23T16:03:01Z2017-04-23T16:03:01Zpublic14 My minute-by-minute social media discussions are scattered all over the place, so I can forget what I've posted where. Here are a few things that happened during the last week:<br /><br /><a href="http://shiraglassman.tumblr.com/post/159721592600/the-alpennia-books-by-heather-rose-jones-are">Shira Glassman went live with a gorgeous fan-art promotional post for the Alpennia books</a> that she commissioned. I feel immensely honored and flattered that my fans think so highly of my books as to do things like this.<br /><br />My queer-Mabinogi short story "Hyddwen" was accepted by Podcastle.org. I'm overjoyed that it's going to get the audio-publication treatment, like <a href="http://podcastle.org/2015/02/20/podcastle-351-hoywverch/">the first story in the series (Hoywverch) </a>did, because it's written very deliberately in an oral storytelling style. Selling it means that it's time to start writing the third story in the series. (Like the original Mabinogi, it's planned to have four branches. I have the basic skeleton of the plots for 3 & 4 outlined, but there are still a lot of details to noodle.)<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.goldencrown.org/page/2017Finalist">Golden Crown Literary Awards 2017 shortlists</a> came out and <em>Mother of Souls</em> did not make the shortlist for the Science Fiction and Fantasy category. (<em>Daughter of Mystery</em> and <em>The Mystic Marriage</em> were both shortlisted but neither of them won--there are three winners in each category.) In one sense, this is not at all surprising, because the Goldies are--in their essence--awards for the best lesfic novels, and I don't write lesfic in the genre sense. But it's still disappointing.<br /><br />On Wednesday, I came home from work to discover my front door kicked in and my house ransacked, including having my safe ripped out of its fastenings and pick-axed open. Mysteriously (but tellingly) I have not identified anything that was actually stolen (including the two older laptops that were stored in the safe, or any of the jewelry that was left strewn across the bed). My hypothesis is that the burglars were under the vastly mistaken impression that there might be drugs in the house, given the nature and scope of the apparent search activities. But given that one of the major reasons for moving out of Oakland seven years ago was being tired of regular burglaries, I'm furious and shaken and resigned.<br type="_moz" /><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=hrj&ditemid=653775" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments