julian_griffith

Julian Griffith, after years of writing for her own amusement and that of her friends, is hard at work on her first novel, an unconventional romance between two men and one woman set in England during the Napoleonic Wars. It isn't finished, let alone published, but she has high hopes of it.

For now, this journal will likely contain musings on the writing process, research notes, and the occasional excerpt.

 I SHOULD have been working on the "An Improper Arrangement" story. I've been neglecting it. (I've been neglecting everything. I haven't been well.)

But she was telling me about an obscure-fandoms fest or meme or SOME damn thing, and how someone had requested Major Edrington/Georgiana Darcy.

Which... no. If you put P&P in 1813, he's MUCH too old for her, given that he had to be at least mid-twenties at Quiberon in '95. And she's sixteen. Even if you put P&P in the mid-1790s when it was written, sure, he'd be kind to her, but they're not a match with any chemistry.

So, being who I am, I said "You know what works better? Edrington/Darcy." 

kittygamble liked this idea. And, once I'd said it, it would not leave me alone until I wrote it.

So, here. Have a little under 2000 words of Edrington/Darcy slash. Mildly smutty, but not as explicit as I usually write things. In my typical fashion, the men are very clearly bisexual. A little wistful, but, for the most part, sweet.

( If you think I can be arsed to figure out a title, think again.Collapse )
 

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What I should have been doing today: cleaning house in preparation for the arrival of a house guest. Namely one K. Piet, marketing director of Storm Moon Press, the wonderful people who are publishing my novel, because Storm Moon Press is going to have a table at the Rainbow Book Fair in NYC on Saturday, and I'm going to help staff it with her. It's kind of important that I clean at least enough to be able to unfold the sofa bed without dislodging papers.

What I did instead?

Wordcount.

I cranked out a LOT of words today on the Regency-lesbians story. Once I get in the groove, it goes like ANYTHING. This is for several reasons: first, I'm in my ELEMENT in a woman-focused Regency story, because FASHION and INTERIOR DESIGN and CARRIAGES and PROMENADES IN HYDE PARK and all that Georgette Heyer goodness; second, I've really started to get a handle on the inner lives of my main characters; third, as I go on, I'm getting a better and better sense of the STRUCTURE of this thing (when it comes to plotter or pantser? PANTS ALL THE WAY, though I do rough it out concept-style with mswyrr ); and, lastly, THIS IS SET IN MY NOVELVERSE. I have incidents and framework and supporting characters ALL THERE already. Alexander's Newfoundland, Minor, has just made an appearance for a small but important role!

The thing's just over 9K now. I suspect it's only about half done. I checked with the editor, though, and she said OVER wordcount is a much easier sell than UNDER, and when it comes to lesbian fiction, she's likely to be extra-lenient.

I'm not going to give you the Important Caroline/Alexander Argument (I swear, sometimes I think Alexander's main function in my universe is to get angry about things, but he does it SO WELL, and in ways that serve the theme and plot), but here, I cannot resist sharing a bit of the Cute Newfie Business:

When Alexander opened the door, an enormous black dog jumped up from the tiger rug that lay before the hearth, and bounded towards them, wagging his tail furiously. Caroline reached out (she did not have to bend in the slightest) and scratched his ears. “Minor! I’ve been neglecting you, I know. When Parliament recesses, you shall come to Maitland House, and run about to your heart’s content, even if the children don’t care to be hauled out of the duck-pond quite as often as you think best.”

Alexander laughed. “Am I invited, too?”

“Well, I suppose, as I know how little he likes to be separated from his master,” Caroline teased. Julia only rolled her eyes at that, but Caroline noticed that Mary was cringing away. “Minor, sit. I assure you, Mary, he means you no harm! He is the gentlest, kindest creature that ever lived. Only but let him sniff your hand, and he will know you for a friend -- though I do suggest you take your glove off first, as he does have a habit of drooling.”

I SWEAR I'M NOT JUST BEING SELF-INDULGENT, IT BECOMES IMPORTANT.

But, God, it's fun to write.
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Captain's Surrender by Alex Beecroft

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Now this is what a romance is supposed to BE.

I will admit, Age of Sail is my home ground. And I can't get enough of the forbidden-love trope, so historical m/m is perfect for me, because it's an organic part of the setting, and not achieved by contrivances. But, that said...

Josh and Peter are both engaging, realistically flawed, sympathetic characters. The plot goes along at a crisp pace, with plenty of action, nail-biting tension, and strong emotions, not all of which are related to the developing romance. Okay, I'm also a sucker for crazy-tyrant-captain and floating-hell scenarios, because of reasons, but they're scenarios that come up a lot in Age of Sail fiction, because of probably the same reasons (look, do I have to be delicate about it? Mutiny and Retribution are masterworks of storytelling) and I've seen them done abysmally as often as I've seen them done well. This was done with consummate skill: I could feel every shout, every flinch, every tremble. The historical detail, as far as I could tell, was flawless -- I'm more at home about twenty-five years later, but I couldn't see a single error. Do you have any idea what a relief that is? And a joy? The details of shipboard life, and of battle... if I could do them even half as well, I might feel more confident including them, instead of sticking to drawing rooms and inns and cottage kitchens. My hat's off.

And the romance! The unbalanced nature of it, the way the characters' emotions build and shift, the frustrating misunderstandings that were completely plausible instead of making me want to shake them and say "just TALK to each other, for God's sake" -- no, they talked to each other, but they still managed to talk past each other in ways that were utterly believable and heartbreaking. And the final resolution was glorious.

And not ONCE did this story make me uncomfortable by presenting non-consent as acceptable or romantic. These men CHECKED. Even when they were being passionate and fierce, there was never a time when either of them forced the other or ignored a sign of discomfort. This shouldn't HAVE to be a relief, but it was, and I am most thoroughly grateful.

THIS is a romance. THIS is what I want from my stories. I cannot speak too highly of it. Go forth and read.





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I got sidetracked into primary sources, but this thing is already at 5700+ words for an 8-12K call. Have some Regency setting detail porn that I'm almost certainly going to have to trim:

This entry was originally posted at http://julian-griffith.dreamwidth.org/27617.html and has comments. Comment wherever you like.

The Complete Servant by Samuel Adams

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Every Regency writer NEEDS TO READ THIS.

It's not just advice for servants and explanations of their duties, although that in itself is brilliant. But it has recipes, and weights and measures, and HACKNEY FARES IN LONDON including a table of fares from the major theaters to various locations, and information on the London post, and where the mail-coaches leave from for outlying parts... THIS IS YOUR SECRET WEAPON FOR AUTHENTICITY.

note: free on Google Books.



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With infinite thanks to kittygamble for reminding me.

This entry was originally posted at http://julian-griffith.dreamwidth.org/27278.html and has comments. Comment wherever you like.

The Devil's Delilah by Loretta Chase

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I was going to write a really scathing review of this, but, frankly, I've complained about this one to a group of my friends, and I am purely exhausted.

So. First. The good points. Loretta Chase writes clear prose, snappy dialogue, and well-fleshed out characters. The pacing of the book is good, and the caper plot is handled tolerably well.

The bad points?

I was drawn into reading this by a glowing review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. In which the reviewer praised the hero to the skies for his nobility and compassion and his way of going above and beyond for the heroine despite the cost to himself. Given the prevalence of alphaholes out there... this sounded like a sure thing. Here's an excerpt:

Jack is often shy and unsure of himself, but not when he kisses Delilah. He is overwhelmed by his feelings for her - both physical and emotional - and he does not like the tumult she inspires in him. When he realizes he's kissed her in a way that would be considered poor manners on the part of a gentleman, he doesn't blame her for being a temptation, and lay the responsibility on her. He is mortified at his lack of control, and apologizes very humbly. Jack has a tremendous moral compass.

What this passage does not tell you is that, right before the kiss they're describing, Jack THROTTLES Delilah out of anger, and the kiss is an extension of that, done forcefully and coercively and in a manner he admits was meant to make her feel like a whore. "Poor manners on the part of a gentleman" is one hell of a way to describe ASSAULT.

And then Delilah spends a lot of time blaming herself for provoking him, and having a great deal of difficulty distinguishing between arousal and love. As she's physically inexperienced, this is plausible, but it's painful to see such a strong-willed heroine follow those lines of thought.

That's not the only time he lays violent hands on her, either. There's another scene where he yanks her head back by the hair, shortly followed by another aggressive kiss -- and later, when they discuss it, he says that kisses like that are the only thing he's ever found that will subdue her. (view spoiler)[She was attacking him at the time, in the very understandable belief that this disguised highwayman carrying her off in a curricle needed to be disarmed of his pistol. (hide spoiler)] EW.

There were a number of historical infelicities, which I won't go into great detail about. I know I'm very demanding on that level, and most people wouldn't read about a "small pistol in her reticule" and go "wait, this predates the derringer by a couple of decades, I'm not buying that she could have fit one in there." Some of her historical details are pretty good, after all.

So. If you like your heroes with a streak of violence, and don't mind ones who abuse the concept of consent and disrespect the heroine's autonomy, you might enjoy this book.

But I didn't.



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This entry was originally posted at http://julian-griffith.dreamwidth.org/26980.html and has comments. Comment wherever you like.

Unlike my personal journals, this identity hasn't been around long enough to acquire hosts of abandoned friends and "who are these people anyway?" journals I'm subscribed to.

HOWEVER! I have noticed a definite trend of duplication between the LJ and DW lists.

So! Please, if you would, help me out here:

• If you have both an LJ and a DW, and you crosspost, please let me know which one you consider your primary one, and I'll subscribe there.


• If you crosspost but have no preference, let me know that, and I'll use Dreamwidth.


• If you only use one service, I can probably figure it out. I'm not deleting anything but duplicates.


• If you want to grant me access to locked posts, that's at your discretion. I probably won't grant it back, as I don't make friendslocked posts on this account. This is essentially my public author blog.


• If you only know me by this name, but want more access about my RL trials and tribulations than I post here, go over and drop a comment at my personal account, name of rikibeth. It's also mirrored from DW to LJ. Leave a comment at whichever location you'd prefer I read you at.


• Keep in mind that I haven't been posting overmuch there, lately, either.


• But I'll be doing some filter maintenance there soon. Mostly concerning who's interested in being on the filter about bipolar disorder. Totally opt-in. I don't want to burden anyone who doesn't want to hear about it. But if you do, rikibeth is the place to find it. I'm not likely to talk about it a lot on this one, but I'll add anyone who wants to know there.


• I won't drop you from the author journal if you subscribe to the personal one, or vice versa. I can handle THAT much duplication.  See edit below. You might get some duplication yourself, as I'm certainly going to hassle my friends with post any really important writing news to the personal LJ.


• If you know me as both author and ordinary slob, and only care about one info stream, defriend/unsubscribe at will.


• If you don't care about either, defriend/unsubscribe at will!
•  
• ETA: If I only subscribe to you on DW, but subscribe as both my author and personal self, I might take you off the author-journal reading page. Access will not be affected. I may defriend people from the author LJ if I've friended you both as my author and personal self. This will not affect your access to any author stuff, because that journal's public! And, again, if you ONLY care about the author stuff, and don't subscribe/friend my personal journals, I'll stay subscribed to YOU as my author self. I'm interested in ALL of you! Just, you know, not twice, or four times over.

Thank you SO much for helping me improve the signal-to-noise ratio of my friends feeds! This entry was originally posted at http://julian-griffith.dreamwidth.org/26822.html and has comments. Comment wherever you like.

 This is a damned good thing, because I haven't gotten a thing done since January. Well, outlining, and just the past day or two some preparatory notes with mswyrr , but it meant I whiffed the deadline on the Carina Christmas call (though I learned a LOT about women who followed the army in the Peninsular War), and I'm highly unlikely to make the deadline for Riptide's Regency-lesbians call, unless I can bang out 25K in four days. But Storm Moon also has a Regency-lesbians call, for June, and I can probably manage that.

I have to keep repeating to myself that bipolar disorder really is a chronic illness, and that having a flareup isn't a sign of moral deficiency, even though the result looks like sheer laziness. And, besides the depression, one of the symptoms has been a marked loss of appetite, which deprives my brain of blood sugar and other nutrients it needs to function, which obviously doesn't help my writing. I've just gotten a new antidepressant prescription to add to my existing mood stabilizers -- Wellbutrin. Which was kind of a trainwreck when I took it before without stabilizers (and I did tell the prescriber this, I'm not that stupid), but she seems to think that with the mood stabilizers already there, it won't be as dramatically scary.

But ANYWAY. I broke the drought today! Naturally, not on the story with a close deadline. But it s on something with a target market -- the Vampire Byron story. I'd been wondering whether I had to address "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." So I did. I'm still not certain about it -- it's essentially a reveal -- but it does acknowledge that Noel isn't acting as selfishly as Byron did in his twenties, and anyway, I can always cut it, if I decide it shouldn't be there.

Since I rather like the 300 words themselves, have a look:

***

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Sail Away by Lee Rowan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A collection of short stories set in the same universe as Ransom. I found them all delightful; I already love her Royal Navy officers William Marshall and David Archer, and the stories featuring Captain Smith and David's cousin Kit were just as sweet. The bonus story by Charlie Cochrane was fun, too -- I'm even willing to put up with a discussion of head lice if I'm getting the treat of a hair-combing scene!

Lee Rowan draws a great deal of her inspiration from the same sources I do, and the characters are warmly familiar and appealing. Her attention to historical accuracy is commendable, and her characters' affection for each other is strong and tender. And the two het stories at the beginning of the collection were just as satisfying as the ones of William and David. She has a good feel for how explicit a scene needs to be to serve the story.

All in all, enjoyable and satisfying romance.



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