July 8, 2014

Three Times And It's True










Y’all have heard me gripe and groan about content thieves until you’re probably tired of it but here’s something I noticed recently. We know people tend to believe what they read. 

If it’s in print it has to be true, right? 

One of my stories was stolen twice, then because people saw it in three places I saw parts of it quoted elsewhere as gospel. Luckily, I research my work before putting it in print but not everyone is as conscientious nor do they even care if the information is fact, they only care about making money so they just empty their brain and post it on the Internet. 

Unfortunately not everyone double checks that what they read is true. 

The world is already full of people that aren’t terribly bright but now we have bad information out there that some gullible fools are taking for fact. 

I’ve even seen friends on Facebook say they don’t believe something unless they read the story in a few different places. Well, that’s all well and good but there are those that just copy and paste so you aren’t always getting truth even if you see it thrice. 



There are those that will tell you, “Oh, I only read reputable news sites so I know it’s true.” 

Really? A few years ago a fellow blogger had a newspaper steal one of his stories and print it without his permission. He sued the paper and got compensation but the point I’m trying to make is that not all journalists gather their own work. They get tired, lazy or run out of time so they just “borrow” someone else’s research. Maybe it’s accurate and maybe it’s not. Who knows? 

News has become more like gossip. One person starts the story, it snowballs and by the end it becomes blown out of proportion to the point it doesn’t even resemble the truth.
Snopes is a good website to verify urban legends but I’ve even seen a few comments by people that don’t think they are completely flawless. 

There are actually websites that purposely post lies to be humorous but regrettably there are many that believe the words they read there and pass it along to anyone who will listen. 

So the next time you read a story or even see one on a news channel take it with a grain of salt because not everything you read or hear is completely true. All articles are biased with other people’s opinions and none give the complete story. 




June 11, 2014

Women Writing Gay Fiction





Why would a straight woman want to write novels about homosexual men?

I pondered this question myself until I read a few… now I’m hooked.
It's like straight men who like to watch lesbian porn. We are voyeurs looking in a window of something we cannot take part and in reality most of us wouldn’t want to but it is still titillating. There are no women in the way, only hot guys and who could complain about that?
There’s nothing wrong with female/male romance my house is full of them as well but male/male romances are different. You are probably thinking, well duh but aside from the obvious body parts and how they fit together the emotions are different. They don’t have the cattiness and mind games you find in your typical romance with a female main character. Women think differently (again, obviously), they don’t behave the same way and there isn’t the same chemistry. 


How do gay men feel about reading fiction written by straight women? 

Most of them love it at least the well written books. I’ve read many reviews and comments by men that are positive. When you have more writers you have more books and a greater variety to choose from so the majority of guys aren’t complaining.
With that said there are a few gay men who aren’t happy about it and refuse to read anything written by a woman but these guys are in the minority. Huffington Post has an article written by an angry gay man who is unhappy with women encroaching upon their domain. You can’t please everyone.
The few that scoff are of the opinion a straight woman can’t possibly know what a homosexual male feels much less thinks and they are correct but most authors must get enough of it right otherwise men wouldn’t read them at all. 


Sneaky Writers

Some female writers use a male sounding pseudonym and give a vague bio so that people might not notice. The guys that are adamant at only reading work written by men may be misled into buying their work but in the end it never works. Eventually the truth comes out and in my opinion they are better off being honest. There are enough readers out there that don’t care if the books are written by a squirrel in the woods as long as it’s a good story.
Who wants a pissed off reader? When feeling deceived they may give a bad review out of spite even if the story is good and none of us needs a bad review.
And speaking of reviews it appears that a large number of the readers are also women unless the male readers are too busy to write a review.
It’s kind of like men who write romance novels for women. Some use a fake name but these days it isn’t really that important. Most people have tossed out prejudices and don’t care who wrote what as long as the book is good.


Acceptance

With more m/m novels saturating the market it’s kind of like gay marriage and other equality issues. The more you see the more mainstream it becomes. I’m not saying there won’t still be those ignorant people who bash, snub and are otherwise rude. We all know Rome wasn’t built in a day. What I’m saying is when you see more of something it becomes normal. Look at interracial marriage and multicultural schools. Once we rub elbows with people who are different we don’t notice their differences quite so much.