Facebook flog - Aug 8 2013

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: Aug 08 2013, 11:58
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's Facebook. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

The Merry Gentry novel coming summer 2014 has an official title. Drum roll, please, for:

A Shiver of Light

It's actually one of the titles that was on sticky notes in my office back when I was brain storming titles with my publisher after original titles had been used, so this title has been waiting since at least 2005.

Comments

[collectively.livejournal.com]

>_< So...does it actually have anything to do with the book, or did it just sound cool?

I mean, I have such a knee-jerk negative reaction to 98% of what she says that I should give her the benefit of the doubt, I guess. Maybe she saw that sticky note and went "OH, that's perfect for this book!"

But given the level of relevance of recent AB book titles to their content (and I use the word "content" lightly) I have trouble believing it. Unless the MG books haven't been like that - I've never read any myself.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Given that it's a throwback to 2005, I'd say it's from the original outline of Merry (which was supposed to be five books but blew out to eight, and then became indefinite) where the title nomenclature was supposed to move from darkness into light, so we started with shadows and twilight and then a new day dawns etc.

Which then got completely mangled when she published Mistral's Kiss, A Lick of Frost etc. and said it was now about each of the men, but that lasted until Divine Misdemeanors when was when she vowed she'd never write to a set plotline/arc again because it was so creatively constrictive.

So...now we're flipping back to the original plan? I'm confused. And I may whack a "wank: Continuity" tag in there because lolol continuity what is that.

(Re: the ABVH books, she freely admitted that from Blood Noir on, it's just shit she thinks is cool and has zero relevance to the books.)

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

but that lasted until Divine Misdemeanors when was when she vowed she'd never write to a set plotline/arc again because it was so creatively constrictive.

So...now we're flipping back to the original plan? I'm confused.
I think that this is precisely it. The publisher has decided that "creatively constrictive" is just what the local diva needs around her neck*, and so it's back to Plan A.

*I don't want to strangle her, but I think that, by this point, the publisher does.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I would honestly be happy if the publisher told her "wrap up the series. No you can't have this run into perpetuity." Because hey original plan was five books and it would have been actually pretty good if she'd stuck with it.

But even if there was a "come to Jesus" discussion and just now damage control is being implemented, it's at least five years too late for both Merry and Anita.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's "come to Jesus" so much as "come to Purgatory" at this point.

The publishers are probably twisting her arm to continue on in the series where she has some semblance of a plot. I have to wonder if the "new series ideas" she's had are really hers, or not-so-subtle suggestions the publisher has been dropping in her ear. "Have you considered a male protagonist? A space series? ANYTHING OTHER THAN A SHORT, BUSTY CHICK IN NEED OF THERAPY FUCKING HER WAY TO GLORY?"

[dwg.livejournal.com]

NGL I'm morbidly curious about these "new series ideas" featuring a male protagonist, just to see how LKH's issues will translate over and all the WTFery it brings. Even more interesting if it's somehow in third person.

But omg getting all my popcorn gifs ready for the new year. Please let there be wankmas, I've been ever so good.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

I am doubtful about whether she's actually going to write it, but it would be interesting to see how she would do it.

...Though, truth be told, I'm bracing for impact with transwank. Anita has enough gender issues. Hamilton only wants (mistyped as "wanks" - Freudian slip) to write self-inserts. She's obviously restless and looking for some great new subversiveness to latch onto, preferably one everyone else cottoned onto several years ago.

I really, REALLY hope she doesn't try to jump abroad the trans train, because of how horribly she would fuck everything up in her portrayal, but I have an awful feeling that it's the logical conclusion of all of Anita's creepy I Am A Better Man wankery and drama for the last several books. In the most rankly misogynist, gender-essentialist, and homophobic way possible, of course. (And quite likely rankly transphobic, because I don't even want to think of how she would portray MTFs, femme FTMs, trans people who don't fit the gender binary, etc.)

It may be just paranoia on my part, but the Queen of Self-Inserts sniffing around male protagonists is tripping my alarms. (It doesn't help that LKH is doing a conga through everything that is, to put it harshly, Tumblr-trendy. First she claimed to be dyslexic (did she ever hit ADHD?), now she's playing the 'I have Aspie friends' card, she's "poly", "heteroflexible", and into BDSM, she's been doing trans(bi)racial wankery with both her protagonists since before it was cool, she's basically a multiple otakukin towards her own characters, and now... *grimace* As I said, I'm bracing for impact.)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Oh dear god please let her stay away from transpeople. I can only imagine the horror show of misgendering people and then the slab of text justifying how the protagonist isn't actually gay because technically they're female and something something enjoys orgasms. But on the other hand, I guess this means she'll be staying away from asexuals because the idea that some people just don't like sex with other people (never mind if they do enjoy it with themselves or enjoy not having sexual urges at all) would probably be something that she cannot comprehend.

Yeah, she hit ADHD and now makes jokes about --OOH SHINY!

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more along the lines of FTM!Anita, with characters commenting that he was the first Truly Authentic (Trans)Man they'd ever met, that he was more manly than guys "born" male, that all the jealous haters were just intimidated by his masculinity and his spiritual wang, and... Good gad, I actually did get a headache just thinking about it. *rubs forehead*

"But on the other hand, I guess this means she'll be staying away from asexuals [...]"
Well, LKH does try for a wanky demisexual ('I'm only hot for people I LOOOOVE! Honest!')* shtick, so she'd probably make it Like Asexuality But Better, then whine about how everyone discriminated against FTM!not-Anita because HE ONLY SHAGS MEN (and token women, 'cos he's heteroflexible, not one of those icky gay men) HE LOOOOVES.
*(With no offense to demisexuals, but LKH obviously wants her heroines to have truckloads of casual sex, only tacking on the "love" as a justification. Which is pretty much ass-backwards from what I understand demisexuality is.)

"Yeah, she hit ADHD and now makes jokes about --OOH SHINY! "
*facepalm* **** it. (I'm willing to accept that LKH has an attention issue, since Anita does have a bizarre tendency to zone out and stare at pretty objects, but she plays the same creepy bullshit with it that she now plays with social awkwardness - in her (and her self-inserts) it's a mark of Specialness, but in anyone else it's damning and to be mocked. That would be another reason why I am very, very unnerved about the male protagonist.)


Mercifully, I don't think she's cottoned onto trans people yet (because her Twitter would never shut up about it), but I do notice that she's shoving a lot of obsession with stereotypical masculinity into the AB books - more than usual, I mean. She's made even Nathaniel a muscled-up dude, given Anita a sex slave with shoulders wider than a Harley, and even brought in a weak, fragile ~giiiiirl~ for Anita to act all manly around. And her worship of sociopathy (and how it's ~so very guy~) has ramped up to new heights. Wonder if this is testing the waters for the inevitable Manly Sociopath she'll have in the (cis or trans) male protagonist series...

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

OH PLEASE no asexual characters. Sigh, I have a feeling it would turn into 'the RIGHT vagina curing it'. ie:Anita's vagina. And no that's not how asexuality works LKH. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that ace peeps are just too incomprehensible for her write. (Please, please, please)

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

It would be that and/or asexuality = evil. She already has a pre-pubescent vampire who's an evil sadist simply because she can't have/doesn't want sex.

[okami-no-yume.livejournal.com]

I have to say, A Lick of Frost will never cease to make me snicker immaturely. XD Yes, I am secretly twelve.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Swallowing Darkness is the one that does me in, mostly for the "I HAD NO IDEA IT WAS A DOUBLE ENTENDRE NO REALLY!" disclaimer that LKH has for added eyeroll.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

That's one of the things that sometimes makes me suspect (or hope) she's just trolling us all. You're writing a porn series, what's wrong with the titles being porny? Why pretend?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Yeah but then she'd have to stop telling the story over how she didn't understand the joke for six whole months because she's that naiive teehee. And I think she loves the story a bit too much to do that.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Jeez, the woman writes porn. Pretending to be naive about sex is just gross. Well, she does write sex very badly, but still. It's like how Anita keeps being told she's a "good girl" and has to be forced to have sex all the time. Yuck.

[othellia.livejournal.com]

Swallowing Darkness is the best title of all the titles she's ever come up with. It is just so classic.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

I still think the first two Merry books are the best works of LKH's career, and if she'd stuck to the original arc/plan and wrapped this up in five or six books, I think it would probably have been an amazing series. She may chafe at the restrictions, but by Cthulhu, she bloody well needs them as a writer.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

My first thought: so, who is Light going to be then?

[jya-bd-cp-ttgb.livejournal.com]

Again guys, she did the trans! thing with Narcissus. Because he's a hyena and "hyenas are matriarchial" so she's just making more of a mess than she did before.

[guardians-song.livejournal.com]

Technically, Narcissus was intersex.