New:
Gina's Idiosyncratic Commandments for Good Fiction.
Gina's Rants
Gina's Very Short Grammar, Punctuation,
and Spelling Rant: Anything anyone else tells you about
grammar, punctuation, and spelling should be judged on this basis
-- that developing more formal grammar (if you've never gotten a
handle on it) or more informal grammer (if you had excellent
English teachers) should be about bringing your voice out, making
it clear and strong and unapologetically proud.
Gina's Very Short Usage Rant:
"Taut" means "tense, tight, or strained" --
"taunt" means "tease or insult". Get it
right. Why should you learn your homonyms, homophones, and other
easily confused words? Because if you don't do your part to
preserve the differences between them, all of us writers (or our
linguistic heirs) will lose the ability to express ourselves with
the exceptional distinctness of nuance that English's
multiplicity of synonyms can grant us.
Gina's Very Short Rape-story Rant:
The prevalence of rape in slash has nothing to do with the
(hypothesized) subconscious hatred of slashers for gay men. Women
will not cease to be fascinated by male rape unless and until
rape ceases to be a cause for women to resent men, and to fear
walking down the street or going on a date.
What to read while waiting for more slash
I don't read much plain ol' fiction, nor
smut-for-smut's sake, but I do read science fiction and fantasy.
So here are my recommendations:
Larque on the Wing by Nancy
Springer
In this Tiptree-winning book, Nancy
Springer takes magic realism to its best. I can't tell you
how fun it is to follow the characters as they muddle their
way through identities gendered, sexual, and political, so
I'll just introduce a few of them to you:
Argent runs a store where you can buy a
spare set of breasts or balls.
Shadow, Argent's lover, gives Magic
Makeovers.
Lark's a young cowboy who used to be a
middle-aged mom.
Hoot is Lark's husband, who deals fine with
the whole transgendered thing until Lark points a boner at
him.
Lark's mom, just wants everything to be
Pleasant.
Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner
Subtitled "A Melodrama of
Manners", this is a complex tale of politics and
swords-for-hire. Summary: Richard St. Vere may be the
greatest swordsman alive. He doesn't like to get involved
with nobles, but since he hires himself out as a duelist in a
city where unarmed nobles disdain straight-forward
assasination...and he has a weak point: his love for a young
scholar who calls himself Alec...
Kushner has also written a couple of short
stories in this universe: an m/m tale about Alec's son, and a
f/f tale. Both can be found in the Year's Best Fantasy and
Horror collections (ed. Datlow and whatsisname), tho' at the
moment I don't remember which ones. Stay tuned, I may figure
it out yet. Also in those volumes and in Immortal
Unicorn (ed. Peter S. Beagle) you'll find another
lovely m/m story by Kushner, called "The Hunt" or
something like that.
If you know of anything else by her
(besides Thomas the Rhymer, which, while an
excellent story, has no m/m or f/f) let me know!
anything by R(ebecca) M.
Meluch
Meluch is one of those authors who can make
you fall in love with characters who are evil, insane, and/or
wimpy. I don't know how she does it.
Look for The Queen's Squadron
(my personal fave), in which an interrogator / torturer named
Penetanguishene takes on starship captain Major Paul Strand,
while their respective empires battle for control of
humanity. How can you claim to love humankind when you foster
chaos? Penetanguishene asks. How can you claim to love
humankind when you stifle freedom? Paul asks.
And then there's Sovereign,
her first book, I think, which is less plausible than her
other stories but still fun, and with a charismatic
protagonist (if ya like angst).
And finally there's Chicago Red,
which is about the Second American Revolution. The king gets
very annoyed and annoying, while his assassin gets distracted
by a lovely young man, and a guy who might or might not be
Chris-John Stanton falls in with a cell of rebels and makes
himself the symbol of freedom... Oh, and there's War
Birds, an amusing story about a fighter pilot who
may remind you of the Red Baron, but there's no m/m or f/f in
it.
The Fire's Stone by Tanya Huff
A drunken, scapegrace prince, his wizard
fiance (they're both unhappy about the arranged marriage),
and his pet thief ("He fell onto my balcony, Dad, can I
keep him?") travel by land and sea to find the Fire's
Stone, which prevents the prince's island kingdom from
getting destroyed by a volcano. Or at least it used to --
until it was stolen.
Huff's other books often have m/m or f/f,
but Fifth Quarter doesn't have much of it,
and might squick you with its incest subtext -- and its
sequel is total crap. (Sorry, Ms. Huff, but it's true.) The
Blood Whatever books (starting with Blood Price)
have some m/m, and they're quite good, but the occasional m/m
action / subplot tends to get drowned out by the m/f action /
subplot -- which I enjoyed (and this is coming from someone
who is usually squicked or infuriated by m/f plots and
scenes), but not a sufficient substitute for slash.
The Door into Fire by Diane
Duane
I'm sorry, I can't summarize the plot of
this one as I was heavily under the influence of college and
coffee when I read it. What I do remember is that the main
character is a minor prince with a talent for magic that
supposedly is limited to women. He's trying to master his
gift so that he can use it to restore his lover, the son of
the (deceased) high king, to the throne. There's also a fire
elemental called Sunspark who doesn't really understand
gender and can be either as the mood suits it. This book has
two sequels and I'd like to read them all again someday,
thoroughly this time. The trilogy has m/m, m/f, and f/f;
neat-o magic; polyamory and group marriage; a unique idea
about dragons; and a sort of Wiccan religion.
Furthermore, I'd recommend anything by
Diane Duane. A friend tells me her Trek novels are quite
good, and she's written at least three wizard books (So
You Want to be a Wizard, Deep Wizardry, High Wizardry)
for children that adults can also enjoy -- try playing
"Spot the Gay Couples." And if you like cats ;)
there's The Book of Night With Moon.
That's all I can think of right now. Go away ;)
Ideas
presented for your use and abuse
"I've been feeding my muse too many
phallus-shaped vegetables lately." --Gina.
TS xover with Terry Moore's Strangers
in Paradise, anyone?
Remember MegaRouge's pics of a younger GM
and a younger RB? I keep looking at the GM pic and thinking,
"Dangerous, very dangerous." So...what if Blair
were on the wrong side of the law? Not someone you can
immediately see as a victim just trying to survive, either,
like in the drabbles from SENAD this spring, but rather a
genuinely Bad Guy.
What if the guys really are straight? Gina
has a two-word rebuttal: Pavlov's dogs.
Well, I know I have *more* ideas, but I'll put
'em up later.
the front door
Gina's Fanfic