Shih-aan (one of the fictional races in Wishbone) count in base nineteen.
The word for today is pleonasm. I have writers with a bad case of this.
Up for Grabs is on a top ten erotic romances list. I think from this article that the original is on Rainbow Reviews, but I haven’t found it there yet. I’ll keep looking.
Update: I’m almost positive that the appearance of Rainbow Reviews on this post has nothing to do with it, and the link above is the source of the article.
This review is from Three Dollar Bill Reviews.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned, but Torquere Press is presenting me as the featured author this week. There is an interesting interview with me somewhere that I suspect most people couldn’t find if they went looking.
Edit: the week has passed, and the interview is down.
I swear, this clip looks exactly like someone cribbed it from one of a historical “romance.” Watch with sound off for best effect.
Click if not at work, near kids, or flammable
A fellow writer and friend, M.Christian, has recently run into one of the joys of new media: plagiarism and identity theft. It’s one step ickier than finding your work up on torrent sites. If you’re into spreading things around, please spread this.
“I’m writing to inform you about a disturbing situation that has recently come up. In my ten-plus years as a professional author with more than 250+ short stories, 20 anthologies, four collections, and five published novels to my credit, I have never had someone try and impersonate me and plagiarize my work.
Until now.
Someone calling himself “M.Christian” has been publicizing a gay horror novel from Alyson Books called Me2. This person is not me, the real M.Christian, but rather someone trying to capitalize on my name and steal my identity.
Sure, the plot of Me2 sure sounds like something I would create. Agreed, the style is very close to my own. And yes, I have done a lot of good work with Alyson Books before. But Me2 is not mine, and this other “M.Christian” is not me.
Just take a look at the back cover copy. Does this sound like a novel I would write:
Do You Know Yourself?
He looks just like you. He acts exactly like you. He takes away your job. He steals your friends. He seduces your lover. Every day he becomes more and more like you, pushing you out of your life, taking away what was yours … until there’s nothing left. Where did he come from? Robot? Alien? Clone? Doppelganger? Evil twin? Long lost brother?
A shocking new view of queer identity, Me2 is a groundbreaking and wildly twisted novel that you’ll remember for a long time – no matter who you are, or who you think you may be.
This copy even goes for far as to steal my actual biography and even make fun of the fact that the author is not the real me! Here’s what he says on the back of the book:
M. Christian’s numerous stories have appeared in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, as well as in the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, and Filthy. He is also the author of the novels, Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, The Painted Doll, and Brushes. Some, however, suspect that M.Christian may be more than one person. The other “M.Christian” adamantly denies this rumor.
What’s even worse is that this copycat hasn’t just managed to trick Alyson Books into publishing this novel, but he’s somehow tricked respectable authors and reviews such as Felice Picano and Michael Thomas Ford into providing blurbs for the book!
Absolutely brilliant. M.Christian explores the meaning of identity and humanity in a generic world where literally everything can be manufactured – a world frighteningly like our own. – Lisabet Sarai, author of Incognito and Fire
Me2 is a unique and always entertaining fable-novel about what exactly identity may entail and how we may or may not decide whether it’s worth the price of keeping it. – Felice Picano, author of Art & Sex in Greenwich Village
M. Christian has a delightful, marvelously twisted way with words which cause his narratives to crawl beneath your skin and fester there, making you go back for more. He writes with a strong, unique voice which is not only entertaining but also makes you think, makes you ponder the improbable. You’ll think you’ve read this delicious, fast-paced story, but did you? Or was it you? – Mari Adkins contributing editor, Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest
With delicious slyness, M. Christian creates a world in which the familiar becomes sinister and the comfort of daily routine is replaced by a growing sense of dread. His modern parable lays bare the all-too-real dangers inherent in the sacrifice of individuality in the pursuit of cultural homogenization. – Michael Thomas Ford, author of Full Circle and Changing Tides
Please, help me catch this “other” M.Christian and expose him for the plagiarist and fraud that he is. It’s important to me, as the real M.Christian, to preserve my identity and career as a writer. For updates on this fraud being perpetuated in my name, please check out my Web site at www.mchristian.com.
Luckily I have managed to get my hands on the novel itself. If you’d like to receive a copy of Me2 — either in its final printed form or as a PDF file — so you can see that while is this is a excellent novel full of humor, horror, suspense and all kinds of devish twists and turns it’s still not a book that I would actually write, please contact me:
The REAL M.Christian zobop@aol.com mchristianzobop@gmail.com www.mchristian.com.
For your reference, I’m attaching info on the impostor’s book:
Me2 Alyson Books ISBN-10: 1555839630 ISBN-13: 978-1555839635 $13.95
Thank you for your help and support regarding this frightening situation.”
A friend pointed me to this site, Male Submission Art. The blog author’s goal is to collect images of male submission other than the typical femdom art where the male is a worthless worm. Traditional femdom art gets up my nose too. Is she wearing those 6″ heels for her pleasure? There’s always some that do, but I like the idea of men submitting to women or men out of strength and desire and…
Well, you should just look at the pictures. They are totally not safe for work.
I should have said in my Arisia post that a friend there mentioned to me that her FaceBook feed has become a lot more interesting since she friended me. Just doing my job here.
I went to Arisia. It would have been nice to be on programming given that Wishbone came out last week, but organization is for other people.
Something important I learned as an Aspie is that when people ask how you are, you always lie. The catch is that sometimes I do not look ok and people will not take my word for it when I tell them. In the case of Arisia, I was experiencing the worst migraines I’ve had in almost a year. This led to many people saying “You look glassy-eyed. Are you ok?” I settled for telling them that the migraines weren’t nice, but that the drugs were.
Whatever.
Observation: there are lots of Aspies at cons. I mean, I knew this, of course, but damn.
Friday night was the Circlet Press party. I handed out lots of flyers. There’s something entertaining about offering people pieces of paper related to adult content. A few are emphatically not interested when you tell them Circlet publishes Erotic literature. But most are. I offered a flyer to a nice young lady whose eyes lit up like little sparklers. She told me that this was her first Arisia since she turned 18, and now she was delighted to go to parties that had been forbidden shortly before.
I had only bought a membership for Friday because I wasn’t sure how I’d feel. However, so many people I hadn’t seen in a long time were glad to see me. I decided to come back Saturday for more of the same.
I had a fantastic time going to parties and telling people that I wrote smut, would they like to check out my web site? This was even more fun after I found the rocket fuel party.
One gentleman informed me snootily that he didn’t need my site because his needs were served by Literotica.com. Have you ever looked at that site? I did once. I read the guidelines and found that everything that I had ever been advised not to write, and that everything that I had ever advised writers not to do, was required for Literotica stories. Ok, dude, you’re like, not a potential customer. No worries.
I also did some highly-useful schmoozing.
I found out something terrible. It was bad enough when all of my friends had kids. Now all their kids are starting high school. Augh!
Steampunk may be a bit overdone, but all the vendors of steampunk costume items work in leather, and their rooms smelled wonderful.
I had a great time, which made the subsequent minor snowstorm, the migraines it caused, and recent political events even more depressing. I’ll go have some more chocolate now.
Torquere’s in-house review of the book is right here. It pleased me that the author enjoyed it, though that isn’t surprising. They don’t find an in-hourse reviewer who hates the book. What did surprise me is how well the reviewer got it. As an Aspie, knowing that I’ve communicated successfully with people is a powerful positive experience. Almost as positive as hearing from people who told me they had to go home early from work after reading my fiction.
Edit: Ok, now all the url’s are fixed.
Kneel to Me
Mate: And More Stories from the Erotic Edge of SF/Fantasy
The Memorial Garden
Up for Grabs
Wired Hard 4
Wishbone