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Handcuffed to the Bear (my shifter M/F romance novel as Lauren) is free on Kindle this weekend, in case you want to check it out. (UK version - let me know if you need the Amazon link for your country.) It'll be free tomorrow as well.
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(Tomorrow starts Srs Bizness in many fields. Expect much flailing about "but how does romance WORK even?")
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This whole erom thing has been very interesting, because I'm writing idfic but not for my kinks! I've rarely done that before ... I wouldn't say never because I do experiment with stuff, but I don't think I've ever tried writing such iddy iddy stuff for kinks that don't really do much for me personally.
On the other hand, I can see what the appeal of it IS, and I think that's mainly how I'm doing it -- figuring out what people most likely get out of whatever the Thing is (like soulbonding, which is an enormous anti-kink for me, but all over erom) and then trying to write the kink in a way that most likely delivers what people are looking for from it.
(Handcuffed, as it happens, does not have soulbonding, at least not quite in the explicit way of everything else I've been writing lately, because I had to give myself at least ONE shifter universe where it wasn't a thing.)
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I read it yesterday, while lying on the couch recovering from my fucking horrible night before, and it was perfect for that purpose. I enjoyed it a lot, especially the action sequences (especially the one on the boat - just make them clothed and you'd have a great movie) and the shifter agency, and will write a review shortly-ish.
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... and well, yeah, obviously it's not that there is NOTHING in these books that I enjoy writing! Actually, I enjoy quite a bit of it, and the Lauren books are a great deal more in line with what I generally like to write than the other ones. (Thus far I'm hugely relieved that readers seem to be willing to accept and enjoy it for what it is; I had been fearing that it would get a slew of one-star reviews because of the lack of sex/3rd-party viewpoint/etc., but the reception seems to be fairly positive so far ...)
Still, the whole thing has been an interesting exercise in figuring out what people who like Trope X might enjoy, and why they might like it, and then trying to write that. Sort of like writing in an exchange for someone whose tastes are very different from yours, and still trying to figure out how to give them something they'll enjoy. It's easier with the Lauren books because I'm genuinely writing stuff I enjoy, and having a lot of fun doing it -- but even for the house-name ones, I DO want them to be sincerely enjoyable, and not to write them ironically while laughing quietly behind my hand at people who like them, because that's no fun for anyone.
Four thumbs up
Okay, I've been toying with the idea of downloading the Kindle app onto my laptop as a possible precursor to actually getting a Kindle. So, this was the push I needed; as one of my very most favorite authors in SGA -- and considering the low, low introductory price -- I downloaded the app and book late last night.
Today I carried my laptop to my favorite eatery to read during lunch (my normal practice), and was absolutely riveted; I sat there for three hours before duty forced me up to do my shopping. I'm only halfway through, but I love everything about it -- the characterization, the world-building, the sheer quality of the story... and the fact that the protagonists feel like real people. So, two thumbs up from me, and I will definitely be buying the sequel when it comes out.
Before I left the house this morning, I emailed my sis and two other friends, advising them to snatch it up. I just got an email from my sis, and she said this --
So that's another two thumbs up. And I'll leave a review, too, when I finish. I had started to do so -- I figured halfway was enough to give it an enthusiastic review -- but the process asked questions I couldn't answer because I hadn't read to the end. (This will be my first Amazon review, so I didn't know what it entailed.)
So anyway, thanks for the push. I know you've lost money by offering it for free, but I hope it'll pay off in increased later sales. I know my sis won't read your pseud for the m/m titles, but I'll head over there next. <g>
There's just one thing -- I usually carry a paperback when I go shopping; I get a lot of reading done while waiting in line, a few paragraphs or, in really long/slow lines, a few pages at a time. Can't do that with a digital book on my laptop. :( Maybe I'll finally ask for a Kindle for Christmas... my sis has been wanting to give me one for years, but I've resisted. In the words of the song (I forget which), I think I'll have to think it over again.
And now, I have 30 minutes before I have to feed the horses. Back to the bear and the lynx, yay!
BTW: didn't mean to presume, but my sis knows nothing of LJ/DW/Facebook, so I called you "an internet friend".
Aaannnd... I've finished, and it was wonderful! You had me all misty-eyed with happiness at the hopeful ending. It was a thoroughly satisfying read... and I haven't gotten so deeply involved in non-fanfic reading since I discovered fanfic. You done good; thanks for sharing with us.
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Re: Four thumbs up
The sequel will be out in mid to late October, if all goes well writing-wise between now and then! BTW, I have a mailing list for announcements of new Lauren books, which you should of course feel absolutely NO obligation to sign up for -- but if you did want to, here's the url for it: http://eepurl.com/btVi2X. (And it will, of course, be announced on my LJ/DW too.)
... And actually, doing paperback versions of these is something I would also like to do in the future. It's not quite in the works yet, but if the books do well (or possibly even if they don't) I think I'd like to have print versions, as I'm still an inveterate collector of dead tree books myself.
Re: Four thumbs up
Since I'm subscribed to you on DW and LJ, I'll just read your announcements here. But I'll pass the mailing list on to my sis, in case she wants it.
So, I read Homespun yesterday -- and was 2/3rds through before I realized the play on words, LOL! Loved it -- those two mismatched men, so in love but with such different backgrounds and experiences that they don't completely understand each other...
I really hurt for the rawness of Kerry's emotions, and was vastly impressed with your depth of vision about him and your skill in conveying his fears and uncertainties.
Loved the background area -- makes me want to visit, and learn to spin. I really got lost in that world, in the best possible way. Well done!
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Re: Four thumbs up
Mine is a Samsung tablet - but a kindle is basically the same idea. I still love actual books, and I get a lot of them. But I get online ebooks too always watching for sales and promotions. Often when in a series, the first ebook will go on sale or be free when the the next ebook comes out.
Re: Four thumbs up
Re: Four thumbs up
I hadn't thought of a tablet; thanks for the suggestion.
I know nothing about tablets, and barely more than that about Kindles. I think I'll have to borrow my friend's Kindle and take it to a store when I see what's available in tablets. I want a decent screen size without being too heavy to carry. Since I'm used to my laptop screen, anything will be a compromise; I'll just have to see what I think I can tolerate.
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That the general public doesn't know about shifters even though an official government agency for them exists was hard to believe, but I got over it. (Maybe there is some kind of spell but nobody knows it?)
Excellent set-up for the sequel, too. I definitely would like to read more about Avery, plus there'll be Jack and Casey in the background.
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Yeah, to be quite honest, I think the "secret world of shifters" thing is the weakest part of the worldbuilding, and something I'm now regretting doing, since I'm stuck with it for the duration of the series. There IS a bit more explanation in later books for how the agency came to be, but it's still very, very handwavy. I'm currently working on a book for the house pen name in which the existence of shifters is common knowledge, and the worldbuilding is not only easier but I'm also having a lot of fun figuring out the little ways in which they would have worked their way into pop culture and so forth. I wish I could do the same in the Shifter Agents books. Ah well ... hindsight is 20/20, I guess!
I'm really happy you enjoyed the book, though! :) And I'm having fun with the sequel.
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I'm also intrigued by the genetics. Of course there's magic involved so it doesn't say much, for example cat shifter families could be any cat, but obviously some shifter forms, like lions and wolfs, are dominant. The logical conclusion: dinosaur shifters. ...sadly not if the shift-animal has to be one that's around during initial existence (otherwise there'd be sabertooth-shifters - hey, there could be!), but there could be surviving mammoth-shifters! Moa-shifters in New Zealand! And there's no technical reason for dragon-shifters not to exist.
Worldbuilding is so much fun.
I'm also curious about the sequel because I know your lost-in-the-wilderness-fighting-an-enemy stories, but not how you write romance with unexpected babies. I'm looking forward to finding out :)
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What I ended up coming up with ... well, first of all, shifters are genetically identical to their current shifted form: that is, a shifter who is currently a human is Homo sapiens sapiens, and one who has shifted into a lynx is genetically a lynx. I already established that if they die, they are indistinguishable from a natural version of whatever they died as, so that fits perfectly with what I already have.
So basically they all started out human, and then at some point in the history of certain families, their shifting started. MOST of it is lost in the mists of antiquity, and various families of werewolves or bear shifters or whatever have been hiding it for century upon century. But it's actually something that is still happening, and could, theoretically, happen to anybody at any time. (Which I guess makes the fact that it's secret even less plausible, but I'm backward-engineering a lot of this, after all. XD) The heroine of book two is from a family of koala shifters who started doing this a few generations ago, after the family moved to Australia, and are, as far as they know, the only koala shifters in the world.
There's a sort of otherkin/spirit animal aspect to it, in a way. You probably couldn't develop a shifting ability for a kind of animal nobody in your society had ever heard of. At least, it doesn't seem to happen that way, although no one has quite managed to figure out, yet, how it DOES work, so it's impossible to entirely rule it out. And shifting, though it's not exclusively limited to these, does tend to lean toward animals that are revered, feared, or otherwise have a strong influence on the society the human family is from. So there could still be mammoth shifters around, if there was enough of a breeding population to begin with (and almost certainly WERE, at one point), but there couldn't have been dinosaur shifters historically. However, there could be brand new dinosaur shifters now, in theory.
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If it's animals that are revered/feared, which makes a lot of sense, the likelihood that there are people shifting into mythical animals is also high. A dragon-shifter in the middle ages, heck yeah.
There would probably be some limitations on that. People shifting into existing animals shift into these actual animals and not into what they think these animals look like.
Ah well, it's magic, clearly anything goes ;)