Your 'please, gods, stop letting her read ebooks' post for the day

[maderr]

Bought an anthology last night. One of the short stories...oh, heck, let's go get the official summary...

And really, it's more amusing than anything.




Lust in the Afternoon by Cian Fey

Sometimes all it takes is one afternoon.

Ted Wayne is the IT manager at a gay online magazine and bookstore that also provides live streaming peep shows. During a fierce snowstorm, the on-air talent can't make it in for the "Lust in the Afternoon" show, and only Ted is around to fill the void.

Art director Grayson Jeffries talks Ted into fifteen minutes in front of the camera, Ted agrees partly because he thinks Gray is the hottest thing going. He's reluctant to masturbate in front of Gray, but at least with Gray in the room, he has no worries about getting it up.

Gray has wanted Ted for months - now he has this one chance to make all his fantasies come true.


The story was cute. Nothing totally prize, but it was all right. Until the end, where there is a random ass fucking epilogue where the boss of this place winds up being a fae or something, and he magically used the blizzard to hook the two guys up. This would have worked if there had been any indication of this crap throughout the story. Mayhap this story is from some larger verse, and it makes sense; I have not yet checked in to that. But, overall, it seemed WTF and utterly pointless. To those who will be getting the antho from me, skip the epilogue on this particular story. It worked just fine without the epilogue. She could have even had the boss purposely hooking them up. It's the magic element that completely threw me. Maye I just missed something.

Honestly, though, I place a large majority of the blame here on the beta. Any good editor worthy of being called thus should have said hack the epilogue. It was pointless, not needed, and dragged the story down. An author can be forgiven these mishaps, to some degree. Being close to the story, sometimes we miss the obvious. But when my beta says cut it, I cut it. Honestly, editing is becoming a lost art, imho.



In other news, my brother and mother finally snared me into reading the Sword of Truth series. Luckily, I do actually like the MC and his chick, for all the zomg I'm in love seems more than a tad rushed. But, it always is in fantasy. I don't think I really know a fantasy writer who can write a good romance. By the same token, however, a romance writer does not typically write zomg fantasy. The emphasis cannot be on everything at once.

All right, should probably work on food and resume editing DwtD. I need that done before I can put up it and Midnight.

And Leverage is on tonight!

Comments

[mechante-fille.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the clue to the random fey was in the authors pen name? Like a trademark. Maybe.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

This is true. Which reminds me I forgot to put up the ebook.

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

Okay that epilogue was the most random ass thing ever. I seriously expected someone to pop out and go "You're on candid camera! That's not really the epilogue to the story. Here's the real epilogue." Am I supposed to buy that after the very modern setting the rest of the story is set in? Bah.

Also, I obviously cannot spell epilogue, because every time I typed it, I spelled it differently and none of them were right. -_-

[saaski-moql.livejournal.com]

the boss of this place winds up being a fae or something, and he magically used the blizzard to hook the two guys up.

...

*blink blink* That seems just a bit, uh, random.

[tsubaki-dono.livejournal.com]

Can I kidnap your beta, please?

Finding someone who has the balls to say "cut this" is just... impossible. Haven't found that person yet. *glum*

[grimcognito.livejournal.com]

"I don't think I really know a fantasy writer who can write a good romance."

Have you ever read the Nightrunner series, by Lynn Flewelling? I thought it was very well written, especially for a pretty mainstream series with gay main characters (then again I'm not a writer so you might thinks she sucks, but hey.) There are currently four books in the series, starting with Luck in the Shadows and she's coming out with a new one in the summer. I liked it a lot because there was no "OMG, I'm already in love by chapter two" and the nice build-up of charcters and thier personalities.

I'm going to feel really stupid if you've already read this series and hated it...

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

Would that really be considered romance though? I mean, it is a fantasy novel with a romantic subplot, but the main plot is not romance. I think she was more talking about fantasy writers switching genres entirely and writing a romance (where the main plot is the romance and the subplot is fantasy/sci-fi/something else entirely). To me, at least, those are two different things.

Then again, I could be wrong entirely. ^^

[maderr.livejournal.com]

rykaine is always willing to beta. Just poke her, if you really want.

[maderr.livejournal.com]

The Nightrunner series is good (well, the first three) but again, it's more fantasy than romance. They take a distinct backseat to the plot. In a true romance, the characters are primary, the plot usually slightly more secondary. This is why fantasy writers don't do it well--their time and effort goes to the world building, the politics, the cultures, all of that. With a romance, all those things might be there, but they invariably revolve around the characters. I dunno, it helps if you've read enough romances to know the look and feel of them vs. fantasy novels (and you probably have, and I am the one who will feel like an idiot). Fantasy writers tend to skip and summarize elements of the relationship (and they always go for love at first sight), whereas a romance writer would drag it out, develop it properly, that sort of thing.

I, for instance, am a romance writer. My fantasy skills are nothing like those of a true fantasy writer, but I could hold my own in bodice ripper land.

[grimcognito.livejournal.com]

Ah. Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you meant the romance in fantsy novels. Nevermind then.

[scary-sushi.livejournal.com]

OMG, this happened to me yesterday, the whole reading-an-short-story-ebook-and-random-fantasy-shit-pops-out-with-no-warning. I just went 'huh?' and the thing is, the premise was good, but the whole story was ruined for me. Then I figured that the writer has used the fantasy stuff before (some of his characters were satyrs) but I don't think that short story was part of that specific universe. O.O

Hmph. I blame my newfound ebook addiction to you, btw. Argh.

[saaski-moql.livejournal.com]

This...just made me realize something about my NaNo08 and why it was so much fun to write, full of character development and everything, but a plot that was definitely secondary. I wrote a romance and didn't even realize it. Huh.

I actually feel much better now (or at least less perplexed) XD

(Not that I am saying, of course, that romance's lack plot. That would be Silly.)