Reading related ramblings....

Okay, so there has been a bit of a spat recently about the number of M/M books which contain children .... pauses for mental image of squished flat children tucked in between the pages to disappear....

Now as far as I can tell, they've always kind of been there - usually in the guise of younger siblings or left overs from a previous relationship.... and in some books some of these kids are majorly aggravating little shites, in others they are cute and get all the best one liners........ oh and in others you wonder if the author actually ever had anything to do with children as they just don't act at the age they are meant to portray....(even saying all that... I am still going to be even more picky about how domestic animals are portrayed - in terms of irresponsible or unrealistic ownership practices, inappropriate behaviour and training, wrong breed descriptions etc... etc... yeah I know, but personal bugbear)

The trend recently, and which appears to be getting the most negative comments, is the fact that no relationship seems to be complete to the Happy Ever After unless the couple has a child or two - whether that is adopted, via a surrogate or bequeathed somehow.

I'll admit now that I am not huge fan of children turning up in M/M books.... though as a reader it's my choice what to read and I would never say a writer shouldn't introduce children if that is the way the characters are going and it's best for the story.  Though obviously, it may influence my enjoyment of the book, or even if I read it in the first place.

The real point of this post though is why I feel this way.  Now I've seem some comments that these children are interfering with the reader's enjoyment of "hawt" men.... for me this isn't the case.

There are very few genres I dislike, but the one I really cannot stand is termed here as "chick lit" ... which is basically romance fluff and can be summed up as woman feels incomplete despite successful career, good friends etc... because she hasn't got a man.... woman finds man... woman becomes completely helpless and dependent on man... woman is now complete... but... wait for it.... everything will only be perfect if she has children..... and they all live happily ever after...... allegedly.

Now, whilst I am a woman, this character does not represent me....... obviously as a lesbian I am not looking for a man in order to be a completely fulfilled person who is happy with their life .... and quite frankly the concept that this type of story sells, that you have to have a man and children to be happy just makes me annoyed, but it also can make me upset.

As someone who likes children but for medical reasons cannot have my own, and would never be in a position to adopt because of the strict criteria for adoption, the whole concept that I cannot be a complete person because I don't/can't have children is not something I actually believe, but it's there lurking in the back of my mind and I really don't want reminding of it in every other book I read.

When I discovered M/M fiction I was fairly newly single after an abusive relationship.  M/M for me is fantasy ... obviously.....and it gives me a chance to read stories where you can get a happy ending without the whole sell out and become the little woman bringing up the children.  So as more and more M/M stories seem to be reaching the conclusion that the couple cannot possibly be a complete family until there are children the less I am enjoying reading them and the more picky I am becoming, particularly when I find that some authors appear to be shoehorning the obligatory child into the relationship just because it's popular.

Updating by numbers....

1.  There was a weekend... I am sure there was... but it seemed to go extremely fast and I appear to have achieved precisely nothing!  Okay, there was cleaning, laundry, an exorbitant trip to the pet shop - my 2 cats cost me around 5 times as much each month than the 4 dogs - some reading, writing and finally Sunday dinner with the family (in which my sister's partner and I spent a lot of time winding up my sister.... apparently I am a bad influence... I dispute this)

2.  Am starting to get slightly worried about mum's memory.  She's been repeating herself for a while if she's tired, and she frequently calls me by my sister's name but last Thursday I told her that I was buying her a Kindle for her birthday (I had to she was starting to get stressed that she hadn't bought her books for going on her trip to Turkey with my sister in mid July).. she was rather pleased and excited, but on Sunday my sister sidled up to me and asked if I'd told mum yet about the Kindle.... because she was talking about going to buy books again.  Turns out she'd completely forgotten I'd told her, in fact she accused me of lying and that I hadn't told her.  We know that there is a family history of age related dementia, and mum is 75 this year, but before this my sister and I have always laughed at mum's little lapses, this time, not so much.

3.  I am having a very busy July.  The UK GLBT Fiction meet is in less than 2 weeks!  Then at the end of the month my friend is coming to stay, bringing all three of my half daughters!  It's going to be complete and utter chaos and I can't wait!

4.  I am back to being a "normal" employee!  Having been acting up for the last 9 months as deputy team leader (and occasionally as team leader) yesterday my colleague came back from maternity leave.... it's nice not to have the responsibility, but more so to have her back in our little team

5.  Today has been dental visit the 2nd.... I am somewhat numb around the face as it took 4 injections of anaesthetic before it was able to be extracted..... which may have been overkill as one side of my face is currently completely frozen... including my ear, which is kind of weird.

6.  That's it really for now.....  I am being screamed at by the cats.... they must be able to see the metal at the bottom of their food bowl again.... which of course requires my immediate attention!

Midsummer reading....

Sunrise in the Peak District
from Jamespictures.co.uk

So, we are half way through the year
The summer solstice has come and gone
The days are getting shorter
and there has been a lot of reading done

I wasn't originally going to count the Love Has No Boundaries stories in my totals for books read, but awful lot of them have been what I class as novella length.  So anything over 30,000 words has been included in the reading list.

My favourites this month are actually both LNHB stories, Nor Iron Bars a Cage by Kaje Harper and
Treasure by Kim Fielding.  Both are fantasies which
has kind of fitted my mood more than anything.  The Lion and The Crow by Eli Easton, Winter Winds by Missouri Dalton and Lia Black's Worthy

If it weren't for the LHNB stories, my top two books this month would have been Marie Sexton's Never a Hero, which is my favourite of the Tucker Springs series so far and Outlast the Night by Ariel Tachna.

There were two books I was really looking forward to reading this month, The Brat-tastic Jayk Parker by J. A. Rock and Mountain Prey by Lyn Gala.  Unfortunately I didn't enjoy either of them as much as I thought I would (comments on my Goodreads review explain why)

1. Strawberries for Dessert – Marie Sexton
2. Human Frailties – Jaye McKenna (LHNB story, novella length)
3. The Stable Boy – Megan Derr
4. An Intrepid Trip to Love – Charlie Cochet (LHNB story, novella length)
5. The Gladiator’s Master – Fae Sutherland & Marguerite Labe (June “Pick it for me” book)
6. Winter Winds – Missouri Dalton (LHNB story, novella length)
7. Nor Iron Bars a Cage – Kaje Harper (LHNB story, novel length)
8. The Armada Legacy – Scott Mariani (non M/M)
9. The Brat-tastic Jayk Parker – J. A. Rock
10. The Lion and the Crow – Eli Easto (LNHB story, novella length)
11. Treasure – Kim Fielding (LHNB story, novella length)
12. With a Kiss – Kim Dare
13. Worthy – Lia Black (LHNB story, novella length)
14. Not Letting Go – Danni Keane (YA GLBT group’s book of the month)
15. Anything for you, Sir – Max Vos (LHNB story, novella length)
16. Renew, a Hammer Story – Sean Michael
17. Sole Support – Kaje Harper
18. Merrick – Claire Cray
19. Half Blind (freelance magic) – Christine Price      
20. Six – Tara Spear                (LHNB story, novella length)
21. Mountain Prey – Lyn Gala
22. Never a Hero – Marie Sexton
23. Outlast the Night – Ariel Tachna
24. You Get Full Credit for Being Alive – Cari Z. (LHNB story, novella length)
25. Taken firmly in hand – Shannon West
26. When it’s right – Aria Grace (LHNB story, novella length)
27. Safeword - AJ Rose - loved this one... but completely forgot to recorded as read this month till I was double checking august's list!

There will be more LHNB stories next month to read, and I am taking part in the M/M group's scavenger hunt so there will be up to 10 books to read for that.... it could be a busy reading month.... and the UK GLBT Fiction meet is only 2 weeks away.... my ticket has arrived and I am torn between excitement and nerves at present!

Randomness, for my brain is broken....

It has already been determined by those who know these things, that when I become Supreme Mistress of the Universe and All the Galaxies Therein I shall be officially removing Monday from the week because it's Monday, and Tuesday, because Tuesdays are just far too grumpy to exist.... well after today I am considering removing Wednesdays as well.....

(okay, yes, I will be ruling a Universe with no days in it at this rate)

Today didn't start well.... it never does when it starts at 4 am... but Ivan was adamant in his pathetic squeaky way, with stressed eye rolling in addition, that he had to go out, like, now, immediately, this second... so up I got (even though I'd been up shortly after midnight clearing up after Gina who had decided to throw up the entire bowl of biscuits she'd troffed just before bed) and went to let them out..... would they then settle back down for a couple of hours before I officially had to get up... no they bloody wouldn't... in fact Hope and Kammi played chase around the lounge where I was trying to fall asleep on the sofa until Hope ran over my bad leg and caused much cursing........

So, I got to work at 8 am.... and then spent the day running round doing emergency things for my boss, who is acting as advocate for me tomorrow at a hearing... now I wouldn't mind this, only I was forced last Friday to get all the papers ready in a rush so he could prepare over the weekend.......... yeah, so of course he left it to today...... I am meant to finish at 4pm... but it was almost 6pm by the time I shuffled out of the office towards my car......

I made comfort food for tea - macaroni cheese with hard boiled eggs chopped up in it.... which is a bit of an odd thing to make in the height of summer, but hey, it was needed.... particularly as the only sweet things in the house are grapes....

I am meant to put in my supermarket order tonight.... but I am rather afraid I will rectify the lack of sweet things in the house whilst I am doing it in the mood I'm in.... which will make it very difficult to meal plan next week unless I just want to eat chocolate......

Thank goodness tomorrow is payday and my book budget is available for spending.... I fear I will blow it in one go.... not to mention I am also buying a Kindle for mum's birthday....... I shall try and make sure just because I bought it that it isn't cursed with technofail as most electronic items I buy are....

other than that, I've not been up to much......... though I did download my LHNB story onto my kindle to see if it made me feel like a "proper" author.... nope, seeing it there was weird, but still not convinced of author status.

There is an open call at Riptide in October, and two publishers are doing pitches at the UK Meet...... I thought about it..... and then decided no, I am not ready yet to be doing that sort of things.  Who knows maybe one day....

Lost Weekend....

Well, that was fun.... this weekend I have done, well, absolutely nothing.

Okay, not quite true..... on Friday I dashed off early from work to have my hair cut, and the the supermarket delivery was, erm, delivered..... is it wrong that the delivery driver knows me well enough to spot and compliment me on the new hair cut?? (it was the same guy who talks to me about importing dogs and his Thai bride)..... on carrying through the shopping to the kitchen I discovered I had someone else's freezer bag... I didn't order 4 tubs of strawberry sorbet... and managed to flag the driver down to get the items swapped for my own........ only whilst I was doing this the evil devil dog from hell managed to get into the shopping, swiped a packet of grated cheese and demolish it in under about a minute...

Saturday I declared I was having a pyjama day.... or at least as near to one as I could get....... which meant sprawling about in my dog walking clothes and watching trashy TV and reading........ didn't happen as by 11 am I decided I couldn't manage without a shower/hairwash and clean clothes... I did manage the reading for most of the day.

Today I have ventured to do laundry......... but that has been it.... again there has been reading... and an afternoon nap (well I'm an old person now).

I have to phone my MacMillan nurse in the morning... given the pain and swelling in my leg I have a horrible feeling that before the dentist whipped out a tooth on Thursday I should probably have been on antibiotics.... my lymph system is a delicately balanced thing (or screwed depending on how you want to look at it) and I really don't want another big flare up.... particularly given that I have more dental work planned for next week.

And so it is bed time, and the end of the weekend......... in which I have accomplished nothing... and actually enjoyed it quite a lot :)

Smile Please .....

Well, here I am sitting at my lap top, under instructions to rest from my dentist, whilst the results of the anaesthetic wears off and I have to keep checking that I am not dribbling (actually it's gone past that point now and I have weird pins and needles feeling in my face).

So, why the post.... well, here's the thing... it's the first time I've been to the dentist in years....and I am not phobic so really there was no reason for not going.

Only there was....

When I was a kid I we always went to the dentist for check regular check ups and I was tortured for years by an orthodontist until I had relatively straight teeth that I couldn't put a £1coin through the gap between the two upper front teeth.  Then I went to university and while I lived in Preston in Ye Olden Days I still went fairly regularly to the dentist for checkups... then the ex happened.

Now one of the things that she insisted on was having control of the finances... which meant that only things that she deemed necessary got paid for when it came to me....... and my dental care wasn't a high priority for her... we didn't have an NHS dentist available and paying privately would be too expensive unless there was an emergency (though strangely funds were found for her to have her teeth whitened ....) so for 7 years I didn't go near a dentist...

After the split and my move over this side of the country I could, and probably should have found and gone to the dentist.... but at that stage I didn't care... not about me, let alone about my teeth.  After all I couldn't see the point, it wasn't as though anyone else was bothered if I had my teeth, so why should I.... as far as I was concerned, it didn't matter anymore, no one was ever getting that close to my mouth anyway.

So going to the dentist was one of those things that I just never seemed to get round to... probably part of this was although I knew I had a couple of back teeth that needed attention, I have such a high pain threshold that it never hurt enough for me to actively need to seek treatment.......... and again I still couldn't find a reason to care enough to sort it out.

Then recently one of the things my counsellor is making me do is to try and care enough about myself to treat myself well.  So, last week I got the number of my sister's dentist from her and booked an appointment............ that was today...... I need a little work on a few of my back teeth... which started with her whipping out a broken tooth this afternoon... but despite the neglect my teeth are generally healthy and with no decay. I go back again in a week or so for the next lot of treatment.

I am still trying to decide if taking this step, having the treatment etc is going to make any difference to how I feel about me...... though more importantly, right now I'd like something to eat... which will apparently be yoghurt as I am only allowed cold soft food tonight......

Release day!!

Well, I got notification yesterday lunch time....

Today is release day for my LHNB story, which is called "One Week"

It will be listed at The M/M Romance Group website, which will link back for now to the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads.... but in the next week or so it will be available to download in multiple formats.

Si & Nick
(my boys..... for now at least)

I haven't written contemporary adult before.... and I have been accused by my wonderful beta readers of writing angst..... yet I maintain I am unfamiliar with the concept.

I really hope that I have managed to write something that the prompter (and anyone else who reads it) will enjoy.

I am fighting a massive internal clash between nerves and excitement.......... kind of like being on a rollercoaster....