Aug 26
I’m trying out some new ideas for the graphics on the website, so I made a banner. Man, my graphics skills are rus-ty; I used to be way better at this sort of thing. This one doesn’t look quite how I first envisioned, but it kind of works, yeah? And I think I need a better slogan. All the cool kids have slogans.
Aug 18
Did you guys see the article about Alex Beecroft and Erastes in Out?
I’ve enjoyed both Beecroft’s and Erastes’s writing. The article has some interesting bits. I liked this exchange:
“It isn’t all about the porn,” Beecroft laments.
“I don’t believe you,” I say.
“I know. People don’t, and it’s such an annoyance. Do you think a 300-page book that’s got three sex scenes in it is all about the sex?”
Erastes concurs. “I think people automatically think gay equals sex. That would be like saying heterosexual equals sex, and that is a very unfair thing to say.”
Both agree that the first kiss in their books is “almost more intimate than sex.”
I know that for me as a reader, I like the sexy times, but a novel is not held together by sexy times alone; it needs a good story. I always think about story first when I’m writing. I feel pretty strongly that the sex scenes should serve the story in some way. So I agree with Beecroft and Erastes on that level.
The discussion of gender identity was pretty interesting, too; I leave it to you to read and think about. (I have Opinions, but I don’t want to shove my foot in my mouth too far. I totally respect Beecroft and Erastes, but I’m coming at the genre from a different place.) I do like this conclusion: “M/M fans already know (and the rest of the world must catch up eventually) that love abhors all limitations, and gender is among the least of these.”
Elisa posted an interview with Ryan Field that I thought was kind of interesting (and a good test of my Italian skills; that is one of my secret talents). Here, I will translate for you (this is the second question):
What kind of readers are you addressing? Those who believe that sex and love are inseparable. And I think that readers are always looking for this union. I also consider that readers are looking for novels with a happy ending that raises them from the stress of real life. Reading a novel, regardless of genre, must help them escape their problems. And from the letters I get, it seems to me that readers are eager to escape reality.
(Italian is not my first language, obviously, so apologies if I goofed anywhere.)
I’ve been thinking a lot the last few days about my own expectations as a reader and why I like romance novels and what I want out of them and so on. I do like realistic, slice-of-life sorts of novels. I like fantasy, too. For example, I just read Jungle Heat by Bonnie Dee. I had some niggles in terms of things I didn’t think were quite realistic, but I really enjoyed the book as a fantasy, insofar as my thinking was, “I’m not sure this could have happened, but wouldn’t it have been cool if it did?” That’s maybe the crux of historical or speculative fiction. I’ve been thinking about that a lot in the stuff I’ve been writing lately, which has definitely been more on the fantastical end of the spectrum. I don’t really know if ghosts exist, but what if they did? How cool would it be if someone had lived through hundreds of years of human history? If someone from 1850 were plunked into 2010, what would they think of all this? Pros, cons, bad, good, what would happen? These are things I think about when contemplating what worlds and ideas I could explore as a writer.
Romance is a different kind of fantasy, though, often “realistic” in that there are characters who live in our world, characters that make mistakes and have mundane jobs and are mostly like us. But romances also take us to world where everyone has a true love and lives happily ever after. Where we get into the heads of characters who lead different lives than we do, characters for whom good things happen. And maybe, as Ryan Field says in the article, part of the fantasy of erotic romance is that sex and love are the same, that one is borne of the other or is an expression of the other or both. Maybe part of the fantasy of romance is that we read these novels and think, “Life could be this way.”
I’ll tell you what my fantasy is: for the sun to break through the thunderstorm currently raging outside my window, and for a good night’s sleep after almost two weeks of travel (I spent the weekend traveling around New England with my family). Actually, if the orange glow on the buildings across the street from my living room window means anything, it’s that my first wish is coming true. Sleep next!
I came back from Florida with a burn/tan, and was feeling relaxed enough that it’s been tricky getting back into the groove of my life this week. It’s funny; in some ways, I just fall back into routine because it’s… routine. But it took some self-cajoling to get back to writing after basically taking a week off.
Although, I did some thinking about Noah. I set that novel in Tampa primarily because it was a city in Florida with which I was familiar. I have a friend who lives there, I’ve visited a few times, I knew there was a decent-sized gay community in St. Pete. Last week, I spent time in South Florida and the Keys in an honest-to-God resort just like the one Noah spent most of In Hot Pursuit in with friends (two other women and a gay man). It was sort of interesting to examine that experience in the wake of my recently-published novel, picking apart things I got right in my novel and things I might have done a little differently (mostly, if I had it to do over, I might have included more details about the setting). My vacation involved spending a lot of time on the beach (and getting roasted by the sun while I read romance novels, natch) with the occasional foray into various nearby cities. We even stopped in a gay bar in Key West that reminded me a little of Shanley’s from my novel.
One thing I really love to see in a novel I’m reading is a setting well rendered. I’m in awe of writers who make that setting another character, or who draw it so well that it feels like you’re there. That’s one thing I’m working on, to make my setting more fully realized.
I’m trying some new things now. I think I’m constantly developing as a writer, meaning both that I’m trying to become a better writer in terms of craft and also that I’m willing to take on different genres and topics as I go. When I first started writing seriously, I wrote a lot of thinly-veiled autobiographical stories, but I find that, as I develop as a writer, exploring completely different characters and experiences and worlds is increasingly appealing. I’ve gone from not having any particular desire to wade into the paranormal/fantasy arena to the last couple of months starting to write speculative fiction for the first time ever. And it’s a great amount of fun! Who knew?
I think the lesson is just to be open to everything. I have in the last year or so read and written things I don’t think I would have gotten anywhere near five years ago, but as I develop as a writer, I want to try new things, explore new worlds, do what I can to develop as a writer.
And I have all new respect for spec fic writers who do it well. I mean, on the one hand, you get to make shit up, but on the other hand, you have to make shit up! In some ways, it’s easier to set novels in the real world (especially if you, like me, set the majority of your stories in the city where you live) and you could make the argument that writing fantasy means you don’t have to research, but you DO have to build your world. And that’s a real stretch of one’s creative power.
Anyway, these are just some things I’ve been thinking about. I’m traveling a lot the rest of this month, so I’m a little nervous about squeezing in time to write, but I’m really enjoying the WIPs I have going right now, and that’s kind of half the battle right there.
Aug 3
I’m currently on vacation in South Florida, learning the hard way how my pasty Irish skin reacts to the sun down here. (I am TOASTY, y’all.) It’s great, though. I mean, it’s very hot, but it’s nice to not be in New York and also to not have to worry about things that stress me out at home.
In news that is the opposite of stressful, In Hot Pursuit got a 5-star review from Sensual Reads. They had this to say:
Emotionally charged and action packed, In Hot Pursuit by Kate McMurray will work its way into your heart and soul.
Hooray! I’m gonna go back what I’ve been doing, which is mainly nothing. It’s great!
Jul 29
You guys want a taste of my baseball WIP? I wrote this scene this evening.
The dream always started the same way. Matt stepped out of the dugout. He picked up his bat and walked to the on deck circle, where he took a few practice swings. Then it was his turn at bat. He paused to acknowledge the crowd, which gave an uproarious cheer. He walked up to the plate and swung the bat again. Finally, just like Babe fucking Ruth, he pointed. Where he pointed varied, but it was usually towards the left field bleachers.
Anytime he had the dream, he was confident that his bat would connect and he’d drive that ball out of the stadium. Everything from the wind to the velocity of the pitch was under his control. He choked the bat, he lifted it, he saw the pitch, and he swung.
What happened next was a crapshoot. Sometimes he got the home run he expected. He’d run triumphantly around the bases. Best case, the bases were loaded before he got up to bat and he became the hero of the game. That version of the game usually ended when he was hoisted up on the shoulders of his teammates. Sometimes the bat whooshed right over the ball and he woke up just after he heard the slap of the ball hitting the catcher’s glove. Sometimes the bat connected but the ball soared into an outfielder’s glove. Sometimes the ball hit him in the head.
He had the dream the night after Ignacio Rodriguez’s first game. Instead of Cruz or Roger, the person who slapped his back before he got up to stand on deck was the Rodriguez kid. Although, Matt knew even in his dream that Rodriguez was clearly not a kid, he was a man, and a sinfully attractive man at that. His touch was affectionate, supposed to be encouraging, maybe even a promise for something to happen later. It felt a little like a kiss before being sent off to war, only Rodriguez was right there in the trenches with him. More than that, Rodriguez was probably the better player, now that Matt’s knees ached, now that his batting average had plummeted. But in the dream, he was aware of these things, but they didn’t matter, because then he was at bat, then he saw the pitch, then he was swinging.
Slap! Strike 1.
“No,” Matt said. “That’s not how that was supposed to go.”
He choked the bat and held it up. He could see everything as if it were in slow motion. He saw the pitcher spit, his right leg draw up, his glove rise, saw the way his fingers fit around the ball before he threw it, saw that ball flying right for him. He had this one. He could control it. He moved the bat forward slowly, knowing it would connect. Then whoosh! Slap! Strike 2.
Matt cursed. He glanced towards the dugout, where Rodriguez waited expectantly. He could not disappoint this man. He would not. He went through the routine. Practice swing, point to the left field bleachers, Babe fucking Ruth. He had this.
And again, there was the windup. The pitch. The ball hurtling through towards him. The bat slicing through the air. And slap! Strike 3.
Matt fell forward onto his knees. He cried out in anguish. The crowd booed.
He woke up with a start.
Jul 26
This weekend was really unbearably hot and humid in New York. This is going to make me sound a little like a pretentious snob, but I decided to beat the heat by spending a chunk of Saturday at the Met. The Met is by far my favorite museum in the city, maybe because its collections are so vast. You could spend a week there and still not see everything. I’ve been probably a dozen times in the last five years, and I bet there are galleries I have yet to step foot in.
One of the funny things about living in New York is that it’s easy to take cultural institutions for granted. It’s always there, so you can go see it later. Although, I sometimes fill in stretches of idle time with tourism. I get bored and go wandering. I’m pretty well-read on New York City history, so it’s fun to put a visual to something I’ve read about.
I was thinking about this today because my knowledge of some New Yorkish things is maybe unusual, even for a New Yorker. My current WIP is about two historians, and I wrote what I thought was a pretty clever line about how how bad an idea it would have been for a Victorian gentleman to have put a Civil War monument in Upper Manhattan. (“Exhibit A being Grant’s Tomb,” one of the characters says.) And then I realized—I bet plenty of people have no idea where Grant’s tomb is located, New Yorkers included. The point of the line, of course, is that it’s not a popular tourist attraction, although I’ve been a few times. (I should get some extra history nerd points for having been at its re-dedication in 1997.) It’s up in Riverside Park, near-ish 120th Street, a pretty easy walk from the Columbia University campus. Grant’s wife, Julia Dent Grant, chose the location primarily so that she could visit the tomb frequently. Apparently Central Park was a possibility, but she settled on Riverside Park, overlooking the Hudson. A pretty spot, to be sure, but out of the way enough that it doesn’t attract many visitors. Or, at least, historical sites like that don’t have the same cachet as some other places in the city. I expect this is something two historians living in New York would know—both where Grant’s tomb is and the fact that hardly anybody ever goes there; for the record, there are some neat little exhibits on Grant’s life and Civil War history generally inside the mausoleum, which Wikipedia says is the largest mausoleum in North America—but I added a sentence explaining the joke.
It’s one of those things. Where do you find the fine line between sounding authentic and being so obscure as to lose your reader’s interest.
Speaking of my weird knowledge base, I helped Z.A. Maxfield with some of her New York facts for her new release Stirring Up Trouble. It’s a really fun book, I heartily recommend it.
Jul 23
I was nominated as a great new author at Jessewave‘s (so those of you who got here from there, welcome!). It’s humbling to be on a list with some other really great writers. (I’m familiar with Mary Calmes and P.D. Singer but haven’t read anything by Heidi Champa or Louise Blaydon… I am going on vacation soon and need things to read, however!)
So thanks to Anna who nominated me and Wave for sticking my picture up there. You can learn more about In Hot Pursuit and also stay tuned because I’ll have a new book out this winter.
Jul 13
Watch me bury the lead.
I’m a fast writer. I make up for that by being a slow editor, but when I need to, I can churn out a lot of text. Thus I, in good faith, made a commitment to myself to write 60,000 words this July. This seemed doable; I’m a NaNoWriMo veteran. I wrote 92K words last November. I churned out a 50K-word first draft in 30 days once without really breaking a sweat. (Although that was almost three years ago and I’m STILL revising that one; see, slow editor!) So I thought 60K would be a challenge but one I could rise to, but it’s proving to be a greater challenge than I anticipated. This is in part because I had other things to do July 4th weekend (house guests, baseball games, and cookouts, oh my!). I found that, 10 days into July, I’d hardly written anything.
But I had a random spot of good/bad fortune in that my access to the Internet has been unusually limited over the last couple of days. So I’ve found myself writing. And I’m really excited about my current WIP, which is my first attempt to write something speculative (there are ghosts!). Yesterday evening rolled around and I felt triumphant for having written 5,000 words and finally having found a direction for this novel that I’ve been only just sort of poking at for the last couple of months.
So then I got home and found a new contract in my inbox. That’s right, folks, the ink is drying on the contract for my second novel. I’m really excited about this one. More details on that forthcoming once I know about release dates and things.
So it was a great day for writing! Let’s hope this streak continues.
