Sep 5, 2011
It’s starting to feel like fall.
I’m spending my morning working on a new ebook and a new mailing list. I’m pretty excited about the ebook. Each of the stories in it were originally published in an anthology or magazine. I don’t value my “published” work over my “unpublished” work, because those are largely arbitrary designations considering the state of gay erotica publishing, but I do know that these four stories are really damn strong. It will be nice to have the four of them collected and helping me make more money on them.
The mailing list will be solely for announcing new ebooks, stories and essays, deals on ebooks, etc… You can sign up in the right hand column of this site, or right here:
I promise not to span you or abuse your email addresses for nefarious purposes. If you’d signed up on my previous list, you’ll be included. Also, if you’ve provided your email to me when purchasing books, you’ll be added. Don’t worry. You can always remove yourself later.
Writer Chuck Wendig (whose blog I don’t read but I probably should because people I follow are constantly linking to great posts and essays he writes, like this one on 25 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing) is releasing a new ebook, and he has a handful of awesome desktop images to help him promote the book, like the following one:
You can access the full-size options at his website by clicking the image above.
I almost feel bad for writing this next bit, as it feels a bit like picking on one of my favorite writers. And don’t get me wrong, Stephen King is one of my favorite writers. 
However, his new ebook, Mile 81, has some really fucking terrible writing in it. While the story has some genuinely creepy moments in it, and I’m not opposed to the basic concept of King writing about another haunted car (because, honestly, From a Buick 8 is one of my favorite King books, as is Christine), it has a handful of things that just rip you right out of the story. Namely, a scene featuring a state trooper who is playing on his iPad while sitting on the side of the road:
“He was playing a Scrabble-like game called Words with Friends, his Internet connection provided by AT&T.”
Are you fucking kidding me? Product placement in the middle of a story? I was suspicious of King’s inclusion of Bing in a previous novella, but calling out AT&T as an Internet provider has no place in the story. Even if King receives no compensation for dropping these mentions (and I can certainly understand occasional references to branded objects), noting the ISP that the trooper is using is just bad writing.
