Humo(u)r

A hasty post as I'm still entertaining my delightful guests, who seem to be having a good time. I know I am, though I'm also aware of my shortcomings as a hostess. I'm used to living on my own, never paying attention to clocks (except once a week :-) and not planning ahead. But there's plenty to enjoy in  Galway -- and no, not just the pubs!

I'm one of the writers featured in this month's BroadPod on the topic of humor (or humour -- I have to keep shifting back and forth between American and British/Irish spellings that every word begins to look slightly suspect and editors in various countries sigh at me). I read from The Mangrove Legacy, so you can get a taste of that if you haven't already (why haven't you?!).

Six Sentence Sunday: The Mangrove Legacy

I nearly forgot about the Six Sentence Sunday meme: perish the thought. I have since discovered that there is also a Tuesday Serial meme, so  I have to also remember to add Airships & Alchemy  to that. As usual, be sure to drop by and see all the other six sentences -- it's a great way to discover new writers. So here's something from my comic Gothic novel The Mangrove Legacy. I will say once again how much pleasure writing this surprisingly chunky novel gave me over time. It's such a joy to write very silly things. In this chapter, Alice Mangrove and her new-found friend, Constance Forward (o_O) meet a man to whom they have not been introduced. Shocking events are just around the corner!

Just then the two young women heard a voice echo tentatively across the sands. "I beg your pardon…"

They looked up and saw a very nice looking young man. Perfectly respectable, Alice thought, despite his ungentlemanly willingness to be helpful. Although he appeared to be French (his clothes were far too stylish for him to be a English tourist), his manner seemed admirably proper.

"I could not help but to notice that you were in search of a corkscrew. I can call my manservant at once and give you use of mine." He nodded slightly as if to acknowledge their predicament.

Authors After Dark

There's a wonderful exchange near the beginning of Clare Boothe Luce's The Women (1939) that I've always enjoyed although it kind of stabs me in the heart, too. If you don't know this film, you need to see it at once:

Edith Potter: Weren't you going to Africa to shoot, Nancy?

Nancy Blake: As soon as my book's out.

Sylvia Fowler: I don't blame you. I'd rather face a tiger any day than the sort of things the critics said about your last book.

Peggy Day: Oh, I wish I could make a little money writing the way you do!

Nancy Blake: If you wrote the way I do, that's just what you'd make.

Sylvia Fowler: You're not a very popular author, are you, dear?

Nancy Blake: Not with you.


Feeling like a very unpopular writer, I am heading off to Authors After Dark tomorrow morning in an attempt to ameliorate that -- at least for my alter ego, as Kit Marlowe will be flogging The Mangrove Legacy there. On Twitter Marc Nash just sent me a tweet saying how his flash fiction averages about 300 hits a day, while his post on the riots received over 3600 visits. Newsworthy topics help. Bloggers who make a habit of posting incendiary opinions likewise tend to get more hits.

The idiosyncratic ramblings including jokes only three people will get? Not so much.

I recently read an Anita Blake novel that was in my gift bag at Alt.Fiction. I read mostly non-fiction, so it's helpful to remind myself what popular fiction that actually sells looks like. I realise once again that all my writing habits undermine any chance to write popular fiction. Nuance, allusions (literary or mythic), drolleries: these have no place in the lean beast that is a page-turner. Of course I want to write what I want to write -- and I always will -- but I also would like to write books that sell more. Not necessarily a bestseller, just a better seller. It's an interesting problem to grapple with, although at present I really need to be doing other things. Like packing, discarding and yes,  if all else fails, setting fire to things.

Metaphorically, of course. It's not a riot.

Buy a Signed Copy of The Mangrove Legacy

Available now! Let me know if you want it signed and/or personalised. In case you need a refresher on the subject matter:

A gothic novel of mystery, romance, and pockets. Follow cousins Alice and Lizzie as they are kidnapped from Lord Mangrove's funeral cortege, spirited away by highwaymen, then sold to nefarious seamen until they're captured by pirates without so much as an improving book to read!

From the US + media mail

From abroad + surface mail

They're Here

A nice surprise awaited me when I got home tonight, thanks to my neighbour who must have met the FedEx deliverer. Usually they just ring the doorbell that doesn't work and then leave.

It's always a lovely feeling to open a box full of your books. Stella's lovely cover looks good in print, too. I will put up links for you to buy signed author copies. I should do that with Unikirja as well, as I've got a couple copies of that as well. I don't know if Tease will be selling copies or making them available at a third party site.

This makes up for the wretched day I wasted trying to have a yard sale in 100° weather (no, it was not a success). But it did motivate me to clear out more -- or at least prepare it for clearing. Baby steps, perhaps, but making progress.

Kit Marlowe Speaks / TOF: Impromptu

Kit Marlowe makes a visit over at JoJo's Book Corner today where she reads from The Mangrove Legacy and gives away prizes including an exclusive mug! This is all part of the building excitement for Authors After Dark where Kit and I and a whole host of lovely writers will be converging on Philadelphia for various high jinks this August.

Tuesday's Overlooked Film:

 Impromptu is a fave of mine: I've used it in the "Writers in Motion" course which examines films about the writing life and how it gets romanticized. But sometimes you really want that romanticism: if only life were as breezy and entertaining as this film. The dull slog of the writing life wouldn't make for a gripping film, but we do get hints of the work -- and its cost -- here. The iconic iconoclast George Sand, born Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin and later becoming Baroness Dudevant, here played by the always engaging Judy Davis, struggles with her writing and her relationships. Because the film focuses on her relationship with Chopin (Grant), her trouser-wearing breakthrough and tempestuous relationship with poet Alfred de Musset (played with real brio by Patinkin) are already in the past. A big part of Alfred's contempt has to do with the amount she's able to write, which he dismisses as just "regurgitation" of her life. As someone who's been sneered at for writing "too much" I guess I feel a lot of sympathy for George.

The heart of the movie is the hilarious visit to the country by all the Parisian artists. Emma Thompson shines as the ambitious Duchess D'Antan who, marooned in the provinces, seeks to bring the glitterati to her. Along with Sand and Chopin, she imports painter Eugene Delacroix (played with laconic humor by Ralph Brown) and of course composer Franz Liszt (Julian Sands at his best) and his amour, the disgraced Countess D'Agoult. Peters is just perfect as the unhappy and envious Marie, who seeks to poison everyone else's happiness.

It's not great art, but it's charming fun. There's a little too much of the strong-woman-must-seek-weak-man motif (I'm sure some do, but most strong women I know like strong men), but for the most part Sarah Kernochan's script will keep you amused and make you envy the writer's life. If only!

Hop on over to Todd's blog for the full list!

Things to Celebrate

UPDATE: I'll be reading as the narrator for the College of Saint Rose Women's Initiative's presentation of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues Saturday night at 7pm. The show plays on Sunday at 3pm with my fabulous colleague and friend Angela Ledford as narrator. Tickets benefit Equinox. Girls Next Door will be performing at the interval.

The desk wombat announces (though the odd angle makes it look like a two-legged creature, eh?) that there is some news to share. First, that my William Blake-inspired short story "Eating the Dream" has received the FEMSPEC: The Best of the Second Five Years first prize in fiction. They're going to announce the prizes at the Popular Culture Association Conference in San Antonio and also at Wiscon, but I won't be able to be there. FEMSPEC also gave prizes for criticism, memoir and poetry. A big party has been planned to celebrate. Congratulations to all the winners!

The other good news is that I have my ticket to Rome for spring break where I will be staying with the fabulous Alessandra. I can't wait! I've never been to Italy. I was hoping to go last fall, but things didn't quite work out. So tell me your useful Italian phrases and recommendations! I definitely want to see the Caravaggios and probably the Coliseum and the catacombs and who knows? Dance in the Trevi Fountain! I want to relax and eat good food and drink good wine and laugh and talk. Whatever happens, I'm sure I will have a wonderful time.

Kit Marlowe has been busy, too, talking about making book trailers at Tease Publishing's blog and she'll be reading from The Mangrove Legacy for the Tuesday Talking Teaser this coming week over at JoJo's Books.TODAY! Kit is the Friday Guest at Isabel Roman's blog: stop by!

How I Came to Write this Book

I'm hosted over at Patti Abbott's blog where I reveal:

"How I Came To Write This Book"

How I Came to Write this Book, K. A. Laity

THE MANGROVE LEGACY

Kit Marlowe, Tease Publishing, Dec 2010, ISBN 9781607671275, $5.99

In 2002, I moved to Houston, Texas with my husband. I hadn't quite got around to finishing my dissertation, but I had finished a novel, which came out the following year months prior to my dissertation defence. Nonetheless I had managed to get that pearl of academic ambitions, a tenure-track job in my field, as had my husband. Reason to celebrate, surely. People told us, "You can never leave these jobs. Lightning will not strike twice."

My apologies to those who love Texas, but we hated it with a passion. First there was the humidity. I thought 100% humidity meant it was raining, but it just means you wish you would die. The whole of Houston seems to be paved from one end to the other, the better to facilitate the flooding that happens every time it rains, let alone in hurricanes. Enron, far from being an anomaly, is just "the way we do things here" I was told. In no time I had my fill of Texas chauvinism: apparently they invented everything first, then made it bigger and better than everyone else. I've never seen anyone with a Connecticut tattoo.

In all fairness, I must admit the food was good, so was the theatre and opera. We made some terrific friends, too.

But we were miserable.... [read the rest]


I'm in my office today, working on syllabuses. The price of my neglect. Truthfully, I've been daydreaming that there's some way for me to look more like Tilda Swinton...

BitchBuzz and a Contest

Yes, up to my usual anti-social behavior in my column this week:

No Ho-Ho Holiday Films!

By K.A. Laity

When you've seen too many cheery reindeer, children singing and hearts growing three sizes, it's time to strike back.

I know there are many who can't wait to pull out that pile of Christmas DVDs every year and spend days laughing and crying with Charlie Brown and Lucy or Rudolph and Hermie or find out what Bedford Falls would have been like without George Bailey.

The rest of us need a break from all the sappy sentiment and I will warn you if you dare get out Love Actually it will come to fisticuffs. So if like me you spend the holidays dreading the next turn of that roulette wheel in the DVD player, here are some films you can suggest that meet the criteria of "holiday" themes but aren't the same old schmaltz...

 

Find out what I recommend here: http://culture.bitchbuzz.com/no-ho-ho-holiday-films.html#ixzz18IQLauVJ

 

I'm not really a Grinch: I just get overloaded on schmaltz like everyone, considering some places start playing Xmas music in October. My pal Karen has come up with a list of sf/fantasy recommendations for holiday films: check out her blog.

Contest: Yesterday on Facebook, Kit Marlowe gave away a copy of her novel The Mangrove Legacy. I've decided I'm going to give one away here for my birthday :-) Come back tomorrow and comment on the post to have a chance to win. I'll choose a winner at random from among the commenters. I do have the hope that some of these freebies will result in reviews, too [she adds with a hopeful look].

The Mangrove Legacy ON SALE NOW!

Kit Marlowe's novel The Mangrove Legacy is out!

For sale now at All Romance eBooks -- just $5.99.

Two English girls, pirates, kidnappers, orphans, disguises, a ghost, interesting facts about insects, cheese, the King of Naples and at least one improving book:


This ain't your mama's Gothic!

Yes, very pleased to have this out. Thanks for everyone who was there for the rather prolonged composition process. Give yourselves a pat on the back for helping me. Cheers!

You can win a copy over at Kit's Facebook page.

UPDATE: I'm also the featured Wednesday writer over at UnBound. Thanks, Adele. Join me to talk about zombies!

Bits and Bobs

Over at Patti Abbott's blog, you can read the final installment of La Ronde, the round robin story in which I took part. The fun of these things is that they take a lot of unexpected twists and that's certainly the case here. Vastly entertaining.

Perhaps the strangest news story regarding wombats ever...

It's possible Amelia Erhart has been found.

Tomorrow, of course, The Mangrove Legacy comes out. You can win a copy over at Kit Marlowe's Facebook page.Don't forget to take a look at the trailer. I'll put up a buy link tomorrow assuming all goes as it should (given the loopiness of anything computer-based lately, I am always adding caveats). Have you been reading the new serial? How do you think it's going?

I get the final papers of my one course tomorrow. I hope to finish grading quickly so I can enjoy my birthday without thought of work waiting. I have more reviews to post, too, but we'll see how the week goes. So little time, so much to do!

BitchBuzz: How to Ruin the Holidays + Mangrove Trailer

First, my column for the week: if you're mild-hearted and love the holidays, you may want to skip it. I am particularly proud of finding that picture of Katy Perry:

How to Ruin the Holidays

By K.A. Laity

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Solstice or Yule, you have an equal opportunity this year to destroy all hopes for any beautiful memories from social gatherings by following a few simple rules.

People get too stressed trying to make the holidays perfect: cooking, cleaning, buying, singing, organizing and spend, spend, spending. They put up trees, light menorahs, bake cookies, mull wine and in the process, gain weight, lose hair and empty their bank accounts.

Ruining the holidays can be accomplished with very little effort and almost no spending or preparation. You do not need to make elaborate plans (although a well-thought out scheme can have a spectacular pay-off) and cooking is completely optional, as are fuzzy jumpers with appliqués.

How can you ruin the holidays? To find the answers: http://life.bitchbuzz.com/how-to-ruin-the-holidays.html#ixzz17d1QLUsM

While book trailers have been said to be a waste of time, I can't seem to help wanting to make them. So to amuse myself, here's one for Kit Marlowe's The Mangrove Legacy coming Dec 15th (in case you forgot ;-)

Purposeful

I started out the day purposefully: I got a needed oil change, ran to the store and then came to campus. There things began to bog down a bit, not only because there was a lot of email to get to and a call from the Dean but then there was the printer not working. I haven't bought new ink for my printer at home, so I've generally relied on the printer here on campus. When we got new printers and a whole new print admin system, I was the only one who never had a problem printing. Everyone else was screaming for blood because of course they decided to change the system at the beginning of the semester. So I've taken advantage of the one colleague in the building to have him print a couple of emergency things and will hope the Mac guy gets around to me soon.

Yes, we have one person in IT who's competent in Macs. We have (last I knew) over 200 Macs on campus. And you wonder why our last Mac person quit to go to Skidmore where she has fewer headaches and more pay... oh, that's right. No wonder at all.

You can catch up with the latest episode in La Ronde, the round robin story started by Patti Abbot. Today's installment (#10 already!) is "It's Raining Down in Texas" by Graham Powell. Amazing turns this narrative has taken: now in Texas.

Kit Marlowe's The Mangrove Legacy will be available from All Romance Ebooks on December 15th! You can get The Big Splash there now (as well as at Noble Romance and Amazon).

21st Century Gothic will be printed on my birthday :-) though it won't be available until 2011.

I just got word that my presentation "Bringing a Medieval Woman to Life" (about writing a play on the life of Christina of Markyate) got accepted for the Great Writing Conference in London next June. Looking forward to that. I'm also considering a conference in Akureyri, Iceland as well. We shall see. Yeah, don't remind me of that note which says "Just say no!" I am (on the whole) doing less. Well, less of some things. Combining things, too, seems helpful (work that does double duty). But yeah, it remains the case that there is so little time, and so much to do!

World AIDS Day

There's a campaign on to have an AIDS-free generation born by 2015. A lot of work to be done first. It can be done. Commemorate World AIDS Day with something meaningful. These cool Dia de los Muertos t-shirts already sold out but there are many other ways to help raise awareness and help research.

I'm unbelievably busy this week, so let me just pass along some assorted news tidbits: Over at Patti Abbott's blog, you can read the latest installment of La Ronde by Kassandra Kelly. I have a new piece on ritual up over at the Jane Quiet blog. I sent off the revised essay on Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls; will let you know the details about the collection once I know them. I wouldn't expect it before next autumn, maybe even 2012. Still no word on the latest novel that's waiting for review by my publisher. That's how it goes in the print publishing world. I did get the line edits for Kit Marlowe's The Mangrove Legacy, so I will be busy with those today in hopes of getting it back to my editor to make it for the December 15th release of the e-book. Yay! That's why I love electronic publications.

Off to NYC tomorrow to see Lynda Barry; if the weather's like this again, I think I'll spend the rest of the day at MoMA.

UPDATE: apparently this anthology that includes my flash fiction "Rothko Red" has come out and is available for sale.

Cover Me

With stunning speed, here's the cover already for my as-yet-unedited novel The Mangrove Legacy, forthcoming from Tease Publishing in November or December:

Thanks to the fabulous Stella Price, who is not only the art director for Tease, but was also the person who encouraged me to try submitting something to them. I love the background photo of the Gothic folly and the woman on the sofa kind of picks up on the theme of dreams. I loved writing all the surreal dream sequences. It's hard to capture all the aspects of this odd little tome, so I'm glad the cover included the tag line as well in order to convey the humour [or humor, Todd]. Now to update the web page, although that might have to wait as I have a large pile of neglected work in my office on campus that I really must get to...

Contracted: The Mangrove Legacy

Good news! I sent off the contract this morning: Tease Publishing will be releasing The Mangrove Legacy in November or December of this year. Initially, it will be an ebook, but if sales are brisk enough, it may see print in 2011. Now I can reveal that the "author" of the book will be Kit Marlowe. Thanks again to the fabulous Stephanie Johnson for designing Kit's portrait, based on a photo of me and a very cool hat I found trawling the internet. Very Georgette Heyer, eh?

One of the immediate things this means is that I will have to refrain from posting the final chapters of the serial online. For those dedicated readers who have been with me the whole long haul, I will be happy to send you those chapters: just email me.  Your support all this time has meant so much to me. It's hard to believe I started this as a kind of lark almost four years ago! I was so afraid that I would not find time for fiction writing while I was frantically trying to publish as much academic work as possible to get out of Texas; a foolish fear (as so many are).  Writing about 500 words a week was painless; the story was light and fun. I just wanted to be amusing, playing with the Gothic narratives I enjoy and throwing in as many obscure references as I could get away with. I adore the characters. And four years later -- without considerable effort -- it's a 100,000 word novel.

Wow.

That's why I emphasize those wonderful words of Octavia Butler in "Furor scribendi" where she says the key concept is "persist": she was so right. I am capable of marathon sessions where I churn out thousands of words in a day, but that's not necessary. Baby steps will get you there, too.

So why the nom de plume? In the last year I've been doing a lot of research into the romance genre, thanks to a bunch of friends who work in that area. While it is the most reviled of genres, there's a lot good in it -- like the money! Yes, there are conventions -- there are conventions in academic writing, too and very strong conventions in the literary genres (disaffected suburbanite agonizes over relationships, doubts self, then has minor epiphany which may or may not change anything) -- but there's also a wide range possibilities. Just take a quick glance at all the different categories Harlequin has; the 'paranormal romance' field is little different from 'urban fantasy' these days. The lines are getting blurred. The only constant for romance is that happily ever after (HEA) or, increasingly, the happy for now (HFN) ending. We're so cynical these days. We'll accept all kinds of fantasy elements -- werewolves, vampires, steampunk Victorians -- but not a happy resolution! Oh no, never that. Well, except for the millions and millions of romance readers (and no, they're not all women).

So my nom de plume signals "this book is a romance": to a genre reader, it means "everything will turn out okay in the end." For my regular readers it still means it's the quirky stuff I write and if everything turns out all right in the end, it will nonetheless be a fun trip getting there. I'm still working on adapting my style to the genre; so far, I'm still erring too far on the side of quirky to get my foot in the very lucrative Harlequin/Mills & Boon door, but I will endeavour. Why? Because I would like the freedom of living off my writing and I am exploring many avenues to achieve that end.

And why this particular pseudonym? The original Kit Marlowe was of course the playwright who would have outshone Shakespeare had he lived (being far more daring and audacious). Less well known is Bette Davis' character from the movie Old Acquaintance -- a big fave of mine, based on the play by John Van Druten (of Bell, Book and Candle fame). Of course, Kit Marlowe is the "arty" writer while Miriam Hopkins' Millie Drake is the popular romance writer. What can I say? I'm perverse that way. One of the gratifying things is that the friendship between Kit and Millie outlasts rivalry and men. In fact, you can easily read the film as a coded lesbian narrative, with a lot of elements coming across as far campier to a modern audience than they would have done to most contemporary viewers, I suspect. Just look at the masculine way they dress Davis at the start in contrast to Hopkins' flounces and frills. The film was remade as Rich and Famous in 1981. It was George Cukor's last film and starred Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen. I also have a fondness for that film, though it's not as good. I do love the way Bergen, upon having her work called "trash" by her increasingly estranged husband, snarls to correct him that it's "successful trash!" Here's to success, however trashy.

Serially Yours

Have you checked out The Mangrove Legacy recently? I only ask because I am thinking about the end of it. It will take some weeks yet, of course, but I can see the resolution now and I am also contemplating polishing it up to send off to one or two places. Like everything I do (apparently) it doesn't quite fit into a neat marketing niche. But who knows? The lazy way of novel writing -- for those of you who say you want to write but just can't find the time -- this story is up over 90,000 words now.

All it takes is patience and 500 words or so a week. It's really not so much: just persistence and commitment.

So many things require the same; we worry about the big issues and agonize over decisions, but much of our life results from the simple steps -- and continuing to make them. I am always reminding myself of this. It's worth doing.

Between Work and Wit

That it is National Poetry Month has not escaped me, but I will not bother to mention it as 1) I am not a poet and 2) poets get far too much attention as it is and 3) there are far too many bad poets who would only find this encouragement to go on. They make me think of the incredibly overwrought poet O'Bannion from Auntie Mame. Bad poetry can be found around most any corner, even in an economic downturn. It multiplies like cockroaches. Cockroaches, however, don't get open mic nights.

Oh, sure -- there are good poets, and I've quoted from many of them. In fact I've had Philip Larkin on my mind today [er, yesterday, as I wrote this ahead of time, shhhh]. I blame Lucky Him, which I've gone back to reading since I had to return The Talented Miss Highsmith to the library yesterday, lamentably unfinished. Its 700+ pages daunted, especially as I went gallivanting off on a trip and decided not to lug the doorstop-sized hardcover along with me, accustomed as I am to traveling light. Larkin, who often served as an audience and confidante for his friend Kingsley Amis, seemed to feel the weight of the disparity between their experiences, which he wrote about in "Letter to a Friend about Girls" with some tartness and not a little envy.

The magic of good poetry is that it is precise. Every word needed, no word extraneous. No wonder I prefer prose -- there's wiggle room there. While every word should have its job and no other in prose, too, it seems that there are on occasion a few layabouts who serve no earthly purpose in a sentence, but hang tightly around the ones that are doing the work, so the careless supervisor assumes they're all busy and passes on by. When I unpack the taut efficiency of Donne's "Flea" I know I have a lot of calisthenics ahead of me before I could run in that kind of race.

Ring Ring Goes the Bell

Classes begin tomorrow; as usual, I face that fact with a mixture of anticipation and dread. Just like the students, I prefer to be on holiday. Every new semester makes me wonder if I know what I'm doing.

Birthday boy Robert (Happy Birthday, again!) says the same thing he always says, "Make them stand on their desks and tear pages out of their books," because apparently Dead Poets Society is the only thing teaching means to him (yes, he does work at Bard).

As usual, I regret not making a better use of my time off. I figure there's got to be some way of getting around the whole need for sleep thing; I did find that drinking tea all day while I wrote did lead to not sleeping, but it was not a very productive not sleeping. Some sleep is required.

I have a course release for heading up Women's and Gender Studies; that "free time" will likely be eaten up by preparation for our conference in March. I'm teaching the Medieval Texts on Film class and also our brand new, never-before-taught Writing for New Media class. Another experiment; why do I do this to myself?

Yes, there's a new episode of The Mangrove Legacy: Alice learns the exciting history of the ghost, Miss Wychwood. Drop by and read for yourself. It's a fun Sunday ritual to dive back into the strangely Gothic adventures. I hope you continue to enjoy it (yes, Cranky -- looking in your direction).

Wish me luck -- we all need it on the first day of classes!

More Serial (No Filler)

Yes, it's Sunday night, so another chapter of The Mangrove Legacy is up. We're back to Alice and her adventures in the eerily abandoned villa where the mysterious Gilet de Sauvinage has secreted her, while Lizzie still travels with the agreeable Mr Tilney, still recovering from his gunshot wound from the duelists.

I have reached 90K words in this little story in increments of about 500 words once a week. This is the painless way to write a novel. On the plus side, well -- it was painless. In fact, it's been a great deal of fun. On the minus side, it's beginning to get too long to submit as a novel. Most historical romances (which this might be considered) seldom go beyond 70K. A few publishers take MSS up to 90K. As I haven't wrapped this up, I suppose it's going to be a bit longer than that. What to do? I hardly know.

Of course, some publishing houses won't take this because it's appeared on-line already. Some won't take it because Gothics aren't supposed to be funny. I suppose there are myriad reasons publishers won't take it (it's a rather loopy story after all). Perhaps I'll just let it unspool at its current pace and slap it together for a Lulu book with some suitably Gothic illos from some very talented artist that I know.

The web is making possible all kinds of publishing ventures; I was saying earlier today the that word of 2010 for me (and probably many other folk) is "collaboration"; I suspect it may well be the word of this century. Multiple formats is another good one; did you know you can get stories of mine through Anthology Builder, where you can put together custom collections of short stories? You can get other stories of mine over at Feedbooks. Of course, you can also purchase real live print books at Amazon, too.

Trying to be a dandelion; suggestions welcome.