Dog Ear – Page 13 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

July 31, 2014

Power to the People (DOG EAR)

t’s a long weekend at the beach. I’m working on my blogs (just finished Lola!) and the wife is reading her kindle. Then she frowns. “I’m running out of power.” A deeper frown. “I didn’t bring my charger.” Welcome to another chapter of my continuing drama – What’s wrong with eReaders. Yeah, it’s marvelous technology. You can highlight things that catch your fancy. You can flip back and forth. You can even search through text (the great “So who the hell is this?” function). And for me, looting Project Gutenberg has been a dream. But there are problems. My reader […]

August 14, 2014

Vacation (Dog Ear)

s a kid, I remember our vacations (such as they were for a poor-as-church-mice Navy family), stopping at my Grandparent’s place at Buckeye Lake, Ohio. It was a nice lake-front cottage, the type with creaky floors, old wagon wheels suspended and fitted out with light bulbs, and just-decommissioned outhouses serving as toolsheds. Croquet was a very adventurous game, a random contest amid the gnarly oak roots. Most mornings I’d come out and see my father sitting all alone on the deck, bamboo pole optimistically deployed, a silhouette against the silent lake. He never caught dinner, just mid-sized catfish he’d throw […]

August 17, 2014

Giving worse that I got (DOG EAR)

kay, I’ve cautioned about saying things on Facebook and pondered about writing train reports differently depending on how well I knew the person. Now comes a cautionary tale about writing reviews. A while back, I reviewed Jenessa Gayheart’s book Eidolon: The Thousand Year Ghost. I had some good criticisms to make, specifically involving the technicalities of lighter-than-airship travel. But I was a little… um… snarky in my review. I remember thinking that while I wrote it, and thought, yeah, but it adds zest. I’ve also mentioned that I have to monitor my comment stream for spam (that’s why you don’t […]

August 21, 2014

Used (DOG EAR)

erailed. It’s a book by James Siegel which I picked up out of a bin in front of Sanford’s Maya Used Books. It was a hot day, I was flipping through their sidewalk bin of hardbacks, caught on the name (I’m a train fan), read the flap, noted the price (a buck) and added it to my stack. It sat next to my bed (in the pile of potentials) for over a year. I think, twice, I must have moved it to get up the dust and cat hair. And finally, between other books, I read it. Wow. I won’t […]

August 28, 2014

Writing blue (DOG EAR)

t all started years back with this dynamic woman I used to share weekly lunches with. I was moaning about an inability to place work (as opposed to my successful current self, who is unable to place work). She looked across the table and asked, quite frankly, “Have you thought about erotica?” The deal was, she knew a friend who made scratch doing just that. Oh, you won’t get rich (it kept Steve King alive in his early years), but you can make some money at it – if you are a real writer. After all, writing erotica/porn/smut is no […]

September 4, 2014

Erotica 101: Characters (DOG EAR)

ynthia Woodelston Pratt stepped out of her front door, the sun shimmering along the sassy golden locks of her long blonde hair which hung halfway down her back. She had solient green eyes and a cute button nose, and lips shaded to pastel pink by a generous swipe of lipstick, She was comfortably clothed in a pink polo top. Her delightful bottom was sheathed in tight cut-off jeans, faded, their bottom edges across her thighs frayed into white fluff. On her feet, very casual light brown Doc Martins. She was an American girl, just out for a day’s shopping at […]

September 18, 2014

Erotica 101: Secrecy (DOG EAR)

nonymity or no anonymity, that is the question. Is it better to be recognized by one’s works and hailed as the writer one knows one is? Or better to not suffer the slings and stalks of those seeking one out… Me, I’m of the second opinion. Why? I don’t see an advantage to letting the information go out, not just yet. If I find myself in a Fifty Shades of Grey success moment, then I have the option. But for now? Why damage my rep, especially since my novel Indigo could easily be re-rigged for the YA market? It doesn’t […]

September 25, 2014

Erotica 101: Fire and Bronze (DOG EAR)

o here was the dilemma – I had a 13 year old historic figure who marries her uncle. He, the high priest of Tyre, has agreed to this as a protection for her against her brother the king. The brother wouldnt dare hurt them, given the uncle’s position, right? Sucker. Anyway, as I was writing the story, I saw (like a motorist seeing an obstruction on a dark road, gradually manifesting in the headlights) that there was a problem ahead. Really, what sort of man is going to take a risk like that and not seek some advantage (i.e. comfort)? […]

October 2, 2014

Erotica 101: Legality (DOG EAR)

o I’m happy as a clam. My manuscript has an agent, who hooked me up with a publisher. I’ve actually seen a couple of examples of cover art. I’ve talked to the editor and worked some issues. And so I’m at work and the phone rings. It’s the editor. Do I have time to talk to some folks in legal? And did I get that emailed PDF file of the current manuscript? Good. Good. Fifteen minutes later, I’m in a conference room with a spare laptop, ringing New York back, set on my end. And there’s is my editor. And […]

October 9, 2014

Pure crap (DOG EAR)

knew this was going to happen. And sure enough, it did. Was at a local bookstore and picked up a little self-published tome (it’s sooooo easy to self-publish now). And what have I said about writers who can get published nice and cheap? It’s why I don’t like people without training (or sense) getting hold of firearms. Some writers simply are not qualified to be published. First off, he didn’t seem to check his pagination and word-flow. Right-justification can really cause some issues, ones that might need manual correction. So occasionally you’ll see three words on a line, floating on […]