Author, A. J. Llewellyn

Should Writers Sue Reviewers?

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:28:55 +0000

Should Writers Sue Reviewers?
Current mood: bouncy
Category: News and Politics

I am blogging today at The Many Shades of Life and Love and here is what I posted:

It doesn’t matter how great YOU think your book is. It matters not one whit that you’re selling huge numbers of copies, or that you’ve gotten awesome reviews.
It takes one clown to post a negative review and you feel like total crap.
Then you start to think, “Will this affect my sales?”
Should this lead to a writer suing a reviewer for a bad review?
I ask this question in light of director Joshua Newton suing the showbiz bible Variety over its very bad review of his movie Iron Cross. Until this lawsuit was filed, I hadn’t read the review. Since then, Variety has yanked the review from its online archives and sacked most of its long term review staff. You can bet freelancer Robert Koehler who penned the review won’t be getting any work out of the mag again).
Here is yesterday’s article detailing the lawsuit.
http://tinyurl.com/ya7jlwh
I’ve since located a paper copy of the review and yeah, it’s a bad one.
Koehler dismisses Iron Cross saying, “It will be remembered as [the late actor] Roy Scheider’s Swan Song and little else.”
Ouch.
Personally, I hate bad reviews. I hate the ones that seem to derive pleasure out of being hateful. I hate the ones that have the characters’ names wrong and a storyline that doesn’t resemble what I wrote.
But should writers and directors sue?
I don’t think so.
I understand Newton’s point, though. According to him (and others I have spoken to) Variety’s reviews are positioned to not only critique a movie’s content but its marketability. Have you seen Iron Cross at a movie theater near you?
No, you haven’t and according to Newton, he couldn’t get distribution once the review came out. How likely is this? I wonder.
To be honest kids, I’ve had books that had rave reviews and didn’t sell so well.
I’ve had books that have been rated poorly and I’ve even had my covers attacked.
My book A Vampire Christmas had the dubious distinction of being awarded the Worst Cover (thanks Jessewave!) yet remains one of my best-selling and, most pirated books.
So, go figure.
I say ignore the bad reviews, preen over the good ones if you’re having a sucky day, but mostly, don’t place too much value on their financial influence.
Reviews can help you sell. Sometimes not. It’s a crap shoot. It really is.
Having said that, I think reviewers need to be mindful that while it’s fun to dish out sarcastic and negative comments, remember that there is an author and a publisher behind the book.
Should this temper a reviewer’s comments? No.
Depending on the reviewer, I find the negative and positive comments helpful. However, I find very inexperienced reviewers are the ones who are most often quite…vile in their critique and not especially insightful in their comments.
A few years ago, I took on a gig as a sub editor on a daily paper in Los Angeles. There was a college student who came in that summer as an intern. She was excited to be reviewing rock concerts. She was even more excited once she landed the plum assignment of reviewing her favorite band.
I happened to pass her in the hall the morning after the concert and asked her what she thought of the show.
She raved about it. Her eyes shone and she bubbled with joy.
Then I got her review. It was horrible. I couldn’t believe it.
I could have edited it and sent it to bed (as we say in newspapers) but I called her to my desk and asked her to take a seat. I was gentle with her, but I needed to know.
Why had she raved about the show to me, yet panned it in print?
She blushed. She confessed it was harder for her to put into words what she appreciated and loved about the show. She was worried about what people would think.
“It’s so much easier to write a negative review than a positive one,” she said.
I disagreed and sent her back to rewrite it. She didn’t. The review went to another sub editor and I’ve often wondered if that writer ever thought twice about her actions.
She, to me, was a sloppy sort of writer and I hope she got editors in the future with a lot more power who could make her write an honest review.
As for the paper, they had to endure irate calls from the promoter who had gone to great lengths to provide her front row seats, backstage passes…yeah.
Life sucks when you are held accountable.
You can bet when the intern graduated, the paper wasn’t so keen to hire her…so there are always consequences.
That’s not to say reviewers shouldn’t speak their minds, they should. Be mindful however that there should be legitimate reasons behind your bad review, beyond wanting to be cool, sarcastic, amusing and bitchy.
How about you? How do you feel about bad reviews? And should people sue? I really want to know your thought.

Aloha oe,

A.J.

Currently listening:
The Legend of Pele: Sounds of Arthur Lyman
By Arthur Lyman
Release date: 1998-06-09

HONEYBONE

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:24:05 +0000

HONEYBONE

A New M/M Erotic Mystery Series

By A.J. Llewellyn

Book 1 Now Available at www.eXtasybooks.com

Purchase Link: http://tinyurl.com/yawtgwr

US Federal Marshal Dean Honeybone is accompanying extradited child killer Richard Stance to Australia when their plane crashes off the north-east coast of the island continent. The only survivors of the packed flight are Honeybone and nine-year old Kaia Pendleton, whom Dean rescued during the crash. As Dean and Kaia recuperate in a Queensland hospital, questions swirl about what caused the accident…and what happened to Stance’s body, the only one not recovered from the crash site.

Unable to return to work due to his injuries and plagued by raging headaches and violent nightmares, Honeybone must rest. Convinced that Stance has survived and is out there somewhere, free to kill again, he’s reluctant to take the gift of a week-long dream vacation at Wilson Island, a remote, luxury island resort where only ten guests at a time are allowed to visit. Honeybone gives in however and falls hard and fast for Jean-Luc Sebastien, the French chef on the island…but discovers that death and danger are as close as the next barrier reef.

For a HOT eXcerpt and Purchase Please click this link:

Purchase Link: http://tinyurl.com/yawtgwr

It’s Greek to Me

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:33:14 +0000

Current mood: blissful
Category: School, College, Greek

I recently gave up my volunteer work at my local library where I spent almost every Saturday working for the last three years. I still love my library but recent changes there made me realize it was time to leave. It was a tough decision but now I wonder how I did all the work I did there…and I am feeling a lot less stressed.

I felt it was time to learn, to explore new adventures.

Life is so amazing sometimes. I’ve been wanting to take Greek classes for years but could never find them. When I did on the rare occasion, they were so expensive I couldn’t even consider them.

Being born in Australia to Greek parents, I actually spoke Greek before I spoke English. My grandmothers raised me when my mum died (I was 6) and I always spoke Greek to them.

As a kid, my dad, who traveled and left my day-to-day raising to my grandmothers, enrolled me in Greek school at our local church. I was so resistant and I regret it to this day. But I was a kid. I wanted to play after school, not be in Greek School!

Of my three siblings, I am the only one who speaks Greek. My brother Alex is married to a Greek woman who is fluent in the language but we rarely speak it, except to trade crude jokes or private comments about others who can’t understand us.

Since my grandmothers’ passing and over time, I’ve forgotten how to read and write it, but I can still speak it. It was a tragic thing to me, to lose my Greek. I feel…I don’t know, like I’m losing what I have of my my mother by losing the language.

As an adult I have craved and sought what I rejected as a callow youth.

The very week after I quit the library, I was in church one Sunday morning and noticed a bulletin at the back of that day’s pamphlet advertising Greek classes for children and adults.

I called the wonderful woman orchestrating the program.

We chatted in English and in Greek and she decided my conversational skills were excellent so she put me with the teacher she thought would be able to help revive my reading and writing skills.

It is a wonderful thing the church is doing.

There are classes in rooms behind the church hall. They take me back to my youth.

I felt an emotional swell the day I started and received my reading and writing materials.

It really took me back to a time when I did not appreciate the gift of language education.

As I searched for my classroom, I saw packed rooms of children, packed classes for parents and their kids – now that is a wonderful idea – and then came the adult classroom.

Good ol’ A.J it turns out is the only adult in the adult-language program.

I squeezed behind one of the tiny desks and for two hours my teacher kicked my ass.

She keeps doing it each Saturday.

I always want to quit, always want to go out and play on the basketball court.

My true nature is still there. Run, A.J! Be free!

My first morning with her, she thrust a book in front of me and said, “Read this aloud.”

I did.

She looked surprised. “You’re very good. You don’t need me. Why are you here?”

“I’m not good,” I told her. “The English words are underneath. I’m cheating.”

She laughed and handed me another passage.

I stared at her. I couldn’t read a thing.

Since then, I’ve improved, though she has had to coax some bad habits out of me.

She told me I spoke Greek like sailor. “You speak in a colloquial style that is so country.”

“That’s what my grandmothers were,” I said. “They were village women from the old country.”

I have struggled to push past the barriers of frustration.

Being that the classes are in the church, I am surrounded by icons on the walls.

There is also a photo of our priest, my beloved Father John on the wall. His smiling face always encourages me.

I heard the church bells peel for Saturday of the Souls the last few weeks and was enchanted by the tiny children outside dancing and singing, getting ready for Easter’s celebrations.

Many years ago, that was me.

It still is.

I am back to being the kid who knew nothing and sometimes, I swear, I feel my mother beside me, glad that I have not forgotten her, that I have not given up.

I am alone in this journey but I have my teacher who, it must be said, shows her frustration about being there for just one student. But she comes, because she sees I badly want to do this.

At night, I dream in words, not just pictures. I practice in my sleep, writing the perfect letters, remembering correct form.

I have the urge, once again to read and write correctly, to inhale the mysteries of big, thick books I see on the classroom shelves.

I am not quite ready for those since my reading level is at fifth grade (!!!) but I will get there. I will. And in the meantime, I take pride in knowing each week I am doing better than the last.

Aloha oe,

A.J.

Currently listening:
Arleen Auger – Love Songs featuring Dalton Baldwin, piano
Release date: 1992-05-22

Fire and Ice (Sin)

fiona — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:06:15 +0000

AJ Llewellyn and Stephani Hecht could not have been named more appropriately. From the beginning I was drawn into the world of hard core sports, boxing and hokey. The emotional neglect and lack of nurturing endeared me to both Angel and Cristano. The misery of being used and blackmailed endeared me to Alex. Intense passion stained my cheeks with blushing and made my mouth water. But it was the overall picture of the story that affected me. I enjoyed reading Tiano and Alex’s story, and I hope soon Angel’s will come to light. I’d recommend this read to any of my friends as a must read.

My Favorite Husband (Sin)

fiona — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:03:18 +0000

AJ Llewellyn had me laughing from the jump. I began this series in the middle and am looking forward to going back and reading the others. It is apparent that this long-running series is a definite need for my shelf. Not only was the author able to create such great characters, he infuses so much humor in the life of a vamp, that it surely must be as chaotic. Yet in all the chaos, a deep love shines, and grows. I fell in love with Div and Tem, sighed over François and wanted to adopt the cat.

Black Point Christmas (Lilyraines)

fiona — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:22:02 +0000

I enjoyed reading this installment of the Blackpoint books. So much, in fact, that I look forward to exploring the series further. I found both Matt and Thomas, as well as their various family members, very engaging and believable. The setting is nice too and makes me, at least, think of being right there. Highly recommended.

Making Yourself Hot

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:35:56 +0000

Current mood: breezy
Category: Writing and Poetry

So I was at an Oscar party like almost everybody else in L.A. on Sunday and one of the people present asked me about writing sex scenes for my books.

“Do you ever turn yourself on with your scenes?” he asked.

Hell yeah! I mean, if I didn’t…if my scenes don’t get me at least er…happy, how can I expect my readers to get worked up over them?

I think long and hard about each sex scene I write. Sometimes they’re brief and hot, sometimes they’re long and romantic. I am mindful of the fact that I have two groups of readers. Those who read and re-read every sex scene and remember every detail – and those who skip over them for the story. I guess it’s a good sign that there’s something for them to read when they’re skipping over the sex, right?

But I digress.

Anyway, sometimes these scenes come naturally. They’re no effort at all. I had a whole sex scene from page one in Diura that I swear just came into my mind like a movie. Sometimes I have to work on it…especially when it’s part of a series and I think – hey, have I written one like this before? But after 60 books published, you do run out of original ideas considering each one has several sex scenes.

I look to a variety of sources for inspiration when I am feeling stumped.
Beyond gay porn which is a sparkling novelty always guaranteed to ignite some creativity, I like to read. Right now, Nick Capra’s blogs are providing a lot of grist for the mill.
He’s not only one of the hottest porn stars out there but frankly the best of the porn star bloggers.

I love his Confessions of a Recovering Hooker posts. I think he needs to write books and I’ve been encouraging him to do so.
He is a tremendous, important new voice in the world of gay erotic writing.

Porn star Erik Rhodes blog once inspired a scene for my Waikiki Vampire book Ma Ma Loa. The way Erik feels about his porn star career seemed perfect for my fictional gay vampire, Tem.

Steve Cruz’s tales of traveling with a portable douche bag seemed perfect for my male escort Mio in the upcoming The Book and the Rose.

I recently renewed my Men at Play subscription and I’ve been enjoying those hot little trysts.

Of course with two more books pending for me with gay porn director John Bruno, my thoughts are straying toward creating, not being inspired by such scenes since what I’ll be writing in the Massive Studio series will be filmed.

I think the thing about writing love scenes and sex scenes is to make them as imaginative as possible while keeping them plausible. I have been accused of having an aversion to beds since most of my characters use them as little as possible, but hey, ya gotta keep it interesting. On the page and off.

What about other authors and readers? How do you feel about this subject?

Aloha oe,

A.J.

Currently listening:
Cafe Atlantico
By Césaria Évora
Release date: 1999-05-06

AJ — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:44:12 +0000

Current mood: blissful
Category: Writing and Poetry

One of the most coveted, most stolen books in the Los Angeles Public Library System is a book called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I figured this title had to be a joke at first. I discovered the joke was on me when I realized Austen’s novel of love and small minded British folk was not the only classic to receive the ‘mash’ treatment. Authors are weaving zombie tales set during the same era in and out of the original texts.
I took the time to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and was fascinated. I love the movie 28 Days Later and had always understood from my work as a script reader that zombies are political metaphors. Suddenly, they are so much more than that.
They are sexy.
Studio executives are turning away vampire stories in favor of zombies, but like vampires, the new breed zombies are hot and sexy…and romantic.
I did some research and saw that a few erotic romance authors are penning zombie tales. I pondered the thought: Can I do this?
I decided the hot new trend being trilogies or collections of short pieces could be combined with erotic, romantic zombie tales could be a winner. I approached my publisher Tina Haveman who had to be convinced. She thought I was smoking wacky tobaccy when I first suggested it until she went online as I cradled my phone against my ear and she could see how huge zombies are.
“My God,” she said. “They’re even putting zombies in Tom Sawyer!”
Yup. And now, thanks to my two frequent co-authors D.J. Manly and Stephani Hecht saying yes, My Zombie Pride, a trilogy of hot, lusty gay zombie stories has been released.
My story, With This Ring focuses on a TV writer who meets his dream man. Jude has an unusual problem, he can’t sleep, has an erection that won’t quit but there’s something odd about him…I wonder what?
LOL.
D.J.’s story Louisiana Lust combines voodoo and a hot prospect: zombie hookers. Stephani’s story, Salting Zombies is like a gay Romeo and Juliet. Oh, the agony, the ecstasy!

Check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/y8f6q9c
And forget everything you ever thought about ugly, face-falling-off zombies. Zombies are hot, baby. And they have gay pride.

Aloha oe,
A.J.

Currently listening:
New York Tendaberry
By Laura Nyro
Release date: 2008-02-01

March 1 – THREE New Releases

AJ — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:49:29 +0000

There are three new releases today! Color me stunned!

FAWNSKIN – book 1 in my HOT new M/M mystery series with D.J. Manly has just been released in ebook format. paperback follows next month.
Please visit Amber Quill Press for purchasing info on FAWNSKIN:

http://tinyurl.com/ybrdeya

GOT GAY PRIDE? GOT HOT ZOMBIES? Well, check out MY ZOMBIE PRIDE, a new Trilogy of stories from me, D.J. Manly and Stephani Hecht because dead men tell hot tales!

Please visit eXtasy Books for purchasing info on MY ZOMBIE PRIDE:

http://tinyurl.com/y8f6q9c

Authors Against Copyright Theft are proud and thrilled to announce that our highly-antipciated history-making anthology STEALING MY HEART is now available in ebook format, paperback to follow next month.
Seven authors have penned six HOT Male/Male tales to help promote awareness that pirating ebooks is THEFT. It is NOT file-sharing or lending.
It is STEALING!
Check out the hot stories by me, A.J. Llewellyn, D.J. Manly, Carol Lynne, Stephani Hecht, Serena Yates, Jambrea Jo Jones and Jaime Samms.
Every penny goes to a fun to help promote this very worthy cause.
Please visit Total eBound for purchasing info on STEALING MY HEART:

http://tinyurl.com/yaeznoj

Watching the Dead

AJ — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:15:13 +0000

Watching the Dead
Current mood: breezy
Category: Writing and Poetry

This is my first blog as An Amber Quill Press author and I’m thrilled to be talking about my second book with them.
Firstly, I owe it to the dangerously talented (and sexy, too!) author Rick R. Reed for suggesting to our publisher Trace Edward Zaber that he should invite me to submit a story for his approval. He did, and I did…and my first book, Deeper Blue came out at Amber Allure last October.
I have loved my whole experience here with AQP and as I pondered what to write next, I had a weird and wonderful experience.
I had lunch with a group of friends as we got hair cuts at our old movie studio. Though we were all laid off, we are all still close and we go to the hair salon on the lot and make a half-day of it. Being close to bald, I require little in the cutting department. I’m there for the donuts and the bagels. And the smears. I am all about cream cheese.
But I digress.
One of our pals arrived late and confessed his new job was beginning to affect him. Since he works nights, we made fun, teasing him about being a go go dancer or a rent boy. Nope. He’s watching the dead.
I said, “What?”
Turns out it’s an actual job in a very Orthodox Jewish funeral parlor. He is called a shomerim and he must stay awake guarding the dead…or else, the dead man’s spirit walks, releasing a dybbuk.
I said, “A what?”
Now, I took notes. I am a relentless taker of anecdotes. A thief of ideas…and hey presto, there was my idea for Fawnskin!
I roped my frequent writing partner, the brilliant and yummy D.J. Manly into writing it with me. I told him my idea.
He said, “A what?”
And here you have it. Fawnskin comes out on the 28th, the first in our new series set in this actual California town. I chose the name Fawnskin because I love the textured idea of it, plus it’s a warm and friendly sounding name.
The town, however, like our story…hides much that isn’t seen. Located in the mountains of Big Bear, a couple of hours north of L.A. Fawnskin has a rich history of being a stagecoach town back in the day. I was really haunted by this one-time artist’s colony that is making a gradual comeback.
So often in gay erotic romance fiction, the locales are exotic or glamorous. I liked the idea of this story taking place in a town effected by the economy…but one in which there is also hope. Knox and Rallus are two lonely men who arrive to start new lives, meeting just as weird things start happening in Fawnskin.
Because in our book…the shomerim sleeps. And the dead walk…dance…and they too, like their cream cheese.
For more information on Fawnskin, please visit Amber Quill Press: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Fawnskin.html
Aloha oe,
A.J.

Currently listening:
Legend – The Best Of Bob Marley And The Wailers (New Packaging)
By Bob Marley & The Wailers
Release date: 2002-05-21