Sneak peek at the cover for my next FELIG CHRONICLES book: PARADOX

http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/2014/06/sfr-cover-reveal-paradox-by-pj-dean.html

The above link is to a short post on for the cover reveal for PARADOX, Book 4 of my FELIG CHRONICLES. A September release. Please go to Heather Massey's wonderful site to read the scoop and see the cover. Or just oggle it now.

The New Adult genre in romance (Adult? Really?) : No pros, all cons for me

Oh, boy. Where do I begin? I tried. I really did. But I do not like the New Adult genre. It's just so full of...challenges. It's like reading the manual to a 12 step program for an addiction to overcome. Except the addiction is never overcome. What do I mean? Well. it's full of those challenges, agony, angst and assholes. Not entertainment to me. I've witnessed too much of that in real life. Maybe this genre is romance for the sheltered, for those who have not experienced any huge upheaval in their lives. Maybe it's a road map for the emotionally-challenged to follow if they want to live vicariously through heroines who immerse themselves in all kinds of mental turmoil possible. Who knows? Except I must say, no matter the age or experience, a lot of the NA heroines are just too stupid to live and love wallowing in the "feels." You got heroines who are pregnant by their very best friend's man. Heroines who enjoy being humiliated in every way because that's how they feel awake. And on and on. It's a Jerry Springer Show marathon in print.

The heroines are mostly lost souls, consciously, unconsciously, literally or figuratively. They are usually in their late teens or early twenties. With freshly deceased parents, freshly deceased friends, freshly deceased pets, freshly deceased plants, etc. EMO on steroids. And to get whole again, they are drawn to and latch onto some of the biggest douchebag heros of all. And these guys are everywhere. At a mall, in the coffee shop, in poly sci class,. And exist to "fix" the girls' brokenness, to bring them back to life. UGH! In this day and age, haven't women progressed farther than panting after a partner to "heal" themselves? Oh, don't get me wrong. Panting for panting's sake is fine. But the reason for hooking up with this perfect partner to pant with as a fix to all the heroine's problems? Really? Just have the heroine screw because she wants to. Do drugs because she wants to. Drink because she wants to. Not do it because indulging in her partner's bedroom skills, boozing, and/or drugging will be a magic cure for sadness. And the partners that these New Adult heroines pick are dicks. Plain and simple. Oh, excuse me. Misunderstood but sensitive dicks. Modern era  Heathcliffs and Rochesters. New Adult is just YA and Old Skool Gothic romance wrapped up in sex, booze and drugs and way too many issues. To each his own.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MISTER PRINCE ROGERS NELSON!

Okay. Okay. Gotta restrain myself. It's just that I admire His Purpleness's talent soooooooo much. I have followed him all through his career. Don't judge me. From the early big hair to the ruffled shirts, sucked in cheeks and heels. Through the record company dispute. And on and on. And through it all, his eyeliner has NEVER been out of place. NEVER. Take notice, ladies. Rock it. Work it. Long live the Prince!

PS. The year Prince was born (1958) also welcomed Madonna (August 16) and the late Michael Jackson (August 29). Talk about stars aligning.What a special freakin' year.


Photo: theimcmagazine.com

 

What were some SF/F authors first reads?

Please click to read an article by Veronica Scott, my colleague in things science fiction and paranormal. In her column for USAToday she asked several Sci Fi/Fantasy authors what their first SF/F reads were. Guess what writer of the paranormal got asked to share?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyeverafter/2014/06/02/veronica-scott-authors-first-scifi-fantasy-reads/9851959/

Step away from what everyone else is doing. You're scaring me and boring the hell out of me at the same time.

This is going to be a quick post about some of the recent books I've sampled in the interracial romance genre. Yep. Sampled. Because to finish them would have lowered my I. Q. or finished me. I'm gonna come right out and say it. Yo! Yo! Yo! Fellow authors of IR romance, to a certain few, I implore you to STOP with the stereotypical "exotic" descriptions of your couples. Yeah, he or she can be mesmerized by the attractiveness of the object of their desire but please do not base it all in "otherness." God! I thought that memo had gone out.

I do admit that when my book couple got together, each one mentioned something about their differences. But they did not wallow in it! No waxing creepily, constantly, on and on about physical characteristics that made them different. Unless your whole story deals with that fetish. Then you definitely get major side-eye from me and I move away too. Also, STOP with this off-putting trend of the asshole alpha hero being seen as something HOT. This so-called hero's need to completely dominate, have or rule the heroine's life is NOT romantic. It's weird, psychotic and stalker-like. Know what time it is? I know what time it is. It's time to call the friggin' police, that's what time it is. I'm tired of the take-charge bossy billionaires, the cagey CEOs, the unstable FBI agents, the loopy lawyers, the wounded but nutty Navy SEALS, the maniacal motorcycle men.  Yeech! All of whom are into BDSM. And their un-awakened women brought to awareness by their men's mighty, ever ready genitalia. No. Just no. Ponder another way in which to write a hero. Less of the guys whose fetish lists can only be filled by a trip to the Home Depot.. Please. Do better. I know you can. I'm ready.

PNR and SFR with special characters

If you like paranormal romance and the world of possibilities that it offers, read author Heather Massey's article at her great blog, The Galaxy Express, on SciFi romance and Paranormal romance with characters with that "something extra."

http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/2014/05/sci-fi-romances-with-extranormal.html#more

We has arrived! 'Cuz TIME magazine said so!

Oh my! "Colored'' folk have arrived in romance novels! In interracial love matches! Someone alert the media! Oh my bad. Someone did. And the medium of choice was TIME magazine. So, I guess it's official. And it must be true. But you are about 20 years late and a dollar short, TIME. As usual the message was relayed to the masses by a rep of the default persuasion by using the graphic of her novel. Translation: An article heralding the inclusion of interracial love in romance books employed a book by a WHITE author to represent the genre. As usual the default messenger was used to relay a message revolving around a topic speaking about OTHER ethnicities! No, I am NOT saying this writer, or any other non-POC writer, should not write multicultural angles into their work. They should write what they want. I'm just saying that when authors who look like her do include these angles, do not trumpet the inclusion as "groundbreaking" and a "first." It's not groundbreaking. It's been around a long while. So when this "trend" catches the eye of major media, it telegraphs to me that this "new trend" in romance books is only sanctioned, legit and accepted when an example of it is written by the default author. Yeah, I said it. It's friggin' amazing. This "new trend" has been around since the NINETIES and was inaugurated by BLACK female writers because there were NO depictions of people of color as major characters in romance books. Be they in same race, or interracial, relationships. NONE. NADA. ZILCH. Publishers believed that love came in only one color and readers only wanted to read about that one color falling in love. Those BLACK women created the niche. Carved it out on their own. Fought tooth and nail to bring it to light. Yes, the article did mention the Black female biggies in the genre, even SPOKE with a few of the women for the article. But, alas, TIME Magazine did not find it germane to the article to post the COVERS to THEIR books. Major fail!

http://time.com/43710/interracial-romance-novels/