slashgirl’s Neighborhood

I did a poll in my LiveJournal regarding romance between men and I discovered that the people on my f-list had some interesting thoughts on it. I had expected to have more of a mix of responses, but people are mostly on the side of liking (or loving) romance and really, I had no idea that they felt that way.

One thing that is interesting that I'm still working through is people wanting declarations of sexuality in stories.

The reason that I included that question in my poll is because I have read stories about fictional characters I had been watching on television for years; characters who were married or had girlfriends and whatnot. And just before they have their first gay interaction with some guy, they declare that they've always been gay but they were pretending. They didn't really love their wife/girlfriend or even better, their spouse is 'okay' with it.

See, I'm not saying that that situation hasn't ever happened in anyone's life. In fact, I know people that that has happened to. I know men who had been living a heterosexual lie and then once they reached a certain point, they came out of the closet. I know women who had married men thinking that they were straight only to have them divorce them and leave them and their children for another man. So yeah, it does happen.

But when you are writing about a fictional character that we get to know in a certain capacity (uber-straight acting or very devoted to their spouse), it's that much more difficult to get people to believe that they just woke up and said 'I'm gay!'

How can one combat this issue? Well, if you are going to write about a character who has been presented to the audience as a mostly heterosexual male, please don't take the easy way out by just having them state their gayness and then have it be so. Inject some tension. Show them struggling with their decision or having thoughts about how they had wanted to be themselves, but because of societal and family pressures, they had to maintain their facade. When people write stories where the wife or girlfriend is cool (as well as the entire military or police force), I scream and I want to break my monitor. Right there, they lost me.

It's not an easy decision nor is it something that should be portrayed as easy in a story. If you would like to retain a bit of realism (and keep the reader engaged in what it is you're trying to get them to believe), please take those things into account. Take the character's past and their relationships into account and try and make it as honest as possible instead of trying to tie it up in a little bow.

That is only a sign of laziness on the part of the writer.

For as long as I have been involved in fandom (13 years online and counting), I have always hated stories that had multiple slash pairings in the story.

I should preface this by saying I have mostly been involved in fandoms involving police officers or military personnel, so it's not like the characters can prance around, flaunting their relationships. That being said, I am now reading Stargate: Atlantis fiction and I get so sick when people list three different pairings (involving six different people) because it's just so ridiculous. Just the statistics themselves are skewed, but there is nothing to toss me out of a Teyla/Elizabeth story than someone commenting on how everybody knows that John and Rodney can't keep their hands off of one another.

Excuse me? John Sheppard, the military man? OPENLY groping another man in full view of everyone?  I don't think so.

As much as I love slash fiction, it still annoys me to have everyone at one time involved in relationships. Unless, of course, it's some sort of silly fic. But if it's a more serious piece and the writer wants me to buy into their vision and the reality that they've created, I can't buy into five military men all being openly gay with one another.

Not in this lifetime.

I uploaded one of my favorite songs from Nine Inch Nail's latest CD, With Teeth. 

I wanted to recommend one of my favorite songs from the CD that happens to get heavy rotation in my car CD player.  So I bring you: You Know What You Are.

Why do I love this song so much? It comes in handy for me, especially at times when I'm anxious or angry or tense and I need to let off some steam.

Pissed off? Play this song.  Loudly.

Angry with your boss/husband/mother/friend/significant other? Play this song.

Stuck in traffic and you just want to scream? Play this song.  (Believe me, I have done it many a time while not moving on the freeway.)

And did I mention that one of today's greatest drummers makes a guest appearance on it? Dave Grohl (from Foo Fighters) who I think is an amazingly versatile musician, plays drums on many of the tracks on the CD, but this is by far my favorite.  For me, it's the drums that make the song, even moreso than Trent's angry screaming (which I also love, BTW).

The interesting thing is, I find myself saying more and feeling freer here in my Vox journal than in my LiveJournal.  I have discussed this with Vagablonde as well as Sithdragn and I know why I feel that way.

I started off as a blogger in 2000, before they had the comment option in the journals. If you wanted to allow people to make comments, you had to install this third-party software in your code.  For the most part, you would receive comments through email, so I was lulled into this sense that I was writing for myself. Because of that, I wrote more and was much more productive than I am now.  The words just flowed so much more easier.

I moved to LiveJournal in December 2001 and I learned about what it is to write for an audience. Whether it's an audience of 1 or 100, it changed the way that I write -- and I've never gone back.

Having this journal, I feel that I am back to writing - not necesarily for myself or anyone else.  I'm just writing.

And I have to say, it feels pretty damn good.

While I'm still not keen on the design and the ads on the bottom can bite me, I'll be doing some writing over here.

I just finished reading this book - in the span of a day and a half - and I couldn't put it down. The last author who did that to me was Harlan Coben, but I'll save a review of his books for another post.

I have loved a lot of Sandra's books, though I will admit that not all of them hit me the right way. This book, though, had me caught up from the first moment.  I spent so much time trying to figure out 'Why did this happen' and 'How are they going to explain that'. There were plenty of twists and turns and a lot of things that kept me engaged throughout my read.

My gage for whether or not a book is really good or if I'm just a sucker for a book is how quickly my mother reads the book. She's an avid reader and if she picks up a book and it unable to put it down until she completes it, I know that it's a winner. (Not saying that I don't know if I have taste or not because I do, but I'm always interested in her take on books and we have long discussions about how we felt and what we liked and didn't like.)  I put this book in her hands as soon as I finished reading the last page and once she started, she couldn't stop. Her only complaint was that the action never stopped. For me, that was the best part.

There were some aspects of it that just made me shake my head, but the overall story was good enough that I forgave those parts. Some of the characters made me feel something intensely one way or another. Either I hated them or loved them and in some instances, I actually switched sides part of the way through the story. There was also a handful of characters that I just didn't know what to think about, but they still left an impression on me. It became apparent after a while the place that they had in the book and I'm glad that I stuck it out with them.

Overall, a good read and a very good way to pass a rainy weekend.

I'm still a bit upset that Rainbow is not going to be at DragonCon. I'm also anxious about going there and there being so many people. I'm not keen on all of that, so we'll have to see how it all plays out.

It should be good, though, because my friends are meeting me there.

And Rachel is going to be there. Oh, and Chris Judge. *dies*

But you can see in the the picture why one would be excited about seeing Rachel. And yes, Rachel is different from Teyla. Actually, Rachel is much more adorable than Teyla, so it'll be a lot of fun to see her.

And speaking of Teyla and to reference my picture, Amitee posted the most wonderful Teyla/Elizabeth story and I hope that there will be more to come. I really liked reading about their relationship and she had the voices down perfectly. I've never written the women on the show, but I do admit that I wish that I could. I've always been more tuned into the men and it's been easier for me to write them. But women? I just have a hard time and I don't know why. I truly wish that I didn't because I would love to write some Teyla/Elizabeth or Teyla/Kate or Sam/Janet.  I love stories about them and I wish that I could contribute to the fandom with some.

As it stands, I'll be sticking with the men.

For now.

So this is it.  The big BANG! The major brou-haha. The incredible secret that has been awaiting us.

Are we impressed yet?

I'm honestly wondering about this -- why there needed to be an "adult" version of MySpace.com?