Hero Hop Winners!

Firstly, a mighty thanks to Carrie Ann for hosting this hop! It was my first, and definitely not my last - I was pretty floored by the sheer number of people who participated! You guys are fantastic inspiration for us writers - so, thank you, as well.

Now, on to the winners! Using the magic of my typing fingers, Excel, and the random number generator at random.org, and taking into account all you wonderful folks who doubled-up via GoodReads and Twitter, the winner of the Deluxe Package Package is...

desitheblonde

Thanks to everyone for contributing! You're all wonderful and beautiful people!

Also, big congrats to our Hero Hop Grand Prize Winners!

Finally, just as a little reminder, I am migrating over to my proper blogsite this week. Actually, I've been there all along, but being new to this whole blogging thing, I had a hard time making up my mind as to what platform I wanted to use. Anyway, you can always find me at my "proper" address, http://ccdenham.net/

Thanks again, y'all! 

Kick-Ass Heroines

Let's face it - there's already a pretty solid platform of voices
ranting critiquing educating the public about the dangers of weak heroines in fiction and media.

Not to misunderstand, mind, because there's definitely a time and place for damsels in distress. There's a reason bodice-rippers were so popular. And, much as I might hate it myself, there is also a reason why so many women want their own Edward or Christian. This is a (mostly) judge-free zone. 

But today's Common Grounds topic hangs out on the other end of that spectrum: kick-ass heroines who don't need saving. They don't need a man to show them how to enjoy sex, nor do they need 'help' feeling worthy or attractive. Now, that can seem like kind of a tall order. After all, we don't want a Mary Sue on our hands either, do we? Neither do we want a heroine so strong, so tough, and so independent, that she emasculates the hero, right? 

...hold up a tick on that last one, actually. Because wouldn't it stand to reason that if our heroine is made of super-napalm-awesomeballs, then our hero might just be equally as awesome, thus resulting in a megaton duo of amazing? Why isn't there more of is? Or wait - maybe there's actually a LOT of this, but it's currently eclipsed by the media-blitz and popularity of weak, vapid, shallow, so-called heroines. 

Well, rather than ranting about it, let's discuss it. What makes a heroine really awesome? The list of qualifications is actually pretty subjective. 

Take BBW-land, for instance. Ooooh, that's a controversial one, and obviously close to home for me. Which is the stronger heroine - the woman who overcomes her eating issues and challenges herself to become fit, thus losing all the excess weight and going from ugly-duckling to swan? Or is it the woman who accepts her body, flaws and all, and celebrates her curves? (My personal answer: it depends on other personality traits in said heroine, but both can be pretty kick-ass options.) 

Some of it just depends on how you look at it - that's one of the many great things about fiction, in general. I've seen reviews of books I hated because I thought the heroines were TSTL, where the reviewer felt that the heroine was particularly strong for other reasons. (This is where diplomacy and a lack of free time helps out tremendously. I simply close that tab and mentally agree to disagree.) 

So, what makes a heroine kick ass in your mind? Who are some of your favorite kick-ass heroines? This is going to be a recurring theme, btw.* Probably about once a month, Mondays will be taken up with certain heroines who kick ass. Could be in books - romance or otherwise, movies, television, even non-storytelling-media (hello PJ Harvey!). And yes, even in real life.

 

All that said, this month's kick-ass book heroines are:

 

Kate Daniels from Ilona Andrews's Kate Daniels series

 

Aylia from Intentional Abduction by Eve Langlais

 

Vin from Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

 

Miranda Rohan from Anne Stuart's Breathless

Other kick-ass heroines:
-Ellen Ripley
-Princess Leia
-River Tam
-Katniss Everdeen
-Buffy Summers

Okay, so the list goes on, and it's no good to blow the whole load in one week, yeah? Unfortunately, the list is also a little image-light due to copyright concerns, but you should get the gist.

Who are some of your favorite kick-ass heroines?

 *Once this current blog-hop is finished, I will be permanently moving over to http://ccdenham.net . Currently, I am just doing mirror-posts, but eventually that will be my permanent home. :)

Hero Hop Giveaway Contest!

Hello, and welcome to Studio M!  

My name is Paul Lee. The ladies here love to call me 'Paulie' - sort of their little inside joke, I suppose, what with me being the only guy working at this luxury spa and salon. Most of them think I bat for the other team, which is fine by me. The typical women I work on here - well, they're not exactly my type anyway, so it all works out just fine.  

You're probably wondering at this point, how I got into this business. I mean, sure, there are guys who do this sort of work. But I guess I don't really fit the expected mold for it, or something. My boss has been trying to get me to change that, to polish up my image, but I like my jeans and boots. The clientele doesn't seem to mind, and I'm here to cut hair, not model.  

Which brings me to how I ended up here. I actually tried the modeling thing for a while. Sucked balls at it. I guess I don't take direction well. And, ironically, I hated the superficial b.s. involved.  

Okay, okay. Truth is, I kind of got blackballed. A girl I was dating at the time came on-set to visit me, and one of the photographers made a derogatory remark about her weight. I might have sort of nicked his chin with the Cartier ring they had me wearing. Hey, just because I worked with a bunch of shallow-minded, bone-obsessed nitwits doesn't mean that's who I want to share my bed with! I love women of all shapes and sizes, but if I can have a choice, well... Give me curves and softness any day.   

Anyway, before that mess, one of the makeup artists had found out my secret - that before I got into modeling, I cut hair at my Pap's barbershop. I was good at it, too. Too good, Pap used to tell me - guys just want a cut and a shave, not fashion and art. So sue me for being creative, okay?  

Long story short, that makeup artist felt sorry for me and put me in touch with a friend of a friend, and I eventually made my way here, to this Spa for the Rich and Elite with too much time and money on their hands!  

Besides work, I love my motorcycle, old-school country music, mystery novels, and ice cream. My dream girl is - well, you'll see.   

~oOo~

Read more about Paul Lee and his dream girl in

Deluxe Package

SmashWords | Amazon | All Romance eBooks | B&N
~oOo~
And now, for the free stuff!
If you've come here for the Hero's Hop, you're in for a treat! The overall Hop has three really sweet grand prizes:  1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet 2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Cart 3rd Grand Prize: The swag pack shown here: 

I know, right?!
All YOU have to do to be in the running is leave a comment below with your email address where Carrie Ann can reach you if you win! The deal with blog hops is that you hop from blog to blog and leave your mark to up your chances. So follow this humongous list of fantastic authors, check out our heroes, and hopefully win something awesome! 
But wait! That's not all!
In addition to the grand prizes, I will be giving away a digital prize package of my own to a lucky commenter on this blog. A Deluxe Package, in fact! Yep, someone will get a free e-copy of my short story, as well as an e-copy of Water of Life by Rhys Astaston, and Sex, Lies, and Inventions by Abigail Barnette (those two will be e-gifted via All Romance eBooks, and require a working account, subject to availability).
To qualify, simply leave your comment below and tell me which summer blockbuster superhero/supervillain you think is sexiest: Iron Man, Black Widow, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Loki, Batman, Hawkeye, Cat Woman, Spiderman, or The Lizard (hey, it's Rhys Ifans). Make sure to leave your email address, and ebook format preference! 
ALSO, you can increase your chances of winning by adding me on twitter and adding Deluxe Package to your GoodReads list! Just make sure you let me know you did so in the comments, and I'll put your submission in an extra time. (This applies to my giveaway only).
And finally, don't forget to hope on over to the other blogs in the Hero Hop Giveaway! Thanks for reading, and Best of Luck!

Whuh-Wednesday

So, since last week's wackiness in the blogosphere and writing/reading/reviewing world, I've had to slowly pry myself away from the trainwreck fascination.

The internet can be such an incredible tool, yet such a time-suck. And for a newling like me (new to being an author on the internet, not being-on-the-internet. God, no. I've been an addict since before the web had images.), it's especially dangerous. So easy to procrastinate screaming into the void writing by gawking and/or snarking at industry-related drama. Especially since the only deadlines I have at the moment are self-imposed. It's taken some practice to look at all that and say, "gee, it must be nice to have all that spare time. Well, gotta get back to work."

On a similar note, I kind of tilt my head and squint at this whole blog thing. Particularly the part where I'm posting something every Wednesday about writing, like I know what the fuck I'm doing and someone out there is actually interested in reading it. Am I just procrastinating some more? No, I have to remind myself that I am "building a platform." And no one expects me to be an expert. At least, they'd better not - they're in for a rude disappointment if they are!

In short, I don't fucking know, y'all. But I'm here, blogging this crap. And here's what's going on with me, the writer, CC Denham (or Christine, but I'm kind of diggin' the CC version of my name, to tell the truth):

-According to Kristen Lamb, and Idunno, probably some other people in the know out there, it takes a minimum of three books to get the ball rolling. I've got one completed, and it's a paltry short story. Okay, I'm not going to call it "paltry." It's steamy, sexy, sweet and not that short, especially considering the price tag. (BTW, if I can help it, I will always price my works the way I buy. It's rare that I'm willing to spend more than $2 for something under 20k in wordcount.)

Point is, The Ball is definitely not rolling in that context. Sure, I might have had my little moment of squee over my first 100 copies sold, but that's barely a drop in a huge bucket. And it's OKAY that the ball isn't rolling - it normally isn't at this point. But it's up to me to make it roll.

-I have a day job. One that's slow right now, but my husband also just got let go from his job, so I have to amp up my contract work and start pulling in more money.

Normally, one would use this as an excuse from writerly expectations. Not so, little pumpkins. I used to blaze through NaNoWriMo; there's no fucking excuse whatsoever for not getting some wordcount in every day. I have multiple WIPs - stories that haven't even been backburner'ed, but are still right here in front of me. At any given time, I have at least three Word documents open on my desktop. They will grow every day from here on out.

I'm thinking of getting a wordcount widget for those, actually. Not that they mean anything to anyone but me, but that's the point.

-I need to remember to read.

Seriously, I took probably a month or two off from reading any kind of fiction, because I couldn't find anything that grabbed me. What I've found is that when I stop reading, my writing slows down considerably. Granted, I was doing a lot of editing and formatting and blog-building and crap for those months, but you know what? The big boys and girls do all of that and they keep writing.

But back to the reading thing. We all know this - in order to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader. Read outside your genre, blah blah blah yackity shmackity. Of course, I happen to like my genre. But I also have some Max Barry to catch up on, and Wendig's Blackbirds, and the rest of the Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson, and the second Kalix book by Martin Millar. To name a few. I love my e-reader, btw.

...Have I mentioned that I probably have ADD/ADHD? Yeah. What was I saying, again?

OH, now I remember.
I was going to just randomly wrap this all up with a "what I've done" list, because those "to-do" lists and resolutions and shit always get depressing and overwhelming.

-In the last week, dear readers, I have finally managed to get through the first-pass of revamping of the plot set-up for my BDSM novella. Now I'm working on filling out the smut. It's already got a lot of smut. But my writing beastie wanted to throttle me because I skipped over the hot male submission parts. Plus, if I don't fill that stuff in, it'll wind up a short-story instead of a novella, and I'd really like my readers to see more of the complex and plotty smuts that I'm doing.

-I also opened up my fairytale-retelling novella that I'd set aside a few months ago. That one's a romance more than erotic-romance so far. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's going to be fairly low on the smut-scale. I'm excited about it, though. Love the hero in it. He's got that kind of sexy-geek-growing-into-his-badass-trousers thing going on (either that, or I've been watching too much Primeval lately. Mmm. Connor.

-I kept up with blog posts, even though I still haven't built up a backlog (that'll be a project for this weekend, I think!).

-I started reading again. Currently gnawing on The Breaker's Concubine by Ann Mayburn. *fans self*

Okay, then. Got all my "I"s and "me"s out of my system. Onward!

Down, Down the Rabbit Hole!

It seems like 2012 is the year of the fairytale remake. Well, in mainstream media, anyway. We’ve got it on TV with Once Upon a Time and Grimm. It’s in theatres with Mirror, Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, and upcoming works like Maleficent, and Oz, the Great and Powerful. And that's not counting Disney-esque movies. (I’m not touching on *cringe* Disney’s retelling of The Snow Queen.)

BUT, it’s been in romance and erotica for quite a long time. Oh, sure, there are the fairy tale tropes that populate much of the romance genre (Cinderella and Beauty and Beast are the two immediate ones that come to mind). There are also blatant retellings that are quite popular.

It’s impossible to delve into the ‘why’s of this practice without coming off as sexist. But the plain truth is that romance is a genre that's dominated by women. Just as, for generations, fairy tales have been most popular (although not entirely), with little girls. Personally, I fucking love it - I love that, as both a reader and an author, I get to play in these worlds that were ‘just’ fairytales while growing up. Even better? They’re rife with so much erotic potential!

Some of my favorites, in no particular order:

The Pearl at the Gate by Anya Delvay is a sexy, little short with a BDSM-BlueBeard theme to it. Double-kudos for nailing the short-story format, which is kind of a bitch to do well, if you ask me.

Glass Slipper by Abigail Barnette (who is actually Jennifer Armintrout) not only nails the erotic, novella-format, fairytale retelling, but it’s a lovely, yummy May/December romance.

Loved A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James, of course, which is another Cinderella retelling. That’s also the first in her Fairytales series. The rest are on my TBR.

There’s also Petals and Thorns by Jennifer Paris, a Beauty and the Beast novella which was more erotica than anything, but I enjoyed it.

And, of course you can’t go without mentioning Nancy Madore, here. She has several anthologies of erotic fairytale retellings that should be in any fan’s library.

Finally, who can forget Anne Rice's well-loved/well-hated Beauty and the Beast trilogy? Heh.

The fairytale craze also hits the paranormal subgenre pretty frequently. What do you expect, what with the Djinn (‘Genies’), and shifters (Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Red and the Wolf, yeah!), and magic all over the place. Hey, I’m not afraid to admit that my very first ebook purchase ever was the Kings of Wonderland series by Cheyenne McCray. *fans self*

It bears noting, however, that this resurgence of fairytales seems to be less one-sided in gender appeal, which is awesome. Mainstream media is definitely a win on that end; I know just as many men who are addicted to Once Upon a Time and Grimm as women. And they’re all going to the theatres for the big screen retellings.

Even more awesome, however, is that it’s happening, even just a little bit, with books. My husband just finished Cinder by Marissa Meyer, of his own volition. It’s still a bit farther down my TBR list. What’s more? He’s impatient for the next book in the series.
It’ll be a while before I can get him hooked on Abigail Barnette, however.

So, what are your favorite fairytale retellings? Hit me up with some recs!

Friday MishMash the First! Featuring Gorgeous Men, Puppies, and Hot Lava.

I realize most of us don't have an hour to kill, but if you do, the Firefly 10 Year Reunion panel at this year's Comic Con is absolutely worth it. Yeah, I'm totally a browncoat at heart. I love what Joss says at the end about the fans inhabiting his world and making it real. From a writer's perspective, that struck home and made my throat get all knotted up.


As if the sheer cuteness isn't enough to make you keel over in a diabetic coma, these six golden retriever pups are being trained early to become service dogs for our veterans, as part of the Warrior Canine Connection program. For more info beyond the puppy-cam adorable-overload, visit Warrior Canine Connection.


Here's an interesting explanation of why the camera adds ten pounds. Also a good explanation of why certain fat-chick self-portrait camera angles work best. BTW, don't come at me for using the f-word - I'm speaking as a fat-chick who knows how to do those camera tricks.


When I was a kid, one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up was a volcanologist. Maybe a little bit because my family spent some time in Hawaii, and although I was too young to remember much of it, it's definitely part of us. But more because, dude - volcanoes! They're amazing. The island volcanoes are just some kind of spiritual wonder that's beyond words for me. That you can witness the birth of land itself is incredible and awe-inspiring. Don't believe me? Check out the photographic works of CJ Kale and Nick Selway of Lava Light Galleries in Kailua Kona, as they capture this phenomenon on a regular basis.


MELT-ALERT: This is one of my favorite videos, as it brings together one of my muses (and one of the most attractive, charismatic men I know of in the public eye), David Gandy, and DOGS. Mr. Gandy, if you didn't already know, is the ambassador for the Battersea Dog and Cats Home.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElyhhmTjWS0&w=560&h=315]


And finally, two more non-mashup things:

I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has purchased Deluxe Package so far. This morning I officially broke 100 sales! I realize that's a tiny amount compared to so many other authors. However, it's my first story - not even a book, just a short-story. I guess this is kind of like me framing my first dollar earned in a new business/store. Thank you, out there, whoever you are!

And finally, although this is just, right now, a little baby startup blog, from a little baby startup author, I wanted to say that my heart is with the victims and their families/friends of last night's theater shooting in Colorado. Words are little to no justice for the sadness I feel over this horrible incident.

Don't be scared, li'l punkins - I've got chocolate!

Well, it looks like I picked a peach of a time to start a blog segment about being a writer. Yeesh. At least I’m not hurting for topic material?

So, in case you somehow missed it, last week brought about a flip in the usual trend of reviewers calling out authors-behaving-badly, with the birth of a lovely website called “Stop the GR Bullies” (‘GR’ stands for Good Reads). And no, I am not going to grace that mess with a hotlink, sorry.

The basic gist of it is a team of anonymous butthurts (“we’re not authors, really, seriously! We just have all this free rage and vengeance for reviewers of books that we liked… ‘as readers’.” Mmm-hm.), who got together and made a “shaming” site for mean widdle reviewers who didn't like their favorite books and were mean ol' meanies about how they said it.

Thing is, they’re not only naming and profiling these reviewers they feel are “bullies" (and oh, how I hate the way that term is being abused in this situation), but as some kind of punishment, they’re also posting (without consent) the personal information of these reviewers: real names, photos, info about their families, speculation on fitness as parents, specifying reviewers’ RL workplace locations, daily public habits and places they go, etc. Clearly, this information is posted as a threat or intent to stalk, harass, and/or bring offline harm to these reviewers.

As of Tuesday night, someone had already acted on those threats, and one of the Good Reads reviewers in this site’s ‘lineup’ received a threatening anonymous phone call.

There is so much wrong with this, I can’t even. Look, I’m a writer and all, but shit like this makes me too emotional and ragey, and I very quickly stop making sense. It’s a problem I have - if I try to explain just what is wrong with this and why, I will quickly cross the line from ‘blogging’ into ‘online journaling,’ and believe me - we do not want that. Besides, several other bloggers have summed it up far better than I can.

The only thing I do want to add is this:

Please. Please, reviewers and readers - never feel apprehensive about reviewing my works.

First off, because I genuinely do want your feedback, even if it’s to say “this sucked”! The worst thing a book can get isn’t a scathing review - it’s NO review. Apathy is the enemy, man.

Will my feelings be hurt by negative reviews? Damn skippy. Will I be telling you about it? Fuck no! That’s what my husband, my mom, my therapist, my writing partner, and my dog are for.

Second, I’m a reader, too. Becoming an author doesn’t change that. And as a reader, I’ll be damned if I’m okay with fellow readers and reviewers being threatened or silenced because they’re not “sweet” all the time. “Well-behaved women seldom make history,” and all that.

Do I want to outline here what I think are The Rules? Hell no. I’d love to be able to just say, “don’t be a dick,” but apparently even that gets lost in translation. So I honestly don’t know what to say.

Except that, from an author’s standpoint, please don’t judge all of us by the behavior of the loudest problem. Especially self-published authors. God, we already have such a steep mountain to scale, and then douchebags like these ‘Stop the GR Bullies’ idiots make it even harder to be taken seriously.

Damnit, for my first Writerly Wednesday, I wanted to write about how I think Chuck Wendig is a dirty messiah genius, and about how I think the muse is a big, fat, crock of donkey-poo. Instead, I’m blogging about how, no, really - even though I’m self-published, I’m not crazy, at least not in *that* way, and please read and review my stories all you want! I believe in minimal to zero author interaction with regards to reviews.

And comment! It’s all good!

Finally, yeah, I do kind of want to say, “don’t be a dick.” But that’s more on the writer-end of things. Reviewers are allowed to be as dickish in their reviews as they want - they’re there for the readers, not the writers.

Is that an unfair double-standard thing? Maybe it looks like it, but I don’t think so. After all, we writers have already had our say - we wrote a story and put it out there, with the expectation that not only will someone read it, but they’ll give us money to read it. Look, we’re not just 'artistes' playing with our 'precious little babies' (*BARF*). In the end, we're ultimately sellers of a product. Do you see Starbucks flouncing and trolling and bitching out customers when they express dissatisfaction with their latte?

Seriously, writers? Chill the fuck out. Please. Or hey, don’t. Because you know what? There are plenty of us no-names with perfectly good senses of humor and great stories to tell down here at the bottom. And we’re just waiting to fill your slot on someone’s TBR list.

P.S. If you would like to be one of my first reviewers, I do have a short story out on Kindle, Nook, SmashWords, and ARe. It's short, very smutty, very fluffy, and very cheap (I believe in pricing things from a reader's standpoint, and I'm usually not interested in paying more than a buck-fifty for something under 20,000 words.). However, if you're actually interested in reviewing it, on GoodReads or your blog, and you can't/don't want to cough up the pocket change, I'll be happy to send you a pdf. Contact me below or privately before my next blog post goes up (this Friday), and you're on.