New book! Saving Gabriel

I now have my blog moved over to my new host with my settings intact, it seems. There were some problems getting the domain name transferred to the new host,but there were problems on both sides of the transfer, including my domain being locked for no particular reason.

But everything seems to have come back online with good timing, because today marks the release of my fallen angel dark fantasy tale, Saving Gabriel. You can find it for $3.99 on Amazon, Kobo, and on my blog bookstore.

Here is the final blurb:

Gabriel is a fallen guardian angel who assigns himself to hard luck cases despite being banned from heaven. When his current ward, Rosalinda Fernandez, is targeted for a soul harvest by another fallen angel, Gabriel is tasked by the archangels to investigate the real purpose behind the plot. All he has to do is keep his ward safe without falling in love with her. There’s just one small problem: after years of watching Rosalinda grow into a proud young woman, Gabriel is already deeply in love. Even if he can expose the plot surrounding Rosalinda, will Gabriel’s growing relationship with her lead to damnation for both of them?

And here again is the fantastic cover by Elena Helfrecht, who has a lot of great creepy cover art available for horror and dark fantasy stories.

Of all the stories I plan to publish this year, Saving Gabriel is my most accessible work. So while I love all my stories and want folks to read my other stuff, if a first time reader were asking which book I’d recommend, I’d have to point to this one. It’s got great characters, a mystery to solve, and an alternate history of angels and demons and their eroding relationship with the human race.

I’ll close this post out with a request for my beta readers. I need to get word out on this book in the worst way. Honest reviews would help a lot, no matter where you put them. You might post something on your blog, on Goodreads, or on Amazon. You already helped get my book up to the top 20 for paranormal over on Wattpad, and I really appreciate that. If you enjoyed the story and would like to help it succeed, a short review from you could help convince a few more folks to pick up a copy. It would also earn my gratitude, which feels vaguely like warm fuzzy towels just taken from the dryer.

Of course, buying gift copies is better. You could maybe put them on small USB memory keys and then press them upon friends. Then you could really help by saying, “You…must read…this book! It…will…change…your life! (The dramatic pauses are important, and let your victims know that you’re serious, and they had better read this book, or else.)

Okay, I’ll shut up now.

So what’s wrong with you, bitch?

I’d like to preface this ramble by saying that for once, I’m not having a mood swing due to the weather. There ARE weather shifts right now, and my spine feels a bit like a soft pretzel left under the heat lamp all day. But this post is not coming from my usual dark and melancholy mindset. Which is why this may be the best time to explain my issues and why I get all bent out of shape when people say, “You’re a good person, Zoe.”

You would think paying an easy compliment was a good thing, and not something to trigger a person into rage. Well that’s because you didn’t spend ten years with therapists and counselors talking over you with compliments to deny what you were saying. The first step to getting help may be reaching out to others, but nothing is accomplished in this endeavor if the other person denies everything you say, and then tells you how to think about your own life. In fact, after having this happen ten or twenty times with so-called trained professionals, dealing with the same kind of behavior in armchair therapists would very likely send you into a rage too.

I’ve already explained many times that I was abused at 7, and that I for years could not see this as abuse because it didn’t seem so bad compared to being stomped into the ground by older boys. It’s hard to see being cuddled and fondled as a bad thing when the day before, you got beaten bloody for forgetting yourself and skipping because you thought you were alone. Good times. (That was sarcasm. It was sheer hell.)

Chuck Wendig

This is Chuck Wendig:

And this is Chuck Wendig’s web site.

And this is Chuck Wendig’s Twitter account.

And this is a list of Chuck Wendig’s books for sale.

Chuck blocked me on Twitter today because I got testy with him. I don’t care, and will continue to promote his stuff. Chuck will never promote my stuff, read my stuff, or bother to know me. But the feeling isn’t mutual.

So, now you know Chuck Wendig too. You’re welcome.

I’m muddled on the March for Muff…

I got this next story from another writer on Twitter, N. K. Jemisin, about a protest against unneeded vaginal surgery. I want to point out first that what I’m about to talk about has nothing to do with Nora or her views on this topic, only with my interpretation of the article and its presentation of the topic. I also want to make clear that Muff March may have a more complex message that I’m not getting, and this could be a problem with bad reporting. If this is bad reporting, and I can find a better presentation of the message, or if someone can link me to one, I will update this topic.

The Muff March protest sounds good on the surface, being opposed to unneeded genital procedures, but the problem is the tone of the article doesn’t make this issue clear, as in which procedures are being done for the “wrong” reasons, and it goes into some uses of sexism and fear mongering in its presentation. The article uses language meant to cast all surgeries in a bad light like: (emphasis mine)

“At its most modest, the Muff March is against the pornography-influenced obsession with removing pubic hair. But it’s also about protesting against the sort of surgery that makes you cross your legs.”

And:

“In the US this industry is worth $6.8m (£4.4m). In the UK the latest figures come from a 2009 report in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. It revealed that in 2008 the number of operations increased by 70% compared with the previous year: 1,118 labiaplasty operations on the NHS. (There were 669 in 2007 and 404 in 2006.) And that’s just the NHS. The Harley Medical Group reported over 5,000 inquiries about cosmetic gynaecology last year, 65% for labial reduction.”

Oh, my god, it’s an epidemic of insane pussy tightening! Grab your genitals in fear of scalpels! The porn industry wants you to shave your genitals! The filth! The fear! (O_0)

The fuck?

Note how the statistics are trumpeted to declare how many labiaplasty operations there were, and how many more were done this year than the last, but doesn’t say how many were medically necessary and how many were for soothing minor vanity issues. It doesn’t say how many were transsexual women going in for their second stage labiaplasty, or how many were women coming in after having their vaginas cut during a birthing, and now need cosmetic corrections to reduce scarring. (Because scars lack enough nerve endings for proper tactile sensation and may hinder sexual function.) There is no assumption that some of these are for the right reasons. The assumption is made that most aren’t needed, and therefore this epidemic must be protested.

Important contact update…

So, yesterday I got a new smartphone, an Optimus 7 from LG, and I’m getting it set up with all my various blogs and email accounts. Of course it has the option to synch multiple accounts so I can get all my mail in one consolidated inbox, but I’ve decided to start phasing out the use of my branded email addy in favor of using a Live addy instead. Mainly I’m changing because my branded account through GoDaddy only has 25MB of storage, forcing me to juggle emails and delete them even if I might have needed them.

I’m cross-posting this update to all sites, and I’ll begin changing my email links to avoid confusion. I want to be clear about my contact info, so here’s a short list of contact addys and explanations for which to use:

zoe_e_w@live.com
Use this for sending me personal messages, corrections to my blogs, or requests to review my books. You can pitch guest posts for most any topic related to writing, and you can send posts to the same place. This is also the addy to write to me for corrections or private comments on the amuserial site.

immatureadult@live.com
This is the addy to use for all corrections or suggestions for the immatureadults blog. This is the addy to go with if you have a guest post, guest review, or a private comment if you don’t feel right sharing your opinions in public. It’s also the address you’ll want to request reviews of your existing IA titles, beta reading for unpublished titles, or to pitch ideas for guest posts on the immatureadults blog.

zoe@zoewhitten.com
Still active as a personal account, but messages sent to this addy will most likely also get a reminder to use one or the other of the new addresses.

I’m sorry for the change, but this way I won’t have to dump important files or messages to make room for new incoming files and messages. And as I’m using a Live account, I shouldn’t need to change addys on y’all again.

So one lat time, sorry for the changes, and for me having to cross-post this in so many blogs.

Oh, I can tell that struck a nerve…

Someone doesn’t like me talking about rape and wants to shut me up. How can I tell? Because someone’s been on my Formspring asking all kinds of questions about how my work is like rape, or how come my stuff is so rapey, but I’m so anti-rape.

I’d love to see you people pose these same questions to Anne Rice for her work, or to Peirs Anthony, or to any writer who has covered sex scenes of morally objectionable standards. But you wouldn’t attack real authors like this…or, maybe you would and I’m just now getting my first taste of “fame.”

Instead of attacking actual rapists, you’ve opted to write to a former victim of violence and sexual violence to complain that one book out of my 27 published titles has deeply, deeply offended you. Do you understand yet that you are part of the problem? No? No, I didn’t imagine me telling you would bring you around either.

In any case, I gave you the first free shot, but you won’t get another. Go on and keep rephrasing your hateful comments to see if maybe I’ll answer how rapey my work is. I’ll keep blocking your prattle the same way I block spammers on WP. And, I’ll still keep posting about rape and sexual assault, as well as about sexism and racism. Your stinging questions actually encouraged me, because I know I’ve needled your whiny moral asses. But your butthurt can’t be aimed at real rapists. NO! You need to attack someone who was raped and tell them “You stop talking!”

No, I won’t. Ha. Hahahahaha. Best, revenge, ever.

TV review: Teen Wolf

Last night I watched episode 8 of Teen Wolf, and I now feel ready to deliver my objective critique of the season so far. To sum up my whole experience in a word, I would use SQUEEEEEEEEE!

Ahem. Vampire fans get a new show to love every other season, and currently many are enjoying True Blood. (For reasons that escape me.) Zombie fans have something to be joyful with the Walking Dead series too, but it’s been a long, long time since the last attempt at a werewolf TV series. So when I heard a new show was coming out with a reboot of the Teen Wolf movie, I was interested right away. Then one of my friends complained that Scott wouldn’t be born with his curse, he would be bitten by another wolf. For my friend, not having the werewolf family angle in the story was the deal-killing reason for them not to watch. But for me, it added another layer of intrigue.

I was a fan of the original Teen Wolf movie, and of the cartoon series. I also watched An American Werewolf in London when I was 9, and I may be one of the few people I know who loved An American Werewolf in Paris. I’ve seen every Howling movie at least twice, even the shitty ones, and in an amazinging co-inky-dink, I just happen to be releasing a book about a teen wolf athlete too.

Friday Flash Challenge: Fiction by Inventrix

As you may have read in the last post, @Inventrix also had a story to offer in the Flash Friday challenge. Unfortunately, her web host is getting wonky. So I offered to host her story, titled simply as Fiction, as a guest blog. And here it is (after the cut, that is):