Guest Visit by Peter Tupper, of An Angel Has No Memory

Stephen's Note: Today I'm welcoming an author who is with Inkstained Succubus, for a guest post. I do like to host guests who write in different genres from me, and who explore some different themes than I do. Today's guest, Peter Tupper, is an erotica writer, and the topic he addresses today is a real discussion starter, concerning the question of whether someone from different genders and/or orientations can write effectively and represent relationships of a different type than the ones they are personally engaged in. I think this gets at the core of what it is to be a writer and see things from all kinds of viewpoints when creating viable characters, and no matter what genre you write or read, I think Peter brings up some very valid points.

Greetings. My name is Peter Tupper. I’m a writer and journalist in Vancouver, BC, and I’m here to tell you about my new book, An Angel Has No Memory, published by Inkstained Succubus.

 Rose stood against the wall at Girlfrenzy, a semi-underground club just outside the arcology’s walls. She sipped her rum and diet cola and watched the women dance and make out on the club’s floor to the blasting dance music. After work, she had come here solo, hoping things would be different. Instead, this felt like the beginning of yet another night of watching every other lesbian, bisexual, bicurious or just-drunk-enough woman in the arcology have a better time than her. 

 Should a man, and a heterosexual man at that, write lesbian erotica or pornography? For that matter, should I, a white heterosexual man, write a story about a sexual relationship between two women, who are Asian and Latina to boot?

 Let me reflect that back with two other, related questions:

First, should white people make hiphop? I say yes, for the same reason I think black people should make heavy metal, and indeed anybody should make anything. The claim that any particular group has a monopoly on any particular form of expression goes against the whole idea of freedom of expression. Hip-hop itself is based on promiscuous borrowing and recombination of culture items, defying conventional categories of race and class and genre.

 Second, should white people dominate the charts and awards ceremonies for hip-hop, leaving black artists on the margins of the genre they created? That’s a thornier question.

We don’t live in a society with a level playing field. We never have, and we might never. Systems of reward for creative work, whether they are capitalist marketplaces, awards-granting institutions, critical reviewers, or the approval of fannish communities, are not a perfect reflection of merit or worth. They create hegemonies, and I can’t blame anybody for striving to be part of those hegemonies, to get the big check or the award trophy or the triple-digit “Like” count on a fanfiction site. It’s a rare person who makes creative work with no thought of reward, not even the approval of their peers.

 Hegemonies also impede creative expression, by imposing orthodoxies. If hegemonies becomes sufficiently entrenched, innovation only occurs in the marginalized spaces outside of their direct influence. And even within the marginalized spaces, there are mini-hegemonies. In the Elementary Erotica anthology published by Circlet Press (2011), a collection of erotica stories based on Sherlock Holmes, ever story except mine had Holmes and Watson in a sexual relationship. I have no objection to this. It’s a perfectly valid interpretation of the character. I do question why only my story considered the possibility that Holmes would be attracted to women, or even mentioned Irene Adler, whom Holmes called “the woman.” For some authors, “Sherlock Holmes erotica” could only mean Holmes and Watson together.

 I’m not saying that I was excluded or oppressed in this particular space; after all, my story was published. But it does indicate a certain orthodoxy of thought, of paths not explored or even considered, even within a community dedicated to fictional transgression of sexual and gender norms.

 On the other hand, it’s been a long hard road to get GLBT stories out into the world, and even longer to get those stories told by GLBT people themselves, instead of straight people. Representation matters, both in front of and behind the camera. I like to think that someday we can achieve a world in which straight men can write about lesbians without diminishing the ability of lesbians to write about lesbians.

So where does my little story fit into all this? I hope it meets with approval (sales would be nice too). I honestly don’t know if I succeeded in making the story authentic. I did try to take issues like institutionalized homophobia and sexual shame seriously. Even if it doesn’t really help, I hope it does no harm.



 For further information on Peter or his releases, please visit:

 Web: petertupper.com
 An Angel has no Memory is available from Amazon.com and http://www.inkstainedsuccubus.com

Miking the Frog (Literary Underworld Blog Tour Post)

Special note: I am proud to host a guest post from author Angelia Sparrow, an author whose work I think a lot of.  This post is part of the Literary Underworld Blog Tour Week, to raise awareness of a great site supporting quality small press and self-published authors by carrying their titles both in an online store as well as setting up at conventions.  You've heard me brag about them before! :)    Enjoy Angelia's post and then visit the Literary Underworld! 

Miking the Frog

The story is told that in the early days of the Muppets, Jim Henson was being interviewed and had taken Kermit with him. As the cameras rolled, the crew realized they couldn't hear Henson at all. They called for a commercial and checked the situation. The sound man had attached the microphone to the Frog.

Interviewing authors is a little like miking the frog. Most of us don't have a lot to say, about ourselves at any rate. We'd rather tell you about all our imaginary friends, about the weird places we vacation and  what our next book is about. If you get two or more of us in a room, there is likely to be comparison shopping of publishers.

I had one of those “imaginary friend” moments. I'd taken a writer friend to see JOHN CARTER. I had waited for this movie since I was 10 years old. I'd read all 11 books, owned some of the very short-lived comic book and all the usual fannish things. In fairness, I had already seen it and was eager to share something I loved so very much. My friend immediately translated this into terms of her imaginary friends and talked for an hour and a half about them, instead of sharing the movie experience we had just seen. You ask this friend about herself and she won't have much to say.

The trick is getting the imaginary friends to work for you, instead of hurting your material friends' feelings. Most of the time, this is accomplishable. Sometimes the friends go to Aruba, without so much as a picture post-card, and sometimes they stop talking altogether. But we soldier on.

So what do you do, when¡ªas frequently happens in this day of constant social networking-- someone has miked the frog and started asking the writer questions?

We tapdance as fast as we can, trying to make ourselves as interesting as possible. We share memes and cat pictures and quiz results. We do photo-dumps of everyone else's cat pictures. We interview our characters. We irritate everyone with our politics or religion. We keep to-do lists. We post recipes and excerpts.

But our readers expect good stuff from our blogs, from our facebook, from our twitter. They want more than “State of the Sooky (that's Succubus for the uninitiated): Angel wrote 2000 words, edited a chapter, failed her workout and cleaning, fed the family frozen pizza again and went to bed.” They want more than endless twitter reposts, even the funny ones: I love how bottles of baby powder say "mild," as if "extra spicy” was an option.--Della Buckland

They want more than endless self-promotion. “Fifteen days until my book comes out, here's the cover! Fourteen and a half days, here's a picture that looks like the main character. Fourteen days, here's an excerpt. The book came out, who wants to win a copy?”  You get the idea. 

There are endless websites with ideas and creative writing prompts to fill your blog with interesting posts. This is what google is for.

On the other hand, I never have to worry about that with my friends at the Literary Underworld. Most of them have blogs that are interesting and far more entertaining than my endless failure at my daily task roster. So I put them on my blog roll and read them, instead of working out.

Yep, you miked the frog.

If you want to let the interesting folks speak, you can find them at http://www.literaryunderworld.com Vampiric sex workers, half-angel steampunk lesbian demon hunters, gay Christmas werewolves, dragons and inventors. Dwarves and Nephilim, and Zombies, oh my.

And just for reading, there is a 15% coupon for use at checkout: LUBLOGTOUR

Angelia Sparrow is the author of  9 novels and over 60 short stories. Her tenth book, HARD REBOOT releases Sept 30, the 11^th, SPELLBOUND DESIRE is coming Oct 26. Her work can be found at http://brooksandsparrow.com and of course at http://www.literaryunderworld.com

New Guest Blog Post and Contest

Wanted to stop by and let everyone know that I have a guest post up on Darlene's Book Nook, which goes along with a contest. The contest is easy to enter, and the winner will get to pick the first book of either The Rising Dawn Saga or the Fires in Eden series, whichever they would like.

The blog post goes into my influences as an author, discussing several of my main influences and why each of them had an impact upon me.

Visit Darlene's Book Nook by clicking here!

A Guest Blog and a Couple Notes

Today I am a guest on the Something Wicked site, which is a blog site run by several successful authors including NY Times best-selling author Angie Fox and Shirley Damsgaard (whose first Jess McConkey novel, Love Lies Bleeding, hit the stores yesterday!).

In this blog I introduce The Seventh Throne, and talk about its context as a third book in a series. I think that my reader-friends and those who have not read my work alike will find something interesting.

I have been wwaaaaayyy behind on blog posts, but I have a big one coming up in a day or two that will explain what I was bogged down with. Been pushing myself pretty hard lately with the recent Fandom Fest in Louisivlle that I was the literary track programmer (and gaming track) for.

Anyhow, please visit the guest blog if you get a few minutes, and blog sites always appreciate comments, so leave a few when you are done reading! :)

here's the link:

http://wickedauthors.blogspot.com/2011/07/welcome-stephen-zimmer.html