Letters from the Front

Friend's cat's surgery fund

vashtan — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 20:26:38 GMT

Okay, I try not to do this as often as it might be required (there's a lot of scarcety out there). But this one's pretty close to the bone.

My very *very* lovely co-writer 's cat has swallowed sewing thread and needs surgery. Since Gil's a poor student, that surgery is like 1/6 of their yearly income. Gil's already selling off their books to pay for it and getting a second job.

If you enjoyed Collateral or The Trick Is (http://www.aleksandrvoinov.com/free-stuff.html), which are both free and co-written with Gil, and if you have a buck left over, please consider donating it to Kolya's surgery fund. You'd be helping an immensely talented author and a close personal friend of mine who went above and beyond the call of duty to help me through some rather unpleasant times back in 2007.

http://gileonnen.tumblr.com/post/6420493429/my-cat-kolya-has-unwisely-swallowed-my-sewing

Thank you very much.

The "Great Soul" might have been bisexual - sparks outrage in India

vashtan — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:14:58 GMT

The NY Times has an interesting article on Mahatma Gandhi, arguably one of the key figures of modern history. Specifically, it's about a biography about to be published - and that's already being banned in some parts of India.

According to the biographer, Gandhi was bisexual.

I need to get my hands on the book - not just because I'm more than happy to welcome Gandhi into our family (of sorts), but I'd be curious to simply learn more, and we seem to live in an age where biographies have stopped censoring anything that isn't cisgendered and straight, or marginalise this part of our lives.

Voice of Reason: Japan's Nuclear Catastrophe Did Not Happen

vashtan — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:46:44 GMT

There is a fantastic - well-written - piece of why Fukushima is a triumph of technology and safety:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/14/fukushiima_analysis/

Since I've worked in journalism, I mistrust mainstream journos. Basically, all the hysteria over the weekend about OMG WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! was probably caused by a bunch of 20-year old media graduate interns manning the newsdesks.

Read the analysis. I'm as libertarian a treehugger as they come and I've grown up with Chernobyl, but El Reg (as so often) speaks sense. Please spread the news. (Hence the entry in not flocked).

Book auction

vashtan — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:08:53 GMT

The auction is up here:

http://community.livejournal.com/graduate_maria/13979.html

and here:

http://community.livejournal.com/graduate_maria/13815.html

Thanks for bidding!

Help Maria Graduate

vashtan — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:15:16 GMT

Here's somebody needing help:

http://community.livejournal.com/graduate_maria/

Sadly, I can't offer writing fiction - because my backlog is so bad at the moment I'm not sure when/how to do it all. But maybe you see something there that you want to bid on.

But I can offer signed/personalised paper copies of "Test of Faith" and "Soldiers I and II". There aren't many of those around. In fact, there are only about 15 signed copies of ToF around and two sets of "Soldiers". Please bid immediately, the auction runs out today at midnight, US time.

Why do I get involved? If not for some incredibly generous people, I could not have graduated. There were more points in my life when I depended on somebody else's financial generosity than I strictly want to remember.

Thank you!

Gods cannot invest on the stock market, since they don't have the financial skills

vashtan — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:48:47 GMT

Not a hoax - Bombay High Court has decided that Hindu Gods can't invest on the stock market:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/No-demat-accounts-for-Hindu-gods/articleshow/6182619.cms

(One commenter suggested that with the number of Hindu Gods, they can bring a class action suit against this)

(My thought is - hang on, Ganesha is the god of WEALTH. SURELY he knows how to invest. He's clever, too. )

Risky Maneuvers - Trailer

vashtan — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:01:25 GMT

Via Barbara:

Tehehe. I like!

Ownership of characters (more Gabaldongate nonsense)

vashtan — Wed, 05 May 2010 16:03:14 GMT

It's been mentioned that some authors have issues with fanfic because somebody uses their characters that they own (paraphrased from different place).

I've thought about it, and I'm not convinced. If somebody writes fanfic about my original stuff (it has happened a few times), I got this feeling, very much, that it's not "my characters", but *their take* on my characters.

None of my characters gets raped, to borrow Mrs Gabaldon wholly ridiculous and disrespectful simile, they just get photographed or painted by some artist who's not me.

The characters themselves, their Platonic IDEA/Essence is still there, nothing has been damaged, nothing has been sullied, because the characters in their true form is in my brain, and nobody can reach inside and influence my view of them. If I go with what a Wiccan/Shaman once told me, I invested my energy in them, they are my energy forms, I do stuff with them, they are alive, and, to a certain extend, can even be a little independent. To talk in magic terms, I've even used my characters to... some interesting ends, and to do stuff for me. (usually protection duty... I've come up with a lot of mafia bodyguards and hitmen, so my astral space is likely a quite interesting place full of well-dressed, well-armed gentlemen, but I disgress).

In any case, no doubt they are mine. They are invested with my energy.

What I write about, though, is only part of them. It's the part of them I need for the story, but there's always more to them. So, what I share is not the original (which lives in my brain/mind/astral space), but a well-made, artistically crafted "master copy".

I'm not sure it makes sense, but it's the reason I don't feel threatened by fanfic. It doesn't diminish my characters in the least. Fanficcers work with the master copy and create their own copies, but those aren't mine, they are theirs. They can even become originals, if they invest the energy necessary (and I wager some people do).

I'm not sure this makes sense to anybody but me. Vadim's mine forever, but everybody can make their copies of him and make them straight, or give them tentacles, or cross him over with their characters or Donald Duck, or transport him into the 1820ies. Do it.

EDIT: This entry is now public so it can be linked.

Re-shuffle

vashtan — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:53:06 GMT

Flist getting too big, I'm taking a few accounts off. Nobody affected who has been in touch recently, so no worries. If I took you off in error, drop me an email and I'll re-add you.

Full disclosure: How much money we made giving away "Spoils of War"

vashtan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:52:00 GMT

Anybody who's ever talked to e-pirates knows the discussion. How much are e-books worth? How much are people willing to pay? Should we, as authors/publishers/"content providers" only charge $0.49 per book? Should we "race to the bottom" and be as cheap as we can?

How much is a story "worth" on the "open market"?

I wanted to find out, so I launched an experiment with "Spoils of War" (co-written with raevgray), which I put up on smashwords. And I let readers and buyers decide the price in what is known as the "honor model". 30% of the text is clearly visible as a sample, and if people want the whole text, they can decide the price - that includes "zero". Null. Nada. Nichts. Nothing.

The story went online on Sunday morning (Superbowl Sunday), and here's my report and how much money I made giving my story away for... as much as you want to pay for it. No controls, no penalties--just one very curious author with a few ideas about what his (and his co-writer's) work is worth.

Find the whole story here:

Part 1:
http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/2010/02/full-disclosure-spoils-of-war-24hr.html

Part 2:
http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/2010/02/full-disclosure-spoils-of-war-24hr_08.html
(Follow-up after 48 stories):

http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/2010/02/sales-experiment-48-days-later.html

All thoughts welcome.

How much money do you make if you give stories away for free?

vashtan — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:48:47 GMT

I did an experiment - I put Raev Gray's and my story "Spoils of War" online - with readers choosing the price they are willing to pay.

The results are surprising indeed. Read the full story here:

http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/2010/02/full-disclosure-spoils-of-war-24hr.html

and

http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/2010/02/full-disclosure-spoils-of-war-24hr_08.html

Feel free to share. :)

Stealth Release: Spoils of War

vashtan — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:01:32 GMT

When Achilleus, the greatest warrior who ever lived, falls before Troy (or Ilion, as it was known), Ares, God of War, stands ready to take his spirit with him to his palace. There, Ares demands that Achilleus yield to him. But can the embrace of a god and the offer of immortality make Achilleus forget his one true love, Patroklos?

"Spoils of War" is a 5,500 word short story that features Ares, Greek God of War, and Achilleus, legendary Greek hero. After the death of Achilleus, Ares sweeps him up and makes him a tempting offer. "Spoils" is co-written with Raev Gray. Get an excerpt and a larger version of the cover here:

http://www.aleksandrvoinov.com/spoils-of-war-2010.html

I spent a few hours fiddling with this and I think we're live (it's my first time, so be gentle). I just put "Spoils of War" up on Smashwords here:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9566

The cool thing is, you can set your own price. ~~The not-so-cool thing is, since it's "set your own price", I can't give away free copies (I know, strange).~~

This means you can download it for free if you choose "zero" as the price, and if you want to pay for it, you have to pay more than $0.99, apparently. So a dollar would do it. A dollar would also be appreciated. Out of this, Smashwords takes a cut, and then the US tax authorities take a cut, too.

Another project done. Have a great Sunday!

Book giveaway: Test of Faith - sign up to win

vashtan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:19:51 GMT

I'm just finishing up "Test of Faith" and I'm giving away a signed paper copy (yup, that's right, dead tree), shipping international from London.

Here's more on the book:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7649255-test-of-faith

Excerpt here:

http://www.aleksandrvoinov.com/test-of-faith-2010.html

If you comment on my blog (here: http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/2010/01/comment-and-win-free-test-of-faith.html), I'll draw the winner 1 March and ship the book out to you. :)

Good luck!

Review "Forbidden Love"

vashtan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:38:21 GMT

Whipped cream gave 4.5 cherries to "Forbidden Love":

http://whippedcream2.blogspot.com/2009/12/forbidden-love-anthology-by-stormy.html?zx=75fed8fa15feccc2

Deliverance by Aleksandr Voinov:
In ancient times and even today, there are people who contend that loving someone of the same gender is a sin. But, what if loving that person brings you the only peace you’ve ever known? Why should anyone have to beg for forgiveness because of who they love? Is it a fool’s errand? These are the questions that William the Raven and Guy struggle with in Aleksandr Voinov’s, Deliverance.

Deliverance grabs your attention from page one. William and Guy take you on their journey of self-reflection as they battle what some consider forbidden love. The raw emotion and compassion between the two men draws the reader into the story and leaves you begging for more. The only question that remains is will they find a way to accept the love they have for one another while their honor and self-respect as Knights remain in tact. Aleksandr Voinov’s Deliverance not only provides insight into forbidden love, but also reminds you that the more things change, the more things remain the same. Deliverance makes you address your own prejudices and provides you with a first hand look at the struggles couples of the same sex must endure on a daily basis. While reading Deliverance, the age old question kept popping into my head, who are we to judge another person’s love. For fear of getting on my soap box, I applaud Aleksandr for a wonderful story about love, loss, repentance, and eventually Deliverance. Bravo!

William Raven. Not "the" Raven. But otherwise, wheee!!

Regarding "Etherpad" - important

vashtan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:10:46 GMT

Google has just bought the company behind www.etherpad.com - the operations will be closed down in March. Soon, you won't be able to open new pads. The development team will be incorporated into Google Wave (which, I think, stinks).

So, if you are writing on etherpad, it's time to look for an alternative. If anybody has any recommendations what to use, I'd be grateful for pointers.

This sucks and is a sad say for collaborative writers everywhere. :(

Happy Thanksgiving!

vashtan — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:53:51 GMT

Random turkey fact of the day (okay, year):

In 2007, the US consumer ate more than 2,664,387 metric tons of turkey, or about 17.3 pounds of turkey for each of the 308 million USians (if I calculated that right).

The total amount is the equivalent in weight of Russia's 1905 production of pig-iron (2.7 million metric tonnes).

Rail freight traffic, either destined for or passing through Canada from the United States, was 2.7 million metric tonnes in December 2007.

Turkey production is a U$ 13.9 billion industry. You could buy a few banks with that. Turkey bailout, anyone?

On that note, happy thanksgiving!

Note: Original post was lifted from Financial Times Germany- and they got their numbers wrong...

Noble Romance: Call for Subs!

vashtan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:59:41 GMT

As you know, I'm happy to be published with Noble Romance, and I'm happy to share the love, so here's a submission call:

-------------------------------------------------
Noble Romance Publishing is looking for stories for Valentine's Day!

Length: 5-7k words
Deadline: January 1, 2010

Category 1:
Milk Chocolate-these will be sweet romance stories involving M/F only. No over the top language, no graphic sex, and must involve chocolate in some sweet way!

Category 2:
Dark Chocolate-these will be erotic romance stories involving M/M, M/M/M, or transgender only situations (no F/F, F/F/M). Must involve the use of chocolate in whatever way you can think of! Nothing is too kinky for these stories, so go for it and have fun!

This will not be an anthology. Five of the best stories from each category will be chosen and published as stand alone Naughty Nibbles!

Please submit to submissions@nobleromance.com with Special Project-Milk Choc or Dark Choc in subject line.

New blog

vashtan — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:51:46 GMT

Looks like Aleksandr Voinov needed his own blog, and for various reasons (one of them being ease), I went for Blogger.com.

This is the new dedicated spot:

http://aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com/

If anybody wants to link me feel free, and if you want me to link back, please let me know.

Review: "Enslaved" by Kate Cotoner

vashtan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:03:39 GMT

The review is now live here:

This review has a bit of a backstory. First of all, to get the legal issues out of the way, I was planning to buy this and asked one of my writer friends who is associated with Torquere to buy me one, since Torquere doesn’t accept PayPal. Instead of charging me, he gave it to me as a gift.

Here’s the backstory. A few month ago, Torquere Press put out a call for submissions for a historical anthology titled “Chain Male”, which then, sadly, didn’t happen, with Torquere citing that they didn’t get enough quality stories to do this. Be that as it may, Kate Cotoner’s story “Enslaved” is what is left of the anthology project, and was published in Torquere’s “Sip” line of stand-alone short stories.

Looking at the generic cover and reading nothing but the blurb, I admit a little trepidation. Would this be one of those famous “slave fics” that have a large and loyal following? Would this feature BDSM, humiliation and power games and a crusader reduced to a whimpering sex slave? The crusades are probably my favourite subject in the vastness of the Middle Ages, and I admit to feeling even more protective of them than of the rest of history.

So I braced myself a lot before opening the file.

And relaxed. Relaxed some more. Slowly, a smile started to spread, and in the end, I was so pleasantly surprised that I read the story two more times. For the review, I’ve read it twice more. I’m happy to report this is not your typical slave story. I’m even more happy to report it has actual research (!) in it.

Read more here:

http://speakitsname.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/review-enslaved-by-kate-cotoner/

Review: "Lola Dances" is up

vashtan — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:33:06 GMT

Here's a book I quite enjoyed, and the review went up today at SIN: "Lola Dances" by Victor J Banis

http://speakitsname.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/review-lola-dances-by-victor-j-banis/

Upcoming review: "Enslaved" by Kate Cotoner

Publishing Test of Faith

vashtan — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:38:02 GMT

Yesterday, I had another read of "Test of Faith", which is now with eXcessica. I think there is a point where a text is edited enough - that's usually when I really can't see the words anymore. They just blend and turn into images immediately, without going through the language part of the brain.

As it stands, "Test of Faith" will come out on 23rd March with eXcessica, as an ebook. We just signed the contracts. Test of Faith, however, is too short to go to paper with eXcessica's BookSurge cooperation (it lacks way too many words to just pump it up a bit and try for it). I firmly believe in paper, though, especially as a complementary offering, and I think the story is strong enough to warrant paper. I, for one, want to be able to give the story away on paper.

Now, since it will be a very slim offering (22thousand words... I know, that makes it a "novel" with many epublishers, but I don't care, it's still slim), I'm wondering how to boost the wordcount a little - or, what *else* to cram into the book. Or if I even should.

So, here comes a poll:

View Poll: What else should go into "Test of Faith"?

Anything else? Nothing? (Post in comments, please). :) Thank you!

Be the brand

vashtan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:00:39 GMT

I've thought long and hard recently about marketing for writers. I'm subscribed to many publishers' mailinglists, and about 90% of all mail traffic I'm getting from those is spam. Not SPAM spam, but..."marketing". It's writers offering prizes, free books, blasting "GET MY EXCITING SEXY NEW ROMANCE TODAY!" through 15 channels, EVERY FUCKING DAY, spamming not the audience, but fellow writers. Hmmm. The same is is with people blasting "CHECK OUT MY BLOG, I WROTE SOMETHING!" messages through all those channels. Clicking on the blog, it's about as interesting as "I had coffee and I thought coffee is nice. I'm not a fan of hot chocolate. But if you like hot chocolate, I'm sure that's okay." Yawn.

The first things I did was put all the mailinglists on "daily digest". That way, I just scroll through the table of contents and delete the whole thing with one press of a button. Precious time saver. I'm not reading 150+ emails a day of people trying to push their shit into my face.

And that's the problem. It's very often...not the best stuff I've read. Like nonsensical bullshit blog posts that make no point whatsoever. I click on such links once, maybe twice ("last time she might have had a bad day"), then I ignore. The human mind is very adept at filtering information. You get my attention twice, so work with it, honey, or stop wasting my time.

This whole marketing thing is a lot like a colony of screeching birds, one screeching louder than the others. Or trying to. These people make a LOT of noise about... very often not very good writing. I have spent a few joyful evenings reading their excerpts and laughing my head off how crap like that gets published (also tells me what the state of quality control is with those publishers... I'm not submitting to those. Bad quality => bad reputation, and bad rep is not what I want).

Now, I know all these "self-marketing for authors" books and courses and gurus and guidelines and blogs say you should market your little heart out.

Thing is - fellow authors are less likely to get hyped. Secondly - there are two ways to sell books, as we've seen: marketing, and word-of-mouth. Writers that sell with huge marketing campaigns (or sitting on a rock, screeching) have sales that spike, then level off (I assume the fact they screech all the time means they have many mini-spikes). Word-of-mouth are the long-term, sustained build-ups...they just keep growing. They may start small, but they build, and keep going, and may even go viral - exploding sales OUT OF NOWHERE. With NO marketing budget behind it.

The secret to that is - write a good story. Assume you're a book-buyer. A writer has been shouting at you to "buy my sexy new romance" and you go, "oh, I like a romance, I'll give it a go." (result: one sale). The reader reads the story, the story sucks, the reader leaves a review on Amazon/Goodreads/Reader Forum: "Bought this, hated it, stay away." (result, one sale from loud marketing, that's it).

If you have a good product, that same reader will go "Read it, loved it, bought 5 for my friends and family, left a good review on Amazon/Goodreads and my five forums, and blogged about it." (result: at least 6 sales, plus word-of-mouth in full effect, leading to more sales down the line, and a boost in reputation).

So. Yeah, marketing gets the word out - but the real point of it is to gain "credibility" or "reputation". If people rave about how great you entertained them, THAT is the noise you want to hear, rather than the inane screeching of a colony of seabirds. You want to read on every book forum "OMG, this made me laugh and cry and OMG I missed the train because of this book! I can't WAIT to read more. Oh, what an author, I ordered the whole back catalogue." This beats "DON'T MISS MY SEXY NEW ROMANCE NOW!!!111!!!" by a lightyear or so.

How do you get the word out: give your book away. Give it to "multiplicators" or "opinion leaders" - those brave, brave souls who review for free, in exchange for free copies. Team up with writers, exchange books with them, build friendships, and broaden your own reading horizon. If a well-respected, high-quality writer drops a line about "wow, I loved Aleksandr Voinov's new book", that's money in the bank, gives me a warm, warm, glow (and other things), and it's just pure love. It also means I do the same *if* I honestly liked the book, otherwise I won't write anything. Your credibility and reputation are even more important. If I say I loved Erastes' or Alex Beecroft's or Bryl's or Barbara Sheridan's latest book, that is both a honest compliment from one author to the other, it tells you what style/topics I like, and builds that writer network. It's also rewarding good people for hard, honest work, and thanking them for the good time I had with their books.

This ties into the next thing: Don't control the reviews. Don't engage the reviewers. Every time I've given away a book I said to the reviewer something along the lines of: "If you like it, I'd love a review or a remark in public, but don't feel pressured into reviewing it either way. I honestly hope you like it, but I appreciate not everything I write is for all people. Thank you so much for putting the time and work in, whatever the outcome. I trust your personal integrity to tell your opinion honestly and fairly." And very important: mean it. Absolutely mean it. Don't be a glib-tongued manipulative bastard. Be honest. Be generous. Be mature.

Most of all: Be respectful. You want them to respect you, so act, at all times, like a pro. If you build a reputation for being an aggressive control-freak who jumps on people's backs when somebody says they didn't like your opening or ending or one of the characters... you fuck up your reputation. There are no secrets on the internet. Anybody googling you can come across a forum post where you were a passive-aggressive asshole.

There are many writers out there that act like whiny douchebags when reviewed. Whether the review is fair or not, doesn't matter. If you learn to take it on the chin (and gods, that's harder than squaring off against the Klitschkos) and stay gracious ("thank you for reviewing my book. I'm sorry you didn't like it. The stuff you said about the style being a bit rough... that's a good point, I'll edit it harder next time, that was my debut, and I learnt so much. I really hope you'll like the next one, BTW. So, thanks again for your hard work and your honesty.") - if you manage that, you win. You may grind your teeth. Breathe. Try to see the value in the review. They don't hate you. They just didn't like your opening/characters/style. Or maybe you didn't write the best book you could. It happens. Be professional, and you win in respect, reputation, credibility.

Never, ever give that respect away. Ever. It's your future sales. It's your equity, your capital, and that means YOU are your brand. Act like it. Be professional, but honest. Market yourself, but don't be noise, be signal. Human brains filter noise for signal. It's what we do.

Finally - write the best story you can. Every time. Every detail. Every editing pass, every time you research a fact, every time you cross-check stuff *again* will win you a reader who goes "wow, that was really polished, the author did the best they could, I loved the style, the character, the detail, the plot." No quick flips, give each single one of your stories absolutely everything you have.

If you consistently deliver, you'll build a fanbase, you'll become an "auto-buy author" (love the word), you will stand out from 95-99% of writers out there, and you will be more than a screecher in a colony of screechers - you'll be a proper author with a proper career.

Today's Gay Agenda: Destroy Science Fiction

vashtan — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:08:04 GMT

I think this may be an attempt to drive up page impression. If it's not, it's about how women and queers destroy sci-fi:

http://www.the-spearhead.com/2009/10/09/the-war-on-science-fiction-and-marvin-minsky/

Today on This Writer's Gay Agenda: Write a gay Hard SF story that encourages little gay boys to become cybered drone-pilots/techno-spies. Alternatively, encourage cybered drone-pilots/techno-spies to become gay (and creatively misuse the cyberware DARPA has given them).

Subverting your "male" genre, one reader at a time. MUAHAHAHA.

Or: I'm in Ur genre, deal with it.

Reviews to make your day: "Deliverance" in "Forbidden Love"

vashtan — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:24:24 GMT

Sometimes, you get reviews that just simply make your day. This one will have me face my commute back home (with the pushing and shoving and NACKED HATRED that you just get in London) with a happy smile and maybe a manic laugh. This review is by cboy_junkie and can be found here:

http://cboy-junkie.livejournal.com/12847.html

The full review is here:

http://www.rainbow-reviews.com/?p=1913

Aleksandr Voinov's “Deliverance” is by far the most developed of the stories in terms of both plot and characterization. It is also the best researched and written. I found this story and its characters most compelling and it is my favorite in this anthology. The historical events are accurate and the beliefs, customs, dress and manner of speak of the Knights Templar are seamlessly woven into the fabric of the story to the point that the transfer of historical information is accomplished almost through nuance, never breaking the story’s rhythm or flow. For those who are familiar with Voinov’s previous works (he also writes under the pen name of Vashtan) you will recognize this penchant for historical accuracy sans “information dump” as a personal standard of this author, regardless of the nature or length of the story, its setting, characters or time period in which it takes place. Another staple of Voinov’s style is his ability to write characters that are so multidimensional and complex that they blur the lines between fiction and reality. The author achieves this mainly through the writing of personal introspection that is so intimate the reader often feels that they have crawled inside the character’s head and dialogue in which one word or phrase carries with it volumes in meaning. Voinov achieves all of this in his writing of the story of William and Guy, who are fierce characters that live and love very hard. In this sense, “Deliverance” screams of the possibility of a future epic novel and love story. I hope Voinov will write about these two compelling characters again as their full story is just begging to be told. 4.5 of 5 stars

This is reviewer number two or three calling for "Guy & William: The Novel". I will actually have to deliver. This is now peer pressure.

Thank you. :)

Steampunk cakes

vashtan — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:27:17 GMT

Via the flist:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/10/sunday-sweets-steampunk.html

(check out the steampunk cephalopod cake, rm!