The Hunter's Journal

I have ranted about this before, and I probably will again.

If you are writing fantasy, and you are naming people. Please, for the love of fuck, think about it carefully. If, say, you have a family from outside the area, desperately trying to fit in, they are more likely to name their children as the children around, than to give them names from their family lineage. If they don't give a fuck? Sure, that family name will come out.

Also, do not have James and Fittenzgulbirt in the same town. Not unless the latter is a surname. If it's a first name, explain why the two names are in the same town. Otherwise, it will throw me out of the story and I will put your book down and not pick it up again.

Naming conventions have to be thought of. If you're naming people after an attribute? Is it only the women named that way? Only the men? Is it a family thing? Is it a nobility thing? Perhaps the men all have long ridiculous names if they're nobility, and the women don't, because it goes to show what families the men belong to. Perhaps it's a matrilineal thing and the men need that to show which woman they belong to.

Nicknames? I'm much more lenient on. They happen in odd ways. (My own, "Kitten", was given to me at birth, because according to M, one of my older brothers, I looked like a drowned kitten. It stuck.) But a full name, or even the Proper Name of someone needs to have some rhyme or reason to it.

So, please, think of this when naming people in your writing.

I very rarely bring in my real life here. I have other blogs for that. This is my creativity blog, where I talk about writing and cross stitching and things that help me with that.

However, this is also read by more people, and I want to vent.

Here is the story:

In March 2007, my divorce from my second husband was finalized. He was ordered to pay $178 per month in child support. Since March of '07, I've received $84.37 (in November '08). As of the beginning of this month the arrears are: $11,048.01

I know that in the grand scheme of things, that isn't a lot. However, it would help us desperately. Even an extra $100 a month would be a god send at this point.

However, I'm angry.

Why am I angry? Because the children will never see any of that money. Ever. Because even though I have kept up with my obligation to track him down and hand over information to child support, they can't verify his address, and if they do, he miraculously comes up with a doctor's letter stating he cannot work. And he has been doing this for years.

According to child support, there's not a damned thing they can do. They've suspended his license. Well, as long as I've known him, he hasn't had one.

He doesn't work. I found him recently, because he was arrested for assault and now has a parole officer, who is obligated to talk to child support.

So, now they can confirm where he lives, but nothing else will be done. And there's nothing they can do.

I'm tired of this.

My ex has nothing to do with the children. There's never any attempt at contact unless I initiate it, and I've give up trying because my daughter flat out said she didn't want to talk to him because she had me and her brother and he obviously didn't want them.

Now, she was ten at the time, but I've acceded to her wishes to stop trying to forge a relationship between the three of them. Not just because of her wishes, but also because of the strain it puts on my own mental health.

Basically, this man has nothing to do with any children, except his eldest son, because that boy still gets SSI, I believe.

Frankly, there's something broken in the system and I don't know what to do about it. Or even where to start.

This is utterly ridiculous. He's gaming the system and getting around his obligation. Never mind the moral obligation he has to the children.

I hope karma bites him in the ass.

I've noticed a very disturbing trend among a certain genre.

I'm a reader of romance. I love trashy romance novels. I love curling up with them and just letting them take me out of my shitty life for a while.

However, there's one thing I find disturbing about a newer trend that I've noticed: The heroine keeps getting younger.

Now, if it's historical romance, I'm alright with a sixteen-eighteen year old female protagonist. That's the way it was. Women married young, often to older men, for a variety of reasons.

However, if you're writing contemporary romance, and your heroine is sixteen to eighteen, you're really going to have to sell me on the fact that she's mature enough to even be thinking like this.

I've been a sixteen year old bride. I was divorced for the first time at age 20. I know what those marriages are like, because I've been in one!

I find it disturbing that more people aren't sitting up and taking notice of this. Yes, I know, Twilight. But here's the thing: Meyer was also writing about how her church preaches that it "should" be. It was, in my opinion, a religious agenda that she used Bella to portray.

Which, really, is fine. If that's what people want to write/read, then go ahead and do that.

But dear sweet baby Jeebus bouncing on a pogo stick, please recognize it for what it is!

The majority of sixteen to eighteen year olds are not mature enough to have a lifetime commitment to anyone. Hell, a lot of thirty year olds aren't mature enough for marriage. (I know. Again, I was married to one!)

I don't know if it's merely becoming far more mainstream now than it was, or if it is an actual trend in the selling of romance novels, but I cannot fathom who thought that a good idea.

I'll admit, it not only disturbs me because I was a sixteen year old bride, but also because my eldest daughter is sixteen and if anyone tried to marry her off, I'd take her and hide her and shake some sense into her.

Random rant of the day. Now, I go back to bed.

Vanity publishing is paying someone to publish a book you've written. Usually for a pretty hefty fee. One of the most famous ones is Publish America. I'm sure, if you're anywhere on the internet, or even off of it, you've heard of it, or the other well known ones: Lulu.com, Xlibris.com, or iUniverse.com to name a few.

Well, recently there have been kerfluffles, because other well known names are getting into vanity publishing, including giant names like Amazon.com and Harlequin. That's right, Harlequin. As in all those trashy romance novels that you/your friend read during high school? Yeah, those guys.

But this is... I'm not sure what this is.

A company named Tweetbookz will turn your everything you've Twittered into a book. So, every inanity you've ever put on Twitter can now become a book, that you can show everyone. You're a published author!

Okay, seriously? I know these guys will make money off of it. Someone's going to spend money on this, and there's not a damned thing I, or anyone else, can say to stop those fools.

But really? Has the vanity publishing industry sunk this deeply?

I mean PA isn't a prize. There is tonnes of proof that they're just out to make a buck. And people still pay them.

But this is just ridiculous.

Sure, I know people can write drabbles and tell a story in 100 words or less, but... this is honestly just strange to me.

Where did I hear about this?

The SFWA community on LJ

I just don't understand the depths people go to to be published.