Category: Writing: Harder Than I Thought It Would Be

Google

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 6 Comments

Google is an amazing tool, everything you will ever need right there at the click of a mouse. Also everything you don’t need, will never need, and shouldn’t be wasting your time with.

Case in point: There are only so many ways to describe the human body in motion. In motion in private. In motion in private behind closed doors. Body parts in particular are a bit of a toil. If you don’t want to get into ridiculous euphemisms, and I don’t, you find yourself writing the same words over and over… and how exciting is that?

My solution is Google and its lovely gateway to synonym heaven. Google rarely fails me, but she does lead me astray. I wish I could blame Google, but the fault is mine. When faced with the siren call of her lovely connected links, I have no self-control. I wander in her never ending forest and lose myself.

It’s shameful, but I have been known to wander Google’s paths for hours. Hours spent researching a detail that I may or may not end up using in my book. What can I say? I’m a weak, weak person.

Google’s rather like the universe’s largest department store, you go in looking for one thing and come out with something else. Sometimes that something else is pretty damn funny …

penis waving

Aimer at Amazon

Advertisements

In Defense of Drivel

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 9 Comments

I read and write M/M Romance novels, what I call Bubble Bath books because — never mind. These books have zero angst and a happy ending. No child molestation, no sexual assault, no creepy serial killers; nothing that’s going to keep me up at night trying to erase an image I wish I’d never read.

No, they’re not literature. No, they won’t help me heal the ozone layer or tell me how to get that next promotion. No, they are not kernels of wisdom from the great minds of our time — and that’s the point. They are an escape from the aggravations of real life. They are a mini-vacation. They are an opportunity to turn my mind off. They keep me sane.

Is it a waste of time to sit in a hot tub, to get a massage, to go camping, or sit by a lake and torture poor unsuspecting fish? No? Oh, it’s relaxing… exactly.

It is not a waste of time to read drivel.

Gena Showalter, author of The Darkest Night, refers to romance novels as fairy tales for grown-ups.  Who needs Disney?  🙂

Aimer at Amazon

Mistaken Identity

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 7 Comments

What’s in a name? Shakespeare notwithstanding, a whole hell of a lot.

Aimer Boyz is my pen name. It means To Love Boys. I thought it was a natural fit for someone who writes M/M romance, but I’m just now realizing as I write this that translated into English… it makes me sound like a pedophile. Crap. Crap. Crap.

Not only did I choose a rather questionable name,  but I compounded the error by deciding that a picture of two men kissing would be the perfect feature image for this blog. In my defense, I thought the picture said, “Hey, this is what I write.”

A picture, like any art form, speaks through the person who views it. While I thought the image of two men was a clear representation of my genre,  some visitors to my blog assumed it was a clear representation of me. Some were annoyed when they found out I was not who they thought I was.

I do not post my picture here, I do not use my real name. I’m not trying to deceive anyone, I merely want my words to stand on their own.

I apologize to anyone who might have felt duped. It was not my intention.

Tonight, I changed my feature image to something that is hopefully more innocuous. Obviously, I still have a lot to learn about blogging.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s screwed up 🙂

Aimer at Amazon

Are You in Your Books?

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 4 Comments

It’s inevitable. It’s not always a conscious act on the author’s part, but it’s always the end result. Bits and pieces of the author find their way into their characters. This character’s favourite ice cream,  that character’s  height, eye colour, sleeping habits, exercise routine. All the personality quirks that make a fictional person feel real? They work because they are stolen from a real person, usually the author.

This is as true on the larger scale as it is on the small. Is the space alien an atheist, does the vampire support transgender rights, does the fictional mom running car pool in suburbia support legalized euthanasia? The answer lies in the author’s own belief system, in the author’s concept of morality.

There are also times when an author can be seen through a character that expresses the exact opposite of the author’s own feelings and beliefs.

At the base of all fiction is a kernel of non-fiction and that kernel comes from the author. No matter how dystopian, futuristic, or paranormal the novel, it is that basis of real that makes it read as true. Bits and pieces of the author filtered through their characters make the book authentic.

Case in point: The fact I write about Vampires says something about me 🙂

Are you in your books?

Aimer at Amazon

Surprise

~ Aimer Boyz ~ 4 Comments

Not the kind of surprise where you hide behind the couch and shout at some unsuspecting relative or friend. No, I’m talking about the surprises that pop up on your screen.

Outline or not, when you sit down to write your fingers hover over the keyboard until an idea trickles out of your mind. You start to type and the words flow and there it is…surprise.

You didn’t mean to write it. It’s not where you were intending to go. It’s, actually, a bit of a pain because if you keep it, if you don’t hit delete, you’re going to have to change things around to make it work.

But…and this is the best part of the surprise, you love it. It opens up a whole new set of possibilities. It takes you down a new path. You’re off and running, fingers flying, keyboard clicking.

Surprise me, baby 🙂

Aimer at Amazon