This raises the question, however, of why I don't post excerpts on my blog. Partly, it's because I do have an excerpt from Living in Sin posted on my website. And partly, it's because I don't intend to share more of the my writing than what's on the website with anyone other than my critique partners.
Why not? Mostly, it's just a feeling. A feeling that I shouldn't overexpose my work too soon. A niggling concern that if I flaunt what I write everywhere, it will become less valuable. Less saleable.
Now, maybe that's a silly concern. But it gives me pause, anyway.
Secondarily, but not insignificantly, I worry about plagiarism. I'm not so vain as to believe that I'm such a great writer, anyone out there will deliberately steal my work. On the other hand, I'm not so naive as to think it couldn't happen, consciously or unconsciously. There have been enough incidents in the publishing world in the past year or so to convince me it could happen.
And so, for the most part, I'd rather keep the majority of my ideas to myself until they're safely published and protected. I know, I know. Anything you write has an implied copyright. But it's not the same and it's not as easy to enforce.
That said, Erica's lovely praise for Carnally Ever After, the "quickie" I just wrote and submitted to Ellora's Cave, has moved me to share a tiny little scene from it here. I don't want to post this excerpt on the Jacqueline Barbour website because, if Ellora's Cave picks it up, it'll be published under a different pen name with a separate website. But that doesn't mean I can't post it here, where it'll certainly get buried under hundreds of posts over the years!
So, without further ado:
I'm not sure this is quite as funny to read as it was to write. (I laughed myself quite silly at the time.) Still, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed everyone else's "sneak peeks."Louisa picked through the larder, shaking her head as she rejected vegetables in turn. Lettuce? Definitely not. Carrot? Too narrow. Turnip? Too short and too fat.
At last, she lighted on a cucumber. Wrapping her hand around it, she nodded with satisfaction. Just right.
“Can I help ye wi’ summat, milady?”
Startled, Louisa nearly bumped her head on the low ceiling above the vegetable storage bin as she backed out. She folded the purloined cucumber in her skirt and secured it with one hand before turning to face the scullery maid. “Oh, no, that’s quite all right.” She didn’t meet the eyes of the frizzy-haired girl, but focused instead on the servant’s red-knuckled hands.
“Are ye sure?” The maid’s hands wrung one another.
Louisa nodded. “Most assuredly. I was just leaving.”
Making good on her words, she straightened and brushed past the maid, forcing herself to keep her steps slow and unhurried. It was only when she heard the scullery maid mutter, “Now, I knowt there was another cucumber only this morn,” that Louisa quickened her pace.
She didn’t slow down until she reached her bedchamber three floors up and closed the door. Leaning against it, she took a few calming breaths and extracted the ill-gotten vegetable from her skirts to examine it.
It was a good deal longer than the real thing, but the circumference seemed about right. The skin wasn’t as smooth and entirely the wrong color, but that couldn’t be helped. All in all, it ought to do the job quite nicely.
On iPod: Lady Writer, Dire Straits
6 comments:
LOL!!! Why does it just seem way naughtier when it's a historical? Who thought the prim little misses every indulged in something quite so scandalous.
I hope we see it published!
Well, of course, this is an erotica, so naughty is the name of the game. But I agree--there's something so much more "off-limits" about sex in the historical period, which makes it more fun *g!
I'll be thrilled if EC picks it up, of course. If they don't, I might be motivated to expand it so it's marketable to other e-publishers (Red Sage, for example). It seems a shame to waste it, as I do think it's a rather clever, amusing story.
I can see the title now: The Tale of the Purloined Cucumber! LOL!
:-)
Red Sage isn't an epublisher :)
Anyway, that was snort-worthy!
You're right, Jody. Red Sage ISN'T e-pub. And I even KNOW that, LOL!
I cut some stuff out of that comment and accidentally left the Red Sage thing in there. I was going to say that I was thinking of modifying it for other e-publishers (I thought of Liquid Silver and Loose ID out of the box) or, better yetl, hard copy anthology publishers (e.g. Red Sage), but then I got lazy and when I cut, I didn't cut it all. Terrible me!
Glad you enjoyed the excerpt (I think a snort is positive!).
My personal rule of thumb on exerpts is never to offer more than three chapters of a work free, unless I intend to give said work away as a prize to my readers. I have two serials going right now that I update once a month. Those are free, so people can see how I write and what I'm about.
If I intend to sell a book, I never offer more than three chapters, anywhere, singly or in an extended excerpt. I've now offered two sneak peeks into Good Touch and I hope it's exciting people for when it's finished. But I will never give more than one more taste.
To get the full, delicious experience, one must buy the book.
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