Super Big Announcement

Hey there, everybody! I hope your turkey day was fabulous, if you were celebrating it, and I hope your weekend was rad. As you read this, I am hard at work on the next recap, which will post tomorrow. Today, I want to talk to you about something I'm really excited for.

Back when I first started recapping the 50 Shades series, I received a lot of helpful suggestions about my career and life in general from people who took issue with my criticism of the novel they so enjoyed. Some of these suggestions were:

• I should concentrate on my own writing, rather than picking apart someone else's.
• I should promote what I love instead of bashing what I hate.
• I should try writing a book sometime, if I think I'm so great.
• I should kill myself.

This got me thinking, readers. As much as I hate the already trite internet platitude of promote what you love, etc., I might be able to do some good with my anger at the current state of affairs vis-a-vis the book buying public desperately shoving money at anything that will reinforce their internalized misogyny.

Years ago, I did an interview with The Hathor Legacy in which I said that I didn't think it was possible to write a feminist romance novel. At the time, I really didn't think it would be possible. Then 50 Shades of Grey and all of its weird little copycat stories came along, and lo, I realized that it would be entirely possible to write a feminist romance novel. And I could do it in the exciting new genre that Cyndy at Brazen Reads called " "unrealistic erotica involving little research and even less editing". All I have to do is the exact opposite of everything in those books.

So, I'm very pleased to announce that beginning January 15th, 2013, my very first self-published novel, The Boss, will begin appearing in serialized installments on this very blog. This book will be free, chapter by chapter, with a new installment releasing every fifteen days.

Why am I doing this? For a number of reasons. The first being that I'm really not a negative or cynical person. Shut up, I am not. You don't know me. Seriously, though, I really do feel like I could slide into Rush Limbaugh-scale sarcastidickery if I continue on this path, and frankly I don't have the money for a prescription pill addiction. Since so many people have admonished me to promote what I love, rather than bash something I hate (ugh with the Pollyanna bullshit already), I can't help but feel that's the right thing to do. And what better way to promote erotic romance as a genre than by providing totally free access to a sex-positive, female-positive alternative to the naive young virgins and sadistic billionaires dominating the market?

I'll also be satisfying some of those people who advised me to concentrate on my own writing, rather than worrying about what E.L. James has written. Of course I'll be continuing the recaps, because I made a commitment to all of you, but we're nearing the end of the second book and there is only one book left in the series to recap. Which, by the way, I checked and I think it's the longest one of the whole damn series. Still, by June of 2013, the recaps will be no more, and I'll have nothing left to do but write. I don't want to start recapping something else and snarking it, because I think it would take away from our special bond, dear reader, of hating the ever living fuck out of these books. It's going to feel cheap and tawdry with any other commercial property. A serialized novel to concentrate on will hopefully keep me distracted from 50 Shades movie news.

In addition, I'll be taking the advice of all the well-meaning, but slightly unobservant people who suggested I "try" to write a book myself before criticizing. I'll also be adding just a dash more stress to my life, so all those people who wished me dead at my own hand will be able to say, "Good, I'm glad she listened to me," when I stroke out at my desk at the ripe old age of thirty-two because I'm writing too goddamned much.

But most of all, I just want to prove that you can write a romance like 50 Shades of Grey without falling into the traps that it and books like it did. I want to write characters who don't view BDSM as a symptom of a large emotional defect. I want to write a book where the heroine can submit without relinquishing total autonomy and who actually likes and can cultivate noncompetitive relationships with other women.

And I'm going to give it away for free, because I just don't see a market for a book like that.

Here, have a gander at the cover and blurb:

Sophie Scaife almost ran away once, trading her ticket to college for a ticket to Tokyo. But a delayed flight and one incredibly hot night with a stranger changed her mind, putting her firmly on track to a degree and a career at a New York fashion magazine.

Six years later, she’s shocked to find that irresistible stranger is now her boss, billionaire Neil Elwood. And Sophie can’t stop thinking about their one amazing night.

But Neil has eccentric tastes, and he wants to be sure Sophie can handle them. Sophie will have to prove she’s his match both at work and at play, and surrender to her Master’s every erotic whim.

Torn between their professional duties and their sensual desires, Sophie and Neil embark on a journey into their darkest sexual fantasies. But when Sophie gets the chance of a lifetime, will she follow her dreams, or her heart?

There will be more news to come as we get closer to roll out, so stay tuned, and come on back tomorrow for the recap, hear?