Multi-genre Authors + Pen Names = We Can’t Win

I read a post earlier this morning on Romancing the Blog, Genre-Jumping Authors: Love ‘Em Or Leave ‘Em? Basically, whether or not readers like authors who write in multiple sub/genres or not. The comments, to be frank, fucking disturbed me.

Several people said outright that if an author they considered “auto-buy” deviated from her norm and published a different book than they expected, they would drop her like a hot potato. If the book in question is not a romance but is labeled as one, then they have every right to be fucking pissed. But some of these people were saying that romance writers should use different pen names per sub-genre, much less for other genres like mystery or fantasy. WTF?

I’m not understanding how somebody can not realize that a book isn’t a romance.

1. If you’re in a bookstore or library, the book very well may be shelved somewhere other than romance. This ought be a dead giveaway.
2. The spine will usually say something else besides “romance.”
3. The back cover copy should also be a clue.
4. If you mainly order online, most romance authors will mention books are in different genres on their website.

If both the publisher and the author are deliberately misleading, then yes, you should be pissed. But I truly do not understand the thought process behind “use a different name.” People say you can cross-promote, but it isn’t always that easy. Promotion for one pen name takes a lot of time, much less multiple. If you’re print published, most readers are going to pick books up based on author name or cover art. If you’re using a different name, readers aren’t going to recognize your name. As far as they’re concerned, you’re another new author. Very few writers who use pen names get to put “Mary Sue writing as Dora Delany” on the cover. What you’re left with is people who read the bios in the back of the book, and those who read your website.

What about authors like myself, who have a setting they use for multiple genres? The Twilight Deception is a paranormal romance, but I also have an urban fantasy novel (in progress) and an epic fantasy (on hold) in the same setting, along with many other stories. It’s going to look very damn odd if what appears to be two different authors reference things from the same setting.

And for all the readers who complain about authors who don’t use pen names, there are readers who complain about ones who do.

We can’t fucking win.

You know what I was saying about Nocturne?

After the utter mindfuck that was Eternally and Haunted, I haven’t gotten around to reading the other two Nocturnes (Death Calls and Dangerous Temptation) I’ve had around. When reading a book results in irritation-induced insomnia… yeah.
Morgan and I were at Walmart the other day, and they had the January releases out. I thought about getting them, but ultimately decided against it. I’ve had enough trouble sleeping lately without having to deal with another wallbanger.

I know two books isn’t much to judge a line by, but … meh. I liked the two books I read, but not enough to want to risk reading something as craptacular as that.

Am I being irrational here, or is anyone else feeling the same way?

NaNoWriMo

So far, not so good on the Nano front: 2300 words. >_<

Times like this I start to wonder why I keep signing up for this thing. After all, November’s traditionally a hellish month for me. Between holidays, financial stress due to said holidays, Seasonal Affective Disorder (which seems to affect my fibromyalgia), and a shitload of “anniversary” stress due to the sheer number of times that November has sucked more balls than a drunk whore at a frat party…….

Yeah. It doesn’t help, either, that I managed to pull muscles from my forearm up through my shoulder to my back, and all around the right shoulder-blade. Compensating for the injury has led to strained muscles in my chest. Fun all around.
On the bright side, I’m happy with what I’ve written so far. That counts for something, yes?

Fate Has It In For Me

I swear to gods, September has been the Month From Hell.

On top of the medical issues, there’s been a lot of personal stuff going on that’s very stressful, and I’d rather not talk about. Needless to say, it’s been heavily contributing to the overall issues with my fibromyalgia.

So what happens on Monday?

Our power goes out. >_<

This time, it wasn't weather related. This time it was because the check for the electric company was in the mail, hadn’t yet reached them, and wouldn’t have been enough anyway. (Our electric bill runs about $400/mo for a small fucking apartment. Cost of living in this area is ridiculous.) Thank gods we were able to borrow money from a friend to get the power turned back on, as they wanted an exorbidant amount up front.

*beats head against keyboard*

Can I get off this fucking roller coaster already? Please?

That was just soooo much fun…

Yeah, right.

Around 5AM yesterday morning, I started having severe pain in my back, about an inch to the right of the spine, mirrored at my abdomen. Thinking that it might possibly be muscle tension and pain, I took a muscle relaxant and an ultram.

Both of them did absolutely nothing. Instead, the pain got worse, to the point it felt like I had something stabbing, and I thought I was going to either throw up or pass out — or both. I did a bit of research online and it looked like the top three issues with those symptoms were a kidney infection, kidney stones, or appenticitis.

In other words, nothing to fuck around with. I don’t drink anywhere near as much water as I should, so I consider myself predisposed for kidney/bladder problems (amazingly, haven’t had any issues to this point *knocks on wood*). My aunt had appenticitis around my age, too, so… yeah. I called the off-shift doctor at my doc’s office to confirm, and he said that I probably should go into the ER then (6AM) because I’d get treated faster than if I went later in the afternoon.

My male, however, was at work, and wouldn’t get home till about noon. Since it wasn’t “urgent,” I expected that I’d need to pop a vicodin (still have some leftover from tooth extraction a year and a half ago) and wait. But he’s like, “Um. No. I’m coming home and we’re taking you to the doctor now.”

As my doctor and the hospital network are in Boston, we ended up going to one out-of-network (but still covered by insurance) nearby, the Caritas Norwood Hospital. We got there around 7:30/8ish and I got whisked into the back faster than I expected. As in, I’d pick up my book to read and someone would call me to get my vitals taken, get the registration done, get called back… yeah.

They did urine tests, blood tests, and an ultrasound. They didn’t actually medicate me for pain till I got the ultrasound results back around noonish (at which point I asked my male be brought in from the waiting room, which they did very promptly), because what they gave me would depend on what was wrong. I don’t have a kidney stone or infection, but something in my blood counts was high, so they were very concerned about appenticitis.

So the nurse had me drink this stuff that tasted like banana kaopectate (if there is such a thing) and hooked me up with 2mg of morphine. It took down most of the pain but didn’t kick it all so after an hour or so, she gave me another dose, and… um. That’d be the first time in about three years that I haven’t hurt at all, which is disturbing, in a way. Cause even through ultram or vicodin, I still hurt. Just not as much. Nice to know, though, that I don’t react badly to morphine. Reacted with me a bit like ultram, actually, only stronger on the pain-killing side.

On the somewhat amusing side, I was bored out of my mind at this point, having finished the books I brought (and my directionally clueless male isn’t familiar with Norwood so couldn’t go buy me something at a convenience store), so I sent him to get some scratch paper from the nurses. Finished part of a chapter, got brought in to get the CAT scan done, came back, finished the chapter and started another…..

Around 6PM (they were swamped that day; the nurse actually said it was unusual how many people they had in), the doc came in again to talk to me. The CAT scan results came back fine. I don’t have appendicitis and they didn’t show anything else wrong in either the abdomen or pelvic region (as they did both to be thorough).

They suggested that given my PCOS and enlarged ovaries, it may be gynecological (the nurse mentioned that if I’m ovulating, it could cause that sort of pain with the PCOS… but I’m pretty sure birth control is supposed to prevent ovulation), and offered to schedule me an appt with their clinic there… but as my network is up in Boston, that really wouldn’t work, insurance being picky and all that.  So they discharged me with a script for vicodin (nothing stronger because if it got worse, the doc wanted me to know it rather than have it completely masked by a strong narcotic) and I have an appt with a gyn at my primary doc’s office in the morning.

I’m still hurting but nowhere near as bad… hopefully, we can find out what’s wrong. If something’s wrong. (I mean, I would hope I wouldn’t end up on morphine for nothing.)

*sighs* I hate my body.