Sunday, August 15, 2010

Oatmeal Girl gets a glowing review, OR Structural Analysis of Literary Technique in Smut

There are three main stages to being an author:
  1. writing
  2. being published
  3. being reviewed
Note that only the first stage is presented in an active verb form. Writing may be a struggle, but theoretically it is something over which the author has control. The other two are in the hands of the fates or the gods or the vagaries of the business.

In the case of my story that was published in the anthology Best S&M Erotica Volume 3: Still More Extreme Stories of Still More Extreme Sex, the writing was the easy part. It burst out of me in response to an assignment from the sadist, which in turn was a response to a poem which you can read here. Even being published was relatively easy, as Chris had invited me to submit something for the collection, and when my initial attempts at writing failed I asked if he would take this piece instead. I was too naive to be as worried as I should have been about whether it would be accepted or not.

Which brings us to the review.
For yes, there is now a review.
A quite glorious review
by Sharazade
which praises the book as a whole
and has some extra nice things to say about me.

It feels funny writing that here. It makes me feel shy... even though I know that I need to publicize the book and I do know that my story is good, and I quite agree with Shar's observations.

Anyway.

Please do go over to her blog and read the review. She is remarkably intelligent and perceptive and on its own the article makes great reading.

(Of course, I left out the fourth stage. Being read. Shar's review is her testimony to my having been read. It is her own way of saying "Good girl." And we all know how I like being called a good girl...)

4 comments:

Paul said...

O G, I've been in hospital, very ill, lost a lot of blood with duodenal ulcers, to explain my absence.
I've just read your piece, "You Awake Ahead of the Alarm,".
I really enjoyed it, you never disappoint.
T will read the rest of the collection, I have other work of M Christian, he has good taste.
Love and warm hugs,
Paul.

billierosie said...

So frustrated -- I want to read the other stories in the collection!

Anonymous said...

OG - So glad to have you back. You have been sorely (!) missed. Wonderful analysis, wonderful review, totally terrific, with the one cavil that what you write is never, never smut. Literotica, please. I don't READ smut.

(Forgive me coopting your comments, OG, but Paul, I'm so very glad to see you back, as well. I'm sorry to hear of your illnes. I have a bit of experience with duodenal ulcers, and they are not fun. I do hope you're making a good recovery, and look forward to your sensible, thoughtful, kind view of things.)

Oh, now the order of my morning is restored! Anticipating the arrival of the book - jcn

oatmeal girl said...

Paul - it is so VERY good to hear from you again!! I did already know about your illness, as you were kind enough to inform me, but it sure took an awfully long time for you to recover. It is a big relief to have you commenting her again.

I am delighted that you got the back, and so glad that you enjoyed my little story.

billierosie - if our copies of the book don't come soon, we authors may just have to send each other our stories direct.

jcn - you are such a darling. You don't read smut, indeed. Intellectual snobbery in the halls of perversion. Now, really.

I do hope that anyone who does buy the book will go post reviews on Amazon, under both the paperback and Kindle versions. I do think this will help sales.

And thanks to you all!

o.g.