Welcome to Biting-Edge, a blog shared by authors and vampire experts, Mario Acevedo and Jeanne Stein. We’ll cover urban fantasy, vampires, pop culture, and all things Joss Whedon. Unlike other fantasy blogs, we don’t insist on body cavity searches (unless you ask politely). Snarkiness is most welcome...though we won't promise not to bite back!
Sunday, May 06, 2012
The key...
Breaking News: from Publishers Lunch
Mario here:
I speak at several writing conferences and what I've noticed are how many wanna-be writers seem to have the attitude that we published authors are hiding the key to getting published. That this mysterious key will unlock the secrets to getting an agent and editor and securing a coveted deal.
Sadly, there is no key. If one existed, I'd use it to get all my trunk novels on the shelf.
The good news is that those secrets are no secrets at all.
Getting published is a matter of:
The Great Idea.
Execution.
Persistence.
Connections.
Timing and Luck.
The Great Idea: Agents, editors, and readers are always looking for a new story. Granted, there are no new stories, only twists of what's been told. But that's your challenge as a writer. For example, how many dinosaur movies have been made? Land of the Lost. The Valley of Gwangi. One Million Years B.C. What was so different from them and Jurassic Park? Plenty of course, but that's the unique twist. What about vampires? There's a big difference between Twilight and Blade.
Execution: So you've got The Great Idea. Thinking about it keeps you up at night. Now it's a matter of telling your story, and telling it well. This is why most of you come to writing conferences and take writing workshops. To hone your craft. To nail your voice. To discover your style. To remain inspired as you slog through the morass of The Second Act. We know how hard it is to hook an agent and get them to ask for your manuscript. We can't disappoint them, and ourselves, by not delivering a Holy Smokes, my eyes are burning, this is an amazing story.
Persistence: Here is where many wanna-be's fall away. Writing a book involves a lot of time and effort. It takes discipline to do more than sit at the keyboard. Forget waiting for the perfect moment of inspiration. Forget waiting for retirement and typing away at the beach. If it's not killing you now that you're not writing, then you're not a writer. Nobody but you gives a shit if you write your story or not. You've got to hack away at the narrative. Day by day. Sentence by sentence. Pile up tens of thousands of words. And you must stoke this persistence even after countless setbacks. Rejections. Getting your chapters mauled in critique. The distractions of day-to-day life: family, paying bills, traffic tickets, jerkoff neighbors.
Connections: There's a myth that writers are antisocial recluses. Some perhaps, but most of my fellow scribes are exceptionally gregarious and outgoing. Bouchercon is called DebaucherCon for a reason. Get us together over booze, and we cluck like happy chickens. Attending cons is an excellent way to meet agents and editors in person and learn that they're not mysterious creatures. Later, when you query, there's a face attached to your letter, and assuming you made a decent impression, that's one more reason for a yes. Also, with the time-suck of social media, you have to balance between being an annoying Me! Me! pain-in-the-ass, spending hours blabbing on about nothing (when you should be writing), or actually creating a worthwhile presence.
Timing and Luck: I've heard plenty of anecdotes that convince me that there are supernatural forces at work in publishing (some good, some evil). An example of good: a writer submits a story about undead midwives, and the receiving agent will recall a conversation with an editor who said her house is looking for something different in urban fantasy, say, undead midwives? Bingo. Now it's a matter of your execution. But as they say, Fortune favors the prepared.
I'm deep in the execution stage of my work-in-progress. At last, I typed THE END to the first draft of my manuscript. Now to connect the Hemingway Bullshit Detector and grind away at the narrative. Here's my recycle box stuffed with revised pages.
Breaking News: from Publishers Lunch
Jeanne Stein and Samantha Sommersby's FALLEN, a paranormal
thriller pitched as combining Without a Trace and Angel, in which an age-old
siren partnered with a werewolf join up on a mission of redemption for past
sins, to Jessica Wade at NAL, in a two-book deal, by Scott Miller at Trident
Media Group.
Betsy Dornbusch's epic fantasy EXILE, to Jeremy Lassen at
Night Shade Books, in a two-book deal, for publication in early 2013, by Sara
Megibow of Nelson Literary Agency (World English).
Mario here:
I speak at several writing conferences and what I've noticed are how many wanna-be writers seem to have the attitude that we published authors are hiding the key to getting published. That this mysterious key will unlock the secrets to getting an agent and editor and securing a coveted deal.
Sadly, there is no key. If one existed, I'd use it to get all my trunk novels on the shelf.
The good news is that those secrets are no secrets at all.
Getting published is a matter of:
The Great Idea.
Execution.
Persistence.
Connections.
Timing and Luck.
The Great Idea: Agents, editors, and readers are always looking for a new story. Granted, there are no new stories, only twists of what's been told. But that's your challenge as a writer. For example, how many dinosaur movies have been made? Land of the Lost. The Valley of Gwangi. One Million Years B.C. What was so different from them and Jurassic Park? Plenty of course, but that's the unique twist. What about vampires? There's a big difference between Twilight and Blade.
Execution: So you've got The Great Idea. Thinking about it keeps you up at night. Now it's a matter of telling your story, and telling it well. This is why most of you come to writing conferences and take writing workshops. To hone your craft. To nail your voice. To discover your style. To remain inspired as you slog through the morass of The Second Act. We know how hard it is to hook an agent and get them to ask for your manuscript. We can't disappoint them, and ourselves, by not delivering a Holy Smokes, my eyes are burning, this is an amazing story.
Persistence: Here is where many wanna-be's fall away. Writing a book involves a lot of time and effort. It takes discipline to do more than sit at the keyboard. Forget waiting for the perfect moment of inspiration. Forget waiting for retirement and typing away at the beach. If it's not killing you now that you're not writing, then you're not a writer. Nobody but you gives a shit if you write your story or not. You've got to hack away at the narrative. Day by day. Sentence by sentence. Pile up tens of thousands of words. And you must stoke this persistence even after countless setbacks. Rejections. Getting your chapters mauled in critique. The distractions of day-to-day life: family, paying bills, traffic tickets, jerkoff neighbors.
Connections: There's a myth that writers are antisocial recluses. Some perhaps, but most of my fellow scribes are exceptionally gregarious and outgoing. Bouchercon is called DebaucherCon for a reason. Get us together over booze, and we cluck like happy chickens. Attending cons is an excellent way to meet agents and editors in person and learn that they're not mysterious creatures. Later, when you query, there's a face attached to your letter, and assuming you made a decent impression, that's one more reason for a yes. Also, with the time-suck of social media, you have to balance between being an annoying Me! Me! pain-in-the-ass, spending hours blabbing on about nothing (when you should be writing), or actually creating a worthwhile presence.
Timing and Luck: I've heard plenty of anecdotes that convince me that there are supernatural forces at work in publishing (some good, some evil). An example of good: a writer submits a story about undead midwives, and the receiving agent will recall a conversation with an editor who said her house is looking for something different in urban fantasy, say, undead midwives? Bingo. Now it's a matter of your execution. But as they say, Fortune favors the prepared.
I'm deep in the execution stage of my work-in-progress. At last, I typed THE END to the first draft of my manuscript. Now to connect the Hemingway Bullshit Detector and grind away at the narrative. Here's my recycle box stuffed with revised pages.Labels: Betsy Dornbusch, Fallen, Jeanne Stein, secrets, writing
¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 8:40 PM 6 comments
Monday, August 08, 2011
Done hexing...for now!
Mario here,
Sayonara Mucho Mojo and RomCon2011. It was nice. It was real. And it's over.
The loooooong weekend started with Thursday's Mucho Mojo hijinks at MadWines, courtesy of Denver Public Library's Fresh City Life program. Jeanne, Kimberly Frost, and Nicole Peeler laid us out with their assorted charms and pervy erotic readings. We cooled off afterwords at the Mercury Cafe where Kimberly and Nicole posed under the famous flying tiger.
Olivia Cunning shows off her fabulous RomCon Readers Crown trophies (major jealousy here at Biting-Edge corporate headquarters. We want one!)
The dealers room included jewelry sales that support the Colorado Association of Libraries benefit for Bulgarian libraries. Major cool move.
Besides panels and schmoozing, we all had plenty of real-world homework (that unfortunately interfered with our drinking). Jeanne and Kimberly practically shoot sparks out their ears as they hack at deadlines.
Once the con fun and games were over, we hoofed it to the Broadway Book Mall for a signing that included Lizzie T. Leaf (center) and to her left, Melissa Mayhue (who was so proud of her sparkly covers!)
To cap off the fun and gird ourselves for the return to planet Earth, we trekked to the Interstate Kitchen & Bar, where Nicole shared her appreciation of good head.
Sayonara Mucho Mojo and RomCon2011. It was nice. It was real. And it's over.
The loooooong weekend started with Thursday's Mucho Mojo hijinks at MadWines, courtesy of Denver Public Library's Fresh City Life program. Jeanne, Kimberly Frost, and Nicole Peeler laid us out with their assorted charms and pervy erotic readings. We cooled off afterwords at the Mercury Cafe where Kimberly and Nicole posed under the famous flying tiger.
Olivia Cunning shows off her fabulous RomCon Readers Crown trophies (major jealousy here at Biting-Edge corporate headquarters. We want one!)
The dealers room included jewelry sales that support the Colorado Association of Libraries benefit for Bulgarian libraries. Major cool move.
Besides panels and schmoozing, we all had plenty of real-world homework (that unfortunately interfered with our drinking). Jeanne and Kimberly practically shoot sparks out their ears as they hack at deadlines.
Once the con fun and games were over, we hoofed it to the Broadway Book Mall for a signing that included Lizzie T. Leaf (center) and to her left, Melissa Mayhue (who was so proud of her sparkly covers!)
To cap off the fun and gird ourselves for the return to planet Earth, we trekked to the Interstate Kitchen & Bar, where Nicole shared her appreciation of good head.
Labels: Jeanne Stein, KImberly Frost, Mucho Mojo, Nicole Peeler, RomCon
¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 9:37 AM 0 comments
Sunday, July 31, 2011
We're Going to HEX you up!
Mario here:
Like most of you out there in Internet land, we're melting like chocolate truffles on a hot plate. Hot? Try scorching! And made even hotter and more scorching by Denver's first ever County Fair! After a hundred and fifty years, zilchero until this weekend.
Being a county fair, urban farming got a major plug. Lots of prize tomatoes, squash, and other veggies plus the newly allowed (within the city limits) chickens, ducks, and dwarf goats. Also on display, raptors that eat said chickens, ducks, and goats.
Being Denver, everything got a big-city snarky twist, from kid's dioramas...
to Steampunk...
Local MileHiCon fans should recognize the fashionable Chelsea Lowe and Zachary Byron Helm...
and their stylish wheels for the urban commute...
Take a deep breath! Now pump your little fists and let out a big SQUEEE!
It's almost here! Mucho Mojo!
This Thursday, 7-9pm, August 4, at MadWine Bar,
1200 Acoma St, in Denver. 
In conjunction with Fresh City Life and those good folks at the Denver Public Library, Urban Fantasy authors Kimberly Frost, Nicole Peeler, and our own Jeanne Stein, promise to Hex You Up!
You'll get free DIY mojo bags for special talismans provided by the authors. And then we'll get down with some adult erotic readings from each others' work. Things could get STEAMY! Fortunately, you'll have the opportunity to cool off with appropriately adult beverages.
Over the weekend, catch us at RomCon 2011.
And then, Mucho Mojo Round Two, Sunday, 4pm, August 7 at the Broadway Book Mall, 200 S Broadway, Denver. We'll be joined for a reading and signing by Melissa Mayhue and Lizzie T. Leaf.
Five times the urban fantasy, five times the literary awesomeness!
Like most of you out there in Internet land, we're melting like chocolate truffles on a hot plate. Hot? Try scorching! And made even hotter and more scorching by Denver's first ever County Fair! After a hundred and fifty years, zilchero until this weekend.
Being a county fair, urban farming got a major plug. Lots of prize tomatoes, squash, and other veggies plus the newly allowed (within the city limits) chickens, ducks, and dwarf goats. Also on display, raptors that eat said chickens, ducks, and goats.
Being Denver, everything got a big-city snarky twist, from kid's dioramas...
to Steampunk...
Local MileHiCon fans should recognize the fashionable Chelsea Lowe and Zachary Byron Helm...
and their stylish wheels for the urban commute...
Take a deep breath! Now pump your little fists and let out a big SQUEEE!
It's almost here! Mucho Mojo!
This Thursday, 7-9pm, August 4, at MadWine Bar,
1200 Acoma St, in Denver. 
In conjunction with Fresh City Life and those good folks at the Denver Public Library, Urban Fantasy authors Kimberly Frost, Nicole Peeler, and our own Jeanne Stein, promise to Hex You Up!You'll get free DIY mojo bags for special talismans provided by the authors. And then we'll get down with some adult erotic readings from each others' work. Things could get STEAMY! Fortunately, you'll have the opportunity to cool off with appropriately adult beverages.
Over the weekend, catch us at RomCon 2011.
And then, Mucho Mojo Round Two, Sunday, 4pm, August 7 at the Broadway Book Mall, 200 S Broadway, Denver. We'll be joined for a reading and signing by Melissa Mayhue and Lizzie T. Leaf.
Five times the urban fantasy, five times the literary awesomeness!Labels: Denver County Fair, Jeanne Stein, KImberly Frost, Mucho Mojo, Nicole Peeler
¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 12:53 PM 0 comments
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Vitajex made me go sproing!
Mario here:
My spy sent this photo of Jeanne sandwiched between Richelle Mead and Nicole Peeler at RT2011. Jeanne tries to look sober though you should notice the open bottle in front of her. Busted!
Here in Denver, Beth Groundwater dazzled the crowd at her Broadway Book Mall signing.
The evening progressed to an art show at Vain Salon, uptown home to the hippest hairstylists in the city. Jamie modeled make-up and hair while handling out Jello shots (there's always room for Jello!)
I love the details behind great stories. Director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Bud Schulberg became pariahs in Hollywood for testifying to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) where they admitted to having been Communists and giving up names. Kazan and Schulberg had joined the Communist Party because they saw communism as a force for progressive social change, a theme in their movies. The two became disillusioned when they recognized communism as a legitimate threat to the United States and that many of their writer friends in the Soviet Union had disappeared (i.e., murdered by Stalin). Kazan's earlier work such as Gentleman's Agreement (a 1947 movie exposing bigotry and anti-Semitism) were straightfoward stories about clear-cut moral choices. His experience before HUAC changed his outlook on life, and his story-telling turned noirish with deeply ambiguous moral dilemmas.
Kazan and Schulberg followed their Marlon Brando classic On The Waterfront (1954) with A Face In the Crowd (1957), an amazingly prescient satire of how media and marketing shape our politics. For many of us used to seeing Andy Griffith as the honest, folksy hero in The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock, you'll be astonished by his screen debut as Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, the kinetic scheming bum who brays his way to fame and fortune. The man burns with the raunchy, incandescent energy of a punk rocker strung out on speed. Urban myth has us believe that 1950s America was all Harriet Nelson, but the infamous Vitajex commercial holds its own with anything you'll ever see on cable. Gratuitous camel-toe and pills that restore your manly ardor.
Compare the details with Mad Men. The two-faced executives. The decorative, over-coiffed women. The quaint hand-lettered show cards instead of PowerPoint. The skirt chasing that would make any modern HR staffer cringe at inevitable sexual-harassment lawsuits.
We see Lonesome Rhodes revel in his power, cynical and creepy as a mad scientist.
What is the background behind your favorite stories?
My spy sent this photo of Jeanne sandwiched between Richelle Mead and Nicole Peeler at RT2011. Jeanne tries to look sober though you should notice the open bottle in front of her. Busted!
Here in Denver, Beth Groundwater dazzled the crowd at her Broadway Book Mall signing.
The evening progressed to an art show at Vain Salon, uptown home to the hippest hairstylists in the city. Jamie modeled make-up and hair while handling out Jello shots (there's always room for Jello!)
I love the details behind great stories. Director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Bud Schulberg became pariahs in Hollywood for testifying to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) where they admitted to having been Communists and giving up names. Kazan and Schulberg had joined the Communist Party because they saw communism as a force for progressive social change, a theme in their movies. The two became disillusioned when they recognized communism as a legitimate threat to the United States and that many of their writer friends in the Soviet Union had disappeared (i.e., murdered by Stalin). Kazan's earlier work such as Gentleman's Agreement (a 1947 movie exposing bigotry and anti-Semitism) were straightfoward stories about clear-cut moral choices. His experience before HUAC changed his outlook on life, and his story-telling turned noirish with deeply ambiguous moral dilemmas.Kazan and Schulberg followed their Marlon Brando classic On The Waterfront (1954) with A Face In the Crowd (1957), an amazingly prescient satire of how media and marketing shape our politics. For many of us used to seeing Andy Griffith as the honest, folksy hero in The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock, you'll be astonished by his screen debut as Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, the kinetic scheming bum who brays his way to fame and fortune. The man burns with the raunchy, incandescent energy of a punk rocker strung out on speed. Urban myth has us believe that 1950s America was all Harriet Nelson, but the infamous Vitajex commercial holds its own with anything you'll ever see on cable. Gratuitous camel-toe and pills that restore your manly ardor.
Compare the details with Mad Men. The two-faced executives. The decorative, over-coiffed women. The quaint hand-lettered show cards instead of PowerPoint. The skirt chasing that would make any modern HR staffer cringe at inevitable sexual-harassment lawsuits.
We see Lonesome Rhodes revel in his power, cynical and creepy as a mad scientist.
What is the background behind your favorite stories?
Labels: Andy Griffith, Elia Kazan, Jeanne Stein, Nicole Peeler, Richelle Mead, Vitajex
¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 2:07 PM 3 comments
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Going down...
Mario here:
It's been a week of dreadful news.
A horrific earthquake in New Zealand.
Impending civil war in Libya.
More apocalyptic storm clouds over the publishing industry.
Ice cream made from women's breast milk (gathered from free-range moms according to the press release).
But the article that stuck in my craw*...
(* craw - neck, from the Middle Dutch crāghe)
was this:
Oral sex can cause cancer. Say it ain't so.
What distressed me was the juxtaposition of oral sex (implying pleasure and wonderful sweetness) against cancer (implying death and all that gruesome ickiness). Yet something else to fret over.
You can dig around for info on the Internet but the news can be distilled that in the U.S., oral sex is claimed to be a leading cause of cancer. The culprit is the Human Papilloma Virus, which is the most common sexually transmitted disease. There are over a hundred strains of HPV, some which seem to do nothing, some which cause genital warts, and the worst of the bunch can cause cervical cancer.
Researchers from Ohio State University found a 225% increase in oral cancer cases from 1974 to 2007 among mainly white men. (Before we clamp on the chastity belts, we need a lot of questions answered. Like, was there a difference between straight and gay men? What about straight women? Lesbians? Different ethnic groups? Vegetarians?) Plus, the more sexual partners you've had, the greater the risk for contracting HPV. The tipping point seems to be five or more sexual partners (I hear a collective gasp from you all) which increases your risk by over 200%.
What a downer. For us westerners, oral sex is a given. The exception is among hardcore evangelicals who insist that since sex is only for procreation, then anything other than vaginal sex is a no-no. Killjoys.
But I wonder. At how much of a risk are we? Though it's anecdotal, I don't know of anyone personally who died of oral cancer. All the men I know who died of cancer were heavy smokers. My sister died of breast cancer and she wasn't sexually active at all. I had a randy grandmother who lived to a ripe old age before succumbing to pneumonia. I have a healthy aunt who's had plenty of paramours and has been married so many times she's the Zsa Zsa Gabor of the family. I'm sure that she is (as my grandmother no doubt was) well acquainted with below-the-belt smooches.
So what can you do? At the most extreme, give up all sexual contact. Including kissing.
As if! Like most cancers, early detection is paramount so protect yourself by getting regular checkups by your doctor and dentist. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Be discriminate in your choice of sexual partners. (As I'm sure you already are. We at the Biting-Edge are all about class.) If the option is available, a circumcised penis is less likely to transmit HPV. Take care of your body, keep your head (har, har) screwed on right, and your risk is very low.
We live in a world full of microscopic critters at the ready to munch on us. Sometimes they win. Most of the time we win. Meanwhile, we humans should continue to munch on each other.
Anna Strong leads the way in Jeanne's debut novel, The Becoming, pages 115-116.
He steps out of slacks and boxers and stands naked, looking down on me.
I reach out, smiling, and caress a muscular thigh.
"Aren't you going to invite me in?" he says at last.
But I don't answer, my mouth is otherwise engaged.
Go Anna!
Labels: Jeanne Stein, Oral sex
¶ posted by Mario Acevedo @ 10:18 AM 5 comments
