Y'know, if you don't like the crowd, you can always leave.

I was joking with emmalyon the other day that John Ringo probably would be appalled at my trilogy, because it contains the following:

--a female main character trying to keep her sanity
--a teenage girl as an important relationship character
--the two above characters are sisters getting over the loss of their parents
--a male main character dealing with some pretty deep emotional and spiritual inner demons
--a few stun guns, but no lethal shooting
--some pretty deep metaphysical shit going down
--family relations
--budding relationships
--hinted-at same-sex relationships (platonic and otherwise) (no sex scenes though)
--talk about religion, belief, and spirituality (but NOT talking about Christianity, God, or any other current major religions)
--a few deaths, but offscreen
--no sex scenes, but a few scenes of flirting, hugging, tenderness and other non-sexual emotions of love

...to name a few things.

Per Mr. Ringo, and per Paul Cook over at Amazing Stories, since my trilogy contains the above and hardly any Manly Male Acts of Testosterone-Fueled Masculine Manliness (y'know, unbridled sex with supermodels, getting drunk, witnessing and/or causing bloody deaths, Blowing Shit Up, vengeance, Blowing More Shit Up, men in uniform, USA USA USA, flagwaving, saving the day Rambo-style, having that "One man..." gravelly-voiced narrator do the trailer for my Michael Bay-directed film (yes, I know he's dead, work with me here), blowing even more shit up, having the lead character have a horrible relationship with his ex-wife because he's just That Much of a Bastard, drinking rotgut gin at some shitty bar in some metropolis at three in the morning, smoking stogies, and all that other crap), it looks like I'll have to turn in my BroCred Card™ because I haven't even gotten CLOSE to writing Manly Science Fucking Goddamn Fiction. Apparently I'm on the verge of writing romantic fantasy. I may as well just start wearing dresses and putting on make-up, right?

Or, y'know, I could just laugh it off. I refuse to be pigeonholed like that. And I'm totally behind any other writer who feels the same way I do.

So yeah. Mr. Ringo, Mr. Cook, y'all can cool off a bit.


[More on this later...I have some revising to do of said pansy-ass trilogy. ;) ]