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Hundreds flock to meet ’50 Shades of Grey’ author

Written by on May 1, 2012 Categories: wellgrounded

Author E L James holds a copy of her new erotic fiction book “50 Shades of Grey” at a book signing in Coral Gables, Fla., Sunday, April 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Jeffrey M. Boan)

Author E L James signs copies of her new erotic fiction book “Fifty Shades of Grey” with publicist Russell Perreault during a book signing in Coral Gables, Fla., Sunday, April 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Jeffrey M. Boan)

Author E L James, left, signs copies of her new erotic fiction “Fifty Shades of Grey” during a book signing in Coral Gables, Fla., Sunday, April 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Jeffrey M. Boan)

Author E L James, left, greets Lynda Pyndall during a book signing for her new erotic fiction “Fifty Shades of Grey” in Coral Gables, Fla., Sunday, April 29, 2012. Publicist Russell Perreault watches at rear. (AP Photo/Jeffrey M. Boan)

This combo made of book cover images provided by Vintage Books shows the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy by best-selling author E L James. They’re young and old, doctors and churchgoers, gay and straight _ and those are just the MEN who have devoured oh-so-naughty “Fifty Shades of Grey,” a violent, erotic trilogy that has earned millions of women fans in a matter of weeks. (AP Photo/Vintage Books)

MIAMI (AP) ? Young school teachers, middle-aged nurses and even the elderly flocked to a Miami book store Sunday for a chance to meet the author of the bestselling erotic romance “Fifty Shades of Grey” in the launch of her U.S. book tour.

British newcomer E L James drew more than 500 men and women at a morning book signing and spoke that evening to a boisterous, uninhibited crowd at the historic Biltmore Hotel. It was her second-ever book signing, yet the size of the crowd snaking through the store with mimosas and books in hand drew comparisons to the past response for writers such as Anne Rice and even politicians.

“This is a literary phenomenon,” said Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books, the independent bookstore where James was signing copies. “E L struck a nerve, and her storytelling speaks to so many people.”

In a few short months, James has snagged a seven-figure contract with Vintage Books, and Universal Pictures and Focus Films have purchased the rights to all three books in the trilogy about an unworldly college student who begins an unusual romantic relationship with a wealthy young businessman. The books have been called “mommy porn” for their sexual content and large, mostly female following, though men are signing up for autographs as well.

“I read it through lunch breaks and I’m giggling,” said Laura Vargas, 31, an executive assistant at a large insurance company. “I’m like, ‘I can’t believe she just wrote that.’”

James began writing the books as fan fiction to Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series and quickly developed a cult-like following of her own. The romance between main characters Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey is surprising because of its unconventional nature: Grey asks Steele to sign a contract, and she agrees to be his “submissive” and to partake in a range of erotic activities. The stories were first published online, and as word of mouth spread, droves of people ? many of them not traditional readers of romantic or erotic fiction ? began downloading them on iPads and Kindles.

“I’m staggered by this,” James said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I never set out to do this.”

Until recently, the affable, laid-back author had been mostly preoccupied with her work as a television executive, taking care of her two teenage sons and doing mundane house chores. She was raised in London, studied history in college and dabbled once in a while with writing, but never spent a large amount of time on it until reading the “Twilight” books.

“I tried a couple of times, but never thought I could,” James said of writing novels.

Even now, she’s not sure she’ll be able to write another.

“It’s really quite daunting,” she said.

A broad swath of mostly women, of all ages and backgrounds, showed up Sunday at the bookstore in Miami’s upscale Coral Gables neighborhood. A young server went around with a tray of bright-colored drinks, and fans exchanged giddy stories about their experiences reading the books.

Emilia Diaz, a 57-year-old aesthetician, said it was a man who introduced her to the books. They had been talking online and over the phone for months and finally agreed to meet in person. On their first date, he suggested she read the books.

“Maybe he wants you to be his submissive,” joked her cousin, Sandra Sousa-Druckman, an interior designer.

Diaz came in a group of four women, the eldest being Sousa-Druckman’s 87-year-old mother, Cathy Perkins. Perkins, who was married for 60 years, said she usually reads Danielle Steele but wants to take up “Fifty Shades of Grey” and its two follow-up novels next. She had a copy of the second book, “Fifty Shades Darker,” for James to autograph.

Stephanie Madison, 59, a bioterrorism coordinator at Jackson Hospital, said her boss had recommended the books to her. She then approached her daughter, Chantele Cogdell, about buying her a copy for Mother’s Day.

Cogdell, who works in medical billing and coding, went online to find out what the book was about. Cogdell usually buys her mother flowers, purses or gift cards.

“I said, ‘You really want this?’” Cogdell recalled.

“Yes!” her mother enthusiastically replied.

Anne Messitte, the publisher of Vintage Books, said the overwhelming response to James’ second book signing, and the first in her tour, was unprecedented for a new writer.

“I think at the heart of it, these are wonderful, modern stories that engross the reader,” she said.

James herself is at a loss to explain why the books have become so popular, so quickly. Fans who have written or spoken with her at events have had different reactions; some say their sex lives have improved, while others have said the book helped them in dealing with an adopted child. The fictional character Christian Grey was adopted at a young age.

Dressed casually in a jean jacket and with an arm full of silver bracelets, James sipped a glass of water at a quiet bar on the bottom floor of the Biltmore before her appearance. The hotel has hosted several presidents; President Barack Obama held a fundraiser there recently. It’s also a popular choice for weddings, with a church just across the street.

Seven-hundred women ? many in designer dresses, high heels and skinny jeans ? filled a stately room with high, wooden ceilings at the hotel on Sunday. Many came in book clubs ? one said they call themselves the “Shady Ladies” ? and a handful of men showed up with their wives.

Jorge Forte, 39, a lobbyist, said he read “Fifty Shades of Grey” after his wife, a stay-at-home mom, became a fan. Now he’s telling all his work colleagues about it.

“It was definitely not boring,” Forte said with a smile.

The crowd burst into a standing applause and took out cell phones to take photos when James entered the room. They asked when there would be a follow-up and how long it had taken her to write. But mostly their questions boiled down to two topics: Who is Christian based off and how much of the stuff described in the book has she actually tried?

James said Christian was based on several people. As for whether she’s had experiences like those in the book, she said: “Some yes, some no, some I just used my imagination.”

“Fifty Shades of Grey” is slated to be translated into more than 30 languages, and James will be stopping in eight other cities along the East coast. When she goes out now, she’s asked for photographs. Time Magazine recently named her one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World.”

She’s tried not to let too many things change in her life: She’s still doing laundry, she says, and there are at least two people by her side who have not read the books ? her sons.

“Good God,” she says. “I would be mortified.”

Associated Press

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Secure Your Life And Health With Vision Insurance Plans

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Twitchy.com: Evil Liberals Imprisoning Conservatives in Twitter Gulag (Little green footballs)

Written by on April 30, 2012 Categories: wellgrounded

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One year later: The death of Osama bin Laden

Written by on Categories: wellgrounded Tags: death

President Barack Obama took to a White House podium a year ago Tuesday to tell the world that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed in a U.S. Navy SEAL raid. A year later, former White House counter-terrorism advisor and ABC News consultant Richard Clarke looks at what role bin Laden really played and how the world has changed since his death.

Appearing on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan reaffirmed the Obama Administration‘s intent to destroy al Qaeda. It was at once a muscular declaration of an aggressive policy and simultaneously an admission that al Qaeda is not dead yet. Asked by George Stephanopoulos if the death of Osama bin Laden seemed as important now one year after his death as it had at the time, Brennan quickly said that the al Qaeda leader’s demise was very significant, but he then used the word “symbolic” to describe the importance.

What then are we to think about al Qaeda and its late leader on the one year anniversary of his demise?

Historians once debated the relative importance of the “great man” theory of events compared to the “inevitable forces” or trends as the shapers of history. With bin Laden and al Qaeda we see the importance of both.

Prior to the unlikely founder of al Qaeda, no man had ever been able to unite Muslims from so many regions into a revolutionary movement that combined ideology, organization, funding, military training, and direct action. He did so without being a government official and without the overt assistance of any government (except the Taliban regime which ran much of Afghanistan). Bin Laden facilitated groups as far flung as Indonesia and the Philippines in the Pacific and Morocco and Libya in North Africa. Far more than just a symbol, he was an administrator, intent on insuring that the nuts and bolts of terrorism were provided to widely dispersed and semi-autonomous franchises.

By the time of his death, bin Laden may have had little control over the far flung affiliates of al Qaeda.

We can think of him in his last few years as a CEO of a multinational organization, trying to operate without the Internet or telephones, watching as members of his team of executives were picked off one after another. His organization, which had pioneered the use of the Internet and mobile communications to operate a terror network, now knew that if its leaders used that modern technology, it could result in death from the buzzing, flying killer robots from America.

Bin Laden had been reduced to a man unable to leave his house, pulling on organizational levers that appear to have been connected to little or nothing. Documents recovered from his house reveal his frustration at America’s success in killing the leaders of his core organization, the team that U.S. counter-terrorism experts called Al Qaeda Central.

One man, however, is not responsible for the millions of people who supported the violent Sunni Islamist extremists that spread across dozens of nations. They were the outgrowth of bad government, of regimes unwilling to share power with their people, or incapable of solving grinding socio-economic problems. Violent Islamist extremists offered the only readily available alternative, a dream of a theocracy in which the application of a strict version of Sunni Islam would somehow solve the problems created by globalism, over-population, and under-education. With or without bin Laden and his al Qaeda, many frustrated Muslims would have turned to the so-called religious men with bombs and guns.

What bin Ladin added to the mix, in addition to his organizational skills, was the psychological ploy of projection.

He encouraged his followers to project their anger about their condition on to an external force, America. Calling America “the Far Enemy,” he reasoned that the oppressive, local regimes could not be defeated until the Far Enemy was driven from the region. When his terrorist attack teams inflicted pain on America, their actions not only proved that America was weaker than had been thought, but the attacks also galvanized supporters into thinking that they too could attack the governments they feared.

In the process of such attacks, al Qaeda went from being a pseudo-religious organization meant to advance theocracies to a killing machine. Most of the people its cells killed were Muslims. Most Muslims eventually turned away in disgust or horror. Later, many in the Muslim world turned their attention on the “Near Enemy,” their own sclerotic governments, toppling four regimes and extracting concessions from many more in the wave of uprisings we call The Arab Spring. Al Qaeda had almost no role in the “Arab Spring,” leaving its isolated leadership to wonder how they could remain relevant.

That narrative, however, is incomplete. The al Qaeda franchises are still a major factor. Groups calling themselves al Qaeda or claiming affiliation with that movement have large, armed formations in Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Nigeria, and in the Magreb and the Sahel regions of Africa. They are conducting military-styled attacks in some countries and waves of bombings in others. They are participating in the “Arab Spring” fighting in Libya and Syria.

For them, bin Laden is still a motivating hero. What is not yet clear is how many of them are motivated by bin Laden’s call to attack the Far Enemy. Some of them still are.

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Japan PM in US to turn page for alliance

Written by on Categories: wellgrounded Tags: deal

The leaders of Japan and the United States meet Monday to look at new ways to cooperate in defense, hoping to show that the alliance is back on track after a rocky few years.

Amid fears that North Korea will test another nuclear bomb, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will hold talks at the White House with President Barack Obama days after a deal on a thorny dispute over US troops.

Noda is the first Japanese premier to visit Washington for a solely bilateral visit since the 2009 election of his center-left Democratic Party of Japan sent long-stable relations into a tailspin.

“I would like to exchange views candidly on the vision of a future US-Japan alliance. I want the meeting to be fruitful so that the public can see clear results,” Noda told reporters on departure from Tokyo.

The allies announced on Friday an agreement to move 9,000 Marines from Japanese island of Okinawa to the US territory of Guam, addressing a persistent source of friction. Tiny Okinawa is host to half of the 47,000 US troops in Japan.

As part of the agreement, the two countries said they would consider setting up their first permanent joint training bases in Guam or the nearby Northern Mariana Islands. The move would carry heavy symbolism for Japan, which has been officially pacifist since the end of World War II.

Kurt Campbell, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, called the training proposal “a very important step that has never been achieved before.”

But the agreement preserves a key controversial element of a 2006 plan between the two countries — building an air base on a quiet seashore. The two sides had hoped the 2006 arrangement would end concerns by moving the base out of a crowded urban area, but some activists pressed for its complete removal.

Weston Konishi, director of Asia-Pacific studies at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, said the deal was “a good face-saver for both sides” but went little beyond previous statements.

The latest accord showed that the United was flexible and “willing to make a good-faith effort,” while for Noda, it showed that he was “serious about trying to do his best to reduce the footprint” of US troops in Okinawa, he said.

“It’s a win-win for both governments, but whether this leads to a final resolution of the problem, I think, is still debatable,” Konishi said.

Obama had made an early effort to reach out to Japan, inviting then-prime minister Taro Aso as his first White House guest in hopes of dispelling concern that the new administration would ignore Asian allies as it focused on managing the complicated relationship with a rising China.

But Yukio Hatoyama, the first prime minister after the Democratic Party of Japan ousted the long-ruling conservatives, dismayed the United States by flirting with China and insisting on renegotiating the Okinawa deal.

Hatoyama’s successor, Naoto Kan, but he faced wide criticism for his handling of the massive March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami tragedy in which US troops mounted a round-the-clock rescue effort.

The Obama administration initially found hope in Noda but his government’s approval rating has also fallen precipitously as he pushes forward a proposal to double sales tax to tame a massive public debt.

Noda heartened the Obama administration after taking office last year when he voiced interest in the Trans-Pacific Partnership — an emerging US-led free trade deal across the Pacific Rim.

But Noda has faced heated opposition, with farmers leading a major protest campaign out of fear that the trade agreement would jeopardize their livelihoods.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, conceded that the United States no longer expected Noda to announce during his visit a formal entry into talks with the nine nations negotiating the deal.

The Obama administration will instead focus largely on symbolic gestures to show warmth toward Japan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will welcome Noda to a gala dinner and a private viewing of an exhibition on samurai.

The United States will also unveil a long-discussed proposal to gift 3,000 dogwood trees to Japan in a sign of gratitude marking 100 years since Tokyo delivered Washington’s now famous cherry trees.

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Tear gas used as 25,000 rally for Malaysia reforms

Written by on Categories: wellgrounded Tags: gas, kuala lumpur malaysia, southeast asian nation

A protester throws a tear gas canister back at police in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. Malaysian police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of demonstrators demanding an overhaul in electoral policies that they call biased ahead of national polls expected soon.At least 25,000 demonstrators had swamped Malaysia’s largest city in one of the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest street rallies in the past decade. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Malaysian riot police form a barricade to stop protesters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. Malaysian police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of demonstrators demanding an overhaul in electoral policies that they call biased ahead of national polls expected soon. At least 25,000 demonstrators had swamped Malaysia’s largest city in one of the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest street rallies in the past decade. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A protesters lies on the ground as his colleagues charge at a police vehicle as it sprays them with its water cannons in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. Malaysian police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of demonstrators demanding an overhaul in electoral policies that they call biased ahead of national polls expected soon. At least 25,000 demonstrators had swamped Malaysia’s largest city in one of the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest street rallies in the past decade. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim addresses protesters near Merdaka Square in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 28, 2012. Malaysian police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of demonstrators demanding an overhaul in electoral policies that they call biased ahead of national polls expected soon. At least 25,000 demonstrators had swamped Malaysia’s largest city in one of the Southeast Asian nation’s biggest street rallies in the past decade. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) ? Police unleashed tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of demonstrators who staged one of Malaysia’s largest street rallies in years, demanding fair rules for national elections expected soon.

Authorities were seen detaining dozens of people. Officials said three demonstrators and 20 police were injured.

At least 25,000 demonstrators swamped Malaysia’s largest city, hoping to pressure Prime Minister Najib Razak’s ruling coalition ? which has held power for nearly 55 years ? to overhaul electoral policies before polls that could be held as early as June.

Authorities insist the elections will be free and fair, rejecting activists’ claims that the Election Commission is biased and that voter registration lists are tainted with fraudulent names.

Demonstrators wearing yellow T-shirts, waving banners and chanting slogans poured into downtown Kuala Lumpur, massing near a public square that police had sealed off with barbed wire and barricades.

“I’m here because I’m a Malaysian and I love my country,” said information technology manager Burrd Lim. “There’s no election that’s perfect, but I want one that’s fair enough.”

Authorities had refused to allow an opposition-backed pressure group that organized the rally to use Independence Square, a nationally renowned venue that hosts parades and patriotic celebrations.

The demonstration remained peaceful for several hours, prompting organizers to declare it a success and ask people to head home. But when a small group appeared to suddenly breach the police barriers, authorities began firing tear gas and water laced with stinging chemicals at the crowd.

Baton-wielding police backed by trucks mounted with water cannon sporadically fired tear gas at some demonstrators for at least an hour before much of the crowd was dispersed. People fled into streets and stores nearby, leaving shoes, bottles and other belongings scattered on the ground.

Authorities were seen detaining dozens of people, with Malaysian media reports saying as many as 60 were arrested. Police said one protester snatched a pistol from its personnel during the chaos, though the weapon was later recovered, and others destroyed public property.

Video footage by independent news website Malaysiakini showed angry demonstrators overturning a police car that allegedly hit two people.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said 20 policemen and three demonstrators received treatment for unspecified injuries. He insisted that police acted “with utmost restraint,” but opposition leaders and rights groups said the use of tear gas was unjustified.

“By launching a crackdown on peaceful protesters on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian government is once again showing its contempt for its people’s basic rights and freedoms,” said Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy director for Asia.

Federal police spokesman Rasdi Ramli estimated there were about 25,000 demonstrators, but many witnesses and some Malaysian news organizations said there were far more. Malaysiakini said there were 100,000, while The Sun newspaper estimated 80,000.

“We all want change today,” said Ambiga Sreenevasan, one of the demonstration’s leaders.

The rally’s organizers have also sought longer election campaigning periods and changes to ensure citizens living abroad can cast ballots, as well as international observers for the polls and fairer access for all political parties to the government-linked media.

But despite the large turnout for Saturday’s demonstration, there was no indication that Prime Minister Najib’s National Front coalition would agree to major changes to satisfy the activists.

“If (elections) are not clean, not fair, show the evidence,” Najib was quoted as saying by the national news agency, Bernama, on Saturday. “We do not want to be elected through cheating. We are a government chosen by the people. The majority of the people chose us because they know (we) are better” than the opposition.

After about 20,000 demonstrators staged a similar rally that was also dispersed by tear gas last July, authorities established a panel to study electoral regulations and agreed for voters to have their fingers stained with indelible ink while casting ballots to curb multiple voting.

But activists say those decisions fall short of what’s needed. Hundreds of Malaysians living abroad and rights activists in cities such as Hong Kong, Auckland and Perth also staged demonstrations Saturday in solidarity with those in Kuala Lumpur.

Speculation has intensified that Najib might dissolve Parliament next month and seek a new mandate in June, even though polls do not need to be held until mid-2013.

The National Front, which has governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957, suffered its worst performance in 2008 elections, when it lost more than a third of Parliament’s seats amid public complaints about corruption and racial discrimination.

Associated Press

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Business Productivity Using Blackberry Curve 9220 | TechSling …

Written by on Categories: wellgrounded Tags: phone

What could have been more precious than a curved shaped and recently released BlackBerry phone to any smart phone users? There left nothing new to tell about BlackBerry cell phone. This is a brand which always represents a different class with different user experiences. BlackBerry already has a list of smart phones and cell phones, which have appreciated by millions of users around the world. BlackBerry Curve 9220 is a new item in BlackBerry family. Official announcement of this device has made during April, 2012. Blackberry users may have this phone in their pocket by the end of April, 2012.

Display and Dimension

BlackBerry 9220 is a simple but exclusive smart phone, which you can use under and 2G GSM network. This phone will support GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900. Users will find this cell phone very handy with 102 gram of weight. According to the official information, this device will come with a dimension of 109 X 60 X 12.7 millimeter. 2.44 inches display of this device will come with 65k colors. 164 pixel density and 320 X 240 pixel resolution will give the user a clear visual experience on the screen.

Camera Data Connectivity

GPRS and EDGE will come with BlackBerry 9220, by default. You can also connect, share, and transfer data to and from this phone by using USB port, as well. Built-in WLAN and Bluetooth options are also available with this device.
Users will find 2 mega pixels camera with this device, which has 1600 X 1200 pixel resolution. You can also capture video recording, but there is no secondary camera available with this cell phone.

Batter Life, Operating System and Data Storage

A fully charged lithium ion battery will keep this device alive for 432 hours of standby time. & hours of talk time will give you the maximum battery performance in any busy day. If you are on vacation and want to enjoy music with your BlackBerry 9220, then you can do that for 28 hours, without any interruption.

Every BlackBerry 9220 will come with BlackBerry OS 7.1. This will give you a smart user experience throughout basic phone functions and other apps, as well. 512 MB RAM and ROM will also give you a faster user experience with this BlackBerry phone. You will also get an option for storing data using micro SD card. You can expand this card up to 32 GB.

Other Features

Proximity, accelerometer, and compass are three common cell phone censors, which are available in this device. QWERTY keyboard will let you enjoy the flexible messaging throughout your BlackBerry 9220. Predictive text input will make your life easier than before while you are typing any message. You can also browse over the Internet by using pre loaded HTML browser. Built-in stereo FM radio will let you enjoy any radio station at anywhere.

Users of this cell phone will enjoy using the multimedia files with different extensions and format. Voice memo, organizer, voice dial, and document viewer are other useful apps of BlackBerry curve 9220.? Businesses could see loads of productivity with this intricate device that?s flying off store shelves faster than RIM can make them.

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Domain Names And Web Hosting Company …

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Domain names and web hosting company, SuperCheapDomainNames.com, announces a special sale for a domain name or hosting package. Annual registrations for a domain are now only $9.99 and hosting is $3.80 a month to help website owners reduce their operating

Los Angeles, California (PRWEB) ? Domain names and web hosting are two of the things that every website owner needs to be able to launch a website online. The domain name registration market is competitive and SuperCheapDomainNames.com does things out of the ordinary to prove its loyalty to customers. A domain name and web hosting sale is now underway that provides $9.99 domain names and $3.80 a month web hosting to clients. This sale is designed to help website owners and businesses reduce expenses when designing and launching a new website. There might be a shortage of available .com business names, but keyword specific names to launch a product, brand or service are still readily available. Website owners can now take advantage of these sale prices to own more Internet real estate.

Streaming video has exploded in popularity online mostly due in part from the acquisition of YouTube by Google. Streaming video online is positioned to overtake textual content by the year 2014 according to university research. One of the problems that companies face when creating and distributing digital video is storage space to hold the digital media files. ?Some web hosting companies put more emphasis on databases and forum hosting,? said Grace Hawkins, Business Account Manager at SuperCheapDomainNames.com. ?We give website owners plenty of storage space to stream audio and video files,? Hawkins added. One of the negatives of uploading videos to YouTube is the loss of control over the distribution. An uploaded video must be stored on YouTube servers and selected to be private or publicly accessible. Hosting videos through web hosting companies allows businesses to have more privacy without loss of storage space.?

Some companies are using social media websites like Twitter and Facebook to expand their business. While these websites have been shown to increase customer communication, many consumers still prefer to contact a company through a standard website. ?Combining as many efforts as possible to reach consumers is a great thing,? said Kevin Arnett, Hosting Administrator at SuperCheapDomainNames.com. ?Many of our customers started with a website and are now incorporating social media into their existing website to serve as a home base for all client communication,? added Arnett. One of the things about buying domain names that some businesses do not understand is that unique domains create a brand that leaves a legacy online. Registering a .com domain name is one way that an existing company or new start-up can take up more real estate space online to attract more consumers that might be interested in offered products or services.?

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While some domain registration and website hosting companies spend millions on advertising, SuperCheapDomainNames.com has earned its clientele the old fashioned way with low prices and expert customer service. This 4-year old company has experienced steady annual increases for new domains, domain name transfers and web hosting services from Internet marketers, businesses and blog owners. As one of the best values for websites and domains, SuperCheapDomainNames.com is continuing its push to the top of the domain name registration and web hosting market.

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Historically Off Center With Nan Hawthorne: Ineterview with Author …

Written by on Categories: wellgrounded Tags: story

I am happy to have this opportunity to chat with Anel Viz, an author I admire very much.? Thanks so much for talking with us today, Anel.

I?m thrilled to be here.? I have no secrets, only opinions, and I relish the opportunity to mouth off.? So ask away!

Q:?? How long have you been writing fiction?? gay fiction?

About six years.? About six years.? But before I began writing my own fiction, I did literary translation.? That?s also creative writing.

Q:? What is your goal with writing?? Wealth, fame, immortality, nubile women breaking down your door.? Oh, I’m sorry, nubile men?

Don?t I wish! My purpose? for writing is to engage my mind creatively and have fun doing it.? My goal is to improve.

Q:? Is there a writer you particularly admire?? Do you actively try to emulate him or her in your writing?

I read a lot ? fiction, philosophy, anthropology, history, etc. ? in several languages, some of it very old, some of it very recent.? I don?t try to emulate any writer, but everything I read can?t help but influence me at an unconscious level.? Now, at most, five percent of the fiction I read is romance, though over ninety percent of those romances are m/m.? So my m/m writing is more ?literary? that that of most authors in the genre.

Q:? I have noticed something different, perhaps skewed, in each of your novels contrasted with your others.? Speak to that.

I don?t know what you mean by ?skewed?, but I should hope that all my books are different, different from the works of other m/m authors ? authors should have their own ?voice?, don?t you think? ? and different from each other.? I don?t want to repeat myself, so I?m always experimenting. That means none of my stories meet all the requirements of traditional romance and more than a few meet hardly any of them, which makes them hard to place.? I don?t meet readers? expectations.? Silver Publishing and Wilde Oats have been a godsend that way.? They?re willing to stick their necks out if they think a story is good.

I especially like experimenting with chronology and exposition.? For example, in The City of Lovely Brothers we follow an amateur historian as he turns his research into a work of fiction, and The Memoirs of Colonel G?rard Vreilhac is a memoir (obviously).? I also experiment with POV, as in the Kaleidoscope stories, which explore the ambiguity of what we know and don?t know about what other people have done and why they did it.

And I?m a genre-bender.? The vampirism in ?Val? is more a metaphor for sexual domination and obsession than a story about vampires; and The Frenchman isn?t about a werewolf, it?s about someone who thinks someone is a werewolf.? (Is that what you mean by skewed?)? New Lives, my novel scheduled for release in August, mixes tragedy and comedy in disorienting kind of way.? It starts off very depressing and becomes gradually lighter but also less real (in the sense of surreal) until we reach an ending so HEA that it?s over the top.? I have no idea what readers will make of it.? I?m not sure what I make of it.

Q: Where do you get your ideas?

You mean for my sex scenes?? Field research, mostly ? you know, of the hands-on variety.

Seriously, though, it?s not uncommon for me to get an idea from a call for submissions.? I?m just ornery enough to want to think up some new take on the subject and send in something the publisher never expected to get.? That usually means a rejection, but, often enough, then I just go ahead and place the story somewhere else.? Four of the seven stories in Kaleidoscope came into being that way.? None of them were expressly written to fit the unifying theme of multiple perceptions; I looked through my stories and found a few that fit thematically with each other, and of course my individual voice adds to the unity.

Then there are the stories I?ve written because someone told me I couldn?t.? Stories that break what I call the GLBTaboos usually get sent to Wilde Oats or go into permanent hibernation on my hard drive.? I wrote ?The Fire Eaters? to show one can write a story that would be incomplete without a graphic description of a gang rape and the rape scene would be neither titillating, tacky, nor inappropriate.? I made a 13-year-old sexual predator an important secondary character in ?The Father of Free Men?.? While ?Alma?s Will? tells the story of gay men who stand up for their rights in the face of prejudice, the center of gravity is the homophobic woman who opposes them.

Most of the time, however, I start out with an idea in my head, or at least not much of one.? I imagine a character in a situation and I start writing.? The act of writing itself suggests plot twists, character development, and (with luck) an ending.? In sense, my novels are flash fictions that have metastasized.

Q:? About half your novels are historicals.? Many of the stories of yours I have read on Wilde Oats are as well.? What do you find compelling about exploring characters who lived in other times and locations?

I love history, especially intellectual history, which gives insight into the otherness of the past.? I teach literature and usually take a historical approach to the works I teach.? Researching another age or another culture stimulates my mind, and imagining characters who live or lived there and making them real is a greater challenge than a 12-page blowjob.? Also, I?m a trained medievalist.

Q:? What do you want to emphasize in the relationships between the men in your novels and stories?

Nothing.? No two relationships are the same.? I want my characters to be true to life and I want how they relate to each other to be true to who they are, otherwise the relationship won?t be real.? It will be a formula, and the sex scenes will be, too.

Q:? I notice an unusual proportion of characters in your books and stories who have disabilities, like

Caliban in The City of Lovely Brothers, Donnie in ?The Best Christmas Ever?, or Teddy in ?A Return to Normalcy?.? As a person with a disability myself, I have been impressed with how believable they are. They are not, as they are in most novels, cartoons.? First, why do you feature so many of these characters?? Second, why do you think yours are so well drawn?

I?ve noticed the same thing.? I don?t do it consciously, but I suppose unconsciously there must be a reason.? Another challenge?? In order to individuate my characters?? Because being gay, while not a disability, is definitely a disadvantage.? Like gayness, a disability is not something to overcome, it?s something one lives with, and one tries to make the the most of life, neither in spite of a disability or by by turning it into an advantage.? It?s simply who you are.? My characters, whether they have disabilities or not, are neither heroic nor pathetic.? They?re people.? I focus on their disabilities because for them it?s a fact of life.? To make it anything more than that diminishes them.

Q:? What are you working on now?

The edits for four books scheduled for release over the next six months.? Two of them are anthologies, so that?s one novel, four novellas, and four short stories.? And I have yet to hear back about other submissions, so there may well be more.? Then there are my WIPs, of which at least two are novels.? The others could end up as either novels or novellas or as novellas or short stories.? It?s too soon to tell.? I?ve started about a dozen things I?m likely to finish someday, but I doubt I?ll finish all of them.? One reaches a point where one realizes that an experiment isn?t going to work (do I need to repeat myself about? experimentation) or one loses interest.

I don?t trash a work I?ve abandoned forever.? I stays in my laptop as a valuable resource.? I lift whole passages from it and adapt them to insert in other works.? Then I put those passage in red font so I don?t reuse them by mistake.

I can?t resist the natural segue into how I write.? I don?t know how many authors work on several projects at once, but it works for me.? When I get stuck on one, I turn my attention to another until I get an idea of how to solve the problem.? And I never start at the beginning of a story and write straight through to the end.? The situation I start with usually occurs somewhere in the first half of the story, and I write out from it both directions, but I put in incidents as they occur to me, jumping all over the place, so I?m constantly revising what I?ve already written so they?ll fit it.? I often don?t know where a story is headed until I write the ending, which I get to well before the rest of it is finished.? Once I have a first draft, most of my revising consists of taking care of the inconsistencies that come from the piecemeal way I put it all together.? I also warn my betas to watch out for them.? And I read my work aloud.? It?s a great way to catch typos and, in my opinion, the only way to be sure the language sounds good.? For me, writing beautiful prose is as important as a coming up with a gripping plot and three-dimensional characters.

But you asked for concrete information on some of my projects.? Let me tell you about a couple I?m sure I?ll finish eventually, though some of them are years away from fruition.? I?m a medievalist who writes historical fiction and has yet to write anything set in the Middle Ages.? I working on two of those, a novella about the marriage of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia called ?Epithalamion?, and novel, as yet untitled, set in France toward the end of the Hundred Years? War with characters drawn from all social classes from peasant to potentate.? I?m also working intermittently on a contemporary novel, Manny, about a married man whose involvement with a younger man in the porn industry becomes an addiction.? At the moment I?m focusing on a long novella that features yet another disability ? aphasia.? I find it an enormous challenge to write the broken speech that comes out of his mouth and also to juggle POV since the whole point of the story is the impossibility of getting into his head.? I feel it would be disrespectful to reveal someone?s thoughts and feelings when I can?t get into his head.

My most ambitious project is The Pyramid of Nepensiret, a vast historical tapestry in six parts that covers centuries as several generations of Egyptologists in different countries try to solve the mystery behind a mummy from the 13th Dynasty.? Each part forms a self-contained non-traditional m/m romance, and each picks up on themes from the other parts in a different historical context, so the entire work plays out as a set of variations on interwoven themes.? On top of that, the parts don?t occur in chronological order.? Talk about experimentation!? I?ve been working on it for nearly two years, have done a of research, and there?s at least another ton I?ll have to do.? I?ve written about 50,000 words for four different parts of it and suspect I?m about a quarter of the way through.? And as far as I can tell, it works. Taken separately, none of the parts is particularly heavy, but they won?t make a light read when put together.

Q:? So, how many years will it be before we can read another book by Anel Viz?

I may have enough projects to keep me busy for a few years, but they won?t all take me that long to finish!? And I have four new books scheduled for release in the next six months and others I?m waiting to hear back on from my publishers.? In mid-July, Silver will release a novella called ?Les Ardoises? ? it?s the name of a caf? ? that has a some elements in common with P?tit Cadeau.? It takes place in Southern France, is about a relationship between a Frenchman and an American, and the Frenchman works in a restaurant.? But the characters are quite different from Ben and Jean-Yves and so if their story.? It?s also told from the Frenchman?s POV.? Then my novel, New Lives, comes out at the beginning of August.? I?ll say this much about it ? it?s different.? I can?t think of another gay romance one could call a tragicomedy, and this tragicomedy swings from dark, gritty realism to over-the-top absurdity.? Finally, I have a two-volume horror anthology due out for Halloween ? three novellas and a four short stories.

Q:? Is there a type of writing you have not done yet you want to explore?

I haven?t yet written a story that doesn?t have sex in it.? Also, science fiction.? The closest I?ve come to that is urban fantasy.? One of my novels in progress (provisional title ? The Procedure) is science fiction, but I may have bitten off more than I can chew by making my first venture into the genre a novel instead of a short story.? For all I know, this is one of my WIPs which will ultimately fall by the wayside.

Q:? Gay people read straight fiction.? Do you think straight people read gay fiction?? Why?? Is there a role for gay fiction in the development of literature?

From what I understand, the majority of readers of gay fiction are straight women.? Why?? Ask them, not me.? As for gay fiction contributing to the development of literature, I sincerely hope so, but it won?t if m/m authors keep doing the same thing over and over.? How can a genre remain stagnant and participate in the growth of an art form?? I like to think that in the long run my experimentation will attract more readers to m/m and people will think twice before dismissing romance as pulp.

Q:? What advice would you give a novice writer?

Listen to what your editors say and take them very seriously, then decide for yourself.? They know what they?re doing, but they may not know what you?re doing.? Remember that almost all readers approach a new work with unspoken expectations, and their expectations may not coincide with your intent.? Instead of making all the changes your editor suggests, change what you?ve written in such a way that what you?re attempting to do or say becomes clearer.

Also, broaden your reading horizons.? Read outside the genre you write in.? When you come across an approach or a technique you like, don?t hesitate incorporating it into your stories just because ?romance doesn?t do that.?? Expanding the gene pool benefits any population.

Thanks, Anel.? You always have something stimulating to say about just about anything.? I hope my readers, of whatever persuasion, will find and read your books.? They will never be bored, I can assure them.

You asked great questions, Nan, about things I?ve been mulling over for a long time.? As for your readers discovering my books, I hope they do too.? There are individual buy links for everything I?ve published on my GLBT Bookshelf page (http://bookworld.editme.com/AnelViz), as well as links to my Wilde Oats stories, which they can read for free.

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