All About Blog

Blogs. And more blogs. They seem to be popping up everywhere. You can learn about everything from what your local senator did on that so-called vacation to why vitamins may or may not be bad for you. I enjoy the blogs where people talk about their books, why they started to write, why they love it. And I've found some really great books this way.
I also love to visit authors' bloga nad learn what they think about things. Not just their plots and characters, but how they look at life.
Blogs can be very informative.
But sometimes, they can be very mean, and I think that's a terrible misuse of public space.
This weekend I cruised past a blog to see what everyone on the loops was talking about, and Oh! My! God! From a simple anouncement that was no more than a minor news item, more than 200 of the nastiests posts I've ever seen were generated. People said things in public I'm not sure they should even say in private. They bashed others in a way that goes well beyond flaming. And to what purpose?
The few people doing most of the commenting seem to have an axe to grind and they were determined to grind it to death. These are authors who have enjoyed some mild success and feel they need to throw dirt on the roots of their career. They even went so far as to attack someone's personal life. And for what? What exactly did they get out of it?
My grandmother always told me "Be careful who you step on when you;re on the way up. They're the ones who'll catch you when you fall." Someone should have told that to these women, because maybe their new colleagues might wonder if they're next on the chopping block..
The worst part is, this is a very public forum. People will read these comments and take some of them as gospel. I was happy to see many others jump in to refute what was said, but the damage is done. You can't take back words once they're out there in cyberspace.
This blog will be around for a very long time, and people will be reading it as long as the link is there. You never know whose eyes will see what you wrote. It could be the publisher you;ve just submitted to. The agent you want to represent you. Or your current publisher who holds your fate in their hands.
If youl;re unhappy professionally, handle it in a professional manner. If you want to gripe about something, like the price of postage, the economy, or the abundance of alpha males,. have at it. Be sure your blog is entertaining and informative. Or at least entertaining! LOL! But don't use a privilege you've been given to throw dirt on some one or some thing.
Remember, whatever you write, people will remember, and memories can be very long. so think about what impression you want to leave with people.
Okay. Soapbox put away for the day.

A Serial Story

I am writing a serialized novel. You can catch the serial at http://www.charleneleatherman.blogspot.com/

Here is the first installment. For the rest of the story, stop by my blog or stop by www.myspace.com/charleneleatherman

Title

A Rose By Any Other Name

“I hear you. I hear you,” Zna slammed her hand onto the annoying alarm.
“Zna Menita, hunt commences in 45 ticks. Report to hunt initiation site in 45 ticks.”
Zna grit her teeth against a growl rising in her throat. She hated the mechanical voice that naggedat her every time she was scheduled for a hunt.

And she was scheduled almost every day. By her choice. But still, it was tiring and irritating to hear the computerized voice call out her name.
Zna stepped from her bed and into the shower. Water was scarce on Dyad. Zna couldn’t remember when she last had a water bath. Pressing the button to start the cleansing cycle, Zna let the sonic pulses tap over her body. The sound waves were at a range she could not hear. The waves pushed dirt, sweat, dead skin off her body and left her fur silky smooth and shining. She twitched her ears and wiggled her whiskers. The sonic pulses tickled. She heard the computerized voice calling her again. Flicking her tail, Zna punched the off switch and went to her closet. She pulled out a skin-tight jumpsuit. It fit her like a glove, and moved with her. It did not hinder her in any way. It was the perfect outfit to wear for a hunt.
She liked at her image in the mirror. She was desired in the hunt. Her curvaceous body was covered with the tawny colored fur of the lionesses. Her hip-length red hair framed her face and the pert ears that sat on top of her head. Her whiskers were sensitive and strong. The claws on her hands were sharp and retractable. Likewise she had human feet instead of the clawed feet of the less desirable lionesses.
Zna slipped the tools of the hunt into specially made pockets in her suit. A small compact phaser. It was set always on stun. It was the desire of the Ministry that lionesses have an equal chance against the hunters, not kill them. A knife that would slice through metal. Her claws were effective against cloth, flesh, wood, and most other substances other than metal. Some hunters used metal nets to trap lionesses. The knife gave the lionesses equal footing. The whole idea of the hunt was not only to give the hunters access to the best of the lionesses as mates, but to give the Viewers a show.
Zna sighed. She had run and won seventeen hunts. Each hunt she won gave her greater prestige, kept her out of the mating market, and kept her daughter safe. She had to win. If she lost her daughter would lose her life. She only had to complete three more hunts to win her daughter’s freedom.
“Zna Menita, please report to the hunt staging area,” the mechanical voice intoned.
Zna took another deep breath.
Only three more.

Charlene Leatherman

Author of Adventurous Romances

If you would prefer your picture is not posted on this blog, please contact me at http://www.disonij@aol.com/ and I will take the picture down.