Iago

Seeing as The House on the Moor will be free starting Sunday (!)...yeah. This.

Iago-remember her?-may not have a ginormous role in that particular book, but you can blame her, directly or indirectly, for everything. Ever. This family made the grave mistake of pissing her off, and she's not too happy. She's never really happy, but...well, you get what I mean. I hope.

Still working out the specifics for her arrival, but this scene, right here, really defines her. Poor Quincy. You won't meet him for a while, but that doesn't really matter.
* * *

Quincy had long since quit trying to stay upright. What remained of his clothes were stuck to him with either sweat or blood and he couldn’t see straight anymore.

The guard holding his wrists let go and he dropped to his knees. This was it. He was going to die. He didn’t even care.

Iago knelt in front of him and made him lift his head.

“Hello, sweetie.” she said softly. “Ready to talk to me?”

“No.” He tried to pull his head away and she tightened her grip on his face. “No.”

“Resilient little bugger, aren’t you?” She laughed. “I think I might grow to like you.”

She kissed him, that horrible forked tongue snaking down his throat. He tasted brimstone, choked and tried to pull away again. This time she let him. He vomited, but now the brimstone was flavored with bile.

“Get him out of my sight.” When the men didn’t move, she cracked her whip. “Now!”

* * *

Nice girl, isn't she? Loves pain, that one. And people. She eats people sometimes. She'd like to eat Quincy, but she's not allowed right now. I need him.

-Lalla

Teach Men Not to Rape

Yeah. We're veering into some serious territory here, my friends. And I'm sorry, but I think this has to be said, especially in the light of all these frat incidents and...yeah.

Whilst procrastinating on the internet the other day, I came across a quote by Kurt Cobain: “Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there.”    

(I'm not sure he did say it, but it sounds like something he'd say, and I'm too lazy to check.)

The comment section, unsurprisingly, was a scary place.

"they already know it's a crime, telling them to stop that isn't going to work."

"what about teaching women to be more careful?"

And on and on. You know, typical internet comment faire. There were worse ones, but I'm not putting those. (I was glad to see that the really asshole-ish ones were downvoted. It's something.)

First of all, I don't think he meant to teach men not to rape AS A SINGLE MEASURE. Think about it. When you're sick, you do multiple things to get better. You rest. You eat healthy. You drink lots of fluids. Sometimes you go and get meds. You don't do one of these things alone, you do them together. This should be the same way. Teach them, but don't put yourself unnecessarily in harm's way. Be careful getting blackout drunk at a party, for instance. It's sad, but there are creeps out there who think that if someone's passed out, that that's consent. (And yes, I know women can rape, too. Cracked.com, of all places, had a great article on that. If you can find it, definitely give it a read.)

BUT we really aren't teaching men not to rape. We tell them it's wrong, the same way we tell kids that kicking their friend in the shins is wrong. But we don't really show them that it's wrong.

Don't believe me? I have proof. Well, I have a personal anecdote, and there's others all over the place.

My next-door neighbor is a rapist. He spent twenty years (give or take) in prison for breaking into a woman's house and assaulting her. (So there goes the 'she was asking for it' excuse people seem to like. Because, you know, she was in her own house and all.)

It gets better. Apparently there are 'levels' of sex offender. The ones that won't reoffend, the ones that might, and the ones that will. Guess which one he is?

That's right. Will. The guy has been deemed to be a danger to society. The logical thing to do would be to keep said danger locked away. Serial killers stay in jail. Spree killers stay in jail, if they don't die before they get there. Dangers to society stay away  from society.

But not this one, because-for whatever reason-rape is not serious enough to be a 'real' danger.

This guy used to try to come over when my dad wasn't home. He tried to get my mum and I to go inside his house. Crime aside, RED FLAG. What kind of ordinary person does that? I'm sure he'd have tried to come in by now, but we finally bit it and got two big dogs. The visits ceased immediately. Guess he doesn't want to be friends with the monsters. :p

Anyway. What does that tell our boys? I don't think it tells them that rape is wrong, because this guy's out. We need to show them that it's wrong, and that means keeping 'dangers to society' locked away.

That is all. Sorry for the serious topic, but it needed to happen.

-Lalla

First Look

Guess wha-at?

You guys are gonna get the first chapter of One Sunny Afternoon today. I figure if I put it here, I'll have to have it ready soon. It's a very good anti-procrastination thing. Because let me tell you, if I can find a reason to surf the internet or reorganize my room or arrange my closet by color, I will do it. (The closet thing did not work out, by the way. Half of it was black, a quarter of it was dark, and then I had a few random light colors...most of which were light grey.) The first TWO chapters will be over on Wattpad, but for those of you not there (where are you?), you can have this one. And don't forget-The Muse's free period is almost over, so get it while you can. http://www.amazon.com/Muse-Lalla-Squeglia-ebook/dp/B00MY6Q5M0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1427644476&sr=8-2&keywords=lalla+squeglia
* * *

“Hey, Fri?”

Friday Jones closed her eyes and silently cursed her parents. What kind of idiots named their child Friday? It wasn’t even a name!

“Yes, boss?”

“Will you stick this in the mail on your way home?”

“What is it?”

“The rent.”

“Sure.”

Mitchel White dropped an envelope on her desk. It was a little creased around the edges and Friday put her dictionary on top of it.

“What?”

“You didn’t notice the creases?”

He shrugged. Friday rolled her eyes and stretched. He hadn’t had a client for two days. Couldn’t she go home early? It was the weekend, after all.

“You can leave early, if you want.” Oh, he was a mind reader! “I have to meet with a client this afternoon.”

Oh, really?

“Is she pretty?”

“He is about fifty pounds overweight and unaware of something called a bath.”

That was unfortunate. Better him than her. But why didn’t she know about this? She usually knew what the person looked like, at least.

“Why all the hush-hush?”

“I wish I could tell you, Fri, but they made me promise. I’ve probably said too much as it is.”

Ah, the price she paid for being the secretary. She’d much rather type than follow people around in the rain, though. Besides, she’d never been shot at, knocked out, or attacked in an alley. She’d been kidnapped once, but that was all.

“Get receipts for everything in case he kills you.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

What? He’d hired her to type and answer the phone, not be his personal cheerleading squad.

“You’re welcome.”

“Here.” he said, tossing a check at her. “Thank you for another week of keeping the wisecracks to a minimum and keeping my files in order.”

It was payday? She’d forgotten. Well, there was another fifty dollars towards that mink coat at Spade’s.

“Thank you for remembering to pay me.”

“Don’t forget to drop that.” He tapped the dictionary. “I have to get going. See you Monday.”

“Take a bubble bath if you get stressed.”

“Men don’t take bubble baths.”

“Your loss. Bye, Mitch.”

* * *

A girl really couldn’t do better than this, Friday thought. A nice bubble bath, a glass of fine wine, and a good, trashy book. And it was the weekend! What more could she ask for?

Chocolate. She could ask for chocolate. Maybe she still had some pudding in the fridge. That would be just perfect.

The telephone rang.

Friday closed her eyes and hoped it would stop. Maybe if she ignored it, it would stop.

It kept ringing and she lowered a little further into the bubbles. She was dripping wet, for crying out loud! There was no reason for the phone to be ringing!

It finally stopped and she leaned back into her bubbles. Ahh. Bubble bath.

News

Oh, my god. This has to be the most blog posts in a row from me.

That's actually kind of sad. Or not. Is it? I don't know.

ANYWAY.

Color Blind will begin its move to Wattpad.com on April 5th. It will not be removed from Smashwords until I am finished moving it, which will take time, but yeah. Just keep that in mind.

Other Wattpad news! In honor of Alice Garden's birthday-April 20th, Layne often mocks her for having a birthday on 4/20 (such a child)-a short story will be going up over there. I have a draft of a ghost story there, too, so you go should go and check that out. I mean, free reading material.

So yeah, come over, look me up. I think I might put the Raven Family Tree up there, too-yeah, I haven't forgotten them. Their troubles are far from over. Max and Marie are back at home, but you know, there's been the strangest goings-on. Something about phantom singing? Maybe old Max is as crazy as they say...

-Lalla

More Free!

I make it rain!

Not really. I just hand out free e-books and multiple blog posts per day. Starting on April 5th, The House on the Moor will begin a free period. Now that Layne's got one, they all want one, apparently. And since Nathan's a bit...scarier...than Layne, I sure as hell am not about to tell him no. You understand, I'm sure. So yeah. April 5th. Free gothic novel. Tell your friends.

On that note, HUGE THANK YOU to the blog 'Gothic Romance Reviews' (found here: http://gothicromancereviews.blogspot.com/) for mentioning The House on the Moor back in November. Would've thanked you sooner, but I had no idea. :*) I'm touched. And by 'touched' I mean 'I started bugging all my friends and family with the news for the next several hours'. Good place to look, by the way, if that's your genre. Good taste over there.

Yeah. Free book. Soon. And don't forget to pick up The Muse while it's still free, maybe leave some love for Layne. Who knows, maybe I'll let him do a blog entry sometime soon, he'd be all about that.

-Lalla

Free Goodness

At long last, The Muse begins its free period. Make Layne happy. Grab a copy.

http://www.amazon.com/Muse-Lalla-Squeglia-ebook/dp/B00MY6Q5M0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1427383749&sr=8-2&keywords=lalla+squeglia

-Lalla

Clean Reader

In my travels on the internet, I have come across some sort of app entitled 'Clean Reader'. (Well, more accurately, somebody else found it first and I found their post, but still.)

The idea behind Clean Reader is...meh. Basically, if you download it, you can pick your setting and it'll go through changing words to suit it. So 'fuck' becomes 'fudge' (or whatever). Personally, I don't want my reading material to be censored-somehow, 'oh my fudging god!' lacks something. But that's just me.

BUT apparently they don't have to ask permission to do this to *your* book. No copyright laws are being broken because-and I quote-'all Clean Reader does is change the way the content is displayed on screen'. (FAQ section of their website.)

Oh, HELL NO.

Look. Take...let's take Color Blind, shall we? Lots of swearing. But in that book, Nancy going, 'oh, fuck you' is the least of your problems. (Between 'fuck' and 'Cole is going through heroin withdrawal'...yeah.) If you don't want to read a book with curses, then you probably don't want to read Color Blind for lots of other reasons. As such, I would appreciate an 'opt out'. I'm sorry. I would. Those words were put there for a reason. Nancy and Cole are not the Cleavers, and editing their thoughts is indeed editing the story, even if you're not actively doing something to the word document I wrote it on.

Not okay.

-Lalla

PS: TWO MORE DAYS UNTIL THE MUSE BEGINS ITS FREE PERIOD! WHOO!

Symbolism in The Muse

Seeing as The Muse will be free for a week starting on the 27th (tell your friends!), and I want to blog but can't come up with anything else, here: pointless trivia.

Once upon a time, I submitted a couple of chapters to my writing class for discussion. Hey, it was already written. Saved me the effort of writing something new. I suspect, however, that symbolism hunting is a requirement for writing teachers. Well, I suspected it then. Now I have no doubt.

There is symbolism in that book-the dog, the woods, the cave...all of those things are spoiler-y, so we won't go into what they symbolize.

BUT...

About 90% of things have no symbolism whatsoever. I just put them there because I felt like it. Layne's pink hair? Hell if I know. He's always had it. Alice's last name? (It's Garden.) I was listening to a Pearl Jam song called Garden. Seriously, there's no meaning in her name. It's just a name.

But the best one? At one point, Layne writes Alice a chocolate bar. When it appears, it's got a wrapper on it, because they're outside and who wants dirt on their chocolate bar? Seriously, I put the wrapper there for practical reasons. For whatever reason, they latched onto that as having a deeper meaning. Why that, I have no clue.

Struck me speechless, it really did. I think I stammered out something about the chocolate bar maybe landing in a puddle, but...priceless.

So trust me when I say, that sometimes a candy wrapper is just a candy wrapper.

And don't forget. 5/27. Free for a week. #yougottahavepinkhair

-Lalla

"Put Some Meat on Your Bones!"

I'll admit it. I've probably been referred to as a 'skinny bitch' behind my back. I'm little, I know. It's not my fault, my parents are small, too. I prefer fruits to hamburgers (but put a plate of bacon down and all bets are off).

So I'll put up with the above phrase from well-meaning family members. It's annoying, but it doesn't veer into 'worth family discord' territory. A quick distraction with the appetizer table and I can hide until they find someone else to bother. Strangers, on the other hand...

Seriously. I was in line at the bank yesterday, minding my own business, when some old guy gets in line behind me. But he can't just be in line, he has to chat. And today he has decided that his opinion about me is important.

'Heh-heh, you need to put some meat on those bones! Corned beef 'n cabbage or somethin'!' *invades personal space, hand reaching out to cup bony shoulder to make point* 'You ever eat?'

Luckily for him, I was rescued by the teller. (Thank you!) Really, though, what the hell? First of all, I don't go around saying, 'wow, you need to take some meat off those bones!' *pats stranger's stomach* 'you sleep-eat or somethin'?' Second of all, I have been-last week, in fact-mistaken for twelve. Which is fine, but what if he thought I was twelve? Who friggin' says that to a twelve year-old? And then tries to grab them? Creepy.

I think the next time this happens, I'll scream and starting announcing, 'Mommy told me never to talk to strangers! Bad man!' Only kidding...maybe.

-Lalla

Layne and his big mouth

Two posts in one day. It's like having two slices of cake!

Anyways, I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes...my characters can't shut up. Namely, Layne. He can't just accept that he's published and inflicting his presence on the world, oh, no. Now he wants freedom. So, in order to shut him the hell up, The Muse will be free from March 27th to March 31st. Make him happy. Go get a copy. Maybe leave a little love, he'd be all about that. (And he might quit bugging me. Save my sanity, please.)

-Lalla

Twitter

I now have a Twitter. I know. Anyway, follow me and I'll follow you. I'm nice like that.

-Lalla

https://twitter.com/LallaSqueglia

Regarding Color Blind

I know, it's been a long time. I could lie, and say I'll be better about blogging, but we both know I'd be lying. It's not because I hate you. I love you, I swear on...um...I swear on Dean Winchester's Impala. That's a good swear, right?

Anyway, remember how I said I'd be moving Color Blind off of Smashwords? That day is coming. I will not be moving to Amazon, however-I'll be moving it to Wattpad, so it'll still be free for you guys. I did mention I made a Wattpad account, right? I think I did...if I didn't, it's right here: http://www.wattpad.com/user/LallaSqueglia

So come follow me! I'm still poking around over there-I forgot I even had it about two weeks after I made it-but Color Blind will be there-I'll warn you before I wipe it off of Smashwords completely-and there's samples. And, I think, I will-one day-put little fun things regarding my other stories there as well. Family trees, deleted scenes, that sort of thing. I'm not the only weirdo that likes that sort of thing, am I?

More news on One Sunny Afternoon to come soon, still working on that. Those of you who like a good old-fashioned mystery, you're in for a treat.

-Lalla