Advertisements in books

At a message board I frequent, someone made mention of this topic. Other than a author listing previous works of theirs, I haven't seen an advertisement in a book, electronic or print.

If someone wanted to be clever, mentions of a certain product could be placed in a work of fiction.

John when he rose from bed, turned on the coffee so he could have several cups of Brand X coffee. When he was through eating breaking, John took his cup of Brand X coffee with him to his home office. As he sorted mail from the day before, John remembered he was almost out of Brand X coffee and would have to get more of it from the grocery store later in the day.

To me that would be pretty obvious. Just as obvious as the times I watch the television news and see a segment about a area attraction or business that isn't in any way newsworthy. Some years ago I remember Channel 12 having a segment in a news broadcast about some theme park in the area. It was obvious to me it was a commercial.

Works of fiction can contain mentions of real life businesses and products without it being an advertisement all the time. That's fine in my opinion. Character X had lunch with his girlfriend at Burger King. An author doesn't need to make up names of businesses, he should just be careful not to make the mentions of real life businesses so many that it sounds like he is promoting a product with his writing.

If a business or product is a prominent feature of a story, it should probably have a fictional name. Though there would be exceptions. If your story is Murder at the Alfredville Best Western, then I guess mentioning Best Western throughout the story is all right in light of the fact that Alfredville is a real life small town and its only hotel is a Best Western.

Tip to author's- If you're writing about a locale you've never been to yourself, use Google to search for real businesses. I do it all the time. It does make your story seem more authentic.

New ebook for sale

It is called Perpetual Pixies.

Synopsis- Tim and Chris are a couple of sci-fi and anime fans who live along with their families in Las Vegas Nevada. Their wives magically change their husbands into female science fiction characters in hope this will cause them to give up their hobby.

It is priced $2.99. Here is a link to its Amazon.com page.

Where does an author come up with a name for a character from?

I once named a minor character Cherrypie. Take the word of this author I know somebody by that name. She's a nurse.

In a incomplete story of mine, I have a very minor character named Rikki Nine. Remember the song  'Rikki don't lose that number'? A little over twenty years ago I had a co-worker named Rikki Nine.

My twisted muse is mostly for coming up with plots. As for naming characters I have several methods.

1 I use names of past acquaintances, classmates, co-workers.

2 We still have a old white pages at my house and I pull names from there.

3 Wikipedia. Categories People from Where ever. This is a strategy I use a great deal for characters who are from Asia (where many of my stories have been set) or avoiding a tendency to give my characters Anglo Saxon names.

Another thing I do sometimes is to cross apply the names I come up with. Take the names Laura Hunt and Terry Owens and make my characters Terry Hunt and Laura Owens.

I don't name characters after famous people. There have been real people in a few of my stories. Including someone who went by his nickname- Tree.

Update- I will have two new ebooks for sale at Amazon before the month ends.

Why do I write transgender fiction?

It's a good question. I am just not totally sure I have an answer.

Over 15 years ago I discovered the websites these types of stories are archived at. In 2000, I submitted my first two stories. For the ten years following that, I submitted at least one new story or story chapter.

When I started out I had a story. It's plot revolved around someone getting a gender change. Note- I only write Sci-Fi and Magic stories not ones involving cross-dressing. My serious stories, I've written a few tales that are attempts at humor, aren't about the gender change itself, but what the character does afterwards.  A person's world has been changed into something they have no experience with. How do they cope?

I'm not transgendered but I have to admit that television shows or movies that involved a sex change always interested me going back to Star Trek's 'Turnabout Intruder' and the episode of the Munsters where Eddie gets turned into a girl. Sci-Fi and magic theme plots weren't a requirement for the gender change to garner my interest. I watched the 'Medical Center' episode when it first aired that was about a surgeon (played by Robert Reed of The Brady Bunch) who was going to have gender reassignment surgery.

The interest in transgender fiction has been in me a long time. I think the reason I write TG fiction is because its a way of putting characters into a situation where they have to explore a new world. Being a woman rather than a man for the first time in a person's life  I think is such a situation.

Could I write different types of fiction? Perhaps, but at this time I haven't got any non TG fiction plots floating around in my head.  When I was in my early twenties, I tried putting a murder mystery to words but it never got past page two. I wrote a poem in the 8th grade that garnered me an A and was put up for other students to see. Maybe I'll write a mystery someday but the chances for poetry coming out of me is less likely than an August snowfall in South Florida.

New ebook for sale

It is called Best Laid Plans

Synopsis-  While out walking one night, Stan Petersen finds something that enables him to turn himself into a woman. He soon makes plans for using it on a upcoming business trip to California.

The most erotic story I've written to date is available for $2.99 at the United States Amazon website. BLP can be purchased at any of Amazon's worldwide websites.