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Forgive the pun but suitably impressed by my suit consultation today. Getting a nice light charcoal in a wool/silk blend. Gentleman took several measurements and I left feeling confident that when the suit arrives in a week or so there won't be that much "fine tuning" to do for it to fit perfectly. And the total cost is going to be less than I expected, so that's a bonus!

Found a menswear store in this town that can actually do decent tailoring (or so I've been told). Going in for a fitting on Friday after work. I need a new suit, and my body frame is too oddly proportioned to even consider just wearing a suit off the rack -- especially the jacket. Un-tailored, a suit jacket that fits my shoulders is way to baggy around my chest; and my waist (narrow) and leg length (long) is a nearly impossible size to find even in normal dress slacks. Hoping they are as good as I've been told they are. I hate shopping for clothing.

So let's dive right in and make people angry: I fucking hate most gay fiction book covers and story promo images used online. I detest them. They're shit. I see some ridiculous things, some terrible things, and some things which are generally pathetic. I have beef with people simply taking images from google and shoving them together in paint or Photoshop with no hint of care or artistry. I have issues with shit fonts which look like they were worked in wordart circa 2000. But mostly: Bollocks to stereotypes. I see it all the time. Readers and writers alike complaining that gay fiction is marginalised, that no one takes erotic writing seriously, that we're too niche for most people to care much about the craft of writing, because there's so much shit to wade through to find anything good (this site totally helps with the last of those problems). Lots of people, even those who read gay fiction, say that it's all generic, and it's just about the sex. And when you look at most of the so-call story 'art' which the authors themselves post alongside their writing, you'd be inclined to agree with them. Here's how to create the world's most artless, generic, gay fiction book cover. 1) hot, shirtless torso, usually with extreme shadowing, often without a proper face 2) second, often also topless, moody looking guy 3) jeans with an open or half open fly 4) terrible font which clashes colours, doesn't compliment, and doesn't obey physics, placement, or colour theory 5) optional image of an animal, often with "artistic" tribal or computer generated noise to make it look like a sketch Step away from Photoshop and gettyimages people, and go find yourselves someone with a level of competency in design to make art for you. And yes, you'll have to pay them. Artist's need to eat and pay rent too. If we keep perpetrating the stereotype that all gay fiction can be summed up with two anonymous shirtless hunks taken from a free image library on the web, then we can't complain when people shove us into a little pigeon hole out of the way and say we're all the same. Well, I can, and I fucking will.