NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: Rusty Maxwell lost the love of his life over arguments whether or not they should get married. She wanted to; he did too, but knew it wasn't allowed and feared the consequences. But the barrier for Rusty and his would-be bride wasn't that they were homosexual, or different races, or from different countries. He was living, and she was--well, not.

Maxwell, a 34-year-old insurance adjuster and part-time mystic from Long Beach, California, initially met his beloved, Salvatora de Castilliano, on a session with the Ouija board in college. He'd bought the board at a local game store a few weeks before but wasn't satisfied with most of the "people" he met on it, and was about to get rid of it in frustration when Salvatora appeared. She said she had been lurking for some while, watching him closely, and finally could not resist the temptation to talk to him. She lived in 19th century Spain, she explained, dying when she was accidentally trampled by a bull in Pamplona in 1856 at the age of twenty-seven. Soon the attraction between Maxwell and Salvatora was mutual.

"My story might sound strange but it isn't so uncommon," Maxwell explains. "With the rise of mediumship in the last few decades, living, corporeal beings have been making contact--and falling in love--with spirits for quite some time now. It may come through a Ouija board like it did with me, or automatic writing, or a seance, or even a straight-up apparition. Poets have known for years that death was no barrier to love--this is just a new spin on an ancient idea."

Just don't call them "ghosts". Advocates prefer the term "Non-Corporeals", or simply NCs.

Maxwell and approximately two-hundred other anti-corporeal love advocates are gathering this weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana--America's most haunted city according to Maxwell--to share their stories, the frustrations about the separation between living and dead, and plan advocacy strategies for politically legitimizing their preference.

"This is an idea whose time has come," Maxwell insisted. His manner of speaking is generally quiet when discussing anything else, even politics and religion--when he's not tying either subject to non-corporeal love. But when it comes time to speak of love with unfleshed entities it becomes louder, more animated, more assertive. "People all over the world are recognizing that there should be no boundaries to love between consenting adults, no matter who those adults are. We just take the idea one step farther, and insist that you don't need to still be 'in the flesh' in order to enjoy this greatest benefit of being a human being."

"We" is Corpor4real (e-mail: corpor4real at yahoo dot com), the organization Maxwell chartered amid mourning the breakup of his 10-year relationship with Salvatora. It boasts about 4,000 members nationwide; the gathering in New Orleans is its first annual meeting.

"Yet," Maxwell admits, "most of the membership is too afraid or ashamed to come forward. You can see we still have a long way to go."

Even Maxwell admits they have good reason to be cautious.

"Most religions don't speak to this sort of thing, if the spiritual significant other isn't a devil or demon or some sort," he says, "and this isn't necrophilia. But many members have reported to me that their priest, imam, and so forth either specifically forbid the relationship to continue, or tried most thoroughly to discourage it. One person got excommunicated from his church when he asked the priest's blessing for their marriage. Others left their church, temple, synagogue or so forth because their loved one wasn't able to cross the threshold, and was thus made to feel unwelcome.

"Families often don't understand either," he continues.

Invisibility is a major obstacle to family acceptance. "A corporeal S.O. has the advantage that they can just come in the house, meet the parents, have dinner. With an NC, sometimes the family can't even see the new girlfriend or boyfriend, or viewing is spotty. Or they may not be willing to have conversation with a Ouija board, or a special cassette tape, or the lights flicking on and off in Morse Code, or with the new S.O. speaking through their family member. Certainly NCs can't share dinner or a beer. They interfere with electronic images, making it problematic to watch football with the Dad. This is compounded if the family doesn't believe in 'ghosts'--then they won't see the new S.O. at all. And fuzzy white spots on Polaroid pictures won't convince the most hardcore disbelievers."

What sort of intimate relations can flesh and spirit have? Not many, Maxwell admits; his with Salvatora were comprised mostly of "tingling", "the hairs on the back of my neck standing up", and "an occasionally chilly shiver". Others have reported some success with autoerotic possession. "But," Maxwell is quick to add, his voice raising yet again, "there are so many intellectual and other rewards."

Another thorny issue, one even Maxwell is reluctant to bring up, are ghosts who died young. "This really is a point of contention within Corpor4real. The physical entity may have been under 18 at the time of death--but what if the passing over was 500 years ago? Does this mean the NC is a consenting adult or not? We've had a lot of arguments over this."

But while NC advocates have been suffering persecution, Maxwell takes it in stride. "How is this different from the way we used to punish homosexuals? Or mixed-race couples? It will take 100 years, but we will be accepted into the mainstream." He believes the New Orleans conference will be an excellent start.

Despite all the hardships, though, there are some advantages. "For one thing," Maxwell says, "you'll never have to argue with your boss about getting your spouse on your health insurance. And you don't need to fret about who will die first. Both of those things are worth a lot, if you ask me."

I was trolling Livejournal and came across links to this GalleyCat post where the question was presented as to whether literary agents would go the way of the Dodo bird in these newer, straight-to-Kindle publishing times. Let me be succinct – I do not agree that agents will become obsolete, but let’s look at the issue as a whole – and here’s where my succinctness ends, lol.

Is it possible to sell a book without an agent? YES. I know more than a few authors who sold their first book(s) while agent-less. So to those who say it’s not necessary to have an agent to get published – you’re right. I find it notable, however, that those authors I knew who sold their first book(s) while agent-less now have agents. Keeping the extra 15% to handle everything themselves wasn't worth it to them, even though they’d been on both sides of the agent fence. Some authors do want to handle everything themselves and will sacrifice a lot of their time to do so. More power to them, I say. The vast majority of authors, though, prefer to have someone else handle all the various different aspects of publishing that have nothing to do with writing (which is what I want to concentrate most of my work day on, personally).

Some of the comments in the GalleyCat post about agents becoming obsolete went like this (paraphrased): "Agents should be obsolete! I have an agent, but she doesn't return my phone calls, emails, or even remember me most of the time!" To that, I say the problem isn't with the agent profession as a whole, but rather between those authors and their individual agents.

Sometimes, writers will be hesitant to express their needs to their agent for fear of coming across as "pushy". This is a mistake. No single agenting style will be compatible for every writer - and just like in relationships, you don't always know what you need until you're in that relationship. Some writers only want their agents to negotiate contracts and that's it. Other writers want their agent to be active in their career far beyond just negotiating new contracts (I’m in that boat). Put together an agent/author with incompatible styles/needs and you end up with a scenario where unhappiness abounds.

In cases where an author is unhappy, a frank discussion about expectations needs to be held ASAP. If an author never expresses their unhappiness, the agent never has a chance to correct it. If, however, an author is clear about their needs/expectations and the agent still fails to meet them...then the author's choices are either to change their expectations to match that agent's style, or to leave. Neither of those choices are easy (or fun), but doing nothing while expecting things to change is a one-way trip to Frustration Land. Bottom line is that an author pays an agent for their services. If the author's miserable with those services and the agent is unwilling to change, then the author who stays anyway is actually paying someone to make them miserable (doesn’t sound very logical, does it? ;).

Granted, if the services an author wants fall more under the BFF category than a professional one, getting a new agent won’t fix that. If, for example, an author is frustrated that her agent isn't calling her back after she left a message telling said agent about the fight she had with her husband, or the cute thing her puppy just did...the issue isn't with the agent. It’s with the author’s misunderstanding of a business relationship. If an author is frequently calling/emailing/texting their agent about things that have nothing to do with his/her writing career, it’s no wonder the agent is perpetually unavailable.

If an author’s needs are business related and yet they’re still not being met, then it’s probably time for a change. It's not unusual for an author to change agents, either. I parted ways with my first agent last year. Now I'm with an agent whose style is compatible with my needs, which means I think she’s worth every cent of her 15% commission. Being unhappy with one agent doesn’t mean the entire industry is flawed. It means not every agent will be a good fit for every author, so it might be time to find an agent who is.

Agent necessity also depends on a writer's goals. If a writer just wants to be published, no preference regarding print or electronic format, distribution, advances, etc, then that writer probably has the same chance of success without an agent. If a writer is seeking to sell their book for a standard print advance (usually around 5K for a first book), or to sell to a publishing house that will distribute their book to stores nationwide, then an agent is frequently necessary. Most of the big, traditional NY publishing houses don't accept unagented manuscript submissions, so no agent = no chance to get published by them.

Yes, the digital world is growing and will open up more chances for writers, but again, goals matter in deciding which route to take. Writing full time was a goal of mine when I started out, so I went with the avenue I felt would best help me meet that goal (nothing is certain, of course, and goals don’t mean guarantees). I turned down an electronic pub offer and a small-press offer on my first novel to slog it out through the Query Trenches looking for an agent instead, all so I could go the traditional, NY-print-publisher route. It took much longer and was much harder, but it turned out I’d guessed correctly about that being the right avenue for me to achieve my full-time writing goal.

I’ll explain: all my books are sold in Kindle and just about every other electronic format, too. But when I get my royalty statements, my electronic sales combined account for only about 6-7% of my writing income (at triple the royalty rate I get for print books, no less!), and that’s only recently. When I was first published and no one had heard of me, my total electronic sales only accounted for about 2-3% of my writing income. I’m also not counting any foreign rights money in these stats, or the percentage of money received from e-book sales compared to money received from US and foreign-right print sales would be even smaller. Based on those percentages, even the highest ones, if I'd skipped the traditional agent/publisher route and went the digital one, I’d still be working a day job instead of writing full time – and even a crappy day writing is better than a good day at my old job :). Plus, if I still had to work full time, I wouldn't be able to write as many books. There are only so many hours in the day, after all.

In summary, I believe agents play a vital role in publishing and will continue to do so, even in this brave new digital era. The fact that the vast majority of published authors are agented - even mega-successful authors who could scribble a book idea on a napkin and still have editors throw money at them for it – seems to illustrate the point that an agent's value lies in more than making a sale or reading contracts.

Then there’s only one place you should be tonight…

I’ll be emceeing the event and mingling and sucking up 15th Ave. Coffee and Tea’s FREE wifi like a hooker on a dick.

If you don’t come, how can we make love?

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Also. It’s been a good 30 days for gifts.  Let’s peruse the shelf shall we?

Rachel from Bitten By Books sent this sweet ass stein as an award for winning World’s Funniest Paranormal Author in their yearly poll.  It was really excited to just be nominated, but it was way MORE exciting to win!!! So suck it!!!

In fact, so excited was I that I did a little thank you vlog for Rachel which you can see over there.

Or just click on this little youtube shiz right here…

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Also, a couple of weeks ago, I attended an old friend’s (well she’s not old, in the sense the neither am I) book club meeting and talked to the chicas about all sorts of foul sex acts, read them a story and got photographed in an expression that I can only describe as goggling. Awesome picture of the gin and tonic (w/dry ice) I was slurping up, though (make sure to click on the photo to hit up the photographer’s website).

As a present for attending, Connie (said friend) got me this awesome zombie painting…

Anyways. That’s all I got.

Back to work before I head out for the gig in Seattle!

Ciao!

Originally published at Mark Henry. You can comment here or there.

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Michelle Rafferty, Publicity Assistant

Jancis Robison, wine connoisseur and editor of  The Oxford Companion to Wine, Third Edition, recently revealed the drawbacks of South Africa’s stringent wine standards: because South African wine law mandates that 100 % of the grapes must be grown in the appellation (geographic location) specified on the bottle, consumers usually have no idea exactly where their wine is from. According to Robinson this is a shame given that there are more than 80 appellations in South African wine country; terroir clearly shapes how a wine tastes and this law precludes wine drinkers from learning anything about “the Cape’s wonderfully varied geography.” But on the plus side, the average quality of wine being exported from South Africa has improved immensely.

In continuation of our “Place of the Year” celebration, I offer you some quick facts on the growing South African wine industry from The Oxford Companion to Wine, Third Edition. After successfully gleaning two or three talking points for your next tasting or wine/cheese mashup, be sure to check out other “Place of the Year” contributions here.

Beginner
You have a case of “Two Buck Chuck” in your kitchen. Wine falls in two categories: white and red.

• South Africa has only 1.5% of the world’s vineyards, but it is one of the world’s top ten wine producers.
• The winelands are widely dispersed throughout the Western and Northern Cape, some 700km/420 miles from north to south and 500 km across, strung between the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
• Just as Europe and America people are drinking less, but better, South Africa has shifted away from a beer-and-spirit-only consumption pattern. This coupled with a tenfold increase in exports between 1993 and 2003 has shifted the focus to quality not quantity for South African vine-growers.

Intermediate
You have been a member of the Wall Street Journal wine club (WSJwine) for over a year now. When out for drinks you are confident in returning a glass to the bar because “it has turned.”

• The father of the South African wine industry was 33-year-old-Dutch surgeon Jan van Riebeeck, sent to establish a market garden to reduce the risks of scurvy on the long sea passage between Europe and the Indies. In 1652, seven years after sailing into Table Bay, he recorded: ‘Today, praise be to God, wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes.’
• The Benguela current from Antarctica makes the Cape cooler than its altitude may suggest, which means many new vineyard areas south towards Agulhas as well as on the west coast offer the prospect of a long, slow ripening seasoning.
• White varieties constitute by far the majority of Cape vineyeards. Chenin Blanc, known sometimes as Steen, has for long been the dominant grape variety in South Africa.

Advanced
“Education and Work” on your Facebook profile includes “seasoned viticulturist.” If you are a devout Catholic you steer clear of the chalice—even on religious holidays. And you have this commited to memory.

• Controlled malolactic fermentation, reduced dependence on flavour-stripping filtration and stabilization processes, as well as new canopy management strategies and increasing vine densities have all played a role in the increase of wine quality.
• The definition of ‘dry’ in relation to South African wines sold on the domestic market has recently been changed: the maximum residual sugar content is now 5 g/l rather than 4 g/l/.
• Pinotage, the Cape’s own crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut, is becoming increasingly popular and was the single most planted new red vine variety in 1996 (Chardonnay was the white) although it still represented only 6.7 per cent of the nation’s vines in 2004.