Out of Pod Experience

From a functional point of view, that's a distinction with little difference. Many monastaries were better fortified than most castles.

Now, what's going on inside is somewhat different, but again, not so much as you'd think. Medieval Monks were notorious intriguers and often horribly corrupt. Many monastaries didn't work their own lands, but rented them to peasants, and many were every bit as bad a landlord as any noble.

Hell, even the Carmelite Sisters had fortified convents.

Edit:
Observe:
http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=fortified+monastery&safe=images&sa=X&oi=image_result_group

Yup.

Interesting, and an avenue I think I will be pursuing.

'Norte' erotic writing tends to be dominated by horrible writers. I personally know some published errotica writers, and I want to smack them every time they mention their books, because they sucked. And by 'sucked" im mean "in no way which may be described as 'pleasurable.'" Not even by the BDSM community.

There are a few which are not absolutely horrible, but if you read one Anita Blake story, you've read 'em all. And the Kushiel's Dart series quickly grows tedious. Don't get me started on Anne Rice.

I've read The Dark Tower books. Very nearly his best work, but even then he drags things out more than ought to be. Frankly, my favorite of his work is the one he wrote for his child: The Eyes of the Dragon.



There are several problems.
First, thanks to the arcane nature of copyright laws, and industry practices, if you self-publish a book, you can pretty much kiss goodbye any chance of having a major publisher look at it. Ever.
Second, it has a bad stigma in the community: Any dork who can pay a fee can get anything published, which means there is a very high noise-to-signal ratio in the self-publishing world. Thus, it gets little respect.
Third, the majority of self-publishing sites are basic scams, preying on the ego of wannabees (which feeds in to #2, above),
Last, self-publishing means forgoing the support of a professional editor - or will have to hire one out of your own pocket. Say what you will about editors, they've saved vastly more books and stories than they've doomed.

Think about Heinlein in his later years, when he had the power to steam-roll editors: He'd go off on infuriating digressions for scores of pages and expect the readers to lap up that crap like it was prime cream instead of the product of mental dysentery. Or Robert Jordan, who could never write a convincing female storyline, yet insisded on writing thousands of paragraphs on that very subject. Or Dave Eddings, or... You get my point. An author with sole creative control might produce The Count of Monte Cristo, or he might produce... The Eye of Argon. Mostly 'Argon' though, I'm afraid.

There *are* good authors, some very good authors, who self-publish and produce quality product and actually can make a living at it. Their numbers are few. So it's a dangerous, maybe suicidal, route to go for a new-but-serious author.

BTW. From George R.R. Martin's web site FAQ:

Given the realities of today's market in science fiction and fantasy, I would also suggest that any aspiring writer begin with short stories. These days, I meet far too many young writers who try to start off with a novel right off, or a trilogy, or even a nine-book series. That's like starting in at rock climbing by tackling Mt. Everest. Short stories help you learn your craft. They are a good place for you to make the mistakes that every beginning writer is going to make. And they are still the best way for a young writer to break in, since the magazines are always hungry for short SF and fantasy stories. Once you've been selling short stories for five years or so, you'll have built up a name for yourself, and editors will start asking you about that first novel.