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Butterfly Hunter revisited

10/27/2014

Butterfly Hunter by Julie Bozza
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The way I discovered this book and Julie Bozza was eerily like the protagonists discovered the butterflies. I certainly didn't go looking. After hearing about the writer through convoluted means, I trusted my instincts rather than logic and followed a cloud of 5 star ratings that barely showed up against the plethora of five star ratings that stretch from horizon to horizon of the reading world. And I'm so glad I did.

Perhaps it was the shimmer that made her story show up, the unusual cover in a trope that depends on sex to sell.

There was sex, but it was very much the fade to black variety even if they do get to second base or even third base at times.

If I have a criticism of the book it is that at a couple of points during the sex scenes there was a gap that made me skip back a page because I thought I'd flipped over one too many. Is actual penetration that hard to include? Perhaps some nitty gritty real sex might have stolen some of the light hearted feel away but then again perhaps it could have grounded the story a bit more and made it more real. A sentence or two in the different scenes would have done me.

As an Aussie, I can vouch for the setting's authenticity. The attraction of the Australian outback is not easy to see. In the heat of the day, it's hot. Bloody hot. Shirts cling to your back from the sweat. Flies try to crawl into your nose, eyes and mouth seeking moisture. Ants are literally everywhere. Probably a good reason to sleep up on top of the Land Cruiser. Sometimes it's so hot even the birds are silent. That's when the insects start making a racket. Most city dwellers see the Australian outback as a harsh place and rarely venture out there which is a pity, because it is beautiful, and in certain lights, it's magic.

The trouble is you have to be there to experience it. Julie gives us a picture of the overwhelming magnificence of the southern skies at night. But I love the time just before dawn when there is an expectant hush in the air. I've only ever experienced the same thing when a baby budgie was hatching and its parents and siblings all grew quiet (a rare state in that breed) while tiny tapping sounds could be heard as the baby bird broke through the shell. It's the same in the bush. Everything goes quiet. The wind drops, the birds are silent and then the sun pokes its head above the horizon. Later, the heat of the day sucks all the energy out of the landscape, but the early morning light caresses the bush, making it unforgettable.

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There is no lush grass, no soft colors, the ground is hard and unforgiving until you find a waterhole.

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The wattle is our national symbol, but it can take on many forms.
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As m/m writers go, Julie has come the closest so far to capturing this unique setting.

As someone whose father and sister were entomologists and actually worked for the organisations briefly mentioned, it gave me an eerie feeling of being right there.

Hunting butterflies isn't hunting Tasmanan tigers or even kangaroos. There's no guns, no villains, no drama just a gentle unfolding of the story. In fact, the analogy of their life spans, their metamorphosis into something beautiful mirrors Dave's change perfectly.

Tough macho Aussie males brought up far away from gay culture would seek the protection and company of a girl who was a mate. Uncomplicated. Unthreatening. They wouldn't even be aware they were doing it. They would assume that what they had was a normal boy/girl relationship. I found that part of the story totally believable. The girls themselves are often different. On the remote properties there aren't a lot of other girls around so being accustomed to hang out with their brothers, they tend to grow up as tomboys, being able to shoot and ride as well as the men. So Dave would be like a brother to her. Someone she is fiercely loyal to. In turn, he would feel totally comfortable with her and assume their relationship was more.

I also thought the way the author handled aboriginal culture was appropriate in the circumstances and wasn't condescending in any way. Not every Australian takes the time or has the interest in accepting that relationship to the land, but for those who do, there's this special way of looking at things. Outsiders may not "get it" or they may see it as appropriating their culture, but in fact not "getting it" and ignoring that aspect is more disrespectful.

It is probably best if you read the story when you are in the right mood for it. It certainly made a welcome change for me.

View all my reviews

Next week, I'm pleased to announce that I will be chatting to Julie Bozza about her new book, "The Thousand Smiles of Nicholas Goring" which wraps up her fabulous Butterfly Hunter series. She will also be giving away a copy to one lucky commentator.

In the meantime, you might like to catch up with the last interview I did with her. You can read it here.

And the book which will be released on Nov 1st can be
pre-ordered from Amazon by clicking here.

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Marshall Thornton : Not a Romance Writer

10/11/2014

20 Comments

Thank you so much for taking the time to let me interview you. You describe yourself as “a gay fiction writer, … a mystery writer – with or without the gay in front of it – and occasionally a gay romantic comedy writer.”

Interestingly, your writing first came to my attention through the blog you did way back in September 2011: MM Romance vs Gay Fiction . Apart from the excellent (and necessary) points you made about the importance of categorisation, I found the comments and ongoing discussion fascinating. Especially the fact that the post is still drawing comments as recently as July this year. You’ve even blogged on the subject more recently over at The Blogger Girls: I am not a Romance Writer.

It seems that every time a gay man tries to point out the difference between MM romance and gay fiction or even suggest women should read more gay fiction to help them include some realism in their stories, the argument quickly goes off track into assuming there is an underlying agenda stating that women shouldn’t write mm romance. I definitely don’t want to go down that track here, because those who want to listen will and those who don’t want to listen won’t.

I especially like your definition of romance: “In a romance novel, whatever the main character(s) central problem is, it is solved by love. In other genres, the main character(s) problem is solved by other means and love is a kind of trophy granted for solving the problem.” … in gay fiction “it very likely has to do with self-acceptance, self-awareness or an increase in self-esteem. Sometimes within a relationship and sometimes not.”

You also neatly sum up the HEA as it applies in the mystery genre: “The crime is solved… Sometimes private investigator Nick Nowak’s life ends on an up note and sometimes it ends on a down note. It really depends on what’s going on in his life. But the crime is always solved.”

Early on in the MM Romance vs Gay Fiction blog you stated: “I’m happy to have female readers, but I think my readers are looking for a window into a gay man’s world rather than an idealized gay romance. At least, the ones who like my work.” Did the continued interest in the blog and the way people reacted to it surprise you?

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MT: I am a bit surprised. Though I’m not surprised that the issue keeps coming up. I still see MM writers saying that they write gay fiction. They believe the term means anything with that includes gay or bisexual or gay-for-you male characters. But to adopt that belief you’d also have to also believe that Debbie Macomber’s “Cedar Cove” series should be categorized with Erica Jong’s “Fear of Flying” and then both lumped in with “The Hunger Games.” Everything written about heterosexual female characters does not belong on the same shelf. The same is true of books about gay men.

Unfortunately, the issue is difficult to talk about. Too often it is approached as a question of gender as in “Should straight women be writing about gay men?” There are all sorts of things wrong with that question, chief among them is that no woman who writes m/m is going to listen to anything you say after you’ve focused the issue on gender. It’s offensive, so why would they? The irony, of course, is that we’re talking about romance writers. Mainstream romance has had friction with feminism dating back to the seventies or eighties. It should not be surprising to anyone familiar with romance novels that there is occasionally friction between the gay community and MM romance.

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AB: On this topic, I found one statement you made recently intriguing because it points at the argument about difference from another angle. In your Goodreads review of Gillian Flynn’s novel, “Gone Girl”, you stated: “This is probably the most heterosexual book I’ve read in a long time. Not because I don’t read books about straight people, I do. No, this is a true battle of the sexes. And they battle in a way that queer people just don’t.” Can you elaborate on this point? What do you see as the difference between how the two types of couples battle? Or were you referring to other things?

MT: I just saw the movie this week. Flynn got to do the screenplay and I think did a great job. Being familiar with the story I was very aware of the number of times the dialogue was about the roles that men and women play for each other. Everyone in our society is subtly pressured to adopt the characteristics of not just their sex but also whatever role they’ve assumed in relationship to their gender (ie Mom, Dad, Husband, Wife). If you’re queer you are inherently unable to fulfill those social norms. Consequently, you choose amongst them. Some men choose a heightened version of masculinity (i.e. leather) while others are very effeminate. Most of us land somewhere in between.

What “Gone Girl” does really well is take a common experience and heighten it to high drama. Most of us, regardless of sexuality, know what society expects of a good husband and a good wife. It would be extraordinarily challenging to create the same experience in a gay thriller. Even if there were a solid social understanding of what a gay man should be (which I don’t think there is yet) you’d still have two people reacting to the same social pressures.

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AB: Do you feel that the fact that it is two men introduces different stresses on a relationship? For example. Each worried about losing their independence when they move in together or not having the glue of raising a family to tie them together?

MT: For me, one of the great joys of being gay has been the ability to disregard social norms. There was never a way to fit society’s expectations, so I could simply ignore them. (I’m not so sure this is as true for younger queers – I do see increasing social expectations for young gay men and women.) Over the years, I think the most successful gay couples I’ve met avoid fitting themselves into rigid roles. Those who do play roles have adapted them from the heterosexual world and so ultimately they have no real relevance to the relationship, and thereby don’t function well.

AB: Another statement you made in that blog on categorisation was: “Typically, gay men have the ability to separate love and sex. They can pursue both at the same time and in completely different directions. Typically, straight women view sex and love as intermingled.” Now that marriage and surrogacy is legal in many places, do you see gay men’s expectations on love, sex and fidelity changing over time? Is it a generational thing?

MT: I see an enormous amount of pressure in the gay community to adopt traditional (heterosexual-style) patterns. A decision was made in the US to pursue marriage rather than full equal rights (which would have included marriage, of course) by the larger queer organizations. This means that our community has been packaging itself for heterosexual consumption for more than a decade. The message to the heterosexual world has been “we’re just like you.” I wouldn’t say that it’s a completely true message—nor one that is completely false—it’s simply that individual behavior is much more nuanced. Statistically, men are more likely to cheat during marriage than women. Something like 25 percent of straight men cheat. Assuming that a similar number of gay men will cheat then you have a very high likelihood that a gay relationship will encounter infidelity along the way. Clearly, there’s a benefit to continuing the tradition of non-monogamous relationship (for some – it does not fit everyone) within the gay community.

Please note the word typically in the quote, used twice. I’ve wrangled on line with guys who feel the opposite based on their view of the world. These are broad generalizations. I don’t feel that anyone should be pressured to live in any specific way whatever their sexuality. People should be encouraged to find their authentic selves without considering social norms.

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AB: In the past, you’ve done a few fabulous interviews, so rather than re-hashing the contents, I’ll link so readers who want to read more about that topic can. For example, in your interview with EDGE, which gives a fascinating insight into the background of your Nick Nowak novels, you stated: “I have an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA and spent about a decade writing spec scripts.” Has this helped you build your plots and the descriptions of characters and sets or have you found yourself having to write differently?

MT: The education I got at UCLA was focused very much on commercial story. It was an amazing education and I loved every minute of being there (it also happens to be one of the most beautiful campuses in the world). The primary effect it has had on my fiction though has been length. We wrote a screenplay every ten weeks. Even when I write a book I write short and fast. Luckily, short books are preferred in the mystery genre so that works out. It’s very unlikely that I’ll come out with a book of more than a hundred thousand words.

AB: When you write, do you see your stories as possible movies? And are your still writing screenplays?

MT: No. I don’t. A film is told primarily in situation (visuals, dialogue, music all combine to show that situation). One situation leads to another. Creating the story. Novels are told in a character’s mental and emotional journey. The movement rests on how a character understands one situation, then the next, then the next.

I did write a screenplay last year, but it was primarily to impress a guy. I don’t have plans to write anymore at the moment.

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AB: The city of Chicago has ended up being one of the most colorful “characters” in your Boystown series. It influences the mood just as much as the action and the characters do. I gather you now live in California. Can you see yourself ever writing a series based there?

MT: I have written several books set here (“Desert Run,” “Full Release,” “My Favorite Uncle” and the beginning of “The Ghost Slept Over.”) But a series, I’m not so sure. My pantheon of favorite mystery writers Joseph Hansen, Michael Nava, John Morgan Wilson, Michael Connelly, and Sue Grafton all write mysteries set in California. I’ve probably stolen enough from them already without setting a series here.

AB: Speaking of Full Release, I gather you have the rights back to some of your earlier stories and a new version of Full Release (with new cover and my review) is available on Amazon. Are there any others in the pipeline?

MT: Yes, when my books reach the end of their contracts I’ve begun publishing new editions with some light editing. The second edition of Desert Run should be out in a few weeks.

There's another 1970 Blue Plymouth Duster available if Nick wants to replace it.

AB: That’s great news. Another great “character” of your Boystown series is Nick’s car, which started out as a Blue Plymouth, which unfortunately met a grisly end. Was the choice of car an integral part of your character’s persona?

MT: I actually owned a baby blue Duster when I was seventeen. Originally, giving that car to Nick was a way for me to connect to the period and to him. The Nova he’s given by Jimmy English was chosen primarily for its unlikeliness. It’s a terrible car for a PI. He does get a different car in Boystown 7: Bloodlines but you’ll have to wait for the make and model. When I was a teenager I thought about becoming an automotive designer. Choosing what someone drives in my books is usually a lot of fun for me.

Something like the Chevy Nova given to him by the Mob boss, Jimmy English

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AB: The apartment Nick lives in also has its own distinctive characteristics. I gather it is based on one you lived in. What else apart from the underlying theme has basis in reality?

MT: Actually, most of the apartments described have some basis in places I lived or places my friend’s live(d). The French Bakery is based on a restaurant I worked at. Some of the bars are real (and still there) and some are made up. I make up locations if I plan to do anything in them that may or may not be true. For instance, the Outfit collected protection money from gay bars as mentioned in one of the early stories – that’s true. But I wouldn’t want to imply that sort of relationship about places that still exist, some of which are still owned by the same people.

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AB: In that same review you did on “Gone Girl” you stated: “The thing I like about writing mysteries is that you can write about anything that interests you as long as you wrap it in compelling mystery plot.” The overarching world of your Boystown mysteries is the AIDS epidemic. Personally, I love that aspect of the stories as it serves as a record of the progression of the impact on the gay community.

Too often people just see the end point and forget about the different stages that people went through. I’d forgotten it was known as GRID initially. One of the things, I particularly enjoyed about Boystown 6 was the varied way the characters dealt with the issue. Some went back into the closet, some died, some were fatalistic. It must have been a horrible time to live through. Is it painful for you, personally, to write about this topic?

MT: I wouldn’t say painful, no. I would say it puts a point to pain. Writing about that period makes sense of the pain and thus relieves it. Much of the AIDS literature of the late ‘80s and ‘90s was basically a call to arms or a cry for help. It was vitally important to let as many people know what was happening as possible and the best of the books from that period serve that purpose well. Writing about AIDS now, decades later, has a very different purpose. I can write about people’s fears, their bravery, their failings, their denial. At this point in time, I think what is most interesting about the disease is the humanity of peoples’ reactions which I think is universal.

AB: Is there any other issue that interests you for future books or series, topics that you want to explore? For example, you blogged about difference recently on Goodreads. “Different does not mean unequal. I’ve had many close female friends. They think differently. They have different experiences of life. They have different choices to make. None of that makes them less than I am; or less deserving of equal rights. It just makes them different.” I particularly liked your last paragraph: “I’ve titled this blog “Why I’ll Never Be Post-Gay” because I think the identity I’ve spent a lifetime building, just as so many others have, has merit. I think the differences I see in the queer community are worth recording in my characters. It’s precisely these differences that post-gay fiction would shove aside in favor of characters who aren’t noticeably different.” Can you see yourself including these sorts of issues in your stories or even generational differences?

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MT: Yes, those attitudes do and will influence the work I choose to do in the future. But I don’t want to think too directly about it. I try to avoid writing about anything too polemic. It’s best to just let that stuff seep in without conscious thought.

AB: At another point on the categorization interview you stated: “I believe the distinction between gay fiction and m/m is vitally important….. Because readers don’t sort it out. A hardcore romance junkie gets her hands on a piece of gay fiction and she’s angry and often very vocal. She gets on Goodreads or Amazon and she bashes the book strictly on the basis that it was an m/m romance. It doesn’t help the author, it doesn’t help the publisher and it doesn’t help other readers who might not pick up on why the book is being bashed and just think it’s bad. (To be fair, this reader may have gotten a gay fiction book from an m/m publisher. These publishers are, commendably I think, putting out a small amount of gay fiction. Typically, though, they’re not distinguishing it well from their other product.)” I blogged on this subject in March this year. And later this month (October 2014) Dreamspinner is launching a new line: DSP Publications… a boutique publisher of historical, science fiction, fantasy, mystery/suspense, horror, and spiritual fiction. I gather that they are re-badging some of their current titles which don’t fit comfortably under the MM romance umbrella to start with, do you see this as a healthy trend?

MT: There are still publishers who focus on gay fiction outside of the MM world. Wisconsin Press comes to mind. Some of the majors will occasionally publish gay fiction in a small way. Kensington, Cleis (who you mention in your blog.) Within, or connected to the MM world, MLR has a strong commitment to gay fiction particularly gay mystery, Wilde City is publishing a lot of gay fiction and separating it from gay romance on their website. There’s also Riverdale Avenue, which does publish gay books but is more focused on non-fiction at the moment. There are probably more, these are just what came to mind. Dreamspinner’s decision to launch a new non-romance line corresponds to something I’ve felt for a while – and certainly experienced – a decent sized segment of MM readers are interested in gay fiction. That audience isn’t necessarily looking at the publishers I mentioned above – or sourcing their books in a more generalized way - but they will look at books brought out by Dreamspinner under a different name. So, it’s definitely a good thing.

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AB: During our pre-interview chat, you mentioned that even though you don’t write MM romance, the majority of your readers are women and, in your experience, a lot of gay males don’t read anything. Some complain that they can’t find the books and you noted your print books sell well to guys at conventions and Pride parades, can you see any way to increase your readership in this sector of the community?

MT: I wish I had a good answer to this question. I mean, I really wish I did, because then I’d be able to reach a larger audience. Despite being a finalist in the Lambda awards twice, I’ve had a lot of trouble getting any notice in what you’d call the gay press (other than Edge where they’ve been very, very nice to me). It might be that some publications take a look at where I publish and discount me because they assume I’m a romance writer, but it might also be that these publications simply won’t write about books unless its someone as well known as Armistead Maupin (who of course began when these same publications would actually write about gay writers.)

AB: You also stated in another blog about the show “Looking” that: “The gay community does a crap job of supporting its own artists, whether it’s musicians or actors or filmmakers or writers the gay community would rather trample over them on its way to supporting this year’s pop diva or some straight guy who can’t manage to keep his shirt on then support its own artists.” Does this upset you?

MT: LOL. Reading the line again I have to say, yes, clearly it upsets me. It’s there in the tone. I do understand that media outlets are supported by advertising so it’s about eyeballs. And eyeballs don’t actually have a sexuality. I suspect that, online at least, a lot of traffic on “gay” sites is outside the queer community. Additionally, I think a lot of gay-oriented websites don’t consider themselves to be in competition with each other but rather with other “entertainment” sites. All the “entertainment” sites tend to gravitate to the same stories regardless of how they brand themselves.

It is really unfortunate that there isn’t a supportive gay press. It damages our community in so many ways. But it’s probably too much to expect advertiser-based media to care about that. It may sound like I’m just speculating but a few years back I complained to what was then After Elton (and is now a kind of de-gayed site) that they no longer reviewed gay books. I was specifically told that book reviews didn’t get enough eyeballs to justify doing them. This, of course, was after the site had been purchased by a conglomerate. Eyeballs had become more important than content.

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AB: Now to skip back to your review of “Gone Girl” you also stated: “I notice a lot of people don't like the ending. That’s interesting. The ending made the book for me.” I don’t want to spoil the ending, but many critics of the story were upset that all the female characters were portrayed negatively. This is a common criticism with some reviewers immediately scoring a book down if there is a “bitch” present, yet these people exist in real life. How do you handle “unlikeable” characters or characters who are bitches or bastards?

MT: I adore evil characters. I particularly adore evil women (in stories, I don’t much like them in RL). Culturally, and I think this is still true, women are perceived as weak, harmless creatures. I think it’s pleasurable to see that (often incorrect) stereotype turned on its head.

In one of the Boystown books Nick says, “Nice people always make me want to do bad things.” I think he and I have that in common. I’ve tried to write characters who are simply “nice” and I’m bored by the end of the first chapter.

AB: I have found that some readers almost keep a score sheet on characters, feeling they have to get their comeuppance, perhaps because they lack that power in real life. How do you feel when readers dislike your characters?

MT: The best advice I can give any new writer is to write a book you really like. You’re going to have to read it over and over so if you’re not absolutely in love with it your book it will be a painful process. So, it is unpleasant when people dislike characters I like. (I do sometimes write characters I want readers to dislike.) But you can’t please everyone. Here’s one of my tricks in dealing with Goodreads. When a reader doesn’t like one of my books or one of my characters, I’ll look at what books they do like and pretty much every time I find myself looking at a list of books I either hated or would never pick up. I do often wonder why they bothered with me – which perhaps is part of why I’m very focused on genres.

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AB: In an interesting interview with author, Jon Michaelsen, you said: “the best series, whether in book form or on television, are stories in which the main character has an unsolvable internal conflict at the center of their character.” So let’s get to the nitty gritty of your award winning Boystown series, “the main character’s central conflict has to do with the desire for justice and the inability to get justice in an unjust world; in a gay mystery series this internal conflict mirrors the external conflict of our community’s fight for justice.” Sounds pretty heavy, but in fact your books are an easy read and very enjoyable with great secondary characters, and a couple of females who are definitely not bitches, although Mrs Harker has her moments. I gather we can look forward to Book 7 around April next year. Have you finished writing it? How is it going?

MT: “Boystown 7: Bloodlines” is with my editor and I should be making another pass in a few weeks. It should be out in March or April of 2015. While I’m doing the edit I’ll very likely start “Boystown 8” for which I have extensive notes already. Thank you for mentioning the women in the books. Since you brought up Mrs. Harker I’ll tell a little story about how she was written. Up to Boystown 6 she was pretty awful. When I was writing that book I had to ask myself if her shift was believable. It was at that point that I realized why she was such a bitch in the first three books she appeared in. Women of her generation had a very Freudian view of homosexuality. It was blamed on the mother. So, I realized, her refusal to accept her son was actually an attempt to not be blamed. Death and loneliness have shaken those ideas and she begins to accept her son (though he’s gone) and to not blame herself.

AB: Now let’s finish up with your comedies. I loved “Perils of Praline” and “The Ghost Slept Over” and “My Favorite Uncle” all seem to have garnered good reviews. Can we expect more books in that genre?

MT: I have three very serious projects that I’m juggling and will be starting the next Boystown book in about six months. I don’t have any comedies on the back burner but... I love writing comedy and will probably pop one out as soon as I get a couple of these other projects finished.

Thank you so much for your time and patience in answering all my questions.
You can reach Marshall through his Website, Goodreads, Twitter and Facebook

Now from exciting news. Marshall has kindly offered to award three copies of the audio version of Boystown 6: From the Ashes. I've listened to a couple of his stories while on long country drives and they are fabulous. The story really comes alive with all the different voices.

All you have to do is comment on the blog. The winners will be chosen on November 4th.

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Great gay Comedy and a superb Mystery Series

10/4/2014

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The Perils of Praline by Marshall Thornton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The 1914 film serial, “Perils of Pauline”, was a classic in its own way and so should be the “Perils of Praline” as our hero Peter aka Praline “acquires enough adventures for a tell-all autobiography. With sequels.”

First off, it’s important to understand the difference between a romance and a comedy. Comedies can have a romance in them in the same way that thrillers or action books have that element. However, romances revolve around plot and character.

The best comedies revolve around humor and social statement. The plots can be flimsy or unlikely, the characters need to be extreme or at least remarkable, otherwise the humor drags.

Perils of Praline is a great gay comedy.

The social comment is leavened by amusing action. But it’s worth noting a few examples to show how slapstick humor can work so well with pithy barbs.

Praline’s mother comes up with some gems. First off there are her Ten Commandments. Read the book to find out. As someone who lived by her own rules as to what was legal and what wasn’t. She liked “get-tough-on-crime-candidates” as they were the

“small government” types and, as such, were unlikely to give police departments enough money to actually get-tough-on-crime, leaving her business safe.

These barbs can also be comments on people’s foibles like this: “I love people who work hard. They’re great to have around – never forget to take credit for everything they do. It’s one of the ways to get ahead.” Or this classic:

“Praline, I brought you up better than that.” Said his mama. “The man has licked your asshole. The least you can do is say ‘hey.’

Mind you, Praline’s stereotypical Southern politeness gets him into lots of trouble!

The story contains quite a few trueisms: “One of the best ways to get promoted, besides sleeping with the right people, is to fail spectacularly.”

Comedies are also a great way to make a political comment: “He could pretend to be a high school pal in Hollywood before going off to a war zone (Praline decided not to be specific about which war zone because, well, to be honest he could never remember exactly which countries were currently being occupied).”

Through the eyes of our clueless hero who, in times of stress, immersed himself in thoughts about different forms of confectionary and sweets, Thornton has a go at the culture that uses television and media to form their view of the world.

Praline knew from his extensive television viewing that white people shot their spouses, white people devised confusing and illegal accounting scams, white people sent dangerous microbes through the mail, but white people did not drive around in enormous SUVs committing street crimes. They left that to the ethnicities.

Marshall is a playwright by trade, and I could imagine sitting in a theatre and laughing at lines like these. His sardonic wit and a twisted way of saying things may not appeal to readers brought up on a diet of pure m/m romance.

… he’d become a prostitute. Had (Praline) been given the luxury of considering this life-altering decision before it had actually occurred he would have declined the opportunity.

There is an endearing childlike innocence to Praline whose choice of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” as a “safe word” leads to all sorts of hilarious consequences in a BDSM scene. He may be naive, but Praline has a innate sense of what is right and wrong. Not just as expressed here:

long discussions of politically incorrect perjoratives in the middle of a blowjob weren’t exactly, well, stimulating.

However the characters around him aren’t so smart. One depressive when asked “Have you taken anything for it?” Answers

“Sure, Crack, ecstasy, LSD, methamphetamine, Special K, alcohol and marijuana. Nothing works.”

Good comedy makes statements about life, the Universe and shows like Sex and the City (not mentioned by name but clearly identified by)

By the end of each episode, they’d managed to convince themselves, and the viewers, that it was they, and not the men they slept with and tossed aside, who were the victims.

Like all good stories, Thornton’s main characters do learn from their experiences. In Praline’s case, just as well as

“…there were few times in life when it seemed important to concentrate hard, so Praline had never gotten good at it.

If you like sophisticated writing, coupled with biting humor, then I thoroughly recommend “The Perils of Praline.”

Now for the opposite end of the spectrum.
Perhaps it's strange to only review the last book of a series, as all the preceding books are just as good. However, my advice is to read them all - in order - as they give a great picture of living through this important part of gay history, from the first book to where there are only the first inklings that a common illness is killing gay men to the latest, where the consequences of this virus are being felt closer to home.

Boystown 6: From The Ashes: A Nick Nowak Mystery by Marshall Thornton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This series justs gets better and better.

You don't have to have read the previous ones to follow the plot, but the ongoing saga surrounding Nick's personal life is better appreciated if you have read them all in sequence.

I loved the way AIDS was handled in this book. In the previous ones we saw the growing awareness of it in the community.

In this one, we see the different ways gay men coped with it emotionally and physically. Some turn to religion and rejection of their former life, seeing it as penance for their sins. Others become celibate in fear of catching the disease. Others research how to have sex safely and yet others live in denial.

The characters are what makes this series stand out. Nick remains the solid core of the story, a mostly reliable narrator. Yet even he changes and grows from episode to episode as he is affected by the people he encounters and the mysteries he has to solve. Even if he doesn't want to change.

There were some memorable lines about how people had betrayed him in different ways and moments later, recognising that he has also betrayed them in a way.

The episode with Daniel was perhaps the most painful of all. I had held out hope that the lovers would one day be reconciled, but this story shows how people can and do change. You can't go back, as they say.

We didn't meet all the fabulous characters in this story, some are obviously waiting on the sidelines: Sugar Pilson, Jimmy English, Christian, but we did meet some great new ones. A parish priest who is obviously struggling with the fact he is gay. An underage boy who is very quick to offer blowjobs because he enjoys them so much.

Then finally, Mrs Harker. Bert's mother could be the stereotypical character from hell. Yet, even Nick is starting to dent her armor creating a fragile truce between two people who loved and lost the same person.

Once again, the city of Chicago provides a chilling backdrop. The seediness of certain areas. The weather.

This series offers so much and is such an easy read. I hope they are easy to write, as I'm eagerly looking forward to the next instalment.

View all my reviews

Keep tuned for an upcoming interview with Marshall where I will ask him all sorts of questions about writing, living in Chicago and whatever else I can twist his arm to reveal.

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Butterfly Hunter revisited

Marshall Thornton : Not a Romance Writer

Great gay Comedy and a superb Mystery Series

A.B.Gayle

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Butterfly Hunter revisited

Marshall Thornton : N﻿ot a Romance Writer

Great gay Comedy and a superb Mystery Series

A.B.Gayle

Archives

Categories

Marshall Thornton : Not a Romance Writer