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Short not Sweet but Good

12/31/2010

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Love and the Odor of  Red LeatheretteLove and the Odor of Red Leatherette by Barry Lowe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First off, in appreciating Barry's writing, you really need to understand the man and his times. Now 63, Barry was "out" in the days when homosexuality was illegal.

Those were the days when if you were gay you had to hide it. Sex was furtive fumblings in the fringes: seedy clubs, dark alleys, cars, toilet blocks, parks, the beats. It would have felt like them against the world; many men would have been almost suspicious of any kindness or suggestion there could be anything more.

Secondly, it's important to understand that Barry doesn't write m/m romance. He writes gay erotica and originally wrote them for men only. So included in his stories are many sexual practices that most women find it difficult to stomach. Licking up semen off dirty floors, multiple partners, sex without affection, heck in some ways the less affection there was, the more some guys liked it.

They almost felt they didn't deserve any more. Society had been bashing them over the head with the message that their attraction for another man was wrong, so if that man bashed them over the head in the process of having sex, well that was to be expected wasn't it?

"Love and the Odor of Red Leatherette" is probably one of the easiest of Barry's books to get into. In it, the character discovers to his suprise that there may be a future for men beyond the anonymous sexual gropings. That there can be tenderness and affection too. Till then he had been:
still too young, too green, to realize just how much I was being used. But it wasn’t like I wasn’t getting any pleasure out of it. I was. In buckets.
Given that Barry has been with his partner now for 38 years, if the story has any relationship to truth, then that chance hook up must have been providential.

Don't look for romance in his stories, look for the nitty gritty (and sometimes it will be gritty).Underneath the rough, tough, sarcastic exterior there is a wistful desire that things would have been, could have been different. But there is a need for survivors to chronicle the situation as it really was.

Barry writes short stories. Often deliberately so for inclusion in magazines, anthologies. There is not time for emotional or even plot arcs. He is describing a situation, an attitude, making a point.

Since the advent of ebooks and his discovery that women read m/m Barry may be tempted to change the tone of his books, soften them. In a way that would be a pity.

Instead of reviewers wishing this book could be different, read and learn what life was like. Being a homosexual in those times was anything but easy. Only the tough survived.


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Delivering a Double Interview with Heidi Cullinan

12/26/2010

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Back in April, I won “Double Blind” in a Dreamspinner Facebook chat. I sent a message of thanks to Heidi for the book, discussed some coincidences and we exchanged a few emails. I also discovered the existence of “Special Delivery” which I immediately read.  As a Christmas present to myself this year, I re-read “Special Delivery” and was reminded again what a great book it was. Judging by the number of awards it’s won as “Best Book” of 2010, I’m not alone in feeling this way. You can read my review at Goodreads and below.  I’ve also turned the discussion I had with Heidi into a Q&A and, with her permission, I’m posting it here.

HC: Hi, Alison. I’m glad you enjoyed Double Blind!

AB: What prompted you to bring in Kylie, Missy Higgins and Olivia? As an Aussie, you can imagine how stoked I was to have them in the story. But I didn’t think they were very well known in the States. Did you get any feedback in that regard?

HC: Ah, the Kylie. People keep asking me about that lately. I think it’s because she’s referenced in Special Delivery AND Double Blind. Well, I know about Kylie because my husband has always listened to her, though I’ve now outstripped him (nearly) as a fan. While she’s not generally well-known in the US, she is VERY well-known in the gay community here. When she announced her US tour here last year, the Entertainment Weekly article read, “Kylie Minogue to Start US Tour: Or, Why Your Gay Co-worker Just Screamed.” Of course, Dan and I did as well, but it didn’t work out that we could go. I think that’s why I put Kylie at the end. If I can’t go see her, at least Sam can.

Then Kylie starred in Special Delivery because it’s such a good themeing for Sam: light, fun, innocent-feeling, but very, very sexy. And I brought the Oz Triplets in because I needed something big at the end, couldn’t think of anything, and decided it was fantasy, so why not. The Missy Higgins reference is obscure, but a good friend of mine LOVES her, so it was a subtle nod to her. Also, I enjoy her as well and got to see her in a fun little local concert last year (with that same friend). As long as I was going Aussie, I figured I better stick with it, and she was one I knew would actually be possible. The ONJ (Olivia Newton John) is because my husband fell in love with her at age twelve and never fell out. He did get to see her in concert, though.

AB: Funnily enough, one of my stories, “Caught”, mentions Kylie. It involves a Chinese guy called Daniel who gets dressed in drag and refers to himself as Dannii, mentioning she is Kylie’s sister.

HC: I will say less US people know Dannii than Kylie. (An online friend waged a campaign to convert me from one sister to the other, so I know more than most.) For US audiences, tacking on Minogue after Kylie would be a good crutch. Some won’t know no matter what, but they’ll suss it out.

AB: What about Crabtree though. Will he ever find someone??????

HC: As for Crabtree--well, a friend of mine is feeding me plot bunnies

AB: Obviously Las Vegas is one of the stars of “Double Blind” it’s funny but I’ve never wanted to go there. I don’t mind card games, but the slots don’t interest me, neither does shopping. I really got a good picture of the city from the story, maybe I’ll get there one day!

HC: I actually have not been to Vegas except for a few minutes, to be honest. We blew through on a vacation last year (if you read Special Delivery, we took the same trip as Sam and Mitch except we went all the way to LA and didn’t have sex because our eight year old was along), but we got in at ten at night and were gone by noon the next day. I got up the Stratosphere tower (where I had Sam’s reaction, not Randy’s) and took a cab ride down the Strip. I did a lot of research for it, from movies to YouTube videos. Now, however, I really want to go. Except I’m like Sam and hate gambling. I can play a little poker, but I probably wouldn’t, as I hate to lose money. (Even though in theory that’s where you make it.)

At this point, I read SD for the first time and sent another email to Heidi commenting on the research that went into both books, click on "read more" to read the rest of this great, long interview.


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A Return Visit of Special Delivery

12/25/2010

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Special Delivery (Special Delivery, #1)Special Delivery by Heidi Cullinan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I won the sequel to this book in a Facebook contest. So I actually read the two books out of order. Although I knew therefore of the existence of Randy, it still didn't spoil the story for me.
I love contemporary m/m romance where the main conflict is the characters themselves. Their pasts, their personalities and their presence.
Being an Aussie, I loved the Kylie Minogue references. If I have one gripe, it's the cover. Mitch to me would have been a lot rougher looking. He's too pretty. But Sunshine.... spot on.
There was lots of sex in the book, all of it very hot but it didn't swamp the story. A great read.

* * * * *

It’s now nearly six months since I first read “Special Delivery” and wrote my review. As a special Christmas Treat I re-read the book specifically looking for what made this one of the most popular and recognised m/m romances in 2010.
For a start it has to be the character of Sam. Heidi has done a wonderful job of drawing someone who is exploring his needs. Twinks generally seem to strike a resonating chord, for example: Syd McGinley’s Charlie/Twink, Jay Lygon’s perennially youthful Sam, the God of Sex, K.A.Mitchell’s Joey from “Collision Course” and the list goes on.
It’s not easy writing a good twink. The character has to sound youthful, but not irritatingly so. The reader has to be able to see where growth can occur and some of that has to happen through the course of the story. The character has to have a lack of sophistication and amateurishness in their sexual encounters (unless the plot demands otherwise).
Matching a twink up with an older man (as they so often are) carries with it another set of baggage. One of the protagonists comes in with a past, often this impacts deeply on the course of the relationship. This difference in maturity has to be seen, but there also have to be enough grounds of commonality to ensure any future they have together is believable.
Mitch is a classic case. A man with a past he’s ashamed of. A man who’s acutely aware of how he’s fucked up any chance of happiness in prior relationships. A man in some ways unwilling to come to terms with his mistakes. On the plus side, he is more financially secure, more knowing of who he is even if he’s not entirely happy about it. A man with experience and often with the ability to read people, especially if a Dom (even if not in the full on BDSM sense of the word)
So what do twinks bring with them? For a start, it’s usually a verve for life which the other has lost. Sometimes it’s a fresh innocence, sometimes just straight out energy. Heidi’s Sam has all those things in spades.
What does the twink get back in return? A degree of certainty. Often the twink is floundering, not sure of their sexuality or the rightness of their ability to just “be” who they are. The trust they have that someone "has their back" allows their inner self to shine forth.
But what about the plot? This is very much a story about a journey. A physical one and an emotional one for both characters. As a reader, you just feel you’re in the truck, staring out the window as a whole new world rushes by, seeing it through the wide eyed gaze of a small town Mid-western boy. There's just enough description to fix you in a time and place without bogging the story down with too much detail.
It’s also a story about “home”. As far as the characters go, I’m sure if we’d been in Mitch’s head there’s no way he would have believed how a simple flirtation looking for a casual fuck would have led to his journey of reconciliation and possibly an unrecognised search for a home for himself. Unresolved issues from his past were stopping him moving forward. Once he realized what a sparking diamond he’d unwittingly collected in Sam, it must have freaked him out.
I love this understanding Sam gets of Mitch near the end:
Mitch shrugged. “I like a lot of places. We live in this huge country with so many climates, so many different cultures, so much different everything. I’ve been driving it over ten years and I haven’t seen it all, not even close. I wish I could get gigs in some of the more out of the way areas, but I don’t have networks there yet. I suppose I should just go and make them. I know I’ll die not seeing it all, but I want to do my best to try.”
It was such a Mitch answer, but Sam looked into that life with sadness, because much as he wanted to have that experience, too, he couldn’t see a way to be a part of it without being Mitch’s special delivery forever. “So nowhere is home to you, then?”
Mitch rubbed his thumb along the wheel for a second before answering. “Home isn’t a place, for me,” he said at last.
Sam’s inherent maturity brought on by dealing with the death of a much loved mother and a difficult home situation shows that despite his youth there is a degree of common sense which will grow into wisdom as he ages. I had a discussion with Heidi about why she’d made Special Delivery single POV. Her response was: I choose POV carefully: I'll only use the POV of someone who has a growth arc in the story. And to me, Mitch didn't change a whole lot. He did, but just a bit.
This is typical of older people who have become stuck in their persona and actions. Twinks don’t have as much baggage to ditch, Mitch had years of prior behaviour. I love using my imagination to make up my own inner dialogue in these characters. Imagine the fear and trepidation in Mitch against change against commitment.
And the final thing I look for in a story is the point or theme. Why write it in the first place?
This sums the story’s theme up for me:
I have to finish school. I have to—” He clenched his fists and released them. “—grow up.”
“For the record,” Mitch said, “you’re more grown up right now, I think, than I am. But I know what you mean. You gotta finish what you started.”
Sam nodded. “I don’t really want to. But I have to.”
The path Sam took to understand what he needed versus what he wanted is the story.
So whether Heidi did all this deliberately or not, she certainly ticked all the right boxes along the way.


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I'm hoping to post a Q & A I did with Heidi, Check back soon.
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Syd McGinley gets given an even dozen.

12/12/2010

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Intro: Thank you so much for taking the time to answering my questions. First off, I’d like to say how much I've enjoyed your books. You write some beautifully complicated Doms and sluttily submissive subs. Twink (Charlie) has to have become one of those characters who will be remembered by anyone who reads your stories. Not that I don’t like Dave and some of the other subs you’ve written about. Each has their own personality and needs.

 Thank you! Twink took on a real life of his own once I’d introduced him. 

1. Your other pairings intrigue me: Hugh and Ryan, Rick and the Chef, Matt and Nick. I gather these were some of your earlier works. How do you see these stories today?

Yes, they were relatively early.  I’m very fond of these guys, and I had a lot of fun with them.  They’re more like visitors to my brain than inhabitants.  They don’t pester me like the Fell characters do. I’m pleased with the stories as they work in smut, plot, and character – which is a lot for short form erotica!  I’m an old-fashioned writer in many ways.  I like plot and people -- they need to be entwined.  Plot comes from the characters and their reactions, but – love yaoi and its “no plot no point” reputation as much as I do – I still want my characters to do something and grow – even just a bit.

2. Were there aspects of their relationships you especially enjoyed exploring and may revisit?

I’m a tongue-tied person when I’m in an emotional place and, for some reason, it rarely occurs to me to just ask!  I think I’ve convinced myself that I’m not allowed to ask. Ryan, Rick, and Nick all try to figure out what they are meant to be doing.  I think I let these three boys be my guinea pigs in the emotional consequences of saying or not saying things.  Tommy in the Felliverse seems to have claimed that trait in his dealings with Dr. Tanaka. 

I’m also intrigued by hierarchy (surprise!) and like to see what happens when someone is a literal superior in the eyes of the world -- by professional or social rank --  as well as a top.  

3.  I've been doing lots of reading of the m/m BDSM scene (in fiction) in preparation for writing one of my own books. Yours seem to be more about the D/s relationship and the needs of the sub rather than the techniques and rules of S/M that others seem to explore. Does this aspect of the BDSM scene interest you the most?

Yes, I’m interested in D/s as a lived life rather than as ritual and scene.  Rituals and scenes are grand, but for me discipline has never meant rules.  That sounds contextually silly I know, but it’s the spirit of submission and obedience -- finding a place that’s true to you – not being a cog or a crushed drone.  And I really really don’t mean I see structured BDSM that way – it’s just for me the draw is not about regulation.  I’m awful at following imposed arbitrary rules – school was bad and cube jobs were hell – but I do deeply value discipline, training, craft, and so on. A ritual that calms, sure, so long as it feels true to you and not artificial.  I think rituals have real power to center and ground a person. Whatever path gets you to your own inner discipline is what is right.  Some folks like rules and techniques to get there. I’m not a formal person, or a tidy one, or impressed by ranks.  But I do like structure, method/routine, and acquired skill/expertise. 

(Click on Read More to read the rest of this great interview).

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Vancouver Nights - Hank Edwards

12/6/2010

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Vancouver NightsVancouver Nights by Hank Edwards


PWPPH = Porn with plot plus humor.
There is a lot of sex in these books, but surrounding that is a great yarn.
I enjoyed reading “Vancouver Nights” as much as I did the other two in the series. By page seven, I had done enough laughing to justify buying the book and what was even better was that the laughs continued right to the last page. Unusual in comedic books that often fizzle out half way through.
Here the sex makes a welcome break to the comedy and vice versa.
You don’t have to have read the previous two books about Charlie Heggensford to enjoy VN. In fact if you come across this one first, you can still enjoy reading them afterwards. In each book Hank has added to his great cast of characters. They come in all shapes, sizes – each an unforgettable addition to the team who work for Fluffers Inc.
Hank introduces a new character here, Ming Ho. Her intro in the first chapter in an almost slapstick routine sets the tone for the rest of the book.
To give Charlie a fresh, fertile field to play on, Hank manoeuvres him out of town and away from his work as a fluffer by having him inadvertently cause a strike in the porn industry. He is aghast to watch on the news as the porn stars:
” carried picket signs and shouted, “Hell no, we won’t blow!” as they moved gracefully within their tight bike shorts and form fitted T-shirts and tank tops. Some of the signs read “Porn Stars Are People Too,” “We Don’t Get Paid, They Don’t Get Laid,” and “Porn Stars CAN Say NO!”

Charlie has a reputation for courting disaster. If he’s not being a tad too enthusiastic in keeping a porn star hard for his next sex scene, he’s getting into all sorts of other mischief. He doesn’t go looking for trouble, trouble finds him.
He escapes the scene by travelling up to Vancouver with another great new cast member: Canyon Collingwood, the four and a half foot truck driver who gives Charlie a ride in his truck. Sex with dolls takes on a whole new meaning with him.
Throughout it all, Charlie is the same good natured country boy he was when we first met him two books ago. He puts his foot in his mouth regularly:
“It’s always good to have someone similar to you in your life. It helps me feel less abnormal.”
That of course is when he doesn’t have something more solid in there; something he can really suck on.
Hank also includes all sorts of good medical advice like when Charlie gets hives from Endora the cat:
“How ‘bout a blow job?” Brent asked, leaning in the bathroom doorframe with his beefy arms crossed over his bare, hairy chest. “Would that help clear your sinuses?”
As far as Charlie is concerned a BJ cures everything.
Inevitably, Charlie runs into the bane of his life, Cedric Wilmington:
He did not want to be anywhere near Cedric ever again, he was an evil, lying, conniving bitch who had hated him on sight. Well, maybe because Charlie had just finished sucking off Rock Harding, Cedric’s lover at the time, but that had been an honest mistake!
Poor Charlie, he’s pining for Rock and his nine inch dick, but in the meantime he’s happy to have sex with whoever takes his fancy, or should I say pants.
The story has balls of every size. Sex in every position and location. While Charlie might be your average Idaho farm boy, the guys he has very vigorous encounters with are anything but average.
In the course of the story, Charlie manages to take a nose dive into a barrel of severed hands, trip over a rotten step and end up flat on his back (a position he rarely finds himself in – too vanilla) he collides with a pole, and numerous other solid objects, get hives and has hamster shit smeared all over his face and later is covered in even worse excrement. So if even reading about animal faecal matter turns you off, just skip that bit.
There is always something new, something different around the corner you just have to keep turning the pages to see what other misadventures will befall our hapless hero including an unusual way to get drunk on champagne and escape from bound wrists in a hostage situation.
Throughout there are sentences, situations and characters to amuse. I liked this one:
“Never underestimate the power of a lesbian on a sports team.”
You just had to be there, though to really appreciate it.
This is a story where you don’t have to be beautiful to star. Yes there are hot bods, but more than that the characters have personality. They have life.
His scenes also are very vivid. I asked Hank a few questions by email and will include these in an interview on my blog.
If you’re tired of reading the same old, same old and feel in need of a laugh while being entertained by a lively plot and enough kinky sex to keep the most jaded satisfied, do yourself a favour....


View all my reviews

An Interview with Hank Edwards

AB: First off, congrats on your book “Vancouver Nights” I enjoyed reading it as much as I did the other two in the series. They make a refreshing change from a lot of the same old same old in the m/m scene. By page seven, I had done enough laughing to justify buying the book and what was good was that the laughs continued.

HE: I'm so glad Charlie made you laugh. He always gives me a good chuckle. He gets into so much mischief I have no idea how he's still alive.

AB: I loved your description of the way the woman got out of the car. A memorable entrance if there ever was one. Too often writers neglect little moments like that that can add to the uniqueness of a book. I also loved your eccentric cast of characters, especially Ming Ho.

HE: And I'm glad you enjoyed Ming ... I was concerned people would call me racist or something, but good God she just burst out of my head in this fireball of craziness. She and Billy will be getting into quite a bit of trouble, I daresay.

AB: As someone who has just discovered Corbin Fisher videos, the whole porn scene fascinates me. Were you aware how many women watch gay men’s porn? What is your reaction to that? Hopefully, I’m not as rabid as Ming is. I must admit that every time I watch them now (purely for research purposes of course), I visualize a Charlie behind the scenes just waiting to keep them ready for the next take. (Relax I know it's fiction)

HE: I have been very, very surprised by the number of women readers. When I started writing, I published in gay anthologies and gay erotic magazines like American Bear and Honcho. I never even considered women would find my fiction at all, I thought I was targeting an all male audience. Then I got a few emails from some female fans and I started to understand that women were really drawn to gay sex and LOVED to read about it! I was happily surprised, and I have to say, that's really fueled my writing.

AB: I find your writing very visual, I can picture your scenes really well, the barn scenes particularly. Do you visualize your scenes as mini movies before you write them?

HE: Thanks for saying my writing is very visual, I've always "seen" my books as I write them, like you said, "mini movies." I have a distinct setting and look to the characters in mind when I write and I'm glad those details come through. The barn was a fun scene to write, there was so much action (sexy and otherwise) and a number of fun, sassy characters to generate the drama. With Charlie I always try to have something funny and sexy happen in each chapter. He does work in the porn industry, after all, and he is a natural klutz. And thanks for the compliment about PWPAH, I think it's tough to pull that type of story off, and humor is especially tough with erotica. Here's hoping more readers will appreciate that as well.

AB: The book touched on so many different sexual variations and fetishes where does that leave you? Just how much research do you do? I know it’s fiction, but to satisfy my curiosity. Tell me, as no way could I ever get in there, do places like The Dirty Jock exist in real life? Are they really like that?

HE: The book did touch on many sexual fetishes. A friend of mine challenged me while I was writing the book by asking if Charlie would be branching out at all. I decided to introduce him to the watersports and fisting at The Dirty Jock. I have never been to a place like The Dirty Jock, but I've read about such places and I let my mind go wild and create this multi-leveled sex club where pretty much everything was acceptable.

AB: Will there be more adventures for Charlie?

HE: I am planning another book for Charlie and his friends, just have to get some time to write it. Right now I'm working on a zombie/vampire story so Charlie's on the back burner until probably June or so (fingers crossed). I've got some notes jotted down for his next adventure, and a few ideas for another 2 books after that. Who knows? Maybe he'll keep on going, as long as Lethe Press is willing to publish the books, I'd love to keep bringing Charlie back for more adventures.

AB: Thanks Hank for coming clean. Hopefully Charlie will stay clean until June...
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Out of the Box

12/5/2010

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Out of the Box: Stories for Older Men & Younger Lovers (Volume 2)Out of the Box: Stories for Older Men & Younger Lovers by Don Schecter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the second book in Don Schecter's "Stories for Older Men and Younger Lovers". A collection of tales. Yes, there is sex in some of them, but more they are explorations about what it is to be gay and as such should be of immense interest to women who write m/m romances who want to delve behind the stereotypes that are starting to populate the genre.

In some ways the subtitle is a bit of a misnomer as it suggests the stories are only relevant to the young and old. Whereas these stories are really for anyone who is interested in relationships, and who are trying to understand what it's like being a gay male.

The first story, "Doorways" is the tale of a mature age man who comes out of the closet after being married and raising a family. If you check his website, you'll see that the author has a similar background, so it would be fair to say he knows what he's talking about. Although another story carries the book's title "Out of the Box", this first story is all about what happens when a man opens "Pandora's Box" and allows his formerly suppressed feelings to escape. Confusion, excitement, almost childlike innocence as he passes through a doorway into another world. Wanting it all now.

This world is seen in all its variety in other stories. The world of bondage and discipline in "Submission" where the nature of control, lack of it and paradoxically discovering it through submission is told through the eyes of Conny (short for Mr Conlan)
“I want to submit to someone because it’s the ultimate personal abdication. Mindless obedience as a fantasy. I always have to be in control; I get deep satisfaction from controlling things.”
“Yes? Go on.”
“Well, I’m worn out; I want a vacation from my obsession, from all decision-making. My fantasy is to be controlled, totally; an abject slave. Not permitted to have a say about anything, including my bodily functions. In real life, I could never let that happen. It’s impractical as well as unsatisfying. But in my dreams…in my dreams… Tarzan keeps Bruce Wayne captive in the jungle; Superman is helpless, strapped to a nugget of Kryptonite…these childhood fantasies have never varied much since pre-puberty.”

The man he submits to, Kurt, is 5’6”, a head shorter than Conny.
It was his rounded belly, wire-rim glasses that focused bright beady eyes, and snowwhite mustache that gave him the elfin look. Also, he had exceedingly small hands and feet. Conny estimated he wore size six shoes, and their pointed tips made them appear positively dainty. No, that isn’t quite right. I’ve got it! Kurt was a living representation of the Monopoly man—he of the top hat and pin-striped trousers; the man who adorned “Get out of jail free” cards, and “Go directly to jail, Do not pass GO, Do not collect $200.” The man from whom all rewards and punishments flowed in the best selling game yet devised by man.

So the story has all the elements of BDSM but feels different as it seems more real, especially when they go to BDSM parties. Not something often explored in m/m romances where frankly the whole BDSM scene is unbelievably romantic.

In between these stories of timid steps through doorways to the full graphic BDSM there's "His Father's Advice" where a gay man, previously married but now living with his lover is questioned by his son who is worried that he must be gay because he found himself looking with appreciation at his best friend's ass while they were showering. Apart from the wisdom imparted as to how he would know whether he was gay or not, the father worried whether in some ways he should have treated him differently while he was growing up:
Is it something I did or said? Perhaps at seventeen I should be shaking his hand or punching him on the shoulder, rather than hugging and kissing him.


Then later he gives the advice that all parents need to remember:
“Sometimes it takes a long time to figure it out. It took me forty years. But I was working from the premise that you had to be one thing or another. And that’s just not true, Sam.”
Sam looked up; he was all ears. Jerry continued talking while he got Sam a glass of milk and made him a sandwich.
“There are lots of kinds of love: the love you feel for your buddy in a foxhole, or your partner—like you and Pat are to each other during a game—is as valid as the love you feel for Carolyn. So many factors are involved. At your age, you should just let your feelings roll over you and enjoy them; they’re all good. When you sort out what you want in life, you can set priorities, and then you can decide whether or not to take action. When you’re in tune with what you feel inside, you can act on it or suppress it, according to what you want to do with your life.”
“You suppressed your gay feelings when you were with Mom?”
“I only knew one way to live, the way I’d been taught. Vinecovered cottage and kids, with a loving wife. I had no one to talk to about my feelings, and I was convinced that I was the only one in the world out of step. “But nowadays, you have alternatives. Nobody wants to pigeonhole you. You can be married and straight, or gay with kids, and successful in your career all at the same time.

Without going into too much detail, other stories are entertaining while still dealing with serious issues. A Doctor's dilemna in the early days of the discovery of the seriousness of the HIV virus, "What Friends are For" deals with the desire to have children, in "Christmas Help" an onlooker on life is able for a brief moment to reach out to someone else and make a connection, "Eye of the Hunter" and the pictures that story generates of a man who can have sex without really being aware of who he was with.

All styles of people are here, the large, the small, the vain, the dying all star in their own little tale, showing the diversity of men and their encounters. The title story "Out of the Box" deals with homophobia in a long but entertaining polemic about what the world would be like if all the gay people were instantaneously whisked away.

The collection is full and varied and delivers each "lesson" in a manner where you're being enlightened without really being aware you are, but to me the story that resonated the most and made me really appreciate the skill of Don's writing was "Tate's Death". In this, the man who had been Tate's lover describes his life and their relationship. As you follow his tale, two distinct personalities come to life and gradually you become aware of a third personality who has been there all along, begging for release. Understanding would have been a better alternative, but these stories aren't romances, they're real.

I thoroughly recommend searching this book out. Like the first in the series, it is available in print or Kindle from Amazon or direct from the author at http://www.donschecter.com

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Some Do's and Don'ts about Writing

12/4/2010

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As a writer, I find reading books by successful authors in my genre a very educational experience. What makes them successful? In many cases it's the sheer volume of quick, easy reads they produce. Carol Lynne, Stormy Glenn, Kim Dare and Claire being cases in point. Often (but not always) the standard of their writing improves as they progress. Even if they don’t, people who only give their books 3 stars are still happy to buy more when they come out. So they must be doing something right, right?

During the recent “Black Friday” sales I purchased a stack of Claire Thompson’s books. I’d seen her work rating highly on a number of lists but was wary because one of the first BDSM books I read was a m/f slave book of hers, which I hated with a passion. But then again, now there aren't many m/f books I like, so that's possibly more my problem than Claire's. I hate beautiful, perfect heroines....

As I’m a fast reader, I churned through the new books pretty quickly because they are easy reads. In a way this is unfair to the author as quirks in their style of writing and “voice” become even more apparent as do repetitive phrasings, words (nether hole – shudder) and themes.

One of things I did notice about Claire's books is that too often she builds to a climax like a kiss or a fuck and then before it actually happens, wham, bam she ends the chapter. You turn the page expecting to see the event and the time has suddenly shifted forward to the next day or even the next week and you may or may not get a description of what happened as a recall. (Golden Boy and Golden Man were filled with those.) So what should have been a “show” instead becomes pretty much a “tell”.

Another problem Claire had, and one that is shared by a number of writers: a lot of her characters’ narratives are big “tells” about how they feel about something. It’s sometimes as if they’re on a therapist’s couch. In a BDSM setting this can be appropriate as a sub is supposed to explore how he feels and relate this to the Dom (Jane Davitt's "Bound and Determined" does this very well). Mind you the Dom often doesn’t get this opportunity, so maybe that’s something to ponder (Syd McGinley's Dr Fell would agree with me on that one).

This is true of many other writers not just Claire, so it got me thinking about other things I feel many writers get wrong. (So the rest of this blog is really a general rant.)

For example, is this ability many heroes have to articulate and discuss the reasons they do things realistic? In my experience, while women still retain a lot of the ancient “gatherer” mentality in which the females had to consider and evaluate every berry, mushroom and vegetable they foraged and teach others, males in general still are the “hunters” who act first often without thinking, and it is only later at the pub, when they relax with their mates and have a few beers under their belt that they have the time or the inclination to discuss and boast about why they did whatever they did. Nowadays, sportsmen exhibit the same behavioural pattern.

In my experience, outside the pub, males rarely sit down time and time again and have meaningful heart to hearts.

Another beef in books? Switching to another character’s POV and giving a complete rehash of a scene we’ve just had without it adding much new. While I don’t dislike this dual POV aspect of the same situation, we have to learn something different, because if an author has established the character properly and the reader has learnt how they tick, we should have worked out what would be going on in their head without being told based on what they say and do. It’s only when they do something unexpected or out of character this “explanation” is needed when we switch POV.

Another thing I find is that too often, to get from point A to point B in an emotional arc, the characters merely make a decision to change their ways, do it and then explain why they did it to the other character. Sometimes in just a couple of paragraphs.

Authors, please don't rush the good bits.

Next conflict. The absence of decent conflict can be a death knell. Here's a good post from Alex Voinov on the subject: Five Things Burn Notice Teaches About Writing

It’s a well established dictum that all stories require conflict. This can be externally produced, the result of internal issues in a character, differences between characters, their lifestyles, their pasts. It can even be in the form of embarrassment and frustration. The whole point of romances is seeing how characters resolve and get beyond these conflicts. Preferably this requires a character to change their way of behaving, to learn lessons, to grow.

In many books, the conflict is in the initial situation ie the setup. This is often shown in the blurb. It is how the characters resolve this which makes a book memorable and different. Too often though, the resolution is too easy. Characters don’t have to change to overcome things. Either the conflict is made to be a non issue or if they do change it just seems to be a case of “Oh, I see the error of my ways, I’m going to change” end of story.

Finally, guys have to talk like guys. Get rid of the soppy, sentimental dialogue. Man 'em up Dude.

Because I’m trying to discover their secret, I do tend to be analytical and possibly overly critical when I read now. This possibly isn’t fair to some authors, but I need to discover what it is in their writing that I don’t like to ensure I don’t fall into the same traps and what I do like serves as an inspiration and a reminder to me of what I should be striving for.

Finally, don't make your male characters TGTBT (Too Good To Be True) that's nearly as bad as females being (Too Silly To Live).

Given the popularity of some author's books though, obviously female readers like this. A lesson I have to remember.....
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    A.B.Gayle

    This is a collection of reviews I've posted at Goodreads and
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