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Another Great Book by John Wiltshire

8/30/2016

1 Comment

 
The Buckland-in-the-Vale and Sandstone Tor Gay Book Club (Inaugural Meeting)The Buckland-in-the-Vale and Sandstone Tor Gay Book Club by John Wiltshire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

After a reread and loving it even more, I feel more comfortable sharing in more detail why I like this so much. I don't usually reveal plot in my reviews but will in this case, so beware. Many spoilers ahead.

The book starts off with the luridly, lycra-clad and openly gay school teacher, Rory, seeing a sign inviting people to the inaugural meeting of a gay book club.

Seeing he thought he was the only gay man in a quiet, country village on Dartmoor, he's overjoyed at the opportunity to meet other gay men. Not in a bar, where hooking up for sex is the major preoccupation, but discussing books! Because literature and books are Rory's passion.

It's not until the next chapter that we discover that it is actually a club devoted to reading gay books.

Thus we meet Gertrude who becomes another of John's classic characters, on par with Miles Toogood's grandmother and Babushka from his More Heat than the Sun series. All are fiercely independent elderly ladies who are much loved and respected by the main protagonists and their “adopted” children.

Gert, we discover much later, is single because she didn't know Adam's father, Brian, was himself gay. Back in those days they never mentioned or even envisaged such a thing. Men were “confirmed bachelors”.
“Perhaps I wouldn’t have wasted the best years of my life chasing you if they had. I’d have realised why you ran so fast.”
Brian stared at her for a long time but only replied calmly, “Perhaps I’d have known why I was running.”
So when she comes across some steamy gay novels while on holidays, she's fascinated and decides they're just the thing to brighten the lives of the “old dears” back home. From the titles, “Hard Ride” and “Deep Tunnel” we can assume the books are probably erotica or porn of the James Lear variety.
”Was it possible she had discovered something entirely new? Was she the only woman in the world who had read such a book and...Gertrude was thrown, which was a new occurrence for her. She'd been pretty sure of things for most of her eighty years. She wasn't convinced she liked this sensation of standing on the edge of something so tantalising and far beyond her expectations.
Gert and her companion, Ivy, have referred to themselves and their friends as the old dears for over forty years. According to the dedication these characters are inspired by women in a real book club who are friends (and possibly relatives) of the author. Mostly widows or spinsters, the old dears are asset rich, thanks to the growing value of their properties, but dirt poor. We discover later that one cannot afford to keep buying hearing aids and another uses an old push bike for balance instead of a walking frame.

It's through Gert's eyes that we meet the rest of the group: Constance, Jane, Ivy, Mary, Myrtle, Hilary and Thea. Each is a fabulous character in their own right. Whose strengths and weaknesses are well known to Gert as she has known them for so long.

Gert is an integral part of the story. She admits to herself that
she would not have wanted anyone to interfere with her unrequited courtship. Her time on Earth, with all its petty frustrations, had worked out for her as it had been ordained. It was wrong to interfere in other people’s affairs. Which was why she and the old dears were treading so carefully with Adam and Rory.
however, she is also very aware of the march of time.
Things seemed to be closing in on her, time running out, and she felt a frustrating imperative about opportunities slipping away. If only these young men, still in their twenties, could see how short life was, how few opportunities anyone had to simply live each day to the full.
Using devious tactics, one borrowed from Sun Tzu's “The Art of War” she does what she can to encourage a relationship between the two gay men who unexpectedly join their meeting. Because
Rory and Adam were the embodiment of gay book romance. They had the main necessary ingredient after all:mutual initial apathy
Mind you, this antipathy is not exclusive to gay romances. Think Elizabeth and Darcy in “Pride and Prejudice”!

So, after an unfortunate start, she even sets up a sub group, with just the old dears called the Adam and Rory RPS Club (Real person slash for the uninitiated).

I loved that Adam and Rory were accepted so unequivocally. There was no resentment at these two men turning up. They were welcomed with open arms because, after all, don't gay men have a right to be part of a club that discusses books about them?
Gertrude had not expected her book club to do much more than pass a few winter's evenings for her ladies in pleasant company, sharing a newfound delight in theoretical men and their intriguing love lives. She'd had no idea that two characters would literally walk off the pages and come to her first meeting. Todd and Brad and Danny and Jimmy and all of her favourites mixed up and even prettier, yet solid and in the flesh, and she had literally bumped into them as they'd hovered in the doorway like the helpess creatures they were.
From then on, seating arrangements, cups of tea and biscuits were skilfully brought in to achieve certain results. Because
Oh, what delicate, shy, creations they were, men, when you got beneath the leather and the strut. She'd actually smelt the fear.
What hope did Adam and Rory have?

Rory, “the very pretty one” identifies strongly with Hugh Dancy and Grigg, the character he played in the film The Jane Austen Book Club. Rory loves books with a passion and longs for a bookworthy romance. He wants his Heathcliff (Wuthering Heigts), his Gabriel Oak (Far from the Madding Crowd) ”whenever you look up there I shall be—and whenever I look up, there will be you.” He knows that life is not like a romance book, but he fervently wishes it was.

For years, he'd dreamed of being a teacher and sharing his love of books with children. However, he is quickly becoming disillusioned with his career.
Teaching English to Year Ten wasn’t fun. Not difficult, merely…lacklustre. The Department for Education had apparently decided anything intellectual and actually related to an education in English literature was too fraught with cultural elitism to attempt. The set book this year, consequently, was a gang-related graphic novel. Year Ten enjoyed colouring in the pictures though.
Added to this is his inability to understand or cope with another teacher, Lexi.

While the book is very funny in places, I didn't laugh at Lexi, and I don't think the reader is meant to. I've decided I must still be stuck in the second tier of feminism as described in this article. I also think that you can stand up for your rights without impugning those of others or being downright hostile to the opposite gender. My attitude is always that no one has the right to be rude. Old, young, male, female, fat, skinny, rich or poor. So when Lexi said things like this:
Rory nodded and debated volunteering to carry her heavy book bag for her. Sometimes she accepted these offers gracefully, but sometimes he got a lecture on insidious male benevolent sexism, and she would accuse him of thinking of her as incompetent or needing his protection.
and from her partner, Susan
he was nothing more than a biological accident. When his stunned expression had been mistaken for defiance, Susan had added that in her opinion he was a walking, talking deficiency disease. Lexi had saved him by explaining he was gay.
Yet, knowing he was gay, Lexi still shamed him into handing out pamphlets entitled “Our Culture Perpetuates Violence Against Women” and “Male Violence on the Increase” while during Rape Culture awareness Day at the school he had to stand under a banner proclaiming “Violent-Masculinity and Victim Blaming”. Her style of rabid feminism is not shared by all females, as evidenced in this article

Her rudeness extended to belittlement of him for daring to be skinny.
She was particularly vocal about thin privilege (#thinprivilege), which she accused him of daily, citing many examples of how he shamed those who were obviously equally fit and healthy but nevertheless discriminated against in the workplace by virtue of being fortunate enough to be fat.
and
she commented on his cycling shorts. They were oppressive apparently, and it was thoughtless of him to parade around in them, given they only made such attire for skinny people.
It's interesting comparing her to his treatment of Peyton and Miles in More Heat than the Sun series. Both characters are overweight, but neither use this as an excuse for anything and neither are ever rude.

Lexi, on first meeting Adam, the other MC, immediately launches into an aggressive diatribe on the way women should be able to serve on the front lines in the army regardless of the fact that they do not share a male's physical capabilities. According to her, the rules should be changed to suit them. She doesn't get Adam's sarcasm in wondering whether the rules of engagement will also change to match it.

Ah, Adam. If ever there was an anti hero it's him. He starts out by insulting Rory when they first meet, inadvertantly punches him at the first book club meeting and then, at every opportunity tries to prove to him that getting involved in a relationship with him would be a BAD IDEA. He doesn't do romantic, He isn't nice. He's only interested in sex. And Rory should look elsewhere.

Yet despite all this, we keep seeing signs that this is all surface bluster. Underneath he's yearning for a connection as much as Rory is. Gert sees through his bluster immediately, because she knows about his tragic past. She doesn't know the full extent of the tragedies however and the self blame he is heaping on himself.

Adam left the army because of this tragic incident and is deliberately rejecting all the things that reminds him of his time there. After years of inspection and maintaining rigorous standards, he deliberately doesn't clean the house and takes no care in his appearance. But he's finding it difficult
Step by step, he’d decoupled himself from the army and all it had meant to him. A conscious survival mechanism to turn from something he could no longer have to something he needed to become: squalor in the house, foulness of mood, existing on anger and self-pity.
...But it was so hard to let go, to be so much less than he had once been. To be so diminished.
He likes to think he's a bad ass and then does things like this:
Unwilling to disturb his father by dragging three very reluctant collies back out to the yard, he gave them each a pat and tickle of rebuke then left them to it.
and he takes an instant liking to Charles, the frail husband of one of the old dears whose acting abilities are called into play one day
He lifted the old man, making a small joke about them having to stop meeting like this and tucked him in securely.
and it's not just the males he helps. When he comes across Fat Sam, the pet he had left behind
Adam put his hands on either side of the old dog’s face and felt an emotion so overwhelming he thought he might cry. He covered by gently play wrestling the silky ears.
But Rory is incensed that Adam left Fat Sam behind when he left Sandhurst. In fact, he discovers that
Being with Adam was like rolling in barbed wire—extremely uncomfortable yet increasingly entangling. Struggle for your life, or stay still and twist in the wind, either way there seemed no escape.
Because, even though they both know it will probably end in tears (for different reasons) they're drawn to one another. True humor occurs when Gert and the old dears try to help but often end up hindering their inevitable coming together.

But the old dears stick with both the book club and their efforts to get the two together. Rory suggests different books for their reading and they indulge him by agreeing. First off, Brokeback Mountain (which they found too short and wanted a happy ending) then a fictitious series which they loved, starring a librarian, Andrew French, and a homophobic detective called Jack (obviously based on Josh Lanyon's Adrien English!).

Adam, obviously uncomfortable at the similarities between him and Jake had been scathing of the series and after Adam's inexcusable behaviour at Sandhurst, Rory also rejects the series as "silly and unrealistic" and suggests instead they read The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren as the ending was much more realistic.
The (old dears were) willing to take his recommendations, of course, and lovely Andrew and amusing Jack were therefore put to one side.
But death intervened and securing their future became paramount.

How this was achieved was probably more for literary suspense than fulfilling a feminist agenda, but it had the added benefit of leaving them with cash for possible future health issues rather than once again being asset rich and cash poor.

There's no doubt that Adam and Rory wouldn't have got together without the intervention of the old dears, but I loved the way there was no intrusive or insensitive manipulation. If any happened, it was inadvertant and forgiven because Adam and Rory knew they meant well and wanted only the best for them. Everything was done through understanding of what makes people tick. Of seeing what was unsaid as well as what was said. Of treating people with respect for what they did rather than what they demanded. And if Adam or Rory fucked up and acted badly, then they tried to discover why.

The writing is a delight as usual. Sometimes his books need to be read twice to ensure you haven't missed things. This time, although there's a trademark John Wiltshire dog, it's really the old dears who steal the book. Especially as they espouse that great British tradition of self deprecation and the ability to laugh at their problems.

More importantly, the financial security and support of Adam and Rory as a team, has left the old dears in a position to add another type of distraction to fill their days. The Buckland-in-the-Vale and Sandstone Tor Murder-Mystery Club

I'm really looking forward to reading that.

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Have a Little Faith in the Author

6/21/2016

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Have A Little Faith In MeHave A Little Faith In Me by Brad Vance
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Words of love, so soft and tender, won't win a girl's heart anymore.
If you love her, then you must send her
Somewhere where she's never been before."

John Phillips, The Mamas & the Papas

It's appropriate to start this review with lyrics, because this is a story about music and the words are kinda appropriate.

I've been a fan of Brad's writing for years. Each book has been different. From raunchy BDSM erotica to realistic gritty historicals to jock sports romance. There's been animals, disabilities, kidnappings, Greek islands, so when I heard he was writing about rockstars. I figured it was just Brad trying something different.

Now I love music, but I'm not a big fan of the sub genre, so I didn't rush out to buy it when it was first released. But I decided to give it a go when it finally escaped from the KU jail.

For a couple of chapters, I was afraid I was going to get yet another "Rockstar Romance" with its predictable bad boys. My fears were compounded when I started ticking off all the cliches: rock concert, pushy manager, hair, tatts, posturing, the vibes, the ego, the angst, the melodrama.

Then it changed.

And Brad Vance led me down a path "I've never been before."

Like Rocky, his gutsy Rockstar hero, "Have a Little Faith" breaks a lot of the unwritten MM romance rules. For starters, God and religion play a major role. The harsh reality of being gay is explored. He absolutely shatters the one which insists as many scenes as possible should involve the two MCs interacting as they explore their growing relationship. Then there are the ones about backstory that I often espouse: split it up, spread it out, have it revealed at relevant points and avoid the dreaded flashback!

It's almost funny reading reviews which complain about each of these rules being broken. Because, for me, the book works well precisely for that reason. And it works because Brad, as a talented author, knows those rules, questions them and then breaks them.

In this book, who the characters are and why they are like they are IS the story.

The fact that they get together at the end is made so much more believable because we've seen who they are. What went into their formation. Yet also why they are so right for each other. Why Rocky, the strong defiant survivor, a man who is prepared to take on the world would be interested in a closeted homophobic jock, no matter how hot he is. Why they need each other. What each can bring to the relationship. Why it will work. Why insta lust but avowed hatred can turn to love.

Rather than describe how this happens, I'll let the author take us into the mind of the Preacher's Son who was raised to believe sodomy was a sin before he even knew the meaning of the word.
But as he started to think for himself, he realized that the:
....whole system is all about sinning. You can have the sin, as long as you’re punished. The system needs you to sin, so that it can continually re-exert control over you through the punishment, so they can point to you and say to the others, ‘let that be a lesson!
And later
....you can’t be tempted to sin if you don’t watch TV, or go to the movies, or listen to the radio, because they were all about sex, sex, sex. The Reverend rarely talked about other kinds of temptation. He never admonished any of his significantly obese parishioners to resist the urge to overeat, never admonished his business-owning parishioners not to cheat on their taxes. No, it was sex that was the Reverend’s preoccupation.
And when the Christian lobby grew more political
If you didn’t use negative words in your speech, the enemy was defanged – they couldn’t run a pull quote displaying your ignorance and hatred if all the words were about love, and defense, and “building strong families.”
....You didn’t have to say that the gays wanted to destroy marriage, if you said you were “defending marriage, protecting marriage.” You didn’t have to say that gay people couldn’t marry because gay sex was a sin and sin put you outside God’s love; you just said that “marriage is about love, the love between a man and a woman,” and everyone knew what you meant. You didn’t have to say that gay people were unfit parents when instead you could say that “a child needs a mother and a father.
Note, these quotes are scattered through the book (just like backstory usually is) but I'm pulling them together as they so accurately reflect the thought patterns of a sector of society which continues to have a huge impact.

And it wasn't just about gay people. It was anyone who was different.
There were plenty of people around him who were racist. Miss June was always talking about the “damn niggers,” but she’d be immediately told by the other old ladies to keep her voice down –it wasn’t thinking it, but saying it, that was wrong. “They can’t help it if they were born that way” was about the kindest thing the other old birds had to say on the subject.
....Like the secret codes used to denounce the gays, cloaked in positivity, everyone (white) said that “it wasn’t segregation, just that everyone would just be happier and better off, keeping with their own people.”
But Rocky is sensitive enough to question and is brave enough to embrace the truth when he realizes he is one of "them".
Nobody’s immune to the culture around them. It soaks into you in ways you can’t even see, even as you declare yourself free of it.
And once he escapes those restrictions,
It was freeing to Rocky, to think this way. Everything in his life had been so regimented, the idea that these things could just be “random,” just…happen impromptu, startled him.
But the process took time. There were stages to go through. A rite of passage lined with thorns.
No more gods on posters, no more gods on screens, the ones who had taken the place of the invisible God he’d been raised to worship, the God in whom he’d lost his faith long ago. Now, finally, he had a flesh and blood god he could touch. And worship, with his own flesh.
He saw so many pictures of “hot” guys, shirtless, with great bodies and decent-enough features, but in most of those faces, there was just no heat there. They stood and posed and to Rocky, they were like empty vessels. So lacking in that extra something that they just sucked the air out of the scene.
Obviously, Rocky is not just another HAWT rock star! So how does a man like this end up with Dex?

I'll leave you to find out, because you really need to know who Dex is, to understand that.

After I finished, I went back to the blogs Brad wrote around that time.

Take character's backstory for example. This blog he wrote back in July 2014 sum up why he wrote the book this way: https://bradvanceauthor.com/2014/07/0...

There's lots of good stuff there, but this quote stood out.

But for me, if you just say (and you’ve heard this pet peeve before), “Here’s Rocky the Rock Star and he Really Rocks, here’s some sex,” then why should I care if he falls in love or not? If characters are nothing more than the same paper dolls with different outfits (rock star, soldier, barbarian, billionaire, vampire, collect ’em all)…who cares?

And I suppose, I think, I guess, that a lot of readers have their own ideas of “the rock star” or “the billionaire,” and are only looking for the paper doll, they don’t want an author to get between them and their idea of what a hot rock star is like. I don’t get that. I like, no, I want, need, to surrender to an author, I want that author to create a real person who I want to spend time with.


And "surrendering to an author, means being willing to trust them. Why? Because he respects the intelligence and sensitivity of his fans. He loves us and that's why he's interested in leading us into places we've never been before.

Perhaps by veering so far from the norm, it can't be classified as a true romance. But it makes an interesting read. Different from the norm. You end up caring deeply for both characters. They are influenced by and the products of their environment, but it doesn't change who they are underneath. The fighter and the protector.

So if you're brave enough to take that journey. Do.

And when you've finished, if, like me, you're interested in the creative process. Here's links to some other blog posts about the book which was originally envisioned as a series of sexy traditional rockstar genre shorts to make him heaps of money. This one may not have achieved the same reward, but it is a great depiction of men who have had to overcome the adversity surrounding their upbringing. A much more memorable and rewarding journey.

https://bradvanceauthor.com/2014/08/3...
https://bradvanceauthor.com/2014/09/2...
https://bradvanceauthor.com/2014/09/0...
https://bradvanceauthor.com/2014/10/2...
https://bradvanceauthor.com/2015/01/2...


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His Fateful Heap of Days

4/13/2016

6 Comments

 
Nikolas was running scared, and the enemy was relentless
Picture
Ben kissed deeply into his neck at the same time as he tipped over the edge into sleep, and Nikolas plunged after him, unwilling, even in this, to be left alone and in a conscious world where Ben wasn’t present.

What a great quote to demonstrate two lovers generating more heat than the sun.

And what a great series it has been. Certainly the best I’ve ever encountered, both in this genre and outside it. An epic adventure right from the first chapter. Nail biting action, gut wrenching excitement, unforgettable characters, and an all encompassing love.

At no stage was I bored and, if at times I wondered where on earth the plot or the emotional arc was going, I felt confident that the author’s story telling skills and character depiction would rise to the occasion. There were stacks of surprises, none more so than in the first few books where revelations shook not only the readers’ minds but the minds of the characters as well.

We laughed and we cried along with Ben and Nik as they progressed on their journey. The lack of emotional attachment that some readers found disturbing in the start gradually gave way until, in this book, Nik finally acknowledges that he doesn’t only love Ben, he is “in love” with him. But this isn’t shown with wine and roses, it’s done in typical Nik fashion

“I do not like being so much in love, Benjamin, and I blame you entirely.”


The most disturbing aspect of the book were the two words “The End”. Before this, each one finished with “To be continued" and the title of the next book. I gather that the author was always a couple of books ahead when each was published. But as yet, there is no Book 9.

Good news or bad?

Good, in one way, because some readers won’t even start a series until they know they’re complete. There’s nothing worse than unfinished story lines or unresolved issues between the characters. Or, worse still, they go on too long until they “Jump the Shark" or just dwindle into nothingness.

If this is the final book in the series, it’s a fitting one. There’s lots of closure on many fronts, and right up to the end there is nail biting action and possibly the most horrific of all scenes to date.

But what of Book 8?

In tone, it’s quite mundane. No exotic locations. We’re not even sure for ages if there is an arch villain or a threat to them or their loved ones. Most of the action takes place within walking distance of Ben’s birthplace and the expanse of Dartmoor as the author draws on his local knowledge to paint a picture of an area littered with ancient relics.

In doing so, Books 3 and 7 are drawn on. Family and God. Many readers had issues with the inclusion of the latter, so, remembering that Book 8 was already written when Book 7 came out, it’s interesting to see more of Ben’s insights into what he did and why. We learn that it wasn’t purely a repayment of a promise for saving Nik.

He’d been searching for something lost to him since he was eight, when his mother had not been home one day on his return from school. Martin and Sarah had explained it to him—God knocks, and if you open the door He will enter. Ben had heard something, and he had been very willing to open that door.

So we have the mystery/suspense/action core, centering around Dartmoor and its relics both ancient and new.
But, His Fateful Heap of Days is also a story about humanisation. From a childhood where he was used and abused, Nik has donned an impenetrable suit of armor. Deflect, deflect, deflect. The first time we meet him, back in Book 1, Ben describes his “perpetual air of disinterested nonchalance”. By the time this book comes around, Nik is struggling to regain this apartness, but the barriers are continually being chipped away by his entourage, both consciously and unconsciously. Now, nearing fifty and super aware of that fact, Nik is becoming human, and he’s finding it scary.

It’s amusing to watch someone who is not English, gradually realise that one of the most sincere expressions of love and affection in the British culture is being called names and made the butt of jokes.

Hence, when violence rears its ugly head amidst all this light hearted jollity and schoolboy style adventuring, they are caught by surprise, and it’s only through the intervention of an unlikely saviour that Nik lives to see another day. But when Nik and Ben regroup and go to the rescue of what they hold most dear, the gloves are off and no punches are pulled.

For once, this action only takes up a small part of the book, but it is shocking and heart stopping possibly because it is so unexpected.

Picture


So let’s get down to spoilersville as I explain and give examples showing why I liked this book particularly, both as a stand alone and as a wrap up book.

Nik, has filled his world with people and animals who need him and who he has chosen (for whatever reason) to protect. Even going so far as to provide a companion for the dog blinded when coming to his defence. Puffball, PB or Petookh doesn’t play a vital role in this book except by assisting Nikolas with the paperwork that had been left carelessly on the table. In doing this, he seemed to have discovered the remains of Ben’s steak and eggs, as some very well licked shards of china littered the floor along with the soggy remains of the investment portfolio. The only thing from the table not on the floor was the glass with the remains of the olive oil and chocolate whey shake.

The latter is, supposedly, the answer to Nik’s new fear. One that consumes him at the start of the book and drives some very funny scenes. He’s continued his workouts with Squeezy which started during Book 7 and, at first, Ben is jealous and imagining the worst. Once Tim reassures him that Nik is just worrying about turning fifty, then the fun and games begin. Lots of jibes at Nik’s expense about bad backs, early nights, needing glasses and taking it easy. At first, Nik doesn’t know that Ben knows, but gradually he realizes that Ben is teasing him. Then he is miffed because that’s not how their relationship is. He’s the boss and everyone should pay due deference to him. This interplay between Nik, Ben, Squeezy and Tim is at the heart of the first part of the book.

On the surface, it’s harmless fun and some readers may think it irrelevant, but this is missing out on what it represents. The humanisation of Aleksey Primakov into Nik.

He’d lived his life parcelling out the truth, coating it with lies and then obscuring that with evasion. He had intended to keep his discovery entirely to himself, but as he smoothed the creases on the table, it occurred to him that more than telling them, he was, in fact, sharing with them. It was something of a revelation. He wanted to share this with these three men.

But what of these three men? For starters, Squeezy is shown in a new light. Totally irreverent and nonPC when with Ben, chiming in with unhelpful comments and references to movies of dubious worth: Centaur porn and the Human Centipede. But one on one with Nik, the “fucks” disappear and at one stage, commenting on Nik’s attempts to manipulate things, he says:
“You do know you’re heading for a fall, yeah? ”.... “Has this tactic ever worked with anyone in your life? Anyone? Ever? Put so much armour on no one will see the fear? Has that ever worked for you? ”
.....You don’t get rid of fear and unhappiness by palming it off onto someone else.”


In Radulf’s top secret blog, Squeezy is called “dog in previous life biped” (his highest compliment) and notes that Almost all bipeds fall for dog-in-previous-life biped’s silence-inside trick. I learn from a master. Blond biped (Nik) suspicious. But blond biped suspicious of everyone.
Have to admit to being somewhat embarrassing around dog-in-previous-life biped, reverting to utterly humiliating puppy-like fawning. Gave him one of my favourite toys. He gave me one of his.
and in this book, even Nik develops a respect for Squeezy and Tim.

Squeezy is also one of the few to see past Ben’s beauty.“Least likely SAS soldier ever was our little Benji.”

Picture
He could see that Ben was always searching for something. He also comes up with some pretty deep thinking, expressed simply in keeping with his character.“Ah, well. If everyone went through life listening more than they were listened to the world would be a better place. ”

He even deliberately lies to Nik to test his trust issues and then says: “So why not put that trust into practice a little and just tell him the truth?”

Finally, he postulates a different scenario surrounding Molly’s birth to make Nik (and Ben) think about bonds and relationships. He’s fucking awesome.

Poor Tim, who Nik derides as belonging to “Guardian Readers Anonymous”, suffers a lot. First we learn that he was hurt by Ben’s actions in Book 7.

“...you’re just mercenaries, Ben. You and him (Nik) both. You fight for the cause if and when it suits you, but you don’t wear the colours, haven’t sworn to the flag, don’t show any allegiance. When the battle’s over you don’t stay in country, and when the war resumes, you might just decide to sign up for the other side. Does that make it clearer to you? You rejected being gay. You said it was unclean. That’s me. I’m unclean.”

Tim utters lines that address the very nature of being gay, something that a few readers felt lacking in previous books, and his presence is vital because much of the storyline revolves around his knowledge of pagan customs and Wiccan rituals. Even though hurt by it, he understands Ben’s call for help in Book 7.

“Every religion, major or minor, or cult come to that, exists entirely on the premise that gods do occasionally speak to us, yes. The entire Christian religion is based on the belief that God speaks to the chosen elect. The Koran is believed to be the literal word of God given to a man. So why should I question that you also heard a voice calling to you?”

He even discusses the matter with Nik, daring to stand up to him for once when Nik refutes Ben’s spiritual crisis.
“Yes, it was! You of all people should recognise this. He was a soldier—’You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day…a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you…’ Those words have been recited by millions of men facing battle. They’ve turned to God. Surely, you’ve experienced that spiritual awakening at least once in your life?”

Of course Nik didn’t want to admit whether or not he had. He does, however, form a begrudging respect for Tim and uses his experience with men under fire to help him later.

Nik also acknowledges that: Tim Watson was the catalyst that had taken him from where he had been to where he was now—sitting in a Devon pub garden, feeling for the first time in his life that he’d like this life to be a bit longer than it was probably going to be.

Contrast this looking toward the future to the man who had to be chained to the bed for two weeks to get him to admit he was trying to leave Ben. For a change, Nik starts thinking about how others feel. He’d always thought about how they fared, but in remembering Squeezy’s comment about the best way to conquer fear, he even goes as far to lie to make Tim feel better:

“Ben cannot sleep well at night these days. He…frets…about you. About your friendship.” Nikolas wondered briefly whether this was the first selfless lie he’d ever told. He saw, with an annoying remembrance of the moron’s contention about happiness, the smile of pleasure on Tim’s face. He added, surprised at himself, “He said you’d talked. That all was now well in the sandpit.” He was going to embellish this with, “He’s missed you,” but this was a step too far. Then he wrinkled his nose and said it anyway.

These are baby steps for Nik but important ones.
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This call (spiritual crisis) and Ben’s subsequent desertion gets addressed a few times in this book, in fact Ben starts to wonder if it was more a call from his past, stemming from unresolved issues he has with his childhood, memories of which, especially his time at Horse Tor, gradually return. His lack of them (when Nik claims to remember his birth) suggests to him that they were buried deliberately as being too painful or traumatic.

He expected the distant images to suddenly resolve and, like a movie, play once more in his mind, but nothing further emerged than what had come to him in the porch—he’d hidden beneath the altar. It had been dark. There had been other people there. He suddenly remembered that. They’d been whispering, which is why he’d lifted the cloth. For some reason, Ben knew that this wasn’t a happy memory, unlike most of the others he’d experienced out in the grounds. He smiled at the thought that his mother or father may have admonished him for being disobedient, just as he had Molly.

And he has revelations about other aspects such as Nik’s obsession with his beauty and Ben’s own awareness of its power at times:
Even though he knew he didn’t need to appear any more attractive than he was—and this was not vanity in his book; he was burdened by his looks as much as he benefited from them. Sometimes, in dreams, he still heard a guttural Russian voice saying, “Very pretty,” and remembered on waking all that had followed from that assessment.

His relationship with Nik has become more even.
Sometimes, such moments with Nikolas made all the rest pale into insignificance. Nikolas called Ben his true twin. They could not be less alike in so many ways, but sometimes, in a few precious moments like these, they had an almost otherworldly connection.

Now Ben is quicker to be sensitive to when things are awry between them.

He also knows how to manipulate Nik into doing what he wants. Suggesting he is too old to do it. And he can tell better when Nik is lying or not. If he says something is okay, he knows it isn’t. Contrary, but that is how he ticks.
Nik has also come to terms with issues that irked him in the past. His jealousy of Ben’s acting career which was part of the conflict in previous books has changed over time as exemplified by his attitude to Ben’s fan mail which he refuses to admit he reads. “Yeah, you do. Peyton told me.”

Now he secretly takes pleasure in their adoration, as long as they don’t get too close. He even wonders if God is punishing him for taking such a prized possession away.

And so to love

Where once it was wham, bam, thank you man. Often needing pain and battles of dominance, now they take the time to enjoy each other, sometimes falling asleep where once they would have been fucking.
Was there anything better than kissing Ben? Nikolas didn’t think so. He wondered idly as they ground their mouths together and their tongues danced whether he was getting soft in his old age.....He sometimes thought now he could stay kissing Ben for the entire day and never grow weary or impatient for more.

This more than anything is closure for those readers who wanted there to be more emotion between these two men. But these things can’t be forced. They were a culmination of some pretty seismic shifts which took place over the course of the eight books.

Nik now has a new appreciation of his lover: He associated Ben’s power and hard-angled edges with security. And Ben, in return, is sure enough of himself to interrupt their love-making to demand he be told what Nik is thinking or laugh while indulging in some cock sucking.

In fact, there is little graphic description during the sex scenes, but so many things bring their love making to mind. Even accepting a chunk of steak from a fork in a restaurant. They don’t get to “moonlight and roses” more moonlight and jersey cows.
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Yeah, it’s funny

In fact, one of the best things throughout the series has been the humor. We laugh with them and at them. Especially at lines like this from Ben: “Read? I didn’t actually re…I mean…version? Huh? You mean there are Bibles with different endings?” and of course the hilarious Museum break in.

But later he’s talking about Nik and Nik assumes he’s talking about Tim as Ben says: “I gave too much credit for supposed maturity and apparent intelligence. Didn’t see the complete and utter fuckwit lurking beneath.”
Nikolas frowned. Tim was eight months older than Ben. This seemed a little harsh.


And while some readers may dismiss Nik’s concern about age as over the top, perhaps they should wait until they are his age before making that judgement, remembering also that gay men may be a tad more sensitive about such things as looks, especially when Nik imagines Ben. sleeping alongside something which should be put out for the bin men and then replaced with something more current—shinier, up-to-date, more knobs probably. Only with that moronic, irritating idiot with the dumb name could Nikolas admit that when he worked out and ran and drank his olive oil and whey, he was not waving but drowning…
It’s funny in a way, that this man who faced down polar bears, tsunamis, death squads, cannibals and Chechen hit men is scared of getting old. Not from vanity, but because by doing so he might lose Ben and he is only able to admit it to Squeezy.

Nik’s humor is usually internal. He thinks but does not say things like this: Ben and Squeezy appeared to have forgotten their rivalry and were deep into an argument about books they’d both read. Nikolas predicted it would be a short conversation. and this priceless one: Despite the absolute ban on him smoking in the car, Nikolas lit a cigarette and offered one to Radulf. Radulf was cutting back, apparently, so Nikolas tucked one into his collar for later.
And his continual attempts to retain his dignity, aloofness and “perpetual air of disinterested nonchalance” are few and far between. Nikolas spent the rest of the trip home in even more disgrace than earlier. But now it was the proper not being talked to of before—before he’d allowed the disrespect and familiarity to creep into his relationship with all these men. Tim even murmured sir to him once. Most satisfactory.
That respect didn’t last long.
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True Love

Nik understands what love is now and even sees the distinction between love and being in love. He’d loved him (Ben), but he wouldn’t have claimed he was in love. There seemed to be a distinction between these two - no, he’d always maintained that little distance, always guarded that last bit of his freedom. Loving implied conscious will. In love was captivity. He was Ben’s prisoner now, and he knew he would never seek to escape. It didn’t feel like incarceration though. When he looked at Ben, he wanted to smile. Whatever he was in was exceptionally welcoming. For the first time, it occurred to Nikolas that love wasn’t weakness. Love didn’t leave you vulnerable. If it did, then you were in love with the wrong person.
and 
Ben’s snark was now audacious, blatant, and Nikolas had the almost unheard of desire to actually kiss him in public. It was the damn being in love thing. It was awful.
Yet later he concedes that Ben’s leaving him voluntarily in Book 7 and coming back of his own accord was a demonstration of Ben’s love for him. And this adds to his confidence about the strength of their relationship. “For the first time, you thought for yourself and chose this life with me.”
At times, Nik’s almost in awe of this new feeling: Nikolas very discretely gave him the finger and Ben laughed a deep-throated chuckle that began a fire of need in Nikolas’s belly—no, in his soul. Being in love changed all kinds of meanings. He spoke many languages, but he was more than willing to learn another.
Wonderful sentiment, wonderful writing and again such a world away from where they were at the start of the series, yet a totally believable emotional arc given what they have been through in the meantime.

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Because people can change

Nik (sometimes) consciously thinks before he speaks and acts. Nikolas heard a habitual and cutting reply form on his lips, but he wasn’t that person anymore. He didn’t need to be. He was a master of the universe and Ben Rider-Mikkelsen loved him. So instead, he said, “I do. Stay here and contact your colleague in York. I would be very interested to discover if he knows Genevieve Redoubt as well as she appeared to know him.”
One of the passages I loved best was this one:
And in that instant, Nikolas’s whole life swirled and coalesced in his mind, as a man drowning would relive his own history. Everything he had done, he’d done with egotistical intentions. If he’d killed, he’d believed that person needed killing. If he’d tortured, then that also had been justified in his mind. But this man, Ben Rider, gave affirmation to felonious belief. He always had. Ben, Nikolas saw now, understood his better intent and overlooked his ego, and through that generosity of spirit, gave him salvation.
Then later he adds to this by admitting: He’d lied to Ben, to everyone in the past, because he wanted to protect them, himself, his secrets, which were damaging to them all. Ben’s unwavering faith in him had validated this choice—too much perhaps. But now he wanted the outcome of his life to match his meaning.

Now he understands what love is.  If Ben was happy, then he was happy—it was, he supposed with rueful regret, just another result of this being in love thing.
But he also now sees why Ben could love him. Something he’s never really believed before:
Ben laughed and glanced back at him, and Nikolas felt a surge of overwhelming friendship and love from Ben, and, for one brief moment, as he had in the dream, he stepped outside his own corporeal form and saw himself as Ben saw him—a vast, Nordic-blond Special Forces soldier, windswept and so powerful it was as if he was carved from the very rocks of the moors themselves.

One of the important aspects of army training in this belief that sometimes men need to be broken before they can be reformed into something stronger. Every trial, every tribulation that broke them down and made us weep for them was needed, because it was only via their love for each other that they were both able to reform into something new, something powerful.

It returned to him then: all his authority, all his confidence. Everything surged along with his blood in this primal act, this transgression, this perfection and worship of being a man with another man in a place such as they were. He exploded into Ben and hung on to him, toes raised, shaking with furious pleasure until Ben sank to his knees, taking him down, still trapped inside, and they knelt there panting until the great rush was finally over.

So despite being in love and enjoying their kisses and their fun in bed, they both still relish the primeval strength of their relationship. Fitting in this very pagan setting with its images of randy goats and leering satyrs.
Ben has changed too. He has started to relax about the nature of their relationship. He’s no longer angsting about it.
Nikolas would know he was there watching him. It was just the way they were together.

While this book has Nik becoming more human and therefore more vulnerable, it also shows the closeness they have. Twins was the comment at one stage, best friends at another. Getting satisfaction just by being together. Knowing how in tune with each other they are. They don’t have to be equals to have that. It’s this confidence that provides me with closure if this is the last book in the series. As so often happened these days, their fight was ruined by their inability to take each other seriously, and they collapsed onto their backs, panting and chuckling, arms loosely draped over each other’s bellies, just scrunching fingers against warm skin and feeling heartbeats steady and strong. “In love.”
Women

Over the series the author has included a number of female characters, some good, some evil, some helpless, some strong. Most of them play a part in His Fateful Heap of Days, even if only minor. We also get introduced to a new group at Hextor Farm, and Nik has to rethink his initial stereotyping and gains a new appreciation of their qualities.
He envied women then, and he had never done that before, always pitying them or deriding them for their weakness. He saw for the first time in his life that he had made a serious error in these assessments, and that he had only ever defined these opposites from the limited perspective of a man. Perhaps a whole other definition of those concepts existed of which he had no part…
Nik didn’t have a positive relationship with his mother, there are memories of her slapping him about the head. Yet he was always desperate for her attention, which she was too ill to understand or provide. Then, after she died, he was surrounded by men who used and abused him. Most of the women he subsequently came across in Russia were victims, ones he could afford to have no empathy with and although he got married there, it was to a woman who reminded him of the father who had raped him repeatedly. No wonder he had had negative thoughts about women at times.

I loved his interaction with Genevieve Redoubt. He saw in her a kindred spirit who protected the people around her. I loved the way she stood up to him, but he didn’t back down when she commented how women were usually victims in war.
“...because it’s always us, isn’t it? Always the victims when men want power and influence.”
Nikolas put his finger to her chest this time. “I did not see many women on the battlefields of my life, no. I saw broken bodies and destroyed lives, but they were the bodies of men and the lives of men.”

She acknowledges the truth in this and they develop a healthy respect for each other.

Later he says: He knew what this (becoming one through anal penentration) felt like, after all. And perhaps, in that, they weren’t less than women after all. They couldn’t bring life into the world, but they could bind their bodies with oneness of shared experience that women could never know. He and Ben could give and they could receive, and yet they were the same. They brought this unique mirroring to the phenomenon each time they made love, and out of that exclusivity they gave birth to passion that ignited the entire world.

We also get to see a bit more of Martin and Sarah. Nik still isn’t too sure what to make of these two. Neither of them have the sort of attributes he admires: looks, figure or personality. In fact, Martin in particular gets to him because he: didn’t back down, a feature of all their conversations Nikolas was beginning to notice. The most humble, obsequious, yet irresistible force you could ever meet. Yet later Martin admits that if he had to have a champion to right a wrong, then he could think of no one better than Nik. A sentiment I think all readers will agree with and thus Martin gets admitted to our pantheon of “good” characters.

And let's not forget that Nik later admits he has had a change of heart regarding Sarah in an extremely rare, better revelation that she was possibly one of the most beautiful women he'd ever known....

The Offspring

Again we get more closure as we see Nik still troubled by and grieving for his lost son. He doesn’t regret sacrificing him for Ben, but he is haunted by nightmares and even in daylight: (Nik) had a vision of his son being forever entwined with the peat-preserved remains of the witch, Jane Drover. Would she tighten her torc on him and open her fen? Would those dark juices work him to a saint’s kept body…? But Ben knows how troubled by this Nik is and supports him, sympathises with him and protects him when he can. It’s wrong to say Nik is unaffected by the deed or the loss of his son, or even more importantly his son’s chance at innocence.

Nothing will bring him back, even though the prospect of this is used at the end of the book. A dramatic and powerful scene that was depicted so vividly. While part of us knew Nik was bluffing, he had all the ammunition and gut wrenching determination inside to make that believable.
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We also get closure on Ben’s relationship with his daughter, Molly Rose. The child he never wanted or expected. The child he feared would come between him and Nik. Molly is now two and a half. Sarah is her nanny, but she lives with Ulyana who only speaks Russian. She first appears, running up to them and clearly preferring Nik (Papa) and Radulf (Daddy - as in DaddyBark - Squeezy’s nickname for the dog). To Nikolas, it spoke volumes about Ben’s relationship with Molly. To say there was a lack of connection between father and daughter was an understatement. Of course, seen in a certain light, it could be said that he’d somewhat contributed to this alienation between Molly and her father…but was it really his fault that Molly chose only to speak Russian? He didn’t think so. To this point, Ben has liked his daughter mainly because of the pleasure she gives Nik.

But at the end, He held her tight to his chest as her breathing steadied. He could not remember being held by his mother like this, but he knew he had been. Perhaps by his father as well. He suddenly wanted to buy Molly a little tricycle and put playing cards into the spokes for her, and then he realised with a swell of almost unbearable excitement that he could, instead, buy her a tiny off-road motorbike…and that he would then need a dirt bike too, so they could ride together…


Is it the Final Book?

JW has proved with “Ollie Always” and the “Royal Affair” series that he is not a one trick pony. A scifi novella is due out next month and, following that, the first in what he promises to be a series revolving around a book club, also located in Devon. I’m really looking forward to that one.

Personally, I would be quite happy to leave our heroes where they are. Still burning for each other but “in love”. Maybe some short stories could be written to fill in the gaps in the current timeline. Give us a closer look at the way they met, or some of the early cases. Or maybe we can have vignettes featuring Miles and Emilia or maybe even Squeezy and Tim getting married (that would be a hoot).

But hey, I’m willing to be outvoted on that one.
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Finally

I’ll finish off by expressing my heartfelt thanks to the author for providing hours and hours of wonderful entertainment.

Before each book came out, I re-read the entire series (or most of them) in preparation. This never felt like a chore or a drag because the writing is that good. In fact re-reading, and knowing what happens next made some of the scenes funnier, more heart warming or more gut wrenching.

But most of all I have to thank him for creating such wonderful characters who now have cemented their place in my heart and mind. There, Nik and Ben will live on forever. And to cap it all, the true hero of the series (in his eyes at least) not only survives to the end but saves the day! He deserves a medal just for that (and whether you take that as the author or the dog, I’ll leave up to you.)

Or better even expressed in Nik’s own words: What we have here, min skat, exists solely because of the two of us. I told you that we burn; well the radiance of that great conflagration is like a shield banishing darkness. This little bubble of perfection into which we’ve brought these few select people is the perfect world I tried but failed to create when I was a child. So ask me if I think it was an earthquake, and for once I’ll tell you what I really think. I see the manifestation of evil growing across the whole world, Ben. The lights of our civilisation are going out one by one, and we will be extinguished, engulfed by what is coming. Except here, under our shield, in the light of our fire.” He turned Ben’s hand over and stroked across the creases. “We hold the whole world in the palm of our hands.” He folded Ben’s fingers into a fist. “And we are mighty.”
And as for Ben?
He was willing to give Nikolas whatever he wanted right now—day-to-day, year-by-year—until the span of their days was done, and then, only then, would he resurrect his plan to enjoy another lifetime with Nikolas Mikkelsen.

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Tyler Knoll best cure for a Headache

3/30/2016

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Tyler Knoll was always meant to be a fun way to comment on MM romance, its different sub genres and writing in general.

While it was full of digs at editors, they seemed to appreciate it, but a lot of readers were scandalised because it was too different.

Sigh.

Do I care? No! I'm sorry it hasn't sold as well as Wayward Ink would have liked, because I appreciate the risk they took in publishing it.

So, I've decided to use Tyler to explore more aspects of the industry. Facebook and Social Media for one. In the process, I will share what I learn.

Like with the book, it is up to the reader to take from it what they will.

I'm going to start with Facebook pages. I have a couple already: "Dirk Vanden" and "Fans of John Wiltshire" . I put these up because at that time, the authors weren't on social media. It was my contribution to help spread the word about their writing. They were fan pages.

Since then John has bitten the bullet and braved social media himself, but sadly, Dirk passed away a few years ago.

So here for starters are two ways pages can work. Dirk, a contemporary of Victor Banis, was a pioneer in the field, so I am leaving up as a memorial to his writing. I'm not sure who gets royalties if there are any. Hopefully any sales go to his good friend, Tom.

I keep John's page going because it is a collection of links to his books and reviews. John can therefore use his own timeline to interact with his readers and comment on things non book related as well.

Facebook pages have their uses.

I asked what people thought about the value of having a Facebook page and had some interesting responses  (but would like more) Some felt it took too much time away from writing. Another comment was that they were useless now as Facebook tweaked things so that the only way they were worth their while was if people paid to boost posts.

So I'm going to investigate these sorts of issues and use my Tyler Knoll Facebook page to experiment and then share the findings. Invites to "like" my page will go out. Be prepared!

Facebook has a fair amount of statistical analysis of pages. These too I will deal with and try to make some sense of. Taking the headache of needing to do so away from you. (Get the pun in the name yet???)

That's it for starters. https://www.facebook.com/TylerKnollwriting/

Watch this space......

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Always, Ollie.

1/15/2016

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Ollie AlwaysOllie Always by John Wiltshire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had heard that a lot of this book drew on the author's own experiences, so at times I was distracted by wondering which bits were autobiographical and which just drew on thoughts and experiences.

In the end, I relaxed and took the story as it came. And there were many things to like about this book. First off, the scene where he manipulated the "meeting" was hilarious as were the books titles that followed.

Then there is Ollie. I felt for him trying to find a place for himself given the overwhelming (even if loving) presence of his mother. It's like I imagine many children of celebrities feel and why so many of them have troubles finding their own paths in life.

I loved how Ollie eventually found a way to come to terms with his Oliver namesake via Freddy.

And of course there is a dog. And a loveable one at that. I loved the way he leaned on people and how Ollie unabashedly used him to further his goals.

Don't expect lots of hot sex scenes, this is more two men finding a way to be together. Tom/Skint is a proud man. I loved the scene in the shearing shed he'd been living in, and the way Ollie reacted.

There were definitely echoes of Nik in Ollie and Ben in Tom, but these were more real and hence, more fragile versions.

This was the narrator discovering that "Once the me, me, me of life had ceased, hearing other people's pain became a great deal easier."

There were lovely digs at the reality of living in picture postcard New Zealand's remoteness. The temperature of the water, the cost of living.

I highlighted a couple of sections, but will probably see more when I re-read it as it is definitely worth it.
Tom did release Ollie's hand then, but only apparently to pat the dog. Ollie began to see a pattern here-stressful question...dog. He foresaw Bartleby being very well patted for a few more days and nights yet.
And this: As he says "He hadn't proved himself entirely reliable since he'd met Tom over shit, and parted over vomit."

It's lovely to have another stand alone from John even though I am waiting with bated breath for Book 8 of More Heat than the Sun.

This is not the gut wrenching high octane emotions or dramatic events. This is life. I absolutely loved the way Ollie fantasized about a "rose-cottage, sugar-coated fantasy" where he could "Cook them both breakfast and slip into Tom's room, be welcomed into bed with a grumpy but secretly very-pleased-to-see-him pat of encouragement on the sheets to crawl in alongside Tom and they could sit there eating, perhaps reading the papers..." OR... and you'll have to read it to discover the alternative.

And if JW is wondering what book to write next, those children's books sounded good. Kids books without the moral message or at least have it very well hidden. We need more books with heroes like Miles/Freddy. Raoul Dahl made a fortune with books bucking the "system" perhaps there is room for more. Or maybe we need a series of adventures with three legged Bartleby and his pedigree-in-disguise mutt partner. Gay dogs. Yep, I'd buy that!



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Well worth the Wait

3/13/2015

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Axel's Pup (Werewolves & Dragons, #1)Axel's Pup by Kim Dare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's no secret that writing long books has always been physically demanding for Kim Dare. She's produced a couple in the past, but often we have had to be content with her shorter offerings.

When I saw the length of her latest release I nearly "creamed my jeans" to borrow a cliched phrase. I would even have been happy if she'd stopped at the halfway mark as already I'd got more than my money's worth. But then I would have missed out on so much more good stuff. Each added chapter served a purpose that once you read it you realized that it's absence would have been missed. So many books nowadays seem to have filler scenes (especially sex scenes) to get word count. Not here.

As I've said on many occasions, I'm not a fan of shifters, shedders and suckers. Yet in this book, the fact that Bayden is a werewolf is critical to the plot. Not because that makes him stronger than most. He is. Not that it makes him heal quickly. He does. But more important is what it means to be a pack animal in a world where they are denigrated, despised and disliked.

The politics behind the story is paramount. Even to the extent of not being able to have more than two adults living together.

In Queensland, the police have gone tough on bikie gangs, imposing similar stupid arbitary restrictions about riding together in public. Perhaps some have earned it, but for others this feeling they belonged to a 'family' is at the heart of their psyche. So denying them the right to show it hurts.

Much of the book is taken up with this world building, but it's not all about that. It's also about expressing your desires.

There were some lovely bits at the start when Axel struggled to get his sub to understand this and he only achieved it in a small way by depriving him of the things he enjoyed until he learned to admit these things.

Other aspects of punishing and penance were explored. Particularly difficult when it is almost impossible to punish someone physically when they can withstand pain so well and heal so quickly.

I felt for Axel as he had to throw the rule book aside and approach everything from a different angle.

There were a couple of typos such as "Whose" for "Who's" and a couple of other similar mistakes, but the writing, generally, was excellent. Kim has never been the type of author people will marvel about because of beautifully expressed emotions or elegant description. The words are just the tools to get the thoughts and emotions across.

It's the concepts behind her words that always makes more of an impression on me. Here's some examples
"What about what you want?
Bayden shook his head, rubbing his cheek against Axel in the process. "Not important."
"It's important to me."
So simply expressed, but in just a few words, she's targetted one of the aspects of "True Love".

Here's another one:
"Real submission isn't about faking how you feel. It's not about hiding things. It's about offering up your every thought, your every emotion and trusting me to use them wisely.
That concept is at the heart of this book as Axel slowly convinces Bayden to be honest about his wants and desires. So often he's held back by what he thought was expected, relying on lessons instilled in him by family, species history and conquering humans.

I loved the fact that Axel tried to understand what these were. Looked at the ones that were important and tried to teach him how so many others were not. Throughout this process, Bayden was fighting against the main rule he'd been taught:
Giving a human information to use against him was stupid, wasn't it?
So trust was very slowly earned.

And with that came love.
"I love you pup-every bit of you. You'll never need to lie to me abouth anything, or to hide anything from me.
But this isn't just true of a D/s relationship. It's true of any relationship. It's when you've found a person that this is true for that you've discovered your life's mate. Too often it's the opposite.
"Telling someone you'll accept them as long as they pretend to be someone they're not-that's not real acceptance.

To give the story flesh, there is a great cast of characters. No doubt they will feature in future books. We've already met Griz and Evan, but I look forward to hearing about the cop, Hale, the embodiment of everything Bayden and other werewolves hate. In the course of this story, his attitude changes as does that of others Bayden comes into contact with.

Given the decrease in output recently, I was concerned that Kim had burned herself out. It must have been much harder to write such a long story, but the wait was worth it. Sure some of the themes are present in all her D/s stories, but they came together beautifully balanced in this book.

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A Fascinating Tale about Preserving the Past and the Precious

2/25/2015

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Waiting for the FloodWaiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got a headache after reading this. Note, I did not say "from" reading this. But I made the mistake of looking up Game Theory on Wikipedia and trying to understand it. I can sort of. And I am in total awe of people who can discuss it intelligently.

Which our two characters do in this lovely tale by one of my favourite authors.

I'm going to reread this book and perhaps edit this review but I want to say how much I enjoyed it.

In RL I have actually been affected by a flood. Even had to be taken out by boat and wasn't allowed back in the flat for a couple of days. Just be glad we were spared details of the stinky clean up at the end.

But our hero should have no problems with that aspect as his day job involves saving precious things from the effects of damp and time.

Book and paper preservation is another thing I have had a touching acquaintance with as my brother in law has had training in the subject and deals in antique maps and prints.

So these two factors helped me get a handle on the story.

For starters, I knew I wasn't about to embark on a thrilling encounter involving a confident macho alpha male. That helped.

It also helped when shortly after the start, the self effacing, stuttering hero had a Save the Cat moment of looking out for his elderly neighbour. On one level he knew she was helping him as much as he was helping her but neither articulated that fact as it would spoil their interaction.

For readers used to being fed easily digestible romances, this story may cause them stomach aches. (Or a headache!)

The previously mentioned Game Theory may be seen as simply a means to make them both sound intellectual. This is why I have to reread it.

Game Theory is of prime importance to an ecologist worried about Global Warming, but I don't rememer this example being used specifically. Maybe I missed it. I was reading it late at night and woke up hours later with my glasses still on. Lol.

Google it for the whole scenario, but at the heart of it is every country has to decide whether or not they will decrease emissions, but because they are concerned that they will lose their competitive edge economically if other countries don't, most don't.

It's not classic game theory, like the one where prisoners are offered varying degrees of prison terms if they rat on the other, because with Global Warming the rewards aren't as definite. It's still an example where a person has to choose between a rational decision and an irrational one and they choose the latter even though rationally they are aware they are being irrational.

Okay, I can hear you saying now. This is all well and good for our hunky environmentalist but why include it?

Because our narrator is doing just that. Rationally, he knows he has to move on but irrationally he doesn't for all sorts of reasons.

I could go on but won't for now. Maybe after my reread I will see more parallels between the examples offered and their lives and the decisions made.

There are some beautiful quotes later on in the book when it really gets to grips with what is going on. Those who have persevered this far get this payoff. Those who gave up, like those impatient with stutterers, will miss gems like these:
I was, all overthrown by a sandbag philosopher who listened because he wanted to listen, not because he was afraid to speak.
or this
Feelings only exist in your head. Thoughts only exist in your head. I'm not sure how you draw the line between thinking about feelings, and feeling about feelings, or even just having feelings." He shrugged. "Basically: if you think you're happy, you're happy. Problem was, you thought both of you were happy, and it turned out he thought he wasn't."
To be followed up by the killer line later:
"It would have been so much easier if he'd done s-something, betrayed me or cheated on me.
To which our lanky, gawky, but oh so kind hero replies:
(If he felt that way)...
you wouldn't have really wanted to go on like that, would you? You wouldn't have wanted him to stay.

Rationally our narrator knew that but irrationaly he clung to this image of happiness he had created in his own head simply because he wanted it so much.

This book deserves a second read. But even on the first I caught onto the significance of the lack of a preface to the last chapter. The previous ones started in different parts of the house, mentioning the importance and the memories it held. In a way, he was clinging onto these memories, trying to preserve them just like the ephemera he rescued for a living. But the last chapter doesn't have a preface. He has finally moved on.

Two to three years of grieving over a ten year relationship, the only one he knows, is not "too long" as some readers have complained. For someone who rescues lost causes for a living, who preserves memories, he could have spent a lifetime like that. But thankfully at the combined urging of his neighbour, his ex's mother and his new friend, he doesn't.

I loved the way he saw the painting of himself done by his ex. He recognised it captured the passion he once held inside. He is not a cold, rational man. That's his problem. He feels things deeply. I get the impression (and the glimpse we see of it later) he loved the physical side of sex.

Luckily our red-headed, gawky, lanky environmentalist sensed this and wanted this passionate man who took great pleasure and was capable of such great love as long as the recipient was prepared to earn it. He carried out the same role in life. Our environmentalist saw the ephemera, recognised its worth, kept it dry, patiently teased out the crinkles and was rewarded for his time and effort.

Lovely story and highly recommended to everyone who is looking for something more, has patience and doesn't mind being mentally challenged.

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Going Places with Dev Bentham

12/21/2014

7 Comments

 
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Joining me this week is author of the Tarnished Souls series, Dev Bentham.

Dev is celebrating the re-release of "Sacred Hearts" during Hanukkah by offering it through Amazon and Barnes and Noble for just 99 cents.

Last blog, I reviewed the first book in the series, "Learning from Isaac" but I wanted to know more about the author whose books are great but seems to be slipping under the radar.

Hi Dev, thanks for joining me. Reading your books is like eating a box of chocolate. Once you reach the end, you check time and time again in case somehow you missed one because you don’t want the good times to be over. So please keep writing. To me your stories are much more than traditional mm romances. They’re journeys to love and often redemption.

The settings are often unique and the protagonists’ professions are not your traditional cowboy, policeman, firefighter. How much time do you spend researching your stories?


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DB: Hi A.B., it’s great to be here. Thanks for your very kind words. As far as research, it depends on the book. My most research intensive was August Ice since it’s set in Antarctica. Probably my least researched book was Learning from Isaac, which I wrote right after August Ice with the expressed intention of a research free story. To make that happen I gave Nathan my old job at a fictional school and set it in an area of Chicago that I know relatively well. I suppose I could frame my answer the other way around, though, since in some ways I spent years researching the life of a university professor from the inside out and only a few months learning about Antarctica.

I have a long and checkered professional life and have lived in far too many places. While that hasn’t made for a very stable life, my diversity of experience turns out to be useful in writing fiction. So in that way, my whole life has been about research.


AB: August Ice was fascinating. It felt like you'd been there. Have you?

DB: I haven't been to Antarctica - but I saw lots of Youtube videos. Check it out - everyone who's ever been there seems to have posted a video of their experience.


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AB: Have you been to all the other locations you use? Or, again, is it just research? For example, “Driving into the Sun” involves a long car trip along highway 94 and 90 ending up on a ferry in Puget Sound (which resonated as I had done a similar thing earlier this year) and “Painting in the Rain” beautifully captures places like Bandon, Oregon another place I recently visited.

DB: The Oregon Coast is amazing, isn’t it? A friend of mine once said being there was walking around inside a postcard. I lived in Newport, Oregon for a while and Seattle for much longer. I made that drive when I moved out here to Wisconsin. Fields of Gold is set in Madison, where I lived for a few years.

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Moving in Rhythm and Nobody’s Home take place in a fictionalized version of my current hometown. I’ve spent some time in Puerto Vallarta, where most of Sacred Hearts happens. August Ice (Antarctica) and Bread, Salt and Wine (Los Angeles) are my only books with settings I don’t know well. As I said, I’ve lived lots of places and had tons of jobs - not good for my credit rating or stability, but great for writing.

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AB: Mexico features vividly in Sacred Hearts. Have you spent much time there? If so, how long ago?

DB: In spring 2011, I got the chance to spend a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, a gay friendly paradise on the central Pacific Coast. I’ve always wanted to write “on location”. I started the novel before we left and worked on it between visits to the beach, the market and great local restaurants. The story, which is the MOST romantic thing I’ve ever written, naturally grew out of that sensory feast.

AB: No wonder the setting feels so real. Were you thinking of somewhere like Yelapa when you described the resort where they end up?

DB: Shhhh. That’s a secret. Yelapa’s a great place to visit, have you been there?


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AB: No unfortunately, maybe one day! Your Goodreads MM group free story Breathing Snow also mentions a few different countries. Your blog mentions holidaying in Alicante, Spain. Have you travelled much overseas?

DB: I’ve been lucky and have been abroad a few times. Not to any of the locations in Breathing Snow, though. I forgot about that – you can add that story to my short list of heavily researched settings. I watched tons of YouTube for that one, too. I cross-country ski but not at anywhere near the competitive speeds of those guys. The closest I’ve come to that was watching the local high school ski team race.

AB: Do you have a good memory for places? I love your descriptions of Mexico in Sacred Hearts. The chicken bus, the resort he ends up going to. How do you manage to get those details right?

DB: For Sacred Hearts, I took a lot of notes while I was down there. That helped. But I think I do have a good memory for location. I really love to travel, and I love learning new places—either as a tourist or a resident. I think place is one of my strengths as a writer because it’s something I truly love.


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AB: Given all this travel and what sounds as if it was a very peripatetic lifestyle, how did you end up in a backwoods place like Minocqua, North Wisconsin?

DB: This is the time of year when I wonder about that myself. It’s early November and there’s already snow on the ground. It’ll be here until late April. My only excuse is that moving here was one of the many foolish things I’ve done for love. It’s a good place to write, though. Not much else to do during the long winter months.

AB: Tucked away in your stories are ongoing themes that seem to resonate with you, care to share why?

DB. One of my strongest ongoing themes is the possibility of redemption. Forgiveness, of ourselves and others, seems to me to be one of the most important things we can accomplish in our lifetime. And sometimes it takes our whole life to get there.

AB: I love the cover of “Learning from Isaac” by the way. The guy looks so right for Nathan. But why a series in which at least one of the pairing is Jewish?


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DB: I’m Jewish. I loved getting to explore Jewish holiday themes in the Tarnished Souls series. There was plenty to write about, too, since we’ve got a ton of holidays. I limited myself to a few well known ones (Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah), plus the gayest of all holidays—Purim, the celebration of a bedroom farce starring a queen. Purim’s a funny holiday and yet Bread, Salt and Wine, might be one of my most serious stories. What can I say? I’m a contrarian.

AB: Post graduate studies and the cost of education?

DB: I worked in academia and one of the hardest things to see was students graduating with a mountain of debt that they’d be struggling to repay for years. Guess it got to me, since you’re right, it shows up in more than one story.

AB: The cost of pharmaceuticals in the US?

DB:
Appalling, right?

AB: Homeless people and the down and out feature in a couple of stories, particularly “Bread, Salt and Wine”?

DB: Homelessness and hunger shouldn’t be part of our modern world, much less common. I don’t understand why food and shelter aren’t seen as our unalienable right.

AB: I get the feeling at one time you may have been a hippie/free spirit?

DB: I’m not sure people who know me would use the past tense about that.


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AB: Chuckles. Now I want to meet you in person! Alcoholism and staying clear of it is mentioned in a couple of stories. Sacred Hearts and August Ice. Is that subject close to the bone?

DB: Alcoholism and staying clear of it ---- yeah, that’s a thing. Alcoholism has certainly been a big part of my life, one way and another, so it shows up a lot.

AB: Sharing rides online?

DB: Never done it. Isn’t that funny since it shows up a few times in my work. I did hitchhike a lot as a teenager, which was crazy and dangerous, but cheap.

AB: Ah, another thing we have in common. I hitchhiked from the top to the bottom of Germany back in the seventies and even did some in Canada, plus picked up hitchhikers. I do not have one bad experience to relate. Maybe I was just lucky. You also have three books (so far) in which dogs feature heavily, but no cats. Nobody's Home was a great example. Did you have a dog in those days you were always travelling around?


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DB: Yes. I love dogs. I’ve had cats as well and they’re wonderful, independent, interesting creatures but I’m a much better mother to dogs than to cats. I respond well to enthusiasm.

AB: I love the variety of men in your stories. You’re not afraid to have shorter men. Some are even bald because their hair is thinning on top. You have older men. Non Caucasians. Please keep that up. Were you consciously trying to fill a gap?

DB: Thank you. I write men I find attractive and I’m much more drawn to interesting men than to pretty ones. I also don’t want to write the same characters over and over, so I need to mix it up some in terms of their backgrounds, ages and life experience. David in Sacred Hearts, short, bald and Jewish—he might be my most unusual romantic hero, but I think he’s hard not to love.

AB: Very true. I loved both of the men in that story. So glad they found a way to connect properly. Do you read much? What was the first MM book you read?


DB: The more I write, the less I read, which is unfortunate but it’s a matter of time. I wish I could somehow expand the hours so I could do both as much as I’d like. I’d read gay fiction before I encountered m/m. One of my favorites was The Mysteries of Pittsburg by Michael Chabon—the ending’s disappointing, but up until then it’s a great story. I also loved The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. It’s devastating but gorgeous. Perhaps the first actual m/m romance I read was Life after Joe by Harper Fox. It’s a lovely read.

AB: The Beauty of Men by Andrew Holleran was one of my first reads. Your bio says you have a background in writing. Poetry, short stories, what (or who) made you start writing mm?

DB: I tried my hand at a few straight romances and they felt flat to me. I stumbled on this genre and fell in love.


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AB: You mentioned you're re-releasing the Tarnished Souls series when their contracts run out and this often entails re-editing them. Why are you rewriting them? What was wrong with them? What lessons have you learned since 2012 or whenever it was your first book was published?

DB: Each book I write teaches me something new. The edits as I rerelease my early work are a reflection of that. My newer work reflects the ways I’ve grown as a romance writer and with the rereleases I’m trying to bring my more mature romance writer sensibility to the older work. 

AB: Where do you get your inspiration from? For example, you mention a halfway house in Chicago. Did running across that play a part in the plot for Sacred Hearts?

DB: I don’t know where I get my inspiration from. Really. I think it’s magic.

AB: What would you change in Sacred Hearts? Hopefully not much as I think this is my favorite book of yours. A reformed alcoholic left penniless because he loved a gambling addict meets a defrocked priest! One thing that struck me while reading was this concept of David “coming down” because he would be earning a lot less. Isn’t it sad that people judge our worth/status in life by how much money we earn.

DB: I’m so glad to hear you say that. I love Sacred Hearts and I probably won’t change very much. I do plan to write a short from John’s point of view to go with the rerelease.

AB: Why do you think some readers can’t “feel” these guys? Is it because they don’t fit the classic MM mould? Are more cerebral? One reviewer even commented that they felt David was “too detached” whereas I found that detachment was to have been expected. Anyone who has gone through what he has would have built a wall around themselves. If anything it made him feel more real for me.

DB: Reading is a very individual activity and we bring to it our whole selves. It makes sense that readers connect better with some characters than with others. 


AB: Sacred Hearts is light on the "Jewishness" which was strange as the other half of the couple was a practicing Christian even if no longer a priest. Were you tempted to use that difference as a point of conflict?

DB: Over 50% of Jews in this country are in interfaith relationships. Clearly we need to figure out how to do that right. Most of my Tarnished Souls books also have mixed marriages. I did think about including some conflict between David and John about religion, but it didn’t fit with either of their characters. David is a pretty secular Jew and John feels strongly about respecting other people’s faith. I also really try not to make religion too big a part of the stories.

AB: I loved the way John rationalized his gayness in the end. And their hot sex while waiting for the ex to turn up.
Some of my favourite sentences:
  • “But I’d like us to spend more time together without sex.”
  • “I might scream it, but for John, falling asleep beside me was his own quiet declaration of love.
  • “I passed my hands through the light, letting the colors drift across my skin and decorate me with our separate and shared beliefs, and feeling how we meshed, John in me and me in him.”
It also picks up on the strange way that practicing Yoga is seen as being wrong for Christians. I understand that they see it as worship, but it’s a pity that they can’t see the difference between respecting something and worshipping it. How does Judaism perceive yoga?


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DB: You know the old joke, two Jews, three opinions? There are some Jews who think that yoga is a different religion and therefore we’re forbidden from practicing it, and on the other hand there are some synagogues that sponsor yoga classes and even further along the spectrum there are Jews who identify as Jew-Buddhists. Me, I don’t worry about the theology—I just like yoga.

AB: Have you found writing easier or harder as you get more books under your belt?

DB: You’re asking this as I spend the morning answering your questions rather than write the first sentence of my next story, so clearly I haven’t gotten entirely past procrastination. However, I do think it’s getting easier, especially during the dreaded middle slump, since I now know for sure that there’s light on the other side.

AB: In your blog, you mention that you usually “binge write” for a few weeks then “fix it up”. Do you always write that way?

DB: Yep.


AB: Which book did you find hardest to write?

DB: August Ice. I had to look up the smallest things, like in Antarctica how do they get from their room to the dining room and what’s for breakfast? It was crazy how often I had to stop writing and look something up.

AB: Your author notes often thank Jordan Castillo Price. How did you meet up with her?

DB: I love her work. So when Moving in Rhythm came out, I sent her a copy as a thank you for all her great stories. She responded graciously and we’ve been talking ever since. I’m in awe of her many talents. She’s amazing.

AB: Your books rarely use dual POV. Any reason for this? Many are first person POV? Do you find writing one easier than the other?

DB: Nobody’s Home is in dual POV and the story I’m working on now is, too (I think, we’ll see how that works out). Outside of romance, dual POV is an unusual form and I think I’m simply not comfortable in it. I find it tricky to keep up the suspense when I’m inside both guys’ heads. The Tarnished Souls books were all written in first person but outside of those books, I mostly stick with close third. It all depends on the story, really.

AB: Is it a conscious effort or do you deliberately strive for difference between your characters. Different professions, places, different tastes in music. Even their attitudes to things like BDSM. Is this deliberate?

DB: I’m not sure how conscious it is, but I think differences are important. Each character’s individual strengths and weaknesses are more apparent in contrast with another character.
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AB: In January, you posted an excerpt of a new WIP “A Fish Story” on Facebook. How is that going?

DB: I’m just starting that one again. I got sidetracked by Driving into the Sun. 

AB: What else can we expect from you? Another series? More standalones?

DB: I’m working on standalones right now, but I wouldn’t rule out a series again in the future.

AB: Thank you so much for giving up so much of your valuable writing time to answer all my questions. I'm looking forward to your next book. 

DB: My pleasure! And in the spirit of the season, one lucky person who leaves a comment before the end of the year will receive a book of their choice from my back list. 
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Some great reading from Dev Bentham

12/19/2014

0 Comments

 
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Book 3 of the series: "Sacred Hearts" has just been re-released.

For a limited time during Hanukkah (the Jewish holiday mentioned) this is available from Amazon and
 Barnes and Noble for just
99 cents!

I talk more about Sacred Hearts which was probably my favourite of the series in my upcoming interview with Dev, and she will have a free copy of one her books to give away to a lucky commentator. In the meantime, here's my review of the first book in the series.


This has another stunning cover by Jordan Castillo Price.

Learning from Isaac (Tarnished Souls, #1)Learning from Isaac by Dev Bentham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this era of endless series and sequels, it's refreshing to find a whole swag of standalones.
It means the author has to come up with fresh characters, plot and setting each time. Not easy. But very rewarding when it is done well.
While on the surface this is a series because at least one of the heroes is Jewish and the observance of religion at some point touches on the story, the only other connecting link is that the world they live in is loosely interlinked. So if characters from other books make a cameo appearance, it's more wondering how they got together as a couple or what their story is. Hence the books can be read in any order. In fact, the last in the series actually began first.
They are not cut and paste jobs either. Each story is unique and the characters are quite different.
There are no MM stereotypes or cliches.
Sure older professor and student has been done before, and if that is all you see in a story then you might not agree with me, but I love the detail the author has painted around that central premise.
These feel like real people, not story book characters. I liked the way the author took her time to establish their personalities, because this is what makes each rendition of this religious holiday theme different.
Nathan, a professor of ecology, is painfully aware that his youth is slipping away and fears that he is destined to spend the rest of his life alone. At first, the constant attention of a young good looking student is flattering, but Nathan is a stickler for the rules so he ensures lines are not crossed. Isaac is smart. He keeps pushing at this barrier, feeling correctly that they can meet each other on equal terms one day.
But they're not equals in other ways. Isaac is a student having difficulty paying for his education. Nathan is comfortably off.
Isaac was thrown out by his family when he came out. While Nathan comes from a supportive family. He even noted that Isaac, being Jewish and attractive was exactly the sort of boy his mother woud approve of.
Then something happens that neither can prevent, and the attraction that had been simmering explodes to the surface. Once there and acknowledged, they need to work through the ramifications as it pertains to their lives.
As the author states in the acknowledgements, the religious context comes from Passover, and the fact that it celebrates the freedom from bondage.
Religion per se isn't so much present as an observance of religion. This mirrors Nathan's observance of the rules pertaining to relationships with students and men much younger than himself. It also allows us a glimpse into the lives of others. And isn't that one of the reasons we read?
Dev is gradually re-editing these books as they come of out of contract and reissuing them. Chronoligically, it was the second book she ever wrote and like most authors, her skills have developed since then, allowing her to see flaws and places where it could be improved. I have only read the latest version and it is more than fine.
And for another example of her talent, here's my review of her latest book which
features a road trip
Driving into the SunDriving into the Sun by Dev Bentham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This makes it two out of two for this author's books so far for me. The character's backgrounds form an important part of her stories. They have affected who the character is and the issues they are dealing with.
Perhaps an expert in the field may be able to find an error or two, but from the point of view of a novice in the subject, her dealing in this case with a Native American seemed respectful and informed.
The complexity and gradual, realism of forging a strong bond won't satisfy the readers who love insta-lurv and perfect characters, but boy does it make a welcome change because of that.
The last scene on the ferry at Seattle was extra good as I did that on my long road trip there earlier this year. She got that part spot on. Right down to the clunking as cars rolled into place. Magic.
Now to see if she can make it three from three.

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Tales of Love in Ancient Greece

12/7/2014

6 Comments

 
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I've kept tabs on Kayla Jameth's career ever since she showed me her first short story. I could see that she had talent and her interest in history would add another dimension to the genre. Most MM historicals have been Regency era with only a few tackling earlier times. It's understandable, because it's much harder to empathise with people whose culture is so different from our own. Doesn't mean to say a very touching love story can't be written.

Now that her first book with Dreamspinner Press, A Spartan Love, is about to be launched, I asked her along to give us some background. As I beta read the story, I know most of this gets covered in the plot, but I thought it would be a good opportunity for us all to take a little history lesson to get us in the mood.

Hi Kayla, welcome to my interviewing chair!

KJ: Hello AB! I'm glad to be here.

AB: Historical gay romances are always a challenge because the prevailing attitudes of the day concerning  men having sex with other men has changed over time. Authors wanting to be true to an era have to educate as well as enthrall . Because I beta read for you, I know the effort you put into ensuring "A Spartan Love" is an enjoyable HFN MM romance while still remaining as true as you could to history.

What, to you, was the most basic difference between ancient times and now?


KJ: That Greek men had sex with whomever they pretty much wanted. The concept of consent is a modern standard. Fidelity was only for a man's wife. Meaning she was his property/chattel and would keep herself pure for him. He was under no such constraints.

Women were kept secluded in their homes to ensure this. Most were married at thirteen to men older than they were, merely changing ownership from their fathers to their husbands.

However, a man could have as many lovers as he wanted. There was no shame attached to visiting any of the many brothels in his city. Brothels were "staffed" with women and young men.


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AB: So it wasn't unknown for men of that time to have sex with boys?

KJ: Many city-states allowed the institution of pederasty. The original meaning of the word was mentorship not the connotation of "sex with boys" that it has developed over the years. An older male would mentor a beardless youth. It was a form of social networking that allowed for a sexual relationship.

AB: According to Wikipedia: "The ancient Greeks did not conceive of sexual orientation as a social identifier as modern Western societies have done. Greek society did not distinguish sexual desire or behavior by the gender of the participants, but rather by the role that each participant played in the sex act, that of active penetrator or passive penetrated. This active/passive polarization corresponded with dominant and submissive social roles."

KJ: Exactly, however, even then, the sexual aspects were strictly codified. The youth had to be beardless (not yet a man) because he was in the submissive role. They couldn't be equals. A man choosing to be subordinate to another man was considered womanish.

There was no penetration because penetration was for inferiors: woman and slaves. So any sexual activities were intercrural. Literally between the thighs, not a euphemism for penetration.

AB: It sounds like there were pretty narrow guidelines when this could happen then?

KJ: Yes. The relationship was intended to end when the youth grew a beard and became a man. But sometimes the relationship would continue and was tolerated. However if one partner allowed penetration, he was often ridiculed for making himself a woman.



PictureThe Greek World during the Persian Wars 500 - 479BC
AB: We use the term Greece but in those days what we now know of as Greece was a number of smaller countries and city-states governed by kings which were really little more than walled towns and the surrounding countryside. Was the situation the same everywhere?

KJ: No, Sparta was different. Lycurgus the Lawgiver made many changes to the laws of Sparta and set the city-state apart from the rest of the Hellenic world. There were no brothels in the polis. In his opinion, in order to breed a strong race, if the men had time for sex, they needed to be fathering sons. Women were not chattel. They could own and run their own households. And they were not permitted to wed until they were twenty as they needed to bear strong sons.

The Spartans probably once practiced pederasty, but Lycurgus outlawed the previously allowed sexual aspects. Some Greeks didn't believe this because it was a fundamental social practice in their poleis. But Xenophon, who sent his sons to take part in the Spartan education system, refutes this. He states clearly that the relationship in Sparta was of a foster father or older brother to a son/younger brother. And thus was not sexual.

AB: I gather you researched this pretty thoroughly. I've done some Googling and see that translations still survive of many texts of writers from this era.

KJ: No one will be able to say I didn't do my research, sometimes at the expense of my writing time. For example, Xenophon in his Constitution of the Lacedaimonians Chapter 2 Section 14 said the following about pederasty in Sparta, (quoting Lycurgus’ teachings): “But if, as was evident, it was not an attachment to the soul, but a yearning merely towards the body, he stamped this thing as foul and horrible; and with this result, to the credit of Lycurgus be it said, that in Lacedaemon the relationship of lover and beloved is like that of parent and child, or brother and brother where carnal appetite is in abeyance. I am not surprised, however, that people refuse to believe this. For in many states the laws are not opposed to the indulgence of these appetites.”

As he is the only ancient author with firsthand knowledge of the Spartan system, his statements carry more weight than other writers with their anti-Sparta sentiments who had never traveled to the city-state. He was also an Athenian and thus raised within the pederastic system so would see no reason to downplay the sexual side of things in Sparta.


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AB: It gets tricky when researching history, doesn't it, because you have to look at who wrote it, when, why and what axe he had to grind.

KJ: You're not kidding. Everyone has an agenda. Some are just more subtle about it.

But the one thing all the city-states held in common was their belief that the social status of the various men played a role. One reader of the Apollo's Men series commented that the "sex was political". I had never thought of it in that fashion, but he was correct. Who could do what to whom is all based on their respective social status.

AB: What do you mean by political?

KJ: An adult male (citizen) outranks a youth (soon-to-be-citizen) who in turn outranks a free woman (non-citizen chattel) who outranks a slave (non-citizen chattel). While a woman outranks a slave, the slave enjoys more real freedom than the free woman does. A slave can leave the house and be seen by men other than their father, brother, husband or son.

So the adult male can "penetrate" anyone below him. Although the youth, as a future citizen, can only be figuratively penetrated, ie intercrural.


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AB: Now to put all this into the context of your stories. You've already showed this difference in "Alexios' Fate" which features a prince, Alexios, and his slave, Galen. Tell me about this kind of relationship.

KJ: Prince Alexios as a youth was permitted to play around with pretty much anyone he wanted, as long as he was the "dominant" partner. The sole exception being he couldn't even have intercrural sex with just any adult male citizen. He was expected to choose one man to be his mentor. Being the plaything of multiple men was frowned upon and in some city-states could cost him his citizenship. Being a kept boy was shameful.

Galen was a slave, chattel. When it came to free men, he had no say in who might use his body. In fact, because of his beauty, Alexios' father King Demetrius often sent Galen to warm his guests' beds.

Alexios discovers this and takes Galen to his bed. Then the prince does something completely unacceptable, he starts to fall for Galen. It was socially acceptable to screw your slave, but not to love him.

AB: Once Galen became a free man, the whole situation changed didn't it?

KJ: Yes, once he was no longer a slave, he couldn't be treated like one. He still wasn't Alexios' equal, but he wasn't an inferior to be penetrated.

The change in their relative statuses placed a lot of strain on their relationship initially. Galen no longer had a framework from which to understand how they should interact. Before, he had belonged to Alexios in every meaning of the word. When Alexios freed him, it was like being cut adrift. Galen lost that sense of belonging and had to discover a way to regain it. Which was further complicated by Alexios' reluctance to penetrate him now. So he felt abandoned as well.


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AB: Having a mentor complicated things, didn't it?

KJ: Yes, when King Lykos claimed his rights as Alexios' mentor, it drove an even bigger wedge between the young lovers. Galen was exceedingly jealous of any time Alexios spent in Lykos' embrace. Alexios' behavior was socially correct. His relationship with his mentor involved sex and as a man the concept of fidelity was completely foreign.

It required an outside threat to help pull them back together. But Alexios' desire to protect Galen overcame much of this.

AB: Tell me a bit more about that often misunderstood mentor relationship.

KJ: Erastês is the title for the older man (mentor) in a pederastic relationship. It means "lover". Erômenos is the title for the youth and means "beloved". But not every pederastic pair were lovers. Statistically speaking, the numbers of couples who would now be considered gay would have been low. Even with bisexual individuals and the probably more prevalent "bi-curious" men thrown in, the sexually active pairs would likely have been less than half of all pairings.

So even though the terms lover and beloved were used, they didn't necessarily mean any given couple were in love.

When the pair was sexually active, penetration was not officially permitted. All such activity would have been intercrural. The older man would have placed his penis between the youth's thighs and rubbed off on him. Remember penetration was degrading and only for women and slaves. I'm sure that it happened, but it wasn't condoned.

Because Alexios is a prince and future ruler, he couldn't be treated in that fashion. His mentor King Lykos behaved like a gentleman and only practiced intercrural sex with him. However, Apollo as a god could—and did—demand more of him. The god is the only one who penetrated the prince.


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AB: In your free short story, "Body Language" you have depicted a different relationship again. In this one, a young man would have ended up a sexual slave if it hadn't been for intervention of Prince Lykos.

KJ: The brothels of the ancient world were staffed by slaves. Slaves who had no say in how their bodies were used. Young men as well as women could find themselves in a brothel, satisfying the cravings of the men of that city. The young men often—willingly or unwillingly—shaved to prolong the illusion of youth. After all, even the Greeks thought men with hairy faces and limbs were abhorrent.

When Prince Lykos (later King Lykos in Alexios' Fate) comes across Kas, bandits are trying to capture him so they can sell him to a brothel. Lykos with the aid of his Persian guide defeat the bandits and rescue Kas.

Kas has always been attracted to men. When Lykos comes to his aid, Kas is smitten. While treating the young warrior's wounds, Kas allows his desire free rein and plots how best to find his way into Lykos' bed.

In the end, they learn more about each other and true affection draws them together.

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AB: Now we get to the unusual pairing of a Spartan warrior in training and a helot. As helots are not traditional chattel slaves, rather more like indentured servant/farmers, the politics of the sex is different again isn't it?

KJ: Think natural born enemies like Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and Nag from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.

The sexual politics here are even more convoluted. Andreas as the older man should play mentor to Theron, the beardless youth. But due to social status and natural inclination, Theron would never allow this.

Thus they are forced to define themselves and their "relationship" outside the norms for their era.

AB: But what about the well known examples?  Achilles and Patroclus, Alexander the Great and Hephastion?

KJ: Achilles and Patroclus may or may not have been lovers. There is a fair bit of debate over that. You may have noticed that Achilles was prone to fits of drama. He gets all pouty and sits back while the rest of the heroes fight at Troy because Agamemnon took a girl away from him. So might he go all berserk because Patroclus was killed? Yes, I think he would have. Regardless of if they had only been childhood friends instead of lovers.

Alexander the Great was a Macedonian. But he would have been strongly influenced by the neighboring Greeks; even the Romans copied much of Greek society. Even going so far as to steal and rename their gods. No one doubts Alexander had male lovers.

But as with most Greek men, Alexander took wives and fathered at least one heir as was his duty.


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The Spartans had their own examples of pederasty. The Spartan Prince Hyacinthus was courted by Apollo and Zephyrus. The prince became Apollo's lover. This is why, even though later such a love was not permitted, I believe that at one time it was accepted in Sparta.

AB: So within one country and the surrounding areas it was all political. But what about the outside world in that era? Sounds like there was a huge variation in acceptance of men having sex with men, wasn't there?

KJ: Very much so.

In Athens, men prayed that their sons would be beautiful and draw many suitors.

In Crete, men sought the father's permission to "kidnap" their sons and carry them off. In this island kingdom, a sexual relationship was more common than elsewhere. Perhaps to keep horny teenagers from bothering the girls or even to limit population growth.

In Sparta after Lycurgus' constitution, the relationship loses its sexual overtones and become more acceptable by modern mores.

AB: This then brings us back to the problematical aspect that history belongs to the conquerors. There were even differences of opinion about the Spartans back then. Which source did you use to base your world building on?


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KJ: For a while, Sparta was the conqueror. Even then, many of the other Greek city-states spoke ill of them. No one liked the polis that they thought of as the local bullies. Propaganda is by no means a modern concept.

The only ancient author I could find that had firsthand knowledge of Sparta, and wasn't anti-Sparta, is Xenophon. His sons grew up in the harsh Spartan educational system known as the agōgē. As none of the other ancient authors whose works are extant had visited Sparta, I took their writings with a grain of salt.

AB: I'm impressed that you took all this to heart and didn't just have two guys fucking like rabbits. Why didn't you?


KJ: I minored in Classical History so I had enough background information to know this was unlikely. I remembered that helots and kryptes had no common ground. They lived in the same city-state, but that was the extent of it. Plus the most offensive forms of cursing/obscenity involved penetration.

So I thought if I could manage to make something out of a situation like that, I would have historical bragging rights.

Of course, this resulted in ungodly amounts of research before I could even start. A bonus, in and of itself—I love the ancient world and research. I've made this story as historically accurate as I could because I hate to be wrong.

Please don't anyone take that as a challenge.


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AB: Put up or shut up, I say. Where's their book!?

You've just done an extended blog tour and dropped snippets of information about other facets of the story, so I encourage readers to check them out. But the overarching theme between all your books and the world you are building is their belief that gods rule their lives. In "Alexios' Fate" Apollo's attention was drawn by a boast the prince's father made. In the next short story, "496 BC" they're taking a prophet to Delphi on Apollo's orders. In "A Spartan Love" Apollo becomes aware of Andreas when he calls on him for help. In all cases, you've written in the god as if he existed. Why?

KJ: Because that is the world Andreas believes he lives in. Read the Iliad and The Odyssey. The gods and goddesses march across the pages larger than life. They are an integral part of life and the world.

I couldn't write an epic and leave them out.

The Greeks had a very different vision of what the gods were. The gods were anthropomorphisms of important concepts or forces of nature. They were frequently prone to all the flaws that plague humans—anger, greed, lust. They were not omniscient. They only knew what they had seen or been told, allowing mortals to sometimes escape their wrath or even trick them. They were bound by the same social rules as the humans who worshiped them.


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The modern concept of deity usually involves omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent beings. So modern readers are often surprised to find out how very human the Greek gods were. As a group, they were petty, grasping, and often vengeful.

Many cultural responsibilities derive from the fact that the gods move at will through the world. Failure to offer hospitality to the stranger at your door might result in offending a god in disguise.

AB: So, they were always a little fearful that the people they interacted with could be gods in disguise. Even if they asked them if they were and were told they weren't, they were never sure, because a god would say that, wouldn't he? It must have had a lot more impact than doing things because of where they might end up in the afterlife if they didn't treat people right.

That's probably a big difference to get our heads around.


How difficult did you find researching the day to day details of life in those times? I remember we spent almost a day discussing whether the door hinged in or out and ended up with it on a pivot.

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KJ: I've spent hours researching hinges, pottery, Greek fire, local geography, foreign deities, just so I can use one word in the story. All hinges of that time period were pivots and which direction they swung was dependent on where they were placed in the wall. Only folding door panels had leather hinges.

Very few authors wrote of their day-to-day life. It's a subject that was taken for granted by both the author and any contemporary readers. The Spartans were even worse than the rest of the world when it came to writing anything down. They were laconic by definition and only made records of the truly important stuff. Needless to say, I’ve found it difficult to find written proof of certain aspects of the Spartans’ lives. Wherever possible, I’ve stuck to verifiable facts. However, that has left a lot to speculation. If I needed to fill in some gaps, I chose to follow the practices common in the rest of the Greek world.

Most of what is known comes from cities and city-dwellers. Andreas is a rural, agrarian slave so very little is known about what his life would have been like.


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AB: The landscape has even changed over time. I remember reading about how the 300 held off the advancing Persians by blocking their access point. Yet today, thanks to siltation, the coastline has changed so much that feat would be impossible. What things did you learn while researching for the book?

KJ: That GoogleEarth is your friend! I was able to look at the terrain from practically ground level. There were also numerous blogs and travel sites for additional views of the landscape/geography.

Andreas would have lived in a wooded area of the foot hills leading up to the Taygetos mountain range. He and his ancestors would have cleared land where they could. Over the centuries, the land has become less fertile. But goats can eat pretty much anything.

AB: What sparked your interest in Ancient Greece and Sparta?

KJ: I've always loved ancient history. I read the myths of the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians as a child. Then when I attended Case Western Reserve University, I had to take some humanities as part of my curriculum and I chose to minor in Classical History.

There is something amazing about listening to your instructor read the beginning of the Iliad in the original Greek. And he had a flair for it, proclaiming the bard's words in a booming voice.


AB: I believe you have other books planned in your Apollo's Men series. Can you tell me a bit about them?

KJ: Well, first there is Alexios' Fate and 496 BC as well as a third book, Tempting Fate, in that story arc.

A Spartan Love is the first story in a new story arc in the Apollo's Men series. The following books, A Tested Love and A Shared Love, have already made it to the second draft stage. The subsequent books follow Andreas and Theron as their relationship evolves.

I can't say much more than that without giving a major spoiler for A Spartan Love.


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AB: Now let's talk about Ictis. When we meet Andreas, the ferret is his only companion. You can tell how lonely he is by the way he treats him, almost like a person. What made you include a ferret in your story?

KJ: Andreas needed someone to talk to. He doesn't speak to Theron until Chapter Seven. No one could expect him, or a reader, to go that long without significant dialog.

Of all the possible pets a Greek might have kept, a ferret offered the most opportunities for interaction as well as being quite the character. Plus we had one when I was a teenager, so I had some idea of how they would act, smell and move.

Besides Ictis is just too cute for words.

An interesting side note: Ictis more or less means "ferret" in ancient Greek. I guess Andreas wasn't feeling imaginative the day he named him.

AB: Well, I for one am interested in seeing where this story leads. I really enjoyed being part of the two men's journey so far and hope readers agree with me. It's been fascinating learning a little more about the background to writing your series. Thank you for your time.

KJ: Thank you for inviting me to join you today. I hope everyone enjoys A Spartan Love. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Author.Kayla.Jameth

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KaylaJameth

Blog: http://kaylajameth.blogspot.com/

E-mail: KaylaJameth@hotmail.com
Kayla has kindly offered a copy of the eBook version of her latest release.
All you have to do is leave a comment below
and the winner will be drawn on 22nd December.

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