Clare London's Blog, page 139

Sweet or Spicy - how do you like your fiction?

My short story (16k) Between a Rock and a Hard Place is due out at Amber Allure on Oct 10.

I'm sort of interested to see your response to this one - it's what I call my No-Sex, British story...a gentle, modest, (hopefully) amusing romance.

There have been various posts on the net recently about the relative popularity of sweet and/or sexy fiction. I make no excuses or protestations about writing erotic romances because I love reading and writing them - but not always to the same level of explicitness.

This is a story I loved writing, with characters I'm very fond of, and I hope everyone who buys it, enjoys it. But it'd also be ideal reading for anyone who finds higher heat levels uncomfortable :).

So what's your opinion on Sweet v Sexy?

Do you like a mix of fiction, or is your preference always one or the other?
Are there days you really *don't* want to read explicit sex?
Are there times you can appreciate a humorous, light-hearted read?
Or does it bore you without the hothothot?! LOL


****

BLURB: Garry's definitely at the end of his tether. He's waiting in an airport lounge to meet his friend Will, to go on holiday with mutual friends in a Scottish highlands hotel. Now there's a ten-hour delay to incoming flights, the seat in the lounge is more like an instrument of torture, and he's beyond tired of airport food.

What's worse, he's also dreading having to apologize for the pass he recently made at Will, under the influence of too many beers and a long-held crush. And the suddenly shocking realization that when Will accepts a new job offer on a continent thousands of miles away, it may be the end of their close friendship—let alone anything more.

To add to Garry's stress, he's treated to the company of Emily and Max, two young people who think he needs educating in the ways of the world—and his love life—whether he welcomes the interference or not. Struggling with their well-meaning help and the startling mess on his clothes from spilled ketchup and noxious-smelling sweets, he's encouraged to re-examine how he feels about Will and to decide what kind of journey he'd really like them to take together...

****

EXCERPT:...Garry must have dozed off. He woke with numbness in his left arm that made it feel the size of a Halloween pumpkin, and a pain in his scalp that meant his hair had got caught awkwardly on the wrong side of his parting. His head was stretched back over the back edge of the chair, and his legs were folded underneath it in a manner that would defy professional physiotherapy. Trying to move his limbs just made him groan aloud as the muscles cramped. It took him a depressingly long time to get himself upright again. Wincing, he made a mental note to renew his gym membership when he got back home after the trip.

He tried to smooth his hair back down in place. He'd snagged the shoulder-length ends into a short ponytail for traveling, but the tie had twisted at the back of his neck. When he tugged it back into shape, his fingers caught up in the tangles. It also seemed to have collected an interesting selection of dust particles and the remains of a catering-sized margarine wrapper. Maybe a couple of those blueberry droppings.

He squinted at the lounge clock and saw that a couple of the ten hours had passed.

The good thing was that the Sleeping Not-Beauty had left the seat beside him.

The not-so-good thing was that he had another neighbor and this one was a lot smaller. Probably only about seven. A round, plump-cheeked girl's face stared at him, her eyes sky blue, her hair pale blonde. She was delicately pretty and would have looked like some kind of picture book princess, except that she had a huge, suspiciously red stain on the front of her Hello Kitty T-shirt. Her legs were tightly pressed together to contain a pile of sweets in her lap and there was sugar frosting stuck all over her skirt and her fingers. Some of the sweets had obviously already been consumed—the frosting was on the end of her nose, and around her mouth, too—and she chewed thoughtfully as she looked at him.

Garry wrinkled his nose. There was a particularly violent and disturbing smell around the sweets, like a medicine he'd once been forced to take as a kid. A fair proportion of the sugar fallout seemed to have made its way on to his jeans, too. He examined his mood and doubted it was one to tolerate children just at the moment. The feeling was creeping back to his arm and it was damned painful. He wanted to swear—he had a good vocabulary, he'd been complimented on it more than once—but, of course, that was now out of the question. He knew that much about children.

"Hi," the girl said. "You're awake now."

Read the rest of the excerpt HERE .

♥

Dreamspinner Discount this weekend!

THIS WEEKEND ONLY you can pick up all Dreamspinner Press titles at Rainbow eBooks for

20% off.

Click on the button to go straight to Rainbow eBooks, starting tomorrow (Saturday).





Here's My Page on the site, though it includes other titles than Dreamspinner's which unfortunately won't be 20% off... but you may like to browse regardless!

Happy reading this weekend ♥

Just dropped in at Sloane Taylor's...

My new novel 72 Hours is featured this week on fellow author Sloane Taylor's Blog , where she talks me up so embarrassingly well, I barely recognise myself LOL.

Sloane interviews many authors on her blog and is a generous and charming hostess. Damned fine cook, too, though when she gets the time when she's writing all these hot, witty books, I have no idea :).

Here's the seductive BUY LINK for 72 Hours. I can only hope you were wondering...

And watch out for my return post about the gorgeous Sloane's own new release French Kiss this weekend!

♥

ILLUSTRATED MEN: art and fiction, a great combination

Illustrated Men is now out for sale in Ebook at MLR and Amazon in print.

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Today I'd like to feature the author Justin Shepherd.



The pictures of Michael's he chose to illustrate are Red Truck and Let No Man Put Asunder.

RED TRUCK

"I first encountered Michael and his work at a gay art show in New York, where he was one of the exhibitors. I've since acquired a nice collection of his pieces, which I've always found uniquely expressive, masculine and erotic. One piece in particular, Red Truck, seemed to hold a story, perhaps because I grew up in an agricultural area the picture struck a familiar chord. I set out to narrate what the story within the drawing might be. I sent a copy to Michael as the one who'd inspired the story, and to see what he thought of it, and I was glad that he liked the story. Michael then conceived the idea of the present book. I'm so glad the project has been realized, and hope that the stories and their corresponding art will be enjoyed by many readers."

VOWS

"Great strides are presently being made in the area of gay marriage, mostly in the civic and legal arenas. For the most part, the Church is no friend to this cause, so I was intrigued by Michael's bold rendering of a church wedding involving a gay couple. Early in my life I entered a Benedictine abbey, and while I'm glad I made the decision to leave, I'm equally glad for the experience of that way of life for the time that I was there. There are many riddles and contradictions in a monastery, and its members – many of whom are gay – have the same feelings and vulnerabilities as everyone else, but must manage them differently from everyone else. Inspired by Michael's drawing, I tried to examine this aspect of monastic life in the context of two young monks with a physical and emotional attraction to one another. At the same time I wanted to offer a reminder that long ago the Church took a very different view of this subject than it does today; and maybe even suggest a hope that that view may once again be adopted. I showed the story to a number of friends who are in religious life, and I was struck by how deeply it resonated with them."


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From the author and inspiration, Michael Breyette:

Please note: Michael's site contains ADULT art and you should be of age and maturity to access it.

"A thousand words, a single picture... Since artists are often called upon to turn prose into a visual for such things as book covers, I wondered, would writers be able to pick up the creative torch and run in the opposite direction? I had little doubts they could and it got me excited wondering what they would come up with for my own pastel paintings. So with that it mind I though it would be fun to launch a contest and invite friends, fans of my art, amateur scribes, professionals writers, really anyone who wanted, to pick a painting from my body of work and build a short story around it. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. I wanted to find out if that was true.

See Michael's site for full details of all his art.


"The Red Truck" by Justin Shepherd /(inspired by Red Truck)
"Booch" by L.John Williams /(inspired by Red, Wet & Blue)
"Dashing Through the Snow" by Todd Schoonover /(inspired by Dashing Through the Snow)
"Dirty Laundry" by Veronica / (inspired by Dirty Laundry)
"Don't Ask Don't Tell" by Aleksandr Voinov & Marquesate / (inspired by Don't Ask Don't Tell)
"Idol" by L. John Williams /(inspired by Night on the Town)
"The Pick Up" by Harold Dixon /(inspired by Leaving Las Vegas)
"Morning Glory" by Michael Breyette /(inspired by Morning Glory)
"Summer in the City" by Linda Schnelle /(inspired by Drenched)
"A Real Man" by John Stewart /(inspired by Bottom)
"Metamorphosis" by George Seaton /(inspired by Metamorphosis)
"Texas Twilight" by Gabriel Morgan /(inspired by Carson)
"Photo/Model" by Alan Bennett Ilagan /(inspired by Alan in Blue)
"Dirty Laundry" by Todd Peissig /(inspired by Dirty Laundry)
"GWM 52" by Harold Dixion /(inspired by Sunday Paper)
"Vows" by Justin Shepherd /(inspired by Let No Man Put Asunder)
"End of the Line" by Clare London /(inspired by Trainspotting)

COME ON OVER TO ETHAN'S TOMORROW!

Where will I be at some stage tomorrow? At Ethan Day's Yahoo Group , that's where! :)



"Sunday, September 26th is Gay Day at my Yahoo Group. Gay Day is the one day a month when the best authors in GLBT Romance stop by to post excerpts of their new and upcoming releases.



The following authors will be generously offering giveaways you can enter to win:

J.P. BOWIE – WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
STEVIE WOODS – REVENGE IS A DISH
ANDREW GREY – SHARED RANGE
AKM MILES - STONE CANYON
CLARE LONDON – 72 ...

Rummage Sale at the Wiki...

Only a week left for all these Bargains!

Come and see what the GLBT Bookshelf Rummage Sale has to tempt your reading needs! It's winding up on Sept 30, so hurry on over.

Nothing of mine this time, I'm afraid, but I've already bought some great fiction for myself - and at great prices! Plus it's a way to support this valuable and enthusiastic resource.

"It's on again -- get great deals on favorite writers and titles, meet new authors, catch up on out-of-print titles ... and support GLBT Bookshelf...

Discounts at Dreamspinner!

In celebration of the end of the ban on gay adoption in Florida, Dreamspinner Press is offering a 20% discount all weekend on all titles, so if you didn't get your shopping done yesterday, now's your chance.

There's also a giveaway today and tomorrow for signed copies of Her Two Dads , since it centers around a non-traditional family. To enter, leave a comment on the note at the Facebook page.

And of course, as always, spread the word!

*****

Just saying...you know. I do have a new book out at ...

It's hard not to feel persecuted...:)

If I had actually received all the $1m-odd lottery prizes I've been promised in spam mail over the last few days, I'd be posting this from my luxury villa in the sun, a Margarita (or twenty) at hand.

Has anyone else seen an increase in spam to Hotmail this last week? It's noticeable to me - instead of 2 or 3 every couple of days, I'm now getting 12-15 a day.

I've changed my password / secret question / alternate email etc etc in case I've been 'spoofed' so I'm hoping it'll die down. I don't rea...

RECENT REVIEWS

I've had a couple of lovely reviews recently:

From Kassa on Blinded by Our Eyes .

EXCERPT: Overall I enjoyed reading Blinded by Our Eyes for the great cast and compelling mystery. It's not perfect but the charm of the main characters translates very well and the story sucks you in. The small details, carefully worded dialogue, and incorporation of art crafts a great backdrop to a classic tale with a fresh spin. Although the final ending bugged me I still recommend this to readers if you're...

ILLUSTRATED MEN: another fine story

Illustrated Men is now out for sale in Ebook at MLR and Amazon in print.

*************

Today I'd like to feature the author George Seaton .



The picture of Michael's he chose to illustrate is Metamorphosis.

"As to the genesis of the short, "Metamorphosis," I wont giveaway the content of the picture, or my storytelling that accompanies it. (Maybe just a snippet.) What I will tell you is that when I first looked at Bryettet's painting, "Metamorphosis," I was immediately taken back to a very much sim...