Ryan Field's Blog, page 428

FS Parody Video with Matt Bomer; Vagina: The New Normal; New Adult Genre

I've been a fan of Matt Bomer for a long time. I've also been following all the articles about him playing the lead in the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey with newly conflicted emotions. On the one hand, I think he might be too good for it. On the other, I think it's time *openly* gay actors started playing straight male parts just as straight actors have been playing gay male parts in films like that Busted Back Mountain.

And speaking of parody like Busted Back Mou...

SCOTUS Overturned Ban on Interracial Marriage, Too

On Tuesday, March 26th, SCOTUS will listen to arguments that could overturn California's Proposition 8.

One thing among many things significant about this is that in 1967 SCOTUS overturned a ban on interracial marriage. Yes, for those who don't know, back then this was happening with mixed race couples. At that point in time...pre-Stonewall...you didn't even admit you were gay for fear of all kinds of negative repercussions.

It's interesting to see how history does, indeed, repeat itself. We n...

What Gay Men Read; Cleis Press Wins Award; FREE Excerpt "Fangsters"

Don't take the title, "What Gay Men Read," too literally, because trying to find out what any group reads in a general sense is not always simple. But I haven't seen any research on this, and I've always wondered. So I'm going to ask a few friends of mine who aren't authors and really do focus on reading for pure enjoyment. In other words, the only investment they have in a book is what they paid for it and how much they are going to get out of it.

The following list is from a longtime friend...

NFL Players Support Amway Boycott; KDP Newsletter; Freedom to Marry; Republicans for Gay Marriage

Two NFL players, Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo recently joined others in signing a boycott that's been growing slowly in popularity against Amway. They did this at the GLAAD awards last Saturday night with the founder of the righstequalrights.com campaign for equality, Fred Karger. For those who don't know, the DeVos family, and Doug DeVos who owns Amway, are allegedly the largest contributors to the National Organization for Marriage and they've given a half million...

About Book Covers, Self-publishing, and "Cherry Soda Cowboy"

Sometime this week I'll be posting the preview of a new book cover for my upcoming indie Amazon release, "Cherry Soda Cowboy." I will post a book description when I do this, and I'll talk a little about the book in more detail. But now I'd like to talk about book covers with self-published books, and some of the issues that can, and do, come up.

And there's a specific reason why. I'm designing this cover myself and I'm not using a cover artist this time. And even though it's going to take mor...

J.A. Konrath Makes $100,000 in Six Weeks; Not Enough Minority in Gay YA

For some reason, this seems to be the week where authors are talking about how much money they're making and J. A. Konrath is one of them. In a post titled "Exclusivity," that talks more about KDP select than money (I'm *becoming* a huge fan of KDP Select), Konrath says this:

I just checked my 6 week KDP total, which updated yesterday, and I've made over $100,000.

Although I've never been fond of people who talk about how much money they make in public, whether it's too much or not...

Amazon Publishing; Penny Marshall Book; Madonna as BoyScout; Ryan Seacrest Break Up

The following article about Amazon Publishing and Penny Marshall's book, My Mother was Nuts, dates back to 2011, but I wanted to do a follow up post since Marshall's book deal was announced to see where Marshall's book is and how it's been doing. I haven't seen much around, and I haven't read the book myself. But I'm thinking of buying the kindle version this week. I have a heavy fiction schedule until this summer and I like reading books like this for pleasure....

Music and Fiction: The Vegas Shark; You Are My Sunshine

I often use music in fiction to show how characters relate to events and situations around them. I don't always do it because it's not always needed. In The Virgin Billionaire I used a web site to show how Luis feels about great art and artistic male nudes. But I used rap music in Four Gay Weddings and a Funeral to show that some gay men...me...like rap music and don't like torch songs and show tunes. I'm doing it again now with The Silicon Valley Sex Scandal, which I'll post about soon.

In a...

My List of Published Fiction: Part Three

Here's the third and final post (for now...I really hate doing things like this) with a list of the books, stories, and novellas I've had pubbed over the years. I wish I could say that it's absolutely exact. But unfortunately I have lost track of a few things and I'm certain I've left something out. If and when these things come to me, I'll update accordingly. Some were only released in print, some go back to the 90's, and some aren't even listed on goodreads.

Here's a link to Part...

My List of Published Fiction: Part Two

I've been working on a list of the fiction I've had published over the years and this is part two. You can check out part one here if you are so inclined, where I also posted reasons why I'm doing this.

The following works are listed on Goodreads.com, and I've added an Amazon link to each one (a few have publisher links). Some are short stories and Novellas, so keep that in mind when you're checking them out at the links. Most web sites do add word counts and length.

Most of these works have...