Ryan Field's Blog, page 497

Mrs Slocombe's pussy

Logo's Questionable Programming

There's an interesting article by Viktor Kerney in Bilerico about the Logo channel's new programming. You can read about it here in full.

Logo revealed a new concept to their television programming this week. Their goal is to reach a more mainstream audience and shake-up their traditional lineup.

So maybe this is why I haven't been watching Logo? My taste is eclectic and I'm just as likely to watch Johnny Knoxville's "Jackass" (love that show) as I am a PBS documentary about former President Clinton. But I've been missing a lot of the content on Logo and I've been wondering why the programming has been so questionable.

This is what General Manager and Executive Vice President, Lisa Sherman, thinks:

Culturally, we're past the tipping point. For gays and lesbians, it's part of who they are, but they don't lead with it, because many are leading fully integrated, mainstream lives. Our goal at Logo has always been to honestly reflect our viewers' lives. We're now reinforcing our commitment to them with programming that truly mirrors how many of them are living and want to be entertained today.

Blah, blah, blah. The weather channel tried to do something like this recently and failed. They started putting on old movies and everyone screamed.

The author of the article in Bilerico says this:

Really? I couldn't imagine BET revealing a new line of shows that didn't focus on Black issues or the Black community. Could you imagine Friends on BET? No, and I can't understand why the execs would take this route. If they wanted to reach a broader audience, they could start with a few scripted shows that showcase different aspects of our community, reality shows that go beyond gossip and sex, and a serious news show.

I can understand why they would take this route. Because they just don't know any better. As a gay author, you'd be amazed at how many times I'm questioned about gay content and how gay characters would react or behave. I've been questioned and censored by more people than I can even count. It seems to be a trend these days. As a sidenote, this never happened with any gay owned and operated publisher or press I've worked with. And I've worked with them all.

Please take the time to read the rest of this article. At the very least, you'll find out why there are so few LGBT shows on Logo these days.

List of New Releases Coming Out This Spring and a Few Changes

"The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a lifetime!"

I've had a few e-mails asking me about why my ravenous romance titles have slowed down. First, I love ravenous romance, I love the books I've published with them, and I'll always be there to support and promote them. The main reason you're seeing fewer titles is because I've been working on books with my pen names. The second reason is I've been working on more titles for loveyoudivine.com. The third reason is I can't split myself in three different ways. So even though I won't have as many releases at ravenous romance this spring, I have been working even harder to get other new releases out.

I wish I could disclose the pen names. But that would be counterproductive to having a pen name, or names. Pen names for me are more experimental. Frankly, I don't like using them. I always feel more comfortable with my own name, Ryan Field, which I can stand behind. But I do use pen names to see how I'll do in other genres.

One ravenous romance release I'm looking forward to is "The Virgin Billionaire's Little Angel." This title is still tentative and is subject to change. But this is the last book in the Virgin Billionaire series and I had trouble saying good-bye to Luis and Jase.

This will be the final series for a while. I never wanted to do one, in spite of this I had a blast doing it, and I don't want to push my luck right now. The entire Virgin Billionaire series surprised me more than anything I've done before. It's hard to repeat something you loved doing so much and has been so well received by readers.

On March second, I have "Unmentionable: The Men Who Loved on the Titanic," being released with Loveyoudivine.com. This is a very long short story...or a short novella. I've always been fascinated by this time period in history, and with the Titanic. A psychic once told me I was on the Titanic in a past life. I'm not sure I believe in this :) But it's food for thought.




After these two releases, I have an 8,000 word story being released by loveyoudivine.com titled, "Cowboy Howdy." I've wanted to do another western themed m/m romance for a while and haven't had time. I made time and did it. I'll post more soon.

Right now I'm working on two things at the same time. One is a short story I posted about earlier this week called "Shmacked." The other is a full length novel that's m/m romance tentatively titled, "Chase of a Lifetime." It's about a younger guy who falls in love with his best friend's father. The father has been living a lie all his life; the younger guy has been in the closet and he's a virgin. I'm enjoying the emotions with this book more than any books I've written before. I'll post more details down the line.

And, this is a big one for me. I'm looking into indie publishing with Amazon. I'm not saying I'm doing it. But I'm looking into it, with my partner, to see if it's something I want to do. Though Tony, my parnter, worked corporate sales for fifteen years until he left to start his own business/firm two years ago, he's a tech genius and he would be doing all the tech work if I decided to do an Amazon digital release. Nothing is definite there yet. It's a huge decision because I'll be taking on a lot more work. But if I do decide to do this, I'll post it here first.

Let's just say I'm taking Joe Konrath's advice in this sense: as a career writer I'm thinking about where I'll be five years from now, not five months from now.

Bathhouse Blog: Ad Allegedly Being Censored?

This is interesting to me because I face censorship all the time. It's mostly in small ways, and from those who are way to PC. But it's still censorship, even if their hearts are in the right places. I've learned to choose my battles with care. Ranting makes you feel better for a short time but doesn't solve anything in the long run.

I'm honestly not exactly certain what this means, with regard to the shirtless guy in the ad. I once owned a small chain of tanning salons, before we knew all there was to know about indoor tanning, and my ads were censored from more than one business establishment. The ads were nothing more than attractive women in bathing suits, standard industry photos you'd find in any drugstore where tanning products are sold. Nothing more than you'd see on any beach in America. But certain business owners...those who claimed they were "family" oriented...thought the women in the photos were too risque. Go figure.

Here's the link to Bathhouse Blog.

The Rainbow Book Fair in Greenwich Village: All Male Romance

The Rainbow Book Fair in Greenwich Village is going to be held this March, on the 24th. A lot of publishers and authors have been preparing. I've signed and returned tons of bookplates for loveyoudivine.com, and other authors have been posting and working even harder to make this event something special. I've donated free books, and so have other authors, as free give-aways.

I asked Tristan to send me something that I could post for readers and other authors. Here's her reply:





All Male Romance (allmaleromance.com) is "a small 'community' of writers with one thing in common: We love gay romantic fiction." It is a website "dedicated to bringing readers of m/m romantic fiction together with the authors they love!!" —SPONSOR—

Come visit us at: Table A8, and take home free handouts and a CD!

4th ANNUAL NEW YORK RAINBOW BOOK FAIR

Saturday, March 24, 2012 11am–5:30pm

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center 208 West 13th Street NYC

I'm going to be away a good deal of March. I go to South Beach this time each year, where I work most of the time and spend the rest of the time with my brother and my partner, Tony. But we're driving down because of the dogs and my schedule isn't written in granite. So I'm trying to work it out so I'll be back in time to attend the book fair. There is nothing I love more than walking around through book fair in the Village in the early spring (To be honest, I love this a lot more than hot Florida, but when you're in a relationship you have make compromises :). Everything in the world changes constantly, but some things always make you feel as if you've gone home again. And Greenwich Village in the early spring is one of them.

Artist Michael Iskra

I've often written about the gallery I owned for ten years in New Hope, PA. Great times...1992-2002. The gallery allowed me the free time I needed, when it wasn't busy, to write fiction and pursue a second career as a writer. It's always been important to me to be surrounded by great art. I actually crave it.

Born in America in 1947. Michael Iskra studied the fine arts at the Hussian school of Art in Philadelphia and Bucks County Community College. Michael has created a language of art that reduces his forms to their essential elements. His simplicity of design evokes a myriad of mystery for the viewer. Michael's forte is the nude. His work also includes abstracts, portraits, and landscapes. In the milieu of his creations there exists an appeal to all viewers."

I recently ran across one of the artists I represented during that period in my life, Michael Iskra. There's a painting of flowers, "Lavender Pond," on his web site that brings back wonderful memories. I sold several of Michael's paintings over the years. But for some reason this one didn't. I'm almost secretly pleased because I haven't seen it in about ten years. Not a day went by when I didn't open the door every morning and stare at that painting for a few minutes.

I'm still kicking myself for not buying one of his paintings myself of a ballerina. A woman from New York bought it and presented it to her husband-to-be.

Check out Michael's web site for more information about him, and to view other works of art. There's a John Lennon that I think not only depicts Lennon very well, but also captures the time period perfectly. I hesitate to post photos of his work here because I'd rather not infringe on his copyrights. No one, not ever, took photos of my artists in the gallery without permission.

"Shmacked"

According to Urban Dictionary, this is what "Shmacked" means:

To become intoxicated to the point of not even being able to stand up, know what's going on, or correctly pronounce any word.

The word has been gaining a lot of attention lately.

There's a youtube video and a facebook page.

The reason I'm posting about it now is because I've been working on a short story titled, "Shmacked." It's not exactly formula romance, not by any means. It's more new adult m/m fiction, with adult characters in adult situations...written for adults by an adult.

The story will be released sometime in April or May. I have "Unmentionable: The Men Who Loved On The Titanic," coming out on March 2, and "Cowboy Howdy" coming out toward the end of March. And though I'm still working on "Shmacked," it will be submitted for edits sometime within the next two weeks.

The basic storyline is more humorous than serious this time, where two consenting adults who already know each other meet on a cruise ship by accident. One is an uptight gay man who can't seem to relax and the other is younger and more aggressive who is trying to get the uptight one to relax. He figures the only way to get the older one to relax is to get him "shmacked." They don't drink out of plastic cups in a dorm room. They drink from crystal martini glasses on a cruise ship.

I didn't know what shmacked meant until I overheard my two nephews in college joking around about it recently. I know it's not the most tasteful topic to write about. But context is everything. I've already written about a pot belly pet pig named "Dolly" who ate a roast loin of pork. Had I known better at the time I would have changed the pig's name to Ann (inside joke). And of course there's the infamous burping dick scene, which happens to be one of my own personal favorites as far as satirical erotica goes (you can't take yourself too seriously :). So I figured it might be interesting to see what happens when two grown men, two consenting adults who have good jobs and pay taxes, wind up getting shmacked on a cruise ship for the first time in their lives. For those who aren't sure about this yet, gay men love to have fun. And when we party, we don't screw around.

I'll post more about it as we get closer to the release date. I'll post product descriptions, in detail, so readers know what they are getting and they don't have to depend on retail web sites where e-books are sold. The only thing I'm worried about is the cover. I have no idea what I'm going to tell the cover artist for this one.

More About Vetting Reviews...

This week I've read a few interesting pieces about how to find helpful reviews when shopping for books. One in particular discussed how one self-published author has been allegedly writing hundreds of false reviews with different identities and leaving them on Amazon and Goodreads. No links or names in this post. I did some fact checking and all I could come up with were opinions and hearsay. I'm a proud American: I believe we are all innocent until proven guilty.

I read another post about how retail web sites don't categorize e-books the way they should. In other words, readers will often purchase an e-book thinking they are getting a non-erotic romance and they wind up with a highly erotic romance. I once purchased what I thought was a highly erotic romance and wound up with the equivalent of Daisy-Jane Goes Fly Fishing. The most erotic thing about that book was the category in which it had been listed.

As a reader, what these articles proved to me is that it's not easy to vet book reviews anywhere. I even found trouble with RoseMarie Terenzio's, "Fairytale Interrupted," because some readers actually left one star reviews based on the fact that they were mad about not getting a bio about John Kennedy, Jr. It's clearly stated, from People Magazine to the smallest retail web site, that Ms. Terenzio's book is a memoir about HER life, not John Kennedy's life. And yet people slammed her in reviews for this. Which makes it all the more difficult to decide whether or not to purchase the book. I did buy it and I read it; I left a five star review because it was an excellent memoir...about ROSEMARIE'S LIFE.

I'll admit that most of the books I read are based on recommendations from friends or relatives. I trust their judgment and I'm rarely disappointed. I also read books that have been recommended by publications like People Magazine and Time Magazine. I trust them, too. Most of the time I'm not disappointed.

But no one I know in the "real world" has ever left a review on goodreads, amazon, or any other online web site. They belong to book clubs that meet weekly. They are voracious readers. But none of them have ever left a review online. I know at least fifteen other people who have read and loved RoseMarie Terenzio's memoir, and none have bothered to read or write book reviews. They all heard about the book through word of mouth.

Which makes shopping for books even more difficult sometimes. Although the Internet is growing day by day, the majority of people in the "real world" only use the Internet as a resource for basic information. I've personally learned never to believe any political information on the Internet unless it comes from a proven reliable source or I've triple checked to make sure it is accurate.

But, unlike my friends, I do spend a great deal of time on the Internet. And once in a while I come across a book that looks interesting and I need to check it out. I always go to amazon and then to goodreads first. I often do searches to see if there are any online professional reviews. If the book is erotic in nature, I don't always worry about the number of reviews written. People who read erotic romance are discreet and they don't all leave reviews, especially with their names.

And then after I've done all this, I always do one final check. I go over to either Barnes & Noble or Kobo and check out the reviews left there. Unfortunately, many books aren't on these web sites. But those books I've checked that have been there tend to have slightly different reviews than amazon or goodreads. The bad reviews seem less vicious; the good reviews seem less contrived. I don't know why this is or if it means anything significant. But I do think it's a good way to vet books and reviews if you're not sure about making a purchase.

So the next time you want to get a good overall view about a certain book, don't forget to check out the reviews on Barnes & Noble and Kobo, too. If you're like me, you'll find it more than interesting to see the marked differences of opinion. And then, in the end, sometimes you just have to take a chance and go for it even if you're not sure. Most of the time you can tell whether or not you'll like the writing by the free excerpt, and that always counts for something.

I'm On BestGayBlogs

Someone pointed me to bestgayblogs.com to show me that my blog has been listed there.

Here's the link. I'm on the bottom, pardon the pun.

I couldn't be more thrilled. For a long time, I worked for the two guys who actually started bestgayblogs.com...a nice couple from Long Island with whom I had a lot in common. I've continued to follow the new owners and I'm always finding gay blogs I enjoy reading. For most, one common thing still occurs: blogging is cathartic.

Check it out to find more gay blogs than you ever dreamed were out there.

Literary Agent Mitchell Waters, FDU Graduate, Talks About Publishing

Even though I've gone digital in almost every area of my life, there are two magazines I still read in hard copy: Architectural Digest and my university alumni magazine. You can't get a real feeling for the photos in AD unless you read them in print and my brother is one of their biggest advertisers. And reading my alumni magazine takes me back to great memories when life was simpler for all of us. I'm not ready to go digital there yet.

I never know what I'm going to see in the alumni magazine. But I always find something that connects me back to my days on the Florham Madison Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University. This time, in the most recent issue, I read a piece about two people who graduated about ten years before me. One is Curtis Brown literary agent, Mitchell Waters, and the other is an author, Jon Reiner, who wrote The Man who Couldn't Eat. The book title caught my eye first. I'm going to read it because it looks interesting and I like to support fellow alumni. And then I read that his agent, Mitchell Waters, also went to the Florham Madison Campus at FDU.

I didn't know either of them personally, but they both were in the English department and Theater department, which tends to be a closely knit group. I majored in English and spent most of my free time in the Theater department. I'm sure we know the same people (profs at private universities never leave), especially Harvey Flaxman who will always be infamous for this Hollywood classic. I took a fascinating history of film course with Flaxman once and loved every minute of it.

I was curious and did a quick search about both Reiner and Waters. And I found a great interview that agent Mitchell Waters did where he talks about various aspects of publishing and how it's changing. The other day I wrote about about Joe Konrath and he had some pretty harsh words for agents and publishers. I agree with him to a certain extent, but Konrath's big pushy Internet mouth turns me off sometimes. So today I'd like to balance that post with this wonderful interview by Lit Agent, Mitchell Waters. Speaking from my own experience, as an author who is always on guard with publishers because he doesn't have an agent, I firmly believe authors will need agents in the future more than they ever have. Even authors published by small digital presses will need agents. And that's because ALL publishers think in terms of their own best interests, which isn't always in the best interest of the author.

Here's one question from the interview, with Dell Smith. And you can read more here.
I highly recommend reading it in full.

BTM: How has the publishing industry changed since you started working as an agent?

MW: Everything is harder. Somehow I manage to continue to be surprised at how hard it is for editors to acquire books they love. The amount of support they have to gather from amongst their colleagues is daunting and discouraging. An editor can get support from fellow editors, established editors who are legends in their fields, publicity and marketing, and still not be able to convince the publisher to take something on. Of course, that makes our job more frustrating and challenging, but I certainly don't envy the acquiring editors.

There is a greater divide between the haves and have-nots, which new technology goes some way to ameliorate, but it remains a fact. On the fiction side, there is an intense pressure to be high-concept and/or try one's hand at a commercial genre. In certain kinds of non-fiction, you seem to need to be a celebrity, or at least have a significant television or Internet presence. While it still helps to be an expert in a field who has an interesting idea, these other factors appear to carry more weight than ever.