Ryan Field's Blog, page 501

Huddle, Edited by Lori Perkins

As promised, here's the Amazon link for the new football anthology edited by Lori Perkins.

I read most of the book after I went over final edits for my story. I liked it a lot because there were authors I've read before. It's well written; the stories have good storylines. And all are hot.

For those who love football, you'll enjoy this. For those who want something to do while the rest of the country is watching the Superbowl tomorrow, this will keep you busy for a while (smile).

RWA, RWI: "No Same-Sex Entries" in MTM

Evidently, MTM is not taking same-sex entries anymore. It's stated right here in the rules and regulations on the RWI page, in bold black letters: Note: MTM will no longer accept same-sex entries in any category.

For those who don't know, MTM is the More than Magic contest. The More than Magic contest is conducted by RWI, which is a chapter of RWA. RWI means Romance Writers Ink. I think we all know what RWA is by now.

Frankly, I knew nothing about this until I read about it here, in this very eloquent blog post, which was posted by someone I don't know, Heidi Cullinan. Before I write anything else I'd like to thank Heidi for being so kind and so honest.

Heidi nails it with these lines alone:

I just can't get over the balls of stating, right there in black and white on a freaking website, "no same-sex entries." No Irish need apply. Whites only. Pick your discriminatory phrase and insert it right there, because they all fit.

She brings a huge reality check to all writers of M/M Romance with this:

Here's the truth. LGBT romance is growing more and more every day, but don't let anyone try and delude you it's anywhere but at the more sunlit alleys in the ghetto of the publishing world. Despite our very good sales within our digital-first houses, we aren't even on the map for most New York publishers.

Part of the reason I didn't find out about this until now is because I don't belong to RWA, nor do I follow any contests or anyone affiliated with RWA. I've been writing (and getting published) for over twenty years, without the help of RWA, RWI, or MTM. I don't think my m/m romance readers care about RWA. I'm not being snide about this; I just know where I'm not welcome and I'm being realistic. As an openly gay man I've suffered far worse than this. Until now I've never seen it posted on a web site, in actual words and letters, for the entire world to see.

In the grand scheme of my life, this doesn't bother me too much. It won't touch the quality of my life, nor will it stop me from writing as many m/m romances as I want to write. I doubt it will touch the quality of my readers lives much either. Those who love to read M/M Romance, which is growing daily in numbers, probably don't even know what RWA is.

In the end of Heidi's post, which I recommend reading in its entirety, she says this:

Are you an author of LGBT romances? Are you a reader of them? Are you an advocate of LGBT rights? Please write to RWI's contest coordinator (jackie.rwimagic@netscape.com). Please write to RWA. Please don't yell and throw glass. You can be hurt, but please be civil. One little pebble thrown becomes an excuse to call us the bullies. And you know? I don't even think RWA or RWI are the bullies. I think they're not thinking. I think they're thinking of themselves and keeping things quiet and easy. I think they don't think for one second saying "no gays" is the same as hanging "whites only" over a toilet.

If you are so inclined, by all means send out an e-mail to the address above in protest.

I have to think about this for a while. I'm not as kind as Heidi and I have zero tolerance for this. And I have no inclination to deal with people who would post something that offensive, in public, without thinking twice about it. I'd rather dismiss them completely, as being thoughtless, unkind, and irrelevant. I think most people would feel the same way if they were gay and they were treated this way by people who aren't significant enough to waste time on. Sometimes total dismissal works best.[image error]

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules For Writing Fiction

I've posted about how I hate seeing "said bookisms," in fiction. I've posted about a lot of common mistakes new writers make, always trying to back it up with good links and facts.

Here's something I love. It's ten rules for writing fiction by Elmore Leonard. I hope readers take heed with this post, too. In fact, I think it's especially important for readers to know these things nowadays being that they are reading so many inferior novels and don't even know it. You are, as readers, going through the slush pile at times and you don't even realize it. And you can spot these mistakes now in most excerpts on retail web sites where e-books are sold. I see them all the time.

This way, as readers and paying customers, you'll know the basics of what defines bad fiction. And when you go over to goodreads to leave a review for an author and you say something was poorly written, you'll know what you're talking about this time.

Here's what I'm talking about now. You can get there from here.

Elmore Leonard started out writing westerns, then turned his talents to crime fiction. One of the most popular and prolific writers of our time, he's written about two dozen novels, most of them bestsellers, such as Glitz, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, and Rum Punch. Unlike most genre writers, however, Leonard is taken seriously by the literary crowd.

What's Leonard's secret to being both popular and respectable? Perhaps you'll find some clues in his 10 tricks for good writing: *

1. Never open a book with weather.

2. Avoid prologues.

3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. (Mr. Leonard said, "Never." He didn't grumble, "Never." He didn't mumble, "Never." He said, "Never.")

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said"…he admonished gravely.

5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Raw Preview; HUDDLE: Football Anthology by Lori Perkins

(Update: Just received an e-mail where you can purchase the book here. And I'll post more links as I get them)

Every year around this time...Superbowl Sunday...Lori Perkins edits and publishes a new football anthology. While I was going over final edits, I asked if I could write a post with a preview and include her raw introduction. The answer was yes.

I've been in all the football anthologies since Lori started doing this, and I'm in the new one again this year. I don't have a cover yet and I don't have all the exact details. But I will post them soon. The title is: HUDDLE: EROTIC TALES OF FOOTBALL MENAGE. And I've read all the stories already while I was checking my own edits. I loved them. A few are written by authors I've read before and always enjoy...(Lisa Lane).

For now, here's the raw intro, below that is an excerpt from my story, SUPERBOWL SUNDAY AT THE GAY BAR.

Who doesn't love Super Bowl Sunday? Too much beer and booze, food that's proven to be bad for you, and a smorgasbord of beautiful, well-toned man-ass on big screen TV. And everybody's loving it. In public. Does it get much better than this?

Well, yes, if you read the stories in this sizzling anthology of football love and lust.

This year's football sextravagnza features threesomes (and a foursome) of all kinds by some of our favorite Ravenous Romance authors. Johnny Murdoc returns with his M/M/M high school farewell, while husband and wife writing team of Lisa and Tommy Lane show us, in explicit detail, what happens when the power goes out while watching the game. Derek Clendening gives us some tail at a Tailgate Party, and Courney Sheets lets us into the opposing team's locker room just before a big game. Ryan Field shows us what a gay Super Bowl party is like, and Stacy Brown serves up some very Hot Wings for two old flames.

So, grab a beer, a handful of Doritos, and enjoy!

Excerpt:


By the time my third Super Bowl Sunday party at the bar approached, I was a senior in Princeton and I'd already made a few close friends that I would hang out with at the gay bar on weekends. One of those friends was a feather of a guy named Joe Kremlish. Joe had mousy brown hair that always looked a little greasy and mussed, a long thin face with a square jaw, and the smallest, beadiest eyes I've ever seen on a human being. His body was rail thin and he stood with a slump, which created a sunken chest look. He wore loose stucco painter paints and beige jackets whenever he went to the bar. Though to look at him most people would never have guessed he was gay, he tended to speak with a slight lisp. When someone made a risqué comment he would blush, lean over, and cover his mouth with his hand. Sometimes I used to say shocking things on purpose, just to see his typical reaction.
My nickname for him became Mary Joe. It wasn't meant in a derogatory way. It was more of a good-natured, affectionate campy reference, because he was always so skittish about everything. He reminded me of a timid little girl named Mary Joe in a book I'd once read. He didn't go to Princeton with me. He was a few years older and he'd already graduated from Rutgers in New Brunswick. He worked at a posh hotel in Princeton at the front desk. I met him one night during my junior year after I'd tricked with a pharmaceutical salesman who worked for Johnson & Johnson. After we fucked, the salesman checked out of the hotel, walked me to my car, and patted me on the ass. I never saw him again either. But when I climbed into my car and realized I'd left my watch on a nightstand in the hotel room, I went back inside to see if I could go up and retrieve it before the maid went in to clean up the mess.
Mary Joe was working the front desk that night. I'd seen him before at the bar in New Hope and I knew he was gay. I flirted with him, made a few jokes about the salesman's big dick that made him blush, and he let me go back to the room to get my watch. After that, we struck up an unlikely friendship and started meeting at the bar in New Hope every Friday and Saturday night. It was nice to have a friend to stand around with and talk to when there was nothing else going on. Neither one of us were heavy drinkers; we didn't care too much about dancing in the disco. We both usually went home alone, but always with smiles on our faces because we'd entertained each other all night.
On the night of the Super Bowl Sunday party during my senior year at Princeton, I phoned Mary Joe at the hotel and told him I'd meet him at the bar earlier than usual that night. He took a quick, nervous breath and told me his sister in Lawrenceville had invited him to a Super Bowl party at her house, along with his Uncle Harv and Aunt Nan. I laughed and said, "Are you joking? You're going to sit in your sister's house, with her screaming little kids, eat bad food on paper plates with plastic utensils, drink beer, and listen to the straights during halftime when you could be with me in New Hope surrounded by hot men all night? Have you lost your mind, dude?"

Billy Ray Cyrus Signs with Amazon: Book Deal

Here's the link to HuffPost.

Here's part of the article:

Amazon.com, which has been aggressively expanding its publishing operation, announced Thursday that Cyrus would discuss with "great candor" everything from his early years to life as the parent of a teen superstar. Cyrus and his daughter starred together in the hit TV series "Hannah Montana."

I'm a huge Billy Ray Cyrus fan. I will most likely read the book. As a reader, I don't care who publishes it. I'll even pay full price for the digital version of a celeb auto bio/memoir because I love reading them.

However, I am curious about whether or not Billy Ray has a literary agent. How did he get this deal? Did he contact Amazon through his entertainment agent? Was there a collaboration? Did his manager do the work? I've read about other celebrities who have signed with Amazon and I've never seen a literary agent mentioned. I do know that Amazon does work with agents. I've never seen how any of these deals transpired and I'm curious.

I'm going to ask around and try to find out. If I get an answer, I'll update the post.

(Update: I did ask, and I received an answer. In short, these books are shopped by literary agents the same way they've always been shopped. They go out on submission to publishers, including Amazon. Evidently, Amazon won another round this time.)

2012 Rainbow Book Fair...

The photo above contains the book plates I have to sign and mail back to someone who will be at the 2012 Rainbow Book Fair in New York this March. These are book plates for my publisher, loveyoudivine.com. For those who don't know, book plates are now what authors and publishers often use for signed autographs. With digital books, because there are no actual books for authors to sign, readers who love digital books collect signed book plates and keep them in a variety of ways. Some have albums; others stick them right to their e-readers. I know that if Jonathan Franzen sent me a signed book plate, I'd paste it to my chest and show it to everyone and anyone I met.

But I digress. check out the link to the 2012 Rainbow Book Fair. And if you're going to be in Manhattan that weekend, you might want to stop by. I'm trying to figure out a way to be there myself. I'm supposed to be out of town until the 30Th of March. But if I can make it I will post about it here on the blog beforehand.

Upcoming Blog Events at Frost Lord

Anyone who follows me knows I'm not in one place all the time. I'm just as likely to post about a publishing related piece like agents publishing their clients work as I am to post about the horrific rat situation in New York.

I love to follow "Frost Lords," for a variety of reasons I've talked about before. And I just saw a link to a few interesting blog events that revolve around authors who blog.

Rather than link directly to each event, here's the link to "Frost Lords."[image error]

Edwardian Era and Homosexuality: Unmentionable

It's no mistake that I titled my new release with Loveyoudivine.com, UNMENTIONABLE: THE MEN WHO LOVED ON THE TITANIC. One hundred years ago, even a hint of homosexuality was considered taboo in all circles of society. And if you consider the social class distinctions of the Edwardian era, it becomes even more complicated.

First, I did a fair share of research on the Edwardian era for this book, on top of what I already knew. According to wiki, the Edwardian era ran from l901 - l910. If you read on, you'll see some believe the Edwardian era extended to the sinking of the Titanic...or to the beginning of WWI. And I read an interesting comment thread yesterday where others extend the era even longer. I've never believed that eras begin and end at one set time in history, so I'm going to refer to this story as a historical set during the Edwardian era and take sides with those who believe the era extended until WWI.

Obtaining this information was the easiest part of writing this story. The hardest part was trying to figure out how homosexual men would have lived in 1912. There's obviously very little information out there because men who loved other men in 1912 didn't discuss this openly...ever. What little information I could find was either a string of jokes about gay men on comment threads or bizarre opinions I didn't think could be trusted. And though more than a few things have been written about homosexuality in the Victorian era, there's very little for the Edwardian era. I would assume this is partly because most are more familiar with the Victorian era and they often either include the Edwardian era with the Victorian era...or confuse it with the Victorian era.

Unfortunately, I find distinct differences between the Victorian era and the Edwardian era. This is why I love the Edwardian era so much. So a good deal of my story about men who loved on the Titanic is fiction that was based on what I could pilfer from the basic information I could get about fashion, trends, and lifestyles during that time period. I didn't get into social class much in this book, and that's mainly because both characters are from similar social classes. This time social class didn't play a huge role in the storyline for me. The conflict, for me, was more about how homosexual men had to hide their true feelings and emotions, and the lengths to which they had to stoop in order to protect themselves.

But I did find one film review web site that had some fascinating information. It's a review of the film "Maurice," titled, "Merry Old England," written by, Michael D. Klemm. You can get there from here. I can almost guarantee that even if you aren't a fan of historicals and the Edwardian era, you'll find this article/review interesting.

To state the obvious, early twentieth century Edwardian England was not a good time to be gay. The climate was so bad that noted novelist E.M. Forster began writing a book with a homosexual hero in 1913 that he never published in his lifetime. [image error]

Interesting Facts: Gay Pride

I've posted something like this before, but I never seem to get enough of these things. And someone e-mailed me and asked me to post about gay pride again. So I'm doing it now.

I always felt cheated, in a way, because I missed out on all the beginnings of gay pride. For this reason, I rarely ever write about it in fiction. But I'm going to have to rectify this soon. It's part of the culture and it's the one time most of us can all come together and be one.

Here's the link.

Here's an interesting fact from the link:

The original rainbow flag had eight colors. It included hot pink and turquoise, symbolizing sexuality and art. These colors were taken out later due to production constraints and the need for design symmetry.

Here's another link about the history of gay pride.

And here's an excerpt:

After the Stonewall riots in 1969, many LGBT people—even those that did not witness the rebellion—were inspired to contribute to the cause. Gay rights had entered the national spotlight. LGBT people began organizing, protesting and mobilizing. On July 4, 1969, a year after the Stonewall riots, the Mattachine Society along with Frank Kameny, Craig Rodwell, Randy Wicker, Barbara Gittings, Kay Lahusen and many others, picketed in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia in what was called the Annual Reminder. The protest was quiet and organized to the dismay of Craig Rodwell who felt Frank Kameny and Mattachine's methods of calm protest were not enough.[image error]

Jon Fleming: Violence of the Mind

I received a notification the other day that looked interesting. This surprised me because most notifications don't interest me much. But this one was from Jon Fleming. The notification directed me to this link on facebook.

You can also find out more about Jon Fleming at this FB link.

You can follow him on twitter here.

If this isn't enough, check him out
The reason why I'm posting about Jon right now is because he sent me a film clip with info about "Violence of the Mind," and it blew me away. It was so good I watched it three more times.

Here's the most basic info I can post about right now:

When Sebastian Youngstrum (Ryan Kibby) meets the older, handsome Max Taymer, (Jon Fleming) a forbidden world awakens in the mind of the young man. The line between fantasy and reality is blurred when experimentations in taboo sex go too far. Sebastian wants more and Max is more than willing to lead him down the path of torture, pain and even murder.

Here's a link that will take you to the film clip I'm talking about. Trust me on this, check it out. You won't be disappointed.