Ryan Field's Blog, page 555
May 29, 2011
Why I Won't Do Ads On This Blog Right Now...
I've been approached by a few people about placing ads here on the blog. I've thought about it seriously. It's not that I'm against ads on blogs. But I rarely ever pay attention to them. For that matter, I don't pay attention to ads on facebook either. I find them intrusive and I automatically drift in the opposite direction of ads like this. And instead of leaving me with a subconscious desire to purchase the product being advertised, I wind up with a conscious desire to avoid places where there are too many ads. Most are extremely cheesy looking.
I'm also unsure about the money these ads generate. It looks like nickle and diming to me. I could be wrong. I haven't done it. Maybe they do make money. But speaking as someone who has owned an operated two good businesses and bought and sold my fair share of high end real estate I don't like wasting my time...or taking the risk of annoying my regular blog readers for nickles and dimes. Since I started the blog...not for profit at all...I've also started generating thousands of hits a week to my own surprise. And I take each and every blog reader as seriously as I take the readers who buy my books.
Being that I don't often review books here on the blog, it wouldn't be a conflict of interest if I started doing ads. I will comment on books I love once in a while, but my taste is so eclectic I rarely zoom in on any one particular genre. And, this will never be a review blog.
A lot of the ads I've been approached about have been geared toward the adult entertainment industry. I have no problem with this. I write a lot of erotica and I don't judge anyone. But this blog is, and always has been, pg rated. And even that's stretching it...it's more like g-rated as far as blog posts go. If I were to have ads here promoting something in the adult entertainment industry I'd have to do that Google Content Warning Page. And they annoy the hell out of me.
So I don't see myself agreeing to doing any ads here on this blog, at least for the time being. I may change my mind in the future. But right now things are going to stay the same. And if anyone does want to comment about their experiences when it comes to ads on blogs, I'd love to hear all thoughts. I don't have any experience with these ads and I'm basing my decision not to have ads on pure instinct, with regard to what I like or don't like when I'm reading other blogs.
I'm also unsure about the money these ads generate. It looks like nickle and diming to me. I could be wrong. I haven't done it. Maybe they do make money. But speaking as someone who has owned an operated two good businesses and bought and sold my fair share of high end real estate I don't like wasting my time...or taking the risk of annoying my regular blog readers for nickles and dimes. Since I started the blog...not for profit at all...I've also started generating thousands of hits a week to my own surprise. And I take each and every blog reader as seriously as I take the readers who buy my books.
Being that I don't often review books here on the blog, it wouldn't be a conflict of interest if I started doing ads. I will comment on books I love once in a while, but my taste is so eclectic I rarely zoom in on any one particular genre. And, this will never be a review blog.
A lot of the ads I've been approached about have been geared toward the adult entertainment industry. I have no problem with this. I write a lot of erotica and I don't judge anyone. But this blog is, and always has been, pg rated. And even that's stretching it...it's more like g-rated as far as blog posts go. If I were to have ads here promoting something in the adult entertainment industry I'd have to do that Google Content Warning Page. And they annoy the hell out of me.
So I don't see myself agreeing to doing any ads here on this blog, at least for the time being. I may change my mind in the future. But right now things are going to stay the same. And if anyone does want to comment about their experiences when it comes to ads on blogs, I'd love to hear all thoughts. I don't have any experience with these ads and I'm basing my decision not to have ads on pure instinct, with regard to what I like or don't like when I'm reading other blogs.
May 27, 2011
Unpublished Excerpt: The Virgin Billionaire and the Evil Twin
Earlier this week, I pubbed and excerpt from The Virgin Billionaire and the Evil Twin from an excerpt that's already been released. And now here's one that hasn't been released anywhere else but here.
Chapter Five
When the phone rang, Luis thought it was Jase calling from Alaska. He was just getting out of the bathtub and there were still suds on his body from the bubble bath he'd used. He rarely took bubble baths because he never had enough time to indulge himself. But with Jase and Hunter in Alaska visiting Jase's family, Luis had decided to pamper himself a little that night. He'd been hoping a nice hot bath would calm his nerves a little, too. His stomach had been turning since his twin brother, Eddie, who now referred to himself as Gage Weston, stormed out of the house earlier that afternoon, leaving them with unfinished business once again.
Luis reached for the phone he'd placed on the marble vanity in the bathroom in case Jase called and said hello. He grabbed a thick white towel with his other hand and started patting a mound of bubbles between his smooth, wet legs. He was hoping it would be Jase and they could have phone sex. He felt sexy standing there naked with bubbles dripping down his body.
But it was a bad connection and Luis had to ask twice, "Who is this?"
"I said, it's your brother, asshole."
"Eddie," Luis said. "Is that you? Where are you? We have a bad connection and I can hardly hear you." He wiped a few bubbles on his ass and set the towel on the marble vanity. The minute he knew it was his twin brother, he'd stopped feeling sexy.
"I need to see you tonight," Gage said. Though the connection was terrible, Luis picked up a hint of panic in his brother's voice.
"I just stepped out of the bath tub," Luis said. "I'm dripping in bubbles and I was just going to go to bed. Can't this wait until tomorrow?" The last thing Luis wanted that night was another bad scene with his brother.
"It can't wait," Gage said. "I need you to come to my apartment. Be there by midnight."
"Are you in some kind of trouble?" Luis asked.
"I don't want to get into it on the phone," Gage said. "Just be at my door by midnight." Then Gage rattled off his Brooklyn address and said he'd be waiting for him inside the grocery store.
"I can't come to Brooklyn at this hour," Luis said. "I never go to neighborhoods like that at this hour." He knew he was being vicious with that comment. If it had been anyone else calling, Luis wouldn't have thought twice about going to Brooklyn. He had good friends in Brooklyn; he loved Brooklyn. But he wanted to hurt Gage's feelings and he wasn't even sure why. They'd been this way with each other all their lives, constantly competing, always trying to hurt each other. Now that Luis knew his twin brother couldn't even begin to compete with him financially, Luis took advantage of the opportunity to make him feel like a failure.
"What's the matter, Mrs. Virgin Billionaire?" Gage asked. "Are you too good to come to Brooklyn? Are you too important to socialize with peasants like me?"
May 26, 2011
"Indie" Author...or Self-Published Author?
Early this morning before I started working on a new series, I checked out a few bloggers I like to follow on a daily basis and found an interesting post. The title of the post suggested I was going to be reading about "Indie" authors. I've been published by small presses myself many times. I love "Indie" publishers and "Indie" authors and look forward to reading anything about them.
The blog post I'm talking about was a guest post on a publishing blog I frequent often. The regular author of the blog wrote a short introduction paragraph and I decided to skip it and move right into the guest blogger's post to save time.
But I'd say about a quarter of the way into the guest post I stopped reading because things weren't making sense. The author was talking about editing costs, cover artist costs, and a list of other expenses I didn't expect to find in a blog post about "Indie" authors.
Then I started to wonder if I'd missed a few changes...whether or not it's become common practice for "Indie" publishers to now charge authors fees. I've always been a little fanatical about this. The way publishing has always worked is that the publisher pays the author, with either an advance, a flat fee, or royalties. I've never paid a publisher a single cent to have any of my work published. I've never paid a literary agent a reading fee. For me, paying a publisher or paying a literary agent is an automatic red flag. And I stay far away from those types because I don't think they are ethical.
I've been around for almost twenty years and I've seen a lot. I know for a fact there's one small press out there that charges authors editing fees, and there have been literary agents charging reading fees since the beginning of time.
But as I continued to read this blog post something wasn't right. The author of the post continued referring to herself as an "Indie" author, only it sounded more like she was talking about her experience as a self-published author.
So I went back and checked the blog owner's introduction, which I should have done in the first place. And sure enough, the blog owner introduced the guest blogger as a self-published author, not an "Indie" author. And the post was about self-publishing, not small presses.
I've always been a staunch supporter of self-published authors. I admire them and I've supported a few right here on my blog. But as far as I've always known...and like I said I've been around for a long time..."Indie" publishers are considered small presses. And the distinction has always been crystal clear.
At first I thought maybe the guest blogger was so new she was using a term she shouldn't have been using. But then I read the comment thread and found that I wasn't the only one confused, especially with the title of the post. Others thought it was misleading, too. I found this on wiki. But the biggest surprise of all was that for every comment that said the guest blogger was misleading the readers, there was another comment defending the use of "Indie" when referring to a self-published author.
So I learned something knew today. Evidently, "Indie" is now being used to refer to self-published authors as well as small presses.
I'm not commenting with my opinion at all. I don't think it makes a huge difference in the grand scheme for anyone. It might even catch on and become common practice. But I will say this. If I ever decide to self-publish anything (and I've thought about self-publishing very seriously in the past year), I'm going to proudly call myself a self-published author, not an "Indie" author. If I'm going to spend my hard earned money publishing my own book, I want full credit as a proud self-published author and I don't want anyone thinking I was published by a small press. I also don't want to mislead anyone either.
The blog post I'm talking about was a guest post on a publishing blog I frequent often. The regular author of the blog wrote a short introduction paragraph and I decided to skip it and move right into the guest blogger's post to save time.
But I'd say about a quarter of the way into the guest post I stopped reading because things weren't making sense. The author was talking about editing costs, cover artist costs, and a list of other expenses I didn't expect to find in a blog post about "Indie" authors.
Then I started to wonder if I'd missed a few changes...whether or not it's become common practice for "Indie" publishers to now charge authors fees. I've always been a little fanatical about this. The way publishing has always worked is that the publisher pays the author, with either an advance, a flat fee, or royalties. I've never paid a publisher a single cent to have any of my work published. I've never paid a literary agent a reading fee. For me, paying a publisher or paying a literary agent is an automatic red flag. And I stay far away from those types because I don't think they are ethical.
I've been around for almost twenty years and I've seen a lot. I know for a fact there's one small press out there that charges authors editing fees, and there have been literary agents charging reading fees since the beginning of time.
But as I continued to read this blog post something wasn't right. The author of the post continued referring to herself as an "Indie" author, only it sounded more like she was talking about her experience as a self-published author.
So I went back and checked the blog owner's introduction, which I should have done in the first place. And sure enough, the blog owner introduced the guest blogger as a self-published author, not an "Indie" author. And the post was about self-publishing, not small presses.
I've always been a staunch supporter of self-published authors. I admire them and I've supported a few right here on my blog. But as far as I've always known...and like I said I've been around for a long time..."Indie" publishers are considered small presses. And the distinction has always been crystal clear.
At first I thought maybe the guest blogger was so new she was using a term she shouldn't have been using. But then I read the comment thread and found that I wasn't the only one confused, especially with the title of the post. Others thought it was misleading, too. I found this on wiki. But the biggest surprise of all was that for every comment that said the guest blogger was misleading the readers, there was another comment defending the use of "Indie" when referring to a self-published author.
So I learned something knew today. Evidently, "Indie" is now being used to refer to self-published authors as well as small presses.
I'm not commenting with my opinion at all. I don't think it makes a huge difference in the grand scheme for anyone. It might even catch on and become common practice. But I will say this. If I ever decide to self-publish anything (and I've thought about self-publishing very seriously in the past year), I'm going to proudly call myself a self-published author, not an "Indie" author. If I'm going to spend my hard earned money publishing my own book, I want full credit as a proud self-published author and I don't want anyone thinking I was published by a small press. I also don't want to mislead anyone either.
Excerpt: THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE and the EVIL TWIN
THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE AND THE EVIL TWIN wasn't an easy book to write. Most of the book is from the evil twin's POV, which means he's seeing Luis and Jase in a completely different light. I even went back and changed a few parts during edits so he wouldn't come off looking too critical. But there is a happy ending, and a few unexpected emotional scenes between the twin brothers.
I based a lot of this book on personal experience. I don't have an evil twin. But I do have a gay brother close in age and I understand the dynamics in the relationship. The relationships between siblings can be complicated at best. In other words, I'm not standing on the outside looking in this time, which is usually the way the process works when writing fiction.
Chapter One
Gage Weston never wore hats, especially not baseball caps. He had
thick, wavy hair that he kept longer than most gay men in their late twenties did; he worked hard not to look like everyone else. He parted it in the center and bleached it himself with a drugstore frosting kit because he couldn't afford to waste money on foil wraps in an expensive New York hair salon. He even cut it himself, with three mirrors and a cheap pair of scissors he'd purchased at a beauty supply on Broadway.
His wardrobe revolved around six white dress shirts, three pairs of
jeans, and two black blazers. He owned three neckties, a pair of good black leather quarter boots, and a pair of running shoes. The black belt he owned was ten years old and his beige jeans and black dress slacks were almost twelve. Everything else in his small closet was either a castoff he'd found in a secondhand shop for less than five dollars or something he'd owned since he was a teenager.
On the morning he went to the opening of the new building for the
Angel Association in the West Village, he wore a black baseball cap on purpose. He also wore a white shirt, his darkest jeans, his black quarter boots, and the newest of his black sport jackets. He wanted to look nice, because this was one of those almost-formal affairs. But he didn't want to be recognized.
As he entered the Angel Association building, he lowered his head
and pulled the brim of the cap down as low as he could, practically covering his eyes. He shoved his hands into his pockets and hunched over a little. Gage had the kind of natural walk that could turn heads even when he wasn't trying for attention, and he wasn't trying now. His body seemed to swagger and his hips swayed a little. An older woman in a Chinese red dress standing beside the entrance door smiled and stepped aside. He noticed the way she glanced up and down at his legs and he sent her a smile so fast his
head didn't move and the corner of his lips hardly turned up. A group of pudgy gay men in their forties standing near a refreshment table sent him quick, individual glances and gaped at his crotch as if they hadn't seen a decent crotch in years. Gage kept walking as if he didn't notice them. He crossed through the main lobby, lowering his head even more, and stopped behind a group of people who were listening to Luis Fortune give a speech.
Gage knew more about Luis Fortune than anyone else in the room.
Luis was "married" to Jase Nicholas, who had been dubbed the Virgin
Billionaire by the press because he had made his billions with his Virgin Alaskan Spring Water company. Gage had been following Luis Fortune's life in New York for some time, ever since Luis had accidentally become mixed up in a sordid drug ring that involved Luis's used underwear and a few older gay real-estate agents in Manhattan who had fallen on hard times.
Gage had read Luis's sappy blog posts on that ridiculous gay romance blog called Elena's Romantic Treasures and Tidbits. He'd seen Luis's photos in magazines for which Luis had modeled professionally more times than he cared to recall. Gage even knew Luis and Jase had a weekend house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, called Cider Mill Farm; they traveled to Alaska as much as they could to spend time with Jase's family; and they had a preschool-aged son named Hunter who was really Jase's biological child.
It wasn't difficult to follow Luis Fortune's life now that he was
married to the Virgin Billionaire, especially since Luis had recently made headlines for getting involved with a shifty character named Dariussomething who had been harboring a grudge against Luis Fortune for exposing an underage pornographer in Los Angeles.
May 25, 2011
The M/M Romance Community Deserves a Round of Applause!!
In the past four or five years I've watched many changes happen within the publishing industry. All good changes, at least I think they are.
But I think the most wonderful change I've seen is how the M/M romance community has pulled together and formed such a solid, positive bond. Every day when I open my in-box there's a nice e-mail from a M/M romance author talking about a new book. These e-mails are always filled with positive energy, which is the best way to start off even the rainiest, cloudiest day of the week. I look forward to seeing who is doing what, and how they are doing it. Everyone seems to be doing something different, but just as interesting.
I used to dread opening my in-box in the morning. I never knew what to expect. If it wasn't spam, it was a political e-mail from a disgruntled friend with too much time to waste. And now when I open my mail I can't wait to see what's new and what's happening within the M/M romance community. There are so many wonderful books from which to choose my TBR list becomes longer each month. I have two Kobo e-readers, the Look Book and the regular Kobo, and my libraries are filled with more books than I ever dreamed I'd read.
I've also seen M/M authors bond together in ways I never could have predicted four or five years ago. We used to be set apart from each other and didn't have opportunities to communicate. But I've seen contests like The Rainbow Awards grow into positive representations of what all M/M authors are striving toward with their hard work. This includes cover artists and models as well. And no matter how busy anyone is, there's always time to help out a fellow author. Sometimes it comes in the form of offering advice, other times it comes in the form of providing support. The energy has become explosive; you can almost feel it everywhere you go these days on the Internet.
From social networks to personal blogs, almost all M/M authors are selflessly dedicated to creating changes and making positive moves that promote a better quality of life to the entire lgbt community. Some have become involved in wonderful organizations that provide support for people living with HIV and AIDS. Others have offered support to PETA and other animal rights organizations. I can't list all the organizations; it would take too long. Readers benefit, too. They get chances to win free digital readers and free e-books and communicate one on one with their favorite authors. And publishers are working with their authors in order to please their readers.
And the wonderful reviews sites that have popped up in the past four or five years that support the M/M community have become positive places where authors and readers can browse and learn information they wouldn't normally be able to find in bookshops and newspapers. In fact, there's so much information out there I set time aside to read these sites for pleasure most of the time. What used to be hard work is now something we look forward to doing.
If the changes that have happened recently are any indication of the changes yet to come, there's a lot to look forward to in the future. And I think that's what's going to happen. I get e-mails at least three or four times a week from new M/M authors asking questions about publishers, social media, and how to get started writing M/M fiction. And from what I've seen, there are a lot of great writers yet to come. They have fresh voices, creative concepts, and new approaches that haven't been done yet.
It's probably one of the best times to be part of a publishing community in the history of publishing. I don't know what it's like with other genres, but I hope they are experiencing the same exciting energy we're all experiencing in the M/M romance community.
But I think the most wonderful change I've seen is how the M/M romance community has pulled together and formed such a solid, positive bond. Every day when I open my in-box there's a nice e-mail from a M/M romance author talking about a new book. These e-mails are always filled with positive energy, which is the best way to start off even the rainiest, cloudiest day of the week. I look forward to seeing who is doing what, and how they are doing it. Everyone seems to be doing something different, but just as interesting.
I used to dread opening my in-box in the morning. I never knew what to expect. If it wasn't spam, it was a political e-mail from a disgruntled friend with too much time to waste. And now when I open my mail I can't wait to see what's new and what's happening within the M/M romance community. There are so many wonderful books from which to choose my TBR list becomes longer each month. I have two Kobo e-readers, the Look Book and the regular Kobo, and my libraries are filled with more books than I ever dreamed I'd read.
I've also seen M/M authors bond together in ways I never could have predicted four or five years ago. We used to be set apart from each other and didn't have opportunities to communicate. But I've seen contests like The Rainbow Awards grow into positive representations of what all M/M authors are striving toward with their hard work. This includes cover artists and models as well. And no matter how busy anyone is, there's always time to help out a fellow author. Sometimes it comes in the form of offering advice, other times it comes in the form of providing support. The energy has become explosive; you can almost feel it everywhere you go these days on the Internet.
From social networks to personal blogs, almost all M/M authors are selflessly dedicated to creating changes and making positive moves that promote a better quality of life to the entire lgbt community. Some have become involved in wonderful organizations that provide support for people living with HIV and AIDS. Others have offered support to PETA and other animal rights organizations. I can't list all the organizations; it would take too long. Readers benefit, too. They get chances to win free digital readers and free e-books and communicate one on one with their favorite authors. And publishers are working with their authors in order to please their readers.
And the wonderful reviews sites that have popped up in the past four or five years that support the M/M community have become positive places where authors and readers can browse and learn information they wouldn't normally be able to find in bookshops and newspapers. In fact, there's so much information out there I set time aside to read these sites for pleasure most of the time. What used to be hard work is now something we look forward to doing.
If the changes that have happened recently are any indication of the changes yet to come, there's a lot to look forward to in the future. And I think that's what's going to happen. I get e-mails at least three or four times a week from new M/M authors asking questions about publishers, social media, and how to get started writing M/M fiction. And from what I've seen, there are a lot of great writers yet to come. They have fresh voices, creative concepts, and new approaches that haven't been done yet.
It's probably one of the best times to be part of a publishing community in the history of publishing. I don't know what it's like with other genres, but I hope they are experiencing the same exciting energy we're all experiencing in the M/M romance community.
Summer Vacation Schedules...
I just posted something on facebook and figured I post about it here, too. Usually it's the other way around. I post here and link to FB.
Summer's here and a lot of people go away. And even though things move faster in publishing nowadays, people still take vacations. They plan ahead all year, looking forward to down time.
Editors go on vacation. They work hard and they deserve a break. Last year I started asking around, finding out when my editors would be away during the summer so I didn't bother them with e-mails and submissions. I'm doing the same thing this year, too.
The last thing I'd want if I were on vacation is an e-mail about a manuscript. And I think it's important for writers to extend this courtesy to all their editors. And when the editor gets back, he/she is all the more relaxed and ready to get back to work.[image error]
Summer's here and a lot of people go away. And even though things move faster in publishing nowadays, people still take vacations. They plan ahead all year, looking forward to down time.
Editors go on vacation. They work hard and they deserve a break. Last year I started asking around, finding out when my editors would be away during the summer so I didn't bother them with e-mails and submissions. I'm doing the same thing this year, too.
The last thing I'd want if I were on vacation is an e-mail about a manuscript. And I think it's important for writers to extend this courtesy to all their editors. And when the editor gets back, he/she is all the more relaxed and ready to get back to work.[image error]
Excerpt From Final Draft: Babycakes
I just finished looking over the final draft of Babycakes. It's a story about a young man who's been caring for his elderly mother for many years and finally gets a chance to travel to Australia and enjoy himself. There's a photo of the cover in the post below this.
Release Date is June 10th. Here's an excerpt...the first couple of paragraphs.
He was a man who had missed out on a lot of
fun in life is how Nate would have described
himself. After college, he went straight to law
school; after that, he went back to his dreary
hometown to open a small law office and take care
of his aging mother. He lived in Martha Falls, MD,
a small, square hamlet about fifty miles outside
of Baltimore and a million miles away from any
hint of a gay lifestyle. He'd settled there into the
banal, uninspired existence of caregiver and didn't
bother to leave again until a week after his
mother's funeral.
He was thirty-five years old by then but looked
more like twenty-five. An only child who had been
BABYCAKES
2
left with the responsibility of dealing with
Alzheimer's. He could have put her in a nursing
home. But he didn't.
Though many of his nights were spent rubbing
the clenched fists of his mother's boney,
translucent hands and softly explaining to her
there was no need to rant about being lost and
afraid, there had also been plenty of free time to
work out with weights in the basement and run
endless miles on the treadmill in his childhood
bedroom. While saving his sanity with exercise,
Nate developed strong, solid legs that led upward
to a lean, tight waist.
Release Date is June 10th. Here's an excerpt...the first couple of paragraphs.
He was a man who had missed out on a lot of
fun in life is how Nate would have described
himself. After college, he went straight to law
school; after that, he went back to his dreary
hometown to open a small law office and take care
of his aging mother. He lived in Martha Falls, MD,
a small, square hamlet about fifty miles outside
of Baltimore and a million miles away from any
hint of a gay lifestyle. He'd settled there into the
banal, uninspired existence of caregiver and didn't
bother to leave again until a week after his
mother's funeral.
He was thirty-five years old by then but looked
more like twenty-five. An only child who had been
BABYCAKES
2
left with the responsibility of dealing with
Alzheimer's. He could have put her in a nursing
home. But he didn't.
Though many of his nights were spent rubbing
the clenched fists of his mother's boney,
translucent hands and softly explaining to her
there was no need to rant about being lost and
afraid, there had also been plenty of free time to
work out with weights in the basement and run
endless miles on the treadmill in his childhood
bedroom. While saving his sanity with exercise,
Nate developed strong, solid legs that led upward
to a lean, tight waist.
May 24, 2011
More About Babycakes: Upcoming Release
I have a new short story being released sometime this month by loveyoudivine.com. I've been writing for lyd for about five years, ever since I found out I could publish short story e-books as stand alones. Up until then, for years, I'd always submitted my work to larger lgbt publishers like Cleis Press and Alyson Books. Before that, I was pubbed in periodicals and journals dating back to my college days.
Babycakes is a perfect example of what's been being published for many, many years within the gay fiction genre. It's the kind of story I would have submitted to an editor ten years ago for a gay anthology, not something I wrote because it's a hot trend right now. I've been right here doing this for a long time, loving every single minute of it.
But I'd also like to make it clear this is erotica, not romance. I always try to distinguish between the two here on the blog because I'm always reading about how readers can't tell the difference and wind up buying something they didn't expect. I also try to keep it simple...as simple as possible without being boxed-in. The short stories I write are usually more erotica than romance. The full length novels are usually erotic romance. And I always post something on the blog about this when there's a new release. It can get complicated, and booksellers don't always categorize properly. Strawberries and Cream at the Plaza is a short story, but there's nothing erotic about it...it's pure romance.
So if anyone has questions, feel free to e-mail me and I'll be more than happy to go into more detail. Readers do this all the time...some even ask for spoilers and I'm more than happy to oblige.
"Farmin Ain't Easy" - The Virgin Billionaire and the Evil Twin
As they say on The Beekman Boys, "Farmin ain't easy....and neither was writing this sequel, THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE AND THE EVIL TWIN, in the Virgin Billionaire series. This time most of the story is told from the POV of the evil twin. And he has an unusual slant on things, especially when it comes to his identical twin brother's life.
The Virgin Billionaire and the Evil Twin — Synopsis
When Luis Fortune's identical twin brother pays him a surprise visit after being estranged for more than ten years, Luis isn't prepared for the shock. Luis slips right back into the dangerous, competitive pattern that's always defined their relationship and laughs at his twin brother's bleached hair, his shabby clothes, and his new name, Gage Weston. Luis rolls his eyes when he finds out Gage has been living in Brooklyn for the last five years and working as a male stripper in The Village. In fact, Luis is so bitter he never even bothered to tell his husband, Jase, he had an identical twin brother.
And Gage is still angry about something that Luis did to him more than a decade ago that involved a man named Snake, and he isn't shy about letting Luis know he hasn't forgiven him. And Gage has never forgiven Luis for leaving him alone in Tennessee to take care of their aging, overly religious parents. This, Gage believes, set the course for his life, causing him to wind up a male stripper living in a low-rent studio apartment over a grocery store in Brooklyn, struggling to survive and dating a closeted New York City cop with whom Gage knows he will never be able to have a real relationship.
After a heated exchange, Gage walks out on Luis, vowing never to see him again. And then Gage experiences a series of life altering events that leave him devastated. So he comes up with a plan to get even with his spoiled twin brother and pay him back for all the heartache he's caused in the past. A plan that involves kidnapping Luis and locking him up in a room that was once a soundproof sex chamber, so Gage can assume Luis's identity and find out what it's like to be married to The Virgin Billionaire and have anything he wants.
But it's not as easy as Gage thinks it will be to take over his twin brother's life. Along the way, Gage meets someone very special he never intended to meet and winds up falling in love for the first time. And when Gage sees how his twin brother's life has really turned out with The Virgin Billionaire, it's not at all as he'd expected it would be.
Does Gage really hate his identical twin brother, Luis, enough to ruin Luis's happiness and assume his identity forever? Will Luis be able to survive being locked up all alone in a sex chamber with nothing but fattening foods, discount store clothing, and bad music? And will Gage ever be able to put the past aside and come to terms with Luis as an adult so Gage can pull his life together and focus on the man he truly loves?
May 23, 2011
About This "DNF" Business...
I've received a few e-mails from people regarding the "DNF" post I wrote a couple of days ago. Some of the e-mails are funny, all in good fun, moving along with the light-hearted spirit in which the post was written.
But some people were vehemently against DNF reviews and they weren't shy about stating their opinions. And others violently support DNF reviews, as if it were a cult or religion...to the point of using pejoratives and ranting about the Internet.
Frankly, I had no idea I would be poking the caged tiger. In fact, at the end of the post I praised DNF reviews because I'd found another great book thanks to a DNF review. I was simply sharing something I'd recently learned, and from the replies I received, a lot of people didn't know what a "DNF" review was. I'm sure a lot still don't. I'm even more certain most people don't care and never will. If you don't believe me, hop over to your local supermarket and take a random poll. "Excuse me," You can ask, "Do you know what a DNF is?" I'll bet you'll be surprised by both the expressions and the replies you'll garner.
But the point is I'm not for or against DNF reviews. This isn't a political or religious topic. And it's not even a topic on which I feel the need to form an opinion. It is what it is. I was just pointing out that I have my own personal rules and goals in life. I'm strict about finishing what I start. In other words, you're not going to come to my house and see half-painted walls, half finished projects, and half read books. When I start something, whether it's a book or a home improvement project, I finish it. And even if I don't like the results, I'm always satisfied, on an emotional level, with the fact that I stuck it out. I never thought I'd learn to drive a manual transmission. I almost Did Not Finish. But I did, and I'm glad I suffered through it.
So those who wrote hate letters in support of DNF reviews: calm yourselves. Seriously. I can understand and respect those who don't feel the need to finish things. I "get" what DNF means now. No one should have to finish a book...or any other project...if they don't feel like finishing. Not everyone subscribes to the same set of standards. I know a guy who started remodeling his bathroom ten years ago and he's still not finished. I have another friend who starts a new craft project every six months and never finishes a thing. And there's nothing wrong with this.
But I do think that some of the more aggressive types out there should take it all a little lighter. It's a DNF. It's a rating for a book review, not the results of an MRI. It has no huge emotional or phsyical impact on the quality of anyone's life one way or the other. And life's really too damn short to get all worked up for nothing.
But some people were vehemently against DNF reviews and they weren't shy about stating their opinions. And others violently support DNF reviews, as if it were a cult or religion...to the point of using pejoratives and ranting about the Internet.
Frankly, I had no idea I would be poking the caged tiger. In fact, at the end of the post I praised DNF reviews because I'd found another great book thanks to a DNF review. I was simply sharing something I'd recently learned, and from the replies I received, a lot of people didn't know what a "DNF" review was. I'm sure a lot still don't. I'm even more certain most people don't care and never will. If you don't believe me, hop over to your local supermarket and take a random poll. "Excuse me," You can ask, "Do you know what a DNF is?" I'll bet you'll be surprised by both the expressions and the replies you'll garner.
But the point is I'm not for or against DNF reviews. This isn't a political or religious topic. And it's not even a topic on which I feel the need to form an opinion. It is what it is. I was just pointing out that I have my own personal rules and goals in life. I'm strict about finishing what I start. In other words, you're not going to come to my house and see half-painted walls, half finished projects, and half read books. When I start something, whether it's a book or a home improvement project, I finish it. And even if I don't like the results, I'm always satisfied, on an emotional level, with the fact that I stuck it out. I never thought I'd learn to drive a manual transmission. I almost Did Not Finish. But I did, and I'm glad I suffered through it.
So those who wrote hate letters in support of DNF reviews: calm yourselves. Seriously. I can understand and respect those who don't feel the need to finish things. I "get" what DNF means now. No one should have to finish a book...or any other project...if they don't feel like finishing. Not everyone subscribes to the same set of standards. I know a guy who started remodeling his bathroom ten years ago and he's still not finished. I have another friend who starts a new craft project every six months and never finishes a thing. And there's nothing wrong with this.
But I do think that some of the more aggressive types out there should take it all a little lighter. It's a DNF. It's a rating for a book review, not the results of an MRI. It has no huge emotional or phsyical impact on the quality of anyone's life one way or the other. And life's really too damn short to get all worked up for nothing.
