Ryan Field's Blog, page 577

About This Casting Blame Regarding the Shooting Spree in Arizona

As I've stated many times, I'm not political. I write fun, trashy romantic fiction and don't have to be political. But I do have opinions when it comes to certain things, and I feel very strongly about the way people have been reacting to this horrendous tragedy in Arizona.

I've been wanting to write a decent blog post about it. But I kept falling short. So when I stumbled upon a blog post written by Lit Agent Janet Reid, I decided to pay it forward, so to speak, and link to it here.

In this case, Janet says it much better than I could. And I couldn't agree with her more. It's time to stop.

David Nelson dies at 74; last surviving member of the TV sitcom family

Finally, A Gay Character on TV that Doesn't Make Me Cringe...Shameless

One of the things I try to do with my books is to portray gay men in a variety of ways, hoping to break some of the long standing stereotypes. In this post, I recently commented on how I think the two gay characters in the TV show Modern Family are a classic case of TVfail with regard to the lgbt community. Although I have nothing personal against the actors playing these two characters and I'm sure they are both great guys in real life, I'm tired of watching the most highly profiled gay men in this country being portrayed as effeminate, comical, stereotypes. Hollywood did this 70 years ago with characters of African descent and they did it to get laughs, without caring about how many millions they were hurting or caring about how they were promoting stereotypes. And it seems as though they are doing it all over again with gay men to get more laughs.

The lgbt community is very diversified, and not all gay men are effeminate left-wing liberals who love to shop and listen to Broadway Show Tunes. In fact, I'm probably a good example of this: if you ever really want to torture me, tie me up and make me listen to show tunes. Or worse, make me sit through a Broadway play. I only live an hour from New York, and seeing a Broadway show isn't a big ordeal. I could go anytime I wanted. But the last play I actually saw, and only because the tickets were a gift and I didn't want to insult anyone, was Jekyll and Hyde in the late l990's. And don't even think about asking me to a piano bar/cabaret where everyone is singing along to show tunes. I'd rather eat a bucket of dirt. And as far as shopping goes, if there were only two choices of torture for me, one being listening to show tunes and the other going shopping, bring on the Ethel Merman songs. At least I can groan in private.

There is, however, hope on the horizon. Last Sunday night I watched a new TV show on Showtime titled, Shameless. It airs at 10 pm on Sundays, ET. It has a great cast, including William H. Macy. And one young character in particular who happens to be gay, Ian, played by a talented young actor, Cameron Monaghan. You can read more about it
I sincerely hope they keep the character real this time (you never know with Hollywood). Nothing against Glee and Modern Family. But after watching Shameless, it was nice to finally see a young gay man who isn't concerned about matching towels and floral arrangements. And there's nothing wrong with matching towels and floral arrangements. It's just that these things aren't what all gay men are into, is all.

About The Lambda Awards and Women Who Write M/M Fiction

It's no secret that I have...and will continue to do so...supported everyone who writes m/m fiction, including straight women authors. Or, for that matter, anyone who writes anything in lgbt fiction. I've become a huge fan of some (Michele Montgomery, EM Lynley), and my TBR list is growing daily.

I came across an interesting piece this evening on twitter about the topic, which I'm sharing now with this link.

This is the first time I've seen anyone attack the subject so openly, and whether you agree or not, it's still worth reading.

Although I've been part of Lambda Award Winning Anthologies in past years, I didn't submit anything to the Lambda awards this year, which is a first for me. But the main reason I didn't submit was because they don't allow authors to submit e-books, which is mainly what I write these days. Though all my books can be ordered on amazon as print books, it wound up costing me over a hundred bucks to submit two books last year. And I wasn't feeling generous enough this year to spend that kind of money again. Believe it or not, we authors don't get our print books for free. We do receive ARCs (review copies) for e-books, but not print. Here is part of the blog post below in case you don't feel like clicking over there:

The Stonewall Books Awards, given annually to the year's best in children's and teen literature involving the GLBT experience, were announced today at the closing of the American Library Association's annual conference. Brian Katcher's Almost Perfect, the story of a straight boy's relationship with a transgender girl, was named the winner.
But the most interesting development may be this year's decision by the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Awards Committee of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Round Table, which gives the award, to announce it at the same time as the ALA's other prominent awards, which include the Newbery (given for outstanding children's literature), the Printz (given for outstanding teen literature), and the Coretta Scott King (given for outstanding African American literature).
This decision has greatly increased the visibility of the Stonewall Awards (and, perhaps, their clout), and some are saying this is a direct response to last year's decision by the Lambda Awards to restrict nominations only to books whose authors identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.
At the time, I argued that this was very ill-conceived — that the sexual orientation of an author was irrelevant to the quality of a book or the "truthfulness" of its voice, and that, for various reasons, this decision, however well-intentioned, was an unnecessary slap in the face of our strongly supportive straight-author allies.
My friend, heterosexual author Ellen Wittlinger, makes this case particularly effectively here.
I also argued it would inevitably reduce the quality of the Lambda winners and end up reducing the overall clout of the awards themselves, something the increased visibility of the Stonewall Awards may be hastening, at least with regard to teen and children's GLBT literature.

Billabong Bang: Release Date - Jan 14th

This short story stand alone e-book, Billabong Bang, started the publication process way back in August when the sun was shining and we were in the middle of a heatwave. And for reasons that just kept popping up, the release date kept being delayed time and again. It was partly my fault, because on the last round of edits I decided to cut the entire first third of the story and rewrite it. But I'm glad it took that long, and I think the characters benefited from it. It's multi-cultural m/m erotic romance, with a main character who is of African descent.

Another great cover by Dawne Dominique.

This Is Why I Hate Politics and Stay Away From It...

I'm sure by now everyone heard about what happened yesterday in Arizona. If you haven't, here's a link from AOL discussing the little girl who was shot and killed, Christina Taylor Green. This was an innocent, harmless child, born on September 11, 2001, of all days, who was only at the shopping center because she'd just been elected to the student government at her school and she was interested in meeting a representative. She was even part of a book titled, Faces of Hope: Babies Born on 911 .

Everyone else who was there was innocent, too, from the people who were shot to the bystanders who will now have to live with this horror for the rest of their lives.

And in spite of all this sorrow, I've already seen countless numbers of posts on facebook and tweets on twitter blasting politicians and political parties from political zealots who just don't seem to get the magnitude of what happened. I even saw a FB post that was stupid enough to blast Sarah Palin, with nonsense that had nothing to do with this shooting spree and these killings. I've seen these political zealots from both sides, liberal and conservative, making bitter accusations and calling each other names since early this morning, instead of focusing on the tragedy itself and pulling together to offer support to the people who need it most. Or, God forbid, to try to make things better now and focus on intelligent ways to discuss issues and politics.

The vitriol has to end somewhere. And frankly, this is why I stay away from politics in general. The person who shot and killed these innocent people in Arizona is the definition of evil. This transcends politics and crosses the border into the world of criminal darkness most of us can't even fathom. He's rotten and spoiled and vile right down to his very core. And personally, I don't think there's a punishment that would be too severe for him.

My heart goes out to the families and friends of everyone involved in this pointless killing spree and I hope nothing like this ever happens again.

Snookie's New Book: Excerpts

Okay, I know this is wrong. I haven't read Snookie's entire book and don't know if I will or not. But ever since Snookie snagged a book deal for big bucks I've been fascinated about what the book would actually be like.

Well, here's a link to a few excerpts over at PopEater: http://www.popeater.com/2011/01/03/snookis-book-excerpts/?a_dgi=aolshare_facebook

And here's one excerpt in case you don't feel like clicking over:


"Gia had never before been in jail. It wasn't nearly as gritty and disgusting as she'd seen on TV prison shows. The Seaside Heights drunk tank -- on a weekday afternoon -- was as clean and quiet as a church."

I'm Guest Blogging Today: Condoms and Romantic Fiction

I was asked to contribute to a blog post on Jessewave Reviews regarding the use of condoms in romantic fiction, along with AJ Llewellyn and DJ Manly. None of us discussed what we were going to write ahead of time, and I think the results are interesting. We all have slightly different views on the topic. And a few of the readers comments, so far, have been even more interesting.

Here's the link.

And here's the intro to the post.

A.J. Llewellyn approached me about a month ago and asked whether he and two other male authors could write a piece for this site on condoms in M/M romances. As you know, I believe that authors and readers should be able discuss topics that are important to them in a non-confrontational environment, so I indicated that I would be happy to post whatever they wrote. Whether or not you agree with their point of view AJ, DJ Manly and Ryan Field have a right to express their opinions on this hotly debated topic. I know how controversial is the issue of condoms in M/M romance, having experienced some backlash from my own post on this topic. Here's AJ's, DJ's and Ryan's post:

Sneak Cover Preview: THE VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE'S SECRET BABY

I received this cover faster than most and wanted to share. This is the third book in The Virgin Billionaire series, with Jase and Luis, where they buy a weekend house in the country to get away from the noise of NY. In this book, they are more settled and moving forward in their relationship.

And readers who have read my book, PRETTY MAN, will recognize the two main characters, Josh and Roland, as Jase and Luis' new friends. I'll post more about the book when it's released, including how Jase and Roland from PRETTY MAN wound up having minor parts in this story.

Reactions to Capt. Owen Honors Navy Video

First off, don't shoot me for this post. I'm just supplying a link, here, to another post I read this morning with some interesting comments from readers. As I said in the post before this, I'm not weighing in on this subject with an opinion at all. But I find the reactions very interesting.
As an openly gay man I find a lot of things offensive these days, and in the least likely places. For example, I find the two characters on Modern Family slightly offensive. I know they have good intentions over at Modern Family (oh, those Hollywood types always do) and I'm sure both guys are great guys in person. I'm even glad to see gay guys being recognized in the mainstream. But seriously, I can't help wondering how many male actors the producers at Modern Family went through until they found the most effeminate gay men on the planet. I'm not like the gay guys on Modern Family. My gay nephew isn't like them, and neither is my gay brother. But more than that, none of my gay friends are like those guys either.
What I'd like to see on TV is a cop show like The Mentalist with a gay lead. Most of the gay men I know are more like Simon Baker than the two gay guys on Modern Family. So let's start breaking some of the stereotypes in the bleeding heart mainstream while we're attacking all this other offensive stuff, too.