E.M. Lynley's Blog, page 7

6 Days left: FREE Bonus story when you pre-order Spaghetti Western! #cowboy #mmromance

As an extra thank you to readers who order before release date, I’ll be again offering a special bonus freebie starring Riley Emerson and Colby Zane, of Spaghetti Western. This was such a huge and popular success with Gingerbread Palace, I am really excited to offer it again.

Maseratis and military men, oh my! with Kerry Adrienne #military #surrenderbundle

One Maserati brings Parker and Blake together, but will Blake slow down and discover the important things aren’t in the fast lane? An excerpt from "Cruise Control" by Kerry Adrienne, in Unconditional Surrender.

Amnesia, kidnapping and Cinderella stories: Romance Tropes We Love & Hate #amreading #gayromance

I’m going to confess something to you today: I would rather re-read The Hunt for Red October than just about anything on the romance best-seller lists. (It’s why you’ll often find a action/mystery/suspense element in my stories.)

Since I write gay romance for a living, it may surprise you to hear (or read) that I never really liked reading romances. While my friends were all devouring their Harlequins and bodice rippers, I was drawn to stories of espionage, whodunits, action/adventure, and the typical Book of the Month. My parents were voracious readers and my dad was a huge fan of spies and mysteries, so I tended to pull books off the shelves in our “library” – the basement had floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases that were overflowing.

I didn’t much enjoy the few romances I read and generally looked down on the entire genre. The only romances I read were the ones written by Karen Harper because she was my high-school English teacher. We all read them for the smutty parts so we could see what we thought Mrs. Harper liked. (BTW, this is one reason I won’t write female sex scenes!)

But looking back as a writer, I realize it wasn’t the stories I didn’t like, it was the characters. I simply couldn’t identify with most of the heroines. It wasn’t until a friend turned me on to gay romances, that I started enjoying them. While I might not identify with either main character, I could enjoy reading about their attempts to find love.

Of course, there are certain types of stories I enjoy more than others. There have been discussions about how m/f romances differ from m/m romances, and I’m not going to enter that discussion directly. But looking at lists of the most popular romance tropes, there are some that we don’t often see in stories with gay characters.

But as times are changing, the marriage-of-convenience stories will start to feel more realistic. I happen to love that trope. I enjoy anything that throws people together, especially when they don’t like each other or they are opposites in many ways (affluence, job type, etc.).

This was my high-school English teacher’s first novel. We all read it!

Enemies-to-lovers gets my attention far more quickly than friends-to-lovers, as a reader and as a writer. It’s fun for me to create characters who might belong together at an emotional level, but external forces make them enemies or adversaries. Peeling away the layers to get to the heart and soul is a delicate process, bur rewarding for the characters, and me as a reader or writer.

I also adore kidnapping stories like pirates or harems. If you can rec me some good ones, I’d be very happy!

Reflecting on these issues made me curious about what tropes you enjoy reading in gay romance.

I realized that I’ve actually combined several into one book, without any conscious decision to do so!

Snow Job is geek+jock and stranded together (at Christmas!)

Hostile Takeover is friends to lovers to enemies to lovers, and business rivals

Rarer Than Rubies is enemies-to-lovers with some mistaken identity (plus action and suspense!)

Out of the Gate has job differences and out for you.

And for fans of childhood-friends to lovers and reunions you’ll love Lighting the Way Home, which I co-wrote with Shira Anthony!

I know there are more from my own titles, but those leap out at me.

Your Turn

Please:

Vote in the polls
Comment about which tropes you would like to see more in gay romances
Rec me a good m/m kidnapping/pirate/harem story
I’ll give away an e-book from my backlist to a randomly selected commenter on Friday 5 September.

What are your favorite gay romance tropes? (choose all that apply)

Which tropes do you least enjoy?

Word Counts - Today: 0 | September: 0 | 2014: 0

Amnesia, kidnapping and Cinderella stories: Tropes We Love & Hate #amreading #gayromance

I’m going to confess something to you today: I would rather re-read The Hunt for Red October than just about anything on the romance best-seller lists. Since I write gay romance for a living, it may surprise you to hear (or read) that I never really liked reading romances.

Sexy Roman Gods Run Amok in Venus Envy #gayromance #mmromance

One of my favorite stories is probably my least-read title (it joins A Lesser Evil for selling fewer copies than my age). It's actually heartbreaking when a story I loved writing doesn't get noticed at all.

FREE Bonus story when you pre-order Spaghetti Western! #cowboy #romance

As an extra thank you to readers who order before release date, I’ll be again offering a special bonus freebie starring Riley Emerson and Colby Zane, of Spaghetti Western. This was such a huge and popular success with Gingerbread Palace, I am really excited to offer it again.

Unconditional Surrender Sneak Peek: @KeiraAndrews Arctic Fire #military #gay

Captain Jack Turner is at a crossroads. A routine mission to the Far North gets him away from his desk, but he’d rather be anywhere else. The Arctic’s in Canadian Ranger Kin Carsen's blood, but with Jack, he's on unfamiliar ground. When they're stranded by a blizzard, unexpected desire begins to burn…

Saddle Up for a Steamy Ride (NSFW)! Spaghetti Western is Coming Soon! #cowboy #romance

Colby wasn’t sure what came over him when he crushed Riley close and took that kiss he’d been fantasizing about practically since he’d seen Riley that afternoon, especially after he’d changed into shorts that showed off his shapely calves.

What influences you to buy a book? #amreading #poll

This is the magic question for authors and publishers. We try so many different ways to tell readers about our books, but which ones really work? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Whether you are a reader or an author, please let me know what influences you. I will compile the results into a later post with some discussion.

Unconditional Surrender: Starting Down an Untrodden Path

[image error]Back in May when Cat Grant invited me to be part of her military anthology Unconditional Surrender, I was very excited. Of course I wanted to be in an anthology with Cat and L.A. Witt! I didn’t think much about precisely what that would entail until I started planning my story.

Then panic set in. I was in one of those unknown zones.