Christie Gordon's Blog, page 3

Three new M/M Romance Stories Planned

I’m on a roll! I’ve got some new stories planned and one is inspired by the dude I drew on the left there. That’s the main character for my next full-length novel, Finding Human and his name is Lucian. I’ve also added him to my art page. The next one, Night Swimming is a short story I plan on doing for a fun free read. And the last one, The Bonds of Family, will be my third and last book in my In Life and Blood trilogy. I just hope I can hold myself to these dates…
Title: Finding Human

Genre: Yaoi Infused M/M Romance – Fantasy

Length: 90,000 Words

Release Date: Late Fall, 2014

Blurb: Mankind has stretched beyond Earth to form colonies on other planets, but has forgotten from where it came. Genetically modified humans, or Alts, were cultivated to ensure survival. Alts are feared and persecuted by humans.

Lucian is an Alt and he is in love. With a human. And this is forbidden.

Ezra is the human son of the Regulator of Strata. He is charismatic, loyal to his father’s cause and wholly unattainable. Lucian is obsessed with Ezra. The obstacles are great, but with courage and hearts that won’t be restrained, there is hope. Not just for Lucian and Ezra, but for both their peoples to find harmony.

Title: Night Swimming

Genre: Yaoi Infused M/M Romance – Contemporary

Length: 6,000 Words

Release Date: Estimated May 1, 2014 – FREE READ

Blurb: Alex and Jayden work as waiters in their Midwest town while on summer break from college. Alex’s infatuation with Jayden started the instant Jayden strolled through the restaurant doors. One sizzling summer night, the restaurant’s air conditioning breaks down and they are left to close-up alone. When Jayden suggests they drive to a nearby lake for a refreshing dip, Alex jumps at the chance. The night swimming adventure turns Alex’s life upside down.

Title: In Life and Blood Book 3: The Bonds of Family

Genre: Yaoi Infused M/M Romance – Vampire

Length: 40,000 Words

Release Date: Late Summer, 2014

Blurb: Julian finds the family he was kidnapped from is opening a hardware store not far from where he and Sebastian live. The Templars and Sabbatarians forbid it, as Julian’s brother is his twin. Exposing himself as a vampire to his family means certain death to them. His compulsion to see them wins and in the process he must deceive his One, his Sebastian. Will he have to kill his family in order to keep the vampires he loves safe?

It’s Finally Released – Secrets!

I’ve finally released my first book in two years – Secrets. And this time around I’m offering up the first 20 pages to read for free. So, here you go. Enjoy.

Yaoi, M/M Romance – Secrets – First Chapter

You Like Anime and You’re How Old?

I admit it, I’m now a 50 year old woman who likes to watch cartoons. No, not cartoons – anime. There’s a difference. I try to explain this to my friends, of which none of  them understand this little obsession of mine, and they look at me like I’m a Trekky. Nothing wrong with that, mind you, but I’m not a Trekky;) Okay, so I have an engineering degree, I’ve seen pretty much all the Star Trek movies and I love technology. But I’m not a Trekky, because I’ve never written or read KirkxSpock slash.

I’ve gotten off track…So my friends do think of anime like cartoons, except they don’t think of them as “cool” cartoons like Family Guy or The Simpsons or even South Park. No, anime is not cool like that. Anime plots deal with deep issues, like kids whose father abandoned them trying to resurrect their dead mothers (FMA) or a psychopath thinking they can ring in a new era for humanity by killing all the criminals in the world with a magic notebook (Death Note), or  a war which pits  natural born humans against genetically modified humans (Gundam Seed). No, that’s not cool. But having some baby with a head shaped like a football who can talk to the dog is great entertainment (Family Guy). Okay, it is funny. And I do like that as well. My kids love it in fact, even though they don’t get most of the jokes and I’m probably not a great mother letting them watch it. Of course, my kids think anime is not cool.

I did get my boyfriend to watch an anime with me (insert made him watch it under penalty of not making me angry with him), and I think he actually liked it. Though he never asked to watch it. I always had to say, “Hey, lets watch that next episode of Ergo Proxy”. He’d mumble something in return and I’d happily put it on.

I think the biggest gripe I’ve heard about watching anime in the US is that most of it is subtitled. Us Americans do not like to have to read and that rings true for subtitles. I may be talking to wrong audience here, since if you follow my blog you probably read my Yaoi, M/M Romance books and/or fanfiction. But asking an American to read and watch a program at the same time? No way. I have to admit myself that I’d rather see an anime that’s been dubbed. It’s just easier and you can see all the great animation that’s going on without having to divert your eyeballs to the bottom of the screen.

So back to my point about being a 50 year old woman who likes to watch anime – I’m not all that strange, I’m not a Trekky (no, I’m not!) and it’s good, damn it. If you haven’t, you should give it a try:)

Oh, and the latest anime I’m watching is awesome: The Pilot’s Love Song

I want to see some Kal-el and Ignacio Yaoi Fanfiction:)

I write M/M Romance… What?

When people find out that I’m a writer, usually from a friend who can’t wait to say something about it, I always get asked, “Really? What do you write?” Seeing as how I’m a Yaoi, M/M Romance author, I’m always a bit taken aback. I usually start out with saying, “Oh, romance.” Most people just nod at this. Of course, the friend or acquaintance I happen to be with always has to blurt out, “She writes gay porn!”.  I can’t tell you all how dang annoying that is. Not only do I now have to explain that what I write is not “porn”, though it is erotic, but I also have to explain what many of you who read my work or my blog already know – there is a large audience for gay romance written for women (mostly) by women. It’s not all that strange and hey, wasn’t Brokeback Mountain hot?

But wait, this gets even better. Since I was first published in 2008, I’ve been on three job interviews. Now these interviews were specifically for high tech marketing jobs, where being a published author is an advantage. So of course my resume has a section on this fact. Now I didn’t really think much of it, until the last two interviews I had wanted to know specifics about my writing. They asked, “What do you write?” I gave them the standard answer, “Romance books.” But they wanted to know, specifically, what did I write? And they wanted to know my pen name, so they could look me up and see my website! Ah, the horror!

Although I’m pretty proud of my website, because all the design and such is by me:), I really did not want these engineering-type geeks, although they were probably fans of Star Wars and maybe even anime, looking me up and seeing that I write M/M Romance. I mean come on, I’m trying to get a job here! I’d love for everyone in the world to be open minded, nonjudgmental and all that good stuff. But this is real life and it’s my livelihood. I’ve got two kids to support – wait, and a dog and now two Guinea Pigs. So what did I say? No, they could not have my pen name. It’s private and they wouldn’t like it anyway, LOL.

I got the job:) And now some of my co-workers do know what I write and they like it.

New Yaoi, M/M Romance Book Cover – Secrets

Okay, so it’s in the very early stages, but I’m working on the cover for my new Yaoi, M/M Romance book, Secrets. The first round of edits are done!

So far, all I’ve got is Christian’s face (because that’s always what I like to draw first). Here’s a picture, minus a few things I still need to add, like piercings:)

So, who is Christian? He’s a bad boy rocker, who can be incredibly loving if you win his heart. He is charismatic on the outside and appears  confident and even a bit cocky, when in fact, he’s a broken soul struggling to become the man he should have been.

Girls swoon over him, especially when he’s onstage, but as he tells Logan, they’ve never quite held his attention.  He’s living a hard life of fast women, motorcycles and booze.

The Christian Logan fell in love with in high school was smart and studious, Logan’s best friend and next-door neighbor. But Christian lost his way after his father died. Logan’s not sure what to make of him now…

I posted an excerpt a few weeks ago: Secrets Excerpt

My JRock (and Others) Running Playlist

I started running (instead of spin cycling) last November. I realized at some point that I needed a nice rockin’ playlist to run to, so I could run faster and make it up the many hills in my town. So, of course I included lots of JRock and I figured, hey, maybe someone would be interested in seeing it? It’s quite a collection, LOL. So here goes:

1. Clocks by Coldplay

2. Evanescent by Vamps (with Hyde of course!)

3. D-techno Life by UVERworld

4. My Heart Draws a Dream by L’Arc en Ciel

5. Dear My Friend by Miyavi

6.Ready Steady Go by L’Arc en Ciel (this song kicks my ass;) )

7. Aoi Hana by Color Bottle

8. Radioactive by Imagine Dragons

Anyone else out there listen to JRock while they work out? Or am I the only one?

New Yaoi, M/M Romance Book Coming Soon!

I have finally finished my next novel and submitted it to a publisher (which shall not be named until a contract is signed;) ). I admit it's taken me a very long time to write this one. In fact, I think it actually took 2 years! Life got in the way and well, there you go. I think through the editing this thing to death, I've become a much better writer and learned a lot. The main characters, in my mind, look like the pictures. Of course, I have yet to draw them:)

The theme of this book is addiction. I don't usually say too much about my personal life, because, well, it's personal. However, addiction is something I've become all too familiar with and I think it shows in this book. Maybe that's why it took me so long to write it? I don't know... But it seems to me like this disease is everywhere you look nowadays. I don't know anyone who has not been affected by it in some way. It's such a shame to watch someone you love slowly kill themselves with drugs and/or alcohol. The pain it inflicts on relationships is far reaching and the manner in which it destroys families changes people forever. I, myself, am a member of Al Anon and have been for eight years. There are references to it in this book. I don't know, but maybe some of the people who read it will recognize the telltale sign of the bond of the addicted and the codependent.

Above all, this book is a fantasy of what all of us afflicted with this disease wish for. Because I always write a happy ending. Even in addiction, people can get better. There is always hope.

Announcing:

Secrets

Yaoi, M/M Contemporary Romance

Blurb:

Logan only wanted one thing in his life, Christian, his childhood friend. But a stolen kiss on graduation night broke Logan’s heart and destroyed the special friendship they shared. Now four years later, Logan returns to his family in Santa Cruz, after graduating from Stanford, on the verge of a new life to find Christian on a treacherous, lonely path of booze and drugs, a victim of painful family secrets. Only Logan's love and acceptance can save Christian. Only Logan can unlock all the tormenting secrets. But to do so, means Logan has to face his own past and once again expose his heart to the man who broke it.

Unedited Excerpt:

As Logan walked behind Christian onto cream-colored sand, warm now with the sweatshirt, he took in the waves, crashing to shore like white ink splattered across a black canvas. Twinkling lights from restaurants and shops on the pier speckled the fog off to the distant right.

As he walked, two plaid wool blankets slung over his forearm swung in the breeze. He took in Christian from behind, his tall, slender body walking with easy strides through the sand, his black hair dancing on his head and the twelve-pack swinging from one hand. And Christian’s ass wrapped up in jeans and bordered perfectly by black leather, enough to send him over the edge. He forced his eyes to look at anything else, but Christian.

Christian halted and set the twelve-pack in the sand, only a few feet from the line where the sand turned wet from the last full tide. “Here’s a good spot.”

“Yep.” He placed a blanket in the sand and sat down on it with his legs folded in front of him.

Christian sat beside Logan, his legs sprawled out. “Want a beer?”

“Sure, why not.” His heart pounded as if a wild beast ran laps in his chest. Calm yourself. The only thing that was going to happen was a nice talk about how he didn’t mean what happened and they should just be friends. He rubbed his sweaty palms together and focused on the waves, the soothing rhythm of their rise and fall. His gaze caught Christian pulling beers out of the twelve pack. Randy and his mother were right, Christian did drink a lot. “You going to tell me what this is all about now?”

“Sure.” Christian twisted off the cap of a beer bottle, handed it to Logan and opened one for himself. “So you think I’m a dick, huh?”

Stunned, his gaze flicked to Christian’s face, studying his expression. “I said sometimes. Not all the time.”

Christian looked out to sea and took a gulp of beer. “I don’t suppose I blame you.”

He gulped a good portion of his beer down. Right about now, he needed it. “Yeah, blowing me off after that stunt you pulled on the porch the other night was a dick move for sure.” He studied Christian’s reaction.

Christian continued looking out to sea and drinking his beer for what seemed like an eternity. A silent tenseness permeated the air around him. As he finished the beer, he flung the empty bottle out into the water.

“Dude, that’s littering.” He chuckled, attempting to break the tension.

Christian whirled around to Logan, putting himself within inches of Logan’s face and body. Tears glittered in his eyes. “I’m sorry.” His lower lip trembled. He opened his mouth as if to speak again, but turned back around to open another beer.

His voice caught in his throat. He gulped hard. That was not what he expected. “Christian?” He inched up to Christian’s back and held his hand up over Christian’s shoulder, hovering for a moment before setting it down on black leather. “What’s going on here?”

“I, I don’t know.” Christian kept his back to Logan. “I h-had all these, these things I wanted to say to you. B-but now I, I can’t say them.” Tilting his head back, he chugged another beer down.

“Damn it.” Logan rose enough to grab Christian’s beer and take it from him. “Stop drinking.” As he held the half-empty bottle in his hand, Christian lunged at him, throwing the bottle from his hand and pinning him down to the blanket. The weight of Christian’s muscled body fell over his chest. Christian’s warm lips devoured his in a heated kiss.

For a moment, he lost himself in Christian’s advances, in the velvet heat of Christian’s body flush against his own, in the arousal shivering up his spine with each kiss. His brain caught up with his body. His heart was not an experiment. With a quick shove, he threw Christian off him and sat up on the blanket, panting. “What the hell are you doing?”

More Soon:)

Christie

New Yaoi, M/M Romance Book Coming Soon!

I have finally finished my next novel and submitted it to a publisher (which shall not be named until a contract is signed;) ). I admit it’s taken me a very long time to write this one. In fact, I think it actually took 2 years! Life got in the way and well, there you go.  I think through the editing this thing to death, I’ve become a much better writer and learned a lot. The main characters, in my mind, look like the pictures. Of course, I have yet to draw them:)

The theme of this book is addiction. I don’t usually say too much about my personal life, because, well, it’s personal. However, addiction is something I’ve become all too familiar with and I think it shows in this book. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to write it? I don’t know… But it seems to me like this disease is everywhere you look nowadays. I don’t know anyone who has not been affected by it in some way. It’s such a shame to watch someone you love slowly kill themselves with drugs and/or alcohol. The pain it inflicts on relationships is far reaching and the manner in which it destroys families changes people forever. I, myself, am a member of Al Anon and have been for eight years. There are references to it in this book. I don’t know, but maybe some of the people who read it will recognize the telltale sign of the bond of the addicted and the codependent.

Above all, this book is a fantasy of what all of us afflicted with this disease wish for. Because I always write a happy ending. Even in addiction, people can get better. There is always hope.

Announcing:

Secrets

Yaoi, M/M Contemporary Romance

Blurb:

Logan only wanted one thing in his life, Christian, his childhood friend. But a stolen kiss on graduation night broke Logan’s heart and destroyed the special friendship they shared. Now four years later, Logan returns to his family in Santa Cruz, after graduating from Stanford, on the verge of a new life to find Christian on a treacherous, lonely path of booze and drugs, a victim of painful  family secrets. Only Logan’s love and acceptance can save Christian. Only Logan can unlock all the tormenting secrets. But to do so, means Logan has to face his own past and once again expose his heart to the man who broke it.

Unedited Excerpt:

As Logan walked behind Christian onto cream-colored sand, warm now with the sweatshirt, he took in the waves, crashing to shore like white ink splattered across a black canvas. Twinkling lights from restaurants and shops on the pier speckled the fog off to the distant right.

As he walked, two plaid wool blankets slung over his forearm swung in the breeze. He took in Christian from behind, his tall, slender body walking with easy strides through the sand, his black hair dancing on his head and the twelve-pack swinging from one hand. And Christian’s ass wrapped up in jeans and bordered perfectly by black leather, enough to send him over the edge. He forced his eyes to look at anything else, but Christian.

Christian halted and set the twelve-pack in the sand, only a few feet from the line where the sand turned wet from the last full tide. “Here’s a good spot.”

“Yep.” He placed a blanket in the sand and sat down on it with his legs folded in front of him.

Christian sat beside Logan, his legs sprawled out. “Want a beer?”

“Sure, why not.” His heart pounded as if a wild beast ran laps in his chest. Calm yourself. The only thing that was going to happen was a nice talk about how he didn’t mean what happened and they should just be friends. He rubbed his sweaty palms together and focused on the waves, the soothing rhythm of their rise and fall. His gaze caught Christian pulling beers out of the twelve pack. Randy and his mother were right, Christian did drink a lot. “You going to tell me what this is all about now?”

“Sure.” Christian twisted off the cap of a beer bottle, handed it to Logan and opened one for himself. “So you think I’m a dick, huh?”

Stunned, his gaze flicked to Christian’s face, studying his expression. “I said sometimes. Not all the time.”

Christian looked out to sea and took a gulp of beer. “I don’t suppose I blame you.”

He gulped a good portion of his beer down. Right about now, he needed it. “Yeah, blowing me off after that stunt you pulled on the porch the other night was a dick move for sure.” He studied Christian’s reaction.

Christian continued looking out to sea and drinking his beer for what seemed like an eternity. A silent tenseness permeated the air around him. As he finished the beer, he flung the empty bottle out into the water.

“Dude, that’s littering.” He chuckled, attempting to break the tension.

Christian whirled around to Logan, putting himself within inches of Logan’s face and body. Tears glittered in his eyes. “I’m sorry.” His lower lip trembled. He opened his mouth as if to speak again, but turned back around to open another beer.

His voice caught in his throat. He gulped hard. That was not what he expected. “Christian?” He inched up to Christian’s back and held his hand up over Christian’s shoulder, hovering for a moment before setting it down on black leather. “What’s going on here?”

“I, I don’t know.” Christian kept his back to Logan. “I h-had all these, these things I wanted to say to you. B-but now I, I can’t say them.” Tilting his head back, he chugged another beer down.

“Damn it.” Logan rose enough to grab Christian’s beer and take it from him. “Stop drinking.” As he held the half-empty bottle in his hand, Christian lunged at him, throwing the bottle from his hand and pinning him down to the blanket. The weight of Christian’s muscled body fell over his chest. Christian’s warm lips devoured his in a heated kiss.

For a moment, he lost himself in Christian’s advances, in the velvet heat of Christian’s body flush against his own, in the arousal shivering up his spine with each kiss. His brain caught up with his body. His heart was not an experiment. With a quick shove, he threw Christian off him and sat up on the blanket, panting. “What the hell are you doing?”

More Soon:)

Christie

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Yaoi Manga and M/M Romance Blog Hop

Welcome to the blog hop! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a published author who loves Japanese anime, especially yaoi, JRock and M/M Romance. I’ve somehow found a niche writing what I love – stories that are a little bit yaoi and a little bit M/M romance. For the blog hop, I wanted to pull something together that might help readers of M/M romance understand yaoi, and vice versa.

For me, yaoi means androgynous, pretty male characters. Most yaoi is found in comic form such as manga and anime. The stories usually involve a much larger man, who dominates the relationship and a much smaller man. Although, like everything else, not all are like this. There is a difference in the relationships in true yaoi that I don’t think we see in M/M romance so much, a difference that I believe stems from the difference in Japanese versus Western culture.  That is, there is a clear distinction between the “top”, also called seme, and the “bottom’, called uke. The seme is usually older as well as larger, more experienced more aggressive sexually, etc, than the uke. In this way, there are some very clear roles played by the characters. I think some would say that the uke can tends to be more like a female in a male body. Also, yaoi does involve sex that’s not consensual. In the Western publishing world, this is taboo. The thing I love about yaoi, is the stories and characters really seem to be made for female fantasy. It seems to me that in yaoi stories, there’s not the strict constraints on making sure the guys act like guys all the time and it doesn’t have to be super-believable. It’s about telling a good story and letting the reader get lost in it.

As for M/M romance, this comes from a Western world where I think we do tend to try and make our stories seem as realistic as possible. The male characters look more like real men, gruff, bearded, hairy chested, you get my meaning. Not that some of that isn’t hot:) What’s a bit more freeing in writing M/M romance is probably that there is not this strict seme/uke character constraint – maybe the bigger man’s the catcher, you never know. Maybe the smaller man is more aggressive sexually. What’s great is it spans the whole spectrum.

Necalli from "The First Full Moon" - Portrait of Necalli

So what I try to do is to write a combination of the two. I try to blend the pretty, androgynous characters of yaoi with Western world situations. Although I try my best to blend realistic gay situations with female fantasy, I attempt to make my characters break out of the “men are like this” mold. I hope that makes sense. And yes, I do get a lot of my story ideas and characters from watching anime. For instance, the character, Necalli, in the First Full Moon came from Vincent Law of Ergo Proxy. I wanted the yin and yang in him – to be powerful and brutal and also sensitive and incredibly tortured by his animal nature. For this reason, I made him a smaller man. Everything about him had opposing sides, just like Vincent Law.

My vampire books started out with a Hellsing flare. My character, Sebastian, really got his start being more like Alucard than anything else. Then I tried to drive deeper into him and his past and well, sometimes your characters dictate who they want to be, LOL.

Anyhow, thanks for stopping by!

Christie Gordon

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Famous Yaoi First Encounters – What’s Too Soon and What’s Too Late?

So this blog post was inspired by this funny Yaoi motivational poster I found on DeviantArt: Yaoi Motivational Poster by SpirosDyingWish00

The poster made me think about all the standard, somewhat cliche first encounters we see in Yaoi – yes, the tripping into someone, the getting drunk, the angry slap followed by kiss, the OMG, you kissed me now I’m going to rape you. Most of which involve the two heros in a compromising close proximity to each other and the “aha!” moment. Oh, how we love these scenes, wait in high anticipation of them and squee with joy when they finally happen, LOL.

I suppose these things happen in a good het romance as well. So we’re following along on the same themes again as in het romances. I also suppose this begs the question -we’re all really pretty much the same when it comes to love then, no matter the gender, right?  And it’s always the discovery that the one dude loves the other dude and low and behold, the other one loves him back. If he didn’t, where would our love story be?

The build up to the love discovery is what’s most important for our first encounter. If we’ve seen a fair amount of each character sighing over the other one, arguing, denying any attraction, then wow, that first kiss is a doozy:) That’s called building the tension. It’s always hard as a writer to know when to let loose of the tension and have that first encounter. You don’t want to do it too soon before there’s a proper build up or that first kiss will hardly be noticed. On the other hand, I’ve read books where I’m more than half way through the book and the characters still haven’t had their first kiss. That makes me wonder if the story arc is only going to be about their first kiss and I get frustrated. And what I really hate? A story line that has the first encounter half way into the book and then, wham, some force takes them apart for a good portion of the book. When I read a romance, I want to read about a romance, dang it. I know each person has their own opinion on this depending on what gets them going. What do you like? What frustrates you in a Yaoi or M/M Romance story line?

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