Christie Gordon's Blog, page 5

Why Can't JRockers Come Here?

Yoshiki

Okay, so I live in the desert and it's like, 115 degrees today. I get it. It's hot. But so what? We have air conditioning. Yoshiki's hair will not go limp.

So everytime I see that one of my favorite JRock groups are on a "World Tour" it seems they never make it to the center of the USA. Sure, they make stops in New York and Los Angeles (lucky bastards), but never come to Phoenix, Arizona or God forbid, Nebraska. We interior folks like our JRock, too. Right? I mean, when X Japan played Chicago at the Lollapalooza last year all the headlines were that X Japan stunned and awed the fans. Think of how many new fans they'd make if they simply went a little further inside America, like to Phoenix, where I live:)

I have a theory. Maybe they're afraid. Yes, Afraid. Maybe they know about our conservative, speak English or die, wear your USA t-shirt and jeans with your cowboy hat types who spit chew and still call the Japanese all those terrible slang names that I can't bring myself to write. Maybe Mana thinks if he comes over here and plays somewhere in the interior US in his Lolita outfit someone will beat the crap out of him. You know? He may be right. But… don't they have body guards, LOL?

Mana

I'll tell you a funny story. So my boyfriend is in this rock band and they play at all these clubs in the Phoenix metro area. Of course, they play your typical Lynerd Skynerd and Rolling Stones, but they also, thank God (not a big fan of hearing those songs over and over and over…) play some newer music like Matchbox 20. Anyway, the guitar player for the band is a big metal head. You know the type, Metallica all the way. Death metal. Lots of thumping guitars. He asked over Facebook if anyone had any new rock bands they could send his way because he was looking for new music to add to his iPod. So I did. You know what I sent him *snicker, snicker*.  I sent him Dir en Gray and X Japan and D'espairs Ray. You know what he said? Great music, but they don't speak English. He's the speak English or die type, I guess. Think of all the world-wide music you miss out on when you say, "but they don't speak English." Wow.

So today I found out about X Japan's new single, Jade, which is in freaking English. I sent this guy the YouTube link via Facebook and he liked it. He also said, "those chicks can rock." WTF??? They may be pretty and dress in the kind of clothes American rock stars should be wearing (see my other blog on that), but they do not look like chicks (okay, Mana in his Lolita outfit does, I guess – but he was NOT in the video!).

So what do you think? Why don't they come farther into the interior? And should they? I know I wish they did…

And here's the video – Jade by X Japan. It's awesome!

Link to this post!

Random Hallway Hook-Ups and Why I Love Writing M/M by Daisy Harris

When I set out to write my M/M romance novel, Mercury Rising, I had questions – lots of questions. Luckily, I had an army of gay followers on Twitter to query. See, I have gay friends in real life, but there are some things I'm not comfortable asking people I actually know. Details about sex are high on that list.

One of my earliest queries pertained to the first love scene between Dillon and Mercury. I wanted them to hook up randomly in a deserted hallway. I didn't want them to talk at length beforehand. I didn't want them to build a rapport. In fact, I aimed for each of them to objectify the other in that first interaction. Sometimes we (gay or straight) want to make out with a fantasy. Why ruin a perfectly good illusion by getting to know the person?

I wondered, though, was I stereotyping gay men as sluts? Was I wrong to think a couple of young, hot gay guys would blow each other on a loading dock based on nothing but mutual attraction and a desire for slightly self-destructive fun?

No. According my Twittosphere, a couple of men would have no moral compunctions whatsoever about shagging in a deserted hallway. And that, in a word, is why I love men.

Firstly, the random hallway hook-up worked out great with my plot. So, yay. Second, it's so refreshing to not have to deal with the whole "slut" issue. It's pretty hard to write a female character having anonymous, meaningless sex. There's judgment, censure, feelings. So even though some women do occasionally enjoy casual sex, it can be hard to write about it.

Not so with gay men! Boys can have meaningless sex with anyone they want, even in a romance novel! To a female writer, this is a revelation. Sex without feeling, and emotion without sex – it's a fascinating concept, and one I hope to explore more as I continue to write male-male.

And I'm sure there are men who can't have meaningless sex, men who fall in love with anyone they get physical with. But that doesn't seem to be the norm. Boys are different and hot and it's exciting to think of them doing all the things with eachother that I'd never dareHow about you? Why do you like to write (or read) male-male romance.

More about Daisy Harris:

Birkenstock-wearing glamour girl and mother of two by immaculate conception, Daisy Harris still isn't sure if she writes erotica. Her paranormal romances start out innocently enough. However, her characters behave like complete sluts. Much to Miss Harris's dismay, the sex tends to get completely out of hand. She writes about trampy mermaids, sexy dragons, and snuff-y shark-shifters. Her work also features zombie ingenues, horny gods, and some holiday characters like you've never seen them before. And there's almost always a mad scientist in there somewhereIf you like science-y subplots, fantastical creatures, and red-hot chemistry, you'll love Daisy Harris. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and www.thedaisyharris.com.

More about her latest release, Mercury Rising:

Take a sexy romp with the gods in this hilarious and hot ménage! Over-extended-and closeted-charmer, Mercury the Messenger, struggles to accommodate all the factions of the Deities International Conference and Kibbitz. However, his skills at diplomacy stretch to the limit when the object of a chance tryst turns out to be his assistant, and his arranged fiancée arrives at the scene. Dillon Rodriquez, Mercury's executive aide and soon-to-be MBA student, refuses to be the closeted god's sidedish. But when an accident at the conference strands the god in the human world, Dillon agrees to act as his guide. Traveling from San Diego down the Baha Coast to Cabo, Mercury experiences a side of life he never imagined, and he learns that if he wants to earn the love of the one man who matters, he has to stop trying to please everyone else.

MERCURY RISING is available for purchase here.

On Writing M/M Romance by Jaime Samms

Yesterday, my mother-in-law asked me what my pen name was. Point blank. "What is your pen name?" How to answer that in a way that won't lead her, a Christian Minister for most of her adult life, straight to the man-sex in my stories. With her looking me right in the eyes, I had no way out. I had to tell her. Or lie. And I'm not quite over the whole "you're going to hell" thing enough to lie to a Minister. She commented that it was nicely gender neutral. Does she already know what I write? I don't know. Nor do I know if she went home and promptly Googled me. I suppose some day, I might find out.

But it did get me thinking. Well. That and something a dear friend said to me in an email recently. And I quote:

"I get the distinct impression you are embarrassed." (about what I write, is what he was referring to.)

So now I have to ask myself: Am I?

And if I am, why?

I bet I have a whole boatload of childhood psychological issues that point to why I'm convinced I'm not 'good enough', whatever passes for good enough, these days. Even though I can look at my writing, my parenting, my other creative endeavors and objectively see them as accomplished and successful, that little kid in me is still way too terrified to put herself out there and say "Look at me. See what I did. I tried hard and I did good."

What does any of that have to do with the genre? Well, as I see it, writing gay romance has been a convenient shield. It has let me hide behind the genre and not claim my successes (and failures, I know, There have been a few of those too.) If I could point to the genre and convince people there are those in my life who would never accept it as an acceptable way to make a living, then I didn't have to bother explaining how I really felt.

The only benefit to this that I can see is that I have, sometimes without realizing it, used those feelings in my writing, and nowhere is it more apparent than in "Fix This, Sir" in which my main character, Jimmy, has used any number of shields and crutches, including his own submissive tendencies, to hide from the real issues in his life. It isn't until he meets his Dom, Cliff, and realizes that for once in his life, another person's happiness matters more to him than his own pain, that he finally starts dealing.

So thanks to dear old mom-in-law and my good friend for pointing it out to me, I guess it's time to stop hiding behind the genre myself, step up and be proud of what I do. It is, after all, a huge part of who I am.

Jimmy's been hiding from his troubled past for a long time, in drugs, drink and dangerous sex. It's always been easy to find oblivion in the restraints of men who don't really care who he is or where he's come from. When tragedy puts him in a wheelchair and forces him to fix his legs, and his life, he's not so sure he has it in him to even try. Belligerence is the only weapon he has left.

Cliff is a physiotherapist with a big heart. And a dominant streak a mile wide. The instant Jimmy Phillips rolls into his clinic, he sees a submissive headed straight for self-destruction and every protective instinct kicks in. Ignoring the dangers of getting that intimately involved with a client, Cliff takes Jimmy under his wing and pries under the broken man's guard. Getting behind the anger is a challenge the Dom in him just can't ignore.

What he finds is so much more than he bargained for. Now that he's reopened all of Jimmy's old wounds, he's not so sure he has what it takes to help his new submissive heal. All the control Cliff can muster can't hold Jimmy's crumbling world together, and now Cliff faces not just the loss of a sub, but his own fears that he was never worthy of Jimmy in the first place.

http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=205&P_ID=1193

Jaime Samms website
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Twitter: JaimeSamms

Twin Souls…My Favorite Subject! by Laura Tolomei

Never as on Valentine's Day is it more pressing to find a soul mate, if one's lacking of course. And how ironic if once found, it needs convincing that he or her is the one, which is what happened to Martin in To Seduce A Soulmate.

EXCERPT PG M/M

Martin stretched across the table. "Just answer me honestly. Before you met me, have you ever felt you recognized a complete stranger before in your life? Or felt an electrical current run through your body merely by standing next to someone? Or felt your heart beat so fast you feared it might fall out of your chest?"

With a heavy heart, Drake realized there was no point in lying so he had to shake his head in denial, long hair flying around.

"But you did the moment you saw me, right?"

Having felt all that Martin had described, if not more, Drake's head reluctantly gave in to tentative nod in agreement with the devil's insight.

"And you still need more proof?"

"I don't think these signs mean anything. My first crush was surprisingly similar to what you just described…except the recognition part, but that may be a trick of the mind."

Martin eyed him coldly. "Suit yourself, Pirate. You're free to believe what you like and I'm not going to convince you. It would be a wasted effort. On my part, I'm just happy to know I'm not crazy."

Read more on To Seduce A Soulmate

And just for the record, he wasn't. Luckily, not all soul mates are so recalcitrant, though they're tied in a dark circle of blood, betrayal and passion from which there is often no return, like in Divinitas.

EXCERPT PG M/M

Shaun grinned. It had taken a long training to remind Halifax who he was and now that it was finally time to explain, it felt odd, maybe because their positions seemed reversed if compared to previous lives. Shifting through past scenarios, Shaun briefly analyzed their timeless relationship, searching for answers. Somehow, Halifax had always been the seducer rather than the seduced. Reversing their roles was a necessary shift, the Druid knew it far too well, but he still had to get used to it.

"Please," the blond missionary begged, "tell me about it."

Where to begin? From the ancient walls of Egypt or the Persian prince's golden bed? From our love…or the betrayal that followed Shaun wondered as images kept playing in the fire.

Read more on Divinitas

Well, maybe it's not always so complicated. Take Leon and Sean's case in Tasting Leon's Mark, the passionate sequel to Re-Scue, soon to be released. where redemption came after all the moment they understood how their connection worked.

EXCERPT PG M/M

As usual, Sean's insight took Leon by surprise. The more he knew the blond beauty, the more he found his intuition extraordinary. Even more surprising, his amazing brain learned fast to make the right connections. That he was learning more about Leon than anyone else before him was a reality, which perhaps justified the hunter's need to challenge him as if wanting to be perfectly sure he was the one. And the fact the blond beauty's lifetime experiences had given him the edge to alter their relationship and bring it to a new balance, however frail it might prove at times, was not conclusive enough.

As Leon's Indian guru had revealed, his karma changed every time he understood the lessons that he had not grasped in the previous lifetimes. "Life is the soul's testing ground," his teacher loved to repeat. "Its ultimate goal is Awareness and you can't reach it unless you truly deserve it. That's why life is an endless learning process that doesn't stop in one lifetime, but continues until the soul acquires perfection by understanding its faulty patterns and correcting them."

His lifetimes with Sean had always added extra pieces to their puzzle, inevitably changing their karma from one life to the next. Their new forms were the results of such lifetimes and through each, Leon had to admit, the real learner had been Sean. From the start, he had found the way to adapt to the hunter's immutable challenge while working to change him, too, until his masterful plan had revolutionized their relationship.

Living together had been an important step in their development, one that Leon would have never taken if Sean had not forced the situation. Only then had the hunter understood who was and always had been the key of his development. So he had agreed to turn the page and end their bloody game, which did not seem to fit their evolutions anyway, considering how different they were from the original two who had started it in the first place. And to his amazement, he had not missed it, getting caught, instead, in a whole new sensual world.

Read more on Tasting Leon's Mark

Read more about Re-Scue

The same that another of my favorite characters, Duncan and Chris, from my Virtus Saga, have been experiencing ever since they laid eyes on each other, for they, too, are soul mates, as confirmed by Lord Christopher Templeton's words in The Sex Book 1:

EXCERPT PG M/M

All my father's fault anyway, for wanting to send me, his third and youngest son, to the Caldwell's to broaden my horizons, or so he claimed. Clinging to his two brothers, eight-years-old Chris had wanted to tell James Templeton it was a useless attempt for his convictions would never change no matter how far he went, but his young age had prevented any serious argument. Still, he was old enough to know what he wanted from life and women were definitely not on the list, in spite of what his father said or did.

Alas, nothing stopped the tragic—or rather blessed, as he later came to see it—chain of events. Exiled from his home, Fair Haven, little Chris had set out on a long journey, for which he had no taste or choice either, cursing the Caldwell's at every step, along with anyone even remotely connected to them, until destiny had caught up with him at Black Rose's last bend.

Twisting around the many hills leading up to the estate, he first heard a boy's happy shout. "Ready or not, here I come." Another curve and he glimpsed the back of him, dark head lit by Stella's rays. "It's no good running, Ylianor." The boy kept yelling at a little girl. "I'll catch you." He seemed all set to go while Chris approached the last bend, but curiously something stopped him and he looked over his shoulder one second before Chris came into full view on the other side of the hill.

With a heart pounding so fast it could've dropped out at any moment, Chris had stared at the piercing black eyes transfixed, unmoving, unable to talk, think, breathe or do much else besides recognizing the dark-haired boy, though he had never set eyes on him before in his life. And that the other boy knew him, too, Chris read it clearly in the inquisitive gaze. So it happened, impossibility becoming reality as the unconscious tried to shed light on age-old connections that obviously neither had ever forgotten, though they seemed incomprehensible at present.

Read more on The Sex

Read more on the Virtus Saga

 

Laura Tolomei aka Lalla Gatta

Website: lallagatta.com

MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads

 

I've Joined the Anime and Manga Bloggers for Japan

The recent events in Japan have had a particularly heavy impact on me. I love so much of what comes out of Japan – the rock music, the anime and of course, boys love (yaoi). Where would I be if I'd never discovered Mobile Suit Gundam Seed all those years ago? Would I have returned to my artistic roots? Would I have ever discovered my talent for writing stories? Probably not.

I owe so much of what I enjoy today as my creative outlet to the mangakas and musicians of Japan, I can't imagine a world without them and their work. Their creative endeavors inspire me every single day. The intriguing and fantastical stories that come out of anime and manga are unique and stand a class above what Hollywood spoon feeds us, in my humble opinion. I listen to JRock when I draw almost exclusively. The passion in Japanese rock  is something I think is hard to find in mainstream music.

So I ask this question: where would you be if there were no Miyavi, no Death Note, no Hyde or Gackt, no Fullmetal Alchemist… no Gundams? Where would we be without this wonderful country and its immense creative talent and genius?

For this reason, I've joined the Anime and Manga Bloggers for Japan. Please check it out here: Anime and Manga Bloggers for Japan

And if you're a blogger and want to join, please do and spread the word!

Because, where would you be?

In Life and Blood Book 2: Holding onto the Past – Release Date and Sneak Preview!

After enduring a crashed hard drive which totally wiped out all of my data, including the first version of this book, I have finally rewritten the second book in the In Life and Blood series. I just received a release date of May 1, 2011 from my publisher. I'm now frantically working on the cover;) Anyhow, this book is about Sebastian and is told from his point of view. I had lots of fun researching Dacian (Ancient Romanian) life, finding slang words in Romanian and translating little bits of English into Romanian. For instance, did you know that a really big insult in Romanian is to basically tell someone to go back up in their mother's womb where they came from? And they apparently talk about the penis a lot when swearing, LOL. Like, pula mea, which they use like an English speaking person would use as "fuck", and literally means, "my cock".

Anyhow, here's the blurb:

With his one true love, Julian, at his side and a new son to look after, Sebastian's grief-stricken past comes out of hiding to find him. As Julian and Nikolai struggle to understand what vampire life should be and strive to live a normal life, Sebastian fights with his demons to allow the freedoms they deserve. But with the queen's band of chevaliers not quite under control and shadows lurking in the night, Sebastian's fears escalate. Can Sebastian find the courage to let go and at the same time give Julian and Nikolai the protection they desperately need?

On with the sneak peak (unedited) :

"Sebastian!"

His shoulder jerked backward. Julian came into focus through wet eyes.

"Oh my God, what's happened?" Julian, in a sweatshirt and jeans, threw his arms around Sebastian and held him tight. "Talk to me."

Sniffling, he wrapped his arms around his lover. "My angel, you are here and not dead."

"What? Of course not." Julian kissed the side of Sebastian's head.

He left the door open. Anger fluttered up his spine. He shoved Julian away. Glaring at his lover, he said, "What the hell were you thinking leaving the door open like that?" He swiped at the wetness on his face.

Julian's eyes widened in surprise. "What?"

Nikolai raced from the edge of the wall toward his bedroom.

"You left the house wide open. Anyone could have gotten in here. Anyone." He placed his hands on his hips.

"B-but we were just, just outside. I was showing Nikolai an owl and—"

"Never, ever leave the house like that. And don't ever go outside without my permission." He pointed at Julian.

Anger spread over Julian's face. He gritted his teeth. "Don't you tell me what to do. If I want to go outside I will. My days of being imprisoned are over."

Stunned, he took a step back and placed his fingertips on his forehead. "Uh, I'm, I'm sorry, Julian. I didn't mean it that way." His anger morphed into relief. He looked around the room a moment. "I was afraid something happened to you both."

Julian's stance relaxed. "No, it didn't. We were just looking at a damn owl in the tree out back." He looked down at his feet and back up at Sebastian. "Nikolai was all excited about it." He studied Sebastian. "Sebastian, you were crying when I walked in. I don't ever think I've seen you cry before. What's going on?"

He turned around and looked at the black and stainless gas stove, hiding a new wave of embarrassment and guilt as best he could. "It's just that the situation, the door being open like that, reminded me of how I found my mother's corpse all those years ago." Solid hands gripped his shoulders and turned him around. He gazed down into his lover's beautiful, blue-grey eyes.

Wisps of long, chestnut-colored hair surrounded Julian's face and spilled out over the dark sweatshirt covering his shoulders. "I'm so sorry. Tell me about it."

He shut his eyes a second and shook his head. "It's all right now. You are safe."

A hurt look spread over Julian's face. "But we're One now, you and I. I want to know what happened to you. I want to know all about you."

He let out a long exhale. I must tell Julian something for my behavior. "It was during the Hun wars. I found the door to our home open. It was obvious that there had been a struggle. I found her on the floor, a terrible wound in her head. I was a newly made vampire and I tried to save her with my blood, but I couldn't." Remorse wound around his heart again. And so I drank her blood instead. He took in a ragged breath of air.

"I feel it, Sebastian. I feel how much this saddens you still." Wrapping his arms around Sebastian, Julian pulled him in close. "I love you and I promise nothing like that will ever happen to me. I'll be careful. I can protect myself. Especially when it comes to Caesar."

"No, you can't." He breathed in Julian's musky scent, all clover and spice, relishing in his embrace. "He is far more dangerous than we thought."

"Why do you say that?" Julian's lips found Sebastian's, placing a lingering kiss over them.

A prick of alarm raced inside him. Stupid, do not say such things. "No reason in particular. I just want you to keep your guard up until this whole incident with your old coven is resolved."

Julian released Sebastian and stepped back. "You know I will. And now I have my sword back in case the Templars need me." He smiled at Sebastian.

He'd make sure that would never happen. "So you found it at the door?"

"I sure did." Julian twisted and came back around to face Sebastian. "I think we scared the crap out of Nikolai."

Relief rained down on Sebastian and a wide grin spread over his face. "I think you're right. It was our first fight, my angel."

"And I'm sure it won't be the last." Julian let out a short chuckle. "Let's go and find him."

 

All About Anime Radius and Yaoi Radius by Julie Hayes

First, I'd like to thank Christie for having me here, and for inviting me to share my meanderings with you all.  I consider it to be a real honor, and I hope I live up to her expectations.

Bad things happen to all of us, that's a given. No one escapes walking beneath the proverbial black cloud of doom at some point, and yes, into each life a little rain must fall. But that doesn't mean that bad things can't have reasons or happy outcomes, and I'd like to tell you about one of those. A bad experience which became a happy one.

Once upon a time there was an online site which shall remain nameless, as that is unimportant, but what is important is that it brought a group of people together who wrote for that site, bound by a common interest in anime and manga. Things went well for a while, but then the situation became unbearable for the group, and they collectively left, and no longer wrote reviews for the site.

These people were still interested in anime and manga, and they'd enjoyed writing reviews and sharing them. They all looked for guidance to the leader of this group.  That would be Andy Spencer. Andy then had the brilliant idea of starting his own anime/manga site, with the help of his lovely wife Elaine, and his children. And thus Anime Radius was born. Those who had written for Andy at the old site came aboard and became reviewers for the new site.

Well, the transition was not an entirely smooth one, I have to admit. Aren't there always stumbling blocks to any new enterprise?  This one was no exception. There were problems with the webmaster and getting the site up, and time began to pass. Time is crucial in this business, because if you're not reviewing and producing, publishers are going to lose interest in you, and in sending you material to review. It's a testament to the good relationships which Andy had established with these publishers that they were willing to give him and the group a chance with the new site.

Then Elaine stepped up. She didn't know anything about making a website, or html, or anything like that. But she learned. And she did an amazing job of putting Anime Radius on the map. Everyone else filled in the breach before new material arrived by reviewing other things, books and dvds that they owned or borrowed, as many as possible, in order to fill the new site quickly.  Anime Radius opened with over one hundred reviews already in place, which was quite the achievement. It has only grown steadily since the time of its first debut.

After Anime Radius was under way, Andy came to me and said, how would you like to have a sister site, one dedicated to yaoi, and to romance?  He offered this to me as compensation for the work I'd put into helping bring Anime Radius to life, and I am grateful to him for that. So Elaine designed and created Yaoi Radius, where romance is for everyone, with my modest input. All  of the yaoi reviews which had been on Anime Radius were moved to the new site, which includes not just yaoi, but yuri and het and every type of romance and fantasy you can imagine.

Andy and Elaine have, since opening Anime Radius, also opened an anime store here in St. Louis. Animeggroll is located at Crestwood Plaza, and is a really cool place to look for anime and manga related things. It's a family business, and you'll always find a member of the Spencers here. They show free anime about once a month. My daughter and I came to see Gun X Sword and had a great time.

So what began as a bad experience became a good one – two new review sites and a retail store.  How can you not believe that every cloud has a silver lining?  I certainly do.

Come check us out – we can be found at http://animeradius.com and http://yaoiradius.com and http://animeggroll.com. Pull up a chair and stay for a while, see what there is to see – you'll be glad you did!

Julie Hayes is a Yaoi, M/M Romance author. For more information about her, please visit her website at: Julie Hayes

Info on her latest releases:

Sweet Dreams, My Love was released February 16, 2011, at Dreamspinner Press

Blurb: Can love conquer all? Is there such a thing as Fate? Do dreams really come true?

To help pay for his mother's convalescence, Jakob Kohl leaves his musical studies in Germany in order to be a paid companion to his distant cousin Albert. It's not a pleasant existence, but Jakob does get to travel to Paris, where he meets a beautiful man who asks for his help… a mysterious man no one else can see. Jakob soon fears he may be going crazy, because he finds himself falling in love with Damien, who says they were brought together by Fate—Jakob is the only one who can rescue Damien from the shadowy world where he sleeps and waits for his dream of everlasting love and freedom to come true.

Excerpt:

The click click click of Toulouse Lautrec's cane was a measured accompaniment to the perambulations of the artist and his youthful companion. The streets of Montmartre were uneven, cobblestoned, and given to steep inclines. Even the short distance that Toulouse and Damien had to traverse was difficult on the artist, but he never let it show, and his protégé was young and too intent upon their destination to notice.

The artist had not been born with this disability, but during his youth he had suffered from problems with each leg which, exacerbated by the close genetic tie between his parents, who were first cousins, had stunted the growth of his limbs even though the rest of him continued to grow, causing the legs to not be in proportion to the rest of his body. Although the stories that were told about Toulouse were quick to affirm that nature had not shortchanged him in the areas which were of immense interest to his lovers, perhaps by way of compensation for his lack of stature.

"Pere Toulouse, will I be allowed absinthe this night?" Damien leaned in toward the artist, slumping a bit to ease communication between them, to compensate for the eight or nine inches he towered above. For although the young man had been raised, as were most French youngsters, used to the consumption of wine, albeit watered, the green liqueur had always been off-limits. Tonight was a very special night. This was Damien's eighteenth birthday, and it was also the night of his coming out party. And he was going to spend it with his twelve fathers at the infamous Moulin Rouge nightclub.

Twelve fathers? A biological impossibility! Naturally. And indeed, none of the twelve could claim the actual title of pere to this beautiful young man. But spiritually, all twelve of the artists who titled themselves the Dreammongers were his sires, for they had raised him among themselves ever since the fateful night, just eighteen years ago, when he had come into this world and their lives, while the Dreammongers were holding their annual revelry at the Moulin Rouge.

"Mais oui, mon fil," the artist said with a nod. "Tonight you shall."

Damien smiled. He could hear the sighs of the nighttime ladies of the Montmartre as he walked by, could feel their eyes upon him, aware of their attraction to his pearlescent beauty. He was very, very pale, a soft pallor which invited touching, and his platinum hair hung in lazy waves down to his broad shoulders, while his eyes were the green of sea foam, with traces of gold in their liquid depths. His full, rose-madder lips wore a perpetual smile, one which simply begged to be kissed. Damien was a very happy boy, and he loved his life here in Paris, and he loved his dozen fathers very much.

And now the nightclub itself lay just before them. That infamous den of iniquity.

Electric sex. That's what came to Toulouse's mind each and every time that he glimpsed the slowly rotating blades of the red windmill. The Moulin Rouge. Debauchery personified. Electric sex beckoned to him; it called his name and begged his participation. Lithe young limbs and warm embraces. Passion and music. Absinthe and opium. The Moulin Rouge was a purveyor of dreams. And Toulouse Lautrec was a most willing dreamer. He was an habitué of the most infamous nightspot in Paris, spending more time entangled in its spider web of sensuality than anywhere else besides his studio. The Red Windmill was the ambrosia with which he fed his muse, the nectar for his passions, and the fellow dreamers who frequented it became the impressions upon his canvases.

Toulouse paused for a moment, jostled by a pedestrian whose path bisected his own, also headed toward the nightclub. The gentleman in question had his head bent, his hat pulled low over his brow. "Pardon," he muttered before disappearing inside.

From within, the sounds of gaiety spilled into the night, fingers of frivolity designed to ensnare the interest of the casual passerby. Toulouse paused, temporarily taken aback. For just a moment he had thought… but no, that was not possible. He would not dare to show himself here. Not after all this time.

Damien held the door for him, and the two men entered the Moulin Rouge, intending to pay their respects to the regulars before going to their private party.

Purchase Link:  Dreamspinner Press

Her new release with Silver Publishing will be out on April 30th – Leonardo di Caprio is a Vampire.

Blurb: "Tis the night before Halloween, and Fisher Roberts wishes it was over, not being a fan of this or any other holiday.  But he tolerates it because his roommate/best friend Hunter Long takes a childish glee in all things Halloween.  And Fisher has a vested interest in keeping Hunter happy.  If only he could find the nerve to tell his childhood friend that he loves him, and has for a very long time.

Fisher thinks Hunter is carrying things a bit far this year, though.  First Hunter claims to be a vampire, and he just won't let the silly joke go.  Then he forces Fisher to go to a costumed Halloween party which Fisher would rather avoid, especially when he realizes where it's being held, and whose house it is. Things at Fisher's job might just be going south, too, when he receives a mysterious summons to report to the editor's office the next morning.  And then Fisher goes and does something stupid—like kissing Hunter!

Bad leads to worse when Fisher ends up at the Halloween party from Hell, and he learns something that threatens to destroy his and Hunter's relationship forever.  Running from his fears, Fisher encounters a strange young man with an unusual resemblance to Leonardo di Caprio, who shows him things he never realized before, truths about his life and the people in it.

Can Fisher find his way back to Hunter, and can he find the courage to do what his heart wishes?

Excerpt: "Did you know that Leonardo di Caprio is a vampire?"

Fisher Roberts stopped in mid-chew of a mouthful of fibrous cereal to cast a wary, disbelieving glance at his best friend and roommate Hunter Long on the other side of the table.  Wary, because he wondered what in the world Hunter was going on about so early in the morning.  Disbelieving, because he only had so much time for breakfast before he had to get going to work, and he had a bad feeling that Hunter was trying to eat into that time.  Why he wanted to do that was beyond Fisher.  Of course, a lot of things about his roommate were beyond Fisher, despite the fact that they'd been friends since they were—well, too young to actually remember how long they'd known each other.  But for as long as Fisher could remember, he and Hunter had been best buddies.  And he'd learned over the years that, with Hunter, longevity did not equate to knowledge-ability, far from it.

Now, Fisher could react in one of two ways.  He could ignore his roommate and keep eating.  Pretend he'd heard nothing.  But from past experience, that would only cause Hunter's performance to escalate.  Which would entail taking more time to decipher what he was saying, and in the process make Fisher even later to work.   Or he could simply bow down to the inevitable and give in by asking him the question he was doubtless waiting to hear.  Even if it brought about that smug smirk he was so fond of wearing.

Fisher finished chewing, swallowed, and managed not to roll his eyes as he reached for his juice to kill off what was left in the glass.  Waste not, want not.  "What do you mean?"

Hunter Long might be six foot two and possessed of a body that many a male model would kill for—at least that's what Fisher heard the girls who flocked around him say—with the palest of blue eyes that twinkled all the time, and a smile that could and did light up a room.  But honestly, he had the capacity to be an overgrown child at times, and this was one of those times.  Fisher chalked it up to it being that time of year.

"Well," Hunter replied, "look at him, going on forty, and he looks just like he did what, fifteen years ago?  It only stands to reason he must be a vampire.  They never age, you know.  I mean take a look at us.  We're almost his age, but over the years we'll grow up to be little old men and he'll still be playing sweet baby-faced guys even when he's collecting social security, know what I mean?"

"There are no such things as vampires," Fisher made his typical logical reply, "and just because it's Halloween tomorrow night, and you've got the house all decorated for it, doesn't mean you have to bring it to the table.  Know what I mean?"  He arched a no-nonsense brow at the other man.  This was not Fisher's favorite time of year.  Neither was Christmas, come to think of it.  Or any other holiday.  Ironic that he should write articles for a living that meant he was forced to expound on such seasonal topics for Midwest Home and Fantasy, a regional online magazine with a growing fan-base, when he had no real interest in them himself, being a practical, no-nonsense kind of a guy.

"I'm a vampire." Hunter smiled, leaning across the table toward Fisher.  "Want to see my fangs?"

Available Mid March at: Silver Publishing

 

To Slash or Not to Slash… by LM Brown

From Lamech77 at DeviantArt

For as long as there has been fanfiction there has been slash.  For those who are not familiar with fandoms and the terminology, slash is the term used for pairings of two characters of the same gender in a romantic and/or sexual relationship together.  They are not usually written as homosexual by the original author.

Whether it is Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, who are commonly believed to be the original slashed characters, or the more modern Edward and Jacob of the Twilight series, it seems that with the advent of the internet slash fanfiction is here to stay.

My fandom is the Harry Potter fandom and slash stories about the characters are amongst the most popular online.  I have written a number of them myself over the years and even though I have also written about characters in heterosexual relationships and stories that have no romance in them at all, it is the slash ones that retain their popularity after they have disappeared from the most recent updates pages of the archives at which they are stored.  Which tells me that these seem to be the stories that people are searching for.

But why do we choose to pair up characters who are not originally written as a couple?

I decided to dig around in my fandom, but unfortunately for me, my favourite pairing (Remus Lupin and Sirius Black) has a large following of readers and writers who believe that their relationship is canon, albeit rather buried in the subtext.  I am not one of those people, so I had to ask myself why I choose to write about the two men as a couple.

Jealousy perhaps?

Remus was paired in canon with the unfortunately named Nymphadora Tonks.  There are those who say that it is jealousy of Tonks that prompts fanfic writers to pair Remus up with another man, sometimes Harry, sometimes Snape, often Sirius.  I can't say that reasoning holds true for me.  I actually advocated Remus/Tonks before they were an official couple in the series and have often enjoyed reading about them in fanfic.  So, why don't I write about that pairing?

To make a statement?

I don't see writing slash fanfics as making any sort of a statement to advocate gay rights or anything like that.  Maybe there are some who write for that reason, but I have never met them in my fandom.  It certainly isn't the reason I choose to write slash.

Two hot men are better than one?

Well, yes they are, but surely that can't be the only reason I enjoy writing about my favourite pairing.  And since Rowling outed one of her characters, why not write about him?  Okay, I admit that I did write one short story about Dumbledore in his youth, but that was it.  Even though there is substantially more evidence that this character is gay, including the words of the authoress herself, I choose to write about two men who aren't.

The hot sex between two men is the appeal?

Well, it is definitely appealing, but not all of my stories have sex in them and they are as popular as some of my others.  My most popular story about the pairing is ridiculously long and the characters don't even hop into bed until somewhere after chapter 40.  If it was just the sex then who the heck would read that far just for a few pages of porn?  I wouldn't.  To my friends in the fandom I refer to myself as more of a plot-whore than anything else.

It can't be the chance to write steamy man-on-man sex that makes me write about the pairing; if it was there would be far more sex in my fanfiction stories.

Bitter enemies becoming lovers?

Enemies who become lovers is always a popular idea in fanfiction.  The idea of turning canon on its head and forcing the hero into bed with his nemesis doesn't appeal to me in the least.  But for some people this is an avenue of fanfiction that is almost as appealing as the one I have chosen.

The reason I write slash

Childhood friends.  Betrayal.  Reunion.  Tragedy.

Playing in the Remus/Sirius sandbox opens a world of possibility for angst-filled stories and the chance to give the characters a happier ending than they were given in canon.

But why not pair them up with one of the female characters?  And if there isn't one available then make one up?

Well, making one up generally results in lots of accusations about Mary Sue's and author inserts, but as a writer of original fiction as well as fanfiction I am sure that I am capable of producing a character that is neither of these fanfiction horrors.

Yet I don't.  I have never even attempted to pair either of them up with a female character.  Instead I have taken their canon friendship and turned it into a romantic relationship for my own pleasure and that of my readers.

And I guess that I have my answer right there.  I write slash fanfiction because I enjoy it and because I can.

Most importantly I write it because everyone deserves a happy ending, and what can be happier than two well-loved characters finding love together?

L.M. Brown's latest release, Driving Me Crazy, is available now from Silver Publishing.

To Purchase: Liquid Silver Publishing

Blurb:
They say that people in love do crazy things.  Brandon Walker can certainly relate.

Lusting after Lee Cooper, his sexy driving instructor, isn't the most sensible reason for failing his driving test for the third time and when he discovers the damage he has inadvertently done to his instructor's reputation and business, Brandon knows that he is on his last chance.

After persuading Lee to give him one final course of driving lessons Brandon makes it his priority to figure out if the spark he feels between them is one-sided or whether he can persuade his sexy instructor to move their lessons from the front seat of the car to the back.

To Slash or Not to Slash… by Louisa Brown

From Lamech77 at DeviantArt

For as long as there has been fanfiction there has been slash.  For those who are not familiar with fandoms and the terminology, slash is the term used for pairings of two characters of the same gender in a romantic and/or sexual relationship together.  They are not usually written as homosexual by the original author.

Whether it is Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, who are commonly believed to be the original slashed characters, or the more modern Edward and Jacob of the Twilight series, it seems that with the advent of the internet slash fanfiction is here to stay.

My fandom is the Harry Potter fandom and slash stories about the characters are amongst the most popular online.  I have written a number of them myself over the years and even though I have also written about characters in heterosexual relationships and stories that have no romance in them at all, it is the slash ones that retain their popularity after they have disappeared from the most recent updates pages of the archives at which they are stored.  Which tells me that these seem to be the stories that people are searching for.

But why do we choose to pair up characters who are not originally written as a couple?

I decided to dig around in my fandom, but unfortunately for me, my favourite pairing (Remus Lupin and Sirius Black) has a large following of readers and writers who believe that their relationship is canon, albeit rather buried in the subtext.  I am not one of those people, so I had to ask myself why I choose to write about the two men as a couple.

Jealousy perhaps?

Remus was paired in canon with the unfortunately named Nymphadora Tonks.  There are those who say that it is jealousy of Tonks that prompts fanfic writers to pair Remus up with another man, sometimes Harry, sometimes Snape, often Sirius.  I can't say that reasoning holds true for me.  I actually advocated Remus/Tonks before they were an official couple in the series and have often enjoyed reading about them in fanfic.  So, why don't I write about that pairing?

To make a statement?

I don't see writing slash fanfics as making any sort of a statement to advocate gay rights or anything like that.  Maybe there are some who write for that reason, but I have never met them in my fandom.  It certainly isn't the reason I choose to write slash.

Two hot men are better than one?

Well, yes they are, but surely that can't be the only reason I enjoy writing about my favourite pairing.  And since Rowling outed one of her characters, why not write about him?  Okay, I admit that I did write one short story about Dumbledore in his youth, but that was it.  Even though there is substantially more evidence that this character is gay, including the words of the authoress herself, I choose to write about two men who aren't.

The hot sex between two men is the appeal?

Well, it is definitely appealing, but not all of my stories have sex in them and they are as popular as some of my others.  My most popular story about the pairing is ridiculously long and the characters don't even hop into bed until somewhere after chapter 40.  If it was just the sex then who the heck would read that far just for a few pages of porn?  I wouldn't.  To my friends in the fandom I refer to myself as more of a plot-whore than anything else.

It can't be the chance to write steamy man-on-man sex that makes me write about the pairing; if it was there would be far more sex in my fanfiction stories.

Bitter enemies becoming lovers?

Enemies who become lovers is always a popular idea in fanfiction.  The idea of turning canon on its head and forcing the hero into bed with his nemesis doesn't appeal to me in the least.  But for some people this is an avenue of fanfiction that is almost as appealing as the one I have chosen.

The reason I write slash

Childhood friends.  Betrayal.  Reunion.  Tragedy.

Playing in the Remus/Sirius sandbox opens a world of possibility for angst-filled stories and the chance to give the characters a happier ending than they were given in canon.

But why not pair them up with one of the female characters?  And if there isn't one available then make one up?

Well, making one up generally results in lots of accusations about Mary Sue's and author inserts, but as a writer of original fiction as well as fanfiction I am sure that I am capable of producing a character that is neither of these fanfiction horrors.

Yet I don't.  I have never even attempted to pair either of them up with a female character.  Instead I have taken their canon friendship and turned it into a romantic relationship for my own pleasure and that of my readers.

And I guess that I have my answer right there.  I write slash fanfiction because I enjoy it and because I can.

Most importantly I write it because everyone deserves a happy ending, and what can be happier than two well-loved characters finding love together?

L.M. Brown's latest release, Driving Me Crazy, is available now from Silver Publishing.

To Purchase: Liquid Silver Publishing

Blurb:
They say that people in love do crazy things.  Brandon Walker can certainly relate.

Lusting after Lee Cooper, his sexy driving instructor, isn't the most sensible reason for failing his driving test for the third time and when he discovers the damage he has inadvertently done to his instructor's reputation and business, Brandon knows that he is on his last chance.

After persuading Lee to give him one final course of driving lessons Brandon makes it his priority to figure out if the spark he feels between them is one-sided or whether he can persuade his sexy instructor to move their lessons from the front seat of the car to the back.

Crossing the Street by Belinda McBride

Courtesy of www.homotography.com

Most readers who are familiar with me are aware that I like to cross genre. Gleefully, I hop from sci fi to fantasy to paranormal. I've done bisexual ménage, interracial, multi-cultural and BDSM as well. So it's not surprising that I finally ended up writing (and loving) m/m romance…except that I never really wanted or intended to write m/m. I was pretty happy with my straight and bi romances. This genre is so jam packed with new and established talent, there just didn't seem to be a point. But then, I also vowed never to write werewolves…

There's always been m/m content in my romances. There's something so wonderful and winsome about men in love. Many women love that fantasy, especially if they happen to be in the middle of the mix.  In my father's side of the family, polyamory popped up more than once…(my female relations do love their men!) so I'm comfortable with that concept. I love my heroines and take pride in writing amazing, complex women. I was really quite content with the variety in my writing.

That first m/m story came about pretty much by accident. I was doing a little writing exercise on first person POV and the male character that I was writing really had nothing to say. So I switched to the heroine, who was a bit of a disreputable princess. She kept spouting this line over and over…. "A whore is a whore…" Beyond that, she didn't have much to say. So I'm left sitting there with a first person POV exercise where neither character was talking. When that happens, you either scrap the project or turn their world upside-down.

So I made the princess a man.

Suddenly, Hela, who was now Helios, had a lot to say. And my reluctant hero pricked up his ears, got a gleam in his eye and told me that his name was Griffin. The story picked up speed and was suddenly in the hands of my Loose Id editor with a release date. An Uncommon Whore was surprisingly successful.

So my thought was that it was a fluke…right? I really didn't want to go down that road too far. But when the Coming Out series was proposed at Loose Id, another character that had been languishing in my files came forward with a purpose. His name was Oliver Bleu and he wanted a man of his own. I finally understand the reason some of my characters and stories didn't fly…they didn't have chemistry with their heroine!

Have I crossed the road completely? Well, no. I still love my heroines. I love my ménages. But writing m/m romance was such a delightful shake-up in my routine that I certainly won't be leaving it behind. I like playing off alpha against alpha and pulling little surprises in the balance of dominance. I enjoy letting tough men show their vulnerability to another man. In a good romance, I expect some element of sacrifice, and having a character risk his self image and his machismo is such a sacrifice.

So how did you cross the street? Did you download a m/m romance to see what all the fuss was about? Did you stumble across a manga, only to discover that the pretty girl was really a boy? Tell me about how you came to read or write in the m/m side of the spectrum. I'll randomly choose a comment and the winner can choose an e-book from my backlist.

Belinda McBride lives in far northern California with her family, which mostly consists of an unruly group of Siberian Huskies. She writes for Loose Id, Changeling Press, Dreamspinner Press and Passion in Print Publishing.

Please visit her website at http://www.belindamcbride.com

Or her blog at http://www.belindam.blogspot.com

More information on her latest release:

LAST CALL EUROPE: BLACK WOLF

M/M Paranormal/Shifter Romance

Blurb:

Siberians live for the thrill of the chase; wolves exist for the joy of the capture. On a foolish dare, Jasper O'Shea takes a gamble at the Last Call, letting fate chose his lover for the night.

Detective Brutus "Brutal" Ballantine came to the Last Call looking for something far different than a sly, clever Siberian Husky. Yet when the call comes over the sound system, he finds himself unable to resist the lure of laughing blue eyes and a happy tail.

The chase is on, but who is the hunter, and who is the prey?

(Author's note: While this story stands alone, it features characters introduced in Last Call Europe: Devil's Advocate.)

Read an excerpt at: Changeling Press