'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 110

Guest Blog – ‘Nathan Burgoine

I’ve visiting Kevin Klehr’s blog today…

kevinklehr

This week I’m pleased to introduce a writer who I met several years ago at the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans. His name is ‘Nathan Burgoine and to me, his quiet but charming manner stood out in a crowd of queer writers, and although I didn’t spend as much time with him as I should have, I made up for it by getting to know him through his writing. His gay superhero novel, Light, had me smiling from the first page.

As today’s guest blogger, he focusses on why it is important to speak your mind.

‘Nathan Burgoine

A friend of mine was lamenting a trip to visit family the other day. Specifically, a sibling ranting—yet again—some racist crap that my friend was just too tired to counter. I commiserated, having recently visited family for a week and having had, among many other conversations, a few awkward moments over assumptions…

View original post 1,223 more words

Sunday Shorts – “Men in Love” Q&A with Dale Cameron Lowry

Today I’m going to try valiantly to not eat baked goods while I chat with my next author for Sunday Shorts. He wrote a romantic piece that centres around a reality baking show, and I gotta tell you, I love baked goods as much as I love a good steamy romance, so it took a lot of willpower not to whip up a batch of raspberry snackle or lemon squares after reading this one. Come and join me for a chat with Dale Cameron Lowry about his story from  Men in Love. Bring a napkin.



Spring approaches with the promise of new beginnings, fresh adventures, and the thrill of romance rekindled or discovered. Hot, sexy guys abound—meeting on the ball fields or the boardroom, at the theater or the classroom—falling in love and lust for the first time or celebrating a lifetime. Come join the rites of spring and indulge yourself in the passion and pleasures of our luscious men in love. Stories from some of today’s popular m/m romance authors explore the many faces of men in love: gay for you, seductions, weddings and more.

NB: Men in Love has a wide range of themes and tones throughout the collection, and it always strikes me as fascinating to know how different authors approach a theme, especially since ‘Romance’ is such a wide net. Case in point: you delivered a “rivals-to-lovers” story set in a reality TV baking show. To blurb it:

Baking is a way of life for Joey, a young pastry chef vying for first place in the popular reality show American Master Bakers. But the judges have been showing favouritism to Terence, an aggravatingly attractive older man with more experience under his belt. When the competition gets hot, so do the two men. Dough’s not the only think to rise in this kitchen.

First, awesome blurb. Second, What sparked the story?

DCL: My partner and I can agree on very few TV shows outside of reality cooking competitions. In the American ones, the producers tend to ramp up the tension between contestants, even if it’s just for show. Competitive tension is easy to interpret as sexual tension. Often I find myself yelling at the screen, “Oh, make out already!” I figured it was time to write a story where exactly that happens.

NB: You have no idea how happy it makes me you yell that at the screen. My husband often regards me with what I hope is amusement when I’m yelling, “kiss him!” Also, baking shows are awesome, since they mean cakes and treats. I am so down with cakes and treats. Are you generally a fan of sweeter stories, or do you prefer spice?

DCL: It really depends on the story. I read a lot of straight-up erotica, and especially love it when it’s unique and character-driven. In romances, I like sex scenes to further the plot and/or character development. A lot of erotic romance novels do this well. But if the sex scenes aren’t integral to the story, I often feel like they’re interrupting it, even if the scene is well-written.

As a writer, I enjoy writing everything from sweet to sizzling.

NB: This isn’t your first short fiction, and when I see authors who love the format I can’t help but ask: what anthology theme are you dying to see and contribute to that you haven’t seen yet?

DCL: Queer Mormon scuba divers on other planets? Clearly I have arcane interests.

NB: … I’d read that.

If you want to nab a copy of Men in Love for yourself, you can get it directly from the publisher, Bold Strokes Books, here. Otherwise, you can always use Indiebound to look for your closest brick-and-mortar, or visit any store where quality LGBT books are sold.

Dale Cameron Lowry lives in the Upper Midwest with a partner and three cats, one of whom enjoys eating dish towels, quilts, and wool socks. It’s up to you to guess whether the fabric eater is one of the cats or the partner. When not busy mending items destroyed by the aforementioned fabric eater, Dale enjoys wasting time on Tumblr, listening to Mormon-related podcasts, studying anatomy and physiology, getting annoyed at Duolingo, and reading fairy tales.

You can also find Dale on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, and, of course, Amazon.

Pride

It’s already happening. I’m seeing those “I didn’t fight so hard just so twenty-somethings could dance around on a float” posts. Now, y’all know I’m a huge believer in the importance of passing on our queer history—which we usually don’t inherit—and Pride definitely has a part of this (or at least, every Pride I’ve ever been to has included mention of the past, of those who came before, and where we are going).

But, as Pride month approaches, and the parades begin, a gentle reminder, before the many “I remember when Pride was…” posts drive you mental:

Yes, that’s what we fought for.

We fought for queer folk to dance half-naked on a float because we fought for queer folk to be allowed to do whatever the hell they wanted without being beaten to death for it.

We fought because silence was death, and death was—and is—very, very real. The noise still matters.

We fought for the les-bi-gay parents and the dykes on bikes, and the leather crowd, and the kink lovers, and the drag queens, and the trans folk, and public displays of our affections, and all the various intersections thereof, because even if it’s not our individual self, the whole point was that our selves—whatever they were—are a freedom we deserve.

We fought for equalities like marriage, which includes the right to not take part in those equalities if we didn’t want to—having the option, though, matters.

We fought corporations to be seen, and now those corporations sponsor whole damn parades and that’s also a good thing (and though it’s also always a good thing to keep an eye on, it’s not necessarily a betrayal when a former challenger becomes a supporter).

We fought—and still fight—for so damn freaking much, and enjoying the parade isn’t a compromise or a unilateral support of everything on display. It’s a party. It’s a celebration of how far we’ve come, and an opportunity to enjoy being queer in whatever way we’re queer, and show all the queerlings we’re here, and there are futures out there for them.

And we’re not done. We’re nowhere near done. Every parade is a reminder of what we’ve done and what we can still do, and it might not look like the parades you remember. There will be causes you wish were louder, and causes you don’t understand. Speak up about those, ask questions about those.

But those kids dancing and partying and kissing and being loud and proud and happy?

It’s absolutely the point.

Last Day for a free “Three”!

Available everywhere, but if you want an e-copy, today’s your last day to snag “Three” for free from Bold Strokes Books.

Well, this is it: the end of the birth month of Triad Blood. It has been a great freaking month, and I thank each and every one of you who helped make it so. The folks at Romancing the Capital who came out to my panels and discussions and visited me in the bookfair, and then Michael at Stonewall Gallery, who knows how to throw a book launch and everyone who showed up for a night that meant the world to me (some even showed up on broken bones, which I’m still reeling about), and every single reader and reviewer. Seriously, you guys fill my heart right up.

The law of three is unbroken: three vampires form a coterie, three demons make a pack, and three wizards are a coven. That is how it has always been, and how it was always to be.

But Luc, Anders, and Curtis—vampire, demon, and wizard—have cheated tradition. Their bond is not coterie, pack, or coven, but something else. Thrust into the supernatural politics ruling Ottawa from behind the shadows, they face Renard, a powerful vampire who harbors deadly secrets of his own and wishes to end their threat. The enemy they know conjures fire and death at every turn. The enemies they don’t know are worse.

Blood, soul, and magic gave them freedom. Now they need to survive it.

You know what’s a great price for  a short story? Free. Free is a great price.

Now, if you’ve not yet picked up a copy, and you’d like an e-version of Triad Blood, I’m going to suggest you head right on over to the  Bold Strokes Books webstore today. See, if you pick up any e-title tfrom there, you can get my erotic short story “Three” free, but that deal ends today! To enjoy this promotion, choose the bundle from any eBook product page and put both titles in your cart at once.

The e-versions are also available at all the online sites listed above, and through Kobo.

During the full moon, the vampires gather to renew their bonds. It takes three, and those in groups have total power over those who aren’t. For Luc, alone since he was created, the full moon is his only opportunity. 

Seeking blood to satiate him for the month ahead, Luc finds a rival instead: Anders, a demon just as alone, who’s also on the hunt. 

They choose the same prey: Curtis, a handsome young man resistant to their supernatural charms. When neither a vampire’s glamour nor demon’s passion work on him, it becomes clear their only chance of success lies in the unthinkable: working together.

Triad Blood is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold. As always, if you’re looking for a physical copy, the most awesome thing to do is to visit your local brick and mortar (if you’ve got one—check Indiebound if you’re unsure). If you’re local to Ottawa or the surrounding area, that means dropping by Stonewall Gallery. Michael will set you right up with an autographed copy. If you’ve not got a local store, it’s great if you order directly from the publisher, Bold Strokes Books. And obviously, if none of those options work, the title is also available at Indigo, Barnes & Noble, and the Big-A. And hey—you can also bug your library. I love libraries.

And for those of you who’ve been asking if this starts a series?

I’m working on Triad Soul as we speak.

Sunday Shorts – “The Biggest Lover” Q&A with Larry Faulkner

One of the more awesome things about having a story in The Biggest Lover has been revisiting authors I’ve shared a table of contents with before (in today’s case, that was in Tales from the Den). One of the cool things about Bear Bones Books is how there’s a community of authors who write in the bearosphere. I’m happy to sit down today and chat with Larry Faulkner about his story in The Biggest Lover.

We have all heard the term Rubenesque as a compliment for plus-sized women. The baroque painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens was fond of painting women of the day that were curvaceous and full-figured. The men in his art were not. What is the comparable term for men? Because not every gay man is obsessed with twinks who list the number of visible rib bones on their Grindr profile. Or men who can remember the number of reps at the gym but not their phone number. Some of us appreciate buying in bulk and that includes looking for love. Or just plain sex.  Thank goodness for Bear culture which embraces girth. During Bear Week in Provincetown the stores do not even bother to sell clothes smaller than an XL and a man’s virility is often like the potency of moonshine: the more Xs on the jug the better, so XXXL is a chub in high demand.

It has taken too long for an erotica anthology to feature such men. As Girth & Mirth founding father Reed Wilgoren stated, “Just as people are coming out every day—men and women realizing their sexuality—new Bears and new Chubbies and new chasers are also evolving in the world. There have to be people waiting to embrace them and show them the way, much as who helped me to become what I am and who I am today.” It is our hope that readers who felt denied of attention and affection will read these stories and realize that love has no weight limit, no threshold, and neither should self-esteem.

NB: I love meeting new (or new-to-me) authors through anthologies, and “Tag Team” is my second table of contents with you. One of the first things I always want to know from authors is how their stories germinate. How did the story come to you?

LF: “Tag Team” is a direct result of my lifelong affair with professional wrestling. Yes, it’s silly and over-the-top, but can be really compelling, and the performers are extremely talented. Plus, the guys are generally really hot! Since I’ve been writing, I’ve had a story seed in my head about a tag team forming when two wrestlers fall for each other, and this anthology was the perfect opportunity to finally put it into words. For this project, I wanted something really sweet and simple, with just a little bit of angst and a whole lot of encouragement. Everyone needs encouragement.

NB: Absolutely. And building on that need for encouragement, the theme of The Biggest Lover (that of plus-sized men) is pretty darn unique. Did you find it a relief or a challenge in any way to work on a story with bodies not usually eroticized in the general community?

LF: I’m gonna say something possibly controversial here: It’s “pretty darn unique” because big gay men have been sidelined and looked down upon in the gay community for as long as I can remember. It’s my understanding that the Chub/Chaser community predates the Bear movement with the first Girth and Mirth chapter being formed in 1976, yet how many guys in the bear community have even heard of Girth and Mirth in more than a negative light, if they’ve heard of it at all?

NB: It wasn’t until Ron Suresha told me about it that I learned. And my first brush with the bear community certainly didn’t have that backstory as part of the history they shared with me, no.

LF: There for a while it seemed like the only “valid” bear body type was the muscle bear, when in reality bears always have come in all shapes and sizes, regardless of what anyone says. I will have to say that in the past couple of years, representation has been getting better. You see more chubby bodies on the TV and in print. You have celebrities like Daniel Franzese who are out, gay men of size and not ashamed to love themselves for it. Big Men’s events like Convergence (put on by the Big Gay Men’s Organization), seem to draw a bigger crowd each year. It seems that with the Body Positivity movement, people of size are being “rediscovered” again as what they are: people who are attractive, and attractive not despite their bodies, but because of their bodies (among everything else they have to offer). So, it’s kind of a relief in that sense, but it’s also a challenge because I know that fat can definitely be fetishized. One thing I tried to stay away from in my story is a sense of objectification. I wanted my big guy to be shown as someone who was more than just a fat belly to lust over, that he had other attractive qualities too (as do we all, really).

NB: Absolutely, and it was so refreshing to have an anthology that allowed me to explore my love of the sexy lug. Speaking of—if you had your druthers, what anthology call would you love to see that you’ve not seen yet? Any themes you’d love to write for, but don’t out there?

LF: Well, ultimately I’d love to work towards publishing a novel. Right now, I have two sitting on my hard drive waiting! I’m a huge geek and anime nerd. In anthologies, I’d love to explore themes of geekdom: sorcery, superheroes, mecha pilots, or magical guys (bear versions of Sailor Moon?) I have an idea for a superhero team story and also a different idea involving a team that pilots a giant combining super robot! I have entire plot arcs, characters…are there any artists out there who want to draw comics for me? Otherwise, I’m always up for exploring different themes with my erotica and romance. I’d love to write a sequel to my story in Tales From The Den, so another supernatural bear anthology would be awesome. I’ve been writing things and I’ll be posting it on my tumblr, in addition to my regular sexy, smutty stories, including my wrestling slashfic too!

NB: I so want to read bear versions of Sailor Moon. Please do that. Thank you, and I’ll pass all those ideas to my editor friends, because frankly I’d love to have more bear anthologies, too, which I suppose makes me a wee bit selfish.

For those of you looking for a copy of The Biggest Lover of your own, you can buy it direct from Bear Bones Books (an imprint of Lethe Press) at the website, here. Or, check Indiebound for your local brick-and-mortar. Or, as always, ask wherever quality LGBT books are sold.

After writing for fun for most of his teen and young adult years, Larry Faulkner was finally first published in the Bear Bones Books anthology Tales From The Den: Wild and Weird Stories for Bears.

He has a passion for writing m/m gay romance and erotica with a husky slant, and hopes to publish more in the future, both short form and novels. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

You can read more of his writing and see selfies galore at his tumblr.

Catching up with ’Nathan Burgoine, author of TRIAD BLOOD

Visiting Jeffrey Ricker today, where he hosted me for a quick chat…

Jeffrey Ricker

’Nathan Burgoine is the author of the novel Light, a Lambda Literary Award finalist . His second novel, Triad Blood, just came out this month and features a trio of supernatural characters first introduced in stories that have appeared in a range of anthologies over the years. Now they’re finally getting their own standalone book, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

I’ve known ’Nathan since sometime in 2009 and often think of him as my anthology brother, since we’ve had stories appear in the same collections more times than I can count. And ever since I met him and his husband at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival, they’ve been people I always look forward to catching up with.  He’s a great writer, a super supportive reader, and generally one of the damn nicest human beings I know. (It should come as no surprise, therefore, when I tell you he’s…

View original post 1,944 more words

Sunday Shorts – “Not Just Another Pretty Face” Q&A with David Pratt

Last April, I got to be a part of a reading at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival with some of my fellow contributors to Not Just Another Pretty Face, including David Pratt, who read from his dark and atmospheric piece with an enthralling voice. He also realized, as he started to read his piece that involves a very twisted mirror and reflection, that there was a mirror on the other side of the room, and the image he’d chosen for the story was reflecting in it via the screen behind him.

Art, as they say, imitates life.

Ever the professional, it was a great reading, and you wouldn’t have guessed about the creepy factor of the mirror coincidence. He joins us today for a brief Q&A about his piece.

Twenty-three photos of male go-go dancers become the basis for stories, poems, essays, and drama by twenty-seven authors, revealing unexpected mysteries, romance, fantasy, and humor. Contributors include 2015 Sue Kaufman Prize winner Michael Carroll, 2013 Lambda Mid-Career author Trebor Healey, and Lammy winners Jeff Mann, David Pratt, and Jim Provenzano.

NB: Not Just Another Pretty Face was a unique experience for me in that it began with a photographic prompt. How did you select your image, and how did your piece evolve from the image?

DP: I was touched by the model’s vulnerability. I saw vulnerability in his eyes, and I saw fear, and I wondered, fear of what? Not that my piece directly answers that.

NB: You have a wide range of voice. Bob the Book had this lovely self-deprecating charm, Looking after Joey was full of sly humour (and not just a little bit of amusing social commentary), and your tales in My Movie cover wide ground. Do you intentionally head in different directions when you write, or are you letting the story take the reins, as it were?

DP: Actually, the humor in Joey is twined with a sadness and an almost tragic sensibility, how beautiful and absurd and heartbreaking it is to live in this world. I hadn’t necessarily planned all that, but I enjoyed doing it. The same in Bob. The first mention of the book burning actually gets a laugh at readings, because it surprises people as one more way the conceit plays out that they weren’t anticipating. Then, later on, the burning is described, and it’s pretty horrifying. I did know, when I started my piece for Not Just Another Pretty Face, that I didn’t want it to be stereotypically sexy or erotic. That seemed like the easy way to go. Maybe that’s why I picked a face that looked vulnerable and haunted, even at so young an age.

NB: Well, you succeeded. It’s a haunting story, and I found that the contributors all seemed to go in very different directions, which was fascinating. Not Just Another Pretty Face has poetry, a play, nonfiction, and short fiction—and, of course, the photographs, which makes it a fairly unusual collection. I’ve been asking everyone: Is there a style of anthology, or an anthology theme, you’d love to see (and contribute to)?

DP: I can’t think of one. It’s often about the editor, not the subject matter. In this case, I wanted to do it because it was Lou Ceci asking me.

NB: More Louis Flint Ceci it is, then.

You can find Not Just Another Pretty Face at Beautiful Dreamer Press here, or check with your nearest brick-and-mortar store via Indiebound. Or, of course, ask for it wherever quality LGBT books are sold.

David Pratt is the author of the Lambda Award-winning novel Bob the Book (Chelsea Station Editions) and Looking After Joey, a novel from Wilde City Press.

His short stories have been collected in My Movie, also from Chelsea Station. He has published in several periodicals and anthologies.

He has presented work for the theater in New York at HERE, Dixon Place, the Cornelia Street Cafe, the Flea Theater and the NY International Fringe Festival.

Too Long for a Short

I was on the Bold Strokes Books Author Blog this week…

Bold Strokes Books Authors' Blog

BY NATHAN BURGOINE

I’ve long been a lover of short fiction, and my path into writing came from that direction, too. My first published work with Bold Strokes was a short story, “Three,” that was accepted in an anthology of gay vampire erotica, Blood Sacraments.

When I wrote “Three,” I’d recently re-read Dracula (I often read books on a similar theme when I’m trying to spark an idea for a short story), and I’d been inspired by Dracula’s three wives. They’ve always struck me as a strange part of the narrative: who were they? Why were they there? Why three of them?

What came from those musings was the kernel of the idea for “Three.” I wondered what it would be like if the various supernatural beings of the world—not just vampires, mind you, but demons, and werewolves, and even wizards, say—became more powerful if they created groups of…

View original post 901 more words

Flashes of Light in the Dark

I’m just coming off a two-day headache, and it was a doozy. I joke about my headaches having two solutions: sleep, or spew. It wasn’t a migraine—those knock me completely on my ass, blind me, and often leave half my body numb even while I’m in agony—but I also get, as an added bonus, major headaches. Those leave me feeling motion sick, smells make me want to hurl, and doing pretty much anything other than lying somewhere in the dark, while sitting still with my head higher than my chest makes it pound and pound (in the bad way). And looking at a screen? Torture.

So that was how I spent the majority of my last two days, until I just barfed a half hour ago, and then the pressure and pain leeched away over the space of five minutes. A “spew” solution, as it were, not a “sleep.”

Anyway, that’s why I had no Writing Wednesday this week, and I’ll be back on track next week. If I’ve missed speaking with anyone about anything important, please take a second and let me know. I’m always a bit of a mess after these headaches  (as basically I’ve not slept in two days) and I’ll likely have forgotten most things.

On the plus side? This headache wasn’t one where even sound bothered me, so I got to listen to almost the entirety of Melissa Brayden’s How Sweet It Is. I’m finishing it up now while I try to catch up on the neglected dishes and laundry, and will be done in an hour or two. It’s a great audiobook (of course, I’ve loved all her audiobooks), and it was wonderful company. I love Molly and Jordan.

So, that’s where I’ve been and why I’ve been silent. How many of you are fellow migraine and headache sufferers? What are your tips for getting through the worst ones?

Triad Blood is now available everywhere!

Now Available at all the places! All of them!

It’s official. Triad Blood is available anywhere quality LGBT books are sold. As always, if you’re looking for a physical copy, the most awesome thing to do is to visit your local brick and mortar (if you’ve got one—check Indiebound if you’re unsure). If you’re local to Ottawa or the surrounding area, that means dropping by Stonewall Gallery. Michael will set you right up with an autographed copy. If you’ve not got a local store, it’s great if you order directly from the publisher, Bold Strokes Books. And obviously, if none of those options work, the title is also available at Indigo, Barnes & Noble, and the Big-A. And hey—you can also bug your library. I love libraries.

The law of three is unbroken: three vampires form a coterie, three demons make a pack, and three wizards are a coven. That is how it has always been, and how it was always to be.

But Luc, Anders, and Curtis—vampire, demon, and wizard—have cheated tradition. Their bond is not coterie, pack, or coven, but something else. Thrust into the supernatural politics ruling Ottawa from behind the shadows, they face Renard, a powerful vampire who harbors deadly secrets of his own and wishes to end their threat. The enemy they know conjures fire and death at every turn. The enemies they don’t know are worse.

Blood, soul, and magic gave them freedom. Now they need to survive it.

You know what’s a great price for  a short story? Free. Free is a great price.

Now, if you want the e-version of Triad Blood, I’m going to suggest you head right on over to the  Bold Strokes Books webstore. See, if you pick up any e-title this month from there, you can get my erotic short story “Three” free. To enjoy this promotion, choose the bundle from any eBook product page and put both titles in your cart at once.

The e-versions are also available at all the online sites listed above, and through Kobo.

During the full moon, the vampires gather to renew their bonds. It takes three, and those in groups have total power over those who aren’t. For Luc, alone since he was created, the full moon is his only opportunity. 

Seeking blood to satiate him for the month ahead, Luc finds a rival instead: Anders, a demon just as alone, who’s also on the hunt. 

They choose the same prey: Curtis, a handsome young man resistant to their supernatural charms. When neither a vampire’s glamour nor demon’s passion work on him, it becomes clear their only chance of success lies in the unthinkable: working together.

I hope you enjoy the Triad boys.

‘Nathan