Brandon Shire's Blog, page 13
July 11, 2014
Gay and Homeless in Amsterdam
Welcome author David Swatling to the blog with his new suspense novel, Calvin’s Head. It isavailablefor pre-order fromAmazonandBold Strokes Books.
In July 2012, with an early draft of my debut novel tucked under my arm, I pitched the story to agents interested in crime fiction at ThrillerFest in New York City. I always began the same way: “Amsterdam. Summer of 1995. I’m homeless, living in my jeep with my dog, Calvin. True story.” The rest didn’t seem to matter so much. “You were actually home...
July 9, 2014
The Editing Process (Animated)
Some days are not for editing
July 8, 2014
Curated e-Books by Women, for Women
So I came across Shebooksand thought what a great idea it was. I’m sure there are other subscription sites like it out there, which curate books for a particular audience and are successful with it. But this site particularly caught my eye because it deals mainly with shorts and flash fiction (which I’ve just started writing).
There’s no doubt that readers enjoy long books and series, but many times you just don’t have the time. You need a quick book fix, like right now. After poking around so...
July 4, 2014
Tears, Therapy, or Hot Gay Romance?
Invariably, as with most authors, I’ll have a potential reader contact me and tell me that they have just discovered my books. Often, they will ask about which book they should read first. Usually I’ll forget to ask how they found me (which is important) and get right to the point.
What kind of book are they looking for? What are their tastes like? Do they want sad, happy, smexy, sweet, or downright tear-jerking? (I wrote this post to make it easier for readers to decide.)
NOTE: For the month o...
July 1, 2014
Summer Book Sale – 50% Off
I know you’ve been waiting, so here it is!
Celebrating Summer Book Sale
I’m over at Smashwords with thousands of other authors and ALL my books are 50% off for the entire month of July (but only at Smashwords). Enter the codeSSW50 during checkout and you immediately get 50% off. How great is that?!
June 30, 2014
June 27, 2014
Homosexual Life in New Hampshire 1720
Now here’s the question for you: What was life like for a gay man in 1720? Morgan Cheshire‘s book, Solemn Contract helps us explore and answer that question. Her book was nominated by readers as a 2014 LGBT Book Gem.
Solemn Contract began life as an image I had of a young man in his thirties; he was handsome in the Celtic way with dark-hair and blue eyes, wearing a white shirt. Nothing unusual in that except he was a blacksmith and spent his day with smoke, soot and fire, shaping metal like Wa...
June 23, 2014
Together We’re So Beautiful – Gay Romance
Just because these two are so freaking adorable… 
Together we’re so beautiful – Gay romance from KurtBelgium on Vimeo.
June 20, 2014
Gender Fluidity in Transgression
Friend and author Theo Fenraven stopped by to give us the scoop on his latest book Transgression. You can also read his original short story The Elevator only on this blog.
Last I heard, Facebook offers fifty-seven different gender choices when you sign up for an account. This change went into effect after I opened mine, so I went back and checked “gender fluid.” You’ve heard the saying, right? “Sex is between the legs, gender is between the ears.”
Most days, I am happily male, but there are ot...
June 15, 2014
A Note for New Gay Dads
I get a kick out of today’s new gay dads. They’re all full of look what we did, with pictures and blogs and flashing about the awards they received for being Father of the Year. It’s adorable really.
But I sometimes wonder if they understand that gay men have been raising children for a long, long time; long before it became legal, or condone, or even accepted. But they’re new parents so that’s to be expected. After they change a few hundred diapers the luster wears off. We old-timers know tha...
