Leta Blake's Blog, page 22
June 17, 2015
My Favorite Writing Tip! Plus a Giveaway! Training Complex By Leta Blake
I’m at TNA with my favorite writing tip and a giveaway! Check it out!
Originally posted on The Novel Approach :
The Novel Approach welcomes Leta Blake today as she tours the web to chat about Matty Marcus, Rob Lovely, and the newest chapter in their romance, Training Complex.
Enjoy Leta’s guest post and then be sure to click on the Rafflecopter widget below for the chance to win any e-title from her backlist (**excl. Training Complex**), reader’s choice.
Good luck!
KEEP THE DRAMA ON THE PAGE: Leta Blake’s Favorite Writing Tip
About ten years ago, an author friend mentioned to me that her favorite piece of writing advice was to keep the drama on the page. Now, I have no idea where she got that advice, but it stuck with me. Keep the drama on the page.
What does that mean exactly? It means making day-to-day choices to avoid, ignore, or walk away from situations that will distract you emotionally and mentally from putting words on paper…
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June 16, 2015
“I love Matty & Rob. This is such a wonderful story. A must read.” Review of Training Complex by Leta Blake #gay #amreading
“I love Matty & Rob. This is such a wonderful story. A must read.” 5 stars! :D
via Goodreads | Gina’s review of Training Complex.
Available at:
June 15, 2015
“Well worth the 3.99. WELL WORTH IT.” Review of The River Leith by Leta Blake | 4 girls are talking about you. Your books. Our reviews. #gay
“I couldn’t have spent a finer Sunday morning with the birds and my coffee.
This book just gave such amazing good feels.
Well worth the 3.99. WELL WORTH IT.”
via Slitsread | 4 girls are talking about you. Your books. Our reviews.
The River Leith is available now at:
AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER
And now at KOBO.
Memory is everything.
After an injury in the ring, amateur boxer Leith Wenz wakes to discover his most recent memories are three years out of date. Unmoored and struggling to face his new reality, Leith must cope anew with painful revelations about his family. His brother is there to support him, but it’s the unfamiliar face of Zach, a man introduced as his best friend, that provides the calm he craves. Until Zach’s presence begins to stir up feelings Leith can’t explain.
For Zach, being forgotten by his lover is excruciating. He carefully hides the truth from Leith to protect them both from additional pain. His bottled-up turmoil finds release through vlogging, where he confesses his fears and grief to the faceless Internet. But after Leith begins to open up to him, Zach’s choices may come back to haunt him.
Ultimately, Leith must ask his heart the questions memory can no longer answer.
June 14, 2015
“[Ms. Blake] gets love, and gets it both deeply and movingly. Which leaves The River Leith not just a good book, but a beautiful one.” #gay #mmromance
“The River Leith” is a perfectly lovely book. The title is a play on the Greek myth of the River Lethe, the “river of forgetfulness”, the river that takes away the memories of their lifetimes from the dead as they move on. And it’s an appropriate name. Leith was a promising young boxer, on his way to the New York State Boxing Championship, until an illegal blow from his opponent sent him, instead, to the ICU with brain damage. His critical faculties remained intact, but his memory not so much. He has completely lost the last three years of his life. It’s called Retrograde Amnesia and robbed him of the knowledge of his father’s death, his friends, his career aspirations, and the man he loved more than life. In fact, when asked during his intake exam, he informed his doctors that he’s 100% heterosexual.
A questionable decision by his doctors and friends comes back to haunt both Leith and his lover, Zach. The wisdom of the day was that, since Leith has lost all memory of Zach, they would wait to tell him that the two were a committed couple until he might be able to handle it better. When he finally does “meet” Zach (Zach had been by his side during the worst of it, but not in the early stages of recovery), he doesn’t remember him at all. For Leith, he’s meeting someone for the first time. He can’t quite understand why he constantly wants to touch Zach, why he checks out his butt every time he bends over, why Zach’s presence brings him the first and only peace and joy he’s known since his brain was damaged.
Ms. Blake spends a lot of the book walking the reader through the recovery process. Perhaps “recovery” is not a good word, as he will never regain his memory. However, he needs to learn how to deal with other people, how to deal with the great gaps in his history and knowledge, and how to control the violence that rears its ugly head as Leith deals with the frustration of “knowing he should know” things and people he cannot remember. Most important, Zach and Leith have to fall in love again – from scratch.
Zach is, of course, devastated that his lover doesn’t even recognize him. Yet there is something growing between the two men – as though the brain has forgotten Leith’s lover, but not his love. All he knows is that Zach and only Zach can put a smile on his face, bring joy to his heart, and he misses him terribly when he’s not around. He’s about to leave the hospital and he’ll have to deal with the real world, the people, places and events he’s forgotten, and plot out a new future for himself – or better, one for himself and Zach.
Ms. Blake does a wonderful job plumbing the psychology of victims of brain damage, thinking about the big picture, the known and unknowable universe, and the very nature of love. It’s wonderful to read, to experience vicariously, and her writing is more than up to the task. She has Leith’s hospital psychiatrist wax philosophical and metaphorical, which gives Ms. Blake the opportunity to show how beautifully creative her thinking and writing are. In offering Zach a different way of looking as his missing years:
“Not lost, but found. In wonder.”
These words are one of the best descriptions of love I’ve read in a very long time:
“…the crazy feeling that overwhelmed him – the thing that was like happiness and comfort and want and need and God-so-good all in one – made them both feel whole again.
I originally intended to give “The River Leith” only four stars. Yes, I loved it, but it didn’t initially strike me as a very important or exceptional addition to the M/M genre, just a good book. When I went back to the two lines I quoted above, I changed my rating to five stars for the engaging characters, the realistic and charming dialogue, the unique concept, the depth of Ms. Blake’s understanding of the brain, but most of all, for the sheer beauty of her writing. She “gets” love, and “gets” it both deeply and movingly. Which leaves “The River Leith” not just a good book, but a beautiful one.
My highest recommendation.
via Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: The River Leith.
The River Leith is available now at:
AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER
And now at KOBO.
Memory is everything.
After an injury in the ring, amateur boxer Leith Wenz wakes to discover his most recent memories are three years out of date. Unmoored and struggling to face his new reality, Leith must cope anew with painful revelations about his family. His brother is there to support him, but it’s the unfamiliar face of Zach, a man introduced as his best friend, that provides the calm he craves. Until Zach’s presence begins to stir up feelings Leith can’t explain.
For Zach, being forgotten by his lover is excruciating. He carefully hides the truth from Leith to protect them both from additional pain. His bottled-up turmoil finds release through vlogging, where he confesses his fears and grief to the faceless Internet. But after Leith begins to open up to him, Zach’s choices may come back to haunt him.
Ultimately, Leith must ask his heart the questions memory can no longer answer.
June 13, 2015
“I stayed up all night reading. I needed to see how it ended!” 5 Stars | Review of The River Leith #mmromance #gay
“I stayed up all night reading, though. I needed to see how it ended!”
via Goodreads | Stephncaitlyn Mckinney, TX’s review of The River Leith.
The River Leith is available now at:
AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER
And now at KOBO.
Memory is everything.
After an injury in the ring, amateur boxer Leith Wenz wakes to discover his most recent memories are three years out of date. Unmoored and struggling to face his new reality, Leith must cope anew with painful revelations about his family. His brother is there to support him, but it’s the unfamiliar face of Zach, a man introduced as his best friend, that provides the calm he craves. Until Zach’s presence begins to stir up feelings Leith can’t explain.
For Zach, being forgotten by his lover is excruciating. He carefully hides the truth from Leith to protect them both from additional pain. His bottled-up turmoil finds release through vlogging, where he confesses his fears and grief to the faceless Internet. But after Leith begins to open up to him, Zach’s choices may come back to haunt him.
Ultimately, Leith must ask his heart the questions memory can no longer answer.
June 12, 2015
“Masturbation conversations became the norm at Bible Camp.” I Was A Baby Queer at Bible Camp | Autostraddle #sex #religion
“Masturbation conversations became the norm at Bible Camp. We would take turns sharing stories about touching ourselves and touching others and perhaps even touching each other you never know. The point, it seemed, was to bring yourself to the brink of supposed moral deprivation so that you could experience the ritual of being saved. Each increasingly sexual conversation was followed by prayer, reflection, and public repentance. And admittedly, it did feel good. There was a build up and a break down. Like an orgasm, only holier.”
via I Was A Baby Queer at Bible Camp | Autostraddle.
I want to write a massive, huge, wonderful novel that’s all about this. This is so freaking true about religious groups of almost all kinds. Uh, the sexual undercurrent that is. Not necessarily discussion of masturbation.
June 11, 2015
Sister Songs: Welcome to England & Wild Way
Welcome to England
Wild Way
June 10, 2015
Le Retour de Leith de Leta Blake — Leta Blake a une très belle écriture…– ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥/5 #gay #mm
Leta Blake a une très belle écriture, fluide et poétique, parfaitement restituée par la traduction impeccable, à tous points de vue. Elle utilise de nombreuses métaphores qui renforcent ce côté poétique et donne à ce livre sa singularité.
Et puis il y a cette astuce très intéressante pour avoir aussi le ressenti de Zach, ces interventions qui s’intercalent entre chaque chapitre, avec ce “vlog”, sorte de journal intime “youtubesque”, ces vidéos au cours desquelles il se confie, craque, et laisse échapper son désarroi, tous ces sentiments qu’il ne montre pas à Leith.
Les personnages secondaires participent également à cette réussite, d’Arthur le frère taquin et protecteur, à Marian et Ava, les amies, en passant par le docteur Thakur, que j’ai beaucoup apprécié.
Une belle histoire donc, belle, tendre et émouvante, qui ne tombe jamais dans le pathos, mais reste toujours juste, avec beaucoup de poésie et d’élégance.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥/5
La mémoire est tout.
Après une blessure sur le ring, le boxeur amateur Leith Wenz se réveille pour découvrir que ses plus récents souvenirs ont trois ans de retard. Déconnecté et luttant pour affronter sa nouvelle réalité, Leith doit de nouveau faire face à des révélations douloureuses sur sa famille. Son frère est là pour le soutenir mais c’est le visage familier de Zach, un homme qu’on lui présente comme son meilleur ami, qui lui fournit le calme dont il a besoin. Jusqu’à ce que la présence de Zach commence à attiser des sentiments que Leith ne peut pas expliquer.
Pour Zach, être oublié par son amant est atroce. Il cache soigneusement la vérité à Leith pour les protéger tous les deux d’une douleur supplémentaire. Son désarroi réprimé trouve un exutoire dans le vlogging – un blog qui utilise des vidéos numériques au lieu de texte – où il avoue ses craintes et sa douleur à un Internet sans visage. Mais quand Leith commence à s’ouvrir à lui, les choix de Zach reviennent le hanter.
Au bout du compte, Leith doit poser à son cœur les questions auxquelles sa mémoire ne peut plus répondre.
Voici tous les autres liens pour vous procurer Le Retour de Leith de Leta Blake
Createspace pour la version papier
June 9, 2015
“I’m bursting with the feels!” Review of The River Leith by Leta Blake #gay #amreading
“I loved these characters. I loved this story. So well written even if it may not be medically completely accurate… I don’t care. I care about character development and there is plenty. I care about emotions and how the author weaves a tale that leaves me with the feels and I’m bursting with the feels. So good… I loved it and will read this book again, absolutely.”
via Amazon.com: lovethybook’s review of The River Leith.
The River Leith is available now at:
AMAZON
B&N
SMASHWORDS
iTUNES
SCRIBD
OYSTER
And now at KOBO.
Memory is everything.
After an injury in the ring, amateur boxer Leith Wenz wakes to discover his most recent memories are three years out of date. Unmoored and struggling to face his new reality, Leith must cope anew with painful revelations about his family. His brother is there to support him, but it’s the unfamiliar face of Zach, a man introduced as his best friend, that provides the calm he craves. Until Zach’s presence begins to stir up feelings Leith can’t explain.
For Zach, being forgotten by his lover is excruciating. He carefully hides the truth from Leith to protect them both from additional pain. His bottled-up turmoil finds release through vlogging, where he confesses his fears and grief to the faceless Internet. But after Leith begins to open up to him, Zach’s choices may come back to haunt him.
Ultimately, Leith must ask his heart the questions memory can no longer answer.
June 8, 2015
“It was so beautiful I wanted to cry!” Review of Training Complex by Leta Blake #gay #amreading
“I admit that when I heard about this book coming out, I was excited. The first one rocked my socks off and I couldn’t wait to get more Matty & Rob. When Training Complex was released yesterday (surprise!) I couldn’t buy it fast enough.
…It was so beautiful I wanted to cry.
So read it (assuming you’ve read Training Season. If you haven’t, go read that one and then read Training Complex). Just read it. Be ready for an emotional journey, but I promise it will be worth it.”
via Amazon.com: Jewel Cardwell’s review of Training Complex (Training Season Series B….
Available at:
