Leta Blake's Blog, page 63
January 18, 2014
▶ Jason Brown Free Skate 2014 US National Championships – YouTube #figureskating #jasonbrown
▶ Jason Brown Free Skate 2014 US National Championships – YouTube.
If you haven’t seen the above linked performance yet, you’re missing out! Such an exciting performance! Here’s to this kid’s future success! While I don’t think he’ll be on the podium at Sochi, I do think he has a very, very, very bright future. And I think Keira, my figure skating guru, agrees with me. 
January 17, 2014
Gay Guy Reading – Review: “Truly a story you won’t want to put down.” – Training Season| #mmromance #gay
Scott at Gay Guy Reading Review (GGR-Review) has the following to say about Training Season:
“It is truly a story you won’t want to put down.”
and
“I should receive a quick kick to the arse for not reading this [book] earlier.”
and
“I can only recommend that you follow what I did (only don’t wait as long as I did to read it). Just open it up and start reading.”
***
Read the rest of his enthusiastic review here: Training Season | GGR-Review.
Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. Coming soon to iBooks.
January 16, 2014
Know What the Book is About #writing
Reading reviews for Training Season has been a bemusing and fascinating experience. There is, of course, no way to please all the people all the time, and what one reader likes another reader hates. It’s wild to watch many people declare a character real, perfect, amazing and say they’ve fallen in love with him, and then to see another person declare that character boring, badly drawn, or unbearable. At this point, the positive outweighs the negative, and I’m hopeful it stays that way, but, as I said, it’s been a wild ride.
Given that Training Season was in, or hovered around the edges of, Amazon’s Top Ten Gay Romances for over two weeks in December, I think that I must have done something right along the way. And one thing that I’ve been mulling over during all of this hoopla is reader expectations and how they seem to play into the reception of the book. Some readers are disappointed that ranching or skating doesn’t take front and center, though most seem fine with how both things are presented. The thing is, I did a ton more research on ranching and skating than reveals itself in the book itself. And there’s a reason for that.
See, the book was never about those things. Sure, I could’ve written a book about the ins and outs of figure skating, with a lot of competitions, and scenes of skating on the ice. I could’ve written a book about ranching, featuring thrilling moments of escaped or wounded cattle, encounters with dangerous wild animals, or life-or-death adventures on the range. Instead, I wrote a book about something else entirely.
I wrote a book about a romance and about a young man’s emotional growth. I suppose some readers who say this book is more of a coming of age novel, might have a point, though the romance being central definitely makes it a romance in my book. But the book was never about the world of figure skating, or the adventures of ranching. It was always about how a person falls in love, makes choices, processes loss and pain, and moves into a stronger, better place in his life.
There were points when I was writing when I felt like I could take the book in another direction, something more sports or more ranch, but when it came down to it, I realized the book I was really writing and stayed true to it. I think that’s part of why this book has been so surprisingly successful in the scheme of things. Not that readers don’t want books about sports or about ranching! But rather, I think readers want a story that it is told true all the way through, and if I’d wavered from the direction the characters originally set out in, I think the book would have been a failure.
Thank you to all the readers out there–every last one!–who have loved or hated it so far. Y’all are the best. Thank you for letting these characters into your life for even just a little while.
Training Season can be purchased at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, ARe, and Smashwords. Coming soon to iBooks.
January 15, 2014
Meet The 2014 U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Team #sochi2014 #figureskating
Meet The 2014 U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Team.
For those just now getting excited for Sochi and who want to know more about the skaters! Check out the link above!
January 14, 2014
Jeremy Abbott – 2014 Nationals – Free Skate #figureskating
Jeremy Abbott’s gorgeous long program for 2014 Nationals. He clearly deserved the gold after this performance and the short the other day. Not perfect but really beautiful. As a totally whatever aside, I personally could have done without the wanky electric guitar solo in the music itself, but the performance and choreography was fantastic.
I’m Alright Now: Training Season Extras! #davidford #music
This song is, for me, Matty at the end of Training Season. I can’t listen to it without thinking of Matty.
Wearing my Pride #comeouteveryday #gay
Above is a really thought provoking post about being true to yourself and coming out every day.
January 13, 2014
Johnny Weir Is Too Pretty and Snow and Frozen Lakes #figureskating #johnnyweir
These very short videos are so beautiful. If I could embed them, I would, but I can’t. So, please follow the link and see the gorgeous Johnny Weir skating on a frozen lake as it pours the snow. So beautiful.
The next one doesn’t have pouring snow, but if Johnny was any prettier, the world might end because no one could handle it.
Click through to JWeir’s instagram account.
January 12, 2014
What You Believe About Homosexuality Doesn’t Matter
What You Believe About Homosexuality Doesn’t Matter.
This is a bit old, but still a powerful statement from a Christian about why what people believe about homosexuality and the Bible doesn’t matter.
