Michael Jensen's Blog, page 3

Review of “Throwing Stones” by Avery Cockburn

It’s a little hard for me to pin down exactly what it is that I enjoy so much about Avery Cockburn’s Glasgow Lads series. Is it the Scottish setting, so fresh and different from LA, New York, San Francisco, and all of the other usual gay suspects? Is it that while her LGBT characters are usually quite hunky (being athletes and all), Cockburn’s are complicated, complex people who seem believable? Or is it her choice of sports — soccer and now curling — about which I don’t know much, and therefore find interesting. Or is it just the plain, simple fact Cockburn is a heck of a storyteller?

I suppose it’s all of those, but I think there is another factor that really cinches it for me: Cockburn writes stories about characters who are above all decent, kind people who are trying to do the right thing in their lives. She writes the opposite of “asshole” fiction, a genre I loathe. I’d so much finish a book and feel better about the world and the people I share the planet with.

In Throwing Stones, a spin-off from her usual Glasgow Lads series, we meet Oliver, a former Canadian champion, now reduced to coaching because of a scandal in his past. And Luca, a young man leading his team into an important series of matches that could shape his future for years to come. I won’t spoil how the relationship between the two men develops, but even though it happens quickly, it’s entirely believable, and has you pulling for the two of them.

Don’t let the curler setting turn you off. Cockburn handles the explanations of the sport with great aplomb and gives you enough info for you to follow what’s happening, without clubbing you over the head with needless detail. And the cheeky asides about curling that open each chapter never failed to give me a chuckle.

So do yourself a favor and check out this book. Then go back and read the entire Glasgow Lads series. It will restore your faith in humanity. At least it did for me.

The Nomadic Writing Life: Part One

After four, weeks, how has the nomadic writing life turned out? Pretty awesome!

When Brent and I decided to pack up everything and leave Seattle to travel the world, doing so for our writing careers wasn’t really at the top of our minds. We left because A) we were sick of the dark, the rain, and the cold B) as much as we loved the Pacific Northwest, after all of these years living there we were bored out of our skulls and C) Seattle had become so expensive, we could live in so many other places for less money without giving up anything.

The fact that we are writers was definitely an advantage in making such a big change. We can do our jobs anywhere in the world that has wireless, after all. But doing so as a way to help our writing? That wasn’t really something we thought about.

Turns out, it’s had a pretty big impact, though!

I think the biggest change is that it has completely shaken me out of the routines and ruts into which I’d fallen. In Seattle, the days had developed a sameness that, looking back, I can see were a little stultifying, both personally and creatively. I pretty much knew every day exactly who I would see – mostly just Brent – and what I would do – get up, check the news, listen to NPR for an hour, write, go to the gym, write some more, make dinner, watch some TV, then go to bed.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Yawn. Not exactly thinking, or living, outside of the box.

Here in Miami where I’m staying at Roam, a co-living facility for digital nomads, my days are pretty darned different. I still exercise, but now it’s either with a group of people in an informal class, head over to the local pool to swim under a blue Florida sky, or go for sunrise run on the beach.

Where I used to write only at my desk, I now have a half dozen different places to choose from – outside by the pool, on the porch of one of the houses, or in the co-working space where I’m currently writing this alongside a New York filmmaker, a Dutch graphic designer, a French writer, and a German day-trader. As Anne Shirley, one of my favorite literary heroines would say, I have so much more scope for my imagination now.

While I still follow the news of the day, I’m consuming a lot less political coverage, and that has made me a much happier man. Even better, I no longer listen to NPR, which had become a huge source of frustration. Freeing up those hours has given me a lot more time to think about my work, plus added a lot of writing time to my day.

And as a result, I’m finding my writing is flourishing. I’m starting earlier, working more efficiently, and find I’m more excited about what I’m writing.

Why such a dramatic change?

It’s hard to say for sure, but I suspect a big part of it is simply my new surroundings and routines. Here in Miami, I often write alongside other folks doing a myriad of different jobs. Doing so reminds me of doing laps in the pool. When I’m swimming by myself, I don’t push myself as hard. When someone swims in the lane next to me, I find that I push myself harder!

So while I didn’t leave Seattle to improve my writing, it turns out that’s exactly what’s happened!

“Battle of the Sexes” Might Not Be Perfect, But It’s Worth Watching

I watched the biopic Battle of the Sexes last night, and while it wasn’t a perfect movie, it was interesting and definitely worthwhile. The story of how a tennis match between 29-year old Billie Jean King and 55-year old Bobby Riggs become the focal point of women’s liberation is fascinating in and of itself.

As famous as she is, I feel like King has never really gotten the full credit she does for being a pioneer. She put everything on the line for women’s equality, and while she got outed as a lesbian and and apologized for her “fling,” she later became a terrific LGBT activist.

As a writer of historical fiction, I’m always interested in seeing how another writer captures an era. Granted, my eras — the 18th century American frontier for Man & Beast and Man & Monster, and 5500 BC for the Drowning World series — are quite a bit earlier than BoS! Nonetheless, it’s always instructive to see how a book or movie captures another time. What details do they focus on to help the reader visualize that time and place? What do the characters wear, how do they dress and speak? Do they effectively convey how different social mores were?

That last one often depends on who is telling the story, not to mention what the story is. Movies are still usually told by men and are about men, usually famous white men. Which means the parts of history about how women and other minorities were treated (badly) often gets dropped by the wayside. As an author of historical fiction, those are details I always strive to include.

As for BoS, it’s a little by the numbers, like biopics can be.  But when it comes to the sexism that women faced at the time, the condescending attitudes from men in power toward women, I have to say BoS qualifies as a grand slam.  If you’re at all interested, or have no idea why you know the name Billie Jean King, you should check it out!

Reflecting on the Crash of Alaska Flight 261 and Living For Today

Today is January 31, the anniversary of the crash of Alaska Airlines flight 261 that killed everyone on board eighteen years ago. I was still a flight attendant then and was flying that day. As it happened, not long after the crash, our plane flew directly over the site. Our captain even wondered what the oil slick on the water was from.


 


He knew it wasn’t good.


 


There was a short time when my friends and family had no idea whether I’d been on that flight or not. It was sobering for them and for me. In fact, my brother and I weren’t even speaking at the time, though thankfully the crash changed that.


 


I knew several of the flight attendants on board, including Craig Pulanco, who had brought his partner Paul along with him for the layover in Puerto Vallarta. Since I was flying at that very moment, it wasn’t hard to imagine Brent and myself being on that flight, and that it was our lives cut tragically short.


 


The crash is especially on my mind today because it’s a reminder none of us knows how long we have and that we need to think carefully about how we choose to spend that time.


 


It makes me even more grateful that I’ve spent my life trying to make it as a writer, and that earlier this month, Brent and I left Seattle to live and work in different places around the world. It was a bit of a scary decision, but far less terrifying than reaching the end of my life with a heap of regrets.

If I happen to die tomorrow, I’ll go without regretting not having tried to make my dreams happens or not trying to get everything possible out of life. You can’t ask for much more than that. 

Review of Cat Sebastian’s “Ruin of a Rake”

I hadn’t planned on reading another period English romance novel so soon after KJ Charles‘ marvelous  Wanted, A Man . But for quite a while I’d meant to check out Cat Sebastian (great name, by the by) so when one of her novels, The Ruin of a Rake, fell in my lap, I figured no time better than the present.


 


And I’m so glad I did. The story of “wealthy but still an outsider merchant” Julian and the supposedly depraved Lord Courtenay is an entertaining tale of two men who completely misunderstand each other — and more importantly themselves. How they come to better know themselves and change each other in the process is always entertaining, often very sexy, and occasionally touching.


 


My one fault of the book would be something fellow author Kaje Harper pointed out in her Goodreads review — sometimes the inner turmoil keeping the two men from admitting their feelings for each other didn’t quite add up.


 


Most of the time I attributed that to how very uptight and “proper” the English were at that time. It was better to let someone think you didn’t care about them than it was to admit to improper feelings. But I think once or twice the conflicted feelings were there more to keep our lovers apart.


 


But that’s a small thing. On the whole The Ruin of a Rake (great title) is a fun, entertaining read, and while the final destination isn’t exactly a surprise, the trip is well worth taking!

Review of KJ Charles’ Wanted, a Gentleman

This is the fourth or fifth KJ Charles novel I’ve read and I can honestly say she keeps getting better. When I’m reading a Charles novel, I feel like it’s the book equivalent of a finely crafted watch. Her intricate plots are tightly wound and finely constructed, leading to an inevitable and satisfying conclusion that still manages to surprise along the way.




In Wanted, A Gentleman we are introduced to Theo, a down on his luck “scribbler” who plays matchmaker for desperate singles via his London matchmaking tabloid. It’s a sad business for a sad man.


 


Martin, a freed black man, carries a sadness of a different kind. He’s no longer a slave and even feels gratitude toward the family that once owned him, but freed him. Wrapped up in that gratitude is a bitterness that colors all else for Martin.


 


How Charles brings the two men together, tears them apart, then gets them back together (come on, you knew that was coming) is a satisfying tale driven by two very complex men in difficult situations.


 


There were two things in particular I admired most about WAG. The first is that both of these characters were unlike any others I’d read before. Martin’s story of being captured and sold into slavery at age four, how he eventually gained his freedom, and how he still felt shackled nonetheless was utterly fresh and new. And while Theo’s sad tale of woe wasn’t quite as fresh, his alias as scribbler Dorothea Swann was a a world I’d never read about it.


 


The second aspect I admired was how Charles handled the issue of Martin’s past as a slave. I’m glad the story wasn’t about his being a slave and the horrors of slavery. Instead, it showed us a freed black man was able to become successful as England slowly evolved. Nor did Charles shy away from the damage inflicted by slavery, even on someone like Martin who escaped the worst of it. I found it a fresh way to deal with the entire topic.


 


At 155 pages, the book is a little short, but all that really means is that Charles doesn’t waste a single word. All in all, Wanted, a Gentleman is a highly recommended read!

Ch-ch-changes! Moving to Miami Edition!

 

I’m at day three of settling into my new temporary home in South Florida where Brent and I will be living for the next four or five months. And so far it’s gone surprisingly well (some noise issues aside).

Did you know it’s 2,720 miles by air from Seattle to Miami? That makes them the two major U.S. cities the farthest from each other. And with such a huge distance comes a lot of changes. For instance, it’s sunny here in Miami. Really sunny! And it doesn’t rain all winter! Coming from cold, dreary, wet Seattle, I can’t overstate how amazeballs that is. Plus, Spanish is heard here more often than English, which is why I’m glad I’ve started to learn that language. Also, there are alligators. Lots of them. Basically, they are the pigeons of Florida.

How have these changes affected my life so far? My reasons for leaving weren’t running away from anything. Rather it was running toward something. While I love Seattle, I’d grown pretty darn bored with it. It was time for something new. New weather. New experiences. New things to see and do.

Apart from keeping an eye out for lurking alligators, the changes have been really positive. I’ve started doing a fitness class taught by one of the other residents at the co-living group where we’re staying in Miami. This makes a nice change to my old workout routine back home. Turns out there are some muscle groups I hadn’t been using.

I also find I’m more conscious about what I’m eating and actually eating less, which is good since eating is something I do to relieve stress. (And, man, was 2017 stressful! Like I have to tell you that.) I’m also less obsessed with politics, and that is awesome as some days it had taken over my life. And rather than Brent and I usually only seeing and talking to each other most days, now we’re meeting tons of new people. So far I’ve chatted with folks from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and Australia, plus Americans from all over the country. Most of them are pretty cool, too.

Best of all, it’s allowed me to shake up my writing  routine, which fits in perfectly with how 2018 is shaping up. Not only do I have a new agent – the awesome Saritza Hernandez – but I’m bringing a new focus and discipline to my work. And it turns out having a new location allows me to focus more diligently on my polishing up A Broken Land for submission to editors (woo hoo!), coming up with ideas for a new series, and doing even more on social media.

I’m sure some of this would have happened had Brent and I stayed back in Seattle, but certainly not all of it. And it definitely wouldn’t have had the same air of excitement that upending our life has created. I knew we’d fallen into a rut back home, but it turns out that was a really deep rut — like Grand Canyon-sized — and it’s great to have pulled ourselves out of it.

I don’t think running away from your problems is a way to live life, and thankfully this move wasn’t about that. But it was about getting a fresh perspective on the world. And so far it’s worked in spades!

The 12 Days Before Christmas MM Historical Fiction Blowout!

Get swept away to times long past.

Fourteen authors share their love of history through fiction.

Follow the website links after my post to read the authors’  articles

about their books and then go pick up a great read

for half-price or less from December 12 – 24!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~



The Pacific Northwest. A remote Scottish island. England when the first stones for Stonehenge were raised up. These are the types of the places that have always fueled my imagination and wanderlust.

That desire to travel to the most remote of places is also what has inspired my choices when choosing what locales I have written about in my historical novels. Both Man and Beast and Man and Monster are set on the western American frontier of the late 1700s when white settlers first started to encroach on those lands. For those settlers, the towering forests were utterly alien and untouched. They had little idea of who or what lived within their shadows. Rumors of strange creatures like the mythical wendigo abounded.

For my characters John Chapman and Palmer Baxter, the mysterious frontier provided a place where they could explore their equally mysterious desires; desires that were forbidden to them back home.

And my new series The Drowning World (coming out in 2018) is not only set in remote locations around the Black Sea, it also takes place in the very distant past: 5500 BC, at the dawn of civilization. You can go to too many places more remote than that!

Why do I find these places so fascinating? Part of it is their mysteriousness and the fact that we can never truly know what they were like. I suspect going back in time even fifty years would throw most of us for a loop. So experiencing the Civil War or wandering Italy during the Renaissance would truly be mind-blowing. And the farther back in time we go, the stranger everything would become.

Imagine traveling between the empty expanses between ancient Bronze Age villages, encountering people and animals and plants you’d never heard of before. How cool would that be?

It’s fantastic that in 2017 Google Earth can show us almost anywhere on the planet with a click of a mouse. But I fear with that amazing advance we’ve lost a sense of wonder about the world. A little mystery can keep life very interesting.

So if you’d like to slip back to Ancient Rome or to see what it might be like to have been gay on the American frontier, click on any of the the links below, and you’ll be whisked away to a different time and place!

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Visit all the authors participating in this MM Historical Fiction Blowout.
(NOTE: Sales prices & website links may not be active until Dec. 12) Discover a new author. Find a new book to read. Click on the “website” links to read the authors’ posts.

Alex Beecroft

The Reluctant Berserker

Era: Early Medieval/Dark Ages Saxon

Amazon  All Other Formats $0.99

Website | Amazon author page | Facebook | Twitter

 

JP Kenwood

February and December (Dominus Calendar Series 1)

Era: Imperial Rome

Amazon Worldwide $0.99/.99p

Website  | Facebook | Twitter | Archive of our Own

 

 


Brita Addams

Beloved Unmasked

Era: Early 20th Century New Orleans

Dreamspinner | Amazon $3.00

Website  | Newsletter | Facebook | Twitter

 

Summer Devon & Bonnie Dee

Simon and the Christmas Spirit  (Victorian Holiday Hearts series)

Era: Victorian

Amazon | Smashwords | Kobo | B&N | iTunes $0.99

Website  | BD Facebook | BDTwitter | SD Facebook | SD Twitter

 

Anne Barwell

On Wings of Song 

Era: WWI – 1920

Dreamspinner  $2.50

Website  | Twitter | Queeromance Ink | Newsletter |Facebook

 

Joanna Chambers

Unnatural 

Era: Regency

Amazon Amazon (UK)  Nook  iBooks  Kobo  GPlay $1.99

Website  | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

 

Wendy Rathbone

Ganymede: Abducted by the Gods

Era: Bronze Age, fantasy, alternate myth Amazon $2.99

Website | Facebook | Newsletter (get a free copy of “Letters to an Android”)

 

Christina E. Pilz

Fagin’s Boy: The Further Particulars of a Parish Boy’s Progress

Era: Victorian

Amazon | Kobo | Apple | Smashwords|B&N $0.99

Website  | Twitter | Tumblr | Pinterest | Facebook

 

Silvia Violet

Revolutionary Temptation

Era: American Revolution

Amazon Global | iBooks | Kobo | BN $2.99

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Instagram

 

Deanna Wadsworth

Wrecked 

Era: pre-Civil War Key West, Florida

Dreamspinner .89c Dec.19 only

Amazon | Google | Google Play | Nook | Kobo | iTunes $2.99

Website | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads|Facebook

 

Michael Jensen

Man & Monster 

Era: 1799, America

Amazon $1.99

Website  | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

 

Charlene Newcomb

Men of the Cross (Battle Scars I)

Era: Medieval – 12th century

Amazon $0.99/99p

Website  | Twitter | Facebook

 

Ruby Moone

Memories

Era: Regency

Amazon | JMS Books

Website  | Twitter | Facebook

 

 

When it Comes to Gay Visibility “Beauty and the Beast” is Downright Ugly

Now that Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is out on iTunes, I finally got a chance to see the live action remake of the animated classic. Much fuss was made over the fact that director Bill Condon let slip that the remake would have Disney’s first out LGBT character and would even feature a gay “moment.”

Yeah, not so much on either score. “Moment” is all we got in the “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” split second when LeFou accidentally dances with another man at the very end of the movie. Sorry, Bill, it’s 2017, not 1997.

While that’s the movie’s only explicit gay moment, Beast has plenty of other coded gay content, but unfortunately it is all either horribly stereotypical or outright homophobic.

Coded gay villains are about as old as movies themselves, and Disney’s been as guilty as anyone of using them to scare audiences. Captain Ratcliffe in Pocahontas, Scar in The Lion King, Ursula in The Little Mermaid, and Jafar in Aladdin (to name a few) all trade in gay stereotypes to make the audience dislike the big baddies even more. These characters are all butch, effeminate, or flamboyant to different degrees, and it’s always done to make them seem even more evil.

Ironically, not having a coded gay villain is perhaps the one thing Disney gets right in Beast. Here the villain is Gaston, a super macho, self-absorbed straight guy.

Yay, I guess.

And yet the lack of a gay villain doesn’t keep the film from using gay stereotypes to make audiences intensely dislike another character — the Prince whom Belle eventually falls in love with. At the beginning of the film, the Prince is a self-absorbed, mean twit who turns an old woman out into a raging storm while he’s throwing a fabulous party at his castle.  In other words, definitely not a good guy the audience likes.

How is the Prince portrayed at this point in the movie?

He’s flamboyant, effeminate, and bitchy. He’s also at a costume ball and wearing more makeup than a drag queen. Because, you know, ewwww.

These are all things contemporary Americans pretty much universally understand to be bad. Note, I am definitely not saying being effeminate or wearing makeup is any way bad. There isn’t a thing in the world wrong with it, IMHO. But in American society, those are not valued traits. In fact, they can still get you beaten up. And the movie in no way subverts these stereotypes as being something good. Nope, these are standard, tired movie cliches.

So how is the Prince portrayed at the end of the movie after Belle’s love has saved him?


He’s pretty much conventionally masculine. Well, as much one can be while wearing the French fashion at the time.


















So the cinematic shorthand in Beast is that effeminate and gay equals bad, while masculine and straight equals good. Great message for a young, effeminate gay kid seeing Beauty and the Beast to go home with.

If you don’t think I’ve got a point, try this thought experiment. Imagine that at the start of the movie, when the Prince is terrible person who deserves to be cursed, he is portrayed dressed normally and behaving in conventionally masculine ways. Now imagine that after Belle’s love has transformed him from the Beast back into human form, he is wearing make up, dressed flamboyantly, and acting effeminately.

Yep, that would never happen.

Making all of this even worse is that director Bill Condon is gay himself. How he didn’t see what he was doing is beyond me.

The movie also missed opportunities to show that the world of Beauty and the Beast included LGBT people in other ways. In numerous scenes, the village is full of people. Why couldn’t we have seen a lesbian couple living together? Or at the dance at the end of the movie where dozens of couples dance together? Except for the brief moment LeFou dances with another man, it’s all straight couples when it would have been incredibly easy to have a gay couple. (And don’t even get me started on what a cliche LeFou is. Let’s just note his character is the only one that the promotional materials show as being fabulously flamboyant.)

Some people might argue that the movie is only about Belle and the Beast, and their falling in love. And that would be true except for one thing: at the end of the movie when the servants are all transformed back into real people, they are all reunited with their love interests. Yup, all of the secondary characters get to be in relationships except LeFou. Because the value of heterosexual love is to be reinforced at every moment, while gay love is still way too much the love that dare not speak it’s name.

Great message for that little gay kid in the audience. And for this I’m supposed to be thankful, Disney?

Thanks, but no thanks.

Six of My Favorite Gay Fictional Couples

We all know February is really for lovers. For some of us, it’s especially for gay lovers. Alexander the Great and Hephaestion (though not as portrayed by Colin Farrell and Jared Leto in that really bad movie). Dustin Lance Black and Tom Daley. John and Palmer. (If you haven’t yet had a chance to read Man & Beast, this last one might have stumped you, but I think they are a pretty great couple.

To celebrate, here are six of my favorite fictional gay male couples of all time!

1) Captain Jack and Ianto (Torchwood)

A swash-buckling Timelord and his geeky office assistant who team up to save the world again and again? What’s not to love! And three cheers for the show for never shying away from showing their relationship.

2) John and Fergus (Playing for Keeps)

Trying to pick one favorite couple from this series is like trying to pick one favorite brand of dark chocolate — they are all pretty awesome. But I’ll go with John and Fergus because Avery Cockburn does such a fantastic job of weaving all sorts of Scottish issues from politics to religion to class into the plot. Maybe it’s because their story was the first I read in The Glasgow Lads series, but this couple really stuck with me for the way they overcame so many obstacles to be together.

3) David and Keith (Six Feet Under)

While these two had a very complicated relationship, there was little doubt that they loved each other. Watching them struggle to make it is a couple was exhilarating, exhausting, and ultimately worthwhile. And this was another show that didn’t hesitate to show gay men expressing their feelings for each other.

4) Whyborne and Griffin (The Widdershin series)

This paranormal series features the dashing Griffin, a former Pinkerton agent (who reminds me a bit of Captain Jack, come to think of it) and his lover, the repressed scholar Whyborne, who becomes more confident as his adventures with Griffin and the indomitable Christine force him to come out of his shell — and get into Whyborne’s pants again and again.

5) Russel Middlebrook and Kevin Land (Geography Club)

I know Brent is my husband, but that doesn’t mean I don’t really mean it when I say Russel and Kevin make up one of my all time favorite gay couples. What’s not to love? The uptight, too-much-in-his-head Russel and the self-confident Kevin go together like peanut butter and dark chocolate. Mmm, peanut butter and dark chocolate…

6) Oliver and Connor, How to Get Away With Murder

Showing affection between same-sex characters is one thing. Putting their sex lives on equal footing is something else entirely, and HTGAWM did that and more. Plus, I really like what the show has done with Oliver. Yes, he’s a (hot) geeky nerd, but he’s also a pretty complicated guy who dives into the moral world that Annalise Keating has created. And kudos for making Oliver HIV positive and showing how he deals with that.