Xavier Mayne's Blog, page 8

The Book Vixen Gives Frat House Troopers 4 Frogs!

I love this review from J9 at The Book Vixen. Here are the best parts–the beginning and the end of the review:

If readers can look past the utterly ridiculous plot of this book then the characters are highly enjoyable and the MM romance delicious….This turned into one of my favorite MM romances lately and I even re-read a few scenes already. So long as readers don’t mind the silly plot, they should enjoy the characters and romance as I did.

“Utterly ridiculous plot!” You got that right, sister! That’s what was so fun about writing it. But then my new best friend J9 really nails what I was hoping everyone would get from the novel:

I think a lot of readers (me included) think of sexual orientation as linear where people fall on one side or the other but this novel asks readers to consider a more complicated view on sexuality where a straight man could fall in love with another straight man. I liked this exploration of sexuality because instead of being heavy it was handled with humor and heart.

This. I set out to write a fun romp with a serious message about sexual identity (for anyone who wanted to see it–many people don’t) and J9 got it. Thank you thank you thank you for your perceptive and generous review.

Read the entire Book Vixen review here. Seriously, you should.

Mrs. Condit & Friends Review Frat House Troopers

Mr. P, a reviewer for Mrs. Condit & Friends Read Books, has reviewed Frat House Troopers and given it 4-and-a-half sweet peas! I’m so grateful for reviews that note the fact that this is my first novel–I’m feeling very much a beginner at all of this, and I love the support that comes by surprise in reviews. Thanks, Mr. P.!

Read the Mrs. Condit & Friends Read Books review of Frat House Troopers here.

TotallyBookedBlog Reviews Frat House Troopers

The wonderful gals at TotallyBookedBlog have reviewed Frat House Troopers and I am thrilled to say that they seem to have liked it very much. They have a delightful dialogue style to their reviews, and I found it fun and entertaining.

Thanks so much Jenny and Gitte! Love you!

Read the TotallyBookedBlog review of Frat House Troopers here.

Amos Lassen Reviews Frat House Troopers

Amos Lassen has reviewed Frat House Troopers! Here’s the final bit:

The prose, plot and character development are all excellent and the sex scenes are really hot. The secondary characters contribute to the plot throughout and some of them are fascinating to read. If I have a criticism it is quite minor and that is that Brandt and Donnelly fell in love a bit too quickly and everything ended up in a tidy ending. Perhaps the reason I wanted more was because I so enjoyed what I read but who knows—maybe there will be a sequel.

I hadn’t been thinking of writing a sequel, but with nudging like this, I’m starting to…

Read the full review here.

MANTastic Fiction Reviews Frat House Troopers

MANtastic Fiction has given Frat House Troopers 4/5 stars! I really enjoyed this review, mainly because it takes up something I’m really trying to get at in my work:

…instead of this just being a stereotypical story, I think the style of writing and some of the events could really spark some interesting debates.

As I’ve written about before, my views on male sexuality tend to be a bit unorthodox. I’ve been intrigued by the reaction that the book is getting–it doesn’t seem to fit what people expect from a typical “gay for you” story (a category of literature I didn’t even know existed before now!) because the characters don’t exhibit any hint of being gay beforehand. To me, that’s what makes the story work, but I can see how others are bemused by it.

In any event, I appreciate the detailed and thoughtful review!

Read the review here.

#2 Hot New Gay & Lesbian Lit on Amazon!

 

Just checked on Frat House Troopers on Amazon, and it’s the #2 “Hot New Release” for the Gay & Lesbian Literature and Fiction, and #4 for the entire Gay & Lesbian book category. I’m kind of speechless right now.

I’ve never been so proud to be #2!

(Who’s this Mannies guy, anyway?)

Frat House Troopers Now Available!

Frat House Troopers is now available from Dreamspinner Press!

Buy the e-book version here
Buy the paperback version here

I hope that you will be willing to spend a few bucks to have Brandt and Donnelly (and Bryce and Nestor and Nick and…) back in your life–or to discover them for the first time.

If you enjoy the story, you may want to find out more about the characters who live in Brandt and Donnelly’s world. You can discover how Will and Lucas met in “Hope Among the Deserted.” Nick’s tale is told in “A Love Like Fireflies.” And Josh, who only shows up here as a background character, has a story of his own: “Cupid’s Big Weekend.” You can read these now on Literotica!

Thanks for reading.

Frat House Troopers to be Released December 19!

If you’ve been waiting for the publication of Frat House Troopers (I know I have!), you’ll be happy to know it’s only a month away. It will be published by Dreamspinner Press on December 19.

It’s still a while to wait, but you can pre-order it today!

Pre-order the e-book version here
Pre-order the paperback version here

I hope that you will be willing to spend a few bucks to have Brandt and Donnelly (and Bryce and Nestor and Nick and…) back in your life–or to discover them for the first time.

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting! Whether you found this site as a result of reading one of my stories, or just stopped by to see when in god’s name I’m going to publish something new, I’m happy you’re here.

I’m working with Dreamspinner Press as we speak to prepare Frat House Troopers for publication. It should be available shortly–I’ll update this site once we have a publication date.

In the meantime, I’m working on getting my earlier stories published as Kindle books, to be sold through Amazon. I hope this will make for a better reading experience, and it gives me a chance to stamp out the last few typos I didn’t catch the first time around!

Thanks for stopping by. I’m always happy to hear from you–drop me a note or leave a comment.

Love,

~xm

What Happened to “Frat House Troopers”?

If you came to this page looking for my story “Frat House Troopers,” which used to be posted on Nifty, Literotica, and Screeve.org, then I’m sorry to disappoint you. The story has been taken down from all three sites. While this is bad news in one way (namely, you won’t be able to read it online), it’s also good news in another way.

Frat House Troopers will be published December 19, 2012 by Dreamspinner Press. Read about it (and order your very own copy!) here.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your understanding. And please consider getting your very own copy of Brandt and Donnelly’s adventures for your bookshelf or e-reader.

~xm