F.E. Feeley Jr.'s Blog, page 8
March 16, 2018
I was interviewed on Wrote Podcast!
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Hey, self promo stuff – sorry.
I was on The Wrote Podcast today talking about my new book:
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as well as some other things. Check out the episode here
March 14, 2018
#OwnVoices need publishers to focus on them (LGBT)
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With the recent fallout concerning the publisher Riptide as well as the fallout around Santino Hassell, there has been an exposure of underlying issues in the m/m romance genre.
These issues include racism, misandry, bi-erasure, trans-erasure, and oddly enough, homophobia inside these books.
Furthermore, there are issues that gay men deal with specifically such as conversion therapy and other such things that authors use as a plot device. Due mostly to the rules of romance combined with privilege, these serious issues are often overlooked or oversimplified.
This is detrimental to the subject matter because it gives the reader the wrong ideas about many aspects and it’s detrimental to the LGBT person who reads this and wonders just how so much could be so wrong in the world.
There are those out there who have no problem participating in the creation of work that perpetuates stereotypes, whitewashes homosexual relationships to make them more palatable, ignores People of Color in gay relationships, writes subjects without doing their due diligence in regards to what gay men experience (The Preacher’s Son), and this idea that fantasy has any business overriding the reality of many.
These issues, including others, are deeply rooted in the genre of m/m romance. They’ve caused widespread arguments before, there have been flare-ups before this, but nothing quite this bad or widespread.
Yet, the problem hasn’t gone away.
Nor will it go away.
Mostly, because like a festering boil, or like a bad tooth, the pain won’t go away until the root cause of the problem is dealt with.
I used to think that this is an issue that could be solved with simple conscientiousness. Yet, I think I may have changed my mind on this. I don’t think that’s enough.
We need publishers or a publisher to focus on LGBT stories from LGBT people – specifically. Whether that is an imprint or a publisher whose sole purpose is to produce this or publishing houses who have a diverse staff prepared to deal with these stories, specifically.
#Ourvoices
Our stories from people who are inside the spectrum of LGBT be they romantic stories or otherwise.
While I think people from all walks of life have a right to write what they want, we need our place to write what we know. What we’ve lived. What we’ve gone through. What we’re still going through. How we see the world.
We need a place to gather specifically for the creation of LGBT work by LGBT individuals.
Right now gay people and gay people’s lives are being used to profit everyone but gay people. That isn’t fair.
#Ourvoices need to be heard. #Ourvoices are important, too. #Ourvoices ought to have a place of their own to grow and flourish.
March 13, 2018
Caught in the Riptide
These past two incidents with SH and Riptide simply punches a huge gaping hole in the problems M/M Romance has overall.
Those things are: Misandry, Homophobia, and racism to say nothing for the exploitation of gay people.
This problem will not go away until the core issues are dealt with.
It's not every author.
In fact, I would wager it isn't half of them.
Yet, there are those out there who have no problem participating in the creation of work that perpetuates stereotypes, whitewashes homosexual relationships to make them more palatable, bi-erasure, ignores People of Color in gay relationships, writes subjects without doing their due diligence in regards to what gay men experience (The Preacher's Son), and this idea that fantasy has any business overriding the reality of many.
Hopefully, this backlash will cause a much-needed conversation concerning these issues. Gay men have been talking about them for long enough, they've been silenced, made fun of, boycotted, and dismissed.
You can't dismiss this anymore.
It's an easy fix.
Treat Gender, Sexuality, Culture, and people overall with reverence. Treat people with respect.
In essence, fix your shit.
March 9, 2018
The Santino Hassell of it all
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I feel the need to explain some stuff and express some opinion in regards of this most recent fallout. I also want to point out a glaring elephant in the room. A conversation, not a debate, not a flame war, not anything but a calm conversation needs to happen in regard to what’s happening inside the genre and how to go forward.
There are no men in m/m romance who make that kind of money but 1 or 2.
That’s it.
This isn’t us.
We didn’t do this.
This isn’t somehow related to us other than us being used to excuse bad behavior from those who are ultimately responsible.
Josh Lanyon wasn’t a man.
Hassel, come to find out, wasn’t a man.
I’ve read trans male work – their work is masculine in tone. You can read it in their work.
Gay men aren’t out here deceiving you. We’re not out here making boat tons of money or asking for donations for make-believe illnesses.
We’re not so caught up in the small amount of fame that m/m brings that we need to get a street team together to shut down inquiring minds or boycott authors.
Why?
Because we’re not that popular.
This isn’t us.
This was about sales.
This was about deception.
This was about cruelty.
This was about infidelity to the readers.
This was about throwing gay men under the bus.
This isn’t about misogyny internalized or otherwise.
This was women being shitty to women and there’s no excuse. This is was someone, a woman, who catfished – the worst being a young gay man named Noah who Hassel got close to, pretended a relationship with, only to turn around and write about his experiences without telling him which is sexually manipulative and abusive. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one.
And the hassell of it all, is, that this was about turf. At the end of the day, that’s what this was about. This was a turf war. It was about money.
They’d made a brand. They sold the brand. Then they made damn sure that the brand couldn’t be brought down by being a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Y’all gotta stop following these authors like they’re God and you’re their disciple.
This a person.
Sure he/she may be a talented author.
Sure, they write stuff that makes your heart feel things.
Yet at the end of the day, this is a person and these cults of personality spring up around a person and it becomes crazy to see when so said person falls from grace.
And it happens EVERY. FREAKING. TIME.
Read a book, enjoy the book, review the book, and move on.
There are popular people who act shitty and do bad things and then they do good things.
There are unknown people who do good things and fuck up once…
mostly, there are just people being people.
I get having to write under a pen name.
Some people can’t expose who they are or what they do for a living because of conflicts of interest or personal issues.
That being said, always take a person online with some measure of suspicion unless you know that person personally.
I feel bad for anyone who got hurt. I feel bad for people who may have sent people money in a catfish scam.
There are some really tender hearted folks out there who mean to do the best.
Then again there are people out there who prey on this very thing.
They make the reader/ fan feel special and so the reader/ fan wants to do something special or important for them.
Yet you do. You read their books, you review their books, and share with friends.
That’s a lot, already.
If someone requests money for a certain thing or asks help with a certain thing, they doggone better be able to validate who they are to ensure people that they’re not into scamming others out of their hard-earned money.
IF what is being said is true, it’s pretty despicable yet not all the fault can be laid at this person’s feet.
This has happened way too many times for people to be shocked.
Stop falling for it.
March 8, 2018
Release Blitz for CLOSER by F.E. Feeley Jr. (excerpt and giveaway)
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
RELEASE BLITZ
Book Title: Closer
Author: F.E. Feeley Jr
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
Cover Artist: Emma Bonath
Genre/s: Gay Fiction, Horror, Urban Fantasy
Length: 118,000 words/346 pages
Release Date: March 1st, 2018
Blurb
Maplewood, Vermont is a picturesque town filled with unique shops, unique homes, and a quaint familiarity all centered around a lake with an unusual history.
Legends, old as well as Urban, float around like the mist that hovers above the lake at break of dawn.
But they’re just stories, right?
Hayden Moore’s life was destroyed when his husband, Malcolm, was murdered. Giving up his job as an assistant district attorney in Boston, Hayden moved to the little burg of Maplewood to recover.
A new life.
A fresh start.
However, something underneath the water is stirring. Something rotten. A deadly secret wakes underneath the black waters of Lake Veronica so disturbing it haunts the…
View original post 1,361 more words
March 6, 2018
CLOSER Blitz & Review ~ 10 out of 10!
Book Review of my novel, Closer
REVIEW
Author: F E Feeley Jr
Release Date: 1 March 2018 Price: £4.44
Reviewed by: Felices
Cover Art: Shows a wooden jetty protruding over a lake with a house in the background. Mist is rising up from the water and it appears to be either sunset or sunrise. A man is standing at the end of the jetty. The title is in a large, red, upper case font across the top of the cover with the author’s name in white Initial caps across the bottom. It is very appropriate to the story.
Synopsis: Lets us know that something strange and disturbing is happening but leaves it entirely open as to what the events are. There is a discrepancy with Hayden’s name switching from Moore in the synopsis to Monroe inside the book.
Plot: Hayden has moved to Maplewood after the death of his husband in order to make a…
View original post 1,843 more words
March 5, 2018
Book Sale for Closer
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/775332
Available in Ebook and Paperback. Audio coming soon!
“Gripping, creepy, and plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing.”
“An incredibly well-devised page turner. “
“If you like your love stories with a supernatural element, you should like this one.”
My new novel, Closer, is on sale for 3.00 at Smashwords. Follow this link and the code is RAE50 before you check out.
WATCH THE TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1DrBTMHs0o
February 28, 2018
Release Blitz – Closer by F.E. Feeley Jr. #gayfiction #horror #urbanfantasy #newrelease #giveaway
The blog tour for my book Closer – begins!
RELEASE BLITZ
Book Title: Closer
Author: F.E. Feeley Jr
Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing
Cover Artist: Emma Bonath
Genre/s: Gay Fiction, Horror, Urban Fantasy
Length: 118,000 words/346 pages
Release Date: March 1st, 2018
Blurb
Maplewood, Vermont is a picturesque town filled with unique shops, unique homes, and a quaint familiarity all centered around a lake with an unusual history.
Legends, old as well as Urban, float around like the mist that hovers above the lake at break of dawn.
But they’re just stories, right?
Hayden Moore’s life was destroyed when his husband, Malcolm, was murdered. Giving up his job as an assistant district attorney in Boston, Hayden moved to the little burg of Maplewood to recover.
A new life.
A fresh start.
However, something underneath the water is stirring. Something rotten. A deadly secret wakes underneath the black waters of Lake Veronica so disturbing it haunts the…
View original post 1,361 more words
Poem for a Funeral
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There is no light without the dark
no life without death
the sun can’t rise in the morning without
the setting of the moon
and the fading of the stars
Why this merry go round, then?
What lessons are etched upon my heart?
Had I reached my limit of knowledge to carry?
There is no ecstatic joy without deep sorrow
each waterway must end where the land begins
No Spring Flowers without Winter’s frozen snow
no lasting love affair without the first chaste kiss
There I stood in the midst of many
one light in a sea of a billion stars
participating in life’s grand display – shining brightly
furiously burning ever so wonderous
surrounded by space as black as pitch
Yet, there is no truth without a lie
No relief without the pain
There is no mercy without the crime
and there is no night without the day
I’ve done all I can in this body made of clay
I’ve said all the words I came here to speak
and though I am gone from your joyful presence
there can be no fond memories, without the pinprick of grief
So watch for me in those times, my dear
when the sun fades just to the west
when the skies are orange, purple, and red
and the moon begins to crest
Find me on the last day of summer,
and talk to me right before you fall asleep
I’ll be listening to you, my darling
in the spaces, in those transition places
Right there, in the in-between
February 25, 2018
New Book Trailer (Closer)
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Hey all,
I am super excited to bring you my latest novel, Closer:
Maplewood, Vermont is a picturesque town filled with unique shops, unique homes, and a quaint familiarity all centered around a lake with an unusual history.
Legends, old as well as Urban, float around like the mist that hovers above the lake at break of dawn.
But they’re just stories, right?
Hayden Moore’s life was destroyed when his husband, Malcolm, was murdered. Giving up his job as an assistant district attorney in Boston, Hayden moved to the little burg of Maplewood to recover.
A new life.
A fresh start.
However, something underneath the water is stirring. Something rotten. A deadly secret wakes underneath the black waters of Lake Veronica so disturbing it haunts the nightmares of the local residents.
It’s coming closer…
March 1st!
