Cameron D. James's Blog, page 32

Blog Tour This Week!

I’m hitting the electronic road for a Bump and Grind blog tour!

Each day will bring something new — a new guest post by me, a review of Bump and Grind, or both — and you’ll also have the chance to win a $20 Amazon gift card and the complete Men In The Hot Room short story series (Go Deep, Go Deeper, and Going All The Way).

Here’s where you can find me!

November 24th — I guest post about the music that inspired the club-based Bump and Grind story over at KD Grace’s blog.

November 25th —��I guest post about what I’ve learned while writing erotica. (Short answer: it’s hard!)

November 26th — ???

November 27th — ???

November 28th — ???

(Check back daily to see the day’s stop on the tour!)

Safe Sex in Erotica

I recently read Sin and Seduction by Allison Cassatta and, while I enjoyed it, I was quite surprised to find many people on Goodreads complain about the lack of condoms used in the sex scenes.  If I remember correctly, there were a total number of zero condoms in use.

So, now I’m wondering, what is the responsibility of authors of erotica and erotic romance to depict safe sex practices?

Good fiction reflects reality.  And the reality is, like it or not, people make unsafe choices on a daily basis, including choosing to have sex without protection.  Should an author be scolded for reflecting the very real choices that people make?

On the other hand, I’ve read more than one erotic romance where there are long passages where characters discuss how important it is to use a condom, how it is a sign of love and respect, and unprotected sex won’t be happening until both partners get tested and are clean — as going that extra mile is a true sign of love and respect… good grief.  Yes, these are conversations people actually have in real life, but I doubt they’re as long and flowery as these.  I imagine it’s usually like, “Yo, we’re using a condom tonight since I don’t know yet if you’re clean.”

If a writer is choosing to employ the use of condoms, then a simple half sentence — “he rolled the condom down his length” — does the trick.

In my day job, part of my work is to support safer sex practices among men who have sex with men.  I know not everyone chooses safe sex — and they don’t get a lecture from me.  So why would I want a lecture in a book I’m reading?

And who’s reading these books?  A large number of readers of m/m erotic romance are women.  Do they need to be constantly reminded in these books that it’s a sign of love and respect for two men to use condoms when having sex?  I don’t think so.

Are these messages reinforced by some authors as a way to promote healthy sexuality among young gay men?  It’s possible some authors do have those motives.  These are good motives, don’t get me wrong, but how a writer chooses to act on those motives is where I run into difficulty.

There’s an outbreak of syphilis in a few large urban centres in my country (Canada) and it seems to be fuelled by gay hookup apps (Grindr, Jackd, etc.).  I read a recent news article on how public health agencies are working to combat the outbreak, encourage testing, and encourage safer sex practices.  One thing that stuck out in that article was where a health official described how safe sex ads on Grindr do not have the desired effect — because there’s a “condom fatigue” among the gay community.

The message of “WEAR A CONDOM!!!” has been hammered into the public, but gay men have been the target of most of these messages.  This is based on history, with the missing generation of men who died of AIDS.  That message was crucial.  That message saved lives.  That message was listened to.

But, now, decades later, the message hasn’t changed, but attitudes have.

Men who have sex with men sometimes choose to practice unsafe sex.  Hammering home another “WEAR A CONDOM!!!” message in the text of an m/m erotic romance novel or erotica short story is not the place, nor will it be effective.

Safe sex has a place in erotica.  In fact, I think for the most part, sex should primarily be shown using protection — but there shouldn’t be a lecture, it should be an acknowledgement of the condom’s presence and use.  But there are times when men want to have sex, but they don’t have a condom handy — in real life and in fiction.  Are they going to hold off on their burning urges until one of them can get to a drugstore?  Or are they going to give into their urges, have sex, and deal with the consequences later?  (And there are some men who just don’t care about safe sex, like the characters in Allison Cassatta’s book, or who feel that a condom destroys the sensation.)

A writer should not be punished for depicting unsafe sex.  To not depict unsafe sex denies the lived experiences of gay men around the world.

Book Review: How to Write Erotica: 50 Authors Share Their Best Advice

How to Write Erotica: 50 Authors Share Their Best Advice

Brock Wilder, Editor

How To Write Erotica: 50 Authors Share Their Best Advice gives you an inside look at 50 erotica authors and their process for writing erotica. By no means a step by step guide, this book gives you their best tips, how they start, their writing routines, tips on how to promote, and finally, they share their biggest mistakes.

Edited by Brock Wilder, who spent months collecting the advice from the 50 different erotica authors. Each author shares valuable insight into the lucrative genre of selling erotica. Most how to guides features merely 1 author sharing their perspective. This ebook gives you 50 different paths to choose.

Read each chapter and select the advice that rings truest for you. Follow one author throughout the whole book or take advice from many of them. It’s completely up to you how you interact with this one of a kind opportunity.

This was a great book — and I’m not just saying that because I’m one of the 50 authors featured. ;)

Wilder had asked 50 authors to answer a short series of questions on writing, publishing, and marketing erotica, and then complied the answers as a series of quotes in each chapter (and the chapters are divided by the questions asked).  The wealth of information crammed in this one book is immense.  There are authors from all areas of erotica, both genders, and many orientations… and there are pretty much as many pieces of advice as there are authors.

It really goes to show how there is no one set path to writing and publishing.  Every person has their own path, their own habits and routines, and their own process.  One particularly helpful section is the chapter on mistakes — the authors share what they have learned through what they’ve done wrong.  My answer was paid advertising — rarely does it ever work out, and free advertising works just as well… which is to say, not very well at all.  :P

It’s a quick read and really is a must for anyone who wants to write in erotica — or even for those who already write it, but are looking for little tidbits from their peers.  I certainly learned a few things.

(PS: Brock Wilder was a guest on this blog a while back — check out his interview here.)

Book Review: Sin and Seduction

Sin & Seduction

Allison Cassatta

Dorian Grant is king of the New Orleans underworld, but he isn’t mafia and doesn’t appreciate the assumption. He’s simply a crude businessman anyone in his right mind would think twice about screwing over. Life in the Big Easy is all about sin, and violent, short-tempered Dorian has committed them all.

But not all New Orleans sins leave a bad taste in the mouth, as Dorian discovers the night a man stage-named Sweet Heat dances into his life at a club called Sin & Seduction. Dorian was expecting a hot lay. He damn sure wasn’t looking for a relationship, and certainly not with someone like Jansen, who turns Dorian’s grimly organized world upside down.

Now Dorian finds himself pressuring Jansen to quit his job because he can’t stand the thought of other men touching what’s his. Of course, Jansen wants a little quid pro quo—after all, Dorian’s job is dangerous. Jansen just doesn’t realize how dangerous until it’s too late.

I felt I had an conflicting/interesting relationship with the book Sin and Seduction as I read my way through it.  I found I enjoyed it a fair bit… but then I read comments online about the book and found myself so vociferously disagreeing with what people were saying, that I started liking Sin and Seduction more.  A lot of the things that people complained about were, in my opinion, correct choices as an author and have raised my respect for Cassatta’s work.

I liked the rougher world and rougher characters Cassatta created, as it is a nice change up from the cookie-cutter settings and characters that most gay erotic romance novels use.  Oddly, this got a fair bit of negative feedback on Goodreads.  It was an enjoyable change to read about characters that aren’t sappy and who just want to have sex.  These were characters who had serious flaws and made bad choices.  Of course, the romance does come in after a while… it wouldn’t be an erotic romance book without it.  (Cassatta included an author’s note addressing this, that the characters are in no way stereotypical of the gay community.  I originally thought it was an odd choice to include the note, but given the reactions of readers, it was obviously necessary.)  So, point for Cassatta.

I liked the use of unsafe sex.  Again, the got a fair bit of negative feedback on Goodreads.  I hadn’t honestly thought of the unsafe nature of the sex scenes until I read the criticisms online.  Too much erotic romance is filled with overdone condom scenes, testing scenes, and preaching conversations about being responsible and loving.  Gag.  I roll my eyes when these scenes happen.  Real gay men sometimes have unsafe sex.  Even when having safe sex, real gay men don’t often have overwritten conversations about the importance of being safe and how it’s a sign of true love.  Gag again.  Cassatta is reflecting an aspect of reality.  Not only that, but unsafe sex is fitting with these characters — to have them pause to fetch a condom would only kill the mood and be entirely out of character.  So, two points for Cassatta.

The characterization was a little wonky, but I quickly grew to understand that’s just how these characters are, based on their lived experiences.  Again, this is where I disagree with some of the criticisms online.  I’ve read a number of comments criticizing Jansen’s emotional swings… but the way I took it, Jansen is emotionally damaged (as is Dorian), and so the mood swings are par for the course.  Jansen, in his back story, had been brutally raped and Cassatta crafted his character traits based on this past hurt.  To me, the mood swings, clinginess, and occasional crying, are part of his psychology.  So, three points for Cassatta.

Interestingly, I found a lot of comments praising the editing of Sin and Seduction.  While in terms of pure mechanics, Sin and Seduction was fine, the amount of head hopping and POV violations was high.  The POV would change sometimes mid-paragraph.  It was jarring, though I did grow accustomed to it.  However, this book would have been far stronger with correct POV usage.

So, overall… I think a lot of people online disliked this book because it was different… but, for me, that’s what made me like it more.  (Make that four points for Cassatta.)  Sin and Seduction isn’t your average gay erotic romance book, and it’s all the stronger for it.  It’s definitely a must-read for readers who are burning out on reading the typical stuff and are looking for a change-up.

Book Review: Riding the Big One

Riding the Big One

Ken Smith

It’s all hands on ‘dick’ for 18 year old Sandy in this naughty, nautical novel.  School’s over for our young hero and a new life in the Navy introduces this horny virgin to outrageous night-time adventures and man-on-man fun.

Riding the Big One was definitely a flat-out erotica novel.  Each chapter revolved around a big sex scene.

I found the first and last chapters to be a bit weaker than the rest of the book — but the first chapter is what sets up Sandy’s erotic adventures in the Navy, and the last chapter is when he gets his final conquest.  (And, really, the final chapter is intensely hot, it just features different characters than the rest of the book, so it’s a bit of an outsider for that.)

Sandy is a horny young twink who wants to get fucked by the biggest dick possible.  He makes daring moves, such as biting another man’s crotch during a sports game, and takes big risks… but the rewards are big, too.

While I found the first chapter a bit weak for getting into the character, I did find that with each subsequent chapter I grew to love Sandy more and more and enjoyed his voice and his erotic adventures.

Riding the Big One definitely got me hot and bothered many times while reading it — Ken Smith crafts his sex scenes effectively so that it is easy for the reader to visualize them and really get into the moment.

Book Review: Boys on the Prowl

Boys on the Prowl

John Patrick, editor

In the tradition of the best-sellers Barely Legal, Juniors and Pleasures of the Flesh comes a huge new collection of saucy erotic tales, plus two thrilling bonus books.

(Sorry for the blurry cover pic — I could only find two images on the internet and one was super duper tiny.)

This was a massive collection of short stories… like over 500 pages.  So, it took me a while to get through it.  Like any collection of short stories, there were some highlights and some lowlights.  However, unlike most collections of short stories, the lowlights were still actually pretty damn hot.

Since this was so massive, and the nature of a short story collection lets me put it down for long periods between stories, I unfortunately do not remember enough to give a detailed review since I don’t remember most of the stories in the first two-thirds of the book.  But I do remember that I was not disappointed by it.  It was hot, steamy, sweaty, and sexy.

The book also has a collection of nude photos on the cover and throughout the text.  The guy on the front isn’t exactly my type, but the boys in the pages of the book, as well as the one on the back cover, all definitely turn my crank and add to my reading experience.

I must also commend the editing.  I find a lot of collections are riddled with typos, especially if they’re from smaller presses (which I believe this one is), yet Boys on the Prowl had no more than a handful of typos.  So, while not perfect, the editing is far superior to a lot of collections.

Overall, this was definitely an enjoyable romp.

Word Choice in Sex Scenes

My editor keeps hammering home his point that “shit” is not an acceptable exclamation during sex scenes. But I still put them in there. You can only use “fuck” so many times and the occasional “damn”… you need that extra word option, right?

Since my editor has been hammering this home so much, I’ve been paying more attention to word choices that authors make in sex scenes. I have to admit, in a few pieces I’ve read, a character will exclaim “Shit!” during the moment of penetration. My mind instantly wondered — “Was that an exclamation uttered in the heat of sex? Or was there an unfortunate discovery in the bedroom?”

Another book I recently read had a line during the moment of penetration that went something like, “CharacterName let out an explosion of “shit” at the top of his lungs.” It was written much better than that, but there was definitely the “explosion of shit” line in there… and my mind went in the wrong direction for a moment. That would be a very messy sex scene.

I’ve now learned the error of my ways.

To a reader of erotica, the word “shit” can create a very wrong mental image at the worst possible time.

Over 10,000 downloads!

My free short story — Go Deep — has now hit over 10,000 downloads!

Have you read it yet?

Click here to find out where you can get your copy!

Bump and Grind — Part 1 of the Go-Go Boys of Club 21

Wow — more than a month since I’ve posted to this blog!  I bet you’re wondering where I’ve been!

Well, I’ve been elbow-deep in the creation of a hot new world and cast of characters, in writing lots of hot and dirty sex and tantalizing storylines.

I present to you, Bump and Grind, the first entry in the five-volume series Go-Go Boys of Club 21!

Bump and Grind

Go-Go Boys of Club 21 #1

Liam loves the life of being a go-go boy—dancing, partying, constant adoration from hot clients.  The only thing he has to worry about is if he’s using the right moves as he grinds to the beat to win the affection of the highest tippers.

But tonight, there’s a new patron at Club 21—Ryan, a dream hunk and former porn celebrity—and he’s got eyes for Liam, and Liam alone. A private dance is a no-touch affair, but when Ryan rents Liam for half an hour all for himself, the experience forever changes how Liam sees his life in the club.

Click here to visit my website to read an excerpt and find out where to purchase your copy!

Book Review: Wrestling With Jesus

 

Wrestling with Jesus

Stephen Osborne

Bookstore owner Randy Stone is smitten. His new boyfriend, Kyle Temple, is sweet, hot, attentive, and great in bed. But introducing Kyle to his family takes courage, because Randy’s parents can be a little judgmental, and Kyle is ten years younger than Randy, a small-time pro wrestler, and dumber than the proverbial sack of hammers. Needless to say, Randy’s parents aren’t exactly thrilled, and even his best friend is skeptical.

Despite the challenges, Randy is determined to tough it out for Kyle. After all, enduring a few scornful comments from his mother is nothing compared to what Kyle’s going through trying to quit smoking for Randy. When a hypnotherapy session designed to help with Kyle’s cravings leaves him quoting Jesus Christ—in Aramaic—Randy’s parents are suddenly the least of their problems. Once word gets out, their privacy is destroyed. News crews follow them everywhere, and everyone who knows Kyle seems determined to make a buck. It’s a mess that could make Kyle’s dreams of wrestling in the UWE come true—but what about his dream of being with Randy?

Wrestling with Jesus was absolutely freakin’ adorable!  There!  That’s the entire review summed up in one sentence!

Kyle is unbelievably cute as the not-so-intelligent but oh-so-caring wrestler who somehow quotes Jesus when put under hypnosis.  Without Kyle written as such a cutie, this book would have still been good, but Kyle is what makes it so adorable.

When the news of Kyle’s ability to quote Jesus — in Aramaic — when under hypnosis hits that papers… well, a National Inquirer-style tabloid… it all goes crazy.  This book was hilarious in both how it depicted the exuberant wrestling fans merging with religious folk and in how every time Kyle tries to refute his link to Jesus, he just seems to offer more proof that he just might be the reincarnation of Jesus.

All of the characters are so wonderfully crafted that they only add to the delight of this novel.  I loved the other wrestlers, Randy’s family, and Randy and Kyle’s friends.

Really, I just can’t describe how much I loved this book.  I had a huge grin on my face while reading the whole thing.