Cameron D. James's Blog, page 44

The Writers Vineyard: The Entrepreneurial Writer

Howdy gang!

Today I’m over at The Writers Vineyard to talk about being an entrepreneurial writer.  I originally meant to post about the intimidation of writing the second novel — after all, it’s gotta be better than the first!

But when I made my way over to The Writers Vineyard, I noticed fellow writer Graeme Brown wrote about being an artist versus being an entrepreneur.  Graeme, as well as everyone that commented on the post before me, consider themselves to be artists rather than entrepreneurs.  I’ve long known I’m more of an entrepreneur than an artist, so I thought it’d be good to write a follow-up to Graeme’s post, to discuss how an entrepreneur approaches writing.

In the end, I worked in some of my thoughts of why writing novel two is so much harder than writing novel one.

Click here to visit The Writers Vineyard and dive into the conversation.

Book Review: Steam Bath

Steam Bath

Edited by Shane Allison

Good Clean Fun

Steamy encounters in the bathhouse have been the stuff of erotic legend for centuries—just ask Spartacus! Shane Allison busts open the sauna door in Steam Bath, a rollicking romp of pretty boys and dashing daddies out to cruise. From fresh-faced twinks to silver foxes and beautiful bears, Shane delivers sensational stories of sweaty, muscled men eager to shed their clothes. A towel-snapping good read, Steam Bath is filled with sizzling porn bodies, sexy boys next door, and tantalizing tricks that fully capture the erotic dynamics between men. A gorgeous, tattooed bad boy asks to be taught a hard lesson in Eric Del Carlo’s “Steam Punk.” A twink finds true love for one night at the baths, who blows his mind and more in Rafaelito V. Sy’s “Raf’s Journey.” Things get hot and heavy when two college professors and a horny student stumble upon a Belgian bathhouse in Roscoe Hudson’s “The Chaperones.” And who knew that sex between two randy strangers could be so hot in “Across the Bay,” by T. R. Verten? Gaybie award-winning editor Shane Allison is a rising gay erotica star who proves he is here to stay with Steam Bath.

Steam Bath was a fun and sweaty read.  This collection of stories revolves around saunas / steam rooms, whether they be in a bathhouse, a gym, or, as in one story, ancient Rome.  The setting is something out of porn (and, for some, real life), of often-anonymous sex in semi-public places.  The heat and sweat get you going and the sexy fun unfolds from there.

The collection of stories Allison pulls together is particularly strong.  Like any anthology, there is a mix of styles and abilities on display — but in Steam Bath, even the weakest story is still strong.  Some stories, like Incubus Steams, were interesting, but not quite to my personal taste… I’m still trying to figure out the ending on that one.  Others, such as The Chaperones, mentioned in the cover blurb above were quite hot.  A particular favourite is The Gay Dude, though the comical use of the word “dude” is overdone partway through — past that word, though, is a quick-flowing story that sees two supposedly-straight men accidentally stumble into a bathhouse.

I find the variety of settings to be interesting.  About half-ish of the stories take place in bathhouses and while they seem to have similarities, such as a maze of corridors leading to steam rooms, there’s quite a variety of other rooms for the reader to explore.  Some have impressive (and multiple) showers, pools, floors.  One had a room full of continual rain with giant video screens shifting between rainforest scenes, caves, and other wet places.  So… some of these settings seemed realistic and others a little on the fantastic side.

There was also a variety of reasons for men to go to the bathhouse or steamroom, or to engage in often-anonymous sex.  I found that refreshing.  Rather than saying it’s always the closeted guys or everyone’s just so non-stop horny, the variety of authors here have provided a variety of motivations.

The tag line on the front cover for Steam Bath is “Sweaty Gay Erotica.”  With Shane Allison as the editor, and the strength of the writers present, Steam Bath definitely lives up to its promise.

Cover Reveal: Go Deep

I’m so excited!

Next week I’ll be self-pubbing a short story as a FREE READ!  It’ll he a hawt story of a yoga student and his teacher… and how things get extra steamy after hours…

And did I mention it’ll be FREE?  Cuz it’ll be FREE!

Check out the cover!  (Cover blurb is down there below all the sexiness…)

Hot yoga turns scorching hot during an after-hours practice session.

Hot yoga instructor Brad finds a tantalizing surprise when he closes up his studio for the day.  Simon, a young yogi twink, is waiting for him in the hot room, preparing for tomorrow’s tournament.  He asks for help, but soon Brad realizes this young man has a different sort of yoga in mind.

By the time they reach Poorna-Salabhasana, the hot room’s not hot enough.  Brad teaches Simon how to relax, take it slow, and go deep, and Simon discovers the secret to mastering yoga.

So look for Go Deep late next week!

Blog Tour Stop 17: Reading Addiction Blog Tours Reviews

And the great Autumn Fire Virtual Book Tour comes to an end!  Today’s final stop is at Reading Addiction Blog Tours Reviews for the wrap up!

The tour featured 11 reviews, excerpts, a couple interviews, and a few guest posts.  In the summary on RABT Reviews page, it says Autumn Fire got an average rating of 4.4 stars on the tour!  Huzzah!

Click here to visit RABT Reviews and check it out!

Blog Tour Stop 16: Faerie Tale Books

It’s been a bit of a slow last week on the Autumn Fire virtual book tour — but today was a huge bang!  The penultimate stop, Faerie Tale Books, gave Autumn Fire a stellar review!

Cameron D. James is a very talented writer with an eye for detail, lovable and realistic characters, and descriptive genius. James writes scenes that will seduce you, arouse you, and conquer your heart!

Click here to read the full review (and an excerpt if you haven’t read it yet)!

Book Review: Sorcerer’s Knot

Sorcerer’s Knot

Tali Spencer

In a world where pleasure unlocks even the best-guarded magic, Cian has a long list of magical talents—and an even longer list of sorcerers he slept with to acquire them. He even seduced a dragon. There’s just one arcane power left for him to master: command over the sea. Now Cian has learned where to find Muir the Scarred, the only man known to have mastered that power—and he is determined to wrest it from him by whatever means necessary.

But completing the task isn’t so easy. First, Cian’s boat is wrecked on the shores of Muir’s desolate island. Then he learns an enchantment will keep him there forever. And when he tries to seduce Muir, he finds himself being seduced by the mysterious sorcerer instead. But the source of the power Cian seeks is also trapped on the island, and it will stop at nothing to break free, even if that means forcing pleasure—and magic—from Cian’s unwilling body.

I found this story to be interesting… it caught me off guard with some plot elements I don’t want to reveal yet… (so, be warned, there will be some spoilers later!)

The set up of this story and the world it relates were well done.  I enjoyed following Cian to Muir’s island, learning a bit about the magic of this world along the way.  And since this is a novella, rather than a novel, the pace pulls the reader along nicely.  We quickly see the rather odd relationship between Cian and Muir develop, one we’re never quite sure what to make of until we reach the end.

Muir is a sort of grizzled man.  He’s covered from head to toe in circular scars from fighting magic.  While the scars were an interesting touch, and meant to be sexy (I think), I only found them sexy sometimes.  Parts of him were very scarred — and perhaps that was the author’s intent, to create a character we can care about that isn’t exactly beautiful.  And if that was Spencer’s intent, then she succeeded.  I liked Muir.  I might not like to look at him, though.

The only time the scarring got a bit much for me was during the first sex scene.  Muir’s foreskin is so scarred that Cian wonders if the older man had circumcised himself.  While that certainly gets across the level of scarification that Spencer wants, I found it created some deep feelings of “ewww…” that were hard to shake off.

And here’s where I get into SPOILERS — so if you don’t want to ruin your experience, STOP HERE!

The circular scars, to me, indicated something like a giant octopus.  Muir commands the sea, after all.

Instead, what we find is a giant tentacled monster beneath the island.  A monster whose tentacles like to suck and fuck young men.  Yup, tentacle erotica.  I know there’s an interest in this and a certain niche following, but I have to admit I’m not one of them — and it sort of surprised me by popping up rather unexpectedly halfway through the book.

It does make for some quite interesting plot developments, though.  In this world, magic can be stolen (absorbed?) from another person through sex.  So this creature trapped by Muir’s magic needs to steal Cian magic to attempt to break free from his prison — and the best way to do that is by sticking a tentacle in Cian’s mouth and ass, and putting a sucking tentacle on Cian’s dick.

And that’s as spoileriffic as I’m going to get — you know there’s a monster and you know there’s tentacle sex.  Where it goes from there, well, you’re going to have to read the book to find out.

So, overall, I found the storytelling quite enjoyable and the world and its magic pretty well explained — it was just some of the squicky stuff that turned me off a bit…

Book Review: John Carter and the Giant of Mars

John Carter and the Giant of Mars

Edgar Rice Burroughs

(Supposedly, it’s actually by Edgar’s son, John “Jack” Coleman Burroughs.)

This is the first of two stories that collectively make the book “John Carter of Mars,” the second of which I will be reading in the next month or two. John Carter and the Giant of Mars was really a chore to get through. Perhaps it’s because it’s written by his son and not Edgar himself, or perhaps its because my skimming of background information says this is meant for young readers… I don’t know. All I know is that this book is quite a slog to get through.

The entire book is done in a telling rather than showing narrative. (So, Burroughs tells us what the characters are doing, rather than showing us.) And the story is riddled with passive voice. If anything, it reads more like a lengthy summary of a novel, rather than an actual novel.

Like all other novels in this series, it starts with the kidnapping of a helpless woman, once again it’s Carter’s wife, Dejah Thoris. Carter scours Mars to find her, only to fall into a trap. He’s captured by a giant (Joog), but then escapes into a tunnel full of giant rats, and then meets the mastermind behind it all. That mastermind wants to overtake the city of Helium, and eventually the whole planet. Sigh… what else is new?

What I will say is positive is there is less wonton killing. Well, there is a big war scene, but other than that, there’s less killing. The earlier novels had a huge body count. I find that as the series goes on, the body count gets smaller as Carter becomes less violently reactive and starts to rely on his brains a little more.

And as I reflect on the fact that the next book, Skeleton Men of Jupiter, is the final Barsoom novel, I find I’m both pleased and disappointed. The journey through eleven novels in about a year and a bit has been exhausting. I normally don’t read a series that close together. So, in that sense, I’m looking forward to reaching the end. (Although, I might then pick up some of his other series.) And, at the same time, I’ve noticed some considerable development in characters and story styles, so I find it a bit disappointing that this journey is coming to an end.

Anyway, back to this. John Carter and the Giant of Mars is a book that really should be skipped, given the strength of the rest of the series.

Book Review: The Hardest Thing

The Hardest Thing

James Lear

Once a major in the US Marines, Dan Stagg fell foul of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and is now struggling to make sense of civilian life.  In his late 30s, tall and muscular, Dan works as a bouncer at an East Village nightclub.  When he’s offered a fortune to protect the young male secretary of a powerful real estate developer, Dan takes off on a road trip with a hot blond companion who makes it clear that “protection” doesn’t stop at the bedroom door.  But Dan soon realizes he’s being used as a shield for a much more sinister operation and has to choose between easy money and the ideals that he once fought for.

Holy crap was this book hot.

Author James Lear combines a great mystery with some of the hottest erotic fiction I’ve ever read.  Dan Stagg is a very likeable narrator with a complex backstory.  Typically, I’m not fond of first-person narrative, but Dan is one of the few examples of first-person that I truly enjoy.

Dan was in love, once, and then his whole world ended.  His lover died and Dan got kicked out of the military for being gay.  Now, he struggles to make ends meet.  Throughout The Hardest Thing, Dan grows, he heals from his past, he accepts what’s been done, and he risks his heart with Stirling (the young male secretary from the cover blurb).  We get some nice backstory, appropriately placed and meaningfully written, of Dan’s history with Will, his lover from the military… it makes the developments in this book all the more meaningful.

Stirling is an interesting character, too.  When we first meet him, he is very annoying.  He’s, like, the stereotypical New York gay man, but when the shit hits the fan and that facade drops, we get some insights into who Stirling really is.  And, you know what?  He’s quite likeable.

Then there’s the whole problem of people wanting to kill them.  That kind of makes falling in love difficult.

And holy hell is the sex in this book hot.  The sex between Dan and Stirling, which happens throughout the first half, is very hot and enjoyable.  But then in the second half, it almost turns porn-ish (but very high quality porn-ish), what with all the random blowjobs, truck stop bathroom aggressive hookups, and gym showers/sauna sex.  I made the mistake of reading a chapter, the one with the aggressive group sex in a dirty truck stop bathroom, while on my break at work.  Thankfully no one noticed my *cough* physiological reactions *cough* to the chapter.

This is one of those rare books where I have no negative comments, only positive.  I see the cover says “A Dan Stagg Mystery” — I really hope that implies there are more books to come.  If there are, I’m definitely reading them.  Just not at work.

Blog Tour Stop 15: Growing Up Little

Today’s stop on Autumn Fire’s Virtual Book Tour is over at Growing Up Little — for one of the best reviews to date!

Simply the best M/M erotica I have read to date.  Not only were the sex scenes sizzling but the characters were well-developed and real.  The sexual tension built between Dustin and Kyle wasstimulating.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this book – was that there were several very real issues within the story line.  This book is a lot more than just hot erotic writing… it also contains serious emotional issues that many gay men face.

(All of the bolding is in the original review — she liked it that much!)

Click here to read the full post!

Blog Tour Stop 14: Sweet n’ Sassi

Today’s stop on the Autumn Fire Virtual Book Tour is over at Sweet n’ Sassi for a 5-star review!

The review is very short, which means the teaser snippet I post here will be even shorter…

The author’s characters were well developed, realistic and believable, making it a must read book.

You should head over to Sweet n’ Sassi to read the whole review — it’s short, but it’s good!  Click here to visit.