I Got Issues by Felice Stevens
No I really don't like that song, but it fits my mood for the past, well, several months. I'm going to preface what I writing with maybe "It's me not them" but I'm wondering when it was that MM romance lost its edge.
Let me explain.
When I began reading in the genre in 2012, I fell in love with MM romance because of the stories the books had to tell, as well as the writing. Books like the Matter of Time series, by Mary Calmes, Cut and Run by Urban and Roux and the Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon left HUGE impressions on me and I wanted more. These books contained characters who felt like people we wanted to know; we fell in love with them, obsessed over them and screamed and yelled if we thought they were making bad decisions.
I'm not seeing many books like this anymore. What I see, and this is my opinion only, are books that are carbon copies of each other. Books that are readable but forgettable once they're done. Interchangeable characters, so much so that often I feel like names and minor characteristics were tweaked, but their stories are the same.
I saw an article this week about cut and paste blurb writing to me, and it occurred to me so many books feel like cut and paste books. It's as if someone wrote a formula for these books:
1. Two cute gay men
2. Have them meet cute in a coffee shop or a restaurant
3. Minor conflict
4. HEA
Where are the stories that touch my soul? I'm not finding them any more. I miss my Sam and Jory. I miss Adrien and Jake. I miss books with issues and heart. I miss books I love so much I've formed friendships over our mutual love over fictional characters and an author's abilities to make us feel.
While there's comfort in reading and knowing exactly what to expect, I want more, but I'm not seeing that. What I'm seeing is this obsession to getting to #1, in a market where #1 really doesn't mean much anymore. And I've had it, so believe me I know. It's nice to have that orange banner but let's face it; it's Amazon, not the NYT. It can change in an hour and has little to no meaning in the end.
Gay Romance is a small community and many of us came into it after years spent fighting for rights others take for granted. We've donated money and time and tears to helping men, women and children find their place in a society that either marginalized them or shut the doors on them completely. We write romance because EVERYONE deserves to have love and a happily ever after, not just one man and one woman.
But what we don't do is write it because we think it's the next get-rich-quick, cash cow scheme. We don't write to become #1 because of some bizzarro Amazon algorithm that counts reading pages more than someone buying my book. As my grandmother always said, "Feh."
Oh, and I have a new audiobook out. One Call Away, the book of my heart, is now out in audio, narrated by Seth Clayton, who gave Noah and Oren the voices i dreamed about. I hope you'll love it.
Here's the Audible link:
One Call Away
Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend for those in the States!
Let me explain.
When I began reading in the genre in 2012, I fell in love with MM romance because of the stories the books had to tell, as well as the writing. Books like the Matter of Time series, by Mary Calmes, Cut and Run by Urban and Roux and the Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon left HUGE impressions on me and I wanted more. These books contained characters who felt like people we wanted to know; we fell in love with them, obsessed over them and screamed and yelled if we thought they were making bad decisions.
I'm not seeing many books like this anymore. What I see, and this is my opinion only, are books that are carbon copies of each other. Books that are readable but forgettable once they're done. Interchangeable characters, so much so that often I feel like names and minor characteristics were tweaked, but their stories are the same.
I saw an article this week about cut and paste blurb writing to me, and it occurred to me so many books feel like cut and paste books. It's as if someone wrote a formula for these books:
1. Two cute gay men
2. Have them meet cute in a coffee shop or a restaurant
3. Minor conflict
4. HEA
Where are the stories that touch my soul? I'm not finding them any more. I miss my Sam and Jory. I miss Adrien and Jake. I miss books with issues and heart. I miss books I love so much I've formed friendships over our mutual love over fictional characters and an author's abilities to make us feel.
While there's comfort in reading and knowing exactly what to expect, I want more, but I'm not seeing that. What I'm seeing is this obsession to getting to #1, in a market where #1 really doesn't mean much anymore. And I've had it, so believe me I know. It's nice to have that orange banner but let's face it; it's Amazon, not the NYT. It can change in an hour and has little to no meaning in the end.
Gay Romance is a small community and many of us came into it after years spent fighting for rights others take for granted. We've donated money and time and tears to helping men, women and children find their place in a society that either marginalized them or shut the doors on them completely. We write romance because EVERYONE deserves to have love and a happily ever after, not just one man and one woman.
But what we don't do is write it because we think it's the next get-rich-quick, cash cow scheme. We don't write to become #1 because of some bizzarro Amazon algorithm that counts reading pages more than someone buying my book. As my grandmother always said, "Feh."
Oh, and I have a new audiobook out. One Call Away, the book of my heart, is now out in audio, narrated by Seth Clayton, who gave Noah and Oren the voices i dreamed about. I hope you'll love it.
Here's the Audible link:
One Call Away
Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend for those in the States!
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