Q&A with Josh Lanyon discussion
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What Are you Reading?
Jax wrote: "Josh wrote: "This is why I have had to all but stop reading m/m. "I am certainly trying fewer new authors these days. I no longer actively seek out new reads by checking review sites. There's rea..."
Very true, same here. Maybe it's a kind of overindulging, I have the feeling that I read too much of it in too short a time. So it's not only the sappiness, but the sameness of everything. That's maybe my problem with genre fiction and the reason I love authors going - subtly - against the "rules" of a genre: in m/m Alexis Hall comes to mind. I had a look at my virtual shelves and saw that nearly all the "strict" m/m books I read and liked during the last months were written by British authors. Usually the dialogue is so lively and witty that I don't mind the absence of a plot :-)
KC wrote: "Ben Monopoli's new book is out, yay! The Youth & Young Loves of Oliver Wade: Stories Hmm...alternating these short stories (which are all about Ollie) with the Strackey mysteries, c..."I've just finished this and I really enjoyed it. I'm going to indulge in a Ben Monopoli re-read: The Cranberry Hush and The Painting of Porcupine City. I've read each of those at least three times but they're always excellent. I think The Youth & Young Loves of Oliver Wade: Stories is going to join those two as favourite books. I recommend it!
HJ wrote: "KC wrote: "Ben Monopoli's new book is out, yay! The Youth & Young Loves of Oliver Wade: Stories Hmm...alternating these short stories (which are all about Ollie) with the Strackey m..."Good to know! Enjoy the reread!
I read all his books and I love them all so much, every word. :-) I find them very intense emotionally, similar in a way to the way I feel after I read a Harper Fox book, so it will probably take years before i'll be ready to reread, but i do want to reread them someday.
HJ wrote: "KC wrote: "Ben Monopoli's new book is out, yay! The Youth & Young Loves of Oliver Wade: Stories Hmm...alternating these short stories (which are all about Ollie) with the Strackey m..."Oh gosh - I snot-sobbed through the last 50 pages of 'The Cranberry Hush' but haven't read the others. Their blurbs didn't sound appealing. But you liked them?
Steve wrote: "Oh gosh - I snot-sobbed through the last 50 pages of 'The Cranberry Hush' but haven't read the others. Their blurbs didn't sound appealing. But you liked them?"My 5 stars review of The Painting of Porcupine City says:
This book is beautiful and heartbreaking. I don't know if it is more beautiful or heartbreaking. It left me thinking of the main characters now and then a long time after I read it.
Steve wrote: "HJ wrote: "KC wrote: "Ben Monopoli's new book is out, yay! The Youth & Young Loves of Oliver Wade: Stories ... Oh gosh - I snot-sobbed through the last 50 pages of 'The Cranberry Hush' but haven't read the others. Their blurbs didn't sound appealing. But you liked them? ..."I loved them. As Antonella says, they stay with you. I don't know if it would be possible to write a successful blurb for them because they really don't fit the usual way books are written and described.
This is what I wrote about Porcupine City when I first read it: "Wonderful. Compelling and distinct characters who have credible, complex relationships and develop and change. Superb evocation of place - the difference between Boston and San Paulo is realised so well, as is the feel of the different types of heat and humidity. Hauntingly good."
I didn't like Homo Action Love Story! A tall tale nearly as much, but I think I should give it another go. I remember that something is revealed very near the end which, had I known it earlier, would have affected the way I felt about a couple of the characters.
Steve wrote: "Here is my little rant on all the drippy m/m books. Sex. Now I like sex as much as the next person and as a gay man, I especially like m/m sex. But enough is enough. I have an author friend who say..."Yes! Yes to every word here. I'm not a gay man and I totally agree...and I'm sick of Skimville.
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I think you're right, Karen! Some of the dialogue is completely stilted and the scenes are overly choreographed. I remember a line in The Boy With the Painful Tattoo to the effect of it being clumsy and lots of moving parts. Something like that.
Josh wrote: "There are so many lovely, lovely people writing m/m, but they are drippy. Their work is emotionally drippy. And I just can't put up with it. *Put a fucking stopper in it! Grow the hell up! If I w..."
Oh yes, this.
Steve wrote: "Here is my little rant on all the drippy m/m books. Sex. Now I like sex as much as the next person and as a gay man, I especially like m/m sex. But enough is enough. I have an author friend who say..."And this, too.
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Hear, hear.
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Yes. When there's too much sex it gets awfully boring extremely fast. If those various sex scenes don't add anything in the plot or give us fresh glimpses into the characters, tell us something about who they really are, OR if the scenes are only about mechanics of sex, I tend to start skipping forward in the book and IMO that's always a bad sign.
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So glad to hear you liked The Youth & Young Loves of Oliver Wade: Stories, HJ! I loved both The Cranberry Hush and The Painting of Porcupine City. I like Ben Monopoli's unique voice a lot and there's something very refreshing about reading a book that you can't count on having a traditional happy ending. It really keeps you on your toes. :-)
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"I read all his books and I love them all so much, every word. :-) I find them very intense emotionally, similar in a way to the way I feel after I read a Harper Fox book, so it will probably take years before i'll be ready to reread, but i do want to reread them someday."
This is exactly how I feel about Monopoli's books.
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My 5 stars review of The Painting of Porcupine City says:
This book is beautiful and heartbreaking. I don't know if it is more beautiful or heartbreaking. It left me thinking of the main characters now and then a long time after I read it."
LOL. I went to read your whole review and ended up reading mine too, because your review ends with: "See also the reviews by Johanna or John." :-D
I do love John's review. :-)
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I agree with every word. Well said, HJ.
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I haven't read this one yet, but I've bought it already — long time ago, actually.
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The Painting of Porcupine City was my first book from this author and the reason I ended up reading it in the first place was because it was gifted to me by a dear friend. And I also remember our HJ recommending it even back then. :-) Even though the book stole my heart, I can totally see why you never finished it. There were parts that were emotionally exhausting. But it also spoke the same language my inner street artist does. :-)
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Heh. I never stop being delighted by the moment when Adrien and Jake bang their heads and noses together, and there seems to be knees and elbows everywhere. :-) Best sex ever, that. :-D
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Exactly. :-) :-) :-)
Steve wrote: "Here is my little rant on all the drippy m/m books. Sex. Now I like sex as much as the next person and as a gay man, I especially like m/m sex. But enough is enough. I have an author friend who says the basic rule (rule?) is three sex scenes per a 200-250 page book, and authors get savaged by readers if they aren’t there. Really? Come on, people. I don’t like reading sex for sex’s sake. I want it to mean something in a story. I want it to mean something to the characters. I want it to move the plot forward. I’ve been more satisfied with off the page sex than with a lot of the sex scenes I’ve read these days. A ten-plus page sex scene? Welcome to Skimville!! And the way some scenes are written seem physically impossible unless the guys are double or triple-jointed. What I like the most about the sex in Josh’s books is that it’s very real. He writes men. Men having sex. Men relating to each other in the bedroom. I had this same discussion with a couple of guy friends last summer and we agreed that so many of the sex scenes in m/m read very much m/f, except the female has a penis as well. Maybe that’s sexist? I don’t know. But what I know as a gay male reader is most of the sex scenes I’m reading these days don’t seem authentic...."Totally agree 100% on this one. Even though I am NOT a gay man, I like my scenes to be more about the emotions than the physical description. I don't CARE who put what where. I want to see what the act does to further their emotional journey. And if it doesn't, leave it the heck out.
I just recently read a book by a writer I really like, but her scenes, though emotional, were too long. Skim skim skim...
Steve wrote: "What I meant about that, Carli, is that some sex scenes read like they're between a man and a woman but somebody's changed all the female pronouns to male."I have a tendency to avoid books by unknown authors because I'm weary of excessively sentimental writing. I like reading romance, but I don't appreciate stereotypical romantic settings. I find those boring. I want something unique and singular -- or you loose my interest. That there are many or no sex scenes I don't mind. As long as they're significant to the plot.
Johanna wrote: "Heh. I never stop being delighted by the moment when Adrien and Jake bang their heads and noses together, and there seems to be knees and elbows everywhere. :-) Best sex ever, that. :-D"That is still, and probably will always be, my all-time favorite scene :-)
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The whole "savaged by readers" thing is silly anyway. What readers? Who are these readers and why would anyone care what they think? You can't please every reader -- nor should you try.
I don't care who you are or what you write. You cannot please every reader.
And you will make yourself crazy trying.
I'm writing for readers who aren't looking for three sex scenes per every 200 pages. That's my audience. I have to find a jazzier way to describe them though.
:-D
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It is a series of essays written between 86 - 88 during the AIDS crisis (not that the crisis is over) before treatments starte..."
Congratulations! That's a great project to be part of.
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Couldn't agree more, Steve. Except for the female with a penis thing because I wouldn't know. What I do know about Josh's writing of sex scenes..."
To me, the minute you turn sex into a mathematical equation, you've failed.
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I am certainly trying fewer new authors these days. I no longer actively seek out new reads by checking review sites...."
Well, looking at the earliest titles on my Kindle, yes. I think I did a LOT of shopping just because it was all new and there wasn't a huge amount of selection. And I did quickly glut myself on what there was.
And I suppose that's a lot of my boredom now. There's just so much more of the same old thing. New writers -- many new writers -- but there's just not a lot of originality.
I've reached the point where even the blurbs make me sigh.
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I am certainly trying fewer new authors these days. I no longer actively seek out new reads by checking review sites...."
I have to agree with you about the British writers. Hall, KJ Charles, Harper, Joanna Chambers, JL Merrow... many good and interesting efforts.
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Skimville. LOL.
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For the people who like to use a book in place of a vibrator, there's no shortage of titles. And for people who like plot, there are plenty of plotty stories.
Where I grow impatient is when authors say idiotic things like...oh, you can't write X because readers don't like that!
As if readers were all one size, one flavor.
Josh wrote: "Steve wrote: "Here is my little rant on all the drippy m/m books. Sex. Now I like sex as much as the next person and as a gay man, I especially like m/m sex. But enough is enough. I have an author ..."There are readers who are quite rabid. There are readers who pick fights on Goodreads and Amazon and Facebook. There are readers who demand freebies and what not. More authors I know are starting (finally) to keep their personal lives separate from their author lives, and are learning to not engage to random rabid reader.
No, you can't please everybody. When you go about trying to please everybody you end up pleasing nobody - least of all yourself.
Josh wrote: "Steve wrote: "Here is my little rant on all the drippy m/m books. Sex. Now I like sex as much as the next person and as a gay man, I especially like m/m sex. But enough is enough. I have an author ..."I'm writing for readers who aren't looking for three sex scenes per every 200 pages. That's my audience. I have to find a jazzier way to describe them though.
Are you looking for a jazzier way to describe the sex scenes or your readers?? ;)
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DING! DING! DING!
You are correct. And it's kind of sad, frankly, when stupid, sappy characters are labeled chicks-with-dicks when NO self-respecting woman would act like these drips.
It's about writing real people. But, as I have said countless times, far too many stories are peopled with Book People not motivated and believable characters.
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I have a tendency to avo..."
And I am all in favor of emotion and romance! But I think it is more emotional -- resonates more? -- and much more romantic if it feels "real."
Like...the best (as in romantic, moving) dialog for me is dialog that I can picture a real person saying under stress or great emotional turmoil.
What I am never going to believe -- or be moved by -- is that kind of corny I-would-shake-the-stars-from-their-moorings-for-one-night-with-you dialog from a roofer or a contractor or (God in heaven!) a cowboy.
Even two writers wouldn't talk that way to each other!
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People who have suffered through real life first sexual encounters love that scene. ;-D
Real sex in romance books? I don't know.... that would mean: "shit, I hope the kids don't wake up and walk in"
"why didn't I shave my legs and bikiniline tonight, he must be disgusted by those stubbles"
"I hope he's not a neck licker.... eeewww, he's licking my neck!"
"His tongue technique is seriously lacking"
"Already?"
"How long does one orgasm take?"
"God, I'm sweating so much"
"He's SUCKING my earlobe/toe/finger! EEWW!"
Yeah, I'm all for unrealistic sex in my romance books.
Ame wrote: "Real sex in romance books? I don't know.... that would mean: "shit, I hope the kids don't wake up and walk in"
"why didn't I shave my legs and bikiniline tonight, he must be disgusted by those s..."
OMG, I just snorted coffee all over the kindle!!! If you put it that way... :-))
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"shit, I hope the kids don't wake up and walk in"
"why didn't I shave my legs and bikiniline tonight, he must be disgusted by those s..."
LOL
The ILLUSION of reality. Not reality.
:-D :-D :-D
Josh wrote: "Ame wrote: "Real sex in romance books? I don't know.... that would mean: "shit, I hope the kids don't wake up and walk in"
"why didn't I shave my legs and bikiniline tonight, he must be disguste..."
:D
I know. I just couldn't resist ;)
(It's Friday after all and I've had one beer)
I rely more on the recommendations of friends than reviews when it comes to books. When I first started reading m/m I had to rely on reviews because I had no idea such a community of readers existed, but now I feel fortunate to have so many good resources on hand (although I've found myself muttering WTF a few times).
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"shit, I hope the kids don't wake up and walk in"
"why didn't I shave my legs and bikiniline tonight, he mus..."
However, I think this real life bedtime dialog should be continued. :-D
OWWWW!! TELL YOUR DOG I'M NOT ATTACKING YOU!!!
Josh wrote: "Ame wrote: "Josh wrote: "Ame wrote: "Real sex in romance books? I don't know.... that would mean: "shit, I hope the kids don't wake up and walk in"
"why didn't I shave my legs and bikiniline ton..."
LOL
"Sorry. I didn't realize using ice cubes would be quite this... wet."
Ame wrote: "Josh wrote: "Ame wrote: "Josh wrote: "Ame wrote: "Real sex in romance books? I don't know.... that would mean: "shit, I hope the kids don't wake up and walk in"
"why didn't I shave my legs and b..."
Ähm I don't thought, that's quite so messy, to lick whipped cream from your pecs and where are the pills against heartburn?
Sabine wrote: "Ame wrote: "Josh wrote: "Ame wrote: "Josh wrote: "Ame wrote: "Real sex in romance books? I don't know.... that would mean: "shit, I hope the kids don't wake up and walk in"
"why didn't I shave m..."
STOP! I got a cramp in my leg! Ouch ouch ow ow!!
Josh wrote: "I have to agree with you about the British writers. Hall, KJ Charles, Harper, Joanna Chambers, JL Merrow... many good and interesting efforts. ..."This really pleased me! I think they're good too, but was aware I might be biased.
Steve wrote: "I rely more on the recommendations of friends than reviews when it comes to books. When I first started reading m/m I had to rely on reviews because I had no idea such a community of readers existe..."I am very similar. I will read some books that friends have recommended and i follow their reviews but I don't use review sites just GR and AMZ. I make most of my purchase decisions by reading the blurb and I like using the various book awards to find new writers. I found some great authors and non-fiction by going through the LAMBDA nominees from the different years.
Hmm you know my book buying patterns have shifted a bit too. I am relying on authors I know rather than finding new ones.And right now I'm reading an urban fantasy again. I think some diversity in my reading is needed lately.
That said, Amy Lane's Bluewater Bay book is out today for pre-order. I'll be reading that one. ;)
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Q&A with Josh Lanyon
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It is a series of essays written between 86 - 88 during the AIDS crisis (not that the crisis is over) before treatments starte..."
I've been meaning to read that one for years! John Preston was a gifted storyteller, whether fiction or nonfiction, as well as a brilliant editor/anthologist.