I hesitate a bit to mention my series here, since a problematic and forbidden love between a king and an outlaw is one of the engines that drives this series, but is only one of them. Even so, that relationship profoundly affects the final outcome of the Return of the Herakleids, an event that drove the fall of Bronze Age Greece yet hasn't been written about since Herodotus.
Gay friends who beta-read the series praised its realism and its total avoidance of gay love cliches. My editor warned me, "it could turn off some HF readers, but the warnings are very clear; the reader knows long before [the two characters] do that it will happen and if it comes as a surprise, that reader was not paying attention."
I myself have to add - with more than a touch of chagrin - that I had no intention of letting these two men step into such a problematic passion, but they just did it and I couldn't stop them. And then the affair took on such a powerful life of its own that no one now can imagine this story without it.
At any rate, I hope that it will ring true with this group. Would love to hear what you all think if you read it.
Gay friends who beta-read the series praised its realism and its total avoidance of gay love cliches. My editor warned me, "it could turn off some HF readers, but the warnings are very clear; the reader knows long before [the two characters] do that it will happen and if it comes as a surprise, that reader was not paying attention."
I myself have to add - with more than a touch of chagrin - that I had no intention of letting these two men step into such a problematic passion, but they just did it and I couldn't stop them. And then the affair took on such a powerful life of its own that no one now can imagine this story without it.
At any rate, I hope that it will ring true with this group. Would love to hear what you all think if you read it.