I don’t profess to any great literary tastes as evidenced by my list. Having cut my teeth on 70’s and 80’s science fiction, devoured dime store mysteries and delved into the land of trashy romances, I’m far more pulp-fiction than highbrow. These are in no particular order.
1) The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon by Tom Spanbauer. I loved the narrator, the half-Indian Shed (who’s name is short for Out Back In The Shed, cause that’s where he services his male customers). It’s wild and crazy and terribly sad at times. Spanbauer goes from raunchy to poignant in a matter of moments. The crazy cowboy Dellwood – Shed’s mentor and lover – obtains a black stallion for Shed…which Shed promptly names “Princess.” You don’t know who’s more insane, the prostitutes Shed calls family or the bible thumpers in their town. This is one of those books I love so much, I find it hard to talk about why.Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Grove Press (January 6, 2000)
Publisher Link: http://www.groveatlantic.com/#page=isbn9
ISBN-10: 080213663X
ISBN-13: 978-0802136633
Amazon: The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon: A Novel
Set against the harsh reality of an unforgiving landscape and culture, The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon provides a vision of the Old West unlike anything seen before. The narrator, Shed, is one of the most memorable characters in contemporary fiction: a half-Indian bisexual boy who lives and works at the Indian Head Hotel in the tiny town of Excellent, Idaho. It's the turn of the century, and the hotel carries on a prosperous business as the town's brothel. The eccentric characters working in the hotel provide Shed with a surrogate family, yet he finds in himself a growing need to learn the meaning of his Indian name, Duivichi-un-Dua, given to him by his mother, who was murdered when he was twelve. Setting off alone across the haunting plains, Shed goes in search of an identity among his true people, encountering a rich pageant of extraordinary characters along the way. Although he learns a great deal about the mysteries and traditions of his Indian heritage, it is not until Shed returns to Excellent and witnesses a series of brutal tragedies that he attains the wisdom that infuses this exceptional and captivating book.
( books from 2 to 10 )
About James Buchanan: James Buchanan is an award winning author of, primarily, gay erotic fiction. James grew up in a small Southwestern town, hours away from any other small Southwestern town. A stint at the State University, where he ostensibly majored in English, garnered him a degree useful for being someone's secretary. The absolute lack of employment opportunities led James to Southern California. After a stint in County Mental Health (administration not client) he ran screaming into the field of Law. James has been practicing for nine years and someday he might even get it right. James has published several short stories and novellas as well as six novels with various publishers.
Personal Demons Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: MLR Press (October 7, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?boo
ISBN-10: 1608200620
ISBN-13: 978-1608200627
Amazon: Personal Demons
Hunting a notorious hit man, FBI Agent Chase Nozick and LAPD Det. Enrique Rios Ocha delve into the inner worlds of Santeria, Voodoo and Palo Mayumbe. A missing informant, her murdered brother and a ghost from Chase's past send them on a hunt through mystics and psychic surgeons to find their witness before it's too late. Can he rely on leads from a child possessed by Orishas? Do cards hold stronger clues than blood? Chase must conquer his own personal demons to bring the killer of his partner to justice and find the strength to take a chance on Enrique.
I am a life long reader, and have been reading romance novels for almost thirty years. I discovered early on that I tended to like historical romances over straight "trashy" romance novels, but sometimes a great trashy novel is just what one needs.
I'm afraid I stole my first ever romance novel. It was back in the early 1980s, and my husband and I were visiting his cousin. She worked in a grocery store and had a bookshelf full of books that had the covers torn off. She blithely told me it was ok because she worked at a grocery store, and it was common to tear the covers off books that didn't sell. I started reading one of them and hadn't quite finished by the time we were going to leave so she told me I could have it. It wasn't until years later that I found out that books with the covers torn off are supposed to be thrown away, so in essence I had stolen it. To make up for it I bought every novel I could find by that author.
Here is my list of "straight" historical romance novels. I've also included one LGBT novel, really the only one I've read all the way through. Too busy writing now to read much of anything. These books are pretty much listed in the order in which I originally read them.
1) The Poldark Saga by Winston Graham. This series of books were not romance novels per se, but they were my introduction to Cornwall and ignited my love for the area. I've read these books countless times. My favorite of the series is The Four Swans. The series centers on the life of Ross Poldark, and his wife Demelza. There is a scene of incredible sensuality in this novel; a scene of adultery between Demelza and a young naval captain named Hugh. I think what really drew me in was Winston Graham's ability to describe a scene is such detail, including physical description and emotional turmoil. I found myself reading it again and again.Paperback: 581 pages
Publisher: Macmillan UK (April 1996)
ISBN-10: 0330344994
ISBN-13: 978-0330344999
Amazon: The Four Swans (The Poldark Saga)
Ross seems secure in his hard won prosperity, but a new dilemma faces him in the sudden infatuation of a young naval officer for his wife Demelza. For Demelza, Elizabeth, Caroline, and Morwenna, there are times of stress and conflict ahead.
( books from 2 to 10 )
About Rowena Sudbury: Rowena Sudbury writes m/m stories and is published with Dreamspinner Press
The King’s Tale Paperback: 282 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (July 27, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
ISBN-10: 1615810218
ISBN-13: 978-1615810215
Amazon: The King's Tale
Though Dafydd is the fourth son of Welsh nobility, when he leaves his home he becomes a humble woodsman in small kingdom of Lysnowydh on the sea. During a fierce storm, a stranger seeks shelter in Dafydd's remote cottage. He is no ordinary traveler—he is Christopher, King of Lysnowydh. The wild passion that flares between them rivals the storm, and love moves King Christopher's heart to name Dafydd Marshal of his troops to keep him close. However, love is never simple or safe when it must endure the pressures of political life. Though Dafydd proves himself in battle, Lysnowydh's nobles protest his rise in position and power. Forces will conspire against Dafydd and Christopher, and they must endure treason, treachery, and the demands of a kingdom requiring an heir to secure their happiness together.
55 Covers still in contest, here is the link to covers and poll
http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/2
the covers are grouped in slot of 10, each slot represent a question in the polls. My suggestion: open the above webpage in a different browser than the poll, and look at the covers while ticking off the ones you want to vote in the poll.
Since this is a "funny" contest, I will allow only votes through LJ accounts, not voting with comments sorry. The good news is that you can vote as many covers as you want for all the length of the contest :-) The cover contest will last for six week: every week the covers will be halved by 50%, to arrive at the sixth week with only 10 covers. The winning cover will be announced at the same time with the winner of the 2009 Rainbow Awards for LGBTQ Fiction and Non Fiction.
( go to poll )
E-male is a pure classic romance novel. It has not any pretence to be anything else if not a light romp. Kory Miles is a geeky guy working as waiter while he is trying to build a successful online dating website. He is so good in his work that the website is a endless source of good matching but there is a problem: no complicated algorithm calculates the best matching, it’s all in Kory’s mind and good sense. Problem is that e-male is also starting to “eat” its owner, Kory has not real private life and he is always worried that no one discovers who is really behind the website. So when he has the chance to sell the website to another company following it as a consultant, it’s a perfect solution. Zac Djorvzac is the owner of a travel agency and he has three rules: No Drama, No Dancing, No Dating. For the owner of a gay travel agency this is like a contradiction in terms, since you can’t have a group of gay men together and not having at least one of the Ds above. When Kory enters Zac’s office with a business proposal Zac never sent to him, Zac thinks the man is another city boy interesting only in partying and “loving”. And it not helps to make him changing his idea that Kory has an impromptu sex session with him on the floor behind the desk.
From a start like this, you would expect for the book to be a sex scene after the other. And this is something that actually I have never found in a Scott&Scott’s novel. Yes, there is sex, and also good sex, but the most important thing is the romance. These partners in work and life write novels that proof to the everyday gay man that also him is allowed to have romance. Since he is also a man, the romance is maybe a bit easier and less flowerily, but it’s not less romantic. Kory believes in true love, it’s the basic rule of his online dating website, but he is also a man who walks around with a condom in the pocket, just in case. Zac is apparently a stoic man, but in the end, he has a behind the should past as party boy.
If the light story and the funny moments weren’t enough to make me like this novel, the multiple references to “Dirty Dancing” and Patrick Swayze as must to seen movie for every respectable gay man and teen girls won me over. The roles between Kory and Zac change abruptly and when they leave for a vacation together to Baytown Beach with Kory’s friends and Zac’s employees (like a school trip among different classes where the main purpose is to gossip and dating), Kory becomes the library/laptop mouse, who hardly leaves his room, and Zac is now the beach boy who knows all the better places and who tries to drag Kory’s out of his shell. The dance lessons in the water or balancing on a rock, remind me too much Dirty Dancing to not love the story.
As I said this is a light story. It’s also maybe a little unrealistic, I can’t really believe that a group of grown men can go back so much to their teen years to consider a beach ball contest the main event of their vacation, but still, the story was nice and romantic, pretty much like a young comedy movie, that type of story that you read to rest and relax.
Amazon: E-Male
Amazon Kindle: E-Male
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Vallejo works almost exclusively in the fantasy and erotica genres. His hyper-representational paintings have graced the covers of dozens of science fiction paperbacks and are featured in a series of best-selling glossy calendars. Subjects of his paintings are typically gods, monsters, and well-muscled male and female barbarians engaged in battle. Some of his male figures were modeled by Vallejo himself, and many of his later female characters were modeled by his wife. His latest works still retain heavy fantasy elements, but lean more towards the erotic rather than pure fantasy themes.
The Toast of the Town (1976)
( more pics )
Vallejo commenced painting at the age of thirteen and had his first illustration job at the age of sixteen. After emigrating to the United States in 1964, he quickly garnered a fan following from his illustrations of Tarzan, Conan The Barbarian, Doc Savage and various other fantasy characters (often done for paperback fiction works featuring the characters). This led to commissions for movie poster illustration, advertisement illustration, and artwork for various collectibles - including Franklin Mint paraphernalia, trading cards and sculpture. Along with Bell, Vallejo presents his artwork in an annual calendar and various books. Vallejo's work is often compared to the work of Frank Frazetta, not only because it is similar stylistically but also since Frazetta painted covers for paperbacks of some of the same characters.
Vallejo's preferred artistic medium is oil paint on board, and has previously used digital media to combine discrete images to form composite images. Preparatory works are pencil or ink sketches, which have been displayed in the book Sketchbook. He and Julie Bell have worked on collaborative artworks together, in which they sign the artwork "Boris and Julie" or "Julie and Boris".
Vallejo has created film posters for numerous fantasy and action productions, including Barbarella (1968), Knightriders (1981), Q (1982), and Barbarian Queen (1985). He has also illustrated posters for comedies, notably National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), European Vacation (1985), and Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007), co-created with Bell.
Vallejo is married to fellow artist Julie Bell, whose artistic style is very similar to Vallejo's. He has two children from a previous marriage to artist and writer Doris Vallejo. His son, Dorian Vallejo, also has produced work in the fantasy genre but now works primarily as a portrait painter. His daughter, Maya Vallejo, is a professional photographer.
http://www.imaginistix.com/
( more pics )
I was wandering a lot around Michael Thomas Ford's novels, never deciding to buy one since, first there were so many to choose from that I didn't know where to start and second I was worried to become addicted and knowing me if I liked one than I for sure I would have bought all of them. So I waited and waited and then in a gay bookstore they were all there, looking at me from the shelves and they are so pretty with those covers that I picked one. The saleswoman told me pick one random, they are all good and my choice was Looking for it. It's strange, usually I don't like stories with too much characters, I never know for whom to care for and always feel like no one of them has enough space. And above all, at least one of them has not an happy ending. And instead Looking for it made me rethink on my assumptions. It's true, it's the choral story of a groups of friends, all of them gay and all of them represents a way to face gay life. There is Mike, the bartender of the Engine Room, the pub where all of them gather. He seems the more steady of them, always ready to listen to other problems. But also Mike has his bad experience in the past and maybe he is alone since he fears to be burnt again. But Mike is a too good guy to stay alone forever and so enter Father Thomas Dunn, the new episcopal pastor of the S. Peter's Church, the same church where some of the above friends go. So, in a way, Mike and Thomas do the same work, they listen to people problem trying to forget that also them have their own relationship issue. Thomas was in love with a fellow seminarist, a boy he didn't have the courage to love and who died. Since then, Thomas's guilty grew so much that now he is convinced that his punishment is to be alone forever. What I liked of Mike and Thomas' story is that it was without angst; both of them new that it was not an easy relationship but they faced it with an easiness that made it sweet and tender.
The other known couple in the novel is John and Russell, who are facing the classic 7 years love relationship crisis. They love each other, but they arrived in a moment in life and in their relationship, where the other is granted, and you believe that you haven't to prove your love. John and Russell were since the beginning a strange couple, Russell full of joy and life, and John so quiet and shy. Probably this is the reason why they love each other, but living together is a play of balancing, and probably they forgot that. It will be not easy for them to find a way to stay together, but what I liked of their story is that they never stopped to love each other.
Then there is Simon, one of the best character of all. He is 65 years old and recently "widower". His more than 40 life partner died of cancer the year before, and Simon is wondering why he didn't die with him. He has friends, a place to stay but he is alone, and at his age he doesn't believe possible to have a second chance in love. And even if it was, how will he recognize it? He was out of the dating game for so much that the rules are all changed, and he doesn't know if he likes how they are playing now.
The last two men, but not the least important, are Stephen and Greg. In a way they are similar, they both are in the closet but in the opposite way: Greg came out simply living his family and all he knew to live in another city, among strangers who accept him for who he is and not for who they want him to be. Stephen instead is out with his friends but completely in the closet with his family, and living one door next the other it's quite impossible to have a normal relationship. So both of them are limiting their relationship to one night standings, believing in this way to quench the thirst of love they have, and instead gathering so much need inside that sooner or later they will explode.
On a side note there is also the story of Pete, probably the sadder of all. A man who was raised believing that being gay is the worst evil of all, and that has no way to understand his needs and feelings. The only way to claim them is with violence. Even if he is not a "good" guy, I think the author considered him another of his boys, another way to live being gay, I wish this one being the less chosen, but I know that in reality, for many people is the only one. I can't hate Pete, neither after knowing what he did, I can only feel a great pain for him.
On a closing note, Looking for It is a wonderful romance, and it's also pretty sexy, something I seldom have the chance to find in a more mainstream novel. The sex scenes are all good, even the one that serves to the author to prove something, they are enough but not too much, and above all, they are more romantic than free.
And now my only problem is how to choose the next one among the Michael Thomas Ford's novels...
Amazon: Looking For It
Michael Thomas Ford's In the Spotlight post: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/42362
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Steve Walker
I will try to post my usual appointment, but probably some of them will be lost or post in a different time. Please forgive me and I will come back to my usual scheduling in a month or so.
1) Maurice by EM Forster. One of England’s most prominent novelists, the story that was closest to Forster’s heart was only published after his death. This book means so much to me because it was one of the first ‘gay’ books I ever read, sneaking it off my older sister’s shelf. It was also one of the first representations of a gay couple I discovered in film or literature that didn’t end in tragedy. Seriously, check out the excellent documentary The Celluloid Closet to discover just how often a gay, or gay-coded, character doesn’t survive the film they’re in. Imagine my relief where I read a story where the characters slipped away into the mist, presumably to find a place where they could live freely and happily. Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (December 17, 2005)
Publisher Link: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.a
ISBN-10: 0393310329
ISBN-13: 978-0393310320
Amazon: Maurice: A Novel
"The work of an exceptional artist working close to the peak of his powers." Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times. Set in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and Cambridge, and on into his father's firm, Hill and Hall, Stock Brokers. In a highly structured society, Maurice is a conventional young man in almost every way, "stepping into the niche that England had prepared for him": except that his is homosexual. Written during 1913 and 1914, immediately after Howards End, and not published until 1971, Maurice was ahead of its time in its theme and in its affirmation that love between men can be happy. "Happiness," Forster wrote, "is its keynote. In Maurice I tried to create a character who was completely unlike myself or what I supposed myself to be: someone handsome, healthy, bodily attractive, mentally torpid, not a bad businessman and rather a snob. Into this mixture I dropped an ingredient that puzzles him, wakes him up, torments him and finally saves him."
( books from 2 to 8 )
About Sean Kennedy: Sean Kennedy lives in the second-most isolated city in the world, so it’s just as well he has his imagination for company when real-life friends are otherwise occupied. He has far too many ideas and wishes he had the power to feed them directly from his brain into the laptop so they won’t get lost in the ether.
Dash and Dingo by Catt Ford & Sean Kennedy Paperback: 310 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (September 28, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
ISBN: 1615810668
ISBN-13: 978-1615810666
Amazon: Dash and Dingo
Stodgy British archivist Henry Percival-Smythe slaves away in the dusty basement of Ealing College in 1934, the only bright spot in his life his obsession with a strange Australian mammal, the thylacine. It has been hunted to the edge of extinction, and Henry would love nothing more than to help the rare creature survive. Then a human whirlwind spins through his door. Jack "Dingo" Chambers is also on the hunt for the so-called "Tasmanian Tiger," although his reasons are far more altruistic. Banding together, Dingo and the newly nicknamed Dash travel halfway around the globe in their quest to save the thylacine from becoming a footnote in the pages of biological history. While they search high and low, traverse the wilds, and fight the deadliest of all creatures—man—Dash and Dingo will face danger and discover another fierce passion within themselves: a desire for each other.
Event Details: Sunday, November 15, 2009 5:00 - 9:30 pm Metropolitan Pavilion 125 West 18th Street New York, NY 10011 Dress: Cocktail Chic
Since 2002, GLAAD has produced this annual fundraising event to support their programmatic work. Part art auction and part glamorous cocktail reception, OUTAuction NYC is the must attend event of the fall season. Join them and bid on 100 unique pieces of art. Last year’s live auction featured work from Pablo Picasso, Herb Ritts, Steven Klein, and Marc Chagall. Past artists include: Ross Bleckner, Ryan McGinness, Patrick McMullan, Annie Leibovitz, Karim Rashid, Mario Sorrenti, Peter Max, Rosie O’Donnell, and many others. Celebrities who have participated in the past include: Tom Ford, Susie Essman, Patricia Fields, Eva LaRue and Junior Vasquez among others.
http://www.glaad.org/outauction2009
Among this year 100 artist, I recognized some names of people I "met" online for different reason, and obviously I asked them for a sneak peek of their artwork:
Aaron Kratch, author of Half-Life, a coming of age gay-themed novel I reviewed, and Top 100 Gay Novels author
Aaron Kratch - Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas
http://www.aaronkrach.com/
Frank Louis, Italian-American photographer who already in the past gifted my LiveJournal with some exclusive photos of my Man Candy, and wonderful online friend, Jack MacKenroth
Frank Louis - Twilight 5
http://franklouis.com/gallery/
Our common online friend, fantastic artist and now wonderful cover artist, Paul Richmond
Paul Richmond - Noah's Gay Wedding Cruise
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com/
Ghost Hunters – Long Beach by A.M. Riley If you start this anthology thinking to read something haunting and dark, you would be surprised by the first story, which is almost a sweet romance. James and Rick are best friend since forever, they met when they were still too young to understand what a sexual preference was, and from that moment on they were inseparable. Rick believes in ghosts and James believes in Rick; if Rick wants to go ghost hunting, James is there with him, and so it was for the past eight years. I actually don’t know how old they both are, but due to their “innocence”, I think they are 20-something, so it’s not implausible that they are in that moment of life when they need to take a final and life changing decision. James loves Rick, but he has no courage to come out to his friend, at least not with his feelings. The night before James told Rick he is gay, but he didn’t admit his feelings for him; and since Rick didn’t tell anything, James took that as a rejection, and now he is thinking to give up, to the ghost hunting and to Rick. I think that James didn’t understand that Rick is not a straightforward type of guy and that he probably has no courage himself to come clear with James. But they have a friend in common that maybe will help both of them.
I really loved this story; I have always had a soft spot for young lovers. And the scene where James admits to a “virgin” Rick that he had a sexual intercourse while his friend was away and Rick simply replies that he had noticed a change in him, was so sweet and tender, an admission of love without actually saying the words. I also loved that, all in all, this was not a paranormal story; the only otherworldly event is a nice topping to a more than nice story, I liked it, but it was not essential to the story.
Rousing Caine by Lex Valentine
This story reminded me an old Hollywood movie, not since it was old fashioned but since it faced the “ghost” side at the same way, not giving much explanation and looking at it like another oddity that adds spicy to the love story. Jason was recently dumped by his younger boy toy, a man he met soon after a bad divorce and who was probably only a way to forget that experience. Still, it wasn’t nice to be not only dumped, but also robbed, Chris, the boy toy ran off with his safe money and a priceless painting. And Jason ran off to his beach house to forget. So, when the morning after he awakes with a ghost in his bed, he was probably ready to have an affair without strings attached, and how it could have them when Caine, the man, is already dead? I think Jason takes it so easy since he doesn’t really believe in the story, oh yes, he believes Caine to be a ghost, but he doesn’t believe their story could last. And so troubles come only when both of them start to move on the simple fling and think to the future. More, when Jason realizes that Caine’s feelings are real, and they were so for a long time, that is the moment when all go to hell.
If you consider the love story, the novella is nice. What I’m not sure to like much is Jason’s character; I think he is a bit selfish. Not only he doesn’t try to understand Caine’s reasons, at least not immediately, but even worse, when he thinks to have lost Caine for good, and so he has already done a bad mistake, he even wishes Chris’s death. All right, Chris is not exactly the best of the man, but I think Jason should at least try to understand his reasons, maybe he was a runaway kid, maybe he had inner trouble, and so on. Instead, really, I have the feeling Jason is a bit self-centred. But well, as I always say, it’s better to have an imperfect man as hero than a perfect hero as man, imperfect men are more interesting and usually give better material for a story.
The Day They Closed The Iguana by A.M. Riley
There are light and funny ghost stories and there are very sad one. A.M. Riley tried both; her first story in this anthology was funny so I should have probably guessed than the second would have been not. Billy is a more than thirty year old former wanna-be-actor, not old fashioned theatre owner with ghost attached. The story is not clear, but probably Billy was in love with Seth, Seth was in love with the idea of being an actor and then he died. Since Billy is now thirty, and we are talking of something happened more than 10 years before, Billy and Seth had to be very young, probably Billy’s first love. And you never forget your first love. So Billy spent all his twenty-something year to mourn for Seth, and it was also quite impossible to forget him, when his ghost was there to remind Billy of who he lost. But years passed and nothing changes and Billy realizes that if he doesn’t do something, he will spend the rest of his life alone, if not for a ghost who is not able to warm him during a winter night.
Enter Frank from Montana. Frank is gentle, caring, down to earth and very real. He reminds me of a movie I love, Bus Stop, where a wonderful Marilyn Monroe is sidetracked from her path towards the glittering lights of Hollywood, from a very handsome and very pushing Montana ranch owner. Billy is Marilyn Monroe, he is already in Hollywood, so that is not his impossible dream. The impossible dream is his love for Seth, and instead Frank represents the today, the now, the possibility. He is maybe not the lost dream of his youth, he is maybe not so striking and perfect as Billy reminds Seth to be, but he is real. Now Billy has to decide if continuing to live with his dreams, or being sidetracked in Montana.
Black Candle Reader by William Maltese
I actually don’t know if all the facts in this novella happened by night, but that was the feeling. At the beginning I didn’t understand if I was reading a series of short independent stories or what: there were different characters, two male escort, the narrative voice, without name (an Afro-American hustler) and his lover Jeremy; a clairvoyant, Kenneth, who is eager to have finally a contact with a human body and not with ghosts; a forty-something man, Talon, who thinks he has to pay for his father’s sins; a young hustler, Sammy, who is dreaming a better life; a serial killer, without name. Their stories seem disconnected if not for one thing they have in common, the sex. And the crazy but nevertheless meaningful flow of words that is a William Maltese’s story. This time actually, it’s a little less sex-centred, to be more scaring (I don’t find sex scaring…); this story is darker, and sadder. I actually felt real sorry for one of the above character, and maybe even for another one. Not really for the third of them who will not arrive at the end of the story. The Love Me Dead of the title in this case is not the love for a ghost, but the crazy love (and not the kind of good crazy of above) which brings to death half the men we are introduced at the beginning.
The previous three stories where not at all scaring and most of all romance, with various degrees of that, and instead Black Candle Reader is probably more horror than romance. I kind of find romantic Jeremy and “I”’s love, not a typical sweet and rose love, they are, after all, male escorts still on the job, but I think “I” is looking after Jeremy, and they are only waiting a good time to retire and being an old fashioned couple aging together in a nice cottage. Or maybe I’m trying to paint in pink the darkness of the story… but still, there were sometime, during the narration, that between cum and candles, I really read Jeremy as an innocent boy at play, and “I” an odd knight in shining armour.
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?boo
Amazon: Love Me Dead
Amazon Kindle: Love Me Dead
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
The Book: Scott Faraday is sixteen and has no idea that his world is about to radically change. Scott is fun-loving, in a small-town rock band, and out—but only to a select few. Isolated in a high desert town, Scott doesn’t know anyone else who is gay. When Ryan St. Charles, a troubled 17-year-old, moves to Yucca Valley, Scott’s world tilts on its axis.
Ryan is a brash seventeen-year-old who has just severed a long relationship with a man, but still considers himself straight. As Scott and Ryan’s friendship develops, Scott begins to suspect that Ryan might be covering up that he’s gay. When Scott comes out to Ryan, their friendship is transformed into his first real relationship.
Tightly focused on these two characters, Desert Sons follows the thoughts and emotion of the ups and downs of a young adult gay relationship. Filled with first-time wonder, teenage angst, and the swirl of emotions that can only be expressed by youth, readers are pulled headlong into a highly-charged drama.
“In Desert Sons, Mark Kendrick has provided all the ingredients of a good book: solid characterization, a compelling story, and a skillful evocation of place. All in all, Desert Sons is a wonderful read, realistic and moving. Highly recommended.”—Guy Willard, author of Foolish Fire and Mirrors of Narcissus
Amazon: Desert Sons
( Other Books in the List )
The Author: "I remember being fascinated with pens at an early age. That was just about the time I learned how to write in cursive. The fact that a pen would put a permanent mark on a page, as opposed to a pencil, which could be erased, was intriguing. I sought to make sure that what I wrote would be permanent and legible. Fourth grade was a pivotal period in my young life. I was enrolled in one of those experimental 'open concept' schools that year. Although they were a failed educational experiment nationwide, the concept worked on me like no other grade before or after. I took my first Spanish class then. It stuck. I read my first SF book then. It's a genre that I still read and can't get enough of. I learned how to read a map. That came in very handy once I became a Boy Scout. To this day I have a fascination with maps. We did those SRA Reading Labs modules that year, too. Boy, was I hooked on reading because of them. I wrote my first imaginative story. My life was never the same when I realized that my imagination was restless, was overflowing, and needed a voice.
I started out writing one page creative stories that had little audience (they were very imaginative, but extremely childish). In 6th grade I wrote a stage play and acted in it, too. I didn't take to acting but my imagination was on fire. Shortly after my 15th birthday the poetry Muse visited and refused to leave. She stayed with me for over 20 years. I ended up writing 15 volumes of poems (count 'em: hundreds). In high school I co-wrote a play, again which I acted in. I was also the co-editor of, and contributor to, a student creative writing anthology which sold out. Although poetry was my main creative outlet for years, always in the back of my mind a couple of novel length ideas were incubating.
Despite the fact that I had an imagination that wouldn't quit, I wasn't particularly encouraged to write. Some people have the luxury of supportive relatives. I didn't. If you're one of those people be thankful for that! For encouragement I turned to my creative friends (mostly musicians) who I felt were gods. Some of them knew that one day I would write the novels I knew were inside me.
I eventually went off to college. Thinking that I had to be practical I majored in business with an emphasis on technology. I got into the wonderful world of computer networking and ultimately became a Microsoft certified networking consultant. Spurred into action by a random conversation with an IT co-worker back in 2000, I wondered why I had let my novel ideas languish. Just a few days later I launched Word 2K and went to work. It was as if the floodgates had opened. I had waited so long, had squashed my need to write for way too many decades, that the stories started pouring out." Mark Ian Kendrick
http://www.mark-kendrick.com/
Top 100 Gay Novels List (*)
External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (simple - without photos)
External Link to the Top 100 Gay Novels List (wanted - with photos)
*only one title per author, only print books released after January 1, 2000.
Note: I remember to my friends that guest reviews of the above listed books (the top 100 Gay Novels) are welcome, just send them to me and I will post with full credits to the reviewer.
Other titles not in the top 100 list:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/top5
BOOK: Sordid Truths AUTHOR: Aiden Shaw
DATE: Wednesday, November 11
TIME: 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION: A Different Light Bookstore, San Francisco
Buy at A Different Light
Amazon: Sordid Truths: Selling My Innocence for a Taste of Stardom
Adult film superstar Aiden Shaw follows up his bestselling memoir My Undoing: Love in the Thick of Sex, Drugs, Pornography, and Prostitution
with a prequel that graphically charts the author's meteoric rise to becoming the highest paid gay adult film star in the world. Sordid Truths: Selling My Innocence for a Taste of Stardom
chronicles the author's ascent from being just another broke and very horny college boy, who dabbled with the idea that he could sell his young body for hard cash, to becoming the internationally renowned adult film superstar. Within a short time on the scene Aiden Shaw was something of a celebrity within his field, having been introduced to wealthy, weird, and wonderful eccentrics and famous—and famously closeted—Euro trash personalities and the celebrated elite. However, working as a prostitute turned minor league once gay adult film legend Chi Chi La Rue took Polaroids of the naked and aroused Shaw and launched his career. The rest is history, as is documented in more than fifty films that won him numerous honors.
Published works:
Brutal (Millivres Books, 1996)
Amazon: Brutal Uncut
If Language at the Same Time Shapes and Distorts Our Ideas and Emotions, How Do We Communicate Love? (The Bad Press, 1997)
Amazon: If Language at the Same Time Shapes and Distorts Our Ideas and Emotions, How Do We Communicate Love?
Boundaries (Brighton: Millirowler Group, 1999)
Amazon: Boundaries
Wasted (Brighton: Millivres Prowler Group, 2002)
Amazon: Wasted
My Undoing: Love in the Thick of Sex, Drugs, Pornography, and Prostitution (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006)
Amazon: My Undoing: Love in the Thick of Sex, Drugs, Pornography, and Prostitution
Sordid Truths: Selling My Innocence for a Taste of Stardom (Alyson Books, 2009)
Amazon: Sordid Truths: Selling My Innocence for a Taste of Stardom
I was all for expecting to like this story, I'm not new to Jet Mykles' pretty boys and her work, where western romance blends with yaoi without being overtly influenced. And I was expecting for it to be fun and light. But I wasn't expecting to be surprise to the turn of event and for the reversed role of the main characters. Yes, I'm true, I was expecting the usual "gay for you" book where a strong alpha male, and supposedly straight, falls in love, after having fallen in lust, for a pretty young gay boy, and then happily ever after. So see, nothing complicated and everything good.But no, the story is not so "straight" (pun intended) as I was expecting. First of all Kevin, the "straight" man, is not an alpha male, far from it. He is more like a lost puppy with melting "puppy" eyes and all. And no, he will not play the role of the sheep fallen in the clutches of the Big Bad Wolf, or of the closeted shy gay boy who was only expecting to be freed by gay superhero. Kevin has all a role, and philosophy of his own. I think Kevin is super-gender, meaning that he likes girls, but has not issue to admit that he can like also boys. Basically Kevin is a man (boy) who doesn't like to take the lead in life, in relationship and in bed. He prefers to be the leaded. So yes, it's entirely possible that Kevin could find a strong girl who will command him in bed, and life, but it's more probable that the role is taken by a man.
And here the second surprise, the above said lead man, Justin. In the conventional scheme of straight Alpha Male meets gay omega boy, Justin has to be your typical flamboyant gay boy, young and pretty. But we have already said that Kevin doesn't fit his conventional role and so doesn't Justin. Justin is older than Kevin, and yes, maybe he is a bit flamboyant, but not so much to outshine poor Kevin. I think Justin was like that when he was 20-25, but not that he is more than 30, he has arrived to a moment in his life when he is looking for Mr Right. And yes, maybe in his mind Mr Right is an older, and wealthier, man, but love has other idea. When Justin meets Kevin by chance, on the street, he is suddenly smitten, and in love.
At first Justin comes out so strongly, that the reader has a bit of trouble to judge Kevin. From the blurb, I wasn't really thinking to like Kevin, I don't know, I had this feeling that Kevin was taking advantage of "poor" Justin. But then, as I said, the reader has the chance to see that basically Kevin is a good boy, that he really doesn't want to hurt Justin in any way, and truth be told, Justin seems a man who is more than capable to look after himself. There is a fine play of balancing, Kevin is the one who needs something by Justin, but Justin is the one who has probably the strongest will, and so I have never felt as Kevin was wronging him.
It's also a pretty sexy story, not so much and so soon as I was, again, expecting. At first it's more kissing and cuddling, more sweet than sexy, but when the sexy part arrives, it's good and fun. Even if Kevin is shy in life, he is not shy in bed, not at all; I have the feeling that Kevin has arrived first to understand his sexual desires than his life-choice ones.
http://www.loose-id.com/Just-for-You.asp
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by P.L. Nunn
( more pics )
Robert McGinnis was born in 1926. He grew up in Wyoming and Ohio and studied art at Ohio State University and the Central Academy for Commercial Art in Cincinnati. He has done advertising work, book and magazine illustration, gallery art and movie poster (Breakfast at Tiffany for telling "only" one and many of the James Bond films). The first of his nearly eleven hundred paperback covers appeared in 1958. His home and studio are in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
This is actually the 10th of the "Johanna Lindsey" covers, but I think it deserve to be out of the cut as first since it is the one that often you find with a "special price" stick on the... bum of the man and you can't remove it! Anyway, after this one enjoy also all the other covers, in release order:
( Robert McGinnis' covers for Johanna Lindsey )
Paperback Covers of Robert McGinnis released in 2001 by Pond Press is now a collectible item itself.
Amazon: Paperback Covers of Robert McGinnis
.A beautifully designed and produced book of the best of Robert McGinnis, one of America's foremost illustrators and a member of the American Illustration Hall of Fame. Since 1958, he has painted over 1,000 paperback covers in all genres, including mystery, romance, and western. In addition to a definitive list of his paperback work, the book provides over 200 full color illustrations, not just of the book covers, but of McGinnis' model photos, sketches, roughs and finished art. The book will provide indispensable to collectors of his works, as well as a visual treat for lovers of fine illustration.
So yes, something was happening, and fast, but really, I wouldn't believe to see the day when Harlequin, the most conservative romance publisher in the world, the same publisher who owns Mills&Boon in England, would open a new line accepting Gay and Lesbian story! But it's true, read here:
"Carina Press is a new digital-only publisher that combines editorial and marketing expertise with the freedom of digital publishing. With a long history of digital marketing and editorial experience, the Carina Press team is committed to bringing readers fresh voices and new, unique editorial.
Our philosophy is: no great story should go untold!
Carina Press will publish a broad range of fiction with an emphasis on romance and its subgenres. We will also acquire voices in mystery, suspense and thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, erotica, gay/lesbian, and more!
Our first books will hit the digital shelves in Spring 2010. Stay tuned!"
http://carinapress.com/
All right, there is Angela James behind it, the same Angela James who, with Samhain Publishing, brought out so good M/M romance authors, so I'm giving them credibility, and will look forward to the Spring of 2010.
110 Covers still in contest, here are the link to covers and poll
http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/2
http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/2
the covers are grouped in slot of 10, each slot represent a question in the polls. My suggestion: open the above webpages in a different browser than the poll, and look at the covers while ticking off the ones you want to vote in the poll.
Since this is a "funny" contest, I will allow only votes through LJ accounts, not voting with comments sorry. The good news is that you can vote as many covers as you want for all the length of the contest :-) The cover contest will last for six week: every week the covers will be halved by 50%, to arrive at the sixth week with only 10 covers. The winning cover will be announced at the same time with the winner of the 2009 Rainbow Awards for LGBTQ Fiction and Non Fiction.
( go to poll )
Will Chalker is one of the guys in undies (well, in his case with neither that) for the editorial “Dessous Animes” in l’Officiel Homme by Matthew Brookes in 2005.
( Will Chalker )
Will Chalker (born 7 March 1980 in East Sussex, England) is an English model and an amateur boxer. He is one of few male models to be considered a supermodel. He began modeling at the age of twenty in 2000, leaving his earlier career as a construction worker after a friend took test shots of him. His big break happened when he was featured in the advertising campaign of Paco Rabanne's perfume Black XS in 2003.
Since then, he has appeared in major ad campaigns including YSL, Perry Ellis, Wormland, Valentino, Mark O'Polo, Zara, Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton, Dsquared2, Gap, Ermenegildo Zegna and Paul Smith. His runway tasks include opening and closing for Gucci, John Galliano's finishing tableau, Athena-poster look for D&G, carrying a baby tiger onto Dolce & Gabbana's spring/summer 2005 menswear catwalk, and walking along Sonia Rykiel during her show. He has appeared in GQ, l'Uomo Vogue, i-D, Japanese Wallpaper, Spanish Esquire and Upstreet. He has also done commercials for Levi's and his commercial for Paco Rabanne Black XS with has been remixed with scenes starring Bianca Balti to promote its "for her" version.
He has been the first man nominated for Best Model at the British Fashion Awards.
He is currently signed with New York Model Management, UNIQUE DENMARK, Models 1 in London, LA Models, Mega Agency in Hamburg, Fashion in Milan, Traffic in Barcelona and MGM in Paris.
http://models.com/models/Will-Chalker
Bryce Draper is signed by Major Model in New York and Beatrice in Milan.
( Bryce Draper by Tony Duran )
2009 was a busy year for him, he is in the following editorials: Elle Italia, Dame e Cavalieri, by Ruven Afanador; U Magazine, Remembrance of Things Past, by Joe Lally; Vogue Hommes Japan, Do it yourself, by Jeremy Kost. He is also on the cover of U Magazine, July 2009, by Joe Lally. In the editorial I chose, he is shot by talented Tony Duran in Paris.
“I owned an home security company in Los Angeles and sold an alarm to a guy in the modelling industry. It was quite funny when he asked if I had a manager and I responded that I was a manager (thinking about alarm sales, being the owner/manager). I never wanted to model and when a relationship of mine fell through, I moved to NY to clear my head… the prior connections with the guy in LA… and here I am.
I thought that I would see NYC one day on a vacation and now I live here. I’ve lived in Paris for a year, travelled to South Africa, Cuba, Thailand, it has been amazing to open my eyes to the real world and get out of the bubble I was raised in. I have met many unique people that have shaped my view on the world positively.”
http://models.com/models/bryce-draper
Ryan Cooper (New York Model Management) have everything to be a sexy symbol: Awesome body, beautiful face and sex appeal. He is in Armani Exchange campaign, A/X F/W08, by Tom Munro and in the editorial for Numero Homme, After Party, Spring/Summer 2009, by Liz Collins.
( Ryan Cooper )
He is signed with New York Model Management, UNIQUE DENMARK, Models 1 in London and IMM Bruxelles.
http://models.com/models/Ryan-Cooper
Ebook: As You Are by Ethan Day
Winner: Nichem (
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
nichem) Go to post: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/82491
Ebook: Year Of The Cat by Selah March
Winner: Jambrea (
jambrea) Go to post: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/82895
Ebook: Making it Up by TC Blue
Winner: swell67 (
swell67) Go to post: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/83524
swell67 (
swell67) Please contact me with a private message or tell me how I can reach you.
The assigned ebook is:
Making it Up by TC Blue Publisher: Torquere Books
ISBN: 978-1-60370-788-6
Buy Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?m
When Dr. Thomas Paulson receives a cryptic phone message from his very first boyfriend's mother after ten years, he leaps to the conclusion that JJ--Johnny Boudreaux-- is dead. His current lover, Alan, makes the same assumption. So imagine Thomas's surprise when returns to his home town to grieve and discovers that not only is JJ alive and well, but is getting ready to marry Thomas's old girlfriend.
Life can be funny sometimes, and in the course of Thomas's visit he discovers a lot of things that force him to examine his own actions, past and in the present. He's made mistakes, but so has Alan who has flown to Oak Grove, Arkansas to try to help his lover and best friend. But Alan's interference makes things even worse, leading Thomas to believe that he's blown every chance at happiness he ever had.
Jambrea (
jambrea)Please contact me with a private message or tell me how I can reach you.
The assigned ebook is:
Year Of The Cat by Selah March Publisher: Amber Allure
ISBN: 978-1-60272-460-0
Buy Link: http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Ye
Sweet-natured Etienne LeFevre must give up his birthright and flee into the snow-covered forest to save himself from the murderous greed of his brutish elder brothers. When Etienne ends up alone and hungry, with a ramshackle cottage his only shelter and a feral cat his only friend, he believes himself doomed to a sad, cold death.
But out of the shadows of the night arrives a visitor who brings comfort. He presents himself as a servant, but the man called “Jacques” spends the long hours instructing Etienne in the cruel delights of a disciplined passion.
Jacques is gone with the morning light, but Etienne thinks he knows the stranger’s secret. Will Etienne tame the beast that lurks within his lover? Or will he find himself a victim of the bitter rage that rules Jacques’ heart?
Based on the classic French fairy tale, “Puss In Boots,” this story explores what happens when the servant becomes the master, and the master lives to serve...
Nichem (
nichem)Please contact me with a private message or tell me how I can reach you.
The assigned ebook is:
As You Are by Ethan Day Publisher: Loose Id
ISBN: 978-1-60737-440-4
Buy Link: http://www.loose-id.com/prod-As_You_Are-1
Operation Danny…that’s all bartender and recent college graduate, Julian Hallowell has had on his mind the past year. Julian may have no idea what he wants to do with his life, but he definitely knows he‘s in love with the boy next door: the next door down the hall to be exact, housing his roommate and used textbook store owner Danny Wallace.
While Julian has done his level best to make Danny fall for him, all his hard work has been in vain. Danny doesn’t seem to view Julian as anything other than a roommate and friend. So when new guy in town Andy Baker asks him out on a date, Julian can’t think of a good reason to say no.
Instead, he institutes a Reverse Operation Danny plan, which he’s positive will purge all thoughts of love and lust for his roomie out of his head. He’s ready to move on and start looking for his next Mr. Right, and Andy just might fit the bill. But has he given up too soon?
Yes, I know, when you read a book you should try to judge it for the book itself and not for your personal experience, above all if the book is not fiction, but a memoir. People are different and they behave in a different way in front of the same event. Anyway, I can't read a book about a dying parent, without recalling my personal experience: I lost my father when I was 19 years old, and he was ill, terminally ill, for the last three years. In particular the last year I couldn't do anything if not spending hours and hours near his bed, or in the next proximity, waiting. My father was a very strong man, and even if the illness made him weak, he never once wanted to impose on me or my brother. So no, we couldn't help him, and he rarely spoke. Only twice he acknowledged his illness with me, once when he was still hoping to have a chance to fight it back, we were on car, he driving, and he told me that the last months had been hard, but he was probably good now. He wasn't. The second time it was some month before his death, when he had to go to a funeral of a friend of his who didn't manage to survive cancer, the same cancer my father had. I went with him, losing one day of school but my mother and I thought my father shouldn't be alone, and outside the church, waiting for the service to end (my father was atheist and didn't like to enter churches, neither for a funeral), he told me that he didn't want a funeral, and above all not in church. Now you have to understand that in Italy there is no any other way to have a service if not in church. We haven't funeral home, we usually don't cremate. But this is another story, enough to say that my father had a service on the street, with hundreds of people attending, all standing. I think my father would have liked it. Sorry for the long preamble but it was necessary for you to understand that no, I wasn't really in the mood to read A Report from Winter, I didn't want to recall all I went through. But I promised that I would have given the book a chance and so I did. And I was soon surprised: A Report from Winter is a total different experience from mine. What Wayne is going through is not the sickening pain of a son who desperately doesn't want to loose his parent, Wayne is so estranged from his family, and his family from him, that he arrives to his mother death bed when she is so far on the illness that it seems she neither acknowledges his presence. And the people who are there, the one that I thought were lovingly taking care of an old dear mum, are more like two block of stone, unmoved by the events, only waiting for the death to arrive to finally being able to go back to their usually routine.
No this is not the heartbreaking narration of the death of a loving one, it's more the journey back to hell of a man who was trying to forget that world still existed. Or at least I thought so at the beginning. Wayne was cold, his relatives were cold, the city was cold, the winter was cold. Like an ice shield around everything in this book, it was almost impossible to break through. And then little by little, the ice around Wayne melts, and the reader has the chance to see a different him, someone who probably is regretting some choices, even if, truth be told, they were the only possible and right, and healthy, for him to do. Also with the arriving of Ralph, Wayne's partner, we have the chance to see another Wayne, and we realize that, the one we met at the beginning, was a little boy who was scared to come back, and that was wearing a ice cold mask to shield himself from any possible hurt.
There is not sudden revelation of an unknown true, there are no miraculously changes, only maybe the realization that, if a little boy thought his mother didn't love him, maybe it was since she herself wasn't loved before, and she didn't learn how to share things. There is maybe a man who remembers that, after all, his mother thought to him, in little things she did. And there is maybe the realization that, no, it wasn't useless for him to come back to say a final goodbye, because if he didn't do that, he would have regretted it for the rest of his life. Wayne had to know that his mother loved him, only she had a way to love him that wasn't the fictional love you are used to see on television or cinema.
I also loved the glimpse in Wayne's story with Ralph, the retelling of their first date, ended without even a kiss, and Wayne's pain afterward, a pain soon soothed by a simple phone call by Ralph, it was sweet and true.
http://lethepressbooks.com/gay.htm#court
Amazon: A Report from Winter
Amazon Kindle: A Report from Winter
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Ben Baldwin
Due to the time of release, Hallowen, and the author, Jordan Castillo Price and her vampires and psycops, I was expecting something "paranormal" from this seasonal novella, and instead, to my surprise and delight, it was a very nice, and normal, romance, with a good love story.Tony was in a bad accident and now, even if he is the younger of the Potosi's brothers, he is also the weaker, the one the other two look after, the one who has to do the less heavy jobs... losing his status of "body", the man who could do everything, is for Tony like losing a bit of his masculinity. Then he does a job for David, the man who bought the old house Tony and his brothers thought haunted when they were young, and when Tony goes there the first time, he doesn't know what to expect. For sure he isn't expecting David, and the sudden sexual sparks the man arise in him and the mutual interest. David doesn't look at Tony like a broken man, he looks at him like a fine piece of meat he can't wait to taste. And Tony is both excited than perplexed. David comes to him in a so strong way, that Tony is almost scared: has David an hidden agenda that Tony can't find out?
There is a little surprising turn in the story, nothing big, but it gives to all the novella a meaning more. Other than that, what I enjoyed was the slightly May/December relationship between David and Tony, and also the reverse play of Top and bottom: David is older than Tony, forty-something against not yet thirty, and he is the one who is straightforward in proposing Tony, actually Tony is the one who asks to step back a bit, to have more time, but when they finally arrive to share a bed, David leaves the upper hand, and position, to Tony. I think that was absolutely necessary for Tony, he needed to prove to another but above all to himself, that he was still "man" enough, that he wasn't broken.
Another thing I liked was Tony's relationship with his brothers Chip and Sal, and their Italian heritage. It wasn't so much developed, but the classical tight-knit Italian family was there, and I wouldn't have minded to read a little more on them, how they deal with Tony's homosexuality, something they know and seem to accept, but that probably was not easy at first.
http://jcpbooks.com/#sympathy
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Heart Song is a short story that puts a lot in game. Rafe and Charlie were a May and December couple, and plus there was also a difference in social status, being Rafe only a policeman and instead Charlie a wealthy businessman. But Rage really loved Charlie, and since he loved him so much, he had to leave the older man: he felt that that Charlie didn't love him as much as he loved him, there was always something or someone else that kept a big share of the man's heart. When Rage left Charlie for that last time, he was sure this time he wouldn't have changed his mind, but he didn't know that it wouldn't have any other chance to do that, Charlie dies and leaves behind him a lot of unanswered question, and a letter.Charlie had a son, Stewart, who Rafe didn't know and he meets only at Charlie's funeral. It's not exactly the place to meet a possible lover, above all when he is the son of your just dead one, and Rafe is a too good man to try something. But then Stewart finds him and brings with him Charlie's letter; Charlie knew he was dying and he wanted for Rafe and Stewart to look out for each other. He wanted for them something else? Probably. But that is Rafe and Stewart's choice.
This is only a short story, but I really like all the various layers, all hinted but well managed, the May/December relationship between Rafe and Charlie, their difference in social status that was overcome by their love, the new love between Rafe and Stewart, that someone could see as a way for Stewart to finally have something of that estranged father who left him so many years before... Rafe is not older, he can't be a fatherly figure for Stewart, they have the same age, but he was Charlie's lover, and so, in a way, he was more near to him than Stewart, and now Stewart wants at least a little bit of that love that Rafe had for Charlie, it's another bond to his father.
This is the first story by Jambrea Jo Jones I read, and it's only a short story, so I can't be sure about this author, but, from the little I read, I think there is great potential.
http://www.extasybooks.net/ebjmsite/inde
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Director: Yair Hochner Writer: Yair Hochner (writer)
Release Date: 6 June 2008 (Newfest New York LGBT Film Festival, USA)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Plot: In two days, Omer will hit a milestone; his 30th birthday. Like many his age, he hasn't found himself. But then Omer is hardly looking. Instead he chooses to loose himself among the stacks of books at the local library, where he works. It is a respite from real life. From time to time he goes on blind dates. He meets Danny on one of his dates. 20 years old and full of enthusiasm, Danny dreams of becoming a dancer. Shirley, Omer's little sister, has her own problems. Aside from being Omer's greatest annoyance, she is in an unconventional relationship with, Michal, owner of the city's hippest coffeehouse and her boss. Just when it seems that Omer has completely lost his spark and all seems lost, Enter Ronen, the handsome journalist who ignites the flame Omer has been seeking. Everyone is hoping for a change. They are waiting for the light. The light that will thaw their frozen hearts. But only one person has the answer, Matilda Rose, the alien loving best-selling novelist can solve the issue; Is love dead or are we just looking in all the wrong places?
@IMDb
@Amazon: Antarctica [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]
@Netflix
( more pics )
Cast (in credits order)
Tomer Ilan ... Omer
Guy Zoaretz ... Ronen (as Guy Zo-Aretz)
Yiftach Mizrahi ... Danny
Ofer Regirer ... Boaz
Oshri Sahar ... Eitan
Yuval Raz ... Miki
Lucy Dubinchik ... Shirley
Yael Deckelbaum ... Yael
Liat Ekta ... Michal (as Liat Akta)
Shirli Salomon ... Shirli (as Shirli Solomon)
( rest of the cast )
Danny & Boaz
( more pics )
This short story by A.J. Ryan, another pen name for Geoffrey Knight, author of the Fathom's Five series, is a pure fun and naughty sexy romp. Eighteen years old Tommy and his nineteen years old newly stepbrother Dash are all alone for the summer, since they parents left for the honeymoon, and they promise to stay together and look for each other... like asking to the wolf to look out for the sheep... oh yes, Dash will look good for Tommy, but his idea is not to protect the boy. As the author well says, the two boys are very similar... apart that one is blond and the other brunette, apart that one has blue eyes and the other green, apart that one is a wasp boy and the other an Afro-American from the ghetto... yes they are the same in the desire to get into trouble and get into each other pants. Both Tommy and Dash are into sleuthing and there is a mystery to solve: in a small college twon each month, during full moon, a male virgin is murdered. Dash wants to find the truth and Tommy wants to tag along... there is only a problem: Tommy is a virgin! Obviously there is a way for Dash to protect Tommy, watcha bet how much time will Dash take to understand what he has to do? ;-)
There is really nothing serious in this short story, and even if I had too less pages to fully enjoy these two boys, I can already say that Tommy is one of my favorite character of ever. I don't really know if he is really dumb or if he is the most clever men of all, since, in the end, he obtains what he wants and he is the one who enjoyed all the aspect of their adventures. Tommy is so out of every normal definition of man/boy that I sometime worried for him and his innocence; oh no, not his "physical" innocence, that I was eager to read when he would have finally lost it, but his "inner" innocence; he is so open and friendly that everyone can take advantage of him, but in the end, I don't believe Dash is so much different from Tommy. In the end, the author was right, Tommy and Dash are really the same.
http://www.eternalpress.ca/thedarcyboys.h
Amazon: The Darcy Boys and the Case of the Secret Skulls
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
It's really difficult to disconnect the author, Jim Arnold, from his character, Ben Schmidt. They have so many traits in common and Ben comes out so strong from the page of Arnold's novel, that it was really like reading a personal journal more than a fictional novel. Ben is a wanna-be-director, with actually a first movie going out on Festivals all around the world, a nice work in San Francisco, an handsome boyfriend,Jake, living in the attic of the Victorian house where he has a first floor apartment, and an affair on the side with Eric, and nice guy who is always ready to have sex when Ben wants something different than maybe too perfect Jake. At mid-forthy Ben seems to have the perfect dream life for every modern gay man, but he is not happy. He has a constant desire to ruin his own happiness, and his relationship wth Jake is a perfect example of that: Ben has the chance to have a perfect life and he is trying to destroy it. If nothing else happened, I think Ben would have never understood that. It was his own right to destroy his life since he has the power to do so.
But then that power is taken off from him. Ben discovers to have prostate cancer. And it's bad. Suddenly his life is crashing around him and he has no power on that. He can't do anything if not wait for the next tragedy to struck. And life is no more good for him. When he is down and without chance to fight back, everything he thought due in his previous life is put at risk: his job, his boyfriend, his passing lovers, even his apartment, with the small threat of mice. When Ben had everything, he didn't know what he really wanted, now that he is on the edge to loose everything, he will have the chance to understand what is really important for him. In a way tragedy helps Ben, freeing him from all the unnecessary things, he will have an enough clear view to see what it really matters.
I didn't expect to enjoy the romance in this book like I did, and truth be told, at first I didn't like so much Ben. But in a way he got better with the story, and I liked that he didn't come out as an hero. There is nothing of heroic in Ben, he is a real man struggling against the world with only the strength of a normal man. And he doesn't cling on his friends, he tries to find the strength inside him. I liked that, amidst all the tragedy, Ben realized that love was the answer, not for the cancer, but at least to give a reason to his life.
Benediction is not an easy book to read, above all if you had an experience with cancer. It's not all roses for Ben, it's not that, since he has cancer, everything else has to go smoothly for him, it's not that people who dislike him suddenly step back. Ben has not only to fight the cancer but also all the other small and big trouble people have in their everyday life. He has to continue to worry for everything he worried before and plus he has the cancer. That is the strength of Ben, being able to face all and take the right decision.
Amazon: Benediction
Amazon Kindle: Benediction
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Jaime Flores
Broken is, as expected, a story very heavy in the angst side but not overtly dramatic. I poured my one tear or two, but basically, I think the story was more sweet than anything else, and I really enjoyed the fact that it was "physical" without being sexy. Let me explain a bit: both main characters, Eli and Alec, are very aware of each other in a physical way, the love between them is both a match of minds than bodies, and all around them there are people who are in different stage of relationships, but the novel never goes down to the details, never once there is a full sex scene, even if, more than once, the men fall asleep together (and you will have to read the book to know what I mean). So yes, the novel is physical, but it's not sexy, we and they are aware of the men and their sexuality, and so no, this is not a "sweet romance" as the old romance rules state (no sex we are English...), but it's sweet since the author manages to maintain it on a balanced level, not too much of that, not to few of this. Eli is recovering from a trauma, his life partner was killed in a gay bashing, and 2 years after his impromptu family, the lesbian best girlf friend of his former partner, and two gay roommates they were living with, think it's time for Eli to come out from the self-imposed "widower" mourning. Ilsa in particular decides to take the matter in hand and rent the attic of the house where they are all living to Alec, an American writer and Psychology professor who is searching a place to live in London, after moving from Chicago due to another one of his "usual" heartbroken. Just from that you can understand that Alec is not exactly the classical psycho-therapist, that let me say, I sometime find boring: when a man has all the answers, I think he is not a nice character. Alec, instead, I think he is a man who learns how to understand and comfort people, since he wanted to understand his own fears and doubts. When one of his relationships fails, he moves to another city to completely change his life; it's a run from reality, but he knows it well. And I think that Alec has also some self-esteem problem, he always thinks that the relationship fails due to some fault from his side... unlikely, but the human mind works in a strange way.
Anyway, when Alec meets Eli, he is the only one who understands that Eli has not the need to be pushed out from his mourning, he needs to be taken by. Eli is almost ready, he only needs to find a reason, and maybe the reason can be a new love, Alec. Obviously when you hide to Eli that Alec is a psychologist, and more he is specialized in after-trauma, well, you also understand that troubles are behind the corner.
Eli and Alec are very nice characters, well developed and likeable. The story between them is nice and sweet. What probably is the best part of this novel is that they are not the only ones to be good characters. They can be the main focus of the story, but all the supporting characters around them, from the most important ones, like Ilsa, Lyle and Tony, Eli's roommates, to Casey, Mirabell, the best girl friends, to even the cameo roles like Dray, Reggie and Ray, they all have an interesting background story, they all aroused my interest and made me wonder about them, about their story and its possible evolution. Broken could be Eli and Alec's love story, but it's also a choral book where all the characters have a very important role.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/p
Amazon: Broken
Amazon Kindle: Broken
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Paul Richmond
by Elisa, Flatiron Building, New York City, 2000
http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/2000New
This picture was taken in 2000, my first time in NYC. This last September I did less tourist things, and so I didn't stay in line to go up again the Empire, but I did take another picture of the Flatiron, this time from below:
by Elisa, Flatiron Building, New York City, 2009
http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/2009Eas
( Flatiron Building )
All right, this was a very daring book. And it's the classical book that who read and like it, as me, then feels bad about liking it. Why? Because we are "programmed" to consider certain things as bad, and I hate it! I would really be able to read a book like this one and closing it with only a satisfied feeling, not guilty at all. Well, at least I read it, and I liked it, so, that is a step more, isn't it? Problem is the book has two sex scenes between a boy and a man in shifted form, a wolf. Actually that is not exactly true, Brian, the shifter, is actually a wolf, Saoi, who is able to shift in human form. As the authors well explain, he is not a werewolf, he is a faewolf; once upon a time, so far away that it was lost when and where, a fairy had sex with a wolf and a new breed was born, the faewolf. Saoi left his pack when he realized that his people were dying, not having a place in the world where they could prosper undisturbed. Saoi shifted in Brian and now he is living among the humans, but he is more a wolf than a man, and even when he is in human form he still thinks as a wolf, he actually lives like one, in his cabin in the woods, he has no one of the comforts humans usually wants. During the day he is a graduate student and TA for a biology college course, but during the night he roams the wood in wolf form.
Who is the partner for a man/wolf like him? Kiya is a half-blood Native American at his first year of College. He is very young, I believe barely legal, and he really gives me the impression of a modern Little Red Hiding Hood left alone in the clutches of the Big Bad Wolf, pun very much intended. Only that, in this version of the story, the Big Bad Wolf is the hero and the Hunter is the villain, and I don't think the coincidence are only by chance, I think the authors had clearly in mind that they were rewriting a classic. But coming back to Kiya, I don't want to talk bad about him, I think the way he was is the only way possible for his character to be in the story.
First, his Native American's heritage allows him to be at comfort with the woods, and with the animals who live in them. More, wolves are sacred for Native Americans, and so when Kiya meets Saoi (when I talk of the wolf I will call him Saoi, the man is Brian, and so did the authors), he actually thinks to have found animal spirit who will protect him. As I said Kiya is very young, and in his first year far from his family he did some bad choices; he is just out from an abusive relationship with Ted, an older boy who took advantage of him and above all who forced Kiya to have non consensual and non protected sex. This is, lucky for me, one of the think we only heard but don't read in the story, see how my mind works? I have trouble, but I can read about sex in shifted form, but I don't want to read about "real" non-consensual sex. Anyway, the trouble for Kiya is that he needs, and wants, a protector; Kiya is a submissive for nature, he is used to be part of a "pack", his family, and when he is out alone, far from them, he desperately tries to replace them with a lover, someone who can shelter him like his family does. Even if Kiya is 18 years old, he is still very much like a youngster, and I don't think this will change with him grow older; it's in Kiya's nature to be like that, see how he sucks his thumbs when he is worried, and being him like that, he is the perfect partner for Brian/Saoi, someone who thinks pack is the only way to live, and who actually misses very much one. Kiya and Brian give to each other what both miss and want.
So, the sex in shifted form... it's not free, it's entwined in the story, it's the only way this story could evolve. If you want to read this story, you have to read that. Yes, all right, you can flame me on the comment section, saying me that this is not romance, that this is not right, you can say everything you want, I will only reply to you: the story had its flaws, sometime Kiya was really too much of a unwilling teaser for his own good (the lollypop were almost too much even for me), and Brian was almost too good to be true, but a flaw was not the sex. And to add a very minimal flaw, but too prove you that I didn't read the story lightly, I even found an END EXCERPT at some point, probably an oversight of who sent the book to print (and BTW I bought my ebook copy, so as I found it everyone else can find it); since it was almost at the beginning of the book, it didn't leave me with a good impression at first, I was annoyed, I thought to have bought a less than high quality book... and instead, in the end, after having read it all, sex scenes included, I think, again, this was a very daring book. And since it was so daring, I can overlook to some editing faults.
Amazon: Faewolf
Amazon Kindle: Faewolf
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Cover Art by Ponderosa
Time: Saturday, November 7, 2009 5:30 p.m. Location: Giovanni's Room, Philadelphia
Title of Event: A Reading with Kim Beverly
Kim Beverly is the author of If Loving Two Is Wrong… (Oshun, $15 pb.)
Buy at Giovanni's Room
Amazon: If Loving Two is Wrong
Ever wonder what could make a woman fall for another woman? Neither did Kayla Thomas. Why would she? Mark Fountaine, her childhood crush and the man of her dreams, has finally stepped up to the plate. Everything is going great until a long-awaited business opportunity becomes available. Mark sees it as a chance to secure a future for him and Kayla, even though it means being away for an extensive period of time.
Enter Chloe Lane, an aggressive corporate lawyer who goes after what she wants. Chloe is stunning at 5'7' with a slim build and melon-like breasts. And she's gay During a chance meeting, Chloe sets her piercing green eyes on an unsuspecting Kayla. At first Kayla's put off, but gradually warms to Chloe's charms. Before long, she's intrigued and Chloe is more than willing to heher explore her curiosity. Surprised by the burning intensity of her feelings, Kayla is almost ready to be exclusive. Then comes the phone call; Mark's back in town.
Suggested donation: $10, more if you can, less if you can't. No one will be turned away. The donation is to help pay for the reconstruction of the store's front wall.
Commercial Closet Association
Company: aussieBum
Brand: aussieBum
Ad Title: Matt Mitcham
Business Category: Fashion/Apparel
Media Outlets: Television
Country: Australia
Region: Australia/New Zealand
Agency: unknown
Year: 2008
Target: Mainstream
You can't never forget your first love...Paul is the perfect All American Boy of a small town USA. Quarterback, Golden Boy, wealthy and handsome, he was the dream of every girls in high school, but also of one boy, Randy. Randy was from the wrong side of the city, he was a bit of a goth and plus he was also gay. Not that he could do nothing in the small town he lived, other than dreaming about Paul. And he would never imagine that also Paul dreamed about him.
But eighteen years old are too few to have the courage to do something and so Randy chose to leave the town and made a own and successful career in the IT department. And Paul returned back to home after college to be a lawyer in his father firm and to become the perfect city major with a barbie doll girlfriend.
Now twenty years later they meet again at the school reunion. Randy is a millionaire businessman who admitted to be gay to colleagues and friends, but not with his mother, his only live relatives. And Paul is still denying his homosexuality. But when Paul meet Randy, denying is not more an option, and Paul needs to find the courage to coming out with his parents, but also with all the small town, and Randy with his mother. But a little surprise is waiting our two heroes.
This one is maybe the most romantic novel I have read by Shayla Kersten. It's a very classical romance, with all the little things that make squeeze a romance lover. And then I always have had a thing for first love turning in everlasting love. Plus both Paul than Randy are very nice characters, and Randy is perfect in his behaviour, he knows when to push Paul, but also when to stepback and give him enough room to make his own choices. My only regret is that this couple has to wait twenty years to be together, but maybe is better in this way, cause they are both enough mature to know what they really want in their life.
A very sweet romance, highly reccomended to who wants to see the world throught pink glasses, and sometime this means to have a better disposition toward life.
PS: HOT HOT HOT cover by Les Byerley, I would buy the book only to have this cover, and since the book is very good, the cover is a very appreciated plus!
http://www.jasminejade.com/p-7722-past-l
Amazon: Past Lies (Ellora's Cave Spectrum)
Reading List:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bott
The third in the Screen Shots series is probably one of the most kinky, and for a series set in the porn industry that said a lot. Ross, the All American Boy Next Door of TwentySomethingTwinks is what you would call a training ship: he is steady and sure, he doesn't miss a shot (punt intended), but maybe he is a bit too much vanilla. He doesn't like any pinchbeck during sex, just two guys, a bed and condom and lube.Then arrives Maddox, a mix of new age guru in a biker boy body; he is handsome but "altered" by tattoo, piercings, dyed hair and outrageous clothes. He seems not the match for Ross, but Maddox entered TwentySomethingTwinks only for him. From day one is a play of teasing and playing kiss or dare with Ross. And Ross is both attracted than perplexed, he doesn't understand why he is interested in a guy who is the opposite than him... for someone who works with sex, he doesn't know much about life, does it?
When the new age yoga skill of Maddox unveils a potential flexibility in the man that is the forbidden dream of most teenager, Ross is hooked, but he wants his revenge: it will be not Maddox to seduce him, but Ross will knock him to the ground and have his way with him... problem is that it's exactly what Maddox wants.
As I said, this is a very kinky little novella; it's all about sex, but the strange thing is that, despite all the tattoo and piercing, Maddox is a real down to earth guy and the sex they have is good and very much normal. The kinkiness is almost vanilla, like Ross: just a man, Maddox, who knows how to use some strategically placed piercings. Story after story I'm more and more enthralled by this series, that is light and funny, and really gives the idea of young and healthy boys at play.
http://www.changelingpress.com/product.p
Series: Screen Shots
1) Seduced: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/75169
2) Smolder: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/81253
3) Slinky
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
Hi everyone, I hope you enjoy my Top 10 GLBT List, however I have a confession to begin. With so many truly great GLBT books out there, I approached this list with the intention of making it as diverse and eclectic as possible by choosing favourites in different genres. Some are literary, some are fun; some are contemporary, some are classic; some are erotic, some just ooze homoerotica without any physical sex in them at all, just the hint of it. In doing so I know I have omitted some of the best GLBT books ever written, but I’m sure those books will get a nod of appreciation from other authors on Elisa’s site at some point down the track. Enjoy!
1) HOLDING THE MAN by Timothy Conigrave. If you haven’t read or heard of this book, please do yourself a favor and get your hands on a copy immediately! This autobiographical novel and winner of the 1995 Human Rights Award is a triumphant, tragic, inspiring, liberating, heartbreaking masterpiece! This all-too-real and honest book tells Tim’s story, of how he fell in love with John, the captain of the football team in high school (“holding the man” is an expression used in Australian Rules Football), and how their love went through good times and bad as they explored their sexuality until ultimately tragedy entered their world. When I finished reading this book I was at the beach and thankfully wearing sunglasses—I had to race into the surf to wash my sobbing tears away. Whatever book is next on your “to be read” list, make it second on the pile and read this book first. You won’t regret it!Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Cuttyhunk Books (August 31, 2007)
Publisher Link: http://www.cuttyhunk.us/HoldingtheManHom
ISBN-10: 0978825950
ISBN-13: 978-0978825959
Amazon: Holding the Man
Winner of the United Nations Human Rights Award for Non-Fiction. Sometimes there are second acts. When in high school Timothy Conigrave falls in love with the captain of the football team, John Caleo, the two embark on a passionate journey of love, betrayal and forgiveness. This bestselling true story is at once sexy, romantic, funny and sad - a masterpiece of authentic emotion that you won't forget. Now an international hit play adapted by Tommy Murphy, Holding the Man is a book for all readers, for all generations.
( books from 2 to 10 )
So there you have it! Secrets, scandals, sorrow, sex, a little self-promotion and a lot of steamy gay fun. Thanks for joining me with the books that have made me laugh, made me cry, given my goosebumps, but ultimately have made me proud to be a gay man and a gay author.
About Geoffrey Knight: If you want to uncover a world of mysteries, maps, horny hunks and deadly traps, check out Geoffrey Knight’s two Fathom’s Five adventures—THE CROSS OF SINS and THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS—available on Amazon now. Or for the hunky comic crime adventure of THE DARCY BOYS AND THE CASE OF THE SECRET SKULLS, or for the sizzling, fang-filled suspense of Geoffrey’s two vampire tales—MIAMI MOON and CAIRO CATWALK—check out A.J. Ryan on Amazon or Eternal Press.
The Riddle of the Sands Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Cleis Press (October 1, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.cleispress.com/book_page.php?b
ISBN-10: 1573443662
ISBN-13: 978-1573443661
Amazon: Riddle of the Sands
Hot gay tomb raiders. Blackmailed by Jake's nemesis—the vengeful Pierre Perron—Professor Fathom's team of gay adventure-hunters is sent on a seemingly impossible mission. Will they uncover the legendary Riddle of the Sands in time to save one of their own from a rare and deadly poison? Is the Riddle a myth, a mirage, or the greatest engineering feat in the history of ancient Egypt?
digital pigment,oil glazes, resin
( more pics )
Candace Nicol currently works out of her studio in Reno, Nevada and is a co-founder of the Northern Nevada Printmakers’ conspiracy. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and occupies such prestigious permanent collections as the Boise Art Museum, Corcoran College of Art and Design, Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper at Rutgers University, Southern Graphics Council Archives, The Kinsey Institute, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and Painting and Sculpture Museum Association, Istanbul, Turkey. She has recently been awarded the distinguished Nevada Arts Council 2009 Artist Fellowship and is a Sierra Arts 2008 Artist Grant recipient. She has also been awarded an honorable mention in Printmaking Today, a review of fine art printmaking at the Dedalo Center for Contemporary Art, and the Castle of Castiglione Museum, Abruzzo, Italy.
http://www.candacenicol.com/
Blessed Isle by Alex Beecroft There is a mix of all the best novels by Alex Beecroft in this novella. Of course there is, the setting is the same she loves so much, a military ship sailing in stranger seas, and there are two men, two officers, who fall in love. Where is the difference? Well maybe in the way the story starts, they are safe and in love in Rio de Janeiro, retired from the Army and enjoying an almost “marriage” bliss. So here is the main difference, we can read of their story, and fear for them, but we know that, in the end, they will find a way to stay together.
And at the beginning I also thought that Alex Beecroft had become more daring, the first scene, with one of them sleepless at night looking at his naked lover in bed was quite erotic, was it the prelude to a sexier story? But no, as usual, there is a lot of hidden eroticism, desires and forbidden thirsts, but all happens behind a closed door.
The very nice thing of this novella is the narration path. First Harry, the captain, and then Garnet, his lieutenant, tell their own story from the different perspective they saw it. And from their narration you can understand the men. Harry is conservative and almost shy, despite his rank, he is not arrogant, and maybe he is also a bit naive; when he realizes his feelings for Garnet he is both tempted than troubled, and above all he thinks to be alone in his desires, that he could almost corrupt the lesser officer. And then we read Garnet’s point of view, how he almost seduced Harry, how he was always aware of the forbidden desire of the man, that were the same as his. Garnet in a way fill the voids Harry’s narration left and he is also the spirited one, who probably gives a bit of spice to the entire story.
Not to Reason Why by Mark R. Probst
When you are telling a story set in the middle of the war between Army and Native Americans, 1876, and you are aware of how tragic it was, it’s quite difficult to have an happily ever after romance. Plus, if you add to that that one of the main character is married and apparently content of his life, the quest for romance is even harder.
Brett and Dermot are fellow officers, but Dermot has also the sacred fire for his mission and instead Brett was forced into it. Dermot has all settled in front of him, a long and satisfying career in the Army, a wife who is willing to wait for him, and a good friend in Brett. On the other hand, Brett has nothing sure, the only thing he certainly knows, since it is eating him alive, is that he is in love with Dermot and that love it’s not only forbidden, it’s also impossible.
From the first pages the reader knows that the story is heaving on angst, the only thing that console him is that, in the end, Brett finds the courage to express his feelings for Dermot, and Dermot proves to be the good man Brett thought he was and the reader had the chance to see. And maybe, there is even a little possibility that a romance for Brett is at hand.
I like that, for once, it wasn’t the “gay” character the perfect one; if you compare Dermot and Brett, probably Dermot is a better man, he is not only a good officer and a good husband, but he is also able to accept Brett for who he is, a good friend, and not for who he loves, another man. On the other hand, I think Brett is a very troubled man, and not so strong: he is not a bad man, but he is for sure not perfect like Dermot. And in the end, if I have to choose, I probably prefer him to Dermot, not since he is gay, but since I have always preferred the imperfect one; but some of Brett’s actions are not exactly what I would expect from a novel’s hero.
No Darkness by Jordan Taylor
Again I had the feeling from the beginning of the story that I wouldn’t find an happily ever after here. I don’t know, but every story I read involving the WWI has never had an happily ever after. I remember my history professor told us that the WWI marked a passage in the way men did was, they lost their quality of men to become meat to slaughter. And the men in command lost their quality of knights to become even more detached from the simple soldiers.
Darnell is a lieutenant, and Fisher a simple soldier. There is no reason for them to be together if not for the war and a bomb that traps them in a cellar of an abandoned farm. In the hours they are forced to be together, Darnell and Fisher learn that they have more in common of what they thought; it’s not a clear discovery, more a play of unsaid words and uncompleted motions. Fisher is more open than Darnell, even in his childish memories the reader seems to find some sign of what Fisher is trying to communicate to Darnell, and instead for Darnell it’s more a play to understand what he is not saying: he is married but doesn’t want children. He has a good wife but he doesn’t seem to miss her so much other than missing the simple life they had together. There is a lot of possibilities for these two men, and they come out from the “darkness” in a strong way to the reader, but still, in the end, the darkness is stronger than them.
The reader is aware that Darnell and Fisher can be something more for each other. And this is the reason why, sorry, I don’t understand why the story has to be so tragic, to be faithful to the history? Since the war was so cruel that it couldn’t have been different? I can understand that, but still, I prefer to have at least a smallest chance to a better future, for how much unbelievable it could be.
Our One and Only by E.N. Holland
This is probably a very unexpected pleasure to read. Unexpected since ab absurdo, this was the most sad of all the story above, one of the two lovers of the story is already dead at the beginning of it, and from that moment on, all we read is how the remaining one has to cope with his pain, a pain he can share with only few people, the one who were aware that Philip was not only a dear friend of Eddie.
This story had me almost in tear, above all since I was not seeing any chance of happiness for Philip. Every chapter is 10 years in his life and chapter after chapter I was finding him always alone, 10 years older and with that pain still strong, so strong to blind him to any other possibility. And to make thing worse, Eddie, even if dead, chapter after chapter was coming out like a wonderful man, someone who Philip was right to mourn. How was it possible for him to forget and going on with his life?
So no, in the end I was not expecting an happily ever after for Philip, but I didn’t feel cheated by it; the author was plainly clear from the first page, Eddie was dead and there wouldn’t have been no coming back of the good soldier for relieving Philip of his grief. The only thing I was expecting was for Philip to find a way to be at peace with his pain, to find a way to stop to believe in an happily ever after. Oh guys, I’m in tear right now, writing this sentence, since I can still feel Philip’s pain and it’s so strong, but I can also feel Eddie’s love for him and also it’s stronger, so stronger that even 40 years after, he is still able to give an hope to Philip, the hope that also him can have an happily ever after. In a way, to be happy again, Philip had to finally being angry with Eddie, for being an hero, being angry with him for the exact reason why he loved and still loves him so much.
So in the end, if the purpose of this anthology was to make me cry, well it reached it. I didn’t cry for Alex Beecroft’s story, in a way it’s a sweet and light story with little angst; I didn’t cry for Mark Probst’s story, I enjoyed the setting, but not so much the characters; I maybe almost cried for Jordan Taylor’s story, but as I said, there was an oppressive atmosphere, and truth be told, the love between the two men was only hinted (the scene in the darkness when Fisher tries with all his remaining strength to reach for Darnell, that was the scene that almost brought me in tears)… but boys, how I cried and still am crying for E.N. Holland’s story! If you want a reason to read the anthology, well this story is your reason.
http://www.bcpinepress.com/ (ebook)
http://www.cheyennepublishing.com/books/h
Amazon: Hidden Conflict: Tales from Lost Voices in Battle
Amazon Kindle: Hidden Conflict: Tales from Lost Voices in Battle
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
ryan_field) for the head up. Original link: http://ravenousromance.blogspot.com/2009/1
"November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in which new writers are encouraged to figure out a way to write an entire 50,000 word novel in 30 days (which is a little over 1600 words a day).
Last year more than 100,000 writers participated, and every year one or two of them get published.
We'd like to increase the odds.
Ravenous Romance novels are 50,000 - 60,000 words. We love finding new writers. So, we'd really like you to write a 50,000 word novel for RR.
Although we publish just about every category of erotic romance, our readers are anxious for more M/M/, paranormal and menage. We'd love to see more science fiction erotic romance, or what we cal Futurotica. And, of course, we always love good contemporary and historical novels.
Our guidelines are up on our website: http://www.ravenousromance.com/images/st
So, from Dec. 1 until New Year's Eve, send us your completed NaNoWriMo erotic romance, and if we think you're good enough, you might win a contract, as well as a $200 advance. Your novel will be published in 2010. Should your work be chosen, we'll interview you on the RR blog and the RR Ning, so you can share your story.
Should the submissions merit it, we'll give out first, second and third place awards, but every novel published will get the $200 advance.
We're looking forward to publishing your NaNoWriMo novel!
Send completed novels, with an outline and a author bio, to: submissions@ravenousromancecom."
Ravenous Romance is a publisher of e-books and audiobooks led by three longtime publishing professionals who see digital publishing as the new mass market. They launched www.ravenousromance.com on December 1, 2008 and have published more than 200 novels, anthologies, and short stories since. Ravenous Romance produces and sells the “Escape with Romance Collection” of trade paperback novels exclusively on HSN, and has licensed print rights to many of its other titles to traditional publishing houses.
This is quite a controversial short story, it plays a lot on the squicky feelings people have with shapeshifter stories and it's also very hot, being very graphic in details when arriving to the sex scene.Scott lives inside a park reserve. He is used to share the park with bears, he knows them well and knows how to avoid trouble. But then poachers start to kill the bears and the beasts become unpredictable. One night, after a very near proximity encounter with one of them, Scott finds the same bear wounded in his stable and calls Luke for help. Luke is a park ranger, a different type of "bear", but one Scott is bringing a torch for long time.
Scott is gay and he has no trouble with that, when he wants sexual relief, he goes into town and finds someone. But the one night stands he has are always with ordinary man, like him, and instead he likes the "bears" (not the beast but the big and strong hairy men), and in particular he likes one bear, Luke. So when fate brings them together, and Luke is not against the idea to share warm with him in a cold night, nature takes its course.
But there is a little catch, the wounded bear in the stable that disappeared and the equally wounded naked man, Bjorn, Scott found in his place. The strange familiarity Bjorn has with Luke, and how Luke doesn't seem to notice nothing of strange in Bjorn's behavior...
Short story, so there is nothing more to say, if not that, I'm not really sure to like so much the closing sentence: it's true, it's an hint more at what I said in the beginning, the fact that the author is very well aware that she is playing with a controversial matter, what's the point to write shapeshifter stories if the shapeshifter characters don't behave a bit like animals? There are some primordial instincts that you have to consider and preserve, otherwise the shifter nature of the characters has no meaning to exist.
http://www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure/Th
The Rainbow Awards: Third (and last!) Phase: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/85035
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