Death by Plot Bunny and a Snipit from my new WIP

Alrighty... Since I finished Where I Belong, I've been floundering and it's been going on for months now. The beginning of WIB went like this... I was sitting in my office working on my real job when I'm Moving On by Rascal Flatts came on Pandora and for some reason I really listened to the song. Not in the singing along kind of way, but the deep hearing/feeling the message of the song way.  

With that my brain started to spin the lyrics around... 

But I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong... Stopped to fill up on my way out of town... Maybe forgiveness will find me somewhere down this road... I'm movin' on... 

What happened to this guy?  What happened to him down the road?  Did he ever find forgiveness?  From there, the character of Harper Ellison was born.

I'd never written anything longer than a short story in fiction... a couple one-act plays don't really count.  Technical manuals are different, I've written encyclopedias worth of that crap, but not fiction... not romance... Those things scared me... that was real writing... It wasn't just translating geek into human.  But I quickly had the opening of a gay romance, fully formed and perfect, in my head.  The words came organically.  It felt like a choose your own adventure.  I literally wrote all 100K (at it's most obese) in order beginning to end.  Some of it was hard and I got off track more than a few times but I never felt completely lost.

Once the self-imposed major re-writing was done, I had an idea for a shifter book which I got to about 10K words and then I couldn't feel it anymore, the spark was gone.  And then I saw a photo on Tumblr that created this amazing character I had to write about and after 15K words it was gone... Then came the BDSM book... Then came a second shifter book... And then... and then... and then... Every time I would just get to the meat of the story and get scared that it wasn't as good or as organic as WIB, which I thought half-way sucked most of the time.  At that point all the life would go out of it and the story would just flame out.

So the other day, another plot bunny gave it's life in the cause of my eternal frustration.  I was reading one of Sean Michael's Hammer series books (Push, I think) and I couldn't help but ask...  What would happen if it were the Dom who was broken?  What would a sub do to fix it?  And I was off to the races yet again.  Lucky for me, this time finally feels different... It's finding my answer to those questions that's driving me, not the characters or plot.

Here's a much loved paragraph from this new WIP with a working title of About Face.

Rob used all the control he had in him to not tremble when he heard the door to the dungeon close softly. Some of the anticipation was coming from his need to get out of his head after the conversation with his brother but more than that it came from his attraction to Siri. Jamie had described him as an old school leather guy, but that's not what Rob saw. Siri was the epitome of the modern leather top, coming of age long after the Stonewall riots and the advent of the gay rights movement such that his masculinity wasn't threatened by society's belief that gay men were all effeminate. For Siri, being a top wasn't a reaction to not wanting to be perceived as girly or gay, it was just who he was without pretense. Siri was what all of those old school tops wanted to be but couldn't because they could never get out from under a culture that reminded them at every turn that their sexuality made them less of a man. For Rob, Siri's absolute confidence in his masculinity and his sexuality was the hottest thing he'd ever encountered.  

So there it is... And to distract you from the abundance of authorly angst, just look at the pretty, pretty bear...

(Source:  I've lost the post-it with the source, let me know if you recognize it.)

GRL goes bananas: an outsider's opinion

Minding my own business today, the gay romance world went bananas.  Misunderstandings abound, feelings were hurt.  It was petty and nasty and so not the inclusive world we dream this genre to be.  I wish I were surprised, but I'm not.  One of my core beliefs is that we are all insecure sixth graders at heart and act accordingly much of the time.  

As a writer and reader who has never been to GRL and probably won't attend any time soon, my opinion probably doesn't matter, but it's my blog so I get to say what I want.

As a reader, if I'm shelling out hard earned money for a gay romance conference, I want my favorite authors there. I would be thrilled to discover new and upstart authors once I'm there, but I want to see the superstars of the genre.  Who decides who the superstars are?  Readers do with their wallets. Big names attract more attention and more attention means more money for everyone selling at the conference... publishers, authors and other vendors. 

Conferences, especially those for an industry's customers (ie readers) are designed to funnel money into the pockets of the presenters & vendors.  In this case, directly or indirectly, they want attendees to buy more books.  If Philemena Fillibottom sells more books than anyone else in the genre, you can bet that her publisher and the organizers want her headlining the conference.  Publishers are the deep pockets here and seem to foot much of the bill for the conference. The only reason for them to participate is to have an opportunity sell more books at the conference and beyond. Don't ever be conned into believing it's not about the money.

Gay romance as a category is growing at an unsustainable rate, one day it will level off, but until that happens smaller conferences like GRL are going to suffer from lots of growing pains as they try and keep up. GRL isn't a public service.  Just because you want to present at a conference, doesn't mean you have a right to do so.  Maybe GRL should just have attendees and let writers put a special sticker on their nametags since I have yet to meet a writer who isn't an avid reader.  That would let the costs be spread across a broader pool of people and reduce the burden on the authors.  Presenters and featured authors should be selected by the publishers and/or organizers, like nearly every other conference in the universe.  

At the end of the day GRL is going to have to grow (a lot) or it will ultimately not be able to please anyone and it will fail.  Some corporately run conference will eventually step in to fill the gap when they smell the money and whoever that is will run right over GRL if they don't find a way to accomodate a bigger audience.

There.  I've said my completely irrelevant piece.  Moving on to some pretty eye candy... The socks kill me dead every time I look at it.

(Source: Straight until the lights go out)

TWO CENT REVIEW: The Last Day of Summer by JF Smith

Title: The Last Day of Summer 
Author: JF Smith

Grade:  A+

Review: I loved this book!  I should mention that I loved everything I've ever read by this author so no one should be surprised. I am going to try not to gush like a fan-girl, but I can't promise anything.

This is a sequel to Falling Off the Face of the Earth featuring Cory, Jerry & Carrie Ann's son and his new love interest Rhett. James (now Jimmy), Brick & Lindsey make appearances as well. 

Rhett is flawed and funny. He's faced a lot of hurt in his life from his family particularly his father but he also does an equal amount to himself. Cory is sweet, gentle and unjaded. There's just enough realism, humor and romance to make the book swoon worthy.  The exploration of what it means to be a man is central to Rhett's evolution throughout the book and is insightful; Rhett's revelations about his father at the end more than make up for the occasionally heavy handedness of the topic.

FYI: This isn't erotica.  There are sexy sexual situations and graphic language, but it does so without tab A, slot B descriptions of the actual acts. They are not missed at all.

I admit that the book isn't flawless.  There are some baseball things that aren't quite right particularly in how relief pitching works and the pitchers weren't portrayed as certifiably crazy which they are in real life for the most part.  It would have made more sense for Skunk to be a closer than an outfielder.

Val wasn't my favorite character.. She was outrageous alright, but she didn't have any of the softness underneath like Petey from Latakia or Jerry from Falling.  She was just out there. Her criticisms of Rhett's behavior never felt like they were coming from a loving friend.  She was more like an obnoxious know-it-all than that.

Also, I never really got why Jimmy offered Rhett the money even if he was trying to make a point.  If you haven't read Falling, you won't understand Jimmy's so protective of Cory but even so Jimmy's motivations are never fully explained here.

Overall, The Last Day of Summer is as amazing as I've come to expect from JF Smith. This one will go into my favorites folder and will be re-read.  That is pretty much the highest compliment I can give any book.

TWO CENT REVIEW: The Cost of Secrets by Cassandra Gold

Title: The Cost of Secrets

Author: Cassandra Gold

Grade:  B

Review: I really liked this book.  

Isaac and Dan are both flawed and only a little broken by the things they've overcome. Mostly they are survivors bumbling along trying to do the best they can. Neither of them were physically perfect either which I always appreciate, but I think the characters would disagree with me when describing one another.

My quibbles are minor...It's a bit too short for the major issues involved.  The story would have benefited from having a little more time for the romance to marinate.  I wonder if that's why the ending felt a little abrupt.  I think an epilogue would have helped me feel more confident that the ending was really a HEA. As written, I'm only 75% sure that's the case.

 Isaac's story is one that's been seen quite a bit and it getting to be almost cliche in the genre. But Dan's is one I hadn't seen before and would really have liked to have heard more about it.  I wonder if the book would have been even stronger if it had been written solely from Dan's POV instead of the head hopping, which was very well done by the way.

Overall, a good read. Well worth my time and money.

Angel eye candy... Something about this photo just seemed so wrong, which made it pretty close to perfect.

(Source: 24-Media)

REVIEW: All Bets Are Off by Marguerite Labbe

Title: All Bets Are Off
Series: Mountain Boys
Author: Marguerite Labbe

Grade:  B-

Review:  Overall this was an enjoyable read.  It's always nice to see characters suffering with the same Red Sox mania I live with everyday. The characters were great. The two main characters were funny and had distinct voices. The secondary characters were well done too, but a little generic for me.  I would have loved to have them more like real New England yankees (small y, Yankees big Y are evil and are not worth writing about).  I live in western Maine so it's something I am probably oversensitive to, but I felt nonetheless.

The plot was good. The secondary plot about the army buddy was especially good. The twist on the who-done-it was interesting if obvious.  I'm trying not to give any spoilers, but if you read the book you'll know what's coming before you actually read it. That's not bad; it's just not high drama, but I don't think it's supposed to be.  FWIW--The sex was well done too.

I close with the eye candy...

Red Sox Jason Veritek & Kevin Millar circa 2004
 (Source: DC Landing Strip)

Two Cent Reviews & Look! I made a header

After some discussion and perhaps a few cocktails with my peeps, I have decided to add reviews of some of the M/M Romances I seem to be constantly reading. These are going to be SHORT (two or three paragraphs) and WILL NOT include the blurb or a synopsis of the plot.  I will however provide the link to the Goodreads page for the book so you can find that stuff yourself.  If not having the blurb annoys you, let me know in the comments and I will add them if you insist. I have decided to use a grade system (ie A, B, C, D & F) to give my overall impression because it's simple, not cutsie, and people will easily understand it.  There are lots of review sites out there but I hope mine will be pithy enough that they don't sound like literary criticism but will tell what I liked or didn't like about the book.

My next post will be a review and this will all make perfect sense.

Lucky for me, I read A LOT and very fast.  I was one of those reading prodigies that had taught myself to read at three and was reading at a fourth grade level before I started school.  Words just made sense to me right from the beginning. I always felt I should put all that reading to some sort of use, so I'm gonna give reviewing a try.

Because it's my blog and I want you all to be happy...  Here's your eye candy...

(Source: Pics I Like)

In case you hadn't noticed... I made a new header and changed the look of my blog today.  This is better I think, but I value your opinions.

Book Inspired Eye Candy

Finished Moonstruck (Lucky Moon #3) by Piper Vaughn & MJ O'Shea today.  I was late getting to the party and read the whole series over the last month or so.  Great series. Moonstruck was my second favorite after The Luckiest (Lucky Moon #2). I suppose you can't go wrong with either of these authors who happen to be some of my favorites.

So... Here's some rock star eye candy...  Enjoy.