Like Ducks in a Row: Thinking about M/M Series

I love series books. An author creates a world with a sense of place and a set of rules that are broad enough to be the foundation of multiple stories... Cattle Valley, Hammer, Love Means, EMS Heat, Lady Blue Crew, Wolves of Stone Ridge, Marius Brothers, Midnight Matings, Brac Pack... Okay maybe I have a thing for fluffy shifter books... That is not in any way an insult, I have the utmost respect for the authors who write these series.

My completely unoriginal analogy goes like this... Books are like food. Most books are everyday meat and potatoes meals and a rare few are glorious six course gourmet feasts. Then there is a category I consider snacks. Snacks are enjoyable to read and give you a little pick-me-up to get through the rest of your day. They are small, usually novella-ish (30-40K words). They aren't terribly angsty. They aren't going to change your life. They almost all follow some variation on the traditional romance formula... boy meets boy, boy falls in love with boy, boy loses boy, boy fights to get the boy back. They are like fairy tales where good triumphs over evil, light over darkness and remind us that once in a while, even for the most broken souls, love can conquer all.

An unpleasant trend has cropped up in some of the long standing series that I have stayed with through ten plus books... to the point that I have dropped a few series that used to be an automatic buy. In many series, the backdrop is an overarching story that links all the books together and for me this is where so many writers, even ones I love, seem to lose the plot. (pun totally intended) Some writers seem to let the backdrop story get too complicated and convoluted to the point where they put too much energy into moving the backdrop along at the expense of the romance at the heart of the current book. As a reader, I don't care about the political intrigue in HEA-land except in how it affects the main characters of the book and once guys from a previous book get their HEA, I don't care much about how current events affect them unless it directly impacts the current book. After about five books in a series, I can't keep track of all the characters and relationships anyway especially when the books are separated by three months and maybe 100 other books in between.

I also think that series should be given the opportunity to end naturally. If you set up a series based on five brothers, the backdrop story should resolve when the last brother gets paired off. Moving a series on to a new and perhaps related backstory for another set of characters in the same world is more than acceptable. Lady Blue Crew moving into the Elite Force series did this beautifully.

What do y'all think?

As always, enjoy the eye-candy...

Jae

Two-Cent Review: Bad Attitude by K.A. Mitchell

Grade:  C+

There is a lot to recommend about this book. The premise was interesting, the characters were engaging. I loved the moments of connection...  It's those moments, sort of like in Avatar, of "I see YOU" not the facade that made the book interesting for me.

Let me just say, there was too much sex and not enough plot.  I like reading about sex as much as the next girl, but really I would have liked to know more about these characters. I was left with too many questions and had to make too many intuitive leaps to be really satisfied.  Why does his family think Gavin is a disappointment? Is it just because he hasn't done anything with his life that they find valuable? What was Jamie's relationship with Colton? Why was Jamie so traumatized by his death beyond the obvious considering the book takes place more than ten years later?

The ending was a bit abrupt and felt like a Happy-for-now rather than a Happily-ever-after. Considering they couldn't get on the same page until the last few pages of the book... How were they going to weather the shit storm heading their way immediately after the end of the book? What will Gavin's family have to say about the relationship and how will Jamie cope with all the scrutiny in the media and at work? To me, the book ended 2/3 of the way through the story. 

If you liked the rest of the series, you will like this one just as much. Bad Attitude was a good and enjoyable read, but I was left wanting a little more.

I was thinking about the differences between the Florida series and the Baltimore series.  The Baltimore ones are darker in tone, the characters less forgiving, the secondary characters have less emotional impact on the main characters. The MCs begin the stories largely alone with few positive connections with other people... The Florida series is completely the opposite. It's like the warmer climate makes the people warmer and more connected.  Even if you just look at the book cover, the Florida ones are brighter, more colorful, warmer... The Baltimore ones are darker, nearly monochrome, and even the skin tones are cooler. Just my two-cents.

As always, I close with the eye candy...

(Source: Machodesungao)

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)