The M/M Romance Hall of Fame

Each sport seems to have one. Rock 'n' roll and country music have them. I'm sure there are many other halls of fame for countless professions and pursuits. So why not one for our little corner of the literary world?

I first introduced male-male attraction into my published fiction about six years ago. (Actually, I explored sexual orientation far earlier than that, in some of my non-genre novels. Only one has been published). Back then, Goodreads didn't exist. Amazon was around but e-readers weren't, so Amazon peddled only print books. But blogs and Yahoo groups abounded, and it was through these that I became familiar with the pioneers of m/m romance -- authors and publishers who, to this day, remain iconic. A bit later, review sites devoted exclusively to our genre began to appear.

Therefore, I'll divide my M/M Romance Hall of Fame into rooms -- Publishers, Authors, Reviewers, Cover Artists -- and populate them with major contributors to the genre's visibility, respectability, and popularity. Keep in mind that all of my inductees have withstood the test of time.

AUTHORS 

From the beginning, my beginning, I saw certain names with awe-inspiring frequency. The work of these writers was (and still is) enjoyed and admired and often revered. Willa Okati and Ally Blue; Sean Michael,  James Buchanan, and Sarah Black; VJB and RRR and the two JLs (Lanyon and Langley); soon thereafter, ZAM and KAM and JCP. (You bet their initials will do!) Then I discovered m/m historical romance, a rich subgenre within the wider genre, and realized it had its own greats: Alex Beecroft, Erastes, Charlie Cochrane, Tamara Allen, Ruth Sims. They get their own niche in the Author Room.

PUBLISHERS      

Companies that released m/m (or GLBT) romance exclusively were few and far between when I entered the genre. The ones that have survived the longest certainly deserve a place in the Hall of Fame. So I'm overlooking all past kerfuffles surrounding Torquere Press, the ugly covers of MLR Press, and any grumbling about Dreamspinner Press, and I'm giving credit where credit is due. Starting these companies required vision and balls of steel; not one of them installed the safety net of heterosexual erotic romance. They deserve to be honored. (Should I include Lethe, too? I'm undecided, because they publish "literary" as well as romance fiction -- although, frankly, the distinction often eludes me.)


REVIEW SITES

He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abyss of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.

~ H. L. Mencken, on the writing style of President Warren G. Harding

Love 'em or hate 'em, reviewers have been the evangelists of m/m romance. They can't be excluded from the Hall of Fame. The first two inductees have to be Elisa Rolle and Jessewave, both of whom have made enormous contributions to the genre. They've promoted acceptance, deepened understanding, and helped advance authors' careers. Perhaps most important, they've encouraged open, frank discussions among readers. I won't listen to any smack-talk about Elisa or Wave. They're both incredible women. Jenre's "Well Read" blog, Val Kovalin's "Obsidian Bookshelf," and Chris's "Stumbling Over Chaos" also go back some years. They all helped paved the way for the excellent GLBTQ review and promotional sites we see today.


COVER ARTISTS

Since I don't know how long most of them have been working in the genre, I currently have only one inductee. Gee, can you guess who she is? ;-)

Now . . . who would your nominees be? I know I've left people out through sheer oversight, so help me correct that! Just keep in mind there are criteria for the Hall of Fame. (Yeah, okay, so they're my criteria, but this is my blog.) Authors, publishers, and reviewers have to have proved their staying-power, and they can't have a recent history of dipping their toes into other genres.         

Of Mongrels and Mermen

My next appearance will be on March 20 at a wonderful new website that's an offshoot of Coffee Time Romance and is devoted specifically to steampunk. Since I just signed a contract with Dreamspinner Press for Merman (which should come out this summer), I'll of course be talking about Mongrels and Menfish and how I like incorporating fantasy into the industrialized world of Purinton. If you don't have a copy of Mongrel, you'll have a chance to win a free download.

So, what's Merman about? I obviously can't tell you the whole story ;-), but here are some hints:

Floating Brick Island, once the site of a penal colony that was destroyed in a ferocious hurricane over a century ago.

Tower Hole, a chasm of indeterminate depth just off the shore of that bleak heap of rocks and rubble.

And . . . an alluring mutant.

When vampire Clancy Marrowbone returns to Purin province 22 months after his departure, he certainly doesn't anticipate spending time near the sea. He intends only to visit briefly with his friend Fanule Perfidor, the "Dog King," in the village of Taintwell. He also intends to avoid his former lover, the unfortunately mortal Simon Bentcross. What would be the point of rekindling their affair? Marrowbone merely wants to know how Simon is faring.

Quite well, it turns out. Bentcross, who now owns a machinery repair shop, has designed a submersible vessel for underwater exploration. He’ll be manning his “Bubble” for the Tower Hole Research and Recovery Expedition, a project shrouded in secrecy. 

Vaguely troubled after his visit with Perfidor, the restless vampire stops at a deserted stretch of beach just south of the Marvelous Mechanical Circus in Purinton, the provincial capital. He needs time to reflect before he moves on. 

Then Fate steps in.

A startling discovery followed by an even more startling intrusion redirect Marrowbone's attention and substantially alter his plans. He's forced from thought into action. By the following evening, Clancy Marrowbone realizes his visit to the province won’t be so short after all . . . especially when Simon Bentcross reenters his life. In addition to their conflicted passion, Simon’s involvement in the mysterious Tower Hole project and Clancy’s involvement with a mysterious creature lead to a growing host of complications and dangers. As if their affair weren’t star-crossed enough, both the vampire and his mortal lover become hunted men -- in Taintwell and beyond.

(By the way, you can read the opening to Merman here. More excerpts are to come.)

Hope to see you on the 20th!

Why Catholic Girls Are Easy

Hey, it isn't only my opinion. I've had a few Jewish boyfriends tell me the same. So why do we have this reputation?

The answer lies in two words: forbidden fruit.

For example: OH. EM. GEE. (Slash, slash, slash!)

Did you take a gander at that man? Did you notice he's wearing a Roman collar? Yikes, if ever the rule of celibacy (aka "continence") begged to be broken!

Today on "CBS This Morning," three young seminarians in Rome were interviewed. See the adorable one in the middle? He admitted celibacy was his biggest impediment to joining the priesthood. (Gee, ya think? He could easily get his fancy tickled by both genders!)

Straight Catholic girls and gay Catholic boys are endlessly titillated by images of desirable but untouchable men -- in churches and schools, in religious textbooks, on prayer cards. 

First and foremost in the seduction department is, of course, Jesus, who is beautiful in every one of his artistic incarnations (even those in which he's hanging on the cross!)

   

Then there's St. Sebastian, probably the hottest of all the holy hotties (if you can overlook the arrows), and a host of other martyrs and saints.

Young Catholics have to fend off fantasies of cute young priests, too, and even their own classmates. All are off-limits to their libidos. No wonder we're easy. By the time we're teenagers, we're ready to explode!

The older I got, the more I wondered, What is with this Church? It hates and fears "the flesh," but its most revered figures are portrayed as gorgeous people in various states of undress, not to mention suffering. Believers are expected to view them as pious and pure, and to have only spiritually refined reactions to their images. Throw the rule of celibacy -- forced sexual abstinence -- into the mix, and one could swear there's a highly charged vein of kink running through the Rock.

I've been reminded of all these things during media coverage of the papal election. How wonderful it would be if the Catholic Church pulled its head out of its antiquated, doctrinaire ass and stopped treating the human body as nothing more than a facilitator of procreation. What a miracle it would be if those portly or withered cardinals really looked at Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel -- all the vigorous, well-muscled, near-nude figures -- and had a collective epiphany: Damn, what have we been thinking for all these repressed, sexless centuries? Why have we been encouraging shame and secrecy? What's wrong with priests getting married? What's wrong with engaging in sex for pleasure, and non(cisgendered)heterosexuals engaging in sex for pleasure too? Men created celibacy, but God created orgasms! And while we're at it, let's encourage rather than forbid birth control, 'cause if Earth is the Crown of Creation, we should really try to ensure that overpopulation won't soil that crown beyond reclamation. Holy shit, have we been hypocrites or what?  

He ain't crazy; he's my brother.

HA!

Remember The Zero Knot? (I had to ask, 'cause I know how soon you guys forget. ;-)) This is how I imagine Jess Bonner and his kid brother, Jared ("Red"), would've looked had they posed for a portrait some years ago. :-D

Come visit . . . and win!

Today I'm  at the wonderful Young Adult LGBTQ Literature site, TRUE COLORZ. So if you'd like to know why I write YA characters and which one of mine I'd like to be for a day, stop by. I also talk about how Red in The Zero Knot came to be, and something important I didn't learn from Oprah.

Oh, and I'm also doing a giveaway. The winning commenter can choose either The Zero Knot OR Xylophone. You have until March 3 to enter!

A Modest Proposal . . . or Three

Let me say straight up that I've never been to Gay Rom Lit. My spending $2,000 to $3,000 on a conference just ain't gonna happen until FedEx delivers that sugar daddy I ordered. But I've read countless posts over the past couple of days (and I suspect you have too) about how this year's GRL is being handled, or mishandled, and how ironic it is that six top-tier authors have proved such dismal communicators that they've managed to offend a considerable number of their peers.

Seems to me some changes are in order if GRL is to run smoothly in the future and avoid being known as GRRRR.

Any thinking person can easily understand the need for cost management and registration caps. So, how to address these issues? Here are the most logical options.

1. Book the con at larger, more accommodating venues. Considering that's easier said than done, let's move on.
2. (This is something I suggested elsewhere.)  Make it clear well in advance of registration that a limited number of spaces are available for readers as well as authors. Then proceed to accept registrants on a first-come, first-served basis. This is the most equitable approach, because it levels the playing field for everybody. However, organizers have made it clear they're resistant to taking this route because it could glut the con with relatively unknown authors -- and those aren't the ones readers want to meet.
3. (More and more, I'm convinced this might be best solution.) Refashion GRL. Rather than putzing around trying to define author "tiers" and figure out how to divvy up spaces among them (which, let's face it, only generates resentment), make GRL an invitation-only event for authors and an open-registration event for readers. This means, of course, the vast majority of writers in the genre will be left out. But really, so what? We small fry all realize we can't compete with the big fish in this pond. And we all know there are other gay-lit meets we're welcome to attend. Organizers have stated over and over again that readers go to GRL in the hope of meeting the genre's superstars. They become flustered and disappointed (so say the organizers, and they should know) if ID tags they want to see are lost in an ocean of names they don't recognize.

So, based on the multitude of contradictions I've seen as organizers stress out and their CYA impulses reach record levels, and the hurt (as well as fear) on the part of "ordinary" authors, and the indignation on the part of readers . . . in the name of all that is sane, I encourage organizers to adopt option #3. Make GRL a reader-inclusive event that centers on fan favorites. This is the only way to ensure that all attendees will get what they want out of it.

I find this the most manageable and profitable way to go. And the most honest. What do you think?
 

Author Reincarnation

I think I'd like to try this.

The Current Big Thing at Goodreads hasn't been spawned by blog hops or favorites lists or any given publisher. A lot of readers seem to be jumping on a new bandwagon: free online fiction or inexpensive self-published fiction that breaks from genre norms. It might be waaaaaay longer than the usual m/m stories. Or waaaaaay shorter. Often it's written by people with quirky handles like stained_skirt and BrainMassacre. Sometimes it's spawned by fandoms.

So . . . what's driving people to read, rate, and review this stuff (and rave about it, even if it isn't particularly good)? Is it disaffection or boredom with standard genre offerings? Cheapness? Curiosity? A desire to support "deviant" writers (you know, like deviant artists)? Is it a fad, or an indication of where publishing is headed? (Don't sell it; give it away!) In any case, this trend has an air of rebellion about it -- like, "I'm thumbing my nose at the establishment, because they're all wankers. Except, of course, my favorite authors, who can do no wrong."

I'm creeping toward the point where I'd like, or maybe need, to reinvent myself. It would be interesting, very interesting, to find out how an oddball work would be received if it didn't have my usual pseudonym on it, and maybe didn't even have cover art.

I wonder if other authors ever feel this way.

The Curse of the Twelfth Month

Writers beware. It isn't wise to publish a book in December unless it's a Christmas story. Why?

1. It will be swamped by holiday-themed fiction.
2. A December publication date means you won't make "lists" for that year, because your book came out too late, yet you won't make "lists" for the following year, because your book wasn't published in that year. So keep in mind that a December non-holiday release will likely be consigned to a black hole.

In the Grand Scheme of Things, this certainly doesn't matter. But it can be a bit depressing.

Just sayin'.

What I Learned in 2012

FIAT LUX

• It's waaaaaaaay too easy to shop online.
• I need to take up knitting if I want more fans.
• Computer experts predict the Internet will soon be unable to accommodate all the blog tours going on. I'm getting nervous about people showing up at my house, demanding books and chocolate.
• Kindle with wifi off is far preferable to Kindle with wifi on.
• My underarm hair has mysteriously disappeared. I think it's now in JLA's ears.
• I still don't understand contests -- primarily, how they're judged and why writers shell out good money to to enter them (when, that is, the shelling out of money is required).
• Now that I have my own sanctum sanctorum in the house, my fondest dream is to have an unlimited movie-buying budget. I absolutely love whiling away the weekends watching movies!
• Dogs keep me sane.
• Maintaining gardens during a drought is hard work and often depressing.
• I'm a sucker for vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplements, even though I have no concrete evidence they do any kind of good whatsoever.
• I suspect I'd earn more as an editor than a writer.
• My aversion to m/f romance has passed the point of no return.
• M/m romance saved me money by keeping me from buying Season 5 of "Queer as Folk." I couldn't stand watching an ending that wasn't a HEA or HFN.
• Readers can be weird.
• Writers can be weirder.
• Only Lanyon's Jake Riordan can get away with calling his sweetheart -- Adrien, of course -- "baby." (WTF is that about?)
• I can make money on Craigslist . . . and not by being an escort. (Yeah, had to give that up.)
• I'm going to chew the baseboards if Bart Yates doesn't release another book pretty soon.
• Crap rises to the top more easily than cream.
• I can live without a cell phone.
• My tolerance for small talk, ill-behaved children, homophobic bullshit, Internet wankery, and people without a sense of humor has reached an all-time low.
• Twitter is no longer a mystery to me.
• Facebook remains a mystery to me.
• Pinterest has no discernible reason for being.
• The Green Bay Packers aren't the worst team in the NFL, but they're far from the best.
• There's no longer any excuse for bad cover art.
• Goodreads is only good for me when I avoid my books' pages as well as the M/M Romance group.
• I'll never again be as prolific a writer as I once was.
• Now that I'm addicted to Gorton's tilapia, Marie Callender's Parmesan chicken pot pies, Progresso soups, Arby's roast beef sandwiches, Southern Comfort egg nog, and Heath candy bars, I no longer need to cook.
• I can keep my clothing budget to $12 a year by taking advantage of my local resale shop's bag sales.
• I'm sick to death of politics and politicians.
• Gun worship gone mad, schools turning out idiots, Christian fundamentalism, and the lack of universal heath care are our biggest national embarrassments.
• Only if I'm extraordinarily lucky will Merman have any readers once it's published.
• I'd like to write another YA novel, maybe set in the 1950s or '60s.  

New Website for YA LGBTQ Fiction

Three very talented and caring people -- Jeff Erno, Jackie Nacht, and Madison Parker -- have started a website (and a very well-designed one, I might add) devoted exclusively to GLBTQ young adult fiction. You can, and should, check out HERE.

The Attitude Is Gratitude

It's the perfect time of year to acknowledge people who've made my world a little brighter.

I'm not a Big Cheese in this genre, but readers and fellow authors have a way of making that fact irrelevant.

Therefore . . .

Thank you, first and foremost, to everybody who's bought and read even one of my books. That requires faith. A reader putting his/her faith in my work is both humbling and gratifying - and not something I take lightly. I treasure each of you.

Thank you to readers who took the time (a precious commodity), to express their opinions of Carny's Magic, A Hole in God's Pocket, and Xylophone. I wasn't sure how the last two, especially, would be received. Religion and child molestation are pretty sensitive issues. So whether you emailed me or left a comment on my blog, put up ratings or reviews on Goodreads or Amazon, posted your critiques on a dedicated review site . . . man, I really appreciate it!

Thank you, as well, to my small cadre of Internet spies. (Okay, they're not really spies, just people who pay more attention to things than I do. :))  In fact, if it hadn't been for one of them, I would never have known about these nominations for A Hole In God's Pocket:

Which leads me to another thank you, this one to the dear, considerate readers who cared enough to make these nominations. (Honestly, it never occurs to me to check out such contests.) And to Sammy, a reviewer at Joyfully Jay, who listed AHIGP as one of her five favorite books of 2012.

Which in turn leads me to this thank you, directed at whatever kind person entered The Zero Knot in the Rainbow Awards, and the judges who deemed it worthy of high-enough scores to net my coming-of-age novel a "Best" in its category. (All books that land in the top three are considered bests. Mine was actually second. But hey, I'll take it. ;-))

Finally, thank you to the writers who agreed to appear on my blog in 2012, including the incomparable Tam Ames and a whole slew of Dreamspinner and Loose Id authors who contributed to my two-part post (here and here) on old farts maturity and m/m romance. (Bonus thanks to Tam for highlighting my backlist on her blog.) And to the tireless Chris at Stumbling Over Chaos for generously hosting giveaways of my books. And to Josh Lanyon, as well as all the members of his wonderful Goodreads group, for providing a friendly place where writers and readers can gather without fear of any doodoo hitting the fan.

Hem your blessings with thankfulness, so they don't unravel.