Brandon Shire

Author of Contemporary Gay Romance

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Interactive Gay Romance

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Wicked Men - gay romanceSid Rivers and Jack Brown are two sides of the same coin. One is a lawyer with his own firm and dreams of money and power; the other is a criminal with a lengthy record and a quest for vengeance. When they meet, sparks fly. But was their meeting an accident? Or was it planned by the billionaires who want to control their destiny?

The Love of Wicked Men is an erotic journey into the underbelly of the legal profession, the corporate culture of profit-at-any-cost, and the secret world of industrial espionage.

How is Wicked Men interactive?

This book is serialized fiction. That means it will come out in episodes and readers will get a chance to influence the story as it is written! [Read more…] about Interactive Gay Romance

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

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October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Month. Today, Oct 15th, is the day especially set aside for remembrance.

When I first started researching Summer Symphony I found little to help men deal with the pain of losing an unborn child. At the very end, when nearly all the final edits were done, one of my beta readers came across Grieving Dads. It is one of the only online places we could find where men were able to connect and share over the devastating losses they suffered. I asked the host of that forum, Kelly Farley,  to stop by and share a little insight with us.

To My Knees

farley52I was lucky enough to live 35 years without having to deal with any adversity in my life.  Yes, there were the normal bumps in the road that most people go through, but nothing that brought me to my knees.

In 2004 and right before my 36th birthday, my luck had run out when I lost my first child and daughter Katie.  The death of my daughter dealt a blow that was staggering.  However, due to my upbringing and how I thought I was supposed to respond as a man, I refused to allow myself to feel the impact that had been inflicted upon on me.  Instead, I stood back up as quickly as possible before someone saw me in a moment of weakness.
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Bad Boys, Hot Lovers

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Let’s face it, we like bad boys. The badder, the better. Maybe because we’re all so square that we like the obtuse angles they come with. Honestly, I don’t know the attraction. But damn, who can keep from looking…

Wicked Men_300As with most indie writers, my time is squeezed by the realities of modern life. I’ve decided to offer Wicked Men as a series of short episodes. This will enable me to focus on each section of the story and offer it to you faster than I could if I simply published the entire book at one time.

Also, in serializing, I am giving my readers the opportunity to help write the story with me.

From the beginning, I never know how a story will turn out. I have an idea how it might end, but nothing is ever set in permanent ink. The development of characters, beta input, the muse, my mood, the amount of time I have for writing and research, they all affect the final outcome of a story. But this time I want to invite you into my writing process and into the world of Wicked Men. Be aware that the characters are not particularly nice people. They are vain, corrupt, contemptuous, and look down on almost everyone around them because of their wealth and power. I invite you to help me teach them a lesson in humility. [Read more…] about Bad Boys, Hot Lovers

Summer Symphony Release Day!

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 Today Summer Symphony is available from all online retailers. 

Summer Symphony by Brandon Shire

Martin Zoric had vivid dreams of fatherhood, of a small hand pressed to his, of pink dresses and girlish laughter. Then his wife had a stillbirth and his world fell apart.

He listened to the unwanted apologies, stood by his wife as was expected of him, and kept his façade strong and firm for the entire world to see.

But does he have the strength let go and really grieve?

When Ren Wakahisa landed in Croatia he was hoping to escape the cultural pressures put on him to conform. His family wanted him to forsake love for duty. They viewed his happiness as secondary to familial prosperity.

Does he have the courage to be who he wants to be? Or, will he yield to their wishes?

Summer Symphony is the story of how two men find their answers and what they learn about strength, and grace, and the endurance of love.

 ORDER from Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, (BN is coming).

Also of note:

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Month. I didn’t realize this when we set the publication date, but it seems apt that parents are raising awareness instead of living in silence. Click the link to learn more.

October is also Queer Romance Month, and there are a lot of activities going on around the internet.

oct15th

Meet me at Shira’s

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Summer SymphonyI’m over on Shira Anthony’s blog talking about The Power of Music and how it relates to my new novel, Summer Symphony.

We all have a story about a particular piece of music, or a memory which is triggered when we hear that song. Stop by and share your thoughts.

Summer Symphony is available for pre-order from Amazon, iTunes and Smashwords.

Summer Symphony…in the wild

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Summer Symphony by Brandon ShireI can finally happily say that the ARCs are going out and Summer Symphony is available for pre-order from Amazon, iTunes and Smashwords. (Other sites are coming soon.)

Readers are already asking me to describe this book beyond the blurb. That’s hard. It’s a very different story and doesn’t really fall into any specific genre.

In short, a bisexual father grieves over the loss of his daughter to stillbirth and cannot find a way out of the grief until…

It’s an lgbt romance, and a story about a father’s love, and explores how society treats male grief. Oh, and music, and Europe, and orchestral politics… See what I mean?

Like I said, different. But having to explain all that it encompasses within just a few sentences leaves so much unsaid.

I guess I’m going to leave it to you now. Hope you enjoy it.

~B.

 

The Old Ball and Chain

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Welcome Rainbow Award Winner Lewis DeSimone to the blog. I’ve been wanting to get him here since 2012, but our schedules have conflicted. He’s here today to give us a little of the story behind his novel, The Heart’s History. 

Hearts HistoryWriting is a lot like love:  it’s all about your degree of commitment.

For me, poems are basically one-night stands—capturing a moment in time.  Short stories, requiring a longer gestation period, are more like boyfriends.  But a novel is a husband.  A novel is a ball-and-chain.  A novel takes years off your life.

And as with a man, sometimes you fall in love with your book at first sight.

That’s what happened with The Heart’s History.  It was the late 80s, and I was fresh out of the closet.  I was working at a publishing company, and one of my colleagues was a gay man in his thirties.  I didn’t know him well.  I wasn’t even sure he was gay until I learned he had a lover, and that his lover had died of AIDS.  Several of us from the office went to the memorial service.  It was the first time I’d ever attended a service for someone who wasn’t a relative, let alone someone I’d never met. [Read more…] about The Old Ball and Chain