Gay Romance Novels

It’s Erotica, so it’s … Badly Written?

August 29, 2014 By Brandon Leave a Comment

Welcome Todd Young to the blog with an excerpt from his latest, Naked.

Todd Young’s first book, Corrupted, was released in 2010. Since then he has published five other titles, most recently, Angel, a companion to the “beautifully psychotic” Subject 19. His work sits on the borderline between gay erotica and m/m romance.

Essentially, I’m writing erotica, but I want it to be as engaging as any other type of fiction. I don’t see any reason why a book should lack in terms of storyline, characters, theme or any other aspect merely because it contains sex, as though this in itself were some reason to deem the book unworthy.

While my stories are sexual fantasies, rich in absurdism, I work hard to imbue them with a deeper meaning and a quality of unexpectedness. I’d like the reader to close the book with the sense of having read something worthwhile.

Naked, my shortest book, is my current favorite. I’m pleased with it’s complexity and the way the plot is revealed. As one reviewer put it, it’s “creepy and deeply unsettling.

In this scene, Leigh has broken into a strange house.

Excerpt

The staircase creaked. Leigh slid along the drywall, his head turned toward the light spilling onto the staircase from the window on the landing. As he neared the second floor he squatted, and then climbed a little further, spread-eagled on his hands and feet.

He lifted his head and peered through the banisters.

No one — on this side of the hall at least. The staircase rising above his head blocked anything that might be lurking at the foot of it.

But the music sounded as though it was coming from the attic. Definitely from the attic, Leigh decided, as he stepped onto the landing and stood with his back against the window. [Read more…] about It’s Erotica, so it’s … Badly Written?

Hot n Horny in the days before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

July 25, 2014 By Brandon Leave a Comment

I asked acclaimed gay novelist Elliott Mackle to stop by and tell us about his Captain Joe Harding historical romance series. Several of my own fans pointed me in his direction and nominated the books for a 2014 LGBT Book Gem so, here he is, as requested.

I’ve said elsewhere that my Captain Joe Harding series is based on four years of Air Force service during the Vietnam era. That’s essentially true, but with reservations. For instance, each of the three novels includes at least one fatal plane crash. During my time in uniform I never witnessed a crash or even a serious mishap. I was a food service officer, not a pilot or air traffic controller.

But most officers, then and now, are assigned what’s called ‘additional duties.’ Among mine, at a Strategic Air Command bomber base in California, was occasional duty as a Disaster Control or Safety Officer. My tasks included driving down three miles of runway, and twice that of taxi way, sometimes at night, checking to make sure no parts had fallen off an aircraft. The potential to damage another plane was real and serious–as happened later, in 2000, outside Paris, when a Continental airliner shed a piece of metal engine cowling that damaged, and doomed, an Air France Concorde taking off right behind it.

I was trained to inspect flight lines, missile sites, maintenance areas and alert facilities, and to investigate and report on problems such as outdated fire extinguishers or incomplete training records. If an accident occurred, I knew to take charge of rescue operations until a higher-grade or better-qualified officer arrived. [Read more…] about Hot n Horny in the days before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

The Awkward Conversations of a Gay Romance Writer

July 13, 2014 By Brandon 8 Comments

A lot of my posts are on the serious side, so I thought we’d have some fun and asked fellow authors what kind of reactions they got when someone they knew found out they wrote gay romance. These answers come from both male and female authors alike. Feel free to add the nuances of your own ‘outing’ in the comments. We can always use more lols.

1. You write M/M? Isn’t that like…gay smut?

Not necessarily no, some of it is highly erotic; some of it is based more on love and passion.

[An awkward pause.] Have you had the kind of sex you write about?

[To mom/other relatives/kids]: No, I’m a paragon of Southern gentlemanly virtue.

[To a really hot man-hunk]: You want a test run? That can be arranged. Let me call my agent.

2. OMG, what if your boss finds out?!

Tears, Therapy, or Hot Gay Romance?

July 4, 2014 By Brandon 4 Comments

As with most authors, potential readers contact me and tell me they’ve just discovered my books. Often, they’ll ask which book they should read first. Usually, I’ll forget to ask how they found me (which is important) and get right to the point.

What kind of book are you looking for? What are your tastes like? Do you want sad, happy, smexy, sweet, or downright tear-jerking?

I wrote this post to make it easier for readers to decide which book they wanted to read.

Note that I typically don’t follow genre conventions, write PC, or scribble comfort reads. So I have to be careful when I make a recommendation. Readers looking to me for those types of books are sometimes disappointed. I don’t like disappointing readers, but the reality is you can’t please everyone. You have to be happy before you can even attempt to make someone else happy, and I am partial to following my own path when it comes to writing. I like to explore faults and frailties and prejudices. I like to challenge opinions and assumptions, especially when they conform to a cultural dogmas posited by our society, our media, and our politics.

So let’s get to it. Here’s the breakdown with the conventional ‘wisdom’ I’ve tried to challenge. Only readers can decide if I’ve achieved these goals, so I make no promises. You must decide for yourself.

(Click the covers for more info.)

The tear-jerkers

Grief is such a highly personal emotion that it’s hard to encapsulate in words. In the West we talk around it, we avoid it, we steer our children’s eyes from it. But do we ever really face grief head on, or acknowledge what it does until it’s actually upon us? I tend to think that we don’t.

CHALLENGING: The false idea that male grief is subordinate to the concept of masculinity, especially when it comes to the loss of a child through stillbirth.

I get more email about Dust than any other novel. This book is about love and loss and how homophobic violence shatters people. It is also dedicated to a friend I lost through homophobic violence, so it is probably the most personal of all my books.

CHALLENGING: The idea that tragedy can’t display the true depth of love. We want shine and glitter. We want pretty packages and forever loves and HEAs. But life isn’t like that. This book is for readers who aren’t afraid to cry.

Summer Book Sale – 50% Off

July 1, 2014 By Brandon 4 Comments

I know you’ve been waiting, so here it is!

Celebrating Summer Book Sale

I’m over at Smashwords with thousands of other authors and ALL my books are 50% off for the entire month of July (but only at Smashwords). Enter the code SSW50 during checkout and you immediately get 50% off. How great is that?!

Brandon Shire on Smashwords

Homosexual Life in New Hampshire 1720

June 27, 2014 By Brandon 1 Comment

Now here’s the question for you: What was life like for a gay man in 1720? Morgan Cheshire‘s book, Solemn Contract helps us explore and answer that question. Her book was nominated by readers as a 2014 LGBT Book Gem.

Solemn Contract began life as an image I had of a young man in his thirties; he was handsome in the Celtic way with dark-hair and blue eyes, wearing a white shirt. Nothing unusual in that except he was a blacksmith and spent his day with smoke, soot and fire, shaping metal like Wayland Smith of legend.

I had no idea about his background, when or where he lived, or anything about his character – was he good or was he not so good – so I ignored him and wrote about something else instead. However, he kept bothering me so much I decided to work on his character. He acquired a name, William Middleton; because of his work he was physically strong and I decided he was a good guy, fair-minded and intelligent. To make William’s life complete I now needed another character with as strong a personality but a different set of skills and so Jem Bradley came into being – teacher and an amateur botanist. A complete contrast to William, Jem was slightly built with brown hair tending towards auburn. [Read more…] about Homosexual Life in New Hampshire 1720