award winning gay fiction

Serialized Fiction, Yeah or Nay?

March 13, 2015 By Brandon 2 Comments

I was very flattered to find myself listed as #1 under the topic of discussion at Love’s Last Refuge concerning authors currently writing in a serialized format. I must admit The Love of Wicked Men series is probably the hardest undertaking I’ve begun in a while. Writing in a serialized format takes much more effort than putting all your thoughts in one book. But I’d love to hear your thoughts on serialized fiction whether you’re a reader, a writer or both.

Get the first episode of The Love of Wicked Men FREE.

Retro Reads… and a Giveaway

January 31, 2015 By Brandon Leave a Comment

I’m over at Prism Book Alliance talking about two of my more literary fan favs, Listening to Dust and The Value of Rain. Feel free to stop by, enter to win a gift card, and join in the conversation at Prism.

Read their review of Listening to Dust.

When gay fiction becomes a personal journey

December 2, 2014 By Brandon Leave a Comment

Friend and fellow author, Allen Renfro discusses his new book, Ambiguity. As many writers (and readers) can attest, a novel in the making is often a testament to a life’s journey.

I think I speak for many writers who become inspired that sometimes a story simply won’t leave you alone. The words come to you as you try to sleep. Walking along the street you see the characters in the faces that pass by. You hear the voices of the characters as you’re sitting in a restaurant and quietly listening. Finally you surrender and began the process of putting words to paper. The story for my novel Ambiguity came to me in such a manner and I think the story resonates even more right now at this point in time than when I first became inspired.

If you’ve read any of my work you are very much aware that my characters often wrestle with the centuries old conflict between religion and sexuality. In my novel Ambiguity, this conflict erupts into all out war. I wanted to explore the horrors of religious hatred toward homosexuality and also show the repercussions on both sides of this hatred. I wrote Ambiguity more for myself than anyone else. I needed to delve into my own experiences with religion, to understand my own mistrust of people who claim religion as their sole purpose for condemning homosexuality. In my own cynicism I wanted to show that many times people use religion to hide behind, to cover up their own secrets. There are many closets to hide in and come out of. [Read more…] about When gay fiction becomes a personal journey

Crafting the Heart-wrenching Reads

November 21, 2014 By Brandon 2 Comments

Recently I was asked about the polarity in my writing. It stretches from erotic to emotionally devastating, and all places in between. Because of this, I have two very different reading audiences. On one side, I have my m/m readers who seek happy endings and hot sex, while the other readers look for less eroticism and more of a literary read, which often (with my novels) leaves them in tears. Today we’re talking about the more literary of my novels – The Value of Rain, Listening to Dust, and Summer Symphony. If you would like to review the topics I explored in those novels, you can see this post.

Why do I write about such emotionally charged issues?

It certainly isn’t for the money. My gay romance novels outsell the more serious fiction books 50:1. I write these books because the stories need to be told. There is more to our existence as LGBTQ people than flippancy, fashion trends, and fucking. [Read more…] about Crafting the Heart-wrenching Reads

#ThrowbackThursday – Listening to Dust

November 6, 2014 By Brandon 2 Comments

What have they said?

“Leaves readers speechless, breathless” – Out In Jersey
Best in LGBTQ Fiction 2012 – Indie Reviews
Rainbow Award Winner – Best Gay Contemporary Fiction

Blurb

Murder touched Stephen Dobbins when he was a young boy and left him living in a void of aching loneliness. A chance meeting with a young American chased away the fear that he would always be alone and brought him the prospect of a new existence.

Dustin Earl joined the military and escaped his small town Southern upbringing with the hope that he could give his mentally challenged brother a better life. But Dustin had never known real love, an honest hug, or a simple kiss. He considered his sexuality a weakness; a threat that had been used against those he cared about.

For eight months their relationship blossomed until Dustin suddenly returned home. He cherished Stephen, but felt his responsibilities to his brother outweighed his own chance at happiness.

Shattered, unable to function and unwilling to accept Dustin’s departure, Stephen flew three thousand miles to get Dustin back and rekindle what they had. But what he would learn when he got there… he could never have imagined.

Where can you get it?

Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, ARe, Smashwords, Print copy from your local Bookstore

The Old Ball and Chain

September 12, 2014 By Brandon 1 Comment

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.

Writing 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