FREE Gay Excerpt: Stepbrothers In the Attic; Hallmark's Love On a Limb with Trevor Donovan; "The Women Who Love To Love Gay Romance" Author Oleander Plume Wins Flogger Award;

FREE Gay Excerpt: Stepbrothers In the Attic

I finally submitted Stepbrothers In the Attic to the publisher, with the cover copy. You can read more posts about this here and I'll post more when I get a release date.

Here's the cover copy, and the excerpt is below at the end of this post. This excerpt shows a little more of the intense homophobia (and shame) the characters face. 

David, Marcus, and their four children are charmed with more love than money. Their happy family is blessed with so many wonders in life they never even think about being different, and never forget to take time to be grateful for everything they have.

And then one quiet evening a regular family celebration turns into a deadly catastrophe. The family is left in a state of confusion. They are forced into making a life change that leads them to a remote mansion in New York’s Hudson River Valley, which then leaves them vulnerable to all of the gay shame, hate, and homophobia they’ve managed to avoid so far. 

When they find themselves at the mercy of a wealthy, abusive old grandmother they never knew they had, and a gay father so desperate for money and approval he’s willing to go through gay reparation therapy, the only thing that keeps them strong is their love. As the nightmare continues and they’re brought to the brink of death, there’s only one thing left to do. 

Will they be able to escape from this surreal nightmare of homophobic abuse and sexual innuendo their twisted grandmother has forced upon them? Or will they succumb to the dismal existence they’ve been forced to endure in an attic that is filled with nothing but shame?  

Hallmark's Love On a Limb with Trevor Donovan

I'm not sure what the people over at the Hallmark Channel think about being mentioned with a book that just won a Flogger Award (below post), but I think there's a cross over with these genres, and in some ways the two genres are related. In other words, the same people who might read a book like the one below...or one of my own erotic romance books for that matter...are the same who might watch a TV movie like Hallmark's Love On a Limb. The only difference between a Hallmark movie and an erotic romance is that people will admit openly to watching Love On a Limb, but they'll read an erotic romance discreetly and never mention it to anyone.

In any event, this new Hallmark movie, Love On a Limb, that's airing on October 1...this weekend...looks interesting, especially to a tree hugger like me. If you've seen any photos I post with my home on social media you'll know just how many trees I have on my own property. And I love each one of them. 

Love On A Limb is an endearing new Hallmark movie that is making its way to television this weekend. With Fall and Autumn setting in, Hallmark fans are looking forward to all of the upcoming holiday movies. Love On A Limb is about a park and recreation’s employee who chains herself to an old oak tree to keep it from being chopped down. Hallmark’s Love On A Limb is directed by Mel Damski and written by Erik Patterson and Jessica Scott. According to the Internet Movie Database, Love On A Limb, which was originally titled Seeds of Love, stars Ashley Williams as Aimie, Trevor Donovan as Kyle, Jefferson Brown as Mayor Tom Parker, and Marilu Henner as Zee.

As you can see, the entire cast looks pretty impressive. And, this film will kick off what Hallmark is promoting as "Fall Harvest." There will be a new original film every Saturday at 9 pm, and after that I believe they'll begin the holiday romances. You can check that out here. 

Here's a link to the Hallmark web site where they have a preview of Love On A Limb.


And here's the link to the excerpt, above.

The Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance Author Oleander Plume Wins Flogger Award

It's nice to see that an author I took on for my own anthology, The Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance, was actually part of an award winning anthology recently. When I was gathering authors for The Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance, I knew I had a damn good group of writers from the start. And I also knew they'd go on to write for more publications and do wonderful things.

I'm not part of this anthology with Riverdale Ave Books, but I think it's important to support and spread the news about anything small publishers achieve. And in this genre, this is a big award. 

From my inbox: 

 Congratulations to

"Tie Me Up, A Binding Collection of Erotic Tales"

for winning

The Best BDSM Anthology of 2016 Golden Flogger Award!

You can check out the book at the publisher's web site, or here on Amazon. According to the e-mail I received, the book will be on sale through October 31, at 50% off regular price. I think the sale is only at the publisher's web site and you have to use the coupon TMUFlogger. 

Excerpt: Stepbrothers In the Attic (There is a small spoiler alert. It's not that significant, but it's there, so you've been warned.)

           While Eric and Brad went over to Marcus so they could hug him, Jasmine turned toward their grandmother and glared at her. “I hate you, old lady, and I hope you drop dead in your sleep tonight.”

            Marcus jumped up and said, “Jasmine.”

            Eric, Brad, and Kevin stood next to the bed waiting to see what their grandmother would do.

            Their grandmother lowered her gaze to Jasmine and they locked eyes for a second. Without warning, their grandmother lifted her arm, flung it back, and then smacked Jasmine in the mouth so hard she sailed across the room and landed next to the table.

            Before any of them even had a chance to react, Brad ran over to see if Jasmine was hurt and Kevin ran up to their grandmother and kicked her in the shin. Their grandmother screamed and she kicked Kevin back so hard he wound up on the floor beside Jasmine in tears. Then the grandmother raised both arms up in and shouted at all of them. “I will not have this kind of behavior in this house. Do you understand me?”

            “Mother,” Marcus said. “Don’t hurt them. Please.”

            “Shut up, Marcus, you little faggot, you weak excuse for a human being,” she said. “You never were good for much, and you have nothing to say in this matter. You obviously can’t control your children and someone needs to do it.”

            Marcus squared his back and looked her in the eye. “Don’t touch my kids, mother. I won’t have it. I’ll leave if you ever hurt them again.”

            Their grandmother glanced at their father and laughed in his face. It was the first time Eric had seen the old hag laugh about anything. “Then leave,” their grandmother said. She stepped away from the door and gestured toward the exit. “I certainly didn’t ask you come back here to fly that silly rainbow flag over the front door, you homosexual degenerate.”

            This was the first time since their other dad died that Eric saw a sign of strength in Marcus. He grabbed Marcus’s arm and said, “Let’s go, dad. I’ll help you pack. We don’t have to stay here.” He glared at his grandmother. “That bitch is crazy.”

            Marcus stood there and said nothing. His shoulders slumped again and he turned to face the wall.

            Their grandmother laughed again and this time she glared at Eric. “Watch your vulgar mouth, young man. You’re not too old to whip. You’re not going anywhere, because you don’t have anywhere to go. And while you are in my home you will listen to what I have to say.”

            “Do something, dad,” said Brad. He sounded as if might get down on his knees and beg.

            Marcus remained silent.

            Their grandmother pursed her lips and glared at them all.  “Tell them about your therapy, Marcus, and tell them that you’ve just completed your first round and that you’re on your way to living a good, clean, decent life. Tell them you’ve found God and you are now repenting for bedding down with another man and doing unthinkable things to a man in bed. Tell them you are not a dirty little degenerate homosexual whore anymore who will do unthinkable things with men.”

            When Eric saw that Marcus wasn’t going to say anything, he faced his grandmother and sneered. “You’re a sick, evil old woman with a dirty mind. You talk about what’s good and decent and clean and you have the filthiest mind I’ve ever come across. You’re the one who needs to repent, not our father. We had a good clean life until our other father died and you know nothing about us. How dare you pass judgment on us with the excuse of your God.” Then he looked into her eyes and glared. “You might get away with whatever you want with everyone else, but you’ve met your match with me, old lady. I’m not afraid of you.”

            She looked at Eric and shrugged, as if nothing he’d said meant anything to her. She knew she had the proverbial upper hand and she seemed to enjoy it. “I don’t want to know anything about you either. You’re all nothing to me. You’re not even related to me. You’re trash. For all I know you are all nothing more than four little bastards that my son picked up off the street because no one else wanted you. So let me make this clear, young bold man with such a big mouth, so you understand me fully. Homosexuality is a punishable sin, and a sickness. I will give you everything you need to survive, but you’ll never get anything else from me. I didn’t ask for you and I don’t want you here at all. The only reason you are here is because I’m so determined to cure my son from the sin of homosexuality. No one else will ever find out you were here.”

            As his grandmother turned to leave, he saw no point in replying to her. He knew for certain now there was something intrinsically wrong with the woman and there was nothing rational he could do or say to change her. He now knew why his father had left this house a long time ago. He also saw that she’d beaten down their father to the point where he was ready to submit to anything, and he didn’t want to make it worse. Eric would figure out a way to get even with her in time. He silently made a vow that night to get her back in ways she could never dream. For the time being, he would pretend to obey her and let her think she’d won.

            

Uncertainty

New Adult Gay Romance

 Amazon All Romance E-books Smashwords

   

Incest Wins Lifetime Best Ratings; M/M Romance and Women

Incest Wins Lifetime Best Ratings

I think this title is a little misleading, but by no means completely off. The title of the article to which I'm linking is Flowers in the Attic Earns Lifetime Best Ratings Since 2012. However, it's no secret that a huge part of the plot in this storyline deals with incest in the most obvious way.

I'm also not judging the content by any means. I'm just stating a fact. And I'm doing that because of the recent censorship at retail e-book web sites where more books than I can count were taken down as a result of a misguided article from the misleading web site, The Kernel. This brand of censorship also happened with PayPal not too long ago. And I've even posted about a TV show where Ryan Murphy's American Horror got into rape, pedophilia, and bestiality one night in the most blatant way...much the same way Flowers in the Attic gets into incest.

 If you missed "Flowers" you can catch an encore presentation after this weekend's upcoming premiere of another Lifetime original movie, "Lizzie Borden Took An Ax," which stars Christina Ricci.

Not a mention of incest anywhere in the article.

Again, I'm not judging or even commenting on Flowers in the Attic. But authors, especially erotic and romance authors, have always gone by specific guidelines with most publishers. And in those guidelines it is always stated that there are certain places authors will not go. Among those places are bestiality, incest, rape, and pedophilia.

And recently thousands of authors, both self-pubbed and those with publishers, had books taken down at retail web sites where e-books are sold because the titles of covers *suggested* there might be taboo topics in the storylines thanks to search engines. I have had this happen to me twice, once with a book titled Skater Boy. There was nothing taboo in the book, and nothing coming even close to the topics in Flowers in the Attic and American Horror, but the search engine picked up the word boy, assumed my story was barely legal content, and my book was taken down as a result.

And when TV shows can get away with all kind of taboo topics and authors who write erotic romance can't, I'm starting to think there's something seriously wrong in one direction or the other.

Side note: I have never personally written anything considered "taboo."

 M/M Romance and Women

When I saw this next post on social media earlier today I wanted to post about it for the women who read gay romance...or male/male romance. There have been other articles like it, but the fact that Cleis Press shared this article on social media was interesting to me. As if they had just discovered that women like reading M/M romance. Cleis Press is one of the oldest and most respected LGBTI publishers in the US. I've been published by them many times in collections and anthologies and I've always loved working with their editors.

I was a little shocked the article didn't know much about M/M romance, and the people who commented knew even less. But I guess I shouldn't be shocked all that much. I'm sure a lot of people don't know about it...at least not yet.

A friend posted a video of two men kissing the other day and the response from women was, shall we say, heated… as in, every single woman who responded thought it was hot. Granted, there was some selection bias, but it was enough to get me thinking. So I did some shallow digging and uncovered a comparatively large cache of media, mostly written, though there’s plenty of visual too, (cheeky little gifs), that cater to women who love watching homoerotic situations and / or gay sex. The fact that M/M erotica and porn do very well with the female demographic, (and not just in the gay community), tells me there’s something there. What I’d love to do is figure out what that something might be.

Well, my dear blogger, I've been writing gay fiction for over twenty years and if you want to really figure out what that might be, just read my anthology where women authors who love M/M Romance wrote short stories that included women and gay characters within each storyline. I know I gained a great deal of insight while I was editing it. And I don't think there is another book like it anywhere.

It's called The Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance and you can purchase it here for .99. Or, even better, you can find it here at ARe for free. That should tell you all you need to know, or at least it's a good start because these stories come from the heart of the women who read M/M romance. And although there is sex, that's NOT what it's all about.

And if that's not enough, check out Ravenous Romance, Riverdaleavenuebooks, Dreamspinner Press, Wilde City Press, and Silver Publishing...to just name a few off the top of my head who know all about M/M Romance and how women love reading it.

Here's the article, in full.

FREE Gay E-Book; 2014 Predictions; James Franco; Doubledickdude

FREE Gay E-Book

Update: Evidently, Twitter has suspended the account of the man with two penises...read more below.

Excuse the bad title of this part of the post, but I do these things for specific reasons. And this month I'm putting the e-book, The Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance, up for free on certain web sites. I'll leave it up for free from now until Valentine's Day. It's an interesting, naughty book, with interesting stories by some very excellent authors, and I first posted about doing this indie project almost one year ago. It took a long time to get this book executed from that post last January until the day I released it in September. And there's also a three-story trilogy in the book that I included because it had a New Adult feel to it.

In any event...you can read more about The Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance at the link above. I posted often about it last year. And below are two web sites where you can find it for free.

Allromanceebooks.com

Smashwords.com ( I love the way Smashwords does it: "Price: Free." )

I would love to have put it up for free on Amazon, too, but they require a three month exclusive for me to do that and I typically garner more attention at the other web sites I linked to above.

2014 Publishing Predictions

I think this will probably be my last post about publishing predictions until 2015 unless someone really comes up with something spectacular that has the potential to disabuse a previous staple in publishing...like there will be no more print books produced after 2016, or something outrageous along those lines. And that's because most publishing predictions tend to repeat themselves and we all wind up either yawning or rolling our eyes thanks to self-indulgence and bloggers being too presumptuous sometimes. I'm guilty of doing this myself and I'm not pointing any fingers here either. But at least I know I'm guilty of this. Not all bloggers are that honest with themselves.

First, there are Joe Konrath's predictions for 2014. I've linked to them before but in case you missed them I'm doing it again because these predictions are more oriented toward indie publishing and authors who are all out there going it alone. And like him or not, there's a reason why Konrath has so many followers. You can get there from here.

Second, here's a list of 2014 predictions by blogger, Jane Litte, of Dearauthor I'm linking to because they tend to be more reader oriented. One prediction in particular is interesting at the end of the post. She suggests small digital first publishers will begin to either shutter completely or merge with other publishers, and that's something I've been wondering about for a while. When small digital first Loveyoudivine.com went out of business last summer I was left with thirty homeless e-books. I'd worked with LYD for many years and I didn't want to see those books just vanish forever. Thanks to the fact that I had already indie published several titles and I knew what I was doing I re-released all the LYD books through Ryan Field Press. In doing this I was able to price the books lower and sell more than I'd ever sold when they were up for sale at LYD. I think the fact that I released them in volume helped, too. Other authors I know have made the same claims to me in private. At one time small digital first publishers were only competing with themselves. But now they are competing with indie authors who can, and do, price lower, and big publishers who are now sensationalizing on all the things e-book pioneers have been doing for the past ten years. Basically, it is what it is, and I worry about small digital first publishers now more than ever.

Third, self-published author, Hugh C. Howey, wrote a post I enjoyed and even though this isn't so much a publishing prediction I think it's interesting because it talks about self-publishing and using the word "indie." Most predictions I've read, even though I'm not linking to everything right now, have mentioned they think "indie" authors will continue to rise, sales in "indie" books will continue to rise, and we'll all start referring to self-published authors as "indie" authors without even thinking twice about it. I remember just a few years ago that if you even suggested a self-pubbed author was an "indie" author comment threads would go wild. At this point, I don't think most people even care anymore it's become so common.

 The thread asked if we shouldn’t drop the “indie” label and just think of ourselves as authors. I’m going the other way. I use the word indie a lot, but I try to remember to use the word self-publishing. Why? Because I’m damn proud of what I do.

I agree with Howey. I use both terms here often and I also use self-publishing on purpose.

You can read the rest here.

Fourth, this next article is titled, Nine places to look in 2014 to predict the future of publishing. This one is a little more complicated and if you're not that into publishing as a business you might want to just skim over it. But number six is interesting, where they discuss literary agents.

6. Literary agents have been dabbling with publishing for the past several years since ebooks and POD have made it possible to do it without inventory or an organization. Agencies have started publishing operations (E-Reads, Diversion, Rosetta) and many more have brought on the expertise to give authors help with digital services (Curtis Brown, Writer’s House). Publishers have expanded into author services with speaker’s bureaux, but, so far, none has thought to add literary agenting services except for the time-honored practices of selling rights (foreign, paperback, book club), which was part of their publishing process. Might a publisher either create or ally with a literary agency to create a way to “own” an author’s entire career? If one tried this in 2014, it wouldn’t come as a total surprise.

You can read them all here.

And that's about it for this year, at least from what I've seen.

My only prediction is that the Lambda Literary Foundation will finally see that by not allowing digital books to enter the Lambda Awards they are living in the dark ages and that there are, indeed, many excellent digital first only books out there that are just as legitimate as a tangible print book. I have a feeling I'm wrong about this prediction and it will take much longer for the LLF to recognize e-books. But we can hope.

James Franco; Doubledickdude

I don't know what it is about this guy, Doubledickdude, that brings out the artistic side in me, but since I posted about him last week I've found him on Twitter and on Facebook. And this next article gets into the more medically oriented explanations about the guy's condition.

A still-unidentified man with the medical condition, diphallia, has presented his package to the world with a few photos and let me just say this about that: it (or they) is mighty bizarre to look at (NSFW: Photo 1, Photo 2). And by gosh, I am no prude. But he seems to have a full-fledged wanger going left and another going right connected at the base. Note: the image is not for those who ever want to have a normal night’s sleep again. But also keep in mind that the distance from the image to steady Jay Leno fodder for weeks and maybe months to come (John and Lorena Bobbitt, anyone?) is quite short. As in non-existent. Ditto his cyber-name—the double-dicked dude. Ditto his claim of bisexuality which takes on new meaning and possibilities given the equipment.

You can read more here.  I had no idea there is a condition where a woman can have a double vagina.

Doubledickdude is on facebook, here. James Franco has already become part of the discussion, too.

And there's even an open letter in The Village Voice to James Franco about the guy with two penises.

Let's get through the superficial reasons first. This magical male unicorn (er, twonicorn?) is anonymous, which I estimate will last about another week. But here's what we know about him so far: he's sex-positive, brave, bisexual, and in a committed relationship with a man and a woman who've given him permission to cheat -- but only with you.

You can read the rest of the letter to Franco, here.

Side note: it was actually a straight male friend of mine who told me about this guy with two penises.

 

Free Excerpt: Gay Sex; Straight Women; Public Sex Danny Brown

Public Sex Danny Brown

Rapper, Danny Brown, had oral sex on stage this year and he talked about it everywhere on social media. At the time, he mentioned something about sexual assault. It turned out to be false. From Brown:

I gave up on trying to be a dad to Kitty Pryde. I didn’t want her to write that piece. People get their dicks sucked every day, B. It shouldn’t be a big deal. I just felt embarrassed because I wasn’t all the way hard yet. With a little more time she could have got the full power.

You can read more here, where there are links to Kitty Pryde and a good deal more of what it's like to be on the road with a rapper. I love rap music. I love these dumb promotional pieces. I found it interesting and highly entertaining to see just how far some will go for attention.

As a side note, I read snark about Danny Brown not being hard, as if this is the most important thing all men are required to do in life. And God forbid they don't live up to that expectation. That's sexist against men. You know how most men say, "It's not you, it's me," when things don't go as planned in bed. Well, most of the time that's a lie.

Free Excerpt: Gay Sex; Straight Women

I've been wanting to post this excerpt from The Women Who Love to Love Gay Romance, but there's been a lot happening lately. So I decided to make a point of doing it today. The following free excerpt is from a short story trilogy by Bella Stanberry. Because of its adult nature I'll post the g-rated part here on google blogger and you'll have to click the link to read the adult version at my other web site, Ryan-Field.com

From the raw unedited version:

 

On the night of Luke’s twenty-first birthday…the actual date, not a day before or two days later…Gina picked us up in her Mercedes and we drove into Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel and parked in an indoor garage in the theater district. Although Luke and I would have been happy to eat near the theater, Gina had flatly refused to “sit with the fucking tourists in a toned down version of what Times Square used to be,” and we took a cab to the trendy restaurant in Chelsea where she’d made reservations. After that, we took another cab back to the theater with barely enough time to take our seats as the curtain went up.

            After the show, we took another cab to a gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen called Therapy, where we ordered a round of martini’s and sang Happy Birthday to Luke. I wondered how he would feel in a gay bar, but he stood there with a casual smile and not a hint of discomfort. While Gina and I were singing, a nice looking guy who reminded me of one of the drunken frat boys who had fucked me on the web cam once walked over to Luke and put his arm on Luke’s shoulder. He smiled and said, “Happy Birthday, handsome.”

            If Luke felt uncomfortable at that moment, he didn’t show it outwardly. He smiled and said, “Thank you.” And then he put his arm around me and said, “My boyfriend took us to the theater tonight to celebrate.”

            Well. No one had informed me I was dating Luke. I rubbed Luke’s stomach and smiled.

            The guy who looked like the drunken frat boy sent me a snarky glance and said, “Isn’t that nice.” Then he left without another word, never to be seen again.

            When the nasty little guy was gone, and I realized Luke’s arm was still around me, I glanced at Luke and asked, “What was that all about, boyfriend?”
            Gina laughed and said, “Pretend you’re Luke’s boyfriend while we’re in here. It’s easier that way. If they think he’s alone they’re going to be hitting on him. And if they think he’s with me they’ll never believe he’s straight and they’ll only hit on him more. We’ve been through this before, trust me. It’s easier this way, honey.”

            I knew she was right. Gay men love to believe straight men in gay bars are really gay. When word that Luke and I were there as a couple spread through the bar faster than e-mail, no one hit on Luke again and we finished our drinks in private. I was curious about one thing, though. When Luke removed his arm from my shoulder, I asked, “Don’t you feel awkward in here with all these gay guys? They are looking at you like they want to eat you alive.” Even though no one came up to him again, he continued to get stares and whispers.

            Luke laughed and said, “It’s cool, man. I know who I am.”

            Gina and I exchanged a quick glance.

            Then Gina shrugged and said, “It’s really no different than when you and I go to straight bars and women come up to you, Cole. They don’t know you’re gay and they want to get into your pants. Does that bother you?”

            I thought about that for a moment and said, “I feel a little uncomfortable, but I think it’s flattering. For the most part I don’t mind.”

            “That’s exactly how I feel,” Luke said. “It’s flattering.”

            At that moment, watching his calm expression, I felt such an overwhelming sense of respect for him I wanted to hug him as hard as I could. But I didn’t want Luke to misunderstand and think I was trying to come on to him, so I smiled instead and said, “I guess it’s the same thing no matter how you look at it.”

Read more here...