Joe Filippone

Hello all,

I have to admit that although Joe has LOADS of stories in anthologies all over the place, I have not read his stuff until now. WOW, is all I can say.

Real Boys Kiss Boys was a lovely surprise and an enjoyable experience to read. This is copied from my review on Goodreads.com:

This was really cute. As I started reading, I thought, "This is so funny." Joe has a lovely way with words and I felt comfortable reading about Mitch. His voice was familiar and friendly. I like how Joe brought out the surroundings as Mitch daydreamed and described his fears and anxiety. And then he met Luka. (I love that name, btw) It was a beautiful friendship. Sweet, casual, and endearing.

I found myself laughing, (almost) crying, and feeling sick on a few occasions as I read and felt their journey in high school, coming out for the first time and experiencing hate.

This was a wonderful story full of emotion. Thank you Joe for sharing this with us! I look forward to more of your novels!

...

I am not sure what more I can add to that as I am not the best reviewer :S I liked this book. It is not long (93 pages) but it gets the point across. It is a love story. It is sweet. And it is something I am thoroughly glad I read! I recommend this to any and all readers who want to experience that "first love in high school" feeling, especially if you want to see into the mind of a seventeen-year-old boy!

Congrats Joe! I hope you write more novels of this caliber ;)  

hugs,
Tristan

Gays in the Military

Hi everyone, Jaxx Steele here to give you my take on being gay in the military.  I will not divulge which branch I was in, but I will give you a small peek at what I experience. By no means is this blog meant to be a ‘military bashing’ experience. This is only a politically correct retelling of my personal experiences.

During my time ‘in’ I learned what all other soldiers learned: to tolerate horrible food, build my stamina, shoot a variety of cool guns and how to tune out people that yell in your face. I also learned to conceal my true nature and that was the hardest thing I ever had to do.

I went in knowing, of course, about the ‘don’t ask-don’t tell’ but being young and naïve I thought that if I did that I would be fine. I soon found out that that was not the case. If someone even accused you of being gay whether you were or not didn’t matter. You were ostracized by everyone. In front of the brass and the suits all was well, but down time was another story. 

I was not the only one on that side of the fence, but the heterosexuals out number us for sure. Even those who called themselves your friends would shun you fearful of being labeled the same and thus receiving the same treatment. I won’t go into detail on said treatment for fear that it could cause a psychotic like episode that would leave my left eye twitching for days. I will just say it was reminiscent of a few distasteful scenes in Full Metal Jacket.  

Time moved on and even the emotional scars healed. Although I eagerly scratched each day off my mental calendar, I would not have changed my years in the service. The experience made me stronger mentally and physically and the man I am today. Even though the repeal of the DADT is on the books, I believe it will take time to affect the folks on the ground level of things and change to occur among the masses. I hope it doesn’t, but…

Recently, I wrote a story about a gay couple in the military called Care Package (available at Silver Publishing). The counselors they make you see when you are released may say writing this story was somehow therapeutic, but I say it was pure fun. LOL

First Sergeant Dwayne Roman was asked to leave his life as a soldier. Reluctantly he did so and settled fitfully into civilian life. The law of the land and a military cover up separated him from the most important person in his life. After suffering three years with regret and loneliness, he had the chance to get back what an unjust law and self-serving people took from him. 

Jaxx Steele…has left the building!

Words of Wisdom from author J.P. Bowie

I guess because I’ve been writing m/m romantic fiction for some time now, I get asked by writers new to the genre how I got started, and where I get my ideas from. This article isn’t advice to fledging writers by any means—just maybe some helpful hints I have accrued over the years.

I started writing in this genre about five years ago. Until then I’d been writing gay romantic fiction without the erotic edge. Yes, my men kissed, caressed and fell in love, but the love making was, in a word, discreet. When I wrote My Vampire and I, I opened the bedroom door and let the guys go for the gold, and after reading  the words of one reviewer – “What a delightful surprise from J.P. Bowie” I figured I’d found my niche.

Elisa Rolle, our favorite Italian reviewer, also pointed out that although the story was about creatures of the night, there was a lot of humor in it, and very little angst, something I strive for in all my stories. Even in my darker tales, I have to inject some humor. Readers have to first love, or at least really like, the characters. They must want to cheer for them as the heroes’ mutual attraction grows and their lips meet for that first kiss. The readers must feel fundamentally involved in the men’s lives and want  them to succeed. If that doesn’t happen then the writer has failed in some way to convey the hopes and fears of the protagonists, and to make the reader care for them.

Writing m/m erotic romance isn’t just a case of stringing sex scenes together. Quite often, too much sex in a story can get a bit boring after a while. Here’s where the character building comes in. The men should be real flesh and blood characters, not just buffed and gorgeous with big dicks. On the other hand, all that combined with intelligence, compassion, a sense of worth—and please, a sense of humor—will earn you points from most readers!

Then there’s the plot. Even in a short story there should be more than just boy meets boy, boy beds boy, and they live happily ever after. Yes, HEA’s are pretty much called for by most m/m publishers, but getting there should involve some conversation, perhaps some conflict (rather than angst), indecision, maybe even betrayal, something to hold the readers’ interest other than the fact the lads are buffed and gorgeous with big you-know-whats. I like mystery and adventure stories so a lot of my books contain those elements; even my paranormal stories tend to lean toward a mystery to be solved or action sequences. Anything to get the readers’ attention, and not have them skipping pages.

If you’re a new author, or yet to be published, gird your loins for those first reviews. Every author has had a rotten egg thrown at him or her at one time or another. Once your work is out there it’s fair game for everyone who thinks he/she can do better. Some are good and constructive critiques, others are simply destructive. But hey, it goes with the territory, and I, who have had my fair share of rotten eggs, try to learn from even the worst review. 

Writing m/m erotic romance is above all else, fun. You get to invent these great characters, have them fall in love, have mind-blowing sex, chase villains on horseback or in cars or planes, have mind-blowing sex, face down bigotry, put the world to rights, have mind-blowing…Well, you get the idea. All you wannabe m/m writers out there – go for it, and have fun!

J.P. Bowie

http://www.jpbowie.com/

How I started writing Gay Romance

Hi everyone, Jaxx Steele here again.

This time I'd like to share how I started writing gay romance. As a kid I was surrounded by readers, both parents, aunts, baby sitters... Anyway, one day I was at the baby sitter's after school and she put her book down to make me something to eat and I picked it up. The rest as they say is history. I was hook! I read everything she had on her shelf. She had plenty of Danielle Steel and Barbara Cartland, but when I came to the one lonely Bertrice Small book and a Thea Devine book, there was no going back.

That was when I was 14, by the time I was 17 I knew girls were not in my future so the stories lost some of their luster. I loved the idea of the romance and the sex in Ms. Small and Ms. Devine's books and I wondered if there was anything like that for gay men. At the time there was no internet and I doubted if there was anything I was looking for in the library so I decided to write my own.

Thus began my journey into the writing world. In college I took elective courses to improve my writing and asked my English and writing teachers as much as I could without giving away what I was really doing. And then, lady luck smiled upon me. I ran into a gay teacher! He wasn't out of course, but you know your own, you know? Anyway, I gave him one of my stories and he loved it! With someone other than myself liking my work I kept writing. The internet blew up a few years later and saw that there was plenty of gay romance to go around out there! Knowing that encouraged to me to write even more and search for a publisher.

I graduated and went into my career. I am still friends today with that teacher and I have never forgotten what he taught me. He gave me 3 rules about writing. I would like to share them with you:

1) Find your voice and stay true to it.

2) Keep improving your skill as a writer.

3) Learn all you can from other authors who have been there and done that!

I still use these rules today. My stories have touched many genres, but they have all been romances. Here are a few of my favorites:

Care Package (Silver Publishing)

First Sergeant Dwayne Roman was asked to leave his life as a soldier. Reluctantly he did so and settled fitfully into civilian life. The law of the land and a military cover up separated him from the most important person in his life. After suffering three years with regret and loneliness, he had the chance to get back what an unjust law and self-serving people took from him.

Papa Knows Best

Dominick 'Papa' Pappas was a handsome, young photography teacher at Indiana University given to impulsive behavior and an overwhelming passion for his craft. Professor Bradley Louis taught philosophy at the college and had the reputation of being the sternest and most unsocial of all the teachers on campus. When Papa first laid eyes on Professor Louis it was love at first sight. Professor Louis was handsome, intelligent and twenty years his senior. Papa approached him, but the professor turned away from his advances claiming they had nothing in common and belonged to two different generations. Because of that he didn't think they had a chance to survive as a couple. Can Papa convince him of otherwise or will Professor Louis' theory on May-November relationships prevail?

Right Side of the Tracks

Faced with the consequences of one careless night, Russell Drake left his lover, James, to marry a woman he barely knew. It certainly wasn't what he planned, but one look at his son's tiny face convinced him that he'd do whatever was necessary to make his child happy— even if it cost him his own happiness. But fate has something else in mind for him, and an unforeseen accident once again sets off a cascade of change. Three years later, Russell no longer has to settle and exist for his son's sake. He has the chance to rediscover the life he'd wanted with James?

Jaxx is out!

www.jaxxsteele.com 

When Love Is Not Enough

Hello readers :)

I'm a bit nervous as I "blog" so very little. In fact, if you google me not much comes up. :s Tristan asked me to write something as a way to promote my book so here it goes...

When Love is Not Enough is the very first Wade Kelly publication!!! (SO exciting for me!) I started writing this book in 2009 when the image of someone touching a casket popped into my head. Yes, it sounds odd, but I DID grow up watching horror movies! In this mind-image I saw the wood, and I felt a shiver surrealism as if I WERE THE ONE about to look into the dead face of someone I loved. At that moment, I HAD to write it down!

I was on a subway at the time, notebook in-hand as it is so very often. My thoughts raced. What if my character was at the funeral of his best friend? What would he feel? Hurt, sadness, anger, emptiness? the first words in my notebook were, "Matthias Dixon fingered the casket." I later added, "fingered the rim of the wooded casket with distant fascination? uneasiness?" ... These were my first words but as stories change and take on a life of their own, so did my book. This line is now in chapter 3. "MATTHIAS DIXON fingered the rim of the wooden casket with distant fascination. It wasn’t as if he’d never attended a viewing before, but this one… this one sucked all the sorrow right out of him, until he felt as if he were nothing more than a hollow shell." 

I also do not always follow the rules of proper writing--so untrained am I--that I am ever so thankful to Dreamspinner Press for publishing my manuscript!! It is unconventional to say the least. Normal stories, in my experience, go in chronological order. They build up in suspense and keep the reader entranced by the mystery of what might come.  Yeah--no mystery here. You know in the prologue that Jimmy dies. I don't know how to keep secrets. I like to put the tragedy right out there. I ALSO have a hard time reading love stories that take forever to get to the sex. *blushes* These are not girls I am writing about! Sex--in my opinion--doesn't have to be romanticized and seen as a climax of love and commitment. Sex can be raw and urgent, and often based on need not romance. In When Love is Not Enough you will find romance--definitely--but also lust, need, and desire.

I strive for realism. If you feel I am being ridiculous--call me out on it! my book is listed on goodreads.com http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12399401-when-love-is-not-enough

I guess what I want to say about this book is that it means a lot to me personally. People say, "Write what you know." There is a little bit of me in every character. I take my own experiences, good and bad, and express them through fiction. It is therapeutic. Bullying over homosexuality is wrong. This book is not exactly about that, but deals more with hate and intolerance. These are real issues and I wanted to write what I have experienced into my characters in hopes of making people think. I hope this book does just that! MAKE THE READER THINK! (and cry! I would love to make people cry.)

So, thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy my book. Leave a comment below this post. (and share this blog around town!) I will be sending ONE person a signed copy of When Love is Not Enough. Comment on WHY you WANT to read it, OR what MEANT the MOST to you when you did. I will give this two weeks and select a winner then.

my website is http://wadekelly.weebly.com/index.html

and I am on facebook :)

xoxo,

Wade

Big Bad Blurbs

I need to get a few things off my chest. 

First, I have dropped and shattered yet another jar of peanut butter on the floor.  This is the second jar that has met its doom this month.  The funny thing is that they don’t shatter but merely crack and send powdery shards of glass everywhere. It’s hilarious and a blast to sweep up in flip flops.  Naturally, both jars were full.  I can’t seem to keep one in my possession long enough to eat the contents.

Second, I’ve admitted to myself that I believe in elves.  Every time I drop and break something, which is often, I actually pause for a moment and hope this will be the time when those elves that helped the shoemaker are going to appear and clean the mess up.  I contemplated leaving that shattered jar of peanut buttery goodness on the floor just to see what would happen. 

I did this once with laundry at an old apartment building and was rewarded with my clothes being taken.  It was a progressive thing.  I would go down one day and they were on the dryer, I took what I needed and left the rest, the day after that they were folded.  It made sense that if I left them there one more day they would somehow magically appear put away in my drawers.

Not so.

Why didn’t I put the clothes away?  I don’t remember.  I was in college it was a 100 years ago.  Who knows?

Now that I’ve unloaded my dirty laundry let me also say I HATE writing blurbs.  If ever there was a time for those elves this would be when I would request their help.  I recently had to write a blurb for my upcoming release “The Incident,” with Seventh Window Publications and found the task of writing the blurb daunting.  I always do.  I began to wonder why.  After all the book has been accepted for publication, the book is written, edited, the cover art has been decided, so what is the big deal about writing a little paragraph summing it all up?

I think it has something to do with exactly that.  As writers, we spend an inordinate amount of time on our output.  The entire process from start to finish in getting anything published is arduous.  It is also thrilling, wonderful, and exciting.  Now after weeks, months and I’m sure in some cases years, the project is done and you are asked to ice the cake with a blurb.  Sum up all of that in a paragraph; please, thank you and goodbye.  I realized as I was writing this blog that maybe writing the blurb is painful because it is like sending your kid to college.  It’s the final farewell before you both begin the endless promo-ing, interviews, and will endure both praise and criticism from reviewers and readers, who, lets face it, in this genre can be pretty intense.

Neither you, nor your baby know what the future will bring and the blurb is really the first impression of your work to a potential reader.  So don’t fuck it up and could you keep it to a paragraph, max.  Thanks.  I obviously want people to read and enjoy what I write.  I want my kid to be well-dressed and well-mannered.  I want all the other kids to like him/her and I don’t want a bad report from the parents.  So I write the blurb, all the time wondering if those elves could lend a hand or at least clean up that damn peanut butter, or at least maybe that kind soul who folded my laundry years ago could swing by and this time take the peanut butter.  I’m not picky.  Elves and thieves are welcome around my fire.

So adieu little blurb, go out and make Poppa proud.  Smile, say thank you, even when you get a crappy review or some tired queen from Oregon gives you shit on goodreads, you just smile and take it honey, cuz there’s plenty more where that came from.

Ever hear of a synopsis?

***

Make sure you come on by my website where the elves are always at work or find me on Facebook and Twitter.  I can also be found dishing dirt and smut at my sex advice column over at examiner.com and be sure and keep your peepers peeped for “The Incident,” and “The Birches” both from Seventh Window Publications and “Lily” coming soon from Silver Publications.

-- Xavier Axelson

Hot Head by Damon Suede

I'm not sure that I can say anything different than all the other "review sites" and people who actually know what they are talking about, but here it goes...

I enjoyed reading Hot Head!  *so eloquent*

First of all, I bought the book because I read a review. >>AND because I met Damon at a book fair and think he is a wonderful guy! Cute, funny, & very intelligent, but that is beside the point<<

I read "Up front, this is one of the best M/M romance I have read lately, even more surprisingly since this a debut from Damon Suede. The author is not new to the M/M crowd and so maybe he socked up a lot of do and don’t about this genre, and he wonderfully displayed them in this novel....etc." by elisa ramblings. How can one NOT buy a book when a review starts off this way? I HAD to!

I started reading it as I normally do with casual interest and a la-la-la feel to the day. I wanted to relax and read something fun with firefighters. Not so with this book. I have read a fair amount of books where deep reading is not really needed. (Do you know those kind?) Some people write shallow. NOT that I am saying these authors can't write (they shall remain nameless), but rather the story doesn't take a lot of thought and can be read easily. Easy-breezy, and la-la-la under a tree in the shade. Well, I had to stop. (Hence why it looks on goodreads like I took forever to read it!) This was not a "breezy" book.

Unexpectedly I bought something that had depth and great detail. The characters had more to them than "My name is Griff" and I was forced to absorb every word. Damon pulled my attention to New York with all its surroundings. The people, the bars, the streets, and yes-9/11. His care about presenting the emotion and destruction of that disaster got to me. The description of the soot in Griff eyes and the impact of the air wooshing hard enough to through a man through plate-glass. It was gripping.

It also had the unexpected twist of a Russian guy running a *hmm-hmm* website...lol... I wasn't expecting that. It made me laugh but also had me drooling. Cleaver way to get the two characters naked though not the first time I read that type of scenario. (Str8t Boys also had a similar thing with photography.) I also liked the strong family characters who added more realism and depth to the main characters. Damon put thought into them and how their opinion and interaction would make Dante and Griff into two guys that could really live right down the block. (If I lived in NY, that is.) I took my time reading this so I could savor each chapter. I suggest you do the same!

I may not be the best reviewer, but for some reason you are here reading this post.. hehehhee :)

I read what I read, I like what I like, and don't really know how to say it otherwise.

I hope you enjoy reading HOT HEAD by Damon Suede as much as I did!

Ciao for now,

Tristan ;)