Cover reveal for Ascension. It’s gorgeous and I couldn’t be happier with it. I hope you love it too!
Art by Scott Grimando, cover design by Sherin Nicole.
:’)
sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet
Wishlist’d
holy crap. gimme. gimme. gimme.
15 Writers - The Best Writing Advice They Received
- Alice Kahn: The best writing advice I’ve ever heard: Don’t write like you went to college.
- Andrei Codrescu: Best advice I ever got was from the Romanian poet Nichita Stanescu, who told me in Bucharest, before I emigrated: ‘Learn English. French is dead.’
- Christopher Buckley: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was from William Zinsser: ‘Be grateful for every word you can cut.’
- Cynthia Ozick: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is: Write with authority.
- David Guterson: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is to take it seriously, because to do it well is all-consuming.
- George Plimpton: I think the best advice on writing I’ve received was from John Steinbeck, who suggested that one way to get around writer’s block (which I was suffering hideously at the time) was to pretend to be writing to an aunt, or a girlfriend. I did this, writing to an actress friend I knew, Jean Seberg. The editors of Harpers forgot to take off the salutation and that’s how the article begins in the magazine: Dear Jean….
- James Atlas: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was from Dwight Macdonald: ‘Everything about the same subject in the same place.’
- Margaret Carlson: Best writing advice I’ve ever received: Sell everything three times.
- Nick Tosches: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was given to me, like so much else, by Hubert Selby, Jr.: to learn and to know that writing is not an act of the self, except perhaps as exorcism; that, in writing what is worth being written, one serves, as vessel and voice, a power greater than vessel and voice.
- Patsy Garlan: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is: Don’t answer the phone.
- Peter Mayle: Best advice on writing I’ve ever received: Finish.
- Richard Ford: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received: ‘Don’t have children.’ I gave it to myself.
- Robert Lipsyte: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was, ‘Rewrite it!’ A lot of editors said that. They were all right. Writing is really rewriting—making the story better, clearer, truer.
- Russell Banks: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was probably something Ted Solotaroff told me years ago when he was my editor. Going over a manuscript line by line again and again he kept reminding me, ‘Remember, this is your book, not my book. You’re the one who’s going to have to live with it the rest of your life. I might publish 30 or 40 books this year, you’re only going to publish one, and probably the only one you’re going to publish in two or three years.’
- Whitney Balliett: The best advice on writing I’ve ever received is, ‘Knock ‘em dead with that lead sentence.’
From Writers Write
Blackout by Joey Jameson
“Blackout” was a different gay erotica tale that I’m used to reading. And sometimes it’s good to shake things up a bit and veer away from the usual.
Dice Valentine is stripper who loves the adoration he receives while on stage, but wonders if he should quit the life. I found Dice to be a very sensual being while on stage, and a bit frustrating while off. Jameson paints such a vivid image of Dice’s stage routines to where I felt like I was actually in the room with all those eager guys. I also felt as unfulfilled by their end as the rest of the audience. You can tell that Dice really loved what he does and he’s definitely good at it. However, his libido often leads him into making bad life choices and that makes him the target of a killer.
I’m used to reading romantic gay erotica, so when “D” showed up in the beginning, I thought “Oh yeah, this stud is totally going to take him away from the life he’s leading now.” Not that there’s anything wrong with being a stripper, but Dice, from my impression, needed a break. Unfortunately, Dice and “D” were not meant to be.
I wanted more of the mystery surrounding the murder and disappearances. And more background behind why Dice blacked out so easily with no memory of what happened. I thought Dice was careless in general during the whole ordeal. I was asking so many questions. Is this really an appropriate time to be sleeping with this person?
Right now?
When it’s clear that someone is trying to either kill you or set you up?
I needed more Dice/Dale. You can’t give me their amazing stage performance and then leave us hanging til the very end! And still with no answer if they’re going to end up together! I need a sequel for nothing else than to find out how things happened between them.
The sexy scenes were amazing, but the the off-stage, out-of-the-bedroom parts left a lot to be desired. I needed more of the latter. But overall, I liked Blackout.
3 Stars
Thanks to the author, Joey Jameson, for providing Blackout for me to review. I look forward to reading more of your work!
Terra by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Amanda Conner
Not erotica, I know. But I read it, so I’m reviewing.
I only knew of the first Terra/Tara via the teen titans cartoon, so I was intrigued by this version. I liked Atlee; she was cute and determined and a bit refreshing. However, I still feel like I know next to nothing about her or how she came to be the latest Terra. Did she get surgery to look more surface-human or was she born that way? I also felt like I came into the middle of a supergirl/power girl story and Terra was a secondary character in her own book. If she gets another book by herself, I hope they delve deeper into her back story.
3 stars.
LOOK WHAT’S COMING OUT IN OCTOBER!!!! I CAN NOT FUCKING WAIT!
[Pictured above: Giraffe People by Jill Malone, Broken In Soft Places by Fiona Zedde, Freak of Nurture by Kelli Dunham, We Can Fix It!: A Time Travel Memoir by Jess Fink, Mermaid in Chelsea Creek by Michelle Tea, What Makes a Baby by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth, Stay Solid: A Radical Handbook for Youth edited by Matt Hern, Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg.]
Queer books out in May 2013. Looks like a good assortment of of youth titles out this month! Stay Solid has some great contributors, and I had no idea Michelle Tea was working on a YA title. Do you know of any other queer books out this month?
Taming the Scotsman
I finally got around to reading this book.
Overall, I liked the story. It was your typical romance novel. The hero was brutish, damaged, but had some qualities that were redeeming. The heroine, who always seems to be so much younger than the hero, is sweet and innocent and pure. Her personality “tames” him and they live…..
I guess happily ever?
I felt the epilogue really should’ve been chapter 16 with the epilogue giving some kind of update on the couple down the road. The way the epilogue ended felt really abrupt and their story slightly open. I’m not sure if Mynx is planning a sequel to this book, but I doubt it, and therefore I needed a bit more closure.
Unfortunately, this book suffered from lack of or bad editing. There were a lot of missing commas, which distracted me from the reading a bit. With Jayla being 24, her brother would be 21 (since they’re 2-3 years apart), wouldn’t he be a bit too young to be headed-hunted and then running a major vacation resort? I could see it if Edward was in his upper 20s and Jayla just shy of 30. And since Alec was 38, I really needed Jayla’s age to come up a bit. Or the Baron’s to come down, since he didn’t come off as old as he was.
Back to Edward. He had some nerve. Every time he fixed his mouth to say something I wanted to jump in this book and punch him in the face. I’m not here for black men (real or fictional) shitting on black women, ESPECIALLY the ones that raised them. He was the epitome of “ain’t shit.”
I liked that the “evil white woman” character wasn’t all that evil. I thought she’d play the typical role that evil white women play in interracial romance where the heroine and the EWW catfight between each other over the hero. She did cause some drama between the two leads, but it wasn’t crazy over the top.
I liked how the topic of race was brought up in both serious and humorous ways. We weren’t bashed over the head with it, but it wasn’t swept under a rug.
The sex scenes were good, pretty decent. They seemed to be in missionary all the time, so sex-position-diversity would’ve been great. But I felt the passion between the leads and wished I was a fly on their wall.
3 Stars
A Simple Romance by J.H. Knight
A Simple Romance, indeed.
This book followed the simple romance novel formula and that’s what I liked about it. Certain things were expected, but sometimes there isn’t anything wrong with being predictable as long as the plot is good.
Which it was.
You have Skip, a man who goes back to his childhood home after his relationship falls apart, and there he meets an old high school teammate, Paul. Paul and Skip have somewhat of a history, albeit only sexually and only one time. Still, it falls within the second-chance-at-love/you-never-forget-your-first theme, which is a trope I love in the romance genre.
The conflict between Paul and Skip was realistic and not over the top. It was also relatable in that I’m sure many people can related to being hurt in a previous relationship and wary about the next one and how that wariness might affect your current relationship.
If you’re looking for an easy read with the best mix of angst and fluff, stop right here. The parts I didn’t like were the meddling family members. Those always make me anxious.
4 stars.
Sorry about the SPN posts, they were meant for my main blog.
Request for a book review
Hello there,
My name’s Joey Keefe (pen Joey Jameson) and I am writing to inquire about having my newest book reviewed on your site. The book is called “Blackout” and is M/M erotic fiction.
Please visit www.chancespress.com/joey.html for a full profile including information on my previously published material.
Synopsis:
He’s the one you dream about. He’s the one you obsess over. He’s the one you’d kill for. Dice Valentine was born to strip. With the body of a god that drips with sex appeal, his dance moves leave his male clients breathless and begging for more. But lost in a dark world of hedonism and indulgence, Dice is beginning to want out. That is until a night of mind-blowing sex with a mysterious lover takes a grim, shocking turn, and he finds himself in a desperate attempt to clear his name…as the hunter becomes the hunted. “Blackout” is a dark tale of sex and betrayal that will haunt you, possess you until the final moments, and make you doubt everything you thought you knew about the truth.
Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.
Joey
Come Play With Me...: How to Write a Fight Scene (Rebloggable Version)
Admin Note: This post is a rebloggable copy of our page on fight scenes. The page is being phased out, so from now on all updates will be made on this post and not on the page.
Among the typically difficult scenes writers face in their stories, the fight scene definitely…
Bound for Keeps by S.E. Jakes
This was better than Bound by Danger, but not by much. I found Bound for Keeps very indistinguishable from another book in the series, Bound by Law. There are a few key differences, but I still found myself comparing the two and finding them interchangeable.
Like BBL, Bound for Keeps has a CIA agent, Shane Wills, with a killer after him. Like BBL, said agent must whole up in a cabin for god knows how long having sex and submitting to two men already in a committed relationship.
I understand that Shane needed time to heal from his injuries, but I needed more action. Nothing really happens until the last maybe 30ish pages. And I thought there’d be more of a connection between the missions Keith and Johnny would go on and what Shane was hiding from, but there wasn’t. And by the end, I feel like I didn’t know much about Keith and Johnny in general.
I will say that Jakes knows how to write steamy sex scenes.
The only real difference here is that I liked Bound by Law better.
2 Stars.
Admit One by Jenna Hilary Sinclair
I picked this out because I love middle-age-men angst. I love angst in general, but especially when it involves middle-aged men going through crisis. I get a bit of a kick out of it, not sorry to say. On top of that, one middle-aged man in particular, Tom, is struggling to be outside of the closet. Bully for me!
However, I had some issues with some of the subject matter in the book that I couldn’t get passed by the end of the book. There will be spoilers because I can’t really talk about my issues without giving a bit away.
This is a first-person narrative with the novel being told by Tom. He lives in a small Texas town and drives hours to the next town or city to scratch an sex-itch because he doesn’t want to be outed and thus shunned and seen as a child molester because he’s surrounded by kids all day. At first, I wasn’t sure why Tom didn’t just move to another, more gay-friendly place. Why choose to live that way? He could teach anywhere he wanted. Later (much later) we find out why. However, I felt that I wish that it came out sooner in the book. By the time the secret was out, it was womp-womp for me.
No, lesbians do not have it “easier” than cisgender white gay men. Because patriarchy, misogyny, and the male gaze. Not to mention rape culture, which brings me to my next and probably biggest issue in the book.
Kevin’s daughter, Channing, comes to him saying her boyfriend coerced her into having sex with him and it results in pregnancy. The first thing Kevin does? Blames his daughter for making a stupid decision! WHAT? Coercion is NOT consent. Being pressured to have sex IS NOT CONSENT! If Kevin was any kind of parent, he would’ve/should’ve went over to that boy’s house and beat the ever loving crap out of him. But Kevin recognizes that what happened to Tom was rape? That doesn’t make any sense. That cognitive dissonance made me almost stop reading.
And Kevin moves to be with Channing and then decides to leave a few months later, not even trying to be in apart of his daughter’s life while she goes through this life changing event? Father of the year award goes to this guy. Just because you found true love, doesn’t mean you shirk your parental responsibilities.
I also thought the parallels between Tom and the play were a bit heavy handed. Though, I didn’t mind that there wasn’t a “plot” so to speak. It was a character-driven piece about a man coming to terms with his sexuality and I don’t know what kind of plot you were expecting from that. I just didn’t like the love-cures-all trope at the end.
All in all, this was an okay read. I got the angst I was looking for, so there’s that.
2.5 Stars.
JMS Books LLC is a small queer press specializing in LGBT erotic romance. We release 3 e-books a week and 3 print titles a month. Authors receive 50% net on royalties from all sales.
While we’re always open for submissions, we’re currently looking for well-written stories between 15,000 and 45,000 words in length in the following genres:
- Contemporary GAY or M/M erotic romance
- LESBIAN or F/F erotic romance (any subgenre)
- TRANSGENDER erotic romance (any subgenre)
Please send the first 2,000 words or 2 chapters plus a synopsis and author bio to submissions@jms-books.com. We respond in 2 days to all submissions.
Full guidelines are online at http://www.jms-books.com.
