Arts

Want to help me celebrate a book launch?

In less than a month, my fourth novel, An Act of Devotion, debuts! As a way of celebrating—and also to thank the many other writers who have encouraged me and inspired me along the way—I’m having a week-long Novel Birthday Bash May 2-6, 2016.

I’m looking for writers of all types who want to stop by for a guest post, interview, or featured book. You don’t have to be a published author, just a person who likes to put words together.

An Act of Devotion is a new adult m/m romance about two very different people finding each other and discovering they are not alone. It’s about becoming a “real grown up” and about trust and a tiny bit about being an activist in the bisexual community. There are some heavier themes on intimate partner violence and health and safety for LGBTQ+ people.

If any of those themes appeal to you, fantastic! But if you’d like to write about writing, your own work, or another topic you’re passionate about, those are great too. I’m hoping for at least one post per day, up to as many as I can get.

Just fill out the contact form for a guest spot, and we’ll set it all up. Happy writing!

Book Blast: A Road Through Mountains by Miranda Macleod

Books

Author Name: Miranda MacLeod

Title: A Road Through Mountains

Release Date: March 29, 2016

Pages or Words: 65,000 words

Categories: Fiction, Lesbian Romance, Romance

Publisher: Apple Blossom Press

When Cecily Parker volunteers backstage at the Oakwood Theater, the only thing she wants is a few hours of relief from the doldrums of her upper class suburban existence. The last thing she expects is to be reunited with the only person she ever truly loved, a woman she left behind almost twenty years ago.

Rorie Mulloy has built a career as an award winning production designer in Hollywood, but her personal life is anything but a success. When she agrees to design the sets for a community theater production of A Streetcar Named Desire in Connecticut, she has no idea that the woman who broke her heart and ruined her for love will be assigned to her crew.

As the sparks are rekindled between them, these star-crossed lovers just might have a second chance at love. But only if they can overcome the ghosts of their past, and survive the sometimes comic cast of characters determined to keep them from their happily ever after.

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Through-Mountains-Loves-Encore-ebook/dp/B01DRHUBOW/

Cecily’s heart thumped and her own fingertips began to tingle with a sudden jolt of adrenaline that coursed through her at the shock of recognition.

Surely it couldn’t be…

The woman stopped talking, as if aware that guests had joined them in the room. She began to turn, revealing a creamy bronze face, and just a hint of freckles sprinkled across prominent cheek bones like a fine dusting of cinnamon. Her eyes shone with the brilliant blue of an Alaskan glacier in the afternoon sun.

In truth, the room was drenched in shadows and not a single detail of the woman’s appearance was the slightest bit visible. It didn’t have to be. Cecily saw it all vividly in her mind just the same. She knew without a doubt, once she managed to will her heart to stop racing and forced her eyes to look up, that the face looking back at her would most certainly belong to Rorie Mulloy.

Cecily silently cursed her luck. What were the odds? The very first time since college that she’d dared to venture backstage at a theater, and she found herself face to face with the reason she’d left in the first place.

Miranda lives in New England and writes heartfelt lesbian romances featuring witty and charmingly flawed women that you’ll want to marry. Or just grab a coffee with, if that’s more your thing. She is an avid reader and a good cook, and loves to travel. Before becoming a writer, she spent way too many years in graduate school and has worked as a temp in just about every office building in downtown Boston at one time or another.

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MirandaMacleodWrites

Website: www.mirandamacleod.com

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Rainbow Snippets: The Truth

Writing

It’s Saturday, time for another snippet! I can’t believe it’s already April. This will be my last snippet from Anthem, since I have a new novella out and a novel releasing in May, and I’d like to offer bits of those, too.

This is slightly longer than 6 sentences—it’s 6 lines of dialog instead. For context, the reason Nate was telling Trevor that story is because he doesn’t quite understand what it means that Trevor is bi (a fact which he hasn’t revealed to his fiancée). Nate’s imagining something more like his former boyfriend, who stayed closeted, got married, and had a string of affairs. Trevor’s setting him straight (er…so to speak).

They sat quietly for another minute before Trevor said, “Marlie was my first, you know. I mean, other than what you and I did. Summer before college.”

Nate glanced at him. “No, I didn’t know. Guess I should have assumed, though.”

“I’m not going to be like Rocco. This is different. I won’t cheat on her.” He tilted his head. “Huh.”

“What?” Nate asked.

“That’s it. I said it out loud—I won’t cheat on her because I love her.” Saying it gave him a rush. He laughed and ducked his head, knowing his cheeks were turning red. In all the years he’d been doing this dance, he’d never said the words to Nate’s face. “I love her,” he repeated.

Nate relaxed, though his smile was sad. “You’ll be happy with Marlie. Think how much happier you’ll be if you tell her the truth.”

Rainbow Snippets is a safe and welcoming space for LGBTQIA+ authors, readers, and bloggers to share 6 sentences each week from a work of fiction—published or in-progress—or a book recommendation. Feel free to join in!

Book Blast: The Sarran Senator by A. C. Katt

Books

Author: A.C. Katt

Title: The Sarran Senator

Series: The Sarrans

Book: Four

Release Date: March 27, 2016

Pages or Words: 50,531 words

Categories: Biesxual, Fantasy, Fiction, Gay Fiction, Ménage, Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2893673.A_C_Katt

Publisher: JMS Books

The Sarrans return home from Earth in triumph, having gained many new Earthen fems, coffee, chocolate, and cats.

Senator Samuel Johnson joins his grandson Michael, his daughter Sara, and her WarriorPair on Sarran. To his delighted surprise, he bonds irrevocably with Tarin, one of Sarran’s top engineers. Tarin had been bonded before and thought he would never experience a bond again, yet Sam’s love gives him a new lease on life. Now they only hope the Goddess has a fem for them.

Then the Sarran Elders host a mixer for Sarran warriors to meet the Earthen fems. Margaret Mary O’Neil, Meg to her friends, is a talented woman who fled to Sarran like so many Earth women looking for a new life. When she meets Sam and Tarin, her life changes forever.

But while things are looking up for the Sarrans, with new babies being born and WarriorPairs settling down, their enemy the Zyptz are relentless in their efforts to wipe them out. When the Zyptz attack both Sarran and Earth, the mutual dependence between the two becomes ever more evident.

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C3J942U

JMS Books http://www.jms-books.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=82_200&products_id=1648

::We will need to get our promise rings and Asta glasses, but we can decide where to live and get our rings and glasses later. Right now I want you under me.:: Tarin pushed Sam’s shoulders down into the softness of the couch pillows. Sam turned on his side so they faced each other.

::I foolishly didn’t bother to ask, although I should have consulted Mark, but now that I’ve taken the vial, does my equipment work the same way?::

::Yes and no. Externally you will see the slick that pours from under your foreskin. This enables one of us to penetrate the other and our fem without pain when we bond. Internally, there will be a type of a tube, a Secondary Sperm Valve that connects your channel to the seminal vesicle in your partner. When a Sarran Warrior receives sperm from his bonded, it opens the valve. The sperm goes through the valve to connect to the seminal vesicle where they mix with the sperm of your bonded. It is only when they mix that we can impregnate our fem. Our offspring are born with half of our fem’s DNA and one-quarter of each of ours. After we form the bond with our fem, we may make penetrative love with her or without her, as the Triad chooses.::

::I feel foolish asking for such basic information. I had the whole voyage to research this aspect of Sarran physiology. I was concentrating on helping Michael adjust to Sara’s Warriors.::

::You did the right thing, my fox. From the holos you showed me, Michael had reason to be wary.::

::Now I feel like a pre-pubescent offspring in health class, not knowing how my body is supposed to function.:: Sam blushed. ::How do I please you?::

::All the ways you’d please yourself without penetration. Let me show you.:: Tarin sat up, got off the couch, and knelt in front of Sam, removing the boots Mark and Juraens had fabricated for him on board the Brightstar. Tarin kissed the inside of Sam’s knee. Sam moaned. He never knew he had a hot spot there.

Tarin removed his own boots and then attacked Sam’s flightsuit. The one-piece garment came off quickly, giving Tarin access to Sam’s body.

Sam looked at his lover in appreciation. “You have a beautiful, hard form. I love your wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. You are everything I ever looked for in a man. If I had met you before Mary, I doubt I would have joined the army. I’d have become a college professor and lived in a house very much like this with you always at my side.”

Sam ran his palm down Tarin’s side from his shoulder to the curve of his ass. “Beautiful … I can’t believe how lucky I am and it seems even our dreams are in alignment.”

Tarin blushed. ::I keep in shape because any Sarran Warrior can be called to battle at any time. You were in governance, how did you train? You have a hard and well-made body, my fox.::

::In the Senate Gym. I exercised and had a trainer. If I were going to be the President, I had to be in the best shape I’d ever been in my life. The job is debilitating. Although the United States is only one country on Earth, the President of the United States carries the weight of the world on his shoulders because we act as the planet’s police and are the only major power left on Earth. Russia and China have the land mass and China has population, but the United States still has the upper hand in weaponry. We, like the Sarrans, also have fierce Warriors.::

::Being on council is much the same as you describe the presidency. The Elders aged quickly during the war and later when the Zyptz took our fems, the Elders bore the brunt of finding a solution. Our population is dangerously low, a mere twenty-thousand WarriorPairs. If you add the unbonded Warriors and offspring, it is another ten thousand. We need all of these bebes our fems are carrying and we must keep them safe.::

::You have too much open land to police properly. What you need is a type of radar that lets the government know immediately if the atmosphere has been breached, or better still, something that shields the planet from all but our own vessels.::

“I’ve been working on that project with Bron. It’s almost ready.”

Sam was about to speak and Tarin put a finger on his lips. ::My fox, I want to know everything about you. We could talk until dawntine but right now, I want to love you. We’re naked and wanting. Can we make love?::

Sam smiled and kissed his bonded’s eyes. “I was counting on it.”

AC Katt was born in New York City’s Greenwich Village. She remembers sitting at the fountain in Washington Square Park listening to folk music while they passed the hat. At nine, her parents dragged her to New Jersey where she grew up, married and raised four children and became a voracious reader of romantic fiction. At one time she owned over two thousand novels, until she and her husband took themselves and the cat to New Mexico for their health and its great beauty.

Now, most of AC’s books are electronic (although she still keeps six bookcases of hardcovers), so she never has to give away another book. AC is a late bloomer, however, she claims to have found her niche writing LGBT romance.

She hangs out at ACKatt.com and ackattsjournal.com; where she keeps her blog. To get snippets of new releases and Works in Progress subscribe to AC Katt’s Kattery by sending an e-mail to mlhansel@gmail.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AC-Katt-62628106022/?fref=ts

Twitter: @ackatt

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/ackatt/

Website: www.ackatt.com

Blog: www.ackattsjournal.com

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Bisexual Erasure and M/M Romance

Writing

I listened to this fantastic podcast last night, and it’s given me a lot to think about. I’m writing about the subject of women and m/m elsewhere, so I’m going to keep this to a very specific point brought up in the podcast which I think is relevant to bisexuality in m/m literature.

A point which gets brought up over and over (to the point of exhaustion) is whether or not women authors/readers of m/m are objectifying and using gay men for their own gratification. There are multiple views on this, which have been addressed better by other people (seriously, Google it—there are too many to list). I do not believe women are intentionally objectifying gay men, and I’m not going to presume to tell people what they can read or write.

That said, there’s a measure of insensitivity among women in m/m, which does need to be called out. First of all, I think it’s dangerous territory to suggest that women’s sexuality can only be free of shame if they are eliminated from the equation. To suggest so denies the many, many women (and some men) who are writing intentionally feminist m/f romance*. It’s also lesbian erasure and has vague tones of internalized misogyny. Many lesbian and bi women authors write f/f for the exact same reason—to uplift and celebrate women’s love and sexuality, free of patriarchal shame.

Where this gets even further complicated is in the intersection with bisexuality. Genuine stories about bisexual people in which the relationships and sexuality of bi folks are honored are few and far between. Because m/m and f/f respectively as genres have the expectation of a certain outcome, there isn’t much room for something which is neither. The closest we get are menage stories. Those can be fantastic when well-written, but they are not the sum total of bisexuality. (For what it’s worth, polyamory which is not menage gets the shaft too, even when the relationships are exclusively multiple m’s or f’s.)

Readers of m/m would prefer authors leave the vaginas** off-page. Many are exceptionally put off by even the suggestion of m/f interactions. If this is what removing the shame of women’s sexuality looks like, I don’t want to be a part of that. I don’t want bisexuality—mine or anyone else’s—reduced to being in name only. We get erased enough by the world as it is because who we are is based on what people read us as on first sight. If I look like a cisgender heterosexual person when I’m out with my spouse and kids, then that is who I become to everyone who sees us. It forces a kind of repeated coming out with all the accompanying fear of explaining who I am. This is not a thing I want to put my characters through, that they be read as “gay now” because the genre dictates a happily ever after with two (usually cisgender) men.

I am fully aware that writing specifically for a bisexual audience carries risk. It’s not the popular thing to do. Well, I’ve never spent my life sitting at the cool table anyway, so maybe that shouldn’t matter to me. But strangely, it does. It matters to me when it feels an awful lot like schoolyard bullying to have straight women drown out my queer voice because they are bothered that a vagina** might be present in a story. It’s disappointing to be told—again, mostly by straight women—that the complex realities of bisexual lives don’t matter because what they want is hot sexy times and I haven’t delivered properly.

About a year ago, I answered a poll question about what kinds of men readers like in their m/m. I was really horrified by the results. They read like a bad Grindr profile: no fat men, no Black or Asian men, no femmes. I couldn’t make this stuff up. Equally, book reviews are a cesspool of vicious commentary. The list of complaints against authors who dare put a toe out of line is long—just reading the reviews for some books is enough to make me want to take three showers. Add in the way readers cry foul when a favorite author writes outside their usual genre, as though they’ve been fatally betrayed.

This is why I don’t support the idea that stripping away the shame of women’s sexuality is an adequate reason by itself to read and write m/m. In f/f, there can be bi erasure and transphobia, but there isn’t the same degree of generalized queer-erasure that happens in m/m. And if a straight woman cannot tolerate other forms of queerness, we have many different words for that: homophobia, biphobia, sapphobia, transphobia, misogyny, femmephobia.

We bi writers have just as much right to cast off shame in our sexuality. I have the right to create stories which celebrate bisexuality in its many shapes. I’m allowed to explore the fluidity of my gender and orientation through genres other than romance; through multifaceted relationships; through characters outside binaries; and through multiple partner configurations, from m/m to m/f to f/f. I don’t deserve to be shredded for it. Don’t read it if it’s not your thing, but don’t write reviews that complain about how I didn’t comply with your narrow expectations, either.

I happen to agree with the podcast’s panel that infighting doesn’t take down the system, the patriarchy, which has oppressed us. But at the same time, when a genre has an overall tone of being anti-femme, that isn’t taking out the patriarchy either—it’s supporting it. It’s still implying there is something bad, worthless, and dirty about women and feminine-spectrum people. Let’s not contribute to that.

*In particular, it erases women of color who are writing m/f romance. Sexuality is infinitely more fraught because of racism, and there are a number of phenomenal women of color who write sensual, empowering stories which celebrate their multi-faceted expressions and identities. It is not necessary to take women out of the picture in order to de-shame and liberate women’s sexuality.

**I really do mean vaginas. Occasionally trans men get a free pass in m/m for the “novelty,” but often not. Trans women, on the other hand, typically do, usually because they are non-op and can provide the requisite genitalia to be fetishized by the audience. Either way, both are methods of directly excluding non-binary people and cisgender women from the equation. Don’t get me started on how unrealistic most sexually explicit material with trans women actually is. Google is your friend, people.

Book Blast: Something from Nothing by Nicky James

Books

Author: Nicky James

Title: Something From Nothing

Series: Tales From Edovia

Book: One

Release Date: February 22, 2016

Pages or Words: 344 pages

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Historical, M/M Romance, Romance

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1407757.Nicky_James

Publisher: Nicky James

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

With an impending war breathing down his neck and an ornery group of councilmen trying to keep him on track, accidental and unlikely King, Alistair Ellesmere, struggles to find a balance between being young, having fun, and ruling his realm his way.

Alistair befriends Brandon, one of his prodigy new recruits, whose smart-ass personality drives him to the brink of insanity when he shows him up at every turn. Through an unexpected bit of witty manipulation, Alistair finds himself drawn down a forbidden path where he shares more than just a similar past with this man. Terrified at the idea of loving another man, but unable to tear himself away, Alistair is faced with the trials of secrecy, jealousy and the law.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Something-Nothing-Tales-Edovia-Book-ebook/dp/B01BL2XU84/ref=sr_1_1

His dark blond hair falls in waves in front of his eyes, covering them again. I want to see those eyes. Need to see those eyes. He is no longer the scrawny kid who stood before me last spring. He has been working with Corban on strength training, as I suggested a while ago, and is showing much progress. His shirt is pulled tight over his newly developing muscles and my eyes move over his body, taking in his stunning appearance. My breath hitches in my throat as though I have forgotten how to breathe, which is ridiculous since I’ve been doing it all my life without a problem until now.

Ka-Thump, Ka-thump, Ka-thump.

It had started out as a challenge. Did I have the balls to match Brandon’s crazy antics? I thought so, but then, I ran away. Something happened that night to make me run and I have buried it deep, refusing to see it. Refusing to admit it. But it is there, undeniably there, and now as I stand before this man, heart ready to jump out of my chest, I know why. What Brandon suggested is crazy. It’s insane and was completely unexpected, but…It excites me, sends a thrill sparking through my body.

Bloody hell. I’m losing it. This is nuts.

Brandon risked a lot that night. The man all out admitted how he felt about me and I’m standing here, right now, because I need to know, as twisted and confusing as it is, if I feel the same.

I live in the small town of Petrolia, Ontario, Canada and I am a mother to a wonderful teenage boy (didn’t think those words could be typed together…surprise) and wife to a truly supportive and understanding husband, who thankfully doesn’t think I’m crazy.
I have always had two profound dreams in life. To fall back hundreds of years in time and live in a simpler world, not bogged down by technology and to write novels. Since only one of these was a possibility I decided to make the other come alive on paper.

I write mm romance novels that take place in fantastical medieval type settings and love to use the challenges of the times to give my stories and characters life.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicole.ethier.54

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/nickyjames78/?ref=hl

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NicoleJames1978

Blog Site: http://nickyjames.weebly.com/about.html

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