Where Fiction and Reality Meet
Welcome to author J.C. Long, who's joining us today in our author spotlight segment, The Write Angle. As we all know, for every point there is a counterpoint, and I believe wholeheartedly in fair treatment and equal time when a subject such as this arises, so I'm going to step aside and give J.C. this... Continue Reading →
Recently there’s been talk of whether Kindle Unlimited is beneficial to authors. Some authors have taken their books out of Kindle Unlimited, going back to the old model of “if you want my book, you have to buy it.” I hope that decision works out for those authors. And I hope the decision to stay... Continue Reading →
We're so pleased to welcome author Steve Milton back to TNA today to chat a bit about something near and dear to my heart—reviews. Welcome, Steve! Dealing with Bad Reviews It’s a rite of passage for a starting author: a scathing Amazon (or Goodreads) review that announces that you lack talent, you couldn’t write your... Continue Reading →
Entertaining Comes First Isaac Bashevis Singer famously said that the purpose of literature is “to entertain and to instruct, and only in that order.” We writers of gay fiction or gay romance have an especially heavy burden on the “instruct” side of things. Any time we are writing about gay relationships, we are touching a... Continue Reading →
11/9: The Fall of American Democracy A Book of Political Poetry In light of recent political events in the USA and the world, people from all over the globe have been performing acts of rebellion and resistance not only in the public way we have come to expect—marches, campaigns, fundraisers, writing members of congress—but in... Continue Reading →
June is Gay Pride Month. For some people, it’s a time to reflect on political activism and the dangers that loom over gay people worldwide even in 2017. For other people, it’s a time to to remember the accomplishments of the past forty or so years of gay pride and pay homage to figures such... Continue Reading →
Writers’ Muses Are Like Unicorns: They Don’t Exist “I finished my new novel,” I tell a friend. “I guess your muse spoke to you,” she might tell me, if she hasn’t yet heard my rant on the subject. In the popular conception, writers are blessed, or chosen, and have these fabled inspirational creatures speak in... Continue Reading →
Conflict in the M/M Romance Genre Conflicts seem to erupt in the M/M community on a regular basis. I've been observing (and sometimes participating) in these dust-ups for the last eight years. There are some things I've observed that I feel could prove helpful. You may disagree, that's cool, but at least you'll have thought... Continue Reading →
How the Other Half Lives Crossing genres and breaking typical boundaries can be one of the most difficult tasks for a writer. Having written books with mystery and romantic suspense, I believed it had become my settled ground for all future books, but I was wrong. The M/M romantic/suspense market is exploding like gangbuster grenades... Continue Reading →
Why Is Writing Gay Romance Sexier Than Straight Romance? Twice the cock, twice the biceps, and twice the manliness, of course. We’ve all heard a clueless person asking about a gay male couple, “So which one is the man and which one is the woman?” Um, both are the man – isn't that the definition... Continue Reading →
History Shouldn’t Be a Mystery: Historical Gay Romance Gay men have been around everywhere since forever. So why should we only tell stories set in the contemporary United States? My new series, Love Against The Odds, is something adventurous and something of a risk. It explores love between gay men in times and places where... Continue Reading →
You Are All Flickering Stars In My Heaven Like most professions, authors get better with experience. And from the beginning I can honestly state that I’ve had difficulties with POV changes for my characters. Time and time again it has been a problem for me; mainly because I am stubbornly headstrong and refuse to be... Continue Reading →
I am currently sitting in my comfortable chair, counting down the hours until my beta-readers get back to me on my latest novel: Brash the Dragon Stars in: Brash the Dragon's First Adventure. And with a title like that, it may be a bit surprising to learn that this novel does, in fact, star a... Continue Reading →
February marks a milestone in my writing career. One year ago on February 12th—also my birthday—I released my first self-published work. Lucky in Loveland is the first book in the Welcome to Loveland series and I honestly wasn't sure it would ever be published at all. I always understood that self-publishing was a whole different... Continue Reading →
Rock Out With Your Cock Out My latest novel, The Big Comeback, is (in part) about the pop/rock music business. So are two other books of mine, Extra Hot Latte and The Minister and the Rock Star. I love writing about music because I love thinking about (and listening to) music. I wish I could... Continue Reading →
I do my best work when I’m lost in the eighties. With Mr. Mister, Cory Hart, Bryan Adams and even Kajagoogoo playing in the background, I seem to lose myself inside the stories I write. Maybe it’s merely an indicator of my age, or maybe it’s just the last time things seemed simpler and more... Continue Reading →
Hello, Internet! Welcome to the inaugural post of the Art of Lex Chase. I' m your one and only host, Lex! As you know, I' m an author with Dreamspinner Press, but did you know I' m a commission artist as well? Yes, indeed! If you want custom art for covers, swag, blog tours, branding,... Continue Reading →
An Extended Metaphor: My Philosophy for Game Design The inside of the Bardic Guildhouse in Studeolf was thick with papers, scrolls and vellum. Candles made of wax flickered in the corners of the room as – to ward off the late year chill – the windows were shut and shuttered, lending an air of closeness... Continue Reading →
In the face of industry changes, many authors are being left out in the cold. The trend of e-book publishers falling to the wayside can be varied, but none of this matters to a writer who has worked so hard to get their labor of love out to a willing public. Publishers discounted the growth... Continue Reading →
New Year’s Resolution: So You Want To Be a Writer Happy New Year! If you’re reading this book blog, one of your New Year’s resolutions must be either starting to write or improving your writing -- unless you’re a writer who’s already perfect, but I have yet to meet that person. In my latest book,... Continue Reading →
Lasguns1 and Lesbians I am going to begin this blogpost with a completely and totally unfair statement that is downright libelous: Warhammer 40,000 has more queer characters than all of Star Trek from the 1960s to right now. And it has more female characters. Okay, first, let’s back up. Warhammer 40,000 (or just '40k' for... Continue Reading →
Stand Against Tolerance Tolerance this, tolerance that. As writers of gay romance, we're supposed to be promoting tolerance. I hate tolerance. I hate the word. I hate the concept, at least if we're talking about sexual orientation tolerance, religious tolerance, or ethnic tolerance. I'm perfectly alright with alcohol tolerance or even pain tolerance. Is anyone... Continue Reading →
I am thrilled to be offering The Plundered Chronicles as the first LGBT Kindle World, and truly believe this community of brilliant writers has created some amazing stories for you to read. Kindle Worlds are books by authors writing in same world created by another author. Each author writing in the world has some elements... Continue Reading →
Or the Three Questions Underpinning Everything I Write Ever I am sometimes asked why I have queer characters in every single one of my novels – sometimes as mains, sometimes as secondaries, but always present and always important. That's funny for...you see...when writing, I always asking myself a few questions too. Sometimes, those questions are... Continue Reading →
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