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Posts Tagged ‘gay romance’

Guest Post

Guest Post: The Dream Cast of HARD WIRED

Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell
Feb 14, 2017

Hard Wired Megan Erickson Santino Hassell

Thanks for having us here at Ever After! We hope you enjoy this dream cast from the Cyberlove series. We focused on the main characters, some supporting characters who may get their own story one day, and Kai and Garrett from Strong Signal who have several cameos!

This series has been really visual for us because so much of it takes place online with people who have to share pictures or Skype because they don’t see each other in person. Also, Strong Signal and Hard Wired are very rooted in the idea of fandom culture. To celebrate that, we created Tumblr pages for both Kai and Ian (and his alter ego Cerise), but here are inspiration pictures of the entire cast!

The stars of Hard Wired:

Ian played by Miles McMillan

Jesse played by Alex Pettyfer

Exclusive Excerpt

Exclusive Excerpt: THE MUTT by Kasia Bacon

Kasia BB
Jan 20, 2017

Rough week? Probably an understatement. Thankfully, we’ve brought you an amazing little gift from the ever-wonderful Kasia Bacon! Let us take you world away with this sneak peek from The Mutt, out right now!

I WANTED him from the start. From the very first time I laid eyes on him. Everyone kept talking about him in the days prior to his arrival to the camp, curious about this half-breed born to an influential Elven clan, but brought up by humans. A hybrid. A mutt.

Lochan Féyes.

I was curious as well. Maternal half-breeds such as him were a rarity. They retained all physical qualities of a pureblood and enjoyed, at least in theory, equal social status. Not that discrimination didn’t occur. The real losers in the biracial game were the paternal ones. Considered downright human and non-citizen, they constituted the lowest caste in society.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but he exceeded my expectations. Later I discovered he had a knack for doing just that.

If I hadn’t known human blood flowed in his veins, I wouldn’t have been able to spot it. The tips of his ears were perhaps less pointy, and his eyes—not as distinctly angular as those of an average Elf.

Even back then, at seventeen, he proved every bit a killer. He made that obvious during the first training session. He was deadly. Calm. Steady. Cold. Disinterested. So self-assured that he seemed arrogant. I wanted to bring him down a peg. Teach him a lesson. Break him. Taste him. Make him beg me to kiss him.

I wanted his attention, but he refused to give it to me.

So I had to find a way to claim it.

His eyes were blue—so intensely the colour almost appeared offensive. Fuck, it offended me. I was just an unworldly Dark Elf at the time, unaccustomed to irises that weren’t obsidian. The azure hue of his gaze reminded me of the glass crystals that grew in caves in the highlands of the Black Mountain. I used to collect them as a child.

I wanted those eyes on me.

Guest Post

Guest Post: “Constant Craving” by Amy Lane

Guest Author
Sep 21, 2016

You know that moment I’m talking about.

The one where you have eaten nothing but non-fat protein and un-buttered broccoli for going on three days in a row, and suddenly you see it: That perfect combination of butter, refined sugar, white flour, candied fruit and/or marshmallow-swaddled chocolate—whipped cream and cinnamon optional, sin always required.

And you need to make it yours.

Oh… you need to make it yours. You will DAIEEEEEEE if it is not yours. You will mow down with prejudice the poor, well-meaning soul who stands between you and your Chocolate Mephistopheles and screams, “For the love of heaven, remember your diet!” and there will be blood, tears, and no remorse.

For the love of chicken and broccoli, how do you resist such a gut-ripping, life-blood-pumping, necessary to your sanity craving?

One of the most surprising bits of advice from Weight Watchers is… don’t.

That doesn’t mean eat Chocolate Mephistopheles all day every day (and if anyone can create a dessert that lives up to this name, I will eat it all day every day). It just means, on those days when your nearest and dearest are at risk if they intervene, get the Chocolate Mephistopheles—eat it.

Well, not the whole thing.

But, say, get your bestie, order your sin, and eat it with two spoons. Gather the family, take them to the patisserie, and split it four ways. Order it, cut it into eights, and stretch it out over two days.

There are a lot of ways to give into a little temptation without going up three sizes and running away from the gym in shame. Because the alternative?

Even the most controlled of martyrs has a snapping point. The person who fails to indulge in Chocolate Mephistopheles in a safe situation today is the person who goes face first and feral into the Cheesecake Azazel at two a.m. next week and washes it down with a diet coke and pomegranate juice to boot. (Anti-oxidants make up for everything, right?)

So indulgence is not a bad thing, really. In small quantities, it sort of makes us human.

Unless you’re talking about reading.

Guest Post

Q&A: Ralph Josiah Bardsley of THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S TRUTH

Guest Author
Jul 18, 2016

The Photographers Truth Ralph Josiah Bardsley

We are so happy to have Ralph Josiah Bardsley as our guest today! One of our favorite M/M Romance authors, Bardsley’s so good at capturing emotion it’s hard to bring one of his books with you on the subway. There’s just too much to wistfully sigh at—which is great at home, less so on public transportation. But it’s also exactly why we just had to know more about him and The Process! Check out our QA below and don’t miss The Photographer’s Truth, out now!

What would you say is the easiest part of writing?

For me, the easiest part is the first draft. I give myself a lot of leeway during this part of the process – I let my imagination go wherever it wants to. That’s also where I have the most fun.

What’s the most difficult part?

The editing process is definitely the most difficult process for me. Some writers love that phase – honing the language, cleaning up grammar and plot. While I respect the focus and the effort it takes, it doesn’t come naturally to me. Thankfully, I’ve got an amazing editor at Bold Strokes Books by the name of Jerry Wheeler who makes that process much smoother.

What love story stands out in your mind as the most compelling?

In general, I like a love story that requires the characters to struggle with their own demons as part of the process of falling in love. Specifically, Mary Renault’s The Charioteer is my favorite love story. It is set in WWII and the characters are at war – both in the literal sense and within themselves. Another more recent love story that I found absolutely compelling was A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. But have a box of tissue and a glass of wine handy if you read that one – you’ll need it.

Are there certain moods or scenes that are easier to write for you?

I’ve been told that I write descriptive scenes well – that I can make someone feel as if they’re walking down a street in Paris or Boston. I’ll be honest; I think my best scenes tend to be the ones that take place in Boston. Though I haven’t lived there for years, I spent most of my twenties in the city and everything about it is still absolutely visceral in my memory.

Guest Post: “Daisy” by Amy Lane

Guest Author
Jun 10, 2016

I live a tiny life—most of us do, unless we’re traveling. But for most of us, work is a thing of routine. Even writers, whom many people assume simply write when the “muse” moves us, set hours when we write for a living. “These are the hours I work. This is when I have to be productive. I can quit when these tasks are done.”

And outside of work, the rest of our lives are often circumscribed. I swear, I could put my car on an electric track that went from the gym to one kid’s school to the other kid’s school, to Del Taco to the grocery store, and 80% of the time, those are the only places I’d need to go.

But in spite of having a predictable tortoise life, I have a rather hoppy rabbit mind, and if it doesn’t have new places to hop to, I shall go simply mad.

Books are my escape—but reading time is limited to in my car as I’m waiting for my kids to get out, or a few precious pages a night before I fall asleep. On the whole, most of my brain travels happen from talking to other people.

Talking to strangers is my gateway to the world.

Aural Pleasures: The Soundtrack of Caleb’s Heart

Guest Author
Apr 18, 2016

It’s no secret that many authors are inspired by music. There are times when I’ve sat in the car while stuck in traffic and briefly focused on whatever song was playing only to be hit with an idea for a scene, plot, or character.

This happened to me with After Midnight (“I’m Mad” by The Deadweather), Stygian (“La Lugubre Gondola, No. 1”, composed by Liszt), and there have been several songs that struck a chord within me while I’ve worked on the Five Boroughs novels. “The Hills” by The Weeknd not only inspired me while writing First and First, but a character in a future novel as well.

First and First is the story of Caleb Stone—a thirty-six year old gay man with a life that’s envied by most. He was born into wealth, he’s a brilliant financial analyst, and lives in a gorgeous penthouse in the Financial District of Manhattan. To others, he has everything. However, Caleb’s point of view is very different. He doesn’t think he’s accomplished anything to be proud of. He’s repressed. And he’s afraid of never being loved.

The book is sexy (probably my most erotic romance to date), but it’s also very emotional. The songs in my First and First playlist reflect that. Below, you’ll find my top five Caleb songs and explanations as to why they’re so revealing about what’s in his heart.

Guest Post: “What You Love” by Amy Lane

Guest Author
Apr 08, 2016

I was sort of taken aback by the question, and I shouldn’t have been.

“How did you research the book Selfie, and what steps did you take to make it authentic?”

My first thought (and I have had this one since I started writing) was “I am a terrible fraud!” because I couldn’t remember doing any research for this book.

And then my actual brain kicked in (as opposed to my panic brain), and I realized that I’d been researching this book before I started writing.

When I was a kid—eight, nine, ten—my parents made three trips to the Pacific Northwest. Oregon, Washington, Canada—I fell deeply in love.

When I was a teenager, I was one of the deciding voices to send my marching band to Victoria, Canada for our trip in my senior year, because my burning passion never dimmed. As an adult, I’ve talked Mate into taking me up there twice—for our 10^th anniversary, and as part of a business trip—and that area and I renewed our affair.

Oh yes, from Goose Mountain to the Seattle Fish Market to Puget Sound, I have researched that area simply by being in love. Now, that doesn’t mean I didn’t have to look up some maps—because my head for directions is limited to three coordinates: Pure Fucking Magic.

Guest Post: “The Gay 90s” by Kate McMurray

Guest Author
Mar 31, 2016

Last time I was here, I talked a little about what it was like to be gay in the 1920s. My new novel, Ten Days in August, is set in 1896. So what kind of difference does going back in time thirty years make?

The 1890s were a rough time for LGBT people. There was new scholarship on homosexuality and an increased recognition of it in some medical circles, but in the U.S. and Europe, prosecution for sodomy was on the rise. “Gay” as we think of it now wasn’t really a thing yet; men who we’d call gay or bisexual now often married women but hooked up with men on the side. In New York, men could go to find other men in dance halls and clubs, particularly those in what is now the East Village, along the Bowery or tucked into Bleecker Street. Men of the 1890s had their own version of the hankie code, too—men seeking men could identify each other by certain markers: a red ascot, dyed blond hair, a certain way of dressing.

Guest Post: “When an English Professor Writes Dirty Books…” by Paul Russell

Guest Author
Mar 08, 2016

“I see you’ve got another dirty book out,” one of my colleagues remarked recently.

“A very literary dirty book,” I gently corrected him. I tried not to take his comment amiss, though it did make me sigh. And remember—

—my dissertation advisor haranguing me for having thrown away my promise as a serious scholar.
—a senior administrator at my college lamenting, “I’m all for having well-known writers on the faculty, I just wish we weren’t saddled with this one.”
—a student confessing that his parents advised him not to study creative writing with me, given the kind of books I write.

I always have to remember that I am not entirely respectable.

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