jeffs_blog

Football Is So GAY!

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:32:25 +0100

On this Superbowl Sunday, I have to wonder why it is I hate American football so much, because, to be honest, it's pretty damned gay! I mean, come on... LOOK!

My Weekly Reading

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:13:30 +0100

Here are the books I've finished reading this week. I enjoyed them all, but I have to admit that Academic Pursuits was not a favorite. It may well appeal to readers who enjoy sarcasm and who think snarkiness is hilarious. It is very well written/edited regardless. Please be aware that Fries With That is pretty hard core. It's not a love story, at least not by conventional standards. It includes humiliation and degradation, so if that's not your bag, steer clear. I highly recommend Gabriel. It's a beautiful story, and if you enjoy tearjerkers, this is a must read. Highly emotional yet also quite funny and has a number of deep, powerful messages. If you're the type who thinks stories with a message are "preachy" or "lecturey" then you might not like it so much. My pick for young adult fans this week is Allison Cassatta's Kissing Is Easy. I think that people who are fans of my own YA stories will love this one. And my absolute favorite book of the week is Anne Brooke's Heart's Greater Silence. Amazingly well-written, it's a short story about a man who has an affair with a priest even though he is deeply in love with his partner.

Fries With That...SIR?
by EJ Allen
Logan is 26, a business professional who's fallen victim of a receding economy. Although he has a degree and management experience, he finds himself in a position where he's forced to take a lowly minimum wage job flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant. To make matters worse, he has a boss from hell. Jarrod is only 19, and very cocky. As humiliated as Logan is by the way his arrogant boss treats him, Logan discovers that Jarrod's dominance kind of turns him on. When he and Jarrod have an encounter away from work, Logan discovers that there is a reason why Jarrod's so demanding. The nineteen year old is not only a boss at work, but in his private life he's a BDSM Master, and he's pegged Logan as a slave. Logan must decide whether to turn tail and run or to embrace his identity as a sexual submissive.

Academic Pursuits
by Lou Harper
The son of a well-to-do family and blessed with both dark good looks and buckets of confidence, Jamie lives for the chase. He has a well-deserved reputation around college as a seducer of straight frat boys. No man is off-limits to Jamie—he’s happy to help fellow gay students out of the closet, too. He even has lustful designs on his oblivious English professor, so it’s no surprise that his amorous pursuits often land him in sticky situations.

There's just one flaw in Jamie's perfect world—Roger Hunt. The hunky grad student, who dresses more like a lumberjack than the talented artist he is, gives Jamie hostile looks every time their paths cross. Jamie tries to ignore Roger, but they can't seem to stop running into each other, and Jamie's beginning to wonder if it’s more than chance that continues to steer them down the same halls...

The Heart's Greater Silence
by Anne Brooke
Mark isn’t sure he believes in love, especially when he’s torn between two very different men: his reliable boyfriend, Craig, and his illicit lover and priest, Richard.

Mark knows what he should do, but he can’t bring himself to give Richard up. The sex with Richard is unlike anything he’s ever known with Craig, and he hungers for it as much as—if not more than—the truer intimacy he finds in his boyfriend’s arms.

When Craig discovers his betrayal, Mark is forced to look at his life more closely, but the path to self-knowledge is never an easy one. Richard seeks the way back to God, but Mark finds no solace there. Can he ever discover the truth of his own soul, or is he too afraid of what he will—or won’t—find inside his heart?

Kissing Is Easy
by Allison Cassatta
It should be just another day for best friends Parker and Toby, not much different than any other day they’ve spent hanging out over the past fifteen years. But it isn’t just another day. Toby thinks Parker is freaking out because his girlfriend broke up with him. He has no idea that Parker is actually losing his shit because he just figured out he has feelings for Toby. At least, he has no idea until Parker kisses him.

Now Toby’s the one flipping out. Terrified of what his family might do if they find out he’s gay, he’s stayed in the closet for years and had no intentions of coming out. Now Toby has to decide what to do: keep Parker as a friend and live his life in fear… or take the plunge, stand up for himself, and take a chance on love.

Gabriel
by Marten Weber
Marten Weber’s Gabriel is a complex tale of innocence lost and love won. Against the backdrop of a rising China, we witness culture shock and racism, cruelty and greed, while also gaining a fascinating insight into the world of diplomacy and big business. Overwhelmed by the world around them, two men lose everything they believe in, in order to find each other.

This fantastic tale of a modern angel is a parable of human avarice and selfishness, a political thriller, a story of self-discovery, but ultimately a simple love story.

How Humiliating!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:56:53 +0100

For those who like the rougher sort of BDSM erotica (like I often do) here is a list of books that may be appealing. I've got to warn you that some of it is pretty hardcore, and if you're squeamish about humiliation and degradation, these may not be the right books for you. But if you like things down and dirty...enjoy!

Logan is 26, a business professional who's fallen victim of a receding economy. Although he has a degree and management experience, he finds himself in a position where he's forced to take a lowly minimum wage job flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant. To make matters worse, he has a boss from hell. Jarrod is only 19, and very cocky. As humiliated as Logan is by the way his arrogant boss treats him, Logan discovers that Jarrod's dominance kind of turns him on. When he and Jarrod have an encounter away from work, Logan discovers that there is a reason why Jarrod's so demanding. The nineteen year old is not only a boss at work, but in his private life he's a BDSM Master, and he's pegged Logan as a slave. Logan must decide whether to turn tail and run or to embrace his identity as a sexual submissive.

Robert’s penchant for collecting characters from real life to populate his fictional world gets him into trouble–big time! He stares a little too long and too intently at Timothy as the young bank teller orders lunch at the sub shop. Robert envisions Tim as the archetypical young New York City Irish Five Points gang member. His thorough inventory of Tim’s physical attributes, including his raw sexuality, is noted by the nineteen year old.

Outside in the parking lot Tim accosts Robert in a threatening manner; but relents when Robert agrees to service the punk at a nearby video arcade. The demands from Tim increase to include his older brother Brian, a Deputy Sheriff, and some of his colleagues. Each encounter with the Irish brothers is more intense that the prior one, the sex escalating to rape, bondage and whippings. All the while Robert expects Brian to cross the final line–to incest with Tim.

Robert’s feelings for Tim grow as the kid’s plight becomes more intolerable. Robert’s concern inspires him to discover Brian’s deeply buried secret which could hold the solution to Tim’s desperate situation.

Tall, rugged, handsome, All-American jock, Travis O’Toole has it all. Born to wealth and privilege, girls swoon at his feet and men want to be him. In his early twenties, attending a prestigious university, Travis O’Toole’s life is just beginning. And then he meets Spike.

Spike, a skinhead with a life leading nowhere fast. He spends his time bucking the system, using women as toys and tossing his middle finger at the world. Most people would cross the street if they saw Spike walking their way, but not Travis. Spike brings out a need in Travis that he has long suppressed. A lustful need that knows no boundaries and engulfs both men in passion, desire and something that neither understands, nor can they live without.

A valiant knight and a rebel prince each falls into the hands of their enemies who will subject them both to acts of depravity that are designed to sexual break them into submission. A professor creates a machine which he hopes will allow him to transfer some of a jock’s confidence into a nerd only to find the results he conceived pan out in ways he never planned. A haughty model and an ultimate fighter each discover that their macho strutting may not always prevail and finally, two writers of erotic mind-control tales engage in a mental duel that will leave them both very different than when they first started.

Kidnapped and taken to be forced to be milked dry of his sperm every day Martin was slowly being worn down. He was drawn into a gay life he didn’t want. Jake and his partner Skip were going to use him to be filmed for their website on the Internet as their main actor. His body was perfect in every way for that. They even had his face altered through plastic surgery to not be discovered so he wouldn’t be found out that he was. They forced him to have gay sex regardless of the fact he was straight when he was caught. They certainly were going to take care of that minor problem fast. They made sure that their memories would soon fail them to help with the brainwashing. They constantly did that by using the powerful drugs used for mind altering to make them confused and forgetful. Read how he was reduced to a mindless sex addict and became very popular on the largest gay porn sex site on the Internet.

Stranded by the side of the road with a broken down vehicle in the middle of the hot New Mexico desert, Danny Major figured that, at very least, nothing else could go wrong.

Then he arrived at Motel X.

Before long, the young man is captured, restrained, and pushed beyond his physical, mental, and sexual limits, thrown into a twisted world of bondage, sadomasochism, and discipline, a world where survival means submission. Can Danny escape his torturous fate? Or is he destined to be broken down into the perfect slave?

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is an adult story focused on themes of bondage, discipline, and sadomasochism between adult men OVER THE AGE OF 18. Subject matter includes explicit sexual activity and increasingly intense BDSM scenes (captivity, fisting, dubious consent, watersports, electro-torture, enemas etc.), and is intended purely as erotic fantasy for mature readers. If such material offends you, or if it is illegal to own or read such material in the area where you live, then you should find another title.]

My Weekly Reading

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:08:23 +0100

Surviving Elite High
by John H. Ames

This week I read a variety of books, my favorite among them being an unpublished young adult novel by an aspiring writer named John H. Ames. His book, Surviving Elite High, is a jock/nerd love story that in some ways reminded me of my own Dumb Jock. Told in first person by the central character John, the story chronicles the development of a teen romance involving the shy, self-effacing narrator with the jock football hero he's tutoring. Unlike Dumb Jock, Elite High has several unique plot twists that include a school shooting, a tempting love interest who threatens the primary romance, and a psychotic ex-girlfriend. Ames' writing style is endearing and captivating. The emotion seems to leap through the pages, and this story honestly touched me far deeper than most of the professionally edited/published novels I've read recently. Please watch for this aspiring author. He's an amazing talent, and from what I understand, he has at least two other works that are completed. I'll be reading them as soon as I can get my hands on them and will share information about his release dates as soon as I know.

The Librarian
by Lee Brazil

The Librarian is a story of unrequited love. Adrian Grey and Val Michaels were dorm mates during their freshman year at university, and although they briefly played with each other sexually, it quickly became clear to Adrian that Val had no real interest in him. Val went for the jock types, and Adrian was more of an intellectual. Adrian was studying library science and had a personality that was more focused, serious, and studious. Val wanted adventure and carefree lovers who would tower over him and dominate him sexually.

For the better part of a decade, Adrian pined over Val, and during this time he continued to fantasize about one day forging a meaningful relationship. Adrian became a librarian and Val bought a hair salon. Adrian was one of Val’s regular customers, showing up every Friday morning for his weekly haircut, never once varying his routine. Adrian learned of all Val’s sexual exploits, and Val shared the details of his love life while cutting Adrian’s hair. Adrian just listened, took it all in, and waited…patiently.

When Val broke up with his college jock boyfriend, he was heartbroken and swore a vow of celibacy. This happened to be on the very day that Adrian was scheduled for an appointment, and as Val confessed to Adrian the frustration he felt over yet another failed relationship, Adrian realized it was time to put in motion a plan to finally capture Val’s heart.

Adrian began scheming, setting a trap, so to speak, to ensnare Val. He sensed that Val yearned for a dominant man to control him and fantasized about being Val’s master. He toyed with Val, playing a game of cat and mouse, until he got Val to a point where he was eating out of his hand. Then at last he trapped him…or so he thought.

I found the story very interesting and loved the author’s writing style. Of course I related to Adrian and the way he’d secretly harbored this crush for so many years. This type of unrequited love is a theme dear to my heart. What I did not like was the way that Adrian was so conniving and deceitful. I suppose it was necessary and was actually the whole point of the story, but when it comes to Dom/sub romances, I prefer to see the Master as being an assertive, confident character who lays claim to his sub and does so decisively and swiftly. I can’t really see a true Dom as ever being this patient.

Val was sweet but I felt like he just needed someone to take control of him. I wanted Adrian to be this person. In the end I was left wondering if either of them really wanted to embrace the D/s lifestyle. They both were headstrong and cocky, and I didn’t feel like Val would ever be able to give up his ego in order to embrace his sub nature.

If you like stories where the Dom and sub are portrayed more as equal partners, this would be a perfect read. The Librarian is a story that is mainly about a chase. The Dom goes after the sub and attempts to ensnare him. It contains very hot love scenes and humorous dialogue, and overall it is an entertaining read. I would not, however, categorize it as a realistic D/s love story.

Betrayed
by DC Juris

Betrayed is a mm romantic fantasy set in a fictional world in which ogres, elves, and mystical healers exist. It is the story of a knight named Meldrick who is one of the king’s most loyal warriors. Meldrick falls in battle and is taken prison behind enemy lines. He is enslaved for seven months in a prison camp where he is repeatedly tortured and forced to rape and torture his fellow captives.

When Meldrick learns that his kingdom has been conquered and his lover killed, he despondently gives in to his captors and tells them all they want to know. There is no point in keeping secrets any more. He has nothing to live for. After he spills his guts and tells all, his captors release him and he learns it was all a ploy. His kingdom has not been captured nor has his lover been killed, but he has been tricked into betraying both.

For such a short story I was impressed by the world building. I think the author did an amazing job of conveying the setting and the atmosphere of the fantastical location. There were occasional contemporary references, usage of terms such as “blow job” that didn’t seem to fit, but for the most part the vernacular was consistent.

In all honesty, main characters like Meldrick are not my favorite. But I think this says more about my personal bias than it does about the story or the writing. He was by no means a sensitive man, although this doesn’t mean he wasn’t a sympathetic character. My heart broke for him and all he went through. I was taken aback somewhat by the way this sadistic side seemed to have been awakened within him after his imprisonment. There was a very disturbing revenge scene toward the end in which I hoped Meldrick would ultimately take the high road and be able to forgive. I suppose that to do so would not have been in character for him, though.

I’ve yet to read a story by DC Juris that I did not like. The writing was superb and the characters were relatable. This novella was an entertaining read with very sensual, erotic love scenes and a few unexpected plot twists. Overall it is a worthwhile read, in my opinion

Reaping Shadows
by Jamieson Wolf

Reaping Shadows is a modern-day Grim Reaper story in which the main character, Darion Muerte travels the planet seeking souls to collect. His job is to be a soldier of sorts that works for Death. With the use of his shadow, he finds people who are ready to die and captures their soul.

As the story begins, Darion is drawn to a particular target named Kale. Surprisingly, Kale does not appear to be anywhere near ready for death nor does he fear Darion. This is unusual being that typically all humans fear his presence. Darion senses a connection with Kale and the two come together and make love. This lovemaking session somehow transforms Kale into an agent of Death himself, and the two become supernatural partners.

When I first started reading this story I was almost positive that it would be a five star read. I loved the beginning and was intrigued by Darion and by the way he was drawn to Kale. After the first love scene, though, the story started to fall apart for me. It became rather cheesy and I started to view it more as a comedy.

I think many readers may appreciate this type of storytelling. In my opinion, the author was trying to infuse humor into the dialogue and to sort of make light of death. He introduces a couple of villain characters that he calls the Brothers Grimm. I couldn’t figure out how their role specifically differed from Darion’s or from Death itself.

The sex scenes were the best part, in my view. These alone are the story’s redemption. This is a short, entertaining read. The writing is very strong but the plot is flimsy. I kind of think this intentional though. It’s just a kind of fun paranormal fantasy

Teen Angels

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:15:23 +0100

Three more precious lives lost to senseless bullying. When will it stop?

Precious 14-Year Old Phillip Parker
"Because he was gay, he got mistreated physically, mentally by several people out there at the school, and I am very resentful as a result of it. After he did what he did, we found out a lot that we didn't know and there is a lot of bullying that goes on at the school." Quote from Phillip's grandfather.

Precious Jacob Rogers
"He started coming home his senior year saying 'I don't want to go back. Everyone is so mean. They call me a faggot, they call me gay, a queer,'" friend Kaelynn Mooningham

Precious Eric James Borges
He said his “extremist Christian” family called him “disgusting,” and kicked him out of the house in October. He recounted an instance in which he said his mother performed an exorcism to try to make him straight.

Another Dumb Jock

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:54:24 +0100

I've spent the past four weeks focused upon completing a sequel to Another Dumb Jock. As a result, I didn't do a lot of reading this past week, only two books. I will just include them in the weekly reading post for next week.

The good news, however, is that

Another Dumb Jock is now available on Kindle.

In Dumb Jock, Jeff and Brett fall in love, but their relationship is not without challenges. Brett’s a football star, and Jeff is the classic nerd. Their coming of age and coming out story is set in the 1980s, and they face many obstacles. Yet their love for each other is strong, and they finally get their happy ending.

Now, almost three decades later, their children are teenagers. Adam, their fifteen year old son, is the star pitcher of his high school baseball team. He has grown up with two dads, in a loving, non-judgmental environment. Yet Adam has challenges of his own. He’s failing two of his classes at school, and he’s been suspended for fighting. He resents being labeled and insists that just because he has two dads, it doesn’t mean that he is himself gay.

When he is forced to accept help from another student in his algebra class, Adam starts to have feelings that cause him to question his very identity. He’s got to decide whether to follow his heart or to maintain the image he’s worked so hard to portray. Will he have the courage to take a stand for what he knows is right, or will he end up being just another dumb jock?

Buy Link: Another Dumb Jock

My Weekly Reading

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:28:58 +0100

It's Friday again, and here's a recap of my week in reading. Five books in total, all of which I liked, but I have to warn you that Straight Jock Pussy by Christopher Trevor is pretty extreme. It's an erotic domination story that contains some really heavy humiliation and degradation scenes. More of what you'd call a one-handed read. I'd say if you enjoy the authoritarian stories on nifty.org, you might like this one. Rabbletown is a futuristic dystopian story about life in the United States after the Christian fundamentalists take over the government. Something Like Summer, by Jay Bell, is a romance that spans a decade. It begins in high school when Ben falls in love with Tim, then they break up after high school and are later reunited. Gay Pride and Prejudice is an adorable love story which is an adaptation of the classic Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Love Means Healing by Andrew Grey is another from the author's farm series and is a really sweet romance of a middle aged couple.

Straight Jock Pussy
by Christopher Trevor

Tall, rugged, handsome, All-American jock, Travis O'Toole has it all. Born to wealth and privilege, girls swoon at his feet and men want to be him. In his early twenties, attending a prestigious university, Travis O'Toole's life is just beginning. And then he meets Spike. Spike, a skinhead with a life leading nowhere fast. He spends his time bucking the system, using women as toys and tossing his middle finger at the world. Most people would cross the street if they saw Spike walking their way, but not Travis. Spike brings out a need in Travis that he has long suppressed. A lustful need that knows no boundaries and engulfs both men in passion, desire and something that neither understands, nor can they live without.

Rabbletown: Life in these United Christian States of Holy America
by Randy Atwood

The year is 2084. The place is Topeka, Kansas. The Church of the Evangels run the country through the Pastor President, pastor governors and pastor legislators. They rule with a Bible in each fist. This future history presents a view of what life would be like under the control of right wing evangelical Christians. Work on the new state cathedral in Topeka provides the economic stimulus for that region. When religion rules, society enters a new dark ages, but still operating are the computer-based social networking systems the Church of the Evangels use to spy on its members. Abortion is just outlawed, pregnancy is mandated. And if you don't fit into the society of the Church of the Evangels, you try to make a life in Rabbletown. And then the son of a mason reminds everyone what redemption is all about.

Something Like Summer
by Jay Bell

Love, like everything in the universe, cannot be destroyed. But over time it can change. The hot Texas nights were lonely for Ben before his heart began beating to the rhythm of two words; Tim Wyman. By all appearances, Tim had the perfect body and ideal life, but when a not-so-accidental collision brings them together, Ben discovers that the truth is rarely so simple. If winning Tim’s heart was an impossible quest, keeping it would prove even harder as family, society, and emotion threaten to tear them apart. Something Like Summer is a love story spanning a decade and beyond as two boys discover what it means to be friends, lovers, and sometimes even enemies.

Gay Pride and Prejudice
by Ryan Field

Although Tristan's Uncle Eldridge always told him it was just as easy to fall in love with a wealthy man as it was to fall in love with a gay man, Tristan was always more interested in falling love with the right man than he was in finding money or prestige. While growing up and observing his uncle's many gay friends in long-term relationships, Tristan's main goal in life was to fall in love with the man of his dreams and get married. The fact that same-sex marriage wasn't legally recognized between gay men didn't bother him. He was determined to do it anyway, whether anyone liked it or not.But when Tristan and his uncle leave New York and settle in South Beach, Tristan discovers all this isn't as easy as he always thought it would be. While his uncle is trying to set him up with a wealthy businessman to secure his financial future, Tristan is sneaking around with the hot guy across the street, Miller Wiley, whom his uncle doesn't like. Though Miller does, in fact, come from one of the wealthiest families in Florida, Miller isn't openly gay, he is more interested in just fooling around than getting married, and he has an overbearing, powerful mother who expects him to marry a socially acceptable young woman instead of a poor gay guy like Tristan.Through a series of complicated events that revolve around a brand new charitable organization called MEE (Marriage and Equality for Everyone) and a sudden, unexpected death, Tristan and Miller try hard to overcome the emotional and social forces that are so determined to keep them apart. At times, it looks as if they'll never find happiness. And though it kills him, Tristan never backs down, insisting to Miller and everyone else he won't settle for anything less than a real marriage built on a solid foundation of love and respect.Will Tristan and Miller's love rise above the social, political, and economic barriers that seem destined to keep them apart? And is it possible for a gay guy from the wrong side of the tracks to find happiness in a same-sex marriage with a carefree rich guy who doesn't seem to know what he wants?

Love Means Healing
by Andrew Grey

Seven months ago, Len Parker lost his partner of more than twenty years, and he isn’t sure how to feel about his blossoming attraction to Chris, one of his farmhands. Hesitant and still hurt, Len remains aloof and distant until he’s goaded into teaching Chris to ride. Fresh out of a thirty-year career with the Marines, Chris can explore his sexuality openly for the first time in his life, but what he needs more than anything is peace. He’s convinced Len doesn’t like him until he digs a little deeper, and then, armed with hope, Chris sets out to prove that love can provide the healing he and Len so desperately need.

Battle of the Bulge

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:19:33 +0100

Genderphobia Really Sucks!!

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:48:02 +0100

Within recent months there has been some controversy within the mm romance community about gender identity. It all started when a blogger outed one of the prominent authors, stating that he was lying about his gender and that he was actually a woman. The debate that resulted from this revelation became rather intense and devolved rather quickly into a whole lot of nasty name-calling, and people began taking sides. It all was extremely divisive, and I have no desire to dredge any of that back up again. The reason that I bring it up, though, is because the entire issue is related to another matter that happens to be extremely important to me.

When this controversy exploded, several of the mm authors spoke out and some even outed themselves, perhaps because they were so appalled by what they saw happening, or maybe simply because they knew it was only a matter of time until they too were victimized by bloggers who wanted to get attention by outing popular authors.

But the issue that is of import to me (not that the gender identity/privacy issue of authors lacks importance, but rather I’m merely clarifying this is not the primary topic of this particular blog) is the gender identity of our fictional characters. I find it very interesting that many of the most talented and successful authors within the mm genre shy away from portraying characters who are androgynous. It seems almost taboo to write a lead character who is gay and effeminate or who identifies as “trans”.

Now perhaps I am mixing apples and oranges here. The degree of ones masculinity/femininity does not necessarily have anything to do with one’s gender identity. There are many flamboyant gay men, drag queens, self-identified sissies, etc. who are not at all trans, have no desire to identify with the opposite gender, and who may themselves even be transphobic. I am sure that conversely there are many tomboyish women who identify as women and are not at all part of the trans community.

But what I do not understand is why so many people who are strong defenders of the trans community think it is okay to disparage the effeminate gay male characters in our fiction. I have read so many reviews where people criticize the author for portraying “girly” boys or “chicks with dicks”. It is like they want their romance to be all about manly men and only manly men, and any diversion from this offends their sensibilities.

I happen to be a very sensitive and emotive gay man myself. Most of my stories include characters like this. Being a romantic at heart, my ideal love story is the classic damsel in distress who is rescued by the knight in shining armor. Of course in gay literature this translates to the shy, self-effacing “girly” boy who falls in love with his heroic protector who bolsters his self esteem and carries him off to live happily ever after in gay wedded bliss.

I guess my point in saying all this is that I think there is a degree of hypocrisy which exists within the broader mm writing community. Some of this, of course, is a matter of personal preference. Certainly I cannot fault a reader who honestly just doesn’t like these kinds of mushy romances with less-masculine protags. My opinion, though, is that instead of going onto Goodreads and downgrading the ratings on those books, why not simply avoid reading them? I personally do not like most of the fantasy/shapeshifter type stories, but I don’t go around placing homophobic-sounding labels on the characters and vilifying the authors who created them.

I was extremely discouraged after publishing my first novel, Dumb Jock, when an Amazon reader gave me a one-star review, and in his comments stated the reason he did not like the story was because it was about an annoying nelly queen. Another author that I admire was criticized by other authors on Goodreads who said that her protag seemed like a “chick with a dick” and called him “girly”. When my dear friend Michele Montgomery and I started our blog Michele ‘n Jeff Reviews, we used an interview template which asked identical questions of dozens of authors that we highlighted, and one of the answers which was frequently repeated as a piece of advice to aspiring writers was to “avoid writing male characters who act like women—chicks with dicks”.

Frankly, when I start thinking about this issue, I feel outrage. If I as a gay man can stand up proudly, embrace and defend the diversity within my community—lesbian, trans, bisexual, gay, etc—why is it that I have to feel like I’m a second-class citizen simply because I’m emotional or effeminate?

Just for the record, I am not ashamed of being a nelly queen. I don’t give a rat’s ass if another author looks down upon me for writing characters who are real to me and who touch my heart. But I do think it would be nice to see a rebuttal when this kind of prejudice rears its ugly head. It is not just a matter of personal preference. It is bigotry.

Beach Boys

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:01:15 +0100