Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Romance Writer Charlie Cochrane on Why She Writes

Charlie Cochrane writes good romantic fiction, really good romantic fiction. But why does she do it? Read on and find out...


I could be flippant and say that, like O’Brian’s Dr Maturin, I’m a serial obsessive and writing is my latest ‘thing’. However, it’s gone on too long to be just a passing fad – I stared in fanfic (yes, shoot me now) about five years ago and haven’t stopped penning stuff since.

So why do I carry on when the time expended doesn’t equal the financial reward gained?

  • Because every e-mail or comment from someone who’d read one of my books and it’s made them laugh or cry means as much as a pocket full of five pound notes. It’s just about the greatest thrill (with certain notable exceptions) a woman of my age gets.
  • Because it’s a fantastic way of using what’s already in my brain. I’ve daydreamed all my life, made up stories in my head all my life – it’s great to put them into a work of fiction.
  • Because I have these blooming characters in my head now, itching to escape and have their stories told. Nag, nag, nag – worse than children.
  • Because some of the writers I’ve met online are some of the nicest people I know and logging in of a morning is like stepping into the office. And it’s nice to have two jobs (writing and freelance training) that I can do mainly from the comfort of my own home.
  • And last – but by no means least – because Him Indoors would like me to have a JKR type success and allow him to have the early retirement he dreams of. Pipedream maybe, but a nice one. 

As Charlie Cochrane couldn't be trusted to do any of her jobs of choice (like managing a rugby team) she writes. Her favorite genre is historical gay fiction,  but she's making an increasing number of forays into the modern day. Visit her online here.  

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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

WIN A FREE COPY OF THE BLUE MOON CAFE

UPDATE: I'm happy to announce that Tom Belkowski is the winner of the autographed book. Congratulations, Tom!

Didn't win? You can still buy your copy here.

This release, at least for me, is something to really howl about (I can hear you groaning, but c'mon...it is a werewolf book, after all). But why am I excited?

First off, I have sort of been writing two genres for the past several years: horror and romance. Often there's an element of each in my work, but with The Blue Moon Cafe, I think I managed to successfully combine both genres in one book.  The Blue Moon Cafe is as much a romance as it is a chilling horror novel. I think (hope) that it will satisfy readers of both genres equally.

Second, it's the first full-length novel I've set in my new hometown, Seattle (and even in my current neighborhood, for the most part). It was very hard for me to break away from the inspiration of Chicago, where I lived for sixteen years, and I have done that with The Blue Moon Cafe. Seattle is the perfect setting for both a scary story and a love story.

Third, I think I grew to love these characters perhaps more than any others. For the first time, I have created people (and a feisty little chihuahua named Edith) that I think I will write about again.

So here's a little bit about the book, along with an excerpt.

Blurb:
Someone—or something—is killing Seattle’s gay men.

A creature moves through the darkest night, lit only by the full moon, taking them, one by one, from the rain city’s gay gathering areas.

Someone—or something—is falling in love with Thad Matthews.

Against a backdrop of horror and fear, young Thad finds his first true love in the most unlikely of places—a new Italian restaurant called The Blue Moon Cafe. Sam is everything Thad has ever dreamed of in a man: compassionate, giving, handsome, and with brown eyes Thad feels he could sink into. And Sam can cook! But as the pair’s love begins to grow, so do the questions and uncertainties, the main one being, why do Sam’s unexplained disappearances always coincide with the full moon?

Prepare yourself for a unique blend of dark suspense and erotic romance with The Blue Moon Cafe, written by the author Unzipped magazine called, “the Stephen King of gay horror.” You’re guaranteed an unforgettable reading experience, one that skillfully blends the hottest romance with the most chilling terror...

Excerpt:
Sam leaned back against the headboard and lit a cigarette. The room filled with the acrid stench of burning tobacco and paper and instead of being repelled as he normally would be, Thad moved close to Sam again, taking up his newly claimed spot on the man’s chest. He stared up at him, watching him smoke. Lazily, he traced circles in the hairy mat covering Sam’s chest. His fingers stopped when he caught sight of a design on Sam’s left pectoral, something he had hadn’t noticed in the dim light or perhaps because it was all but hidden by the forest of hair. Thad got up on one elbow.

“You have a tattoo?”

In the dark, Sam nodded. “I’ve had it for years, way before tattoos were all the rage like they are these days.”

“Especially here in Seattle.” Thad often wondered if there was some requirement that all citizens of Seattle must have at least one tattoo. “What’s it of?” Thad strained to make out the design’s contours in the dim light and couldn’t.

Sam leaned forward to switch on the bedside lamp. Thad squinted at the sudden light source, then directed his gaze down at the muscled chest before him. “What is it?” Thad traced the design with his fingers, lowering his head to peer more closely at it. He nipped at Sam’s nipple and Sam laughed.

“It’s Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus, the twins who founded Rome in mythology. Cool, no?” Sam flexed his chest so the wolf seemed to move. Two cherubic twin boys below the figure suckled at her teats.

“It’s kind of weird. But it suits you.” Thad reached over Sam to turn off the light again.

“What brought you to America?”

Did Thad detect a slight stiffening when he asked the question?…

Win a FREE, signed copy of The Blue Moon Cafe just by leaving a comment below (with contact info so I can notify you if you win). Bonus points if you send out a link to this blog to your social networks or tweet about it! (Note: Due to the high cost of international postage, I can only make this offer available to those living in the US).

BUY The Blue Moon Cafe


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Monday, March 29, 2010

The Reviews for BLUE MOON CAFE Are Rolling In!


Reviews for my new gay werewolf story are coming in and I am pleased and relieved that so far, they are all uniformly positive. Here's a sampling of what's been said so far:

"The Blue Moon Café...combines paranormal horror and romance into a story about love and family and choices…and werewolves...a blend of the believable and the fantastic, and the werewolf that preys on Seattle is as frightening as any that I have encountered recently."
Bookwenches (Read full review here).

"unnerving realism...dark, fierce murder mystery...an exhilarating macabre fright saga at its most outstanding..."
Literary Nymphs (Read full review here).

"sure to remind readers of authors like King and Koontz."
Rainbow Reviews (Read full review here).

"Fans of werewolf tales may think they know what’s going to happen next but they’ll find themselves being proven wrong again and again."
(Tony-paul.com Book Reviews (Read full review here).

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Friday, March 26, 2010

Gay Panic--No, It's Not the Latest Dance Craze

Note: This blog also appears on the outstanding true crime blog, In Cold Blog. Check it out daily for news and writing from top true crime writers, advocates, journalists, and criminal justice professionals.



A few days ago, I was having dinner with friends in West Seattle. One of my friends had a sister who had happened to appear on the Jenny Jones show (remember her?) back in the day. Her sister was on a makeover program called something like, "Don't Mean to Be Rude, But You Look Like a Dude" and featured makeovers of women who dressed like men or who were otherwise masculine in appearance. I won't even go into the political correctness of the show's topic, but the reason I'm bringing it up now is something my friend remembered about her sister's appearance on the show: they were very, very careful about not mentioning anything at all about most of the guests being lesbian, and any mention of homosexuality, period, was edited out of the final show.

We all knew why Jones and her staff tiptoed around the love that dared not speak its name. If you recall, the Jenny Jones show was sued years ago and made nationwide headlines when Ms. Jones did a show on secret crushes and a young man announced his crush on another young man, Jonathan Schmitz. Schmitz was not flattered, in fact he shot and killed his not-so-secret admirer.

Which brings us to gay panic, a term that could have been used by defense attorneys in this case.


What is gay panic? Well, today we're all lucky to have the author of a new book on the subject with us to tell us all about the phenomenon. David McConnell has written two novels, The Silver Hearted and The Fire Brat. But it's his forthcoming book, Gay Panic: True Stories of Straight Men Who Kill Gay Men that I wanted to draw your attention to. David was kind enough to take time out of his work to answer a few questions for In Cold Blog, on the phenomenon itself and why he wrote the book. The interview below is fascinating reading; I can't imagine how much more fascinating the book will be when it debuts later this year from Alyson Books.

RR: For those of us who don't know, why don't you start off by  defining the term "gay panic."

DM: People  familiar with the term know it as a defense strategy in murder and  assault cases. A straight guy will claim he just freaked out when some gay guy came on to him. It's probably been a winking  legal strategy for ages, for as long as homosexuality has been  considered sinister and predatory. It also involves a boys-will-be-boys  tolerance for violence on the part of presumably virtuous young men.  More often than not the defense is a sham. Lawyers use it to disguise  prostitution on the one hand and hate crimes on the other. It was  explicitly disallowed in the Matthew Shepard murder trial, for instance.  In a broader sense "Gay Panic"  can refer to a whole spectrum of psychological responses experienced by  straight men (or men who want or need desperately to be straight) when  they find themselves in a sexual situation with another man (or a  situation they perceive as sexual). 

RR: What  inspired you to write a book about this topic?
DM: It  was a subject that was all over the news and in the air, but it hadn't  been looked at closely in the way only a writer is able to do. The  reporting that existed on the subject was wildly inaccurate, in part  because TV and newspapers are simply not frank when it comes to sex  ("...claims the victim acted suggestively." What exactly does that  mean?) In equal part, I think, the inaccuracy stems from the way the gay community politicizes these cases. I'm gay myself, but I just wanted to tell the stories. I  don't know what it says about me, but I found I'm able to look at this  material with a pretty cold eye. Paradoxically, that's how you achieve  an authentically humane treatment. I'm basically a fiction writer, so I  report the story in the most artistic way I can. I think the moral and  political conclusions are obvious enough that readers don't have to be  led by the nose.

RR: How did you decide whom to  include in the book?

DM: It's been really hard.  I've stuck with American murder cases of the recent past. The earliest  is '95, the latest, last year. Because I go into incredible depth and  detail I think I'll only have room for five or six in the end. I hoped  to get a snapshot of the entire country, so I picked cases from all  over. I didn't want to be limited by any strict definition of "Gay Panic." What I was really  interested in was anything that illuminated a violent clash of "straight  culture" and "gay culture." One of my stories  isn't a true "gay panic"  case at all, more like a calculated gay  assassination. Ideally, I wanted something that would be fascinating for  young straight guys to read, but I think it's too soon to expect many  of them even to dare picking up a book with "gay"  in the title. We're getting there, though. The reason I was thinking  about straight guys is that "gay panic" is something that takes place in their minds. I  want them and everyone to think about it. I started out with the common  assumption that most of these killers were probably gay  deep down and just couldn't deal with it. Who else would get so  upset? Curiously enough, cases like that seem to be rare. Only one of  the murderers I write about turned out to be gay,  and though he kidded himself, he wasn't actually unaware of it. He led  simultaneous lives in gay porn, hustling and  rabidly anti-gay skinhead gang activity. Turning  tricks by day, gay-bashing by night. But every  other killer really is or was straight. Ultimately, "straight culture"  and "gay culture" just exist our heads. I wanted  to tell these stories for everybody.

RR: We hear a lot  these days about gay hate crimes. How does gay panic fit in with the  current dialogue?

DM: They're the same thing. "Gay Panic" is just a hate  crime where you believe or claim you started out as a victim. That said,  I'm not much of a political thinker. I imagine myself as more like the  artist whose highest duty is as a researcher for the culture as a whole.  Others can argue and interpret the "evidence" the artist comes up with.

RR: What measures do you think could have been taken to prevent these  instances of gay panic?

DM: What  I've been doing is harrowing in a way, re-imagining these crimes in  great detail. I'm not at all experienced with "True Crime" writing and  I've approached the whole thing as a student and with a huge sense of  responsibility. One thing that strikes me as I write is that I keep  experiencing a very human response to disaster: after the fact, it feels  both absurdly contingent--unlikely, even--at the same time it feels  inevitable. Politically, socially there may have been things to do to  prevent these crimes, but I've been looking at them as human dramas. In a  perfect world there'd be no crime at all and no one would ever be hurt.

RR: What can we, as a society, do to lessen the occurrence of instances of gay panic in the future?

DM: As  a legal defense "gay panic"  is probably on the way out. Judges and juries don't have much patience  for it anymore. Look at the judge's decision in the Shepard case. On the  other hand it's incredibly prevalent overseas still. As a phenomenon  I'm not sure how much we can do about it. The hopeful answer is to be  honest and explicit about the crimes themselves, exactly what I'm trying  to do in the book. A darker view is that there's nothing to do.  Even  if the whole notion of "gay panic"  could be taken out of the equation (say, in a world without prejudice),  maybe these crimes would occur in exactly the same way and simply be  called something different. Almost all crime is attributable to young  men. When you take away the lurid sexual content, these crimes are the  quintessential crimes of a young man's identity: his honor,  self-respect, pride, self-image. It's hard to imagine preventing them  without changing the nature of manhood.

RR: Tell the nice  people where they can buy your book.

DM: It's  appearing later this year from Alyson Books. It should be available  everywhere.

Thank you, David. For more on David and the book, visit his website. You can preorder David's book from Amazon here.

[Photo of the author by Everett McCourt]

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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

LAMMIE Finalist Dan Stone on Why He Writes

Recently, author Dan Stone's debut novel, The Rest of Our Lives, was among the finalists announced for the 2010 Lambda Literary Awards, in the gay romance category. Listen as he tells us how he does what he does...

I used to hear my minister father talk about his feeling that he had been ‘called’ to preach.  He passed along to me a desire to find a place and a work in this world that was uniquely mine.  It was presented as both a gift and a challenge to be called, to hear and to respond to any inner stirrings nudging me in a particular direction and toward a particular purpose.

I don’t remember exactly when my writing life began.  My mother has poems saved from as early as second grade, but I was a skinny, high school bookworm trying to hide a southern accent and a spiritual and sexual identity crisis when writing became a way of life.  Like so many who feel forced into hiding for one reason or another, writing became a way to be the me I was often too afraid to be except on the page. 

Over the years writing would be at times a course of study, an extracurricular activity, a vocation, a part-time or full-time job, a comes-and-goes-career–and always my dream.  Regardless of whether I published or was paid, it remained the place where I felt most at home, most at peace, and most myself.  It was a way of coming out long before the official kickoff of that process.

Whether I’m writing a poem or an essay, a blog entry or a novel, whether it’s for a byline or a paycheck or an opportunity to help someone else say what they mean, I’m putting myself on the page.  It’s my way of choosing to answer the only calling that has ever really made sense to me-and working from the only place that truly feels like home.

Dan Stone’s first novel, a gay romantic fantasy titled The Rest Of Our Lives, was published in June 2009 by Lethe Press.  Also a teacher, coach, and intuitive consultant, he lives in Denver, CO, where he is working on a second novel, a children’s book, and a collection of poems. Visit his website.


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Sunday, March 21, 2010

Rave From RAINBOW REVIEWS for THE BLUE MOON CAFE

Hi All,

Woke up to a great 4-star review this morning from Rainbow Reviews for my gay werewolf love story, THE BLUE MOON CAFE. In part, the review said:

"...Not only will the suspense keep the readers enthralled, but the author’s ability to bring across the terror in such vivid detail is sure to remind readers of authors like King and Koontz...."

Read the whole review here.

Check out an excerpt and get your copy here (print version should be out this week).

SYNOPSIS
 
Someone -- or something -- is killing Seattle’s gay men.

A creature moves through the darkest night, lit only by the full moon, taking them, one by one, from the rain city’s gay gathering areas.
 
Someone -- or something -- is falling in love with Thad Matthews.

Against a backdrop of horror and fear, young Thad finds his first true love in the most unlikely of places ~ a new Italian restaurant called the Blue Moon Cafe. Sam is everything Thad has ever dreamed of in a man: compassionate, giving, handsome, and with brown eyes Thad feels he could sink into. And Sam can cook! But as the pair’s love begins to grow, so do the questions and uncertainties, the main one being, why do Sam’s unexplained disappearances always coincide with the full moon?

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Friday, March 19, 2010

The Blue Moon Cafe Gets Its 1st Review--A Rave!

That first review is always one that I am afraid to peek at.

But this first review for my gay werewolf novel, THE BLUE MOON CAFE, from Literary Nymphs is a "five-nymph" rave. Whew!

The review says, in part,

"The Blue Moon Café is a dramatically potent suspenseful story illustrated with an unnerving realism. This is a dark fierce murder mystery, interwoven with the emotional turmoil of the frightening unknown danger, in addition to an unstable relationship. This is an exhilarating macabre fright saga at its most outstanding..."

Read the whole review here.

Get your copy here. (Note: the trade paperback should be out in about a week).

Synopsis
Someone—or something—is killing Seattle’s gay men.

A creature moves through the darkest night, lit only by the full moon, taking them, one by one, from the rain city’s gay gathering areas.

Someone—or something—is falling in love with Thad Matthews.

Against a backdrop of horror and fear, young Thad finds his first true love in the most unlikely of places—a new Italian restaurant called The Blue Moon Café. Sam is everything Thad has ever dreamed of in a man: compassionate, giving, handsome, and with brown eyes Thad feels he could sink into…and he can cook! But as the pair’s love begins to grow, so do the questions and uncertainties, the main one being: Why do Sam’s unexplained disappearances always coincide with the full moon?

Prepare yourself for a unique blend of horror and erotic romance with The Blue Moon Café, written by the author Unzipped magazine called, “the Stephen King of gay horror.” You’re guaranteed an unforgettable reading experience, one that skillfully blends the hottest romance with the most chilling terror…

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Will "Enriched" EBooks Fly?

I am shaking my head in wonder at how out of touch publishers are with what readers want. This latest turn smacks of desperation.

How about just giving us a good story, well told?

Here's what I'm talking about (from Eric Engleman's AMAZON BLOG):

'Enriched' e-books: Will they fly?


Amazon.com early on made a habit of pricing digital versions of new release books at $9.99, well below hardcover list price. That irked publishers, who thought the $9.99 standard would devalue books in the minds of consumers. Now, with Apple offering publishers the ability to set higher price points (up to $14.99) on e-books, Amazon is being forced to accept such terms as well.

Now some publishers are betting that consumers will spend even more for so-called "enriched" e-books, equipped with special features. Case in point: David Baldacci's new novel, "Deliver Us From Evil," which will be available in "enriched" digital form for $15.99.

The "enriched" Baldacci novel, which comes out April 20, "will include passages deleted from the final text, research photos, an audio interview and video footage of Baldacci at work," AP reports...

Read the rest of the blog here.



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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Tales from the Sexual Underground In Print and Ebook!

UPDATE: I'm happy to announce that Linda Reilly is the winner of the autographed book. Congratulations, Linda!

I'm happy to announced that my new collection, Tales from the Sexual Underground, is now available in both ebook and print editions. It's a collection of my steamiest writings on things your mother most likely wouldn't approve of, and includes both fiction and non-fiction. It's subtitled "Fact, Fiction, and Stranger than Fiction."

Pick up the ebook directly from MLR Press here.

The Kindle version here.

And the trade paperback here.

And if you do slip between my covers, please let me know what you think.

TO WIN YOUR FREE SIGNED PRINT EDITION OF TALES FROM THE SEXUAL UNDERGROUND, LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW AND A WAY TO REACH YOU SHOULD YOU WIN. 

Please feel free to repost this blog to your own blogs and social networks.

Read on for a synopsis and excerpt.


From the back cover:
I wanted to write about people who were not just out, but out there, people who lived their sexual lives in ways most of us could only imagine...and for whom the flavor vanilla had absolutely no appeal. I interviewed porn stars, prostitutes, self-proclaimed sex pigs, and delved into bizarre sexual practices. It was eye-opening, arousing, and a lot of fun (but never, never good clean fun). I also include here my favorite dirty stories. They all explore a side of life that exists not in the twilight zone, but in my favorite destination...the sexual underground.

Excerpt:
This piece highlights the fact that our most sensitive sex organ is not between our legs, but between our ears. 
(Chicago el photo by my dear friend, Venus Zarris)

Red Lining

The writer sits alone on the train, thinking how the stops between North and Clybourn and Fullerton will bring him from darkness into light: a metaphor for heaven. There’s a book open on his lap, something by Henry James or James Joyce, who knows? The obtuse words and their connections evoke little response when his blood flow is heading southward. Sometimes he thinks about a quote applied to Errol Flynn and how God gave him a brain, and a penis, and only enough blood to run them one at a time.

You get the picture.

He’s sitting in the last car of the northbound train, because there’s always been this vague rumor that the last car is the one to board if you’re gay and want to cruise. He’s never seen much evidence of this, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth giving it a whirl.

And then the book below him blurs even more as the artist boards the train and sits across from him. How does he know he’s an artist? Even though the evidence is circumstantial, it’s pretty convincing. He carries a battered black leather portfolio, his faded jeans spattered fetchingly with paint in various hues. The other accoutrements: shaven head, oval rimless glasses, and an expression of being elsewhere also contribute to this portrait of the artist as a young man. Wouldn’t it be lovely to think that maybe he has boarded this last car for the same reasons as the writer?

Then their eyes meet and all doubt is erased. Gay men, like straight ones, may have scores of lines designed to charm and seduce, but nothing beats the language of the eyes for communicating desire. Forget the smile. There is something in this liquid connection that transcends gestures as pedestrian as words and body language. The eyes have it. The artist’s are pale blue, behind the glass, and his stare, held for a few seconds longer than what’s appropriate for a stranger’s glance, says everything the writer needs to know.

When the train reaches Belmont, the artist gives one more meaningful glance and the writer rises to follow, clutching his James Joyce in front of his loose-fitting jeans. There is a moment when the writer wonders if he is doing the right thing, but when they get off the train, his doubts vanish like an ethereal wisp of smoke. A smile confirms what he’s known all along, and the artist’s question of having the time to stop by, seals the deal.

They walk to the artist’s apartment, a studio above a store on Clark Street. They’re naked in an instant, clothes falling to the floor in a frenzy. Bodies mesh. Lips connect. It’s an old story, and hungry as you are for it, dear reader, the writer leaves the rest to your imagination. Think sinew, skin, muscle and bone connecting, orifices explored, juices released. As the writer says, it’s an old story.

You, dear reader, may wonder what his name was. How the hell should the writer know? That would spoil the reality of the writer’s fantasy.


Pick up the ebook directly from MLR Press here.

The Kindle version here.

And the trade paperback here.


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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Romance Author Christiane France on Why She Writes

WHY DO I WRITE?


Because I can? Because it’s the safest way of doing things I’d never have the guts to do otherwise? Because I want to show off my writing skills? Because I need to do something with my hands other than umm…err…well, you know, doing whatever there is to relieve the boredom of endless TV?  Or is it because I’m hoping for fame, fortune, instant recognition, and maybe having my books made into movies?

Actually, it’s none of the above. I write because I have a continuing and compulsive need to create something, anything, be it a new recipe, a new story idea, a new knitting pattern, or crochet design. So long as it starts off with a tiny grain of inspiration and ends up as a full blown successful whatever, I’m happy.

I also love to write (and that’s a crazy, mad, love it to death emotion not just a lukewarm  like) because I’ve discovered being a pantser rather than a plotter is way more fun. I take a couple of characters, give them names and occupations, set them down somewhere in the world, and then I wind them up and watch them go. Like all infants, they need momma’s guiding hand for the first few steps, but once they realize they can walk, talk and do just about anything up to and including the ever so slightly illegal, they turn the tables and start telling me what to do. And that’s probably the part I like the best—when a character digs in his/her heels and says, no way, no how am I doing that, so there! Which, of course, is my cue to say, “Okay, sweet pea, and how would you like to do it?”


Of course there are times when none of us are sure whether to turn left, right or continue straight on. That’s when I have to start digging around for even more ideas. I just finished a story where I was having the worst problem trying to figure out the ending. I wanted something that said forever in a very special way. The two guys couldn’t come up with anything and neither could I, so I took the evening off and went to the movies. And, of course, you guessed it, something happened toward the end of the show that gave me a shot of pure inspiration.

I can hear you saying, what was it? What happened? Well, first you have to watch the movie Valentine’s Day, and then read my book The Cop and the Drifter when it comes out later this year (I’ve just heard it will be the weekend of May 30, 2010), I hope you get the connection because it was such a perfect moment in the movie and, I hope, the perfect one for my story. 


Christiane France truly believes that love makes the world go round, so she likes stories with both happy and bittersweet endings. Christiane has been writing romance for the past twenty years and lives near Niagara Falls with her husband and The Boys—two black and white Persian cats. Visit her on the web. Buy Christiane's latest, Independence Day, here.


Independence Day Synopsis
The perfect plan for success, or a guaranteed recipe for disaster?

It sounded like such a simple, mutually beneficial arrangement when the idea was hatched over drinks in a bar late one night. A little short-term pain for long-term gain, or so Nick’s ambitious boyfriend, Al, believed. If Nick would take a back seat while Al played the doting husband to Missy, daughter of the town’s leading lawyer for a couple of months, Al’s lifelong dream of a partnership with Hilldale & Partners would finally be achieved. In return, Missy would be out from under her daddy’s thumb, free to follow her own alternative lifestyle. And then, after a short interval, Nick and Al could pick up where they left off, and everyone would live happily ever after.
As far as spur-of-the-moment plans went, this one sounded perfect.

What could possibly go wrong?

NOTE: Don't miss the sequel, Independence Day II, available April 2010!

 

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Monday, March 15, 2010

Getting Closer to the Paperback Edition of BLUE MOON CAFE!

The ebook edition of The Blue Moon Cafe has been out since March 7, but the paperback edition should be landing on Amazon within a few days. Watch for it.

Above is the whole cover: front, back, and spine. For more info, and to order, go here.


Someone—or something—is killing Seattle’s gay men.

A creature moves through the darkest night, lit only by the full moon, taking them, one by one, from the rain city’s gay gathering areas.

Someone—or something—is falling in love with Thad Matthews.

Against a backdrop of horror and fear, young Thad finds his first true love in the most unlikely of places—a new Italian restaurant called The Blue Moon Café. Sam is everything Thad has ever dreamed of in a man: compassionate, giving, handsome, and with brown eyes Thad feels he could sink into…and he can cook! But as the pair’s love begins to grow, so do the questions and uncertainties, the main one being: Why do Sam’s unexplained disappearances always coincide with the full moon?

Prepare yourself for a unique blend of horror and erotic romance with The Blue Moon Café, written by the author Unzipped magazine called, “the Stephen King of gay horror.” You’re guaranteed an unforgettable reading experience, one that skillfully blends the hottest romance with the most chilling terror…

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SUPERSTAR Review Round Up

My bestselling rock star romance has been getting some great reviews and I wanted to share a few with you. Snippets from each are below, along with a link to the full review (click on publication title for full review).

Check out and buy Superstar here.

And if you're not an ebook kind of person, Superstar will be out in my forthcoming print collection, On the Edge, out this summer!

From Rainbow Reviews FOUR STARS

“This July day is a stunning one, clear, sunny, low humidity and a temperature in the mid 70s ... It's a lovely day to commit suicide.” This statement is a wonderful scene setter. Such deft phrasing is maintained throughout this short story, making it a joy to read...This was a most thought-provoking story, rich in emotion and humanity. I expected it to be mostly depressing, but, although it had its sad moments, the tale was uplifting. I know it will remain long in my memory.

From Jessewave FOUR STARS

Rick Reed is an unusual voice in M/M romance, and in Superstar he lets us into Leon’s despair, tattered self esteem and his feelings of loss that what he wants will never be – the love of the man of his dreams....Whenever I read a book by Rick R. Reed he never fails to surprise me with the depth of emotions, and his prose is always wonderfully eloquent and poignant. If you’re looking for an  unusual love story you don’t have far to go – get Superstar.

From Bookwenches 4.75 Stars
...a brief but very intense story about unrequited love, obsession, despair, and redemption...Instead of having a happy ending, I would consider this a hopeful ending instead, because although there is no wandering off with joined hands into the sunset, it is evident that the future for both of the characters involved could possibly take a turn for the better...Superstar is a story that is more than worth the reading time. It is well-written and suspenseful, as we would expect from a story by Mr. Reed, and it packs a novel’s worth of emotion and psychological drama into a few pages and a very short time frame. This is not what I would consider a “fluffy” read; it is a highly involving, arresting, and even somewhat thought-provoking.


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Thursday, March 11, 2010

New Cover For SLUGGO SNARES A VAMPIRE


So what do you think? "Sluggo" is an ebook short that will be out in early April from Amber Allure (Amber Quill Press's GLBT imprint).

Here's a little synopsis:

When Sluggo cruised online chat rooms, he wasn’t looking for a hook-up; he was looking for love. But love has a way of being elusive, especially when you’re not being honest. Presenting himself as “Sir Raven,” Sluggo promises his chat room cohorts he is the “master of the night.”

And then he meets someone who challenges him—someone who claims the title, “master of the night” as his own. TepesAllure’s enigmatic and flirtatious messages to Sluggo start out as fun banter, but quickly turn to eerie disquiet.

How does TepesAllure know so much about Sluggo life? How can he know—without even a picture to go on—what Sluggo looks like? And what’s all this about an age numbering in the centuries and a curious taste for blood?

Has Sluggo snared a vampire? Or has the vampire snared him? As the night unfolds, so do the advances of TepesAllure…and even when Sluggo tries to escape, he finds that getting out is not nearly as easy as getting in.

But to make their online connection real, TepesAllure needs Sluggo to invite him in. Will Sluggo succumb to Tepes’ allure? And will the man of his dreams turn out to be a nightmare?

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Award-Winning Crime Fiction Writer PA Brown Tells Why She Writes

I write for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost as a way to focus my thoughts and feelings and try to come to some kind of understanding of why people are what they are. I've always wanted to know why people do the things they do, especially the ones who do things that seem beyond comprehension. That's why I'm drawn to the darker fiction I write. When I first started writing, my heroes were almost always good people, sometimes caught up in circumstances not of their making, but not out to hurt or do bad things. Over the years that has changed. I suspect because I am more aware of the depths of evil that people can hold in their heart.

When I was in my teens I read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and was stunned by the depths human hatred and depravity could go. In the beginning I sorted through that confusion by writing science fiction where I got to create worlds where goodness would prevail over hate. Maybe I grew disillusioned as I got older and wiser, but eventually my science fiction became darker. The last piece I wrote is the only one still in existence and it's about a very nasty man who instead of getting his just desserts, ends up more powerful than anyone else in the end. Then I became tired of SF and moved to mystery. But not soft, 'cozy' mysteries. No, I was fascinated by people like Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer. My very first mystery explored the motivations behind a brutal serial killer. That he was a closeted gay man who murdered the gay lovers of a man he was obsessed with only showed me the path I was going to take. Subsequent books have been darker. Human trafficking -- what motivates people to buy and sell other human beings for slavery in this supposedly enlightened day and age? Or how far will people go to avenge the ones they love and who are they willing to hurt along the way?

My latest research is into the 1920s Prohibition era in Los Angeles. A law that was supposed to improve lives instead created one of the largest criminal organizations in the United States that still exists to this day. Where did it go wrong? How could the people behind the Temperance movement have been so wrong? And how is it that the very people who were in charge of keeping order became the leading criminal element instead. I find all these things both fascinating and hard to understand. So I write about them to try to delve into the reasons and motivations. The human mind is incomprehensible and yet I feel compelled to explore it. And the only way I know how to do that is through words.

Pat Brown's approach to life was tempered in the forges of Los Angeles and after eight years there  she was endowed with a fascination for the darker side of life. She considers those years a life time's worth of experience that she mines regularly in her stories. Visit her on the web. Buy her latest book, LA Bytes.
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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Amber Allure Opens Doors for Submissions

I am quite proud to be associated with Amber Quill Press, and their GLBT imprint, Amber Allure. Until just recently, if you wanted to be considered for publication by Amber Quill or any of its imprints, you had to be invited.

But now, Amber Allure is opening its doors to submissions for a couple of specific projects. If you're an author of m/m fiction and are looking to get a foot in the door of one of the most professional publishers in the business, here's your chance.

Check out the details below. And good luck!

Shine A Light  Written In Blood  Taking Chances  On Company Time  You Were Always On My Mind 
Tangled Web  Bring The Heat  Fawnskin  Mariposa Soul  An Imitation Of Life 
 
ATTENTION AUTHORS OF M/M EROTIC FICTION
~ CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS ~
For the first time in its history, Amber Allure (the GLBT imprint of Amber Quill Press) is pleased to announce a Call for Submissions. Although we're not open to "general" submissions, we are looking for stories that fit very specific themes. For detailed information, please visit our website at...
http://amberquill.com/AmberAllure/AA_submissioncalls.html
 

Master Of Obsidian  Superstar  The Curse Of The Pharaoh's Manicurists  Bitter Creek's Redemption  Ticket To Ride
Oh, George  No Good Deed  Wild Horses  Furtive Ache  The Wolfe Proxy