gay romance | Thorny, Not Prickly

Calling All M/M Holiday Stories!

December 2, 2012 by Thorny 17 Comments

I’m celebrating the removal of my cast on December 7th with holiday-themed M/M romance stories!

I want to see your long, thick, muscular, hairy– Wait. Hold on. Wrong list. {ahem}

I want to see your fave novels, novellas, short stories, and freebies featuring Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or any other holiday (even something made-up) so long as the point is family, charity, reunions, gifts, and other seasonal themes.

I’m going to gather up a list and post it on Monday, December 10, so use the form below to tell me about the books you’ve always loved or the ones you’re looking forward to this season. (Please note that the form is going to fill out a Google Doc for me, so I won’t search the comments for recommendations too. If you want me to know about a book and list it later, please use the form.)

The list goes up on the day my week of finals starts, so Jazz and Alec are going to be in charge of posts and whatnot until I’m free from all that and can think again. They’ve both said they’ll handle this list and that they have other stuff all ready, but they won’t share what the “other stuff” is. I’m trying not to worry…

>> Click Here to Open a New Tab/Window with the Form <<

Filed under Events, Fun Stuff Tagged with christmas, gay romance, Hanukkah, holiday-themed stories, Kwanzaa, m/m romance

Matchmaker Success #2

November 30, 2012 by Thorny 33 Comments

When I started college last year, or really when I got my job at the art school, I met a guy named Sean and we’ve been cohorts ever since. It was Sean’s class I attended in December 2011 to hear a discharged Marine speak on some of his experiences and met Alec for the first time. Sean actually flirted like crazy with Alec, but I totally wrong for each other. Sean’s like tequila and fireworks, explosive fun but just not right for Alec — Carter’s hot cocoa and snuggling, perfect for Alec

I’ve wanted to matchmake Sean ever since.

And now I’ve done it

During My Cowboy Weekend, I introduced Sean — perky, drama diva, twink — to Jazz’s friend Miles — calm, serious, bear. Opposites attract, right? Yes, they do!

OK, no, not at first. Sean was a little book-cover-judgey about bearish, older, nerds who were older. He got a little stuck on that. I persevered, though! When Jazz and I would go out with a group, Miles and Sean were always with us. Miles knew the score, turned on the charm, and eventually Sean started paying more attention.

See, I love Sean, but he’s a slut who thinks that’s how he’ll find his One True Love. Because he does want to fall in love, be committed, grow old, etc. and have his Happily Ever After. He’s seen me and Jazz and commented a whole lot on how he wants that too. He’s just a little wrapped up in looks and money and partying. Not that there’s anything wrong with that or even that it’s a bad way to meet Mr. Right! It just hasn’t worked for him yet, and I know he’s not happy. So since Miles is settled, experienced, but just as current on all things in the popular media as Sean is, I figured I’d point them at each other a few times and see what happened.

“Miles, you remember Sean. He was just telling me his thoughts on the end of Jersey Shore and what might become of what’s-her-name. Bow-wow? What do you think?”

Amazing that such a superficial pile of crapola can set off sparks…

That meeting was on a Friday night and I didn’t see or hear from Sean until Tuesday afternoon…and he was really, really, contemplatively quiet. Either everything went horribly wrong when Miles took Sean home, or somebody’s 9 watt bulb got swapped out for a 100 watt one and Miles clicked that sucker on. I could not sit still and literally had to bite my tongue while waiting for Sean to figure out what he wanted to say.

“I spent the whole weekend at Miles’ place. It was just so… I really don’t want to screw this up. What should I do?”

After I got done squeeing myself hoarse, we discussed what he was worried about, what he wanted, and the many, many benefits of speaking honestly to Miles even if it was the scariest thing ever. Then he went and called Miles so they could have dinner and talk. Jazz said he had a similar conversation with Miles about not screwing things up with Sean.

That was 3 weeks ago and they’re still seeing each other!

I swear, I should do this professionally.

Speaking of…

My LC Chase has a new book out called Love Brokers: Mister Romance that features a Matchmaker and a Romance Coach helping their clients and slowly finding their way toward each other. I just cannot imagine where she got that little plot bunny…

Jacob Cruz, aka “Mr. Matchmaker”, has an uncanny knack for knowing who would be perfect for whom, which led to his own successful matchmaking company, His Perfect Match. His record is nearly flawless, but when it comes to his own love life he always seems to miss the mark.

Brant Hudson, aka “Mr. Romance”, is a hopeless romantic with his own romance consulting business. He knows every move in the book to win a heart and build a lasting, loving relationship, heck, he wrote the book. Even knowing what he knows, seeing his clients’ relationships bloom and grow, his own seems to miss the spark.

Sparks fly the first time Jacob and Brant meet at a New Year’s Eve party, but bad timing and sitcom-worthy mishaps conspire against them at every turn, from demanding clients to current boyfriends, spilled drinks to broken bones, and a rogue ferret. How can the perfect couple ever hope to make it work when Old Lady Fate refuses to get out of their way?

Available now from Loose Id!

Filed under Author Friends, Doing Tagged with friends, gay boys, gay romance, LC Chase, love, Love Brokers: Mister Romance, Matchmaker, Matchmaking, Miles, Sean

When Christopher Met Herman

November 25, 2012 by Thorny 34 Comments

I was going to post a 6-Sentence Sunday from Splinters, but then realized I’ve got very little new written in there. School’s slowed that down and being broken has slowed it down even more. I think I won’t really be able to get into Splinters again until after the cast comes off and finals are done next month. Thankfully, I’ll have a whole month off before Spring semester starts, so I’ll concentrate on writing then.

In the meantime, I’m breaking my previous rule about not posting anything from my writing class until it was over. It’s been weeks since I turned this one in, so I doubt anyone’s still looking for it–if they ever were. So, this is that assignment where I wrote about the first time two characters meet. I haven’t written anything more on it, but I’ve got lots of notes on where I see them going. Definite drama, definite HEA.

Oh and Christopher is a good example of an effeminate gay IMHO Read more of this post

Filed under School, Writing Tagged with broken wrist, gay authors, gay romance, Herman, m/m romance

Just a Giant THANK YOU

November 21, 2012 by Thorny 22 Comments

My reaction to too much stress is exhaustion. I won’t lie and say I didn’t have some anxiety about my posts yesterday because I so did. That jumpy-jittery feeling all day, wanting to look at comments and not wanting to, and then yawning like my jaw had come unhinged.

Then we get home last night and I was standing in the living room, probably weebling a little, and Jazz is like “go take a nap until dinner.” I thought that was a good idea, turned to head upstairs, and fell over the arm of the couch. “I think I’ll stay here,” I said, and Jazz was nice enough to cover me up. I woke up an hour and a half later to Jazz ladling out Mama Bear’s grilled cheese and tomato bisque soup (Her leftovers mysteriously disappeared once and we ration the heckfire out of this ambrosia usually, but last night we totally splurged. We even had toasty croutons!)

Now that I’m not stressed out anymore, I’m looking back, reading the comments again, and just so in love with all the support, understanding, agreements, and conversations. It seriously warms me up and makes me feel like we accomplished something. I’m going to hold onto that and echo Brad’s comment from the C&D post by carrying over the celebration of all the wonderful varieties of gay men in fiction into one of the things I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving.

There are some comments I still want to reply to in here and over there, but then I’ll be offline until after the holiday. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving Day tomorrow and that you’re all sweet little angels while shopping on Friday. Try, anyway

Filed under Doing, Seeing Tagged with being brave, being strong, gay authors, gay romance, standing up, support

Effeminate Gay Men in M/M Romances

November 20, 2012 by Thorny 61 Comments

So the thing that was brewing in my brain has settled down and made sense enough that I can share it now. In prepping it, though, I asked for the help of some of my author friends and, therefore, the post is going up over on Chicks & Dicks. Well, and they kinda like me and have promised to look out for me over there

Incidentally, the site’s name plays with the words I’m taking issue with in my post. The playing I’m fine with, but the term “chicks with dicks” is where I get really upset and I’m not letting it go this time. Click on over to read my post, This Really Needs to Stop by Thorny Sterling.

Now below is a list of books that I believe feature effeminate gay men with respect and in ways I can relate to. Yes, it’s my personal opinion and yours may differ, but I like these books and I like these characters. I can also identify with them, and just the fact someone wrote about guys like me makes me very happy.

One True Thing by Piper Vaughn & MJ O'Shea

Strawberries for Dessert by Marie Sexton

There’s a list on Goodreads called Best Gay “Flamboyant” Characters with 78 books listed. Some I agree with and others not so much. (I’ve also realized I’m behind on updating my “read” list…) But I’m glad it’s there at all.

Do you have any additional books that you think qualify as a good representation of effeminate gay men in m/m romances? I’d love to know what those books are and why you think they’re good characters.

Filed under Seeing Tagged with being brave, being strong, gay boys, gay romance, m/m romance, opinions, standing up