Congrats to
Trix
for winning the copy of the Trucker Fucker by Barry Lowe. I’ve already emailed Trix, so they should already have received my email, but if not, please email me at armchairreader[dot]coleriann[at]gmail[dot]com so you can your download code for your book. Thanks for playing everyone and thank you all for stopping by and commenting on Barry’s guest post about writing gay sex.
Congrats to
Trix
for winning the copy of the The Beginning of Knowledge by Anne Brooke. I’ve already emailed Trix, so they should already have received my email, but if not, please email me at armchairreader[dot]coleriann[at]gmail[dot]com so you can your download code for your book. Thanks for playing everyone and thank you all for stopping by and commenting on Anne’s guest post — “Erotica or How to Be Fully Human”.
Congrats to these winners!
Sonata by AF Henley: Karl
Freeman by Clare London: Andrea M
King Mai by Edmond Manning: parisfanca
I’ve written both Andrea M and parisfanca, but if you didn’t get my email, please email me at armchairreader[dot]coleriann[at]gmail[dot]com to get a copy of your book. I’ll have to draw another name if I don’t hear from you in 48 hours.
Thank you to everyone who commented and read all three of these really wonderful posts! AF Henley’s guest post (“Kids in Fics”), Clare’s guest post (“The Unreliable Narrator”) and Edmond’s guest post (“Opening a Man’s Heart”).
Buy Links:
Sonata – http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=90&products_id=487
Freeman – http://coleriann.com/2013/07/19/opening-a-mans-heart-a-guest-post-by-edmond-manning-giveaway/
King Mai – http://www.amazon.com/King-Mai-Lost-Founds-ebook/dp/B00DXMVCO0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374860796&sr=8-1&keywords=king+mai+manning
Click the links to enter these still open giveaways!
Taboo For You by Anyta Sunday – Ends Tonight!
The Beginning of Knowledge by Anne Brooke – Ends Tomorrow (7/27)
The Art Appreciation Blog Tour – Ends Tomorrow (7/27)
- Painting in the Rain by Dev Bentham
- Blinded by Our Eyes by Clare London
- Sympathy by Jordan Castillo Price
Surfeit for the Senses (Appetite #3) by Talya Andor – Ends 7/28
Trucker Fucker by Barry Lowe – Ends 7/28
The two questions I’m often asked by friends and strangers alike are: when did I start writing and, more especially, why I write about sex – more often the term they use is ‘filth.’
The first question is easy. I began writing fiction in sixth class at school. I was twelve and wrote in pen and ink in an old exercise book. The story was about a teenage detective called The Count. My sympathetic teacher allowed me to read a chapter in front of the class every few days for as long as The Count’s adventures continued. Unfortunately, I no longer have those precious school books of my early scribblings influenced by my reading of Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven series among others.
The second part of that question has a moral component, for the subtext from most questioners is that writing about sex is not quite respectable and writing about gay sex is even less so. In fact, I’ve discovered from experience that writing about gay men, whether it be erotica or romance, even without the conjoining of genitalia, it’s considered writing about ‘sex.’ I’ve even had a few acquaintances ask me ‘When are you going to write something nice?’
By their definition of ‘nice,’ the simple answer is never.
Up until a little over three years ago my writing was of the journalistic/critic variety with the odd foray into erotica anthologies. Plus excursions into the dramatic. I penned a one-man play about Joey Stefano which was seen all over the world, plus a number of smutty gay sex comedies, and a film script, Violet’s Visit.
I enjoy writing about sex – gay sex – and not in that agonizing way of men fretting over coming out. Most of my men are out and proud to start with. Their problems are not usually of closetedness but are caused by an oppressive society.
Three years ago I discovered eBooks and the seductive world of m/m romance although the majority of my work cannot be confined within the parameters of the ‘official’ m/m romance paradigm. Claudia of loveyoudivine Alterotica, my publisher for whom I churned out short erotic romance weekly over thirty-six months before illness forced the company to close, encouraged me to write what my heart, and more importantly my groin, loved. Since loveyoudivine closed, most of my works are being released in anthology form by Lydian Press.
I’m not big on HEA or HFN even though I have been in a wonderful relationship with the same man for over forty years. I don’t buy into the Hollywood ideal of fidelity and monogamy; I believe love can encompass all sorts of alternative possibilities. If monogamy works for you, great. Just don’t expect me to write every story about it. There are too many untold stories out there, from gay cuckolding through water sports, daddy role playing, and horny space aliens for me to be happily confined in one genre.
Sometimes my imagination can get a little ‘extreme’ although one reader’s extreme is another reader’s vanilla. Trucker Fucker, recently released by Wilde City Press is an example of what many readers would consider flaming hot and way over the top. The sex is unrelenting, brutal and, for most parts, deliciously sleazy. How you react to it will depend on what gets your juices going. I’m a gay man who came of age in another era: the 1960s. And I came as often as I could, standing in and around public toilets or surf club changing rooms as they were the only place I knew to find men who wanted other men.
I graduated later to bars, saunas and coffee lounges but not before I’d met my share of sluts, nuts, and married men. Sex is just another appetite like eating and sleeping. Like eating, it can be a fast food takeaway for instant gratification or it can be a gourmet meal to be savored. Quite frankly, I like both.
GIVEAWAY RULES
Please leave a comment below to win an ebook copy of Trucker Fucker. The giveaway will last until Midnight CDT on Sunday, July 28. I will choose the winner using Random.org and email the winner who will then have 48 hours from the time of the drawing to reply to my email. I will then forward the winner’s information to the author so the winner can receive their book.
Please enter the email you’d wish me to contact you at in the comment form, or if you prefer, leave it in the message.
Thank you and good luck!
GIVEAWAY CLOSED
Let’s get the biggie out of the way first (as it were): I love writing sex. Yes, I admit it. It’s one of the high points of my writing life. Even when I’m not writing about sex, I’m thinking about writing it. It’s part of all my novels, and most of my short stories. Even when no sex takes place.
At heart, you see, I believe being erotic is simply part of being human. We’re all physical and sexual (or at least with the capacity for being sexual) people, and including that aspect of our lives within literature is a celebration of being alive and of being who we are.
Neither is erotica the same as erotic romance, though both are wonderful genres and I fully support and regularly read work from either category. Love and romance is a fantastic part of life, whether it’s something where we have personal experience or not. On the other hand, we’re all born with bodies which are responsive and which are an integral part of our characters and how we develop. We can all relate to erotic writing, whether or not we can relate to romance writing.
More to the point, when it comes to erotica writing, the best stories are actually those – wait for it!… – which don’t use the sex scenes as the be-all-and-end-all of a story. Yes, that might seem counter-intuitive, but actually if you’re reading a sex scene and the only thing you’re getting from it is the sex itself, then it’s not erotica. It’s porn. Which is all perfectly fine, if that’s what you were expecting.
Erotica, however, should take you somewhere different. Yes, the sex is hot – or should be! – but good erotica should actually be showing you more about the characters involved and giving you an intimate insight into their lives and what drives them. Erotica is all about character – and character is what should make a book sing. Good erotic writing reminds us at a very deep level just how human we all are, in the body, under the skin. It reminds us we’re not all about minds and hearts, but about flesh and blood too.
If sex, therefore, is doing its job properly, it should reveal character and the real, physical relationship between characters in a way that nothing else can. It should also move the storyline along as part of that deepening understanding of character. TIP to my fellow writers: If something else at that point can reveal your character better than a sex scene, then DON’T WRITE THE SEX SCENE – write the “something else”. Good sex writing shows the people you’re writing about being themselves most clearly and most closely – and that kind of intimacy with a character is what the reader – and the writer – wants.
Erotica can also take us to places in our lives we hadn’t realised we felt quite so strongly about, and can therefore be both exciting and challenging, as well as deeply revealing. And that’s whether you’re a reader or a writer. When I started to write my erotic story The Beginning of Knowledge, I wasn’t expecting my main character, Alan, to be so very quietly angry and desperate about important aspects of his life, and for him to express these darker emotions quite so passionately through his sexual relationship with his younger colleague, Luke.
Luke brings out something in Alan – something both delightful and dangerous – that he’s never acknowledged before. It is a revelation to him, and was also one to me too. Quite honestly, writing this story scared me – partly because though I’ve always known I do carry quite a lot of anger around with me, I hadn’t realised how deeply it goes, and partly because I’d never before acknowledged the link in my mind between sex and the dangerous vulnerability of being known by someone else. Goodness, there’s something for my counsellor to get her head round, if I ever have the courage to discuss it!…
So, if you’ve not read any erotica before or you think it’s maybe not for you, then don’t dismiss it without giving the best erotic writing a chance. Because, at its best, erotic writing is about life, character and the world & bodies we live in. At its very best, it’s all about ourselves.
GIVEAWAY RULES
Please leave a comment below to win an ebook copy of The Beginning of Knowledge. The giveaway will last until Midnight on Saturday, July 27. I will choose the winner using Random.org and email the winner who will then have 48 hours from the time of the drawing to reply to my email. I will then forward the winner’s information to the author so the winner can receive their book.
Please enter the email you’d wish me to contact you at in the comment form, or if you prefer, leave it in the message.
Thank you and good luck!
GIVEAWAY CLOSED
Title: The Beginning of Knowledge
Author: Anne Brooke
Publisher: Wilde City
Length: 12k words
Genre: m/m Contemporary Erotica
Heat: 4 – Spicy & Smutty
Sex Frequency: 4 – Very Often
Keywords/Tags: Short Story, Charlie Harding Presents, Wilde City Press Erotica Week, Dark, Kink (Pain, Humiliation), Public Sex, Self Discovery
Rating: Really Liked It
BLURB
When University administrator Alan Castleton meets temporary worker and talented pianist Luke Milton, he doesn’t expect to become obsessed with the handsome young blond. But soon he is heavily involved in a passionate and angry affair, and exploring the dark shadows of his own personality in a way he’s never encountered before.
The more Alan tries to break free from his obsession, the deeper it entangles him. The dangerous split between his reason and his sexual desires threatens his peace of mind and, when the crisis point comes, he must decide once and for all the kind of life he should lead.
REVIEW
Now this is the type of erotica that I like to read! I mean, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a romp or what have you but Anne has written a darkly erotic story that is much more a story about self-discovery than a rough frame for porn without any reason. And Anne is so good at writing these types of stories. Here we have a man (Alan) who is at a point in his life of stagnancy. His relationships always fail and he’s grown to believe it’s solely because of him and his reaction is to abstain from any kind of relationship for a while and go about his life concentrating on his job. What he doesn’t expect is Luke, the new temp in his office that pushes all his buttons — the ones he learns that he’s not sure he ever wanted pushed. Luke makes him feel powerful, but only at the end of his degradation and abuse against him, and that feeling of power over Luke is at the same time addictive and dangerous.
What we have with this story is almost a character study of a man who feels powerless finding power over someone else. He learns throughout the story just how dangerous he is, but that is both because he is in denial of who he really is and that he hasn’t really dealt with his feelings and his past. I think that more than anything this is a smart story, because Anne forces you to confront your own feelings about Alan and Luke. Many will finish this story seeing the sex and pain as the focus, of one man being dragged into a world of Dominance that he doesn’t understand and finding that he revels in it. That it, and the story, is dark and sinfully sexy. I came away with something different from this story, and perhaps that’s what defines this story more than anything, your own perception of it. I found it as a story of a man, Alan, who doesn’t understand himself. He ends up in a darkly addictive spiral out of control because he never faced his issues head on. He always tries to run from them, and so they hold on to him all the stronger.
But it is worth finding out on your own. The writing here is superb. I felt as if I knew Alan intimately only a few pages into his first person narrative because for all that he’s blind to what is going on he’s starkly transparent. So I commend Anne for writing a story that is indeed knowledgable, that is informative but at the same time seductively sexy. I think you should read this one just to see what you take from it.
The Armchair Reader 