JUNE 2010 M/M ROMANCE NEWSLETTER
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Welcome to our newsletter. We hope the content on this page is both informative and entertaining. We welcome feedback; you can send it to the Newsletter Editor. On another outreach note: The Dreamspinner Press blog is now open for business. Follow the blog to see author posts, book excerpts, contests, and other news from the press about M/M romance. Enjoy!
Lynn West, Editor in Chief, Dreamspinner Press
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AUTHOR INTERVIEW |
Why did you decide to write romance stories?
I love romance stories! I've read romance for as long as I can remember. I love star-crossed lovers, the idea of love at first sight and love being able to overcome the odds. I adore happy endings. I love it when characters get their Happily Ever After. I've been accused of having a rose-colored glasses view of the world, but the fact is, there aren't that many true happy endings in real life. So I like it when my characters can settle down with their true love. From a fiction standpoint, I'm a sap, but when it comes to real-life relationships, I tend to be somewhat cynical, which just fuels my desire to see my charters get the ending they deserve.
How do you decide to introduce real-world traumas into your stories?
I find how people respond to different circumstances fascinating; two people can face the same or very similar traumas/misfortunes and react in two drastically different ways. Why is that? What makes one person overcome and another give up? I'm certainly not qualified to answer those questions from a professional standpoint, but I enjoy creating characters who face what could be considered impossible odds, overcome them, and go on to find happiness. It makes them more real, more believable for me as a writer and hopefully more believable for the reader as well.
How were you introduced to M/M fiction?
Fan fiction. I started reading mostly DC (Diamond Comics) fan fiction, centered around Batman/Superman and other DC characters, and before I realized it, I was addicted to reading slash and I even started writing it. Soon after that, I found myself reading - and loving - M/M romance. There are some amazing authors in this genre, and I quickly reached a point where about 90% of what I was reading was M/M, which is still the case.
What are five of your favorite books/series?
Arsenic and Rio and After Arsenic and Rio by D.J. Manly. Actually anything written by D.J. Manly is amazing and wonderful and worthy of being read and reread.
My Fair Captain and The Englor Affair by J.L. Langley.
The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. The series gets made fun of so often, but I think Meyer did a remarkable job creating a cast of diverse and complex characters.
Zero At The Bone by Jane Seville. One of the best M/M stories I have ever read, hands down.
Finding Zach by Rowan Speedwell. I just finished reading this book recently, and I can't begin to say enough wonderful things about the plot, the characters... everything was remarkable.
Why did you decide to try to publish your stories?
Honestly, it was kind of a whim. I had tried to get published years ago. Nothing came of it, and I was mostly writing fan fiction, just for fun, when I decided to write something original. Basically, for the hell of it, I submitted it, and shock of all shocks, When Love Comes Back Around was accepted. Finally Home was accepted after that, and things just sort of kept going from there. I'm still amazed and I still get excited each time a story is accepted; I consider myself blessed to be published by Dreamspinner and to be in the company of so many fabulous authors.
Born and raised in Florida, Lisa Marie Davis spends her time writing and babysitting her nearly three-year-old nephew, Zach. A night owl, most of her writing gets done well after one in the morning when the rest of the world is happily sleeping. Visit her blog.
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Win an eBook copy of any work by this author. Clues are available in author bios on our web site.
An author who specializes in pratfalls and sarcasm, her novels run the gamut from light romance to suspense thrillers, including an epic novel that is Dreamspinner Press's longest paperback publication to date.
E-mail the Newsletter Editor with your answer. A winner will be chosen randomly from the correct answers. Contest ends June 30.
The correct answers to last month's question: This author is a highly imaginative Southern girl with a penchant for happy bodice-ripperish Regency romances. Persephone Roth.
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I jolt awake from a dark, angry dream as lightning strikes somewhere nearby. A wall of sound slams into the house, shaking the windows in their ancient casements. The bedroom's dark, but the digital clock glows reassuringly on the bedside table. Andy's curled in a ball beside me, his body warm, his breath even and untroubled. Nick's side of the bed is empty, cool to the touch. As my eyes adjust and the last remnants of sleep bleed from my consciousness, I hear a laugh track somewhere down the hall.
I slide out of bed, grabbing a pair of Nick's striped boxers and his faded Sandman T-shirt. I pull on the boxers and stretch into the shirt, letting the smell of Nick-sweat, cigarettes, and sandalwood-envelop me.
The wood flooring in the hallway is cold, the winter rainstorm bringing cold weather in its destructive wake. Lightning and thunder stalk each other across the sky in an furious frenzy.
"Can't sleep, baby?" Nick's sitting on a leather sofa in his study with only the flickering light of the television to pierce the darkness between lightning strikes. He's curled beneath an old blanket the color of dried blood watching an old episode of Bewitched. Samantha is seeding Darrin's dreams with glimpses of a future in which she comes out of her witchy closet, only to be abducted by the military for interrogation. Nick's eyes are cold and distant, unaware of the dreaming on the screen.
"Yeah," he says, not looking at me. "It's Theo."
"Nightmares?"
"Yeah," he says again, finally looking up at me, letting his face shift into a half-smile. "Did I wake you?"
I point to the ceiling, the sounds of thunder still rumbling across the roof like a speeding freight train. He nods.
"Samantha's keeping you company?"
He looks back at me and smiles again, this time a broader, more natural smile. "I'm okay, Oliver; I just can't sleep with Theo inside my head."
"He who writes of monsters," I say, stepping over to his worktable and looking down at the stack of books and papers and photographs. A Stanley Burns collection of crime scene photos is laid open to a grainy black and white photo of a naked boy whose body has been skinned and dumped in a cardboard box. The rest of the table tells a similar story: stacks of books about serial killers, autopsies, and forensic psychology. Photos of Dahmer, Gacy, and Gein—faces haggard or grinning beneath cold, dark eyes-are tacked up in a precise row on the wall above Nick's laptop.
"Okay if I join you?" I ask, sitting next to him on the sofa. I run my fingers through his dark curly hair. He's a Greek god; high forehead, prominent nose, and startlingly perfect symmetrical features. He looks up at me, his brown eyes hauntingly sad in the flickering darkness. I kiss him gently on his unresponsive lips. His face is slack with melancholy; I stroke his cheek and whisper, "I love you, baby."
I run my warm hands from his thigh down along his leg; he smiles and looks back at me.
"I love you too, Oliver. I don't mean to be aloof—"
"It's okay," I interrupt him. "You just go so far away sometimes—"
"It's what I do," he says, talking over me, eyes flashing defensively.
"—I worry about you."
He deflates a little. "I know you do."
"You're my life," I say, touching his knuckles to my lips and kissing them gently.
He leans closer to me, moving his cold cheek against my own. "You're the reason I can travel so far and still find my way back," he says.
We kiss again, our lips dry and tentative, parched like travelers after a grueling journey. He leans toward me, his cold fingers pulling up the hem of my T-shirt and grasping my sides. "Jesus, Nick, your hands are freezing."
He grins back and reaches for my nipples, pinching them hard and laughing a little when I squirm in a half-hearted attempt to get away from him. He takes that as a challenge and launches his long muscular body against me. He's lithe and strong like a feline predator, slamming me a little harder than I expect onto my back. He knocks the wind out of me; I can see uncertainty flare behind his eyes.
"Think you can take me, Nicky?" I ask, flipping my legs up around his waist and wrenching the two of us off the sofa. We slam onto the ancient Bijar with a thud that rattles the art on the walls. I fall on top of him, knocking the wind out of him and pinning him to the floor. I rock my body against him. Our erections are straining to get to each other through the flimsy cotton. He reaches down with a swift motion and pulls his thick cock through the fly of his boxers and gives it a couple of long, hard strokes. I move against his leg, feeling the friction build along the soft underside of my own cock. He jacks his cock in a fast, even motion while I mash against his leg. I slide up and down, pushing my cock against him, straining against the cotton. When my mouth finds his, we kiss and kiss, his stubble abrading my skin until my face is aflame. He makes a noise in the back of his throat as the first spurts of cum fly up onto his T-shirt. I push against him a couple more times and feel my own cum flooding into the hot cotton of my boxers.
Nick pulls me close, turning on his side and touching his hot forehead to mine. His breath is close and familiar, lulling me into a warm, easy torpor. My eyelids droop; my final retinal imprint before sleep is that of Nick's wide staring eyes, eluding Morpheus as the murderous Theo continues his rampage through Nick's soul.
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The One That Got Away
By Rhianne Aile and Madeleine Urban
"These characters grab your heart and you can't wait to see what happens to them as you turn each page.... If you like books about strong, hot, sexy manly men with sensitive sides who take their friendship and develop something from there, then definitely give this book a try."
Dark Diva Reviews
Patient Eyes
By Andy Eisenberg
"Andy Eisenberg has created a superb story which focuses on the motivation for the choices made, the good and bad consequence on family relationships as well as the decisions Jaden and Brendan must deal with. Patient Eyes is an excellent happy-ever-after saga that I enjoyed immensely."
Literary Nymphs
All for One
By Nicki Bennett and Ariel Tachna
"I've always loved a good swashbuckling story involving swords, danger and conspiracy. And these authors delivered all three with deeply seated passion and a desperate need to find that one person to cherish."
Two Lips Reviews
Beautiful Viking
By Steve Sampson
"The characters are very engaging and well developed, the story is well thought out and written, and the m/m sex scenes are really steamy. But the thing I liked most about it is that it's a love story in the truest sense."
The Romance Studio
Jude in Chains
By K.Z. Snow
"Even though the subject of the book is reparative therapy, there are quite a few humorous moments throughout the story that kept it well balanced and also prevented it from being all doom and gloom. The ending was unexpected but enjoyable; in fact I found the whole book enjoyable."
Dark Divas Reviews
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NEWS |
Dreamspinner authors M. Jules Aedin, Bethany Brown, Sean Kennedy, and Madeleine Urban took part in an interview about co-authoring at Three Dollar Bill Reviews.
Anchors Aweigh by Janey Chapel was nominated in a Book of the Week poll in May at Whipped Cream Reviews.
Mastering Toby by Jan Irving won a Reviewer's Choice award at Two Lips Reviews in May.
Read these interviews of the author of Bones of Summer, Anne Brooke: One is at Author Offerings; another is at Kippoe.
Read these interviews of the author of Everything Under the Sun, Rachel West: One is by Roseanne Dowell; another is at The Moody Muses.
Roseanne Dowell interviewed Pump Me Up author Andrew Grey.
Heidi Cullinan, author of Special Delivery and Double Blind, has launched an author newsletter. Get more info at her web site.
Dreamspinner Press will be chatting at a Beth Wylde Pride chat on July 1. More information here. Readers welcome!
Dawn Kimberly Johnson posted a free story on the Dreamspinner Press blog.
Dreamspinner Press will have a table at Yaoicon in San Francisco, Oct. 29-31, and many of our authors will be present. Check this news column for updates!
Rosina Scott, author of The Razor's Kiss, was interviewed by Roseanne Dowell recently.
William Cooper, author of Broken Bones, Mended Hearts, took part in interviews with Rowan Speedwell, Roseanne Dowell, and Shae Connor.
Corrina Lawson, author and contributor to Sequential Tart, a webzine about the comics industry and the influence of women in comics and other realms, conducted an interview with Heidi Cullinan about writing M/M novels.
Ariel Tachna talked about wine and food and travel with Romance in the Back Seat during a recent interview.
Dreamspinner Facebook Page
Our new Facebook page contains a variety of exciting ways to keep up with Dreamspinner's news. We post new release bulletins, share reviews, announce contests and interviews with our authors, and offer opportunities for readers to talk about their favorite books in the discussion threads. In addition, we have the occasional contest or discount only available if you follow us on Facebook!
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What kind of romance stories do you accept?
Dreamspinner Press is seeking gay male romance stories in almost all genres. While works do not need to be graphic, they must contain homosexual romance of an erotic nature and focus on the interaction between two or more male characters. We encourage tales that cross genres; for example, a science-fiction mystery or romantic fantasy. Stories can stand alone or be part of a well-developed series.
ROMANCE – Modern or historical love stories with strong characters.
SCIENCE FICTION – Science fiction, urban fantasy worlds, futuristic, time travel, and alternate reality stories.
FANTASY – Dragons, elves, fairies, and knights in shining armor.
WESTERNS – Cowboys, ranchers, rodeo riders, and Native Americans.
MILITARY/ PARAMILITARY/ MERCENARY – Political thrillers, espionage, and in-the-field stories.
MYSTERY/SUSPENSE – Provincial country detectives, fast-paced thrillers, or hard-boiled PIs.
PARANORMAL – Scare us with your vampires, zombies, and things that go bump in the night.
HOLIDAY STORIES – Valentine’s Day, Halloween, or Christmas.
What kind of stories are most likely to be accepted right now?
At this time, submissions of light contemporary romance, murder mysteries, science fiction, and Westerns have the best chance of being accepted. Lowest chance: fantasy/paranormal and BDSM/Kink.
Will you accept submissions of a series of books?
Stories can stand alone or be part of a well-developed series. If the novels are a true series and build upon one another, we do require that the bulk of the series be complete and submitted to us for consideration. If you plan sequels that stand alone, those may be submitted separately as written. It is part of our standard contract to ask for right of first refusal to characters/material related to what we have already published.
Where can I buy your books?
We operate our own store at dreamspinnerpress.com. Our publications, paperback and eBook, are available through Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Borders.com, and other book outlets. Our books are available in eBook format through sellers such as All Romance eBooks.
I bought an eBook from you a few months ago. My computer crashed and I lost it. Can I get it again?
If you purchased your eBook through dreamspinnerpress.com, you have an eternal bookshelf in your account. All purchases are maintained on that bookshelf, and you can download any eBook format version as many times as you like.
What anthologies do you still have planned for this year?
Calls for Submissions coming soon: Myths and Magic: Legends of Love, edited by Anne Regan; the 2010 Dreamspinner Press Advent Calendar: Naughty or Nice, edited by Lynn West; and Riding Double, an anthology of Westerns, edited by Anne Regan.
Ask the Editor in an e-mail to the Newsletter Editor.
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DREAMSPINNER PRESS |
Launched in May 2007, Dreamspinner Press offers quiet romance, supernatural passion, out-of-this-world lovers, kinky explorations, and heated dreams--a little taste to whet your appetite for romantic homoerotica. We hope you take a little time to be enchanted, romanced, and loved by enjoying the publications of Dreamspinner Press.
We appreciate your patronage! Please e-mail feedback to contact@dreamspinnerpress.com or mail to Dreamspinner Press, 4760 Preston Road, Suite 244-149, Frisco, TX 75034, USA. Thank you!
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