When I set out to write my M/M romance novel, Mercury Rising, I had questions – lots of questions. Luckily, I had an army of gay followers on Twitter to query. See, I have gay friends in real life, but there are some things I’m not comfortable asking people I actually know. Details about sex are high on that list.
One of my earliest queries pertained to the first love scene between Dillon and Mercury. I wanted them to hook up randomly in a deserted hallway. I didn’t want them to talk at length beforehand. I didn’t want them to build a rapport. In fact, I aimed for each of them to objectify the other in that first interaction. Sometimes we (gay or straight) want to make out with a fantasy. Why ruin a perfectly good illusion by getting to know the person?
I wondered, though, was I stereotyping gay men as sluts? Was I wrong to think a couple of young, hot gay guys would blow each other on a loading dock based on nothing but mutual attraction and a desire for slightly self-destructive fun?
No. According my Twittosphere, a couple of men would have no moral compunctions whatsoever about shagging in a deserted hallway. And that, in a word, is why I love men.
Firstly, the random hallway hook-up worked out great with my plot. So, yay. Second, it’s so refreshing to not have to deal with the whole “slut” issue. It’s pretty hard to write a female character having anonymous, meaningless sex. There’s judgment, censure, feelings. So even though some women do occasionally enjoy casual sex, it can be hard to write about it.
Not so with gay men! Boys can have meaningless sex with anyone they want, even in a romance novel! To a female writer, this is a revelation. Sex without feeling, and emotion without sex – it’s a fascinating concept, and one I hope to explore more as I continue to write male-male.
And I’m sure there are men who can’t have meaningless sex, men who fall in love with anyone they get physical with. But that doesn’t seem to be the norm. Boys are different and hot and it’s exciting to think of them doing all the things with eachother that I’d never dareHow about you? Why do you like to write (or read) male-male romance.
More about Daisy Harris:
Birkenstock-wearing glamour girl and mother of two by immaculate conception, Daisy Harris still isn’t sure if she writes erotica. Her paranormal romances start out innocently enough. However, her characters behave like complete sluts. Much to Miss Harris’s dismay, the sex tends to get completely out of hand. She writes about trampy mermaids, sexy dragons, and snuff-y shark-shifters. Her work also features zombie ingenues, horny gods, and some holiday characters like you’ve never seen them before. And there’s almost always a mad scientist in there somewhereIf you like science-y subplots, fantastical creatures, and red-hot chemistry, you’ll love Daisy Harris. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and www.thedaisyharris.com.
More about her latest release, Mercury Rising:
Take a sexy romp with the gods in this hilarious and hot ménage! Over-extended-and closeted-charmer, Mercury the Messenger, struggles to accommodate all the factions of the Deities International Conference and Kibbitz. However, his skills at diplomacy stretch to the limit when the object of a chance tryst turns out to be his assistant, and his arranged fiancée arrives at the scene. Dillon Rodriquez, Mercury’s executive aide and soon-to-be MBA student, refuses to be the closeted god’s sidedish. But when an accident at the conference strands the god in the human world, Dillon agrees to act as his guide. Traveling from San Diego down the Baha Coast to Cabo, Mercury experiences a side of life he never imagined, and he learns that if he wants to earn the love of the one man who matters, he has to stop trying to please everyone else.
MERCURY RISING is available for purchase here.
I have to admit, I like yaoi novels better than manga. What??? you say? Yep, I do. Maybe that has something to do with why I write yaoi and m/m romance novels instead of drawing comic panels (which I think takes way more talent than I have). Although my eyes certainly appreciate the man candy action of a good yaoi manga, I find they’re too dang short. I like quite a bit more meat (pun intended) in my stories. More back story, more character development, more man loving and certainly more plot development.
There are a few manga/webcomics I can’t live without – Starfighter being the main one. I mean, who doesn’t like that? Hot headed, evil dark hero(?) paired with innocent blond hero who needs hard, passionate sex… I wonder sometimes what that would look like in a novel form or if it would even work. If that’s the case, I wonder if the medium drives the plots in found yaoi novels versus yaoi manga? Can they be interchanged?
