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Tag: m/m romance books

Writing the Perfect M/M Romance Hero – Can It Be Done?

Perfect Hero for M/M RomanceHot guys come in all flavors and sizes. So as a writer of M/M romance books, I’m always striving to make the perfect hero. Of course, this means the perfect hero as I see the perfect hero, because, after all, I only have my own perception to rely on. And what is the perfect hero in my view? Usually a hero that’s not so perfect, if that makes any sense:)

To me, the perfect hero is a dichotomy – a man that’s strong and protective and yet flawed, sensitive and vulnerable. Yep, I said all those things in one sentence. It seems I’m always drawn to heroes I see in anime – Vincent Law of Ergo Proxy (do I talk enough about this dude, or what?), Kira Yamato in Gundam Seed, Cashhern in Casshern Sins. These guys are the best when it comes to fighting, killing, maiming, what have you. Hell, they aren’t even human, LOL. But they all possess a sort of humility about themselves and their abilities, a deep remorse from their wrong-doings or perceived wrong-doings and the ability to love deeply and give of themselves completely. Note I’m talking about Kira Yamato here and not Athrun Zala – get my drift?

And so as a writer of M/M romance, I draw upon what I see appealing in these characters in order to morph certain traits into my own, perfect-yet-flawed heroes. I strive to make a character that I find approachable, but not the type of guy you’d think was approachable if you met him in person. You know, the lonely guy in the corner of the bar who might look like he’s all that, but deep down he’s just the average Joe in his own mind.

I think women (and gay men) in general do dream of guys like this and so like to read about them in their M/M romances. At least I hope so since that’s what I try to write;) On the other hand, it’s a hard job. I’m always asking myself – is this guy too tough? Is he being too sensitive for this scene? Can I get the humanity out of this character and onto the page while he’s being a real asshole? Or the classic – did I just turn this dude into a lady? LOL

Yes, all of these things cross my mind and in the end, I find I just have to be true to myself and the story I’m writing. You can’t write a story everyone will like or a perfect hero everyone finds perfect, because he’s a moving target in the perception of everyone’s mind. Did that make sense? I hope so. Tell me, what is your perfect hero and why? And fellow authors, how the heck do you get that onto the written page?

Random Hallway Hook-Ups and Why I Love Writing M/M by Daisy Harris

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.

Twin Souls…My Favorite Subject! by Laura Tolomei

Never as on Valentine’s Day is it more pressing to find a soul mate, if one’s lacking of course. And how ironic if once found, it needs convincing that he or her is the one, which is what happened to Martin in To Seduce A Soulmate.

EXCERPT PG M/M

Martin stretched across the table. “Just answer me honestly. Before you met me, have you ever felt you recognized a complete stranger before in your life? Or felt an electrical current run through your body merely by standing next to someone? Or felt your heart beat so fast you feared it might fall out of your chest?”

With a heavy heart, Drake realized there was no point in lying so he had to shake his head in denial, long hair flying around.

“But you did the moment you saw me, right?”

Having felt all that Martin had described, if not more, Drake’s head reluctantly gave in to tentative nod in agreement with the devil’s insight.

“And you still need more proof?”

“I don’t think these signs mean anything. My first crush was surprisingly similar to what you just described…except the recognition part, but that may be a trick of the mind.”

Martin eyed him coldly. “Suit yourself, Pirate. You’re free to believe what you like and I’m not going to convince you. It would be a wasted effort. On my part, I’m just happy to know I’m not crazy.”

Read more on To Seduce A Soulmate

And just for the record, he wasn’t. Luckily, not all soul mates are so recalcitrant, though they’re tied in a dark circle of blood, betrayal and passion from which there is often no return, like in Divinitas.

EXCERPT PG M/M

Shaun grinned. It had taken a long training to remind Halifax who he was and now that it was finally time to explain, it felt odd, maybe because their positions seemed reversed if compared to previous lives. Shifting through past scenarios, Shaun briefly analyzed their timeless relationship, searching for answers. Somehow, Halifax had always been the seducer rather than the seduced. Reversing their roles was a necessary shift, the Druid knew it far too well, but he still had to get used to it.

“Please,” the blond missionary begged, “tell me about it.”

Where to begin? From the ancient walls of Egypt or the Persian prince’s golden bed? From our love…or the betrayal that followed Shaun wondered as images kept playing in the fire.

Read more on Divinitas

Well, maybe it’s not always so complicated. Take Leon and Sean’s case in Tasting Leon’s Mark, the passionate sequel to Re-Scue, soon to be released. where redemption came after all the moment they understood how their connection worked.

EXCERPT PG M/M

As usual, Sean’s insight took Leon by surprise. The more he knew the blond beauty, the more he found his intuition extraordinary. Even more surprising, his amazing brain learned fast to make the right connections. That he was learning more about Leon than anyone else before him was a reality, which perhaps justified the hunter’s need to challenge him as if wanting to be perfectly sure he was the one. And the fact the blond beauty’s lifetime experiences had given him the edge to alter their relationship and bring it to a new balance, however frail it might prove at times, was not conclusive enough.

As Leon’s Indian guru had revealed, his karma changed every time he understood the lessons that he had not grasped in the previous lifetimes. “Life is the soul’s testing ground,” his teacher loved to repeat. “Its ultimate goal is Awareness and you can’t reach it unless you truly deserve it. That’s why life is an endless learning process that doesn’t stop in one lifetime, but continues until the soul acquires perfection by understanding its faulty patterns and correcting them.”

His lifetimes with Sean had always added extra pieces to their puzzle, inevitably changing their karma from one life to the next. Their new forms were the results of such lifetimes and through each, Leon had to admit, the real learner had been Sean. From the start, he had found the way to adapt to the hunter’s immutable challenge while working to change him, too, until his masterful plan had revolutionized their relationship.

Living together had been an important step in their development, one that Leon would have never taken if Sean had not forced the situation. Only then had the hunter understood who was and always had been the key of his development. So he had agreed to turn the page and end their bloody game, which did not seem to fit their evolutions anyway, considering how different they were from the original two who had started it in the first place. And to his amazement, he had not missed it, getting caught, instead, in a whole new sensual world.

Read more on Tasting Leon’s Mark

Read more about Re-Scue

The same that another of my favorite characters, Duncan and Chris, from my Virtus Saga, have been experiencing ever since they laid eyes on each other, for they, too, are soul mates, as confirmed by Lord Christopher Templeton’s words in The Sex Book 1:

EXCERPT PG M/M

All my father’s fault anyway, for wanting to send me, his third and youngest son, to the Caldwell’s to broaden my horizons, or so he claimed. Clinging to his two brothers, eight-years-old Chris had wanted to tell James Templeton it was a useless attempt for his convictions would never change no matter how far he went, but his young age had prevented any serious argument. Still, he was old enough to know what he wanted from life and women were definitely not on the list, in spite of what his father said or did.

Alas, nothing stopped the tragic—or rather blessed, as he later came to see it—chain of events. Exiled from his home, Fair Haven, little Chris had set out on a long journey, for which he had no taste or choice either, cursing the Caldwell’s at every step, along with anyone even remotely connected to them, until destiny had caught up with him at Black Rose’s last bend.

Twisting around the many hills leading up to the estate, he first heard a boy’s happy shout. “Ready or not, here I come.” Another curve and he glimpsed the back of him, dark head lit by Stella’s rays. “It’s no good running, Ylianor.” The boy kept yelling at a little girl. “I’ll catch you.” He seemed all set to go while Chris approached the last bend, but curiously something stopped him and he looked over his shoulder one second before Chris came into full view on the other side of the hill.

With a heart pounding so fast it could’ve dropped out at any moment, Chris had stared at the piercing black eyes transfixed, unmoving, unable to talk, think, breathe or do much else besides recognizing the dark-haired boy, though he had never set eyes on him before in his life. And that the other boy knew him, too, Chris read it clearly in the inquisitive gaze. So it happened, impossibility becoming reality as the unconscious tried to shed light on age-old connections that obviously neither had ever forgotten, though they seemed incomprehensible at present.

Read more on The Sex

Read more on the Virtus Saga

 

Laura Tolomei aka Lalla Gatta

Website: lallagatta.com

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