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Tag: M/M Romance

To Slash or Not to Slash… by LM Brown

From Lamech77 at DeviantArt

For as long as there has been fanfiction there has been slash.  For those who are not familiar with fandoms and the terminology, slash is the term used for pairings of two characters of the same gender in a romantic and/or sexual relationship together.  They are not usually written as homosexual by the original author.

Whether it is Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, who are commonly believed to be the original slashed characters, or the more modern Edward and Jacob of the Twilight series, it seems that with the advent of the internet slash fanfiction is here to stay.

My fandom is the Harry Potter fandom and slash stories about the characters are amongst the most popular online.  I have written a number of them myself over the years and even though I have also written about characters in heterosexual relationships and stories that have no romance in them at all, it is the slash ones that retain their popularity after they have disappeared from the most recent updates pages of the archives at which they are stored.  Which tells me that these seem to be the stories that people are searching for.

But why do we choose to pair up characters who are not originally written as a couple?

I decided to dig around in my fandom, but unfortunately for me, my favourite pairing (Remus Lupin and Sirius Black) has a large following of readers and writers who believe that their relationship is canon, albeit rather buried in the subtext.  I am not one of those people, so I had to ask myself why I choose to write about the two men as a couple.

Jealousy perhaps?

Remus was paired in canon with the unfortunately named Nymphadora Tonks.  There are those who say that it is jealousy of Tonks that prompts fanfic writers to pair Remus up with another man, sometimes Harry, sometimes Snape, often Sirius.  I can’t say that reasoning holds true for me.  I actually advocated Remus/Tonks before they were an official couple in the series and have often enjoyed reading about them in fanfic.  So, why don’t I write about that pairing?

To make a statement?

I don’t see writing slash fanfics as making any sort of a statement to advocate gay rights or anything like that.  Maybe there are some who write for that reason, but I have never met them in my fandom.  It certainly isn’t the reason I choose to write slash.

Two hot men are better than one?

Well, yes they are, but surely that can’t be the only reason I enjoy writing about my favourite pairing.  And since Rowling outed one of her characters, why not write about him?  Okay, I admit that I did write one short story about Dumbledore in his youth, but that was it.  Even though there is substantially more evidence that this character is gay, including the words of the authoress herself, I choose to write about two men who aren’t.

The hot sex between two men is the appeal?

Well, it is definitely appealing, but not all of my stories have sex in them and they are as popular as some of my others.  My most popular story about the pairing is ridiculously long and the characters don’t even hop into bed until somewhere after chapter 40.  If it was just the sex then who the heck would read that far just for a few pages of porn?  I wouldn’t.  To my friends in the fandom I refer to myself as more of a plot-whore than anything else.

It can’t be the chance to write steamy man-on-man sex that makes me write about the pairing; if it was there would be far more sex in my fanfiction stories.

Bitter enemies becoming lovers?

Enemies who become lovers is always a popular idea in fanfiction.  The idea of turning canon on its head and forcing the hero into bed with his nemesis doesn’t appeal to me in the least.  But for some people this is an avenue of fanfiction that is almost as appealing as the one I have chosen.

The reason I write slash

Childhood friends.  Betrayal.  Reunion.  Tragedy.

Playing in the Remus/Sirius sandbox opens a world of possibility for angst-filled stories and the chance to give the characters a happier ending than they were given in canon.

But why not pair them up with one of the female characters?  And if there isn’t one available then make one up?

Well, making one up generally results in lots of accusations about Mary Sue’s and author inserts, but as a writer of original fiction as well as fanfiction I am sure that I am capable of producing a character that is neither of these fanfiction horrors.

Yet I don’t.  I have never even attempted to pair either of them up with a female character.  Instead I have taken their canon friendship and turned it into a romantic relationship for my own pleasure and that of my readers.

And I guess that I have my answer right there.  I write slash fanfiction because I enjoy it and because I can.

Most importantly I write it because everyone deserves a happy ending, and what can be happier than two well-loved characters finding love together?

L.M. Brown’s latest release, Driving Me Crazy, is available now from Silver Publishing.

To Purchase: Liquid Silver Publishing

Blurb:
They say that people in love do crazy things.  Brandon Walker can certainly relate.

Lusting after Lee Cooper, his sexy driving instructor, isn’t the most sensible reason for failing his driving test for the third time and when he discovers the damage he has inadvertently done to his instructor’s reputation and business, Brandon knows that he is on his last chance.

After persuading Lee to give him one final course of driving lessons Brandon makes it his priority to figure out if the spark he feels between them is one-sided or whether he can persuade his sexy instructor to move their lessons from the front seat of the car to the back.

Crossing the Street by Belinda McBride

Courtesy of www.homotography.com

Most readers who are familiar with me are aware that I like to cross genre. Gleefully, I hop from sci fi to fantasy to paranormal. I’ve done bisexual ménage, interracial, multi-cultural and BDSM as well. So it’s not surprising that I finally ended up writing (and loving) m/m romance…except that I never really wanted or intended to write m/m. I was pretty happy with my straight and bi romances. This genre is so jam packed with new and established talent, there just didn’t seem to be a point. But then, I also vowed never to write werewolves…

There’s always been m/m content in my romances. There’s something so wonderful and winsome about men in love. Many women love that fantasy, especially if they happen to be in the middle of the mix.  In my father’s side of the family, polyamory popped up more than once…(my female relations do love their men!) so I’m comfortable with that concept. I love my heroines and take pride in writing amazing, complex women. I was really quite content with the variety in my writing.

That first m/m story came about pretty much by accident. I was doing a little writing exercise on first person POV and the male character that I was writing really had nothing to say. So I switched to the heroine, who was a bit of a disreputable princess. She kept spouting this line over and over…. ”A whore is a whore…” Beyond that, she didn’t have much to say. So I’m left sitting there with a first person POV exercise where neither character was talking. When that happens, you either scrap the project or turn their world upside-down.

So I made the princess a man.

Suddenly, Hela, who was now Helios, had a lot to say. And my reluctant hero pricked up his ears, got a gleam in his eye and told me that his name was Griffin. The story picked up speed and was suddenly in the hands of my Loose Id editor with a release date. An Uncommon Whore was surprisingly successful.

So my thought was that it was a fluke…right? I really didn’t want to go down that road too far. But when the Coming Out series was proposed at Loose Id, another character that had been languishing in my files came forward with a purpose. His name was Oliver Bleu and he wanted a man of his own. I finally understand the reason some of my characters and stories didn’t fly…they didn’t have chemistry with their heroine!

Have I crossed the road completely? Well, no. I still love my heroines. I love my ménages. But writing m/m romance was such a delightful shake-up in my routine that I certainly won’t be leaving it behind. I like playing off alpha against alpha and pulling little surprises in the balance of dominance. I enjoy letting tough men show their vulnerability to another man. In a good romance, I expect some element of sacrifice, and having a character risk his self image and his machismo is such a sacrifice.

So how did you cross the street? Did you download a m/m romance to see what all the fuss was about? Did you stumble across a manga, only to discover that the pretty girl was really a boy? Tell me about how you came to read or write in the m/m side of the spectrum. I’ll randomly choose a comment and the winner can choose an e-book from my backlist.

Belinda McBride lives in far northern California with her family, which mostly consists of an unruly group of Siberian Huskies. She writes for Loose Id, Changeling Press, Dreamspinner Press and Passion in Print Publishing.

Please visit her website at http://www.belindamcbride.com

Or her blog at http://www.belindam.blogspot.com

More information on her latest release:

LAST CALL EUROPE: BLACK WOLF
M/M Paranormal/Shifter Romance

Blurb:
Siberians live for the thrill of the chase; wolves exist for the joy of the capture. On a foolish dare, Jasper O’Shea takes a gamble at the Last Call, letting fate chose his lover for the night.

Detective Brutus “Brutal” Ballantine came to the Last Call looking for something far different than a sly, clever Siberian Husky. Yet when the call comes over the sound system, he finds himself unable to resist the lure of laughing blue eyes and a happy tail.

The chase is on, but who is the hunter, and who is the prey?

(Author’s note: While this story stands alone, it features characters introduced in Last Call Europe: Devil’s Advocate.)

Read an excerpt at: Changeling Press

Why Do Women Love M/M Romance? by Amber Kell

Image from www.homotography.com

That’s the question I’m posing today. What makes us like the thought of hot manlove? Is it because one guy is hot and two guys only makes it hotter? Or is it because we’re a group of romance readers who like things that aren’t on the purely traditional pathway?

There are only so many woman-abducted-by-pirate stories a person can read in a lifetime before we think maybe John instead of Jane would make a better character for a sexy twist (hmmm, jotting down a note).

I started reading traditional romances when I was in my teens. You know the ones; sophisticated, rich man falls for naïve, clueless virgin and they live happily ever after. Over the years I’ve pretty much read every scenario known to author, starting at traditional m/f, progressing to ménage and now, having cut out the girly parts, read and write m/m romances.

Some people try to draw parallels to society and all kinds of psychological reasons behind the onslaught of male/male reading by a mostly female audience, but sometimes it’s just about a hot man and an interesting story. I’d love to read feedback as to why you read m/m romance or maybe why you don’t.

Contest: I will be giving away one audio copy of my book, Blood Signs, to one lucky commenter!

Amber Kell is a published author of M/M Erotic Romance. You can find more information about her at her website at: Amber Kell

Here is information on her latest release:

Series: Perfect Strangers , Book 2
Published By: OmniLit / All Romance eBooks, LLC
Published: Feb 02, 2011
ISBN # 9781936387205

Purchase at: All Romance eBooks

Blurb: Everyone needs a little romance…

When artist Stephen Carter catches a glimpse of Master Jones on the security monitors of his brother’s BDSM club he’s entranced. A hastily drawn sketch manages to capture the Dom’s high cheekbones, square jaw, and hot, hard body. A body the quiet, reclusive Stephen would love to explore.

The subs who fall for Victor Jones always get hurt. He has no desire to enter into a committed relationship and no room in his life for romantic entanglements. But then the seasoned Dom starts to receive intriguing gifts from a secret admirer. When Victor discovers his admirer is Stephen, he decides maybe it’s time to try out something new, someone less experienced.