I am sooo excited to announce this. My writer friend, Greg Herren and an writing acquaintance, along with others, will be coming to Indy this coming weekend. :-D I hope I can hook up with one or more of these writers for dinner or lunch this weekend.
I absolutely love Ellen Hart's Jane Lawless mysteries and Greg Herren's Scotty series (I haven't read a Chanse yet). I'll have to buy one for this event.
See you there,
Fred
Listen to and Meet the top queer mystery authors in the nation! Pick up your free ticket at Out Word Bound!
Event to be held at Theatre On The Square (TOTS), 637 Mass Ave. ~ Limited Cabaret seating
* * Pre-purchase a book and go to the front of the autographing line!
Don't miss...
Anthony Bidulka, author of 'Aloha, Candy Hearts', the latest in the Russell Quant series
Ellen Hart, author of 'Sweet Poison' and 'Mortal Groove', the latest in the Jane Lawless series
Greg Herren, author of 'Murder in the Rue Ursulines', the latest in the Chanse MacLeod series
Neil Plakcy, author of 'Mahu Vice', the latest in the Mahu series
Mark Zubro, author of 'Hook, Line & Homicide,' the latest in the Paul Turner series and 'Schooled in Murder,' the latest Tom and Scott mystery
Monday, October 12, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Pre-order Nerdvana at Amazon
Hey,
One of my authors let me know that Nerdvana is available for pre-order at Amazon.
Go check out the cover. :-D
Fred
One of my authors let me know that Nerdvana is available for pre-order at Amazon.
Go check out the cover. :-D
Fred
Friday, July 3, 2009
Ultimate Gay Erotica 2009
I am so excited. I just received my contributor copies for Ultimate Gay Erotica 2009 today. My story, Revenge Visits Vegas is published by Alyson in Ultimate Gay Erotica 2009 edited by Jesse Grant.
It includes some great writers. My writing friend, Gavin Atlas is also in this collection. Some authors I've met via the internet are also included, such as Shane Allison, Neil Plakcy, R. Kramer Bussel, and Rob Rosen.
I've published in two of the Ultimate Gay Erotica anthologies. The other one is UGE 2008.
I found it at my local GLBT bookstore, Out Word Bound, so check with your local queer bookstore before buying online. I prefer supporting my local bookstore because I remember how lost I was during the lapse when Dreams and Swords closed and Out Word Bound opened.
Let me know what you think of my story. :-D
Smuttily yours,
Fred
It includes some great writers. My writing friend, Gavin Atlas is also in this collection. Some authors I've met via the internet are also included, such as Shane Allison, Neil Plakcy, R. Kramer Bussel, and Rob Rosen.
I've published in two of the Ultimate Gay Erotica anthologies. The other one is UGE 2008.
I found it at my local GLBT bookstore, Out Word Bound, so check with your local queer bookstore before buying online. I prefer supporting my local bookstore because I remember how lost I was during the lapse when Dreams and Swords closed and Out Word Bound opened.
Let me know what you think of my story. :-D
Smuttily yours,
Fred
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Lammy Award Winning Editor: Richard Labonte
By Fred Towers
Recently the winners of the 21st Lambda Literary Awards were announced. I was so glad to see an editor I have respected and tried to sell to for years on the list. So, I sat down with him virtually (via email) to discuss his recent win.
1) How did you feel when you learned that you won a Lammy for Best Gay Erotica 2009?
Pleased of course, though I wouldn't have minded if any of the other nominees had won, particularly James Lear's novel, The Secret Tunnel - but since he was my judge for BGE2009, he was a winner anyway. That said, I've been involved in the judging process for the Lammies in one way or another since the very first year - now I'm dating myself – and I know how the sausage is made... that is to say, I know that when everything else is equal in terms of quality, which is usually the case when many nominations have been whittled down to a few finalists,
the subjective taste of the judges comes into play - perhaps the judges this year didn't like long-form erotica, as with James's novel (I thought he pulled it off with great style), or prefer books with 20 authors to books with four (the equally readable Hard Working Men, the other finalist from 2009.
2) What other titles have you edited that have won a Lammy?
Best Gay Erotica 2005, with novelist and biographer William J. Mann, won a few years ago, and First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far), from Arsenal Pulp Press in Canada, which I co edited with Lawrence Schimel, won in 2007. Again, It's a treat to win - but when an anthology wins an award, I'd say as much credit goes to the contributors as to the editors, so I don't really consider these to be *my* Lammies... I'm just the custodian.
3) What do you look for in a Best Gay Romance or Best Gay Erotica story?
Let me start my answer here with a wee excerpt from my foreword to Best Gay Erotica 2010, which will be out from Cleis in November: "I take the “erotica” part of the title seriously: porny is good, and that’s what this annual anthology hews to. But every year I encourage writers of a literary bent to sex up their stories some, and every year I coax polished prose from writers who honed their horndog skills in the glossy gay mags."
So: what I look for in the erotica best are stories where narrative arc, complex characterization, and vivid, inventive writing predominate; in the romance best, I look for stories that are less
overtly sexual but no less smart. Not every story achieves that ideal, I know, but it's what I strive for; and because neither anthology is a "theme" title - stories about Daddies, Bears, surfers, firemen, cops, frat boys, S/M, etc. - I like to mix and match sexual interests and fetishes. Again, the quality of the writing is paramount. I also look for new writers, and if I discern a story in the rough - something unusual or distinctive in terms of plot or character or setting but which needs a lot of editing - I'm willing to work with writers to polish the story. Almost every book I edit - and I've done almost 30 now - has one or two of this kind of discovery.
4) Besides editing, where else can gay readers find your work?
I'm not really a writer. I'm a reader. Plus, I appreciate writers, and collect some great ones. So I don't write fiction at all, and not many essays, either, except for intros to my anthologies. When asked, I've penned short forewords to a few books - Vincent Diamond's collection, Rough Cut, and Jack Fritscher's collection, Stonewall: Stories of Gay Liberation among them. And I was nagged enough to contribute to Sex by the Book, edited by Kevin Bentley, and Out in the Castro, edited by Winston Leyland. But compared to real writers, those constitute just half a can of spilled alphabet soup.
On the other hand, I review four lesbian/gay/queer books, fiction and nonfiction, every two weeks for Book Marks, distributed by Q Syndicate to a number of gay papers; that's 100 books a year. I also review contemporary fiction (nongay), books on nature and the environment, and the occasional gay nonfiction books for Publishers Weekly, about 35 of those a year. Google "Book Marks Labonte" and you'll find the reviews; PW reviews are anonymous...
5) What advice would you give a gay writer during these tremulous times in the publishing world?
Keep writing. Don't balk at being edited. Keep submitting to anthologies. Track down online magazines. Pay attention to the e-world. Have a good sense of what a publisher publishes before
submitting your work. Did I mention, don't balk at being edited? The publishing world is going through a shakeup and a new cycle, but there will always be people who want to write and people who want to read. A good number of queer presses have closed, but relatively new ones come along regularly: MLR, Torquere, Lethe, Dreamspinners, Rebel Satori/Queer Mojo, BigFib, Samhain, PD Publishing, Alpha World, Cheyenne, Palari, Seventh Windows, Zumaya... and I'm sure I've forgotten a few. So: do your homework, and your writing will find a home.
Recently the winners of the 21st Lambda Literary Awards were announced. I was so glad to see an editor I have respected and tried to sell to for years on the list. So, I sat down with him virtually (via email) to discuss his recent win.
1) How did you feel when you learned that you won a Lammy for Best Gay Erotica 2009?
Pleased of course, though I wouldn't have minded if any of the other nominees had won, particularly James Lear's novel, The Secret Tunnel - but since he was my judge for BGE2009, he was a winner anyway. That said, I've been involved in the judging process for the Lammies in one way or another since the very first year - now I'm dating myself – and I know how the sausage is made... that is to say, I know that when everything else is equal in terms of quality, which is usually the case when many nominations have been whittled down to a few finalists,
the subjective taste of the judges comes into play - perhaps the judges this year didn't like long-form erotica, as with James's novel (I thought he pulled it off with great style), or prefer books with 20 authors to books with four (the equally readable Hard Working Men, the other finalist from 2009.
2) What other titles have you edited that have won a Lammy?
Best Gay Erotica 2005, with novelist and biographer William J. Mann, won a few years ago, and First Person Queer: Who We Are (So Far), from Arsenal Pulp Press in Canada, which I co edited with Lawrence Schimel, won in 2007. Again, It's a treat to win - but when an anthology wins an award, I'd say as much credit goes to the contributors as to the editors, so I don't really consider these to be *my* Lammies... I'm just the custodian.
3) What do you look for in a Best Gay Romance or Best Gay Erotica story?
Let me start my answer here with a wee excerpt from my foreword to Best Gay Erotica 2010, which will be out from Cleis in November: "I take the “erotica” part of the title seriously: porny is good, and that’s what this annual anthology hews to. But every year I encourage writers of a literary bent to sex up their stories some, and every year I coax polished prose from writers who honed their horndog skills in the glossy gay mags."
So: what I look for in the erotica best are stories where narrative arc, complex characterization, and vivid, inventive writing predominate; in the romance best, I look for stories that are less
overtly sexual but no less smart. Not every story achieves that ideal, I know, but it's what I strive for; and because neither anthology is a "theme" title - stories about Daddies, Bears, surfers, firemen, cops, frat boys, S/M, etc. - I like to mix and match sexual interests and fetishes. Again, the quality of the writing is paramount. I also look for new writers, and if I discern a story in the rough - something unusual or distinctive in terms of plot or character or setting but which needs a lot of editing - I'm willing to work with writers to polish the story. Almost every book I edit - and I've done almost 30 now - has one or two of this kind of discovery.
4) Besides editing, where else can gay readers find your work?
I'm not really a writer. I'm a reader. Plus, I appreciate writers, and collect some great ones. So I don't write fiction at all, and not many essays, either, except for intros to my anthologies. When asked, I've penned short forewords to a few books - Vincent Diamond's collection, Rough Cut, and Jack Fritscher's collection, Stonewall: Stories of Gay Liberation among them. And I was nagged enough to contribute to Sex by the Book, edited by Kevin Bentley, and Out in the Castro, edited by Winston Leyland. But compared to real writers, those constitute just half a can of spilled alphabet soup.
On the other hand, I review four lesbian/gay/queer books, fiction and nonfiction, every two weeks for Book Marks, distributed by Q Syndicate to a number of gay papers; that's 100 books a year. I also review contemporary fiction (nongay), books on nature and the environment, and the occasional gay nonfiction books for Publishers Weekly, about 35 of those a year. Google "Book Marks Labonte" and you'll find the reviews; PW reviews are anonymous...
5) What advice would you give a gay writer during these tremulous times in the publishing world?
Keep writing. Don't balk at being edited. Keep submitting to anthologies. Track down online magazines. Pay attention to the e-world. Have a good sense of what a publisher publishes before
submitting your work. Did I mention, don't balk at being edited? The publishing world is going through a shakeup and a new cycle, but there will always be people who want to write and people who want to read. A good number of queer presses have closed, but relatively new ones come along regularly: MLR, Torquere, Lethe, Dreamspinners, Rebel Satori/Queer Mojo, BigFib, Samhain, PD Publishing, Alpha World, Cheyenne, Palari, Seventh Windows, Zumaya... and I'm sure I've forgotten a few. So: do your homework, and your writing will find a home.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Interview
I'm interviewed in the April issue of Bare Back Magazine. No "bare back" doesn't mean what you think. LOL For them it's an erotica thing, but doesn't mean without a condom like it does in the gay community. Safe Sex still lives, except in our fantasies. At least for some folks.
Please read the interview and let me know what you think. You do have to be 18 years of age or older to read. Sorry! No underage readers please.
Fred
Please read the interview and let me know what you think. You do have to be 18 years of age or older to read. Sorry! No underage readers please.
Fred
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Book Review: Boy Meets HERO
Boy Meets HERO by Chayne Avery & Russell Garcia
TITLE: Boy Meets HERO AUTHOR: Chayne Avery & Russell Garcia
ISBN: 978-3-86187-891-9 PUBLISHER: Bruno Gmunder
BOOK REVIEW: I absolutely loved this graphic novel. The illustrations really popped. The colors in the illustrations were magnigicient. The story was well thought out and had several twists. Even though this graphic novel wasn't as sexual as Dick Master by Roy Klang, but I liked it that way. I think the lack of explicit sex in this graphic novel will make it more appealing to heterosexial superhero fans than Dick Master. I really liked the profiles of the characters at the end describing their abilities and their biography. I recommend this to readers who love gay romance fiction, gay superhero stories, and graphic novel readers of all sexual orientations and ages above 13. The superheroes and supervillians have great powers.
Review by Fred Towers
TITLE: Boy Meets HERO AUTHOR: Chayne Avery & Russell Garcia
ISBN: 978-3-86187-891-9 PUBLISHER: Bruno Gmunder
BOOK REVIEW: I absolutely loved this graphic novel. The illustrations really popped. The colors in the illustrations were magnigicient. The story was well thought out and had several twists. Even though this graphic novel wasn't as sexual as Dick Master by Roy Klang, but I liked it that way. I think the lack of explicit sex in this graphic novel will make it more appealing to heterosexial superhero fans than Dick Master. I really liked the profiles of the characters at the end describing their abilities and their biography. I recommend this to readers who love gay romance fiction, gay superhero stories, and graphic novel readers of all sexual orientations and ages above 13. The superheroes and supervillians have great powers.
Review by Fred Towers
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Book Review: Dick Master: Leatherland Under Attack
Dick Master: Leatherland Under Attack by Roy Klang
TITLE: Dick Master: Leatherland Under Attack AUTHOR: Roy Klang
ILLUSTRATED:Roy Klang ISBN:3-86187-970-0 PUBLISHER: Bruno Gmunder
BOOK REVIEW: I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel with some great gay superhero action and some sexually explicit action. I wasn't sure if it would be heavier on one over the other, but the story was balanced between the two. The supervillians, Sperminator and Cyber-Drag are aliens invading the gay city, Leatherland. Dick Master and his friends have to conquer them with wit, strength, and great technical gadgets. The illustrations are great with depth and strong lines, but I wish they were in color. The story is creative, and I hope Roy Klang writes more superhero graphic novels. As the title implies, the sexual matter in the story is BDSM centered around a gay leather bar. I recommend this for adult (over 18) readers of gay fiction and/or superhero graphic novels, who won't be bothered by the sexual content. It is quite an adventure.
Review by Fred Towers
TITLE: Dick Master: Leatherland Under Attack AUTHOR: Roy Klang
ILLUSTRATED:Roy Klang ISBN:3-86187-970-0 PUBLISHER: Bruno Gmunder
BOOK REVIEW: I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel with some great gay superhero action and some sexually explicit action. I wasn't sure if it would be heavier on one over the other, but the story was balanced between the two. The supervillians, Sperminator and Cyber-Drag are aliens invading the gay city, Leatherland. Dick Master and his friends have to conquer them with wit, strength, and great technical gadgets. The illustrations are great with depth and strong lines, but I wish they were in color. The story is creative, and I hope Roy Klang writes more superhero graphic novels. As the title implies, the sexual matter in the story is BDSM centered around a gay leather bar. I recommend this for adult (over 18) readers of gay fiction and/or superhero graphic novels, who won't be bothered by the sexual content. It is quite an adventure.
Review by Fred Towers
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