Welcome Guest Sue Brown

I’m sitting on my sofa humming along to Hawaii Five-O.  Next to me the doggy is snoring. The kids are in bed. And I’m rambling because I have to discuss whether men can write romance.

Yes.

There we go.

Of course men can blinking well write romance. Are you insane?

Okay, well, what am I going to write for the next 450 words?

Look, if you know me at all you’ll know that I get really cheesed off when people say you can’t do something because of your gender.  Women can’t serve on the frontline, men can’t be nannies, women can’t write m/m, and men can’t write romance. It’s all tosh. Gender discrimination works both ways and it’s just as wrong whichever way it is applied.

Have you ever read something so beautiful that your heart feels like it’s been torn in two? No wait, that sounds wrong. It doesn’t sound romantic. But it was poetry to my soul. I wish I could have written it but my soul is not that romantic.

“I looked through your eyes with you, Dustin. Tried, from my

perpendicular perspective, to capture the same images you caught.

And I wondered as I looked with you, could I see from your

perspective? Could I abandon the passion that you have and still

nourish myself on the pain of that forfeiture? Could I hold my fear as

the highest of my emotions and line all others up behind it?

I could not, and when I realized that, you were gone. The cup

half empty, the croissant broken but otherwise untouched. Only the

motes showed me the trail of your passage.

And yet, here I am, still so desperately in love with you.”

I read this last night, from Listening to Dust by Brandon Shire. It is the most beautiful poetic love story. A traditional m/m romance, heck no, much more than that.

Do you think that men can’t write romance? They’ve been doing it a while.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? 
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: 
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; 
And every fair from fair sometime declines, 
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; 
But thy eternal summer shall not fade 
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; 
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, 
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: 
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” (Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day)

Do you still think men can’t write romance?

You see, I could talk until I’m blue in the face, but then you won’t see for yourself. Lee Brazil *Hi, Lee*, Andrew Grey, John Goode and Christopher Koehler, are guys who write gorgeous romances. The range and depth of feeling in their books makes this girl’s (what! I can be a girl) toes curl. I could pick quotes from all of their books. But then I’d be rereading their books til midnight and I want to get some sleep. Sure, men write thrillers and crime, sci-fi and fantasy. But they can write romance as well and don’t let anybody tell you any different.

Sue’s Bio: Sue Brown is owned by her dog and two children. When she isn't following their orders, she can be found at university listening to lecturers discuss long-dead theologians. In her head, however, she's plotting how to get her cowboys into bed together; she just hopes the lecturer doesn't ask her any questions.

Sue discovered M/M erotica at the time she woke up to find two men kissing on her favorite television series. The series was boring; the kissing was not. She may be late to the party, but she's made up for it since, writing fan fiction until she was brave enough to venture out into the world of original fiction.

Complete Faith: sequel to Morning Report.

For Tommy Bradley, a hand working on the Lost Cow Ranch in rural Texas, admitting his sexuality is impossible, even if his bosses, Luke and Simon, are gay—Tommy has spent his entire life hiding the truth from his homophobic parents. Then Tommy meets pastor Noah Taylor in Luke’s father’s hospital room, and his difficult secret becomes that much harder to keep.

Noah is unlike any man of God—or any man—Tommy’s ever met. For one thing, his congregation is made up primarily of GLBT individuals and their families. For another, he isn’t afraid of the attraction he feels toward Tommy, and he makes his intentions very clear. But Noah won’t hide his sexuality or his love from the world, and he won’t start a relationship with Tommy while Tommy hides his, either. Faced with the choice of losing Noah or coming out to his parents, Tommy takes his first steps out of the closet.

 But Tommy isn’t the only one facing challenges. Thanks to an outpouring of hatred from Pastor Jackson and a group of ranch owners, Noah must cope with the possible loss of his church and his livelihood.