Please Welcome Em Woods, who brings us a hot excerpt from her latest release, Clandestine Classic A Christmas Carol

Hey there Em... welcome back!

*Looks around Lee's place* I haven't been here in a while...I like what you've done with the place. 

I really do appreciate you having me over to chat about A Christmas Carol, my release coming out tomorrow. I can hardly believe that. It seems like such a whirlwind to get it done and have my writing blend in with Dickens's style. But then, Lee, you know that. You've listened to me every step of the way! LOL

*waves at our visitors* How is everyone doing today? Curious about my newest release? Let me tell you, I was so excited to get a chance to fill in dear ol' Ebenezer Scrooge's love life! I mean, people aren't mean like that just for the sake of being foul, right? So I was thrilled to dive into his reasons for being like that, and to give him a happily ever after.

I've redeemed Marley (no soul left behind...lol), and given Scrooge his mate in Alex. I've given you a deeper taste of Scrooge's remorse and a closer look at his attempt to be "normal" in a day and age when being homosexual shunned a man at the least and imprisoned him at its worst.

Are you ready for a small excerpt of A Christmas Carol? Make sure no one is looking over your shoulder... *wink*

Here is an exclusive excerpt just for you:

“Settle, boy. This is not to show who is in control. This is to show how we should have been. What my dreams held. What our life together should have held.”

He was unsure of what that meant, and that did not sit well at all with Scrooge. Soft caresses were well and good, but a hard fucking had better follow quickly. Marley chuckled behind him. A sharp sting of a slap lit Scrooge’s hip with fire. “I can hear your thoughts so clearly, like my own, Eb. You’ll not be left wanting. Not this time.”

Another slap to Ebenezer’s thigh narrowed his attention to his lover, a long-dormant need flaring to life with each blow to his skin, with each whispered vow of love eternal, with each promise of care.

“Your arse always presented well, Eb. Blushing and hot, needy.”

Scrooge clenched his fists in the linens, holding back the moan crawling up his throat. Silence was the rule. Servants, even the best of the lot, could not be trusted with the secrets of the bedchamber. Not that Scrooge employed any other than one cook and one maid, neither of whom would be working that day.

“Oil?”

“In the drawer.” Scrooge’s voice was not his own, surely. He had never heard it sound so hoarse.

The scrape of wood was harsh to Scrooge’s ears, then cold oil slid down the crack of his arse, followed by impatient fingers working around, in, around, until Ebenezer’s hole eased for the touch. “Are you ready, Eb?”

Another turn of events, this question, but Marley had promised care, and care he was giving, driving Scrooge out of his mind with the impossibility of it. Fingers disappeared, replaced promptly with the spongy tip of Marley’s cock, pushing slowly into Scrooge’s arse. So full, near bursting with the fullness of it, Scrooge moaned and sank back on his haunches, lodging the thick erection deeper inside him. His skin burned where Marley’s fingers dug into his hips, holding him steady as he began to thrust, sweat rapidly slicking his body.

The slap of Marley’s thighs against Scrooge’s arse rang loud through the bedchamber, their laboured breathing combining to create a harmony that fuelled Scrooge’s lust. He struggled under Marley’s hold, revelling in the tightening of his grip, the feel of bruises rising.

Marley’s hips snapped faster, pummelling Scrooge with fierce thrusts, then, as Scrooge cried out with his release, fearless of who might hear, Marley pulled him roughly onto his cock, pulses of seed filling Scrooge’s passage. Marley collapsed atop Scrooge, then eased from inside before rolling to lay on the mattress beside him.

Scrooge remained with his hands clenched in the bed sheets, drawing deep breath after deep breath, trying to regain his composure as his body floated on soft wings back to reality. “Do we have the night?”

“Only a few moments more.” Marley braced one hand under his head, looking at Scrooge. “I loved you, Eb.”

Blurb:

Love at first sight is a beautiful thing, but sometimes, true love waits a lifetime to shine...and then needs a little help from the Three Ghosts of Christmas.

As a young man, Ebenezer Scrooge felt the sharp pain of loss and resolved to protect his heart from all others, taking solace in his gold and silver. Years of discarding his own emotions, and those of anyone around him, has turned Scrooge cold.

When deceased lover and partner Jacob Marley pays miserly Scrooge a late night visit, pride and disbelief buoy Scrooge's courage. As the fabled Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet-to-Come arrive to show Scrooge the error of his ways, they also give him brief glimpses of a love so strong it has stood the test of time.

In an inspiring tale of change, a deep-seated need flares to life, leaving Scrooge without a doubt that love and family are what really matter at Christmas

Link to buy:
This book will be available December 3rd, 2012 at http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1940

You can visit Em Woods at the following links:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4347554.Em_Woods
http://authoremwoods.com/
https://www.facebook.com/emwoodsauthor

Welcome guest Angel Martinez

Aliens Among Us and the Sub Zero Launch Today

In the early days of Science Fiction, alien species lived on every planet. Our sister planet, Mars, was inhabited at various times by little green men, four-armed, monstrous warriors, cephalothoracic beings with faulty immune systems, and very human-like beings with surprising cultural differences. Jupiter had intelligent life. Venus was populated. Every visible star had habitable planets in orbit.

With advances in telescope and dish technology, we know better now. We are, sadly, alone in our planetary system. Most stars with planets have them orbiting either too close (molten rock city) or too far (primordial soup? Sorry, we don’t have a microwave to defrost it.) The universe is absurdly vast and to believe ourselves alone in it seems a terrible arrogance, but the chances of finding our fellow stargazers diminishes over prohibitive distances. While it’s fun for the science fiction writer to speculate about alien cultures even in the modern era, we tend to be more circumspect in our placement of non-human species and less generous in their frequency.

This doesn’t mean we’ve given up on wild cultural speculation. Heaven forbid. We see three solutions to the problem of alien culture scarcity these days. First, the social evolution of humans on this planet still provides a heck of a lot of story fodder (just look at The Hunger Games, or Anne Tenino’s 18% Gray.) Dystopian and false-utopian futures are multiplying and spreading like English ivy right now. (If you’ve ever had English ivy in your backyard, you know what I mean.) Another path current science fiction writers take these days involves human Diaspora–a spreading out of humankind across the galaxy until we lose track of each other, changing in unexpected ways to adapt to new environments and living conditions.

The third? Ah, one of my favorites. Genetically altered humanity. Custom-built humans. Genetic manipulation is here, folks, and while the media wants to make you hysterical and frightened about it, we’re not going to end up with fifty-foot ants tearing down cell towers. The possibility of purposefully altered humanity strikes a chord in me, though, and opens up so many possibilities. 

For Gravitational Attraction, I created the Corzin, super-warriors who are the product of careful genetic manipulation and selective breeding. For Vassily the Beautiful, readers got to meet the Silka brothers, all genetic constructs without biological parents, each with unique abilities built into his DNA.

Sub Zero (released 8/19!) contains a race of completely altered humans, almost to the point of being unrecognizable as human. Altered blood chemistry, changes in physiology, the addition of a nictitating eyelid, these were all intended as adaptations to a frigid environment. While their creation was for avaricious and evil purposes, as mine slaves, the dangpo have been free of their creators long enough to develop their own culture and values.

Come join the dangpo and me on our little adventure. Oh, and Aren, too. I suppose he can come along.

Sub Zero

M/M Science Fiction Mystery

An AmberPax Forbidden Liaisons Story

“I was enthralled with this masterfully told, perfectly executed tale. The romance and mystery are equally important and go hand-in-hand. There is a harmony to this story that drew me in, comforting and challenging me at the same time. I watched the characters unfold, and marveled at the beauty I discovered on this cold, ice world. Fantastic. A must-read.”--Tom Webb, A Bear on Books

Blurb:

Major Aren Dalsgaard's newest assignment is to investigate a series of murders on the frigid planet, Drass, where relations between the Treaty settlers and the natives have taken a nasty turn. A linguist and trained xenologist, Aren should be the ideal Special Investigations officer for the assignment. So what's the problem? Drass is where he died, more than a hundred and twenty years ago.
Sent by his family to the chigyel city, Nyachung finds himself confronted with a murder charge, racial prejudice, and a cryo-revived investigator who claims to be a hero from his grandmother’s generation. Major Dalsgaard could be crazy or he could be lying, but the sincerity in his spring-green eyes disturbs Nyachung more than anything else he encounters in the foreigners’ city.
Confronted with mysterious black boxes and a beautiful yet evasive young man as a prime suspect, Aren hopes he can solve the murders before his fierce sexual attraction to Nyachung gets the better of him…

Excerpt:
Thuds and muffled screams came from the lab up ahead, only serving to underscore the sergeant’s anxiety. Aren bulled through the door and skidded to a stop, speechless in shock. Nyachung lay on his back on the gurney, stripped to the waist, arms stretched out to either side and strapped down to extensions. The staff had shoved something soft between his teeth, either to keep him from breaking them or to keep him from screaming too loud, and they had electro-pulse leads attached to his forearms, directly over the venom sacs and spur pads. The shocks from the hookup came in pairs, the first forcibly extending his arm spurs and the second zapping the sac in an attempt to force the venom out.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Aren bellowed.
The tech stared at him, nonplussed. “Getting your venom sample, sir.”
“By torturing him?”
“It’s standard operating procedure, sir.”
“Since when is physical abuse standard procedure in any branch of the service?”
Sergeant Wickstrom gave him a little nudge. “Sir, use of force in the obtaining of information or cooperation is up to the discretion of the facility commander. It’s in the manuals.”
“In the—you must be joking.”
“Afraid not, sir.”
Aren rubbed both hands over his face. “God. Barbaric century.” Then he stalked over to the tech. “Unhook him, please. Not only is this inefficient, it’s inhumane. Do you have any idea, Corporal, how sensitive those venom sacs are?”
The hapless corporal gulped a breath. “I…don’t know, sir.”
“Imagine hooking one of those damn things up to your testicles and then shoving another up your urethra. That should give you some idea.”
“Yes, sir.”
The poor tech had turned green. Aren patted his shoulder, not wanting the boy to pass out. “Just turn it off. Unhook him. There’s a better way to do this. Several, actually. You could have just asked him for a sample, but now that he’s a shuddering mess, he’ll need some help.”
While the tech unhooked the leads, Aren went around the gurney undoing straps.
“Sir, you know he’s a murder suspect, right?”
“Oh, yes. Terribly dangerous, I’m sure. Maybe you should stand back. Safety first.” Aren perched hipshot on the edge of the gurney and gathered Nyachung into his arms as he switched to dangpo. “Are you with me, little one?”
“Why are they doing this?” Nyachung tangled both fists in the front of Aren’s jacket, shaking uncontrollably.
“Sh, sh, they want some of your venom. To compare it to the venom in the woman you found. If it’s not your venom, then you didn’t kill her.”
A hoarse sound, more sob than laugh came from the little tale-singer. “They could have said so.”
“Yes, they should have.” Aren held up a collection tube. “Can you do it on your own?”
Nyachung held out one shaking arm, well away from Aren. He curled his fingers, forearm muscles contracting. “I can’t,” he gasped out.
Gently, Aren placed his hand under Nyachung’s elbow. “Will you let me help you? I know we’re strangers and this is in front of others, but it would be better than their way.”
Black eyes gazed up at him, wet with unshed tears of pain. “All right. Do you… Have you done this?”
“I have.” Aren massaged his thumb over the tense forearm muscles a moment. Then he reached around, encircling Nyachung with his arms, partially hiding him from prying eyes. He pressed gently on the pad with his thumb, pushing the arm spur out as one would a cat’s claw. Keeping the pressure constant and the collection tube held over the spur in two fingers, he turned his attention to the venom sac. Besides the obvious places, this was the most sensitive spot on a dangpo male’s body.
He caressed the tender, abused skin, barely holding back the urge to curl forward and kiss the spot where the electro-pulse had been. Nyachung made a sweet, whimpering sound that shot straight to his balls and Aren hoped he was holding the stone-faced expression he was trying for. He began to massage the sac, his thumb describing slow, gentle circles. Nyachung twitched in his arms.
“Easy, little one, easy. As soon as you’re able.”
With a soft cry, Nyachung hid his face against Aren’s chest, his body shuddering with pain as he released his venom. His poor sacs would most likely be tender for days but he had managed enough to fill the tube...

Cheating Heroes With Jean Joachim

Please welcome back an author I am proud to call my friend, Jean Joachim. Jean is sharing with us today her views on cheating in romance novels. 

CAN A CHEATER BE A HERO?

Before we can discuss cheating, let’s define the term.  In romance novels, a cheater is someone who violates the rules of a relationship. The hero and heroine or two heroes can be lovers who have made a pact, simply strayed into monogamy or actually gotten married. But if there is a spoken or even unspoken bond that the couple will remain sexually faithful and the hero sleeps with someone else, he is cheating.

Escape from life

Why can’t a hero cheat? Plenty of men do in real life? Why don’t romance publishers want to publish books with cheating heroes? One reason readers flock to romance is to escape from real life. Some romance books are more realistic than others. I write contemporary romance and strive to make them as realistic as possible within the boundaries readers are looking for: faithful heroes and happy endings. That rules out cheating men.

Makes the hero look untrustworthy

Another reason cheating leaves a bad taste in the mouth of a romance reader is that it’s a break of basic trust between the hero, his lover and the reader. A relationship doesn’t work if trust is broken. Once the lover discovers a cheating partner, it’s practically impossible to regain the same level of trust. And if that trust is violated in the bedroom, where else is the lover being dishonest? Suspicion created by cheating taints all aspects of the hero’s life in the mind of his lover and the reader. 

Faithful heroes become supermen

            Romance readers are the first to admit they love the men in their lives. But those men are flawed, as are all human beings. In romance novels we read about the perfect hero. One aspect that makes him perfect is being sexually faithful to the heroine or significant other. I like to write imperfect heroes, slightly flawed men, but my men are never so flawed they can’t stay faithful to the heroine.

Tarnishes the Lover

Whether the object of desire for our hero is a man or woman, if the hero is cheating it makes his lover look less than wonderful. If he’s off making love to someone else, we tend to think less of his main squeeze. We wonder what’s wrong with him or her. If the SO is painted as irresistible, how come the hero is screwing around? Why does he need someone else if he or she is so great? So his unfaithful behavior taints his lover as well.

The Strength of Love

            Hopefully everyone reading our books has experienced true love at some time in their lives. True love is a powerful emotion. It can move mountains, start wars and heal the sick. If our hero and his lover have true love, it should be so strong, so captivating that he is overwhelmed with enormous desire for his lover. This won’t ring true if he is off bed-bouncing with someone else. Their love loses power, credibility if the hero is messing around with someone else. We don’t believe he truly loves the principal man or woman in his life. We think he’s a phony, a liar and we cease to believe the love story.

What do you think? Can a hero be a cheater without losing you, the reader? 

Jean Joachim is an author, married, a mother of two boys and owner of a rescued pug named Homer. She lives in New York City. She writes contemporary romance and has ten books published with two more scheduled to be release within the coming months. Jean has one book in the Amazon top 100 listing. She also has seven non-fiction books published. Her bestselling activity books are frequently in the top 25 on Amazon. Jean has been writing non-fiction for over twenty years and fiction for three. Her review column, "Movie Choices for Kids" has been syndicated in weekly and parenting newspapers and on websites for the past twelve years.

Find out more about her books on her website: http://www.jeanjoachimbooks.com

Buy links for Now and Forever 3, Blind Love

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Now-Forever-Blind-Love-ebook/dp/B007Z4V0A8/

Are

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-nowandforever3blindlove-786809-149.html

Secret Cravings:

http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=book_info&cPath=13&products_id=310

Barnes & Noble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Now-and-Forever-3--Blind-Love?keyword=Now+and+Forever+3%2C+Blind+Love&store=ebook

 Bookstrand

http://www.bookstrand.com/now-and-forever-3-blind-love

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.

Men and Romance: A Bear on Books Speaks

Good morning readers!  Welcome back!  This is our second post discussing whether men can write romance. Tom from A Bear on Books is sharing his views today. Be sure to leave us a comment with your views to be entered for a chance to win a $10 Amazon card. Come back each Tuesday this month for another chance to enter the drawing, and another view on this topic.

A Bear on Books on…

Can a Man Write Romance?

I read a little.  Okay, okay, that’s not quite true.  I read a lot.  Anything from science fiction/fantasy to serial killer books to humor to – surprise, surprise – romance.  Especially gay romance.

In fact, you could say I’m getting to be a minor expert in the genre.  I have about, oh, twelve hundred m/m books on my Kindle that I’ve finished.  Everything from shifters to mysteries to space operas to romance to flash fic.  And I found a little something to like in almost all of them.  I can count on one hand the number I wish I could wash from my brain.  One in particular…shudder

Anyway, there are a few things the really good ones have in common.  Characters I care about.  Realistic situations, appropriate for the characters.  Now, this can be shifters, scifi/fantasy/horror too – the realism is specific to the world in which the book is set.  Good, crisp, interesting dialogue and story telling. 

I may be one of three who will say this, but unless the editing is egregious, I won’t let it get in the way of my enjoyment.  No book I’ve ever read is perfect – there’s a flaw somewhere.  But if the story grabs me, a few missteps won’t break the spell.

And I think I’ve said this before, but it bears (ha – he said “bear”) repeating.  I don’t pay attention to the name of the author unless it’s someone I know already and love.  Give me an Amy Lane or Sue Brown or Lee Brazil book and I’m happier than Porky in poop.  Think about it.

So I don’t know going in most times if it’s a man or woman, someone white, black, Hispanic, Asian, young, old, deaf, blind or whatever that is writing.  And I don’t care.  If when I finish, I’m moved, I’ll read more and maybe look up the author to see if I can find out a little something about the person behind the talent.

This is a long way around to get to my point, maybe, but that’s how I operate.  Does it matter if it’s a man or woman who wrote the story?  A resounding “Hell No”!

First, I guess, we have to define a Romance.  To me, a Romance is a story where there are (usually) two main characters who meet, fall in love and end up together.  There may or may not be intervening circumstances that keep them apart, interfere with their happiness, or break them up temporarily.  Here, we mean, boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy back and lives happily ever after.

With that as a working definition, I can name twenty good – no, excellent – romance authors off the top of my head.  And quite a few of them men.

Lee Brazil (shut up – I’ve read “Loving Jacob” and “The Librarian” and “Loving Eden” and you get the point).  Damon Suede. TJ Klune.  John Goode.  Rick Reed.  Xavier Axelson.  Derek Adams.  Jake Mactire.  Eric Arvin.  Scotty Cade.  William Neale.

Need I go on?

Men feel emotions just as deeply as women.  We just don’t necessarily always show them or put them on paper.  But it’s a gross injustice to men AND women to think only a woman can write a romantic scene.  Or that only a man can write a good action thriller.

We do each other such a disservice when we take the focus off the books and worry about the hand that wrote them.  Do we worry about the gender of an artist whose sculpture we admire?  The painting that moves us?  The movie that makes us cry sitting there in the dark?

Art, of whatever kind, is about the WORK, not the artist.

So, yeah, men can write Romance.  Do a damned fine job of it, too.  Thank God.  Gives me more to read and enjoy.

Tom.  Out.

Men and Romance...never the Twain Shall Meet?

Welcome guest blogger Jean Joachim today. She's adding her two cents to the topic of the month: Men Can't Write Romance.  That's not my opinion- it's a statement I picked up over at GR.  Some people believe it's true- others don't.  Read Jean's column today and let us know what you think.  Everyone who comments on each post in this series will be entered to win an Amazon gift card worth $10. The series will run every Tuesday in April, and that gives you four chances to comment to win!

Who Says Men Can’t Write Romance?

 Men have been writing romance longer than women. For example, William Shakespeare’s timeless, romantic play, Romeo and Juliet has been played, replayed, imitated and rewritten, countless times. Other Shakespeare plays: “The Taming of the Shrew”, “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Twelfth Night”, to name a few, have strong romantic themes. Miguel de Cervantes, sixteenth century Spanish author, wrote of the chaste love of Don Quixote for his Ducinea.

Women in those days were forbidden from writing under their own names and later on, a few brave, talented women wrote under the pseudonyms of George Eliot and George Sand. Hey, this article is about men!

Men continued to write great literature with romantic elements like, Sons and Lovers and Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller, From Here to Eternity by James Jones and Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, to mention only a few.

And that, you may say, is that for men in romance. And I say WRONG, Cupid-breath. Men are still incredibly romantic today and while some, like the phenomenally talented Brindle Chase and Nicholas Sparks write heterosexual romance books, others, like the brilliant Lee Brazil and a countless number of his friends and colleagues write gay romance books.

Some men, intrigued by romance but looking for bigger bucks, have moved away from publishing into the higher-paying realm of screenwriting. Many of the best romance movies, past and present, have been written by men. You’ll find men’s hearts take flight in this most visual of media, creating romantic situations, great dialogue for women and scorching love scenes on celluloid. From Casablanca written by Julius Epstein to Ghost, written by Bruce Joel Rubin. From The Philadelphia Story by David Ogden Stewart to, Serendipity by Mark Klein, men have been penning romance for the big screen since movies began.

Many of our favorite classic romantic movies are written by men…almost any Fred Astaire movie, It Happened One Night, While You Were Sleeping (okay, this is my favorite) and Sabrina. 

And when it comes to a more present-day movie romance, one male writer shines through the rest. Richard Curtis, a non-descript man, has written several of the most popular, most romantic movies in recent history, including: Notting Hill, Love, Actually and both Bridget Jones Diary movies.

            While women lay claim to soft hearted romantic notions, men buy most of the flowers, fancy chocolates, expensive jewelry (engagement rings) and kneel in humiliating positions to claim the hand of their lady fair. Or put their proposal on the big screen at Yankee Stadium. According to Wikipedia, Valentine’s Day, as we know it, was created by poets (men) during the time of Geoffrey Chaucer in the Middle Ages. And what of poets? Who are “The Romantic Poets”? All men: William Blake, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, Percy Shelley and John Keats, to name a few.

            What about romantic music? The most romantic music in the United States, except for Jazz, came from early Broadway musicals, dominated by men. Composers and lyricists like: Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Lerner and Loewe, Rogers and Hammerstein, Rogers and Hart, wrote some of the most romantic music ever.

            So why shouldn’t men take their romantic notions back to the written page, where it all started? No reason. Men, I hand you a pen and a pad. Please, put your sexy, romantic notions down on paper. I’m reaching into my purse and getting in line to buy your sigh-inducing, heat-producing, all-encompassing romantic books. Write on!  

             

Find out more about Jean and her work at : http://jeanjoachim.blogspot.com/