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Wow, this is a tough topic these days. I just found out about AJ Llewellyn being a woman. Yes, a woman, not the gay man she pretended to be.
We both started out at eXtasy Books writing M/M Romance, though I prefer to write more of the Yaoi variety I've had plenty of banter back and forth with AJ about writing, the M/M genre and the like and I must say I feel a bit... shocked. I know that women have taken male pen names in times past in order to get published and all that. And I know that some female M/M Romance authors have male pen names currently and keep hush about their true identity. I suppose it is no one's business but their own. Or is it?
Here's the deal. If I read a M/M Romance book by a particular author with a male pen name, I assume certain things. The first being, that they have first-hand knowledge of what it's like to be a gay man and maybe I'll learn a few things. Of course, that's the author in me. And if and when I encounter this author in a chat or on some social media site, I speak to them as if they're the gender of their pen name. I take into account their opinions on writing and other topics based on what I think their gender is, right or wrong. I can't help it. We've all been programmed to think a certain way based on our upbringing as a particular gender and have preconceived notions about the opposite gender. I hope that makes sense
As far as author gender and writing M/M Romance or even Yaoi for that matter, my question is this: Should authors be straight up about their genders? I mean, we're writing about gay men for a predominantly straight female audience. M/M Romance is not the same (at least in my eyes) as gay romance - presumably written by gay men with a target audience of gay men. So it seems to me that author gender might matter. Women in general put more emotion into their romances, especially if we're targeting a female audience. Again, my freakin' opinion But women are emotional creatures. Emotion is what we crave, right?
I'm also wondering if the female authors writing under a male pen name are doing the rest of us authors a disservice. It's hard to go about telling people who aren't familiar with this genre that you're a straight woman writing gay romance. I've blogged about my follies with that a few times. You need a thick skin and a hardy sense of humor. Maybe if more of these women writing gay romance for other women were more up front about it, it would normalize the situation a bit more and make it easier for all of us. Stand proud that you're a straight woman writing about gay men, damn it
So now that I've said my piece - chime in here. What do you all think?
We both started out at eXtasy Books writing M/M Romance, though I prefer to write more of the Yaoi variety I've had plenty of banter back and forth with AJ about writing, the M/M genre and the like and I must say I feel a bit... shocked. I know that women have taken male pen names in times past in order to get published and all that. And I know that some female M/M Romance authors have male pen names currently and keep hush about their true identity. I suppose it is no one's business but their own. Or is it?
Here's the deal. If I read a M/M Romance book by a particular author with a male pen name, I assume certain things. The first being, that they have first-hand knowledge of what it's like to be a gay man and maybe I'll learn a few things. Of course, that's the author in me. And if and when I encounter this author in a chat or on some social media site, I speak to them as if they're the gender of their pen name. I take into account their opinions on writing and other topics based on what I think their gender is, right or wrong. I can't help it. We've all been programmed to think a certain way based on our upbringing as a particular gender and have preconceived notions about the opposite gender. I hope that makes sense
As far as author gender and writing M/M Romance or even Yaoi for that matter, my question is this: Should authors be straight up about their genders? I mean, we're writing about gay men for a predominantly straight female audience. M/M Romance is not the same (at least in my eyes) as gay romance - presumably written by gay men with a target audience of gay men. So it seems to me that author gender might matter. Women in general put more emotion into their romances, especially if we're targeting a female audience. Again, my freakin' opinion But women are emotional creatures. Emotion is what we crave, right?
I'm also wondering if the female authors writing under a male pen name are doing the rest of us authors a disservice. It's hard to go about telling people who aren't familiar with this genre that you're a straight woman writing gay romance. I've blogged about my follies with that a few times. You need a thick skin and a hardy sense of humor. Maybe if more of these women writing gay romance for other women were more up front about it, it would normalize the situation a bit more and make it easier for all of us. Stand proud that you're a straight woman writing about gay men, damn it
So now that I've said my piece - chime in here. What do you all think?
FREE READ at Amazon until Tuesday
Hi Everyone,
Just a quick note to let you all know that I've released a Yaoi, M/M short story over at Amazon that is FREE until Tuesday. The name of the book is, Night Swimming. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JKKPHFE
Hope you all enjoy it:)
Three new M/M Romance Stories Planned
I’m on a roll! I’ve got some new stories planned and one is inspired by the dude I drew on the left there. That’s the main character for my next full-length novel, Finding Human and his name is Lucian. I’ve also added him to my art page. The next one, Night Swimming is a short story I plan on doing for a fun free read. And the last one, The Bonds of Family, will be my third and last book in my In Life and Blood trilogy. I just hope I can hold myself to these dates…
Title: Finding Human
Genre: Yaoi Infused M/M Romance – Fantasy
Length: 90,000 Words
Release Date: Late Fall, 2014
Blurb: Mankind has stre
Famous Yaoi First Encounters - What's Too Soon and
So this blog post was inspired by this funny Yaoi motivational poster I found on DeviantArt: Yaoi Motivational Poster by SpirosDyingWish00
The poster made me think about all the standard, somewhat cliche first encounters we see in Yaoi - yes, the tripping into someone, the getting drunk, the angry slap followed by kiss, the OMG, you kissed me now I'm going to rape you. Most of which involve the two heros in a compromising close proximity to each other and the "aha!" moment. Oh, how we love these scenes, wait in high anticipation of them and squee with joy when they finally happen, LOL.
I suppose these things happen in a good het romance as
Should Authors Tell About Their Fanfiction?
I've always been a bit bothered by another M/M Romance author's bit of advice that given to me during a chat. The advice was basically this: Don't tell anyone you wrote fanfiction.
Now, as an M/M Romance author who got started in this business by writing Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction and has used this fact as much as possible to let my fanfiction readers know that - hey, I have some original published stories, too, and they're a lot better than the fanfiction stories - I can't let myself really believe this is good advice. It seems to me if someone likes your fanfiction stories, then they'd probably like your original published stories, w
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