Review: Tie Me Down by Tracy Wolff

My review of Tie Me Down by Tracy Wolff went up this weekend at AAR. Overall I thought this was a nice blend of erotica and romantic suspense, despite a couple of issues. Click here to read my full review. I'll definitely check out the author's next release, Tease Me, which is coming in April.

Disclosure: This was a free book I received as an AAR reviewer.

Music Monday: Stairway to Gilligan's Island

In 1978, San Francisco pop rock band Little Roger and the Goosebumps recorded "Stairway to Gilligan's Island," which, you guessed it, combines the classic Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven" with the theme song to the Gilligan's Island television show.

Within weeks of the song's release, Led Zeppelin's lawyers threatened to sue the band, and demanded that all copies of the song be destroyed. Odd, then, that in 2005 Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant named "Stairway to Gilligan's Island" his favorite "Stairway to Heaven" cover song.

(Sorry for the audio quality of this video, but it's the best a/v combination available.)

Rambling Ponderings on Authenticity

Sometime back, somewhere in my Internet travels, I read a comment by an aspiring author that said something like:

"Because I'm a virgin I've been worried that my sex scenes won't be very good, but your comments have given me back my confidence!"

I admit, my first reaction upon reading that was to think, yeah right, those scenes are going to suck bad if she's never even experienced sex herself.

Then I pondered my very bitchy cynical reaction.

I'm all for authors having the freedom to write about experiences they've never had -- occupations, places, people, etc. If all authors only wrote what they themselves had directly experienced, the book world would be a hell of a lot less diverse than it is. I want to read about firefighters and treasure hunters and lawyers, and most authors have never, and will never, hold one of these jobs. I want to read books set in Alaska and New York City and 18th century London, and I don't particularly care if the author hasn't ever lived in that place, in that time, as long as the setting feels authentic to me as the reader.

But here's the thing: Even if an author researches her butt off, she's still likely to get some of the details wrong. There are just some things that you don't know until you experience it firsthand -- and you don't know what you don't know -- so it's almost inevitable that an author will get something wrong. It may be a minor thing, or it may be a major thing, but either way, if it's a subject that you, as the reader, knows very well, the inauthenticity of it is going to pull you out of the story.

Then again, the majority of readers won't have a clue that the author got something wrong, nor will they care. Because, like authors, most readers haven't had firsthand experience with all the occupations and places featured in books. I've never been a firefighter or treasure hunter or lawyer; I've never been to Alaska or New York City or 18th century London. So the only time this issue arises for us readers is when the book we pick up happens to be one of those featuring something we are intimately familiar with. Otherwise we remain happily clueless.

As I see it, the big problem facing the virgin writer above is that the overwhelming majority of her readers have experienced sex, and they're going to know if she gets it wrong.

But, wait. It's not like Romance Novel Sex is completely realistic in the first place, is it? We have Magically Orgasming heroines and Expert Sex God heroes, and romance couples never get sand in uncomfortable places after sex on the beach. There's no awkwardness or pain or messy bodily fluids or not-so-sexy noises. It's a perfect, rose-colored view of sex, and much of it ain't exactly realistic, although I do think the realism has improved over the years.

So, if the writer in question relies on the conventions of the genre, will her sex scenes read authentically to readers?

Part of me thinks she could fake it, but the bigger part of me thinks the scenes will feel "off" in some way. Why? Because, as a reader who started reading romances long before having sex, I know that I didn't really "get it" until I experienced it. Sure, I understood the basic mechanics from sex-ed classes, and I'd read a gazillion romance novel sex scenes, but it was all still rather hazy and indistinct. It didn't click until I did it. Hell, it didn't fully click until I'd done it a lot more than once.

TMI? Anyway, moving on...

What about female m/m authors? The m/m romance and m/m erotic romance genres are rapidly growing, and it seems like most of the authors and readers are heterosexual women. Do these authors' m/m sex scenes read inauthentically given that they've never experienced m/m sex, let alone what it's like to be a gay man? As I'm not a gay man, I don't really know. But that's exactly my point: If most of their readers are straight women, they're not going to know either, will they? Which means that most readers aren't going to be bitching afterward about how the author "got it all wrong." And hell hath no fury like ticked off readers.

Which brings me back to my main conclusion: That the biggest problem the virgin writer is facing is the fact that she's relying on books, research, and her imagination, whereas most of her audience will have firsthand, intimate experience with the subject at hand. Even with Romance Novel Sex conventions on her side, she's fighting an uphill battle to convince readers of the realism of her sex scenes.

Thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Do you think authors can ever write a truly authentic experience they've never had?

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For further reading on the subject of writing and authenticity from a reader's perspective, check out Lynn Spencer's post All in a Day's Work, and Rike Horstmann's Familiar Territory.

Boys and Fire

So ... the other night I'm on the phone with Dear Boyfriend while I'm reading through some of the blog posts that have been accumulating in my feed reader. I come across this post by Jill Shalvis, and it amuses me, so I share it with DB:

ME: Hey, here's something funny. This author is blogging about her oldest daughter at UCLA. She said her daughter sent her a text message that read:

“My professor just asked if anyone has ever lit their farts on fire, because we’re learning about methane. I started laughing and everyone just stared at me. Lecture class of 250 …"

The author says:

"Poor thing. Of course she started laughing. She was raised by a wolf, aka Alpha Man. We sent her away to college to get educated, and what she’s learning is that her family is a little crazy…"

Heh, heh. Funny, huh?

DB: [silence]

ME: So ... you know. Her dad must have lit his farts on fire. Heh, heh.

DB: [silence]

ME: You've lit your farts on fire, haven't you?

DB: Who hasn't?

Texting Fun with Mom

Sometimes my mother really cracks me up, and it's not always intentional on her part. Such as this text message exchange from last night:

MOM: we have power!!

ME: awesome! i didn't know it was out.

MOM: since sunday

ME: sucky

MOM: yws but now   i am ib n the bath. aawesom

ME: r u also imbibing alcohol?

MOM: not since 10 am

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My mother is not a lush. Really, she's not. She just likes her Irish Coffee. You know, in the morning.

Review: Gobsmacked by L.B. Gregg

Title: Gobsmacked
Author: L.B. Gregg
Genre: M/M Erotic Romance
Length: 38,485 words (~109-153 min)
Published: 2009
Sensuality: Burning
Setting: Upstate New York
Series: Men of Smithfield #1
Disclosure: Purchased Myself

Mild mannered Mark Meehan’s good judgment flies out the window when he finds his lover banging another man. Things go from bad to worse as Mark’s crazy revenge scheme uncovers shocking secrets—sending him straight into the arms of hunky lawman and old friend, Tony Gervase, a man of limited patience and secrets of his own.

Gobsmacked is the first novella in L.B. Gregg's Men of Smithfield series, and the bottom line is that it was just plain fun to read. It's told in the first person narrative (past tense), which works very well due to Mark's dry, humorous POV. For the first part of the story I alternated between laughing out loud, and gasping "Oh no he didn't!" When the romantic and suspense elements of the plot come to the forefront, the tale, while still humorous, is less funny and a bit edgier. Mark must deal with the fallout of his actions and the mystery he's been thrown into, as well as his renewed feelings for Tony. The change in tone worked quite well as the plot moves from being a funny scorned-lover-revenge-scheme to something darker and heavier.

Gobsmacked is one of those stories that doesn't fit neatly under labels such as Erotica or Romantic Suspense. It's officially labeled Erotica, but it feels more like a gay man's version of Chick Lit -- Dude Lit? -- combined with light-hearted-edgy Romantic Suspsense, and a shot of Erotica mixed in with all of that. Like I said -- conventional genre labels don't fit.

Regardless of the label it's given, Gobsmacked is highly entertaining, and I'm very much looking forward to the next two installments in the series, Happy Ending and Cover Me.

Grade: B

Review: Make Her Pay by Roxanne St. Claire

My review of Make Her Pay by Roxanne St. Claire is up today over at AAR. Of the eight books in the Bullet Catchers series, this one is my favorite. I especially loved the hero and heroine, and I was all over the treasure hunting mystery plot. I know St. Claire is coming out with a new series from a different publisher next year, so it appears that the Bullet Catchers are on hiatus -- or might possibly be over. If it turns out that the series is over, I'll be sad, but at least the Bullet Catchers will have gone out with a good one. Click here to read my full review.

Disclosure: I purchased this book myself.