Little Things Mean A lot

Jeanne Barrack — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:01:53 +0000

The Sweet Flag

As writers we’re used to getting critiqued by our editors first and then reviewers. Usually, we can only tell if our readers enjoy us by how well a story sells.
When a reader takes the time to write us directly and let us know how a story affected them, it means a lot. So when I received a note from one talking about The Sweet Flag, it really made my day.

Here’s a snippet from her note.

Dear Jeanne-

I just finished “The Sweet Flag” and wanted to tell you

how much I enjoyed it. It was much more unconventional

than I’d been expecting and I had been thinking, while reading, who Ron might be but I never guessed that

ending *at all*.

There was this nice build-up of tension, both between

Brandon and Ron, and in finding out what happened to

Aaron and Matthew. Also enjoyed the way the feelings between Brandon and Ron intensified until Brandon

could make no other choice at the end but the choice he made—without even needing to consider it. It was

romantic and just a satisfying conclusion to the story.

And all your descriptions were lovely–I could just see

the beautiful furnishings. I wanted to live there. *g*

I wasn’t entirely prepared for the amount of sex,

but I did like how it wasn’t just about the sex—

that there were emotions involved and it felt

complex and believable. That’s what I read these

stories for. That sense of feelings that just can’t

be denied. Just lovely. I can’t write sex in that detail.

Always impressed when it is done well by someone else.

It was a really entertaining story. I hope you’ll be writing more.

And I will be writing some more. I received a contract

from ManLoveRomance Press for a single author

anthology of historical m/m romances, due out early

next year.
This letter meant a lot!

Loving Men–loving men

LauraBaumbach — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Hello everyone. My name is Laura Baumbach. For the legions of people who don’t know me, I write M/M erotic romance. I’ve won a few writing awards here and there, the most recent being the 2008 EPPIE Award for best GLBT story, The Lost Temple of Karttikeya. In 2007 I finaled in the same category with my scifi novel Details of the Hunt. I’m currently writing the sequel to that one titles Genetic Snare–all beefy alien bounty hunter and wily, light-fingered, confused pirate for heroes.

While my writing keeps me pretty busy, I devote a portion of very day to the M/M authors co-op group I formed to venture out into more expensive advertising venues called Manloveromance.com. We run ads in places like gay.com, advocate.com, romance sites, and do public booths and appearances at big ticket events such as Book expo America, Yaoi Con, and GEE to reach our target audiences of straight women and gay men.

Between writing and promoting M/M romance, I own and operate ManLoveRomance Press, LLC, aka MLR Press, a small print press exclusively for M/M erotic romance and fiction. The back bone of my world is my husband, sons and my now part-time career as an emergency trauma nurse.

I started writing five years ago in the world of fanfiction. My first books were print published collections of these works published by a small press in CA. Surprisingly, my writing found an audience and wrote 4 books with this publisher. Flush with amazement, I wandered into epublishing world, found more houses looking for my brand of work and I’ve never looked back. I now have seven novels out in a whole variety of genres from vampires to cops, one single author collection of short stories and short stories in five anthologies. I’ve written for BUST and MEN magazines, Alyson Press, and at least six different epublishers.

My latest release is the first in a new romantic crime series titled Mexican Heat. I’m co-authoring the Crimes & Cocktails series with award winning master of prose Josh Lanyon, author of the acclaimed Adrien English Mystery series. Mexican Heat releases in a few weeks. This is the first time I’ve advertised a book in Romance Sells and I’m anxious to see how effective that turns out to be. As an added kick to the promotions I’ve placed ads in two more print magazine as well. New territory for me to explore!

I’m finding the genre of M/M has a marvelous audience and the best readers imaginable. Even though my writing skills are still developing, I’m more of a story teller than author, I’ve been stunned and amazed at the support and loyalty of M/M readers. They are the BEST. Without the supportive feedback, delightful reviews and unfailing loyalty I know I wouldn’t be writing today. It reader comments that fuel the fires of my writing.

A lot of author write for themselves but I write for readers, plain and simple. I work a high stress job that forces me to see the worst of people on a regular basis. I want pure enjoyment when I sit down to read. So I write romance. I want to see love, life and happily ever afters for my heroes. When people stop reading my work or stop letting me know I bring them a few hours of enjoyent, I’ll stop writing.

But until hat time, I’ll be throwing two gorgeous, conflicted men together to fight, survive and fall in love in everyone of my emotional and hot-hot-hot stories. Oh, did I mention I like to write the sex scenes the most?

League of Amazing Writers » M/M writing

Little Things Mean A lot

Loving Men–loving men