Stories suggestions that are free from cliched conventions

[Sidd]

Okay, I know this might sound whiny, but frankly I'm starting to get tired of the overabundance of online gay fiction that seems to have the same themes, characters and settings that get repeated ad infinitum. throughout various authors and websites. I'm interested in story suggestions that are unique in defying the well worn conventions that seem to plague most gay fiction. Some of these hackneyed conventions include:

 

Characters who are white, male and fabulously wealthy. What's up with the obsession on material wealth, anyways? Are writers of gay fiction so lacking in imagination that they can only maintain interest by making one or more of their main characters ridiculously wealthy? Does that mean middle class, poor people and people of color are too boring to tell stories about? Another common chestnut: a meteoric rise to wealth that would make the Horatio Algiers stories look like they were written by Upton Sinclair. One example I can give is Towards the Decent Inn by Mike Arram. The first part of the book I loved, it's characters were solidly British middle class and sympathetic. But then in the second half it's revealed that one of the main character's father is the twelfth richest man in the world, and it was downhill from there, as the improbabilities started to mount up.

 

Lots and lots and lots of teen sex. I'll probably get in trouble for this one, since teen stories are so popular amongst readers. I don't care. The implication here is that anyone over the age of twenty don't have sex lives worth talking about. (Old people having sex? Eeeewwww!!!) Am I the only person who thinks that it's just a little creepy that you most likely have a lot of middle-aged male authors who are obsessed with under-aged sex?

 

Sex scenes where the sex is never anything less than fabulous, until the next time when it's even better. I'm starting to sound like

a prude, I know. But I do happen to know that we lived in a over-sexualized culture, where in the end sex has become a commodity. And in order to sell a commodity, you hype your product. I'm looking for stories where the sex is dealt with realistically, as an outgrowth of character and story development, and not as something to sell the reader on. There can be mature fiction where the sex is sometimes bad or ho hum.

 

The BF is straight, he's only gay for the main character. I guess I'm just not into fantasy, and this particular fantasy lies deep in a closet that goes far beyond Narnia.

 

So now that I've had my English teacher bitch attack, I would just say that I do appreciate creative effort, and understand that a lot of online authors are inexperienced. Of course I don't come online expecting to find stories on the level of Proust or Genet. But what a shame when there's little indication that any authors have even read Proust or Genet, or for that matter, have even heard of them.

 

I would love to be proved wrong on this matter. Any suggestions?

[Nephylim]

Read one of mine.

 

Try The Face in the Window where

 

Neither caracter is fabulously rich, although neither are dog poor either and I'm sorry that neither is black but one of them is a blind albino, will that do? There is a bit of sex but the first time is crap and the kind of learn together and both are totally gay for everyone. not just each other.

 

Or maybe Enigma. There is much sex at all in that and the lead characters don't have two beans to rub together, of course one of them is a struggling care assistant and the other one of his charges. Again neither is black and one is very beautiful but the other has red hair if that counts.

 

Never heard of Genet but I have read Proust (god knows not all of it) and think he's overrated but that might be because I don't speak French and I guess it loses something in the translation.

 

You do make some interesting points though, possible even powerful ideas which. by my challenge have communicated some of their strength to me

[Merlin]

Great points.

 

But remember that a lot of the stories (mine, certainly) reflect the personal fantasies of the authors...so of course there's going to be lots of wealthy, perfect characters having hot, hot sex.

[Zolia Lily]

i read each of your points going "yes. Yes. Yes! YES!" and then laughed outloud. I think my flatmate is wondering....

all really good points, and i have to wonder as well. Perhaps there is some sort of beleif out there that these are winning formulars?

I personally love to come across any story which breaks the mould...

 

can i add another point?

Two actually, although they're kind of related.

 

Stories where all of the characters, in the words of Derek Zoolander, are really really really ridiculously good looking.

 

Wooden, 2D characters. Characters who don't seem to have a personality and yet someone ridiculously good looking and wealthy is falling all over them. Drives me absolutely batty.

[Nephylim]

Wooden, 2D characters. Characters who don't seem to have a personality and yet someone ridiculously good looking and wealthy is falling all over them. Drives me absolutely batty.

 

Bella Swan

[Merlin]

Bella Swan

 

I think (hope) that Bella was intentionally set up that way. She has no personality so the reader can project their own personalities onto her and be immersed in vampire love.

[clumber]

The BF is straight, he's only gay for the main character. I guess I'm just not into fantasy, and this particular fantasy lies deep in a closet that goes far beyond Narnia.

 

 

 

In fairness to this plot concept, it isn't always bad... just mostly . I have seen it occasionally done in an interesting way, though. (Admittedly, it probably helps that I have met couples like this a few times in real life )

 

 

I do wish gay fiction was a bit more varied though. Personally, the thing that gets to me is how much of it seem to be issues fic. Sometimes I don't want to read about Gayngst, I want to read about a guy and his werewolf-hunting BF

 

 

Martin

[John Doe]

I hear ya... though sometimes its nice to read those types of stories... my qualm (< spelling?... too lazy to check) is they are written sub par. I'm not saying I'm the best writer out there, but I do like a sense of setting and direction of character movment at times rather than lines of dialogue and the paragraphs of movement and then the lines and lines of dialogue. Why not intermix the two? I would suggest reading Nephy's as she has suggested and maybe even my story of Get There. It's does have white peoples in it.... Asian peoples too... and they aren't wealthy, rather middle class, there's no sex in the story, or it shouldn't as I edited out those scenes (scenes after i had two or three email complaints of no sex.... then when I put them in the story sounded rotten to me so I took them back out a few days later...so they should have no sex scenes).... For your third point umm my story has no sex? The BF isn't straight he's gay, he just happens to love one person and one person only...

 

clumber I'm more with ya. I like my fantasy, paranormal romances (with more paranormal and less romance or an equal of both but done well and not dragged pointlessly over the romance part, unless its done well). Although I do like reading about charcters falling in love rather than instant love (hence my rather starnge and long definition just now). When a book starts off with a couple, I kind of lose interest as I want to find out how and why they work well together and for me, personally, I find it more interesting to see a beginning. So that's how I'm writing my stories too. But I like action in my stories too. Not just fluff action but some real action (no I'm not talking about sex). I just got done writing a fight scene and it was rather intense... haha

 

I remember liking Comicality's work. Along with DomLuka. I don't remember the details of most of them. Some of their stories aren't infested with your complaints if i recall correctly. I read too much and too many and my memories get clouded. Though most of my online reading was done years ago when I was a teen, Nowadays I focus a lot on my own writings.

[Aximili Chaosmembrane]

Honestly, I've never even heard of those authors. Then again, our country is not exactly open to these kinds of authors. But I did read Laura Argiri (loved her God in Flight).

 

My favorite author, Andrew Ashling, writes stories that seem to have one character being rich and the other poor (or at least of lesser wealth, financial or otherwise). But I enjoy reading them coz I enjoy seeing other "worlds," since in our country, homosexual stories (at least the movies) are usually in a middle class-to-poor setting. It gets depressing at times.

 

I guess you could say we are a sex-dominated culture. Then again, it's not really only the LGBT culture. But yea, I guess we could use a little less sex scenes. Anyone know of a feel-good, virtually sex-free story?

[Cia]

I try to avoid cliched aspects but even I'm guilty of using some occasionally. Most authors are, I think. I try to write unique stories with strong characters, or characters that learn to be strong. I strive to make them realistic, even when writing fantasy. I'm not super keen on teenager stories, especially with sex though I do write it into some of my older character's stories. I want my stuff to be original, even if it's been said that it can't really be done since all plots have already been written already. Sometimes I think I succeed, sometimes I fail. *shrugs*

 

 

Oh, and anyone who wants to see some really non-cliched vampire romances non-Bella Swanesque (and doesn't mind mostly mf) should check out the Black Dagger Brotherhood. One of the best adult series out there with very strong characters that all have flaws and problems, even while rich and beautiful and blah blah blah. Perhaps even despite it. With good sex scenes

[Sidd]

Never heard of Genet but I have read Proust (god knows not all of it) and think he's overrated but that might be because I don't speak French and I guess it loses something in the translation.

 

Surpised you've never heard of Genet. Jean Genet is considered by many to be to gay authors what Shakespeare is to dramatic literature. Everyone interested in gay writing should read him not because he'd be their cup of tea (very likely he won't be) but because it's already a given that this is what truly great writing is. And yes, there's a lot of explicit gay sex in his books, but they're written skillfully without a lot of hyperbole, so that it's closer to art than it is to common pornography. And I agree with you about Proust; personally he bores me to tears, but still, considering he's another gay author, his place in world literature can't be disputed.

 

Stories where all of the characters, in the words of Derek Zoolander, are really really really ridiculously good looking.

 

Wooden, 2D characters. Characters who don't seem to have a personality and yet someone ridiculously good looking and wealthy is falling all over them. Drives me absolutely batty.

 

Thank you. I totally forgot about those cliches, and it's absolutely true.

 

In fairness to this plot concept, it isn't always bad... just mostly . I have seen it occasionally done in an interesting way, though. (Admittedly, it probably helps that I have met couples like this a few times in real life )

 

Well, I guess I have my own personal prejudices against this type of story, for one thing it always implies a sort of self-loathing common amongst gays that straight guys are so much desirable and better than gays, for another it is in total denial that such as thing as bisexuality or the closet exists. Anyone going to Narnia?

 

Peeps seem to misunderstand about my points on sex in stories. It's not that I object to explicit descriptions of sex (see my comment about Genet above) if I did I can just choose stories tagged with "no sex". It's the way sex is treated I object to - in a lot of stories sex is something to be hyped, pitched and sold. It's almost like the stories are a commercial for sex.

 

Likewise, I don't object to depictions of wealthy people in and of itself, it's the way it's handled in the stories - as if the only people whose stories are worth telling are those with a lot of money (the 1% as opposed to the 99%, as it were). There can be stories where wealth is the setting, but it's handled in a very probing and thought provoking way. Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty is the best example I can cite of that.

 

Speaking of examples, the best one I could give of a very good gay author would be Michael Nava, author of a series mystery novels whose protagonist, gay lawyer Henry Rios, escapes every cliche out there. In some cases he deals with wealthy and powerful people, in other cases he deals with poor and disenfranchsed, but Rios himself falls into neither category. It's a very well written series of books, and Nava is recognized to be in the top tier of gay mystery writers (I would say gay writers, period).

 

I understand the preponderance of fantasy stories on this site and others. A lot of people read to escape real life, or putting it more kindly, to enhance their life experiences, hence you have not only outright fantasy but wealthy settings, absurdly beautiful people and mind-blowingly great sex. Nothing wrong with that. But it's a shame that mediocrity gets so much encouragement, where the alternative is that you can have not only highly entertaining stories, but also stories that actually make people think.

 

So again, getting back to the point of this topic, any more suggestions?

[clumber]

clumber I'm more with ya. I like my fantasy, paranormal romances (with more paranormal and less romance or an equal of both but done well and not dragged pointlessly over the romance part, unless its done well). Although I do like reading about charcters falling in love rather than instant love (hence my rather starnge and long definition just now). When a book starts off with a couple, I kind of lose interest as I want to find out how and why they work well together and for me, personally, I find it more interesting to see a beginning. So that's how I'm writing my stories too. But I like action in my stories too. Not just fluff action but some real action (no I'm not talking about sex). I just got done writing a fight scene and it was rather intense... haha

 

Yeah, I don't have anything against romance in my stories (although the '2 characters meet and bang! Instant Couple! thing always annoyed me). I just happen to like having more than romance there. There are only so many gay relationships you can read before it starts to make you wonder if these characters ever do anything else, ever.

 

 

Well, I guess I have my own personal prejudices against this type of story, for one thing it always implies a sort of self-loathing common amongst gays that straight guys are so much desirable and better than gays, for another it is in total denial that such as thing as bisexuality or the closet exists. Anyone going to Narnia?

 

 

 

That's the thing though - I have seen stories where it doesn't have that implication. They are just a massive pain in the arse to find

 

There is potential for a good story, it's just that so many bad stories have a similar premise.

 

Oh, and just for sexuality and gay relationships done well, if you want I can probably dig out some pretty good fanfic to recommend you

 

Martin

[Cyhort]

Eh, cliches don't bother me if I'm in the mood for them. Actually I kinda prefer them because I like knowing pretty much what i'm gonna get with a story. When writers start trying to "bust" cliches or whatever it usually comes off as "look at my story! I totally tried to make this really original! Aren't I great!?". I'd much rather be entertained that get a story that has a lot of depressing, unentertaining crap in it just because it's trying to be unique. I'm not saying unique is bad, I'm just saying that stories don't need to avoid cliches to be good and entertaining. But I get why people get sick of the cliches.

 

One thing though, I've noticed that in most stories wealth isn't mentioned and when it is and the characters are poor the writers usually try shoving political messages about sharing and charity and how horrible life is for poor people and, yeah, all good points but I read to get entertained. And reading about how bad it is to be poor isn't entertaining. And on that note, one cliche that I DO hate: a poor guy and a rich guy getting together and the poor guy getting all pissy and offended whenever the rich guy tries to spend any money on him. It just really annoys me when people can't accept much needed help from someone they claim to be in love with.

[Elisabeth]

Reading, I have come accross everything that is mentioned here, too. And as Cia says, I too guess it's hard to go completely without them. One of the reasons it's hard might actually be that a lot of authors more or less seem to wish to cater directly to an audience, and every genre has certain "requirements" there. What I want to say it that a writer who is mostly or or even completely off-cliche might not be accepted by the readers and I guess that could be an explanation for using those cliches. I know some people (and I belong to them myself) that don't write to satisfy any needs a reasdership might have in the first place but first of all for themselves and with their own standards, but I think that especially in online fiction there are lots of people out there who want to be read. And the easiest way to get there is to give the audience what it wants, even if it means the ump-teenth version of such-and-such.

 

For example: I beta for someone elsewhere and that guy uses all of what is mentioned in the first post, barring the teen sex (he uses young adults instead). He knows its unrealistic. He knows that it makes the story lose value ( he is German and in German it does), but he is also able to add something else everytime that keeps people reading, even after they might have dismissed it as "cheap" or whatever, because he tends to work in subjects not many writers dare to touch in the German gay writing community. One of his stories has a main character with an addiction that would be labelled very strongly in Germany society and if nothing else in the story is worth the read the description of that addiction is worth reading it because it reads credible. Now, this particular character fits into cliche one, he is rich enough he never needs to work for a penny in his life. When out of curiousity I asked the writer why he had done that I got the answer that he was indeed aware that he could have created more suspense and a more realistic feeling in the overall story incase the protagonist had been an ordinary working man. But: If the character hadn't been so enornomously rich it had meant that the character had not been able to hole up in his appartment so easily, because working people need to leave the house now and then, and if he had written it that way he would have been forced to do some more research on how people deal with the addiction in daily life and he didn't want any more delay in getting started. So here I think is another reason: People want to get started with a story they have in mind and even if they strive to be original they might not want to spend too much time doing research upfront.

[sorgbarn]

OMG: was my spontaneous response when I read your post. It made me laugh a lot. All of what you´re saying is so very true, but, as I believe some one mentioned in the replies, you forgot the extreme physical beauty with the characters, unless they are villains of course.

 

 

But you have to remember there´s a difference between genre fiction and literary fiction (I have read Proust, though not the other author you mentioned). What you read on-line, here and on other sites as well is almost always genre fiction: gay romance, gay high school romance and any sub-genre to romance depending on where you set the story and what age you make the characters. Genre fiction attracts readers partly because they know what they are getting and that includes the things you´ve pointed out. Romances are nothing but fantasies hence the wealthy protagonist (don´t we all wish we had some more money?),the youth (everyone wants to live to be old, but we don´t want floppy bellies, wrinkled skin and graying hairs), the hot sex (it was a fantasy, right? you don´t have erection issues or size issues or performance anxiety in those and some of the romance borderlines erotica, and even crosses it now and then, and that has its own purpose).

 

 

Maybe some of the authors are middle-aged men obsessed with under-aged sex, but personally I think they are middle-aged men mourning their youth, trying to relive and enhance what once was, or what they wish had been. I have very little problem with teen-aged sex and I´ve come to think that your view on the issue is partly cultural. What does the law of your country say regarding sexual activities? What does your culture say is a proper age of having sex? Where I come from the age of consent is 15, it has definitely had an impact on how I view the issue. I have however come across on-line fiction where the characters are so young they most likely haven´t or have just started puberty, and that on the other hand is as you say creepy. It never fails to make me really uncomfortable.

 

 

I´d like to read more realistic stories as well, where the characters come in all sizes and all colors and from every thinkable socio-economic level in society, where the relationships are genuinely depicted both emotionally and sexually, both are something you have t learn, especially when you are young, maybe a teenager, but also when you´re older.

 

 

As for the writers, most of them are amateurs, doing this because they enjoy it. I don´t think they are aiming for the Nobel Prize in literature. I get the impression you think people read (and write) on-line fiction at the expense of more literary authors. Many pupils and students today find it hard to write texts longer than a text message on their phone(not to mention writing anything their own), if they would read on-line fiction and get inspired to start writing I think that is wonderful - they need all the practice they can get. And there doesn´t have to be an unbreakable concrete wall between genre reading and literary reading. For some readers genre reading can be an inspiration and a gate way to more advanced literature.

 

 

I had a good time reading your post and many of the replies. Thanks!

Edited December 6, 2011 by sorgbarn

[Elisabeth]

I'm with you, sorgbarn. "Genre fiction" was a word that didn't come to me but I was thinking off when I said I guess that authors wish to cater to an audience.

 

Also what you say in your last paragraph rings true to me. I have come accross different types of, especially, online writers. Some indeed do it for fun and because they want to entertain others and that's it for them, but I have also seen those who do actually have some sort of literary ambition. In German forums etc. I need to browse for my work as a tutor there are a lot of discussions going on among amateuers and especially in genre fiction related threads about how very important it is to some people to get their stuff in print and sold well. In response to this some publishers have been founded that exclusively publish stories that very previously distributed online and depending on which community you watch there are unfortunately little flamewars going on between people who made publication that way and people who haven't or don't even want to. It's sad. Then there is a third type, I can't name any English language examples at this point because I haven't yet come around enough, in Germany that has very high literary ambitions and though glbt in theme (because the writers are gay men) they absolutely don't fit into the genre and even get shunned by the communities catering to it. Neither is it easy for them to find a publisher, because in Germany/Austria/Switzerland glbt online and print fiction both seem to follow a certain identical codex and if you don't follow it (it contains a lot of cliches, in lesbian lit: lesbian falls in unlucky love with supposedly hetero woman, doesn't get her, has a ton of explicit one night stands, eventually the woman of her dreams realises she isn't straight after all, comes running to her and they live happily ever after...blah) you're out of the game. These people either end up as ecxeptions with non-genre publishers or unpublished.

 

One gay writer I can think of, a classic actually, without cliche is Thomas Mann's son Klaus Mann, who has always had gay characters as far as I know or at least gay rolemodels for his characters (Gustaf Gündjens, the actor on whom Mephisto's protagonist Hendrik Höfgens is based on was said to be a closeted homosexual, Klaus Mann altered that into a man with a bdsm fetish for the book), but I don't know how much of his works were eventually translated in other languages and which. I have only a couple of English editions.

[Zolia Lily]

Oooh have been trying to think of some authors to recommend- online, i guess, since i haven't been doing much BOOK reading of anything other than classics recently ... the one i came up with writes as "Podga" on Literotica. He writes about characters who i think are in their forties (?) and struggle with work and long distance relationships. I found his stories really good, not immature or unresearched. I would definitely recommend them.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=1210670&page=submissions

[Michael9344]

Okay, I know this might sound whiny, but frankly I'm starting to get tired of the overabundance of online gay fiction that seems to have the same themes, characters and settings that get repeated ad infinitum. throughout various authors and websites. I'm interested in story suggestions that are unique in defying the well worn conventions that seem to plague most gay fiction. Some of these hackneyed conventions include:

 

Characters who are white, male and fabulously wealthy. What's up with the obsession on material wealth, anyways? Are writers of gay fiction so lacking in imagination that they can only maintain interest by making one or more of their main characters ridiculously wealthy? Does that mean middle class, poor people and people of color are too boring to tell stories about? Another common chestnut: a meteoric rise to wealth that would make the Horatio Algiers stories look like they were written by Upton Sinclair. One example I can give is Towards the Decent Inn by Mike Arram. The first part of the book I loved, it's characters were solidly British middle class and sympathetic. But then in the second half it's revealed that one of the main character's father is the twelfth richest man in the world, and it was downhill from there, as the improbabilities started to mount up.

 

Lots and lots and lots of teen sex. I'll probably get in trouble for this one, since teen stories are so popular amongst readers. I don't care. The implication here is that anyone over the age of twenty don't have sex lives worth talking about. (Old people having sex? Eeeewwww!!!) Am I the only person who thinks that it's just a little creepy that you most likely have a lot of middle-aged male authors who are obsessed with under-aged sex?

 

Sex scenes where the sex is never anything less than fabulous, until the next time when it's even better. I'm starting to sound like

a prude, I know. But I do happen to know that we lived in a over-sexualized culture, where in the end sex has become a commodity. And in order to sell a commodity, you hype your product. I'm looking for stories where the sex is dealt with realistically, as an outgrowth of character and story development, and not as something to sell the reader on. There can be mature fiction where the sex is sometimes bad or ho hum.

 

The BF is straight, he's only gay for the main character. I guess I'm just not into fantasy, and this particular fantasy lies deep in a closet that goes far beyond Narnia.

 

So now that I've had my English teacher bitch attack, I would just say that I do appreciate creative effort, and understand that a lot of online authors are inexperienced. Of course I don't come online expecting to find stories on the level of Proust or Genet. But what a shame when there's little indication that any authors have even read Proust or Genet, or for that matter, have even heard of them.

 

I would love to be proved wrong on this matter. Any suggestions?

 

I agree with everything you said. My characters are predominantly white. Not because I don't want a black character, but because they "fit" into my story line. I'm currently working on a story with a black main character.

 

I have a character who is wealthy and I write stories about adults (meanwhile I'm a teenager myself).

The thing is, there's a reason why half the ppl who have replied to this forum doesn't know most of these authors you mentioned. And it isn't their talent. Some authors go for what's popular, others only know how to write what's popular.

[Zombie]

So again, getting back to the point of this topic, any more suggestions?

 

OK, you've not had many story suggestions so here are just a few of my favourites.  They are all enjoyable reads.  Before I list them, when I'm checking out a story I have a checklist:

- does the opening sentence grab me?

- is it finished and is the ending satisfying? (I always read the last sentence to check it doesn't end in a funeral` LOL ! )

- what is the genre (I like slow burning / developing relationship stories)

- is it long enough for character and plot development

 

Not foolproof but I have found some great stories this way including:

 

Getting a Life by Jamie Anderson (http://www.nifty.org...getting-a-life/)

Genre: gay-beginnings / relationship

9 chapters

About the story:

- unusual relationship but very well written and funny

- quite a lot of sex but unusual and funny

- alternating POV may irritate but you can always skip one POV and still enjoy it

 

Two Distinct Divisions by Horatio Nimier (http://eu.nifty.org/...inct-divisions/)

Genre: gay-beginnings / relationship

12 chapters

About the stories:

- computer biker geek meets lawyer

- writing style is not perfect but the 12 self contained mystery stories (where the geek outwits the lawyer) are interesting and very well plotted (OK you may find some plot holes but overall the standard is pretty high)

- nice developing relationship across the 12 stories, sex very low key

 

Living in Surreality by Shadowgod (http://shadowgod.gay...words/lis1.html)

Genre: gay-highschool / relationship

28 chapters

About the stories:

- very well written

- growing up new friends boy / girl / boy characters and how they develop

 

A Shot of Bourbon by Shadowgod (http://www.gayauthor.../ashotofbourbon)

Genre: gay-highschool / relationship

5 (longish) chapters

About the story:

- very well written

- trail biker boy and his growing relationship with his best friend

 

Jakes Hand by R.E.C. (http://eu.nifty.org/...ips/jakes-hand/)Genre: gay-beginnings / relationships

18 chapters part 1, 11 chapters pt 2

About the story:

- really well written, strong emotions

- found, then lost, then found again student to adult relationship tale starting in the early 60s

- spans the Vietnam years with a convincingly told plot

- satisfying ending.

 

Thats-life by W.E. (http://www.nifty.org...ege/thats-life/)

Genre: gay-college / relationship

21 chapters part 1, 11 chapters pt 2

About the story:

- best friends one gay, one straight

- yes, it's a cliche!!!!!!!

- but of its kind it is exceptionally well done

- very satisfying ending.

- this is the author's one and only story - shame,

 

Seal Rocks (http://www.nifty.org...ool/seal-rocks/)

Genre: gay-highschool / relationship

30 chapters

About the stories:

- beautifully written

- strong emotions

- very moving ending

 

When-i-first-met-mike by DS Elliot (http://www.nifty.org...-first-met-mike)

Genre: gay-beginnings / relationship

5 (long) chapters

About the story:

- dentist encounters homeless guy

- story of their developing relationship including harrowing flashback of previous abuse

- well written

 

C James - all his stories! (http://cjames.gayauthors.org/)

Genre: gay-relationships

Mostly long multi-chapters

About the stories:

- mostly action / adventure, but some romance

- no explicit sex

- lots of cliffhangers

- some violence and horror inflicted by the cruel author, including blood-spurting deaths, but the main characters are not usually permanently maimed

- outstanding short stories are "Category 5" and "Three for Jake"

 

Sorry if the list is a bit long but I hope you find something to enjoy here if you've not already read them all

[Sidd]

OK, you've not had many story suggestions so here are just a few of my favourites. They are all enjoyable reads. Before I list them, when I'm checking out a story I have a checklist:

- does the opening sentence grab me?

- is it finished and is the ending satisfying? (I always read the last sentence to check it doesn't end in a funeral` LOL ! )

- what is the genre (I like slow burning / developing relationship stories)

- is it long enough for character and plot development

 

Not foolproof but I have found some great stories this way including:

 

 

Thank you! Finally someone who has done what I started this topic for in the first place! Actually, I was about to give up on GA altogether and just dismiss it as place where semi-illiterate teens come to get cheap thrills. Just kidding. Or not. Ouch!

 

you have to remember there´s a difference between genre fiction and literary fiction (I have read Proust, though not the other author you mentioned). What you read on-line, here and on other sites as well is almost always genre fiction: gay romance, gay high school romance and any sub-genre to romance depending on where you set the story and what age you make the characters. Genre fiction attracts readers partly because they know what they are getting and that includes the things you´ve pointed out. Romances are nothing but fantasies hence the wealthy protagonist (don´t we all wish we had some more money?),the youth (everyone wants to live to be old, but we don´t want floppy bellies, wrinkled skin and graying hairs), the hot sex (it was a fantasy, right? you don´t have erection issues or size issues or performance anxiety in those and some of the romance borderlines erotica, and even crosses it now and then, and that has its own purpose).

 

I guess I'm just finding that out about this site. I originally had it in mind that GA catered to the full spectrum of gay writing, but I should have caught on sooner judging by what seems to be the most popular on the site. Still, I stand by my assertion in my second post that even genre fiction doesn't need to be mindlessly escapist and mediocre. It's not for nothing that The Lord of the Rings has been cited by many critics as one of the greatest books written in the 20th century.

 

So given the nature of this site, maybe in addition to story suggestions I should request other gay author site suggestions as well. We can dispense with the many porn/erotic gay fiction sites out there, since they are definitely legion. What I'd like to hear about are gay author sites that cater to more literary, or so-called serious fiction works. I can start it off: I just found a site that host an online magazine called "Blithe House Quarterly". The magazine is no longer active, but there is a nice archive with plenty of stories that fall into the category of more sophisticated fiction. (God, does that sound condescending or what?).

[rec]

In response to Zombie, I just wanted to let you know that Jake's Hand and the companion piece Jake's Side are hosted here at GA.

 

 

 

Jakes Hand by R.E.C. (http://eu.nifty.org/...ips/jakes-hand/)Genre: gay-beginnings / relationships

18 chapters part 1, 11 chapters pt 2

About the story:

- really well written, strong emotions

- found, then lost, then found again student to adult relationship tale starting in the early 60s

- spans the Vietnam years with a convincingly told plot

- satisfying ending.

[Zombie]

In response to Zombie, I just wanted to let you know that Jake's Hand and the companion piece Jake's Side are hosted here at GA.

 

 

Thanks rec. Some of the others may also be on GA but I must admit I haven't bothered to check - my bad

[rec]

Some additions to well-done stories:

 

A Special Place (and other stories) by Sequoyah Pendor at awesomedude.com

 

All the novels of Cole Parker, at the same place

 

The Michael Arram series at crvboy.org

[Elisabeth]

Sidd, I guess sites like what you're looking for are really hard to find. That was something I thought of when I mentioned those literary ambitious guys in Germany, that don't fit in anywhere. They read a bit like Proust, Wilde and Dickens. (Of course they don't even come close, but if they've got any idols I guess it has to be them). Like I said they write in German (and personally I absolutely love the way they write, it's very much like what I do ,too, and I find it really inspiring), but it makes me think of something. One of these guys has a very successful blog he posts his stuff on and because it is so non-genre and "serious literated" he's got a lot of different people in his following (glbt, straight, men, women, young, old, educated, not-so-educated, natives, foreigners), maybe there are similar blogs out there in the English language blog scene as well. So you might find something in that field. I will have a look at the site you turned up - many thanks! - sounds interesting.

[Sidd]

Some additions to well-done stories:

 

A Special Place (and other stories) by Sequoyah Pendor at awesomedude.com

 

All the novels of Cole Parker, at the same place

 

The Michael Arram series at crvboy.org

 

Not familiar with Sequoyah Pendor or Cole Parker - I'm sure they're good - but it's funny you should mention Mike Arram's series, since it was out of total frustration with him that I started this post in the first place. If you go back to the first post I specifically mentioned the first story in his Peacher series Towards the Decent Inn. To me he's guilty of all the cliches that I've been railing against: glorifying wealthy white males (not to mention a rather snobbish view of royalty), constant teen sex which is never anything less than mind blowing, impossibly beautiful characters (personified in the person of Matt White), and a host other cliches. And of course, a lot of elements are not cliches: not all his characters are wealthy, beautiful, ect. but it's clear where his loyalties lie. But the thing is, I'm riveted by the series - the stories disgust me on moral and aesthetic grounds but at the same time I can't stop obsessing over them. Right now I'm in the middle of the Henry Atwood trilogy, reading and muttering under my breath "Dammit Arram, I wish I could quit you."

 

Another author that has a similar effect on me is Dom Luka. He's definitely one of the best writers on GA, but still guilty of a lot of the cliches I've mentioned, especially the teen sex thing. I'm going to catch flak from Domaholics out there, but haven't you noticed that his characters over the various stories go through an almost identical progression of sex scenes: first there's the intitiation into sex through mutual masterbation, then there's the first oral experience, then tentative steps towards anal sex, and finally the character's first experience of full blown anal sex, which after some initial pain, is the ultimate religious experience in both the characters' life and the story - in the afterglow the characters are lying there making google eyes at each other, murmuring "now I am complete." Well, dear me.

 

This describes not only Dom Luka's stories, but maybe half of the gay teen stories online. Hence my frustration with cliches. But I will say this for Dom Luka, he has the skill to transcend the cliches. His best story IMHO is In the Fishbowl. It's definitely his most mature work, and note he is able to not include one explicit sex scene through the whole story, though there are plenty of opportunities for him to do so.