Sasha Distan

thanks ma xxx

angry, pulling rank Nassau is sort of terrifying and delicious, right? I'd do pretty much anything for him.

I promise they'll both be fine, eventually.

Jahke purred as Sitka ran a hand down his spine. Shindae growled in an appreciative manner at the effect this had on their kiss. The horned demon whispered something dirty in his lover’s ear, and Jahke chuckled into Shindae’s mouth before taking Shindae’s clawed hand and pressing it firmly into his own crotch. Shindae’s fire-marked skin glowed. “Mmmm...” “Happy there little boy?” Sitka rubbed against his lover. “I always like doing this.” Jahke could have been referring to any number of thing

Go get fat and happy, the lot of you. big hugs from us over here xx

sorry oom, but sign me up for club Rice Burner. I'm a Honda/Kawasaki kid, though I can be persuaded by a Ducati too. I liked that chapter, a little bit sweet, very slick, a touch sexy, a bit rough. Just about perfect for a thousand words and change xxx

thank you hoho! I'm glad you liked it. I think it's one of my favourite short stories. And Theo isn't a serial pug butcher! hahaha!

I'm really good at not giving things away. I've had a lot of practice! Logan is a quiet reserved fisherman full of surprises.

xxx

and Tiger Winter posted another chapter.

I'm proud of you too Jeff xxx The recipe is literally just that. You can add some heavy cream and mix it with pasta if you like, or pick the bits out with a fork and soak the wine and butter sauce up with bread. It's yummy. Sometimes we use it as the base for a chicken dish with hasselback potatoes. Go grab your frying pan!

Sextants confuse me, but Emmett's gonna love using it. And yeah, it's a beaut. oh Jesse, if I told you the plot twists, they wouldn't be twists now, would they sweetie?

oh but the universe has this habit of getting in the way....

thanks BHopper! Glad to have you on board!

Thanks northie. But that's why it makes me SO angry when authors buy into the stereotype too. When we have the choice (because no published author on the planet really gets a say in what their book looks like on the shelf) we should be trying to haul the standard up by their ears.

Ha! I wish! Thanks sweetie. The only movement I'm going to start is when people drift away from me because they can't stand me anymore...

It's all kind of hideous, right? I'm with you on that second point. Synopsis is key. I wish I could browse Amazon and the shelves at Smith's by synopsis and title rather than anything else.

oh noes! I can't think those things about Rye! He's all adorable and sweet and little. He's Emm's little brother. Anyway, Logan talks sense, you'll see.

You know I can't tell you sweetie! I promise I don't do these things just to tease you xx

Academics are really good at over-analysing everything...

Jian slipped his fine fingers down the length of his firm but narrow chest as Emmett watched, heart pounding in his ears. The tiger didn’t stop there, but opened the fly of his jeans, arched his hips off the couch, and had soon kicked off the denim, naked but for the unzipped tiger-striped hoodie he wore, still with the hood up: to Emmett it seemed as though his ‘ears’ were extra pricked up. Jian stroked himself slowly, his amazing orange eyes closed, lips wet and inviting as he panted softly. E

This wasn't the point of the blog. I'm sort of ignoring content here, because that's a much bigger issue and deserving of more space. Of course there are ebooks which have been badly written and poorly edited, same as there is self published fiction nearly indiscernible from traditionally published fiction. And whilst to a reader, content is more important than covers, to the outside world, this is how we are judged. The poor content shown in pinterest that BHopper points out, is the standard we are held against. And it's a really low standard. If we ever want gay fiction to be taken as seriously as other romantic fiction, we're going to have to stop perpetrating the stereotype that we're all the same and only the sex matters. I hadn't even done that when I wrote this. I have now. I spat vitriol all over my laptop. Thanks dude!

I feel very much like I might be preaching to the converted... we'll have to hunting for cover art offenders and re-educate them somehow.

So let's dive right in and make people angry: I fucking hate most gay fiction book covers and story promo images used online. I detest them. They're shit. I see some ridiculous things, some terrible things, and some things which are generally pathetic. I have beef with people simply taking images from google and shoving them together in paint or Photoshop with no hint of care or artistry. I have issues with shit fonts which look like they were worked in wordart circa 2000. But mostly: Bollocks to stereotypes. I see it all the time. Readers and writers alike complaining that gay fiction is marginalised, that no one takes erotic writing seriously, that we're too niche for most people to care much about the craft of writing, because there's so much shit to wade through to find anything good (this site totally helps with the last of those problems). Lots of people, even those who read gay fiction, say that it's all generic, and it's just about the sex. And when you look at most of the so-call story 'art' which the authors themselves post alongside their writing, you'd be inclined to agree with them. Here's how to create the world's most artless, generic, gay fiction book cover. 1) hot, shirtless torso, usually with extreme shadowing, often without a proper face 2) second, often also topless, moody looking guy 3) jeans with an open or half open fly 4) terrible font which clashes colours, doesn't compliment, and doesn't obey physics, placement, or colour theory 5) optional image of an animal, often with "artistic" tribal or computer generated noise to make it look like a sketch Step away from Photoshop and gettyimages people, and go find yourselves someone with a level of competency in design to make art for you. And yes, you'll have to pay them. Artist's need to eat and pay rent too. If we keep perpetrating the stereotype that all gay fiction can be summed up with two anonymous shirtless hunks taken from a free image library on the web, then we can't complain when people shove us into a little pigeon hole out of the way and say we're all the same. Well, I can, and I fucking will.

It's that fact which scares me, that young people have forgotten what came before, haven't learnt the lessons of the past, and are back putting themselves in harm's way again. Maybe a bit like the blanket availability of the morning-after pill for women and girls (teaching pregnant teenagers scares me, please, not again any time soon), PrEP might have the opposite effect in some ways - go throw caution to the wind because you're protected. But like with all these drugs, no one is fully 100% protected. But I'll fully admit that I'm divided, because gods what we all wouldn't give to get rid of this plague forever, and i'd never wish it on anyone, even someone I utterly detest. I'll also admit that I haven't read up on everything, because it's one of those things which doesn't directly effect me. I know how lucky I am.