W_L

Kick at the Darkness was really good, though. If she had left it alone without turning it into a series or changing genres toward shifters abruptly, I think the original novel had enough merit as a standalone book. I do recommend that book and think most people who enjoy gay fiction should try it. Maybe, she'll find a way to write herself out of the shifter tropes in book 3, I'll read it out of loyalty to the Book 1.

I enjoyed this story, it was fun to read about a body swap and a time-slip. Stanley and Don are interesting characters, Stanley might protest at being tied down and growing old (less attractive), but there is something to be said about emotional experiences we lose out on by letting ego get in our way.

Very cute story, It's nice to read a story of transformation and understanding being established through experience. Stanley and Don may be completely different people, but the experience made them both better. I like the little touches about Stanley and his life choices, the Chinese background is nice (I happen to be Chinese as well of Hakka-Han Descent and my father worked for years as a line cook).

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30989088-fight-the-tide Sigh, I wish I didn’t have such high hopes for Book 2. I love Keira Andrews as an author and her style, plus the gay sex is very hot. However, I can’t ignore the problems as I read in the 2nd novel. What happened? The story suffered from the same problem The Walking Dead did in later seasons of the show and sadly a lot of shifter genre stories that I have read online. Adam and Parker set out for sea with hop

Thanks @Mikiesboy, I hope you enjoy these reviews.

Thanks @Mawgrim, one of the things I've learned when reading books is that there's variability especially in certain genres and authors. You can have great gems in one story and then you might fall flat in a sequel. These are just my opinions on the books I've read, a bit more in-depth than Amazon Customer Reviews and a bit less than the "official" blurbs from NY Times, Village voice, or someone, whose job is to be a critic.

Thanks @Mrsgnomie, my tastes in books are very eclectic, but most are gay romance

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25543022-kick-at-the-darkness (Warning Spoilers ahead in my review) There's something about Zombies that fascinates people to write social commentary in their story. I guess the idea of a group of mindless merciless beings that consume the flesh of normal human beings or worse converts them into one of them has a lot of application to things such as consumerism, human exploitation, political satire, and "mob mentality". I enjoy well writt

My taste in Gay Romance novels made me wonder, why no one has ever done any reviews of well-known and established Male/Male novels on GA. Well, I'll break that mold. I have a lot of respect for Sarina Bowen, especially after reading her 2.5 novel series about these 2 guys, who are given a second chance at love. She writes it with a bit of integrity, a bit of nuance, and believable realism. Also, the Hockey being played in the background is very good, (I was one of GA's last NHL bracke

Just a collection of mainstream Gay books reviews, mostly Romance novels with a few Mystery, Fantasy, and an occasional Science Fiction story

After escaping the various levels of Hell, Michael had informed Adam that they should not leave Hell through the main gateway, since legions of demons and damned souls were headed to the mortal realm that way. They instead sought passage through a minor gateway that led to an old altar near Green Bay, Wisconsin. About ninety-two years ago, a human had made a powerful deal with a group of demons to create an American football team in this region in exchange for a private gateway to and from Hell,

Experimental Fan-Fiction, I will only continue if there's reader interest: What Happened: After the Cage was unlocked, Michael, in his human vessel of Adam Milligan, left the deepest level of Hell to return to Earth. Michael wants to seek out the Winchesters for vengeance and information about what happened. Adam is left feeling empty. Dean left him behind and saved only Sam, so he doesn’t want to confront them and acknowledge their rejection of him. Now...

Currently listening to this: Thinking about past relationships and the feels recently

@BigBenHave you considered the moisture wicking shirts and pants? Polyester may not be a natural fiber, but it is quite airy and if you are dealing with heatwave, I find it is helping to keep me from overheating, when I stepped outside. It's also a decent for workout/running outfit in the summer

I was hooked: the characters and situations were intriguing set ups and the entire conflict felt very organic. Being an accountant by trade with several step-siblings and an extended family, I can identify with Matt's organize and somewhat frenetic personality. @Mrsgnomieyour story hooked me in with this first chapter and just kept my attention.

All of this stuff is really cool information on how you are all dealing with the summer heat We're experiencing a heat wave right now in the northeast and I had to pop over to a Best Buy to do a return. it hit 90 today. It's better to do it today though, since the temperatures will rise to over 97 for the next few days. This is Ice cream weather 🍦, even though I swear it is my Kryptonite and the amount of calories and sugar in a bowl will probably set me back a few weeks.

I am churning out a bunch of new story premises and I really don't know which one to pursue. Currently I have 4 stories in review, 3 fan-fictions and 1 Original adventure fantasy story. I can't stop writing or else I will lose my muse and focus, but I am going in several different directions. Today, I sent my 4th new story, an original story inspired by a pendant I found in my drawers. The pendant was given to me by one of my first boyfriends, luis, he worked at Dunkin Donuts and I enjoyed the Iced french vanilla he made for me (Yes, I dated a barista, cue stereotypical gay jokes here). He was a kid in the foster care system and aged out. We dated for about 4 months, when I was still in college. I felt a huge draw to him initially and wanted to give him love/comfort, but we eventually broke up. He told me the pendant would ward off evil and be good for me to wear. In exchanged, I got him a stuffed teddy bear. It's been about 10 years since I have thought about him or what he gave me. At the same time, I'm reading/listening to the James Potter series, which I know has been around for a few years now, but I recently found it online via Youtube. I'll share the link below if anyone is interested. The combination of an old love token with magical properties and a Harry Potter spin-off series of novels gave me an idea to write a new original story of my own set in my own unique universe with its own rules. I also have written something in this story I never have done before, a non-binary character based off a friend. It opens certain concepts up about people, relationships, belonging, and acceptance. My other 3 stories in review are a Harry Potter fan-fiction, a supernatural fan-fiction, and a Pokemon fan-fiction, all of which focuses on secondary characters. To be fair, I am not sure if I will hold the same interest in writing them as I do my own original story. There's no emotional connection to draw power from or past experiences, which is what drives me to write stories nowadays like Finding Warmth series. I can create elaborate adventure stories, but I need raw emotions to want to write them. Anyway, as promised here's a link to the playlist on Youtube for James Potter series of Audiobooks, which is very impressive and I highly enjoyed the 1st book today: There are 5 books and 11 parts on youtubue

Air conditioning helps a lot for people to stay cool in your home, stores, or car, but we all have to go outside. You can only dress down so much; being shirtless and wearing compression shorts are not utilitarian. --------------- For me when I am running an errand, I usually go to a local coffee place, I have a Dunkins Donuts 2 blocks away and a Starbucks 3 blocks away, order a large ice coffee no cream or sugar and ask for a double cup to prevent liquid residue. Having any icy drink in my hand helps keep me cool and the drink itself provides a little energy. ---------------- How do you stay cool outdoors in the summer?

Thanks @headtransplant for reading, I know we all went through a lot of ups and downs, triumphs and setbacks. I have Pride in what LGBTQ+ community and all our allies have achieved from what we had to face, from hate crime murders to popular anti-gay laws, these things only makes what we have today something we can take pride in.

Thank you for organizing this @Renee Stevens

Thank you for reading @Valkyrie, I am glad you enjoyed it. I feel like my characters grew up alongside me in this story, being part of an ever changing world as gay men.

I never write micro-fiction, short stories around or under 1,000 words. It's very hard to create a story that I want to write, while reducing details down. Even a single chapter of my shorter stories are usually around 2-3K words. This was a real challenge for me and I am glad I tried to write less. I called my story Reverberations, because I wanted to show how events shape us and how we grow up from these events. I took the idea of Pride similar to others and wanted to create a retrospective. However, I am not part of the HIV/AIDS generation of the 1980's (I was just born at that time), nor am I part of Gen Z, who are now enjoying a level of openness and expression unknown to many from prior generations. I wanted to reflect the generation in-between and the events that shaped Gay Rights in the last 22 years. Here's how I organized my story: (Wednesday, October 13th, 1998) Matthew Shepard's was assaulted and left outside of Laramie, Wyoming on October 6th 1998. He died on October 12th 1998 due to the injuries he suffered. National news would have started picking up the story the following day. This is a formative experience for a young gay kid, you learn that you can die for being openly gay. Caleb's first reaction are fear and shame, it's not his mother's admonishment, but his nascent sexuality. A lot of us around 10 or 11 sort of started knowing about our sexual preferences, but learning to fear it is something I wanted to capture in this short scene. (Thursday, June 26th, 2003) This is the famous Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court Case ruling occured on this date, which ruled 5-4 to end Sodomy laws, which had made homosexuality basically illegal in the majority of the United States. The US Supreme Court Caleb has been living in fear for 5 years about his sexuality, the court ruling gave him something, a release from the fear and anxiety. This is also the beginning of his legal career choice, since he saw hope for the first time in his young life that things could change. On a relationship level, Caleb had been attracted to a new boy in the neighborhood, Jason, but he had feared making any provocative moves. The Supreme Court ruling gave him more than just a release of fear, it also gave him courage to pursue someone. (Monday, May 17th, 2004) Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that Gay Marriage was legal in the state on this date. It became the first state to allow gay marriage as a result. Caleb and Jason were in a relationship, the implication is that they had fooled around as 16 years olds do. However, both didn't know what or how to move onward with what they had, being gay does not follow the same heterosexual formula for relationships, i.e. there's no end goal of lasting relationship prior 2004. Seeing the potential for a future together helps both boys stabilize their relationship. (Monday, November 10th, 2008) November 2008 was a momentous time, the Great Recession was happening due to mortgage lenders extending home loans too aggressively to people, who couldn't afford the payments and were defaulting, Barack Obama became the first African American President of the United States, and in terms of Gay rights history, Proposition 8 passed in California, which banned gay marriage. Caleb is in college, he's studying law, but he begins to question his own values and struggles. His parents had lost their home due to mortgage lenders and his sexuality even in a place of safety like California had been denied acceptance. Jason delivers the coda for the story here to support his lover and partner, because that is what they see in each other now. What was gained between Caleb and Jason may have come from Court rulings, but the substance of what they found in each other afterwards cannot be denied by popular decree. No matter how much corrupt real estate backed money is flowing through anti-gay coffers for laws or bans, there was no going back into the closet. (Friday, June 26th, 2015) This is the date of the US Supreme court ruling all gay marriages across US was legally binding. This marks a change for Caleb and Jason, they are not only married literally, but also symbolically joining the wider world. Things aren't perfect, but there's a lot of hope that more improvement could occur. Caleb also begins his new job as an assistant District Attorney, wanting to join a system that he viewed has granted him a new lease on life. (Monday, June 4th 2018) Another US Supreme Court case was rendered on this day, the court found religious liberty allows denial of services by religious adherents to gay customers. Caleb is running into a dead end, being used as a token staff member in his office to show tolerance and acceptance, while his career is held back. Denial of service due to religious beliefs against gay people, while empowering religious liberty appeared to be a new set of Jim Crow laws (the name given to the famous laws that denied services to African Americans and others in the US during late 19th to mid 20th century). Caleb was unhappy with his lot in life. (Monday, June 15th 2020) This is the recent Supreme Court case that extended Title VII of Civil Rights Act to gay people and transgender people for anti-discrimination. Caleb has moved on from his old post and living condition, he moved to the east coast (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, ect) and is still with Jason. While they are locked in their home like most people due to COVID-19, they had hope for a brighter future after this court ruling. ---- If I continued this story, I'd probably chronicle Caleb rise to Appeals court judge and eventually, the US Supreme Court

Thanks for reading, I didn't name all the events that occurred, because I wanted to give people the chance to reflect on the details for themselves. Starting with Matthew Shepard murder in 1998, I wanted to offer a window into the life of a gay guy growing up during an era of change, setbacks, hope, fears, and dreams. Micro-fiction does not lend itself to my style of writing, but I tried to offer a taste of who my characters are.

It's a cute story of best friends and revealing, who you are to others. Neat coming of age story.

I like the protagonist and Hone's story, it's a nice slice of life gay coming of age story. Not too much teenage drama, but just enough angst to create a well rounded conflict