Welcome Margie Church and a Contest

Please go to end of Article to find the contest information.

Why write gay romance?

A lot of people have asked me this question and I've asked myself. There's an obvious answer – cash. This is a hot subgenre and if you want to make money as an author, you write what the market wants. The downside of that is if you don't have a passion for the subgenre, you'll have a tough time selling the book. 

Sometimes writers think replacing one of the female pronouns with a male pronoun does the trick in a gay romance. It might for some publishers but not Noble Romance. So, writing Hard as Teak required quite a bit of research. I ended up reading about a half-dozen recommended books, and consulting several authors who only write gay romance, and asked a few gay men to be beta readers. The upside is the book delivered. The downside is you can get an awful lot of input from people and that can derail your story. How to keep your characters and plot sounding like one brain hatched them was a real trick. I had to keep a pretty close watch on my character descriptions and make sure they stayed true. Believe me, by the time I got done with all the revisions I felt were necessary, I was ready to dare somebody to say they didn't love this book. So, the hot genre can be lucrative if you can write with passion.

For me, writing a gay romance was more of an exercise in self-awareness. When straight guys are together, they kinda do the alpha male, no emotion thing. There's a time and a place for that, of course, but as a woman who's always lived in male dominated households and is raising two boys, I think hiding one's emotions and emotional needs is crippling. What I've experienced with gay men is the ability to be real. I love the way they've opened up to me and with their partners. They're expressive emotionally, physically, and verbally in ways that I think are healthier than many straight guys' behavior. That realization helped me fall in love with the relationship between Kevin and Teak.

And I love the way a man acts in an intimate setting. When the walls come down and it's just the two of you. For me, that's very alluring. I love the male form. I love the way men smell, move, sound, and feel. When I combined that knowledge with the emotional and communications aspects that gay men share more readily, it was very, very easy to fall in love with Kevin and Teak and I hope you will, too.

 Blurb: Hard as Teak

Kevin Marks escapes to the north woods to reignite his passion for photography and women. But the only flame he seems able to spark is for his latest photography subject, Teak Hildalgo. Kevin's never been in a man's arms before.

Teak, the raven-haired, photographer's dream come true, is hell bent on capturing Kevin's heart. He takes Kevin, body and soul, on a romantic, sexual journey previously lived only in Kevin's fantasies. And no dream was ever this good, no truth this undeniable.

Will Kevin ever be the same? When the camera's put away, will Teak live up to his name?

EXCERPT:

Kevin turned on the light. He'd used this bedroom countless times growing up and even got laid in here a couple of nights. The fitted sheet snapped as he shook it open. He made his way to the headboard to tuck in the corners.

He couldn't believe what a turn-on Teak was. The realization startled him. He'd never been sexually attracted to any man he'd met. At least not this strongly. He didn't mind watching a couple guys getting frisky with each other while they were messing with a woman in videos. But, I never really wanted to touch another guy's junk. He'd tasted his own cum many times. But from a cum-soaked pussy. He'd fantasized about sucking dick—countless times. But never thought I'd want it if I could actually get it. He unfolded the flat sheet.

With the sheets tucked in, he reached for the comforter and spread it on the bed. Lost in his lusty thoughts, he didn't hear Teak arrive and Kevin stumbled against him. Teak's arms wove around his ribs, preventing him from falling. Like the proverbial deer in the headlights, Kevin froze and didn't say a word. Pleasure whip corded his dick. His heart hammered. Resting his head rested against Teak's bare shoulder, he wondered when Teak had taken off his shirt. The trimmed hair felt stiff and foreign against his skin. No other man had ever held him this way. Kevin noticed rough calluses between softer patches of skin on Teak's hands. He soaked in the new sensations, enjoying them.

Silence thundered in Kevin's ears as he turned and met Teak's gaze. The intensity he saw nearly choked the breath right out of his lungs. What little air remained ran for cover when Teak's lips met his. The feelings reminded him of his very first kiss, heady and surreal. His lips twisted with Teak's. He'd never experienced the force of a man's tongue in his mouth or the scrape of another man's beard on his face. Not this way. Guttural sounds filled Kevin's throat. His breath hissed through his nostrils. These were the sounds of an aroused man. Except another man is turning me on.

Teak kept a loose hold on Kevin's waist. The non-threatening hold gave Kevin free reign to accept or deny him. For a long minute, he participated in the kiss as though moving with a partner in a choreographed dance. He knew what to do and how to do it, but his brain and his dick were going in opposite directions. Kevin's cock was so hard he wanted to take it out and come. His brain kept screaming at him to slow down. Confusion filled him. He broke from the kiss and focused on Teak's tattoo, glad for the distraction.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Teak asked in a soft voice.

"This is the most amazing tattoo." How fucking lame was that?

"Touch it."

With nervous hesitation, Kevin traced the pronounced veins on the dragon's side, and higher to its curved neck. Continuing to follow the dragon's neck with his index finger led to Teak's nipple. The hardened nub looked ready to be clenched in the dragon's sharp teeth. Or mine.

"Taste me," Teak said, his voice hoarse and hushed.

Contest: What do you think would be the most difficult thing about writing the opposite gender? Do you ever notice whether men write men better than women write men and vise versa? Leave your thoughts and email and you could win a copy of Hard as Teak.

Noble Romance Buy Link: https://nobleromance.com/Authors/102

Amazon Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Margie%20Church

Keep up with Margie:

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