Archive for the ‘Publisher Feature’ Category

Hola, I’m James Buchanan and I’m here playing today. If you read my official bio I’ve apparently written over a dozen novels and single author anthologies (I had to stop and count them on the shelf above my desk). I have a guy, we have kids and we often pick them up from school on the Harleys. My evil day job is as an attorney – I’ve been known to wear leather
frock coats and boots to court.

A lot of what I write are Mystery/Thriller type Romances and often they feature BDSM. Recently, I gave a writing BDSM workshop with Joey Hill for Romance Divas and I’ve participated on panels for the Popular Culture Association on both gay romance and BDSM power dynamics in gay romance. My novel, Hard Fall, took the honorable mention in the National Leather Association – International’s novel category this year.

I base my BDSM/Kink books on the theory that this is not just something the characters DO it is who they ARE. Submission, in my view, is about being comforted, swaddled up in this big warm blanket of safety – except the blanket is made of leather or rope or expectation. It is a secure place to be. It is a loving place to be. The submissive is unconditionally accepted for who they are. They are safe, loved and adored in that condition of submission. Submissives need it, they crave it. Domination, on the other hand, is not about getting your way or pushing people around. While they may get off on inflicting pain, discipline or punishment, Dominants are not abusive jerks. It is the thrill of making “it” happen: the turn on, the moment of connection, the second absolute trust is given over, that drives their Dominant leanings.

Because I write the characters that way, I think people connect with my BDSM books – I humanize it, not fetishize it.

~James

Website: www.James-Buchanan.com

Blog: www.James-Buchanan.com/blog

Twitter: http://twitter.com/James_Buchanan

Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/James-Buchanan/56144477499?ref=ts

—–

Hard Fall

-

http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=HARDFALL

There ain’t much complicated about Joe Peterson….

He’s a Utah Sheriff’s Deputy.  He’s Mormon.  He heads up the local Search and Rescue…and he’s gay.   So far Joe’s managed to keep that one part hidden down deep.  Then Kabe, and ex-con and adrenaline junkie climber, lands in town on parole.  When a German tourist falls off the mountain, Joe finds he needs Kabe’s help with the case.  Accident or murder?  As Joe weaves the evidence together the strands of his life fray to breaking.  Will Kabe be the guy who tears Joe apart?  Or is it that Joe needs to fall hard before he can start living?

—–

Personal Demons

http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=PDEMONS1

-

Hunting a notorious hit man, FBI Agent Chase Nozick and LAPD Det. Enrique Rios Ocha delve into the inner worlds of Santeria, Voodoo and Palo Mayumbe. A missing informant, her murdered brother and a ghost from Chase’s past send them on a hunt through mystics and psychic surgeons to find their witness before it’s too late. Can he rely on leads from a child possessed by Orishas? Do cards hold stronger clues than blood? Chase must conquer his own personal demons to bring the killer of his partner to justice and find the strength to take a chance on Enrique.

—–

The Good Thief

eBook: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=GOODTH02

print: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=GOODTH01

-

What if the wrong guy, turns out to be the right guy for you? Caesar Serrano thought he screwed up when he landed in the bed of LAPD Officer Nathan Reilly. But when Caesar breaks into the wrong house and stumbles upon a heinous crime, implicating a high ranking LAPD officer, Nate is the only person he knows to turn to. The resulting investigation throws the Blue Brigade into panic. Now he’s running for his life and Nate is his only hope for survival. Can two men, on opposite sides of the law, come together to bring a monster to justice?

MLR Press Publisher Feature with S.J. Frost

—–

As an author at MLR Press, love, romance, and passion between men are the themes I work in. In the past few months, my muse has kept me writing mainly contemporary erotic romance with my Conquest series, which follow a rock band and those who are connected to them. The first book in the series, Conquest, was what pushed me toward wanting to have my work published. Even though I’d written for years, when the main character of the first two books, Jesse Alexander, came to me, I knew I wanted to share his story with readers.
-
Jesse wasn’t the first gay character I’d written, but his story was the first romance, and when I wrote it, I felt as though I was truly writing something I believed in, how love is the inherent right of all individuals. It’s a sad truth in the world today not all people share this belief, so for me, to write a story portraying a relationship between two men as loving, strong, and positive was very important. And it set the tone for how all my works to date have been.
-
Now with having three books in the Conquest series published, for my next work I thought I’d try something different; vampires. It’s also m/m erotic romance in a contemporary setting, and while it’s still in the works, I can honestly say I’ve had a blast writing it. Though, how I jumped from writing about rocks stars to vampires, I’m not sure. I just go where my muse leads me, and I do enjoy trying my hand at new genres. Back in the day, I used to write sword and sorcery fantasy (unpublished) and even now, I have an m/m samurai historical on the back burner.
-
Yet no matter the genre, there are consistencies with my stories in that threads of love and passion between the characters run throughout. I’m a hopeless romantic at heart, and to be able to bring two characters together, from the first kiss, through struggles and trials as they work to have a happy ending together, is like a dream come true. And what makes it the ultimate dream come true is how my work has found the perfect home at MLR Press.

But now, I’ll share my last things, a little bit about each of my current releases at MLR Press and a huge thank you to Terry and everyone who has taken the time to read about me and my work!

—–

Conquest: Book 1 in the Conquest series

As the vocally gifted lead singer of his band, Conquest, Jesse Alexander refuses to
let anything hold him back from achieving his dream of becoming one of the greatest
performers to ever hit a stage. Evan Arden was thought of as a musical genius when at
the height of his career, he vanished from the spotlight. Together, their relationship is
just as intense as their music careers, but with the pressures of success and fame pushing
down on them, Jesse must decide what’s more important to him, his life of music, or his
life with Evan.
—

No Fear: Book 2 in the Conquest series

After touring for more than a year with his band, Conquest, singer Jesse Alexander is
ready to head home for a long rest with his partner, superstar vocalist, Evan Arden.
When it’s time to hit the studio again, there’s competition from two new bands and
tensions reach a breaking point that threaten not only Conquest’s future, but Jesse’s
relationship with Evan. As he faces challenges unlike any he’s ever known, Jesse must
somehow keep it together to duplicate Conquest’s success and reach his ultimate goal:
showing NO FEAR and announcing his love of Evan publicly.

—

Keys to Love: Book 3 in the Conquest series

For two years, Julian Forrester’s been playing keyboards and piano for Conquest.
Having left behind a classical career, he’s reached a level of fame like he’s never
dreamed. But fame and fortune can’t bring him the one thing he wants most; love.
Morgan Chandler spent years teaching students to love music until budget cuts
forced him out of a job. With family debts rising, Morgan accepts a job as a roadie
for Conquest. He thinks he’ll hate it with one exception – he’ll be close to Julian.
Can the two find the right music together that will lead them to the Keys to Love?

—–

See More about S.J. Frost on Naughty Boys in the Backseat.  Read all her Dark Secrets HERE.

Hello Readers,

I am so excited to welcome the authors of ManLoveRomance to the Backseat and today we are spending time with Rick R. Reed – Take it away Triple R!

-

Silly Questions and More with MLR Press Author Rick R. Reed

In their October 2006 issue, Unzipped magazine said: “You could call him the Stephen King of gay horror.” And Dark Scribe magazine said: “Reed is an established brand – perhaps the most reliable contemporary author for thrillers that cross over between the gay fiction market and speculative fiction.” To date, Reed has twelve published novels to his credit, and his short fiction has appeared in more than 20 anthologies. His novel, ORIENTATION, won the EPPIE Award for best LGBT novel of 2008. He lives in Seattle, WA. Visit him on the web at http://www.rickrreed.com

So, I was trying to think of what I could say to the readers of Naughty in the Backseat and decided to fall back on an oddly masturbatory interview I did of myself on my own blog, which can be found here: http://rickrreedreality.blogspot.com/.
-

My answers to these 10 silly questions were the capper of a series I did when I asked other authors the questions posed below. I thought it was only fair I sit in the hot seat myself.

-So now, I think you guys might find the questions—and their answers—interesting. Stick around to the end of the interview where you’ll get a taste of two of my latest MLR Press releases.
-
Here we go…

1. If you could invite any famous person, dead or alive, for dinner, what would
you eat?
Since I would be aghast if a dead person showed up at my door for dinner, probably nothing. Since I would be aghast if a live celebrity showed up for dinner, probably nothing. Perhaps for the latter, I would run up the street and get some Thai take-out.

2. Who do you think you are?
Little Miss Mary Sunshine, spreading it around wherever I go.

3. What’s your problem?
Gas

- Thanks for sharing and thankfully not sharing it in the same room as me – TK

4. If you could have one wish, would you give it to me?
No. I’m selfish that way. Besides, do you really need a foot long, um, er, ruler?

5. Where you at?
In my sweet spot

6. If you had to choose only one vice, what would it be?
Thumb sucking

7. What’s your favorite brand of cereal?
Cap’n Crunch…morning, noon, or night

8. When you wake up in the morning, what celebrity do you most resemble?
Tori Spelling
- I posted this so we can all see the Rick/Tori resemblance.
9. Do you know your ass from a hole in the ground? And if so, how do you tell the difference?
I do. One is much, much cleaner, but I ain’t sayin’ which one.

10. Do you have anything you’d like to plug?
Gerard Butler? Never mind. Of course, Rick, two of my latest releases from MLR
Press. They are A Demon Inside and Tales from the Sexual Underground. Here are the blurbs for each:

—

A Demon Inside

Hunter Beaumont doesn’t understand his grandmother’s deathbed wish: “Destroy
Beaumont House.” He’d never even heard of the place. But after his grandmother
passes and his first love betrays him, the family house in the Wisconsin woods looks
like a tempting refuge. Going against his grandmother’s wishes, Hunter flees to
Beaumont House.

But will the house be the sanctuary he had hoped for? Soon after moving in, Hunter
realizes he may not be alone. And who—or what—he shares the house may plunge
him into a nightmare from which he may never escape. Sparks fly when he meets
his handsome neighbor, a caretaker for the estate next door, but is the man his
salvation…or is he the source of Hunter’s terror?

You can read excerpts and reviews HERE

—

Tales from the Sexual Underground

I wanted to write about people who were not just out, but out there, people who lived
their sexual lives in ways most of us could only imagine…and for whom the flavor
vanilla had absolutely no appeal. I interviewed porn stars, prostitutes, self-proclaimed
sex pigs, and delved into bizarre sexual practices. It was eye-opening, arousing, and
a lot of fun (but never, never good clean fun). I also include here my favorite dirty
stories. They all explore a side of life that exists not in the twilight zone, but in my
favorite destination…the sexual underground.

You can read excerpts and reviews HERE:

Lucky me, I had a fabulous publisher, Laura Baumbach step forward to give us a peek into ManLoveRomance (MLR) and its stable of authors. It is a fun term, stable – sounds kinda Naughty…

-

Terry Kate: Welcome to Laura Baumbach, Owner/Publisher of MLR Press. You specialize in gay erotic romance and fiction, can you please share a little bit more about your Press and what readers can expect to find?

-

Laura Baumbach: ManLoveRomance Press was created to bring m/m erotic romances to print for our readership. I write M/M erotic romance almost exclusively. I started out being published by a small print house in the LA area, and then began submitting and being accepted by multiple ebook publishers. My print house wasn’t paying royalties like they should have been and did nothing to promote the work. This made me frustrated and discontent. I began looking for other print publishers for my work. While one of my ebook publishers did take one of my stories to print in an anthology, they wouldn’t commit to doing more of my novels. Their focus was e-publishing and they had limited interest in doing print. I understood that but because I knew from my readership and fan letters that there was a growing interest in having these books in print, I continued to submit to houses like Alyson and Kensington. Unfortunately for me, they weren’t interested in gay erotic romance at that time. After a number of attempts and rejections of stories I knew where print worthy, I decided to gather together my closest and most talented friends within the industry and fill what I saw as a void in the publishing industry—a press for gay erotic romance and fiction by creating ManLoveRomance Press, LLC aka MLR Press. We publish the ‘feel good, falling in love again’ stories that readers were asking for.

I’ve kept the focus of MLR Press on gay erotic romance and fiction because that is the genre I know inside and out and can market and promote effectively. The readership for this genre is almost entirely straight women and gay men and I target different media and events for each, keeping in mind that there are a lot more cross over venues each year.

-

TK: What makes a story stand out to you as something MLR Press should publish?

-

LB: Writing in this genre is, to me, a calling. You have to understand the genre and its components. You can’t take a het romance and change one character’s name to make it two men. The way your characters act, talk and react are different and if you don’t have the understanding of that down pat it shows in the writing. It’s easy to spot someone who is writing M/M to cash in on the popularity of it and one who writes it because they have to because their characters won’t have it any other way.Characters have to be strong and plots intriguing and well-thought out. Sex should flesh out the characters or progress the story not just hang there in the air as filler. We like unique, edgy work.

-

TK: What sub-genre is the most popular with readers?

-

LB: Mystery. But any of the titles with good action and plot, breath-taking heroes and sizzling intimacy work.

-

TK: And why not? We as readers want an experience other then our own, a little mystery or action would certainly spice my life up! On a more personal note, this is your company and being a publisher is a tough job. What is the hardest part of being a publisher?

-

Laura Baumbach: Having to say no to an author. Whether is to a submission, a cover request, whatever. I like my people happy. But it isn’t always possible to do it 100% of the time.

-

Terry Kate: Laura, thank you so much for your time and I am so excited to be hosting your authors all this week on Naughty Boys in the Backseat! To find out more about MLR join us this week and visit their website -

http://www.mlrpress.com