My sexy thriller, False Evidence has been chosen as one of author Ryan Field’s Top Ten Gay Books of 2012.
http://ryan-field.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-top-ten-gay-books-this-year.html?spref
What writing GLBTQ literature means to me.
When I heard of the opportunity to participate in the highly anticipated RAINBOW BLOG HOP, hosted by Rainbow Book Reviews August 24-26, 2012, in honor of launching the Rainbow Book Reviews website (http://www.rainbowbookreviews.com/index.php), I jumped at the chance to participate with fellow writers. Below is information posted via the website in the “about us” section for those unfamiliar with the new GLBTQ book review site:
“Rainbow Book Reviews is a site dedicated to GLBTQ-related books, reviews, and authors who write about topics of interest to us and our friends.
We have a wide range of activities for you to check and participate in, if you wish. Feedback is always welcome. We publish new releases on a daily basis, have a team of reviewers who try to help you understand what to expect from a book, we publish monthly author interviews, and have author pages with in-depth information. You can also find out about the many great publishers who publish GLBTQ-related books.
We want to make sure the site offers what YOU (the reader!) want to see, so please contact us with any ideas or feedback at info@rainbowbookreviews.com. For individual staff members, please see the overview below.”
As a participant in the RBH, I was given the task to describe what writing GLBTQ literature means to me. Right off the bat (does this date me?) I am asked to reveal my thoughts about referencing very complicated question. I will be as totally honest and forthwith in order that you – the reader – may gleam some sense of what makes me tick; why I write at all.
I have been writing stories most of my life, beginning around age seven or eight, I’m not really sure. What I do know, however, is the person who first influenced my writing and encouraged me to further explore my “active imagination”, my beloved grandmother, who I affectionately named “Mana” when very young. It was my attempt at mimicking my mother who called her mother, Momma. When she readied for bed each night, I would sit on the side of her bed reciting the stories I had dreamed up – she never once questioned the reasons or motivation driving my need to create make-believe, fictitious imagery of people or animals of whom became characters of my words. I’d jot a few pages longhand on paper while at school during lunch or recess to read to Mana during out nightly ritual. Those times spent with my grandmother are my most treasured memories even today after having lost my best friend three years ago at the young age of seventy-nine years old.
So, getting back to what writing gay literature means to me: at first glance, it’s opportunity to share ideas, historical or current happenings of circumstance. My earlier pre-teen stories covered popular genres of the day based largely upon what I was reading at the time (I was a voracious reader in elementary school – even winning the coveted “top reader” award each year at the local library during summer break) or had watched on television, which influenced my imagination. I remember the one book and movie that was the catalyst pushing me to start writing my first story: To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, originally published in 1960 (my birth year) and adapted to screen in 1962 (starring Mary Badham and the legendary Gregory Peck), the novel won the Pulitzer Prize and the movie earned Gregory Peck an Oscar for his supreme performance. I didn’t see the movie until I was older (my mother had worried the film was too “heavy” for a young, impressionable boy) and read the book as an assignment for school. I knew then I wanted to write stories. In fact, my first quasi-serious attempt putting pencil to paper was a hysterical fantasy titled “The Ship”, about a pirate ghost ship off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. I even named the main character of the story Atticus, the same as Gregory Peck’s character.
At second glance during my formative years, many stories flowed from my pencil, encouraged both by my grandmother and teachers in school. Born and raised in south of Georgia, USA, my family could not afford to purchase books for me (I come from a blue-collar family that worked in the cotton mills on the Chattahoochee river) so I lived in the school library checking out as many books as allowed. I read everything from fiction to non-fiction, biographies and history. I couldn’t get enough. I wrote fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery and thriller stories during those years and always wrote for the love of telling a story, which I shared with my family and some teachers. My favorite memories of grade school was each spring when English or History class teachers would read books to us the final week of school. One mesmerizing novel I recall was titled “Island Of The Blue Dolphins”, by Scott, O’Dell, about a young Nicolero Indian girl stranded on an island off the coast of California for eighteen years. The story remains with me even today; the power of the written word is unmatched.
I didn’t realize I was “gay” until later in my teens (this was the late ‘70s), so writing gay stories wasn’t yet a priority. Majoring in English when I went off to college was a no-brainer, even minoring in Broadcasting (go figure!). While seeking my under graduate degree, I wrote fictional stories for the campus newspaper, often turning them into serials that had attracted a decent readership. I finally came out my second year in college, and my writing began to focus more on gay characters, considered risky in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s of the south. The first homoerotic novel I read was “Good Times/Bad Times” by James Kirkwood. The novel about the relationship of two young men in boarding school affected me deeply and I began seeking out gay-themed novels once I realized they existed, often perusing the bookstore shelves for hours, too embarrassed to ask the store clerks.
Then I came across the cover of a paperback novel showing a young man sitting on the bench in a locker room. The book was the groundbreaking, “The Front Runner”, by Patricia Nell Warren. This novel became catalyst of my writing gay-themed stories. I devoured every novel I could find by Ms. Warren, moving on to other gay-centric novels thereon. What was so important to me during the early years of my emerging sexuality was reading fictional stories that resembled me, what I was all about or could be. I relied on these stories for self-discovery, unable to speak to my parents or other family members about my being gay.
Fast forward thirty years and third glance; I have been writing stories for several years that have always featured a gay protagonist, concentrating mainly in the mystery/suspense, thriller genres, many with romantic tendencies. But, it wasn’t until as recently as 2008 that I began to submit my stories for publication. Though frightened and unsure, I wanted to share my writing with others besides my family and friends. I am a gay author and I write stories of mystery/suspense and romance novels where the main characters are gay. I don’t feel this fact defines or limit my characters, but more often provides excellent opportunities for exciting plots. Many diverse writers have influenced my written style, such as David Baldacci, John Grisham and Michael Crichton, along with the groundbreaking gay novelists Patricia Nell Warren, Michael Nava and Felice Picano. Some of my current favorites and influencers are gay mystery writers Greg Herren, David Lennon and John Morgan Wilson – and many more.
Finally, writing GLBTQ literature means being true to the gay culture, to create realistic, (in my case, fictional) characters that represent the gay community correctly. Knowing some readers just coming to terms with their sexuality might be reading my stories, I research meticulously to ensure accuracy and strive to present positive role models within my writing even as my characters face bigotry and intolerance, dating, falling in love…and usually, murder! My characters must grow through challenges and experience, be representative of the gay community, whether negative or positive, and not all my stories end with a HEA.
I will continue to write as long as I enjoy creating stories, and I am happy to be able to share my writing with others. Recently, I released an erotic thriller, False Evidence: Murder Most Deadly 1 – the first novella of a two-part murder-mystery. I am currently writing a gay, murder-mystery, police-procedural, featuring closeted Atlanta Homicide Detective, Kendall Parker, which I hope to get published sometime in 2013. I am also a Juror for the 2012 GLBT Rainbow Awards sponsored by Elisa Rolle, (http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/tag/rainbow%20awards%202012), which I am greatly enjoying.
Links to my titles:
Amazon Purchase Link:
http://tinyurl.com/FalseEvidence-AmazonKindle
Lyd :
http://tinyurl.com/False-Evidence
PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES!
Click on the link below to read more about prizes and give-aways for the Rainbow Book Reviews Blog Hop:
http://rainbowbookreviews.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/the-rainbow-book-reviews-blog-hop-is-here/
In celebration, of the Rainbow Blog Hop, I am giving away two (2) copies of my latest novella, False Evidence. Just respond with you name to be entered into a random drawing set for Saturday, Sept 1, 2012.
I would love to hear your thoughts and what reading/writing GLBTQ literature means to you!
Review of “One Last Lie”
written by Jon Michaelsen
“One Last Lie” by author Rob Kaufman in a word is awesome, in a word is awesome, an incredible psychological thriller that will have the reader hanging on the edge during the explosive and thrilling final pages. Which is odd, since the reader knows a very important fact very early on that drives the novel – and yet, I found myself shocked and stunned by the actual event. To say that I was affected is an understatement.
Partners Philip and Jonathan seem to have a wonderful relationship together of ten years. They have earned all they wanted; a nice home, great jobs, and money in the bank. But, elluding them is the dream of having a child. But, soon this challenge becomes possible when Angela, Philip’s college friend – once a very large woman with deep depression – has appeared anew, lighter, happier, ready and willing to help the boys out. The three decide to have a child together through artificial insemination of Jonathan’s sperm. Got that? It gets better.
Life begins to unravel for Philip and Jonathan and Angela’s deceit comes to light as her pregnancy awakens hidden psychological and physical problems.
This psychological thriller is told man years later from an elder Jonathan in his hospital bed, awaiting death. Angela’s web of deceit had caused heartbreak, legal battles – and ultimately murder.
The first half of the tense and romantic novel seems tame at best, a love story between two men wanting desperately to have a child and the one driving this dream is the one who is sterile due to a previous bout with cancer, of which he is a survivor.
Kaufman is a master of romantic suspense. The novel is set in the beautiful, romantic Westport, Connecticut. The subject – gay couple wanting to father and raise a child – popular in today’s gay culture. The protagonists, Jonathan Beckett and dashing Philip Stone, are successful, love their careers, very wealthy and can afford the finer things in life – and to fulfill their dream of having a child.
In comes Angela, an old college friend – err, girlfriend – of Philip’s, squirreling her way into Philip and Jonathan’s lives, ironically offering what the boys are looking for – someone to carry Jonathan’s child via artificial insemination. Angela experiences a Jekyll-Hyde complex, able to turn on a dime with both her low-life moronic boyfriend, Tommy, and her brooding – and easily manipulated — best friend, June. Angela manipulates anyone around her that she feels able to advance her agenda, an agenda set into motion the moment Angela picked up and moved to Connecticut, without invitation, to assist the boys in having a child with her via artificial insemination.
Kaufman’s gift as a writer is detailed within the sharp dialog, vivid imagery, skillful flashbacks, and well-rounded multidimensional character portrayals, but his inherit talent lay in his remarkable ability to craft a spell-bounding story, laid out for the reader in a way to have you cheering for the good guys and demonizing the psychos.
There are critical clues dropped within the novel that are thrilling, yet disturbing yet the same as Kaufman’s hurls the readers toward a well-crafted, suspenseful climax that will leave some breathless and others – like me- angry. Yes, I said it; angry. The reason for my anger is simple: I didn’t want the ending to happen as it did yet I KNEW what the ending would be and still, the author managed to shock me.
Angela is neurotic, psychotic and delusional – all required traits in portraying the villainess she becomes. Several characters that came before her came to mind as I learned more and more about her character, such as “Alex Forrest” (portrayed stunningly by Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction”), or Annie Wilkes in Stephen King’s “Misery” (portrayed in film by the astounding Kathy Bates), even the sultry Rebecca de Mornay’s portrayal of Peyton Flanders in “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle”.
The malicious plot Kaufman’s Angela devises years before putting the such an evil plan into motion upon signing the co-parenting legal contract with Jonathan’s and Philip’s attorney.
But, I digress…Kaufman has created a spectacular psychological thriller that is sure to stun – is that the right word? – Readers of the genre. [Book:One Last Lie|14624158] is chock full of tense drama, betrayal, lies, compassion and violence; all the marks of an excellent thriller.
My only complaint is likely due to the HTML uploading issues unique to Amazon’s conversion technology for uploading e-books. The reader can become confused with the sudden backward or forward in time breaks without the benefit of section dividers. However, these small inadequacies are easily overlooked.
Ultimately, Kaufman has created a “must-read” novel for anyone searching for a kick-ass psychological thriller with a strong romantic theme. [Book:One Last Lie|14624158] will suck you in and won’t release you until the shocking ending, indeed the ‘one last lie’.
http://www.onelastlie.com/
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/745558.Rob_Kaufman
False Evidence continues to do well, thank you so much to the awesome readers!
Amazon.com Best Seller: 7 weeks running!
Gay Murder Mystery – Top 5
Gay Thriller – Top 25
Amazon Purchase Link:
http://tinyurl.com/FalseEvidence-AmazonKindle
All Romance eBooks – 7 weeks running!
Gay Mystery – Top 15
Thriller/Suspense – Top 25
ARE Purchase link:
http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-murdermostdeadly1falseevidence-792605-145.html
False Evidence : Murder Most Deadly 1
Obsession and lust can lead to murder.
Places on the web to purchase False Evidence: Murder Most Deadly 1 –
Loveyoudivine.com
http://tinyurl.com/False-Evidence
Author Page: LYD
http://blogspot.loveyoudivineinfo.com/meet-our-authors/jon-michaelsen/
Amazon Author Page For Jon Michaelse
http://www.amazon.com/author/jonmichaelsen
Purchase Links:
Amazon Purchase Link:
http://tinyurl.com/FalseEvidence-AmazonKindle
Lyd :
http://tinyurl.com/False-Evidence
ARE :
http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-murdermostdeadly1falseevidence-792605-145.html
Barnes & Noble purchase link :
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/jon-michaelsen?keyword=jon+michaelsen&store=ebook
Rainbow eBooks
http://www.rainbowebooks.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7121
1PlaceForRomance
http://1placeforromance.com/mystery/suspense/murder-most-deadly-1-false-evidence/prod_7809.html
1Eroticaebooks
http://1eroticaebooks.com/male/male/murder-most-deadly-1-false-evidence/prod_2894.html
AT-Ebooks (Gay/Lesbian ebooks)
http://at-ebooks.com/
TLA Video Print & Ebooks :
http://www.tlavideo.com/gay-jon-michaelsen/person-153789-2?c=-1
False Evidence by Jon Michaelsen
False Evidence
Excerpt:
Seized by the moment, Kevin thrust his laptop aside and rushed to get the binoculars. In his bedroom, he peered through the slats of the mini-blinds and watched as the stranger moved away from the window, only to emerge moments later onto his rooftop terrace with a towel in hand. The guy glanced up at the sky as though measuring the sun’s intensity or the right angle to position his body to catch the best rays. After spreading the towel across a chaise lounge, he set a bottle of tanning oil atop a short table next to the chair. Reaching over his head with one hand, he tugged the shirt off with a quick jerk before tossing it onto an adjoining chair. Both thumbs hooked beneath his waistband of his shorts, and he slid them down over muscular thighs, revealing little more than a patch of baby-blue cloth concealing his manhood. He sat with his back turned to Kevin, and removed each leg from the garment like he had all the time in the world.
Kevin’s heart pounded in his chest and his mouth went dry. The man in the scopes pivoted his frame and straddled the chaise. The binoculars revealed every ridge and cord of muscle as the stud began lathering his body, from the tops of his wide, football-player shoulders, to his lightly feathered chest, and further down to a washboard stomach few young men managed these days. Each twist and turn, indeed, every movement, revealed sculpted lines and curves that caused Kevin’s breath to catch.
The guy poured oil on his hands and began covering his lower legs, working up to his calves and thighs with precision. Kevin licked his lips and tried to swallow without blinking. He watched the guy’s big hands slip inside smooth thighs and up to his crotch, one of his hands darting beneath the Lycra fabric for a quick adjustment.
Kevin’s cock strained beneath his shorts, begging for release.
Are you insane?
He didn’t avert his eyes, regardless how much he chastised himself. Had his life become so lonely and desperate he’d reduced himself to spying on unsuspecting, male sunbathers?
Whatever the case, Kevin couldn’t seem to pull himself away from the window. The feeling he sensed was akin to asking a child to hand over chocolate ice-cream, or an aging siren to forego another round of Botox. He remained fascinated with his idol who leaned back against the chaise to apply oil to his face and neck, across his wide chest, and finally, to his abdomen.
For the next couple hours, Kevin stared through the blinds, his arms growing tired and weak. He strained to keep the lenses steady and his view unobstructed as he watched beads of sweat build on the man’s chest in the valley of muscle and across his abs. Kevin took a break when his subject took time out of the sun. He lunched when the stranger grabbed a bite to eat. Only when the guy left the terrace for the day did Kevin finally relax his shoulders, hoping, praying the stud would reappear naked in the bedroom.
He didn’t have to wait long. Some minutes later, the object of his affection entered his bedroom wearing a white towel riding low across his waist. Kevin focused the scopes, willing his arms to fight against the strain in order to make out the thick oblique muscles that framed his perfect “V” shape above the cloth.
Oh, what I wouldn’t give.
Amazon Purchase Link:
http://tinyurl.com/FalseEvidence-AmazonKindle
Loveyoudivine Purchase Link:
http://tinyurl.com/False-Evidence
ARE :
http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-murdermostdeadly1falseevidence-792605-145.html
Barnes & Noble purchase link :
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/jon-michaelsen?keyword=jon+michaelsen&store=ebook
Rainbow eBooks
http://www.rainbowebooks.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=7121
A Deadly Game by J.P. Bowie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’m frustrated with you, Mr. Bowie! This novel (the first I’ve read from you) was both exciting and thrilling – not a mystery as much as a suspensful, edge-of-your seat read. My beef? I spent an afternoon reading the last 100 pages every chance I got because I couldn’t put this (e)book down! Congrats on a fine suspenseful novel – I’m looking forward to reading more in this series…
View all my reviews
Murder in the Irish Channel by Greg Herren
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow, Mr. Herren, you’ve done it again – completely stumped me!!! I didn’t see the end coming…and I was looking for the clues throughout…excellent addition to the series!!! Awesome! I really enjoyed Murder in the Irish Channel.
A wonderful review from a reader at Goodreads:
Joel Gomez-dossi’s review
Jun 06, 2012
“Great start to a serial! I loved it. In many ways Jon Michaelsen’s writing reminds me of James Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice). Michaelsen uses much more description than Cain, but Michaelsen also drives the story forward without giving the reader a chance to think, only feel.”
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/335489214
Rick rated it
“Interesting foray into the obsessive mind, which is right up my nightmare alley. The only thing about it I didn’t like is that it ends on a cliffhanger with the dreaded “to be continued” as its final words. I will definitely be picking up the sequel, but not a fan of coitus interruptus, as it were. Still…highly recommended.”
