What an Alpha Male Deserves By Silvia Violet

 Thanks for letting me be part of Manlove May. I love men, lots of different types of men, but a sexy alpha will almost always spark my interest. I fell in love with the romance genre in my teens as I devoured book after book with big, dominating dukes, earls, knights and Civil War soldiers. As paranormal romance grew in popularity, I discovered that werewolves and vampires make delicious alpha males, too. But the problem with so many of these late 80s/early 90s romances were the heroines (This was long before I'd discovered the m/m genre). I loved these books when I read them, but when I think back on many of them now, I recognize that many of the heroines were TSTL (Too Stupid To Live). Pathetic simpering little things, just the type who would turn her ankle in high heels while running from a chainsaw wielding zombie.

Almost every story I’ve written whether m/m, m/m/f, or m/f has at least one alpha male hero. Their characters call to me and fuel my fantasies, but I always make sure I'm not sticking them with a TSTL partner, something they certainly don’t deserve. I don't believe such a pairing could last. Alphas don’t need doormats but rather true partners. The perfect partner for an alpha male whether he be gay or straight is someone smart and sexy and willing to stand up to all that dominant energy when necessary. Sometimes his perfect partner is even another alpha male.

I hope that I’ve succeeded in giving my alpha male characters the partners they deserve. I've enjoyed exploring lots of different relationships and character traits rather than trying to make them all fit the mold of the stereotypical alpha male.

In Sex on the Hoof, one of my favorite of my alpha characters, Drew Danvers, vampire and police detective, falls for a deer shifter. But Jason is no missish little herbivore. In fact, he's used to being the dominant partner in his relationships. He’s nearly as strong as Drew physically and as a forensic chemist he has skills that Drew admires. Jason isn’t willing to simply be a bloodslave for his vampire lover. He wants a true partnership.

In Abandoned, a sci fi story, Lark and Derek are both alphas. They've worked together as undercover agents and both are physically strong and quite stubborn. Lark prefers to take a submissive role sexually, but out of the bedroom, he's comfortable organizing missions and often takes the leading role in the field.

In my newest release, Astronomical, Greg is an alpha male who enjoys playing the role of big, dominating man, but he gets frustrated when people assume he can't be versatile both in bed and out. He has a soft side, and he doesn't care for labels. His partner Blake is a worrier who is attracted to Greg's strength, but he's a strong man in his own right. He's good at his job, and he's stepped up to help his sister take care of his niece when she needed him. I hope you enjoy this excerpt from Astronomical….

Astronomical by Silvia Violet

https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/products_id/1051

 

Blurb:

When sexy, kilt-wearing astronomy professor Greg MacIntyre moves in next door, Blake Theriot knows he's in trouble. Blake is a research librarian, and he likes things orderly and controlled. But in his secret fantasies, he craves a big, powerful man like Greg to stir up his life.

Every time Blake tries to talk to his erudite neighbor, his brain shuts down and his vocabulary is reduced to one-word utterances, but when Blake's niece challenges him to invite Greg to dinner, he does. A few shots of after-dinner whiskey loosen Blake's inhibitions, and the two men share a hot kiss and the promise of more. Can Blake relax enough to give himself a chance with Greg, or will his fear of letting go ruin his hopes for love?

Excerpt:

The front door banged open, making me jump. I muttered a curse as I looked at the spaghetti sauce I'd splattered on my shirt. I'd have to change before I headed to work.

"Blake, are you in the kitchen?"

"Yeah."

My sister's shoes made a swishing sound as she walked through the living room and into the kitchen. "It smells great."

"Thanks." I answered absently as I looked through the spice rack for cayenne.

"Have you been outside lately?"

I shook my head. Renee had a conspiratorial tone in her voice that told me trouble was coming. I focused on the sauce. I would not fall prey to her scheme, whatever it was.

"You should come check out the view."

"What?" I tasted the sauce and added more pepper. "Why?"

"When you told me your new neighbor was an astronomy professor, I imagined someone even geekier than you."

Heat rose to my cheeks like it did every time I thought about Dr Greg MacIntyre. No one had caused such a strong a reaction in me in years. The man was truly devastating. Tall and beefy with wavy red-gold hair I longed to run my hands through, preferably while on my back throwing my legs over his shoulders. No need to choose between brains and brawn with him.

But during the few conversations we'd had, I'd babbled like a fool in response to his erudite remarks. If Greg was gay—and he'd given me no solid reason to believe he was—he wasn't going to want a drooling imbecile for a partner.

Renee started to say something else, but she was interrupted by her daughter, Haley, rushing into the kitchen. "Hey, mom. I thought I heard you come in."

Renee was raising Haley on her own and she worked three night shifts a week as a nurse in pediatric intensive care. Haley usually spent those nights with me and occasionally stuck around for a few hours the day after Renee's last shift so her mom could catch up on sleep or run some errands.

Haley turned pleading eyes on me. "Dr MacIntyre is outside. Can I go meet him now?"

My shirt was stained. I'd overslept and raced out of the door without shaving or doing anything to tame my curly hair. I was rushing to get dinner made because I'd agreed to fill in for someone at the main campus library and had to go back to work.

But Haley had been anxious to meet Greg since he moved in a week ago. She loved astronomy and all the mind-boggling math it required. She'd seen Greg setting up a telescope in his backyard and hoped he'd let her take a look through it. I couldn't deny her the chance to meet a real-life astrophysicist, especially one so well-respected that LSU had lured him away from Berkley for their Advanced Gamma Ray Survey Mission. I wasn't sure exactly what the program's professors did, but their work sounded impressive and expensive.

I sighed. I'd already made an ass of myself with Greg, what difference did it make how I looked?

"Sure. Just let me—" Before I finished my sentence, Haley shot out of the door. I nearly busted my ass racing after her. Renee laughed as I stumbled down the porch steps.

When I reached the yard, my heart nearly stopped. Greg was indeed outside, up a ladder, fixing a broken gutter, wearing nothing but a utility kilt. A fucking kilt. Could he get any more perfect?

I stared, frozen to the spot. My mouth watered as I took in his muscular legs, his round ass, the broad expanse of his back. He reached up to hook the gutter back in place, and I bit my lip to hold in a groan at the sight of his muscles flexing.

"Uncle Blake?" Haley snapped me out of my trance. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Uh… yeah. I'm fine."

Her lips turned up in a mischievous grin. "You like him, don't you?"

"Who?"

She rolled her eyes. "Dr MacIntyre."

I prayed her loud whisper hadn't carried across the yard. "He's a nice man."

"Right."

Not a conversation I wanted to continue. "Come on. Let me introduce you."

As we got closer, I had to resist the urge to look up Greg's kilt. Sweat rolled down my temples as I wondered whether he was naked under there. At least in the Louisiana heat, everyone was sweaty.

"Hi, Greg," I called.

He looked down and smiled. His green eyes sparkled, and my cock responded. I so didn't need to be standing there with a hard-on.

"I know you're busy, but I wanted to introduce you to Haley."

"Hi, Haley." He waved at her, and she blushed a deep red. Apparently, even nine-year-olds couldn't resist him.

He started down the ladder, his kilt lifting with each step. I couldn't stop myself from peeking. I nearly passed out when I caught a glimpse of his pale, hair-covered ass cheek. My cock hardened more, and I prayed he—or worse, Haley—didn't notice.

When he reached the ground, Greg shook her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. I was hoping you'd show me your telescope some time. I've been reading Seeds' Foundations of Astronomy, and I've got lots of questions."

His smiled widened. "Most likely you already know more than most of the freshmen I've taught. I'd love to answer your questions and do some stargazing together."

Haley grinned. "Great!"

I nearly swooned. Greg was hot, brilliant, and apparently also good with kids.

"There are lots of cool things I can show you. How much math have you done? Any algebra yet?"

I barely heard his questions. My gaze was glued to his hand as he ran it casually up and down the handle of his hammer. I couldn't stop imaging him touching my dick the same way.

Buy it at Silver Publishing: https://spsilverpublishing.com/product_book_info/products_id/1051

Buy it at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Astronomical-ebook/dp/B007Z3QXU6/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1336266493&sr=1-1-catcorr

You can learn more about Silvia's books at her website: http://silviaviolet.com

Homophobic Discrimination of the LGBTQ Writing Community

Homophobic Discrimination of the LGBTQ Writing Community

By Erica Pike

I had a new book release last week and should probably cover that in this amazing opportunity to guest blog at Kool Queer Lit. However, there is something more important I’d like to discuss.

The International Day Against Homophobia is drawing near, and with it comes a blog hop we’ve chosen to call Hop Against Homophobia. This hop is comprised of over 230 m/m authors, reviewers, and publishers who will be giving out various prizes between May 17^th and May 20^th.

Is it a marketing scheme? So seem to believe so, since many of us will be offering up our own books as prizes, but the reason for offering up prizes has always been to use our reach to bring in people and get them involved; spread the message; tell our stories; support the people we are, or who our friends and family are; support the subject we’re writing about; bring focus to the serious issues millions of GLBTQ people face every day. The purpose of this hop is to bring about awareness of homophobia (and the International Day Against Homophobia) and to stand together as an m/m writing community, because this category is also subjected to homophobic discrimination in various forms.

Many people face discrimination for reading and writing stories about men loving men. I’m lucky for many things: I’m Icelandic and there’s not a lot of homophobia in my country, and my family didn’t even think to look down on me for what I write. That’s right. There are authors writing in this category who get snubbed by their family and friends for what they write. It shocked me the first time I heard it and it still shocks me every time I hear of a new incident. There are also readers of this category who meet very little understanding from friends and family. Again, not something I experience, but it doesn’t have to happen to me for me to want to stand up and do something about it.

But wait a minute. A lot of those people being snubbed are straight women. This day is about GLBTQ people…

This issue is not about being straight or gay (or anything in between). It’s about the subject these writers (men and women) are writing about: men loving men. It’s the homophobic attitude toward the subject of these books.

I don’t know if every m/m author out there agrees with my philosophy of more exposure = more/quicker acceptance. This may be a very simplistic philosophy, but it is my true and honest belief that the more people are exposed to GLBTQ, the more they’ll see that there’s nothing abnormal about it. I’m not deluded enough to believe that every single homophobic person will change their opinion and become accepting toward homosexuality – that won’t happen in my lifetime, but I’m optimistic enough to believe that people can change their minds. If we manage to help change at least one person’s misconceptions about GLBTQ with this hop, then this hop has been a success.

Wait… What does this have to do with m/m books?

I’m sure that many of you heard about what happened with one of the Romance Writers of America chapters earlier this year. They decided to exclude GLBT stories from their annual romance competition, while GLBT stories had been welcomed in the previous years (some had even won rewards). The reason given was that some of the judges felt uncomfortable reading “these stories”. All hell broke loose and RWA cancelled the contest and gave an excuse that left a bad taste in the mouths of those who objected to the discrimination. I’m sure that RWA won’t repeat this little stunt, but this just goes to show that GLBT literature faces discrimination even in the most respectable organizations of writers. We are hoping that by standing together as an m/m writing community, we’ll help further the process of getting these books accepted as normal literature, instead of the seedy porn that many people view it as. We believe that by getting these books accepted it will help enlighten people and help in the fight against homophobia.

But aren’t we discriminating against “LBTQ” people? Why only the “G”?

The three of us are m/m writers and when we started out with this hop, we had no idea it would catch fire like it did. We originally made personal invitations to our fellow m/m writers, and to be completely honest, we just didn’t think bigger. With the amazing interest though, we see more opportunity to get more exposure and to speak out against homophobia as a large group. A large school of fish makes a louder splash than a single fish. It’s too late to change the m/m-only now with the hop only a day away, but next year we won’t just be m/m writers; we’ll be GLBTQ writers.

If we want it big, then why can’t m/f writers sign up?

We would love it if we could include everyone, but we have to draw the line somewhere. It would be amazing if thousands would sign their blogs up for this, but something that huge is hard to manage. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes organizing, writing, promoting, emailing, Q&As to the participating blogs, etc. It’s a lot of work. However, we think it would be great if a couple of m/f writers were to stand up and create a “M/F Writers Against Homophobia”, and maybe other genres, like “Horror Writers Against Homophobia” etc. That would be an amazing declaration of support. If someone would like to create something like that, feel free to use this idea :)

Anyway, I want to welcome everyone to stop by during the hop. Everyone is also welcome to tell people and communities about this hop and even cover the event with a blog post. We would greatly appreciate any sort of support and every little thing helps. The Icelandic fisherman blood in me points back to the school of fish.

Thanks for having me :)

- Erica Pike

http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com/

www.ericapike.com