Monday, September 24, 2012

The Old Fart is Back at KZ Snow's Blog!

Well, it's been  so long since I posted, that I can only pray that this comes out okay. This week I make a brief appearance at KZ Snow's blog She's asked a few of us authors who are over 50 (cough cough) to share some of our thoughts about m/m writing and the older generations. Hope you'll stop by throughout the week to see what we think.
See you there!

Friday, July 2, 2010

Well, We've Moved

And, of course, there are all sorts of jolly little blankety-blank bumps in the PC road. Like having to deal with the insanity known as google.
And there are still major concerns in Real Life - gasp - that will impact heavily on any posting this year. Bear with me while I try to sort them out.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

I'm in Chicago and San Francisco Libraries!

Well, not literally, but Bend in the Road is! If you live in Chicago you can find it on this page:
http://www.chipublib.org/search/details/cn/8426503/results/1/
In fact, the Chicago Library seems to be a darn good site for GLBT works. Check out this page:
http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/poptopics/lgbthistory.php
I am very impressed.
Go, Chicago!And if you're visiting San Francisco, you can find it here:
http://sflib1.sfpl.org/search~S1/a?Barrack+Jeanne
Hooray for the city on the Bay!

Friday, January 1, 2010

A New Review for Bend in the Road

What a great way to start 2010! Wilde Oats, an online magazine/review site I had sent Bend in the Road to back in August, reviewed it in their December issue and the reviewer, Piet Bach, had some very nice things to say about it.
Quoting just a snippet of the review:

"I will confess that I’m not a great reader of “romance”, either general or specifically male/male. But it isn’t often that a book with the special qualities of this one comes to my attention, either...The details of the troupe’s arrangements, how they travelled, how they ate, how they managed sets and props and costumes, who took which roles, are fascinating and accurate."
"Barrack’s style is simple and engaging. Reading the story with a background in theatre and a cultural Jewish heritage to draw on may have biassed me in that the people and their surroundings were familiar and I found the characters deeply sympathetic."
"I would very much enjoy reading a continuation of her history, set perhaps in New York’s lower East Side in the 1890s, as her characters melt into the American pot."
Thanks so much, Piet!
A sequel is in the works for later this year.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Happy Chanukah!


Happy Chanukah!!!


Tonight's the first night of Hanukah and I'm on the Speak Its Name holiday advent calendar.
I've got yummy Chanaka recipes and a little gift, too.
Please come and join the party and find out why you see the holiday spelled three different ways in this post!
Link: http://speakitsname.wordpress.com/

Monday, November 2, 2009

Life Happens

Just a note to those of you who follow my blog. Right now, Steve and I are in a not so nice situation in our life. We're unsure where we're going to be in the very near future.
Any white light and or prayers available would be very appreciated.
Posting will be sporadic at best for a while.

Thanks
Jeanne

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Guest Blogger - Lex Valentine

I'd like to welcome Lex and help her celebrate her birthday. But let's have Lex tell you about her favorite day of the year and her latest release in time for the Halloween holiday.

Lex:
It’s kinda weird when your birthday is on Halloween, you work at a cemetery, and you don’t believe in ghosts. I’ve always known I was a freak but to not believe in the creatures of the night when you’re born on Halloween is kinda sacrilegious. I can’t help myself. I’m a non-believer. I think I’d actually have to meet one and talk to him to believe. And even then, I’d prolly think I was being Punk’d.

The hero of my latest release thinks he’s being Punk’d when he meets a ghost. However, Jason has a problem with the ghost he meets. The man makes his dick hard. Yep. Totally turned on by a ghost. Sounds like a country song, doesn’t it?

In Rousing Caine, my novella in the MLR Press anthology Love Me Dead, you will meet a man with no belief in love, no trust, and who thinks everyone has an ulterior motive and is out to use everyone else in some way, shape, or form. Jason’s love life has sucked for years. People used him. As much as he loves kids, he’s resigned to not having any because he doesn’t trust people.
By contrast to my gloomy, disbelieving hero, Caine the ghost is a positive force with a Zen-like attitude. Everything happens for a reason, including his own demise. It’s just like me to do a ghost who’s not in the least scary. Caine is a famous surfer with an open attitude toward sex and a hot body. He just happens to be dead. Not that Caine lets that stop him.

The incongruous couple embark on an affair once Jason is sure he’s not being Punk’d. It’s a pretty steamy affair too! Caine’s completely in love with Jason and determined to turn his skeptical lover’s attitude around. He tries to get Jason to see that giving up on the idea of being happy is wrong. He makes Jason promise to fulfill a childhood dream of learning to surf and to see a surrogate agency about the possibility of having a child. Caine shines light into the darkness that had crept into Jason’s soul.

Of course, anger and betrayal rear their ugly heads within Jason when he finds out all the details of Caine’s death. He sends the ghost away and then has to face the truth within himself, knowing all the while that he will never again know a love as pure as Caine’s. It’s a bittersweet moment in the story and one I hope you all can embrace. Finding the truth when it’s too late is a horrible fate.

Since this is a love story, I will tell you there are twists to the ending. It’s not your usual ghost story for Halloween and the scariest thing in it is when Jason thinks there’s a burglar in his house! Or when you think he’s lost Caine forever. That one even gave me a few chills!

As you can see, I’m just not normal when it comes to Halloween. Whoever heard of a ghost story filled with M/M sex and a twisted happy ending? Ah, I think it’s just the freak in me that enjoys messing with you on this most un-hallowed of holidays. Chalk it all up to the fact that I arrived in this world at 12:41 am… on Halloween.

Many thanks to Jeanne for having me on her blog during my birthday week. Trick-or-Treat everyone!
Lex








Released just this week in time for Halloween! LOVE ME DEAD, a ghost anthology from MLR Press featuring stories by the venerable but naughty William Maltese, the awesome and erotic AM Riley, and me! My novella Rousing Caine is right in the center of the book.


Buy Link:
http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=ANTHLVDD

Anthology blurb:
Can ghosts influence the living? Can they make a man fall in love? Help him see things in different lights? William Maltese, AM Riley and Lex Valentine weave four tales that pose these questions and answer the question, LOVE ME DEAD?

Rousing Caine Blurb:
Jason Rockham has lost faith in others and himself. He no longer trusts and doesn’t believe in love. When he escapes to his cliffside home in Northern California, he meets a ghost who is the antithesis of everything he’s come to believe about people. Caine Carruthers fell in love with the laugh of a man he didn’t know. After his unexpected death, he sought out the man and found him bitter and disillusioned with life. With love in his heart, Caine sets out to show Jason that life is worthwhile and love is possible. Two incomparable heroes – a man who has lost hope and a ghost who believes love conquers all, including death. This story will make you laugh and cry and most of all... believe.

Excerpt:
They hadn’t had sex again, but the sexual tension between them rose to an almost unbearable level, and as soon as it grew dark, Jason decided he’d had enough of teetering on the edge of a hard-on for hours on end.

They sat in the media room, an old Alfred Hitchcock movie on, and Jason only knew what was happening onscreen because he’d seen the movie so often that he knew the dialog. His hand traced the swell of Caine’s thigh muscle, marveling at the texture of his smooth skin. With his fingers, he teased the hem of Caine’s shorts, brushing his fingers along the sensitive flesh of his inner thigh.

A hiss sounded and Jason smiled. Obviously, the movie no longer held Caine’s attention. Through narrowed eyes, Jason saw Caine’s cock swell beneath the khaki of his shorts.

“You aren’t watching the movie,” he murmured with a chuckle.

“Am t-too,” Caine stuttered as Jason’s fingers brushed his erection.

With a wide grin, Jason leaned over and licked the side of Caine’s jaw. “Are not.”

Caine went rigid in his chair. Jason grinned openly. The ghost’s cock now strained against the front of his shorts. Getting to his feet, Jason pushed Caine’s feet off the ottoman in front of him and sat on it, between Caine’s thighs. He leaned forward and unbuttoned his lover’s shorts.

“Still say you’re watching Rear Window?” he teased, knowing that Caine’s eyes were riveted on him and not the movie.

“Jason.” The name emerged from Caine’s mouth on a groan that made his lover chuckle.

“I thought not.”

Jason’s mouth enveloped Caine’s stiff cock. He licked and sucked the length, letting the salty taste roll over his tongue and fire his own arousal. He loved sucking Caine. The man made such loud, appreciative noises that it drove Jason into a frenzy of lust.

He lifted his head and stared into Caine’s dazed eyes. “Here or the bedroom?” he asked abruptly. Personally, Jason didn’t think he could make it two feet, let alone all the way to the bedroom without just knocking Caine to the floor and taking him.

Caine frowned as he tried to concentrate on the question. “I… I…”

“Aww, fuckit,” Jason muttered and grabbed Caine by the hands, yanking him to the floor. He sprawled atop the ghost, his mouth a hair’s breadth from Caine’s. “Here,” he decided. “Later, the bedroom.”

*****
Lex can be found on the Internet at:
http://www.lexvalentine.com/