Damon Suede...

Love is a many-gendered thing. 2012 has been a helluva ride personally and professionally. Deep gratitude to everyone who has made it so wonderful. More books are on the way, with Hard Head delayed but moving along at its own strange clip, a new contemporary romantic comedy nearly finished and the oft-postponed steampunk novel two-thirds done...and more besides. I've just been made the president of the Rainbow Romance Writers (RWA's LGBT romance chapter) and our genre is exploding.

2013 looks to be a banner year for Suede in the the churning waters of gay romance and the M/M subgenre. Want to know where he's headed? Check out his Events page for all the poop that's fit to scoop. The happiest endings come at the end of a road that is soft and rough...

 

Gay romance in Hotlanta!

Last year's GayRomLit Retreat was a knockout... For 2013, this amazing manlove confab hits Atlanta and homoerotic romance will never be the same! Hell, author spots sold out in SIX MINUTES and the crush for general registration almost snapped up all the registrations in 24 hours. You can't fight a stubbly, muscular, anguished tidal wave! Year Three looks to me even more spectacular. Anyone who reads LGBT romance fiction should consider joining the fun in Atlanta October 16-20th. Check it out here.

 

Mass Market M/M

So... the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention has become an annual must-attend, and now I've just been heavily featured in a fabulous five-page article about the meteoric rise of gay romance in Romantic Times magazine. RT commands a print circulation of more than 75,000 readers and a genre presence that dwarfs most other outlets, so highlighting the appeal of same-sex love stories under their aegis will carry tremendous weight within the romance community.

 A lot of the credit for this article goes to the Rainbow Romance Writers chapter and its networking efforts on the ground in Chicago, which introduced current gay romance to hundreds of new readers and opened discussion with untold "mainstream" outlets, including journalists, bloggers, distributors, librarians, and more. And though the primary focus falls on M/M, an accompanying piece parallels the explosion of lesbian romances as well.

Getting this kind of glowing mainstream coverage represents a tidal shift for LGBT romance. Naysayers swore it couldn't be done, and I'm thrilled to report they were flat-out wrong. Though accepted wisdom has been that authors of gay romance need to stick to our ghetto, this editorial is only one of many indications that our books are starting to come out in a big way.

The article highlights a bevy of homo romance folks including RRW chapter's president Heidi Cullinan, M/M superstar Josh Lanyon, and Sarah Frantz, the head of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance. I'm deeply honored to be spotlighted and quoted alongside these heavy hitters. Many, many thanks to RT features editor Mala Bhattarcharjee for including my work in such a positive and persuasive piece on the rise and rise of gay romance fiction. Check it out here!

 

Best Romance of 2011 and more!

 The Romance Reviews named Hot Head the Best Book of 2011 in GLBT – Contemporary Romance! Deep gratitude to everyone who took this book to heart. And on 9/11/2012, Romantic Times chose it as one of their five Favorite Firefighter romances ever and in December, Band of Thebes picked it as one of the Best LGBT Books of 2012.

And last winter, the Goodreads M/M romance group held their readers choice awards and I won nine awards in ten categories against some amazing titles: including Best Book, Best Debut, Best Contemporary, Best Sex Scene and more besides! 2011 was a pretty phenomenal year for the homo-romance, yo, so I'm really honored to have been recognized against such stiff competition!

Not only that, also at Goodreads in a competition which included all books published last year, Hot Head was selected as #3 for the Best Romance of 2011, the only gay romance on a list which includes titles by New York Times Bestsellers JR Ward, Nalini Singh, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Nora Roberts. Thank you to everyone who voted...I'm so psyched to see M/M get recognition for its impact on the romance genre.

And as the Lists are coming in from review sites and book clubs, Hot Head has found a lot of favor...and odd as it is, even Grown Men has found traction with the fans. Many thanks to everyone who took a chance on my books this year!

 

Professional Authors of LGBT Romance?

I'm a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Rainbow Romance Writers. Why aren't you? Rainbow Romance Writers is the home of career-focused authors and industry professionals interested in promoting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender romances. If you write LGBT romance and you haven't joined, the RRW is up to all kinds of nifty shenanigans. As an active chapter of the Romance Writers of America, we continue to push for research, awareness, and education in unexpected communities. We are changing minds, one heart at a time.

 

Sudsy studs

Where is the witty, sexy serialized melodrama of your gaytime dreams? Boxer Falls is a weekly homoerotic soap opera being posted at the M/M Romance Group at Goodreads. And we've got a starpowered stable contributing to the nuttiness: Andrea Speed, Eden Winters, Mary Calmes, Amy Lane, and more!   Join Ellis Carrington, Poppy Dennison, and Damon Suede along with a host of your favorite scribes as they cut loose with suds and studs in abundance.

This project grew out of a desire to do some fun fast writing that could include a wide range of styles and stories. With its punchy episodes and high drama, it'll be a great way for authors to cut loose and for readers to explore unfamiliar voices or subgenres.  If you have an interest in over-the-top romance, come get soapy with us. You'll need to be a member of the M/M Romance Group at Goodreads to stay tuned, but then... you already are right? :) Campy antics ahead!

 

Making waves

Sexy upstart Riptide Publishing invited me to be a part of their awesome launch lineup with my sci-fi novella Grown Men in October! Founded by savvy M/M authors, Riptide aims to make a helluva splash in homoerotic fiction with an eye toward filling the demand for rich, complex stories that pull you under.

Their team is setting the bar very high in every facet of book preparation and production and planning a lavish Grand Opening that will last through the autumn complete with a mindboggling blogtour and swanky prizes out the yingyang! If you're curious about their plans, definitely have a looksee at the Riptide site.

 

Without Merrick: the father of gay romance

And because I started reminiscing about my early forays into queer fiction, I just wrote a fan letter 25 years late to the author who taught me to love gay romance novels way back when I was a mere stripling... Gordon Merrick, arguably the author of the first gay romantic bestseller in publishing history. Take a walk down memory lane with my overview of some of the guiltiest of homoerotic pleasures.

 

Get your Suede on

People are getting geared up for GayRomLit! After a bunch of requests for promo items, I've built a simple store called Damon Suede Gear at CafePress which features all kinds of gay romance goodness... with my cover art, Suede slogans, and more... CafePress allows me to offer everything from simple Tshirts to thongs to shotglasses to customized Iphone cases. Feel free to have a poke around, and if you don't see something that you know you want, give me a heads up and I'll try to build it for you.

 

Fighting fires with gasoline

Back in 2011 Dreamspinner Press snapped up my first M/M novel in less than 72 hours and since then the book has taken homo-romance by storm sitting at #1 on Amazon's gay romance list for six months. Hot Head is a contemporary love story about a Brooklyn firefighter who has fought forbidden feelings for his best friend since 9/11... until a gay porn site asks them to appear together, forcing him to face his suffocating terror and desire to protect the one person who matters. 

Dreamspinner Press released Hot Head June 15th, 2011 in softcover and ebook, with audiobook due shortly. Check out a full description here along with an excerpt, reviews and more. Watch this page for more details! Where there's smoke there's fire!

 

Gearing up

Sweet friction, hot fiction, no restrictions! There's no rest for the wicked... and I have all sorts of trouble brewing at the moment. Up next:

• A wacky romantic comedy about a reclusive comic book artist and a reckless FX makeup designer. Pop culture gets dirty...Biff! Ker-Pow!
• Hard Head: Book Two in the "Head" series featuring Tommy Dobsky, a self-destructive paramedic from first encountered in Hot Head... This book's release has been pushed back significantly but I promise it is deep in process!
• Spring Eternal: mythic adventure runs riot in the greasy underbelly of a Gilded Age Manhattan.
• Lickety Split: a contemporary romance about the gay rodeo and hoedown community.

 

"It's no trick loving somebody at their best. Love is loving them at their worst."

(The Real Thing - Tom Stoppard)