Susan Cooper ~ The Dark Is Rising
(The Dark is Rising Sequence ~ Book 2)
All Available Now On Kindle!

• Midwinter’s Eve •

“Too many!” James shouted, and slammed the door behind him.
“What?” said Will.
“Too many kids in this family, that’s what. Just too many.” James stood fuming on the landing like a small angry locomotive, then stumped across to the window-seat and stared out at the garden. Will put aside his book and pulled up his legs to make room. “I could hear all the yelling,” he said, chin on knees.
“Wasn’t anything,” James said. “Just stupid Barbara again. Bossing. Pick up this, don’t touch that. And Mary joining in, twitter twitter twitter. You’d think this house was big enough, but there’s always people.”
They both looked out of the window. The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world. That wide grey sweep was the lawn, with the straggling trees of the orchard still dark beyond; the white squares were the roofs of the garage, the old barn, the rabbit hutches, the chicken coops. Further back there were only the flat fields of Dawsons’ Farm, dimly white-striped. All the broad sky was grey, full of more snow that refused to fall. There was no colour anywhere.
“Four days to Christmas,” Will said. “I wish it would snow properly.”
“And your birthday tomorrow.”
“Mmm.” He had been going to say that too, but it would have been too much like a remind-er. And the gift he most wished for on his birthday was something nobody could give him: it was snow, beautiful, deep, blanketing snow, and it never came. At least this year there was the grey sprinkle, better than nothing.

He said, remembering a duty: “I haven’t fed the rabbits yet. Want to come?”
Booted and muffled, they clumped out through the sprawling kitchen. A full symphony or- chestra was swelling out of the radio; their eldest sister Gwen was slicing onions and singing; their mother was bent broad-beamed and red-faced over an oven. “Rabbits!” she shouted, when she caught sight of them. “And some more hay from the farm!”
“We’re going!” Will shouted back. The radio let out a sudden hideous crackle of static as he passed the table. He jumped. Mrs Stanton shrieked, “Turn that thing DOWN.”

Outdoors, it was suddenly very quiet. Will dipped out a pail of pellets from the bin in the farm-smelling barn, which was not really a barn at all, but a long, low building with a tiled roof, once a stable. They tramped through the thin snow to the row of heavy wooden hutches, leav-ing dark footmarks on the hard frozen ground.
Opening doors to fill the feed-boxes, Will paused, frowning. Normally the rabbits would be huddled sleepily in corners, only the greedy ones coming twitch-nosed forward to eat. Today they seemed restless and uneasy, rustling to and fro, banging against their wooden walls; one or two even leapt back in alarm when he opened their doors. He came to his favourite rabbit, named Chelsea, and reached in as usual to rub him affectionately behind the ears, but the animal scuffled back away from him and cringed into a corner, the pink-rimmed eyes staring up blank and terrified.
“Hey!” Will said, disturbed. “Hey James, look at that. What’s the matter with him? And all of them?”
“They seem all right to me.”
“Well, they don’t to me. They’re all jumpy. Even Chelsea. Hey, come on, boy —” But it was no good.
“Funny,” James said with mild interest, watching. “I dare say your hands smell wrong. You must have touched something they don’t like. Same as dogs and aniseed, but the other way round.”
“I haven’t touched anything. Matter of fact, I’d just washed my hands when I saw you.”
“There you are then,” James said promptly. “That’s the trouble. They’ve never smelt you clean before. Probably all die of shock.”
“Ha very ha.” Will attacked him, and they scuffled together, grinning, while the empty pail toppled rattling on the hard ground. But when he glanced back as they left, the animals were still moving distractedly, not eating yet, staring after him with those strange frightened wide eyes.
“There might be a fox about again, I suppose,” James said. “Remind me to tell Mum.” No fox could get at the rabbits, in their sturdy row, but the chickens were more vulnerable; a fam-ily of foxes had broken into one of the henhouses the previous winter and carried off six nicely-fattened birds just before marketing time. Mrs Stanton, who relied on the chick- en-money each year to help pay for eleven Christmas presents, had been so furious she had kept watch afterwards in the cold barn two nights running, but the villains had not come back. Will thought that if he were a fox he would have kept clear too; his mother might be married to a jeweller, but with generations of Buckinghamshire farmers behind her, she was no joke when the old instincts were roused.

Tugging the handcart, a home-made contraption with a bar joining its shafts, he and James made their way down the curve of the overgrown drive and out along the road to Dawsons’ Farm. Quickly past the churchyard, its great dark yew trees leaning out over the crumbling wall; more slowly by Rooks’ Wood, on the corner of Church Lane. The tall spinney of horse-chestnut trees, raucous with the calling of the rooks and rubbish-roofed with the clut-ter of their sprawling nests, was one of their familiar places.
“Hark at the rooks! Something’s disturbed them.” The harsh irregular chorus was deafen- ing, and when Will looked up at the treetops he saw the sky dark with wheeling birds. They flapped and drifted to and fro; there were no flurries of sudden movement, only this clamorous interweaving throng of rooks.
“An owl?” “They’re not chasing anything. Come on, Will, it’ll be getting dark soon.”
“That’s why it’s so odd for the rooks to be in a fuss. They all ought to be roosting by now.”
Will turned his head reluctantly down again, but then jumped and clutched his brother’s arm, his eye caught by a movement in the darkening lane that led away from the road where they stood. Church Lane: it ran between Rooks’ Wood and the churchyard to the tiny local church, and then on to the River Thames.

Like an old friend handing you a cozy cup of hot tea late on a cold winter’s night.

This may be the second book in the series but it is in my opinion the first book to really matter as in a Classic Paranormal YA worth reading kinda way. Susan Cooper started this series going for a more “children’s” style which is dominant in the first and third books of this series. Which may be why I find them less appealing

On the other hand I think that the books that focus on Will Stanton as he faces the changes of becoming an “Old One” are where the real magic is at. She found something with that character they made her better as a writer. Some magic connection.

That means I highly recommend this second book first… The Dark Is Rising, and then the fourth book The Grey King and finally the big finish with the fifth book Silver On The Tree. I leave the first and third, all these books are wonderfully standalone anyway, for those who come to enjoy the magic of this series and want to read a bit more but I just think they do not represent her best stuff.

So if you want Christmas Classic Paranormal YA here is the best on my shelf. Grade A+

About that tragic movie version of this timeless classic… Listen, the director David L. Cunningham is this “Holy Roller” bigoted greedy materialistic piece of trash who “had problems” with the pagan stuff described in the writing. So instead of dropping out for “personal reasons” like any honest professional person would do he decided to sabotage the entire project with his “Christianized version” of the story and totally bizarre script writer (The guy from Trainspotting? For this?) and casting choices. He did a great job of tanking the film.

DO NOT BUY THAT CRAP MOVIE! I hope no one ever hires that dishonest SOB director again.

Avalon (2001)

Avalon is like this poor orphaned red headed step child of Mamoru Oshii who is the renowned Japanese director of the Anime classic Ghost In The Shell (Netflix Streaming). Man I really hate how this movie gets treated here in the states. It sucks!

It has all the stuffs we adore about Ghost In The Shell. The “manufactured reality” versus “what we consider to be reality” of the Matrix and the whole man versus intelligent machine of Blade Runner all nicely done up in a thick almost mythological soup of cross referenced sci-fi idioms and concepts. Video games and video game players (In this case a strong kick ass woman!) and getting caught up in the manufactured reality of a game while the real world sucks and how far would you go to win etc etc etc. Just like all our favorite Anime films, all of them!

I think it must be the whole live action part with dubbing and/or subtitles that is probably what turns people off. I just think Poland was so freaking appropriate and looks so much like a manufactured programmed wasteland it so works for a movie like this.

Anyhow, I am biting a big one here for a Christmas Stocking Stuffer and finally getting the Blu-Ray from Yes Asia. Pricey is a word that could be used for doing this and stupid might be a better choice. The fact is this Blu-Ray will probably never see a release here in America so what do you do? Close your eyes and imagine it is an exotic boxset from the far east with a gold leaf case with angels dancing on the head of a pin.

This film needs Blu-Ray though. Mamoru Oshii did not so much film this movie as he stuck a rough draft in Photoshop and painted the movie frame by frame digitally. So every centimeter of texture and detail counts and every lighting effect and shadow and angle could have meaning.

If you want to see Anime become real or what a well known and well loved Anime film director would do with real live actors you can go cheap and get the DVD from Walmart for about 10 bucks while the dwindling supplies last. I know for a fact the price at Amazon was jacked up to three times that much recently.

Grade A for an unloved, forgotten, but intelligent and wonderfully made sci-fi film about an ass kicking shoot em up Polish woman video game player and how far would you go to win the game. A movie I can watch again and again. That I am seriously paying way too much for the (All Region) Japanese Blu-Ray.

Helvetica (2007)

We all know words have power. Did you know that fonts can have that same ability?

If you have Netflix Streaming click on the craziest most informative documentary on fonts I have ever seen or ever wanted to see to be honest. I was bored and it was there I tell you! Who knew the secret movers and shakers of the “font world” would be so moving or shaking? These guys are really into their lettering. Boris stole that S curve from me I know he did!

You have got to see this thing!

Maybe Tom Cruise can play the part of Helvetica for the dramatic remake. He’s a method actor you know.

Grade A for being so unexpectedly interesting in a Netflix Streaming random way.

Skyrim

Bethesda just patched Skyrim to version 1.02 on the PS3 and fucked it up really really bad.

It used to be I would start experiencing “lag” issues so I would have to save before it totally froze up on me but I could still save and then turn the PS3 off and restart it back up. NOW… You are going along and want to go into a shop or something so you hit the door and BAM! During the transition the whole thing freezes up bad. It can also freeze up like this when it goes to Autosave randomly.

To make matters worse with the latest OS update from dear old Sony they decided to include a couple of nag screens now about the PS3 not being shut down correctly so you have to say OK to the first nag screen and then it wants to check the disk and files so you have to say OK to the second nag screen.

Oh Sony PS3 Programmer, pookie bear I did not shut the machine down the game froze honey buns. So I tapped the little button on the front of the PS3 like the manual says to do and it shut itself down.

I have and have had for ages now no control over how this dang machine shuts itself down so why blame me for it? Plus Sony PS3 Programmer sweetie dearest if the power goes out thus shutting the machine down the wrong way AGAIN I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THAT! Sweetie darling!

So please take the stupid nag screens out and if the damn machine needs to check files and disks then do not ask me for an OK. I don’t care really! Just do it! It’s not like I would say “no way” to something like that and you really do not give me any choices to say “no” anyway.

So why have any nag screens in the first place? Please please please please take the annoying cloying nag screens out pookie kins.

I won Skyrim by the way. Once you get to the part where you have to capture the dragon in Whiterun at Dragonsreach you better have the best armor in the game and the best weapon before you catch him because he’s gonna offer you a ride to the big guy and it’s all end game from there on out.

Remember I told you guys about Stacking… Pretty early on game time I made full on Dragonplate (Legendary) Armor at 138 and have a Glass War Axe (Legendary) at 146 all fully enchanted with various soul trap and absorb health spells and fortify magic and fortify health spells using that dual enchantment perk. All the stuff I learned and used with my focus on Smithing and Enchantment but also using a special fortify smithing ring I made that jacks my smithing ability up by 28% and I also use a ton of Blacksmith’s Elixer up 50% and Enchanter’s Elixer up 20% I horde away for when I want to make my own stuffs.

Anyway, FUN GAME!

Literally Skyrim was the best game I played all year and I am not the world’s biggest fan of the Fantasy RPG’s. Let’s hope they do this same thing to the Fallout series just one more time in house like none of those outsourced jobs anymore please and give us a huge Post Apocalyptic Sci-fi gun toting fun fest.

Still I say the best way to enjoy this game is not to play the main quest in fact ignore it. I only found two things I was looking for at the very end. The last mask for that group posed Dragon Priest statue. If you found any of these masks and the wooden mask you know what I mean. Also the last and final 20th Shout was learned after you defeated the last dragon. But that was all I found at the ending there I might have missed something I can go check later.

But really, do all the side mission stuff. Enjoy all the exploration and all the hidden fun to be found. Go ride a horse or just wander the gorgeous countryside picking flowers and digging for gold and get lost in the caves and valleys and mountain tops of this fantasy land of adventure because that journey was the best part not the final game ending battle with the big mean dragon. In fact waving my sword around hacking at yet another dragon was sorta boring no matter how much bigger it was.

Grade A for a most excellent journey and the awe inspiring magic of being able to do just about anything I wanted to do.

Blue Velvet (1986)

It’s a sunny, woodsy day in Lumberton, so get those chainsaws out. This is the mighty W.O.O.D., the musical voice of Lumberton. At the sound of the falling tree, it’s 9:30. There’s a whole lotta wood waitin’ out there, so let’s get goin’.

Almost every shot in this movie was filmed right down the street from my little old house.

So is actually living in Wilmington, North Carolina like living in a David Lynch film? Well mostly, I mean people can be truly strange here and seemingly disconnected from reality on every level. What do you expect? It’s a Republican run “good old boy” club house that still thinks drinking and homosexuality and “being colored” is a sin and that the EPA steals your soul and that gas guzzling mericun cars are actually something to be proud of and that sky daddy will save them from the fucked up idiotic mess they have created here with all their churchgoing narrow minded greed and selfish ignorance. I have to say there is a certain youth and innocence about David Lynch and especially in this particular movie since it was done right before Twin Peaks that I find missing in real life picturesque Wilmington, North Carolina though. I tend to feel more like Francine Fishpaw in Polyester.

This version of Blue Velvet is now as gor-jesus as this place really can be. No more pan and scan bullshit. Oh it still is presented in letter box but dang the colors pop and the image is pristine. If you have a PS3 you have just got to see this movie in all it’s twisted glory. If you have seen David Lynch’s later films and were turned off I still say try this one out. There is a hard to describe “more cohesive” flowing story presented here than in later David Lynch films even though there is also a ton of the usual symbolism and film technique only for the sake of symbolism and film technique.

Isabella Rossellini is supreme as the self destructive femme fatale and then there is Dennis Hopper the pervy villain chewing up more scenery than a weed whacker set on mulch.

Grade A

MIMA ~ Wild Within (Bonded Fantasy 1)
From: Liquid Silver Books

Yet it had been two days now and she had not been able to get a coherent word out of Rylan since. She was terrified, furious, that it was too late. Now she sat in this winter cold room that was Rylan’s latest shak, a poor one as he struggled between sicknesses.Her eyes drifted over the cracked walls, the gaps and the chips, the rough clay floor. It is empty of more than the belongings I’ve sold for fresh water and food, she thought. This life of ours is dead, and this key is going to pick the lock of the Beast caves.

She wrestled Rylan into a pair of thick pants, a tunic, and a sweater she’d been using as his pillow. She was rough, glad when she shook him awake. She was panting as she finished wrapping his belt on and tying his warclub to it. She stuffed his feet into boots and stood glaring down at him.

“I’m leaving. If you want to live, get up and follow me.”

Her words fell hard and cold, but she knew he would heed them. He could not delay any longer. The final chance to decide in favor of life over death was here, and she was confident of his choice, despite how his fear for her had made him wait until his body was at its weakest.

She turned and walked out into the harsh white sun.

She waited outside, leaning against the house. The sun was bright, but not warm enough to heat the adobe. As she waited for him to summon the will to follow her, her mind raced. Free of the burden to convince him to go, she thought again of her weak plan on how she was going to get there. Her only supplies were an oilskin wrapped around her waist with a coil of rope, and sharp throwing stones currently tied around a smaller rope’s ends like a bolo. She had no food, as her stomach growled around the dry heels she’d forced down. But she wouldn’t have gotten this far in life without being able to think on an empty stomach. When Rylan staggered, wheezing, into the doorway, she ducked under his arm to drape it around her shoulders, and they were off, heading due south. South out of the City, and south to find the Beasts.

KarRa and Rylan have been friends since they were children living and thieving together in the slums of a great city. Rylan you see is not human though, he is a Trux, and when he starts getting sick KarRa in desperation decides they must journey to the caves of the beasts where he might be taken in and cured. This will mean that KarRa must go with him and face the dangers of the unknown.

I got this eBook from All Romance eBooks last April in one of their giveaways and fell in love with MIMA’s writing. Here is a fantasy world lush with detail and the deadly Trux warriors with their rituals and culture are strange and mysterious. This is mainly a Straight Romance series but there are several gay scenes that you come across and it looks like the latest book is a flat out Ménage Romance… anyway I really liked this first book so much I went and bought a few more and I just noticed this week there are like 8 books in the series now and I really need to catch up on my reading. In other words MIMA slow down please.

The great thing is that MIMA is a smart writer and has kept each of the books in the series a stand alone story and let’s face the fact that out of nine books it is pretty much a sure thing that you will run into some that will not work for you. So with this series you can start from the beginning and work your way forward or you can just pick and choose the ones that look like something you might enjoy reading and just go for it.

Thank you MIMA for being not only a talented writer but an intelligent one. I wish more writers made more of an effort to write series books as stand alone so the reader does not get bogged down having to slog through a book they would rather not read just to get to one they do.

This first book gets a Grade A for getting me hooked on the series. The whole series in fact is an auto buy for me presently and I will wait till it is through before grading it but so far things are pretty damn awesome.

Treva Harte ~ Home (Alpha3)
From: Loose Id

Cause you’re hot then you’re cold
You’re yes then you’re no
You’re in and you’re out
You’re up and you’re down
You’re wrong when it’s right
It’s black and it’s white
We fight, we break up
We kiss, we make up
Katy Perry ~ Hot N Cold

Sometimes telling a good story is not so much about what you write about but what you choose not to write about. Especially when it comes to Ménage Romance and issues concerning sexuality and who is doing whom and why. Treva Harte just seems to me to stand out from the pack. I love her Alpha series but as many people have pointed out to me again and again Home is the best of the bunch and I have to agree.

None of Treva’s characters in this series strike me as necessarily in control but they are not all innocent victims either. In fact I would say they seem, both the men and the women, more likely to be in a barroom brawl than a romance at any given moment. They are raw and they are who they are with no excuses. I like that.

Even so, Rome smelled like sex and — beer. Mia’s nose wrinkled.
“Are you drunk, Rome?”
“Not enough, baby.”
She would have left then, although it was her room and she was naked, but she realized there was something else Rome smelled like. Sex and alcohol and tears.
Oh no. It couldn’t be. Rome was tough and macho. She might be tempted — had always been a little tempted — by the virile Rome. She’d always been able to resist that Rome. But this Rome? She’d always been a sucker for the injured.
Mia put her hand on Rome’s shoulder, and he flinched, just slightly.
Definitely there had been tears.
“Who hurt you, Rome? What’s wrong?”
“No one. Nothing.”
“Stop being so manly for a minute. You came here for a reason. If you aren’t going to talk, why bother?”
“What makes you think I came here to talk? And fuck it if I’m too manly for you.” He looked down at the floor. “Maybe that was Grey’s problem. I’m too manly. Or not enough.”
His laugh sounded like a sob and, as if he realized it, Rome cut it off in the middle and took a deep breath instead.
“Grey?”
“I don’t want to talk about Grey. I don’t give a damn about Grey right now.”
“I don’t think that’s true, Rome. I’ve always known how much you worshipped him.” Mia could never figure out what anyone saw in that silent, rather menacing beta, but then he probably saw even less in her. He never even talked to her. Everyone knew he didn’t give a damn about women.
Rome went back to staring at her, as intensely as before. “That’s bull. I never worshiped anyone. Except — well — look at you, all stripped down and built like a goddess. I could worship you.”
He might be avoiding the issue but it worked. Mia knew she was blushing. She liked to ignore her looks since they meant nothing. Omegas didn’t mate. Omegas only had sex if the higher ups in the pack demanded it of them, but that wasn’t an issue in this pack. Her looks didn’t matter to anyone. In fact, lately she’d almost forgotten what she looked like — which might be why she was here, defenseless in front of a hungry were who was definitely noticing her appearance.
“I look like a woman. What of it?”
Sex. The smell of sex strengthened. Mia licked her lips and tried to ease the dryness in her throat.
“What of it? Jesus, Mia, you’ve got breasts like a porno star’s, except they’re real.” Rome came closer and Mia stiffened. He didn’t touch. But the way he looked made her as itchy as if he had. “And your ass. That is one fine ass.” He stopped and whispered, “I even like those big, big eyes of yours, staring at me like I’m going to gobble you up.”
The big, bad wolf had definitely arrived tonight. Mia took a step backward and tried to rally. “You have the hots for Grey. I’m sorry if you two had a fight, but why run to me?” ~ Page 18

Treva refuses to label anyone one thing or the other sexually throughout the whole series and it really shows in Home. Sure you as the reader can figure out who they love. It is not that the characters are unsure of their sexuality just that they do not waste time worrying about it. It comes across to me at least as feeling somewhat raw and abrupt but also organic in the way it gets presented. No pages and pages of characters angsting over whom they are attracted to or why. No “Gay for you”, no “Straight for you”, no mitigating circumstances in sight. I find this refreshing.

Now in regards to this being a Ménage Romance I do find similarities with Samantha Kane’s The Courage To Love.

There is a charismatic focus amongst the three lovers. In The Courage To Love it was Jason who had the title, money, and the need to wed and have kids along with a best buddy who he had deeper feelings for. Here in Home the main focus is Rome who is the lone wolf, the outcast Alpha, the wild card, and someone who both Grey and Mia are sexually interested in. Treva twists the Alpha role here by making Rome younger and more unsure of himself and his role in the ménage thus giving Grey a chance even as a Beta of contributing age and experience and stability to the threesome.

We also see the similarity where even though Rome has in the past made a move to seduce Grey he was rebuffed and he in turn rebuffed Mia ultimately making the romance story told here about discovering their mutual desires and forming some type of trust in order to be a “balanced” ménage. So there is no real pre-existing relationship in the way of us enjoying what does happen in the process of building a relationship that involves all three of them.

So “clarity” is in the rather blunt acceptance they have of their sexuality. “Balance” comes from Rome being a young charismatic yet inexperienced Alpha which allows them all to contribute something to the ménage.

What is left is “benefit” and that mostly comes from outside the threesome. Both of their packs benefit from these three mating and having children. Treva again twists the reasons here to give a “making it work” for the good of everyone else feel to the story. This also provides the internal problems each member has to forming a relationship that will involve kids and why they are participating.

Grade A example Treva on how writing any type of romance even a ménage does not mean having to provide full explanations for every character’s motivations. Some people may be turned off on how raw this comes across as since there is no couching “emo” moments but I say mapping it all out for pages upon pages of boring pointless emotionally reasoned drivel will kick me out of a story quicker than adding a glossary or footnotes. Treva did far more to convince me this whole thing could work by carefully orchestrating around providing obvious compensating benefits that did not need such explanation to begin with.

Even when bisexuality shows up in a romance the story does not have to suddenly stop and bore me to death with pop psychology gimmicks or half-assed teary eyed excuses. If I wanted a fucking “after school special” I would be reading dead tree publishers not ePublishers.

When in doubt just throw it out and tell me the damn story you want to tell. Thanks Treva, the queen of show, not tell!

Samantha Kane ~ The Courage To Love (Brothers In Arms 1)
From: Ellora’s Cave

A Free eBook From Ellora’s Cave This Month!

Whenever I think of a really good representation of the type of Ménage Romance story I want to read I keep coming back to this one. The Courage To Love just seems to do so many things really well and in a small amount of space. Here let me show you…

When Tony touched Jason’s arm, the skin was hot and damp with sweat. Jason looked over at Tony, his eyes smoldering. As he stared at Tony, he pulled out of Kate and then thrust into her hard, making her cry out. Tony’s breathing became labored, watching him. God, he loved to watch Jason fuck a woman, loved to touch him while he fucked. Leaving his hand on Jason’s arm, caressing the bulging muscles there, Tony leaned down and kissed Kate’s shoulder. She looked over at him with dazed eyes, shuddering with each thrust of Jason’s hard cock inside her.
“Kiss me, Kate, kiss me while Jason fucks you,” Tony breathed in her ear.
Kate immediately reached for Tony with her mouth. There was no hesitation, no worry over wrong or right. Tony was pleased with her acceptance of the two of them. Apparently it felt right to her, just as it did to him and Jason. It was as if suddenly all the pieces of a puzzle fit together.
He met her halfway for the kiss, and kissed her long and tenderly. His mouth sipped at hers, his tongue dipped in to taste, invited her to taste him, his teeth nibbled at her lips. It was a deliberate contrast to the hard, rough fucking that Jason was giving her. Her whole body shook with each of his thrusts. He had forced her legs up around his waist, and was holding her hips tight to him with one hand, while still bracing himself up with the other.
Tony watched him out of the corner of his eye while he kissed Kate. Jason fucking was a vision of brute strength, dominance, sheer physical beauty. It made Tony hot and hard to watch him, to touch him and feel the harsh strength of his thrusts. When they were fucking together, Tony could feel Jason inside a woman, his cock slamming up against his own in there, and it drove him wild. When they watched one another, Tony preferred to go second, so he could watch Jason. Watching him first made Tony a better lover. ~ Page 22

See! I mean just think of all the conversations you have heard lately about Erotic Romance and what it is and how we should define it and why it has an important place in Romance and then go back and read that single moment in the book. No wonder those Passionate Plume folks nominated it.

But that’s not all!

This being a series I can then take the fact the same author wrote several other variations on this theme and compare and contrast why I like The Courage To Love better than say one of her later books like At Love’s Command. Now why would I have not chosen that one? Samantha Kane’s writing is better, it is stronger and all that in At Love’s Command. Which leads me to this whole list of reviews I am writing about Ménage Romance because thinking about this one series made me start analyzing the differences between what worked and what did not and why. The why becomes apparent when you start adding all my favorite books together.

I think the first thing I figured out was the “balance” (You will hear me use this word often from now on out so beware.) in the relationship between the three players here. Jason and Tony are close close friends who have shared sex with other women but they are not lovers. They have no defined sexual relationship or mutually negotiated emotional baggage and nothing that the establishment of a ménage relationship with Kate would undermine or betray.

I think this is key since we are reading a romance first and foremost so things like undermining and betrayal of an existing relationship just won’t work. Sure, I know in the real world that most folks in a ménage relationship start with a couple and then renegotiate by adding someone. BUT! One thing I have learned from reading romance is that real world realities do not always make great reading. The more convoluted and complex dynamics it takes to get even a typical couple together can be off putting so adding the whole extra baggage of an established relationship into a Ménage Romance where you have three different sides just brings with it too many possible questions for me the reader.

Remember “balance” the word I use? Well, the minute I think that someone in the story is nothing more than an added third wheel or is there for the selfish fulfillment of the wants of one party of the existing couple bringing with it the unsaid threat of him or her leaving… Well, in my opinion there is no balance there and I just find I cannot buy into an HEA for the Ménage Romance. That is just the way I read it folks.

Samantha Kane defined yet another important factor though in this story and showed character growth and benefit constantly through out the Ménage Romance. Here let me show you…

He turned to walk away, and Tony’s frustration got the better of him. “It is not settled,” he growled, and grabbing Jason, spun him and shoved him against the wall. He fell against him to hold him there, and then did what he’d wanted to do for days. He kissed him. Holding Jason’s shoulders to the wall, Tony pressed his mouth furiously against the other man’s. Jason’s lips were pushed open in the assault and Tony thrust his tongue inside his mouth, mad with grief over what they had come to.
Jason allowed the kiss, holding tight to Tony’s waist. When Tony pulled away, both men were breathing heavily. You could have heard a pin drop in the ensuing silence.
“So it’s that way, is it?” Jason asked quietly.
Tony lowered his head until his forehead rested against Jason’s. “Yes, yes, I suppose it is,” he whispered.
Suddenly Tony felt Jason’s hand grabbing his hair and pulling his head up, and he was spun around until his back was against the wall. Jason kept his grip on Tony’s hair, pressing hard against him. He leaned in and spoke quietly in his ear.
“Do you think I would risk losing this? You and Kate, and what we can have together? I want this, Tony, I want this life with you both so badly I can taste it. No, darling, I won’t die tomorrow. I won’t allow it. I’ll be here, and you’ll have to live up to this promise.”
He had dragged his mouth across Tony’s cheek so the last word was spoken against his lips. Then he kissed him, his lips soft against Tony’s. The kiss was more searing for its tenderness, and Tony’s mouth opened on a sigh. Jason licked into his mouth, rubbing against his tongue and encouraging Tony to do the same. The kiss quickly escalated, and Tony wrapped his arms around Jason, reveling in the hard feel of him, the taste of him, the sheer joy of having him like this. He tasted of coffee and the sweet marmalade he favored every morning, and Jason.
Jason broke the kiss slowly. He looked at Tony, his desire clearly written on his face. They stared at each other for a few moments, and Tony gradually became aware of the other men in the room, who had turned away to give them some privacy.
“Jason,” he murmured.
“Yes, Tony.” Jason’s reply was soft, but ardent. “Yes, Tony, I want this. And by God, I’m going to have it. Robertson isn’t going to stop me.” ~ Page 85

So there you go. Samantha Kane showed that Kate was finding benefit and redemption by her involvement in the ménage by finding protection and social standing in another established group. While the guys are shown benefiting from the ménage by a deepening of the their close friendship by becoming lovers. All of that very understandable and important to each of them. They all gain something emotionally fulfilling beyond the shared sex which is what we want in any romance.

So The Courage To Love stands for me as a textbook Grade A. As an Erotic Romance and as a Ménage Romance it just works. I like to say this story has strong bones. In my opinion Samantha Kane could strip away the Regency garb and put it in Western gear or a kilt and she still would have a good Romance story here.

That may piss off some of the historical accuracy mavens out there. I guess in the end I read for the romance not the historical accuracy and although some blunders are show stoppers but if the romance story itself is good a lot of inaccuracy is simply forgiven or ignored. Like it or not.

In the end I know when I read something if it all works because it comes across so effortless. This book is effortless from beginning to end and yet I can see the focus clearly from the start. The fact there is constant balance, benefit, and clarity helps sell the Ménage Romance HEA.

I was going to choose something that did not work for the next review but I think I will keep going to show you guys a bit more about “balance” in Ménage Romance and how it works for me. Treva you are so next.

Skyrim

This is not a review. This is an admission of fact.

My dear husband has been stuck in the living room playing this damn thing for three days straight so far.

Did you like Fallout 3? Did you like Oblivion? Do you like Dungeons & Dragons maybe? You know hack and slash and fire breathing creatures attacking you etc etc etc?

If you answered yes to any of the above then buy Skyrim. Skyrim is not so much a video game as much as it might be a whole other lifestyle choice. I mean that you can name your character say Campbells and run around town to town making and selling tomato soup if that is what you want to do. Because you can!

So I can see it already and I will let the other more professional reviewers have a go at describing this thing before I will even bother. If you like RPGs you so need to get this damn game…. you will love it. If you like to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life… to boldly go where no man has gone… oops sorry.

Anyway, I can already tell this will be THE GAME to have this year.

Quit arguing with me and my Candy Pink PS3 Controller of Death & Doom and telling me I have not finished it yet so how can I tell how good it is… I have been playing video games far too long to fall for all that crap. If you are anywhere close to interested just fucking go get it already.

Grade A, period, they obviously did their homework here and learned their lessons well.

PS… If your kid is playing this game shoo them out the door and give it a shot yourself. This thing rocks!

Will Fellows ~ Farm Boys: Lives Of Gay Men From The Rural Midwest
From: The University of Wisconsin Press

Now On Adobe Digital Editions & Google eBookstore!

Tough boys, running the streets, come a little closer
Rough toys, under the sheets, nobody knows her
Rough boys, don’t walk away, I very nearly missed you
Tough boys, come over here, I wanna bite and kiss you
Pete Townshend ~ Rough Boys

Today’s off the wall topic… fetishizing “Straight boy sexual encounters” mixed with Gay porn and calling into question Gay men and their sexual images. Anyone who has seen my past comments on this probably has picked up that I find the whole topic to be old hat and actually sorta, (How shall I say this nicely?) … Much to do about loathing.

It’s one of those problems I find with describing Brokeback Mountain as the first mainstream “Gay Romance” movie. “Gay Romance”? I did not think so when I saw the film or read the damn book. First “Tragic Bisexual Affair” perhaps, because let’s face it… They never got past the sex to actually have the boring part of any “real” relationship that entails living together and waking up to each other every single fucking day and weathering out the tossing and turning of simply being together as men and dealing with the big issues of commitment, communication and compromise and change and… You know the whole living the whole Gay lifestyle thing.

You get the picture?

It was tragic because it was probably a “realistic depiction” of a relationship in denial of what it was and the disappointments we all face in life maybe. OK? Another example… I once worked on a loading dock in East San Jose. While working there I was a known queer boy who was also the bosses son, my dad got me the job just outta High School *que bump and grind music*. Anyway, there was this burly biker guy who worked there… let’s see if I can describe him appropriately. Vietnam Vet type with scraggly long dirty blond hair and full beard with a Harley and an ever present scrawny blonde chick in a tube top riding “bitch”. I think that gives the appropriate picture I am going for here.

Anywho, we became sorta friends and used to come over to each others stations and chat every so often. Then one day we decided to go for drinks at the local truck drivers bar and proceeded to get trashed. While walking back to our cars behind the bar in the dark gravel strewn back lot he pulled me into a corner and proceeded to deep throat me like no tomorrow.

Let’s review, Straight Hell’s Angel type, messy kisser, big burly bear, bad boy rough biker guy, and this was back in the Castro Clone years no less… Well, one thing lead to another and back at my place we rolled around on the living room carpet because we were so hot we could not even wait to go upstairs to the bedroom and pull each others clothes off in a drunken brawl of hard dicks and sweaty male lust.

He then threw his legs up in the air and in the most dissappointing moment in my entire sex life he grunted “fuck me”. *sigh*

That is “real”

That my friends is just… “real”

The fact is real life tends to be like that and using fantasies like porn or overly dramatic movies to provide a foundation for social commentary is tricky at best. Most adults understand the difference between fantasy, even sexual fantasy, and reality and have the experiences to discern these things. I can only hope.

If you are looking for good examples of what hardships Gay Men face in life on the farm I’d stick with real stories like those found in this book Will Fellows ~ Farm Boys: Lives Of Gay Men From The Rural Midwest. It’s not always totally depressing but with true story after true story, about 30 or so individuals give full accounts of their lives and well, it comes pretty damn close. Showing you everything from child abuse to ex-gay Christian ministry victims and so on and so on. Hey, there’s even a story by some guy who REALLY loved his barnyard animals, oh yeah, cringe inducing material is to be had here baby.

All real and valid stories from the heartland. It also shows men surviving the loneliness and isolation and becoming more accepting of themselves and their lives and even enjoying their rural existence and that is the few good parts I found. Give it a spin so you can have a reference when looking at Brokeback Mountain and doing so in an honest way.

Brokeback Mountain is damn good writing, but in being a damn good work of fiction it had to have drama and conflict and the writer created what she created and hey, a movie deal is proof it worked.

But… If you are looking for “The Desert of The Real” I suggest reading this here extremely rare non-fiction visit to the Gay Midwest for that.

Grade A