J.M. Snyder ~ Stepping Up To The Plate
From: Lulu

My favorite book to date is Stepping Up to the Plate. It was a labor of love on my part to write the novel ~ it took me the longest to write it (three years, to be exact), and it wasn’t because I didn’t know where it was going. The problem was I did; I knew exactly where it needed to go. My issue was, I didn’t want it to go there. In writing the book, one of the minor characters had quickly become a favorite of mine and I didn’t want to see him hurt in the course of the story, as I knew he’d have to be. So I put off writing the last fourth of the book because I didn’t want to break his heart.

Then I realized I wouldn’t get anywhere with my writing if I didn’t toughen up and say the hell with it ~ I mean, shit, I’ve broken hearts before. What’s one more, right? So I did it, as much as I hated to, but I think my own feelings for the character made the story that much stronger in the long run, because I’ve had readers comment on how much they’ve loved Ange and how much they hated the scene where he turns Stacy away. Which tells me the writing works. And that’s all I ever wanted it to do.

Well, since the reason I started writing gay fiction in the first place was in response to the horrible slash fic I found online, I can’t really name five books at the outset that were my favorites. So I’ll pick five favorite books that got me writing in general in the first place.

1. Richard Adams ~ Watership Down I read this as a child and it remains my most favorite book ever. I try to read it as frequently as possible if only to remind myself how transcendent the written word should be. The story sweeps me away, literally, and nothing else exists for the short amount of time when I’m engrossed in this book. Everything you need in a good book is in this one ~ adventure, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, war, excitement, courage. It’s all in there, everything you need to tell a good yarn. And I don’t even like rabbits all that much!

2. Douglas Adams ~ The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy I tend to read books I don’t write, and one genre I envy so much and wish desperately that I could write is humor. Douglas Adams is hilarious, and Hitchhiker is pure brilliance. No matter how often I read this book, I still laugh out loud at the author’s wordplay. The rest of the series is awesome, as well, don’t get me wrong, but this one … this shines above all the others as my favorite among them. I reread it often.

3. Stephen R. Donaldson ~ The Mirror Of Her Dreams I fell in love with epic fantasy at an early age, and though I had one short story published in the genre before I moved onto gay fiction, it’s a very difficult genre to break into (particularly now … thank you, Ms. Rowling). I still love a good fantasy story, and the Mordant’s Need series by Donaldson is one of my favorite (is it called a series if there are only two books in it? The Mirror of Her Dreams is the first, and A Man Rides Through is the second). ***Teddypig ~ Not Available In eBook.***

4. Stephen King ~ The Stand Without a doubt, Stephen King is my favorite author and The Stand is my favorite book. It has two things I really like in a story ~ a virus that kills most of humanity and a post-apocalyptic setting. What else is there to say? Seriously, though, what I like best about King is his characters. I like that he spends whole chapters on backstory, building his characters from the bottom up, making them real, making them human. Too many reviewers complain when authors do that but you know what? I like that. I like character-driven stories. So he isn’t the scariest horror author out there. In my opinion, he doesn’t have to be.

5. Tom Robbins ~ Even Cowgirls Get The Blues I read this in college, and it was the first book I read in the mainstream which had GLBT characters at the forefront of the plot. It hit me in the right place at the right time, and for a long time after that, many people who knew me thought I would have gone into writing lesbian erotica (my mother actually asked me point-blank when I started writing fan-fic if it wasn’t fem-slash). I fell in love with the quirky character of Bonanza Jellybean so much, I even named my cat after her (despite the fact that my Jelly is male). My copy of Cowgirl is well-worn and heavily highlighted, and now signed by the author after I met him at the first annual James River Writers Festival a few years back.

J.M. Snyder ~ Henry & Jim
From: eXcessica (Wow! I think this ePublishing website might win last place.)

This came in at Number 2 for Favorite Short Stories of 2009 over at Book Utopia.

J.M. Snyder ~ Joy Ride
From: All Romance eBooks

That old dog has chained you up all right
Gives you everything you need
To live inside a twisted cage
Sleep beside an empty rage
I had a dream
I was your hero

Damn
I wish I was your lover
Sophie B. Hawkins ~ Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

I think writing a great short story is a unique art form. I don’t care that all authors are being expected to do more with less these days as far as word count requirements go. A “true” talented short story writer is hard to come by and I think J.M. Snyder is one of those writers.

In this case I could very easily see this story playing out in front of the San Francisco Eagle (Harley crowd) on a Sunday afternoon because the Zeitgeist (Ducati crowd) is right around the corner. It has timeless qualities to it that might be ruined if added to. Or not, I would not mind to see J.M. Snyder expand this story some day. I keep re-reading Joy Ride and I keep loving it so this gets a great big old Grade A from me.

Be sure to pop over to All Romance eBooks and pick this eBook up for free because that my friends is a real bargain.

J.M. Snyder ~ Trin
From: Aspen Mountain Press

J.M. Snyder’s story Trin is set in a post apocalyptic world where Devlars (Dragon like creatures) attack from the sky. Only the wild and warrior like gunners protect the people who populate the string of towns known as outposts. Trin, a mechanic, lives in what seems to be the local truck stop with his older brother Blain and Blain’s girlfriend Alissa. Blain used to be a gunner who ran with a man known as Gerrick whom Trin has a well known long time crush on.

Then one day Gerrick rides in.

From Page 73
He pushes past her as he races down the hall. The image burns in his mind-he closes his eyes and still sees the gunner’s slack cheeks and open mouth, his eyelids half-shut in lust. A hand stroked Gerrick’s thigh, another curved around his flat ass, a man knelt before him with the gunner’s fingers plunged deep into his thick hair.

The hard length suckled between red lips, Garrick in him, fucking the bounder’s hot pink mouth as the shower poured down between them. The bounder, Trin recognized his eyes when he turned to see why it was all of a sudden cold behind him.

Gerrick’s eyes widen slightly and the gunner sighed his name, “Trin.”

No explanations, no hurried excuses-he didn’t even push the bounder away, just kept thrusting into the softness between his lips and uttered his name. Trin. For the first time he was getting off he said Trin’s name, and it wasn’t even on him.

Behind him Gerrick calls out but Trin’s beyond hearing. He runs down the hall, head tucked between shaking shoulders, chin pressed to his chest. He tells himself he won’t cry, even as the first hot tears cut through the sweat on his cheeks.

OK, Has everybody figured out yet this is not your traditional HEA style Romance right?

It is hard to call Trin a Gay Romance at all this is just too dark in fact the whole setup from the beginning is foreboding. It still follows all the romantic requirements. You have two men, a young inexperienced guy who not so secretly has a crush on the older roguish warrior. They do get around to having sex fulfilling the young Trin’s dream of bedding the rogue Gerrick and there damn well is conflict that tears them apart when the whole reality of what would typically happen happens. Well, if you read the excerpt above then you know it is betrayal, yeah the rogue fucked around, surprise! and eventually this betrayal will happen on both sides. They get a type of HEA in the end but… Oh my…

The real stomach punch for me came at the end. It is not so much an HEA as a coming to terms and accepting responsibility for your actions with what you have left after the illusions shatter. I know that sounds fucking dark but just read this thing yourself. I consider it very an emotionally stunning bit of writing.

This book will never rest easily on my favorite Romance shelf, the really powerful ones never do. This one will sit in the back and be brought out to show someone just how effective a dark little eBook story can be. I myself recall being this incredibly stupid and young, of walking in and finding a sexy man I thought I loved in bed with someone else. I still remember the chaos of that moment with almost perfect clarity as if it happened just yesterday. These characters and their reactions in the story ring true till the very end.

For anything to have real worth in life it must come at a high price.
Can we just call this a Gay Romantic Coming of Age SciFi?

This is not an escapist fairytale and there is no Prince Charmings around here, nor is there any fair damsels in distress. Not really, neither character can be seen as blameless or honestly very smart. As Morpheus told us “Welcome to the Desert of the Real.” and you know what, if the writing is this good I can handle the occasional real more often. There is nothing wrong with a learning experience or the pain of the lesson learned. Just do not buy this eBook looking for lighthearted.

Grade A writing, Grade A story telling, for a book that contains some very dark and very jagged bitter pills.