Around the World: Buda

This was a very strange travel. I was 21 and if you didn't consider my cultural exchange with East Germany when I was 16 years old, I had never been abroad. Then during a Sunday lunch a family friend told me that, if I want, she could lend me her apartment in Budapest, and I went all of sudden, leaving on Monday. I was alone and I spent two weeks wandering around Buda, Pest and Obuda, sometime maybe in a very reckless way... But all in all it was a wonderful experience that I remember in every detail.


by Elisa, Buda, 1996:
 http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/1996Budapest.htm

I like the play of light and shadow of this pic, and the feeling of old, like the street lamps and the green door and windows. And please, notice the car... this photo was taken in 1996 but the car seems much older.

( Buda )

Around the World: Buda

This was a very strange travel. I was 21 and if you didn't consider my cultural exchange with East Germany when I was 16 years old, I had never been abroad. Then during a Sunday lunch a family friend told me that, if I want, she could lend me her apartment in Budapest, and I went all of sudden, leaving on Monday. I was alone and I spent two weeks wandering around Buda, Pest and Obuda, sometime maybe in a very reckless way... But all in all it was a wonderful experience that I remember in every detail.


by Elisa, Buda, 1996:
 http://www.elisarolle.com/travel/1996Budapest.htm

I like the play of light and shadow of this pic, and the feeling of old, like the street lamps and the green door and windows. And please, notice the car... this photo was taken in 1996 but the car seems much older.

( Buda )

Hunks Workshop

Not that I'm really interested, since the last time I played online was with a bidimensional version of Sin City, but today I stumbled across this video game, Hunks Workshop, by FutureGames.

Hunks Workshop is a yaoi video game but it's not a "BL" one. This game is geared more towards gay men and features muscular guys. This type of artwork is often called by the name "bara" (Yaoi targeted at gay men) among anime fans (but not necessarily in Japan).

The artwork from this game is by a great artist by the name of Masanori. 

I only found the company website in Japanese, so I didn't understand what is the scope of the game... but from the images below, I think one of the target is to "introduce" the characters!

Well, I find more interesting the pics than the game... above all since I'm not used to japanese art with muscular guys...





 

Hunks Workshop

Not that I'm really interested, since the last time I played online was with a bidimensional version of Sin City, but today I stumbled across this video game, Hunks Workshop, by FutureGames.

Hunks Workshop is a yaoi video game but it's not a "BL" one. This game is geared more towards gay men and features muscular guys. This type of artwork is often called by the name "bara" (Yaoi targeted at gay men) among anime fans (but not necessarily in Japan).

The artwork from this game is by a great artist by the name of Masanori. 

I only found the company website in Japanese, so I didn't understand what is the scope of the game... but from the images below, I think one of the target is to "introduce" the characters!

Well, I find more interesting the pics than the game... above all since I'm not used to japanese art with muscular guys...





 

Heart Sense by K.L Richardsson

In a fantasy world Katjin is a fifteen years old guy who travels the country with his Apa, his father. But suddenly Apa needs to go in the Higlands, a place not safe for a boy like Katjin, no more a child but not yet a man. So Katjin remains with his grandparents, and it's not bad, until the day he finds a lost boy, Mikael. Mik is clearly a stranger and a runaway; somehow he manages to reach the territory where Kat's people have their camp and he sings the ailing song to Kat, a song who grants him protection. Mik is now Kat's responsibility, even more when, trying to claim a blood bond, they are literally stuck together.

I was uncertain when I decided to read this one. Fantasy is not up my alley, usually since, sorry to the genre's lovers, the stories are always very long and slow, and if you are not fond for the setting, you get lost in all the details. Heart Sense instead starts from the first with a very easy and smooth style; 200 pages of book flows without problem in few time and the world it builds, even if original, it's not boring.

Kat and Mik have obviously a relationship that, in the future, could be of sexual nature, but in this moment, Kat at fifteen and Mik at sixteen years old, can only recognize the symptoms of desire and be conscious that something is awaiting for them. Even if Kat is the younger, he is the first to acknowledge his desire for Mik, maybe since he has just started to admit that he is more interesting in guys than in girls. Mik instead needs to come to term with this relationship, above all since he is an Heart Sense and human contacts make him sick; and so he needs to learn to be at comfort with having a human body near him, and after that, with the fact that the human body is a male.

The story of Kat and Mik is an adventure, a coming of age journey, but not yet toward romance. In this book they learn that they need to be together, probably in the future (another book?) they will learn that being together means also something else.

Again my compliments to the author for having manage to write a book very easy to read and entertaining without being too complex.

http://www.prizmbooks.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9&products_id=16

Amazon: Heart Sense
Paperback: 196 pages
Publisher: Prizm Books (June 17, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1603703535
ISBN-13: 978-1603703536

Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Pluto

Heart Sense by K.L Richardsson

In a fantasy world Katjin is a fifteen years old guy who travels the country with his Apa, his father. But suddenly Apa needs to go in the Higlands, a place not safe for a boy like Katjin, no more a child but not yet a man. So Katjin remains with his grandparents, and it's not bad, until the day he finds a lost boy, Mikael. Mik is clearly a stranger and a runaway; somehow he manages to reach the territory where Kat's people have their camp and he sings the ailing song to Kat, a song who grants him protection. Mik is now Kat's responsibility, even more when, trying to claim a blood bond, they are literally stuck together.

I was uncertain when I decided to read this one. Fantasy is not up my alley, usually since, sorry to the genre's lovers, the stories are always very long and slow, and if you are not fond for the setting, you get lost in all the details. Heart Sense instead starts from the first with a very easy and smooth style; 200 pages of book flows without problem in few time and the world it builds, even if original, it's not boring.

Kat and Mik have obviously a relationship that, in the future, could be of sexual nature, but in this moment, Kat at fifteen and Mik at sixteen years old, can only recognize the symptoms of desire and be conscious that something is awaiting for them. Even if Kat is the younger, he is the first to acknowledge his desire for Mik, maybe since he has just started to admit that he is more interesting in guys than in girls. Mik instead needs to come to term with this relationship, above all since he is an Heart Sense and human contacts make him sick; and so he needs to learn to be at comfort with having a human body near him, and after that, with the fact that the human body is a male.

The story of Kat and Mik is an adventure, a coming of age journey, but not yet toward romance. In this book they learn that they need to be together, probably in the future (another book?) they will learn that being together means also something else.

Again my compliments to the author for having manage to write a book very easy to read and entertaining without being too complex.

http://www.prizmbooks.com/zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9&products_id=16

Amazon: Heart Sense

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle


Cover Art by Pluto

When I Dream of You by Mychael Black & Shayne Carmichael

When I Dream of You is a bit of a novelty in the usual production by Black and Carmichael, since it's pure romance, without paranormal or horror elements, without angst or kinks; only two men who meet, like and love, simple and smooth.

Daniel is 22 years old and unhappy; he has a very bad relationship with his father and lost his mother many years before. Daniel's father can't accept that his son is gay and he thinks to be able to beat it out of him. When Daniel meets Karl, actually his not Daniel's father who is beating him, but two strangers in an alley. Daniel is a little guy, pretty and cute and he is not up to a fist fight. Karl instead is a very big man, a former professional body builder, now gym owner, and only his presence is enough to intimidate people. He helps Daniel and offers him shelter when the other guy doesn't want to go immediately home and face another fight. Even if Karl is a big boy, he is gentle and caring and he has also a very funny little female dog who immediately takes in sympathy Daniel.

The story is not very long, 45 pages, but it's sweet and romantic. It's easy and nice, not too much angst and very enjoyable. There is sex, but only a little bit, most of the time the two main characters are together is spent in a peaceful and comfortable family picture, two lovers and a dog playing little house

http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=When+I+Dream+of+You/exact_match=exact

Waiting Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=waiting reading list&view=elisa.rolle

When I Dream of You by Mychael Black & Shayne Carmichael

When I Dream of You is a bit of a novelty in the usual production by Black and Carmichael, since it's pure romance, without paranormal or horror elements, without angst or kinks; only two men who meet, like and love, simple and smooth.

Daniel is 22 years old and unhappy; he has a very bad relationship with his father and lost his mother many years before. Daniel's father can't accept that his son is gay and he thinks to be able to beat it out of him. When Daniel meets Karl, actually his not Daniel's father who is beating him, but two strangers in an alley. Daniel is a little guy, pretty and cute and he is not up to a fist fight. Karl instead is a very big man, a former professional body builder, now gym owner, and only his presence is enough to intimidate people. He helps Daniel and offers him shelter when the other guy doesn't want to go immediately home and face another fight. Even if Karl is a big boy, he is gentle and caring and he has also a very funny little female dog who immediately takes in sympathy Daniel.

The story is not very long, 45 pages, but it's sweet and romantic. It's easy and nice, not too much angst and very enjoyable. There is sex, but only a little bit, most of the time the two main characters are together is spent in a peaceful and comfortable family picture, two lovers and a dog playing little house

http://www.king-cart.com/Phaze/product=When+I+Dream+of+You/exact_match=exact

Waiting Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=waiting reading list&view=elisa.rolle