Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen by Connie Bailey & J.M. McLaughlin

Since yesterday I discussed about how an historical gay romance author should be "honest and true-to-life" not giving an happily ever after to her heroes, here is an example how you can do that and still be romantic and prosaic at the same time.

Norhlund Merrit is a music teacher; he chose a life as a bachelor to not forcing a woman beside him, when he is more than aware that his preferences lie in men. Being bachelor at twenty years old is normal, but the years pass and more it's strange and North is forced to move on often to not stir unwelcomed interest. And so here it's now, new in a Academy for Young Ladies, summoned by the uncle and guardian of one of his pupils.

Sir Daltrey Powell is a rake; no other word can describe his scandalous behavior, and his naughty interests lie in women as well as in men. He is young and reckless and only his substantial wealthy allows him to not be a renegade of good society. When he meets his niece's teacher, he thinks to have found one more easy conquest to amuse him during Christmastime. But North is not an easy prey, he is more than aware that he has not wealthiness or aristocratic title to protect him from consequences that are not only social but also legal.

If not for the fact that Northlund is a man, this could be the classical Regency romp, with the devilish gentleman who seduces the innocent maid. But don't get me wrong, Northlund is not a woman in disguise, he is a man, and behave as a man, and so the relationship between him and Daltrey is even more interesting and enjoyable, since Daltrey is the seducer, but he is also younger and reckless, and Nothlund is the seduced, but he is older and with age arrives also a quite and demure behavior that is a very nice antithesis to Daltrey's.

As I said this is a Christmas tale, and so an happily ever after is to be required, and the authors chose the card of eccentricity to justify their hero's behavior to the eyes of society...

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/advent.htm

Reading List:

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

Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen by Connie Bailey & J.M. McLaughlin

Since yesterday I discussed about how an historical gay romance author should be "honest and true-to-life" not giving an happily ever after to her heroes, here is an example how you can do that and still be romantic and prosaic at the same time.

Norhlund Merrit is a music teacher; he chose a life as a bachelor to not forcing a woman beside him, when he is more than aware that his preferences lie in men. Being bachelor at twenty years old is normal, but the years pass and more it's strange and North is forced to move on often to not stir unwelcomed interest. And so here it's now, new in a Academy for Young Ladies, summoned by the uncle and guardian of one of his pupils.

Sir Daltrey Powell is a rake; no other word can describe his scandalous behavior, and his naughty interests lie in women as well as in men. He is young and reckless and only his substantial wealthy allows him to not be a renegade of good society. When he meets his niece's teacher, he thinks to have found one more easy conquest to amuse him during Christmastime. But North is not an easy prey, he is more than aware that he has not wealthiness or aristocratic title to protect him from consequences that are not only social but also legal.

If not for the fact that Northlund is a man, this could be the classical Regency romp, with the devilish gentleman who seduces the innocent maid. But don't get me wrong, Northlund is not a woman in disguise, he is a man, and behave as a man, and so the relationship between him and Daltrey is even more interesting and enjoyable, since Daltrey is the seducer, but he is also younger and reckless, and Nothlund is the seduced, but he is older and with age arrives also a quite and demure behavior that is a very nice antithesis to Daltrey's.

As I said this is a Christmas tale, and so an happily ever after is to be required, and the authors chose the card of eccentricity to justify their hero's behavior to the eyes of society...

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/advent.htm

Reading List:

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

George Quaintance: A pioneer of male physique painting (4 of 6)

1940-1951 (1 of 6)

1952 (2 of 6)

1953 (3 of 6)

1954-1956 (4 of 6)

Quaintance's personal vanity was part of the mix that lent a unique quality to his oil paintings. A blond Quaintance clone stands prominently with three dark-skinned Latino cowboys in the 1954 painting, Saturday Night. All four studs leaning against the bar wear skin-tight Levis, one displaying a prominent bulge in the crotch.


Rainbow Falls, 1954

( more pics )

Such paintings proved inspirational for other gay art pioneers of the late 1950s, including the famous Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen), who praised Quaintance's images in published interviews.

Interest in these pioneering works of art grew in the insular gay milieu of the mid-century, reaching all the way to Europe. In 1954, Quaintance photographs and prints appeared in Der Kreis, a magazine published in Switzerland and one of the first overtly gay publications in the world.

Quaintance was not one to mourn the loss of a lover for long. Soon he was enamored of a new Latino hunk and a new objet de la richesse: his single-named model, Edwardo, who posed for sculptures as well as photos and paintings. In a hasty note to a friend in May 1954, Quaintance said: "Am getting started now on some little figurines to add to the business. . . . Of course, Eddie [Edwardo] is posing for them. He is my dream-come-true."

The "Rancho Siesta" household in 1956 consisted of the artist, the gorgeous Edwardo, Victor, and Victor's new companion, Tom Syphers, a tall blond of aristocratic bearing from Utah. Another blond hunk, Ron Nyman, had joined the business firm earlier, but his name was soon scratched from the studio's letterhead.

1957 (5 of 6)

Afterword (6 of 6)

Source:
http://www.glbtq.com/arts/quaintance_g.html (Biography)
http://www.homoerotimuseum.net/ame/ame02/330.html (Images)

George Quaintance: A pioneer of male physique painting (4 of 6)

1940-1951 (1 of 6)

1952 (2 of 6)

1953 (3 of 6)

1954-1956 (4 of 6)

Quaintance's personal vanity was part of the mix that lent a unique quality to his oil paintings. A blond Quaintance clone stands prominently with three dark-skinned Latino cowboys in the 1954 painting, Saturday Night. All four studs leaning against the bar wear skin-tight Levis, one displaying a prominent bulge in the crotch.


Rainbow Falls, 1954

( more pics )

Such paintings proved inspirational for other gay art pioneers of the late 1950s, including the famous Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen), who praised Quaintance's images in published interviews.

Interest in these pioneering works of art grew in the insular gay milieu of the mid-century, reaching all the way to Europe. In 1954, Quaintance photographs and prints appeared in Der Kreis, a magazine published in Switzerland and one of the first overtly gay publications in the world.

Quaintance was not one to mourn the loss of a lover for long. Soon he was enamored of a new Latino hunk and a new objet de la richesse: his single-named model, Edwardo, who posed for sculptures as well as photos and paintings. In a hasty note to a friend in May 1954, Quaintance said: "Am getting started now on some little figurines to add to the business. . . . Of course, Eddie [Edwardo] is posing for them. He is my dream-come-true."

The "Rancho Siesta" household in 1956 consisted of the artist, the gorgeous Edwardo, Victor, and Victor's new companion, Tom Syphers, a tall blond of aristocratic bearing from Utah. Another blond hunk, Ron Nyman, had joined the business firm earlier, but his name was soon scratched from the studio's letterhead.

1957 (5 of 6)

Afterword (6 of 6)

Source:
http://www.glbtq.com/arts/quaintance_g.html (Biography)
http://www.homoerotimuseum.net/ame/ame02/330.html (Images)

George Quaintance: A pioneer of male physique painting (5 of 6)

1940-1951 (1 of 6)

1952 (2 of 6)

1953 (3 of 6)

1954-1956 (4 of 6)

1957 (5 of 6)

The images are far from pornographic; they are even tame by current social standards. Nevertheless, their controversial gay content and message prevented Quaintance from being judged in the mainstream art world. His only gallery exhibition occurred when a friend loaned Quaintance's painting, The Crusader, for a display of works of contemporary American artists in the late 1950s.


The Falconer, 1957

( more pics )

The pace of the photo and print business became frantic. Quaintance worked night and day to complete commissions for magazines and to keep pace with mail orders for photos and prints. The artist could not survive the heavy demands placed upon him. On November 8, 1957, he suffered a heart attack and died at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 55.

In reporting Quaintance's death, Mizer described him as "a perfectionist (who) drove himself unmercifully, slaving days and nights on end (taking Benzedrine to stay awake) to finish a painting or a sculpture piece." Mizer's tribute concluded with the kind of hyperbole one might expect in a eulogy, but which recognizes the artist as a pioneer: "Throughout the world, he has been acclaimed as the trailblazer of a culture which has been almost ignored for 20 centuries."

A brief obituary in Quaintance's hometown newspaper in 1957 reported that "In accordance with his request the body was cremated and no funeral services were held." Victor Garcia and Tom Syphers inherited Quaintance's estate.

Afterword (6 of 6)

Source:
http://www.glbtq.com/arts/quaintance_g.html (Biography)
http://www.homoerotimuseum.net/ame/ame02/330.html (Images)

George Quaintance: A pioneer of male physique painting (5 of 6)

1940-1951 (1 of 6)

1952 (2 of 6)

1953 (3 of 6)

1954-1956 (4 of 6)

1957 (5 of 6)

The images are far from pornographic; they are even tame by current social standards. Nevertheless, their controversial gay content and message prevented Quaintance from being judged in the mainstream art world. His only gallery exhibition occurred when a friend loaned Quaintance's painting, The Crusader, for a display of works of contemporary American artists in the late 1950s.


The Falconer, 1957

( more pics )

The pace of the photo and print business became frantic. Quaintance worked night and day to complete commissions for magazines and to keep pace with mail orders for photos and prints. The artist could not survive the heavy demands placed upon him. On November 8, 1957, he suffered a heart attack and died at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 55.

In reporting Quaintance's death, Mizer described him as "a perfectionist (who) drove himself unmercifully, slaving days and nights on end (taking Benzedrine to stay awake) to finish a painting or a sculpture piece." Mizer's tribute concluded with the kind of hyperbole one might expect in a eulogy, but which recognizes the artist as a pioneer: "Throughout the world, he has been acclaimed as the trailblazer of a culture which has been almost ignored for 20 centuries."

A brief obituary in Quaintance's hometown newspaper in 1957 reported that "In accordance with his request the body was cremated and no funeral services were held." Victor Garcia and Tom Syphers inherited Quaintance's estate.

Afterword (6 of 6)

Source:
http://www.glbtq.com/arts/quaintance_g.html (Biography)
http://www.homoerotimuseum.net/ame/ame02/330.html (Images)

George Quaintance: A pioneer of male physique painting (6 of 6)

1940-1951 (1 of 6)

1952 (2 of 6)

1953 (3 of 6)

1954-1956 (4 of 6)

1957 (5 of 6)

Afterword (6 of 6)

Quaintance's legacy includes the 60-plus signature oil paintings now held in private collections and a few gay-oriented museum collections around the world. He also produced thousands of art prints, photographs, sculptures, and other original designs, including glamorized life masks of twentieth-century icons such as Marlene Dietrich. These ephemera have largely disappeared, with only a cache of salvaged prints and photographs surfacing here and there. Occasionally, a painting will pop up at public auction or prints will be offered at eBay and other online sites.


Model Eugene Dubuque, Mr New York City of 1946, 1947

( more pics )

Quaintance's work was prominently featured in the American physique magazines that flowered in the wake of Bob Mizer's Physique Pictorial, including Grecian Guild Pictorial, Adonis, Olympic Arts, Demigods, Vim, and Young Physique.

All of these were thinly-disguised homoerotic publications aimed at gay men, a potentially lucrative but dangerous market. To avoid anti-gay and anti-porn laws, these magazines assumed the lofty ideal of male health and physical development.

Quaintance had added photography to his list of accomplishments, gaining lessons and experience from such well-known New York photographers as Edwin Townsend and Lon Hanagan (Lon of New York, 1911-1999). The latter became a pioneer of the "beefcake" school of photography whose models in the 1940s included male physique icon and dancer Tony Sansone and Quaintance's own well-muscled lover, Garcia.

In a 1996 interview for Torso Magazine, Lon reported that to make his male nudes suitable for his first photography catalogue in 1941, he called upon "the touch of groundbreaking gay painter George Quaintance, a friend and neighbor of Lon's who would pop over and paint luminous (fig) leaves directly on Lon's prints" to cover the models' genitals. (John D. Waybright)

Quaintance, the first major biography of George Quaintance, by John Waybright and Ken Furtado, is due to published soon.

Source:
http://www.glbtq.com/arts/quaintance_g.html (Biography)
http://www.homoerotimuseum.net/ame/ame02/330.html (Images)

George Quaintance: A pioneer of male physique painting (6 of 6)

1940-1951 (1 of 6)

1952 (2 of 6)

1953 (3 of 6)

1954-1956 (4 of 6)

1957 (5 of 6)

Afterword (6 of 6)

Quaintance's legacy includes the 60-plus signature oil paintings now held in private collections and a few gay-oriented museum collections around the world. He also produced thousands of art prints, photographs, sculptures, and other original designs, including glamorized life masks of twentieth-century icons such as Marlene Dietrich. These ephemera have largely disappeared, with only a cache of salvaged prints and photographs surfacing here and there. Occasionally, a painting will pop up at public auction or prints will be offered at eBay and other online sites.


Model Eugene Dubuque, Mr New York City of 1946, 1947

( more pics )

Quaintance's work was prominently featured in the American physique magazines that flowered in the wake of Bob Mizer's Physique Pictorial, including Grecian Guild Pictorial, Adonis, Olympic Arts, Demigods, Vim, and Young Physique.

All of these were thinly-disguised homoerotic publications aimed at gay men, a potentially lucrative but dangerous market. To avoid anti-gay and anti-porn laws, these magazines assumed the lofty ideal of male health and physical development.

Quaintance had added photography to his list of accomplishments, gaining lessons and experience from such well-known New York photographers as Edwin Townsend and Lon Hanagan (Lon of New York, 1911-1999). The latter became a pioneer of the "beefcake" school of photography whose models in the 1940s included male physique icon and dancer Tony Sansone and Quaintance's own well-muscled lover, Garcia.

In a 1996 interview for Torso Magazine, Lon reported that to make his male nudes suitable for his first photography catalogue in 1941, he called upon "the touch of groundbreaking gay painter George Quaintance, a friend and neighbor of Lon's who would pop over and paint luminous (fig) leaves directly on Lon's prints" to cover the models' genitals. (John D. Waybright)

Quaintance, the first major biography of George Quaintance, by John Waybright and Ken Furtado, is due to published soon.

Source:
http://www.glbtq.com/arts/quaintance_g.html (Biography)
http://www.homoerotimuseum.net/ame/ame02/330.html (Images)

Wanted by Vic Winter

This story has a contemporary setting, but it could be well set 100 years before and it would be the same, since things have not changed much in the country.

Justice has a little ranch and little money. He makes ends meet, but barely; his life is not bad, when the season is good he can manage also some extra, but most of the time, he is only him and his farm animals. Justice is gay, but in an isolated ranch near a very small town USA, he can only limit himself to watch the bullriders on saturday afternoon show television and dream of them at night.

Then Tuck knocks at his doors: tall, handsome and good at work, Tuck is a drifter who works for a roof and a meal. Roof and meal Justice can share, and he is more than willing to share also his bed when he realizes that Tuck is interested, but Justice tries to not being used to have Tuck around, since, sooner or later, he will go. And how he can not? What can draw Tuck to remain? Justice has a bit of self-esteem problem, he doesn't see what he can be for Tuck, home, partner and love all together.

The story is pretty and not very long, 52 pages/20.000 words. Justice and Tuck love and sex is easy and simple like the life they have; no impossible dreams of endless and repeated sex in the barn, no Justice who suddenly became a sex pro when having a man beside; Justice and Tuck work and love and work, and sometime they are too tired to love. As always this life fascinates me, since for my culture is something long ago forgotten.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1416

Reading List:

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

Wanted by Vic Winter

This story has a contemporary setting, but it could be well set 100 years before and it would be the same, since things have not changed much in the country.

Justice has a little ranch and little money. He makes ends meet, but barely; his life is not bad, when the season is good he can manage also some extra, but most of the time, he is only him and his farm animals. Justice is gay, but in an isolated ranch near a very small town USA, he can only limit himself to watch the bullriders on saturday afternoon show television and dream of them at night.

Then Tuck knocks at his doors: tall, handsome and good at work, Tuck is a drifter who works for a roof and a meal. Roof and meal Justice can share, and he is more than willing to share also his bed when he realizes that Tuck is interested, but Justice tries to not being used to have Tuck around, since, sooner or later, he will go. And how he can not? What can draw Tuck to remain? Justice has a bit of self-esteem problem, he doesn't see what he can be for Tuck, home, partner and love all together.

The story is pretty and not very long, 52 pages/20.000 words. Justice and Tuck love and sex is easy and simple like the life they have; no impossible dreams of endless and repeated sex in the barn, no Justice who suddenly became a sex pro when having a man beside; Justice and Tuck work and love and work, and sometime they are too tired to love. As always this life fascinates me, since for my culture is something long ago forgotten.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1416

Reading List:

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

Little rant

Please, publishers (general but I have a clear name in mind...) if you release a story where a woman is having a lot of sex with two men, please, please, don't try to pass it as a M/M, please don't put it under the "gay/lesbian" genre... if you are really convinced that the gay romance or M/M romance is a passing fashion, and that the future is a menage between a woman and two men, so, be true to your claim, and use your "menage a trois or more" genre, and let the "poor" gay romance alone in their "reserve".

If you are wondering why I'm ranting, well, enough to say that I just read an unbelievable blurb tagged as M/M...

Little rant

Please, publishers (general but I have a clear name in mind...) if you release a story where a woman is having a lot of sex with two men, please, please, don't try to pass it as a M/M, please don't put it under the "gay/lesbian" genre... if you are really convinced that the gay romance or M/M romance is a passing fashion, and that the future is a menage between a woman and two men, so, be true to your claim, and use your "menage a trois or more" genre, and let the "poor" gay romance alone in their "reserve".

If you are wondering why I'm ranting, well, enough to say that I just read an unbelievable blurb tagged as M/M...

The Letter by Willa Okati

The Letter is part of an old series by Willa Okati about a little community of artists in which strange things happen. In the first book, A Year and A Day, the desperation of a man allows him to resurrect his late lover. In Unspoken, a wandering minstrel brings back love and hope in the life of a lonely man. In this last, Brandon and Luke are taking different path in life. They were an happy couple, but Brandon has a job that doesn't allow him to leave, and Luke is taking a job offer that will bring him far from their community. They talked and both agreed that it's better like that, to not having regrets in the future. But the truth is that Brandon has not express his real feelings and he is deeply in pain from Luke's decision. On the other hand, Luke is only waiting for Brandon to say him "don't go", since he himself is not so sure of his decision.

But in this world where communication seems so easy, for real people don't talk. And so without a otherworldly intervention, Brandon and Luke will loose all they have. And the intervention, the sign, takes the form of a bunch of letters: it's quite nice to see that, what the modern world (the technology, the fame of success) is destroying, an old fashion thing like a letter will save.

The book is really all here, not much more: the fashion of this short story, lies all in the words, both said in the past by old Brandon and Luke, who talked through their letter, and said in the present by this new couple who will learn from the mistake of their predecessors.

I like very much when Willa Okati writes fairy tales, since the only possible definition of this tale is fairy. It's not a full paranormal story, there are not angels or demons who make their appearance, it's more a feeling, it's almost like one of those old tales that people tell beginning with "you will not believe it but..."

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/the-letter

Amazon Kindle: The Letter

Amazon: Mountain Magic

Series:
1) A Year and a Day
2) Unspoken
3) The Letter

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain

The Letter by Willa Okati

The Letter is part of an old series by Willa Okati about a little community of artists in which strange things happen. In the first book, A Year and A Day, the desperation of a man allows him to resurrect his late lover. In Unspoken, a wandering minstrel brings back love and hope in the life of a lonely man. In this last, Brandon and Luke are taking different path in life. They were an happy couple, but Brandon has a job that doesn't allow him to leave, and Luke is taking a job offer that will bring him far from their community. They talked and both agreed that it's better like that, to not having regrets in the future. But the truth is that Brandon has not express his real feelings and he is deeply in pain from Luke's decision. On the other hand, Luke is only waiting for Brandon to say him "don't go", since he himself is not so sure of his decision.

But in this world where communication seems so easy, for real people don't talk. And so without a otherworldly intervention, Brandon and Luke will loose all they have. And the intervention, the sign, takes the form of a bunch of letters: it's quite nice to see that, what the modern world (the technology, the fame of success) is destroying, an old fashion thing like a letter will save.

The book is really all here, not much more: the fashion of this short story, lies all in the words, both said in the past by old Brandon and Luke, who talked through their letter, and said in the present by this new couple who will learn from the mistake of their predecessors.

I like very much when Willa Okati writes fairy tales, since the only possible definition of this tale is fairy. It's not a full paranormal story, there are not angels or demons who make their appearance, it's more a feeling, it's almost like one of those old tales that people tell beginning with "you will not believe it but..."

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/the-letter

Amazon Kindle: The Letter

Amazon: Mountain Magic

Series:
1) A Year and a Day
2) Unspoken
3) The Letter

Reading List:

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


Cover Art by Anne Cain