The Inside Reader: J.M. Snyder
Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir MitchellJ.M. Snyder was probably the first author I read with very young characters, the pretty boys :-) The book was Power Play and it's still one of my favorite books. She obviously writes a lot of other stories, but I'm sure that, when the characters are young, I'm booked for a cute and sweet story. So it's with great pleasure that today I host J.M. Snyder!
I started writing gay fiction for a very simple reason ~ I didn't know any really existed and when I looked online, the slash fan fiction I found sucked. After reading a few stories I thought shit, I can do better than that. So I did.
But here's a secret that's ... well, not so secret. I don't like reading erotic romance. Why? Well, I am not a romance reader ~ I never have been. I don't even enjoy romance movies. How sad is that? I'm that geek girl who plays video games and hangs out in comic book shops. I love sci-fi and fantasy. I read horror or nonfiction ~ particularly strange books about forensics or disease or war. I'm a huge military history buff (I live in the former capital of the Confederacy, so I guess I have to be). I like to read Stephen King and Douglas Adams and Tom Robbins. I'm not a romantic by any stretch of the imagination.
So why do I write romance? I honestly don't know. Whenever I put pen to paper, I write cheesy love stories between men. That's just what comes out, no matter what other genre I try to write. There's always a love story in my books, even if I don't read them myself. I guess that's just the way it is.
Top 10 GLBT Books:
1) Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins. This was the first book I read that I remember reading which had a major queer character in it who made me realize being GLBT wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Sissy is a small-town girl who hitchhikes her way across country to an all-girl ranch where she falls in love with both a sexy young cowgirl named Bonanza Jellybean and an old Asian guru named Chink. I fell in love with Jelly from the moment I met her, and to this day she remains one of my favorite literary characters (I even have a cat named after her). My copy of Cowgirls is heavily highlighted and well-read, and when I met the author a few years back, I had the book with me so he signed it. It's one of my prized possessions. One of the things I love best about the story is how the characters don't make a big deal about being queer ~ they just are. Their sexuality is simply a part of who they are. That's something I've always tried to capture in my own writing. Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Bantam (April 1, 1990)
Publisher Link: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780553349498
ISBN-10: 055334949X
ISBN-13: 978-0553349498
Amazon: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
The whooping crane rustlers are girls. Young girls. Cowgirls, as a matter of fact, all “bursting with dimples and hormones”—and the FBI has never seen anything quite like them. Yet their rebellion at the Rubber Rose Ranch is almost overshadowed by the arrival of the legendary Sissy Hankshaw, a white-trash goddess literally born to hitchhike, and the freest female of them all. Freedom, its prizes and its prices, is a major theme of Tom Robbins’s classic tale of eccentric adventure. As his robust characters attempt to turn the tables on fate, the reader is drawn along on a tragicomic joyride across the badlands of sexuality, wild rivers of language, and the frontiers of the mind.
( books from 2 to 10 )
About J.M. Snyder: J.M. Snyder lives in Richmond, Virginia, with two very spoiled cats. In addition to writing, she runs Rainbow Reviews (http://www.rainbow-reviews.com). A self-published author of gay erotic and romantic fiction, Snyder also works with several e-publishers, most notably Amber Allure Press and eXcessica Publishing. Many of Snyder's short stories have appeared in anthologies by Alyson Books, Cleis Press, and others. Snyder also writes gay young adult romance as J. Tomas and non-gay fiction and poetry as J.T. Marie. For excerpts, free short stories, monthly contests, and purchasing information, visit http://jmsnyder.net.
Rockstar by J.M. Snyder Paperback: 218 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (December 31, 2009)
Purchase Link: http://jmsnyder.net/books/rockstar.html
ISBN-10: 1449971334
ISBN-13: 978-1449971335
Amazon: Rockstar
Adam Blue is destined to be a rockstar. As lead singer of Viral Blue, he knows it's just a matter of time before he's on his way to fame and fortune. If he can just get a studio to sign his band and get his songs on the radio, he knows he'll make it big. When they land a spot onstage at a popular nightclub downtown, Adam hopes to get noticed. But he doesn't expect to meet sexy Paolo Raucci, owner of Raucci Entertainment, a local studio looking for fresh talent. Paol likes Adam's sound and, more importantly, likes Adam, as well. But when Paol brings the band into the studio, his partner Lewis isn't quite as taken with Adam's rockstar attitude. Lewis doesn't want to sign the band until Adam proves he's willing to work. Unfortunately, the band takes second priority to Adam's growing interest Paol ... an interest that has nothing to do with his musical career. The stress of recording their first studio album threatens to tear the band apart, and Adam's ego further drives a wedge between the members of Viral Blue. Paol does his best to keep the band together, but ultimately it's Adam's call. Adam wants it all-his band, his first record, and his new lover. Now that his dreams are finally within reach, what does he have to do to make them come true?
1) Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins. This was the first book I read that I remember reading which had a major queer character in it who made me realize being GLBT wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Sissy is a small-town girl who hitchhikes her way across country to an all-girl ranch where she falls in love with both a sexy young cowgirl named Bonanza Jellybean and an old Asian guru named Chink. I fell in love with Jelly from the moment I met her, and to this day she remains one of my favorite literary characters (I even have a cat named after her). My copy of Cowgirls is heavily highlighted and well-read, and when I met the author a few years back, I had the book with me so he signed it. It's one of my prized possessions. One of the things I love best about the story is how the characters don't make a big deal about being queer ~ they just are. Their sexuality is simply a part of who they are. That's something I've always tried to capture in my own writing. 
Rockstar by J.M. Snyder 