The Inside Reader: Laura Baumbach

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends - Silas Weir Mitchell

Even if she is not the first M/M romance author I read, Laura Baumbach is for sure among the firsts who did me a "strong" impression. Probably the first explicit M/M author I read, and I still remember the night I eagerly read Out there in the Night, and then the morning after browsing the net to find all the booklist by this author, and buying A Bit of Rough. I'm probably one of the few proud owners of Demon Spawn: Tales from Demon Under Glass in print, her fanfiction, and of the first print edition of Out There in the Night and Details of the Hunt, when she was testing Lulu Press, and then instead decided to launch her own publishing company, MLR Press. So yes, I will always have a special place for Laura Baumbach in my shelf, and in this LiveJournal. Welcome Laura and her Inside Reader List

I started my writing career by reading slash fan fiction. Not writing slash at first but reading it, experiencing the genre, discovering I liked the power and dynamic of two gorgeous, cunning men in love.

Eventually when I became more confident of my writing I branched out into slash with a vampire series I was immersed with on a business level as a script consultant. My fascination with the m/m dynamic blossomed. I happen to adore men. I love being with them, making love to them, being friends with them. Writing about men in love with men gives me the opportunity to explore all the things I like best about them—their strengths, weakness, emotions, vulnerabilities, tenderness and even jealousy and possessiveness—all magnified by two. And to me, as a heterosexual woman, two attractive, hunky males all sweaty and passionate is arousing.

But my first love affair with reading started with the thriller/adventure genre. I love Alistair MacLean as a child. All those daring spies, and rough and tumble heroes, guys working and living with their best buddies, saving each others lives and sharing a bond closer than most married couples. I think that started my affection for the m/m genre.

I also have to admit to not being as well read as many glorious writers who have posted here before me. I came to writing through the backdoor, and have learned my way while trudging through the trenches — fanfic, then slash, then original fiction, honing my skills and focusing my interest as I went along. So you'll have to respect the fact that some of my favorite reads are more 'buddy reads' than gay or m/m reads. I see what I write as simply romance stories about two people in love and not any specific label.

So here are the titles that affected me as a reader and are in part responsible for making me the writer I am today. I'm afraid it going to be less than literary, but that's what makes me the wicked woman and sensual writer I am.

1) A Wrinkle in Time – 1962 by Madeleine L’Engle. A tesseract is a wrinkle in time. This is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.

I was only about eight when I read this great story. I loved the idea that we could travel to other worlds, meet beings who appeared very different at first glance but who were more like us than we could have imagined. Maybe here is where I began to let labels and boundaries about who and what people are fall away so I could see that we all have common needs, strengths and flaws no matter how different we seem from each other.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Square Fish (May 1, 2007)
Publisher Link: http://us.macmillan.com/book.aspx?isbn=9780312367541
ISBN-10: 0312367546
ISBN-13: 978-0312367541
Amazon: A Wrinkle in Time

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger. "Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract." A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.

2) Ice Station Zebra – 1963 by Alistair MacLean. I feel in love with Alistair MacLean's solitary hero in Drift Ice Station Zebra when I was about twelve. It was the original 1963 version and I read it until it was in taters.

A classic thriller from the bestselling master of action and suspense. The atomic submarine Dolphin has impossible orders: to sail beneath the ice-floes of the Arctic Ocean to locate and rescue the men of weather-station Zebra, gutted by fire and drifting with the ice-pack somewhere north of the Arctic Circle. But the orders do not say what the Dolphin will find if she succeeds -- that the fire at Ice Station Zebra was sabotage, and that one of the survivors is a killer!

It's written in the first person and follows the main hero through a harrowing investigation at the frozen end of the earth. I was riveted by the fast paced action, loved the sarcasm and wit (yes, even at that early age I appreciated well done sarcasm) and I was wowed by the hero's commitment and loyalty. Loved the twists and turns and even secretly thrilled at the hurt comfort parts. (Ground work for my fanfiction days!) Then I read everything he ever wrote and then I read it again.

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (August 8, 1994)
ISBN-10: 0006161413
ISBN-13: 978-0006161417
Amazon: Ice Station Zebra

A classic thriller from the bestselling master of action and suspense. The atomic submarine Dolphin has impossible orders: to sail beneath the ice-floes of the Arctic Ocean to locate and rescue the men of weather-station Zebra, gutted by fire and drifting with the ice-pack somewhere north of the Arctic Circle. But the orders do not say what the Dolphin will find if she succeeds -- that the fire at Ice Station Zebra was sabotage, and that one of the survivors is a killer!

( books from 3 to 7 )

I'm going to have to stop here. As a publisher of m/m gay erotic romance I have read so many favorite from this point on it would be to hard to start naming them. I'm still looking for that next book that impacts me so hard it makes a difference in the way I write or view romance. That's the real adventure in reading for me. Never knowing what is out there until I've opened the pages and lost myself in the magic of another person's imagination.

About Laura Baumbach: Laura Baumbach is the best-selling, multi-award winning, acclaimed author of short stories, novellas, novels and screenplays. Most recently, Mexican Heat, written in collaboration with Josh Lanyon, has been chosen as a FINALIST for Best Gay Romance in the 2009 Lambda Literary Awards, a FINALIST in the 2010 EPPIE Awards, and has received an Honorable Mention at the 2009 San Francisco Book Festival. Laura was nominated for Best GBLT Author 2008 in the LRC's Best Of Awards for 2008. Her adventure story The Lost Temple of Karttikeya won the 2008 EPPIE Award for Best GLBT novel. Her sequel to the best-selling novel A Bit of Rough, Roughhousing, was 2007 Reviewers' Choice Award Winner.

Wet Skin by Laura Baumbach & William Maltese
Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: MLR Press (June 1, 2009)
Publisher Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=ANTHWS01
ISBN-10: 0979311098
ISBN-13: 978-0979311093
Amazon: Wet Skin

William Maltese again joins Laura Baumbach for several erotic tales that explore the first-time wonders of the flesh and water. From Maltese's intriguing The Cataracts, to Baumbach's playful Slippery When Wet, the amount of heat generated here will bring back the delicious pleasures of first-time experiences.

Life Class by Scarlet Blackwell

The cover is really good, and indeed, if the one character on it is Ryan, it has also some meaning, since this is the story of a young man whose only livelihood is his body. But Ryan has not the meek behaviour of someone who is aware of his limits, on the contrary, he has a lively character, inflammable, and he is often ready to burst, even when it means that he will not eat or pay the rent for the following month.

Ryan’s story is quite typical, an average intelligent boy who always associated with the wrong people, and he arrived to the edge between youth and adulthood without having learned his lessons. He spent all his twenty years doing spare time jobs usually for students or teenager and obviously they didn’t allow him to build a solid future. His lucky, and damnation, is his good looks: he thought to use his good exterior working as life model for drawing classes, but the step between being a model for a class of students, to being a model for desperate housewives, and then something else, is very short. Without really being willing, or consciously take the decision, Ryan becomes a whore, but unfortunately for him, not an high paid one: Ryan is too irascible and proud to being a good one, he more time than not, refuses to concede his body if the person on the other side of the bargain inadvertently pushes his wrong buttons.

Harley is one of the artists who hire Ryan. And the only man so far. Through, Harley is really a painter, and he really wants to do a male nude, and Ryan is the perfect model, but it’s also true that Harley heard of Ryan’s reputation, and he is wondering if maybe, Ryan will be willing with a man as he was for women. Harley is not a desperate lonely man who has to pay for sex, on the contrary he is pretty cute, wealthy and with a lot of admirers, but he is fascinated by Ryan. For of all he was by Ryan’s stunning body, but then also by the complex man inside that beautiful container. Not that Ryan proves to have a clever mind, but behind his irascible behaviour there is a little boy who wants to be protected and cuddled.

The strange thing is that, Harley, other than being very wealth, doesn’t resemble at all the Prince Charming that usually swept away the Pretty Woman. Harley himself is someone who inspires protection, and that is probably the only reason why Ryan allows him to hire his services: the good man behind the hard exterior that Ryan presents to the world doesn’t want to hurt Harley, Ryan is not able to be firm and strong, and to refuse Harley; mainly since he can’t allow himself to do that, but also since Harley is too fragile and clueless to bounce back Ryan’s blows (material and immaterial).

In the end, I’m not really sure if Ryan really loves Harley, or if instead, he is accepting the unavoidable: Harley is a safe haven, he is kind and gentle, and Ryan can love him… this doesn’t mean that he loves him.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/life-class

Amazon Kindle: Life Class

Reading List:

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

Life Class by Scarlet Blackwell

The cover is really good, and indeed, if the one character on it is Ryan, it has also some meaning, since this is the story of a young man whose only livelihood is his body. But Ryan has not the meek behaviour of someone who is aware of his limits, on the contrary, he has a lively character, inflammable, and he is often ready to burst, even when it means that he will not eat or pay the rent for the following month.

Ryan’s story is quite typical, an average intelligent boy who always associated with the wrong people, and he arrived to the edge between youth and adulthood without having learned his lessons. He spent all his twenty years doing spare time jobs usually for students or teenager and obviously they didn’t allow him to build a solid future. His lucky, and damnation, is his good looks: he thought to use his good exterior working as life model for drawing classes, but the step between being a model for a class of students, to being a model for desperate housewives, and then something else, is very short. Without really being willing, or consciously take the decision, Ryan becomes a whore, but unfortunately for him, not an high paid one: Ryan is too irascible and proud to being a good one, he more time than not, refuses to concede his body if the person on the other side of the bargain inadvertently pushes his wrong buttons.

Harley is one of the artists who hire Ryan. And the only man so far. Through, Harley is really a painter, and he really wants to do a male nude, and Ryan is the perfect model, but it’s also true that Harley heard of Ryan’s reputation, and he is wondering if maybe, Ryan will be willing with a man as he was for women. Harley is not a desperate lonely man who has to pay for sex, on the contrary he is pretty cute, wealthy and with a lot of admirers, but he is fascinated by Ryan. For of all he was by Ryan’s stunning body, but then also by the complex man inside that beautiful container. Not that Ryan proves to have a clever mind, but behind his irascible behaviour there is a little boy who wants to be protected and cuddled.

The strange thing is that, Harley, other than being very wealth, doesn’t resemble at all the Prince Charming that usually swept away the Pretty Woman. Harley himself is someone who inspires protection, and that is probably the only reason why Ryan allows him to hire his services: the good man behind the hard exterior that Ryan presents to the world doesn’t want to hurt Harley, Ryan is not able to be firm and strong, and to refuse Harley; mainly since he can’t allow himself to do that, but also since Harley is too fragile and clueless to bounce back Ryan’s blows (material and immaterial).

In the end, I’m not really sure if Ryan really loves Harley, or if instead, he is accepting the unavoidable: Harley is a safe haven, he is kind and gentle, and Ryan can love him… this doesn’t mean that he loves him.

http://samhainpublishing.com/romance/life-class

Amazon Kindle: Life Class

Reading List:

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

Kindred Hearts by G.S. Wiley

This is a very nice novella, of the type you would probably expect to have read 20 years ago; it’s a love story, and there is sex, but it adopts the old fashioned rule to not follow the main characters behind the bedroom doors… we know that something happened, but we were not invited inside the room.

For me sincerely, it’s not a problem, on the contrary, I prefer all the interaction between the main characters and it’s not really important to witness to the material conclusion; it’s nice, and if well written, it’s even good, but not mandatory. More if the author has the ability to say everything is necessary, without saying too much, like in this case, it’s a perfect combination.

Another nice aspect of this story is that Alfred, third Earl Brentworth, never actually “admits”, not even with himself, that he is homosexual; being homosexual is not something he can allow himself to be, and so he has erased the concept from his mind. Alfie is a nice man, average wealthy, average noble and average handsome. He would be a suitable suitor, if not for the stammer that plagues him; and then, Alfie has an innate passion for the theatre so much that he spent 6 night out of 7 attending different representations in 6 different theatres, one for each night. The theatre is Alfie’s mistress, and the actresses are all his lovers, meaning that he courts all of them, with small gift and gentle manners; but he never once goes further with one of them.

At the beginning I didn’t understand why Alfie was so aloof with all these attractive women, not even a hint of jealousy, if not for the risk to loose one of them to a marriage outside the show business. If not for the fact that this novella is published by a LGBT publisher, I would have really wondered what the reason was behind. When Markham, a handsome naval officer enters the scene, he upsets Alfie’s world: in the end, with all his frequenting of the different theatres and different actresses, Alfie was avoiding temptation; there is no temptation there for Alfie, something he immediately finds in open air, in a public park, when he stumbles upon Markham.

Everything is against them, Markham grieves the freedom he has when he was an officer at war, far from home, Alfie is an only son, and he has to marry and produce an heir, they are not in the condition to be able to ignore society’s binding.

As for the absence of sex, also the development of the story is old fashioned, with an output that says and not says, and a possible solution that was compatible with the situation and time. In the end, Kindred Hearts is a novella that can appeal to the sophisticated reader, more interested in the rich details and characters development than in some tumble between the sheets.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=182&products_id=2616

Amazon Kindle: Kindred Hearts

Reading List:

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

Kindred Hearts by G.S. Wiley

This is a very nice novella, of the type you would probably expect to have read 20 years ago; it’s a love story, and there is sex, but it adopts the old fashioned rule to not follow the main characters behind the bedroom doors… we know that something happened, but we were not invited inside the room.

For me sincerely, it’s not a problem, on the contrary, I prefer all the interaction between the main characters and it’s not really important to witness to the material conclusion; it’s nice, and if well written, it’s even good, but not mandatory. More if the author has the ability to say everything is necessary, without saying too much, like in this case, it’s a perfect combination.

Another nice aspect of this story is that Alfred, third Earl Brentworth, never actually “admits”, not even with himself, that he is homosexual; being homosexual is not something he can allow himself to be, and so he has erased the concept from his mind. Alfie is a nice man, average wealthy, average noble and average handsome. He would be a suitable suitor, if not for the stammer that plagues him; and then, Alfie has an innate passion for the theatre so much that he spent 6 night out of 7 attending different representations in 6 different theatres, one for each night. The theatre is Alfie’s mistress, and the actresses are all his lovers, meaning that he courts all of them, with small gift and gentle manners; but he never once goes further with one of them.

At the beginning I didn’t understand why Alfie was so aloof with all these attractive women, not even a hint of jealousy, if not for the risk to loose one of them to a marriage outside the show business. If not for the fact that this novella is published by a LGBT publisher, I would have really wondered what the reason was behind. When Markham, a handsome naval officer enters the scene, he upsets Alfie’s world: in the end, with all his frequenting of the different theatres and different actresses, Alfie was avoiding temptation; there is no temptation there for Alfie, something he immediately finds in open air, in a public park, when he stumbles upon Markham.

Everything is against them, Markham grieves the freedom he has when he was an officer at war, far from home, Alfie is an only son, and he has to marry and produce an heir, they are not in the condition to be able to ignore society’s binding.

As for the absence of sex, also the development of the story is old fashioned, with an output that says and not says, and a possible solution that was compatible with the situation and time. In the end, Kindred Hearts is a novella that can appeal to the sophisticated reader, more interested in the rich details and characters development than in some tumble between the sheets.

http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&manufacturers_id=182&products_id=2616

Amazon Kindle: Kindred Hearts

Reading List:

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

The Cellmate by Rachel West

The Cellmate is maybe a bit pink glasses perspective and optimistic, but I don’t think its mainly purpose was to be a drama prison romance, but more a prison romance without the drama.

First of all, even if it’s not clearly stated, I don’t think Andy and Jesse are retained in a high security prison, but probably in some region penitentiary, where small criminals spent their few years of sentence. Andy is inside for being a drunk driver and to have caused a car accident, with death but with a victim, a woman who suffered a semi-permanent paralysis. Jesse is inside for rape, even if there is something that doesn’t match in his story, he is not actually a vicious man, but more someone who would like to be left alone.

True, the fact that the first night they are in the same cell together, Jesse slips in Andy’s bed and have sex with him is not exactly testifying to his good intentions, but Jesse is kind and tender, and Andy is gay and lonely, and so both of them find in each other something. Only for Jesse to snap out when he finds that Andy is indeed gay and not adapting to the situation. There are some buried issues in Jesse’s past, also linked to his conviction, and what he is sharing with Andy is hitting too much near that weak spot.

As I said there is really no drama; life in prison seems a little to easy, but as I said, maybe they are in a low security penitentiary; plus there is the nice turn that, the one that is supposedly the victim in this situation, the narrator, Andy, is indeed the more guilty of the two. For once Andy’s sentence was right, he needed something to right him, and even if the prison is not hard, it’s always a deprivation of freedom, and Andy has the chance to learn from his own mistakes. Maybe for this reason I have never felt like Andy was a victim of Jesse, or that he was suffering unwanted attentions; on the contrary, I think Andy uses Jesse to adapt to the life in prison; he is his mainstay, someone he could rely on. Loving Jesse, Andy is able to make penance for his own mistakes, since he has in front someone who is really not guilty, but he is self-punishing himself; so in a way why Andy, who was guilty, has not to suffer his right punishment.

Maybe the light tone of the story is also due to the fact that both men are really young, 20 years old if much. There is really the feeling that they have a future that this is only a moment in their life, and that when they will be out, there will be still chances for them. Andy is from a good family, who despite all is supporting him, and so the future seems bright for him. Again the one in the worst situation is Jesse, and for this reason, after their first encounter, Andy slowly changes his role from submissive to caretaker, even if they have the same age, more or less, Andy seems stronger and savvier, more confident of himself and his possibilities, and he is ready to share all of this with Jesse.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1888

Amazon Kindle: The Cellmate

Reading List:

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

The Cellmate by Rachel West

The Cellmate is maybe a bit pink glasses perspective and optimistic, but I don’t think its mainly purpose was to be a drama prison romance, but more a prison romance without the drama.

First of all, even if it’s not clearly stated, I don’t think Andy and Jesse are retained in a high security prison, but probably in some region penitentiary, where small criminals spent their few years of sentence. Andy is inside for being a drunk driver and to have caused a car accident, with death but with a victim, a woman who suffered a semi-permanent paralysis. Jesse is inside for rape, even if there is something that doesn’t match in his story, he is not actually a vicious man, but more someone who would like to be left alone.

True, the fact that the first night they are in the same cell together, Jesse slips in Andy’s bed and have sex with him is not exactly testifying to his good intentions, but Jesse is kind and tender, and Andy is gay and lonely, and so both of them find in each other something. Only for Jesse to snap out when he finds that Andy is indeed gay and not adapting to the situation. There are some buried issues in Jesse’s past, also linked to his conviction, and what he is sharing with Andy is hitting too much near that weak spot.

As I said there is really no drama; life in prison seems a little to easy, but as I said, maybe they are in a low security penitentiary; plus there is the nice turn that, the one that is supposedly the victim in this situation, the narrator, Andy, is indeed the more guilty of the two. For once Andy’s sentence was right, he needed something to right him, and even if the prison is not hard, it’s always a deprivation of freedom, and Andy has the chance to learn from his own mistakes. Maybe for this reason I have never felt like Andy was a victim of Jesse, or that he was suffering unwanted attentions; on the contrary, I think Andy uses Jesse to adapt to the life in prison; he is his mainstay, someone he could rely on. Loving Jesse, Andy is able to make penance for his own mistakes, since he has in front someone who is really not guilty, but he is self-punishing himself; so in a way why Andy, who was guilty, has not to suffer his right punishment.

Maybe the light tone of the story is also due to the fact that both men are really young, 20 years old if much. There is really the feeling that they have a future that this is only a moment in their life, and that when they will be out, there will be still chances for them. Andy is from a good family, who despite all is supporting him, and so the future seems bright for him. Again the one in the worst situation is Jesse, and for this reason, after their first encounter, Andy slowly changes his role from submissive to caretaker, even if they have the same age, more or less, Andy seems stronger and savvier, more confident of himself and his possibilities, and he is ready to share all of this with Jesse.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1888

Amazon Kindle: The Cellmate

Reading List:

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