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reviews_and_ramblings
Thank you for hosting me today, Elisa! (Photo: (c) 2014 by Eva Mueller)In 2010, I unwittingly published a romance. I don’t think I or my publisher, Jameson Currier, thought Bob the Book would be widely read by M/M romance fans. But Elisa Rolle’s lovely review of Bob came at it (at him?) from a romance angle, and later, when I discovered the Goodreads site, I simultaneously discovered dozens of M/M romance fans—and dozens of stars, some in groups of four or five!
Bob is the tale of a gay book—that is, per the old joke, a book attracted to other books of the same gender. It features two separated sets of book lovers (lovers who are actual books) and two human bibliophiles who belong together but take their time getting there. It’s a picaresque adventure that goes from bookstores to literary conferences to private homes with shelves of books. It’s a lot of fun, I have to say, even if I am Bob’s dad! (Cover: design by Peach Boy Design and Distillery, (c) 2010 Chelsea Station Editions)Jameson then suggested I publish a book of short stories. When I sent him my stash, one he jumped on was “Calvin Gets Sucked In.” Our fortyish hero, Calvin, gets sucked into a gay porn video. He finds his romantic obsession, Joey Rhodes, but Joey won’t come back to the “real world” with Calvin. Calvin leaves the video alone, resumes his dull life, and pines for Joey. End of story.
But what if Joey followed Calvin back—and then could not return to his porn world?
That’s a whole new story.
That’s a novel: Looking After Joey. “Looking after” as in caring for, and also as in one day watching him go off to become his own person, with his own dreams and plans.
photo (c) 2014 Eva Mueller; model: Nicholas Gorham; design by Adrian Nicholas
Like Bob, Joey has attracted mainstream gay lit fans and both male and female fans of M/M romance. I have, in fact, received incredible support from the M/M romance community. It’s been very exciting getting to know a whole new group of friends, and hearing compliments—and laughs; I like those best—from the old ones, too. I am sad that this time I won’t be reading at Giovanni’s Room. The Philadelphia LGBT bookstore has gone out of business. I will miss reading for Lou Pizzitola at Barnes and Noble in NYC. But I have enjoyed getting to know fellow Wilde City Press author Rafe Haze, and working with Ethan Day, Geoff Knight and Jerry Wheeler at Wilde City. Like Calvin and Joey, I have felt the passage of time, but many have remained good and loyal friends throughout it, and I hope I have been a good and loyal friend to them. That is, after all, the value I am espousing most of all, perhaps, in the new novel: keeping the family together.
For LGBT folk, it can be hard to keep the family of origin together. Your family might not be accepting. Or they might be accepting, but they just might not want to hear about it. Or they might be widely dispersed or incommunicative, like any family. Keeping your family of choice together can be hard, too. People break up or move. There was AIDS. But through it all, we have needed each other, and we have needed our literature. I hope I have made a good contribution to that. Take a look—and let me know! Thanks again, Elisa.
photo (c) 2014 Eva Mueller; model: Nicholas Gorham; design by Adrian Nicholas
David Pratt is offering a copy of Looking after Joey to one commenter on this blog. You can comment on LJ or DW if you have an account (I will send a PM to the winner), if you don't have an account, please leave a comment on DW with a contact email.
Looking After Joey by David Pratt Paperback: 334 pages
Publisher: Wilde City Press, LLC (April 2, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1925180077
ISBN-13: 978-1925180077
Amazon: Looking After Joey
Amazon Kindle: Looking After Joey
Cover (c) 2014 Wilde City Press
From the author of Bob the Book comes a funny, fast-paced, touching tale of love, laughter, family of choice and fabulousness! Wouldn't it be great if a character from a porn movie stepped right out of your TV, into your life? Well, be careful what you wish for. Because that's how Calvin and Peachy end up looking after Joey. Then Peachy decides to make Joey the center of in a social-climbing scheme that will take them all from Chelsea to Park Avenue to Fire Island and will entangle a rogues' gallery of eccentric Manhattanites, including portly, perspiring publicist Bunce van den Troell; theatrical investor Sir Desmond Norma; studly thespian Clive Tidwell-Smidgin; and evil lubricant king Fred Pflester and his mysterious nephew, Jeffrey. Tender, wise, witty and utterly deranged, Looking After Joey will make you wish you, too, had a porn character sitting at your kitchen table, pointing at the toast and asking, "What's this called again?"
photo by Donna Wasserman
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Date: 2014-07-15 05:44 am (UTC)