The Inside Reader: Laura Baumbach

[reviews_and_ramblings]

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!

3-5) Then I became a product of my generation. I read Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines, Man from U.N.C.L.E. Zines and Star Trek novels. I love the banter between Ellery Queen and his father coupled with the intriguing mystery. The 'buddy' relationship between Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin was to die for in my slant on the relationship and I don't even have to talk about Kirk and Spock the original slash buddies.

Hardcover
Publisher: Galahad; Reprint edition (January 1, 1994)
ISBN-10: 0883658496
ISBN-13: 978-0883658499
Amazon: The First 50 Years: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction. Launched in 1941 by Mercury Press, EQMM is named for the author Ellery Queen, who wrote novels and short stories about a fictional detective named Ellery Queen. 

Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Ace Books; First Edition edition (1965)
Amazon: The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (a.k.a. The Thousand Coffins Affair) by Michael Avallone

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1964, to January 15, 1968. It follows the exploits of two secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a fictitious secret international law-enforcement agency called U.N.C.L.E. (the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement).

Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Edition edition (April 12, 1973)
ISBN-10: 0345234022
ISBN-13: 978-0345234025
Amazon: The Trouble with Tribbles

In this work David Gerrold, the creator of "Tribbles", gives an account of how this popular episode of "Star Trek" was made, from the first draft to the final shooting script, explaining the techniques and disciplines of TV writing. Gerrold is a winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

6) Any Pirates of the Caribbean Sparrington slash story written by Webcrowmancer. This author is truly a gifted writer, skilled in plotting, characterization and historical settings. I've enjoyed everything she wrote in this fandom. I believe she left fan fiction to write professionally several years ago. I wish I knew what pen name she uses now because I'd be her #1 fan. I learned to respect the research reading her works.

http://www.squidge.org/~praxisters/potc/rum.html



7) Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx. Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.

Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it.

This short story was one of the most moving stories I had ever read in any genre. The need, love, fear, hope and despair of these two men was palpable. I can honestly say I found it haunting long after I finish it.

In a kind of reverse inspiration it also strengthened my need to write happy endings, to not only give my characters real life obstacles to overcome but to grant them that goal of love and a lasting, shared relationship. I don't agree with any romances that insist on letting the harsher elements of RL dictate a uncertain happy ending. If readers wanted RL they would read the newspaper or literature, not romance. I believe in giving a reader what I believe they read romance for – that heartwarming, feel good satisfaction at the end of an enjoyable journey of the heart.

Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: Scribner; Original edition (November 1, 2005)
Publisher Link: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Brokeback-Mountain/Annie-Proulx/9780743271325
ISBN-10: 0743271327
ISBN-13: 978-0743271325
Amazon: Brokeback Mountain: Now a Major Motion Picture

Annie Proulx has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many, Brokeback Mountain is her masterpiece. Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheep herder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer. Both men work hard, marry, have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it. Brokeback Mountain was originally published in the New Yorker -- it won the National Magazine Award and was included in the O. Henry Stories 1998. In gorgeous and haunting prose Proulx limns the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world's violent intolerance.

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.

Comments

[k-kozakewich.livejournal.com]

OMG... Alistair MacLean and Ice Station Zebra were my first introduction to the thriller / adventure world and I too have read and re-read ISZ over and over. And everytime I read it I find something new; I've also got all of Mr. MacLean's books.

And a Wrinkle in Time - in fact the entire series - is another favourite and re-read. There's something magical about the whole world that Madeleine L'Engle created.

Very good taste in books... but then I really enjoy your books as well.