Saturday, January 15, 2011

Welcome BLAK RAYNE...Love is My Drug












To buy her books click here

MM: Welcome Blak, thank you so much for being my second guest blogger. Berengaria already popped my cherry last week. Still, I thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. We are all ears.

Love is My Drug!

Hi Michael, thanks for inviting me! It’s great to be here! So this is what it’s like to post on someone else’s blog…kind of creepy but in a good way! LOL

I racked my brains for days. Normally, most of my rants come to me pretty easily–right off the cuff, but with this one, it was difficult. Then I heard Kesha on the radio and I was inspired! My life is complete. LOL

Not sure about your readers but love certainly is my drug of choice and especially that of the homoerotic variety. Men are gorgeous creatures to begin with and putting two together in the bedroom, is cause for my grey cells to jump into overdrive. I’m constantly writing. Sometimes it’s just bits and bobs–a sentence or it can become an entire page. But when I actually put a novel together, I do research and that includes information on sexual practices.

For instance, did you know not all gay men enjoy sodomy (anal sex)? Most prefer (according to stats) dry humping. Interesting, isn’t it. It’s us, the female authors, who write homoerotica that make the assumptions. No matter what you write, it’s best to give some credibility to it. That’s why most authors research. It’s better to make an educated guess than an inaccurate one.

Speaking of love that’s one of my favourite parts to write–the love scenes. My problem is keeping it under the right amount of control. When is there too much sex? When is there not enough? How much romance do you throw in? How much description is appropriate? And of course, you’ve got to take into consideration your own writing style. Because I read loads of yaoi, I’m influenced by it and I have to be careful that it doesn’t dominate my writing. I don’t mind the Uke/Seme premise but there are times when it’s inappropriate to the story’s theme. So this brings me back to the accuracy issue. Would two men truly act like this in a relationship?

Well here’s the answer. I’m giving a cautious yes. There are a few things to remember when penning homoerotica. Everyone is human and most of us share the same set of emotions–fears, likes and dislikes. We all breathe, we all eat and most are sexually active. And in some (not all) gay relationships there is a submissive partner and a dominant partner–bitch, butch whatever you want to call them. Regardless of the he said-she said bullshit, I’ve found via life that people are simply people. A gay man can beat and abuse his partner, no different from a straight man beating his wife. And that’s what reminds me to keep it as realistic as possible when I’m typing up a storm. I place myself into the character’s position and try to imagine how he would feel–and having a good homosexual Beta doesn’t hurt! LOL

That’s it from me, Michael! Thanks again. I had a great time.

Make sure you stop by my blog http://blakraynebooks.blogspot.com/ where author Michael Mandrake has been interviewed!

http://www.blakraynebooks.com

Happy Yaoi Hunting!!^_^!!

Blak Rayne

I also asked Blak a few questions.

1. What was the inspiration behind Devotion and its characters? Are they patterned after any particular people or completely fictional?

I've never given a straight answer before... The inspiration has a personal source...someone I knew and was very close to at one time, experienced the same fate Slade (sorry I can't divulge the details). And because we were so close, my emotions ran the gamut. I felt tremendous fear, anxiety, sadness and anger on behalf of this person. Then I started to wonder what my reaction would've been to a situation like that. What if it was my partner? How would this horrible incident affect our relationship? Could both parties move on? Would it make us stronger as couple or destroy us? In some weird way I became Reeve and my friend became Slade. And though there wasn't any real life revenge, it felt good to create a little on paper. So yes, these two characters are partly known to me and their other half is fictional.

2. When you create the story, are you an outline writer or do you allow your characters to drive you?

A bit of both really. I have to keep notes, but I am more character driven. The best part of writing, is character creation and the second part is dialogue. I literally get so drawn into the conversation I don't acknowledge anything or anyone. No, I'm not crazy - honest! LOL But I find having a two-sided banter session works the best, especially if the characters are arguing. Strong dialogue helps to mold strong characters.

3. What is the best thing about writing m/m?

I'm permitted to exhibit my alter-ego... I swear I was a man in a past life or something... Honestly, aside from the sex appeal of the whole m/m thing and my devious imagination I don't know, it works for me. I grew up with so much testosterone (men), the majority of my relatives are men and I work with men-even the damned cat is a male, it was bound to rub off.



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4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Blak, loved the blog post today. I don't usually read m/m books (mostly menage) but love the way you've given credibility to your characters. Definitely going to pick up one of your books, Devotion is at the top of the list. I've seen your name EVERYWHERE on the blogs! :)

Val

S.Lira said...

Hi LastNerve,

Thank you for stopping by. Blak is really a hard working author. I was happy to have her.

reader said...

Hi Ladies, I enjoyed the both the question and answer. Until I started reading ebooks, I had never explored the m/m genre. I find it interest, because we all know a gay person or even have a gay family member. May have wonder about the act, but never dared to ask.

Blak Rayne Books Blog said...

Thanks so much Val - I try to be as realistic as possible but there's always room for improvement. I'm glad you enjoyed the post and thanks so much for stopping by! Yeah I get around. LOL
Awesome Rawiya! You're a great host - it was fun! ^_^!!