We are One Year Old!

We want to celebrate our good fortune with you, our loyal readers.

We’ve lined up some of the hottest bloggers for a Blog Tour and they’ve offered dozens of fantastic prizes just to show up and comment on their blogs!

One LUCKY reader will win the grand prize:
a Sony Reader Touch Edition!

So how does it work?

1RomanceEbooks’s blog tour will include up to two stops per day. In order to participate, you will need to register (see below), at which time you’ll be given a participant number. At each stop, you have the opportunity to leave a comment (be sure to include your participant number) to win a prize and be entered in the drawing for the grand prize. Each comment you leave earns a point (one comment per blog) – the more points you earn, the more chances to win. You can earn even more points by:

Signing up for 1RomanceEbooks newsletter
Friend us on FaceBook
Following 1RE on Twitter
Friending 1RE on MySpace
Joining the 1RE NING

Each blog will be offering great prizes along the way. All you have to do is visit and post a comment that includes your participant number.

You Must  Register to Play:

See the Blog Tour Page for all the details.

The Official Rules can be found here .  The fun begins Thursday, July 15.

Cherie De Sues

Sandra Hicks

Teresa D’Amario

William Maltese

Bryl Tyne

Dominique Eastwick

Chelle Cordero

Marilyn Lee

Lena Austin

Charisma Knight

Margie Church

Kate Richards

Bryn Colvin

Lex Valentine

Sommer Marsden

Michele Montgomery & Jeff Erno

Josh Lanyon

Honoria Ravena

Victor Banis

Elisa Rolle

J.P. Bowie

Sedonia Guillone

Lisa Campbell

Suzannah Safi

Mahalia Levey

Jordan Castillo Price

Christine London

Sandy Nicks

Delle Jacobs

JM Snyder

Keta Diablo

Claire Thompson

Tina Pavlik

Fiona Vanc

This meme is courtesy of Kris at Kris ‘N’ Good Books to Erotic Horizon to Jenna Byrnes, and now, to moi.

Here I go…

Rules:

2. You have to tag two other people once your done and pester them relentlessly until they do the meme too.
3. Instead of a meme image thing you have to post a cookie, preferably a twofer. It is an m/m meme after all.

I know, I have them, even if unrealized. For example, when I learned that my book, PULL, had been read and reviewed by The Victor J. Banis, I shook, then I shouted. I can only guess, judging by my reaction to the news, that being thought of as a writer worthy enough to grace Mr. Banis’ eyes, mind, and heart must have been some kind of unknown milestone to me. Much like the other day, when a review of PULL appeared on Jesse Wave’s blog–yet, another moment of sheer excitement. At least, for me. In all, my milestones are baby steps compared to others.

There are those who aspire to different or much greater accomplishments.  Take fellow Author AP Miller, for example. This husband and wife team has been writing for well over two decades, only to have their titles going to film!

“Beyond the Looking Glass”
by A.P. Miller

In Development
A collection of erotic tales with fairy tale themes.

Riwayat Films

Whoa…was my initial reaction. Need I be jealous?

I began hunting for reviews of AP Miller books…a venture to prove to myself just what makes one so “wanted”… or is a milestone such as this simply luck. Needless to say, my questions were answered and, quite thoroughly, let me tell you.

I admit to a bit of envy, but for the most part, the bigger part, I was inclined to shout for just as much joy as I would if this baby were my own. In reality, I know that I’m barely a blip in the vast sea of artists, performers, and entertainers striving to share their creations with an oftentimes unappreciative world. Besides, I’ve only been actively at this for a year, come April. Who the f*ck am I (LOL)?

What are your milestones? Are great reviews and reader feedback enough to keep you afloat? Or do you, as an author, aspire to such goals or dreams as making it into film?

Okay. We authors adore great reviews, but to get a review from another author, an awesome author, one of my FAVORITE authors…Excitement, hyperventilation, the ultimate high…all understatements, surely.

Pull
By Bryl Tyne
Dreamspinner Press 2009

Reviewer: Victor J. Banis

The late Carole Lombard is alleged to have said, pertinent to Clark Gable’s sexual equipment, “Pappy ain’t got much, but what’s down there is cherse.”

The same could be said of this admittedly slim bit of erotica. Not a lot of words, but what’s here is choice. For whatever reason (and you’d think it would be otherwise) most writers don’t do maverick all that well. More often than not, it comes out all poses and bluff, like little boys playing at pirates. On the other hand, from what I’ve seen, this author’s chosen are almost inevitably the misfits, the square pegs in the round holes, the lost lambs. Indeed, Bryl Tyne could well be the poet laureate of the outsider.

The protagonist here is Chaz, a classic square peg—outside the family who booted him, outside the school that dropped him and, after getting arrested in a raid on a sex hangout, inside jail, which is way outside the borders of polite society. So when he gets an offer for rehab…but, I really can’t tell you much more of the plot without giving it all away.

Don’t expect a lot of subtleties here. This is wham-bam man on man action, with just enough story to hold it all together, though I’m willing to bet you’ll be rooting from the beginning for outsider Chaz to find his way in from the cold.

If this is your cup of tea, you’ll find it well-brewed. But, be forewarned, Reverend, it’s definitely not for the prim and prissy.

************************************************************************************************

I’ve joined brothers and sisters in blogging arms in light of recent reports. I can only hope when all is said and done, the following information proves to be misinformation. At this point, judging from the correlating information I’ve been able to find myself, the following does indeed appear to be valid. You decide.

Amazon Rank – This is what happens when a company gets too big for its boots.

Some of those authors being affected that we know and love are:

Lauren Dane (has written post on Amazon Fail)

Erastes

Alex Beecroft

Storm Grant (has written post on Amazon Fail)

Victor Banis

Josh Lanyon

Rick R. Reed

They have reportedly lost their Amazon rankings on some of their books.

1. They no longer show up in bestseller lists
2. They no longer show up in searches

According to Author Rick R. Reed, “This new policy, or whatever it is, can have detrimental and disastrous consequences to GLBT authors, making their books invisible when they search. It’s quite akin to shoving us in a literary closet” (GWR group, 2009).

.

**Because the list of authors are too huge to list: Update: New Post from Meta Writer who has listed various erotic and gay books that have been affected by Amazon’s censoring decision

Mark R. Probst has reported this latest Amazon controversy on his Live Journal:

On Amazon.com two days ago, mysteriously, the sales rankings disappeared from two newly-released high profile gay romance books: “Transgressions” by Erastes and “False Colors” by Alex Beecroft. Everybody was perplexed. Was it a glitch of some sort? The very next day HUNDREDS of gay and lesbian books simultaneously lost their sales rankings, including my book “The Filly.” There was buzz, What’s going on? Does Amazon have some sort of campaign to suppress the visibility of gay books? Is it just a major glitch in the system? Many of us decided to write to Amazon questioning why our rankings had disappeared. Most received evasive replies from customer service reps not versed in what was happening. As I am a publisher and have an Amazon Advantage account through which I supply Amazon with my books, I had a special way to contact them. 24 hours later I had a response:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,

Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

Also some other excellent posts on this subject I recommend you visit:

Uncommon Jen “It’s A Matter of Choice”
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books “Amazon Rank” **AMAZON RANK LINK**
Dear Author “Amazon Censors It’s Rankings”
Meta Writer “Collection of Amazon’s Censor Fail”

Why not speak up?
Contact Amazon Exec office e-mail – ecr@amazon.com or the customer service phone number at 1-800-201-7575.

Further steps that may be taken:

Spine Intact, Some Creases

by Victor J. Banis

reviewed by Mykola (Mick) Dementiuk

“Holding hands in the darkness at the movies could be an intensely erotic experience.”

I was maybe 15 or 16 years old and sneaking into various Times Square movie houses. Did it in through the back doors on 41st or 40th Streets, with someone leaving and me sneaking in; occasionally, I’d meet the brute of a man who simply refused to let me in and slammed the door after he left. But such a prim and proper disciplinarian was rare and I’d get in for free, most of times, with some hurrying-away movie viewer fading out of sight. I’d go in and watch a western or a war-entrenched movie and feel good afterwards. This was years before rampant sex tore through the area…And as I’d sit there, watching some battle with Japanese or Germans or some cowboys fleeing from the sheriff, I’d grow alert when someone sat down in a vacant seat next to mine. Mostly an older man, yet occasionally someone just a little older than I was; who was hoping and looking for some company…or so I thought.

These trysts never did go any further than mere holding hands and looking dreamily at each other, but after an hour or so I’d say, “Be right back…” and hurry off, pretending I was going to the bathroom or concession stand when really I was disappearing into the 42nd Street crowds. I think maybe it was four or five times that happened and I’d leave, still erect, and wander my way home where I masturbated for weeks on end with that cowardly memory…Why did I run? Why was I so horny and hot after?

I often thought of those anonymous faces over the years, those tricked, led-on, abandoned and forgotten so despicably and shamefully, when a single line in Victor Banis’ book brought it all back, “holding hands in the darkness at the movies could be an intensely erotic experience…”

How many times did I pass by the theaters in my later years and remember holding hands, feeling myself protected and cared for when all of a sudden that old fear came back to and I so stupidly faded off in to the crowds? Too many, too many…way too many…

Victor J. Banis, whose bibliography at the end of the book is amazing, –and boy, the wealth of material he has produced under various names and guises is truly remarkable–has produced such a book, a book of memories and lost times gone forever with just a flicker of remembrance. And gratefully Victor Banis has done it all and tells us just how he came to do these things while playing a truly rich and rewarding life experience.

Banis explores the “loneliest of all minorities,” –being gay in the straight world– in the 1950s and 1960s when such tumultuous change loomed on the horizon. Back in the 1920s and 30s he notes, one didn’t give much mind about one’s sex yet in the 40s one paid attention since everyone was horny and hungry for it. But by the 50s it was frowned upon and put down, with yellow journalist Walter Winchell calling “a vote for Adlai Stevenson is a vote for Christine Jorgenson” until it exploded in the 60s coming out all decorated in vibrant drag, so to speak, –in 1968 it erupted in a tirade of protest-full celebration that was to become Stonewall, never to be the same again.

Banis begins his biography by becoming a writer of gay stories that were published in Switzerland and then under various names in America. His fame, or ill-fame, grew until it exploded in a suit brought against him and his publisher by the US Post Office for obscene material, and this at a time when the government was after Henry Miller and Barney Rosset and others. The suit against Banis was gratefully dismissed, after they dragged it as long as they could and Banis, in need of a break from the stupidity that has always been a part of American history, got that break by traveling across Europe, and seeing and experiencing Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and Franco’s Spain.

Once back home, he did a book tour that took him across the country, meeting with Hugh Hefner and other stars in Beverly Hills, –Nina Foch, Elizabeth Montgomery, Natalie Wood, Linda Ronstadt amongst others. His neighbor at the time was Sal Mineo, who eventually was slain in a botched homosexual robbery.

But most of all was Banis’ writing; as did it each and every day for 365 days a year then just started all over the next year and did it all over again…as he’s still doing it. Among the many books he has written (under his name) The Why Not, Longhorns, Angel Land, Lola Dances among others, and under various nom de plumes a wealth of titles, for male and female readers alike.

As a writer he is truly amazing! Plus for other writers who are still undergoing the process of slow learning he recommends “On Becoming a Novelist” and “Art of Fiction” by John Gardner as required reading (I would add William Zinsser’s “On Writing Well” also, it helped me.)

But most of all, Banis advises, write to suit yourself, in this way you’ll be able to write what you want and sleep well at night…and the hell with what they have to say against you…

A well-worthy book, instructive and filled with memories of people, from Hollywood stars and starlets, to those who wrote for them like Victor Banis, writer extraordinaire…

Read it, ponder it, learn and write…write…write…

Permission  to repost by Mykola Dementiuk, author of Vienna Dolorosa, Times Queer, Baby Doll, & Selected Tales