Erastes Day 3 - My DIK Books (cont'd)

http://reviewsbyjessewave.blogspot.com/2008/12/standish.html

Hello again. Ah you've caught me in the waterfall pool with... well, a few of the cabana boys, I'm afraid. I was just explaining to them some of the principles behind my penname...Seems some of them are fans of the Greek already! Who knew?



While we watch the pretty men cavorting together in the water, let me talk a little about the difficulties that the gay historical author has in attempting to write an historical scene in times when hygiene wasn't at the top of anyone's agenda. In some earlier times, water was not only thought to be bad for you, but it could actually make you ill. Some people considered that it was positively evil, and that by getting naked and

letting the water touch you—particularly in intimate areas, such as Guido and Jesus are doing over there…er hem, I'm still speaking…thank you…was to let the Devil enter your body. Whereas in Guido's case it seems that he's lucky – it's just Jesus.

So how to create a sex scene—set in an era where people might, if they were lucky, have a bath once a year—which will titillate and not nauseate? Where there's more lust than lice?

Well, I tend to make my boys be a little fastidious, even pernickety about cleanliness. Ambrose (In Standish)is considered by Fleury to be a little eccentric about his faddiness for keeping clean, but Fleury works hard to keep his lover in soap. This was particularly important because at the time they are making love in Newgate Prison, which, unless you had money (in which case anything was available) you were likely to wallow in your own filth. Create love scenes in Newgate weren't easy and I probably, having read Bernard Cornwell's versionof the prison in The Gallow's Thief, underplayed the noxious aspects of the place.


Baths are always good,
showerbaths existed even in Regency times, and a sponge bath is doable at any time.

Of course it's easier to keep clean if you are rich, which is why, I suppose, many m/m historicals include the nobility. Filling a bath is much easier when you have a handful of staff doing your bidding!Of course there are always times when hygiene was as important as politics, such as the Ancient Roman civilisation and the Greek, so keeping clean for sex is easy there!

In Transgressions I use swimming as a prelude to sex, when I know both young men are nice and clean, and I resort to the dear old sponge bath when my heroes are covered in sweat and mud. "I have no idea how you got mud there" says Tobias as he sweeps his sponge over David's intimate areas. I can assure you that David probably put it there on purpose!

Anyway, let me finish with the remaining Essential Reads that I started yesterday. I hope that you enjoyed my time here and I'd like to offer a signed first edition of Transgressions to one commenter, which I'll pick and announce by Good Friday 10th April.

5. The Back Passage by James Lear
The reason this makes my list is that it's huge fun. It shows that gay historicals don't have to take
themselves at all seriously, and it does not pretend to be more than it is, a funny, hot sex romp. However it DOES achieve more than that – the main character is brilliant, and there's a proper mystery in there to be solved, even if Mitch bends over backwards (*snorts *) in order to solve it.

6. The Boy I Love by Marion Husband

This is a beautiful, quiet and quite underrated and under read piece of work. Set just after the First World War it's a character piece, in an A J Cronin style, of a man returning home, after a ghastly time in the trenches. Can one come home after something like that? Can one really pick up where one left off? What about the lovers you left behind? I was wrapped up in this, and I recommend it to anyone.

7. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

I don't suppose there's anyone here who hasn't read this, but if you haven't – you must. Don't be put off with the "fantasy" label, because it isn't really, not at all. It's a story of a rising swordsman, Richard and the way he lives his life in the intricate and convoluted court life in the city where he lives. Beautifully plotted, immaculately described and although the sex is, like Renault's, pretty much off stage it's incredibly erotic and the love between Alec and Richard will break you into pieces.

Well – thank you once again to the ladies of the Island for letting me play, it's been fun being here, and meeting you all. If you are interested in gay historical fiction at all, check out the excerpts on my website http://erastes.com/ and The List on Speak Its Name http://speakitsname.wordpress.com/the-list/

Erastes - Day 2: My DIK Books

Hello everyone and many thanks to the ladies of the Island for inviting me here. I'm armed with my Factor 200 (pale English skin, you see) a big floppy hat and an ankle length caftan. Now, where's the fruit-based drinks with the umbrellas?

I've been thinking about what to blog about and I think as a starter I'd like to share some of my essential reading with you. As some of you know I specialise in gay historical fiction, not just writing it, but doing my darndest to promote the genre and to get it recognised as a genre in its own right. When the romance and/or gay awards start to have it as a category I can die happy.

So, in the course of my work in this pimping, reviewing, promoting, generally-being-a-darned nuisance mode I read a lot of gay historical fiction. Almost in fact to the exclusion of all else and I've read some startlingly good, and some stunningly tripey along the way.

The genre is bound to grow--is growing, I'm happy to say--blossoming like a warm prick in a receptive palm, and as it does, and as people perhaps jump on the bandwagon I worry that the quality may fall. We all know that there are great het historicals and some that... well, read like they've been cobbled together from the films Braveheart and The Knight's Tale. So while I'm here, stranded with the ladies of misrule, I'll bring along my seven historicals and try to explain why I think they are the top seven, and why they are, in my opinion, my own Desert Island Keepers - and "Essential Reading" for anyone who wants to give the genre a go. I won't bore you with them all today, but will do a few today only, will chat about something different tomorrow and continue the list. Each one has a different reason why they are my DIKs

Although these are numbered 1-7, these aren't in any particular order - all of my Essential Reads occupy the number one spot in my heart. You'll notice that not all these books have a HEA. I believe a book can still have a stunning love-story and still end sadly.

1. At Swim Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill (1914 ish, Ireland)

It's hard to define this book. It's not what I'd call an easy read; you have to be in the mood to read it and the first few chapters are frankly enough to put any prospective reader off. I've been in contact with O'Neill about this and he says he's had to justify those first chapters all over the world and now he just says bugger it, they are as they are. Believe me, if you've not read this book, and you are at all interested in history, characterisation and a story that will tear you to little tiny tiny pieces, then you really need to. If I could make one person feel the way I felt after finishing this, then I would have achieved something magnificent.

2. As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann (17th Century England)

This one is an E.R. for the characterisation. Jacob Cullen is probably one of the most unpleasant characters you'll ever meet in gay historical fiction--as a romantic lead, at least--and if you check this list of traits for a sociopath, it pretty much sums him up. McCann's genius with this book is that she makes you care for this ghastly man, really care, and I for one was sobbing at the end.

3. The Charioteer by Mary Renault (Second World War England)

I'm sure no-one needs me to tell them it's a masterpiece. There is nothing wrong with this book. What makes it so amazing is that its one of the most erotic books of the genre without a single sex scene, or hardly even a kiss described. There's a part at the beginning where Laurie has a crush on Ralph, an older boy who is leaving school under a cloud, and Ralph says something like, "come here. There now, it wouldn't be any good." And you suddenly realise that between two seemingly innocent sentences was an entire scene for your brain to fill in. The dialogue and depth of emotion makes this a never ever ever be without book for me.

4. False Colors by Alex Beecroft (mid 18th cent. Age of Sail)

I've read all of Alex's works and enjoyed them all. However, as good as Captain's Surrender is, and it is, this book is as different from it as Swallows and Amazons and Master and Commander. This is E.R. because--although yes, it's a wonderful gay romance in every sense of the word--it's so much more than that. Many gay romances simply deal with the characters love for each other and the plot happens around that, but this is a real Boy's Own adventure, huge in scope, with a bodycount to rival anything Hollywood can produce (they'll never make this, it would be far too expensive)

I'll do some more tomorrow when I'll be discussing the fun and games a gay historical writer can have with the scents and smells and general hygiene issues that pre 20th century living can cause and the challenges of making love in the 17th Century without making the reader retch.

About Me - Erastes - Day 1

I would like to introduce you to Erastes, author of historical hot manlove whose motto is "the dirtier, the better" when referring to men. She loves men who are smudged with dirt ...... not so that she can lick 'em off and make 'em clean again, oh no ....... she just loves playing with and rolling in dirt! Erastes is busy preparing for the launch of Transgressions her newest novel which will hit the ground running on April 13 (that's Easter Monday, you heathens), so get out your wallets and prepare to be boarded. Wave


Now for the official profile -

Erastes lives in Norfolk, UK, if you call being slave to 2½ cats "living" and when she can be dragged kicking and screaming away from her computer, she enjoys walks by the Broads. She likes cats and cheese but has discovered only one of those is any good with toast. She's released two novels, 3 novellas and her short stories have appeared in "Best Gay Stories", "Ultimate Gay Erotica" and many others. She lives almost entirely in other centuries in the pursuit of her research, and gets extraordinarily turned on by buttons and Hessian boots.

Favorite Reading Position
Lying in the bath or in bed. I'm resisting the call of the e-reader because they are so darned expensive but when I can get get one for £30 and its waterproof, I WANT one.

Best love song
Hmm. I'm afraid my music tastes are a bit antiquated, when it comes to "modern music" I tend to live in the 1980's. Black's "Wonderful Life" is one of my favourites, or The Verve's "The Drugs don't work" - neither of them love songs, but gorgeously erotic.

Favorite Heroine
Probably Friday from Robert A Heinlein's book of the same name. She's a test tube baby, physically enhanced, has a lot going for her (beautiful of course) and there's every indication she could be a Mary-Sue but Heinlein makes her hugely insecure and with an enormous chip on her shoulder about not "Being Human" - she's perfect.

Author everyone loves but you don’t
I have several. Hemingway, James Joyce, Neil Gaiman. Sorry, fans of them.

If you could be in one book/series/world which would you pick?
I'd be a shield maiden of the Rohan in Lord of the Rings.

How old is your inside voice
Around 25. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. (stops jumping in puddles)

Favorite sex song
"All by myself" (only joking) Anything slow and Classical. Preferably by Jean-Baptiste Lully. Yes. I'm weird.

If you could be a hero who would you be?
None of mine, they are all entirely too flawed. Hmm. Probably Ralph from The Charioteer.

What heroine is most like you
Can I change this to hero, please? I don't read many het stories. Josh from my short story in the I DO! Anthology, "The Snow Queen"- although he's an ex-pat American living in England, he has just lost his partner, and when i wrote that story I'd just lost my mother, so there's an awful lost of me in Josh. Including the love for snow, and the fantasies about being Kay in the fairy tale.

Boxers, Briefs, boxer briefs, kilt (I say we add commando)
For my real life men? Hmm. Briefs I'd say. Kilts are great too. For my fictional men? Anything from strossers to long johns.

Favorite book set on a tropical island
I don't think I know of any, other than Lord of the Flies.

What hero is most like your significant other
The Invisible Man!!!

What hero would you like to be your significant other
Lucius Malfoy. What do you mean he's not a hero? Sez who?

If you were stuck on a desert island what 3 things would you bring
Jason Isaacs, Lucius Malfoy's Wig and Captain Hook's wig.

Favorite drink to bring to the DIK party
Bollinger and a magical icebucket