The Accidental One-click
Hi everyone! I’m Tara Lain and I’m so happy to be here to celebrate the launch of Andy’s new site – a first time for him. And of course, he’s asked us to share first times too. The thing that immediately came to mind when I heard this request was to share my “first time” reading gay romance.
This was back around 2009. I had discovered romance on Amazon and was having a great time ordering it and reading it. In fact, as a writer of non-fiction my whole career (I own an ad/PR agency), people always said I should write a book. To me it had just sounded like work – until I discovered romance! Reading romance was fun, and for the first time, I decided I’d like to take people’s advice and write my own book. I had sketched out an idea in my mind about a female genetic researcher in her thirties, Em, who has a huge thing for her younger research partner, Jake, but she knows he lives with his girlfriend. (Trust me, this all goes together in a minute)
Meanwhile, I’d gotten hooked on a series of romances I was buying from Amazon (preKindle) called the Dark Elves series by Jet Mykles. These were all steamy, paranormal romances (what I would now call M/F, but then just called romance.). There were a lot of books in the series and I was burning through them, so I needed more Jet. I went onto Amazon and one-clicked a book called Heaven. I didn’t read much about it. It had a pretty illustrated cover, was the beginning of another series, and most important was by Jet. A couple days later, it arrived. I ripped it open and stared at the cover. Uh, why do these pretty people both have flat chests?
I read the blurb. Holy crap, it’s about two guys! I laugh now. I was kind of glancing over my shoulder to see who was staring at me in shock. But I had the book, loved Jet, and thought the blurb about a group of musicians sounded great, so I started reading. It took no time at all to get totally hooked. I loved the dynamic, the lack of gender roles, and the sexy guys. I wanted to do this too.
Instantly, the “girlfriend” I had created for my first book became a boyfriend, my hero morphed into bisexual, and I was writing an LGBT ménage. That book, which isn’t currently on the market but I hope may be rereleased sometime this year, is called Genetic Attraction. It launched my career as a writer of gay romance and that was about 45 books ago. I’ve never looked back. All because of an “accidental” one-click.
Giveaway
As my prize to thank you all for stopping by, I’ll give one winner a choice of ANY ebook from my backlist published by Dreamspinner Press (which is almost all my books). Thank you for celebrating with us!
Tara Lain’s Latest Release
Double trouble. The McMillan twins, Robin and Bobby, are renowned for their talents-both as fine artists and for thrilling the various men who catch their eyes. As different in style and personality as their DNA is identical, they’re nonetheless best friends who divide and conquer, with Robin doing the serious painting and Bobby adding the sunny salesmanship.
But when their most important client decides Bobby must wield the paintbrush, the brothers revert to childhood tactics and switch places. Then along comes Micah, a handsome doctor who’s attracted to Bobby but invites Robin out to try to please his homophobic brother, and Paolo, the pain-in-the-butt client who thinks he’s wooing Bobby when he’s actually after Robin. Paolo harbors his own hidden pain that weirdly intersects with Robin’s, but pride and privacy conspire to produce what will either be a masterpiece-or end up as Dogs Playing Poker.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36650450-bleu-balls
Dreamspinner eBook: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/bleu-balls-by-tara-lain-9239-b
Dreamspinner Paperback: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/bleu-balls-by-tara-lain-9240-b
Kindle: http://amzn.to/2zuY5Jv
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bleu-balls/id1321653428?mt=11
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bleu-balls
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bleu-balls-tara-lain/1127688771?ean=2940158692390
About Tara Lain
Tara Lain writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in gay romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her first novel was published in January of 2011 and she’s now somewhere around book 40. Her best-selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary Romance, Best Paranormal Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, Best Gay Characters, Best Romantic Suspense, and more. In her other job, Tara owns an advertising and public relations firm. She often does workshops on both author promotion and writing craft. She lives with her soul-mate husband and her soul-mate dog near the sea in California where she sets a lot of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new experiences, Tara says on her tombstone it will say “Yes”!
Author Links:
Website: http://taralain.com/
Blog: http://www.taralain.com/blog
Twitter: https://twitter.com/taralain
FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/taralain
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4541791.Tara_Lain
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/taralain/
Thank you fo much for having me and the guys!! : )
I think my first M/M was Laurel K. Hamilton, with her characters Anita, Jean Claude and the werewolf guy. My mother shuddered when she read it, but I became hooked.
Kim, i think Jean Claude is still one of the great vampires! And Asher? Sigh. : )
I found my first M/M book through Google Play in 2010., and I’ve never looked never looked back!
Yep. Around the same time as me. : )
45 books? Wow. I thought I had read most of yours but no way does it total 45. Need to see what ones have fallen through the net? Looks like the one-click button is going to be used again, but not by accident ?
Thank you , dear!! A few are off the market — the 4 books of the Genetic Attraction series. A couple are off the market today but will be rereleased in the next couple months. Aside from that, most of the titles are at Dreamspinner with 2 at Pride. I think there are 4 — Rome and Jules, Love You So Madly, The Case of the Sexy Shakespearean, and Love and Linguistics — that are written and contracted but not yet released. : )
I don’t remember what the first gay romance I read was. I discovered it from an ad years ago and started reading a bunch. I’ve always been a huge romance reader. Thanks for the post. Love your books!
Thank you Toni!! Hugs. : )
Thanks so much for coming by Tara!
*To everyone who comments, the captcha auto confirm isn’t working so I need to approve all first time commenters. So, given I do try to sleep now and again, and have to be away from my screen, it might take a few hours to approve if you comment – sorry for the inconvenience, but your comments won’t be deleted.
I have all your books so don’t add me for the giveaway.
My first m/m book was actually more fantasy than romance but it did make me very open about reading m/m romances. It was Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey.
Special hugs for having all my books! Thank you so much, Ilona. : )
It’s funny what accidents will lead to. I love your stories, especially the cowboys. When I read my first gay book it wasn’t an accident. I had just come out later in life (2002) and was learning fast about the gay culture, including reading. I can’t remember which was first. Someone recommended Tales of the City series. But I also was fascinated that there were gay characters in a fav genre of SF, and I discovered the NARC series by Mel Keegan.
So glad you like the cowboys! I have an idea for a third book, which will get on the agenda one of these days. : )
OMG! Genetic Attraction is why I got into m/m! I had to know how Jake and Roan came to be so I took the plunge after a few months of nerving myself lol. I definitely know the looking over my shoulder feeling, but I think after all this time I’m getting better at answering the question, “oh, what do you read?”
I have all the books so please disqualify me from the contest. ?
Sigh. Roan Black is one of my top 2 or 3 heroes i’ve ever written. : )
I know right? So good! Sometimes you get it right the first time! I love him and am happy he gets 2 books for me to re-read. Although I have to admit you have some magic about you and your MC’s, they all are so wonderful.
Sigh. Roan Black is one of my top 2 or 3 heroes i’ve ever written. : )
My first M/M was Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey. I loved her series and that trilogy became my favorites of all her books that I read.
My first ‘exposure’ to m/m was Jules, a character in Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooter series. After that, I went looking for the stories. Next were books by Marie Harte, where a series had bisexual characters. From there, there was no looking back. I was hooked.