Shira Anthony's Blog - Posts Tagged "mm-rom"

For the last day of the Romance and Manga Blog Hop, I thought I’d share an excerpt from my upcoming release, “The Melody Thief (Blue Notes #2).” Release date is 8/24/12 from Dreamspinner Press. This is from Chapter Four. A little background – Antonio rescues Cary from a mugging on a Milan street and offers Cary spend the night at his place so there’s someone to watch him after he suffers a concussion. Cary wakes up the next morning to a little complication.

Don’t forget to leave a comment at www.shiraanthony.com to be entered to win a copy of one of my Dreamspinner Press titles (including “Blue Notes,” the first in the series). Also be sure to enter the grand prize drawing and check out all the other participating blogs at http://www.hayleybjames.com/2012/06/b...!

I'm headed on vacation soon, but a little birdie told me my free story for the MM Goodreads Romance Group's "Love is Always Write" event is coming very soon! Can't tell you exactly when, but keep an eye out for it here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

"Kiss and Makeup" is a short story (about 10,000 words) about Ted Aaronson, a Hollywood makeup artist, and a Hollywood star/action hero, Len Golden. Ted has to turn Len into an alien commander for a big-budget sci fi movie. But once Ted sees Len in person, he realizes he'd much rather turn Len into his boyfriend. Which might present a bit of a problem, since Ted's pretty convinced Len's straight. Turns out, the two men met ten years before, doing summer stock.

A little less angsty than my usual books, this story is a fun summer romance with explicit sex and a HEA. I hope you enjoy it! -Shira

My free MM Goodreads Group "Love is Always Write" story is up! "Kiss and Makeup" is a fun, sexy, short story about a Hollywood makeup artist and an action hero. http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/8...

Lots of other great free gay romance stories for the reading, too! Check them out.

The winner of the t-shirt giveaway is Dianne! Congrats. I'll be contacting you by email. Don't forget that everyone who commented is still entered to win a copy of The Melody Thief in the ebook format of their choice. I'll be running another contest next week for more swag, so stay tuned! Don't forget you can also enter to win a copy (autographed, if you wish) of the paperback version of Melody Thief on Goodreads.

Thanks to everyone who entered and told me about their favorite music! I've got a few bands I'm going to be looking up. XD In the meantime, if you like classical, or are just curious, you can listen to some of the music from The Melody Thief by clicking here and scrolling down to the "Book Extras" tab and clicking on the link. You'll find links to free recordings there. -Shira

Happy weekend and welcome to the Rainbow Reviews Blog Hop! Oh, and welcome to release day (Friday 8/24) for my latest gay romance, “The Melody Thief!” Yep, two-for-one day, and definitely time to celebrate! As part of the hop (and release day), I’ll be giving away one eBook copy of “Blue Notes,” the original Blue Notes Series book from Dreamspinner Press (your choice of formats) and a Blue Notes Series t-shirt (your choice of covers). To enter, just leave a comment with your email address on my blog. And be sure to check out all the other wonderful blogs and giveaways (click on the hop logo above)!

“The Melody Thief”

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Blue Notes Series, each book is a standalone novel that takes place in the same classical music universe. What does a “classical music” universe look like? It’s a place where performers share connections and friendships through their music. Characters include performers, entertainment lawyers, agents, and the people they know and love. Stories are often set in places where performers congregate—large cities like Paris, New York, Milan, and Chicago feature prominently in the series.

The original book in the series, “Blue Notes,” features a jazz violinist and a former musician turned lawyer, and is set in Paris. This new installment, “The Melody Thief,” features a classical cellist with an international career and an entertainment lawyer, and is set in Milan.

“The Melody Thief” is the story of cellist Cary Redding, a former child prodigy and a budding superstar on the classical music scene. Cary’s career is skyrocketing, but his personal life is a disaster. He’s addicted to anonymous sex and flirts with alcohol addiction. Everything comes crashing down around Cary when he’s mugged on a deserted Milan street while coming home from a gay bar. Things look grim until he’s rescued by Antonio Bianchi, an Italian lawyer (for those of you who have read “Blue Notes,” you’ll recognize Antonio as Rosalie’s lawyer).

Cary doesn’t want a relationship, although he’d be happy to end up in bed with Antonio. Things get complicated because Cary lies about who he is and pretends to be an out of work composer. The last thing Cary expects is to fall for Antonio. There’s also another complication: Antonio has a five year old son, Massimo. But when Antonio adds a little romance to Cary’s life, Cary falls hard. Now if he could only come clean about who and what he is.

To read an excerpt from “The Melody Thief,” click on the link and scroll down to the “Excerpt” tab.

Now, on to the theme of the Rainbow Review Blog Hop:

“What does writing GLBTQ literature mean to me?”

In some ways, writing gay romance isn’t all that different than writing anything else: it’s an act of self-expression, something my creative brain urges me to do. Ironic then, isn’t it, that a straight woman could learn far more about herself writing gay relationships than she ever learned from writing heterosexual ones.

I grew up in the 70s. My mother was a professional musician, my dad a college professor. Open-minded, politically active parents with openly gay friends. I never even thought twice about homosexuality as being “wrong.” It just was. The majority of men who inhabited my career universe, opera, were gay. Plenty of the women too. My best friend is a gay man—one of the best men I know. Kind, strong, intelligent, funny. In grad school, we used to say (with some seriousness) that if I wasn’t married by age 35, we’d get married and have a family together.

So what did I read at night when I was a college student? Harlequin romances. And boy, oh boy, did I long for more!

My first published romance was a het one. Spunky heroine with big boobs falls head over heels for another slave on the pirate ship where she’s held captive. Loved the hero. Hated the heroine. She was just so... wimpy. So not me. I’m a product of the women’s liberation movement—my parents told me I could do anything I wanted to do. I sang opera, went to law school in my 30s, and started writing professionally in my 40s.

My “a-ha” moment? My epiphany? When a friend asked me to co-author a love story about two men. My first thought: why not? My second: will I enjoy this? I couldn’t answer the first question (I figured that was a good sign). Still, I was pretty sure the answer to the second question would be “probably not.” Oh, how I was wrong!

I have a hard time explaining why I find gay romances so downright hot. Someone asked me if it’s because I can imagine “converting” the men to heterosexuality. Definitely not. And I don’t want to just substitute a different set of “junk” and create a main character who’s really a woman beneath it all (well not unless I end up writing a transgender story at some point!). But that got me thinking. I love men. Always have. I love their bodies, I love that they can be strong, self-assured and nobody faults them for it. There are so many shades of men, each with unique strengths, flaws, and weaknesses.

Which just leads me to the next reason I love writing gay romance: I want people to know how I feel about homosexuality. I want them to know I celebrate it. I want to write my best friend his own happy ending because, dammit, he deserves one like I got with my husband. And yes, there are times when I preach a little. And because I try to write about real relationships, I don’t skip condom use (or lack thereof). I’m not afraid to write explicit sex scenes because, let’s face it, real men have sex. And it’s not the glossed-over sex I read in those Harlequins years ago (if they even had sex); it’s sex as in a real physical relationship between human beings.

In the end, though, writing gay romance isn’t all that different from writing romance. My stories are about human failings, human strengths, and human emotions. The appeal of a well-written romance is that it can reach out and touch a reader’s heart, maybe even help the reader to learn something about him/herself, just as gay romance has touched my own heart and helped me to understand more about myself. -Shira

 

 

"The Melody Thief" (Blue Notes #2) just received its first editorial review from Melanie Marshall of Joyfully Jay and Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words. It's a lovely review and it always makes me feel so good when a reviewer gets the point of a book. More than just "gets it," really. "Gets" a part of me.

Melanie writes, "[Shira Anthony's] experience gives such depth to the musicians here and the life they must lead in order to rise to the top of the field that our understanding of the discipline it takes becomes much clearer. It is not enough to be gifted, one must also be driven as well. To have the music be an all encompassing part of your life has a price, and Anthony brings this theme throughout her series, as all the characters must look at their lives, past, present and future and balance it out with their obsessive need to play and be heard."

Wow. I read this and I thought,"Yep. That's me. The person with a gift for singing that just wasn't able to make it the all encompassing part of my life that my characters have."

I sang professionally for about 14 years. For those of you who know a bit about the performing arts, you'll understand how difficult a career it is. I had my second child when I was 33. Until then, I'd been flying up to New York City for voice lessons every other week or so and working as an administrative assistant at a law firm. I'd sing two or three "gigs" a year, but I was spending the majority of my time working at a job I didn't enjoy and traveling far from my family. Nobody forced me to quit. My husband was incredibly supportive of my singing. He was as excited as I was when the San Franscisco Examiner wrote of a performance of "Pagliacci," "Remember the name. Gruber is a discovery!" It was a high point for me. A vindication, of sorts. The universe telling me I was good enough to make a career of singing.

But at some point, adults have to make difficult choices. I saw singers a few years ahead of me career-wise, saw their floundering marriages, and sensed their pain at having to leave their families behind when they traveled. And for opera, at least, travel was an integral part of the career. There are few, if any opera companies left in the world in the 21st Century who have year-round contract singers. Add to those considerations my own growing fear of performing well in audition situations (for me, the actual performance was never really an issue, it was the "proving myself" part of the equation that left me shaking in my boots), and I decided it was time to let go and move on. Hardest decision I've ever made, and one that still haunts me.

For those of you who have read "Blue Notes" and who know my story, you'll realize there's a great deal of Shira in Jason Greene, the former pianist, now attorney. The pain of giving up a career in music in that story is my own. The same is true for the upcoming third installment of the series, "Aria." Much of that book draws on my own life experiences when I was living with and later married to my wonderful (and patient!) husband. Opera singer Aiden Lind's nomadic life was mine for a short time, although I never reached the heights of my career that Aiden does in the novel. But the pain and challenges of a long-distance relationship? Been there, done that.

I say all this because it really does mean a great deal to me when a reader or a reviewer connects with the story and understands the intention behind it. In retrospect, I feel lucky to have had the experiences I've had, even the painful ones. It means even more to me to be able to share them with others and help them to understand. -Shira

PS: Want to hear what I sounded like in my 20s? Click here. That's me, recorded live singing the title role in "Tosca."

Happy Friday! No earthshaking revelations on tap for today (right!), but just a reminder that I'm running two giveaway contests. The first, which ends tonight at midnight EST, is for a free ebook copy of my first Dreamspinner Press release, "The Dream of a Thousand Nights." To enter, just leave a comment with your name and email address on my blog.

The second is for a paperback copy of my newest release, "The Melody Thief," also from Dreamspinner Press. To enter, click here to go to Goodreads, scroll down and you'll see the contest information. That giveaway ends at midnight on October 19th.

I just received the "your edits are coming" email from Dreamspinner about "Aria," Book #3 in the Blue Notes Series. You can read an excerpt from that story by clicking the link. My current WIP, Book #4 in the series, "Prelude," is about 2/3 of the way drafted. It's always a challenge to be writing and editing at the same time, but it's also exciting. I've got one other project that will be on its way to the publisher this weekend, a joint project with another Dreamspinner Press author. More to come about that soon!

Enjoy the beautiful fall weather and have a wonderful weekend, ya'll! -Shira

 

For those of you who have been following the saga of Tali Spencer's "The Prince of Winds," I thought I'd give you a few updates. If you missed the entire crazy story, click here for Tali's blogpost about her firsthand experience with book theft.

First the good news... Tali's wonderful book is back up on all the bookseller outlets, including Amazon and AllRomanceEbooks. Even better, readers have been very supportive of her. Goodreads has taken down the stolen book, published in two parts by the thief.

The bad news... After much soul-searching, I've decided to take down my free novella, "Stealing the Wind." I had wanted to publish it fully here as a free story, then rework it for eventual publication. Given that I do want to publish it eventually, I just couldn't risk having happen to "Stealing" what happened to Tali's book. For those of you who have been following the story, if you email me at shiraanthony@hotmail.com by midnight on Saturday, October 6th, with your contact information, I will make sure you get a free copy of the book when it's published. My way of saying thank you for being understanding!

In the meantime, I've posted another free story on my website. "Kiss and Makeup" was written as part of the Goodreads MM Romance Group's "Love is Always Write" event this past summer. I hope you'll enjoy this sweet and sexy story about a makeup artist who has to transform an action star into an alien warlord, but wants nothing more than to transform him into his boyfriend!

Ah, yes, and now for the ugly... Book theft happens far more than you'd imagine. What happened to Tali is horrible. It's also a crime. But it doesn't happen as often as one other type of theft: piracy. No, not the pirates in "Stealing the Wind." Ebook pirates. Every day, readers download thousands of illegal copies of published books from pirate websites. The day after "The Melody Thief" was released by Dreamspinner Press, there were already illegal copies for "free" download on the web. And we're talking hundreds of downloads for each of my books, thousands for the older ones.

Is it a crime to download a book off a torrent site? Yes. It is. Does it violate a writer's copyright? You bet. But those websites are nearly impossible to fight and they're like wack-a-moles: kill one, and 4 more pop up in its place.

So what can you do if you're a reader to help support your favorite writers? Don't download illegal free copies of ebooks. I know it's tempting, but think about how much time and effort goes into each book. Writers don't receive a penny from these illegal downloads. Nothing. Nada. And think about how many people worked to publish that book, not just the writer, but the editors and cover artists. Dreamspinner and other publishers have regular sales on ebooks, and Amazon almost always sells their books at a discount. Another option is to use the share feature on Amazon Kindle for legal sharing (book loans are limited to one time per book). Or go to your public library and borrow the book (many public libraries have ebooks now).

If writers and readers don't join forces to stop ebook piracy and theft, we all suffer. Take a stand. Stop the pirates. And leave the sexy pirates to the writers' imaginations! -Shira

PS: Congrats to Rush, who won the ebook copy of "The Dream of a Thousand Nights" on last week's post. The Goodreads giveaway for a paperback copy of "The Melody Thief" is still going on, so be sure to enter if you haven't! Scroll down for the contest when you get to the book page.

Less than a week now before I head to the west coast for Yaoicon in Los Angeles! Last year, we were in San Francisco, and I was sad to hear they were moving the convention (I love the bay area). But I know we're going to have a ton of fun in LA, too.

For those of you unfamiliar with yaoi, it's a subgenre of Japanese anime and manga (graphic novels). Gay anime and manga, aimed primarily at women. Realistic gay relationships? Almost none, but it's a lot of fun and the artwork is incredible and the men gorgeous. Yaoi can be quite graphic, so the convention is 18+ only. And it's a perfect place for MM readers to find MM romance to read. Dreamspinner Press will have a table in the dealers' room, so if you're attending, be sure to stop by and get some great deals on paperback books (usually heavily discounted for the convention). Amy Lane, Mary Calmes, E.m. Lynley, Eon de Beaumont, Augusta Li, Lori Hawkins, Venona Keyes, Nessa Warin, D.J. Serani, Rhys Ford and I will all be there.

After Yaoicon, I'm headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the 2012 Gay Romance Literature Retreat at the Albuquerque Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. GayRomLit (or "GRL") is a huge gathering of gay romance authors from around the US and the world, and celebrates the genre in a way no other convention does. GRL is only 2 years old, but it's already one of the biggest events of the year for MM romance writers. I can't even list all the Dreamspinner writers in attendance - there are so many! There are tons of great events sponsored by various publishers, and lots of opportunities for writers to network and for readers to meet their favorite writers.

Of course, in the meantime, I'll be working on the first round of edits for "Aria" (Blue Notes #3), which is scheduled to be released on December 24th. I'm also finishing up a draft of "Prelude" (Blue Notes #4). It's going to be a busy but exciting few months!

Hope to see you all in California or New Mexico! And if you can't make one of the events this year, you should definitely think about it for next year. I can't wait! -Shira

Welcome to day two of the Howloween Blog Hop! Be sure to check out all the other wonderful blogs taking part in the hop by clicking on the graphic or the link above. Each blogger is offering wonderful prizes, so be sure to check them all out!

My prize? An ebook copy of your choice of my Dreamspinner Press releases. You can check them all out here or by clicking on the "My Books" link to the left of this post. Enter by commenting on this post, and don't forget to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win! I'll be drawing a winner on October 30th.

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For day two of the hop, and in honor of Halloween, one of my favorite holidays, I thought I'd share my own personal horror story from my real life opera career. I've already told you that in my various roles I've been stabbed to death, jumped to my death, and died of consumption (at least twice). I also got to stab a villain to death in "Tosca," which was a lot of fun. (I know, I'm a little twisted!) And, by the way, one of my boys in "Aria" (Blue Notes #3), plays the part of the villain I got to stab.

[caption id="attachment_1172" align="alignright" width="277"] Me on stage at the famous La Scala Opera. Okay. Not me. In my dreams![/caption]

Part of any opera singer's training involves stage combat. At one point, I actually knew how to use a sword (not very well, but I did know how to use one). I knew how to pull a punch, slap someone across the face, pull someone by their hair, and, most importantly, how to stab someone. I also knew how to get stabbed. Or maybe I should say I knew how to avoid getting stabbed for real with a knife.

Yes. Most operatic "stabbings" are done with REAL knives. Which, believe it or not, is usually the safest type of knife to use. I say "usually," because in my personal experience, there was one production that left me wondering.

[caption id="attachment_1174" align="alignleft" width="240"] Luciano Pavarotti in "I Pagliacci"[/caption]

One of the first roles I ever performed was Nedda in "I Pagliacci." If you've seen a crying clown singing opera in a commercial, that's "Pagliacci." Nedda is the wife of the crying clown and one of the members of the troupe of performers who travel from town to town, entertaining the local folks. She was rescued from the streets when she was very young and, well, she's not so happily married to the ageing head of the troupe. She's getting a little something on the side from a very handsome young baritone. She also is fighting off another troupe member who insists on trying to rape her.

So here I am, maybe 25, singing in California with a tenor who was well past his prime (but perfect for the role). And he's a little iffy, in many ways. And I'm being shoved around by a very nice baritone (the one who tries to rape my character) who gets a bit carried away with the emotion of the scene. Hence the finger-sized bruises on my upper arms. I can handle that. Bruises fade, and he really didn't mean to grip my arms quite so hard.

The tenor, on the other hand, is a problem. The last scene in the opera, he's found out I've been cheating on him, and that I plan to run away with the handsome baritone. He's not very happy about that (understatement of the century). At the end of the scene, where we are both in clown makeup and supposedly putting on our play for the audience, the tenor is supposed to grab a knife off the table and stab both me and the cutie pie I'm trying to run off with. I'm cool with that. What I'm not so cool with is that in rehearsals, we didn't yet have the knife, so the tenor was using a spoon on us. And really JABBING us in the gut with it. Ouch!

[caption id="attachment_1171" align="alignleft" width="264"] Interior of the La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy[/caption]

At this point, the baritone says, "Time out!" Mind you, he and I were both thinking, "If this guy's going to use a real knife on us, we're going to get hurt." Yes, they dull the knives, but a butter knife can still end up in your belly. Not a good thing. Enter the propmistress. She's the person who provides us with the knives.

We discuss a collapsible knife. You've seen these, I'm guessing. Hard plastic, and when you press the blade against something, it slips inside the handle of the knife. But they tend to jam. Baritone and I are thinking, "That would hurt like hell." Not an option.

[caption id="attachment_1173" align="alignright" width="240"] Rubber Knife[/caption]

We discuss a rubber knife. Wobbles like a rubber chicken. Totally unconvincing. Not an option.

Back to the real knife.

And so it went for days. Seriously! And over that time, the tenor got more and more iffy. He's still not getting his musical cues, he is missing entrances all over the place, and still stabbing us with the spoons. The baritone and I put our collective feet down. Finally, the tenor has a hissy fit in front of the entire cast and quits. Just like that.

Did I mention that "I Pagliacci" is usually performed with another short opera, "Cavalleria Rusticana?" Thank God for that! Turns out the tenor singing in THAT cast knows the role in "I Pagliacci." He is totally professional and steps into the role with only a week of rehearsals. So in the end, we got stabbed with a real knife. I ended up with a bunch of bruises and a rave review in the San Francisco Examiner. No puncture wounds, though!

By the way, in case you're interested in how you "stab" someone with a real knife and make it look real? The person doing the stabbing has their back to the audience and holds the knife where everyone can see. They make a pretty obvious stabbing movement toward the belly of the person being stabbed and, as they come in to do the stabbing, they flatten the knife and literally lay it across the other person's gut. Believe me, it looks pretty damn convincing. The person getting stabbed grabs their abdomen and falls to his/her knees, writhing in pain, then becomes still. Or maybe sings an aria and then dies (this IS opera, after all!).

Hope you enjoyed my little story. Entirely true, all of it. Ah, the glamorous life of an opera singer. -Shira

PS: Did I mention there was an earthquake during rehearsals and that this was performed in Oakland, CA, about a year after the big quake that brought down part of the Bay Bridge?