Longhorns Movie (An LGBT Dramedy)

     Who said that lgbt movies have to be sad or even serious? Okay, Longhorns has its serious side, but so much of it is tongue-in-cheek that the seriousness is extremely easy to digest. I recently saw this movie on Netflix and wasn’t sure what to expect. Let me tell you it had me laughing right away and for mostly the right reasons.

     Set in 1982, Longhorns explores the lives of Cesar (Derek Villenueva), an openly gay student at the University of Texas, and Kevin (Jacob Newton), a frat boy who cannot entirely come to grips with same sex attraction. Therein is the film’s appeal from an intellectual standpoint. What makes someone gay? Can you engage in homosexual activity without actually being gay?

     My answer to the latter is yes. Absolutely. Experiencing same sex attraction does not necessarily make someone gay. Wanting to have sex with members of the same gender—even if you act on it—does not necessarily change your sexual orientation. What makes someone gay or legitimately bisexual is the emotional attraction that one feels. At the risk of adding a spoiler, Kevin does eventually acknowledge some emotional attraction to Cesar, though the rest of the cast only ever admits to lust for other men.

     What this film does is clarify the fact that sexuality isn’t black and white. Human sexuality is far more complex and diverse than “gay” and “straight” and that same sex attraction by straight people is not only normal but is fairly common. My only criticism of the film is one situation that I felt was too unbelievable. This situation involved Kevin and one of his frat buddies in bed masturbating to porn. Straight guys do masturbate together, but only in the same general vicinity. They wouldn’t be naked. Side by side. In bed. And if one guy reached over to crank the other guy’s dick, it would be much more of a shock because it would be of a completely different sexual nature.

     For you skin buffs, there is a ton of full frontal nudity in this film. In fact, I don’t think there’s a guy in this movie that doesn’t strip down and show his junk off to the viewer. So, if that turns your crank, you’ll definitely want to see this movie.

     Overall this is a movie worth seeing so long as you don’t try and take it too seriously. Sit down to view it with a sense of humor

Tim Tebow's Girlfriend

     So, I saw a report on Yahoo about Tim Tebow and his new girlfriend livin’ it up at a bowling alley in Jacksonville, Florida. That’s a fair thing to do during the Jets’ bye week, I suppose. But I call sham on anyone who thinks this girl is his legitimate girlfriend. Young woman have something else to worry about and it isn’t his girlfriend. Tim Tebow is a very gay man, which means the girls swooning over him really won’t have a chance.

     I don’t say he’s gay as a negative thing (obviously), but more of a statement of fact. Mannerisms and clichés don’t mean everything. Some very straight-acting men have turned out to be gay and vice versa. But I don’t buy that in his case. If you ask me, it has more to do with the fact that he’s very Catholic and could never come out of the closet or even come to terms with his sexuality for himself.

     He’s a very good looking dude, though. With a body like his, why not put it to better use with the same sex?

Grocery Store Gangbang

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Guy of the Week: Andrea Bargnani

     Readers often remark to me about how I have a thing for jocks, as evidenced by many of my stories. Indeed it’s true. But it isn’t just about football. This week’s Guy of the Week is Toronto Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani. I’m also a big basketball fan and the Toronto Raptors are my favorite team, so that makes Andrea a pretty easy choice.

     What’s so great about Andrea? Well, he’s from Rome, Italy, which means a romance language is his native tongue. As if that isn’t hot enough, he’s also seven feet tall. Maybe it’s immature to wonder if he’s ‘in proportion’, but pardon me if I do it anyway, okay?

     Known in Italian basketball circles as ‘Il Mago’ (The Magician), Andrea has kept a beard through most of his tenure in Toronto. In fact, he wouldn’t look the same without it, and most guys wouldn’t be able to so effectively get away with just letting facial hair grow without cultivating it in some way. More often than not he keeps it short, but sometimes he looks like he just came out of the woods, which is fine by me. What I also like about Andrea is that I got to meet him in Chicago when I traveled to see the Raptors play the Bulls in December 2009. This meeting occurred at court side prior to the game in which Toronto blew out Chicago.

     Shirtless Andrea Bargnani pics are a rarity, but I know a ton of us would like to see them. I also never hear girlfriend rumors about him, which is a bit of a surprise. That doesn’t mean that he’s gay and waiting until after retirement to come out of the closet. The NBA shouldn’t be quite as rough as the NFL for that. 

     But let’s not wait so long to celebrate this very handsome man. Enjoy some Andrea pics and be sure to cheer on the Toronto Raptors!

Guy of the Week: Eli Manning

     Okay, so it’s back to jocks this week. That seems fair since I write so many gay erotic stories about jocks, doesn’t it? Anyway, this week’s honored guy is New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. I think we can remove the Peyton’s Little Brother tag now. I mean, he’s literally won twice as many Super Bowl rings as Peyton for crying out loud.

     Eli’s looks are unique. When he entered the NFL in 2004, he had a general cuteness about him, but it lacked a certain maturity. ‘Boyish’ good looks wouldn’t be quite right (that’s really what he has right now). So, rather than having his looks decline with age, or us being glad that he’s kept his looks, he seems to get better looking with each passing year.

     It doesn’t hurt that he’s learned what to do with his hair. His brown locks look much better when they’re grown out and wavy rather than cut short. He’s also tall with great brown eyes to match his hair and has a great smile. What else could someone want in a man?

     Eli’s not gay—that we know of—but there have been rumors about Peyton and Kenny Chesney. I’ve heard people say it about Eli, too, but I wouldn’t put too much stock in that. At the very least he offers a heaping helping of eye candy for all to enjoy.

Guy of the Week: Reid Ewing

     Two weeks in a row featuring a non-athlete. Is that a record? Anyway, this week I’m featuring Reid Ewing. You’ll know him as the dimwitted yet loveable Dylan on Modern Family. What do I like about Reid? Well, his height doesn’t hurt, but one needn’t be tall to be attractive. Not everyone goes for the lanky look, but it seems to work for him. Several hairstyles seem to suit him which is a plus for anyone. He has boyish good looks that could fade after he’s thirty (he’s twenty-four as I write this), so enjoy them while you can. His Youtube videos show a wonderful sense of humor which counts as a nice intangible quality of hotness.

     In addition to Modern Family, he’s been in Wendys’ commercials as part of their “Where’s the Beef?” campaign. He also had a supporting role in the 2011 Fright Night remake. I wouldn’t say he make a big splash in that movie, but it was still a major motion picture, right? He’s also an avid musician who wrote and performed the song “In the Moonlight (Do Me)” on Modern Family.

     Now for the four hundred pound gorilla in the room. Is he gay? He he he, I can’t answer that one for you. Some of his Youtube clips seem to imply it, but the guy in the videos with him could well be a good friend. That’s still quite possible. It would be nice if he could follow in the footsteps of Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen Degeneres and even his Modern Family co-star and come out of the closet (assuming that he is), but everyone comes out in their own way. And not everyone feels the need to advertise it, so that’s okay, too.

     Anyway, here’s to Reid. I’ve never needed an extra reason to watch Modern Family, but he sure is an extra bright spot.

Let's Talk E-Book Pricing

By Donovan Starr

 

     Because publishing has changed so much, and because erotica (and romance to an extent) differ so much from other forms of fiction, I’ve chosen to weigh in on the matter of e-book pricing. When e-books and indie publishing made their first big splash, I heard much racous about the low cost of e-books, particularly in the .99 cent to $2.99 categories. Books often do move better at $2.99 as opposed to higher prices. That seems to be the sweet spot, but I don’t blame those who charge a little more if they can get away with it. Some well-established author friends have told me that if a reader isn’t willing to pay $3.99 for a novel or $2.99 for a novella, they don’t want that person to read their work. Fair enough.

     Erotica and romance (or erotic romance) differ a bit in this regard. An erotic/romance author can charge—and receive--$2.99 for a much shorter work. You really can’t get away with that in, say, the horror genre. I know because I have a long line of friends in the horror field, both new and established. $3.99 is the best you will get for a full-length novel before readers begin to roll their eyes.

     And yet serial erotic romances can demand $2.99 per instalment. Some readers hate it, but if you look at the numbers of authors like Delilah Fawkes of The Billionaire’s Beck and Call series, and her counterparts, it’s clear that a lot of people are willing to pay that price for something they want. Part of it may be the suspense of finding out what happens next, assuming they enjoyed the previous instalments enough.

     Still, I wouldn’t charge any more than $2.99 for anything in erotica or romance no matter the length. I've done too much research on the topic not to know better. When stories in erotica reach a certain length and you only charge 99 cents, it’s sometimes taken as a comment on the product’s quality. Many of my stories are priced at 99 cents but that’s because they’re rather short. Quickies you might say. But my Game of Inches series is significantly longer per instalment than any of those short stories hence the $2.99 price point. If I priced it at 99 cents, readers would regard it as garbage and not buy it. In horror, you could never get away with pricing a novel at 99 cents. Readers have reached the point in which they associate 99 cent products with garbage. Not so with erotica, but then other genres wouldn’t allow the abundance of short stories to be successful either. Erotica is a genre of short story readers.

     When can you price at $2.99? In my opinion, the story should be no less than 4, 000 words before you charge that much. Instalments of A Game of Inches are still considerably longer than that, so my conscience is clear in terms of how I’ve handled the market. Some charge that much at lower word counts but you can tell by their sales rank that they don’t sell very well. In that case, 99 cents would  be better.

     Quantity over quality? What matters more? A relationship between story length and price point still exists in erotica as it does in other genres. Erotica and romance happen to be more lucrative perhaps because they account for much more of the market than horror and other forms of fiction. In fact, romance books account for a rather large percentage of books sold.

     So, if you’re writing in the erotic/romance field, wait until your stores are at least 4, 000 words long before you charge $2.99. And, if you’re writing a serial, make sure your instalments are a good 7, 500 words long. Sure, many successful ones are shorter, but by making it longer you can avoid reader complaints—and avoidance.