LGBT Tales - Jacey Holbrand - the Helldorado Mongrels

My guest today in the LGBT Tales series is Jacey Holbrand, with her Paranormal, mm series Helldorado Mongrels, and a very thoughtful post about tolerance, love and inclusion. Do take the time to read it through!

"Greetings everyone! A big thank you to my lovely host for having me on her blog today, and thank you, dear reader, for stopping by.

The first line of my bio states, “Jacey Holbrand believes life and love comes in all forms and should be celebrated.” Yep, this is something I truly feel. To my way of thinking, life is too short to get our knickers in a twist over something like who loves who. Let’s go into some examples. The two men living across the street… Are they running around causing problems for the neighborhood, being total miscreants? No? You say they both have jobs, contribute to the community, and always give a happy wave or a kind word if they see you on the street? Awesome! The two women who run the corner store… They’re good people, and have a couple of cute, well-behaved kids. Great! The male bisexual clerk at the coffee shop on the way to the gym… You’ve overheard him telling another customer how he’s living with his two lovers, a male and a female, who he’d met on campus. Cool! Live in study partners. *wink*

What’s wrong with any of that? In all the pairings mentioned, they love each other, are living decent lives, and they aren’t harming anyone in a physical sense. They might not conform to some people’s beliefs in what couples/families should look like, but does that mean they shouldn’t be allowed to live the way they like and love who they love? What if those against same-sex marriages, or against polyamorous relationships, were told they couldn’t marry the person they’re in love with, or be with the one they love, or let’s even go so far as to say: not be allowed to love at all? They probably wouldn’t like it. So why do they think others would be all right with being told, “No. You can’t (fill in the blank.)”? Why should a person who loves a person of the same sex be held to a different standard than those who are in male/female relationships? I’m not going to delve into the reasonings and possible answers in this post. I’m raising the questions as food for thought, so if in the future you come upon any of this in a discussion, you can have an idea of how you feel and how you’d reply.

Me? I think the world, as it is now, needs as much love going around as possible. Life’s hard enough. It shouldn’t matter how other people settle into relationships. That’s their business, not yours or mine, just as your relationship, and my relationship, isn’t anyone else’s business. Male/female. Male/male. Female/female. A combination of a few or several people in varying relationships in a home. Everyone should be able to enjoy and experience love however and with whomever they find it. Right?

As a parting line, I will also give you this to think about… “One should examine oneself for a very long time before thinking of condemning others.” ~ Moliere

Blessings ~

Jacey"

Very well said Jacey, and thanks for taking the time to share!

Now for Jacey's books, which are very hot MC MM romances and full of Paranormal pizzaz to boot! 

 

Possessed by Him followed by Seduced by Him are the first two stories in the Helldorado Mongrels MC series. The series follows the lives of immortal shifters from different clans, stolen gold, an asshole of a motorcycle club president, and individuals who find their mates. Books three and four are currently works in progress. Though the romances are separate and complete in each book, for maximum reading enjoyment, the stories should be read in order to gain a sense of the overall story arc.

Forced to return to a place of childhood trauma, Cameron Russell fears he’ll have to confront the specter of the past once again. Instead, he comes face to face with the man of his dreams. Literally.

Unbeknownst to Cameron, Gabriel Dyson would do anything to help his human mate realize his destiny, including playing savior and invading Cameron’s dreams. When they finally meet face to face, all seems to go well. Then a member of the Helldorado Mongrels MC kidnaps Cameron, putting him in mortal danger again.

While restrained, Cameron is told a fantastical story of werewolves, which has to be myth…right? Yet memories flare to life—visions of bites and kisses—making him question everything about Gabe.

Can Cameron and Gabe’s cosmic connection, their choices, and their love surpass the secrets Gabe has and the Mongrels’ evil plans?

Read an excerpt at Evernight 
Or download a sample from Amazon


Other links:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/possessed-by-him/id1249111668?mt=11 - Apple ## https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/possessed-by-him-jacey-holbrand/1126582398?ean=2940154413852 - Barnes & Noble ## http://www.bookstrand.com/possessed-by-him-mm - BookStrand ## https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/possessed-by-him - Kobo ## https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/730359 - Smashwords

Wolf shifter and member of the Helldorado Mongrels MC, Dante “Tex” Valentin is restless and dissatisfied. He goes on a ride in search of excitement, never expecting to encounter his mate—a human male.

Jarrod Russell is envious his brother, Cameron, found love. Wondering if fortune will ever smile on him the same way, he runs into a man who rocks his world. A man he believes could be the love of his life.

When Jarrod and Tex’s paths cross again, a passion-filled night connects them. Because of who they are, though, they’re in danger from the Mongrels. Will their relationship be over before they even have a chance to love?

Read an exerpt at Evernight
Or download a sample from Amazon 

Other links:
 

https://itunes.apple.com/au/author/jacey-holbrand/id897158125?mt=11 - Apple ## http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/jacey+holbrand?_requestid=1400524 - Barnes & Noble ## http://www.bookstrand.com/jacey-holbrand - BookStrand ## https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/search?query=Jacey%20Holbrand&fcsearchfield=Author - Kobo ## https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jaceyholbrand - Smashwords

About Jacey Holbrand

Jacey Holbrand believes life and love comes in all forms and should be celebrated. She’s committed to her muse and writing so she can share her stories with readers. Hot days. Sexy nights. Come play in her world.

Jacey loves to hear from readers! Click the link to eMail her: JaceyHolbrand@gmail.com

See what Jacey is up to:

https://jaceyholbrand.wordpress.com/ - Website/Blog ## https://twitter.com/JaceyHolbrand - Twitter ## https://www.facebook.com/jacey.holbrand - Facebook ## http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jacey-Holbrand-Author/584389541594430 - Facebook Page

Transgender Tales - K. T. Vaughn - Dream Princess

Special guest today in the Lair is K. T. Vaughn with Dream Princess. This is an unusual guest on my blog, in that it is not an adult romance,but I really wanted to host this book for the beautiful and sympathetic portrayal of transgender indentity developing in young children. I will let K. T. do the talking!

"Dream Princess is the first story I ever published. From its inception, I conceived it as a transgender youth novel and decided to base it upon Shakespeare’s classic tale of fraternal twins of opposite genders, Twelfth Night. However, after several failed attempts to establish a believable story line, I concluded the problem was adhering too strictly to The Bard’s casting one of the twins out of the picture until near the climax. I also realized that the story I wanted to tell should start no later than early adolescence and continue on from there over the course of a number of years. In this aspect, I was influenced by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. So Dream Princess is the first book in what I call the “Dream Princess” series, and the second book is well underway already.

There are two main characters, obviously the twins, Johnny and Jennifer, throughout the story, which is told in first person from the point of view of Johnny. He is a sad eleven-year old boy, troubled in spirit, ostensibly because his father ditched him, his sister, and their mother to run away with a young woman while also taking all of the family’s money. Pretty nasty fellow, I think, even if he weren’t their father. I purposely wrote the father character in that way because although he never directly appears in the story, he is one of the more important characters by what he has already done to the family, Johnny in particular, and by his sheer absence. Another important character is also never seen directly in the story proper; this is The Princess who is only seen each night in Johnny’s dreams. Because the story is meant for readers of all ages including Johnny’s age of eleven, any romance—oh, didn’t I tell you the story was full of romance too?—yes, any romantic gestures go no farther than a kiss or two. Although The Princess’ overt behavior is similarly limited, discerning adults may notice a risqué scene covertly inserted here and there.

Why does the story begin when Johnny is eleven? Good question. As the story begins, Johnny, his mother, and his sister have just moved across country where his mother has a job offer. They have arrived with the clothes on their backs and whatever belongings they could stuff into their car, but the nice neighbor next door donates a box of her own daughter’s used clothing to Jennifer who, lo and behold, is a tomboy of the highest order. Even before the box is opened, Jennifer is suspicious that it contains “girly” clothes. Sure enough, the first thing she pulls out of the box is a beautiful yellow dress, which she promptly shoves back inside before closing the box. Okay, now it is time to admit that I put some of myself into the story including being an eleven-year old boy when my folks moved far away and also including opening one of the moving boxes at our new house and pulling out a pretty silver skirt though I had no sister and the skirt was my mother’s. The flash of magic that Johnny feels in the story upon seeing the yellow dress is the same flash of magic I felt upon seeing the silver skirt.

Ah, and now for the romance part—beautiful Angela with the long blonde hair, whom Johnny espies at the youth baseball game that Jennifer has dragged him to, and whom Johnny falls instantly and hopelessly in love with. Unfortunately, Johnny’s biggest rival for Angela’s affections is Jenny, the alter ego that the magical yellow dress has somehow awakened from somewhere deep inside his mind. The Jenny versus Johnny conflict within a single mind was inspired in part from my own feelings of being torn between masculine and feminine, and from hearing of other transgender individual’s feelings about having two spirits.

The story, once started, almost began to write itself, and the tomboy sister Jennifer almost immediately cut her hair and tried out for the boys-only baseball team as Jack, the All-American hero. I thought this was a good decision on her part, and it allowed a discussion of women’s rights as viewed by Jennifer. Jack is soon courted by Susan, one of Angela’s close friends, who is unaware of what she has got, though Jack is proudly aware that he has acquired one of the badges of masculinity-a girlfriend.

The ending of the story totally surprised me, for as I alluded to already, the barebones plot I started out with soon proved incapable of containing the story development. And although a number of other story elements were similarly inspired by my own personal experiences, including falling instantly and hopelessly in love with a girl at about the same age, and also including falling off a horse at age five as seen in a flashback scene, my father was the complete opposite of Johnny’s father.  Facing the ‘old man’ in a dress was something that I could never do to him."

 The story of a transgender girl who dreams of a beautiful princess, and the twin sister who refuses to take a backseat to boys. Swapping identities solves all their problems, or does it?
Johnny is eleven years old and depressed since he believes himself to be the cause of his father's departure with another woman. His mother knows better, but, with the bank account also gone with her husband, she is desperate and gladly accepts a job offer on the other side of the country. Together with his mother and his twin sister Jennifer, Johnny finds himself thrust into a new life.
Before Johnny awakes on his first day in an empty new house, he strangely dreams of being a beautiful princess in a fairy tale setting. When he wakes, however, he can't escape his enduring guilt over his father. He volunteers to escort his sister, who loves baseball, to a local park where she had noticed a baseball game in progress. Bored by the game, Johnny instead sees the most beautiful girl in the world sitting only feet away.
At first, Johnny's biggest obstacle to meeting the beautiful girl is the skilled baseball player she adores. But then the nice neighbor next door donates a box of second-hand girl's clothes for Jennifer, and the yellow dress she pulls out in front of her brother is the spark that releases the dream princess within him. Jennifer rejects the clothes as too 'girly' and instead disguises herself as a boy to sneak onto the 'boys only' baseball teams. Meanwhile, the princess within Johnny emerges as a beautiful girl. Soon everyone around them knows them as Jenny, the sweetheart girl, and Jack, the macho athlete, everyone, that is, except for their mother.
Jenny faces new problems, including the lingering personality of Johnny, but whether it's getting along with new friends, keeping Johnny's old friends at bay, dodging enemies, or falling in love, Jenny is continually inspired by dreams of the princess within.

Dream Princess has some touching reviews:

"...That is where I can empathize. I was beaten for being girly. My parents said repeatedly I was stupid, fat,and ugly. Any boy wanting to be a girl was a slut. I tried to transition after college. Thru pressure and a doctor they stopped my transition. As an old man there are days I hide and cry. So please enjoy this wonderful tale of a happy time for these transgendered children. I recommend this book highly."

Are you curious?

Download a sample on Amazon
or explore K. T.'s website!  

Revelation

And now I know

That I will break myself

Shatter, like glass

Like water

Scatter to nothing

Like stardust

Upon your beauty

So alien

To me

I am but

Darkness

And you

Moonlight revealed

Unveiled

©Katherine Wyvern 2017

Another lovely review for WaaFL!

LGBT Tales - Jessie Pinkham - The Dragon Keeper

Ah! LGBT romance with dragons! Can it ever get better? 

I am very happy to have Jessie here today talking about her book, The Dragon Keeper. I have asked her to tell us about the LGBT theme in it, and she wrote a very very thought-provoking intro for us:

"To me, one of the exciting aspects of writing a fantasy tale is creating an entire fictional universe. I had a lot of fun envisioning the world of The Dragon Keeper. When it came time to consider how sexual minorities are perceived in this universe, I decided to make it a complete non-issue. The only mention of sexuality takes place in the context of whether Lito would be interested in Aldric. That gave me a blank slate to show a world without automatic judgments or preconceived notions.

American society has come a long way in terms of social acceptance in the last couple decades. We still have more progress to be made, and one of those areas revolves around stereotypes of sexuality. It's a lot more acceptable, in many circles, for gay men to be in certain professions, and less accepted in traditionally 'masculine' occupations, e.g. professional sports and the military.

I wanted to present a fictional universe without that hangup, so Aldric is both openly gay and very masculine. He's a rugged, muscular guy who works with dragons all day. You wouldn't know by his appearance or mannerisms that he's gay, never mind that he prefers to bottom. People are so much more than stereotypes, and sexual preferences don't have to be tied to identity and social roles. I wanted to bring that out, so it was a very deliberate choice to have the bubbly artist top and the manly beefcake bottom.

This may be preaching to the choir, I realize. Nevertheless, I think it's important to imagine a world without judgments, expectations, and stereotypes because in doing so, we put such a world forward as a possibility. The more we do that, the closer we are to making it OUR world. "

Indeed! Well said, Jessie!

Sometimes it takes a crisis to appreciate a good man...

When Aldric first meets Lito, he considers the man a nuisance. As a dragon keeper for the kingdom of Corancia, he has more important tasks than answering an artist’s numerous questions about dragons.

Lito travelled to Corancia so he could observe dragons firsthand for his paintings, and he’s full of questions about the magnificent creatures. His questions aren’t merely for his art, however, they arise from his deep love of dragons. When he overhears a plot by his own kingdom to eliminate the animals, he has to choose between his loyalty and his beloved dragons.
Working to prevent the extermination of dragons throws Aldric and Lito together. Lust is in the air, and if they’re lucky, they could end up with a happily ever after.

Are you curious? I know I am!

Read an excerpt at Evernight

Or download the sample from Amazon!

About the author:

Jessie loves to read and write m/m romance of all types. She can't commit to a single subgenre because variety really is the spice of life.

Find The Dragon Keeper here:

Evernight  Amazon Amazon UK Smashwords

And follow Jessie: 

Website Facebook Goodreads

I have the loveliest readers!

See whole review on Goodreads!

Transgender Tales - Lauren P. Burka

I am beginning my October theme, LGBTQ Tales, with a very special guest post. Very special because Lauren P. Burka has been one of my very favourite authors since I first began to read Erotica, and certainly a great inspiration after I started writing it (see further down in the post!). She's here today to talk about two books from the ever-geeky Circlet Press that she has edited, Up for Grabs, volume 1 and 2. These are collections of gender-queer short Sci-fi stories that really, really push the boundaries of imagination way out there.


 I'll let her do the talking!

"Commonly heard at a Circlet party:

“I really liked Up for Grabs.” There is a pause. “I don’t understand why you included ‘The Ontological Engine.’ It was really hot, though.” Even the author, puzzled, asked me why I felt the story belonged in the book.
Of course I included the story because it was hot. If you’re mining the slush pile, you treasure those stories like fat gold nuggets.
But that wasn’t the only reason.
I bought the story from Vinnie Tesla because it was hot, humorous, and included genital configurations beyond the standard two. His story’s transformations rival those of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. How could I not publish this story?
Likewise, what grabbed me hardest about Zachary Jernigan’s story was not the bi-gendered character. It was the man who existed inside of a woman’s mind.
I learned a lot from editing Up for Grabs. I found more places to post the call for submissions for Up for Grabs 2. The authors came through with gold. The book attracted a couple of “trunk” stories that hadn’t fitted in anywhere else and permitted me to introduce Thomas Roche’s “Isle of the Dead” to a new generation of readers.
If Up for Grabs 2 has a flaw, it lies in my choices on pronouns. Looking back seven years later, I feel embarrassed that I talked all the authors into using “it” for third genders. I thought that this would avoid confusing my readers. In retrospect, I wasn’t giving my readers enough credit. Anyone who didn’t like the book would not be mollified by pronoun sanitation. Anyone who did like the book would enjoy a bit of confusion. I promise I won’t do it again.
Up for grabs 2 has girls who are boys who like boys to be girls. And it has stories like M. Svairini’s “Mouth.” Here is the story behind that story.
I told the author that I was not interested in stories longer than 8,000 words. In my experience, stories that long collapse from their own weight. When I read “Mouth,” though, I could almost see the missing pieces. This story needed more space to stretch and unfold. I wrote back immediately to tell the author that I would buy this story if all the parts that had been snipped away could be mended and made whole.
These books are gardens of delicious fruit where nothing is forbidden.

Lauren P. Burka
Cambridge, MA
September 2017"

" Delicious, delirious, delightful! I couldn't put down this collection of five thought provoking, totally fresh and completely hot stories of gender turned on its ear (or some other body part)."

 

 An anthology of erotic stories where gender is up for grabs. Thousands of people spend time on the Internet identified with a gender other than the one they were born with, for erotic gratification or to stretch their imaginations. But what if you got a tax break for changing your gender? What if you could choose to be no gender at all until you went on a date? Five stories.

Erotic science fiction and fantasy has been Circlet Press's specialty since 1992. UP FOR GRABS is one of the many ebooks, print books, and web reads we offer. 

with 
Vinnie Tesla, Ellen Tevault, David Levine, Anya Levin, and Zachary Jernigan

GET A SAMPLE ON AMAZON

"This is a wonderful collection. Lauren P. Burka has pulled together stories that take sexual imagination way beyond familiar limits, to other-dimension realities that grab and compel."

 

As editor Lauren P. Burka says in her introduction, "All erotica is the story of sex breaking free from biological need to become the co-conspirator of pleasure." Never is that more apparent than in the sharp-eyed, sharp-minded stories she has selected for Up For Grabs 2, the second volume of gender exploratory erotica she has brought together by asking the question "What happens to sex if we let go of every assumption we have about gender and start from scratch?"

Have you ever dreamed of being so close to the people you loved that you could share your identities, your emotions, and your pleasures? M. Christian has written a story just for you. Do you crave the touch of intersex flesh so much that you will set aside everything you believed about your own sexuality? Raven Kaldera has got you covered. What would the future be like if we had an option beyond male or female, where "it" is not an insult? Elizabeth Thorne takes us on a tour. In a harsh future where the meaning seems drained from life, will gender still matter? Ask Zachary Jernigan. What would happen if our sexualities were defined not by our gender but by specific body parts? Find out what sex is like for a "mouth" in M. Svairini's story of the same name. 

includes 
 The Bell House Invitation by M. Christian - Lover of the Whore of Babylon by Raven Kaldera -The Verb for Change is Sex by Zachary Jernigan -The Sex of Therapy by Elizabeth Thorne - The Isle of the Dead by Thomas S. Roche - They Don’t Make ‘em Like They Used To by Laura Antoniou -Wer-What by Esmeralda Greene - Mouth by M. Svairini

GET A SAMPLE ON AMAZON

READ AN EXCERPT AT CIRCLET PRESS 

About Lauren
Lauren Burka writes stories about people from different worlds and how they have different relationships.  And sex.  Don’t forget the sex.  In her free time she collects single-tail whips and pursues doomed affairs with Oxford commas.

Lauren was the editor for these two books, but if you would like to explore her own magnificent writing check out this collection of three short stories (some of my favourite erotic writings ever) and this beautiful fantasy novel.

 

Discover much much more geeky Erotica at Circlet Press