It's recently come to my attention that boys read my books. In fact, I've learned that even *straight* boys read my books.
Men?? Reading erotic romance?
I know! It totally blew my mind. In fact, when I first started getting male follows on Twitter and comments from male readers, I kinda thought the guys were stalkers. Part of this was lack of confidence as a new writer, but the other part was I didn't think men read "that kind of thing."
My husband skews my understanding of male reading habits. First, he hardly reads anything, and second, when he does read, the book is about war, genocide, terrorism, or submarines. Preferably all of the above. In the eleven years we've been together, I'm not sure I've seen him read any work of fiction. Well, except for Harry Potter - and even then he only read the last book.
Philistine husband aside, I'm happy to find that men read, and even happier to find that they read me! In fact, I've started to wonder what I'm doing to draw these men (aside from flashing my titties on Twitter. *I don't really do that*.)
Perhaps it's because I write paranormals with comic-book type premises. Or maybe I illustrate well the male psyche. Maybe my heroines are appealing because they have flaws and seem relatable. Maybe it really is the sex. Who knows? But what I do know is I love my male readers. Love, love, love them! (But not...y'know...*love* them.)
Let me count the ways...
0. Men are loyal. They aren't familiar with the wide open world of romance novels; they don't have a thousand authors in mind every time they make a purchase. If they find someone they like, they stick with them. Much the same way my husband is still close with his little group of friends from elementary school.
1. Men are not sappy. I've never had a male reader tell me I didn't go deep and angsty enough with my characters's emotions. I'm not an angsty, ambivalent person myself, so I can't write that kind of character. And men, bless their hearts, don't seem to want me to.
2. Men like to laugh. Yeah, I know women like to laugh too, but my experience from hearing from fans suggests that men really appreciate some humor with their smexxing. And golly gee, that's exactly what I like to write!
3. Men like badass heroines! In romance writing, there's a lot of stress placed on making heroines likable. Heroes can be total dickwads so long as they're redeemed by the end. However, a heroine needs to be sweetness and light from page one. (This is not always true, but often enough.) Well, men don't care if a female character is a bit of a bitch, or extremely hard-nosed, or even evil! Sure, straight guys want to *marry* a nice girl, but to read about? They're perfectly happy with a six foot tall amazon packing heat and a bad attitude.
So, here's to you, male romance readers! Whether you're gay or straight, nerdy or cool, young or old, I hope you try out my stories. I promise, one of these days I'll write about the submarine terrorist genocide apocalypse! And fear not, there will be plenty of sex.
---------------------------------------------
Birkenstock-wearing glamour girl and mother of two by immaculate conception, Daisy
Harris still isn’t sure if she writes erotica. Her paranormal romances start out
innocently enough. However, her characters behave like complete sluts. Much to Miss
Harris’s dismay, the sex tends to get completely out of hand.
She writes about trampy mermaids, sexy dragons, and snuff-y shark-shifters. Her
work also features zombie ingenues, horny gods, and some holiday characters like
you’ve never seen them before. And there’s almost always a mad scientist in there
somewhere.
If you like science-y subplots, fantastical creatures, and red-hot chemistry, you’ll love Daisy Harris. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook and at www.thedaisyharris.com/.
Take a sexy romp with the gods in this hilarious and hot ménage!
Over-extended - and closeted - charmer Mercury the Messenger struggles to accommodate all the factions of the Deities International Conference and Kibbitz. However,his skills at diplomacy stretch to the limit when the object of a chance tryst turns out to be his assistant, and his arranged fiancée arrives at the scene.
Dillon Rodriquez, Mercury's executive aide and a soon-to-be MBA student, refuses to be the closeted god's sidedish. But when an accident at the conference strands the god in the human world, Dillon agrees to act as his guide.
Traveling from San Diego down the Baha Coast to Cabo, Mercury experiences a side of life he never imagined, and he learns that if he wants to earn the love of the one man
who matters, he has to stop trying to please everyone else.
Mercury Rising is available here.
7 comments:
Hello from another RR author. I think that we tend to think that only women read romance and erotica that it is just something we have gotten use to. It is great to hear that men read it. They might not want to shout about it but at least they are reading it. One is not surprised they don't shout about it. You have women who read it and hide the fact that they do.
Thanks for having me on the blog, Cat! And thanks for commenting Savannah. Yeah, I think people perceive that only women read romance, because that's largely who shows up at conferences, and maybe signings. But I know a lot of men who quietly enjoy a fun smutty read. Go men!
As one of those male erotica reading types it is an odd world, many people still think I'm a woman and it's fun to shock them with the truth ;) I'd say I read erotica because I enjoy as much the freedom and variety of the tales almost as much as the sex. I think it's true men are more stimulated by images rather than words, but the right words can create images all of their own, and I was impressed with yours Daisy.
Ha! Good answer. I will say, though, that the nekkid woman in your twitter avitar was what made me mistake you for female. Granted, I suppose a lotta f romance writers have nekkid men for their avis. So perhaps I didn judge based on expectation.
Thanks for stopping by!
Okay, Daisy, your tag line intrigued me enough to venture past the 'mature' reader warning page. LOL. And I wondered whether your notion of 'what men like' was anywhere near a reality that I'd recognize.
Guess what? Pretty dang close.
I agree on loyal, like-to-laugh, & not overly mushy/sappy.
However, my preference is less for the 'bad-ass' heroine ... than for an independent woman who doesn't go looking for trouble but is quite capable of handling herself in a clinch.
I watched a bit of Terminator 2 while I exercised on a stationary bike yesterday. Linda Hamilton is attractive, but I didn't like her character at all --- she went out of her way to be destructive and hostile. Her character was much better -- and more believable -- in Term. # 1.
Hey Jeff! Thanks for spelunking into the wilds of Cat's blog! lol
Ah, Linda Hamilton in the Terminator. I loved her! I can see that she's not in any way charming, or approachable, likeable, or even sane. But she was kind've awesome.
I think they needed to paint her as so on the edge in order to make Arnold Schwartzenegger's terminator character appealing and believable as sympathetic. If Sarah Connor had been nicer, her son wouldn't have looked for solace from the Terminator.
I see your point, though.
Daisy
excellent analysis of why the screen-writers did what they did with her character. It was a big jumpm aking Arnold's Term. character 'nice' so they had to make Linda 'mean'. I hadn't thought of that until you pointed it out.
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