Welcome to my entry in the Manga and Romance Blog Hop!
From today to Sunday, hop around the links at the end of this post to discover yaoi, webcomics, and written word centered on m/m relationships of all sizes.
Many bloggers have giveaways available for a lucky commenter. If you’re interested in the grand prize, please read the rules just below the links or hop over to the grand prize post.
Win your choice from my backlist by commenting on this post!
From Wiki: Yaoi also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by female authors ... The main characters in yaoi usually conform to the formula of the seme (lit. "attacker"?) who pursues the uke (lit. "receiver"?).
I have watched some Yaoi and I loved it. I don't know much about the market place but I watched something recommended by a friend - Junjou Romantica by Nakamura Shungiku.
"…Misaki, struggling to pass his college entrance exams, is in need of a tutor to help pump up his failing grades.
Unfortunately, his only option is the cool and sexy Akihiko Usami. Usami happens to be a famous boys’ love novelist, which doesn’t exactly float Misaki’s boat, especially since his main characters are “Akihiko” and “Takahiro,” the name of Misaki’s older brother and Usami’s childhood friend.
Understandably, Misaki is pretty disgusted by the thought of someone using his older brother as his personal fantasy-material, but then after some tender loving from Usami, Misaki is also pretty confused. He may even be developing feelings for the older man...And when Takahiro introduces them to his lovely (female) fiancée, so begins the bumpy relationship of this odd couple, filled with comedy and pure romance …"
It was a bit of an eye opener. Not only were all the men so pretty ... sighs and I do mean pretty... but there was animated sex… Well… the bigger dominant 'seme' holds down the bottom 'uke' and basically forces the first few bouts of sex on them, although there is a lot of touching and staring and I loved that (I would point out that I guess they were having sex as what they were doing was *out of shot* in this particular one).
Very often the 'uke' cried but you always got the sense that this was due to the overwhelming emotions involved in the big guy wanting him in the first place (and the burn!). The little guy was always flawed, clumsy, impatient etc... the big guy filled the role of teacher, carer and lover all in one go. I would use names here but I cannot for the life of me remember all of them - then again I had to look up some of the character names in a book I wrote six months ago... ROFL... memory goes with age... Oh and something else I noticed - the 'seme' smoked... not sure of the significance of that...
So this leads me to the question - is there actually a definition for the Male/Male romance that I write? There are no prescribed partners in my stories, in fact a mark of an RJ Scott story is often that the partners switch. I don't ever begin a story creating a top and a bottom. My characters tell me what they want to do (I know that sounds so cringing!). As my characters evolve so does their 'position' in the sexual dynamic.
Take The Christmas Throwaway for example. Ben is the cop, Zach is the kid thrown out of home for being gay. That is probably a classic set up for a Yaoi inspired story line and I guess for much of the book Zach is under Ben's protection and the reader will see him as the younger guy who needs help. Ben is also the top in their first sexual encounter. It is the last chapter when they reflect on their two years together that I make it clear that actually Zach has very toppy tendencies and that Ben would not be averse to exploring this fact.
In The Heart Of Texas businessman Riley is a pure example of a top, all in-your-face-millionaire who blackmails Jack, the cowboy with the sick sister, into marriage. Even though this could have stayed with Jack assuming the role of being cared for he kicks and spits and fights his way into Riley falling in love with him. Guess what. They switch. They got in 'their barn' and I couldn’t stop them!
There are however, a lot of books out there in MM world that have the Alpha roles for the big guys and the Omega roles for the little guys – especially shifter and paranormal books.
Me? I do prefer it when alphas go head to head in and out of the bedroom! Still, you won't stop me finding some more Yaoi which speaks to another part of my soul.
One thing I loved to read in my research was that Yaoi is usually created by female authors.
There is always controversy as to whether women can write MM. It's a question that lands on the table all too often.
If someone says that to me I point them to the facts that (depending on where you find the information) 80-85% of my readers are women. Who better to read MM written by a girly!
My published work is all here...
* * * * *
See everyone else on this blog hop by clicking the links below...
Many bloggers have giveaways available for a lucky commenter. If you’re interested in the grand prize, please read the rules just below the links or hop over to the grand prize post.
Win your choice from my backlist by commenting on this post!
* * * * *
From Wiki: Yaoi also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by female authors ... The main characters in yaoi usually conform to the formula of the seme (lit. "attacker"?) who pursues the uke (lit. "receiver"?).
I have watched some Yaoi and I loved it. I don't know much about the market place but I watched something recommended by a friend - Junjou Romantica by Nakamura Shungiku.
"…Misaki, struggling to pass his college entrance exams, is in need of a tutor to help pump up his failing grades. 
Unfortunately, his only option is the cool and sexy Akihiko Usami. Usami happens to be a famous boys’ love novelist, which doesn’t exactly float Misaki’s boat, especially since his main characters are “Akihiko” and “Takahiro,” the name of Misaki’s older brother and Usami’s childhood friend. Understandably, Misaki is pretty disgusted by the thought of someone using his older brother as his personal fantasy-material, but then after some tender loving from Usami, Misaki is also pretty confused. He may even be developing feelings for the older man...And when Takahiro introduces them to his lovely (female) fiancée, so begins the bumpy relationship of this odd couple, filled with comedy and pure romance …"
It was a bit of an eye opener. Not only were all the men so pretty ... sighs and I do mean pretty... but there was animated sex… Well… the bigger dominant 'seme' holds down the bottom 'uke' and basically forces the first few bouts of sex on them, although there is a lot of touching and staring and I loved that (I would point out that I guess they were having sex as what they were doing was *out of shot* in this particular one).Very often the 'uke' cried but you always got the sense that this was due to the overwhelming emotions involved in the big guy wanting him in the first place (and the burn!). The little guy was always flawed, clumsy, impatient etc... the big guy filled the role of teacher, carer and lover all in one go. I would use names here but I cannot for the life of me remember all of them - then again I had to look up some of the character names in a book I wrote six months ago... ROFL... memory goes with age... Oh and something else I noticed - the 'seme' smoked... not sure of the significance of that...
So this leads me to the question - is there actually a definition for the Male/Male romance that I write? There are no prescribed partners in my stories, in fact a mark of an RJ Scott story is often that the partners switch. I don't ever begin a story creating a top and a bottom. My characters tell me what they want to do (I know that sounds so cringing!). As my characters evolve so does their 'position' in the sexual dynamic. 
Take The Christmas Throwaway for example. Ben is the cop, Zach is the kid thrown out of home for being gay. That is probably a classic set up for a Yaoi inspired story line and I guess for much of the book Zach is under Ben's protection and the reader will see him as the younger guy who needs help. Ben is also the top in their first sexual encounter. It is the last chapter when they reflect on their two years together that I make it clear that actually Zach has very toppy tendencies and that Ben would not be averse to exploring this fact.In The Heart Of Texas businessman Riley is a pure example of a top, all in-your-face-millionaire who blackmails Jack, the cowboy with the sick sister, into marriage. Even though this could have stayed with Jack assuming the role of being cared for he kicks and spits and fights his way into Riley falling in love with him. Guess what. They switch. They got in 'their barn' and I couldn’t stop them!
There are however, a lot of books out there in MM world that have the Alpha roles for the big guys and the Omega roles for the little guys – especially shifter and paranormal books.
Me? I do prefer it when alphas go head to head in and out of the bedroom! Still, you won't stop me finding some more Yaoi which speaks to another part of my soul.
One thing I loved to read in my research was that Yaoi is usually created by female authors.There is always controversy as to whether women can write MM. It's a question that lands on the table all too often.
If someone says that to me I point them to the facts that (depending on where you find the information) 80-85% of my readers are women. Who better to read MM written by a girly!
My published work is all here...
* * * * *
See everyone else on this blog hop by clicking the links below...
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