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I love writing hetero erotica, but my recent venture into writing man-love stories is turning out to be a lot of fun, too.
I started hanging out with gay men at fourteen years old, when I first got involved with the summer theatre where I grew up, in Connecticut. While I worked in professional theatre, they were always my best buds. Later, when I worked in retail fragrance and cosmetics—again—they were great professionals and friends. I got the inside track about what my gay buddies did for erotic fun and entertainment, which was often quite different from my female activities. And, even though their perspective on what relationships are about was unique to their preference, I became intimately acquainted with many of their hopes, dreams and desires. And, now, I love writing about the challenges and experiences shared between these beautiful men I’ve had the great fortune to know and be close with.
My first man-love book came out in January of 2008 and was a best seller for Amber Allure, entitled “Gift With Purchase.” I created the two main characters based on an elegant salesman I knew at Saks Fifth Avenue, and a lovely ballet dancer who was going for his masters in dance at NYU. Although these two never got together in real life, I knew each of them separately and drew upon their relationships in constructing the “what if” for my story. What if the ballet dancer had come into the elegant professional’s life at a moment when he was ripe for love, but was still harboring sadness from the death of his long time lover? I made sure I knew these characters inside out before I started watching them through the camera in my mind. Once I let my visions play out, they showed me what would happen.
I guess that’s the way I start with all my stories. I need to know what I want to say with the overall premise of whichever story I’m working on, then I search my internal file of people, places and circumstances, as well as the written data I’ve kept. Once I know who I want to use to make a particular journey, I flesh out who they are. I make sure I leave no stone unturned in discovering where and when they grew up, where and which schools they went to, what happened to them when they were young—the happy and traumatic incidents that shaped their lives. Once I feel who they are and what they want out of life, it’s as if they grow inside me, and pretty soon I’m following them along a New York sidewalk, or into a café—or into the bedroom. That’s when the scene gets really hot, as I discover how different characters make love to each other, what their mood is in that moment, what’s going on in their relationship. I know the scene is right on when I’m all steamed up after writing it—whew! Feeling sexy is a reward of the trade, you might say.
My first novella is called “Urban Ambrosia.” It’s the story of an executive chef in an upscale Manhattan restaurant and the sexy bartender who finally helps him past his extreme fear of intimacy. If you’ve ever known an executive chef, especially the Sicilian one on whom this hero is based, you’re sure to know that their level of passion is well beyond the mundane. This particular chef I knew was handsome, fiery, creative, excessively demanding at work, and extremely sensual outside of it. Of course, I gave the character Chef Anthony these traits, which makes him a challenge for the strong and beautiful bartender, Marla. With the intense aspect of the chef’s personality come benefits, however—especially when these two vibrant individuals finally consummate their love.
“Urban Ambrosia” was my first submission to Amber Quill Press, which awarded me a publishing contract. I wrote about what I knew, as I’d been in and out of the bar and restaurant industries since I was in high school. The level of passion among people who work in that fast-paced, busy environment is often excruciatingly high because of the constant adrenaline pump they work with to satisfy customer demands. Naturally, they work hard, they play hard—as I depicted not only in “Urban Ambrosia,” but also in “My Comic Valentine” and the recently released “A Hard Day’s Night.” These three books are all hetero erotic tales available at www.amberheat.com. My recent man-love release entitled, “Hair!” contains behind the scenes scenarios in both theatre and bars. That can be found at www.amberallure.com.
I hope you’ll enjoy the people and places who are near and dear to my heart, and whom I’ve brought to life on the page.