Interesting article

[erastes]

By James Lear (The Back Passage, The Low Road, Palace of Varieties) on the Independent online this morning. (Could also have been in the paper, but I don't know)

I think it's pretty true to any erotica writer in Britain for sure. Since the loss of Gay Men's Press a lot (all?)  of gay erotica writers have been forced to seek publication in the USA- I know I have. As much as I would love to be published by a London publisher, there's a certain ... elitism? snobbery? high-brow-ness? in the London market which one can't help but notice.  They all seem to be searching for the next Booker winner rather than a good yarn that will earn everyone some bloody money.  I spent a lot of time and money submitting over and over to English publishers only to get 1. form rejections or 2. no response at all (do they think we don't keep spreadsheets ?)  The exception to this seems to be Virgin where a lot of my fellow Lust Biters belong.

I'm very pleased for James/Rupert and I hope that the article and the exposure does him (and the genre) a lot of good.

What I have to say (and I did say on the Gay Book Blog where I found the link in the first place) is that why on earth can't erotica be high brow? It bloody well can be - if you've ever read anything by evremonde (or anything on hp_literotica then you'll find that it can be). evremonde's (Hayden Thorne's) first novels are about to be published,world, and they are going to blow you away.  Ok - they are YA and she has removed a lot of the erotica - but she can put more smex into two men holding hands than most of us can write in anal. 

Why is it that erotic films can be considered ART, but erotic books are just wank books?  I can't disagree with Mr Lear that his books make one hot around the groinal area BUT - the difference between The Back Passage and many other erotic books/porn is that - if you took the sex scenes out of the The Back Passage - you would still be left with an hilarious, witty, and very well written (albiet a bit shorter!) murder mystery that stands on its own. /rant.

I have news btw - nice exciting news. Details here.

Comments

[maximvanziel.livejournal.com]

I can't find proper words to thank you for link :)

I was wondering what type of man he must be... Somehow I thought how I found a clue in "Hot Valley".
Recently I'm skeptical about stories with many-many-sex-scenes, but as for "The Back Passage", I can recommend it to everyone.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I admit that I was disappointed with Hot Valley (and I've told Rupert this) but I am very much looking forward to the sequel to TBP. It's such a great book.

James Lear

[zamaxfield.livejournal.com]

I love James Lear's 'Back Passages', I actually woke my kids up in the middle of the night because I was laughing so hard. You might, or might not know this but I'm absolutely um... probably psycho would be the best way to describe it... about the Great Divide between literature and genre, and so, I'll rant on my own page. Just wanted to send a hey howdy, and I agree passionately.

Abstractrx

Re: James Lear

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree more. With Mitch, Lear has found his best medium. I read Hot Valley and was very disappointed. I wasn't induced to read his others because it seemed to me that he was writing the others just as porn stories, whereas TBP was something else entirely.

I am so looking forward to Mitch's next story.