Friday! Hurrah!

[erastes]

And I'm another one who loathes the new profile page. Yuk. I have voiced my complaint for what good that will do.

Due to Mills and Boon having an anniversary (100 years?) there's a lot of programmes on about them at the moment. I was watching a documentary the other night about writing one - a writer I'd never heard of tried to write three chapters and a synopsis (and boy - what a meal she made of it to be honest!).

However I wish interested in their guidelines and the like - I don't know if the books are milder in the US or not but it seems that they are just as erotic as anything I write. Cocks and beads of moisture on the end of them, and no holds barred!  What also surprised me is that they don't preclude things like divorce, non-virginity, adultery of any kind, bad language...It just surprised me - specially when I read threads on the Romantic Times forum where they say they don't want ANYONE to be adulterous at any point.  There was alsoa drama about three women involved in the books - one married to Mr Boon, one in the 70's who went on to be Rachel Pretty - and one who taught it as part of a literature degree. Interesting!

Come on M&B, get with the programme and start a gay series will ya?

You can watch the BBC iplayer, even if you are from outside the UK if you hide behind an IP shield like Hotspot Shield.

Comments

[kcwarwick.livejournal.com]

Many years ago, I tried to write a historical for M&B, and got right through the submissions process to the stage of having a manuscript read by a senior editor. Then it was rejected - I think probably because I've never been really happy writing het stuff, and somehow it showed! I too was amazed by the graphic content of some of the books, yet people seemed to think nothing of it. I think they've got to start publishing m/m stories eventually, because someone's going to realise what a good commercial proposition it is. I just hope I'm not too old to write by then, because they do pay very well (or did in the old days.)

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

There's a whole continuum of spice in romance-land, from kisses to whoa nelly they did WHAT?! (which can include pretty graphic anal scenes and bondage/submission, so I don't know what's the deal with m/m, the mechanics are the same, it's just the front end that's different :-) and while the Harlequin (Mills and Boon to you) line tends to be what I'd call "middle of the road", there IS a growing tendency for more and more graphic stuff. I know you read "Dear Author", so check out this week's review of one m/m/f book that featured dual penile penetration (of the same orifice) -- I hadn't even known you could DO that, but there it was, and it had been featured in another book I read last week.

As for the "no adultery/heroines = virgins/etc." stuff, that's fairly true for the main Harlequin lines, which are pretty straightforward "virgin mistress's secret baby" books. Really -- see, it's her sister's baby, even though the hero thinks it's hers, and she's a virgin even though there are incriminating pictures of her with some dude (which is why the hero thinks it's her baby, and that she's a slut and a ho)... I can't tell you how much that formula is repeated and repeated and repeated ad nauseam... though there are a few really good Mills and Boon/Harlequin books out there, with good plots, it's not the rule. Romance fiction itself, not by Harlequin, is a whole different and much more varied field. Oh yes.

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

Oh, Mills and Boon has always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me : )

I wonder in what capacity the woman taught it? (must watch later) It’s interesting because I recall doing one of my major English studies on M&B. It’s all fantastic stuff, and arguably essential for writing romance, strange as it may seem.
Not sure that they’ll ever branch out and embrace the gay sub-genre, though it would be nice to think so. (hey, if they can do a series about ‘medical romance’ then why not?)

Have you seen the Regency series? : )

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any for years - back when I used to read them, a hardened nipple and "she could feel his desire"was just about the lengths it would go to.

But I did read a few Regencies back then and thoroughly enjoyed them - nonsense, but fun nonsense.

I think I would branch into gay doctors if they ever did a gay series - as, if I'm still with Perseus I couldn't do historicals with them. Rather like the idea of gay doctors...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well done to get as far as that! i've been considering doing one, but I fear that I might come up against the same problem, that my heart's not in het. I should read a few more recent ones I think.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, I had a feeling that some Harlequin might have been more demure.

Yes, I read that thing about the double penetration - I have to agree with DA on the "ramping up" the sex scenes - as I said in my comment on the thread, I used to see a lot of that in fanfic. Suddenly something is the new black and everyone's writing it.

[feed-your-muse.livejournal.com]

I saw the programmes too. I had heard of the woman who was attempting to write one (although that was misleading because she was only trying to write the first three chapters & a synopsis, not the whole thing. I thought the programme was interesting, although the lady giving the workshop in Tuscany seemed a bit over the top.

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

Yes, flicking through, there are the usual 'tides of rising passion' and 'hardened desires'. As for gay doctors, that almost writes itself, it's so tempting : 0

[erastes.livejournal.com]

What surprised me was the POV switches - they were all over the place!!!