sorry to hear about your stalker problem but glad that you are okay now.

I think I may have to give this book a try…

CA has DOT brain-bucket laws. But I love my Harley…and the spawn do too. We don’t go Freeway/Highway with the Youngest….she’s still to small, but we ride with them both. Got stopped by a parent picking them up from the Y and SG and I are both on the bikes. She was gushing about how cool it was we both rode and had full gear for the spawn.

@maygirl7: What doesn’t kill you….winds up in book…bwhahahhahah Look for Nicky’s issues in book 3. Enough years have gone by I can actually distance myself from it some….

I really loved this book.

I did not know this! So, but, you do wear a cowboy hat an ride a Harley though, right? (big grin) Anyway, this review is yet another tease for me, Hard Fall has been on my list for some time now. The guy’s from Cheating Chance have been great to follow, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed with your work and I expect no less from this title! LUV YA!

1. I started my attempts to be published in the gay erotica genre at a time when all the calls demanded a male or gender neutral pseudonym – and I may earn $10 with a romance short, I earned $50-100 for the same word count on gay erotica. I’m not the kind of person who can keep up with multiple incarnations…so I was going to use my 1st and Mid initial with my real last name and I wanted to cross populate my readership. I had my website set up almost 7mo in advance of my first publication.

2. My stalker found me. Suffice it to say, it was long (years), it was involved and after a thorough investigation it got him fired (last I heard he went from being a VP of a company worth 5mil in assets to a TSA guard). But he at one point cornered me in a deserted parking garage, another followed me through a courthouse screaming at me until the bailiffs came out and restrained him. A few months go by after his firing and he found my author site and sent me disturbing correspondence. I shut down my website, closed every account I had on every forum, sent letters to all of my publishers and had them do a last min change of my pseudonym to James Buchanan. I probably could have come up with something that didn’t hit the dead gay president…but it was what I managed with under extreme pressure and not a small amount of terror. James is what I would have been named had I actually been born a boy and Buchanan is an old family name.

So that’s the why behind the who…

All the gender bending has taught me not to pay attention to/make assumptions based on the sex of the author at my own peril. I think if I’d listened to my bias toward female authors or female-sounding author names, I’d have missed out on some great romance. Like Hard Fall. LOL

Spanking? Is a big turn off for me.

James: I have to say your entry in the Fringe Benefits Anthology was superb. I have also read The Good Thief (and hopefully this isn’t a salt in the wound sort-of-comment) but did not like it. Though I have Cheating Chance in my TBR pile. I don’t have a lot of patience to stick with author’s and see if they produce something that I will eventually like. However, this book is in my radar due to the review.

That aside, it’s not bad of you. It’s something I absolutely agree with you about. I don’t think I’ve read fiction by a man in years. I’ll admit I read James’ stories before knowing that she was a woman and I enjoyed them. I don’t think I enjoy them any more knowing that she’s female. But it didn’t surprise me to find out she was female at all.

Now I’ve got Willow running through my head: “Not a woman?! Not a woman?!?!” Sorry. :)

Forgive me if I haven’t articulated my question very well, but I’m trying to decide whether to go outside my comfort zone (author wise) and I’d like some advice from y’all. (I haven’t read anything by Mr. Buchanan previously).

For example, I liked (not loved) Matthew Haldeman-Time’s Off the Record but in general, I’m a bit leary of men writing romance.

Oh, that’s just bad of me isn’t it? *hangs head in shame*

Shamed as I am, I’d still like to hear your answers!!

@Sayuri: Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed Joe and I’ll keep the issue in mind.

@cs: I can understand that. I’ve read some authors others rave about and did the total WTF? Didn’t connect with thier voice or tone. But thanks for giving me a try.

@CourtneyLee: Joe’s got a lot to discover about himself. I’m glad you liked his journey…and you may get your wish.

Re the BDSM: I’ve read a fair bit of BDSM both in MM and MF romance and I’m extremely picky about when I like it and why. In this book, I loved it. It wasn’t “hard core,” they didn’t get theatrical or wear leather (not that any of that is a bad thing), and it wasn’t really planned. That’s what was so great about it, though: it was less about what they did and more about why. Namely, that it felt great and they both really got off on it and that they were growing into a relationship that made Joe comfortable enough both with himself and with Kabe that he could let that part of himself out to play instictively. I agree with Joan that it was very well done.

A scene each of bondage, spanking, whipping, and Joe’s very dominant to begin with.