Writers' experiences writing gay, shifter or BDSM stories

The second in my series on writers’ experiences of writing gay, shifter or BDSM stories is from Samantha Winston who tells us her experiences of writing her first MM story.

Paradise Earth

 

Like most of my books, this one started as a short story, and then just didn’t stop. The characters took over, and it turned into a novella. It started as an apocalyptical short about Earth after an all-out nuclear war plus asteroid hit. My character was Even, a man from Mars. A man, but not human. He was a shifter. He’d come to Earth to help rebuild it from the ashes. He was a scientist. Alone. Aloof. He didn’t want to integrate or socialize with the few humans who were left – they’d nearly destroyed their planet; in his mind they pretty much deserved what they got. Enter Adam. An earthling – yes – but the attraction between my two characters was so sudden, so unexpected, it not only surprised me, but, like a hard gust of wind in a sail, it turned the story around and suddenly it was a love story set on a dying planet, between Adam, one of the last humans, and Even – alien and unique.

I’d never written m/m stories, so before starting off, I read. I read some amazing books told from the gay viewpoint. Some coming of age stories, some raunchy sexsexsex stories, and I read some bi-sexual tales as well. I wasn’t sure, as a straight woman, I could pull off a love story between two men and have it ring true. Well, one man was an alien, but still…out of respect for gay literature, I didn’t want to write anything that would be insulting or hurtful. It’s not far from writing for YA – you have a certain age, a certain responsibility, so you have to watch what you write. Or writing a religious romance – but the more I wrote, the more religion crept into the book, so that now I had a gay romance with definite religious undertones. Creation, the Apocalypse, Adam and Even – the ingredients were all there, and the story practically wrote itself.

I will say that it is one of my favorite stories. Because of its complexity, the different characters, the fiction woven with science fiction and mythology – in essence, I put in everything I truly love into this work.

If I had to offer any advice for those wanting to write m/m fiction it would be, don't be afraid to try, you may surprise yourself. In fact, this was the only book I wrote in that genre, but it continues to be a pleasure to read.

If you want to know the books I read before starting this, or are interested in gay fiction, may I suggest “A Boy’s Own Story” by Edmund White, “Becoming Nancy” by Terry Ronald, “Love, Sex, and Understanding the Universe” by Harrie Farrow, and “Tangled Sheets” by Michael Thomas Ford.

 Paradise Earth by Samantha Winston, published by Changeling Press

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0113C4CSO?ref_=k4w_oembed_juyjlmJ2BykMQj&tag=kpembed-20&linkCode=kpd

Samantha's website

https://samanthawinstonauthor.wordpress.com/

Samantha's Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Samantha-Winston-120964171335927/

Many thanks, Samantha. Look out next Monday for the third guest blog. If you wanted to read the first one, from myself, click here.

This series is to inspire people to write for my Balls & Chains series – a gay shifter series set in a BDSM club. If you are interested full details can found on Luminosity’s website. The first book in the series ‘To Claim a Mate’ is out in mid May.