I write both m/m and hetero erotic romances. When I started out I was not sure how ‘romantic’ a relationship between two guys could be. Well, my characters sure did teach me a lot! They may express their love in different ways than a couple of opposite sexes would but that does not make it a bit less romantic!
In my gay romances I often have the two guys in professions or jobs that are going to create a big stumbling block to them developing a real relationship. That’s a feature in the four stories that make up my latest print collection, Duty and Daring which has just been released. These stories feature a Homeland Security special agent who is under cover and posing as a delivery driver–only to find the sporting goods store owner he is really starting to like is a prime suspect in his case! In another tale, one man is a detective trying to get to the bottom of a brutal gang-style mass murder and the though his prime suspect seems unlikely, he can’t take chances. Then there are two fire fighters, one of whom has come in from a distant city to take over a small rural mainly volunteer department that the other guy really wanted to head himself! And the fourth is about a long term employee in railroad maintenance and a summer hire he finds himself attrracted to–but a terrible accident on his conscience scares him spitless. What if history repeated itself…
Is conflict romantic? I guess it all depends. If you feel yourself drawn to someone with a nearly irresistable desire while you are in oppostiion to them in one way or another there is a lot of angst and sometimes that can be romantic. Then when it may be up to you to save their life or that of someone else dear to them…. Well the old saying goes, a greater love has no man than he who would lay down his life for another. So risking death for someone is a powerful gesture and can be more romantic than flowers or a heart shaped box of chocolates!
As one of the commenters said, m/m romances tend to be more out of the box or not as much in a formula or pattern and the character arcs move differently as the two men come to find and accept their love. I like that too! Right now I am trying to decide which story to share today as my ‘most romantic’ and I’m not sure. It mught be the very first one, a futuristic that just popped into my mind and screamed so loudly to be written that I started scribbling on my grocery list pad at the breakfast table! Let me find it and take a snip to share with you in a minute!
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