Part-time M/M Romance Writer, Full-time Fag-Hag

by J.C. Mells

I think I may have thrown some of the fans of my Pierced Series (Paranormal Romance Series) for a loop when the fifth book, Napoleon – a standalone novella – was an M/M Romance.

Surprise!

None of my other books are M/M Romances, I don’t consider myself an M/M Romance writer, (although I may write a part 2 to Napoleon due to popular request), and I don’t even read that much M/M Romance (for me, someone with a five-book-a-week-habit, that means I binge-read three or four in a row every couple of months, which might be more than some, I suppose).

So, why did I write Napoleon?

Of course, one of the main reasons is that Napoleon Charming was a stand-out, popular character from my series.  I wanted to give him his own story – and he’s gay – so it shouldn’t have been the surprise it was to some of my fans that he was going to fall in love… with another guy.

The second reason is that I may not read M/M Romance on a regular basis – but I feel like I sure do live it most of the time!  They always say to write what you know!

I have a “thing” about me – some may say an aura – that appears to attract gay men in my direction.  I’ve had this “thing” since I was about fifteen/sixteen.  Whatever it is, gay men flock to me as if I were an ice-cold, frothy, margarita at the Nine Inch Males Tavern at happy hour.

My best friend of twenty-three years is gay, my former roommate of ten years is gay, I was married to a gay man for three years (that’s another story for another day!) – and to top it all off, when I moved away from my entirely gay and lesbian social circle in New York and moved to Las Vegas, within thirty minutes of arriving in Sin City, the very gay property manager at the community I was moving into invited me out to a gay bar called Charlie’s that night. Please note that I am a straight female and made no mention of the fact I had a gay social circle back in NY, and when I later asked Jack why he’d invited me out, his response was that I had that fag-hag vibe.  Needless to say, I did go to Charlie’s with Jack that night, had a few too many happy hour cocktails, while watching all denominations of gay men from Latino homeboys, to bears, to twinks to good ole country boys to manly men to flaming queens ALL line-dancing (yes, I said LINE-DANCING) to Donna Summer songs on the dance floor.  I’d love to tell you how I ended up doing the Can-Can with a line of drag queens – but then I’d have to kill you.

But I digress…

Cut to almost ten years later and the cute, skinny-jeaned Columbian that Jack picked up that night and ended up falling in love with (they moved in together soon afterwards and were together for nine years) was recently caught cheating.  The drama that ensued is worthy of a day time soap.  So why not read more M/M Romances?  I LIVE IN ONE!

I may not specialize in M/M Romances, but I feel I have several of the credentials necessary to write one (at least I HOPE I do!).  My mom, who has never read an M/M Romance in her life, read Napoleon and upon finishing it, turned to me and said, “It’s surprisingly good.  It’s just like when a boy falls in love with a girl.”

Yep.  I sighed, rolled my eyes at her and slapped myself in the head.

I may not be a full-time M/M Romance author, but I am a full-time fag-hag and ALL my books are gay-friendly.  Six books in and I’ve yet to write one that didn’t have a gay or bisexual character that didn’t steal the show (lesbian and trans to come in future books, I’m sure).

Then I thought, for all the Pierced Series fans who refused to try Napoleon due to its subject matter (and I can tell from sales there were a few), if even one first-timer had the same, positive, reaction as my 84-year-old mother, then I’m VERY glad I wrote it.

J.C. Mells, Contemporary and Paranormal Romance author, full-time fag-hag, part-time M/M Romance writer – attempting to convert one mainstream reader at a time.

About Napoleon

This is a standalone novella. You do not have to have read other books in the series to enjoy it.

Napoleon Charming-Balak has been crushing on the “exchange student” that’s been staying with him for the last six months. The object of his crush: Sixten Dahl, a straight boy that seems to get his kicks from flirting with, then torturing, Napoleon in the cruelest of ways. Is it any wonder Nap, and his best friend Moused, are high-tailing it to New York City as fast as they possibly can? If there’s one thing Napoleon is hoping for, it’s that life in the Big Apple will be exactly what his self-esteem needs to get over the Swedish tease that has been tormenting him all summer long.

If he could only stop thinking about Sixten long enough to enjoy it.

Available at: Amazon, Smashwords, iBooks, Kobo, CreateSpace and Barnes & Noble

About J.C. Mells

J.C. Mells has had every job from an ice cream truck driver to chocolate factory worker to waiting tables in a Las Vegas casino.

She grew up in the Middle East (Abadan, Iran) and Spain (Fuengirola, Costa Del Sol) and finally ended up finishing High School in England (Weymouth, Dorset). J. C. emigrated to the United States in 1990, and returned to school at the ripe old age of 28, where she obtained a BA and then two MA degrees – all in New York, NY. (Hunter College, NYU and Columbia, respectively)

She has traveled extensively, including a 3 month stay in India, but has finally settled in Las Vegas, NV of all places where she has been living for the last 9 years with her “baby” Persephone Jayne Mells. (Why is it all writers have cats…?).

Find out more about J.C. on her Website, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Pinterest or Tumblr.

J.C. is kindly offering up an eBook copy of Pierced (an M/F and book one in the Pierced series) and an eBook copy of Napoleon (an M/M and book five in the Pierced series)!! There will be two winners, the prize for each winner will be randomly picked by The Blogger Girls. The giveaway starts now and ends September 17, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. To enter, just click the link below!

Rafflecopter Giveaway

Please be aware that the only way to enter the giveaway is to click the Rafflecopter link above. Any comments on this post will not count towards entering the giveaway, except to verify your Rafflecopter entry.

Don’t forget to check out Nikyta’s review of Napoleon to see what she thought of it!

Good luck!