Was anyone at either of J.R. Ward’s recent signings? The signing where she allegedly said that Blaylock is…wait for it…
GAY?????
Please, put me out of my misery. No, really. Can this series get any more unbelievable?
Honestly, I have nothing against a m/m romance. Take Jules Cassidy from Suz Brockmann’s Troubleshooter series. He’s finally getting his HEA in All Through the Night. Of course while I was reading Force of Nature, I was having nightmares of getting Jules finally getting his HEA à la Sam and Alyssa. Thank the Lord that she didn’t go that route. Anyhow, throughout the series, Jules was always blatantly, in your face gay. Which I thought was fab. Suz definitely pulled off having a gay character without offending her fans that may have been uncomfortable (or homophobic) reading about m/m romance. I also read Ellora’s Cave m/m/f and some m/m romance. ‘Nuff said.
Which brings me to my rant about J.R. Ward. Why-oh-why would Ward decide to make a character gay? She can go on all she wants about just being the messenger. You can be damn sure if she was really just the messenger, V and Butch would have been getting it on in Lover Unbound. So why, after the cop-out that was V/Butch love, would she decide to have a gay character? All I can hope that if this is actually true, that she will be true to the character she created. Yes, created. To evolve from one’s own thought or imagination, as a work of art or an invention.
So here’s my guess about what’s going to happen (assuming Blaylock is gay). Blaylock will get a man crush on Qhuinn. Blaylock and Qhuinn (I can not call him Q b/c of James Bond) will be the next Butch/V. Qhuinn will take pity on him and maybe there will be a little man-love. Then Blaylock will meet his mate who is a transsexual. Therefore, he is “cured”.
So can anyone out there actually substantiate the rumor that Blaylock is gay?
She’s a wuss.
She wants to write m/m but doesn’t want to lose the $$ drawn from readers- which she might have if she had done it with Butch/V. NOW that everyone’s squealing that she SHOULD have done the Butch/V thing, that hell yeah they would have been on board with it, she’s doing it with another character.
Fine. Whatever.
it’s the same damn triangulating thing that Clinton used to do that drove me batsh*t crazy. Just do it or don’t. It makes you look weak. like you can’t make a stand because you fear what other people think.
Wuss.
I was one who wasn’t in the Butch/V camp and it has nothing to do with being against m/m books. It was the fact that V is V lol and if he were with Butch how would I picture myself there instead ya know? :p but seriously, I think if she didn’t do it with the 2 guys that EVERYONE wanted together then leave well enough alone. I’m sorry but I don’t buy the I write what is shown to me crap, she’s the author and she has no control over anything? get real?
Zeek,
That’s almost exactly word for word what I said to Casee when she emailed me about this. LOL Hello, cop out.
Anon,
She’s a tool alright…
here’s an author who did it right. Read her reply concerning her book “Simple Jess” in the comments section. Now she I can respect!
I just realized I’ve had SJ on my wish list for almost a year and a half. Someone had done a review of it (I think Devon, maybe?) and it made me want to read it. Now I def. need to bump it up!
Oh yeah, now I remember why I didn’t buy it…
http://www.ebay.ph/viItem?ItemId=130162220123
LOL! I know, I meant that’s the only one available on eBay. I’m checking Amazon now.
I had to get Garters (another old Morsi) from the library …
Zeek,
I completely agree w/ everything you said. I don’t necessarily agree that she should have done the Butch/V thing. Like ever. Because after I read LR, I just knew she would do something stupid that would tie everything up in a nice, neat little bow.
Anon,
If Blaylock is gay and she tries to write him as straight, he’ll haunt her. Didn’t you know that?
oH I’m not saying I wanted to read about those two together- I was being rhetorical with the “hell yeah” statment-
I’m not a m/m follower myself. Just my preference.
Anon,
If Blaylock is gay and she tries to write him as straight, he’ll haunt her. Didn’t you know that?
lol how could I have not known that? I’ll try to remember things like that in the future
The whole series is gay.
Holland, 180 PHP is like, 5 bucks American, I think.
Interesting. I haven’t actually read any of the works being referenced, but I’ve been following gay secondary characters in primarily heterosexaul romance novels. Who do you think does it well? Who doesn’t?
I’ve never read a romance that actually got m/m or f/f together with someone (where they were the secondary plotline). Any recs?
Clearly, Ward has lost whatever grip she might have still had on reality.
I really get a kick out of the whole “messenger” thing. We, as writers, think up our characters no matter how real they might seem to us. I swear she’s gotten seriosuly creepy the deeper she dives into her little fantasy world.
Holly, can you imagine if went all Ward with my Templars? You’d come here and put your foot up my ass and kick me back to reality! lolol
Love ya girls.
Kate,
The only author I know of who’s done it is Suz Brockmann, but I haven’t read more than a couple of hers, so I can’t say how well done it is.
Rene,
And you know this, maaan.
Holly–Try half.com for Simple Jess, I now there were copies on there. I had taken out of the library and decided that I needed to own it.
As for Blaylock, I definitely think it may be an effort to prove that being gay is really okay! Since so many were enamored of b/v. I don’t believe for a second that he’ll get his own book. I just don’t think people are ready. I bet he gets the secondary treatment in JM/Qhuinn’s book. Maybe he’ll end up with Lash. Or Manny Manello. Hee. Just putting ideas in ya’ll’s heads.
For what it is worth there has been a gay character in the book for much longer than LR or LU’s release.
Where I would not say something she has or the voices in her head have told her to do has happened because of a release (a book one) and/or reaction, this isn’t.
Another thing to keep in mind is Suz B is someone Ward has never made it a secret of she adores (writing and author) so it wouldn’t shock me at all if this wasn’t a plan from the beginning. ‘This’ being a gay character not this post.
And geeze rene isn’t it about time you get over the bitter and trying to compare yourself to ward?
As for if it is or is not true, why couldn’t it happen? The pretrans are really nothing more than teenagers growing up and figuring out how there bodies work and who they are. I think it would be odder (although more in line with romanceland as we know it since GAY generally doesn’t exist) if none of the pretrans ended up gay.
Holly, Simple Jess is wonderful! I wish I had known you wanted it because I had an extra copy. I think you can find it and I will make a call on Monday and see if I can. If nothing else you can borrow mine.
my problem isn’t with the gay characters it’s her pussy-footin’ around with them (tho pussy has nothing to do with it I guess). Do it or don’t. End of story.
Nice slamdance on Rene. Real nice.
“And geeze rene isn’t it about time you get over the bitter and trying to compare yourself to ward? ~ Sybil”
What is wrong with you, Sybil? I know people who have met you in person and they said you were very nice and entertaining. You are young, pretty and clearly intelligent. But you have some serious mean in you and I just don’t understand it. 80% of the time I love reading your comments (not since your last ones about me a few weeks ago) but then you come out of left field for no apparent reason and just get rude, crude and socially unacceptible. You baffle the hell out of me.
Rene … just … blow it off. She’s completely random in addition to being capitalizationaly impaired.
~ Cindy Cruciger
(I have a blogger account under FerfeLaBat, but I just want to make sure the lunatics know it’s me posting because you never know if they are having a “good day” or a “bad day” awareness-wise.)
Sybil, I’m not saying a gay character shouldn’t be done. I’m just saying that after the Butch/V debacle, how can Ward possibly do justice to a gay character, especially a character like Blay? IMO, she can’t, for whatever reason. The more the series goes on, the more it seems to be about shock value more than anything else.
Heh.
Looks like you were right Casee. Blay does have a man-crush on Qhuinn. And he did take pity on him and there was a little man-snog. But who knows where that’ll lead? LOLOL