New cover art for Off the Beaten Path!

Here's the new cover art for my next m/m novel, Off the Beaten Path, coming July 28th from Loose Id. All hail the mantitte, and a double dose at that! Many thanks to Marci Gass for a cover well done:





Want to know what's going on in that tent? Here's the scoop:

*****
Travis Bell is openly gay to family and friends, but as a college athlete, he chooses not to define himself by his sexuality. When he covers for a friend’s misdeed, he’s forced to negotiate his future without losing his lacrosse scholarship. The last thing he plans on is a “volunteer vacation” in the remote wilderness with Omega Beta Pi, aka Off the Beaten Path, a fraternity devoted to gay rights and environmental causes. Worse, Travis must share a tent with Kyle, an opinionated activist who also happens to be the hottest guy Travis has ever met.

A proud activist, Kyle Schafer disapproves of Travis’s indifference toward issues affecting the environment and gay community. To his even greater annoyance, Kyle finds himself attracted to his shallow tentmate on a purely physical level. Travis goes against everything Kyle believes in, but that doesn’t dampen the chemistry that sparks between them.

In a battle of wits and libido, Travis and Kyle venture into the uncharted territory of their deepest desires... and learn the path less traveled can lead straight to the heart.
*****

Want more of Travis and Kyle? Check back in the next few weeks for a juicy excerpt!

RIP Michael Jackson

I grew up during Michael Jackson's rise. My children have only known his fall. Time and history will eventually forgive and forget, with the music left to stand testament to the genius that, in recent years, took backseat to the tabloid-fueled freak show.

My 3rd grade teacher let us bring in albums for "listening time" (yes, albums, to be played on this thingie called a record player). One of the cool girls who'd brought the Grease and Saturday Night Fever soundtracks showed up one day with Michael Jackson's Off the Wall. Only twelve years younger than the performer, my classmates and I had grown up on ABC and Ben. We'd seen Michael Jackson on the Sesame Street Christmas special, and sang along with his funky-licious version of The Scarecrow in The Wiz. But Off the Wall was different. This was a little more grown-up and sophisticated. We were supposed to lay our heads on our desks to listen, but under the music, you could hear all of us tapping our toes and drumming our fingers to the disco beat.

Little did we eight and nine-year-olds know we were being primed for the brilliance that would be Thriller, with seven consecutive singles that would dominate our junior high years. And Thriller was amazing, no doubt about it, but my personal favorite will always be the title track from Off the Wall. I'd like to remember Michael Jackson as the seminal "before we went punk" GenX icon that he was, in the days before I woke up angry at the world with the big boots and all-black wardrobe to match, in the years before Michael Jackson would become the stuff of South Park jokes. RIP, Michael Jackson.

Has Calvin Klein been reading erotic romance?

It looks like an m/f/m (or m/f/m + m?) cover even:



Full story on oh-noez-the-outrage here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=7854000&page=1

Tracing the Subcategory Family Tree

Fictionwise customers may want to note that as of today's update, the Erotica page now lists several new sub-categories at the top, including the "Erotic Romance" category so many of us have requested, as well as "Gay-Lesbian", "Menage", etc. As it happens, my recent Loose Id release Secrets Revealed is now available under the brand spankin' new "BDSM Erotica" category. (Hey, I had to crack a pun in there somewhere!) Check it out at:

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b89389/Secrets-Revealed-/Katrina-Strauss/?si=0

While I'm at it, Secrets Revealed is also available at All Romance eBooks, where it's currently enjoying top 10 status under their "Historic Medieval" category. Yes, as you can see, All Romance breaks their "Historical" listings down by time period:

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-eldritchlegacy1secretsrevealed-17291-147.html

I personally like subcategories. As an author, I feel it better targets niche audiences, which I tend to write for (e.g. fans of BDSM, yaoi, or both!), and have always felt this is one of digital publishing's strong points. Meanwhile, I've seen readers express that specific breakdowns of subgenres help them fine tune searches in an ever-expanding selection of cross-genre works.

On the other hand, niche can be a weakness as much as a strength. In limiting choices to a subcategory of a subcategory, readers may overlook titles they'd equally enjoy in other subgenres. For authors, niche can guarantee an audience, but it can also mean we write ourselves into a corner.

How specific should we get in classifying titles? Is "Historical Pre-Tudor Medieval BDSM Gay-Lesbian Voyeur Orgy" perhaps a little too detailed, or just the thing you're looking for? Does cross-genre subcategorization expand readership, or actually limit it? What say you, dear readers and fellow authors?

Announcing July releases!

I've been given not one but two July release dates. Paranormal het novella Windswept will come out July 15 from Tease Publishing , while m/m contempo Off the Beaten Path releases July 28 from Loose Id. I'll be sharing blurbs, cover art, and an excerpt or two over the next few weeks, so check back soon!

Interview up at m/m blog Reviews by Jessewave!

I've been interviewed at Reviews by Jessewave, popular destination for m/m readers everywhere. Wave asks the best questions, while we touched on topics I haven't discussed elsewhere. I also dished more dirt on Blue Ruin 4: Need You Tonight as well as my upcoming summer release Off the Beaten Path. If you're familiar with Wave's blog, then you'll know comments and discussion are highly encouraged! So drop by and check it out at:

http://reviewsbyjessewave.blogspot.com/2009/06/author-in-spotlight-katrina-strauss.html