"Why Homoerotic Fiction?"

James Buchanan grew up in a small Texas town and majored in English at University. He works as an attorney and writes homoerotic romance and fiction in his spare time.

His most recent works include the short story, “The Darkness”, and novella, My Brother, Coyote (Torquere Press).

Upcoming works include “On Ice” which is going to be featured in the Play Ball! anthology; Bittersweets: A Taste of Halloween (Torquere); Twice the Cowboy (Phaze) and a novel, Cheating Chance, to be released under Torquere Press’s Turn of the Screw Serial Fiction in November 2006.

When did you start you writing?

I don't remember a time when I wasn't writing.

I was pretty sick as a kid, in the hospital a lot and at a time when kids' TV was 2 hours in the morning and PBS at noon. I started making up stories to entertain myself. At first it was picture books and then poetry and short stories.

I was on the literary magazines in High School and College.

There was a black period in my life, while I was trapped in an abusive relationship, where I didn't write at all. But over the past decade, I've gotten back into it.

Why homoerotic romances?

Blunt answer: I like guys.

But, I also find that it allows me a broad range of genres to work in. If I feel like writing a detective novel, I can. If I am inspired to do a horror piece about fallen angels or silly fluff with ice skating cowboys, somebody will buy it. Twisted fantasy/history with a bi-sexual, anti-hero who falls for his best friend, let's go.

The consistency is a romantic and sexual bonding between two men. You can play with the expectations and relationships. In heterosexual romances the characters must be the alpha guy and the woman he overwhelms… I find those types of characters stifling. Not that you won't find alpha males in my books, but they're likely to be head-to-head with another alpha male.

Also, some of my characters would not necessarily self-identify as "gay," which is why I use the term homoerotic as opposed to gay or homosexual romance.

That and I put a lot of sex in my books.

Who influenced you the most?