Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Morning Edition - 2/20/07


My Man, My Boyz
Dwayne Vernon is a remarkable writer with a groundbreaking new book that is set to take the literary world by storm. My Man, My Boyz is a novel that shatters the stereotype of the gay man as a limp-wrist court jester and paints the picture of mainstream, real-life brothas who are living each day to the fullest. Reminiscent of the 2001 movie The Brothers, Vernon's characters are lawyers, sports stars and average men whose lives take them through the elation of love and success and the devastation of loss and defeat. No emotion is left unexplored and all the storylines mirror those we experience every day. Advance copies of this page-turner are available now, so don’t miss the opportunity to live this novel today.

To check out an excerpt of My Man, My Boyz and learn more about the author check out
http://www.norcarjo.com/

On Blast
What did you think? After checking out the My Man, My Boyz webpage…
1. What did you think of the book cover?
2. Did the excerpt inspire you to read more of the book?

Keep passin’ the open windows…

5 comments:

Hondo's Boy said...

What do I think of the cover?

I think that if we want straight people to stop thinking that all we think about is sex then we need to reshape the image that all we think about is sex.

On another note, I want all novels penned by African-American novels to stop looking like the covers were all shot by the same photographer. I mean really? Hell, I would rather see a plain brown bag bookcover than to see another one of these ghetto-fab photo shoots. At least the lack of a photo would allow me to draw my own conclusions based on the backcover synopsis, rather than be force-fed another hood love story, straight or gay.

Does the excerpt make me want to read or buy the novel?

Sadly, no. I was more than a little disheartened that the excerpt highlighted a portion of the book in which some brother gets shot. More literary violence in an already violence riddled Black community...groundbreaking.

As a writer, I take resonsibility for the images I choose to place into the world via my work. I applaud this author for taking the initiative to write a book and actually get it published, however, I would challenge every writer to make a conscious effort to break away from that which is so very familiar and explore other aspects of the Black experience.

Anonymous said...

Hondo's boy I think straight people are going to think what they want to no matter what we do. I think the cover of that book is fabulous. There is nothing ghetto about the cover at all. Yea the little piece from the book is about a man getting shot, but you have to admitt its good. What i would tell you before you be as judgmental about this bothers book as you appear to be, see what the other pages say first. I've always learned to judge a movie after i seen it and not on a short preview.

You mentioned about people thinking gay people are all about sex. Well then why is it when I go to your blog there are three video clips of naked black men in a locker room being filmed and the probably don't even know it. I look at this author's cover and then i look at your blog. My conclusion your giving people that perception that the gay life style is more sexual. So I ask, what is your real motivating factor for shooting this brothers book down. Is that what they call hateration. I appluad this man, we have another brother out there trying to make a mark on the literary world and then you come along and try to pull him down. Yea I think they call that hateration.

That's just my thougt.

Unknown said...

Since the title of the book is My Man, My Boyz, I would think that the cover would feature a brotha and let see…some other brothas… I found the cover attention grabbing, colorful and appropriate. Let me not front, I’d be shoving Keisha out of the way to grab the darn book! In terms of the excerpt, even JK Rowling turned to violence in her last book – and that was a completely fictional world that included ghosts, goblins and portraits that came to life.

I had an opportunity to speak to the author over the weekend and the book contains characters that show working, real-life gay men that paint the often forgotten, unseen or mainstream black gay men who actually have lives, jobs and relationships that, as a man of color, I thirst for. As is the case in our real lives, there is violence, but there is also the reality of the black gay experience – our interaction with our family, each other and the men we love.

As a writer who has long yearned to find his voice, I’m encouraged by writers like D Vernon for taking the bull by the horns and proudly showing black gay men as respectable men in society who can do more than assimilate into white or straight culture and still find success, love and unity.

Anonymous said...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++






I think Hondo needs to actually take time to read the book and not judge it by the cover and a small excerpt from the book. You know that old saying don't judge a book by the cover take the time to read it first. I'm with anonymous HONDO is just a hater!!!!!!!!!

Hondo's Boy said...

@ anonymous

Let it be known that I answered the questions that were posed by Cocoa Rican. The only reason you saw the video of the guys on my site is because one of those guys is Time Hardaway who is now not only famous for his athletic accomplishments but his unabashed hatred of gay men and women. Another case of "He who doth protest too much."

Also, I'm not shooting the brother's book down. I merely questioned why this particualar excerpt was chosen and why we don't get away from such beefcake-ish bookcovers.

@ everyone

I never said that I would not read the book. We were asked our thoughts based on this excerpt and cover.

I agree with Adam that we don't know the circumstances around the young man being shot and the language was a bit out of context when the book is going present Black gay men in a positive light.

That being said, maybe you all would want to check out another book I heard about recently. It also chronicles the real-life story of a young, gay man and his experiences as an NCAA Division 1 athlete. There is info about the author and excerpts at the link below.

http://www.forwhatihateido.com/read.htm

...and no, I don't know this guy either. Just showing love to a fellow writer. You know, being the hater that I am. LOL

"A world without contrary opinions is a world without progress."