Jay Neal: Blurbs


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My Blurbs

I have not been widely blurbed. Therefore, I cherish each one that comes my way, and give it loving, individual attenion on this page.

Hey! Look at the attention you could get just for saying something nice about one of my stories!

Louisa Clark
a reader of
Country Boys

"Goodland, Kansas" is a poignant and nostalgic story evoking those fond memories of inseparable friends and the passions of youth. Written with a gentle sense of humor and a dollop of Midwestern Americana, I was filled with all sorts of warm fuzzies, chuckling at the boys' antics. As the boys mature the story takes a dark turn, their friendship strained by denial and conflict. Five Stars!

From her Amazon.com review of Country Boys (2007), about my story "Goodland, Kansas".

Timothy J. Lambert
Guest Editor
Best Gay Erotica 2007

Having grown up on the rocky and jagged coastline of Maine, I could intimately imagine myself in the role of the protagonist of Jay Neal’s gothic tale ["The Lighthouse Keep"]. Next time I’m visiting the homeland, I’ll make it a point to have my car break down near the closest lighthouse I can find.

From his "Introduction: Get Out of My House", to Best Gay Erotica 2007.

I love good storytelling, and Simon Sheppard, Dale Chase, Alana Noel Voth, Scott D. Pomfret, Blair Mastbaum, David May, Shane Allison, Dominic Santi, Dale Lazarov & Drub, Alex Strand, Jay Neal, Jonathan Asche, Bob Condron, C. Scott Smith & William Meloyd Cullum, Greg Herren, and Cat Tailor all delivered excellent stories. I can honestly say it was a pleasure to read their work. Heh. Seriously, they're fantastic writers, and I'm lucky to be associated with them through this anthology.

An entry in his blog, dated 5 December 2006.

Richard Labonté
Editor
Country Boys

But I imagine, sadly, that some young man, a man neither Asa nor I has yet met here in our patch of rural Eastern Ontario, could well find himself mirrored in the closeted uncertainty, even pain, of Jay Neal’s high school students with dusty Kansas town secrets....

From his "Introduction" to Country Boys (2007), about my story "Goodland, Kansas".

Timothy J. Lambert
Guest Editor
Best Gay Erotica 2007

Promotional and back-cover copy for Best Gay Erotica 2007

Rough and surly, smooth and sultry, or quick and raw in public places -- however you like it, you’ll find it in Best Gay Erotica 2007, twenty of the hottest and best-written sex stories to appear in print this year, along with fourteen pages of comics that aren’t for kids. In Jay Neal’s "The Lighthouse Keep," a stranded traveler stumbles into a ghost story, a murder mystery, and a skin-tingling S/M thriller rolled into one, complete with B-movie storm effects and a gnarled ancient mariner.

gynocrat
(aka Tina Anderson)

"As for the erotica scene [involving older men], it’s non existent in [Japanese male-male erotic] art for women [ie ‘yaoi’]. Fiction that stands out in my mind range from the arousing ‘Blade‘ by Jay Neal, the non-explicit but visually delicious ‘Snow‘ from Jameson Currier, and of course my all time favorite-only because it’s a first person thing about a man who’s older and just happens to still enjoy sex with himself more than his 25 year old lover, ‘Spurt‘ by Stephen Greco."

From an article called Older Men and BL-Fen, dated 14 Novmber 2005, at her blog, Guns, Guys, and Yaoi.

Richard Labonté
Series Editor
Best Gay Erotica

"Much of the magic [in Best of Best Gay Erotica 2] comes from the pens of lusty and celebrated erotic writers like Simon Sheppard, Bob Vickery, James Williams, Mel Smith, Dominic Santi, Jay Neal, and David May...."

From his Introduction to Best of Best Gay Erotica 2 (2005).

Club Review of
Bear Lust
InsightOut BookClub

"The bears are on the prowl, and hungry for man flesh. And they all get it in this collection, which is guaranteed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy.

"In 'Cub Makes Headlines!' by Jay Neal, The Weekly Gazette’s cub reporter gives the term a whole new meaning when he is assigned to do a story on a subculture known as 'bears'--and ends up in a game of strip poker...."

It's actually a game of strip Monopoly, but there you go. From the review of the anthology on the Book Club's website -- I don't mind at all being the first one mentioned this time. Bear Lust is listed (right now: June 2005) as an "Editor's Pick".

Richard Labonté
Series Editor
Best Gay Erotica

"Erotic writing dabbles in the fantastic: Jay Neal's creepy 'Old Haunts' ... surely not of this world, nonetheless arouse[s]."

From his "Forward" (titled "...Always More Than Erotic") to Best Gay Erotica 2005.

M.W.
copy editor

"This is hilarious!"

Written in a note about a third the way through the electronic file as he was editing my story "Old Haunts". Sure, I know who he is (a fantastic and sensitive copy editor, for one thing), but I'll preserve the rest of his anonymity for now.

Scott McGillivray
editor of 100% BEEF magazine

"Hot, sexy, smart....woof. That's all I can say."

Said about the story "Taming Raul", subsequently published in 100% BEEF, that I co-wrote with Ron Suresha. (The ellipses are his, by the way.)

Kirk Read

"As a big-guy chaser, I related to your tale and loved the energy of your writing."

Kirk was the guest editor of Best Gay Erotica 2004, and one of the people who selected my story "Time Out" for that year's volume. He inserted this little, hand-written note in the authors' copies of the book that he sent to me. That was so sweet of him!

Ral Andrews
Vancouver, Canada

"Every year I look forward to this gay erotic series.... As there is every year, there are some favorite writers like ... Jay Neal (about farting -- hey, everything is erotic to the right person, right?!)."

Ral Andrews, unknown to me, wrote this about my story "Time Out" in his Amazon.com review of Best Gay Erotica 2004. What a nice thing to say! For the record, I guess I'll mention that farting is neither a fetish of mine (although it is a frequent activity--I am an old fart, after all) nor an erotic element in the story, but that's okay. Whatever works for Ral!

Richard Labonté
Series Editor
Best Gay Erotica

"[...] there are thematic mainstays, erotic constants I've come across in each of the eight years I've edited this nine-year series: the first-time account, the doomed-love tale, the strangers-in-heat fable, the hustler-with-a-heart moment, the hot-hot-hot-sex experience, the fart story.

"Wait. Sorry. There haven't been any fart stories, not in Best Gay Erotica 1996 and not in Best Gay Erotica 2003, and not in any of the six editions in between.

"So, in 2004, do enjoy a first: "Time-Out," by Jay Neal, a whimsical what-if story about a world in which letting loose with a juicy one really does stop men in their tracks."

From his "Forward" (titled "Lust, Sex, Love, Farts") to Best Gay Erotica 2004.

Shaun Levin

"I liked being put next to Jay Neal and his no-nonsense storytelling tone, no faffing about - I was surprised by how turned on I was."

This was said about our stories (mine was "A Bedtime Story") in Best Gay Erotica 2002.

I was pretty sure that "no faffing about" was a positive thing to say in this instance, but I asked my editor about it, just to be certain. Here's what he found out from fellow BGE02 author Andy Quan:

"Faffing about is kind of wasting time, dawdling, doing unimportant things. So a Jay Neal story-telling style, no faffing about, is direct and to the point!"

Jack Fritscher

"Like Woody Allen on pork chops."

Said about my story "A Returning Appetite". It's not entirely clear to me exactly what he meant--although the narrator of the story was rather neurotic and pork chops did feature significantly--but I like the way it sounds.