In today’s hyper-commercialized world a novel isn’t just a novel anymore. Not only for professionals in the publishing world, but for readers, too, a novel is expected to neatly fit into a particular genre. This is frustrating for those of us who are reluctant to be saddled with one specific label. The Double Dare trilogy is, for the most part: fiction. Fiction based in a number of realities, for both the characters and for the books themselves. The trilogy is also romance, specifically gay romance, focusing on gay men, but also gay women as the story unfolds. Some might want to label the trilogy as gay erotica, since a lot of the romance is ‘open door’ rather than ‘closed door.’ Or what some would label ‘steamy gay romance.’ In other words, the sex is not just implied; it is shared with the reader. But there is so much more to the story than that. So, is it LGBTQ+ fiction? Romantic gay fiction? Gay erotica? For me, and I hope for most readers, it is a moving story about the formation of a loving, chosen family and the evolution of the appealing characters who form it. It’s about the lives of the men and women who are there for one another as they face opportunities and challenges both incidental and life-changing.
