Zachary Greene's Life
The musings of a man who’s found that gay romance novels and stories have unexpectedly tumbled out of him. The first two of these involved men in their 30s who had PTSD, but other novels or stories involve issues of simple male bonding between professional men, within the realm of gay fiction involving the workplace. The M/M romance interaction can be easily triggered, but sometimes barriers to it’s progression can be either difficult or painful to remove. Sometimes a man has to understand that while his virility may be controlled by his testosterone, the sexual orientation that seeks an outlet for that virility can controlled by his brain, but often it’s beyond his control. Some men can also take on roles within the LGBTQ realm at one time of their lives, and unexpectedly find themselves taking on a different role when they develop a new relationship. All of us carry back-stories, and those can complicate both MM Romance and LGBTQ+ Romance relationships. Life’s complicated.
About Me
My first job after graduate school was as a professor at a large university in western Massachusetts. I’ve moved on since then, but somehow my mindset has remained academic.
I’ve been intrigued all these years by the interpersonal dynamics within work environments, particularly among men. University faculties constitute multi-generational organizations that can include the mentoring of careers, but can also involve the mentoring of personal growth.
Professors also often interact with non-faculty men around them, both within and outside the campus where they work. The dynamics of all these relationships have been the inspiration for my own writing.
What’s it all about, Alfie?
As I’ve thought about what has driven my interest in being with other men, I’ve come to realize that the relationships I’ve had come in different categories. If I’ve asked other men what they seek in relationships with men, their answers follow the same categories.
Some seek a partner for one or another sexual activity; some say they just seek a general life partner. For me, as for some other men I’ve met, the attraction really starts by wanting to be held, almost being held unconditionally.
The desire to know that loneliness is a thing of the past, I guess, desires some existential end to isolation. If we all know that ultimately the bell tolls for each of us, for me, the desire to be with another man is the desire to know that at least I’ll be held when it starts to ring, that a pair of strong, warm hands will be engulfing me as we each feel the other’s breathing and the beat of the other’s heart. Or at least we’d feel it for now, anyway.