# WHAT is up with all the Billionaire books?



## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

I don't get it. I feel like every other contemporary romance title has the word "Billionaire" in it. Ok, he's rich. We get it. SO?! I'm annoyed.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

There was this book out last year called Fifty Shades of Grey. (It was Twilight fanfic with the serial numbers rubbed off. Twilight involves a billionaire.) Fifty Shades sold well, so it has many imitators.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Don't forget that Harlequin had a line called Presents for a long time too. Usually rich alpha guys. Tycoons and such. Its not new.


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## Zoe Cannon (Sep 2, 2012)

Cherise Kelley said:


> There was this book out last year called Fifty Shades of Grey. (It was Twilight fanfic with the serial numbers rubbed off. Twilight involves a billionaire.) Fifty Shades sold well, so it has many imitators.


Twilight involves a vampire. Fifty Shades replaced the vampire with a billionaire. (Because those two things are similar, right?)


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## Gina Black (Mar 15, 2011)

They used to be millionaires, but with inflation now they're billionaires.


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## Jena H (Oct 2, 2011)

Nicole Castro said:


> I don't get it. I feel like every other contemporary romance title has the word "Billionaire" in it. Ok, he's rich. We get it. SO?! I'm annoyed.


Have you missed the memo on sheiks and sultans? For a while they were everywhere too. And Italians or other nationalities as well. Titles like "The Sultan's Pregnant Bride," or "To Catch an Italian Billionaire." "Greek Tycoon's Girlfriend." I'm betting these books are about exactly what the title says, and the reader knows exactly what she's getting and doesn't expect anything more, um, in-depth. 

(Also, I think the billionaire trend was around before Fifty Shades. That juggernaut just helped sustain them.)


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## rachelmadison (Aug 31, 2013)

Gina Black said:


> They used to be millionaires, but with inflation now they're billionaires.


haha! exactly.


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

There are so many billionaire books because readers gobble them up like a big bag of m & ms, but that doesn't end the craving and they search out the next one. Quality doesn't seem to matter and as long as the books sell, writers will churn them out.

It's interesting that thanks to FSOG, billions have replaced millions as the required net worth of romance heroes.


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## KMatthew (Mar 21, 2012)

The reason there are so many "Billionaire" books out right now is because they sell. Readers want to buy them, so authors are mass producing them. That's typically how it works when any sub-genre is popular.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Just give me a gazillionaire.  

Whats funny is that I have a book in my reading bar right now that has the byline of Billionaire. Thing is, its the 4th in a series and when the series started it didn't have that line or series name. And I don't really recall the first 2 being billionaires. Successful business men yes. I guess it must be put in the title now.


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## P.C. (Peter) Anders (Feb 6, 2013)

So the billionaire trend still has some life left in it? Or will it go on for a while until there are trillionaires? It would never work to have a hero who is bright, and of good "character", but of modest means? Just asking.


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## Ismcrazy (May 7, 2013)

Nicole Castro said:


> I don't get it. I feel like every other contemporary romance title has the word "Billionaire" in it. Ok, he's rich. We get it. SO?! I'm annoyed.


Maybe billionaires are just more grounded than regular people, they're probably deeply connected to the world around them (also below them, from their private helicopters). 

Obviously the perceived fantasy element is that they are detatched from the humdrum every day grind and can focus all their attention on showering their lovers with gifts and elaborate romance. But we are a culture of escalation and soon Billionaires won't even be able to offer enough and there will be a long line of romance novels about missunderstood island-nation dictators and the women who taim them.

Maybe the only way to strike back is to write a nice tale about a balding, middle-aged man toiling in his job as a team-leader for the bottled-water company's call center. Show how he manages to find the love of his life at a gambler's anonymous meeting and showers her with impromptu gas station gifts of roses in plastic tubing and mutliple types of fruit flavored gum.

The book focuses on exploring their aging bodies body image issues and their awkward passionate moments filled with out of shape wheezing and lackluster sexual encounters... In the end, they buy a sofa together.

hmmm.... kinda got off topic there.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

P.C. (Peter) Anders said:


> So the billionaire trend still has some life left in it? Or will it go on for a while until there are trillionaires? It would never work to have a hero who is bright, and of good "character", but of modest means? Just asking.


There are plenty of those around also. The romance genre is huge and even within the subgenres like contemporary romance you find all kinds of them. Its just a fraction of them.


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## dianasg (Jan 8, 2010)

Zoe Cannon said:


> Twilight involves a vampire. Fifty Shades replaced the vampire with a billionaire. (Because those two things are similar, right?)


Well, in Twilight, Edward WAS at least a millionaire. Living for hundreds of years let him amass a lot of $$$. He had the fancy house, sports car, etc.


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## SBJones (Jun 13, 2011)

If they only clear $27,000 a year before taxes, it just doesn't do it for-em.  Add six more zeroes and their willpower disappears, along with most clothing.


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## Christa Wick (Nov 1, 2012)

P.C. (Peter) Anders said:


> So the billionaire trend still has some life left in it? Or will it go on for a while until there are trillionaires? It would never work to have a hero who is bright, and of good "character", but of modest means? Just asking.


Yanno, I have a rockstar WIP going with a slightly different twist to it. I *could* leave that angle in the story but have the male MC not be a rockstar, "just" a decent man of good character (with drool worthy abs -- oh, hey, there's another trope). However, I like sales, so Ima make him a rockstar (with drool worthy abs).


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

DianaGabriel said:


> Well, in Twilight, Edward WAS at least a millionaire. Living for hundreds of years let him amass a lot of $$$. He had the fancy house, sports car, etc.


Yes, and I'd argue much of Dracula's mystique came from his wealth, as well.

I love the point that they used to be millionaires, but now with inflation they have to be billionaires. 

Yes, I remember all the sultan book covers in the drug stores in the 1970s, too.


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

Some of the responses are hilarious and some are snarky & unoriginal.  

What if he has 999 million dollars? Oops, sorry, you don't quite cut it! Guess you better sell some shares or something!!

Drool worthy abs are always welcome in romance! Or any genre really... LOL


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## Isabel Dare (Nov 12, 2012)

Ah, billionaires. As a trope, it goes back a long, long way.

Jane: "Will you tell me how long you have loved him?"

Elizabeth: "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley."


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## Jac1106 (Jan 13, 2012)

I was wondering the same thing, and so I went to google to look up the number of male billionaires (in US$) in the world who are single and good looking and of marriagable age.


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

Isabel Dare said:


> Ah, billionaires. As a trope, it goes back a long, long way.
> 
> Jane: "Will you tell me how long you have loved him?"
> 
> Elizabeth: "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley."


LMAO perfect.


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## Christa Wick (Nov 1, 2012)

Ismcrazy -- isn't that kinda like the movie barflies?


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Guilty as charged. "sigh."


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

J.A. Cynth said:


> I was wondering the same thing, and so I went to google to look up the number of male billionaires (in US$) in the world who are single and good looking and of marriagable age.


And...?


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## D.L. Shutter (Jul 9, 2011)

Mega popular titles equates to themes of new and expanded popularity. Happens with every breakout, genre changing book that comes along. But, as an erotica reader, I'll agree that the "billionairre" card is being thrown around an awful lot in erotica now. Maybe too much. I personally won't touch anything with the "B" word in the title anymore. Have seen too many books where there was no fantasy world of wealth or captivating, all powerful character, just a tagline and keyword thrown in the mix it seemed. I obviously haven't read them all so that's only an opinion. 

But at the end of the day; if you're having fun writing it, and readers are buying, then more power to you.


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## 71089 (Jul 12, 2013)

I feel like you're talking to me  

Sorry but I can name the reason number 1 for most authors:

It sells.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

ISMCRAZY said: ...soon Billionaires won't even be able to offer enough and *there will be a long line of romance novels about missunderstood island-nation dictators and the women who taim them*.

I think you should write this! 

(Really!)


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## Claudia King (Oct 27, 2012)

Gina Black said:


> They used to be millionaires, but with inflation now they're billionaires.


Hey, the guy in _my_ eRom serial is still a millionaire!

I'm totally retro like that.


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## lisamaliga (Oct 28, 2010)

Maybe this could be considered research for the next series of books
http://www.amazon.com/TRILLIONAIRE-Create-Sustain-Hyper-Growth-Environment/dp/1425996337


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

DDark said:


> Because billionaires are dead-sexy.
> 
> http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/












They are all 10,000 years old.


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## Dan Fiorella (Oct 14, 2012)

Jena H said:


> Have you missed the memo on sheiks and sultans? For a while they were everywhere too. And Italians or other nationalities as well. Titles like "The Sultan's Pregnant Bride," or "To Catch an Italian Billionaire." "Greek Tycoon's Girlfriend." I'm betting these books are about exactly what the title says, and the reader knows exactly what she's getting and doesn't expect anything more, um, in-depth.


this bodes well for my new book "Billionaires on a Plane."


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

***********


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

David Stephens said:


> So my next book will be about a shy, virginal college girl who becomes an intern at Berkshire Hathaway and ends up in a three-way with Warren Buffet and Bill Gates aboard a Gulfstream from Netjets on the way to China.


You might as well make one of them a vampire and the other a werewolf while you're at it!!


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

I don't quite understand why the billionaire thing would annoy anyone. It's just a trend, like werewolves or vampires. Yes, it's a slightly silly trend (there are virtually no young, sexy billionaires anywhere in the world), but it's no sillier than werewolves, really.

I have two billionaire series. What I like about them is the power issue-- you have one guy who's rich and powerful and used to getting anything he wants at the snap of his fingers, and another guy or gal who is not rich and who may resent the wealthy guy's attempts to control them, even as s/he is dazzled by the wealth and glitter. This is what I find interesting about the idea, personally.

This makes me wonder-- has anyone written a _female _billionaire book? That would be an interesting but different power dynamic.


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

Freedom from want, a custom-made closet for shoes, a car that starts, dinner in Paris, paying off the Visa, black satin sheets--a billionaire can provide them all. It's a fantasy made for our times. Toss in the appropriately well-defined abs and what's not to buy? 

Personally I'd prefer he *not* be a vampire--but that's just me...


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## D.L. Shutter (Jul 9, 2011)

> has anyone written a female billionaire book? That would be an interesting but different power dynamic.


Ellen Dominic has a title like that. The female Dom character wears the pants...and the phallus. I believe she's said it's not her best seller.


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## Dee Ernst (Jan 10, 2011)

When I imagine a billionaire, the first face that comes to mind is of Bill Gates.  I guess I need to rethink this, right?


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

I just like that, by sub-genre, billionaires are treated exactly like monsters. They're functionally interchangeable with any other weird creature whose accepted lore has been changed to make them bedable and whom pretty much no woman will ever sleep with. A billionaire s a vampire is a werewolf is a worm-that-walks.



Cherise Kelley said:


> Yes, and I'd argue much of Dracula's mystique came from his wealth, as well.


Dracula had a hypnotic gaze. He had no need for conventional lady-bait.


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## ElisaBlaisdell (Jun 3, 2012)

Isabel Dare said:


> Ah, billionaires. As a trope, it goes back a long, long way.
> 
> Jane: "Will you tell me how long you have loved him?"
> 
> Elizabeth: "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley."


Getting off topic, but the beautiful thing about this conversation is that it's completely true in a _non_-mercenary way too.


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## philstern (Mar 14, 2011)

Women find rich dudes attractive. I think that's one stereotype that holds pretty true.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

DDark said:


> The new trend now is fighters and mean guys.


And motorcycle clubs. I've seen more books lately involving dudes with motorcycles. I'm blaming it on Sons of Anarchy. (TV show.) The star of which, incidentally, was just signed to play the lead in the film version of FSOG.

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

DDark said:


> The funny part is all the bikers where I live look like Santa Claus. Sigh


Seriously. Our nephew is a member of an MC in Colorado and in fact had a biker wedding in June. There were definitely some Santa look-alikes...and none that look like Charlie Hunnam....

Betsy


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

YESssssss....jotting down my Billionaire Biker Spy series right now....


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## Alan Petersen (May 20, 2011)

Harriet Schultz said:


> There are so many billionaire books because readers gobble them up like a big bag of m & ms, but that doesn't end the craving and they search out the next one. Quality doesn't seem to matter and as long as the books sell, writers will churn them out.
> 
> It's interesting that thanks to FSOG, billions have replaced millions as the required net worth of romance heroes.


Dr Evil learned that lesson...


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## Redbloon (Mar 27, 2013)

How about:

'Pregnant Mum for the Biker Billionaire's Baby'?

'A Biker Girlfriend for the Vampire Billionaire'?

'Wanted: Pretend Wife for the Greek, Vampire, Billionaire Tycoon'?

I think I need to be writing modern romance... Although my hero's are not exactly poor.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

Nicole Castro said:


> WHAT is up with all the Billionaire books?


Well, for one thing, sales are up.

The major theme in almost all of the billionaire books is domination. I guess women don't want to be submissive to hobos.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Vaalingrade said:


> Dracula had a hypnotic gaze. He had no need for conventional lady-bait.


The first third of the book was about how huge, gorgeous, and well-built his castle was...


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## yomamma (Feb 10, 2011)

swolf said:


> Well, for one thing, sales are up.
> 
> The major theme in almost all of the billionaire books is domination. I guess women don't want to be submissive to hobos.


I'm sorry, but this made me giggle hard.


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## RaeC (Aug 20, 2013)

The Harley Davidson Chronicles: Bred and Bound By My Mean Billionaire Step-Dad While Riding Cross-country

Billionaires are just the hot thing right now in romance, it seems, although my wife says she more of a werewolf gal.  And anything with the word 'Dark' in the title, she loves that.


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## D.L. Shutter (Jul 9, 2011)

> I guess women don't want to be submissive to hobos.


I'm now deleting all WIP drafts of "Dominated and bred by the middle-aged delivery guy in his parent's basement."

Darn you Swolf! Darn you to heck!"


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## Al Dente (Sep 3, 2012)

D.L. Shutter said:


> I'm now deleting all WIP drafts of "Dominated and bred by the middle-aged delivery guy in his parent's basement."
> 
> Darn you Swolf! Darn you to heck!"


*sifts through DL's recycling bin*

I'll write those, thanks.


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## dianasg (Jan 8, 2010)

LOL this thread 

So, I know that billionaires have been a trend in romance for a long time, and also that FSOG played a big role in repopularizing this trope. But I ALSO wonder if the resurgence has something to do with the economic times we live in? Where, maybe, class has jumped to the forefront of our collective consciousness again?

Thoughts?



ElisaBlaisdell said:


> Getting off topic, but the beautiful thing about this conversation is that it's completely true in a _non_-mercenary way too.


Yes!!! So true. <3


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## Zelah Meyer (Jun 15, 2011)

Well, a huge number of Regency heroes were dukes.  Plus, most fairy tales feature either a prince or a princess.  I guess that when people buy into the idea of a romantic fantasy, they like having it with sprinkles on top.  

By the way - strangely enough, I actually had a dream the other night that a dictator had picked me out of the crowd at a public performance.  It wasn't romantic - it was more, "Oh sh*t!  How do I stop this guy from paying attention to me before he decides to have me executed on a whim?"


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

jillmyles said:


> I'm sorry, but this made me giggle hard.


Me too! I love the word "hobo".


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

It's like "dukes" in Regency romances, according to which there is a duke standing on every street corner just begging to marry some tattered waif. Now the fact that there are only 11 dukes in the English peerage and 7 in Scottish peerage can safely be ignored. (There are a handful that are in a separate "UK" peerage, 9 or so I believe) But, we'll just make up the name of another silly sounding title and someone will gobble it up because only a duke will do.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Nah, Earls are nothing to sneeze at either.    

Its fiction, its fantasy. I don't think there are as many serial killers running around either as have been portrayed in books.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

JRTomlin said:


> It's like "dukes" in Regency romances, according to which there is a duke standing on every street corner just begging to marry some tattered waif. Now the fact that there are only 11 dukes in the English peerage and 7 in Scottish peerage can safely be ignored. (There are a handful that are in a separate "UK" peerage, 9 or so I believe) But, we'll just make up the name of another silly sounding title and someone will gobble it up because only a duke will do.





J.A. Cynth said:


> I was wondering the same thing, and so I went to google to look up the number of male billionaires (in US$) in the world who are single and good looking and of marriagable age.


Um, we're talking fiction, right? How many vampires and werewolves are there in the US? Y'all.....

*goes back to looking for billionaire biker books.*

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Atunah said:


> Nah, Earls are nothing to sneeze at either.
> 
> Its fiction, its fantasy. I don't think there are as many serial killers running around either as have been portrayed in books.


LOL, Atunah, I started to add that to my post but decided to stay in romance. 

Betsy


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Atunah said:


> Nah, Earls are nothing to sneeze at either.
> 
> Its fiction, its fantasy. I don't think there are as many serial killers running around either as have been portrayed in books.


I suppose an earl *might* do even though they're very inferior. At least there are 60 or so of those. 

I admit to being a purist. The thought of making up titles? I just couldn't do it which is why I don't write romances. LOL

Even though my main character falls in love in my current novel. That was because he claimed that he did though. I find it a bit embarrassing.


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## D.L. Shutter (Jul 9, 2011)

> *sifts through DL's recycling bin*


Be careful where you dig. Some things can't be unseen.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

JRTomlin said:


> Even though my main character falls in love in my current novel. That was because he claimed that he did though. I find it a bit embarrassing.


LOL, JRT!


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

In fiction, anything goes. I don't expect real life facts when I am reading fiction, even historical romances. As long as the logical stuff is in place, you know, no zippers back when, unless its a time travel.  . 
I don't mind made up titles and I am well aware, like most of us readers of such that there were only a few dukes and I am pretty sure they weren't all tall dark and handsome either.  

In my reading bar I have the following heroes right now. 

A Lawyer of the old West, a emo alien, an Earl, a weird scientist, a construction worker/fighter, a kilted Laird, a nincompoop gentleman with nice buns, a gentleman whore, a billionaire and a medieval Sir. 

I like em all.  

Which reminds me, I have a lack of pirates going on at the moment.....


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## RaeC (Aug 20, 2013)

Atunah said:


> Which reminds me, I have a lack of pirates going on at the moment.....


The Dark Corsair: Tamed by the Heiress' Booty

Seriously, if I knew a darn thing about writing historicals I'd do this, and put Fabio on the cover just to annoy my wife.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> LOL, JRT!


Honestly? He got a bit soppy about her. Sheesh. What kind of king does that? I am trying to show that it wasn't just because he thought she was beautiful. The "I saw her through my prison window and immediately thought she was the best thing since oat bannocks" just doesn't quite work for me. Nope, don't believe in love at first sight.

I do (_major confession here_) read a few romances, but they have to be "gay" (male or female either), have relatively little sex (which is boring), and have NO KILTS or earls or dukes!!!


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## Christa Wick (Nov 1, 2012)

He sounds a little like Bruno Mars


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Cherise Kelley said:


> The first third of the book was about how huge, gorgeous, and well-built his castle was...


It was actually a piece of corrugated tin leaned up against the underside of a bridge. The 'notic is a serious power. 

My biggest problem is current trends is that it's hard to write character development for a male character who is an objectively awful person while fielding emails from crossover fans who are totally into him _because_ he's objectively awful.

I keep wanting to reply with 'Come on! I implied he burned an entire city to the ground out of spite and remembers it warmly. He absolutely adores killing people. His iconic catchphrase is literally laughing at the misfortune of others (particularly the people he's about to kill), He shattered a man's mind until he died for his shirt! THIS IS NOT BOYTOY MATERIAL!'


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## RaeC (Aug 20, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> It was actually a piece of corrugated tin leaned up against the underside of a bridge. The 'notic is a serious power.
> 
> My biggest problem is current trends is that it's hard to write character development for a male character who is an objectively awful person while fielding emails from crossover fans who are totally into him _because_ he's objectively awful.
> 
> I keep wanting to reply with 'Come on! I implied he burned an entire city to the ground out of spite and remembers it warmly. He absolutely adores killing people. His iconic catchphrase is literally laughing at the misfortune of others (particularly the people he's about to kill), He shattered a man's mind until he died for his shirt! THIS IS NOT BOYTOY MATERIAL!'


But did he only do those things...because he lacked a good woman's love? If so, he's boytoy.


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## AngryGames (Jul 28, 2013)

When it is a couple of crackheads or criminals, it doesn't seem to be as 'erotic' or 'romantic' as when rich/wealthy persons engage in deviant (or just passionate) acts.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

superfictious said:


> But did he only do those things...because he lacked a good woman's love? If so, he's boytoy.


Nope, totally in a stable, loving relationship when he converted that city to obsidian and the faint aroma of ozone and roast pork. She even helped him. I mean she's been dead so long in the present of the series that her dust has turned to dust, but still...


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## EC Sheedy (Feb 24, 2011)

JRTomlin said:


> ... *only a duke will do*.


This just screams BOOK TITLE! Go JR


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## Christa Wick (Nov 1, 2012)

DDark said:


> Clearly you don't read paranormal romance. I can think of books where the most "messed up" men are the most favored among fans. Or the biker books. Or the fighter books. Or a lot of NA... lol


Hah - I got one-starred because my male MC in a book smoked ONE cigarette. So I think angry is right on at least crackheads being unattractive MCs and unsexy.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Vaalingrade said:


> It was actually a piece of corrugated tin leaned up against the underside of a bridge. The 'notic is a serious power.
> 
> My biggest problem is current trends is that it's hard to write character development for a male character who is an objectively awful person while fielding emails from crossover fans who are totally into him _because_ he's objectively awful.
> 
> I keep wanting to reply with 'Come on! I implied he burned an entire city to the ground out of spite and remembers it warmly. He absolutely adores killing people. His iconic catchphrase is literally laughing at the misfortune of others (particularly the people he's about to kill), He shattered a man's mind until he died for his shirt! THIS IS NOT BOYTOY MATERIAL!'


I am guessing you haven't met Anne Stuart's heroes yet. Some of those are a real piece of work. One I read knew his future lady love was being tortured painfully to death. He looked, he saw, he went eh and walked away. And yet, somehow Anne Stuart manages to make it all work. She is quite a master at it actually. And they are still all romance novels. 

There is some dark dark stuff out there in romancelandia. And I love it. _If_ its done well that is. And at the same time I flove me a beta hero.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

Wait! Don't let publishers find out the world "Billionaire" is popular! They'll want to change the name of some classics.

Moby Billionaire
The Lord of the Billionaires
Uncle Billionaire's Cabin
Gone With the Billionaire
For Whom the Billionaire Tolls
Nineteen Eighty-Billionaires
Pride and Billionaires
Love in the Time of Billionaires
The Billionaire in the Rye

... I'll stop being annoying now.


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## Deena Ward (Jun 20, 2013)

DianaGabriel said:


> But I ALSO wonder if the resurgence has something to do with the economic times we live in? Where, maybe, class has jumped to the forefront of our collective consciousness again?


I believe it does. These books are about fantasy, after all, escaping from the worries and problems of the real world. Economic rescue is the same as any other form of rescue. These knights in designer suits simply wield unlimited funds rather than swords to save the heroine from doom. One more shade in the hero as savior trope.

Now, my rich hero is never named as a millionaire or a billionaire. He's so incredibly wealthy that his net worth is unknown, can only be guessed at by the incredible power he wields to maintain a private life filled with lots of kinky BDSM delights. Had to do it that way so he could compete -- he's over 40 and his pecs, while still impressive, could hardly compete with those of a standard 20-something billionaire.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

EC Sheedy said:


> This just screams BOOK TITLE! Go JR


LOL The title is yours. Have at it.


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## RaeC (Aug 20, 2013)

Ty Johnston said:


> Wait! Don't let publishers find out the world "Billionaire" is popular! They'll want to change the name of some classics.
> 
> Moby Billionaire
> The Lord of the Billionaires
> ...


If I were a rapper, I'd totally be Moby Billionaire, and my first single would be Uncle Billionaire's Cabin.


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## AngryGames (Jul 28, 2013)

lol, it's true, I don't read romance or erotica. I suppose it just feels to me that watching people on the bottom rungs of humanity have sex (or reading about it I suppose) doesn't feel as...naughty? as watching the wealthier deviants.

Then again, I spent most of my career in tech removing pornography from residential and commercial/enterprise computers. So I've maybe seen it all (trust me, I've seen it all) and don't really know what the line between normal and deviant is anymore. I suppose also that I would treat erotica like pornographic videos...stop acting and just get to the sex. I'm not interested in the backstory of how the pizza delivery man ended up lucking out and getting Mrs. Jones' delivery, nor any backstory about how lonely poor old Mrs. Jones is because her husband is always at work, probably shagging his secretary as well.

Blah blah blah just get to the sex.

Which is why I'm not a good candidate for romance/erotica.

Plus I'm a dude. Not that dudes can't be into romance/erotica. But dudes tend to have different views of those subjects than women. All you have to do is watch pornography to see that men see things MUCH differently. A man's fantasy typically involves very little romance and a lot of headboard knocking (in about 32 different positions, some that will pull a hamstring or cause an anterior ligament hyper-extension or such if not done correctly). All that 'anticipation' and 'passion' and 'romance' are just words that mean 'you have to wait a little longer to get sexed' to us. (again, not all of us, but I'm a pretty good observer of men...especially since I've had to subject myself to their pornographic viewing habits for more than a decade).

Now I'm wondering if I shouldn't write a ro_MAN_ce book of my own. It might only be three pages long though. Fortunately, I know better than to attempt this. My novella, since it is tagged LGBT-friendly, shared a position at Smashwords for about three weeks with an erotica book called "In My Daughter's [rear]" (don't want to break forum rules even though the title is a real title lol). Written by a man. The description alone made me a little queasy. And $3.99 for about 30 pages? I think it was something like 12k words or 14k words.

I'm not knocking it. Everyone should write what they want (within reason...I'm not down with kiddie porn or kiddie erotica at all, nor rape or torture).

Maybe if I was a billionaire...


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

DDark said:


> Nope. Read "Black Dagger Brotherhood". These men smoke weed, drink, and kill for fun. Most rabid fan base Ever.


That's because they are all seven feet seven inches tall, can't spell their names, and their dark daggers are shaven and bigger than my mother's fresh pepper grinder.


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

Ty Johnston said:


> Wait! Don't let publishers find out the world "Billionaire" is popular! They'll want to change the name of some classics.
> 
> Moby Billionaire
> The Lord of the Billionaires
> ...


You forgot The Billionaire of Monte Cristo


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Atunah said:


> I am guessing you haven't met Anne Stuart's heroes yet. Some of those are a real piece of work. One I read knew his future lady love was being tortured painfully to death. He looked, he saw, he went eh and walked away. And yet, somehow Anne Stuart manages to make it all work. She is quite a master at it actually. And they are still all romance novels.
> 
> There is some dark dark stuff out there in romancelandia. And I love it. _If_ its done well that is. And at the same time I flove me a beta hero.


I get that there's a market for squalmous monsters that walk like men in romances and such... but I'm not writing romance. There's some romantic subplots (which don't involve Ru yet because, as I mentioned, he is awful and undeserving of love [and I say that as he creator]) in it because, well I'm me, but I find the amount of crossover strange and sort of distracting while I'm trying to develop him into an actual human being who doesn't deserve the things I do to him.


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## RaeC (Aug 20, 2013)

AngryGames said:


> lol, it's true, I don't read romance or erotica. I suppose it just feels to me that watching people on the bottom rungs of humanity have sex (or reading about it I suppose) doesn't feel as...naughty? as watching the wealthier deviants.
> 
> Then again, I spent most of my career in tech removing pornography from residential and commercial/enterprise computers. So I've maybe seen it all (trust me, I've seen it all) and don't really know what the line between normal and deviant is anymore. I suppose also that I would treat erotica like pornographic videos...stop acting and just get to the sex. I'm not interested in the backstory of how the pizza delivery man ended up lucking out and getting Mrs. Jones' delivery, nor any backstory about how lonely poor old Mrs. Jones is because her husband is always at work, probably shagging his secretary as well.
> 
> ...


I'm trying to imagine what tropes around which male-centered romances would revolve? Sexy librarians? Xena-like Amazonians? Frustrated housewives? Potty-mouthed nuns? Demure alien cat-princesses who want to breed?

I have no doubt we guys would gravitate towards some hilarious themes.


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

"Demure alien cat-princesses who want to breed?" LMAO


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## RaeC (Aug 20, 2013)

Nicole Castro said:


> "Demure alien cat-princesses who want to breed?" LMAO


As a man, i would *so *pay good money for that story if Hugh Howey or Selena Kitt wrote it.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Nicole Castro said:


> "Demure alien cat-princesses who want to breed?" LMAO


*sulkily moves manuscript to trash bin*


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## AngryGames (Jul 28, 2013)

superfictious said:


> I'm trying to imagine what tropes around which male-centered romances would revolve? Sexy librarians? Xena-like Amazonians? Frustrated housewives? Potty-mouthed nuns? Demure alien cat-princesses who want to breed?
> 
> I have no doubt we guys would gravitate towards some hilarious themes.


*sigh* Sometimes I'm ashamed to be male honestly. Not that I haven't had my own deviant thoughts (and/or experiences, I'm getting old and was pretty wild in my younger years). Plenty of hilarious themes no doubt, but the ones that make me cringe are...

I'm totally down with the 'furries' (dressing up like the cartoon animals I guess?), or the Amazonian women who are 6' 6" and keep a man as a sex slave (these are standard fare for sure). Stuff like that.

It's the weird stuff that I've found that men seem to like, and in more than just a 'oh I just got that linked by a friend, I was checking it out because it was funny' thing. Because people don't have an entire folder of water sports or German scheiße porn that involves solid bodily wastes if they were just 'checking it out because a friend told them it was funny'.

And this is why roMANce (my wife HATES it when I say/write it this way) is very different than romance. Women probably are okay with a little domination or bondage (or a lot, I've met plenty that are definitely confident enough in their sexuality to not be ashamed, and that's a good thing), but I would imagine that they'd draw the line at actual degradation or torture. Then again I suppose it depends on where each person draws the line at degradation or torture, or any number of things of that nature. I haven't met any women in real life that are into bestiality, but I've met a lot of men who apparently are into watching women have relations with animals.

They of course would never admit to such a thing, but when their computer is either unable to boot into Windows, or worse, boots into Windows and immediately opens 36 browser windows, all to some of the raunchiest porn imaginable, and I get called into take care of it before wife/girlfriend/mother gets home and needs to check her email...and oh look, 3GB of this stuff already stuffed into a folder (some 'hidden' folders, like I'm not going to figure out what they've done?). And no, I don't snoop through their files, but when infections come from pornography, it's so very obvious, and along with cleaning the infection, I'm usually instructed to get rid of the evidence.

Oh, and any man that says he doesn't look at internet pornography...is a liar. There might be a man in the world that doesn't have an internet connection or device that is exempt, but no, probably not even then. If a man will admit he watches porn or looks at it on the net/computer, that's a man that is usually trustworthy and honest. Any man that won't admit it...


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## Christa Wick (Nov 1, 2012)

Vaalingrade said:


> *sulkily moves manuscript to trash bin*


Put that back in the active folder now, Sir! If someone can conceive of it, others will buy it.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

AngryGames said:


> <snip>
> 
> Oh, and any man that says he doesn't look at internet pornography...is a liar. There might be a man in the world that doesn't have an internet connection or device that is exempt, but no, probably not even then. If a man will admit he watches porn or looks at it on the net/computer, that's a man that is usually trustworthy and honest. Any man that won't admit it...


My roofing partner does not look at internet pornography. He doesn't know how to turn on his computer for school or even remember how to read his own school email after a semester break. And watching him try to type an URL is like waterboarding myself because...you know...I can do it a whole lot faster.  I can say 100 percent that the man does not do porn on the Net. So there is one person for the exception .


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## RaeC (Aug 20, 2013)

AngryGames said:


> *sigh* Sometimes I'm ashamed to be male honestly. Not that I haven't had my own deviant thoughts (and/or experiences, I'm getting old and was pretty wild in my younger years). Plenty of hilarious themes no doubt, but the ones that make me cringe are...
> 
> I'm totally down with the 'furries' (dressing up like the cartoon animals I guess?), or the Amazonian women who are 6' 6" and keep a man as a sex slave (these are standard fare for sure). Stuff like that.
> 
> ...


  at some of the things you've seen on people's computers.

While I think--no, I know--a good portion of men enjoy the snuff smut with the requisite amount of shame, I'm not sure if that strictly does the concept of roMANce (I like writing it this way) justice. (Hear me out, I'm trying to give us the benefit of the doubt.) There's a reason why a romance is always thrown into action movies, and it's not just because of the female demographic. Men want to identify themselves as the rock star and hero, they want to engage in sarcasm filled, physical foreplay, they want to save the tough damsel princess, and in the end, they want to show her how a real, tough-as-nails (yet good hearted) man pleases his woman. Domination, sure, rough sex, okay, but pure degradation...I don't think many men could stomach it any more than their wives or daughters. Not even if the heroine were dressed as a furry buxom cat-princess from Mars. We enjoy our fetishes and the undercurrents of misogyny that comes with them, but there are limits. Oh god, I would hope, anyway.

I'm a comic book fan, and this is sort of a big thing right now. Superhero comics are basically a big male power fantasy with costume fetishes where the hero often gets to save his powerful, yet vulnerable, partner from malicious forces that threaten virtue. Just as a lot of men scoff at traditional romance/erotica, a lot of women feel the same about superheros, and there's a lot of thought about how that can change.


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## Alan Petersen (May 20, 2011)

As long as people keep searching for billionaire books, writers will be happy to provide new books for them to purchase...










Readers are happy, authors are happy, win, win.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

Oh, come on, there are totally romance stories for men.

We usually call them "coming of age" stories, though.

They're typically about some guy who's a little shy or geeky or socially awkward, and for some reason he manages to score a date with a very pretty girl (often this is through both the goading of a male friend and some kind of serendipitous something that happens with her, like a fight with her hunky, but not-very-sensitive boyfriend right before the hero comes along and asks her out). Then the guy spends the rest of the story trying to prepare for the date, but then has an epiphany that he'll just be himself. And then it turns out that this girl is really down to earth and sweet and not shallow in the slightest bit, and that her current life is completely frustrating for her, because she's surrounded by people who aren't "real," and that she and the hero really connect on an amazing level. (Why it is that she has spent all her life being around "shallow" people and engaging in "shallow" activities is never really explained, but it's not important. The important thing is that the geeky guy has _gotten_ the pretty girl. Of course, this being a male romance, they don't have to live happily ever after. It's completely satisfying if this is just a one-time experience between the two of them, because now the geeky boy is more confident and can go out and score other pretty girls.)

Seriously, how many times you seen that movie?

I'm not saying that female romances are not ridiculous wish fulfillment. But male romances are too.

And generally, I think the reason that most men don't like romance novels is not because they don't like stories about falling in love, or because they don't like the anticipation leading up to the consummation, but because they recognize that the typical male romance hero is an utterly unrealistic fantasy--probably the kind of guy that they hate. And, even more importantly, they don't see themselves anywhere in the story. There's no one for them to identify with.

What's this thread supposed to be about again? Billionaires? Hey, I wrote one of those. Vigil! (Currently in my sig if you're interested. It's like Bruce Wayne plus Gideon Cross equals Callum Rutherford. Utter ridiculous wish fulfillment, btw. )


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

My novella The Appleton House is written from the male perspective. I'd love to have more MALE reviews... HINT HINT.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

Diana & Lacey said:


> What about:
> 
> Romeo and the Billionaire
> The Two Billionaires of Verona
> ...


Let us not forget the more modern classics ...

The Bridges of Billionaire County
The DaBillionaire Code
A Game of Billionaires
Zen and the Art of Billionaires
Hunger Billionaires
The Billionaire Traveler's Wife
Harry Potter and the Billionaires of the Billionaires

... uh, maybe I'm taking this too far.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

superfictious said:


> I'm trying to imagine what tropes around which male-centered romances would revolve? Sexy librarians? Xena-like Amazonians? Frustrated housewives? Potty-mouthed nuns? Demure alien cat-princesses who want to breed?
> 
> I have no doubt we guys would gravitate towards some hilarious themes.


It's not hard to find out what male-centered romances are like, although they're never called romances. Just take a look at books like _A Walk to Remember_ by Nicholas Sparks, _The Time Traveler's Wife_ by Audrey Niffenegger or _The English Patient_ by Michael Ondaatje and what you have are male-centered romances.


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## karen21 (Aug 10, 2013)

Ismcrazy said:


> Maybe billionaires are just more grounded than regular people, they're probably deeply connected to the world around them (also below them, from their private helicopters).
> 
> Obviously the perceived fantasy element is that they are detatched from the humdrum every day grind and can focus all their attention on showering their lovers with gifts and elaborate romance. But we are a culture of escalation and soon Billionaires won't even be able to offer enough and there will be a long line of romance novels about missunderstood island-nation dictators and the women who taim them.
> 
> ...


Made me laugh; a great way to start the day, thanks.

Off to write the plot for that book.


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## AngryGames (Jul 28, 2013)

Gennita Low said:


> My roofing partner does not look at internet pornography. He doesn't know how to turn on his computer for school or even remember how to read his own school email after a semester break. And watching him try to type an URL is like waterboarding myself because...you know...I can do it a whole lot faster.  I can say 100 percent that the man does not do porn on the Net. So there is one person for the exception .


He is one of the slickest men there is. In our male club (that only males are allowed in) this is called "The Fake-Out". The trick is to pretend not to understand a computer at all, to the point of growling at it and kicking it with a boot every few days. This trick is made even more authentic by the way he makes you cringe, even shudder with anger at how awful he is typing anything.

Guys like this are true professionals, and the fact that their partners are so deep in it that they will defend them on the internet when it comes to such a thing as porn, is a trait that most men would kill for. While not the rarest of skills in the 'men watch porn' reality, it is near the top.

Bonus: if your man has you believing his skills are this bad AND he's able to cover his tracks with history/cookie deletions (and other ways that are secret but if I told women then it would be like a magician giving up all the secrets to magic, which means a bunch of vengeful magicians would show up and make the traitor disappear...ba-BOOM!), then this man is nearing his 3rd Degree Black Belt in Porn-Fu.

Oops, I mean that's cool, I guess not all men look at porn.

(But seriously, they do. You can believe they do not, but they do. I'm pretty confident saying this without ever meeting anyone's husband/boyfriend/partner. I've helped thousands of customers over fifteen years and have dealt with every single subset of personality. We like porn. This is just how it is. You never see a child refuse sugar after giving it to them the first time, do you?)



(Comrade Angry says: Please be for believing in humorous nature of reply.)



> but there are limits. Oh god, I would hope, anyway.


Uh. I'll just sort of try to hold my tongue...because while I'm being humorous and even exaggerating a good amount, the people you would least expect to be utterly deviant and even a bit...disturbed...are the ones you'd least expect it from. I'm also not saying that every man who has some deviant thoughts or likes porn is 'that guy'.

Actually, I kind of am saying that. 

I'll admit, sometimes it is like a train wreck or a car accident, and you just can't stop looking (two humans of the double-X chromosome and a drinking peripheral that holds liquid comes to mind) at it. But there's a limit. So you are right about that. But not right in the way you want to be right heh.

PS I like valerie and she's pretty much correct but she should be burned at the stake for giving up male secrets about us and roMANce. Someone has been talking...men...

(I'm sorry I had a thought in the middle of your Black Panther party)
(I'll leave now)
(men...write more roMANce)
(but you know...try to be a bit less misogynistic when you do)
(if you want women to read it anyway)
(though some women might like it? I'm not a woman so I can't really say)
(but srsly, I'm shutting up now)


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Gennita Low said:


> My roofing partner does not look at internet pornography. He doesn't know how to turn on his computer for school or even remember how to read his own school email after a semester break. And watching him try to type an URL is like waterboarding myself because...you know...I can do it a whole lot faster.  I can say 100 percent that the man does not do porn on the Net. So there is one person for the exception .


I didn't know that I was married to your roofing partner... LOL! My husband is such a Luddite.

Betsy


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

valeriec80 said:


> ...
> And generally, I think the reason that most men don't like romance novels is not because they don't like stories about falling in love, or because they don't like the anticipation leading up to the consummation, but because they recognize that the typical male romance hero is an utterly unrealistic fantasy--...


I thought it was because a significant portion of men don't read female authors or books about female protagonists. That's why "J.K." wrote about Harry.

Please note: I didn't say "all men."


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

AngryGames said:


> He is one of the slickest men there is. In our male club (that only males are allowed in) this is called "The Fake-Out". The trick is to pretend not to understand a computer at all, to the point of growling at it and kicking it with a boot every few days.


Ever notice how it's always _younger _guys who are doing IT work? That's because they're not experienced/old enough to have caught on. Yeah, dad can take apart a 289-cubic-inch V8 engine with 210 horsepower on a '65 Mustang, then put it back together again, but he can't figure out how to check his e-mail on Yahoo? Yeah, suuuuurrre.


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## dianasg (Jan 8, 2010)

Valerie really nailed it. For male romance, I thought of the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" trope. (See: Natalie Portman in Garden State). The thing is, male romance films/books are usually not called "romances." They're called "films" or "books."



Mimi said:


> I thought it was because a significant portion of men don't read female authors or books about female protagonists. That's why "J.K." wrote about Harry.
> 
> Please note: I didn't say "all men."


This. (Though I don't think Jo Rowling was thinking that far ahead when she conceived Harry rather than Harriet.)

It's hard to say whether the whole "guys won't read books/watch movies about girls" thing is REALLY as pervasive as it seems. Publishers/the media are very quick to pander to men, to claim that women will watch stories about men, but men won't watch stories about women. As a result, most stories in mainstream media ARE about men, and thus the assumption is rarely tested. What stories are about women are highly stigmatized -- they are decidedly "for women." (Chick flicks, romance novels, etc.) If men consume this media, they'll get some flack.

So romance, for example, has become the domain of women: a place where women's fantasies can be acted out, written out -- which is a nice reprieve, because a lot of mainstream media (Chick flicks included, IMHO) has to do with male fantasy. Possibly, Billionaires are a fantasy because money=security. Being able to look to a man for security is a powerful cultural idea that goes back a long, long way. We women know it's a fantasy. The empowering thing is in being able to express that fantasy. Which is how I choose to look at Romance as a genre. It's also why I don't find the billionaire/rock star/Duke/Sheik trends at all annoying.

Ultimately, I think many guys wouldn't mind watching a film that features a female protagonist and her problems. In fact, I know many guys who don't mind it. I mean, we're all people. A problem is a problem. A goal is a goal. I dont think it's beyond the realm of possibility for people to be able to empathize with someone of a different gender. I wish the media at large would reflect this, and that there was more fluidity and overlap assumed (and ALLOWED) in the audience.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

valeriec80 said:


> And generally, I think the reason that most men don't like romance novels is not because they don't like stories about falling in love, or because they don't like the anticipation leading up to the consummation, but because they recognize that the typical male romance hero is an utterly unrealistic fantasy--probably the kind of guy that they hate. And, even more importantly, they don't see themselves anywhere in the story. There's no one for them to identify with.


I absolutely love love stories. If you search my fanfic favorites, almost all of them are Romance. In fact, I'm way more into 'pure' romance than sextimes stories.

But the second thing you said is completely correct. I usually hate the male leads. Either they're the guy I imagine I'd be rejected for, or, as I've complained about earlier, utter creeps that make my skin crawl and my punching muscles twitch.

Also, to be completely brutal, a lot of mainstream romance, especially romantic comedies, aren't actually about developing the relationship for the couple, but setting up high drama around a love at first sight moment that would have usually been prevented if the couple actually cared about one another instead of themselves. I'm speaking specifically of the 'it was a misunderstanding, but I got so inexplicably angry that I wouldn't listen to the simple, obvious explanation' trope.

Give me a story about how two people meet and grow together with realistic ups and downs and characters who don't act like high school kids looking for... THE DRAMA!, and I will show you a big stack of my money.

Edit: And I don't know anyone who would ditch a book just because a woman wrote it. I feel that this is another one of those 'Catwoman and Electra failed, therefore no one wants to see female action leads' deals.


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## dalya (Jul 26, 2011)

I rarely see a man's name commenting on my FB author page. Now, it could be they're just intimidated by all the gaia energy of the chicks. However, I rarely see a man's name on my mailing list.

I do see a lot of people who use the word "mom" in their email address, though. [email protected] or [email protected] etc.

DATA SO MUCH DATA!!!


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

But is that because of the genre, or your name?


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

AngryGames said:


> (But seriously, they do. You can believe they do not, but they do. I'm pretty confident saying this without ever meeting anyone's husband/boyfriend/partner. I've helped thousands of customers over fifteen years and have dealt with every single subset of personality. We like porn. This is just how it is. You never see a child refuse sugar after giving it to them the first time, do you?)


If your job was fixing computers, and surfing porn sites is the leading cause of computers being broken, don't you think your perspective is skewed a bit? Kind of like how a worker in a shelter for battered women might think all men are wife beaters?

I do think that the vast majority of men watch porn, but I allow for a small percentage who don't. People are different, and those differences make it very difficult to make any absolute judgments about human behavior.


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## RinG (Mar 12, 2013)

AngryGames said:


> You never see a child refuse sugar after giving it to them the first time, do you?)


Hmm, my child does. Cake too, all the time. Not all sweet stuff, and not all the time, but certainly frequently enough to disprove this theory.

Interestingly, I seem to have male readers for my romance, perhaps because it's also sci-fi? If you check my reviews, several of them are from men (and no, they aren't men I know either).

I think the billionaire trend is just an extension of the fairy tale prince. I have to admit, I don't have any billionaires, but somehow, many of my male characters seem to become princes. They don't start out that way, but at some point, they all seem to inform me that their father is, in fact, the king (and usually they don't get on with him.)


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## KerryT2012 (Dec 18, 2012)

I was thinking whether to write one about a trillionaire, but didn't think it would wash down well


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## brendajcarlton (Sep 29, 2012)

> Being able to look to a man for security is a powerful cultural idea that goes back a long, long way.


It's a lot more than a powerful cultural idea. It's basic biology. All over the animal kingdom, well at least in mammals and birds, the males compete to convince the females that they are the toughest and the strongest so the female will agree to mate with them. In some cases the male also provides protection for the female and the offspring, but often he's out of there as soon as the deed is done. The instinct is mostly based on the concept that the strongest male, a**hole or not, gives you the strongest babies with the highest chance of survival. Humans (also mammals) have to fight to overcome that instinct to marry men that are more civilized.


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

Interesting that the thread has transitioned from billionaires to men and romance novels. 

I was shocked to be told that male readers enjoyed my books which are romantic suspense and which I thought would only attract female readers.

One man said that his wife read the book for the romance and he was riveted by the thriller plot. Another male, part of a critique group at a writers' conference, said that anytime the word "nipples" is in a book, men will read it  ! 

I think if men realized how much sex is in a typical romance novel, the gender of our readers would shift. Slightly, but shift.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ty Johnston said:


> Ever notice how it's always _younger _guys who are doing IT work? That's because they're not experienced/old enough to have caught on. Yeah, dad can take apart a 289-cubic-inch V8 engine with 210 horsepower on a '65 Mustang, then put it back together again, but he can't figure out how to check his e-mail on Yahoo? Yeah, suuuuurrre.


Hubby does all the work on our cars but has problems with anything that involves small buttons, like dialing the phone. Just sayin'.

Betsy


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## brendajcarlton (Sep 29, 2012)

> Hubby does all the work on our cars but has problems with anything that involves small buttons, like dialing the phone. Just sayin'.
> 
> Betsy


Yeah, most men "have problems" with anything they don't like to do. Of course most women do too. "I'll have to get my son over here to dig a hole for that plant." Really? You can't dig a hole a foot deep?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

brendajcarlton said:


> Yeah, most men "have problems" with anything they don't like to do. Of course most women do too. "I'll have to get my son over here to dig a hole for that plant." Really? You can't dig a hole a foot deep?


No, seriously, this isn't about him not liking doing it. He really has serious issues. Actually, in my husband's case, I think it's because he was undiagnosed dislexic as a kid...he's really, really old  and they weren't diagnosing it in those days. He has a lot of trouble with numbers and spelling and sometimes left/right.

And I dig my own holes (and also work on the cars), thank you very much. But I also think that some people still have gender distinctions for certain tasks. I do, myself. It's my husband's job to get bugs out of the house. 

Betsy


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## brendajcarlton (Sep 29, 2012)

> And I dig my own holes (and also work on the cars), thank you very much.


LOL!! I do have to say that I have discovered that if you set out to prove that you can do anything a man can do, it might take longer and involve ropes and pulleys, but you can do it -- well guess what? You end up getting all the work. My daughter in law changed the head gasket on a Suburban while my son was photoshopping pictures. Maybe our mothers were not so dumb.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

brendajcarlton said:


> LOL!! I do have to say that I have discovered that if you set out to prove that you can do anything a man can do, it might take longer and involve ropes and pulleys, but you can do it -- well guess what? You end up getting all the work. My daughter in law changed the head gasket on a Suburban while my son was photoshopping pictures. Maybe our mothers were not so dumb.


There is definitely that, LOL!

Betsy


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

Harriet Schultz said:


> Interesting that the thread has transitioned from billionaires to men and romance novels.
> 
> I was shocked to be told that male readers enjoyed my books which are romantic suspense and which I thought would only attract female readers.
> 
> ...


I have two (yeah, two lol) major fans out there and one is a guy. He raves about my books and they are all romance. It's nice.


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## Sara Fawkes (Apr 22, 2012)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> *And I dig my own holes (and also work on the cars)*, thank you very much. But I also think that some people still have gender distinctions for certain tasks. I do, myself. *It's my husband's job to get bugs out of the house.*
> 
> Betsy


A lady after my own heart.  I agree though, my Dude can tear down and put together a motorcycle engine in record time (and name every part/where it goes if you pick it up at random and show him), but he has to reread a single textbook page ten times to even understand what it's saying (and even then it's not always a sure thing).


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## D.L. Shutter (Jul 9, 2011)

> It's my husband's job to get bugs out of the house. Wink


My wife has established very clearly defined _boy_ and _girl _ jobs.

And I think this thread needs more billionaires...with *tentacles*.


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## D.L. Shutter (Jul 9, 2011)

> O...M...G.... ROFL Awesome!!!! Tongue


Then you'll love this...

http://www.somethingawful.com/news/kindle-billionaires-review/1/

Last book discussed there is actually a parody. Cover is absolutely priceless. I wanted to post that one instead but the sideways full-nude shot is probably a no-no. Funny as all hell.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

DDark said:


> I'd like to know what Betsy is doing digging holes in the yard...


Banned members have to go somewhere....


Betsy


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## brie.mcgill (Jun 5, 2013)

The worst part of this thread is, while I have spent months marveling in curious awe at the fascinating trend of billionaire books, trying to understand their motivations, cultural relevance, etc...

It made me realize that my (omgwth) 150k WIP is actually hinged on... the billionaire mythos.  

Granted, MC isn't actually a billionaire. But he was adopted by a billionaire, lives in his chateau and wears all the fancy clothes. Hopefully the reproductive security afforded by his mountains of cash is sufficiently offset by his polydactyly, kleptomania, and half-alien heritage.   Otherwise, he might be just another "here, honey, take MY credit card" Gary Stu.  

WHY didn't this thread exist when I was designing my cover! *facepalm*


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## Deena Ward (Jun 20, 2013)

For what it's worth, lots of American truckers love steamy romance novels, but you'll find few who'll admit it. Before Kindles, they'd read romance paperbacks then leave them in company terminals and truckstop TV rooms for the next guy to pick up -- a trucker lending library so to speak. Those books would be so thumbed-thru and greasy it'd look like a hundred drivers had read them. Now they have their Kindles and don't have to risk exposure. Heh.


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## Vera Nazarian (Jul 1, 2011)

Ismcrazy said:


> Maybe billionaires are just more grounded than regular people, they're probably deeply connected to the world around them (also below them, from their private helicopters).
> 
> Obviously the perceived fantasy element is that they are detatched from the humdrum every day grind and can focus all their attention on showering their lovers with gifts and elaborate romance. But we are a culture of escalation and soon Billionaires won't even be able to offer enough and there will be a long line of romance novels about *missunderstood island-nation dictators and the women who taim them.*
> 
> ...


My Gawd, I love this post!


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Time to rebrand, I guess >_>


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## Harriet Schultz (Jan 3, 2012)

...and I thought my Gulfstream-owning, multi-residence, Maserati-driving MC was a paltry millionaire. Cheesh! If I up his bank account, will I have a bestseller or do I have to add tentacles?


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## Zenferno (May 29, 2013)

Penning my next masterpiece right now.  Thinking of calling it:

Bound and Bred by the Babysitter's Billionaire Bad Boy Brother at his Birthday Bash (BBW, Booty's, BDSM, Werewolves).

A bittersweet coming-of-age love story of domination and submission.  Nicholas Sparks meets Selena Kitt.

'Sure to be a #1 NYT Bestseller'
'An incredibly original work'


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

This thread is such a shit show and I love it. LMAO


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## Duane Gundrum (Apr 5, 2011)

I'm becoming a bit concerned. I've been seeing a LOT of books being published that have the same central theme: Girl is kind of dysfunctional but is spunky. Girl meets billionaire playboy (sheik, philanthropist, entymologist, champion fly fisher, supersecretive secret agent spy guy, etc.). Billionaire ties up girl. They fall in love. He buys her lots of things. She's happy. Somewhere down the line, I think the story ends with a gunfight, a sunset and Antonio Banderas singing opera, or something like that.

So, my concern is this: If I should somehow accidentally become a billionaire, does that mean I have to tie up girls? I'm not sure I understand the point of these stories.


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## Nicole Castro (Sep 23, 2013)

sarbonn said:


> I'm becoming a bit concerned. I've been seeing a LOT of books being published that have the same central theme: Girl is kind of dysfunctional but is spunky. Girl meets billionaire playboy (sheik, philanthropist, entymologist, champion fly fisher, supersecretive secret agent spy guy, etc.). Billionaire ties up girl. They fall in love. He buys her lots of things. She's happy. Somewhere down the line, I think the story ends with a gunfight, a sunset and Antonio Banderas singing opera, or something like that.
> 
> So, my concern is this: If I should somehow accidentally become a billionaire, does that mean I have to tie up girls? I'm not sure I understand the point of these stories.


He better be a damn vampire too!!


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## MsTee (Jul 30, 2012)

sarbonn said:


> I'm becoming a bit concerned. I've been seeing a LOT of books being published that have the same central theme: Girl is kind of dysfunctional but is spunky. Girl meets billionaire playboy (sheik, philanthropist, entymologist, champion fly fisher, supersecretive secret agent spy guy, etc.). Billionaire ties up girl. They fall in love. He buys her lots of things. She's happy. Somewhere down the line, I think the story ends with a gunfight, a sunset and Antonio Banderas singing opera, or something like that.
> 
> So, my concern is this: If I should somehow accidentally become a billionaire, does that mean I have to tie up girls? I'm not sure I understand the point of these stories.


NO.

But you WILL have to learn the Billionaire Handshake. A must if you are truly a Billionaire:








Vaalingrade said:


> Time to rebrand, I guess >_>


There are no sexy wimmenz or mantitty or even dudes in shiny suits on that cover. Get thee back to your image editing programme of choice and fix that.


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## D.L. Shutter (Jul 9, 2011)

> So, my concern is this: If I should somehow accidentally become a billionaire, does that mean I have to tie up girls?


Don't be silly. Of course not. 

You can afford to have your own private Shibari master come in and do it for you.

Besides, making a full body harness out of rope that someone can hang from in an optimal position, without it being a bunch of tourniquet's, is a giant pain. And it takes forever. You're better off outsourcing that stuff to an expert.


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

I'm working on a vampire Christmas novel. Now I've got to figure out where to fit in a millionaire...


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## MsTee (Jul 30, 2012)

Stacy Claflin said:


> I'm working on a vampire Christmas novel. Now I've got to figure out where to fit in a millionaire...


Santa Claus? He's gotta be mega rich if he's splurging on kids all over the world...


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

sarbonn said:


> So, my concern is this: If I should somehow accidentally become a billionaire, does that mean I have to tie up girls?


It's not a requirement. You just get 'Stockholm Aura' as a special ability and the usual path to being a billionaire leads through being a sociopath anyway so...


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## legion (Mar 1, 2013)

Ty Johnston said:


> Wait! Don't let publishers find out the world "Billionaire" is popular! They'll want to change the name of some classics.
> 
> Moby Billionaire
> The Lord of the Billionaires
> ...


Way too much awesome in the post.
Glad it's clear what my next project should focus on, and I might just use one of the above titles! 
(Or perhaps _Call of the Billionaire_? _The Billionaires Karamazov_? _A Tale of Two Billionaires_?)


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## 69959 (May 14, 2013)

DDark said:


> *I thought all vampires were billionaires?* Years of saving, stealing, acquiring...
> Just make sure he's broken and ruined. Not in a Lestat kind of way, but the kind where after he parks his motorcycle, he has to kick someone's *ss on a nightly basis in street fights.


I totally forgot about that. Most of the vampires in the series are royalty, living in a ginormous castle. Maybe I'll have to throw in Santa Claus then!


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## ElisaBlaisdell (Jun 3, 2012)

Diana & Lacey said:


> Santa Claus would be interesting, but I can't think of anything that wouldn't get slapped with the Adult tag in less than 2 seconds. LOL


Well, just in case there's anyone out there who hasn't heard the joke:

Why is Santa Claus so jolly?

He knows where all the naughty girls live.


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## Dan Fiorella (Oct 14, 2012)

ElisaBlaisdell said:


> Well, just in case there's anyone out there who hasn't heard the joke:
> 
> Why is Santa Claus so jolly?
> 
> He knows where all the naughty girls live.


I can't believe that! The man's a saint! He has his certificate up on the wall, right next to his college diploma!


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## Lia (May 25, 2013)

Speaking to the topic, the billionaire books are targeted to the demographic with the most purchasing power: married women with minor children who do not work outside of the home. This is not to say that this group has the _most money_ -- they don't. They're just the biggest spenders. Now, couple this with the precarious state of the economy and the lay-offs that are going on.

'Nuff said.

Trillionaire books might be a stretch, but I would assume that they would be more successful than a book called, oh, "The Groom Had Good Health Insurance."

I work in a marketing-related field, BTW.


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## RaeC (Aug 20, 2013)

The Under His Plan series--Book 1:Bound, Gagged, Spanked...and Insured


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## Dan Fiorella (Oct 14, 2012)

I'm checking my file to see if I pass the test; are there two billionaires who talk to each other and do they talk about about something other than money?


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

AngryGames said:


> He is one of the slickest men there is. In our male club (that only males are allowed in) this is called "The Fake-Out". The trick is to pretend not to understand a computer at all, to the point of growling at it and kicking it with a boot every few days. This trick is made even more authentic by the way he makes you cringe, even shudder with anger at how awful he is typing anything.
> 
> Guys like this are true professionals, and the fact that their partners are so deep in it that they will defend them on the internet when it comes to such a thing as porn, is a trait that most men would kill for. While not the rarest of skills in the 'men watch porn' reality, it is near the top.
> 
> ...


I can easily persuade you. PM me and I'll send you an air ticket over here. You can watch us work on the roof. You can go to lunch with us and watch me type/write my books while he sits there reading his NEWSPAPER and reading articles out loud to me that I've read the night before on the computer. You can listen in on him asking me whether the Braves won the game the night before because HE DOESN'T WATCH TV. Then when I go home, you can follow him to the gym for the two hour workouts he does and then you can sit across from him at McDonalds till 2am while he bores you and the three homeless guys there to tears reading his Chemistry book and explaining the stuff in it as a way to memorize it (he's trying to be the oldest pharmacist in the world).

I dare ya.

p/s It doesn't mean he's an angel. He and I talk like any roofers while we're working, i.e. politically incorrect humor, swearing, etc. I'm just challenging your notion that every man knows how to find porn on the Internet or read porn on the side. Some men don't do it. Now, it might be they are of another generation, but that's another topic altogether.

Another off topic notion: If anyone tells you there aren't any roofers who don't smoke, drink like a fish or do drugs, you can tell them you know of two. Okay, I drink like half a fish, but only during writing conferences....


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> I didn't know that I was married to your roofing partner... LOL! My husband is such a Luddite.
> 
> Betsy


  That explains the cattle prod he has when he wants me work till 10pm!


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