Stanley Bennett Clay's Blog

In the typical world of urban fiction so often the lead characters’ socio-economic realities are usually bleak, raw, violent, hopeless, and psychologically; even irreparably damaged. Much of that is true in author LT Ville’s literary universe. But Keith, the 18-year-old black high school senior and narrator, is a refreshing enigma in this exceptionally well-written, funny, romantic, heart-breaking and thought-provoking novel.

Keith, who shares an apartment in a run-down Harlem projects with his on-again off-again crack-head mother (while his three younger siblings live with his no-nonsense Nana in Queens), is a bright, intelligent and conscientious student who everybody knows will be the class valedictorian and will surely be accepted into Columbia University. Although many in the high school campus thug community laughingly assume he’s gay because he pursues his studies like they pursue their women, Keith is little bothered by this.

But make no mistake. Keith is nobody’s nerdy push over. Six feet tall, good-looking, one of the best basketball players in the hood, and with an already established reputation for taking names and kicking ass, he’s as focused on his academic future as he is on the thin thread that vicariously holds his family and friends together. And he’s no cock-eyed optimist. His hopefulness is real but chilled. We get that from the first words he shares with us:

“The streetlights were ghetto stars. I looked out my bedroom window and all I saw was darkness and light—streetlights. I was 18. My mother was 32. I didn’t know my father. Nana said he was probably a lowlife, locked up for murder or some shit like that. Mama said he was probably a lawyer or somebody really important and he probably owned a mansion in the Hamptons. I knew she was dreaming, but I liked her dreams better than knowing the truth.”

Life changes for our bro-wonder when a 6’ 4” wanna-be thug transfer student who calls himself D, and his mixed-race, messed-up cousin Jes enter Keith’s life. Keith must seriously re-evaluate his sexuality when he clumsily responds to D’s romantic come-ons and finds himself sexually attracted to Jes:

“He was breathtaking. I noticed him at his seat when I first walked in the room. He had a really light complexion, with hazel eyes, plump pink lips and soft looking curly black hair…He was saying something else, but I was too busy noticing that he was beautiful. The thought of his beauty made me sick. I didn’t understand why I was looking at another guy that way. I tried to smile and laugh it off in my head, but my mind was at war with itself…I spent the entire class bashing my thoughts and trying to convince myself that it was just the normal musings that most people had, but nothing calmed my nerves. I was ready to run out the class when it ended, but the teacher asked me and Jesse to stay after for a few minutes.
“Keith would you get Jesse up to date in this class?”
“Sure, sir,” I told him as I glanced over at Jesse to get a peek. He was smiling. Even his teeth were beautiful.”

Barely on the DL, D falls hard for Keith. Keith realizes he’s in love with D, but something inside him makes it hard to be sexually intimate with him. This is so not the case with Jes whose sexual advances Keith tries to resist mightily. After all, D, the guy he loves and the guy who loves him, is the cousin of Jes, Keith’s irresistible sexual fantasy. The battle between Keith’s heart and his hard-on is a frustrating draw. The revelation of a devastating childhood trauma Keith had long since forgotten explains a lot about Keith’s stilted physical relationship with D, while Jes’ ulterior motives for coming on to Keith reveal the aches and pains Jes has suffered throughout his young and tattered life.

Keith’s best friend, heterosexual Lemar, is Keith’s voice of reason and soul mate who constantly urges Keith to cherish the unconditional love D has for him because one day it can turn conditional, or even disappear. Lemar’s mother is also a crack-head and his living situation is even worse than Keith’s. Suffering a childhood trauma of his own—Lemar’s father was shot dead by a drive by when his father came looking for him while he, Lemar, was out playing late past his curfew. Constantly reminded by his mother with cursings, rants and beatings that he was responsible for his father’s death, Lemar is a dedicated son out of guilt and genuine love for his mother and his young nephews he fatherly cares for nightly while still keeping his grades up at school.

These young high school seniors carry a mighty emotional load crammed unfairly into their still fragile teenage lives. That they have each other and lift each other up through the good and the bad is a tribute to why Black lives matter so much. Sure, they may live in a physical ghetto, but their hearts, minds and soul are not confined behind those walls.

It is not a spoiler to reveal that Keith indeed becomes valedictorian of his high school class—just read his remarkable graduation speak at the book’s close—and goes off to Columbia University, and that love conquers all. It is not the ending—though it brings beautiful tears to your eyes—that remarkably tells the story of these remarkable young black souls. It is the journey they traverse and survive that holds us in humanitarian awe.

So far I’ve read this book twice. I will soon read it again. Mr. Ville. You, sir, have written a Young Adult masterpiece!

Madame Frankie

Beautiful and sexy Hollywood actress Frankie Templeton is torn between two lovers. Jazz, a hot young Creole political activist and musician, and Edgar, a gorgeous hunky Latino she met on one of her frequent trips to the Dominican Republic. So what's a diva to do when giving up one is not an option?

Check out book 3 of my 5-book "Dominican Heat" series at: www.amazon.com/author/stanleybennettclay

Hello Everyone. Just wanted to let you know my sixth novel "Hollywood Flame" just published from Ellora's Cave Publishers. It's Book 2 of my 5-Book "Dominican Heat Series. Hope you get a chance to check it out.

Here's the synopsis:

While vacationing in the Dominican Republic, handsome Hollywood photographer Jesse met and fell in love with the man of his dreams, Étienne, a gorgeous young bodega worker. After many trials and tribulations, Jesse brought the love of his life home to America, where their hot and steamy romance continues with the same intensity they shared in their island paradise.

When Jesse and his actress sister Frankie suggest the photogenic Étie pursue a Hollywood career, the reluctant beauty attracts more attention than he and Jesse bargained for. Hardy Ferrell, a hot and hunky bisexual TV star, is just one of a slew of Hollywood flames eager to get a taste of Tinsel Town’s hottest new boy candy.

In spite of Étienne’s steadfastness and loyalty, Jesse’s jealousy soon gets the best of him, threatening to destroy the very thing he wanted most. It takes almost losing the love of his life for Jesse to finally realize that the heart of love is trust.

Much Love, Everyone!

Stan

Hello everyone. My sexy new ebook novel ACHING FOR IT (Book 1 of my 5-book "Dominican Heat" series) dropped this week. For a cool, sexy, romantic read, check it out. Thanks!


Handsome Hollywood photographer Jesse didn’t expect to fall in love when he and fellow black gay comrades ventured on a ”sexcursion” to the Dominican Republic, where gorgeous young locals offer erotic delights for a reasonable price. But fall in love he did when he met, under the noblest circumstances, the young and hauntingly beautiful Dominican bodega worker Étienne.

A whirlwind romance of deep love and hot, steamy sex ensues, but getting his man to the States is no easy task for Jesse. He’ll do everything within his power, even a little law-breaking with the help of his devil-may-care sister, to ensure that his and Étie’s love flourishes just as hot in Southern California as it did in their island paradise.

A Romantica® gay/GLBT erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

ACHING FOR IT is ON SALE NOW! Online at ellorascave.com, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, Apple iBookstore, Sony, Google, All Romance eBooks and most other online outlets.

I saw Django the other night and was completely blown away by its audacity, boldness, and complete dedication to its underlying themes. Slavery was a dirty, dirty business, and just as Spielberg so bravely showed the evil men do in Schindler's List, Tarantino pulls no punches in his brutal bloody opus. That Django (beautifully played by Jamie Foxx) risked life and liberty to save his lady love, slaying dragon after dragon, was a tribute to the kind of black man we don't see much of in current cinema. Django is my new favorite Superhero!

When Tamika Bishop, the gorgeous Real-Housewives-of-Atlanta-type spouse of Teddy Bishop, a handsome, virile, wealthy, NBA superstar, walks in on her hunky hubby sexing down her younger brother in the basement of their multi-million dollar mansion, all hell breaks loose in Armani Williams wild and raucous, laugh out loud, too sexy-for-my-shirt debut novel Scandalicious.

And that’s only the beginning. After the distressed diva shoots off a barrage of expletive-laced damnations, a few pistol shots, and threatens castration, she makes good on her promise to out her celebrity husband in the media by going on the top nationally syndicated radio talk show of Neicy Ross, an even more tacky version of Wendy Williams, and spills the tea on her man in delicious detail, much to the shrill delight of radio show host Neicy and her hungry listening audience, only for the accused husband to come on the show and dish a trash truck full of dirt of his own, which ultimately results in the outing of a major rap star, some hot and heavy lesbian action, a suicide, divorce, paternity claims and even murder.

By the time we get to the second half of the book, things have calmed down a bit, but are no less smoldering, as our ball-bouncing superstar finds himself and true love, handles his viciously homophobic/psychopathic brother, and goes from a self-centered self-hater, to a hero whose inside ultimately grows as beautiful as the hunky frame he lives within.

Scandalicious is truly all that and a bag of chips. Author Armani Williams’ writing style is unadorned, but effective, as his sexual descriptions are sure to keep your damp cloth busy, and his ghetto fabulous dialogue rocks and rolls between the outrageous and the hysterical.

The story burrows along like a horny bull in a china shop, and we marvel at the delicious carnage. There are even moments of great poignancy, particularly when the outed rapper grimly and tragically comes to terms with who he really is.

In spite of tenses arbitrarily chosen, and some clumsy editing, this fast and breezy little mud wrestle of a book, works. No, it’s not filet mignon, but it’s a pretty good burger and chili cheese fries.

Hello Everyone! My first novel DIVA (originally published in 1988) has been re-issued in Amazon's Kindle store. It is the story of beautiful, talented Ida Lake, who was known as "The Diva" to her millions of fans when she reigned as Hollywood's black singing sensation of the 1940s. Her career--and her sanity--collapsed after the suspicious deaths of the husband she adored and the daughter she worshiped and, haunted by rumors of "un-American" activities, Ida took refuge abroad. Two decades later, she has been coaxed into a comeback as the star of a new Broadway musical. But tragedy stalks Ida Lake once again as a mysterious wed of intrigue, sex scandal and murder envelops the show. You can borrow DIVA for free on a Kindle device with Amazon Prime, or you can purchase it in Amazon's Kindle store for $9.99. Happy ready! Stan

Author Rashid Darden betters himself considerably with Covenant, the sequel to his debut novel Lazarus. In a story that is sweet and sexy, poignant and though-provoking, funny and sad, the author skillfully continues the journey of our young and affable now-out-of-the-closet hero and narrator Adrian Collins as he traverses college life, fraternal brotherhood, family reconciliations, the pain of lost love and the joy of new love.

Adrian, now a sophomore and still healing from his break up with Savion, the handsome Latino poet we met in Lazarus, seems to be handling his business on campus well. He befriends other gay and lesbian schoolmates with dignity, and his frat brothers, for the most part, accept him and his sexuality, although he suffers an on-campus assault by a vicious homophobe, from which a very special friend rescues him.

His on-campus and fraternity challenges are rather lightweight this time around, including a cursory dissertation on the cruelty of hazing. But Adrian’s efforts to straighten out his relationship with a mother who seems to value his scholastic achievements over the bond most sons share with their mom, and a father who attempts to re-enter his life after a twelve-year absence, gives this tight short novel much heft.

However, the book’s great emotional daring-do is Adrian’s relationship with campus basketball star Isaiah, a gorgeous hunk Adrian’s had a crush on since his freshman year. Their friendship, a lesson in brotherhood, is simply beautiful. As we watch their relationship evolve into something much more, something both secretly desire, we admire how they both respect a covenant of restraint I suspect precious few of us are capable of maintaining.

This time around not much really happens plot-wise, and that’s perfectly okay. Most of the action is internal, lifting the story emotionally, even jerking tears with lovely human insights and personal discoveries.

Even the sex scenes are romantic and touching, although they still manage to engender considerable steam, especially a tryst that ends up in a shower.

That the author has chosen to let Adrian tell his tale nonlinearly is another plus. Adrian is a good guy facing a life whose complications any reader can empathize with. As we seldom see the segments of our life stories in chronological order, Adrian too shares with us in the order dictated not by time and place, but by the emotional highs and lows of his heart, constantly trying to make some sense of young manhood and the wonderful frustrating mumble jumble that colors the coming of age process and love’s baffling conundrums.

Covenant is a very sweet ride, simply and touchingly told, and although nitpicker me would have liked a slightly stronger ending, Mr. Darden reminded me of something I’ve always believed, and that is that love truly does conquer all.

Right Side of the Wrong Bed

a novel by Frederick Smith

Of the top five major cities in America, Los Angeles is arguably the least ghettoized. In its core metropolis few neighborhoods have an overwhelming predominance of one ethnic/cultural/social group over another. Particularly when it comes to people of color. African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, Caribbeans, Eastern Europeans, whites, straights, openly gay men and lesbians, Muslims, Jews and folks of every imaginable multi-racial/multi-cultural combination comfortably share—there are exceptions of course—common walls, fences, block parties, neighborhood watches, schools, restaurants, nightclubs, barbershops, day care centers, public pools, and gossip. Even one of the city’s most popular churches, Agape’, boasts an SRO rainbow coalition each Sunday morning. L.A. is quintessential Obamaland.

It is against this colorful backdrop of this ditzy but delightful city where no one is really black or white, that Frederick Smith sets his ditzy but delightful sophomore novel, “Right Side of the Wrong Bed,” a story where, too, nothing is really black or white or exactly what it may seem.

When it comes to love our narrator Kenny Kane, a handsome thirty-three-year-old African American and otherwise intelligent college administrator, is an educated fool. Not only did he not see it coming, but financed court cost and paternity suit battles leveled against DeVon, his drop dead gorgeous firefighter partner of six years who had at least three children by two different baby-mamas during the time of their ‘committed’ relationship. Only after all of this does Kenny put the brother out of his sprawling home in the toney hills of Monterey Park.

Five months later at a gay bar in West Hollywood, Kenny is hit on by Jeremy Lopez, a six feet tall, baggy low-rise jean wearing, twenty-one-year-old Mexican/Dominican straight up East L.A. hottie boy-toy. Sparks fly and before he knows what hit him, Kenny is caught up in a whirlwind of sex and romance with the youngster.

But one incident after another involving drunken club hopping, police-raided frat parties, jealous ex’s, arson investigations, unexplained hickies, and the plain old capriciousness of youth, keep Kenny in a tailspin. Even as his best friend Carlos, and his mother caution him about being on the right side of the wrong bed (“Do I have to come down there and slap some sense into you?” straight-shooting Mom warns), Kenny is, alas, stuck on stupid when it comes to Jeremy.

And one can almost see why. Almost. Aside from his golden good looks, Jeremy is a passionate lover who is sexually talented and accommodating in every way imaginable. He is young and proud, a young macho homosexual very much in touch with his sensitive side, and not the least bit concerned with public displays of affection when it comes to his man which he lavishes with hugs and sloppy kisses at taco stands, in front of chi-chi gyms, at family gatherings, on campus, anywhere he feels like it, which is everywhere, knowing that his youthfulness is giving his older lover a new shot in the arm.

And Jeremy is very smart for his age (if not very mature), and talented; a gifted poet who was a contestant on “Teen Jeopardy.” He is loyal to his friends and family (if not to his lovers, of which there are many) and dedicated to his college studies and efficient at his job as a student affairs aide for a city college.

But the kid has a lot of problems, most of them related to just growing up. Eventually we realize that Kenny has not grown up either, as he forgives almost every unforgivable transgression and totes too much of Jeremy’s devil-may-care baggage, not to mention a lot of his own, time and time again.

But as exasperating as Kenny can be (like his mother, we want to slap some sense into him too) the poor guy is just unlucky in love, even though he tends to bring the bad luck on himself.

There are hints in the story that even before Kenny’s cheating fireman, he was batting zero in the romance department although he’d been up to bat numerous times. As we listen closely to his narration, we come to realize that Kenny is just a poor sap in deep denial who should have stayed a little longer in therapy he was once undergoing.

The story breezes along gleefully though, fueled by Kenny’s endearing, if frustrating emotional bumbling, and Jeremy’s charming and irresponsible youth. But just when it seems that there may be a glimmer of hope for these May-December lovers, tragedy strikes, adding an unexpected but deeply moving poignancy.

Late in the story, writer Smith gives Kenny a beautifully rendered thought on all the beds we occupy through life, and how we must take responsibility for the beds we make for ourselves (even though emotionally, I doubt Kenny ever bothered to change a sheet). Nonetheless, this is the best piece of writing in a novel that overall consists of wonderful and easily digestible prose; fast paced, at times funny, very conversational, and humane.

I suppose that’s what makes us like Kenny, in spite of all his missteps, bad judgments, and denial; and why we like Jeremy, in spite of all his naughty, childish little ways. They both possess that special save: humanity.

LOVE YOURSELF FIRST

A novel By Delvon Johnson

Author Delvon Johnson’s debut novel Love Yourself First is an absolute delight as it blithely takes us on a whirlwind twirl through the glitzy, glamorous, diva back-stabbing, lover-cheating, DL and gay-fierce world of the fashion industry, where everyone is fabulously dressed, paid big time, and sexed like a porn star. This tight little book is a funny and fast-moving page-turner, where even the baddies will find fans as easily as Dynasty’s Alexis Harrington did.

The story begins with our part-time narrator Dwight Jones, a young, bright, successful and handsome African-American co-owner of Vondell Consulting, a fashion firm, complaining about how hard it is to find true love. But he has little to complain about when it comes to his company. Vondell Consulting, thanks to Dwight’s own prowess and that of his business partner and bff, Isaiah, a drop-dead gorgeous Latino who also worked as an editorial assistant for Vogue Magazine, is drawing business and attention to itself like bears to honey. It’s also drawing snakes from the high grass.

Joan Marks is a model quality beauty and businesswoman with a gift for shoe design. When Dwight and Isaiah hire her into their company, her Eve Harrington wheels spin like Regan’s head in The Exorcist. And as she plots to undercut and snatch the spotlight and the business from “those two fags,” it sets off a string of hysterical fetes of treachery with one surprising twist after another.

In the meantime, Dwight’s love life is no less intriguing, as he suffers one humiliation after another in his romantic pursuits, and witnesses his friends going through the same things. The old adage ‘a good man is heart to find’ is given a delirious send-up in these pages sprinkled with designer labels, limos, fashion shoots, luxury hotel suites, hundred thousand dollar checks signed at the drop of a hat, and not a broke black soul in sight.

How the author so breezily connects the characters to each other without heavy-handedness, just adds to the fun.

The dialogue is sharp and bitchy and funny, and makes it obvious that Johnson had a good time writing it. This writer certainly had a good time reading it.

My only complaint would be to point out the copy edits, or lack thereof. It’s as if no one in the publisher’s office read the manuscript before printing it, not for story content as the story and the telling of it is solid, but for words double-repeated, spelling, words left out, and sentences inadvertently fragmented.

Still, this is an outstanding debut from a talented young writer who knows and loves the world he writes about—fashion, fashionistas and fabulosity.


Love Yourself First is a delicious parfait, ice-creamy, fruity, syrupy sweet and whipped; a light and airy homage to E. Lynn Harris in designer drag and sans the angst, the perfect summer read. As our forever upbeat hero Dwight weathers all the storms of his life and comes to the conclusion that loving oneself first and foremost is the key to happiness, we want to give him three snaps and a twirl. I look forward to the sequel and a more attentive copy editor.