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Romentics #6
E-male
Kory Miles has a secret. No matter what his fellow waiters at the Whine n Dine think, he is really the mastermind behind the popular E-male dating web site. But when he enters into a mysterious business deal with Zac Djorvzac, the bitter and jaded owner of Djorvzac Travel, they embark on a wild trip from the city to the suburbs to a tropical circuit party. With a box-dancing contest, conspiring contestants and a whole group of boys gone wild, will Kory be able to create a romantic tourist getaway over the internet? Will he be able to match up the real world and online make-believe? And when the truth won t compute, will he be able to resist his own matchmaking system?
- GenresM M RomanceContemporary
229 pages, Paperback
First published February 26, 2009
26 people want to read
About the author
Scott D. Pomfret
14 books47 followersScott Pomfret is author of Since My Last Confession: A Gay Catholic Memoir; Hot Sauce: A Novel; the Q Guide to Wine and Cocktails, and dozens of short stories published in, among other venues, Ecotone, The Short Story (UK), Post Road, New Orleans Review, Fiction International, and Fourteen Hills. Scott writes from the cramped confines of his tiny Provincetown beach shack, which he shares with his partner of twenty-one years. He is currently at work on a comic queer Know-Nothing alternative history novel set in antebellum New Orleans. www.scottpomfret.com.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 14, 2009
Scott Pomfret and Scott Whittier, the writing duo known as Scott & Scott whose previous works include "Hot Sauce," "Razor Burn," and "Surf ’N’ Turf," take on the world of internet dating and the party circuit with the gay romantic comedy, E-Male.
The tech savvy Kory Miles of the Whine ’n’ Dine restaurant is a lonely waiter by day who spends his nights as a virtual Cupid for all the other lonely boys in the neighborhood on his matchmaking website, E-Male. E-Male has recently become all the rage for its fail safe ability to pair up two like-minded single men, who otherwise might not have met, as the seemingly perfect couple. Little do these internet romantics know that E-Male isn’t a sophisticated, high-tech software application at work but rather Kory himself, and only Kory, as their cyberspace love guru.
Because Kory is such an expert at what he does, his own life ends up playing second fiddle to those of his subscribers, so when he receives a proposal from the gay-owned and operated Djorvzac Travel agency to jointly offer their services, it seems like a godsend. Both Kory and agency owner, Zac Djorvzac, are soon in for a rude awakening, as well as a lesson in self discovery, when this mysterious business deal leads them on a whirlwind adventure to Baytown, a tropical vacation destination and host of the renowned Disco Bell circuit party.
Scott and Scott have an incredible knack for creating characters and settings that are fun, familiar, and above all, ferociously entertaining. "E-Male" is no exception and its two main characters, Kory and Zac, are especially likable, in spite of the sexual tension that sometimes brings out the worst in both of them. The introduction of aging circuit queen, Trevor, who wages tribal war against the budding couple, is a delightfully campy and welcome addition to the story that is more "Dirty Dancing" (as referenced in the novel) than "Showgirls."
"E-Male" is a delightful novel that takes you away from the city, or the suburbs, and reminds you that romance never goes out of style.
The tech savvy Kory Miles of the Whine ’n’ Dine restaurant is a lonely waiter by day who spends his nights as a virtual Cupid for all the other lonely boys in the neighborhood on his matchmaking website, E-Male. E-Male has recently become all the rage for its fail safe ability to pair up two like-minded single men, who otherwise might not have met, as the seemingly perfect couple. Little do these internet romantics know that E-Male isn’t a sophisticated, high-tech software application at work but rather Kory himself, and only Kory, as their cyberspace love guru.
Because Kory is such an expert at what he does, his own life ends up playing second fiddle to those of his subscribers, so when he receives a proposal from the gay-owned and operated Djorvzac Travel agency to jointly offer their services, it seems like a godsend. Both Kory and agency owner, Zac Djorvzac, are soon in for a rude awakening, as well as a lesson in self discovery, when this mysterious business deal leads them on a whirlwind adventure to Baytown, a tropical vacation destination and host of the renowned Disco Bell circuit party.
Scott and Scott have an incredible knack for creating characters and settings that are fun, familiar, and above all, ferociously entertaining. "E-Male" is no exception and its two main characters, Kory and Zac, are especially likable, in spite of the sexual tension that sometimes brings out the worst in both of them. The introduction of aging circuit queen, Trevor, who wages tribal war against the budding couple, is a delightfully campy and welcome addition to the story that is more "Dirty Dancing" (as referenced in the novel) than "Showgirls."
"E-Male" is a delightful novel that takes you away from the city, or the suburbs, and reminds you that romance never goes out of style.
January 4, 2011
I LOVE THIS! It was cute, funny, romantic and every other drama in between. Egos go on battle here and jealous ex-(queens?). I had so much fun here. Definately a keeper!
February 18, 2010
In the increasing technologically advanced world, online dating has not only become accepted but it’s now suffering from the pitfalls and drawbacks that traditional dating has fallen into. For a gay male, where is he to find a partner when he wants more than a nameless hookup or to be thrown into an increasingly confusing pool of straight men? This need is filled by waiter Kory Miles’ imagination as he sets out to prove to himself that he can create a website for single gay men that offers real anonymous dating without the lies, pressure and confusion of the more traditional sites. He creates “E-male”, self-described as a large party where gay men come to mingle, chat, and be matched up. However, they are not being matched by an elaborate and complicated mathematical system, they are being matched by Kory’s intuition. He’s surprisingly good at it as well, which catapults his small experiment into star status and suddenly everywhere around him E-male is all the rage.
Unfortunately Kory slowly becomes addicted and consumed by his own project to the point that he’s obsessed and paranoid to be discovered as the sole mastermind. Furthermore, he’s terrified all his friends will discover that he knows all their dirty, little secrets and it’s those deep secrets and confidential conversations that he uses to help them meet their perfect match. Lost in the overwhelming need of his own site, Kory is desperately looking for a way out when it presents itself on a silver platter as an offer from a gay travel agency asking for a partnership. Kory will match the agency’s employees and clients with potential matches and give Kory a graceful way out of the explosion E-male has become. Unfortunately nothing is that easy when Kory meets the agency’s owner, Zac Djorvzac, who claims he never offered Kory anything and furthermore has no intention of honoring the factious agreement.
Kory and Zac are traditional opposites with Kory having an outwardly gregarious and open personality in contrast to Zac’s reserved manner. Kory is flirtatious, humorous, and charismatic tempered by intelligence and a wry sense of humor. Zac, as his foil, is quiet, focused and determined to ensure the success of his travel agency with as little drama from his gay employees as possible. His three tenants of “No Dancing, No Dating, No Drama” are the direct opposition of the ideals Kory uses on E-male. When these two meet their interaction is hysterically funny while giving off enough sparks to raise the temperature quite a bit. The following quotes depict their personalities so well. The first is Zac’s frustration with his arguing employees:
--
“No gossip. No fighting. No gay bullshit. And of all his rules, this was the one Zac could not enforce completely no matter how much of a hard-ass he was. He could overwork gay men til they had no social lives and no relationships, but he couldn’t take the drama out of drama queens.”
As much as he may try to avoid it, Zac simply can’t escape the drama and life that occurs despite his best efforts. Similarly, when Zac and Kory clash, both are determined to have their way and end up having scorching sex on the floor, which sends Kory reeling and running to his best friend Jeff for help.
“’We are not working together. He was a complete bastard to me. We had a fight right there in his office.’
‘And then you hate-fucked him!’ Jeff accused as if he were simply completing the list of facts Kory had begun.
‘Hate-fuck’ was an unpleasant but popular term at the Whine ‘n’ Dine. It was supposedly a crazy, impassioned bout of sex that you engaged in with someone you hated with such an intensity that fucking his brains out was the only way to express it.”
---
Kory and Zac get off to a rough start but with some hilarious determination and ingeniously clever manipulating on Kory’s part, they manage to come to a compromise. Both Zac and Kory agree to a trip Kory has put together to a popular gay resort spot, which will test the merger of not only Kory and Zac’s companies but their personalities as well. Up until this point, the authors have done a fabulous job of combing humor, charm, and wit with quirky, engaging characters that are gripping early on creating an easy and quick pace to the story. With an incredibly humorous and well-written beginning to the story, what happened at this point is not only confusing, but also unfortunate when given such a strong foundation.
As Zac, Kory, and their intrepid customers travel to Baytown Beach for a tropical circuit party, the confident and funny characters slowly turn paranoid, insecure, and gossipy. The prolonged and convoluted conspiracy plot Zac proposes is not only absurd but also unnecessary. The tension between Zac and Kory created up to this point was more than enough to further their romantic relationship without adding an artificial and unbelievable subplot involving Zac’s ex and the beach party. Furthering complicating matters is Zac’s background, which is slowly unveiled with great trepidation meant to create a closer relationship between Zac and Kory. This background is then used against Zac as a way to discredit him amongst his customers; however, again this plot device was not only unnecessary but also unbelievable. Zac’s background is lacking any significantly traumatic or heinous element and considering the atmosphere of gay boys gone wild that his customers are composed of, it’s unlikely to have a negative impact if it has an impact at all.
Additionally, Zac’s resolution to both his past and his ex, which is to win at a box-dancing contest simply capped off the complete incredulousness the novel has spiraled into. Kory’s near meltdown and obsession with “taking control” causes him to waiver on decisions until he questions everything and everyone he’s tried so hard to manipulate. At this point, the plot resembles the movie “Zoolander” but without the humorous handling of the subject matter. The authors instead treat the dancers and their box-dancing contest as a serious and dramatic element in their plot. This prolonged and lingering buildup was painful to read and left me cringing in several parts, as I was loath to have such an unfortunate turn continue for so long. The absurdity of the entire Baytown portion of the book is such a sharp contrast to the strong beginning that it’s difficult to believe both parts were written by the same duo of authors. The characters’ actions and motivations were largely undefined and often in contrast to previously established characterization with little to no explanation. The trite and overly simplified resolution and ending after lengthy cringe worthy anguish was almost welcome to end this painful narration.
I’ve read several books by this duo of authors and they excel with well-defined characters, witty dialogue and fast moving plots. While this is all true of the first half of the book, the second half is mired in confusion and irrelevant information dumping combined with a ridiculous turn of plot. It’s odd to have a story take such a sharp turn in the middle of the book and I can only wish the author’s hadn’t taken that turn. With a clever formatting, witty openings for each chapter, and a great premise the book unfortunately ultimately falls flat with an unsuccessful plot turn. While I can’t recommend this book overall for what happened, I have faith in the authors and future offerings.
Unfortunately Kory slowly becomes addicted and consumed by his own project to the point that he’s obsessed and paranoid to be discovered as the sole mastermind. Furthermore, he’s terrified all his friends will discover that he knows all their dirty, little secrets and it’s those deep secrets and confidential conversations that he uses to help them meet their perfect match. Lost in the overwhelming need of his own site, Kory is desperately looking for a way out when it presents itself on a silver platter as an offer from a gay travel agency asking for a partnership. Kory will match the agency’s employees and clients with potential matches and give Kory a graceful way out of the explosion E-male has become. Unfortunately nothing is that easy when Kory meets the agency’s owner, Zac Djorvzac, who claims he never offered Kory anything and furthermore has no intention of honoring the factious agreement.
Kory and Zac are traditional opposites with Kory having an outwardly gregarious and open personality in contrast to Zac’s reserved manner. Kory is flirtatious, humorous, and charismatic tempered by intelligence and a wry sense of humor. Zac, as his foil, is quiet, focused and determined to ensure the success of his travel agency with as little drama from his gay employees as possible. His three tenants of “No Dancing, No Dating, No Drama” are the direct opposition of the ideals Kory uses on E-male. When these two meet their interaction is hysterically funny while giving off enough sparks to raise the temperature quite a bit. The following quotes depict their personalities so well. The first is Zac’s frustration with his arguing employees:
--
“No gossip. No fighting. No gay bullshit. And of all his rules, this was the one Zac could not enforce completely no matter how much of a hard-ass he was. He could overwork gay men til they had no social lives and no relationships, but he couldn’t take the drama out of drama queens.”
As much as he may try to avoid it, Zac simply can’t escape the drama and life that occurs despite his best efforts. Similarly, when Zac and Kory clash, both are determined to have their way and end up having scorching sex on the floor, which sends Kory reeling and running to his best friend Jeff for help.
“’We are not working together. He was a complete bastard to me. We had a fight right there in his office.’
‘And then you hate-fucked him!’ Jeff accused as if he were simply completing the list of facts Kory had begun.
‘Hate-fuck’ was an unpleasant but popular term at the Whine ‘n’ Dine. It was supposedly a crazy, impassioned bout of sex that you engaged in with someone you hated with such an intensity that fucking his brains out was the only way to express it.”
---
Kory and Zac get off to a rough start but with some hilarious determination and ingeniously clever manipulating on Kory’s part, they manage to come to a compromise. Both Zac and Kory agree to a trip Kory has put together to a popular gay resort spot, which will test the merger of not only Kory and Zac’s companies but their personalities as well. Up until this point, the authors have done a fabulous job of combing humor, charm, and wit with quirky, engaging characters that are gripping early on creating an easy and quick pace to the story. With an incredibly humorous and well-written beginning to the story, what happened at this point is not only confusing, but also unfortunate when given such a strong foundation.
As Zac, Kory, and their intrepid customers travel to Baytown Beach for a tropical circuit party, the confident and funny characters slowly turn paranoid, insecure, and gossipy. The prolonged and convoluted conspiracy plot Zac proposes is not only absurd but also unnecessary. The tension between Zac and Kory created up to this point was more than enough to further their romantic relationship without adding an artificial and unbelievable subplot involving Zac’s ex and the beach party. Furthering complicating matters is Zac’s background, which is slowly unveiled with great trepidation meant to create a closer relationship between Zac and Kory. This background is then used against Zac as a way to discredit him amongst his customers; however, again this plot device was not only unnecessary but also unbelievable. Zac’s background is lacking any significantly traumatic or heinous element and considering the atmosphere of gay boys gone wild that his customers are composed of, it’s unlikely to have a negative impact if it has an impact at all.
Additionally, Zac’s resolution to both his past and his ex, which is to win at a box-dancing contest simply capped off the complete incredulousness the novel has spiraled into. Kory’s near meltdown and obsession with “taking control” causes him to waiver on decisions until he questions everything and everyone he’s tried so hard to manipulate. At this point, the plot resembles the movie “Zoolander” but without the humorous handling of the subject matter. The authors instead treat the dancers and their box-dancing contest as a serious and dramatic element in their plot. This prolonged and lingering buildup was painful to read and left me cringing in several parts, as I was loath to have such an unfortunate turn continue for so long. The absurdity of the entire Baytown portion of the book is such a sharp contrast to the strong beginning that it’s difficult to believe both parts were written by the same duo of authors. The characters’ actions and motivations were largely undefined and often in contrast to previously established characterization with little to no explanation. The trite and overly simplified resolution and ending after lengthy cringe worthy anguish was almost welcome to end this painful narration.
I’ve read several books by this duo of authors and they excel with well-defined characters, witty dialogue and fast moving plots. While this is all true of the first half of the book, the second half is mired in confusion and irrelevant information dumping combined with a ridiculous turn of plot. It’s odd to have a story take such a sharp turn in the middle of the book and I can only wish the author’s hadn’t taken that turn. With a clever formatting, witty openings for each chapter, and a great premise the book unfortunately ultimately falls flat with an unsuccessful plot turn. While I can’t recommend this book overall for what happened, I have faith in the authors and future offerings.
Read
December 2, 2009E-male is a pure classic romance novel. It has not any pretence to be anything else if not a light romp. Kory Miles is a geeky guy working as waiter while he is trying to build a successful online dating website. He is so good in his work that the website is a endless source of good matching but there is a problem: no complicated algorithm calculates the best matching, it’s all in Kory’s mind and good sense. Problem is that e-male is also starting to “eat” its owner, Kory has not real private life and he is always worried that no one discovers who is really behind the website. So when he has the chance to sell the website to another company following it as a consultant, it’s a perfect solution.
Zac Djorvzac is the owner of a travel agency and he has three rules: No Drama, No Dancing, No Dating. For the owner of a gay travel agency this is like a contradiction in terms, since you can’t have a group of gay men together and not having at least one of the Ds above. When Kory enters Zac’s office with a business proposal Zac never sent to him, Zac thinks the man is another city boy interesting only in partying and “loving”. And it not helps to make him changing his idea that Kory has an impromptu sex session with him on the floor behind the desk.
From a start like this, you would expect for the book to be a sex scene after the other. And this is something that actually I have never found in a Scott&Scott’s novel. Yes, there is sex, and also good sex, but the most important thing is the romance. These partners in work and life write novels that proof to the everyday gay man that also him is allowed to have romance. Since he is also a man, the romance is maybe a bit easier and less flowerily, but it’s not less romantic. Kory believes in true love, it’s the basic rule of his online dating website, but he is also a man who walks around with a condom in the pocket, just in case. Zac is apparently a stoic man, but in the end, he has a behind the should past as party boy.
If the light story and the funny moments weren’t enough to make me like this novel, the multiple references to “Dirty Dancing” and Patrick Swayze as must to seen movie for every respectable gay man and teen girls won me over. The roles between Kory and Zac change abruptly and when they leave for a vacation together to Baytown Beach with Kory’s friends and Zac’s employees (like a school trip among different classes where the main purpose is to gossip and dating), Kory becomes the library/laptop mouse, who hardly leaves his room, and Zac is now the beach boy who knows all the better places and who tries to drag Kory’s out of his shell. The dance lessons in the water or balancing on a rock, remind me too much Dirty Dancing to not love the story.
As I said this is a light story. It’s also maybe a little unrealistic, I can’t really believe that a group of grown men can go back so much to their teen years to consider a beach ball contest the main event of their vacation, but still, the story was nice and romantic, pretty much like a young comedy movie, that type of story that you read to rest and relax.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1928662161/?...
Zac Djorvzac is the owner of a travel agency and he has three rules: No Drama, No Dancing, No Dating. For the owner of a gay travel agency this is like a contradiction in terms, since you can’t have a group of gay men together and not having at least one of the Ds above. When Kory enters Zac’s office with a business proposal Zac never sent to him, Zac thinks the man is another city boy interesting only in partying and “loving”. And it not helps to make him changing his idea that Kory has an impromptu sex session with him on the floor behind the desk.
From a start like this, you would expect for the book to be a sex scene after the other. And this is something that actually I have never found in a Scott&Scott’s novel. Yes, there is sex, and also good sex, but the most important thing is the romance. These partners in work and life write novels that proof to the everyday gay man that also him is allowed to have romance. Since he is also a man, the romance is maybe a bit easier and less flowerily, but it’s not less romantic. Kory believes in true love, it’s the basic rule of his online dating website, but he is also a man who walks around with a condom in the pocket, just in case. Zac is apparently a stoic man, but in the end, he has a behind the should past as party boy.
If the light story and the funny moments weren’t enough to make me like this novel, the multiple references to “Dirty Dancing” and Patrick Swayze as must to seen movie for every respectable gay man and teen girls won me over. The roles between Kory and Zac change abruptly and when they leave for a vacation together to Baytown Beach with Kory’s friends and Zac’s employees (like a school trip among different classes where the main purpose is to gossip and dating), Kory becomes the library/laptop mouse, who hardly leaves his room, and Zac is now the beach boy who knows all the better places and who tries to drag Kory’s out of his shell. The dance lessons in the water or balancing on a rock, remind me too much Dirty Dancing to not love the story.
As I said this is a light story. It’s also maybe a little unrealistic, I can’t really believe that a group of grown men can go back so much to their teen years to consider a beach ball contest the main event of their vacation, but still, the story was nice and romantic, pretty much like a young comedy movie, that type of story that you read to rest and relax.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1928662161/?...
April 16, 2011
Cute, quick, light and sweet beach read. It was all very gay :)
2.5 stars
2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews