Some thoughts on piracy

The subject of ebook piracy pops up every now and then, and yet still the efforts to combat it are at best clumsy and ineffective, and at worst indiscriminately punitive. Last week, Chuck Wendig declared 6 February "Please Don't Pirate My Book Day." You can read his insightful post about it at that link. You can read my rather less insightful, but hopefully interesting post about it at this link.

Gay pirate fiction on a rise?

This is just an observation and thought.
I’ve noticed an increase in historical gay romances on the market lately. Especially those of pirate origin. The thought of gay pirates never really crossed my mind until recently. And when I started doing a little research concerning pirates for one of my paranormal plot bunnies, I found that there was a good possibility that homosexual activities was happening during this time.

Just think. From approximately the 1640’s to 1690’s, Buccaneers were all over the seas. The colonies they built consisted mostly of men and of course, the ships were packed with men. Hello. How else would all that testosterone find release? (Thoughts of yummy manluv floating through my head)

However, I found it interesting in my research that this was apparently acceptable behavior when women were hard to come by. It was usually when a man chose only to sleep with men did the possibility of scorn come about as men of the time were expected to marry, have kids, yada, yada. So I can see where the big conflict is in most of these stories.

This also reminds me of prison life. Having been around correctional officers for 14 years now, I know that it’s not unusual for one to find two men together, yet both deny being gay. Imagine being surrounded by 1,400 other male inmates and needing that release. This is acceptable behavior in this environment.

Other than Stephen King novels, I adored historical romance novels. Especially the pirate ones when I was younger. The heroine kidnapped for some plot of revenge only to fall in love with the handsome pirate captain. *sigh* The racier, the better. Personally, my attempt at historical romance was a big bomb, so I’ll stick to writing contemporary and fantasy.

What I’d like to know, as a reader, would you buy one of the gay historical romance books because it’s about manluv? Because it’s historical? Or both?

Here's some pirate eye-candy. :D

(This one is a little inspiration I found on the web - not sure where, but it's lovely :P by Kiriko Moth)