I have to admit, and this won’t come as any surprise to anyone who has read any of my work, that I find men an endless source of fascination.
I’m not talking in a ‘phwoarr, what I wouldn’t like to do to you’ sense – I’m not sure I’d remember if I was given the opportunity – but in a craft sense. How do I best go about portraying their thought patterns? How do I show what they find important in a situation and what they would dismiss? Not just as in the case of this photo, where a male observer says “Wow she’s hot” and a female one says “Wow, sexy shoes”. In quite mundane situations I’ve noticed that I’ll focus on one part of a problem while my husband will focus on another. We may come up with the same solution but the thought processes and problem solving techniques are fundamentally different. I wonder sometimes if this is why M/M stories penned by female writers are so obvious to male readers?
Anyhow this is a rather long winded way of recommending another Brilliant Blog.
The Art of Manliness is my must go to place for advice framed in suitably manly terms. Everything from opening a bank account to how to shave like grandpa is described in a simple and matter of fact way. I love it. Of particular interest to me are their survival guides which are filled with fabulous authory ideas for troubles to heap upon my heroes. For instance the many survival uses for the common or garden tampon or how to enhance your chances of surviving in the wild with a broken cell phone. Also interesting are the articles about relationships but be prepared to rein in your inner-feminist when some of the comments get a bit medieval.
Elin Gregory 
