Product Description

Diamonds can be a boy's best friend, too. Especially the erotic short stories of Vincent Diamond, sparkling with cut, color, and clarity. Here are sensual encounters between real men that will leave readers feverish to turn the next page. Spare no expense and slip between the covers of Rough Cut.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #492381 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Perfect Paperback
• 280 pages

Review
Florida, heat, cops, bad guys, and animals. Vincent writes about them with obvious passion and care. Not to mention that these stories are sure to get you hot under the collar. Be sure to add this collection to your bookcase! --Sean Michael

In this day and age of instant gay sex and ubiquitous DVD s depicting same,Rough Cut is a welcome return of gay erotica in print. --Edge Publications

Vincent Diamond's stories are full of dangerous men. They are cops and ravers, drug dealers and wildlife officers, horsemen and prison inmates They are dangerous, too, because of the depths of their passion to paraphrase that line from A Chorus Line, 'they are dangerous because of what they'll do for love.' --Neil Plakcy

About the Author
The alleged Vincent Diamond is a Central Florida writer who once drove from Tampa to Anchorage, Alaska in the days before the Alcan Highway was paved. Once. Like many writers, Diamond has had an odd assortment of day jobs that included being an inventory auditor, a petsitter, a graduate student in Criminology, and a data entry drone. For the past few years, Diamond has written, edited, and proofread for various publishers. Time away from the keyboard is spent trying to pick up the correct diagonal at the trot, collecting caladiums, and pondering the beauty of tigers.

Customer Reviews

Rough Cut by Vincent Diamond
Usually I don't like anthologies. The simple reason is that I can't be satisfy by too short stories, and when I like the characters is even worst, since I always felt like they are gone too soon. So it's always with a bit of prejudice that I start an anthology, and the reason why I choose to read it is always different, but usually since there is at least an author in the anthology that I like.

Rough Cut is different so. First of all it's a collection of stories from the same author, Vincent Diamond, ones I had the chance to read and like, especially in the Under Arrest Anthology. One reason more is that, the very story I like in that anthology, was also in this collection and it has also a sequel, so even better, since one of my prejudice falls as I have the chance to read more on two characters I liked very much and way better since the story I read in the past didn't have an happily ever after and I'm a looser for HEA. And finally the big surprise, almost all the stories in the anthology are related one to each other and tell us about the same pair, an ex cops and his bad boy lover, and so it's almost like having a full novel, plus some nice appetizers and desserts.

"Lions and Tigers and Snares" & "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" : Byron is an agent who has to discover an illicit traffic with dying big felines. So he works undercover in a shelter, playing the role of volunteer and looking around. But more than looking to illicit traffic, he is looking at Kendall, the man who leads the shelter and that probably is head to foot involved. But Byron sees how Kendall loves the big cats and he is sure the man can't be the ones who sells them to certain death.

"A Cold Night's Sleep" & "Fire": Sandy is a retired cop. He had a very bad experience during a fire and he still blames himself for the death of a little child. Plus he is scarred by the fire, inside and outside. He prefers to live alone in a cabin with a cat and no one to care who can leave him like his former lover did. Tanner is an ex con who arrives to the cabin during a storm and Sandy offers him a shelter to the bad weather. Also Tanner has his scars, they are only inside, but they are not less painful. And from a scarred man to another, Tanner can see beyond Sandy claims to want to be alone. But probably Tanner needs to set something in his life and it's not time for him to stop with Sandy. And Sandy is not yet ready to forget and move one. Maybe not now, maybe not ever.

"A Cold Night's Sleep" is the short story I remember. In "Fire" Vincent Diamond tells us something more on these two guys, and maybe the romance I thought ended in the first story, could have a "better" end in this second chapter.

"Haunted", "Slide into Desire", "Walking the Blue Line", "Deep Trouble Undercover", "A Question of Taste", "Dangerous Days" & "Tropical Daze": all these stories are about Steven and Conrad. Steven is a undercover cop, he is searching proofs of a drug dealing during the rave parties. Conrad is the man who organizes the raves. It should be a simple mission, not a very dangerous one, they are dealing mostly with young kids, college animals... But Steven cares too much, since he falls in love with Conrad. Conrad is an half spanish half cuban guy, sexy and smooth talking; he lures Steven inside his world and in his bed. Steven is new to all this, he can't even imagine to fall in love with a man, but here he is and in love. But Conrad? it's only sex? and then there is the little problem that Steven should do his work and his work probably will lead Conrad in prison.

I don't want to spoil the story, since probably I will ruin to you the big surprise it revealed me. Reading "Haunted" I almost believed that this one was one of that wonderful but sad story, with two star-crossed lovers condemn to be forever torn apart and instead... read and you will know!

Sheperd: Felipe is a good guy who ends in prison. He is not gay, but two years in captivity could change a man. This is not a love story, maybe it's more a life journey, the surviving tale of a man who sees his world collapse and needs to refocuses his priority and beliefs.

"Bruised", "Back in the Saddle" & "Horsing Around": another pretty long and so very satisfying story. Marcus is a man who has loved and lost. He is still mourning but maybe he is ready to be back in the saddle. David is a vet student who helps Marcus in his horse farm during summer. He is young and innocent and so tempting. He sees and wants Marcus and with his joy of life forces Marcus to live again, to want again, to want David. But David is soo young, and new to real love, plus Marcus is his first man, before him David never thought possible for him to love a man. Family and future seem big handicaps in their ride to life.

Irish Cream: an old man remembers a lost lover, a love born and died when they can't even think for it to last, but if death didn't call, what could be? Now he has only memories, sad and cold, but cherished.

What links all the stories? they are sweet and sexy, but a bit sad. Even when there is an happily ever after, and lucky for me, there is often, I always felt like a suffused sadness. Erotic stories sometimes are like a roaring fire, these instead are like simmering ashes, and maybe it is better, since a roaring fire blasts and ends in a blur, and instead the ashes last longer. So these stories, they spread inside you like a comforting warm, and remain with you long before you close the book.

Diamond Collection
This eclectic collection of stories is aimed at the connoisseur of the m/m reading public. Being my first experience with Vincent Diamond's books I didn't know what to expect and the stories included in this collection gave me a great appreciation of his work and his writing. Most of the background is set in Florida where Mr. Diamond lives and you can feel the sultry, hot, humid heat and air almost like a slow drumbeat in the background.

Every protagonist in his stories would be considered by most to be a man's man - physically strong, sometimes flawed, at times vulnerable and always three dimensional. Almost all of the stories are told in two and three segments making for a much richer experience with the characters that is not typically afforded the reader of short stories. The author makes no apologies for his characters and at times the writing is almost `in your face' because the stories are of people in situations that are harsh and uncompromising. What I'll try to do in this review of ROUGH CUT: VINCENT DIAMOND COLLECTED is give the reader a sense of the stories without being a spoiler

LIONS, TIGERS AND SNARES
COLD HANDS, WARM HEARTS

These two stories feature Byron, an agent for the US government working undercover as a pre-veterinarian summer intern at a big game wild life refuge and Kendall who is in charge of the refuge. In LIONS, TIGERS AND SNARES the electricity between Byron and Kendall is immediate but in the midst of getting to know each other a whole lot better a dangerous situation emerges when the owner of the refuge shows up and all hell breaks loose. In the second story COLD HANDS, WARM HEARTS there is a change of pace. I never knew there were so many uses for a freezer and ice. Oh my! Suffice it to say that I will forever remember Byron and Kendall's adventures but I also love the emotion between them.

A COLD NIGHT'S SLEEP
FIRE

I was really moved by A COLD NIGHT'S SLEEP and the two main characters who were both damaged, physically and emotionally. Sandy, a former policeman had been hurt during a fire and bore the physical scars; he was living like a hermit when Tanner dropped in on him, literally. The attraction between them grew that night fuelled by proximity until they couldn't hold back. When they made love to each other it was as if they were two halves of a whole and the sex was both tender and raw and it didn't matter that they were on different sides of the law.

In FIRE, Sandy and Tanner meet again three years later - Sandy now works for the Florida Parks Department teaching fire prevention to trainees. Changes have occurred in both their lives but the one constant is their overwhelming attraction to each other. I could feel the emotion and almost smell the odours described by the author, both indoors and out. What was amazing was that two such hard-bitten characters could show such feeling and tenderness. Then it is déjà vu all over again for Sandy - another day, another fire. The sex afterward - violent, sweaty and hot as they make love like animals - helps to heal Sandy's wounds.

HAUNTED
SLIDE INTO DESIRE
WALKING THE BLUE LINE
DEEP TROUBLE UNDERCOVER
A QUESTION OF TASTE
DANGEROUS DAYS
TROPICAL DAZE

These 7 stories, easily novella length at 116 pages, are about Steven, an undercover cop sent by the Jacksonville PD and the DEA to sniff out the department's newest target - Conrad, leader of a crew of ravers and a primary suspect in a meth and ecstasy distribution operation. From their first meeting the attraction between Steven and Conrad sizzles and Steven has a hard time at first with the idea of sleeping with a man, something he had never done before as well as getting in bed with the enemy.

Their first encounter is raw and rough and Steven is on fire; it's as if the world as he knows it ceases to exist and his entire universe is limited to Conrad. From HAUNTED where Steven and Conrad first hook up to TROPICAL DAZE as the story plays out, the sex and lust between the two protagonists burn up the sheets and anything in their way. As they become more and more entangled Steven falls deeper and deeper for Conrad and begins to fear the emotions developing between them and the impact on his undercover assignment. Each story moves into the other and the intensity heightens until it culminates into a number of surprising events. These 7 stories show what a gifted storyteller Vincent Diamond is as he weaves this sultry tale and ratchets up the excitement to a crescendo, taking the reader along for the ride.

The other stories - SHEPHERD, BRUISED, BACK IN THE SADDLE, HORSING AROUND and IRISH CREAM are all excellent but space will not permit me to expand on them. What impressed me the most is the incredible writing style of Vincent Diamond and the wide range of subjects explored in the book which demonstrates his experience, skill and eloquent voice. Mr. Diamond does not avoid any topic in this book and goes boldly where most authors do not tread. He tackles previously taboo topics and many of the stories are about making choices. From a paroled prisoner in a liaison with a former police officer to an investigator at a big cat reserve getting `jiggy' with his potential mark, to another officer deep undercover in more ways than one with his target and loving it, this book explores the seamy and sensual sides of the Sunshine State.

Fans of Mr. Diamond's work and first time readers will love this book and I have no hesitation giving it 5 stars.

excellent and original
There seems to be a growing divide between what's known as male/male romance and gay erotica, and it's not often that a book can be found that appeals to both audiences. However, Rough Cut strikes me as such a book. The stories contain the rich description, emotion, passionate language, and, mostly, the sweet endings required by romance readers while maintaining the raw, detailed (but not crude) sexuality preferred by gay erotica fans. The author even alternates between third person (more frequently found in male/male romance) and first person (more common in gay erotica.) A number of the stories are linked, and while a couple story arcs may appear to be low stakes when taken individually (for example, a character is afraid to go in the water or a character learns to ride a horse), the pieces work much, much better here in a collection as the reader can experience the blossoming of the relationships and care more deeply about the protagonists.

The male characters in this book are ultra-masculine whether they're caring for captive lions or putting out forest fires. There's rarely any self-doubt or evidence of the scars left by societal or familial disapproval. In fact, a number of these characters most likely wouldn't identify as gay even though they are not abashed about seeking what they want. The tension often comes from falling for the potential villain, be it a former prisoner or an organizer of illegal raves. This creates an aspect of the forbidden that often, but not always, has very little to do with a confusion or fear of one's sexual identity, but still involves a great risk of vulnerability when the protagonist thinks "this could be the absolute wrong person to love, but I can't help it." Rough Cut will especially appeal to fans of Chris Owen's Bareback and Angel Martinez's Aftermath among many others.