Pomfret, 37, a native of Wellesley, Massachusetts, is a lawyer for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. His short stories and erotic fiction have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Post Road, New Delta Review, Genre Magazine, Friction 4, 5, and 7 (Alyson Books), Best Gay Love Stories 2005 (Alyson Books), Best Gay Erotica 2005 (Cleis Press) and Fresh Men: Best New Gay Voices (Carroll & Graf). Pomfret was co-counsel with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in a case bringing a constitutional challenge to Massachusetts sodomy laws.

Whittier, 30, a native of Poland, Maine, is an advertising copywriter. His commercial work has appeared on radio, billboards, TV and in print media internationally and has won top honors in the Healthcare Advertising Awards and Admission Advertising Awards. He has published fiction in Children Churches and Daddies, Playguy, In Touch, Honcho and Alyson’s anthologies Just the Sex, Ultimate Gay Erotica and Friction 7.

Featuring handsome mechanics, dashing advertising executives, bitter ex-boyfriends, loyal fag hags, interfering parents, jealousy, drama and steamy bedroom scenes, each Romentics novel folows two gay men on their not-so-straight path to true love.

Founded in 2003 at the height of the debate over same-sex marriage, Romentics has married the number-one paperback fiction market (romance) with the buying power and desire for true love of the gay market.

It’s a marriage made in marketing heaven: Romance novels comprise more than half of all paperback fiction sold in the United States (2002 sales of $1.5 billion). The continued growth of the genre (18% since 1998) is largely the result of specialization -- the creation of subgenres. However, no publisher has yet tapped the 16.5 million-member gay market and its $450 billion buying power.

Romentics is the brainchild of Scott Whittier and Scott Pomfret, a Boston-based couple dubbed “the new romantics” by the Boston Globe. Pomfret and Whittier share not only a name and the writing vocation, but also a true love story worthy of the pages of a romance novel.

There are four novels now in the Romentics line. In “Hot Sauce”, a jealous and beautiful ex-boyfriend schemes to break up the match made in heaven between a gay celebrity chef and his hot club- and clothing- designer boyfriend. “Razor Burn,” as described in the Toronto Globe & Mail, is “the story of two gay men … who have a brief encounter only to wind up at the same men's grooming-products company, working on the development of a new razor. Throw in some melodrama in the form of a case of amnesia and some explicit, though not gratuitous, sex scenes (there's a sizzling quickie by page 4), and the book mixes all the ingredients of a straight romance to whip up a happy ending.”

“Nick of Time” is about a gay stonemason in the country who agrees to marry an Irishwoman for her green card, but then falls in love with an urban gay dancer who can’t imagine anything but city life. “Spare Parts” matches a hunky mechanic with a beautiful young photographer whose talent can’t pay the bills. Although they have no trouble getting each other’s motors running, things don’t run smoothly when old enemies and secrets threaten everything.

Three Romentics novels are available at http://www.romentics.com, Amazon.com, and at gay and independent bookstores worldwide (including most recently Australia and New Zealand). Warner Books published “Hot Sauce” -- the first-ever same-sex marriage novel -- in June 2005. We believe it to be the first gay romance published by a mainstream New York publisher.

Romentics - Gay Romances
Romance novels account for more than half of all paperback fiction sold in the U.S. The market share continues to rise dramatically (18% since 1998). Much of this increase can be attributed to the specialization of novels—the creation of many sub-genres focused on unique audiences. And the market is growing.

The gay marketplace consists of approximately 16.5 million people with an estimated buying power of $450 billion(some estimates are almost twice as high). The gay community has more buying power per capita than any other diversity niche community (minority), and its total buying power is second only to African Americans. Gay customers have high levels of disposable income, being more than twice as likely as the general population to have graduated college and to earn high household incomes. Overall, these customers are much more likely to spend money on indulging themselves and entertainment. Did I mention that only 5% of gay men have children under 18?

The romance market continues to sub-specialize and prove the effectiveness of this type of niche marketing. However, it is also an opportune time in the gay community. Gay entertainment is booming (Will & Grace, Queer as Folk, Six Feet Under…. and every character from token to primary in sitcoms, movies and literature). Socially, the community is gaining more and more recognition and acceptance (workplace discrimination, domestic partnership benefits, and legal challenges to sodomy laws, civil unions and marriage laws).

Throughout history, gay fiction has served as a guide and benchmark for the culture’s development. It began as general recognition (part condemnation, part exploration) of this mysterious culture written for the “straight” world. It then moved to underground pulp of sex and scandal that helped gay men define themselves and their communities. With Stonewall, the “gay revolution” of 1969, there was a schism in gay literature as these “pulpy” novels were replaced by books of rebellion, celebration and self-exploration.

For the past three decades, gay literature has been about understanding and acceptance. Just recently, gay themes have become humorous and dramatic and crossed into mainstream media. However, there remains a need for fiction to show gay men how to move from self- and social-acceptance to living the lives they truly want. They don’t want art or self-help. They want the next chapter in their lives. They want their stories end happily ever after.