LOS ANGELES—Porn is a visual medium. Gay erotica caters primarily to gay men. Physical media is dead. Those all sound like reasonable statements in 2026, yet none of them are true. And Falcon | NakedSword is set to prove it with the launch of FalconINK, an ambitious new business venture that expands the industry leader into brand new territory.
“It takes time and focus to build a publishing house from the ground up—from writing to sales and distribution to marketing—and Falcon | NakedSword has the vision, talent and resources to do it successfully,” says Ben Rush, Co-Chief Content Officer and Chief Creative Marketing Officer.
“As an author and screenwriter, I’ve always believed that words can be deeply affecting in many ways, particularly in connecting people through storytelling. When readers can find even a little bit of themselves and their desires between the pages of a good book, it can be transformative.”
The new FalconINK, launched this week, publishes erotic male/male romance stories in all major formats. It features original novellas along with stories inspired by the acclaimed universe of Falcon | NakedSword films.
“FalconINK really started with a conversation Ben Rush and I had a few years ago,” says Tim Valenti, President and CEO. “We kept coming back to the idea that great stories shouldn't be limited to one format. As an extension of Falcon | NakedSword, this is an exciting next step for us and a chance to build on what we've been doing for years: telling stories that connect with people.”
Valenti says the idea is to create books that can become films or television projects, but it works the other way, too.
“We already have a library of stories and characters from our films that deserve a new life on the page. FalconINK gives us the opportunity to expand those worlds, introduce them to new audiences, and build original IP that can move seamlessly between publishing and filmed formats.”
Rush and Valenti originally met in 2022, just before Rush wrote the screenplay for Ride or Die, and they discussed the idea of a M/M romance and literature line.
“We knew the evolving entertainment marketplace had an appetite for this kind of content,” Rush says. “Here we are, more than four years later, putting our original plans into action at a time when people want not only distraction and escape, but also quality reading—and listening—material that is representative of their tastes, culture and interests.”
That means the venture started well before the massive success of that gay hockey player love story that has taken over pop culture.
“I wish I could say that Heated Rivalry factored into our decision to launch this venture, but we’d been laying the groundwork for FalconINK before that material hit the world stage in such a big way,” Rush says. “The success of the HBO Max streaming series, based on Rachel Reid’s bestselling novels, certainly signaled that we were on to something, though.”
Similarly, FalconINK will be targeting an unlikely segment for a company that has built its name on award-winning gay porn: women. But Rush insists the audience will have wide crossover appeal.
“Our audience is not limited to women. While women are an important and growing segment—particularly among readers interested in romance, erotic fiction and stories centered on identity and relationships—we see the books appealing to a much broader audience,” he says. “That includes LGBTQ+ readers, existing Falcon | NakedSword fans, couples, collectors, and readers who may be discovering the brand through publishing for the first time.”
Playing Hard Ball
The novellas are available in print, e-book and audiobook formats. FalconINK has three signature imprint lines that mirror the major Falcon | NakedSword studios, allowing them to cater to every taste. Falcon Books will focus on the “sun-touched, all-American Falcon men,” while the “rough-and-ready hairy studs” will live in Raging Stallion Books. NakedSword Books will feature all types of men, paired (or grouped) “to give readers maximum pleasure.”
“There’s a large segment of the population that still prefers physical media,” Rush says. “In fact, nearly 75% of book sales are accounted for by the print format. Our trade paperbacks are available everywhere books are sold—both online and at brick-and-mortar—and our e-books and audiobooks are for sale wherever readers choose to purchase their digital content.”
FalconINK products will be available worldwide through only traditional mainstream channels. “Our sales team has worked tirelessly with retailers to secure in-store and online placement across the entire book landscape.”
The first two projects, already available at major retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, are Hard Ball by author Riley Parks (on the Falcon Books line), and Wild Game: Open Season by Parks and Rush (on the NakedSword Books banner).
“Hard Ball is a contemporary sports romance that falls perfectly into the popular ‘enemies-to-lovers’ sub-genre. It’s a fun, erotic novella that is engaging in terms of storytelling, fantasy fulfillment, and spice,” Rush shares. “Wild Game: Open Season is a dark and moody prequel to our hit film Wild Game. It gives readers and listeners a thrilling love triangle and the backstory of how Derek Kage’s character got into the ‘game’ in the first place. Be warned: Paperback pages will likely get very sticky.”
Rush praises Parks, who has former ties to the adult industry. “Her prose and dialogue crackle, almost as if they’re popping off the page. We got lucky to get her for our initial stories.”
He notes that Parks will continue to write for all three of the imprints, but as a fully functional publishing house, FalconINK will also acquire work from other authors of all backgrounds.
“It’s been such a fun process working on these novellas. I’m so excited to share them with the world,” Parks says. “I love that Falcon | NakedSword thinks outside the box and really considers what’s possible in how they continue to provide the best possible content through all mediums for their fans.”
For Rush, shifting from screenplays to novellas has been a fun challenge. In films, he notes, every scene has to move at a particular pace because so much of the emotion is conveyed through performance and imagery.
“In books, the words need to do all the work. The author is responsible not only for the dialogue and structure, but also for the characters' inner lives and thoughts. We have much more freedom to explore motivation and intimacy, but that also means there's nowhere to hide. Every sentence has to earn its place in the book,” he says.
“Creatively, the biggest challenge is shifting from thinking in scenes to thinking in prose. In a movie, writers can rely on a look, a piece of music, or a performance to communicate emotion. In a novella, we need to create that same emotional impact through language alone.”
Dirty Talk
For the audio versions of the first two novellas, FalconINK has enlisted the help of performers fans are very familiar with: deep-voiced Derek Kage (for Wild Game: Open Season) and Eddie Burke (for Hard Ball).
“It was quite surreal to read and then voice the prequel to my Wild Game character’s story. It definitely helped me focus on my character’s tone,” Kage says. “I understood where he was heading, but not what got him there. It was a challenge to voice my character as cautious yet excited for a forbidden love only to shift to defeated and desperate by the end.”
This isn’t the GayVN Award winner’s first experience doing voice acting for Rush. Kage’s first role as a lead actor in a feature was a Raging Stallion movie written by Rush called Cruising Confidential. Kage has lent his voice to numerous narrations for movies and scenes, podcasts and commercials since then.
“I really do believe I have a future as a full-time voice actor. My voice is just one of the many talents I bring to my performances, and I’ve used it in many ways. It’s one of the many things that makes me an all-around solid performer,” he says.
“I will always bring my passion and emotion to anything I do. There might just be some behind-the-scenes content of me recording the audiobook where you can see me making gestures and facial expressions to help shape my voice for each character and situation. It might just be a natural talent, but I do my best to feel what the characters are feeling to help shape the tone of my voice.”
The opportunity was equally appreciated by Burke, who appeared in the Raging Stallion hit The Way to a Man’s Heart last year.
“It's interesting to see how the industry is always changing, and I'm excited to be a part of this new evolution in content,” he says. “Maybe it's a bit ironic because, like a lot of gay men, I used to be really insecure about my voice. So now—to have my voice as the focal point of a performance meant to draw people into a fantasy—it’s like conquering an old fear in a way. It was a lot of fun, and I hope to get the opportunity to do more work like this.”
The multi-GayVN Award nominee added that there's a lot that goes into reading words in a way that helps bring the listener into a feeling.
“Part of the challenge is only having my voice, and on top of that, having to play all the characters myself. For example, there are a lot of parts where the main characters are going back and forth talking to each other, and I had to make sure their voices were different enough for the listener to discern but without over-acting or becoming distracting.”
Move Over, Marvel…
FalconINK’s initial release schedule includes a new story every month, some wholly original and some based on existing IP. Rush notes will be a continuation of Hard Ball, as well as a novella that extends the Eat the Rich universe. (The movie begins streaming in early September, with a book release in the fall.)
The venture continues the innovative year for Falcon | NakedSword. The industry leader returned to the short story realm with Liquid Assets, and earlier this year released The Last Guest, the adult industry’s first-ever vertical microdrama.
“The adult entertainment business is changing quickly, and we've made a conscious decision to embrace innovation, not just in technology, but in storytelling, distribution, and the kinds of creative experiences we offer our audience,” Rush says. “FalconINK is a natural extension of that philosophy. Instead of thinking of ourselves as only a film studio, we're becoming a broader storytelling company. It's about building intellectual property instead of limiting ourselves to a single platform.”
Watch out Marvelverse…here comes the Falconverse?
“You took the word right out of my mouth—and I don’t let certain things out of my mouth so quickly!” Rush laughs. “While I wouldn't say we're trying to build a ‘Falconverse’ in the superhero sense, we are creating a connected storytelling universe where ideas can grow and live in multiple mediums. We're not setting out to create a rigid, interconnected universe where every story must fit together, but we are building a creative ecosystem where characters and ideas can evolve across different formats and platforms.”
Echoing Valenti, Rush says FalconINK novellas are partially designed to be an incubator for ideas.
“From a creative standpoint, FalconINK lets us test new concepts, introduce original characters, build fictional worlds, and gauge audience response before expanding a property into other formats.”
A successful novella could become a film, a recurring book series, or even inspire entirely new creative directions. Likewise, characters that audiences first meet in Falcon | NakedSword films can be given much richer backstories through books.
“A world we build in a book could inspire a new series or spin-off. Likewise, fans of our films can discover new layers of those characters and stories through the books. The goal is to create original stories with long-term potential rather than thinking of each release as a standalone product. If audiences embrace these stories, they'll start to recognize recurring worlds, themes and creators, and that fosters a much deeper relationship with our brand.”
Those fans can see Rush, Valenti, Kage and Burke on Saturday, August 29 at 5 p.m. during a mixer and book event at Book Soup in Hollywood. Fans and readers will have the opportunity to mingle and get their books signed, and get photos taken with the performers.
“Whether it's experimenting with micro-dramas, launching FalconINK, or creating projects that range from SFW romance to explicit adult fiction, the common thread is an eagerness to try something new while staying true to what our audience values: interesting stories and high production quality,” Rush says. “That's really what innovation means: not running after trends, but constantly finding better and more creative ways to connect with audiences.”
