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Not Quite Shakespeare – Penny Hudson

Posted in Guests, New Release, tagged author interview, gay romance, new release on May 16, 2014| 5 Comments »

TGIF and if that wasn’t enough to bring a smile to your face here’s another author interview drawn from the list of talented scribers contibuting to the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology from Dreamspinner Press, an anthology which will be available in time for the UK Meet. As soon as it’s possible I will get two copies – one for me and one for a commenter to these series of interviews so don’t forget to leave comments because that’s the way to get a chance to win.

My guest today is a shiny brand new author and since reading her snippet I’m looking forward to seeing more of her work. Welcome, Penny Hudson.

Have you ever visited the UK? If so where did you go? If not, what would you most like to see if you were able to make a visit?

I have not, unfortunately. Which means I could write an entire novella to answer this question! But I’ll spare you and narrow it down to what comes to mind first. I’d go to London and watch every live show in town, then visit the National Theatre archive with a bag of snacks and revel in the recordings. I love theatre, but I don’t get to see live performances very often. Especially not that quality!

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

I saw a picture of a cow happily curled up on the bonnet of a car, like an oversized cat. It made me laugh, and I kept thinking about it throughout the day.

Could you tell me a little about it?

That situation had story written all over it, it just needed some characters. Who would really be infuriated to discover a cow sleeping on his car? Especially if it was an expensive car he treasured? I know! A fastidious solicitor who hates visiting the countryside, and yet is required to go there anyway during his search for a missing heir. Add in one sexy Welsh pub owner, and Misadventures of Mislaid Men almost wrote itself.

Could you please tell me about your other work?

I have a novella forthcoming this summer called Winter’s Risk from Dreamspinner Press.

Veteran park ranger Alexander Doyle is tracking a nuisance bear when he runs across obnoxious environmentalist Martin Ramirez. He and Martin have clashed before, when Martin and the protestors under his leadership ended a plan to expand the network of paved trails and improve accessibility. Given a choice, Alex would rather face the bear.
When the dangerous grizzly attacks them and Martin is gravely wounded, his only chance of survival is Alex’s determination to keep him alive through the night. But they’re stranded miles from any hope of rescue with the year’s first snowstorm coming in fast.

What are you working on at the moment?

A novel with the working title Finding Figaro. It’s about a prissy young author called Jasper who clings to his literary pretensions while he secretly searches for his favorite romance author’s real name, having no idea Figaro is the pseudonym of popular political-thriller author Isaac Wright- whom Jasper despises for churning out what he considers to be mass-market junk. Isaac is thoroughly bemused by his snobby attitude, and sets out to change Jasper’s mind without revealing himself.

It’s a lot of fun playing around with assumptions about why people write what they write. What it secretly means about who the author is as a human being, and what sort of personality they’re going to have. You really can’t judge a book by the cover, or predict a person because of their books.

Please could we have an excerpt?

Certainly! This is my story from Not Quite Shakespeare, Misadventures of Mislaid Men. This scene is set right after Gavin discovers the cow napping on his car. Much to his irritation, several men have come out of the pub to point and laugh about it.

Gavin refused to be their amusement. “I’ll sue the lot of you,” he snapped. He also refused to be a diplomat. “You lot look like you speak cow. Come and shift her off my car, and I’ll buy you a round.”
The one with the cane shoved at the younger man’s back. “Go on, speak cow for the Englishman. I expect it’s too advanced to be covered in English schools. Poor lad needs a translator, bless.”
Gavin waited dourly whilst beard-man jogged over and said, “I dunno. Cow’s pretty complicated. I’m not fluent or anything. I only took a few classes in nursery school. Basics really, mooing to ten, shades of grass—”
“Ha-bloody-ha.” Gavin crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look important. “What’s it take to get you to move this walking steak factory?”
The Welshman tipped his chin down a little and let his gaze linger on Gavin’s trim form, highlighted in the well-fitting suit.
“Ask me nicely,” he suggested with a grin that promised more than laughter. That was the sort of grin Gavin expected to see when he was being chatted up in a club. Not way out here. He must be mistaken. Or so desperate for sex he was hallucinating interest when there was none.
Gavin licked his lips whilst he decided what to say and didn’t miss the way the other man’s pupils dilated slightly as he did. Perhaps he wasn’t mistaken. Perhaps this errand wasn’t going to be as tedious as he assumed. The intense hazel eyes peering at his lips certainly suggested that was within the realm of possibility.
“Please,” he finally said, feeling slightly off-balance somehow.
“That’ll do. I’m Lewellyn, by the way. This is my pub.”

Many thanks, Penny for answering my questions today. Readers, don’t forget to comment! You may follow Penny on her blog and she can be found on Twitter as @AnyPennyH.

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Not Quite Shakespeare – M A Ford

Posted in Guests, New Release, tagged author interview, gay romance, new release on May 14, 2014| 3 Comments »

Doesn’t Humpday come around fast? I hope you’re having a good Wednesday but, if you’re not, this interview from another author contributing to the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology from Dreamspinner Press might cheer you up a bit. Don’t forget to comment for a chance to win a copy of the anthology.

My guest today is M A Ford.

Have you always lived in the UK? If not what drew you back?

I was born in the UK, but left as a child, and only lived there for a short while in my twenties. But despite rarely being a resident, I’ve always been drawn back there, to visit relatives, on holiday or even just to go to the theatre or concerts. It may seem silly to fly to London to watch a recording of ‘Cabin Pressure’, or to watch a Matthew Bourne ballet, but there are some things you just have to do …

Is there any place that is a must-see for any visitor to the uk? In how many counties have you lived? Cosmopolitan or rural?

I’ve lived in Kent, Essex and Derbyshire, mainly in small towns.
It might not be on the general list of must-see things, but when I want people to see the UK I love, I try to take them for a drive up in the Peak District, mainly around Castleton… I also love the New Forest. And it’s not the mainland, but I adore the Shetland Islands, and if I ever have the chance, that’s where I’d love to live.

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

Inspiration actually hit at Victoria Station while waiting for the Gatwick Express – not very romantic. I generally write about motorsport, and wanted to try something that could only be set in the UK. And Silverstone Circuit, with its history as a WWII airfield, seemed a perfect backdrop.

Could you tell me a little about it?

Racing driver Chris Bryant has been issued with an ultimatum by his boyfriend, fellow driver Charlie Stebbings: come out and be open about their relationship or the romance is over. At the final race of the season, a sudden rain-shower turns the track into a river, and Chris cranes When he wakes up, everything has changed…

Could you please tell me about your other work?

My first book was published by Dreamspinner at the end of December 2013. It’s called ‘Track Limits’, and is a contemporary story set in the world of motorsport, about a racing team, Randolph Racing, and their drivers. It revolves around the romance between Mark Hunter, team manager and driver, and his team-mate Jordan Matthews. I also had a short story as part of Dreamspinner’s Valentine Rainbow, called ‘Love and an (orange) Lamborghini, and another story in the forthcoming ‘Mended’ June Daily Dose. That’s also set in motorsport, with a driver waiting for his team-mate to come round after an accident.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m working on two sequels to Track Limits, carrying on the love story between my heroes, Mark and Jordan. The first, Overtaking Manouvres, sees them face tensions and separation as their careers take them in different directions. The third, Unavoidable Contact, introduces a new hero, a young driver struggling with his sexuality, love life and career, who needs some help from Mark and Jordan.

Please could we have an excerpt?

Here’s a short snippet from ‘Track Limits’:

Excerpt from ‘Spa Francorchamps’

On leaving the pits, Jordan was lying twelfth, his best time on the old tires and two seconds slower than the provisional pole. Immediately, his sectors began to come down. There were only a handful of cars still out on the track, a number of them having decided to forfeit the final session after the rain spoiled the earlier qualifying.
Mika came over and stood behind Mark, following number 63’s progress with a finger. “He’s doing well,” he said, close to Mark’s ear. “Come on, Jordan… yes… I wish we could see what he’s doing… that was a good sector! Come on, yes…. Yes! Fourth!” He thumped Mark’s shoulder and grinned. “Second row. That’s not bad!”
Mark nodded, his gaze still glued to the screen. He knew Jordan could go faster, if he was confident enough. The cars that had taken the time to make the most of the drying track were all improving. It was going to be a case of the last man out with the freshest tires who took pole.
Another lap. First sector suddenly flashed up in pink, as Jordan set the best time so far. Then the Ferrari on provisional pole improved again. Jordan improved his second sector too—green for personal best. It was all down to the third sector….
Mark was still listening, but there was no sound on the radio. Jordan was going for it. As for him, he realized he was holding his breath. “Come on, Jordan,” he muttered, picturing those bright-green eyes focused on the dark. So gorgeous….
Where had that come from? Mark, briefly shaken by the thought, shivered. He stared down the pit lane, trying to recognize the Porsche’s headlights. Was that it? And as he looked back at the screen….
“Pole!” Mika screamed behind him.
“Too soon,” Mark said between gritted teeth. “There’s five minutes to go.”
But suddenly the flag in the bottom of the screen flashed red. “Nissan 23 off at Radillon,” he read on the message screen. And then, a second message underneath. “Session will not resume.”

~~~

You can follow M A Ford at her Website and on Facebook.

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Not Quite Shakespeare – Chris Quinton

Posted in contest, Excerpt, Guests, Uncategorized, tagged author interview, brit author, gay romance, new release on May 12, 2014| 3 Comments »

Here we are again with another interview from an author contributing to the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology from Dreamspinner Press. Don’t forget to comment because I plan to buy two copies and will give one away to a lucky commenter.

My guest today is a favourite author so my welcome is tinged with a bit of fangirliness 🙂 Hi Chris Quinton, how are you doing?

Have you always lived in the UK? If not what drew you back?

Well, apart from a year in Aden when I was really young – was four when I came home – and a couple of years in South Wales in the mid 1960’s, I’ve always lived in England.

Is there any place that is a must-see for any visitor to the UK?

OMG, so many! In my home county alone there’s Stonehenge, Avebury, Wilton House, Salisbury Cathedral, Stourhead House with its wonderful gardens, and that’s off the top of my head without thinking about it. There’s so much packed into this collection of islands, whether you’re a history/archaeology fan or a lover of grand houses and their gardens. Then there’s the wonderfully varied coastline, the lakes and forests.

In how many counties have you lived? Cosmopolitan or rural?

Born and bred in Salisbury, Wiltshire. When I was first married, we lived for a couple of years close to Cwmbran in Monmouthshire, South Wales, then for about six months we were in Botley, Hampshire before moving back to Salisbury – where I’ve been ever since. Although Salisbury is a city, it’s no bigger than a small market town – but its history spans about three thousand years, give or take *g*. I’d class it as rural living rather than cosmopolitan. Half an hour’s walk and you’re among fields. It’s lovely here…

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

Well, we were walking the dogs, and my daughter in law was chatting about a friend and her rescue greyhounds, and what characters they were. I wanted to write something quintessentially English, and greyhound racing fitted the bill. Then the title popped into my head – In The Dog House. I mulled it over a bit, and Jerry appeared and started talking about his trials and tribulations, and his old crush. So I basically took notes and ended up with just under 10K of 1st person narration.

Could you tell me a little about it?

Jerry Thorne is looking after a racing greyhound for his uncle, and is in hiding from men out to drug Spot, aka Edie’s Lightning, before a big race. Mike Brown is an ex-crush [unreciprocated] who moved away and joined the Avon & Somerset Police. Jerry had a huge crush on Mike from his early teens. The one time he acted on it and kissed him, Mike rebuffed him, saying he wasn’t gay. Soon after he left the area and Jerry didn’t see him for years. Uncle George tells Jerry to stay away while he negotiates with the crooks, and Jerry ends up on Mike’s doorstep…

Could you please tell me about your other work?

I’ve just had Caravaggio’s Angel published by Totally Bound – it’s a contempory paranormal set on the island of Malta – https://www.totallybound.com/caravaggios-angel. Also, having had a handful of titles revert to me from the currently rather troubled Silver Publishing, I’ve reedited them, found new covers and self-published them. Details can be found on my website http://chrisquinton.com …

What are you working on at the moment?

Oh, goodness. My Work in Progress folder is stupidly long. Well, I’m co-writing Heat with RJ Scott, co-writing Against the Tide with Terri Beckett, working on Melusine’s Cats #1 Greymalkin, and I have edits to do on Undercover Blues for Manifold Press. Those are at the top of the list. Below them are at least half a dozen stories waiting to be worked on, all with titles and some with covers ready for self-publishing.

Please could we have an excerpt?

With pleasure *g*. Here’s a short clip from In The Dog House…

I pulled over at the first lay-by I saw, and after I’d let Spot out to stretch his legs and we’d taken it in turns to pee against the same tree, I got out my mobile phone, and was shocked to see it was gone ten o’clock. First I called Uncle George, to let him know where we were and that we’d lost our tail. He had news as well. Pete Mullins, Joe’s dad, had paid him a visit, told him he had two choices.
“Two? That was generous. Not. Is one option the same his thug of a son gave me?”
“Yup. Spot has to compete. But I sell him to them—for a sodding fiver, no less—and keep my mouth shut, or else.”
“What? The bastards! They can’t have him, Uncle!” Then caution set in. “Or else, what?”
“He didn’t say, but it doesn’t matter. You keep our Spot safe, you hear me? I’m taking him out of the race first thing in the morning.”
“But they want him to run,” I protested. “You’re taking a hell of a risk! You’re not going to give him to them, are you?”
“Don’t be daft! Of course not! Just lie low with him for a while—and keep your mouth shut! I think I can get us out of this as long as we don’t involve anyone else.”
“Meaning the police?”
“Exactly. I’ve got a plan,” he continued with a confidence I didn’t feel. “I saw it on a TV cop show and it’ll work for us. Just lay low and leave this to me.”

~~~ Chris Quinton ~ Writing Romance … Where Men Fall In Love With Men ~~~

My website is here http://chrisquinton.com/
and I’m on FaceBook here https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000894893197
Here is my Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/author/chrisquinton

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Not Quite Shakespeare – Jules Jones

Posted in contest, Excerpt, Guests, tagged author interview, contest, gay romance, new release on May 11, 2014| 9 Comments »

Are you having a good weekend?

Well just in case you need something to read here’s the next interview from authors contributing to the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology from Dreamspinner Press, that will be published in June just in time for the UK Meet. I am very much looking forward to getting a copy and have decided to buy two, one of which I am offering here as a giveaway. Comment below or to any or the other interviews for your name to go in the hat.

My guest today is Jules Jones. Hi Jules.

Have you always lived in the UK? If not what drew you back?

I’ve lived in several different countries, and long-time readers will probably remember that I was living in the US when I sold my first few novels. But I’m originally from the UK, and currently living in northern England.

Is there any place that is a must-see for any visitor to the UK?

Too many for any one visitor to see, and of course it depends on what you like to look at. My current local favourite is the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, because I like steam engines and early computers, and so do a lot of my visitors. 🙂

In how many counties have you lived? Cosmopolitan or rural?

Four so far. Always in a town or city, although usually with the countryside within easy distance. For several years I lived right in the middle of a conurbation, but with a view of the North Yorkshire Moors.

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

It’s actually a story I wrote some years ago, and never found a suitable home for until now. It came from a remark on a tv show years ago about missing toast badly enough to grow the wheat to make the bread. My lead character doesn’t go quite that far, but he does like making bread from scratch.

Could you tell me a little about it?

What better way to get to know a shy new flatmate than offering to share freshly baked bread? And all that dough kneading leads to nice strong hands, which is useful if you also know how to give a good massage.

Could you please tell me about your other work?

Most of my commercially published fiction is m/m romance, and a lot of it’s cross-genre science fiction and fantasy. I wandered in from the sf&f side of cross-genre, which is why my “which authors are you influenced by” list includes writers like Andre Norton and Lois McMaster Bujold. But I also write a fair bit of contemporary romance, including my recently released novel “Nice Tie”. The contemporary romance is all set in the UK, as is some of the cross-genre romance. My silkie novel Spindrift is set on the west coast of Scotland, and my shapeshifter novel Dolphin Dreams is set on the Purbeck coast in Dorset. And for science fiction, there’s First Footer, which is a first contact story set in England. (Never park your spaceship on a peat bog…) The rest of the cross-genre is basically Brits In Space. (No, not Brits In Spaaaaace. Except for The Syndicate.) You can find my full bibliography on my website, along with a lot of excerpts and some free reads.

What are you working on at the moment?

Two very different pieces. One’s a very gentle contemporary short story idea I got from the submission call for the Dreamspinner anthology “Random Acts of Kindness”. The other is a contemporary office romance with caning on one side, bondage on the other, and in-house fraud to investigate for both of them. That one will probably be heading in the direction of my editor at Loose Id once it’s finished. And every so often I poke at my urban fantasy novel.

Please could we have an excerpt?

My story in the anthology is fairly short, so not really suitable for an excerpt. Instead, have an excerpt from the WIP. Alas, you’ll have to wait a while before this one’s out. 🙂 The guys have just met for the first time, in the bar of the hotel they both happen to be staying in.

~~~

They’d been quiet enough to be discreet, but Chris could understand why Jason might want to leave anything more detailed than “we’re having sex” to somewhere more private than the corridor. Only when they were inside, with the door safely shut behind them, did he ask, “Just vanilla, or something more?” He looked around the suite. It didn’t run to a four-poster bed, but there were other possibilities. “There’s always the dressing gown belt for impromptu bondage.”

Jason laughed softly. “You’re a sweet-looking young thing, but I’m still not letting a complete stranger tie me up in an anonymous hotel room. Besides, it’s not my kink.”

“So what is?”

“I’m old enough to have been educated at an expensive fee-paid school, at a time when one of the things parents were paying their fees for was firm discipline in the shape of corporal punishment.”

Chris was speechless for a few seconds. Not at the idea that Jason liked being caned, but at why. Then he decided that it was none of his damned business. “Okay. Not sure how practical that is at short notice.” He looked around the room. “Unless you carry something with you on the off-chance?”

“No.” Jason crossed his arms and looked at him. “Not when I was planning to have a quiet drink and then go to bed early.” Then he grinned. “Though I’m rather regretting it now. You’re game for it, and it’s not even really your thing, is it?”

~~~

Jules Jones is a materials scientist with a degree in maths and physics, and as such should really be writing hard sf. The output is in fact more along the lines of political sf, erotica and romance, often all at the same time. The longer examples are mostly published by Loose Id; short stories have appeared in a variety of venues. You can find Jules online at her website, blog, Twitter, Library Thing and Goodreads or you can email her at jules.jones@gmail.com!

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Not Quite Shakespeare – Megan Reddaway

Posted in Guests, New Release, tagged author interview, brit author, gay romance on May 9, 2014| 6 Comments »

Doesn’t Shakespeare have a way with words? I tell you who else does too – the authors who have contributed to the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology of British themed stories from Dreamspinner Press [cover and links to follow].

Don’t forget – I will put the names of all commenters to all of the interviews into a hat and pick a winner to receive a copy of the anthology in the format of their choice. Comment to win, that’s the ticket!

Today’s interviewee is Megan Reddaway.

Hello, Megan. Have you always lived in the UK?

Mostly. I’ve spent a year travelling and a year living in France. I remember arriving back at Heathrow airport after my travelling year and thinking how low and closed-in the sky over England seemed, like a blanket of cotton wool over my head, but at the same time knowing I was home and not wanting to live anywhere else.

In how many counties have you lived? Cosmopolitan or rural?

I’ve lived in six counties, all in south-east or central England – in three market towns as a child and three cities as an adult, one of them London. I’m happiest living in small to medium sized cities.

Is there any place that is a must-see for any visitor to the UK?

It may sound bizarre since I hated growing up in one, but I think it’s the small towns that are truly representative of the UK – in fact, I think small towns are the most interesting places to stay wherever you go in the world. You pick up on the attitudes and everyday life of the nation at a much deeper level than if you were visiting a big city or going round castles, museums and beaches.

This might be because I’m a writer – I’m more interested in observing people than sights. But I do also love the medieval buildings of Oxford where I live now and the landscape of the west coast of Scotland, among other places. Then almost every village has houses and gardens that are just lovely. To look at, I mean. Don’t make me live in a village. Please.

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology? Could you tell me a little about it?

Ha. I was hoping you’d ask that. My story, Wrong Number, is about a guy who phones his best friend – so he thinks – for sympathy about his lack of a sex life, telling him exactly what he’d like to have some guy do to him, and finds to his horror he’s called one of his bosses by mistake.

So, the inspiration. I live in an area of Oxford with a big student population. The house next door is always let to students and last year a group of gay guys moved in, which was interesting for an M/M romance writer – especially when one of them decided to make an explicit phone call from outside on the front step one night.

In my street all the houses are joined together and their front door is right beside the window of my living room, where I was sitting quietly reading. It was dark and my curtains were drawn so we couldn’t see each other, but when he started telling another guy exactly what he wanted in very graphic terms, I could hear every word.

Some people might turn on the TV or move to another room, but a writer grabs a notebook 🙂

From there, I started thinking about what might have happened before and after such an explicit call. In my final story the situation and the characters are completely different – it’s set in London, they’re not students and I changed some of his words, but it all grew out of that real phone call.

Could you please tell me about your other work?

I’m a freelance non-fiction writer in ‘real life’. In the M/M genre, I don’t have much else finished and published yet, but there are a couple of free stories available from my website at http://meganreddaway.com

My own favourite is The Luck of the Irish, a paranormal M/M comedy about a guy who’s been cursed by a leprechaun.

What are you working on at the moment?

I have two novels at the first draft stage. The one closest to being finished is a contemporary M/M romance set in Oxford (but not in the University). The main character is a man in his 40s who’s lost his much older partner and now finds he’s unexpectedly attracted to a younger guy.

Not sure when it will be published. I seem to have to leave things, do something else and come back to rewrite or edit them.

Excerpt from ‘Wrong Number’, Megan’s contribution to Not Quite Shakespeare:

I’d had a few drinks, to be honest. I’d had a few drinks, and I got home, and the cramped little studio flat in Croydon where I lived looked exactly the same as when I went out. Of course that was a good thing, really, because if the place looked a lot different, it could only be due to a burglary, flood, fire, unannounced landlord visit, or similar disaster. But there’s something so depressing about coming home and finding everything the same. Especially when you’re simply longing for your flat to contain another living creature such as a boyfriend, or at least a cat.

My landlord didn’t allow cats, or I’d have had one. There was no clause forbidding boyfriends, but unfortunately you can’t just grab the cutest-looking stray man from the nearest gay bar, take him home, feed him twice a day, and expect him to love you for it. All I had was pictures, of both cats and men. It wasn’t the same.

So I decided to call my best friend, Gavin. I knew he’d be awake and alone, because I’d only said goodbye to him ten minutes ago outside East Croydon station. I sat on the edge of my bed and opened the address book on my phone.

“I need to get fucked,” I complained as soon as the call was answered. “I want to feel cock plunging into me. I want to worship a big warm dick. I want to lick it all over and get it all wet and rock hard then take it in my arse, take it in deep and get fucked so hard I’m screaming!”

Then what was supposed to happen was that Gavin would be like, “Oh petal, I know, isn’t it awful to have nothing but silicone to play with at the end of the night, where have all the gorgeous hunks gone?”

Instead there was a short silence, and a dry voice that was definitely not Gavin’s said, “Well, Connor, this is unexpected.”

For a moment I was paralysed. Then I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it. Where it should have said “Gavin,” it said “Gary Bayes.”

“Oh my God,” I breathed.

~~~

You can follow Megan at her website or on her Facebook page

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Not Quite Shakespeare – Sarah Madison

Posted in Guests, New Release, tagged author interview, gay romance, new release on May 7, 2014| 9 Comments »

Happy humpday, and here is the second interview in a series from the list of terrific authors contributing to the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology of British themed stories from Dreamspinner Press [cover and links to follow].

Don’t forget to comment – I will put the names of all commenters to all of the interviews/posts into a hat and pick a winner to receive a copy of the anthology in the format of their choice.

Today we have a guest post from Sarah Madison. Welcome Sarah

~~~

I grew up reading stories set in the UK. Horse and pony books. Dog stories. Mysteries. Regencies. My love affair with England in particular was fostered by a steady diet of novels written during the Golden Age of Mystery–so lots of Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy Sayers. I suspect Lord Peter ruined me for many a man, especially considering that I grew up in the Southern US, where the Dukes of Hazzard was king. I find it highly amusing, therefore, that I ended up with a British boyfriend. Last Christmas he took me to meet his family in West Sussex, and I felt like I’d come home after a lifetime of wandering. It’s difficulty to explain the impact that trip had on me. Every footstep, every ‘familiar’ sight, spoke to me.

The towns were so picturesque. I loved how everyone lived among their history and it was just a way of life, not something to be cordoned off in a museum. You learn so much about a country by actually seeing it–the way the ground gives beneath your feet, the sweet mulchy smell of the wet earth and the slickness of white chalk. The cars are small because the streets are small, and they in turn follow the course of public right-of-ways and boundary lines of great estates that have been present for centuries. The choir at the Cathedral at Winchester transported us back in time, as their voices soared into the vaulted hall, and the pasty shop is a black-beamed and dark wooden building that has stood since the fifteenth century. Everywhere I turned, I saw something from my ‘past’, and I suspect my BF got tired of me punching him in the arm and saying things like “Look! A yew garden! Oh! It’s a twitten! A magpie! I saw a magpie!”

And yes, there were pheasants on the lawn.

At one point, my boyfriend pointed out that since our trip was of necessity a short one, that I wouldn’t be able to go see all the touristy landmarks. I know I must have gaped at him. “I’m in ENGLAND. Do you see that? That’s English mud! I don’t need to see anything else.”

We did, however. We walked the South Downs, toured Winchester, and took the train up to Oxford to meet friends (and I admit to a little bit of fangirling as I ran around pointing out places that Lord Peter and Harriet Vane met and did things in that city of dreaming spires). It was, without a doubt, one of the best weeks of my life. I would go back again in a heartbeat. I’d love to see more: go to Cornwall, and Yorkshire, and Wales. See Scotland. Go pony-trekking across Ireland. I loved every minute of it.

I loved my time there so much that when I saw the call for the Not Quite Shakespeare Anthology, I knew I had to submit a story–a love poem to the UK as much as a tale of two lovers separately by circumstance who reconnect again after many years. My UK memories were so vivid in my mind, even a year later. My main character, a young American named Denny, spent a summer as a young man with relatives in the South of England, where he met and fell in love with Tarquin. But they were hardly more than schoolboys at the time–and once the summer was over, Denny went back to the US and they had no further contact.

But Denny never forgot his first love. Over a decade later, circumstances bring him back to Chanctonbury Ring, where some of his fondest memories were made. When Tarq shows up almost like a ghost conjured from Denny’s imagination, Denny has to decide if there was more to that glorious summer than first love–and if there is enough between them to try again.

Bio:

Sarah Madison is a veterinarian with a big dog, a big horse, too many cats, and an extremely patient (and supportive!) boyfriends. She writes because it is cheaper than therapy.

Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sarah-Madison-Author/106445646104338
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SarahMadisonFic
Tumblr: http://sarahmadisonfiction.tumblr.com/
Website: http://www.sarahmadisonfiction.com/

Links and information for specific stories:

The Boys of Summer
Genre: Contemporary/Historical M/M Romance
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00CCUVR7G
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/306320

Blurb: David McIntyre has been enjoying the heck out of his current assignment: touring the Hawaiian Islands in search of the ideal shooting locations for a series of film company projects. What’s not to like? Stunning scenery, great food, sunny beaches…and a secret crush on his hot, ex-Air Force pilot, Rick Sutton.
Everything changes when a tropical storm and engine failure force a crash landing on a deserted atoll with a WWII listening post. Rick’s injuries, and a lack of food and water, make rescue imperative, but it takes an intensely vivid dream about the war to make David see that Rick is more than just a pilot to him. Will David gather his courage to confess his feelings to Rick—before it’s too late?
Finalist in the 2013 Rainbow Awards. Nominated Best Historical in the Goodreads M/M Romance Reader’s Choice Awards. Selected as a Best Read in 2013 by Jessewave. Winner of Best M/M Romance in the 2013 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Awards.

Crying for the Moon
Genre: Paranormal M/M Romance
Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2422
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B005DZPNYU
Blurb: Vampire Alexei Novik may have the teeth and the coffin, but he’s given up the lifestyle for an old fixer-upper in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Weary of his past, Alex plans to keep to himself, but it seems his sexy, new neighbor, Tate, can’t take the hint—a good thing, since it turns out he’s handy for all kinds of things around the house. Tate even gets along with Alex’s werewolf friends, though one of them pointedly reminds Alex that their friendship is a bad idea.

If a platonic relationship is a bad idea, the growing attraction between Tate and Alex is a disaster waiting to happen. Loving Tate will draw him into Alex’s dangerous world, and Alex is torn between having the relationship he’s always craved and keeping Tate safe. Tate won’t take no for an answer, however, and seems to handle everything Alex can throw at him without blinking. Just when he thinks things might turn out all right after all, Alex’s past catches up with him—forcing him to make a terrible choice.
Winner of the Coffee Times Romance Recommended Read Award. August 2011 Recommended Read by Reviews by Jessewave. First Runner Up in the Love Romances and More’s Golden Rose Awards for Best Paranormal of 2011.

Unspeakable Words (novella)
Genre: Contemporary/Paranormal M/M Romance
Dreamspinner Press: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2058
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B004CRTD4G

Blurb: Special Agent John Flynn is everything Jerry Parker is not: dangerously handsome, coolly charismatic, and respected by his peers. Special Agent Parker is dedicated and meticulous, but his abrasive personality has given him a reputation for being difficult. When new information on a cold case appears, Parker is assigned to work with Flynn, and the sparks fly as their investigative styles clash. Contact with a strange artifact changes everything when it bestows unusual and unpredictable powers on Flynn… and the two men must learn to trust each other before a killer strikes again.
Part One of the (planned) four part Unspeakable Words series. Part Two, Walk a Mile, will be released by Dreamspinner Press in Oct 2014.

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Not Quite Shakespeare – Becky Black

Posted in Guests, tagged author interview, brit author, gay romance, new release, uk meet on May 5, 2014| 13 Comments »

Here we go with the first author interview of the roster from the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology of British themed stories from Dreamspinner [cover and buy links to follow when available!] And our first brave interogatee iiiiis Becky Black.

Hi Becky.

Have you always lived in the UK? If not what drew you back?

I’ve always lived here, and in fact I’ve never travelled far away from the place. I live in the north east now, which is where I was brought up. I did live in London for a few years as a student. But the north is much nicer!

Is there any place that is a must-see for any visitor to the uk? In how many counties have you lived? Cosmopolitan or rural?

London is the most obvious must see of course. But I think the best part of the UK is our amazing coastline. And it’s especially beautiful up here on the north east coast, with our golden sands and sights like Bamburgh Castle.

I think I’ve lived in six counties over my lifetime, all of them urban. I am a city girl at heart.

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

I’ve always wanted to write a story about rival ice cream sellers – right back to the days when I wrote fan fiction. When this anthology came along, called “Not Quite Shakespeare” then it seemed to fit perfectly to do a story about star crossed lovers of rival Italian families – who happen to sell ice cream. The fact there are a couple of famous Italian family owned ice cream firms in the seaside towns near to where I grew up and where my mother was from was in influence too, I must admit.

Could you tell me a little about it?

It’s called 99 Problems and is about two young men who have taken over the running of their family ice cream businesses, one of them very reluctantly. With their families having been rivals for years them having a romance would be a really tricky situation for them – so of course they fancy each other at once… It’s a story of forbidden romance and family rivalry, but nobody is going to stab or poison themselves at the end – because hey, it’s only ice cream!

Could you please tell me about your other work?

Mostly I write science fiction m/m erotic romance novels. I currently have eight published with Loose Id. I’ve also got another short contemporary published with JMS books. I’ve also self published a couple of non-romance science fiction stories, which are available free.

What are you working on at the moment?

Right now I’m drafting the third in my Red Dragon space-opera series. It’s planned to be the final book, but I do have a possible spin off in mind. And I can never leave characters alone, so who knows if more ideas for those guys might come up? But I’ve got lots of other plans on the go – including possibly a f/f story, which would be a departure for me.

Please could we have an excerpt?

Here’s a snippet from the first scene of my anthology story 99 Problems.

“Chez?” he said, approaching them, holding out his hand. “Is that you?”

“Rob?” Chez said.

A briefly startled expression crossed his face. His frankly gorgeous face. He had not been this pretty when Rob saw him last, almost a decade ago when they were both sixteen, and Chez had gone off to one sixth-form college and Rob to another. His skin had cleared up, for one thing.

“Mrs Bianchi,” Rob said to Liliana. “We have met before. Rob Catteneo.”

“Oh,” she said, eyebrows raised. “From the new firm.”

The new firm, yes, since the Catteneo family had only been selling ice creams in this town since 1973, a mere forty years. Unlike the old firm, the Bianchi family, who’d come over from Italy in the early 1950s.

“I was at school with Chez,” Rob reminded her.

“Chez?” She looked up at her great-grandson. “What is this ‘Chez’ he calls you, Cesare?”

“It’s what my friends call me, Nana.” Chez swept wavy black hair out of his eyes as the strong wind off the sea blew it across his face. “They called me that at school.”

“School? This is not school. This is church.” She looked at Rob again with recognition in her dark eyes. “Ah yes. Roberto. The cheeky one.”

“Nana!”

Rob grinned. “You do remember me.”

“It’s Robert, Nana,” Chez said. “Not Roberto.”

Her snort told Rob what she thought of that. The Bianchis hung onto the old ways, the old names, and, whenever they could, the old genetics. His last name might give him away, but since his dad had married a local girl, Rob looked as Anglo-Saxon as most other men in this town. Chez looked like he’d just stepped off his Vespa in Milan to go buy a cappuccino.

~~~

Many thanks, Becky for answering my questions.

Readers – don’t forget to comment for a chance to win a copy of Not Quite Shakespeare.

You can follow Becky at the links below:

email: beckyblackbooks@gmail.com
website: http://beckyblack.wordpress.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/beckyblackbooks
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BeckyBlackBooks
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4557505.Becky_Black
Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/beckyblackbooks
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/beckyblackbooks/

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Today in the Comfy Chair – John Goode

Posted in Guests, New Release, Uncategorized, tagged comfy chair, contemporary romance, excerpt, YA on March 20, 2014| 2 Comments »

My guest today is John Goode. Now resident in Texas, he was once in the Navy, but currently spends a lot of his time writing. He has been a professional author for about a year and is best known for his beloved stories about the students and staff of Foster High and his Lords of Arcadia series.

John is with us today to celebrate the release of his new Foster High book, 151 Days, which is OUT TODAY.

###

Elin: Can you tell me a little about yourself? For instance, do you have to have a day job as well as being a writer?

John : Yes I work graveyards at a security company so it gives me all night to write which is nice. I’m a night owl so writing at night is natural.

Elin: When you aren’t writing, is there any other creative activity you enjoy? Have you ever written about it?

John : I love music though I can’t sing. I just really love listening to it, the way a song can be crafted to invoke emotions fascinates me

Elin: What are you reading? Can you recommend something that you wished you’d written yourself?

John : I am reading a book that is about the first season of Star Trek TOS that is incredibly detailed. That is the nerd in me showing. I think everyone should read Jasper Fforde’s Next Thursday series. If you are a reader those books are made for you.

Elin: In that crucial inspiration stage of a new story which comes first? Plot, situation or character?

John : Usually for me character though most of the time it is actually theme that does it. I like writing in themes or what is the book for? What message does it have when all is said and done. I start there and then begin tolling together a story from that meta message.

Elin: Do your characters arrive fully fledged and ready to fly or do they develop as you work with them? Do you have a crisp mental picture of them or are they more a thought and a feeling than an image?

John : They are far more real than I care for that’s for sure. I think fully developed characters are the only kind that should make it to page so I spend a lot of time getting to know them as well as I can.

Elin: Is there any genre you would love to write, ditto one you would avoid like a rattlesnake? What inspired you to write about teenagers in high school?

John : I have a couple of Sci fi stories that I need to get to quickly. I would say just straight up erotics, porn with no plot would send me running into the hills. I wrote Foster High because I wanted to write the books I wish I had when I was a teenager. I don’t think there are enough positive role models for gay teens so I wanted to see if I could make some.

Elin: Villains are incredibly important in fiction since they challenge the main protagonists and give them something to contend with beyond the tension of a developing relationship. The cruel sea. The serial killer. The society itself. Your hero’s inner demons. What sort of villains do you prize?

John : Well there are no villains in Foster High. There are people who seem to have sinister intentions but honestly they have their own reasons for what they are doing. I don’t think there are people out there who wake up and say I am going to be the bad guy today or I am going to do evil. I think they have their own reasons and think them as valid as any one else’s.

Elin: What are you working on at the moment? Can you discuss it or do you prefer to keep it a secret until it’s finished.

John : Well I finished the new Lords of Arcadia book, and now I am about halfway through a story about a gay teen that has to decide between being out or being a basketball player. It’s called Fadeaway and is a character that is in the new Foster book 151 Days,

Elin: Could we please have an excerpt of something?

John : Here’s an excerpt from 151 Days

Change is a bitch.

I am using the term here to mean a difficult task and not a derogatory name for women or the scientific term for a female dog, just in case there are any who might take offense to the word. Change is a bitch, and that’s because it isn’t always easy to know it when it happens. I mean, sure, sometimes it’s obvious. I go over to Brad’s and end up kissing him, and my whole world turns upside down. Hard to miss that change. I decide to tell the world I like guys. Colossal change that is still affecting crap today. Kelly shoots himself. A change that brings the town to a standstill like an earthquake, and the aftershocks of it keep coming and coming.

Take race discrimination. After being considered property for far too long, African Americans were finally considered free people in the United States. That was a big change. But what went unnoticed, or at least unspoken, was the way people changed because of that decision. Some people thought the fight was done. The slaves wanted to be free—they were free, so that’s taken care of. Other people resented the fact that these people who were always second-class citizens to them were now supposed to be treated as equals, and they got angry. And their anger motivated a lot of ugly things, and the country changed while no one was looking.

Now, over a hundred years later, we elected a black president, and some people say, “Well that’s done.” What’s next? Other people reacted to that event in a rather unpopular way. They said the country was being taken over, they said he wasn’t an American, and some even said he wasn’t their president. And the world changed again.

Big change, little changes.

When Kelly killed himself, Foster, as a whole, reacted. Since no one thinks a teenage boy putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger is a good thing, the majority of the reactions were sympathetic, with a desire to make sure it could never happen again. People spoke out, said that the way kids were being treated was wrong, and that things had to get better. That was the bulk of the reaction, but there were others.

Some wanted to place blame on someone for why Kelly did what he did. Some blamed his parents, others blamed the kids on Facebook, and some blamed me. They said none of this stuff happened in Foster before I came out. There were arguments made that things were fine the way they had always been and that by rocking the boat, I had caused this to happen.

I’ll be honest, a lot of other things were said about me as well, but they were mostly hateful things, so you’ll excuse me if I don’t repeat them.

Things were changing in Foster, big and small, and most of it seemed to be centered on me.
Some for the better, some for the worse. The problem was, there was no way for any of us to know which was which until it was far too late. It is impossible for anyone to know what effect our plans will have until they already happen, and by then, there is no going back. I swore the day they put Kelly in the ground that I would change Foster before I left for college. It was a change, and none of us knew what would come of it.

There are 151 days until graduation. Roughly five months before I plan on running out of this town as fast as I can and never looking back. A lot of things can happen in 151 days. A lot of things that people might not be ready for.

So I’m telling you now, hold on. This might get a little bumpy.

###

Many thanks to John for answering my questions so kindly. If you would like to follow John and the students of Foster High his links are below.

The Foster High Facebook

The @fosterhigh Twitter account

email: fosterhigh88@gmail.com

Cover art by Paul Richmond

151 Days by John Goode

Sequel to End of the Innocence
Tales from Foster High: Book Three

With just 151 days left until the school year ends, Kyle Stilleno is running out of time to fulfill the promise he made and change Foster, Texas, for the better. But Kyle and his boyfriend, Brad Graymark, have more than just intolerance to deal with. Life, college, love, and sex have a way of distracting them, and they’re realizing Foster is a bigger place than they thought. When someone from their past returns at the worst possible moment, graduation becomes the least of their worries.

Order here.

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Today in the Comfy Chair – Jayson James.

Posted in Guests, tagged comfy chair, contemporary romance, excerpt, gay romance, guest, M/M on March 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

My guest today is Jayson James who was born and raised in Washington State, where he currently lives and teaches. Whenever Jayson has the time (and money), he likes to travel, hoping to see most of the United States over the next 5 years.
His first novel, “Finding Our Way”, was published in September 2012 and released the follow-up novels, “Tormented Discovery” and “Drifting”, in 2013 creating what readers would identify as the “Finding Our Way Series.” Much to his delight, fans are eagerly waiting to read what happens next with Justin, Derrick and the rest of the gang.

His new release is T.E.D. and he is offering a terrific giveaway. Please keep reading for the link.

Elin: Can you tell me a little about yourself? For instance, do you have to have a day job as well as being a writer?

Jayson: Yes, for the sake of bills and living, I do have a day job.
My life is full, especially now that I have, as one friend put it, “a doghter” (dog daughter) named Cooper. I’d wanted to adopt a dog for the past two years but I did not think the time was right. It was my mom who reminded me that there never really is a good time to have kids. I am so glad that Cooper and I fell in love with each other the minute I picked her up. She has truly enriched my life.
I enjoy spending time writing, reading, watching movies and socializing. As I said before my life is full and I am always busy. Sometimes more than I would like to be. Recently I read that people are happier when they have something to look forward to. I think this is why I like to keep myself busy. Although I’ve been looking forward to having a weekend home, where I do not go anywhere. I get close, however something always comes up. It will be a real treat when I finally get those two full days off.

Elin: When you aren’t writing, is there any other creative activity you enjoy? Have you ever written about it?

Jayson: Drawing is what comes to mind when I consider this question. It is something that I get inspired to do, typically with pencil. I will draw practically every second I can for weeks on end in all sorts of mediums. Then all the sudden, as if a switch gets turned off, I quit drawing all together. I’ve drawn all of the cover images for my books with much prompting from my friends. As I go along I get more creative and think the images look better. In my writing, I’ve had a few characters that are artists and they have talked about experiences I’ve had when it comes to creating art.

Elin: What are you reading? Can you recommend something that you wished you’d written yourself?

Jayson: I’m reading Nick Nolan’s “Wide Asleep.” This happens to be the third book with two of my favorite characters, Jeremy and Arthur. Within the first few chapters, I was crying and had my hopes up for things to work out. Nick writes real characters who are people who act like people, meaning not everyone sees or reacts to things in the same way. Nick’s books are each based upon a different fairytale, which I’ve always found clever.

Elin: In that crucial inspiration stage of a new story which comes first? Plot, situation or character?

Jayson: That’s a tough question! When I plan out they all come to mind. As I quit overthinking the question I realized that it is the character. Actually, all I had to do is glance over at my white board with my current work in progress on it. The characters are on the board: 1) The individual details of the characters are all each worked out underneath them, 2) Their storyline gets outlined underneath, 3) The story gets written, 4) Once the details are down everything below the characters is erased, 5) More outlining, such as chapters and other details, 6) This cycle repeats several times throughout the course of the book. The characters stay on the board typically until the second or third round of edits.

Jayson: My characters are never ready to fly. I like to write them as real people, thus they are changing and growing and even sometimes going in a downward spiral. I do have set ideas in many ways though. Such as with Derrick and Justin from the “Finding Our Way Series,”with each tellingl the story from their own perspective. Something I did with them (which drove some people nuts) was Derrick would use possessives such as “my dad” while Justin referred to them as “dad.” Derrick spoke with less contractions in his dialog while Justin used many and frequently swore.

Jayson: I enjoy writing characters that are both lovable and flawed. Such was the case with “T.E.D.” Each of the three characters that make up this book are real people that readers can identify and relate to on some level. Tim is the kid you feel sorry for and you want to give him advice on how to better his life, yet you also want to tell to suck it up and quit being a wimp. Eric picks on others to keep himself from being discovered. Delsin is dealing with his own monsters and struggles, yet is supportive and does what he can. Their lives are intertwined, having an effect on each other.
This is similar to “Finding Our Way” with Derrick Wilson being the one thing keeping Justin Parker, whose home life was falling apart from going too far on the self-destructive path his was traveling down.
Then there is Kristian Kirkpatrick who is my own villain. He is handsome, charming, cunning and just plain evil. Everything about him is someone that I cannot stand. Yet, I would like to write a book with him as the main character.
As far as other villains, I have always wanted to write a book told from the point of view of the killer. The closest I think I have ever gotten was a book I started writing a couple of years ago about this guy who decides to kill his wife.

Elin: What are you working on at the moment? Can you discuss it or do you prefer to keep it a secret until it’s finished.

Jayson: A new book called “Pieces of Us.” When completed, this will be only my second novel to have a title from the beginning of the writing process. It is about a guy and girl who are best friends in high school, growing and learning about themselves and others. I’m quite excited about this novel, as it will be different in many ways from my previously published works. Typically, I will not talk much about a book until it is in what I call, “the downhill stretch”, known as the last third of the book. This one I’ve been discussing quite a bit with my friends and I think the storyline is developing wonderfully.

Elin: Could we please have an excerpt of something?

Jayson: Gladly! This comes from my new release, T.E.D. This is the scene gives the reader’s insight to Eric, who is bullying Tim.

Sheila had been partially correct that he was hiding something. There was no way in hell Eric was going to ever let anyone know what that was though, especially not his two best buddies. Conrad was the meanest person he’d ever met and would no doubt kick his ass, and without much effort. Keifer would be more subtle, slowly not hanging out with him or returning his calls.
Definitely not his family either. Eric’s parent s made no qualms about expecting their youngest son to provide them with at least one grandchild. He could remember a long time ago when his older brother Ethan lived at home. He missed Ethan and wished that he could see him again.
Eric was thirteen years younger than Ethan. When he was six, he remembered waking up to shouting. Ethan was standing in the living room, with his parents. His mom was holding the door open and his father was face-to-face with Ethan. They all looked angry. Eric’s dad bellowed, “There is no way any son of mine is going to be into this shit. If you want to get involved with those kinds of people, than you can get the hell out of my house.”
Ethan looked to their mom, “Are you going to let him just throw me out?”
She didn’t even hesitate, “Your decision is why we are asking you to leave. If you decide to make the right choices, you can come back. Until then I’m afraid you are basically dead to us.”
“It is not a choice!” Ethan shouted. He kept on repeating that as their dad shoved him out the door and their mom closed and locked it.
Eric was crying, not wanting to see his brother go, “Where’s Ethan going?”
His father walked past him, “He doesn’t live here anymore.”
His mother picked him up, holding him and looking him in the eyes, “Ethan is doing something very, very bad. It is something that if he doesn’t stop doing, he will eventually die from. I know this is hard for you to understand, but Ethan is no longer a part of our family.”
Eric cried and cried, wanting his brother back. Ethan was the only person Eric ever felt a family bond with. His father put his arms around his mom and him, “You’ll understand when you get older.”
Nearly nine years later, Eric still ached to see his brother. His parents told him that Ethan had a bad drug problem and they feared for his safety and the wellbeing of the family. They sent him to a counselor who explained things like tough love and coping with the loss of a family member. This guy pretended to care about Eric and get him to tell him things that were supposed to be kept private between the two of them. Once Eric learned the counselor was telling his parents everything they talked about and how mad his parents got, he started saying the things he thought he needed to say, which worked and a couple of months later he did not have to go anymore.
Years later Eric would overhear his mother on the phone with her sister, “I’ve been hoping Ethan would get over his homosexual tendencies for years. I know now that he never will. It’s been so long I often forget I have another son. He died to me the night he told me that he was gay.” Eric never let her know that he’d heard what she said. Several years later Eric would learn what gay was and what homosexual tendencies were.
Eric’s eyes were starting to tear up as he thought about Ethan. There was a guy in the magazine he was reading who looked very much the way he remembered Ethan had. He hoped that his brother was okay and that they could be a family again someday. He planned on tracking him down the first chance that he could.
His father walked in the room and said, “What are you crying about? Is there a sad article in your Women’s Day?”
“Ha ha! I got something in my eye.” Eric closed the magazine and quickly left the room.

###

Many thanks to Jayson for answering my questions so sportingly. Here are the details of his latest release and at the bottom of the post you will find a link to his giveaway.

T.E.D. by Jayson James

TIM is being bullied. No one in high school wants to be known as a tattle-tale and to do so would only make things rougher for him. The repercussions would most likely make him an outcast, and without any friends.

ERIC is frustrated with life. His parents are overbearing and if they ever knew the person he really was, they would throw him out of their house. His friends are not much better, they only like him when he is who they expect him to be.

DELSIN is gay and ready to come out. Unfortunately, life at home is on the brink of falling apart with his parents constant fighting. Admitting the truth could bring his whole world crashing down around him.

Each of these three needs to decide whether the risks of being honest about who they are outweighs the importance of being true to themselves. This could mean ruining life as each of them knows it. Maybe it is better to remain miserable in order to play it safe. On the other hand, doing nothing doesn’t seem to working either.

You can buy T.E.D. on Amazon here: http://amzn.com/B00IC0NX7W

Jayson’s contact details are below.
Blog/Website: http://www.jaysonjamesbooks.blogspot.com
Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorJaysonJames
Twitter: @jaysonjamesbook

Click to join in a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Guest Post – Madame Spivy by Vanda

Posted in Guests, History, tagged guest, lgbt history on March 12, 2014| 6 Comments »

My guest today is award winning playwright Vanda, who is currently working on her first novel, Juliana.

~~~

Madame Spivy
by
Vanda

Who Was She?

I wonder how many LGBT folks today know who Madame Spivy was. Well, Spivy was an early pioneer in the gay rights movement, although I doubt she would’ve seen herself that way. She was a nightclub owner and entertainer who from the early 40s to the mid 50s kept Spivy’s Roof going despite her poor money management skills. Spivey’s Roof was a nightclub where gay men and women could go and be “almost” out. This meant it wasn’t a gay club, most of the patrons were straight, but gays could openly gather there if they didn’t call too much attention to themselves. According to Gavin (2006) Spivy wanted her various girlfriends to come into the club, and she didn’t think it would be fair to let them in while leaving out the men. Each night gay men lined the bar in their white tuxedos. Spivy’s was a good place for the men to meet each other and a little “fumbling around in the dark” was not uncommon. But Spivy, a short, stout woman in a black dress and black hair combed into a stiff pompadour with a white streak going from front to back (Gavin, 2006, p 30), could be moody. Every once in awhile she would stand up in the middle of the dining area and yell, “Get all the fairies out of here.” Gavin doesn’t say whether this was a joke or whether she actually pushed the gay men out. I rather think not. As one patron put it Spivy was the “patron saint of fags.”

Spivy’s Roof

Spivy’s Roof was located in the penthouse of 139 East 57 Street in New York City. To get there you rode up in a rickety elevator, which opened into a world of glitter and chrome and tightly packed tables and chairs. On the walls were paper sculptures of “stars” such as Katherine Cornell and Gypsy Rose Lee.

Madame Spivy had her devoted fans who came to hear her perform a set of 15 “sophisticated” or “blue” songs. She was supposed to do two shows a night on the weekend, but she paid no attention to time or scheduling. Often she still hadn’t begun the ten o’clock show at 11:30. It wasn’t uncommon for her fans to begin chanting “Spivy! Spivy!” to try to coax her onto the stage. But Madame Spivy was in the back talking to one or more of her girlfriends, among them Tallulah Bankhead or Patsy Kelly.

Spivy was always the star at Spivy’s Roof despite, allowing others to perform on her stages, such as Mabel Mercer, and the then unknown Carol Channing.

strong>An Unknown Piano Player You May Know

Spivy always had two pianos, one under the spotlight and another in the back covered in shadows. The pianist in the back played the ambient music and also backed up Spivy’s own playing when she sang. The word was that she kept that shadowy pianist in the back, because she wasn’t very good. Still she had no intention of sharing the spotlight with anyone else.

Walter Liberace, c 1943

One of her early pianists, hidden in shadows, was 21year old Walter Liberace. Imagine him being stuck in the back and in shadow. Well, that didn’t last long, but to find out what happened between Spivy and Walter I hope you’ll read my novel, JULIANA. There’s a chapter on Spivy’s Roof in which the scene with the young Liberace gets played out.

The times these people lived in were very different from ours in some significant ways. One commentator who was a regular at Spivy’s Roof when he was sixteen—they didn’t seem to be quite so fussy about legal drinking age back then—said “I was probably too innocent to think of Spivy’s sexuality. The concept of women loving women just didn’t exist in the groupthink of the era…” (www.ralphmag.org/DJ/spivy2.html)
Spivy’s Roof was so successful in New York that Spivy thought she could expand into London, Paris and Rome. These clubs all failed. (www.ralphmag.org/DJ/spivy2.html)

So What Happened to Her?

Spivy established a small acting career and you can see her in The Manchurian Candidate and Requiem for a Heavyweight. She also starred in some TV episodes of Hitchcock Presents.

References:

Gavin, J (2006). Intimate nights. New York: Back Stage Books
Ralph (n.d). The Bearded Lady on Spivy’s Roof, Part I. http://www.ralphmag.org/DJ/spivy1.html
http://www.vandawriter.com
Blog: http://www.Julianathenovel.com

Based on research for my novel, JULIANA: It’s 1941 in New York City
where gay men and women live secretly among straights.

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Many thanks, Vanda, for such a fascinating article. Madame Spivy was quite a lady! Good luck with your novel, Juliana, and please let us know when it’s available.