If you know the name of this terrific artist please let me know so I can add credit.
My guest today is Jay Lewis Taylor, a historical novelist whose works are shouldering their way to the front of my TBR list. Can’t wait to get stuck into them.
Welcome Jay and thanks for answering my questions.
What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?
I am proud to have two stories chosen for the anthology: my thanks to the editor!
‘At the Gate’ was inspired, first, by a brief memoir written for his professional journal by a naval surgeon; second, by the poem which is quoted in the epigraph; third, by someone whose portrait I found online.
‘Break of Day’ was inspired by Julie Bozza’s comment that there was surprisingly little Western Front / poet material in the anthology so far; and by the poem which is quoted in its epigraph.
Could you tell me a little about them?
‘At the Gate’ – The details are as accurate as I could make them – and you won’t believe how many times I called back the “completed” version of ‘At the Gate’ to amend it the smallest bit more … I almost used the writer of the real memoir as a character; he certainly had a sense of humour, and went on to become a famous anaesthetist and a detective story writer, of all things. What I aimed to do with the character who eventually came to me was to portray shipboard life in time of war, and how perhaps the “normality” even of something as abnormal as war may enable a man to work through his grief when it can’t be expressed.
‘Break of Day’ – I came across the “queer sardonic rat” from Rosenberg’s poem ‘Break of Day in the Trenches’ long ago, and using it as a link between the stories (there is also a rat – a real rat – in ‘At the Gate’) was too good an opportunity to miss. What I wanted to show here (apart from bringing two characters together) was the range of good and bad chances of war, and how poetry can be going on at the edge of things, like Icarus falling into the water unnoticed in W.H. Auden’s poem ‘Musée des Beaux Arts”.
Could you please tell me about your other work?
Historical fiction seems to be my métier. I have two books with Manifold Press:-
‘Dance of Stone‘ is set in the late twelfth century, the great cathedral-building age of England. Its two main characters are a Norman/English mason and an Icelandic/Irish trobador. I’ve always been fascinated by the collision of cultures and by how people on the margins in one way or another learn to cope and to cross the borders.
‘The Peacock’s Eye‘ shares its launch day with the e-book of ‘A Pride of Poppies’, I’m proud to say. This one is set in the last years of Elizabeth I’s reign and a few years after it – in other words, Shakespeare’s London and James VI’s Edinburgh. It features two actors from a company rival to Shakespeare’s who become entangled in Sir Robert Cecil’s plans for the changeover of monarch.
What are you working on at the moment?
At the precise time of writing, I am not working on anything, as ‘The Peacock’s Eye’ went to the proof-reader two nights ago! However, next on the list is ‘Across your Dreams’, another historical novel, set during and after the Great War, which tells the story of what happens to Lew and Russ from ‘Break of Day’ and to Alan from ‘At the Gate.’ Somewhere in the gap between finishing ‘Dance of Stone’ and ‘The Peacock’s Eye’ I wrote about 1,800 words of it.
Please could we have an excerpt?
Almost in slow motion the beam, with the wall behind it, tilted, gathered momentum and crashed down.
He was underneath, his face crushed into the mud, pain exploding like star-shells inside his hip, the fire of it crawling up his back and legs, flaring again in his right shoulder where something was wrenched and torn. With an effort Lew turned his face sideways, whooped air in through nose and mouth, then closed his teeth on the scream that was trying to burst out of his lungs.
Outside in the distant light was a turmoil of noise, a horse screaming, a shot, silence for a moment. ‘Number off!’ someone shouted.
His heartbeat hurt in his chest. He was sweating. His hair had fallen across his forehead, and tickled; the small, infuriating sensation dwarfed by the pain but still pin-prick clear.
‘Who’s missing?’ A voice nearby, impossibly far off.
‘Greenhalgh. Allred. Lieutenant Lewry.’
He tried to call out – ‘here!’ – but wasn’t at all sure if he’d made himself heard. Couldn’t raise his head to get his mouth free of the dirt. Could hardly get enough breath, dammit … He’d been here before. When he met Russ …
—
Author Bio:
“Despite having spent most of my life in Surrey and Oxfordshire, I now live in Somerset, within an hour’s drive of the villages where two of my great-great-great-grandparents were born. Although I work as a rare-books librarian in a particularly abstruse area, I am in fact a thwarted medievalist with a strong arts background.
I have been writing fiction for over thirty years, exploring the lives of people who are on the margins in one way or another, and how the power of love and language can break down the walls that we build round ourselves.”
Social media links:
https://twitter.com/jaylewistaylor
Other works:
~
A Pride of Poppies – an anthology from Manifold Press
Modern GLBTQI fiction of the Great War
Ten authors – in thirteen stories – explore the experiences of GLBTQI people during World War I. In what ways were their lives the same as or different from those of other people?
A London pub, an English village, a shell-hole on the Front, the outskirts of Thai Nguyen city, a ship in heavy weather off Zeebrugge, a civilian internment camp … Loves and griefs that must remain unspoken, unexpected freedoms, the tensions between individuality and duty, and every now and then the relief of recognition. You’ll find both heartaches and joys in this astonishing range of thought-provoking stories.
An anthology featuring authors:
Julie Bozza
Barry Brennessel
Charlie Cochrane
Sam Evans
Lou Faulkner
Adam Fitzroy
Wendy C. Fries
Z. McAspurren
Eleanor Musgrove
Jay Lewis Taylor
Available from May 1st from: Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Smashwords
Posted in Excerpt, Guests, New Release | Tagged anthology, author interview, brit author, new release | 1 Comment »
April 25, 2015 by Elin Gregory
Art by Kath Woolen
My fourth interviewee is ‘new to me’ author Ellie Musgrove. Welcome, Ellie, and thanks for answering my questions.
~
What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?
When I saw the call for submissions, it caught my interest. What was it like for LGBTQIA people in the First World War?
Two particular stories leapt out at me – the story of people like my own great-great-grandfather, who spent time in a British internment camp for having a German father, and the possibilities the changing roles of women might present for those who didn’t quite fit other people’s expectations of their gender.
Once those got lodged in my mind, I just had to write them, especially knowing that my stories would make a difference to current and former service members in the here and now, as well as commemorating LGBTQIA people from a hundred years ago.
Could you tell me a little about it?
‘Inside’ is the story of a British man with a little too much German blood in him, who starts questioning everything he thought he knew about himself while he’s stuck in a civilian internment camp, and a German who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and now has to find his place in his new surroundings.
‘The Man Left Behind’ follows Henry, a farmhand who feels like the only man in England who’s not in the trenches fighting for King and Country.
Could you please tell me about your other work?
Usually, I write short slice-of-life stories (many of which I post for free on my blog) while working on longer novels. I’m in the middle of a series called ‘The Perfect Garden’, which is romantic literary fiction, I suppose, I’ve got a horror novella in the editing process, and I write high fantasy stories for an exciting new project called Caladria. I’ve also been published in a previous charity anthology, ‘Lupus Animus’, which is about wolves.
What are you working on at the moment?
Right now I’m taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo, which means writing an adventure novella, in this case. I’m also working on a couple of stories for Caladria at the moment, which I can’t say too much about, but I can tell you that in among the goblins and dragons I’m currently writing a very lovely couple I think ‘A Pride of Poppies’ readers would enjoy meeting, when their debut story is published later in the year.
Please could we have an excerpt?
“Stiorax had every right to be worried, Varjan supposed. After his most recent battle, he’d been sent to a healer – more accurately, Stiorax had had to carry him to a healer – and told that it was time to stop fighting altogether.
‘But I’m a soldier,’ he’d protested, ‘I can’t stop fighting. It’s what I do.’
‘Well, you can fight, or you can live. You’re in no condition to keep battling.’
‘I don’t mind dying on the battlefi-‘ Stiorax had accidentally poked him right in a bruise, turning to the healer while Varjan was busy trying to catch his breath.
‘He understands. He’ll be taking things slowly from now on. Fortunately he has an excellent servant.’ Well, he couldn’t argue with that – most of the time – but when the healer had left he’d glared at Stiorax, waiting for an explanation.
‘Since when do you give the orders?’
‘Since I’m the one who’d lose you.’ Varjan had wanted to fight his corner, but he was weary to the very bone, and one look at his devoted servant’s face convinced him that it would be kinder to let Stiorax have his way in this matter.”
(Extract ©Caladria, used with permission)
—
Author Bio:
Eleanor Musgrove has done many things in her life, but writing has always been one of her great loves. She recently graduated from university, and now lives with three other humans and a grumpy old cat, who happens to be an excellent model for when she’s writing about dragons.
Social media links:
https://www.facebook.com/eamusgrovewrites
https://www.twitter.com/masqueblanc
https://www.caladria.com/profile/elliemusgrove379375
~
A Pride of Poppies – an anthology from Manifold Press
Modern GLBTQI fiction of the Great War
Ten authors – in thirteen stories – explore the experiences of GLBTQI people during World War I. In what ways were their lives the same as or different from those of other people?
A London pub, an English village, a shell-hole on the Front, the outskirts of Thai Nguyen city, a ship in heavy weather off Zeebrugge, a civilian internment camp … Loves and griefs that must remain unspoken, unexpected freedoms, the tensions between individuality and duty, and every now and then the relief of recognition. You’ll find both heartaches and joys in this astonishing range of thought-provoking stories.
An anthology featuring authors:
Julie Bozza
Barry Brennessel
Charlie Cochrane
Sam Evans
Lou Faulkner
Adam Fitzroy
Wendy C. Fries
Z. McAspurren
Eleanor Musgrove
Jay Lewis Taylor
Available from May 1st from: Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Smashwords
Posted in Excerpt, New Release | Tagged anthology, author interview, brit author, new release | 4 Comments »
April 24, 2015 by Elin Gregory
Welcome to the third interview in a series celebrating the publication of the Great War anthology A Pride of Poppies from Manifld Press.
Today my guest is Charlie Cochrane.
Continue Reading »
Posted in Excerpt, Guests, New Release | Tagged anthology, brit author, new release | 14 Comments »
April 23, 2015 by Elin Gregory
Art by David Lee
This is the second interview in celebration of the publication of A Pride of Poppies, an anthology of Great War stories from Manifold Press.
Please join me in welcoming Barry Brennessel.
Continue Reading »
Posted in New Release | Tagged anthology, new release | 2 Comments »
April 22, 2015 by Elin Gregory
Art by Nikki Gulley
This is the first of a series of interviews with the authors who contributed stories to the Manifold Press anthology, A Pride of Poppies.
My first guest is Adam Fitzroy.
What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?
I know very little about military matters so it was obvious I wasn’t going to be writing anything technical with a battlefield setting. Much of my family history revolves around a particular small English village (in Suffolk, as it happens), and I started wondering what life in such a place would have been like with all the young men away at war. Initially the idea was to look at four families of different social classes, but that turned out to be a grandiose idea which needed to be pruned severely in order to fit the required word-count!
Continue Reading »
Posted in Excerpt, New Release, Uncategorized | Tagged anthology, author interview, brit author, new release | 3 Comments »
April 21, 2015 by Elin Gregory
Author Name: Rae Gee
Book Name: A Second Past Midnight
Release Date: April 22, 2015
Pages or Words: 87,900 words
Categories: Erotica, Fiction, Gay Fiction, M/M Romance, Thriller, Dystopian
Publisher: Torquere Press
Cover Artist: BS Clay
Blurb:
It had come like a thief in the night, an invisible force that had wiped out life as they had known it, sending them from 1981 back to 1881. The cause of The Pulse had remained a mystery and become the cause of speculation of fear. In a heartbeat, stock markets had crashed, power plants had shut down, and the land became poisoned by sewage, chemicals and, in some areas, radiation. If it had microchips in it, it was dead, finished beyond all repair. The anomaly which had wiped out their life had become known as The Pulse and the events following it had become known as The Crash.
Excerpt:
1985
With the rifle slung over one shoulder, James made his way through the drifts of fall leaves. Miles from home, and in the depths of the Minnesota forests, he knew he was far from alone. Spread across one of the state’s many forested areas were others like himself, getting ready for open season to begin. Dressed in army surplus fatigues, and with his long brunette hair pulled through a baseball cap, he was ready. Rules drawn up by the county required hunters to wear fatigues rather than their usual orange so as not to clash with the inmate’s uniforms.
James looked at his watch. 2.40pm. Twenty minutes left. Finding a thicket of bushes, he crouched within the prickly branches and quietly prepped the gun. Peering down the scope, the brunette man aimed at a nearby tree. Perfect. Clipped to one side of the scope was a small flashlight, perfect for when the sun began to set.
All around him, the smell of fall hung in the air. Musty, and a little damp, it spoke of a long, hard winter, and evenings sat before the fire. In January of 1981, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists had moved the symbolic Doomsday Clock to 11:56pm, four minutes to the “midnight” of global catastrophe the clock represented. On October 31st, 1981, at 1:13am, the Doomsday Clock had struck midnight.
It had come like a thief in the night, an invisible force that had wiped out life as they had known it, sending them from 1981 back to 1881. The cause of The Pulse had remained a mystery and become the cause of speculation of fear. In a heartbeat stock markets had crashed, power plants had shut down, and the land became poisoned by sewage, chemicals and, in some areas, radiation. If it had microchips in it, it was dead, finished beyond all repair. The anomaly which had wiped out their life had become known as The Pulse and the events following it had become known as The Crash,.
Within days, anarchy broke out and the cities became no-go areas. The small communities furthest from the carnage were the best places to be. Diseases long thought dead flared back to life. Money was still being used but prices were sky high. No one could afford the meager crops that were produced and for those who owned farms, like James’ family, keeping animals was dangerous. While the tiny communities protected one another, there was nothing, bar the gun in his lap, to stop a stranger from stealing their animals. They still kept a few; a couple of cows and a few chickens, but that was it. Everything else, including any wild animals, were long gone, were so badly affected that they were in danger of extinction.
It had been several months before they’d truly found out what had happened on the night of The Crash. An airdrop of flyers, created between the British and Canadians, had scattered over the state. They told of the electromagnetic pulse that had wiped out their lives, retaliation from the Russians for the boycotts imposed by the United States. The Pulse, having traveled along anything metal, had destroyed the American military, leaving them helpless and unable to return fire.
The government had recognized the lack of supplies and, in ’83, had signed the “Shoot to Kill” executive order. Twice a year, a number of convicts from prisons across the country were released into wooded areas to be hunted, with a promise of freedom if they survived the seven day open season. All were felons; with DUIs, drug dealers, and thieves.
Sales Links: Torquere Books
About the author:
Born and raised in the heart of England, Rae spent her formative years bouncing around the globe with her missionary family. When she wasn’t on a plane, she was often found with her head in a book. These days she racks up air miles by learning to fly.
When she’s not writing, she enjoys making documentaries, roaming the South Downs, teasing the cat and her dad (normally at the same time!), taking photos and naming her electronics. She believes that she’s trapped in the wrong era and should be roaming the streets of 19th Century London.
She also has a tattoo of a Boeing 747 and is only too happy to tell the tale behind it. Feel free to ask; she promises not to bite too hard!
Rae made her vocal début on Spawn of Psychosis’s 2013 EP Mind Over Mania. All profits from the EP go to mental health charity Mind.
She currently lives just outside of Leicester and is partly owned by Bertie the cat.
Where to find the author:
Facebook Author Page: www.facebook.com/thequeenofsteam
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VeetuIndustries
Other: www.raegee.co.uk
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/raegee
Tour Dates & Stops:
Parker Williams, Cate Ashwood, Bayou Book Junkie, My Fiction Nook, BFD Book Blog, Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews, Divine Magazine, MM Good Book Reviews, 3 Chicks After Dark, Inked Rainbow Reads, Molly Lolly, Velvet Panic, Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents, Elin Gregory, Nephylim
Click here for a chance to win a Rafflecopter Prize: An e-copy of ‘A Second Past Midnight’ by Rae Gee
Posted in New Release | Tagged Dystopian, erotica, gay fiction, M/M Romance, Thriller | 1 Comment »
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Author Bio:
Writer, traveler, and coffee addict, Alina Popescu has been in love with books all her life. She started writing when she was ten and she has always been drawn to sci-fi, fantasy, and the supernatural realm. Born and raised in Romania, she finds her inspiration in books of all genres, in movies, and the occasional manga comic book. She is a proud geek who needs her fast Internet and gadgets more than she needs air.
Elin Gregory 