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New Release – Rent Me by Brina Brady

May 29, 2014 by Elin Gregory

Rent Me by Brina Brady

Blurb:

Brennen Brady is a 21 year-old escort and USC law student who falls in love with Dmitri Dubrovsky, a 36 year-old Russian mafia man who saved him from an abusive home. When Brennen turned 18, he became Dmitri’s lover. Dmitri controlled every inch of his life in and out of bed. Dmitri set up a domestic discipline type of relationship and Brennen wants Dmitri to be his Dom. The story captures their struggles to define their relationship. When Dmitri marries Nika to protect his name from his friends and family, their relationship shakes their love. Brennen does not understand his lover’s Russian culture not allowing homosexuality. Two different cultures and age difference clash.

Brennen works as an escort for Dmitri’s Forbidden Desires Escort Service. Each use sharp emotional weapons to protect their relationship.

The story begins with Brennen upset over Dmitri’s marriage. Dmitri moved Brennen to his own apartment while he attends USC and works as an escort. Devastated Brennen did not know how to deal with being number two to his lover while they continued their sexual relationship as if nothing changed.

Brennen is coming of age and wondering if he is gay or bisexual. Dmitri torn between his love for Brennen and his Russian pride that demands him to be straight with a wife and family.

Stubborn Brennen refuses to quit being an escort, which upsets Dmitri who loves him. The battling of two stubborn men who want to be together without giving up anything. Brennen wants to remain an escort and Dmitri can’t accept being gay. Dmitri’s brother Mischa pushes Brennen in the direction of women, which upsets Dmitri. Can their relationship survive Brennen’s clients? Can their relationship survive Dmitri’s marriage? How will they save their relationship?

Available now from Smashwords and Amazon US.

Posted in New Release | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

Not Quite Shakespeare – Theo Fenraven

May 28, 2014 by Elin Gregory


Happy Humpday. And since it’s Wednesday that means another interview and excerpt from an author contributing to the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology from Dreamspinner Press which is available for pre-order HERE.

My guest today is one of my favourite authors, whose cerebral mysteries and paranormals are a delight. Welcome, Theo Fenraven.

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’ve never been to England. I’ve always wanted to go, though. There are a lot of places I’d like to see, but because my story is set in Manchester, that would be my first pick.

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

I liked the idea of setting a story in the U.K., and I’ve never been part of anthology before. As it happened, the idea for the short story occurred to me only a day or two before I heard about this. Talk about fortuitous!

Could you tell me a little about it?

Very little, or I’ll give the plot away. I’d rather readers came to it with fresh eyes. Wag is in IT and as the story opens, he meets Silver, a new employee, and is instantly in lust. That’s all it takes; Wag doesn’t get out much.  The story of these two misfits plays out against the background of Canal Street in Manchester and at their shared office.

Could you please tell me about your other work?


My latest release is Transgression, a story that looks at different kinds of sexuality in our culture and what people think about it. A male bisexual meets a MtF transwoman, setting various events in motion, some of which are life-threatening. My books are rarely straight romance. I would soon be bored to death! Instead, I weave in elements from thrillers, mysteries, and adventure tales. Precog in Peril is a paranormal murder mystery centered on the life of two young men who live on a houseboat; The Blue Paradise is set in Florida and the world of pro baseball, and concerns a stalker; Phoenix Rising dramatically brings a myth back to life in the shape of a charismatic rock singer; and in Blue River, a talented photographer goes back in time to 1863, where he has to grapple with a disturbing lack of amenities while attempting to court a deeply-closeted young rancher.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m currently wrapping up a first draft of my next book, which is called Wolf Bound and is a shifter story. I always swore I’d never write one based on a human-to-wolf transformation, as it’s been done over and over in the genre, but the characters leaped up in my head one day, waving their arms wildly, and I was hooked.

Please could we have an excerpt?

Here’s part of the first chapter from Wolf Bound.

I bought the old farmhouse in July, moved in on September tenth, and discovered the lake island in October. The body of water I lived on was Heron Lake, and it didn’t have islands. It did have a few summer cabins, a couple of year ’round residences, and my farm-turned-country acreage for a guy who knew nothing about growing food or keeping animals. It had been abandoned some years back, long enough that the pasture that had once fed beef cattle was now overgrown with thistle, and trees had sprung up in the long grass. I had my work cut out for me, taking down and disposing of the old barbed wire fence, but I thought I might get it accomplished by the time winter set in.
I knew there was another, smaller lake in the area, but I didn’t find it until I threw down my wire cutters one Saturday afternoon, wiped the sweat off my brow, and walked down the road, impulsively turning into an unmarked gravel lane that led into the trees. There was no mailbox to indicate it was a private drive, so I followed it past towering oaks and maples until it ended at a small lake. Out in the middle of it, on an almost perfect circle of raised land, was a small one-and-a-half-story cabin circled by a tall, graceful stand of birch and ash. Between the island and the shore was a wide, wooden dock, one end of which lay to my right behind thick woods. The other stopped short of the island by what I guessed was around thirty feet.
On my left was a large, well-cared-for house with a neatly trimmed lawn and intermittent explosions of late-blooming flowers. On the shore, a canoe and kayak were turned over on the beach. A dusty SUV was parked in the drive, but no one was on the porch and the lights were off. An old windmill turned lazily in the breeze, and there were solar panels on the roof.
I backed away uneasily, realizing this was someone’s private property and I was trespassing. Giving the tiny island cabin another admiring look, I retraced my steps to the road and went home. I decided it was high time to quit for the day, sit on my porch, and suck down a cold beer.

The summer people were mostly gone, but someone from the cabin closest to me wandered up my drive as twilight was setting in and sank into a rocker with a sigh. His name was Sam Malone. “Same as the guy on Cheers, remember that show? But I’m not a professional bartender, and my hair is real.”
Sam didn’t look like the actor, either. He had a head of curly black hair, was on the short side at around five foot nine, and was lean as a piece of crispy bacon. His parents owned the cabin, and sometimes he came out to get away from his stressful job as an ER nurse.
The breeze was picking up and had a distinctly chilly edge as it swept leaves off the trees and along the ground. Fall was here and winter not far behind.
“How ya doing, Jon?” he asked.
“Good. Got about ten feet of wire down.” I glanced at my hands, which looked beat up despite the gloves I wore when working. “Hardly any barb cuts today.”
I fetched him a beer, and we rocked and gazed at the small whitecaps ridging the water. I asked, “Who lives in the house on the other lake?”
“Egret? That’s the writer, Harrison Kalmes. One of his books was bought by Hollywood and turned into a movie. Must be nice, eh?” Sam drank and burped. “Keeps to himself.”
“Does he have a family?”
“Not that I’ve seen.” He grinned. “You interested?”
I’d told him I was gay the first time we met. Smiling, I swung back in the rocker and lifted my work boots to the porch railing. “Don’t know him. I’m interested in him being a writer, though. That’s sort of my secret dream.”
“Yeah? That’s cool.” He slid farther down on his spine, stretching his legs out and crossing them at the ankle.
Sam was straight, but my orientation didn’t bother him. It was nice having someone nearby I was comfortable around. I’d miss him when winter shut things down and he no longer visited. However, after what I’d been through the last few years, a little isolation didn’t sound half bad.
We drank in companionable silence while the first stars came out and a sickle moon rose in the sky. An owl hooted nearby, and I remembered someone telling me owls and hawks didn’t share common territory. I wondered if that was true.
“What’s with the cabin on the small island?” I hadn’t been able to get it out of my mind. I wanted to see what it looked like inside, and what the view of the lake was from there. I’d been reading about “tiny houses” off and on for a few years, and while this one obviously hadn’t been built recently, it had that same feel about it, like the whole of someone’s life could be tucked neatly away in small spaces. I’d even considered buying one, but then this property became available for not much more, and I decided to risk it. Also, practically speaking, resale value on “normal” houses was much better.
“Don’t know. Knock on the door and ask him.”
“Maybe I will.”

Many thanks, Theo, for answering my questions, and good luck both with NQS and with Wolfbound, which I understand has now been released to very good reception from reviewers and is available here.

Readers, if you would like to follow Theo’s progress you can find him on his blog and on Facebook.

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Not Quite Shakespeare – Bette Brown

May 26, 2014 by Elin Gregory

Monday Monday – and that means only one more Monday after this until the UK Meet where we will celebrate LGBTTQ fiction in ALL its forms, shapes and shades of the rainbow. Romance always takes centre stage but I’m planning on fangirling the authors who write the harder edged genre fiction too. Can’t wait!

But until then it’s grand to be able to host another author who has contributed a story to the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology from Dreamspinner Press!

My guest today is Bette Brown. Welcome Bette.

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?

Yes, I have visited the UK. The first time was only last year, in fact. My family and I stayed for just under four weeks, and after spending one week in London, we spent the remainder travelling around in a campervan through England, Scotland, and Wales, getting a very small taste of what this beautiful place has to offer.

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

My campervan holiday actually, the DSP prompt for a story set in the UK, and most importantly their relaxation of their AE standard and the allowance of British English for these stories—I didn’t feel I could let that opportunity pass.

Could you tell me a little about it?

The Jacobite is the story of Jon, an Australian tourist. A death in the family is the reason he is in the UK, but having come so far, he’d decided that he really should stick around to make the most of. So he took extended leave from work and decided to travel around the countryside. The story highlights one day of his campervan journey in NW Scotland. It turns out to be a rather important day, because not only does Jon get to travel on The Jacobite—the railway made famous in the Harry Potter movie The Chamber of Secrets—but he also meets Colin.

Colin is an English university graduate who is taking time out after finishing his studies to find himself. Time out for Colin means hitchhiking around Scotland with a pack on his back and little else—his main objective is to hike the beautiful scenery.

Jon and Colin learn they have much in common, not the least of which is a burgeoning attraction to the other. Over the course of a wet and cold afternoon in Mallaig where beer is consumed and laughs are had and a return train trip is missed, they realise they may have found something neither was expecting.

Could you please tell me about your other work?

I only have two other short stories at this point. One is called Dirty Martini. It was released first in an anthology called Second Chances and then individually released and is published by Bottom Drawer Publications. I also participated in the Goodreads MM Romance group free event “Love has no Boundaries” in 2013 with a story called The Candidates.

What are you working on at the moment?

What am I working on? That is a good question. I am working on everything and nothing—at least that is how it seems most of the time. I have so many works in progress that it is almost ridiculous. If I could only compile everything together I would have the words for about 5 or 6 novels. Pity the themes don’t all meld together.

My immediate focus though is another contribution to the GR MM Romance event for this year—Don’t Write in the Closet. I chose a prompt that I never would have imagined would appeal to me, but when I missed out on my first, then second, and even third choices, and this hadn’t been snapped up, I began to consider what I could do with it. I think it was meant to be.

The prompt is of a man dressed in lacy red panties and thigh-high leather boots, and the accompanying Dear Author request is for the man, a closeted police detective, to be found dressed this way by his very unaware police partner.

I am so excited by this story, and in fact have already begun my plan for a sequel. This screamed GFY to me, and I am having so much fun creating the tension between the two men. Tension that is going to culminate in a very dynamic interaction by the end of the story. I have titled the story Exposed and can’t wait for it to be published.

Please could we have an excerpt?

Here is an excerpt from my WIP, Exposed:

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons flowed through the sound system, filling his brownstone with its rich magnificence and surrounding Mason Reid with a total separation to the world outside his four walls. He couldn’t hear the traffic, and he couldn’t hear the neighbors next door. And god he needed it. He lifted a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon to his lips, breathing in the heavy notes of blackcurrant and dark cherry, then took a mouthful, swirling it over his tongue and enjoying its flavor before he even swallowed. So good, he thought, swallowing, the liquid sliding easily down his throat.

He looked at the open bottle on the counter, deciding to leave it uncorked to breathe, and left the kitchen, walking through the dining room and then the lounge room. His footfalls accompanied the music as he moved across the hardwood floors, clack, clack, clack, only muffling when he crossed a rug. He stepped into the entry, pausing for a moment to take another sip of his wine before he began to walk again. The marble underfoot made a new, brighter sound. He liked it. His hips swayed to the music with every accentuated step he took, and he lost himself to the moment.

Mason ascended the staircase. Despite wearing the shoes, he didn’t reach for the banister. He climbed steadily, the action as natural as if he’d been in bare feet. The stair runner removed the music from his steps, but he’d get that again as soon as he reached his bedroom. The parquetry oak floors there wouldn’t let him down.

His business shirt ruffled with his movements, swishing about in the breeze he created as he walked. He’d removed his tie and undone his buttons, but as yet hadn’t removed that one item of clothing, even if he had already changed from his restricting everyday suit pants and boxer briefs, and of course his shoes and socks. Going downstairs still wearing his shirt had been an unconscious decision. He was in his own house, but down there, downstairs, so much of his parents still remained. In so many ways the house was still theirs and always would be. They would never again step in it, but their presence would always be a part of it, and he never wanted that feeling to change. His modesty was for them.

—

Many thanks, Bette, for answering my questions, today.

Readers – if you would like to see more of Bette’s work you can follow her at the links below:

Blog – http://bettebrowne.blogspot.com/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/bettebrowne

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/bette.browne.1

Take a ride to Northern Scotland on the famous train, the Jacobite, and rediscover desire. Get lost in the Peace Maze in Northern Ireland during a downpour and let a handsome young redhead come to the rescue. Take a tour of historical Blackpool on the English coast and set the stage for the perfect romance. From England to the outer isles, the UK holds treasure troves of romance, history, intrigue, and—naturally—quirky British humor. Not Quite Shakespeare samples it all in fifteen stories.

A man in London makes an accidental confession of sexual need to a virtual stranger who happens to be his boss. An American revisits West Sussex and rekindles an old flame with a romp in the stables. A couple finds their perfect third while vacationing on a pig farm in Yorkshire. In the office, on the race track, or in the kitchen baking bread—romance in the UK is alive and well, and full of sweet surprise.

Stories Included:
Ninety-nine Problems by Becky Black
The Jacobite by Bette Browne
Illumination by Sam Evans
Wag, Not a Dog by Theo Fenraven
The Benefits of Hindsight by MA Ford
Apollo, Heathcliff, and Hercules by S.A. Garcia
Misadventures of Mislaid Men by Penny Hudson
Rough Tackle by Annabelle Jacobs
Bread and Butter Pudding by Jules Jones
First Contact by Rhidian Brenig Jones
Chanctonbury Ring by Sarah Madison
Tops Down, Bottoms Up by Jay Northcote
In the Doghouse by Chris Quinton
Wrong Number by Megan Reddaway
Best Vacation Ever by Rob Rosen

You can pre-order it HERE

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Saturday Recommendations

May 24, 2014 by Elin Gregory

Every so often I see something – usually a post on Facebook or a blog – that reminds me of a gap in my reading experience that I need to fill. This week’s recommendation is just such a book – one that I’ve been intending to read for several years but it’s so old that there isn’t a digital version of it.

Anyhow, last week I was reading posts and spotted the name Brandstetter, and that reminded me to visit Amazon and look at the author page For Joseph Hansen.


A few days later my copy of The Complete Brandstetter, all 12 novels in one book, arrived and now I am 3 novels into it, I am completely blown away by it and am ruining my eyesight! The print is miniscule but SO worth reading.

The more I’ve learned about these books the more impressed I am. Dave Brandstetter is the typical hard boiled PI. Ex-military, strong minded, intelligent, hard working and determined at all costs to discover the truth. So far so standard, but Joseph Hansen also made him gay. Remember, Hansen was writing these stories at the end of the sixties long before Stonewall. The story cycle begins with Dave working hard to take his mind off his grief, having lost his partner, Rod, to cancer. Their relationship is revisited frequently during the stories, their ups and downs, pleasures and pains, because Dave and Rod were very different characters with different enthusiasms that often clashed, but their mutual love was plain to see. This very positive depiction of a gay relationship was groundbreaking for the time and also for the type of book. Hansen went on record as saying that with Dave Brandstetter he intended not just to write a gay protagonist but one who was a decent, kind man who was good at his job. In fact Dave isn’t actually a PI but an insurance investigator in the life insurance division, checking up on suspicious deaths. Most books have two or three strands – the investigation of the death, plus the lives of the gay men Dave encounters during his work, plus Dave’s own complicated love life. Some threads continue from book to book, others are drawn to a satisfying if not always happy conclusion.

Another BIG plus is the language. Raymond Chandler set the bar high and we expect poetry from our noir heroes. Hansen rises to the challenge but not in an obvious, overdone or parodic fashion. Most of the prose is neat and laconic, but there are occasional phrases that leap off the page. A description of a water wheel:

Moss bearded the paddles, which dripped as they rose. The sounds were good. Wooden stutter like children running down a hall at the end of school. Grudging axle thud like the heartbeat of a strong old man.

Another regarding Dave’s bed:

… he’d have bought whatever the clerk showed him, that particular clerk, a small, dark effeminate boy whose name had been Rod Fleming and with whom he’d slept in that absurd bed – barring times of illness, anger, absence – every night since. Till death did them part. That Lorant might have put his stranger’s nakedness into that bed last night made Dave’s fists tighten.

So very highly recommended but I advise you to get the novels one at a time rather than the omnibus edition. I’m coping with the teeny print because I’m very short sighted but even so I’m rationing my reading to an hour a day.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Not Quite Shakespeare – Sam Evans

May 23, 2014 by Elin Gregory

My aren’t the weeks just speeding by? I can hardly believe that it’s only 2 more Fridays until the UK Meet and until the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology will be available to buy. [Or you can comment to these interview posts for a chance to win a copy].

I’m looking forward very much to both the anthology and the Meet but for the moment am making do with grabbing the authors contributing to the anthology and forcing them to answer questions about their work. Today’s victim author is Sam Evans.

Welcome Sam!!

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

I was born and bred in the North West of England just outside Manchester in ex-coal mining town, semi famous for its Rugby League and that’s pretty much were I have always lived!

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

With the exception of London (and even I get excited when I go there – still) I think the Lake District is a must see place. It’s a beautiful part of the country, home to Beatrix Potter, Wordsworth, the Wainwright Lakeland Fell books (you might need to look these up) and of course the Lakes. I still love going there and it’s about two hours from my house straight up the M6.

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

I’ve not really travelled very far, all my homes have been within quite urban built up areas – think coal mines, cotton mills and industry. Technically now though I reside in Cheshire, but my family home is only live five minutes down the road and that’s situated in Lancashire. I’ve also lived in Merseyside (at University) and close enough to Manchester United Football Ground that I could hear the shouts and boo’s on match day.

My other half was brought up on a farm so when I visited him I couldn’t sleep because there was no traffic outside, sirens, drunk people shouting, not a thing. Now I’m a bit more used to it and I have driven a tractor and can wrangle chickens to collect eggs, but the difference in the two environments is so overwhelming at first.

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

My story is based in Blackpool, with is a seaside town on the North West of England. Most people who live in the UK have either heard of it, visited it, or both and most have wide ranging opinions of the place – some good, some bad (I know I asked).

The inspiration for the story came after I visited the town with family (it’s about 50 minutes from my house) to see the ‘famous’ Illuminations’. We spent time walking up and down the Promenade and in particular looking at the Comedy Carpet which sits on the promenade right in the front of Blackpool Tower. On it is the name of every comedian (think Tommy Cooper, Morecombe and Wise, Peter Kay) Hollywood stars (Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra) and any other performer who has graced the town’s stages.

When I got home and dug a little further into its history I found that Blackpool was, at one point the place to go if you wanted to get famous and still to this day over 17 million people visit Blackpool every year. However rather than concentrate on the rowdiness, the hen and stag parties that grace Blackpool’s streets I wanted to do something a little different and original to show it off a little and that’s where the story grew from

Could you tell me a little about it?

The story is called Illumination and centre’s around Josef Sivok a joiner who works for his uncle. We meet him on a cold stormy Blackpool night as he about to say goodbye to the beloved theatre he inherited off a family member. Unfortunately a lack of cash and funding has resulted in Josef’s family selling it to The National Trust – who want to do ‘god knows what’ to it. He thinks is just handing over the keys but instead he meets a very cute and bossy NT representative called Maxwell Bond and takes him on a tour of the building.

Could you please tell me about your other work?

This is my first published work. I’m a bit of a nervous, anxiety ridden first timer. When I wrote Illumination I never expected it to be picked, I just wanted to write, finish a small project and formally submit something.

The process has taught me so much, about formatting, grammar, story build up and how to catch the IRS’s attention.

What are you working on at the moment?

My current project is novella, set at Manchester Pride 2013 and is loosely based on an overheard conversation between three guys who I met whilst watching the parade go past on the Saturday afternoon. One of the men spent the whole time complaining about the red leather shirt he had been made to wear and the story bloomed from that.

I also have a hankering to write about a serial killer….

Please could we have an excerpt?

This is the beginning from Illumination my NQS story:

Josef Sivok couldn’t help but stare up at the gable end of the Blackpool Lyceum with its decaying woodwork and crumbling render. A particularly strong gust of wind had just crashed into its side wall and deposited what looked like a skipload of sand and debris at the base of it.

“Shit.” He said under his breath, kicking out at the pile with a steel-toe-capped boot. There was probably enough sand sat there to create his own desert island, and he swirled the boot in a figure of eight in it.
The wind that blew from the Irish Sea tonight was relentless, bringing in waves high enough to crash over the sea wall. It was making him grimace with every facial muscle he had each time a gust of it hit the side wall of the building.

That last time it had caught the black cast-iron guttering that ran down the length of the building.
Jo’s ears, already highly trained listening devices, could hear the metal brackets that where supposed to hold the iron pipework to the brick scraping from side to side as the downspout fought against each strong gust of wind that hit it.

He thought it was bad enough standing outside exposed to the elements, but to watch them it destroy parts of his beloved building was like twisting the knife in the wound.

His building.

He should probably stop calling it that and just get used to the idea. Because as of three o’clock that day, the paperwork had been signed and the Lyceum was no more Josef’s building than it was that of the average person walking down the street.

Or it would be, as soon as the new owners picked up the keys from him.

~~~

Many thanks, Sam, for sending me your answers. Readers, if you would like to follow Sam you can find her blog HERE and she is @samevansstuff on Twitter.

Oh and the cover and blurb of Not Quite Shakepeare are now available!

Take a ride to Northern Scotland on the famous train, the Jacobite, and rediscover desire. Get lost in the Peace Maze in Northern Ireland during a downpour and let a handsome young redhead come to the rescue. Take a tour of historical Blackpool on the English coast and set the stage for the perfect romance. From England to the outer isles, the UK holds treasure troves of romance, history, intrigue, and—naturally—quirky British humor. Not Quite Shakespeare samples it all in fifteen stories.

A man in London makes an accidental confession of sexual need to a virtual stranger who happens to be his boss. An American revisits West Sussex and rekindles an old flame with a romp in the stables. A couple finds their perfect third while vacationing on a pig farm in Yorkshire. In the office, on the race track, or in the kitchen baking bread—romance in the UK is alive and well, and full of sweet surprise.

Stories Included:
Ninety-nine Problems by Becky Black
The Jacobite by Bette Browne
Illumination by Sam Evans
Wag, Not a Dog by Theo Fenraven
The Benefits of Hindsight by MA Ford
Apollo, Heathcliff, and Hercules by S.A. Garcia
Misadventures of Mislaid Men by Penny Hudson
Rough Tackle by Annabelle Jacobs
Bread and Butter Pudding by Jules Jones
First Contact by Rhidian Brenig Jones
Chanctonbury Ring by Sarah Madison
Tops Down, Bottoms Up by Jay Northcote
In the Doghouse by Chris Quinton
Wrong Number by Megan Reddaway
Best Vacation Ever by Rob Rosen

You can pre-order it HERE

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

Not Quite Shakespeare – Annabelle Jacobs

May 21, 2014 by Elin Gregory

Happy Humpday!!

Firstly, in case you are looking for the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia post please click here You can still comment for a chance to win a gift card until 24th May.

Secondly, to celebrate that it’s Wednesday, as if we need a reason, here’s another interview with an author contributing to the Not Quite Shakespeare anthology from Dreamspinner Press. My guest today is Annabelle Jacobs 🙂

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

I have always lived here. I was born up in Nottinghamshire, and ended up in the South West when I moved jobs.
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 have only ever lived in the UK. I grew up in a rural area, which was great— lots of greenery and forests to explore. The Major Oak (where Robin Hood and his men were rumoured to have slept) was just down the road in Sherwood Forest, so that was always fun to visit
.

Apart from that I’ve also lived in Coventry and Bristol, both nearer to the center of things than where I grew up.

I think London, of course, is a must see if you’re visiting the UK, but there are loads of other great places to go. For me, personally, I love driving down to Cornwall. The beaches and coastal paths are beautiful, and there’s also a lot of historical sights down there to see too. Like Tintagel Castle, for example, believed to be the birthplace of King Arthur.

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

Hmm… good question!

I wanted to write something that struck me as being particularly British, and playing Sunday League footy with a hangover seemed about as British as anything. I distinctly remember my friends playing when we were in college, (I did an engineering course, so mostly boys!), and they would almost always have a hangover from being out on the Saturday night.

Could you tell me a little about it?

Well, Alex meets Josh while out celebrating his birthday. Alex is really drunk, and sort of comes on to Josh but doesn’t remember much about it the next morning. His friends do, though, and tease him about it. Alex brushes it off, assuming it’s just one of those things and he’ll never see the guy again, so it doesn’t really matter if he made a fool of himself or not.

Except Josh is playing for the opposition when Alex and his mates turn up to the footy match. And Josh remembers Alex.

It was really fun to write, especially with it being based in Bristol this time.

Could you please tell me about your other work?


I have three books published with Dreamspinner Press. My first book, The Choosing, came out in Oct 2013, and is a paranormal romance about feline shifters and hunters.

The other two books, Capture and Union are part of my Torsere series, and they were released this year. Torsere is a fantasy series, following the growing relationship between Ryneq, the king of Torsere, and Nykin, a dragon rider in the king’s army.

What are you working on at the moment?
I finished writing Alliance, the third and final book in the Torsere series at the beginning of April, so I’ve been taking a little break in between projects. I am itching to start something new though, and have lots of ideas. After writing Rough Tackle for the anthology, I’m tempted to try writing a contemporary romance this time.

Please could we have an excerpt?

This is a little extract from Rough Tackle, my Not Quite Shakespeare story…

Ben pulled on his arm to tug him down, and Alex was just about to fall into his seat when he spotted dark hair and cheekbones over by the bar. The guy was side-on to him, ordering a drink, and Alex could see faint stubble covering a strong jaw. Alex licked his lips and shook Ben’s hand off him, ignoring his friend’s protests in favour of stalking over to the bar.
The guy was leaning forward, arms propped on the bar and arse sticking out a little. Alex grinned at the way the tight black jeans hugged his body, and he itched to stroke his fingers over the guy’s denim-clad cheeks. Before he knew it, Alex had reached the bar and sat himself down on an empty stool.
“Hey,” he said, attempting to rest his elbow on the counter and missing by a mile. He slipped to the side, and would have fallen right off the stool if the guy hadn’t grabbed him by the arm.
“Steady on there, mate.”
Alex looked up into brown eyes, slightly crinkled at the corners where the guy was smiling at him. He had short soft-looking hair that appeared black in the low lighting of the bar, high cheekbones, and full red lips slightly wet from his drink. Alex’s stomach fluttered. “I’m Alex, and drunk.” He had no control of the words coming out of his mouth.
The guy laughed as he paid for his pint and turned to raise an eyebrow at Alex. “Yeah, I can see that.”
Alex leaned into him, feeling really tired all of a sudden. His head began to ache with a dull throb, the room going blurry around him, so he closed his eyes and rested his head on the shoulder next to him. He breathed in deep, getting a noseful of sharp, spicy aftershave. It smelled good, and Alex wanted to ask what it was, but even the thought of speaking seemed like too much effort. He just needed to rest his eyes.
Only for a minute.

Many thanks, Annabelle for answering my questions. Readers, if you would like to follow Annabelle’s work links are below:

Website
Twitter
Facebook Profile
Author Page
Annabelle’s books at Dreamspinner Press
Annabelle’s books at Amazon US
Annabelle’s books at Amazon UK

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Writing process meme – on behalf of Elliott Mackle

May 19, 2014 by Elin Gregory

I was very pleased when historical thriller author, Elliott Mackle, agreed to do because a] I knew his process would be interesting and b] he has written some of my favourite historical novels. Unfortunately he’s not in a position to be able to post his piece to his own blog so has asked me to post it to mine.

Take it away Elliott!

~~~

Elliott Mackle

What am I working on?

Right now I’m collating suggested edits of a new mystery novel by my four beta readers: a college professor, a one-time academic turned newspaper editor, another novelist and a specialist in the book’s backstory, the Holocaust. The novel, working title “Sunset Island,” was tricky to plot because, in narrative terms, the action happens between the events in the first novel in the series, “It Takes Two,” and the second published, “Only Make Believe.” For instance, I had to be dead sure that characters who are murdered in “Sunset Island” do not turn up in “Only Make Believe.” All three novels have large casts so keeping the characters distinct as well as active and believable took a lot of thought and fact-checking.

Because small presses provide minimal copy editing, my beta readers are essential. For instance, my Holocaust expert pointed out that a particular incident during World War Two could not have happened when and where I placed it, but might have happened a few months earlier. Great catch, one that I would not have made. The college professor is helpful in curbing my tendencies to step outside the narrative frame and to needlessly foreshadow events.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

The novels just mentioned, set in and around Fort Myers, Florida, in 1949-51, are historical mysteries that turn on the partnership of two veterans of World War II. The men are as different from each other as I can make them. One is a county detective and former Marine grunt. The other, a former Navy Lieutenant, manages a hotel where everything is available for a price. Despite the fact that both act as sleuths, there’s a good bit of sexual and moral tension between the pair of lovers. The other series, set during the Vietnam era on first one air base and then another, is also historical but with much more romance, casual sex and on-page violence. Each of these, for instance, features one or two plane crashes, an out-of-control commander or CIA operative and the gay narrator’s narrow escapes from the risks he takes in fulfilling his sexual and career objectives.
In both series, I go out of my way to create convincing male and female heterosexual characters, some sympathetic, others not. That, after all, is how the world works and my aim is to create realistic, modestly literary fiction.

That said, I tend to play down the specifics of lovemaking, with exceptions. For instance, one character in the Fort Myers novels, a stud-horse waiter, is described as a tripod, and proud of it. His oversize penis is essential to the plot of the novel now in play. My pair of lover-sleuths in the same series, created, as I said, as polar opposites, also get a bit of genital description. The country boy from a poor family is uncut; the city-bred, college boy is cut. Beyond that kind of detail, I believe the reader can supply his or her own knowledge of human anatomy to imagine size, shape and hang.

Why do I write what I do?

I write the sort of novels I want to read. As a kid, once I graduated from A. A. Milne, the Oz books, Dr. Doolittle and Walter Farley‘s horseracing novels, I took on a series of sweeping historicals: “The Egyptian,” “Désirée” and “Gone with the Wind,” to name only three. A road-show performance of the musical “South Pacific” when I was nine or ten must have suggested that the central drama of my childhood, World War II, could be turned into art. Finally, the discovery of “Moby-Dick” in high school, and the experience of living in claustrophobic, all-male quarters in dormitories, a fraternity house and Air Force bachelor officers’ billets, gave me the frame for most of my novels. Throw a bunch of men, gay and straight, together, add a murder, a suicide or a lot of alcohol and, bingo, conflict begets narrative begets a story that’s asking to be told.

How does my writing process work?

John D. MacDonald, celebrated author of the Travis McGee mystery series, told me that the single most important step in creating a novel is discovering where the action begins–not backstory, not total narrative, not the characters’ life histories or deep emotions. It’s the instant, rather, the moment or image that grabs and holds the reader’s attention and keeps him or her going all the way to the end. (“Call me Ishmael.” “Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but … “)

With the general idea of the plot and characters in my head, I look for that moment and draft the first and last paragraphs of the book. Then I do a spread sheet–with months across the top and characters down the left gutter. This allows me to chart who does what to who, when and where. I follow with a 50-80 page outline, talk it through with one of my betas, revise as necessary, and draft the book, start to finish.

Then it goes to the betas and soon the real work begins, rewrites. As a former journalist on a big-city daily, I know that rewrites are an essential part of the job.

So, now, let me return to my edits. Thanks for your attention.

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Not Quite Shakespeare – Rob Rosen

May 19, 2014 by Elin Gregory

Monday, Monday *sigh* … but that means we get to see another author interview drawn from the fantastic list of people contributing to Dreamspinner Press’s Not Quite Shakespeare anthology.

My guest today is famous both as an author and an editor and has won awards for both. Welcome rob Rosen.

Have you ever visited the UK? If so where did you go?

I’ve been to London twice. Cool Ferris wheel. A little slow-moving, but nice. Also peed in a public urinal in the sidewalk. Guess the British are trying to shake that whole posh image thing. Cheers to them! But, in all honesty, I really love London, the whole cool vibe of it, all beautifully framed in centuries of history.

What inspired you to write your story for the anthology?

I liked the call for submissions and felt like I could add something unique to the anthology. I knew I wanted to write a sex scene in a maze, then found just such a maze in Northern Ireland. Then I Google mapped the entire area to get a sense of the place. In the end, I think I captured the look and feel for the location and hope the readers feel the same.

Could you tell me a little about it?

John finds himself at the Peace Maze, the gate watched by a young, handsome, redhead, Conan. Conan informs John that the park is closing in an hour, but that he should have enough time to make it through the maze and ring the Peace Bell in the center in that amount of time. Conan then comes to the rescue after John gets lost during a downpour, and, in the end, it turns out to be John’s best, not to mention sexiest, vacation ever.

Could you please tell me about your other work?

I’m the award-winning author of the novels “Sparkle: The Queerest Book You’ll Ever Love”, “Divas Las Vegas”, “Hot Lava”, “Southern Fried”, “Queerwolf”, “Vamp”, and “Queens of the Apocalypse”, and editor of the anthologies “Lust in Time”, “Men of the Manor”, and “Best Gay Erotica 2015”. I’ve also has had short stories featured in more than 200 anthologies.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m currently in the process of choosing stories for Best Gay Erotica 2015, the 21st Edition, which I’m the editor of, and I’m finishing up my eighth novel, “Creature Comfort”.

My Not Quite Shakespeare story, “Best Vacation Ever”, snippet:

It was yet another crumbling, gray castle, this one on a rolling hillside, staring out at the tumultuous Dundrum Bay. The thick grass I stood upon as I gazed outward was impossibly green—which, sad to say, made two of us.
To be perfectly honest, the food in Northern Ireland wasn’t agreeing with me. The heavy sausages and even heavier Irish stew, the salty herring and, blech, Lough Neagh eel, the insanely dry potato and soda breads, plus the ever-present steak and Guinness pies, all of them were churning in my belly like the ferocious water in the bay down below.
“You don’t look so good, laddie,” I heard as I stood there, lost in queasy thought, the wind whipping over me, jacket billowing all the while.
I turned and forced a smile on my now weather-beaten face, my summer vacation proving less than expected. “No salads around these parts?” I asked the wizened man now by my side, a docent of sorts, dressed in traditional Irish garb.
He laughed. “Meat salad count?” I grabbed my stomach as he in turn patted my back. “Sorry, laddie.”
I nodded. “No worries.” I then pointed at the twelfth century Dundrum Castle to our side, or at least what was left of it. “Is there anything else around these parts worth seeing, something built recently, and not made of stone.” I wasn’t trying to be rude, really; I was simply in need of something prettier to look at all of a sudden, something not crumbling into the oblivion even as we spoke.
He squinted hyanked on his graying goatee. “I think I have just the thing for you,” he replied. “Close by, and none of it built before the nineteenth century, I believe.”
Which, for those parts, was brand-spanking new. “Nothing crumbling and gray?”
He grinned and shook his mop of white hair. “Nope, laddie,” he replied. “Most of it was lovingly made by Mother Nature herself.”
I pointed to the violent bay and to the gray clouds working their way across the wind-battered coast. “She seems mighty pissed at the Irish right now, if you ask me.”

Many thanks, Rob, for taking part. If you want to follow Rob you can catch up with him on his website or on Goodreads.

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Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia

May 17, 2014 by Elin Gregory

We only do this hop once a year and it can be great fun going from blog to blog to read the posts and see what the authors, bloggers, reviewers and presses are offering to their guests. I know it’s the one post a year when I can count on getting some visitors – Hi guys – but really once a year isn’t enough.

For some folk every day is a battle to be accepted for what they are. For some folk winning that battle is an uphill struggle against horrible odds. We should never forget that and we should do all we can to celebrate human kind in all its wonderful diversity.

If you would like to do this you can click on the picture above to be taken to the HAHAT blog and see all the other bloggers who will be commenting this week or you can go and contribute something at the official Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia site. If you use Twitter lets see if we can get #HAHAT trending.

Usually on a Saturday I take the opportunity to gush about a book that I have read recently that has pleased me a lot. Today I’ve decided to go through my book files and mention some of the books featuring trans characters that I particularly enjoyed reading.

Portside by Elyan Smith

Blurb: Life on the dole in a dying town is defined by drinking when you can, smoking to pass the time, and, if you’re gay, going down to the barracks at the old port to get some. Iwan’s got the cigarettes and the booze down pat, but he lacks experience, so he sticks to online porn and watching the lads portside.

Everyone else seems to have learned how to get what they want, yet Iwan can’t get past everything that could go wrong. He knows who he is, regardless of labels. But no matter how often his best friend tells him to just go for it, he doesn’t trust others to see past his mismatched body.

Paying for what he’s afraid to get for free may seem absurd, but it’s better than just watching, and it’s better than porn. It may not change the world he lives in, but with luck, it will change him.

This novella about Iwan, trapped with no job and no prospects blew me away when it first came out. I’ve been looking forward to more work from this very promising author but I understand that he’s working on a PhD and we’ll have to wait. Good luck with the studies, Elyan, and please write more soon.

The City War by Sam Starbuck

Blurb:
Senator Marcus Brutus has spent his life serving Rome, but it’s difficult to be a patriot when the Republic, barely recovered from a civil war, is under threat by its own leader. Brutus’s one retreat is his country home, where he steals a few precious days now and then with Cassius, his brother-in-law and fellow soldier—and the one he loves above all others. But the sickness at the heart of Rome is spreading, and even Brutus’s nights with Cassius can’t erase the knowledge that Gaius Julius Caesar is slowly becoming a tyrant.

Cassius fears both Caesar’s intentions and Brutus’s interest in Tiresias, the villa’s newest servant. Tiresias claims to be the orphaned son of a minor noble, but his secrets run deeper, and only Brutus knows them all. Cassius, intent on protecting the Republic and his claim to Brutus, proposes a dangerous conspiracy to assassinate Caesar. After all, if Brutus—loved and respected by all—supports it, it’s not murder, just politics.

Now Brutus must return to Rome and choose: not only between Cassius and Tiresias, but between preserving the fragile status quo of Rome and killing a man who would be Emperor.

I’ve been reading Sam Starbuck’s work for well over ten years and have been delighted by it on many occasions, but this is one of his best. Displaying a quirky knowledge of the history of the time, Sam takes well known events and puts a new spin on them while adding a tender, bitter-sweet love story.

Never forget that just as gay and lesbian people have always been there, hidden away in our pasts, often fearing to be discovered, so have trans people. Some passed almost unremarked, others took centre stage. Look at the life of James Barry, Inspector-General of Hospitals for the British Army, who worked tirelessly to improve the lot of soldiers and their families all over the British empire.

The Invisibles by Zia Jaffrey
Blurb:
In this superb work of investigative reporting, Zia Jaffrey pursues the riddle of India’s most elusive subculture, the cross-dressing and often-castrated figures known as “hijras” whose very name means neither male nor female. Are the hijras lucky or dangerous? Are they a nurturing community of outcasts or a criminal network that kidnaps and mutilates recruits? Do they number in the thousands or in the millions? As she talks with policemen, a unionizer of eunuchs, and with the hijras themselves, Jaffrey unravels veils of rumor and deception to locate the nature of our sexual and social thresholds, and the people who dwell on them. Deeply resonant, uniquely insightful, The Invisibles is an enthralling work.

This one isn’t fiction – sorry but I like non-fiction – and while reading it I got the impression that the author was trying to be a bit sensational, but it’s still a very compelling read and, moreover, shows a completely different way of life and different set of opportunities open to and prejudices faced by people who aren’t happy with the gender assigned to them at birth, while reinforcing the importance of being able to express what one feels to be true about oneself, in whatever culture one inhabits. I found it by turns enlightening and heartbreaking.

~~~

Prize? Naturally. Comment below for a $5 Amazon voucher and I will make my usual donation to the Albert Kennedy Trust.

Click here to go back to the blog hop

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Not Quite Shakespeare – Penny Hudson

May 16, 2014 by Elin Gregory

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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