AUTHOR! AUTHOR! REDUX - Chapter Two with S.C. Wynne

 

As longtime viewers know, I used to occasionally do author interviews with friends and folks who interested me. It's been awhile. Not because I don't still have friends and folks who interest me, but, for a variety of reasons, I've become very...disengaged with social media. 

I still use it to promote new releases, and I do the Advent Calendar as a thank you to readers, but beyond that, I just don't have the time or emotional bandwith. There's so just so much going on right now that isn't at all related to my writing life. I think you hit a certain age and that becomes inevitable. 

Still.

The interviews were fun, and helpful to readers and authors alike, so I thought maybe I'd go back to throwing them into the mix now and again. And what do you know? We have someone celebrating a book birthday this very week! 

WELCOME TO CHAPTER TWO 

WITH S.C. WYNNE

JL  – Tell us who you are and what you do. AND NO PEEKING ATTHE ANSWERS!

 

SCW - First of all, thank you for having me on your blog, Josh!  (And I only peeked a little!)

Now I’ll let the voices in my head introduce me third person: S.C. Wynne is a Lambda Award winning author and has been writing MM Romance and Gay mystery since 2013. She lives in California with her wonderful husband, two quirky kids, and a loony rescue pup named Ditto. 

JL – The last time we spoke (online in blog format *cough*) you still owned the coffee house and writing was not yet your fulltime gig. That’s all changed now. Share a little bit about that journey.

 

SCW - Has it really been that long? Oh, God, the days of running a coffeehouse. Don’t remind me. Talk about an exhausting endeavor. These days I like to enjoy my coffee without the joy of jumping up and down to serve customers. Originally, writing was just going to be a side gig. However, I loved it so much, and it proved to be profitable for me, so I dove in with abandon and, in 2017, became a full-time author. Before we sold the coffee house and the writing was full-time, there was crossover. That was a tiring period in my life. I was writing full-time and also running the coffeehouse. Many, many books were produced during that time. I had amazing concentration skills back in the day. Probably from the gallons of coffee I drank.

 

JL – Up until now you’ve mostly written contemporary mystery and romance, with some paranormal thrown in, but now you’ve partnered up with my friends at Blind Eye Books and completely new and exciting project. Tell us about Beyond the Veil.

SCW - The partnership with Blind Eye Books came about when I posted about one of my WIP on Facebook. Nicole Kimberling, the editor of BEB, reached out because she happened to have a free slot in their publishing schedule. Before that, the book I was working on was originally going to be my basic MM mystery romance thing with paranormal elements. But Nicole needed a book that was more fantasy based and so I tweaked the idea a bit. With Nicole’s skillful guidance, I was able, I hope, to hit the marks needed to make the story actual fantasy.

 

JL – I remember what an intense and instructive experience it was working with Nicole Kimberling, the editor at Blind Eye Books, on Strange Fortune. What was the best part of working with Nikki. What was the most challenging aspect of the project?

SCW - The edits were indeed intense. That’s a good word for it. But I’ve worked with many houses over my writing journey, so I felt ready for them. The best part was I learned a lot from Nicole, especially about the difference in writing fantasy romance from writing a regular mystery romance. In the mysteries, I hold a lot of info back and feed it out in little bread crumbs. But with fantasy, it seemed as if Nicole wanted answers to things quickly. Perhaps she’s just an impatient little minx? She didn’t like being kept in the dark, which is what I do with mysteries. So, she pushed me to reveal things more quickly than I would have naturally. As I recall she was also very impatient with me for promising spirits, but then not having enough spirits appearing soon enough or often enough. There were many editing comments like this: See, like this scene would be much better with ghosts sprinkled throughout, or How about the ghosts. What are they up to? You promised me lots of ghosts!

JL - THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR. I believe in my case it was rolling heads. FORTUNATELY, a favorite of mine. 😂

SCW - The most challenging thing about working with a publisher again was going through a real content edit. Since I’ve only been self-publishing the last few years, I usually just get copy edits. I feel fairly confident in my story telling abilities, but not at all confident about commas. They’re such confusing little things. Having another opinion about where the actual story should go took a little getting used to. Relinquishing control when you’ve had total control for so long was probably the hardest part. But I respect Nicole, and I did my best to do as she requested. I only pushed back a little when her suggestions didn’t feel like something my characters would do. Other than that, I tried to be a very obedient little author. Right, Nicole? I was a joy to work with, right? RIGHT?

 JL - 😁

JL  – What are you most excited about with this new book? What do you hope readers take away from this literary adventure?

SCW - The most exciting thing about writing this book was it forced me to stretch my creative wings. I think authors should do that from time to time. I enjoyed the experience a lot. It was tough, but I look back on the edits with a real feeling of accomplishment. I know the book is better for them. I’d happily work with BEB again, if asked.

I’m not sure what I hope readers take away from this little adventure of mine. Hopefully, while the book has fantasy elements, readers will see that Beyond the Veil is still very much an S.C. Wynne book. What happens to my characters is fantastical, but my characters themselves will still always be true to my writing style.

 

JL – Are we going to see more spec fiction titles from you?

SCW - Perhaps. I do love writing all kinds of different stories. I have a backlog of mysteries I’ve promised readers. But once those are published, there might be more spec fiction in my future. I’ll have Lorenzo look into his crystal ball and tell me what’s next!

 

JL – How would you say the writing biz has changed since your last visit to the blog?

SCW - For one thing, it’s way more crowded. There used to be like three books published a day in our genre, now there are sometimes thirty? Also, I believe Kindle Unlimited came about the year after I began writing. That definitely changed everything. Many readers now simply borrow books rather than buy them.

It also seems like the craft of writing isn’t anything anyone talks about anymore. Everyone is very fixated on promotion. There are a lot of people making money selling authors courses on how to promote their books, but less people talking about the writing itself. I remember when people devoured and discussed books. I don’t see that happening much anymore. Everyone is reading so quickly because there are SO MANY BOOKS.

 

JL  – While it’s hard to get specific data, there’s significant anecdotal evidence suggesting most authors, particularly self-published authors, give up within the first 2 -5 years of launching their writing career. So, you’ve already lasted longer than the majority of authors last in this crazy business. What’s the secret to your success? Do you have any advice for someone starting out today?

SCW - I can’t imagine ever giving up. I’ve been writing for eleven years now, and I still absolutely love it. I don’t know that I have a secret to success. The experts say authors should pick one genre and beat that to death. Maybe I’d be more of a household name if I’d been able to do that and only written one thing for eleven years. I tend to jump around a lot because I love writing so many different things. While I’m not a person who is bored easily, I do have a lot of things that interest me and so I try them. I don’t really regret that though because it’s made my writing journey more interesting for me. I think if you’re bored writing something, and I would be if I only wrote one thing, the readers can tell.

 

JL - What’s next for S.C. Wynne?

SCW - I have a standalone mystery idea I’m really excited about. It has to do with a lover presumed lost at sea, who isn’t actually lost. That’s all I’ll say for now. No, shhh. Don’t ask for details. I shan’t tell. That book idea has been percolating in my brain for a year now. I can’t wait to start that one. There’s also a Dr. Thornton book coming in the next few months. How I’ve missed Max and Royce. Also, I have another book planned for my Kip O’Connor cozy mystery series too. Rest assured there are many story ideas ping-ponging around in my brain. I’m excited for 2024. :) 

BEYOND THE VEIL IS AVAILABLE NOW! 

Being a psychic in the small seaside town of Fox Harbor is challenging enough, but winter months are brutal. Not that using his clairvoyant abilities to hunt down lost pets isn’t thrilling, but Lorenzo wouldn’t mind a tiny bit more excitement in his life.

Be careful what you wish for?

Things get more stimulating when the charismatic Dr. Ian Thatcher takes a romantic interest in him. Unfortunately, their promising evening takes a ghastly turn when an old man dies on Lorenzo’s doorstep, after warning Lorenzo his life is in danger.

Before Lorenzo can say “Give me my old boring life back, please” his home is ransacked, a fiery being tries to burn him to death, and he’s informed he’s the only hope to save the world.

                                           CLICK TO BUY

LEARN MORE ABOUT SC WYNNE... 

SC WYNNE

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What Do We Think of Fanfic Now?

A conversation between Dal Maclean and Nicole Kimberling

Good morning, Gentle Readers! 

I have a special treat for you on the blog today. Two of my favorite writing buddies are here to help promote Dal Maclean's new release Blue on Blue, but instead of doing the usual HEY, IT'S HERE, PLEASE BUY IT approach, Dal and her editor Nicole Kimberling (who happens to be one of my fav mystery writers, by the way) thought it would be a lot more interesting for you (and them!) to just...you know...CHAT about stuff. In this case, about Fanfiction, which is where I first met Dal (The Professionals fandom, for them what cares to know).

And honestly, I love that idea because--let's be honest--we're all starting to blend into the white noise of a million authors trying desperately to hawk their wares at the same moment. More and more, I think that old school approach of personal connection and actual conversation, might ultimately serve us all better.

What do you think?

Anyway, without further adieu, my writing pals Dal Maclean and Nicole Kimberling!

NK: So, DM, when I was in the process of acquiring your first novel, Bitter Legacy, we exchanged several letters about your style, inspirations and approach to fiction writing in general. One thing you mentioned at that time was that you were drawing your inspiration from a “fanfiction tradition.” I thought it was fascinating that you had identified fanfic as having its own style and specific goals so that even when a person was writing original material, such as your novels for Blind Eye Books, it could be said to be derived from the aesthetic of fanfic. This was in 2015, when participation in the fanfic community was still considered déclassé and I found it refreshing that you’d represent for that writing community so boldly. So for the benefit of Josh’s followers can you run down your basic concept of the fanfic aesthetic?

DM: Well… I’m a big admirer of fanfic, and it’s where I started out. As you say it’s always been looked down on  a bit and mocked, maybe because it’s such a  female space, maybe because it’s by definition ‘amateur’, maybe it’s the ‘fan’ bit.  But I suppose I think of it as almost pure in its ethos of creativity for the sake of it - and actually I suppose, a bit culturally subversive in the way it takes an official, sanitized narrative and makes it what it wants. It can definitely be invasive, it can cross too many lines, but I think my basic concept of the fanfic aesthetic is freedom. It’s kind of red in tooth and claw, often reeking with angst, untrammeled by rules or ‘thou shalt nots’. Like a literary wild west with vanishingly few sheriffs.

It used to be that ‘kink shaming’ was one of the worst things anyone could be accused of in fanfic and as a result fanfic erotica went to some incredible places. As I understand it, commercial M/M was sort of the love child of slash fanfic and conventional MF romance and maybe that fanfic legacy explains the popularity of shifter and MPreg in M/M?  In fanfic that was everyday stuff for a long time. This all sounds very idealized and we all know there is some truly, truly terrible fanfic. But some is glorious, and all produced from and for love.

I think the marriage of slash fanfic with MF romance though probably brought the Romance Rules to ‘slash’ and with that, several lines that can’t be crossed by writers. I’m definitely in tune with some of that -- for example I love HEAs because I personally really disagree with the idea that good writing somehow requires unhappy endings).  But I also adore the fanfic attitude to angst and emotional/romantic challenge and redemption. Characters in fanfic are allowed to have genuine flaws and behave badly (in and out of their relationships) for whatever reason, and still remain heroes who can be redeemed. I think the fanfic audience tends to factor real and flawed heroes into the equation from the start, perhaps because the original characters showed flaws.  

Anyway, that–recognizable coherent character imperfections, and genuine mistakes which have to be overcome to reach the HEA, have always been, I admit, catnip to me as a reader and then as a writer. Angst and genuine redemption and none of the ‘but darling she’s my sister’ (full credit to Josh Lanyon for that perfect encapsulation of what fanfic would see as copping out on dramatic conflict). I think the love of a genuinely hard road for characters created partly by their own mistakes and natures, not just external obstacles or ‘misunderstandings,’ comes from the fanfic aesthetic.

I think M/M romance though even with its fanfic antecedents increasingly wants unflawed, perfect characters and chafes against heroes who fuck up or aren’t always ‘heroic’ in the strictest sense? Maybe those heroes break the Romance contract?

NK: I think the trend toward the utterly blameless romantic leads comes from the rise of YA, tbh. It’s putting that classical ethically unsullied YA hero/ine into an adult storyline. YA as a genre is really about coming to terms with (or violently rejecting) the moral ambiguity of adulthood. The reason that those sorts of characters can become tedious in romance is that romance is about learning compromise in order to find adult partnership and proceed to build forward into the world. In traditional het romance that’s manifests as having children and building the next generation.

I’d argue that MPreg is a simple extension of that first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage progression. A softer version of this can manifest as a chain of mentoring where, say, the primary couple in book one of a series rotates into parental “established couple” mode to help the romantic leads from book two get together, and so on, eventually knitting together large, extended families of choice.

In other M/M romances you’ll see the proverbial baby carriage replaced with teaming up to create something different, like a business, or sports championship  or to seize the crown of a fantastical realm or gain leadership of the shifter pack—or whatever. J

DM: Interestingly I once read advice from a (mainstream) author that out of all the pieces of advice I saw, stuck with me: if there’s a bad situation in your story and you have the chance – *always* make it worse.  Always up the ante for your readers. That’s a fanfic dynamic and I do sort of miss it.

NK: Sure—I mean it’s a dynamic of good storytelling in general. In fanfic though you’re allowed to jump the shark in spectacular ways that—even when kinda dumb—can be really enjoyable on a, “woah, you really went there . . . bold move, my friend!” level.

DM: Of course with fanfic you’re playing with other people’s toys in a ready created universe which your audience already knows and loves which is a different starting point to original fiction. But I think that – writing fanfic - does give you the drive to know your characters inside out, and that moves on to the ones you subsequently create. In fanfic you’re using characters you already know inside out – other people did the work on that - so you have a fair idea what they’d do in any situation. Maybe that helps drill fanfic writers to prioritize character integrity over plot because a fanfic audience will always know what each character would do in a given situation? Or maybe I’m romanticizing it? I think its good training anyway.

BUT DARLING, SHE'S MY SISTER!!!! 

What do you think as largely a non fanficcer? Do you see anything left in M/M romance of fanfic antecedents?

NK: I think the main thing I see is the urge among fanfic writers to humanize flat, one-dimensional or perfunctory characters, especially characters who are presented as villains. That’s come through very strongly into M/M where we see characters who are much more morally ambiguous than we’d normally see in mainstream romance.

DM: That’s a really good point. Often the characters that fanfic authors start out with have potential that isn’t realized in the original work. Or those morally ambiguous characters or complex bad guys can be the ones that capture the imagination of writers and make them want to probe deeper and expose new layers to them, like… The Penguin and The Riddler in Gotham for example? Or Chevalier de Lorraine and Monsieur in Versailles – morally complex.

NK: God, I loves me some good nygmobblepot  fan art . . .

* drifts away briefly to search the hashtag on Tumblr for new stuff *

Er . . .  ahem . . . anyway, back to fanfic: what do you think An Archive of Our Own’s recent Hugo win means for fiction writing going forward?

DM: Well… I don’t know. I mean I think it’s a brilliant achievement . And its mainstream recognition for the power and reach of fanfic, but maybe that’s not what fanfic’s about. I think what MM has shown is that the mainstream embrace *can* overwhelm what fanfic is, rather than the other way round.  

Do you think it’s a good thing – that it increases respect or credibility for fanfic?

NK: Well, the Hugo is awarded by a popular vote so what it shows is that fanfic participation has grown to actually BE mainstream—at least in the speculative fiction community. We all have either written fanfic or had a dozen friends who did.

Fun Fact: the first piece of fiction I ever edited was a K/S slash piece for the “First Time” zine. So in a way I got my start in fanfic too, just as an editor, rather than a writer.

DM: Robin Hood!!!! I remember reading those!

NK: Yeah, I was pretty terrible at constructively communicating then—I had yet to develop my charming bedside manner. (lol)

DM: Well you’re bloody good now. And your bedside manner is just what this fanfic dilettante needs to whip her into shape. Actually… that sounds a bit fanficcy.

NK: Now that you’re an author and you have fans of your own pitching ideas for your characters has your perspective changed?

DM: I honestly can’t think of anything more flattering as an author than creating characters or a universe that readers love and are inspired by sufficiently to want to write about them or draw them.  I don’t think there can be a greater complement than that as a writer.  It's certainly what spurred me to write fanfic – and write creatively for the first time – falling in love with certain characters and universes, and becoming frustrated by having their story limited to what was handed down by the writers and actors.

To answer your question properly, a couple of people who read Blue On Blue early on and understood that the story as I told it was now largely over instantly came up with some amazingly clever storyline ideas for some of the side characters. Not least a fizzing start of a fic with Pez (from Object of Desire) and Mark Nimmo (from OOD and Bitter Legacy). I absolutely love all that.

But then some (usually very big) authors do get upset by fanfic. Can you understand that? I’m asking because I struggle to.

NK: I think probably its because there are fan writers who overstep or even reverse the intention of a story. And because there is a tendency among fanfic writers to equate fanfic that is based on a television show which has several writers, in addition to producers etc., and is therefore already a shared-universe kind of model, with stories written by a single author for a single intent.

After bearing the burden of single-handedly creating those hundred thousand words or so, it can be insulting to have somebody show up and essentially say, “your version of your story was okay but look! I made it better by undoing what you did!” (Especially if the fanficcer is particularly tacky or lacks social skills in the first place.)

And there is the ever-enduring question of ownership of a fandom, as we’ve seen played out in the Star Wars universe and more recently the Harry Potter fandom.

But I think that most fanfic is written from a place of admiration and a desire to participate in an author’s world. So, if an author cringes at the notion of another person impuring their undiluted concepts and vision with fan stories, fan art, video homages, mood boards, character alignment charts and the like, then that author must ask themselves whether they are ready to participate in public storytelling. Because if you have success, you will have all these things in addition to reviews, criticism and even . . . the dreaded specter of editorial input.

DM: Ha! Yeah that sounds fair.

NK: So, Gentle Readers, do you have thoughts about fanfic? Please comment below! We’d love to have a chat with you!

================================

Dal Maclean comes from Scotland.  Her background is in journalism, and she has an undying passion for history, the more gossipy and scandalous the better. Dal has lived in Asia and worked all over the world, but home is now the UK. She dislikes the Tragic Gay trope, but loves imperfect characters, unreliable narrators and genuine emotional conflict in romantic fiction. As an author, and a reader, she believes it’s worth a bit of work to reach a happy ending. Agatha Christie, English gardens and ill-advised cocktails are three fatal weaknesses, though not usually at the same time. Her first book, 'Bitter Legacy' was a 2017 Lambda Literary Award finalist (Mystery), and was chosen by the American Libraries Association for their 2018 Over the Rainbow Recommended Books List.

Nicole Kimberling is a novelist and the senior editor at Blind Eye Books. Her first novel, Turnskin, won the Lambda Literary Award. Other works include the Bellingham Mystery Series, set in the Washington town where she resides with her wife of thirty years as well as an ongoing cooking column for Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She is also the creator and writer of “Lauren Proves Magic is Real!” a serial fiction podcast, which explores the day-to-day case files of Special Agent Keith Curry, supernatural food inspector.

New Release FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK

Well, it's here at last! FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK is live. :-)

The snick of a lock.

 The squeak of door hinges. 

The creak of a floorboard...

Nothing is more mysterious than footsteps in the dark. Are those approaching steps that of friend or enemy? Lover or killer?

Authors L.B. Gregg, Nicole Kimberling, Josh Lanyon, Dal MacLean, Z.A. Maxfield, Meg Perry, C.S. Poe and S.C. Wynne join forces for Footsteps in the Dark, eight sexy and suspenseful novellas of Male/Male Mystery and Romance.

(That's over 200K worth of M/M Mystery and Romance for $3.99 -- half-price!)

Available at these fine retailers:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

iBooks

Smashwords

Google Play


What's it all about, Alfie? Read on!

Entrée to Murder. After a steady diet of big city trouble, Chef Drew Allison moved to the island town of Orca’s Slough to get a taste of life in the slow lane. But hometown hospitality goes stale when he finds a dead body in the basement of his own Eelgrass Café.

Twelve Seconds. A mysterious phone call, a missing executive, and an exploding rocket throw space reporter Justin Harris and Air Force Special Agent Greg Marcotte into an investigation that will change their lives…if it doesn’t kill them first.

Reality Bites. Detective Cabot Decker is called to the set of hotshot TV producer Jax Thornburn’s reality-TV show after a contestant is mauled to death by a tiger. Is someone trying to ax Jax’s career—or Jax himself?

Blind Man’s Buff. A game of Capture the Flag turns deadly inside an abandoned shopping mall when Tommy and Jonah stumble into a homicidal maniac’s hunting grounds.

A Country for Old Men. Inspector Calum Macleod has returned to the Western Isles of Scotland to bury a part of himself he can’t accept. But the island has old secrets of its own. When a murderer strikes, Calum finds his past can’t be so easily escaped.

Pepper the Crime Lab. When Lonnie Boudreaux’s neighbor is murdered, he must foster the man’s dog, befriend a mysterious former cop, and stop the killer—or else!

Lights, Camera, Murder. Hired to recover a stolen script, NY PI Rory Byrne must go undercover on the set of the ground-breaking historical drama The Bowery—a job complicated by Rory’s unexpected attraction to handsome, talented, and out-and-proud actor Marion Roosevelt.

Stranger in the House. Miles Tuesday’s memories of Montreal are happy ones, but now that he has inherited the mansion at 13 Place Braeside, everything feels different. Was Madame Martel’s fatal fall really an accident? 

FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK Playlist

I love playlists. I love to listen to them and I love to create them.

It's interesting when you're listening to someone else's playlist and you immediately get a very strong feeling for the emotional core of their book. It's even more interesting when you listen and just can't figure out what they heard that you don't. :-D  I don't think there's anything more subjective than musical taste.

The exercise of choosing songs for a playlist helps me refine the emotional arc of the book I'm working on. That said, there's always one or two songs that just really seem to capture that book for me and those I'll listen to over and over and over. And afterwards, any time I hear that song, I remember writing that particular story.

Anyway, I asked each of the authors in the FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK anthology to choose a song that seemed to capture the mood or theme or message of their story (or that they just couldn't stop listening to while writing) and the end result is this very eclectic and listenable playlist.

I hope you enjoy it--and I hope it whets your appetite for the book!

FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK Playlist

Entrée to Murder by Nicole Kimberling

MAKE ME FEEL (Janelle Monáe)

Twelve Seconds by Meg Perry

START OF SOMETHING GOOD (Daughtry)

Reality Bites by S.C. Wynne

STRAWBERRIES & CIGARETTES (Troye Sivan)

Blind Man’s Buff by L.B. Gregg

LADDERS ( Mac Miller)

A Country for Old Men by Dal MacLean

TAKE ME TO CHURCH (Hozier)

Pepper the Crime Lab by Z.A. Maxfield

HELLO MY OLD HEART(The Old Hellos)

Lights, Camera, Murder by C.S. Poe

HUMAN (Of Monstersand Men)

Stranger in the House by Josh Lanyon

ET L'ON N'Y PEUT RIEN (Jean Jacques Goldman)

You can preorder the book here

Author! Editor! Author! Nicole Kimberling

This week I'm interviewing the madly multitalented Nicole Kimberling who happens to be the Editor in Chief of Blind Eye Books in addition to being one of my favorite writers. That's not a combination you stumble across every day. (Or at least I don't.)


In addition to being an excellent writer, Nicole has the gift of talking both knowledgably and accessibly about writing. She's witty, wise and can cook. Which is pretty much all one can ask for in both an editor and a friend.


So without further adieu, Nicole Kimberling.

JL - Tell us--at the risk of getting slammed with submissions--about Blind Eye Book's mysterious new imprint One Block Empire.

NK - So our original line, Blind Eye Books is all about science-fiction and fantasy.

One Block Empire is devoted to mystery and other kinds of contemporary stories. Basically, I decided it would be neat to expand our brand into stories set in the real world.

The first book in the line is Dal Maclean’s Bitter Legacy, a police procedural set in London’s Metropolitan Police Service (which the author assures me is a real place.)

 

JL - As you know, I'm a big, big fan of your Bellingham Mystery series. What attracts you to the mystery genre -- this is not the rhetorical question some might imagine because you started out in spec fiction. In fact, didn't Turnskin win a Lambda? So what drew you to these mean streets?

NK - Aw… how sweet you are.

What I love about mystery—especially the classic cozy mystery—is that it is an absolutely perfect vehicle for observational humor. You have the sleuth, who is basically a nosy outsider, going into these different subcultures as a newcomer and reporting on what he or she sees.

So you can write a mystery set at, oh, let’s say Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. And you’ve got this incredibly serious thing—decapitation—happening in a place where the witnessess are showgirls dressed in bikinis that look like they’re made of 3 slices of pizza. And you can make the murder weapon a huge scimitar-shaped mezza luna knife that looks like its from the middle ages.

And the juxtaposition of these images—between the horrifying and the absurd—creates this awesome cognitive dissonance that drives the sleuth (and by extension the reader) to keep trying to solve the mystery. I feel like the best mysteries take the sleuth to a place of true discomfort. Then when the sleuth restores order to the chaos there is this sense of massive relief.

JL - Pentimento Blues is the sixth and final novella in the Bellingham Mysteries series. What did it feel like writing that final chapter? Was it a relief? Bittersweet? Where are Peter and Nick twenty years from now?

NK - Yeah, I did feel a little melancholy. Peter was such fun to write and the city of Bellingham still has so many quirky people and places… But I felt like I’d covered most of the big areas of conflict between Peter and Nick and didn’t want to be that writer who starts inserting the “crisis of the week” just to keep the series going.

I did actually think about where Peter and Nick would be a couple of decades down the road. I feel like they probably acquire some children somehow. Like Peter would agree to watch his itinerant crack-head cousin’s kids for the weekend and then she might never come back. Something like that. Nothing planned or premeditated. Just Peter’s impulsiveness combined with Nick’s deep-down kindness leading to accidental parenthood.

Or instead of children they could accidentally acquire a bunch of alpacas. That’s also possible.

JL - You're Blind Eye Books' Editor in Chef. (HA! Little cooking joke there -- bet you never heard that one before) How do you balance your own creative needs -- heck, how do you even find time to write? -- with the needs of your authors and your publishing house? Do you find it difficult to switch back and forth?

NK - Yes, the transition can be rocky. For me writing fiction requires entering a relaxed, associative, expansive state. And that’s exactly the opposite of the critical, winnowing attitude required of an editor. And both of those are different from the strategic “We’re gonna take that hill, then go to sleep get up and take the next one,” mind-frame necessary to performing the duties of a publisher.

So I try to pick one job every week and just do that, reserving longer blocks of 2-3 weeks to make progress on a piece of my own fiction or to do my final edit another author’s novel.

JL  - What do you like best about editing?

NK I truly love helping authors develop their style and work their manuscripts up to their full capacity. Because one person writing alone can do a good book, but probably not an excellent one. Novel-length prose just has too many moving parts for one person to keep track of them all.

JL - If you had to pick, perhaps for the purposes of a blog interview, what would you say was the one thing lacking in the majority of manuscripts you end up rejecting?

NK - Originality. Do you remember that famous meme from The Player? “It’s like Goodnight, Moon meets Lord of the Flies!” Most of the manuscripts I get are more like, “It’s like X only gay!”

Except “X” is usually just some TV show like Charmed,*  or whatever movie was popular that summer. Even if the writing and voice are both good, a derivative story is always boring to me.

JL -  What do you like best about writing?

NK - I really enjoy immortalizing the unique people and quirky situations that pop up in everyday life—or at least in my everyday life. For the sake of fiction—and certain friendships—I disguise them. But most of the characters in my books, and even some conversations, were inspired by real people.

JL - What do you have planned for us in the way of more mystery or suspense? I know you're partial to decapitations--and they're admittedly infrequent in the cozy subgenre--but I think you're a natural for a cozy series with edgy, even black humor. Plus you like cats. So.

NK - Actually I tried to get a decapitation into Pentimento Blues but my writer’s group told me it was unnecessary, cartoonish and detracted from the story’s main crisis. So I took it out.

But in terms of a new mystery: I’m very slowly slogging away at a new book featuring a chef solving a murder that occurs in the cellar of the restaurant where he works. I have no idea when I will finish it but I figure as long as I keep going I will probably manage to get to the last page before I drop dead.

But I’m nearing the end of writing the third Special Agent Keith Curry novella, which is a crossover fantasy/mystery.

 JL - Name three favorite mystery tropes that may or may not be found in your stories past, present or future.

NK - The Intrepid Reporter

The Red Herring

The Evidence Dungeon

JL  - I know you don't have the time, but do you think you would make a good sleuth?

NK - Well, I am exceptionally nosy but I don’t exactly have the attention span for surveillance. I feel like I’d have all the good intentions of solving the murder but get distracted by some other, lesser curiosity (“What ARE the neighbors remodeling anyway?”) and miss some major clues allowing the murderer to slip past me. But I’d absolutely know what color of bathroom tile just went into the house next door.

Plus it’s hard for me to pay attention to anyone telling a boring story, which I think must be pretty common in RL detecting. So, on the whole it’s probably best if I leave actual sleuthing to others. J

 

*Full disclosure: Charmed is my least-favorite TV show, by far.

 

You can learn more about Nicole and her work on her website. Or follow her on Facebook and/or Twitter.

 

  

New Releases: MAGIC AND MAYHEM and NIGHT WATCH

First things first.

Magic and Mayhem:  Fiction and Essays Celebrating LGBTQA Romance is now available for preorder at Amazon or Smashwords right now. When you buy the antho you help support the event known as Gay Romance Nothwest Meet-Up, and I think we can all agree we need many more such events.

Look at this line up:

STORIES:

“Broken Art,” by Dev Bentham
“Caroline’s Heart,” by Austin Chant
“Demonica,” by Megan Derr
“The Hollow History of Professor Perfectus,” by Ginn Hale
“Fade to Black,” by Josh Lanyon
“Charmed By Chance,” by Alex Powell
“Sun, Moon, and Stars,” by E.J. Russell
“Slack Tide,” by Karelia Stetz-Waters

ESSAYS:

“Romance for the Rest of Us,” by Jessica Blat
“Sad Queer Characters and the Revolution of Joy,” by Austin Chant
“Dear Rose,” by Rose Christo
“How to Get LGBT Romance Books Into Libraries” by Marlene Harris
“So What is “Character-Type Love Match” Anyway?” by Nicole Kimberling
“My Road to Romance,” by Susan Lee
“To My Future Self,” by E.E. Ottoman
“What I’ve Learned,” by Jordan Castillo Price
“Dear Len,” by Radclyffe
“A Letter to My Former Self,” by Rick R. Reed
“Five Things We Learned Running A Queer Romance Event (and the One Thing We Still Need to Do)” by Tracy Timmons-Gray


My "assignment" was Soldier and Tattoo Artist. :-)

I think I'm almost as excited to read the essays as the stories. 

So that's one exciting piece of news. And then we have a little bitty story from me called Night Watch.

Three years ago investigative reporter Parker Davidson barely survived a brutal attack by his psychopathic ex-boyfriend. It’s given him a dim view of romance. 

When Parker’s ex escapes from a maximum security prison, LAPD Lieutenant Henry Stagge is tasked with making sure that Parker doesn’t end up a victim a second—and final—time. 

Most cops believe Parker got what he deserved, but over the course of a few very tense hours, Henry begins to wonder if there’s more to Parker than he thought. 

Second chances happen in the strangest places—and at the strangest times.

 

You can pop over to Smashwords or Amazon and conveniently buy them both at the same time.

There's more to talk about (I know I missed last week's blog, but that's what happens when the writing frenzy starts) but we'll leave it there for now.