WHAT I DID ON MY PANDEMIC VACATION

Since I'm having trouble staying focused creatively, I've been trying to catch up on a bunch of other things--I'm taking more audio titles wide, I'm doing more print single titles through Amazon, I'm outlining and charting books for the backside of this year and the front side of next year. Trying to be productive as best I can.

I'm also forcing myself to do a few things that I typically don't do. Live interviews, book readings, zoom chats.

I thought you might enjoy checking out a couple of those efforts. ;-)


Here's the interview I did last weekend for the Gay Mystery Podcast with Brad Shreve.

And here's The Thrilling Detective Website's Noir at the Bar (I read from Snowball in Hell)

Thank you so much to everyone who turned up for the Noir at the Bar. I wasn't sure about the protocol, so I was backward about giving a shout-out to anyone, but I appreciated it so much. So great to look out and see your names and faces and scenic backdrops. NEXT TIME I WILL DO BETTER.

Interview with Dieter Moitzi

I guess this is cheating a bit, but I'm filling in for the blog I should have written with a two-part interview I did with the charming and thoughtful Dieter Moitzi for his blog livresgay.fr 

The interview also ran on Gay Book Reviews. :-) 

Part One

Part Two

But Can You Make a Living at It?

Writing has always been a tough gig. It's full of rejection and disappointment and, even when you're successful, most writers don't earn enough to live on. So has it been and so shall it always be. Okay? Got it?

Now that we have that out of the way, let's move on.

All we seem to hear lately is doom and gloom from people who apparently mistook the exhilarating bump of a few years ago for a permanent state of affairs. They were wrong about the boom and now they are wrong about the bust. By which I mean, yes, this is a tough publishing environment, but that's kind of the normal state of affairs. Actually, it's kind of the normal state of affairs for ANYONE trying to earn a living in the arts. If you're going to be successful in the arts, you have to learn to roll with the punches. And you need to be prepared for getting punched A LOT.

The good news is, people do still earn a living at writing. I earn my living writing--and have for a number of years now. And even if most writers will not be able to support themselves, a lot of them will be able to successfully supplement their existing income. That's a big deal in today's economy. And I'm not talking about people who have been writing and publishing forever, I'm talking about authors who've been working hard for a few years and have started to see the pay-off. 

And I thought it might be refreshing to talk to four of these authors--to read some success stories, to hear some good news. Because one thing never changes: as long as the world needs stories, it will need storytellers.

So here's our cast of characters:

Felice Stevens has always been a romantic at heart. "I believe that while life is tough, there is always a happy ending around the corner. My characters have to work for it, however. Like life in NYC, nothing comes easy and that includes love.

I live in New York City with my husband and two children. My day begins with a lot of caffeine and ends with a glass or two of red wine. I practice law full-time but daydream of a time when I can sit by a beach (under an umbrella with sunscreen) and write beautiful stories of men falling in love.

 I just finished the last of my Breakfast Club series, What Lies Between Us, and am working on a spin-off of characters I introduced in that book, who appeared in a short story last year."

David Warner was "that kid with the over-active imagination who was always making up stories to scare the other kids in the neighborhood.  It wasn’t until college that I started writing them down so I wouldn’t forget them.  I never really gave publishing much more than a passing thought until I was encouraged to do so by a mutual friend of ours (the illustrious M), who was also the first person other than my husband Marc that I ever allowed to read anything that I’d written.  No one was more surprised than I was when I actually got published. 

"A transplant from northern Wisconsin, I’ve been living in Washington, DC for the last 30 years.  I currently reside in a cozy, i.e., very tiny, garden condo in the heart of the city with my husband of 23 years (aka Mr. Man) surrounded by hundreds of books, plants, and bulk paper products from Costco."

 

 

S.C. Wynne loves rainy days and gloomy weather. Ironically, she’s landed in sunny California with her husband and two children, where she endures endless days of sunshine. S.C. loves writing stories with angst, and dryly humorous characters. Her most recent title is Assassins Are People Too. The sequel; Assassins Love People Too is being released March 15^th from Loose Id.

C.S. Poe is an author of gay mystery and romance. She lives in New York City with her three cats. She has an affinity for all things cute and colorful, and is a fan of coffee, reading, and cats, in no particular order. Her debut novel, Snow & Winter: The Mystery of Nevermore, is released this summer through DSP Publications.

When did you publish your first M/M or LGBT story? What was the story and who did you publish it with?

 Felice: My first book was Rescued, an M/M romance. It was published by Loose Id in August of 2014.

David: My first LGBT story was released spring of 2012 by DoorQ and published under the name of Warner Davidson.  It was the offshoot of an idea I’d kicked around in draft in college that I eventually updated in 2012—rather hurriedly—for inclusion in a LGBT fantasy anthology that my good friend Peter Saenz was editing at the time. 

S.C.: October 14, 2013. It was Hard-Ass is Here with Loose Id. It was actually the very first M/M romance I wrote. I was so green I thought the publisher would name the book for me. So when I saved the file it saved the manuscript as the first line of the book, which at the time was “The new hard-ass is here.” So the book ended up being titled Hard-Ass is Here because of that. I always thought that was funny. But whatever the title, I was ecstatic when Loose Id offered me a contract. Quietly, suavely ecstatic.


C.S.: My first published work came out June 1, 2015. It was a short, Love Has No Expiration, through Dreamspinner Press.

  How did the reality of publication match up with what you imagined it would be like to be a published author?

S.C.: The publishing part was exactly what I’d expected and Loose Id was great to work with. I’d been through edits before on another project so I understood that process.

What actually shocked me most was how mean people can be in reviews. I knew everyone wouldn’t love my books, but it never occurred to me people would hate them so much their negative response would feel personal. My first published book was a social media wake-up call for me.

David: I was truly naïve before publishing.  My expectations were the exact opposite of what actually transpired.  I thought getting published would be hard.  As it turned out, that was the easy part.  I also thought that marketing, and finding an audience, would just sort of happen organically, like photosynthesis, once you actually had material out there in the light of day.  Surprise!  Live and learn.

C.S.: I actually didn’t have much of a picture in mind, other than my words in a book with a price tag. It’s exciting, and I’m very happy with how intimate the process is with my publisher. They listen to the author from blurb to edit to cover, and I think when all parties are invested, it’s an even more amazing reality.

Felice: Oh God. I’m not sure what I expected, but it was a rollercoaster. Seeing my name on the Amazon lists next to people whose books I read and admired was a bit surreal. Rescued did extraordinarily well for me, especially as a debut book so my expectation s far exceeded what I could have imagined. Of course then there are the reviews which knock you down. So I guess it was like the highest high and the lowest low at certain points.
 

To date how many stories have you published?

C.S.: Two shorts! A third short, as well as my debut novel, are finishing up production for summer releases.

Felice: I have four with Loose Id and seven self-published books.

David: I think I’m the novice here in this group of wonderful writers that you’re interviewing—only 6 published stories to date. I’m currently hard at work (as both editor and contributor) on a second, as-yet-unnamed anthology of LGBT-themed horror stories that I hope will be picked up by DoorQ Publishing/Digital Fabulists later this year in time for Halloween.  The first anthology, entitled In Darkness Peering: Tales from the Bent Side, was released by DoorQ last October. It includes three of my own short stories as well as stories from 8 other LGBT authors.  I have many more up my sleeve and in my back pocket.

S.C.: As S.C. Wynne I have 18 published and 3 additional sold to Loose Id, Dreamspinner and Riptide that will be released in the next few months.


Are you strictly traditional (meaning you work solely with publishers), self-pubbed or hybrid?  Why have you made that choice?

Felice: I don’t know what to call myself, lol. I am self-pubbing right now, but I plan to submit a story I have to publishers later this summer. So I guess you could call me an anticipatory hybrid? I’ll see if anyone is interested. When I published my first self-pubbed book, I wasn’t sure I could do it or would like it. But I fooled myself and I enjoy it. I like the control I have, over times to publish, story lines and my covers, especially my covers. It’s a learning experience and I freely admit to asking for advice. I’ve been lucky enough to have had some amazingly helpful people in my life.

David: So far, I’ve been strictly traditional, not so much by choice as by circumstance and opportunity and, so far, it’s working out just fine.  I see a lot of people moving to self-publishing for a variety of reasons that seem quite valid.  Until recently, however, I had no idea where to begin such a thing.  I’ve now built a pretty solid network of author friends who are well-versed in the ins and outs of self-publishing, as well as people skilled at book layout (both for print and ebook) and cover design.  In the last year, I’ve also completed extensive course work in Adobe InDesign and Photoshop with an eye toward self-publishing if and when I ever choose to go that route.  Options—it’s all about options now.


S.C.: I’m hybrid. So far I’ve worked mainly with publishers. I do have one self-published Halloween story Until the Morning and I’m set to self-publish another book in May called Unleashing Love.  I intend to do more self-publishing this year, but I love working with publishers. You learn so much when you go through a tough edit. I want to always be improving my writing skills and edits help you do that. But self-publishing definitely gives you way more control. To me hybrid gives me the best of both worlds.

C.S.: At this point in my young and shiny career, I am strictly traditional. I thoroughly enjoy working with a house and the sincere dedication they have to promoting their authors. I’ve considered projects down the line that may be better suited to a hybrid style, but I don’t think that will be for a while. I do find the process fascinating, however, and love learning from my fellow authors who manage all this work on their own.


Do you currently have a day job? Do you ultimately plan to write full-time? Given your own experience and the doom and gloom climate in publishing, do you think writing full-time is still a feasible goal?

David: I have a day job as an executive at a small federal agency.  Unfortunately, the demands it creates on my time increase each year and this seriously limits my ability to write on any kind of a reliable schedule.  It’s more of a catch as catch can endeavor until I’m able to leave the job—and DC—which will happen at the end of 2018 when I will finally reach the age and length of service requirements for early retirement as a fed.  After that, I plan to write as close to full-time as life allows.  At that point, writing full-time will not only be feasible, thanks to that federal pension, it will also give me a lot of latitude to experiment without having to worry so much about income from sales.

 

S.C.: I own a business where I work thirteen hour days. The good part is I can often write while I’m there. I would love to write full-time. I have no illusions building a career happens overnight. I’m a realistic dreamer. J I think writing full-time is feasible as long as you’re not expecting to make a bazillion dollars. If you’re happy with a modest income, and you’re willing to work your ass off for many years, pumping out great, well edited stories, you can write full-time.

C.S.: I do have a day job. It’s a difficult monster to work around, especially when I’m at the beginning of my writing career, where I know it’s important to establish a backlist. So I usually get up at 3am to write and make the best of the time allotted to me.

I would like to write full-time. It’s my goal. Not a dream. A goal. I keep that firmly rooted in reality, and I work very hard every day to lay the groundwork that I believe will make that feasible. I tend to look at the bright, sparkly side of life, even when I’ve been told my point of view is unrealistic. So yes, I do believe it is possible, given the work and effort and research is put forth, and you’ve got a voice that really offers something new!

Felice: I work full-time as a managing attorney for a large city agency. I deal with employee discipline problems, labor and employment law discrimination. It is very stressful. I may retire next year, given that I took advantage of the early retirement program and yes, write full time.

 I think one has to sit down and think of what their plan is for the year ahead; publishing goals, options available, deadlines…etc. Gulp –a business plan. I am SO disorganized just thinking of what I should be doing for the rest of the year gives me hives.
 

As writers who began publishing after the ebook boom had passed, what’s your perspective on both the publishing industry and this genre?

S.C.: I wish I could have experienced the big boom. But maybe it set people up with unrealistic expectations too. A lot of people think they can still just upload a book and the sales will come piling in. That is usually not the case. There are many well written self-published books out there. But I think what I find most disconcerting is the flood of poorly written, barely edited self-published stories on the lists. It perpetuates the stigma that people who self-publish only do so because they couldn’t sell their stories to publishing houses. That isn’t actually true, but when there are so many inexperienced authors who are unwilling to put any time into learning and perfecting their craft it’s depressing. Writing is hard. Good writing is ten times harder.

When it comes to the M/M genre I’m disheartened by all the infighting I’m witnessing lately. There’s seems to be so much anger, especially toward women writing in this genre. It’s depressing. I write M/M because I love men. I write gay romance. I’m not curing cancer. I’m not saving the world. I’m not pretending to understand the day to day struggle of a gay man. I write romantic, fictional love stories that feature two fictional male characters. It’s escapism and nothing more.

C.S.: This genre appears to be growing. More authors, more books, more options. For sure it’s very different from when I was a wee lass trying to find a book that fit the vague idea of what I wanted to read but found nothing. (Until a certain Lanyon dropped into my lap years later.) The publishing industry, I admit I’m less sure of. A lot of the data only covers the big old school publishers and doesn’t take into account how indies and self-pubbed authors are fairing. It seems to be going through ups and downs, trying to find itself amongst many roadblocks in this digital age.

Felice: Blink and its changed. Everyday someone has another theory on what has happened what will happen; what’s hot, what’s not. The advent of Amazon opening up the ranks to allowing anyone with a computer to self-publish has been both a blessing and a curse, as it opened the floodgates to people who might never have had the opportunity to publish a book, and those who think all you need to do is slap a pretty cover on and not edit the words. So it’s a balance. And I think the publishers are scrambling to keep up as well; I don’t think they understood the impact digital book was going to have on the industry. I’m not sure anyone truly did. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ve seen the end of consolidations and a winnowing away of small presses.

 For the gay romance genre, however, I think it is just the beginning; so many readers are discovering these books and publishers are now beginning to see that people are more willing to try reading books about same sex couples falling in love. It’s exciting and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

David: The publishing industry seems to be experiencing great upheaval at present.  Too many publishers in this genre have closed their doors.  More are expected to do so in the near future.  I’m not sure how much that has to do with trends in the genre or publishing in general.  Authors give up a great deal of control over their work, it’s pricing, etc. when they use big, online sellers like Amazon and B&N.  Since ebooks have become so widely available, print sales have tapered off.  Many books are now also made available to readers for free if they subscribe to certain online services. 

Online pirating is rampant.  If the price point of a book or story is more than a couple of bucks—which I believe is rather poor compensation for an author’s hard work—you’ll get complaints and bad reviews that have nothing to do with the quality of the writing.  Authors now live and die by reviews.  And let’s not even get into the crop of fake, unfair, or intentionally malicious reviews posted by certain people (some even from within the industry itself) for reasons that I will never fully comprehend.  The entire structure of the industry is changing faster than most authors can keep up with it and I see a lot of scrambling right now, people considering new ways of getting their work out there, such as self-publishing, audiobooks, and Internet serials.


Discoverability continues to be a challenge for all of us. What role would you say promotion has played in your success thus far? Do you feel promotion is less important or more important than it used to be? Do you feel you should or could spend more time promoting your work?

David: This topic comes up often at the book conferences I attend and in my own private discussions with other authors and other industry people.  Promotion is hugely important and—as I responded to a previous question you asked—one that I’d never really given much thought to before I hoboed my way onto the publication train.  Most publishers, it seems, do not do a whole lot of promotion anymore on behalf of their writers unless the writer happens to achieve a certain level of popular success, i.e., sales.  Self-promotion has become increasingly important as a result, and absolutely essential for those who self-publish.  I’m an introvert at heart and, personally, I’m no good at self-promotion.  Even though I know it’s an issue that I will need to grapple with sooner or later if I ever hope to be successful, it doesn’t fall naturally within my comfort zone—or even come close.

 

S.C.: I’ll parrot what most authors say: I hate promotion. It’s not in my nature to toot my own horn. I would need to hire horn tooters for that. But promotion is essential and a huge part of the modern writing experience. I have no idea if promotion has played a role in any success I might have had. It’s difficult to know what things have any effect. I’m not that scientific in my approach to self-promotion. I visit Facebook and Twitter each day, and I have started using a platform called Bublish. Bublish is interesting. You make posts about your story with an author insight also included. The nice part is after you post to Bublish, it tracks where the clicks come from. Did people find you on Facebook or Twitter? You can even see if people click your buy links, although you have no way of knowing if they purchased anything or not. It’s too soon for me to know if Bublish has any effect on my promotional ‘success’.

I’m not sure I have it in me to do a whole lot more promoting than I’m already doing. I know eventually I will have to force myself to go to conventions like GRL, etc. But I’m a private, shy person. I can only push myself so much before I end up in a corner sucking my thumb.

Felice: With my first book I was unprepared. I knew, from running a blog for historical romance years ago that getting your book out to as many people as possible was key, especially for a new author. So I did a blog tour. I’m not sure if it helped me or not. I think being active on social media in the format you feel most comfortable in, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, whatever has been the most helpful. I feel lucky in that I have made some amazing friendships with book bloggers who contacted me simply because they liked one of my books and we’ve gone on to become friends. I recommend other authors as well to them.

Discoverability is very difficult. Sometimes to me it seems as though the same four or five authors are the only ones ever getting the attention. And as a self-published, or indie author, it is near impossible to break through to greater visibility. So you have to put your head down and keep plodding along, doing your own thing, writing the books you love. I’m not in it for anything else except I love to write.

 To be clear, just going on social media and spewing your book title all over the place isn’t going to work either. You have to be real and put yourself out there and have patience. It doesn’t happen overnight.

C.S: I believe promotion (in all its varying shapes and forms) did help me with my first short. In the age of social media, I believe it is more important than ever to invest in promotion time. Authors are no longer a four sentence bio and ten year old photo on the back cover of a book. They’re real people, and they can be found on Facebook to Twitter to Blogger. That’s great for us. Readers can reach out, forge friendships, keep in touch with upcoming releases, the list goes on. But I believe it is also critical to learn the difference between using social media for good, and what constitutes as spamming.

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Since I've got a blog due over at Not Your Usual Suspects, I've decided to continue the conversation over there. Click to continue...

Author! Author! ASTRID AMARA

This month's interview subject is the wildly talented and always amusing Astrid Amara. You may know Astrid through her classic rom com Hanukkah novellas and/or her brilliantly original epic fantasy novels. I would usually try to burble on a bit but I have succumbed to the flu, so I can only say that I love Astrid's work and I'm delighted to have her here on the blog.

In her words, here's Miz Amara.

Okay, Pony Girl. Come on. Explain about the horses. Is it true you are the Imelda Marcos of the Equestrian World? How many equines do you actually own? Is that horse on your website yours? Or are you just stalking him?

Oh I *wish* the horse on my website was mine! Actually, strike that – I only want that horse if I’m a millionaire and can afford barn slaves, because it takes a hell of a lot of work to keep a grey horse clean. That’s why my dream horse is a black Arabian gelding….

I actually only own ONE equine, but he’s enough for me. He’s a 20 year old asshole of a smarty pants, all gentleman until he sees a pretty mare. He’s a Polish Arabian, and in a former life before I owned him he won dozens of amateur dressage competitions. Now he and I fart around and pretend to do dressage when we’re feeling ambitious, and go for lazy strolls around the countryside by his pasture when we’re not.

He is scared of the color white, butterflies, and that sunspot that appears on the arena floor. He is NOT scared of me, little dogs, or the horse-sized soccer ball he rolls across the arena for treats.
I love him to death; and I owe all my readers for being able to have him, because my Porn for Ponies is more than just a clever name. It’s what allowed me to buy him, feed him, and tend to his medical issues.

 What's the last piece of music you listened to? Did you sing along?

My favorite album to write to at the moment is Woodkid’s The Golden Age, because not only are his videos amazing, but Iron is the best song to write a cavalry story to. Watch the video for “Run Boy Run” on Youtube now if you haven’t seen it. Seriously. Do it. Now.

I cannot wait for The Devil Lancer, your upcoming AU Crimean War epic. What's the best part of the Crimean War?

“The best” is a hard thing to define in this circumstance – I think the thing that most impresses me about the Crimean War was the absolute, insane levels of bravery and honor the soldiers had, on both sides. This was an atrocious war, fought for a stupid reason, in terrible conditions, under idiotic leadership, and these men accomplished incredible feats.

It was hard to write because I wanted to throw in every little detail about the war that I came across. Choosing what was relevant to the story and what was just being included for the gore factor was difficult for me.

Who is your all time favorite villain?

Ooh, good one. Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the first one who comes to mind. As a Trekkie and Benedict Cumberbatch fan, the new  Khan is pretty hot. Er… I mean “scary.”

What do you love most about writing? What do you like least?

I love the finished product, two months later, when I have a chance to re-read my work and go, ok, that’s what I wanted to read. Before that I hate the whole thing. I hate sitting down and writing. I hate difficult plotting problems. I hate middles. Deadlines stress me and without them I do nothing. And when I’m working on a project every page I read is the worst drivel I’ve ever come across. I can’t stand my own story as soon as I finished it – I always need several weeks before I can bare to re-read it, and there are a few stories out there I still can’t re-read because I don’t like them.

What do you think is the most important thing to remember when creating fully realized main characters?

Motivation is important – I hate bad guys that are just bad for no reason (I call it the Orc Problem). There has to be a reason they suck. And our good guys have to have bad traits too. So I think it’s crucial to conceive of your character as a fully-rounded human being. Base them on a real person if that helps. Do character worksheets and plan out their whole life if you have to – but remember they need to be like the rest of us, with good days and bad days, things that make them angry, things they aren’t good at, things they’re GREAT at, etc.

Have you ever broken a bone?

Oh, the bitter irony! When I started responding to your interview questions I could say no. But since I started this interview, my horse stepped on my pinky toe and broke it! I was walking him past a field where there are cute mini horses and he gets all insecure because they’re tougher than him. And when he’s busy ogling  something like a horse or a plastic bag he doesn’t pay attention to where he’s walking.

But that won’t stop me! As Steven Wright put it, “I intend to live forever. So far, so good.”

You're an astonishingly versatile writer, penning everything from adorable romantic comedies to these intense epic AU historical fantasies. Is there any genre you'd like to tackle but you're kinda sorta afraid?

Hard-core science fiction, with lots of that “science” stuff, scares me, mostly because I’m not very informed when it comes to physics and chemistry, and even many aspects of biology stump me. But I really respect stories that stay true to the real laws of physics and are scientifically feasible.
And I do want to tackle what I fondly call my “Anti-Twilight” series – a 2-3 book young adult scifi/fantasy series for young girls. I’m scared because it’s not what I read, but I think the challenge of writing something like that, out of my comfort zone, might be kind of fun.

Is it true about Jewish Guilt?

I just closed my bedroom window so my brother can have more air. Does that count?

What are you working on now?

I’m going to take a second crack at a story I started a few years ago and never finished. It’s an amalgam inspired by books I was reading at the time – one on homesteaders, one on the cholera epidemic of London, one on diamond mining. It’s the story of a doctor who has to work in a remote homesteader outpost when an epidemic breaks out, killing large numbers of the population. He has to team up with the local reverend to investigate what is killing the townsfolk and why only certain members of the population are falling ill. And of course there’s some secrets that draw the two men closer…

All time favorite dessert. Do you have the recipe?

If you love chocolate and love mint flavor, these brownies will KILL you with happy. Be warned: Don’t eat the thick dark chocolate layer on top by itself, it tastes bitter on its own because its bitter chocolate. But when you bite into it with the rest of the brownie?.... Hells Yeah.

Chocolate Peppermint Bars

Layer #1 Ingredients:
2 oz. unsweetened bitter chocolate
½ cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ cup sifted flour
½ cup chopped almonds (optional)
Layer #2 Ingredients:
1½ cup powdered sugar
3 T butter
1-3 T milk
1 t peppermint extract
Green food coloring
Layer #3 Ingredients:
3 oz. bitter chocolate
3T butter

Instructions:
1. Melt chocolate and butter in a pan.
2. Cream eggs and sugar together in a bowl.
3. Add flour and chocolate mixture to bowl and mix well.
4. Grease an 8X8 pan and pour in the batter.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn of heat and bake another half a minute. Let cool completely before next steps.
6. Cream together sugar and butter in a bowl.
7. Blend in peppermint extract and milk – enough milk to make the icing, not too liquidy but spreadable.
8. Add green food coloring to tint the icing.
9. Spread icing onto cooled first layer and chill.
10. For third layer melt chocolate and butter in a pan.
11. Pour evenly on top of cooled icing.
12. Chill for at least 1 hour, enough time to harden the top chocolate layer. Cut into squares.

You are one of the funniest people I haven't yet actually met. Say something funny.

Wow that’s no pressure. The funny part of my brain is actually small, since most of my brain is consumed with sleeping and ponies. Here, I drew you a picture of why I can’t be funny on the spot.

 Are you a full-time writer?

I wish. I really do. But alas I am also materialistic, which means I like having a nice house and heat and a boot collection, not to mention my expensive equestrian habits, four dogs, two goats, and a husband who likes to cook with organic ingredients. So yeah, I work for The Man during the day. At night I go, “fuck you, Man!” and rebelliously don’t pay my parking ticket.

 What's out next? Are we going to see more of the Bellskis?

 
I’m not sure! It’s always exciting planning out what I’ll write next. Once I finish a Hanukkah story I tend to make promises to myself like “I’ll never ever ever do that again waaaaaah” because writing up-beat, romantic comedies aren’t really my natural mode, they are hard for me. I usually have to counter every happy story I write with something replete with explosions, bloody wounds, heartbreak, and excessive violence to fuel me through the next happy ending.

The Bellskis are my favorite couple of all the ones I’ve written in contemporary romance, so I would like to try something else with them – but it’s also hard because you reach a point where you’ve put your characters through a lot. After a while you’re like – “leave him alone!”

Tell us something surprising. Anything. Go on. Surprise us!

I once fell in a manhole.

Like, a perfect, Astrid-sized manhole. I was walking along the road with friends in Central Asia, where all the manholes have been stolen and melted down. Anyway, one second I’m just chatting “blah blah ermergerd blah” and then I’m in a hole.

I fell straight in, which sort of defies physics, in that I didn’t  hit the sides or anything. I had a large friend with me and he reached down and immediately lifted me out of the hole. He tried to ask “are you all right” before bursting into laughter, but he failed.

Also surprising: I can’t burp. Tight throat sphincter, I’m told. Ew.

Author, Author! Z.A. MAXFIELD

I first met Z.A. Maxfield back in 2007. I was very new to social media and the web and I had just started to blog very tentatively over on Live Journal. I didn't fully (or at all) get how these things worked, so I was mostly babbling to myself, but somehow I began to collect a circle of LJ friends, and we had some really wonderful discussions about books and writing and life in general. One of those friends was Z.A. Maxfield who stood out from the first with her witty, literate, and thoughtful comments. That woman ought to be published, I privately thought. And Lo! It came to pass. Z.A. is now one of the first names to pop up when readers ask for suggestions for smart, funny, and poignant M/M romance.

Next Tuesday, August 20th, Z.A. has her first release with InterMix, the digital imprint of Penguin.  My Cowboy Heart is very possibly the first M/M romance title by an indie author to be  published by a mainstream publisher, and that's exciting news for our little genre. There are a lot of reasons to hope this book is successful, not least is because ZAM has worked hard and earned this moment. Anyway, I preordered the book the minute it was live on Amazon, and I'm thinking YOU should too!

Sha-ZAM!

So we first met on Live Journal, wasn't it? What were you doing there? Is it true you were on parole? But seriously, how did you go from lurking on LJ to published author?

You might find this amusing. I discovered Live Journal because I was looking for YOU Josh Lanyon. I only actually joined LJ because I wanted to comment on your Just Joshin' blog.

At that time I had been writing for a while, although I wasn’t yet contracted for publication. I had three novels completed, and I had just gotten to the point of submitting one to some independent publisher’s slush pile. It seemed logical to choose a publisher from the ones who published authors I had been reading.

My first submission got rejected by one publisher, but then I sent a different manuscript to Loose Id and they accepted it. After I had undergone some edits at Loose Id, I tightened up the other manuscript, and it was accepted at Aspen Mountain Press. The rest, as they say, is history.

Do you believe the sins of the father shall be visited upon the sons?

I hope not, and I hope a mothers’ sins won’t be visiting anyone – especially my kids -- either.

You have a book coming out with Penguin's InterMix imprint. Congratulations! My Cowboy Heart is InterMix's first tentative toe dipping into the turbulent, roiling waters of M/M Romance. I'm excited for you. Are you mostly excited or mostly scared? What do you think this book means for your writing career?

I can’t help but be both excited and scared. For my writing career, it’s very nice to be a Penguin Author. Yet I wonder, as quirky as I am, if I’m the best person to do a gay cowboy novel for the mainstream romance market.

I have to admit, I love, love, loved seeing my book there on their Penguin page: http://www.us.penguingroup.com/pages/intermix/

But I could make a case for fifty authors that I know personally who might be a better fit for a mainstream book line.

I wasn’t going to turn them down, was I?

It was great fun, but I'm not a comfortable trailblazer. I usually leave that to others. I suppose this only means that my friends, writers who deserve to be trailblazers in their own right, have a much better chance of getting their work out there too.

Is it true you set the fire?

I did not, but I worried an awful lot someone might come to that conclusion, because I’d only two weeks before ordered escape ladders for my upstairs bedrooms. (I did that because of a news article about a family unable to escape a house that burned down on Christmas Eve.)

What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned while researching My Cowboy Heart?

I had to research how long a dog has to be immobilized after an amputation. I wondered how hard my characters would have to work to keep a dog from a fairly active breed contained while she healed. It turns out they’re up on the remaining legs fairly quickly and they heal fast. 

Boxers or briefs? No, seriously. Why should this question be reserved for male authors? Why shouldn't everyone have to answer?

Neither, which -- not to give anyone granny panty nightmares -- should also not be a great surprise.

Are you a fulltime writer?

Yes. My full time job is writing, but it hardly counts because I went from full time stay-at-home mother to full time writer, so it wasn’t as if I had to write enough to cover my missing salary.

What's the last piece of music you listened to? Did you sing along?

Verdi’s Aida, and no. :D

Which of your children is your favorite? KIDDING!!! How did you and the Mister meet?

I met my husband at the Rocky Horror Picture show on Halloween, 1982. I was with a couple of friends, and he sat two seats to my right. After a bit of flirty conversation I invited him to fill the empty seat between us. We haven’t stopped talking since.

 

What are you working on now?

Right now I’m working on a series called The Brothers Grime, about a crime scene clean up company owned by three men, Jack, Eddie, and Gabe. Each man gets his own story. The first was Grime and Punishment, about Jack. The second is Eddie’s story, Grime Doesn’t Pay, and the third, Partners in Grime, is about Gabe.

What do you love most about writing? What do you like least?

I love that moment when it all works, when you’re writing with the figurative wind at your back and ideas you’ve seeded into chapter two become really meaningful in chapter 22. I love when everything hits the fan and you know exactly what to do to fix things.

I don’t think I like anything least. I find it difficult emerging from the cave of my imagination to promote the work because it seems like that requires a different set of muscles entirely. I’ll bet you know what I mean by that. I thought writing was going to be all lonely and it turns out, I spend half my time writing emails. I love the people I write to, and I really need the community, but it takes my head out of the game.

Switching back and forth from writer to social animal is what I like least because it's difficult for me.

Have you ever broken a bone? Have you ever broken anyone else's bones?

Nope to both. Which… I’m an old gal, so I’m really grateful. *Goes to find some wood to knock on.*

What do you think is the most important thing to remember when creating fully realized main characters?

Great characters are flawed. They believe lies about themselves. They ache for wanting things they’ll never get. A fully realized character -- to me -- is consistent, but never consistently good, or consistently bad.

Is there any genre you'd like to tackle but you're kinda sorta afraid?

I want to write mysteries. I have always wanted to write mysteries. I fear I lack the complexity of mind. *sobs*. The almost-mystery books I’ve written are mostly only suspenseful, and not mysterious. I keep thinking I have one in the works, but then… Nope. Not yet. Maybe someday soon.

Tell us something surprising. Anything. Go on. Surprise us!

I’m pregnant with my second set of twins. That was a lie. But admit it, you were surprised for a second, weren’t you?

(My jaw did drop, yes!) ;-D