Interview with Clancy Nacht

Today, I’d like to welcome author Clancy Nacht to The Dancing Dove!

The Dancing Dove: Where/When was your first book published?
Clancy Nacht: My first book, "The Night Caller" was published April of 2009. Before that I was writing fanfiction like a fiend and sort of used to the slings and arrows of criticism. Or so I thought. Like an impatient dork, I self-published and not in the cool Smashwords way, but in the "paying someone more than is reasonable" way. I did buy some editing and con friends into helping me, but I also found out the hard way that people love taking pot shots at self-published titles. Since then I've been published with Ravenous Romance, Noble Romance, Clies Press, and Dreamspinner Press.

TDD: What was it like when your first book was published?
CN: Scary, exciting, but also a little like a drop in an ocean (pre-oil spill.) As exciting and big of a deal as it was to me, the literary world doesn't fall at your feet. But that said, the first commenter I got from someone who understood it? Magic. And even bigger rush than seeing my words in print.

TDD: Do you have a favorite book? (Of yours) If so, why is it your favorite?
CN: Such a "Sophie's Choice" question. I love them all for different reasons. Even that first, black sheep novel because it was something I really believed needed to be published. I really loved "Tricky" published by Noble Romance because those characters were so difficult, so bitter and hurt and angry over a past they each had their own flawed interpretation of. Plus the voice of the main character, a male prostitute, was so strong. But I also have a huge soft spot for a short story I wrote in "Bedknobs and Beanstalks" called "Jack and the Giant Peenstalk." Obviously, that story is much less serious.

TDD: What made you start writing fiction?
CN: It sort of spawned out of role playing, following through on plots that I thought would've been much more interesting had they gone a different way. I was working from home at the time and killing time while waiting for clients to get back to me. After my father died, it turned into a form of therapy. I could work through feelings of regret, loss, anger, poke fun at myself, my situation, the world in general, it just sort of crept up on me. Anymore these stories get in my head and won't go away. Writing's become an exorcism.

TDD: How often do you write?
CN: I try to write at least an hour every day. Usually I write for a couple. Now that I have a regular day job (speaking of therapy, "Dead End Job" sort of covers my feelings on my day job) I have to steal time over lunch or in the evenings.

TDD: Is writing your full time job or do you have another occupation?
CN: Hah! Speaking of.... Yeah, I have a sort of bureaucratic nightmare day job. I'd love to write full time. If there are any virgins to sacrifice, please point me in their direction. They're pretty scarce here in Austin.

Is there a certain place you like to write? The beach, the library, a comfy spot on the couch?
I have several desks in the house and I also write at my work desk or in the park, or on my couch, really anywhere. It changes a lot. Makes the netbook my most important asset.

What's your least favorite part of the writing process?
I have a love/hate relationship with editing. We're on an up cycle right now, but I'm sure he'll find some way to do me wrong. I love it when I'm bereft of ideas and I just want to make the ideas I have shine. I hate editing when I have other stories chomping my brain stem.

TDD: Do you have any works-in-progress you'd like to tell the readers about?
CN: Oh well I have a cyberpunk scifi story that's almost finished. The last one of those I wrote didn't go far, but I put it on Smashwords as "Stay." Someone called it innovative, which I'm so proud of. This one has more romance involved but there's a lot going on, a lot of issues involving an alternate reality where the ozone layer went away and an alien race came in that saved us, but there's more subtle politics going on there with technology and tracking and people who are Subversives, people who want to live their lives as they see fit.

The other is of a similar vein, in that it's post-apocolyptic with zombies, but this time it's magic that's the culprit. It's very cracky and fun, but it has some real human moments and some real human issues with gay rights.

Then I have a co-written May-December DILF story that I'm pretty proud of because I feel like you see a wider range of homosexual behavior that doesn't completely center around penetration. It has a lot of themes of regret, on doing what you're told to do rather than what you want to do and then experiencing life as it's meant to be. I really love it. It says a lot of things I want to say, I hope it broadens readers minds a little beyond the traditional romance trope. The December gentleman is dealing with coming to the close of his life having done everything he was supposed to do, his regret. The May man is dealing with the loss of his best friend and with how life goes on, how he finds love and finds his own way. I love how they fit together though they're opposites in some ways. But they turn out to be just what they need.

TDD: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell the readers? (Contact info, upcoming books, exclusive website content, etc.)
CN: Upcoming is "A Certain Pressure in the Pipes" on Noble Romance, which is a m/m Steampunk story set in the US in the Gilded Age. It centers around an unusual Indian and a bratty Governor's son who are both inventors and both a little different. It's pretty hot and funny. I think it's a perfect summer read. I would call this very low angst and a whole lot of fun and silly and lusting over the hot alpha Indian. It's out June 28 from Noble Romance. I love the story and the publisher, so I hope everyone else loves it as much as I do.

Please feel free to see what I'm babbling about on my website, Twitter, or Facebook.

Thank you so much for joining us, Clancy! I wish you the best of luck with your writing. =)

You can purchase The Night Caller and Bedknobs and Beanstalks on Amazon.com.