Interview with Rowan Speedwell

Today I would like to welcome author Rowan Speedwell to The Dancing Dove! This interview was actually supposed to go up about two weeks ago but things got a little mixed up. Sorry for the long wait, but here it is!

The Dancing Dove: Where/When was your first book published?
Rowan Speedwell: May 7, 2010 from Dreamspinner Press.

TDD: What was it like when your first book was published?
RS: Well, I read the email and then sat there for a few minutes, hyperventilating and shaking my hands, which had gone numb with shock. Dreamspinner was only the second place I’d submitted it, and it was only three weeks after the submission. I’d been prepared to wait months and then get rejected a dozen times before I found a publisher; all the Creative Writing classes I’d taken all said that your first novel would take at least a year to find a publisher AFTER you finished the book. For me, it was a matter of the book being in print less than a year after I STARTED it. Which was amazing and unbelievable!!

TDD: What was your inspiration for “Finding Zach”?
RS: A Public Service Announcement – actually, a poster of a young, dark-haired man in prison, seen from behind with his hands cuffed behind his back. It was something about not buying guns for felons, but it struck a chord with me—what if it wasn’t anything so mundane as a prison? What if he were being held hostage? How much worse could I make it…? It all sort of snowballed from there. I blended in some elements of a previous (unfinished!) story and came up with the general premise, of a young man trying to find his way back from a horrible experience. Then I tried to ask questions about how the recovery process would work, what would be his feelings, how would the people around him react, what would I do if it were someone I loved who went through that? I’ve had issues that I’ve had to deal with through therapy—the panic attacks were described from personal experience—and so that’s where that came from. In many ways it’s a very personal book, even though the actual events and characters—and even the setting—are outside my ken. (I’ve only ever been through Colorado by train…!)

I started “Zach” as an exercise to see if I could write—and finish!—a book I would enjoy reading. Even though I’ve read it about six hundred times now, I still like it!

TDD: Is there any chance of a sequel to “Finding Zach”?
RS: Mmm… Maybe not a novel, but I’d like to check in on Jerry, David’s ex. I rather liked him. And a couple of people asked me what happens to Brian.

TDD: What made you start writing M/M fiction?
RS: I’ve always found the heroes more interesting than the heroines, whether I’m writing them or reading them. I only started reading m/m a couple of years ago and just loved it—I get to have two heroes and no heroines to distract me! For some reason it makes it easier for me to get deeper into the story. I care more about the characters. There’s more risk, more danger, more angst—and a lot of the time more humor, more honesty, more reality. It may be something about the way humans are hard-wired, but the psychosocial needs of women in regards to relationship seem to depend more on the social courtship rituals. It probably has to do with their need to build social networks for the support of their offspring. Men, not so much. Makes for a different dynamic.

When I started thinking about Zach, I knew right away he was gay; it wasn’t as if I’d just taken a female character and “switched” him the way some writers of m/m do, but an organic part of Zach’s personality. I think what happens to Zach during his captivity is more devastating because he IS gay. Neither David nor Zach is the slightest bit effeminate; they are what they are and they just happen to be gay, too.

TDD: How often do you write?
RS: Five days a week. I try to write at least a thousand words a day, even if I have to throw out most of it the next day. I think about the story constantly, so that when I have the time to actually write, it’s productive time.

TDD: Is writing your full time job or do you have another occupation?
RS: I think if it were my full-time job, I’d probably never write. I’m a procrastinator, so having a very tight schedule actually means I get more done. I’m a law librarian and database manager. I write on my lunch hour.

TDD: Is there a certain place you like to write? The beach, the library, a comfy spot on the couch?
RS: No, those are places I read!! Actually, the library IS where I write, since I’m a librarian, but only on my lunch hour. Sitting in front of a computer all day is my job; when I clock out for lunch, I pull up my story and get to work for an hour. Then I go back to work. Of course, I’m THINKING about the story all the time!!

TDD: What's your least favorite part of the writing process?
RS: Of the actual writing process, the part where I have to throw out huge amounts of text to get the story back on track. That’s sad, but it’s part of the game. I can deal with that. The hardest part of the whole thing is the marketing—I’m SO not a self-promoter. And you really have to sell yourself these days to get your name out there. The whole social media thing is not me.

TDD: Do you have any works-in-progress you'd like to tell the readers about?
RS: I’m working on a Regency / Napoleonic-era historical involving my two favorite hero tropes of that genre: the dashing rake and the heroic cavalry officer. It’s very different from Zach: different setting, different time, different pacing. I’m not sure how it will be received, but I hope to have at least the first draft done by the time this interview is posted.

TDD: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell the readers? (Contact info, upcoming books, exclusive website content, etc.)
RS: I have a Facebook page called “Friends of Rowan Speedwell” and a blog. I’m also on Goodreads and GLBT Bookshelf. I have a LiveJournal account but so far it’s inactive, and I’m too skeered to Tweet.

I hope to have more stuff published soon!!

Thanks for your time, Ralph!!

Thank you for joining me, Rowan! I wish you the best of luck with your work!

You can purchase Finding Zach on Amazon.com

Interview with Barbara Sheridan

Author Barbara Sheridan was kind enough to do an interview with The Dancing Dove this week!

The Dancing Dove: Do you have a favorite book? (Of those you’ve written.) If so, why is it your favorite?
Barbara Sheridan: I think it would have to be Silk & Poison which I co-wrote with Anne Cain. The characters Shu & Toshiro are two of my favorite and their fictional universe spawned many other books and characters.

TDD: I noticed you’ve co-written a lot of books. Do you prefer to co-write or write solo?
BS: Co-writing is a lot of fun in the same way that reading is fun because you’re not quite sure what will happen next and where the other writee will take certain scenes or characters.

TDD: What made you start writing M/M fiction?
BS: I think I have to “blame it” on Anne Rice. I so loved Louis and Lestat back when I read Interview With the Vampire when it first came out and I hated that she let them drift apart.

TDD: How often do you write?
BS: I try to daily, but for the past few weeks I haven’t written a word. Just not been feeling the fictional love.

TDD: Is writing your full time job or do you have another occupation?
BS: Writing is it for the present. My last regular paycheck job was in retail. I was downsized.

TDD: Is there a certain place you like to write? The beach, the library, a comfy spot on the couch?
BS: My “office” also known as a corner of the diningroom.

TDD: What's your least favorite part of the writing process?
BS: Knowing that something in a book is “off” but not quite knowing how to fix it.

TDD: Do you have any works-in-progress you'd like to tell the readers about?
BS: Aleksandr Voinov and I have started a third book in our espionage series with Dreamspinner Press. I’m trying to work out a few research things for a book that ties in to the Beautiful C*cksucker books with Noble Romance.

TDD: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell the readers? (Contact info, upcoming books, exclusive website content, etc.)
BS: On the solo front I have an historical western novella coming From Dreamspinner on June 30th It’s called MOST WANTED and Aleks and I have two things upcoming RISKY MANEUVERS from Loose Id on July 6 and we should soon be editing FIRST BLOOD book two in our spy series with Dreamspinner.

Readers can find out more on the above at my website. There's also some exclusive web content tied into the books I co-wrote with Anne Cain at our Dragon’s Disciple site.


Thank you for joining me, Barbara! I wish you the best of luck with your books.

You can purchase Beautiful C*cksucker II - Such a Good Boy, Blood Brothers, and Clean Slate at Amazon.com

Interview with Raev Gray

Today I’d like to welcome author Raev Gray to The Dancing Dove!

The Dancing Dove: When was your first book published?
Raev GrayThe ink is still wet on my m/m cred! “Test of Faith” was my first bound book published. It came out officially on May 3 of this year. Before that, we (Aleks and I) released “Spoils of War,” our Greek myth-inspired short, on Smashwords.

TDD: How does the co-writing with Aleks work? Do you alternate between chapters, does one person write it and the other go in and edit it?
RG: We’ve done it a couple of different ways. A lot of our work was written roleplay-style, with each of us controlling specific characters. I’d write maybe 50 words, then he’d do the same. For our more recent stuff, we’ve tried a different method. We share characters and do the story round-robin style. He’ll write 250 words or so, then I’ll add to it. For either method, we use(d) Etherpad. That’s now defunct, but there are a couple of clones we’ve been eyeing. You can’t beat programs like that for real-time collaboration. I can see what Aleks is typing as he’s typing. It’s sort of spooky, but it’s very convenient.

TDD: Out of all of your characters, do you have a favorite?
RG: Abdul Basir from “Test of Faith” is definitely one, and Lucian from Blood Run Cold. I also love Micah from Chaosborn, one of our WIPs. I tend to become absolutely infatuated with at least one character per story. Usually it’s the one who does whatever the hell he wants and screw everybody else, or the one who’s so f’ed up he almost can’t bear his own company. (Sometimes that happens in the same character.) I find character neuroses fascinating.

TDD: What made you want to write M/M romance?
RG: I’m a “why not?” kind of person. When Aleks and I first started writing together, it (the project that turned into Blood Run Cold) was basically crack-fic, a crossover between two of our more amusing characters (they turned into Lucian and Frederik). I never considered publication, to be honest, until Aleks mentioned it. I blame him for my addiction.

TDD: Is writing your full time job or do you have another occupation?
RG: *laughs* You could say writing indeed is my full-time job. I teach writing. This summer, I’m teaching two classes of non-native speakers for a special program at my graduate alma mater, and starting this fall, I’ll be teaching full-time at a community college.

TDD: Is there a certain place you like to write? The beach, the library, a comfy spot on the couch?
RG: Oddly, I don’t have a special place I like to write. I write long-hand, so I can do it anywhere: at my desk at work, outside, at home on my bed, on the couch, at Starbucks (no dirty thoughts!). Anywhere suits me just fine. It really depends on my mood. I like a little background noise most of the time. It can be music or just the white noise of people talking.

TDD: What's your least favorite part of the writing process?
RG: About halfway through, I’ve usually tied myself in a Gordian knot and have to pick my way out of the hot mess I’ve made of the plot. I’m a problem-solver by nature, so eventually I get it untied, but I find it really frustrating. I actually don’t mind editing so much. Again with the problem-solving.

TDD: Do you have any works-in-progress you'd like to tell the readers about?
RG: Oh, do I. Actually, I’m working on a couple of solo urban fantasy projects under the pen name Vivien Weaver, which I use for non-erotic work. One is part of a series, and one is a serial novel slated for Candlemark & Gleam, a new publishing venture run by the awesome K.S. Olcott. Aleks and I always have several projects on the burners, as well. I won’t get started, or I’ll be here all day. For fans of “Test of Faith,” I plan on writing an Abdul-centric prequel sometime before the year is up, too.

TDD: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell the readers? (Contact info, upcoming books, exclusive website content, etc.)
RG: I’m everywhere. You can find me on Facebook, at LiveJournal, Twitter, and Wordpress (all raevgray) and at http://raevgray.weebly.com. My email is raev . gray at gmail.

I also do graphic design—I made the covers for all of our work thus far. My graphic design site is http://raevgraydesign.weebly.com. I take commissions, although because this summer is extremely hectic because I’m moving in August, I can’t put a real rush on anything at the moment. August, though, I should be well settled.

If you’re interested in my non-erotic urban fantasy work, my pen name, as I mentioned above, is Vivien Weaver. Still working on most of that stuff, but I plan on making a website eventually with outtakes and maybe some free stuff. I’ll post updates about that on my Wordpress.

Thanks for having me, Ralph! It’s been a pleasure. I’d also like to thank all of our/my readers. You guys seriously make my life with your reviews and comments. I’m so happy to know and interact with so many amazing people.

Thank you so much for joining us, Raev! I enjoyed interviewing you and I wish you the best with your books.


You can purchase Blood Run Cold  and Test of Faith on Amazon.com

Interview with Aleksandr Voinov

The Dancing Dove would like to welcome author Aleksandr Voinov! Aleks was kind enough to take a few moments out of his busy schedule to do an interview with us! I hope you enjoy it. =)

Aleks is the author and co-author of many popular M/M romance books including "Test of Faith," "Special Forces," "Spoils of War" and many others. Aleks has written about 13 novels and has published with five German publishers. He has been called a "workaholic speed-writing freak."

The Dancing Dove: When/where was your first book published?
Aleksandr Voinov: That’s a tricky question, since I published five fantasy/sci-fi paperbacks in Germany. I think the first one was in 2001ish, but I had two short story sales before that. The first sale ever was when I was around 15/16.
The first English-language fiction sale was a historical m/m short story, “Deliverance”, which is about a Templar choosing between faith, hour, love and obligation. “Deliverance” went into the “Forbidden Love” anthology by Noble Romance.

TDD: What was it like when your first book was published?
AV: I think I was high for about three weeks to actually see something solid with my name on it. I did what everybody does – run around telling everybody, expecting the world to stop and worship me and I thought I was God’s gift to literature. It took a few years to beat that out of me.

TDD: I see that you have a book coming out soon with Carina Press. What’s it like working with the new publishing house? Are they any different than the smaller M/M publishing houses?
AV: My editor, Deborah Nemeth, originally worked at Samhain, so I met her when I subbed something to Samhain which she turned down. We stayed in loose contact and then she told me that she’s going to join Carina. So I subbed to them because Deborah went there, rather than because of the publisher.
The editing process itself was super-smooth and very pleasant. Deborah has a real passion to support the writers she works with (it’s a co-prodcution with the awesome Kate Cotoner). So far I’m well impressed with Carina.
Are they different? I’ve had limited experience with other UK/US publishers. What’s definitely different is the contract. Carina’s contract is more modeled after Harlequin’s, so you sign different rights away and the royalty rate is also quite different.

TDD: You’ve been published with a whole slew of publishing houses, is there one that’s your favorite or that you prefer to work with?
AV: So far, I’ve had mostly positive relations with publishers. Noble Romance is great, Dreamspinner and Carina, too. I’ve had a bad experience with one publisher – basically their acquisitions editor was rude and told me I write like a beginner, which means I’ll never sub to them again. After twenty years of publishing, that was the singular case where I felt the publisher was full of sh*t.

TDD: I know you’ve tried your hand at self-publishing through Smashwords with “Spoils of War.” How did that work out for you?
AV: It worked out great, actually. We self-published “Spoils of War” (which is co-written with Raev Gray and deals with Achilles meeting Ares after having been killed) because we donated the story to eXcessica and didn’t have the exclusive rights anymore, which means we couldn’t sell it to a traditional publisher. On the whole, we’ve made as much money from that release as from selling it to a publisher. I was certainly surprised how well it worked, and there will be other books that we’ll self-publish if we don’t find a good fit with any of the publishers.


TDD: The book was offered at “Set Your Own Price,” how well did it sell? Did a lot of people actually pay for it or did more take it for free?
AV: That was a very interesting experiment. Most people took it for free – around 50-60% of them. However, those that DID pay paid enough that the average download for that story came out at around $2.50 – which, you’ll agree, is a lot of money for a short story of less than 7k words. So some people just paid a tenner, or a fiver. Some people emailed me and said they felt guilty for paying too little – because after they’d read it, they felt it was worth a lot more. If you calculate that a short story of similar length cost around 99 cents or maybe $1.29, I call that a resounding success. (And it surprised the hell out of me).

TDD: Out of the books you’ve written and co-written, do you have a favorite?
AV: Oh hell, that’s not easy. I love them all, in different ways. The thriller “Clean Slate” with Barbara Sheridan is high up the list, because it’s the kind of campy action fun with a dark psychological edge that I’d love to read more of. The historical novella “Test of Faith” with Raev Gray is some of the best and intense stuff I’ve ever done – even if publishers didn’t like it. Or, rather, they liked it fine, but asked for a different ending, which would have sold more copies but would have broken the story.
The historical “Lion of Kent” with Kate Cotoner was just so intense to write – the story is brimming with flavour and life and was just pure joy to write. One of my favourites ever is “Collateral”, which is a fanfiction novel I wrote with Gileonnen. That novel helped me avoid burn-out – I was in a bad place, creatively, in 2008, and “Collateral” (and Gil) reminded me that writing can be fun. Shocker, I know.
Generally speaking, the current favourite is the one I’m writing right now (trite, I know, but I have to love them or I wouldn’t find the discipline and faith to do it). I don’t write stuff I don’t believe in and I don’t like spending time with characters I don’t love/or love to hate.

TDD: What made you want to write M/M romance?
AV: I’ve always done it. With two exceptions, even my fantasy/sci-fi releases had a strong gay relationship at the core. But since I was writing for what the publisher thought were teenagers (fantasy/sci-fi has a lot of bad press in Germany), I couldn’t really explore the “icky” relationship, let alone write the sex. Doesn’t mean my characters weren’t doing it, but I had to exclude those scenes. With the stuff I’m writing and selling as “m/m romance”, I can finally keep the camera on when the guys do it.

TDD: How often do you write?
AV: I’m a compulsive-obsessive workaholic, so I get huge guilt-trips when I don’t write every day. Right now my life’s out of whack because I just moved into my own house and that was a huge project that consumed the muse and any creativity I have left goes into buying and placing furniture. I hope to be back to normal, but I keep sending my co-writers emails where I apologize that I’m “no good” at the moment.

TDD: Is writing your full time job or do you have another job?
I like to say that I live off writing, but truth is, I actually get a pay cheque for being a financial journalist reporting on stuff in markets that most people have never heard about, and even more people don’t care about. Which is fine. I also earn some money teaching advanced creative writing (so that publisher telling me I write like a beginner didn’t go down too well).

TDD: Is there a certain place you like to write? The beach, the library, a comfy chair?
AV: My desk, which has a huge flatscreen and faces a window looking out over the garden – before that, I was staring at a crème-coloured wall. But I can write in just about any location (apart from the office – I never want to get caught writing sex while at work, that would be just too weird. Also, the office is probably the least sexy place in the universe. At least ours was).

TDD: What part of the writing process is your least favorite?
AV: Writing blurbs. Condensing those thousands and thousands of words into 100-200 suspenseful words is a high art. I’m a trade journalist by profession, not a marketer, so that’s two totally different ways of writing.

TDD: Can you tell us about one of your works-in-progress?
AV: That one’s actually a solo project and called “Iron Cross” – it’s the story of a US Spitfire pilot getting shot down over France in 1941, where he meets a German officer. That one is very close to the bone, since I’m dealing with some family history there and my national history, or maybe “trauma” is the better word. Especially the latter part of the book, when Germany is in ruins and the German officer is only kept upright by his sense of integrity and his love for another man will be a pain to write. But it’s a story that hasn’t been done and needs to be told. Some stories choose you, rather than the other way round, and that one kicked down my door and demanded to be written, even though I thought it’s madness to try and write such a novel. However, it might be the one book, the best I’ll ever do, so I better get to it. Sometimes you just have to face it and grow with your challenges. This challenge is huge.

TDD: Do you have anything else you’d like to tell our readers? (Upcoming releases, giveaways, contact info, exclusive website content, etc.)
AV: Ah, yeah, more about me is on www.aleksandrvoinov.com, which has all the links and background info, and there’s a few free stories there (such as “Collateral”). My blog’s on www.aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com. I hang out a lot on Goodreads and Facebook. Next release is “Risky Maneuvers” with Barbara Sheridan from Loose Id in July, and “The Lion of Kent” with Kate Cotoner in August. In September, Dreamspinner is going to release “First Blood”, the sequel to “Clean Slate”. I did mention I’m a compulsive workaholic, right?

Thanks for having me!

Thank you for joining us, Aleks! I wish you the best of luck with everything.

Interview with Anne Brooke

Today I’d like to welcome author Anne Brooke to The Dancing Dove! Anne was kind enough to take the time out of her busy writing schedule to do an interview with me.

Short bio:
Anne Brooke’s fiction has been shortlisted for the Harry Bowling Novel Award, the Royal Literary Fund Awards and the Asham Award for Women Writers. She has also twice been the winner of the DSJT Charitable Trust Open Poetry Competition. Her latest novel is The Hit List, a romantic comedy about friends, family and fantasy hit lists.

The Dancing Dove: What was it like when your first book was published?
Anne Brooke: My first book to be published was my gay psychological thriller, A Dangerous Man, and I was hugely excited about it! I actually ran round the house dancing when my author copies arrived and I couldn’t stop looking at it. Which just goes to show how seriously sad I am!

TDD: Where/When was your first book published?
AB: A Dangerous Man was published in 2007 by a small UK publisher. I’m now thrilled to say that a new edition is set to be published in the US (and worldwide) later this year by Cheyenne Publishing, so I’m very much looking forward to that.

TDD: Do you have a favorite book? (Of yours) If so, why is it your favorite?
AB: Actually, I think I’d have to choose A Dangerous Man. It’s one of the darkest of my gay thriller novels, and I had the voice of my main character, artist/prostitute Michael Jones, in my head for so long that he all but took over. Which could on occasions be scary! Especially for my long-suffering husband. Even now I can hear Michael’s voice every so often, but he’s a whole lot stronger (and odder) than me so it can be useful sometimes …

TDD: Can you tell us a little about your upcoming book Martin and the Wolf?
AB: Yes, Martin and the Wolf is a fantasy short story about how different love can be. When 36-year-old lecturer Martin meets the mysterious Lucas at a midsummer party, the attraction is instant. The two men soon start a relationship, but Martin is puzzled by Lucas’ behaviour as he’s not like any other man he’s ever known. When one night, he tracks Lucas to the depths of the local park, Martin realizes more eye-opening truths about his new lover and the pack of strange wolves he runs with than he'd ever before thought possible.

TDD: What made you start writing fiction?
AB: I’ve been writing poetry for years, but then in 2000 I stalled due to personal reasons. After several months of being unable to write poetry, I complained bitterly to my mother about it (as usual!) and she told me to stop feeling sorry for myself and just to write prose instead. Brutal but it worked. I’ve been writing fiction ever since, and the poetry came back too in the end. Phew!
TDD: How often do you write?
AB: I try to write something every day, even if I’ve only got time for a poem or a haiku. I also try to continue whatever short story is on the go during half my week, and then the other half is spend on the current novel. On Sundays, I usually work on my spiritual novel, The Prayer Seeker’s Journa;, which I am blogging here: http://theprayerseeker.blogspot.com.

TDD: Is writing your full time job or do you have another occupation?
AB: From Mondays to Wednesdays I work as an Executive Assistant in the Student Care Services department at my local university (and those are the evenings I tend to devote to short story writing). On Thursdays and Fridays, I spend as much time as I can writing the current novel, and aim to complete about 1000 words per day. I also work as a regular reviewer for Vulpes Libris book reviews – http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com.

TDD: Is there a certain place you like to write? The beach, the library, a comfy spot on the couch?
AB: In terms of fiction, I always – or almost always! – write on my computer in the spare room. Beyond it, I can see out to the local woods, so that’s always very comforting when things aren’t going smoothly. Occasionally, I’ll write in longhand, but that’s rare. For poetry, I always write it out on paper first and then transfer to the computer. I couldn’t ever write poetry directly to the screen – I don’t know why but the very thought makes me go all peculiar!

TDD: What's your least favorite part of the writing process?
AB: Struggling with where a novel/story section is going – I hate it when the ideas dry up or when a scene just isn’t working out. I start to panic, thinking I’ll never solve it, but my husband is always very calming and supportive which is great. These days, I tend to leave it for a bit and write another scene or another story entirely, and when I come back to the one that was causing the problems, it doesn’t seem so bad.

TDD: Do you have any works-in-progress you'd like to tell the readers about?
AB: Yes, at the moment, I’m writing the third book of my ongoing fantasy trilogy, The Executioner’s Cane, and I’m about one-third through. The first of the series, The Gifting, has been accepted for publication by Bluewood Publishing in New Zealand, so I’m thrilled about that. I’m also writing a lesbian erotic short story, Butterfly Girl, which is in the very early stages but I think I’ve got the ending in mind now, so that’s a relief. Alongside all this, the ongoing prayer novel continues, as does the poetry. So I’m keeping busy!

TDD: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell the readers? (Contact info, upcoming books, exclusive website content, etc.)
AB: Thanks very much for the interview – the questions have really made me think. I can be contacted via my website at http://www.annebrooke.com which has a contact page and where all information on me and my writing can be found. I also blog regularly at: http://annebrooke.blogspot.com. Upcoming books are:

Angels and Airheads (gay fantasy short story) on 12 June at Torquere Press.

Martin and the Wolf (gay fantasy short story) on 13 June at Amber Allure Press.

The Boilerman and the Bride (romantic short story with erotic content) on 4 July at Amber Quill Press.

Tuluscan Six and the Time Circle (gay fantasy short story) on 18 July at Amber Allure Press.

Plus Cheyenne Publishing will bring out the new edition of A Dangerous Man in the autumn.

Many thanks for reading!


Thanks again for joining us, Anne! I wish you great success with your books.

Interview with Kate Cotoner

Today, I’d like to welcome author Kate Cotoner to The Dancing Dove. Kate was kind enough to stop by and do an interview with me.

The Dancing Dove: What was it like when your first book was published?
Kate Cotoner: It’s a terribly unglamorous answer, I’m afraid *g* As is usual with small presses, release dates aren’t set in stone and I didn’t know when the story would be published. I went on holiday well out of range of the internet and when I came back I’d had a series of increasingly worried emails from my editor saying ‘um, where are you, we want to release this in a few days!’ I was a bit ‘OMG’ about it but fortunately the edits were extremely light, about twenty minutes’ work. So when release day came around, I was just pleased that we’d managed to beat the deadline!

TDD: Where/When was your first book published?
KC: It’s a wee short story called Enslaved, about a crusader and a Saracen, which I wrote in response to an anthology call from Torquere Press. The anthology didn’t happen, but Torquere published the story as a standalone in September last year. There was a limit of something like 7000 words, and if I could do things differently I’d have extended it a little as the characters were interesting guys in an interesting situation and time.

TDD: Do you have a favorite book? If so, why is it your favorite?
KC: Of my own? (I hope so, because I couldn’t pick my favorite book from anyone else—the list is too long!) Hmm, this is difficult, because generally as soon as I’ve finished a story I kind of forget about it and move on. I have a couple of unpublished books that I love, but they need editing! So of my published works, my favorite is ‘Conduit’, which is actually a short story in the anthology Echoes of the Future (Noble Romance). It’s a dystopian sort-of cyberpunk story about a baseline human cop, Ismail, who’s called upon by his ex-husband Toki, who’s a genetic upgrade and former city-state oligarch, to investigate a portable AI criminal who wants to wipe out all the baseline humans in Dun Eideann (Edinburgh). I never thought I’d write sci-fi, it was one of those genres that did nothing for me, but the anthology editor Aleksandr Voinov invited me to write something and I gave it a go. First attempt was rubbish, second attempt I nailed it, and I like the characters so much I want to continue writing about them. That doesn’t happen very often!

TDD: I see that you also have a book published in Chinese (forgive me if I’m wrong with the language, I’m horrible at telling them apart). Was the writing process any different for that book? Can you tell us a little about the book?
KC: You’re right, it is Chinese *g* It’s called Fire On The Mountain, though the title is slightly different in Chinese to fit a particular proverb. A Taiwanese friend and I had a fiction column on a huge Chinese site called MyFreshNet, where readers vote for their favorite stories—I would write the stories in English, my friend translated them—and we were pretty popular, especially since I was something of a ‘novelty Westerner’. I decided to try and write a story geared towards a Chinese audience, but using a European setting. I tend to write a lot hotter than the average Chinese BL story, so we had some pretty funny comments on the erotic content! Eventually the story was picked up by Uei-Shiang, which is the biggest BL publisher in Taiwan. The process was slightly different in that I had to sometimes amend the thinking or behavior of the characters to better reflect Chinese attitudes, and my friend pushed me to explain certain things—usually turns of phrase or general knowledge stuff—that a Westerner takes for granted. The story itself is about an archaeologist and a museum curator ‘armchair historian’ who both want the permit for a particular dig site in Greece. They’re sent to excavate together and end up fighting off antiquities thieves and dealing with the machinations of Greek gods as they argue their way into bed and into love. It’s very tongue-in-cheek and it’s a story that was a lot of fun to write.

TDD: What made you start writing fiction?
KC: I guess it’s the desire to entertain and educate, in a way—in terms of myself and the reader. All fiction should entertain, and I believe fiction has a didactic purpose, too. When I read a book, whether it’s Wolf Hall or The Brazilian Playboy’s Secret Mistress, I like to be able to learn something from it—doesn’t matter what, I just like to finish the book thinking, ‘wow, I never knew X ’. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that I first started writing stories for my friends at the back of English classes in school!

TDD: How often do you write?
KC: I try to write every day, but sometimes that doesn’t happen. Everyone says you should write every day, and for me it’s true—I find that if I have significant time away (longer than a week), it takes forever for me to get back into the groove and I’m constantly being distracted by things like washing up or folding clothes or checking Twitter!

TDD: Is writing your full time job or do you have another occupation?
KC: Writing is more of a hobby. I have two day-jobs—I work in a museum as an archivist, researcher, and exhibitions organizer, and I also do freelance academic and technical editing. I used to edit erotic romance for an e-publisher, but had to give that up due to time restrictions. There are only so many hours in the day, after all…

TDD: Is there a certain place you like to write? The beach, the library, a comfy spot on the couch?
KC: I have a space screened off in a bedroom—literally I have a folding screen that’s pulled out to mark the area, and behind it I have my very untidy desk and a laptop and a printer that needs to be replaced. The writing space used to be beside the window, but my optician told me that positioning a laptop near a source of sunlight is a bad idea—it’s better for your eyes if the area around the laptop is slightly darker. So now my writing space is at the back of the room.

TDD: What's your least favorite part of the writing process?
KC: Honestly, this changes from story to story. Sometimes I fuss about the start, sometimes I get bogged down in the middle, sometimes I can’t find the right title, sometimes I fret about whether or not I’ve gathered up all the loose ends as I go towards the end of a project… Editing is usually an interesting process, and I usually learn something from it, even if I often wish there could be a consistent set of rules applied across all publishers, just to make authors’ lives easier!

TDD: Do you have any works-in-progress you'd like to tell the readers about?
KC: Sure—I’m working on two novellas for Torquere at the moment, one called The Puppet Master, which is set in the coffee houses of early 17th century Istanbul. The plot revolves around the owner of a coffee house who’s in love with his friend, a puppet master of Karagöz theatre (Turkish shadow plays). I love Istanbul and the period of Ottoman rule is something I find particularly interesting for its uneasy and often hypocritical marriage of public morality and private excess.

Still in the planning and research stage is a story tentatively entitled Malachite, for Torquere’s Color Box line—I picked, yep, you guessed it: malachite! I really enjoy the concept of this series, and have contributed two books towards it—Thunder (violet) is already out, and The Imperial Cat (kikujin, olive green) is due to be released in October. Malachite will be set in the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt and the plot revolves around the copper mines of Sinai.

TDD: Do you have anything else you'd like to tell the readers?
KC: I have a bunch of releases coming up in the next few months! Four of ‘em *gulp* ranging from contemporary to historical to paranormal. First up is Hand of Glory (June 12, from Torquere Press), a contemporary mystery/suspense about an architect and an Anglican priest who are trying to unravel the mystery of a rather grisly artifact, a Hand of Glory (the hand of a criminal chopped off after death and used as a candle to light the way for thieves!). It’s my first attempt at writing a ‘sweet’ romance, too.

Later in June there’s The Fall of a State (date TBA, from Dreamspinner Press), a historical set in ancient China about an Emperor and his new favorite, a qin player (a qin is a type of zither), set against the backdrop of palace politics. This is based on actual historical personalities.

Then in July there’s a contemporary paranormal, Basilisk (July 7, from Torquere Press), a light-hearted romp about an American in London who accidentally gets caught up in the secret underground world of Greek gods and who ends up partnered with a sweet-natured but ultimately deadly basilisk.

Finally, there’s The Lion of Kent (August, from Carina Press), co-written with Aleksandr Voinov, a historical set in 12th century England about a medieval squire determined to win his spurs and impress his lord. This is the first in a trilogy about the most typical and symbolic of masculine medieval pursuits—hunting, tournaments, and crusading—and Lion of Kent explores the first of those themes.

Interested readers can always check out the latest updates and excerpts on my website: www.katecotoner.com.

Thank you, Dancing Dove, for having me here today and for such a fun interview!

Thank you, Kate, for joining us today! I wish you great success with your books!