Elizabetta interviews KJ Charles, author of “A Case of Possession, A Charm of Magpies #2

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Interview:

We’re very excited to have KJ Charles here at the Blog of Sid Love today.

Charles burst onto the slash scene with the publication of her very popular first novel, The Magpie Lord (A Charm of Magpies), earlier this year. The second book in the series, A Case of Possession, is due out on January 28th, and is hotly anticipated.

The setting is the Victorian era; it seems that Charles has an affinity for that time period. Let’s find out why, and get to know Crane and Stephen a little better…

Elizabetta: Welcome, and thanks so much for stopping by!

KJ Charles: Thanks! I have a particular love for this blog because you were the first review of The Magpie Lord that I saw, and you gave it five stars. I recall dancing round the room yelping incoherently and waving my phone at my husband. So, thanks for that!

Ebetta: You are very welcome. It was a joy to read and review. You had such a fantastic reception to The Magpie Lord! I know I loved it 🙂    

Did you have any clue that your very first publication would be met with such enthusiasm?

KJC: Not even remotely. I thought it would be far too niche to get noticed, so I’m delighted by the number of people who have taken to it.

Ebetta: There’s a fair share of fright and gore in these books. What’s that like to write? 

KJC: I love writing horror. I have to picture it in my head, see and feel what’s happening. Not just thinking ‘ew, giant rats’, but imagining the sound and smell of them, the texture of their fur. Once I’ve got it vividly enough to really freak myself out, it goes on paper.

Ebetta: What was the hardest part of the books to write? The most fun?

KJC: The hardest part is always plotting. I’m not a natural plotter. The most fun is definitely cranking up the sexual tension. I love doing that. Really amping it up and seeing how long they can stand it before someone cracks. /rubs hands evilly/

Ebetta: And we so enjoy the fruits of your efforts… Were you an avid reader as a kid? What did you like? Any scary movies that stood out?

KJC: I read and read. I barely put down a book, day or night. My daughter is just the same and I finally understand why it annoyed my parents so much. (‘Will you stop trying to put on your tights with a book in your hand?!’)

I loved Diana Wynne Jones with an overwhelming passion, she is one of the great fantasy writers of all time. Anything by E Nesbit. I read The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren over and over, and cried myself to sleep every time.

Scary movies on the other hand, I can’t do. They just freak me out too much, not while watching but afterwards. I have an overactive and malevolent imagination.

Ebetta: I can tell you that one of the scariest movies I’ve seen is ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ (the 1963 version with Julie Harris). I was totally frightened watching it yet I couldn’t pull myself away… still gives me shivers to think of it!  What is with this attraction to reading/watching scary stuff?

KJC: I’ve never seen the film, but I read the book aged about 25, on a lovely summer evening, while my flatmates were away, and ended up having to cross London to go stay the night with my mother. No joke. I knew that otherwise I would spend the entire night paralysed with terror, twitching every time a floorboard creaked. My imagination hates me.

I think the appeal of horror is the emotional workout – just as with romance. Some days you might want a book that appeals mainly to your thinking brain or your aesthetic sense. Some days you want to plug the words directly into your nervous system, you want a massive shot of adrenalin or endorphins. In the most wonderful books, you get all of that.

Ebetta: I love the atmosphere you create, setting the Magpie stories in the Victorian era. It’s clear you feel very comfortable here. What can you tell us about writing a gay couple in this inhospitable world? Why do Crane and Stephen work better here than in, say, a modern setting?

KJC: I love writing Victorian. That’s my favourite era. It’s on the cusp of the modern world, there’s such a tension between old and new, science and religion, industrial and magic. Propriety and sex. (Plus, when you go Victorian, you don’t have to deal with that miserable plot-ruining device, the mobile phone.)

And I love Victorian fiction, Victorian settings, but I hate that gay people, particularly men, are, for obvious reasons, virtually invisible in the fiction of the time. I want there to be Victorian queer fiction. I’m currently writing a series of short stories, The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal, with a strongly Victorian voice and feel – much more so than the Magpies – just because it’s something I always wanted to read (and if you want something done, do it yourself, right?).

In a modern setting, Crane would probably have become one of those economy-ruining  bankers we all loathe. Merrick would be in a special forces unit somewhere and would never have met him. Stephen would be about six inches taller because of having a decent diet, and he’d definitely be getting therapy. It would be awful.

Ebetta: Do you see yourself ever writing something in the contemporary m/m romance genre, any book plans there?

KJC: Not currently. I’ve a contemporary m/f romantic suspense coming out in April 14, Non Stop till Tokyo, but nothing m/m. I’m not against doing a contemporary, I just have no ideas for one yet.

Ebetta: I really like the special touches in the world building, like Crane reading All the Year Round. Though it looks like Crane mayn’t be a Dickens fan…  Which author/genre of writing would catch his interest?

KJC: I don’t want to weight the books down with historical detail, but I like to know what people read! Crane does generally like Dickens, when not distracted. Dickens has a popular image of jovial bonhomie, the ‘God bless us every one!’ sentimentality, but actually his books can be startlingly harsh and often disturbingly grotesque. The spontaneous combustion scene in Bleak House or Mrs Skewton being taken to pieces after the party in Dombey and Son. The combination of humour, sentiment and a brutal edge is pretty irresistible. Plus, Dickens really does tell a compelling story.

Ebetta: It’s clear that Crane loves China, its exoticism and the freedom there to live his life as he wants. Yet, here he is in England and then Stephen throws him off his game. What is it about Stephen that attracts Crane the most?

KJC: I think it’s like calling to like. They are different in many ways, but they both have a quality of bloody-minded refusal to give up, and also a similar sense of responsibility, although Crane protects his own people, whereas Stephen protects everyone who needs it. Also, Stephen is deeply loyal and Crane really needs that: he’s more vulnerable than he’d like to admit.

Plus, Crane has a thing for dangerous men…

Ebetta: LOL! I think Crane spells danger himself, in a different way, of course. 

In Possession Crane prefers to refer to Stephen as a ‘just’ man as opposed to a ‘righteous’ man:

Crane: “I’d call him a just man, rather than a righteous one… (Merrick) likes him, respects him, and is just a little bit scared of him.”  

“Really.” Leonora sat up straight. “What kind of man scares Merrick”?  

Crane: “A just one, of course.” 

How does Crane distinguish between the two distinctions?

KJC: Oooh. I think righteousness implies a sense of moral superiority, a following of some noble code or moral law. Stephen is no sort of knight. He is, or tries to be, fair, and he judges impartially, but it’s not based on a moral mission. There was no shortage of righteousness in Victorian England (which was something Dickens loathed), but a severe lack of justice.

Ebetta: An important distinction to make in the story for sure… We’re given little bits about the guy’s backstories, just enough to pique our interest. In Possession we indirectly find out a bit more about Crane and Merrick’s China years through some supporting characters.  

Take Leonora Hart, for example. She’s such a strong female character: tough and gutsy. She’s integral to the mystery and it’s pretty obvious that Crane cares for her a great deal. What was she like to write?

KJC: Fun! She goes her own way, she’s not ashamed of her past, and she likes to take the mickey out of Crane. He can be something of an alpha male unless cut down to size. She’s far from perfect herself, of course…

Ebetta: Yes, but I like Leonora, imperfections and all, and her fierce independence and progressiveness. Any thoughts about how women are generally represented in M/M romance/erotica?

KJC: It is weird to see casual misogyny in a genre where people are generally highly conscious of equality issues. I think it’s a continuation of a recurring theme in m/f category romance, though. You’ll frequently find old Harlequin romances where all women are evil bitches except for the heroine, and where we’re expected to see it as a mark of mental superiority if the heroine despises other women and has no female friends. Even the wonderful Georgette Heyer did that on occasion. And of course, when

you move that trope from m/f, where the heroine is the sole good woman, to m/m, it’s even worse. I do think there’s less than there was, though – people are more aware of what they’re doing.

I’m not suggesting that there shouldn’t be female villains, of course, or that all female characters should be positive role models. I write plenty of women on a spectrum from flawed to evil, but I hope they come across as individuals, not generic evil women. (Slogan: ‘Judge me for my habit of callously murdering people, not my uterus!’)

Ebetta: Can you shed some light on Crane’s tats? What compelled him to have his body covered with them?

KJC: If he hadn’t had the tattoos, he’d have ended up filling his house with magpie images some way. That’s the Magpie Lord’s inheritance for you.

Ebetta: LOL! Crane as a collector… How did you come up with the cool idea of animating the tattoos?

KJC: It was always there. The life was being sucked out of the Magpie Lord’s house, and once it started to rush back in – well, it seemed obvious what would happen!

Ebetta: Does Merrick have any tats?

KJC: Yes, several. The biggest one is an elephant with a howdah-type thing (a seat for riding on the back of an elephant) on his back. (He was born in a part of London called Elephant and Castle, and you can take the boy out of London, but…)

Ebetta: I’m shooting a movie and you get to pick the actors. Who would play Crane? Stephen? Merrick? 

Crane: Michael Fassbender

Stephen: Billy Boyd

Merrick: There’s a Cockney hard man actor called Alan Ford. I think him about thirty years younger.

Ebetta: If you could pick any book character to spend an evening with who would it be? What would you do?

KJC: Woland and entourage from The Master and Margarita. Dining with the devil… 

Ebetta: Crane, Stephen, or Merrick? 

KJC: I cannot possibly pick. Don’t make me. 

Ebetta: Any favorite quotes from the books?

KJC: I am disturbingly proud of some of the more elaborate swearing.

Ebetta: Yes! Here’s a favorite of mine from Crane, of course!: 

“What the fuck, what the fucking, bloody devil-shit, what in the name of Satan’s swollen cock was that?”  

Ebetta: Love it. When can we expect book three in the Charm of Magpies series? 

KJC: I’m working on book 3 now with a tentative Oct 14, 2014 date. It’s taken longer than I’d hoped because of life getting in the way and a lot of other stories needing telling, but I’m working…

 Ebetta: We will be waiting with bated breath. Possession will do in the interim!  

It’s a different era… but the TV show, Downton Abbey, set in Edwardian England has been incredibly popular in the US. Have you considered setting anything in this time period?   

KJC: I have to admit I’ve never watched Downton Abbey. I have, however, read a vast amount of Edwardian pulp fiction, and my own Edwardian m/m adventure romance is coming out with Samhain in July 14, 2014. It’s called Think of England, and it contains all the country house party / dark secret / dashing hero /stiff upper lippage you could desire. 

Ebetta: Good to know, we’ll have lots to expect from you next year, huzzah!  

Can you tell us three unknown facts about yourself. 

1) I cry at the Marseillaise scene in Casablanca every time. Which must be pushing 30 viewings by now.

2) How I broke my finger: I was running for a train that I was late for because I’d stopped to get Chinese food. I tripped, landed awkwardly in an effort not to spill my Singapore noodles, broke my finger, was too embarrassed to go to the doctor because it was such a stupid thing to do, and now have a wonky finger. I am concerned that this says far too much about me.

3) I used to be commissioning editor for a large romance publisher. One Christmas season when the office was empty I read two and a half metres of slush pile in a single day. I didn’t buy any of them.

Ebetta: Do you see yourself co-authoring? Anyone in particular (in slash) that you’d like to work with? 

KJC: I’m tentatively discussing a project with someone at the moment but I wouldn’t want to go into detail till it’s firmed up!

Ebetta: Anything else you’d like to share, let us know about yourself?

KJC: I’m a chatty soul, particularly when I ought to be doing something else, so hit me up on Twitter, Facebook or Goodreads and I will probably be happy to talk!

Ebetta: Thanks so much for letting us get nosy with you a little!

KJC: Thank you!

A CASE OF POSSESSION

Reviewed by Elizabetta

TITLE: A Case of Possession

SERIES: A Charm of Magpies, #2

AUTHOR: KJ Charles

PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing

LENGTH: 159 pages

BLURB: Magic in the blood. Danger in the streets.

A Charm of Magpies, Book 2

Lord Crane has never had a lover quite as elusive as Stephen Day. True, Stephen’s job as justiciar requires secrecy, but the magician’s disappearing act bothers Crane more than it should. When a blackmailer threatens to expose their illicit relationship, Crane knows a smart man would hop the first ship bound for China. But something unexpectedly stops him. His heart.

Stephen has problems of his own. As he investigates a plague of giant rats sweeping London, his sudden increase in power, boosted by his blood-and-sex bond with Crane, is rousing suspicion that he’s turned warlock. With all eyes watching him, the threat of exposure grows. Stephen could lose his friends, his job and his liberty over his relationship with Crane. He’s not sure if he can take that risk much longer. And Crane isn’t sure if he can ask him to.

The rats are closing in, and something has to give…

Warning: Contains m/m sex (on desks), blackmail, dark pasts, a domineering earl, a magician on the edge, vampire ghosts (possibly), and the giant rats of Sumatra.

REVIEW:

RATS!! Rats, rats, rats everywhere. Mutant rats. Tidal waves of scurrying, ravaging little beasties… well, maybe not so little. There’s blood and guts and gore and lots of eeww-yuck grizzly bits. If you’re squeamish, beware!

But for the rest of us, this is another great chapter in the adventures of the debonair Earl Crane, the Magpie Lord. This second book finds Lucien Vaudrey (does the man have enough names?) still in England even though life would be so much easier back in China. He’s tending to his business, checking his chits,but what keeps him here? Could his distraction have anything to do with the sweet practitioner, slash-witch, slash-shaman, Stephen Day? It seems that Crane’s heart is lost to him.

In A Case of Possession, we get another ripping mystery. Again, it’s about mysterious ghosts, but teamed with ruthless, ravenous rats haunting the slums of London, and a clever connection to Chinese lore. We also see more of the developing relationship between Crane and Stephen. That this author can weave a tight, engrossing plot was proven in the first book. Added to the mix is the conundrum of Crane’s and Stephen’s intimate relationship — it seems that it affects Stephen’s magic abilities. The two scorch the sheets (and defile desk tops) in the most delicious (and entertaining) way.

“Please, my lord!… Make me yours,” said Stephen. “Make me fly. Make the magpies fly…”… magpies were rising all around them in a storm of wings…”

But their connection causes the Magpie magic hidden in Crane’s blood to enhance Stephen’s abilities. Not a problem, except for the unwanted attention this has drawn from Stephen’s practitioner colleagues. This means we finally get to meet his colorful teammates as they troop the alleyways and cellars of London in search of nefarious shamans and blood thirsty rodents.

Not only must Crane and Stephen face more paranormal threats to English society, but they must now figure out how to save Stephen’s reputation as a just and honorable shaman. The looming censure by his fellow practitioners weighs heavily and threatens his and Crane’s relationship.

The sophomore attempt in a series has often been a bellwether of success… the glow of the first book has worn off, and now we must see what this stuff is really made of. But our two fearless lovers and their man, Merrick, continue to hold their own very well as their history elaborates. There is lots to love and more still to discover in the Charm of Magpies series.

A Case of Possession is a very satisfying addition to the series — a well written and complex enough mystery with (rats! demonic, red-eyed, yellowed-fanged and twitchy-clawed.) lots of suspense, lovely witchery and gory gore. Recommended.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Samhain

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