Love Bytes welcomes to their blog author Megan Reddaway who is talking to us about her new release “A Position in Paris”.

Welcome Megan 🙂

If I Could Be a Character From My Book . . .

By Megan Reddaway

If I could be a character from my latest book, A Position in Paris, I think I would be Edmund. He’s not in a good situation at the beginning—nor is James, the other main character, for different reasons—but I can identify with him.

When the book opens, World War One has just ended, and Edmund is stuck in Paris with his mother and young brother. It would be spoilerish to say exactly why, but they have no money and he’s the only one who can support them. His mother would work too if she could, but she has a younger child to look after, and in those days women didn’t earn enough to support a family. Their wages were a fraction of what a man would get. So it all hinges on Edmund.

He’s attracted to men, but he’s never done anything about it because he thinks it’s wrong. Also, perhaps, because he’s shy, and because the right person has never come along to break through that. There certainly were actively gay men in Britain in the early years of the 20th century—Oscar Wilde had been imprisoned in a blaze of publicity in 1895—but not everyone was prepared to defy convention. Many gay men either married women or lived their whole lives as mostly celibate bachelors. At the end of 1918, twenty-one-year-old Edmund expects to be one of the lifelong bachelors.

But then he meets James, a wealthy ex-army officer who is living in Paris because he is sexually active and has been disowned by his titled father. James takes Edmund on as his secretary, to type a book he wants to write. I used to work as a secretary, so I had no trouble identifying with this part of Edmund’s story.

I had fun researching early typewriters. I had an electric typewriter in my teens, on which I taught myself to type my short stories and university papers, but some companies still used manual typewriters at that time. When I went to shorthand and typing evening classes, they trained us to use both. So I remember what a pain it was when the keys locked and stuck, and how my littlest fingers ached at first from the strain of bashing those As and Ps. I’ve also used French computers and been flummoxed by the different arrangement of the letters on their keyboards. So some of Edmund’s experiences at work come from things that have happened to me.

But it’s mostly Edmund’s character that I identify with. He’s rather shy, as I’ve said, and he doesn’t talk about himself or his emotions much, if at all. But when something is important to him, like his independence, he digs in his heels. He’s not a walkover by any means, as James soon discovers.

To say any more would be getting into spoiler-land, so I’ll leave you to read it for yourself.

Megan Reddaway’s novel A Position in Paris was published on August 20th.

Paris, 1919. World War One is over, and wounded hero James Clarynton is struggling to face life without one leg, one eye, and the devilish good looks he had before the conflict. Now he must pay for affection, and it leaves him bitter. He’s filling the time by writing a book—but it’s the young man who comes to type it who really intrigues him.


Edmund Vaughan can’t turn down the chance to be secretary to the wealthy James Clarynton. He’s been out of work since the armistice, and his mother and brother depend on him. But he has secrets to hide, and the last thing he wants is an employer who keeps asking questions.


As they work together, their respect for each other grows, along with something deeper. But tragedy threatens, and shadows from the past confront them at every turn. They must open their hearts and trust each other if they are to break down the barriers that separate them.


A heartwarming romance with some dark moments along the way.

August 20 – Megan’s Media Melange, August 22 – Joyfully Jay, Amy’s MM Romance Reviews, Urban Smoothie Read, August 24 – Love Bytes, August 25 – Gay Book Reviews, August 27 – Padme’s Library, August 28 – The Novel Approach, August 29 – Sexy Erotic Xciting, Mirrigold, Lillian Francis, Bayou Book Junkie, BooksLaidBareBoys, Virginia Lee, August 30 – Diverse Reader

MEGAN REDDAWAY lives in England and has been entertained by fictional characters acting out their stories in her head for as long as she can remember. She began writing them down as soon as she could.


Since she grew up, she has worked as a secretary, driver, barperson, and article writer, among other things. Whatever she is doing, she always has a story bubbling away at the same time.


For news of Megan’s gay romance releases and two free stories, visit her website:http://meganreddaway.com
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