Damon, we are honored to have you over at The Blog of Sid Love.

You are multi-talented from what I have read about you. You have worked as a model, a singer, a teacher, a sculptor, a programmer, a stripper (oh good lord of hotness!), an award winning author … and the list goes on. But what is it that you liked and enjoyed the most?

That’s easy: writing. I believe in enthusiasm. That is to say, I think you need to believe passionately in the stuff you do for a living or it will bury you alive. Writing is the thing that exercises my gifts and accesses my enthusiasm most completely. I’m a storyteller. Everything I’ve ever done has been about articulating things for an audience in an entertaining way. One of my favorite things about writing is that you you can always get better. There’s no end to the discoveries and opportunities to kick your own ass. 🙂

And was it your life-long dream to be an author?

Well, I’d been writing my whole life. But I was originally a showbiz kid. I had a freak voice and so I was a schmactor for a long while. And then when I hit my teen years a director I’d worked with several times said, “You’re gonna be a writer/director.” I was very hurt at the time because I loved being on stage. Later on I understood what she meant. I got tired of saying other people’s words and inhabiting other people’s stories. That led me to scripting (for theatre, film, TV, comics, et al), which in turn led me to fiction. There was a brief moment when I thought I was going to run theme parks or get involved in game design, but even those interests were about story and entertainment….and the lessons I learned in those quarters affect the writing I do.

Bad Idea released this past Monday and we are truly psyched about it. Not just us, but your fans are dying to read Trip and Silas’ story. Why don’t you tell us something about them and this book?

This book is completely about fans and creators… specifically the way artists invent heroes and the ways audiences who love those imaginary characters bring them to life. Trip is a comic book artist and Silas designs movie makeup…so they both kind of splash around in pop culture. The book is a shameless celebration of fandoms of all kinds: superheroes, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, romance. And because Trip and Silas are creators, as they find love together that emotion and conflict splashes over into their creative projects.

Comic book artists can be nerdy as well as hot and sexy at the same time. But was there more that inspired you to write Trip as a main character?

Trip was a handful, I can tell you. He’s prickly and kind of a mess. In some sense, Trip embodies all the solitary, self-denigrating habits artists inflict upon themselves. I loved the idea of someone trapped in a “cool” job (drawing caped crusaders) that totally hampers them…and then mapping the way romantic inspiration could unleash explosive power personally and professionally. Trip’s uptightness gave the book a ton of cool terrain to cover, because as he invents Scratch the sex demon, he’s also wrestling with his own anxiety about homoerotic art and freedom.

When people talk about Damon Suede and his books, they say that the author knows what he is writing about. You write situations that are realistic. Does that take a lot of research to attain?

TONS! Like you wouldn’t believe! I research obsessively and worldbuild like a crazy person. I’ve written for comics and film. I’ve worked on film sets and sat in makeup trailers. Even son, I did walkarounds and tours and visits. I interviewed professionals  in all these industries and went to comic conventions and pulled sources. For Kurt’s videogame company I met with designers and then invented not only the games that made him a success, but the marketing campaigns for them and a charity that he founded to deploy his wealth for LGBT causes.

I live in Manhattan, and I still went and walked the streets described in the book and visited the clubs and bars and restaurants so I could see them through the characters eyes instead of my own. Trip or Silas would notice completely different things than I would. I think that kind of attention is essential if you want readers to enter the world completely. 

Which one of the two characters was the most challenging to write about?

Definitely Trip. He’s less immediately seductive than Silas. Who’s not gonna fall for a hunky Alabama boy who drips charm like syrup? No. Trip was tough because he’s neurotic and repressed and rigid and deluded about so many things. That was the big challenge. He deserved a happy ending but he was his own worst enemy when it came to claiming it.

Bad Idea is the first book in your “Itch” series. Can you share with us what are your future plans with this series?

The Itch books are going to be contemporaries about creative guys working to bring a sex demon superhero called Scratch to mass media. Bad Idea was about comic books. The next book will be about Scratchbeing made into a video game. The third will focus on a Scratchprimetime cable series. The thing is, as each novel’s couple adapts the fictional demon for a new media, they’re also grappling with their own inner demons… so as they evolve so will the story-within-the-story. That’s incredibly fun to play with on a gajillion levels.

Then secondarily I have a separate but related Scratch series that actually shows his adventures as an incubus unleashed on New York City with his mortal lover. The two series can be read on their own, but there are cool easter eggs and resonances in the Scratch novellas for people who want to dig deeper into the contemporary heroes…just as there are easter eggs and resonances in the Itch series for the folks who’ve read the paranormals. I love the idea of transmedia, and the ways embedded stories affect each other. And since my contemporary heroes are artists, we get to see their relationships transform their work on Scratch. LOL

Speaking of a sequel, Hard Head is coming out soon – you keep saying that. But ‘how soon’ is what everyone wants to know?

When it’s done. That’s a terrible answer, but I’m determined to release it when it’s ready and not a moment before. I’ve written 260k words of that book. Two-thirds of that will probably never see publication…because it was just me trying to find Tommy’s Happy Ending. Thing is, I love Tommy and Griff and Dante too much to half-ass it, so I don’t intend to! 😀 Fans say that they want it NOW, but what they want is a good story that honors the characters and their world. I’d rather be good than fast any day. 

The readers adored Dante and Griff in Hot Head. Their chemistry was not only mind-blowing but it was all kinds of hot. Would Hard Head be a continuation to their story or are you shifting the focus over to a different character (Tommy??)?

Tommy is the main character, no question. Griff and Dante are very much part of the story…and central to a lot of the developments, but it’s Tommy’s book. That’s actually one of the things that made the book so difficult for me to write. Tommy is dark, yo. I mean wounded and brutalized. I went through six ugly months of hell trying to catch him on paper. But fuck me twice if I’m going to half ass his book.

Well, it already has a GR page and no blurb at all. No fair, you at least have to give us a peek into what this book is going to be all about.

It’s going to be about Tommy getting his shit together at long last. And the Happy Hooker firehouse being pulled apart. And the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. And a bunch of other things too, I imagine.

So other than Hard Head, are there any more books you are working on?

I’m about to write the sequel to Horn Gate, which will be Issue 2 of the Scratch series, a novella length paranormal. Then I’m doing a short contemporary novel, probably about 75k words in length, heavy on the tropes and blue-collar sexiness, just for fun. Immediately following that I want to tackle the sequel to Bad Idea, because it’s already itching to be let out and Kurt has got some explaining to do. Somewhere in that timeframe, I’m gonna start poking around in Hard Head revisions again because I finally feel like I’m ready and Tommy is getting impatient. I also have my half-written steampunk and some other stuff… but that’s pretty much my next six months.

Let’s do a quick round of shorties with you:

– Your current favorite song?

For reasons I cannot explain Beyoncé’s “Who Run the World?” became the song of GRL2013 for me.

– What do you prefer to read and/or write: HEA/HFN?

Happily Ever After for sure. I like the bold, raw, spectacle of full-on romance. Hard to do in anything shorter than a novel, but I love it.

– The author that inspires you the most:

Jane Austen. I come back to her over and over like a dog in the desert.

– Book/s that you are currently reading-

The Alienated Reader by Bridget Fowler which is a kind of litcrit thing about popular romance. And I’m also rereadingAmong the Thugs by Bill Buford which is a documentary nonfiction about football supporters in the early 90s.

– Best Movie of 2013 so far, according to you?

Jeunet’s The Young and Prodigious T.S. SPivet. I got invited to the first US screening, a pre-Cannes sneek peak that blew me away. It’s so sad and smart and beautiful. He’s my favorite filmmaker (A Very Long Engagement, Amelie, City of Lost Children) and it was gorgeous. Exceptional craft and precision.

– Which of your characters comes close to your personality?

All of them. That’s horrible, but it’s true. I see splinters of myself in all of them. But there’s no one character that’s my secret avatar.

Anything you’d like to add, Damon?

Just my thanks for letting me come hang out on your awesome blog!

Thank you again for being here today. It was a pleasure chatting with you 🙂

~ As told to Sid Love

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Damon Suede grew up out-n-proud deep in the anus of right-wing America, and escaped as soon as it was legal. He has lived all over and along the way, he’s earned his crust as a model, a messenger, a promoter, a programmer, a sculptor, a singer, a stripper, a bookkeeper, a bartender, a techie, a teacher, a director… but writing has ever been his bread and butter. He has been happily partnered for over a decade with the most loving, handsome, shrewd, hilarious, noble man to walk this planet.

Damon is a proud member of the Romance Writers of America and the Rainbow Romance Writers. Though new to gay romance fiction, Damon has been writing for print, stage, and screen for two decades, which is both more and less glamorous than you might imagine. He’s won some awards, but counts his blessings more often: his amazing friends, his demented family, his beautiful husband, his loyal fans, and his silly, stern, seductive Muse who keeps whispering in his ear, year after year..

Damon would love to hear from you…. Get in touch with him at DamonSuede.com.

CONTACT LINKS:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Amazon
• Google+
• The Romance Reviews
• Manic Readers
• GLBT Bookshelf

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