Welcome once again to The Blog of Sid Love, Rick. The last time you were with us, we had quite a chat. How does it feel to be back here?

Odd. I feel a little disoriented. You didn’t put something in that tea you gave me, did you? I feel woozy. I’ll try and persevere though….

Legally Wed is the newest add to the Rick R. Reed tag. Why don’t introduce us to all your main characters – Duncan, Marilyn and Peter? 

Well, you should probably get the blurb for the book first. Then I can tell you a little bit about each of my main characters.

BLURB

Love comes along when you least expect it.

That’s what Duncan Taylor’s sister, Scout, tells him. Scout has everything Duncan wants—a happy life with a wonderful husband. Now that Seattle has made gay marriage legal, Duncan knows he can have the same thing. But when he proposes to his boyfriend Tucker, he doesn’t get the answer he hoped for. Tucker’s refusal is another misstep in a long line of failed romances. Despairing, Duncan thinks of all the loving unions in his life—and how every one of them is straight. Maybe he could be happy, if not sexually compatible, with a woman. When zany, gay-man-loving Marilyn Samples waltzes into his life, he thinks he may have found his answer.

Determined to settle, Duncan forgets his sister’s wisdom about love and begins planning a wedding with Marilyn. But life throws Duncan a curveball. When he meets wedding planner Peter Dalrymple, unexpected sparks ignite. Neither man knows how long he can resist his powerful attraction to the other. For sure, there’s a wedding in the future. But whose?

Duncan, Marilyn, and Peter will most likely go down as some of the most favorite characters I’ve written. They each, in his or her own way, are looking for their happily-ever-after, a person with whom they can share their love, their passion, and their lives. But they all have had their searches thwarted for various reasons—Duncan perhaps just because he is so nice and sweet. Peter makes a living planning weddings for other people, but has never seemed to be able to plan the one that matters most—his own. And, Marilyn, dear Marilyn, hides her insecurities and desire for love behind a brassy exterior. She big, bold, and beautiful—and doesn’t even realize the latter, perhaps because society tells women so often that the feminine ideal is something different from what she is.

But I still miss all of them, now that the book’s done. And I think readers will have much the same experience after they read the last page.

I must say it was quite a bold choice to have a female character – Marilyn Samples – share the limelight with the main boys in a gay romance novel. What do you expect the readers’ reaction towards it to be?

I don’t really see it as a bold choice. She’s not really sharing the sexual limelight, so let’s be clear about that—Legally Wed is in no way, shape, or form a ménage novel. Having a woman as a lead character is, to me, simply realistic. Women make up roughly half the population and they very often play a big role in many, many gay men’s lives. So I think having a female main character is a very natural and logical thing.

I hope readers will have a positive reaction to her and will come to love her as much as I did. She has a big heart and a great passion for gay men in general. She’s funny and she’s nobody’s fool. For many of my female readers, I think she’ll hopefully be someone with whom they can identify and, barring that, at least someone they might want to hang out with.

So Duncan is gay. He knows he is gay and Marilyn knows he is gay and yet, they decide to marry each other? Why?

Well, if I could pin that down in a few sentences, there wouldn’t have been much point in writing the book. I think readers need to come to Legally Wed with an open mind and an open heart and discover for themselves just how this unusual turn of events comes to pass.

It felt more to me like a BFF relationship Duncan has with Marilyn, isn’t it?

Again, you really need to read the book to understand their relationship, but their friendship is very important and core to the book. They may meet under some very unusual circumstances, but sometimes our very best friends emerge at times when we most need them—and perhaps that’s the case here.

This story is set somewhere during the time when gay marriage was approved in the state of Washington. Was it back then that this plot had come to you?

It’s actually begins on the first day same-sex couples were able to obtain marriage licenses. It was a special day for me personally—and yes, I would say that this moment was the inspiration for the book.

Bruce, my now-husband and I were one of the first couples in line down at City Hall in the wee small hours of the morning to get our marriage license on the first day we could. There was such joy at City Hall that morning, both from couples getting their licenses and the employees and supporters who had come out to witness this historic moment. I wanted to write about not just love, but marriage. Here’s the opening and I think you can see what I’m talking about:

—

Same-sex marriage had just become legal in Washington State and Duncan Taylor didn’t plan on wasting any time. He had been dating Tucker McBride for more than three years and, ever since the possibility of marriage had become more than just a pipe dream, it was all Duncan could think of. He had thought of it as he gazed out the windows of his houseboat on Lake Union, on days both sunny and gray (since it was late autumn, there were a lot more of the latter); he had thought of it as he stood before his classroom of fourth graders at Cascade Elementary School. He had thought of it when he woke up in the morning and before he fell asleep at night.

For Duncan, marriage was the peak, the happy ending, the icing on the cake, the culmination of one’s hearts desire, a commitment of a lifetime, the joining of two souls. For Duncan, it was landing among the stars.

And for Duncan, who would turn 38 on his next birthday, it was also something he had never dared dream would be possible for him.

And now, too excited to sleep, he was thinking about it—hard—once again. It was just past midnight on December 6, 2012 and the local TV news had pre-empted its regular programming to take viewers live to Seattle City Hall, where couples were forming a serpentine line to be among the first in the state to be issued their marriage licenses—couples who had also for far too long believed this right would be one they would never be afforded. Many clung close together to ward off the chill, but Duncan knew their reasons for canoodling went far deeper than that.

The mood, in spite of the darkness pressing in all around, was festive. There was a group serenading the couples in line, singing “Going to the Chapel.” Champagne corks popped in the background. Laughter.

Duncan couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he watched all the male-male and female-female couples in the line, their mood of jubilation, of love, of triumph traveling through to him even here on his houseboat two or three miles north of downtown. Duncan wiped tears from his eyes as he saw not only the couples but also all the supporters, city workers, and volunteers who had crowded together outside City Hall to wish the new couples well, to share in the happiness of the historic moment.

And then Duncan couldn’t help it, he fell into all-out blubbers as the first couple to get their license emerged from City Hall. 85-year-old Pete-e Peterson and her partner and soon-to-be-wife, Jane Abbott Lighty, were all smiles when a reporter asked them how they felt.

“We waited a long time. We’ve been together 35 years, never thinking we’d get a legal marriage. Now I feel so joyous I can hardly stand it,” Pete-e said.

It was such a special moment and it was all Duncan could do not to pick up the phone and call Tucker and casually say something like, “Hey honey, you want to get married?”

In Legally Wed, which one of the characters was fun to write and explore? Why? 

Oh, they were all fun to write. The main characters I’ve already talked about above. But I also really loved writing about Duncan’s common-sense, down-to-earth, and loving sister Scout, back in his home state of Pennsylvania. Having two sisters myself, I loved exploring their closeness. And Scout really plays a big part in helping her brother find true love. I also love writing Ray, wedding planner Peter’s dad. He is gay (I am a gay father to a gay son so this also has personal resonance) and has a more active sex life than his son! But ultimately, the two have a wonderful rapport and it was a joy to write about that.

Was “Legally Wed” your first choice as a title to this book? If not, what did you call it before and what led you to change your mind? 

I don’t want to go into what I called it initially. Let’s just say it was a bad title. And Legally Wed, I think, is just about as perfect a title as I’ve ever come up with.

As we bid adieu to 2013, I just want to ask – have you made a New Year’s Resolution for yourself? 

Not really. I’m constantly striving to be better in so many ways. I do well on some of my goals and on others: not so much.So if there’s any resolution—it’s that: to continue to strive to be better. I fall down a lot, but as long as I get back up and keep trying, I believe I’m okay. It’s all any of us can really do, right?

How was 2013 for you? And what do you expect ahead in 2014?

2013 was a good year for me. It was my first year as a legally-wed gay man. I got to hang out in Atlanta with some of my favorite authors and readers and exist in an m/m romance bubble for a few days (GRL 2013). I got to see several of my books come out, which, as a thrill, never grows old. My son and his husband came to visit in August, which was an amazing time. I’m grateful for my family, my health, and the opportunities I’ve been so very fortunate to have.

You read a lot, I know that for a reason. So tell us about an EPIC character from any of the books you have read, irrespective of genres, and felt inspired to create a powerful character like that. 

Because I read so much (constantly and I mean that literally, for almost my entire life), that’s a very hard question to answer. Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz popped into my head first; I don’t know why. Maybe because she, like all good characters, takes us on a journey and reaches conclusions we can all come to recognize as universal—there really is no place like home. For better or worse, ‘home’ and all that word encompasses, is the most important aspect of life.

I think my characters in general are looking for connection, for a sense of home, of family. Once found, there’s no greater treasure.

What should we expect next to come from you?

I just turned in my spring release from Dreamspinner Press and it’s called Dinner at Home. It’s about a personal chef and the homeless young man he takes in and how they fall in love. And—the book includes recipes!

Amuse us – share with us the top “most played” songs on your iPhone,

Seriously? I will just go to my iPhone and the top 25 most played and give you the top ten. These will lean toward dance music because I listen to this the most when I’m running or working out.

Knock on Wood—Seal

Believe—Cher

Smooth Criminal—David Garrett

Little Bird—Annie Lennox

Word Up!—Cameo

The Game Gets Old—Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings

Addicted to Love—Robert Palmer

Rolling in the Deep—Adele

Big Boned Gal—KD Lang

Born This Way—Lady Gaga

Do you have anything else to share or say to your readers and fans?

Yeah. Merry Christmas (I am responding to these interview questions on Christmas Day, much to my husband’s chagrin)! Also, since we are nearing the start of another year, I wish everyone reading a wonderful 2014, filled with good books, good lovin’, good food, good friends—and just good things in general.

Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to host you again. It’s always fun to talk to you. 🙂

You, too Sid.

 

Rick R. Reed Biography

Rick R. Reed is all about exploring the romantic entanglements of gay men in contemporary, realistic settings. While his stories often contain elements of suspense, mystery and the paranormal, his focus ultimately returns to the power of love. He is the author of dozens of published novels, novellas, and short stories. He is a three-time EPIC eBook Award winner (for Caregiver, Orientation and The Blue Moon Cafe). Lambda Literary Review has called him, “a writer that doesn’t disappoint.” Rick lives in Seattle with his husband and a very spoiled Boston terrier. He is forever “at work on another novel.”

Visit Rick’s website at http://www.rickrreed.com or follow his blog at http://rickrreedreality.blogspot.com/. You can also like Rick on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rickrreedbooks or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rickrreed. Rick always enjoys hearing from readers and answers all e-mails personally. Send him a message at jimmyfels@gmail.com

Buy Links for LEGALLY WED

Ebook: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4531

Paperback: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4532

GIVEAWAY

Rick R. Reed is giving an ecopy of LEGALLY WED to one lucky winner! Please leave a comment to this post in order to enter yourself in the contest. (Don’t forget to mention your email ID!)

CONTEST ENDS 7TH JANUARY, 2014 @ 23:59 PACIFIC TIME