Today we have stopping over author Kevin Klehr talking about his latest release Drama Queens and Adult Scenes
Welcome Kevin!
TITLE: Drama Queens and Adult Scenes
AUTHOR: Kevin Klehr
PUBLISHER: Wilde City Press
LENGTH: 220 Pages
BLURB:
Adam’s about to discover how much drama a mid-life crisis can be. He’s obsessed with Mannix, the nude model in his art class. But Adam has been married to Wade for nearly two decades, and they don’t have an open relationship.
Little do they know that Fabien, a warlock from the Afterlife, has secretly cast a spell of lust on Adam and his potential toy-boy.
As things begin to heat up, Adam’s guardian angel, Guy, steps in. But what’s the best way to save the relationship? Should Guy subdue Adam’s wandering passions or instigate a steamy threesome?
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Make sure to check out the Trailer that Kevin did on this new release : http://youtu.be/simyBvEGaZk
OVERLAPPING YOUR SEQUELS
Kevin Klehr
I think an author falls in love with some characters they create, and already have scenarios in their head for their development. And while still working on the third of my Drama Queen novels, Drama Queens and Devilish Schemes, I found myself reflecting on how mystical elements and certain fictional beings found themselves popping up throughout the series.
Before the first book, Drama Queens with Love Scenes, was completed, I took what was then the first chapter of the sequel to a writers group. It was a scene where a gay couple chat about their infatuation with a younger man to their ‘less than impressed’ friend, Maude. (For those interested, this is now the second half of Chapter Ten in Drama Queens and Adult Themes)
This directly referenced one of plays the characters performed in the first book (Love Scenes) where mystical beings cast spells on a married couple and a young man in the hope to bring on a mutual sexual encounter. Thus this delicious scenario would either be instantly recognisable by readers of the first novel or just spark the imagination of those enjoying the second.
And while I was still working with my editor on the first, I threw in a chapter that set up the feel of the second. A window, if you like, to who my main characters would be in the next instalment and how they’d react to their new life. I then went and signposted other hidden clues throughout the first.
My original draft of the sequel (Adult Themes) was a hybrid of the second and third books. I had a huge story I wanted to tie up neatly in just one more novel, but as I read through I noticed a huge shift in pace midway. The first half had all my main characters alive, and in the second half they all found themselves dead, shooting the story off on a different tangent.
I hailed the change in mood with this paragraph-
Imagine everything coming to a standstill. Like foreplay where instead of your object of desire changing his mind, the whole scenario changes. The phone rings and your mother tells you that your Uncle Patrick died. A real mood killer. It’s not that your mum is a killjoy, it’s just that the main focus of the moment has shifted. You may consider it worth going ahead with the foreplay in honour of your Uncle Patrick. One last bang in memory of the old guy. After all, he did have a wicked sense of humour and you always suspected he was a closet case. But the thought that he could be looking down from above judging your actions on the news of his death, somehow kills the mood.
Sadly this wicked passage had to go as I split the sequel into two. But at least I now had all my teasers planted firmly in book two (Adult Themes) that would lead into book three (Devilish Schemes). References to the Underground where my devilish character, Preston, was holding Guy’s parents captive, was now sprinkled throughout the second novel, leading you to the next instalment.
However, as Guy the angel was the one character readers and reviewers loved most, and now his mom and dad wouldn’t be rescued until the third novel, I had a hole in his story in the second book. That’s when the theme of lost childhood came in, where Guy would visit Adam while he was still young. Plus I developed the relationship between Guy and his boyfriend, Joshua. New ideas. New plotlines.
Also as this singular novel split, other scenes had to change. I was very proud of a chapter where Farah, a kind-hearted witch in the Afterlife, met with my main character, Adam. They spoke of his sense of the dramatic and how he wasn’t open to life’s lessons. Their conversation was whimsical and charming, and began to hit home with Adam.
Yet sometimes we have to murder our darlings. I even wrote a Facebook post explaining how sad I was to lose this scene the way it was originally written. I had no reason for these two people to meet anymore. Her dialogue was transferred to another character.
I do have ideas for a fourth book in the series, but for the moment I want to give Guy, Adam and Wade a rest. Their magical world has to develop for a while in some dingy attic in my mind, before they’re let out again to work through love, sex and the mysteries of the Afterlife.
From an early age Kevin had a passion for writing, jotting down stories and plays until it came time to confront puberty. After dealing with pimple creams and facial hair, Kevin didn’t pick up a pen again until he was in his thirties. His handwritten manuscript was being committed to paper when his social circumstances changed, giving him no time to write. Concerned, his partner, Warren, snuck the notebook out to a friend who in turn came back and demanded Kevin finish his novel. It wasn’t long before Kevin’s active imagination was let loose again.
Website: www.kevinklehr.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/DramaQueensWithLoveScenes
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinklehr