A warm welcome to our next author in the GRL featured blog tour Wendy Rathbone

Much thanks to Love Bytes for having me, and to GRL for the opportunity to participate in their blog tour.

My love for male/male romance and male friendships in fiction began long ago. By the time I was 18 and had discovered slash fanfic, I was hooked. Much of my practice in writing came from my fanfic days and I value them greatly. But I have always loved telling stories about my own characters, too.

In the “real” world of writing, I was somewhat intimidated about writing the characters and relationships I wanted. In the ‘80s and ‘90s (and even somewhat now,) sexual orientations other than het were dismissed as trivial, or not good for marketing purposes. If you were going to write romance and have any hope to sell the manuscript, it had to be het romance. Back then, even a little bit of erotica was discouraged. There was no such thing as m/m romance genre back then.

Over time I found other genres. The fields of science fiction, horror and fantasy were much more open to fluid sexualities and genders than any other genre. Though Anne Rice was breaking boundaries, and her fiction was published as mainstream, much of her novels are genre. When Poppy Z. Brite came on the scene in the ‘80s, eroticism in the horror field seemed greatly encouraged. I found gay, bi, trans, and gay-for-you characters in the horror genre more than any other genre, and rarely did they cause any controversy. The more shocking the better. But though I wrote horror, more psychological than splatter, science fiction, dry as some of it could be, still interested me. My mind reeled through stars as plentiful as autumn leaves, and starships piloted my thoughts through mysterious realms where galaxies had seasons, and the people in those futures could be free from labels such as gay, straight or bi aside from their own individual, character biases. I liked reading stories with that sort of idealism.

My love for genre fiction continues to this day. It is favorite type of m/m romance to read to escape from the realities of the day.

That is why my two newest books to hit Amazon this year are genre.

“Scoundrel,” which I wrote in May in a desperate fever and heat, falling head first into that world and its characters, takes place in a colonized galaxy where starships and pleasure slaves and space pirates exist. There, my quiet, little erotic romance could unfold and I could turn traditional romance tropes on their heads and explore male/male feelings without the interruption of current day Earth political climate. It was so freeing! What a joy it was to write about Antares, a beautiful, highly trained, willing pleasure slave, and Slate, the darker, more brooding space pirate who seems to have some morals after all.

I would compare “Scoundrel” in flavor and theme most to Anne Rice’s “Beauty’s Kingdom.” Anne Rice. I love her. I have not read every book of hers, but the ones I love make me feel anything is possible. I love that she writes in a fever. That is how I write, in the zone of heat and inspiration, completely outline-free. It sounds scary and is at first, but after awhile it’s like breathing.

“Lace,” which I began in Nov. 2014 during NaNoWriMo and finished during April 2015 NaNo, is book one in my vampire fairy series. In my depiction of the vampires, they are more like fairies and not monsters, thus the term vampire fairy. Most are peaceful immortals who stay to themselves. Lace is about one thousand years old and he is from a dimension on Earth just to the left of perception. His dimension is slowly shrinking, shattering, and all his kind must flee to the human dimension in order to survive. Unfortunately, humans see them as monsters and all things vampire in the human world become the enemy. Books, movies and anything vampire-related is destroyed. A war against the intruding vampires ensues. Thus any kind of human/vampire relationship is illegal, and seen as highly traitorous. But when Lace meets the human, Firi, first as a boy and later as a budding 18 year old, a bond is formed. And Firi realizes how beautiful and wise these beings are, and how terrible it is that his own kind are trying to demolish this race out of ignorant fears of things that go bump in the night.

For me, writing is a pleasure. It is my way to play, to escape the daily grind. The work comes after the book is written, editing, formatting, putting it up for sale, promotion, etc. But the writing part? It’s all play. I feel privileged that I get to listen to my characters’ voices in my head, that I get to transcribe the tales they tell, their deepest feelings and innermost thoughts.

I am a poet through and through. Since about the age of 12, my journals have been filled with poetry. I studied it—and all kinds of writing—at UCSD. My first professional sales were genre poems, the lonelier the theme the better, stuff like starships in autumn skies, vampires who hatch from vampire gardens, dead alien worlds haunted by robot ghosts,—that sort of thing. So you will see that come through in my stories and novels. I can’t help it. I love to paint with words.

But I have the most fun writing the romance, and I have always loved erotica. Some of my books have more, some less, but writing intimacy with a depth of feeling is an amazing job. I love it. I have always seen great love, true love and everlasting love as transformative. So in every book I write this is a part of the theme. Human encounters are fun, but relationship is everything, and that is what I write about. Whether my characters duck a relationship, desire it or already have it, the transformation theme persists. Even in my erotic short story collection, “My House is Full of Whispers,” the quickest encounters end with a deeper value than just skin to skin contact.

My favorite book is always the one I’m currently writing. This is because I must be in love with my characters at the time of the writing. The focus on them drowns out everything else.

But if I had to pick one out of all that I’ve written, I might have a special leaning and fondness for “Letters to an Android,” about a created man with no rights who is not allowed to leave the asteroid he is attached to, and his star-faring friend who travels the galaxy. All my books are special to me and characterize different emotions and phases in my own life. All are very personal to me, but that one, “Letters,” gives off an extra spark in my mind. I do not advertise it as male/male, but the core relationship in it is definitely male/male. The erotica is also less explicit than most of my romances, but it teems with emotion. It is about lack of freedom and transformation.

I want to thank all readers for taking the time to read any book anywhere. All readers of my work are gifts to me.

And I want to thank Love Bytes for having me here today.

See you at GRL in October!

Laura Harner’s question;

What’s your best secret talent (and can we watch?)

I am very good at the Ouija board. Very good. Scary good. I have worked it with my partner Della Van Hise uncountable times in the past and we have had amazing results of which hundreds of transcribed pages sit on a shelf in a loose leaf notebook. This is from years ago, and years of playing the board, the letters flying by, the spelling insanely accurate. The information we have gotten is stunningly deep and philosophical. It could be a book. We have one specific “guide” who speaks through our board.

My question for K-Lee Klein is: If your your muse appeared to you as a real being (any kind of being) what would he/she/it look like?

 

Blurb and link for “Scoundrel”:

Antares is a willing sex slave, trained in the harems of Anada since the age of 18, and owned by a wealthy master who spoils his slaves. But all that changes when Empire soldiers invade Antares’ world and he is taken away from the only life he’s ever known.  In a colonized galaxy where starships are as common as houseflies, and a dark Empire seeks to control thousands of civilized worlds, there are those who fall through the cracks and refuse to be conquered, including the pirate, Slate, and his crew.  Out in the darkness of the unknown, among Empire soldiers and scoundrels, will bad fates befall Antares and his fellow captive companions?  Will Slate finally find the love he’s been looking for his whole life?  Can Slate and Antares ever see eye to eye?  A male/male romance to end all male/male romances!

Amazon buy link

Blurb and link for “Lace”:

Lace is a being from another dimension on Earth. He cannot die and humans call his kind “vampire” and declare war on them.

Firi is a human military soldier, a trained guard, who has met Lace twice in his young life and formed a bond with him.

In a world where humans and vampires are arch enemies, where vampires are eradicated in horrible ways, where being a vampire-lover means a death sentence, can Firi and Lace ever find each other again and explore the feelings they have for each other?

Will Lace be able escape his government prison, and the amnesia that keeps him from accessing his true powers?

Can Firi, the boy he met in the woods ten years ago, ever hope to help him?

A male/male romance about secrets that can get you killed, impossible rescues, and old lovers who cannot be trusted.

Amazon Buy Link

Wendy Rathbone is an award-winning writer. Her science fiction and dark fantasy stories and poetry have been widely published in genre magazines and anthologies. She has loved slash fanfic and gay romance lit ever since she can remember. Within the past few years she’s turned all her attention to the male/male romance genre with her novels, including “The Foundling Trilogy: The Foundling, None Can Hold the Dark, The Lostling,” as well as her science fiction novel “Letters to an Android.” Her two most recent novels were just released this month (Sept.) on Amazon. “Lace” is a vampire fairy novel about a forbidden bond between an immortal and a human. “Scoundrel” is a far future tale of a sex slave named Antares and the pirate he meets while being held prisoner in the depths of space. Her favorite themes include people whose freedoms are hindered, as well as unreliable narrators. She is, at heart, a poet, so of course that’s going to come into it as well. She will be attending GRL this Oct. in San Diego.

Wendy is graciously giving away two pdf copies of Scoundrel and two pdf copies  Lace to 4 Lucky readers!

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