M/M Goes Mainstream Today!

Update: In the wake of AmazonFail, I have replaced all the sales links in this post with ones to Powell's Books. I was busy with family commitments yesterday and this whole thing caught be my surprise this morning.  I've been playing catch-up ever since. I'd love to post about this issue, but I'm not going to let this bullshit overshadow Alex and Erastes big day.  Not here.  Now, on with my original post:

Regular Friskbiskit readers know how excited I am about Running Press' new historical m/m romance imprint.  The books are being marketed as romance novels, to be shelved in the romance section of your local bookstore.  Much has been made over whether or not m/m is viable as a mainstream subgenre of romance, and now, finally, we have an opportunity to prove ourselves. 

To celebrate this watershed moment, I've invited Alex Beecroft and Erastes, the authors of the line's flagship novels (on sale today!) to take over the blog for the day.

Transgressions, by Erastes, is available from Amazon Powell's here:

http://powells.com/biblio/62-9780762435739-0

And you can read the blurb and an extract on Erastes' website here:

http://www.erastes.com/transgressions.html
 

False Colors, by Alex Beecroft, is available from Amazon Powell's here: http://www.powells.com/biblio/8-9780762436583-0

And you can read the blurb and an extract on Alex's website here: http://www.alexbeecroft.com/falsecolors.shtml

Erastes: Thanks Jessica for letting us loose on the blog – she asked us to interview each other and it was a lot of fun. Hope you enjoy our conversation.   
Our two new m/m historical novels are being published simultaneously by Running Press on 13 April 2009 in the USA (around a month later in the UK).  

The story of how that came about can be filed under "being in the right place at the right time" – the lovely Ruth Sims had connections with the Director at Running Press, and they discussed how m/m was ripe for mainstream. He asked to see Ruth's novel, loved it and said he'd love to publish it, and did she know anyone else with a novel ready to go?  She thought of me, (Erastes) with Transgressions ready to go, and put me forward and to my utter glee, they accepted it.   

Sadly, due to personal reasons, Ruth couldn't go ahead with the deal, and Running Press then asked me if I knew of anyone else with an historical novel ready or almost ready to go.  I knew that Alex had nearly finished her book, and … the rest is history! 

Alex: So, you may be asking, what's the big deal about this book launch that makes it any different from any other? 

Well, this is quite a big moment for m/m romance, because Running Press is launching this line of books as mainstream romance.  They're being packaged as romance, and they're to be shelved in the romance section of bookshops.  I have it on good authority that Barnes and Noble at least have said that they will be stocking these books and shelving them with the other romance, rather than with the gay fiction. 

In short, up until now, m/m romance has flourished on the internet, published by small presses and available to mail order from online websites, but this is the first attempt of m/m romance as a genre to be treated on a level playing field with m/f romance.  To be seen in bookshops!  To be advertised and reviewed in mainstream romance magazines like Romantic Times and Affaire de Coeur. 

To that end, Running Press are pulling out all the stops to convince the world that these are romances like any others, written by women, for women, and attracting the same audience as flocked to see Brokeback Mountain. 

And that's very true. For various reasons ranging from 'men get to do all the exciting things' to 'if one gorgeous hero is good, two are better', women do love m/m romance.  We're eager to write it and eager to buy it, and it's something that – as women – we can experience as owning and connecting with parts of our sexuality and fantasy life that have hitherto been forbidden to us by our imperfect patriarchal world. 

But as the authors of this line, we would like to say that just because the series is marketed as being 'by women for women' that doesn't mean that we somehow don't want gay men around.  That would be monstrous.  A marketing campaign to clue the bookshops in to the fact that there's a large untapped audience out there is one thing, actually aiming to exclude the very people we're writing about is quite another, and not at all what either of us would want. 

Erastes: Absolutely, we know from emails we get from readers that gay men love M/M romance too. 

Alex: Marketing aside, I know that one of the reasons I write m/m fiction is that I believe same sex love is equally valuable, equally blessed and equally beautiful as opposite sex love, and over and above any professional concerns about my own book, I see this launch by Running Press as being the start of a world where same sex love stories are treated the same as opposite sex ones.  Where neither is confined to an internet ghetto, but they're both out in the mainstream being celebrated as normal and wonderful.  Marketing aside, I think that has to be a positive step for gay people as well as for women, and I'm (as you might expect) all for it. 

A couple of questions about the books now J 

Alex: So, Erastes - why did you choose the English Civil war? (1642-1649) 

Erastes: There were times I asked myself "Oh my god, why the English Civil War?!!!." The concept came from my mother who, having read Standish got all enthusiastic about new plots and said that the English Civil War would be an excellent era for the angst of two young men forced to fight on opposite sides. 

Trouble is I thought I knew something about the era, and found out pretty sharpish that all I reallyI knew was the film "Cromwell" which really wasn't very helpful.  It wasn't just as simple as Roundheads and Cavaliers, e.g. men with short hair and men with long.  If you look at the front cover of Transgressions, you'll see a re-enactment battle taking place and both sides look almost identical.  The research was hard, and full of weapons. 

I now know more about muskets and pikes than I ever wanted to know *G * 

Alex: Did you like the 17th century once you got to know about it? 

Erastes: No, not really at all - it was a horrible time, politically and for religious reasons. Fundamentalism was pretty much the order of the day, people believed what they were told in church and simply not attending could get you thrown out of your community. The beginning part of Transgressions is a little idyllic, probably a lot more so than it was in reality, but it needed to paint a sunny world that went mad--the fact that Matthew Hopkins and his band of Witchfinders got away with what they got away with for so long has to be a symptom of a sick society. 

Alex: Have you seen 'Tales from the Green Valley' at all? It's a re-enactment of a 17th century farm, and it did rather paint an idyllic picture of small farm life. I felt Transgressions captured the rustic idyll of that very well at the start, but yes, the way the larger society intrudes and everything darkens is very much the way I feel about the time too. 

Erastes: No, I wish I had! The trouble with researching the English Civil War is that everyone has details on the WAR, and to find out details of how ordinary people lived was very difficult. 

There's a billion sites about munitions and characters and uniforms and battle lines but not what they ate and what the houses looked like 

Alex: I understand you did a lot of research with re-enactors of the period yourself? 

Erastes: Yes - I attended a few Musters, and I have friends who are members of the English Civil War Society, so I leaned on them pretty heavily asking about various details. I got pamphlets from helpful re-enactors but again, I needed to find out about every day life and the internet simply didn't deliver, so I had to spend some time in... gasp... libraries! :D How quaint! 

Alex: Can you give us a quick summary of what you think is the theme of the book?  Which are your favourite bits?  

Erastes: I think the main theme is truth.  It started out as David's story. I'm a "pantzer" and I make the book up as I go along, having nothing much more than an idea and a fixed ending, which I generally write first.  So David – a mendacious, beautiful and feckless young man takes centre stage at the beginning.  His father employs Jonathan as an apprentice to their forge (as quite frankly, David is too damn lazy to learn his craft well) and there's an immediate chemistry between the two.  David hates the sight of Jonathan!  Of course, this IS, for all the war, a romance so we know pretty much it won't stay that way forever. 

But as the book progressed, it became more Jonathan's story. He's a good man, raised by good, simple (and poor) Puritan folk, the youngest of five brothers and always a little out of step with his surroundings in his attempt to fit in, like some youngest siblings are.  Truth is intensely important to him.  He wants David to tell his father the truth, and he wants David not to lie to him, either.  But David does. It's easier for him than facing up to his transgressions. And, like the boy that cried wolf, when David finally tells the truth over something vital, no-one believes him, not even Jonathan and that sets the book into its downward spiral.  He finds truth and a cause to believe in later in the book, but you'll have to read to find out what that is. 

I hope that the readers enjoy the adventure story, as well as the romance.  Now, talking of adventure stories, let's deal with False Colors.  This is a story that even Hollywood would wonder if they could afford to make, it's so huge in scope.   I was surprised at FC being set in the 1760s – was there a reason you chose that exact time frame? 

Alex: LOL! Now I feel I need to ask why you were surprised! Basically I needed there to be a war on, but I didn't want to write in the same Napoleonic period as Patrick O'Brien, Forester and Lee Rowan.  To be shallow, I much prefer the clothes of the mid 18th Century to the Napoleonic, but also, Napoleonic overlaps too much with the mannered society of the Regency for me and I prefer the gusto and vitality of mid 18th Century culture. 

Erastes: I was really intrigued by John Cavendish, what inspired you to write such a conflicted character? 

Alex: Some of that was accidental. I moderate a yahoo group for GBLT Christians, so I see a lot of the damage that bad religion can do to people, but I also see a lot of the joy that working through the church's condemnation without having to give up your faith can bring. 

Initially I hadn't thought of bringing that into the character of John, but then he suddenly shook hands with someone, and I thought 'hold on, handshaking was not common in those days, except for sealing oaths. Why did he do that?' So I looked into it a bit more and discovered that the Quakers were known for shaking hands with people, because it was part of their strange doctrine of equality of all people ;) 

Erastes: That's interesting, I didn't know that. 

Alex: So he became Quaker influenced, and the whole faith question had to be tackled. 

Erastes: I love his journey, although I did want to brain him with a rum barrel several times. 

Alex: LOL! Poor John! I half expect people not to like him at first because he does start out rather narrow minded and fundamentalist. I did think it was important for his psychological journey to be believable. I'm sure there are some people who can switch thinking of themselves as straight to thinking of themselves as gay without angst, but when you add the question of whether you're damned or not in there, I think it's a long way to go. 

Erastes: In O'Brian I remember eccentric captains – such as one who wanted all his crew to have surnames that were colours. Without spoiling the readers, was there ever anyone like Captain Farrant? Or was he purely your own invention? 

Alex: I'm afraid Farrant is a bit of an O'Brian tribute. He was inspired by O'Brian's Captain Duff, who is openly gay and as a result can't keep his ship in order and suffers much humiliation when they crash during a battle. I didn't see why that would have to be the case, so Farrant is a bit of a reaction to that 

Erastes: *giggling at useless gay sailors*.  I much prefer your hunky Ganymedes 

Alex: Thank you!  I know of a Captain who was accused of having an affair with one of his officers and was given the opportunity to kill himself rather than come to trial 

Erastes: Ouch. 

Alex: Well, I should probably say he was given an off-the-record warning that trial was imminent.  He could have left the country and gone to live in France – but he chose to kill himself instead.  And a case of another Captain who put one of his crew ashore rather than court martial him for sodomy.  I was also thinking of Lord Hervey, whose affairs with his boyfriend were lampooned for years in pamphlets without anyone actually doing anything to bring him to trial. So it does seem that there was a range of tolerance going on, and the higher up the class system you were, the more you could get away with. 

Erastes: And O'Brian's Aubrey was lenient when he could be.  What I like about your writing – and it's something that stands out in a genre that tends to go for the wealthy, successful, clean, and perfect, is that you don't shy away from the grim and grimy reality of historical life. Was that a deliberate decision? 

Alex: Definitely! I actually really enjoy a bit of filth ;) Well, in the imagination, that is.  I like the past to be different from the present, and if I sanitize it, I take away one way in which it was different. 

Erastes I think it was Lee Rowan who said that she didn't know whether to cuddle your characters or give them some vitamin C. 

Alex: *g*.  My heroes are naturally genetically gifted, so that they never get scurvy or any more embarrassing disease. They walk through their grubby surroundings like gods ;) 

Erastes: Of course! 

Alex:  But no, I think it's more colourful as well as more authentic if I don't flinch at a bit of smallpox or yellow jack. 

Erastes: There were sections in the book which genuinely impressed me with the horror. 

Alex: Ooh, do tell?  Was it the hospital?   

Erastes: Definitely the hospital sections and the part when John is captured.  And the injuries to fingers.  I think I have a phobia about fingers being chopped off. 

Alex:  I'm relieved that it's the bits I was hoping were horrific, and not any of the nice bits!  I think I must have a phobia about hands too. I don't seem to be able to write a character who doesn't have something horrible done to his hands. It's a trope I'm going to have to control or it'll become personal cliché.) 

Erastes: Mine appears to be sponge baths. :)  I have one in Standish AND Transgressions.  How have you found the "mainstream" process in comparison to the small press journey? 

Alex: Well, I don't have a lot of experience with either. Apart from the longer time-spans involved with the mainstream publisher, I haven't really noticed a lot of difference. Better cover-art, though! 

Erastes:  Amen, sister! 

Alex: It's really nice to have a cover where the picture has been made specifically for your book, so you can go 'yes, those are my characters!' rather than being stock images you see used everywhere.  Also, as a lover of men in uniform, I am so happy to see them in uniform ;) 

Erastes: And they tried their best to actually illustrate a scene from both books which was great! 

Alex: Yes!  The expressions on their faces are perfect too. 

Erastes: So, is there any future for John and Alfie? Or is there story done and have they sailed into the sunset? 

Alex: I would quite like to do more with them. They both have family problems I think it would be fun to tackle. I'd like to see John make good on his decision to go and try to forgive his father - particularly as I think his father would milk the thing for all he was worth.  They are in a very difficult position too - I mean, with Alfie known as 'the sod'. It would be better for their health if they were to get out of the Navy. 

Erastes: I felt that too, you gave them such layered characters that there was a lot more to be said and done.  And yes, a precarious position to leave them in, figuratively and literally!!! 

Alex: Not quite as precarious as yours though! Am I allowed to ask how Jonathan and David are going to get out of the end of Transgressions alive? 

Erastes: *Laughs* I'm sure they will. Saying nothing! 

Alex: So what's next for you? 

Erastes: I'm writing a Victorian mystery set in Norfolk called Mere Mortals right now - after that, I've got an idea for a novella set on a lighthouse, and a novels set in Ancient Rome... How about you? 

Alex: I'm nearly at the end of a contemporary holiday romance called 'Boys of Summer', and then I plan to do another historical. This one will be set in early Norman England and centre around the freedom fighter Hereward and his attempt to rid England of the Normans. 

Erastes: Gay men in armour. Delicious! 

~*~ 

Comments

[Erastes]

Thank you! Happy Launch day!

We won the internets and I couldn't be happier!

[Jessica Freely]

Do you think all the publicity around Amazonfail will ultimately help your sales?

[Lee Rowan]

Great chat - and some new bits you haven't talked about before. I'll be phoning local bookstores in the morning to see if Transgressions & False Colors are available here.. and order locally if not so they'll think about stocking them.

If that scene was the one I'm thinking of, I wanted to *bathe* those guys and give them vitamins - your crew was very believable but not at all cuddlesome.

I hope these books blow the lid off the charts -- and you get your author copies soon!