We
are very happy to welcome Merry Farmer to the Smoocher’s Voice blog today. Farmer’s
most recent novel Somebody to Love is self-published via Smashwords and available
at most online book retailers.
Merry Farmer lives in suburban
Philadelphia with her two cats, Butterfly and Torpedo. She has been writing
since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn’t have to wait
for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was
the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in
History so that she would always having something to write about. Today she
walks along the cutting edge of Indie Publishing, writing Historical Romance
and Women's Sci-Fi. She is also passionate about blogging, knitting, and
cricket and is working towards becoming an internationally certified cricket
scorer.
Jodi: Thank you, Merry, for
taking the time to answer some questions for our readers. Please tell us a
little about yourself.
Merry: Wow,
there’s so much to tell, and at the same time not all that much. I’m a writer through and through. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing
or dreaming or making up stories. It
also means that I’ve always had an incredibly overactive imagination, which has
gotten me into trouble more than a few times.
Jodi: What inspired you to write the Montana
Romance series?
Merry: I’ve
always loved the excitement and adventure of the Old West. Back in the day, Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman was one of my favorite TV shows. I have always wanted to write about that
unique time and place in our history.
There was so much possibility and opportunity. I sometimes think that the average person
doesn’t realize how progressive the Old West really was.
Jodi: What is the time frame for this series?
Merry: The series is set in the late 1890s. The first book in the series, Our
Little Secrets, takes place in 1895
and each successive book is set between then and 1900. I also plan to write a second series
involving the children of the characters from the first series, which will take
place around WWI (about 1917 or so) with one intermediary book set in 1908.
Jodi: Somebody
to Love takes place at the turn of the century (1900). Why did you choose
to set the series during this time frame?
Merry: Because
everything was changing in 1900. It was
the dawn of a new century. Technology
was leaping ahead so fast that people who had been born earlier in the 19th
century hardly recognized the world they were now living in. Life was exciting and full of adventure,
travel was easier than ever before, civil rights for women and minorities were
moving forward (although they had a long way to go), and the world was full of
possibility. Nineteen hundred wasn’t
really all that different from the world we live in now in terms of the mood of
the people.
Jodi: What type of research did you need to do for
this book, especially around the issue of homosexuality?
Merry: I
did far more research for this book than I have done for any of my previous
books. I have two degrees in History and
have studied the time period exhaustively, but I knew much less about the lives
and conditions of gay men and women during this time. I sought out the advice of fellow M/M
writers, who pointed me to a magnificent book, Strangers: Homosexual Love in the
Nineteenth Century, by Graham Robb. It is a fantastic, comprehensive look at the
topic through primary source materials, such as journals, court documents, and
official records. I learned SO
much! Most importantly, that the kinds
of prejudices gay men encountered in 1900 were not the same kind that they are
faced with today and that life wasn’t as harsh as we might be tempted to think
it was. I could go on about the history
forever.
Jodi: Somebody
to Love is the seventh book in the Montana Romance series, and it is the
first male/male romance you have written. Is writing a romance with two male
protagonists very different from a male and female protagonist?
Merry: I
thought it would be, but in the end it wasn’t.
The story is, first and foremost, about finding love and acceptance and
being true to who you are. Technical
details of the love scenes aside, those are deeply emotional themes that are
true for all sorts of people and all sorts of relationships.
Jodi: Were you concerned that fans of the Montana
series would not want to see a male/male romance enter into the picture?
Merry: It
had crossed my mind, but in the end I was willing to take the risk for the sake
of my characters. So far I have received
nothing but the very best of feedback.
Jodi: What was your inspiration for writing Somebody to Love and for giving Phineas
a romance?
Merry: I think I was inspired by Phineas himself. Phin is such a wonderful, kind, thoughtful
man. I couldn’t imagine someone like
that going through life alone. I knew
right from the beginning of the series that he deserved to find love, but it
wasn’t until later that I knew that I had to actually write that story.
Jodi: Tell us about your
inspiration for the character of Phineas?
Merry: I’ve been blessed to have several gay friends in my life. Phin is sort of my tribute to them. He started out as being modeled on a
particularly close friend of mine from high school, but very quickly he
developed into his own person. But he
still has my friend’s depth of character and hugeness of heart.
Jodi: What was your inspiration for Elliot?
Merry: You know, I’m not really sure.
Elliott is one of those characters that just sort of snuck up on me and
demanded that I love him. I mean, who
could resist? He’s gorgeous, charming, a
little bit flawed, and passionate about everything he does.
Jodi: When Elliot first meets Phineas, he plans to
seduce him, but his thoughts about a simple seduction change once he gets to
know Phineas better. What was the thought process behind your showing this
change in his character?
Merry: I wanted to show the process that someone goes through when
they’re ready to put the wild days of their youth behind them and try for
something real. In his heart, Elliott
wants to find a home and love and acceptance more than anything else. I wanted to show him reaching the point in
his life where he has to change or be forever a wanderer. It’s really a growing up process for
him. I think we all go through that at
some point in our life, especially when we meet our soul mate.
Jodi: Charlie and Michael seem very open-minded and
accepting regarding Phin’s sexual orientation. Have those characters accepted
Phin since the beginning of the series? How do they discover his secret?
Merry: I
actually do deal with their reasons for being so open-minded in the first book
in the series, Our Little Secrets. Michael and Phin have been friends since
their school days. Phin stood up for
Michael and helped him at a time when nobody else would. I can’t remember if I actually talk about
this in the book or not, but Phin was upfront with Michael from a very early
stage of their relationship, and because of his own issues with acceptance and
inclusion, Michael was able to accept Phin for who he was in spite of popular
opinion. Charlie had a similar
experience with a family member who she was close to, an uncle, who was
eventually forbidden from seeing her, which hurt her deeply.
One of the things I
encountered in my research was that for the vast majority of people in the 19th
century, there was no concept of what “gay” was, and since people didn’t talk
about what went on in their bedrooms at all, the fact that someone was gay
wouldn’t even cross their mind, which meant it wouldn’t impede their
friendships or business relationships unless it came out.
Jodi: Elliott Tucker is a strong character, and he
seems to be pretty adept at hiding who he is. Was it a challenge to write two
very different characters – one hiding his homosexuality and the other not
wanting to lie about who he is?
Merry: Ah
ha! That was the most fun part of
writing the book! I was very interested
in showing the contrast between these two methods of dealing with being so
different from everyone else. Phin never
lies about who he is, but he doesn’t go around advertising it either. The conflict of these two approaches is where
so much of the tension of the book comes from.
Jodi: Do you plan to explore more of the
relationship between these two men in future books in this series?
Merry: They
will definitely be in future books in the second part of the series, but they
won’t be main characters. I may get to
find a way to explain how people in Cold Springs feel about the two of them
still being “single” and living together 20 years down the road.
Jodi: Do you have any more male/male or possibly
female/female romances planned?
Merry: Yes
and no. I would love to write another
M/M series, but at the moment I don’t have one rattling around in my
brain. I’m sure one will pop in there
eventually, though. I do have a sort of
dystopian futuristic series that involves a multiple partner relationship
(which is way, way simplifying that world), as well as a historical series with
a gay main character, but it’s not a Romance.
Jodi: What is your next project?
Merry: My
newest series is actually Science Fiction, with just a little bit of
Romance. Grace’s Moon is a series that
follows the survivors of a crash on a habitable moon in the middle of nowhere
after the destruction of a transport ship taking colonists to Earth’s first
extra-planetary colony. It’s kind of
more of a History novel, believe it or not, as these people have to revert back
several ages in terms of technology to a more primitive lifestyle. The first two books, Saving Grace and Fallen From
Grace, are out July 15th, two more will be released before the
end of the year, and really, the series could have any number of books as life
on Grace’s Moon rolls on.
Somebody to Love
For Phineas Bell, love has not only been out of reach, it has
been impossible. In a world where men who love other men are anathema, he has
poured his love into his work, his town, and the friends who accept him as
family. But when a handsome new lodger takes over his home and his heart,
breaking all his careful rules, Phin must choose between playing it safe and
letting love in.
War hero Elliott Tucker is the answer to Cold Springs’s prayers
for a sheriff worth his salt. But with every single woman in town throwing
themselves at him, Elliott has eyes for only one person: Phin. The sparks are
hot between then, but in spite of Elliott’s best efforts, Phin’s heart proves
the toughest nut to crack. A love that starts with fire threatens to burn them
both…
… until a shocking abduction throws Phin and Elliott together on
the trail of ruthless kidnappers. Will their efforts to save a child wrench
them apart or will it prove that at last they’ve found somebody to love?
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