We
are very happy to welcome the talented Brad Boney to the Smoocher’s Voice blog
today. Brad’s most recent novel, The Eskimo Slugger,
is available from Dreamspinner
Press.
Although The Eskimo Slugger can be
read as a standalone, it is a prequel to Brad’s other novels,
The Nothingness of Ben
and
The Return. Don't forget to go to the bottom of the post and leave a comment and enter to win a copy of The Eskimo Slugger from Brad.
Brad Boney lives in
Austin, Texas, the seventh gayest city in America. He grew up in the Midwest
and went to school at NYU. He lived in Washington, DC, and Houston before
settling in Austin. He blames his background in the theater for his writing
style, which he calls “dialogue and stage directions.” His first book was named
a Lambda Literary Award finalist. He believes the greatest romantic comedy of
all time is 50 First Dates. His
favorite gay film of the last ten years is Strapped.
And he has never met a boy band he didn’t like.
Connect with Brad:
· Twitter
· Facebook
Jodi: Thank
you, Brad, for taking the time to answer some questions for our readers. I am a
big fan of your writing and books.
Brad: Thanks for having me on the blog, Jodi. We’ve been chatting
for a couple of years on Twitter, so this is groovy.
Jodi: Let’s jump right in, shall we? On your website, you wrote the
following statement:
Brad: I had a contract for The Return before The
Nothingness of Ben ever saw the light of day. In my mind, it was never the
follow-up to Ben, but rather the main
event. I thought of Ben as a concerto
for string quintet and The Return as
a Mahler symphony. When I started getting some attention for Ben, it seemed like people were hungry
for a second book. I didn’t have to face the pressure of writing a follow-up,
because it was already written.
Jodi: The
three books you have published are all related. Although readers can read them
as standalones, the stories are intricately woven together. Which book did you
actually write first?
Brad: I wrote the books in the order they were published, so The Nothingness of Ben came first, then The Return, then The Eskimo Slugger. But from the beginning, I had an outline in my
head of all three books and how they would relate to each other. There are
things I set up in The Nothingness of Ben
that don’t pay off until The Eskimo
Slugger.
Jodi: The Eskimo Slugger,
the most recently published book, is the beginning of the tale. It is written with
a bit of a mythological/origin style. Should readers not familiar with your
work read this book first?
Brad: That’s a good question. For the last year, whenever
I’ve seen someone on social media recommend The
Return, they’ve always followed it
up with, “Read The Nothingness of Ben
first.” And personally, I’ve never felt that way. I’ve heard from many people
who read The Return first and then
went back and read Ben, and I know
that works too. No matter what I say, people are going to read the books in
different orders, so I wrote them with that in mind. There is no right answer,
but those who read The Eskimo Slugger
first, and then go back and read Ben
and The Return, will have a different
experience than those who read them in the order they were written. Not a
lesser experience, mind you—just a different one. And to me, that’s a beautiful
thing.
Jodi: Tell
us about Trent Days. He is living a bit of a fantasy life when readers meet
him, but meeting Brendan changes everything. Why does Trent risk everything for
Brendan in the first place?
Brad: Trent is a rookie phenomenon in Major League Baseball.
America loves an overnight sensation, and that’s where Trent is when we meet
him. As a baseball player, he is based on Mike Trout, who just finished his
third season with the Los Angeles Angels (except Trent is a catcher and Trout
plays center field). Many sports writers are saying Trout may be the greatest
player that ever lived. That’s the same kind of hyperbole that surrounds Trent.
But he also has a secret. He’s gay, and when he meets Brendan and finds himself
falling in love for the first time, that creates a crisis in his life. Why does
Trent risk everything for Brendan in the first place? For love, Jodi. For love.
J
Jodi: Brendan
works in a record store and is going to school to become a lawyer. Tell us a
bit about his character and what makes him tick.
Brad: Brendan is the
average Joe of the story, but whereas Trent is famous and would rather not be,
Brendan isn’t famous and wishes he was. Or at least he wishes he was great at
something. He wants to be the best lawyer in the country. He, too, is gay but
not yet out of the closet. He’s never been in love either, so he and Trent
stumble through their first romance together. They’re on equal footing when it
comes to their inexperience.
Jodi: You
describe the books in musical terms, and music plays an important part for
these books. The soundtrack creates its own theme. Why did you choose to
intertwine the series with music?
Brad: Because music
is universal and transcends language barriers. Rhythm is fundamental to human
beings, and for this story specifically, I was looking for a way that memory
could be transferred from one person to another. At one point in The Return, Hutch says, “Everything that
I was and ever hoped to be, I stored it all in the music.” Memory and music are
both pure energy, so I could imagine a person embedding their knowledge in a
melody. From there, I used my personal relationship with music to add detail
and nuance to the characters. I admit, it ballooned beyond what I originally
intended, but people have really responded to that element, and I’ve introduced
a lot of readers to some great songs they’d never heard before. The Return has a playlist on both
Spotify and YouTube.
Jodi: Did you have to do research for the connections between the
music and the time periods?
Brad: I chose time periods that I had lived through and used
my own personal knowledge in most cases. Half of The Return is set in New York City between 1981 and 1985, and
that’s when I was going to school at NYU. When I was a freshman, someone turned
me onto Bruce Springsteen by playing “Thunder Road” for me. I occasionally
Googled the Billboard charts from certain years to remind myself what was
popular in a certain year, but I only referred to music I had a personal
connection to. Like Stanton, I think Toni Basil’s “Mickey” is a slice of pure
pop heaven, “Bridge over Troubled Water” is the greatest song of all time, and
“Billy, Don’t Be a Hero” is so bad it’s good. I was a big New Order fan back in
the ‘80s, and their song “Blue Monday” is what brings Trent and Brendan
together. And also, like Stanton, I learned everything I know about music from
my friends. I’m like a sponge around people who are smarter than me.
Jodi: Music
is symbolic in the series, but the main metaphor in The Eskimo Slugger is baseball, a game of subtext. Why did you
choose baseball?
Brad: I stole the
setup for The Eskimo Slugger from Notting Hill, one of my favorite
romantic comedies. Can the most famous movie star in the world fall for an
ordinary guy? From there, I needed to change it up. I didn’t want Trent to be a
movie star, and I felt my two other options were sports star or politician.
When I decided on sports, I went straight to baseball because of its elegant
and spiritual nature (think Field of
Dreams). Instead of walking into a bookstore, Trent walks into a record
store. That was an obvious change because of the role music plays in the overall
story. And after the setup, The Eskimo
Slugger goes in a completely different direction.
Jodi: Speaking
of time periods …. The three books in the series span a few decades. The Eskimo Slugger takes place in 1983. The Nothingness of Ben begins in the
year 2010, and The Return takes place
during both of these time frames. How did you keep track of all of the details?
Brad: Flow charts! Well, actually, I only used a flow chart
for the second half of The Return.
The rest I kept in my head. I don’t find that part difficult, but maybe I just
have one of those brains. It’s easier than it looks when you’re the one telling
the story. Sometimes I write a payoff first and then go back and insert the
setup. I rely on my beta reader to catch hanging plot points, and he’s really
good at that.
Jodi: You
tackle some serious issues in these books, especially the concept of homophobia
in society and the AIDS epidemic. These are important points for the grounding
the stories, but your tackling of the AIDS epidemic is more than that. Was that
an important inspiration for the concept of series?
Brad: I never set out
to write about the AIDS epidemic. If you think about how old Topher is, and
count back to when he was born, it leads you right to the ‘80s. AIDS plays no
role in The Nothingness of Ben or The Eskimo Slugger, but it’s a major
plot engine in The Return. And once I
figured out how it would all fit together, I knew I had to do it justice. But I
lived through the ‘80s as a gay man in New York City and Washington, DC, so I
remember those days. I didn’t make up the Haitian joke Michael tells in The Return. I remember the confusion,
denial, and lack of information. People got sick and died within a matter of
days or weeks. Thirty years later, I thought of a fictional way to restore
everything that was lost, and that became The
Return. I believe in the power of love to do the impossible, and that
drives every story I tell.
Jodi: The Eskimo Slugger takes place over a short period of time, and yet the events in the
story change so many people’s lives. Why did you choose for this story to move
so quickly and dramatically?
Brad: After The Return, which is told on a large
canvas, I wanted to go in the other direction. In your quote above, I describe The Nothingness of Ben as a concerto and
The Return as a symphony. The Eskimo Slugger is a pop song, and I
love pop songs! A great one can change your life. There’s something about the
short time period of The Eskimo Slugger
that I find very seductive. Trent and Brendan are only twenty-three years old.
When I was that age, I fell in love hard and fast. The most memorable romance
of my life only lasted five days.
Jodi: The
characters in The Eskimo Slugger are
intriguing and intense. Tell us about your inspiration for Quincy.
Brad: Intriguing and
intense. I like that. Quincy runs a café called Les Amis, which was a real
place in Austin during the ‘80s, but no longer exists. The same is true of
Inner Sanctum Records. Many scenes in The
Eskimo Slugger take place at Les Amis. I used to go there with my friend
Eric all the time and loved their lasagna. There was a guy who ran the place,
and a burned-out cook, but I never met either one. Quincy’s my own invention,
but as for the inspiration? Follow the Q…
Jodi: What
was your inspiration for Kieran? Was his reaction to his best friend’s
announcement typical of the time frame or professional sports?
Brad: Much of the
conflict in The Eskimo Slugger is an
internal struggle within Trent, so I needed a character who would externalize
some of that. But Kieran’s negative reaction was absolutely typical. In Going
the Other Way, Billy Bean’s autobiography about his time in baseball as a
closeted gay man, he tells the story about making his boyfriend hide in the
garage for several hours when some of his teammates drop by their house
unannounced. Yes, they lived together. His boyfriend had to hide in his own
house! So that tells you something about the lengths closeted professional
athletes had to go to keep their secrets hidden.
Jodi: Tell
us about Barrow and Dime Box. Why did you choose these locations that are so
opposite in location and climate?
Brad: I love contrasts.
Texas and Alaska are two massive land states with polar opposite climates.
There’s something magical about Alaska and its untouched beauty. I chose Barrow
because it’s the northernmost city in the U.S., and when Travis runs away to
Barrow, I wanted him to run away to the edge of the world. I chose Dime Box by
looking on a map and picking it at random, simply because I loved the name and
it was the perfect size (population of about 370, depending on whether anyone
was born or died on that day).
Jodi: Stanton
and Hutch play a minor yet important role in The Eskimo Slugger. The scene where they come to visit though
solidifies the connection between the three books. Why does Brenden call
Stanton while he is freaking out?
Brad: Several people
have asked me why I skipped over the weekend when Stanton and Hutch visit
Austin in The Return. I saved that
for The Eskimo Slugger, where their
weekend is fully realized. There are several scenes in The Eskimo Slugger that really belong in The Return, and there are two scenes in The Return that really belong in The Eskimo Slugger. That’s the way I like to tell stories.
Everything is connected. Brendan calls Stanton because he’s reaching for
straws. He doesn’t know any other gay people, so it was either Stanton or the
gay crisis hotline.
Jodi: Will there be more books in this series?
Brad: I’m done with
this story, but not the characters. The next book coming out in the spring,
called Yes, reboots my
world and introduces a slew of new characters. But everyone from The Nothingness of Ben and The Return are still around and play
supporting roles. Topher shows up in an important and unexpected way. I’m
resistant to the idea of a formal series. I prefer stories that take place in
the same world, but still stand alone. I guess you could call it the Bradverse.
Jodi: What is your next project?
Brad: Yes is finished and coming out in March or April of next
year. It’s about a guy who takes a nap after his 40th birthday and wakes up
twenty years younger. It’s like that Tom Hank’s movie Big—only gay and in reverse. I’m currently working on a book about
two characters I introduced in Yes,
Sam and Jeremy. I don’t want to say too much about it, because it’s still in
its infancy.
It was wonderful to learn more about the Bradverse. The following
responses do have some spoilers included for those who have not read the books
yet.
Jodi: Trent
tells Brendan he will find him in his next life. Hutch tells Stanton that the
Bruce Springsteen concert is where they will meet again if they ever
separate. Let’s talk about the concept
of reincarnation. What is the premise for this part of the story?
Brad: Anyone who read
The Return already knows that Brendan
and Trent are the previous incarnation of Ben and Travis. They also know how The Eskimo Slugger ends (or at least
they think they do). I was attracted to reincarnation because it allows me to tell
a story about a love that can triumph over anything—even death. To me, there’s
nothing more romantic than that. And I can imagine someone passing their soul
from one body to another using music. Both the soul and music are energy, not
matter, so my mind can make that stretch. The key for me was grounding it in an
otherwise realistic world. Both Hutch and Trent believe they will see their
boyfriends in the next life, and it’s their faith that makes it happen. There
are readers who insist The Return
should have been classified as paranormal, but I think that’s a product of
their Judeo-Christian worldview. To the people of Tibet and India,
reincarnation is a spiritual fact, and they would take exception to someone
calling their beliefs paranormal. Do Christians classify their belief that
Jesus rose from the dead as paranormal? They don’t, and I fail to see the
difference.
Jodi: Did you do research on the Dalai Lama and Buddhism for this series?
Brad: After I left
the Catholic Church, I did a lot of soul searching. I was attracted to Buddhism
because it’s the only major religion with no deity. It’s not about heaven or
hell, but how to live a compassionate life. Unlike Christianity and Islam, I’ve
never heard anyone use the Buddha to justify violence. A great Buddhism primer
is the movie Little Buddha. It’s very
accessible for an American or European audience.
Jodi: In
The Return, the official
“reincarnation test” is with the three objects, but the first test takes place
in the record room inside the W Hotel. Is that the first time Stanton is
alerted to what is happening?
Brad: No, I don’t think so. Stanton starts to suspect from
the moment Topher opens his mouth, because he sounds just like Hutch. And when
Topher says, “the devil is in the details” in the first chapter, Stanton stops
on the sidewalk. And certainly the kiss during “Thunder Road” gets his head
spinning. But yes, when he sees the title of the third album in the record room,
and flashes back to what Hutch said to him twenty-six years earlier, you know
he’s heading to his hotel room and waking Marvin up.
Jodi: I
am curious if you think traditional romance readers will be upset that The Eskimo Slugger is not a traditional
HEA? Although technically it is the Ultimate HEA.
Brad: I'm not really concerned about it. Every writer looks
for a way to break the rules. It’s in our blood. Besides, I already gave the
ending away in The Return, so there's
no way readers who loved the first two books are going to be upset. Plus, I
gave everyone fair warning with the Orson Welles quote at the beginning. And
like you said, technically it's THE HEA. For Travis to find his way back to
that very block says everything about love I have to say. I don't define
romance by an HEA. I define it by a moment when one character lays himself down
for another, like a bridge over troubled water. I think Trent does that for
Brendan in a spectacular way at the end.
Jodi: I
have to ask … why does Christopher (Hutch) use a cell phone to communicate to
Topher?
Brad: Cell phones
have become an extension of who we are, and I thought it was a very
contemporary way to dramatize the moment when the two story threads collide.
The alternative was to somehow “embody” Chris, and that felt weird to me. It
also leaves open the possibility that Topher is just having a conversation with
himself.
Jodi: “There
is only one of us” is such a succinct, yet powerful, point. Does this statement
apply to all of the characters in the three books?
Brad: Awesome
question. I would say it applies to everyone—fictional and non-fictional alike.
I’m an atheist who went looking for a spiritual philosophy with some logic to
it. Physics tells us 13 billion years ago, there was literally only one of us.
It makes sense to me that physically, the universe began to expand and
separate, but metaphysically there has only been, and only ever will be, one of
us. We’re all connected.
Jodi: So, is Quincy the previous incarnation of Quentin Walsh?
Brad: Yes.
END SPOILERS
The Eskimo Slugger
It’s the summer of 1983, and Trent
Days is Major League Baseball’s rookie sensation. Born in Alaska to an Inupiat
mother, the press have dubbed him the Eskimo Slugger, but a midseason collision
at home plate temporarily halts his meteoric rise to the top.
Sent back to Austin to recuperate,
Trent visits his favorite record store, Inner Sanctum, where he meets amiable
law student Brendan Baxter. A skip in the vinyl of New Order’s “Blue Monday”
drives Trent back to Brendan, and their romance takes them into uncharted
territory.
As Trent’s feelings move from casual
to serious, he’s faced with an impossible dilemma. Does he abandon any hope of
a future with Brendan and return to the shadows and secrets of professional
sports? Or does he embrace the possibility of real love and leave baseball
behind him forever? As he struggles with his decision, Trent embarks on a
journey of self-discovery—to figure out who he really is and what matters most.
Buy Links
The Return
Music. Topher Manning rarely thinks about anything else, but his day job
as a mechanic doesn't exactly mesh with his rock star ambitions. Unless he can
find a way to unlock all the songs in his head, his band will soon be on the
fast track to obscurity.
Then the South by Southwest music festival and a broken-down car drop New
York critic Stanton Porter into his life. Stanton offers Topher a ticket to the
Bruce Springsteen concert, where a hesitant kiss and phantom vibrations from
Topher's cell phone kick off a love story that promises to transcend ordinary
possibility.
Buy Links
The Nothingness of Ben
Ben Walsh is well on his way to
becoming one of Manhattan's top litigators, with a gorgeous boyfriend and
friends on the A-list. His life is perfect until he gets a phone call that
brings it all crashing down: a car accident takes his parents, and now he must
return to Austin to raise three teenage brothers he barely knows.
During the funeral, Ben meets Travis
Atwood, the redneck neighbor with a huge heart. Their relationship initially
runs hot and cold, from contentious to flirtatious, but when the weight of
responsibility starts wearing on Ben, he turns to Travis, and the pressure
shapes their friendship into something that feels a lot like love. Ben thinks
he's found a way to have his old life, his new life, and Travis too, but love
isn't always easy. Will he learn to recognize that sometimes the worst thing
imaginable can lead him to the place he was meant to be?
Buy Links
I believe reincarnation is possible. I mean I'll rather think that their is a possibility that every being that is born has a soul that carries on even if our physical bodies don't.
ReplyDelete