We are very happy to welcome A.M. Arthur to the Smoocher’s Voice blog today. She has two new books available, Stand by You on Carina Press and Foundation of Trust on Samhain Publishing.
A.M.
Arthur was born and raised in the same kind of small town that she likes to
write about, a stone's throw from both beach resorts and generational
farmland. She's been creating stories in
her head since she was a child and scribbling them down nearly as long, in a
losing battle to make the fictional voices stop. She credits an early fascination with male
friendships (bromance hadn't been coined yet back then) and "The Young
Riders" with her later discovery of and subsequent love affair with m/m
romance stories.
An
avid reader of het romance, her first foray into reading published m/m romance
(slash fanfic doesn't count) is thanks to a Dear Author review of K.A.
Mitchell's Chasing Smoke. After
devouring K.A.'s existing backlist, she dove headfirst into other authors.
While she prefers contemporary, she'll occasionally sample an historical or SFF
m/m romance.
A.M.
wrote her first m/m stories in the guise of Kish fanfic (the Kyle/Fish romance
from cancelled soap opera "One Life to Live”). As her stories were met
with more and more positive feedback, A.M. was inspired to try her hand at
creating original m/m romance. And the rest is history.
When
not exorcising the voices in her head, she toils away in a retail job that
tests her patience and gives her lots of story fodder. She can also be found in her kitchen,
pretending she's an amateur chef and trying to not poison herself or others
with her cuisine experiments.
Connect
with A.M.:
· Blog
· Twitter
Jodi: Thank you, A.M, for taking the time to answer some questions for
our readers. Please tell us a little about yourself.
A.M.: Thank
you so much for having me! I’m not sure what else to tell you after that lovely
intro. Long before I was a writer, books were a part of my life. I’ve had books
in my hands for as far back as I can remember. When I was in elementary school
and into junior high, I devoured books at such a rapid rate that we’d drive
nearly thirty minutes to another town’s library that had unlimited check-outs.
Getting lost in a story is one of my favorite things, and even though I do own
a Nook for digital-only releases, there’s nothing quite like holding a
paperback in my hands.
Jodi: There
are three stories, so far, in the
Belonging series. Each
of these young men has to overcome trials and come to terms with his past in
order to be happy and successful. What was your inspiration for this series?
A.M.: I
didn’t set out with any specific idea of how the series would shape up, or even
how many books I’d write. It came out of wanting to write something New Adult
and wanting to write a virgin hero. Once I figured out who Jaime and Alessandro
were and what was up with Perch Creek, I began writing their book. The series
started to take shape once they took their field trip to Pot O Gold. I knew
once Ezra appeared that instead of Perch Creek, Pot O Gold was going to be the
hub of this series.
Jodi: Alessandro
in No Such Thing and Ezra in Maybe This Time are not looking for relationships or love. Both men seem a bit
jaded regarding love and relationships. Yet when they meet Jaime and Donner,
respectively, things change. As a writer, was it a challenge to portray the
shifts in these relationships from simply sex to an emotional connection
between the characters?
A.M.: Yes
and no. The characters made it pretty easy for me to sense when the shifts were
happening, but the challenge is always showing those things in a subtle way,
rather than shoving it up the reader’s nose. A lot of the time, shifts in
relationships happen in the small things. Making coffee while your lover is
still asleep and bringing them a mug in bed. Buying them a case of Coke when
you see they’re about to run out without being asked. Resting a hand on their
knee while watching a movie. It also happens when sex stops being about getting
off and starts being about creating a connection with your lover — being with
them because you can’t imagine being with anyone else.
Jodi: Although
all three books can be read as standalones and focus on different couples, Ezra
seems to be a steady link. Tell us a little about Ezra and the inspiration for
his character.
A.M.: It’s
probably fair to say that Ezra inspired himself. I wouldn’t call him
flamboyant, but he has style and confidence, and I’d never written a character
quite like him before. There’s probably a little bit of Brian Kinney (Queer As Folk) in him, but Ezra’s
reluctance to form attachments come from a place of deep hurt. He’s guarded,
because he doesn’t see being vulnerable as having any lasting value, so when
his new friendships with Jaime and Alessandro last longer than one night, it
throws him off his game. I loved the idea of writing someone who is insanely
loyal to the few people he chooses to love, but getting there takes a force of
nature (or someone as steadfast and incredibly patient as Donner).
Jodi: In
Stand by You, the third book, we
learn more about Romy, who we met in the first book. Romy has had a difficult
life, and he makes a lot of bad decisions. Why does he trust Ezra?
A.M.: Part
of the reason that he trusts Ezra is the same reason that Ezra instinctively
trusts Romy—they’re both hurt souls who need a kind hand once in a while. Romy
is also one of the few people with whom Ezra has hooked up more than once, and
Romy attaches to people too easily. So another part of that trust is his
long-distance crush on Ezra. Writing their friendship in Stand By You was a pleasure, because it really illustrated Ezra’s
incredible loyalty to the people he chooses to love, as well as Romy’s need for
genuine affection.
Jodi: Brendan
and Romy are so different, yet they have similar needs. Tell us a bit about
what makes Brendan tick.
A.M.: Brendan
is the kind of best friend that everyone wants to have—steadfast, loyal, ready
to help a pal in need, and incredibly generous. When I first introduced him in Maybe This Time I didn’t know he would
end up with Romy. All I knew was that he was a big part of Donner’s life, and
that he’d helped Donner get through losing his first partner Jacob. And I’ll
tell you a secret: up until the moment that Brendan meets Romy for the first
time (you know that scene), Brendan wasn’t even gay/closeted. Once it clicked,
I went back and through the magic of editing, fixed what made everything right.
And then Brendan started telling me all about his sisters, their significant
others, his nieces and nephews, his mother, his childhood. All Brendan ever
wanted to do was make his family proud of him and to take care of them, so when
his hopes of a pro football career fell apart, he decided to take all of those
feelings towards men and hide them away. His family is everything to him, and
he was scared to risk disappointing, or even losing them.
Jodi: Romy
trusts Brendan, but he is wary of getting into a relationship with him,
especially since he is not even sure Brendan is gay? What makes him take that
leap of faith?
A.M.: It’s
Brendan himself that makes Romy take that leap. Brendan makes the first move,
which makes it a little easier for Romy to put his trust in their relationship.
He’s still wary at first, of course, because Brendan has to come out to both
himself and to the other people in his life. But there is also something about
Brendan that speaks to Romy on an instinctive level that he’s never had with
someone before. As scared as he is to trust, Romy is just as scared to risk
losing something potentially amazing.
Jodi: You
tackle some difficult topics in this series: homophobia, rape, abuse. Was it a
challenging writing about these topics?
A.M.: Absolutely.
Other authors have tackled these topics, and in many, many ways, so I knew I
wasn’t saying anything new. But I trusted my characters, and I hope I was
careful not to use those topics as titillation or as a way to create artificial
drama. I wanted to show the effects and aftermath of abuse in a truthful way
that didn’t feel voyeuristic, but that was still honest. No one reacts to rape
or violence in the same way, and I think it’s important to show that abuse
victims aren’t supposed to act any one way. Recovery is a very personal thing,
and everyone goes through it differently.
Jodi: Do
you have a message for your readers, something you want them to come away with
after reading the books?
A.M.: Treasure
your healthy relationships and discard the toxic ones--it doesn’t matter if
they are friends, relatives, or lovers.
Jodi: Foundation of Trust is the fifth book in the Cost
of Repairs series. The
books in this series are not as intricately related as the other series. What
is the commonality in these books?
A.M.: The
biggest commonality is location. All five books are set in (or in Foundation’s
case, mostly around) the fictional town of Stratton, Pennsylvania. All of the
books also feature a wide supporting cast of characters that weave in and out
of the series. Samuel Briggs and Rey King (the heroes of books one and four)
and local diner owner Dixie Foskey have appeared in all five books. I love the
small town aspect of these books, and how much that atmosphere affects everyday
life and personal decisions.
Jodi: In
Foundation of Trust, Owen Hart and
David Weller are reunited after four years. These men were just starting their
lives together, when Owen and his son abruptly walked out of David’s life. Did
you know Owen was coming back when he left?
A.M.: Yes.
The scene in Charlie’s when Rey and David chat over beer
(Acts of Faith)
and David mentions Owen for the first time, I knew
that this would be my “old lover returns to mend a broken heart” story. Except
I had no idea why Owen left, or how on earth David would ever be able to
forgive him. I mean, you haven’t even seen Owen on page, but from that scene
you already kind of hate him, right? Redeeming him was tricky. Once I
understood Owen’s back story, through, the novel started to come together.
Jodi: While reading the first book in the series, Cost of Repairs, I fell in love with Rey and Sam.
What was your inspiration for these men and their story?
A.M.: Cost of Repairs was my first contemporary m/m novel, and I was terrified to
tell their story. I was devouring m/m romance, especially series romance, and I
wanted to do something set in a small town. And the best way to introduce an
audience to a new location is to have someone new arrive in town, so all of the
sudden I had this cop who’d lost his partner, and who was fixing up an old
house while he grieved and learned to move on. And while he wasn’t technically
in the closet, he hadn’t announced his sexuality to anyone. The town needed a
watering hole of sorts, the kind of place where (wait for the cliché) everyone
knows your name. Instead of a bar, though, I came up with a twenty-four hour
diner named Dixie’s Cup, and naturally Samuel’s future love interest worked
there. Except Rey was so stand-offish and had a funny name, and I had to know
why, and once Rey’s back story fell into place, I was so eager to tell their
story. And I was very excited to revisit their relationship again in book four,
because I adore these two and one aspect of Rey’s life was still waiting to be
resolved.
Jodi: Sam
and Rey both face adversity and need to come to terms with their pasts in order
to move into the future. What were some of the challenges you faced as a writer
making these two characters both strong and vulnerable at the same time?
A.M.: Making
any character both strong and vulnerable is always a challenge. It’s an extra
challenge when they’re the alpha male cop that is Samuel Briggs. He can be
tough as nails on the outside, but you also have to be able to show hints of
that soft, gooey center because that’s the part of him that holds tight to the
man that he loves. When they first meet, neither man is looking for a
relationship and for very different reasons. No strings sex sounds like a good
plan to both of them. In some ways, Rey always had more to lose because his
life was hectic enough without adding in a boyfriend. But even though he tried to keep Sam at arm’s
length and keep hammering away at life, Rey’s overall weariness with life gave
away that he wasn’t as tough as he wanted to be. Vulnerability doesn’t have to
be excessive to be noticeable
Jodi: What is your next project?
A.M.: I
have several things going on at the moment. I have two new series debuting in
early 2015, and both are spinoffs to these two series. The Truth As He Knows It is still set mostly in Stratton, but will
also feature a younger set of characters and take readers into Harrisburg more
often, as well. Getting It Right is
Tag’s story, and it will tell the stories of his group of friends. I’m also
working on Ethaniel’s book (Foundation of
Trust), as well as some new proposals. I am not bored, believe me.
Foundation of Trust
Cost of Repairs, Book 5
David Weller thought he had it all—a
loving partner who gave him a ring, a steady job he didn’t hate, and so much
hope for the future. But in the wake of a devastating diagnosis, everything he
thought was solid and real lay in pieces at his feet.
Four years later, he’s still sifting
through the rubble of his life. His catering partnership occupies his days,
while his nights are filled with dangerous sexual hookups and very bad
decisions. Then the last person he ever expected to see again walks back into
his life.
Owen Hart’s single biggest regret is the
way he was forced to leave David behind—no explanations, no chance to make it
right. Until now. Finally free of eight years of lies, Owen’s back for the only
man he’s ever loved.
An incendiary encounter in a club proves
that time hasn’t weakened their physical connection, but David’s wounds run
deeper than Owen’s deception. And if David can’t first forgive, Owen doesn’t
have a second chance in hell.
Warning: This book contains an
Australian transplant with a head full of secrets, a party planner with enough
baggage to sink a battleship, and a surly teenager who just wants them both to
get over themselves.
Buy Links
Stand By You
Belonging, Book 3
Three months
after his rescue from an abusive boyfriend, twenty-two-year-old Romy Myers has
landed his first legitimate job,
bussing tables at
his friend's new coffee shop. The job has brought him some stability after
years of abuse have left him feeling damaged and broken. He's working hard on
his panic and social anxiety, and those things are often tempered by the big,
burly presence of Brendan Walker.
From the moment
ex-football player Brendan helped rescue Romy from his ex's abuse, he's wanted
to protect him. And he does, from a distance, with joking text messages, a new
gym routine to toughen him up and a genuine friendship. So far it's been easy, but Brendan's feelings aren't just friendly anymore…
When an argument
spirals out of control, a hot and heavy make-out session causes Romy's
friendship with supposedly straight Brendan to reach a new level. The last
thing Romy wants is to fall for another guy who could potentially shatter him,
but Brendan also wakes up a part of him he thought had been destroyed by
violence, his heart.
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