Racheline Maltese's Blog, page 27

Coming May 2015 — Midsummer

Midsummer, a May/December, gay-for-you backstage romance. Coming from Dreamspinner Press, May 2015.

Like our Love in Los Angeles series, Midsummer is a backstage story. But it’s a very different one.

When John heads to Virginia to play Oberon in The Theater in the Woods’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the last thing he expects is to become captivated by the actor playing Puck.  It’s not just that John is recovering from a recent divorce precipitated by a personal tragedy two years earlier; it’s that John, up until now, has never found himself attracted to men.

While his interest in Michael may be a surprise, it’s the first good one John has had in a while, and they begin a torrid affair that quickly becomes the talk of the summer stock season.

But when Michael finds a skull in the lake on the theater grounds, John is forced to explain their relationship to the local police. The discussion exposes cracks in their relationship related to gay identity and politics.

As they muddle through these concerns, in part with a successful date at Richmond, VA gay bar, the tragedy in John’s past eventually comes to light.  Incensed that John had not told him this key detail of his history and worried that he’s just a mid-life crisis or rebound relationship, Michael breaks off the affair.

John is gutted and utilizes his friendships with the rest of the theatrical troupe to find out more about Michael’s own history in order to win him back.

Michael, it turns out, has a family secret of his own….

Pre-order coming in April!

 

Best Gay Romance 2015 now available!

You can now get Cleis Press‘s Best Gay Romance 2015 edited by Felice Picano, who is basically one of the founders of modern gay lit.

Erin and I are thrilled (and still a little startled) to have our story “Second Chances” included as part of this anthology.

About Best Gay Romance 2015

Gay romance is coming into full bloom in the wake of DOMA’s fall and the spread of marriage equality across the land. New series editor Felice Picano has rounded up the luminaries of gay fiction for their takes on the promises of new love and the surprises of long-term relationships. Known for changing the landscape of gay literature, Picano reveals himself at his finest when it comes to the subject of love and sex. The stories in this volume range from the gritty to the fantastic, from the sweet and dreamy to sidewalk hard, with tales of missed connections, fantasies of vengeance and even a coolly sexy cowboy yarn. Tom Baker’s “Jury Duty” brings new meaning to the concept of jury tampering when deliberating over a case goes from ho-hum to a thrilling undercover romance. Two cowboys find a Brokeback love for each other while in pursuit along the Rio Grande in Dale Chase’s “Matters of the Heart.” In a meet cute for our times, Jay Mandal’s “To Dye For” follows two former classmates who bump into each other, and discover they like exactly the same thing—men! In Best Gay Romance 2015, Felice Picano gathers a sweepingly romantic collection of short fiction that is long on love.

About “Second Chances”

Pete thinks taking off the wedding ring from his dead husband seems like an appropriate gesture before going to bed with his new boyfriend, Isaac, for the first time, but when the ring won’t come off, he gets stuck answering the door covered in olive oil and lube.

Ebook: Amazon | B&N

Paperback: Amazon | B&N

More retailers coming soon! Add it on Goodreads!

Do the Thing! – Fan-to-Pro and Fan-while-Pro

Thanks to everyone who attended the OTW chat on “Why Fanworks Should Be Celebrated” and asked questions about the fan-to-pro or fan-while-pro experience.

You can now read a transcript of the discussion at the OTW site. Topic include not looking at fanfiction at an audition for a professional writing life; not waiting to get chosen but submitting your original writing if you want to go pro; and how just like “reviews are for readers, fanfiction is for fans.”

We hope you enjoy!

Join the celebration of International Fanworks Day

As part of the celebration of International Fanworks Day on February 15, the Organization for Transformative Works will be hosting a live chat with three authors who have written both fanfiction and published works.

I’m super excited to be a part of this along with Tara Sue Me and Cecilia Tan (who has been featured on this blog before), especially at a time when Starling has recently gotten it’s first fan art!

Why fanworks should be celebrated

February 8, 2015, 17:00-19:00 UTC (What time is that in my timezone?)

Moderator: Francesca Coppa, OTW Board director emerita

Guests: Racheline Maltese, Tara Sue Me, Cecilia Tan

The chat will be held in the OTW’s Public Discussion chatroom.

For anyone who can’t join the chat live the OTW expects to post a transcript of the event within 24 hours.

Genre expectations and personal history

A few weeks ago, a journalist asked me during an interview what I thought of Fifty Shades of Grey. I said that since I haven’t read it, I don’t really have an opinion and we moved on to other topics.

But the reality is that of course I have an opinion on 50SoG. Everyone does.  My friends in the BDSM community largely abhor it. My partner has given me horrified recountings of multiple plot-points that are often written about on the internet as abusive. And tons of people I know mock its language choices.

On the other hand, it’s sold a ton of copies, made a ton of money, and is a subject of positive interest and very often enthusiasm in the romance space.  Lots of people find it turns their crank just right.

And amid all of that, I’m supposed to feel something.

But I’ve largely avoided reading it so I don’t have to.  I’m pretty sure it’s not my cup of tea, and I would likely be concerned at its misrepresentations of safe/sane/consensual and/or risk aware kink (I’ll talk about the difference between the two terms when my and Erin’s upcoming novelette Room 1024 comes out in April).

But at the same time, I’m not really interested in policing other people’s fantasies or assuming that readers don’t know the difference between fantasy and reality. I’m also wary of engaging in the (internalized) misogyny that often gets directed at romance and erotica readers and writers. And I don’t want people to feel bad about what turns their crank. Rather, I want them to talk about it.

In fact, I’m a lot more interested in hearing about why Fifty Shades of Grey punches people’s buttons positively and building something useful out of the degree to which the book has helped to make sex and desire a more public conversation.

Now, I’m not saying other people should stop criticizing the book or worrying about the issues they’re worrying about.  Those are legitimate, important, and helpful conversations as far as I can tell. I’m just saying I don’t feel like my contribution there would be useful or meaningful — to me or anyone else.

Besides, I’m sort of struggling with my own feelings about the intersection of media, sex, desire, and judgement.

This is where I tell you I’ve slept with a lot of people.  More than 50.  Probably not much more than 60; I’m not entirely sure.  But I’m 42, my 20s were adventurous, and I don’t have the time or inclination to make a comprehensive list.  It doesn’t seem important. I’ve practiced safer sex, I’ve gotten tested, and I’ve largely avoided any entirely disastrous choices.

But I’ve got a number, and to a lot of people it’s kind of a big one. I’ve never hid it from anyone, I’ve never been bothered by it, and when other people are bothered by it, I just generally decide to be bothered by them.

Some of that is a reflection of my peer group, of friends who aren’t judgmental whether they’ve had sex with no one or everyone, and of growing up in a queer culture that demanded sexual expression as our right and a sign that we were still alive in the age of AIDS.

Some of it is also just some strange internal intensity I’ve always had about my ownership of my body and my use of it as a tool, as an altar, and as a weapon. I danced before I spoke, so I’ve always known what my flesh could do.

Lately, though, I’ve been feeling a little shamed. Now let’s be clear, no one has been actively or passively shaming me.  Rather, I’ve discovered my own insecurity about my number and about my history that I didn’t know I had. And I’ve discovered that in reaction to my creative life.

Starling (and the whole Love in Los Angeles series) is not a book for everyone, for lots of reasons, including that no book is a book for everyone.  I’m cool with that.  I’m even excited by it, because I’m thrilled when people who really want or need a book like Starling find it.

But one of the reasons its not for everyone is the degree to which it features both polyamorous and monogamish couples. And sometimes when people aren’t into that aspect of the book and talk about it, that feels weirdly personal.

It’s not just the book though.  I’m also a SAG-AFTRA actor. That is, after all, part of where Starling came from; Erin and I wanted to write a story that was less about Hollywood glamor tropes and more about the realities of the hard work of making TV and film.

And because of this background, people often ask me things about how love scenes or kissing on camera works.  And most of what I have to say comes down to — over and over again — that it’s just work.

But if you’ve never done that work, the idea of someone else telling you what to do with your body, or making you take off your wedding ring to play a character, or asking you to engage with someone else in a way that at least looks deeply intimate by the time it appears on screen, can be really hard to imagine.

It often seems legitimately uncomfortable (and, to be fair, as an actor it often is).  It can even seem from the outside non-consensual (this isn’t true, again, it’s work, and it is handled in a dozen ways at a dozen points to make everyone as comfortable and safe as possible).

Because I’ve done that work (I got into the union by playing a nudist in Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus and look, can you say you’ve spent a day naked with Nicole Kidman?), because I’ve been in poly relationships, because I’ve been deeply engaged in the kink community, and because I’ve slept with what is — to many people — a lot of people, I know what some people think of me.

But until I started to make art about it, I never knew I cared.

So if you love Fifty Shades of Grey, I want to know why.  If you struggle with other people shaming you for the fact that it turns your crank, I want you to be able to talk about it. because if kink is something you want if your life, that conversation where you can be open about your desires and advocate for yourself, is the first step to finding a way to do kink in a non-abusive, safe(r), and more responsible way.

Things that are awesome in comments on this post: your experiences, desires, questions, concerns, information about safe/sane/consensual and risk aware kink, and book and media recommendations. Things that are not awesome in comments on this post: Telling people what they are allowed and not allowed to find sexy or not in their heads.

When writing contemporary romance means predicting the future (and wishing we hadn’t).

To a large extent, Racheline and I try not to predict the future when we write Love in Los Angeles. A lot of times, that can be hard. Love in Los Angeles is ultimately going to be a six-book series that spans multiple generations of Paul and Alex’s family. That requires reaching into the future and, occasionally, back into the past. And writing lgbtq romance, when the American political landscape on the issue is changing so rapidly, makes that kind of tricky. Racheline and I need to keep a map around of which states have marriage equality this week, because it keeps changing. And when Indiana — the state Alex is from — passed marriage equality last year, we had to stop and reconsider what that event, which we hadn’t planned on happening, would mean for Alex at this point in his life. Trying to predict what’s going to happen when, whether it’s six months or six years down the line, usually brings us more grief than it’s worth, so mostly we just try not to.

And sometimes, we try really, really hard to not predict the future.

Read more at Two Men Are Better Than One.

The magic and witchery of cowriting – and what we do with it

Cowriting is difficult. Finding someone who’s interested in telling the same sorts of stories, with the same kind of intensity as you, can sometimes feel impossible. But when it works and we’re working in sync with someone else, to tell this story that our brains are somehow united in telling, is completely magical. But the frequency with which Racheline and I not only care about the same things, but in fact conceive of the exact same personality and physical description for a character, has gotten positively spooky.

For example: Racheline will be sending me pictures, without any commentary, of people who look a little like Alex, one of our protagonists in our Love in Los Angeles series. I’ll reply to one picture with “Like this guy, but the ears are different,” or “Like this one, but the mouth is wrong.” And every time Racheline will reply with “Well yes, of course.”

Perhaps our favorite instance of this, though, was the time with the cat.

Read more at We Are Infinite.

Paul, Alex, and Liam: A love triangle, or not a love triangle?

We were surprised when, in the reader response to Starling, we heard from a lot of people who said they really enjoyed the Alex/Paul/Liam love triangle. We absolutely adore the Alex/Liam relationship in all its forms, and to be entirely fair, Paul has some real issues about Alex and Liam’s history. But we hadn’t really ever thought of that relationship as part of a love triangle. After all, Alex ends Starling really solidly with Paul.

But as we heard from more and more people about the awesome love triangle, we asked ourselves — is that really what it is? In Starling, Alex and Liam’s relationship is a strong and emotional mid-game pairing, but Alex and Paul are endgame. Certainly, Alex isn’t torn in any conventional sense by having to choose between his love for Liam and his love for Paul.

But his relationship with Liam really is very intense, and in both Starling and Doves – regardless of whether they’re spending time in bed with each other or not — it makes up a very big part of both Alex and Liam’s emotional landscapes.

Read more at Dawn’s Reading Nook.

We inherited a dachshund farm, and you won’t believe what happens next.

We always love visiting The Hat Party with Raine O’Tierney, and this time was no exception. Follow the link to hear us talk about unicorns, pep talks, and what we’d do if  we inherited a dachshund farm.

Read more at The Hat Party.

All the stories you have to make up when you’re writing a backstage story

When Racheline and I first set out to write Love in Los Angeles, our backstage romance about the decidedly unglamorous parts of life in the film and television industry, we didn’t think about one thing: All of the fictional films and TV shows our stories were happening in the backstage of.

In Book 1, Starling, there is just one TV show we to worry about: The Fourth Estate, about journalists at a Washington, D.C.-based news network. Alex, one of our protagonists, acts on it, and Paul, our other protagonist, writes for it. Various other members of our cast work for and adjacent to Fourth.

When it came to Book 2, Doves we had to expand a little.

Read more at Ms. Romantic Reads.