Holly
asked
Kaje Harper:
Hi Kaje, if you had to choose, which one of your books would you say is your favourite?
Kaje Harper
I have to still pick my WWII free novel, "Into Deep Waters" - it follows two men from their meeting on board a Navy ship in the Pacific in 1942, to a HEA in 2011. Of all my books, this one flowed out of my fingers like it wanted life. Even the research was fun.
The time frame to write it was tight because it was for the M/M Romance summer event, so I had about 2 months total including research and editing. But somehow, that constraint, and what the prompter wanted included - both the beginning and end of their story - worked to create a book I wouldn't otherwise have written. And my two guys - Daniel the artist, and Jacob- Trip - the scrawny Jersey guy who goes from trying to please his father to living the life he was meant to have, just got deep in my heart.
The audio release last year cemented it, because somehow, listening to Kaleo Griffith's excellent narration, I was able to see the book from the outside. I actually laughed and cried at my own words. That never happens when I write or read my own stuff - I'm in the creative mode and don't experience it the same way. But this time, well... I got to meet my characters again in a different way, and fall for them again.
I also love it for something that the reader only sees reflected - the research I did, which introduced me to stories and memoirs of gay men (and other LGBTQ folk) from eras before my own, and the courage they brought to living daily lives of honesty. We owe so much to those pioneers who came out when they could, to a friend, a family member, a neighbor. They paved the way for the understanding that LGBTQ is just another way of loving someone else, and being your authentic self.
They went through things that - at least in this country -we can no longer imagine: prison and insane asylums for being gay, disgrace and dishonor and harsh punishment despite service to their country, if they were found out. And in the end, they were who they were. They gifted us with this future we're still building. I loved all the research, and wrote the book partly for those pioneers, the ones who made it through, and the ones who didn't.
Heh. Long answer to a short question, eh?
The time frame to write it was tight because it was for the M/M Romance summer event, so I had about 2 months total including research and editing. But somehow, that constraint, and what the prompter wanted included - both the beginning and end of their story - worked to create a book I wouldn't otherwise have written. And my two guys - Daniel the artist, and Jacob- Trip - the scrawny Jersey guy who goes from trying to please his father to living the life he was meant to have, just got deep in my heart.
The audio release last year cemented it, because somehow, listening to Kaleo Griffith's excellent narration, I was able to see the book from the outside. I actually laughed and cried at my own words. That never happens when I write or read my own stuff - I'm in the creative mode and don't experience it the same way. But this time, well... I got to meet my characters again in a different way, and fall for them again.
I also love it for something that the reader only sees reflected - the research I did, which introduced me to stories and memoirs of gay men (and other LGBTQ folk) from eras before my own, and the courage they brought to living daily lives of honesty. We owe so much to those pioneers who came out when they could, to a friend, a family member, a neighbor. They paved the way for the understanding that LGBTQ is just another way of loving someone else, and being your authentic self.
They went through things that - at least in this country -we can no longer imagine: prison and insane asylums for being gay, disgrace and dishonor and harsh punishment despite service to their country, if they were found out. And in the end, they were who they were. They gifted us with this future we're still building. I loved all the research, and wrote the book partly for those pioneers, the ones who made it through, and the ones who didn't.
Heh. Long answer to a short question, eh?
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