Sunday, September 22, 2013

MM Romance/Yaoi Author of the Week: B. D Heywood

I’m pleased to have with me here today M/M Romance and Yaoi author: B. D. Heywood. I am a huge fan of this author! Hey Bee Dee, thank you for joining me this week.
I am delighted to be here. Is everyone comfy? Got a glass of wine, beer? Cuppa tea?
[Gee, (grumbles under breath,) no one else asked for refreshments... tea? she wants tea?] 
Um, sure I have some darjeeling around here somewhere, hang on a minute... Okay, now...

COULD YOU PLEASE SHARE THREE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU?
Armed and dangerous? Just kidding. That is such a hard one to answer but I’d go with Compassionate. Committed. Creative. (Don’t you just love alliteration?)
Hmmm, um, yeah... they're delightful...  [And now my readers you see why I am impressed: Alliteration: The commencement of two or more words of a word group with the same letter, as in apt alliteration's artful aid.]

PLEASE ORGANIZE THESE WORDS, PLACING THE MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU FIRST AND BRIEFLY EXPLAIN YOUR REASON. FAMILY, WRITING, SEX, MUSIC, FRIENDS, ANIMALS, LOVE, SPORTS, CHILDREN
LOVE: is totally and always at the top of my list. Without love, there is no purpose to our existence as human beings. It is the single quality that makes us human and makes the rest of this world endurable.
FAMILY: I am lucky to have a loving and supportive family that have stuck with me through the many transmutations of my lifestyle.
CHILDREN: I have three, all adults. All somewhat confounded by my writing choices but still standing in the wings giving me high-fives, setting off fireworks and going, “You rock!”
FRIENDS: I have the most wonderful group of friends anyone could ever have. Each one has given me so much more in the way of love and support than I could ever repay. And if that sounds too sentimental, consider this: Genuine friends are rare in this world of instant “friending” and mass-people connecting as in:
“How many FB friends do you have, Marge?”
“Oh, as of yesterday, I have 2,800, Tom.”
“Well, that’s nothing. I just topped 11,200 close, personal, FB friends.”
“Wow, Tom. You are so popular.”
So it is wonderful to have people in my life that I trust with something as intimate as the creation of a fictional story about men falling in love. And all of my friends read my writing in various stages.

WRITING: Now there was something I thought I’d never do again. Four years ago, when I retired from my career in journalism I was totally burned out. Done, done, done. Till the fiction bug hit me after seeing my first shonen-ai anime, Yami no MatsuiWithin weeks, I discovered the wonderful world of yaoi fan fiction. Now when I think of a story or part of a story or a scene or even a line, my brain will not stop spinning until those words are written down on paper or ensconced in little megabytes somewhere.  
ANIMALS: Especially horses that have been a major part of my life since I was six. Animals have a closer connection to the Divine. They do not judge. Human beings are the caretakers of other living things and it is our responsibility to ensure their time on this plane is peaceful. And makes us worthy of sharing this planet. (OK, someone bring me a ladder so I can get off this soapbox)
MUSIC: Inspires us, makes us laugh, cry, can wrench emotions from us that we never allow ourselves to express otherwise. Makes us move our feet, our booties, our bodies. Makes sex and the rest of living totally delectable.
SEX: Without it, life would be pretty, damn dull. And books like mine or Alex’s would not exist. Well, I guess they’d exist but in another genre and all the tasty bits would be absent. Sex for fun (only talking safe sex here, folks) is wonderful. When sex evolves from a connection between partners, it is fantastic. And when you add in love, it is utterly sublime.
SPORTS: Blech! I don’t like any conventional sports. In fact, I just don’t “get it” when it comes to those tribal gatherings where people paint themselves with the colors of a particular team and consume massive quantities of food and beverage and in general go berserk. Still, I’ve competed in equestrian sport since I was about twelve-years-old so I admire all athletes for the dedication it takes to participate in any sport.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING?
My career in journalism started about 25 years ago. But I wrote—as in typed on an old Olivetti—my first novel (a sci-fi) when I was fifteen. I began serious fiction writing four years ago.  

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
Eternal Warrior, the sequel to Eternal Samurai, which follows the story of two of the ES characters, Chain Passebon and Kaiden Galloway. This book includes a third major character, Youji Torres, and by the time the adventure is over, they are a threesome. 
I also have several short stories for an M/M erotic anthology. Not all stories in it though, are HEA or even HFNs. And I have just completed a coming-out play, titled Fourteen Hours to Megadeth, for a local LGBT theater event.

WHICH CHARACTERS IN YOUR BOOKS DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH, AND WHY?
The Irish mercenary, Bana Murtagh, from Eternal Samurai. He is older than most of the other characters. He is irascible, irreverent and despite being disillusioned with the world around him, he will still fight to the death for what he thinks is right. He also uses Berettas, one of my favorite firearms.   

SHARE THE NAMES OF A FEW AUTHORS WHO INSPIRE YOU.
Marion Zimmer Bradley for The Catch Trap. Patricia Nell Warren in which her The Front Runner so poignantly depicts those early years when we were fighting for equal rights. These benchmark novels attest to the fact that women can tell a sensitive yet powerful and emotional story from the POV of a gay man. Eowyn Wood, who is not afraid to write about the controversial topics of teenage prostitution, drug abuse and the enduring power of love in her books Naked in the Rain and the sequel Afterglow. 
AI NO KUSABI
        My first exposure to supernatural M/M erotica was Shadow Harvest by James Buchanan. First vampire book? Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Now, that’s a book rife with homoeroticism. Other influences include the Master of all Sci-Fi Isaac Asimov. Diana L. Paxson and Anne McCaffrey who created believable, fantasy worlds I’d love to live in. 
I devoured the Japanese novels Taiko by Eijo Yoshikawa and Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka (the English translation of course). However, my personal bravo goes to the manga/anime series Yami no Matsui by Yoki Matsushita, which was the magic wand that began my fiction writing. Dozens of science-fiction novels influenced the dystopian world in Eternal Samurai but I feel it echoes the setting of the anime series 
Ai no Kusabi by Rieko Yoshihara. I followed the style of James Clavell’s Shogun in my use of the Japanese language and subsequent English meanings. And I can’t resist a quick shout out to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (novels and TV show) for its sheer quirky, campy, bite-me enjoyment.

SHARE THE MUSIC/MUSICIANS THAT YOU LIKE AND HOW THEY ADD TO YOUR LIFE OR WRITING?
When I am writing action scenes, I blast out… erm… “old school” metal like Sepultura, Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica, Pantera. Although I also play Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Things get a bit mellower when I am striving for an emotional scene or a sex scene and, generally, I switch to classical or opera that could range from Haydn to Tchaikovsky. Love J-pop, hip-hop, rap, contemporary music like Lady Gaga and Jefree Star when I am driving. And sorry, absolutely do not like anything Country Western.

IF YOU WEREN'T A WRITER, WHAT OTHER CAREER WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
Equine veterinarian. I’ve had horses all my life and there have been many times when I wished I knew more when they got injured or sick. DVM was my initial goal in college but I broke my back in a riding accident couldn’t complete the pre-med requirements. I ended up with a degree in English Lit. and another in Secondary Education-Language Arts.


WHERE CAN WE FIND YOUR NOVEL ON THE INTERNET? 
My book is available on Amazon and through Smashwords. My website is pending.
The book will be available for free Kindle download on Oct 1.
EXCERPT  FROM  ETERNAL SAMURAI 
In which Tatsu Cobb and the vampire, Arisada Saito, meet for the first time after Tatsu saves the mercenary, Bana Murtagh from a pack of rogue vampires.
Tatsu spun. Too late. Four fangs drove into his nape. He roared, arched his back, struggled to twist the katana backwards into the monster. But the blade caught on the rogue’s bulky overcoat. Tatsu reached over his shoulder clawing for the wakizashi but it was trapped between their bodies.
At any moment, those fangs would ripe his spine in two. With a roar of desperation, Tatsu clawed at the vampire’s head trying to gouge out an eye, tear off an ear, anything to pull that mouth from his neck. No good.
Then the weight fell away from his back. He spun around and saw a man brandishing a bloody tanto in one hand and holding the struggling rogue by the hair with the other. With one incredibly swift slice, the stranger cut the vampire’s throat, avoiding the blood gushing from the corpse with a graceful step back.
The man was dressed in the clothing of a samurai, black keiko-gi and flowing hakama that fell in perfect folds from his narrow waist. Tatsu got a sense of a strong, lean body. A pair of split-toed tabi hid the small feet. A katana rested beneath his wide obi. A samurai!
Tatsu was riveted by his rescuer’s face. Clearly Japanese and beautiful yet with no loss of masculinity. A face that held the exquisite blend of the strength found in the finest katana tempered by the delicacy of a sakura blossom. Sensual full lips that Tatsu wanted to kiss with a sudden, irrational passion. Above that mouth, a regal, straight nose, nostrils slightly flared. High cheekbones, the left marked by an odd scar. What should have been a disfigurement only added an exotic allure. Some trick of shadow hid the eyes, yet Tatsu mentally colored them a rich, chocolate brown.
Every cell in Tatsu’s body resonated with an inexplicable call to this man. Tatsu’s heart, already pounding from the fight, dove straight down into his groin. He hardened so fast he hurt.
“Who—?” The question was cut off by the press of the man’s mouth—hot, demanding, a tiny slip of a wet tongue, the taste alien at first then turning achingly familiar. An accepting moan slipped from Tatsu’s throat.
Those warm lips moved again, a briefer kiss filled with the sense of discovery and promise in the fleeting touch. Then gone. Tatsu opened his eyes. Stood alone, body pulsing with want, cock hard beneath his jock. Mind reeling, he turned to ask Bana if he’d seen the stranger. Needed confirmation that he was not crazy. Saw with dismay that the Irishman, head bowed, was still talking on his phone.
“You are kurutteiru.” Tatsu called himself all kinds of crazy. Flustered, he snapped his katana into its saya and stepped toward Bana who looked up in confused surprise.


Thank you so much for joining me, Bee Dee, It's been a real pleasure.
Readers, if you haven't had a chance to pick up a copy of Eternal Samurai, I highly recommend it. Read review here

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Yaoi/Fiction Authors of the Week Katsura and Yuramei


I’m so very excited to have with me here this week, Yaoi/ Fiction Authors, Katsura and Yuramei. I am a huge fan of the works you two have produced together and of Yuramei’s spectacular illustrations. Thank you for joining me this week.

COULD YOU  EACH SHARE THREE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU?
Katsura: Crazy, compulsive and weird. That would be me on a personal level.
Yuramei: Crazy, contrary, weird…

PLEASE ORGANIZE THESE WORDS,  PLACING THE MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU FIRST AND BRIEFLY EXPLAIN YOUR REASON. Family-Writing-Sex-Music-Friends-Animals-Love-Sports_Children
Katsura: Family, Friends, Writing...big gap then all the rest in a heap, minus sport which I do not care a jot about. Also I'm including children in the word family. I have a daughter and she's the most important thing in my life but I don't want to give the impression that having children was a priority for me. It happened and I love her. I'm fine with people who choose not to have children for whatever reason.
Yuramei: Cigarettes, coffee, booze...more booze...
Katsura: Aw, why did I forget bubble wine!  That comes after writing...

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING?
Katsura: I'm pretty sure if I had a pen when I was an embryo I would have been writing something. I have always loved writing and even as a small child I made little books and wrote stories.
Yuramei: I’ve been drawing since around eleven with some breaks and writing since about fourteen.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
NOW AVAILABLE!!
Katsura: I'm preparing A Kiss for Judas, the Big Deal prequel, for release. It's in edits and I can’t wait for it to be unleashed. For fans of the series, they'll get to read about how it all began. See Judas meeting Fergus for the first time and find out why Judas and Vinny became so close. I'm also finalising a young adult fiction novel, Stumbledirt, and that will be released later this year under my other name, P.M. Leckie.  I’m very excited about that one. It’s a big,long, family saga, something for the reader to get their teeth into and quite different from Big Deal. Aside from those, I'm working on a thriller, Pity the Living. This will be an extended version of our free webnovel which will be re-edited, then illustrated and released by Seishin Ink. The story is a very dark one and explores the mind of a young serial killer. I'll let Yuramei tell you about our other graphic novel/ prose projects.


Yuramei: Beside working on the illustrations for the Big Deal prequel, I’m working on the script for The Devil’s Golden Boy, a manga / prose crossover, which also will be released by Seishin Ink. The story will be a little more like the typical yaoi / shonen ai, but still with plenty dark and ‘underworld-ish’ elements! Katsura will be doing the prose for this and is the creative and editorial input for the script.

WHICH CHARACTER IN YOUR BOOK(S) DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH, AND WHY?
Katsura: I'm going to have to say Judas MacGregor. He's a jerk sometimes but has a strong sense of social justice. We share the same political views but I'm in no way as much of a gigolo as he is. But he and I would probably laugh a lot together. I'm also a bit like Rook, from Stumbledirt. I refuse to live in the real world and resist all attempts to make me. Yuramei: Probably Jeong, refusing to grow up.

SHARE THE NAMES OF A FEW AUTHORS WHO INSPIRE YOU.
Katsura: Joe Orton, Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde.
Yuramei: As for writers / artists TogaQ and Yamane Ayano
SHARE THE MUSIC/MUSICIANS THAT YOU LIKE AND HOW THEY ADD TO YOUR LIFE OR WRITING?
Katsura: I love the Happy Mondays. The coarse and raw feel of their songs really help me when I’m writing gritty scenes. Bring a Friend and Stinkin’ Thinkin’ are two of their songs which I listen to a lot for inspiration.
Yuramei: Psht…she secretly likes Korean boy bands really. While drawing / writing I prefer the Epic genre, the kind from movie or video game soundtracks. It’s very good to establish a mood.
Katsura: Eh, who's the one who sends all the YouTube links to BigBang? Yuramei: That’s research!

IF YOU WEREN’T A WRITER, WHAT OTHER CAREER WOULD YOU CHOSE?
Katsura: Well I studied genetics and archaeology at university in the hope to be a forensic scientist. Aside from that, I sing a lot and would perhaps have gone into something musical. But in all honesty, writing is what I care about most.
Yuramei: Photographer or graphics designer…or game designer…or movie director… one can dream right?


ENJOY THESE EXCERPTS FROM KATSURA AND YURAMEI'S LATEST WIP'S
Big Deal prequel: A Kiss for Judas NOW AVAILABLE 
Remarkably, the TV was off. Judas glanced around at the empty sitting room then headed for the bathroom. As soon as he’d opened the door, the speculation he was about to indulge in concerning Vinny’s whereabouts ended before it begun.
He was in the shower. The curtain-less, black and chrome electric effort which had been fitted over the bathtub.
Water cascaded down the tanned and perfect skin of Vinny’s back. His ass was about as faultless as an ass could be. The beautiful mounds were graced with privileged droplets of water. Fortunate beads, fresh from Loch Katrine, sent to cleanse a boy who truly looked to have dropped straight down from heaven.
Judas stared.
Shampoo, lathered up, frothy and white, streamed down from Vinny’s fingers, tangled through his hair as he washed. This too slid down his back, appearing briefly as wings which had fallen off to keep an angel earthbound.
Vinny’s hair flattened against his neck as he stepped fully under the spray from the shower head.
No! Lather, rinse and repeat! Read the fucking label!
Anguish was something Judas had little experience of until this moment. He stood with his hard-on almost tearing a hole in his shorts faced with the sexiest vision his eyes had ever been fortunate enough to see.
The sound of the water ceased. Vinny turned and reached for a towel, first rubbing it roughly over his face, then his hair, still completely unaware that he was being watched. When he finally did realise, his green eyes widened and his lips parted a fraction.
Judas brought his hands swiftly to his groin. Was his cock setting up its own camp site? Another tent designed not for shelter, but to torment Judas and his lack of a sexual partner.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, “should have knocked.”
“Don’t be silly.” Vinny stepped over the side of the bath and out of the shower where he continued to dry himself, appearing totally unconcerned that he was naked in Judas’s presence.
Folk used to be like that at school, in the showers after sports class. Nakedness seemed to bring no feeling of shame. If any of the guys did act in an at all self-conscious way, they were treated with abominable cruelty by the rest of their classmates. For boys of that age to feel attracted to each other was probably a natural thing, but sporting a stiffy in the showers was also something which attracted a certain amount of victimisation. In all honesty, Judas didn’t recall feeling aroused by the other guys in his year. He did get the odd boner in the changing rooms, but usually because a lot of porn was shared at those particular times. Obviously no one picked on him for this. He was Judas MacGregor.
Vinny dried off in the casual way some guys do and Judas wanted nothing more than to take him back under the fresh spray and fuck him ‘til the Loch ran dry.
The towel in Vinny’s hand, that metre or so of lucky terry cloth, was brushed over an abdomen so tight it begged to be kissed, then lower to his genitals. Judas’s mind flooded with the ways he’d love to entertain that particularly stunning example of wedding tackle.
Being addicted to sex was an utterly crap state of being sometimes. He was well aware that his lust must have made him look doped to the eyeballs and Vinny’s concerned expression confirmed this. “You better sit down, Jude. You look a bit woozy. I’ll get you a coffee.”


Pity the Living
Masami got up from the sofa and readied his camera to take the picture. He noticed that when he’d used the word fans, Toshita's eyes had lit up.
"I don't know..." Toshita trailed his fingers down his shirt front as he undid a few buttons. "Something like this?" With little effort at all, it seemed, he lowered his chin and gazed up at the camera in what could only be described as a smouldering fashion.
Masami fought a gasp as he captured the image. Did Toshita know that one nipple was visible through the open, white, crisp cotton? Perhaps not but the sight was an alluring one. "Breathtaking," he murmured, then turned the screen to show Toshita.
Toshita shrugged. "Ugh. It will do. But it could be better. My nose looks huge."
"Your nose, like all of the rest of you, is perfect." Masami lowered the camera to his side. No need for further pictures so he let his eyes feast on the splendid vision unhindered.
Toshita smiled. He reached out and grasped Masami's wrist. "You deserve a reward."
Was it too much to hope that the reward involved a kiss? Maybe even a few of them? Masami obediently took his place again on the sofa next to Toshita. When Toshita brought his face close, it was clear that some lip action was definitely on the cards. Masami closed his eyes and held his breath. Inevitably, their lips met and the tender embrace of their mouths began.
Could anything match the feeling of kissing Toshita? Masami doubted it. If tongues could talk, which they could, but if they could express their own feelings, Masami's would babble volumes dedicated to its couplings with Toshita's tongue. Of how they made love together in the shared space between two eager mouths.
If his fingers had a similar independent voice, each one would cry out their need to caress Toshita's skin. The smoothness beneath the shirt, which looked so immaculate in the picture Masami had taken. To appease the clamour of their desires, he rubbed the fabric gently and gloried in the sensation, then slipped his hand underneath to the contours of Toshita's ribs.
Toshita lay back. Masami found himself on top of him and the control of his thoughts was given over to the lust within.




WHERE CAN WE FIND YOU ON THE INTERNET?
Katsura: Together and for Big Deal we have our website www.bigdealcomic.com and facebook www.facebook.com/bigdealcomic/ . For twitter fans we are @bigdealcomic .
Personally, I am @tabathathorn on twitter and I started a tumblr account too http://judasmacgregor.tumblr.com/


Yuramei: My twitter is @yuramei and my tumblr  yuramei.tumblr.com

Thanks so much for coming by, it's been a blast.  : )