M/M SUSPENSE-ROMANCE AUTHOR OF THE WEEK

I’m pleased to have with me here this week, Rhys Ford, M/M Suspense-Romance Author.

 Rhys, I am a huge fan of your Cole McGinnis series; thank you stopping by to share a bit about yourself.

Thank you so much for having me. Really. I appreciate the time you’re giving me.

Okay let’s get it on…

COULD YOU PLEASE SHARE THREE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU?

I actually tossed that question out to the peeps I know… crazy seems to be a consistent one. Twisted came a close second. And one said I was wordy. That came from a dear friend. So, there seems to be a theme there.

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

Dear God… difficult question.

Family, friends and children are kind of all one thing. I don’t have any children but I’m pretty fierce about protecting my friends’ children. My family includes my friends so that’s kind of where I am. I think we are all symbiotic creatures and are interconnected. We cause ripples in our movements…our actions… so I’d say those three are the foundation.

Writing and Music are hand in hand. I literally have music on constantly. I set my music to what I’m writing. Life has a soundtrack. I can’t not write. Like I can’t not listen to music.

Animals. Bastards just seem to move into the house. But I adore them.

Isn’t Sex a sport? Can’t it be one? I’m not a big sports person but sex is pretty nice.

Love. That’s like air. How can I place that as a priority? That also is interwoven.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WRITING?

Lord help me. Um…. I started writing when I was 11 or 12. So…decades. Short stories. School assignments. Reading tons. I wrote my first book when I was 12. I have no idea what it was about. I remember the typewriter I used more. :D

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?

Dirty Deeds, the fourth in the Cole McGinnis series. It’s a very different kind of book because things are so… altered. Jae is no longer worried about his family finding out he’s gay and he’s settled in with Cole. Oh and there’s a mystery. And some stuff. And Ichiro. And Bobby. And some more stuff. So yep, that. *grins*

WHICH CHARACTER IN YOUR BOOK(S) DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH, AND WHY?

Honestly, the one I’m most like in personality is probably Miki, maybe? I gave him a lot of my quirks… poor thing. Unlike Miki, I can cook. I do have a lizard brain that is probably a lot like Parker. But usually only if I haven’t had coffee.

SHARE THE NAMES OF A FEW AUTHORS WHO INSPIRE YOU.

How much time do we have here? Or space. Wow.

I am going to toss one name out. Donald Kingsbury. He wrote Courtship Rite which is hands down my favourite book. I read it once a year. It is a fantastic study in world-building and subtle character development. And then you get to the end of the book and ONE fucking sentence…spoken by one character…changes the entire damned perspective of the book. Incredible writing and challenges to the social norm. Love this book. I wish I could write that well.

BIG BANG

There are a lot of authors I say that about. So there you go.

SHARE THE MUSIC/MUSICIANS THAT YOU LIKE AND HOW THEY ADD TO YOUR LIFE OR WRITING?

Another insane question because dude, you should see my music list. It goes from Korean pop to hard rock to blues. Aerosmith, Metallica, Tool, AC/DC, Anthrax, Testament, Stevie Ray Vaughn, VAST, Big Bang (Korean band), JYJ, Gackt, Hyde, VAMPS, Janis Joplin, Nikki Costa, Apocalyptica, 2Cellos, Gorillaz, Daft Punk, 2NE1, Dong Bang Shin Ki (prior to the split), Se7en, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age… Really this can go on for days.

IF YOU WEREN’T A WRITER, WHAT OTHER CAREER WOULD YOU CHOSE?

I’m also a graphic designer so… there you go. I kind of have two careers. I’d love to be in forensics. Hell, or even be a carrion bird feeder. I am a bit of the macabre.

WHERE CAN WE FIND YOU ON THE INTERNET?

BLOG: rhysford.com 

TWITTER: @Rhys_Ford

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.775

 I have no idea why I’m 775 but apparently I am :D If you do a search on me, I’m not the one in the UK :D I’m the one in San Diego *laughs*

 AN EXCERPT FROM FISH AND GHOSTS

This is from Fish and Ghosts, my upcoming paranormal contemporary from Dreamspinner Press. It is slated for a Winter release. The gist of this book is Tristan Pryce is a young man who can see ghosts and Wolf Kincaid is the paranormal investigator who was hired by Tristan’s family to prove he’s wrong.

His uncle was going to wear a hole in the library floor, Tristan was sure of it. The last half an hour was ticked off by the squeak of his Italian loafers when he turned, a five-second interval bleeding off Tristan’s morning. Checking the grandfather clock for what he thought might have been the hundredth time since Walter Pryce III came through his front door, Tristan waited for his uncle to wind up yet another argument meant to move him out of the Grange.

“Your aunt is speaking with the agency now —” Walter began another circuit, his meaty hands clasped around his back.

“Is she still counted as my aunt if she’s your third wife?” Tristan huffed a breath up at his forehead, hoping to move a chunk of blond hair away from his eyes. If he used his fingers, he knew he’d get trapped in playing with his hair and anything Walter said to him would be lost in the contemplation of how the sunlight changed the colours as it bled through the shafts. “I mean, Aunt Judith counts because she was first, right? Sharon maybe because she had Mortie but Ashley? Is she my aunt too?”

“Tristan, please concentrate on what I’m saying to you.” The man harrumphed. Literally exhaled enough air out between his pressed in mouth to make his upper lip flap as he spoke and Tristan’s fingers itched for a sketchbook, wanting to scribble out his impressions of a disgruntled penguin waddling back and forth on an ice floe. “We’re hoping you’ll see reason.”

“Reason…” Tristan repeated softly. “By opening the Grange up to people who chase ghosts?”

“They are paranormal psychologists. Or at least the agency head is.” Walter turned again, squeaking off another tick of time. “I know it would be terrible to discover that perhaps you’ve been encouraged to…um…what is the word I’m looking for?”

“Hallucinate?” He supplied for his uncle. “Sucking on guano from the bats in my belfry? Rowing with one oar?”

“You’re not crazy!” His uncle frowned, caught in midstep, his large belly jiggling under his suit. “Look, boy, I’m fond of you. I want the best for you. Just let them com

Tristan stretched out his legs, rubbing at the cramp forming along his thigh. He’d not asked Mara to turn the heat on in the library that morning until Uncle Walter’s sedan pulled up in front of the Grange. It had been an unexpected visit and they’d both sworn under their breath when the man’s driver let his short, soft-bellied uncle out of the car.

Well, he’d sworn. Mara merely muttered darkly under her breath and scurried off to turn the heat on before pulling together a coffee tray for his guest. He’d sworn up enough for both of them. His elderly housekeeper, while a pleasant woman for the most part, liked to get her daily work done and out of the way so she could spend her afternoons watching the shows she’d recorded the night before. Since most of her day included making sure he kept himself him fed, Tristan didn’t care how she spent her days so long as the Grange was always guest ready. With fifteen bedrooms to keep up and two young women from the nearby town coming in to help her dust and mop, Mara kept the Grange primed and lemony-fresh and she resented his Uncle’s sudden appearance on a tightly scheduled Tuesday morning.

Tristan wasn’t too fond of Walter’s arrival either. He had only ten more minutes before he had to be at the reception desk and from the sounds of the man’s squeaky pacing, it didn’t sound like Walter Pryce was going to leave until Tristan gave him some kind of concession.

“And if they find out I’m not crazy?” He offered up in exchange. “Suppose they hand you a report that I’m sane and the Grange is what Uncle Mortimer and I say it is? Will you leave me be then?”

The look of confusion on his uncle’s face told Tristan the man had not considered that possibility. A few lip flaps and another squeaka-squeaka passes later, Walter Pryce grumbled, “If he comes back and says that there’s something here, then yes, I’ll acknowledge that there might be something to your claims. But the agency has to verify that there is some sort of activity here. If not, then I’m going to insist you stop this nonsense and come home.”

“I am home, Uncle Walter,” Tristan said softly. “I’ve lived here at the Grange for most of my adult life and spent nearly all of my summers here. If this isn’t home, then where is that?”

“Then we’ll come to you.” The man’s hand on his shoulder was meant to be reassuring but Tristan felt it held a greater weight than his uncle’s skin, bones and flesh. “We’ll come here to you at the Grange. It is the family home, after all.”

He was able to hustle his uncle out with a few murmured assurances and then exhaled a sigh of relief when the door closed behind him. A few seconds later, the sedan’s quiet engine rumbled away and Tristan was left with the silence of the Grange around him.

The snick-snick of a dog’s nails on the foyer’s parquet floors echoed up into the high ceiling and Tristan grinned at the grey, shaggy head poking out from around the side of the sweeping mahogany counter area Mortimer Pryce built to be the Grange’s reception desk.

“Come on out, Boris,” He whistled to the Irish wolfhound. “He’s gone.”

“That dog knows evil when he smells it.” Mara appeared at Tristan’s elbow, moving as silently as one of the hall’s guests.

“He knows Uncle Walter doesn’t like him.” Bending over, Tristan scratched at the enormous dog’s floppy ears, sending Boris into a wiggling dance of ecstasy. “The man’s not evil, he’s just…close-minded.”

“Well, ghosts or no, he’s a menace.” The woman’s harrumph was less pronounced than Walter’s but it was still impressive. “I’m not saying I believe in your ghosties but it’s your business. This is your house. If you want to hold balls for faeries, it’s your right and damn anyone else who says something against it.”

That’s all  folks, you’ll have to pick up a copy of Fish and Ghosts this winter at Dreamspinner Press to find out what happens to Tristan when Wolf Kincaid, paranormal investigator comes  to the Grange. Meanwhile don’t hesitate to grab a copy of any of the Cole McGinnis series, my personal favorites of Rhys Ford's books. Reviews here.

Rhys its been special having you here, thank you for agreeing to participate on Akira Expressions.

Thank you again for having me! I appreciate it greatly and thank you!