Turning Tricks in
a Futuristic Gay Romance World
Science Fiction Romance is supposedly one of the harder
subgenres to sell to Joelle Q. Consumer (the “Q” stands for quality, by the
way) apparently. That may be true, but the fans of science fiction romance seem
to me to be some of the more hardcore in Romancelandia. Maybe it’s because we
feel like an oppressed, picked-on minority (with a group persecution complex), or
possibly it’s because sci-fi romance fans like to play with alternate worlds.
My Task Force Iota series is in just such a world, set in the
United States about
100 years in the future.
The second book in the TFI series—Turning
Tricks—was released by Dreamspinner Press on May 30th. TT is a gay romance, with some pretty
erotic elements (ahem), and features
the same main characters as the first book in the series—18% Gray, also from Dreamspinner—James and Matt. (One Queer Iota is the next book in the
series, and it will feature Laslo and Logan. I promise this time,
really. You can trust me.)
In the Iota
world, the United States
I’m sure
you can imagine what inspired me to write a book set in the near future where
our country has been divided. Let me stress, the subject of gay rights is only
one of many issues the Iota world is facing, but it’s the one I deal with most extensively
in the series. And yes, it was completely a product of me driving along in my
car screaming “Are you NUTS? Don’t you know what that will mean if you pass
that law?” one too many times to the radio news.
In other
words, the whole Iota world began when I asked myself, “What if, in the future,
the people who seem to think being LGBT is so horrible actually succeed in making
it illegal? What if I were a gay person in that world?”
Well, the
first thing you’d need in a world like that is some hope. In Task Force Iota,
that means splitting up the United States
(I’m sure
you’ve figured out where I got the idea for the Red and Blue monikers.)
No world
is absolute, so the Red and the Blue have gradations of safety and danger.
There are also Purple states, which remain somewhat neutral in some things. But
mostly this series is about the LGBT citizens in all areas, and how they make
it to the relative safety of the Blue.
Enter the
men and women of the paramilitary contractor QESA (Queer Extraction Services
Association). They work closely with the Blue military, but focus on “extracting”
or liberating captured Blue soldiers or LGBT Red citizens. James is a former
Blue soldier captured by the Red and Matt was his extractor (this story is told
in 18% Gray).
Because I
am a cruel authoress, and simply being gay in a world where it’s not safe to be
so just didn’t seem like enough crap to pile on him, I gave James an extra
burden: he’s been made empathic and mildly psychic by a biocybernetic chip
implanted in his head by the Blue (see? the Blue isn’t all good). The implanted
chip is out of control and affecting his brain in ways no one can predict.
Turning Tricks deals with James’s chip a lot.
It wasn’t stabilized by the end of 18%, and that has to be done. The angst
begins (this is a quasi-humorous book, but yeah, there’s angst) when a second
foreign object is found in James’s brain, snuggling up against the chip—the
Trick (dun dun duuuuuun). Dealing
with the chip leads to the more humanist, relationship-oriented plot elements.
The bigger, external plot is all shaped by the politics of the Red and the
Blue.
It’s been
a fascinating world to play in. I’ve made up religions, government institutions,
boundary lines, reshaped economics, planned out the effects of global warming,
but ultimately what I try to give readers is a sense of that world and those
things without letting it intrude on the story. Because at its heart, Turning Tricks is the continuation of a
love story that began in 18% Gray. The
sci-fi elements in this story are something I worked hard on, but without the
romance I wouldn’t have ever been motivated to write it. For me, the romance is
the key.
Blurb:
James Ayala thought life would be smooth sailing once he
escaped from a Red Idaho reeducation camp and returned to Blue Oregon. He
was supposed to get answers about the biocybernetic chip that made him
empathic, face the man who implanted it, and then ride off into the sunset with
his new boyfriend, Matt Tennimore. Life, however, has other plans: the bad guy
dies without giving them any answers, they left their horse in Idaho ,
and Gramma Anais finds a parasite on James's implant—one that forces James into
isolation.
Matt just got James back to Oregon
where he wanted him, and extraneous brain hardware or not, he has no intention
of letting him go. But James hesitates to move in with him. Despite his hurt,
Matt has to man up and do his job, leaving James behind, while the rest of the
team struggles to find the real mastermind behind the implant and the parasitic
"Trick"—before it takes over James's brain. But will it be too
little, too late to save him?
Excerpt:
This excerpt is from
when the Trick is first found. Anais—Matt’s grandmother and one of the owners
of the Queer Extraction Services Association—is imaging James’s head with a
medical robot assistant. She’s also taking some delight in torturing James.
She’s like that. Readers of 18% Gray will recognize their names, but Carmela
and Pearl
“It’s
looking more and more like those nuns are never going to make it out of Idaho ,” Anais told James
conversationally.
James
didn’t respond. Partly because he couldn’t and partly because he knew she just wanted
to annoy him by talking to him when he couldn’t
fucking move. He didn’t normally think in italics. Another sign of just how
stressful he found not fucking moving
unless Anais or the med-bot told him to.
James’s
stress level wasn’t helped by Anais’s delight in torturing him. She knew damn
well he could read her emotions. She liked torturing him and knew he knew she
enjoyed his frustration. Which added to her enjoyment. It was like some mental
funhouse mirror effect.
“Doesn’t
help they’re nuns who’re wanted by the Red Idaho Authority,” Anais went on. “Okay,
James, tilt your head a little to the left, and open your mouth more.”
Ah, fuck. Anais just insisted
that she had to have an accurate and thorough 3-D model of the inside of
James’s head, especially the chip implant and modification in his brain. Who
would guess that a day of holding strange poses for a really long time while
some med-bot did strange things on and about your head (and in your damn mouth
and up your nose) could be so tiring?
It nearly
made him dislike her. Another thing she knew and found entertaining. James took
his revenge by being very, very polite to her. When he could fucking move. She hated that, especially from people like
him, who knew her better than the normal idiots who were very, very polite to
her no matter how abusive she got. The woman had a reputation for being
merciless and was justifiably well known for her time as the commander and head
researcher for SpecForce’s Research and Development Division.
Anais
had been with Research and Development for close to twenty years. After
spending ten in the field as a corpsman with a Delta-6 unit. After going to
medical school as a civilian.
“Hard
for two ladies in their late sixties traveling alone to escape a Red State Idaho . Far as I know, there’s not
a single one of the Confederated Red States that’s okay with women traveling on
their own. Unless they’re whores, of course.” Anais laughed at her comment.
Which was good, since James wouldn’t have if he could have.
Except
it would be polite, so he probably would have.
“You
know what Carmela said the last time they reached a pay phone in Lance’s
network? It’s funny, James. You’ll have to work not to laugh.” Oh, Anais was so enjoying this. James sighed to
himself internally and wished the med-bot would finish taking the fucking
pictures of his head.
“She
said— oh, hello. Now what’s this?”
James
wasn’t dying to know what Carmela said, but he would rather have heard that
than the note of surprised, clinical curiosity in Anais’s voice. He wasn’t a
fan of having a chip implanted in his brain without proper testing, or that it
was actually growing into him. But to now have Anais suddenly sounding like she’d
found some new, exciting, unknown part of the implant? He would have rather
heard what Carmela the fake nun had to say.
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