Give a warm welcome to author Greg Hogben

Give a warm welcome to author Greg Hogben. A wonderful writer and has an accent I am told that will drive you mad *grins* in a good way ladies and gents and is one of the sweetest person around. So without further adieu....I give you Greg Hogben in the hot seat.

Welcome to my Reading Nook, Greg Hogben. Please make yourself at home and let my cabana boys/girls get you a drink.

Comfortable? Wonderful. Now let’s get started.

What is your writing process? Do you outline, fly by the seat of your pants or a combination of both?  

I outline the story, map out the chapters, give the characters a background and personality to suit the story and spend hours describing the settings. I make sure that every last detail is in place before I even think about writing.  Then the whole thing gets thrown in the bin and I end up winging it.

What did you do before you were a writer? Do you write full time?  

I worked for an airline for ten years and was in sales promotions before that.  I don’t write full time until I have the time to dedicate all of my concentration to it. Then it’s a case of ‘LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!’ for a few weeks.

If you were going to cast the hero(s) of your book, what actor would get the part?  

Mrs. Taylor would be played by Meryl Streep in the same way she played Miranda in The Devil wears Prada, just with a Texan twang.

I know you're not supposed to show favoritism but who's been your favorite character to write? 

Jackie. She is a character made up of some of the funniest women I know. I don’t have to think about anything she would say as I have heard it all from the lips of female friends. I love me some sassy broads. I am writing the sequel to The British Devil and she has a much bigger role in this book.

Do you have a favorite TV show you can't miss? 

Veep. Fast and witty dialogue with some incredible one-liners.

If you could date any character from any book, who would it be and why-no it doesn't have to be from your books? 

Alcide from the True Blood Stories. Who doesn’t love some hot panting on the back of their neck?

Please share with us some juicy details about your latest release.  

The British Devil is a semi-autobiographical story. There is one character in the book that said everything, word for word, as it is written in the book. Every situation was 100% true.  It’s a character that I couldn’t have made up, even if I had tried.

What was your inspiration behind this book?  

So many gay themed books are loaded with heavy topics. These are important stories that need to be told, and they need to be told with the seriousness that with those situations bring. However, I felt there needed to be a story that people could relate to, think about, but also laugh at.  Most people rely on a good sense of humour to get them by the hard times as laughing is sometimes the only thing that makes it bearable.

What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for? 

I am a massive Harry Potter fan so the new JK Rowling book ‘The Casual Vacancy’ is the book I am looking forward to the most. 

Do you listen to music while you write? If so what are your favorites Artists and or albums? 

I can’t listen to music while I write as I am a sucker for a good tune. It’s annoying to write a serious piece and then realize you have written a Donna Summer lyric in the middle of a sentence.

 ‘He tore open his shirt and pulled at his underwear, exposing his huge cock. “I don’t think that I can take it. But it took so long to bake it, and I’ll never have that recipe again.”’

If you could go any place in the world and to any time period, what place time would you choose to visit?

70s  San Francisco.  The disco music. The attitude. The clothes. The expression. Everything. I was wasted being a young man in the 90s!

What is your favorite super power and why do you want it?

Invisibility, because I am a pervert at heart.

If you could write a warning label for yourself as a person or an author, what would it say? 

Caution. Nice guy with a sinister sense of humour.

Do you have any guilty pleasures? 

None that I would want my mother/lawyer/local police force to read about.

A Teaser from The British Devil by Greg Hogben

Available at Dreamspinner Press

Buy at All Romance Ebook store: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thebritishdevil-899969-145.html

British national Greg Stephens knew there would be challenges in his new relationship with handsome American Navy officer Danny Taylor: long distance; Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; the Defense of Marriage Act; US immigration…. 

But he didn’t anticipate his greatest obstacle: Danny’s born-again Christian mother, Vivien. A secretary in a small-town Southern Baptist church in Texas, she bristles at Greg’s secular beliefs. Through passive-aggressive manipulation, subtle deceit, or outright battle, Vivien resolves to banish Greg and return Danny to the fold, come hell or high water. Greg’s hold on Danny’s heart is pitted against Vivien’s crusade for Danny’s soul. 

All the while, Greg devotes himself to keeping Danny happy while negotiating the cultural differences of his life in America. Danny’s new career as a lawyer takes them from his native Texas to New York. But with Vivien testing Greg’s stiff upper lip at every turn, something has to give. 

The British Devil is a semiautobiographical novel exploring culture, religion, and love in a bi-national relationship.

Excerpt:

“ARE you ready for this?” Danny asked as he started the ignition in his truck.

“I guess I am as ready as I will ever be,” I answered while drawing a breath through a smile.

“Stop looking so nervous! You’re only meeting my parents, not going in for surgery.”

“I know, Tiger, but it’s still a big deal. I want to make a good impression.”

Danny laughed. “Well, you may want to control your sarcasm a little.”

“I am not that bad.”

“Just speak with that gorgeous British accent of yours. But remember not to cuss or blaspheme. In fact, blaspheming would probably be worse.”

“When I know I can’t swear, that’s when I blaspheme the most.”

“Okay, probably best that you just cuss!

I looked into Danny’s light blue eyes as he smiled at me. I ran my hand down the back of his hair, which had finally started to grow out of its usual military crew cut. Tucking a blond lock behind his ear, I leaned in to kiss him and then settled back into the passenger seat as the truck pulled out of the driveway.

“I promise I will try, but I am as nervous as hell. To be honest, I could murder for a cigarette right now.”

Danny looked at his watch. “You still have another three hours before you’re allowed another one.”

“You’re not the boss of me!”

“Hey, these are your rules! I think you should quit cold turkey, but if you think it’ll be easier cutting down first then I’ll try to support you.” He looked sympathetically at me. “Your dad would be proud, I’m sure.”

“My dad would be spinning in his grave if he knew I was still smoking after what happened to him.”

Duke, the sandy-colored mutt that Danny rescued along the roadside in his last Navy duty station in the Middle East, nestled in the small cabin behind the seats. Danny turned from the residential street onto the highway, and we set off on the four-hour journey from Austin to Baytown, a small city in southeast Texas.

I had arrived from England for my first visit to Texas the day before and had stayed either at Danny’s side or in his arms in the house that he rented with Tucker, an old friend from college. Tucker had been kind enough to make himself scarce for the night in order to give Danny and me some much needed privacy. I hadn’t met him yet, but Tucker’s understanding of the fact that Danny and I hadn’t seen each other for months had already put him in my good books.

The night had been perfect, even though I was tired from the journey. The excitement of seeing Danny kicked in, and I caught my second wind the moment I laid eyes on him. For the past few months we had done everything to feel close to each other without actually being together. I spoke to him every chance I could by phone, instant messenger, or webcam and had sent and received hundreds of texts, cards, e-mails, and letters. As precious as each and every communication was, nothing compared to feeling his warm body next to me.

Danny pulled into a gas station just outside Houston. The closer we got to Baytown, the more nervous and anxious I became. I watched Danny pump the petrol into the truck while he sang along to a country song playing out of a car next to us on the forecourt. He nodded politely and smiled good southern manners to the driver, who was looking back at him. He had never seemed so Texan to me. I checked myself in the rearview mirror and wondered for a second whether his parents would see “the British look” that Danny maintained I presented.

We set off again, Danny trying to find a radio station that was playing the country music he’d heard at the station. Finding it, he leaned back in his seat and began to sing to me. He wasn’t the best singer in the world and could barely hold a tune to most songs. But when he mimicked country and western songs, his voice was pitch perfect, and he could double for any star on CMT. He twisted his voice into the familiar twang of the singer and added an occasional “yeeee-haw!” for my amusement. I would laugh, but he also knew it turned me on a little too.

“Will your sisters be there?” I asked once the song had ended.

“No, but you’ll get a chance to meet them and their husbands tomorrow at the football game.”

“What are their husbands like?” I asked, not having really considered what meeting them would be like. I was far more concerned about meeting his parents than anything else.

“They’re okay. Slightly redneck, if you ask me. But I get along with them all right.”

This only added to my nerves. I had visions of unshaven men in caps and dungarees, carrying shotguns a little too casually. I absentmindedly covered my left ear with the palm of my hand in protection, as thoughts of the scene in Deliverance played in my head.