Thanks for stopping by to talk a little about your writing! Let's
jump right in. When did you begin writing and why?
Thanks
so much for having me, Dawn! I remember writing an “epic poem” back in the 3rd
grade because a girl in another class did. Unfortunately, it was an epic fail.
Things did fall into place in the seventh grade. Even back then, I wrote
fanfiction! I continued writing over the years, but raising a family put it on
the backburner. Then, in ’99, a friend encouraged me to write in the La Femme
Nikita fandom. That led to more fanfiction, which led to slash. Another friend
once asked why I wrote m/m, and it’s because no one becomes pregnant! (unless
we’re talking about mpreg, which I’ve actually written.)
Do you have a favorite genre? Is it the same genre you prefer to
write?
I
still read het, (very rarely because I lose patience with it. Some of these
characters are just too stupid to live) but I love m/m and I prefer to write
that, whether it’s contemporary, historical, sci-fi, paranormal, or fantasy.
Do certain themes and ideas tend to capture your writer’s
imagination and fascinate you?
Okay,
don’t judge me, but I love taking het tropes and turning them on their head by
having two men as the main couple—a wealthy boss and his employee, a poor
little rich boy who’s ignored by his family but finds love with an even
wealthier older man, or a couple that just doesn’t have to worry about money
problems. See the connection here? In the movie Cluny Brown, Mr. Belinski tells Cluny he’s going to write about the
murder of a rich man, and she remarks on what an excellent idea that is, because
no one really cares about what happens to a poor man.
Do you have a favorite author who introduced you to the genre?
Anne
Higgins is the author of the first Batman/Robin slash I ever read.
What advantages or challenges does a writer in your genre face in
today’s fiction market?
Of
course there are challenges. Just as heterosexual romances took a beating back
in the day, so to do homosexual romances. Periodically objections come up
regarding women writing m/m. But you don’t have to be a serial killer to write
about one, and I like to think you don’t have to be a gay man to write about
two men falling in love. I’ve always said they’ll have to pry my keyboard out
of my cold, dead fingers.
Tell me a little about the characters in Best Laid Plans.
Best
Laid Plans is a novel in three
parts that are loosely tied to characters and events in my Spy vs. Spook and
Mann of My Dreams universe. In the first novella, Enter Love, we meet Tad Jackson and Rush Dalton. Tad is bisexual,
which irritates his father’s side of the family. They blame his father, who is
living with another man. Rush’s family couldn’t care less about him. All they
want is for him not to cause talk in their social circle. Tad and Rush fall in
love and by the end of the novella, they plan to marry.
In the second novella, Could You be the One, we meet Billy Bob
Bolt and Josh Cooper. Billy Bob works for Jack Jackson, Tad’s father, and has
been nicknamed Ragg Mopp by the men of Jackson Construction. Josh Cooper is a
friend of Jackson’s partner and frequently comes by the ranch to visit. To his
surprise, he’s fallen in love with Mopp. Mopp is a sweet young man who barely
made it out of high school. His family has thrown him out, not because he’s
gay—according to everyone’s gaydar, Mopp is straight—but because he’d not
religious enough. Things get even worse when he begins dating a girl they
consider too worldly. Mopp likes Mr. Cooper a good deal and becomes friends
with him. However, he wonders if his girlfriend could be the one.
In the final novella, Best Laid Plans, we meet characters from
DC—Eric Jameson, Dr. Pandora Gautier, Deuce, Ace, Trip, and Stan. They want the
young woman and her son, introduced in Enter
Love, who have taken refuge with the Jacksons, and they’ll stop at nothing
to get them. If readers have read The
Light in Your Eyes, which is also part of the Spy vs. Spook and Mann of My
Dreams universe, they’ll recognize Delilah Carson, and discover the truth
behind her death.
Where’s the story set? How much influence did the setting have on
the atmosphere/characters/development of the story?
The
story is set in Savannah, GA in 2001/2002, and was written for a very good
friend who lives there. One of my favorite things to do is bring characters
from one book to another. (This is why I can tolerate Jaws 3. *cough*) Characters who have appeared in my Spy vs. Spook
and Mann of My Dreams books also put in appearances in this story. Characters
in this book will appear in the next Mann of My Dreams, Just the Way You Are.
If you had to write your memoir in five words, what would you
write?
(If
I could have used six words…: She came, she wrote, she published!) However: Family,
friends, writing, reading, writing.
How often does your muse distract you from day to day minutiae?
*laughs*
Frequently. While I’m riding in the car—of course I can’t do this when I’m
driving—I’ll often scribble notes on shopping lists, and every night before I
fall asleep. That’s why I keep a notebook on my night table. I also carry a
notebook with me, even when I go walking. And when I don’t have a notebook, I record
whatever my muse has just told me on my cell phone.
What do readers have to look forward to in the future from you?
In
April, Dreamspinner is publishing Whither
Thou Goest, the sequel to the alternate reality historical Call Me Church.
Right
now I’m working on Book 3 of Mann of My Dreams, which I’m calling Just the Way You Are. Once that’s done,
I want to finish the Civil War western I’ve had on the backburner for a couple
of years. And then there are a number of book that belong in a surreal
universe, similar to ours but not quite the same.
Of
course I doubt I’ll get them all done by the end of this year, but they’ll keep
me busy. ;-)
Blurb:
The distance between
Savannah, GA and Washington, DC is less than six hundred miles, but it might as
well be the distance from the Earth to the Moon when it comes to the people who
live in those cities. In Savannah, an ordinary family is making friends and
falling in love, but they’re about to find their lives disrupted when they come
into contact with some of the most ruthless and unsavory people who just so
happen to call DC home.
Enter Love:
Tad Jackson fled from his
mother and his bigoted grandfather to live with his father Jack, who happens to
be gay and who shares a house called the ranch with his lover, Tom Weber. Tad
finds the home he needs, as well as the love and support, to become a confident
and kind young man. Rush Dalton is the scion of a wealthy, socially prominent
Atlanta family. However, he too has fled, from their emotional coldness and
unreasonable expectations. Once he arrives at Pulaski and Jasper University in
Savannah, Georgia, he’s chosen for an internship at Jackson’s construction company.
That’s where he meets Tad. Tad knows that he's bisexual and wants Rush; Rush
knows that he wants Tad. Now all Tad has to do is convince Rush that he really
does belong in this family—and in Tad's bed.
Could You Be the One:
Billy Bob Bolt, known as Ragg Mopp at the Jackson
Construction Company where he works, has the usual baggage: his family not only
thinks he’s lost his way to Jesus, but they aren't happy with January Stephens,
his brand new girlfriend, who's had too many boyfriends for their liking. What
would really cause their heads to explode is the fact that the family he's
staying with are gay. Mopp has become friendly with everyone at the ranch,
including Tom Weber's friend, Josh Cooper, who’s also gay and who he likes very
much. Trouble crops up when Mopp's girlfriend suspects him of cheating on her
with the latest addition to the family, a young woman and her son who have a
troubled past. When Jan gives him the ultimatum: marry her or they’re through,
Mopp starts to wonder if he was wrong in thinking she was his one.
Best Laid Plans:
Everyone is making plans in Savannah. Rush Dalton and Tad
Jackson plan to live happily ever after, while January Stephens plans to ease
the hurt of a declined marriage proposal with alcohol. Josh Cooper's plan is to
conceal his feelings for Mopp. And Mopp? He simply plans to get his life back
on track—if not with his girlfriend, then in holding tight to Josh's
friendship. Meanwhile, Eric Jameson arrives from DC with plans of his own. He
intends to elicit information from Jan in an effort to come into contact with
Babe, the woman who’s taken refuge with her son at the big house called the
ranch. Babe plans to stay away from anyone who might try to take her little boy
away from her and return him to the mysterious Dr. Pandora Gautier. Deuce
Pettigrew’s only plan is to keep the man he treasures safe and in one
piece. But the thing about plans
is—sometimes they just don’t work out the way you expect them to.
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
“COME ON, RUSH. I
want you to listen to this CD. It’s their last studio album—All About Chemistry.” Tadder seemed
unaware of his condition.
Relieved to have an
excuse to leave the kitchen, he followed Tadder down the hall, through the
family room, and down another hall. Tadder’s and Becca’s bedrooms were at the
far end of the house. Rush had never been in either of those bedrooms, although
he’d had some pretty hot fantasies revolving around Tadder finding him alone in
the house, dragging him into his room and stripping off his clothes and having
wild monkey sex with him.
Did Tadder really want to
listen to music with him? Did he maybe want to do something more? Maybe
something physical?
No, of course not. Why
would he want to do anything with someone like Rush, who was older, shorter,
and inexperienced, who was ordinary and… ordinary?
“I should really go to my
room and change out of these clothes.”
“Okay.”
He sighed, his erection
deflating. Well, that just went to show how interested Tadder really was. He backtracked
to another hallway that led to his bedroom. Mr. Jack had built so many
additions to this house that its original shape and style was obscured.
He opened the door and
padded across the carpeted floor to the closet that held his shirts and
trousers. He toed off his shoes, then reached for a pale blue shirt.
“I’ve never been in your
room before.”
Rush let out a yelp and
wheeled around, dropping the hanger with the shirt on it and pressing a hand to
his chest. “What are you doing in here?”
“Well, that’s rude.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s a
simple question.”
“Well…” Tadder flushed a
little, which was kind of interesting. Why was he blushing? “I was afraid you’d
use that as an excuse not to… to listen to music with me.”
“I was coming back.”
“Were you?”
Rush nodded. He’d just
stay in Tadder’s room a few minutes, soak in memories to hug close to him when
he was a lonely old man in his lonely one-bedroom apartment, and then he’d—
“Earth to Rush! You in
there, boy?”
“Oh. Sorry. What did you
say?”
“I said hurry up and get
changed. Becca will have that meatloaf ready before we know it, and then she’ll
call us to fix a salad and set the table. And there will go our alone time.”
“Just give me a minute.”
He stooped to retrieve his shirt, his thoughts whirling. This bedroom didn’t
have an attached bath. Should he take his clothes down the hall and get changed
in that bathroom? Should he strip in front of Tadder and put his clothes on in
front of him? He worried his lower lip.
“Here,” Tadder said as he
took the clean shirt and draped it over his shoulder. “Let me help you get
started.” He raised his hands and got to work undoing the buttons.
Rush stood there, frozen
with desire.
Tadder brushed the shirt
off Rush’s shoulders to have it land on the floor and stared down at his torso.
“You’ve got Pepto Bismol on your undershirt too.”
“That’s okay.” He reached
for the shirt on Tadder’s shoulder.
Tadder cupped Rush’s
cheek in his palm. “That has to be sticky. Now raise your hands.”
Rush did as he was
ordered, and the shirt he held flopped over his face. Jesus, could he be any
more gauche? “I’m sorry.”
Tadder brushed it aside
Oh my God! He’s staring at my
mouth. Does he want to kiss me?
“Yes, I do want to kiss
you.”
Rush had said that out
loud? “Excuse me while I drown in a puddle of mortification.”
“Don’t, babe. If you
don’t want me to kiss you, then I won’t.”
“Oh, fine. Put it on me.”
In a fit of bravado—did Tadder really want to kiss him?—Rush
thrust the clean shirt into Tadder’s arms and yanked his undershirt up over his
head.
But then he spoiled it by
clutching the undershirt to his chest.
“Don’t be embarrassed.
I’ve seen you shirtless plenty of times in the pool.”
That was right. God, he
was being such an idiot “Just give me a minute.” He dropped the undershirt,
took back the blue shirt from Tadder, and shoved his arms into the sleeves.
Buy links: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Laid-Plans-Tinnean-ebook/dp/B01B8YP7K4/ref=sr_1_10?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1454376448&sr=1-10&keywords=tinnean
Bio:
Tinnean
has been writing since the 3rd grade, where she was inspired to try her hand at
epic poetry. Fortunately, that epic poem didn't survive the passage of time;
however, her love of writing not only survived but thrived, and in high school
she became a member of the magazine staff, where she contributed a number of
stories.
It was
with the advent of the family's second computer – the first intimidated
everyone – that her writing took off, enhanced in part by fanfiction, but
mostly by the wonder that is copy and paste.
While
involved in fandom, she was nominated for both Rerun and Light My Fire Awards.
Now she concentrates on her original characters and has been published by Nazca
Plains, Dreamspinner, JMS Books, and Wilde City, as well as being
self-published. Recent novels have received honorable mention in the 2013,
2014, and 2015 Rainbow Awards, and two of the 2014 submissions were finalists.
A New
Yorker at heart, she resides in SW Florida with her husband and two computers.
Ernest
Hemingway's words reflect Tinnean's devotion to her craft: Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only
death can stop it.
She can
be contacted at:
Email: tinneantoo@gmail.com
Live
Journal: http://tinnean.livejournal.com/
Twitter:
@tinneantoo
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Tinnean
Amazon
Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Tinnean/e/B004QS65KQ/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1391469662&sr=1-2-ent
If you'd
like to sample her earlier works, they can be found at http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/tinnssinns/Welcome1.html
1 comment:
Thank you again, Dawn!
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