Please give a warm welcome to author Tinnean today to the Reading Nook blog as we chat with them about their latest book, Lagoon of Dreams and more.
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
once again, Dawn. It’s always a pleasure visiting the Café! As my bio says, I
started writing in 3rd grade. Another fhird-grader wrote a very long
poem, and I said if she can do it, so can I. That’s pretty much all I remember
about that, which is probably all for the good. For the same reason I started
writing m/m in 1999. A friend challenged me to slash David and Kane from Love and Human Remains, and I said,
“Hold my beer.” The rest, as they say, is history.
Do you have a favorite genre?
Is it the same genre you prefer to write?
I love anything m/m, as long as there’s very
little angst. (I blame the soaps I used
to watch with my mom—could Lisa Hughes or Erica Kane have more problems?—and
all the Harlequins I read back in the day for my reluctance to read angst.) And
yes, m/m is my genre. I’ve written historical, contemporary, paranormal,
dystopian, scifi. As long as there are two guys (or two gals, I’ve written f/f
also) I’m there.
Do certain themes and ideas
tend to capture your writer’s imagination and fascinate you?
They do. In spite of the fact angst isn’t my
favorite thing, I’m especially drawn to the misunderstood hero, (the majority
of my MCs are misunderstood, but all it takes is a smart guy to come along and
see what no one else has the smarts to realize is right in front of them.) I’m
also exceptionally fond of the unerringly faithful character, who’ll do
anything for his friend/lover.
How do you
balance long-term thinking vs. being nimble in today's market?
What’s this “nimble” of which
you speak? LOL I wish I could jump on a bandwagon or even get it out of the
barn before anyone else, but I write as my characters tell me. Shifters had
been around for quite some time before I finally got my story, Destiny’s End, in the works. The same
goes for vampires, Mpreg, and dystopian. But hey! I’ve gotten there!
How do you
find readers in today's market?
Stand around and look intriguing?
Seriously, I post on Facebook and Dreamwidth—I stay away from Live Journal as
much as I can since the Russians took it over—occasionally tweet something
about a new release, and offer free stories not only on my brand new website ( https://tinnean.webs.com/
) but at JMS Books also. And I sincerely hope
someone will be interested enough to want to read them.
Do you
come up with the hook first, or do you create characters first and then dig
through until you find a hook?
Hook first, definitely, and
then the characters pop in to visit. DH and I once received a Christmas card
and had no clue who it was from. This became the premise for Greeting Cards, which I hope to
re-release in the fairly near future. In another instance—have you heard Lesley
Gore’s song Judy’s Turn to Cry? (It’s
the follow-up to It’s My Party.) The
line “One night I saw them kissing at a party, so I kissed some other guy” had
me wondering how that “some other guy” felt about being grabbed and kissed and
then knocked down by Johnny. Eventually this became Love Potion #9, a 9th anniversary story for JMS Books.
How do you
create your characters?
The story generally dictates
their appearance. I’ll be typing away, and suddenly something I’ve written will
reveal my character is a blue-eyed blond, or a brunet, or a redhead. Sometimes,
it’s just serendipitous. Recently I happened to go looking for photos for the new
cover for Two Lips, Indifferent Red and
found a yummy picture I felt was perfect. This particular model had a dimple at
the corner of his mouth, and I loved it so much I went back and added it to the
story. The story will also dictate what kind of family the character has, his
(or her) job, or, if they’re in school, what courses they take. I’m just going
along for the ride.
What's on the top of your TBR pile right now?
My cell phone is jam-packed with ebooks, but on top of the pile is Kim
Fielding’s Creature and The Knocker on Death’s Door by Ellis
Peters.
Tell me a little about the
characters in Lagoon of Dreams.
Lagoon of Dreams is my newest release. It’s the Mpreg I finally
got around to writing.
David Knight is a scientist
who’s fascinated by lungfish and believes they should be studied if man is to
go into space one day. His family is wealthy, so he can have pretty much
everything except the one thing he loves most—diving. A shark attack left him with
a fear of the ocean. He’s also very lonely, (another one of my poor little rich
boys) in spite of all the men he takes to his bed.
Dinah Smythe is the scientist
who saved David from the shark that attacked him. She may actually put in an
appearance in the sequel, since she’s related to characters who appeared in the
first two books of the Strange, Strange World series.
Sam Lucas is gay pretending
to be straight. He wants to marry Dinah because her father is a baronet, and he
thinks that will give him a certain cachet, but he’d prefer to have David in
his bed.
Carlos Avila is the
archeologist who draws David to Brazil, telling him he needs his expertise as
an ichthyologist. Could be he has an ulterior motive, though.
And then there’s the captain
of the space ship Dev’o’s Honor, who
visits David’s dreams. More about him, though, I sayeth not. ;-)
Where’s the story set? How
much influence did the setting have on the atmosphere/characters/development of
the story?
My main character is something of a globetrotter,
and the story reflects that. He’s gone diving in the South Pacific, spends time
in South Africa, returns back to the States, and eventually winds up in Brazil,
where he goes from Rio to Pesadelo Bay (totally fictitious, it translates to
Nightmare Bay) to Manaus and then up the Amazon River to eventually arrive at
the Lagoon of Dreams. The “when” is actually a predominant character, since
this takes place in 1955, setting up the sequel, which will take place in 1977.
If you had to write your
memoir in five words, what would you write?
She lives, therefore she writes. Or conversely,
She writes, therefore she lives. ;-)
How often does your muse
distract you from day to day minutiae?
All the time! This is why I carry a notebook with
me, and if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to actually decipher my notes. However, I
will confess there have been times when I’ve been caught short and had to make
a voice reminder on my cell phone.
What do readers have to look
forward to in the future from you?
I have the rights to the books put out by another
publisher, and I’ll be getting those out little by little in the next six
months or so. About half of them will be re-released by JMS Books, while I’ll
self-publish the other half. In between that, I hope to get out the sequel to Lagoon of Dreams, Rainbows in Your Eyes. This will also be Book 4 of the Strange, Strange World series.
So… that’s my world, kiddies. Welcome to it, and I
hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do!
Lagoon of Dreams
Genre of book- scifi
Series name – Strange, Strange world
Publisher – JMS Books
Book blurb: David
Knight has been plagued by dreams his entire life, only to have all memory of
them vanish when he awakens. Now the dreams are coming with more frequency, and
they seem to be drawing him to the Amazon.
A scientist with a PhD in ichthyology and a
dedication to learning all he can about lungfish, whose existence dates back to
the Devonian era, David is determined to see what the Amazon holds. His hopes
seem about to be answered when Dr. Carlos Avila contacts him. It seems the
Brazilian archeologist discovered the remains of a previously undiscovered
species on a tributary of the Amazon, and he'd like nothing better than for
David to join the expedition to see if more of the creature can be found.
Of course David leaps at the opportunity and flies
to Pesadelo Bay to join the mismatched team. Once there, he discovers not only
does Dr. Avila have his own agenda, but a former conquest as well as a friend
who'd saved his life years before are part of the team and are engaged to be
married.
Meanwhile, the need to sail up the Amazon to
find what ... or who ... is calling him there has become more and more
pressing, and David must decide which is the most important -- learning what
Dr. Avila really is searching for, or finding the answer to his dreams?
Excrpt:
I
didn’t usually dream twice in the same night, but this time I did. In this
dream, I was once again a young boy, and as such had the reactions of a child.
The corridors of Dev’o’s
Honor dripped with moisture, and the lights dimmed and flickered
periodically. I skipped along beside my captain and listened avidly as he told
me of the creatures that lived on his home world, either swimming in the muddy-brown
waters that covered three quarters of his planet or climbing the escarpments
that soared into the ochre skies.
I listened—until a crew member sauntered over to join us,
and when my captain smiled at him, I saw how much he cared about this being.
David, my captain said, not noticing my
reaction. This is my chief engineer.
A flare of jealousy stabbed through me, and I scowled at the
chief engineer. Hello. I greeted him
grudgingly.
Terran. The chief engineer curled his lip
at me and gave a dismissive nod.
The captain was my friend. I curled my own lip
back at him, pleased when he seemed surprised. I’d seen my father regard
someone who worked under him with similar disdain. I found myself wishing the
chief engineer would be one of the crew who never returned from a mission. And
then I felt myself turn cold, shocked to my toes by this unspeakable wish.
Never in my life had I been jealous—it was an unfamiliar emotion in my family.
I was so ashamed of myself, I drew my mental shield around
my horrid thoughts, effectively closing out my friend and—
—gasped as I woke up.
Or had I? Somehow, it seemed as if I were still wrapped in
the dream, still on the battered ship, limping through space.
I could feel the captain’s attempts to speak with me, and I
rebuffed them. He was puzzled, and more than that, saddened.
Captain. His chief engineer demanded his
attention.
What is it? He sounded impatient, but I
couldn’t permit myself to feel any sort of pleasure over that because he’d
turned to face the man at his side. Not when something dangerous might be going
on.
The chief engineer sent a triumphant look my way, although
he was careful the captain didn’t see.
I stiffened, tempted to stick my tongue out at the chief
engineer. I wouldn’t, though. That was childish, and I was a big boy. While the
two men talked, I walked farther down the corridor, away from my friend and
his… friend.
The captain thought I was a good boy, but this revelation
would demonstrate how very wrong he was if he ever learned of it, and that was
something I couldn’t let happen.
I sternly lectured myself on the proper behavior of friends,
until I finally felt it was safe enough to reach out and touch his mind again.
David. What
happened? The
relief my friend accidentally projected was so great I was filled with
self-loathing, but again I shielded my emotions from him.
I’m sorry. I was
distracted. Some problems gnawing on my mind.
My friend nodded, not questioning the fact there had been
problems before, and I had never prevented him access to my thoughts.
The chief engineer snorted. We have more problems than this youngling could ever imagine.
My captain growled at him. And you have more tasks to see to than to tease him. Go follow my
instructions.
The chief engineer stalked off, and although he’d closed his
mind to me, I didn’t need to distinguish what he was muttering under his breath
to understand it wasn’t complimentary to me.
My captain smiled and slid his arm around my shoulders. Let me show you the ship’s felix. She just
had a litter of kits. He urged me down the corridor.
It never occurred to me to ask why his chief engineer had
interrupted us, something the man had never done before, and the captain didn’t
offer any reasons.
And I never considered it could be a two-way street—if I
could shut him out, then he could just as surely shut me out….
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, Wilde City, and Less Than Three Press, as well as
self-publishing six books to date. Recent novels have received honorable
mention in the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 Rainbow Awards. Two of the 2014
submissions were finalists, and a 2017 submission was runner-up in the
historical romance category.
A New Yorker at
heart, she resides in SW Florida with her husband, a desktop, and two laptops.
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.
Chrome
and Safari seem to work best.
She can be contacted at:
Twitter: @tinneantoo
