Read with Pride Northwest discussion

We’ll be interviewing GRNW Attending Authors all summer as we prepare for the Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up on September 14 in Seattle.

Please feel free to join in and ask your own questions for the authors!

GRNW interviews Heidi Belleau – Part 1

Here we interview Heidi Belleau, author of The Druid Stone, Apple Polisher, Mark of the Gladiator, and other works.

GRNW: Congratulations on the recent release of your new novel Apple Polisher! I know this is a kick-off to a new series. Can you tell me about the book?

Heidi: For sure! Apple Polisher is all about Christian, an uptight young student teacher who follows school standards to the letter. That is, until his beloved aunt’s cancer gets worse and he’s stuck looking after her failing porn store. And then, of course, there’s his roommate Max, who he’s undeniably attracted to, and who one hundred percent does not respect Christian’s desperate need to conform and fit in and hide who he really is. Hilarity (and some heavy stuff) ensues.

Christian, the main character in Apple Polisher, is in school studying to be a teacher, and is thus striving for a “straight-edge” life that won’t risk his career. But then he has the conflict with his job at the porn store. What inspired you to create Christian and tell his story?

Ah, as bad as it sounds? My own life! I worked in a porn store to put myself through college, and then later became a student teacher in a program much like Christian’s. One of the first things one of the teachers at the high school I did my practicum at told me was to never ever mention my porn job. All throughout the program, I and my fellow students were constantly terrified of being kicked out of the program for a long list of offenses ranging from drinking in public to inappropriate Facebook conduct to wearing shirts that were too low-cut. It’s a great conflict and I thought it would make a hilarious book. And so.

I understand there are two more books for the Rear Entrance Video series? What are your plans for the next volumes?

Well, the next volume is called Wallflower, and is all about another of Christian’s roommates, Rob. Rob’s younger than Christian but faces similar issues with who he presents as and who he is on the inside. How other people see him and how he sees himself. His issue just happens to be cross-dressing.

The third volume I suppose I can reveal is about Austin! Who has pretty well established himself as straight in the first two books, sooooo . . . :grins: It’s also the first book in the series to deal in BDSM, and since the series takes place in a porn store, you know there’s a porn connection there, as well.

One of your first novels is The Druid Stone, the urban fantasy romance which you coauthored with Violetta Vane. This novel is set in modern-day Ireland, but is awash with myths and magic. How did you two create this story?

That was actually our first novel! It just happened to be published after the stuff we wrote after it! As for how we created that story, we knew we wanted to write something with fantasy elements, I said urban fantasy, she said paranormal investigator, I said Ireland, she said interracial, I said mixed-race Irish American. It spun away from there! There’s a lot of both of us in it, really. A lot of our loves and passions and fascinations.

Personally, I LOVE that novel. I thought it was FANTASTIC, but also SUPER CRAZY with all the things that happened to Cormac and Sean. Was it ever difficult while writing it to keep track of All The Things going on?

Surprisingly no! We used a very complicated chart tracking all the subplots and character arcs and foreshadowing and how each and every scene moved them forward, so we always knew where we were and where we needed to be. A little planning goes a long way!

Will we see any more works in the Druid Stone world?

I’m really not sure. Violetta has moved on to new pastures under her new pen name Solace Ames. We did write a good 20-30k of a sequel to The Druid Stone starring Michael in Dublin dealing with the fallout of his absence from the world, but we trunked it partway in because it wasn’t working for either of us. Maybe we’ll come back to it someday, but I don’t want to make any promises!

You and Violetta also worked together on the historical Mark of the Gladiator which is set during ancient Roman times. Are you a big fan of historicals, and did you and Violetta have to do a lot of research for this novel?

We did a decent amount of research, but luckily Violetta actually has an academic background in that period, so we had a very good starting base to work from. I leaned on her a lot from that standpoint, so really the research should mostly be credited to her. And yes, I do love historicals, although I find them very intimidating to write. I’m not sure I’d ever attempt one solo, I’d be paralyzed by fear of getting anything wrong!

You wrote Apple Polisher as a solo project, but you have coauthored other works including multiple works with Violetta, as well as Giving an Inch with fellow GRNW author Amelia Gormley, The Flesh Cartel series with Rachel Haimowitz, and some upcoming projects with Lisa Henry and Sam Schooler. What is it about coauthoring that you enjoy so much? And how do you “coauthor” and write together?

I love working with other people. I love bouncing ideas off of them and creating with them and having our two visions for a story coalesce into something completely new and completely fantastic. That collaborative fire is a powerful, magical thing. It totally gets my motor running, if you know what I mean.

Coauthoring looks a little different depending on the pairing, but the bones of it are starting out chatting, thinking of how we want a story to go, and then designing characters, sketching out a rough plot, and then we hop on gdocs and make it happen! Once you really know someone, you really combine when it comes to writing. You work in the same paragraphs, finish each other’s sentences, edit after each other . . . It takes a lot of trust and a lot of cooperation and a certain compatibility, but it makes for some really great storytelling.

Does each writing team have a different style of sharing the writing? If so, could you describe some of those differences?

Violetta and I are very organized. We plot and chart everything. Every arc, every subplot. She even graphs tension. She’s very much a planner, and I follow her lead. With someone like Rachel, most of our planning happens in chats. We argue and debate and bounce off of each other, and then use those chat transcripts to refer back to when we get into the thick of writing. It’s a lot more informal, but still incredibly dynamic.

Compared to your coauthored projects, how is it different to write solo, such as on the REV series?

Well, I definitely have way more creative control! But oh, it is TOUGH sometimes. See, with co-writing if you get slowed down or stuck, you have another person to pick up the slack, and sometimes all it takes is for them to start you off with one paragraph and then you’re up and running again. Solo, you’re stuck staring at the cursor or begging a beta to talk you through it. It’s much slower going at times. On the other hand, you don’t have to work around anyone else’s schedule.

The Flesh Cartel is a very violent, “psycho-sexual” thriller serial series. Is it ever difficult to “come back” after writing a very difficult or violent scene?

Honestly? Not at all. I find it very easy to compartmentalize and am generally relieved after writing Flesh Cartel to be able to go to something lighter like Rear Entrance Video. In fact, I’m pretty sure I wrote the first REV book in between writing the episodes of the third season of Flesh Cartel. Really, the most consuming thing is before I write the dark stuff. It swirls around in my head and heart for ages until I can finally get it out on the page, and once that happens, it’s gone from me. The writing is pretty much an exorcism.

Have you enjoyed writing in a serial format? What are the things that you like about it? And what are the things about a serial that are more difficult to deal with compared to writing a one-shot novel?

Yes and no? It is SO much work. And SUCH a huge commitment. I had no idea. I still love the format: I think it’s great for suspense, and the episodic nature helps to keep people from getting too desensitized by the content when they read them in a binge. You can take a break, and come back to the story ready to be freshly disturbed. And we really don’t write these as books split up, either; they are meant to be episodic, each episode with its own arc. Which is a fabulous way to write erotica, as well, if the serial erotica I’ve read is any evidence. ;) But oh, yes, it is very difficult. Maintaining that consistent release schedule is tiring. Going through releases every month is tiring. Knowing that this project will still be going a year from now? Is absolute madness! I’ve loved what we’ve done with the Flesh Cartel, and am excited for what we will do, but I won’t be writing another serial any time soon.

Check out our next post below for the concluding part of our interview with Heidi Belleau!

GRNW interviews Heidi Belleau - Part 2!

You’re a big advocate about including diverse voices in stories, and in your own work, you have consistently presented characters from different backgrounds, orientations, and identities. Tell me why this is so important to you?

I think because growing up, I didn’t see people like me. Which is to say, I read all these books and watched all these movies and I never saw queer men or women. Not ever. And I needed to, you know? And I deserved to. And it’s not just kids and teenagers. Everyone deserves to see themselves in fiction, especially in romance because we all need to see people like us get a happy ending. That isn’t something that only white straight people deserve. White straight stories aren’t the only stories worth telling or reading. They’re not the only people in the world doing amazing ridiculous funny heart wrenching sexy things. So you know, that’s what I do. I make a point of writing outside of that “white straight cis people in love” box, whatever form that takes. I always ask myself “Why not?” when it comes to writing about minorities of any stripe. If I can’t come up with a good reason (why I almost never can), then I make it happen. It’s challenging and rewarding and makes my books stand out, I think! So I don’t really see any downsides.

What are some of your future projects? What can readers look forward to?

Well, there’s more Rear Entrance Video and Flesh Cartel, of course. And another Professor’s Rule erotic short. I’ve also got an erotic horror with a gothic Faustian feel coming out with Sam Schooler, and a dark dark post-apocalyptic written with Lisa Henry coming out early next year. (You can imagine how dark that combo is gonna be!) I’ve also got my first M/F (written as Heloise Belleau), a BDSM rom-com called “The Dom Project” with a bisexual hero, which is coming out from Carina in December.

Last question (from me. GRNW followers can jump in after this.) We’ll have a lot of readers at the September GRNW Meet-Up in Seattle, and it’s always interesting to hear what authors like to read and would recommend. What gay romance titles are some of your favorites?

Ohhh my. I am a devoted Lisa Henry fangirl. The Island totally blew me away. I also really enjoyed Scrap Metal by Harper Fox, and Counterpunch and Dark Soul by Aleksandr Voinov. On the lighter sight of things, I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything by Anne Tenino that I’ve read. She’s got such a great contemporary voice and is a blast to read!

Thank you, Heidi, for sitting down with us! It was wonderful to talk with you!

Sept. 14 – Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up – Seattle

And you can see more of Heidi and our other GRNW authors at the Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up on September 14 at the Seattle Central Library! We hope you can join us. :D http://gayromancenorthwest.wordpress....

Special thanks again to Heidi Belleau for talking with us!

If you have questions for Heidi, please feel free to ask here. This thread is open to questions. :D

Thanks, ttg!! And hello, everybody! I am here to answer all your buuuurning questions. ;)

great interview, ttg. halloooooo heidi :-)

This might be a dumb question, but how do you chart tension, like what you guys did for The Druid Stone? I'm picturing a line graph in my head (and that book go SO TENSE so I see the line just spiking up and up again.)

was thinking about that all evening, actually. great question, ttg

Ahahaha. Well, actually, we had a whole spreadsheet plotting out scene by scene of the book where we tracked arcs and foreshadowing. And one of those was assigning a tension level of 1-5 to the scenes and then, yeah, we translated that into a line graph. Just to make sure there weren't too many lulls. I wonder if we went too far in the other direction though?

Heidi wrote: "Ahahaha. Well, actually, we had a whole spreadsheet plotting out scene by scene of the book where we tracked arcs and foreshadowing. And one of those was assigning a tension level of 1-5 to the sce..."

I dug the book, so don't think you went too far, but I remember it got tense, and then it would get more tense, and then more tense. :) There were a couple times that I had to walk away just to keep my blood pressure from going too high. Great book though. The tension (and stress!) was totally worth it.