Interview and Giveaway: Marie Sexton

Ahhhhh, what a fine day.  Wanna know why?  Cuz this is the day I get to hang out with Marie Sexton.  WhooWhoo!

As I posted earlier this week, she has a new book coming out next week, it looks so vera good.  In case you missed that jewel, here's the blurb.

Paris A to Z by Marie Sexton

Release Date:  April 6^th

Publisher:  Dreamspinner

Book Type:  eBook

Pages:  106

Cover Artist:  Anne Cain

The Blurb:  Zach Mitchell and his lover Angelo Green are headed to Paris (along with their Coda friends Matt and Jared) to attend Jon and Cole’s wedding. Matt will have to face Jared’s former lover, and Angelo will have to spend an entire week with Zach’s ex-boyfriend. Between Matt’s jealousy and Angelo’s temper, Zach thinks they’ll be lucky to get through the week without one of the grooms being punched. But Zach soon realizes he should worry less about Angelo and more about himself. Facing the bittersweet memories of his past and his own guilt over breaking Jon’s heart is harder than expected, but Zach will have to find a way to leave his past behind if he’s to have any hope of the future he wants with Angelo.

Excert here

@—}–}—–

Now, let's all give Marie a warm welcome, shall we?

Dooo, lets.

*massive applause, cheers, hoots, and hollers*

Ok, ok... quiet down....  shhhhhh. So rambunctious today.  heehee.

*crowd quiets down*

*clears throat, and tries to act semi professional*... Thank you for coming to hang out at my place Marie. 

Thanks for having me!

Can I get you something to drink?  Coffee, tea… alcohol?

What time of day is it, and do I have to pick up my kid later? That’s how I’ll decide between coffee and wine. :-)

*laughs* It’s still pretty early, let’s do coffee, some of my special brew.  *makes Marie some fabulous latte art*

So, Marie, I hear you have a book coming out, tell me about it…

Paris A to Z is novella which will be released by Dreamspinner Press on April 6th. It’s the third and final (I think) book in the A to Z series. Although it’s primarily about Zach and Angelo, I guess I look at it as the culmination of the entire series. This is the book where readers finally get to see all three couples together.

Very awesome.  

Tell me m’dear, what made you decide to become a writer?  Was there something in particular?

I didn’t really ever decide at all. It just happened. I’d recently quit my office job of eleven years, and was doing the stay-at-home mom thing. I’d been reading m/m for about a year, although what I really liked was fantasy with m/m elements. I’d just finished reading one very popular one, which I found extremely disappointing (no, I won’t say which one), and I spent a stupid amount of time re-writing it in my head, thinking about how I would have had the “beta” partner turn the tables and become more dominant and made the big strong one reveal at least a bit of vulnerability. I obsessed on it, really. But even then, I didn’t seriously consider writing anything at all. Then, a month or two later, I woke up with this scene in my head of two men in hallway. It was so unbelievably clear what they were doing and how they felt.

I sat down, and I started writing, but I felt like fool. I mean, sure, I’d written a bunch of essays in college, and mountains of memos and promotional crap during my years at the office, but it had been twenty years since I’d even considered trying to write fiction (and even then, those short stories I wrote in high school hardly seemed to count). I tried to hide it from my husband for a while, simply because I was embarrassed, but once he found out, he became my cheerleader.

After a couple of months, that scene in the hallway turned into Promises.

Really?  *looks at Marie, astonished* Just like that?  Um… wow.  I love that.

Tell me more about your first book.  What was it *blushes* … wait, um… I guess we covered that, how about, can you tell me more about your first book.  How long did it take to get it published? 

Hmmm… See above. Haha. Promises was initially a novella of about 25,000 words. Most of the subplots weren’t in place. I had a friend who helped me, and a beta reader I’d found online, and using their suggestions, I turned it into the novel it is now. I submitted it to one publisher who rejected it, but the next one I sent it to, Dreamspinner Press, accepted it in a matter of days.

Shame on that first publisher.  That’s a popular book.  Their loss.  I’m curious, which is your favorite book and/or character that you’ve written?

Oh no! You’re putting me on the hotspot now! My favorites are decidedly NOT the favorites of most of my readers.

Angelo is easily my favorite character to write. God, I love him. He’s so bright and loud in my head, and he’s always there telling me exactly what he thinks about absolutely everything. And my favorite book, despite (or maybe because of) all the angst it caused, is The Letter Z.

The sort of infamous prologue was originally a short story I wrote solely for myself, just because I knew the combination would be explosive. I honestly never intended to let it see the light of day, but as I started writing TLZ, I knew Jared and Angelo were at odds, and I realized why, and I realized I was going to have to put that into the book, and I knew some people wouldn’t like it. But in the end, it just HAD to be. That’s how it works, for me at least. I don’t get to argue. So I took a deep breath and said, “Here goes nothing!” From that point on, the entire story just poured out, right down the line, every single piece falling into place - and that doesn’t normally happen for me. It was perfect. And by that, I don’t mean that the book is perfect. I just mean, it’s the only thing I’ve written where I actually thought, “Wow, this writing thing is easy!” (Since then, I’m pretty sure every single book has been more difficult than the one before.)

I love hearing about how a book just “pours out” like that.  That intrigues me.  On a typical writing day, what do you do? Do you have a special place or routine…anything like that?

I have to get my kiddo off to school each morning, but after that, I have several hours of glorious alone time in which to write. I have this fabulous office in my basement, but most days I seem to sit on the couch with my laptop instead.

I’ve run into several authors that have a “playlist” of sorts for when they write.  Being a music lover, I’m curious, do you listen to music when you write?  If so, what?

Yes and no. I generally prefer to write without music, but I do use certain songs to tune in to my characters when their signal is weak. Matt and Jared’s song is Savin’ Me, by Nickelback. Angelo’s is Backfire, by Mutemath. He was practically birthed to that song. Zach’s song is I Won’t Disagree by Kate Voegele. Cole’s song is I Don’t Care, by Fallout Boy, and Jon’s song is Bell Bottom Blues, by Eric Clapton. Jaime and Levi - who nobody’s had a chance to meet yet - their song is In Bloom, by Tristan Prettyman. And for my latest book, I actually used the Doolin’ Dalton/Desperado Reprise by the Eagles. It doesn’t go with the characters so much as helped me set the tone for the piece. The only ones who don’t have a song are Will and Bran from One More Soldier. I don’t know why. But in hindsight, I’d say Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones would fit.

That’s way.very.cool.  I love that.  Now, how ‘bout… *looks thru notebook for a tricky question*…  Hmmm…tell me… Oh!... If you’re characters were cake… what kind of cake would they be, and why?

Holy cow, that’s hard. I guess the answer is, they’d be any cake I’ve ever made: slightly fucked up. Whether I measured wrong or forgot an ingredient or didn’t grease the pan or forgot to adjust for high altitude, my cakes never turn out right. They’re generally still edible, but often not pretty. You have to frost them carefully and turn them just right so the least messed up side faces out. That’s most of my characters I think - fine on the surface, but fucked up to varying degrees underneath.

*laughs* OMG, I love that answer!  And I love that you make cake like I do.  *laughs more* Classic.

If your characters came with a warning label, what would it be?

Matt and Jared: May cause adverse reactions in Raiders fans.

Zach and Angelo: May cause an irreversible increase in your usage of the f-word. In particular, the phrase “What the fuck ever,” may be irreparably lodged in your vocabulary.

Cole and Jon: May cause a strange and sudden affinity for Arbor Mist.

That’s awesome!  I love it!  Especially since I come with some of those myself. *laughs* “What the fuck ever”  *shakes head* I say that all the time.

Ok, so… what are you working on now?

Absolutely nothing. I just finished a novel called Song of Oestend. It’s sort of an alternate universe, old west fantasy, I guess. Now that it’s finished, I’ll take a few days or maybe even a few weeks to just breathe. After that? There are several little ideas germinating in my brain. I have to wait and see which one actually grows roots first.

Breathing is good.  But I for one, can’t wait to see what takes root.   Where can we find you on the internet?

http://MarieSexton.net

That was fun.  Thanks for coming by and chatting with me over coffee.  We’ll have to do this again sometime.

*shows Marie out*

@—}–}—–

Author Bio...

Marie Sexton lives in Colorado. She’s a fan of just about anything that involves muscular young men piling on top of each other. In particular, she loves the Denver Broncos and enjoys going to the games with her husband. Her imaginary friends often tag along. Marie has one daughter, two cats, and one dog, all of whom seem bent on destroying what remains of her sanity. She loves them anyway.

Visit Marie’s website at http://mariesexton.net/, follow her on Facebook and Twitter, join her mailing list, and absolutely don’t forget to check out her tumblr. (Tumblr NOT work safe.) And there’s always her email.

@—}–}—–

Giveaway...

Oh!  I almost forgot the giveaway!  heehee, ok not really.  Leave a comment for a chance to win any one of Marie's ebooks.  Oh yeah, that's right, winner's choice, even that new bad boy.  Don't forget to leave me your email address so I can contact you.  Contest closes a week from today, April 5th, 11:30pm PST.  

The fine print...

• Contest closes 11:30PM PST, April 5th, 2011
• To enter, just leave a comment on this post.
• Giveaway is for an ebook copy.
• Please include a valid email address.
• Winners will be selected at random.
• If the chosen winners do not respond to my email within 48 hours, another winner will be selected.
• Contest is open to worldwide.  
• Must be 18 yrs. old or older.

That's it for me.  Hope you all have a great day!

Later Taters!