I Do Two promo in Bristol

[jl_merrow]

Well, I'm back in the South-East now, but I had a fantastic time in Bristol on Saturday night, meeting up with fellow I Do Two anthology authors Bruin Fisher, Neil Plakcy and Sophia Deri-Bowen, along with fellow Necking co-contributor Josephine Myles.

We had a great time talking about writing m/m romance, and even selling the odd book or two! Neil, who's a seasoned pro compared to the rest of us book-signing virgins, is an absolute scream. He was telling us how much he preferred an evening in a gay bar to trying to promote his m/m mysteries in bookstores – because as he said, it's not that easy to just go up to people and say, "Hey, are you interested in mysteries? Yeah? How about mysteries with butt-fucking?"

Comments

[jl_merrow]

I think tbh a lot of those rumours are open secrets - James Buchanan, for example, doesn't drag up to do book signings!
I think it's becoming a lot more accepted to be female in the genre.

Am so glad you liked Snared! *beams*

[josephine-myles.livejournal.com]

Shows how much I know! I remember going through the process of deciding whether to go for a male or female pen name, but in the end decided that I'm such a crap liar, I'd never be able to sustain a false identity. I guess it is more accepted. It was nice to hear from Neil and Bruin that they are so supportive of female m/m authors.

BTW, how many words was Snared? It always amazes me how quick these stories are to read, when I know full well how many hours of work go into them! Somehow it doesn't seem fair...

[jl_merrow]

Snared is 18k. I decided to go the initials route, because I didn't want people who'd never heard of me to judge my writing by my gender. But I've never made any attempt to hide I'm a girl - sounds like way too much hard work! ;)

[josephine-myles.livejournal.com]

It's a tricky one, isn't it? For every reader who would prefer to read something by a woman, there will be one who would prefer one by a male writer, and then no doubt a huge crowd who couldn't care one way or the other so long as the writing is good.