Guest Interview -- Anne Brooke

Midnight Seductions Guest Interview

Anne Brooke

1. Tell us about your most recent release.

My most recent release is The Delaneys and Me from Amber Allure Press. It’s a gay m/m/m story and the blurb is this: When Liam makes a scene in the middle of a restaurant after his boyfriend, Brandon, dumps him, he knows Brandon’s cousins, the Delaney twins, will be after him. The Delaneys head up the local gangster scene and are not to be messed with. Liam knows their retribution is imminent, especially since, in the heat of the moment, he threatened to take what he knows (and, really, he doesn’t know much) to the police. It’s a recipe for disaster. But when the Delaneys confront Liam, they give him a choice between being shot or having sex with both of them, and Liam senses that his evening might turn out to be rather more interesting than originally expected...

2. What genre do you prefer to write? Is there a genre you’d like to write in that you haven’t tried yet?
   
   I do love writing gay fiction – it’s where I feel most at home. Most of the time, I write contemporary stories, either psychological crime or a mixture of romance and crime. I’d love to try an historical at some point, but need to get some good solid research under my belt first.

3. What do you like to read?
   
   I enjoy reading gay fiction and I love a good solid storyline, so it’s not just about the romance elements. I also read other crime and contemporary novels, particularly as I’m a reviewer for Vulpes Libris Reviews. Beyond that, I also enjoy contemporary poetry, biographies or other non-fiction, and I always have some kind of spiritual book on the go. My tastes are very wide-ranging!

4. What do you feel is your strength as an author? For instance: characterization, dialogue,
   sexual tension, sex scenes????
   
   I’m best at the sex and/or violence scenes, which very much links in with character – I enjoy writing moments of high drama, but I do come from a long line of amateur dramatic enthusiasts, so it must be in the blood! Readers do seem to respond very positively to those sections in my books, so I hope I’m doing something right.

5. How did you choose your pen name? Does it hold some significance special to
   you?
   
   I don’t have a pen name – to be honest I don’t see the need. I’m more than happy to write under my real name and to write in a variety of different genres with the same name too. I think readers can deal with this far more easily than publishers believe!

6. Where do you see your writing career taking you? Goals for two, four, six
   years.
   
   I’d like to continue building up my list of good solid gay fiction in a variety of genres – psychological crime, comedy romance, and more recently fantasy. I’d like readers to see me as a writer they can trust to give them off-beat stories with depth and human interest, whatever genre that might be in! In four years time, I’d like to have the whole of my fantasy trilogy published – the first one, The Gifting, is being published by Bluewood Publishing, but I still have to write the third one so I’d best get a move on!

7. Do you ever use people you know as characters in your book, or composites?
   
   Aspects of my husband always appear in my secondary protagonist, and aspects of me appear in my main protagonist. Make of that what you will! My mother has also appeared twice – once in romantic comedy, Pink Champagne and Apple Juice, and once (with my stepfather) in psychological (bisexual) thriller, Thorn in the Flesh. She loves it! Secretly, I think she’s a little miffed if she doesn’t spot herself …

8. Do you find that your creativity is more active mornings, afternoon, or
   evenings?
   
   I’m better in the afternoons – the flow has set in by then. In the morning I’m edgier and nothing gets into a rhythm easily (darnit!). In the evenings I’m usually way too tired to do anything but flop!

9. What well-known author would you compare your work to or hope that you've
   achieved the same level of excitement?
   
   She’s not well-known, but Maria McCann (author of gripping gay historical, As Meat Loves Salt) inspired my first gay contemporary novel, A Dangerous Man, which led me onto my gay crime series, Maloney’s Law and The Bones of Summer. So I have a lot to thank her for. I also find inspiration in the sinister depths of Patricia Duncker’s writing, particularly in her gay fiction.

10. What’s your favorite leisure activity? Why?
    
    My husband and I love birdwatching – it’s incredibly relaxing and wonderful when you spot something new. I also enjoy getting out onto the golf course – again because you have to be relaxed and have some kind of balance in order to play at all – but I’m definitely not good at the game!

Learn more about Anne at:

http://www.annebrooke.com

http://annebrooke.blogspot.com

http://theprayerseeker.blogspot.com