Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing S.J.
Martin author of The Most Handsome.
Hi S.J., thank you for
agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background,
and your current book.
What is the most satisfying thing about
being a writer?
It’s a great
feeling bringing new characters and their adventures to life. Ideas for new
stories sometimes get stuck in my head and bounce around for a while –I love
having the ability to create an entirely new world from that first thought
about a character or situation.
Do your characters ever take over your
writing and make the story go somewhere you hadn’t originally planned?
Oh, this happens
all of the time! More often than not, I sit down with a plan for where the
story is going to go, but the characters refuse to cooperate. Recently, I was
working on a story where a certain theme was supposed to be a relatively minor
one and instead, it ended up being 60 pages! I wanted the story to head down a
particular path, but it went down an entirely different one.
How did you celebrate the release of your
book?
I’m planning on
dancing around my apartment clutching the book to my chest once I receive it!
Not kidding—I’m going to do a happy dance. This is my first published story and
it means a great deal to me. I’ve been writing for most of my adult life, and
it feels SO wonderful to be included with the other amazing writers in the
anthology.
How did you come up with the idea for
this book?
I was
daydreaming about a soft and fluffy romance one day. As a transgender man, I’ve
had great difficulty finding love stories with transgender characters. Ones
that DO contain trans folks are often sad and filled with a lot of agonizing
and trauma for them. I wanted something completely opposite from that. The
funny thing is: I don’t normally write light-hearted stories. It was quite
difficult to break out of my normal mold and get out something so different.
I’ve sometimes been told that my writing can make people cry because I write
about darker themes usually. This story is about as cheerful and upbeat as I
could manage.
Have you ever written naked?
This question
made me laugh out loud! Nope, no naked writing as of yet. Maybe when I get ready to publish my first
novel.
Blurb:
Summer Love is
the first collection of short stories published by Duet, the young adult
imprint from Interlude Press. These short stories are about the emergence of
young love of bonfires and beaches, of the magical in-between time when young
lives step from one world to another, and about finding the courage to be who
you really are, to follow your heart and live an authentic life. The
contributing authors have written stories about both romantic and platonic love
featuring characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, pansexual and
queer/questioning. The authors also represent a spectrum of experience,
identity and backgrounds.
Beautiful
Monsters
SUMMARIES &
AUTHOR BIOS
A campaign
volunteer is assigned to assist his high school’s Gay Straight Alliance for the
Pride Parade, forcing him to face the students he had previously avoided, and
the truth about himself.
Author: Rachel Davidson
Leigh is a writer, educator, and small town native who tells stories she wishes
she could have read as a teen. Beautiful Monsters is her first published
work of fiction. She lives in Wisconsin with her family and two dogs who are
spoiled out of their tiny minds.
The Willow Weeps
for Us
Jack, the young
son of a grocer, falls for a charming piano teacher at the dawn of World War
II.
Author: Suzey Ingold
is a writer, linguist and coffee addict, currently based in Edinburgh,
Scotland. Brought up in a household where children's books are quoted over the
dinner table, literature has always had a strong influence on her life. She
enjoys travelling, scented candles and brunch.
The Fire Eater’s
Daughter
When a traveling
carnival comes back to town, Ruth must choose between caring for her mother and
a life with the beautiful and mysterious Constance, the fire eater’s daughter.
Author: Amy Stilgenbauer
is a writer and aspiring archivist currently based in southeast Michigan. She
is the author of the novelette series, Season of the Witch, as well as
the Young Adult novel, The Legend of League Park. When she isn’t
writing, Amy enjoys all things bergamot and tries to keep her cats away from
her knitting.
Surface Tension
Logan just wants
a summer where he can be anonymous and fit in without labels, but that all
changes when he meets out-and-proud Dave at summer camp.
Author: Ella J. Ash is a
lawyer by day and an author by night. She has been a writer in online fan
communities since 2006. She also enjoys dance parties with her family and
cooking experimental vegetarian cuisine. She lives in Toronto with her partner,
three daughters and four tropical fish.
My Best Friend
In a letter to
his best friend, a young gay man reminisces about their relationship.
Author: H.J. Coulter
lives in Winnepeg, Canada, where she works as a respite worker and studies
music, in hopes of one day becoming a musical therapist. My Best Friend is
her professional writing debut.
What the Heart
Wants
A young student
discovers attraction and desire through her experience drawing figures in her
summer art class.
Author: Naomi Tajedler
was born and raised in Paris, where art has always been a part of her
life—including painting, restoring books, and working in auctions. She started
writing in online fan communities in 2009.
The Most
Handsome
Carter, a Cape
Cod boy who recently came out as transgender, meets and falls in love with a
college student visiting for the summer.
Author: S.J. Martin
lives with his partner and their cranky, rotund cat in Washington D.C. He’s a
barista by day and a writer by night. He makes a mean cappuccino and lives for
good coffee, good books, and good company. The Most Handsome is his
first published story.
Something Like Freedom
A boy finds a
safe space from which to imagine a new future after leaving his conservative
parents’ home, thanks in part to a new friend.
Author: Caroline
Hanlin is a full time statistician, a part time stage manager, and an avid
sports fan. She currently resides in Boston, where she enjoys writing during
her commute. Something Like Freedom is her first published short story.
On the Shore
A young woman
retreats to her parents’ beach house to nurse a broken heart, but instead meets
a vivacious girl who helps her find joy again.
Author: Rachel Blackburn
is a writer, musician and librarian based in central Ohio. When free from work,
she enjoys cuddling with her cats, drinking tea, and baking more cupcakes than
necessary. On the Shore is her professional writing debut.
Pages or Words: 276 pages
Categories: Please keep in mind that as an anthology, not all stories contain all
elements listed.
Bisexual,
Contemporary, Fiction, Gay Fiction, Lesbian Romance, M/M Romance, Romance,
Trans*, Young Adult, Collection
Excerpt:
(From Beautiful Monsters)
Beautiful Monsters
By Rachel Davidson Leigh
“Glad to see you could join the party,”
Terrence deadpans, pressing a rainbow bandana into André’s hand. André grabs a
second bandana out of the bag, stuffs one in each of his back pockets, and then
goes in for a third.
“Cody was checking out the parade route,”
André replies, in a smooth lie. “It turns out we’re still walking six blocks
through absolutely nothing and then calling it a day.” Terrence laughs, and, as
he turns away, André presses a handkerchief into Cody’s hand. “Use it wisely,”
he whispers into Cody’s ear. “You’re one of us now.”
One of us. He’s never been part of an
“us.” Cody stares down at the lines on the handkerchief and then at the two
patches of color on the back of André’s jeans as he walks toward the arriving
cars.
Cody expects panic, but it doesn’t come. Maybe
he isn’t ready to be Gay with a capital G, but if “us” can mean being one of
these idiots, then maybe he’s ready to have people of his own. As he watches
the sharp sway of André’s hips, the heat rising up his neck doesn’t feel like
fear. It feels like... clarity, as though the run put everything in perspective
and now he can’t stop seeing André in crisp, dazzling color.
Someone presses a sign into his hand and
guides him toward the parade staging area with the rest of the crew. Once
again, he can’t hear himself think over the din, but it’s different now. At the
meeting, and for years before that in the hallways, he felt like an invader
locked out by a wall of sound, and now he’s somehow wandered inside.
Sales Links:
Interlude Press
web store: store.interludepress.com
Independent
Bookstores: http://www.indiebound.org/book/978-1-941530-36-8?aff=InterludePress
About the
author:
Where to find more information:
Facebook: facebook.com/interludepress
Twitter: @duetbooks, @interludepress
Pinterest: pinterest.com/interludepress
Other: duetbooks.com
Other: duetbooks.tumblr.com
Publisher: Duet, a Young Adult imprint form Interlude Press
Cover
Artist: BuckeyeGrrl Designs
Tour Dates & Stops:
23-Jun
24-Jun
25-Jun
26-Jun
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30-Jun
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