Interview with Lynn Lorenz

Dear Readers and Writers,

I'm happy to announce that I'll be doing a series of interviews with some of your favorite mm romance, gay fiction and gay erotica authors.Every week, a new interview will be posted.

Our first guest is an excellent author of mm romance.
I'm very delighted to welcome the Amazon-Bestselling Author of Bayou Dreams, among other notable titles, Lynn Lorenz!

Now, without further ado, I give you Lynn!

Lynn: First Nathan, let me say thanks for asking me to chat with you on your blog. As authors of a small but growing genre, we have to stick together (I won’t mention with what we’re doing all this sticking, but I’m going to need a wet wipe) and support each other. (in one of those sexy little black jock strappy thingys, maybe?)

1. How did you get your start writing gay fiction and/or erotica? Please tell us a bit about your background and early beginnings.

I like to categorize what I write as gay erotic romance. It’s funny how just the placement of a word or two can set something apart. For me, the romance is the most important part of the story, and then the erotic comes second. (Or sometimes it comes first…no, wait, that’s the readers…my bad.) So, I look at it like this…if you have an erotic romance and you pull the erotic elements of it out, you’d still be left with a romance. If you pull the romance out and the sex stands on it’s own, you’ve got erotica. Put them together…erotic romance!! And for me, that means a HEA (happily ever after) for my characters. That’s really important to me, especially writing gay romance, because for too long gay characters never had HEA’s. And, as one of my taglines says…everyone deserves a Happily Ever After.

As for my background…I grew up in New Orleans, (N’awlins for those who speak the language) and spent a lot of my youth in the French Quarter, so I’ve sort of always had gay men and women in and around my life. But my first truly personal experience, (no, no, not THAT kind of experience) was with a gay guy who was my best friend in high school. He was gay. Very gay. And he suffered all the crap you can imagine a gay kid would in the early 1970’s, and he survived it. He was funny, damn, probably the funniest person I knew, smart, sweet, and had skin like dark chocolate. I adored him. But after high school I went to college and he went…I have no idea. We lost touch. It happens. 

Then in my third year of college, my mom showed me a newspaper article (yeah, people read real newspapers back in the Cretaceous) and said, “Isn’t that the name of your friend from high school?” It was. The article was about a young gay man found murdered in a hotel room. He’d been stabbed multiple times. (as far as I know, his killer was never found) I can tell you that my heart broke and I cried over losing him –over his loss to the world. I’d lost touch with him, but had never lost him from my heart.

(Nathan: That's terrible. My heart goes out to you and him.)

While I was in college, I had gay boyfriends (yes, I was a beard, I like to think a really hot looking Van Dyke) and gay good friends who didn’t come out until they met someone and wanted to share their love with me and our mutual friends. One of those has been with the same man, through ups and downs, for almost 30 yrs.

Now I have gay friends, some in committed relationships, some not, some who are my age or older and have only come out after their kids were grown and have grandchildren. I belong to my company’s pride organization as a straight supporter.

I have two teenagers and I and my husband tell them if they fall in love with someone of the same sex, we will love and support them no matter what. They groan and roll their eyes, cuz that’s skating close to talking about “sex” with mom and dad and how gross is that, but we want them to know, as parents, we love them unconditionally. My son, who has Asperger’s, has been bullied, asked if he was gay, had sexually explicit things suggested to him, and thankfully, his school has done what it can to stop it. (he’s not gay, but it seems this it’s the age-old bullying fall back jeer for someone who’s different. (Bullies make up for their lack of imagination with their stupidity.)

So I write gay romance, because I believe in my heart that everyone deserves a happily ever after. I want that for all my friends, my kids, even for the bullies of this world, and for everyone else out there.  Like world peace. And that’s why I want to be Miss America…oh wait. Sorry…beauty queen daydream… *slips tiara off head*

2. What inspires you?

 Everything. Family, friends, the news, songs…everyday life, a phrase, a great title, an opening line, a scene… If you stay open to the world around you, there are endless possibilities to write about.

3.What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?

 Ultimately, to tell great stories with wonderful characters readers what to know about and care for.

However, the answer to that question changes depending on the stage you’re at as a writer and how your personal goals shift. In the beginning, when the idea of publishing is just a twinkle in your eye, you want to write that story that just won’t stop bothering you, so you do. Goal met. *waves pompoms* Now you’ve got a story, what do you do with it? You’ve read it five times, love it, but this kernel of an idea grows -- someone else might want to read it too!

So now you want to get published. That’s a goal and it’s reachable, in a variety of different ways. So, you decide which road to take and you skip merrily down the path. You might jump across to the next path, jump back, take a side road, or stay on that same path, but then you get published. *horns blowing, banners streaming, your mom crying* Then someone says, what about your next book? (Oh shit! I have to write another one?) And you’re off and running…

Personally, right now, I’m writing the stories I want to tell, and fortunately I’m at a place in my career where I can do that (with the grace of my publishers) without having to fight over it. My latest from Amber Allure, C’est La Vie, is a sweet romance between two 70 yr old men. Not many publishers might want that, but AQP did. God bless them.

I mentioned my taglines before, and the first one I use is “when you open your heart, you open your mind.” I’d like to open someone’s heart and mind, just enough to let them allow for GLBT people to be included in those that deserve a HEA.

4. If you had to choose, which one of your novels do you like the most and why?

That’s so hard. I’ve written over 25 books. David’s Dilemma meant a lot to me, when I wrote it and afterwards. It’s dedicated to my father, but he died before it was released. It’s about a gay man dealing with his father who has Alzheimer’s, and how it affects this man’s life. I had so many letters from readers telling me how this book touched them, as caregivers. It was stunning to me and taught me a lesson—writing touches lives, even if it’s a romance.

(Nathan: I've read David's Dilemma myself and I can attest that it's an excellent novel, very touching).

Edward, Unconditionally… that book was like magic. It came to me, flowed out of me, and it’s been a reader favorite. But when I did the proposal for my publisher, they weren’t sure about Edward. Maybe he was “too gay” for readers to like…I was taking a big risk…readers wanted manly men… But I’d begun writing and I sent in the first chapters. They loved it, they loved Edward. And so did the readers, so that risk paid off big.

Now, I’m writing a series of novellas set in New Orleans, before, during and after Hurricane Katrina…called Hearts of New Orleans. I’m enjoying the hell out of writing it, of writing about my home town. It holds such a special place in my heart and the stories from there are reader favorites also. Those are over at Amber Quill – Amber Allure and you can get them as individual ebooks and as a three story print anthology. The first one has My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, Breakfast At Tiffany’s and Pinky Swear. The next print book of them will probably be available toward the end of the year and should have Pioneers, Cemeteries and C’est La Vie.

5. If you had a message for your readers and fans, what would it be?

Wow, that’s so deep. I’m not sure if I’m deep enough… Be good to each other? Open your hearts and open your minds? You deserve a HEA? Buy more of my books?  No, wait! Did I say that with my outside voice? My bad. Uh…World peace?

Nathan: Thank you, Lynn!

Be sure to check out Lynn's books.

Lynn's books are available at
Loose Id www.loose-id.com
Amber Quill Press www.amberquillpress.com
Liquid Silver Books www.liquidsilverbooks.com
Passion In Print www.passioninprint.com
Etopia Press www.etopiapress.com

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Lynn%20Lorenz

I will now open it up to questions from readers.