|
|
Interview at Romance Erotica Connection
Originally appeared online in March 2007 at Romance Erotica Connection REC: J.M., Thank you for being here. J.M.: Thank you so much for having me! REC: I guess my first question would have to be are you male or female. Or is this some big secret? J.M.: It's not really a "secret" but just something I don't broadcast. When I wrote slash fan-fiction, the name I used gave away my gender. When I decided to move into publishing gay erotic fiction (what some call "original slash"), I chose to go with my initials, mostly because I tend to write from the first person POV and I didn't want readers coming into one of my stories with a pre-conceived notion of the story's narrator. BUT to answer your question in a long-winded, round-about fashion, I am female :) REC: Why the secrecy? Do you think the readers will accept your writing differently? J.M.: When I began self-publishing, I didn't know many (if any) other gay erotica/romance writers. I assumed readers would be negatively biased towards a woman writing gay fiction. Now I've learned otherwise, but I'm happy to say that I've built up a bit of a reputation as J.M. Snyder and don't feel the need to change that at this late stage. REC: You have a wide variety of free stories on your website. Why is that? J.M.: My belief is that writers have to make themselves accessible to readers. If I were Stephen King or J.K. Rowling and everyone knew my style of writing, then I would probably not feel the need to have so many examples or free stories online. But some readers are unwilling to take a chance on new authors, particularly print authors who sell their books online -- people can't browse the books, read snippets, see if they want to buy it or not before committing to the purchase. So I offer a lot of free stories and excerpts on my website to entice readers into reading more of my published work. As a reader myself, I know I like to get free stories as well, so I want to thank my own readers with freebies from time to time. REC: Why gay erotica? J.M.: Why not? Seriously though, gay men excite me sexually, and if I'm going to write erotica, I'm going to write what I like to write. In my opinion, heterosexual love and romance is so overdone -- there's no excitement in it for me. There's nothing keeping one man and one woman apart, and their coming together eventually seems inevitable. But in gay fiction, there are so many social, religious, and personal taboos and issues that the mere fact of one man being sexually attracted to another opens up a whole world of added intrigue for me. REC: For me, ideas pop into my head at the strangest times. How do you come up with your ideas? J.M.: I'm constantly hoarding and storing away information to be used in a future story. My current work in progress is about a man with super powers -- I read a submission call for an anthology late last year and started thinking about superheroes (being the X-Men fan that I am), but couldn't think up anything new or different. Then I began thinking about somehow tying the main character's powers to his sexuality, and before I knew it, I had stumbled upon an award-winning story, a second follow-up short story, and the current novel in progress. Sometimes I get ideas from songs, or sentences in books I read (I read a lot of non-fiction), or just the way the light falls on an everyday object, illuminating it in a slightly different way, turning it into something I've ever noticed before. REC: I had to do some research for one of my stories and asked an author if she could help, I was told, "Write what you know." Do you feel like this mentality is replacing detailed research and so hampering literature today? J.M.: I personally love research. I am a voracious reader and am always asking, "Why?" So to me, research is essential to getting a story right. The smallest incorrect fact can cost you credibility with your readers. I'll never forget reading a romance novel set in the early American frontier about a woman kidnapped by Native Americans. In the very first chapter, she is reading from The Last of the Mohicans, which I just happened to also be reading for a class, so I knew the book had been published several years AFTER the time in which she was supposedly reading it. That ruined the whole story completely for me -- I felt I couldn't trust anything else the author had to say. So I am a firm believer in getting it right. And sometimes research opens up whole new facets for you to explore in your story. Scenes might come to you that would have never materialized if you didn't chase down the information. My advice is to be very comfortable with the accuracy of your story so that your reader will be comfortable reading it. REC: In your story His Song, one of your character’s name is Krish. Was there a particular reason for choosing that name? J.M.: Krish is a character of Indian descent. I liked the name and wanted something ethnic-sounding but not over the top. It's short for Krishna, who is a Hindu deity. REC: If you have to chose, Dane or Coby? J.M.: I love both characters for different reasons. Dane is an artistic, carefree soul who lives for his music and is probably a bit too beautiful a soul for this world, whereas Coby has a hard streak hammered into him from a harsh future lived on the streets. In a fight, Coby would have my back, definitely. In bed? Depends on what flavor you're looking for that night ;) REC: Because being gay is such a "taboo" in today's society, have you ever received any threats, or letters of hate because of your work? J.M.: Funnily enough, I received more hate mail when writing slash fan-fiction than I have writing my own characters in gay erotic fiction. I wrote what's known as "real people slash," or RPS, which may have disturbed many a young teenage girl lusting over the boyband member of her choice, and to see him placed in a gay relationship was probably what sparked several hate letters I've received in the past. Unfortunately, until homosexuality is accepted by everyone, someone somewhere will hate me and what I write. So what? We don't all write the same thing. The world would be a boring place if we did. I write what I like, and I have fans who like to read it. I'm just happy that I can write it without being censored. REC: Who was your first review from and how did it make you feel? J.M.: My first review was from a now defunct newspaper called The Virgnia Gayzette. They reviewed my first novel, Operation Starseed, and I remember feeling that the reviewer didn't care for gay fiction. The other books reviewed were lesbian fiction, which the reviewer raved over, but mine was practically quoted verbatim from my press release. The reviewer had only added that the book made for a quick summer read (which didn't bother me -- I wasn't writing high-brow fiction; Starseed is sci-fi). It left me pretty ambivalent about requesting reviews, though, and it wasn't until the past eight months or so that I began soliciting reviews for my current work. REC: Many of us listen to music when we write. Is there any particular ritual that you go through when you write, during the time you write or afterwards? J.M.: I tend to write in the mornings when I first wake up. I get up at 6 AM and have to be at work by 8:30, so I use that early morning time to work on writing. After work I come home and usually take a nap (I sleep like a cat), wake up at 9 PM, and sometimes write more then. My only real ritual is to reread what I wrote last; this lets me fall back into the story again. Sometimes I listen to music, but I have to keep it low or it distracts me. REC: What were you doing the first time someone asked your for a signed copy of your book and what title was it? J.M.: I was at a local author event promoting Starseed, and a good friend of mine stopped by to purchase a copy, so I signed it for him :) REC: If someone was to sit you down and ask you, “Who’s J.M. Snyder," what would you tell them? J.M.: I'm just your average everyday writer girl who has a thing for cute guys getting it on together ;) REC: How much of your characteristics do you put in your characters? J.M.: There's a little bit of me in every single one of my characters. They say "write what you know," so my characters tend to come from dysfunctional families and have a lot of my own feelings and emotions written into them. REC: Why do you think, society is afraid of same sex marriages? J.M.: I don't think it's society so much as religion. So many people who protest same-sex marriages try to base their arguments against it based upon the Christian Bible. In my opinion (and this may be blasphemous, so I apologize in advance), the Bible was written by a variety of people with various agendas, one of which was to crush the pre-exisiting matriarchal, polytheistic societies. To this end, marriage was defined as between a man and a woman because the only way to rule through patriarchy is to know for certain the lineage of an offspring's father. Before paternity tests, this was done by curbing ow many men one woman had sex with. Again, my opinion. I'm a bit agnostic, I'll admit. REC: If you had to chose, who would you rather put on one of your covers, Hal Sparks or Lance Bass? J.M.: Seeing as how I began writing gay erotica with 'N Sync slash fan fiction and my favorite pairing was Justin/Lance, I'd go with Lance :) I called that one, didn't I? REC: If you could co-author a book with anyone, who would it be? J.M.: Hmm, I don't know. That would be so very difficult. My favorite author is Stephen King, but we write in completely different genres (though he has had a few positive gay characters, so kudos to him for that). REC: Which of your work was more fun to write? J.M.: The story I'm working on now is proving to be a blast, but that's the fan girl in me talking :) My short story "The New Client," which appears in my collection Shorts and was recently published online at Ruthie's Club, was also very fun. It's my take on a hard-boiled detective story, and once the idea hit me, the whole thing practically wrote itself. When my creativity and my muse come together like that, it makes writing seem almost painless! REC: Every year you hear about people in the GLBT community killing themselves or getting killed because of their sexual preference. What advice would you give to a person who knows that they are GLBT and is afraid of what others might think? J.M.: The only thing I can say is to be true to yourself. No one else can be the person you are meant to be. Some people feel the need to stay closeted, some don't. Whatever works best for you. Be true to yourself because in this world, very few others will be. REC: What advice would you give to a writer who wants to write in the GLBT genres but is afraid? J.M.: Everyone has their own story to write, so if yours is a queer story, then go for it. Write it out or it will fester inside of you. Write what you have to write, even if you never show anyone. I live in Virginia, a conservative state, and my family is Catholic. I didn't announce at the dinner table I was writing gay fiction. But my interests and my life speak volumes, and when I did finally decide to tell my mother where my writing was going, it came as no surprise. Again, be true to yourself. If you have to write behind a psuedonym, then go for it. As long as you write. REC: Any new releases that your fans should know about? J.M.: In April 2007, Amber Heat Press is releasing my novella, Persistence of Memory. Set in a future where the government kidnaps people and erases their minds to create soldiers, the story is about a man who somehow manages to hold onto his name. Armed with that alone, he escapes in search of someone who may remember him. He finds Tobin, his husband, who is more than willing to teach Joah how to love him again. But the chip that blocks his memory will eventually destroy him, and removing it will cause him to lose what little he's relearned. In June 2007, also from Amber Heat Press, my story The Powers of Love will be released. This story won their 2007 Heat Wave Contest, and describes the beginning of a loving relationship between Vic and Matt. Once they become intimate, Vic discovers he suddenly has an odd array of superhuman powers at his disposal, and he doesn't know if he should tell Matt about them or not. Also later this year, Aspen Mountain Press will release a short story of mine in their Plain Brown Wrapper line. The story, entitled "On the Down Low," is about a young man who hooks up with an older friend of his roommate's at a hip-hop party. REC: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions! That was awesome. J.M.: Thank you so much for asking them! The questions were great :D And thanks for accommodating my schedule ... I'm normally not this busy! |
|