Hello, all! I have an early Christmas present for everyone today in the form of an interview with multi-published author Lisa Henry! She writes male/male romances for Loose Id and Riptide Publishing and has kindly agreed to let me ask her five nosy questions. So let's get started!
1. Your
newest release, Dark Space, is a
male/male romance that has a science fiction background. Are you a big fan of
sci-fi books and movies, and if so, which are your favorites?
I’ve been a sci-fi fan since before I ever saw any —
literally. When I was a kid living in Papua New Guinea, we didn’t have a TV.
There were no TV stations there then. One day, the kids over the road came back
from leave in Australia talking about this movie they’d seen called Star Wars,
and we all got roped into playing it. I got to be Han Solo, which was a pretty
big role for a five-year-old kid wearing nothing but underpants and a banana
leaf on her head to keep off the rain. I think they gave it to me because I
already had a Chewie — Oplika Spot, the dog from down the road who used to come
and meet me every morning so we could go roaming. I remember when we moved back
to Australia and I actually saw Star Wars, I was a bit confused. That’s not how
we’d played it at all.
I do love sci-fi though. My most recent sci-fi love was
probably the new Battlestar Galactica. All those hot guys in uniforms? Yes,
please. Oh! And also Firefly! I like what I suppose you could call gritty
low-tech sci-fi, where stuff breaks down, people get dirty, and if you injure
yourself they don’t just fix you by running a light over you like in Star Trek.
Star Trek was very clean, wasn’t it?
I don’t think I’d fit in at all in that universe.
2. Oh my gosh! I can't help but chuckle at the image of you with a banana leaf on your head and your faithful Chewie at your side. *Ahem.* Back to being serious. Your
genres are very eclectic: you've written a sci-fi romance, one with a
historical setting, another that's historical/fantasy and a contemporary with
thriller overtones. Do you have a preference or do you just like to "mix
it up"?
I have absolutely no preference at all! Each has its own
unique challenges. I love history, but the downside to writing historical
fiction is the sheer amount of research involved. With He Is Worthy, my Roman historical, it was fairly easy because I’ve
loved Roman history forever, and already had a pretty solid background. But I’m
working on something set in the American West in 1870 at the moment, and I went
in almost totally blind — watching Deadwood doesn’t count. So I’m writing and
researching at the same time, which has slowed down my pace a bit, but I’m
learning a lot of fun facts about Wyoming!
Sci-fi and fantasy are great in that you get to build
your own worlds from scratch. Contemporary is probably the easiest of all —
unless, like me, you agree to set something in America, and then your poor co-author
has to fix all your rookie mistakes. Like calling money “notes” instead of
“bills”. American terminology will get me every time.
Wait…I was answering a question, right? I’ve got no real
preference at all. I’ll come up with the character pairing first, and then look
for a setting that fits.
3. It's very interesting what you say about American terminology. I'm just as fascinated by things Australian. But again I digress. One
of your blog posts advises authors not to behave badly when they receive a bad
review. Sooner or later, all of us writers have to deal with negative reviews.
What do you do to soothe yourself after a bad review (if you've received any)?
I’ve received plenty! Ice
cream helps. But I’ve also got a few really excellent reviews printed out, and
those are good to refer to in times of “What the hell am I doing? I can’t
write! I should just throw it in and go and find a steady job!” And then I
remember that I already have a steady job, and I write to escape it.
4. You
live in a tropical part of Australia. We're big animal lovers here at The Divas
of Desire. I know you've mentioned these on other blogs you've visited, but
please, please tell us about the
geckos and the possums and the frog that lives in your toilet!
Oh god. The possums. Don’t even get me started!
There are at least five possums. The first two I called
Sid and Nancy, because of the screaming violent domestics they had in my
ceiling. Evicting them was a nightmare. First, I got the hole in the roof
fixed. Then I set up a complicated escape route for them from the manhole in
the spare room, down a knotted sheet onto a ladder, then across a plank to the
window, then out the window onto the bin. I put pieces of banana the whole way
along the route to make it easy for them.
One of them figured it out the first night and was gone,
but the second was in denial. I used to lie in bed at night listening to it
scrabbling around where the hole in the roof used to be (right above my bed)
and then screaming in frustration when it wasn’t there anymore. It took three
days for it to finally figure out to go down the ladder.
After Sid and Nancy, I thought my possum problems were
over. That was before Johnny Rotten stared breaking in through the shutters
every night to steal bread and bananas. We finally reached a compromise. He
won’t break in as long as I leave food outside for him. I tell myself it’s a
compromise, but it’s not, is it? I’ve lost.
And then we have Siouxie and the Banshee. Here they are,
in my bathroom. On what were supposed to be my clean towels.
The thing I hate most about possums is that they’re so cute I can’t hold a grudge. I try though. I try.
Speaking of bathroom intruders, there is Fidel Bonaventure Jumping-Castle, the second. He is the green tree frog who swims in my toilet. He is the reason I always remember to turn the light on, even in the middle of the night. He’s okay, and doesn’t even struggle anymore when I relocate him to the windowsill.
I used to name all my geckos as well, but I have way too many for that. So they’re all called Gordon. There are at least five on my ceiling as I type this. I don’t mind the geckos. In the tropics it’s impossible to keep the bugs and mosquitoes out, so my geckos are in charge of eating as many insects as they can.
I also have three cats and a dog, not that you’d guess. One night I actually sat on the lounge and watched as a possum climbed in the window, wandered past the snoring dog, and gave one of the cats the evil eye as it headed for the kitchen bench.
“Aren’t you supposed to be predators?” I asked them, but they ignored me. They know a losing battle when they see it.
5. Wow, I love hearing about the possums. Is the little one in the picture a baby? He looks like he's trying to climb into the big one's pouch. I keep getting distracted from the questions I should be asking, lol. Is
there anything you'd like to share with us regarding your current or future
books? We want to hear all about it!
At the moment I’m co-writing with the fantastic J.A.
Rock. The book is called The Good Boy,
and we’ve just signed with Loose Id. Yay! Merry Christmas to us! It’s a BDSM
m/m contemporary, about the son of a pair of Wall Street types who, when their
Ponzi scheme is exposed, suddenly finds himself homeless, penniless, and alone.
Which is only the start! I’ll let J.A. Rock do the blurb, because she’s better
at it:
Introverted college student
Lane Moredock, the son of white collar criminals, learns to trust again after
he’s made the victim of a revenge plot by a former investor in his parents’
company.
I’m
also working on the historical Western, but that’s very much a
work-in-progress. As in, I progress a chapter, then I go back and rewrite it.
Meanwhile,
there’s a Samoan-Australian police officer in my head who wants his story told.
And the story of the kid he rescued eight years ago who has grown up into a
very damaged young man. Do you risk a relationship with a guy like that, when
you’re supposed to be his anchor? I think that one will definitely get written
in 2013, because neither of those characters are letting me go at the moment.
And let’s not forget that space opera that keeps teasing me. “They’d be like
the Borgias,” the idea whispers to me, “but in space!”
That’s
the best thing about being a writer, isn’t it? Whatever story you can imagine,
you get the chance to tell it. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that.
Thanks
so much for having me, and happy holidays!
Happy holidays to you, too, Lisa! The Good Boy sounds like a fascinating book, and the theme is so timely! The police officer story sounds awesome, too. And what's not to love about Borgias in space?
This was so much fun. Thanks so much for being with us today and may you have much success with your current and upcoming releases!
Blurb:
Brady Garrett needs to go home. He’s a conscripted recruit on Defender Three,
one of a network of stations designed to protect the Earth from alien attack.
He's also angry, homesick, and afraid. If he doesn’t get home he’ll lose his
family, but there’s no way back except in a body bag.
Cameron
Rushton needs a heartbeat. Four years ago Cam was taken by the Faceless — the
alien race that almost destroyed Earth. Now he’s back, and when the doctors
make a mess of getting him out of stasis, Brady becomes his temporary human
pacemaker. Except they’re sharing more than a heartbeat: they’re sharing thoughts,
memories, and some very vivid dreams.
Not
that Brady’s got time to worry about his growing attraction to another guy,
especially the one guy in the universe who can read his mind. It doesn’t mean
anything. It’s just biochemistry and electrical impulses. It doesn’t change the
truth: Brady’s alone in the universe.
Now the Faceless are coming and there’s nothing anyone can do.
You can’t stop your nightmares. Cam says everyone will live, but Cam’s probably
a traitor and a liar like the military thinks. But that’s okay. Guys like Brady
don’t expect happy endings.
Lisa's bio:
Lisa likes to tell stories, mostly with hot guys and happily ever
afters.
Lisa lives in tropical North Queensland, Australia. She doesn’t know
why, because she hates the heat, but she suspects she’s too lazy to move. She
spends half her time slaving away as a government minion, and the other half
plotting her escape.
She attended university at sixteen, not because she was a child prodigy
or anything, but because of a mix-up between international school systems early
in life. She studied History and English, neither of them very thoroughly.
She shares her house with a long-suffering partner, too many cats, a
dog, a green tree frog that swims in the toilet, and as many possums as can break
in every night. This is not how she imagined life as a grown-up.
Have a wonderful weekend, all. I wish you a very happy holiday!
