Dreamspinner Press discussion

It's a little early for Rick to be here yet, but I wanted to get the forum set up so it would be ready for this afternoon (or morning or evening, depending on where you are). Rick R. Reed, most recently author of Dignity Takes a Holiday and Homecoming, will be here from 1-6 Eastern time today to answer questions, share funny stories, run contests, and more.

If you have a question for Rick, go ahead and ask it now!

Hi Rick,

You've been called the "the Stephen King of gay horror." But recently your writing seems to be much more romantic than scary!! For you, which is more difficult to write...scaring someone or making them go awwww. :)

Hey Rick!

Since you're the M/M horror guy, what do you think are the taboos that have yet to be tackled within the genre that CAN be tackled within the genre (i.e. that don't violate publisher guidelines)?

On that tip, do you feel pressure to push that envelope of taboo in your own writing?

By extension, what is the scariest material for you to sit down and write?

I am eagerly anticipating all of your questions (and there are already some really good ones), but will save them up until the actual time. Looking forward to chatting with everyone...and maybe giving away a book or two.

Hello everyone! Or someone! Or whomever. I am here to chat with you all on this beautiful semi-sunny Saturday in Seattle. I'll entertain any and all questions, provide some excerpts from my Dreamspinner works thusfar, Dignity Takes a Holiday and Homecoming, and give away some books along the way. So...let's get started, shall we?

Hit it, hot stuff! :D

SJD: in answer to your question--you noticed that I've been gravitating more toward romance than horror lately, have you? It would probably take more of an in depth psychological analysis than we want to get into here today as to why...but I can answer your question pretty easily and definitively. It's harder, I think, to scare someone than to make them go awww...maybe that's just because I am such an emotional person that I find it easier to get in touch with my laughy-weepy side when I'm writing (and in life in general). Does that help?

Hi Rick how are things.

Damon wrote: "Hey Rick!

Since you're the M/M horror guy, what do you think are the taboos that have yet to be tackled within the genre that CAN be tackled within the genre (i.e. that don't violate publisher g..."

I am kind of an envelope-pusher, so the first answer that comes to mind is there are NO taboos that have yet to be tackled (other than the standard publisher no nos like bestiality and pedophilia). I would like to see more stories myself (from me and not) that deal with issues relevant to the GLBT community like AIDS, marriage equality, bullying, and so on.

The next person to ask a question within fifteen minutes will win a copy of HOMECOMING, my new romantic novella. Here's what it's about: After losing his partner Toby, Chase faces a long, painful road back to life and love. At first, he doesn’t see how he can go on, but then Chase and Toby’s old friend Mike cajoles him into returning to Chicago for the annual International Mr. Leather Competition. There Chase revisits a world of hot, casual sex that he had forgotten existed, meets a friend who cares more for him than he ever realized, and discovers the possibility that he might yet find his way home.
LINK: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/stor...

Tisha wrote: "Hi Rick how are things."

Things are great...just got out of the shower and I'm here with YOU.

Lil' Grogan wrote: "Hi, Rick! I noticed that you collaborated with Sukie de la Croix on Ambrose and the Waif. Thought that story was hysterical. =)

How did the story/collaboration come about? Did you enjoy the process?"

Sukie and I have been friends for something like 20 years. He's a wonderful creative man who knows my deepest secrets...Ambrose was a story we wrote together in letter installments. It was very cantankerous as we were always completely trying to outthink the other and ruin the direction the other was taking...I think it worked...there's a lot of tension that comes from our own tension.

Rick has any of your novels every received a lest that stell review and. How did u deal with it.

Where do your ideas come from? Have you had a book differ significantly from where you wanted it to go and where it ended? Do you control your characters or do they control you?

Tisha wrote: "Rick has any of your novels every received a lest that stell review and. How did u deal with it."

Tisha...you were the next person to ask a question, so if you want it, you're the winner of a copy of HOMECOMING. E-mail me your info at [email protected] and I'll get you set up. Congrats!

Now, to your question: of course I've gotten less-than-steller reviews. If you're in this business for any length of time, it's going to happen, no matter how popular or talented you are. You just can't please everyone. I deal with it by first seeing if there's something I can learn from the review (there's ALWAYS room to grow) and if there isn't, or I just feel it wasn't the reviewers cup of tea, I try to just move on and keep writing.

Hi Rick.

Wondered if you're an in-depth researcher prior to starting a new project or if you sketch it out & go from there?

L.C. wrote: "Hi, Rick. :-) What authors were your biggest influences when starting out?"
My biggest influences are still the same: Patricia Highsmith, James Purdy, Stephen King, Flannery O'Connor, and Ruth Rendell.

Hi, Rick. If I were to pick a first title from you to read, what titles would you recommend as a good starting place?

Juniper wrote: "Hi Rick.

Wondered if you're an in-depth researcher prior to starting a new project or if you sketch it out & go from there?"

Juniper...I do research--and plotting--on the fly and by the seat of my pants. I am all about characters and seeing where they take me. I can research a book as I'm working on (I don't write historicals and most of my stuff is set in places I've lived in, so I don't require a lot of heavy-duty research as some authors might) as I write it. I can just stop and Google what songs were popular in 1991, for example and head right back into the world I'm creating. It works better for me if I'm deeply immersed in the world I'm writing about...it comes easier that way.

Dee wrote: "Hi, Rick. If I were to pick a first title from you to read, what titles would you recommend as a good starting place?"

Dee--Give me a little idea of what you like so I can help you better with a suggestion. I have written horror, romance, thriller, and mystery mainly (and sometimes all or some of the above combined).

Sheila wrote: "Where do your ideas come from? Have you had a book differ significantly from where you wanted it to go and where it ended? Do you control your characters or do they control you?"
Sheila...my ideas come from all over the place--dreams, snatches of overheard conversation, news stories, inspirations from other works, my own life...it's hard to say. I'm very open to new ideas and have never had a shortage of them (lucky that way!). My characters? If I create them right, they become real and control me. Part of the fun of writing is never knowing what they're going to do and say.

Hi Rick,

Do you write to music and if so, what was on your playlist when you wrote Homecoming?

Rick, my first choice is always romance with action, so mystery and thriller would work great. I can get a little squeamish with the horror stuff, but willing to try that as well.

Hi Rick,

As a writer do often find it difficult to avoid your books being repetitive, particularly when developing characters and plots.

How do you ensure that each one is unique?

C.M. wrote: "Hi Rick,

Do you write to music and if so, what was on your playlist when you wrote Homecoming?"

No, no, no. I cannot write to music. In fact, I really have to have silence and solitude when I'm writing...I can't abide distractions and as much as I love music, it's a distraction, when I "go under" to write (I look at writing as almost a form of self-hypnosis). My playlist, if you will, for HOMECOMING, was my memories of attending the International Mr. Leather competition in Chicago...

Hi Rick!

Which of your books do you treasure as your greatest accomplishment to date and why?

Speaking of HOMECOMING, how about an excerpt? Let me know what you think of this:
Even though it was only a little past nine, Chase thought there was really nothing left for him to do but strip out of his dark suit and crawl into bed, hoping the embrace of down and linen would deliver him into the oblivion of sleep.
He stood, loosened his tie and pulled it from his neck, letting it drop to the floor. He started toward the bedroom, dropping clothes as he went. He would pick them up in the morning. It would give him something to do.
In the bedroom, he stood naked in the doorway, waiting. He remembered so many nights when he had done something similar, stripped down to surprise Toby, already in bed. Chase could remember Toby’s sleepy smile as he looked up at him, how just that slow, sexy grin could make him hard before he even crossed the room to join his lover on the bed.
Chase was shocked to find himself growing aroused. He looked down at his dick, moving to an upright position with slow, jerky motions, as if it had a mind of its own.
This is completely inappropriate, he told his misbehaving member. I’m supposed to be grieving.
But his dick wouldn’t listen, and so Chase walked awkwardly to the bed, his erection pointing out in front of him, and lay down across its surface.
When he shut his eyes, he swore he could feel Toby beside him.
Chase held his eyes closed and there it was, the feel of Toby’s fingers, tracing a line across his chest, pausing to tweak each nipple, to roll them into hardness between thumb and forefinger. Chase shuddered. The hand massaged his pecs and Chase sighed as he felt Toby’s warm breath on his the hollow of his neck. Toby’s hand moved downward, rubbing Chase’s belly and playing with the line of coarse hair that trailed down into his pubes. Chase gasped as Toby’s hand wrapped around his cock and squeezed, then loosened the pressure to move lazily up and down the length of his shaft, pausing every so often to finger his balls and the sensitive area behind them. Toby always did know just the right way to touch him, to make him shiver, to cause him to need and want more, to drive him to heights of pleasure, to tantalize him, to tease….
Toby’s mouth found Chase’s. He parted Chase’s lips with his tongue and explored the inside of Chase’s mouth, leaving behind a taste of cinnamon, and something indescribable that Chase could only think of as Toby’s essence. Chase arched his back, pressing his body close to Toby’s, so that they were aligned as one, muscle and skin intertwined in silken electricity. He grabbed the back of Toby’s neck, forcing his face closer to his own, grinding his mouth hungrily against Toby’s, their tongues dueling.
Toby pushed him down on the bed, using the weight of his body to do it, and instinctively Chase parted his legs, wrapping them first around his lover’s thighs, then moving them up slowly, building the suspense, until at last his ankles rested on Toby’s broad shoulders.
He bit his lip as Toby penetrated him, felt the little sting of pain as Toby passed through the taut ring of muscle guarding his ass, then relaxed into the deliciously full feeling of his man inside him. Home.
Slowly, as if they were born to it, the pair began to move in perfect synchronicity. Chase removed his lips from Toby’s so he could sigh and moan at the perfect feeling of Toby moving inside him, his cries of pleasure increasing right along with Toby’s tempo as together, they built to a perfect climax, one so strong Chase felt it not only in his cock and balls, but in his gut, the base of his spine. A climax so powerful it left him shuddering and laughing.
He opened his eyes to an empty room and a line of come liquefying across his stomach and chest. Chase swore he could hear the echo of Toby’s voice, barely above a whisper.
“I love you.”
Pale light lay across Chase’s nude body in slats from the streetlight outside. “I love you too, sweetheart,” he said into the room’s shadows, searching it in vain for some sign of Toby.
He rolled gingerly to his side to grab some Kleenex, and begin cleaning himself up.

I'm with Dee on wanting a suggestion. I love angst and happy endings, but horror will keep me up all night, and not in a good way. What story of yours should I read?

Eden wrote: "I'm with Dee on wanting a suggestion. I love angst and happy endings, but horror will keep me up all night, and not in a good way. What story of yours should I read?"

As some people have noticed, I am straying more and more into the romance arena of late. So if you don't want horror, I recommend any of the following:


or

Of course, if you want to go with very twisted, very over-the-top John Waters type humor, check out

Dee wrote: "Rick, my first choice is always romance with action, so mystery and thriller would work great. I can get a little squeamish with the horror stuff, but willing to try that as well."

Dee, I suggest you try HOMECOMING, which is a lovely story about finding one's way back after tragedy takes away the one you love. But if you want a good thriller with a little romance thrown in, two of my favorites of my own are


or

or

Rick wrote: "Speaking of HOMECOMING, how about an excerpt? Let me know what you think of this:
Even though it was only a little past nine, Chase thought there was really nothing l..."

I can feel Chase's emotions as he remembers Toby. Beautiful!

Rick wrote: "As some people have noticed, I am straying more and more into the romance arena of late. So if you don't want horror, I recommend any of the following:..."

Tagging titles to read now, thanks Rick.

Rick,

Beautiful excerpt. I actually bought this last week, I'll be reading it this weekend. Can't wait!

Hi Rick,

I read Homecoming and loved it!

If you could collaborate with any author, who would it be and why?

Wendy wrote: "Hi Rick!

Which of your books do you treasure as your greatest accomplishment to date and why?"

Wendy, that's like asking a mom to pick her favorite child! I don't know, I love MOST of them but each for different reasons. I guess I'm very proud of BASHED and ORIENTATION for being good reads (pun intended) as well as socially or emotionally relevant. Of course, the book I'm working on now, which I plan on Dreamspinner publishing when I'm done with it (are you listening, Elizabeth North?) is my current favorite, a big love story set in the early 90s when the AIDS crisis was at its peak, called CAREGIVER

LOVE the excerpt Rick! I recently bought Homecoming because I like books that me from loss to hope.

C.M. wrote: "Rick,

Beautiful excerpt. I actually bought this last week, I'll be reading it this weekend. Can't wait!"

Thanks, Carol. Hope it lives up to your expectations.

Lexi wrote: "LOVE the excerpt Rick! I recently bought Homecoming because I like books that me from loss to hope."

Me too. Writing them as well as reading them. I think emotional journeys can be as compelling as physical ones, don't you?

Mika wrote: "Hi Rick,

I read Homecoming and loved it!

If you could collaborate with any author, who would it be and why?"

Thanks, Mika...glad you enjoyed HOMECOMING.

I have a fear of collaborating, but if I could collaborate with any author at all...gee, who would it be? Dead or alive? I'd love to collaborate with Patricia Highsmith (The TALENTED MR RIPLEY, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN) because I think we share a similar dark and warped worldview, but I think I could help her see there's also light and hope. Alive? Ruth Rendell, the mistress of the modern mystery...I could learn so much from her, I think.

*waves hi*

I left synagogue early to drop by for a moment to say 'hi'. Unfortunately, my GBLT choir is doing a concert tonight and I have to be there for set-up in 15 minutes.

My question, what do you think of the wave of paranormal romance? Is it gory enough?

By me, Twilight was one of the most horrifying books I ever read. The characterization of Belle alone gave me nightmares. (So bad, so very-very bad.)

Rick wrote: "Wendy, that's like asking a mom to pick her favorite child! I don't know, I love MOST of them but each for different reasons. I guess I'm very proud of BASHED and ORIENTATION for being good reads (pun intended) as well as socially or emotionally relevant. Of course, the book I'm working on now, which I plan on Dreamspinner publishing when I'm done with it (are you listening, Elizabeth North?) is my current favorite, a big love story set in the early 90s when the AIDS crisis was at its peak, called CAREGIVER."

LOL - sorry for the tough question Rick! However, I'm glad to know your perspective. Both Bashed and Orientation were the first couple of books of yours that I've purchased (but still need to read:) - glad to know I made some good selections and now they'll be even more meaningful! Looking forward to "Caregiver" - it sounds great.

John wrote: "*waves hi*

I left synagogue early to drop by for a moment to say 'hi'. Unfortunately, my GBLT choir is doing a concert tonight and I have to be there for set-up in 15 minutes.

My question, what ..."

Hey John...glad you could pop in. You made me laugh. Horrifying has all kinds of meanings, doesn't it?

Re your question about paranormal romance: I think a good story is a good story. If there's an intriguing plot, sympathetic characters, and some subtle commentary on what it means to be a human being (or a supernatural entity, even)...then I don't think what the genre is matters. Gory? I think the scariest stuff is the quiet creep, a la Shirley Jackson. Gore is just shock...and it's much easier to do than something sinister going bump in the night.

Hi Rick,

How would you classify your books? Is the fact that your heroes are gay that defines them or the subject matter?

Sue xx

Sue wrote: "Hi Rick,

How would you classify your books? Is the fact that your heroes are gay that defines them or the subject matter?

Sue xx"

Sue! Thanks so much for stopping by. Good question! And not an easy one to answer. Like myself, my characters are defined by many traits, their sexuality being only one of them, but I think sexuality and the longing for human connection can be a major motivator and plot point, in life and in fiction. I hope that answers your question??

Wendy wrote: "Rick wrote: "Wendy, that's like asking a mom to pick her favorite child! I don't know, I love MOST of them but each for different reasons. I guess I'm very proud of BASHED and ORIENTATION for being..."

Bashed was wonderful. I thought you portrayed both sides well.

Hey guys...
has been one of my most controversial books to date. Personally, I love it (and it still makes me laugh, even after repeated readings)...but some reviewers have despised it. It's one of those things you either love or hate.

I think this excerpt shows why (so what do you think funny? Or "Oh my God, what were you thinking?")

Pete spent the next two weeks in a fruitless job search. No one wanted to hire him (“Personally, I can't blame them,” Helen told him). He was feeling particularly tense when he emerged, looking guiltily up and down the street, from L'Amour Adult Playhouse. He wore a trench coat bought at Goodwill, giant sunglasses and a beat-up fedora he had hung on to from the 1960's. Concealed beneath the trench coat was a #36, The Kamikaze, dildo. The dildo was eight inches long and six inches around. Pete both feared and desired the object. He prayed Mother would never discover its existence.
A few days later, Pete was starving as he watched Helen at the stove, stirring a big, steaming pot. He wiped away a line of drool that had formed at the corner of his mouth.
“There ya go!” Helen had done the plate up beautifully: with a sprig of parsley and a pat of butter positioned just so on Pete's heap of corn. Steam rose from the hot dog, hidden beneath its toppings, and Pete breathed it in, savoring the aroma of the warm roll and all the trimmings. “I made it just like at the restaurant. I hope you like it...honey.” Helen was grinning.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” Pete picked up the warm bun, opened wide, bit down and found he could not bite through the hot dog. Brushing aside all the trimmings, Pete discovered that there was not a hot dog encased in the bun, but the dildo he had so carefully hidden. There still remained the impression of his teeth in the flesh–colored rubber.
Pete covered his mouth, eyes wide and staring. He suppressed a gag at the back of his throat. And yet again, heat radiated upward from his neck to envelope his face and ears. The heat was not from the steam.
Helen stood at the stove, watching her son and snickering.
“Mother, how could you?”
“I was cleaning your room.”
“You had no right.”
“I had every right. This is my house and I intend to keep it clean.”
Pete was flabbergasted. “I'm entitled to a little privacy, don't you think? I am 47 years old.”
“You're sick. If that's what you need your privacy for, then you're sick.”
“Mother! I'm a grown man and I have my needs.”
Helen waved her son's remarks away. “There are plenty of men around if it's fucking you need.”
“Mother! I never told you I liked men!”
“Well...” Helen snickered, ignoring Pete’s ‘coming out’ remark. He supposed, dejectedly, it hadn’t needed saying. “Where'd you get that thing, anyway?”
Helen was still chuckling to herself as Pete rushed from the room in tears. Helen doubled over in renewed laughter when she heard the slam of her son's bedroom door. She picked up the dildo, shaking her head and staring at it. “Christ Almighty.”

Rick wrote: "John wrote: "*waves hi*

Gory? I think the scariest stuff is the quiet creep, a la Shirley Jackson. Gore is just shock...and it's much easier to do than something sinister going bump in the night."

I agree that "something sinister" is much better than gore. Gore is for shock value but to be able to have the sinster element that makes you to think twice about turning out the light is more moving and thought provoking.

Sheila wrote: "Wendy wrote: "Rick wrote: "Wendy, that's like asking a mom to pick her favorite child! I don't know, I love MOST of them but each for different reasons. I guess I'm very proud of BASHED and ORIENTA..."

Thanks. BASHED was a real labor of love, for many reasons...

Here's a question for anyone within earshot (eyeshot? Is that a word?). Anyway...is there anything you'd like to see more of from me (in terms of books, I mean)?

Rick wrote: "Hey guys...
has been one of my most controversial books to date. Personally, I love it (and it still makes me laugh, even after repeated readings)...but ..."

ROFL! Love the humor! Right up my alley!