David’s Dilemma by Lynn Lorenz
Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: AngstyG

Available for Purchase at

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Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have Lynn Lorenz here today, sitting in our author’s interview chair.  Welcome, Lynn!

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First, thank you to the people at Scattered Thoughts for hosting my release, David’s Dilemma! I truly appreciate it!

I’m answering some of their questions about me and my writing and I hope you’ll find it interesting, funny and give you an insight to me, my writing and my life.

• Where do you normally draw your inspiration for a book from?  A memory, a myth, a place or journey, or something far more personal?

     Usually from real life like the news, or a retelling an old tale, but also personal.  For David’s Dilemma, it was my father’s slip into Alzheimer’s Disease that led me to write the book, as a homage to him and to honor the caretakers.

     For Pacific Nights, not currently in circulation, I wanted to tell the South Pacific story, only with gay characters. Remember those guys who went to the island to spy on the Japanese? Those guys.

     For Soul Bonds, I took the story from the sex slave industry thriving in Houston and reported on the news.

• Are you a planner or a pantzer when writing a story? And  why?

     I started out as a pantzer, but found I was writing way too many stories at one time to keep it up for long. Most writers who are pantzers will have a number of stories – with anywhere from 1-5 chapters – then they hit a wall and get stuck. We have no problems with the beginning and ends, it’s the damn middle that’s the hardest.

     So I developed what I call a “loosey goosey” method of plotting – very brief and short chapter descriptions. It enabled me to veer off, to move chapters and timelines and to not feel so trapped by a fully plotted story. With this method, I can create all the chapters, what will happen in them, and then write the ones that I’m feeling – non-linear. So, if I know the ending, I can write it whenever.

     I actually teach an online course on this method.

• Contemporary, supernatural, fantasy, or science fiction narratives or something else?  Does any genre draw you more than another when writing it or reading it and why does it do so?

     If you look at my list of books and the genres, I span the gamut from contemporary, historical, paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi, and even inspirational. My favorite is paranormal, because I get to create a world, inhabit it with characters and play Goddess. But I do love to mix them up, fantasy and paranormal, contemporary and paranormal.

     I write primarily gay romance under my Lynn Lorenz name, and het romance under Theodora Lane. Both of us write across genres. And by the way, I don’t consider gay romance as a genre, I consider it the genre (like historical) with gay heroes.

• If you had a character you’ve written you would write differently now at this time in your writing career, who would it be and why?

     Now that I think of it, not really. I think my characters are true to who they are, from the moment I conceive them to writing them down. Since my stories are character-driven, those characters goals, motivations and conflicts define the plot. If I changed them, I’d change the plot and so it’d just be better to write a new book with that changed character. He wouldn’t be who he first was anymore.

     In David’s Dilemma, who would I change? David, a gay man struggling with his father who has Alzheimer’s? Travis, his love interest, a gay cop who’s come to grip with his age and what he really wants in his life, or David’s father, an elderly man sinking into a dark place he doesn’t understand? Any of those changes would change the book.

     In No Good Deed, my main character is Dan Chan, a gay Chinese cop in rural Texas. He’s bisexual and struggling with it. If I removed his bisexuality, it’d be a different story. I love him and his doubts, his struggle to understand himself and who he loves.

     For me, who the character is defines the book, the story I need to tell about that particular person.

1. Can an author have favorites among their characters and do you have them?

     Sure. We have favorite kids, right? Uh…I wasn’t supposed to say that, was I?

     Anyway, I do have a few favorites. I love David, in David’s Dilemma. He’s so torn between what he sees as his duty to his father, a man he loves, but doesn’t really like, and doing the hard thing about his dad.

     I loved Edward, from Edward, Unconditionally. He’s all about learning to love himself, about acceptance, about loving and being loved unconditionally.

     Drake, my hero from The Mercenary’s Tale, is special because he’s was my first published book hero. He’s on a journey of sel-discovery, as much as any gay medieval mercenary can be in the 1300’s.

     One of my favorites is Jason from Best Vacation That Never Was. He’s a wild, adrenaline junky fire fighter with a rescue complex. He’s all heart and love and “watch this, bubba!” I loved mixing that good old boy with frat boy with the responsibility of a fire fighter.

     I think I love Dan Chan from No Good Deed for his self-depreciating humor, his love of cowboy boots, his dry, witty, make you think twice comebacks and his struggle to claim who he is and loves.

• If you were to be stranded on a small demi-planet, island, or god forbid LaGuardia in a snow storm, what books would you take to read or authors on your comfort list?

     God, don’t let it be LaGuardia!! And as long as the island or the planet have working bathrooms and toilet paper, I’m good.

     I’d bring a collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets, mystery books from Tony Hillerman, James Dos, and Faye Kellerman, all of Lois Bujold-Masters works, Tolkein’s hobbit books, and a few classics, like How Green was My Valley, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

     (Notice I didn’t really name any romance books? Well, I’m not going to name any because I know too many of the authors and wouldn’t want to miss anyone and have them feel bad.)

     Truthfully, until I started writing gay romance, I never read romance books at all. Ever. I still can’t understand it. But in my gay romance books, you’ll find all the elements of the books I love to read, like mystery, cops, crime, danger, action and suspense. My books rarely depend on the “misunderstanding” or “guys can’t talk” pretending to be a plot. I love to take my guys through a lot – I want them to really struggle and fight for their happily ever after. My tagline is Everyone Deserves a Happily Ever After. And I believe it.

• How early in your life did you begin writing?

     I remember writing poetry in junior high. About all sorts of things. I don’t have any of it and don’t remember a single poem. I write poetry again in college, full of angst and sexual desire. But I was more of an artist, painting, drawing, printmaking. I went to college for Fine Art and have a degree in it. With English as my minor, so a lot of writing there, but all for school.

     I did art for years, then as I got older, I move to gardening. I loved it so much I’d planned to be a Master Gardener, but my knees when bad and I couldn’t do much anymore. So I started reading. I’d always been a reader, but this was in my early 40’s and I wanted to read stories that had dragons and heroes and sex. Lots of sex. But they were hard to find.

     My husband listened to me complaining about not finding books and he said, “Shut up and write one.” So I did. I wrote my first book, over 250K, which he informed me was what they call a “Trilogy”. I then wrote about 6 books before I decided to publish.

• Were you an early reader or were you read to and what childhood books had an impact on you as a child that you remember to this day and why?

     Oh, yes. I read all the Dr. Suess books. I read most of the child classics like Winnie The Pooh, and I remember falling in love with Belinda and the Dragon. When I hit about 11-12, I hated the Nancy Drew books, but ate up all the Trixie Beldon books. She had curly hair like me and was horse crazy like me.

     At about 13, I spend most of my time in my local library. Nix Library on Carrolton Avenue in New Orleans. They let me take out books way above my pay grade, but I devoured books. I especially love Mary Steward, Shirley Jackson, and any gothic book, like Daphne du Maurier. All of H.P. Lovecraft. All of Sherlock Holmes. All of Edgar Allen Poe.

     Then during and after college, I discovered horror, reading all of Stephen King, Robin Cook, Dean Koontz, and Thomas Harris. I also read a lot of true crime books. But then I had kids, and reading horror just didn’t sit well with me. And my husband worried about all the true crime stuff, like “How I Killed My Husband” stuff. So for everyone’s sanity, I move off it.

     And onto mystery, detective stories, police procedurals.

     But never romance. Not until my mid to late 40’s.

     Now, if you read a lot of my books, you can see where all of these early reads had a big influence on how and what I write about. I can go light and funny or very dark and gritty. I love adding action, mysteries, or suspense to my books. 

     And sex. Lots of sex. Hot, hot sex.

• If you were writing your life as a romance novel, what would the title be?

     Good Lord! Well, I’d definitely be filed under the erotic romance section. I need to think about this for a bit. My life has been fairly usual. Sort of boring in its last half. Married, with children. Working a corporate job, 9-5.

     I’m not sure – maybe chicklity like Strong, Steady, and Sexy

     Or for a literary turn, The Electrician’s Daughter

     Maybe something southern, like Fried Okra, Grits and Men.

• 10.What question would you ask yourself here?

     What are you working on next?

     My answer – I’ve got three books to series I need to finish. A new WereWolf Fight League book. This is going to be a menage (m/m/m) set in the dark, gritty world of werewolf slaves and cage fighting. This is for Loose Id.

     Another is the next Locke and Blade book. It’s set in a magical world torn away from the non-magical. They are a team of Inspectors who serve the Patrol, their world’s police force. This is for MLR Press.

     And I’ll be working on a new Rougaroux Social Club book, the last in the series. I plan on figuring out who Maman’s black cat really is and why he’s found a home in the bayou. Another for Loose Id.

    And I’m working on a…wait for it…gay inspirational story for Dreamspinner, if they take it. It’s the first in a series, so we’ll see, but I have hopes for it.

    Anything more than that will be for my het pen name, Theodora Lane.

Thanks again to Scattered Thoughts!!

And a big thank you to my publisher Dreamspinner, my editors, and my cover artist for David’s Dilemma, AngstyG.

   

About David’s Dilemma

2nd Edition

When is it the wrong time to find Mr. Right? For David, that time is now. He’s caring for his homophobic father, who has Alzheimer’s, and his personal life is the last thing he has time to focus on. But when his father wanders off, David is forced to reach out to the police, in the person of Detective Travis Hart. Travis is gay, tired of the club life and twinks he can’t keep up with, and longs for a real relationship with a man who wants the same—maybe someone remarkable like David. In fact, David is exactly who he has been looking for, but Travis isn’t sure he can be the man David needs during this difficult time.

Because as David’s father sinks deeper into the disease that’s robbing him of his memories, David really needs a friend, not a lover. Though Travis is determined to support David in whatever way he can, David’s decision could lead both men into a situation with no possibility of a happy resolution.

About the Author

Lynn Lorenz is an award-winning and bestselling author who grew up in New Orleans but currently lives in Texas, where she’s a fan of all things Texan, like Longhorns, big hair, and cowboys in tight jeans. She’s never met a comma she didn’t like, and enjoys editing and brainstorming with other writers. Lynn spends most of her time writing about hot sex with even hotter heroes, plot twists, werewolves, and medieval swashbucklers. She’s currently at work on her latest book, making herself giggle and blush, and avoiding all the housework.