The Next Big Thing

What is the working title of your book?  Bolt Hole

Where did the idea come from for the book?  Four years of working at T.G.I.Fridays as I was going through college.

What genre does your book fall under?  Contemporary, mystery cozy

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?  Okay– I was going to spend all morning on this, and then I realized that Mary found me a model instead, and that was going to work for me!  The only difference between her guy and mine is that Colby has darker hair.  And Terrell, well, I’ve always sort of liked Nick Cannon, even when he was on Disney.  He’s got better teeth than my guy, but he’s also got nice eyes, with the laugh lines in the corners, and, even after all these years of being in the media, sort of a shy, self-deprecating smile.   Mary had me a hotter guy, but Nick was, well, just better for the job. Besides–he looks older than the guy playing Colby, and he should.  Terrell is thirty, and Colby is twenty-four.  

What is a one sentence synopsis of your book?  Waiters in love try to figure out world politics and who killed their manager while they explore the personal dynamics that make it so easy to make love and so hard to make things work.

Will your book be self published or represented by an agency?  Dreamspinner has already offered me a contract.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

A very public 25 days– this was my Nanowrimo project.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre.  Who Killed His Editor by Josh Lanyon, I guess.  For my own stuff, it’s the closest thing I’ve written to Clear Water.  

Who or What inspired you to write this book?  Well, working in a socially diverse place for fifteen years didn’t hurt, and neither did the sad statistics that tell us how hard it is to be black and gay.  And, of course, those four years at T.G.I. Fridays.  My husband’s best friend as we were going through school was black–he and his wife both worked restaurant jobs with us.  One night, Michael wanted to take us to his and Cristina’s favorite Mexican restaurant, but he couldn’t quite remember where it was–you know how people drive when they’re lost?  Yeah– we were doing that down Folsom Blvd., when suddenly, I notice a cop car in front of us.  And one behind us.  And one on either side.  They were just waiting for Michael to do something wrong, so they could search him and see what one black man was doing in the car with three white people.  Finally he made a hinky–not an illegal, mind you, but a hinky–U-turn, and we spent the next forty-five minutes pulled over, while they interviewed him in the cop car and kept shining the mag-lights in our faces and asking us all if we were all right.  I wasn’t all right by the time we were done, I was pissed, and it was my first real understanding of racism in America.  Terrell sees it first hand.  I hope I did it justice.

What else about your book might interest the reader?  I was surprised that, for all of the exploration of race, sexuality, politics, and what a dark place the world in general was in regarding all of these things, that in spite of all of that, this book had some really funny moments.  Terrell is grumpy, but he’s also sort of idealistic.  He thinks Colby can do no wrong, but Colby is young and impulsive and has a temper, and so does Terrell.  That and the natural material of working in a restaurant with Door-ho’s and window-dicks– it had some nice moments of humor to balance out all of the darkness.  

And so that’s it– that’s my blog-hop!  Gooey family stuff tomorrow, I hope, and in the meantime, I’ll leave you with this.  This is Squish’s newest outfit, and seriously– it’s a blog post all on it’s own.