Hello guys! Today I am so excited to welcome back the fabulous Josephine Myles to the blog. Jo is here to talk to us more about her new holiday release, Merry Gentlemen (which I reviewed here and really enjoyed). She answered some questions for me about the book, and has also brought a great giveaway.
Welcome Jo!
Hi Jay, and thank for inviting me over. Mind if I heat up a pan of mulled wine? I’m feeling festive 🙂
Absolutely! Pour me a glass! So first off, Merry Gentleman is your latest release and a holiday story. I reviewed it earlier this week, but can you tell folks a little bit more about the story?
Merry Gentlemen is my first longer Christmas story, and it’s got an old flames reunited theme, which for some reason feels very festive to me. It’s also about city vs. country: a conflict I’m always interested in exploring as I need both in my life. I love living out in the Somerset countryside, but without my regular trips to larger cities I think I’d go stir-crazy!
It is set during the holiday season at a busy Christmas market. What made you decide to write a holiday book? And I loved the market. Was there a particular inspiration for that?
I’ve written a couple of holiday shorts before, so I thought it was about time I attempted a longer title. I do love Christmas, and although I get a bit tired of the over-commercialisation of our midwinter festival. To me, the important things are the food and drink, getting together with friends and family, and decorating the tree!
The market is taken directly from the real Bath Christmas Market, which is one of those events I both loved and dreaded when I lived in the city. It’s a wonderful market in a stunning setting, but it gets phenomenally busy and everything is so expensive! It’s a shame my Junk Amazon royalties won’t come through till the middle of December, because I would have enjoyed shopping for everyone’s presents there.
Merry Gentlemen features Stan and Riley, two very different men. Riley is a city guy, working his way up the career ladder. And Stan is much more of an outdoorsman and likes the peace and solitude of nature. I love an opposites attract theme. Can you tell us more about how you came up with these guys?
I always enjoy writing confident, exuberant characters but I realized I’d never written a longer work from the first person perspective of one. My narrator characters—Ben in Handle with Care and Josh in The Hot Floor—have always had a good dose of insecurity. There isn’t a trace of insecurity about Riley, though! He’s the kind of man who will happily break into song at the drop of a hat, and who gets along with just about everyone, so long as he isn’t busy putting his foot in it.
I love writing opposites attract, but I didn’t want Riley’s counterpart to be in any way insecure or screwed up as there just wouldn’t be room to deal with that in a novella. Stan is another confident character and a true alpha male, but he’s much more reserved than Riley and enjoys his own company. I love the way they sparked off each other when they were together. It reminded me of the banter between characters from the golden age of Hollywood. Riley denies in any way being the sassy heroine, though!
Stan works building and creating out of wood. In fact, he has built his house himself. The descriptions of Stan’s work and particularly his home were really fascinating. Is that something you had seen before, or just a product of your creativity?
There was one point when I was mildly obsessed with the idea of becoming a woodland coppice worker like Stan, and I read up about the subject. I was inspired by an episode of a British TV series called Grand Designs, when they visited the home of woodland worker Ben Law. I freely admit to drawing heavily on Ben’s beautiful home when describing Stan’s! You can see a short excerpt from the programme on You Tube: http://youtu.be/WgduN7uNGOY
However, in the end I realized I was more of a Riley type and wouldn’ t have what it takes to make it out in the depths of the countryside. I do like the idea of having a working holiday in the woods one day, but only if I could go “glamping”!
The whole book Riley is taunted by a pesky seagull, though they eventually make peace with each other. So what is up with that gull?
Ah, Scrappy! Bath has an awful lot of urban gulls—they’re more of a problem than the pigeons, because they’re so large and aggressive. I’ve seen them take food off small children before, and after getting sprayed head to toe by one while crossing a busy street, I vowed revenge. Then I decided not to when I read a newspaper article about a gull who had taken a dislike to a man and was stalking him, throwing things at him and showering him in shit whenever possible. What a nightmare! It was the perfect starting point for the conflict in the story, and illustrates the whole tension between the city and country. Like Stan, Scrappy is a wild creature out of place.
Riley and Stan had previously dated and in Merry Gentlemen are reunited for a couple of weeks during the Christmas market. How do you think it is different (or similar) writing books featuring men who are rekindling an old relationship versus meeting for the first time?
It’s wonderful for a shorter book like this, as it gives you a huge amount of built in back-story. It also means there’s instant attraction and emotion when the characters meet again. I do love writing about the discovery of a new attraction, and this is my first go at writing “the one that got away”, but I know it won’t be my last. I loved the poignancy of Riley and Stan’s interactions, when they remembered just how good it could be between them.
Can you tell us what us you are currently working on and what we can look forward to coming up?
I’m currently finishing off Stuff, the next in the Bristol Collection series, which is Mas’s story. That will come out from Samhain in May 2014. Between now and then, I’m hoping to write and self-publish a novella-length sequel to Tailor Made, where Felix explores his cross-dressing kink, and then I’ll get going on an absolutely filthy BDSM romantic comedy. I also have a sci-fi novel called Storm and Lightning which is already written, but which I still need to polish up and send off to a publisher. 2014 should be a busy publishing year for me!
If my readers want to learn more about you or your books, where can they find you?
I have my blog hosted on my website, so you can always find me over there at JosephineMyles.com. I also hang out on Twitter as @JosephineMyles, or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josephine.myles.author. I love chatting to readers in all those places 🙂
Thanks so much for stopping by today!
Thanks for having me over! It was great to chat, and I look forward to doing it in person in New Orleans at RT Booklovers 2014 😀 Hurray!
Giveaway
Jo is offering up a $10 gift credit to an e-book retailer of the winner’s choice. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. The contest closes on Sunday, November 17th at 11:59 pm EST.
- By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
- Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
- If you win, you must respond to my email within 48 hours or another winner may be chosen. Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from Joyfully Jay.
- Winners may be announced on the blog following the contest. By entering the contest you are agreeing to allow your name to be posted and promoted as the contest winner by Joyfully Jay.
- Prizes will be distributed following the giveaway either by Joyfully Jay or the person/organization donating the prize.
- By entering you are agreeing to hold Joyfully Jay harmless if the prize or giveaway in some way negatively impacts the winner.
- Readers may only enter once for each contest. Duplicate entries for the same giveaway will be ignored. In the event of technical problems with the blog during the contest, every effort will be made to extend the contest deadline to allow for additional entries.
- Void where prohibited by law.
I remember that Grand Design house! Whilst I’d like the idea of living deep in the woods, I think practically I’m a urban girl really!
I think everyone who saw it remembers that house! Most weeks they look pretty similar, but that was something special.
I need to be in a town, even if it’s only a small one. Couldn’t be right out in the sticks.
I’ve done plenty of small town living, and while parts of it have worked for me, other parts haven’t. I’m ready to try a slightly more populated area, I think.
Yeah, I hear you. There are definite advantages to larger urban areas. At times, having people constantly recognising you on the street just isn’t what you want!
Thanks for the great interview. I’m really looking forward to Merry Gentlemen – the characters sound great and I can’t wait to read about this seagull. It’s on my kindle already but I’m trying to hold off until closer to Christmas!
I like the idea that you’re saving it for then, Antonia 😀
Please count me in for the give away. Thanks.
You’re counted, Kim 🙂
Please count me in. Thanks.
Hi Karl. Counted!
Mulled wine – yum! Too bad I have to work today.
I have Merry Gentlemen on my TBR list. Would love to win a copy.
Thanks for the interview and the giveaway!
Hi Jen! Don’t think I can really justify mulled wine at home just yet, but seeing as how this was a special occasion… 😉
Looking forward to reading Merry Gentlemen! Handle with Care is a favorite 🙂 Glad to hear you have a sequel to Junk in the works!
I’ve just started reading Tailor Made (I’m waaaay behind), like the sound of Stuff (after really enjoying Junk), and the sound of that seagull will get me reading Merry Gentlemen but it might be after rather than before Christmas.
Great that you’ve got so much on the go again Jo. *ladles out a few glasses of mulled wine and hands them round). Cheers and here’s to another success! 😀
OMG Jo I just have to say I am SO excited for the stuff you have coming up. I loved Tailor Made and am totally crazy for some good cross dressing so I can’t wait for that. And of course, you had me at “absolutely filthy” with your BDSM! Write faster my dear!
I can’t wait to read!!! Thanks so much for the giveaway!!!
That was a great look into the backstory of Merry Gentleman, Jo. So looking forward to reading it and seeing all the bits I’ve learned about it show up. Thanks so much for sharing!
We just explored the idea of moving to a much smaller city area and decided that it just wouldn’t work for us. Although city vs. country wasn’t the entirety of the decision, having always lived very near large cities, the idea of not having that energy around is just not for us. I would love to vacation in a place like that though! Thank you for the interview and the giveaway!
A Jo Myles sci-fi! Yay! *prances around throwing confetti*
Count me in please 🙂
Mulled wine – ARGH I’m going to have to make my own this year – seeing as there aren’t any Christmas markets around here *grumbles about searching out a recipe*
I love the idea of two confident, Alpha type males together – that leads for interesting times, so looking forward to this one 😀 Already have it on my Kindle – just waiting LOL For me to have some spare time /o\
I have lived in the boonies, small towns, medium towns and large cities (New Orleans being one) and I prefer city living and country visiting. Count me in, can’t wait to read this one. I would prefer a hot buttered rum to the mulled wine. Umm, think I’ll have one now.
I was in Bath for a grand total of one afternoon, and immediately fell in love with the place! It’ll be so nice to see it as an everyday setting. (I really haven’t seen that much of the UK, so I’m always happy to see the places I know in Josephine’s books…Reading was a nice surprise in HANDLE WITH CARE…)
I live in a large town, but it has such a country feel to it. I did live in a large city for many years & loved it.
I love reading a story set in a place I know and featuring those pesky gulls which are now such a feature of some West country cities (damn things). You did a wonderful job, Jo, it’s a really good read!
The hubs and I moved our family out to where he grew up, which is basically BFE >.< We are so far in the sticks that we don't even get mail at the house……….the whole town has PO Boxes at the one and only gas station 😛 Although I miss some aspects of living in the city, I have grown used to the quiet out where we live now. I am not sure I could go back to the ambient sounds of a city.
I love the name of this book. Sounds like it should be a song!! Tee Hee.
Great interview but now I don’t know which book to look forward to the most. Stuff was at the top of the list but a BDSM romantic comedy – that’s got to be fantastic. Merry Gentlemen is on my Kindle and was being saved for closer to Christmas but I think it’s going to be read a lot sooner.
Please count me in. It’s almost that time of year and I always look for Christmassy read. Love that it’s a reunion of ex-lovers =)
Merry Gentlemen sounds really exciting! I’ll have to get it next tie I’m buying ebooks. ^_^ I’ve only read your short stories series that start with First Impressions, and I loved those three, so I will definitely be getting more of your books! ^_^
I love Christmas reads, can’t wait to read this!
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