Hi guys, I am so excited to welcome Aleksandr Voinov to the blog today. Aleks is here to talk to us more about writing his new release, Lying with Scorpions. He has also brought details about a great giveaway. So please join me in giving him a big welcome!
Hi, thanks for hosting me! I’m Aleksandr Voinov and I’m here to talk about my newest release, Lying with Scorpions, which is the sequel to Scorpion and is part of the Memory of Scorpions gay military fantasy trilogy. I’ll be checking in to answer any questions you might have, so feel free to ask questions in the comments. At the end of the post, you’ll find more information and details for a backlist giveaway. Good luck!
Lying with Scorpions: On breaking all the rules
One of the big themes in Lying with Scorpions is rule-breaking. The second book in the Memory of Scorpions series is all about upheaval. Things aren’t what they’re supposed to be, the old ways to respond are no longer valid, and Kendras, the main character, has to think very much on his feet, not for his own sake but that of his men.
And just today it occurred to me that it reflects, on some level, me breaking quite a few rules. See, I used to have several excuses why I refused for a while to write the sequel that Scorpion clearly demanded. I preferred to keep it open-ended because I know there was “trouble in paradise”, so to speak. I didn’t know much about that book, but that much I knew. So I chickened out because I kept reading about how “romance readers can’t cope with splitting up the established couple.” In fact, roughly a year after the first publication of Scorpion, as I was toying with maybe writing a sequel, I attended a romance conference in York, where “DO NOT SPLIT UP THE ESTABLISHED COUPLE” was one of the romance rules that were discussed. Aka, some readers are okay with it if (and only if!) the couple gets back together, and some readers will simply send the book flying.
So, yeah. I knew they’d split up in Lying with Scorpions, and I couldn’t guarantee the “happy ever after” that’s part and parcel of the romance world. So I avoided alienating readers by simply not writing the book that would offend them. I preferred to keep readers happy with Kendras and Adrastes, pretending it was an open ending and a “happy for now”.
But then, Scorpion already messed with romance expectations. There’s casual sex, even group sex. Sex is barter, sex is a transaction, and sex is not nearly as highly regulated as it is in most fiction or even the expectations of the real world. The world of the Memory of Scorpions series treats sex differently from what we get to read in most contemporary romances, and more in keeping with how I interpret a time before puritan values—a distant past, maybe, that’s more permissive and casual about sex in general.
It’s always been pretty clear to me that Scorpion is already a genre-buster that breaks established “rules”. Yet I did get quite a bit of email about people wanting the sequel, including the most heartfelt “please write more” at conferences from Brighton to Albuquerque to Atlanta. I tried to avoid the issue, but while I tried to stay in la-la-land, a few first characters began to show up and talk.
At that point, I was pretty much lost and bit the bullet.
Writing it, I knew I was doing things “wrong” according to expectations, and I had to battle fears it wouldn’t sell because it’s just too “out there” and doesn’t tick the boxes of m/m romance.
But stories are funny creatures in that they sometimes simply force their way out.
Seems like neither Kendras nor his creator are very good at following “the rules”. Besides, I think I can trust my readers to “get it”. Some of my books will be way “out there”. Others won’t. I firmly believe that the last thing readers want is me pulling my punches. So I didn’t.
Blurb
If you lie with scorpions, you’d better have a taste for poison.
Now that Kendras’s lover Adrastes has claimed the throne of Dalman, Kendras is tangled deeper than ever in politics and intrigue. As the new leader of the Scorpions and Adrastes’s one true friend, he and his men stand between Adrastes and those who wish him dead.
And many do. Adrastes openly challenges the ocean priesthood for power while establishing himself at court and brokering with the realm’s various factions. He means for the Scorpions to become a fearsome legion again, but Kendras must first learn how to be a good officer and recruit to replace the fallen. His choices will determine the future of a group steeped in hundreds of years of history and tradition.
As both Kendras and Adrastes settle old scores, a new enemy arises in Commander Graukar, a war hero loyal to the old order. In his formidable mountain fortress, Graukar may hold the balance of power. But while Adrastes aims to either rule or destroy Graukar, Kendras finds himself doubting Adrastes for the first time, and sharing more with Graukar than he ever thought possible.
Buy link: http://www.riptidepublishing.com/titles/lying-scorpions
Biography
Aleksandr has been published for twenty years, both in print and ebook. He has ten years’ experience as a writing coach, book doctor, and writing teacher, and he works as a financial editor in London.
After co-authoring the M/M military cult classic Special Forces, Aleksandr embarked on a quest to write edgy, dark, sometimes literary M/M and gay fiction (much of which is romance/erotica)—the only way he can use his American Literature degree these days.
He’s been published with Heyne/Random House, Carina Press, Samhain Publishing, and others.
Connect with Aleks:
- Website: www.aleksandrvoinov.com
- Blog: aleksandrvoinov.blogspot.com
- Twitter:@aleksandrvoinov
- Goodreads: goodreads.com/Vashtan
Contest
To win an ebook from my backlist (not Lying with Scorpions), email me at vashtan@gmail.com with the answer to the following questions (and your preferred file format). The contest ends on January 31, 2014.
– Name the Scorpions that join Kendras’s unit in this book
– What is Runner’s secret?
– Who was the first officer of the Scorpions, and what happened to him?
I read the first one of this. I need to read the second as well.
Hi Debra, thanks for commenting, I hope you enjoyed the first one. 🙂
Wow I have not read Scorpion but I’m putting both on my TBR!!
What inspired your military writing? Do you have a military background yourself?
Thanks for the giveaway!
Hi Jill – the military writing comes from a life-long fascination with war and warriors – and things then got quite serious when I did a lot of military history at university. It has stayed with me ever since. 🙂
Aleks? Breaking the rules? I’m stunned. See this? This is my stunned face. #NotStunned
And OMG, you guys, I read this book while he was writing it. It’s soooooo gooooood. Graukar is just…NOM.
(you don’t have to enter me in the giveaway, I’m just here to gush about Graukar)
L.A. Witt
I think you have all my books anyway. 🙂
“I think you have all my books anyway. 🙂 ”
I don’t know what you’re talking about… *whistles*
L.A.
Loved th blurb! Can’t wait to read this one!!!
Hi Gigi – thanks for commenting, I hope you’ll enjoy it. 🙂
Um, besides this one, I think I have all of the books of yours that I would enjoy reading (that sounds bad, but Aleks understands all about triggers >.<)
So this is me waving my pom poms for you!
Give me an A
Give me an L
Give me an E
Give me a K
*tries to do the splits and pulls something important*
*drags self off to the side*
Don't mind me………….
(happy to get to read more of this world!)
/hugs
Kassandra/Kasie
Hi Kassandra – I absolutely get triggers, no worries. 🙂 I could throw in a Riptide gift certificate for the giveaway? 🙂
I would never turn away a gift certificate from Riptide 🙂
So, where’s your entry?
Can this one count as my entry >.<
Ooops…missed this stop of the tour at first but luckily discovered it now.
What I love most about your books, Aleks, is that you don’t seem to care much about the ‘romance rules’ – don’t let them slow you down!
At first I found myself to be upset because Kendras started the thing with Graukar because I wanted him to be with Adrastes… but it is perfectly understandable why Kendras acted the way he did. Adrastes changed a lot on his way to power (or just revealed another side of him) and Kendras suddendly felt that he couldn’t blindly trust him anymore and I guess Kendras just can’t love a man he can’t trust. Therefore it is totally understandable how they drift apart. And then there was Graukar, who is a stunning and reasonable man and by the end of the book I felt that he does Kendras much more good than Adrastes – because Adrastets puts his ambitions first while Graukar is more interested in Kendras’ welfare. 🙂
Man do I love your characters and how you make them so layered and itriguing and above all HUMAN!
Sabrina – I think me not having grown up with those rules certainly helps. 🙂 Aka, I’ve read so little romance that it’s not ingrained, and my origins are very much with speculative fiction over romance, and I think that shows. It’s not that I don’t love “love stories”, I just don’t believe in the same-old, same-old. I’m much more interested in how people actually feel and actually respond than the well-worn cliche of relationships.
The tragedy with Adrastes is, I think, that he means well. He certainly believes that that “empire” needs to happen and it’ll be a better place for everybody, stronger and more peaceful and less vulnerable, but Graukar’s looking at it from the point of view of a soldier and knows that peace will be paid for in blood. And he’s decided it’s not worth it. Both have very good reasons for their decisions, and I can totally see their points. 🙂
Thank you!
Yeah, poor Adrastes…the price of power…
He has to think about the empire first. I like how similar that is to Kendras always owing loyaltiy to his Scorpions in first. Kendras has a lot of responsibility for his men but Adrastes has a responibility to a lot more people and therefore has to be reckless sometimes for what he blieves to be ‘the greater good’ . So yeah, he’s perfectly understandable.
But that also makes Graukar the better choice for Kendras in my opinion…because I don’t tihnk you’d want end a casuality in the game of power (I neerly said thrones, but that would be another story^^)
… yeah…the price of power…
And I just read a wonderful book that dealt with this topic quite a lot… 🙂