Time to continue our Signature Week with an interview with Graeme about his story "Leopard Skin Cover." If you haven't already done so, you still have plenty of time to download your backgrounds, there's one both with and without a calendar, depending on what you're wanting! Now, enjoy the interview and maybe you'll find out something you didn't already know!
Interviewer: Cia
Single people work more. Are you single?
No. I’ve been married for just over twenty-one years and I’ve been out to my wife for ten.
Who do you like best, Jerry or Tom?
Tough one. I’d say Tom, but that’s certainly not been the case consistently.
Do you eat your fruits and vegetables?
Er...have you been talking to my wife? I need to eat more, but yes, I do.
What are you wearing (and no fibbing!)?
Jeans, T-shirt, Jacket. It’s 6:30am, and I’m working in my home office. The heating hasn’t kicked in yet, but hopefully soon I’ll be able to take off the jacket.
Are you a person who makes their bed in the morning, or do you not see much point?
‛Make’ is a relative term. I draw the doona cover back over my side of the bed after I get up in the morning, but that’s the extent of making it.
Chocolate or Vanilla?
Vanilla
What brought you to the site?
I originally learnt about
GA
when someone directed me to a discussion thread on one of my first short stories,
Dear God
. It was a couple more years before I joined, though I honestly can’t remember why. I think I was at a stage of my life when I was more actively involved in various gay story communities on the Internet, and
GA
was one of those that I joined at the time. It’s also one of the few where I stayed.
Do your characters try to make like bunnies and create ever more convoluted plots for you? Or do you have to coax them out of your characters?
About halfway in between. My characters certainly introduce plot elements for me from time to time, but they don’t overdo it. I’ll admit that there are times when I go back later and are amazed to find out they managed to get everything to fit together into a cohesive whole, but they don’t make life too difficult for me....most of the time.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?
Tough decision. I’m not sure I could choose one. I’ve been influenced by a lot of people over the years, and trying to pick one wouldn’t really be fair. My first author friend was Dewey from Deweywriter.com, but we didn’t talk a lot about writing itself so I won’t say he was a mentor.
Name one entity that you feel supported you in your writing endeavors outside of family members.
When I started writing, it was at Deweywriter. I’ll admit that I was nervous when I started posting my first story, given that the story was written from the point of view of a straight, homophobic teenager. However, the support I got from that community (sadly it no longer exists), and later the communities at AwesomeDude and here are Gay Authors, was so strong that I kept writing. I’ve had a hiatus recently that lasted three years, but I’ve never lost the support of the online communities and that’s allowed me to start writing again.
Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
My biggest challenge is getting the time, motivation and inspiration needed to occur at the same time. Too often I have the motivation, but not the inspiration, or the inspiration but no time. The other challenge is that I don’t want to write stories that I’ve seen a million times. I want each story to have something unique about it – a unique point of view, a unique style – something that hopefully makes it stand out. I don’t always succeed, but I find I won’t have motivation to write unless I have an idea of something unusual to include.
What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
The biggest compliment I’ve ever received was an email from a teacher in the USA, asking permission to use one of my short stories as a teaching tool in their class on sociology. I was so flattered I immediately said yes. The toughest criticism I’ve been given was by a beta-reader of one of my novels who, politely, told me the ending of the story was rubbish and I needed to go back and do it again. I had to do a complete re-write to address their very valid concerns.
Are there any new authors who have grasped your interest?
Recently, Sammy Blue’s
Gemini
has grabbed my attention. I like stories where not everyone is gay, and his story of identical twins, one gay, one straight, has been fascinating. Kevinchn’s
32 Faces
is another extremely interesting story, especially in the way he uses an autistic narrator.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
After I started posting my first novel,
New Brother
, and I received positive feedback. When I decided I’d like to try writing (I was forty at the time), I had the story idea, and one scene in particular in mind. What I did was to write that one scene and see if I was capable of putting the emotions I felt in my mind into the words on paper. I was happy enough with the result that I started the novel and I didn’t look back from there. In case you’re interested, that scene (though it’s been reworked a lot from the first draft) was the last scene in chapter 8 of
New Brother
.
Do you have any writing rituals?
No. Sorry, I’m a boring writer....
Have you written a book you love that you have not been able to get published?
I’ve never tried to get a book published. I’ve thought about it a few times, but I’ve never done anything about it.
How many books/stories have you written? Which is your favorite?
I’ve got five completed novels, and I’m working on a sixth. I’ve got two novels that I’ve started by not finished. I may get back to them one day, but I decided a couple of stories ago that I won’t start posting a novel unless I’m confident I’ll complete it. I’m not even going to try to count my short stories....
How did you come up with the title for Leopard Skin Cover?
It took me a little while, but I was looking for a title that would portray a character hiding in the closet, without being heavy handed. When I had the idea of using the football teams nickname as part of the title, it was then a case of putting it all together. That’s when I settled on the Leopards for the name of the team. At one point it was going to be Leopard Skin Coat, as coats are associated with closets, but I didn’t feel that that gave a strong enough feeling of hiding. Hence my eventual decision to go with
Leopard Skin Cover
– someone using the football team as a cover for being gay.
Did the characters or the plot come to you first?
The plot came first, but the plot needed certain types of characters. The characters evolved during the writing; some of them trying to push themselves forward as being the stars of the story. But then I think a lot of people who are the elite of their field of endeavour have a tendency to push themselves forward.
If your story were made into a movie, who do you picture playing each characters part?
Please, don’t ask me! I don’t know modern actors that well. All I’d say is that given it’s a story about elite sportsmen, they’ll all be buffed....
What sort of coffee would your characters order? Simple coffee, complicated soy-non-fat-extra-espresso-half-caff-nightmare?
Most would order something simple, but there are enough characters in the story that I’m sure some of them would be fussy prima-donnas. Melbourne has a strong coffee culture, with a large number of small coffee shops scattered around the city. The large chains don’t do that well here – too much competition from the little guys.
What was your favorite part of Leopard Skin Cover?
The various romances. The hidden one and the public ones. I’ll admit that I’m a romantic at heart, though I try for a degree of realism whenever possible.
Can you share a little of your current work with us?
My current story is the sequel to
Leopard Skin Cover
. It’ll start posting in July (hopefully). Because it’s a sequel, it contains spoilers for the original story – in particular, which player is gay – so I’m going to have to decline about sharing anything at this point in time. As one of my good friends, C James, will attest, I hate spoilers – giving them and receiving them – and I don’t want to give a spoiler to
Leopard Skin Cover
by saying too much about the sequel.
What are your future projects?
I’ve got two novels that I started but haven’t completed. I’d like to get back to those at some stage. I’d also like to try to do a sequel to
The Price of Friendship
because I’m very much aware that there are way too many loose ends in that story. I’ve also had several requests from readers to expand some of my short stories into novels which I’m considering. The main problem is that I don’t like starting a novel unless I’ve got a good idea of how it’ll end. That gives me a target to write to and I’ve found that to be extremely useful. I don’t want to write a sequel or expand a short story just for the sake of continuing – the writing has to go somewhere interesting for the reader. That’s always been my biggest challenge.
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