First, to all who celebrate, Merry Christmas!! Second, did you get a chance to read this month's CSR? I figure anyone who isn't celebrating, or who needs a break from celebrating, could definitely enjoy LJCC's story Mr & Mister Danvers: Initiation. Make sure you leave a comment below, but first... enjoy this interview! 

Do you eat your fruits and vegetables?

Yes, fruits and vegetables are essential to life. Plus I’m in my late 30s now, if I don’t eat my fruits and veggies, my doctor says I’m going to die. Why though? I don’t know. I’m guessing he just wants to scare me like I was still that kid who goes to his office begging for a lollipop.

Though I hate okra and eggplant/aubergine.

Anything slimy and long makes me gag (pun intended.)

If you were an animal, what would you be?

I’ve always been a cat. And I have the temper of a cat. If you’re always around in my zone 24/7, I’m going to get sick of you. However, if you don’t talk to me for a day...I’ll be following you around, and pestering you for no reason until you love me, and then I get sick of you.

It’s an endless cycle.

I’m a monster.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Sleep. I sleep like a log and around 8-10 hours whenever I can. Then sleep for around 2-5 hours in my work days. I don’t know why I’m still alive at this point in my life.

Also, I play classical piano on the side.

I also studied culinary so I can cook. I’m a lazy cook, but when I cook…no one dies from food poisoning, that’s guaranteed at least.

What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story?

Tazmania, a city in Australia. I have an idea in mind for a story but it’s in the backburner for now. I think it would be romantic to watch my date get killed by a blue-ringed octopus native to Australia or get bitten by a red back spider. Makes up for good plot.

If you could give advice to yourself when you first started writing, what would it be?

I’d tell my 15-year-old self:

You’re a shit writer. Everything you write is shit. You’re nobody. You’re no one. No one wants to read your story. No one wants to buy your book. Get it in your head that you’re nothing special. The characters you write are the ones who are special and needs your every frigging time and devotion to be honest and truthful to their versions of their existence. Don’t piss this off by feeling you’re the man. You’re not. Yes, your audience will read your character, not because you wrote it…but because they’re authentic and they could relate. Don’t you dare cry. Stop it. STOP IT! GO now. Start writing, you piece of shit.

What drew you to writing a spy thriller?

Majority of the spy thrillers I’ve read didn’t have any gay lead. So I thought, we need a protagonist for the gays. I want a gay James Bond. Then I proceeded to create the most expensive gay escort who turns out to be a spy for Britain, you know for the steamy sex scenes and pew-pew-pew gun show. Cause why not? Even I would sell my lung to sleep with Greg.

Did you get the idea for Greg Danvers first or the plot for Mr & Mister Danvers: Initiation?

The beginning of the story and the ending were the things that came first. All I needed was to write the meat in between the story. It was very complicated because I had to align everything I wrote to the ending of the story, with how everything would lead to the end. The dates and the timeline were especially a pain to plot. Any question I had with my own story regarding the timeline, I had to change it…which may or may not connect to other things in the story. So it was a constant back and forth of editing and double checking things.

Do you have a favorite line or scene in the story?

Episode 11, Thistlebaum’s Bridge, the torture scene and the fight scene at the dark empty road. I was writing about the satisfying thrill of hitting a man, and it was an evil anti-hero moment that made me giggle.

“You see, there’s this satisfying thrill of hitting a man—a man who’d initially wanted to attack you and was down on his knees praying for mercy.”

And this moment of realization.

“Why did they have to awaken this side of me? Did they want to die? I certainly would want to kill them now.”

Also, the sex scene on Episode 4, The Quid.

“Seconds later, he was haunched on the bed, positioning his friable arsehole above my stick. The sound was a grunt, a grunting explained by a mixture of being whacked by a fist and a flicking of his fun-sized nipple. He whimpered as I entered him. "That fucking bastard gets what he deserves—oh shit, oh my god."”

It was particularly funny to me that they’re having raunchy sex while Greg’s partner was having a soliloquy, unloading his father’s issues on the man who was boning him. That’s when I realise that sex scenes don’t have to be all too serious.

How close is a sequel to being posted for your readers?

The second book, Mr. & Mister Danvers: The Molfar Project is far from finished. It’s currently at 40k words, and I imagine that story to be around 200k+. I stopped writing it for now.

I was at impasse because I had fallen in love with one of my characters whom I know will inevitably suffer in the end. And I was like, will it happen or will it not? Should it happen or should it not happen?

So I took a break and will be resuming writing it next year. I really want the quality of the story to be highly polished so I won’t post it until I’m comfortable enough that it’s reached that level of standard I’ve given myself.

Do you want to share something about your new or upcoming works for readers?

The novel I’m writing for now, to take a momentary break from the spy-thriller, is a romantic-comedy/slice-of-life drama. It’s about a Brazilian hunk, Klebber Toledo, and an American dreamboat Dennis Ellison who met on a dating app, Tinge, where they had no idea COVID-19 would turn their spur-of-the-moment trip to Costa Rica into a months-long adventure.

I based this story from a Netflix special of the same name, which features a Present Tense format with the documentary interview, and a 3rd person narration as the bulk of the story. After watching that Netflix documentary, I was like, “I wonder what would happen if Khani and Matt were gay (the Netflix leads).” So Klebber and Dennis were incepted to fill in those roles for the novel.

I’ve already posted the first chapter, https://gayauthors.org/story/ljcc/the-longest-third-date/1

It’s the teaser interview and so far, I really like how it has turned out.

I’ll post the full story probably early next year.