M.L. Rhodes FAQ

These are actual questions I've received from readers. Oftentimes I get the same or similar questions over and over, so I decided to share some of the Q and As here. :)

Quite honestly...I find two men exploring their attraction for one another and falling in love very sexy and satisfying. :) You might be surprised just how many straight women feel that way!

Home Gay Fiction Straight Fiction Coming Soon FAQ Bio Tibits About M.L. Blog Follow M.L. on Twitter Link to M.L. Book Videos Free Desktop Wallpaper Photo Gallery Hot Hunks Gallery Contact Sign up for ML's Hot Reads Newsletter!	FAQs These are actual questions I've received from readers. Oftentimes I get the same or similar questions over and over, so I decided to share some of the Q and As here. :) Last updated: June 27, 2009 Q: "Why would a straight woman want to write erotic stories about gay men?" Quite honestly...I find two men exploring their attraction for one another and falling in love very sexy and satisfying. :) You might be surprised just how many straight women feel that way! Q: "As a gay man, I find it completely intriguing that a woman can capture the subtleties of m/m love so well. How do you write so accurately from a gay man's perspective?" I believe love and physical desire are universal emotions and experiences. Yes, there are going to be some gender differences, obviously, but overall, when two people meet, are attracted, and eventually fall in love I think those emotions, at the core, are something we all feel, regardless of whether we're women or men, straight or gay. As far as the details about the characters' experiences and how men react and feel, and even more specifically, how gay men might react and feel in particular situations...all I can say is that I've read a lot of gay fiction and nonfiction, I have gay friends, and I'm not afraid to ask personal questions. :) So even though I'm a woman, I have a really great network to help me put myself into the roles of my characters. Q: "Is there going to be a sequel to Falling? And if so, when?" Yes! It's called *Magic. I don't have a release date for it, and I hesitate to give even a ballpark date because it's been bumped several times as other projects have come up and had to take priority. But rest assured, I will eventually finish writing it. Q: "I fell totally in love with Will and Ethan in Never Let Go* and Hearts & Bones. Please tell me you're going to write more about them!" I am! I actually already have a third story semi-planned and know generally what it's going to be about. :) Q: "How do you pronounce the unusual names of people and places you write about?" --Jarrah (the vampire in Souls Deep) is pronounced Jer-ruh with the accent on the first syllable. --Kellesborne (the castle in my Draegan Lord stories) is pronounced Kel-less-born (three syllables) with the accent on the first syllable. --Draegan (the race of dragon/human shapeshifters) is pronounced dray-gun with the accent on the first syllable. --*m'aerlas* (means beloved in the Draegan language) is meh-air-luhs with the accent on the second syllable. If I've missed any others that are unusual and you aren't sure about, email me and I'll add them to this list! Q: "How do you come up with story ideas?" Reading, thinking, watching TV, watching movies, listening to music, people watching, dreaming. Seriously...story ideas come from everywhere. Sometimes a complete story will come from some small kernal of inspiration, and other times just a character or characters will come to me, or a situation, or a title or piece of dialogue that I build a story around. It's kind of fascinating actually. It never really happens the same way twice. Q: "I'm not into gay m/m stories. Are you going to be writing any more "straight" m/f stories in the future? And if so, when?" The honest answer is...I'm not sure. :) Probably I will write more m/f eventually. But right now I'm passionate about writing gay fiction, so I don't foresee myself taking a break from it for a while. I know I have quite a few readers who've been patiently waiting for a long time for some of my m/f stories, and I do apologize for the wait. But for now, I've already made commitments to my publisher to write numerous gay stories that will take me through the end of 2010. Please keep in mind that my m/f backlist is always available for purchase. Everything's still in print (or in ebook formats). Q: "Where can I buy your books?" My books in various ebook formats are available at Amber Heat, Fictionwise, All Romance Ebooks, and some at Amazon.com in Kindle format (eventually all will be available for Kindle). My paperbacks are all available at Amazon.com. Q: "I prefer paperbacks. Which of your titles are available in paperback and will they all be eventually? Currently, as of this writing these are my available paperback titles: Gay (M/M) Erotic Romance... *- Falling* (novel) *- Couplings* (anthology containing The Professor's Secret Passion & Souls Deep) *- Always* (anthology containing Never Let Go and Hearts & Bones) - The Draegan Lords (contains books 1 and 2 in the Draegan Lords series...True of Heart and Lords of Kellesborne) -*Under My Skin Books I & II* (paperback anthology containing the first two stories in the series) -The Vertigo Chronicles, Vol. I (paperback anthology containing Vertigo and Shattered--the first two stories in the series) - The Elf and Shoemaker (short novel) - Passion & Satisfaction (The title is probably self explanatory, but this anthology contains the two novellas Passion and Satisfaction :)) Straight Erotic Romance... *- Heat* (anthology containing The Bodyguard & The Bounty Hunter) *- After Hours* (contains both After Hours and Well Hung) *- Masks* (novel) Yes, eventually all my stories will be available in paperback. Anything I write that's novel length will always be released in ebook and paperback usually the same month. For my novellas and short stories, all will eventually be compiled into paperback anthologies like Couplings and Always. Upcoming paperbacks (all M/M): *- Fires of Ballian* (book 3 in the Draegan Lords series) - Undivided (the sequel to Passion and Satisfaction) - Living Without You (novel) - As of yet untitled anthology containing Out Of My Mind and In Too Deep Q: "Are you a plotter or do you write by the seat of your pants?" Mostly I write by the seat of my pants. I often have bits and pieces of a story in my head before I start, or a vague general idea of the plot, and sometimes even some scribbled notes about my characters or the plot (nothing organized at all), but once I start typing, anything can (and often does!) happen. I live by Julia Cameron's (author of The Artist's Way) philosophy that if you leap, the net will appear. I've been writing fiction for fifteen years and it's never let me fall yet! No matter how unexpectedly twisty-turny a story may get as I write, it always, always works itself out! Q: "How do you start a story? Do you know anything at all about it before you begin, or do you just dive in?" Keeping in mind that I am mostly a pantser... <g> Some stories come to me more or less full-blown, with characters and a plot. It's like wham...it hits me and the basic set-up is right there in my head. Almost like a dream. On those, where I know the basic plot and general characters before I start, then in the actual writing of the story, I flesh out the characters (their quirks and habits and backgrounds and personalities) and work out the plot details. Because when I say I have a basic plot before I start, that usually means I know where the story begins, very generally how it will progress, and how it'll end. But I don't know AT ALL what exactly 's going to be in each chapter or scene. And oftentimes as I write, stories take interesting twists and turns I never would have expected, so I generally go with the flow. Other times, I only have a vague idea before I start. An example of that was when I wrote The Professor's Secret Passion...I knew I wanted to write about a college professor and his graduate student. That was it. That's all I knew when I sat down to start the story. :) The characters themselves, the actual plot, the conflicts, story resolution, everything happened on the page as I wrote. It just kind of unraveled like a ball of yarn. Other times, and probably most often, it's somewhere in between these two scenarios, where maybe I'll know the characters I want to write, but don't know the plot yet. Or vice versa. Or little bits of both. Q: "How long does it take you to write a story/book?" It depends how long it is and how much time I have between deadlines. Generally speaking, if I'm really on a roll and writing hard day after day as I push toward a deadline, I typically write between 2000 and 5000 words per day. I've written as many as 7000-10,000 in a day, but that's really stretching for me. I can't, however, just sit down and write an entire novel at 2000-5000 words a day, every day, without stopping. I have to take time here and there to percolate. Usually what happens is I pound out a couple of chapters, then I "think" for a day or two about where I'm going to go from there, then I write a couple more chapters, think, etc. A general rule of thumb for me is that I can write a 20,000-30,000 word novella in 2-3 weeks. It usually takes me 4-5 weeks to write 40,000-50,000 words. A couple or three months to write a 60,000-90,000 word novel. BUT I can and have written faster if the need arises. I've written as much as 55,000 words in two weeks under pressure. I'm a proctrastinator and deadlines are a HUGE motivator for me! :) Q: "Do you read books in the genre(s) in which you write?" Yep, definitely. I'm a huge fan of gay romance and gay erotic romance, so I read a lot in that genre. I also read hetero romance, though not as much as I used to. Many of my close friends write hetero romance, so I always read their new releases. But, really, I love to read in general and for pleasure I read widely across a lot of genres--gay, romance, action-adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, mainstream mystery, westerns, nonfiction.

Q: "As a gay man, I find it completely intriguing that a woman can capture the subtleties of m/m love so well. How do you write so accurately from a gay man's perspective?"

I believe love and physical desire are universal emotions and experiences. Yes, there are going to be some gender differences, obviously, but overall, when two people meet, are attracted, and eventually fall in love I think those emotions, at the core, are something we all feel, regardless of whether we're women or men, straight or gay.

As far as the details about the characters' experiences and how men react and feel, and even more specifically, how gay men might react and feel in particular situations...all I can say is that I've read a lot of gay fiction and nonfiction, I have gay friends, and I'm not afraid to ask personal questions. :) So even though I'm a woman, I have a really great network to help me put myself into the roles of my characters.

Yes! It's called Magic. I don't have a release date for it, and I hesitate to give even a ballpark date because it's been bumped several times as other projects have come up and had to take priority. But rest assured, I will eventually finish writing it.

Q: "I fell totally in love with Will and Ethan in Never Let Go and Hearts & Bones. Please tell me you're going to write more about them!"

I am! I actually already have a third story semi-planned and know generally what it's going to be about. :)

Q: "How do you pronounce the unusual names of people and places you write about?"

--Jarrah (the vampire in Souls Deep) is pronounced Jer-ruh with the accent on the first syllable.
--Kellesborne (the castle in my Draegan Lord stories) is pronounced Kel-less-born (three syllables) with the accent on the first syllable.
--Draegan (the race of dragon/human shapeshifters) is pronounced dray-gun with the accent on the first syllable.
--m'aerlas (means beloved in the Draegan language) is meh-air-luhs with the accent on the second syllable.

If I've missed any others that are unusual and you aren't sure about, email me and I'll add them to this list!

Reading, thinking, watching TV, watching movies, listening to music, people watching, dreaming. Seriously...story ideas come from everywhere. Sometimes a complete story will come from some small kernal of inspiration, and other times just a character or characters will come to me, or a situation, or a title or piece of dialogue that I build a story around. It's kind of fascinating actually. It never really happens the same way twice.

Q: "I'm not into gay m/m stories. Are you going to be writing any more "straight" m/f stories in the future? And if so, when?"

The honest answer is...I'm not sure. :) Probably I will write more m/f eventually. But right now I'm passionate about writing gay fiction, so I don't foresee myself taking a break from it for a while. I know I have quite a few readers who've been patiently waiting for a long time for some of my m/f stories, and I do apologize for the wait. But for now, I've already made commitments to my publisher to write numerous gay stories that will take me through the end of 2010.

Please keep in mind that my m/f backlist is always available for purchase. Everything's still in print (or in ebook formats).

Q: "I prefer paperbacks. Which of your titles are available in paperback and will they all be eventually?

- Falling (novel)
- Couplings (anthology containing The Professor's Secret Passion & Souls Deep)
- Always (anthology containing Never Let Go and Hearts & Bones)
- The Draegan Lords (contains books 1 and 2 in the Draegan Lords series...True of Heart and Lords of Kellesborne)
-Under My Skin Books I & II (paperback anthology containing the first two stories in the series)
-The Vertigo Chronicles, Vol. I (paperback anthology containing Vertigo and Shattered--the first two stories in the series)
- The Elf and Shoemaker (short novel)
- Passion & Satisfaction (The title is probably self explanatory, but this anthology contains the two novellas Passion and Satisfaction :))

- Heat (anthology containing The Bodyguard & The Bounty Hunter)
- After Hours (contains both After Hours and Well Hung)
- Masks (novel)

Yes, eventually all my stories will be available in paperback. Anything I write that's novel length will always be released in ebook and paperback usually the same month. For my novellas and short stories, all will eventually be compiled into paperback anthologies like Couplings and Always.

- Fires of Ballian (book 3 in the Draegan Lords series)
- Undivided (the sequel to Passion and Satisfaction)
- Living Without You (novel)
- As of yet untitled anthology containing Out Of My Mind and In Too Deep

Q: "Are you a plotter or do you write by the seat of your pants?"

Mostly I write by the seat of my pants. I often have bits and pieces of a story in my head before I start, or a vague general idea of the plot, and sometimes even some scribbled notes about my characters or the plot (nothing organized at all), but once I start typing, anything can (and often does!) happen. I live by Julia Cameron's (author of The Artist's Way) philosophy that if you leap, the net will appear. I've been writing fiction for fifteen years and it's never let me fall yet! No matter how unexpectedly twisty-turny a story may get as I write, it always, always works itself out!

Q: "How do you start a story? Do you know anything at all about it before you begin, or do you just dive in?"

Some stories come to me more or less full-blown, with characters and a plot. It's like wham...it hits me and the basic set-up is right there in my head. Almost like a dream. On those, where I know the basic plot and general characters before I start, then in the actual writing of the story, I flesh out the characters (their quirks and habits and backgrounds and personalities) and work out the plot details. Because when I say I have a basic plot before I start, that usually means I know where the story begins, very generally how it will progress, and how it'll end. But I don't know AT ALL what exactly 's going to be in each chapter or scene. And oftentimes as I write, stories take interesting twists and turns I never would have expected, so I generally go with the flow.

Other times, I only have a vague idea before I start. An example of that was when I wrote The Professor's Secret Passion...I knew I wanted to write about a college professor and his graduate student. That was it. That's all I knew when I sat down to start the story. :) The characters themselves, the actual plot, the conflicts, story resolution, everything happened on the page as I wrote. It just kind of unraveled like a ball of yarn.

Other times, and probably most often, it's somewhere in between these two scenarios, where maybe I'll know the characters I want to write, but don't know the plot yet. Or vice versa. Or little bits of both.

Q: "How long does it take you to write a story/book?"

It depends how long it is and how much time I have between deadlines. Generally speaking, if I'm really on a roll and writing hard day after day as I push toward a deadline, I typically write between 2000 and 5000 words per day. I've written as many as 7000-10,000 in a day, but that's really stretching for me. I can't, however, just sit down and write an entire novel at 2000-5000 words a day, every day, without stopping. I have to take time here and there to percolate. Usually what happens is I pound out a couple of chapters, then I "think" for a day or two about where I'm going to go from there, then I write a couple more chapters, think, etc.

A general rule of thumb for me is that I can write a 20,000-30,000 word novella in 2-3 weeks. It usually takes me 4-5 weeks to write 40,000-50,000 words. A couple or three months to write a 60,000-90,000 word novel. BUT I can and have written faster if the need arises. I've written as much as 55,000 words in two weeks under pressure. I'm a proctrastinator and deadlines are a HUGE motivator for me! :)

Yep, definitely. I'm a huge fan of gay romance and gay erotic romance, so I read a lot in that genre. I also read hetero romance, though not as much as I used to. Many of my close friends write hetero romance, so I always read their new releases. But, really, I love to read in general and for pleasure I read widely across a lot of genres--gay, romance, action-adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, mainstream mystery, westerns, nonfiction.