Name of book:  Hard Feelings, short story published as part of Queermance II Anthology
Date Published:   17 April 2015
Available in: ebook
Other forms coming:  expanded ebook
 
When did you start writing this book?  February 2015

What gave you the inspiration for the story?  A call for submission to an Australian anthology.

Many people will wonder about this book – What?  There is another Renae Kaye book? 

This is a short story that is published in the Queermance II Anthology.  The anthology aims to publish short stories about Australian LGBT life.  I decided to attend the Queermance conference in 2015, so I thought I would write a small story for the anthology too.

I will be expanding the story and republishing as a standalone, hopefully later this year.

What was the working title?  During the writing phase I simply called it “Queermance.”

Where did the title of the book come from?  The name came naturally once I finished the book.  The main character in the book is a guy they call Moe.  He’s bisexual and fancy-free.  He doesn’t like strings on his relationships.  And when he finds a brief liaison, he tells them that it has to casual, and if he goes off with someone else, no hard feelings, okay?

Until he meets Sam.  He gives Sam the same conditions, but something has happened to Moe.  He’s developed hard feelings for Sam.  The name grew from there.

Besides, naming a gay romantic story “Hard Feelings” was just deliciously naughty.

What challenges did you face with writing this?  The word count.  It had to be under 10,000 words.  Oh, come on.  That was so hard for me!
​
Tell us about MC1 – where did the inspiration come for him?  I wanted to set a book at this beautiful beach called Prevelly.  It’s a world class surfing spot where there are international competitions.  Moe grew from this.  A boy who was raised in the region, learning to surf early in his life, living and working his parents’ business.

Tell us about MC2 – where did the inspiration come for him?  One thing that I’m passionate about is portraying real people.  Not just perfect people.  And not just white people.

In Perth we have a lot of Asian immigration.  Little shops pop up that are owned and run by Asian families, and I love their dedication.  Their entire families seem to be employed to run the business.  Shopping and chatting with those who are from Asia, or are first born generation Australian is usual for me.

But I still get caught out.  I still make racial assumptions.  Last year I visited Broome which is in the north of Western Australia.  The town was founded on the pearling industry, and the Chinese and Japanese cultures were some of the original people to build the town.  Today it’s a lovely mix of Chinese, Japanese, Aboriginal and Caucasians.  One of the original stores in town is a store called “Wing’s” and is your typical Asian corner store where you can find anything from Chinese noodles, to fishing gear, to pots and pans.  I love Wing’s.  I made my selections, walked up to the counter, and I greeted the Asian looking guy like I always do.

“G’day.  How are you today?”

To my absolute shock, he replied, “Great, thanks.  You?” without a single trace of the Asian accent I was expecting.  He sounded typical Australian, and I now laugh at my assumption he would have an accent.  I wanted Moe to experience the same chagrin that I did.  For Sam is as Aussie as they come.

Is there anything special that happens in the story that you think readers would like to know about?  You are welcome to experience this book in its short 10,000 word form, and buy it in the Queermance anthology.

Or you can wait a little longer for me to expand it.  I will release it on my own.

What is the best thing that has happened about this story, post-publication?  I had the wonderful Meg Bawden do me a cover!  I met Meg in person at Queermance.  Meg is a writer and cover artist.  After getting to know her, I knew I had to ask her to do me a cover.  And I love it!
​
Do you plan a follow up story?  No.  This is just a short story.  I love Moe (and Stuart, who you will meet in the story), but I think their story is just this.

Name of book:  Shawn’s Law
Date Published:  6 March 2015
Available in: ebook / print / audio
Other forms coming:  Not at this moment
 
When did you start writing this book?  February 2014

What gave you the inspiration for the story?  You may’ve guessed it, but I’m one of these people who always looks at the funny side of things, or tries to put a good spin on it.  Yes, I swing to the depths of despair and predict that the sky is falling, but it never lasts more than 30 minutes.

If you read the interview from last week about Safe in His Arms, you will find that I tried to “tone things down” when writing that one.  It was hard.  After finishing it, I really needed a pick-me-up.  I’d read TJ Klune’s Tell Me It’s Real and wanted funny like that.

Then an evil, evil, wonderful thought hit me.  I know how hysterical some people can get over the (so called deadly) wildlife in Australia, so I thought, “Why not show them?  I wonder how many native animals I can have attack my hero before the end of the book?”

What was the working title?  This one was always titled “Shawn’s Law.”

Where did the title of the book come from?  The title is obviously a play on “Murphy’s Law.”  I had an idea of a character where everything went wrong for him, so much so that they named a law after him.

I have a “thing” about the way that words look on the page.  My character’s names and often the words I use in sentences are chosen for their sight value.  I wanted something that “looked” good with the word “Law”.  Some people asked me why I spelled Shawn like I did, but consider the words “Sean’s Law” and “Shaun’s Law” – they just don’t look as good.

What challenges did you face with writing this?  There’s always the research.  I had to look into the consequences of being bitten by snakes, ants, spiders, jellyfish, etc. 

And as an author, I knew I was walking a thin line with the physical description of Shawn.  I knew there would be readers out there who didn’t like the fact that Shawn wasn’t buff or good looking.  I knew there would be those who disliked him because I described him as rounded and meaty, but I wanted to have someone real.  It was a challenge to me to write him in a way that I hoped people would fall in love with him, warts and all, but be realistic about his appearance.

The hardest part of this book was the bleak outlook of Shawn’s mother.  As a sufferer of Alzheimer’s she was never going to get better.  I did a lot of research on the disease, and each zany thing Estelle did was backed up by a site that explained the results and progression of Alzheimer’s.  That our parent is going to die is something that we may wish to shy away from, but it’s real life.  I’ve faced it and lived through it.  It’s not nice.  But it happens.

Tell us about MC1 – where did the inspiration come for him?  **laughs nervously** Oh, okay.  The guy at my local pools.  I don’t know his name, but I was watching my kids’ swimming lessons one day and he was on duty.  He was short, rounded and curvy.  But I could see from his attitude he wasn’t standing there all day apologising for his physical appearance.  He was interacting with his workmates in a way that I could tell he was well liked and respected.  He did his job without once losing the smile on his face.  He just drew me.  I wanted to capture that in Shawn.
​
Tell us about MC2 – where did the inspiration come for him?   The day after I saw the guy who I knew would be perfect to model Shawn on, I was driving along a suburban street and spotted Harley.  I only saw him from the back, but he was walking his two dogs down the path (or rather they were walking him!) and I could see he had this long blond plait down his back.  He was wearing a black shirt and jeans (which Harley would never wear!) but I looked at him and wondered about the hair.
From there the story of a promise to his father grew, and before I knew it Harley had emerged as Shawn’s perfect match.

Is there anything special that happens in the story that you think readers would like to know about?  I was speaking to a friend the other day and I pointed out the little idiosyncrasies an author has.  Apart from the title of the book—Shawn’s Law—in which I deliberately spelled Shawn with an “aw”, you may’ve noticed Shawn and Harley’s names?
Shawn O’Hara and Harley Lawson.

To fit with the look of a name, I chose Lawson as Harley’s surname.  It mimics the form of Shawn and contains the word Law.  And to mirror that back, Shawn’s surname has “Har” in it to mimic Harley’s name.

I also snuck in a reference to another book.  In the last chapters, Harley meets a male nurse at the hospital he calls “Steroidal Man.”  You met him in Safe in His Arms.  It’s Paul, Lon’s friend.

Paul’s story will be released in a couple of months.  (The countdown is on!)

What is the best thing that has happened about this story, post-publication?  I had no illusions about the release of this book.  It’s funny in a way that has been described as slap-stick.  If that’s not your thing, I’m not offended.

But I have had an amazing response to the book.  People who obviously share my sense of humour.  Every time someone writes to me and tells me they nearly peed themselves laughing, or that they laughed out loud on the bus, I give them a mental thumbs up.  Welcome to the club!  You share my humour.
​
Do you plan a follow up story?  Not at this moment.  Shawn has a friend called Kris who briefly knocked on my inspiration nerves.  I started his story.  But I didn’t get very far with it.  I have enough stories I want to write that will last me for years.  Maybe I will bash away at Kris’s story every now and then, but for now, I don’t have any further plans for Shawn and Harley.

Name of book:  Safe in His Arms
Date Published:  28th November 2014
Available in:  ebook / print / audio
Other forms coming:  Italian and Korean in 2016
 
When did you start writing this book?  November 2013

What gave you the inspiration for the story?  I set out to write a series of short stories.  I was unsure how people would receive my books (and my humour) and thought that maybe I should “tone it down a bit.” (Remember this was before Loving Jay released). I thought a series of single chapter erotic stories would get my name seen.

So I wrote the first chapter of Safe in His Arms.  The idea behind the series of short stories was sexual encounters between strangers, but with a little bit of caring and consideration behind the encounter.  No HEA.  Just brief encounters.

However, I wrote the first chapter and then became curious.  Why was Casey in the shower room at that time of night?  What was wrong? He was staring in the mirror intently, so something was up.  What was Casey’s story?

I told myself that I would write one more chapter and explore the story from Casey’s POV, just to find out about him.
Some 70,000 later I realised I had a novel instead of a short story.

What was the working title?  Encounters.  Yep.  It was supposed to be a brief encounter.

Where did the title of the book come from?  I couldn’t think of a title.  I must’ve thought of and discarded about 50 titles before this stuck.

What challenges did you face with writing this?  You may notice that this is the first story I wrote in 3rd person, and the first story that has both POVs.  I wasn’t comfortable in writing it this way and editing was a nightmare.  I quickly went back to 1st person after this.

I also faced the challenge of Casey’s background.  I wanted to make a broken character that was fighting to make it in life.  So many of us suffer from depression or bad experiences.  So many of us think we need to hide it and bottle it up.  I wanted a character that had been broken and was attempting to put his life back together, but I didn’t want a fairytale where a psychologist would pat him on the head and say, “All fixed now.”
​
It doesn’t work like that in real life.  In real life you have set backs and it will always affect you to some degree.
I had to do a lot of research into sexual trauma and counselling to write this book.  Please don’t judge me on my web browsing history that month.  I’m surprised I didn’t get a visit from some special task force the amount of times I had to google things like “rape.”

Tell us about MC1 – where did the inspiration come for him?  Oh, Lon.  **heart skips a beat**  One of the things I’m passionate about is creating characters who are realistic and to portray the large spectrum of men who are gay.  Not all men are into waxing and shaving, and not all men are attracted to hairless people.  Body hair can be a huge turn on.

I wanted my man to be the image of dangerous.  Someone with a gruff exterior.  Someone who was putting up a front to keep people away.

Tell us about MC2 – where did the inspiration come for him?  Casey is the juxtaposition to Lon.  I love contrasts.  I love opposites attract.  He’s the type of guy that you think is brainless, weak and needy – and yet you’d be wrong.

Casey’s past came as a surprise to me.  I like my characters to be real, but I stopped and nearly scrubbed the WIP several times because I thought, “I can’t write about this!”  But he kept pushing me.  Casey’s my hero.  He had something terrible happen to him, but he keeps facing the next day, and the next.  He doesn’t try to pretend everything is normal.  I just want to hug him and tell him I’m sorry, but that he’s someone I look up to.

Is there anything special that happens in the story that you think readers would like to know about?  I think it’s interesting that adoption once again crept into my storyline.  Patrick from The Blinding Light was adopted, and in this story Lon is.  Perhaps it’s because my family blends the adopted in with the step-siblings, the half-siblings and everything else along the way.  I have a brother and sister who were adopted 10 years before I was born.  I’ve grown up with the knowledge they are adopted, but it’s not a big deal.

What is the best thing that has happened about this story, post-publication?  There were a lot of comments about this story.  Some people called for trigger warnings on the book.  Some people slammed me for writing about a character who was sexually abused as a teen.  I have no regrets about writing Casey.  We shouldn’t have to only write about perfect characters.  Characters with a past are equally important.  And for those who think to avoid the story because it contains references that may set them off, perhaps a rethink.  Casey’s past is in the past.  Be joyed about the steps he’s making to reclaim his life from the darkness.  He’s coping and living.  He doesn’t dwell on the past.

For every email and message I received from someone upset that I wrote about the subject, I received two emails or messages from people thanking me for it.  People who had been through it.  People who were learning to cope with their new life.  People who could relate.  Thank you for reading, guys.
​
Do you plan a follow up story?  Why, yes.  Thank you for asking this question, Renae.  My first new novel out in 2016 will be a spin-off of this story.  In Safe in His Arms Lon has a friend who is a seeing a married man.  People asked me about Paul and Andrew’s story – so I wrote it.  I plan a third story in the series too, the story of Devon and Ash.

The next instalment of my interviews of myself is on my book, The Shearing Gun.

Name of book:  The Shearing Gun
Date Published:  19th September 2014
Available in: ebook / print / audio
Other forms coming:  Italian in 2016

When did you start writing this book?  September 2013

What gave you the inspiration for the story?  I conceived the idea for The Shearing Gun about two weeks after I received a contract for Loving Jay.  I was SO excited.  One of the things I love about reading is being taken to foreign countries.  It’s rather like a holiday.  I wanted to introduce readers to my country.  I think I’d just finished reading a cowboy book, and I thought of doing a story set in the Outback, revolving around cattle mustering Aussie style.  But I didn’t have the knowledge.  I grew up around sheep.

Then I thought, “Why not sheep?  Imagine what a gay shearer would be like?”  And the idea was born.  I enjoyed the thought of being unique and original – and being the only author to write about shearers.

(I’m not – but I thought it at the time).

What was the working title?  This one was ALWAYS titled The Shearing Gun.  It just fitted.

Where did the title of the book come from?  **sigh**  It comes from a very personal, very challenging story of mine.  My nephew, Henry, was killed in a farm accident when he was 16 months old.  His father and mother are both shearers, and his two older brothers are too.

When Henry was about 11 months old, his brother posted a photo on Facebook of Henry being a cheeky monkey.  He titled the photo, “He’s going to be a shearing gun like his dad and brothers.”

I often look back on that photo and think about the could-have-beens.   Would he have been a shearing gun if his life hadn’t been cut short?  I named my main character “Hank” after my nephew, and imagine a wonderful, fulfilling, happy and successful life for my nephew if the world had just been a little different that day.

What challenges did you face with writing this?  Making sheep romantic, but realistic.  LOL.

Farming is tough.  It’s hard, dirty, heart-aching, bone-breaking, tedious physical work.  I wanted to portray the land and Hank’s life as realistic, but at the same time, I had to explain the land in a way the unfamiliar reader would understand.

Tell us about MC1 – where did the inspiration come for him?  Hank’s shearing/farming side is a mixture of my father, my brother, and a healthy dose of imagination.  His voice and accent is so clear in my head because he talks with the rhythms of my childhood memories.  The larrikin, clown part is just Aussie.  We never take anything seriously.

Hank has dreams, but they’re not the intellectual dreams that someone like Elliot has.  Hank’s got his feet firmly on the ground, and his hands buried in the dirt.  The fact that he’s good-looking (and a little bit up himself about this) just came from the first scene.  What else could be more fun than a hunky country boy?

Tell us about MC2 – where did the inspiration come for him?  I liked the idea of a new guy in town who was completely out of his depths with the farming stuff.  But he needed to be strong on his own.  I needed him to have a reason to come to town and be willing to uproot himself.  I liked the idea of a doctor.  Someone valuable to the community, with specialist skills of his own, but nothing to do with farming or shearing.

I don’t think I modelled Elliot on anyone I know.  He just grew as the story demanded.

Is there anything special that happens in the story that you think readers would like to know about?  Lilly the sheep was real. 

She’s a sheep that we used to have when I was a teen.  A lovely animal with a wonderful fleece, and she threw twins every year.  For the first 2 days after her twins were born, she wouldn’t have milk for them.  It happens in humans, and obviously in animals too.  We observed her twins not being able to feed that first year she lambed, so we (my mother, sister and me) captured the three of them, penned them in the hay shed, and bottle fed the lambs until we could see that her milk had come in.  (Those twins I named Stew and Casserole.  They were boys.  It was their destiny.)

The following year she again birthed twins (Flora and Fauna I called them) and we saw once again she didn’t have milk.  The lambs would attempt to feed, but nothing was coming, so we brought her in, locked her in the hay shed, and bottle fed until we saw she had milk.

The third year she had twins (Romeo and Juliet), we awoke in the morning to find she’d lambed overnight, and she was standing outside the hay shed with them, waiting for us to come.  A sheep doesn’t like being away from the flock (as it is too dangerous with predators), so for her to separate herself and the twins was amazing.  I’ve always imagined her waiting and thinking, “Come on.  My babies are hungry.  Hurry up and feed them for me.”

The Melanian sheep in the story were also true.  My mother has an obsession with coloured wool, so Dad bred her a small flock of sheep for hand spinning.  Each sheep was named and their blood line kept.  We would marvel at the patterns on them.  We had one called Batman, because he had a band of brown across his eyes like a mask.  One we called Stripey because she had stripes like a tiger.  We tried to name them using themes from their names.  One line of sheep were all named after comic strip characters, another line all had names of black singers.

What is the best thing that has happened about this story, post-publication?  I know people have been a little apprehensive about picking up this story.  (A story about SHEEP?)  But I can’t believe how people have embraced the book with joy and gusto.  The fact that my readers adore this book is just magic to me.
​
Do you plan a follow up story?  Yes.  People asked me about a story for Mickey Ryan (the shearing gun who shook Hank’s hand for a little too long at the pub…) so my 2016 push is to write his story.