Vicktor: Awww thanks so much Renae! I love being “squeezed in” places. I’m actually really good at it. **winks back** Glad to be here. **waves at everyone** Hiya all!
Renae: Today Vicktor is here to promo his newest release Delicious Mistake, which is the third in his series of Mistakes, following on from The Perfect Mistake (#1) and Glorious Mistake (#2).
Delicious Mistake (Mistakes #3).
Miguel Rodriguez believes that love makes the strongest of men weak and wants no part of it, but when he meets Julian Canton, he makes one delicious mistake that will change both their lives forever.
Miguel Rodriguez stood by his friend Xavier’s side when evidence of his affair with another man came out. He also stuck by Xavier when he disappeared from Atlanta and moved to the mountains of Wyoming. But he will not stand by Xavier when he decides to marry his young lover and still run for the Senate.
Hopping on a plane to Wyoming, Miguel finds himself meeting Julian Canton, a young man who has no political ambitions and doesn’t even vote, and yet Miguel finds himself fascinated. Miguel makes the mistake of upgrading Julian’s ticket so they can get to know each other better and somehow finds himself in Riverton, WY, holding Julian’s hand as he says goodbye to his brother. Giving in to his attraction to the young man, Miguel struggles not only with his physical attraction but with his emotional one as well. When he compounds his mistake by inviting Julian along with him to talk to Xavier, he soon finds himself feeling something he has never felt before. Will he join his friend Xavier in listening to his heart or will he walk away?
Vicktor: It comes really easy to me and I think it’s because I actually prefer series books myself. I think it’s because I was always the kid who wanted to know what happened after Prince Charming and the Princess rode off into the sunset together. I needed to know that they were still happy after the kiss, after the wedding, after they said I loved you to each other. And I’m so big on wanting everyone to be happy that I even wanted the friends and secondary characters to get their HEAs while I found out what happened with the first couple. So when I read books I want that epilogue, but I want the series as well. I want to be assured that they don’t get a divorce later on. That one of them doesn’t end up cheating on the other one, or taking advantage of the other one, or abusing the other, or being a gold digger, or whatever. LOL. It’s probably a little bit because I’m a child of divorce and probably also because I’m a cynical, paranoid, suspicious asshole. So even if it is a HEA, I need another book just to be sure. Which is why I end up writing the same way.
Renae: I love the theme of these books – “mistakes” that turn to love. Do you think it happens like this in real life?
Vicktor: Oh yeah I totally do. I think the belief and the expectation that falling in love will be all rainbows, sunshine, roses, unicorns, and perfection is a fantasy and a miracle. It’s rare. Extremely rare. Most of the time when I hear people talk about how they ended up with their SOs it’s a story that is different. They talk about the mishaps, the “mistakes,” the way their relationship is different from the norm. To them it may not seem like a mistake anymore, but at the time maybe they thought it was. They went into the wrong room at the dorm and met the love of their life, they bumped into someone who ended up being the love of their life, they went on a blind date that went horribly and when they stormed out they met the love of their life, they tried to call someone and ended up calling the wrong number and the person who picked up the phone ended up being the person they married. These “mistakes” are these delightful ways and curveballs that life throws us in order for us to meet those who will end up being very special to us. It’s beautiful and makes for a great story as well.
Renae: One of the things I love about your writing is that your characters are not always white. I stand and applaud you on this, because I enjoy reading this, and after all, it is a true representation of our society. Why do you think there aren’t more books out with non-white characters?
Vicktor: -sigh- You know, I ask this question of other authors ALL. THE. DAMN. TIME. I will say that there are more non-white characters now than there were when I first started reading and writing books in this genre. That makes me happy, we are making progress.
But too often I hear the “I don’t want to get anything wrong or offend anyone,” answer when it comes to writing a non-white character. I try really hard not to roll my eyes when I get that because I understand it. I do (And I’m not so sure I’ve done so well not rolling my eyes, if I have rolled my eyes at you, I apologize.), the problem is, by saying that, they’re already offending me. Because the fact of the matter is they’re stereotyping. I’m not exactly sure how much more difficult it would be to do “research” of a non-white character than it would be for a straight woman to do research of a gay man. There are plenty of non-white readers out there who would no doubt be happy to talk all about their childhood and cultures, as would I.
One of the biggest things that I always point out, of course, is that if I, as a “non-white”, multi-ethnic, black man can write a white character then why can’t other authors write black gay men? There are black gay men out there. –points at self- Hello?!
One of my favourite books featuring a non-white character, not written by myself, was Bolt-Hole by Amy Lane. She captured the personality and the thoughts so well that I told her I was Terrell at different points in my life. So all of that to say, I think that there are authors who want to write non-white characters but are nervous because they don’t want to write stereotypical characters, but stereotypes come about because there are people out there who are like that, but they also don’t want to write a character who doesn’t have the “ethnic markers,” which is hilarious to me, my friends Taylor Law and Max Vos are both waaaay more black than I am. I also think that maybe they just haven’t had any characters who are non-white who have spoken to them yet. And that’s fine if that’s the reason.
But I’m hoping that slowly but surely there will be more books out there with non-white characters as the lead MCs finding love so that when non-white teens, YAs, NAs, and even older adults read these books they’ll know that love is possible for them as well and they don’t have to be pale skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, thin, muscled, and gorgeous to get it.
Vicktor: Oh yes there is. I love myself some BDSM. Delicious Mistake is more on the tame side of kink. So it’s more of a dip-your-toe type of book. Nothing too hard-core is going to happen here, though, as with any and all BDSM books and anyone thinking of swimming the depths of the SSC (Safe, Sane, and Consensual) Lifestyle, reading the book should only be read for entertainment purposes, and no part of the book should be followed with a trained professional. Hard-core or not. But, compared to some of my other works, like It’s You, Then Breathing or Before You Go or The Alpha King this is very tame. There’s even going to be a book in the Scandalous Whispers of the Remmington Realm series that’s going to be more hard-core than this one. But this one is still BDSM yumminess, for sure.
Renae: Your Mistakes series seems to be very much “opposite attract.” Do you think this is representative of life too, or is more that “oil and water don’t mix”?
Vicktor: I think it’s different for each couple. I think having some similarities are good, you want someone who wants the same things in life (I was with someone who inevitably didn’t want to have kids, wasn’t versatile and wasn’t open to having a menage relationship so I’d never be able to be on the receiving end-granted, it’s not all the time, but it happens, and was staunchly opposed to certain things that are important to me. Those are similarities that are important in a relationship) so you don’t wind up being with someone for years only to find out that it won’t work or harbouring resentment because you gave up on your dream or compromised on it to make them happy, like Jennifer Aniston did with Ben Affleck in He’s Just Not That Into You. But I think too, most people tend to be drawn to people who have some differences with them, because it helps to keep the relationship fresh. It’s nice to have someone who challenges you, who is different from you because then it’s not like dating yourself. However, there are those who like dating someone similar because then they’re assured that they will have someone with whom they can hold a conversation and have fun with. So yes, I think the Mistakes series is representative of life, but only one-aspect of it.
Renae: Reading the blurb and excerpts of this book, it seems to be that Miguel is fighting his attraction, and one of the reasons is the age of Julian. Some people seem to have a “type” of person they are attracted to, yet if they come forward with this particular attraction, they are crucified for their narrow-mindedness. Attraction to only older/younger guys is one of the things that are not always seen as “politically correct.” Do you think it’s sour grapes on behalf of those protesting? Or do you think they are cutting themselves off by not being more open minded?
Vicktor: I feel bad for anyone who says that they would “never” date someone who is [insert restriction based on gender, race, body type, interest, age (as long as they’re legal and consenting), religion, education, etc. here] because they could be missing out on the greatest love of their life because of some preconceived prejudice or bias. Now, if it’s something like BDSM or watersports or something like that, I understand, that’s a sexual interest, but never wanting to date someone who’s an athlete? Or never wanting to date a black person? Or never wanting to date someone who’s much younger/older than you? Just because of those things? That’s ridiculous to me. And I do think that sometimes people who protest against those who do date someone who is younger/older than them are doing so because they are jealous, but I also think it’s because they have some idea of what is “acceptable” when it comes to relationships and couples and love. It’s also the reason why interracial couples had to fight to be able to marry after they were being killed if they were caught together, and why same-sex couples are fighting for that right still today.
Vicktor: LOL. I always say that when I start a book I never know that it’s going to turn into a series, but when I wrote The Perfect Mistake I knew it was going to turn into a series. When I submitted it to Totally Bound I actually told my editor, Jenny Douglas, that it was going to be an eight book novella series. I only recently told her that the Mistakes series was going to spinoff into a three book novel series entitled Lovdorish. Yeah, she thought that was funny. I actually let TB know what each of the books were going to be about in the series when they were getting ready to contract the first book. They ended up contracting the entire series. So they know everything that’s going to happen in the series and so do I which is awesome. That doesn’t usually happen.
Renae: How many books are you planning for this series?
Vicktor: Eight for the Mistakes series and three for the spinoff: Lovdorish.
Renae: So what is next from you? What are you releasing? What are you working on?
Vicktor: LOL. What’s next? Well, Delicious Mistake just released. My first F/F novella just released under my other penname: Veronica Victorian with Rooster & Pig Publishing, Inc.
But as far as Vicktor Alexander goes, I am trying to recover from almost losing everything when my computer crashed. I was almost finished with four different books: Happiness in All Sizes for some publisher… not sure which yet, The Servant Duchess of Whitcomb (Scandalous Whispers of the Remmington Realm, 2) for Dreamspinner Press, Unfit (The Undesirables, 1)—written under my M/F penname V. Vee—it’s an Urban Fantasy for Rooster & Pig Publishing, Inc., and The Beta Prince (Passion’s Hero, 2) for Rooster & Pig Publishing, Inc. and I lost everything that wasn’t backed up since December 14th or saved since January 5th.
So I’ll be getting back to those as well as working on Wonderful Mistake and Best Mistake books four and five in the Mistakes series for Totally Bound Publishing.
My next release is Layne, River, & Damion from the Storming Love: Blizzard anthology from MLR Press, which releases February 13th the day before Valentine’s Day (what a great V-day gift, huh?) and is the short that leads up to novel: Real. Love. Divine. (Nice play on the initials from River, Layne, and Damion, there.).
And I’m also going to be working on Ready Made Family (Flip the Coin, 1) which is the full-length novel of what was once Chocolate Vanilla Swirl and was released with the “Publisher that shall not be named” and I’ll be submitting RMF to Dreamspinner Press.
Other than that? I’m pretty sure that should get me through to February. Maybe.
Renae: Where can people find you and contact you?
Vicktor:
http://www.vicktoralexander.com
http://www.authorvicktoralexander.com
[email protected]
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorVicktorAlexander
http://www.tsu.co/VicktorAlexander
http://www.facebook.com/VicktorAlexanderB
http://www.twitter.com/VVeeB
http://www.vicktoralexander.tumblr.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VicktorAlexander
Renae: Thanks for visiting! I’ve had great fun. I hope this series is a wonderful success.
Vicktor: Thank you sooo much Renae! I had fun being here. Thanks so much for having me. I look forward to coming back sometime and thanks for the well wishes. Spank you later!