Interview & Giveaway with Author Josh Lanyon

Today, J9 is interviewing author Josh Lanyon.

Welcome to The Book Vixen Josh!

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J9: Thanks for being our guest here at The Book Vixen.  I’ve greatly enjoyed reading the Dangerous Ground series and gobbled them up like chocolates. I love both characters and the great suspenseful storytelling. I highly recommend this series to MM readers. So welcome!

Josh Lanyon: Thank you for having me here at The Book Vixen! This is a treat.

J9: First, tell us about yourself. Did you always want to be a writer and when did you start writing? What was the first thing you had published?

Josh Lanyon: I did, yes. From the time I was in grade school I knew I would be a writer. I wrote constantly. When I wasn't reading, I was writing. In junior high and high school, I would sit in the back of most of my classes and scribble stories. The very first thing I had published were poems. The first novel I had published was Fatal Shadows through the Gay Men's Press.

J9: Did you know when you wrote book one Dangerous Ground that Will and Taylor’s romance would be a series?

Josh Lanyon: I knew it could be. But I left the final decision up to readers. It's probably the only time I've done that, but because the stories are more episodic than most of my series work, I needed to know that readers found the characters and their relationship sufficiently engaging.

J9: What kind of research have you had to do for the novellas in this series?

Josh Lanyon: Dead Run required the most research because it's set in Paris and it deals with terrorism and art theft. There was a lot of browsing maps and talking to readers and gearing up on art history and terrorism in the 70s. The other DG stories were pretty routine. There's always a certain amount of research involved, but the stories themselves are generally simple and straightforward.

J9: I know this is like asking a parent to choose a favorite child, but do you have a favorite novella in this series?

Josh Lanyon: I like Blood Heat best. It's just one danged thing after another, as Mark Twain used to say. And I think it also has some of the funniest lines and comical moments in the series. And of course readers just didn't see the ending coming.

J9: I’m sure you’ve heard the comparison of this series to the Cut & Run series by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban.  Have you read that series? If so, what did you think?

Josh Lanyon: I read the first one and promptly searched for the copyright date. :-D No, seriously, I thought there were some superficial similarities, but to me the characters and the way they were going to grow and the way their relationships were going to evolve was going to be very different. Not to mention the fact that the FBI and the DDS have very different roles and responsibilities. Now maybe I'm wrong and they didn't turn out to be that different. I do know I have readers who enjoy the C&R series a lot.

J9: I see from your website you’re planning to write book five in the series. Can you tell me, I mean us, when that may be?

Josh Lanyon: Kick Start is planned for October 2013. I'm waiting for the final DG story to time out with the publisher before I resume work again on the series.

J9: Do you have an idea how many novellas will be in this series?

Josh Lanyon: It'll either be 5 or 8. I haven't made up my mind. Most of the big remaining questions between Will and Taylor will be answered by Kick Start. So then it just comes down to how much readers are enjoying watching Will and Taylor interact. I think the episodic nature of the stories works well as far as that kind of thing goes. It's easy to pick up again without feeling like you've lost your place.

J9: Would you like to share any other projects with us?

Josh Lanyon: Thanks for asking! I'm currently working on an experimental project. I had a number of titles picked up by a Japanese publisher for translation, so I decided to support that effort and reach out to some of those Asian readers with a yaoi-hybrid novella. It's called Blood Red Butterfly and it's about a cop who falls in love with an American manga artist who happens to be supplying an alibi to the cop's prime suspect in a murder investigation. It's a nutty little story, I freely admit. But hopefully fun. BRB is coming out some time this November.

 

Find the author online: website | blog | twitter | facebook

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Thanks to Josh Lanyon, one lucky winner will receive ebook copies of the first 4 books in his Dangerous Ground series. That includes: Dangerous Ground, Old Poison, Blood Heat, and Dead Run. Good luck to all who enter!

• No purchase necessary.
• Must be 18 years old or older to enter.
• Giveaway open Internationally. Void where prohibited.
• Comments are appreciated, however, you must fill out the Rafflecopter form in order to enter this giveaway.
• Please read TBV's Giveaway Policy before entering.
• Giveaway ends 9:01 pm (Pacific Time) on 12/4/2012.

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