5 questions with L.M. Brown, author of ‘Tempestuous Tides’.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
I would be torn between two actually, the ability to fly or the ability to shapeshift into an animal. Needless to say, if it was the latter I would want to be some sort of creature with wings. A bird would be great, a dragon even better.
When I was asked to pick the favourite part of a body my first instinct was to go with what I notice first about a person, which is usually their smile, which can certainly light up a person’s face and turn someone who is actually quite plain into a much different person. However, I don’t think that the transforming smile is my favourite part of the body. I think it is actually a person’s eyes.
My Boyfriend's an Alien has been nominated for Best Sci-Fi story.
Forbidden Waters has been nominated for Best Action/Suspense Adventure story and Best Polyamorous story.
Just like in real life, there is homophobia in fiction and in the world of MM romance there is plenty of it to be found. The young teenager kicked out of home for being gay is a popular trope in contemporary romances. I even touch on the subject myself in one or two of my books, but for the most part I tend to avoid the homophobic storylines and enjoy creating worlds and societies where the focus isn’t on sexual preferences, or if it is, there is a twist to the story.
Prism Book Alliance has named Between Good and Evil as it's Recommended Read for October!
What can we expect from Between Heaven and Hell?
Lots of hot sex!
Did that grab your attention? Hopefully it did, so now that I have your attention, let me tell you a little more about this story. Tristan, one of the three heroes of the story is a regular guy with a regular job. Then one Halloween night he meets Machidiel and Alastor and his life changes forever. Machidiel, known as Mac, is an angel and Alastor is a demon, and they have known – and desired – each other for centuries. When they realise they both feel attraction for Tristan they decide to share him and a ménage is formed. The story isn’t just about the sex though.
With Halloween just around the corner, there is definitely no shortage of paranormal books being released. What always surprises me is how popular the spooky heroes seem to be in romance novels.
Long gone are the werewolves who howl at the full moon and tear out the throats of anyone who comes across them in the dark of the night. Instead, you’re more likely to find the werewolf shifters are loyal pack leaders or maybe the lone wolf types. There is certainly less focus on the fangs and more on the fur these days.
It’s nearly Halloween and that is the time of year when all the supernatural creatures come out to play. Even though Halloween is not quite as big an occasion here in England as it is in America, I do have a great fondness for all things paranormal.
Discovering Mermen
When writing a paranormal romance it is sometimes necessary to bring someone else into the paranormal world from their regular life. In Forbidden Waters, the first book in my Mermen & Magic series, Jake is one such person. He is a perfectly normal and sensible man who has given little thought to anything paranormal.
"I wish I had the time to write a book"
How many of you have said those words or something like them? I know I said them very frequently before I actually sat down and wrote one.
Occasionally I am asked how I find the time to write. I work full time at what writers often jokingly call the “evil day job”. I am a long way from being in a position where I can write on a full time basis. My answer to the question is that I make the time. We all do.
Sometimes a story just doesn't want to be what I think it should be. Forbidden Waters is one of those stories.
Believe it or not, this all male ménage actually started off as a young adult story. I had the entire story all plotted out and wrote over 50,000 words of it that hectic November. Those words are now all gone.
For the next few years I kept coming back to the story and finding it was just not saying what I wanted it to.
What? More Mermen?
With all the mermen stories in the world of male/male fiction these days, readers may wonder why any more are needed.
Well, apart from the whole ‘always room for more sexy naked men’ reason, let me tell you a little about what makes my mermen series different from the rest.
Mermen and Homosexuality
Homosexuality and how it is perceived by people plays a large part in many male/male stories. Homophobia is still prevalent despite the efforts of many to ensure equal rights for everyone, no matter who a person chooses to love.
When did you decide to become a writer?
I first decided I wanted to be a writer back in school when I was thirteen years old. My English teacher would give us creative writing assignments and each week someone was tortured by having their word read out to the class. When mine was chosen I was as embarrassed as everyone else in the class especially since I had written way more than the minimum requirement for the assignment. The bell rang for the end of class before the teacher had got to the end of the story, I had waffled on so much. After the class one of the other students, who wasn’t a particular friend of mine, approached me and asked to read the end of the story since they were enjoying it so much. That was when I decided I wanted to be a writer, though it was a long time before I actually achieved it.
In what locale is your book set? Why did you choose this setting?
Forbidden Waters has two main settings, the first being the sunken city of Atlantis and the second being a coastal town in England.
England was chosen simply because that is where I set most of my books and I am far more comfortable writing about my own country than others.
Atlantis I was torn between using because it is a very popular since it is the most famous city to sink into the ocean