Acceptance Issues and the Gay Romance Novel: An Interview with Author M. J. Pearson - Page 2

But acceptance goes both ways. My publisher asked me to use my initials instead of my first name, since he thought there would be gay men who would be unwilling to read a gay romance written by a woman. So far, I've yet to see any of that in person - I've had great comments and fan mail from gay guys.

How do you deal with these?

I'm a bit of a fighter - when the RWA sent out the infamous survey asking the membership if they wanted to restrict "romance" to relationships between one man and one woman, I emailed all the members of the Board of Directors, and just last month had a letter to the editor published in the October Romance Writers Report (RWA's magazine) in response to a woman who still insists the definition should exclude same-sex relationships. Fortunately, there were a whole bunch of letters objecting to this woman's views, including many of the greats in the genre (Nora Roberts, Jenny Crusie). Maybe this time, the issue has been put to rest for good.

As to acceptance from the gay community - like I said, I've yet to have a direct problem. I hope it's because my books speak for themselves.

How many books have you written so far?

So far, I've had two books published, The Price of Temptation and Discreet Young Gentleman, and have three others written in draft form (meaning they still need some work). And I'm working on a sixth right now.

Do you write every day?

Since last winter, I've been writing full time. I try to write every day, Monday through Friday, and leave the weekend for other things. Most of my productive time is in the morning, while in the afternoon I try to catch up on research and email. Right now, I'm doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, where the goal is to produce 50,000 words during the month of November), which has skewed this a bit — I find myself writing evenings and weekends to try to make my goal.

What is your latest novel about?

In my latest book, Discreet Young Gentleman, Dean Smith is set up by someone to be found with a male prostitute, which destroys his engagement to a wealthy heiress. He teams up with the prostitute, Rob, to travel to Bath and try to find out who was behind it - only to fall in love along the way.

Article Author: Ambrose Musiyiwa

Ambrose Musiyiwa has worked as a freelance journalist, book reviewer, and a teacher. One of his short stories has been featured in an anthology of contemporary Zimbabwean writing, Writing Now: More Stories from Zimbabwe (Weaver Press, 2005.) He is a regular contributor to OhmyNews International. …

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