Saturday, July 16, 2011

Welcome Allison Cassata

Good morning!


Happy Saturday and welcome to another guestpost here at Michael's.


If you're looking for my Sat sip today, please visit Rawiya's where Im giving you a preview of my spy thriller Closely Guarded.


I'm excited to have on fellow XOXO author, Allison Cassata. My pub XOXO is definitely expanding the amount of gay fiction writers and I couldn;t be more pleased to be in such great company with Allison, Elenna Taylor, and new writer, Ashley Marie Lucas. 


Eventually.  I will have the others on as well, but lets start with XOXO's new gal in town. Enjoy our virtual sitdown.



How long have you been writing?

I’ve been trying all my life. It wasn’t until I moved to Mississippi that my trying became a serious endeavor. In 2004, I sat down and started writing something that started out as a cute little story and later became my first full-length novel.

What made you decide that you wanted to put yourself out there to publish?

Damn *scratches head* I think it was the booze. Just kidding. I don’t really remember. If I recall, someone said what I had written was good, that I should try to get it published. I thought they were crazy, but what the hell, right? So, I put it out there… got rejected nine times before I met Author James Gillen who helped me get my foot in the door with Kerlak Publishing. After six, very intense rounds of editing, my little novel became a beautiful paperback and my first baby had been birthed.  

What is your favorite subgenre to write?

That’s a hard one to answer. My moods change. I’ll write paranormal romances, get bored and switch to M/M, get bored again and go back to the things that go bump in the night. I’ve tried my hand at writing romantic murder-mysteries, and while that went well, I still hit a wall and had to stop. So I guess, I go with whatever my mood is at the time.

What is your opinion on the “chicks with dicks” analogy? In your opinion, is it wrong for your males to be emotional or romantic?

*Eye wide*

Who are the authors that you look up to?

My number one hero is Anne Rice. If you can get over the wordiness, she is by far one of the most beautiful and poetic authors of our time. And her characters are epic. Now, I want to see how many people realized Lestat fell in love with men. Like, head over heels in love. There were two in the first four books.

What are you working on now?

A paranormal romance/erotica anthology for XoXo, the second book in “The Immortals Saga” from Kerlak Publishing, and the re-write of a M/M romance that I plan to submit to Dreamspinner Press.

When creating your characters, do you have models in mind or are they totally fictional?

Normally, though not always, I use models. It helps me figure out their voices and personalities rather than their physical looks.

If you write gay romance or erotica, just how descriptive are you in their sex scenes?

As of yet, I haven’t had huge sex scenes in my books. They’ve been short stories and one was a coming out/coming of age story, so the most we saw was some heavy petting and a blowjob. In the one I am working on, there is a lot more, but I don’t so much describe in great detail every little move. I would say my scenes are mild to warm, but someone else’s opinion might differ.

As a gay fiction writer, do you feel that the trend is changing where it is becoming more mainstream?

Sure. I’m never up on current trends, not really, and if I’ve heard of it, it’s probably becoming mainstream. Seriously though, I think as we, as a society, become more accepting of the LGBT community, things like gay romance will become more mainstream. I mean, look at “Queer as Folk.” For the longest time, that show was a hit. Five seasons worth of fabulousness!

What is your opinion as to why publishers only want to group all manlove stories under erotica? Do you feel this is a hindrance to our genre?

Honestly, I have no idea. I guess there is an assumption that the sex is all that is important. I mean, men do read and it’s assumed that they only want to read about sex, I guess. I don’t care one way or the other. I write what a write and you like it or hate it. If the story calls for sex, I write it….

Recently, a writer sabotaged her career by answering a bad review on a blog. How would you have handled this and do you think authors should answer their reviews?

I try to answer reviews or at least acknowledge that I saw them. Fans dig that sort of stuff. I would know. When Anne Rice commented on something I posted for her, I was over the moon excited. But, it’s a matter of eloquence and tact. You don’t berate someone over a review. If I dare ask what they didn’t like, I stay neutral and thank them for their feedback. No harm in trying to better yourself.

How long have you been writing?

I’ve been trying all my life. It wasn’t until I moved to Mississippi that my trying became a serious endeavor. In 2004, I sat down and started writing something that started out as a cute little story and later became my first full-length novel.

What made you decide that you wanted to put yourself out there to publish?

Damn *scratches head* I think it was the booze. Just kidding. I don’t really remember. If I recall, someone said what I had written was good, that I should try to get it published. I thought they were crazy, but what the hell, right? So, I put it out there… got rejected nine times before I met Author James Gillen who helped me get my foot in the door with Kerlak Publishing. After six, very intense rounds of editing, my little novel became a beautiful paperback and my first baby had been birthed.  

What is your favorite subgenre to write?

That’s a hard one to answer. My moods change. I’ll write paranormal romances, get bored and switch to M/M, get bored again and go back to the things that go bump in the night. I’ve tried my hand at writing romantic murder-mysteries, and while that went well, I still hit a wall and had to stop. So I guess, I go with whatever my mood is at the time.

What is your opinion on the “chicks with dicks” analogy? In your opinion, is it wrong for your males to be emotional or romantic?

*Eye wide*

Who are the authors that you look up to?

My number one hero is Anne Rice. If you can get over the wordiness, she is by far one of the most beautiful and poetic authors of our time. And her characters are epic. Now, I want to see how many people realized Lestat fell in love with men. Like, head over heels in love. There were two in the first four books.

What are you working on now?

A paranormal romance/erotica anthology for XoXo, the second book in “The Immortals Saga” from Kerlak Publishing, and the re-write of a M/M romance that I plan to submit to Dreamspinner Press.

When creating your characters, do you have models in mind or are they totally fictional?

Normally, though not always, I use models. It helps me figure out their voices and personalities rather than their physical looks.

If you write gay romance or erotica, just how descriptive are you in their sex scenes?

As of yet, I haven’t had huge sex scenes in my books. They’ve been short stories and one was a coming out/coming of age story, so the most we saw was some heavy petting and a blowjob. In the one I am working on, there is a lot more, but I don’t so much describe in great detail every little move. I would say my scenes are mild to warm, but someone else’s opinion might differ.

As a gay fiction writer, do you feel that the trend is changing where it is becoming more mainstream?

Sure. I’m never up on current trends, not really, and if I’ve heard of it, it’s probably becoming mainstream. Seriously though, I think as we, as a society, become more accepting of the LGBT community, things like gay romance will become more mainstream. I mean, look at “Queer as Folk.” For the longest time, that show was a hit. Five seasons worth of fabulousness!

What is your opinion as to why publishers only want to group all manlove stories under erotica? Do you feel this is a hindrance to our genre?

Honestly, I have no idea. I guess there is an assumption that the sex is all that is important. I mean, men do read and it’s assumed that they only want to read about sex, I guess. I don’t care one way or the other. I write what a write and you like it or hate it. If the story calls for sex, I write it….

Recently, a writer sabotaged her career by answering a bad review on a blog. How would you have handled this and do you think authors should answer their reviews?

I try to answer reviews or at least acknowledge that I saw them. Fans dig that sort of stuff. I would know. When Anne Rice commented on something I posted for her, I was over the moon excited. But, it’s a matter of eloquence and tact. You don’t berate someone over a review. If I dare ask what they didn’t like, I stay neutral and thank them for their feedback. No harm in trying to better yourself.



Name two male celebs that you’d like to see in a hot make out session? Marco DaSilva with ANYONE!

Your favorite gay tv show or movie? 








“Verbotene Liebe” (Forbidden Love) Christian and Olly are PRECIOUS! And of course, “Queer As Folk!” Brian is my favorite character. 




Do you feel that celebs who are gay or bi should come out the closet? 

That’s a personal decision for someone to make alone. Who am I to say who should do what? I think it wouldn’t hurt the LGBT community if more did, but again, not my decision.

Favorite character in one of your books? Dominic, from “Sin of the Heart” or Theirry, from “The Immortals Saga.”

The character you identify with? Dominic or Bella (TIS) but the general public hasn’t seen Bella yet.

Links


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Fantastic interview Allison. I look forward to reading your books. 

Hope you all enjoyed that and make sure you stop in tomorrow for Six Sentence Sunday.

3 comments:

S.Lira said...

Thanks very much for stopping in, Alison!

She said...

Nice interview. I'm glad you said you get bored writing the same genre so will change. As a reader I also get bored reading the same genre so I am constantly reading different genres. I like when a favorite author writes in more than one genre.

Anonymous said...

I know I'm a few days out, but I just needed to share the love on Anne Rice being my inspiration as well.

When I read Interview with the Vampire, I instantly understood that Lestat was in love with Louis and in love with the family they created with Claudia. I was young enough not to understand that it was groundbreaking and that many would refuse to see it, so I came into gothic fiction with the idea that gender was meaningless when it came to paranormal creatures and that's a freedom I can never repay.