Author of the Week – Ginn Hale

On the blog today is Ginn Hale who achieved phenomenal acclaim with her very first book, Wicked Gentlemen. Ginn’s success parallels that of her publisher, Blind Eye Books, a very small print publisher which hit the jackpot when it signed Ginn. I’ll try to find out which came first – the chicken or the egg. I had heard a lot of buzz about the book and I kept hoping that it wasn’t all hot air because I had been disappointed many times before by huge build-ups about new books which I hated when I read them. Wicked Gentlemen (reviewed here) lived up to everything that was said about it and more, and in fact it was one of my Top Ten books of 2008. Now I’m trying to go behind the success of her first book to find out what’s next for Ginn Hale.

Hi Ginn and welcome. I read an interview you did with Blind Eye Books which seemed to indicate that you singlehandedly put them on the map. Can you tell us how that came about?

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Hmm…as for putting Blind Eye Books on the map, I think it went the other way around. Before they came along I was just shuffling around with a stained, and crumpled wad of papers that no one would have picked up to put in the trash much less stopped to read. Honestly, I was just lucky that Wicked Gentlemen was so well received, and that Nicole Kimberling and Melissa Miller at Blind Eye Books knew it would be.

What would you like to tell the fans about Ginn Hale, author?

Well, Ginn Hale, author, isn’t all that interesting. (I’m probably not supposed to say that but I hate to be dishonest or mislead anyone about the thrilling lifestyle of an author.) And in any case I tend not to think of readers as “my fans”. In a way they are my collaborators, because a reader brings so much to the work when they read it. Unlike watching a film, where the audience is presented with sound and visuals and is often told what to feel through the persistent emotional strains of a soundtrack, reading a book demands a very active imagination.

Readers who have enjoyed my book have themselves to thank to a great extent; they cast the characters, heard their voices and filled in a whole world from just a few words. I guess I’m trying to say that who Ginn Hale is isn’t all that important. I do produce the writing, but on my own all I have are sheets of paper covered in small black letters. My novels and short stories only come alive in the minds of readers and each of them brings their own biography and history to the words I’ve written. Their lives fill the book as much as mine does, and so to a great extent the only thing readers need to know about Ginn Hale are the words I’ve written and whether they want to keep reading them or not… uhm also I’m terribly boring.

You’ve only recently been published, what’s the best part? What’s the worst? Is it as fun you thought it would be?

The best part of being published has been discovering how kind and generous other people can be. Honestly, I never put much stock in human goodness but when Wicked Gentlemen came out, readers and even other authors — Josh Lanyon, Marjorie M. Liu and Lynn Flewelling to name just a few– went out of their way to recommend, review and share the book. I was really touched and I still feel incredibly thankful for that. You mentioned being put on the map earlier; that only happened for me because some very generous readers, writers and reviewers made it happen.(Yourself included, Jessewave!)

The worst part of being published is knowing that at some point I will disappoint a reader, maybe a lot of readers, after they have done so much for me. The problem is that I like to experiment with worlds, plots and characters. I refuse to think about marketability or appeal when I’m writing; I just create. Sometimes the results are good and other times…ugh, terrible drivel or very, very weird stuff. (I once wrote a time travel story that centered entirely on altering the history of a monkey named Groovemiester.) I’m always shooting for something as interesting as the taste of black pepper ice cream: sweet, strange and spicy. But I know that someday I’m going to produce the literary equivalent to a taco smoothie. I can only hope that I or a very honest editor will have the sense to stop me from sharing any taco smoothies with the world.

I have to say that being published has been much more fun than I expected. For the longest time I was afraid that if I became a published author I would have to get serious– stop telling the stories I enjoyed and focus on sales and demographics. But once Wicked Gentlemen came out I realized that publication couldn’t change who I was or what I wrote. I’m not doing this to make money or to become famous; I just like telling stories and I will continue to do that whether I’m published or not.

Was Wicked Gentlemen the first book that you wrote? If not, what was it and has it been published?

I completed two novels (let’s call them Taco Smoothie and Taco Smoothie 2) before I wrote Wicked Gentlemen. Thankfully I had the good sense not to publish either. They were very much learning exercises…and I’m still learning.

Did you always want to write? If not, what did you want to be when you grew up other than a Firefighter? 🙂

As a kid I had real problems answering, “what do you want to be when you grow up”, because I pretty much wanted to be what I was, but taller and with a shark teeth. That’s mostly come true for me, except the being taller and having shark teeth part. In all seriousness, I’ve always had a strong drive to tell stories and entertain–some say annoy– other people. I’ve always shied away from thinking of my creativity as a “profession”. It’s what I would be doing no matter what. Right now it makes a little money for me, but that could change and I’d still keep writing.

Wicked Gentlemen has achieved much success. Are you at all concerned that your next novel may not live up to the fans’ expectations which are somewhere in the stratosphere?

Of course! Failure is inevitable; it’s only knowing that that keeps me from worrying about it too much…otherwise I would never write anything again. 🙂

You won the Gaylactic Spectrum Award for your debut novel Wicked Gentlemen, beating out much better known authors. I really didn’t look at the characters as being gay, I was much more interested in the story and then noticed that they were doing more than collaborating on solving a crime. How did that happen? *g* How does winning this award make you feel, other than “Holy crap, I won and now I’m going to Disneyland?” 🙂

With Wicked Gentlemen I was just trying to write a good story. The characters are gay because I’m gay and it’s just easier for me to write what I know, especially when so much of my creative energy had to focus on creating a fantastical setting and history for the characters to move around in.

Winning the Spectrum Award made me feel shocked, honored and guilty because I knew that there were other authors just as deserving of the award. Steve Berman and Catherine Lundoff, (both of them finalists who’d spent the previous day showing me the ropes and keeping me company) were standing right up front in the crowd, clapping and cheering. Their generosity of spirit was so moving that I desperately wanted to do something worthy of all that goodwill. They inspired me to donate my cash prize to next year’s winner. After that, I felt elated, because I was doing my part to put another author up on the podium. Sorry to give such a long answer, I probably should have just said, “It was great!” (Do most authors run off at the mouth/ keyboard as badly as I do?)

What can you tell us about your other books that have been released since WG?

My novella, Feral Machines, was published in Tangle (Blind Eye Books). It’s a science fiction story about a biologist who, in trying to preserve a wildlife sanctuary becomes the owner of three synthetic life forms. He struggles with a decaying infrastructure, a psychotic co-worker and his growing attachment to one of the synthetics, whom he comes to know as a person and not just a machine. I drew a lot from my own experiences in the Yucatan as well as my crazy love of robots when I wrote this one.

Another novella, Touching Sparks, appears in the Hell Cop Anthology (Loose ID). The idea behind the anthology was that three of us (Astrid Amara, Nicole Kimberling and myself) would all write an Urban Fantasy story set in the same world and featuring a Sorcerer-Detective. We were constantly sending each other e-mails asking weird questions, swapping ideas and filling in details of the world. When we were done I was amazed that such good stories could come from so much fun. My contribution, Touching Sparks, follows a detective and his informant into an underworld of drug addiction, police corruption and blood sports, and because it’s a Loose ID publication the sex is pretty explicit.

In response to a question during another interview, you said that you wrote Wicked Gentlemen to entertain your friends. From what I read about you, living in the small city of Bellingham, Washington you seem like someone who would be more interested in writing traditional historical romances. Why make Belimai and Harper gay? Was it tough for you planning and writing their sexual escapades? What was the hardest part?

It’s odd that no one asks straight authors why they make their characters straight. I guess it’s just an assumed default. But as you mentioned I started writing to entertain myself and my friends, so I created characters that were based on who and what I knew. In fact my first short stories were almost too much of who I was and what I knew. The protagonists were all lesbians, like me. But I was WAY too close to the characters to let them be interesting. Half the time I was just writing soap-box speeches or creating the worst Mary Sues ever, (you know, brave, upstanding girls who just happened to be named Ginny and never did anything wrong, ever). Worst of all the protagonists I based on my fellow lesbians were just too darn sensible, smart and competent to get into any interesting trouble. *G*

After a couple of dull, dull adventures, (featuring Ginny Mc Goody-Perfect and her Super Responsible Squad), I decided that I needed to write characters who were a little distanced from myself so that I wouldn’t feel so self-conscious or self-aggrandizing when I wrote about them. But I still wanted my stories to represent my experiences and my community, so I began writing gay male characters. With them, I’ve found enough distance that I don’t catch myself thinking, “I can’t do that to her!” but the relationships and social dynamics are still ones that I instinctively understand.

The sexual escapades are not so much my strong point, (as far as writing about them goes, anyway). I spend a lot of time trying to get the right words, failing and flipping through dictionaries. (Anal:Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Naga tribe in southeast Manipur.) With Wicked Gentlemen the sex wasn’t all that explicit and as one friend pointed out, you can change the he’s to she’s and it mostly works as a lesbian sex scene. (But that’s the great thing about oral sex, it works for everybody!)

The novella Touching Sparks and the novel Lord of the White Hell are more sexually explicit and have required research and detailed diagrams drawn up by friends with “hands-on experience”. *G* Through all the diagrams and textbooks and hours spent trying to figure out if penis is a better word than cock, or if dick is more in keeping with the tone of the character, I always try to keep in mind that though the equipment is different the experiences of ecstasy and love are universally human.

The word on the street is that you’re writing a sequel to your blockbuster Wicked Gentlemen. Is there something you can tell us about it? Is this going to be a series, or don’t you know as yet? Do you have a blurb?

Word on the street is correct! I usually work out the events that take place before and after the specific story I’m writing, not because I want to write a series but because I think it helps me to write characters who have histories and more importantly have futures they are striving for. So, while I never planned Wicked Gentlemen to have a sequel, a rough outline of the events of both Belimai’s and Harper’s lives has existed since I began the first novella. The working title is Lord Foster’s Devils. I’m terrible with blurbs but off the top of my head here’s what I can come up with:

“As unrest in the capitol escalates into violent riots, Belimai Sykes and William Harper are forced to return to confront old troubles and new enemies.”

Other than a sequel to WG what else do you have coming up over the next 3 – 6 months?

Queerfiction just picked up my short story, Shy Hunter, for their QueerWolf anthology. Hell Cop 2 will be coming out from Loose ID and I’ve just completed an epic fantasy novel (Lord of the White Hell) which I hope will find a publisher this year. (There are two very raw sample chapters posted on my blog if anyone cares to have a look.)

I’ve also been approached about releasing another novel, (a huge time-travel fantasy titled The Rifter— not the one about the monkey), as a serial e-book… So aside from this interview I really shouldn’t be doing anything but writing every day for the next two years. heh…but seriously nothing but writing for years.

What advice, if any, do you have for aspiring authors?

Advice… Well, I imagine that most aspiring authors have already been told to write everyday, “kill their darlings”, follow guidelines and go out and live a little so that they have experiences to bring back to their writings. All the standard stuff. I guess the only thing I could add is that I’ve found that my writing is always better if I don’t think of it as a product or a tool for self-validation or even as a profession. I’m at my best when I treat a story as a gift for one or two particular people whom I care for and respect. That way I always strive to make the story interesting and individual but also polished and beautiful enough that someone would be proud to be the inspiration.

Tell us one fact about Ginn that you’ve never told anyone

Can I get back to you on this? I still have a few years before the statute of limitations is up.

Can you tell the fans something fun about Ginn?

I had no problem coming out as a lesbian but for years I tried to hide the fact that I hate the taste of chocolate. At birthday parties I was constantly switching other people’s empty plates for my dish of heaping chocolate cake. I dumped cups of coco into potted plants and dropped bonbons into other women’s purses like I was planting evidence on them. Finally the strain got to be too much and I had to admit to who I really was. (Most of the people closest to me already suspected.) Thankfully my friends, family and co-workers have been very supportive, going so far as to eat entire cakes, and pounds of chocolate bars in my stead.

Thank you so much Ginn and I’m looking forward to the further adventures of Belimai and Harper. I do appreciate you indulging me! You don’t like chocolate?

Ginn Hale was a delight to interview and I never imagined that she had such a great sense of humour. I’m sure you noticed how very adroitly she avoided one of my questions. “Expiration of the statute of limitations,” what heinous crime did she commit? Did she eat her pet rabbit? Speaking of which, I must hasten to bury my own evidence of being a carnivore. Kidding !!! Don’t send PETA after me, please.

I had a great time with Ginn and I hope that readers do as well and that this interview helped them to get a clearer picture of the wonderful woman behind the blockbuster, Wicked Gentlemen. And Ginn, the reason I asked the question “Why write about gay men?” is because this blog is almost 98% about gay men and M/M romances and my readers, most of whom are women, like to know why other women write about gay men. By the way I do ask writers of het romances (male and female) similar questions – I don’t interview them but I’m always curious to find out what they like about writing their particular genre.

Wave, I totally understand. It’s quite a common question for those of us who write minority characters — whether or not we come from that particular minority. I’ve just always fantasized about someone demanding that an ultra-straight author like Tom Clancy justify the total absence of gay characters in his books. The thought makes me laugh to myself. This might be because I usually picture Steven Colbert doing the interview and demanding, “Where have you hidden the homosexuals?!”

<!–[endif]–> I look forward to having Ginn back on the blog when Lord Foster’s Devils is released – I can’t wait to read it. And that’s a wrap.

Ginn Hale’s contact information

ginn@ginnhale.com
http://ginnhale.livejournal.com/
http://www.ginnhale.com/publications.html