As you know, I put new authors on the hot seat by having their profiles and careers to date posted on the site to give you an opportunity to ask all sorts of pertinent AND impertinent questions about their books and writing goals. Today you have the pleasure of meeting Taylor V. Donovan who is a relative newcomer to our genre and someone who doesn’t shy away from controversy.
Taylor’s most recent book, Six Degrees of Lust is a prime example of her writing style (I think) as she tries to convey how she feels an M/M character should act and how her books would and should end.
Here’s Taylor in all her *ahem* glory ready for your questions, accolades and brickbats. She assures me that she’s looking forward to hearing from you so feel free to take your shots. :basketball: :popcorn:
A reminder that you can’t kick the fur babies. 😆
*************
Hello everyone. I’m Taylor V. Donovan. Thank you so much to Wave for inviting me to her site!
So, about me… I’m a rookie author of gay romance and suspense, and I’ll tell you guys right off the bat that I haven’t been writing my entire life. I haven’t been making up characters for years, and getting published was never a dream of mine. It wasn’t until the summer of 2010 when my muse got a hold of me. He’s tall, gorgeous and a pain in my behind, because, well, he’s difficult. He likes complicated issues for the most part, and always pushes me in directions not many like to go. That’s not too bad, though. I’ve always liked to break the mold and I’m not opposed to ruffling some feathers if a particular situation calls for it. Huh… now that I think about it, my muse is very similar to Sam from Six Degrees. Lord help me.
In the past year and a half my mind has been invaded by loud, pushy characters, and I’ve gotten well acquainted with my newly discovered passion for storytelling. So far I’ve published Heatstroke, a freebie you all can download from my site; Southern Winterland, a Christmas short; and Six Degrees of Lust, the first installment in my By Degrees serial (to be released in May). Six Degrees made me realize that I’ll probably never be a conventional romance writer. I’m too cynical for my own good, and even a bit jaded. Happily Ever After is not easily achieved in my eyes, and that part of my personality is reflected in my stories. They really have to
work for it, but eventually they get there. Sometimes they surprise me, though. It doesn’t take them as long as I had expected. 🙂
Right now I’m putting the finishing touches on Six Degrees of Separation, the second installment in my By Degrees serial, and plan to start working on the third one, Special Agent Logan Brandenburg’s story, soon after.
Meanwhile I’m keeping busy finishing the first book in a series called Bylaws (I promise there are no cliffhangers in this one) and a standalone story titled Disasterology 101. There’s also a project very near and dear to my heart. A special story that I’m keeping under my hat for now, but it has a tentative release date of late Summer 2012.
view from my office
I’m from New York City and still make my living here (that’s a picture of the view outside my office window), but a few years ago I moved to the beautiful mountains of Pennsylvania. You see that lake over there? That’s the beautiful view from my front porch. And no, it wasn’t difficult to give up the concrete jungle for that.The commute is killer though!
the fur babies
I share that view with my two daughters and those three furry babies pictured on the side. They are terribly
misbehaved… all of them *g* and they make the sun shine. 🙂
I’d like to thank Wave for her reviews of Heatstroke and Southern
Pluto
Winterland, and Lady M for her insightful review of Six Degrees of Lust. I love to hear what my readers have to say, so if you have any comments, suggestions, book recommendations, or even a question — or ten— after reading Six Degrees, please let me “hear” them.
For those of you who would rather inflict some punishment to my writerly persona, please be advised stones and whips can be obtained by the door, but just so you know, I prefer spanking 😉
Have an awesome day you guys, and thank you very much for having me.
the view from my front porch
By Degrees Series
Hey Taylor, I’m thinking you might have finally made it big time with the spotlight here today. Congrats on the book. Good luck with the next installment.
I met Taylor at grl 2011. We had planned to do some ‘research’ for one of her books at an adult bookstore, but it didn’t happen. Maybe we can fit it in this next October. Love you!
Thank you, John and yes, we definitely need to get that research done *g*
Hey, Taylor! Nice to see you! :hurrah:
Thanks for sharing about yourself. You are gorgeous. The view outside your office & house is gorgeous! But I’m more envious of your fur babies. 😀
Good luck on your writing & your books. You know I always adore your stuff.
The babies are adorable, aren’t they? 🙂
Thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it.
Oh thank you Taylor and Wave for this post :). I really loved Heatstroke, thank you so much for writing it, but so far trying to hold off reading Six degrees of lust till the next book is out, lets see how long I will last 🙂
Hi Sirius :-). Thank *you* for reading Heatstroke and er… good luck holding off but I want to know, how strong is your will power? Hehe
Well, not that it’s important for an author (and not that it can hurt either), but, lady, you are pretty. 🙂
I am glad the second novel is almost done, but – here’s the thing – I can’t wait for Logan’s story. A sexy man that loves anime is a winning combination. 😉 Also, the lack of cliffhanger in your future stories makes me happy and Heatstroke was probably one of the best stories in HSD anthology. Good luck!
Lady M
What? No questions about Six Degrees of Lust? 😕
Do you have one… or ten? 🙂
Everytime I think about Logan and YuYu Hakusho I end smiling 🙂
“Yu Yu”… Logan kinda digs that name. *g*
To Lady M
Awwww thank you for the compliment! Now excuse me while I go blush :-).
So you want to skip Mac and Sam and go straight to Logan, huh? Can’t blame you. That boy is a favorite of mine too. There’s LOTS of him in Six Degrees of Separation, just so you know.
Heatstroke. It was a pleasure to write that one.I’ll be working with Richard and Manny again soon :-).
There will be more Heatstroke????? That makes me all kinds of happy
Looking forward to reading 6 degrees, but I’m waing for the series to be complete 🙂
Hi Majken!
Yes, readers will get to see what happened during those three years they spent apart and how Richard finally won Manny back :-).
So looks like at least some of the story lines will be sorted out in the next six degrees installement, isnt it? *happy enough* 😀
Thank you very much Taylor & Wave for this post 😎
Thank you guys for having me :-). And yes, several storylines will see a resolution by the end of Six Degrees of Separation.
Yay Taylor! I love the view from your porch. Wow! Heatstroke was amazing, and I can’t wait to get my grabby hands on your other stories.
Come visit. We can watch the deer together :-).
Hi Taylor 🙂 I loved Six Degrees of Lust and am practically frothing at the mouth for the next installment. Roll on May!
Hi Nithu! Thank you so much for reading SDoL. The next installment will be full of surprises :-).
Hi there Taylor,
Just wanted to say that your doing a gr8 job and that i’m proud of you!!!!!!
Thank you, Mike!
Obv. you’re gorgeous, but I think the other reviewers have covered *that*. 🙂
What is your favourite genre/sub-genre in our little pool? Contemporary? Thriller? Would you stray to, say, do epic fantasy at some point? What draws you to that genre? Any genre you’d never touch?
Thanks!
Well, thank you Mr. Voinov 🙂
Contemporary is my favorite. I like to write about “real” characters dealing with issues, people and situations that most of us encounter on a regular basis… or not, which doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I aim to get the readers to relate and maybe walk in somebody else’s shoes for a little while. And yes, to even question and consider things they didn’t before. Romance and romantic suspense are excellent platforms for that.
Thrillers, shifters, vampires… I don’t see myself writing anything like that and I’d never touch Dub-con, but fantasy is a possibility. Hot elves, anyone? *g* And ghosts. I like ghosts. So maybe some day :-).
Thank you for stopping by!
C’mon dude, you know you want to do aliens…
shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! That’s a secret! LOL
Hey, Taylor 🙂
I know I’ve already said hello to you on Facebook, but it can’t hurt to do it a second time…lol. Btw, you look amazing! Your eyes are so beautiful!
The postman better hurry up, because I can’t wait to get my copy of SDoL 😀
I also have a question for you: Will there be a cliffhanger in SDoS too?
Hi Verena! Thank you for saying Hello again and definitely for the compliment. You guys are making me blush :-).
So. Will there be a cliffhanger in SDoS? Do you really want me to spoil the book for you? *g*
Yes, spoil it for me…lol
I also have another question: Will SDoS have as many pages as SDoL?
I’ll spoil it in private LOL. As far as pages, just about. It all depends on editing :-).
Hey Taylor! What’s up? So, I told you I have a quesiton for you, but I have two.
-Question 1: SDoL has a lot of different points of view, and I was wondering if that’ something that we’ll see in the other books in the series?
-Question 2: Why do so many of our characters share names?
(((hugs))) hon, you look great! Love you. :kiss:
Hey Anne!
1. Yes. By Degrees is an ensemble serial with continuously developing story lines. Multiple point of views are essential for readers to get to know the characters and understand what’s going on.
2. I’m starting to think we have a time-share in each others’ minds *g*
Hi Taylor
I read the comments and so far no one has asked the questions many readers want the answers to about Six Degrees of Lust, so I guess I have that job. Most of my concerns were raised in Lady M’s review and I totally agree with her observation that this was “an ambitious novel that goes in all directions and never quite makes it to any destination.”
My first disappointment was that nothing was resolved in this book and multiple story threads were left hanging. This made reading the book a very frustrating experience for me even though I suppose Mac’s and Sam’s romance have sort of a HFN. Will this strategy continue in future books?
What blew me away also was that Remy’s & Chris’s romance, which appeared to have been resolved in Southern Winterland, is now left hanging in Six Degrees. So which story was written first?
My comments in no way should be construed as wanting instant gratification – I follow many series and I understand that each book follows a specific story arc. This is wanting a book of almost 400 pages to give me SOME answers and not leave everything a mystery to be resolved in future books, “to be continued” …..
On the plus side, the book was well written and I enjoyed a lot of it, including the romance between Sam and Mac. 🙂
“an ambitious novel that goes in all directions and never quite makes it to any destination.”
The simple answer to that is that it is an ambitious plot. SDoL is the beginning of the journey, and it wasn’t the right time for anybody to reach their destination. Not yet.
The HFN was the ending that made sense for Sam, a man who is fighting love tooth and nail. This particular installment introduced all the players, but it focused on Sam and Mac. A HEA resolution would’ve never worked for them :-).
I wrote SDoL, then SW based on the background story I had outlined for Chris and Remy. There were never meant to be together in SDoL.
Although SDoL is almost 400 pages, it only covers a four month span in the lives of several people. By Degrees is not like the usual series, covering one story arc in each book. Like I mentioned before, my guys don’t do anything the easy way and from my very personal perspective, I thought it unreal to have Sam fall in love, help his nephew, figure out what the deal with his sister is, get some closure from his ex-wife and catch a serial killer in four months. I could’ve done it in 900 pages, but I doubt my publisher would’ve gone for that. LOL
Glad you enjoyed Sam and Mac, as their lust is the main focus of this book. 🙂
Thanks for responding Taylor. I appreciate your answers to some of my questions. BTW I never expected a HEA for Sam and Mac — a HFN is what was appropriate for this couple.
Like many readers I think I’ll wait for the end of the series to pick this up again since there are so many threads to be resolved and my frustration threshold is very low. 🙂 I’m sure the journey will be wonderful and I will love knowing that there is an end when I start reading the series again.
Love having you here today.
Well, I have a feeling you won’t want to wait after you hear the comments on SDoS. Mac and Sam’s issues are dealt with in this installment, and that includes their families and some friends :-).
SDoA is Logan’s book, then it is time for Chris and Remy to get their act together in SDoP and finally we get to Braxton and his guy in SDoR.
Thank you very much for having me!
What do SDoA, SDoP and SDoR mean?
Six Degrees of Agony
Six Degrees of Penance
Six Degrees of Retribution
Thanks for answering my questions today 🙂
Hey Taylor,
You know I love this epic series and am so looking forward to the next books. 🙂
I’ve been reading several comments on various boards about the women in SDoL being portrayed as bitches. I didn’t really pick up on that when I read it, and I actually kind of got where they were coming from. The burned and angry ex wife, the high society socialite mom, the jealous best friend (Amy), the sister caught in a bad cycle of abuse… They’re hurt and lashing out. So the question, how do you address that for your readers?
:loveyou:
Hi LC!
Yes, I’ve seen this claim a lot and whenever I’ve been asked about it I’ve tried to explain that there’s a difference between being a bitch and getting bitchy (in Gabi’s case). Sam’s sister is lost at the moment. Is she a bitch? Absolutely. Then again, Sam’s a jerk, so it must be genetic *g*.
Amy has her own agenda and Mac’s mother, a small town socialite with political aspirations for her only son would do and say about anything to get him to conform to her idea of success. They all have their own issues… just like the men, who aren’t perfect by a long shot.
Hi L.C.
I didn’t mention this in my comments today but I did ask Taylor about this in an exchange of e-mails last week. Surely at least a couple of the women in this book who had a considerable amount of face time could have been portrayed positively. We’re not all bitches or caught in a cycle of abuse – some of us are just normal women. However, when you write a book you have the prerogative and privilege of writing the characters the way you prefer.
Hmmm, I must be the only one that thought Gabi wasn’t bitchy all the time. I mean we saw her as a regular positive female when she was around Chris, Mac and Braxton. The only time she was bitchy, in my opinion, was when Sam was mentioned. And, well, I’m guessing Gabi got hurt really bad by Sam which gives her every right to be a bit bitchy and bitter when he’s brought up. At least that’s what I think LOL
The woman of By Degrees are not incidental characters. They aren’t there because it’s just fair I included some. They are as tridimensional as the men, and they have some evolving to do :-).
We are not all bitches. Flip side of that? Some are! And the women in this particular story aren’t perfect from the get go, but they deserve a chance.
Great profile, Taylor 🙂 And you are very beautiful! I’m glad I got to meet you at GRL (even if I did runaway before we could actually talk LOL). Now I have a few questions for you 😉
What made you think of using the theme that each individual is separated by six degrees for your By Degrees serial?
Can you give us some hints what your Bylaws series will be about? Will this be another long series that we can look forward to?
Disasterology 101 is an interesting title, can you spoiler us a little of what that will be about?
And that project that’s very near and dear to your heart sounds very intriguing! Give us a little hint about what it will be about, please??? 😀
I loved SDoL and SW and really looking forwarding to the rest of the series! Especially Logan’s ;P
Hi Nikyta! You didn’t have to run away. I could’ve talked about books LOL.
Okay, first question. It was the internet what made me think of it. I was talking online to someone about certain other someone and somehow it turned out I personally knew a fourth someone that was brought into the conversation. That particular incident made me wonder, what if…?
Bylaws will explore the lives of three lawyers that are best friends. IS not as heavy as By Degrees, which is a total respite for me, and only four books long.
Disasterology 101. It’s all in the title *g*. One disaster after the other.
I’m writing a transgender character that breaks my heart.
Everybody Loves Logan. Think I should change the title of his book? LOL
Thank you for stopping by :-).
Very interesting! I’m looking forward to them all! And NO I don’t think you should change Logan’s book! Six Degrees of Agony has such a….. enlightening title 😛
Hey Taylor,
One of the things I enjoy most about your writing is the four dimensional quality of the characters you write about. By four dimensional I mean that they are richly drawn, complex characters with mixed motivations, real life neuroses, and the deep seated need for a hell of a lot of therapy…and the unraveling or weaving together of their stories takes place in what feels like real time…with time being the fourth dimension. And I mean that bit about them needing therapy in the best of ways, lol. They are not beach read material for me, because they make me think. They are no more and no less easy to love or hate than any other person out there on the street…yet they live on paper. Can you tell me a little about the process you undergo in forming these complex men? What kind of research prepared you to write Mac and Sam? Or Remy and Chris?
I sometimes think your stories are more like epic saga films in their span (I’m thinking both big screen and t.v. mini-series) If you were approached about either of these, would you want to be a part of the writing team, or would you want no part of that…and why.
Wow, Cherie… thank you so much. I’m humbled :-).
Okay, you might be disappointed by reading this but, Sam isn’t a product of my imagination. The way he looks and behaves was inspired by someone I know. I’ve always wondered what will happen the day he loses control, and he was taking so long, so I made it happen on paper and had him beta it. Let’s say, at times he wasn’t amused *g*.
Mac came easily to me. Once Sam was fully “formed” it was just a matter of days to determine what type of man he needed, and I have it to him.
Same with Chris, Remy and every other character. I needed a team, I needed the friends, and I needed for each one of them to fill certain roles. I took about a month to assign those roles and completely mold them.
The research for the series was extensive. FBI procedure, serial killers, profiling, art, yaoi and anime, androgyny, adolescent homosexuality, the Bible… you name it, I read about it. Once I had enough knowledge I proceeded to outline the murders, the clues, the investigation, what was going to lead to what/who/where and how, and the role everybody played. Some characters’ timelines are parallel, so I had to double and triple check to make sure everything made sense. I was living on Tylenol Migraine back then :-).
As for the stories being like sagas, I’d have to say By Degrees feels that way some times. *If* for whatever reason I were ever approached about bringing it to life, I’d like to retain some creative control. There are reasons for my characters to be the way they are, and I wouldn’t want to see that change. I’d insist on their personalities to remain intact :-).
Hope I was able to answer your questions in a satisfactory enough manner. Thank you for stopping by!
Taylor, “you so crazy, I wanna have your baby”
p.s. I love your books!!!
LOL Thank you Tom 🙂
Hi Taylor! I loved Heatstroke – great characters and so beautifully written. Are you planning more stories with those characters?
I haven’t read Six Degrees of Lust yet – it’s next on my list – but I really like the idea of an ensemble serial. My biggest complaint about too many of my favorite books is that they end and we never see the characters again, so I’m looking forward to the Six Degree series.
Hi Kiracee! I’m planning at least two more stories with those characters. One for Richard and Manny and one for Michael.
Thank you for reading SDoL. You’ll have to let me know how’d you like it :-).
Hi, Taylor! So great to “see” you again. I don’t have any questions, but I just wanted to say I love that your writing career has taken off so fantastically and the devotion you have to your characters is inspiring. *hugs*
Hi Missy :-). Thank you so much for stopping by! *hugs*
Hey Taylor,
I’m so very happy for you girl, the story is well written, thought provoking, and I know I might not be with the “general public” but I for one love cliffhangers, makes me that much more excited anticipating the next installment. You did a wonderful job making us love Sam even when he wasn’t so loveable. :wallbash: All I can say is…..bring on Remy and Chris lol…..I’m super proud of you…. :bravo: :hug:
Embry
LOL @ Sam not being lovable. Poor boy. He’s golden… just misunderstood *snort*.
Thank you for everything. *hugs*
Congrats, Taylor! I’m looking forward to your next Degrees, and envy your view. 😮
Hey, Lou. It is gorgeous, isn’t it? 🙂 Thank you for saying “hi”.
Hi Taylor 🙂
Haven’t read Six Degrees yet, hope to, soon.
Sam isn’t a product of my imagination. The way he looks and behaves was inspired by someone I know. I’ve always wondered what will happen the day he loses control, and he was taking so long, so I made it happen on paper and had him beta it. Let’s say, at times he wasn’t amused *g*.
So, weren’t you nervous about letting him read that?
What was most difficult in keeping the mould and the character seperate entities?
No, I wasn’t nervous. I was having fun… but just a little *g*.
The sex scenes! Other than beta, he was also my to go guy for all things sexual. That became an issue when I started writing sex scenes. I kept deleting stuff because lord, what if “the mold” did that??? Know what I mean? 😉
I do. I really do 🙂
You made me realise that despite having a number of close gay friends, I’ve never even thought to ask them questions or ‘observe’ (that sounds so wrong) their personality traits …
I truly live in my own world 😀